+ Heb. houses the

of the soul.

it so.

21 rings, nose jewels,

for the pride of the women.

Before CHRIST

instead of sweet smell there shall be stink; and instead of a girdle a rent; about 760. and instead of well set hair baldness; and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty.

↑ Heb. might.

25 Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. 26 And her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being + desolate or, shall sit upon the ground.

CHAP. IV.

In the extremity of evils, Christ's kingdom

shall be a sanctuary.

ND in that day seven women

gin reads, "deceiving with their eyes," or falsifying their eyes. Though the colouring of the eyes with stibium, or al-cahol, the mineral commonly used for that purpose, be not particularly here expressed, yet I suppose it to be implied. See 2 Kings ix. 30; Jer. iv. 30; Ezek. xxiii. 40. The Chaldee paraphrase explains This fashion seems to have prevailed very generally among the Eastern people in ancient times, and they retain it still. Bp. Lowth. See the note on Jer. iv. 30. making a tinkling] Dr. Hunt well explains the word thus translated to mean, "skipping, bounding, dancing along;" and the same word used as a noun, (which occurs at ver. 18,) to signify those ornaments of the feet, chains or rings, which the Eastern ladies wore, and which make a tinkling sound as they moved nimbly in walking. Eugene Roger, and other travellers, speaking of Arabian women, mention them. Bp. Lowth. Rauwolf tells us, that the Arab women, whom he saw in going down the Euphrates, wore rings about their legs and hands, and sometimes a good many together, which in their stepping slipped up and down, and so made a great noise. Sir J. Chardin says, that in Persia and Arabia they wear rings about their ancles, which are full of little bells. Children and young girls take pleasure in giving them motion, and with this view walk quick, Harmer.

17. the Lord will discover] It was the barbarous custom of the conquerors of those times, to strip their captives naked, and to make them travel in that condition, exposed to the inclemency of the weather, and to the intolerable heat of the sun. This to the women was the height of cruelty and indignity, especially to such as are here described, who had indulged themselves in all manner of delicacies of living, and all the superfluities of ornamental dress. This is always mentioned as the hardest part of the lot of the captives. Compare chap. xx. 4; xlvii. 3; Jer. xiii. 22; Nahum iii. 5. The words, which describe the ornaments in the following inventory, as one may call it, of the wardrobe of a Hebrew lady, must, from its antiquity, and from the nature of the subject, be very obscure. W. Lowth, Bp. Lowth.

20.-tablets,] In the original, as the margin gives it,

emptied. + Heb.

cleansed,

ing, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only + let us + Heb. let thy be called by thy name, || to take away called upon our reproach.

name be

es.

Or, take

2 In that day shall the branch of thou away.

21.

"houses of the soul," mean perfume boxes. Bp. Lowth. Which refresh the spirits, and restore life to the languid. Vitringa. "Houses of smell;" smelling or perfume boxes, appended by the ladies either to the necklace or girdle. Bp. Stock. nose jewels,] See Sir J. Chardin's note on Gen. xxiv. 22. His account is confirmed by other Oriental travellers. 24. instead of sweet smell] Or "perfume." A principal part of the delicacy of the Asiatick ladies consists in the use of baths, and of the richest oils and perfumes: an attention to which is in some degree necessary in those hot countries. See Cant. iv. 10, 11; Esther ii. 12. Bp. Lowth. "Instead of well

instead of a girdle a rent ;] girt raiment, rags.' Bp. Lowth.

— and burning] The old English translation reads, sunburning," by way of explication, namely, They shall be exposed to the heat of the sun, in slavery or transportation into foreign parts. W. Lowth. "A sunburnt skin." Bp. Lowth.

26. shall sit upon the ground.] This was a posture that denoted the deepest mourning and lamentation, chap. xlvii. 1; Job ii. 13; Lam. ii. 10. The passage seems to relate in its more immediate view, to the destruction of the city by Nebuchadnezzar: however, Judea is thus represented on a medal coined by Vespasian, after the destruction by the Romans. They might have an eye to the customs of the Jewish nation. The Psalmist describes the Jews lamenting their fortune in the same pensive posture, Ps. cxxxvii. 1. Bp. Lowth, W. Lowth, Addison.

