to God in the way of worship and supplication. So the verb is used, Ch. iii. 22. Ibid. among all the wisest of the nations--]am ipɔm-bba--These words may signify, either all those nations which were most distinguished for the cultivation and improvement of their rational faculties; or else those sage individuals among them, from whose learning and philosophy some better notions of God and religion might have been expected, than from the rude and illiterate vulgar. And yet the fact was, that all their boasted wisdom and knowledge had failed of leading them to an object of worship, in any degree corresponding with the infinite perfections and majesty of the divine nature. 8. But they, when they approach] ---It can hardly be doubt אתת ; ובאתת we should by a slight alteration read ובאחת ed that for or in being the infinitive of nx, the verb used just before in the preceding verse. See the last note but one. The contrast is thus strongly marked between the true God, and the objects of heathen superstition. The servants of the former, when they approached him in their devotions, could not help being impressed with a reverential awe of a being so transcendently glorious. But those who drew near to worship the latter, manifested the greatest stupidity in not discovering what was so obvious to common apprehension, the gross unworthiness of the objects, to whom their adorations were addressed. Ibid. The very wood itself being a rebuker of vanities] The true meaning and force of this passage seems to have escaped the notice of all the Commentators. in properly signifies recufying or correcting a false notion by just reproof; and by vanities are meant idols, so called from their being of no real use or advantage to those who had recourse to their assistance. And this unprofitableness of the idol the very dull and senseless matter, says the prophet, out of which it was formed, is capable of demonstrating. But the "rebuke," strictly speaking, is not directed to the idol, but to those who had not sense to perceive, that all the efforts of human art could never change an inanimate log of wood into an animated being, possessed of power and intelligence far surpassing the person, from whom its origin was derived. There is therefore an energy and pointedness in this short sentence, at least equal, in my opinion, to whatever has been said upon the same subject by the most spirited writer, whether sacred or profane. Not even the keen raillery of the Roman Satirist in those celebrated lines, Olim truncus eram ficulnus, &c. (Hor. Sat. Lib. I. Sat. viii. 1.) though in a more ludicrous stile, cuts with greater severity. 9.--and gold from Uphaz] For ND the Syr. Chald. and Theodotion render "from Ophir ;" but whether they read in their copies DINA, or supposed DN and D to be the same name, though a little varied in the spelling, which in proper names is not uncommon; or whether Uphaz be the name of some other place famous for its mart of gold, is not very easy to determine. One or other of these however I think more likely to have been the case, than that DN denoted gold of any particular species or quality; which latter seems to have been the opinion of Jerome, who says that I was one of the seven names by which gold was distinguished among the Hebrews. That D may have been such, I am not at all inclined to dispute, as it may signify very properly gold of the most compact kind, and consequently having the least mixture of alloy. And supposing it to be so, it may account אופיר or אופר with some degree of probability for the corruption of into 1518; the former being accounted the country from whence the finest gold was imported, which had also the name of given it for its quality; and so from a jumble of both together the word p may have proceeded. Perhaps the text might have been originally, D1 "And gold from Ophir, even the finest gold." This would renter both the metre and the parallelism of the lines more perfect; and at the same time the similiarity of the last word to the three letters immediately preceding would easily account for the mistake of a transcriber. ,וזהב מאופר Ibid. Blue and purple is their clothing] The splendour and magnificence of dress seems among the ancients to have consisted very much in the richness of the colours; the art of dying which to perfection was esteemed a matter of great skill, being known and practised by very few. The excellency of the Tyrian purple is celebrated by both sacred and profane authors. And the blue, which from many passages of Scripture we find to have been in great request, was also imported from remote countries as an article of elegant and expensive luxury. See Ezek. xxvii. 7, 24. Ibid. The work of the skilful all of them] If in the preceding verse the significancy of the idols was argued from the vile and perishable matter out of which they were composed; the same is inferred in this from their being indebted to the art and labour of man for all their costly ornaments, their splendid outward shew. In short "the whole of them," says the prophet, internal and external, " is the work of skilful men. 99 And so says the prophet Hosea, Ch. xiii. 2. "the work of craftsmen entirely." Upon what ground then could the thing formed pretend to a nature more excellent than its former ! 