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II. 5. - draw out a line, &c. ; i. e. shall not measure a portion; i. e.
the land shall be wholly taken from them and be possessed by foreign-

ers.

9.-glory, &c.; i. e. good apparel, or glorious land.

IV. 8. -tower of the flock, &c.

The parallelism seems to show that
the expression denotes a tower on Zion, or Zion itself. The flock is the
people of God. See Jer. xiii. 17.

13.-hoofs brass, &c.

Here is an allusion to the mode of thrashing

described in the note on Amos i. 3.

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V. 1. Yet now gather, &c. ; i. e. O Jerusalem, to defend thyself
against a siege. O people of troops, &c.; lit. daughter of troops. So
daughter of Zion denotes inhabitants of Zion, referring to the predatory
bands which frequently issued from Jerusalem.

66

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2.- small to be among the thousands; i. e. to be one of those bodies,
or divisions, over which chiliarchs, or captains of thousands, presided.
-origin. The noun thus translated is derived from the verb rendered
kings shall come out of thee." Gen. xvii. 6.
ancient age. In Is.
xxiii. 7, the original phrase is used to denote the antiquity of the city
of Tyre. It is the same which is translated of old in ch. vii. 20, re-
ferring to the promises of God to the ancestors of the Jews. - days of
old. This is the literal meaning of the Hebrew. The original expres
sion is precisely the same as that which is thus translated in ch. vii. 14
and Is. Ixiii. 9, 11; Mal. iii. 4; Deut. xxxii. 7. Nor is the expres-
sion ever used in the Old Testament to denote absolute eternity.

4.

5.

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-Astartes; i. e. images of Astarte.

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seven, eight; i. e. an abundance of defenders. See Eccl. xi. 2.
7. dew, &c. ; i. e. they shall be multiplied and shall flourish under
the care of God, without aid from man.

9. Thy hand. Supply O Israel!

VI. 2.

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- contendeth; i. e. as a party before a court of justice.
6. Wherewith, &c. The prophet represents the people as replying
to the expostulation of Jehovah.

14.

16.

-remove; i. e. thy children, goods, &c.

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the reproach of my people; i. e. the same injurious treatment of
which ye were once guilty to my people, ye shall yourselves receive
from the heathen.

VII. 1.-first-ripe fig; i. e. fruit of the best kind, and the object of
strongest desire. The meaning seems to be, "I long to see a good
man as ardently as, before the time of figs, one desires those which
may here and there be found ripe."

7. I will look, &c. The prophet scems to speak here in the person
of the people.

11.

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the decree; i. e. the oppressive tribute, decreed by their ene-
mics; or, it may be, all the tyrannical decrees of their oppressors. Oth-

erwise, In that day shall the limits be extended; i. e. of the walls of the city, so as to make room for the vast numbers which should come to Jerusalem.

NOTES ON NAHUM.

Or the circumstances of Nahum's life nothing is known, except that he was a native of Elkosh (ch. i. 1), a village of Galilee, the ruins of which were shown to Jerome, as he informs us, Proam. in Com. in Nah. A much less probable opinion is that Elkosh was a village in Assyria, situated not far from Nineveh. As to the time in which this prophet flourished, the most common and most probable opinion, gathered from the contents of the admirable little poem, the only production of his which has come down to us, seems to me to be, that he lived during the reign of Manassch, whilst the tribe of Judah was yet in their own country, and after the captivity of the ten tribes. See i. 12-15; ii. 1, 2. The majority of recent critics, however, agree with Jerome in referring Nahum's ministry to the latter part of the reign of Hezekiah. The point of time when the prophecy was written is supposed by some to be immediately after the destruction of Sennacherib's host near Jerusalem. (2 Kings xix. 35.) As the prophet makes no allusion to this event, Maurer places it a little earlier, viz. when Sennacherib sent his threatening message to Hezekiah. (2 Kings xviii. 9; xix. 10, &c.) But this is conjecture. He predicts the deliverance of his country from the Assyrians, and the destruction of Nineveh, the capital city of their enemies. This destruction he sets forth as determined against them by God, in the language of poetry, not of history. He does not indicate the manner in which, or the nation by which, the destruction of Nineveh was to be effected.

