used in that sense in the Arabic. See Simonis Lex. Heb. The LXX, and Syr. take the word in this form; but they render it, sharpeneth the iron. See Castell. Lex. in voce. The sacred writers are generally large and eloquent upon the subject of idolatry: they treat it with great severity, and set forth the absurdity of it in the strongest light. But this passage of Isaiah, ver. 12-20. far exceeds any thing that ever was written upon the subject, in force of argument, energy of expression, and elegance of composition. One or two of the apocryphal writers have attempted to imitate the prophet, but with very ill success: Wisd. xiii. 11-19. xv. 7, &c. Baruch, chap. vi. especially the latter; who, injudiciously dilating his matter, and introducing a number of minute circumstances, has very much weakened the force and effect of his invective. On the contrary, a heathen author, in the ludicrous way, has, in a line or two, given idolatry one of the severest strokes it ever received: "Olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum; Cum faber, incertus scamnum faceretne Priapum, Horat. 14. He heweth down-] For, the LXX and Vulg. read , יכרת or 16. And with part-] Twenty-three MSS., LXX, and Vulg. add the ועל, conjunction 18. —their eyes are closed up] The LXX, Chald. and Vulg. for П, read. See note on chap. vi. 10. 20. He feedeth on ashes] He feedeth on that which affordeth no nourishment: a proverbial expression for using ineffectual means, and bestowing labour to no purpose. In the same sense Hosea says, "Ephraim feedeth on wind.” Chap. xii. 1. 22. I have made thy transgressions vanish away like a cloud, and thy sins like a vapour.] Longinus admired the sublimity of the sentiment, as well as the harmony of the numbers, in the following sentence of Demosthenes: Τουτο το ψηφισμα τον τότε τη πολει περισταντα κινδυνον παρελθειν εποίησεν ώσπερ νεφος, "This decree made the danger then hanging over the city pass away like a cloud." 24. by myself] Thirteen MSS. (six ancient) confirm the reading of מאתי,the Keri 27. Who saith to the deep, be thou wasted] Cyrus took Babylon by laying the bed of the Euphrates dry, and leading his army into the city by night through the empty channel of the river. This remarkable circumstance, in which the event so exactly corresponded with the prophecy, was also noted by Jeremiah : 'A drought shall be upon her waters, and they shall be dried up:— I will lay her sea dry; And I will scorch up her springs." Jer. 1. 38. li. 36. It is proper here to give some account of the means and method, by which the stratagem of Cyrus was effected. The Euphrates in the middle of summer, from the melting of the snows on the mountains of Armenia, like the Nile, overflows the country. In order to diminish the inundation, and to carry off the waters, two canals were made by Nebuchadnezzar a hundred miles above the city: the first on the eastern side called Naharmalca, or the Royal River, by which the Euphrates was let into the Tigris; the other on the western side, called Pallacopas, or Naharaga (DN 7, the River of the Pool), by which the redundant waters were carried into a vast lake, forty miles square, contrived not only to lessen the inundation, but for a reservoir, with sluices, to water the barren country on the Arabian side. Cyrus, by turning the whole river into the lake by the Pallacopas, laid the channel, where it ran through the city, almost dry; so that his army entered it, both above and below, by the bed of the river, the water not reaching above the middle of the thigh. By the great quantity of water let into the lake, the sluices and dams were destroyed; and being never repaired afterward, the waters spread over the whole country below, and reduced it to a morass, in which the river is lost. "Ingens modo et navigabilis, inde tenuis rivus, despectus emoritur; et nusquam manifesto exitu effluit, ut alii omnes, sed deficit." Mela, iii. 8. Herod. i. 185. 190. Xenophon. Cyrop. vii. Arrian. vii. 28. Who saith to Cyrus, thou art my shepherd] "Pastor meus es." Vulg. The true reading seems to be ; the word bas probably been dropt out of the text. The same word is lost out of the text, Psal. cxix. 57. It is supplied in LXX by the word ɛ. Ibid. Who saith to Jerusalem] For האומר 2859, LXX and Vulg. read Ibid. —and to the temple] bɔbi, as own before; the preposition is necessary; and the Vulgate seems to read so. Houbigant. CHAP. XLV. 1. And ungird the loins of kings] See note on chap. v. 27. Xenophon gives the following list of the nations conquered by Cyrus: the Syrians, Assyrians, Arabians, Cappadocians, both the Phrygians, Lydians, Carians, Phenicians, Babylonians. He moreover reigned over the Bactrians, Indians, Cilicians, the Sacæ, Paphlagones, and Mariandyni. Cyrop. lib. i. p. 4. edit. Hutchinson, quarto. All these kingdoms he acknowledges, in his decree for the restoration of the Jews, to have been given to him by JEHOVAH, the God of heaven. Ezra i. 2. Ibid. That I may open before him the valves; and the gates shall not be shut.] The gates of Babylon within the city, leading from the streets to the river, were providentially left open when Cyrus's forces entered the city in the night through the channel of the river, in the general disorder occasioned by the great feast which was then celebrated; otherwise, says Herodotus, i. 191. the Persians would have been shut up in the bed of the river, and taken as in a net, and all destroyed. And the gates of the palace were opened imprudently by the king's orders, to inquire what was the cause of the tumult without; when the two parties under Gobrias and Gadatas rushed in, got possession of the palace, and slew the king. Xenoph. Cyrop. vii. p. 528. 