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The presence of God in

B. C. cir. 760. ›

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A. M. cir. 3244.- of the LORD be beautiful and midst thereof by the spirit of glorious, and the fruit of the earth judgment, and by the spirit of shall be excellent and comely for

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them that are escaped of Israel. 3 And it shall come to pass that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem.

k

4 When the LORD shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the

Heb. beauty and glory.- h Heb. for the escaping of Israel. iChap. Ix. 21. Phil. iv. 3; Rev. i, 5.— Ór, to life.

burning.

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5 And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, " a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night : for P upon all the glory shall be a defence.

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6 And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the day-time from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.

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liv. 4, 5. Like Marcia, on a different occasion, and in separate the dross from the silver, the bad from the

other circumstances:

Da tantum nomen inane

Connubii liceat tumulo scripsisse, Catonis
Marcia.

LUCAN, ii. 342. "This happened," says Kimchi," in the days of Ahaz, when Pekah the son of Remaliah slew in Judea one hundred and twenty thousand men in one day; see 2 Chron. xviii. 6. The widows which were left were so numerous that the prophet said, 'They are multiplied beyond the sand of the sea,'” Jer. xv. 8.

In that day] These words are omitted in the Septuagint, and MSS.

Verse 2. The branch of the Lord—“ the branch of JEHOVAH"] The Messiah of JEHOVAH, says the Chaldee. And Kimchi says, The Messiah, the Son of David. The branch is an appropriate title of the Messiah; and the fruit of the land means the great Person to spring from the house of Judah, and is only a parallel expression signifying the same; or perhaps the blessings consequent upon the redemption procured by him. Compare chap. xlv. 8, where the same great event is set forth under similar images, and see the note there.

Them that are escaped of Israel—"the escaped of the house of Israel."] A MS. has beith yisrael, the house of Israel.

Verse 3. Written among the living] That is, whose name stands in the enrolment or register of the people; or every man living, who is a citizen of Jerusalem. See Ezek. xiii. 9, where," they shall not be written in the writing of the house of Israel,” is the same with what immediately goes before," they shall not be in the assembly of my people." Compare Psa. Ixix. 28; lxxxvii. 6; Exod. xxxii. 32. To number and register the people was agreeable to the law of Moses, and probably was always practised; being, in sound policy, useful, and even necessary. David's design of numbering the people was of another kind; it was to enrol them for his army. Michaelis Mosaisches Recht, Part. iii., p. 227. See also his Dissert. de Censibus Hebræorum.

Verse 4. The spirit of burning] Means the fire of God's wrath, by which he will prove and purify his people; gathering them into his furnace, in order to

good. The severity of God's judgments, the fiery trial of his servants, Ezekiel (chap. xxii. 18-22) has set forth at large, after his manner, with great boldness of imagery and force of expression. God threatens to gather them into the midst of Jerusalem, as into the furnace; to blow the fire upon them, and to melt them. Malachi, chap. iii. 2, 3, treats the same subject, and represents the same event, under the like images :"But who may abide the day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth ? For he is like the fire of the refiner, And like the soap of the fullers. And he shall sit refining and purifying the silver; And he shall purify the sons of Levi; And cleanse them like gold, and like silver; That they may be JEHOVAH's ministers, Presenting unto him an offering in righteousness.”

This is an allusion to a chemist purifying metals. He first judges of the state of the ore or adulterated metal. Secondly, he kindles the proper degree of fire, and applies the requisite test; and thus separates the precious from the vile..

Verse 5. And the Lord will create-One MS., the Septuagint, and the Arabic, have yabi, He shall bring: the cloud already exists; the Lord will bring it over. This is a blessed promise of the presence of God in all the assemblies of his people.

Every dwelling place-" the station"] The Hebrew text has, every station: but four MSS. (one ancient) omit col, all; very rightly, as it should seem: for the station was Mount Zion itself, and no other. See Exod. xv. 17. And the Septuagint, Arabic, and MSS., add the same word col, before mikracha, probably right: the word has only changed its place by mistake. "the place where they were gathered together in their holy assemblies," says Sal ben Melech. But twenty-five of Kennicott's MSS., and twenty-two of De Rossi's, fifty-three editions, besides the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic, have the word in the plural number.

