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earth, or the land, mourneth [and] languifheth: Lebanon is afhamed [and] hewn down: Sharon is like a wilderness; and Bashan and Carmel fhake off [their fruits;] the fruitful parts will be laid waste, and her fub10 ftance plundered. Now will I rife, faith the LORD; now will I be exalted; now, when things are at the worst, and II the cafe fhall feem defperate, will I lift up myself. Ye Affyrians fhall conceive chaff, ye fhall bring forth ftubble: your breath, or anger against Ifrael, [as] fire, fhall 12 devour you. And the people, the Affyrians, notwithStanding their great expectations, fhall be [as] the burnings of lime: [as] thorns cut up fhall they be burned in the fire; they shall meet with entire deftruction, like ftones burned to lime, or thorns that are utterly confumed.

13 Hear, ye [that are] far off, what I have done; and 14 ye [that are] near, acknowledge my might. The finners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath furprized the hypocrites, who fcorn the law of God and the threatenings of the prophet; tho' they keep up the appearance of religion, when they think the Affyrians will deftroy Jerufalem, they fhall be terribly afraid. Who among us fhall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us fhall dwell with everlasting burnings? they will own how awful God is, and how dreadful when he comes to punish. On the other 15 band, good men fhall be calm and fecure: He that walketh righteously, and fpeaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppreffions, who thinks it beneath him, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, when put into bis band fecretly, that ftoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, will not hear any fcheme tending to fhed blood, or to gratify revenge, and fhutteth his eyes from feeing evil, will not willingly fee evil committed, but has a 16 great averfion to it; He fhall dwell on high: his place of defence [fhall be] the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters [fhall be] fure; he fall be defended and fupplied during the extremity of the fiege. 17 Thine eyes fhall fee the king in his beauty, that is, Hezekiah, having put off his fackcloth and appearing in his royal robes with a pleasant afpect: they fhall behold the land that is very far off; the people who had been shut up T 2

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during the fiege fball travel abroad, which after their confine18 ment would be peculiarly pleafant. Thine heart fhall meditate terror; review its former fears and its triumph over the Affyrians. Where [is] the fcribe? where [is] the receiver? where [is] he that counted the towers? where is the fecretary of war, the paymaster, the chief engineer? 19 Thou shalt not fee a fierce people, a people of deeper fpeech than thou canst perceive; of a ftammering tongue, [that thou canft] not understand; that is, the Affyrians, who had a deep, harsh language, carrying terror 20 with it. Look upon Zion, the city of our folemnities: thine eyes fhall fee Jerufalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle [that] fhall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof fhall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken; an allufion to a 21 tent, no part of which should be damaged by the enemy. But there the glorious LORD [will be] unto us a place of broad rivers [and] ftreams; wherein fhall go no galley with oars, neither fhall gallant ship pafs thereby; tho there is no river about Jerufalem, only a little brook, God will be as a broad river to it, over which no ship shall pass 22 to hurt or destroy it. For the LORD [is] our judge, the LORD [is] our lawgiver, the LORD [is] our king; he will fave us; God's relation to Ifrael will engage him to 23 protect it. Thy tacklings are loofed; they could not well strengthen their maft, they could not spread the fail; the Affyrian force, when attempting to pass the broad river, mentioned v. 21, fhall be shipwrecked: then is the prey of a great spoil divided; the lame take the prey; it fhall be fo abundant, that those who can neither fight nor 24 pursue shall have a part. And the inhabitant shall not fay, I am fick the people that dwell therein [shall be] forgiven [their] iniquity; they shall forget their fickness, for joy of this great deliverance, which will be a comfortable token that their fins are forgiven them.

REFLECT

The apostle Paul applies this to the fuccefs of the gospel

over heathen powers and philofophy. 1 Cor. i, 20.

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REFLECTION S.

E are here fhown the most effectual way to fecure national deliverance and happiness, namely, to continue inftant in prayer, v. 2. Let us intreat that all our actions and affairs may be governed by juftice; that we may be faithful to our treaties; and that particular perfons may act uprightly, fupport religion, and cherish the fear of the Lord. This is our beft treasure, and will do more to defend us than all our forces.

