4.

she conceived, and bare him a son. And the Lord said unto him: "Call his name JEZREEL: for yet a "little while, and I will avenge the blood of "Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause "the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease. "And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will "break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel." 6. And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And He said unto him: "Call her name "LO-RUCHAMAH: for I will no more have mercy

5.

4.-Jezreel.-i.e., God will scatter, from " 'Zara," to scatter, disperse, as in Zech. x., v. 7. So the Targum, and Tosephoth Pesachim, fol. 87. Kimchi, however, refers this to Jeroboam II., who carried on successful wars with his northern neighbours. His interpretation is contrary to the design of the passage. Jezreel was also the proper name of a city in the tribe of Issachar, on the brow of the central valley in the great plain of the same name, and the royal residence of Ahab, and his successors. It was here Jehu exercised acts of the greatest cruelty, II Kings x., vv. 11, 14, 17. These acts were speedily to be avenged in the extinction of the royal family, and the entire cessation of the Israelitish state. It had been announced to Jehu that his sons should occupy the throne till the fourth generation, II Kings x., v. 30. Two of these generations had passed away by the time of the prophet-Jeroboam being the great grand-son. In the following generation the prediction received its accomplishment.

5.-The bow of Israel.-Her military prowess. The valley here mentioned, afterwards called Esdraelon, was famous for the battles fought there from the most ancient times. It consists of the broad elevated plain which stretches from the Jordan to the Mediterranean, near Mount Carmel, and is well adapted for military operations. Dr. C. D. Clarke observes: "Jews, Gentiles, Saracens, Christian Crusaders, Anti-Christian Frenchmen, Egyptians, Persians, Druses, Turks, and Arabs, warriors out of every nation which is under heaven, have pitched their tents upon the plains of Esdraelon, and have beheld the various banners of their nations wet with the dews of Tabor and Hermon.' Here the Israelites made a stand against the Assyrians, but being overpowered by numbers were obliged to succumb to the enemy.

6.-Lo-Ruchamah.-Not having obtained mercy, or not pitied.— How could I forgive them.-So Fuerstenthal. The Targum, the Talmud, and the Midrash also render the verb "Naso" here to forgive. Kimchi and Aben Ezra: "I will transfer them to the land of their enemies." Bishop Horsley renders: "For I will no more cherish with tenderness the house of Israel, inasmuch as to be perpetually forgiving them." Houbigant has given the same sense. Some think the weaker sex of this child represented the weak state of Israel, under their last

7.

8.

9.

upon the house of Israel; for how could I "forgive them! Yet, upon the house of Judah, I "will have mercy, and will help them by the Lord "their God; but I will not help them by bow, "nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by "horsemen."

Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruchamah, she conceived, and bare a son. Then He said: "Call his name Lo-AMMI: for ye are not my people, and I "will not be your God."

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CHAPTER II.

1. Nevertheless the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that instead of its being said to them: "Ye are not my people," it shall be said unto them: "Ye are

7.—I will have' mercy.-I will spare them as a kingdom after Israel has been carried away into captivity by the Assyrians. And will help them.-Remarkably fulfilled in the supernatural defeat of the army of the Assyrians. See II Kings xix., v. 35.

8.- When she had weaned.-The mention here made of the weaning of Lo-Ruchamah seems designed to fill up the narrative. - And bare a son.-The Targum (who treats the whole chapter as a parable) paraphrases this: "They continued in their wicked ways."

9.—Lo-Ammi.—i.e., not my people.—And I will not be your God.-The word "God" is not added here by any of the ancient versions or MSS., and yet the construction requires it. Houbigant thinks the present reading lo cheyeh lachem (I will not be to you) a corruption of the word eloheychem (your God).

1.—Nevertheless.—The Prophet here turns abruptly from reproof to consolation, and quite naturally. After having told the nation (ch. i., v. 6) that God would no more have mercy upon them, and (v. 9) that they were no more God's people, nor He their God, the Prophet probably thought they might despair and think: "If God is no more with us how can we then stand?" He, therefore, comes now to them with words of consolation and says: Repent! Then instead of it being said to you: Ye are not God's people (on account of your wicked ways), it shall be said to you ye are the children of the living God, and He will have mercy upon you."

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2.

the sons of the living God." And the children of Judah, and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and appoint to themselves one chief, and depart out of the land for great is the day of Jezreel.

3. Say ye to your brethren, O Ammi,
And to your sisters, O Ruchamah,
4. Plead with your mother, plead:

For she is not my wife, nor I her husband :
That she may remove her harlotries out of her sight,
And her adulteries from between her breasts;

5. Lest I strip and leave her naked,

And set her as in the day when she was born;
And make her as a desert,

And make her as a dry land,

And slay her with thirst;

2.-One chief.--This refers to the re-union of all the tribes, and their return under Zerubbabel to their own land.-Out of the land.The country of Babylon, not excluding those other regions of the East in which the descendants of the different tribes were found.—Jezreel. -This is used here in a different acceptation from that in which it is taken (ch. i., v. 4.) That of sowing is alone appropriate. Illustrious should be the period when the tribes should again be sown in their own country. Compare ch. ii., v. 25; Jerem. xxxi., v. 27.

3.—0 Ammi.—The pious and faithful worshippers of God are here summoned to urge upon their nation the consideration of its wickedness in having departed from God. Of these the nation of the

ten tribes was the Mother.

