river to the eastern hills. All the ancient writers concur with Jonah in describing Nineveh as an "exceeding great city." But as none of these writers lived till after its destruction, their accounts, derived from old records and reports, are necessarily brief and incomplete. The best account which we possess is that furnished by Diodorus, who states that Ninus, having surpassed all his ancestors in the glory and success of his arms, resolved to build a city, of such state and grandeur, that it should not only be the greatest then in the world, but such as no sovereign coming after him should be easily able to exceed. Accordingly, having brought a vast number of his forces together, and provided the necessary treasure, and everything which his design required, he built near the Tigris a city very famous for its walls and fortifications. Its length was 150 stadia, its breadth 90, and the circumference 480. Diodorus adds, that the founder was not deceived in his expectations, for no one ever after built a town equal to it for the extent of its circumference and the stateliness of its walls. These were a hundred feet high, and so wide that three chariots might be driven upon them abreast. There were 1500 towers upon the walls, all of them two hundred feet high. Ninus appointed the city to be chiefly inhabited by the richest of the Assyrians; and freely allowed people from other nations to dwell there. He also granted to the citizens a large surrounding territory, and gave his own name, Ninus, to the city. (Diod. ii. 1.) It may be added, that Strabo and other ancient writers say that Nineveh was more extensive than even Babylon. If we compare the dimensions assigned by Diodorus to Nineveh, with those which Herodotus (and Pliny after him) gives to Babylon, this is not true, both having 480 stadia of circumference. But if we take any other measurement of Babylon than that of Herodotus, its circuit becomes ten or twelve miles less than that which Diodorus gives to Nineveh: for Ctesias makes the circumference of Babylon but 360 stadia; Clitarchus, 365; Curtius, 368; and Strabo, 385.

We are not to suppose that the whole of the vast enclosure of Nineveh was built upon. It was no doubt loosely built, with the houses much apart, as at Babylon; and contained extensive plantations, parks, gardens, fields, and open grounds, as did the same city, and as the larger Oriental towns still do.

Such is the substance of our information concerning the ancient Nineveh. It only now remains to notice its desoate site: but it is best to reserve this part of the subject to illustrate the prophecy of Nahum or Zephaniah, who foretold, with remarkable precision, the desolation which that site now exhibits.

7, 8. "Let neither man nor beast... taste any thing... Let man and beast be covered with sackcloth."-Among the Hebrews we find no instance of their extending fasting, and other acts of mourning and humiliation, to their cattle. Something similar however may be found in other nations. Homer and some other ancient Greek authors inform us that when any hero or great warrior died, it was customary to make the horses fast for some time, and to cut off part of their hair. It is also mentioned by Plutarch, that when the Persian general Masistas was slain, the horses and mules of the Persians were shorn as well as themselves. Virgil has a remarkable passage in one of his Eclogues (v. 24), in speaking of the death of Daphnis (Julius Cæsar), which seems illustrative, although we are not sure that it is more than a poetical representation:

"The swains forgot their sheep, nor near the brink
Of running waters brought their herds to drink;
The thirsty cattle, of themselves, abstained
From water, and their grassy fare disdained."-DRYDEN.

In Peru and the Canaries, it was usual for the people, in time of great drought, to shut up their animals without food, under the notion that their loud cries and bleating would reach heaven, and prevail with God to send rain.-It should be observed that, in the East, those who fasted abstained from all manner of food until the evening, as is still the custom in the same countries. However the fasting may be extended, we are doubtless to understand that the animals clothed in sackcloth were horses, mules, and camels, which were deprived of their usual caparisons and ornaments, and invested with sackcloth, the attire of mourning; a circumstance which may in some degree be illustrated by our own custom of covering with black cloth or velvet the horses employed at funerals. See Stackhouse (Hist. Bible ii. 362), Newcome and Hewlett, on this text.

CHAPTER IV.

1 Jonah, repining at God's mercy, 4 is reproved by the type of a gourd.

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.

2 And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I 'fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew

that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.

3 Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for

me to die than to live.

4 Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?

5 So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made

him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.

6 And the LORD God prepared a 'gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah 'was exceeding glad of the gourd.

7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.

8 And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a 'vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, It is better for me to

die than to live.

9 And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he

said, 'I do well to be angry, even unto death.

10 Then said the Lord, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which "came up in a night, and perished in a night :

9 Or, I am greatly angry.

11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle ?

