The disparted tongues, as it were, of fire, (Acts ii. 3.) which appeared at the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles, give the same idea; that is, of flames shooting diversly into pyramidal forms, or points, like tongues. It may be farther observed, that the prophet in this place has given the metaphor its full force, in applying it to the action of fire in eating up and devouring whatever comes in its way, like a ravenous animal, whose tongue is principally employed in taking in his food or prey; which image Moses has strongly exhibited in a most expressive comparison: "And Moab said to the elders of Midian, Now shall this collection of people lick up all that are round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field." Numb. xxii. 4. See also 1 Kings xviii. 38.

25. -and the mountains trembled-] Probably referring to the great earthquakes in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, in, or not long before, the time of the prophet himself; recorded as a remarkable era in the title of the prophecies of Amos, chap. i. 1. and by Zechariah, chap. xiv. 5.

26.—he will hist-] "The metaphor is taken from the practice of those that keep bees; who draw them out of their hives into the fields, and lead them back again, ovρioμaoi, by a hiss, or a whistle." Cyril on the place; and to the same purpose Theodoret, ibid. In chap. vii. 18. the metaphor is more apparent, by being carried farther; where the hostile armies are expressed by the fly and the bee:

"JEHOVAH shall bist the fly

That is in the utmost parts of Egypt;

And the bee, that is in the land of Assyria."

On which place see Deut. i. 44. Psal. cxviii. 12. and God calls the locusts his great army, Joel ii. 25. Exod. xxiii. 28. See Huet. Quæst. Alnet. ii. 12.

Ibid. -with speed-] This refers to the 19th verse. As the scoffers had challenged God to make speed and to hasten his work of vengeance; so now God assures them, that with speed and swiftly it shall come.

27. Nor shall the girdle-] The eastern people, wearing long and loose garments, were unfit for action, or business of any kind, without girding their clothes about them: when their business was finished, they took off their girdles. A girdle therefore denotes strength and activity; and to unloose the girdle is to deprive of strength, to render unfit for action. God promises to unloose the loins of kings before Cyrus: chap. xlv. 1. The girdle is so essential a part of a soldier's accoutrement, being the last that he puts on to make himself ready for action, that to be girded, Lovvvodai, with the Greeks, means to be completely armed, and ready for battle:

Ατρείδης δ' εβόησεν, ιδε ζωννυσθαι ανωγεν
Αργείους.

Il. xi. 15.

Το δε ενδυναι τα όπλα εκαλουν οἱ παλαιοι ζωννυσθαι. Pausan. Boeot. It is used in the same manner by the Hebrews: "Let not him, that girdeth himself, boast, as he that unlooseth his girdle." 1 Kings xx. 11. that is, "triumph not, before the war is finished."

28. The hoofs of their horses shall be counted as adamant.] The shoeing of horses with iron plates nailed to the hoof is quite a modern practice, and unknown to the ancients; as appears from the silence of the Greek and Roman writers, especially those that treat of horse-medicine; who could not have passed over a matter so obvious, and of such importance,

that now the whole science takes its name from it, being called by us farriery. The horse-shoes of leather and of iron, which are mentioned; the silver and the gold shoes, with which Nero and Poppea shod their mules, used occasionally to preserve the hoofs of delicate cattle, or for vanity, were of a very different kind; they enclosed the whole hoof as in a case, or as a shoe does a man's foot, and were bound or tied on. For this reason, the strength, firmness, and solidity of a horse's hoof was of much greater importance with them, than with us; and was esteemed one of the first praises of a fine horse. Xenophon says, that a good horse's hoof is hard, hollow, and sounds upon the ground like a cymbal. Hence the xaλotodes iññoι of Homer; and Virgil's "solido graviter sonat ungula cornu." And Xenophon gives directions for hardening the horse's hoofs, by making the pavement, on which he stands in the stable, with round-headed stones. For want of this artificial defence to the foot, which our horses have, Amos (vi. 12.) speaks of it as a thing as much impracticable to make horses run upon a hard rock, as to plough up the same rock with oxen :

"Shall horses run upon a rock?

Shall one plough it up with oxen?"

These circumstance must be taken into consideration, in order to give us a full notion of the propriety and force of the image, by which the prophet sets forth the strength and excellence of the Babylonish cavalry; which made a great part of the strength of the Assyrian army. Xenoph. Cyrop. lib. ii.

27, 28. None among them-] Kimchi has well illustrated this continued exaggeration, or hyperbole, as he rightly calls it, to the following effect: "Through the greatness of their courage, they shall not be fatigued with their march; nor shall they stumble, though they march with the utmost speed: they shall not slumber by day, nor sleep by night; neither shall they ungird their armour, or put off their sandals, to take their rest: their arms shall be always in readiness, their arrows sharpened, and their bows bent: the hoofs of their horses are hard as a rock; they shall not fail, or need to be shod with iron: the wheels of their carriages shall move as rapidly as a whirlwind."

