conclude with the same kind of solemn form :-" Nam mihi ita Jupiter fatus est." Observe, that the word DN, (to pronounce, to declare), is the solemn word appropriated to the delivering of prophecies:-"Behold, I am against the prophets, saith (DN) JEHOVAH, who use their tongues, " ON), and solemnly pronounce, He hath pronounced it; Jer. xxiii. 31.

CHAPTER XXII.

THIS prophecy, ending with the 14th verse of this chapter, is entitled, "The Oracle concerning the Valley of Vision," by which is meant Jerusalem, because, says Sal. b. Melec, it was the place of prophecy. Jerusalem, according to Josephus, was built upon two opposite hills, Sion and Acra, separated by a valley in the midst: he speaks of another broad valley between Acra and Moriah, Bell. Jud. v. 13. vi. 6. It was the seat of divine revelation, the place where chiefly prophetic vision was given, and where God manifested himself visibly in the holy place. The prophecy foretells the invasion of Jerusalem by the Assyrians under Senacherib; or by the Chaldeans under Nebuchadnezzar. Vitringa is of opinion, that the Prophet has both in view: that of the Chaldeans in the first part, ver. 1—5. (which he thinks relates to the flight of Zedekiah, 2 Kings, xxv. 4, 5.); and that of the Assyrians in the latter part which agrees with the circumstances of that time, and particularly describes the preparations made by Hezekiah for the defence of the city, ver. 8-11. Compare 2 Chron. xxxii. 2—5.

1.—are gone up to the house-tops.] The houses in the East were in ancient times, as they are still generally, built in one and the same uniform manner. The roof or top of the house is always flat, covered with broad stones, or a strong plaster of terrace, and guarded on every side with a low parapet wall: see Deut. xxii. 8. The terrace is frequented as much as any part of the house. On this, as the season favours, they walk, they eat, they sleep, they transact business, (1 Sam. ix. 25. see also the LXX in that place), they perform their devotions, (Acts x. 9.) The house is built with a court within, into which chiefly the windows open; those that open to the street are so obstructed with lattice-work, that no one either without or within can see through them. Whenever therefore any thing is to be seen

or heard in the streets, any public spectacle, any alarm of a public nature, every one immediately goes up to the housetop to satisfy his curiosity. In the same manner, when any one had occasion to make any thing public, the readiest and most effectual way of doing it was to proclaim it from the house-tops to the people in the streets: "What ye hear in the ear, that publish ye on the house-top," saith our Saviour, Matt. x. 27. The people's running all to the tops of their houses gives a lively image of a sudden general alarm. Sir John Chardin's MS note on this place is as follows:"Dans les festes pour voir passer quelque chose, et dans les maladies pour les annoncer aux voisins en allumant des lumières, le peuple monte sur les terrasses."

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3. -are gone off together.] There seems to be somewhat of an inconsistency in the sense, according to the present reading. If the leaders were bound, DN, how could they flee away? for their being bound, according to the obvious construction and course of the sentence, is a circumstance prior to their flight. I therefore follow Houbigant, who reads 170, remoti sunt, they are gone off. 19, transmigraverunt, Chald. which seems to confirm this emendation. 6. the Syrian-] It is not easy to say what DN a chariot of men, can mean. It seems, by the form of the sentence, which consists of three members, the first and the third mentioning a particular people, that the second should do so likewise; thus 7, "with chariots the Syrian, and with horsemen:" the similitude of the letters

7,

and is so great, and the mistakes arising from it so frequent, that I readily adopt the correction of Houbigant, ON instead of DTN, which seems to me extremely probable. The conjunction prefixed to D' seems necessary, in whatever way the sentence is taken; and it is confirmed by five MSS (one ancient) and three editions. Kir was a city belonging to the Medes. The Medes were subject to the Assyrians in Hezekiah's time: see 2 Kings xvi. 9. and xvii. 6.; and so perhaps might Elam (the Persians) likewise be, or auxiliaries to them.

8. the arsenal-] Built by Solomon within the city, and called the House of the Forest of Lebanon; probably ́ from the great quantity of cedar from Lebanon which was employed in the building: see 1 Kings vii. 2, 3.

9. And ye shall collect the waters—] There were two pools in or near Jerusalem, supplied by springs: the upper

pool, or the old pool, supplied by the spring called Gihon, 2 Chron. xxxii. 30. towards the higher part of the city, near Sion or the city of David; and the lower pool, probably supplied by Siloam, towards the lower part. When Hezekiah was threatened with a siege by Senacherib, he stopped up all the waters of the fountains without the city, and brought them into the city by a conduit, or subterraneous passage cut through the rock; those of the old pool, to the place where he made a double wall, so that the pool was between the two walls. This he did in order to distress the enemy, and to supply the city during the siege. This was so great a work, that not only the historians have made particular mention of it, 2 Kings xx. 20. 2 Chron. xxxii. 2, 3. 5. 30.; but the son of Sirach also has celebrated it in his encomium on Hezekiah: "Hezekiah fortified his city, and brought in water into the midst thereof: he digged the hard rock with iron, and made wells for water:" Eccl'us xlviii. 17.

11. to him that hath disposed this] That is, to God, the author and disposer of this visitation, the invasion with which he now threatens you. The very same expressions are applied to God, and upon the same occasion, chap. xxxvii. 26.

