Page images
PDF
EPUB

stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him; 2. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the peoples round about, even when they shall be against Judah, in the siege against Jerusalem. 3. Even in that day will I make Jerusalem a stone of burden unto all the peoples † all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, and all the peoples of the earth shall be gathered together against it. 4. In that day, saith the Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness. 5. And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my

cannot see the least reason for believing, that the invaders will be the Turks. In fact, the Turks will have been overthrown as a nation previous to the restoration of the Jews. This I have already shewn in my Comment. on Prophecy XXV, and in my Dissert. on the 1260 years, Chap. vi.

* They shall be.] I take the singular verb to relate to the peoples considered collectively as one great body. See in the original Isaiah v. 26-30. This translation and the exposition consequent upon it seem to me to accord better with the context of the prophecy, than those proposed by Dr. Blayney. Or possibly ought to be considered as a verb impersonal, and translated it shall be. The sense, in either case will be the same.

A stone of burden.] Jerusalem is here compared to a "stone of great weight, which, being too heavy for those who

attempt to lift it up or remove it, falls back upon them, and "crushes them to pieces." Dr. Blayney in loc.

strength

strength in the Lord of hosts their God. 6. In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf: and they shall devour all the peoples round about, on the right hand and on the left and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem. 7. The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah * first, that the glory of the house of David, and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalemt, do not magnify themselves against Judah. 8. In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem : and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel Jehovah before them.

9. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 10. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications and they. shall look upon him whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born. 11. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as

• The tents of Judah.] "The body of the Jewish nation, "that encamp in the open country." Mr. Lowth in loc.' + The inhabitants of Jerusalem.] "The people that defend "Jerusalem from within." Mr. Lowth in loc.

the

the mourning of the vintage-shouting of Rimmon✶ in the valley of Megiddon. 12. And the land shall mourn, every family apart: the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; 13. The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; 14. All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart. xiii. 1. In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness. 2. And it shall be in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols † from the earth, t

*The vintage-shouting of Rimmon.] The word 77, or as it is here written 7, signifies loud shouting, either as of men treading grapes, in which sense it is used in Isaiah xvi. 10, and Jerem. xxv. 30; or as of soldiers encouraging one another to battle, in which sense it is used in Jeremiah li. 14. The second signification is plainly borrowed from the first, the treading of the wine-press being a constant scriptural image of the slaughter of a battle. See Parkhurst's Heb. Lex. Vox 777.

+ Idols.] "Ezekiel, confessedly prophesying of the latter times, when Israel and Judah, incorporated again into one "nation, shall return into their own land, says, to the same "effect as Zechariah, Neither shall they defile themselves any 66 more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with "all their transgressions (Ezek. xxxvii. 23.)—We are taught to 66 expect that the conversion of the Jews will be followed by a further reformation of the world (Rom. xi. 15); and that the "time will come when the kingdoms of this world shall become the "kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ (Rev. xi. 15), and the "beast and with him the false prophet shall be cast into a lake of "fire and brimstone (Rev. xix. 20)." Dr. Blayney in loc.

[ocr errors]

and

and they shall not be mentioned any more; and also the prophets and the unclean spirit will. I cause to pass from out of the earth. 3. And it shall come to pass when any one shall prophesy any more, that his father and his mother, who begat him, shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live, because thou hast spoken falshood in the name of the Lord and his father and his mother, who begat him, shall thrust him through when he prophesieth. 4. And it shall come to pass in that day, the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision, when he prophesied *; and they shall not wear a garment of hairt in order to deceive. 5. But he shall say, I am not a prophet, I am a man that tilleth the ground; for a man hath had the property of met from my youth. 6. And,

when

Of his vision when he prophesied.] "That is, of the extra"ordinary communication, which he pretended to have re"ceived, when he uttered a prophecy which he knew to be "false," Dr. Blayney.

+ A garment of hair.] "See 2 Kings i. 8. Matt. iii. 4. "They shall not affect the dress of the old prophets, in order "to pass off their impostures." Dr. Blayney.

[ocr errors]

Hath had the property of me.] Disclaiming all pre"tensions to the character of a prophet, he shall profess him"self to be no other than a plain ordinary labouring man, "employed in husbandry business by those, whose property he "had been, quasi adstrictus gleba, from his youth. Mr. Har"mer's observations on this passage, which he justly parallels "with the declaration of Amos, that he was no prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but an herdsman and a gatherer of 66 sycamore

when one shall say unto him, What are those wounds in thy hands? then he shall say, They are what I inflicted in the house of my friends.

7. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the mighty man my neighbour, saith the Lord of hosts. Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered; for I will turn my hands even against the mean ones. 8. And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off, and die; but the third shall be left therein. 9. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver

[ocr errors]

sycamore fruit, go to shew the incompatibility of such active "and laborious employments with the retired and sedentary life of those, who were trained up in the schools or colleges "of the prophets, in order to qualify themselves for that pro"fession." Dr. Blayney.

[ocr errors]

* Those wounds.] Two ancient usages are clearly alluded to here: "the one, that of the idolatrous priests and prophets, "who sought to engage the attention and favour of their deity by cutting and slashing themselves, as the priests of Baal did " (1 Kings xviii. 28); the other, that of those who cut them"selves as a token of their grief and mourning for their de"ceased relations and friends. It appears also from Jer. xlviii. "37, that these cuttings were performed on the hands in par"ticular. When therefore the man, now ashamed of his pre"tensions to prophesy, came to be challenged for those scars "that were visible on his hands, he would deny them to have "proceeded from any idolatrous cause, but would have them "thought to be marks left by those wounds which he gave "himself in the house of his relations and friends, in the

66

paroxisms of his grief for the loss of them." Dr. Blayney. See also Mr, Lowth in loc.

« PreviousContinue »