1 XVI. --་ Chapter and for thy harvest, is fallen. And gladness is taken away, and joy out of the plentiful field, and in the vineyards there Shall be no finging, neither shall there be shouting: the treaders fhall tread out no wine in their preffes, I have made their vintage-fhouting to cease.] From hence it appears, fays Santius, that this City of Jazer was deftroy'd before Hehbon and Eleale, but the words may be better render'd without any Ambiguity, Therefore with weeping will 1 bewail Fazer, and the Vines of Sibmah, I will water thee with my Tears, O Hefhbon and Eleale, because in none of thofe Cities fhall there be any public Rejoycing in time of Harvest, no fhouting for the Summer-Fruit, which fhall all be destroy'd by the Enemy. The Expreffions fhew the Joy and Satisfaction exprefs'd by the laborious Husbandmen at the approach of a plentiful Crop, and a hopeful Vintage, which being the natural effect of Plenty, and the pleafing profpect of having wherewithal to pafs the fharp Winter cheerfully, was univerfally praais'd in all Ages, as it is ftill among our felves. But the Moabites, fays the Prophet, fhall not rejoice on fuch an occafion, because their Enemies fhould reap their Harveft, and spoil their Mirth. Pfal. 81. 2. Moller. Ver. 11. Wherefore my bowels fhall found like an harp for Moab, and my inward parts for Kir-hareh.] Whatever inward Affection this metaphorical Expreffion denotes, it must be a forrowful one; accordingly Bochart obferves, that Kinnour, which we render a Harp, was a musical Inftrument us'd on doleful occafions; and yet the Pfalmift calls it Kinnour Nanim, The merry Harp. Ver. 12. And it shall come to pass, when it is feen that Moab is weary on the high place, that he shall come to his fanctuary to pray, but he shall not prevail.] The Sentence is defective, and may be fupply'd in the following manner; And Moab fhall go to his ordinary high Places to pray to his Idols to deliver him; and when he has weary'd himself in vain, without finding any return to his repeated Prayers, he fhall come to the Temple of his great God Chemofh, and there his Prayers fhall prove as anfuccefsful. Hither they repair'd in Cafes of extraor dinary Danger or Calamity, referring their common Neceffities to the care of inferior Deities. Ver. 13. This is the word that the Lord hath Spoken con- Chapter cerning Moab fince that time.] Meaz, that is, Ex tunc, as XVI. the Vulgat renders it fomewhat barbarously, Il y a deja long tems, as the Port Royal Tranflation has it, This is the word which the Lord hath spoken concerning Moab long ago, either when Balak hir'd Balaam to curfe Ifrael, Tirinus. or when their Devaftation was foretold by Amos, in the Numb.22.5,6. Time of Uzziah; as if the Prophet had told his Coun- Amos 1. 1. try-men, Let not this Denunciation of Judgment on the Moller. Moabites feem incredible to you, for God has reveal'd it before, and I only repeat it with a precife determina tion of the Time. Ver. 14. But now the Lord hath spoken, faying, Within three years, as the years of an hireling, and the glory of Moab Shall be contemned, with all that great multitude, and the remnant fhall be very small and feeble.] Some would have thefe three Years to commence at the Destruction of Jerufalem by Nebuchodonofor; others at the firft Year of Hezekiah, fuppofing this Prophecy to bear the fame date with the preceding one against the Philistines, and 2 Kings 18.9... that Salmanazar, in the fourth of Hezekiah, when he came to befiege Samaria, took the Land of the Moabites in his way. But this agrees not with the directions here given to the Moabites, to entertain the Jews when they fhould fly to their Land for fhelter, which they had no occafion to do, during the first four Years of that Reign. Others therefore fuppofe this Prophecy deliver'd 4to Hezekia, when Salmanazar fat down before Samaria, which having taken in three Years time, he then fell on the Moabites, as they fuppofe; which feems to take off the former Objection, because then many of the Ten Tribes might feek shelter among the Moabites: But the Prophet certainly speaks of the Inhabitants of Judea, who had not as yet been difper'd. Others go lower yet, and make them commence at the Siege of Jerufalem by Sennacherib, three Years after which they fuppofe he invaded Moab, but being foon after the overthrow of his Army kill'd by his Sons, the Calculation of these three Years cannot begin at that Time. In this Variety of Opinions, fays Gataker, I crave leave to deliver my Conjecture, and fuppofe this Judgment denounced against Moab, to have been executed neither by Nebuchadnezzar, nor Salmana XVI. " Chapter zar, nor Sennacherib, but by his Son Efarhaddon; who, after his Father's decease, having recovered fome ftrength, it is not unlikely that he might again make toward thofe Parts, and invade fome of the neighbouring States, and that of Moab in particular, expecting fome opportunity to be dealing with Judea, in revenge of his Father's Quarrel; which, tho' warn'd by his Defeat, he durft not attempt during the Reign of Hezekiah, yet in his Succeffors he did; and the better to clear his way, fwept away the remainders of the Ifraelites who were fettled in those Parts. I conceive therefore this Prophecy to have been deliver'd about the fourteenth and fifteenth of Hezekiah, and that in particular, which is in this last Verfe denounced, to have taken effect about the eightteenth or nineteenth, being put in Execution by the Af fyrian King Efarhaddon. To exprefs my Mind herein more fully, fays the fame learned Perfon, I fuppofe the utter deftruction of Moab before denounced, and by Jeremiah long after