13 which empty the oil out of themselves? And he spake unto me, saying: Knowest thou not what 14 these are? And I said, No, my lord. Then said be; These are the two anointed ones who stand before the Lord of the whole earth.

1

СНАР. V.

AND I lifted up mine eyes again, and looked; and behold, a flying roll. And he said unto me,

Hebr. sons of oil.

the oil for the gold; the sense re"which pour from themselves the oil gold:" as if the words

had

-the oil] I read quiring it. Chald. has, into the candlesticks of been omitted before 2. "Potest reddi, evacuant ex se in aurum. Nam invenitur p absque Acc. Eccl. xi. 3: sed f. pro an legendum, quod sequitur v. 14." Secker.

"In the Hebrew copies there is no vestige of such a reading, and all the ancient versions concur in expressing "gold" at the end of this verse. There is no doubt but that the liquor drawn from the olive-trees must be oil; but it is here intended to represent what for its precious quality may be denominated" gold," that being considered as the most valuable of all material substances, but yet is far less worth than the word of divine truth. Ps. xix. 10. & cxix. 72."

DID THE πιοτητος. 6.

14. anointed ones] Partakers of oil: -before the Lord] Thus Syr. renders by : and in Noldius the participle y signifies both ante and apud. Accord ingly, c. vi. 5, it is rendered by V. coram, by Syr. and Chald.

, and by our English translators before. Zerubbabel and Joshua may be meant; who presided over the temporal and spiritual affairs of the Jews; were the ministers, or vicegerents, of Jehovah; and acted, not by their own strength, but by the divine assistance: v. 6. Houbigant understands the passage of two angels who watched over the Jewish state; "alter præses republicæ, alter religionis." It is plain that the golden candlestick is the Jewish state, both civil and religious: and that the oil, with which the lights are supplied, is the Spirit of God, in opposition to human efforts.

CHAP. V.

1 "The visions represented in this chapter are of a very different kind from the preceding ones. Hitherto all has been

What seest thou? And I said, I see a flying roll: the length thereof is twenty * cubits, and the breadth thereof ten † cubits.

3 And he said unto me:

This is the curse that goeth forth
Over the face of the whole land.

For every one who stealeth shall be cut off from
hence, according to it;

* by the cubit.

+ by the cubit. consoling, and meant to cheer the heart of the Jewish people, by holding forth to them prospects of approaching prosperity. But lest they should grow presumptuous, it was thought proper to warn them, and to let them see, that however God was at present disposed to shew them favour, his judgments would assuredly fall upon them with still greater weight than before, if they should again provoke him by repeated wickedness. The prophet is shewn an immense roll or book, like that which Ezekiel describes Chron. ii. 9. 10. filled with curses, and in the act of flying, to denote the celerity and speed, as well as the certainty with which the thief and the false swearer, who might otherwise flatter themselves with hopes of impunity, would be visited to their utter destruction. The next vision presents the appearance of an epha, or measure, in which sat a woman representing a nation whose wickedness was arrived at such a height as required an immediate check. Accordingly a heavy cover is cast upon her, and she is carried into exile in a distant land, there to abide the full time allotted for her punishment." Blaney.

2. twenty cubits] The roll was very ample, to shew what a number of curses should come upon the wicked.

3. cut off] Houbigant prefers O, punietur, sive, ultio de eo sumetur. vindicabitur, occurs in Pual: or we may read, ulcisens sum. Another conjecture is , part. Niphal, percussus erit: the word read by the Chaldee paraphrast, according to Houbigant. "Because on the one band every one that stealeth is as he that is guiltless; And on the other hand every one that sweareth is as he that is guiltless.' This is the reason for the curse going forth through the whole land;' the good and the bad, the innocent and the guilty, were treated alike; so that it was time for divine Justice to interpose and make the proper distinction." Blaney.

-from hence] From the land. But Houbigant understands of time, and renders it deinceps.

4

5

And every one who sweareth shall be cut off from
hence, according to it,

I have brought it forth, saith Jehovah God of hosts;
And it shall enter into the house of him whostealeth:
And into the house of him who sweareth ‡ falsely
by my name:

And it shall § abide in his house,
And shall consume it,

with the timber thereof,

and the stones thereof.

Then the angel who talked with me went forth, and said unto me, Lift up now thine eyes, and see 6 what this is which goeth forth. And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah which † goeth 7forth. And he said, This is their iniquity in all the land. And behold, a talent of lead was lifted up: and behold, a woman sat 8 And he said, This is Wickedness.

within the ephah.

