CHAP. XXXII.

with Israel in the wilderness. bkept him as the apple of his fat of lambs, and rams of the eye. breed of Bashan; and goats, An. Ex. Isr. 40. with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.

11 As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: 12 So the LORD alone did lead him, and thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou there was no strange god with him.

h Chap. xxxiii. 5, 26; Isa. xliv. 2.k.Ch. xxxi. 20; Neh. ix. 25; Psa. xvii. 10; Jer. ii. 7; v. 7, 28; Hos. xiii. 6. Chap. xxxi. 16; Isa. i. 4. Ver. 6; Isa. li. 13. 2 Sam. xxii. 47; Psa. lxxxix. 26; xcv. 1.o 1 Kings xiv. 22; 1 Cor. x. 22.

Flut-places in the country should yield an abundance of aromatic flowers, from which the bees should collect honey in abundance; and even the tops of the rocks afford sufficient support for olive trees, from the fruit of which they should extract oil in abundance and all this should be occasioned by the peculiar blessing of God upon the land.

could attach to the unfortunate agent, who could only conduct proceeds-from a want of consciousness that consider himself the miserable instrument of a dire ne- his strength depends upon his master's care and keepcessity. See a case in point, 1 Sam. xxiii. 11, 12, ing; and a lack of consideration that leanness and where the prediction appears in the most absolute form, wretchedness must be the consequence of his leaving and yet the evil was prevented by the person receiving his master's service, and running off from his master's the prediction as a warning. The case is the following: pasturage. How easy to apply all these points to the The Philistines attacked Keilah and robbed the thresh-case of the Israelites! and how illustrative of their ing-floors; David, being informed of it, asked counsel former and latter state! And how powerfully do they of God whether he should go and relieve it; he is orapply to the case of many called Christians, who, havdered to go, and is assured of success; he ing increased, in riches, forget that God from whose goes, routs hand alone those mercies flowed! the Philistines, and delivers Keilah. Saul, hearing that David was in Keilah, determines to besiege the place. David, finding that Saul meditated his destruction, asked counsel of the Lord, thus: "O Lord God of Israel, thy servant hath certainly heard that Saul seeketh to come to Keilah, to destroy the city for my sake. Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul come down, as thy servant hath heard ? And the Lord said, He will come down. Then said David, Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the Lord said, They will deliver thee up. Then David and his men (about six hundred) arose and departed out of Keilah, and went whithersoever they could go and it was told Saul that David was escaped from Keilah, and he forbore to go forth." Here was the most positive prediction that Saul would come to Keilah, and

that the men of Keilah would deliver David into his hands; yet neither of these events took place, because David departed from Keilah, But had he continued there, Saul would have come down, and the men of Keilah would have betrayed their deliverer. Thus the prediction was totally conditional; and so were all these prophecies relative to the apostasy of Israel. They were only fulfilled in those who did not receive them as warnings. See Jer. xviii. 8–10.

The Rock of his salvation.] He ceased to depend on the fountain whence his salvation issued; and thinking highly of himself, he lightly esteemed his God; and having ceased to depend on him, his fall became inevitable. The figure is admirably well supported through the whole verse. We see, first, a miserable, lean steed, taken under the care and into the keeping of a master who provides him with an abundance of provender. We see, secondly, this horse waxing fat under this keeping. We see him, thirdly, breaking away from his master, leaving his rich pasturage, and running to the wilderness, unwilling to bear the yoke or harness, or to make any returns for his master's care and attention. We see, fourthly, whence this

nal word D shedim has been variously understood.
Verse 17. They sacrificed unto devils] The origi-
The Syriac, Chaldee, Targums of Jerusalem and Jo-
nathan, and the Samaritan, retain the original word:
the Vulgate, Septuagint, Arabic, Persic, Coptic, and
Anglo-Saxon, have devils or demons. The Septuagint
has evoav daiovious, they sacrificed to demons: the Vul-
gate copies the Septuagint: the Arabic has
shecateen, the plural of
Sheetan, Satan, by
which the rebellious angels appear to be intended, as
the word comes from the root shatana, he was
is likely that these fallen spirits, having utterly lost
obstinate, proud, refractory, went far away. And it
the empire at which they aimed, got themselves wor-
shipped under various forms and names in different
places. The Anglo-Saxon has deoplum, devils.

bau, "which came up from their neighbours;" viz.,
New gods that came newly up]
mikkarob
ceived and worshipped on their way through the wil-
the Moabites and Ammonites, whose gods they re-
derness, and often afterwards.

the first cause, the fountain of thy being. See the Verse 18. Of the Rock that begat thee] isur,

note on ver 4.

