addition, made it intolerable. These winds are both scorching and suffocating in the east, for deserts of burning sand lay to the east or south-east; and the easterly winds often brought such a multitude of minute particles of sand on their wings, as to acé greatly to the mischief. I believe these, and the sands they carry, are the cause of the ophthalmia p which prevails so much both in Egypt and India. Verse 6. And the Lord God prepared a gourd] I believe this should be rendered in the preterpluperfect tense, The Lord HAD prepared-this plant, kikayon. It had in the course of God's providence been planted and grown up in that place, though perhaps not yet in full leaf; and Jonah made that his tent. And its thick branches and large leaves made it an ample shelter for him; and because it was such, he rejoiced greatly on the account. But what was the kikayon? The best judges say the ricinus or palma Christi, from which we get what is vulgarly called castor oil, is meant. It is a tree as large as the olive, has leaves which are like those of the vine, and is also quick of growth. This in all probability was the plant in question, which had been already planted, though it had not attained its proper growth, and was not then in full leaf. Celsus, | in his Hierobot., says it grows to the height of an olive tree; the trunk and branches are hollow like a kex, and the leaves sometimes as broad as the rim of a hat. It must be of a soft or spungy substance, for it is said to grow surprisingly fast. See Taylor under the root pp, 1670. But it is evident there was something supernatural in the growth of this plant, for it is stated to have come up in a night; though the Chaldee understands the passage thus: "It was here last night, and is withered this night." In one night it might have blown, and expanded its leaves considerably, though the plant had existed before, but not in full bloom till the time that Jonah required it for a shelter. Verse 7. But God prepared a worm] By being eaten through the root the plant, losing its nourishment, would soon wither; and this was the case in the present instance. Verse 8. A vehement east wind] Which was of itself of a parching, withering nature; and the sun, in Verse 9. I do well to be angry, even unto death.] Many persons suppose that the gifts of prophecy and working miracles are the highest that can be conferred on man; but they are widely mistaken, for these gifts change not the heart. Jonah had the gif of prophecy, but had not received that grace which destroys the old man and creates the soul aner i Christ Jesus. This is the love of which St. Pa speaks, which if a man have not, though he had the gift of prophecy, and could miraculously remove mountains, yet in the sight of God, and for any good himself might reap from it, it would be as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. Jonah was a prophet, and yet had all his old bad tempers about him, in a shameful predominancy. Balaam was of the same kind. So we find that God gave the gift of prophecy, even to graceless men. But many of the prophets were sanctified in their nature before their call to the prophetic office, and were the most excellent of men Verse 10. Which came up in a night] St. Jerome. speaking of this plant, the kikayon, assigns to it a extraordinary rapidity of growth. It delights in a sandy soil, and in a few days what was a plant grow into a large shrub. But he does not appear to hav meant the ricinus; this however is the most like The expressions coming up in a night and periskist in a night are only metaphorical to express spe growth and speedy decay; and so, as we have see the Chaldee interprets it, & n mono pran Aspria e 72" which existed this night, but in the next night perished;" and this I am satisfied is the true import of the Hebrew phrase. Verse 11. And should not I spare Nineveh] In ve? 10 it is said, thou hast had pity on the gourd, ♫ Concluding observations ,veuni lo ACHUS ואני לא אחוס CHAP. IV. upon the prophet Jonah. attah CHASTA; and here the Lord uses the same word | event which took place about 710 B. C.; and also the "And shall not I have total destruction of Nineveh by Cyaxares and his pity upon Nineveh?" How much is the city better allies, which happened about 606 B. C. Several of than the shrub? But besides this there are in it one the ancients, by allegorizing this book, have made hundred and twenty thousand persons! And shall I Jonah declare the divinity, humanity, death, and destroy them, rather than thy shade should be withered resurrection of Christ. These points may be found or thy word apparently fail! And besides, these in the gospel history, their true repository; but fancy persons are young, and have not offended (for they can find them any where it pleases to seek them; knew not the difference between their right hand and but he who seeks not for them will never find them their left); and should not I feel more pity for those here. Jonah was a type of the resurrection of innocents than thou dost for the fine flowering plant Christ; nothing farther seems revealed in this prowhich is withered in a night, being itself exceedingly phet relative to the mysteries of Christianity. short-lived? Add to all this, they have now turned from those sins which induced me to denounce judgment against them. And should I destroy them who are now fasting and afflicting their souls; and, covered with sackcloth, are lying in the dust before me, bewailing their offences and supplicating for mercy? Learn, then, from this, that it is the incorrigibly wicked on whom my judgments must fall, and against whom they are threatened. And know, that to that man will I look who is of a broken and contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word. Even the dumb beasts are objects of my compassion; I will spare them for the sake of their penitent owners; and remember with the rest, That the Lord careth for oxen. The great number of cattle to which reference is here made were for the support of the inhabitants; and probably