He will strike the enemy with astonishment as the roaring of the lion astonishes the weaker beasts of the forest.

Very graciously present with you, and ever watching over you, and delighting to save you.

After her enemies are destroyed and the remnant is saved, and the Messiah is come; for to him and his days these things ultimately refer.

The church of Christ.

No profane or unclean person shall pass through it, or be found in it any more for ever.

The vines planted upon the mountains.

So fruitful shall the hills be, that milk shall abound every where.

The prophet alludes to those waters which were conveyed from some spring through conduit pipes towards the altar. This no doubt is a shadow of the purifying blood of Christ, and his sanctifying spirit and word. And in that it is said to come from the house of the Lord, it intimates that this saving grace shall be first preached from Jerusalem, and by the church, which is the house of God, shall be published to others.

Was a place in the plains of Moab. These spiritual waters shall flow down to the dry and thirsty, the barren and fruitless Gentiles, and make them fruitful.

By Egypt we may understand all the enemies of the church who carry it toward the church, as Egypt carried it toward Israel.

Edom was an implacable enemy to Judah in his greatest distress. And all who come under Edom's character are here threatened under this name.

The people of God.

The redeemed of the Lord, his church.

Purge away both by the spirit of sanctification and by free pardon in the blood of the redeemer.

Their sinfulness, which before I had not taken away.

(Compare Eze 38:18-22). The victories of the Jews over their cruel foe Antiochus, under the Maccabees, may be a reference of this prophecy; but the ultimate reference is to the last Antichrist, of whom Antiochus was the type. Jerusalem being the central seat of the theocracy (Psa 132:13), it is from thence that Jehovah discomfits the foe.

As a lion (Jer 25:30; Amo 1:2; Amo 3:8). Compare as to Jehovah's voice thundering, Psa 18:13; Hab 3:10-11.

Or, "their refuge" (Psa 46:1).

Experimentally by the proofs of favors which I shall vouchsafe to you. So "know" (Isa 60:16; Hos 2:20).

As peculiarly your God.

To attack, or to defile, the holy city (Isa 35:8; Isa 52:1; Zec 14:21). Strangers, or Gentiles, shall come to Jerusalem, but it shall be in order to worship Jehovah there (Zec 14:16).

Figurative for abundance of vines, which were cultivated in terraces of earth between the rocks on the sides of the hills of Palestine (Amo 9:13).

That is, they shall abound in flocks and herds yielding milk plentifully, through the richness of the pastures.

The great desideratum for fertility in the parched East (Isa 30:25).

The blessings, temporal and spiritual, issuing from Jehovah's house at Jerusalem, shall extend even to Shittim, on the border between Moab and Israel, beyond Jordan (Num 25:1; Num 33:49; Jos 2:1; Mic 6:5). "Shittim" means "acacias," which grow only in arid regions: implying that even the arid desert shall be fertilized by the blessing from Jerusalem. So Eze 47:1-12 describes the waters issuing from the threshold of the house as flowing into the Dead Sea, and purifying it. Also in Zec 14:8 the waters flow on one side into the Mediterranean, on the other side into the Dead Sea, near which latter Shittim was situated (compare Psa 46:4; Rev 22:1).

It was subjugated by David, but revolted under Jehoram (2Ch 21:8-10); and at every subsequent opportunity tried to injure Judah. Egypt under Shishak spoiled Jerusalem under Rehoboam of the treasures of the temple and the king's house; subsequently to the captivity, it inflicted under the Ptolemies various injuries on Judea. Antiochus spoiled Egypt (Dan 11:40-43). Edom was made "desolate" under the Maccabees [JOSEPHUS, Antiquities, 12.11,12]. The low condition of the two countries for centuries proves the truth of the prediction (compare Isa 19:1, &c.; Jer 49:17; Oba 1:10). So shall fare all the foes of Israel, typified by these two (Isa 63:1, &c.).

(Amo 9:15), that is, be established as a flourishing state.

I will purge away from Judah the extreme guilt (represented by "blood," the shedding of which was the climax of her sin, Isa 1:15) which was for long not purged away, but visited with judgments (Isa 4:4). Messiah saves from guilt, in order to save from punishment (Mat 1:21).

The Lord also shall roar out of Zion - His temple and worship shall be reestablished there, and he will thence denounce his judgments against the nations. "The heavens and the earth shall shake."There shall be great commotions in powerful empires and their dependencies; but in all these things his own people shall be unmoved, for God shall be their hope and strength.

So shall ye know - By the judgments I execute on your enemies, and the support I give to yourselves, that I am the all-conquering Jehovah; and that I have again taken up my residence in Jerusalem. All this may refer, ultimately, to the restoration of the Jews to their own land; when holiness to the Lord shall be their motto; and no strange god, or impure people, shall be permitted to enter the city, or even pass through it; they shall have neither civil nor religious connections with any who do not worship the true God in spirit and in truth. This, I think, must refer to Gospel times. It is a promise not ye fulfilled.

In that day - After their return from their captivities

The mountains shall drop down new wine - A poetic expression for great fertility. Happy times: peace and plenty. The vines shall grow luxuriantly on the sides of the mountains; and the hills shall produce such rich pastures that the flocks shall yield abundance of milk

And all the rivers of Judah - Far from being generally dry in the summer, shall have their channels always full of water

And a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord - See the account of the typical waters in Ezekiel 47, to which this seems to have a reference; at least the subject is the same, and seems to point out the grace of the Gospel, the waters of salvation, that shall flow from Jerusalem, and water the valley of Shittim. Shittim was in the plains of Moab beyond Jordan; Num 33:49; Jos 3:1; but as no stream of water could flow from the temple, pass across Jordan, or reach this plain, the valley of Shittim must be considered symbolical, as the valley of Jehoshaphat. But as Shittim may signify thorns, it may figuratively represent the most uncultivated and ferocious inhabitants of the earth receiving the Gospel of Christ, and being civilized and saved by it. We know that briers and thorns are emblems of bad men; see Eze 2:6. Thus all the figures in this verse will point out the happy times of the Gospel: the mountains shall drop down new wine; the hills flow with milk; the thorny valleys become fertile, etc. Similar to those almost parallel words of the prince of poets: -

Virg. Ed. 4:20

Unbidden earth shall wreathing ivy bring

And fragrant herbs the promises of spring

The goats with streaming dugs shall homeward speed

And lowing herds, secure from lions, feed

Unlabour’ d harvests shall the fields adorn

And cluster’ d grapes shall grow on every thorn

The knotted oaks shall showers of honey weep

Dryden.

