although there were four fasts. * He names the fifth month, because in it the desolation took place: and he names the seventh month, because in it Gedaliah was killed, and that was a second desolation, for the poor of the land had already been left, and it was not desolate so long as the poor of the people remained whom Nebuzar Adan left as vine-dressers and husbandmen. (Jer. lii. 16). Gedaliah was slain on the first of the seventh month, and as this was a holiday, they appointed the fast for the following day.

"Did ye at all fast unto me?"-" is for y is, that is to say, did ye fast on my account? On account of your sins the temple is destroyed, and ye are in captivity, and therefore ye fast: if ye will do judgment and justice, ye need not fast, for the temple shall he built, and go up from the captivity, and ye shall dwell in the land for ever: if ye will do that which is good in my eyes, ye shall not be led away captive from it for ever. The meaning of "after" is, "Did I command you to fast?" Jonathan has rendered it thus: "Is it the fast of affliction wherewith ye afflict yourselves before me?”

6. "And when ye did eat."-He means to say, what have I from your feasting or your eating? When ye fast it is because of your sins, and when ye eat and drink it is for your own profit: the whole matter is for yourselves; but what have I in all this, for neither in the fasting nor the eating is there any thing for my glory?

7. "Should ye not hear the words."-What but your *Besides the two fasts here mentioned, there are two other great fasts mentioned in the 8th chapter; that of the fourth month, or 17th day of Tammuz, on which, according to Maimonides, five evils happened. "1st. The stone tables were broken. 2d. The daily offering ceased in the first temple. 3d. A breach was effected in the walls of Jerusalem at the second destruction. 4th. The wicked Apostomos burned the law; and, 5th, set up an image in the sanctuary." (Ibid.)

The other fast is that of the tenth month, or 10th day of Teveth, on which day "The wicked Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, laid siege to Jerusalem." (Ibid.)

own sins has caused you to fast? for when Jerusalem was in prosperity, I cried by the hand of my servants the prophets that ye should turn from your sins, that the land might not be wasted; but ye did not choose to hear.

"When men inhabited the south and the plain,” i. e., all the land was dwelling securely, and he mentions the south and the plain to show that if this was the case, much more was there a secure dwelling in the mountains and hills.

the active participle here means that there was in them a secure dwelling.

8. "And the word of the Lord came."-After the parenthesis about" inhabiting the plain and the south," he returns to conclude the former things, that he should tell all the people of the land, what the former prophets who spoke to them had cried.

execute

9. "Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts true judgment."—When ye judge between man and man, let your judgment be the judgment of truth; and with him that has need of it, do mercy and compassion, for they are more than judgment."

10. "And the widow."-Take good heed to yourselves that ye oppress not the weak, either in their property or by words.

"Evil of a man against his brother," i. e., do not think evil one against another in your heart; even the thought is forbidden, how much more the deed, and further, the thought which leads to the deed. And even though he does not commit it, it is forbidden, for it is said, "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart." 11. "But they refused

shoulder."

and gave a backsliding

signifies "to turn away from;" as in Hos. iv. 16, "As a backsliding (perverse) heifer," for he that does not wish to attend to him that calls him, turns

away his shoulder, and will not turn towards him.

12. "They made their hearts as an adamant.", 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. "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, Taivių? "The wilderness and solitary place shall be glad with them," y. The punctuation is 7, and not , in order to make wide § they and to make it light, and they have pointed the N 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 he said, for God

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

in

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

instead of, Exod. xvi. 23; (Gesen. Lehrgebäude. p. 151, 152.) See Rosenmüller Schol. in loc.

instead of ", Isaiah xxi. 12; &c.

Intransitive. See Buxtorf in 772.

§ 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 is intransitive, in Judges v. 22:— botany abg in, "Then were the horsehoofs broken ;” and is transitive in Proverbs xxiii. 35, bebo,

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," i. e., he scattered them over the face of all nations.

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

* Thus far Joseph Kimchi.

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CHAPTER VIII.

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 shall 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.

6. "Thus saith the Lord

should it be marvel

, אַתָּה זֶה בְּנִי עֵשָׂו As the words

lous in mine eyes."-Some interpreters explain this interrogatively, as if he had said, "Should it also be wonderful in mine eyes." "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.