Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness. 10. Then she that is mine enemy *shall see it, and shame shall cover her: which said unto me, Where is the Lord thy God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.

11. JEHOVAH. In the day that thy walls are built, in that day shall the decree be removed. 12. In that day thy fugitives shall come † from Assyria

* She that is mine enemy.] As the daughter of Zion is the speaker, we must suppose that her enemy is the daughter of Babylon. See Psalm cxxxvii. 8. This prophecy may primarily relate to the literal Babylonian captivity, but it will be more amply fulfilled at the period of the yet future restoration of Israel. There is a strength of expression in it, which forbids us to limit it to the first captivity.

+ Thy fugitives shall come.] Our translators render N1 he shall come even unto thee, supposing "y to be a preposition. The words, so far as the bate letter of them is concerned, will undoubtedly bear such a translation: but to my own mind at least it conveys no very clear idea. For, since the dialogue is carried on between God and the daughter of Zion, and since God is here the speaker: to whom can we refer he shall come except to God? and in that case what are we to understand by the passage? It might be added, that there seems a degree of harshness in supposing God to speak of himself in the third person instead of the first. I conceive then, that is not a preposition, but a singular masculine noun of number, regularly formed from ny to pass over or to

,פרה from פרי שרה from שדי,שבה is from שבי Pass away, as

VOL. II,

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and

Assyria and the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and moun

tain

and other similar words. Consequently, as a signifies captivity in the sense of a multitude of captives, and as a signifies removal in the sense of a number of persons removed or transplanted from one country to another; so, by analogy both of grammar and idiom, will signify a passing away in the sense of a number of people passing away from their own country and becoming fugitives. Whence the meaning of 7 will be thy multitude of fugitives; that is, Zion's multitude of fugitives; the dispersed Jews and Israelites. The primitive import of is to pass over, upon, or away; in which sense it occurs in Job xxviii. 8, and in Jerem. xxxi. 4; where (I think with Mr. Parkhurst) what is translated thou shalt be adorned with thy tubrets ought rather to have been translated thou shalt pass over (i. e. thou shalt trip along the path) with thy tabrets. This both accords with the next clause thou shall go forth in the dances, and with the nature of the tabret itself, which is certainly no part of ornamental dress. Such being the primitive signification of ny, it easily, according to the genius of the Hebrew language, acquired transitively the sense of causing to pass over or upon the body, putting on, clothing oneself. When

is derived from it in this secondary and acquired signification, it then naturally denotes an ornament: whereas the plural nouny, being derived from it in its primary or original signification, bears the directly opposite sense of filthy rags, that is, rags fit only to be thrown away, to be scattered to the winds and the weather. In a similar manner, the original signification of the root still being kept in view, y will mean a multitude of fugitives from у to pass away, as a means a multitude of captives from now to carry away captive. The primitive import of the root seems, in the progress of the Hebrew language, to have been almost superseded by its se

condary

tain to mountain.

13. For the land hath been desolate

condary signification, in which it occurs much more frequently than in its primary: but, in the Chaldee dialect, the pri mary signification appears to have been most retained, in which the word perpetually occurs throughout the book of Daniel. It may not be amiss to observe, that the margin of our bibles refers us, for the better understanding of this passage, to Isaiah xi. 16. xix. 23. and xxvii. 13. in all of which the persons, who came from Assyria, are not God, but the fugitive Jews. The Chaldee paraphrast interprets it precisely in the same manner as myself. "Illo tempore congregabuntur transmigrationes ex Assur et civitatibus fortitudinis." The Syriac version likewise conveys the same idea. "Dies est, quo tempus tuum "veniat redeundi ab Assyria et ab urbibus munitis." The LXX must have translated from a very corrupt copy. Instead of 7, they have ready, for their version is åt models ov.

.occurs עדים

Mr. Parkhurst ingeniously, but perhaps not very judiciously, refines upon the text (Isaiah lxiv. 6., where the plural word He would translate it, We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses as a garment of ornaments, or an ornamental showy garment, gaudy perhaps in the sight of men, but hypocritical, and covering a corrupt heart. I scruple not to say, that I much prefer the common version, a garment of filthy rags; or, as Buxtorf well translates with reference to the primitive meaning of its root, Remotiones; res inquinatœ et abominabiles, quæ removentur et abjiciuntur. The LXX render it ganos añоnalnμerns, pannus mulieris remote sive seorsim sedentis, nempe propter impuritatem menstrualem, still however preserving the original idea of the root. Hebrew poetry delights in the antithesis of the second clause of a verse to the first. Now the antithesis to an unclean thing is surely not an ornamental garment, but a garment of rags so filthy that they are meet only to be thrown away. The import of the passage is, that we must acknowledge ourselves to be unclean, and cast away all our deeds of righteousness, in point of dependence upon their merits for our salvation,

R 2

desolate * because of its inhabitants †, for the fruit of their doings.

14. ZION. Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine 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 .

15. JEHOVAH. According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt § will I shew unto

them

vation, as we would throw from us with loathing the most filthy and abominable rags. See the judicious Hooker's Discourse of Justification, Sect. 7. and 21. The two expressions of his to which I particularly refer are these; "the little fruit which we "have in holiness, it is, God knoweth, corrupt and unsound ;" and "to name merits then is to lay their souls upon the rack, "the memory of their own deeds is loathsome unto them, they forsake all things wherein they have put any trust or confidence.” I know not any better commentary on the text in question. * The land hath been desolate.] So the context shews, that ought to be rendered, not shall be.

66

an + Desolate because of its inhabitants.] "The words import, "that the general restoration of the Jews shall not be brought "to pass till after their land hath lain desolate for some ages,

as a testimony of God's displeasure against its ancient inha"bitants for their sins, especially that heinous one of rejecting "the Messiah." Mr. Lowth in loc.

Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.] "The expressions denote, that the Jews shall enjoy full and "free possession of their land after their return to it, with the "same security and happiness, with which they possessed it in "their most flourishing state under the reigns of David and "Solomon. Compare Zech. x. 10." Mr. Lowth in loc.

According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt.] "The words are an answer to the prayer in the foregoing verse;

"wherein

them marvellous things. 16. The nations shall, see, and shall be confounded at all their might † : they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf. 17. They shall lick the dust like a serpent; they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth.

ZION. They shall be afraid of the Lord our God, and shall fear because of thee. 18. Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his

"wherein God tells the daughter of Zion, that the wonders he 66 will perform in bringing back his people into their own

country shall be as conspicuous as those which he shewed " in their deliverance out of Egypt, and giving them the first "possession of it." Mr. Lowth in loc. Compare Isaiah xi. 16.

* I will shew unto them.] The original word is, I will shew unto him, that is, the singular masculine noun of number the multitude of fugitives. The genius of our language, and the manner in which I had translated ", require, that I should here render the original plurally, not singularly. The Hebrew student will find a continued use of singular verbs and pronouns in reference to the plural word nations considered collectively, in Isaiah v. 26-30. Our translators have sensibly rendered them all plurally. Other similar passages might without much difficulty be adduced.

+ The nations shall see, and shall be confounded at all their might.] "The heathen shall feel the same confusion as men "do under a great disappointment, when they shall see that "power and force defeated, which they had gathered together "to oppose God's people, and hinder them from enjoying the "quiet possession of their land" (Mr. Lowth in loc.). The passage relates to the overthrow of the Antichristian faction.