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7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with

Roman., 14.

mighty God, The everlasting Father, The justice from henceforth even for ever. " Prince of Peace.

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The

w zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

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"Behold, it is come to pass, and it is done,

Saith the Lord JEHOVAH.

This is the day of which I spoke :

Eph. ii. 14. - Dan. ii. 44; Luke i. 32, 33. 2 Kings xix. 31; chap. xxxvii. 32.

Christ, with an enumeration of those characters in which he stands most nearly related to mankind as their Saviour; and of others by which his infinite ma

And the inhabitants of the cities of Israel shall go jesty and Godhead are shown. He shall appear as a forth,

And shall set on fire the armour, and the shield,
And the buckler, and the bow, and the arrows,
And the clubs, and the lances;

And they shall set them on fire for seven years. And they shall not bear wood from the field; Neither shall they hew from the forest: For of the armour shall they make their fires; And they shall spoil their spoilers, And they shall plunder their plunderers." R. D. Kimchi, on this verse, says this refers simply to the destruction of the Assyrians. Other battles are fought man against man, and spear against spear; and the garments are rolled in blood through the wounds given and received: but this was with burning, for the angel of the Lord smote them by night, and there was neither sword nor violent commotion, nor blood; they were food for the fire, for the angel of the Lord consumed them.

Verse 6. The government shall be upon his shoulder] That is, the ensign of government; the sceptre, the sword, the key, or the like, which was borne upon or hung from the shoulder. See note on chap. xxii. 22.

And his name shall be called] El gibbor, the prevailing or conquering God.

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The everlasting Father-"The Father of the everlasting age"] Or y ' Abi ad, the Father of eternity. The Septuagint have μεγαλης βουλης Αγγελος, “ the Messenger of the Great Counsel." But instead of Abi ad, a MS. of De Rossi has y Abezer, the helping Father; evidently the corruption of some Jew, who did not like such an evidence in favour of the Christian Messiah.

Prince of Peace] o sar shalom, the Prince of prosperity, the Giver of all blessings.

A MS. of the thirteenth century in Kennicott's collection has a remarkable addition here. "He shall be a stumbling-block, noon; the government is on his shoulder." This reading is nowhere else acknowledged, as far as I know.

He

child, born of a woman, born as a Jew, under the law, but not in the way of ordinary generation. He is a Son given the human nature, in which the fulness of the Godhead was to dwell, being produced by the creative energy of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin. See Matt. i. 20, 21, 23, 25, and Luke i. 35, and Isa. vii. 14, and the notes on those passages. As being God manifested in the flesh, he was wonderful in his conception, birth, preaching, miracles, sufferings, death, resurrection, and ascension; wonderful in his person, and wonderful in his working. He is the Counsellor that expounds the law; shows its origin, nature, and claims; instructs, pleads for the guilty; and ever appears in the presence of God for men. He is the mighty God; God essentially and efficiently prevailing against his enemies, and destroying ours. is the Father of eternity; the Origin of all being, and the Cause of the existence, and particularly the Father, of the spirits of all flesh. The Prince of peacenot only the Author of peace, and the Dispenser of peace, but also he that rules by peace, whose rule tends always to perfection, and produces prosperity. Of the increase of his government—this Prince has a government, for he has all power both in heaven and in earth; and his government increases, and is daily more and more extended, and will continue till all things are put under his feet. His kingdom is ordered-every act of government regulated according to wisdom and goodness; is established so securely as not to be overthrown; and administered in judgment and justice, so as to manifest his wisdom, righteousness, goodness, and truth. Reader, such is that Jesus who came into the world to save sinners! Trust in HIM!

Chap. ix. 8-chap. x. 4. This whole passage reduced to its proper and entire form, and healed of the dislocation which it suffers by the absurd division of the chapters, makes a distinct prophecy, and a just poem, remarkable for the regularity of its disposition and the elegance of its plan. It has no relation to the preceding or following prophecy; though the parts, violently torn asunder, have been, on the one side and the other, patched on to them. Those relate princi

Verse 7. Of the increase] In the common Hebrew Bibles, and in many MSS., this word is written with the close or finalno. But in twelve of Kenni-pally to the kingdom of Judah; this is addressed excott's MSS., and twelve of De Rossi's, it is written with clusively to the kingdom of Israel. The subject of it the open mem; but here it is supposed to contain is a denunciation of vengeance awaiting their crimes. mysteries, viz., that Jerusalem shall be shut up, closed, It is divided into four parts, each threatening the parand confined, till the days of the Messiah. ticular punishment of some grievous offence of their This is an illustrious prophecy of the incarnation of pride, of their perseverance in their vices, of their im

Threatenings against

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ISAIAH.