Egypt shall be a desolation - While peace, plenty, and prosperity of every kind, shall crown my people, all their enemies shall be as a wilderness; and those who have used violence against the saints of God, and shed the blood of innocents (of the holy Martyrs) in their land, when they had political power; these and all such shall fall under the just judgments of God.

But Judah shall dwell for ever - The true Church of Christ shall be supported, while all false and persecuting Churches shall be annihilated. The promise may also belong to the full and final restoration of the Jews, when they shall dwell at Jerusalem as a distinct people professing the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For I will cleanse their blood - נקיתי nikkeythi , I will avenge the slaughter and martyrdom of my people, which I have not yet avenged

Persecuting nations and persecuting Churches shall all come, sooner or later, under the stroke of vindictive justice

For the Lord dwelleth in Zion - He shall be the life, soul, spirit, and defense of his Church for ever. This prophet, who has many things similar to Ezekiel, ends his prophecy nearly in the same way

Ezekiel says of the glory of the Church, יהוה שמה Yehovah shammah , The Lord Is There

Joel says, יהוה שכן בציון Yehovah shochen betsiyon , The Lord Dwelleth in Zion

Both point out the continued indwelling of Christ among his people

The Prophet explains here more clearly his object, or the end for which he had hitherto spoken of God’s judgment; for what we have heard served only to spread terror: but now the Prophet shows that his purpose was to console the faithful, and to give some relief to their troubles and sorrows. This is the reason why he introduces God as roaring from Zion and crying from Jerusalem. Roaring is ascribed to God, inasmuch as he compares himself in another place to a lion, when representing himself as the faithful protector of the salvation of his people: “I will be,” he says, “like the lion, who suffers not the prey to be taken from him, but boldly defends it with all the fierceness he possesses: so also will I do, I will not suffer my people to be taken from me.” In this sense does the Prophet now say, that God will roar from Zion. God had been for a time despised; for the nations had prevailed against his chosen people, and plundered them at their pleasure; and God then exercised not his power. Since God had been for a time still, the Prophet says now, that he will not always conceal himself, but that he will undertake the defense of his people, and be like a lion; for he will rise up in dreadful violence against all his enemies.

And tremble, he says, shall the heaven and the earth. As almost the whole world was opposed to his elect people, the Prophet carefully dwells on this point, that nothing might hinder the faithful from looking for the redemption promised to them: “Though the heaven and the earth,” he says, “raise oppositions God will yet prevail by his wonderful power. Tremble, he says, shall all the elements; what, then, will men do? Though they muster all their forces, and try all means, can they close up the way against the Lord, that he may not deliver his people?” We now understand the Prophet’s design in speaking of the shaking of heaven and earth.

He at last adds, God will be a hope to his people, and strength to the children of Israel. In this part he gives a sufficient proof of what I have stated, — that he denounces extreme vengeance on the nations for the sake of his Church; for the Lord will at length pity his people, though they may seem to have perished before he succors them. However past hope then the people may be in their own estimation and in that of all others, yet God will again raise up the expectation of all the godly, who shall remain, and will inspire them with new courage. He speaks in general of the children of Israel; but what he says belongs only to the remnant, of which the Prophet had lately spoken; for not all, we know, who derive their origin from the fathers according to the flesh, were true Israelites. The Prophet refers here to the true Church; and hence Israel ought to be taken for the genuine and legitimate children of Abraham; as Christ, in the person of Nathanael, calls those true Israelites who imitated the faith of their father Abraham. I shall to-day finish this Prophet; I do not therefore dwell much on every sentence. It now follows —

This is a confirmation of the preceding doctrine, ye shall know, he says, that I am your God. The Prophet intimates that the favor of God had been so hidden during the afflictions of the people, that they could not but think that they were forsaken by God. His word ought indeed to be sufficient for us in the greatest evils; for though God may cast us into the deepest gulfs, yet when he shines upon us by his word, it ought to be a consolation abundantly available to sustain our souls. But yet, unless God really appears, we are confounded, and ask where is his power. For this reason the Prophet now says, that the faithful shall at length know, that is, really know him as their God.

There is a twofold knowledge, — the knowledge of faith, received from his word, — and the knowledge of experience, as we say, derived from actual enjoyment. The faithful ever acknowledge that salvation is laid up for them in God; but sometimes they stagger and suffer grievous torments in their minds, and are tossed here and there. However it may be with them, they certainly do not by actual enjoyment know God to be their Father. The Prophet therefore now treats of real knowledge, when he says, that they shall know that they have a God, — how are they to know this? By experience. Now this passage teaches us, that though God should not put forth his hand manifestly to help us, we ought yet to entertain good hope of his favor; for the Prophet spoke for this end, — that the godly might, before the event or the accomplishment of the prophecy should come, look to God and cast on him all their cares. Then the faithful, before they had real knowledge, knew God to be their Father, and hence hesitated not to flee to him though what the Prophet testified had not yet been visibly accomplished.

