12. "They made their hearts as an adamant.”—Y, an adamant is a hard stone which no iron can cut.

"And the words which the Lord."-The words of reproof which the prophets spake to them.

"In his Spirit."-In the spirit of prophecy which was speaking along with the prophets.

"Therefore came a great wrath."-Upon your fathers. 13. 66 It is come to pass as he cried."-As he cried to them in my name, and they did not hear, so they will cry and he will not hear.

14. "But I scattered them with a whirlwind amongst all the nations whom they knew not." The word ? presents a grammatical difficulty. It has been said that it is a form compounded of Kal* and Niphal. † My lord my father has written that it is altogether from Kal, and although it is solitary, the meaning is, "And I will be scattered with them"; as in Isa. xxxv. 1, 127 Chivių? "The wilderness and solitary place shall be glad with them," Day. The punctuation is 7, and not , in order to make wide § they and to make it light, and they have pointed the with Tzere and the Samech with Kametz, to make the word still longer and

* Michlal Jophi reads Kal and Pihel.

+ Gesenius and Rosenmüller both explain this peculiar punctuation as a Syriasm. The former says, "In the Syriac, where the vowel-letters are much more liquid, than in the Hebrew, the letters & and at the beginning of words are often allowed to quiesce. For so one may call the Syriac custom of pronouncing & and with Sheva at the beginning of words as a simple vowel-sound, E and I, when at the same time the full

vowel is written; as She said, for

:

God

H

he bare.

In Hebrew this has been imitated in the case of x, which, instead of (-:) and (), gets Zere, and instead of (:), gets Cholem. E. g., DN in

אֲפוּ ;10 .Isa. xxxiii , אֲרוֹמֵם instead of אֲרוֹמֵם ;14 .Zech. vii, אֲסַעֲרֶם stead of

instead of, Exod. xvi. 23; instead of ", Isaiah xxi. 12; &c. (Gesen. Lehrgebäude. p. 151, 152.) See Rosenmüller Schol, in loc. Intransitive. See Buxtorf in 77.

This is to facilitate the pronunciation.

easier. The meaning of the whole is, "I will be afflicted with them" in captivity, similar to the declaration, "In all their afflictions he was afflicted." The law speaks after the manner of men.* But it is more correct to interpret ON as a transitive verb, for we find that sometimes a verb is both transitive and intransitive, as for instance, the verb n is intransitive, in Judges v. 22:I," Then were the horsehoofs broken;"

,הֲלָמוּנִי בַּל יָדָעְתִּי ,35 .and is transitive in Proverbs xxiii

66

They have beaten me, and I felt it not." The wise man R. Abraham Aben Ezra, of blessed memory, has interpreted, "I will storm upon them with my storm of wind," e., he scattered them over the face of all nations.

i.

"Thus the land was desolate after them."-The contrary of "The south and the plains were inhabited."

* Thus far Joseph Kimchi.

76

CHAPTER VIII.

66

1. "Again the word of the Lord of hosts came, saying."-The same as if it were written, came to me, saying."* And in the Masorah it is said, there is no similar case. 2. "Thus saith the Lord."-This chapter contains comfort for the time to come, in the days of Messiah, in the wars of Gog and Magog, who shall come against Jerusalem. But at that time I will be jealous for her with great jealousy, and I will pour out great wrath upon all the heathen who come against her.

3. "Thus saith and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth."-As he promised, "The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies:" (Zeph. iii. 13.) This is a declaration for all the land of Israel, but he mentions Jerusalem as it is the capital of the kingdom, and also because of the mountain of the Lord, the holy mountain, which strangers shail no more profane.

4. "Thus saith the Lord."-With reference to all the comfort, he says, "Thus saith," to give force to the consolation, for the good here promised shall be in every

way.

"And every man with his staff in his hand," to be taken literally, as is said, " for very age."

5. "And the streets."-This is plain.

should it be marvel

6. "Thus saith the Lord lous in mine eyes.”—Some interpreters explain this interrogatively, as if he had said, "Should it also be wonderful in mine eyes." As the words i nas, "Art thou my very son Esau?" (Gen. xxvii. 24), and other similar passages. But the wiseman R. Abraham Aben Ezra takes it as it stands, and to mean, "I will do a

*So it is in English.

wonderful thing in those days, of which I never did the

like."

7.“ Thus saith

from the east country and from the west country;" i. e., the whole world, for Israel has been scattered in every part of the world.

8. "And I will bring them in the midst of Jerusalem."-He mentions Jerusalem, as I have explained above, because it was the city of the royal residence, and on account of the temple whither all Israel was accustomed to come.

"In truth.”—Similar to the promise, "I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulness." (Hosea ii. 22, English 20.)

9. "Thus let your hands be strong.”—As ye hear all these future consolations, let your hands be strong in the commandments of God and to build the temple, according as ye have begun, for ye see that in the day that the foundation of the temple was laid the blessing began to come upon you.

10. "For before these days;" i. e., Before the foundation of the temple was laid, which was in the second year of Darius, on the 24th day of the ninth month, ye know that the hire of man did not become (7), that is to say, did not become a blessing, but turned to a curse.

"And the hire of beast was not."-, as if the beast was not when its hire turned to a curse.

"For Iset."— signifies permitting a thing for evil,

beasts among you" (Lev. xxvii. 22); as the Targum has "I excited every man.'

11. "But now."-This is clear.

12. "For the seed peace;" "* that is to say, Your seed shall be peace and a blessing, so that they will call it "a seed of peace." Jonathan's interpretation is, "The seed shall be perfect."

"And I will cause the remnant of this people to * See marginal translation.

possess."-It is possible that this may have been spoken of the second temple, on condition that they would keep the commandments of the Lord; or it is still future, referring to the days of Messiah; and this is proved by the following verse, which says, "O house of Judah, and house of Israel." During the second temple the house of Israel did not return.

13. "And it shall be as ye were a curse."-For the Gentiles curse you, yea in every famine or misfortune that comes upon this land, they say it is on account of the sin of the Israelites dwelling amongst them.

"And ye shall be a blessing."-For the Gentiles shall be blessed in you, like Gen. xii. 2, “And thou shalt be a blessing."

"Let your hands be strong."-At this time, on account of the good consolations which, ye hear, are to come upon Israel.

14. "For thus saith the Lord

and I repented

not."-For I did what I intended, even to the desolation of their land, and the leading them into captivity.

15. "Fear ye not."-Because of those that resist you, Sanballat and his companions, who think to cause your work to cease now.

16. "These are the things speak ye truth."— Speak not with one thing in your mouth and another thing in your heart.

wip, for if ye

"And the judgment of peace."—by judge righteousness there will be peace between the parties in the lawsuit, according as our rabbies have said in a proverb of the children of men. "He that has his coat taken from him by the tribunal, let him sing and go his way." And they have adduced in proof that verse,

*Talm. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 7, col. i., about the middle of the page. Rashi explains that he is to sing and go his way, because they have judged the judgment of truth, and have taken away that which would have been stolen property if he retained."