παντες δι ποιουντες τον ζυθον λυπηθησονται, και τας ψυχας πονέσουσι. "And all they that make barley-wine shall mourn, and be grieved in soul." 11. -have counselled a brutish counsel] The sentence, as it now stands in the Hebrew, is imperfect: it wants the verb. Archbishop Secker conjectures, that the words "y" should be transposed: which would in some degree remove the difficulty. But it is to be observed, that the translator of the Vulgate seems to have found in his copy the verb added after: "Sapientes consiliarii Pharaonis dederunt consilium insipiens." This is probably the true reading; it is perfectly agreeable to the Hebrew idiom, makes the construction of the sentence clear, and renders the transposition of the words above-mentioned unnecessary. 12. -let them come-] Here too a word seems to have been left out of the text. After, two MSS. (one ancient) add N, let them come. Which, if we consider the form and the construction of the sentence, has very much the appearance of being genuine: otherwise the connective conjunction, at the beginning of the next member, is not only superfluous, but embarrassing. See also the version of LXX, in which the same deficiency is manifest. Ibid. —and let them declare] "For T, let them know, perhaps we ought to read, let them make known." SECKER. The LXX and Vulg. favour this reading: Tarwoav, indicent. 13. They have caused-] The text has, and they have caused to err. Fifty MSS., thirteen editions, Vulg. and Chald. omit the ". Ibid. pillars-], to be pointed as plural without doubt. So Grotius, and so Chald. 14. —in the midst of them-] "pa, LXX, quod forte rectius.” SECKER. So likewise Chald. 16. the Egyptians shall be—] 1, plural, MS. Bodl. LXX, and Chald. This is not proposed as an emendation, for either form is proper. 17. And the land of Judah―] The threatening hand of God will be held out, and shaken over Egypt, from the side of Judea; through which the Assyrians will march to invade it. Five MSS. and two editions .לחגה have 18. —the City of the Sun], this passage is attended with much difficulty and obscurity. First, in regard to the true reading. It is well known, that Onias applied it to his own views, either to procure from the king of Egypt permission to build his temple in the Hieropolitan Nome, or to gain credit and authority to it when built; from the notion which he industriously propagated, that Isaiah had in this place prophesied of the building of such a temple. He pretended, that the very place where it should be built was expressly named by the prophet, Dy, the City of the Sun. This possibly may have been the original reading. The present text has, the City of Destruction: which some suppose to have been introduced into the text by the Jews of Palestine afterward; to express their detestation of the place, being much offended with this schismatical temple in Egypt. Some think the latter to have been the true reading, and that the prophet himself gave this turn to the name out of contempt, and to intimate the demolition of this Hieropolitan temple; which in effect was destroyed by : Vespasian's orders after that of Jerusalem. "Videtur propheta consulto איש בשת pro בית און ut alibi scribitur חרס pro הרס scripsisse ba, pro by N, &c. Vide Lowth in loc." SECKER. But on name. The reading of the text being so uncertain, no one can pretend to determine what the city was that is here mentioned by name; much less to determine, what the four other cities were which the prophet does not I take the whole passage, from the 18th verse to the end of the chapter, to contain a general intimation of the future propagation of the knowledge of the true God in Egypt and Syria, under the successors of Alexander; and, in consequence of this propagation, of the early reception of the gospel in the same countrips, when it should be published to the world. See farther on this subject Prideaux Connect. an. 149. Dr. Owen's Inquiry into the Present State of the LXX Version, p. 41. and Bryant's Observations on Ancient History, p. 124. CHAP. XX. THARTHAN besieged Ashdod, or Azotus; which probably belonged at this time to Hezekiah's dominions, see 2 Kings xviii. 8. The people expected to be relieved by the Cushites of Arabia, and by the Egyptians, Isaiah was ordered to go uncovered, that is, without his upper garment, the rough mantle commonly worn by the prophets, (see Zech. xiii. 4.) probably three days, to shew that within three years the town should be taken, after the defeat of the Cushites and Egyptians by the king of Assyria, which event should make their case desperate, and induce them to surrender. Azotus was a strong place: it afterward held out twenty-nine years against Psammitichus king of Egypt, Herod. ii. 157. Tharthan was one of Senacherib's generals, 2 Kings xviii. 