Job 6

Job, not at all convinced by these discourses, justifies the complaint he had made, (chap, iii.) which Eliphaz had now accused; maintaining that his grief was not equal to the cause of it. And therefore he renews his wishes of death: at which, though’ they might wonder who felt nothing to make them weary of life, yet he had reason, he shews, for what he did; and one more than before, which was their unkindness: who pretended to be friends; but, by this rude reproof of him at the Very first, without so much as one compassionate word, or the least syllable of consolation, shewed How little sympathy they had with him in his sufferings. These things he desires them to consider, and weigh the cause of his complaint a little better, before they passed any farther judgment on it. The prophet encourageth the Chaldeans to come up and. besiege Jerusalem, as a place abandoned by God for its incorrigibleness; and given up to the will of its enemies, [chaf.-vi. Bloiv the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Beth-haccerem.] The design of those signals of war is to assemble men together, in ofder to theirmutual defence; but it is in vain to attempt any such matter, and therefore the only use that can bo made of them, is to give notice to the people, that they should disperse themselves, and fly from the approaching enemy. Beth-haccerem was a village between Jerusalem and Tekoa, as St. Jeromo informs us in his commentary upon this place. The name of this village is mentioned Nchem. iii. 14. For evil appeareth out of the north."] See i. 14. tali, rarius pcdali,“and therefore can never bo supposed to attack, much less able to devour, a man. CHAP. VI.] THE BOOK OF TOBIT. succubi carry on shameful and abominable intrigues with both sexes. Stories of this sort arc not wanting even in writers of good note and authority, (See August, de Civit. Dei, lib. xv. cap. 23. and S. Bern. lib. ii. cap. 6.) But the opinion that demons and angels are corporeal, though countenanced by the Platonists, Origen, and others of the fathers, is now generally exploded. And if one examines the accounts in history which mention such an unnatural commerce of demons with mortals, male or female, it is generally represented as transacted during sleep, and therefore is to be looked upon rather as the effect of the disordered imagination of such persons, than any sensible or corporeal act of any real demon. Had Raphael himself said this, That the demon had slain the seven husbands through his own love for Sara, it had been a difficulty indeed; but, as it was Tobias only, he might do it according to the received opinion of his countrymen. Wc may therefore here justly call this an error of Tobias, but it is no reflection on the history. Vcr. 20. If there be any error in this people*] This is better expressed in the next sentence, which fixes nnd determines the sense of this passage. The Hellenists often express sins by erro7s or ignorances: see Numb. xii. 11. Ezra viii. 22. 1 Esd. viii. 77. Ecclus. xxiii. 2, 3. and many others in the canonical and apocryphal writings, where error and ignorance plainly mean sins and transgressions. / Vcr. 23. We will not be afraid of the face of the children of Israel; for, Jo, it is a people that have’ no strength nor power for a strong battle.’] This boast of Holofcrnes’s officers, and their contemptuous scorn of the Jews, as a people having no strength nor power for war, shews their ignorance of the true God, the God of Israel, who, to display his own almighty power, and what little stress is to be laid on the arm of flesh, often interposes in behalf of his chosen in a way not usual nor expected. To give peace to a favourite land he will enable five to chase a hundred, and a hundred to put ten thousand to flight. (Lev. xxvi. 8. Dcut. xxxii. 30. Josh, xxiii. 10.) The more unprovided the Israelites were of military strength, the more room was left for the invincible arm of the Almighty to appear with uncommon glory in their behalf; the less they knew of the art of war, the more their enemies ought to admire, in the victories gained by them, the all-powerful hand of Him who declared for them, and who supplied, in a manner So extraordinary, what was wanting either in strength or policy. Vcr. 24. Now, therefore, lord Holofernes, we will go tip, and they shall be a prey to be devoured of all thine army.] Messieurs of Port-Royal conclude this chapter with the following fine teflcction upon the abject obsequiousness of Holoferncs’s minions: " Such generally is tho false wisdom and servile complaisance of those who think they cannot please their princes, or ingratiate themselves into their favour so well, as by telling them, not what is most agreeable to truth or right reason, but that which most sensibly flatters their pride, and soothes their vanity. For what in truth was more reasonable than Achiof’s whole harangue? he does not attempt or presume to compare, in any respect, the power and force of the Israelites with that of Nabuchodonosor, but, as if it was insignificant in itself, and not of consequence enough to be mentioned, resolves their whole strength, and the success they were occasionally blessed with, into the favour and protection of their God. Could any thing be conceived in less offensive terms, or even a Jew have expressed himself better? Or can there be a greater instance of presumption and wickedness, than to think an injury done to Nabuchodonosor, by setting God above him, or preferring him only before him?” (Com. in loc.) CHAP. VI.] THE BOOK OF JUDITH. of such profane boasters was but vain; their blasphemies drew down upon them God’s judgments, and their overthrow madd it appear, that the Lord he is the God, the Lord he is (he God. And %vho is God but Nabuchodonosor?] It was thus his sycophants flattered him. The truth is, if we will credit the account here given of this prince, he was a professed atheist: the senseof his success in life, and of the wonderful, deeds performed by him, especially in a military capacity, had so intoxicated his reason, that the avowed purpose of his sending his armies under Hblofernes was, that all nation,s should worship him only, and that, all tongues and tribes should call upon him as God. In like manner a successor of his, Nebuchadnezzar the Great, upon the contemplation of his magnificence and greatness, grew so arrogant and elate as to think himself equal at least to God: Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty? (Dan. iv. 30.) “But they were both at length convinced, the former by the. shameful death’ of his general and the defeat of all his forces, and the latter by being reduced to the condition of a beast, that the Most High only ruleth in the kingdoms of the earth. It is surprising to observe from this instance, that of Heliogabalus, and others, that sUfch r princes as havebeen worst and most abandoned, and have acted even below the very character of men, have most affected Divine honours, and to be acknowledged and complimented as gods. 4P2 65G A COMMENTARY UPON [chajp. vr. sch her husband, and Ozias the governor, &c. the town itself therefore cannot but be supposed to belong to that tribe. How then shall we account for a town of the Simconitcs in another tribe, and that not near, but at a great distance from, the tribe of Simeon? These inconveniences, I presume, have induced others to place Bcthulia within the limits of the tribe of Simeon, which tribe reached the hill country. In favour of this opinion, we find a Ecthul, Josh. xix. 4. within Simeon’s division; and again, 1 Chron. iv. 30. Befhuel; both which names easily take the Greek form, Bcthulia. Yet this situation seems not consistent with iii. 9, 10. and iv. 6. much less with its neighbourhood to Dothaim, which last, it seems pretty clear, was in the northern parts of the land. For when Jacob was at Hebron (which town is known to be in that part of the country which was afterward the tribe of Judah, with the tribe of Simeon to its south and southwest), bis ten sons went out to feed their father’s flock to Shechcm, which lies several miles north of the tribe of Judah; thither he sent their brother Joseph to inquire after their welfare, who found they were removed farther into the country, even to Dothan; or, as it is called in the same verse, Dothain, which is the same with Dothaim, the difference only lying in the Chaldec termination. This is again about twenty miles north of Sichem, and brings us into the tribe of Zebulun; consequently, Bethulia, which was in the neighbourhood of Dothaim, that lay in one of the northern tribes, could not be in the tribe of Simeon, which was the farthest of all the tribes southward. Euscbius, de loc. Hebr. has a passage which confirms this, " Dothaim, ubi invenit Joseph fratres suos pecora pascentes, qui et usque hodic in duodecimo a Scbastc milliario contra Aquilonis plagam ostenditur;” i. e. Dothaim lay twelve miles north of Sebastc, which was another name for Samaria. Farther, if Holofcrnes attacked the Jews on the north side of the land, as has been inferred from some passages in the present history, then if Bethulia were in the tribe of Simeon, and south of Jerusalem, he must, which is absurd, have left Jerusalem, the capital of the kingdom, behind him’unsubdued, and be got to the end of the country, where the history represents him as but at the key or entrance into it. It seems belter therefore to acknowledge, that this writer was inaccurate in his geography, which he has some excuse for, as being the general fault of his countrymen, especially after the captivity, than, from some difficulties about the situation of the place, to conclude against its existence at all; especially if we credit what Adrichomius affirms with much confidence, " Exstat etiamnum in montc hoc quoddam castcllum, et multa pulchra aedificia, plurimaequc urbis ruinse; sicuti ctiain in campo versus Dothain, castrorum Holofcrnis adhuc vestigia quscdam.rcstarc scribuntur." (Thcatr. Terr. Sanct. p. 137.) marched through such places where there was a natural j coyer over them. Others think; and not without reason, | that this is rather a poetical description, to display, but in an exaggerating manner, the easiness and pleasure with which the Jews would return from Babylon. Our translators follow the copies which read imdwrav, but others have t<TK(prri<rav, subsultarunt; and thus Junius renders, exsilienintque etiam silvce, that all the trees of the wood rejoiced on the occasion, like that of the Psalmist, xcvi. 12. THE BOOK OF BARUCH. decorations and rich apparel of the false gods, he says, that blue and purple are their clothing. THE BOOK OF BARUCH. yet was there no voice, nor any that regarded. Strange that any should be so senseless, as the author of the book of Wisdom well argues, xiii. 18. as for power, to call on that which is weak, and for aid humbly beseech that which hath least means to help, and for speech apply to dumb idols; emphatically, and by way of infamy, so called, as neither having any faculties themselves, nor able to confer the gift of speech upon others. serves of fytkKvOzXaa, in the next sentence, which our translators render drawn, that it means a seeming unwillingness in these votaries of Venus, and a reluctance to comply, Funimlamforsan, usquedumab amasio fiierit disrnptus, veluti retinaculum pudicitice mirfiebri simulatlone retinentes. (Ibid.) An artifice only, as he observes, to make the persons that solicit their favour the more eager and enamoured.

