able in the manner in which it is there spoken of: binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine. Chardin says, that at Casbin, a city in Persia, they turned their cattle into the vineyards after the vintage, to browse on the vines. He speaks also of vines in that country so large, that he could hardly compass the trunks of them with his arms. (Voyages, tom. iii. p. 12.) This shews that the ass might be securely bound to the vine; and without danger of damaging the tree by browsing on it. LowTH, in loc. No. 1060. v. 2. And made a wine-press therein.] And he hewed out also a lake therein. LowTH. By this expression we are to understand not the wine-press itself; but what the Romans called lacus the lake, the large open place, or vessel, which, by a conduit or spout, received the must from the wine-press. In very hot countries it was perhaps necessary, or at least very convenient, to have the lake underground, or in a cave hewn out of the side of a rock, for coolness, that the heat might not cause too great a fermentation, and sour the wine. The wine-presses in Persia, Chardin says, are formed by making hollow places in the ground, lined with mason's work. Nonnus describes at large Bacchus hollowing the inside of the rock, and hewing out a place for the wine-press, or rather the lake. Και σκοπελες ελαχηνε πεδοσκαφείς δε σιδήρε, &c. He pierc'd the rock; and with the sharpen'd tool No. 1061.-vi. 6. Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar.] Hoc quoque F inter reliqua neglectæ religionis est, quod emortuð carbone sacrificatur. (Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. xvi. tom. 2. p. 139.) Pliny mentions as a mark of neglected religion the sacrificing with a dead coal. No. 1062.-vii. 15. Butter and honey shall he eat.] D'Arvieux (Voy. dans la Pal. p. 24.) being in the camp of the grand emir, who lived in much splendor and treated him with great regard, was entertained on the first morning with little loaves, honey, new-churned butter, and loaves of cream, more delicate than any he ever saw, together with coffee. Agreeably to this he assures us in another place, (p. 197.) that one of the principal things with which the Arabs regale themselves at breakfast is cream, or new butter, mingled with honey. HARMER, vol. i. p. 294. No. 1063. viii. 6, 7. Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly,-now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many.] The gentle waters of Shiloah, a small fountain and brook just without Jerusalem, which supplied a pool within the city for the use of the inhabitants, are an apt emblem of the state of the kingdom and house of David, much reduced in its apparent strength, yet supported by the blessing of God; and are finely contrasted with the waters of the Euphrates, great, rapid, and impetuous; the image of the Babylonian empire, which God threatens to bring down like a mighty flood upon all these apostates of both kingdoms, as a punishment for their manifold iniquities. Juvenal, inveighing against the corruption of Rome by the importation of Asiatic manners, says, that the Orontes has long been discharging itself into the Tiber: Jampridem Syrus Tiberim defluxit Orontes. And Virgil, to express the submission of some of the Eastern countries to the Roman arms, says, that the waters of Euphrates now flowed more humbly and gently. Euphrates ibat jam mollior undis. Æn. viii, LOWTH, in loc. 726. No. 1064.-ix. 5. For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.] The burning of heaps of armour gathered from the field of battle, as an offering made to the god supposed to be the giver of victory, was a custom that prevailed among some heathen nations; and the Romans used it as an emblem of peace. A medal, struck by Vespasian on finishing his wars both at home and abroad, represents the goddess Peace, holding an olive-branch in one hand, and with a lighted torch in the other setting fire to a heap of armour. (Addison on Medals, Series ii. 18.) Virgil mentions the custom: O mihi præteritos referat si Jupiter annos! Qualis eram, cum primam aciem Præneste sub ipsa, Stravi, scutorumque incendi victor acervos. En. viii. 560. Would heaven, said he, my strength and youth recall, Such as I was beneath Præneste's wall, Then when I made the foremost foes retire, And set whole heaps of conquer'd shields on fire. DRYDEN. See also Joshua xi. 6. Nahum ii. 13. Psalm xlvi. 9. No. 1065.-ix. 6. The government shall be upon his shoulder.] Raphelius, in his note on this text says, “I believe that because we carry burthens upon our shoulders, therefore government is said to be laid upon them." Herodotus (lib. ii. cap. 106.) mentions a statue of Sesos tris king of Egypt, on which some sacred Egyptian letters were engraved, reaching from one shoulder to the other, of this import, I obtained this country by my shoulders. No. 1066.-xi. 15. With his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smile it in the seven streams, and make men go over dry-shod.] Herodotus (i. 189.) tells a story of his Cyrus (a very different character from that of the Cyrus of the Scriptures and Xenophon) which may somewhat illustrate this passage; in which it is said that God would inflict a kind of punishment and judgment on the Euphrates, and render it fordable, by dividing it into seven streams. "Cyrus being impeded in his march to Babylon by the Gyndes, a deep and rapid river which falls into the Tigris; and having lost one of his sacred white horses that attempted to pass it, was so enraged against the river, that he threatened to reduce it, and make it so shallow that it should be easily fordable even by women, who should not be to their knees in passing it. Accordingly he set his whole army to work; and cutting three hundred and sixty trenches from both sides of the river, turned the waters into them, and drained them off." up No. 1067.-xiii. 10. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.] The Chaldæans were devoted above all people in the world to the observation of the heavenly bodies, and their existence was become more essentially necessary to them, as a nation celebrated for astronomy and commerce; a circumstance this, which adds singular force and sublimity to a passage, even without this consideration exceedingly grand and poetical. FOSTER'S Essay, p. 30. No. 1068.-xiii. 17. Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, who shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.] That is, they were not to be induced by large offers of gold and silver for ransom to spare the lives of those whom they have subdued in battle; their rage and cruelty will get the better of all such motives. We have many examples in the Iliad and the Æneid of the addresses of the vanquished to the pity and avarice of the vanquishers, to induce them to spare their lives. Est domus alta: jacent penitus defossa talenta Cælati argenti: sunt auri pondera facti, &c. Æn. x. 526. High in my dome are silver talents roll'd, Thy talents, (cried the prince) thy treasur'd store, PITT. No. 1069.-xiii. 18. Their bows also shall dash their young men in pieces.] Both Herodotus (i. 61.) and Xenophon (Anab. iii.) mention that the Persians used large bows; and the latter says particularly, that their bows were three cubits long. (Anab. iv.) They were celebrated for their archers, Jer. xlix. 35. Probably their neighbours and allies the Medes dealt much in the same sort of arms. In Psalm xviii. 34. and Job xx. 24. mention is made of a bow of brass. If the Persian bows were of metal, we may easily conceive that with a metalline bow of three cubits length and proportionably strong the soldiers might dash and slay the young men, the weaker and unresisting part of the inhabitants, in the general carnage on taking the city. VOL. II. Bp. LowтH, in loc. |