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been preserved when the destruction of the city by the Chaldeans took place.

We will now enquire into the prophet's meaning. What are we to understand by the restoration of Jerusalem, which is the figure he here employs? It is evident from the general character of the prophecy, that we are not to abide by the letter. This is especially obvious from vers. 8 and 9, where Judah is employed to represent the whole earth, as well as from the first part of the verse before us, where the relation in which Jerusalem stands to the rest of Judea is used as a figurative representation of the relation, in which the central point of the future kingdom of God stands to its circumference, which embraces the whole earth. The restoration of Jerusalem predicted here is closely connected with the conquest described in vers. 1 and 2, and with the destruction referred to in ver. 5, as the result of the divine judgments inflicted upon the enemy within its walls. The meaning is, that the kingdom of God will rise again in its ancient splendour, after the Lord has exterminated every trace of the misery which it has had to endure. The prophet adheres to the same mode of representation which he adopted before, when he described the calamities endured, under the figure of a conquest of the city. He depicts the future glory, under the image of a restoration of the city to its ancient limits, and, to make the figure more complete, introduces special notices of particular points in the city boundaries.

Ver. 11. "And they dwell in her, and there shall be no more curse, and Jerusalem sits secure."

Dwelling forms the antithesis to going out, whether as captives or as fugitives (ver. 2 and ver. 5). The expression, "there shall be no more curse," shows that the Church of God is to consist of such as are righteous and holy. On the idea implied in the curse, see the remarks on Mal. iii. 24. It denotes a judgment, similar to the one described in chap. xi., which involves a complete suspension of the state of grace. There are degrees in the execution of the curse; the last and most fearful is announced in Rev. xxii. 3.

Ver. 12. "And this will be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite all the nations that have fought against Jerusalem: his flesh shall consume away, while he stands upon his feet, and his

eyes shall consume away in their sockets, and his tongue shall consume away in his mouth."

The prophet, having first depicted the judgment on the house of God, had contented himself with a slight indication of the destruction which the Lord was about to bring upon the enemies of his house, who were the instruments, and at the same time the objects, also, of his punitive justice (vers. 3—5). From this he had proceeded at once to the subject which was most attractive to his heart, viz., the blessings to be bestowed in the mercy of God upon the purified Church. He now interrupts his description of the latter, to give a fuller account of the punishment to be inflicted on the foe. In harmony with the general character of the symbolical representations of prophecy, in which everything is presented to the eye and thus assumes a material form, and also with an evident allusion to earlier judgments,— such, for example, as the destruction of the Assyrians,—the punishment is represented here as purely corporeal, just as the act performed by the enemy had previously been depicted as a literal invasion of Jerusalem. The essential part of the prophecy is the punishment alone; all that the prophet states, with reference to the mode, is merely drapery. Another form of representation might have been chosen instead; as we may see, for example, from Is. lxvi. 24, where the enemies of the kingdom of God are figuratively described as living corpses, lying outside the gates of the dwelling place of the saints, viz., Jerusalem; the eternal food of worms and fire.—The infinitive p gives prominence to the simple action for the purpose of directing attention to its fearful character. The Hiphil shows that the Lord himself is to be regarded as the agent. The words, " and he stands upon his feet,” lay emphasis upon the terrible character of the judgment. They will be living corpses. Corruption of this kind in the case of a living body is more fearful than death. Examples of this species of corruption are to be found in antiquity, viz., in the Roman state, and also in modern times, in the Turkish empire. The tongue is mentioned, because it had spoken with insolence and arrogance of God and his people (Ps. xii. 4; Is. xxxvii.); the eye, because it had seen the nakedness of the city of God; the whole body, because it had proceeded against Jerusalem.

Ver. 13. "And it cometh to pass in that day, great will be

the confusion of the Lord among them, and they scize every man the hand of his neighbour, and his hand riseth up over the hand of his neighbour."

There is an allusion here to examples, in the early history of the people of God, of panics caused by the Lord among the enemy, and of confusion leading to mutual destruction; see Deut. vii. 23; Judg. vii. 22, and 1 Sam. xiv. 20 (" and behold every man's sword was against his neighbour, a very great confusion"), but especially to the history of Jehoshaphat in 2 Chr. xx. 23: " and the children of Ammon and Moab rose up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to destroy them, and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another." Discord in the enemy's own camp is one of the principal means employed by God for the assistance of his Church. By the expression, "seizing the hand," we are to understand a hostile grasp, as the context and the parallel passages clearly show. But the hostility is indicated still more fully in the words, "his hand riseth up over the hand of his neighbour." Every one endeavours to get hold of his neighbour's hand, that he may disarm him in this way; and when this is accomplished he falls upon him, attacking first of all the hand itself, since a man deprived of this may afterwards be put to death without difficulty or danger.

