God did of Nineveh, It is empty and void, unable to supply the wants, and satisfy the desires of immortal souls; and those who trust in it will find, that it cannot secure them from death and destruction. If we have our portion in this life, our faces will gather blackness when God calls us to our final account.

3. We are here shown the sad consequence of men's providing for their families by injustice, v. 12. Many now plead the largeness of their families, and the provision they must make for them, to excuse their covetousness, injustice, and impiety, their selling and travelling on the sabbath, and other irregularities, in contempt of God's commands, and in distrust of his providence and it is but just in him to take their substance from them, or from their children. Whereas justice, charity, and piety, are the surest and safest means of success, and of obtaining the blessing of God with it.

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CHAP. III.

In which the miserable ruin of Nineveh is foretold.

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O to the bloody city! it [is] all full of lies [and] robbery; the prey departeth not; their great men shed innocent blood, still increasing their wealth by their spoil; and 2 the destroying enemy is coming; The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the pransing horses, 3 and of the jumping, or bounding chariots. The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear: and [there is] a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcasses; and [there is] none end of [their] corpses; they stum4 ble upon their corpses: Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well favoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and 5 families through her witchcrafts. Behold, I [am] against thee, saith the LORD of hosts; and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will show the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame; that is, thou shalt be taken captive, and exposed to shame ; an allusion to the custom of ex. 6 posing captives, and especially harlots, naked. And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, as harlots, who were sometimes pelted with dirt, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a 7 gazing stock. And it shall come to pass, [that] all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, refusing to help thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste who will bemoan her, as hired

• The Ninevites were notorious for their luxury and effeminacy, by which they cor rupted other nations, and thereby rendered them so weak as to become an easy prey to themselves or other invaders.

mourners at a funeral? Whence shall I seek comforters for thee? Art thou better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers, [that had] the waters round about it, whose rampart [was] the sea, [and] her wall [was] from the sea? that is, Ammon, or Thebes, (a fine city in Egypt) famous for 9 its hundred gates, and the temple of Jupiter Ammon.* Ethiopia and Egypt [were] her strength, and [it was] infinite; Put and Lubim, the neighbouring nations of Africa, were thy 10 helpers. Yet [was] she carried away, she went into captivity: her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets: and they cast lots for her honourable men, who should have them to sell for slaves, and all her great men were 11 bound in chains. Thou, Nineveh, also shalt be drunken ; thou shalt be hid, buried in obscurity, thou also shalt seek strength, call for the assistance of allies, because of the enemy. 12 All thy strong holds [shall be like] fig trees with the first ripe figs if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater; thou shalt as easily yield to the first as13 sault, as the ripest figs fall when the tree is shaken. Behold, thy people in the midst of thee [are] women; weak, and faint hearted: the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies; the places where they enter shall be defenceless : 14 the fire shall devour thy bars. Draw thee waters for the siege, fill all thy reservoirs, lest the river should be cut off; fortify thy strong holds: go into clay, and tread the morter, 15 make strong the brick kiln. There, or, then, while thou art making preparation for thy defence, shall the fire of God's wrath, and the rage of thine enemy, devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like the canker worm: make thyself many as the canker worm, make thyself many 16 as the locusts. Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: though thine is a populous and rich city, yet the canker worm spoileth, and flieth away; thine enemies 17 shall be as numerous as locusts. Thy crowned, thy princes and officers, [are] as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp, or shelter themselves in the hedges in the cold day, [but] when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they [are ;] so thy leaders, 18 though many, shall all be scattered when the enemy comes. Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: thy nobles, who should have taken care of the army, shall dwell [in the dust ;] or, in sloth: thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth [them ;] thy tributary princes shall desert thee 19 in the time of thy distress; as they really did. [There is] no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear

Sennacherib took and destroyed this city before he attacked Jerusalem, as was foresold by Isaiah, (ch. xx. 4.) it was defended by the river Nile and the lakes about it.

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the bruit, or report of thee, shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually? thou hast abused and insulted all thy neighbours, yea, the God of Israel himself, therefore they shall join to insult thee.

REFLECTIONS.

OBSERVE how dangerous it is to learn the follies of

other nations, v. 4. By her bewitching luxury and effeminacy, Nineveh weakened other nations, and then brought them under her own dominions. And it appears not to be improbable that this may be the case of our country, in consequence of our prevailing fondness for foreign dresses and vanities, which, beside being impolitic, and injurious to trade, tends to make us a weak, effeminate people: so that we may possibly be sold to them as a nation, as many families are already ruined by their witchcrafts, and many others seem to be tending toward it.