And he cast her

Or, according

4. abide] And shall at length consume it. to Houbigant, it shall abide the night in his house; which shall be consumed suddenly, and in one night.

This vision may be considered as a republication of the curses contained in Deut. c. xxvii. xxviii. The thief and the false swearer, says Capellus, are put for every kind of transgressor.

5. went forth] Advanced onward, to view the object which presented itself at a distance.

-goeth forth] Approacheth us in vision.

6. an ephah] A vessel in the form of an ephah, but more capacious.

their iniquity] Ready with 6. Ar. Syr. Houbigant; and one MS. The vau is on a rasure in two other MSS. This woman representeth their iniquity in all the land.

7. a talent] This lid of the ephah weighed 3000 shekels, or 1500 ounces. It is called a stone, or, weight.

Ar.

-and behold a woman] The true reading is . See V. 6. "Omittit Syr. et sane potuit a præcedenti new oriri."

Secker.

§ within the ephah: and he cast the weight of lead 9 upon the mouth thereof. Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked; and behold, two women went forth, and the wind was in their wings: for they had wings as the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and between the hea10 vens. Then said I to the angel who talked with me 11 Whither do these bear the ephah And he said unto me, To build it an house in the land of * Babylon: and it shall be established and set there upon its base.

Hebr. Shinar.

8. he cast her within] The angel caused her to contract herself within the compass of the vessel.

9.

two women] Mere agents in the symbolical vision. was in their wings] Their flight was promoted by the wind. Insolitos docuere nisus Venti. Hor.

-lifted up] Thirty-four MSS. and six ed. read inwn. 10. bear] Twenty-four MSS. and three ed. read m

11. an house] A mansion, an abiding-place, where, when the ephah is set on its base, the woman denoting Iniquity shall be imprisoned.

The meaning of the vision seems to be, that the Babylonish captivity had happened on account of the wickedness committed by the Jews; and that a like dispersion would befal them, if they relapsed into like crimes. Thus the whole chapter will be an awful admonition that multiplied curses, and particularly dispersion and captivity, would be the punishment of national guilt.

But Capellus' interpretation well deserves our attention. He considers v. 8, as denoting that God treads on the neck of wickedness, and restrains it from expatiating and v. 9, 10, 11, as signifying that God was propitious to the Jews, and transferred the punishment of iniquity to the Babylonians, whom the weight of the divine vengeance should ever depress. It may be added to the remark of this critic, that Babylon was soon to suffer a signal calamity from the reigning Persian monarch.

1

СНАР. VI.

AND again I lifted up mine eyes, and looked; and behold, four chariots went forth from between two mountains: and the mountains were mountains 2 of brass. To the first chariot were red horses, and

to the second chariot black horses, and to the third 3 chariot white horses, and to the fourth chariot spot4 ted bay horses. Then I answered and said unto the

angel who talked with me, What are these, my 5 lord? And the angel answered and said unto me,

1 "The main design of this eighth and last vision, is to confirm the Jews in their faith and dependence upon God, by shewing them, that, weak and defenseless as they seemed to be, they had nothing to fear from the greatest earthly powers, whilst they remained under the divine protection; since all those powers originally proceeded from the counsels of the Almighty, were the instruments of his providence, and could not subsist nor act but under his permission. Four chariots drawn by horses of different colours represent the four great empires of the world in succession, the Assyrian or Babylonian, the Persian, Grecian, and Roman, distinguishable both by their order and attributes.

After this the prophet is favoured with another revelation respecting a kingdom different from all the preceding. By God's command, in the presence of witnesses, and for a memorial to them, he places a crown, or crowns, upon the head of Joshua the highpriest, thereby constituting him a type of Christ the Branch, whom he proclaims as about to come to build the spiritual temple of Jehovah, and to preside over it, both as King and Priest, for the great purpose of peace. The accession of strangers to assist in building the temple is foretold, and given as a proof of the prophet's divine mission." Blaney.

3. spotted] With white spots, like hail. Kimchi. Bochart Hieroz. p. i. 1. ii. c. vii. §. v. guttati,

-bay] V. renders, et fortes; as if the reading was D'YDNI. Bochart gives the same sense with an, Isai. Ixiii. 1; and thinks that it denotes a bright red, "ruborem . qui plus habet vigoris atque luminis:" and he shews that four horses of different colours were sometimes yoked together by the ancients. See Iphig. in Aul. 220-5. One MS. seems to read. 'yon, and fourteen MSS. and two editions read 'DN. Now the