makes little difference, though the former I take to be the better exposition of the phrase ships of Tarshish' it is Vitringa's and Bochart's): he warns them not to enter, because they will find the enemy in possession of their harbour. It is some confirmation of this sense that, in Ezekiel's lamentation over Tyre (Ezek. xxvii, 3), ♫ is clearly the haven of Tyre, considered as the entrance of the sea from the continent.

Bishop Lowth renders this line thus. "For she is utterly destroyed both within and without." In Poole's Synopsis, I find the like interpretation ascribed to Forerius; and there the reader may see by what process that critic would deduce this sense from the Hebrew words, which is adopted with great commendation by Vitringa. But I cannot find a single instance in the sacred writings in which

, either by itself, or contrasted with , or in any connection, renders without."

"Far as the land of Chittim the news is spread."

,מארץ כתים נגלה למו

-"the land of Chittim." By the writer of the first book of Maccabees, Alexander the Great is called the king of Chittim. Ships of Chittim, in the book of Daniel, are Roman ships. Hence it should seem

that Chittim is a name common to Greeks and Romans. Dn, in Arabic, is to hide.'

therefore I take to be a general name for those parts of our western world which were the least known to the Jews and other eastern nations; the "terra incognita occidentalis:' although Vitringa, with Bochart, takes to be the peculiar name of Italy.

"Far as the land of Chittim"

It may seem strange to suppose that the preposi

tion

should render far as.'

vi, 2, as an instance in which

Noldius cites 2 Sam.

directly renders the

preposition of the place whither. But he mistakes the true sense of the passage, in which is clearly the preposition of the place whence. He cites to the same purpose Psalm lxviii, 30, where has quite another meaning; and Cant. iv, 1, where the force of will depend upon the sense given to the verb a. Upon the whole, I am not satisfied that the prefix in any instance directly renders the preposition of the place whither. But in describing great distances, the Hebrew and the European languages take contrary ways. The Hebrew language always measures backward from the farthest boundary to the place of the writer or speaker. The Greek and

Latin languages for the most part, and the English language always (some texts in the Bible excepted, in which the Hebrew idiom is retained), measure forward from the station of the writer or speaker to the farthest boundary. In either way, the thing expressed is the whole space between the writer's sta tion and the utmost limit mentioned. Hence it often happens, that although the prefixed directly renders the preposition of the place whither, yet its effect in describing distance can be no otherwise so perspicuously rendered in English as by as far as to, or some equivalent phrase. Thus, in

never

in effect render ממדרח שמש and ממערב,Is. lix

to the utmost west,' and 'to the rising of the sun.' The thing intended is the whole surface of the habitable globe, measured first from the utmost west back to Judea, and again from the utmost east back to Judea. Again, in Is. xvii, 13, p is to a great distance ;'* and in the text,

ND

de

scribes the whole space between the farthest shores of Chittim and the Tyrian shore. Inde usque a terrâ Chittim fama pervulgata est.

Another difficulty in this line is to expound the . I think it is used indefinitely for all

pronoun

* And see this chapter, verse 7.

the inhabitants of the space described, whoever they might be, and in whatever part of it. So we might say in English, They have heard of the rupture with Spain ere this in the East Indies;' i. e. they [who live] in the East Indies ere this have heard, &c. Some, with the LXX, render the verb it is carried away captive. ἧκται αἰχμαλωτος. Others take

for a noun rendering captivity; but I find no authority for this sense of the verb in Niphal, nor

נגלה for any use of

as a noun.

Verse 2. are still." The bustle and noise of traffic and business is heard no more in the streets of Tyre. All interpreters have taken the verb ¬ as an imperative; for which I see no reason but the authority of the points.

Verse 3." the factoress of nations." See Herodot. lib. i, 1.

Verse 6. "Pass ye over to Tarshish" The prophet addresses his hearers. He has described the consternation of the Egyptians. "Go on (he says) to Tartessus; see the state of things there."

"A city,"

Verse 10. "Overflow thy land," &c. says Bishop Lowth,." taken by siege and destroyed, whose walls are demolished, whose policy is dissolved, whose wealth is dissipated, whose people is scat

But

tered over the wide country, is compared to a river whose banks are broken down, and its waters let loose and overflowing all the neighbouring plains, are wasted and lost." This interpretation (which is indeed Vitringa's) is certainly the most satisfactory that has ever been given of this obscure verse. I cannot agree with Bishop Lowth (who in this too follows Vitringa) that the daughter of Tarshish signifies Tyre. I believe no other instance can be found, in which the parent state is called the daughter of the colony. The daughter of Tarshish I take to be Tarshish itself, or its inhabitants; as the daughter of Sion and the daughter of Jerusalem, are Sion itself and Jerusalem itself, or rather inhabitants described under the image of the children of the towns. Upon occasions of distress and danger the address is to the female sex, as the most obnoxious to alarm and injury. The prophet describes the distant colonies, Tartessus in particular, as suffering, together with Tyre, by the arms of Nebuchadnezzar. By the testimony of Megasthenes, it appears that the conquests of that monarch extended to the farthest coasts of Spain. Megasthenes, as cited by Strabo, says, that "Nebuchadnezzar, whose reputation among the Chaldeans surpassed that of Hercules,