The prophet proceeds. Therefore son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord, in the day when my people dwell safely, shalt thou not know it?

"earth; and the fowls shall summer upon them; and the beasts "shall winter upon them. 7 At that time shall the present be "brought unto the Lord of hosts, of a people scattered, and with "their hair plucked off; of a people remarkable from the begin"ning and hitherto; the people looking for, and expecting one "to come; who are trodden under foot; whose lands the rivers "have spoiled, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, "the mount Zion."

Paraphrased thus:

1 Ho nation, darkening with thy sails, or thou great maritime power of the last days, when this address shall become applicable; thou land beheld in vision as though in a line with Ethiopia, (or the Sheba, who shall aid my people) but away beyond her rivers; how far, and in what particular direction, the event shall unfold: 2 Thou land, whose embassadors and missionaries are conveyed by sea to distant climes seemingly with as great facility as that nation, beyond which thou art in vision beheld, used to navigate its rivers in light vessels made of the rind of Papyrus:* Come thou naval power; I have a business for thee to perform. Thy art and power in navigation_shall now be found to answer a new and important purpose. Go ye swift seamen; collect my ancient people: That people, who have long been scattered over the face of the earth; who have long been insulted and abused: That people, whose history has been so remarkable from ancient date: That people long looking for and expecting another Messiah, beside Jesus of Nazareth; but in vain: Who have been trodden under foot among the nations: Whose ancient inheritance in Palestine, the mystic rivers of invading nations, (the Romans, the Persians, Saracens, Turks, Egyptians, and Ottomans in turn) have overflown and ravaged. But the Ottoman Euphrates being dried up, and the way for the return of my people being prepared, go ye now, and aid their return. Thus it is predicted, Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring my sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the Lord. (Isa. Ix, 9.) 3 All ye inhabitants of the world, now behold the standard of salvation, which I am about to erect! Hear ye the great trumpet, which shall now be blown. (Isa. xxvii, 13.) 4 For thus saith the Lord, I am going to regard and renew my an cient resting place; I will again have a fixed habitation in Canaan, as I have declared by the prophets; especially in Zech. i, 16; Therefore thus saith the Lord, I am returned to Jerusalem

The bulrush vessel, in ancient date, contained a scourge for the tyrannical oppressor of God's people, and the deliverer of the chosen tribes. Exodus ii, S.

Thou wilt hear of their defenceless state, and wilt attempt their ruin. And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou and many people with thee,

with mercies; my house shall be built in it. And viii, 3, Thus saith the Lord, I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. This event shall be as life from the dead to the Gentiles: Therefore ye nations behold. I will now be to mine heritage like the genial heat of the sun after rain, and like the cooling dew after the sultry heat of harvest; as I have repeatedly predicted, Israel shall be as the tender grass springing out of the earth, by the clear shining after rain. (2 Sam. xxiii, 4.) I will be as the dew unto Israel; he shall grow as the lily; and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. (Hos. xiv, 5.) 5 But, connected with the introduction of this event, is a scene which awaits mine enemies, as I have always given notice, in the many predictions which relate to that period; ruin to mine enemies, and salvation to my cause! The seventh vial, the vintage of wrath, must be fulfilled. And at the time of the return of the house of Israel, this event will be even at the doors. As in the natural vineyard, when the blossom is succeeded by the swelled pulp, which soon arrives to the size of the grape, indicating that the vintage is near; so at the time of the return of the Jews, wickedness will have blossomed, pride will have budded: The sour grapes will have obtained their bigness; and the time for casting the vine of the earth into the great wine-press of the wrath of God, will be at hand. (Isa. Ixiii, 2—6; Joel iii, 13; Rev. xiv, 8-20.) 6 Soon the most prominent branches of this vine shall be scattered upon the mountains of Israel, at Armageddon; and the fowls of heaven, and the beasts of the earth, shall feast upon them. (Ezek. xxxix, 4, 17-21; and Rev. xix, 17, 18.) 7 To prepare the way for this event, the present, which I now claim of you, must be brought unto the Lord of hosts, of the people long scat. tered over the earth, and long insulted and abused; that people, whose history has been so remarkable from ancient date; that people long expecting another Messiah beside Jesus of Nazareth, but in vain; who have been trodden under foot among the nations; whose ancient inheritance in Palestine invading nations have long occupied; the present shall be brought consisting of this people, unto the Lord of hosts, to the literal mount Zion.*

The naval power here addressed, being described in relation to the rivers of Ethiopia, both in the first verse of this chapter,

Since writing the preceding comment on this chapter, I have, for the first time, seen Bp. Horsley's comment upon it; published in Mr. Faber's volume upon the return of the Jews; and am pleased to find my opinion on the great points of this prophecy confirmed by so distinguished an authority. In some particulars his exposition differs from the one, which I have given. But in those differences I think my interpretation as well accords with the text; and better with collateral prophecies.

all of them riding upon horses, a great company, a mighty army. army. Ancient Babylon was called, the land of the north, because most of the Assyrian empire

and in Zeph. iii, 10, before noted, which rivers may mean the Nite, and according to Pool, the Red Sea, which lies upon the eastern bound of Ethiopia, and resembles a great river; also the skill of this naval power in navigation being described by the bulrush navigation of the Nile and the shores of the Red Sea, seems to indicate some connexion of this naval power with these Ethiopians (Abyssinians, or people of Sheba) in this service, to which they are called. If the meaning be simply, that this naval power is away somewhere westward of the mouths of the Nile, why are these called the rivers of Ethiopia? Perhaps the true solution may be, this power is beheld in vision, in a line with Ethiopia, or Sheba, to denote some connexion between them, in the friendly aid to be afforded to the Jews. This pow. er's being beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, does not decide relative to the particular point of compass, or the distance, at which the power is to be found. It decides only, that it will be in the western hemisphere from Jerusalem: But whether in the west of Europe, or in America, the event will decide.

