enemy, whirh rcpl!tces the ordinary joy- -his insoripti1>n, epo.,k81 of b&villg robuill a song of the vintngers (see \'er. 10). city oalled "Beth•Bnmotb "· (1,,27),· whioh Vc•r. 10.-The plentifnl field; Jlcbre~, Ynnst have been a "oi1iy of, :hlgl, ip\nces : " C',armel. The word onrnwl seems to desif and he even calls the et.lU ,vhioh· he dedi- natc "gnrden," or ·• orchard gro'\rnd" gene- oates to Chemoslt, ·whel'llon hie 1nsoriptlon rally, without referC'nce to the degree of ill written, a b11Jm1Ih1 or' •••high pl11cci.'.1 fertility. It is generally rentlered hy our That hi! llhall 00111.e to hill a¬uar:, . '.. hilt translators "frnitfn l lield," which i~ riglit, he shall not, etc.: ralh!lr,an1H1ae'o()me ,nto if we regard ·« frnitful" as equh·aleut to his stinctuary, that he shall not. P.''efiail, • ' "frnit-producing." No singing . . . no Ver. 13.-Thie is the word,• etll. The ahouting. Those who have heard the vin- third and concluding section' bogina heni. tage-songs in the north of Italy and else- This prophecy, Isaiah enys, ie one, not now where will appreciate the sadness of this delivered for the first time, but existent silenoo. 'The trcaders shall tread out no prt;viously. How long-pre~w,nsl~~ heile~v,i,s -wine in their press&s. Wine-presses were qmte vogue. ,. ~- • . .,- • •. . ·:• in or near 1he vineyards. They consisted Yer.14.-llut now:. "~ow:".i.Llln a'ddition of two ,nts, or two reservoirs cut in the hits been' made. to th'e prophecf. Isa:iah is rock, one nbove the other, with a passage of authorized to announce :that in three yeoTs' communiC11tion bdween them. The grapes time, 'Counted_ as st\-ictly' as. '~ssible,' th\3 were placed in the upper vnt or reservoir~ . jndgmlliit pronOuncea·'shall 'f~ll' on Moab; and were crushed by the nl\lred feet of the her 1 ' gI·oif" shnll b.!l t\1~neii~foto:-ehame, vintngers. Soi.ncfirnrs as many as seven ber 11 17\ult1tude" shnll be cufoftl,: ana 'only persons " trod • l'he wine-J)l'ess" together a " remnB11t '' shall be' left; w'eak; sman, and (Wilkinson, 'Ancient Egyptians,' vol. i. p. powerless. As the years 'of.'an hireling. 45). It was nsnnl for them to sing as they Counted with the utmost exactness. A trod (Jcr. xxv. :lO; xlviii. 33). I have hireling would not consent· to serve a day made thrir viuta;e shouting to cease. The longer than his contract bound him, nor prophet is the mouthpiece of God. Acci- would his master tonserit tha:t he slioul'd dentally, :is it were, he here betrays the serve a day short of it.. Witli;all that great personality which is behind him. It ie not multitude: We l;iave·.no meO:ris of B(',C!Jrntely he, but God. whn has ce.uaed the invasion estimating the population, o( MQ.ii.b. The which has reel. urcd the vintagers to silence. entire nrea of the region whicli tho Moal:lites Ver. ll.-14y bowels shall aollil.d like an inhe.bited seems to· have· been not· more harp for Moab; i.e. they shall vibrate with than fiftern hundred" ·square miles. The thrills of grief (Kay). greater part 'of :ff '.was; however, :exe11ed- Ver. 12.-Whcn it is seen that Moab is ingly fertile; and we nre, per\ia'ps, justified weary; rather, when Moab shows him&lj, in ,u.lowing it a pop.ulatioi1 of 't'wo 'hundred and has wenried hirru;clf. The heathen to ·the sq-qare mile, which is o:bout1 that· of " thoug-ht to be heard for tl.itir much speak- Germany.' ThiH would giv~ ·three hundred ing" (l\Ialt. ,i. 7). They endeavoured to thousand· inhe.):)itants, of whom ,the- ailult · weary their guds into granting their prayers males would be seventy.five ·•thousand. (1 Kings xviii. 26), and freqnenlly suc- Feeble; ''literally, 'not powerful';' Le. very ceeded in wearying themselves. On the much the contrary, vory weak, M<;iiib seems high place. "liig'h plooes" (bamoth) were to have offered a verf slight' res_i~ta.'noe t.o commou to the Monbites, with the other Asshursbani-pnl "(G. Smith, "Bistor:f'·of natioil.l! of Syria and Palestine. Mesha, in Asshur-bari_i-pal;' p. 2'59), • • ' ••
HmrILE1'ICS. : Vers. 1-5.-Gocl's offer of mercy to the si,,ner. Scarcely ever does G:od puni'sh sin by a sudden unannounced visitation, or without previous ;warping to the ijinner of what is comfog upon him. And this warning is almost always accompanied _by an offer of merer. God has" .no 1,l€asure in the death of: him that dieth•" (1!:zek- xviii . .82); he" would not that any shoul<l perish, but that all should come to repentance!li(2 Pet.• iii. 9). And therefore Le warns men. He warned ?ve~ the ungodly world. ~fore tho Flood by the preaching of Noah; he warned the Nmev1tes by Jonah; he now warned the Moabites by Isaiah; lie warned the Jews of later times by John thii Baptist, by liis Son, by the apostles. And all equally in vain. How often do we not see in ca'!es of this ki11d- ·" I. THE OFFER JUDE, Sometimes by an inw;lrd awak.eni~ of the con~cieri<;e,:m?i'e often \,y J:roacb,ing or t,eaching from without, the sil)ner is s~artled, alarp:i~d,, made to eec: Li" sin and feel liis danger. Mercy is offered to him, if he will repent and amt•nd; 011, XVI, 1-14,) THE BOOK OF 'l'HE PROPHET ISAIAH. 279