10. he is truly God] nnx is here used adverbially. The margin of our Bible renders, "a God of truth;" but in that case should have been in statu regiminis, N. See Ch. xiv. 13. 11. In this manner shall ye speak unto them] This verse is omitted in one MS. and to speak my mind freely, I cannot help questioning the authenticity of it, not only on account of the singularity of its being written in Chaldee, at a time too, when the people, not having left their own land, had not yet begun to make use of that dialect; but also because it breaks in upon and interrupts the course of the argument, which, it is manifest, would proceed more regularly and smoothly without it. It seems probable to me, that some public teacher during the captivity, deducing it by direct inference from the prophet's words, had it inserted in the margin, and perhaps usually read together with this section of the prophecy in the assemblies of the people, in order that the common people might have their answer always ready, whenever they were molested on the point of religion, or importuned to join in the idolatrous worship of the Chaldeans. The LXX. and Syr, interpreters seem to have been conscious of the interruption given to the sense by the interpolation of this verse, having added a word answerable to at the beginning of ver. 12. for a subject of the verbs. But no trace of such a word appears in any of the Hebrew copies. 13.-from the extremity of the earth] Twenty five MSS. and four Editions read with the Masora, pan; and four MSS. have a letter erased before prx. By "the extremity of the earth" is here meant the Horizon. 14. Every man becometh a brute by acknowledging] Both n and on I take to be verbs in the infinitive mood with the particle prefixed. In our English Bible D is also considered as a noun with the affix, "his molten image ;" but this the LXX. Syr. and Chald. have more rightly represented as a verb; and To signifies not only to pour out melted metal, as the founder doth; but to anoint or consecrate a person to an office by pouring oil upon him; See Ps. ii. 6. And both here and Isa. xliv. 10. it signifies to 66 set up," or "dedicate," an image for religious worship. The last cited passage with the verse that follows it I look upon to be so nearly parallel in sense to the verse under consideration, that they seem to throw light mutually upon each other. And as Bp. Lowth, in his annotations upon Isa. xliv. 10, 11. hath observed that some part of these verses has never yet been interpreted to any tolerably good sense, and it is my chance not entirely to coincide with that learned Prelate in his interpretation of them, I shall beg leave to offer with all due deference what appears to me a more suitable translation of them. 10 Who hath formed a God? Or set up a graven image, that profiteth not? 11 Behold all that are connected with it shall be ashamed ; They shall assemble all of them; they shall stand forth; They shall fear, they shall be ashamed at the same time. that is, while they stand before the image they have set up, and worship it with a religious dread, the glaring absurdity of their conduct. shall tend to their shame and disgrace. 15.-of those that greatly err] nyn-The reduplication of on the participle in Kal from, to err, seems emphatically to imply a multiplication of errors; or 'persons more than simply gone astray. "The 16.-the portion of Jacob] Upon the principles of heathen theology every nation was committed to the care and superintendency of its own tutelary God; who might with propriety be stiled its "portion," on account of the peculiar relation that subsisted between them. portion of Jacob" therefore is the same as the God of Jacob, he who had taken upon himself the guardianship and protection of that family. But he was distinguished from all the rest, who, as before observed, were falsehood and vanity all of them, having no other existence than Nn as lifeless images, the work of deluded men ; whereas he was the creator of the universe, of all that exists; and that there might be no room to mistake the Being intended, he is further characterized as he who had made choice of Israel for the special object of his concern, had marked him out for his own possession, as with a measuring rod; and to whom the name of JEHOVAH belonged. 