Ver. 14. "And Judah also will fight at Jerusalem, and the riches of all the heathen round about will be gathered together, gold and silver and apparel in great abundance."

According to a very ancient and widely circulated rendering, the first clause means, "and Judah also will make war against Jerusalem." The Chaldee and Jerome both adopt it. But the rendering, "Judah will fight in Jerusalem," is at least as old (see Septuagint: παρατάξεται ἐν Ἱερουσαλήμ). It cannot be pleaded in defence of the former, that after on always points out the object of attack. As fighting is not infrequently spoken of, without the object of attack being mentioned at all (compare ver. 3), it may be regarded as certain that may also be used in a local sense. It is so in Is. xxx. 32, where the feminine suffix in 2, "in the holy land," is not to be referred to Assyria, and where we are not to read as the Masoretes have done. On the other hand, the following objections may be

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offered to this rendering; first, a contrast between Judah and Jerusalem would be something so unparalleled that it would certainly have been more clearly expressed (of hostilities between Judah and Jerusalem there is not the slightest trace either here or in chap. xii.); secondly, such an announcement would be quite out of place here in the midst of a description of the defeat of the enemy; and thirdly, in the primary passage in the Chronicles Judah is not introduced as an ally of the heathen, but comes up after they have destroyed one another. In ver. 27 Judah and Jerusalem are spoken of as one.-We may either assume, then, that Judah represents the whole nation,-in which case the attack of Judah would be assigned as a second cause of the overthrow of the enemy, along with the confusion produced by the Lord, or that the whole nation is represented by Judah together with the inhabitants of Jerusalem. In the latter case the contest in Jerusalem would be referred to, solely in relation to the participation in the booty. The latter view is certainly favoured by chap. xii. 2, "and also over Judah," as well as by the general distinction made there between Judah and Jerusalem.

Ver. 15. "And so will be the plague of the horses, of the mules, of the camels, and of the asses, and of all cattle, which will be in these camps, as this plague.”

We have here an amplification of the crime and the punishment. They have rendered themselves so guilty, that even their possessions are defiled and fall under the divine ban. The description given here is based upon the same idea, as that which lies at the foundation of the Mosaic laws with reference to the ban. When a whole city had committed the crime of idolatry, not only the inhabitants, but the animals also, were to be put to death; in which case the same law, affecting the relation between the irrational and rational portions of the creation, was repeated on a small scale, as that which had caused the creature to be "subject to vanity not willingly," on account of the sin of man. We have also an analogous example in the case of Achan, whose oxen, asses, and sheep were burned, along with himself and his children. (Josh. vii. 24).

Ver. 16. "And it cometh to pass, every one that is left of all

1 Maurer is obliged to say that "the prophet ought properly to have omitted the preceding words, since they do not harmonize.'

the heathen which come against Jerusalem, shall go up from year to year, to worship the King Jehovah of Sabaoth, and to keep the feast of tabernacles."

That the approach of the nations to Jerusalem, out of all the countries of the earth, is to be understood as a figurative representation, founded upon the manner in which the fear of God and connection with His kingdom manifested themselves under the Old Testament, and that the prophet employs this as a type of the higher form in which they would be manifested in the Messianic times (similarly to chap. viii. 22, 23, Micah iv. 1, and Is. ii. 3), is evident both from the nature of the case,1 and also from the general character of the whole prophecy (see the remarks on vers. 8-10). The only ques

tion that suggests itself is, why should the prophet have selected particularly the feast of tabernacles? That this is not done without a definite purpose is evident from the fact, that otherwise it would be impossible to understand his reason for not retaining the festal periods mentioned in Is. lxvi. 23, to which he very closely adheres in other respects, even adopting the terms employed, and in which it is stated that "it will come to pass, from new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh will come and worship before me, saith the Lord." In this case the festivals of most frequent occurrence are mentioned, for the purpose of pointing out the zeal of the new citizens of the kingdom of God in the worship of their Lord. Under the Old Testament only one nation assembled at Jerusalem at the three annual festivals; now "all flesh" congregates there every Sabbath and every new moon. This parallel passage also serves to present in a more glaring light the absurdity of a literal interpretation.-Commentators differ in opinion as to the reason which induced the prophet to select the feast of tabernacles. Theodoret, Grotius, and others, adhere to the most material ground possible, namely that the autumn is the best time of the year for travelling. The true reason, on the other hand, has certainly

1 "For how could all the inhabitants of the whole earth, Japanese, Chinese, and those living near either pole, by any possibility come every year to Jerusalem to keep the feast?" (Dachs, dissert. ad Sach. 14, 16, ad. calc. cod. Talmud. Succah, Utrecht 1726 p. 547). The difficulty of travelling is pointed out very clearly in Ezek. xxxiii. 21, where more than a year passes before Ezekiel receives information of the destruction of Jerusalem.

VOL. IV.

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