1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 Vol II Introduction 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 Alexander's Works
Here again
we meet with the most discordant and unfounded assumptions, as to the
connection of this chapter with the context, and arising from the same
misapprehension of the general design of the whole prophecy. The
following seems to be the true analysis.
Having
exemplified his general doctrine, as to God's ability and purpose to do
justice both to friends and foes, by exhibiting the downfall of the
Babylonian idols, he now attains the same end by predicting the
downfall of Babylon itself and of the state to which it gave its name.
Under the figure of a royal virgin, she is threatened with extreme
degradation and exposure,
vs. 1-3. Connecting the event with Israel and Israel's God, as the
great themes which it was intended to illustrate, v. 4, he predicts the
fall of the empire more distinctly, v. 5, and assigns as a reason the
oppression of God's people, v. 6, pride and self-confidence, vs. 7-9,
especially reliance upon human wisdom and upon superstitious arts, all
which would prove entirely insufficient to prevent the great
catastrophe, vs. 10-15.
1. Come down ! By
a beautiful apostrophe, the mighty power to be humbled is addressed
directly, and the prediction of her humiliation clothed in the form of
a command to exhibit the external signs of it. Sit on the dust! This,
which is the literal translation of the Hebrew phrase, may be conformed
to our idiom either by substituting in for on, or
by understanding the Hebrew noun to denote, as it sometimes does, the
solid ground. The act of sitting on the ground is elsewhere mentioned
as a customary sign of grief. (See ch. 3 : 26. Lam. 2:10. Job 2:13.)
But here it is designed, chiefly if not exclusively, to suggest the
idea of dethronement, which is afterwards expressed distinctly. The
next phrase is commonly explained to mean virgin daughter of Babel (i.
e. Babylon), which,
according to some, is a collective personification of the inhabitants.
"Whatever may be the primary import of the phrase, it is admitted upon
all hands to be descriptive either of the city of Babylon, or of the
Babylonian state and nation. Sit to the earth! i. e. close to
it, or simply on it, the vague sense of the particle being
determined by the verb and noun with which it stands connected. To
sit as to a throne can only mean to sit upon it. There is no
throne. Some connect this with what goes before, in this way: sit
on the earth without a throne. But
there is no need of departing from the idiomatic form of the original,
in which these words are a complete proposition, which may be connected
with what goes before by supplying a causal particle: ' sit on the
earth for you have now no throne.' Daughter of Chasdim! This
last is the common Hebrew name for the Chaldees or Chaldeans, the race
introduced by the Assyrians, at an early period, into Babylonia. (See
ch. 23:13. Compare also what is said above, on ch. 43:14.) If taken
here in this sense, it may be understood to signify the government or
the collective members of this race. Daughter of Chasdim must
of course be an analogous expression to the parallel phrase daughter
of Babel. For thou shalt not add (or continue) to be called, would
be the natural and usual conclusion of the phrase; instead of which we
have here they shall not call thee, which
is common enough as an indefinite expression equivalent to a passive,
and only remarkable from its combination with the preceding words,
although the sense of the whole clause is quite obvious. Thou shalt
not continue to be called (or they shall no longer call thee)
tender and delicate, i.
e. they shall no longer have occasion so to call thee, because thou
shalt no longer be so. The same two epithets are found in combination
Deut. 28:54, from which place it is clear that they are not so much
descriptive of voluptuous and vicious habits as of a delicate and easy
mode of life, such as that of a princess compared with that of a female
slave. The testimonies of the ancient writers as to the prevalent
iniquities of Babylon belong rather to a subsequent part of the
description. All that is here meant is that the royal virgin must
descend from the throne to the dust, and relinquish the luxuries and
comforts of her former mode of life.
2. Take mill-stones and grind meal! Even
among the Romans this was considered one of the most servile
occupations. In the east it was especially the work of female slaves
(Ex. 11:5. Matt. 24:41.) Uncover (i e. lift up or remove) thy
veil! One
of the Arabian poets speaks of certain ladies as appearing unveiled so
that they resembled slaves, which is exactly the idea here expressed. Uncover
the leg, cross streams! The only question as to this clause is
whether it refers to the fording of
rivers by female captives as they go into exile, or to the habitual
exposure of the person, by which women of the lowest class are
especially distinguished in the east. The latter explanation is
entitled to the preference, not only because we read of no deportation
of the Babylonians by Cyrus, but because the other terms of the
description are confessedly intended to contrast two conditions of life
or classes of society.
