Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_500.lzh/6_519.TXT

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into, would not secure them from the power and pro-
vidence of God, and from their enemies in pursuit of
them, by his permission: though they climb up to hea-
ven, thence will I bring them down; the summit of the
highest mountains, and get as near to heaven, and at
as great a distance from men, as can be, and yet all in
vain. The Targum is," if they think to be hid as it
"were in hell, from thence their enemies shall take
"them by my word; and if they ascend the high
"mountains, to the top of heaven, thence will I bring
"them ;" see Psal. cxxxix. 8.
Vet. 3: And though they hide themselves in the top
of Carmel, &c.] One of the highest mountains in
the land of Israel; in the woods upon it, and caves
in it: I will search and ta/ce them out from thence: by
directing their enemies where to find them: so the
Targum," if they think to be hid in the tops of the
"towers of castles, thither will I command the search-
" ers, and they shall search them :" and though they
be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea .- get into
ships, going by sea to distant parts; or make their es-
cape to isles upon the sea afar off, where they may
think themselves safe: thence will I command the serpent,
and he shall bite them; the dragon that is in the sea, Isa.
xxvii. 1. the great whale in the sea, or the leviathan, so
Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Ben Melech; and is that kind of
whale which is called the Zygcena, as Bochart {w} thinks;
and which he, from various writers, desci, ibes as very
monstrous, horrible, and terrible, having five rows of
teeth, and very numerous; and which not only de-
yours other large fishes, but men swimming it meets
with; and, having such teeth, with great propriety
may be said to bite. It appears from hence that
there are sea-serpents, as well. as land ones, to
which the allusion is. Erich Pantoppidan, the pre-
sent bishop of Bergen {x}, speaks of a see-ormen, or sea-
snake, in the northern seas, which he describes as
very monstrous and very terrible to seafaring men,
being of seven or eight folds, each fold a fathom dis-
tant; nay, of the length of a cable, a hundred ththom,
or six hundred English feet; yea, of one as thick as a
pipe of wine, with twenty-five folds. Some such
terrible creature is here respected, though figuratively
understood, and designs some crafty, powerful, and
cruel enemy. The Targum paraphrases it, though
hid "in the isles of the sea, thither will I command
"the people strong like serpents, and they shall kill
"them ;- see Psal. '.;xxxix. 9.
Ver. 4.  And though they go into captivity before their
enemies, &c.] Alluding to the manner in which cap-
tives are led, being put before their enemies, and so
carrietl in triumph; see Lain. i. 5. though some think
this refers to their going voluntarily into a foreign
count,:y, in order to escape danger, as Johanan the
son of Kareah with the Jews went into Egypt, Jer.
xliii. 6, 7. in whom Kimchi instances: thence will I
comm. and the swe, rd, and it shall slay them; or them
that kill with the sword, as the Targum; so that
though they thought by going into another country,
or into an enemy's country of their own accord, to
escape the sword of the enemy, or to curry fayour with
them, yet should not escape: and I will set mine eyes
upon them for evil, and not for good: this is the true
reason, why, let them be where they will, they cannot
be safe, because the eyes of the omniscient God,
which are everywhere, in heaven, earth, hell, and the
sea, are set upon them, for their ruin and destruction;
and there's no fleeing from his. presence, or getting out
of his sight, or escaping his hand. The Targum is.
"my Word shall be against them."'
Ver. 5. And the Lord God of hosts is he that toucheth
the land, and it shall melt, &c.] Which is another
reason why it is impossible to escape the hands of
a sin-revenging God, because he is omnipotent as well
as omniscient; he is the Lord of all the armies above
and below; and if he but touch the land, any particu-
lar country, as the land of Israel, it shakes and trem-
bles, and falls into a flow of water, or melts like wax;
as when he toucheth the hills and mountains they
smoke, being like fuel to fire; see Psal. civ. 32. and
cxliv. 5: and all that dwell therein shall mourn; their
houses destroyed, their substance consumed, and all
that is near and dear to them swallowed up: and it
shall rise up wholly like a flood, and shall be drowned as
by the flood of Egypt; see the note on ch. viii. 8.
Ver. 6. It is he that buildorb his stories in the heaven,
&c.] The three elements, according to Aben Ezra,
fire, air, and water; the orbs, as Kimchi, one above
another; a word near akin to this is rendered his
chambers, which are the clouds, Psal. civ. 3, 13. per-
haps the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, which
are three stories high, may be theant; we read of the
third heaven, 2 Cot. xii. 2. and particularly the throne
of God is in the highest heaven; and the ascents {y} to it,
as it may be rendered. The Targum is, "who causeth
"to dwell in a high fortress the Shechinah of his
"glory :" and hath rounded his troop in the earth; this
Kimchi interprets of the three above elements. So
the words are translated in the Bishops' Bible in Queen
Elizabeth's time," he buildeth hisspheres in the heaven,
"and hath laid the foundation of his globe of elements
"in the earth." Aben Ezra interprets it of animals;
it may take in the whole compass of-created beings on
earth; so Jarchi explains it of the collection of his
creatures; though he takes notice of another sense
given, a collection of the righteous, which are the
foundation of the earth, and for whose sake all things
stand. Abarbinel interprets it of the whole of the tribe
of Israel; and so the Targum paraphrases it of his con-
gregation or church on earth: he beautifies his elect,
which are his bundle {}, as it may be rendered; who are
bound up in the bundle of life with the Lord their
God, and are closely knit and united, as to God and
Christ, so to one another; and perhaps is the best
sense of the words a: he that calleth .for the waters of
the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth,

{w} Hierozoic par. 2. I. 5. c. 13. p. 747.
{x} Natural History of Norway, par. 2. p. 198, 199, 207.
{y} \^wytwlem\^ ascensiones suas, Pagninus, Montanus, Munster, Tigurine
version; gradus suos, Vatablus, Drusius, Cocceius.
{z} \^wtdga\^ fasciculum suum, Montanus, Munster, Mercerus, Vatablus,
Drusius, Burkius.
{a} Schultens in Observ. ad Genesin, p. 197,198, observes, that
agad, witb the Arabs, signifies primarily to bind, and is by them trans-
ferred to a buiiding firmly bound, and compact together; and so may
intend here in Amos the Lord's building, the church, whith he hath
founded in the earth; and so *** with Golius and Castellus is a
building firmly compacted together.  \^tdga\^ is used for a bunch of bys-
sop, Exod xii. 27. and in the Misnic language for a handful or bundle
of any thing. see Buxtorf. Lex. Talmud. rad. \^dga\^.