is known, except that it was a town of Gibeab, into whose borders the children of Israel passed next after they had destroyed Ai: but the craft of the Gibeonites did not now stand them in stead, as in the days of Joshua. Concerning Michmash, where he is said to have laid up his carriages, we have information given us in the xiv th chapter of the First Book of Samuel, where it is said (ver. 4), "between the passages, by which Jonathan sought to go over unto the Philistines' garrison, there was a sharp rock on the one side, and a sharp rock on the other side; and the name of the one was Bozez, and the name of the other Seneh. The fore front of the one was situated northward over against Michmash, and the other southward over against Gibeah." By which I understand, that there was at Michmash the gorge of a narrow pass amongst the mountains of Judah, which opened again towards the south at Geba. To this mountain pass allusion perhaps is made in the Apocryphal Book of Judith, iv. 7, in these words, charging them to keep the passages of the hill country, for by them there was an entrance into Judea; and it was easy to stop them who should come up, because the passage was strait for two men.' The Assyrian, having passed the Jordan, and overspread the plain country around Ai and Migron, would find himself at Michmash incumbered with the baggage and train of his army, which could not be taken through the defile without much loss of time; and, being instant in his purpose, a man of conquest, he leaves his carriages at Michmash, to follow him with what speed they might, and advances with his fighting men through the pass, which, entering in at Michmash, opened again into the plain country at Geba; and therefore it is next added, "They have taken up their lodging at Geba." This, as well as most of the other towns here mentioned, was of the tribe of Benjamin (Neh. xi. 31-33). We read, 1 Sam. xiii. 3, that Geba was a place of strength: "Jonathan smote the garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba." Now from this I should suppose that it was a fortified place, commanding the southern mouth of the pass; which in former times the Philistines had occupied, in order to prevent the land of Judah from receiving succour from the north. When, therefore, the Assyrians are said to have taken up their lodging at Geba, I should understand it to mean that there they encamped on the evening of the day he broke up from Michmash, to gather his forces before breaking loose upon the country around Jerusalem. Now the reason for which, as I believe, Michmash and Geba, with the circumstances of the Assyrian laying up his carriages in the one and his encamping at the other, are mentioned, is to give that extraordinary minuteness to the prophecy which might put it beyond all doubt as being from the Lord, when it should thus be found accomplished. It

points out, also, the wonderful security and degradation into which the men of Judah would be fallen, that they should not have manned the fastnesses of the country, and kept them against the invader. Thus always it is when God visits an apostate church with a scourge. Apostasy brings on the paralysis of faith and the destruction of foresight; and as a people who fear the Lord are insuperably brave, and a country which is united to serve the Lord is invincible; so a people who have forsaken the Lord do run into the way of destruction. They are given up, and left without the ordinary faculties of self-preservation. How was this lately exemplified in France at the Revolution, when her king and nobles, and all her established authorities, seemed by their follies but to feed the flame which burned them up root and branch. See also how it was exemplified in Italy, which Bonaparte burst in upon, through her undefended fastnesses, and overwhelmed her, as Sennacharib did Judah in the days of Isaiah. See also how Spain fell as a fool falleth, until the arm of Britain sustained and reared her up again. This I believe to be the true character of an apostasy, as distinguished from other forms of national wickedness: it unmans, unnerves, paralyses, aye, and petrifies a kingdom. Oh that men knew that God is the God of battles, and that from him is the spirit of victory!

"Ramah is afraid, Gibeah of Saul is fled." This Ramah, we know from 1 Kings xv. 16-22, was a place of strength, which commanded the passages out of the north unto Jerusalem; and it was fortified by Baasha king of Israel, for the very purpose of preventing all resort of his people thither. When, therefore, it is said that Ramah was afraid, a strong impression is conveyed of the terror which the Assyrian inspired as he came along, and of the lamentable weakness to which the people were brought. So, also, is it signified when it is said, next, "Gibeah of Saul is fled." It is called Gibeah of Saul, because Saul was born there, and afterwards made it his royal seat; whence it grew to be a place of consequence; standing on a hill, as the name imports, and therefore, perhaps, a place of strength.