,mikrayeh מקראיה

A cloud and smoke by day] This is a manifest allusion to the pillar of a cloud and of fire, which attended the Israelites in their passage out of Egypt, and to the glory that rested on the tabernacle, Exod.

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xiii. 21, xl. 38. The prophet Zechariah, chap ii. 5, |
applies the same image to the same purpose :-
“And I will be unto her a wall of fire round about;
And a glory will I be in the midst of her."
That is, the visible presence of God shall protect
her. Which explains the conclusion of this verse of
Isaiah; where the makkaph between a col, and 12
cabod, connecting the two words in construction, which
ought not to be connected, has thrown an obscurity
upon the sentence, and misled most of the translators.

the vineyard.

For upon all the glory shall be a defence.] Whatever God creates, he must uphold, or it will fail. Every degree of grace brings with it a degree of power to maintain itself in the soul.

Vere 6. A tabernacle] In countries subject to violent tempests, as well as to intolerable heat, a portable tent is a necessary part of a traveller's baggage, for defence and shelter. And to such tents the words of the text make evident allusion. They are to be met with in every part of Arabia and Egypt, and in various other places in the East.

CHAPTER V.

This chapter begins with representing, in a beautiful parable, the tender care of God for his people, and their. unworthy returns for his goodness, 1-7. The parable or allegory is then dropped; and the prophet, in plain terms, reproves and threatens them for their wickedness; particularly for their covetousness, 8-10; intemperance, 11; and inattention to the warnings of Providence, 12. Then follows an enumeration of judgments as the necessary consequence. Captivity and famine appear with all their horrors, 13. Hades, or the grave, like a ravenous monster, opens wide its jaws, and swallows down its myriads,-14. Distress lays hold on all ranks, 15; and God is glorified in the execution of his judgments, 16; till the whole place is left desolate, a place for the flocks to range in, 17. The prophet then pauses; and again resumes his subject, reproving them for several other sins, and threatening them with woes and vengeance, 18–24; after which he sums up the whole of his awful denunciation in a very lofty and spirited epiphonema or conclusion. The God of armies, having hitherto corrected to no purpose, is represented with inimitable majesty, as only giving a hist, and a swarm of nations hasten to his standard, 25–27. Upon a guilty race, unpitied by heaven or by earth, they execute their commission; and leave the land desolate and dark, without one ray of comfort to cheer the horrid gloom, 28-30.

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A. M. cir. 3241. NOW will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a

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a

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2 And he fenced it, and gath- AM. cir. 3244. ered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a wine press therein and Psa. lxxx. 8; Cant. viii. 12; chap. xxvii. 2; Jer. ii. 21; Matt. Heb. the horn of the son of oil.- e Or, made a wall about it. xxi. 33; Mark xii. 1; Luke xx. 9.. Le Deut. xxxii. 6; chap. i. 2, 3. shirath dodim is the same with

very fruitful hill.

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d Heb. hewed.

This chapter likewise stands single and alone, un- dodi, connected with the preceding or following. The sub- shir yedidoth, Psa. xlv. 1. In this way of ject of it is nearly the same with that of the first understanding it we avoid the great impropriety of chapter. It is a general' reproof of the Jews for their making the author of the song, and the person to wickedness; but it exceeds that chapter in force, in whom it is addressed, to be the same. severity, in variety, and elegance; and it adds a more express declaration of vengeance by the Babylonian invasion.

NOTES ON CHAP. V.

Verse 1. Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved-"Let me sing now a song," &c.]: A MS., respectable for its antiquity, adds the word shir, a song, after na; which gives so elegant a turn to the sentence by the repetition of it in the next member, and by distinguishing the members so exactly in the style and manner in the Hebrew poetical composition, that I am much inclined to think it genuine.

