The first twelve chapters of Isaiah

Front matter

THE FIRST TWELVE CHAPTERS

OF ISAIAH

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

Chapter I

In the year 698, Hezekiah’s son, Manasseh, then a boy of twelve years, ascended the Judean throne in Jerusalem. The land was exposed to bands of marauders ; and the king was misled by those who desired foreign alliances and foreign cults. Assyrian rites were introduced into Jerusalem, peace was made with Sennacherib, and tribute was paid to Assyria. For half-a-century, all that Isaiah had stood for seemed annihilated. Then, in 648, a great conspiracy of Akkah, Chaldea, Elam, Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, and Arabia, led by Shamash-shumukin, king of Babylon and son of Esarhaddon, was formed against his brother Asshur-banipal, king of Assyria. Babylon fell, and the leader of the rebels perished in the flames of his own palace. In the following year, 647, Asshur-banipal was crowned king of Babylon in that city, to which Manasseh was led as a rebel, with manacles on his hands and a hook in his nostrils. From Babylon, Manasseh returned in penitence to purge Jerusalem of idolatry.

In the early years of Manasseh’s reign, Isaiah collected and completed his prophecies. At the new king’s acces¬ sion, the prophet was about seventy years of age, and

A had prophesied for forty-two years, counting from the vision in the year of Uzziah’s death, that is, in 740. In Jo th am s reign 740-735, he had, in cc. ii.-v., his “Book of the Vineyard,” foretold the Assyrian invasion of Judah. Under Ahaz, 735-727, he had in cc. vi.-xii., his “Book of Emmanuel,” denounced the alliance of Judah with Assyria. During Hezekiah’s reign, 727-698, he had, in cc. xiii.-xxiii. his “ Book of the Nations,” prophesied against the kingdoms from Babylon to Ethiopia. In those days he also wrote the final judgment of the world in his “ Book of the Apocalypse,” cc. xxiv.-xxvii. When Sennacherib in 701, was about to cage the Judean king in Jerusalem, Isaiah wrote his “ Book of Woes,” cc. xxviii.-xxxiii., against those who trusted in Egypt. About the same time, he composed cc. xxxiv.-xxxv., his “ Book of the Two Standards,” to announce the final judgment, Edom and Zion standing respectively for the enemies and the subjects of God. To these works an extract from his own history of Sennacherib’s invasion, cc. xxxvi. and xxxvii., was added in the early years of Manasseh’s reign, that is, soon after 698 b.c., or soon after 681 B.C., if the note in Isaiah xxxvii. 38, regarding Sennacherib’s death was added by Isaiah himself, the prophet being then about eighty-five years of age. Beturning to an earlier period of the history, Isaiah describes Hezekiah’s illness of 713 b.c. and Merodach-Baladan’s embassy, which followed. These chapters, xxxviii. and xxxix., serve as an introduction to the prophecies of Kestoration, cc. xl.-lxvi. The latter work having been added, the prophet prefixes his prologue :

i. 1. The vision of Isaiah ben-Amoz,

Which he saw concerning Juclah and Jerusalem In the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah,

Kings of Judah,

Chapter I, Verses 2-4

In this title, J udah, as representing the Kingdom of God amidst hostile States, is mentioned before Jerusalem, the seat of the Temple. The reigning king, Manasseh, is not named. Then referring to the Song of Moses, in which the heavens and the earth had been constituted witnesses of the Divine covenant with Israel, he called them to witness the faithlessness of the people. First, he points to the nation's ingratitude :

i. 2. Hear, Heavens :

Give ear, Earth ; for Jehovah has spoken.

I nourished and reared sons ;

And they, they revolted against Me.

i. 3. An ox knew its owner :

And an ass its master’s stable.

Israel knew not :

My people did not show it understood.

Then in the second strophe he denounces their apostasy.

i. 4. Woe ! sinning nation,

People, heavy with iniquity.

Seed of evil-doers,

Sons corrupting [their way].

They forsook Jehovah ;

They spurned the Holy One of Israel ;

They are estranged backward.

