No. 1074.-xxix. 1. Woe to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt.] At Jerusalem vast quantities of flesh were consumed in their sacred feasts, as well as burnt upon the altar. Perhaps this circumstance will best explain the reason why the holy city is called Ariel. According to the Eastern taste, the term is applied in this sense; that is, to places remarkable for consuming great quantities of provision, and especially flesh. "The modern Persians will have it," says D'Herbelot, in his account of Shiraz a city of that country," that this name was given to it because this city consumes and devours like a lion, (which is called Shir in Persian) all that is brought to it, by which they express the multitude and, it may be, the good appetite of its inhabitants." The prophet pronounces woe to Zion, as too ready to trust to the number of its inhabitants and sojourners, which may be insinuated by the term Ariel which he HARMER, vol. i. p. 212. uses. No. 1075.-xxix. 4. And thy speech shall whisper out of the dust.] That the souls of the dead uttered a feeble stridulous sound, very different from the natural human voice, was a popular notion among the heathens, as well as among the Jews. This appears from several passages of their poets; Homer, Virgil, Horace. The pretenders to the art of necromancy, who were chiefly women, had an art of speaking with a feigned voice; so as to deceive those that applied to them, by making them believe that it was the voice of the ghost. From this art of the necromancers the popular notion seems to have arisen, that the ghost's voice was a weak, inarticulate sound, very different from the speech of the living. Bp. LowTн, in loc. No. 1076.-xxix. 8. Or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite.] As the simile of the prophet is drawn from nature, an extract which describes the actual occurrence of such a circumstance will be agreeable. "The scarcity of water was greater here at Bubaker than at Benown. Day and night the wells were crouded with cattle lowing, and fighting with each other to come at the trough. Excessive thirst made many of them furious: others being too. weak to contend for the water, endeavoured to quench their thirst by devouring the black mud from the gutters near the wells; which they did with great avidity, though it was commonly fatal to them. This great scarcity of water was felt by all the people of the camp; and by none more than myself. I begged water from the negro slaves that attended the camp, but with very indifferent success: for though I let no opportunity slip, and was very urgent in my solicitations both to the Moors and to the negroes, I was but ill supplied, and frequently passed the night in the situation of Tantalus. No sooner had I shut my eyes, than fancy would convey me to the streams and rivers of my native land; there, as I wandered along the verdant bank, I surveyed the clear stream with transport, and hastened to swallow the delightful draught; but, alas! disappointment awakened me, and I found myself a lonely captive, perishing of thirst amidst the wilds of Africa." PARK'S Travels in Africa, p. 145. No. 1077.-xxxiii. 18. Where is he that counted the towers? That is, the commander of the enemy's forces, who surveyed the fortifications of the city and took an account of the height, strength, and situation of the walls and towers, that he might know where to make the assault with the greatest advantage. As Capaneus before Thebes is represented in a passage of the Pho nissæ of Euripides, (v. 187.) which Grotius has applied as an illustration of this passage. Bp. LowтH, in loc. No. 1078.-xl. 3. Prepare ye the way of the Lord.] This passage is an allusion to the custom of sending persons before a great prince, to clear the way for his passage. Sir Thomas Roe's chaplain (p. 468.) says, “I, waiting upon my lord ambassador two years and part of a third, and travelling with him in progress with that king (the mogul) in the most temperate months there, betwixt September and April, was in one of our progresses betwixt Mandoa and Amadavar nineteen days, making but short journeys in a wilderness, where, by a very great company sent before us to make those passages and places fit to receive us, a way was cut out and made even, broad enough for our convenient passage. And in the place where we pitched our tents a great compass of ground was rid and made plain for them, by grubbing a number of trees and bushes: yet there we went as readily to our tents as we did when they were set up in the plains.' No. 1079.-xliv. 13. The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes; and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man.] The prophet in these words describes the process of forming an idolatrous figure. It appears to have been done by filling a line with red chalk; stretching it over a surface; striking it, and thereby forming lines; crossing these lines, thereby forming squares; delineating the contour of the figure in these squares; and forming it with dignified proportion and majesty, to represent a sovereign. An actual instance, in illustration of these suggestions, occurs in DENON's Travels in Egypt. In plate 124, he gives a figure, of which he says, "I believe it to be that of Orus, or the Earth, son of Isis or Osiris. I have seen it most frequently with one or other of these divinities, or making offerings to them, always a figure younger and of smaller proportion than themselves. I found this on one of the columns of the portico of Tentyra; it was covered with stucco and painted. The stucco being partly scaled off, gave me the opportunity of discovering lines traced as if with red chalk. Curiosity prompted me to take away the whole of the stucco, and I found the form of the figure sketched, with corrections of the outline; a division into twenty-two parts: the separation of the thighs being in the middle of the whole height of the figure, and the head comprising rather less than a seventh part." No. 1080.-xlvii. 13. The astrologers.] Astrology, divination, and the interpretation of dreams, were fashionable studies with men of rank. They in general carried with them wherever they went pocket astronomical tables which they consulted, as well as astrologers, affair of moment. RICHARDSON's Dissert. on on every No. 1081.-xlix. 2. He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword.] The metaphor of the sword and the arrow applied to powerful speech is bold, but just. It has been employed by the most ingenious heathen writers, if with equal elegance, not with equal force. It is said of Pericles by Aristophanes, (see Cicero, Epist. ad Atticum, xii. 6.) Ουτως εκηλεί, και μονος των ρητόρων Apud Diod. 1. xii. His pow'rful speech Pierced the hearer's soul, and left behind Deep in his bosom its keen point infix'd. See also Pindar, Olymp. ii. 160. loc. Bp. Lowth, in Though this language is confessedly figurative, it appears nevertheless to have been derived from the various uses to which the sword is applied, as an offensive or defensive weapon. Amongst the Tartars a similar mode of expression has been adopted. Montesquieu calls them the most singular people upon earth, but says they are involved in a political slavery. To this he adds in a note, that when a khan is proclaimed, all the people cry, that his word shall be as a sword. (Spirit of Laws, vol. i. p. 350.) This practice sufficiently accounts for the use of the word in a metaphorical sense. See also Psalm lvii. 4. Ixiv. 3. lv. 21. lix. 7. Prov. xii. 18. xxv. 18. xxx. 14. Eph. vi. 17. Heb. iv. 12. Rev. i. 16. ii. 16. xix. 15, 21. No. 1082.—l. 6. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, I hid not my face from shame and spitting ] Mr. Hanway has recorded a scene differing little, if at all, from that alluded to by the prophet. "A prisoner was brought, who had two large logs of wood fitted to the small of his leg, and rivetted together; there was also a heavy triangular collar of wood about his neck. The general asked me, if that man had taken my goods. I told him, I did not remember to have seen him before. He was questioned some time, and at length ordered to be beaten with sticks, which was performed by two soldiers with such severity as if they meant to kill him. The soldiers were then ordered to spit in his face, an indignity of great antiquity in the East. This, and the cutting off beards, which I shall have occasion to mention, brought to my mind the sufferings recorded in the prophetical history of our Saviour. Isaiah 1. 6. "Sadoc Aga sent prisoner to Astrabad-his beard was cut off; his face was rubbed with dirt, and his eyes |