3. The same idea of exposure is now carried out to a revolting
extreme. Let thy nakedness be uncovered, likewise let thy shame be
seen. This conveys no new idea, but is simply the climax of the
previous description. I will take vengeance. The
metaphor is here exchanged for literal expressions by so easy a
transition that it scarcely attracts notice. The destruction of Babylon
is frequently set forth as a righteous retribution for the wrongs of
Israel. (See Jer. 50:15, 28.) I will not (or I shall not)
meet a man. The most probable sense of this obscure clause is, I
shall encounter no man, i.
e. no man will be able to resist me. This simple explanation is at the
same time one of the most ancient. The whole clause is a laconic
explanation of the figures which precede, and which are summed up in
the simple but terrific notion of resistless and inexorable vengeance.
4. Our Redeemer (or as for our Redeemer), Jehovah
of Hosts (is) his name, the Holy One of Israel. The
downfall of Babylon was but a proof that the Deliverer of Israel was a
sovereign and eternal being, and yet bound to his own people in the
strongest and tenderest covenant relation. Thus understood, the verse
does not even interrupt the sense, but makes it the clearer, by
recalling to the reader's mind the great end for which the event took
place and for which it is here predicted. This is a distinct link in
the chain of the prophetic argument, by which the fall of Babylon is
brought into connection and subordination to the proof of God's
supremacy as shown in the protection and salvation
of his people. That the Prophet speaks here in his own person, is but a
single instance of a general usage. characteristic of the whole
composition, in which God is spoken of, spoken to, or introduced as
speaking, in constant alternation; yet without confusion or the
slightest obscuration of the general meaning.
5. Sit silent (or in silence), and go into darkness
(or a dark place), daughter of Chasdim! The allusion is to
natural and usual expressions of sorrow and despondency. (See Lam.
2:10. 3:2, 28.) For thou shalt not continue to be called (or
they shall not continue to call thee) mistress of kingdoms. This
is an allusion to the Babylonian empire, as distinguished from
Babylonia proper, and including many tributary states, which Xenophon
enumerates. In like manner the Assyrian king is made to ask (ch. 10:8),
Are not my princes altogether kings?
6. I was wroth against my people; I profaned my heritage, i.
e. I suffered my chosen and consecrated people to be treated as
something common and unclean. In the same sense God is said before (ch.
43:28) to have profaned the holy princes. Israel is called
Jehovah's heritage, as
being his perpetual possession, continued from one generation to
another. This general import of the figure is obvious enough, although
there is an essential difference between this case and that of literal
inheritance, because in the latter the change and succession affect the
proprietor, whereas in the former they affect the thing possessed, and
the possessor is unchangeable. And I gave them into thy hand, as
my instruments of chastisement. Thou didst not show them mercy, literally
place (give or appoint) it to them. God's
providential purpose was not even known to his instruments, and could
not therefore be the rule of their conduct or the measure of their
responsibility. Though unconsciously promoting his designs, their own
ends and motives were entirely corrupt. In the precisely analogous case
of the Assyrian, it is
said (ch. 10:7), he will not think so, and his heart not so will
purpose, because to destroy (is) in his heart and to cut off nations
not a few. The general charge is strengthened by a specific
aggravation. On the aged thou didst aggravate thy yoke (or make
it heavy) exceedingly. Some understand this of the whole people,
whom they suppose to be described as old, i.
e. as having reached the period of national decrepitude. Others prefer
the strict sense of the words, viz. that they were cruelly oppressive
even to the aged captives, under which they include elders in office
and in rank as well as in age. This particular form of inhumanity is
charged upon the Babylonians by Jeremiah twice (Lam. 4:16. 5:12),
and in both cases he connects the word with a parallel term denoting
rank or office, viz. priests and princes. The essential meaning of the
clause, as a description of inordinate severity to those least capable
of retaliation or resistance, still remains the same in either case.
7. And thou saidst, Forever I shall be a mistress, i. e. a mistress of kingdoms, the complete phrase which occurs above in v. 5. The conjunction has its proper sense of until, as in Job 14:6. 1 Sam. 20:41; and the meaning of the clause is, that she had persisted in this evil course until at last it had its natural effect of blinding the mind and hardening the heart. Thou saidst, Forever I shall be a mistress, till (at last) thou didst not lay these (things) to thy heart. The idea of causal dependence (so that) is implied but not expressed. Laying to heart, including an exercise of intellect and feeling, occurs, with slight variations as to form, in ch. 42:25. 44:19. 46:8. Thou didst not remember the end (or latter part, or issue) of it, i. e. of the course pursued. The apparent solecism of remembering the future may be solved by observing that the thing forgotten was the knowledge of the future once possessed, just as in common parlance we use hope in reference to the past, because we hope to find it so, or hope that something questionable now will prove hereafter to be thus or thus.