Other predictions seem to favor this coalition against Gog. Obad. 21; And saviors shall come upon mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the Lord's. By the mount of Esau here must be meant, that terrible enemy of the Church, prefigured by ancient Edom, (Isa. Ixiii, 1.) The event is to take place when the kingdom becomes the Lord's, or at the introduction of the Millennium. And saviors are then to come to mount Zion, to aid the destruction of the great enemy. Though Christ fights that battle, yet he may make use of some human instruments. And this prediction hints that he will.

Micah v, 5-9. "For now shall he be great unto the ends of "the earth. And this shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall "come into our land, and when he shall tread on our palaces, "then we shall raise against him seven shepherds, and eight "principal men. And they shall waste the land of Assyria with "the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: "thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh "into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders. And "the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles, in the midst "of many people, as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a "young lion among the flocks of sheep; who, if he go through, "both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can de"liver. Thine hand shall be lift up upon thine adversaries, and "all thine enemies shall be cut off."

*Jer. iv, 6; and xlvi, 20; and iii, 12.

lay in a latitude north of Jerusalem. But France lies in a latitude much farther north, than did the Assyrian empire. It extends almost twenty degrees north of

"Some imagine, (says Dr. Gray, Key to the Old Test. p. 465,} that Micah foretells in this prophecy the victories obtained by the leaders of the Medes and Babylonians, who took Ninevah. Others suppose him to speak of the seven Maccabean leaders, with their eight royal successors, from Aristobulus to Antigo nus." But the Doctor goes on to give his opinion, that it refers to some higher triumph still future, and refers us to the scene of Ezekiel's Gog for its accomplishment. The prediction might receive a primary and typical accomplishment at the time of the Maccabees. For Antiochus then afflicting the Jews, was a type of Antichrist. But it will probably receive its great fulfilment in the antitype of the wars of Antiochus upon the Jews, or at the time of the last expedition of Antichrist into the east. And if so, it teaches, that God will then make some use of human instruments in the destruction of the Antichristian confederacy against the Jews in Palestine, beside their own swords. I will call for a sword against him. (Ezek. xxxviii, 21.)

Zech. ix, 11-14. "As for thee also, by the blood of thy "covenant, I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit, where"in is no water. Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of "hope; even to-day do I declare that I will render double unto "thee: When I have bent Judah for me, filled my bow with "Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O "Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man. And "the Lord shall be seen over them, and his arrows shall go forth "as the lightning; and the Lord God shall blow the trumpet, "and shall go with whirlwinds of the south."

Here is the return of Judah and Ephraim (the Jews and the ten tribes) at the latter day. The passage received but a very partial, if any degree of accomplishment, in the return of the Jews from Babylon. For but a few, if any of Ephraim then returned. God did not then fill his bow with Ephraim. The event must be still future: And by the blood of the covenant, (the entail of the covenant with Abraham,) it will ere long be fulfilled. The Jews and Israel are indeed like prisoners in a dry pit. But they are prisoners of hope. God has promised to recover them. And he will fulfil his promise. And at that period God will find occasion to raise up the sons of Zion against the sons of Greece; and he will make the former like the sword of a mighty man. Grotius gives this paraphrase to this part of the passage, "I will animate the Jews against the troops of Antiochus." But those scenes of warfare were but a type of the scene still future between Antichrist and the Jews, as has been noted. Accordingly Bishop New come, upon the

Jérusalem; and may well therefore be called the north parts. And thou shalt come up against my people Israel as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days; and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes. Thus saith the Lord God, Art thou he, of whom I have spoken of old times by my servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days, many years, that I would bring thee against them? As though the Most High comes out to view the combined armies; and address their chief; Art thou that mighty being, so long foretold by the various proph ets in Israel, to do such wonderful things in the last days? Most portentous address!

"And it shall come to pass at the same time, when "Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the "Lord God, that my fury shall come up into my face. "For in my jealousy, and in the fire of my wrath, "have I spoken. Surely in that day there shall be a "great shaking in the land of Israel; so that the fishes "of the sea, and the fowls of heaven, and the beasts of "the field, and all the creeping things, that creep upon "the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the moun"tains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall

above passage of Grotius, observes, "It is true, that Judas Maccabæus gained some advantages over the Syrians. But the language of this prophecy seems too strong for these events; and may remain to be fulfilled against the present possessors of the countries called Javan, or Greece." When we consider that Antiochus, in his wars against the Jews after their restoration from Babylon, was a lively type of Antichrist, in his attack upon the Jews to take place after their final restoration; and when we consider that the armies of Antiochus were considerably composed of Grecians, and that the nations of Greece, or of Asia Minor, are to be in the final coalition of Antichrist against the Jews and Israel, we shall discover that the prophecy quoted had a primary and typical fulfilment in the success of the Maccabees against Antiochus; but it is to receive its great ful filment in some power to be raised up against Antichrist in his final expedition against the Jews in Palestine. And this probably will prove to be the coalition indicated in Ezek. xxxviii, 13, by Sheba, Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof.