the tree close to the ground. Though the Assyrian army under Sennacherib is the immediate object of these two verses, they seem to contain a general threatening of God's vengeance on the potentates of the world, who harass and persecute the professors of the true religion: and thus they make a most beautiful and artificial connection of this with the following prophecy. While the proud oaks of Lebanon are lopped of their branches, and at last snapped in sunder, or torn up by the roots by the violence of the storm, amidst all this rage and devastation of the hurricane, a twig shall shoot from the stool of Jesse.

CHAP. XI, 1." And there shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch."

te

-“a rod;", a sprig." the stem;" y, the stump of a tree cut down close by the ground. I know no proper word for this in the English language. The farmers in Surrey call it "the stool."

a branch;", a plant. This mention of the stump of Jesse shews that the royal house of Judah is considered as one of the trees that was to be thrown down by the hurricane described in the two last verses of the preceding chapter, and this proves the general extent of that prophetic commination.

Verse 2.-"the Spirit of the Lord;" i. e. the gift of prophecy. See Vitringa.

Verse 3. "And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord;" rather, " And shall make him quick-scented in the fear of Jehovah." See Vitringa. That is, he shall be endowed with a preternatural insight into the real dispositions of men, and with singular sagacity of discerning the genuine principle of religious fear of God, even when it lies dormant in the heart of the yet unawakened sinner.

Verse 4. —“ and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth."

"And with equity shall he work conviction in the meek of the earth."

Vitringa and Bishop Lowth.

Verse 5. I think, with Bishop Lowth, that for

, in the second line of this distich, it is probable the original word was . (But see Bishop Stock's note.) For the sense of this distich, Bishop Lowth has explained it better in three lines, than Vitringa in as many folio pages. -"a zeal for justice and

truth shall make him active and strong in executing the great work which he shall undertake."

Verse 7. "And the cow and the bear shall feed, their young ones shall lie down together." Read, with the LXX, the Syriac, and Bishop Lowth,

ופרה ודב תרעינה יחדו

יחדו ירבצו ילדיהן

and see Bishop Lowth's translation.

Verse 9.-" for the earth shall be full of the

knowledge of the Lord." For

;דעת ויראת יהוה gant would read

лy, Houbi

ready;" of the knowledge and fear of Jehovah." But the change is unnecessary. "Hebræa phrasis videri posset insolentior iis qui ignorant, nomina verbalia apud Hebræos imitari modum constructionis verborum, sive casum

verbi sui regere." Vitringa ad locum.

Verse 10. " to it shall the Gentiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious."

;ידרשו

-"to it-shall seek"-"; "of him shall the Gentiles inquire." The verb signifies generally to seek or inquire; but specifically, to inquire in a religious sense, to resort to the prophet, or to the oracle, for advice in difficulties. It is the specific word for this sort of consultation, like xgarea in the Greek language. It bears this peculiar sense in no less than 43 out of 155 passages in which it occurs in the Old Testament, and this text makes the 44th.

VOL. II.

F

This sense of the word is not at all conveyed in Bishop Lowth's English word "repair," and is totally lost in the Layman's word "hope.” "his rest," . The noun signifies either the condition, or the place, of rest. The sanctuary of the temple at Jerusalem is called the "house of rest" for the ark, and "the resting place" of Jehovah. The glorious state of the church, which shall take place when the fullness of the Gentiles shall be come in, is described in this verse, under the image of an oracular temple, to which all nations resort, filled, like the temple at Jerusalem, with the visible glory of the present Deity. Or perhaps Jerusalem in the millenary period may be literally meant.

"And it shall come to pass in that day,

The shoot-from-the-root of Jesse, which standeth for a standard to the peoples,

Of him shall the nations inquire;

And his resting place* [his abode] shall be glorious."

The English word 'inquire' is used in the public translation in many passages of Ezekiel to render the verb in its specific sense of oracular inquiry.

Verse 11. the Lord shall set his hand again

The verb יוסיף ארני שנית ידו -"the second time

*Or, "his residence;" and this is Bishop Stock's word.

is simply to add, repeat, or do again, without any idea of extending, lifting, or any other specific action as the thing repeated. Some verb, therefore, that may signify to extend, or to lift up, is necessary after ; for to repeat his hand, is no more Hebrew than it is English. I would read either

The resemblance of the omitted word to ", according to the first conjecture, or to , according to the second, easily accounts for the omission. Of the two emendations I prefer the former, because the verb NW is seldom used to render the extending or lifting of the hand, to strike an enemy, or perform any act of strength. I find three instances, and only three of this use of the verb in the whole Bible; namely, 2 Sam. xviii, 28, and xx, 21, and Ps. x, 12. It is applied also twice to the lifting of a rod to strike, Isaiah x, 24, and 26. The LXX certainly had some verb in this line subjoined to ".

Verse 11." and from the islands of the sea;" rather, with Bishop Lowth, "and from the western regions." Vide ". "Ac ne solum orientales po

אי

pulos significare videatur," says St Jerome, "jungit et reliqua, et ab insulis maris.' Insulas autem ma