God. Grotius thinks he means the Affyrians, who may be faid to be vanquifh'd by the Efficacy of his Prayers; but to me the fenfe feems more eafy and natural, if we understand it of the wicked Jews, who by his Sentence fhould be condemn'd to death as often as they incurr'd that Penalty by their Tranfgreffions; the Prophet plainly difcourfing in judicial Terms all along. Ver. 5. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.] That is, he fhall be furrounded with Men of Integrity, as the Chaldee Paraphraft very well renders it, who fhall be the Support and Ornament of his Kingdom. Virtues which are the Ornaments of the Mind, are often in Scripture, compar'd to the Ornaments of the Body, as to a Robe and Diadem, Job 29. 14. and here to a Girdle. Chapter XI. Ver. 6, 7, 8. The wolf alfo fhall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard fhall lie down with the kid: and the calf, and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child fhall lead them. And the cow and the bear fhall feed, their young ones fhall lie down together: and the lion shall eat ftram like the ox. And the fucking child fhall play on the hole of the afp, and the weaned child fhall put his hand on the cockatrice den.] Thefe figurative Expreffions give a lively defcription of Peace; and tho' we meet with fomething like them in Claffic Authors, Nec magnos metuent Armenta Leones; Nec Lupus infidias pecori, &c. yet the highest of their Strains on this Subject rife not up to the excellency of this, And a little Child fhall lead them. The time when thefe peaceful Halcyonian Days commenced, must be fix'd at the famous Period of Sennacherib's Overthrow, after which the Jews injoy'd an uninterrupted Tranquillity all the remaining part of Hezekiah's Reign. The Jews are fo fimple as to ground their Hopes of their Imaginary Meffiah, ftill to come, upon this and other fuch like Expreffions, the literal Completion of which they still expect; to which we may give, by way of Anfwer, the faying of one of their own Rabbies, Let no Rabbi Mofes Man think in the days of the Meffiah, there shall be any apud Lyran. change in Nature, or that things fhall be otherwife than as they were firft created. Chapter Ver. 9. They fhall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth fhall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the fea.] There fhall be no Oppreffion, no deftroying of one another in Jerufalem, the fame in unfigurative Expreffions, which in the former Verfe he defcrib'd by the parabolical Terms, of a Child's playing on the hole of the Afp, without receiving any damage: To which he adds a Reafon why, under him, they fhould live more peaceably than in former times, because there fhould be, as it were, an Inundation of Knowledge, every Breaft fhould be full of it, as the Channels of the Ocean are with Water; by which he means, that the Knowledge of the true God fhould take off that ferity of Nature, which Ignorance had introduced among them, and difpofe them to live together like focial Creatures, made to help and affift one another, not to opprefs and destroy. Ver. 10. And in that day there fhall be a root of Feffe, which shall ftand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles feek, and his reft fhall be glorious. Here he fpeaks of the fame time as at the first Verfe, as will appear by fetting these words in a truer Light, And in that Day, when there fhall come a Rod out of the Stem of Feffe, and a Branch out of his Root, that Branch which shall grow out of the Root of Feffe fhall ftand for an Enfign to the People; that is, out of the Stock of the House of David, fhall repullulate and fhoot out an illuftrious Branch, meaning He zekiah, the fame of whofe Vertues, as foon as the neigh bouring Nations fhall receive, they fhall flock to Judea, eager of being under the Protection of fo good a King, as Soldiers make haft to their Standard, as foon as they fee it or hear it is fet up: And this they did chiefly upon the Defeat of the Affyrians, and the going back of the Sun; which amazing Inftances of Providence could not but raife the Curiofity of the People in thofe Parts, and bring them in fhoals to Jerufalem; which is the meaning of, To it shall the Gentiles (Goim, the Nations) feek, and his Reft fhall be glorious, Menuchatho Caboth, his Habitation, Jerufalem, the place of his Refidence fhall be glorious, her Inhabitants thrive, and live magnificently, and every thing look gay and great. Chapter XI. Ver. 11. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord fhall fet his hand again the fecond time, to recover the remnant of his people which shall be left from Affyria, and from Egypt, and from Fathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the iflands of the fea.] This concerns Zerubbabel, fays Dotor Alix, to whofe Judgment I pay a great deal of deference; but fince the words of the Prophet are plain and eafy, fince Badjom habu can fignify nothing else but then, or at that time, and this Verfe is join'd to the former by the Conjunctive Vau, I can fee no reafon why the words fhould not be interpreted, fo as to make the Difcourfe of the Prophet coherent and rational, and not make him, when he fays, At that time, mean an hundred years after. With Grotius therefore I understand the Prophet of those Ifraelites, who, upon the Invasions of Tiglath Pilefer and Salmanazar; and thofe Jews, who, upon the Invafion of Sennacherib, fled into Foreign Countries to fave their lives, and there remain'd 'till thofe Storms they faw gathering in the Sky were over: Thefe the Lord is faid to recover from the feveral places of their Difperfion, by that miraculous Defeat of Sennache-. rib, that