The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 318

obeened above that Pie.nkhi will not anewer in grain or vegetables (Herod., ii. 14), ·" to this deBCription. It will, however, well either case prodacing the most luxuriant 11uit Esiirhaddon. Eee.rhnddon, soon after crops. All, however, depended on the in- his aoceesion, out off the heads of Abdi- undation, e.nd,'if that failed, or eo far as it Milkut, King of Bidon, e.nd of 81mdue.rri, failed, the results predicted by the prophet King of Kundi, e.nd hung them round the would ha.ppen. necks of two of their chief officers (G. Smith, Ver. 8.-The llsher■ also ahall mourn. The 'Eponyru Co.non,' pp. 137-189). In an fisherman's trade W8.'!I extensively practised tl:lpedition whioh he me.de iuto Are.hie., he in ancient Egypt, and a.nything which in- 11lew eight of the sovereigns, two of them terfered with it would neces,,arily be re- being womon (' Records of the Past,' vol. iii. ga.rded as a great calamity. A large class pp. 106, 107). On conquering Egypt he supported itself by the capture e.nd salf treated it with extreme severity. Not only of fish fresh or salted. The Nile produced did he divide up the country into twenty great abundance of fish, both in its main governments, but he changed the names of stream and in its canals e.nd backwa.ters. the towns, e.nd assigned to his twenty Lake Mcaris a.oo provided a.n extensive sup- governors, as their miiin duty, that they ply (Herod., ii. 149). All they that oast were " to slay, plunder, o.nd spoil" their angle into the brooks; rather, into the river. subjects (G. Smith, 'History of Asshur- Fishing with a book we.a practised in Egypt, bani-pe.l,' p. 37, 1. 7; comp. p. 16, I. 7). He though not very widely, except a.a an certainly well deserved the appellations of amusement by the rich. Aetna.I hooks have "a cruel lord," "e. fierce king.'' been found, not very dift"eren t from modem Ver. 5.-The waters shall tail from the ones (Rawlinson,' History of Ancient Egypt,' ■ea, By " the see." it is generally allowed vol. i. p. 506), e.nd representations of angling - that the Nile must be meant, RB in oh. xviii. occur in some of the tombs. Sometimes a 2 and Nah. iii. 8, The failure might be line only is used, sometimes a rod o.nd line caused by deficient re.ins in Abyssinia and (see Rawlinson,' Herodotus,' vol. ii. pp. 101, Equatorial Africa, producing an insufficient 103, 2nd edit.). They that sprea.d nets. inundation, It might be aggravated by the Nets were very much more widely employed neglect of dykes and canals, which would than lines and hooks. Ordinarily e. drag- be the natural consequence of civil dis- net was used ; but sometimes small fry were orders (see Canon Cook's • Inscription of taken in the shallows by mee.ns or a double- Piankhi,' p. 14). Waated and dried up; handled liinding-net (ibid., p. 108, note 2). rather, parched and dried 11p. Allowance Ver. 9.-They that work in fine tlu. must be made for Ol'iental hyperbole. The Linen of great fineness and delicacy was meaning is only that there shall be a great woven in Egypt, for the priests' dresses, deficiency in the water supply. Such e. for.mummy-cloths, and for corselet,. Solo- deficiency has often been the cause of mon imported "linen yam" from his Egyp- terrible famines in Egypt. tian neighbours (1 Kings x. 28), and the Ver. 6.-And they shall turn the rivers tar Phcaniciaus a linen fo.brio for their sails away; rather, and the rivers shall stagnate (Ezek. nvii. 7). In the general decline of (Cheyne). P1·obahly the canals are intended, Egyptio.n prosperity, caused by the circum- as in Exod. vii. 19 (see' Pulpit Commentary,' stances of the time, the mo.nufacturers of ad Zoe.). The brooks ot defenoe shall be linen would suffer. They that weave net- emptied. Some render this " brooks of works ; rather, they that ioell1!e white clothes. Egypt," regarding mauor a.a here used for Cotton fabrics are probably intendcu. Shall " Mitsraim ; " but our triinslation is more be oonfounded; lit~rnlly, ~hall blu$h, or be foroible, e.nd may well stand. The "brooks ashamed. of defence" are those which had hitherto Ver. 10.-And they ah.all be broken in the formed the moiits round wo.llerl oities (comp. purposes thereof; rather, and the founda- eh. nxvii. 25; Nab. iii. 8). The reeds and tions thereof ahall be broken, or cnuhed to llags shall wither. Reeds, flags, rushes, and pieces (Ke.y). The rich ond noble, the foun- we.tar-plants of all kinds abound in the do.tions of the fabric of society, seem to be bo.ckwaters of the Nile,:and the numerous meant. All that make Bluioe11, etc. Trans- ponds and mo.rshes connected with its over- late, all that work for hire (comp. Prov. xi. flow (see the' Pulpit Commentary' on Exod. 18) shall bti gn·eved in soul. The meaning ii. S, p. 24). These forms of vegetation is that a.II classes, from the highest to the would be the first to wither on the oceurrence lowest, shall suffer o.ffiiction (so Lowth, of a deficient inundation. Gesenius, Knobel, Kny, Cheyne). Ver. 7.-The pa!)er reeds by the brooka, Ver. 11.-Burely the prinoes of Zoan ue etc.; ro.ther, the meadows on the river, along fools. Zoo.n, or Ttmis, which huu been an th6 banl,s of the river, and every seed-plot by insignificont city since the time of the shep- th6 river. The biinks of the Nile were partly herd-kings, co.me to the front once more at grosa-land (Gen. xii. 2, 18), partly cultivated the time of the struggle b~ween Egypt o.u<l 314 THE BOOK OF THE l'MPltET ISAtAl-t. [on. itx. 1~25.