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النشر الإلكتروني

CHAPTER LI.

4. O ye peoples;-O ye nations] For by, my people, the Bodley MS, and another, read Dy, ye peoples; and for N, my nation, the Bodley MS, and eight others (two of them ancient), read D', ye nations: and so the Syriac in both words. The difference is very material: for in this case the address is made, not to the Jews, but to the Gentiles, as in all reason it ought to be; for this and the two following verses express the call of the Gentiles, the islands, or the distant lands on the coasts of the Mediterranean and other seas. It is also to be observed, that God in no other place calls his people ". It has been before remarked, that transcribers frequently omitted the final of nouns plural, and supplied it, for brevity sake, and sometimes for want of room at the end of a line, by a small stroke thus ; which mark, being effaced or overlooked, has been the occasion of many mistakes of this kind.

5. My righteousness is at hand—] The word PTY, righte ousness, is used in such a great latitude of signification, for justice, truth, faithfulness, goodness, mercy, deliverance, salvation, &c., that it is not easy sometimes to give the precise meaning of it without much circumlocution: it means here the faithful completion of God's promises to deliver his people.

11. shall they obtain, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away] Nineteen MSS, and the two oldest editions, have "; and forty-six MSS, and the same two editions, and agreeably to them Chald. and Syr. have 10: and so both words are expressed chap xxxv. 10., of which place this is a repetition. And from comparing both together it appears, that the in this place is become by mistake in the present text the final of the preceding word.

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13. of the oppressor, as if he-] seems clearly to have changed its situation from the end of the preceding word to the beginning of this; or rather, to have been omitted by mistake there, because it was here. That it was there, the LXX show by rendering T, 92/Covros de, of him that oppressed thee: And so they render this word in both its places in this verse. The Vulgate also has the pronoun in the first instance: furoris ejus qui te tribulabat:" Dr JUBB. The correction seems well founded

I have not conformed the translation to it, because it makes very little difference in the sense.

14. He marcheth on with speed-] Cyrus, if understood of the temporal redemption from the captivity of Babylon; in the spiritual sense, the Messiah.

16. To stretch out the heavens] In the present text it is yo, to plant the heavens. The phrase is certainly very obscure, and in all probability is a mistake for . This latter is the word used in ver. 13. just before, in the very same sentence; and this phrase occurs frequently in Isaiah, chap. xl. 22. xlii. 5. xliv. 24. xlv. 12.; the former in no other place. It is also very remarkable, that in the Samaritan text, Numb. xxiv. 6. these two words are twice changed, by mistake, one for the other, in the same verse.

19. These two things-desolation and destruction, the famine and the sword] That is, desolation by famine, and destruction by the sword; taking the terms alternately of which form of construction see other examples, De S. Poesi Heb. Præl. xix. and Prelim. Dissert. p. xvii. The Chaldee paraphrast, not rightly understanding this, has had recourse to the following expedient: "Two afflictions are come upon thee, and when four shall come upon thee, depredation and destruction, and the famine and the sword-” Five MSS have y without the conjunction ; and so LXX and Syr. Ibid. Who shall comfort thee?] A MS, LXX, Syr. Chald. and Vulg. have it in the third person, 72; which is evidently right.

20.-in the toils, drenched to the full-] "Forte

מכמרה

,מלאים SECKER. The demonstrative n, prefixed to :מלאים

seems improper in this place.

21. And thou drunken, but not with wine.] Eschylus has the same expression:

Αοίνοις εμμανεις θυμωμασι.

Intoxicate with passion, not with wine.

Eumen. 863.

Schultens thinks, that this circumlocution, as he calls it, "gradum adfert incomparabiliter majorem;" and that it means not simply without wine, but much more than with wine: Gram. Hebr. p. 182. See his note on Job xxx. 28.

The bold image of the cup of God's wrath, often employed by the sacred writers, (see note on chap. i. 22.), is no where handled with greater force and sublimity than in this passage of Isaiah, ver. 17-23. Jerusalem is represented in.

person as staggering under the effects of it, destitute of that assistance which she might expect from her children; not one of them being able to support or to lead her. They, abject and amazed, lie at the head of every street, overwhelmed with the greatness of their distress; like the oryx entangled in a net, in vain struggling to rend it, and extricate himself. This is poetry of the first order, sublimity of the highest proof.

Plato had an idea something like this: "Suppose, says he, God had given to men a medicating potion inducing fear; so that the more any one should drink of it, so much the more miserable he should find himself at every draught, and become fearful of every thing both present and future; and at last, though the most courageous of men, should be totally possessed by fear: and afterward, having slept off the effects of it, should become himself again:" De Leg. i. near the end. He pursues at large this hypothesis, applying it to his own purpose, which has no relation to the present subject. Homer places two vessels at the threshold of Jupiter, one of good, the other of evil: he gives to some a potion mixed of both, to others from the evil vessel only: these are completely miserable: Iliad. xxvi. 527.