Dwelling in Zion, the mountain of my holiness: This has been designedly added, that the faithful might know, that God made not a covenant in vain with Abraham, that mount Zion had not in vain been chosen, that they might there call on God; for we must have our attention called to the promises, otherwise all doctrine will become frigid. Now we know that all the promises have been founded on a covenant, that is, because God had adopted the people, and afterwards deposited his covenant in the hand of David, and then he designated mount Zion as his sanctuary. Since, then, all the promises flow from this fountain, it was necessary to call the attention of the Jews to the covenant: and this is the reason why the Prophet says now that God dwells in Zion; for otherwise this doctrine would no doubt only lead to superstition. God, indeed, we know, cannot be included within the circumference of any place, much less could he be confined to the narrow limits of the temple; but he dwelt on mount Zion on account of his own law, because he made a covenant with Abraham, and afterwards with David.

It then follows, And Jerusalem shall be holy, and aliens shall not pass through it any more. While he declares that Jerusalem shall be holy, he exempts it at the same time from profanation. We know that it is a common mode of speaking in Scripture, and what often occurs, that God’s heritage is holy, and also, that they profaned it. Hence, when the people were exposed as a prey to the pleasure of their enemies, the heritage of God became forsaken and polluted, profane men trod Jerusalem as it were under foot. But now the Prophet exempts the holy city from this pollution, as though he said, “The Lord will not allow his people to be thus miserably harassed, and will show that this city has been chosen by him, and that he has in it his dwelling. Aliens then shall no more pass through it — Why? For it is first the holy city of God, and then, of his Church.

But as this promise extends to the whole kingdom of Christ, God doubtless makes here a general promise, that he will be the protector of his Church, that it may not be subject to the will of enemies; and yet we see that it often happens otherwise. But this ought to be imputed to our sins, for we make the breaches. God would, indeed be a wall and a rampart to us, as it is said elsewhere, (Isa 26:1;) but we betray his Church by our sins. Hence aliens occupy a place in it: Ye we see at this day; for Antichrist, as it has been foretold, has now for ages exercised dominion in God’s sanctuary. Since it is so, we ought to mourn at seeing God’s holy Church profaned. Let us yet know, that God will take care to gather his elect, and to cleanse them from every pollution and defilement. It follows —

The Prophet here declares that God will be so bountiful to his people, that no good things will be wanting to them either in abundance or variety. When God then shall restore his Church, it will abound, he says, in every kind of blessing: for this is the meaning of this language, Distill new wine shall the mountains, and the hills shall make milk to run down; and all rivers also shall have abundant waters, and a fountain shall arise from the house of Judah to irrigate the valley of Shittim. We now perceive the design of Joel. But we must remember that when the Prophets so splendidly extol the blessings of God, they intend not to fill the minds of the godly with thoughts about eating and drinking; but profane men lay hold on such passages as though the Lord intended to gratify their appetite. We know, indeed, that God’s children differ much from swine: hence God fills not the faithful with earthly things, for this would not be useful for their salvation. At the same time, he thus enlarges on his blessings, that we may know that no happiness shall in any way be wanting to us, when God shall be propitious to us. We hence see that our Prophet so speaks of God’s earthly blessings, that he fills not the minds of the godly with these things but desires to raise them above, as though he said, that the Israelites would in every way be happy, after having in the first place been reconciled to God. For whence came their miseries and distresses of every kind, but from their sins? Since, then, all troubles, all evils, are signs of God’s wrath and alienation, it is no wonder that the Lord, when he declares that he will be propitious to them, adds also the proofs of his paternal love, as he does here: and we know that it was necessary for that rude people, while under the elements of the Law, to be thus instructed; for they could not as yet take solid food, as we know that the ancients under the Law were like children. But it is enough for us to understand the design of the Holy Spirit, namely, that God will satisfy his people with the abundance of all good things, as far as it will be for their benefit. Since God now calls us directly to heaven, and raises our minds to the spiritual life, what Paul says ought to be sufficient, — that to godliness is given the hope, not only of future life, but also of that which is present, (1Ti 4:8;) for God will bless us on the earth, but it will be, as we have already observed, according to the measure of our infirmity.

The valley of Shittim was nigh the borders of the Moabites, as we learn from Num 25:1, and Jos 2:1. Now when the Prophet says, that waters, flowing from the holy fountains would irrigate the valley of Shittim, it is the same as though he said, that the blessing of God in Judea would be so abundant, as to diffuse itself far and wide, even to desert valleys.

But he afterwards joins, that the Egyptians and Idumeans would be sterile and dry in the midst of this great abundance of blessings, for they were professed enemies to the Church. Hence God in this verse declares that they shall not be partakers of his bounty; that though all Judea would be irrigated, though it would abound in honeys milk, and wine, yet these would remain barren and empty; Mizraim, then, shall be a solitude, Edom shall be a desert of solitude. Why? Because of the troubles, he says, brought on the children of Judah. God again confirms this truth, that he has such a concern for his Church, that he will avenge wrongs done to it. God, then, does not always come to our help when we are unjustly oppressed, though he has taken us under his protection; but he suffers us for a time to endure our evils; and yet the end will show, that we have been ever dear to him and precious in his sight. So he says now, that for the harassments which the Egyptians and Idumeans occasioned to the children of Judah, they shall be destitute, notwithstanding the abundance of all good things.

