337
Hebrews nj, fi Xvjv'os, is feminine ; but to rfa Xqvov there is added a masculine adjective, after the Hebrew custom (see Buxtorf. Tlies. pp. 338, 399, 423) : and this certainly here tends to an amplification of the sense : as also among the Greeks.1 See Budsei Comm. L. Gr. col. 1500, 1501. Formerly some thus interpreted it, without per- ceiving the Hebraism, He cast the great , that is, the haughty, an- cient enemy, into the wine-press of the wrath of God. Thus Primasius has it, and Ansbert.
20. A/>a, blood) the blood of clusters of grapes, red wine, that is, the blood of the wicked. The Figure Metalepsis. The slaughter of the wicked is intimated, not their eternal torture. Other enemies also afterwards fall into the wine-press: ch. xix. 15. — dypi ruv yaX/- vuv ruiv fatfcov, d<7rb arc&diuv yjk'iuv s j'axoff/ojv, unto the bridles of the horses , by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs) Each phrase denotes a deep and long torrent of blood. Comp. ch. xi. ’a tto Grabtwv, x.r.X., is also used of an interval of space, John xi. 18. Some followers of the Rabbinical school refer this to the circuit or to the length of Palestine. But its length, even if you include the districts which are lofty and secure from inundation, is much less ; its circuit is much greater. What if the valley Kidron , which lies between the city Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives (Acts i. 12), be meant ? For the torrent in that valley, together with its wind- ings, and in the sea itself, as far as it shall be stained with blood, may have a length of 1600 furlongs. Let us take the expression literally. [Comp. Ezek. xxxii. 6. — V. g.]