14 15 16 Thou didst pierce with thy rod the head of his They rushed as a whirlwind to scatter us: Thou didst march through the sea with thine Through the heap of mighty waters. When I heard thy speech, my bowels trembled: At the voice my lips quivered: Rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in my place; Because I shall be brought to the day of trouble, Hebr. under me. 14. with thy rod] Houbigant and Green read 7023. Three MSS. read, which resembles the conjecture proposed. -of his villages] Many MSS. five editions, and Keri, have . The firstborn are called the heads of the Egyptian vil lages; and these God smote with the rod of his anger. .פרזיו The word is derived from the Arab: segregavit: see Cast. lex: because the houses are separated: and not joined together as in cities. Dr. Wheeler conjectures D. "His horsemen, when they came as a whirlwind to scatter us." -to scatter us] I follow Green's excellent conjecture, wank Their rejoicing] Thirty MSS. read by, their rejoicings. The Egyptians rapidly followed the Israelites, and in imagination devoured a defenceless people. Whereas the Israelites entered the land of Canaan armed, and struck the inhabitants with great fear. Josh. iv. 13. v. I. Rottenness] The learned Schroeder observes that o. Ar. Ch. Syr. read 12 tremor, and that Lilienthal found this reading in the margin of a Hebrew MS. Diss. Philol. ad Cantic, Chabacuci. Groninga. 1781. -I trembled] Palluit, & subito genua intremuere timore. Schroeder. Ovid Met. ii. 180. -I shall be brought] One MS. reads N, which may be the future in Niphal from ducere: a verb, indeed, not elsewhere used in that form. Or, we may read . he hath brought me, from ducere; or, he hath left me, from 2, 17 18 19 To go up captive unto the people who shall invade But although the figtree shall not flourish, And the fields shall not yield food; The flocks shall be cut off from the fold, I will exult in the God of my salvation. agreeably to Chald. where we have a quoniam reliquit me. Syr. also expresses the pronoun I. et ostendit mihi. The prophet may speak in the person of the Jews who would be then living. "If so be I might have rest in the day of affliction, "When he goeth up against the people, and harasseth them with his troops. Dr. Wheeler. 17. But although-] Or. For: and v. 18, But I— “Men pg 6, quasi legissent 7. Non malè: nec enim floret Sed germinare etiam notat 5. Vid. Cast. in voc. Or, for; or, when." Secker. ficus. "It is observed that some of the oldest versions never translate flowering: and that it is distinguished from py a flower Numb. xvii. 8. And indeed it seems rather to signify shoots than flowers, Job xiv. 9. Ps. xcii. 7. or 8. Prov. xi. 8. Is. v. 24. Ixvi. 14. Epict. 1. i. c. 15. p. 86 says of a figtree: Apis avian #gwtov, είται προβάλη τον καρπον, είτα πεπανθη.” Secker. The fruit-] As ny signifies to produce, as a tree or a field; see Gen. i. 11, 12, Ps. i. 3: wyn will naturally denote fruit. Hence O xarov in the New Testament: Matth. iii. 10, &c. -fields-yield] Read wy. -shall be cut off] One cut off: or, He, God, cut off. Or read, in the participle passive, . --stalls] The Arabic root of the original word signifies fregit comminuit, stram n. The places where the herds were fed with cut straw. "Bubile. Alludit Arabicum fænum." Boch. Hieroz. 305. 19. The Lord-] This v. is an imitation of Ps. xviii. 33. Twelve MSS and one ed. transpose the two first words of this אדני יהוה Verse, and read "Jehovah, my Lord, is my strength." Dr. Wheeler. And he will make my feet like hind's feet, And will cause me to tread on mine high places. [To the chief musician on my stringed instruments.] יעמידני -cause me to tread] Eight MSS. read as in the psalm, "Thou shalt cause me to return with strength and swiftness from the land of my captivity, and to possess its fastnesses." See Deut. xxxiii. 29. xxxii. 