Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_000_p.lzh/5_088.TXT

Text File | 1995-02-09 | 7KB | 129 lines

they should see the carcass of the king of Babylon
lying on the ground, \*\\shall narrowly look upon thee,
[and] consider thee\\; whether it is he or no, not knowing
at first sight who he was, the alteration being so great;
he that was but just now on his throne of glory, with
all the ensigns of majesty about him, and on him, now
cast to the earth, deprived of life, besmeared with
blood, and so disfigured as scarcely to be known;
these phrases are used to express the great change
made in him, and in his state and condition: \*\\[saying]\\;
scarce believing what they saw, and as wondering at
the sudden and strange alteration, and yet in an insult-
ing manner: \*\\[Is] this the man that made the earth to
tremble\\: the inhabitants of it, when they heard of
his coming against them, with his numerous and con-
quering army, dreading that he would do to them as
he had done to others, destroy their cities, rob them
of their substance, put them to the sword, or carry
them captive, or make them tributary: \*\\that did shake
kingdoms\\; depose their kings, and set up others; alter
their constitution, change their form of government,
and added their kingdoms to his own.
\*Ver. 17. \\[That] made the world as a wilderness\\, &c.]
Both by destroying the inhabitants of it, and by laying
waste cities, towns, villages, fields, vineyards, gardens,
and all places improved and cultivated, wherever he
came, as it follows: \*\\and destroyed the cities thereof\\;
as the Assyrian kings had done, some of which are men-
tioned in \\#Isa 10:9 37:11-13,18\\: \*\\[that]
opened not the house of his prisoners\\; the prison house,
in, which they were held; or, \*"the gate to his pri-
"soners,"\* as the Targum; or rather the words may
be rendered, %that opened not to his prisoners%, that they
might go %home%; or as De Dieu, in short, yet fully, ex-
preses it, %that did not dismiss his prisoners home%; he
not only cruelly and inhumanly put many to the
sword, but such as surrendered, and were taken cap-
tives, he detained them in prison, and would not loose
their bonds, but let them die there; which was an in-
stance of great cruelty and inhumanity.
\*Ver. 18. \\All the kings of the nations\\, &c.] Of
other nations, besides those he governed, and even of
those whom he had subdued, at least their ancestors,
the greatest part of them however; for the word %all%
does not always signify every individual, though by
the repetition of it, it here bids fair for such a sense,
there being but very few, or scarce any exceptions to
this observation; for, on some account or another, both
good and bad kings are interred in great state: \*\\[even] all
of them lie in glory\\; in rich tombs and stately monu-
ments, erected for the honour of them; and where
they %sleep%, as the word signifies, with their fathers,
their ancestors, and are at rest, in the state of the
dead, where they will continue to the resurrection:
\*\\every one in his own house\\; or grave, see \\#Job 30:23\\
the same with his long home, \\#Ec 12:5\\ or the house
of his world: in reference to which, the Targum
paraphrases it by the same phrase here; and though
their graves were not in their dwelling houses or
palaces, yet often near them, and in their own country,
and were what had been erected, or caused to be
erected by them, in their life time.
\*Ver. 19. \\But thou art cast out of thy grave\\, &c.]
Or rather %from% it {d}; that is, he was not suffered to be put
into it, or to have a burial, as the following words
shew, at least not to be laid in the grave designed for
him; though the Jews {e}, who apply this to Nebuchad-
nezzar, have a fabulous story that he was taken out of
his grave by his son, to confirm this prophecy; and
which their commentators, Aben Ezra, Jarchi, Kim-
chi, and Abendana, tell in this manner: that when
Nebuchadnezzar was driven from men, and was with
the beasts of the field for seven years, the people
made his son Evil-merodach king; but when Nebu-
chadnezzar came to his right mind, and returned to
his palace at Babylon, and found his son upon the
throne, he put him in prison, where he lay till Nebu-
chadnezzar died, when the people took him out to
make him king; but he refused to be king, saying,
he did not believe his father was dead; and that if
he should come again, as before, and find him, he
would kill him; upon which they took him out of his
grave, to shew him that he was dead: but the sense
here is not that the king of Babylon should be taken
out of his grave, after he was laid in it, but that he
should be hindered from being put into it; which very
likely was the case of Belshazzar. \*\\Like an abominable
branch\\; cut off from a tree as useless and hurtful, and
cast upon the ground, where it lies and rots, and is
good for nothing, neither for fuel, nor any thing
else, but is neglected and despised of all: \*\\[and as] the
raiment of those that are slain\\; in battle, which being
rolled in blood, nobody cares to take up and wear,
nor even touch; for such persons were accounted un-
clean by the ceremonial law, and by the touch of
them uncleanness was contracted; and perhaps with
a view to this the simile is used, to express the very
mean and abject condition this monarch should be in:
\*\\thrust through with a sword\\; which was added for ex-
planation sake, to shew in which way the persons were
slain whose raiment is referred to; the clothes of
such being stained with blood, when those that died
by other means might not have their raiment so de-
filed. The word rendered %thrust through%, is only used
in this place, and in \\#Ge 45:17\\ where it is rendered
%lade%, or put on a burden; but, as the several Jewish
commentators before mentioned observe {f}, in the Ara-
bic language it signifies to pierce or thrust through
with sword or spear, and so it is used in the Arabic
version of \\#Joh 19:34,37\\: \*\\that go down to the stones
of the pit\\; into which dead bodies after a battle are
usually cast, and which have often stones at the
bottom; and into which being cast, stones are also
thrown over them: \*\\as a carcass trodden underfoot\\;
which is frequently the case of those that fall in battle;
and very probably was the case of Belshazzar, when
slain by the Chaldeans, whose body in a tumult might
be neglected and trodden upon, and afterwards have
no other burial than that of a common soldier in a
pit; and instead of having a sepulchral monument erected over him, as
kings used to have, had nothing but a heap of stones thwon upon him.

{d} \^Krbqm\^ %a sepulchro tuo%, Gataker.
{e} Seder Olam Rabba c. 28. fol. 81.
{f} ? %confodit cum instrumentis, hasta, gladiis%, Castel. col. 1546.
    So it is used in the Arabic version of Lam. iv. 9. and in the
    Chaldee language it signifies to pierce through and wound; as in
    the Targum on Jer. li. 4.