Jacob, and it hath lighted upon
Israel.

the disobedient.

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8 The Lord sent a word into adversaries of Rezin against him,
and join his enemies together;
12 The Syrians before and the
Philistines behind; and they shall
devour Israel with open mouth.
this his anger is not turned away, but his hand
is stretched out still.

9 And all the people shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria, that say in the pride and stoutness of heart,

10 The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars. 11 Therefore the LORD shall set up the

Heb. mingle.- -y Heb. with whole mouth.

piety, and of their injustice. To which is added a general denunciation of a farther reserve of Divine wrath, contained in a distich, before used by the prophet on a like occasion, chap. v. 25, and here repeated after each part. This makes the intercalary verse of the poem; or, as we call it, the burden of the song.

"Post hoc comma (cap. ix. 4) interponitur spatium unius lineæ, in Cod. 2 et 3: idemque observatur in 245, in quo nullum est spatium ad finem capitis ix." Kennicott, Var. Lect.

2 For all

13 For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the LORD of hosts.

14 Therefore the LORD wil cut off from

2 Chap. v. 25; x. 4; Jer. iv. 8.- Jer. v. 3; Hos. vii. 10. parts of the clay adhere together, appears from Exod. v. These bricks are properly opposed to hewn stone, so greatly superior in beauty and durableness. The sycamores, which, as Jerome on the place says, are timber of little worth, with equal propriety are opposed to the cedars. "As the grain and texture of the sycamore is remarkably coarse and spongy, it could therefore stand in no competition at all (as it is observed, Isa. ix. 10) with the cedar, for beauty and ornament."-Shaw, Supplement to Travels, p. 96. We meet with the same opposition of cedars to sycamores, 1 Kings x. 27, where Solomon is said to have

"After this clause (chap. ix. 4) is interposed the space of one line in Cod. 2 and 3. The same is likewise observed in Cod. 245, in which no space ex-made silver as the stones, and cedars as the sycamores ists at the end of chap. ix."

Verse 8. Lord-" JEHOVAH"] For Adonai, thirty MSS. of Kennicott's, and many of De Rossi's, and three editions, read mn Yehovah.

in the vale for abundance. By this mashal, or figurative and sententious speech, they boast that they shall easily be able to repair their present losses, suffered perhaps by the first Assyrian invasion under Tiglathpileser; and to bring their affairs to a more flourishing condition than ever.

Some of the bricks mentioned above lie before me. They were brought from the site of ancient Babylon. The straw is visible, kneaded with the clay; they are very hard, and evidently were dried in the sun; for they are very easily dissolved in water.

Verse 11. The adversaries of Rezin against him— "The princes of Retsin against him"] For "y tsarey, enemies, Houbigant, by conjecture, reads "sarey,

Verse 9. Pride and stoutness of heart-" Carry themselves haughtily"] w" veyadeu, "and they shall know;" so ours and the Versions in general. But what is it that they shall know? The verb stands destitute of its object; and the sense is imperfect. The Chaldee is the only one, as far as I can find, that expresses it otherwise. He renders the verb in this place by 1 veithrabrabu, "they exalt themselves, or carry themselves haughtily; the same word by which he renders 1 gabehu, chap. iii. 16. He seems, therefore, in this place to have read " vai-princes; which is confirmed by thirty of Kennicott's yigbehu, which agrees perfectly well with what follows, and clears up the difficulty. Archbishop Secker conjectured 1777" vayedabberu, referring it to lemor, in the next verse, which shows that he was not satisfied with the present reading. Houbigant reads 1971 vaiyereu, et pravi facti sunt, they are become wicked, which is found in a MS.; but I prefer the reading of the Chaldee, which suits much better with

the context.

Houbigant approves of this reading; but it is utterly unsupported by any evidence from antiquity: it is a mere mistake ofresh for daleth; and I am surprised that it should be favoured by Houbigant.