Because they shed, he says, innocent blood in their ( or, in their own) land. If we refer this to Egypt and Idumea, the sense will be, that they had not protected fugitives, but, on the contrary, cruelly slew them, as though they had been sworn enemies. Many, we know, during times of distress, fled to Egypt and Idumea, to seek refuge there. As, then, the Egyptians had been so inhuman towards the distressed, the Prophet threatens them with vengeance. But I prefer to view what is said as having been done in Judea; they have then shed innocent Blood, that is, in Judea itself. As God had consecrated this land to himself to pollute it with unjust slaughters was a more atrocious crime. Forasmuch then as the Egyptians and Idumeans thus treated the Jews, and slew them in their own country in a base manner, though they were abiding quietly at home, it is no wonder that God declares, that he would be the avenger of these wrongs. It follows —

God here testifies that his redemption would not be for a short time, but that its fruit would be for a long, period, yea, perpetual: for it would be but a small thing for the Church to be redeemed, except God kept it safe under his own power. This second thing the Prophet now adds, — that Judah shall always remain safe, and that Jerusalem shall be for a continued succession of ages. The ungodly, we know, sometimes flourish for a time, though before God they are already doomed to destruction. But the Prophet here declares, that the fruit of the redemption he promises will be eternal: for God is not led to deliver his Church only for a moment, but he will follow it with perpetual favor, and remain constant in his purpose and ever like himself; he is therefore the eternal and faithful protector of his people. The last verse follows —

The beginning of the verse is in various ways explained. Some make a stop after cleanse thus, “I will cleanse, yet their blood I will not cleanse;” as though God had said, that he would forgive heathen nations all their other wrongs, but could not forgive them the great cruelty they had exercised against his elect. So the sense would be, “Avarice may be borne, I could pass by robberies; but, since they slew my people, I am in this case wholly unforgiving.” Hence, according to this view, God shows how precious to him is the life of his saints, inasmuch as he says, that he will not be pacified towards those ungodly men who have shed innocent blood. But this sense seems rather too forced. Others render thus, “Their blood will I cleanse, and will not cleanse,” that is, “I will cleanse the Jews from their defilements, but I will not use extreme severity;” as he says also in Isa 48:10, ‘I will not refine thee as gold or silver, for thou wouldest turn all into dross.’ They hence think that God promises here such a cleansing of the Church, as that he would not use extreme rigor, but moderate his cleansing, as it is needful with regard to our defilements, of which we are all so full.

But this sense seems to me more simple, — that God would cleanse the blood which he had not cleansed; as though he said, “I have not hitherto cleansed the pollutions of my people; they are then become, as it were, putrid in their sins; but now I will begin to purify all their wickedness, that they may shine pure before me.” There is a relative understood as is often the case in Hebrew. But נקה neke is taken in Jer 30:11, in another sense, that God will exterminate his Church: but we cannot in this place elicit any other meaning than that God will cleanse his Church from pollutions; for the Prophet, no doubt, means the defilements of which the people were full. They will not, then, be able to enjoy the favor of God while lying in their filth. Now God, in promising to be a Redeemer, comes to the very fountain and the first thing, — that he will wash away their filth; for how could God be the Redeemer of the people, except he blotted out their sins? For as long as he imputes sins to us, he must necessarily be angry with us, we must be necessarily altogether alienated from him and deprived of his blessing. He then does not say in vain that he will be a purifier; for when pollutions are cleansed, there follows another thing, which we have already noticed as to this, future redemption, and with this —

He at last concludes and says And Jehovah shall dwell in Zion. The Prophet recalls again the attention of the people to the covenant; as though he said, “God has willingly and bountifully promised all that has been mentioned, not because the people have deserved this, but because God has deigned long ago to adopt the children of Abraham, and has chosen mount Zion as his habitation.” He shows then this to be the reason why God was now inclined to mercy, and would save a people, who had a hundred times destroyed themselves by their sins.

The Lord is "the Lion of the tribe of Judah" (Rev 5:5), and His powerful coming will be to the nations like the triumphant roar of a mighty lion, shaking the very heavens."

God's promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David will surely be fulfilled, as they were unconditional and eternal."

God Himself, in the person of His Son, will reign from the earthly Jerusalem for a thousand years (Rev 20:6), then in the New Jerusalem for ever (Rev 22:3-5)."

roar : Joe 2:11; Isa 42:13; Jer 25:30,Jer 25:31; Hos 11:10; Amo 1:2, Amo 3:8

and the heavens : Joe 2:10; Eze 38:19; Hag 2:6; Heb 12:26; Rev 11:13, Rev 11:19, Rev 16:18

hope : Heb. place of repair, or, harbour, Psa 18:2, Psa 46:1-11, Psa 61:3, Psa 91:1, Psa 91:2; Pro 18:10; Isa 33:16, Isa 33:21, Isa 51:5, Isa 51:6, Isa 51:16

and the strength : 1Sa 15:29; Psa 29:11; Zec 10:6, Zec 10:12, Zec 12:5-8

shall ye : Joe 3:21, Joe 2:27; Psa 9:11, Psa 76:2; Isa 12:6; Eze 48:35; Mic 4:7; Zep 3:14-16

my : Dan 11:45; Oba 1:16; Zec 8:3

Jerusalem : Isa 4:3; Jer 31:23; Eze 43:12; Oba 1:17; Zec 14:20

holy : Heb. holiness

there : Isa 35:8, Isa 52:1; Nah 1:15; Zec 14:21; Rev 21:27

the mountains : Job 29:6; Isa 55:12, Isa 55:13; Amo 9:13, Amo 9:14

and all : Isa 30:25, Isa 35:6, Isa 41:17, Isa 41:18

flow : Heb. go

and a : Psa 46:4; Eze 47:1-12; Zec 14:8; Rev 22:1, Rev 22:2

the valley : Num 25:1; Mic 6:5

Egypt : Isa 11:15, Isa 19:1-15; Zec 10:10, Zec 14:18, Zec 14:19

Edom : Isa. 34:1-17, Isa 63:1-6; Jer 49:17; Lam 4:21; Ezek. 25:1-17, Eze 35:1-15; Amo 1:11, Amo 1:12; Oba 1:1, Oba 1:10-14; Mal 1:3, Mal 1:4

