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Verse 25. "They shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods."-Many of the allusions of this chapter are derived from, and descriptive of the proceedings of shepherds sent out and tarrying abroad with the flocks belonging to a settled people. Chandler's account of his meeting with a party of such shepherds, conveys some interesting points of parallel illustration, particularly with respect to the present verse. "About two in the morning, our whole attention was fixed by the barking of dogs, which, as we advanced, became exceedingly furious. Deceived by the light of the moon, we now fancied we could see a village; and were much mortified to find only a station of poor goat-herds, without even a shed, and nothing for our horses to eat. They were lying, wrapped in their thick capots or loose coats, by some glimmering embers, among the bushes in a dale, under a spreading tree by the fold. They received us hospitably, heaping on fresh fuel, and producing some curds and coarse bread, which they toasted for us on the coals. We made a scanty meal, sitting on the ground, lighted by the fire and by the moon; after which sleep suddenly overpowered me. On waking...I was much struck with the wild appearance of the spot. The tree was hung with rustic utensils; the she-goats in a pen, sneezed, and bleated and rustled to and fro; the shrubs, by which our horses stood, were leafless; and the earth bare; a black cauldron with milk. was simmering over the fire; and a figure, more than gaunt or savage, close by us, struggling on the ground with a kid, whose ears he had slit, and was endeavouring to cauterize with a red-hot iron." "Travels,' page 157.

CHAPTER XXXV.

The judgment of mount Seir for their hatred of

Israel.

9 I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

10 Because thou hast said, These two

MOREOVER the word of the LORD came unto nations and these two countries shall be me, saying, mine, and we will possess it; whereas the LORD was there:

2 Son of man, set thy face against mount Seir, and prophesy against it,

3 And say unto it, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O mount Seir, I am against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee 'most desolate.

4 I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.

5 Because thou hast had a 'perpetual hatred, and hast 'shed the blood of the children of Israel by the 'force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end:

6 Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee: sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee.

7 Thus will I make mount Seir 'most desolate, and cut off from it him that passeth out and him that returneth.

8 And I will fill his mountains with his slain men in thy hills, and in thy valleys, and in all thy rivers, shall they fall that are slain with the sword.

11 Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will even do according to thine anger, and according to thine envy which thou hast used out of thy hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I have judged thee.

12 And thou shalt know that I am the LORD, and that I have heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to con

sume.

13 Thus with your mouth ye have 'boasted against me, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard them.

14 Thus saith the Lord GOD; When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate.

15 As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee: thou shalt be desolate, O mount Seir, and all Idumea, even all of it: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

Heb. desolation and desolation. Heb. magnified.

1 Heb. desolation and desolation. 2 Or, hatred of old. 3 Heb. poured out the children. 4 Heb. hands. Psal. 83. 4, 12. 7 Or, though the LORD was there. 8 Heb. to devour. Verse 4. "I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shall be desolate."-To the testimonies already furnished in verification of Scripture prophecy, we may add a passage from the unpublished Travels of Irby and Mangles, which concludes with a reference to the present prediction. On leaving Petra, the track rises considerably, and is slippery and dangerous: our attention was particularly excited on this side, by remarking with how much care the scanty soil had been banked up into terraces, and disposed into fields and gardens: every nook that could furnish footing for a single plant was turned to account, proving that Strabo was not mistaken, in speaking of the horticultural advantages of this city: and the inhabitants seem to have made the most of them. At present the barren state of the country, together with the desolate condition of the city, without a single human being living near it, seem strongly to verify the judgment pronounced against it."

CHAPTER XXXVI.

1 The land of Israel is comforted, both by destruction of the heathen, who spitefully used it, 8 and by the blessings of God promised unto it 16 Israel was rejected for their sin, 21 and shall be restored without their desert. 25 The blessings of Christ's kingdom.

ALSO, thou son of man, prophesy unto the 'mountains of Israel, and say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD:

2 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because the enemy hath said against you, Aha, even the ancient high places are our's in possession :

3 Therefore prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because they have made you desolate, and swallowed you up on every side, that ye might be a possession unto the residue of the heathen, and 'ye are taken up in the lips of talkers, and are an infamy of the people:

4 Therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD to the mountains, and to the hills, to the 'rivers, and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes, and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey and derision to the residue of the heathen that are round about;

5 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the residue of the heathen, and against all Idumea, which have appointed my land into their possession with the joy of all their heart, with despiteful minds, to cast it out for a prey.

6 Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say unto the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my fury, because ye have borne the shame of the hea

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the house of Israel, even all of it. and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded:

11 And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates, and will do better unto you than at your beginnings: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

12 Yea, I will cause men to walk upon you, even my people Israel; and they shall possess thee, and thou shalt be their inheritance, and thou shalt no more henceforth bereave them of men.

