XIII. fufcipienda Gallorum Alacer ac promptus eft animus, fic mollis Chapter ac minimè refiftens ad calamitates perferendas mens eorum eft. Ver. 8, 9. And they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows fhall take hold of them, they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth, they fhall be amazed one at another, their faces fhall be as flames. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land defolate; and he shall deftroy the finners thereof out of it.] Their faces fhall be as flames. They fhall blush at their own Faintheartedness, Plurimus ignem fuffudit pudor & calefacta per ora cucurrit. But becaufe Fear contracts the Heart, (ftopping its Motion, as if it were ty'd with Cords, as Chabalim, which we render Pangs, fignifies) it's better to understand it of the (a) pale Colour of Flame. The Prophet fets forth (4) Moller. their Confufion by different Similitudes, they fhall roar in the Bitterness of their Souls, like Women under the cruel Pangs of a difficult Labour; they fhall look like Men in the Surprize of a fudden Fright, pale and ghaftly, and the working of their uneafy Souls difcover it self in their Countenance. Gataker thinks the Words may be render'd, Their Faces fhall be as the Faces of the Lybians, fo the People of Africa, of the Pofterity of Mitzaim, are call'd in Scripture Lehavim, Gen. 10. 13. 1 Chron. I. II, Ver. 10, 11. For the stars of heaven, and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the fun fhall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon fhall not cause her light to fhine. And I will punish the World for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will caufe the arrogancy of the proud to ceafe, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.] The Stars of heaven.] (b) Thus the Prophets exprefs themselves (b) Grotius, when they would defcribe a Time of more than ordinary Forerius, Tirinus, Confufion and Horror; as if he had faid, Every Soul fhall Mede in Apobe fill'd with Anguifh and Defpair; as if the heavenly Lu cal. Hakfp. minaries were to withdraw their comfortable Light, and not. in 1). 30. leave the Sons of Men in the melancholy State of Darkness, which gives a noble Idea of calamitous Times: This is all the Eastern Nations, the Greeks, Latins and Arabians, even at this Day, mean by fuch lofty Expreffions; and Maimonides gives the Reafon of it, for Experience proves (fays (c) he) that the Eyes of a Man in great Mifery grow voch. p. 3. fo dim, and don't fee the Light in its full Luftre, becaufe the 29. O 2 • Optic Chapter Optic Nerves are weaken'd and opprefs'd for want of SpiXIII. rits; on the contrary, when by Joy the Soul is enlarg'd, and the Animal Spirits are convey'd in greater Plenty to the Organs of Seeing, the Sun and Light appear greater and lighter than before. ·(4) Phaleg. c. 27. Ver. 12. I will make a man more precious then fine gold; even a man then the golden wedge of Ophir.] More precious then fine gold.] This is faid to denote the fmall Number which fhould escape the Sword of the Conquerors, or that the eager Soldiers, flush'd with Victory, fhall give Quarter to no Man, though he would purchase his Life with Gold. Ophir, fays Urfin, feems to be the Country call'd India extra Gangem, in qua eft aurea Cherfonefus; but (a) Bochart, I think, plainly proves that it was a part of Arabia near the Sabeans, of whofe Gold we meet fo frequent mention in Scripture. Ver. 13. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth Shall remove out of her place in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.] Therefore.] That is, because of their Sins, their Pride and Cruelty mention'd v. (b) Forerius. 11. or it may be render'd For. (b) To aggravate their Calamity the Prophet tells them while their Enemies are rioting in their Slaughter, God alfo fhail give them Signs of his Displeasure, by fhaking the Heavens with Thunder, or the Earth with unufual Commotions. Ver. 14, 15. And it shall be as the chafed roe, and as a Sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one into his own land. Every one that is found fhall be thrust through: and every one that is joyned unto them shall fall by the word.] The Inhabitants of Babylon fhall run fcar'd from place to place, yet find no Security. By the Roe he defcribes their Fearfulnefs, and by the Sheep their wandring. They fhall turn every man; that is, they which came as Auxiliaries, or were hir'd by the Babylonians to aflift them in their Wars, fhall endea vour to recover their native Country, for every Babylonian and every Stranger too that is found in the City fhall be cut off by the Perfians; what we render join'd, Jonathan in his Paraphrafe expounds recipiens fe in munitiones, all that stand in Defence of the City.. Ver. 16. Their children alfo fhall be dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravifhed. Their children fhall be dashed in pieces.] This terrible particular of their Disaster is foretold by the Pfal mift, Pfal. 137. and was only a juft Retaliation for the Cruelties by them exercised on the People of God, 2 Chron. 36. 17. Chapter XIII. Ver. 17. Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard filver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.] Cyrus was King of the Perfians when he took Babylon, but this War was carry'd on by Cyrus upon the Account and with the Forces of Old Cyaxares, King of the Medes, on whom the King of Babylon first made War, having engag'd in a ftrict Alliance with himself Crafus King of the Lydians, and therefore the Prophet here mentions the Medes only, tho' Cyrus had in his Army not only Medes, but Perfians, and feveral other Nations. Now in the Time of Ifaiah the Medes had no Kings, but were fubject to the Affyrians, as appears by the Hiftory, which informs us, That when Salmanafer took Samaria and carry'd Ifrael away into Affyria, he plac'd fome of the Captives in the Cities of the Medes, 2 Kings, 17. 