and Egypt may be either put for foreign countries generally, or with particular allusion to the actual emigration and dispersion of the Jews in these two regions. Assyria may here be used as a comprehensive term, in order to include both the Assyrian and Babylonian deportations. For although the ten tribes never were restored, individual members of them found their way back with the Jews from Babylon. On the whole, however, it is probable that Egypt and Assyria are here named, just as Babylonia and the islands of the sea might have been named instead of them, and just as all these names and others are connected elsewhere, to denote the various lands where Jews were scattered. The emigration of the people, especially after Nebuchadnezzar's conquests, was of course not confined to their actual deportation by the enemy, nor was the restoration merely that of such as had been thus carried captive, but of all who, in consequence of that catastrophe or any other, had been transferred to foreign parts by exile, flight, or voluntary expatriation. The application of this verse to a future restoration of the Jews can neither be established nor disproved. If such a restoration can be otherwise shown to be a subject of prophecy, this passage may be naturally understood at least as comprehending it. But in itself considered, it appears to contain nothing which may not be naturally applied to events long past, or which has not found in those events an adequate fulfilment.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

SAMARIA, the crown of Ephraim, shall be cast down by a sudden and impetuous invasion, as a just judgment upon sensual and impious Israel, vs. 1-4. To the remnant of Israel, Jehovah will himself be a crown and a protection, a source of wisdom and of strength, vs. 5, 6. Yet even these imitate the example of apostate Israel, and in their self-indulgence cast off the authority of God and refuse the instructions of his prophet, to their own undoing, vs. 7-13. But their impious contempt of God and self-reliance shall but hasten their destruction. All who do not build upon the sure foundation laid in Zion, must inevitably perish as the enemies of Israel were destroyed of old, vs. 14-22. The delay of judgment no more proves that it will never come, than the patience of the husbandman, and his preparatory labours, prove that he expects no harvest; and the difference of God's dealings with different men is no more inconsistent with his general purposes of wrath or mercy, than the husbandman's treatment of the different grains is inconsistent with his general purpose of securing and enjoying them, vs. 23-29.

1. Woe to the high crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, and the fading flower, his ornament of beauty, which (is) on the head of the fat valley of the wine-smitten. Here, as in ch. 9:9, 21. 11:13, we are to understand by Ephraim the kingdom of the ten tribes, by the drunkards of Ephraim its vicious population, and by the lofty crown the city of Samaria, so called as the chief town and the royal residence, but also with allusion to its local situation on an insulated hill overlooking a rich plain or valley, "It would be difficult to find, in all Palestine, a situation of

equal strength, fertility, and beauty combined." (Robinson's Palestine, III. 146.) Most interpreters assume a further allusion to the practice of wearing wreaths or garlands at feasts. The reference to literal intoxication appears plain from a comparison of Amos 4: 1, 6: 1, 6. Drunkenness is mentioned, not as the only prevalent iniquity, but as a crying one, and one contributing to many others. The moral and spiritual consequences of this vice must be taken into view; but the exclusive reference of the words to spiritual drunkenness, whether delusion or stupidity or both, seems entirely untenable. This verse contains three examples of the Hebrew idiom, which, instead of an adjective, uses one substantive to qualify another; crown of elevation for lofty crown, beauty of glory for glorious beauty, and valley of fatnesses for fat valley. The lat ter member of the first clause is by some construed thus, and the flower whose glorious beauty fades; by others, for example the English Version, (Ephraim) whose glorious beauty is a fading flower. The analogy of v. 4 seems to show, however, that this member of the sentence is in apposition with the one before it, which construction is moreover the most obvious and simple. The English Version also mars the beauty of the first clause, by making drunkards of Ephraim not a genitive but a dative. The fading flower implies that the glory of Samaria was transient, with particular allusion to its approaching overthrow by Shalmaneser. Wine-smitten or wine-stricken is a strong description of the intellectual and moral effects of drunkenness. Gill's lively paraphrase is, "smitten, beaten, knocked down with it as with a hammer, and laid prostrate on the ground, where they lie fixed to it, not able to get up."

2. Behold, there is to the Lord (i. e. the Lord has) a strong and mighty one, like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest, like a storm of mighty rushing waters, he has brought (it) to the ground with the hand. The meaning to the earth or to the ground is clear

from ch. 63: 6, and other cases. The crown of Ephraim is described as torn from his head and thrown upon the ground by the hand of a victorious enemy. To this explanation no objection can be drawn from the previous mention of the hail and rain; for these are mere comparisons, descriptive of the violence with which the enemy should make his attack. It is as if he had said, a strong and mighty enemy, rushing upon you like a hail-storm or a driving rain, shall cast your crown upon the earth with his hand.

3. With the feet shall be trodden the lofty crown of the drunkards of Ephraim. It is cast down by the hand and trampled under foot.

4. And the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be like a first-ripe fig, which he that sees it sees, and while and while it is yet in his hand swallows it. This comparison expresses the avidity with which the enemy would seize upon Samaria, and perhaps the completeness of its desolation. The fruit referred to is the early fig of Palestine which ripens. in June, while the regular season of ingathering is from August to November, so that the former is regarded as a rarity and eaten with the greater relish. The figure is not here intended to express either ease or rapidity of conquest, for the siege of Samaria lasted three years (2 Kings 17: 5). The immediate eating of the fruit is only mentioned as a sign of eagerness or greediness. The last clause, though singularly worded, evidently means that as soon as one sees it and lays hold of it he swallows it without delay, or as Gill expresses it in homespun English," as soon as he has got it into his hand, he can't keep it there to look at, or forbear eating it, but greedily devours it and swallows it down at once."

5. In that day shall Jehovah of Hosts be for (or become) a crown

of beauty and a diadem of glory to the remnant of his people. The true sense appears to be that after Samaria, the pride of the apostate tribes, had fallen, they who still remained as members of the church or chosen people should glory and delight in the presence of Jehovah as their choicest privilege and highest honour. The expressions are borrowed from the first verse but presented in a new combination.

6. And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate. This, which is the common English Version, coincides with that of the latest and best writers. In judgment, i. e. for the purpose of judging. The last words of the verse are applied.by all the later writers to those who drive the war back to the enemy's own gates, or as it were carry it into his own country. The two great requisites of civil government are here described as coming from Jehovah. The Spirit of this verse is not a mere influence, but God himself.

7. And (yet) these also (or even these) through wine have erred, and through strong drink have gone astray. Priest and Prophet have erred through strong drink, have been swallowed up of wine, have been led astray by strong drink, have erred in vision, have wavered in judgment. Having predicted in the foregoing verse, that when Ephraim fell Judah should continue to enjoy the protection of Jehovah, the Prophet now describes even this favoured remnant as addicted to the same sins which had hastened the destruction of the ten tribes, viz. sensual indulgence and the spiritual evils which it generates. The meaning then is that the Jews, although distinguished from the ten tribes by God's sparing mercy, should nevertheless imitate them in their sins. There is great probability in the suggestion, that the prophecy refers to the national deterioration in the reign of Manasseh. The Priest and Prophet are named as the leaders