4.-For she is not my wife. -Dathe and Rückert render "Ki" that, and interpret: "Argue the point with your nation, and show her that in consequence of her wicked conduct, all relations between us have ceased." The casual signification of the conjunction, however, is preferable. The words which it introduces form a parenthesis; and "Vesather," which though future, is to be rendered potentially that she may remove, is connected with "Ribu" plead ye. By harlotries and adulteries are meant the tokens or indications of lewd character :-boldness of countenance, and an immodest exposure of the breasts. Both forms are reduplicate, to express the enormity of the evil. What the Prophet has in view, is the reckless and unblushing manner in which the Israelitish nation practised idolatry. The Sept. reads: "From my face," improperly in this connection.

5.—Lest I strip.-Lest I expose her to infamy, want, and punishment. The punishment of adulteresses among the ancient Germans,

generally understood. They are delivered in such lofty and figurative terms, and with such frequent allusions to the customs and manners of times and places the most remote. that ordinary readers cannot, without some help, be supposed capable of understanding them. It is therefore useful to make the language of prophecy as intelligible as may be, by explaining those images and figures of speech in which it most frequently

abounds.

The obscurity which sometimes attends prophecy does not always proceed from the circumstances or subject; it frequently proceeds from the highly poetical and figurative style in which prophecy is, for the most part, conveyed, and of which it will be proper to give some account. To speak of all the rhetorical figures with which the Prophets adorn their style, would lead us into a field too wide, and would be more the province of the rhetorician than the commentator. It will be sufficient for our purpose to attend to the most common of them; consisting of

1. ALLEGORY,

2. PARABLE, and

3. METAPHOR ;

and then to consider the sources from which the Prophets borrow their images in these figures, and the sense which they wish to convey by them.

By Allegory, the first of the figures mentioned, is meant that mode of speech in which the writer or speaker means to convey a different idea from what the words in their obvious and primary signification bear. Thus, Jer. iv., v. 3: "Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns," is to be understood not of tillage, but of repentance. And: "The rowers have brought thee in great waters, the east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas" (Ezek. xxvii., v. 26), allude not to the fate of a ship, but of a city, &c.

To this figure the Parable, in which the Prophets frequently speak, is nearly allied. It consists in the application of some feigned narrative to some real truth, which might have been less striking, or more disagreeable, if expressed in plain terms. Such is the following one of Isaiah (v., 1-2):

"My beloved had a vineyard,

"On a very high and fruitful hill:

"And he fenced it,

"And cleared it of the stones,

"And he planted it with the choicest vine;

"And he built a tower in the midst of it,

"And he hewed out also a lake therein :

"And he expected that it would bring forth grapes ;
"But it brought forth poisonous berries."

The 7th verse tells us that the vineyard was the house of Israel, which had so ill requited the favour which God had shown it, etc.

But of all the figures used by the Prophets the most frequent is the Metaphor, by which words are transferred from their primitive and plain to a secondary and figurative meaning. This figure, common in all poetry, and in all languages, is of indispensable necessity in Scripture ;

which, having occasion to speak of Divine and spiritual matters, could do it only by terms borrowed from sensible and material objects. Hence it is that the sentiments, actions, and corporeal parts, not only of man, but also of inferior creatures, are ascribed to God Himself; it being otherwise impossible for us to form any conceptions of His pure essence and incommunicable attributes. But though the Prophets partly from necessity, and partly from choice, are thus profuse in the use of metaphors, they do not appear, like other writers, to have the liberty of using them as fancy directed. The same set of images, however diversified in the manner of applying them, is always used. both in allegory and metaphor, to denote the same subjects, to which they are in a manner appropriated. This peculiar characteristic of the Hebrew poetry might perhaps be owing to some rules taught in the prophetic schools, which did not allow the same latitude in this respect as other poetry. Whatever it may be owing to, the uniform manner in which the Prophets apply these images, tends greatly to illustrate the prophetic style; and, therefore, it will be proper now to consider the sources from which those images are most frequently derived, and the subjects and ideas which they severally denote. These sources may be classed under four heads: 1. Natural.

2. Artificial.

3. Religious, and

4. Historical.

I. The first and most copious, as well as the most pleasing source of images in the prophetic writings, as in all other poetry, is Nature; and the principal images drawn from nature, together with their application, are the following:

The sun, moon, and stars, the highest objects in the natural world, figuratively represent kings, queens, and princes or rulers; the highest in the world politic. "The moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed." "I will cover the heavens, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light."

Light and darkness are used figuratively for joy and sorrow, prosperity and adversity. "We look for light, but behold darkness; for brightness, but we walk in obscurity." (Isa. lix., v. 9.)

An uncommon degree of light denotes an uncommon degree of joy and prosperity, and vice versa. "The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold." (Isa. xxx., v. 26.)

Immoderate rains, hail, floods, deep waters, torrents, and inundations denote judgments and destruction. "I will rain upon him with an overflowing shower, and great hailstones" (Ezek. xxxviii., v. 22); "Waters are coming from the north, and shall become an overflowing torrent.' (Jer. xlvii., v. 2).

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Fire also, and the east wind, parching and hurtful, frequently denote the same. They shall cut down thy choice cedars, and shall cast them into the fire." (Jer. xxii., v. 7.) "He drove her forth with his rough blast on the east wind's day." (Isa. xxvii., v. 8.)

Wind in general is often taken in the same sense. viii., v. 7.

(See Hoshea