“ Lift up [cry shrill with thy voice], O daughter of Gallim; cause it to be heard unto Laish, O poor Anathoth!" This is a beautiful apostrophe, finely diversifying the prophetic narrative; and teaching us how consistent with truth the most exquisite touches of art are in the word of God, and therefore well justifying them in the word of man. This Gallim was a city of Benjamin, which in the original signifies "heaps"—having its name, perhaps, from the hilly character of the country round. The "daughter of Gallim" is a common figure, to signify the people thereof; of which there is an example Isaiah i. 8. is invoked, and required to lift her voice up with shrillness, like one that mourneth over calamity suddenly experienced,

She

or like one that sees calamity ready to seize upon her: and Anathoth, which was a town of Benjamin, within a few miles of Jerusalem, the birth-place of Jeremiah, is invoked as "poor Anathoth," from the miserable calamity which was to come upon her; and she is required to reverberate the shriek of Gallim, until it shall be heard even unto Laish, the extreme north of the land of Canaan, the Cæsarea-Philippi of the New Testament. Now, to understand the beauty of this invocation of Anathoth, it is necessary to know that Anathoth in the original signifies responses; being compounded of two words, signifying The Place of the Echo; having no doubt obtained this name from some remarkable echoes in its neighbourhood. Lying to the south of Laish, the prophet puts a shriek into the mouth of the daughter of Laish, and calls upon the echoes of Anathoth to reverberate it to the extremities of the land. There is an elegance, as well as a sublimity, about this little apostrophe to the daughter of Gallim, which I could not pass without admiring, and holding up to the admiration of this matter-of-fact generation. As I said above, we are men of one faculty; schismatical in our taste, and understanding, as well as in our spirit: but the word of God is large and catholic; the pattern at once of the sublime and the simple, wonderful no less for its art than its truth. Oh what models of style in every kind this word containeth! I pity again the poverty of style, as well as of matter, which we its interpreters have fallen into; and for myself, I will ever take it for my model, as well of truth in the mind, as truth upon the tongue; truth of knowledge, as well as truth of word.

The description having been thus relieved, as well as strengthened, by the apostrophe to the daughter of Gallim proceeds onwards in the natural style in which it began, to describe the progress of the Assyrian's terror: "Madmenah is removed, the inhabitants of Gebim gather themselves to flee." The first of these was a town of Judah (Jos. xv. 31), which is said to be wholly removed out of its place-that is, utterly spoiled and wasted, and its inhabitants scattered abroad. Of Gebim nothing is known; for it is not mentioned elsewhere in the Scriptures, and therefore some have taken it in its literal signification of mountains—“the inhabitants of the mountains are fled"-as if pointing out to us the universal terror which this invasion would inspire, that it reached not to the inhabited cities only, but even to the scattered hamlets of the mountains: for the deluge was to "reach even to the neck, and to fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel."

And now we come to the last mentioned place in the progress of the Assyrian: "As yet shall he remain at Nob that day he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem." The Rabbis say