13. The state of the land during the captivity may be described, v. 17: or the prophet may declare that such circumstances should not shake his confidence in God. And v. 19. he may speak in the person of his people, who were to be restored. -chief musician] From : præfuit, superavit. Cast. lex. See 2 Chron. ii. 18. -my stringed instruments] From 12 pulsare, musice. 6. Ar. Syr. read his stringed instruments: which reading I prefer, as this seems a Jewish annotation. "My may be the King's word, and this his direction. Lowth." Secker. THE BOOK OF OBADIA H. CHAP. I. 1 THE vision of Obadiah. 2 Jehovah concerning Edom. * Thus saith the Lord We have heard a report from Jehovah, And an ambassador is sent among the nations: Saying: "Rise ye: and let us rise up against her to war.' Behold I have made thee small among the nations: Thou art greatly despised. * Hebr. a hearing. Obadiah] I suppose that he prophesied between the taking of Jerusalem, which happened before Christ 587, and the destruction of Idumea by Nebuchadnezzar: which latter event probably took place a very few years after the former. Usher places the destruction of Jerusalem in the 588th year before Christ; and the siege of Tyre in the year 585 before Christ. This siege lasted thirteen years; in which interval Usher says that the Sidonians, Moabites, Ammmonites, and Idumeans, seem to have been subdued by the Babylonians. Josephus says that Nebuchadnezzar began to besiege Tyre in the seventh year of his reign: but Capellus proposes reading the seventeenth. Blair places the taking of Tyre in the thirty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar. 1. -sent] Jer. xlix. 14, we have bw. Compare the passages. 2. -small-despised] Compare Jer. xlix. 15. Idumea was a country, if compared with the dominions of flourishing states, very moderate in extent, and inconveniently situated. "The land of Moab occupied the eastern part of the sea of Sodom. Next to this country Idumea turned towards the south: though it did not border on all Canaan southward, but only on its eastern part. The rest lay open to Arabia Petræa, by which Idumea was situated southward, made a part of it, and went far into it." Vitr. on Isai. xxxiv. 6. "The country of the Idumeans 3 4 5 The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee. Hath said in his heart, Who shall bring me down Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, And though thou set thy nest among the stars; Hebr. the height of his habitation. was properly circumscribed by that mountainous tract which enclosed Canaan to the south near the sea of Sodom, as appears from the whole sacred history: whence mount Hor, situated there, is said to have been on the edge, border, or extremity, of the land of Edom. Numb. xx. 23. It is true that, about the time of Solomon, the Idumeans occupied some part of the Elanitic gulph of the Red Sea; whence a tract of that coast was called the land of Edom. 1 Kings ix. 26. But all the prophets who speak of Edom about these times restrain their lands to mount Seir, in the tract which I have marked out." Vitr. on Isai. xxi. 1. However, that part of Idumea partook of the qualities of the land of Canaan appears from Gen. xxvii. 39, compared with v. 28 and, Numb. xx. 17, the fields and vineyards of the Idumeans are mentioned. 3. He that dwelleth], with the jod paragogic, occurs also in the parallel place Jer. xlix. 16. See Præl. Hebr. iii. p. 34. -clefts of the rock] There were many habitable caverns, difficult of access, in the mountainous country of Idumea. -in his high habitation] "6. Vulg. nah." Secker. ut alibi ma If we read and 72, and V. has in corde tuo, we render: O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, in thine habitation; Who sayest in thine heart &c. 4. eagle] Which builds in high rocks. -thou set] Houbigant reads own, with the versions. "ó. Syr. Ch. Vulg. quasi legissent wn. Sed vide omnino Num. xxiv. 21." Secker. w may be rendered is set, positus See Job xx. 4. If we suppose this prophet the imitator, he has finely improved Jeremiah xlix. 16. in the hemistich before us. est. 5. If thieves-] Compare Jer. xlix. 9: where, think, we should render, |