The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 279

11nd raising t.be crlea of death and despair. At Nimrim, the "fair waters," the eprlnga have been filled up with rubbish, and will probably be a waste for ever. The greonnel!s of the spot has vanished beneath the hand of the conqueror, and the fugitives, with their savings and stores, are seen hurrying across the brook of the willows into the 1erritory of Edom. From south to north, from Eglaim to Beer-Elim, there is wailing, there is wailing! Dimon or Dibon's (perhaps the Amon) waters are full of blood. And yet a further perspective of evil opens. A lion is to be brouyht upon the fugitives and the survivors; probably Judah, as this animal was Juda.ha tribal ensign (Gen. xlix. 9). But we must be content to leave the passage obscure. IV. '.M:usnws A.KONG THE BU"INS oF MOAB. The land has been but seldom visited by Europeans, nnd their descriptions vary; but all agree in stating that the country is covered ~·ith an extraordinary number of ruins. Of the language we do not know very much, but the Moabite Stone shows that it was closely akin to Hebrew. Of the religion we know still less. Of what nature was their great god Chemosh, whose worship Sulornon introdured into and Josiah expelled from Judah? Here almost all is con- jectural, and imagination has free course and unchecked play amidst the ruins of Moab. The ruin.s are sgmbolic of human greatness, of human diseases and decay. "All things have their end: Temples and cities, which have diseases like to man, Must have like death that we have." The mouldering stones sermonize with silent eloquence on the old text, • Vanity of vanities; all is vanity." They remind us of man's short life and long hopes. He builds for a thousand years, though he may have but as many months to live. Thus, bearing their witness to the aspiration for immortality, the passion to create the beautiful that shall not die, venerable ruins ofremote antiquity have a lofty spiritual expr888ion. "There is given Unto the things of earth, which time bath bent, A Bpirit's feeling: and where he bath leant His hand, but broke his scythe, there is o. power And magio in the ruined battlement, For1 which the palaoe of the present hour Must yield its pomp, and wait till ages are its dower.• They remind m, by contrast of that which/alls not into ruin-the edifice ofGod In the human spirit; the shrine not to be found on the mounts of Moab or of Judah; the living altar on which the fire goes not ont from age to age ; the element in life which abides for ever, when this world and the lust thereof bath passed awa.y.-J. Vem.1-9.-National distress. In theBB very vigorous touches we havo- L A FINE BUT FEAEFUL PICTURE OF NATIONAL DISTBESB, We see two or the principal cities attacked, unexpectedly, in the night, taken by assault and ravaged with the merciless cruelties of ancient war (ver. 1); we see the inhabitants flocking to their national temples to weep, "with lamentable voice," over their humiliation ; we Bee them resorting to the last indignities, self-inflicted, in order to express more forcibly than words can do the extremity of their woe (ver. 2); we see them neglecting their daily labour and going up to their house-tops, there to pour forth their loud laments (ver. 3) • we see the very army dispossessed of its manliness and weeping like n com- pany of'women (ver. 4); we see fugitives hastening into exile with bitter cries, more r81iembling the lowing of the kine for their calves than the voice of man or woman (ver. 5) • we see the land afflicted with drought and white with famine (ver. 6); we see those who had wealth to lose stealing away with their precious things, hoping they may eecrete and save them (ver. 7); we see the waters of the land red with the blood of her slau<>htered sons and daughters (ver. 9); and in the background, where we might hope to fi~d some break in the blackness of the vision, we see the wild beast& that haunt the depopulated land hungry for their prey (ver. 9). II. AN INTIJllATION or COLLECTIVE BEBPONBIBILITY. It cannot be doubt.ad that this fearful !ate was a judgment from Heaven, otherwise it wouid not have been thus fore- told by the mouth of God's prophet. M0&b was to be brought low, to be W&Bt.ed, to be 011, xv. 1-9.J THE _BOOK OF' THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 273