Ver. 24. And the inhabitant fhall not fay, I am fick: the people that dwell therein fhall be forgiven their iniquity.] No one of the Inhabitants of Jerufalem fhall have cause to complain of any Infirmity contracted during the Siege, their Health fhall not in the leaft be impair'd, the People that dwell therein shall be forgiven their Iniquity, that is, fhall this time escape the Punishment due to their Sins. The ARGUMENT of Chapter XXXIV. Chapter The Jews understand this Chapter of the Time of their Chimerical Meffiah, when great Slaughter shall be made among the Nations to make way for their Restoration, and Mr. Whiston Munfter. I find of the fame Opinion with thofe Dreamers of the Circumcifion, who, if they confider that there is now no fuch Nation in the World as the Idumeans, nor any fuch City as Bozrah, they must own that this Prophecy is not still to be fulfill'd; fome will have it to be a prophetical Common-Place, a general Denunciation of Judgment against the Enemies of God's People, and St. Jerom thinks it is to be understood of the Day of Judgment; but fince there is not the leaft Sign of the beginning of a new Prophecy, and the Expreffions agree with that great Slaughter of the Allyrian Army, of which the Prophet has been speaking in the foregoing Chapter, where he call'd on the Nations far and near to take notice of this Transaction, V. 13. as he does at the beginning of this, I think it most natural with Grotius to understand the Prophet of that unparalell'd Overthrow of the Affyrian; and Sanctius, who has not Courage enough to leave the Ancients, even when he fees them out of the way, thinks the Prophet here Speaks of that Judgment; the Expreffions are indeed very hyperbolical thro' the whole Chapter, but fuch as without any wrefting are fairly applicable to that Event. Chapter CHAP. XXXIV. Ome near ye nations to hear, and hearken ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it.] The Prophet calls upon all the Nations to attend and carefully obferve what he was about to do to the Affyrians, by which we are to underftand that fomething extraordinary was refolv'd on in Heaven, which should make the. Kingdoms of the Earth ring, and all the Inhabitants ftand amaz'd at it, as the Slaughter of fo many Thousand Affyrians, without any visible Caufe to effect it, could not fail of being very furprifing to all that heard of it. Ver. 2. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly deftroyed them, be bath delivered them to the flaughter.] That is, fome of all the Nations at this time in Subjection to the Affyrian Empire fhall feel the Effects of God's Indignation, the Slaughter in their Army fhall be fo univerfal that few of them fhall escape, and every Nation almost be sensible of the Blow by the Lofs of their Soldiers; that the Grand Army of Sennacherib was rais'd out of feveral Nations, feveral Tributary Princes commanding under him their own National Troops, may be fairly inferr'd from the Tenth Chapter, v. 8. 36. v. 9. Ver. 3. Their flain alfo fhall be caft out, and their stink fhall come up out of their carcafes, and the mountains fhall be melted with their blood.] The Air fhall be infected with the Stench of their putrifying Carcafes, and the Effusion of Blood fhall be fo great that it fhall feem as if the very Mountains melted, and Streams of Blood iffu'd out of their Cavities. Ver. 4. And all the hoft of heaven fhall be diffolved, and the heavens jhall be rolled together as a ferole: and all their hoft fhall fall down as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig-tree.] So great fhall be the Slaughter of the Affyrians that those who survive fhall fancy Heaven and Earth were coming together, and the whole Fabric of the World ready to fall in pieces and tumble into its Primitive Confusion; or, as Grotius, fo much Blood fhall be fpilt that the Air fhall be fill'd with Vapours and thick Chapter Clouds, intercepting the Light of the Sun and Stars, make XXXIV. them feem as if they were faln from their Orbs, or the Heavens were roll'd up and their Light extinguish'd; such pompous Expreffions do the Prophets ufe when they speak of any great Slaughter or unufual Calamity. Ver. 5. For my sword fhall be bathed in heaven; behold. it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curfe to judgment.] That is, becaufe my Anger is kindled above, my heavenly Sword fhall be bath'd in the Blood of mine Enemies, it fhall fall on the Inhabitants of Idumea, and destroy that curfed People, whom I have devoted to Deftruction; if the Conjunction be caufal it plainly connects it with what went before, and then we are to fuppofe that the Idumeans join'd with Sennacherib against the Jews their Brethren, which God fo heinously refents that he determines to destroy them, which might be done by Hezekiah after the Overthrow of Sennacherib; but if we render Ki Moreover, this makes a diftin&t Prophecy by it felf, and then, as the learn'd Dr. Alix thinks, the Prophet may be fuppos'd to point at the Destruction of the Idumeans by Nebuchadnezzar a little after the Destruction of Ferufalem. Ver. 6. The fword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the Lord hath a facrifice in Bozrah, and a great flaughter in the land of Idumea.] He reprefents God as if he had been offering a Sacrifice, which he had cut up