knop.

(10, 11) The imagery is very vivid. The prophet

threatens a famine of the word of Jehovah, and a parching thirst for the Water of Life, now no longer attainable. Such terrible destitution often supervenes on the neglect of the Word of God, the power to discern the ever-present Word being exhausted. Then comes the withdrawal of revelation, the silence of seers. One of the awful dooms of unbelief in the next world will be this famine, this hopeless thirst and fathomless

suspense.

(12) They shall wander from sea to sea . . Stagger and reel from east to west to find one seer who knows the mind of the Lord: they shall not find

one.

The reference to the east here has an instructive parallel in Isa. ii. 6, where the house of Jacob is denounced as being "full of the east." Probably Delitzsch is right in interpreting the east there to mean Arabia as inclusive of the whole tract from the Sinaitic peninsula to the banks of the Euphrates. The north would mean Phoenicia and Aram. From these districts the distracted superstitious Hebrew sought vain help in idolatrous forms of divination.

(13) Faint.-That fair virgins and strong brave youths should faint by reason of their raging thirst suggests that the less vigorous would suffer even more keenly. It is sad when old men stumble into the darkness of unbelief amid the shining of the noon-day sun, seeing that they can remember the brightness of their morning, but there is always hope that their child-like spirit may return to them, and that at the evening time it may be light; but if fair virgins and strong youths are covered with the inward veil, what will become of them in their westering days? and where will the elders be if they have had no youth?

(14) Thy God, O Dan, liveth.-Translate, By the life of thy God, O Dan, and by the life of the way of Beersheba. On such forms of oath, see Note on chap. vi. 8. The "way of Beersheba was the ritual practised at Beersheba, another mode of designating the deity himself (probably Baal).* So LXX. Similarly the "sin

*From chap. v. 5 we infer that Beersheba, lying far south on the borders of Judah (twenty-five geographical miles south of Hebron), was a famous religious centre, so that inhabitants of the northern kingdom were in the habit of "crossing the frontier" in order to pay their vows, or enquire at this high place.

The Last Vision.

O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beer-sheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.

CHAPTER IX.-I saw the Lord standing upon the altar: and he said, Smite the lintel of the door, that the posts may shake: and 2 cut them in the head, all of them; and I will slay the last of them with the sword: he that fleeth of them shall not flee away, and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered. (2) Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down: (3) and though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from

a

of Samaria means the golden calf that was wor shipped there (Hosea viii. 5). The supposition of Hitzig and Duhm (followed by W. R. Smith) that it refers to the Asherah worship (2 Kings xiii. 6) is not so probable.

66

IX.

(1) The last vision is transferred to the shrine at Bethel, the seat of the calf-worship. The prophet sees Jehovah Himself standing in pomp by the altar of burnt offering, and by His side the angel of His presence, to whom now, as on many other occasions, the mission of destruction has been entrusted. To him the words of Jehovah are addressed (so Aben Ezra, Kimchi). It is doubtful what is meant by the Hebrew Caphtôr (mistranslated "lintel of the door"). It may mean the wreathed capital of the columns, as in Zeph. ii. 14. So Hitzig and Keil. The word sippim (mistranslated posts") properly signifies "thresholds," but is here understood by the first-mentioned commentator to mean the cornice supported by the columns. This is confirmed by the LXX. on Isa. vi. 4 (see Delitzsch ad loc). But as there is no mention of the temple building, but only of the altar of burnt offering, it is much safer to adhere to the ordinary and well-established significatious of these terms. We should accordingly follow Ewald in taking Caphtor as referring to the ornamented horns of the altar. Similarly, in Exod. xxv. 31, xxxvii. 17, it signifies the richly decorated extremities of the golden candelabra. The scene is wonderfully vivid. Round the colossal altar of burnt offering a crowd of eager devotees is gathered. Jehovah gives the word of command to His angel, and with a blow that shakes the very threshold the ornamented altar horns are shivered to fragments, which are hurled down upon the panic-stricken multitude below. And cut

-Rather, and dash them in pieces upon the head of all of them.

(2) Dig. For this expression break should be substituted. 'Hell," or rather, Hades (Sheôl), the dark abode of the gathered dead, is contrasted with "heaven," the abode of light. Escape from the universal Lord is impossible.

(3) Serpent. On this expression, i.e., the "waterserpent," comp. Isa. xxvii. 1.

The rendering of the LXX., "to the mountain Remman (or Romman)," has suggested to Ewald the interpretation, And shall cast Rimmona to the mountain, i.e., in their flight (comp. Isa. ii. 18-21), Rimmona being the idol-goddess of love, corresponding to the masculine deity Rimmon (2 Kings v. 18). In this ingenious, though somewhat far-fetched, interpretation of a difficult passage, it will be observed that Ewald takes the Hebrew verb as an active, and not a passive. In this he is supported by most MSS.