A song of my beloved-" A song of loves"] "77 dodey, for D'17 dodım; status constructus pro absoluto, as the grammarians say, as Mic. vi. 16; Lam. iii. 14, 66; so Archbishop Secker. Or rather, in all these and the like cases, a mistake of the transcribers, by not observing a small stroke, which in many MSS., is made to supply the mem, of the plural, thus,

In a very fruitful hill-"On a high and. fruitful hill." Heb. bekeren ben shamen, 66 on a The expression is highly de"He calls the land of Israel

horn the son of oil."
scriptive and poetical.

a horn, because it is higher than all lands; as the horn is higher than the whole body; and the son of oil, because it is said to be a land flowing with milk and honey."-Kimchi on the place. The parts of animals are, by an easy metaphor, applied to parts of the earth, both in common and poetical language. A promontory is called a cape or head; the Turks call it a Dorsum immane mari summo;" Virgil, a back,

nose.

or ridge of rocks :

"Hanc latus angustum jam se cogentis in arctum Hesperiæ tenuem producit in æquora linguam, Adriacas flexis claudit quæ cornibus undas."

Lucan, ii. 612, of Brundusium, i. e., Bpevteσiov, which, in the ancient language of that country, signifies stag's head, says Strabo. A horn is a proper and ob

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ISAIAH.

he looked that it should bring | Jerusalem, and men of Judah, forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

3 And now, O inhabitants of

judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.

4 What could have been done

Romans, chap. iii. 4.

vious image for a mountain or mountainous country. Solinus, cap. viii., says, “Italiam, ubi longius processerit, in cornua duo scindi ;" that is, the high ridge of the Alps, which runs through the whole length of it, divides at last into two ridges, one going through Calabria, the other through the country of the Brutii. "Cornwall is called by the inhabitants in the British tongue Kernaw, as lessening by degrees like a horn, running out into promontories like so many horns. For the Britons call a horn corn, in the plural kern.”— Camden. "And Sammes is of opinion, that the country had this name originally from the Phoenicians, who traded hither for tin; keren, in their language, being a horn."--Gibson.

Here the precise idea seems to be that of a high mountain standing by itself; "vertex montis, aut pars montis ab aliis divisa ;" which signification, says I. H. Michaelis, Bibl. Hallens., Not. in loc., the word has in Arabic..

Judea was in general a mountainous country, whence Moses sometimes calls it The Mountain, "Thou shalt plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance;" Exod. xv. 17. "I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land beyond Jordan; that goodly mountain, and Lebanon;" Deut. iii. 25. And in a political and religious view it was detached and separated from all the nations round it. Whoever has considered the descriptions given of Mount Tabor, (see Reland, Palastin.; Eugene Roger, Terre Sainte, p. 64,) and the views of it which are to be seen in books of travels, (Maundrell, p. 114; Egmont and Heyman, vol. ii. p. 25; Thevenot, vol. i., p. 429,) its regular conic form rising singly in a plain to a great height, from a base small in proportion, and its beauty and fertility to the very top, will have a good idea of " a horn the son of oil;" and will perhaps be induced to think that the prophet took his image from that mountain.

Verse 2. And gathered out the stones--" And he cleared it from the stones"] This was agreeable to the husbandry: "Saxa, summa parte terræ, et vites et arbores lædunt; ima parte refrigerant;" Columell. de arb. iii. "Saxosum facile est expedire lectione lapidum;" Id. ii. 2. "Lapides, qui supersunt, [al. insuper sunt,] hieme rigent, æstate fervescunt; idcirco satis, arbustis, et vitibus nocent;" Pallad. i. 6. A piece of ground thus cleared of the stones Persius, in his hard way of metaphor, calls "exossatus ager," an unboned field; Sat. vi. 52.

The choicest vine" Sorek"] Many of the ancient interpreters, the Septuagint, Aquila, and Theod., have retained this word as a proper name: I think very rightly. Sorek was a valley lying between Ascalon and Gaza, and running far up eastward in the tribe of Judah. Both Ascalon and Gaza were anciently famous for wine; the former is mentioned as such by Alexander Trallianus; the latter by several authors, quoted by Reland, Palæst., p. 589 and 986, And it

the vineyard.

