Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_500.lzh/6_549.TXT

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winds were silent, as Jarchi: or it made men silent,
not being to be. heard for it: or, a silent {w}, that is, a
still quiet wind, as the Targum; which blew so gently
and slowly, that it increased the heat, instead of lessen-
ing it: or rather a ploughing east wind "; such as are
frequent {y} in the eastern countries, which piough up
the dry land, cause the sand to arise and cover men
and camels, and bury them in it. Of these winds
Monsieur Therenot = speaks more than once; in sandy
deserts, between Cairo and Suez, he says, "it blew so
· ' furiously, that I thought all the tents would have
"been carried away with the wind; which drove
"before it such clouds of sand, that we were almost
"buried under it; for seeing nobody could stay abroad,
" without having mouth and eyes immediately filled
"with sand, we lay under the tents, where the wind
" drove in the sand above atbot deep round about us ;"
and in another place he observes a, ,, from Suez to
"Cairo, for a day's time or more, we had sa hot a
"wind, that we were forced to turn our backs to it, to
"take a little breath, and so soon as we opened our
"mouths they were full of sand ;" such an one was
here ra;,sed, which blew the sand and dust into the face
of Jonah, and almost suffocated him; which, with the
heat of the sun, was very affiictive to him: and the sun
beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted; the boughs
of trees, of which th'e booth was made, being withered,
and his gourd, or whatever plant it was, also, he had
nothing to shelter him from the heat of the sun; bat
the beams of it- darted directly upon him, so that he
was not able to sustain them ;. they quite- overwhelmed
him, and caused him to faint, and just ready to die
away: and wished in himself to die; or, desired his soul
might die {}; not his rational soul, which was immortal;
buthis animal or sensitive soul, which he had in com-
mon with animals; he wished his animal life might be
taken from h. im, because the distress through the wind
and sun was intolerable to him: and said, it is better
fo?' me to die than to live; in so much pain and misery;
see ver. 3.
Ver. 9. And God said to Jonah, dost thou well to be
angry for the gourd? &c.] Or, art thou very angry for
it? as the Targum: no mention is made of the blus-
terlug wind and scorching sun, because the gourd or
pfrlant raised up over him would have protected him
om the injuries of both, had it continued; and it
was for the loss of that that Jonah was so displeased,
and in such a passion. This question is put in order to
draw out the following answer, and. so give an oppor-
tunity of improving this. afthit to the end for which it
was designed: and he said, I do well to be angry, even
unto death; or, I am very angry unto death, as the Tar-
gum; I am so very angry that I cannot live under it
for fretting and vexing; and it is right for me to be so,
though I die with the passion of it: how ungovernable.
are the passions of men, and to what insolence do they
rise when under the power. of them !
Ver. 10. Then said the Lord, thou hast had pity on
the gourd, &c.] Or, hast spared it {}; that is, would have
spared it, had it lain in his power, though but a weeds
and worthless thing: for the which thou hast not la-
boUred; in digging the ground, and by'sowing or plant-
ing it'; it being raised up at once by the Lord himself,.
and not by any, human art and indust. ry; nor by any
of his: neither mOdest it grow; by dunglug the earth
about it, or by watering and pruning it: which came
up in a night, and perished inn night; not in the same
night; for it sprung up one night, continued a whole
.any, and then perished the next night. The Targum
is more explicit, "which was in this (or one) night,
"and perished in another nisht-" by all which the
Lord suggests to Jonah the vast difference between
the gourd he would have spared, and for the 10ss of
which he was so angry, and the city of Nineveh- the
Lord spared, which so highly displeased him; the one
was but an herb, a plant, the other a great city; that a
single plant, but the city consisted of thousands ofper,
sons; the plant was not the effect of his toil andla-
bout, but the inhabitants of this city were the works
of God's hands. In the building of this city, according
to historians a, a million and a half of men were em-
ployed eight years together; the plant was liken
mushroom, it sprung up in a night, and perished in
one; whereas this was a very ancient city, that had
stood ever since' the days of Nimrod;
Ver. 1L ' And. should not I spare Nineveh, that great
city ? &c.] See ch. i. 2. and iii. 3. what is such-a gourd
or plant to that ? wherein are more than six score thou-
sand persons; or twelve myriads; that is, twelve times
ten thousand, or a hundred and twenty thousand;
meaning not all the inhabitants of Nineveh ;' for then
it would not have appeared to be so great a city; but
infants only, as next described: that cannot discern
between 'their-right hand and their left hand; don't
know one from another; can't distinguish between
good and evil, right and wrong; are not come toyears
of maturity and discretion; and therefore there were
room and reason for pity and sparing mercy; especially
since they had not been guilty of actual transgressions,
at least not very manifest; and yet must have perished
with their parents had Nineveh been overthrown. The
number of infants in this city is a proof of the great-
ness of it, though not so as to render the account in-
credible; for, admitting these to be a fifth part of its
inhabitants, as they usually are of any place, as Bo-
chart {} observes, it makes the number of its inhabitants
to be but six or seven hundred thousand; and as many
there were in Seleucia and Thebes, as Pliny.fTelates
of the one, and Tacitus g of the other: and also much
cattle; and these more valuable than goods, as animals
are preferable to, and more useful than, vegetables;
and yet these must have perished 'in the common ca-
lamity. Jarchi understands by these grown-up per,
sons, whose knowledge is like the beasts that know


{w} Silentem, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Mercerus, Grotius, Tar-
movius; so Stockius, p. 397. and Burkius.
{x} Aratorium, Hyde.
{y} Via. Peritsol. Itinera Mundi, p. 146. & Hyde, Not. in ib.
{z} Travels, par. 1. B. 2. p. 162.
{a} Travels, par. 1. B. 2. ch. 34. p. 177.
{b} \^wvpn ta\^ animae suae, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius; ani-
mam suam, Burkius.
{c} \^tox\^ pepercisti, Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus, Burkius; peper-
cisses, Piscator.
{d} Eustathius in Dionys. Perieg. p. 125.
{e} Phaleg. l. 4. c. 20. p. 253.
{f} Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 26.
{g} Annal. l. 2. c. 60.