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thus the sense will be, that (the thickets) of the forest may turn to dust like volumes of smoke.—Before must be supplied. The Syriac word

which answers to

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signifies to be proud, to march proudly; whence

some interpreters refer it to the Ephraimites themselves, in this sense: they who carry themselves thus proudly, and exalt themselves, shall turn to smoke." But to suppose that the Ephraimites themselves are here directly treated of, and in the proper sense of the words, seems inconsistent with the series of the discourse. The word seems rather to bear the physical sense of being lifted up, carried aloft, the same as ,, whence is deduced, in Syriac, the metaphorical use of it, to be proud or lifted up; and thus the meaning will be, they are carried aloft, like volumes of smoke." The root, whence comes, with its other derivatives, is, indeed, generally used metaporically to express pride; but it also occurs in its physical sense in Ezek. xlvii. 5, where it is applied to the rising of water.

V. 18. of Jehovah,

66

By reason of the wrath, or through the wrath, Dy is the land enkindled. The figure introduced

in ver. 17, of the land on fire, wrapt in flames, consumed, is continued : and we are not to confine the sense to mere dryness, by which the land is parched and consumed: See Joel i. 19, 20.—any omaž λsyoμ. The most probable interpretation is that of the Seventy and the Chaldee Paraphrast is burnt up [adusta est] ovyninavrai, to

:

which the cognate Arabic word

answers. But the Hebrew inter

preters ascribe to the Arabic word the sense of (the night) has become gloomy; whence they explain it to be involved in darkness. We must then refer the idea to black [clouds of smoke] covering the land. But the translations of Jerome, of the Syriac interpreter, and of Saadias, it trembles, is disturbed [or confounded], is shaken, are mere conjectures drawn from the context. 77 common gender: it occurs as a masc. Ps. cv. 30, Gen. xiii. 6.-In the last member the metaphor ends, and then civil war is announced in direct or proper terms. It is not uncommon in the Old Testament for war to be described as a fire devour> ing the people; as Isa. x. 16, xxvi. 11. Num. xxi. 28, Ps. lxxviii. 63; and in the Arabian poets this metaphor is very frequent. Respecting this same civil war among the Ephraimites, comp. Hos. vii. 7. Of the bloody civil wars in the kingdom of Ephraim, much is related in the historical books: see for example 1 Ks. xv. 29, xvi. 11, 18, 2 Ks. ix. 30, et seq. x. 6, seq. xi. 1, seq. xv. 14, seq.

V. 19. A horrible description of blood-thirsty factions raging against

each other: see a milder representation above, ch. iii. 4 to 7.- the same as j→ that is J. But and are used indiscriminately. The parallelism requires this interpretation: the sense is that of slaughtering and slaying (he slaughtered; a butcher).the arm, frequently help (ch. xxxii. 2, Ps. lxxxiii. 9); hence it also means the neighbour, the same as, which is used in the parallel passage, Jer. xix. 9. This interpretation is confirmed by what follows, and seems preferable to the proper sense of the term; in support of which, however, they adduce the example of Erisichthon, who ate his own flesh through hunger; Ovid. Metam. viii. 877.

V. 20. The two tribes that were most nearly allied by blood, being both the sons of Joseph, are mentioned, to exhibit in a stronger light how direful and wicked is the mutual massacre of brethren.

-These words, which have been falsely sus יִחְדָּו הֵמָּה עַל־יְהוּדָה

pected of error, are perfectly suitable to the series of the discourse: for Judæa also was connected with those tribes by the bonds of fraternity; and the general remark which they insinuate,—that civil wars easily lead to foreign ones, is confirmed by the experience of all ages.

INTERNAL SENSE. V. 16, 17, 18. Every one is a hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh foolishness, because wickedness burneth as a fire, it devoureth the thorn and the bramble-bush, and kindleth the thickets of the forest, and they elevate themselves by the uprising of the smoke: in the wrath, &c. [see below, from A. E. 386 (c).] A. C. n. 1861.—17. Wickedness burneth as a fire, it shall devour the thorn and the bramble bush, and shall set on fire the thickets of the forest. The thorn and the bramble bush denote falsity and lust; and the thickets of the forest scientifics. A. C. n. 2831.

