silver and gold." DEUT. xvii. 16, 17. Uzziah seems to have followed the example of Solomon, (see 1 KINGS X. 26-29) who first transgressed in these particulars: he recovered the port of Elath on the Red Sea, and with it that commerce, which, in Solomon's days, had "made silver and gold as plenteous at Jerusalem as stones:" 2 CHRON. i. 15. He had an army of 307,500 men; in which, as we may infer from this testimony of Isaiah, the chariots and horse made a considerable part. "The law above mentioned was to be a standing trial of prince and people, whether they had trust and confidence in God their deliverer." See Bp. Sherlock's Discourses on Prophecy, Dissert. iv. where he has excellently explained the reason and effect of the law, and the influence which the observance or neglect of it had on the affairs of the Israelites.

8. And his hand is filled with idols] Uzziah and Jotham are both said, (2 Kings xv. 3, 4, and 34, 35.) “to have done that which was right in the sight of the Lord;" (that is, to have adhered to, and maintained, the legal worship of God, in opposition to idolatry, and all irregular worship; for to this sense the meaning of that phrase is commonly to be restrained ;) “save that the high places were not removed, where the people still sacrificed and burned incense." There was hardly any time, when they were quite free from this irregular and unlawful practice; which they seem to have looked upon as very consistent with the true worship of God; and which seems in some measure to have been tolerated, while the Tabernacle was removed from place to place, and before the temple was built. Even after the conversion of Manasseh, when he had removed the strange gods, and commanded Judah to serve JEHOVAH the God of Israel; it is added, "Nevertherless the people did sacrifice still on the high places, yet unto JEHOVAH their God only." 2 CHRON. Xxxiii. 17. The worshipping on the high places therefore does not necessarily imply idolatry: and from what is said of these two kings, Uzziah and Jotham, we may presume, that the public exercise of idolatrous worship was not permitted in their time. The idols therefore here spoken of must have been such as were designed for a private and secret use. Such probably were the Teraphim so often mentioned in Scripture; a kind of household gods, of human form, as it should seem, (see Sam. xix. 13. and compare GEN. xxxi. 34.) of different magnitude, used for idolatrous and superstitious purposes; particularly for divination, and as oracles, which they consulted for direction in their affairs.

9. shall be bowed down] This has reference to the preceding verse: they bowed themselves down to their idols; therefore shall they be bowed down and brought low under the avenging hand of God.

10. When he ariseth to strike the earth with terror] On the authority of LXX. confirmed by the Arabic, and an ancient MS. I have here added to the text a line, which in the 19th and 21st verses is repeated together with the preceding line, and has, I think, evidently been omitted by mistake in this place. The MS. here varies only in one letter from the reading of the

הארץ instead of בארץ other two verses : it has

11. -be humbled] "For now, read nw bow." Dr. DURELL. Which rectifies the grammatical construction.

13-16. Even against all the cedars-] These verses afford us a striking example of that peculiar way of writing, which makes a principal charac teristic of the parabolical or poetical style of the Hebrews, and in which their prophets deal so largely namely, their manner of exhibiting things divine, spiritual, moral, and political, by a set of images taken from things natural, artificial, religious, historical; in the way of metaphor or allegory. Of these nature furnishes much the largest and most pleasing share; and all poetry has chiefly recourse to natural images, as the richest and most powerful source of illustration. But it may be observed of the Hebrew poetry in particular, that in the use of such images, and in the application of them in the way of illustration or ornament, it is more regular and constant than any other poetry whatever; that it has, for the most part, a set of images appropriated in a manner to the explication of certain subjects. Thus you will find, in many other places beside this before us, that cedars of Libanus and oaks of Basan are used, in the way of metaphor and allegory, for kings, princes, potentates, of the highest rank; high mountains and lofty hills, for kingdoms, republics, states, cities; towers and fortresses, for defenders and protectors, whether by counsel or by strength, in peace or war; ships of Tarshish, and works of art and invention employed in adorning them, for merchants, men enriched by commerce, and abounding in all the luxuries and elegancies of life; such as those of Tyre and Sidon; for it appears from the course of the whole passage, and from the train of ideas, that the fortresses and the ships are to be taken metaphorically, as well as the high trees and the lofty mountains.

