II.

1. Thus saith the ETERNAL, For three sins of Judah, and for four, I will not turn it back; for their rejectings the law of the ETERNAL, and his statutes they observed not, but their lies made them wander, which their fathers walked after; 2. Therefore send I fire upon Judah, that it devour the palaces of Jerusalem.

3. Thus saith the ETERNAL, For three sins of Israel, and for four, I will not turn it back; for their selling the guiltless and the needy for the sake of two shoes:

4. They that pant1 for the dust of the earth upon the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the lowly, and a man and his father go to the same girl, to profane the name of my holiness:

5. And upon garments wrested in pledge they recline by every altar, and wine of those from whom fines are wrung they drink in the house of their gods.

Rejecting. Heb. DN Maas, the word out of which the theological term "Reprobation" is developed, but meaning, in the Old Testament, rejection after trial, or disapproval, as in Psalm lxxviii. 60—67.

9 Lies, i.e. idols, or pretended deities. Comp. 1 Cor. viii. 4. Greek, rà μάταια.

1 Pant for. Either coveting the morsel of the poor-or better, eager to throw the dust of contempt upon them.

1, 2, 3. Nothing could be more natural to the Hebrews than to hear ruin denounced on their national foes, as by Zedekiah son of Chenaanah against the Syrians, 1 Kings xxii. 11, (and desired by Balak against the Hebrews,) but the faithful Shepherd-Preacher has a word for Judah and Israel, to which all hitherto has been but preface. Two verses suffice to warn Judah against self-deluding complacency, and the great subject of the book comes on as Woe to Ephraim, oppressive, sensual, forgetful of God.

4, 5. This wringing out fines and pledges from the

6. Yet had I destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was as the cedars' height, and who was sturdy as the oaks yet destroyed I his fruit from above, and his roots from beneath.

7. Even I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and caused you to walk forty years in the wilderness, to inherit the land of the Amorite,

8. And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your prime for consecrated3 ones; is not so even this, sons of Israel, is the saying of the ETERNAL.

9. Yet ye made the consecrated ones drink wine, and upon the prophets ye laid command, saying, Ye shall not prophesy.

10. Now behold, I crush all beneath you, as the waggon crusheth that hath her full of sheaf.

11. So perisheth flight from the swift, and the strong

2 Inherit, i.e, dispossess.

Consecrated, or Nazarites. Separated by vows, as Samson, Samuel, John the Baptist. Prime: or youths.

Crash. Vulg. "Stridebo subter vos, sicut stridet plaustrum onustum fano." English, "I am pressed,”—as if men loaded God's patience with the

burden of their sins.

needy, by men who fed coarsely to their full, with looseness of life, is in itself hateful, and not less so for the air of religious observance with which it is done.

6, 7, 8, 9. It becomes worse in a people, whose traditions (even if not yet embodied in a completed literature) pointed to providences in the days of old, large-limbed races vanquished, preachers of righteousness raised up, and men consecrating themselves in severe saintliness as servants of a holy God; but a rude and materialised people had set itself against remembrances of a higher standard of life.

10-13. As the loaded waggon crushes all beneath it,

shall not hold firm his strength, nor warrior deliver his

life;

12. Nor shall handler of the bow stand, nor light of foots escape, nor rider of horse deliver his life.

13. But the firm of heart among the warriors shall flee naked in that day, is the saying of the ETernal.

14. Listen to this word which the ETERNAL hath spoken against you, sons of Israel, against all the family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, You only I know of all the families of the earth; therefore now I visit upon you all your iniquities.

15. Can two walk together, unless they are асquainted?

16. Doth a lion roar in the forest, if he have no prey? doth the young lion utter his cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing?

17. Doth a bird fall upon trap on the ground, if no snare be set for her? doth one lift up a trap from the ground, if he hath taken nothing at all?

18. If trumpet sound in a city, shall not the people be alarmed? if evil be in a city, hath not the ETERNAL Wrought it?

• Of foot; or, on his feet.

so the wheels of destiny, that is of judgment, will crush might, and weaken valour.