2. See the dreadful doom of the unjust and cruel. Nineveh was a bloody, rapacious city; and when her time came to fall, her allies forsook her, her enemies insulted her, and there was none to assist and comfort her. The fall of this great city, reads a lesson to those private persons who are increasing their wealth by fraud and oppression; who behave in an haughty, insolent manner to their workmen, dependents, and other inferiors. They are preparing enemies for themselves; and if God should see good to punish them in this world, (as he often does) they will have none to pity them, but many to help forward and rejoice in their ruin. Every man who consults his own prosperity, safety, and peace, should not only act in an upright, honourable manner, but behave with meekness and kindness to all.

3. It is good often to remind ourselves that we are not better than others, v. 8. so as to excite a holy fear of God's judgments, when we hear of them as visiting others. Are we better than they? better than other good men, who have endured even greater afflictions? Pride is the source of impatience, murmuring, and discontent; and he who desires to bear and improve his afflictions right, should take care to be clothed with humility, and not think of himself more highly than he ought to think.

The Book of the PROPHET

HABAKKUK.

INTRODUCTION.

THERE is no account of this prophet handed down to us: he probably lived in the time of Josiah, as his prophecy nearly resembles that part of Jeremiah's which was delivered in his reign. Bp. Newcome thinks he may be placed in the reign of Jehoiakim, between the years 606 and 598, before Christ. He foretells the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem, and also the ruin of their enemies the Chaldeans. Whoever reads this prophecy, must be struck with the grandeur of its imagery, and the sublimity of its style, especially of the hymn, or prayer, in the third chapter, which hardly any thing of the kind can be supposed to excel.

CHAP. I.

Habakkuk, complaining of the iniquity of the land, is showed the fearful judgments which were to be inflicted by the Chaldeans.

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HE burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see; or, the important, weighty message he was to deliver. O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! [even] cry unto thee [of] violence, and thou wilt not save! I am puzzled by the prosperity of the wicked, notwithstanding their violence and injustice, and the continued supplications of thy faithful servants. A difficulty common to good men in every age. 3 Why dost thou show me iniquity, and cause [me] to behold grievance for spoiling and violence [are] before me and 4 there are [that] raise up strife and contention. Therefore the law is slacked, its nerves are unbraced, and judgment doth never go forth for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth. To this objection against his providence, God answers;

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Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously for I will work a work in your days, [which] ye will not believe, though it be told [you,] that such a nation as Israel should be destroyed, and by their own God. For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, [that] bitter and hasts nation, which

shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the 7 dwelling places [that are] not theirs. They [are] terrible and dreadful their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves; they will submit to no law, neither do they re8 gard right or wrong. Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, who, when tamed and taught to hunt, (as in Palestine) seize the prey with surprizing agility, often springing seventeen or eighteen feet at a time,* and are more fierce than the evening wolves when they go out to seek their prey: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle [that] hasteth to 9 eat. They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up [as] the east wind; their presence shall be as mischievous to you, as the east wind is to plants; and they shall gather the 10 captivity as the sand; shall take away many captives. And they shall scoff at the kings, at all the opposition which the kings and princes of Judea, or any of their confederates, can make against them, and the princes [shall be] a scorn unto them; Nebuchadnezzar shall conquer many kings and nations: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, or raise a little rampart of earth, and take it; or take it as easily 11 as a person can heap up dust. Then shall [his] mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend; Nebuchadnezzar first ascribed it to God, but afterwards grew proud, and exceeded all the bounds of moderation, [imputing] this his power unto his god Bell; or, making his strength his god. The prophet then addresses himself to the Almighty:

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[Art] thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die; shall not be utterly destroyed, or have our name blotted out by these Chaldeans, who are under thy control: O LORD, thou hast ordained them for judg ment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for 13 correction, even while thou makest them prosper. [Thou art] of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, [and] holdest thy tongue, seemest to connive at them, when the wicked devoureth [the man that is] more righteous 14 than he? And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, [that have] no ruler over them? the Chaldeans shall take great and small captive, as men catch fishes, or 15 tread on creeping things. They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their 16 drag therefore they rejoice and are glad. Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag, or net; because by them their portion [is] fat, and their meat plenteous; ascribing all their victories and success to their own

See Harmer's Observ. vol. ii, p. 438.