17. Gather up thine effects out of the land] The person here addres sed under a female character most probably means the same as the daughter of Sion, that is, the community of citizens resident in Jerusalem, justly stiled "a fortress," or strong hold; for so it was. These are required to collect together all their goods for packing, like persons about to change their place of abode; and the reason assigned in the next verse shews, that hereby is meant a preparing of themselves to go into captivity; because the enemy is represented as driving the inhabitants of the country before him with slings from one post to another, till being reduced at last to the utmost distress in a place no longer tenable, they are taken, and carried away into servitude in a foreign land; the usual fate of prisoners of war in those days. See Ezek. xii. 3. Hence also we see the connection and ground of the foregoing exhortations against idolatrous conformity; forasmuch as the people would soon be found in such circumstances, as would minister frequent temptations to such a practice. Ibid. O thou that dwellest-] For naw the Masoretes rightly read naw, which is conformable, to eight MSS. and one Edition ; besides sixteen MSS. and the first printed Bible, which read naw 18.at this time] x -This implies that though they had been often saved by God's providence from hostile attacks, they would however on this occasion find it otherwise. 19. Wo is me, &c.] In this and the following verses the Prophet seems by anticipation to suggest motives of patience and consolation to his country in regard to the evils that were coming upon her. These he puts into her own mouth, and makes her observe first, that her affliction, though great, was such as by experience she found to be tolerable: secondly, that she had less reason to complain of what she suffered, as it was no other than might have been expected from the misconduct of those who had the direction of her affairs and lastly, that she was not without hope in the mercy of God, who upon the humble supplication of his people might be moved to mitigate their chastisement, and to turn his hand against the heathen that oppressed them. Ibid. —yet I have borne it] NWN-The conversive requires the time past. signifies some 22. Hark a noise! behold, it advanceth--] thing audible or to be heard, " a bruit," or "noise ;" which is explained in the following hemistich to be that of the tumultuary invasion of the Chaldeans from the north, of which notice had been repeatedly given see Ch. i. 15. iv. 6. v. 15. vi. 22. Perhaps the same thing is meant by the words na mbian Sip, Ch. xi. 16. Our English transla tion cannot be right, which makes p the subject of N2, though of a different gender. But up is an independent member of the sentence, and should be rendered by itself "Hark a noise!" or more literally, "The voice or sound of a noise !" Sop is frequently used to denote a thing to be already within hearing; as Cant. ii. 8. Isa. xl. 3. lxvi. 6. The subject of is the pronoun substitute of , not expressed, but virtually contained in the verb. 23. I know JEHOVAH that his way is not like that of men] DR DURELL hath thus explained this passage. "The meaning of this verse according to our English version seems to be, that all events are under the direction of God's providence, which man cannot counteract. But I think the text may admit of another sense, rather more connected with the context, thus, "I know with respect to JEHOVAH, that his way is not like that of a mortal; that he doth not walk, nor direct “his step, like a man.” This construction is justified by the most common of all Hebrew idioms; and is often used as a particle of comparison; See Noldius-The sense here proposed is parallel to several other passages of Scripture, and is adopted by the Syriac Version. And upon the ground of this sentiment it is, that the daughter of Sion (whom I here suppose to be the speaker) builds her confidence of mercy in God's chastisements." DR DURELL. 24.-only with moderation] In the preceding verse the speaker, having professed a satisfactory belief that she had not to do with such a weak, peevish, and vindictive being as man, here humbly intreats Almighty God to deal out his corrections in such a moderate degree, as to shew that he aimed at the amendment, and not the destruction of the offender. own properly signifies that "calm and dispassionate judgment, ," which stands opposed to the hasty sallies of anger and furious revenge. And though the latter cannot actually exist in God, it is sometimes however nominally attributed to him, whenever the effects of his displeasure are so violent, as to stop nothing short of utter ruin; although such a proceeding may be justifiable upon the most solid principles of reason and equity. As therefore to punish with anger implies an unrelenting rigour and severity: so to correct, with judgment admits the use of such moderation, as is consistent with the sinner's personal safety, whilst it promotes his reformation. 25. they have devoured Jacob, and consumed him] The LXX. and one MS. omit 1, and, I think, rightly. There appears no elegance in the repetition of ; and besides it is not conformable to the Hebrew Syntax, which would have required the future tense .ויכלהו as we find ויאכלהו or ויאכלוהו,conversive ו after the The interpolation doubtless arose from the similarity of the following verb, a". In the parallel place, Ps. lxxix. 7. both in " are omitted, and so likewise they are here in one MS. and |