mentioned, delight to dwell in desolate and ruinous
places; and so Babylon or Rome being destroyed,
will become a cage of every unclean and hateful bird,
Ray. xviii. o.: and he shall stretch out upon it the line
of confusion and the stones of .emptiness; he, that is,
God, as Kimchi interprets it; the allusion is to build-
ers, that make use of the line and plummet, as to build,
so to pull down, that they may kno,w what is to be
pulled down, and how far they are to go; see 2 Kings
xxi. 13. and hereby it is signified, that as the destruc-
tion should be entire, nothing should be left but con-
fusion and emptiness; and all should become toltu and
bohu, which are the words used here; and are the
same that are used to express the confused chaos, the
unformed and empty earth, Gen. i. 2. so likewise
that it should be by line and level, by rule and
measure; or according to the rules of justice and equity.
Ver. l2. They shallcall the nobles thereof to the king-
dora, but none shall be there, &c.] They shall call them
to take upon them the kingdom and government, and
there shall be none to do it, or that will care to
do it; or rather there will be no kingdom to take
unto them. The words may be rendered either, as
for the nobles thereof, not there a kingdom shall they be
called P; or, th'e nobles shall call; or, they shall-call the
nobles, and there shall be no kingdom {q}; the kingdom of
the beast, as it is called, Ray. xvi. 10. shall be no
more; and though the cardinals, who are like to
nobles, may call for it, and expect it, or be called to
it, yet to no purpose; this kingdom will not only be
full of darkness, but utterly destroyed: and all her
princes shall be nothing; shall come to nothing; the
above-mentioned cardinals, who are clothed and live
like princes, these shall be no more; the same with
the merchants of the earth, which like the merchants
of Tyre are princes, Rev. xviii. 3, 11. Isa. xxiii. 8.
Ver. 13. And thorns shall come up in her palaces,
&c.] Where their kings and princes dwelt, and kept
their courts,. popes and cardinals; here will be the
tokens of God's curse, as thorns are, these being the
people of his curse, as in yet. 5: nettles and brambles
in the fortresses thereof; alluding to Bozrah which
signifies a fortress; referring to the towers and for-
tifications of the city of Rome, and all other fortified
cities within its jurisdiction: anti it shall be a habitation
of dragons; literally, as it figuratively had been the
seat of the old dragon, the devil, and of the beast to
whom the dragongave-his power, seat, and authority;
and who, though he looked like a lamb, spoke like a
dragon, Ray. xii. 3. and xiii. 2., 11: and a court for
owls ; or, daughters of the owl; or ostriclres, as some
render it.
Ver. 14. The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with
the wild beasts of the islands, &c.] In Rome, and take
up their abode there; of these creatures, the first of
which the Targum renders monstrous ones, and the
latter wild cats, see the note on ch. xiii. 22: and the
satyr shall cry to his .fellow; or the hairy one {r}; from
which word the goat has its name; and these creatures
are described by the ancients as half goats and half
men; of which see the note on ch. xiii. 2 1. The Tar-
gum renders it demons; and with this well agrees the
account of Babylon or Rome as fallen, that it shall be
the habitation of, devils, and the hold of every foul
spirit, Rev. xviii. 2: the screech-owl also shall rest there,
and find for herself a place of rest; there being no in-
habitants to disturb her. By the name Lilith, it ap-
pears to bc-a night-bird, which flies and is heard in
the night. The Jews call a she-demon by this name,
3vhich, they say{s}, has a human face, and has wings,
and destroys childten as soon as born; and therefore
the Jews, especially in Germany, write upon the four
corners of the bed of a lying-in woman, Adam, Eve,
out Lilith t; the same with the Lamia of the Romans;
and so the Vulgate Latin here renders it.
Ver. 15. Ttiere shall the great owl malta her nest, &c.]
Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben 1Melech, say that lcippoz
here is the same with kippod, rendered bittern in vet.
11. but Aben Ezra takes them to be two different
birds; it is hard to say what is designed by it.
Bochart thinks that one kind of serpent is here meant,
so called from its leaping up, and which may be said
to make nests, lay eggs and hatch them, as follows:
and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow; lay
its eggs, sit upon them, and hatch them; or break
them {u}, that is, the eggs, by sitting on them, when the
young ones spring out of them; and then being hatched,
and running about, gather them under their wing,
especially when in any danger: there shall the vultures
also be gathered, every one with her mate; which crea-
tures usually gather together where dead carcasses lie.
Ver. 16. Seek ye out of the book of the Lord, and
read, &c.] Joseph Kimchi interprets this of the book
of the law of Moses; which being consulted, it will
appear that punishment was threatened to be inflicted
on the enemies of God's people, particularly the Edom--
ites. Jarchi thinks the book of Genesis is intended;
in which we may read how every creature, with its
mate, at the time of the flood, was gathered to Noah
in the ark. Aben Ezra supposes the book of God's
decrees is meant; in which, could it be seen, might
be read all the particulars of this prophecy. But it
seems best to understand it of this book of the pro-
phecy of Isaiah; which being spught to, and read at
the time when these predictions will be fulfilled, it
will be easily seen, by comparing events with pro-
phecies, how every thing will be exactly accom-
plished; from whence may be concluded, this book
being called the book of the Lord, that it was written
by divine inspiration, as all other parts of the Bible are;
which is a recommendation of them, and is a reason
why they should be constantly applied unto, and dill'-
gently read. It may deserve some consideration,
whether the book of the Revelation may not be de-
signed; which,, at the destruction of Babylon or Rome,
will be proper to be looked into afresh, to see the
agreement between the prophecies in it, and the then
state of things respecting it, when it will be an habita-
tion of devils and unclean birds: not one of these shall'
.fail: not one of these beasts or birds before men-

{p} \^warqy hkwlm Mv Nyaw hyrx\^ nobiles ejus, & non ibi regnum
vocabutur, Forerius.
{q} Ingenuos ejus vocabunt, & non erit ibi regnum, Tigurine version.
{r} \^ryev\^ capillus.
{s} T. Bab. Nidda, fol. 24. 2.
{t} Vid. Buxtorf. Lex. Rab. col. 1140.
{u} \^heqby\^ & scindet, Pagninus, Montanus; rumpet, Vatablus;
quumque eruperit, Junius & Tremellius, i.e. pullities, so Ben Melech.