The last line is a condensed expression to imply the people’s alienation from God, and a return into their former evil condition, as the apostasy of Manasseh re¬ peated that of Ahaz. There is therefore no need to con¬ jecture another reading of the Hebrew text. It may be noted that the word “ sons ” is a key-word of the passage ; in the former strophe, it indicates Israel’s Divine calling;

and in the latter, it denotes the children of apostates. It is also to be noted that the two couplets illustrate the parallelism, which is the main feature of Hebrew poetry, the first couplet forming synonymous parallels, but the second synthetic parallels, as the second line adds a new notion to its predecessor. The triplet is constituted by three synonymous parallels, each line describing the apostasy of Israel. Antithetic parallelism is found in the first couplet of the next strophe, the prophet replying to the people’s apparent invocation of judgment on them¬ selves with an assurance of its uselessness. And in this third strophe, the prophet draws attention to the strokes of Divine judgment that have already fallen on the people.

i. 5. Why will you be struck again ?

You will rebel again.

Every head is ailing ;

And every heart sick.

6. From sole of foot and unto head,

There is no soundness in it.

Wound and scar

And recent stroke —

They are not pressed, nor bound,

Nor is it softened with oil.

Misled perhaps by Ovid’s line,

Now a new blow can scarce find room on you,

many have translated the first word of this strophe by “ whereon.” But the Targum, as well as the Greek and Syriac Vulgates, besides the sense of the second line and that of the Hebrew phrase in the thirteen other places of its occurrence, suggests its translation by “ why.” As to the

Chapter I, Verses 7-9 state of the people, they are, as it were, covered with wounds, from which the foul matter has not been pressed. The sores fester openly, neither bandaged with linen nor soothed with oil. Now the prophet begins a new strophe to describe the devastation of the land, in language that recalls the curses of Leviticus xxvi., and Deuteronomy xxviii. upon apostates. And in comparing the desolation to “ the overthrow of strangers,” he makes the word “ strangers ” the more emphatic, in that it ends the line as it began the preceding clause. On its first occur¬ rence, it includes the many wasters of Judah — Assyrians, Syrians, Israelites, and others. The second time, it refers directly to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, so there is no need to substitute the word “ Sodom ” for the word “ strangers,” as some suggest on the ground that this word “ overthrow ” occurs in five other places and always in the phrase “the overthrow,” or, more accurately, “ the overthrown condition of Sodom.” Says the prophet in his fourth strophe :

i. 7. Your land — desolation :

Your fortresses — burnt with fire.

Your soil before you — strangers eat it :

And [it is] a desolation like the overthrow of strangers.

8. And there is left the daughter of Zion,

Like a hut in a vineyard,

Like a lodge in a cucumber-field,

Like a besieged fortress.

9. Unless Jehovah of Hosts

Had left us a remnant like a trifle,

We had become like Sodom,

We had resembled Gomorrah.

“ The daughter of Zion,” though the phrase generally refers to the citizens, here primarily means the city itself. As to the difficulties of the word rendered “ besieged,” these are solved by deriving it from the verb, generally signifying “ to observe,” but used here as in Job’s expression, vii. 20, “ Thou watcher of men ” to imply hostile watching. The word for “ cucumber-field,” miqshdh , is a noun of place, formed from qishshu’im, “cucumbers.” The lodge was the booth of branches, built on four upright poles for the caretaker. Then God is named Jehovah of Hosts, Jehovah of the angelic armies and natural forces, to emphasise the insignificance of the few Judeans who survive. The word translated “ like a trifle ” emphasises the smallness of the remnant, but it is not necessary to the sense, and may have been interpolated in the Hebrew text, as it is not found in the Vulgates, Greek, Latin, or Syriac, nor in the Old Latin Version. “Sodom” is a key- word of the passage, and is resumed in the fifth strophe, which denounces religious ritual divorced from religious virtue. But first, the pro¬ phet summons all Jerusalem to hear the revelation he has received.

i. 10. Hear the word of Jehovah, magistrates of Sodom:

Give ear to the law of our God, people of Gomorrah.

What is the multitude of your sacrifices to me P

Jehovah will say.

I am sated with holocausts of rams and the fat of fatlings :

And I delight not in the blood of bullocks and lambs and he-goats.

12. When you come to see My Face,

Who requested this at your hand — to trample My courts P

13. Do not again bring a vain offering :

Incense — it is an abomination to Me.

Chapter I, Verses 14-16

New moon and Sabbath !

To call an assembly !

I cannot [endure] iniquity and solemnity :

14. My soul has hated your new moons and festivals.

They have become a burden upon Me :

I have laboured to bear [them].

