vals for more than fifty years. Rondoletius enumerates several whales stranded or taken on the coast of the Mediterranean; these were most likely all orcas, physeters, or campedolios, i. e., toothed whales, as large and more fierce than the mysticetes, which have belein in the mouth, and at present very rarely make their way farther south than the Bay of Biscay; though in early times it is probable they visited the Mediterranean, since the present writer has seen them within the tropics. In the Syrian seas the Belgian pilgrim, Lavaers, on his passage from Malta to Palestine, incidentally mentions a "Tonynvisch," which he further denominates an "oil-fish," longer than the vessel, leisurely swimming along, and which the seamen said prognosticated bad weather. On the island of Zerbi, close to the African coast, the late Commander Davies, R.N., found the bones of a cachalot on the beach. Shaw mentions an orca more than sixty feet long, stranded at Algiers; and the late Admiral Ross Donelly saw one in the Mediterranean, near the island of Albaran. There are, besides, numerous sharks of the largest species in the seas of the Levant, and also in the Arabian Gulf and Red Sea, as well as cetacea, of which balana bitan is the largest in those seas, and two species of halicore or dugong, which are herbivorous animals, intermediate between whales and seals.' DUGONG. As the animal stomach has no power over substances endued with vitality, a person swallowed alive, and who received no injury from the fish before being swallowed, would necessarily remain alive for a considerable time, unless suffocated in so uncongenial a situation and element. There is, however, one explanation which might allow a whale to be intended, if that fish were known in the Mediterranean-that is, to suppose that the fish did not actually swallow Jonah (and the text does not oblige us to affirm that it did), but detained him in its mouth. If a whale had done this, the prophet would have been less unpleasantly circumstanced than in the stomach of any fish. For the mouth of a common whale, when open, presents a cavity as large as a room, and capable of containing a merchant ship's jolly-boat, full of men, being six or eight feet wide, ten or twelve feet high (in front), and fifteen or sixteen feet long (Scoresby, i. 455). It is perfectly true that difficulties will remain under any explanation; but it is enough to shew the circumstance not to be physically impossible; for the remaining difficulties are more than sufficiently met by the miraculous character of the transaction. It was the Lord who prepared' the great fish and the Lord of all creatures might exert influences beyond the ordinary course of nature (though it does not appear that they were against nature) to ensure the accomplishment of his Divine purposes. They who undertake to explain every thing in a transaction of this kind, perform a work of very great supererogation. As a whole the narrative presents fewer difficulties than many of the other miracles recorded in Scripture. The greatest difficulty in it may be to find by what provision Jonah was preserved from suffocation. And for this it is not necessary to account. Is anything too hard for the Lord?' And to the Lord it was not harder to preserve Jonah in the belly of the fish than the three youths at Babylon in the midst of the burning fiery furnace.' They who believe that the Almighty has, at sundry times and in divers manners, exercised powers beyond the ordinary course of the laws which He has appointed to govern nature, will find no difficulties; and those who do not believe this have read the Bible, if they do read it, to little purpose. Our limits do not allow us to investigate the subject more fully; but we may refer the reader to Calmet's Dissertation sur Jonas; the Dissertations in Gleig's edition of Stackhouse; and Bishop Jebb's Sacred Literature. - Three days and three nights.'-This by no means necessarily implies three entire days and nights; but would be true if understood of one complete day, and any part, however small, of two others. It is at this day a common mode of expression among the Greeks to say that such a thing happened three days ago when they mean that a day only intervened. They include the two extreme days as if they had been complete. Thus our Saviour, who lay in the tomb from Friday evening to Sunday morning, is said to have lain three days and nights in the grave. And that the present text should be similarly understood is the more probable from the remarkable text in which the Son of Man makes this situation of Jonah a type of his own sojourn for three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.' (Matt. xii. 40.) CHAPTER II. 4 Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; 1 The prayer of Jonah. 10 He is delivered from the yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. fish. THEN Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish's belly, 2 And said, I 'cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. 