prets the passage as meaning five out of sbi—f.ve pro- fessing the true religion, and one rejecting it ; and that one is hence called '• City of destruction," which is not its proper name, but a description indicative of its doom, Egypt and Ethiopia were then either under a joint rule or mider an Ethiopian sovereign. We can, therefore, understand the connection of the three subjects com- prised in this and the adjoining chapters. Chap, xviii is a prophecy against the Ethiopians, xix is the Burden of Egypt, and xx, delivered in the year of the capture of Ashdod by Tartan, the general of Sargon, predicts the leading captive of the Egyptians and P^thiopians, probably the garrison of that great stronghold, as a warning to the Israelites who trusted in tliem for aid. Chap, xviii ends with an isdication of the time to which it refers, speaking of the Ethiopians— as we imderstand the passage — as sending "a present" "to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the Mount Zion" (ver. 7). If this be taken in a proper and not a tropical sense, it would refer to the conversion of Ethiopians by the preaching of the law while the Temple yet stood. That such had been the case before the Gospel was preached is evident from the instance of the eunuch of queen Candace, whom Philip met on his return homeward from worshipping at Jerusalem, and converted to Christianity (Acts viii, 26-39). The Burden of Egypt seems to point to the times of the Persian and Greek dominions over that country. The civil war agrees with the troubles of the Dodecarchy, then we read of a time of bitter op- pression by " a cruel lord and [or " even"] a fierce king," probably pointing to the Persian conquests and rule, and specially to Cambyscs, or Cambyses and Ochus, and then of the drying of the sea (the Eed Sea ; compare xi, 15), and the river, and canals, of the destruction of the water-plants, and of the miserj' of the fishers and work- ers in linen. The princes and counsellors arc to lose their wisdom and the people to be filled with fear, all which calamities seem to have begun in the desolation of the Persian rule. It is not easy to imderstand what follows as to the dread of the land of Judah which the Egyptians should feel, immediately preceding the men- tion of the subject of the article : " In that day shall five cities in the land of Egvpt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the Lord of hosts; one shall be caUed Ir-ha-heres. In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord. And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt ; for they shall cry unto the Lord be- cause of the oppressors, and he shall send them a sav- iour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them" (xix, 18-20). The partial or entire conversion of Egypt is prophesied in the next two verses (21, 22). The time of the Greek dominion, following the Persian rule, may here be pointed to. There was then a great influx of Jewish settlers, and as we know of a Jewish town. Onion, and a great Jewish population at Alexandria, we may suppose that there were other large settlements. These would " speak the language of Canaan," at first literal- ly, afterwards in their retaining the religion and cus- toms of their fathers. The altar would well correspond to the temple built by Onias; the pillar, to the sj'na- gogue of Alexandria, the latter on the northern and western borders of Egypt. In this case Alexander would be the deliverer. We do not know, however, that at this period there was any recognition of the true God on the part of the Egyptians. If the prophecy is to be understood in a proper sense, we can, however, see no other time to which it applies, and must suppose that Ir-ha-heres was one of the cities parth' or wholly in- habited by the Jews in Egypt : of these, Onion was the most important, and to it the rendering, " One shall be 1 called a city of destruction," would apply, since it was destroyed by Titus, while Alexandria, and perhaps the other cities, yet stand. If the prophecy is to be taken tropically, the best reading and rendering are matters of verbal criticism.— Smith: Kitto. See Isaiah.
IR-HAM-MELACH
657
IRON
I
Ir-ham-Melach (nban ^^^', citj of the salt, so called prob. from the salt rocks still found in that vicin- ity; Sept. j) noXiQ rm> «\wr,Vulg. civitus salis, Auth. Vers. " City of Salt"), a city in the Desert of Judah, mentioned between Nibshan and En-gedi (Josh, xv, 62) ; probably situated near the south-western part of the Dead Sea. Compare the " Valley of Salt" (2 Sam. viii, 13 ; Psa. Ix, 2).
Ir-hat-Temarim (D'^l^tT'L' '^"'"' f'"':!/ 'if '^'« pahm, so called prob. from a palm grove in its neigh- borhood; Sept. TToXiQ (poiviKiov, or ») ttoXic twv (poivi- cwVjVulg. civitas palmnnim, Auth. Vers, "city of palm- trees"), a place near or identical with Jkricho (Deut. xxxiv, 3; Judg. i, 16; iii, 13; 2 Chron. xxviii, 15), which now, however, is utterly destitute of palm-trees,