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Chapter every fide, and as far as their Eye could reach fee nothing but their own.

V.

Comment. in riofea in fin.

1

Ver. 9. In mine Ears faid the Lord of Hofts, Of a truth many Houses fhall be defolate, even great and fair without Inhabitant.] Some refer this to God himself, as if he said, I have heard with my Ears the Cries of those whom your Ambition or Covetousness opprefs. Tho' others think the Prophet fpeaks of himself, as if he affirm'd, that he had with his Ears heard God decree thofe Punishments which he denounces in the following Words.

Ver. 10. Yea, ten Acres of Vineyard fhall yield one Bath, and the feed of an homer fhall yield an Ephah.] Ten Acres planted with the choiceft Vines, fhall yield but one fmall Measure, not above nine Gallons of Wine, a poor return for fo large an extent of Ground; which if rightly improv'd and blefs'd with feasonable Weather, would yield at least two hundred of the fame Measures. Of the Ephah and Bath Vide Pocock.

Ver. 11. Wo unto them that rife up early in the morning, that they may follow ftrong drink, that continue until night, till wine enflame them.] To eat or drink in a Morning was look'd upon as Intemperance among the Jews, thereEcclef. 10.16. fore fays Solomon, Wo to thee, O Land, when thy King is a Child, and thy Frinces eat in the morning. Much more is it fo to rife early on purpose only to wallow in Intempe rance, for fear leaft they fhould not have time enough to indulge themselves in extravagant Mirth.

Ver. 12. And the Harp and the Viol, the Tabret and Pipe, and Wine are in their Feafts; but they regard not the work of the Lord, neither confider the operation of his hands.] They give themselves over fo intirely to an unthinking Jollity, that they take no notice of thofe Judgments of God, which are already in the midst of them, no more than of those which hang over their Heads juft ready to fall: Bafil.Santius. But fome think by the Works of the Lord, the Prophet

means the Heavens and heavenly Bodies which Man was born with an erect Countenance to contemplate, inftead of which they were degenerated into Beafts, minding nothing but their Guts.

Ver. 13. Therefore my People are gone into Captivity, because they have no knowledge; and their honourable Men are

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famished, and their multitude dried up with thirft.] That Chapter is, fhall go into Captivity, which was fulfilled as to the V. ten Tribes by Salmanazar, at the beginning of Hezekiah's Reign; and as to the remaining two, the Men of Judah, as they are call'd, ver. 7. by Nebuchadnezzar; And this Shall come upon them, fays the Prophet, because they have no (a) knowledge, because they forgat God's Commandments, and (a) Tirinus. acted as if they knew him not: Tho' (b) others think Mib- (b) Forerius beli dangath fignifies no more than on a fudden, unexpe&tedly they fhall be carry'd into Captivity before they have recover'd their Senfes, without knowing where they are, or what they are about to fuffer.

Ver. 14. Therefore Hell hath enlarged her felf, and opened her mouth without measure; and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoyceth fhall defcend into it.] What we render Hell, following the Vulgat too clofely, fhould be render'd the Grave; of which the Prophet fpeaks as of a ravenous Beaft, ftretching it felf and endeavouring to inlarge its Capacity, upon a Profpect of a plentiful Repaft, which gives a lively Idea of the great Slaughter which thould be made of them, fo great, that Tophet, the common burying-place, would not contain the dead Carcafes.

Ver. 15. And the mean Man fhall be brought down, and the mighty Man fhall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty fhall be humbled.] The deftruction fhall be general, and reach all Ranks and Degrees of Men; it fhall fweep away the great and the little promifcuously.

Ver. 16. But the Lord of Hofts fhall be exalted in judg ment, and God that is holy shall be fanctified in righteousnefs. Then is God faid to be exalted, when by his Judgments on the Wicked he gives a visible Proof of his Dominion and Authority; that he has Power to pull down and chastife the greatest Mortals, and that the higheft of the Sons of Men are not out of his reach, fince he is higher than they.

Ver. 17. Then fhall the Lambs feed after their manner, and the wafte places of the fat ones fhall strangers eat.] This Verfe is very obfcure, the principal Words in it being capable of different fignifications, according as they are read with fuch and fuch Vowels Forerius thinks the

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Moller.

Santius.

V.

Chapter Prophet defign'd to fet forth the different Fate of the Good and Bad. The Virtuous, like innocent Lambs, in rich Paftures, fhall feed, Kedovram juxta Verbum fuum, at their pleasure, roving from place to place, without any fear of danger; but, Chorboth, the Sword fhall deftroy, Mechim geerim medullata ruminantia, those pamBut if per'd Beasts he had been speaking of, ver. 12. we stick to our Tranflation, and understand by Chorboth the waste places, as the word alfo fignifies, the sense of the Prophet will be, The Lambs fball feed after their manner, fecurely in plentiful Paftures; but the defolate Lands of the fat ones, that is, of the rich luxurious Epicures, before defcrib'd, fhall strangers eat: They fhall be fnatch'd from their Poffeffion either by Death or Captivity; and Strangers, fuch as had no manner of Relation to them, fhall plant, fow, and eat the Fruit of their Land: Which was fulfilled when the great and rich Jews were carry'd away into Captivity, and the poorer fort left behind by the Babylonians to Till the Ground; and more fully afterward, when they return'd from Captivity, and enter'd upon the Poffeffions of their griping Magiftrates, and oppreffing Nobles, who fell by the Sword in Ferufalem, or dy'd in Chaldea.

