Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_500.lzh/6_555.TXT

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ful noise, especially the screech-owl. The Targum
interprets it of the ostrich {}; and it may be meant
either of the mourning it makes when its young are
about to be taken away, and it exposes itself to danger
on their account, and perishes in the attempt. AElia-
nus {} reports that they are taken by sharp iron spikes
fixed about their nest, when they are returning to
their young, after having been in quest of tbod for
them; and, though they see the shining iron, yet such
is their vehement desire after their young, that they
spread their wings like sails, and with great swiftness
and noise rush into the nest, where they are transfixed
with the spikes, and die: and not only Vatablus ob-
serves, that these creatures have a very mournful
voice; but Bochart {b} has shewn, from the Arabic
writers, that they frequently cry and howl; and from
John de Laet, who affirms that those in the parts about
Brasii cry so loud as to be heard half a mile; and in-
deed they have their name from crying and howling.
The Targum renders it by a word which signifies plea-
sant; and so Onkelos on Lev. xi. 16, by an antiphrasis,
because its voice is so very unpleasant. Or, since the
words may be rendered, the daughters of the ostrich {},
it may be understood of the mourning of its young,
when left by her, when they make a hideous noise and
miserable moan, as some observe {d}.
Ver. 9. I;br her wound is incurable, &c.] Or her
stroke is desperate {e}. The ruin of Samaria, and the ten
tribes, was inevitable; the decree being gone forth,
and they hardened in their sins, and continuing in their
irapenitence; and their destruction was irrevocable;
they were not to be restorad again, nor are they to this
day; nor will be till the time comes that all Israel
shall be saved: or she is grievously sick of her wounds;
just ready to die, upon the brink of ruin, and no hope
of saving her; this is the cause and reason of the above
lamentation of the prophet: and what increased his
grief and sorrow the more was, for it is come' unto Ju-
dah; the calamity has reached the land of Judah; it
stopped not with Israel or the ten tribes, but spread
itself into the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin; for
the Assyrian army, having taken Samaria, and carried
Israel captive, in a short time, about seven or eight
years, invaded Judea, and took the fenced cities of Jn-
dab iu Hezekiah's time, in which Micah prophesied.
tte is come unto the gate of my people, even to Jerusa-
lem; Sennacherib, king of Assyria, having taken the
fenced cities, came up to the very gates of Jerusalem,
and besieged it, where the courts of judicature were
kept, and the people resorted to, to have justice done
them; and Micah, being of the tribe of Judah,cails them
his people, and was the more affected with their distress.
Ver. 10. Declare ye it not at Gath, &c.] A city of
the Philistines, put tbr all the rest.: the phrase is bor-
rowed from 2 Sam. i. c20, where the reason is given,
and holds good here as there; and the sense is, not
that the destruction of Israel, or the invasion of Judea,
or the besieging of Jerusalem, could be hid from the
Philistines; but that it was a thing desirable, was it
possible, since it would be matter or' rejoicing to them,
and that would be an aggravation of the distress of
Israel and Judah: weep ye not at all; that is, before
the Philistines, or such4ike enemies, lest they should
laugh and scoff' at you; though they had reason to
weep, and did and ought to weep in secret; yet, as
much as in them lay, it would be right to forbear it
openly, because of the insults and reproach of the
enemy. The learned Reland f suspects that it should
be read, weep not in Acco: which was auother city in
Palestine, to the north from the enemy, as Gath was to
.the south; and observes, that there is a like parono-
russia {g} in the words, as in the places after mentioned.
Acco is the same with Ptolemais, mentioned in Acts
xxi. 7. see the note there. It had this name from
Ptolemy Lagus king of Egypt, who enlarged it, and
called it after his own name; but Mr, Maundrell {h} ob-
serves," now, since it hath been in the possession of
"the Turks, it has, according to the example of many
"other cities in Turkey, cast off its Greek, and reco-
"vered some semblance of its old Hebrew name again,
"being ca'lied Acca, or Acra. As to its situation (he
"says) it enjoys all possible advantages, both of sea
"and land; on its north and east sides it is corn-
" passed with a spacious and fertile plain; on the west
"it is washed by the Mediterranean sea; and on the
"south by a large bay, extending from the city as
"far as Mount Carmel." In the house of Aphrah roll
thyself in the dust; as mourners used to do, sit in the
dust, or cover their heads with it, or wallow in it;
this is allowed to be done privately, in houses or in
towns distinct from the Philistines, as Aphrah or
Ophrah was, which was in the tribe of Benjamin,
Josh. xviii. 23. called here Aphrah, to make it better
agree with Sphar, dust, to which the allusion is: and
it may be rendered, in the house of dust roll thyself in
the dust; .having respect to-the condition houses would
be in at this time, mere heaps of dust and rubbish, so
that they would find enough easily to roll themselves
in. Here is a double reading; the Keri, or marginal
reading, which the Masora directs to, and we follow,
is, roll thyself: but the Cetib, or writing, is, Ihave rolleel
myself {}; and so are the words of the prophet, who be-
fore says he wailed and howled, and went stripped
and naked; here he says, as a further token of his sor-
row, that he rolled himself in dust, and as an example
for Israel to do the like. This place was a village i.
the times of Jerom {k} and was called Effrem; it was
five miles from Betb-el to the east.
Ver. 11. Pass ye away, thou inhabitant of Saphir,
&c.] A village, according to Eusebius {l}, between
Eleutheropolis and Ashkelon; perhaps the Same with
Sephoron; it is mentioned among the cities of Judah,
in the Greek version of Josh. xv. 48. Calmer {m} conjec-
tures the prophe't intends the ci-ty of Sephoris or Sc-

{z} So the Vulgate Latin, Munster, Pagninus, Drusius, Bochartus, and
others.
{a} De Animal. l. 14. c. 7.
{b} Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 2. c. 14. col. 228.
{c} Filiarum struthionis, Pagninus; juvenes struthiones, Tigurine
version.
{d} Vid. Frantz. Hist. Animal. Sacr. par. 2. c. 2. p. 339, 342.
{e} \^hytwkm hvwna\^ desperata est plaga ejus, V. L.; plagae ejus, Mon-
tanus, Drusius.
{f} Palestina IIIustrata, tom. 2. p. 534, 535.
{g} \^wkbt la wkb\^.
{h} Journey from Aleppo, &c. p. 54.
{i} \^yvlpth\^ volutavi me, De Dieu.
{k} De locis Hebr. fol. 88. H.
{l} Ad vocem \~safeir\~.
{m} Dictionary, in the word Saphir.