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seems that the upper part of the valley of Sorek, and that of Eshcol, where the spies gathered the single cluster of grapes, which they were obliged to bear between two upon a staff, being both near to Hebron, were in the same neighbourhood, and that all this part of the country abounded with rich vineyards. Compare Num. xiii. 22, 23; Judg. xvi. 3, 4. P. Nau supposes Eschol and Sorek to be only different names for the same valley. Voyage Noveau de la Terre Sainte, lib. iv., chap. 18. See likewise De Lisle's posthumous map of the Holy Land. Paris, 1763. See Bochart, Hieroz. ii., col. 725. Thevenot, i. p. 406. Michaelis (note on Judg. xvi. 4, German translation) thinks it probable, from some circumstances of the history there given, that Sorek was in the tribe of Judah, not in the country of the Philistines.

The vine of Sorek was known to the Israelites, being mentioned by Moses, Gen. xlix. 11, before their coming out of Egypt. Egypt was not a wine country. Throughout this country there are no wines ;" Sandys, p. 101. At least in very ancient times they had none. 'Herodotus, ii. 77, says it had no vines, and therefore used an artificial wine made of barley. That is not strictly true, for the vines of Egypt are spoken of in Scripture, Psa. lxxviii. 47; cv. 33; and see Gen. xl. 11, by which it should seem that they drank only the fresh juice pressed from the grape, which was called owoc aμmεhivos; Herodot., ii. 37. But they had no large vineyards, nor was the country proper for them, being little more than one large plain, annually overflowed by the Nile. The Mareotic in later times is, I think, the only celebrated Egyptian wine which we meet with in history. The vine was formerly, as Hasselquist tells us it is now, "cultivated in Egypt for the sake of eating the grapes, not for wine, which is brought from Candia," &c. "They were supplied with wine from Greece, and likewise from Phoenicia," Herodot. iii. 6. The vine and the wine of Sorek therefore, which lay near at hand for importation into Egypt, must in all probability have been well known to the Israelites, when they sojourned there. There is something remarkable in the manner in which Moses, Gen. xlix. 11, makes mention of it, which, for want of considering this matter, has not been attended to; it is in Jacob's prophecy of the future prosperity of the tribe of Judah :

Binding his foal to the vine,

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And his ass's colt to his own sorek;
He washeth his raiment in wine,
And his cloak in the blood of grapes."

I take the liberty of rendering p sorekah, for soreko, his sorek, as the Masoretes do by pointing ny iroh, for y iro, his foal. yir, might naturally enough appear in the feminine form; but it is not at all probable that p sorek ever should. By naming particularly the vine of Sorek, and as the vine

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more to my

CHAP. V.

vineyard, that I

5 And now go to; I will tell Anno Olymp. have not done in it? wherefore, you what I will do to my when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild

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grapes?

8 Luke xiii. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. belonging to Judah, the prophecy intimates the very part of the country which was to fall to the lot of that tribe. Sir John Chardin says, "that at Casbin, a city of Persia, they turn their cattle into the vineyards after the vintage, to browse on the vines." He speaks also of vines in that country so large that he could hardly compass the trunks of them with his arms. Voyages, tom. iii., p. 12, 12mo. This shows that the ass might be securely bound to the vine, and without danger of damaging the tree by browsing on it.