3 For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the 'midst of the seas, and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. 1 Psal. 120. 1. Or, out of mine affliction. 3 Or, the grave. 5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. 6 I went down to the "bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from 'corruption, O LORD my God. 7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. 8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. • Heb. heart. 5 Psal. 69. 1. Heb. cuttings off. 7 Or, the pit. 10 T And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land. 8 Psal. 50. 14, 23, and 116. 17. Hos. 14. 2. Heb. 13. 13. 9 Psal. 3. 8. Verse 1. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord.'-' On reviewing the prayer, and weighing the import of its several terms, it is obvious that though Jonah was in a state of consciousness while in the belly of the fish, he had no idea that such was his situation. On the contrary, he appears to have been under the impression that he was engulphed in the sea,-now forcibly carried along by its current, now entangled among its weeds, and now sinking into the profound ravines of its rocks.'-Henderson. 10. It vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.'—It is not stated where the prophet was cast on shore. Some imagine that the fish carried him during the three days down the Mediterranean, and through the Archipelago and the Propontis into the Euxine sea, and deposited him on the south coast, at the nearest point to Nineveh. But it seems probable that he was discharged on the coast of Palestine, that his obedience to the second command might spring entirely from his enlarged experience and convictions. CHAPTER III. 1 Jonah, sent again, preacheth to the Ninevites. 5 Upon their repentance, 10 God repenteth. AND the word of the LORD came unto Jonahı the second time, saying, 2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee. 3 So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an 'exceeding great city of three days' journey. 4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. 5 So the people of Nineveh 'believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. 1 Heb. of God. 2 Matt. 12. 41. Luke 11, 32. 6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and "published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: 8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, from the violence that is in their hands. let them turn every one from his evil way, and 9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? 10 ¶ And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not. 4 Heb. great men. 3 Heb. said. 5 Joel 2. 14. Verse 3. Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days' journey.'-Opinions are divided whether we are to understand that Nineveh was three days' journey in length, or in circuit. We have never ourselves felt any doubt that the circuit must be intended, as this not only is more probable, but agrees remarkably with the dimensions given by ancient writers. Three days' journey may be taken as giving from fifty to sixty miles, accordingly as we understand a journey on foot, or a caravan journey. This is absolutely incredible as the length of a city; but the different computations of the circuit of Nineveh do actually range between forty-eight and sixty miles-a very strong and decisive coincidence. The only objection to this conclusion arises from the statement, in the next verse, that Jonah went a day's journey into the city; which has been commonly enough understood to mean that he went a day's journey into the city, till he arrived at a particular public place, where he delivered his message. And be it so; but may not this particular place have been near the opposite extremity of the town to that at which the prophet entered? Or, rather, may we not understand the passage actually to intimate that the city was a day's journey in length, stating that Jonah went through the city, being a day's journey, proclaiming its destruction? Of this it is another remarkable corroboration, that although, according to Diodorus, the city was equal to three days' journey in circuit, its length was not less, but rather more, than a third of the circuit -that is, one day's journey. Had Nineveh been foursquare, like Babylon, this could not have been the case; but it was of an oblong figure, 150 stadia in length, by 90 in breadth. We therefore, from this correspondence, conclude that the three days' journey' of Jonah describes the circuit, and the 'one day's journey,' the length of Nineveh. It appears that the city extended its length along the eastern bank of the Tigris, while its breadth reached from the river to the eastern hills. All the ancient writers concur with Jonah in describing Nineveh as an 'excceding great city.' But as none of these writers lived till after its destruction, their accounts, derived from old records and reports, are necessarily brief