15. And when you spread out your hands, I shall hide My

eyes from you :

Further, when you multiply prayer, I am not hearing.

It is clear from such passages as the promise in c. lvi. 7, to accept holocausts and sacrifices, to say nothing of the direct commands regarding such things, that the con¬ demnation is not of the rites but of the spirit in which they had been performed. It is not the prescribed New Moon or Sabbath or the solemn convocation that offend, but the union of iniquity and solemnity. With regard to v. 12, it is to be noted that the Massoretes, working from our sixth to our tenth century, pointed the word we have rendered “ to see,” so that it means “ to appear,” and therefore requires the phrase to be translated “ to appear before My Face.” In this they followed the Greek Vulgate, which rendered it “ to appear to Me,” apparently to avoid the suggestion of seeing God with the eye of flesh. Yet a vision of God in some sense was held possible, for the Psalmist, xi. 7, assures us that “ the upright shall see His Face.”

The sixth strophe is directed against the violence and wrong prevalent in Jerusalem.

Your hands are full of blood :

i. 16. Wash, cleanse yourselves.

Remove the evil of your deeds from before My eyes :

Cease to do evil.

] 7. Learn to do good :

Seek [just] judgment.

Direct an oppressed man ;

Judge for an orphan ;

Plead for a widow.

The triplet, with which the strophe concludes, enumerates the three classes, men, children, and women, who suffered wrong. As to the word for “ oppressed,” some would render it actively as “oppressor,” but since a similar form is translated passively as “girded,” and the Greek, Syriac, and Latin Vulgates, as well as the Aramaic Targum, all render the word passively, we translate it as “ oppressed.” In the seventh strophe, the prophet announces God’s challenge to Judah.

i. 18. Come, I pray, and let us implead one another,

Jehovah will say.

If your sins become like scarlet vestments,

They shall be made white as snow.

If they be made red as the crimson worm,

They shall become as wool.

19. If you be willing and hear,

You shall eat the good of the land.

20. And if you refuse and disobey,

You shall eat a sword.

For the Mouth of Jehovah has spoken it.

Some difficulty has been felt regarding the sentence, “You shall eat a sword.” The Greek Vulgate rendered it, “ A sword shall eat you ” ; and the Massoretes pointed the verb as passive and intensive, so that the sentence might mean “ You shall be devoured [with] a sword.” But it is acknowledged that there is an Arabic expression

Charter I, Verses 21-23

“ to give one the sword to eat,” that is, to kill him ; and the “sword” is contrasted with the “good of the land” in the preceding couplet, so there is no need to abandon the rendering we have adopted. To further the im¬ pleading, to which God has invited Judah, the prophet's eighth strophe contains the indictment, charging Jerusalem, the Bride espoused to Jehovah at the first Passover, with faithlessness ; and then in metaphor, followed in Isaianic fashion by plain speech, he denounces the faithlessness of the Judean rulers. He describes the former state of the city, and its hope for the future, to contrast it with its present condition as a refuge for murderers.

i. 21. How has she become a harlot,

[She that was] a faithful city.

[She is] full of [just] judgment ;

Justice will lodge in her —

But now murderers.

22. Thy silver has become dross :

Thy liqueur is mixed with water.

23. Thy princes are rebels and companions of thieves,

Every one loving a bribe and chasing rewards.

They will not judge for an orphan ;

And the plea of a widow will not come to them.

With regard to the sentence, “ Thy princes are rebels,” it is to be noted that it is alliterative, as Isaiah’s phrases often are ; and, therefore, Cheyne has suggested the rendering, “Thy rulers are unruly.” It may also have been a proverbial expression. In any case, Rosea, ix. 15, had employed it about the time of Isaiah's earliest prophecies, In the ninth strophe, the prophet repeats such key-words of the eighth as “dross,” “judgment,” “justice,” and “faithful city.” And in his own manner, lie uses the word “ therefore ” to introduce an announce¬ ment of purification through suffering.

i. 24. Therefore it is decreed of the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts,

The Strong One of Israel.

Ah ! I shall be consoled of My adversaries :

And I shall be avenged of My enemies.

25. And let Me return My hand upon you ;

And I shall purify thy dross as with alkali.

And I shall remove all thy tin.

26. And let Me return thy judges as at the first,

And thy counsellors as in the beginning.

