part of it being excluded by the wall of the present city, which passes over the top of the mount. If this be indeed Mount Zion, the prophecy concerning it, that the plough should pass over it, has been fulfilled to the letter; for such labours were actually going on when we arrived.CLARKE. CHAPTER IV. Ver. 4. But they shall sit every man under his vine, and under his fig-tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it. See on Ps. 88. 47. The people of the East have great pleasure in sitting or lounging under their tamarind or mango-trees in the grove. Thus, in the heat of the day, they while away their time in playing with their children, in taking up the fruit, or smoking their much-loved shroot.- ROBERTS. This expression most probably alludes to the delightful eastern arbours, which were partly composed of vines; and the agreeable retreat which was enjoyed under them might also be found under their fig-trees. Norden expressly speaks of vine arbours as common in the Egyptian gardens, (vol. i. p. 71,) and the Prænestine pavement, in Dr. Shaw, gives us the figure of an ancient one.-Burder. Ver. 5. For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever. Nothing more arrests the notice of a stranger, on entering Sinde, than the severe attention of the people to the forms of religion, as enjoined by the prophet of Arabia. In all places, the meanest and poorest of mankind may be seen, at the appointed hours, turned towards Mecca, offering up their prayers. I have observed a boatman quit the laborious duty of dragging the vessel against the stream, and retire to the shore, wet and covered with mud, to perform his genuflexions. In the smallest villages the sound of the mowuzzun," or crier, summoning true believers to prayers, may be heard, and the Mohammedans within reach of the sonorous sound suspend, for the moment, their employment, that they may add their " Amen" to the solemn sentence when concluded. The effect is pleasing and impressive; but, as has often happened in other countries at a like stage of civilization, the moral qualities of the people do not keep pace with this fervency of devotion.-BURNES. CHAPTER VI. Ver. 7. Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? Allusions are often made in the scriptures to the value of oil; and to appreciate them, it should be recollected, that oil ONLY is used to light the houses, and also, for anointing the body, and MANY medicinal purposes. "Have you heard of the charity of Venase? Why, he has given a RIVER of oil to the temple; and Muttoo has given RIVER of ghee." "Milk! why that farmer has RIVERS of it; and the Modeliar has a SEA."-ROBERTS. Ver. 15. Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap; See on Ps. 37. 35; Deut. 33. 24; and Is. 63. 1-3. Ver. 1. Wo is me! for I am as when they have The expression here made use of by the prophet may probably be understood by the assistance of a remark which Sir John Chardin has made upon this passage. He informs us, that the Persians and Turks are not only fond of almonds, plumbs, and melons in a mature state, but that they are remarkable for eating them before they are ripe. As soon as ever they approach to that state, they make use of them, the great dryness and temperature of the air preventing flatulencies.-HARMER. Ver. 3. That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge ask eth for a reward; and the great man he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up. We have seen that to do a thing with ONE hand, signifies earnestness and oneness of consent. Whenever a person has to receive a thing from a superior, he must put out BOTH hands; for not to do so, would be a mark of great disrespect. "Alas! I went to that man with both hands, (i. e. held them out to him,) but he turned me away." "The greedy wretch eats with both hands," meaning, he is a glutton; because all respectable and decent people eat with the right hand ONLY.-ROBERTS. Ver. 14. Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thy heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old. See on Am. 9. 10. Ver. 19. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us: he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. When a devotee believes the guilt of his transgressions has been removed, whether by prayers or austerities, he says, "My sins have all fallen into the sea."-ROBERTS. NAHUM. CHAPTER I. Ver. 8. But with an over-running flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies. To a brief record of the creation of the antediluvian world, and of the dispersion and the different settlements of mankind after the deluge, the scriptures of the Old Testament add a full and particular history of the Hebrews for the space of fifteen hundred years, from the days of Abraham to the era of the last of the prophets. While the historical part of scripture thus traces, from its origin, the history of the world, the prophecies give a prospective view which reaches to its end. And it is remarkable that profane history, emerging from fable, becomes clear and authentic about the very period when sacred history terminates, and when the fulfilment of these prophecies commences, which refer to other nations besides the Jews. Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, was for a long time an extensive and populous city. Its walls are said, by heathen historians, to have been a hundred feet in height, sixty miles in compass, and to have been defended by fifteen hundred towers, each two hundred feet high. Although it formed the subject of some of the earliest of the prophecies, and was the very first which met its predicted fate, yet a heathen historian, in describing its capture and destruction, repeatedly refers to an ancient prediction respecting it. Diodorus Siculus relates, that the king of Assyria, after the complete discomfiture of his army, confided in an old prophecy, that Nineveh would not be taken unless the river should become the enemy of the city; that after an ineffectual siege of two years, the river, swollen with long-continued and tempestuous torrents, inundated part of the city, and threw down the wall for the space of twenty furlongs; and that the king, deeming the prediction accomplished, despaired of his safety, and erected an immense funeral pile, on which he heaped his wealth, and with which himself, his household, and palace, were consumed. The book of Nahum was avowedly prophetic of the destruction of Nineveh : and it is there foretold, "that the gates of the river shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved." "Nineveh of old, like a pool of water-with an overflowing flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof." The historian describes the facts by which the other predictions of the prophet were as literally fulfilled. He relates that the king of Assyria, elated with his former victories, and ignorant of the revolt of the Bactrians, had abandoned himself to scandalous inaction; had appointed a time of festivity, and supplied his soldiers with abundance of wine; and that the general of the enemy, apprized by deserters of their negligence and drunkenness, attacked the Assyrian army while the whole of them were fearlessly giving way to indulgence, destroyed a great part of them, and drove the rest into the city. The words of the prophet were hereby verified: "While they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble full dry." The prophet promised much spoil to the enemy: "Take the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold; for there is no end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture." And the historian affirms, that many talents of gold and silver, preserved from the fire, were carried to Ecbatana. According to Nahum, the city was not only to be destroyed by an overflowing flood, but the fire also was to devour it ; and, as Diodorus relates, partly by water, partly by fire, it was destroyed. The utter and perpetual destruction and desolation of Nineveh were foretold:-" The Lord will make an utter end of the place thereof. Affliction shall not rise up the second time. She is empty, void, and waste. The Lord will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria, and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness. How is she become a desolation, a place for CHAPTER II. show Ver. 7. And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts. praises of their mistress, and songs which expressed joy, and the happiness of being in the service of such a beauti ful and amiable lady. Those which went first, and were more distinct from her person, came in their turn to the head of the camel, and took hold of the halter, which place, as being the post of honour, they quitted to others, when the princess had gone a few paces. The emir's wife sent her women to meet her, to whom the halter was entirely quitted, out of respect, her own women putting themselves behind the camel. In this order they marched to the tent, where they alighted. They then all sung together the beauty, birth, and good qualities of this princess. This account illustrates those words of the prophet, wherein he speaks of the presenting of the queen of Nineveh, or Nineveh itself, under the figure of a queen, to her conqueror. He describes her as led by the maids, with the voice of doves, that is, with the voice of mourning; their usual songs of joy, with which they used to lead her along, as the Arab women did their princess, being turned into lamentations.-HARMER. CHAPTER III. Ver. 14. Draw the waters for the siege, fortify thy strongholds: go into clay, and tread the mortar, make strong the brick-kiln. See on Is. 41. 25. Ver. 17. Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day; but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are. "The operation of the female locust in laying her eggs is highly interesting. She chooses a piece of light earth, well protected by a bush or hedge, where she makes a hole for herself, so deep that her head just appears above it; she here deposites an oblong substance, exactly the shape of her own body, which contains a considerable number of eggs, arranged in neat order, in rows against each other, which protected from the cold of winter." (Pliny.) "The eggs are remain buried in the ground most carefully, and artificially brought into life by the heat of the sun. If the heats commence early, the locusts early gain strength, and it is then that their depredations are most feared, because they commence them before the corn has had time to ripen, and they attack the stem when it is still tender. I conjecture that camping in the hedges in the cold day may be explained by the eggs being deposited during the winter; and when the sun ariseth they flee away, may also be illustrated by the flying away of the insect, as soon as it had felt the sun's influence." (Morier.)