14. Such a word of warning concerns all who think themselves chosen, and favourites of heaven.

15. How can they be God's people, with no feeling of his righteousness?

16-20. As a fitness of things binds even the wild creature's cry, the fowler's art, and all events and causes, so thoughtful men, with any power of vision, must trace

19. Surely the Lord, the ETERNAL, doeth nothing, but he revealeth His secret to His servants the prophets.

20. The lion roareth, who will not fear? the Lord the ETERNAL hath spoken, who can but prophesy?

III.

1. Proclaim in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and see the great tumults in her midst, and the oppressed within her.

2. For they know not to do uprightness, is the utterance of the ETERNAL, who store up violence and spoil in their palaces.

3. Therefore, thus saith the Lord, the ETERNAL, BESIEGE ROUND ABOUT THE LAND,7 and he bringeth down from thee thy strength, so that thy palaces are spoiled.

• His secret. Hebr. 17. Gr. Taideíav. A very remarkable rendering, as shewing that what God reveals to his Prophets is the secret meaning of events, or the principle which serves as a clue to dispensations otherwise obscure.

7 Besiege, or distress, round about the land; (scilicet legendo y). The LXX. Tyre, is a mistake; scilicet, Τύρος, κυκλόθεν ἡ γῆ σου ἐρημωθήσεται, but tends to justify the pointing which I have adopted: or, as the text is pointed, " Lo, an enemy, even round about the land, and he shall bring down thy strength;" which is a barely defensible ellipse. Others translate, "Lo, distress and encircling of the land;" which is supported by the Latin, "Tribulabitur, et circuietur Terra;" but since 2 a circuit, or neighbourhood, is never so used for besieging; (as the Western Circuit is not besieging Exeter,) I have ventured to take as a verb, and understand it as the command to the invaders; either applying to the invader, or to Jehovah.

in sins, sorrows, reverses, a secret lore, which an Eternal Spirit impresses on spiritual men.

1, 2, 3. Let the voice of destiny, the sign of God's Providence, waken Egypt and Philistia, (not however Assyria, which is not here mentioned, unless Ashdod should be Assur,) that their hosts may bring distress on a land so meriting it by swelling and spoil.

VOL. I.

E

4. Thus saith the ETERNAL, As the shepherd rescueth from the lion's mouth two legs or the mincing of an ear, so the sons of Israel, the dwellers in Samaria, shall be rescued as in the corner of a bed and in the damask of a couch.

5. Hear and bear witness against Jacob, is the saying of the Lord, the ETERNAL, the God of hosts.

6. Surely in the day of my visiting the sins of Israel upon him, when I visit for the altars of the House of El [Bethel], when the horns of the altar are bent, and fall to the ground,

7. Then will I smite the winter house with the summer house, and the houses of ivory shall perish, and many houses shall come to an end, is the saying of the ETERNAL.

8. Hear this word, ye well-pastured cows' which are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the needy, which crush the poor, which say to their lords, Bring to us that we may drink.

• Damask, or coverlet. The older Versions understood Damascus, unless "in Damasci grabato" be an exception. Most critics understand a silken, ?, and

or other costly, coverlet, following the Masoretic points finding an Arabic cognate. Yet most, or all, take it as reproach for luxury. I fear I am alone in taking it as descriptive of the smallness of number saved. Only a bed-full, or quilt-full, out of all Samaria.

9 Ewald has preceded me in so linking the clauses, as to make the judgment on the Temple fall simultaneously on dwelling-houses.

Well-pastured cows. Hebr. Cows of Basan, a place of fat pastures. The Word addressed to them includes the proclamation to invaders from afar, and the subsequent suffering of them and their darlings.

4-7. Hardly a bed-full, or a damask or silken quilt-full shall survive out of all the city, when the wrath comes in earnest, but in the day when Temple full of symbols falls, houses full of luxury shall fall too.

8-10. Let the well-pastured dames, whose selfish pride urges on their lords to covetousness, hear what con