the ruins of Medinath-abu, and those of the Mountain Barkal, in Abyssinia, THPKA. See Rosell. Mon. ii. tab. 8. Succeeding Sabacho and Sevechus or So, he also reigned over Upper Egypt; and in all probability had his residence at Thebes. As the ultimate object of Sennacherib was the conquest of Egypt, Tirhakah, being informed of his approach, set out with an army to attack him; see 2 Kings xix, 9; Isa. xxxvi. 2. While on the point of taking Jerusalem, the army of the king of Assyria was miraculously destroyed; and as this event was not only of immense importance politically, but calculated to draw the attention of the surrounding nations to the character and claims of Jehovah, it was proper that messengers should be despatched to the principal powers, and especially to Tirhakah, who was more than ordinarily interested in the fate of the Assyrian army. The despatch of these messengers, and the result which followed, form the subject of the present chapter. 1. Ho! thou land of rustling wings, And in vessels of papyrus on the surface of the waters: To the people terrible from the first and onward; 3. All ye inhabitants of the world, When the standard is raised on the mountains, look ye! 4. For thus hath Jehovah said to me: I will sit calmly and look on in my dwelling-place; He shall cut off the twigs with pruning hooks, And for the wild beasts of the earth; The ravenous bird shall summer on them, And every wild beast of the earth shall winter on them. 7. At that time a present shall be brought to Jehovah of Hosts, From the people drawn out and plucked ; From the people terrible from the first and onward; The nation powerful and victorious, Whose country the rivers divide, To the place of the name of Jehovah of Hosts, Mount Zion.'-pp. 155–160. Our second extract is from chap. xxii., the message of the Lord to the impious steward (or, as our version, in accordance with the Targum and Saadias, renders it treasurer) Shebna. This passage struck us particularly as having, in the present translation, gained considerably in force of language. Now we must say that, on the whole, we think Dr. Henderson has not come up, in point of racy and powerful diction, to our old translators: but here he has decidedly surpassed them, not only in accuracy but also in this their peculiar excellence. We would recommend the reader to compare the two in this place. 'Chap. xxii. 15. 'Thus saith the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts : Go in now to this steward, To Shebna, who is over the household [and say], 16. What hast thou to do here? and whom hast thou here? That thou hewest out here for thyself a sepulchre ? He heweth out his sepulchre on high! He cutteth out a mansion for himself in the rock! 17. Behold! Jehovah will cast thee headlong, O thou mighty! 18. And, whirling thee round and round, will toss thee There thou shalt die, And there shall be thy splendid chariots; Thou disgrace to the house of thy Lord! 19. I will drive thee from thy post, And pull thee down from thy station.'-pp. 189-192. The third division of the book comprises ch. xxiv.-xxxv. inclusive. The subjects are-the coming desolations of the Holy Land; the restoration of the Jews, and hymns on the occasion; judgments on Samaria; the siege by Sennacherib; the rejection of the Jews and call of the Gentiles; topics connected with the Assyrian invasion; the fall of Assyria; the ruin of Idumea by Nebuchadnezzar; and the future period of the joy and happiness of the righteous. Prophecies of the Messiah are as usual interspersed, especially in ch. xxviii. and xxxii. The prophecy against Samaria, in ch. xxviii. must have been accomplished in a very few years; and that of the siege of Jerusalem in ch. xxix. and the sudden disappearance of the invading myriads, is verified by the pen of the seer himself, in the historical account which we have in ch. xxxvi.-xxxix. The denunciations against the land of Idumea, in ch. xxxiv. have been most remarkably fulfilled, even to the letter, as is witnessed by those travellers who have lately visited that long lost region. The application of the first four chapters of this section has been the subject of an endless variety of opinion among commentators, so that they have been accounted by Vitringa, Michaelis, and others, the most obscure and difficult in the whole book. The desolations effected by Shalmaneser-those by Sennacheribthose by Nebuchadnezzar-those in the time of the Maccabees -all the desolations of Palestine, including that by the Romans;-each of these applications has had its supporters. Most of the Reformers, induced probably by the excited and troublous character of the times in which they themselves lived, applied it to judgments to be brought upon the earth in general. Dr. Henderson considers it in the light of a prophetic review of 'the judgments brought upon the land, more especially those 'brought upon it by the Chaldeans, down to the time of the 'Messiah,' without any reference to times yet future. This view seems to us best to accord with the strength of the language and with all the circumstances alluded to. After the triumphal song of praise, which the restored Jews are introduced as uttering, there occurs a short passage of preeminent importance, in which is foreshown the sum of the blessings of the gospel dispensation. We shall quote it, along with part of the notes by which it is illustrated. Chap. xxv. 6-8. In this mountain, Jehovah of hosts shall prepare for all people, Of fat things full of marrow, of well-refined wine on the lees; The face of the covering which covereth all people, And the web that is woven over all nations. He shall utterly destroy death; And the Lord Jehovah shall wipe away the tears from all faces, And shall remove the reproach of his people from the whole earth; For Jehovah hath spoken it.' 'Fatness is not confined by the Hebrews to animals, but is used of other subjects, the superior excellence of which they would express. Comp. however, rà orirà, Matt. xxii. 4, 7, lit. preservations, i.e. preservers, the lees, or sediment of wine, produced by the bubbles of fixed air, which, during fermentation, rise to the surface, and bring along with them the skins, stones, or other grosser matter of the grapes; thus forming a scum or spungy crust, which, after a time, breaks in pieces and falls to the bottom. When this has taken place, the wine becomes clear; but as the fermentation does not then cease, it increases in the excellence of its qualities, by being suffered still to continue for a time on the lees. See Lowth's note, and comp. Jer. xlviii. 