13 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because they say unto you, Thou land devourest up men, and hast bereaved thy nations;

14 Therefore thou shalt devour men no more, neither 'bereave thy nations any more, saith the Lord GOD.

15 Neither will I cause men to hear in thee the shame of the heathen any more, neither shalt thou bear the reproach of the people any more, neither shalt thou cause thy nations to fall any more, saith the Lord GOD.

16

Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

17 Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings: their way was before me as the uncleanness of a removed woman.

18 Wherefore I poured my fury upon them for the blood that they had shed upon the land, and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it:

19 And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.

20 And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when they said to them, These are the people of the LORD, and are gone forth out of his land.

21 But I had pity for mine holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went.

22 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. 23 And I will sanctify my great name,

1 Chap. 6. 2. 2 Heb. Because for because. 3 Or, ye are made to come upon the lip of the tongue. ♪ Or, cause to fall. Isa. 52 5. Rom. 2. 24.

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which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. 24 For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. 25¶Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

27 And I will put my 'spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

28 And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

29 I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon

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9 Chap. 11. 19. 12 Heb. flock of

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THE hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,

2 And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open 'valley; and, lo, they were very dry.

3 And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest.

4 Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.

5 Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these 1 Or, champaign.

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33 Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded.

34 And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by.

35 And they shall say. This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited.

36 Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it.

37 Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.

38 As the "holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

10 Chap. 28. 13. 11 Chap. 17. 24, and 22. 14, and 37. 14. holy things.

bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter shall live:

into

ye

and you, 6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

7 So I prophesied as I was commanded : and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.

8 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.

9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GoD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.

10 So I prophesied as he commanded me

2 Or, breath.

and the breath came into them, and they | writest shall be in thine hand before their lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.

12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.

13 And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your

graves,

14 And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.

15¶The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,

16 Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions:

17 And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.

18¶ And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these?

19 Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah. and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.

20

3 John 10. 16.

eyes.

21 And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:

22 And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms

any more at all:

23 Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwelling places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.

24 And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.

25 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever; and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.

26 Moreover I will make a 'covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my 'sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.

27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

28 And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.

And the sticks whereon thou 4 Isa. 40. 11. Jer. 23. 5, and 30. 9. Chap. 34. 23. 7 Chap. 11. 20, and 14. 11. Verse 20. "The sticks whereon thou writest."-There are many curious traces of this kind of writing upon sticks or pieces of wood. This indeed is not the first instance of the practice in Scripture; for so early as the time of Moses, we find a parallel example of writing upon rods. The custom existed among the early Greeks, as we are informed that the laws of Solon, preserved at Athens, were inscribed on billets of wood called axones. The custom has also existed in various applications in our own and other northern countries. The ancient Britons used to cut their alphabet with a knife upon a stick, which, thus inscribed, was called Coelbren y Beirdd, "the billet of signs of the bards," or the Bardic Alphabet. And not only were the alphabets such, but compositions and memorials were registered in the same manner.

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Stick Book.

These sticks were commonly squared, but sometimes were three-sided, and, consequently, a single stick would contain either three or four lines. The squares were used for general subjects, and for stanzas of four lines in poetry; the trilateral ones being adapted to triads, and for a peculiar kind of ancient metre called Triban, or triplet, and Englyn Milwyr, or the warrior's verse. Several sticks with writing upon them were united together in a kind of frame, as repre sented in the first of our present cuts. This was called Peithynen, or Elucidator, and was so constructed that each stick might be turned for the facility of reading, the end of each running out alternately on both sides. A continuation, or different application of the same practice, is offered by the Runic clog (a corruption of log) almanacs, the use of which has been preserved to a comparatively recent period, being described by Dr. Plot in his History of Staffordshire (1686), as still in common use in that county; some, of large size, being usually hung up at one side of the mantletree of the chimney, while others were smaller and carried in the pocket. Our engraving is copied from a representa

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tion of one of the family clogs, given in his work. Properly, the almanac was a single four-sided stick, inscribed ca each side; but, for the convenience of representation, it is shown "in plano, each angle of the square stick, with the moiety of each of the flat sides, being expressed apart." The edges have notches, answering to the days of the year; the Sundays being distinguished by a larger notch. Connected with these, on one of the flat sides, are crosses, the form and size of which are varied, for the sake of distinction or to mark the rank which the saint of that day was supposed to occupy: the dots are considered to denote the number of paternosters, aves, &c. appropriate to the day. The opposite side of the notched edge is occupied by arbitrary or significant signs to denote the greater festivals, or other commemorative occasions-as a star for the Epiphany, a branch for May-day, a sword for St. John, keys for St. Peter, and so forth. They were, in short, calendars containing similar indications to those prefixed to the books of Common Prayer. Dr. Clarke met with several of such Runic stave-calendars in Sweden, rather as curious antiquities than as things in actual use; although the inhabitants were well acquainted with them, and were often able to explain the meaning of the characters upon them, and the purpose for which these instruments were used. "They were all of wood, about three feet and a half long, shaped like the straight swords represented in churches upon the brasen sepulchral plates 188

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