reeds or cubits give the height of the wall, which is not much less than the height of the city, or rather equal to it. For height is especially regarded in walls, as the epithets even of the Greek and Latin poets prove. The 12,000 stadia, since they are mentioned absolutely, were those in use among men : the 144 either cubits or reeds were not those of men, but angelico-human, much greater than those of men. Whether there were 144 reeds or cubits, the comparison of the 12,000 stadia exhibits the same height of wall. But yet there is a strong argument which advises us rather to take them as reeds. For it is not shown how many cubits a reed con- tains : and it might contain four cubits, because four cubits measure the stature of a man ; or six cubits, as in Ezek. xl. 5. Therefore, if the wall was of 144 cubits, it would not be known of how many reeds also it was : and therefore the golden reed , which is called the measure , would be an unknown, that is, no measure in reality. The height of the wall wras ascertained, the angel applying his reed 144 times. The measure of the reed is frequently noticed in Ezekiel in a similar argument, and by ellipsis ; and in one instance, ch. xlii. 17, just as here in the Apocalypse. The Greeks have inserted cnj^s/g. See Meyer de Ultimis Ezech. p. 26, etc. The Hebrews often construe the numeral adjective and the substantive in the plural and singular number ; for instance, PHD nymtO, Ezek.
xlviii. 30, 33. And thus John, Ixccr'ov neaa.pdx.ovr a naadpuv /u'&rpov. John dvOpunosidoog shdpries, saw in human appearance , as Andreas of Caesarea says, the angel measurer : therefore u that measuring pole,” says Grotius, 66 was of the same size as the stature of the human form, in which the angel appeared, and therefore the cubits also were ac- cording to that measure.” Grotius might have spared the clause respecting the cubits.
18. *H svdo/xrieig) Hesychius, hd^eig (for it is written with u and o) oiKohoiAT). Therefore the structure itself of the wall is here of jasper, as it is commonly of stone. ’Ey, in this particular com- pound word, has the sense of entirely.
19. Ksx.oe{Aruu,evoi, garnished ) That is, built and adorned : for the very foundations are jewels ; as the very gates are pearls. Con- cerning Adamant , see Hiller's Syntagm. pp. 35, 36. An abbre- viated expression, as in Vitruvius, 1.x. c. 20, pluteum , turriculce similitudine ornatum. Herodotus, lib. i. concerning Babylon, sx.sxoe- fjjr\ro 5s ug oud'cv dXXo noX/opa, where he calls the ditch, the wall, and the gates, the ornament of the city.