Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_700.lzh/6_703.TXT

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to have wings, and under the influence of the spirit of
God; hence the wind, or spirit f, is said to be in their
wings; and they acted from a tender regard to the
glory of God and the good of their country; and
therefore their wings were like the wings of a stork; a
bird of passage, asappears from Jer. viii. 7- and so a fit
emblem to be used in the transportation of the ephah;
of wbom Plinyg says, from whence they come, and
whither they betake themselves, is yet unknown; and
adds, there is no doubt that they come from afar; as
it is plain they must, if that relation be true, which
seems to have good authority, that one of these crea-
tures, upon its return to Germany, brought a green
root of ginger with it; which must come from the
eastern part of the world; from Arabia, or Ethiopia.
or the East Indies, where it grOWSh: and as it is a
bird that takes such long flights, it must have wings
fitted for such a purpose; and which are taken notice
of in Job xxxix. 1.3. to which the wings and feather of
the ostrich are coinpared; for so Bochart {i} there ren-
ders the word, tins wing of the ostriches rejoices, trulff
the wing' as of a. stork, and the feather ; or, as others,
who gave wings to the stork and ostrich g both remark-
able for their wings: and Vatablus renders the word
here an ostrich; which, according to Pliny {k}, is the
largest of birds, and almost as big as a beast. In
Ethiopia and Africa they are taller than a horse and
-his rider, and exceed the horse in swiftness; and, their
wings seem. to be given thein to help them in running;
but which. a, re not sutficient to lift them.much above
the earth, and so can't be meanthere; but rather the
stork, whose wings are black and white; and when
they fly, they stretch out their necks tbrwards, and
their feet backwards, and with these direct their
course; when a tempest 'rises, standing on both feet,
they spread tbeir w. ings, lay their bill upon their breast,
and turn their fiice that way the storm comes {}. The
Targum renders. it an eagle, which iS the swiftest of
birds. and whose wings are very strong to bear any
thing upon them, as they do their young, to which the
allusion is, Dent. xxxii. 11. and so, if meant here, 'to
lift up and bear away the ephah between the earth and
the heaven; but the word is never used of that bird.
The Hatpies or Furies, with the lieathens, are repre-
sented, as women having 'wincesra as these women are
said to have; but these are very different women from
them. Though some think the Romans, under Ves-
pasian arid Titus, are intended; but it may be that
the t'wo, perfections of God,  his power and justice, in
punishing 'men for their sins, are meant, particularly
in the last times, and at the day of judgment. The
power of God will be seen in raising the dead; in
bringing all to judgment; in separating the wicked
from the righteous. and in the execution of the sen-
ten,ce denounced on the.m: and the jus.tiee of God will
be very conspicuous in the judgment and destruction
of them. And the wind was in their wings; they had
wings, as denoting swiftness, as angels are said to
have ;. hence Maimonides, as Kimchi observes. thought
that angels are here meant; but this denotes, that
though God is long-suffering, and may seem to defer
judgment, which is sometimes a stumbling to the
righteous, and a hardening to the wicked; yet, as this
is only for the salvation of his elect, so when,once the
time is .up, and the commission given forth, power
and justice will speedily execute the sentence: and the
wind being in their wings shews the greater swiftness
and speed ih the dispatch of business, and the great
strength and force with which they performed it: for
they had wings like the wings of a stork; which, being
a creature kind and tender, shew that there is no
cruelty in the displays of the power and justice of
God in punishing sinners: and they 1..ifted up the ephah
between. the earth and the heaven; which denotes the
visibility of the whole measure ef the sins of wicked
men; they will all be made manifest, and brought into
judgment: and als0 the visibility of their punishment;
they'll go into everlasting punishment,. in the sight of
angels and men; and which will be the case of the
antichristian beast, Rev. xvii. 8.
Ver. i0. Then said I to the angel that talked with
&c.] This the prophet said after he had seen the
ephah come forth; the woman, wickedness, cast into it,
and the talent of lead upon her; and the two women
lifting u,p the ephah between heaven and earth: whi-
ther do these bear the ephah ? he neither asks what the
ephah signified, nor who were the women that bore it,
but only whither they bore it.
Ver. 11. And he said unto me, to build it an house
in the land oJ' Shinar, &c.] That is, in the province
of Babylon, as the Targum paraphrases it; for Babel,
or Babylon, was in the land of Shinar, Gen. x. 10. and
xi. 2. whither the Jews were carried captive, Dan. i.
Isa. x.i. 11,.- and the bearing of the ephah thither may
denote the cause of their captivity., the measure of sins
filled up by them: though this some understand of
the like injuries, oppressions, and vexations, brought
upon the Chaldeans in the land of Shinar, which they
before exercised towards and upon the Jews; -an, d
others of the rejection of wicked men from among the
Jews, by Ez, ra and Nrehemiah, transporting them as it
were back to Babylon again :. others of the dispersion
of the Jews by the Romans, w-ho chiefly settled after
that in the eastern parts of the world; .though indeed
the whole world was a land of Shinar, or shaking out
unto them ;. they being shook out of their own land,
and scattered about everywhere; which dispersion
has been long and lasting, notorious and conspicuous;
and they are now settled upon their own base, esta-
blished upon their former principles of legality and
self-righteousness,. and rejection of the true Messiah;
or rather this may be understood of the transfer of the
ephah, or whole measure of iniquity, into mystical
Babylon. The antichristian church of Rome is called
Babylon; she is represented as a sink of sin, a mystery
of iniquity, Rev.-xvii. 5. and a house being. built for
this man of sin, antichrist, denotes the continuance
of him; and being established on its own base, shews

{f} \^xwr\^ spiritus, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Calvin, Burkius.
{g} Nat. Hist. l. 10. c. 23.
{h} Vid. Bochart. Hierozoic. par. 2. l. 2. c. 29. col. 328, 332.
{i} Ibid. c. 16. col. 247, 248.
{k} Nat. Hist. l. 10. c. 1.
{l} Schotti Physica Curiosa, par. 2. l. 9. c. 26. p. 1162.
{m} Harpyiae & magnis quatiunt clangoribus alas. Virgil. AEneid. l. 3.
ver. 223.
{n} \^renv Ura\^ terra excussionis, Menoch ins.