with his own Hands, reeking with Blood and daub'd with fat and Gore; this Sacrifice or Slaughter be tells us was to be in Bazrah,a City of the Idumeans,and extend it felf over all the Land, and mentions Rams, Goats and Lambs, to fignify that no Age, Sex or Condition, should be exempted from the undiftinguishing Slaughter. Ver. 7. And the unicorns fhall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls, and their land fhall be foked with blood, and their duft made fat with fatness.] That is, the mighty Men of Power and Authority, the Rich and the Great, fhall fall by the Sword, as well as the weak and helpless. Ver. 8. For it is the day of the Lords vengeance, and the year Forerius, of recompences for the controversy of Zion.] This fome (a) un- Adamus. derstand Kk 2 (a) Hieron. Chapter derftand of the deftruction of Jerufalem by the Romans, XXXIV. Mr. Whiston of the Vengeance to be taken on the Ene (a) Chaldee Paraphraft, Monianus. mies of the Jews, and fo far he is right; but if he means any Vengeance ftill future, I am apt to think he mistakes the meaning of the Prophet, because the particular Enemies here fpoken of are the Idumeans, and they have ceas'd to be a People many and many Ages ago. By the Controverfy of Sion, is not to be understood any Judg ment to be inflicted on Sion, but the (a) Vengeance God defign'd to bring on the Idumeans her Enemies, for the many outragious Acts committed against her; tho' Grotius thinks the words may be render'd, And the Year of Retribution to the Adverfaries of Sion, fuppofing a Singular to ftand for a Plural, which comes to the fame thing. Ver. 9 And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the duft thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.] That is, Idumea fhall be destroy'd as much as if the Streams of her Rivers were turn'd in-. to burning Pitch, and the Duft of the Earth into Brimftone, as feveral Cities have been by the Eruptions of Mount Etna, which have pour'd out fuch Streams of liquid Brimftone, as have overturn'd whole Cities, and run feveral Miles into the Sea. But the Prophet in all probability alludes to the deftruction of Sodom by Fire from Heaven, which meeting with a fulphureous Soil, foon destroy'd that abominable City. Ver. 10. It shall not be quenched night nor day, the smoke thereof fhall go up for ever: from generation to generation it fhall lie waffe, none shall pass through it for ever and ever.] Cities deftroy'd by Fire continue for fome time to darken the Air with Smoak, as Seneca fpeaking of Troy, Ilium est illic ubi fumus alte Surgit in calum, nebulaque turpes. The Expreffions are very Hyperbolical, and one would think the Prophet defign'd to fet forth an everlasting Deftruction; and yet it is very certain that the words cannot be understood in their utmoft Latitude, which is not the Opinion of modern Interpreters only, but of the LXX, who understood them in a more limited fenfe, to denote fuch a deftruction as fhould leave the Country unpeopled, os xevor wow, as they render it. πολιώ, 7 Ver. 11. But the cormorant and the bittern fhall poffefs it, Chapter the owl alfo and the raven fhall dwell in it, and he fhall fretch XXXIV. out upon it the line of confufion, and the ftones of emptiness.] Such Creatures only as live in defolate places fhall inhabit the Country of Idumea; that is, it fhall be brought to defolation; it fhall, as it were, by Line and Level be laid out for deftruction. The Metaphor feems to be taken from Mafons and Workmen, who when they are to take down part of a Building, mark out how far it must be pulled down. The words which we render Confufion and Emptinefs, are the fame us'd by Mofes to fet forth the State of the World, before the fevral parts of it were reduced into that beautiful order they are now in, but lay jumbled together in confufion; fuch fhould Idumea be, a place where nothing but Confusion reigns. Ver. 12. They hall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing. That is, there fhall none of their Nobles or Princes be left to take the Government upon them if it were offer'd them: The few that furvive this deftruction, fhall offer sanitiu, the Government to any p48, pur si Body hall refufe Gataker. a Crown which must be attended with a great many Difficulties, before a Nation fo horribly wafted could be rais'd to any degree of Strength. Grotius thinks the words will admit this fenfe, They shall call to brance their once flourishing Kingdom Hor ofte of their Royal Family shall be leftegy to Withorns their-remem their bush, bup 2007 Ver. 13, 14, 15, 16. hall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortreffes thereof, and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls. The wild Deafts of the defert hall alle meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the far hatt ery to his fellow the fori chotel also shall rest chère, and fihil for her felf & place of respillere shall the great on make her nest and lay and hatch, and gather under her Padow there shall the vultures also be gathered every one with her mare." See be out of the book by the Lord, und read: one lefe he went her mare, For my moling ir bath commander, h 770 ས g thered them. When has Doral on Thall Be brought on the Land of We read over this Prophet and fee if -oral warga Tisurvot set to ang balind any mo |