2. the mountains-] For D, a word not easily accounted for in this place, the LXX read, rа opn. Two MSS. have without the ; which is hardly distinguishable from the reading of the LXX. The divine protection which attended Cyrus, and rendered his expedition against Babylon easy and prosperous, is finely expressed by God's going before him, and making the mountains level. The image is highly poetical: "At vos, qua veniet, tumidi subsidite montes, Et faciles curvis vallibus este viæ." Ovid. Amor. ii. 16. Ibid. The valves of brass-] Abydenus, apud Euseb. Præp. Evang. ix. 41. says, that the wall of Babylon had brazen gates. And Herodotus, i. 179. more particularly: "In the wall all round there are a hundred gates all of brass; and so in like manner are the sides and the lintels." The gates likewise within the city, opening to the river from the several streets, were of brass: as were those also of the temple of Belus. Id. i. 180, 181. 3. I will give unto thee the treasures of darkness] Sardes and Babylon, when taken by Cyrus, were the wealthiest cities in the world. Croesus, celebrated beyond all the kings of that age for his riches, gave up his treasures to Cyrus, with an exact account in writing of the whole, containing the particulars with which each waggon was loaded, when they were carried away: and they were delivered to Cyrus at the palace of Babylon. Xenoph. Cyrop. lib. vii. p. 503. 515. 540. Pliny gives the following account of the wealth taken by Cyrus in Asia. "Jam Cyrus, devicta Asia, pondo xxxiv millia [auri] invenerat? præter vasa aurea, aurumque factum, et in eo folia, ac platanum, vitemque. Qua victoria argenti quingenta millia talentorum reportavit; et craterem Semiramidis, cujus pondus quindecim talenta colligebat. Talentum autem Ægyptium pondo Ixxx patere [1. capere] Varro tradit." Nat. Hist. xxxiii. 15. The gold and silver, estimated by weight in this account, being converted into pounds stirling, amount to 126,224,000l. Brerewood, de Ponderibus, cap. x. 7. Forming light, and creating darkness] It was the great principle of the Magian religion, which prevailed in Persia in the time of Cyrus, and in which probably he was educated, that there are two supreme, co-eternal, and independent Causes, always acting in opposition one to the other; one the author of all good, the other of all evil; the good being they called Light; the evil being, Darkness: that, when Light had the ascendant, then good and happiness prevailed among men; when Darkness had the superiority, then evil and misery abounded. An opinion that contradicts the clearest evidence of our reason, which plainly leads us to the acknowledgment of one only Supreme Being, infinitely good as well as powerful. With reference to this absurd opinion, held by the person to whom this prophecy is addressed, God, by his prophet, in the most significant terms, asserts his omnipotence and absolute supremacy: "I am JEHOVAH, and none else; Forming light, and creating darkness; I JEHOVAH am the author of all these things." Declaring, that those powers, whom the Persians held to be the original authors of good and evil to mankind, representing them by light and darkness as their proper emblems, are no other than creatures of God, the instruments which he employs in his government of the world, ordained or permitted by him in order to execute his wise and just decrees; and that there is no power, either of good or evil, independent of the one Supreme God, infinite in power and in goodness. There were however some among the Persians, whose sentiments were more moderate as to this matter: who held the evil principle to be in some measure subordinate to the good; and that the former would at length be wholly subdued by the latter. See Hyde, de Relig. Vet. Pers. cap. xxii. That this opinion prevailed among the Persians as early as the time of Cyrus, we may, I think, infer, not only from this passage of Isaiah, which has a manifest reference to it, but likewise from a passage in Xenophon's Cyropædia, where the same doctrine is applied to the human mind. Araspes, a noble young Persian, had fallen in love with the fair captive Panthea, committed to his charge by Cyrus. After all his boasting, that he was superior to the assaults of that passion, he yielded so far