Job 6:1

HlJT Job answered and said. Here Job replied to Eliphaz, and spake in these terms to him, \J YE children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of Jerusalem.] That you may avoid the miseries of’a siege. Part of Jerusalem stood in the tribe of Benjamin. (See the note on i. 1.)* Theprophet here applies himself to the Benjamites, as living himself in that tribe. 4H2

Job 6:2

Oh that my grief were thoroughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together!. Would to God some more equal person than you would lay my complaint and my sufferings one against the other, and judge sincerely which is the heaviest!’ - f * I have likened the daughter ofZion to a comely and delicate woman.] Some render* the verse thus: I have likened the daughter of Zion to a pasture [so the word navah is rendered, Joel i. 19. ii. 22.] and a pleasant habitation. And the words that follow (ver. 3.) favour this interpretation.; JjL FISH leaped out of the river, and would have devoured him.’] According to Bochart, it was the silurus; this some call the sheat-fish, and which, as described by Ray, " Ad octo et amplius cubitos longitudine excrescit, pondere 1501ibras superat, rictus oris amplissimus, estque piscis admodum vorax." Johnston says farther of it, calling it glanis, another name for the silurus, that " Non minoribus duntaxat pisciculis ventrem implet, sed et in majores, immo homines grassatur," and gives instances of human limbs found in the belly of this fish. Again, Tobias’s fish was eatable; so is the silurus, and is in some places esteemed, " Pinguis, bonique saporis." Bochart gives the same account from the ancients, and goes on with the parallel, — Was Tobias’s fish found in the Tigris? Pausanias, in like manner, makes the glanis or sihirus to be an inhabitant of the Euphrates, from whence the excursion into the Tigris is easy, as those two rivers join: and Diodorus expressly tells us, that fish of the belluine kind are found in the Tigris, especially about the dog-days. He proceeds farther to shew from Galen, and other writers, that the liver of the silurus was in great fame for the cure of suffusions and dimness of sight; and, from some Greek and Arabic authors, that even its smell was effectual in expelling demons; but possibly this very history of Tobit might originally give occasion to these notions. If it should be objected that the silurus is a fish of a very smooth and slippery skin, destitute of scales, and therefore not to be supposed to be held by the bare hands of Tobias, it is sufficient to answer, that the head is disproportionably big to its body, and the gills vast and open, so as to offer easy and firm hold; there is, therefore, in the Latin version, where Tobias is ordered prehendere branchiam, very great propriety, from the singular form and structure of this fish. But whether the eating this fish, as mentioned ver. 5. is quite agreeable to Lev. xi. 10. is a difficulty that hath not been fully considered. Against the callionymxts, which the greater part of the interpreters suppose to be the fish here meant, from the sanative virtue said to be in it by Pliny and other naturalists, there lies this very material objection, That it is a fish of so small a size as is utterly inconsistent with the story. u Longitudine est (says the most accurate Mr. Ray, with whom Johnston agrees), dodran- HlRELINGSofEphrai7n.]CvL\mctsuspects(rom Achior being called, vcr. 5. a hireling of Ammon, that this reading is a mistake; and indeed this conjecture seems confirmed from the Syriac version, which has viercenarii Ammon in both places. The expression implies great disrespect and contempt; but the sarcasm is much stronger.upon the Jews, when Holoferncs calls them, ver. 5. Tlie people that came out of Egypt, intimating that they wcro a race of slaves. And who art thou, Achior, and the hirelings of Ephraim, that thou hast prophesied amongst ns as to-day, and hast said, Tliat we shoidd not make war with the people of Israel, because their God will defend them?] Achior’s speech in tho foregoing chapter is much to be admired for the justness of the sentiments, and the generous disinterestedness with which he supports the cause of the God of Israel: though himself was one of the uncircumcised, he harangues like Moses or Joshua on the state of the Jewish people, their good or evil success, according as they continued faithful, or otherwise, in the service of the true God. To hear him thus speak of and extol the mighty power of the God of Israel, when he regarded, and would have all others likewise regard, Nabuchodonosor as the most high God, and only invincible, grated the jealousy and ambition of the Assyrian general; and one would havo expected from his pride and fury, that he would instantly have ordered him to be put to death, for the freedom with which he expressed himself. But this was not in his own or master’s power, how great an idea soever he had conceived of it; God had resolved to reward a declaration, so much to his honour, from the mouth of this alien, and to reserve him to become one at length of his chosen, whose cause he had so signally vindicated. The honest freedom of Achior, and the evil return it met with, are not without precedent in history; the following extract bears a near resemblance and affinity to it: — Darius being on the point of giving battle to Alexander, demanded of Charidemns, an Athenian captain, what he thought of his army: the stranger answered, That it might serve to frighten some neighbouring states, but it appeared to him not disciplined or strong enough to oppose the forces of Alexander, which he commended exceedingly, especially for their experience and discipline; u That to an army of Macedonians equal forces should be opposed, and the silver and gold which shone upon the arras of his soldiers, would be better disposed of to levy forces in Greece. Pari robore opus est* In ilia terra, qua nos genuit, auxilia qucerenda sunt; argentum istud atque aurum ad conducendum militem mitte" Darius, though naturally humane and good-natured, was. vexed with so free an answer, and without any farther consideration ordered him to be killed on the spot; but he was soon sensible of the rashness of this step; he lost the battle, and lamented the hasty sentence pronounced upon one who had given him so good advice. (Q. Curt. lib. iii.) The speech of Holoferncs here, conceived in the spirit of military pride, and expressed in domineering and insulting, terms, and with a full confidence of victory, reminds one cither of that of Goliath the Philistine, defying the armies, of the living God, aud threatening to give the flesh of David, whom he haughtily disdained, in comparison of his enormous self, unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field, 1 Sam. xvii. or that of llab-shakch, whom Sennacherib sent to reproach the living God; Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria; hearken not unto Ilezekiah, when he persuadeth you, saying, Tlie Lord will deliver us. Who are they among all the gods of the countries that have delivered their country out of mine hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem out of mine hand? (2 Kings xviii.) But the.cvent shewed, that the confidence

Job 6:3

For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea: therefore my words are swallowed up. ~\ He would soon find, that the sand of the sea is not so heavy as my misery; and that I am not able to complain enough. The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto’her.] The prophet having likened Zion to a rich pasture in the foregoing verse, saith, that the shepherds and their flocks shall take possession of her, meaning the Chaldean generals, (for in that sense shepherds arc sometimes understood; see xxv. 34.) and their armies, who should feed’upon her, till they had quite devoured her. So the Chaldee •paraphrase explains shepherds with their flocks, by kings with their armies. &EVEN generations] The word ytvta, or generation, has many senses. Sometimes it signifies twenty, twenty-five, or thirty years, but most generally the last term; and’in this sense it is used by approved authors, and particularly in the genealogy recorded by St. Matthew. By it here is meant ten years, or rather seven decads of years; but this acceptation is not.very common: but as it was very well known to have been predicted by the prophets, that the captivity should last seventy, that is, seven ten years, it cannot be doubted but that this author had that term in view here, and meant the precise period of ten years. The seventy years of the captivity of Babylon are usually reckoned from the first year of Nebuchadnezzar the Great, and the fourth of Jehoiakim, i.e. A. M. 3398, and ended 34G8; or before Christ 60G, and ended 536, before his appearance; at which time Cyrus gave leave to all the Jews in his dominions to return tp their own country, This epistle, said to be Jeremiah’s, is supposed to be wrote to the Jews when they were going into captivity with their king, to admonish them to beware of the idolatry which they would see in Babylon: and seems to be the letter referred to, 2. Mace, ii. 2, 3.. where the same caution is given as here, to guard against the idolatry they would observe in that place, and is an epitome of sundry things in Moses, the Psalms, and the prophets, against idolatry, and the fullest dissuasive against it, in one continued tract or view, of any through the whole volume of the Bible, and handled in the most proper manner: as banter and ridicule are often found more effectual to expose and cpnfute an error, than grave and serious reasoning.

