stand confounded and ashamed; nothing will thrive and prosper, vers. 11-15. But the misery produces salutary fruits; it brings about the conversion of Egypt to the God of Israel, and, with this conversion, a full participation in all the privileges and blessings of the Kingdom of God shall be connected, ver. 16, and especially, ver. 18-25. This close of the prophecy, which for our purpose is of special consequence, we must still submit to a closer examination.

Ver. 18. "In that day shall be five cities in the land of Egypt which speak the language of Canaan and swear to the Lord of hosts; city of destruction the one shall be called."

:

Five, as usual, here comes into consideration as the half of ten, which number represents the whole; "five cities," therefore, is equivalent to a goodly number of cities. On the words: "Who speak the language of Canaan," Gesenius remarks: "With the spreading of a certain religion resting on certain documents of revelation, as e.g. the Jewish religion, the knowledge of their language, too, must be connected." We must not, of course, limit the thought to this, that Hebrew was learned wherever the religion of Jehovah spread. When viewed more deeply, the language of Canaan is spoken by all those who are converted to the true God. Upon the Greek language, e.g. the character of the language of Canaan has been impressed in the New Testament. That language which, from primeval times, has been developed in the service of the Spirit, imparts its character to the languages of the world, and changes their character in their deepest foundation. "To swear to the Lord" is to do Him homage;" Michaelis: Juramento se Domino obstringent; comp. chap. xlv. 23: "Unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear."-In the words: "City of destruction,, one shall be called, there is contained an allusion to 7, "city of the Sun (Heliopolis) which was peculiar to one of the chief seats of Egyptian idolatry. It is the celebrated On or Bethshemesh of which Jeremiah prophecies in chap. xliii. 13: "And he (Nebuchadnezzar) breaketh the pillars in Beth-shemesh that is in the land of Egypt, and the houses of the gods of Egypt he burneth with fire.” This allusion was perceived as early as by Jonathan who thus paraphrases: "Urbs domus solis quae destruetur." By this allusion it is intimated that salvation cannot

be bestowed upon the Gentile world in the state in which it is; that punitive justice must prepare the way for salvation; that everywhere the destructive activity of God must precede that which builds up; that the way to the Kingdom of God passes through the fire of tribulation which must consume every thing that is opposed to God; compare that which Micah, even in reference to the covenant-people, says regarding the necessity of taking, before giving can have place, Vol. i. p. 517.

Ver. 19. "In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord."

That the altar is to be considered as a "monument" only is a supposition altogether far-fetched, and which can the less find any support in the isolated case, Josh. xxii., that that account clearly enough intimates how decidedly the existence of an altar furnishes a foundation for the supposition that sacrifices are to be offered up there, a supposition intimated by the very name in Hebrew. If it was meant to serve some other purpose, it would have been necessary expressly to state it, or, at least, some other place of sacrifice ought to have been assigned for the sacrifices mentioned in ver. 21. But as it stands, there cannot be any doubt that the altar here and the sacrifices there belong to one another. This passage under consideration is of no little consequence, inasmuch as it shows that, in other passages where a going up of the Gentiles to Jerusalem in the Messianic time is spoken of, as e.g., chap. lxvi. 23, we must distinguish between the thought and the embodiment.-The pillar at the border bears an inscription by which the land is designated as the property of the Lord, just as it was the custom of the old eastern conquerors, and especially of the Egyptians, to erect such pillars in the conquered territories.

Ver. 20. "And it is for a sign and for a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Eyypt: When they cry unto the Lord because of the oppressors, He shall send them a Saviour and a Deliverer; and he shall deliver them"

Altar and pillar, as a sign and witness of the confession to the Lord, are, at the same time, a guarantee of the deliverance to be granted by Him. According to Gesenius, the Prophet speaks "without a definite historical reference, of a saving or protecting

angel." But we cannot think of an angel on account of the plain reference to the common formula in the Book of Judges, by which it is intimated that, as far as redemption is concerned, Egypt has been made a partaker of the privileges of the covenantpeople. It is just this reference which has given rise to the general expression; but it is Christ who is meant; for the prophets, and especially Isaiah, are not cognisant of any other Saviour for the Gentile world than of Him; and it is He who is suggested by the Messianic character of the whole description.

Ver. 21. "And the Lord is known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians know the Lord in that day, and offer sacrifice and oblation, and vow vows unto the Lord, and perform them."

Ver. 22. "And the Lord smiteth the Egyptians so that He healeth them, and they are converted to the Lord, and He shall be entreated by them, and shall heal them.

We have here simply a recapitulation. The Prophet describes anew the transition from the state of wrath to that of grace, —not, as Drechsler thinks, what they experience in the latter. Upon Egypt is fulfilled what, in Deut. xxxii. 39, has been said in reference to Israel.