Afterwards thou shalt be called the Fortress of Justice,

A faithful City.

27. Zion will be redeemed with [just] judgment,

And her returning ones with justice.

28. And the shattering of revolters and sinners together !

And the forsakers of Jehovah will be consumed.

In the tenth strophe, the coming judgment is specially connected with the revival of idolatry under Manasseh. Not long before, the prophet had denounced licentious orgies under terebinth trees, lvii. 5, as well as sacrifices in gardens, lxv. 3 ; lxvi. 17. In the early days of Hezekiah’s reign, he had shown, xvii. 10, how the apostasy of Northern Israel had led that people to imitate Syrians and Phoenicians in cultivating the gardens of Adonis, or Adorn, “my lord,” the Babylonian Dumuzi or Tainmuz, a god of earthly love, in whose honour slips were planted in pots to flower and wither the selfsame day. Now he says :

i. 29. For they shall be confounded for terebinths, which you desired ;

And you shall be ashamed for the gardens, which you chose.

Chapter I, Verses 30-31

30. For you shall become like a terebinth [at] the falling of

its leaf,

And like a garden, which has no water.

31. And the powerful man shall become tow ;

And his work a spark.

And both of them shall be devoured together,

And there is no one extinguishing.

In v. 30, the word for “ falling ” is a feminine participle, agreeing therefore with “ terebinth ” and not with “ leaf.5' If we interpret this last word as an accusative of respect, and follow about fifty Hebrew manuscripts in reading it as a plural, the phrase runs literally “a terebinth falling [as to] its leaves.” The sense is quite plain as the description of a withering tree. In v. 31, we have followed the Greek Vulgate in pointing the Hebrew consonants of one word, so that it means “ his work,” rather than accept the Massoretic vowels, which make it mean “his maker.”

Chapter II

In 783, Shalmaneser III began to reign over Assyria, which suffered much at that time from Armenia. Ashurdan III succeeded in 773, and found the forces of his empire still further wasted in plague and rebellion as well as in war with Damascus and the district to the north of it. Ashur-nirari II mustered an army to attack Arpad of North Syria in the first year of his reign, 754; and then, during the years attributed to Romulus at Rome, he remained passive, while the Syrian States took advantage of his weakness to make themselves strong. Those were the days when Uzziah, 720-734, reigned over Judah, and Jeroboam II, 784-744, over Israel. If success in commercial and military enter¬ prises counts for much, that was the golden age of those kingdoms. The rich became very rich ; and the poor very poor. Large estates absorbed the farms of freemen. Women became luxurious and callous. And what was considered religion included a desire for the Day of the Lord, regarded as bringing universal victory and empire to Hebrew arms.

In 745 B.c., however, a soldier of fortune, Tiglath-pileser III, seized the Assyrian throne, and was success¬ ful also against Armenia and a confederation of small districts in North Syria. He deposed Panammu bar- Qaral, who has left us the earliest extant inscription in Aramaic on the Gergin statue of Hadad ; and on the throne of Ya’di and Sam’al he placed another Panammu,

whose son has left us the Aramaic inscriptions of

Chapter II, Verse 1

Zinjirli. These inscriptions are serviceable in describing the deportation of conquered nations and in indicating the religious outlook of North Syria in the days of Isaiah. There was worship of the sun-god Hadad, El, Eekub-el, “ the chariot of god,” Shemesh, “ the sun,” Resheph “ the lightning,” and Aroq-Eesheph. For the dead there was sacrifice to Hadad, and prayer that their souls might eat and drink with that god. And there was also a world of wicked souls under the dominion of King Adar.

Among the vassals of Tiglath-pileser III, we find the Syrian Rezin or Eezon of Damascus and the Israelite Menahem of Samaria. Those were the days of Jotham, 740-735, when the subject condition of Damascus and Samaria left Jerusalem free to develop its own resources, and Tiglath-pileser III, at least during the years 737- 735, was occupied in Media and Armenia. Yet Isaiah rose to warn his fellow-citizens of coming doom. After his vision in the year 740, when Uzziah died and Jotham ascended the Judean throne, he delivered the prophecies cc. ii.-v., which form his “Book of the Vineyard” and his work under Jotham. This small volume is super¬ scribed

ii. 1. The word, which Isaiah ben-Amoz saw Concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

It is not necessary to interpret the “ word ” seen as referring to some special mode of inspiration, as the “ word ” is synonymous with “ thing ” or “ cause.”