-BURDER. HABAKKUK. CHAPTER I. Ver. 8. Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves and their horseman shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat. The Baron De Tott, in his entertaining work, has given us an account of the manner in which an army of modern Tartars conducted themselves, which serves greatly to illustrate this passage: "These particulars," says the baron, "informed the cham or prince, and the generals, what their real position was; and it was decided that a third of the army, composed of volunteers, and commanded by a sultan and several mirzas, should pass the river at midnight, divide into several columns, subdivide successively, and thus overspread New Servia, burn the villages, corn, and fodder, and carry off the inhabitants of the country. The rest of the army, in order to follow the plan concerted, marched till they came to the beaten track in the snow made by the detachment. This we followed, till we arrived at the place where it divides into seven branches, to the left of which we constantly kept, observing never to mingle or confuse ourselves with any of the subdivisions which we successively found; and some of which were only small paths, traced by one or two horsemen. Flocks were found frozen to death on the plain, and twenty columns of smoke, already rising in the horizon, completed the horrors of the scene, and announced the fires which had laid waste New Servia." The difficulties which have attended the explanation of this prediction are thus happily removed, and the propriety of the expression fully established.-PAXTON. Ver. 10. And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every stronghold; for they shall heap dust, and take it. Another contrivance which the besiegers employed, was the agger or mount, which they raise so high as to equal, if not exceed, the top of the besieged walls: the sides were supported with bricks or stones, or secured with strong rafters to hinder it from falling; the forepart only remained bare, because it was to be advanced by degrees nearer the city. The pile itself consisted of all sorts of materials, as earth, timber, boughs, stones; into the middle were cast also wickers, and twigs of trees to fasten, and, as it were, cement the other parts. The prophet Habakkuk manifestly refers to the mount, in that prediction where he describes the desolating march of the Chaldeans, and the success of their arms.-PAXTON. CHAPTER II. Ver. 2. And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. Writing-tables were used in and before the time of Homer; for he speaks of writing very pernicious things upon a two-leaved table. They were made of wood, consisted of two, three, or five leaves, and were covered with wax on this impressions were easily made, continued long, and were very legible. It was a custom among the Romans for by the pontifex maximus, or high-priest, and published on the public affairs of every year to be committed to writing people might have an opportunity of being acquainted with a table. They were exposed to public view, so that the them. It was also usual to hang up laws approved and recorded on tables of brass in their market-places, and in their temples, that they might be seen and read. In like manner the Jewish prophets used to write, and expose their proph ecies publicly on tables, either in their own houses, or in the temple, that every one that passed by might read them. -BURDER. Ver. 11. For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it. The margin has, instead of "answer it," or witness against." When a man denies what he has solemnly promised, the person who complains of his perfidy, says, "The place where you stood shall witness against you." "A beautiful princess was once enjoying herself in a fragrant grove, when a noble prince passed that way; she became enamoured of his person, and he solemnly promised to return and marry her. When he left her, she wept bitterly, and said, 'Ah! should he not return, this tali-tree (pandanus odoratissima) shall WITNESS against him. Yes, the birds shall be my witnesses.'"-ROBERTS. Ver. 17. For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee, and the spoil of beasts, which make them afraid, because of men's blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein. The lofty summits of Lebanon were the chosen haunts of various beasts of prey; the print of whose feet Maundrell and his party observed in the snow. But they are not confined to these situations: a recent traveller continued descending several hours, through varied scenery, presenting at every turn some new feature, distinguished either by its picturesque beauty or awful sublimity. On arriving at one of the lower swells, which form the base of the mountain, he and his party broke rather abruptly into a deep and thick forest. As they traversed the bocage, the howlings of wild animals were distinctly heard from the reTo these savage tenants of the desert, the prophet cesses. Habakkuk seems to allude. The violence of Lebanon is a beautiful and energetic expression, denoting the ferocious animals that roam on its mountains, and lodge in its thickets; and that, occasionally descending into the plain in quest of prey, ravage the fold or seize upon the unwary villager. -PAXTON. CHAPTER III. Ver. 4. And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand; and there was the hiding of his power. See on Ps. 92. 