for : Psa 137:7; Jer 51:35; Oba 1:10-16; 2Th 1:6

Judah : Isa 33:20; Eze 37:25; Amo 9:15

dwell : or, abide

will : Isa 4:4; Eze 36:25, Eze 36:29; Mat 27:25

for the Lord : or, even I the Lord that, Joe 3:17; Eze 48:35; Rev 21:3

The Lord shall roar out of Zion - As in the destruction of Sennacherib, when he was now close upon his prey, and "shook his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem, the Lord of hosts lopped the bough with terror, and the high ones of stature were hewn down, and the haughty were humbled Isa 10:32-33, so at the end. It is foretold of antichrist, that his destruction shall be sudden, "Then shall that Wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His Coming"2Th 2:8. And Isaiah saith of our Lord, "He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked"Isa 11:4. When the multitudes of God’ s enemies were thronged together, then would He speak with His Voice of terror. The terrible voice of God’ s warnings is compared to the roaring of a lion. "The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord hath spoken, who can but prophesy?"Amo 3:8. Much more, when those words of awe are fulfilled. Our Lord then, "The Lion of the tribe of Judah"Rev 5:5. Who is here entitled by the incommunicable Name of God, I am, shall utter His awful Voice, as it is said; "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel and with the Trump of God"1Th 4:16; and He Himself says, "The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice and shall come forth, they that have done good unto the Resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation"Joh 5:28-29.

And shall utter His voice from Jerusalem - that is, either from His Throne aloft "in the air"above the holy city, or from the heavenly Jerusalem, out of the midst of the tens of thousands of His holy angels Mat 16:27; Mat 25:31; Mar 8:38; 2Th 1:7, and saints Zec 14:5; Jud 1:14, who shall "come with Him."So terrible shall that voice be, that "the heavens and the earth shall shake,"as it is said, "the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up"2Pe 3:10; and "heaven shall open for the coming of the saints,"and ‘ hell shall be moved at the coming’ Isa 14:9 of the evil. : "Nor shall it be a slight shaking of the earth at His Coming, but such that all the dead shall be roused, as it were from their sleep, yea, the very elect shall fear and tremble, but, even in their fear and trembling, shall retain a strong hope. This is what he saith immediately, ‘ The Lord will be the hope (or place of refuge)’ of His ‘ people, and the strength (or stronghold) of the children of Israel,’ i. e., of the true Israel, the whole people of the elect of God. All these He will then by that His Majesty at once wonderfully terrify and strengthen, because they ever hoped in God, not in themselves, and ever trusted in the strength of the Lord, never presumed on their own. Whereas contrariwise the false Israelites hope in themselves, while, ‘ going about to establish their own righteousness, they submitted themselves not to the righteousness of God.’ Rom 10:3. The true Israel shall trust much more than ever before; yet none can trust then, who in life, had not trusted in Him Alone.

God Himself wondrously joins on His own words to those of the prophet, and speaks to His own people; "so (literally, and) ye shall know,"by experience, by sight, face to face, what ye now believe, "that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain."So He saith in the second Psalm, "Then shall he speak unto them"Psa 2:5-6 (the enemies of His Christ) "in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure; And I have set My king on My holy hill of Zion;"and, "Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, their God"Rev 21:3, dwelling with them and in them, by an unvarying, blissful, hallowing presence, never withdrawn, never hidden, never shadowed, but ever shining upon them. "Your God,"your own, as much as if possessed by none besides, filling all with gladness, yet fully possessed by each, as though there were none besides, so that each may say, "Thou art my Portion, O Lord"Psa 119:57; Lam 3:24; my "Lord, and my God"Joh 20:28, as He saith, "I am thy exceeding great Reward"Gen 15:1.

And Jerusalem shall be holy - Literally, "holiness"as John saith, "He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God"Rev 21:10-11.

And there shall no stranger pass through her anymore - " Without,"says John, "are dogs and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie"Rev 22:15. None alien from her shall pass through her, so as to have dominion over her, defile or oppress her.

This special promise is often repeated. "It shall be called the way of holiness, the unclean shall not pass over it"Isa 35:8. "Henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean"Isa 52:1. "The wicked shall no more pass through thee"Nah 1:15. "In that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts". "And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth"Rev 21:27. These promises are, in their degree and in the image and beginning, made good to the Church here, to be fully fulfilled when it shall be "a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and without blemish"Eph 5:27. Here they do not pass through her, so as to overcome; "the gates of hell shall not prevail against her."However near, as hypocrites, they come to her, they feel in themselves that they "are not of her"1Jo 2:19. There they shall be severed from her forever. : "Heretics came, armed with fantastic reasons and deceitful arguments; but they could not pass through her, repelled by the truth of the word, overcome by reason, cast down by the testimonies of Scripture and by the glow of faith."They fell backward to the ground before her. They "go out from her, because they are not of her"1Jo 2:19. They who are not of her can mingle with her, touch her sacraments, but their power and virtue they partake not. They are inwardly repelled.

And it shall come to pass in that Day - After the destruction of antichrist, there will, it seems, still be a period of probation, in which the grace of God will abound and extend more and more widely. The prophet Zechariah, who continues on the image, of the "living waters going out from Jerusalem"Zec 14:8, places this gift after God had gathered all nations against Jerusalem, and had visibly and miraculously overthrown them Zec 14:2-4. But in that the blessings which he speaks of, are regenerating, they belong to time; the fullness of the blessing is completed only in eternity; the dawn is on earth, the everlasting brightness is in heaven. But though the prophecy belongs eminently to one time, the imagery describes the fulness of spiritual blessings which God at all times diffuses in and through the Church; and these blessings, he says, shall continue on in her for ever; her enemies shall be cut off for ever. It may be, that Joel would mark a fresh beginning and summary by his words, "It shall be in that Day."The prophets do often begin, again and again, their descriptions. Union with God, which is their theme, is one. Every gift of God to His elect, except the beatific vision, is begun in time, union with Himself, indwelling, His Spirit flowing forth from Him into His creatures, His love, knowledge of Him, although here through a glass darkly.