V. 18, 19, 20. In the wrath of Jehovah Zebaoth is the land obscured (a) the people are become as food for the fire (b), a man shall not spare his brother, (c); and though he fall down on the right hand, yet shall he hunger; and though he eat on the left hand, they shall not be satisfied (d); they shall eat, every man, the flesh of his own arm (e), Menasseh (against) Ephraim, and Ephraim (against) Menasseh (ƒ), they together are against Judah (g). Without the Internal sense, no one can understand these words, nor even know to what they relate. The subject is, concerning the extinction (or these words describe the extinction, &c. A. E. 600) of good by the false, and of truth by evil: the perversion of the church by the false is understood by (a) In the wrath-obscured, and its perversion by evil is understood by (b) the people-fire: the land obscured signifies (that the things belonging to the church are in thick darkness or in falses, for the falses of evil are said to be in thick darkness, but truths in the light; 4. E. 304; or) the church where there is not truth but the false;

and food for the fire signifies its consumption by the love of evil; fire is the love of evil: (the food of fire signifies the appropriation of evils, or of the lusts of self love and of the love of the world'; A. C. 10283':) the false destroying the good, is understood by (c) a man—brother;' man' and brother signify truth and good, but, in the present case, man the false and brother good, because it is said that one shall not spare the other :' (fire denotes hatreds, and the uprising of the smoke thence denotes falses of a like nature; hatred is described by (c): when they who are principled in hatreds are examined by the angels, they appear exactly as here described: A. C. 1861:) the consequent deprivation of all good and of all truth, howsoever it may be inquired after, is understood by (d) and though-satisfied: (the extinction of all good and truth, however it may be inquired after, is signified by (d):) the right hand [dextra] (the right' [dextrum], A. C. 10283) is good from which truth is derived, and the left hand [sinistra] is truth from good: (the left' [sinistrum] is truth pro. ductive of good, A. C. 10283:) to fall down and eat those things, signifies to inquire; and to hunger and not be satisfied denotes deprivation: (it is that they are not found, and, if found, they are not received: A. E. 600:-that they cannot be received: A. E. 617:-they are hungry and not satisfied, signifies that the good and truth of faith are not received, because hunger and thirst signify the desolation of good and of truth: A. C. 10283:) the extinction of all truth by evil, and of all good by the false, is understood by ((e) they shall eat-arm; the flesh of the arm denoting the power of good by truth; man denoting the false, and to eat or devour, to extinguish: (e) these words signify that the false shall consume the good, and evil the truth, in the natural man: A. E. 617:-flesh is put for such things as belong to the self-hood of man, which are all corporeal: A. C. 574:-flesh signifies the voluntary self-houd of man, which, considered in itself, is evil: A. E. 1082:) that all the will of good and the understanding of truth derived from it, perish, is understood by (ƒ) Manasseh-Manasseh: Manasseh is the will of good, and Ephraim the understanding of truth: () These words signify that the will of evil shall consume the understanding of truth, and that the understanding of the false shall consume the will of good: A. E. 617 :-(e) and (ƒ) denote that, in the member of the church, his will shall be against his understanding, and his understanding against his will: Ephraim signifies the intellec. tual principle of the church: the intellectual principle of the church is that which the members of the Church understand concerning truths and goods, that is, concerning the doctrinals of faith and charity, thus their notion, conception, or idea of those subjects: truth itself is the spiritual principle of the church, and good itself is its celestial principle, but with different persons truth and good are differently understood; such therefore as the understanding of truth is, such is the truth of each: the case is the same in regard to the understanding of good. What the voluntary No. VI.-VOL. I. 3 K