at this time the Ninevites gathered in their cattle from the champagne pasture, expecting hat some foe coming to besiege them might seize ipon them for their forage, while they within might suffer the lack of all things. No doubt that ancient Nineveh was like ancient Babylon, of which Quintus Curtius says, the buildngs were not close to the walls, there being the pace of an acre left between them; and in several arts there were within the walls portions of cultiated land, that, if besieged, they might have proision to sustain the inhabitants. And I suppose this to be true of all large ancient ities. They were rather cantons or districts than ities such as now are, only all the different inhabiants had joined together to wall in the district for he sake of mutual defence. This last expostulation of God, it is to be hoped, roduced its proper effect on the mind of this irritable rophet; and that he was fully convinced that in his, as in all other cases, God had done all things vell. From this short prophecy many useful lessons may e derived. The Ninevites were on the verge of estruction, but on their repentance were respited. 'hey did not, however, continue under the influence f good resolutions. They relapsed, and about one undred and fifty years afterwards, the prophet Nahum was sent to predict the miraculous discomture of the Assyrian king under Sennacherib, an In conclusion: while I have done the best I could to illustrate the very difficult prophet through whose work the reader has just passed, I do not pretend to say I have removed every difficulty. I am satisfied only of one thing, that I have conscientiously endeavoured to do it, and believe that I have generally succeeded; but am still fearful that several are left behind which, though they may be accounted for from the briefness of the narrative of a great transaction, in which so many surprising particulars are included, yet, for general apprehension, might appear to have required a more distinct and circumstantial statement. I have only to add, that as several of the facts are evidently miraculous, and by the prophet stated as such, others may be probably of the same kind. On this ground all difficulty is removed; for God can do what he pleases. As his power is unlimited, it can meet with no impossibilities. He who gave the commission to Jonah to go and preach to the Ninevites, and prepared the great fish to swallow the disobedient prophet, could maintain his life for three days and three nights in the belly of this marine monster; and cause it to eject him at the termination of the appointed time, on any seacoast he might choose; and afterwards the divine power could carry the deeply contrite and now faithful prophet over the intervening distance between that and Nineveh be that distance greater or less. Whatever therefore cannot be accounted for on mere natural principles in this book, may be referred to this supernatural agency; and this, on the ostensible principle of the prophecy itself, is at once a mode of interpretation as easy as it is rational. God gave the commission; he raised the storm; he prepared the fish which swallowed the prophet; he caused it to cast him forth on the dry land; he gave him a fresh commission, carried him to the place of his destination, and miraculously produced the sheltering gourd, that came to perfection in a night, and withered in a night. This God therefore performed the other facts for which we cannot naturally account, as he did those already specified. This concession, for the admission of which both common sense and reason plead, at once solves all the real or seeming difficulties to be found in the Book of the Prophet Jonah. INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET MICAH. MICAH, the Morasthite, or of Moresa, a village near the city Eleutheropolis, in the southern part of Judah, is the sixth in order of the twelve minor prophets. He pr phesied under Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, for about fifty years. Some have confounded him with Micaiah, son of Imlah, who lived in the kingdom of the te tribes, under the reign of Ahab. The spurious Dorotheus says that Micah was buried in the burying-place of the Anakin. whose habitation had been at Hebron, and round about it. This prophet appeared almos at the same time with Isaiah, and has even borrowed some expressions from him. Compar Isai. ii. 2 with Mic. iv. 1, and Isai. xli. 15 with Mic. iv. 13. The prophecy of Micah contains but seven chapters. He foretels the calamities of Samaria, which was taken by Shalmaneser, and reduced to a heap of stones. Afterwards he prophesies against Judah, and declares the troubles that Sennacherib should bring upon it under the reign of Hezekiah. Then he declaims against the iniquities of Samaria. Ha foretels the captivity of the ten tribes, and their return into their own country. The third chapter contains a pathetic invective against the princes of the house of Jacob, and the judges of the house of Israel; which seems levelled against the chief of the kingdom of Judah, the judges, the magistrates, the priests, the false prophets, &c. He upbraids them with their avarice, their injustice, and falsehood; and tells them they will be the occasion that Jerusalem shall be reduced to a heap of rubbish, and the mountain of the temple sha be as a forest. We are informed, Jer. xxvi. 18, 19, that this prophecy was pronounced in the reign of Hezekiah; and that it saved Jeremiah from death. After these terrible denunciations, Micah speaks of the reign of the Messiah, and of the establishment of the Christian church. And as the peaceable times which succeeded th return from the Babylonish captivity, and which were a figure of the reign of the Messiah were disturbed by a tempest of a short continuance, Micah foretold it in such a manner as agrees very well with what Ezekiel says of the war of Gog against the Jews. Micah speaks in particular of the birth of the Messiah; that he was to be born at Bethlehem; and his dominion was to extend to