The promise cannot relate to exuberance of temporal blessings, even as tokens of God’ s favor. For he says, "a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim."But "the valley of Shittim"is on the other side Jordan, beyond the Dead Sea, so that by nature the waters could not flow there. The valley of Shittim or acacia trees is a dry valley, for in such the Easten Acacia, i. e., the sant or sandal wood grows. "It is,"says Jerome (on Isa 12:1-6 :19), "a tree which grows in the desert, like a white thorn in color and leaves, not in size. For they are of such size, that very large planks , are cut out of them. The wood is very strong, and of incredible lightness and beauty. They do not grow in cultivated places, or in the Roman soil, save only in the desert of Arabia."It does not decay ; and when old becomes like ebony . Of it the ark of God was made, its staves, the table of showbread, the tabernacle and its pillars, the altar for burnt-offerings, and of incense Exo 25:5, Exo 25:10, Exo 25:13, Exo 25:23, Exo 25:28; Exo 26:15, Exo 26:26, Exo 26:32, Exo 26:37; Exo 27:1, Exo 27:6; Exo 30:1; Exo 35:7, Exo 35:24; Exo 36:20, Exo 36:31, Exo 36:36; Exo 37:1, Exo 37:4, Exo 37:10, Exo 37:15, Exo 37:25, Exo 37:28; Exo 38:1, Exo 38:6; Deu 10:3. The valley is about six miles from Livias , seven and a half beyond the Dead Sea . It was the last station of Israel, before entering the land of promise Num 33:49, from where Joshua sent out the spies Jos 2:1; where God turned the curse of Balaam into a blessling Num. 23; 24; Mic 6:5; and he prophesied of the Star which should arise out of Israel, even Christ Num 24:17; where Israel sinned in Baal Peor, and Phineas turned aside His displeasure Num 25:1, Num 25:7, Num 25:11.

The existence of a large supply of water under the temple is beyond all question. While the temple was still standing, mention is made up of "a fountain of ever-flowing water under the temple,"as well as pools and cisterns for preserving rain-water. One evidently well acquainted with the localities says , "The pavement has slopes at befitting places, for the sake of a flush of water which takes place in order to cleanse away the blood from the victims. For on festivals many myriads of animals are sacrificed. But of water there is an unfailing supply, a copious and natural fountain within gushing over, and there being moreover wonderful underground-receptacles in a circuit of five furlongs, in the substructure of the temple, and each of these having numerous pipes, the several streams inter-communicating, and all these closed up below and on the sides - There are also many mouths toward the base, invisible to all except those to whom the service of the temple belongs. So that the manifold blood of the sacrifices being brought together are cleansed by the gush (of water down) the slope."

This same writer relates that, more than half a mile from the city, he was told to stoop down and heard the sound of gushing waters underground. The natural fountain, then, beneath the temple was doubtless augmented by waters brought from a distance, as required for the "divers washings"both of the priests and other things, and to carry off the blood of the victims. Pools near the temple are mentioned by writers of the third and fourth century ; and Omar, on the surrender of Jerusalem, 634 a.d., was guided to the site of the ancient temple (whereon he built his Mosk) by the stream of water which issued through a water-channel from it . Whencesoever this water was derived, whether from a perennial spring beneath the temple itself, or whether brought there from some unfailing source without, it afforded Jerusalem an abundant supply of water.

Much as Jerusalem suffered in sieges by famine, and its besiegers by thirst, thirst was never any part of the sufferings of those within . The superfluous water was and still is carried off underground, to what is now "the fountain of the Virgin", and thence again, through the rock, to the pool of Siloam . Thence it carried fertility to the gardens of Siloam, in Joel’ s time doubtless "the king’ s gardens", still "a verdant spot, refreshing to the eye in the heat of summer, while all around is parched and dun."The blood of the victims flowed into the same brook Kidron, and was a known source of fertility, before the land was given to desolation. The waters of Kidron, as well as all the waters of Palestine, must have been more abundant formerly.

Isaiah speaks of it as "flowing softly"Isa 8:6; Josephus , of the "abundant fountain;"an official report , of the "fountain gushing forth with abundance of water."Still its fertilizing powers formed but one little oasis, where all around was arid. It fertilized those gardens live miles from the city, but the mid-space was waterless , thirsty, mournful . Lower down, the rivulet threaded its way to the Dead Sea, through a narrow ravine which became more and more wild, where Saba planted his monastery. "A howling wilderness, stern desolation. stupendous perpendicular cliffs, terrific chasms, oppressive solitude"are the terms by which one endeavors to characterize "the heart of this stern desert of Judaea".

Such continues to be its character, in the remaining half of its course, until it is lost in the Dead Sea, and is transmuted into its saltness. Its valley bears the name of desolation, Wady en Nar , "valley of fire."No human path lies along it. The Kidron flows along "a deep and almost impenetrable ravine"Psa 46:4, "in a narrow channel between perpendicular walls of rock, as if worn away by the rushing waters between those desolate chalky hills."That little oasis of verdure was fit emblem of the Jewish people, itself bedewed by the stream which issued from the Temple of God, but, like Gideon’ s fleece, leaving all around dry. It made no sensible impression out of, or beyond itself. Hereafter, "the stream", the Siloah, whose "streamlets,"i. e., the artificial fertilizing divisions, "made glad the city of God"Eze 47:1-12, should make the wildest, driest spots of our mortality "like the garden of the Lord."Desolation should become bright and happy; the parched earth should shoot up fresh with life; what was by nature barren and unfruitful should bring forth good fruit; places heretofore stained by sin should be purified; nature should be renewed by grace; and that, beyond the borders of the promised land, in that world which they had left, when Joshua brought them in there.

This, which it needs many words to explain, was vivid to those to whom Joel spoke. They had that spot of emerald green before their eyes, over which the stream which they then knew to issue from the temple trickled in transparent brightness, conducted by those channels formed by man’ s diligence. The eyes of the citizens of Jerusalem must have rested with pleasure on it amid the parched surface around. Fresher than the gladliest freshness of nature, brighter than its most kindled glow, is the renewing freshness of grace; and this, issuing from mount Zion, was to be the portion not of Judea only, but of the world.