Ships of Tarshish are in Scripture frequently used by a metonymy for ships in general, especially such as are employed in carrying on traffic between distant countries; as Tarshish was the most celebrated mart of those times, frequented of old by the Phenicians, and the principal source of wealth to Judea and the neighbouring countries. The learned seem now to be perfectly well agreed, that Tarshish is Tartessus, a city of Spain, at the mouth of the river Bæotis; whence the Phenicians, who first opened this trade, brought silver and gold, (JER. X. 9. EZEK. XXVii. 12,) in which that country then abounded; and pursuing their voyage still further to the Cassiterides, (Bochart. Canaan, 1, cap. 39. Huet, Hist. de Commerce, p. 194,) the islands of Scilly and Cornwal, they brought from thence lead and

tin.

Tarshish is celebrated in Scripture, (2 CHRON. viii. 17, 18, ix. 21,) for the trade which Solomon carried on thither, in conjunction with the Tyrians. Jehosaphat (1 KINGS xxii. 48. 2 CHRON. xx. 36,) attempted afterward to renew that trade: and from the account given of his attempt it appears, that his fleet was to sail from Eziongeber on the Red sea: they must therefore have designed to sail round Africa, as Solomon's fleet probably had done before; (see Huet, Histore de Commerce, p. 32,) for it was a three years voyage; (2 CHRON. ix. 21,) and they brought gold from 0

66

phir, probably on the coast of Arabia, silver from Tartessus, and ivory, apes, and peacocks, from Africa. 8, Afri, Africa, the Roman termination, Africa terra, wwn, some city or country, in Africa. So Chald. on 1 KINGS xxii. 49, where he renders wwn by mpx; and compare 2 CHRON. XX. 36, from whence it appears, that to go to Ophir and to Tarshish is one and the same thing." Dr. JUBB. It is certain, that under Pharaoh Necho, about two hundred years afterward, this voyage was made by the Egyptians. (Herodot. iv. 42.) They sailed from the Red sea, and returned by the Mediterranean, and they performed it in three years; just the same time that the voyage under Solomon had taken up. It appears likewise from Pliny, (Nat. Hist. ii. 67,) that the passage round the Cape of Good Hope was known and frequently practised before his time; by Hanno the Carthaginian, when Carthage was in its glory; by one Eudoxus, in the time of Ptolemy Lathyrus king of Egypt; and Cælius Antipater, an historian of good credit, somewhat earlier than Pliny, testifies, that he had seen a merchant, who had made the voyage from Gades to Ethiopia. The Portuguese under Vasco de Gama, near three hundred years ago, recovered this navigation, after it had been intermitted and lost for many centuries.

18. -shall disappear] The ancient versions, and an ancient MS. read b, plural.

19-21. into caverns of rocks-] The country of Judea, being mountainous and rocky, is full of caverns; as it appears from the history of David's persecution under Saul. At Engedi, in particular, there was a cave so large, that David with six hundred men hid themselves in the sides of it; and Saul entered the mouth of the cave without perceiving that any one was there, (1 SAM. xxiv.) Josephus (Antiq. lib. xiv. cap. 15, and Bell. Jud. lib. i, cap. 16,) tells us of a numerous gang of banditti, who, having infested the country, and being pursued by Herod with his army, retired into certain caverns, almost inaccessible, near Arbela in Galilee, where they were with great difficulty subdued. Some of these were natural, others artificial. "Beyond Damascus, (says Strabo, lib. xvi.) are two mountains called Trachones; [from which the country has the name of Trachonitis] and from hence, towards Arabia and Iturea, are certain rugged mountains, in which there are deep caverns; one of which will hold four thousand men." Tavernier (Voyage de Perse, part ii. ch. 4,) speaks of a grot, between Aleppo and Bir, that would hold near three thousand horse. "Three hours distant from Sidon, about a mile from the sea, there runs along a high rocky mountain; in the sides of which are hewn a multitude of grots, all very little differing from each other. They have entrances about two foot square: on the inside you find in most or all of them a room of about four yards square. There are of these subterraneous caverns two hundred in number. It may, with probability at least, be concluded that these places were contrived for the use of the living, and not of the dead. Strabo describes the habitations of the Troglodyte to have been somewhat of this kind." Maundrell, p. 118. The Horites, who

BB

2

dwelt in Mount Seir, were Troglodytes, as their name imports. But those mentioned by Strabo were on each side of the Arabian gulph. Mohammed (Koran, chap. xv. and xxvi.) speaks of a tribe of Arabians, the tribe of Thamud, "who hewed houses out of the mountains, to secure themselves." Thus, "because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and caves, and strong holds." (JUD. vi. 2.) To these they betook themselves for refuge in times of distress, and hostile invasion: "When the men of Israel saw that they were in a straight, (for the people were distressed,) then the people did hide themselves, in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks, and in high places, and in pits." (1 SAM. xiii. 6, and see JER. xli. 9.) Therefore "to enter inte the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth," was to them a very proper and familiar image to express terror and consternation. The prophet Hosea hath carried the same image further, and added great strength and spirit to it: chap. x. 8.

"They shall say to the mountains, Cover us;

And to the hills, Fall on us.”

Which image, together with these of Isaiah, is adopted by the sublime author of the Revelation, (chap. vi. 15, 16.) who frequently borrows his imagery from our prophet.

20. —which they have made to worship-] The word 15, for himself, is omitted by an ancient MS. and is unnecessary. It does not appear, that any copy of LXX. has it, except MS. Pachom. and MS. i. D. ii. and they have laurois, nb, plural.

Ibid. to the moles-] They shall carry their idols with them into the dark caverns, old ruins, or desolate places, to which they shall flee for refuge; and so shall give them up, and relinquish them to the filthy animals that frequent such places, and have taken possession of them as their prop er habitation. Bellonius, Greaves, P. Lucas, and many other travellers, speak of bats of an enormous size, as inhabiting the Great Pyramid. See Harmer, Observ. vol. ii. 455. Three MSS. express ; the moles, as one word.

CHAP. III.

1. Every stay and support.-] Heb. " the support masculine, and the support feminine:" that is, every kind of support, whether great or small, strong or weak. "Al kanitz, wal-kanitzah; the wild beast, male and female. Proverbially applied both to fishing and hunting: i. e. I seized the prey, great or little, good or bad. From hence, as Schultens observes, is explained, Is. iii. 1. literally the male and female stay: i. e. the strong and weak, the great and small." Chappelow, note on Hariri, Assembly i. Compare ECCLES. ii. 8.

The two following verses, 2, 3, are very clearly explained by the sacred historian's account of the event, the captivity of Jehoiachin by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon: "And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the

princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land." 2 KINGS xxiv. 14.

4. I will make boys their princes-] This also was fully accomplished in the succession of weak and wicked princes, from the death of Josiah to the destruction of the city and temple, and the taking of Zedekiah, the last of them, by Nebuchadnezzar.

6. of his father's house.] For na, the ancient interpreters seem to have read an: TH OIKEIN TO WATRIS AUru: LXX. domesticum patris sui : VUL. which gives no good sense. (But LXX. MS. i. D. ii. for I, has IX.) And, his brother, of his father's house, is little better than a tautology. The case seems to require, that the man should apply to a person of some sort of rank and eminence; one that was the head of his father's house; (see Josh, xxii. 14.) whether of the house of him, who applies to him, or of any other; WN. I cannot help suspecting therefore, that the word waƊ has been lost out of the text.

Ibid. -saying-] Before nbpw, garment, two MSS. (one ancient) and the Babylonish Talmud, have the word ; and so LXX. VULG. SYB. CHALD. I place it, with Houbigant, after ¡bow.

Ibid. take by the garment.] That is, shall intreat him in an humble and supplicating manner. "Ten men shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew; saying: let us go with you; for we have heard that God is with you." ZECH. viii. 23. And so in Isaiah, chap. iv. 1. the same gesture is used to express earnest and humble intreaty. The behaviour of Saul towards Sammel was of the same kind, when he laid hold on the skirt of his raiment : 1 SAM. xv. 27. The preceding and following verses shew, that his whole deportment, in regard to the prophet, was full of submission and humility.

Tbid. And let thy hand support-] Before Tт лпл a MS. adds nn; another MS. adds in the same place pn, which latter seems to be a various reading of the two preceding words, making a very good sense; "take into thy hand our ruinous state." Twenty one MSS. and three editions, and the Babylonish Talmud, have TT, plural.

7. Then shall he openly declare-—] The LXX. Syr. and Jerom. read xw, adding the conjunction; which seems necessary in this place.

Ibid. For in my house is neither bread nor raiment.] "It is customary through all the east," says Sir John Chardin, “ to gather together an immense quantity of furniture and clothes; for their fashions never alter.” Princes and great men are obliged to have a great stock of such things in readiness for presents upon all occasions. "The kings of Persia," says the same author, "have great wardrobes, where there are always many hun