Job 6:4

For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God So set themselves in array against me. The Almighty himself hath given me such a wound, that I am dispirited: for nothing but dreadful spectacles present themselves ready armed against me. Prepare ye war against her.] God, by his prophet, gives a commission to the Chaldeans to fight against Jerusalem. (Compare li. 27. Joel iii. 9.) The Hebrew reads, sanctify war; concerning which expression, see the’note on Isa. xiii. 3.‘Arise, and let us go up at noon.] The expressions denote the alacrity of the soldiers, and how ready they were to “assault her openly at “noon-day: (compare xv. 8.) or even’in the heat of the day,‘which was a time of rest and intermission of labour in those hot countries. (See 2 Sain. iv. 5.) Woe unto us! for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.. For he said, none of my words shall be in vain.’] Oh fxaratu)^()<TOVTai tu /o/j/iara rwv Xoywv /iov. As Nabuchodonosor would pass for a god, so he affected to talk like one,. his orders are absolute and uncontrollable, as if he was possessed of all power both in heaven and earth. As 12H signifies among, the Hebrews both a word and thing, so prjiia hath the same double meaning among the Hellenists;- see particularly Dent. xvii. 1. Luke i. 37. Acts x. 37, accordingly pfifiaTa tu>v Xoywv, to avoid tautology, must sig-’ nify the things, matter, or contents, of his speech. Ver; 5. And thou Achior, a hireling of Ammon, which luzst spoken these words in theday of thine iniquity.] i.c. Who • hast been hired by the Jews to prophesy falsely, to discourage my soldiers, and hast this day betrayed thy perfidiousne^s and treachery. Junius accordingly has, Qui prolocutus es sermones istos injustitim tuce; and the margin, Quum perfidiam tuam, ut merceuarius improbus, retexisti. It is a Hebraism, and means, that he had that dayspoken words of iniquity, i.e. of baseness and falsehood, as would be proved by the event. Gods of silver, and gold, and wood, borne upon shoulders.] Isaiah takes notice of and condemns this custom, Hemaketh it a god: they fall down, yea, they worship. They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in his place, and he standeth;from his place shall he not remove, (xlvi. 6, 7.) Jeremiah likewise mentions this idolatry, and their carrying images in great. procession and pomp, They must needs be borne (says he) because they cannot go, (x.5.) And to this: sense, Spencer and other learned interpreters explain those words of Amos, Ye have borne the tabernacle of Moloch and Chiun your images, (v. 2G.) which the LXX. rightly render avtXaj3tTt, snrsum tulistis. Numerous instances of this superstition used among the heathen, are to be met with in sacred and profane writers. (See ver. 26.) Ver. G. Say ye in your hearts, O Lord, we must worship thee.] These words seem wrongly pointed in our translation, and the common editions of the Greek. The senso would be better, and more agreeable to the* context, if the rendering was, " We ought to worship thee, O Lord, with the spirit, or understanding, in contradistinction to senseless images, which take no notice of their votaries.” And so St. Cyprian renders this passage, In sensu tibi debet adorari Deus. (Do Orat. Domin.) One copy of the Greek reads without any comma at all, probably intending this sense; but for clearness I would place it thus, t^-are 8i), ry Siavoi£ <rt Set Trpooicvvuv, S&nrora. The Psalmist, in like manner, after having exposed the folly of image-worship, and from the honour given by the heathens to their idols, presses the like conclusion upon the Israelites, and excites them to praise the living God, the Lord of the world, with the greater devotion. (Psal. exxxv. 17 — 20.)

Job 6:5

Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass? or loweth the ox over his fodder?~\ It is easy for you who feel no pain nor want to forbear complaints; which is no more than the very ass and other brute creatures do. Arise, and let us go by night, and let iis destroy her palaces.] The soldiers are described as -so eagerly bent upon taking the city, that they express their regret for the loss of one day, that they could not arrive soon enough the first day of their approach to besiege it. Whereupon they resolve to lose no farther timfe, but march immediately, and take the advantage of the night to surprise its fortresses. • -Ver. G. For thus hath the Lord of hosts said, Hew ye down trees, and cast a mount against Jerusalem, &c.] This siege is carried on by God’s decree and command, as a just punishment for the oppressions and other crying sins the inhabitants are guilty of.

Job 6:6

Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt? or is there any taste in the white of an egg?. But may not he who eats insipid things call for a little salt to make them go down better? (How much more then may we call for something to qualify that which is bitter?) And thou shall fall among their slain, when I return.] “Orav iTrurrp&pb). When I shall turn, or put my enemies to flight, says BadAvell; and so the Geneva version has it, Thou shall fall among the slain when I shall put them to flight: or the meaning may be, which the words seem more naturally to suggest, When I return victorious and’ in peace; and in this sense it reminds one of wliat the king of Israel said to Micaiah the prophet, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and water of affliction, until I come in peace. And the answer there given is equally applicable, Jf thou return at all in* peace, the Lord hath not spoken by me. And lie said, Hearken, O people, every one of you. (1 Kinzs xxii.

Job 6:7

Tfte things which my soul refused to touch are as my sorroivfulmeat. As I do now, who have nothing afforded me for my support, but such discourses as yours, which my very soul loathes. Violence and spoil is heard in her; before me continually is grief and wounds.] I hear the continual complaints of those that groan under tho oppression that they suffer, and are put to death unjustly and cruelly. (Compare Psal. Iv. 9—11.) Touching the heart and the liver, if a devil or an evil spirit trouble any, rue must make a smoke thereof before the man or the woman, and the party shall be no more vexed.] Those who arc of opinion that demons wcro invested with Certain material forms, wherein they snuffed up the perfumes and feasted themselves upon the odours of the incense and sacrifices that were offered to thom, have an easy way of solving this difiiculty, by supposing that the smell of the burnt heart and liver of the fish was offensive to Asmodcus. The Chaldeans, among Whom the book of Tobit was wrote, and the Israelites, for whose use and instruction it was wrote, might both bo of this opinion, that demons, as not absolutely divested of all matter, were capable of some sensations and impressions that belonged to corporeal substances; and therefore, in accommodation to the vulgar idea and prejudice, of the people, the author of this history might express himself as though the expulsion of this evil spirit was effected by a natural cause, the smoke of the fish, even though at the same time he sufficiently intimated, that it was through the merciful help of God, obtained by prayer, that it came to pass, (vcr. 17.) But if this demon was incorporeal (and this is the supposition which generally prevails), we may safely conclude, that the smoke of the fish’s entrails could have no direct nor physical effect upon him; that his fleeing away, therefore, was occasioned by a supernatural power, in the exercise of which this angel appointed to attend Tobias was the principal instrument, and that he ordered the fumigation as a sign only when the evil spirit, by his superior power, should be chased away. Others have been disposed to consider Asmodeus not as any real demon, but only as expressive of the great power of lust, and that the fumigation in no other sense drove away that evil spirit, than as its virtue contributed to check and suppress such an extravagant and brutal passion as was predominant in her other husbands, the efficacy of which (vcr. 7) is said to be so powerful and general, as that it would cure nva, any other person tempted in the like irregular manner. But, allowing this fumigation to have some physical effect, like other foetid medicines, yet it would, I conceive, be more proper to consider this as a lower and secondary instrument only in the cure, as prayer and abstinence are, in the history itself, set forth as the principal means by which so powerful an effect was produced. And this seems to be a more likely way to hinder the return of Asmodeus, i.e. of any base lust again, than the power of natural fumigation, which has not escaped censure, as having some appearance of magic. For mine angel is tcith you, and I myself caring for your souls.] i. e. Mine angel shall protect you, which these idols cannot. Our version and the Vulgate seem faulty in the rendering of the latter clause; in the Greek it is, avrbg St ck^tjtwv rag ^v^ac v/uwv, which I. would translate, *And he (the angel) will watch over you, and revenge any injury done to you. The Geneva version understands avrbg, in like manner, of the angel, For mine angel shall be with you, and shall care for your souls. Junius is more explicit to the same purpose, Angelus meus vobiscum est, qui idem reposciturus estanimas vestras; and so the oriental versions also have it.

Job 6:8

Oh that I might have my request! and that God would grant me the thing that I long for. I cannot but cry unto God, and beseech him to grant me my heart’s desire. Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee, &c] Take warning by the many thrcatcnings and judgments I have denounced against thee; amend thy ways and doings, lest, if thou persist in thy wickedness, my mind and affection be utterly alienated from thee, (sec • Ezck. xxiii. 17, 18. Hos. ix. 12.) and I cast Of all bowels of compassion towards thee, and givb thee up to ruin and desolation. This threatening God fulfilled afterward, when ho suffered the city and nation to bo utterly ruined and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar; but it still received a farther completion, in that final desolation brought upon them by tho Romans, under Titus Vespasian. The gall is good to anoint aman that hathwhiteness in his eyes, and he shall be healed.’] Wbethcr the gall of this or any other fish has such a natural virtue to restore sight, naturalists can best determine. Pliny, indeed, speaking of the callionymus, mentions something like this: — " Fcl cicatrices sanat, et oculorum carncm supcrfluam consumit.” (Lib. xkxii. cap. 4. 7.) But I have before shewed (sec note on vcr. 2.) that this is not the fish hero mentioned. It seems best in this case, likewise, not to rest the cure in the mere natural liniment, but to understand the outward application as somewhat similar to our Saviour’s spreading clay upon the eyes of the man that was born blind, and ordering him to wash in the pool of Siloam, not as the cause, but as the proof, of the cure. It was the power of God in both instances; and Tobit, sensible of this, returns devout thanks to God accordingly, xi. 14, 15. Vcr. 12. I know that Raguel cannot marry her to another, according to the law of Moses, but he shall be guilty of death.] According to the precept in the Mosaical law, Numb, xxvii. 8. a woman ought to marry her nearest kinsman, who, having no brother, succeeded to the inheritance of her father; but the penalty of death, mentioned in our version, the Syriac and Greek text, seems very particular, and is not to be met with any where in the law, cither as denounced against the father, who w T ould not give his daughter to his nearest kinsman, or against the nearest kinsman himself, if he would not espouse her. The Geneva version, which qualifies the expression, is therefore preferable: I know that Raguel cannot marry her to another according to the law of Moses, else he shoidd deserve death* But I think the words?* o<pu\ri<j£t Savaroy may be better rendered, tj, or (if he does) that other to whom he gives her, 6<ptt()<ju, will be obnoxious to death, or in great danger to be slain by the power of Asmodcus. For it has been thought not very unlikely, that the true reason why the seven husbands were given up to be slain by, the wicked demon, was because they unjustly claimed the right of marriage to this heiress; the attempt to lie with whom was a sort of attempt to ravish a virgin already betrothed, and belonging to another by their law; and by the slaughter of these, Providence preserved her pure and unspotted for her rightful and legal husband, Tobias. (See Whist. Auth. Records, vol. ii.) Nor is the sense which Terentius Christianus gives of this passage to be despised: " Non denegabit, sat scio; nee si velit Maxime, jure poterit: nam praetor jus tuum Nilpostulas; tibi cnim debetur: utpote Qui ci cognationc ac genere proximus Es. Nee earn, contra praeceptum Mosaicum, Alienigenae nuptumlocabit conjugi, Nisi crimen capitale velit incurrerc.” (In Tob. act iii.) The Vulgate and Hebrew copies wholly omit the threatening clause, and indeed the sense is as complete without it. As for their tongue, it is polished by the workman, and they themselves are gilded and laid over with silver; yet are they but false, and cannot speak.] The mimic representations of life arc all deceit; they are mere insensible images of things, having mouths, and a tongue beautifully polished, but are unable to give a word of advice or comfort to their supplicants. Their images are overlaid with coverings of gold and silver plates;* (see ver. 57, 58. Isa. xxx. 22.) either to attract the eyes of the beholders, or to cover some.defect; but their gold and silver serve only to expose their weakness. They are of no more value than that of the rich materials of which they are made, and so far from being able to say or do any thing, that they themselves are the handy-work of those that worship them: every excellence, that they have is derived from the ingenuity of the artificer, and shews rather his art than their divinity.