And built a tower in the midst of it] Our Saviour, who has taken the general idea of one of his parables, Matt. xxi. 33, Mark xii. 1, from this of Isaiah, has likewise inserted this circumstance of building a tower; which is generally explained by commentators as designed for the keeper of the vineyard to watch and defend the fruits. But for this purpose it was usual to make a little temporary hút, (Isa. i. 8,) which might serve for the short season while the fruit was ripening, and which was removed afterwards. The tower therefore should rather mean a building of a more permanent nature and use; the farm, as we may call it, of the vineyard, containing all the offices and implements, and the whole apparatus necessary for the culture of the vineyard, and the making of the wine. To which image in the allegory, the situation, the manner of building, the use, and the whole service of the temple, exactly answered. And so the Chaldee paraphrast very rightly expounds it: Et statui eos (Israelitas) ut plantam vineæ selectæ et ædificavi Sanctuarium meum in medio illorum. "And I have appointed the Israelites as a plant of a chosen vine, and I have built my sanctuary in the midst of them." So also Hieron. in loc. Ædificavit quoque turrim in medio ejus; templum videlicet in media civitate. "He built also a tower in the midst of it, viz., his own temple in the midst of the city." That they have still such towers or buildings for use or pleasure, in their gardens in the East, see Harmer's Observations, ii. p. 241.

And also made a wine-press therein.-"And hewed out a lake therein."] This image also our Saviour has preserved in his parable. 2p yekeb; the Septuagint render it here πрoλŋviov, and in four other places úπоλпνiov, Isa. xvi. 10; Joel iii. 13; Hag. ii. 17; Zech. xiv. 10, I think more properly; and this latter word St. Mark uses. It means not the wine-press itself, or calcatorium, which is called a gath, or purah; but what the Romans called lacus, the lake; the large open place or vessel, which by a conduit or spout received the must from the wine-press. In very hot countries it was perhaps necessary, or at least very convenient, to have the lake under ground, or in a cave hewed out of the side of the rock, for coolness, that the heat might not cause too great a fermentation, and sour the must. Vini confectio instituitur

vineyard: hI will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall

the vineyard.

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be eaten up; and break down the wall

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in cella, vel intimæ domus camera quadam a ventorum ingressu remota. Kempfer, of Shiras wine. Aman. Exot. p. 376. For the wind, to which that country is subject, would injure the wine. "The wine-presses in Persia," says Sir John Chardin, 66 are formed by making hollow places in the ground, lined with masons' work." Harmer's Observations, i., p. 392. See a print of one in Kempfer, p. 377. Nonnus describes at large Bacchus hollowing the inside of a rock, and hewing out a place for the wine-press, or rather the lake :

:

Και σκοπέλους ελαχηνε· πεδοσκαφεος δε σιδηρου
Θηγαλέη γλωχινι μυχον κοιληνατο πέτρης"
Λειηνας δε μετωπα βαθυνομένων κενεώνων
Αφρον [1. ακρον] εὔστραφυλοιο τυπον ποιησατο ληνού.
DIONYSIAC. lib. xii., 1. 331.

"He pierced the rock; and with the sharpen'd tool
Of steel well-temper'd scoop'd its inmost depth :
Then smooth'd the front, and form'd the dark recess
In just dimensions for the foaming lake."

And he looked-"And he expected"] Jeremiah, chap. ii. 21, uses the same image, and applies it to the same purpose, in an elegant paraphrase of this part of Isaiah's parable, in his flowing and plaintive

manner :

"But I planted thee a sorek, a scion perfectly genuine : How then art thou changed, and become to me the

degenerate shoots of the strange vine !”

Wild grapes-" poisonous berries."] D' beushim, not merely useless, unprofitable grapes, such as wild grapes; but grapes offensive to the smell, noxious, poisonous. By the force and intent of the allegory, to good grapes ought to be opposed fruit of a dangerous and pernicious quality; as, in the explication of it, to judgment is opposed tyranny, and to righteousness, oppression. Da gephen, the vine, is a common name or genus, including several species under it; and Moses, to distinguish the true vine, or that from which wine is made, from the rest, calls it, Num. vi., 4, ¡¡ gephen haiyayin, the wine-vine. Some of the other sorts were of a poisonous quality, as appears from the story related among the miraculous acts of Elisha, 2 Kings iv. 39-41. “And one went out into the field to gather potherbs; and he found a field vine, and he gathered from it wild fruit, his lapful; and he went and shred them into the pot of pottage, for they knew them not, And they poured it out for the men to eat and it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out and said, There is death in the pot, O man of God; and they could not eat of it. And he said, Bring meal, (leg. p kechu, nine MSS., one edition,) and he threw it into the pot. And he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was nothing hurtful in the pot."