principle of the church is, which is signified by Manasseh, may be known from the intellectual principle, which is Ephraim: the case with the voluntary principle of the church is similar to that of the intellectual principle, namely, that it is various with every one: Manasseh here signifies this voluntary principle. A. C. 5354.-Manasseh signifies voluntary good, and Ephraim intellectual truth, both of the external church; and, in the opposite sense, evil and the false: A. E. 746.-Ephraim signifies the understanding of truth, and Manasseh the will of good, both in the natural mind: (ƒ) signifies that all the good and truth of the church would perish, good by the false and the truth by evil: A. E. 440.-The flesh of the arm signifies each self-hood of man; Manasseh, evil of the will, and Ephraim the false of the understanding; and devouring, their appropriation; hence, to hunger though he fall down on the right, and not to be satisfied though he devour to the left, signifies, that howsoever they are instructed concerning good and truth, still they would not receive: Manasseh denotes the good of the will, and Ephraim the truth of the understanding; hence, in the opposite sense, Manasseh denotes evil of the will and Ephraim the false of the understanding; for almost all things in the Word have also an opposite sense. Hence is evident what is meant by devouring the flesh of his arm, namely, the appropriation to themselves of evil and the false derived from their own self-hood: it is said, the flesh of the arm, because the arm, in like manner as the hand, signifies that which belongs to man, and in which he trusts. A. C. 10283.) That this is the case with those who are in evils and falses, is understood by (g) they together against Jehovah; for when the will is in good and the understanding in truth, then they are with Jehovah, inasınuch as these are both from him; but when the will is in evil and the understanding in the false, then they are together against Jehovah. A. E. 386.

IV.

et decreta facientibus qui injusti

tiam decernunt.

Ad declinandum a justa cauɛsa pauperes,

et ad eripiendum jus miseris populi mei,

AT

IV.

.1 .X הוֹי הַחֹקְקִים חִקְקֵי אָוֶן,Ve statuentibus statuta iniquitatis

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Quid facietis die visitationis,

cum vastatio e longinquo venit?

Ad quem fugietis pro auxilio,

תָּנוּסוּ לְעֶזְרָה וְאָנָה תַעַזְבוּ ? et ubi relinquetis gloriam vostram

ut sint viduæ prædæ eorum, et pupillos spolient.

.4 כְּבוֹדְכֶם: בִּלְתִּי כָרַע תַחַת ,Pars incurvabunt se inter vinctos אַסִיר וְתַחַת הֲרוּנִים יִפְּלוּ

pars inter occisos cadent.

בְּכָל־זֹאת לֹא־שָׁב אַפּוּ,,In omni hoc non cessat ira ejus

et adhuc manus ejus extensa.

IV.

ועוֹד יָדוֹ נְטוּיָה :

X. 1. Wo to them that establish statutes of iniquity,
and to the decreers who decree injustice,

2. to turn aside from (their) righteous cause the poor,
and to take away their right from the destitute of my
people,

that widows may be their prey,

and that they may plunder the orphans.
3. What will ye do in the day of visitation,
when devastation cometh from afar?
To whom will ye flee for succour,
and where will ye leave your glory?

4. Part shall bow themselves among the bounden,
part shall fall among the slain.

For all this his anger is not turned away,

and his hand is stretched out still.

ENODATION OF THE LETTER. unjust judges, who pervert justice. die, in the day of punishment.

Ch. x. 1-4. Fourth stanza. Of the
They shall be taken captive, and shall

V. 1. This verse does not treat of injurious and harsh laws, for the laity were not legislators; but of unjust judges: see ch. i. 23, 26.— PRO is used of statutes and counsels (even such as are extra-judicial) in Jud. v. 15.—The second member, written at full length would be

is peculiarly used for כָּתַב-הוֹי הַמְכַתְּבִים אֲשֶׁר עָמָל כִּתְּבוּ

hpy (W8)

writing the decrees of a judge (Job xiii. 26).-, iniquity, here injustice, and injustice, evil, (Num. xxiii. 21,) are here completely synonymous.

to turn aside the poor from their right, or righteous cause, that they may not obtain the justice due to them: comp.

לְהַטוֹת מְדִין בַּלִים .2.v

לִהְיוֹת אַלְמָנוֹת שְׁלָלָם וְאֶת-.5 .Amos ii. 7, Prov. xvii. 23, xvii

in that the widows may be their prey, and that they may

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