Job 6:9

Even that it would please God to destroy me; tltat he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!. Which is, that he would be pleased not to let me languish in this miserable condition, but with one stroke more quite cut mc off. They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine, &c] A comparison elsewhere used,, to express the en tiro riddance that is made in a city or country by hostile depredations. (See Isa. xvii. C. xxiv. 13.) And as a grape-gatherer, when ho thought he had done his work, afterward spies more bunches, and gathers them into his basket; so they that come after shall make an entire riddance of what was left by the former invaders, till at last there shall be nothing at all remaining. (Compare xlix. 9.) And if thou persuade’thyself in thy mind, that they shall not be taken, let not thy countenance fall.] Sed Gen. iv. 5. where the like phrase is used to signify Cain’a grief and discontent; and Job xxix. 24. such a state of mind is expressed by the falling of the light of the countenance, as the lifting up of the face on the contrary was a token of comfort, joy, and confidence. (Job xi. 15.) The meaning here seems to be, " If thou art assured of the truth of what thou Gayest, do not betray any, or so much concern and fear, nor let signs of conscious guilt and confusion appear on thy countenance: if thou art indeed a’ true prophet, there is no occasion for fear; but if by the event thou art detected to tie a false one, thy perfidiousness will draw on thee, thou must expect, a more severe punishment/* And taking gold, as it were for a virgin that loves to go gay; they make crowns for the heads of their gods.] The Geneva version is clearer, which has, And as they take gold for a maid that loveth to be decked, so make they crowns for the heads of their gods. But the sense, I conceive, would be more perfect, if the pointing was thus, And taking gold, as for some virgin that loves dress and finery, they make crowns for the heads of their gods. And so Calmet understands it, Comme on fait des ornements it une file, qui aime cl separer, ainsi on fait ces idoles avec de Fori

Job 6:10

Then should I yet have comfort; yea, I would harden myself in sorrow: let him not spare; for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One. It would be a great comfort to me to hope for this, and would strengthen me to endure. the severest pains: for I would receive the senfence of death with acclamations of praise, if God would pronounce it against me. Behold, their ear is nncircumcised, and tliey cannot hearken.] As the ear, when it is stopped up with filth, cannot hear; so their minds arc so prepossessed by their lusts, that the word of God can find no admittance. Men’s hearts, their lips, and their ears, arc said to be nncircumcised, when they are not duly disposedfor hearing the truth. (Compare iv. 4. ix. 26.) And while men continue in this condition, they cannot give due attention to what God speaks to them. In the same sense Christ saith to the Jews, How can ye believe, who receive honour one of’another? (John v. 44.) meaning,.that such a temper was an obstacle to their believing on him, and hindered them from receiving the truth in the love of it.. * Behold, the word of the Lord is to them a reproach.] The subject of their scorn and derision. (See xx. 8.) •’ Tlien Holofernes commanded his’ servants that waited in his tent to take Achior, and bring him to liethulia, and deliver him into the hands of the children of Israel.] Holofernes, transported with fury at Achior’s open and free mariner of speaking, says to him, " Since you have taken upon you to be a prophet, in telling us that the God of Israel would be the defender of his people, to shew you that there is no other god but Nabuchodonosor, my master, when we have put these people to the sword, we will destroy you* likewise. — And that you may yourself experience the vanity of your own prophecy/I will have you carried to Bethulia; there to run the same risk, andundergo the same fate, with them, whotn you believe and pronounce to be invincible." “Propelli Accitor(says Sulpicius, Sac. Hist. 1. 2.) in castra Hebracorum jubet, ut cum his periret, quos vinci non posse affirmavcrat.” The insulting general hereby intended no favour to Achior; he spared his life only that he might at length take it from him in a manner that should most sensibly affect him; viz. after he had seen with his own eyes the entire ruin of a people, whose God he bad so much extolled as their protector. But how unsearchable is the counsel, and adorable the conduct, of tho Most High, who knows how to confound the blindness, and disappoint the ambition, of wicked enterprising spirits, and to procure mercy and deliverance for his chosen by those very means, which short-sighted wisdom had contrived most effectually to destroy them! Bethulia.~] From what quarter Holofernes attacked Judeais not certain, and much more uncertain where to fix this Bethulia, though, it be the very seat of the siege itself. Many learned men think they see reason from iii. 9,10. iv.6. vii.3. to place it northwards in the tribe of Zebulun. Butthe following difficulties attend this opinion; Bethulia is said to be the frontier-town, and entrance into the hill country, vii. 1. but that the hill country lay at a distance from this tribe, is plain from St. Luke, chap. i. who tells us, the Virgin Mary arose from Nazareth (which was in the tribe of Zebulun, and neighbourhood of Bethulia), and’ went into the hill country; which plainly enough infers, the hill country was different from the tribe of Zebulun; divided indeed from it at the distance of many days’ journey, being on the south of the tribe of Judah, " Initium sumpsit Mons Amorrhasus a Cadesh Barnea, limite terras Israeliticae Australi, ac se horrente gibbositate protrusitin Judoeam, ultra Hebronem, mutato nomine tandem in montanum Judaea;." (Lightfoot, Cent. Chorog. in Matt; p. 23.) Again, all the persons of Bethulia, whose tribe is distiri-. guished, were of the tribe of Simeon; so Judith, Manas-

Job 6:11

What is my strength, that I should hope? and what is mine end, that I should prolong my life?. For I have not strength enough to endure any longer, nor any hope of better days in the conclusion, which" should make me willing to have my life prolonged. Therefore I am full of the fury of the Lord; I am weary with holding in.] This mocking of God’s messengers, and despising his word, is a great aggravation of their sins, and withal a sign that they are now grown incorrigible; so that I now feel myself pressed in spirit, and under a constraint of denouncing God’s judgments against all orders and ranks of men, both young and old, women and children. - Tlierefore I will pour it out upon the children abroad, and upon the young men together.] The prophets are said to do things, when they declare God’s purpose of doing them, as hath been observed upon i. 10. In the same sense the prophet is here said to pour out the Divine fury upon the’children abroad, who take delight in playing in the streets: (see Zech. viii. 5.) and the young men’who assemble in meetings for diversion or conversation. * (Compare ix. 21.) The aged with him that is full of days.] Full of days denotes one that hath lived to the full term and period of human life. (Compare Isa. Ixv. 20.)

Job 6:12

Is my strength the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass?. God hath not made me insensible, and therefore do not wonder that I desire to be released from the sharpest pains. And their houses shall be turned to others, with their fields and wives together.] According to that threatening denounced by Moses, Deut. xxviii. 30. Yet cannot these gods save themselves from rust and mollis, though they be covered with purple raiment.] See ver. 72. z. e. Their ornaments and royal attire are perishable things, like those that wear them; pass but a few years, and their riches are corrupted, and their gar* ments moth-eaten, their gold and silver cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against them, and shall eat them up, as it were fire, as St. James speaks upon another occasion, (v. 2, 3.) That the heathens, in their idolatrous worship, adorned the images of their gods with costly robes, is confirmed from Jcr. x. 9. where, speaking of the

Job 6:13

Is not my help in me? andis wisdom driven quite from me?. Do not think my reason hath forsaken me, and •that I do not understand myself. From the prophet to the priest, every one dealeth falsely.] Or, both prophet and priest. (Compare ix. 10.) So in other places, where the Hebrew reads, from small to great; our translation renders it, both small and great (See TSam. v. 9. xxx. 2.) They wipe their faces because of the dust of the temple, when there is much upon them.] Or, as the Geneva version has it, They wipe their faces because of the dust of the temple, whereof there is much upon them. And so the Vulgate, Extergunt faciem ipsorum propter pulverem domfis, qui est plurimus inter eos; i. e. through the concourse of the people, or votaries, who come there in great numbers. The multiplicity of persons which tread the hallowed courts, which is an honour to the true God, is to them an inconvenience and disgrace; for when the idoltemples, like that of Baal, are filled with worshippers from one end to the other, being unable to help themselves in any respect, they must be beholden afterward to the care of others, td remove any accidental stain or filth that may fasten on them, and to keep them neat and clean. (See vcr. 24.)