Chap. IV. The division of the chapters has broken off the Prophet's discourse almost in the middle of the sentence. The meaning is, "The numbers slain in battle shall be so great, that seven women shall be left to one man." The Prophet has described the greatness of this distress, by images and adjuncts the most expressive and forcible. Bp. Lowth.

Ver. 2. In that day] This phrase often denotes, not the same time which was last mentioned, but an extraordinary season, remarkable for some signal events of

salem, and men of Judah, judge, I about 760. pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.

↑ Heb. for a treading.

4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?

5 And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be + trodden down :

6 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the + Heb. plant men of Judah + his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold + oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

of his

pleasures.

+ Heb. a scab.

b Mic. 2. 2.

Or, This is

8¶ Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!

9 | In mine ears said the LORD of in mine ears, hosts, † Of a truth houses shall many be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant.

saith the LORD, &c. + Heb. If not, &c.

third person (ver. 2,) to the first: a variation very common in Scripture; and the sense is the same, whether the words are spoken by God, or by Christ, who is "one with the Father." W. Lowth.

3, 4.-judge, I pray you, &c.] The case was so plain, that God might refer it to themselves, although they were parties concerned. W. Lowth.

Let every sinner thoroughly examine his own state and condition, what his natural powers and faculties are, what they are originally capable of, what additional means and opportunities he has had put into his hands to employ and improve them; and then let him shew where the fault lay, and who is to be charged with the evil of sin, and with the consequences of it. Dr. John Clarke. 8. Woe unto them &c.] From hence to the twentyfifth verse, sundry vices are enumerated, which, as they brought temporal judgments upon the Jews, so at the bar of Christ shall exclude from happiness, and consign all that are found guilty of them to the woes and punishments here denounced: namely, the covetous and unjust; the drunkard and voluptuary; all that wilfully neglect, or impiously despise, the knowledge of God, as well the slothful ignorant, as the proudly wise; all that perversely confound the distinctions of moral good and evil. Wogan.

one bath,―an homer—an ephah.] A "bath" and "an ephah" are the same measure, about seven gallons and a half; they contain but a tenth of an "homer," Ezek. xlv. 11. W. Lowth.

lasciviousness, impiety,

10 Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah.

C

Before CHRIST about 760.

29, 30.

them.

11 Woe unto them that rise up e Prov. 23. early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine | inflame them! Or, pursue 12 And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.

13 Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable + Heb. their men are famished, and their multi- of famine. tude dried up with thirst.

14 Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.

glory are men

9.

Or, the holy Heb. the

God.
God the holy

11.- strong drink;] See the note on chap. xxiv.

12. the harp, and the viol, &c.] Musick universally attends Eastern feasts. Harmer. Wine, and musick, and delicate fare, are such things as God in his goodness hath given to the children of men for their comfort; and they may use them lawfully, and take comfort in them as their portion: but he that uses any of them intemperately, unseasonably, vainly, or wastefully, abuses both them and himself; therefore we often find in Scripture, both the things themselves condemned, and those that use them blamed. Bp. Sanderson.

13, 14. their honourable men are famished, &c.] As verses 9, 10, have evidently reference to ver. 8, so have these verses to the two preceding. As the houses of the covetous are to be left uninhabited, and the fields to become desolate, so they that indulged in feasting and drinking are to perish with hunger and thirst. Bp. Lowth.

14. Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, &c.] Habakkuk uses the same image with great force, in a comparison of the ambitious and avaricious conqueror, Hab. ii. 5. But hell, or the grave, is here introduced to much greater advantage in person; and placed before our eyes in the form of a ravenous monster, opening wide his immeasurable jaws, and swallowing his prey altogether. Bp. Lowth.

