Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_000_p.lzh/5_089.TXT

Text File | 1995-02-10 | 7KB | 125 lines

\*Ver. 20. \\Thou shall not be joined with them in bu-
rial\\, &c.] The kings before mentioned; not that the
sense is that he should not be interred in the same
place they were, or lie in the same stately monuments
they did, for that was never designed by him or others;
but that he should not be buried in like manner, be
embalmed as they, or have odours burned for him, or
lie in such state and pomp, or have a %pyramid% or %mau-
soleum%, or any rich monument, erected over him; un-
less this can be understood of his ancestors, the kings
that were before him; and the sense be, that he should
not have a burial with the kings of Babylon, or be in-
ferred where they were, but, as before said, should be
cast out, or be kept from the place of sepulture. The
Targum is, \*"thou shall not be as one of them in the
"grave;"\*  shall not be like them, or equal to them, in
the glory and pomp of a funeral, not having the same
funeral rites; obsequies, and ornaments they have had.
So the whore of Rome shall have no funeral, but the kings
of the earth will eat her flesh, and burn her with fire,
\\#Re 17:16\\ \*\\because thou hast destroyed thy land\\;
not only other lands and nations, but also his own,
and the inhabitants of it, by his tyrannical government,
by levies and exactions, by mulcts and fines, on va-
rious pretences: or, %hast corrupted, thy land% {g}; which
phrase is used of mystical Babylon, \\#Re 19:2\\ see
also \\#Re 11:18\\ whose land or earth is the whole Ro-
mish jurisdiction, corrupted by her idolatries, and
wasted and destroyed by the various methods used to
drain away the substance thereof: \*\\[and] slain thy people\\;
put them to death at pleasure, without any just cause,
for trifling matters; which is often done by arbitrary
princes. Jarchi and Kimchi apply this to Nebuchad-
nezzar's slaying the wise men of Babylon, because they
could not tell him his dream, and the interpretation
of it. It is true of antichrist slaying such, that
would not worship his image, and receive his mark,
\\#Re 13:10,15\\. \*\\The seed of evildoers shall never be
renowned\\; or, %not for ever%;  though they may have a
name, and be very famous for a while, yet not always;
in process of time their honour is laid in the dust; or,
%shall not be called for ever% {h}; their name and their me-
mory shall not always last; their name shall be cut
off, and their memory shall rot; they shall have none
to keep up their name, and they shall not be spoken
of with respect; such a seed of evildoers were Bel-
shazzar and his family, who descended from Nebuchad-
nezzar and Evil-merodach, and were at once extinct,
as follows:
\*Ver. 21. \\Prepare slaughter for his children\\, &c.]
These words are directed to the Medes and Persians,
to prepare instruments of slaughter, and make use of
them; and prepare themselves for the slaughter of the
whole royal family, Belshazzar and all his children.
So it is threatened to Jezabel, or the Romish antichrist,
that all her children should be killed with death,
\\#Re 2:23\\: \*\\for the iniquity of their fathers\\; they imitating
and following them in their sins, partaking of them,
and filling up the measure of their iniquities: \*\\that they
do not rise, nor possess the land\\; stand up and succeed
him in the government of the land, as their inherit-
ance: \*\\nor fill the face of the world with cities\\; as their
ancestors had done, which were built by them to per-
petuate their name and glory, and to keep the nations
in awe subdued by them. The Targum renders it,
%with enemies%; which is followed by Aben Ezra, Jarchi,
and Kimchi; and so the Septuagint, Syriac, and
Arabic versions, %with wars%; to the great disturbance of
the peace of the world, and to the disquietude of the
inhabitants of it; which is a great plague to the world,
and a judgment in it.
\*Ver. 22. \\For I will rise up against them, saith the
Lord of hosts\\, &c.] That is, against the children of
the Babylonish monarch; and therefore they shall
not rise and possess the earth, and disturb it, since he
who is the Lord of armies in heaven and earth, and has
all power in both worlds, and has every thing at his
beck and command, will rise up, who seemed, as it
were, asleep, and unconcerned about the affairs of this
world, and will set himself against them, and exert his
power in their destruction: \*\\and cut off from Babylon\\;
the king of Babylon, and the inhabitants of it: \*\\the
name\\; not of the city, which is mentioned long after,
and still is; but of the king and his family: \*\\and rem-
nant\\; his flesh, or those that were akin to him, as
Kimchi interprets it: \*\\and son, and nephew\\; his son,
and son's son as the Targum, and after that other
Jewish writers; the whole family was destroyed with
Belshazzar, after whom none of that race was ever heard
of any more.
\*Ver. 23. \\I will also make it a possession for the bit-
tern\\, &c.] Instead of being possessed by any of the fa-
mily of the king of Babylon. The bittern% is a kind of
water fowl, which, by putting its bill into mire, or a
broken reed, is said to make a most horrible noise.
Some think the %owl% is meant, which dwells in desolate
and ruinous places; and others take it to be the %offsprey%,
a sort of eagle that preys upon fish and ducks; ac-
cording to Kimchi, the %tortoise% is meant; some will
have it that the %beaver% or castor is intended; Jarchi
understands it of the porcupine or %hedgehog%; and in
the Arabic language this creature is called %kunphud%,
which is pretty near the Hebrew word %kippod%, here
used; to which Bochartus agrees; but, whatever crea-
ture is meant, the design is to shew that Babylon
should not be inhabited by men, but by birds or
beasts of prey, or noxious animals; and so mystical
Babylon is said to be a cage of every unclean and hate-
ful bird, \\#Re 18:2\\: \*\\and pools of water\\; Babylon
being situated in a marshy ground, and by the river
Euphrates; and when that river was turned by Cy-
rus {i}, and afterwards its banks neglected, in course of
time the water overflowed the place where the city
was, and all about it, and so easily came to be what is
here predicted it should; see \\#Re 18:21\\: \*\\and I
will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord
of hosts\\; and so clear it at once of all its inhabitants,
wealth, and riches, and entirely remove its large walls

{g} \^txv Kura\^ %terram tuam corrupisti%, Montanus, Cocceius,
    Junius, Tremellius, Piscator.
{h} \^Mlwel arqy al\^ %non nominabitur in seculum%, Forerius;
    %vocabitur%, Pagninus, Montanus, Munster.
{i} Xenophon. Cyropaedia, l. 7. c. 23.