Job 6:14

To him that is afflicted pity should be shelved from his friend; but heforsaketh thefear of the Almighty. Were it so, a friend should shew me the more pity; as you would do, but that you fear not God, nor remember that he can afflict you as he doth me. They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, &c] Instead of making a deep search into the corruptions of the people, the true cause of all their maladies, [compare Isa. i. G.] and applying corrosive me- For a wicked spirit loveth her, which hurteth nobody butjhose which come unto her.] Calmct observes, that this demon, being incorporeal, could not possibly love Sara on account of her youth or beauty, or any bodily accomplishment; much less did he respect, as he was an unclean and impure spirit, her chastity and virtue. Tobias, therefore, must be understood to speak here according to popular prejudice and opinion. The vulgar supposed demons to be corporeal, and to be enamoured, like mortals, with the. love of women; hence it became a notion that Asmodcus, through a motive of jealousy, killed those that went in unto Sara. The Vulgate and Hebrew copies only mention the baro fact, but the Greek and Syriac assign love, or rather brutal lust, as the cause of this cruelty. The rabbins and latter Jews, it is certain, supposed that evil spirits were enamoured of handsome women, from mis r understanding perhaps Gen. vi. 2. And there arc many authors that pretend evil spirits arc not only capable of, but often indulge and satisfy, a criminal passion with women; and particularly that the demons called incubi and

Job 6:15

My brethren have dwelt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away. My dearest friends prove as deceitful as the torrents, which make a great noise, and run with a violent stream. Ozias of the tribe of Simeon.] Whether Bcthulia was a city of the tribe of Zebulun, or Simeon, Ozias probably was free of it; or when the ten tribes were carried away captive to Assyria, he was perhaps, by chance or design, carried to Bcthulia; or possibly upon this expedition of Holofcrnes he was sent to Bcthulia by king Manasscs, or Joacim the high-priest, with a public character or commission, as one who was capable of giving orders, and commanding upon so important an occasion. By the Vulgate ho is called the prince of Judah, chap. viii. and prince of the people of Israel, chap. xiii. which makes it the more probable, that, being a man of authority and consequence, he was sent to Bcthulia to defend that place against the assault of Nabuchodonosor’s army, and was for that time at least one of the governors of the place. They arc called the ancients of the city, viii. 10. x. G. He hath also in his right hand a dagger, and an axe.’] Arnobius observes, concerning the gentiles, " That they designed to create fear by the manner in which they framed and represented the statues and images of their gods: hence scythed, clubs, and * thunderbolts, were appendages to their idols." (Adv. Gent. lib. vi.) Like the god of war, or some martial hero, they were exhibited, armed with swords, lances, helmets, bucklers, or whatever fancy could ifrvent to excite terror. In the foregoing verse, indeed, they arc set forth in a milder attitude, to create veneration, seemingly dispensing justice, like some prince or governor of a province, of which the sceptre which they held forth was to be the symbol.

Job 6:16

IVJtich are’ blackish by reason of the ice, and wherein the snoiv is hid. When the melted ice and snow fall thick into them.

Job 6:17

Wltat time 9 they wax warm, they va?iish: when it is hot, they are consumed out of their place. They promise water, but in the summer-time are dried up. And the devil shall smell it, and flee away, and never come again anymore: but when thou shalt come to him, rise up both of you, and pray to God which is merciful.’] This account of driving away the demon by fumigation, reminds one of what Josepbus mentions, de Bell. Jud. lib. viii. cap. 2. that one Eleazar, before Vespasian and a great mrmbcr of persons, freed several, who were possessed with evil spirits, from the power of them, by putting to their nose a certain ring, having a specific root under it, which quickly expelled the demon out of their bodies, so as never to return again; and that this method of cure was at that time successfully made use of against evil spirits: if this relation is* to be depended on, it shews the power of smell upon evil genii, and the effect here ascribed to fumigation may from thence receive some countenance. But I do not bnild much upon this narrative, which carries in it the appearance of magic; much less can I pursuade myself to run the parallel between ejecting the demon hereby the ashes of the perfume, and those undoubted miracles recorded in the Old and New Testament, Numb. xxi. 9. Josh. vi. 20. 2 Kings ii. 21. iv. 41. Matt. ix. 20. John ix. 6, 7. Acts v. 15. xix. 12. with which the popish expositors, out of an implicit regard to authority, and a zeal for their canon, have presumed to compare it. Without straining the point so far, the history itself seems to afford light enough to account for the supposed miracle, without recourse to, or anyway relying upon, the virtue of the bnrnt entrails; for as prayer to, and faith in God was, according to the angel’s direction, to accompany the use of the outward means, to which, according to the Vulgate, was added matrimonial continence for a season likewise; these have that known and sovereign virtue in them, as to supersede the necessity of any less powerful means. Especially if this demon was like that which went not out but by prayer and fasting, Matt. xvii. 21. This rich and holy perfume was an incense more precious and available with God than any secret of nature, or invention of art. Joint prayers, from persons so well-disposed, had, as it were, the efficacy of an evening sacrifice. Fear not,’ for she is appointed unto thee from the beginning.’] i e. She belongs to thee according to the constitution of the law; or is thine by Divine appointment and designation.‘Erotjia^uv is taken in this sense to signify what is ordered by Divine appointment, Matt. xx. 23. xxv. 34. 1 Cor. ii. 9. Heb. xi. 16. And thou shalt preserve her.] i. e. By maintaining, protecting, and defending her; and be a saviour to her, as the terra is used on the like occasion, Eph, v. 23. Munstcr’s Hebrew copy is more explicit, Et per manum tuam dominus liberabif earn de manu dcemonis; see xii. 3. where Sara is mentioned as made whole, or freed from that plague of the possession of the demon; and, iii. 17. where Raphael is mentioned as sent to heal Sara, by giving her foT a wife to Tobias. I suppose that she shall bear thee children.] He might express himself thus doubtfully, cither as the man Azarias, whose appearance he assumed, or in his own person, as the angel Raphael. For angels too, though called intelligences, however desirous they may be to look into, are certainly ignorant of things future, (see 2 Esd. iv. 52.) unless God is pleased to reveal them to them, or commissions them to declare them to others. As when the angel foretells unto Zechariah the birth of a son, he mentions his authority and commission, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God, and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings. (Luke i. 19.) Calmet renders, J’espere qu’elle vous donnera des enfans.

Job 6:18

The patlts of their tvay are turned aside; they go to nothing, and perish. So that you can scarce find any mark of the course wherein they ran, they are so perfectly vanished.

Job 6:19

Tlie troops of Tema looked, the companies of Sheba waited for them. They that travel into our neighbouring countries expected to quench thirst there, where they had sometime seen so much water. And look upon the face of those that are sanctified unto thee this day.] There arc different senses of these words. Some understand them, as if the Jews prayed to God at this melancholy juncture, in the following manner: " Look not upon onr merit, which is as nothing, but upon the merits of thy faithful saints, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and others, who have distinguished themselves by continuing true and steadfast in thy covenant; that we, who labour under the burden of our sins, and are justly punishable for them, may, on their account, and in regard to their righteousness, be accepted by thee, and obtain the deliverance we at present stand in need of." Or they may be understood of the Jews in general, urging before God their near relation to him, as his peculium, thus: — " Regard, O Lord, the prayers of thy people, whom thou hast separated from all other nations, whom thou hast adopted in an especial manner, and chosen to be thine inheritance." Or the meaning may be, " Hear the supplications of those who have prepared and sanctified themselves in this time of calamity, to appear before thee, who join with most devout affections in the holy offices of fasting and praying, to implore thy help and mercy against an insulting and proud enemy, defying even thy almighty power." Or, lastly, we may, with Grotius, understand the words of the priests and such persons in particular, who are separated to a holy ministry and use, whose prayers and intercessions, in behalf of his distressed chosen, they beseech God most graciously to accept. The formidablcncss of Holoferncs’s army struck them with a panic: they saw themselves in the most imminent danger, and the defeat of all the adjacent countries, together with the cruelties exercised upon them, was to them a certain presage of what they might expect, and of the mischief intended against them, if the Almighty did not interpose in their behalf as their protector. On this account they fell prostrate before him with the profoundest humility; they fasted, they prayed, they passed whole nights in solemn supplications, to implore the aid and assistance of him whom they looked upon as only able to deliver them from so powerful an enemy. They light them caudles… whereof they cannot see one.] Either in tHcir temples, or in their processions. See Cic. Oflic. iii. 2C. and Apuleius, who says’of the pagan processions, that, on such an occasion, “Antistitcs sacrorum Deum proferebant insignes exuvias, quorum primus lucerriam praemicantem claro porrigebatluminc •*— Magnus praeterea sexus utriusque numerus, lucernis, tabdis, ccrcis,” &c. The sense of the writer of this epistle would be more complete, if the first sentence of the following verse was added to it thus, They light them candles.:. whereof they cannot see one, for they are as one of the beams of the temple. And thus the Vulgate, from some Greek copies, connects the sense, Lucernas accendunt illis, et quidem multas, ex quibus nullam videre possunt; sunt quidem sicut tr’abes in domo. And so the Geneva version, They light up candles before them, whereof they cannot see one; for they are but as one of the posts of the temple. And Junius renders in like manner. The intention of the heathens in having lamps or candles burning before their images and altars, seems to have been what Lactantius intimates, the furnishing light for their gods; the folly of which he thus exposes, " Num mentis suae compos putandus est, qui auctori et datori luminis candelarum ac ccrarum lumen affcrt pro muncre?" (Lib. vi. 2.) Vcr. 20. Yet they say, Their hearts are gnawed upon by things creeping out of the earth, and when they eat them and their clothes, they feel it not.] Thus Arnobius, who’ was himself once a pagan, speaks of idols, setting them upon all occasions in the meanest and most ridiculous light, " Non vidctis sub istorum simulacrorum cavis mures habitare? in ore ab araneis ordiri retia?" (Lib. vi. adv. Gent.) It should seem, say Messieurs of Port-Royal, from the context, as if the priests themselves, who got their livelihood by this false worship, or some of the wor-’ shippers at least, made this acknowledgment of the meanness and imperfection of their images. But is such an open declaration from them, much to their great discredit, at all natural or credible? would it not, in the esteem of every sensible and well-meaning votary, be the means to expose and discard them, and at length take from the priests themselves all the gain of their craft? Nor is <pa<r\v, as others contend, to be understood as spoken by way of hearsay, that it is so reported of them, as Coverdale un-’ derstands it; little need was there to refer to uncertain tradition br report; every one might be convinced from his own observation of their decay, how contemptible such objects of worship were. Might not this more properly be understood of the idols themselves, betraying their own defects and shame by their frail appearance? i. e. Their idols confess, testify, or make it plain, by the signs of decay and rottenness visible about them, and by their being eaten as a’ piece of ordinary wood by worms, and not perceiving what is done to them, that they arc perishable and Senseless. And thus Junius expounds it, c< Ipsa idola tcstantur se facillime a tcnuissimis vermibus crodi in partes intimas usque/’ Or the sense, lastly, may be that of Isaiah, xliv. 9. that the makers themselves are their own witnesses; i. e. they best know the materials of which they are made, and are sufficiently convinced from their wanting often to be repaired and beautified, that they are mouldering vanities.