Verse 10. The bricks] "The eastern bricks,” says Sir John Chardin, (see Harmer's Observ. I., p. 176,) are only clay well moistened with water, and mixed with straw, and dried in the sun." So that their walls are commonly no better than our mud walls; see Maundrell, p. 124. That straw was a necessary part in the composition of this sort of bricks, to make the

and De Rossi's MSS., (two ancient,) one of my own, ancient; and nine more have y tsaddi, upon a rasure, and therefore had probably at first sarey. The princes of Retsin, the late ally of Israel, that is, the Syrians, expressly named in the next verse, shall now be excited against Israel.

See

The Septuagint in this place give us another variation; for Retsin, they read ¡18 m har tsiyon, ogos Ziwv, Mount Sion, of which this may be the sense; but JEHOVAH shall set up the adversaries of Mount Sion against him, (i. e., against Israel,) and will strengthen his enemies together; the Syrians, the Philistines, who are called the adversaries of Mount Sion. Simonis Lex. in voce & sachach. Verse 12. With open mouth-"On every side."] bechol peh, in every corner, in every part of their country, pursuing them to the remotest extremities, and the most retired parts. So the Chaldee bechol athar, in every place.

Verse 14. In one day.] Thirteen MSS. of Kenni

The desolation and

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Israel head and tail, branch and | shall devour the briers and thorns,
rush, in one day.
and shall kindle in the thickets of
the forest, and they shall mount up
like the lifting up of smoke.

15 The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.

e

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Roman., 16.

19 Through the wrath of the LORD of hosts the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother.

16 For the leaders of this people cause is them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.

17 Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is a hypocrite and an evil doer, and every mouth speaketh i folly. * For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

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20 And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm: 21 Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned

18 For wickedness 'burneth as the fire: it away, but his hand is stretched out still.

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b Chap. x. 17; Rev. xviii. 8.- Chap. iii. 12.Or, they that call them blessed.-e Or, they that are called blessed of them. (Heb. swallowed up.- - Psa. cxlvii. 10, 11.- b Mic. vii. 2. ¡ Or, villany. cott and De Rossi read or beyom, in a day; and another has a rasure in the place of the letter beth. Verse 17. The Lord-" JEHOVAH"] For 8 Adonai, a great number of MSS. read nn Yehovah.

* Ver. 12, 21; chap. v. 25; x. 4.- Chap. x. 17; Mal. iv. 1. Chap. viii. 22.- Heb. meat. o Mic. vii. 2, 6.- -P Heb. cut. Chap. xlix. 26; Jer. xix. 9.- Ver. 12, 17;

רע Nam

q Lev. xxvi. 26.chap. v. 25; x. 4. forest, consumed there the green wood with the dry." See Harmer's Observations, Vol. II., p. 187. Verse 20: The flesh of his own arm-" The flesh of his neighbour"] « Του βραχιόνος του αδελφου αυτού, Verse 18. For wickedness] Wickedness rageth the Septuagint Alexand. Duplex versio, quarum altera like a fire, destroying and laying waste the nation: legit reo, quæ vox extat, Jer. vi. 21. but it shall be its own destruction, by bringing down | rea, aðsλpos, Gen. xliii. 33. Recte ni fallor."the fire of God's wrath, which shall burn up the briers and the thorns; that is, the wicked themselves. Briers and thorns are an image frequently applied in Scripture, when set on fire, to the rage of the wicked; violent, yet impotent, and of no long continuance. "They are extinct as the fire of thorns," Psa. cxviii. 12. To the wicked themselves, as useless and unprofitable, proper objects of God's wrath, to be burned up, or driven away by the wind. "As thorns cut up they shall be consumed in the fire," Isa. xxxiii. 12. Both these ideas seem to be joined in Psa. lviii. 9 :—

"Before your pots shall feel the thorn,

As well the green as the dry, the tempest shall bear them away."

SECKER. I add to this excellent remark, that the Chaldee manifestly reads wreo, his neighbour, not y zeroo, his arm; for he renders it by ''p karibeyh, his neighbour. And Jeremiah has the very

veish besar ואיש בשר רעהו יאכלו : same expression

reehu yochelu," and every one shall eat the flesh of his neighbour," chap. xix. 9. This observation, I think, gives the true reading and sense of this place: and the context strongly confirms it by explaining the general idea by particular instances, in the following verse: "Every man shall devour the flesh of his neighbour;" that is, they shall harass and destroy one another. "Manasseh shall destroy Ephraim, and Ephraim, Manasseh;" which two tribes were most closely connected both in blood and situation as broThe green and the dry is a proverbial expression, thers and neighbours; "and both of them in the midst meaning all sorts of them, good and bad, great and of their own dissensions shall agree in preying upon small, &c. So Ezekiel "Behold, I will kindle a Judah." : fire, and it shall devour every green tree, and every dry tree," chap. xx. 47. D'Herbelot quotes a Persian poet describing a pestilence under the image of a conflagration: "This was a lightning that, falling upon a

The common reading, "shall devour the flesh of his own arm," in connexion with what follows, seems to make either an inconsistency, or an anticlimax; whereas by this correction the following verse becomes an elegant illustration of the foregoing.-L.

