from whence riches are brought. Thus in Ezek. xxvii. 3, Tyre also is called a mart, Európшv, of the people from many islands. And the whole chapter, together with the Targum, is a plain proof of this, especially the 15th verse, where it is said, "many isles were the merchandise of thine hand." So in Isa. lx. 9, islands and ships are mentioned, in order to produce and bring silver and gold. For this very reason, as will be shewn in its proper place, ships are the symbols of profit and riches. Thus in Isa. xxiii. 2, they that travel over sea, and merchants, are synonymous; the Hebrew П, and the Greek "Euroроs, signifying both; because so called from their passing to and fro: so that an island is a place of trade, to which and from whence are brought over sea in ships all kinds of merchandise and riches: because the sea and rivers afford the conveniency of trading from one place to another, and thereby enrich all the country. Whence in Euripides* μέγας πλούτου λιμὴν, a great haven of riches, signifies a great revenue. Upon the whole, an island being thus, in the notion of the Hebrews, a place sitting near the sea, convenient for merchandise, and flowing with riches by all kind of trade, symbolically signifies the riches, revenues, places, or ways of trading, and treasures of the matter about which the symbol is employed. In the same manner as we may say now of the kingdoms of Spain, Britain, and others, that the American plantations, which are islands to them all in the Hebrew style, are the riches and revenues of those kingdoms, because their trade and riches are fetched from thence. And the waters or seas, the merchants, and islands to which they resort, are as a crop or revenue to the city where they come. Thus in Isa. xxiii. 3, the prophet, speaking of Tyre, which is before called the Isle by way of excellency, adds, "And by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest *Eur. Orest. ver. 1077. of the river, is her revenue, and she is a mart of nations; where the meaning seems plainly to be this: the merchants, by their sea-trade, sow as it were their seed in the waters for increase, and the revenues arising by the waters are as her harvest; he compares their sea-trade to the overflowing of the Sihor, or Nile, and saith it brings them riches, as the Nile to the Egyptians by his fertility. The LXX. ἐν ὕδατι πολλῷ, σπέρμα μεταβόλων, ὡς ἀμητοῦ εἰσφερομένου, οἱ μετάβολοι τῶν ἐθνῶν. They seem to have taken ш, instead of, or as merchants. See Schindler. According to them the place is thus to be taken : "The seed of merchants are as thrown in many waters; the merchants of the nations are as a crop brought in." Or thus: "In many waters is the seed of merchants; they are as a crop to the place where they resort." Which is just as Tully argues: "Quasi quædam prædia populi Rom. sunt vectigalia nostra, atque provinciæ."* K. KEY signifies power and trust committed. It denotes power either to stop the action or to exert it, according to the circumstances. So the keys of the kingdom of heaven, Matt. xvi. 19, signify the power to admit into that state, and to confer the graces and benefits thereof. So in Luke xi. 52, the key of knowledge, signifies the power of attaining to knowledge, the means of getting knowledge; and, according to the same analogy, to open the Scriptures, Luke xxiv. 32, is to shew the true meaning of them, whereby others may understand them. So in Isa. xxii. 22, the keys of David, signifies the power to rule; and so the Targum hath there dominium. *M. T. Cic. in Verr. L. ii. p. 239. Thus the heathen, to denote the government of Pluto, and the rest of the infernal gods, assigned to them the keys of the infernal pits.* And therefore Pluto and Proserpine were represented with keys in their hands. So Silence, which is inactivity, is represented by a golden key on the tongue in Sophocles. And so in the Arabian writers, Soliman Ben Abddalmalek had the name or title of Meftah Alkhair, the key of goodness, because he had set at liberty all the wretches in prison, and done good to all his subjects.§ [Keys are, in Rev. i. 18, the symbols of Christ's power over Hades, the place of separate spirits, and the grave. Hence Christ saith, Matt. xvi. 18, that the gates of Hades, i. e. death, shall not prevail against his church.] TO KILL, or SLAY, is to be explained according to the nature of the subject spoken of. To kill men, is utterly to destroy them. To kill a kingdom, is to destroy utterly the power it had to act as such for acting and living are analogical to each other. And government is the life of the commonwealth. And therefore as long as the commonwealth can perform the actions of government, so long it lives; if they are stopped, that life dies. KING signifies the possessor of the supreme power, let it be lodged in one or more persons. It also frequently signifies a succession of kings. And king and kingdom are synonymous, as appears from Daniel vii. 17, 23. † Pausan. Eliac. I. p. 168. * Orph. Argonaut. ver. 1369. || Artem. L. iv. c. 42. ¶ H. Grot. de J. B. & P. L. ii. c. ix. § 8. L. LAMB. Our Saviour is by the Baptist declared to be the Lamb of God, because to be sacrificed to him, as a Lamb, to take away the sins of the world. Hence our Saviour, upon the account of his sacrifice, is represented in the Revelation by the symbol of a lamb. This is special, and therefore none else comes under the same symbol but himself. Though in general, in the symbolical language, any horned beast may signify a king or monarch, because of the horns which denote power: so, according to the Oriental Oneirocritics, chap. 242, a ram is the symbol of a plain monarch or prince: but other horned beasts are to be explained with some adjunct; as a goat signifies, according to the same interpreters, a fool-hardy fighting prince. And therefore the prince of Persia, Darius, a settled king, is properly represented by a ram in one of Daniel's visions; and Alexander, the most furious and rash of all warriors, is as properly represented by a goat. Thus the wild beasts, Onpía, with horns, signify tyrants. But a lamb is the meekest of all animals; and therefore very proper in that respect also to signify our Saviour, who was slain as a lamb, without opening his mouth against those who persecuted him. Isa. liii. 7; Acts viii. 32. of meekness, is also used in Christ is therefore the good The lamb, as the symbol Isa. xi. 6; lxv. 25; Jer. xi. 19. Shepherd or King, the Ram of the flock, who laid down his life for the sheep. And to this purpose it is observable, that in several places of Scripture the word ", which properly signifies a ram, is taken for a prince; as in the Song of Moses, in Exod. xv. 15, 21, the mighty men of Moab; in the LXX. "Aрxovτes Moaßuruv, the Princes of the Moabites. And this is plainly from the metaphor; for the prince is the ram of the flock or people. See Psa. lxxx. 1; lxxviii. 71, 72. The same may be said of the word ns, which is both a bull and a prince. It is so explained by the Oriental Onéirocritics, in chap. ccxxxviii. And so Boga or Buga,* in the Turkish language, which properly signifies a bull, or the mate of any cattle, is also a name of dignity, signifying chief or leader. A ram of a golden or purple colour portends, according to the Thuscan Commentaries, produced by Macrobius,t "an universal happiness and prosperity to the person invested with the supreme power." LEAVES. See under SORES and TREES. [ LIFE denotes existence; and since existence may be either moral or political, it thence variously denotes either moral or political existence. LIGHT. Hence The lights or luminaries direct and shew the way; and by consequence govern men who otherwise would not know what to do, or whither to go. Sapor king of Persia, writing to Constantius, called himself the brother of the sun and moon; i. e. one who ruled the world as well as those luminaries do. On account of the luminaries in the heaven governing the day and night, all luminaries in the symbolical language signify ruling powers: and the light itself is well employed to signify the edicts, laws, rules, or directions that proceed from them for the good of their subjects. Thus of the great king of all, saith the Psalmist, Ps. cxix. 105: "Thy word is a light unto my path;" and Hosea, chap. vi. 5: "Thy judgments are as the light." *Herbelot. Tit. Boga. + Macrob. Saturnal. L. iii. c. 7. Vid Ammian. Marcellin. L. xvii. |