The vision of Ezekiel Eze 47:1-12, which is a comment on the prophecy of Joel, clearly belongs primarily to this life. For in this life only is there need for healing; in this life only is there a desert land to be made fruitful; death to be changed into life; death and life, the healed and unhealed, side by side; life, where the stream of God’ s grace reacheth, and death and barrenness, where it reacheth not. The fishers who spread their nests amid "the fish, exceeding many,"are an emblem which waited for and received its explanation from the parables of our Lord.

In the Revelation, above all, the peace, glory, holiness, vision of God, can only be fulfilled in the sight of God. Yet here too the increase of the Church, and the healing of the nations Rev 21:24-26; Rev 22:21, belong to time and to a state of probation, not of full fruition.

But then neither can those other symbols relate to earthly things.

The mountains shall drop down new wine - Literally, "trodden"out. What is ordinarily obtained by toil, shall be poured forth spontaneously. "And the hills shall flow with milk,"literally, "flow milk,"as though they themselves, of their own accord, gushed forth into the good gifts which they yield. "Wine"ever new, and ever renewing, sweet and gladdening the heart; "milk,"the emblem of the spiritual food of childlike souls, of purest knowledge, holy devotion, angelic purity, heavenly pleasure. And these shall never cease. These gifts are spoken of, as the spontaneous, perpetual flow of the mountains and hills; and as the fountain gushes forth from the hill or mountain-side in one ceaseless flow, day and night, streaming out from the hidden recesses to which the waters are supplied by God from His treasure-house of the rain, so day and night, in sorrow or in joy, in prosperity or adversity, God pours out, in the Church and in the souls of His elect, the riches of His grace. "All the rivers,"literally "channels, of Judah shall flow with water."Every "channel,"however narrow and easily drying up, shall "flow with water,"gushing forth unto everlasting life; the love of God shall stream through every heart; each shall he full according to its capacity and none the less full, because a larger tide pours through others. How much more , "in those everlasting hills of heaven, "the heavenly Jerusalem,"resting on the eternity and Godhead of the Holy Trinity, shall that long promise be fulfilled of the land flowing with milk and honey, where God, through the beatific vision of Himself, shall pour into the blessed "the torrent of pleasure,"the unutterable sweetness of joy and gladness unspeakable in Himself; and "all the rivers of Judah,"i. e., all the powers, capacities, senses, speech of the saints who "confess"God, shall flow with a perennial stream of joy, thanksgiving, and jubilee, as of all pleasure and bliss."

Egypt shall be a desolation - " Egypt"and "Edom"represent each a different class of enemies of the people of God, and both together exhibit the lot of all. Egypt was the powerful oppressor, who kept Israel long time in hard bondage, and tried, by the murder of their male children, to extirpate them. Edom was, by birth, the nearest allied to them, but had, from the time of their approach to the promised land, been hostile to them, and showed a malicious joy in all their calamities (Oba 1:10-14; Eze 25:12; Eze 35:15; Eze 36:5; Lam 4:22; Psa 137:7; see the note at Amo 1:11). "Their land,"in which Egypt and Edom shed the "innocent blood of the children of Judah,"may either be Edom, Egypt, or Judaea. If the land was Judaea, the sin is aggravated by its being God’ s land, the possession of which they were disputing with God. If it was Egypt and Edom, then it was probably the blood of those who took refuge there, or, as to Edom, of prisoners delivered up to them (see the note at Amo 1:9).

This is the first prophecy of the humiliation of Egypt. Hosea had threatened, that Egypt should be the grave of those of Israel who should flee there Hos 9:6. He speaks of it as the vain trust, and a real evil to Israel Hos 7:11-12, Hos 7:16; Hos 8:13; Hos 9:3; Hos 11:5; of its own future he says nothing. Brief as Joel’ s words are, they express distinctly an abiding condition of Egypt. They are expanded by Ezekiel Eze 29:9-12, Eze 29:15; particular chastisements are foretold by Isaiah Isa. 19; Isa 20:1-6, Jeremiah Jer. 46, Ezekiel Ezek. 29\endash 32, Zechariah Zec 10:11. But the three words of Joel , "Egypt shall become desolation,"are more comprehensive than any prophecy, except those by Ezekiel. They foretell that abiding condition, not only by the force of the words, but by the contrast with an abiding condition of bliss. The words say, not only "it shall be desolated,"as by a passing scourge sweeping over it, but "it shall itself ‘ pass over into’ that state;"it shall become what it had not been ; and this, in contrast with the abiding condition of God’ s people. The contrast is like that of the Psalmist, "He turneth a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into water-springs"Psa 107:33-35. Judah should overflow with blessing, and the streams of God’ s grace should pass beyond its bounds, and carry fruitfulness to what now was dry and barren. But what should reject His grace should be itself rejected.

Yet when Joel thus threatened Egypt, there were no human symptoms of its decay; the instruments of its successive overthrows were as yet wild hordes, (as the Chaldees, Persians, and Macedonians,) to be consolidated thereafter into powerful empires, or (as Rome) had not the beginnings of being. : "The continuous monumental history of Egypt"went back seven centuries before this, to about 1520 b.c. They had had a line of conquerors among their kings, who subdued much of Asia, and disputed with Assyria the country which lay between there . Even after the time of Joel, they had great conquerors, as Tirhaka; Psammetichus won Ashdod back from Assyria , Neco was probably successful against it, as well as against Syria and king Josiah, for he took Cadytis on his return from his expedition against Carchemish 2Ki 23:29; Pharaoh Hophra, or Apries, until he fell by his pride Eze 29:3, renewed for a time the prosperity of Psammetichus ; the reign of Amasis, even after Nebuchadnezzars conquest, was said to be "the most prosperous time which Egypt ever saw"; it was still a period of foreign conquest , and its cities could be magnified into 20,000.