17. and Tirhakah king of the Cushites was in alliance with the king of Egypt, against Senacherib. These circumstances make it probable, that by Sargon is meant Senacherib. It might be one of the seven names by which Jerom, on this place, says he was called. He is called Sacherdonus and Sacherdan in the book of Tobit. The taking of Azotus must have happened before Senacherib's attempt on Jerusalem; when he boasted of his late conquests, chap. xxxvii. 25. And the warning of the prophet had a principal respect to the Jews also, who were too much inclined to depend upon the assistance of Egypt. As to the rest, history and chronology affording us no light, it may be impossible to clear either this, or any other hypothesis, (which takes Sargon to be Shalmaneser, or Asarhaddon, &c.) from all difficulties. It is not probable, that the prophet walked uncovered and barefoot for three years: his appearing in that manner was a sign, that within three years the Egyptians and Cushites should be in the same condition, being conquered and made captives by the king of Assyria. The time was denoted, as well as the event: but his appearing in that manner for three whole years could give no premonition of the time at all. It is probable therefore, that the prophet was ordered to walk so for three days, to denote the accomplishment of the event in three years; a day for a year, according to the prophetical rule: Num. xiv. 34. Ezek. iv. 6. The words Oh, three days, may possibly have been lost out of the text, at the end of the second verse, after, barefoot; or after the same word in the third verse: where, in the Alexandrian and Vatican copies of LXX, and in MSS. Pachom, and 1. D. 11. the words rpia ern are twice expressed: perhaps instead of □ why the Greek translator might read, by his own mistake, or by that of his copy, after in the third verse, for which stands the first rpia erŋ in the Alexandrine and Vatican LXX, and in the two MSS. above-mentioned. CHAP. XXI. THE ten first verses of this chapter contain a prediction of the taking of Babylon by the Medes and Persians. It is a passage singular in its kind, for its brevity and force; for the variety and rapidity of the movements; and for the strength and energy of colouring with which the action and event is painted. It opens with the prophet's seeing at a distance the dreadful storm that is gathering, and ready to burst upon Babylon; the event is intimated in general terms; and God's orders are issued to the Persians and Medes to set forth upon the expedition which he has given them in charge. Upon this the prophet enters into the midst of the action; and in the person of Babylon expresses in the strongest terms the astonishment and horror that seizes her on the sudden surprise of the city, at the very season dedicated to pleasure and festivity, ver. 3, 4. Then in his own person describes the situation of things there: the security of the Babylonians, and in the midst of their feasting the sudden alarm of war, ver. 5. The event is then declared in a very singular manner. God orders the prophet to set a watchman to look out, and to report what he sees: he sees two companies marching onward, represent ing by their appearance the two nations that were to execute God's orders; who declare, that Babylon is fallen: ver. 6-9. But what is this to the prophet, and to the Jews, the object of his ministry? The application, the end, and design of the prophecy, is admirably given in a short expressive address to the Jews, partly in the person of God, partly in that of the prophet: "O my threshing-" “O my people, whom for your punishment I shall make subject to the Babylonians, to try and to prove you, and to separate the chaff from the corn, the bad from the good among you; hear this for your consolation: your punishment, your slavery and oppression, will have an end in the destruction of your oppressors." 1. the desert of the sea] This plainly means Babylon, which is the subject of the prophecy. The country about Babylon, and especially below it towards the sea, was a great flat morass, often overflowed by the Euphrates and Tigris. It became habitable by being drained by the many canals that were made in it. Herodotus, i. 184. says, that "Semiramis confined the Euphrates within its channel, by raising great dams against it; for before it overflowed the whole country like a sea." And Abydenus (quoting Megasthenes, apud Euseb. Præp. Evang. ix. 41.), speaking of the building of Babylon by Nebuchadonosor, "it is reported, that all this part was covered with water, and was called the sea; and that Belus drew off the waters, conveying them into proper receptacles, and surrounded Babylon with a wall." When the Euphrates was turned out of its channel by Cyrus, it was suffered still to drown the neighbouring country: the Persian government, which did not favour the place, taking no care to remedy this inconvenience, it became in time a great barren morassy desert, which event the title of the prophecy may perhaps intimate. Such it was originally; such it became after the taking of the city by Cyrus ; and such it continues to this day. Ibid. Like the southern tempests-] The most vehement storms, to which Judea was subject, came from the great desert country to the south of it. "Out of the south cometh the whirlwind." Job xxxvii. 