phrase DP has the double meaning, to call out the name ,The former can never קְרָא אֶל יְהוָה or קְרָא יְהוָה nonymous with like the latter, refer to the ungodly, who call upon the Lord hypocritically, or at least only outwardly and superficially. It stands therefore also Is. 64: 6, with entire suitableness in the parallelism with "to take hold upon the Lord." It is mentioned in Joel 3:5, as the only condition of salvation: "Every one who calls upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved." "He will call upon my name, and I will hear him," forms an antithesis with, "And as he called and they did not hear, so they call. and I hear not, saith the Lord." Chap. 7:13. In the last words the preter is intentionally joined with the fut., (properly, as Rückert, "I have spoken, My people is he; and he says, Jehovah, my God,") to indicate that, the speaking of the Lord must necessarily precede that of the people; precisely as, according to chap. 12: 10, the people first offer up prayer to the Lord, and are seized with deep distress for their sins, after the Lord has poured out upon them the spirit of grace. The two modes accordingly signify a relative past and future, just as, Is. chap. 53, the suffering of the servant of God is expressed mostly by præters, the glorification by futures, although in reality both were still future. Parallel, even in respect to this interchange of præt. and fut., is Hos. 2: 25, " And I say to them, who are not my people, My people thou; and they will say, My God." CHAP. 14. A new scene presents itself to the prophet. All people of the earth are assembled by the Lord against his holy city; this is taken; the greatest part of its inhabitants are cut off by the sword, or carried away into captivity, v. 1, 2. Then, however, the Lord interferes for his people, hitherto preserved uninjured, by his wonderful providence, and the judgment is suddenly directed from the church of the Lord to her enemies. The Lord appears in majesty upon the Mount of Olives, and while an earthquake announces his coming to judgment, and fills all with terror, the mountain divides in the midst, so that henceforth the people of the Lord find a safe and easy way of flight through the lengthened valley of Jehoshaphat. Then the Lord appears, with all his saints, to establish his kingdom on the earth, v. 3-5. At first, thick darkness reigns; then follows, for a short time, a mixture of light and darkness, a twilight; and lastly, when least expected, breaks the full day of salvation for the elect, v. 6, 7. Then a stream of living water pours itself forth from Jerusalem through the whole land, communicating life and fruitfulness, v. 8. The Theocracy, hitherto confined to one single land, now embraces the whole earth, v. 9. In order that Jerusalem alone may be exalted, all hills in the whole land are levelled, the city rises in splendor from its ruins, henceforth secure from every change, to enjoy the divine favor, v. 10, 11. After the enemies, who have bebesieged Jerusalem, have been chastised by a divine judgment, v. 12-15, the remnant of them will turn to the Lord, and annually come to Jerusalem, there to celebrate the feast of tabernacles, v. 16. A heavy punishment will overtake those who neglect this duty, v. 17-19. The distinction between the profane and sacred will then entirely cease, and also the mingling of the pious and ungodly, as it existed in the former Theocracy, v. 20, 21. The interpreters mostly suppose this prophecy to be only a resumption and farther extension of that contained in chap. 12; comp. e. g. Michaelis on the passage, Hitzig, 1. c. p. 40. But, for this opinion, there is in the first place no ground whatever. The prophecy receives an entirely new addition; of a connexion with chap. 12, and a reference to it, there is no trace. Both prophecies give a cycle of events independent of one another, in which what follows is always connected with what precedes, by the constantly recurring in this day. On the contrary, there are not wanting grounds for the opposite assumption, that the two prophecies refer to different events and times. In chap. 12, Jerusalem appears indeed as closely besieged, but not as taken; from the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the princes of Judah, acccording to v. 5, expect deliverance. From them, according to v. 6, 7, the enemy is vanquished without the city, and before he could take it. Here, on the contrary, the help of the Lord does not come until the city has been taken, and the greatest part of the inhabitants carried away into captivity. According to chap. 14: 14, Judah fights in Jerusalem. According to chap. 12:7, he gains the victory without the city, which is thus delivered. Of such splendid promises for the people of the Lord after the overthrow of their enemies, as we here find, there is in chap. 12 no trace; all continues in the usual track. The result, thus obtained by internal evidence, is confirmed also by a comparison of the Apocalypse. There, a twofold great oppression of the church of God in the last times is plainly described. The first, chap. 19: 19-21. Then follows the so-called reign of a thousand years, a condition of the church better than the preceding, but still without a removal of the existing earthly relations. To this period chap. 12 refers. The second, chap. 20:8, 9. Tempted by Satan, the heathen nations. from all the four ends of the earth, once more surround the camp of the saints and the beloved city. That this prophecy, as well as that of Ezekiel, chap. 37 and 38, is thus parallel with the one before us, and of course that it, and not that of chap. 12, must be compared with that of Ezekiel, appears from the fact, that here, altogether the same results of the victory granted by the Lord are mentioned, as there. According to Zechariah, in like