Ver. 17. — They did cry there, etc. ; rather, they cry there, viz. the following words. But why should attention be called to the place where the cry is made ? and why should the mercenaries (the subject of the preceding verb, and theretbre presumably of this verb) have theilr exclamation re- corded? Alter the vowel-points (which merely represent an early but not infallible exegetical tradition), and all becomes clear. We then get a renewal of the summons in ver. 14 to make a proclamation respecting the war. The persons addressed are, not foreigners, but the children of the soil, and the summons runs thus : " Call ye the name of Pharaoh, King of Egypt, Desolation." No longer " Pharaoh," honoured by titles indicating that he, like Apis, is a Divine incarnation (neb, i.e. lord, and nuter, i.e. god), but Shaon, the Hebrew for Desolation, is the fittest name for the fallen monarch. The custom of changing names with a symbolic meaning is no strange one to readers of the prophecies. We have met with it in this very hook (see ch. xx. 8); and Isaiah contains a parallel as exact as could be desired, in the famous passage in which the prophetic name (itself sym- bolic) of Egypt (Bahab, i.e. boisterooa- ness, arrogance) is chansjed into "Bahab- hem-shebh^th " («.e. " Bahab I they are utter indolence "). In behalf of this view we may claim the authority of a tradition still oldur than that preserved in the vowel- points, for the Septuagint (followed sub- stantially by the Peshito and the Vulgate) has, KaAeVare rh tvo^a 4>apa^ Nexac>' ^(KTtKeas A-lyiiTTov, ^aiiv. He hath passed the time appointed. A difScult clause, and variously interpreted. One thing is clear, that " passed " cannot be ooireet, as the verb is in the Hifil or causative conjugation. We must, at any rate, render, "He hath let the time appointed, pass by." This is, in fact, the simplest and most natural expla- nation. There was a time within which repentance might have averted the judg- ment of God; but this "accepted time" has been foolishly let slip.
Ver. 18. — The threat implied in ver. 17 ia set forth more fully; he who speaks is a very different " king " fifom the fallen Pharaon. As Tabor is among the monntaiiu.
OH. XLVt 1— 28.] THE BOOK OP THE PEOPHBT JEREMIAH.
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The Bense 1b deformed by the insertion of "is." The King of Babylon la compared to " Tabor among the mountains and Carmel by the sea." Moimt Tabor is a most promi- nent object, owing to the wide extent of the plain of Esdraelon, in which it is situated ; and a similar remark applies to Mount Car- mel. The view of Tabor differs considerably according to the point from which it is taken ; but " its true fi>{ure is an elongated oval " (Thomson). Carmel, so oalleJ from the rich orchards and vineyards with which it was anciently adorned, is not lufty (being only about six hundred feet above the sea), but the form in which it breaks off towards the sea has a beauty of its own. It is now deprived of its rich forest and garden cul- ture, but is still described as "a glorious mountain."
Ver. 19. — thou daughter dwelling ia Egypt; literally, O inhabttresB-daughter of Egypt. The phrase is exactly parallel to " virgin daughter of Zion." Tlie " daughter of Egypt " means the population of Egypt, the laud being regarded as the mother of its people. Furnish thyself to go into captivity. The rendering of the margin is, however, more exact. The " vessels of captivity [or, 'exile"]" are a pilgrim's staff and wallet, with the provisioDB and ntensils necessary for a journey (so in Ezek. xii. i).
Vers. 20 — ^26.— A figurative description of the dark future of Egypt.
Ver. 20.— Like a very fair heifer. (The insertion of "like" weakens the passage.) The well-nourished heifer reminds of the prosperity of the fruitful Nile valley. But destruction oometh; it oometh out of the north ; rather, a gadfly from the north hath come upon her (not, " hath come, hath come," as the received text has — a very slight shange in one letter is required, supported by the versions). The figure is precisely analogooB to that of the " bee in the land of Asayria " (Isa. viL 18). St. Chi^sostom renders " a gadfly " (see Field, ' Origen's Hexapla,' ii. 708) ; and so virtually Aqnila and Symmachus.
Ver. 21. — ^Also her hired men are in the midst of her, etc. ; rather, alto her hirelingi in the midst of her are like, etc. These seem to be distinguished from the mercenaries mentioned in ver. 9, the Ethiopians, Libyans, and Arabs, who were never adopted into the midst of the Egyptian people. On the other hand, the description will exactly apply to the Oarians and lonians in the ser- vice of Fsammetiohns and Apries (Herod., ii. 152, 163), who were " for many years " aettled " a little below the city of Bubastis, on the Pelusiao mouth of the Nile." In this fertile country, itself comparable to " a very fair heifer" (ver. 20), these pampered and privileged mercenaries beoatn« " like calves
of the stall." Iliey did not stand, ete. ; rather, they have not stood (firm'), for the day of their destruction is come upon them^
Ver. 22. — The voice thereof shall go like a Berpent ; rather, her voice is like (the sound of) a terpent gliding away. Egypt (like Jerusalem, in Isa. xxix. 4) is imagined as a maiden (comp. ver. 19) seated on the ground, and faintly sighing; and her feeble voice is likened to the rustling sound of a serpent in motion. Come against her with axes. A sudden change of figure. Egypt, or, more strictly, Egypt's grandeur — its rich and complex national life, its spk-ndid cities, its powerful army, all combined in one, is now compared to a forest (comp. ch. xxi. 14; xxii. 6, 7; Isa. ii. 13; x. 18, 19, 33, 34). It seems far-fetched to suppose, with Graf and Dr. Payne Smith, that the comparison of the Chaldean warriors to wood-outters arose trom their being armed with axes. It ia probably true that the Israelites did not nse the battle-axe, but the axe is merely an accident of the description. It is the forest which suggests the mention of the axe, not the axe tliat of the forest, and forests were familiar enough to the Israelites.