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REFLECTION S.

T is very happy when affliction promotes reformation. The Ifraelites had forfaken God, therefore he brought the Affyrians upon them. Some, foreseeing the trouble, repented and returned to God, and put away their idols. Providence intends, by national and personal troubles and dangers, to cure us of fin, of fpiritual idolatry, of the love of money, of pleasure, and of trufting in man. They are defigned to bring us to look to our Maker, the Holy One of Ifrael; to acknowledge his providence; to humble ourselves before him and pray to him: and it is a merciful affliction that brings us to this; then fhall we become objects of the divine care and favour, and he will provide for our fecurity and happiness. Tho' there be but few of this character, they fhall not be loft, but be as a brand plucked out of the burning.

2. We here see the fource of fin and mifery: it is forgetting God, being unmindful of him as our ftrong defence, and the author of all our mercies and deliverances; and the confequence will be, disappointment where we moft expected comfort and relief. Let us beware then left we forget the Lord our God. To be continually mindful of him is a most important duty; it is the fupport of all other duties, and will be the fource of ferenity and joy amidst all the changes of this mortal life.

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3. Let us not think God has forfaken his church, tho' may fometimes fuffer it to be in adverfity and danger; tho' he feems to fay, I will take my reft, and appears like one asleep, or as an unconcerned fpectator. Let us not entertain the thought that he is so because he does not immediately appear; he will regard his dwelling place, take care of his own intereft, and his people fhall find a fafe and delightful repofe in him. Let us never indulge unbelieving fears and fufpicions, for the Lord is a God of judgment; his church is built upon a rock, and the gates of hell fhall never prevail against it. One or another of its ftrongest earthly pillars may fall, but God will raise up others, and add to the church daily of fuch as fhall be faved.

CHAP.

CHAP. XIX.

This chapter refers to the calamities brought upon the Egyptians by inteftine commotions. The Ifraelites were fond of an alliance with them, therefore their distress and inability to help their allies is here foretold, but it is difficult to determine to what period of their history this prophecy refers.

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HE burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a swift cloud, as a judge, and fhall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt fhall be moved at his prefence, fhall be carried captive, and not be able to help their worshippers, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it, the people shall lofe all their courage. 2 And I will fet the Egyptians against the Egyptians : and they fhall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his neighbour; city against city, [and] 3 kingdom against kingdom. And the fpirit of Egypt, that is, their courage and wisdom, for both of which they were famous, fhall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have fa4 miliar fpirits, and to the wizards. And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, faith the Lord, the 5 LORD of hofts. And the waters fhall fail from the sea, and the river fhall be wasted and dried up; that is, the Nile, which they worshipped, and on the rifing of which in Spring, and overflowing their land, their harvest depended, 6 as they had little or no rain. And they fhall turn the rivers far away; [and] the brooks of defence fhall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags fhall wither. 7 The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth, or fide,

After the death of Sathon there were two years anarchy; then twelve perfons feized the kingdom, and divided it among themfelves. At length Pfammetichus, one of the twelve, by the help of the Greeks drove out the other eleven, and reigned alone.

This is understood of different perfons, but is generally fupposed to refer to Pfammetichus.

This was the papyrus, a large reed that grew on the banks of their river and brooks, the broad leaves of which the Egyptians wrote upon, as we do on paper, which from hence took its

name.

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fide, of the brooks, and every thing fown by the brooks, 8 fhall wither, be driven away, and be no [more.] The fifhers alfo fhall mourn, and all they that caft angle into the brooks fhall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters fhall languish: Egypt was famous for fifb, and its inhabitants lived much upon it, as they fcrupled 9 to kill many animals for food. Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that weave networks, fhall be confounded: it was alfo famous for flax and fine linen, for 10 which Solomon traded with the Egyptians. And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make fluices [and] ponds for fifh; that is, they that were used to get their living by keeping fish in ponds, fhall fail of their gain that way; all which intimates a general decay of trade 11 and prosperity. Surely the princes of Zoan, that most antient city, (Numb. xiii. 22.) [are] fools, the counfel of the wife counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how fay ye unto Pharaoh, I [am] the son of the wise, the 12 fon of antient kings? Where [are] they? where [are]' thy wife [men?] thy politicians and aftrologers? and let them tell thee now, and let them know what the LORD 13 of hofts hath purpofed upon Egypt. The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of Noph, or Memphis, another antient city, are deceived; they have also feduced Egypt, [even they that are] the stay of the tribes thereof; the governors, who are the corners or fup14 port of it. The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midft thereof: and they have caufed Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken [man] ftaggereth in his vomit; they shall be unfettled in their coun15 cils, and follow thofe that are most mischievous. Neither fhall there be [any] work for Egypt, which the head or tail, branch or rufh, may do; their trade fhall be loft, and there fhall be no work for the high or the low, they 16 shall have no means to help themselves. In that day shall Egypt be like unto women: and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the LORD of