The prophet reproves the

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people for their wickedness. thereof, and it shall be trodden 9 In mine ears, said the A. M. cir. 3244. LORD of hosts, Of a truth many

down.

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6 And I will lay it waste it houses shall be desolate, even shall not be pruned nor digged; great and fair, without inhabibut there shall come up briers and thorns: tant. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah. 1his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

m

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Heb. plant of his pleasures. m Heb.

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10 Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of a homer shall yield an ephah,

11 t Wo unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine "inflame them!

12 And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.

* Heb. for a trading. Heb. If not, &c.- See Ezek. xlv. 11. Prov. xxiii. a scab. Mic. ii. 2. — Heb. ye.—p Čh. xxii. 14.—4 Or, 29, 30; Eccles. x. 16; ver. 22.-" Or, pursue them. This is in mine ears, saith the LORD, &c. vi. 5, 6.- - Job xxxiv. 27; Psa. xxviii. 5.

From some such sorts of poisonous fruits of the grape kind Moses has taken these strong and highly poetical images, with which he has set forth the future corruption and extreme degeneracy of the Israelites, in an allegory which has a near relation, both in its subject and imagery, to this of Isaiah: Deut. xxxii, 32, 33.

"Their vine is from the vine of Sodom,

And from the fields of Gomorrah :

Their grapes are grapes of gall;

Their clusters are bitter :

Their wine is the poison of dragons,
And the cruel venom of aspics."

"I am inclined to believe," says Hasselquist, "that
the prophet here, Isa. v. 2-4, means the hoary night-
shade, solanum incanum; because it is common in
Egypt, Palestine, and the East; and the Arabian name
agrees well with it.
The Arabs call it anab el dib,
i. e., wolf grapes. The D' beushim, says Rab.
Chai., is a well known species of the vine, and the
worst of all sorts. The prophet could not have found
a plant more opposite to the vine than this; for it grows
much in the vineyards, and is very pernicious to them;
wherefore they root it out: it likewise resembles a vine
by its shrubby stalk;" Travels, p. 289. See also Mi-
chaelis, Questions aux Voyageurs Danois, No. 64,

Verse 3. Inhabitants] 'yoshebey, in the plural number; three MSS., (two ancient,) and so likewise the Septuagint and Vulgate.

Verse 6. There shall come up briers and thorns"The thorn shall spring up in it"] One MS. has TD beshamir. The true reading seems to be 11 bo shamir, which is confirmed by the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate.

Amos

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,takribu הקריבו

Verse 8. Wo unto them that—lay field to field— "You who lay field unto field"] Read in the second person; to answer to the verb following. So Vulgate.

Verse 9. In mine ears.-"To mine ear"] The sentence in the Hebrew text seems to be imperfect in this place; as likewise in chap. xxii. 14, where the very same sense seems to be required as here. See the note there; and compare 1 Sam. ix. 15. In this place the Septuagint supply the word nkovo, and the Syriac ynnwx eshtama, auditus est JEHOVAH in auribus meis, i. e., niglah, as in chap. xxii. 14.

Many houses] This has reference to what was said in the preceding verse: "In vain are ye so intent upon joining house to house, and field to field; your houses shall be left uninhabited, and your fields shall become desolate and barren; so that a vineyard of ten acres shall produce but one bath (not eight gallons) of wine, and the husbandman shall reap but a tenth part of the seed which he has sown." Kimchi says this means such an extent of vineyard as would require ten yoke of oxen to plough in one day.

Verse 11. Wo unto them that rise up early] There is a likeness between this and the following passage of the prophet Amos, chap. vi. 3-6, who probably wrote before Isaiah. If the latter be the copier, he seems hardly to have equalled the elegance of the See chap. original :--

Verse 7. And he looked for judgment] The paronomasia, or play on the words, in this place, is very remarkable; mishpat, mishpach, tsedakah, tseakah. There are many examples of it in the other prophets, but Isaiah seems peculiarly fond of it.

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