CHAPTER X.

God's judgments against oppressive rulers, 1-4. The prophet foretells the invasion of Sennacherib, and the destruction of his army. That mighty monarch is represented as a rod in the hand of God to correct his people for their sins; and his ambitious purposes, contrary to his own intentions, are made subservient to the great designs of Providence, 5-11. Having accomplished this work, the Almighty takes account of his impious vauntings, 12-14; and threatens utter destruction to the small and great of his army, represented by the thorns, and the glory of the forest, 15–19. This leads the prophet to comfort his country

.

God's judgments against

ISAIAH.

oppressive rulers. men with the promise of this signal interposition of God in their favour, 20-27. Brief description of the march of Sennacherib towards Jerusalem, and of the alarm and terror which he spread every where as he hastened forward, 28-32. The spirit and rapidity of the description is admirably suited to the subject. The affrighted people are seen fleeing, and the eager invader pursuing; the cries of one city are heard by those of another; and groan swiftly succeeds to groan, till at length the rod is lifted over the last citadel. In this critical situation, however, the promise of a Divine interposition is seasonably renewed. instantly changes; the uplifted arm of this mighty conqueror is at once arrested and laid low by the hand of heaven; the forest of Lebanon, (a figure by which the immense Assyrian host is elegantly pointed out,) is hewn down by the axe of the Divine vengeance; and the mind is equally pleased with the equity of the judgment, and the beauty and majesty of the description, 33, 34.

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WO unto them that decree 7 Howbeit he meaneth not so,

unrighteous decrees, and neither doth his heart think so; that write grievousness which but it is in his heart to destroy they have prescribed;

2 To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless !

3 And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?

4 Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

50 Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. 6 I will send him against a hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I 1give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and m to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

a Psa. lviii. 2; xciv. 20.-b Or, to the writers that write griev ousness. Job xxxi. 14. d Hos. ix. 7; Luke xix. 44. Chap. v. 25; ix. 12, 17, 21. Or, Wo to the Assyrian. Heb. Asshur. Jer. li. 20.— -i Or, though.- - Chap. xix. 17. Jer. xxxiv. 22 —— Heb. to lay them a treading.

NOTES ON CHAP. X.

and cut off nations not a few.

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8 For he saith, Are not my princes altogether kings?

9 Is not Calno as Carchemish? is not Hamath as Arpad? is not Samaria as 'Damascus ?

10 As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idols, and whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria;

11 Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?

8

12 Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon Mount Zion, and on Jerusalem, I will "punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks.

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13 w For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for

n Gen. 1. 20; Mic. iv. 12.- o2 Kings xviii. 24, 33, &c.; xix. 10, &c.-P Amos vi. 2. -42 Chron. xxxv. 20.2 Kings xvi. 9.82 Kings xix. 31.— Jer. 1. 18.-u Heb. visit upon. Heb. of the greatness of the heart.- —w Isa. xxxvii. 24; Ezek. xxviii. 4, &c.; Dan. iv. 30.

the whole subject of this chapter, it must have been deVerse 2. My people] Instead of "ny ammi, my peo-livered before the fourteenth of the same reign. ple, many MSS., and one of my own, ancient, read y ammo, his people. But this is manifestly a corruption. Verse 4. Without me] That is, without my aid they shall be taken captive even by the captives, and shall be subdued even by the vanquished. "The yod in 'n bilti is a pronoun, as in Hos. xiii. 4."-Kimchi on the place. One MS. has 'n lebilti.

As the people had hitherto lived without God in worship and obedience; so they should now be without his help, and should perish in their transgressions.