to it, as even to threaten violence, if she would not comply with his desires. Awed by the reproof of Cyrus, fearing his displeasure, and having by cool reflection recovered his reason; in his discourse with him on this subject he says, "O Cyrus, I have certainly two souls; and this piece of philosophy I have learned from that wicked sophist Love. For if I had but one soul, it would not be at the same time good and evil; it would not at the same time approve of honourable and base actions; and at once desire to do, and refuse to do, the very same things. But it is plain, that I am animated by two souls; and when the good soul prevails, I do what is virtuous; and when the evil one prevails, I attempt what is vicious. But now the good soul prevails, having gotten you for her assistant, and has clearly gained the superiority." Lib. vi. p. 424. 8. Drop down, O ye heavens-] The eighty-fifth Psalm is a very elegant ode on the same subject with this part of Isaiah's prophecies-the restoration of Judah from captivity; and is, in the most beautiful part of it, a manifest imitation of this passage of the prophet: "Verily his salvation is nigh unto them that fear him, Mercy and truth have met together; Truth shall spring from the earth, And righteousness shall look down from heaven. Even JEHOVAH will give that which is good, Righteousness shall go before him, And shall direct his footsteps in the way." Psal. lxxxv. 10-14. These images of the dew and the rain descending from heaven, and making the earth fruitful, employed by the prophet, and some of those nearly of the same kind which are used by the Psalmist, may perhaps be primarily understood as designed to set forth in a splendid manner, the happy state of God's people restored to their country, and flourishing in peace and plenty, in piety and virtue: but justice and salvation, mercy and truth, righteousness and peace, and glory dwelling in the land, cannot with any sort of propriety, in the one or the other, be interpreted as the consequences of that event; they must mean the blessings of the great redemption by Messiah. Ibid. —let salvation produce her fruit] For 15, the LXX, Vulg. and Syr. read "); and a MS. has a rasure close after the letter, which probably was at first. 9. Woe unto him, that contendeth with the power that formed him] The propbet answers or prevents the objections and cavils of the unbelieving Jews, disposed to murmur against God, and to arraign the wisdom and justice of his dispensations in regard to them; in permitting them to be oppressed by their enemies, and in promising them deliverance instead of preventing their captivity. St. Paul has borrowed the image, and has applied it to the like purpose with equal force and elegance: Nay, but, O man! who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thon made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, out of the same lump to make one vessel to honour, and another to dishonour?" Rom. ix. 20, 21. 66 Ibid. and to the workman, thou hast no hands] The Syr. renders, as 66 Neither am I the work of thy * ולא היתי פעל ידיך,if he had read hands." The LXX, as if they had read, TN) by Ni "Neither hast thou made me; and thou has no hands." But the fault seems to be in the transposition of the two pronouns: for read ; ולפעלו So Houbigant corrects it; reading also .לך read לו and ; ופעלו which last correction seems not altogether necessary. The LXX in MSS. Pachom. and 1. D. 11. bave it thus: kai то eрyov, ovK EXELL Xεipas; which favours the reading here proposed. 11. And he that formeth the things which are to come] I read 737", without the suffixed; from the LXX, who join it in construction with the following word; ὁ ποιησας τα επερχόμενα. Ibid. Do ye question me-]", Chald. recte: præcedit Л; et sic forte legerunt reliqui Intt." SECKER. 14. The wealth of Egypt-] This seems to relate to the future admission of the Gentiles into the church of God. Compare Psal. Ixviii. 32. lxxii. 10. chap. Ix. 6-9. And perhaps these particular nations may be named, by a metonymy common in all poetry, for powerful and wealthy nations in general. See note on chap. Ix. 1. Ibid. The Sabeans tall of stature-] That the Sabeans were of a more majestic appearance than common, is particularly remarked by Agatharchides, an ancient Greek historian quoted by Bochart, Phaleg. ii. 26. τα σώματα εστι των κατοικούντων αξιολογώτερα. So also the LXX understand it, rendering it avôpeç v¥nλo. And the same phrase, TA "WIN, is used for persons of extraordinary stature, Num. xiii. 32, and 1 Chron. xx. 6. Ibid. and in suppliant guise-] The conjunction is supplied by the ancient versions, and confirmed by fifteen MSS. (seven ancient), and six editions, T. Three MSS. (two ancient) omit the before at the beginning of the line. 16. They are ashamed] The reader cannot but observe the sudden transition from the solemn adoration of the secret and mysterious nature of God's counsels, in regard to his people, to the spirited denunciation of |