Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

to make the careless Ethiopians afraid, and great pain shall come upon them, as in the day of Egypt: for, lo, it cometh.

In that day will I cause messengers to go forth by sea, in ships of speed, to carry the sad news of Egypt's destruction to the Ethiopians, who shall be exceedingly affrighted therewith; and shall be no less pained with the fear of the same evil, than Egypt is with the sense and smart of it.

XXX. 12 And sell the land into the hand of the wicked.

I will deliver up the land into the hand of the Babylonians, as if it were conveyed to them by bargain and sale.

XXX. 14 And I will make Pathros desolate, and will set fire in Zoan, and will execute judgment in No.

And I will execute my utmost judgments upon the several provinces and chief cities of Egypt, upon Pathros, Zoan, and Alexandria. So also verse 15, and 16, and 17.

XXX. 18 At Tehaphnehes also the day shall be darkened, when I shall break there the yokes of Egypt: and the pomp of her strength shall cease in her: as for her, a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity.

At Daphnis, there shall be a dark and gloomy day of slaughter and death, when I shall there make an end of the tyrannical government of Egypt; and all her pomp and glory of her strength shall utterly cease; and she shall be under a cloud of sorrow and obscurity, and her people shall be carried away into captivity.

XXX. 21 Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and, lo, it shall not be bound up to be healed, to put a roller to bind it, to make it strong to hold the sword.

Son of man, I have already discomfited a great part of the forces of Pharaoh, king of Egypt: the loss, that he hath already sustained, shall not be repaired again by any means, for the preventing of his utter subversion.

XXXI. 2 Whom art thou like in thy greatness?

[ocr errors]

Think not, that no king is comparable to thee, in power and greatness.

XXXI. 3 Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs.

Behold, the king of Assyria was a greater monarch than thyself: he was, in comparison of thee, as a tall cedar in Lebanon, largely spread.

XXXI. 4 The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers, &c.

Whose roots were thoroughly watered, with constant streams, &c. So verse 5, 6,

7.

XXXI. 8 The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chesnut trees were not like his branches; not any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty.

The greatest princes, in the most flourishing kingdoms of the

[ocr errors]

world, could not stand in comparison with him; but all of them were forced to vail to him, as more powerful and glorious than themselves. So verse 9.

XXXI. 11 I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness.

I have therefore delivered him and his proud Nineveh, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonians: he shall deal with him as he deserves: I have rooted him out for his wickedness. So verse 12.

XXXI. 14 To the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves for their height, neither shoot, &c.

To the end, that none of the proud princes of the earth should hereafter dare, to exalt themselves in the overweening and confidence of their own strength and glory.

XXXI. 15 I covered the deep for him.

I caused those waters, wherewith he was nourished, to take up a mourning and lamentation for him.

XXXI. 18 To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: &c.

all

O Pharaoh, thou, that art thus like to the Assyrian, amongst the kings of the earth, in glory arrd magnificence, thou shalt also be like him in thy ruin: thou, with the other princes of the world, shalt be brought down into the grave, and shalt be destroyed in the midst of thy fellow-heathens.

XXXII. 2 Thou art like a young lion of the nations.

Thou art a cruel tyrant among thy neighbour nations, as a young lion is among the beasts.

XXXII. 4 Then will I leave thee upon the land, &c. See chap, xxix. verse 5.

XXXII. 6 I will also water with thy blood the land wherein thou swimmest, even to the mountains.

And whereas thou now, like a whale, swimmest in the great waters of thy land, instead of those waters shall be the blood of thy people, wherein thou mayest swim; which shall cover the earth up to the very mountain.

XXXII. 7 And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the hea ven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.

And when thou, which art reputed the great light of the world, shalt be extinguished, the very face of the heavens shall seem to be covered with darkness; the sun shall seem clouded, and the moon without light: so great a change shall thy subversion seem to make in the world. So also verse 8.

XXXII. 9 I will also ver the hearts of many people, when I shall bring thy destruction among the nations, into the countries which thou hast not known.

I will also affright and amaze the hearts of many nations round

about thee, when I shall bring unto them, both the rumour and the expectation of thy destruction: even those countries shall be terrified, which are not so much as known unto thee. So also verse 10.

XXXII. 14 Then will I make their waters deep, and cause their rivers to run like oil, saith the Lord GOD.

Then will I give those troubled nations rest and tranquillity: they shall be as calm as deep waters; and their rivers shall flow as smoothly as oil, without any vehement and unquiet agitation,

XXXII. 18 And cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the famous nations, unto the nether parts of the carth, with them that go down into the pit.

Make thou some resemblance of the casting down of Egypt, and the adjoining nations, her partners, into the grave, as dead corpses. XXXII. 19 Whom dost thou pass in beauty? go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised.