8. And now, a
common form of logical resumption and conclusion, very nearly
corresponding to our phrases, this being so, or, such being the case. Hear
this, i. e. what I have just said, or am just about to say, or
both. Oh voluptuous one! The common version, thou that art
given to pleasures, is substantially correct, but in form too
paraphrastical. The translation delicate, which
some give, is inadequate, at least upon the common supposition that
this term is not intended, like the kindred ones in v. 1, to contrast
the two conditions of prosperity and downfall, but to bring against the
Babylonians the specific charge of gross licentiousness. This
corruption of morals, as in other like cases, is supposed to have been
aggravated by the wealth of Babylon, its teeming population, and the
vast concourse of foreign visitors and residents. After all, however,
as this charge is not repeated or insisted on, it may be doubted
whether the epithet in question was intended to express more than the
fact of her abundant prosperity about to be exchanged for desolation
and disgrace. The (one) sitting in security. The common
version, dwellest, is much too vague. Sitting seems rather to
be mentioned as a posture of security and ease. The (one) saying in
her heart (or to herself), I
(am) and none besides, i. e. none like or equal to me. I
shall not sit (as) a widow. The
figure of a virgin is now exchanged for that of a wife, a strong proof
that the sign was, in the writer's view, of less importance than the
thing signified. The same comparison is used by Jeremiah of Jerusalem
(Lam. 1:1. Compare Is. 51:18-20. 54:1, 4, 5). Many interpreters
understand widowhood as a specific figure for the loss of a king; but
others apply the whole clause to the loss of allies, or of all friendly
intercourse with foreign nations. And I shall not know (by
experience) the loss of children. This paraphrastical
expression is the nearest approach that we can
make in English to the pregnant Hebrew word. Bereavement and childlessness
may
seem at first sight more exact, but the first is not exclusively
appropriate to the loss of children, and the last does not suggest the
idea of loss at all.
9. And they shall come to thee. The form of expression
seems to have some reference to the phrase I shall not know in
the preceding verse. As if he had said, they shall no longer be unknown
or at a distance, they shall come near to thee. These two, or both
these (things) from which she thought herself secure forever. Suddenly.
The
Hebrew word is a noun, and originally means the twinkling of an eye and
then a moment, but is often used adverbially in the sense of suddenly.
That it has the derivative sense here, may be inferred from the
addition of the words in one day, which would be a striking
anticlimax if it strictly meant a moment or the twinkling of an eye. Loss
of children and widowhood, as in the verse preceding, are
explained by most interpreters as figures for the loss of king and
people. In their perfection, literally, according to it,
i. e. in the fullest measure possible, implying total loss and
destitution. They have come upon thee. The
English Version makes it future like the verb in the preceding clause ;
but this is wholly arbitrary. According to the principle already stated
and exemplified so often, it is best to give the word its proper
meaning, and to understand it not as a mere repetition of what goes
before, but as an addition to it, or at least a variation in the mode
of exhibition. What he at first saw coming, he now sees actually come,
and describes it accordingly. In the multitude of thy enchantments,
in the abundance of thy spells (or charms). The
parallel terms, though applied to the same objects, are of different
origin, the first denoting primarily prayers or acts of worship, and
then superstitious rites; the other specifically meaning bans or
spells (from a word signifying to bind), with reference,
as some suppose, to the outward act of tying magical knots,
but as the older writers think, to the restraining or constraining
influence supposed to be exerted on the victim or even on the gods
themselves. The prevalence of these arts in ancient Babylon is
explicitly affirmed by Diodorus Siculus, and assumed as a notorious
fact by other ancient writers.
10. And (yet) thou art (or wast) secure in thy
wickedness. There
is no sufficient reason for departing from the wide sense of the last
word as descriptive of the whole congeries of crimes with which the
Babylonians were chargeable. But neither in the wide nor the restricted
sense could their wickedness itself be an object of trust. It is
better, therefore, to give the verb the absolute meaning which it
frequently has elsewhere, and to explain the whole phrase as denoting
that they went on in their wickedness without a fear of change or
punishment. The idea of security in wickedness agrees
precisely with what follows. Thou hast said, there is no one seeing
me, a
form of speech frequently ascribed to presumptuous sinners and
unbelievers in the doctrine of providential retribution. (See Ps.
