suppose to have lived in the time of the Judges. In this, with many eminent chronologers, I follow the authority of Herodotus; who says, that the Assyrian monarchy lasted but five hundred and twenty years. Ninus got possession of Babylon from the Cuthean Arabians, the successors of Nimrod in that empire, collected the Chaldeans, and settled a colony of them there, to secure the possession of the city, which he and his successors greatly enlarged and ornamented. They had perhaps been useful to him in his wars, and might be likely to be further useful in keeping under the old inhabitants of that city, and of the country belonging to it; according to the policy of the Assyrian kings, who generally brought new people into the conquered countries. See Isa. xxxvi. 17. 2 Kings xvii. 6. 24. The testimony of Dicaarchus, a Greek historian contemporary with Alexander, (apud Steph. de Urbibus, in v. Xaλdanos), in regard to the fact is remarkable, though he is mistaken in the name of the king he speaks of: He says, "That a certain king of Assyria, the fourteenth in succession from Ninus," (as he might be, if Ninus is placed, as in the common chronology, eight hundred years higher than we have above set him,) "named as it is said Chaldæus, having gathered together and united all the people called Chaldeans, built the famous city Babylon upon the Euphrates."

14. Howl, O ye ships-] The Prophet Ezekiel hath enlarged upon this part of the same subject with great force and elegance:

Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH concerning Tyre:

At the sound of thy fall, at the cry of the wounded,

At the great slaughter in the midst of thee, shall not the islands tremble?

And shall not all the princes of the sea descend from their thrones,

And lay aside their robes, and strip off their embroidered garments?

They shall clothe themselves with trembling, they shall sit on the ground;

They shall tremble every moment, they shall be astonished at thee.

And they shall utter a lamentation over thee, and shall say unto thee:

How art thou lost, thou that wast inhabited from the seas!

The renowned city, that was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants!

That struck with terror all her neighbours !

Now shall the coasts tremble in the day of thy fall,

And the isles that are in the sea shall be troubled at thy departure." Ezek. xxvi. 15-18. 15. According to the days of one king-] That is, of one kingdom. See Dan. vii. 17. viii. 20. Nebuchadnezzar began his conquests in the first year of his reign; from thence to the taking of Babylon by Cyrus are seventy years; at which time the nations conquered by Nebuchadnezzar were to be restored to liberty. These seventy years limit the duration of the Babylonish monarchy. Tyre was taken by him towards the middle of that period; so did not serve the king of Babylon during the whole period, but only for the remaining part of it. This seems to be the meaning of Isaiah: The days allotted to the one king or kingdom, are seventy years; Tyre, with the rest of the conquered nations, shall continue in a state of subjection and desolation to the end of that period-not from the beginning and through the whole of the period; for, by being one of the latest conquests, the duration of that state subjection in regard to her was not much more than half of it. "All these nations," saith Jeremiah, (xxv. 11.), “shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years." Some of them were conquered sooner, some later; but the end of this period was the common term for the deliverance of them all.

There is another way of computing the seventy years, from the year in which Tyre was actually taken to the nineteenth of Darius Hystaspis; whom the Phenicians, or Tyrians, assisted against the Ionians, and probably on that account might then be restored to their former liberties and privileges. But I think the former the more probable interpretation.

Ibid. -sing as the harlot singeth--] "Fidicinam esse mesetricum est," says Donatus in Terent. Eunuch. iii. 2. 4.

"Nec meretrix tibicina, cujus

Ad strepitum salias."

Hor. I. Epist. xiv. 25. Sir John Chardin, in his MS note on this place, says: "C'est que les vieilles prostituées-ne font que chanter quand les jeunes dancent, et les animer par l'instrument et par la voix."

17, 18. And at the end of seventy years-] Tyre, after its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar, recovered, as it is here foretold, its ancient trade, wealth, and grandeur; as it did

likewise after a second destruction by Alexander. It became Christian early with the rest of the neighbouring countries. St Paul himself found many Christians there, Acts xxi. 4. It suffered much in the Diocletian persecution. It was an archbishoprick under the patriarchate of Jerusalem, with fourteen bishopricks under its jurisdiction. It continued Christian till it was taken by the Saracens in 639; was recovered by the Christians in 1124; but in 1280 was conquered by the Mamelukes: and afterwards taken from them by the Turks in 1516. Since that time it has sunk into utter decay; is now a mere ruin; a bare rock; "a place to spread nets upon," as the Prophet Ezekiel foretold it should be, chap. xxvi. 14. See Sandy's Travels; Vitringa on the place; Bishop Newton on the Prophecies, Dissert. xi.

CHAPTER XXIV.

FROM the xiiith chapter to the xxiiid inclusive, the fate of several cities and nations is denounced ;-of Babylon, of the Philistines, Moab, Damascus, Egypt, Tyre. After having foretold the destruction of the foreign nations, enemies of Judah, the Prophet declares the judgments impending on the people of God themselves, for their wickedness and apostasy; and the desolation that shall be brought on their whole country.

