7. And Huzzab shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts. "In the third year of the siege the Euphrates, overflowing with continual rains, rose above its banks, and entering the city carried away a portion of the wall, making a breach twenty furlongs in length. The revolters entered through the breach and took the city."-DIOD. SIC. 1. II. c. 27. 8. But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water: yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand, shall they cry; but none shall look back. 9. Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold: for there is none end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture. "Belesis pretended that he had made a vow to Belus that when Sardanapalus should be conquered and his palace consumed, he would carry the ashes to Babylon and there raise a mound near to his temple; but his true reason for desiring to do this was that he had heard of the gold and silver which lay hidden among the ruins. Arbaces being ignorant of the plot, granted him permission to carry away the ashes: upon which Belesis prepared shipping and took away great treasures of gold and silver to Babylon." DIOD. SIC. 1. II. c. 28. NAHUM III. 15. There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm: make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts. "The king, that he might not fall into the hands of his enemies, caused a huge fire of wood to be made in the court of his palace, and having heaped upon it all his gold, silver, and royal apparel, and enclosed his eunuchs and concubines in an apartment within the pile, caused it to be set on fire, and burnt himself and them together.' DIOD. SIC. 1. II. c. 27. "He swore with a libation that he would lend his assistance with so great a host that the Athenians should exclaim, 'what a swarm of locusts approaches!"" ARISTOPH. Acharn. v. 148. 17. Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are. "Notwithstanding the immense strength of Nineveh, whose walls, according to Diodorus, were 100 feet high and broad enough for three chariots to go abreast upon them, with fifteen hundred towers at proper distances in the walls, each 200 feet in height, Nineveh was so totally destroyed that the very site of it is hardly to be recognised. Lucian, who was a native of Samosata, on the Euphrates, must have known whether there were any remains of Nineveh or not, and he wrote as follows: "Nineveh is so completely destroyed, that it is not even possible to say where it stood."-LUCIAN. Contempl. c. 23. HABAKKUK I. 16. Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous. Pliny, after enumerating various medicinal remedies, adds, "Now after this, if any one should be of opinion that man could, by any chance or probability, make such discoveries as these, he must surely be guilty of ingratitude in thus appreciating the beneficence of the gods."-PLIN. Hist. nat. 1. xxvii. c. 2. HABAKKUK II. 11. For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it. "Almost the pillars of the Lyceum made a clattering in favour of these two men, and were delighted."-PLAT. Enthydem. c. 29. "How can they look upon the faces of their husbands, and not dread the darkness that aided their deeds, and the ceilings of the house, lest they should at some time or other utter a voice!"-EURIP. Hippol. v. 425. "O Corydon, poor simple Corydon! Do you think aught that a rich man does can be secret? Even though his slaves hold their tongues, his cattle will tell the tale; and his dogs and door-posts, and marble statues."-Juv. Sat. IX. v. 102. See Luke XIX. 40. ZECHARIAH I. 18. Then lifted I up mine eyes and saw, and behold four horns. The horn was an emblem of power, and signified a king or a kingdom. See notes on Daniel VIII. 3. 66 Bacchus, the two-horned god.-EURIP. Bacch. v. 100. "Many nations of Greece represent the statue of Bacchus with a bull's head." PLUT. de Isid. et Osirid. c. 35. ZECHARIAH II. 5. For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her. "With Apollo Delos is strong and safe. What is a more firm rampart? Walls, indeed, and stones might fall under the violent blast of Strymonian Boreas, but the god is ever undisturbed."-CALLIM. Hymn. in Delon. v. 24. 8. For thus saith the Lord of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. "Thou lovedst fair Anticlea as thine own eyes."-CALLIM. Hymn. in Dian. v. 211. ZECHARIAH III. 3. Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel. 4. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment. Among the Romans it was common for those who lay under any stigma or accusation to appear in mean or filthy garments to take their trial: on being acquitted, these sordid vestments were taken from them, and their customary dress resumed. The friends and relations of those who were accused sometimes did the same. When Cicero was impeached by Clodius, not only the Equites and many young noblemen, of their own accord, but the whole Senate, by public consent, changed their habit on his account, which he complains was prohibited by an edict of the consuls. "The Senate was in grief; the city wore an appearance of mourning, its garments having been changed in accordance with the public resolution of the Senate when all suddenly the two consuls issue an edict that the senators are to return to their former dress. Whether that change of garment was assumed as a token of grief, or as a form of solicitation, who ever was so cruel before as to forbid any one mourning for himself or entreating for others? What? Are not men accustomed of their own accord to change their garments on the occasion of danger to their friends?"