Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_300.lzh/6_391.TXT

Text File | 1994-09-06 | 7KB | 127 lines

hired; and *** cars in the Arabic language signifies
to hire; so it is used in Acts xxviii. 30. So with the
Turks, as Monsieur Thevenot {f} observes, a letter-out
of beasts to hire is called moucre or moukir, which
comes from the Arabic word kits, he says, which sig-
nities to let or hire; and is here fitly used of a harlot.
The Jews have many whims and fancies about these
fifteen pieces of silver. The Targum, and Pesikta in
Jarchi, tnake them to respect the fifteenth day of Nisan,
on which the Israelites were redeemed out of Egypt;
according to Aben Ezra, they design the fifteen kings
of Judah, from gehoboam to the captivity, reckoning
the sons of Josiah as one, being brethren; according to
others, in Kimchi, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the
twelve tribes; and, according to Abarbinel, the fifteen
prophets that prophesied of the redemption: and for
an homer of barley, and an half-homer of barley; a
homer held ten ephahs, and a lethec, or half-homer, five
ephahs, or so many bushels, these making the number
fifteen :agai6, according to Saadiah, they design Moses,
Aaron, and Miriam, and the twelve tribes; and, ac-
cording to Aben Ezra, the number of the high-priests
in the kingdom of Jhdah and Jerusalem, a homer
making thirty seahs, and a half-homer fifteen, in all
forty-five; but according to others, in Kimchi, these
design the forty-five days between the coming of the
Israelites out of Egypt and their receiving the law:
but, leaving these thncies, as the number of shekels
given-for her was but a low price, and shews what an
estimate was made of her; and barley being the coarsest
of grain, and bread made of it, that of the worst sort,
which the poorer people eat; may be expressive of the
captive, servile, mean, and abject state of the people
of Israel, from the time of their captivity to their con-
version to Christ, as is after more fully explained.
Ver. 3. And I said unto her, &c.] Having bought
or hired her; this was the covenant or agreement he
made with her, thou shallabide for me many days; dwell
alone in some solitary and separate place, and have no
conversation with any, especially with men; live like
a widow that has lost her husband, and so wait for a
long time till the prophet should think fit to take her
to his house and bed: thou shall not play the harlot, and
thou shall not be for another man; neither prostitute
herself, as she had done to her lovers; nor marry an-
other, but keep herself chaste and single: so will I also
be for thee; wait for thee, and not take another wife;
or will be thy husband, after having made proper trial
and full proof of thy conduct and behaviour: the Tar-
gum paraphrases it thus; "say, O prophet, to her, O
"congregation of Israel, your sins are the cause that
"you are carried captive many days; ye shall give
"yourselves to my worship and not err, nor serve
"idols, and even I will have mercy on you." The
whole is explained in the following words:
Vet. 4. For the children of Israel shall abide many
days without a king, and without a prince, &c.] Without
any form of civil government, either regal or
without any civil magistrate, either superior or sub-
ordinate, of their own; being subject to the kings and
princes of other nations, as the ten tribes were from
their captivity by Salmaneser, to the coming of Christ,
which was about seven hundred years; and from that
time the tribes of Judah and Benjamin have had no
kings and princes among them, for the space of seven-
teen hundred years, which may very well be called
many days. This answers to the harlot's abiding for
the prophet many days, in the parable: and without a
sacrifice; the daily sacrifice, which has ceased as long
as before observed;and any other sacrifice of slain
beasts, as the passover-lamb, &c.; the Jews not think-
ing it lawful to offer sacrifice in a strange land, or any
where but upon the altar in Jerusalem; and to this day
have no such sacrifices among them, though they have
no notion of the abrogation of them, as the Christians
have; but so it is ordered in Providence, that they
should be without them, being kept out of their own
land, that this and other prophecies might be fulfiiled:
and without an image, or statue: such as were made
for Baal, or as were the calves at Dan and Beth-el; and
though the people of Israel were very subject to ido-
latry, and set up images and statues for worship be-
fore their captivities, yet since have nothing of image-
worship among them, but strictly observe the com-
mand. And without an ephod; a linen garment wore
by the high-priests under the law, to which the breast-
plate was fastened, which had in it the Urim and Thum-
mira; and which were wanting in the second temple,
and have been ever since; so that these people have
been so long without this way and means of inquiry of
God about. future things, see Ezra ii. 63. this may be put
for the whole priesthood, now ceased in a proper sense;
and so the Septuagint render it, without apricsthood; so
that the Jews are without any form of government, civil
orecclesiastical; they have neither princely nor priestly
power: and without tcraphim; which some under-
stand to be the same with the Urim andThummim; and
so the Septuagint render it, without manifestations; by
which they are thought to mean the Urim, which ac-
cording to them so signifies: but the word is generally
thought to design some little images or idols, like the
penates or household gods of the Romans, which were
consulted ahout future things; and so the Jews com-
monly understand it, and some describe them thus {g},
"what are the teraphim ? they slay the first-born of a
"man, cut off his head, and pickle it with salt and oil,
"and inscribe on a plate of gold the name of an unclean
"spirit, and put that under his tongue; then they
"place it in a wall, and light candles before it, and
"pray unto it, and it talks with them." But now,
according to this prophecy, the Jews in their captivity
should have no way and means of knowing future
things, either in a lawful or raftawful manner; see Psal.
lxxiv. 9. How the whole of this prophecy is now ful-
filled in them, hear what they themselves say, par-
ticularly Kimchi;" these are the days of the captivity
"in which we now are at this day; we have no king
" nor prince out of Israel; for we are in the power of
"the nations, and of their kings and princes; and have
"p-9 sacrifice for God, nor image for idols; no ephod
"for God, that declares future things; and no teraphim
"for idolatry, which shew things to come, according
"to the mind of those that believe in them ;" and so

{f} Travels, part 2. B. 1. ch. 3. p. 11.
{g} Pirke Eliezer, c. 36. fol. 40. 1.