Ruth,had!Moabitp blood in hie veins. ~laim,a Moabite kiog, had reigned atJepcho; but 11;, fearful war, th11 last of '.David's, _had crushed, almost extirpated, Moab (2 Sam. viii,; 1 Chron. xviii,). On the division of t_he kingdom, M'oab fell under the dominion of Israel, and -paid its kings nn enormous tribute (2 Kings iii. 21). On the death of. A·hab this.tribute was refused, and Moab, in alliance with the Ammonites and others, attacked the kingdoµi. pf Judah (2 Chron. xx.), A fearful· disaster followed, and Israel, Judah, and Edom un.i,tQ~ io an aUack upon the Moabites, who, deceived by a stra.tagem, were ov~oomc with fearful carnage. ,And then, to crown these horrors, the king Mesha.,:baving retreated to the stroog place of Kir-Hareseth, was seen by tbe host of Israel sacrificing his own son.upon tha walls, as an extreme measure, with a view to obtain deliverance from the gods of the land. From that time we know little of the fortunes of Moab until the date of this prophecy, a.bout a century and a. half later, n.c. 726. She had regained the lost ground, and was settled in the territory north of the Amon, when this di~aster oveti,ook her► Ewald thinks that three prophets were concerned in thi11 •• :
prophecy, and that it is\preserved in Jer. xlviii. moro ne~rly in its original form. . H. TUE :PATrn;>s OF.:MoAn's FATE, The whole description is characterized by a tone or deep sympa.thy. · '.l;:he prophet's heart is torn by son;ow and compassion; it melts with tenderness. The mood is elegiac rather than prophetic. The fragment is unique among tho elder prophets!;· even -in Hosea-there is nothiog quite like it (Ewald). "la a night 'Ar-Moab is ·laid waste,'· destroyed ; for in a night Kir-Moab is laid waste, destroyed." Perhaps the ruins of the capital and the fortress may be identified by antiquariaus; perhaps not. But what is. more important to us to notice is the ~atho.~ of ruined cities. What a.re they but the speaking symbols of man's efforts and man\ failures, his soariog ambition, bis profound disappointment and humiliation? So the .poet in our own time amidst the colossal ruios of Egypt: "I surveyed the generntions of rnan':f~QJll. Ramcses-.the .Great and.'.Memnon the bei1,utiful, to the solitary pilgrim whose presence now violated the sanctity'of those gorgeous sepulchres. And I found that the history of my race was,but one tale of rapid destruction and gradual decay. And in the anguish of my heart' I lifted up my bands to-the blueicther, aa'id I said,' Is there no hope? What is knowledge,and what is truth?' How shall I gain wisdom?'" (Disraeli). A city is to the passionate faney -of proph,et and poet as a living person, a. woman glorious in her beauty, and extorting tears from the onlooker in her fall. He sees the people going up t,o ~\:te,central tern-pie of _the land_, laot to rejoice, but to weep. Every head is bald, and~every·beard is torn in sign of mourning for the derarted. Figures ll!OV~ ab~tin-the m~rkct-places, not in holiday attire, bu_t. in sackcloth; .an the .Ioofs and in tha s.treets univ~r~l waUi11g is heard, and there is beheld as it were a deluge of tears. .The hill Heshbon cries, and Elealeh returns, a p.o1low sound, and. from far-off ;Iahaz an echo comes. T~~ .h~f~es' hearts ,~e •p11,ralyzed;. t~ey.cry out with the women. in helpless lamentation. The very heart of the land trembles; it is an earthqUAke of woe. In suddeu ~$lllitt\'ls, .th\'l sudden. deaths of. individuals, the ·sudden fall of cibie~. there is an ,axpf\'lSBion of. the mystery, of destiny which_ overwhc~m11 the, soul. • Goethe; after descriping the aw£ttl earthquake of Lisbon in 1755, which "spread a vast horror over a world,)already accustomed to peace and rest," ~peaks of his own feelj.ngs as a boy on hearing the details often repeated. " He was no little moved. God the Creator and .Upholder of peaven and earth, whom the explanatiou of the first article of belief repre- sented as so wise and generous, had, in dealing out like destruction to the just and the uojuet, by no means acted as a father. In vain his young spirit strove to recover from these impressions; and it was the less possible, because the .wise men_ and the doctOIS could not _agree on the manoer in which the phenomenon: should be viewed." Without attempting to unravel the tragic enigmas of existence, it may be well to note how deep is the abyss of thought and passion in our own hearts opened by the tale of such horrors; and thus to leam something of that Divine sympathy which broods over nature and over men, and tq be reminded of those tears shed over Jerusalem, already seen by Jesus in the lurid light of its approaching doom. IIL THE SYMPATHY OF THE PROPHET. It is expressed in appropriate figures. His heart cries out with passionate yearning towards Moab. 'I'he city of Zoar seems to him as a heifer of three years old, in all the uncxhaustod fnlness of its strength. This is an ima~e .of a fair und fertile land, applied also to Egypt and to Babylon (Jcr. xlvi. 20, xiv.iii. a~; 1.11; cf. Hos. iv. 16; x.11). The roads 11rc filled with fugitives, weepiog 2,2 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [on. n. 1-9.