30. And these shall look to the heaven upward, and down to the earth.] PINS D). Kai eμdorra y yo. So the LXX, according to Vat. and Alex. copies; but the Compl. and Ald. editions have it more fully thus, και εμβλέψονται εις τον ουρανον ανω, και κατω:-and the Arabic, from the LXX, as if it had stood thus, και εμβλεψονται εις τον ουρανον, και εις την γην κατω: both of which are plainly defective; the words εις την yn being wanted in the former, and the word avw in the latter. But an ancient Coptic version from the LXX, supposed to be of the second century, some fragments of which are preserved in the library of St. Germain des Prez at Paris, completes the sentence; for, according to this version, it stood thus in LXX, και εμβλεψονται εις τον ουρανον ανω, και Els tηv yn karw; and so it stands in LXX, MSS. Pachom. and I. D. II.; according to which they must have read in their Hebrew text in this

This is probably the ונבט לשמים למעלה ולארץ למטה :manner

true reading; with which I have made the translation agree. Compare chap. viii. 22. where the same sense is expressed in regard to both parti

culars, which are here equally and highly proper, the looking upwards, as well as down to the earth; but the form of expression is varied. I believe the Hebrew text in that place to be right, though not so full as I suppose it was originally here; and that of the LXX there to be redundant, being as full as the Coptic version, and MSS. Pachom. and 1. D. 11. represent it in this place, from which I suppose it has been interpolated.

Ibid. the gloomy vapour] Syr. and Vulg. seem to have read. But Jarchi explains the present reading as signifying darkness; and so possibly Syr. and Vulg. may have understood it in the same manner.

CHAP. VI.

As this vision seems to contain a solemn designation of Isaiah to the prophetical office, it is by most interpreters thought to be the first in order of his prophecies. But this perhaps may not be so: for Isaiah is said, in the general title of his prophecies, to have prophesied in the time of Uzziah; whose acts first and last he wrote, 2 Chron. xxvi. 22. which was usually done by a contemporary prophet: and the phrase, in the year when Uzziah died, probably means after the death of Uzziah; as the same phrase, chap. xiv. 28. means after the death of Abaz. Not that Isaiah's prophecies are placed in exact order of time: chapters ii. iii. iv. v. seem by internal marks to be antecedent to chap. i.; they suit the time of Uzziah, or the former part of Jotham's reign; whereas chap. i. can hardly be earlier than the last years of Jotham. See note on chap. i. 7. and ii 1. This might be a new designation, to introduce more solemnly a general declaration of the whole course of God's dispensations in regard to his people, and the fates of the nation; which are even now still depending, and will not be fully accomplished till the final restoration of Israel.

In this vision the ideas are taken in general from royal majesty, as displayed by the monarchs of the east: for the prophet could not represent the ineffable presence of God by any other than sensible and earthly images. The particular scenery of it is taken from the temple. God is represented as seated on his throne above the ark in the most holy place, where the glory appeared above the cherubim, surrounded by his attendant ministers. This is called by God himself, "The place of his throne, and the place of the soles of his feet." Ezek. xliii. 7. “A glorious throne, exalted of old, is the place of our sanctuary;" saith the prophet Jeremiah, chap. xvii. 12. The very posture of sitting is a mark of state and solemnity: "Sed et ipsum verbum sedere regni significat potestatem;" saith Jerom, Comment. in Ephes. i. 20. See note on chap. lii. 2. St. John, who has taken many sublime images from the prophets of the Old Testament, and in particular from Isaiah, hath exhibited the same scenery, drawn out into a greater number of particulars, Rev. chap. iv.

The veil, separating the most holy place from the holy, or outermost part of the temple, is here supposed to be taken away; for the prophet, to whom the whole is exhibited, is manifestly placed by the altar of burntoffering, at the entrance of the temple, (compare Ezek. xliii. 5, 6.) which was filled with the train of the robe, the spreading and overflowing of the Divine glory. The Lord upon the throne, according to St. John, (xii. 41.) was Christ; and the vision related to his future kingdom; when the veil

of separation was to be removed, and the whole earth was to be filled with the glory of God, revealed to all mankind: which is likewise implied in the hymn of the seraphim; the design of which is, saith Jerom on the place, ut mysterium Trinitatis in una Divinitate demonstrent; et nequaquam templum Judaicum, sicut prius, sed omnen terram illius gloria plenam esse testentur." It relates indeed primarily to the prophet's own time, and the obduration of the Jews of that age, and their punishment by the Babylonish captivity; but extends in its full latitude to the age of Messiah, and the blindness of the Jews to the gospel; (see Matt. xiii. 14. John xii. 40. Acts xxviii. 26. Rom. xi. 8.) the desolation of their country by the Romans, and their being rejected by God: that nevertheless a holy seed, a remnant, should be preserved; and that the nation should sprout out and flourish again from the old stock.