great Disturber of the World's Repose, the fame of which foon fled to be fure into all corners of the World, and was a great encouragement to the Jews to return to their own Country; as if God had called them by a Voice from Heaven: For fince God had fo fignally appear'd in the defence of their Country-men in Jerufalem, it was a fign. he had a favour for them, and would blefs them for the future. From Affyria; the place from whence their Invaders came: And here in the abfence of the King, fome of them might expect to be fhelter'd, fince he would never fufpect they would be fo hardy as to fly into his Country, which might juftly be thought by fome of them the fafeft place in the World. And from Pathros, a Province of Egypt, call'd by the La(a) Bochart, tins (a) Thebais, from which it is fometimes diftinguish'd and fometimes not; from Cuf, that is, Ethiopia or Ara- Lib. 4. c. 2. bia, according to Bochart; from Elam, that is, Perfia; and from Shinar, a Region in Chaldea; and from the Islands of the Sea, Cyprus, Crete, and other Iflands in the N 2 Mediter XI. Chapter Mediterranean Sea; to which, from Sydon or Tyre, they might have an eafy Paffage in Merchant Ships trading to thofe Ports. Ver. 12. And he shall fet up an ensign for the nations, and fhall affemble the outcasts of Ifrael, and gather together the difperfed of Judah, from the four corners of the earth.] Not a Military Enfign, as many Interpreters imagine, (4) Gataker. but a Civil one (a); fuch as is wont to be fet up for the gathering of People together upon any Occafion, fuch as our Beacons By which the Prophet means that God would make a fign to the Nations, which had given fhelter to his fcatter'd People, to let them return to their own Country; and he fhall affemble the Outcasts of Ifrael, and the difperfed of Judah; thofe of both Nations, who, upon the Approach of the Affyrians, left their Habitations, and retir'd into other Countries. Ver. 13. The envy alfo of Ephraim shall depart, and the adverfaries of Judah fhall be cut off: Ephraim fhall not envy Judah, and Fudah fhall not vex Ephraim.] The Prophet fpeaks not of the Affyrian or any other Foreign Êneinies of the Jews, but of their Brethren of Ephraim, or of the Kingdom of the Ten Tribes, who ever fince the division of their Monarchy had been the forest Enemies of the Jewish Nation, but fhould now be reconciled by a fenfe of their common Sufferings, and live peaceably together, like Brethren, under the Government of good Hezekiah. Ver. 14. But they fhall fly upon the shoulders of the PhiLiftines toward the west, they shall fpoil them of the east together they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon fhall obey them.] They shall fly upon the Shoulders; The fame Perfons who were to be recall'd from the feveral Nations into which they were fled, out of the reach of the Affyrians, they (fays the Prophet) fhall fet upon the antient Adverfaries of their Nation, the Philistines with united Force, put them to flight, and pursue them fo faft, as to feem to fly upon their Shoulders: This I take to be the true meaning of the Metaphor, tho' we have not any account of this in Sacred History, any more than of this returning of the Fews and Ifraelites to their own Country in the peace ful XI. ful Reign of Hezekiah, which is not at all to be wonder❜d Chapter at, fince a great part of the Hiftory of that Nation has been quite loft many Ages; nor does this fuppos'd Flight and Return carry with it any thing that looks improbable or unnatural. The Catholick Commentators (a) under- (a) A Lapide.. ftand by this Metaphorical Expreflion the fwift Prevalence of the Apoftolic Preaching, and talk of the Conversion of the Philistines in the Time of Athanafius and Chryfoftom; the Words of one of them (b) deferve to be tranfcribed, (b) Forerius. being fuch as will give the Reader an Idea of their way of interpreting Scripture, which fcarce any one of them is free from. Let not (fays he) the Name of Euphrates and the Affyrians difturb thee, as if the Prophet were to beunderstood of the Return of the Jews from Affyria and ther Places the Ifraelites are never recorded in Scripture to he return'd to their own Country, nor was it ver degn'd they fhould return, unless in the Senfe I given, viz. their being converted to the Gofpel. But I know no other way of finding the Senfe of the Prophet but by the meaning of his Word, and when he talks of Affyria and Egypt, muft understand him of thofe Places which were once fo called, and think he draws up a very unchristian Conclufion, Quam interpretandi rationem fi in prophetis non adhibeas, apertè Judaizare te paffim oportebit, by which, I hope, he does not mean fo far Judaize as to deny that the Meffiah is come. Serrarius is Ver. 15. And the Lord fhall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian fea, and with his mighty wind fhall he fhake his hand over the river, and fhall fmite it in the feven ftreams, and make men go over dry-fhod.] (c) Moft Interpreters by (c) Forerius, the Tongue of the Egyptian Sea understand the Red Sea, Sanctius, which from the Ocean fhoots into the Land between Ara- Tirimus, bia and Egypt, gradually decreafing in its Breadth till it Mafius ends in the Refemblance of a Tongue; this, (fays the Prophet) fhall be dry'd up, to give them free Paffage homeward out of Egypt. Hecherim, which we render to deftroy, fignifies (fays Grotius) to confecrate; and Things which are confecrated being carefully preferv'd, he thinks the Prophet is to be understood of the Ifthmus between the Red and the Mediterranean Sea, which, by God's Providence, should be preferv'd for a Paffage for the return 15 Fof..2 |