They are threatened

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CHAP. XXXII.

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k

with his judgments. that which is not God; they destruction: I will also send An. Ex. Isr. 40. have provoked me to anger with the teeth of beasts upon them, An. Ex. Isr. 40 their vanities and I will move with the poison of serpents of them to jealousy with those which are not a the dust. people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. 22 For b a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. 23 I will heap mischiefs upon them; will spend mine arrows upon them.

C

e

25 The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also, with the man of gray hairs.

26 I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them I to cease from among men :

24 They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter

27 Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they

1 Sam. xii. 21; 1 Kings xvi. 13, 26; Psa. xxxi. 6; Jer. viii. Psa. vii. 12, 13; Ezek. v. 16. 19; x. 8; xiv. 22; Jonah ii. 8; Acts xiv. 15. Hos. i. 10; iii. 5.- h Lev. xxvi. 22.-Lam. Rom. x. 19.- b Jer. xv. 14; xvii. 4; Lam. iv. 11. - Or, hath vìí. 5. Heb. from the chambers.burned.- -d Or, hath consumed. e Isa. xxvi. 15. xx. 13, 14, 23.- Jer. xix. 4.

Verse 22. The lowest hell]nn bis sheol tachtith, the very deepest destruction; a total extermination, so that the earth-their land, and its increase, and all their property, should be seized; and the foundations of their mountains-their strongest fortresses, should be razed to the ground. All this was fulfilled in a most remarkable manner in the last destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, so that of the fortifications of that city not one stone was left on another. See the notes on Matt. xxiv.

Verse 23. I will spend mine arrows upon them.] The judgments of God in general are termed the arrows of God, Job vi. 4;. Psa. xxxviii. 2, 3; xci. 5; see also Ezek. v. 16; Jer. 1. 14; 2 Sam. xxii. 14, 15. In this and the following verses, to the 28th inclusive, God threatens this people with every species of calamity that could possibly fall upon man. How strange it is that, having this law continually in their hands, they should not discern those threatened judgments, and cleave to the Lord that they might be averted!

It was customary among the heathens to represent any judgment from their gods under the notion of arrows, especially a pestilence; and one of their greatest deities, Apollo, is ever represented as bearing a bow and quiver full of deadly arrows; so Homer, Il. i., ver. 43, where he represents him, in answer to the prayer of his priest Chryses, coming to smite the Greeks with the pestilence :

Ως εφατ' ευχόμενος του δ' εκλυε Φοίβος Απολλων·
Βη δε κατ' Ουλύμποιο καρήνων χωόμενος κηρ,
Τοξ' ώμοισιν εχων αμφηρεφέα τε φαρέτρην.
Εζετ' επειτ' απάνευθε νεων μετα δ' ιον έηκε·
Δεινη δε κλαγγή γενετ' αργυρεοιο βιοιο, κ. τ. λ.
"Thus Chryses pray'd; the favouring power attends,
And from Olympus' lofty tops descends,
Bent was his bow the Grecian hearts to wound;
Fierce as he moved, his silver shafts resound ;—
The fleet in view, he twang'd his deadly bow,
And hissing fly the feather'd fates below.
On mules and dogs the infection first began;
And last the vengeful arrows fix'd in man.” ·

->

Heb. burning coals; Hab. i. 20; Ezek. vii. 15; 2 Cor. -1 Heb. bereave.- Ezek.

ות.

How frequently the same figure is employed in the sacred writings, every careful reader knows; and quotations need not be multiplied.

Verse 24. They shall be burnt with hunger] Their land shall be cursed, and famine shall prevail. This is one of the arrows.

Burning heat] No showers to cool the atmosphere; or rather boils, blains, and pestilential fevers; this was a second.

Bitter destruction] The plague; this was a third. Teeth of beasts-with the poison of serpents] The beasts of the field should multiply upon and destroy them; this was a fourth: and poisonous serpents, infesting all their steps, and whose mortal bite should produce the utmost anguish, were to be a fifth arrow. Added to all these, the sword of their enemies-terror among themselves, ver. 25, and captivity were to complete their ruin, and thus the arrows of God were to be spent upon them. There is a beautiful saying in the Toozuki Teemour, which will serve to illustrate this point, while it exhibits one of the finest metaphors that occurs in any writer, the sacred writers excepted.