10:11. 94:7. Ezek. 8:12. 9:9. Job 22:14.) This. on the other hand,
is not a natural expression of specific trust in any form of
wickedness. He who relies upon his power or his cunning as a complete
protection will be not so apt to say "None seeth me" as to feel
indifferent whether he is seen or not. Thy wisdom and thy
knowledge, it has seduced thee. The insertion of the pronoun it
admits of a twofold explanation. It may mean, thy very wisdom, upon
which thou hast so long relied for guidance, has itself misled
thee. But at the same time it may serve to show that wisdom and
knowledge are not here to be distinguished but considered as identical.
He does not say they have, but it has, seduced thee. By
wisdom and knowledge some understand astronomy and astrology, others
political sagacity and diplomatic skill, for which it is inferred that
the Babylonians were
distinguished, from the places where their wise men are
particularly mentioned. (See for example Jer. 50:35. 51:57.) But in
these descriptions of the Babylonian empire, and the analogous accounts
of Tyre (Ezek. 28:4) and Egypt (Is. 19:11), the reference seems not
so much to anything peculiar to the state in question, as to that
political wisdom which is presupposed in the very existence, much more
in the prosperity, of every great empire. The remainder of the verse
describes the effect of this perversion or seduction in the same terms
that had been employed above in v. 8, and which occur elsewhere only in
Zeph. 2:15, which appears to be an imitation of the place before us. And
thou saidst (or hast said) in thy heart. The indirect
construction, so that thou hast said. contains more than is
expressed, but not more than is implied, in the original. I am and
there is no other. I
am what no one else is; there is no one like me, much less equal to me.
(See above, on v. 8.) This arrogant presumption is ascribed to their
wisdom and knowledge, not as its legitimate effect, but as a necessary
consequence of its perversion and abuse, as well as of men's native
disposition to exaggerate the force and authority of unassisted reason.
(Compare oh. 5:21.)
11. And (so) there cometh (or has come) upon thee
evil; with an evident allusion to the use of wickedness in
the verse preceding, so as to suggest an antithesis between natural and
moral evil, sin and suffering, evil done and evil experienced. The
common version (therefore shall evil come) is not strictly
accurate. Most of the modern writers make it present; but the strict
sense of the preterite is perfectly consistent with the context and the
usage of the Prophet, who continually depicts occurrences still future,
first as coming, then as come, not in fact but in vision, both as
certain to occur and as historically represented to his own mind. And
there shall fall upon thee (a still stronger
expression than the one before it, there shall come upon thee)
ruin. According to the modern lexicographers the noun itself means
fall, but in its figurative application to destruction or
calamity. It occurs only here and in Ezek. 7:26. Thou shalt not be
able to avert it, or resolving the detached Hebrew clauses into
one English period, which thou shalt not be able to avert. The
exact meaning of the last word is atone for, expiate, and in this
connection, to avert by expiation, whether in the strict sense of
atoning sacrifice or in the wider one of satisfaction and propitiation.
If we assume a personification of the evil, the verb may mean
to appease, as in Gen. 32:20. Prov. 16:14. In any case, the
clause describes the threatened judgment as inexorable and inevitable. And
there shall come upon thee suddenly a crash, or as it has been
rendered, a crashing fall, a common metaphor for sudden ruin, (which)
thou shalt not know. This may either mean, of which thou shalt
have no previous experience, or of which thou shalt have no
previous expectation. The former meaning is the one most
readily suggested by the words. The latter may be justified by the
analogy of Job 9 : 5, who removeth the mountains and they know not,
which can only mean that he removes them suddenly or unawares.
12. Stand now! The word here rendered now is not a particle of time but of entreaty, very often corresponding to I pray, or if you please. In this case it indicates a kind of concession to the people, if they still choose to try the virtue of their superstitious arts which he had already denounced as worthless. Stand now in thy spells (or charms). Some suppose an allusion to the customary standing posture of astrologers, conjurers, etc. Others understand the verb to mean stand fast, be firm and courageous. But the modern writers generally understand it to mean persist or persevere, which of course requires the preposition to be taken in its usual proper sense of in. Persist now in thy spells and in the abundance of thy charms, the same nouns that are joined above in v. 9. In which thou hast laboured. From thy youth, may either mean of old, or more specifically, since the earliest period of thy national existence. The antiquity of occult arts, and above all of astrology, in Babylon, is attested by various profane writers. Diodorus Siculus indeed derives them from Egypt, and describes the Chaldees or astrologers of Babylon as Egyptian colonists. But as this last is certainly erroneous (see above on v. 1), the other assertion can have no authority. The Babylonians are reported by the same and other writers to have carried back their own antiquity, as proved by recorded scientific observations, to an extravagant and foolish length, to which some think there is allusion here in the expression from thy youth. Perhaps thou wilt be able to succeed, or help thyself, the verb commonly translated profit. (See above, ch. 44 : 10.) This faint suggestion of a possibility is more expressive than a positive denial.
13. Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsel, not merely weary of it, but exhausted by it, and in the very act of using it. By counsel we are to understand all the devices of the government for self-defence. Let now (or pray let) them stand and save thee. We may take stand either in the same sense which it has above in v. 12, or in that of appearing, coming forward, presenting themselves. The subject of the verbs is then defined. The dividers of the heavens, i. e. the astrologers, so called because they divided the heavens into houses with a view to their prognostications. The same class of persons is then spoken of as star-gazers, an English phrase which well expresses the peculiar force of the Hebrew word followed by the preposition. Some however give the former word its frequent sense of seers or prophets, and regard what follows as a limiting or qualifying term, the whole corresponding to the English phrase star-prophets i. e. such as prophesy by means of the stars. The next phrase does not mean making known the new moons, for these returned at stated intervals and needed no prognosticator to reveal them. The sense is either at the new moons, or by means of the new moons, i. e. the changes of the moon, of which the former is the simpler explanation. Interpreters are much divided as to the way in which the remaining words of this verse are to be connected with what goes before.
14. Behold they are like stubble, fire has burned them (the
Babylonian astrologers). Behold brings
their destruction into view as something present. He not only
prophesies that they shall be burnt, but sees them burning. The
comparison with stubble seems intended to suggest that they are
worthless and combustible, whose end is to be burned. (Heb. 6:
8.) At the same time a contrast is designed between the burning of
stubble and the burning of wood, the former being more complete and
rapid than the latter. They cannot deliver themselves from the hand
(i. e. the power) of the flame. The
last clause contains a negative description of the fire mentioned in
the first. Of this description there are two interpretations. Some
understand it to mean that the destruction of the fuel will be so
complete that nothing will be left at which a man can sit and warm
himself. Others explain it to mean, (this fire) is not a coal (at
which) to warm one's self, a fire to sit before, but
a devouring and consuming conflagration. With either of these
expositions of the whole clause may be reconciled a different
interpretation of the word narib proposed by some writers, who give the
word the sense which it invariably has in every other place where it
occurs, viz. their bread. (See Job 30 : 4. Prov. 30 : 25.
Ezek.
4: 13. 12: 19. Hos. 9:4.) The whole expression then means that it is
not a common fire for baking bread, or, on the other .supposition, that
there are not coals enough left for that purpose. The phrase coal
of their bread presents a harsh and unusual combination, rendered
less so however by the use of
both words in ch. 44:19. The general sense of sudden, rapid, and
complete destruction, is not affected by these minor questions of
grammatical analysis.
15. Thus are they to thee, i. e. such is their fate, you see what has become of them. The words to thee suggest the additional idea that the person addressed was interested in them and a witness of their ruin. With respect to whom thou hast laboured. This may either mean with whom or for whom; or both may be included in the general idea that these had been the object and occasion of her labours. Thy dealers (or traders) from thy youth. This is commonly regarded as explanatory of the foregoing clause. Thus the English Version, they with whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants etc. It then becomes a question whether these are called traders in the literal and ordinary sense, or at least in that of national allies and negotiators; or whether the epithet is given in contempt to the astrologers and wise men of the foregoing context, as trafficking or dealing in imposture. According to another arrangement we are not to read and so are thy dealers, or even thy dealers, but thy dealers from thy youth wander each his own way. We have then two classes introduced, and two distinct events predicted. As if he had said, thy astrologers etc. are utterly destroyed, and as for thy dealers, they wander home etc. widely different in fate, but both alike in this, that they leave thee defenceless in the hour of extremity. Thy traders may then be taken either in its strict sense as denoting foreign merchants, or in its wider sense as comprehending all, whether states or individuals, with whom she had intercourse, commercial or political. Each to his own quarter, side., direction, substantially synonymous with the expression in Ezek. 1:9, 12, and other phrases all meaning straight before him, without turning to the right hand or the left, they wander (or have wandered), a term implying not only flight but confusion. There is no one helping thee, or still more strongly, saving thee, thou hast no saviour, with particular reference to those just mentioned, who, instead of thinking upon her or bringing her assistance, would be wholly engrossed by a sense of their own danger and the effort to escape it.