Ver. 25.— destroying mountain. The description evidently points to a volcano. (1) Jehovah says that he will roll the mountain down from the rooks, which can only be understood of the stones and lava harled down from the crater; (2) that he will make it a " mountain of biuraing," t.e. either to a burning, or, more forcibly, a burnt-out mountain ; and (3) that, as a con- sequence of this, its stones shall be unsoit- able for the purposes of the builder. Now, Palestine, it has been clearly made out, " Ues almost in the centre of one great vol- canic region of the earth's surface, that, namely, which includes the basin of the Mediterranean and the provinces of Western or Central Asia. Traces of that volcanic action are found in every direction. The black basaltic rock of the Haui&n, the hot springs of Tiberius and Emmaus and Gadara, the naphtha-fountains near the Dead Sea, the dykes of porphyry and other volcanio rocks that force their way through the lime- stone, the many caves in the limestone rocks themselves, — all these show that we are treading on ground where the forces of the hidden fires of earth have been in times past in active operation. We are, that is, in a zone of earthquakes" (Plnmptre, 'Biblical Studies,* p. 136; comp. Pusey's note on Amos iv. 11). There is a striking parallel to this prophetic description in Bev. viii. 8, where the destruction of a great empire is likened to the submersion in the sea of a great burning mountain, (Vitringa has noticed the parallel.)
Ver. 26.— And they shall not take of thee, etc. "Of thee," ie. "of the Babylonian
power" persotifled— not " of Babylon," which was built of brick, not of stone. The figure of the mountain is still preserved.
Vers. 27 — 87. — A more detailed sketch of the conquest of Babylon; followed (some- what out of the natural order) by a com- plaint on the part of Israel, and a promise of championship on that of Jehovah.
Ver. 27.— Prepare the nations ; literally, eonsecrate thenatione; viz. by religious rites. It is in an especial sense a religious war to which they are summoned (see on eh. vi. i, and comp. Isa. xiii. 3). Ararat. Ararat appears in the cuneiform Inscriptions under the form "Urartu," In Isa. xxxvii. 38 the Authorized Version renders correctly by "Armenia." The Assyrian kings, since Bhalmaneser, were constantly at war with the Armenians; Assurbanipal reduced them to pay tribute. WiTmi The Manual of the cuneiform inscriptions. The locality of this tribe has been hitherto wrongly given as the mouutain country about Lake Vau. But Professor Sayce has shown that they are rather to be looked for to the south-west of Lake Urumiyeh. A captain. The word (ti/sar) is singular, but is probably to be understood collectively as equivalent to " captains," like the word («»», " horse," equivalent to "horses") to which it is parallel. It is here used loosely of certain officials of the Aimeniana ; but properly it is an Assyrian word (adopted from we Accadian or proto-Babylonian), meaning " tablet- writer," and derived, according to Friedrich Delitzsch, from dip or dup, a tablet, and lar, to write (Accadian words). As the rough caterpillars. This is the third of the four kinds of locusts mentioned in Joel i. 4 ; or, to speak more precisely, it is the locust in its penultimate stage, when its wings are already visible, but enveloped in hom-like sheaths, which stand up upon its back. Hence the epithet "rough," or "bristling." Eeil's rendering, "as the dreadful (horrifying) locust," implies a faulty interpretation of Joel i. 4. It would be strange indeed if Joel had accumulated four synonymous terms fot locust in such a peculiar context.
Ver. 28.— The captains ... the mlera; rather, the governore , , . the viceroyt (as ver. 23). Thereof refers to the land of Medea ; his dominion to the King of Medea, as the suzerain of the inferior chiefs.
Ver. 29.— Shall tremble and sorrow. The Hebrew has " trembled and borrowed " (or, " quaked and writhed for pain ") ; and in the sequel, "have stood" (i.e. been ratified by the event, as oh. xliv. 28). The' prophet here, as to often, regards what is still future as past from the point of view of eternity,
Ver, 30. — Despair of the Babylonian war- riors. Have forborne to fight should rather be have eeated io Hqht, In thni
ca.ij.1— 64.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEBEMIAH.
293
bold*. The word fs used of hill or moun- tain fastnesses (comp, 1 Sam. xxiii. 14, 19 ; Judg. vi. 2 ; 1 Chron. xi. 7), and such pre- sumably are referred to here. Their might ; rather, their courage. They have burned, eto. The subject is " the enemies." Her bars ; viz. those with which the city gates were secured (comp. Isa. xlv. 2 ; Amos i. 5).
Yer. 31. — One post shall run to meet another, eto. The wall being broken through at various points, couriers would meet eaoh other on their way to the royal palace. This was itself a fortress in the centre of the city, on the Euphrates. The newly discovered cylinder-inscription, how- ever, shows that Naboniilag, the last King of Babylon, was not actually in the city at the time of the capture. At one end ; rather, from end to end (see on ch. 1. 26).