"It was once demanded of the fourth Khaleefeh, (Aaly,) on whom be the mercy of the Creator, 'If the canopy of heaven were a Bow; and if the earth were the cord thereof; and if calamities were ARROWs; if mankind were the mark for those arrows; and if Almighty GoD, the tremendous and the glorious, were the unerring ARCHER; to whom could the sons of Adam flee for protection ?? The Khaleefeh answered, saying, The sons of Adam must flee unto the LORD.'" Verse 27. Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy] Houbigant and others contend that wrath here refers not to the enemy, but to God; and that the passage should be thus translated: "Indignation for the adversary deters me, lest their enemies should be alienated, and say, The strength of our hands, and not of the Lord's, hath done this." Had not God punished them in such a way as proved that his hand and not the hand of man had done it, the heathens would have boasted of their prowess, and Jehovah would have been blasphemed, as not being able to

r

• Psa. cxl. 8.: -P Or, Our high hand, and not the LORD, hath done all this. Isa. xxvii. 11; Jer. iv. 22.- Chap. v. 29; Psa. lxxxi. 13; cvii. 43; Luke xix. 42. Isa. xlvii. 7; Lam. i. 9.- - Lev. xxvi. 8; Josh. xxiii. 10; 2 Chron xxiv. 24; Isa. xxx. 17. Psa. xliv. 12; Isa. 1. 1; lii. 3.-1 Sam. ii. 2. w1 Sam. iv. 8; Jer. xl. 3:- - Isa. i. 10.- -y Or, is worse than

protect his worshippers, or to punish their infidelities. Titus, when he took Jerusalem, was so struck with the strength of the place, that he acknowledged that if God had not delivered it into his hands, the Roman armies never could have taken it.

over the people.

are grapes of gall, their clusters
are bitter :

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33 Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel a venom of asps.

34 Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?

35 To me belongeth vengeance and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time : for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.

e

36 For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and h there is none shut up or left. the vine of Sodom, &c. Psa. lviii. 4.- a Psa. cxl. 3; Rom. iii. 13.- b Job xiv. 17; Jer. ii. 22; Hos. xiii. 12; Rom. ii. 5. Psa. xciv. 1; Ecclus. xxviii. 1; Rom. xii. 19; Heb. x. 30. 2 Pet. ii. 3.- e Psa. cxxxv. 14.—f Judg. ii. 18; Psa. cvi. 45; Jer. xxxi. 20; Joel ii. 14; 2 Mac. vii. 6.- Heb. hand. 1 Kings xiv. 10; xxi. 21; 2 Kings ix. 8; xiv. 26.

ites; for by the vine the inhabitants of the land are signified; see Isa. v. 2, 7.

Their grapes] Their actions, are gall and wormwood-producing nothing but mischief and misery to themselves and others.

Their clusters are bitter] Their united exertions, as well as their individual acts, are sin, and only sin, continually. That by vine is meant the people, and by grapes their moral conduct, is evident from Isa. v.

Verse 29. That they would consider their latter end!] Dacharitham, properly, their latter times -the glorious days of the Messiah, who, according to the flesh, should spring up among them. Should they carefully consider this subject, and receive the pro-1-7. It is very likely that the grapes produced about mised Saviour, they would consequently act as persóns under infinite obligations to God; his strength would be their shield, and then

the lake Asphallites, where Sodom and Gomorrah formerly stood, were not only of an acrid, disagreeable taste, but of a deleterious quality; and to this, it is probable, Moses here alludes.

Verse 33. Their wine] Their system of doctrines and teaching, is the poison of dragons, &c., fatal and destructive to all them who follow it.

Verse 34. Sealed up among my treasures?] Deeds or engagements by which persons were bound at a specified time to fulfil certain conditions, were sealed and laid up in places of safety; so here God's justice is pledged to avenge the quarrel of his broken covenant on the disobedient Jews, but the time and manner. were sealed in his treasures, and known only to himself. Hence it is said,

Verse 35. Their foot shall slide in due time,

There is a passage in Virgil, Eclog. iv., ver. 58, &c.] But Calmet thinks that this verse is spoken very similar to this saying of Moses :

-

against the Canaanites, the enemies of the Jewish people.

Verse 36. The Lord shall judge his people] He has an absolute right over them as their Creator, and authority to punish them for their rebellions as their Sovereign; yet he will repent himself—he will change his manner of conduct towards them, when he seeth that their power is gone-when they are entirely subjugated by their adversaries, so that their political power is entirely destroyed; and there is none shut up or left -not one strong place untaken, and not one family left,

37 And he shall say, i Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted,.

38 Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink-offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection.