But the credit of suggesting the most plausible explanation belongs to Hitzig, who, in his commentary, proposes to read Hadad-Rimmon, and translates, Ye

shall be cast away to Hadad-Rimmon. On Zech, xii. 11, there is a long note by Steiner supporting the sup position that Hadad-Rimmon was a modified designation of the sun-god, and was likewise the counterpart of the Greek Adonis, over whose wounding and death there was an annual lamentation, in which the women took part, and gave way to all kinds of excess. HadadRimmon was, therefore, the name of the deity and the locality of his worship (comp. Ashtaroth Karnaim and other examples), now called Rummâne, four miles south of Ledshûn (Megiddo). To this spot the women were to be carried off for purposes of prostitution. (Comp. the threat pronounced by the prophet, chap. vii. 17.)

EXCURSUS B

Three obscure points render this verse one of the most difficult in the Old Testament.

1. As to tense. The interpretation to which preference has been given in the commentary on the textthe time being regarded as future-has been decided on grounds of grammatical usage only. But certainly the larger number of commentators have rendered the verb as a past tense, "But ye bore the tabernacle," &c., the time referred to being that of the desert wanderings. This view is upheld by Hitzig, Kuenen, Keil, Henderson, and also by R. S. Poole. It is also supported by the LXX.

2. The word Sikkûth, rendered tabernacle, or tent, in the E.V. and by the LXX., is derived from a root signifying both to interweave and to cover-an etymology which confirms the above rendering. Ewald's conjecture that it signifies "stake," inferred from the Aramaic Sekkitho, is to be rejected. The conception of Moloch being carried in a tent may be illustrated from the Egyptian monuments of Rameses XII. Birch (Egypt, S. P. C. K., p. 149), refers to a tablet found in the south-west corner of Karnak: "The picture of the tablet represents Rameses holding a censer, and worshipping the ark of the god [Khons], which, partly covered with curtains, is placed in a boat... Figures of priests, a sphinx, and standards are in the boat, while twelve priests carry it on their shoulders."

(Chap. v. 26).

3. Both Moloch and Chiun were evidently stardeities. R. S. Poole endeavours to connect Chiun with Semitic deities worshipped in Egypt (see art. "Remphan," Smith's Dict. of the Bible). The name Chiun appears as Remphan in the quotation of this passage in Stephen's speech (Acts vii. 43). And both Remphan and Chiun were held by Mr. Poole to be the corresponding male and female deities of Asiatic type, Renpu and Ken. But the form Remphan can be clearly shown to have arisen from textual corruption, originating, perhaps, in some false analogy. In the New Testament passage the best MSS. read Rephan, and this reading has been adopted in our Revised Ver. sion, and occurs in nearly the same form in the LXX., from which Stephen was freely quoting. In the LXX. the original order of the clauses has suffered transposition, and it is certainly safer to adhere to the Hebrew text (as in chap. ix. 11, 12).

Rephan arose from the Hebrew text by the change of a single character. Instances of such interchange are not infrequent in the Old Testament. Yet the form Rephan, though corrupt, is invaluable, as indicating the true reading of the Hebrew word. The word for Chiun was read by the Masoretes as Kiyyûn (according to Ewald, "pedestal" [?]). But the LXX. indicate, and much confirmatory testimony establishes the fact, that the word is to be read Kevan, and that Kêvan, like the Ammonitish Moloch, represented the star-deity

Saturn. Thus Kaivono is the form of the word in the Peshito. This view is supported by Aben Ezra and Kimchi, who cite Kivan as the name for the star Saturn in the Persian and Arabic. This star (see quotations

in Henderson's Commentary) was held to exert malignant influence. Schrader (Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament, p. 443) compares the name Ka-ai-vanu, the Assyrian name for that planet.

EXCURSUS C

That an eclipse is here referred to, and employed as a figure to express the overwhelming calamities which were to darken Israel, can hardly admit of doubt, when we compare the similar figurative use of the earthquake in the preceding verse. But to what eclipse does the prophet refer Mr. J. W. Bosanquet has attempted to identify it with a very special one, mentioned in the Assyrian annals:-"In the eponymy of Bursagale, prefect of Gozan, the city of Asshur revolted, and in the month Sivan the sun was eclipsed." This has been calculated by Hind to have occurred on June 15, 763 B.C. (So Rawlinson, Schrader, G. Smith, &c., as

(Chap. viii. 9).

against Oppert's view, which is untenable.) If this eclipse was in the mind of the prophet, it is a fact of considerable importance in chronology. On the whole, however, it is more probable that the prophet was thinking of an earlier eclipse, which took place in 784 B.C., Feb. 9. It was a total eclipse, the time of totality being about 1 p.m. at Jerusalem, thus exactly corresponding with the phraseology of this verse. So remarkable a phenomenon would naturally stamp itself for many years upon the mind of the people, and this vivid impression the prophet summons to his aid in foreshadowing the calamities of the last time.