23. who oppress thee] "Videntur, LXX, Chald. Syr. Vulg. legisse T2, ut xl. 26.:" SECKER. And so it is in edit. Gersom.

Ibid. That say to thee, Bow down thy body] A very strong and most expressive description of the insolent pride of eastern conquerors; which, though it may seem greatly exaggerated, yet hardly exceeds the strict truth. An example has already been given of it in note to chap. xlix. 23. I will here add one or two more. "Joshua called for all the men of Israel; and said unto the captains of the men of war that went with him: Come near, put your feet upon the necks of these kings;" Josh. x. 24. "Adonibezek said, Threescore and ten kings, having their thumbs and their great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so hath God requited me;" Judg. i. 7. Emperor Valerianus being through treachery taken prisoner by Sapor king of Persia, was treated by him as the basest and most abject slave: for the Persian monarch commanded the unhappy Roman to bow himself down, and offer him his back, on which he set his foot, in order to mount his chariot or his horse, whenever he had occasion: Lactan

The

tius, De Mort. Persec. cap. v.; Aurel. Victor. Epitome, cap. xxxii.

CHAPTER LII.

2. -ascend thy lofty seat] The literal rendering here is, according to our English translation, "arise, sit:" on which a very learned person remarks, "So the old versions. But sitting is an expression of mourning in Scripture and the ancients; and doth not well agree with the rising just before." It doth not indeed agree according to our ideas; .but considered in an oriental light, it is perfectly consistent. The common manner of sitting in the eastern countries is upon the ground or floor, with the legs crossed. The people of better condition have the floors of their chambers or divans covered with carpets for this purpose; and round the chamber broad couches, raised a little above the floor, spread with mattresses handsomely covered, which are called sophas. When sitting is spoken of as a posture of more than ordinary state, it is quite of a different kind; and means sitting on high, on a chair of state or throne, for which a footstool was necessary, both in order that the person might raise himself up to it, and for supporting the legs when he was placed in it. "Chairs (saith Sir John Chardin) are never used in Persia but at the coronation of their kings. The king is seated in a chair of gold set with jewels, three feet high. The chairs which are used by the people in the East are always so high as to make a footstool necessary. And this proves the propriety of the style of Scripture, which always joins the footstool to the throne:" (Isa. İxvi. 1. Psal. ox. 1.): Voyages, tom. ix. p. 85. 12mo. Beside the six steps to Solomon's throne, there was a footstool of gold fastened to the seat, 2 Chron. ix. 18. which would otherwise have been too high for the king to reach, or to sit on conveniently.

When Thetis comes to wait on Vulcan to request armour for her son, she is received with great respect, and seated on a silver-studded throne, a chair of ceremony, with a footstool:

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Την μεν επειτα καθεισεν επι θρονου αργυροηλου,
Καλου, δαιδαλέου• ὑπο δε θρηνυς ποσιν ηεν.

High on a throne, with stars of silver graced,
And various artifice, the queen she placed;
A footstool at her feet."

Iliad. xviii. 389.

Pope.

Ο γας θρόνος αυτος μόνον ελευθεριος εστι καθέδρα συν ὑποποδιῳ: Athenæus, v. 4.: "A throne is nothing more than a handsome sort of chair, with a footstool."

5. And they that are lords over them-For , singular, in the text, more than a hundred and twenty MSS have, plural, according to the Masoretical correction in the margin: which shows, that the Masoretes often superstitiously retained apparent mistakes in the text, even when they had sufficient evidence to authorize the introduction of the true reading.

Ibid. make their boast of it] For , "make them to howl," five MSS (two ancient) have 1," make their boast;" which is confirmed by the Chaldee paraphrast, who

.משתבחין renders it

6. Therefore shall my people-] The word 2, occurring the second time in this verse, seems to be repeated by mistake. It has no force or emphasis as a repetition; it only embarrasses the construction and the sense. It was not in the copies from which the LXX, Syr. and Vulg. were translated; it was not in the copy of LXX from which the Arabic was translated: but in the Aldine and Complutensian editions dia Touro is repeated; probably so corrected, in order to make it conformable with the Hebrew text.

Ibid. For I am He that promised] For N, the Bodley MS, and another, have ; "for I am JEHOVAH that promised:" and another ancient MS adds after The addition of JEHOVAH seems to be right, in consequence of what was said in the preceding line, "My people shall know my name."

7. How beautiful-] The watchmen discover afar off, on the mountains, the messenger bringing the expected and much wished-for news of the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity. They immediately spread the joyful tidings, ver. 8. and with a loud voice proclaim that JEHOVAH is returning to Sion, to resume his residence on his holy mountain, which for some time he seemed to have deserted. This is the literal sense of the place.

"How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the joyful messenger," is an expression highly poetical; for, how welcome is his arrival! how agreeable are the tidings which he brings!

Nahum, who is generally supposed to have lived after

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