Ver. 23. "In that day there shall be a highway out of Egypt to Asshur, and Asshur cometh into Egypt, and Egypt into Asshur, and Egypt serveth with Asshur."

עבר

עבד

with

with

את

את

has commonly the signification "to serve some one;" here, however, is used as a preposition: Egypt serves God with Asshur. Yet there is an allusion to the ordinary use of in order to direct attention to the wonderful change: First, Egypt serves Asshur, and the powers that follow its footsteps; then, it serves with Asshur. Here also it becomes manifest that the deliverer in ver. 20 is no ordinary human deliverer; for such an one could help his people only by inflict ing injury upon the hostile power.

Ver. 24. "In that day Israel shall be the third with Egypt and with Asshur, a blessing in the midst of the earth.”

The "blessing" is not "that union of people formerly separated," but it is Israel from which the blessing is poured out upon all the other nations; compare the fundamental passage, Gen. xii. 1-3, and the word of the Lord: ἡ σωτηρία ἐκ τῶν Ἰουδαίων éori, John iv. 22.

VOL. II.

k

Ver. 25. "For the Lord of hosts blesseth him, saying: Blessed be Egypt my people, and Asshur the work of mine hands, and Israel mine inheritance."

The suffix in refers to every thing mentioned in ver. 24. "Assyria and Egypt are called by epithets which elsewhere are wont to be bestowed upon Israel only."

It is scarcely necessary to point out how gloriously this prophecy was fulfilled; how, at one time, there existed a flourishing Church in Egypt. Although the candlestick of that Church be now removed from its place (" Satanas in hac gente sevit zizania”

- Vitringa), yet we are confident of, and hope for, a future in which this prophecy shall anew powerfully manifest itself. The broken power of the Mahomedan delusion opens up the prospect, that the time in which this hope is to be realized is drawing nigh.

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE, BURDEN UPON TYRE.

In the view of Sennacherib's invasion, the eyes of the Prophet are opened, so that he beholds the future destinies of the nations within his horizon. It is under these circumstances that it is revealed to him that Tyre also, which, not long before, had successfully resisted the attack of Asshur, and had imagined herself to be invincible, would not, for any length of time, be able to resist the attack of the Asiatic world's power.

The threatening goes on to ver. 14; it is, in ver. 13, concentrated in the words: "Behold the land of the Chaldeans, this people which was not, which Asshur assigns to the beasts of the wilderness, they set up their watch-towers, they arouse her palaces, they bring them to ruin.” The correct explanation of this verse has been given by Delitzsch in his Commentary on Habakkuk, S. xxi. Before the capture of Tyre could be assigned to the Chaldeans, it was necessary to point out that they should overthrow Asshur, the representative of the world's power in the time of the Prophet. The Chaldeans, a people

which, up to that time, were not reckoned in the list of the kingdoms of the world, destroy, in some future period, the Assyrian power, and shall then inflict upon Tyre that destruction which Asshur intended in vain to bring upon it.

Upon the threatening there follows the promise. Ver. 15. "And it shall come to pass in that day, and Tyre is forgotten seventy years like the days of one king. After the end of seventy years, it shall be unto Tyre according to the song of the harlot. Ver. 16. Take the harp, go about the city, forgotten harlot, make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered. Ver. 17. And it shall come to pass, after the end of seventy years, the Lord will visit Tyre, and she returneth to her hire of whoredom, and whoreth with all the kingdoms of the earth upon the surface of the earth. Ver. 18. And her gain and hire of whoredom shall be holy unto the Lord; not is it treasured and laid up, but to those who sit before the Lord its gain shall be, that they may eat and be satisfied, and for durable clothing.”

On the "70 years like the days of one king," Michaelis very pertinently remarks: "Not of one individual, but of one reign or empire, i.e. as long as the Babylonian empire shall last, which, after 70 years, was destroyed by Cyrus." The necessary qualification follows from ver. 13. According to that verse, the one king can be the king of the Chaldeans only. Parallel are the 70 years which, in Jer. xxv. 11, 12, are assigned to the Chaldean empire: "And these nations serve the king of Babylon 70 years. And it shall come to pass, when the 70 years are accomplished, I will visit upon the king of Babylon, and upon that nation, saith the Lord, their iniquity." In the Commentary on Rev. ii. 1, p. 75. 200, it was proved that, in Scripture, kings are frequently ideal persons; not individuals, but personifications of their kingdoms. Gesenius' objection, that the time of the Babylonish dynasty, from the pretended destruction of Tyre to the destruction of Babylon, did not last 70 years, vanishes by the remark that the Prophet says "like the days;" that, hence, it is expressly intimated that the 70 years here, differently from what is the case in Jeremiah, are to be considered as a round designation of the time. From a comparison of Jeremiah we learn that the Chaldean dominion will last 70 years in all.

Into