Job 6:20

Tliey were confounded because they had hoped; they came thither, and were ashamed. But were shamefully disappointed, and blushed to think they should seek relief from such uncertain streams. Then they comforted Achior, and praised hint greatly.] It may seem a little surprising, according to all human appearance, that the inhabitants of Bethulia, and those that had the chief command among them, should so readily and easily give credit to what Achior told them; for they might with good reason have mistrusted him as another Sinon, a suspicious person sent by Holofcrnes, with an insidious design, to make observations to their disadvantage, or to betray them to their ruin. To this it may be answered, that though, according to the ordinary rules of judging, and the maxims of common prudence, they ought to have been more wary and cautious, and in the opinion of somo to have proceeded rather by torture, yet possibly God might, in regard to the noble testimony which Achior bore, influence the hearts of this people to receive and to take care of him: or perhaps some among them might be affected with his story, and the circumstance of his being

Job 6:21

For now ye are nothing; ye see my casting down, and are afraid. Just such are you, good for nothing; who, seeing my calamity, shrink from me.

Job 6:22

Did I say, Bring unto me? or, Give a reward forme of your substance?. And yet I never sent for you, nor do I ask, now you are come, any relief from you. Upon their bodies and heads sit bats, swallows, and birds, and the tats also.] Besides the meanness of their original, and the imperfection of their state, if one considers farther the rudeness and insults offered to their divinityships,by vile^ despicable, and abject creatures, this also is sufficient to expose men’s folly in worshipping them. Minucius Felix is very pleasant upon the occasion: " Quanto verius de Diis vestris animalia muta naturaliter judicant, mures, hirundines, milvi? Nonsentire eos sciunt, rodunt, insultant, insident, ac, nisi abigatis, in ipso dei ve« stri ore nidificant;" (p. 175. edit. Oxon.) i. e. The mice, swallows, and’erows, know better than you (pagans) what your gods are; for, by gnawing and sitting upon them, and being ready to make nests in their mouths, if you do not % drive them away, they know that they have neither sense nor understanding. Spiders also spin upon their faces, and use their sacred heads for blocks only to hang their webs on.

Job 6:23

Or, Deliver me from the enemy s hand? or, Redeemmefrom the hand of the mighty?. I do not expect you should deliver me from these calamities, which, as so many mighty enemies, oppress me.

Job 6:24

Teach me, and I will hold my tongue; and cause me to understand wherein I have erred. Do not mistake me, nor think that I despise the assistance of your counsel and advice: no, I am ready to receive your reproofs, and humbly to submit to them, if you can better inform me.

Job 6:25

How forcible are right words! but ivhat doth your arguing reprove?. Oh what power is there in truth! but your reprehensions are ineffectual. Microsoft® [chap. VII.

Job 6:26

Do ye imagine to reprove words, and the’ speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind?. You only study to shew your eloquence, and in vain use words to drive mo to desperation.

Job 6:27

Yea, ye overwhelm the fatherless, and you dig a pit for your friend. You fall upon Lim who is already depressed, and without defence, and in a barbarous manner devise counsel against your friend. Ver. 2S. Now therefore be content; look upon me: for it is evident unto?jon if I lie.] But let it please you to consider my caso a little better, and then judge if I be in the wrong. If they fall to the ground at any time, they cannot rise up again themselves.] This was’the case of Dagon, who fell upon his face to the earth before the ark of the Lord; and though he was once set right again after his fall by his priests, *yet fell in the like manner a second time, with the additional misfortune of losing his head and both his hands. (1 Sam. v. 3,4.) So if Bel at any time is bowed down, and Nebo stoopcth, they cannot restore or make themselves straight again, but must continue in that posture and direction, in which design or accident has placed them. The author of the bobk of Wisdom has been no less happy than this writer, in exposing the weakness and * impotence of idols: — " When the workmen (says he, speaking of this particular defect) had formed it by the skill of 4U2 Microsoft® A COMMENTARY UPON [chap, VI. Iiis understanding, and fashioned it as he designed, he then looked out for a convenient room for it, set it in a wall, and mado it fast with iron; for ho provided for it that it might not fall, knowing that it was unable to help itself, as being an image that hath need of help." (Chap. xiii. Set gifts before them as unto dead men.’] In Scripture, likewise, they arc compared to dead things, to nothing, and vanity. Tho sense here is, that they are served with victuals, which arc set before them in form, without their being able to avail themselves of them, to touch or use them, or to receive and feast on the viands and offerings which are made to them. And how, indeed, should they, being inanimate and senseless things? And their votaries themselves must be equally so, to think that they had such a power, or ever could make use of it: and yet we find, by the story of Bel and the Dragon, that the simplicity of the Chaldeans was such, that they thought that idol ate in reality the great store of provisions set before it. By gifts placed before dead men, the writer alludes to the parental or sepulchral entertainments, which were anciently much in vogue in the eastern or other countries, and particularly among somo idolaters, whose notion was, that the souls of the departed wandered about their sepulchres, and wanted a proper sustenance; and that it was a pious office to place bread and wine over their graves, for their support and refreshment. (Sec note on Ecclus. xxx. 18.)

Job 6:28

Tlie things that are sacrificed unto them, their priests sell and abuse. Instead of exercising acts of hospitality and charity to poor and helpless persons, widows, and orphans, and bestowing upon them the remains of the sacrifices, they make a trade of holy viands, or pervert them to bad and evil uses. It is certain the ancient idolaters were wont to save some part of their sacrifices for magical and superstitious purposes. Herodotus testifies the same concerning the ancient Persians. (Lib. i. cap. 132.) And, therefore, God orders in (he paschal sacrifice, that nothing of it should remain until the morning, lest it should be profaned, or any ways corrupted and abused. Ver. 21). Women in childbed, &c. eat their sacrifices: by these things ye may know that they are no gods.] It appears from their many false rites, and the shameful abuse of their sacrifices, that they are no true gods; for if they were, neither would their priests dare to take such liberties in holy things, nor unclean and impure persons be permitted to approach them, or partake of them, which they might not do of a true sacrifice, nor in the service of the true God; for, according to the Levitical law, such persons were not to enter into the sanctuary, nor touch any hallowed things, but to continue in a state of separation for a certain time, as being defiled by their infirmity. (Lev. xii. 4.)

Job 6:29

Return, I pray you, let it not be iniquity; yea, return again, my righteousness is in it. Discuss things over again, I beseech you, and do it fairly. I say, let mc have a second hearing, it will but the moro shew my in- • xiocencc.

Job 6:30

Is there iniquity in my tongue? cannot my taste discern perverse things?. Havo I said any thing hitherto that is faulty? I do not think my judgment is so corrupted, but that I can discern what is bad, though spoken by myself. For how can they be called gods? because women set meat before the gods of silver.] The sense is more determinate and clear in the Geneva version, From whence cometh it then that they arc called gods? because the ivomen bring gifts to them; i.e. their silly and superstitious votaries, through their ignorance, pay the like honours and regard to their idols, as if they were really gods.

