the seeking of foreign aid was both unlawful and unnecessary The hill is by some supposed to be Moriah, as an appendage of Mount Zion; but it may just as well be simply parallel to mountain, the mountain of Zion and the hill thereof.

5. As birds flying (over or around their nests), so will Jehovah cover over (or protect) Jerusalem, cover and rescue, pass over and save. The verb here is the one used to denote the passing over of the houses in Egypt by the destroying angel to which there may be an allusion here.

6. Since you need no protection but Jehovah's, therefore, return unto him from whom (or with respect to whom) the children of Israel have deeply revolted (literally, have deepened revolt). The last words may also be read, from whom they (i. e. men indefinitely) have deeply revolted, oh ye children of Israel. Deep may be here used to convey the specific idea of debasement, or the more general one of distance, or still more generally, as a mere intensive, like our common phrases deeply grieved or deeply injured. The analogy of ch. 29: 15, however, would suggest the idea of deep contrivance or design, which is equally appropriate.

7. This acknowledgment you will be constrained to make sooner or later. For in that day (of miraculous deliverance) they shall reject (cast away with contempt), a man (i. e. each) his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your sinful hands have made for you, or, which your own hands have made for you as sin, i. e. as an occasion and a means of sin. In like manner the golden calves are called the sin of Israel (Deut. 9:21. Am. 8: 14). For the true construction of his silver and his gold, see the note on ch. 2:20. Trust in idols and reliance upon human helpers are here, and often elsewhere, put together, as identical

in principle, and closely connected in the experience of ancient Israel. (See the notes on ch. 2.8, 22.)

8. This future abandonment of all false confidences is described as springing from the demonstration of Jehovah's willingness and power to save. And Assyria shall fall by no man's sword, and no mortal's sword shall devour him, and (yet) he shall flee from before the sword, and his young men (or chosen warriors) shall become tributary (literally, tribute). No man's sword, but that of God. The objection that the prophecy, as thus explained, was not fulfilled, proceeds upon the false assumption that it refers exclusively to the overthrow of Sennacherib's host, whereas it describes the decline and fall of the Assyrian power after that catastrophe.

9. And his rock (i. e. his strength) from fear shall pass away, and his chiefs shall be afraid of a standard (or signal, as denoting the presence of the enemy), saith Jehovah, to whom there is a fire in Zion and a furnace in Jerusalem. The true explanation of the last clause seems to be that which supposes an allusion both to the sacred fire on the altar and to the consuming fire of God's presence, whose altar flames in Zion and whose wrath shall thence flame to destroy his enemies. Compare the explanation of the mystical name Ariel in the note on ch. 29:1.

CHAPTER XXXII.

THIS chapter consists of two distinguishable parts. The first continues the promise of the foregoing context, vs. 1-8. The second predicts intervening judgments both to Israel and his enemies, vs. 9-20.

The first blessing promised in the former part is that of merciful and righteous government, vs. 1, 2. The next is that of spiritual illumination, vs. 3, 4. As the consequence of this, moral distinctions shall no longer be confounded, men shall be estimated at their real value; a general prediction, which is here applied to two specific cases, vs. 5-8.

The threatenings of the second part are specially addressed to the women of Judah, v. 9. They include the desolation of the country and the downfall of Jerusalem, vs. 10-14. The evils are to last until a total change is wrought by an effusion of the Holy Spirit, vs. 15-18. But fearful changes are to intervene, for which believers must prepare themselves by diligence in present duty, vs. 19, 20.

1. Behold, for righteousness shall reign a king, and rulers for justice shall rule. The usual translation is in justice and in righteousness, as descriptive epithets of the reign foretold. But the preposition here used may have been intended to suggest, that he would reign not only justly, but for the very purpose of doing justice. It is a question among interpreters whether the king here predicted is Hezekiah or the Messiah. The truth appears to be that the promise is a general one, as if he had said, the day is coming when power shall be exercised and government. administered, not as at present (in the reign of Ahaz), but with a view to the faithful execution of the laws. Of such an im

provement Hezekiah's reign was at least a beginning and a foretaste.

2. And a man shall be as an hiding-place from the wind and a covert from the rain (or storm), as channels of water in a dry place (or in drought), as the shadow of a heavy rock in a weary land. The meaning is, that there shall be a man upon the throne, or at the head of the government, who, instead of oppressing, will protect the helpless. This may either be indefinitely understood, or applied, in an individual and emphatic sense, to the Messiah. The figures for protection and relief are the same used above in ch. 4:6 and 25: 4. The phrases heavy rock and weary land are idiomatic, but require no explanation.

3. And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken. Some understand here seers or prophets, and their hearers; but most interpreters apply both words to the people generally, as those who had eyes but saw not, and had ears but heard not. Compare the threatening in ch. 6:9, and the promise in ch. 29: 18.

4. And the heart (or mind) of the rash (heedless or reckless) shall understand to know (or understand knowledge), and the tongue of stammerers shall hasten to speak clear things (i. e. shall speak readily and plainly). The bodily defects here mentioned denote others of an intellectual and spiritual nature, neglect and ignorance of spiritual matters. The minds of men shall begin to be directed to religious truth, and delivered from ignorance and error in relation to it.

5. When men's eyes are thus opened, they will no longer confound the essential distinctions of moral character, because they will no longer be deceived by mere appearances. Things will then be called by their right names. The fool (in the

emphatic Scriptural sense, the wicked man) will no longer be called noble (men will no longer attach ideas of dignity and greatness to the name or person of presumptuous sinners), and the churl (or niggard) will no more be spoken of (or to) as liberal. The last clause, like the other, contains a specific illustration of the general truth that men shall be estimated at their real value.

6. The Prophet now defines his own expressions, or describes. the characters which they denote. The fool (is one who) will speak folly (in the strongest and worst sense), and his heart will do iniquity, to do wickedness and to speak error unto (or against) Jehovah (while at the same time he is merciless and cruel towards his fellow-men), to starve (or leave empty) the soul of the hungry, and the drink of the thirsty he will suffer to fail. The futures in this verse express the idea of habitual action; he does and will do so. The infinitives convey the same idea in a different form, by making prominent the design and effect of their unlawful course. The common version, work and practise needlessly departs from the form of the original, in which the same verb is repeated.

7. Such is the fool: as for the churl, although his making money be not sinful in itself, his arms or instruments, the means which he employs, are evil. He that hastens to be rich can scarcely avoid the practice of dishonest arts and of unkindness to the poor. He deviseth plots to destroy the oppressed (or afflicted) with words of falsehood, and (i. e. even) in the poor. (man's) speaking right (i. e. even when the poor man's claim is just, or in a more general sense, when the poor man pleads his cause).

8. As the wicked man's true character is betrayed by his habitual acts, so the noble or generous man (and according to