0 •in'habitane.. Tema is rooeonably iden- Assyria, but no trace of the war hu been tified with the moclem Taimd, o. village of found on the Assyrian monuments. the Ilauro.n, on the caravan route between Ver. 16.-Within a year, according to Palmyra and Petra. Its inhabitants ore the yean of an hireling (see the comment exhorted to bring water to the thirsty on eh. xvi. 14). All the glory of Xedar DedanHes, as they pass along this route shall fail. " Kedar " is a name of greater with .their "travelling compe.nies." (For note than either Dedan or Tema. It seems ot!i,er mentions of Temo., which must not be to be nsed here as inclusive of Derian, per- confou11d9d with Teman, see Job vi. 19 o.nd haps as a designation of the northern Jer. uv. 23.) They prevented with their Arabians gcnemlly. The pcoplo of Keda.r, bread him that fled. Several commen- like those of Dedan, carried on trade with tators take this clause as imperative, like Tyre (Ezek. xxvii. 21). They dwelt pertly the last, ond render," With his breacl meet in tents (Ps. cxx. 5; Jer. xlix. 29), partly the fugitive;" but the existing Hebrew in villages (eh. xiii. 11 ), and were rich in text seems t.o require the rendering of the ft.ocks and hercls and in camels. Though Authorized Version; Dr. Kay understands not mentioned in the inscriptions of Sargon, the prophet to mean that the men of Terna Sennacherib, or Esarha.ddon, the contem- 4id not need exhortation; already of their poraries of Isaiah, they hold a prominent O'\!]l accord Ii.ad they given of their bread place in those of Esa.rhaddon's son and suc- to. the fugitive Dedanitee. : cessor, Asshurbanipal, with whom they Ver. 15.-For they fled; rather, they have carried on a war of some considerable dura- fled. The' Dedanites have been attacked tion in conjunction with the Naba.thmans with sword and bow, and. have fled from (G. Smith, 'History of Asshur-bani-pal,' pp. their assailants. Probably the enemy was 261-290).
HOMILETICS. Vers. 3, 4.-77ie sadness of a nation's overthrow. A nation is God's creation, no less tban an individual. And it is a far more elaborate work. What forethought, what design, what manifold wisdom, must not have been required for the planning out -of each people's national character, for the partitioning out to them of their special gifts and aptitudes, for the apportionment to each of its place in history, for the con- duct of each :through the many centuries of its existence! It is a snd thing to be witness of a nation's demise. Very deeply does lsa.iah feel its sadness. His "loins are filled with pain;" the pangs that take hold of him are "as the pangs of a woman that travaileth ; " he is "so agonized that he cannot hear," "so terrified that he cannot look" (ver. 3).. "His heart flutters," like a frightened bird; terror overwhelms him; he cannot sleep for thinking of the dread calamity; " the night of his pleasure is tamed into fear." • The sadness of such a calamity is twofold. It consists (1) in the fact; (2) in the circumstances; I. THE SADNESS OF THE FAOT. We mourn an individual gone from us-how much more a nation! What a blank is created I What arts e.nd industries are not destroyed or checked I What. possibilities of future achievement are not cut off! Again, an individual is only removed; he still exists, only in another place. But a nation is annihilated. It has but one life. There is" no healing of its bruise" (Nab. iii. 19), no transference of it to another sphere. From existence it has passed into non- existence, and nothing can recall it into being. It is like a sun extinguished in mid- -heaven. II. TBE SADNESS OF THE cmctJllSTANCES. The end of a nation comes necessarily by violence, from within or from without-from without most commonly. A fierce host invades its borders, spreads itself over its fertile fields, tramples down its crops, exhausts its granaries, consumes its cattle, burns its towns and villages, carries every- where ruin and desolation. Wanton injury is added to the injury which war cannot but inflict-fruit-trees are cut down (eh. xvi. 8), works of art a.re destroyed, good land is purposely "marred with stoues" (2 Kings iii. 10). And if inanimate things suffer, much more do animate ones. Beasts of burden are impressed and worked to death; horses receive fearful wounds and scream with pain ; cnttle perish for want of care; beasts of prey increase as population lessens, and become a terror t? the_scanty remna1;1t (2 Kings xvii. 26). Not only do armed men fall by thousands 1n fair fight, but (m barbarous times) the unwarlike mass of the population suffers almost equally. "Every THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [oH. xx1. 1-17,
one tb11t is found is thrnst through, and every one that is joined to them is alain by the sword" (eh. xiii. 15). Even women and children are not spared. Virgins and matrons are shamefully used (eh. xiii. 16); children aro ruthlessly dashed to the ground (eh.xiii. 16; Ps. cxxxvii. 9); every human paseion being allowed free course, the most dreadful excesses are perpetrated. No doubt in modern times civilization and Christ.ianity tend to alleviate in rome degree the horrors of war; but in a war of con- quest, when the destruction of a nation11lity is aimed at, frightful scenes are almost sure to occur, sufficient to sadden all but the utterly unfeeling. It should be the e11rnest determination of every Christian to endeavour in every possible way ~ keep his own country free from the guilt of such wars,