Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_600_p.lzh/5_647.TXT

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and with the greatest courage, and use all your mill-
tary skill; and, when ye have done, it will all be in vain.
ver. 4. Harness the horses, &c.'] Put on their bri-
dlesand saddles. and gird them: or, bind the horses {r};
that is, to the chariots; put them to, as we commonly
express it: Egypt abounded in horses, and so no doubt
brought a large cavalry, and a multitude of chariots,
into the field of battle: and get up, ye horsemen; upon
the horses, or into the chariots, and so be ready
to receive the enemy, or to attack him: and stand
forth with !tour helmets; present themselves on horse-
back, or in their chariots, with their helmets on
their heads, to cover them in the day of battle: .furbish
the spears; that t.hey may be sharp and piercing, and
look bright and glittering, and strike terror in the
enemy: and put on the brigandinns ; coats of mail, to
cover the whole body, which were made of iron, con-
sisting of rings, as Kimchi observes.
Ver. 5. Wherefore have I seen them dismayed and
turned away back ? &c.] The Egyptians, after all this
preparation for war, and seeming ardent to engage in
battle; and yet, when they came to it, were seized with
a panic, and thrown into the utmost consternation, and
turned their backs upon their enemy: these are either
the words of the prophet, who had a view. by a spirit
of prophecy, of the consternation, confusion, and
flight of the Egyptian army; or of the Lord, who fore-
saw all this, and represents it as if it was done. because
of the certainty of it; upbraiding the Egyptians with
their pusillanimity and cowardice: and their mighty
ones are beaten down, and are fled apace, and look not
back; or, their mighty ones are broken 8; their valiant
soldiers and officers, their best troops. were broken t9
pieces, their ranks and files, and thrown into the ut-
most disorder; and therefore made all the haste they
could to escape the fury of the enemy, and fled with
the utmost precipitation, and never stopped to look
back upon their pursuers; so great their fear: for
fear was round about, saith the Lord; from whence it
came; it was he that put it into them, took away their
courage, and made them a magor-missabib, the word
here used; see oh. xx. 3. The Targum is, "they
8. looked not back to resist them that slay with
"the sword, who are gathered against them round
" about, saith the Lord ;" their enemies surrounded
them, and that was the reason fear was round about
them, and both were from the Lord; or as he had
said, determined, and foretold it should be.
Ver. 6. Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty
men escape, &c.] Those that were swift of foot, like
Asahel, or carried but light armour, let not such trust
to their swiftness or light carriage; nor let the mighty
man think to escape by reason of his great strength,
to make his way through the enemy, and get out of
his hands. Or this may be rendered as future, the
swift shall not flee away, &c {}. so the Targum; neither
the one nor the other shall escape by the nimbleness
of their heels, or the stouthess of their hearts: they
shall stumble and f all toward the north, by the river Eu-
phrates; which lay north of Judea, where the prophet
was, to whom this word came; and also was to the
north of Egypt, whose destruction is here threatened:
the place where this route and slaughter would be
made was Carchemish, which was situated by that
river; on the north side of which city, according to.
Abarbinel, the battle was; and which sense is men-
tiened by Kimchi, which the other follows.
Vet. 7. Who is this that cometh up as a flood, &c.]
These are either the words of the prophet, who having
a vision in prophecy of the march of the Egyptian army
from the south to the north, which he compares to a
flood; in allus. ion to the river Nile, which used to.over-
flow its banks, and spread itself over the land; be-
cause of the vast numbers of which it consisted; be-.
cause of the noise it made, and, because of its rapidity
and force, threatening to bear all down before it; as
wondering, asks, who it was, whose army it was, and to
whom it belonged ? or they are the words of God, who
puts this question, in order to,give an answer to it, and
thereby upbraid the Egyptians with their arrogance,
pride, and vanity; which would all come to nothing:
whose waters are moved as the rivers ? whose numerous
armies came with a great. noise and force, like the
openings of the Nile,. the seven. gates of it.; wh;.ch were
very boisterous, especially. in hard gales. of wind :-it is
no unusual thing for large armies to be compared to
floods and rivers, which move forcibly and swiftly,
and make a large spread; see Isa. viii. 7, 8. Ezek. xxvi.
3, 19. The Targum is, "who is this that comesup
"with his army as a cloud, and covers the earth, and
"as a fountain of water, whose waters are moved ?"
Ver. 8. Egypt riseth up as a fiood, and his waters are
moved like the rivers, &c.] This is the answer to the
above question; that it was Egypt that was seen; the
king of Egypt, as t. he Syriac version; he with his army.
as the Targum; and which was so numerous, that it
seemed as if the whole country of Egypt, all the inha-
bitants of it, were come along with him; these rose
up like the Nile, and moved like the several sluices of
it, with great velocity and force,. asif they would carry
all before them : and he saith, I will go up; Pharaoh-
necho king of Egypt said, I will go up from my own
!and to t, he north, to meet the king of Babylon: and
will cover the earth; with his army: even all,the north.
country, the whole Babylonish empire; which he af-
fected to be master of, grasping at, universal monarchy:
I will destroy the city, and the inhabitants thereof; which
Abarbinel restrains tothe city Carchemish, where his
army was smitten: but it is better to interpret, the sin-
gular by the plural, as the Targum does, I will destroy
cities; since it was not a single city he came up to take,
nor would this satisfy Iris ambitious temper.
Ver. 9. Come up, ye horses; and rage, ye chariots, &c.]
These are either the words of Pharaoh, giving oxders
to his cavalry and charioteers to make haste and come
up to battle, not doubting of victory: or rather of the
Lord by the prophet, ironically calling upon the horse-
men in the Egyptian army to come on and engage with
the enemy, and behave gallan.tly; and those in the
chariots to drive, Jehu-like, with greatswiftness, force,

{r} \^Myowoh wroa\^ ligate equos, Montanus, Calvin; alligate, Schmidt.
{s} \^wtky Mhyrwbgw\^ et fortes corum contusi sunt, vel coutunduntur,
Schmidt, Cocceius, Piscator; contriti sunt, Vatablus.
{t} \^owny la\^ non fugiet, Pagninus, Montanus; non effugiet, Munster,
Tigurine version.