The darkness mentioned, is not to be understood in a literal fenfe, denoting the abfence of natural light; but in a figurative fenfe, fignifying a diftreffed, miferable, and perplexed condition. In this view the word is often ufed in the prophetic writings; of which you will find an inftance, Joel ii. 2. where a day of great trouble is called a Day of darkness. And in the verfe before us, it denotes the grievous afflictions which were to be every where confpicuous at the time referred to.-Dimness of anguish. This expreffion feems intended to amplify and increase the fignification of the former, and to intimate the extremity of diftrefs to which the people fpoken of were to be reduced, in confequence of their fin and folly.The following words point at the irresistible violence with which they fhould be forced into this deplorable state: They fhall be driven to darkness. The word denotes a violent compulfory act, fuch as cannot be fuccefsfully oppofed, but fhall certainly accomplifh the end for which it is defigned. The perfon and inftruments, by whom they were thus forcibly expelled into darkness, not being mentioned, we suppose that the great Difpofer of all events is to be confidered as the chief Agent; and that the inftruments he employed for this purpofe, were alfo included in this expreffion.- -Thefe predictions received a partial fulfilment in the reign of Hezekiah, when the king of Babylon greatly diftreffed the Jewish nation, and threatened them with deftruction. Their completion, however, was referved until after the time of the great Meffiah's appearance, whofe law and teftimony that infatuated people having rejected and defpifed, they were on that account reduced to a ftate of extreme mifery and defpair, in which they committed the most daring acts of impiety and blafphemy, in confequence whereof they were foon overtaken by thofe terrible calamities which human power could not refift. Expofed to many powerful enemies, and innumerable evils, whereby they were dreadfully agitated,

tated, they were widely difperfed, and driven into all the kingdoms of the earth: they became the objects of univerfal hatred and contempt; and to this day continue in the darkness of difgrace and mifery, the living monuments of the divine difpleasure.

Through their fall falvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealoufy. Now, if their fall be the riches of the world, and the dimi nishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how • much more their fulness? For I fpeak to you Gentiles, if by any means I may provoke you to emulation, and may fave fome of

you

* Şee Rom. xi. 11. et feq.

за

PRELIMI

PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.

ANOTHER inftance of the injudicious divifion

of the fcriptures into chapters here occurs. Cardinal Hugo, or whofoever performed this piece of work, might have easily seen, that the first verse, or rather the first seven verses of this chapter, were intimately connected with the subject treated in the last chapter. I therefore obferved, when entering upon the confideration of the seventh chapter, that the fecond fection of the laft part of this prophetical difcourse extended to the feventh verfe of this chapter. In these verses more events are foretold, which were to precede the Meffiah's appearance among the Jews, as the Prince of peace, and the great Inftructor of his difciples, with fome of the furprifing figns, and happy effects, that were to follow his manifeftation. After which, the prophet proceeds, in the third fection of this difcourfe, warmly to expoftulate with the Ephraimites, who had joined in league with the Syrians, to moleft, and, if poffible, to overthrow the kingdom of Judah; and to fhew the equity of the divine procedure, in punishing that perfidious people for their enormous crimes. This fubject is continued from the 7th verfe of this chapter to verfe 5th of chapter tenth. It is diftributed into four parts; in each of which the fin of Ephraim is first mentioned, and then the punishment, which on that account was to be executed, is denounced. Their pride is first threatened, ver. 8.-12.- Then their infenfibility, ver. 13.17. After which, their profligacy of manners, ver. 18.-21.The fection concludes with their iniquity and injustice, Chap. x. 1.—4.

CHAP.

CHAP. IX.

NEvertheless, the dimness shall not be fuch

as was in her vexation, when at the firft he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the fea, beyond Jordan in Galilee of the nations.

The prophet foretels, that the contemners of Immanuel, and his teftimony, were to be involved in far greater calamities than thofe which befell the people of the Jews in either the first or second captivity, which they fuffered on account of their tranfgreffion of the law. At the fame time he declares, that, amidst the obscurity and darkness he had predicted, the light of divine grace and confolation was to arife, which fhould illuminate the nations.The first vexation, and light affliction, referred to in this verse, arofe from the captivity into which Benhadad, king of Syria, led many of the Ifraelites, when he fmote Ijon, and Dan and Abel-beth-maachah, and all Cinneroth, and all the land of Naphtali, of which we read, 1 Kings xv. 20. This event no doubt gave rife to confiderable vexation and diftrefs, though it was but a light affliction compared with another and following captivity, in which the king of Affyria took Ijon, Abel-beth-maachah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazar, Gilead, and Galilee, and all the land of Naphtali, and carried them away to Affyria, as it is written, 2 Kings XV. 29. This calamity was greatly increafed by the captivity of the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manaffeh, not many years after, when Tilgath-pilnefer brought them into Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, mentioned 1 Chron. v. 26. The firft-mentioned calamity lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun, and the land of Naph

tali, the Inferior Galilee, whofe poffeffions lying in the remote parts of the kingdom of Ifrael, and in the neighbourhood of Syria, were exposed to the hoftile incurfions of that nation. The latter affliction seized upon those who dwelt by the way of the fea; in thofe places that were fituated upon the fea-coaft, and upon those who lived beyond Jordan, in the country belonging to the two tribes and a half, in Galilee of the Gentiles, or Galilee Superior, where were many Gentiles. The inhabitants of thefe three districts were afflicted: thofe in Lower Galilee, when all Naphtali was taken; those beyond Jordan, when the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manaffeh were taken; and those in Upper Galilee, when Ijon, Dan, and Abel-beth-maachah were taken by the Affyrians. Neither the former of these, which was the more light affliction, nor the latter, which was the more grievous calamity, did equal the far more dreadful miferies which were inflicted upon the Jews, for rejecting the Meffiah, his law and tefti

mony.

Nevertheless, the dimness was not fuch as was in their former vexations. Dimnefs, you know, which arifes from the infirmities of advanced age, or from alliction and grief, confifts in weakness of fight, and an incapacity of clearly difcerning objects according to their real importance and magnitude. In certain periods of the Jewish ftate, not very diftant from the time of the afflictions here fpoken of, their dimnefs, and want of perception, feem to have been very great, as is evident from feveral paffages of their hif tory; and particularly from the words of Azariah, recorded 2 Chron. xv. 3. 5, 6. where it is thus written: Now for a long feafon Ifrael had been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law.-Great vexations were up· on all the inhabitants of the countries.-For God did vex them with all adverfity.' This obfcurity was to be greatly diminished, or removed, by the

true