In the first verse, fifty-one MSS. and one edition; in the 8th verse, fortyfour MSS. and one edition; and in the 11th verse, thirty-three MSS. and one edition, for ", "the Lord," read, "JEHOVAH;" which is probably the true reading; (compare verse 6.) as in many other places,

יהוה for אדני in which the superstition of the Jews has substituted

2. he covereth his feet.] By the feet the Hebrews mean all the lower parts of the body. But the people of the east generally wearing long robes reaching to the ground, and covering the lower parts of the body down to the feet, it may hence have been thought want of respect and decency to appear in public, and on solemn occasions, with even the feet themselves uncovered. Kempfer, speaking of the king of Persia giving audience, says; "Rex in medio supremi atrii cruribus more patrio inflexis sedebat: corpus tunica investiebat flava, ad suras cum staret protensa; discumbentis vero pedes discalceatos pro urbanitate patria operiens.” Amoen. Exot. p. 227. Sir John Chardin's MS. note on this place of Isaiah is as follows: "Grande marque de respect en orient de se cacher les pieds, quand on est assis, et de baisser le visage. Quand le soverain se monstre en Chine et à Japon, chacun se jette le visage contre terre, et il n'est pas permis de regarder le roi."

3. Holy, holy, holy-] This hymn, performed by the seraphim, divided into two choirs, the one singing responsively to the other, which Gregory Nazian. Carm. 18. very elegantly calls Σύμφωνον, αντίφωνον, αγγελων στα ow, is formed upon the practice of alternate singing, which prevailed in the Jewish church from the time of Moses, whose Ode at the Red Sea was thus performed, (see Exod. xv. 20, 21.) to that of Ezra, under whom the priests and Levites sung alternately,

"O praise JEHOVAH, for he is gracious;
For his mercy endureth for ever."

Ezra iii. 11. See de S. Poes. Hebr. Præl. xix. at the beginning.

5. I am struck dumb.] ', twenty-eight MSS. (five ancient) and three editions. I understand it as from 17, or DT, silere; and so it is rendered by Syr. Vulg. Sym. and by some of the Jewish interpreters, apud Sal. b. Melec. The rendering of the Syriac is, "N♫, stupens, attonitus sum. He immediately gives the reason why he was struck dumb; because he was a man of polluted lips; and dwelt among a people of polluted lips; and was unworthy either to join the seraphim in

singing praises to God, or to be the messenger of God to his people. Compare Exod. iv. 10. vi. 12. Jer. i. 6.

6. from off the altar.] That is, from the altar of burnt-offerings, before the door of the temple; on which the fire that came down at first from heaven, Lev. ix. 24. 2 Chron. vii. 1. was perpetually kept burning; it was never to be extinguished, Lev. vi. 12, 13.

9. Thirteen MSS. have, in the regular form.

10. Make gross-] The prophet speaks of the event, the fact as it would actually happen; not of God's purpose, and act by his ministry. The prophets are in other places said to perform the thing, which they only foretel:

"Lo! I have given thee a charge this day,

Over the nations, and over the kingdoms;
To pluck up, and to pull down;

To destroy, and to demolish;

To build, and to plant."

Jer. i. 10.

And Ezekiel says, "when I came to destroy the city;" that is, as it is rendered in the margin of our version," when I came to prophesy that the city should be destroyed." Chap. xliii. 3. To hear, and not understand; to see, and not perceive; is a common saying in many languages. Demosthenes uses it, and expressly calls it a proverb: wσte to Tηg Taρμιας δρωντας μη δραν, και ακουοντας μη ακουειν. Contra Aristogit. i. sub fin. The prophet, by the bold figure in the sentiment above-mentioned, and the elegant form and construction of the sentence, has raised it from a common proverb into a beautiful mashal, and given it the sublime air of poetry.

Ibid. close up] y: this word Sal. b. Melec explains to this sense, in which it is hardly used elsewhere, on the authority of Onkelos. He says, it means closing up the eyes, so that one cannot see; that the root is y, by which word the Targum has rendered the D, Lev. xiv. 42. Ma NX MI, "and shall plaster the house." And the word is used in the same sense, Isa. xliv. 18. So that it signifies to close up the eyes by some matter spread upon the lids. Mr. Harmer very ingeniously applies to this passage a practice of sealing up the eyes as a ceremony, or as a kind of punishment, used in the east, from which the image may possibly be taken. Observations, ii. 278.

Ibid. —with their hearts.] 11, fifteen MSS. and two editions.

Ibid. —and I should heal.] N¬NI, LXX, Vulg. So likewise Matt. xiii. 14. John xii. 40. Acts xxviii. 27.

11. -be left.] For Nл, LXX and Vulg. read NW.

13. —a tenth part] This passage, though somewhat obscure, and variously explained by various interpreters, yet I think, has been made so clear by the accomplishment of the prophecy, that there remains little room to doubt of the sense of it. When Nebuchadnezzar had carried away the greater and better part of the people into captivity, there was yet a tenth remaining in the land, the poorer sort, left to be vine-dressers and husbandmen, under Gedaliah, 2 Kings xxv. 12. 22.; and the dispersed Jews gathered themselves together, and returned to him, Jer. xl. 12. ; yet even these, fleeing into Egypt after the death of Gedaliah, con trary to the warning of God given by the prophet Jeremiah, miserably