Moses exhorts the people.

captives, from the beginning of
revenges upon the enemy.

t

43 Rejoice, "O ye nations,

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with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people.

39 See now that I, even I, am he, and m there is no god with me: " I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is therey Hoshea the son of Nun. any that can deliver out of my hand..

44 And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and

45 And Moses made an end of speaking all

40 For I lift up my hand to heaven, and these words to all Israel : say, I live for ever.

41 If I wet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me.

42 I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the i Judg. x. 14; Jer. ii. 28.- k Heb. a hiding for you.- Psa. cii. 27; Isa. xli. 4; xlviii. 12.- Chap. iv. 35; Isa. xlv. 5, 18, 22.1 Sam. ii. 6; 2 Kings v. 7; Job v 18; Psa. lxviii. 20; Hos. vi. I; Tob, xiii. 2; Wisd. xvi. 13. o Gen. xiv. 22; Exod. vi. 8; Num. xiv. 30.-P Isa. xxvii. 1; xxxiv. 5; lxvi. 16; Ezek. xxi. 9, 10, 14, 20.

all being carried into captivity, or scattered into strange lands. Or, he will do justice to his people, and avenge them of their adversaries; see ver. 35.

Verse 37. He shall say]. He shall begin to expostulate with them, to awaken them to a due sense of their ingratitude and rebellion. This may refer to the preaching of the Gospel to them in the latter days." Verse 39. See now that I-am he] Be convinced that God alone can save, and God alone can destroy, and that your idols can neither hurt nor help you.

I kill, and I make alive, &c.] My mercy is as great as my justice, for I am as ready to save the penitent as I was to punish the rebellious.

Verse 40. For I lift up my hand to heaven] See concerning oaths and appeals to God in the note on chap. vi. 13.

Verse 42. From the beginning of revenges] The word paroth, rendered revenges, a sense in which it never appears to be taken, has rendered this place very perplexed and obscure. Mr. Parkhurst has rêndered the whole passage thus :

I will make my arrows drunk with blood;
And my sword shall devour flesh,

With the blood of the slain and captive
From the hairy head of the enemy.
Probably
merosh paroth may be more
properly translated, from the naked head-the enemy
shall have nothing to shield him from my vengeance;
the crown of dignity shall fall off, and even the helmet
be no protection against the sword and arrows of the
Lord.

Verse 43. Rejoice, O ye nations] Ye Gentiles, for the casting off of the Jews shall be the means of your

46 And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law. 47 For it is not a vain thing for you; a because it is your life and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land, whither ye go over Jordan to possess it.

a

q Isa. i. 24; Nah. i. 2.- Jer. xlvi. 10.- Job xiii. 24; Jer. xxx. 14; Lam. ii. 5. Or, Praise his people, ye nations; or, Sing ye. "Rom. xv. 10. Rev. vi. 10; xix. 2.—w Ver. 41.- - Psa, lxxxv. 1. - Or, Joshua.- — Chap. vi. 6 ; xi. 18 ; Ezek. xl. 4. Chap. xxx. 19; Lev. xviii. 5; Prov. iii. 2, 22; iv. 22; Rom. x. 5,

iugathering with his people, for they shall not be utterly cast off. (See Rom. xv. 9, for in this way the apostle applies it.) But how shall the Gentiles be called, and the Jews have their iniquity purged? He will be merciful unto his land and to his people, vechipper, he shall cause an atonement to be made for his land and people; i. e., Jesus Christ, the long promised Messiah, shall be crucified for Jews and Gentiles, and the way to the holiest be made plain by his blood.

The people have long been making atonements for themselves, but to none effect, for their atonements were but signs, and not the thing signified, for the body is Christ; now the Lord himself makes an atonement, for the Lamb of God alone taketh away the sin of the world. This is a very proper and encouraging conclusion to the awfully important matter of this poem."

Israel shall be long scattered, peeled, and punished, but they shall have mercy in the latter times; they also shall rejoice with the Gentiles, in the common salvation purchased by the blood of the Saviour of all mankind.

Verse 44. And Moses came] Probably from the tabernacle, where God had given him this prophetic ode, and he rehearsed it in the ears of the people.

Verse 46. Set your hearts unto all the words] Another proof that all these awful denunciations of Divine wrath, though delivered in an absolute form, were only declaratory of what God would do if they rebelled against him.

Verse 47. Through this thing ye shall prolong your days] Instead of being cut off, as God here threatens, ye shall be preserved and rendered prosperous in the land which, when they passed over Jordan, they should possess.