Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_500.lzh/6_558.TXT

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Josh. x,i. 3& said by Jerom to be in his time no small
village, and to be about ten miles from Eleutheropolis;
called the glory of Israel, having been a royal city in
Joshua's time, Josh. xii. 15. and a fenced city in
the times of Rehoboam, 2 Chron. xi. 7. and Eusebius
says it was a large town; and Jerom says it was not a
small one in his time; though some think Jerusalem is
meant, the metropolis of the nation, Israel being put
for Judah, as in the preceding verse; and to be read,
he that is the enemy and heir shall come to Adullam,
yea, to the glory of Israel t; even to Jerusalem, the
most glorious city in all the tribes; though others are
of opinion that this is the character of the enemy or
heir that should come thither, called so by way of
contradiction, as coming to the reproach and disgrace
of Israel; or, ironically, whom Israel before gloried in,
when they had recourse to him for help. The margin
of our Bible reads, the glory of Isrod shall come to
Adullam; that is, the great men, the princes and heads
of the people, shall flee to the cave of Adullam {}, to
hide them from the enemy, where David was hid
from Saul; see 1 Sam. xxii. 1. Burkius ", a very late'
commentator, takes Adullam for an appellative, and
with Hillerus {x} renders it, the perpetuitj ofthe yoke;
and the whole thus, at the perpetuity of the yolce, the
glory of Israel shall come; that is, when all things shall
seem-to tend to this, that the yoke once laid on Israel
by the Gentiles shall become perpetual, without any
hope of deliverance, then shall come the Deliverer,
that is, Jesus, the Glory of Israel; and, adds he, God
forbid we should think of any other subject here; and
so he interprets the heir in the preceding clause of the
Messiah; and which is a sense far from being despicable,
Vet. 16. Make thee bald, and poll thee for th?! delicate
children, &c.] Which is said, either with respect to
Mareshah, or to Adullam, or to the whole land, as
Kimchi observes; rather to the latter; and that either
to Israel, or to Judah, or both; the prophecy in gene-
ral being concerning them both, vet. 1. making bald-
hess, whether by plucking off the hair, or by shaving
it, was used in token of mourning, Job i. 20. Jer. vii.
29. and so it is designed to express it here: the inha-
bitants of the !and are called to lamentation and weep-
ing for their children taken from them, whom they
dearly loved, and brought up in a delicate manner.
The Targum is," pluck offthy hair, and cast it upon
"the children of thy delight ;" and Sanctius observes;
that it was a custom with the Gentiles to cut off their
hair, and cast it into the graves of their kindred and
friends at their interment, to which be thinks the pro-
phet alludes: enlarge thy baldhess as the eagle; when
it toonits, and cast off' all its feathers, as it does in old
age, and so renews its youth; to which the allusion
seems to be in Paul. ciii. 5. Isa. xl. 31. or every year,
as birds of prey usually do at the beginning of the
spring. The Jewish writers {y} say this happens to
it every ten years; when, finding its feathers heavy
and unfit for flying, it makes a tour to the sun with
all its force it can, to get as near it as possible;
and, having heated its plumage excessively, it casts
itself into the sea for cooling, and then its feathers
fall off, and new ones succeed; and this it 'does
until it is a hundred years old; and to its then
state of baldhess, whilst it is moulttrig, is the .al-
Insion here; unless it can be thought any respect is
had to that kind of eagle which is called the bald
one. In Virginia {} there are three sorts of eagles; one
is the grey eagle, about tile size of a kite; another the
black eagle, resembling those in England; and a third
the bald eagle, so called because the upper part of the
neck and head are covered with a sort of white down:
but the former sort of baldhess seems to be intended,
which is at certain stated times, and not what always
is, and is only partial; for it denotes such an universal
baldhess to be made, as to take in all the parts of the
body where any hair grows; as expressive of the ge-
neral devastation that should be made, which would
be the cause of this greatmourning: for the.t/are gone
into captivity from thee; that is, the delicate childeeu
of Israel and Judah, and so were as dead unto them,
or worse: this was accomplished in Israel or the ten
tribes, partly by Tiglath-pileser, and more completely
by Salmaneser, king of Assyria, 2 Kings xv. o_9. and
xvii. 6. and in Judah or the two tribes, when Senna-
cherib came and took their fenced cities; and doubt-
less some of the inhabitants and their children were
carried captive by him, though not Jerusalem; and
therefore cannot be addressed here, as some do inter-
pret the words, unless the prophecy is to be extended
to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babyloninns.

In this chapter complaint is made of the sins of the
people o'f Israel, and they are threatened with punish-
ment for them. "The sins they are charged with are
covetousness, oppression, and injustice, which were
premeditated, and done deliberately, ver. 1, 2. there-
fore the Lord devised evil against them, they should
not escape; and Which would bring down their pride,
and cause them to take up a lamentation,-because they
should not enjoy the portion of land that belonged to
them, yet. 3, 4, 5. they are further charged with
opposing the prophets of the Lord, the folly and
wickedness of which is exposed, ver. 6, 7. and with
great inhumanity and barbarity, even to women and
children, ver. 8, 9. and therefore are ordered to expect
and prepare for a removal out of their land, vet. 10.
and the rather, since they gave encouragement and


{t} So Piscator Junius, Drusius.
{u} Ad Adullam veniet gloria lsraelis, Cocceius.
{w} He published Annotations on the twelve minor Prophets at Heil-
bronn, 1753, which he calls a Gnomon, wrote in imitation of Benge-
lius's Gnomon of the New Testament, whose son-in-law it seems he is,
and by whom his work is prefaced.
{x} Onomast. Sacr. p. 739.
{y} Saadiah Gaon apud Kimchi & Ben Melech in Psal. ciii. 5. & Isa.
xl. 31.
{a} See Harris's Voyages and Travels, vol. 2. p. 229, Lowthorp's Philo-
soph. Transact. abridged, vol. 3. p. 589.