Then the prophet proceeds to quote a passage, com¬ posed or copied earlier by Micah, his rustic contemporary, who will repeat it later. In the opening line, there is an expression, “ the end of the days,” found in similar form in the Assyrian of Isaiah’s day. In the Assyrian it simply signifies the future ; and such might well be its connotation here ; but the prophet charges the word with fuller meaning, so that it implies the end of the preparatory dispensation and the coming of the Messianic or Christian kingdom. It looks off to the Apostles and their preaching, “ beginning from Jerusalem,” Luke xxiv. 47, for then the revelation or light of Jehovah will become the light of the world.

ii. 2. And it shall happen at the end of the days,

The Mountain of the House of the Lord

[Shall be] established at the head of the mountains,

And shall be lifted above the hills.

And all the nations will stream to it,

3. And many peoples will go ;

* And they will say, Come,

And let us ascend to the mountain of Jehovah,

To the house of the God of Jacob.

And He will teach us of His ways ;

And let us walk in His paths.

For law will issue from Zion,

And the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem.

4. And He will judge between the nations ;

And He will decide concerning many peoples.

And they will beat their swords into ploughshares,

And their spears into sickles.

Nation will not bear sword against nation.

And they will not learn war any more.

With this vision of the Messianic kingdom, the pro¬ phet contrasts the apostate condition of Israel and the judgment involved in the Day of the Lord. The first of three unequal strophes describes the people, and com¬ mences with an invitation suggested by Micah’s pre¬ diction.

ii. 5. House of Jacob, come,

And let us walk in the light of Jehovah.

Chapter II, Verses G-9

In the next line, we follow the Greek Vulgate in reading “ He ” for “ Thou,” so preserving continuity of thought and reference.

ii. 6. For He lias left His people,

The House of Jacob.

For they are full from the east.

And are cloud-diviners like the Philistines ;

And they clap with the children of aliens.

It will be noted that we see no sufficient reason for reading “ divination ” instead of “ from the east.” The Massoretic or traditional Hebrew text is here supported by the Hebrew text underlying the Greek Vulgate. The triplet contains three distinct charges, that is, pagan customs, witchcraft, and alliances with aliens. Then looking again at the people as a whole, the prophet adds :

ii. 7. And its land is filled with silver and gold ;

And there is no end to its treasures.

And its land is filled with horses,

And there is no end to its chariots.

8. And its land is filled with idols :

To the work of its hands — they bow themselves ! — To what its fingers made.

When Isaiah mentions the false gods, he names them “ idols,” “ vanities,” or “ nonentities,” ’ elilim , as a play on the word for “ mighty ones,” “ gods,” elim. In the next verse we preserve the distinction between addm , “ a human being,” and ’ish, “a man,” by rendering the former as “ one.” The Latin homo and mr would exactly fit the Hebrew words. And now the refrain of the strophe follows.

ii. 9. And one will be bowed ;

And a man will be humbled ;

And Thou slialt not forgive them.

16 The First Twelve Chapters of Isaiati

10. Como into the rock ;

And be hidden in the dnst

From the face of the terror of Jehovah

And from the splendour of His sublimity.

11. The eyes of one’s highness are humbled ;

And the loftiness of men is bowed.

And Jehovah alone is exalted in that Day,

For [there is] a Day for Jehovah of Hosts.

The second strophe announces the nature of the Lord’s Day to be other than one of imperial victory for Israel’s earthly arms. It is a Day

ii. 12. Upon everything sublime and lofty,

And upon everything uplifted ;

And it shall be humbled.

13. And upon all the cedars of Lebanon,

That are lofty and uplifted .

And upon all the oaks of Bashan.

14. And upon all the lofty mountains,

And upon all the uplifted hills.

15. And upon every high tower,

And upon every fortified wall.

16. And upon all the ships of Tarshish,

And upon the desirable images.