What nation is there, whom thou thinkest able to compare with thee, in strength and glory? But now, how strong and goodly soever thou art, go down into the dust; and be laid together with thy godless and lewd companions, of the profane heathen.

XXXII. 21 The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword.

The valiant and mighty warrior before-deceased, shall, as it were out of his grave, speak to Egypt and his associates; and shall say, that they are brought down as well as he: they lie slain by the sword, and are taken away in their uncircumcision and sinfulness.

XXXII. 22 Asshur is there and all her company: his graves are about him.

The great king of Assyria, and all his company, is come down to the grave.

XXXII. 23 Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit, and her company is round about her grave: all of them slain, &c.

The graves of his companies and complices are set in the sides' of the burial-place, round about the grave of Asshur, which lies in the midst of his attendants: all of them slain, &c.

XXXII. 24 There is Elam and all her multitude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword.

There is the prince of the Elamites, neighbours and assistants to the Assyrians; and all their troops; whose graves are round about the grave of their commander, all of them slain by the sword. XXXII. 26 There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude: her graves are round about him.

There are the princes of the Cappadocians and Iberians, and all their multitude round about their graves.

XXXII. 27 And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell with their weapons of war: and they have laid their swords under their heads,'

but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.

They shall not lie with those mighty ones of the heathen, who die naturally; being not stripped of their weapons of war, having their swords laid peaceably under their heads in their graves; but they shall lie amongst the mangled and slain, and shall carry the marks of their sins in their carcases, though for the time they were terrible to the world. Verse 29, 30, as verse 24,

XXXII. 31 Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude.

Pharaoh shall, as it were, see this world of people coming down to the grave with him; and shall comfort himself, with such store of company in death.

XXXIII. 5 But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. But he, that taketh warning, stands upon his own defence, and preserveth his life.

XXXIII. 10 If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?

If, according to thy prophecies, God have determined to reckon with us for our sins, and to bring judgment upon us, to what purpose shall our conversion be? and how shall we live, though we do

amend?

XXXIII. 12 The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression. So also verse 13. See Ezek. xviii. verse 24.

XXXIII. 22 Now the hand of the LORD was upon me in the evening, afore he that was escaped came; and had opened my mouth, until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, &c. The powerful motion of God's Spirit was upon me in the evening, before the coming of that escaped messenger from Jerusalem; and put words into my mouth, not suffering me to keep silence any longer.

XXXIII. 24 Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance.

'If Abraham, being but one, had this land given to him for his inheritance; how much more may we, his seed, to whom it is deduced, being many, challenge a due interest in it!

toward

your

XXXIII. 25 Wherefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Ye eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes idols, and shed blood and shall ye possess the land? No; deceive not yourselves; ye are not the sons of faithful Abraham; your works are contrary to his ye do wilfully transgress my commands: ye eat the blood together with the flesh, which! have forbidden: ye are guilty both of idolatry and murder; and can ye challenge to possess the land, in the right of Abraham? XXXIII. 26 Ye stand upon your sword.

Ye rely upon the confidence of your own sword.

XXXIII. 31 And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and

they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them.

They come to thee with reverence and respect, as the manner of my people is; and they sit before thee to hear thy words, in an awful and attentive fashion; but they will perform nothing of that, which is commanded them.

XXXIII. 32 And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an in

strument.

They seem to take much pleasure and contentment in thy sermons; even no less, than a man would do in the hearing of an excellent song, of one that hath a pleasant voice, and plays sweetly on an instrument.

XXXIII. 33 And when this cometh to pass, (lo, it will come,) then shall they know that a prophet hath been among them.

And when these judgments shall come to pass, which I have premonished, then they shall know and find, too late, that they have had a true prophet of God among them, whom they unworthily disrespected.

XXXIV. 2 Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?

Woe to those rulers, and to those teachers and spiritual guides of Israel, that feed and pamper themselves; whereas their duty and office is, and should be, to feed the souls of my people, and to govern and rule them aright.

XXXIV. 3 Ye eat the fat, and ye clothe you with the wool, ye kill them that are fed: but ye feed not the flock.

Ye take of the best commodities of the people under your charge, neither is that grudged unto you; and make use of their personal employments, as occasion is offered: but ye do not perform your duty to them again: ye do not teach and govern them, as ye ought.

XXXIV. 4 The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost.

Those particular offices, which pertain to your charge, as comforting the weak, healing the sick, binding up the broken-hearted, reclaiming and reducing those those that have erred, ye have not accordingly done; but rather have tyrannously and cruelly exercised an imperious authority over them.

The same allegory holds verse 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

XXXIV. 11 For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.

Behold, since my shepherds are careless, I myself will make diligent search for my sheep, that are scattered and lost; and I will find them, wheresoever they are strayed. So verse 12.

XXXIV. 13 And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, &c.

« AnteriorContinua »