What he

Nahum stands in the very first rank of the Hebrew poets. has left constitutes a complete and regular poem, distinguished by a certain classic elegance, which shows that care and study were united with genius in its production. His description is extremely vivid, and his language rich and forcible, and abounding in beautiful images.

ces.

I. 2. —keepeth indignation : i. e. remembers and punishes their offenSee Ps. ciii. 9; Jer. iii. 12.

4.-flower of Lebanon; i. e. the growth or cedars of Lebanon.

8.

- her place; i. e. of Nineveh.

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- darkness: a common metaphor,

denoting destruction. See Job xv. 22, &c.

9.- against Jehovah; i. e. by warring against his people and his holy city, Jerusalem. Not the second time; i. e. her destruction shall be completed by the first blow. See 1 Sam. xxvi. 8.

10.- entangled, &c.; i. e. in inextricable difficulty, staggering in

their purposes.

11.-one. Some suppose a particular Assyrian king to be denoted, as Tiglathpileser, &c.; others, the Assyrian kings successively.

12.thee; i. e. Judah.

14.- concerning thee; i. e. the king of Assyria. — be sown; i. e. thy race shall become extinct.

II. 1. Guard the fortress, &c. The Ninevites are ironically exhorted o prepare for defence.

3. veh.

5.

- his mighty men: the army which should come against Nin

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- He calleth, &c.; i. e. the Assyrian king calls for his warriors to 'efend the wall, who through haste and trepidation stumble on their way. -mantelet: a machine, similar to the vineæ, or testudines, of the Lomans, i. e. movable sheds, under cover of which the besiegers made their assaults. See Ivanhoe, Ch. XXVII. note.

6.

-

The gates of rivers: a metaphor denoting the great number of the inhabitants of Nineveh which passed through, or the great number of enemies which now streamed or flowed into them. Comp. Is. ii. Some understand rivers as denoting canals running from the Tigris through the city, the gates of which canals being removed, the city would be inundated and the palace destroyed.

2.

7. Huzzab is uncovered; i. e. insulted, treated like a prostitute. See Is. xlvii. 2, 3. It seems probable that Huzzab is a proper name, that of the queen of Nineveh. Gesenius understands the term as a participle from ring to Nineveh.

y, and translates it and is made to flow down, referOthers derive the word from y, translating it, It

is decreed; she is uncovered, &c. The whole will thus refer to Nineveh. In favor of the rendering which I have adopted, making the term the proper name of the queen of Nineveh, is the consideration that maidservants, that is female slaves, are mentioned in connection with her. If Nineveh itself were denoted, why are female slaves specially introduced?

8.

10.

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·a a poa, &c.; i. e. very populous.

od &c. The original is strongly emphatic. The words are of the same sound, forming what is called a paronomasia. They increase in length, as they point out great, greater, and greatest desolation. Bukah, unukah, u-mebullakah.

11.- lions, &c; i. e. Where is Nineveh, whose inhabitants were as bold and rapacious as lions, and which was as full of plunder as a lion's den of ravin?

III. 3.

+.

lightning of the spear. Comp. Hom. Il. X. 154, XI. 65. sold nations by or whoredoms; i. c. by her intercourse or alliances with foreign nations, she brought them into subjection to her. 5.- over thy face. 1 e metaphor is borrowed from the mode of punishing prostitutes in incient times, viz. to strip them naked, or

throw their clothes over their heads, and thus expose them to public execration.