The priests sit in their temples, having their clothes rent, and their heads and their beards shaven, and nothing upon their heads. Several of the heathen priests, particularly thoso of Isis aud Serapis, had their heads shaven and uncovered, in the manner here described. It was a standing ordinance at Memphis: — " Ut Isidis sacerdotes semper dcraso sint capitc, utquc tcrtia quaque die corpus cradant." (Sec Alex, ab Alex. lib. vi. Juven. Sat vi.) It is observable, that the rites here mentioned were funeral ceremonies, and therefore the most proper to be used in the worship of the heathen deities, who were no better than dead men. In the service of the true God, the Jewish priests were forbid to rend their clothes, and shave their heads, thereby to distinguish them, as we may suppose with great probability, from the heathen priests. (See Lev. xxi. 5—10.) Calmet thinks the writer here refers to the lamentations for Adonis, customary not only in Egypt, Palestine, Phoenicia, and Syria, but also in Babylonia, and the provinces beyond the Euphrates.

They roar and cry before their gods, as men do at the feast when one is dead. This refers to a rite or custom among the Jews at their funerals, by the LXX. called TrtpiSwirvov vzkqov, or the funeral-feast. For the Jews had feasts or banquets upon account or in honour of the dead, and for the refreshment of the melancholy relations and friends present at the burial. Thus we read of the meat of mourners, Hos. ix. 4. and of the cup of consolation to comfort them for the loss of the deceased, Jer. xvi. 7. And this probably the son of Sirach means, where he mentions Bifiara fipwfiaTwv jrapaKdfizva ctt! Ta<pty, i. e. Messes of meat set on the sepulchre. (Ecclus. xxx. Tobit iv. 17, see notes on those places.) This custom, as we are informed by one of ihe Jewish writers, was the impoverishing of many, and that almost unavoidably; for if any one omitted the funeral-feast, he was reflected upon for want of piety. On this account, and some abuses attending these sepulchral entertainments, this custom was at length abolished. By their lamentations and cries before their gods, Calmet thinks those for Adonis most probably are meant.

When even the Chaldeans themselves dishonour them. i. e. They inwardly laugh at them, persuaded of their weakness and inability to do any thing. If their priests presented any sick person before the idol, it was rather to comply with the prevailing superstition, than from any hope that the cure would be effected. They were conscious of the cheat, though for gainful reasons they continued the practice. " Haruspex ridct cum haruspiccm viderct," was Tully’s sneer upon such impostors as these. St. Austin argues very strongly against the continuance of such superstitions, from the plain confession of.thc worshippers themselves of these pagan deities. Junius, who joins this sentence to’ the following verse, makes the sense to be, That the Chaldeans themselves sufficiently expose the weakness and impotence of such gods, when, despairing of help from their Dii minorum gentium, or inferior sort of gods, they carry the patient to their great god Bel, but to as little purpose.

If they sec one dumb that cannot speak, they bring him, and entreat Bel that he may speak, as though he were able to understand. Bel was the principal idol of the Babylonians; (Isa. xlvi. 1.) the same with Baal, as Sclden conjectures. (Syntag. 1. cap. 2.) How unable Baal was to hear, xmderstand, or answer, the petitions of his worshippers, we learn from that signal instance, 1 Kings xviii. 26. where, though his prophets called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, O Baal, hear as;

Yet they cannot understand this themselves, and leave them, for they have no knowledge. Kal ov Svvavrai avrol vofoavrtg Karaknruv abra. Or, as the Alexandrian MS. has it, tovto vonaavrtg, which would be better rendered, TJiey cannot, though they observe the inability of their idols to administer any help, persuade themselves to leave and forsake them; for they are foolish and infatuated themselves. And thus the Geneva version more clearly, Yet they that understand these things, cannot leave them, for they also have no sense.

The women also with cords about them. This refers to the tents or tabernacles of Venus, in which virgins were solemnly prostituted to the honour of that false goddess, under the title of Mylitta, and Venus 7ravS)?/ioc, or the popular goddess of sensual pleasures. These tents were called Succoth-benoth, i.e. tabernacles of daughters, or the pavilions of girls, on account of their residence. Accord-. ing to Selden, it means the chapels of Venus Mylitta. The men of Babylon, (2 Kings xvii. 33.) arc said to make Succoth-benoth, wherein their daughters were prostituted to such as came to worship Venus, as the manner was in Babylon, from whence this filthiness’ had its original. (See Selden, de Diis Syris, Syntag. 3. cap. 7.) And to this scandalous custom, he thinks Lev. xix. 29. particularly to refer. Every woman, it seems, throughout all the country, was bound once in her life to repair to the temple of Venus, and there to prostitute herself to any that would throw down a piece of money, be it less or more, which money was applied to the temple, and to the honour of the goddess. Herodotus gives the following account of this infamous custom, CSc §>/ ma^(L<rroQTU)v vo/ituv lar\ Tolm Baj3vAwviOf<n, k. t. A. erat Babyloniorum lex, ut omnes foemince semel in vita sederent apud templum Veneris, prrestolantes adventum peregrinorum, qui cum ei$ congrederentur; primum adventantem, qui se offerebat, non debebantrecusare, nee earn quam offercbat mercedem, quamvis non ita magnam, qute in sacrum usum reponebatur. Advenadicebat, ItukoXIw rp^av MvXittclv; tanti tibi deam Mylittam imploro. Et quacunque fcemina sedere inceperat, non debuit abire, donee vitiatafuerat. Undeformos<e cito di- •missce, sed deformes tinum autplures annos exspectabant; i.e. every Babylonian woman was once in her lifetime bound to prostitute herself to a stranger at the temple of Venus. They were crowned with knots and garlands, and ranged in long ranks before the temple, each rank being parted from the other by a line, that the men might conveniently pass between them, and choose those they liked best. They declared their choice by throwing money into the lap of the woman they mostadmired, andsaying, as they threwit, I implore the goddess Mylitta for thee. The money, how little soever, was by no means to be refused, being accounted sacred. Nor had the woman the power of rejecting any man that accosted her in the form prescribed, but she was absolutely to retire without delay. Having thus fulfilled the law, and performed some ceremonies in honour of the goddess, she returned home; and nothing could tempt her to grant the same favour again to her new lover. Women of rank (for none were dispensed with) might be conveyed to the appointed place in a covered vehicle, and keep in “it, while their servants waited their return at some distance. (Herod, in Clio, lib. i. cap. 199.) From this passage it appears into what infamous usage and indecency religion had degenerated: when the most dissolute pleasures were turned into so many acts of devotion, and it was counted a dishonour not to be defiled. By ^xoivia, here rendered corcft,some understand fine twine, of which their knots and garlands were composed; and possibly this may be the meaning of the Syriac, which has funibus ornata. Others suppose them to be rushes, which are easily broken. Selden understands cords, properly so called, to distinguish and guard the passages leading to the women, and to keep them separate. • The women sitting in the ways.] i. e. In the public ways leading to the temple of Venus. This description, and particularity of the place, is very natural and well suited to the followers and retainers of Venus, whose known custom it is to frequent the most public places, to entice and allure passengers. (See Prov. ix. 14, 15.) Thus Tamar, Gen. xxxviii. 14. is represented as sitting in an open place, or a place where roads crossed, which is by the way of Timnath, wpbg rmg wvXaig Alvav, at’ the gates of JEnan, according to the LXX. Such a place as this was most likely to meet passengers in, and therefore most proper for Tamar’s design. Of those. who followed the trade in a public way, such whom Plautus calls Sc&nicolce, seem most to resemble the Babylonish ones here mentioned. One cannot help observing a sort of gradual decay of decency in women of this profligate character; at first they had their haunts without the city, and followed the trade as it were in disguise, hiding their faces with a mask;* afterward they dropped this, and appeared barefaced, but nevertheless, the laws not allowing them to come within the walls, they yet kept their distance: but the state of things eveiy day growing worse and worse, they had the impudence at last to settle and carry on the business of lewdness publicly in cities. But though in all times and places such vile prostitutes have been too much followed and caressed, yet never was any age so degenerate, or people so abandoned, except the Babylonians, as to account them sacred. Burn bran for perfume.] Badwell takes it in the sense of our version, and the oriental ones translate accordingly. The Syriac in particular has, imponentes pro thymiamite furfures. A poor incense this! but good enough for such a deity, and so scandalous rites. Grotius understands the Greek, Ovfit&aai ra irirvpa, in an impure sense, from the Hebrew mt03 Petarah, apertura, which the Greeks express by ra alSoTa, and thinks it answers to suffire naturam, in Pliny; which seems to be confirmed from Strabo, who, speaking of the Babylonians, says, baaictc §’ fiv fxitr^uxriv aXXfiXoiglTri&vfitaaavrzQ. (Lib;xvi. Spencer, de Leg. Hebr. vol. i.) Selden renders irirvga by ovXoxvra, moles, or cakes and libations, called also OvX^fxara; and in this sense we meet with Qiuv ra 7rtTvpa, in Theocritus, as an expedient to procure love. And to this very custom the prophet Jeremiah is by him thought to allude, vii. 18. where it is said, that the tvomen knead their dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven, another name for the Babylonian Venus, who was also called Venus Urania. (Syntag. 2. cap. 7.) The same learned writer ob-

Whatsoever is done amongst them is false. i. e. Whatsoever is done to or about them is vain, and the labour to no purpose: or whatsoever is said or pretended to be done by them is false. The Alexandrian MS. has yiv6- fitva irap* avroi<;.