The xxivth, and the three following chapters, seem to have been delivered about the same time-before the destruction of Moab by Shalmaneser, (see xxv. 10.); consequently before the destruction of Samaria; probably in the beginning of Hezekiah's reign. But concerning the particular subject of the xxivth chapter, interpreters are not at all agreed: some refer it to the desolation caused by the invasion of Shalmaneser; others to the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar; and others to the destruction of the city and nation by the Romans. Vitringa is singular in his opinion, who applies it to the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes. Perhaps it may have a view to all of the three great desolations of the country, by Shalmaneser, by Nebuchadnezzar, and by the Romans; especially the last, to which some parts of it may seem more peculiarly applicable. However, the Prophet chiefly employs general images; such as set forth the greatness and universality of the ruin and desolation

that is to be brought upon the country by these great revolutions, involving all orders and degrees of men, changing entirely the face of things, and destroying the whole polity both religious and civil; without entering into minute circumstances, or necessarily restraining it by particular marks to one great event, exclusive of others of the same kind.

4. The world languisheth] The world is the same with the land; that is, the kingdoms of Judah and Israel; orbis Israeliticus. See note on chap. xiii. 11.

5. -the law]

Chald.

6. are destroyed] Syr. Chald. Sym.

, singular: so read LXX, Syr.

,see LXX :חרבו read חרו For

9. —palm wine—-] This is the proper meaning of the word, dixega: see note on chap. v. 11. All enjoyment shall cease; the sweetest wine shall become bitter to their taste.

11. is passed away] For y, ready; transposing a letter: Houbigant, SECKER. Five MSS (two ancient) add after : LXX add the same word before it.

14. But these-] That is, they that escaped out of these calamities. The great distresses brought upon Israel and Judah drove the people away, and dispersed them all over the neighbouring countries: they fled to Egypt, to Asia Minor, to the islands and the coasts of Greece. They were to be found in great numbers in most of the principal cities of these countries. Alexandria was in a great measure peopled by them. They had synagogues for their worship in many places; and were greatly instrumental in propagating the knowledge of the true God among these heathen nations, and preparing them for the reception of Christianity. This is what the Prophet seems to mean by the celebration of the name of JEHOVAH in the waters, in the distant coasts, and in the uppermost parts of the land. D the waters; bdwg, LXX; idara, Theod.; not D, from the

sea.

מָיִם

-I sup בארים For

15. In the distant coasts of the sea] pose, we ought to read "; which is in a great degree justified by the repetition of the word in the next member of the sentence, with the addition of D to vary the phrase, exactly in the manner of the Prophet. D is a word chiefly applied to any distant countries, especially those

lying on the Mediterranean Sea. Others conjecture "X",

;illustrati באר a באורים ; בחורים בעמים באמים בהרים

Le Clerc. Twenty-three MSS read D. The LXX do not acknowledge the reading of the text, expressing here only the word "X, ev tœis vnoois, and that not repeated. But MSS Pachom. and I. D. II. supply in this place the defect in the other copies of LXX, thus: Δια τοῦτο ἡ δόξα Κυρίου εσται εν ταις νήσοις της θαλασσης" εν ταις νήσοις το όνομα του Κυρίου Θεου Ισραηλ ενδοξον εσται. According to which the LXX had in their

.בארים repeated afterward, not .באיים Hebrew copy

16. But I said- The Prophet speaks in the person of the inhabitants of the land still remaining there; who should be pursued by divine vengeance, and suffer repeated distresses from the inroads and depredations of their powerful enemies. Agreeably to what he said before in a general denunciation of these calamities,

"Though there be a tenth part remaining in it;

Even this shall undergo a repeated destruction.'

Chap. vi. 13. See the note there. Ibid. The plunderers plunder] See note on chap. xxi. 2. 17, 18. The terror, the pit,-] If they escape ope calamity, another shall overtake them;

"As if a man should flee from a lion, and a bear should overtake him:

Or should betake himself to his house, and lean his hand on the wall,

Amos. v. 19.

And a serpent should bite him." For, as our Saviour expressed it in a like parabolical manner, "Wheresoever the carcase is, there shall the eagles be gathered together;" Matt. xxiv. 28. The images are taken from the different methods of hunting and taking wild beasts which were anciently in use. The terror was a line strung with feathers of all colours, which fluttering in the air scared and frightened the beasts into the toils, or into the pit which was prepared for them. "Nec est mirum, cum maximos ferarum greges linea pennis distincta contineat, et in insidias agat, ab ipso effectu dicta Formido:" Seneca de Ira, ii. 12. The pit, or pit-fall, Fovea; digged deep in the ground, and covered over with green boughs, turf, &c. in order to deceive them, that they might fall into it unawares. The snare, or toils, Indago; a series of nets, inclosing at first a great space of ground, in which the wild beasts were known to be; and then drawn in by degrees into a narrower com