10 Or, spared.

11 Heb, was the son of the night.

Verse 6. "Gourd."-קיקיון Kikayon; Sept. oλοκυνθη; Vulg. Hedera. We see therefore that while the Greek version makes the plant a kind of gourd, the Vulgate reckons it a species of ivy. But it would be a waste of time to discuss the merits of these respective versions, when a hint suggested by the similarity between iz and קיקיון leads us at once to the Ricinus communis, or castor oil tree, which with its broad palmate leaves extends a grateful shade over the parched traveller. It is described by Dioscorides under the name of xixi or cici, as having leaves like those of the Oriental plane tree, but larger, smoother, and of a deep hue. The stem and branches are hollow. and of rapid growth, though incapable, without the interposition of a miracle, of rising and becoming a shelter in the course of a night. It belongs to the natural order of the Euphorbiaceæ, and is hence related to the Euphorbium, or Spurge and Jatropha, or tapioca tree. The lively red of the inner threads of the flower give a pleasing variety to the deep green of the foliage. It grows in all the warmer regions of the old and new continents, and flourishes in the driest soil, among stones and rubbish. The conclusion that this plant is to be identified with the gourd of Jonah, is corroborated by local traditions; as well as by the fact that it abounds near the Tigris, where it sometimes grows to a size more considerable than it is commonly supposed to attain.

11. "Wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand."By these the young children are commonly understood. As these are, in any place, usually reckoned to form one-fifth of the entire population, the result would give 600,000 persons as the population of Nineveh. This is not by any means an extraordinary population for a town of such extent. The case is, indeed, so much otherwise as to show that the great ancient cities of the East covered a vast extent of ground in proportion to their population. And if, to obtain a better comparison we take these two cities in the largest extent, comprehending their environs, which contain extensive parks, fields, gardens, and open grounds, we shall find that, in 1831, London contained not less than 1,776,500 persons, within a circle with a radius of eight British miles from St. Paul's; and that, in 1829, Paris contained 1,013,000 persons within a circle of equal extent. See Mr. Rickman's Preface to the Population Returns

MICAH.

6 Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones there- | vity from thee.

Deut. 32. 1. Isa. 1. 2.
3 Heb. the fulness thereof.
4 Isa. 26. 21. 5 Psal. 115 3.
8 Heb. a descent.
Heb. daughters of the owl. 10 Or, she is grievously sick of her wounds.
13 Jer. 6. 26. 14 Or, thou that dwellest fairly. 13 Heb, inhabitress. 16 Isa. 47.3.
18 Or, A place near. 19 Or, was grieved. 20 Or, for. 21 That is, A lie.
the glory of Israel shall come, &c.
23 Isa. 22, 12.

MICAH. The time of Micah, as stated in the first verse of his prophecy, shows that he began to prophesy in the tames of Amos, Hosea, Joel, and Isaiah; but that he began later than any of them, and continued also later than any except Isaiah and perhaps Hosea. Although a native of the kingdom of Judah, his prophetic mission extended to the other kingdom as well. Some of the old writers unaccountably confound him with Micaiah, the prophet who is so honourably mentioned in the history of Ahab (1 Kings xxii; 2 Chron. xviii.); but who must have lived at least one

hundred and thirty years prior to the present prophet. Micah seems to have been a native of Mareshah, which is mentioned in Josh. xv. 44 as one of the towns of Judah "in the valley;" and of which Jerome says, that only the ruins were to be seen in his time, about two miles from Eleutheropolis. The alleged grave of Micah was still, however, shown, over which a church had been erected. Sozomen, in his Ecclesiastical History, says that the body of Micah was found, in the time of Theodosius the Elder, by Zebennus, bishop of Eleutheropolis, at a place which he calls Berathsaha, about ten furlongs from the city, and near which was the prophet's grave, called by the common people "The Faithful Monument," perhaps because they also confounded him with the Micaiah of Ahab's time, and who is reputed to have been slain by that monarch.

The style of Micah is briefly characterised by Bishop Lowth as being "for the most part close, forcible, pointed, and concise; sometimes approaching the obscurity of Hosea; in many parts animated and sublime, and in general poetical."

Verse 8. "Stripped and naked."-That is, as having thrown off the outer garment and ornaments, and remaining in the under gown or tunic. This is on several occasions described as "nakedness" in Scripture.

"Mourning as the owls."-Rather "as the ostriches," here distinguished by their poetical title בנות יענה broth yaanah, "daughters "daug of screeching." See the note on Job xxxix. 13, where the elucidation of this name is included in the account given of the bird. We may add from Shaw (p. 455): "During the lonesome part of the night, they often make a very doleful and hideous noise. I have often heard them groan as if they were in the greatest agonies: an action beautifully alluded to by Micah."

