No. 1070.-xvii. 6. An olive-tree.] The olive-tree, from the effect of its oil in relaxing and preventing, or mitigating pain, seems to have been from the beginning an emblem of the benignity of the divine nature; and particularly after the fall to have represented the goodness and placability of God through Christ, and the blessed influences of the holy spirit in mollifying and healing our disordered nature, and in destroying or expelling from it the poison of the old serpent, even as olive oil does that of the natural serpent or viper. Hence we see a peculiar propriety in the olive leaf or branch being chosen by divine providence as a sign to Noah of the abatement of the deluge, Gen. viii. 11. we may also account for olive branches being ordered as one of the materials of the booths at the feast of tabernacles, Neh. viii. 15. and whence they became the emblems of peace to various and distant nations. See VIRG. En. vii. 1. 154. viii. 1. 116. xi. l. 101. Livy. lib. xxxix. cap. 16. et lib. xlv. cap. 25.

Our late eminent navigators found that green branches carried in the hands, or stuck in the ground, were the emblems of peace universally employed and understood by all the islanders, even in the South Seas. See Capt. Cook's Voyages pass.

PARKHURST'S Heb. Lex. p. 193.

No. 1071.-xviii. 1, 2. Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia; that sendeth ambassadors by the sea even in vessels of bulrushes, upon the waters, saying, go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose lands the rivers have spoiled.] The circumstances of this prophecy accord perfectly well with Egypt. In this country wings universally obtained as hieroglyphics of the wind, (Maurice's Ind. Ant. vol. ii. p. 386.) and

a sort of light ships or boats built of papyrus were commonly used on the Nile. Exclusive of the deserts on each side of it, Egypt is one continued vale above seven hundred miles long; and from the heart of Abyssinia the Nile brings a species of mud, light and fat, which by the inundation of this river overspreads, smooths, and fertilizes the face of a country naturally barren. An event of such importance to the inhabitants as the overflow of the Nile would naturally induce them to measure its different heights. As soon as it retired within its banks, and the earth became sufficiently dry, the Egyptians sowed their land, and sent forth their cattle to tread the seed into the ground: and without any further care expected the harvest.

No. 1072.-xxiv. 22. As prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in prison.] In this verse the image seems to be taken from the practice of the great monarchs of that time; who, when they had thrown their wretched captives into a dungeon, never gave themselves the trouble of inquiring about them; but let them lie a long time in that miserable condition, wholly destitute of relief, and disregarded. Bp. LowTH, in loc.

or

No. 1073.-xxviii. 1. Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower.] The city of Sebaste, the ancient Samaria, beautifully situated on the top of a round hill, and surrounded immediately with a rich valley and a circle of other hills beyond it, suggested the idea of a chaplet, wreath of flowers, worn upon their heads on occasions of festivity; expressed by the proud crown and the fading flower of the drunkards. That this custom of wearing chaplets in their banquets prevailed among the Jews, as well as among the Greeks and Romans, appears from Wisdom ii. 7,8. Bp. Lowтн, in loc.

No. 1074.-xxix. 1. Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt.] At Jerusalem vast quantities of flesh were consumed in their sacred feasts, as well as burnt upon the altar. Perhaps this circumstance will best explain the reason why the holy city is called Ariel. According to the Eastern taste, the term is applied in this sense; that is, to places remarkable for consuming great quantities of provision, and especially flesh. "The modern Persians will have it," says D'Herbelot, in his account of Shiraz a city of that country, "that this name was given to it because this city consumes and devours like a lion, (which is called Shir in Persian) all that is brought to it, by which they express the multitude and, it may be, the good appetite of its inhabitants."

The prophet pronounces woe to Zion, as too ready to trust to the number of its inhabitants and sojourners, which may be insinuated by the term Ariel which he HARMER, vol. i. p. 212.

uses.

No. 1075.-xxix. 4. And thy speech shall whisper out of the dust.] That the souls of the dead uttered a feeble stridulous sound, very different from the natural human voice, was a popular notion among the heathens, as well as among the Jews. This appears from several passages of their poets; Homer, Virgil, Horace. The pretenders to the art of necromancy, who were chiefly women, had an art of speaking with a feigned voice; so as to deceive those that applied to them, by making them believe that it was the voice of the ghost. From this art of the necromancers the popular notion seems to have arisen, that the ghost's voice was a weak, inarticu late sound, very different from the speech of the living. Bp. LowтH, in loc.

No. 1076.-xxix. 8. Or as when a thirsty man

dreameth, and behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite.] As the simile of the prophet is drawn from nature, an extract which describes the actual occurrence of such a circumstance will be agreeable. "The scarcity of water was greater here at Bubaker than at Benown. Day and night the wells were crouded with cattle lowing, and fighting with each other to come at the trough. Excessive thirst made many of them furious: others being too weak to contend for the water, endeavoured to quench their thirst by devouring the black mud from the gutters near the wells; which they did with great avidity, though it was commonly fatal to them. This great scarcity of water was felt by all the people of the camp; and by none more than myself. I begged water from the negro slaves that attended the camp, but with very indifferent success: for though I let no opportunity slip, and was very urgent in my solicitations both to the Moors and to the negroes, I was but ill supplied, and frequently passed the night in the situation of Tantalus. No sooner had I shut my eyes, than fancy would convey me to the streams and rivers of my native land; there, as I wandered along the verdant bank, I surveyed the clear stream with transport, and hastened to swallow the delightful draught; but, alas! disappointment awakened me, and I found myself a lonely captive, perishing of thirst amidst the wilds of Africa." PARK'S Travels in Africa, p. 145.

No. 1077.-xxxiii. 18. Where is he that counted the towers? That is, the commander of the enemy's forces, who surveyed the fortifications of the city and took an account of the height, strength, and situation of the walls and towers, that he might know where to makc the assault with the greatest advantage. As Capaneus before Thebes is represented in a passage of the Pho

nissæ of Euripides, (v. 187.) which Grotius has applied as an illustration of this passage. Bp. LowтH, in loc.

No. 1078.-xl. 3. Prepare ye the way of the Lord.] This passage is an allusion to the custom of sending persons before a great prince, to clear the way for his passage. Sir Thomas Roe's chaplain (p. 468.) says, “I, waiting upon my lord ambassador two years and part of a third, and travelling with him in progress with that king (the mogul) in the most temperate months there, betwixt September and April, was in one of our progresses betwixt Mandoa and Amadavar nineteen days, making but short journeys in a wilderness, where, by a very great company sent before us to make those passages and places fit to receive us, a way was cut out and made even, broad enough for our convenient passage. And in the place where we pitched our tents a great compass of ground was rid and made plain for them, by grubbing a number of trees and bushes: yet there we went as readily to our tents as we did when they were set up in the plains."

No. 1079.-xliv. 13. The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes; and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man.] The prophet in these words describes the process of forming an idolatrous figure. It appears to have been done by filling a line with red chalk; stretching it over a surface; striking it, and thereby forming lines; crossing these lines, thereby forming squares; delineating the contour of the figure in these squares; and forming it with dignified proportion and majesty, to represent a sovereign. An actual instance, in illustration of these suggestions, occurs in DENON's Travels in Egypt. In plate 124, he gives a figure, of which he says, "I believe it to be