(4) Bafil.

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Ver. 18. Wo unto them that draw Iniquity with Cords of Vanity, and Sin as it were with a Cart-rope.] (a) Some think by thefe Metaphorical Expreffions the Prophet means harden'd Sinners, who by long inveterate Habits are fo entirely in the Power of Sin that they are unable to difingage themselves from it, but draw it after them continually, as (b) Zach. Ur- if it were faften'd to them by Cords; (b) Ex infirmitate peccantes trahuntur a peccato contra voluntatem eorum ipfos fequente & ipfis adhærente: Pertinaces autem trahunt peccatum (c) Cyril, San- etiam fugiens & repugnans confcientia: But they (c) feem to &ius, Forerius. interpret it more agreeably with the Context, who by Sin understand the Punishment of Sin, than which nothing is more common in Scripture; Wo to them who by their prefumptuous Sins draw God's Judgments upon themselves as it were with Cart-ropes, which he calls Cords of Vanity, in respect to the End they propos'd to themselves in finning, which could not but be vain and irrational.

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Ver. 19. That fay, Let him make speed, and haften his Work, that we may fee it: and let the Counsel of the Holy One of Ifrael draw nigh and come, that we may know it.] Let him fend down thofe Judgments thou haft threaten'd us with fo often, and then perhaps we will believe thee; they jefted with the Prophet, and provok'd God by an open Challenge not to defer fo long the great Work they had heard fo much of, as if they had a mind to fee the utmost that God could do, and would then take it into Confideration, whether it were worth their while to regard him. Ver. 20. Wo unto them that call Evil Good, and Good Evil; that put Darkness for Light, and Light for Darkness; that put Bitter for Sweet, and Sweet for Bitter] This they did by their Actions as plainly as if they fpoke their Mind in Words, by condemning the Innocent, and letting the Guilty efcape unpunish'd, as the Prophet tells them in the next Verfe.

Verse 21, 22, 23, 24. Wo unto them that are wife in their own Eyes, and prudent in their own Sight. Wo unto them that, are mighty to drink Wine, and Men of Strength to mingle strong Drink. Which justify the Wicked for Reward, and take away the Righteousness of the Righteous from him. Therefore as the Fire devoureth the Stubble, and the Flame confumeth the Chaff To their Root fhall be Rottennefs, and their Bloffom fhall go up as Duft because they have caft away the Law of the Lord of Hofts, and defpifed the Word of the Holy One of Ifrael.] Having call'd them his pleasant Plant, ver. 7. he fpeaks of them under the fame Metaphor here, tho' they flourish'd at prefent like a green Palm Tree, their Root fhould in a fhort Time grow rotten, and the Bloffoms which adorn'd their Branches moulder away into Duft, by which the Prophet means they should be cut off by their Enemies, as the Ifraelites were by the Affyrians, and the Jews by the Baby

Lonians.

Ver. 25. Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against bis People, and he hath stretched forth his Hand against them, and hath fmitten them: and the Hills did tremble, and their Carcafes were torn in the midst of the Streets: For all this his Anger is not turned away, but his Hand is ftretched out ftill.] All these Præterperfect Tenfes must be understood and fhould be tranflated Futurely, and may be referr'd to the

first

Chapter

V.

Chapter first and fecond coming of the Affyrians against the Ifraelites, V. and first and fecond coming of the Babylonians against the

(a) Arnold.

1. 1. c. 7.

Jews; for all this his Anger fhall not be turn'd away, neither fhall thefe Judgments appease the Almighty, who hath feverer Calamities for them in ftore, and will ftretch out his avenging Hand, and let it fall more heavily on them than before, meaning their Captivity, which he was refolv'd to bring upon both Nations of Ifrael and Judah.

Ver. 26. And he will lift up an Enfign to the Nations from far, and will hifs unto them from the end of the Earth: And behold, they fhall come with speed fwiftly. This is a military Phrafe, taken from the manner of gathering an Army together, which was done by fetting up a Standard, to which every Soldier reforted upon firft notice, with the utmost Expedition; tho' (a) others think it refers to Bool. Animad. the Signum Expeditionale, which as foon as the Army difcover'd, they were to begin their March. He will bifs unto them from the end of the Earth, he will stand on the Borders of Judea, and call on the diftant Babylonians, to come and execute his Vengeance against his People; who fhall come at the firft Call, at the lowest Sound of his Voice; in allufion to a Shepherd, who by a Whistle calls together his fcatter'd Flock; or the Mafter of a Ship, at the Sound of whose Voice each Mariner is ready at his Post.

Ver. 27, 28. None fhall be weary, nor stumble amongst them; none shall flumber nor fleep neither fhall the Girdle of their Loins be loofed, nor the Latchet of their Shooes be broken. Whofe Arrows are sharp, and all their Bows bent, their Horfes Hoofs fhall be counted like Flint, and their Wheels like a Whirlwind. Nothing can be finer than the following Defcription of an Army prepar'd for Battle, flufh'd with the affurance of Victory, and impatient 'till the Signal be given. The Expreffions are all strong, full of lively Ideas, which according to our modern way of Writing, would fhine in feveral Pages. In the numerous Hoft, there should not be found one who is not brisk and vigorous, and eager to Engage, none fatigu'd, and unfit for Action, none drowly or inclin'd to Sleep: None but what have their Weapons ready, and their Armour on; their Bows with trufty Strings, and ready bent, their Arrows pointed,

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