their desire of gain, and do not understand that they will one day render an account. Never, certainly, were men so utterly stupid as not to ascribe some judgment to God; but they flatter themselves so far as to imagine that God does not observe them. In general, therefore, they acknowledge the judgment of God: when they come to particular cases, they take liberties, and suppose that they are not bound to proceed to that extent. If many houses be not laid desolate. Having warned them that none of these things escape the eyes of God, lest they should imagine that it is a knowledge which does not lead to action, he immediately adds, that vengeance is close at hand. He likewise makes use of an oath; for the expression If not is a form of swearing that frequently occurs in the Scriptures. In order to strike them with greater terror, he breaks off the sentence with studied abruptness. He might indeed have brought out this threatening with full expression, but the incomplete form is better fitted to keep the hearer in doubt and suspense, and is therefore more alarming. Besides, by this instance of reserve the Lord intended to train us to modesty, that we may not be too free in the use of oaths. But what does he threaten? Many houses will be laid desolate. This is a just punishment, by which the Lord chastises the covetousness and ambition of men, who did not consider their own meanness, that they might be satisfied with a moderate portion. In a similar manner the poet ridicules the mad ambition of Alexander the Great, who, having learned from the philosophy of Anacharsis that there were many worlds, sighed to think, that after having worn. himself out by so many toils, he had not yet made himself master of one world. "One globe does not satisfy the Macedonian youth. He writhes in misery on account of the narrow limits of the world, as if he were confined to the rocks The following is a striking instance: To whom I sware in my wrath, If they shall enter into my rest; that is, they shall not enter into my rest. (Ps. xcv. 11.)—Ed. • The classical reader may be reminded of a fine instance of αποσιώπησις, by which the effect of a speech is prodigiously heightened : Quos ego-sed motos præstat componere fluctus.-Virg. Æn. i. 135. of Gyaros, or to the puny Seriphos. But when he shall enter the city framed by potters, he will be content with a tomb. Death alone acknowledges how small are the dimensions of the bodies of men.' Instances of the same kind occur every day, yet we do not observe them; for the Lord exhibits to us, as in a mirror, the absurd vanity of men, who spend a vast amount of money in building palaces that are afterwards to become the receptacles of owls and bats and other animals. These things are plainly before our eyes, and yet we do not apply our mind to the consideration of them. So sudden and various are the changes that happen, so many houses are laid desolate, so many cities are overthrown and destroyed, and, in short, there are so many other evident proofs of the judgment of God; and yet men cannot be persuaded to lay aside this mad ambition. The Lord threatens by the Prophet Amos: You have built houses of hewn stones, but you shall not dwell in them. (Amos v. 11.) And again, He will smite the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts. (Amos vi. 11.) These things happen daily, and yet the lawless passions of men are not abated. 10. Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath. He foretells that the same thing will befall their fields and vineyards; that covetous men will not obtain the desired returns, because their greed is insatiable; that, like certain animals which, by their breath, scorch the branches, and wither the corn, those men destroy the fruits of the earth by their extortion. The fields will be so barren as scarcely to yield a tenth part of the seed: the vineyards will yield very little wine. A bath, as Josephus tells us, is a measure of liquids, and contains seventy-two sextaries; a very small measure, certainly, for ten acres, especially on a fertile soil. The cor (kópos) or homer, is a measure of dry substances, and, accord1 Unus Pellæo juveni non sufficit orbis: Estuat infelix angusto limite mundi, Ut Gyari clausus scopulis parvaque Seripho: Juven. Sat. x. 168-173. ing to the same author, contains thirty-one medimni1 ephah is the tenth part of it, and therefore evidently contains a little more than three medimni.2 Now, when the soil is productive, it yields not only tenfold, but thirty fold, and in all cases goes beyond the quantity of seed, and gives back far more abundantly than it received. When the case is otherwise, it undoubtedly proceeds from the curse of God punishing the extortion of men. And yet men blame the niggardliness of the soil, as if the fault lay there, but all in vain; for we would not want abundant increase, if God did not curse the soil on account of men's covetousness. When they are so eagerly employed in gathering and heaping up, what else are they doing than swallowing up the goodness of God by their greed? If this is not seen in all, because they want the power, still they do not want the disposition. Never was the world so much inflamed by this covetousness, and we need not wonder if God visit it with punishment. 11. Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning to follow strong drink. The Prophet does not aim at an enumeration of all the vices which then prevailed, but only points out some particular kinds of them, to which they were peculiarly addicted. After having handled the general doctrine, he found it necessary to come to particular vices; and the enumeration of those was more urgently needed, for there would have been no end of going through them all one by one. Having reproved covetousness, he now attacks drunkenness, which undoubtedly was also a prevailing vice; for 1 A medimnus, or Greek bushel, is reckoned to contain six Roman bushels, a Roman bushel (modius) being about an English peck.— Ed. "For the actual size of these measures," says Dr. Kitto, "we must refer to Josephus, of whom Theodoret (in Exod. xxix.) says: TCUTíor di iv τούτοις τῷ Ἰωσήπῳ ἀκριβῶς τοῦ ἔθνους τὰ μέτρα ἐπισταμένῳ,— follow in these things Josephus, who well understood the measures of the nation.' (Comp. Antiq. viii. 3, 8.) To the homer or cor Josephus ascribes (Antiq. xv. 9, 2) twelve Attic medimni, where the reading should be metretae. Bath and Ephah are the same. Josephus (Antiq. viii. 2, 9) determines each at seventy-two xestae, and makes them equal to an Attic metretes. The Attic metretes, which corresponded with the Hebrew bath and ephah, contains 739,800 Parisian grains of rain-water, which would fill a space of about 1985 Parisian cubic inches."-Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature, Art. Weights and Measures. the kinds of vices which he selects are not those which were found in one person or another, but those which universally prevailed; and indeed the vices are of such a kind as infect the whole body by their contagion. To rise early means to be earnestly employed in doing anything; as when Solomon says, Woe to the nation whose princes eat in the morning, (Eccl. x. 16;) that is, whose chief care is to fill their belly and enjoy delicacies. This is contrary to the order of nature; for man, as David says, riseth that he may go to his work, and may be engaged in business till the evening. (Ps. civ. 23.) Now, if he lay aside his labours, and rise to partake of luxuries, and to follow drunkenness, this is monstrous. He adds And who continue till night. The meaning is, that from the dawn of the morning to the twilight of the evening they continue their drunken carousals, and are never weary of drinking. Abundance and luxury are closely joined together; for when men enjoy abundance, they become luxurious, and abuse it by intemperance. 12. And the harp. He adds the instruments of pleasures by which men addicted to intemperance provoke their appetite. These might be different from ours, but they belonged to music. Now, Isaiah does not blame music, for it is a science which ought not to be despised; but he describes a nation swimming in every kind of luxury, and too much disposed to indulge in pleasures. This is sufficiently evident from what follows. And they regard not the work of the Lord. As if he had said, "They are as constant in luxurious indulgence, and as much devoted to it, as if this had been the purpose for which they were born and reared; and they do not consider why the Lord supplies them with what is necessary." Men were not born to eat and drink, and wallow in luxury, but to obey God, to worship him devoutly, to acknowledge his goodness, and to endeavour to do what is pleasing in his sight. But when they give themselves up to luxury, when they dance, and sing, and have no other object in view than to spend their life in the highest mirth, they are worse than beasts: for they do not consider for what end God created them, in what manner he governs this world by his providence, and to what end all the actions of our life ought to be directed. Having stated this meaning, which appears to me to be natural, I consider nothing more to be necessary; for I cannot adopt the ingenious expositions of some authors, such as, when they explain the work of God to mean the law; nor did I intend to state every opinion which others have maintained. It is enough to know that all who are addicted to gormandizing are here subjected by the Prophet to the reproach of voluntarily becoming like brute beasts, when they do not direct their minds to God, who is the author of life. 13. Therefore my people are gone into captivity. I do not approve of the interpretation given by some commentators, that in consequence of the teachers having failed to perform their duty, the people, through ignorance and error, fell into many vices, which at length became the cause of their destruction. On the contrary, he charges them with gross and voluntary ignorance, as if he had said that, by their madness, they brought down destruction on themselves. The meaning therefore is, that the people perished because they despised instruction; whereas they might have been preserved if they had listened to good counsels: and therefore he expressly says, My people; that is, the nation which enjoyed the extraordinary privilege of being separated from the rest of the nations, that by relying on the guidance and direction of God, they might have a fixed rule of life. Thus it is said, What nation is so eminent and so distinguished as to have gods nigh to it, as thy God draws near to thee this day? This shall therefore be your knowledge and understanding above all nations, to hear your God. (Deut. iv. 6, 7.) This baseness heightens the criminality of the people, that they shut their eyes in the midst of so much light. It was therefore a very severe accusation, that a people which God had undertaken to govern possessed no knowledge for the law might have given them abundant direction for the whole conduct of life; it was a light shining before them amidst the general darkness of the world; and therefore it was monstrous that the nation should refuse to follow that path VOL. I. M |