manner as Ezekiel and the Apocalypse, Jerusalem is gloriously rebuilt immediately after, the Lord establishes in her his dwelling-place, there will be no more exile, a stream of living water goes forth from her, all the ungodly are excluded, &c. V. 1. “Behold a day comes to the Lord, and thy booty is divided in the midst of thee." The phrase in is not to be explain"Behold the day of ed," the day of the Lord comes," (Rückert, Jehovah comes,") for the can stand instead of stat. constr. only when this cannot be used, therefore only when an indefinite thing is to be designated; while the second noun, however, as here Jehovah, is definite, comp. Ewald, p. 582, 603; therefore, not "a day of the Lord," for then we cannot see why Di should not be joined with ; rather, "a day comes to the Lord," so that in belongs to 2. The designated day, however, comes to the Lord, not only in so far as he introduces it, but also and chiefly, in so far as he is glorified in it. All other days have come rather to men, this alone is proper to the Lord. Thus it is said, Ezek. 39: 13, of the day of the overthrow of Gog, 22 pi, "the day of my being honored, saith the Lord." Thus, according to Is. 2: 12, the day of the Lord comes upon all that is high and exalted, and, according to v. 17, the Lord alone is exalted in that day. As a day of the Lord is almost always spoken of in reference to the judgments to be executed by him, the question arises whether these judgments, which serve to glorify the Lord, here overtake merely the heathen nations, or whether the sufferings of the church of God here described, are to be considered as chastisements; whether we are therefore to assume, that after the great outpouring of the Spirit and regeneration, described chap. 12: 10, 13: 6, a predominance of the tares among the wheat, a mingling of true believers and of hypocrites in the church of God, is again to be expected, so that here the last glorifying of the church of God is described, the last verifying of the proverb, that judgment must begin at the house of God. This latter supposition is indisputably correct. It receives confirmation particularly from v. 2. The prophet shows already by the expression, that those who are carried away into captivity, are not to be regarded as suffering innocently, that those who are outwardly cut off are rather also spiritually cut off, and those who are outwardly retained, as also inwardly quickened. Thy spoil. The prophet addresses Jerusalem, the seat of the kingdom of God at his time, under whose image this kingdom presented itself to his inward vision, exactly as in the Apocalypse. How little we are here to adhere to the letter, is evident from the figurative character of the whole description, which no one can deny; especially the impossibility that all nations of the whole earth should be collected against the outward Jerusalem to battle, and, after being vanquished, should annually go up there, in order to celebrate the feast of tabernacles, &c. In thy midst. Strengthening this, Jerome says, "Solet frequenter accidere, ut quæ subito impetu in civitate direpta sunt, foris in agro, aut in solitudine dividantur, ne forte hostes superveniant; his autem tan tum malorum pondus incumbet, ut, quæ direpta sunt, in civitatis medio dividantur pro securitate victoriæ." The strange quid pro quo of the Chaldee, "divident filii Israel opes populorum in medio tui Jerusalem," sufficiently shows itself as such by the comparison of v. 2. The opinion of Mark, who, after several others, particularly the fathers (Theod., Cyril, Euseb. Demonstr. 6. 18, Jerome), here finds the description of the captivity by the Romans, is already sufficiently refuted by the fact, that it requires the prophet, in v. 3, to make a sudden transition from the literal to the spiritual Zion. V. 2. "And I collect all the heathen against Jerusalem to battle, and the city is taken, and the houses plundered, and the women dishonored, and the half of the city go forth as captives, and the remnant of the people is not cut off from the city." We will not here engage in doctrinal inquiries, how it can be reconciled that the same effect, the collection of the heathen against Jerusalem, which is here attributed to God, is, in the Apocalypse 20: 8, attributed to Satan, a phenomenon which is known to be often met with in the Scriptures If, however, God must employ the evil as a means of realizing his purpose concerning the world; if Satan, who appears in Job in poetic representation among the angels of God, is, though against his own will, his servant, as Ashur is called the rod of anger in his hand, Nebuchadnezzar, his servant; if, without the will of God, he cannot hurt a single hair of the church of God, the constant aim of his assaults (comp. chap. 3); it easily appears that the contradiction is only apparent, and such as daily occurs, without any one thinking it necessary to deny the one or the other side of the antithesis. The Lord collects the nations to the judgment in the first instance upon Jerusalem and then upon themselves. Parallel is Ezek. 39: 2, "The Lord brings Gog out of the extreme north, and conducts him to the mountains of Israel, there to destroy him." does not stand as Rosenmüller asserts, for y, but it designates merely the direction according to which the heathen were collected. The hostile purpose is first expressed by the following "to war." The phrase, "The houses are plundered, and the women dishonored," is taken - The following mem ber is translated by most interpreters, " And the half of the city shall go forth into captivity." And we here avail ourselves of an opportunity to correct a very ancient error of commentators and lexicographers, (comp. even Ewald, p. 315.) It is altogether a mistake, that nia, a word which it is remarkable never occurs in the Pentateuch, |