the utmost parts of the earth. He says that God should rase seven shepherds, who should reign by the sword over Assyria, and in the land of Nimrod: which Calmet explains of Darius, son of Hystaspes; and of the seven confederates th killed the Magian, and who possessed the empire of the Persians, after the extinction of te family of Cyrus. The fifth chapter, from ver. 7 to the end, describes the flourishing esta of the Jews in their own country, from the reign of Darius, and after the Maccabees; in such a manner, that he mingles several things in it that can apply only to the church Jesus Christ. The two last chapters of Micah contain, first, a long invective against the iniquities Samaria: then he foretels the fall of Babylon; the re-establishment of the cities of Israe the greatness of the country possessed by the Israelites; their happiness; the graces where with God will favour them; and all this in such lofty terms, that they chiefly agree with th Christian church. St. Jerome says that Micah was buried at Morasthi, ten furlongs free Eleutheropolis; and Sozomenes says that his tomb was revealed to Zebennus, bishop of Eleutheropolis, under the reign of Theodosius the Great. He calls the place of his buri Beretsate, which is probably the same as Morasthi, ten furlongs from Eleutheropolis. INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF MICAH. Bishop Newcome observes that Micah was of the kingdom of Judah, as he only makes mention of kings who reigned over that country. It is supposed that he prophesied further on in the reign of Hezekiah than Hosea did; although chap. v. 5 was written before the captivity of the ten tribes, which happened in the sixth year of Hezekiah. It is plain from chap. i. 1, 5, 9, 12, 13, that he was sent both to Israel and Judah. Like Amos and Hosea, he reproves and threatens, with great spirit and energy, a corrupt people. See chap. ii. 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10; iii. 2, 3, 4, 6, 10-16; vii. 2, 3, 4. And, like Hosea, he inveighs against the princes and prophets with the highest indignation. See chap. iii. 5-7, 9-12; vii. 3. The reader will observe that these similar topics are treated of by each prophet with remarkable variety, and copiousness of expression. Some of his prophecies are distinct and illustrious ones, as chap. ii. 12, 13; iii. 12; iv. 1-4, 10; v. 2, 3, 4; vi. 13; vii. 8, 9, 10. We may justly admire the elegance of his diction: Chap. ii. 12. "I will surely gather, O Jacob, all of thee: I will surely assemble the residue of Israel. I will put them together as sheep of Bozrah, As a flock in the midst of their fold: They shall make a tumult from the multitude of men. They have forced a passage, and have passed through the gate; and are Chap. iv. 1.-" But it shall come to pass, in the latter days, That the mountain of the temple of Jehovah shall be And it shall be exalted above the hills; And the people shall flow into it. 2. And many nations shall go, and shall say, Come, and let us go up unto the mountain of Jehovah, And unto the temple of the God of Jacob: That he may teach us of his ways, and that we may walk in his paths. And the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem. 3.—And he shall judge between many people, And he shall convince strong nations afar off: And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, His animation, chap. i. 5, lines 3, 4. "What is the transgression of Jacob ?-is it not that of Samaria? gone forth by it: And what are the high places of Judah? -are they not those of Jerusalem?" Chap. iv. 9.-" And now why dost thou cry out loudly? Is there no king in thee? Hath thy counsellor perished? For pangs have seized thee, as a woman in travail." There are few beauties of composition of which examples may not be found in this prophet. For sublimity and impressiveness in several places, he is unrivalled. The Lord's controversy, chap. vi. 1—8, is equal to any thing even in the prophet Isaiah. It has a powerful effect on every attentive reader. His strength of expression : Chap. i. 6." Therefore will I make Samaria a heap of the field, a place for the plantings of a vineyard: And I will pour down her stones into the valley, and I will discover her foundations." iii. 2.-" Ye who hate good and love evil : Who pluck their skin from off them, And their flesh from off their bones. 3. Who have also eaten the flesh of my people, And have flayed their skin from off them, And have broken their bones: And have divided them asunder, as flest in the pot: And as meat within the caldron." vii. 1.-"Woe is me; for I am become As the gatherers of late figs, as the gleaners of the vintage. INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF MICAH. There is no cluster to eat: My soul desireth the firstripe fig. 2.-The good man is perished from the land, All of them lie in wait for blood; They hunt every man his brother for his destruction." His pathos: Chap. i. 16.—“Make thee bald, and cut off thine hair for thy delicate children ; ii. 4. For they are gone into captivity from thee." "In that day shall a proverb be taken up against you; He hath changed the portion of my people: To bring again him that divided our fields!'" His sublimity: Chap. i. 2.-"Hear, O ye people, all of you: Hearken, O land, and all that are therein. And let the Lord Jehovah be witness against you; 3.-For, behold, Jehovah will go forth from his place: And he will come down, and will tread upon the high places of the earth. Chap. i. 4.-And the mountains shall be molten under him; And the vallies shall cleave asunder; As wax before the fire, As waters poured down a steep place." Chap. vi. 1.-" Hear ye now what Jehovah saith: Arise, contend thou before the mountains; And let the hills hear thy voice." vii. 16.-" The nations shall see, and shall be confounded because of all their might: They shall lay their hand upon their mouth; their ears shall be deaf. 17.-They shall lick the dust as the serpent; As the creeping things upon the earth, they shall tremble from their close places: |