the drifting chaff, before the anger of Jehovah come upon you, before there come upon you the day of Jehovah's wrath; seek Jehovah, all ye meek of the land who do His ordinance, seek righteousness, seek meekness, peradventure ye may hide yourselves in the day of Jehovah's wrath. means to cut a thread or eclipse the sun, is in colloquial Arabic to give a rebuff, refuse a favour, disappoint, shame. In the forms inkasaf and itkasaf it means to receive a rebuff, be disappointed, then shy or timid, and kasûƒ means shame, shyness (as well as eclipse of the sun). See Spiro's Arabic-English Vocabulary. In Ps. lxxxiv. 05 is evidently used of unsatisfied longing (but see Cheyne), which is also the proper meaning of the parallel (cf. other passages where n is used of still unfulfilled or rebuffed hopes: Job xix. 27, Ps. lxix. 4, cxix. 81, cxliii. 7). So in Ps. xvii. 4 D is used of a lion who is longing for, i.e. still disappointed in, his prey, and so in Job xiv. 15. 1 LXX. πρὸ τοῦ γένεσθαι ὑμᾶς ὡς ἄνθος (here in error reading a for (2) παραπορευόμενον, πρὸ τοῦ ἐπελθεῖν ἐφ' ὑμᾶς ὀργὴν κυρίου (last clause omitted by Na). According to this the Hebrew text, which is בְטֶרֶם לֹא־תִהְיוּ כָמֹץ עֹבֵר obviously disarranged, may be restored to בְּטֶרֶם לֹא־יָבֹא עֲלֵיכֶם חֲרוֹן יהוה 2 This clause Wellhausen deletes. Cf. Hexaplar Syriac translation. 3 * LXX. take this also as imperative, do judgment, and so co-ordinate to the other clauses. TH CHAPTER IV NINIVE DELENDA ZEPHANIAH ii. 4-15 HERE now come a series of oracles on foreign nations, connected with the previous prophecy by the conjunction for, and detailing the worldwide judgment which it had proclaimed. But though dated from the same period as that prophecy, circa 626, these oracles are best treated by themselves.1 These oracles originally formed one passage in the well-known Qinah or elegiac measure; but this has suffered sadly both by dilapidation and rebuilding. How mangled the text is may be seen especially from vv. 6 and 14, where the Greek gives us some help in restoring it. The verses (8-11) upon Moab and Ammon cannot be reduced to the metre which both precedes and follows them. Probably, therefore, they are a later addition: nor did Moab and Ammon lie upon the way of the Scythians, who are presumably the invaders pictured by the prophet.2 The poem begins with Philistia and the sea-coast, 1 See above, pp. 41 ft. 2 Some, however, think the prophet is speaking in prospect of the Chaldean invasion of a few years later. This is not so likely, because he pictures the overthrow of Niniveh as subsequent to the invasion of Philistia, while the Chaldeans accomplished the latter only after Niniveh had fallen, the very path of the Scythian raid.1 Evidently the latter is imminent, the Philistine cities are shortly to be taken and the whole land reduced to grass. Across the emptied strip the long hope of Israel springs seaward; but―mark !-not yet with a vision of the isles beyond. The prophet is satisfied with reaching the edge of the Promised Land: by the sea shall they feed their flocks. 1 For Gaza forsaken shall be, Ashdod-by noon shall they rout her, Ah! woe, dwellers of the sea-shore, Folk of Kerethim. The word of Jehovah against thee, Kěna'an,* According to Herodotus. 2 Ver. 7, LXX. 'The measure, as said above, is elegiac: alternate lines long with a rising, and short with a falling, cadence. There is a play upon the names, at least on the first and last-"Gazzah" or "Azzah 'Azubah "-which in English we might reproduce by the use of Spenser's word for "dreary": For Gaza ghastful shall be. «Ekron teaker.” LXX. Ακκαρων ἐκριζωθήσεται (Β), ἐκριφήσεται (Α). In the second line we have a slighter assonance, 'Ashkělōn lishěmamah. In the third the verb is; Bacher (Z.A.T.W., 1891, 185 ff.) points out that is not used of cities, but of their populations or of individual men, and suggests (from Abulwalid) ", shall possess her, as "a plausible emendation." Schwally (ibid., 260) prefers to alter to with the remark that this is not only a good parallel top, but suits the LXX. Expiphσeтai.