10. Ver. 9. Thy bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers. The oriental bows, according to Chardin, were usually carried in a case hung to their girdles; it was sometimes of cloth, but more commonly of leather. The expression in these words of the prophet must consequently be understood of the bow when out of the case.-HARMER. Ver. 19. The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon my high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments. See on Ps. 18. 33. ZEPHANIAH. CHAPTER I. Ver. 8. And it shall come to pass in the day of the LORD's sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king's children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel. 9. In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold, which fill their masters' houses with violence and deceit. "Those that wear strange apparel." These are words that in this connexion seem to mean only the rich that were conscious of such power and influence as to dare in time of oppression and danger, to avow their riches, and who therefore were not afraid to wear the precious manufactures of strange countries, though they were neither magistrates, nor yet of royal descent. A great number of attendants is a modern piece of oriental magnificence; as I shall hereafter have occasion to remark it appears to have been so anciently, Eccles. v. 11; these servants, now, it is most certain, frequently attend their master on horseback, richly attired, sometimes to the number of twenty-five or thirty: if they did so anciently, with a number of servants attending great men, who are represented by this very prophet as at that time in common terrible oppressors, ch. iii. 3, they may be naturally supposed to ride into people's houses, and having gained admission by deceit, to force from them by violence considerable contributions: for this riding into houses is not now only practised by the Arabs; it consequently might be practised by others, too, anciently. It is not now peculiar to the Arabs, for Le Bruyn, after describing the magnificent furniture of several of the Armenian merchants at Julfa, that suburb of Ispahan in which they live, tells us, that the front door of the greatest part of these houses is very small, partly to hinder the Persians from entering into the magnificence within. To which ought to be added, them on horseback, and partly that they may less observe what he elsewhere observes, that these Armenians are treated with great rigour and insolence by the Persians. If this text refers to a violence of this sort, they are the thresholds of the oppressive masters, which some have supposed, olds of the oppressed over which they leaped, not the threshwhen they returned laden with spoil.-HARMER. Ver. 12. And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The LORD will not do good, neither will he do evil. The margin has, in place of "settled," "curdled or thickened." The Tamul translation has this, "dregs stirred up," i. e. sediment shaken together well thickened. Of people who are in great straits, of those who are a strange compound of good and evil, of things which are difficult to understand, it is said, "Ah! this is all kullumbin-vandal," i. e. stirred up dregs. This appears to have been the state of the Jews, and they wanted to show that the Lord would neither do good nor evil; that in him was not any distinct character; and that he would not regard them in their thickened and mixed condition; that though they were joined to the heathen, it was not of any consequence. "I will search Jerusalem with candles;" thus were they mistaken in their false hopes. Does a man declare his innocence of any crime, the accusers say, "We will search thee with lamps." "Yes, yes, I will look into that affair with lamps." What! have your lamps gone out? You see I am not guilty."-ROBERTS. CHAPTER II Ver. 4. For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation; they shall drive out Ashdod at the noonday, and Ekron shall be rooted up. The city of Ashkelon or Ascalon, was one of the five principalities of the ancient Philistines: it is situated on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, between Azotus, or Ashdod, and Gaza. Ashkelon is mentioned in Judg. i. 18, as having been taken by the tribe of Judah; afterward it fell successively under the dominion of the Assyrians, Persians, Macedonians, and Romans. This city had a temple dedicated to Venus Urania, which was destroyed by the Scythians, six hundred and thirty years before the Christian era; another dedicated to Derceto, a tutelary deity of the Philistines; and another consecrated to Apollo, of which Herod, the grandfather of Herod the Great, was priest: the latter was born here, and from this circumstance he has sometimes been called the Ascalonite. In the early ages of Christianity, Ascalon was a bishop's see. During the crusades it was a place of considerable importance; but having been repeatedly captured and recaptured by the Saracens, it was finally reduced to a heap of ruins. Though it was one of the chief maritime cities of Phenicia, at present it does not exhibit the least vestige of a port. "The position of Ashkelon is strong: the walls are built on the top of a ridge of rock that winds round the town in a semicircular direction, and terminates at each end in the sea. The foundations remain all the way round; the walls are of great thickness, and in some places of considerable