In announcing the destruction of the cedars and oaks, the prophet foretells an Assyrian invasion of Northern Israel. About 2650 B.c. Gudea, the chief of Babylonian Lagesh, had adorned a temple with cedar from Lebanon. The same forests were despoiled by such Egyptian kings as Tahutimes III. in 1482, and by Seti I about a century and a half later, both of these kings reigning while Israel

Chapter II, Verses 12-10

was in Egypt. The Lebanon or White Mountain is named indeed from the perpetual snow on its eastern ridge ; but the forests at its foot, according to the “ Broken Obelisk,” afforded Tiglath-pileser I of Assyria the hunting of wild cattle and elephants in the days of Saul. Isaiah now, about 739, is looking forward to such an expedition as that of Shalmaneser IV and Sargon II, which involved the fall of Samaria and Northern Israel in 722. The prophecy attained a more complete fulfilment in the days when Esarhaddon, soon after his succession in 681, compelled twenty-two of his western vassals, including Manasseh of Jerusalem, to carry cedars of Lebanon to the royal palace at Nineveh.

As to the ships of Tarshish, these may mean such large trading vessels as those which sailed from Tyre to Tarshish or Tartessus in Spain. Solomon’s ships of Tarshish, 1 Kings x. 22, brought him gold, silver, ivory, apes and peacocks, and therefore presumably traded with the east. Jehoshaphat’s, 1 Kings xxii. 48, sailed to Ophir in Arabia, and probably from Elath in the gulf of Akaba. Elath in Jotham’s time remained a Judean port. Not till the reign of his son Ahaz did it pass into Syrian hands. So we may well suppose that the expres¬ sion “ ships of Tarshish ” had come to mean simply a large trading vessel, unless indeed we assume a Tarshish in the east.

We may note at the same time that the expression “ fortified wall ” is literally a “ wall cut off,” that is, from approach. And the expression “ desirable images " is literally “ images of desirableness,” the meaning “ images ” being obtained from the Aramaic root, signi¬ fying “ to view,” and the word “ images,” because it is parallel to “ ships of Tarshish,” possibly refers to the figures at their prows.

Now we take up the refrain of the strophe.

ii. 17. And one’s highness is bowed ;

And men’s loftiness is humbled.

And Jehovah alone is exalted in that Day;

18. And the idols — it shall pass completely.

19. And they shall come into caves of rocks,

And into holes of dust.

From the face of the terror of Jehovah And from the splendour of His sublimity,

When He rises to terrify the earth.

This last expression to “terrify the earth” is a paronomasia in the Hebrew. It is difficult to reproduce the verbal play in English, though in Latin it may be represented by “ ut tcrreat terrain ”

Now there is a third strophe to announce the fate of those who worshipped the idols.

ii. 20. In that day, one shall send

His idols of silver and his idols of gold —

Which they made for him to bow himself —

To the moles and to the bats,

21. To come into the borings of the rocks And into the clefts of the cliffs

From the face of the terror of Jehovah And from the splendour of His sublimity When He rises to terrify the earth.

Then a word is added for those who trusted Assyria or Egypt, and for those who feared Syria and Northern Israel.

ii. 22. Cease ye from one,

Whose breath is in his nose ;

For at what is he estimated P

Chapter III

Now, in seven strophes, the prophet announces the future of Judah. We note the catalogue of influential persons to be carried captive, as we have already had a list, ii. 12-16, of those things on which the Day of the Lord shall fall, and as Isaiah will presently enumerate the women’s ornaments, iii. 18-23, to be exchanged for badges of servitude. Further, he would express Judah’s complete loss of help. To do this, he uses the Hebrew word for “ support ” first in the masculine form and then in the feminine, to gain an effect like that of our “ bag and baggage.”

The first strophe describes the removal of all who wield authority.

iii. 1. For behold the Lord Jehovah of Hosts,

Removing every support from Jerusalem and from Judah,

Every support of bread And every support of water,

2. Hero and man of war,

Judge and prophet,

And diviner and elder,

3. The prince of fifty men and the uplifted of face,

And counsellor and the man wise in engraving And the man intelligent in incantation.

The second strophe tells us of the resultant anarchy. It is to be noted that the word we render “ vexations ” in the first couplet, is sometimes translated “babes,” “ caprices,” “ petulant ones.” It occurs in one other place, lxvi. 4, and is there generally explained as “ delusions ” or “ follies.”

iii. 4. And I shall give lads to be their princes ;

And vexations shall rule them.

5. And the people will oppress one another,

And each his neighbour.

And they will be insolent — the lad to the elder,

And the despised to the honoured.

6. For a man will take hold of his brother,

Of the house of liis father,

[Saying], Thou hast a cloak ;