8.- No-Ammon. By this name is undoubtedly denoted ancient Thebes, the splendid metropolis of ancient Egypt, called by the Greeks Diospolis, and celebrated by Homer (Il. IX. 383) as the city of a hundred gates, ékaтóμνλоι The name No-Ammon was given to it from the circumstance that it was the chief seat of the worship of Jupiter Ammon; No-Ammon denoting the portion or possession of Ammon. The grandeur of its temples, obelisks, statues, &c. is apparent from its ruins, which are still the wonder of the world. When and by whom the destruction of Thebes here alluded to took place, is uncertain. Gesenius supposes that it was effected by Tartan, the general of Sargon, king of Assyria, about seven hundred and sixteen years before Christ. See Is. xx. The Nile is called the sea.

11.—drink, &c.; i. e. of the cup of misery or punishment. den; i. e. unknown, as if thou hadst never existed. 18.-shepherds; i. e. rulers, prefects.

-hid

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NOTES ON ZEPHANIAH.

THE first verse in the prophecy of Zephaniah gives us all the knowledge we have of him, viz. that he lived in the reign of Josiah, 642-611 A. C., and that he was descended from ancestors whose names are there mentioned. The particular enumeration of his ancestors may have been owing to their eminence, or may have been introduced to distinguish him from the other Zephaniah. That he was a descendant of King Hezekiah is not probable. Of his life and character we have no information.

The book of Zephaniah consists of two pieces, one included in ch. i., ., and the other in ch. iii. Both however relate to the same subject, and contain threatenings against the corrupt and idolatrous Jews, and exhortations to amendment, followed by predictions of the destruction of the principal enemies of the Jewish nation and of its restoration to a state of peace and prosperity.

I. 4.—priests; i. e. those who were of the race of Aaron, and professed to be priests of Jehovah.

5.—their idol; lit. their king, i. e. Moloch. Comp. Amos v. 26. 7.- his guests. This may be understood of birds and beasts of prey, which should feast themselves upon the dead bodies of the slain; or, less probably, of the enemies of the Jews, the Babylonians.

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8.-foreign apparel. There is no need of supposing an idolatrous practice to be denoted. The prophet refers to the dissipated and proud, who adopted the dress of foreign nations.

9. -over the threshold. The connection seems to show that this expression denotes breaking into houses by violence. It is said that the Arabs used actually to ride into houses for plunder. Others explain it as denoting the Philistines, in reference to a custom mentioned in 1 Sam. v. 5.

12. -on their lees. The thoughtless tranquillity of the rich is compared to the fixed, unbroken surface of fermented liquors.

II. 2.-like chaff; i. e. swiftly as chaff driven by the wind; otherwise, The day, i. e. time, passeth away like chaff.

5.-nation of the Cherethites; probably in the southern part of Philistia. See Ges. Lex. ad verb., and Ros. on Ezek. xxv. 16.

14.

A cry, &c.; i. e. of some hideous bird.

III. 8. Therefore wait for me, &c. This is an ironical threat that punishment should surely come.

11.—not be ashamed; i. e. thy guilt and thy punishment shall cease. — exalt thyself; i. e. against me; thou shalt no more be proud, contemning my laws.

NOTES ON HABAKKUK.

RESPECTING the life of Habakkuk, and the time in which he lived, we have no historical record. The story, in the apocryphal part of Daniel, that he brought food to Daniel in the lion's den, is sufficiently refuted by its fabulous aspect, and especially by its inconsistency with the contents of this poem. From these we may infer, with considerable probability, that he lived not far from the beginning of the Chaldæan period, when the poet saw the growing power of the Chaldæans, and in his mind's eye discerned the calamities which his country was to receive from them. Ch. i. 6. The actual destruction of the Jewish nation is not referred to or implied in any part of the poem. The most common and by far the most probable opinion in regard to the date of the prophecy is, that it was delivered in the reign of Jehoiakim, A. C. 606-604. The prophet was therefore a contemporary of Jeremiah. Jahn argues from ch. i. 2-4, which he considers as a description of Jewish immorality, that he must have lived in the early part of the reign of Manasseh. I think he is mistaken in the application of

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