that kingdom shall be fruitless; for that the promised Immanuel, to whom he alludes by using his name to express the signification of it, for God is with us, shall be the defence of the house of David, and deliver the kingdom of Judah out of their hands. He then proceeds to warn the people of Judah against idolatry, divination, and the like forbidden practices; to which they were much inclined, and which would soon bring down God's judgments upon Israel. The prophecy concludes, at the 6th verse of chap. ix. with promises of blessings in future times, by the coming of the great Deliverer already pointed out by the name of Immanuel, whose person and character are set forth in terms the most ample and magnificent.

And here it may be observed, that it is almost the constant practice of the Prophet to connect in like manner deliverances temporal with spiritual. Thus the xith chapter, setting forth the kingdom of Messiah, is closely connected with the xth, which foretells the destruction of Senacherib. So likewise the destruction of nations, enemies to God, in the xxxivth chapter, introduces the flourishing state of the kingdom of Christ in the xxxvth. And thus the chapters, from xl. to xlix. inclusive, plainly relating to the deliverance from the captivity of Babylon, do in some parts as plainly relate to the greater deliverance by Christ.

1. Take unto thee a large mirror-] The word

is

פריון as ;גלה to roll, but from ,גלל not regularly formed from ,עלה from עליון נקה from נקיון כלה from כליון פרה from

signifies

&c. the suppling the place of the radical. to show, to reveal; properly, as Schroederus says, (De Vestitu Mulier. Hebr. p, 294.), to render clear and bright by rubbing, to polish; 7, therefore, according to this derivation, is not a roll or volume, but may very well signify a polished tablet of metal, such as anciently was used for a mirror: the Chaldee paraphrast renders it by m, a tablet; and the same word, though somewhat differently pointed, the Chaldee paraphrast and the Rabbins render a mirror, chap. iii. 23. The mirrors of the Israelitish women were made of brass finely polished, Exod. xxxviii. 8.; from which place it likewise appears, that what they used were little hand mirrors, which they carried with them, even when they assembled at the door of the tabernacle. I have a metalline mirror, found in Herculaneum, which is not above three inches square. The Prophet is commanded to take a

mirror, or brazen polished tablet, not like these little handmirrors, but a large one; large enough for him to engrave upon it, in deep and lasting characters, WIND, with a workman's graving tool, the prophecy which he was to deliver. in this place certainly signifies an instrument to write, or to engrave with; but , the same word, only differing a little in the form, means something belonging to a lady's dress, chap. iii. 22. (where however five MSS leave out the, whereby only it differs from the word in this place); either a crisping-pin, which might be not unlike a graving tool, as some will have it; or a purse, as others infer from 2 Kings v. 23. It may therefore be called here UN, a workman's instrument, to distinguish it from JUN 07, an instrument of the same name used by the women. In this manner he was to record the prophecy of the destruction of Damascus and Samaria by the Assyrians: the subject and sum of which prophecy is here expressed with great brevity in four words, maher shalal, hash baz; i. e. " to hasten the spoil, to take quickly the prey;" which are afterwards applied as the name of the Prophet's son, who was made a sign of the speedy completion of it: Mahershalal Hash-baz; Haste-to-the-spoil Quick-to-the-prey. And that it might be done with the greater solemnity, and to preclude all doubt of the real delivery of the prophecy before the event, he calls witness to attest the recording of it.

4. For before the child-] The prophecy was accordingly accomplished within three years; when Tiglath Pileser, king of Assyria, went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Retsin; and also took the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and carried them captive to Assyria; 2 Kings xvi. 9. xv. 29. 1 Chron. v. 26.

6, 7. Because this people have rejected-] The gentle waters of Siloah, a small fountain and brook just without Jerusalem, which supplied a pool within the city for the use of the inhabitants, is an apt emblem of the state of the kingdom and house of David, much reduced in its apparent strength, yet supported by the blessing of God: and is finely contrasted with the waters of the Euphrates, great, rapid, and impetuous; the image of the Babylonian empire, which God threatens to bring down, like a mighty flood, upon all these apostates of both kingdoms, as a punishment for their manifold iniquities, and their contemptuous disregard of his

promises. The brook and the river are put for the kingdoms to which they belong, and the different states of which respectively they most aptly represent. Juvenal, inveighing against the corruption of Rome by the importation of Asiatic manners, says, with great elegance, that the Orontes has been long discharging itself into the Tiber:

'Jampridem Syrus in Tiberim defluxit Orontes." And Virgil, to express the submission of some of the eastern countries to the Roman arms, says, that the waters of Euphrates now flowed more humbly and gently:-" Euphrates ibat jam mollior undis:" En. viii. 726. But the happy contrast between the brook and the river gives a peculiar beauty to this passage of the Prophet, with which the simple figure in the Roman poets, however beautiful, yet uncontrasted, cannot contend.

8. Even to the neck shall he reach-] He compares Jerusalem (says Kimchi) to the head in the human body: As when the waters come up to a man's neck, he is very near drowning; for a little increase of them would go over his head: so the king of Assyria coming up to Jerusalem was like a flood reaching to the neck; the whole country was overflowed, and the capital was in imminent danger. Accordingly the Chaldee renders reaching to the neck, by reaching to Jerusalem.