10. "The house of Aphrah." The name of Aphrah, and some of the others that follow which do not elsewhere occur in Scripture, have given occasion to some speculation. 1. Some understand them as proper names of towns. 2. Others regard them as significant names, imposed, some upon Samaria and others upon Jerusalem, by the prophet, to give him occasion to apply their meanings to the existing and future condition of those places and their people. 3. Those who translate the words, instead of retaining them as proper names, do not understand them differently from the former. And our own translators leave us the choice of explanations by giving the words as proper names in the text. and translating them in the margin. By consulting the marginal explanations, the reader will see the play upon the | significations, which is involved: and after having premised the interpretations to which each example is open, we will so far defer to the first as to see what information can be found. on the hypothesis that they are proper names of towns. The present Aphrah is thought by some to be the same as the Ophrah of Josh. xviii. 23, where it is mentioned as a city of Benjamin; and which in Jerome's time was a village, then called Effrem, five miles east of Bethel. The mention of Bethel (house of God) gives gives one occasion to recollect that the nickname Beth-aven (house of vanity), given to that place by the prophets, suggests an example, applicable to the instances before us, of the practice of imposing a nickname-sometimes by only slightly altering the teal one-to express the character of the place, or to point the allusion intended to be conveyed. The present example, Beth-aphrah, "House of Dust," is remarkably analogous. 11. "Saphir." The name Shamir occurs, in Josh. xv. 48, as that of a town in the hill country of Judah. That name is read Sophir in the Alexandrian copy of the Septuagint, and is thought by some to be the place intended by the prophet. A place of this name is mentioned by Eusebius and Jerome, as a village in the hilly country between Eleutheropolis and Askelon. Calmet, however, thinks that the prophet may intend the city of Sephora, or Sephoris, in Galilee.

"Zaanan." This name is not very different from that of Zenan in Josh. xv. 37; and concerning which we can find no other information than that text conveys, namely, that it was a town "in the valley" of Judah.

"Beth-ezel." There might not be much difficulty in supposing this a name for Bethel.

12. "Maroth." No place of this name occurs elsewhere. Grotius and some others think that, by a transposition of the m and r, Ramoth may be understood. Of this name, or, in the singular, Ramah, there were several places in Israel and Judah; and if this conjecture be probable, all or the principal of them may be intended by the plural name; but from the connection with Jerusalem, implying vicinity, we should rather be disposed to understand the noted Ramah, a few miles to the north of that metropolis. Hiller's conjecture, that Jarmuth should be understood, seems to us not very probable.

13. "Lachish." This we know to have been one of the strongest fortified towns of Judah; and we are very much disposed to consider that the occurrence of this and other real and known names of the list, sufficiently indicates that all of them are real names of places, selected by the prophet either on account of their importance in his time, or on account of some special circumstances in the events related or foreseen, or because their names had such significance as pointed the allusions he intended to convey. Pocock, after allowing the difficulty of identifying some of the places, says: "But the taking them otherwise than as the proper names of cities, doth but open the way to more uncertain conjectures and doubtful interpretations."

14. "Moresheth-gath." The addition "Gath," taken with the context, shows clearly that the place belonged to the Philistines of Gath, if that city itself be not, as some suppose, intended. The sacred history is silent as to the ocсаsion on which Lachish sought the aid of the Philistines: perhaps when apprehensive of a siege, or actually besieged, by the king of Assyria.

"Achzib."-Another town of the Philistines, noticed under Josh. xii. 20. "Mareshah," in the next verse, is perhaps the same supposed to be the native place of the prophet; and "Adullam" has been noticed under Josh. xii.

WOE to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is

light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.

2 And they covet 'fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.

against this family do I devise an evil, from | garment from them that pass by securely as

which ye shall not remove your necks; neither shall ye go haughtily: for this time is evil.

4 In that day shall one take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, and say, We be utterly spoiled: he hath changed the portion of my people: how hath he removed it from me! 'turning away he hath divided our

Or, instead of restoring. 5 Deut. 32. 8, 9. 6 * Or, Prophesy not as they prophesy. 9 Or, shortened. 10 Heb. upright. 11 Heb. yesterday. 1 Heb. over against a garment, 13 Or, wives. 14 Or, walk with the wind and lie falsely. Verse 5. "Cast a cord by lot." This probably alludes to the division of the lands by a cord or measuring line, and to their distribution by lot to "the congregation of the Lord"-the Hebrew nation-in the time of Joshua. 8. "Ye pull off the robe with the garment, &c." To strip a traveller of his clothes is an exceedingly common form of depredation in the East-particularly among the Bedouin Arabs. To this the text seems to refer.