—Cic. pro Sext. c. 14. At the trial of Claudius "The principal men in the state, taking off their gold rings in the sight of the people, put on mourning; and in that suppliant manner solicited the commons in his favour."-LIV. 1. XLIII. c. 16. "The ambassadors from Alexandria, sent by King Ptolemy and Queen Cleopatra, came into the senate-house dressed in mourning, holding in their hands branches of olives there they prostrated themselves, and their discourse was even more piteous than their dress."-IBID. 1. XLIV. c. 19. "The Rhodian ambassadors appeared at first in white, that colour being the best adapted for persons charged with a joyful message. Not meeting.with a favourable reception, they immediately assumed a mourning dress, and going round to the houses of the principal men, supplicated with prayers and tears that their cause might be heard.” IBID. 1. XLV. c. 20. "I am sensible that a mean, careless, dirty dress, worn by an accused party and all his friends, have had wonderful effects in his favour."-QUINTIL. 1. VI. c. 1. 9. For behold the stone that I have laid before Joshua; upon one stone shall be seven eyes: behold, I will engrave the graving thereof, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. The seven eyes signified seven counsellors. There were always seven in number among the Persians. "Now we have brought with us Pseudartabas, the king's eye." ARISTOPH. Acharn. v. 91. "There is a certain person who, at the head of an army takes a progress every year, and who, in case any of the satraps want assistance, affords it them, and if any of them grow insolent reduces them to temper. And usually, he who takes the progress is the king's son or the king's brother, or one of those they call the king's eye.' XEN. Cyrop. 1. VIII. c. 6. "Soon after Cyrus expired an officer who was called the king's eye passed that way."-PLUT. Artax. c. 12. "King's have a great number of ears and eyes; and eyes that, so far from even winking, almost always pretend to have seen more than was to be seen." eyes LUCIAN. de merc. conduct. c. 29. "I am in search of a lodging where I may be treated more delicately than the of King Antiochus are in the habit of being treated."-PLAUT. Pœnul. act. III. sc. 3. ZECHARIAH V. 4. I will bring it forth, saith the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof. "Glaucus the Lacedæmonian, wishing to defraud a Milesian who had entrusted a sum of money to his hands, denied that he had received it, and then went to consult the oracle at Delphi. On his inquiring whether he might absolve himself from returning the money by an oath, the priestess made him this reply Glaucus, thus much by swearing you may gain, Whilst their descendants, who their oath regard, Fortune ne'er fails to favour and reward. Glaucus, on this, entreated the deity to forgive him, but was told by the priestess that the intention and the action was alike criminal. Glaucus then sent for the Milesian and restored the money. Nevertheless, Leutychides relating the story, adds, At the present day no descendant of Glaucus, nor any traces of his family are to be found: they are utterly extirpated from Sparta."-HDT. 1. vi. c. 86. ZECHARIAH VII. 12. Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts. "Your heart is still, as ever, harder than an adamant stone." HOм. Odyss. 1. xxii. v. 103 MALACHI I. 6. A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? "A father is by nature the ruler of his sons; and ancestors, of their descendants; and a king, of his subjects."-ARISTOT. Eth. 1. viii. c. 11. Plutarch gives it as Alexander's maxim that "God is the common father of men, but more particularly of the good and virtuous."-Alex. c. 27. 8. And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the Lord of hosts. “The Lacedæmonians conduct themselves in so slighting a manner towards the gods as to sacrifice animals which are even maimed."-PLAT. Alcib. de precat. c. 12. It is necessary that the the beast sacrificed to the gods should be pure, sound, entire, and uncorrupt, both in spirit (vxn) and body. The proofs of this, as regards the body, are not difficult to be observed; and as to the spirit, they are ascertained by setting before bulls, meal, and before swine, chick-peas: if they refuse to eat, it is a token that they are not sound. For goats cold water is the trial: if the goat be unmoved or unaffected when the water is poured upon it, it is a sign that the animal is unsound, and not fit for sacrifice.-PLUT. de defect. orac. c. 49. See Leviticus XXII. 19. MALACHI II. 2. If ye will not hear, and if ye will not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings: yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart. "Things good are to the good truly good; but to the wicked evil." 7. For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. "The priests of Egypt are highly reverenced and possess great authority with the people, both for their piety towards the gods and their great wisdom and learning, in which they instruct the people. They are always at the king's elbow, as the chief of his privy counsel, and assist, advise, and instruct him upon all occasions."-DIOD. SIC. l. I. c. 73. "Many things, O priests, have been devised and established with divine wisdom by our ancestors; but no action of theirs was ever more wise than the decree that the same men should superintend both what relates to the religious worship due to the immortal gods and also what concerns the highest interests of the state, so that it might |