9. "And there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house." Ibid. i. 19. For the situation of Idumea, the country (as I suppose) of Job (see Lam. iv. 21. compared with Job i. 1.) was the same in this respect with that of Judea. "And JEHOVAH shall appear over them, And his arrow shall go forth as the lightning; Zech. ix. 14. 2. The plunderer is plundered, and the destroyer is destroyed.] TTIE TTIVITI 712. The MSS. vary in expressing or omitting the in these four words. Ten MSS. are without the ↑ in the second word, and eight MSS. are without the in the fourth word: which justifies Symmachus, who has rendered them passively: ὁ αθετών αθετείται, και ὁ Taλaiπwpizwv Taλampe. He read TT, T. Cocceius (Lexicon in voce) observes, that the Chaldee very often renders the verb by spoliavit; and in this place, and in xxxiii. 1. by the equivalent word DN; and in chap. xxiv. 16. both by DN and : and Syr. in this place renders it by, oppressit. Ibid. —her vexations-] Heb. her sighing: that is, the sighing caused by her. So Kimchi on the place: "Innuit illos, qui gemebant ob timorem ejus; quia suffixa nominum referuntur ad agentem et ad patientem." "Omnes qui gemebant a facie regis Babylonis, requiescere feci eos." Chald. And so likewise Ephrem Syr. in loc. edit. Assemani: "Gemitum ejus dolorem scilicet et lachrymas, quas Chaldæi reliquis per orbem gentibus ciere pergunt." 5. The table is prepared-] In Heb. the verbs are in the infinitive mood absolute; as in Ezek. i. 14. "And the animals ran and returned, N , like the appearance of lightning :" just as the Latins say currere et reverti, for currebant et revertebantur. See chap. xxxii. 11. and the note there. 7. And he saw a chariot with two riders; A rider on an ass, a rider on a camel.] This passage is extremely obscure from the ambiguity of the term 37, which is used three times; and which signifies a chariot, or any other vehicle, or the rider in it; or a rider on a horse, or any other animal; or a company of chariots, or riders. The prophet may possibly mean a cavalry in two parts, with two sorts of riders; riders on asses, or mules, and riders on camels; or led on by two riders, one on an ass, and one on a camel. However, so far it is pretty clear, that Darius and Cyrus, the Medes and the Persians, are intended to be distinguished by the two riders, or the two sorts of cattle. It appears from Herodotus i. 80. that the baggage of Cyrus's army was carried on camels. In his engagement with Croesus, he took off the baggage from the camels, and mounted his horsemen upon them: the enemy's horses, offended with the smell of the camels, turned back and fled. 8. he that looked out on the watch—] The present reading, a lion, is so unintelligible, and the mistake so obvious, that I make no doubt that the true reading is, as the Syriac translator manifestly found it in his copy, who renders it by NP, speculator. 9. —a man, one of the two riders] So the Syriac understands it; and Ephræm Syr. 10. O my threshing-] "O thou, the object upon which I shall exercise the severity of my discipline; that shalt lie under my afflicting hand, like corn spread upon the floor to be threshed out and winnowed, to separate the chaff from the wheat!" The image of threshing is frequently used by the Hebrew poets with great elegance and force, to express the punishment of the wicked and the trial of the good, or the utter dispersion and destruction of God's enemies. Of the different ways of threshing in use among the Hebrews, and the manner of performing them, see note on chap. xxviii. 27. Our translators have taken the liberty of using the word threshing in a passive sense, to express the object or matter that is threshed: in which I have followed them, not being able to express it more properly, without departing too much from the form and letter of the original. Son of my floor, Heb. It is an idiom of the Hebrew language to call the effect, the object, the adjunct, any thing that belongs in almost any way to another, the son of it. "O my threshing-" The prophet abruptly breaks off the |