and incomplete. The best account which we possess is that furnished by Diodorus, who states that Ninus, having surpassed all his ancestors in the glory and success of his arms, resolved to build a city, of such state and grandeur, that it should not only be the greatest then in the world, but such as no sovereign coming after him should be easily able to ex ceed. Accordingly, having brought a vast number of his forces together, and provided the necessary treasure, and every thing which his design required, he built near the Tigris a city very famous for its walls and fortifications. Its length was 150 stadia, its breadth 90, and the circumference 480. Diodorus adds, that the founder was not deceived in his expectations, for no one ever after built a town equal to it for the extent of its circumference and the stateliness of its walls. These were a hundred feet high, and so wide that three chariots might be driven upon them abreast. There were 1500 towers upon the walls, all of them two hundred feet high. Ninus appointed the city to be chiefly inhabited by the richest of the Assyrians; and freely allowed people from other nations to dwell there. He also granted to the citizens a large surrounding territory, and gave his own name, Ninus, to the town. (Diod. ii. 1.) It may be added, that Strabo and other ancient writers say that Nineveh was more extensive than even Babylon. If we compare the dimensions assigned by Diodorus to Nineveh, with those which Herodotus (and Pliny after him) gives to Babylon, this is not true, both having 480 stadia of circumference. But if we take any other measurement of Babylon than that of Herodotus, its circuit becomes ten or twelve miles less than that which Diodorus gives to Nineveh: for Ctesias makes the circumference of Babylon but 360 stadia; Clitarchus, 365; Curtius, 368; and Strabo, 385. We are not to suppose that the whole of the vast enclosure of Nineveh was built upon. It was no doubt loosely built, with the houses much apart, as at Babylon; and contained extensive plantations, parks, gardens, fields, and open grounds, as did the same city, and as the larger Oriental towns still do. Such is the substance of our information concerning the ancient Nineveh. It now only remains to notice its desolate site: but it is best to reserve this part of the subject to illustrate the prophecy of Nahum or Zephaniah, who foretold, with remarkable precision, the desolation which that site now exhibits. 7, 8. Let neither man nor beast....taste any thing... Let man and beast be covered with sackcloth.'-Among the Hebrews we find no instance of their extending fasting, and other acts of mourning and humiliation, to their cattle. Something similar, however, may be found in other nations. Homer and some other ancient Greek authors inform us that when any hero or great warrior died, it was customary to make the horses fast for some time, and to cut off part of their hair. It is also mentioned by Plutarch, that when the Persian general Masistias was slain, the horses and mules of the Persians were shorn as well as themselves. Virgil has a remarkable passage in one of his Eclogues (v. 24), in speaking of the death of Daphnis (Julius Cæsar), which seems illustrative, although we are not sure that it is more than a poetical representation: The swains forgot their sheep, nor near the brink From water, and their grassy fare disdain'd.'-Dryden. In Peru and the Canaries, it was usual for the people, in time of great drought, to shut up their animals without food, under the notion that their loud cries and bleating would reach heaven, and prevail with God to send rain. -It should be observed that, in the East, those who fasted abstained from all manner of food until the evening, as is still the custom in the same countries. However the fasting may be extended, we are doubtless to understand that the animals clothed in sackcloth were horses, mules, and camels, which were deprived of their usual caparisons and ornaments, and invested with sackcloth, the attire of mourning; a circumstance which may in some degree be illustrated by our own custom of covering with black cloth or velvet the horses employed at funerals. CHAPTER IV. 1 Jonah, repining at God's mercy, 4 is reproved by the type of a gourd. BUT it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. 2 And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I 'fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. 3 Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live. might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. 7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered. 8 And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to die than to live. 9 And God said to Jonah, "Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, 'I do well to be angry, even unto death. 