tion. We may readily conceive the confusion and terror which accompanies the overthrow of a country, the taking its people captive, the dismantling of cities, and the spreading of spoliation through the land. All this was eventually brought to pass in the desolations caused by the Assyrian armies in their dreadful career of conquest which terminated in the Babylonish captivity. The expressions of the passage just quoted are strong, and according to either interpretation given, convey a vivid idea of the calamities to be looked for, and which at a subsequent period fully realized the melancholy expectations to which the words of the prophet must have naturally given rise. The expres sion Alas! who shall live when God doeth this! being not definite but equivocal, is a direct appeal to the imagination, which is set at work rather upon the probable than the real, and the evils to be expected at the period referred to in the prophecy, are anticipated in the fullest excess of their amount. The solemnity of the question, and the manner in which the sacred name of God is employed, not only add to this solemnity, but greatly enhance the awful impression which the question is calculated to convey. The calamities to be apprehended are of such a terrible nature, that those whom they are appointed to overtake will scarcely be able to survive the visitation. The divine power will be fearfully manifest. Expressions which rather intimate than detail the accompaniments of all important events, are calculated to produce a much stronger effect by calling in the aid of the imagination to lend its colouring to those particulars, than mere literal descriptions, which formally state naked details without exciting any ulterior expectations, at once relieving the mind from the necessity of further exertion. The calamities to be inferred from the prophetic words— Alas! who shall live when God doeth this! are superlatively great, though not expressly enumerated; and whatever could be anticipated from them was fully effectuated in the event. Those expressions which imply the most momentous results, under whatever circumstances, always fill the mind with more lofty impressions of them, than when the particulars of such results are elaborately stated. This might be shown by a very simple example. Suppose I were describing the progress of an enemy, and were to say-They poured into the country from north to south, and how fearful was the devastation which ensued! No details could convey so awful a conviction of terrible havoc as the latter exclamation, because it would imply that the devastation was so great as to be indescribable; but the moment particulars are minutely entered upon, however horrible, the extent of the mischief being at once fully developed, this ascertained reality is far less dreadful than where an impression is left upon the imagination that it is so terrible as to baffle the powers of language to express. The prophet evidently felt the force of this, and therefore sums up the prediction against the Kenites in one mighty exclamation of indefinite, but emphatic allusion to some future catastrophe, terminating in dreadful issues. CHAPTER VII. Conclusion of Balaam's prophecies. AFTER having withdrawn his eyes from that part of the country where he had looked upon the Kenites, and foretold the end of that numerically small but hardy race, the prophet continued : And ships shall come from the coast of Chittim, And shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber; Bishop Patrick supposes the Greeks to be first intended by the word Chittim, and next, the Romans; each fulfilling the several portions of the prophecy. Both were the scourges of Asia. Bishop Newton says, "Balaam might here mean either Greece or Italy, or both, the particular names of those countries being at that time, perhaps, unknown in the east; and the passage may be better understood of both, because Greece and Italy were alike the scourges of Asia." Chittim was a general name for the countries and islands in the Mediterranean sea, according to Bishop Newton; but Calmet contends that the word refers simply to Macedonia; it is, however, generally believed, upon the authority of Josephus, that Chittim, to whose posterity this prophecy of Balaam undoubtedly refers, the son of Javan, the grandson of Noah, settled in Italy, as well as in Celicia, Macedonia, and Cyprus. Mr. Ainsworth, therefore, presumes that the prediction may imply both the troubles which befel the Assyrians and Jews by the Greeks and Seleucidæ, in the days of Antiochus. Although the passage is not without difficulty, the large majority of commentators concur in nearly the same interpretation. And shall afflict Asshur.. It is well known to the readers of ancient history, that the Assyrians were conquered by Alexander of Macedon, familiarly known as Alexander the Great, whose extraordinary conquests placed him in the van of the heroes of antiquity. He subdued all the countries under the government of this people, overthrowing the Persian empire, to which the Chaldeans and Assyrians were tributary. With an army of only thirty-two thousand foot and five thousand horse, this youthful hero invaded Asia, at a period of his life when men of his birth and station were generally undergoing that initiatory discipline which was to give them an insight into the science of arms. In an incredibly short space of time he conquered all the provinces of Asia Minor, took the celebrated city of Tyre after an obstinate siege of seven months, and made himself master of Egypt, Media, Syria, and Persia. He spread his conquests over India, |