# So he calls Zion, or Jeruſalem ; partly, becauſe ſhe was pure in good meaſure from that groſs Idolatry wherewith other people were defiled, which is called Spirituai Whoredom: Partly, ro ligne, that God would defend ker trom that Rape which Sernacherib intended to commit upon her,with nolefs Care and Zeal, than Parents do their Virgin Daughters from thole who ſeek ro Force and Deflour then: : and partly, ro intimate, that as ſhe had not yet been rorced, and taken by her Barbarous Enemies, ſo ſhe ſhould ftill retain her Vir- ginity, in 1pight ofhis Attemprs againſt her. # 1. e. The People of
bow down thine ear, and hear : open, and ſee ; and hear the words of hath ſent him «s to reproach the
ENG
remote from me.
fred,
Tim come into the Land of Caraan at one Border Lebanon, and lreſolve to march on to the other extreme Border, and
{o to deſtroy the whole Countrey, fiom one border to another ; the borders of a Land bciag oft pur for the whole Land within its Bor- ders; as Exod. 8. 2. Pſal. 74+ 17. and 147. 14. Iſa. 54.12. Or, as1t is
in the Hebrew, into the Lodging of his Border ; tor which, 12 the Parallel place, 1ſa, 37. 24+ it is, i290 542 height of 115 varder, And fo this may be underſtood of errfalem ; which it is not probable, that in all his brags he would omit ; and againſt which, h's chief Deſign now lay, which he here calleth a loxzing, for its contemprtible ſmallneſs,
if compared with his great and vaſt Ciry of N:niveh ; or, as itis in Iſa, 37. the height, tor ts two famous Mountains, Zion and Mortah ; or for the Mountains which were round about Jeruſalem ; Pſal.125. 2. and he adds, of {:5 border, becauſe this Ciry was in the Border of Tudah ; as be ng parr ofitin the Tribe of Benjamin, and ner the Kingdom of the 'Yun Tribes, which was now in the 4ſjrians hands.
þ i. e- The Foreſt of Mount Carmel, which may ſeem to be another Inaccefſible Place; like Leban;n. Or, into his foreſt, and hs fruirful For Carmel, though properly it was a pleaſant and fruitful Mountain in the Tribe of Ifixchar, of which ſee 7oſb: 12: 22: yer it is oft us'd to fignifie, any fruitful place, as 1s manifeſt from Iſs; 10: 18: and 16; 10: ſer: 2: 79. And thus all the parts of the Land are here enumerated . the Mountains, the Citics, the Woods, and the Fruit- ful Fields. Or his fr:itful foreft ; to wit, Jeruſalem ; which is thought by many Interpreters, to ve called a Freſt, Jer 21: 14: Ezek: 20: 46,
a name which azrecs well enough to Cities, where Buildings are very numerous, and cloſe, and high, like Trees in a Foreſt. And if Feruſalem might be called a Foreſt, it might well be called Hezekiah's Carmel ; or, Fru:tfu! Place: becauſe his chict Strength,and Treaſure,& Fruit was now in it:and this lalt Word may ſeem to be added here, to intimate, that this was nor like other Foreſts, unfruitful, and barren. And fo boththis, and the foregoing words are underſtood of the ſame pizce, even of Jeruſalem 3 the Jait Branch being joined ro the former by way of Appoſition ; into the: lodging of his border, the foreſt of his Garmel;, or, his jruirful Fureſt; there being no more words 1n the Herew [ecxr,
24 I have digged and drunk ſtrange waters z, and * with the to'c of my feet havel dried up all the rivers * of || beſieged places &. | i Such as were never diſcovered nor uſed by others. And therefore | all thy endeavours to deprive me of water for my Army, 2 Chron: 2. 3. are Idle and Frunlels. k AndasT canfurnith my Army with Warer digged our of rhe Earth, by their Labour, and my Art; ſo I can deprive my Enemies of their Water, and can ary up their rivers, and thar with 1/:e ſole of my feet ; 7. e. With the March of my vaſt and numerous Army, who will eaſily do this, either by marching through them, . and each carrying part away with them : or by drinking every onea little of them : or by their pains, making many new Channels, and deriving the Waters of the River into them as Cyrus dried up Evpirates, and thereb y took Babylon. 6 25 || Haft thouu 1otheard long ago, howT have done
have I brought it to pats, that thou ſhouldeſt be to lay waite fenced cities ito ruinous heaps m,
! Haſt thou not long fince learned, that which ſome of thy Philo- ſophers could, and did reach thee ; that there is a Supreme and
Calamities were ſent, and ordered ; whole meer Inſtrument thou art, ſo that thou haſt no cauſe for thele vain Boaſtings ? This work 15 Mine, more than thine.
Conſtituted, or Purchaſed, or Adorned, for all theſe ways is this Hebrew Verb uſed ) i: { either jerulalem, which he now threatned ;
I
Or fenced,
Deur, 1. 10,
7
it, and of ancient times that I have formed ic 1? now || Or, # thou not
heard how
maae it : tet: on __ , long ago, owerful God, by whoſe Decreeand Providence ail theſe Wars and ,,, formed it of ancie TEL . times ?
Or, as it isin the Margent of our Bibles, ſhould 1
Haft thou nos heard that ( a Particle oft underſtood ) I have made (5. e. now bring
it to be
V+ M3.
Chap. Xx Pr
or rather, the Fewij> Nation, which he endeavoured to Root out : the Relative Pronoun, b2ing put without the Antecendent, which
5 laid waſte, and fenced cities to be
Zion; i. e. as it follows of Jeruſalem ; ſo called Synecdochically from the Mountain and City of Zim, which was an Eminent part of ir. Cities and Countries are oft called Morhers, as 2 San. 20. 19. and their Tnhabitants Daughters ; as Numb. 21+ 25. Joſb. 17. 16. Judges rt. 27. Pſal. 45. 13- and 137.8. y Laughed at all thy proud and impotent Threatnings. This is a Geſture of Contempr and Derifion ; of which, ſee Pſal. 22: 7. and 44 13. Jerr 18. 16. Mitch 27. 39. | 22 Whom haſt thou reproached and blatphemed ?
- and againſt whom haſt thou exalred thy voice z, and litr ap thine eyes on high a? even againſt the holy Ore of Irael 6. z By Raifhakeh, who cryed with a loud woice, Chop. 18, 28. a A Geſture of Pride, and Scornfulneſs, Prov, 21- 4. 6 Notagainſt Man bur againſt the H»/y God, who will nor ſuffer thy Impious Blaſphemies ro go unpuniſhed ; and againſ} the holy One of 1/-ael, who hath a ſpecial relation and kindneſs to 1rael, having as it were ſet himſelf apart for them, and ſet them apart for himſclf, as being at this time the Gad of the Jews only, and not the God of the Genriles ; whom, as yet, he ſuffered to walk in their own evil ways, A: 14. i6. And therefore he will Plead their Cauſe againſt thee.