Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_700.lzh/6_750.TXT

Text File | 1994-12-06 | 7KB | 132 lines

"the son of Areasis, king of Egypt, a very wonderful
"thing happened to the Egyptians; it rained at Thebes
"in Egypt, which it never had before, nor has ever
"since, as the Thebans say; for it never rains in the
"upper part of Egypt; but then it rained at Thebes in
"drops." Yet Mr. Norden {}, a !ate traveller in those
parts, says he "experienced at Meschie (a city in his
"travels to upper Egypt) a very violent rain, accom-
"panled with thunder, for the space era whole hour ;"
though in the same place he says, at Feschna, and
· beyond, in the upper Egypt, the sky is always serene
and clear. And in his travels from Cairo to Girge,
capital of the upper Egypt, he relates, that at a certain
place, as he went thither, they had little wind, and a
great deal of rain ". And in another place {} he ob-
serves, at Menie (a place in upper Egypt) there was
so thick a fog that we could perceive nothing at th'irty
paces distant: wherefore, since it does rain at times
in-some places, the same plagueas before may be
here meant; or want of provisions, as others, through
a defect of rain; or the Nile not overflowing and
watering the land, as Jarchi.interprets it: but Kimchi
gives another sense, and so Aben Ezra, which is, that
instead of having no rain, which they need not and do
not desire, they shall be smitten with the plague
that the Lord will smite all the nations with that fight
against Jerusalem, namely, their flesh shall consume
away, &c. vet. lo..
Ver. 19. This shall be the punishment of Egypt, &c.]
Or sin {d}, as in the original text: rightly is the word
rendered punishment, as it is by the Targum: and the
punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the
feast of tabernacles; which will be one and the same;
they shall have no rain, or what answers to it; they
shall all have a fitmine; .or it will be different, Egypt
shall be punished with a consumption of their flesh,
and the other nations with want of rain: the former
sense seems best.
Vet. 20. In-that day, &c.3 After the destruction
of antichrist and all the antichristian party, and a new
state of things will take place, either the spiritual or
personal reign of Christ: shall there be upon the bells
of the horses, Holiness unto the Lord; as was upon the
mitre of the high-priest, Exod. xxviii. 36. to which
there seems to be an allusion here: or, upon the trap-
pings of the horses {e}, as theTargum renders it; andthis
intends either the horses slain in war, whose bells or
trappings should be devoted and applied to holy uses; or
the horses that carried the people up to JerUsalem to
worship there, or horses in common. The Septuagint
and Vulgate Latin versions render it, on the bridle oJ' the
horse shall be Holiness to the Lord; that is, they should
be devoted to his service, which sometimes were very
richly adorned; yea, were of gold; as those described by
Virgil {f}; nay, they were adorned with precious stones,
with pearls, emeralds, and jacinths, insomuch that the
Romans were obliged to restrain this luxury by a law {g}.
The conceit of some of the fathers, that this refers to
one of the nails in the cross of Christ, which Constantine
put into his horse's bridle, is justly ridiculed and ex-
ploded by most commentators. It seems best to render
the wordas we do, bells, as Kimchi and Jarchi interpret
it; since it is used of cymbals made of brass, which were
to make a sound to be heard, 1 Chron. xv. 19. Neh. xii.
27. and of the same metal were the horses' bells made;
though those which the mules at the funeral of Alex-
ander had at each jaw were made of gold {h}; as were
those Aaron had at the hem of his robe. The use of
these bells on horses, according to Gussetius {i}, in the
eastern countries, where they travelled through de-
serts, and had n,,o beaten 'track, was to keep them
together, and that they might be known where they
were when parted; and of like use are they now to
horses of burden or packhorses with us; though in
common use they seem to serve to give horses a plea-
sure, and quicken them in their work: but the original
of them seems to be for the training of horses for war,
and therefore they hung bells to their bridles, to use
them to a noise, and to try if they could bear a noise,
and the tumu-lt of. war, so as not to throw their riders,
or expose them to dangers; hence one that has not
been tried or trained up to any thing is called by the
Greeks \~akwdwnistov\~, one not used to the n'oise of a be!l,
by a metaphor taken from horses, .that have never
been tried by the sound of bells, whether they can
bear the noise of war without fear {} :' and so it may
signify., that these, and all the apparatus of war, all
kind of armour, should no more be made use of for such
purposes, there being now universal peace in the king-
dom of Christ; wherefore these, and the like, should
be converted to sacred uses, just as swords, at the
same time, shall be beaten into ploughshares, and
spears into pruning-hooks, for civil uses, Isa. ii. 4. or,
since Holiness to the Lord is said to be upon' them,
the sense may be, that holiness-will be very ge-
neral among all men; all professing people will be
righteous; it will appear in all their actions, civil
as well as religious; .it will be as visible as the bells
upon the horses, by their frequent going to the
house of God; their constant attendance on public
worship; their walking in the ways of the Lord, and
their love to one another. And the pots in the Lord's
house shall be like the bowls before the altar'; 'the pots in
which they boiled the sacrifices shall be like the bowls
before the altar, which held the blood of the sacrifices
to be sprinkled; either like them for number; they
shall be many, like them, as the Targum paraphrases
it; or for goodness, being made of the same metal:
and the whole denotes the number, holiness, and ex-
cellency of the saints in the latter day, who will direct
all their actions to the glory of God, whether in eating
or drinking, or in whatever they do.
· ' Ver. 21. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in .Judah
shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts, &c.] Such will

{a} Travels in Egypt and Nubia, vol. 1. p. 140.
{b} Ib. vol. 2. p. 20.
{c} Ib. p. 209.
{d} \^tajx\^ peccatum, V. L.
{e} \^twlum le\^ in phaleris, Tigurine version.
{f} Anrea pectoribus demissa monilia pendent,
    Tecti auro, fulvum mandunt sub dentibus aurum.
                                             Virgil. AEneid. l. 7.
    Fraenaque bina meus, quae nunc habet aurea Pallas. AEneid. l. 3.
{g} Vid. Salmuth in Paneirol. Rer, Memorab. par. 1. tit. 48. p. 231.
{h} See Calmet's Dictionary, in the word Bella.
{i} Ebr. Comment. p. 715.
{k} Scholiast. Aristophan. in Ranis, Act. 1. Sc. 2. p. 214. Salmuth in
Pancirol. par. 2. tit. 9. De Campanis, p. 161. Hospinian. de Templis, l.
2. c. 26. p. 333.
{l} Vid. Scapulae Lexic. in voce \~kwdwi\~, & alios lexieograph.