6. and thus 2 Kings 17. Things continu'd to the Time of Manaffes and Merodach; but afterward, in the Reign of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon, Cyaxares, the firft King of the Medes, in Conjun Etion with the Babylonians, took and destroy'd Ninive, and put an End to the Affyrian (a) Empire; therefore when (4) Eufebii Ifaiah deliver'd this Prophecy, almost 200 Years before the Chron. Fofeph. taking of Babylon, there could be no Sufpicion of any fuch Antiq. lib. 10, Revolution, for the Medes were not only not Enemies, but Friends and Allies of the Babylonians; nor to the very Times of Cyrus, in which the Kingdoms of Media and Perfia were united, was the Power of the Medes ever fo great as to be formidable to the Babylonians. Nulla igitur humana fapientia vel conjectura divinari poterat fed ex Revelatione & inftin&tu fpiritus fancti Ifaias prædicebat poft annos ducentos oppugnandos effe Babylonios a Medis utpote amicos ab amicis, potentiffimos a longé imbecillioribus. And now having mention'd the Nation by Name which fhould conquer the Chaldeans, he proceeds to defcribe the Temper of them, and infifts in this Verfe on their noble Contempt of Riches to fhew they were not to be brib'd into Compaffion, or pre c. 6. Chapter vail'd on to fpare any of their Foes by the Allurements of XIII. Money or Prefents, which they defpis'd. Ver. 18. Their bowes alfo fhall dafh the young men to pieces, and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye fhall not Spare children.] The young men to pieces.] He aggravates their unrelenting Barbarity, which fhould not ftop at the moving fight of blooming Youth, or tender Infancy, or the Affection of the fofter Sex to their innocent Children; Circumstances which had always their weight among civiliz'd Nations, and able to ftop the Career of a generous Enemy. Ver. 19. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Caldees excellency, fhall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.] When God overthrew Sodom.] Babylon certainly flourish'd in the days of Alexander the Great; how then was it destroy'd like Sodom? To which this an(a) A Lapide. Twer (a) fome think is fatisfactory, that the Destruction Zach. Urfin. here prophecy'd of, was only begun by Cyrus, but compleated by Alexander and others. Moller thinks it enough if the Similitude answer in any one refpect; that asSodom and Gomorrah was destroy'd when they thought not of it, in the midst of their luxurious Banquetings, fo Babylon fhould be taken by furprize, as it actually was. But the Expreffion is very Hyperbolical, by which the Prophet means no more but that Babylon fhould be fo far ruin'd, that it should never rife to the fame flourish(b) Strabo, 1. ing Condition: (b) Cyrus neither destroy'd the Walls nor the Gates, which were demolish'd fometime after by Darius Hyftafpes: Alexander defign'd to restore it to its former Splendor, but his great defigns were prevented (6) Tilm. He- by fudden Death. (c) Seleucus, neglecting Babylon, fet Shufus. 16. up its Rival Seleucia, nine Miles from it, which made the other be deferted. In the Time of Vefpafian, fays Pliny, nothing remain'd of it but the Temple of Belus. In the Reign of Adrian, fays Paufanias, Babylon, the greateft City that ever the Sun beheld, was nothing but Wall: Therefore the Objection, that the City was rebuilt, or that there was afterward fuch a City, shakes not the Truth of this Prophecy any more, than there being at prefent fuch a City as Ferufalem, makes the words of our Saviour falfe, There fhall not remain one stone upon another. Ver. XIII. Ver. 20. It shall never be inhabited, neither fhall it be Chapter dwelt in from generation to generation: neither fhall the Arabian pitch tent there, neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.] Here we have a plain inftance that Lanetzack, and nath Dor vador are us'd not to fignify Eternity, but a long indefinite Time; becaufe, we are fure from History, that Babylon was inhabited in the Time of Alexander the Great, who dy'd in it. Babylon was feated in a Country very fertile, but after this Calamity, as if God had curs'd the Earth, it fhall be fo barren that the wandring Arabians fhould never come there for Pafture; a hardy Race of Men that liv'd on the natural Product of the Earth, changing their Quarters as fast as they confum'd the Forage. He mentions the Arabians, fays A Lapide, because they were Shepherds, and because Arabia deferta was near to Chaldea. Ver. 21, 22. But wild beasts of the defert fhall lie there, and their houfes fhall be full of doleful creatures, and owls Shall dwell there, and fatyrs Jhall dance there. And the wild beafts of the islands fhall cry in their defolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days fhall not be prolonged.] Ochim, which we render doleful Creatures, is not to be met with in any other place of Scripture, and no wonder then its fignification is uncertain: But it's generally taken for fuch a Species of noxious Animals, as by biting or fcratching, put Men to pain. What thefe Satyrs were, whether Men overgrown with long Hair, or Animals cover'd with Furs, fuch as are met with in Ruffia, cannot be determin'd, any more than the certain fenfe of the other name of Beasts, of which all that we know is that they were Savage, and fuch as made their Dens in Defarts, or folitary Ruins. The |