9. Know ye this] God by his Prophet plainly declares to the confederate adversaries of Judah, and bids them regard and attend to his declaration, that all their efforts shall be in vain. The present reading W, is subject to many difficulties: I follow that of the LXX, WT, yvwrs. Archbishop Secker approves this reading. 7, know ye this, is parallel and synonymous to N, give ear to it, in the next line. The LXX have likewise very well paraphrased the conclusion of this verse: When ye have strengthened yourselves, ye shall be broken; and though ye again strengthen yourselves, again shall ye be broken;" taking as

נשברו meaning the same with

Eleven MSS (two an

p.

Both the reading

The LXX mani

11. As taking me by the hand] cient) read pin: and so Sym. Syr. Vulg. 12. Say ye not, It is holy-] and the sense of this word are doubtful. festly read up; for they render it by oxλngov, hard. Syr. and Chald. render it NT and T, rebellion. came by this sense of the word, or what they read in their

How they

copies, is not so clear. But the worst of it is, that neither of these readings or renderings gives any clear sense in this place: For why should God forbid his faithful servants to say, with the unbelieving Jews, it is hard; or, there is a rebellion; or, as our translators render it, a confederacy? And how can this be called "walking in the way of this people," ver. 11. which usually means, following their example; joining with them in religious worship? Or what confederacy do they mean? The union of the kingdoms of Syria and Israel against Judah? That was properly a league between two independent states; not an unlawful conspiracy of one part against another in the same state; for this is the meaning of the word p. For want of any satisfactory interpretation of this place, that I can meet with, I adopt a conjecture of Archbishop Secker, which he proposes with great diffidence; and even seems immediately to give up, as being destitute of any authority to support it. I will give it in his own words: Videri potest ex cap. v. 16. et hujus cap. 13, 14. 19. legendum p, vel P, eadem sententia, qua N, Hos. xiv. 3. Sed nihil necesse est. Vide enim Jer. xi. 9. Ezek. xxii. 25. Optimè tamen sic responderent huic versiculo versiculi 13, 14." The passages of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, above referred to, seem to me not at all to clear up the sense of the word p in this place. But the context greatly favours the conjecture here given, and makes it highly probable: "Walk not in the way of this people; call not their idols holy; nor fear ye the object of their fear (that is, the Couara, or gods of the idolaters; for so fear here signifies, to wit, the thing feared; so God is called "the fear of Isaac," Gen. xxxi. 42. 53.): but look up to JEHOVAH as your Holy One; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread; and He shall be a holy refuge unto you." Here there is a harmony and consistency running through the whole sentence; and the latter part naturally arises out of the former, and answers to it. Observe, that the difference between P and WTP is chiefly in the transposition of the two last letters; for the letters and

are hardly distinguishable in some copies, printed as well as MS; so that the mistake, in respect of the letters themselves, is a very easy and a very common one.

14. And He shall be unto you a sanctuary.] The word , unto you, absolutely necessary, as I conceive, to the sense, is lost in this place it is preserved by the Vulgate;

:

"et erit vobis in sanctificationem :" the LXX have it in the singular number; sora do 15 ayagμov. Or else, instead of PD, a sanctuary, we must read Up, a snare, which would then be repeated, without any propriety or elegance, at the end of the verse. The Chaldee reads instead of it, DOUD, judgment; for he renders it by , which word frequently answers to DDD in his paraphrase. A MS has

which clears the sense ;להם לאבן (מקדע ולאבן instead of)

and construction. But the reading of the Vulgate is, I think, the best remedy to this difficulty; and is in some degree authorized by D, the reading of the MS above mentioned.

16. among my disciples] SA. "The LXX render it, rou un made. Bishop Chandler, Defence of Christianity, p. 308. "thinks they read, that it be not understood; and approves this reading:" Archbishop SECKER.

18. God of Hosts] A MS reads .

19. Should they seek―] After T, the LXX, repeating the word, read 1977: Ουκ εθνος προς θεον αυτου εκζητήσουσι ; τι εκζητήσουσι περι των ζώντων τους νεκρους; and this repetition of the verb seems necessary to the sense; and, as Procopius on the place observes, it strongly expresses the Prophet's indignation at their folly.

20. Unto the command, and unto the testimony-]

"Is

not here the attested prophecy, ver. 1-4.? and perhaps the command, ver 11-15.? for it means sometimes a particular, and even a human command; see Prov. vi. 20. and vii. 1, 2. where it is ordered to be hid, that is, secretly kept:" Archbishop SECKER. So Deschamps in his translation, or rather paraphrase, understands it: "Tenons nous à l'instrument authentique, mis en dépôt par ordre du Seigneur." If this be right, the 16th verse must be understood in the same manner.

Ibid. In which there is no obscurity], as an adjective, frequently signifies dark, obscure; and the noun signifies darkness, gloominess, Joel ii. 2. if we may judge by the context:

where the gloom, , seems to be the same with the cloud and thick vapour mentioned in the line preceding: see Lam. iv. 8. Job xxx. 30. See this meaning of the word