—On the expression by noon see Davidson, N. H. and Z., Appendix, Note 2, where he quotes a parallel expression, in the Senjerli inscription, of Asarhaddon: that he took Memphis by midday or in half a day (Schrader). This suits the use of the phrase in Jer. xv. 8, where it is parallel to suddenly. Canaan omitted by Wellhausen, who reads for Day. But as the metre requires a larger number of syllables in the first line of And I destroy thee to the last inhabitant,1 And the coast for the remnant of Judah's house; In Ashkelon's houses at even shall they couch; For Jehovah their God shall visit them, And turn their captivity. There comes now an oracle upon Moab and Ammon (vv. 8-11). As already said, it is not in the elegiac measure which precedes and follows it, while other features cast a doubt upon its authenticity. Like other oracles on the same peoples, this denounces the loudmouthed arrogance of the sons of Moab and Ammon. each couplet than in the second, Kěna'an should probably remain. The difficulty is the use of Canaan as synonymous with Land of the Philistines. Nowhere else in the Old Testament is it expressly applied to the coast south of Carmel, though it is so used in the Egyptian inscriptions, and even in the Old Testament in a sense which covers this as well as other lowlying parts of Palestine. 'An odd long line, either the remains of two, or perhaps we should take the two previous lines as one, omitting Canaan. 2 So LXX. Hebrew text and the sea-coast shall become dwellings, cots () of shepherds. But the pointing and meaning of are both conjectural, and the sea-coast has probably fallen by mistake into this verse from the next. On Kereth and Kerethim as names for Philistia and the Philistines see Hist. Geog., p. 171. 3 LXX. adds of the sea. So Wellhausen, but unnecessarily and improbably for phonetic reasons, as sea has to be read in the next line. עַל־הַיָּם עֲלֵיהֶם So Wellhausen, reading for • • Some words must have fallen out, for first a short line is required here by the metre, and second the LXX. have some additional words, which, however, give us no help to what the lost line was: dò προσώπου υἱῶν Ἰούδα, • As stated above, there is no conclusive reason against the preexilic date of this expression. 3 4 I have heard1 the reviling of Moab and the insults of the sons of Ammon, who have reviled My people and vaunted themselves upon their border. Wherefore as I live, saith Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel, Moab shall become as Sodom, and Ammon's sons as Gomorrah—the possession of nettles, and saltpits, and a desolation for ever; the remnant of My people shall spoil them, and the rest of My nation possess them. This to them for their arrogance, because they reviled, and vaunted themselves against, the people of Jehovah of Hosts. Jehovah showeth Himself terrible against them, for He hath made lean all gods of earth, that all the coasts of the nations may worship Him, every man from his own place.8 The next oracle is a very short one (ver. 12), upon Egypt, which after its long subjection to Ethiopic dynasties is called, not Mișraim, but Kush, or Ethiopia. The verse follows on naturally to ver. 7, but is not reducible to the elegiac measure. Also ye, O Kushites, are the slain of My sword.o 1 Ct. Isa. xvi. 6. 2 LXX. My. " Doubtful word, not occurring elsewhere. Heb. singular. 5 LXX. omits the people of. .נורא for נראה,LXX. maketh Himself manifest * 7 ἅπαξ λεγόμενον. The passive of the verb means to grow lean (Isa. xvii. 4). Dip has probably here the sense which it has in a few other passages of the Old Testament, and in Arabic, of sacred place. Many will share Schwally's doubts (p. 192) about the authenticity of ver. II; nor, as Wellhausen points out, does its prediction of the conversion of the heathen agree with ver. 12, which devotes them to destruction. Ver. 12 follows naturally on to ver. 7. 'Wellhausen reads His sword, to agree with the next verse. חרב יהוה is an abbreviation for חרבי Perhaps |