you have Sheshach, which is thought to be used rather
than Babyish, that Nebuchadnezzar, now besieging
Jerusalem, might not be irritated: but others take it
to be the name of an idol of the BabylonSans, from
whence the city was called, which .is not improbable;
for, as Hillerus * has observed, their god Bel arid She-
shach signify the same thing. Bel is the same as Behal,
swift; and Sheshach may be derived from the Arabic word
*** which signifies to move swiftly {p}; and may both
be names of the sun, worshippod by the Chaldeans,
so called from the swiftness of its motion. Now in
Babylon stood the temple of Bci or Sheshach, and so
might have its name from thence: and it may be fur-
ther observed, what has been by others, that the Ba-
bylonsans had a public festival, like the Saturnalia of
the Romans, which held five days, and was called Sac-
chcea or Shace, as is supposed from their god Shach,
to whom it was kept: to which may be added, that
Mishael had the name of Meshach given him in Baby-
lon; Shach, in the one, answering to El in the other;,
which signifies God, Dan. i. 7. Shach is used for a
king or prince in the Persic language to this day.
And now the king of Sheshach or Babylon must drink
of the cup, or be punished last of all; who was the in-
strument of destroying most of the rest, yet should not
go unpunished.
Vet. 27. Therefore thou shalt say unto them, &c.]
To the several nations before mentioned, prophesied
against: thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel;
the Lord of armies, above and below, the Sovereign of
the whole universe; but in a special and peculiar man-
her the God of Israel: drink ye, and be drunken, and
spew, and fall, and rise no more; as is sometimes the
case of drunken men; they drink till they are quite
intoxicated; and become drunk, and then they spew up
what they have drunk; and, attempting to walk, fall,
and sometimes so as never to rise more; not only break
their bones, but their necks, or tMl into places where
they are suffocated,or in one or other, where they lose
their lives. So it is signified, that these nations should
drink of the cup of God's wrath and fury; or his judg-
ments should come upon them in such a manner as that
they should be obliged to part with all their riches,
ú power, and authority; and should fall and sink into such
a ruinous condition, as that they should never be able to
the more to a prosperous one: because of theswordthat
I will send among you; by which they should be de-
stroyed. The 'Targum joins 'this with the preceding
clause, thus, "and ye shall not rise from before those
ú  that kill with the sword, whom I send among you."
Vet. 28. And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup
at thine hand to drink, &c.] To give credit to the pro-
phecies of ruin and destruction delivered by the pro-
phet, but say, these things shall not be: then shalt thou
say unto them, thus saith the Lord of hosts, ye shall cer-
tainly drink; or those judgments shall certainly be in-
flicted; there will be no possibility of escaping, whe-
ther they were believed or no; or how unwilling so-
ever they were to believe the denunciations of them,
or to have them come upon. them; vet assuredly so it
would be; for thus saith the Lord of hosts, who is
omnipotent, and does what he pleases in the armies of
heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, over
whom he has a despotic power and government,
Vet. 29. For, lo, I begin to bring evil upon the city
which is called by my name, &c.] Jerusalem, the city
of God, the holy city, where his name was called
upon, and he was worshipped; on this he would first
bring down his judgments ; and indeed he had already
begun to bring evil on it; for this very year Nebuchad-
nezzar came up to besiege it, and carried some away
captives: and should ye be utterly unpunished ? or could
they expect to go free from punishment, who had so
grossly sinned, and were guilty of such abominable
idolatries, and had been the means of drawing in the
people of God into the same; and therefore, since the
professing people of God, who had been drawn in by
their examples, were punished, they could not, they
ought not, to think of escaping. See the like argu-
ment in Luke xxiii. 31.1 Pet. iv. 17, ] 8. Ye shah not
be unpunished; or cleared, or acquitted, or go free;
but made instances and examples of vindictive justice:
for I will call .for a sword upon all the inhabitants of
the earth, saith the Lord of hosts; or I will call them
that kill with the sword, as the Targum; who will
obey the call, answer to it, and come forth and slay
the inhabitants of the earth, and none shall escape.
Ver. 30. Therefore prophesy thou against them all
these words, and say unto them, &c.] What tbllows.
as well as declare all that is before spoken concerning
the cup of fury all nations must drink of: the Lord
shall roar fiom on high: from, heaven, like a lion, in
violent claps of thunder; or in such dreadihl dispen-
sations of his providence, as will be very amazing and
terrifying: and utter his voice from his holy habitation;
from heaven, as before; and though it will be terrible.
yet quite consistent with his holiness and justice :. he
shall mightily roar upon his habitation; the temple at
Jerusalem, where he had his residence; but now
should be deserted by him, and feel the effects of his
wrath in the destruction and desolation of it: or rather,
since the address is made to the nations of the world,
and not to the Jews, it may be rendered, in or out of
his habitation {q}; and so designs heaven, as before; and
all these expressions are intended to shew both the
certainty and terribleness of the dispensation. He
shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against
all the inhabitants of the earth; or, answer a shout {r};
give the onset for battle against the inhabitants of the
earth, as the general of an army; which is accompa-
nied with a shout, like that which is made by work-
men treading in the wine-press, to encourage one an-
other to go on the more cheerfully in their work.
Vet. 31. A noise shall come up even to the ends. of the
earth, &c.] Wars, and rumours of wars, everywhere,
till the cup has gone round, and all nations have drank
of it, and have felt the power of divine wrath for their
sins: for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations;
will enter into a judicial process with them; will iiti-

{o} Onomastic. Sacr. p. 596, 597, 598, 611.
{p} ? celer fuit, celeriter processit, Golius, col. 2676.
{q} \^whwn le\^ in habitaculo suo, Junius & Tremellius; vel ex habitaculo,
Gataker, Schmidt.
{r} \^hney ddyh\^ heded respondebit, Schmidt; celeusma respondebit,
Gataker.