"Hast thou not heard, of old, that I have disposed it;

And, of ancient times, that I have formed it?"

14. the voice of JEHOVAH-] The Vulg. has vox. Domini; as if in his copy he had read : and, in truth, without the word, it is not easy to make out the sense of the passage; as it appears from the strange versions which the rest of the ancients, (except Chald.), and many of the moderns, have given of it; as if the matter were revealed in, or to, the ears of JEHOVAH; EV TOIS war Kugiou, LXX. Vitringa translates it, "revelatus est in auribus meis JEHOVAH;" and refers to 1 Sam. ii. 27. iii. 21.: but the construction in those places is different, and there is no speech of God added; which here seems to want something more than the verb to introduce it. Compare chap. v. 9. where the text is still more imperfect.

15. Go unto Shebna-] The following prophecy concerning Shebna seems to have very little relation to the foregoing; except that it might have been delivered about the same time, and Shebna might be a principal person among those whose luxury and profaneness is severely reprehended by the Prophet in the conclusion of that prophecy, ver. 11-14.

Shebna the scribe, mentioned in the history of Hezekiah, chap. xxxvi. seems to have been a different person from this Shebna, the treasurer or steward of the household, to whom the prophecy relates. The Eliakim here mentioned was probably the person who, at the time of Senacherib's invasion, was actually treasurer, the son of Hilkiah. If so, this prophecy was delivered, as the preceding, which makes the former part of the chapter, plainly was, some time before the invasion of Senacherib. As to the rest, history affords us

no information.

Ibid,—and say unto him] Here are two words lost out of the text; which are supplied by two MSS, (one ancient,) which read л; by LXX, xαι so aury; and in the same manner by all the ancient versions. It is to be observed, that this passage is merely historical, and does not admit of that sort of ellipsis by which, in the poetical parts, a person is frequently introduced speaking, without the usual notice that what follows was delivered by him.

למעלה

16. thy sepulchre on high-in the rock] It has been observed before, on chap. xiv., that persons of high rank in Judea, and in most parts of the East, were generally buried in large sepulchral vaults hewn out in the rock for the use of themselves and their families. The vanity of Shebna is set forth by his being so studious and careful to have his sepulchre on high; in a lofty vault, and that probably in a high situation, that it might be more conspicuous. Hezekiah was buried hyph, ev avacao, LXX; in the chiefest, says our translation; rather, in the highest part of the sepulchres of the sons of David, to do him the more honour; 2 Chron. xxxii. 33. There are some monuments still remaining in Persia of great antiquity, called Naksi Rustam, which give one a clear idea of Shebna's pompous design for his sepulchre. They consist of several sepulchres, each of them hewn in a high rock near the top the front of the rock to the valley below is adorned with carved work in relievo, being the outside of the sepulchre. Some of these sepulchres are about thirty feet in the perpendicular from the valley; which is itself raised perhaps above half as much by the accumulation of the earth since they were made. See the description of them in Chardin, Pietro, della Valle, Thevenot, and Kempfer, Diodorus Siculus, lib. xvii. mentions these ancient monuments, and calls them the sepulchres of the kings of Persia.

U

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17. -cover thee] That is, thy face. This was the condition of mourners in general, and particularly of condemned persons: see Esther vi. 12. vii. 8.

8,

19. I will drive thee-] TON, in the first person, Syr. Vulg.

21. —to the inhabitants—], in the plural number, four MSS, (two ancient), LXX, Syr. Vulg.

22.-the key upon his shoulder.] As the robe and the baldric, mentioned in the preceding verse, were the ensigns of power and authority, so likewise was the key the mark of office, either sacred or civil. The priestess of Juno is said to be the key-bearer of the goddess, xλdouxos 'Hgas: Eschyl. Suppl. 299. A female high in office under a great queen has the same title:

Καλλιθόη κλειδουχος Ολυμπιάδος Βασιλείης.

Auctor Phoronidis ap. Clem. Alex. p. 418. Edit. Potter. This mark of office was likewise among the Greeks, as here in Isaiah, borne on the shoulder: the priestess of Ceres narwμadiav εxe xλaida: Callim. Ceres, ver. 45. To compre hend how the key could be borne on the shoulder, it will be necessary to say somewhat of the form of it. but, without entering into a long disquisition, and a great deal of obscure learning, concerning the locks and keys of the ancients, it will be sufficient to observe, that one sort of keys, and that probably the most ancient, was of considerable magnitude, and as to the shape very much bent and crooked. Aratus, to give his reader an idea of the form of the constellation Cassiopeia, compares it to a key. It must be owned that the passage is very obscure; but the learned Huetius has bestowed a great deal of pains in explaining it, Animadvers. in Manilii, lib. i. 355. and I think has succeeded very well in it. Homer, Odyss. xxi. 6. describes the key of Ulysses's storehouse, as unauτns, of a large curvature; which Eustathius explains by saying it was dgavosions, in shape like a reap-hook. Huetius says, the constellation Cassiopeia answers to this description; the stars to the north making the curve part, that is, the principal part of the key; the southern stars, the handle. The curve part was introduced into the key-hole; and, being properly directed by the handle, took hold of the bolts within, and moved them from their places. We may easily collect from this account, that such a key would lie very well upon the shoulder: that it must be of some considerable size and weight, and could