1 10 Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which "came up in a night, and perished in a night: 11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle? MICA H. THE time of Micah, as stated in the first verse of his prophecy, shews that he began to prophesy in the times of Amos, Hosea, Joel, and Isaiah; but that he began later than any of them, and continued also later than any except Isaiah, and perhaps Hosea. Although a native of the kingdom of Judah, his prophetic mission extended to the other kingdom as well. Some of the old writers unaccountably confound him with Micaiah, the prophet who is so honourably mentioned in the history of Ahab (1 Kings xxii.; 2 Chron. xviii.); but who must have lived at least one hundred and thirty years prior to the present prophet. He belonged to the town of Moresheth, and hence is called the Morasthite, which appellation some have erroneously regarded as a patronymic. Jerome says that Moresheth was a small village of Palestine near the city of Eleutheropolis. Others think it is the Mareshah mentioned in Josh. xv. 44, which Eusebius describes as a place in ruins, in the tribe of Judah, two miles from Eleutheropolis. The direction is not stated; but Dr. Robinson supposes that he found it about a mile and a half to the south of Eleutheropolis-any place near which would seem to be too far from the probable situation of Gath to be designated as Moresheth-Gath, which name Micah gives to his place in i. 14, and which it probably bore to distinguish it from the other Moreshah. The alleged grave of Micah was still, however, shewn, over which a church had been erected. Sozomen, in his Ecclesiastical History, says that the body of Micah was found, in the time of Theodosius the elder, by Zebennus, bishop of Eleutheropolis, at a place which he calls Berathsalia, about ten furlongs from the city, and near which was the prophet's grave, called by the common people 'The Faithful Monument,' perhaps because they also confounded him with the Micaiah of Ahab's time, and who is reputed to have been slain by that monarch. Micah prophesied against Israel and Judah, but particularly against the latter. Moral corruption, apostacy, and false prophecy, rather than political crime, are the objects of his indignation. He utters bold threats, which he may have lived to see partly fulfilled; and with these threats lofty promises are mingled. He predicts the destruction of the kingdom of Israel, and of, Samaria its capital; the desolation of Jerusalem by the Chaldæans, and the consequent captivity of the Jews; the restoration of the Jewish state; the successes of the Maccabees, and their victories over the Syro-Macedonians, called Assyrians in Micah v., as well as in Zech. ix. 11; the establishment of the royal residence in Zion; and the birth and reign of the Messiah. The last of these prophecies contains the famous passage (v. 2) which predicts that Bethlehem should be the birthplace of Christ, and which occasioned the confident expectation that he would be born there (Matt. ii. 5, 6). The style of Micah is briefly characterized by Bishop Lowth as being for the most part close, forcible, pointed, and concise; sometimes approaching the obscurity of Hosea; in many parts animated and sublime, and in general poetical.' To this we may add the estimate of De Wette.' He resembles Hosea in his rapid transitions from threats of punishment to promises of prosperity, as well as in his style; but he has more roundness, fulness, and clearness in his style and in his rhythm. He frequently indulges in a play upon words (a quality not perceivable in a translation); he makes a happy use of the form of a dialogue. He is full of feeling (see i. 8, and vii. 1); and his prophecies are penetrated by the purest spirit of morality and piety. Micah's description of the character of Jehovah is, as Dr. Henderson remarks, unrivalled by any contained elsewhere in Scripture. Luther's Prælections on this book were collected and published in both the Latin and German languages, the former in 1542: Gilby, A Commentary upon Micah, Lond., 1551, 1591; Draconitis, Joel, Micheas, et Zacharias Propheta Ebraice, cum translationibus Chaldaica, Graca, Latina, et Germanica, etc., Vitemb., 1565; Chytræi Explicatio Miche et Nahum, Viteberg., 1565; Graxar, Comm. in Micheam, Salmant., 1576; Graueri Expositio plena et perspicua propheta Micheæ, inque hac quæstiones inter Lutheranos, Photinianos, Pontificios, et Calvinianos controversa, Jenæ, 1619; Bangii Fontium Israelis Trias, Jona, Michea et Ruth, Hafniæ, 1631; Tarnovii In Prophetam Micham Commentarius, Rostoch, 1632; Van Toll, Uitlegginge van den Propheet Micha, etc., Utrecht, 1709; Animadversiones philologico-critica ad Vaticinia Michæ, ex collatione versionum Græcarum reliquarumque in Polyglottis Londinensibus editarum, præs. C. F. Schnurrer auct. Respond. J. G. Andler, Tubing., 1783; Bauer, Animadversiones Critica in duo priora prophetæ Micha capita, Altdorf, 1790; Grosschopff, Die Orakel des Propheten Micha, Jena, 1798; Justi, Micha, neu übersetzt und erläutert, Leipz., 1799; Hartmann, Micha, neu übersetzt und erläutert, etc., Lemgo, 1800. |