sword," 2 Sam. xii. 9, whereas it appears, from xi. 24, that he had been shot with a missile weapon. A similar instance occurs in the words of the Israelites to Moses and Aaron, "Ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword into their hands to slay us." (Exod. v. 21).

N

178

CHAPTER XIV.

1. "Behold the day cometh to the Lord."-That day shall be to the Lord, for his glory and his might shall be seen at that time, and that is the time when Gog and Magog shall come against the land of Israel, as the Prophet Ezekiel has prophesied.

"And thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee." -This is spoken of Jerusalem, for the heathen shall divide the spoil of the city in the midst of it, as it is said, "The houses shall be rifled." But Jonathan has interpreted, "Behold, the day that shall come from before the Lord, and the house of Israel shall divide the wealth of the nations in the midst of thee, Jerusalem."

2. "For I will gather;" that is to say, he will put it into their heart to come to Jerusalem to war, as it is said in the prophecy of Ezekiel, "And I will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel" (xxxix. 2.).

"And the city shall be taken."-This affliction shall be for the purifying of the third which shall be left in it; and in reference to this, it is said in the prophecy of Isaiah, "Hide thyself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast" (xxvi. 20.). And it is said, in the prophecy of Daniel, "There shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation," &c. (xii. 1.).

And the houses rifled."- one of the reduplicating verbs, the root is Dp, and so we find in pp 10

"who gave Jacob for a spoil" (Isaiah xlii. 24), the meaning is plundering or spoiling.

"And half of the city shall go forth into captivity ;

i. e., They shall lead them from the city forth as captives to their tents, which are outside the city. Thus far the blessed God will leave them in the power of their enemies to purify them, and every one that is written in the book shall be delivered, and shall receive the affliction cheerfully.

"And the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city."-For God will not give them again into the hand of their enemies, but Israel shall prevail against their enemies, by the help of God, who is with them, and this is what is said, "The Lord shall go forth."

3. "Then the Lord shall go forth 27, in the day of battle." The Chaldee for an is

בְּיוֹם as

Wisdom", טוֹבָה חָכְמָה מִכְּלֵי קְרָב And so we read . קרבא

is better than weapons of war" (Eccles. ix. 18), and there are other like instances. Here it is said, "in the day of battle;" but what battle is not explained. The meaning is according to the Targum, "As the day when he waged war at the Red Sea," for then Israel was in great affliction, for the Egyptians were pursuing after them, and Moses, our master, peace be upon him, said, “The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace (Exod. xiv. 14.). And so it is said, " And fight against those nations."

ויברך אתך לרגלי

4. "And his feet shall stand."-This is said figuratively, because a sign and wonder shall be exhibited in the Mount of Olives, in its cleaving asunder. And that great wise man, our master, Moses, may his memory be blessed, has interpreted "his cause" as 7, "and the Lord hath blessed thee at my foot" (Gen. xxx. 30), i. e., on my account. In the same way [he would take], i. e., "His causes shall stand, that is to say, the miracles which shall then be seen in that place, of which God is the cause, i. e. the author.”* And Jonathan has interpreted," And he shall be revealed in his might at that time." * See Moreh Nevuchim, part i. cap. xxviii.'

"The Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem."— i. e. near Jerusalem, on the east of it.

"In the midst thereof, toward the east and toward the west."-From the east to the west the whole mountain shall be split, half of it to the north, and half of it to the south, and there shall be between them a very great valley. signifies shall be removed; that is to say, one half of the mountain shall be moved out of its place to the north side, and the other half to the south, and the valley between. So Jonathan has interpreted DE, "shall remove," by ", "shall be torn up." And this sign is a type of the cleaving of the Gentiles who come against Jerusalem, and who shall fall scattered about.

5. "And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains." -When the mountain is split, they shall flee from before the voice of the earthquake, and they shall flee to the valley of the mountains.

"For the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal.” -For the valley which shall be made by this cleft shall extend and reach to Azal, which is the name of a place. That is to say, outside the mountains this cleft shall extend to Azal, and they shall flee thither, thinking to be delivered outside the mountains; but they shall find the

. הָרִים is the same as הָרַי .valley there as elsewhere

There are other examples of this form, as bes (armholes, Ezek. xiii. 18,) for 7. And again, ib ya?? ib, "And cutteth him out windows" (Jer. xxii. 14),

b.

חֲשׂוּפִים the same as ,חֲשׂוּפִי שֶׁת ,And again .חלונים for

(Isaiah xx. 4). And there are other similar instances, as we have written in the book Michlal.

"Like as ye fled."-That is to say, as your fathers fled, and so it is said, " And he brought us out from thence " (Deut. vi. 23), and other similar passages.

"Before the earthquake."-Some say that this is what is said in Isaiah, "And the posts of the door moved," that the earthquake took place at that time. And that is what

is said at the beginning of Amos, "Two years before the earthquake" (Amos i. 1.). "And the Lord my God shall come."- signifies

וּבָא

, then he shall come, as it is said, "The Lord shall go forth." "All the saints," is to be interpreted as if there were a conjunction, "And all the saints." Similar cases are, "The sun and moon" (Hab. iii. 11); 1187, Reuben and Simeon (Exod. i. 2); abe

,"King and princes" (Hos. viii. 10), &c. "Saints" means angels, as it is said, "He shall give his angels charge over thee" (Ps. xci. 11); and "thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord" (Joel iii. 11.). Hey, "with thee," refers to Jerusalem, just as " in the midst of thee" does in the first verse. Jonathan has interpreted Toy by my, "with him;" and that great wise man, Rambam, * of blessed memory, has interpreted this of the good promise which he promised Israel by the hands of his holy prophets. And he has interpreted "The Lord my God shall come," by means of all the saints with thee who spake to Israel.

Jonathan has interpreted p, at the beginning of the verse, by no, "It shall be shut ;" as if he read opp similar to , "Thine iniquity is marked" (Jer. ii. 22), and so it is found in some copies; and it is said that the men of the East read thus . If this be the reading, the meaning will be, that after the cleaving open of the Mount of Olives, it will be shut again, an hour or hours, a day or days after, and thus the miracle will be so much the greater, that it should be shut after splitting open; for in the common earthquakes, by which the earth is split open, it does not close again. Such was the opening of the earth which happened to Korah and his company, for the earth closed after it had been split open, as it is said, "And the earth covered them," and this was a great miracle. The meaning of * Moreh Nevuchim, part i. 22.