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The Destruction of the Wicked City2 A shatterer has come up against you. Guard the ramparts; watch the road; gird your loins; collect all your strength.
2 (For the L ord is restoring the majesty of Jacob, as well as the majesty of Israel, though ravagers have ravaged them and ruined their branches.)
3 The shields of his warriors are red; his soldiers are clothed in crimson. The metal on the chariots flashes on the day when he musters them; the chargers prance. 4 The chariots race madly through the streets, they rush to and fro through the squares; their appearance is like torches, they dart like lightning. 5 He calls his officers; they stumble as they come forward; they hasten to the wall, and the mantelet is set up. 6 The river gates are opened, the palace trembles. 7 It is decreed that the city be exiled, its slave women led away, moaning like doves and beating their breasts. 8 Nineveh is like a pool whose waters run away. “Halt! Halt!”— but no one turns back. 9 “Plunder the silver, plunder the gold! There is no end of treasure! An abundance of every precious thing!”
10 Devastation, desolation, and destruction! Hearts faint and knees tremble, all loins quake, all faces grow pale! 11 What became of the lions’ den, the cave of the young lions, where the lion goes, and the lion’s cubs, with no one to disturb them? 12 The lion has torn enough for his whelps and strangled prey for his lionesses; he has filled his caves with prey and his dens with torn flesh.
13 See, I am against you, says the L ord of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions; I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall be heard no more. New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
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The Prophet describes here how dreadful the Chaldeans would be when prepared against the Assyrians. He says, The shield of his brave men 225225 גבוריהו, of his heroes, — “heroum.” — Dathius. is made red Some think that their shields were painted red, that blood might not appear; and that the soldiers had on red garments, that they might not be frightened in case they were wounded; and this is what history records of the Lacedemonians. But as the habits of these nations are not much known to us, it is enough for us to know, that their warlike appearance is here described; as though he had said, that the Chaldeans would come against Nineveh with violent and terrible power. Hence he says, that the men of his strength 226226 אנשי-חיל, men of war, — “warriors,” Henderson; “the valiant men.” — Newcome. would be clad in scarlet; he refers no doubt to the color of their dress. Some expound this of the Assyrians, and say that their shame is here designated; but this is too strained. The Prophet, I have no doubt, describes here the Chaldeans, and shows that they would be so armed that even their very appearance would put to flight their enemies, that is, the Assyrians. For the same purpose he afterwards adds, With fire of torches,
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The most satisfactory explanation of this word is what is offered by Parkhurst, and adopted by Henderson. He says that פלד, in Arabic, is to cut, or cut in pieces, and that פלדות may have been the scythes or cutting instruments with which the chariots were armed. Then in eight or nine MSS. The ב, beth, before אש, is כ, caph. If this reading be adopted, and the poetical singular number be retained as to the word chariot, the clause may be thus translated: —
And the fir-trees, he says, are terrible shaken Some translate, “are inebriated” or, “stunned;” and they apply this to the Assyrians, — that their great men (whom they think are here compared to fir-trees, or are metaphorically designated by them) were stunned through amazement. Astonished then shall be the principal men among the Assyrians; for the very sight of their enemies would render them, as it were, lifeless; for the verb רעל, rol, is taken by some in the sense of infecting with poison, or of stupefying. But their opinion is more correct who think that fir-trees are to be taken for lances, though they do not sufficiently express the meaning of the Prophet; for he means, I have no doubt, that such would be the concussion among the lances, that it would be like that of fir-trees, tossed here and there in the forest. For lances, we know, are made of fir-trees, because it is a light wood and flexible, as when any one says in our language, les lances branslent. The lances then trembled, or shook in the hands of the soldiers, as fir-trees shake. Thus we see that the Prophet here continues to describe the terrible appearance of the Chaldeans. Let us go on — |