be then, as chap. xxix, 17, which shall be fulfilled in Christ's time. For then, they that were before as the barren wilderness, being regenerate, shall be fruitful; and they that had some beginning of godliness shall bring forth fruits in such abundance, that their former life shall seem but as a wilderness where no fruits were."

Verse 20. "Blessed are ye," &c. This last verse is excellently interpreted by Castalio:

" Felices

qui evangelium toto publicatis orbe, ubicunque est humor; id est, ubi spes est fore ut crescat, et alatur, tanquam humore stirpes, idque facitis immitentes bovis asinique pedem: id est nullo Judæorum aut exterorum discrimine. Adludit enim ad Mosis præceptum, quo vetat arari bove et asino, hoc est, si præcepti vim penitius consideres, vetat Judæis commercium esse cum reliquis nationibus tanquam cum dispari genere: quemadmodum Paulus præceptum illud de non obturando bovis ore triturantis, refert ad rem diviniorem, videlicet ad eorum alimo. niam, qui docent evangelium. Igitur illud discrimen evangelio sublatum est: felicesque sunt evangelii

magistri, qui omnes, nullo, neque docentium neque docendorum, gentis discrimine docent."

St Jerome seems to have taken the passage in the same sense, but he has not explained it so clearly.

CHAP. XXXIII.

The prophet still dwells upon the general subject of the final overthrow of the irreligious faction and the prosperity of the church. But the images in which the prediction is conveyed in this chapter have a more direct allusion to Sennacherib than any yet used.

From the blessing pronounced upon the preachers of the gospel at the end of the preceding chapter, the discourse passes to threatenings against their adversaries.

Verse 1. "Woe to thee that spoilest," &c. This is applicable to Sennacherib; but it is equally the character of all persecutors that their ill-usage of God's servants is unprovoked.

-"when thou shalt cease to spoil," &c. "When thou hast finished thy spoiling, thou shalt thyself be spoiled; when thou hast carried thy treachery to the height, treachery shall be practised against thee."

The enemies of God are threatened with the plague of division and treachery amongst themselves. Or perhaps the arch-enemy is threatened with a spoiling of his power, and a defection of those who had long been attached to him, and, deceived themselves, had been the tools of his deceit.

For y, read, with

Verse 2." their arm" the Syriac, Chaldee, Vulgate, Houbigant, and Bishop Lowth,,"our strength."

Verse 3. "At the noise of thy tumult"- For 1, the LXX and Syriac, whom Houbigant and Bishop Lowth follow, read ; "At thy terrible voice". But the common reading seems as good.

-"the people ;"" the peoples."

The 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th verses, and all to the end of

the 9th, is spoken by the prophet to the people.

4 And your gathering of the spoil shall be like the caterpillar's gathering,

And the seizing upon it like the leap of the locust.

This is addressed to the people of God. Vitringa confesses that the Hebrew words are not incapable of this interpretation.

Verse 6. At the end of this verse, for 1, read, with Symmachus, Houbigant, and Bishop Lowth,

אךצרר

And wisdom and knowledge shall be

The stability of thy times, the security of salvation.
The fear of Jehovah that shall be thy treasure,

Verse 7." without"- For , read, with the Syriac, Houbigant, and Bishop Lowth, P, "grievously." The alteration is unnecessary. " without" The image is, the leaders of an enemy without the walls summoning the town.

Verses 11-13, addressed by Jehovah to the enemies of his people, the besiegers.

Verse 14. "The sinners in Zion," &c. The sinners in Sion are the wicked, false professors of the true religion. This verse describes the consternation that shall seize such persons when they see the threatenings of judgments upon the declared enemies of the church begin to take effect.

-"hypocrites;" rather, "the abandoned."

The following verses to the 19th inclusive, describe the perfect security of the true servants of God, while his judgments are raging dreadfully against the apostate faction.

Verse 17. "Thine eyes," &c. Thine eyes shall see the King Messiah glorified in the prosperity of his church; they shall see the promised land of immortality afar off; they shall have a cheering pro

spect of that eternal rest, to which after a period of peace and happiness on earth in the latter ages the saints shall be finally translated.

Verse 20." a quiet habitation." Could Jerusalem in the time of Hezekiah be called "the quiet habitation, the tabernacle not to be shaken, whose stakes should not be removed for ever, of whose cords not any should be broken," when it was to be destroyed first by the Babylonians, and a second time by the Romans? To suppose that these promises had their accomplishment in the deliverance of the city from Sennacherib, and the prosperity of the remainder of Hezekiah's reign, is to suppose that the prophets describe things comparatively small under the greatest images. And this being once granted, what assurance have we that the magnificent promises to the faithful will ever take effect in the extent of the terms in which they are conveyed. The language of prophecy is indeed poetical and figurative; but the hyperbole is a figure which never can be admitted in the Divine promises; on the contrary, it is always to be presumed that more is meant than the highest figures can express adequately.