Tltey are made of carpenters and goldsmiths, they can be nothing else than the workman will have them to be. i. e. They are such as were carved out of a refuse piece of wood, (Isa. xliv. 13 — 15. Wisd. xiii. 13.) w r hich the workmen could have formed into any shape he pleased, to be a thing either of honour or dishonour: or else they came out of the smith’s furnace, and were fashioned by the anvil and hammer, as Arnobius expresses it, lib. i. Who in another place, speaking of himself when under a state of paganism, says, " Beneficia poscebam nihil scntiente de ligno:” (lib. vi.) and after, s \ At quae dementia Deum credere quern tute ipse formaris, supplicare tremebundum fabricates abs tc rei?" i. e. What an instance of madness is it to think that a piece of timber hath any more divinity in it than it had before, because it is fashioned and carved into the figure of a man? The prophet Isaiah, with a peculiar smartness of argument, exposes image-worship, from the absurdity, that a man should dress his meat and make his god out of the same stick of wood, and fall down to the sorry stock of a tree and say, Deliver me, for thou art my god. (Isa. xliv.) Ver. 4G, 47. And they themselves that made them can never continue long: hoiv then should the things that are made of them be gods? for they left lies and reproaches to them that come after.] As the effect cannot be more perfect than the cause, so impotent and frail man cannot invent or make any tiling or being immortal and divine. The makers of these idols, being mortal themselves, shall leave behind them indeed-a proof of their ingenuity; but such as is disgraceful, and exercised upon wrong objects. For the idols made by them are lies and vanities, as the Scripture terms them, and are such despicable and reproachful things in themselves, as posterity, more wise and sagacious, will have in abhorrence. Or the sense may be, like that, Isa. xliv. 11. that the time will come when all the makers of images, and such * as have been most devoted to their worship, shall be ashamed and confounded at their own folly, to think that the frail work of man’s hands could have any divinity in it, or any principle of long continuance.

How then cannot men perceive, that they be no gods, which can neither save themselves from war nor from plagues?. As material and perishable things, they arc liable themselves to accidents and casualties, called here plagues. And if they cannot help themselves in time of public calamity and distress, much less can they be expected to succour and assist others.. And how indeed should they watch over either their own or others’ safety, being endued neither with power, life, nor understanding; and arc indeed nothing but what they appear to be, senseless wood or stone? One reason which some expositors assign for Rachael’s stealing her father’s teraphim, Gen. xxxi. 19. was, to let him see that his gods, as he called them, could not preserve themselves, much less do any service to him. (See ver. 57.) The king of Assyria, with equal truth and smartness, reflects upon the impotence of such deities: Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their land out of my hand? Where are the gods of Harnath and Arphad? Wliere are the gods of Sepharvaim? (Isa, xxxvi. 18, 19.) The like maybe observed, from profane history, of JEneas’s penates, which were so far from assisting him, that, if he had not taken them along with him, they could not have set one foot forward, nor have been saved themselves at the burning of Troy if his great piety had not secured them. (See ver. 55.)

TItere is no work of God in them. OuStv Siov tpyoy Iv avroig lartv, i. e. There is no Divine power in them, or they cannot work or effect any thing like a god.

Nor give rain unto men. The descriptive character of the living God is, He that giveth rain, both the former and the latter in his season, that reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of harvest. (Jer. v. 24.) The vicissitude of seasons, of cold and heat, of drought and moisture, so wisely fitted for -the growth of the fruits of the earth, and other uses of human life, is both the effect and proof of a God,and a Providence. " Videmus (says St. Cyprian) Dei nutu tempora obsequi/elemchta famulari, spirare ventos, fontcs fluere, grandescero copias messium, fructus mitescerc vinearum, exubcrarc pomis arbusta," And therefore Maximus Tyrius expressly, and with great propriety, calls God twv (Lptwv rafiiav, tgJv KapTrutv rpo(a > rbv ytviOXtov, rbv vhtov, rbv t7T(Kap7nov. But false gods, or idols, have no power over the elements, nor at the request of any votary can they make any alteration in them, as the true God did, through the intercession of Elias. (James v. 17.) They can neither shew signs (ver. G7.) in the heavens above, nor produce any alteration on the earth beneath; but are. themselves subject to, and often suffer by, the great inclemency of weather; they are sometimes struck down by a thunderbolt, or melted by the power of lightning.

Neither can they judge their own cause, nor re dress a wrong; being unable, for they are as crows between heaven and earth.* Ourtranslators follow a copy w r hich had iavrutv. The Alexandrian and others have avruv i. e. They cannot interpose to right themselves by any miracle, nor to execute justice in their own behalf, as the true God did in the matter of Korah and his faction: sec ver. 64. which respects the other reading. Nor can they relieve any city or country from distress, Neque regiones liberabunt ab injuria: (Vulgate), as the God of Israel did Jerusalem from the power of Sennacherib. They as little know, and are as little able to alter things upon earth, as the meanest bird that flics. Possibly this writer might instance in the crow, as being a bird of omen, according to the superstitious notion of the ancients.

They cannot withstand any king or enemies; how then can it be thought or said that they be gods?. The prophet Isaiah (xlvi. 1.). takes occasion to insult over the Babylonish idols, who couldneither preserve themselves nor their worshippers, but were earned about by their enemies in triumph, by way of contempt and derision. And >vhen he says, Bel boiveth. down, and Nebo stoopeth,.he means to express, that the images of these deities were • • CHAP. VI.] THE BOOK OF BARUCH. carried in triumph by the Persians, as part of the spoil; so that the very deities themselves, which were worshipped in the idols, must own that they were conquered likewise. We read, 2 Chron. xxv. 5. that the anger of the Lord was kindled against king Amaziah, for seeking after the gods of the people, which^ could not deliver their own people out of his hand. And indeed it was a great instance of folly likewise in that prince, after he had subdued and slain the Edomites, to set r up their gods, which he ought rather to have burnt in the fire, than bow down to them, and burn incense before them, whose impotency he had proved and detected. Ahaz was more justifiable in this respect, who sacrificed to the gods of those people, who had overcome him, hoping they might be induced to assist him also. (2 Chron. xxviii.23.)

For sun, moon, and stars, being bright, and sent to do their offices, are obedient.)‘ATrocrrcXXo^eva Inl -xpitag. The Geneva version here seems preferable, when they are sent for necessary uses, obey. These great bodies follow the appointment of their Creator: if any creature really deserved worship, it should seem that these were most worthy of it. Their beauty and splendour attract our admiration, and the advantages wc receive from them claim our acknowledgment: but all their glory and power they de^ rive from the Father of lights. The gods of the nations neither equal these in beauty, nor are alike beneficial by their influence: we ought, therefore to confine all our worship and homage to the living God only, and to give no sort of adoration to false gods of any kind.

In like manner the, lightning, when it breaketh forth, is easy to be seen, and after the same manner the wind bloweth in every country.)?A<rrpaTrri, orav lwtavy, evowtoc tern. Grotius conjectures the true reading to be tvirnQfig i<rrt, is obedient, which indeod is more agreeable to the context, and the reflection, as it now stands/ seems but.of little weight and consequence. The meaning of the latter clause, which is obscurely expressed, is, that under all climates the wind and storm fulfil his word. (Psal. cxlviii. 8.) And in this sense we may expound Psal. civ. 4. He maketh his angels spirits; i.e. he maketh the winds occasionally his ministers to execute his pleasure; and thus the rabbins understand JTljrn rucjioth in that place." (See De Muis, in loc.)

For as a scarecrow in a garden of cucumbers keepeth nothing, so are their gods. The birds for a little while arc afraid of a scarecrow, 7rpoj3a<TKavtov (a very unusual word; Junius understands it of the statue of Priapus, which is probable enough, as Suiccr renders it, pudenda statua), but when once they begin to be accustomed to the sight of it, they give themselves no more pain or concern about it: when one comes near to inspect and examine it, it is found to be a mere nothing, or something occasionally placed in terrorem, and not a real man. The case is the same with idols; it is only the folly and mistake of those who adore them, which gives them their authority, they only impose upon the weak and superstitious, the more knowing and inquisitive soon find out the cheat.

You shall know them to be no gods, by the bright purple that rotteth upon them. ‘A™ rffc irop^vpag, iccu rrfc fiagiiapov. Not the marble itself, which is more durable, but the shining varnish, or polish, like marble. Grotius reads, fiayyapov, i. e. that the lustre of the jewels decays upon them/ It is observable that this writer is very explicit, and descends to a detail of the vestments, ornaments, and decorations, of these idols, whom their priests set off and adorned with all possible care, to make them look more rich and glorious. And the reason of his being “so particular seems to be, that he might set their delectable things, as the prophet calls them, (Isa. xliv. 9.) in a true f light, and expose their unprofitableness and decay to a carnal and gross people, too apt to be affected with pomp and pageantry; and whose senses were likely to pervert their understanding, so as not to discern the cheat and falsity of such a worship. And they themselves shall afterward be eaten.] This may either refer to idols, worm-eaten through time, or td such living animals as, though they were the objects of the pagan worship, were eaten by others. The Christian fathers and apologists continually expose the heathens for worshipping such deitiefc, as might be sacrificed and eateri; and declare against the practice, as infinitely absurd and ridiculous. • Minucius Felix is Very pleasant on the occasion, particularly with respect to the ox Apis. Athanasius mentions it as a strong instance of the folly of the heathen worship, that those fishes and calves which the Egyptians worshipped were made the food of others. (Cont. Gent.) And the reasons why Moses beat the golden calf to powder, and made the Jews to drink of it, was, according to St. Jerome, Ut discant contemnere, quod in secessum projici viderant; i. e. that the people might learn to despise what they saw went down into the stomach, and out into the draught. But as the scope of this epistle seems directed to expose idols as mere dead things, the former sense seems pre* ferable.