that Jerusalem might be seen from Nob; and the form of the language seems to require it. It lay west of Jerusalem, and was the place where David took refuge when he fled from the face of Saul (1 Sam. xxi. 9). It was a sacerdotal city, and is reckoned amongst the Levitical cities, Neh. xi. 32, where it is declared also to have been in the tribe of Benjamin. Here he is said to "remain that day"-literally, "Yet this day at Nob to stand (or stay)." Whether this means that another day would bring him to Nob, or that at Nob he would make his station for a time, and thence take measures against the city, I know not well, nor have we any means of ascertaining. Perhaps at that place he came first in view of Mount Zion; and therefore it is mentioned as the place at which he rested, and stayed the rapidity of his march, having now his victim full in view, against whom he shook his hand in threatening wrath. Why the words "that day" are here introduced, I can see no reason but this: that from Geba, where he lodged, at the mouth of the mountain passages, unto Nob, where he shook his hand against Mount Zion, was but the march of one day-that day, to wit, that very day, on which he broke up from Geba, and Ramah and Gibeah of Saul fled in consternation, and the daughter of Gallim shrieked in terror which poor Anathoth reverberated unto Laish-that day that Madmenah was removed, and the inhabitants of Gebim gathered themselves to flee, did he make his stand at Nob: he rested not till he came to Nob, from which he could behold the object of his expedition, and take measures against it; for the distance would be easily accomplished by one march of an invading army, not passing beyond twenty miles. Being thus understood, it gives great power and force to the whole passage, describing the terror, the flight, which went before him, nor stayed to resist, or even to meet, his approach. Most of these towns standing within a few miles of Jerusalem, whither the astonished population of the towns and villages and country would flee amain, we may well conceive what a day to be remembered that would prove; and how the prophecy which described it would, when thus fearfully fulfilled, have a power and an evidence of God's own finger, which nothing could resist. Thus it is that God prophesies. Not in the unintelligible hieroglyphics in which the opposers of prophetic interpretation idly and wickedly represent it to be written: no; it is written, as Belshazzar's doom was written, in letters of flaming light. Now, will these idlers say that the men of Jerusalem could not understand what this prophecy meant till after it was fulfilled? The truth is, the men who thus speak know not what they are speaking about; being as ignorant of the prophecies in detail, as they are of the Sybils' books, or the Vedas of the Brahmins, or the Koran of Mohammed. They have not read them with the view of interpreting them. They do not know what is in them;

and their judgments concerning them are worth just as much as their judgment concerning the laws of Confucius. These are strong words; but they are not strong enough to represent the perverse ignorance of the man, who will say that the prophecies of Scripture are not to be understood, nor yet to be sought into, till after they are fulfilled. The man that so speaks is worthy of excommunication from the church: it is blasphemy against God's holy word. But such ignorant speeches, believed by an ignorant generation of the church, are, in very truth, the only, or at least the chief, stumbling-block in the way of the church's knowledge of the prophetic word. And should such a lying, ruinous prejudice be spared? No; it ought to be torn to pieces, and scattered to the winds. It is the idol of ignorance, which ought to be pounded to powder, and cast into the running brooks. I love the church's safety more, I see the church's peril better, than to spare it. But our God alone can remove it; and to thee, O Lord, we look for help.

This most minute description of the Assyrian's march, introduced into the heart of the prophecy for the sake of attesting it, being brought to a close, the strain changeth, or rather resumeth, with the figurative language of a forest; which had been first introduced in the 17th, 18th, and 19th verses, and discontinued in order to give place for two other topics-the one, of the dispersion of Israel, from verse 20 to verse 24; the other, of the Assyrian king, from verse 24 to verse 33, at which we are now arrived. These variations of the predominant figure are not accidental, but introduced with much skill and effect, and carefully reverted to from time to time, all through the prophetic piece. Here, at verse 33, the predominant figure of the forest is introduced; and it is kept up, with less or more distinctness, until, at verse 1 of the next chapter, it gives place to the predominant figure or topic of the humble and righteous King; and at ver. 11, to that of the dispersion; and the strain gloriously concludes in chap. xii. with a song of triumph unto the Holy One of Israel, who had wrought for his people such wonderful deliverance. These four subjects-the forest of the Assyrian, the seed-royal of Jesse, the recovery of the dispersion, and their establishment in everlasting habitations-remain to be interpreted; but, ah me! it seems to my mind as if interpretation were an untwisting of the beautiful tissue of the Divine discourse, and a destroying of the grand and sublime effect of it as a whole. My interpretations are so inadequate to express my feeling of the beauty and the power of the Divine writing, that I must entreat my readers, that, after they have studied it along with the interpretation, they would lay the interpretation aside, and read it, and meditate it, and labour to attain to the feeling of the Divine poesy and heavenly harmony, which no prosaic interpretation can express.

Ver. 33: "Behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall lop the