hofts,

The Egyptians pretended to extraordinary antiquity, and traced up the lifts of their kings higher than any other nation, quite to Ham,

hofts, which shaketh over it; that is, the threatenings he 17 denounces, and the judgments he is bringing upon them. And the land of Judah fhall be a terror unto Egypt, every one that maketh mention thereof fhall be afraid in himfelf, because of the counsel of the LORD of hosts, which he hath determined against it.f

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In that day fhall five, that is, many, cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and fwear to the LORD of hosts, engage themselves by covenant to become fubject to them; one fhall be called, The city of de19 ftruction; of Heres, or the fun, that is, Heliopolis.

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that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the LORD; the worship of God fhall be fet up there; and gofpel worship is often defcribed by expreffions taken from the jewish worship: a pillar fhall be fet up to let every one know at their first entrance what religion they are of. 20 And it fhall be for a fign and for a witnefs unto the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they fhall cry unto the LORD because of the oppreffors, and he fhall fend them a faviour and a great one, and he fhall de21 liver them.h And the LORD fhall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians fhall know the LORD in that day,

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This probably refers to their apprehenfion of danger when Sennacherib destroyed the fenced cities of Judah, before he befieged Jerufalem; tho' others refer it to the long fiege of Ashdod by Pfammetichus, which ftopped the courfe of his victories, and gave him great vexation. There are various opinions among the learned what the next verfe refers to: fome fay, to the converfion of many of the Egyptians to the religion of the Jews, by their fettlement among them; but it more probably refers to their conver. fion by the gospel.

8 After the fiege abovementioned, the learned fay there was an alliance between Egypt, Affyria, and Judah; and the Jews had actually five cities in the land, where they were allowed the free exercife of their religion. But that this was fact is not fufficiently evident; and I rather prefer the former interpretation.

Dr. Newton understands this of Alexander the Great, whose fucceffor was Ptolemy the Great, and Soter, or faviour, probably in reference to Chrift. Alexander favoured the Jews, fettled many in Egypt, allowed them to be governed by their own laws and cuftoms; and there the Greek tranflation of the Bible, called the Septuagint, is generally supposed to have been made.

and shall do facrifice and oblation; yea, they fhall vow a vow unto the LORD, and perform [it;] they shall 22 have the means of knowledge and improve them. And the LORD fhall fmite Egypt: he fhall fmite and heal [it:] and they shall return [even] to the LORD, and he shall be intreated of them, and fhall heal them; their afflictions fhall do them good, and difpofe them to receive the 23 gospel. In that day fhall there be a highway out of Egypt to Affyria, and the Affyrian fhall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Affyria, and the Egyptians fhall ferve with the Affyrians; tho' Egypt was the houfe of their bondage, and the Affyrians the invaders of Judah, yet their enmity fhall ceafe, and they fhall join in 24 ferving the Lord. In that day fhall Ifrael be the third with Egypt and with Affyria; the land of Ifrael, which is between Egypt and Affyria, fhall be the centre of union to the three nations which had been fo often at variance, [even] a bleffing in the midst of the land, or, of the earth, as 25 from thence the gospel fhall spread: Whom the LORD of hofts fhall blefs, faying, Bleffed be Egypt my people, and Affyria the work of my hands, and Ifrael mine inheritance. God will join them all in his bleffing; he will make them a blessing to all about them; they fhall be all alike in covenant with him. Accordingly the gospel was early planted among them, and many flourishing chriftian churches were there.

1.

REFLECTION S.

BSERVE how eafily God can throw a popu lous and flourishing nation into confufion and mifery; fet the people one against the other, and raise a perverfe fpirit in the midft thereof; infatuate the wifeft counfellors, and ftrike a panick and terror thro' all. He can by this means deftroy their trade and commerce, and take away all their comforts. To do this, he needs but fhake his hand over them. Who would not fear fo great a Being, and wait on him for the continuation and increase of national profperity? We have need to pray that he would give a fpirit of wisdom to our minifters, conduct and cou

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