2. We are taught not to despair when in the deepest diftrefs. Jerufalem never was in fo much danger. Its inhabitants were never fo much terrified as at this time, v. 7, 8. Behold, their valiant ones fhall cry without: the ambassadors of peace fhall weep bitterly. The highways lie wafte, the wayfaring man ceafeth: he hath broken the covenant, he hath defpifed the cities, he regardeth no man. Now will I arife, faith the Lord; now will I be exalted. He feemed before to have been an unconcerned fpectator; but then it was time to arife, and act vigorously for them. God thus fometimes fuffers his people to be brought into the lowest distress, that he may make his appearance more confpicuous, their deliverance more valued, and better improved. Let us therefore truft him in the greatest danger, and in the mount of difficulty the Lord will be Seen,

3. The difference between bad and good men in times of affliction and calamity, is feen, v. 14, 15. There were hypocrites in Zion, and those of the worst fort. When they expected the city to be taken, plundered, and burned; tho' they made a jeft of the threatening before, and were secure and carelefs, yet now they were ftruck with fear, and funk into defpair. Thus cowardly and uneafy does guilt make men. And no wonder if it affects the hypocrites under the gospel in this manner, when they think of thofe devouring flames and everlafting burnings, which are threatened against all the workers of iniquity. On the other hand, the good man, who fears God, gives all their due, and abhors every unjust, difhonourable, and mean action, is fafe, courageous, and happy: God will protect

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him, and provide for him; and he will have a cheerful hope in the deepeft diftrefs. He will have no cause to complain of leffer evils when the greatest is removed, nor fink under the burden of fickness, when the burden of guilt ist taken away. Such fhall walk in the light of God's countenance here, and at length see the King of Kings in all the beauties of the heavenly land.

4. Let us rejoice in God's care of the church amidst all its dangers and alarms. It is indeed defirable to have the city of our folemnities a quiet habitation, and God can make it fo. It needs no river to keep off invading foes, no force to repel them; his almighty power is fufficient. Let us think what he did for Ifrael, what he has done for his church, yea, for our own land. Let us review our fears, v. 18. and give glory to God for our national profperity, fuccefs, and peace; and be careful to behave toward him, as those who know that the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king: he will fave us. Let us commit our cause to him, and obferve his law; then we may cheerfully truft in his protection, and be affured that be will bless us.

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CHA P. XXXIV.

Some refer this chapter to the deftruction brought upon the nations which bordered upon Ifrael, by the Affyrians and Babylonians : but I rather think it has a general reference to the deftruction of all that oppofed the kingdom and intereft of God among men. HOME near, ye nations, to hear; and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. 2 For the indignation of the LORD [is] upon all nations, and [his] fury upon all their armies: he hath utterly deftroyed them, he hath delivered them to the flaugh

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3 ter. Their flain alfo fhall be caft out, they fhall find no burial, and their ftink fhall come up out of their carcafes, and the mountains about Jerufalem fhall be melted with their blood; it shall be fhed in fuch quantities that it

Shall

4 fhall run down like fprings from the mountains. And all the hoft of heaven fhall be diffolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their hoft fhall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling [fig] from the fig tree; hyperbolical expreffions, 5 denoting great defolation and confufion. For my fword fhall be bathed in heaven: behold, it fhall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curfe, to 6 judgment. The fword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, [and] with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the LORD hath a facrifice in Bozrah, and a great 7 flaughter in the land of Idumea. And the unicorns fhall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls, and their land fhall be foaked with blood, and their duft made fat with fatnefs; both the greatest and the 8 meanest fhall be alike deftroyed. For [it is] the day of the LORD'S vengeance, [and] the year of recompenfes for the 9 controverfy of Zion. And the ftreams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof fhall become burning pitch; an 10 allufion to the deftruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. It fhall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof, a black, fulphureous vapour, fhall go up for ever: from generation to generation it fhall lie wafte; none fhall 11 pass through it for ever and ever.

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But the cormorant and the bittern fhall poffefs it; the owl alfo and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confufion, and the ftones, or plummet, of 12 emptiness; he will deal with them in ftritt juftice. They shall call the nobles thereof to affift in managing the affairs of the kingdom, but none [fhall be] there, and all her princes fhall be nothing; they shall have no heart or fpirit 13 left. And thorns fhall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortreffes thereof: and it fhall be an habitation

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Probably the antients ufed to bathe their fwords in fome preparation which made them hard enough to take a sharp edge; thus God's fword is reprefented as bathed in heaven, in celestial fire, that it might ftrike like lightning. Idumea, or the Edom. ites, here, as in many other places, is put for all the enemies of God's church and people in general.

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