Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_100_p.lzh/5_110.TXT

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some, though they had princely education, acted a
foolish part, in flattering their sovereign, as after-
wards mentioned, and in putting him upon doing
things destructive to his kingdom and subjects: the
counsel of the wise counsellots is become brutish; the
men of whose privy-council were esteemed very wise,
and greatly boasted of, and much confided in; and
yet the counsel they gave him were such as made
them look more like brutes than men: how say ye unto
Pharaoh; the then reigning prince, for Pharaoh was
a name common to all the kings of Egypt. Some
think their king Cethon is meant, said to be a very
foolish king: others Psammiticus; which seems more
'likely; though there is no need to apply it to any par-
ticular king, they being used to say what follows to
all their kings: I am the son of the wise; suggesting
that wisdom was natural and hereditary to him;
though this may not merely respect his immediate an-
cestors, but remote ones, as Menes or Mizraim, the
first king of Egypt, to whom is attributed the inven-
tion of arts and sciences; and his son Thoth, the
same with Hermes, the Mercury of the Egyptians.
The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, make
these words to be spoken by the wise counsellots of
themselves, we are the sons of wise men, and so the
next Clause; likewise Aben Ezra and Jarchi, also the
Targum: the son of ancient kings ? according to these,
it is spoken to Pharaoh thus, and thou the son of kings
;fold; of Ham, Mizraim, Thoth, &c.; the Egyptians
oasted much of the antiquity. of their kingdom and
kings; and they say, from their first king Menes, to
Sethon the priest of Vulcan, who lived about the time
of this prophecy, were three hundred and forty-one
kenerations or ages of men, in which were as many
ings and priests; and three hundred generations are
equal to ten thousand years {}; and so many years, and
more, their kings had reigned down to the prophet's
time; which was all vain boasting, there being no
manner of foundation for it. Vitringa renders it the
son of ancient counsellors; this, as the former, being
spoken by the counsellors, not of Pharaoh, but
themselves.
Ver. 12. Where are they ? where are thy wise men ?
&c.] The magicians and soothsayers, the diviners and
astrologers, who pretended, by their magic art and
skill in judicial astrology, to foretel things to come:
this is an address to the king of Egypt, who had such
persons about him, and encouraged them, by consult-
ing them on occasion, and rewarding them: and let
them tell thee now, and let them know what the Lord of
hosts hath putposed upon Egypt; or, against it; let
them te11, if they can, and make known unto thee
the purposes of God's heart, the things he has resolved
upon, even the calamities and punishments he will
shortly inflict upon the Egyptians, of which he has
given notice by his prophets.
Vet. 13. The princes of Zoan are becomeJbols, &c.]
Or infatuated, in their counsels to Pharaoh, and by
giving heed to the magicians and diviners; see the
note on yet. 11: the princes of Noph are deceived; called
Moph in Hos. ix. 6. where our translation renders
it Memphis; and so do the Septuagiut and Vulgate
Latin versions here; the Arabic version has it Men-
phis; the Syriac version Mophis; and the Targum
Mephes; the city of Memphis is no doubt intended,
which was the chief of the first of the homes or pro-
vinces of. Egypt, from whence it was called Mem-
phites: it was the metropolis of upper Egypt, and
the seat of their kings and princes; it was built by
their first king Menest, or Mizraim, and had in it the
famous temple of Vulcan; it continues to this day,
and goes by the name of Alkair, or Grand Cairo: they
have also seduced Egypt; the princes of the above
places, being deceived themselves by the diviners and
astrologers, deceived the common people that inhabited
the homes and provinces where they dwelt; it being
usual with such to follow their superiors in principle
and practice: even they that are the stay of the tribes
thereof; or, who are the corner of its tribes {u} ; meaning the
homes or provinces of Egypt, especially the Tonitic and
Memphitic homes, whose provinces are mentioned;
these are called tribes by the prophet, in the language of
the Jews, which land were divided into tribes, as the
land of Egypt was divided into homes; and about this
time it was divided into twelve kingdoms, as Israel
was into twelve tribes: now, the princes of these tribes
and kingdoms, who should have been as corner-stones,
to which civil magistrates are compared, see Psal. cx viii.
22. Zech. x. 4. the stay and support of the people, and
should have kept them right, these led them wrong,
into mistakes and errors.
Ver. 14. The Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit in
the midst thereof, &e.] A spirit of error, as the Tar-
gum, Septuagint, and Arabic versions; or of giddi-
ness, as the Vulgate Latin: this he mingled in a cup
for them, and pouredit out, and gave them it to drink;
and an intoxicating cup it was, such as men are made
drunk with; to which the allusion is, as the last clause
of the verse shews; so that the infatuation and want
of wisdom in their counsels were from the Lord; who,
because of the vain boasts of their wisdom in righteous
judgment, gave them up to judicial blindness, stupi-
dity, and folly: and they have caused Egypt to err in
every work thereof; both in religious and civil affairs,
leading them into superstition and idolatry, to which
they were of old inclined and addicted, and forming
such schemes and projects, and putting them upon
such works, as were very detrimental to the nation.
Some think this refers to the twelve tyrants, who dis-
agreeing among themselves, being actuated by a per-
verse spirit, greatly distracted the people; though
rather it may refer to the times of Necho, and to his
project in cutting a canal for the bringing of the Nile
to the Red sea before mentioned, in which he lost se-
veral thousands of men without accomplishing it; and
of his predecessor, in besieging Ashdod twenty-nine
years ere he took it ": as a drunken man staggerorb in
his vomit; who is sOvery drunk, that his head is quite
giddy, and can't walk upright, but.staggers as he goes,
and vomits as he staggers, and falls down, and is rolled

{s} Herodot. 1. 2. c. 142.
{t} ib. c. 99.
{u} \^hyjbv tnp\^ angulum tribuum ejus; so some in
Vatablus.
{w} Herodot. I. 2. cap. 157,158.