"As the mother birds hovering over their young, So shall JEHOVAH God of hosts protect Jerusalem; Protecting and delivering, passing over, and rescuing her." This difficulty is, I think, well solved by Vitringa, whose remark is the more worthy of observation, as it leads to the true meaning of an important word, which hitherto seems greatly to have been misunderstood, though Vitringa himself, as it appears to me, has not exactly enough defined the precise meaning of it. He says, " jsp pasach signifies to cover, to protect by covering: skepasw umav, Septuagint.

JEHOVAH obteget ostium; 'The Lord will cover or protect the door:' " whereas it means that particular action or motion by which God at that time placed himself in such a situation as to protect the house of the Israelite against the destroying angel; to spring forward, to throw one's self in the way, in order to cover and protect. Cocceius comes nearer to the true meaning than Vitringa, by rendering it gradum facere, to march, to step forward; Lexicon in voc. The common meaning of the word jsp pasach upon other occasions is to halt, to be lame, to leap, as in a rude manner of dancing, (as the prophets of Baal did, 1 Kings xviii. 26,) all which agrees very well together; for the motion of a lame person is a perpetual springing forward, by throwing himself from the weaker upon the stronger leg. The common notion of God's passage over the houses of the Israelites is, that in going through the land of Egypt to smite the first-born, seeing the blood on the door of the houses of the Israelites, he passed over, or skipped, those houses, and forbore to smite them. But that this is not the true notion of the thing, will be plain from considering the words of the sacred historian, where he describes very explicitly the action: "For JEHOVAH will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood on the lintels and on the two side posts, JEHOVAH will spring forward over (or before) the door, jtph l[ hwhy jspw upasach Yehovah al happethach, and will not suffer the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you, "Exod. xii. 23. Here are manifestly two distinct agents, with which the notion of passing over is not consistent, for that supposes but one agent.

The two agents are the destroying angel passing through to smite every house, and JEHOVAH the Protector keeping pace with him; and who, seeing the door of the Israelite marked with the blood, the token prescribed, leaps forward, throws himself with a sudden motion in the way, opposes the destroying angel, and covers and protects that house against the destroying angel, nor suffers him to smite it. In this way of considering the action, the beautiful similitude of the bird protecting her young answers exactly to the application by the allusion to the deliverance in Egypt. As the mother bird spreads her wings to cover her young, throws herself before them, and opposes the rapacious bird that assaults them, so shall JEHOVAH protect, as with a shield, Jerusalem from the enemy, protecting and delivering, springing forward and rescuing her; uperbainwn, as the three other Greek interpreters, Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, render it. The Septuagint, peripoihsetai� instead of which MS. Pachom. has peribhsetai, circumeundo proteget, "in going about he shall protect, "which I think is the true reading. - Homer, ii. viii. 329, expresses the very same image by this word:- aiav dÆ ouk amelhse kasignhtoio pesontov, alla qewn peribh, kai oi sakov amfekaluye: " - But Ajax his broad shield displayed, And screened his brother with a mighty shade." -Æov crushn amfibebhkav.

Il. i. 37 Which the scholiast explains by peribebhkav, upermaceiv, i.e., "Thou who strictly guardest Chryses." -L. On this verse Kimchi says, "The angel of the Lord which destroyed the Assyrians is compared to a lion, ver. 4, for his strength: and here (ver. 5) to flying birds, for his swiftness.

Is. 31:1-5 God will oppose the help sought from workers of iniquity Sinners may be convicted of folly by plain and self-evident truths which they cannot deny, but will not believe. There is no escaping the judgments of God; and evil pursues sinners. The Lord of hosts will com down to fight for Mount Zion. The Lion of the tribe of Judah wil appear for the defence of his church. And as birds hovering over their young ones to protect them, with such compassion and affection will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem. He will so defend it, as to secure it safety.

Is. 31:6-9 They have been backsliding children, yet children; let the return, and their backslidings shall be healed, though they have sun deep into misery, and cannot easily recover. Many make an idol of their silver and gold, and by the love of that are drawn from God; but thos who turn to God, will be ready to part with it. Then, when they have cast away their idols, shall the Assyrian fall by the sword of a angel, who strikes more strongly than a mighty man, yet more secretl than a mean man. God can make the stoutest heart to tremble. But if we keep up the fire of holy love and devotion in our hearts and houses, we may depend upon God to protect us and them __________________________________________________________________

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