elegant. However, they seem to have understood it rightly, as an allusion to the marks, which were made by punctures rendered indelible by fire, or by staining, upon the hand or some other part of the body, signifying the state or character of the person, and to whom he belonged: the slave was marked with the name of his master; the soldier, of his commander; the idolater, with the name or ensign of his god: στιγματα επιγραφομενα, δια των στρατευομε νων εν ταις χερσιν. Aetius apud Turnebum Advers. XXIV. 12. "Victuris in cute punctis milites scripti et matriculis inserti jurare solent." Vegetius, II. 5. And the Christians seem to have imitated this practice, by what Procopius says on this place of Isaiah: το δε ΤΗ ΧΕΙΡΙ, δια το στίζειν ισως πολλους επι καρπων, η βραχιόνων, η του σταυρού το σημείον, η την Χριστου προσηγορίαν. "Because many marked their wrists, or their arms, with the sign of the cross, or with the name of Christ." See Rev. xx. 4. Spencer, de Leg. Hebr. Lib. II. cap. 20. 7. let them declare unto us.] For, unto them, the Chaldee reads, unto us. The LXX read unto you; which is preferable to the reading of the text. But and are frequently mistaken one for the other: see chap. x. 29. Psal. lxxx. 7. lxiv. 6. 8. Fear ye not-]" nusquam occurrit: forte , timete." SECKER. Two MSS. read in. 9, 10. That every one may be ashamed, that he hath formed a god] The Bodleian MS. one of the first extant for its antiquity and authority, instead of at the beginning of the 10th verse has, which greatly clears up the construction of a very obscure passage. The LXX likewise closely connect in construction the end of ver. 9. with the beginning of ver. 10. and wholly omit the interrogative", which embarrasses the sentence: αισχυνθήσονται οι πλασσοντες Θεον, και γλύφοντες παντες ανωφέλη: agreeably to the reading of the MS. above-mentioned. 11. Even the workmen themselves shall blush] I do not know, that any one has ever yet interpreted these words to any tolerably good sense: non מארס The Vulgate, and our translators, have rendered them very fairly, as they are written and pointed in the text: "Fabri enim sunt ex hominibus." "And the workmen they are of men." Out of which the commentators have not been able to extract any thing worthy of the prophet. I have given another explanation of the place; agreeable enough to the context, if it can be deduced from the words themselves. I presume, that, rubuit, may signify erubuit, to be red through shame, as well as from any other cause; though I cannot produce any example of it in that particular sense : and the word in the text I would point ; or if any one should object to the irregularity of the number, I would read. But I rather think, that the irregularity of the construction has been the cause of the obscurity, and has given occasion to the mistaken punctuation. The singular is sometimes put for the plural; see Psal. Ixviii. 31. and the participle for the future tense; see Isa. lx. 11. 12. -cutteth off-] Typ Participium Pihel of y, to cut; still used in that sense in the Arabic. See Simonis Lex. Heb. The LXX, and Syr. take the word in this form; but they render it, sharpeneth the iron. See Castell. Lex. in voce. The sacred writers are generally large and eloquent upon the subject of idolatry: they treat it with great severity, and set forth the absurdity of it in the strongest light. But this passage of Isaiah, ver. 12-20. far exceeds any thing that ever was written upon the subject, in force of argument, energy of expression, and elegance of composition One or two of the apocryphal writers have attempted to imitate the prophet, but with very ill success: Wisd, xiii. 11-19. xv. 7, &c. Baruch, chap, vi. especially the latter; who, injudiciously dilating his matter, and introducing a number of minute circumstances, has very much weakened the force and effect of his invective. On the contrary a heathen author, in the ludicrous way, has, in a line or two, given idolatry one of the severest strokes it ever received: "Olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum ; Horat. 14. He heweth down-] For л, the LXX, and Vulg. read л, or . 16. And with part-] Twenty-three MSS. LXX, and Vulg. add the conjunction, by. 18. their eyes are closed up] The LXX, Chald. and Vulg. for ny, read no. See note on chap. vi. 10. 20. He feedeth on ashes] He feedeth on that which affordeth no nourishment: a proverbial expression for using ineffectual means, and bestowing labour to no purpose. In the same sense Hosea says, "Ephraim feedeth on wind." Chap. xii. 1. 22. I have made thy transgressions vanish away like a cloud, and thy sins like a vapour.] Longinus admired the sublimity of the sentiment, as well as the harmony of the numbers, in the following sentence of Demosthenes: Τουτο το ψήφισμα τον τότε τῇ πόλει περισταντα κινδυνον παρελθειν εποίησεν ώσπερ νεφος. "This decree made the danger then hanging over the city pass away like a cloud." τη 24. by myself] Thirteen MSS. (six ancient,) confirm the reading of the Keri, л. 27. Who saith to the deep, be thou wasted] Cyrus took Babylon by laying the bed of the Euphrates dry, and leading his army into the city by night through the empty channel of the river. This remarkable circumstance, in which the event so exactly corresponded with the prophecy, was also noted by Jeremiah : "A drought shall be upon her waters, and they shall be dried up :- -- I will lay her sea dry; And I will scorch up her springs." Jer. 1. 38. li. 36. It is proper here to give some account of the means and method, by which the stratagem of Cyrus was effected. The Euphrates in the middle of summer, from the melting of the snows on the mountains of Armenia, like the Nile, overflows the country. In order to diminish the inundation, and to carry off the waters, two canals were made by Nebuchadnezzar a hundred miles above the city; the first on the eastern side called Naharmalca, or the Royal River, by which the Euphrates was let into the Tigris; the other on the western side, called Pallacopas, or Naharaga, (, the River of the Pool,) by which the redundant waters were carried into a vast lake, forty miles square, contrived not only to lessen the inundation, but for a reservoir, with sluices, to water the barren country on the Arabian side. Cyrus, by turning the whole river into the lake by the Pallacopas, laid the channel, where it ran through the city, almost dry; so that his army entered it, both above and below, by the bed of the river, the water not reaching above the middle of the thigh. By the great quantity of water let into the lake, the sluices and dams were destroyed; and being never repaired afterward, the waters spread over the whole country below, and reduced it to a 282 morass, in which the river is lost. " Ingens modo et navigabilis, inde tenuis rivus, despectus emoritur ; et nusquam manifesto exitu effluit, ut alii omnes, sed deficit." Mela, III. 8. Herod. I. 185, 190. Xenophon. Cyrop. VII. Arrian. VII. 28. Who saith to Cyrus, thou art my shepherd] "Pastor meus es." Vulg. The true reading seems to be ; the word nn has probably been dropt out of the text. The same word is lost out of the text, Psal. cxix. 57. It is supplied by LXX by the word “. Ibid. Who saith to Jerusalem] For , LXX, and Vulg. read. Ibid. and to the temple] bon, as before; the preposition is necessary; and the Vulgate seems to read so. Houbigant. CHAP. XLV. 1. AND ungird the loins of kings] See note on chap. v. 27. Xenophon gives the following list of the nations conquered by Cyrus: the Syrians, Assyrians, Arabians, Cappadocians, both the Phrygians, Lydians, Carians, Phenicians, Babylonians. He moreover reigned over the Bactrians, Indians, Cilicians, the Sacæ, Paphlagones, and Mariandyni. Cyrop. Lib. I. p. 4. edit. Hutchinson, quarto. All these kingdoms he acknowledges, in his decree for the restoration of the Jews, to have been given to him by JEHOVAH, the God of heaven. Ezra i. 2. Ibid. That I may open before him the valves; and the gates shall not be shut.] The gates of Ba |