For the spoiler is within your port. Far as the land of Chittim the news is spread. 2 The inhabitants of the sea-port are still; The merchants of Sidon, who traversed the sea, crowded thee.1 2 3 Upon the mighty waters was the seed of the Nile, The harvest of the river was her revenue. She was the factoress of nations. 4 Be thou ashamed, O Sidon; for the sea hath spoken, Even the fortress of the sea," saying, 1 "thee," O sea-port. The corn, 2 "the mighty waters;" i. e. the wide ocean. the growth of the Delta, transported in Tyrian vessels to the ports of various distant countries, was thus scattered over the main ocean; and the harvest of the banks of the river became the revenue of Tyre. 3 Or, "Even the strength of the sea"mon of the sea❞— May not or, "The tutelar de signify some idol wor shipped by merchants as the power presiding over the sea, directing the currents and the winds, as their tutelar divinity? Hercules was worshipped by the Gauls under the title of Magusan. I have travailed not, I have not brought forth, I have nourished no youths, [neither] brought up virgins. 5 When the tidings shall reach Egypt, They shall be sorely grieved at the tidings of Tyre. 6 Pass ye over to Tarshish: howl, ye inhabitants of the sea-port! 7 Is this your city rioting [in prosperity], 8 Who hath devised this against Tyre, The mistress of crowns, whose merchants were princes, Whose traders were the honourable of the earth? 9 Jehovah [God] of hosts hath devised it; To stain the splendour of whatever was haughty,* To bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth. To mar the lustre of whatever was haughty, 10 Overflow thy land, like a stream, O daughter of Tarshish, That hath no longer an embankment! 11 Jehovah hath stretched his hand over the sea, He hath shaken the kingdoms, He hath issued a command against Canaan 12 And he hath said, Thou shalt no more repeat thy riot, O thou deflowered virgin, daughter of Sidon. have no rest. 13 Behold the land of the Chaldeans! This people was not: The Assyrian founded it, He set up his beacons for ships. Down with her stately palaces: she is appointed to destruction. 14 Howl, ye ships of Tarshish! for your fortress is laid waste! 5 Rather, "your strength," or "your protector." Here ends the first part of this prophecy. In the sequel the prophet in a cooler strain defines the duration of the Tyrian captivity, and foretells the restoration of the state, without extending his views to what was to take place in the distant times of Alexander the Great. There is no difficulty in the four remaining verses, and they cannot be better rendered than in Bishop Lowth's or the public translation. Verse 1.-"the spoiler is within your port." 7. Some of Kennicott's best MSS. and the Bible of Soncinum 1488, have 771. The points favour this reading, T. The words 778 taken by themselves, any one would render 'the spoiler is within.' But within what? The sentence has nothing to answer this question but the word . This word is frequently used as a noun substantive, to signify the entrance into any place; the entrance of a house, a town, a temple, a country. But an entrance, with respect to the ships upon the ocean, must be the port to which they are bound, where they wish to enter. The prophet's imagination presents to him fleets of merchantmen bound to Tyre, (whether ships of other countries, or merchantmen of Tyre itself, homeward bound, VOL. II. makes little difference, though the former I take to be the better exposition of the phrase ships of Tarshish' it is Vitringa's and Bochart's): he warns them not to enter, because they will find the enemy in possession of their harbour. It is some confirmation of this sense that, in Ezekiel's lamentation over Tyre (Ezek. xxvii, 3), □ ♫ is clearly the haven of Tyre, considered as the entrance of the sea from the continent. Bishop Lowth renders this line thus. "For she is utterly destroyed both within and without." In Poole's Synopsis, I find the like interpretation ascribed to Forerius; and there the reader may see by what process that critic would deduce this sense from the Hebrew words, which is adopted with great commendation by Vitringa. But I cannot find a single instance in the sacred writings in which ND, either by itself, or contrasted with , or in any connection, renders without.' 6 "Far as the land of Chittim the news is spread." ,מארץ כתים נגלה למו -"the land of Chittim." By the writer of the first book of Maccabees, Alexander the Great is called the king of Chittim. Ships of Chittim, in the book of Daniel, are Roman ships. Hence it should seem |