feconded, to have been executed by Nebuchadnezzar; but as the Lord ufeth fometimes to give Affurances of the Complement of fome Prophecies of longer date by fome other Prediction of a nearer Term, in like manner he here feems to me to have done: For having in the foregoing Prophecy threatned the utter Ruin of the Moabites, which was many Years after to be effeeted, he here, to give the stronger Affurance of the Complement of the fame, foretels that within three Years after the Promulgation of this Prophecy, the state, of Moab, by the Affyrian King Efarhaddon, fhould be exceedingly impoverish'd and impair'd. Thus far Gataker, who justly calls it Conjecture, for nothing like certainty can be expected here; fince we neither know, nor can know, when this Prediction was fpoken by Ifaiah to the Jews, nor when this Devastation (for I think the Prophet does not mean an utter Destruction either in this or the foregoing Chapter) happen'd to the Moabites. And I cannot fee, fince we must come to Suppofals in the Cafe, why Sennacherib may not be fuppos'd to have fulfill'd it as well as his Son. As the years of an Hireling, that is, three Years precifely, because hir'd Servants are us'd to keep an exact account of the time that they may know when their Period is out. The The ARGUMENT of Chapter XVII. 9. He foretels the Destruction of the Kingdom of Syria by Tiglath 2 Kings 16. Pilefer, that many of her Cities fhould be demolish'd, espe cially Damafcus, the chief City thereof, and fo many of her Inhabitants carry'd into Captivity, that the poor Remains fhould be reduc'd to the fame Condition as the Ifraelites their Confederates, which he defcribes in the following Verfes by the Similitude of a decaying Body, falling away from a State of Health and Vigour to a meer Skeleton; then he goes on to tell the Fate of the Kingdom of the Ten Tribes, that their Numbers fhould be fo decreas'd by Deportation of the Ifraelites, that thofe who remain'd in the Land fhould be no more in Comparison to their former Numbers than Gleanings to a Crop, which was fulfill'd about the fame Time by the fame Affyrian Monarch. Of the Judgments to be inflicted 2 Kings 15. on both Nations the Prophet difcourfes without any visible Diftinction, and in the Three laft Verfes defcribes the Power of the Affyrian, bearing down every thing in its way like a rapid Torrent, concluding with a Hint at that remarkable Overthrow which the Affyrian Forces fhould afterward receive before Jerufalem. Verse 1. T CHAP. XVII. HE burthen of Damafcus. Behold Damafcus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.]: This plainly fhews that the Prophecies stand not at prefent in an exact Chronological Order, for Damafcus was deftroy'd before the Death of Abaz, as appears by the History, which fays that Tiglath Pilefer hearken'd to him, that is, Abaz, for he went up against Damafcus and took it: yet we fee it is plac'd after the Burden of the Philistines, which was in the Year that King Abaz dy'd; God began to fulfil this Prophecy by Tiglath Pilefer, and Salmanazar made a further Progrefs in it; but yet we find it a City in the Time of Jeremiah, which does not at all derogate from the Truth of this Prophecy, for. the Prophet only foretels the Destruction of that City, which 29. Chapter 1 Chapter which is fufficiently accomplish'd by the carrying away of XVII. the Inhabitants, tho' all the Buildings remain untouch'd; or if he must be understood of the Ruin of the Houfes alZach. fin. fo, it does not follow that they must never be rebuilt again. Ver. 2. The cities of Aroer are forfaken: they shall be for flocks which shall lie down, and none fhall make them afraid.] That is, the Cities of Aroer shall be forfaken, their Inhabitants either flying away for fear of the Affyrian, or being carry'd away into Captivity by them, and Flocks of Sheep fecurely graze in thofe Places where populous Cities once ftood; Aroer was a Tract of Land on the Banks of the River Arnon, the Poffeffion of the Amorites originally, afterward belonging to the Reubenites and Gadites, and at this Time by Conqueft annex'd to the Dominions of Syria. Ver. 3. The fortress alfo fhall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damafcus, and the remnant of Syria: they fhall be as the glory of the children of Ifrael, faith the Lord of hofts.] That is, Samaria, the Fortrefs of Ephraim, the Capital City of the Kingdom of Ifrael, fhall cease to be a City, that is, fhall be destroy'd, and the Government of Syria fhall be overthrown, fo as not to return into the Hands of a Native any more; though others by the Fortress of Ephraim think the Prophet means the Affiftance they might expect from their ancient Allies of Ifrael fhould fail them, and that he only foretels the Fate of Syria in this Verfe, without intermixing that of the Ten Tribes; bat it may be understood of Ifrael alfo. Ver. 4. And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Facob fhall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh fhall wax lean.] In that Day, that is, at the fame time that thefe Misfortunes fhall befall the Syrians, the Ifraelites fhall have their Share of Afflictions alfo, by which they fhall be reduc'd very low, which the Prophet fets forth under the Similitude of a lufty corpulent Perfon, who, by the Violence of a painful Diftemper, has loft all his Flesh, and become, as it were, the Shadow only of what he was before; and this makes me understand the Prophet of the Ravage of Ifrael by Tiglath Pilefer, rather than of their total Destruction by Salmanazar, because this Similitude implies a Diminution of Strength only, and not the Subverfion of that Monarchy. |