"of Jacob shall be strong as fire, and they of the
"house of Joseph strong like a; flame, but they of the
"house of Esau shall be weak as stubble; and they
"shall have power over them, 'and. kill them, and
" there shall be none left of the: house of Esau." This
was fulfil!ed literally, either by Judas . Maccabeus,
when he went against the children of Esau in Idumea,
and smote them, and took their spoil, 1 Maccab. v. 3.
or rathr by Hyrcanus, who took.the cities of Idumea,
subdued all the Edomites, but permitted them to live
in their own country, provided they would be circum-
cised, and conform to the Jewish laws; which they
did, as Josephus says {g}, and coalesced and became 0he
people with them, and were reckonedas Jews, and no
more as Edomites. But this prophecy had its accom-
plishment spiritually, either in. the first times of the
Gospel, when the apostles, who were Jews and Israel-
ites, went forth into the Gentile world, and among the
enemies of Christ, preaching the word, which is like
fire; and, when attended with the spirit of judgment
and of burning, enlightens the consciences of men,
melts their hearts, consumes their lusts, and is as a
refiner's fire to them, for ,their purificatiou; or, if not,
it irritates, provokes, torments, and distresses, as fire
does; and is either the savour of life unto life, or the
savour of death unto death; see Isa. iv. 4. Jer. xxiii. 29.
Rev. xi.' 5. or rather it will have its full and final ac-
Complishment in the destruction of antichrist, here
signified by Esau and Edom, which will be by burning
mystical Babylon, the whore of Rome; the beast and
false prophet will be burnt with fire; the day of the,
Lord will burn like an oven, and all the wicked will
be as stubble, which will be burnt by it, root and
branch, so that none_ will remain; see Rev, xvii. l6.
and xviii. 8. and xix. 20. Mal. iv. 2. compare with this
Zech. xii. 6. Kimchi, on Amos ix. 12, says this shall
be in the days of the Messiah, the Edomites shall be
all consumed, and the Israelites shall inherit their
land :for the Lord hath spoken it; and therefore it shall
most certainly be accomplished; what God has said
shall be done, he'll not alter the thing that is gone out
of his lips; heaven and earth shall sooner pass away
than one word of his.
Ver. 19. And they of the south shall possess the land
of Esau, &c.] That is, those Jews that shall dwell in
the southern part of the land of Judea shall seize upon
the country of Idumea, lying contiguous to them;
they shall enlarge their border, and take that into
their possession: and they of the plain the Philistines;
or of Sephela , they that shall inhabit the plain, or
champaign country of Judea, as the parts of Lydda,
Emmaus, and Sharon, were; these shall possess the
country of the Philistines, lyihg near unto them, as
Azotus, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron: and they ~[
shall possess the fields of Ephraim, and the fields of So-
maria; all the countries that the ten tribes inhabited,
in the times of their idolatry, before their captivity,
which the Jews shall now be restored unto: and Ben-
jamin shall possess Gilead; that tribe shall be so en-
!arged as to take in the country of Gilead, which lay
beyond Jordan, formerly possessed by the,half-tribe of
Manasseh. Some think this was fulfilled in the times
of the .Macc.abees, when several of these places were
taken by Judas, 1 Maccab. v. 17, 36, 38. but since
the land of Judea, and the countries adjacent .to it, were
never as yet inhabited by the 'Jews in the form and
manner here meutioned, it rather respects their set-
tiemeat in their own land, in the latter day, when their
borders will be greatly enlarged; see Ezek. xlviii.
Zech. x. 10. or it may regard the enlargement of the
church of Christ, either in the first times of the Gospel,
when that was spread in those parts, and met with
success; see Acts viii. 6, 8. and ix. 31, 35. or rather in
the latter day, when Christ's kingdom will be from sea
to sea, and his dominion from the river to the .ends of
the earth, Psal./xxii. 8. and to which also the follow-
ing words belong.
Vet. 20. And the captivity of this host of the children
o. f Israel shall possess that of the Canaanites, even unto
Zarephath, &c.] That is, the host or army, the great
number of the children of Israel, that have been carried
captive, upon their return shall possess thatpart of the
land of Israel which was inhabited formerly by the
Canaanites, even ss far as to Zarephath, said to belong
to Z idon, 1 Kings x vii. 10. and called Sarepta of Sidon;
see Luke iv. 26. It is mentioned by rliny {h} along with
Sidon, where glass was made; and perhaps this place
might have its name from the melting of glass in it,
from \^Pru\^, which signifies to melt metals, glass, &c.; it is
called by Josephus {} Sarephtha; who says it was not
far from Sidon and Tyre, and lay between them: ac-
cording to an Arabic geographer {k}, it was twenty miles
from Tyre, and ten from Sidon. Here the Prophet
Elijah dwelt for a time; and in the times ofJerom {l}
was shewn a little tower, said to be his habitation,
which travellers visited. Mr. Maundrell {m} speaks of
this place as three hours' journey from Sidon, and is
now called "Sarphan, supposed (he says) to be the
"ancient Sarephath, or Sarepta, so famous for the
"residence and miracles of the Prophet Elijah; tho
"place shewn us for this city consisted of only a few
"houses on the tops of the mountains, within about
"half a mile of the sea; but it is more probable the
"priucipal part of ,the city stood below, in the space
"between the hills and the sea, there being ruins still
"to be seen in that place, of a considerable extent.?
It was once a place very famous for wine; the wine of
Sarepta is often made mention of by writers {n}; perhaps
vines might grow upon the hills and mountains about
it; and this being a city of Phoenicia, on the northern
border of the land of Israel, is very fitly observed as
the limit of the possession of the Israelites this way.
And the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in Sepharad,
shall possess the cities of the south; the Jews, who were
carried captive into Babylon, to Sepharad; some
place, though unknown, perhaps in the land of Baby-
lon. Caimet ø conjectures it may be Sippara or Sippa-
rat, in Mesopotamia, a little above the division of the

{g} Antiqu. 1.13. c. 9. sect. 1.
{h} Nat. Hist. I. 5. c. 19.
{i} Autiqu. 1. 8. c. 13. sect. 2.
{k} Scherif Ibn Idris apud Reland. Palestina Illustrata, tom. 2. I. 3.
p. 985.
{l} Epitaph. Paulae, fol. 51. M.
{m} Journey from Aleppo, &c. p, 48. Ed. 7.
{n} Vid. Reland ut supra.
{o} Dictionary, in the word Sepharad.