height, and flanked with towers at different distances. Patches of the wall preserve their original elevation; but in general it is ruined throughout, and the materials lie scattered around the foundation, or rolled down the hill on either side. The ground falls within the walls, in the same manner that it does without: the town was situated in the hollow, so that no part of it could be seen from the outside of the walls. Numerous small ruined houses still remain, with small gardens interspersed among them. In the highest part of the town are the remains of a Christian convent close upon the sea, with a well of excellent water beside it. The sea beats strongly against the bank on which the convent stands; and six prostrate columns of gray granite, half covered with the waves, attest the effects of its encroachments. There is no bay or harbour for shipping; but a small harbour, advancing a little way into the town towards its eastern extremity, seems to have been formed for the accommodation of such small craft as were used in the better days of the city." The water, seen in the foreground of our view, is the result of the overflowing of a torrent during the rainy season, the channel of which is dry at other times. Ashkelon was one of the proudest satrapies of the Philistines now there is not an inhabitant within its walls; and the predictions of Jeremiah, Amos, Zephaniah, and Zechariah, have been literally fulfilled :-"Ashkelon is cut off with the remnant of their valley." (Jer. xlvii. 5.) He "that holdeth the sceptre" has been cut off "from Ashkelon." (Amos i. 8.) "Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation." (Zeph. ii. 4.) "The king shall perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited." (Zech. ix. 5.) At the time the two last-cited predictions were uttered, both these satrapies of the Philistines were in a flourishing condition; each the capital of its own petty state: " and nothing but the prescience of heaven could pronounce on which of the two, and in what manner, the vial of his wrath should thus be poured out." Gaza is still a large and respectable town, but truly without a king: the walls of Ashkelon are broken down, its lofty towers lie scattered on the ground, and the houses are lying in ruins without a human inhabitant to occupy them, or to build them up. "How is the wrath of man made to praise his Creator! Hath He said, and shall He not do it? The oracle was delivered by the prophet (Zechariah) more than five hundred years before the Christian era, and we behold its accomplishment eighteen hundred years after that event, and see with our eyes that the king has perished from Gaza, and that Ashkelon is not inhabited; and were there no others on which the mind could confidently rest, from the fulfilment of this one prophecy even the most skeptical may be assured, that all that is predicted in the sacred volume shall come to pass."HORNE. Ver. 6. And the seacoast shall be dwellings, and cottages for shepherds, and folds for flocks. Archbishop Newcome has remarked, that many manuscripts and three editions have a single letter in one of these words more than appears in the common editions; which, instead of cherith, gives us a word which signifies cares; and he thus renders the words: and the seacoast shall be sheep-coles; caves for shepherds, and folds for flocks. This translation will appear perfectly correct, if it be considered that the mountains bordering on the Syrian coast are remarkable for the number of caves in them. In the history of the crusades it is particularly mentioned that a number of persons retired with their wives and children, their flocks and herds, into subterraneous caves, to find shelter from the enemy.-HARMER. Ver. 7. And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Judah; they shall feed thereupon: in the houses of Ashkelon shall they lie down in the evening for the LORD their God shall visit them, and turn away their captivity. An extract from Dr. Chandler's Travels furnishes a very lively comment on these words: "Our horses were disposed among the walls and rubbish, (of Ephesus,) with their saddles on; and a mat was spread for us on the ground. We sat here in the open air while supper was preparing; when suddenly fires began to blaze up among the bushes, and we saw the villagers collected about them in savage groups, or passing to and fro, with lighted brands for torches. The flames, with the stars and a pale moon, afforded us a dim prospect of ruin and desolation. A shrill owl, called cucuvaia from its note, with a nighthawk, flitted near us; and a jackal cried mournfully, as if forsaken by his companions on the mountain."-BURDER. Ver. 9. Therefore, as I live saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of nettles, and saltpits, and a perpetual desolation: the residue of my people shall spoil them, and the remnant of my people shall possess them. See on Jer. 17. 5, 6. Ver. 14. And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her, all the beasts of the nations: both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the thresholds: for he shall uncover the cedar-work. Margin, "knobs or chapiters." Chardin, describing the magnificent pillars that he found at Persepolis, tells us, that the storks (birds respected by the Persians) make their nests on the tops of these columns with great boldness, and are in no danger of being dispossessed.—Burder. |