Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

A.C. 721.

3 All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye.

4 For so the LORD said unto me, I will take my rest, * Or, regard and I will * consider in my dwelling place like a clear heat

my set dwell

ing.

As the parching heat just before lightning,

As the dewy cloud in the heat of harvest.

5 For afore the harvest, when the bud is coming to perfection,

And the blossom is become a juicy berry.

He will cut off the useless shoots with pruning hooks,

And the bill shall take away the luxuriant branches f.

6 They shall be left together to the bird of prey of the mountains,
And to the beasts of the earth.

And upon it shall the bird of prey summer,

And all beasts of the earth upon it shall winter.

7 At that season a present shall be led §

To Jehovah of hosts,

A people dragged away and plucked;

Even of a people wonderful from their beginning hitherto,

A nation expecting, expecting, and trampled under foot,

Whose land rivers have spoiled,

Unto the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, Mount Sion.

when not a gleam of sunshine breaks for a moment through the sullen gloom; not a breath stirs; not a leaf wags; not a blade of grass is shaken; no rippling wave curls upon the sleeping surface of the waters; the black ponderous cloud covering the whole sky seems to hang fixed and motionless as an arch of stone; nature seems benumbed in all her operations. The vigilance, nevertheless, of God's silent providence is represented under the image of his keeping his eye, while he thus sits still, upon his prepared habitation. The sudden eruption of judgment threatened in the next verse, after this total cessation, just before the final call to Jew and Gentile, answers to the storms of thunder and lightning which, in the suffocating heats of the latter end of summer, succeed that perfect stillness and stagnation of the atmosphere. And as the natural thunder at such seasons is the welcome harbinger of refreshing and copious showers, so it appears the thunder of God's judgments will usher in the long desired season of the consummation of mercy. So accurate is the allusion in all its parts.

"The harvest" is the constant image of that season when God shall gather his elect from the four winds of heaven, reap the field of the world, gather his wheat into his barns, and burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Images, which relate not to the translation of the just to heaven, and the burning of the wicked in hell, but to the placing of the faithful in a state of peace and security on earth, and to the excision of the incorrigible of the irreligious faction.

+ God in the latter ages will purify his Church with sore but wholesome judgments. Compare John xv. i, 2.

It was a prevailing opinion among the early fathers, that Antichrist is to possess himself of the Holy Land, and that there he is to perish.

§ Compare Isaiah lxvi. 20. and Zeph. iii. 9, 10.

upon herbs, and like a cloud of dew in the heat of har- A.C.721.

vest.

* Or, after

5 For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the rain. sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches.

6 They shall be left together unto the fowls of the mountains, and to the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall summer upon them, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.

spread and ver. 2.

7 In that time shall the present be brought unto the LORD of hosts of a people + scattered and peeled, and from +Or, out a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation polished: See meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, the mount Zion.

ISAIAH XIX 40.

1 The confusion of Egypt. 11 The foolishness of their princes. 18 The calling of Egypt to the church. 23 The covenant of Egypt, Assyria, and Israel.

1 The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.

gle.

2 And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: Heb. minand they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.

3 And the spirit of Egypt § shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will || destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.

Heb. shall be emptied. Heb. swal

low up.

4 And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of ✶ Or, shut up. a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of hosts.

4 The nineteenth chapter is inserted in this section on account of its obvious connexion with the preceding chapter. The captivity of the ten tribes had been, in a great measure, occasioned by their reliance upon Egypt. Both Israel and Judah placed their dependence upon this country, contrary to the express commands of God, given to them by the Prophets and now Egypt in its turn is threatened with destruction. Ver. 4. foretells the invasion and conquest of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar, and afterwards by the succession of the Persian kings. After ver. 18. is contained an intimation of the future propagation of the knowledge of God in Egypt and Assyria, and an explicit prophecy of the final admission of these countries, as well as of Israel, into the Church of Godforming together one spiritual Church and unity in the common worship of the God of Israel.-Bp. Lowth.

A. C. 721.

5 And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up.

6 And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither.

7 The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, *Heb. and be driven away, * and be no more.

shall not be.

+ Or, white works.

+ Heb. foundations.

8 The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.

9 Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that weave + networks, shall be confounded.

10 And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof,

Heb. of liv. all that make sluices and ponds & for fish.

ing things.

Or, gover- ||

nors.

[blocks in formation]

11 Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?

12 Where are they where are thy wise men? and let them tell thee now, and let them know what the LORD of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.

13 The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even * they that are the stay of the tribes thereof.

14 The LORD hath mingled † a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit.

15 Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rush, may do.

16 In that day shall Egypt be like unto women: and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which he shaketh over it.

17 And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt, every one that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the LORD of hosts, which he hath determined against it.

18

In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt Heb. the lip. speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of Or, of Heres, hosts; one shall be called, The city § of destruction. or, of the sun. 19 In that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the LORD.

20 And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the LORD because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them.

21 And the LORD shall be known to Egypt, and the A. C. 721. Egyptians shall know the LORD in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea, they shall vow a vow unto the LORD, and perform it.

22 And the LORD shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it and they shall return even to the LORD, and he shall be intreated of them, and shall heal them.

:

23 In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians.

24 In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land:

25 Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.

SECTION V.

The Prophecy of Nahum against Nineveh.

NAHUM I".

The majesty of God in goodness to his people, and severity against his enemies. 1 The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

720.

Or, The jealous God, and a re

LORD is a

venger, &c.

2* God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. 3 The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and that will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in hath fury. the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust 6, 7. of his feet.

r

4 He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth.

5 The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.

41 Nahum describes himself as an Elkoshite, from which expression many suppose that he was a descendant of Elkosha, while others infer that he was born at Elkosh, or Elkosha, a village in Galilee. The subject of his prophecy is the destruction of Nineveh, and the ruin of the Assyrians for their cruel tyranny over the Israelites. The captivity of the ten tribes took place in 721, and, as there is ample authority for concluding that the prophet lived at this period, it is most probable that he made his escape, when Israel was taken captive into Judah, and there uttered his predictions against the oppressors of his country.-Archbishop Newcome-Dr. Gray-Horne.

Heb.

r Ex. xxxiv.

A. C. 720.

*Heb. stand up.

+Or, strength.

6 Who can stand before his indignation? and who can *abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.

7 The LORD is good, a + strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.

8 But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his ene

mies.

9 What do ye imagine against the LORD? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time.

10 For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.

11 There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evil sellor of Belial, against the LORD, ‡ a wicked counsellor.

Heb. a coun

Or, If they would

12 Thus saith the LORD; § Though they be quiet, and have been at likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut down, when he should they shall pass through. Though I have afflicted thee, I will many, and so afflict thee no more.

peace, so

have been

should they

have been

13 For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will shorn, and he burst thy bonds in sunder.

should have

passed away. Heb. shorn.

s Is. lii. 7. Rom. x. 15.

14 And the LORD hath given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image: I will make thy grave; for thou art vile.

[ocr errors]

15 Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, Heb. feasts. * keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut

+ Heb. Belial.

+ Or, The disperser, or, hammer.

t Is. x. 12.

Or, the pride

off.

NAHUM II.

The fearful and victorious armies of God against Nineveh.

1 He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily.

t

2 For the LORD hath turned away § the excellency of of Jacob as Jacob, as the excellency of Israel: for the emptiers have emptied them out, and marred their vine branches.

the pride of Isracl.

|| Or, dyed scarlet.

* Or, fiery torches.

+ Heb. their show.

+ Or, gallants.

3 The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots shall be with *flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken.

4 The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: † they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings.

5 He shall recount his worthies: they shall stumble in

« ZurückWeiter »