Verse 5. O Assyrian-"Ho to the Assyrian"] Here begins a new and distinct prophecy, continued to the end of the twelfth chapter: and it appears from ver. 9-11 of this chapter, that this prophecy was delivered after the taking of Samaria by Shalmaneser; which was in the sixth year of the reign of Hezekiah: and as the former part of it foretells the invasion of Sennacherib, and the destruction of his army, which makes

The staff in their hand-"The staff in whose hand"] The word No hu, the staff itself, in this place seems to embarrass the sentence. I omit it on the authority of the Alexandrine copy of the Septuagint: nine MSS., (two ancient,) and one of my own, ancient, for 7 DI umatteh hu, read on mattehu, his staff. Archbishop Secker was not satisfied with the present reading. He proposes another method of clearing up the sense, by reading or beyom, in the day, instead of □ beyadam, in their hand: "And he is a staff in the day of mine indignation." Verse 12. The Lord-" JEHOVAH"] For Adonai, fourteen MSS. and three editions read

Yehovah.

The fruit-"The effect"]" peri, f. 18 tsebi. vid. xiii. 19, sed confer, Prov. i. 31; xxxi. 16, 31.”— SECKER. The Chaldee renders the word " peri by " obadey, works; which seems to be the true sense; and I have followed it.-L.

Verse 13. Like a valiant man-" Strongly seated."

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14 And my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people and as one gathereth eggs that are left, have I gathered all the earth; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.

15 Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up bitself, as if it were no wood.

16 Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.

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the wicked in general.

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17 And the light of Israel A. M. cir. 3291. shall be for a fire, and his Holy Olymp. XVI. 4. One for a flame: and it shall Numa Pompilii, burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day;

R. Roman., 3.

18 And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body; and they shall be as when a standard bearer fainteth.

19 And the rest of the trees of his forest shall be a few, that a child may write them. 20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and such as are escaped of the house of Jacob, shall no more again stay upon him that smote them; but shall stay upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

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21 The remnant shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the mighty God.

22 For though thy people Israel be as the

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lo ets means him who is far from being an inert piece of wood, but is an animated and active being; not an instrument, but an agent.

Twelve MSS. agree with the Keri in reading v So here vy kabbir, without the aleph. And Sal. ben Melec and Kimchi thus explain it : "them who dwelled in a great and strong place I have brought down to the ground."

Verse 15. No wood-" Its master."] I have here given the meaning, without attempting to keep to the expression of the original, y lo ets, "the nowood;" that which is not wood like itself, but of a quite different and superior nature. The Hebrews have a peculiar way of joining the negative particle lo to a noun, to signify in a strong manner a total negation of the thing expressed by the noun. "How hast thou given help (

1

the no-strength?

lelo choach) to

And saved the arm ( lo oz) of the no-power? How hast, thou given counsel (non lelo choch

mah) to the no-wisdom?" Job xxvi. 2, 3. That is, to the man totally deprived of strength, power, and wisdom.

“Ye that rejoice (127 x↳↳ lelo dabar) in no-thing." Amos vi. 13.

That is, in your fancied strength, which is none at all, a mere nonentity.

"For I am God, (x *' velo ish,) and no-man; The Holy One in the midst of thee, yet do not fre

quent cities."

Hos. xi. 9.

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- Verse 16. The Lord-" JEHOVAH."] For "178 Adonai, fifty-two MSS., eleven editions, and two of my own, ancient, read Yehovah, as in other cases.

And under his glory] That is, all that he could boast of as great and strong in his army, (Sal. ben Melec in loc.,) expressed afterwards, ver. 18, by the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field.

Verse 17. And it shall burn and devour his thorns"And he shall burn and consume his thorn."] The briers and thorns are the common people; the glory of his forest are the nobles and those of highest rank and importance. See note on chap. ix. 17, and compare Ezek. xx. 47. The fire of God's wrath shall destroy them, both great and small; it shall consume them from the soul to the flesh; a proverbial expression; soul and body, as we say; it shall consume them entirely and altogether; and the few that escape shall be looked upon as having escaped from the most imminent danger; "as a firebrand plucked out of the fire,” Amos iv. 11; s dia Tupos, so as by fire, 1 Cor. iii. 15; as a man when a house is burning is forced to make his escape by running through the midst of the fire.

I follow here the reading of the Septuagint, UND kemash noses, wsi osuywv ano progos openS, as he who flees from the burning flame. Symmachus also renders the latter word by εuywv, flying.

Verse 21. The remnant shall return-unto the mighty God.] El gibbor, the mighty or conquering God; the Messiah, the same person mentioned in ver. 6 of the preceding chapter.

Verse 22. For though thy people Israel] I have endeavoured to keep to the letter of the text as nearly

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