11. By metonymy of the cause for the effect, the word is here used to denote the excellent wines thus prepared by lengthened fermentation. To render them quite fit for use, they are purified by being filtered or drawn off from vessel to vessel. This is expressed by DI, the pual part of PPI, to fine, purify. Comp. the Arabic ;, pl. äëj, vinum, kamoos, from the skin in which it is kept. Such زق wine, Pollux, in his Onomast, calls oaxxias olvos o divλiouévog. Thus Aq, in the present case: Tórov taoμáτwv divλiovov., the other part. from, Arab, emedullavit os, to draw the fat out of marrow bones, is assimilated to the former, instead of being written D', which would be the regular form. is the substitute of 7, the third radical.' 8. A more glaring instance of mistaken historical interpretation is scarcely to be found, than that given of the first words of this verse by Grotius: donec vivit Esechias! Vitringa, true to his principles of interpretation, explains them first of the times of Simon and John Hyrcanus, and then of certain periods of the Christian dispensation. Rosenm, and Gesen, apply them to what they designate the renewal of the golden age; and the latter has a long note on the passage, in which he endeavours to support his view by referring to the Zendavesta. But all such exegesis fails to meet the exigentia loci. What Isaiah predicts is not the partial or total cessation of war, extraordinary longevity, or such like, but the absolute abolition of death. In proof of this fact the apostle expressly quotes it, 1 Cor. xv. 55: Tóre yevýra ὁ λόγος ὁ γεγραμμένος· Κατεπόθη ὁ θάνατος εἰς νίκος:—thus concluding his celebrated argument in defence of the doctrine of the resurrection. By his inspired authority I deem it the only wise, because the only safe course, in this and all similar cases, to abide. The words, as alleged by Paul, are found in the version of Theodotion, with which the Targ. and Syriac agree in reading the verb as a passive. in pial as here commonly signifies to destroy, destroy utterly; in Kal, the more usual signification is that of swallowing, which most of the versions have unhappily adopted. y, the Greek translators render ὃν ἰσχυσᾶς, εἰς τέλος, εἷς νίκος; attaching to the term the idea of what is overpowering, durable, complete. The significations of the Hebrew root 3, used only in Niph. and Piel, are to shine, lead, lead on, be complete; in Chald. to surpass, excel, vanquish; hence the idea of victory, eternity, &c., attaching to 2, and of completely, entirely, for ever, &c., to n . The words are equivalent therefore to o Bávaros oùx écraι iri, Rev. xxi. 4; where there seems to be an evident allusion to our text; and where the subject is as here, not the millennial state of the church, but the state of glory, after the resurrection of the body. It will be then only that a period shall be put to the reproachful persecutions of the righteous, which Isaiah likewise predicts. has here the force of: It shall assuredly be, for Jehovah hath spoken it. The prophecy embraces the whole of the New Testament dispensation, from its establishment till its termination at the last day.' -Pp. 214-216. To this section an historical supplement is appended, in an extract from the contemporary history of the times, in which is recorded the fulfilment of many of the most striking prophecies in the preceding portions. It concludes with an announcement of the Babylonish captivity, serving well to introduce the subsequent predictions, which are almost exclusively suited to the condition and feelings of the people in that time of suffering. The fourth and last section of the book, from ch. xl.—lxvi. is to us in the present day the most interesting, and also on the whole the most easily intelligible. It relates chiefly to the work which was to be accomplished by Cyrus, to person and office of the Messiah, and to the final restoration of the Jews to their land, when their present dispersion has ended. The style of its composition differs considerably in form and spirit from that of the preceding portions of the book. There is not that excitement of feeling, that burning energy of expression, and quickness of transition, by which they are marked. Its subdued tone, clear, full-flowing periods, and prolonged earnest expostulations, would seem to indicate that it belongs to the evening of the prophet's life, just as the same qualities in the book of Deuteronomy show that it is to be assigned to the old age of Moses. The frequent exposures of the folly of idolatry are also signs which support the propriety of referring it to the reign of Manasseh, who promoted that mode of worship with an unexampled if not with an exclusive zeal. The predictions concerning Cyrus are so distinct, and were so exactly accomplished, that the efforts of the neologian critics have been directed more against this section than against any other part of the book, to disprove if possible its authenticity. They maintain that it is the production of a writer subsequent to the Babylonish captivity, whom they call the PseudoIsaiah or Deutero-Isaiah. Without going into a lengthened refutation of their arguments, which he considers unnecessary after the elaborate dissertations in which they have been met and disproved, Dr. Henderson satisfactorily exposes the source from which their errors have proceeded. pre We were at first rather disinclined to agree with Dr. Henderson in understanding the admonitions contained in chap. lviii. as having a reference to the Pharisaical spirit which vailed among the Jews at the time of Christ's advent, and the delineation of profligacy in the following chapter as descriptive of the national corruption which preceded their overthrow by Titus. We were disposed to adopt the supposition of Hengstenberg, who finds here a reference to contemporary practices, indicating that the writer must have lived when the national government and religion were still upheld in Judah. But upon considering the relation of the passage to what goes before and follows after, Dr. Henderson's opinion appears to us about as probable as any other. It is not possible that the prophet can be speaking of a contemporary state of things in chap. lviii., if this portion of the book was indeed written in the reign of Manasseh. It may have been composed in the end of Hezekiah's reign, and the expressions would then be tolerably applicable; still, however, it is perhaps better explained, in con |