17. Then shall the lambs &c.] Their luxurious habitations shall become a pasture for flocks. Bp. Lowth.

that call ing evil. It is evil good, and good evil; that put

good, &c.

e Prov. 3. 7. Rom. 12. 16.

The executioners of God's judgments.

Before CHRIST

as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast about 760. away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

25 Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases

17, 21. & 10.

their face.

18.-that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, &c.] That are not only drawn to sin by the allurements of the world, but are active and industrious in drawing sin to themselves, or themselves to sin: "with cords of vanity," that is, with vain and deceitful arguments and pretences, whereby sinners generally draw themselves to sin: "with a cart rope," that is, with all their might, as beasts commonly do, that draw carts with ropes. Poole, Bp. Hall. The cause is here put for the effect: "iniquity” and “sin” for the punishment which they provoke. The meaning then is, "Woe unto them who foolishly draw upon themselves the reward of iniquity; nay, set their shoulders to pull it forward, as a beast of burden does a cart rope!" Rosenmüller, Bp. Stock.

20. Woe unto them that call evil good, &c.] The Prophet compares the difference of moral "good and evil" presented to the human understanding with that of "light and darkness" discerned by the eye, of "bitter and sweet" tasted by the palate; that is, as a plain and undeniable truth which forceth its evidence upon a rational mind: to transgress God's commandments, his laws and statutes, delivered by his prophets, and confirmed by a series of miracles, was a heinous crime; but to "call evil good, and good evil," was to advance a step farther in impiety, to lay the profane axe to the root of righteousness, to destroy all religion, natural as well as revealed, and to sink into mere atheism. Dr. Jortin.

22; xxiv. 9.

24. - so their root shall be as rottenness, &c.] So they shall be utterly destroyed; and shall be as a tree, whose root is rotten, and whose blossom flies away like dust. Bp. Hall.

25.—the hills did tremble,] The Prophet refers perhaps to the great earthquake in the days of Uzziah, Amos i. 1; Zech. xiv. 5. Bp. Lowth. But the mountains and the earth itself are often said to tremble at God's judgments; (see Jer. iv. 24; Mic. i. 4; Nah. i. 5; Hab. iii. 10; Ps. lxxvii. 18; cxiv. 7 ;) which expressions VOL. II.

26 ¶ And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly:

27 None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:

28 Whose arrows are sharp, and all

may allude to the thunder which accompanies them; to the trembling of mount Sinai when God came down upon it, Exod. xix. 18; or, to the last general judgment. See note on chap. ii. 10. He says, "did tremble;" but the representing of a thing future, as if already accomplished, is very common with the Prophets. W. Lowth.

26. And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, &c.] The Prophets call distant countries in the popular language, as here, "the end of the earth;" the Babylonians may be primarily meant here, as chap. xxxix. 3; Jer. v. 15: and as the Medes, with respect to Babylon, are said (chap. xiii. 5,) “to come from a far country, from the end of heaven;" but the Prophet may also look farther, and the threat is probably to be extended to the desolation of Judea by the Romans; to whom the phrases used here will apply better than to the Chaldees. Vitringa.

Though the Babylonians lived at no great distance from Judea, yet many that composed their army did: indeed all foreigners were looked upon as living a great way off by the Jews, because they maintained but little commerce with their neighbours. W. Lowth.

and will hiss unto them] "The metaphor is taken from the practice of those who keep bees; who draw them out of their hives into the fields, and lead them back again, by a hiss or whistle;" say Cyril and Theodoret. At chap. vii. 18, the metaphor is more apparent by being carried farther; there the hostile armies are expressed by "the fly," and "the bee." Bp. Lowth.

27.- neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed,] The Eastern people, wearing long and loose garments, were unfit for action, or business of any kind, without girding their clothes about them: when their business was finished, they took off their girdles. A girdle therefore denotes strength and activity to unloose the girdle, to deprive of strength, to render unfit for action: it was of course an essential part of a soldier's accoutrement. See 1 Kings xx. 11; Isa. xlv. 1. 5. Bp. Lowth. See the note on Job xii. 21.

Q