It Aleo puffed them up, and made them prognosticators,'' or almanack-makers. The regard themselves 1LS altogether superior astronomy of the Babylonians consisted to other nations (see the comment on ver. primarily in "dividing the heavens" into 8, rnlifin.). "houses,'' or oonstellations, and thus Yer. 11.-Therefore shall evil come upon mapping them out in such a way that the thee. Connect this with the first clause infinite multiplicity, which at first baffles of ver. 10, "Thon hast trusted in thine the beholder, might bo grasped, reduced to own eYil ( mornl ), therefore shall evil order, nod brought within the sphere of (physical) fall upon thee." Tbe same word, distinct cognizance. Thie work was an i-a'ah, is used in both plaoos. Thou sha.lt eminently useful one, and maintains its not know from whence it riseth. So the place in astronomy to the present day Vulgatc, Yitringa, Gesenius, and Dr. Kay. (' Ancient Monarchies,' vol. ii. p. 573). But the bulk of modern commentators After the heavens were mnpped out, and (Ilitzig, Ewald, Dditzsch, Nagelsbach, the courses of the sun and moon through Weir, Cheyne) render, "Thou wilt not the " houses" laid down, "star-gazers" l--now how tc, charm it away." Both mean- directed their attention mainly to sun, icgs are possible, and are almost equally moon, and planets, noting eclipses, occulta- g;ood; but the parallelism of the clauses tions, conjunctions, and the like. All this is in farnur of the latter rendering. was legitimate science; bnt, finally, the Shal.-hrah should correspond in construc- greater part of the astronomers launched tion, as in sound, with happ'rah. To put it into Mtrology, and undertook to prognosti- o1f; literally, to expiate; i.e. to get rid of it cate events from the changing phenomena by means of expiatory rites. Which thou of the heavens. Almnnacks were put forth, aha.It not know; or, of which thCJu shalt not in which predictions were made, either be aware. (On the carelessness and want specially for a particular year, or generally of foresight displayed by the Babylonians, for all time, based upon astronomical con- see the comment on ver. 8.) siderations ; and on these great dependence Ver. 12.-Sta.nd now. The fourth and WILS placed. (For a specimen of such an concluding strophe now begins; it opens, almanack, see 'Records of the Past,' vol. i. like the third, with a single imperative. pp. 158-161.) It ha.s, as Mr. Cheyne observes, "a strongly Ver. 14.-Behold, they shall be as stubble ironical tinge, reminding us of Elijah's lan- (comp. eh. v. 24; xl. 24; xli. 2). A favour- guage to the priests of Baal in 1 Kings ite met.aphor with Isaiah for extreme weak- xviii. 27." The irony is, however, con- ness and incapacity of resistance. In eh. v. fined to the :first half (vers. 12, 13); giving 24 it is connected, as here, with tire. No place in vers. 14 and 15 to a scathing doubt in Palestine, as elsewhere, an acci- sentence of jndgment and rain. Enchant- dental fire from time to time caught hold of ments . . . sorceries ; rather, spdl8 . . . en- a stubble-field, and speedily reduced it to chantments (see the comment on ..-er. 9). a mass of blackened ashes. The tbreat here If so he, etc. ; rather, perchance flwu wilt be is that God's wrath shall similarly sweep abk to prnfit ; perchance thou wilt r.aUBe over Babylon. They shall not deliver them- terror. The prophet gives a pret.,nded en- selves from the power of the flame. Mr. couragement to Israel's adversaries. "If Cheyne translates, with much spirit, "They Babylon uses all the resources of her cannot rescue their soul from the clutch of magical art, perhaps she may succeed-who the flame." Like those who are caught in knows ? Perhaps she may ftrike terror the midst of a tire in a prairie or jungle, into the hearts of her assailants." they have no escape-the flame is on all Ver. 13.-Thou art wearied in the multi- sides-and they cannot but perish. There tude of thy counsels. Mr. Cheyne's render- shall not be a coal to warm at; rather, it is ing is more intelligible, "Thou hast wearied not a charcoal-fire to warm one's self at. A thyself with the multitude of thy consulta- return to the sarcastic tone of vers. 12, 13. tions." Those at the head of affairs had The conflagration which spreads around is consulted the diviners of all classes, till something more than a fire to warm one's self they were utterly weary of so doing (compare at-it is an awful widespread devastation. the "consultations" of N ebnchadoezzar and Yer. 15.-Thus shall they be unto thee Belshazzar with sncb persons, Dan. ii. with whom thou hast laboured, The 2-11; v. 7, 8). Yet let one further effort foreigners who have participated in the toils be made. Let now the aatrologen, the star- and labours of Babylon shall sharo in her gazers, the monthly prognosticaton, stand punishment. The flame of judgment shall np. These are scarcely three cla~ses of not spare even them. Even thy merohante. p~rsons, but rather the same class under Babylonian commerce is the subject of an three designations: "astrologers" (literally, important chapter in Hceren's 'Asiatio "dividers of the heavens"); "star-gazers," Nations' (vol. ii. pp. 190-260), and is or observers of the stars; and •• monthly discussed also in the preseut writer'(! OH, XLVIL 1-15.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 207
• Egypt and Babylon' (eh. viii. pp. 127- having no thonght of interposing t.o 11ave 144). It was carried on both by land and the people which have so long encouraged sea, and was very extensive, inclucling both and protected them. Probably the greater a large import and a large export trade. number of these foreign merchants were Her merchants were, in part natives, in either Ph<Bnicians or Arabians. They ahall part foreigners, It is the latter who are wander every one to his quarter. Not here specially intended. Seeing the his own quarter of the town, but his own gradual closing in upon Babylon of the quarter of the earth; i.e. his own country Pereinn armies, and antici po.ting the worst, ( comp. eh. xiii. 14, "They shall every man they fly in haste from the doomed city, turn to his owu people, and flee every one caoh one making for his own country, and into his own land").