Or else they mean, harps given as from God. Or, harps of God may be harps used in the service of God, in opposition to harps common and profane. 1 Chron. xvi. 42; 2 Chron. vii. 6. HARVEST, is put for a time of destruction, Hosea vi. 11, according to Newcome; but according to Horsley for a time of mercy. "Observe,” says he, "that the vintage is always an image of the season of judgment; but the harvest, of the ingathering of the objects of God's final mercy." To reconcile these two opposite views, we have only to attend to the definition of harvest given by Mede. "The harvest,' says Mede," includes three things, the reaping, the gathering in, and the grinding; from whence it generally has a twofold meaning in parabolic writings, that of slaughter and destruction, equivalent to reaping and grinding; that of restoration and safety, under the image of gathering in." Of this there is an example in Jerem. li. 33, "The daughter of Babylon is as a thrashing floor, The time of her thrashing, yet a little while, And the time of her harvest is come;" plainly referring to the judgments of God upon Babylon. So in the oracle concerning Damascus, Isa. xvii. 5, it is said, "It shall be as when one gathereth the standing harvest, And his arm reapeth the ears of corn, Or as when one gleaneth ears in the valley of Rephaim;" i. e. As Lowth observes, the king of Assyria shall sweep away the whole body of the people, as the reaper strippeth off the whole crop of corn, and the remnant shall be no more in proportion than the scattered ears left to the gleaner, Joel iii. 13, "Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe, Come, get ye down, for the wine-press is full, the vats overflow, For their wickedness is great." These last words explain the figurative language which precedes. They are ripe for excision. The Chaldee paraphrases this passage well, thus: "Draw out the sword against them, the time of their end is come. Tread upon their mighty men slain, as men tread upon what is in the wine-press. Shed their blood, because their wickedness is multiplied." The same comparison is used in Rev. xiv. 14, 15, 18, where the person referred to as executing vengeance is Jesus Christ himself, though angels assist in the execution, to show, as Lowman notes, that this stroke of vengeance on Rome is with all the force of a divine hand. It is executed on orders brought by an angel from the temple, or presence of God, from the temple which is in heaven, ver. 17. The harvest, in agricultural reckoning, is considered to be the end of the season, being the time appointed for gathering in the fruits of the earth, and finishing the labours of the year. So in Matt. xiii. 39, our Lord says, "The harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels." In Matt. ix. 36, our Lord, seeing multitudes coming to hear him, remarks, "The harvest truly is plenteous," i. e. many are willing to receive instruction. This was spoken at the feast of tabernacles, which was in harvest. Homer, Il. λ. v. 67, compares men falling thick in battle, to corn falling in ranks, in the harvest. And the Indian Interpreter says, "If a king dreams that he sees harvest reaped in his own country, he will soon hear of a slaughter of his people." The metaphor of mowing or reaping is used, in most authors, to signify an excision or utter destruction of the subject. So Horace and Virgil have used it; Hor. l. 4, od. 14; Æn. 1. 10, v. 513. And in Homer, mowing is a symbol of war; the straw signifies the slain, and the crop or corn, those that escape. 7. V. 221. But harvest is also used in a good sense, as in Matt. ix. 37; Luke x. 2; John iv. 35. And so in Jer. viii. 20, "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved;" i. e. the time in which we expected to be saved, is past. HATE. See under Love. HEAD, in general, as being the governing part of man, 'always implies rule; and therefore the symbols about the head, must shew the qualities and extent of the power to rule. The head of a people, signifies their king or chief governor. The heads of a people, their princes or magistrates. To have a great head, portends principality and empire. For the hair of the head, see Hair. Christ is called the head over all things to the church, Eph. i. 23, &c. The Apostle, in this passage, seems to have respect to the famous. statue of Diana, who was the great goddess of these Ephesians. Her image was that of a woman, and her body covered or filled with the breasts of a woman, to denote, as Jerome tells us, "that she was the nurse, supporter, and life of all living creatures;" or, as Macrobius informs us, Saturn. 1. 1, c. 20, " She represented the earth or nature, by whose nourishment the whole universe is supported." Now this gives a beautiful turn to the Apostle's expression. The church of Christ is that body, that λngwea, or fulness, which he upholds and enriches by his bounty. Diana was esteemed the nurse of all things, and her many breasts denoted her various methods and sources by which she conveyed her nourishment to the universe: such a one, the Apostle tells the Ephesians, Christ really was, for he filleth all things with all things. He filleth the church and all its members with a bountiful and rich variety of blessings: hence John, who lived long at Ephesus, uses the same manner of expression, John i. 16, "And from his fulness we have all received grace for grace;" i. e. of every grace or celestial gift, conferred above measure upon him, his disciples have received a portion, according to their measure. See Chandler on Ephesians; Ewald on the same. HEAT. In Isa. xlix. 10, and Rev. vii. 16, there is a reference to the burning wind of the desart, the Simoom or Samiel, described by travellers as exceedingly pestilential and fatal. It is highly probable that this was the instrument with which God destroyed the army of Sennacherib, 2 Kings xix. 7, 35. Its effects are evidently alluded to in Ps. ciii. 15, 16, and in Jer. iv. 11. Thevenot mentions such a wind, which, in 1658, suffocated 20,000 men in one night, and another which, in 1655, suffocated 4000 persons. It sometimes burns up the corn when near its maturity, sne hence the image of "corn blasted before it be *** used in 2 Kings xix. 26. Its effect is not neo render the air extremely hot and scorching, best fill it with poisonous and suffocating vapours. most violent' storms that Judea was subject to, me from the desarts of Arabia. "Out of the south eth the whirlwind," says Job xxxvii. 9. "And came a great wind from the wilderness,” Job i. "And Jehovah shall appear over them, And his arrow shall go forth as the lightning; Zech. ix. 14. The 91st Psalm, which speaks of divine protection, describes the plague as arrows, and in those winds there are observed flashes of fire. And therefore, in Num. xiii. 3. the place in which the plague was inflicted, is for that reason called Taberah, i. e. a burning. A plague is called 17, deber, as a desart is called medeber, because those winds came from the desart, and are real plagues. This hot wind, when used as a symbol, signifies the fire of persecution, or else some prodigious wars which destroy men. For wind signifies war; and scorching heat signifies persecution and destruction. So in Matt. xiii. 6, 21, and Luke viii. 6-13, heat is tribulation, temptation, or persecution; and in 1 Peter iv. 12, burning tends to temptation. A gentle heat of the sun, according to the Oriental Interpreters signifies the favour and bounty of the prince; but great heat denotes punishment. Hence the burning of the heavens, is a portentum explained in Livy, l. 3, c. 5, of slaughter. |