arrivA.l, and mA.ke their scornful comments to that invusion in the "evil from the uorth" (comp. Isa. xiv. 9, 18), o.t once classing them of Jer. i. 14; iv. 6; o.nd in Zeph. i. 13-IG. with the uncircumcised. Had they heard, They also, once the terror of the no.tions, we BSk, of the downfall of Egypt? are now represented by the prophet us in Vere. 22, 23.-Asshuristhere. The verses the shadow-world of Sheol. that follow contain, ns it were, the prophet's Ver. 27.-And they she.11 not lie witb the retrospect of the history of the pnst, as far mighty. The words seem at first to con- ns he had knowledge of it. Foremost in tradict ver. 26. The LXX. meets the diffi• these is Assyria., which the prophet had culty by omitting the negative; Ewald and already chosen (eh. :nxi. 8) as the pnttcrn Hli.veruick, by to.king it o.s an interrogative, instance of a fallen greatness. Tllcre in the "Shall they not lie," etc.? Probably the sides of the pit ( i.e. in its remotest and cxplano.tion is laying stress on the word deepest regions) lie the graves of the rulers "mighty." Meshech and Tubal have a surrounded by those of their subjects. lower place in Ha.des; they are buried They had oa.used terror, the prophet o.dds, without the honours of war. Their swords with a keen irony, in the land of the living. are not placed beneath their heads (for They can cause no terror now. the practice thus referred to, see Diod. Sic., Ver. 24.-There is Elam, etc. The nation xvi ii. 26; Arrian, i. 5; Virg., 'lEn.,' vi. 233), so named appears grouped with Asshur in For the Scythio.ns, who worshipped the Gen. x. 22; in Isa.. xi. 11 it stands between sword (Herod., i. 62), this wouhl be the Cush and Shinar; in Isa.. xxii. G its warriors extremest ignominy. In this way their form po.rt of the host of Sennacherib; in iniquities should be upon their bones as Ezra iv. 9 they a.re named ns Laving been they lo.y dishonoured. nmong the settlers in Samaria; in Isa. xxi. 2 Ver. 28.-Yea, thou shalt be broken. The ns joining with the Medes in the attack on words are obviously acldrnssed to Pharaoh, Babylon; in Jer. xxv. 25 again coupled He must prepare hin,sclf for a like doom. with the Medes among the enemies of His place, proud as he was of his magnifi- NeLuchadnezzar; in Dan. viii. 2 ns the cence, shall be with the wild nomad hordes province in which Shnshan was situated, of Scythio.. e.nd therefore subject to Babylon. Jeremio.h Ver. 29.-There is Edom, her kings and (:dix. 31-39) had utte, ed a specio.l prophecy her princes. (For the political rellltions of against it. From Ezdriel's point of view it Edom at thill time, see eh. xxv. 12-14.) might well take its plo.ce o.mong the powers Whatever shadow of powar might yet remain that had received their death-blow at the to it, Ezekiel, from hill standpoint, could yet ho.nd of Nebuchadnezzar. Yet have they declare that lu,r greo.tness had departed, bome their shame; sc. the ditigrace of being The exultation which the Edomites had uncircumcised, and therefore taking their shown over the fall of J eruso.lem (Ps, place with the lower circles of the deo.d. cxxnii. 7) would no.turally tend to accon• Yer. 25.-They have set her a bed. The tuate the prophet's languo.ge. The" princes" noun ill used for the sleeping-place of the of Edom are probably identical with the dead-the oometery, if we trace that word to "dukes" of Gen. xxxvi. 15--43 aud 1 Chron. its root in Isa. !vii 2; 2 Chron. xvi. 14. In i. 51, where the word means literally the the rest of the verse Ezekiel reiterates what heads or captains of thousands, i.e. of tribes, had been said in ver. 24 with nn emphatic as in Judg. vi. 15 (comp. Zech. ix. 7: solemnity. In the Hebrew, as in the English, xii. 5). there ill a coru,tant variation in the pronouns Ver. 30.-There Le the prinoes of the used, now masculine, now feminine, now north. The noun for "princes" is different singolar. from that of ver. 29, and has the sense of Ver. 26.-There ill Mesheoh, Tubal (On "vassal rulers,'' us in Josh. xiii. 21 ; Micah the ethnological relations of the two tribes, v. 4. So we have the "kings of the north" see note on eh. xxvii. 13, and later on in in Jer. xxv. 26. The fact that they ari, eh. :uxviii. and xxxix.) Ezekiel obviously coupled wih the Zidoniana (it is suggestive speaks of them as one of the powers that that Ezekiel names these rather than the !1ad been conspicuous in his own time, o.nd Tyrie.us) points in the direction of Northern had been, in part at lee.et, overthrown by the Syria, including cities like Damascus, H,i- Cl1aldean monarchy. We lllllY probably !llatll, Arpad, and othl:rs. connect hill words with the great irruption Ver. 31.-Shall be oomforted, etc. (comp. of the Scythians mentioned by Herouotus for the thought, eh. xxxi. 16). That shall (i. 103; iv. II) as having swept over Asia be all !hat he will have to console him. As even to Palestine and Egypt, in the time of before, other nations were comforted by the Josiah, e.nd which, o.fter compelling Cyaxares downfall of Egypt, so Egypt in her turQ io raise the siege of Nineveh, left traces finds her comfort in their downfo.11. All of itself in the name of the city of Scytho- are ~harers alike in the fiend-like temper polis. Many commento.tors find a reference which exults ln the miseries of others. c11, XXXII, 1-32.] 'II-IE BOOK OF THE PROPHET EZEKIEL, 160
Ewuld o.nd Hitzig, here as there, take the any such invasion goes for little or nothing. word us in the scnse of "mourning over." He ro;;ld not read the Egyptian records, As to the extent and manner in which o.nd derived his knowledge from the priests the predictions of the chapter have been through an interpreter. They, after their fnlfilled, see notes on eh. xxix.-xxxi. Suf- manner, wonlcl clraw a veil over all disasters, ficient evidence has been given that Egypt and so, while he records the revolution which wns probably invaded o.nd conquered by placed Amneis upon the throne of Hophra, Nebuchadnezzar. The silence of the Greek he is silent o.a to o.ny invasion, and does not historians, and notably of Herodotus, as to even mention the battle of Carchemiah,