The Persian invasion was drawn upon it by an alliance with Lydia, where Amasis sent 120,000 men ; its, at times, successful struggles against the gigantic armies of its Persian conquerors betoken great inherent strength; yet it sank for ever, a perpetual desolation. "Rent, twenty-three centuries ago, from her natural proprietors,"says an unbelieving writer , "she has seen Persians, Macedonians, Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Georgians, and at length, the race of Tartars, distinguished by the name of Ottoman Turks, establish themselves in her bosom.""The system of oppression is methodical;""an universal air of misery is manifest in all which the traveler meets.": "Mud-walled cottages are now the only habitations, where the ruins of temples and palaces abound. The desert covers many extensive regions, which once raised Egypt among the chief of the kingdoms."The desolation of Egypt is the stranger, because exceeding misrule alone could have effected it.

Egypt in its largest dimensions, has been calculated to contain 123,527 square miless or 79,057,339 acres, and to be three fourths of the size of France Memoire sur le lae de Moeris. (1843). The mountains which hem in Upper Egypt, diverge at Cairo, parting, the one range, due east, the other northwest. The mountains on the west sink into the plains; those on the east retain their height as far as Suez. About 10 miles below Cairo, the Nile parted, enclosing within the outside of its seven branches, that triangle of wondrous fertility, the Delta. A network of canals, formed by the stupendous industry of the ancient Egyptians, enclosed this triangle in another yet larger, whose base, along the coast, was 235 miles, in direct distance about 181. East of the eastern-most branch of the Nile, lay the "land of Goshen,"formerly, at least for cattle, "the good of the land"Gen 47:6, Gen 47:11, a part, at least, of the present esh-Sharkiyyeh, second in size of the provinces of Egypt, but which, 1375 a.d., yielded the highest revenue of the state .

On the western side of the Nile, and about a degree south of the apex of the Delta, a stupendous work, the artificial lake of Moeris , enclosing within masonry 64 34 square miles of water, received the superfluous waters of the river, and thus at once prevented the injury incidental on any too great rise of the Nile, and supplied water during six months for the irrigation of 1724 square miles, or 1,103, 375, acres .

The Nile which, when it overflowed, spread like a sea over Egypt , encircling its cities like islands, carried with it a fertilizing power, attested by all, but which, unless so attested, would seem fabulous. Beneath a glowing heat, greater than its latitude will account for, the earth, supplied with continual moisture and an ever renewed alluvial deposit which supersedes all need of "dressing"the soil, yields, within the year, three harvests of varied produce . This system of canalising Egypt must have been of very early antiquity. That giant conception of the water system of lake Moeris is supposed to have been the work of Ammenemhes, perhaps about 1673, b.c. . But such a giant plan presupposes the existence of an artificial system of irrigation which it expanded. In the time of Moses, we hear incidentally of "the streams"of Egypt, "the canals"(that is, those used for irrigation), and "the ponds"Exo 7:19; Exo 8:1, the receptacles of the water which was left when the Nile retired.

Besides these, an artificial mode of irrigation "by the foot"Deut. 11:40 is mentioned, now no longer distinctly known, but used, like the present plans of the water-wheel and the lever , to irrigate the lands for the later harvests. This system of irrigation had, in the time of Joel, lasted probably for above 1000 years. The Egyptians ascribed the first turning of the Nile to their first king, Menes , of fabulous antiquity. But while it lasted in any degree, Egypt could not become barren except by miracle. Even now it recovers, whenever water is applied. "Wherever there is water, there is fertility.": "The productive powers of the soil of Egypt are incalculable. Wherever water is scattered, there springs up a rapid and beautiful vegetation. The seed is sown and watered, and scarcely any other care is requisite for the ordinary fruits of the earth. Even in spots adjacent to the desert and which seem to be taken possession of by the sands, irrigation brings rapidly forth a variety of green herbs and plants."For its first crop, there needed but to cast the seed, and have it trodden in by cattle .

Nothing then could desolate Egypt, except man’ s abiding negligence or oppression. No passing storm or inroad could annihilate a fertility, which poured in upon it in everrenewing richness. For 1000 years, the Nile had brought to Egypt unabated richness. The Nile overflows still, but in vain amid depopulation, and grinding, uniform, oppression. Not the country is exhausted, but man.

"If"says Mengin , "it is true that there is no country richer than Egypt in its territorial productions, still there is perhaps no one whose inhabitants are more miserable. It is owing solely to the fertility of its soil and the sobriety of its cultivators, that it retains the population which it still has."The marked diminution of the population had begun before the Birth of our Lord. "Of old,"says Diodorus , "it far exceeded in denseness of population all the known countries in the world, and in our days too it seems to be inferior to no other. For in ancient times it had more than 18,000 considerable villages and towns, as you may see registered in the sacred lists. In the time of Ptolemy Lagus more than 30,000 were counted, a number which has continued until now. But the whole people are said of old to have been about seven million, and in our days not less than three".

A modern estimate supposes that Egypt, if cultivated to the utmost, would, in plentiful years, support eight million . It is difficult to calculate a population where different ranks wish to conceal it. It has been guessed however, that two centuries ago, it was four million; that, at the beginning of this century, it was two million and a half; and that, in 1845, it was 1,800,000 . The great diminution then had begun 1900 years ago. Temporary causes, plague, smallpox; conscription, have, in this last century, again halved the population; but down to that time, it had sunk to no lower level than it had already reached at least 18 centuries before. The land still, for its fruitfulness, continues to supply more than its inhabitants consume; it yields over and above cotton , for strangers to employ.

Yet its brilliant patches of vegetation are but indications how great the powers implanted in it. In vain "the rising Nile overflows (as it is thought) a larger proportion of the soil"than heretofore; in vain has the rich alluvial deposit encroached upon the gradual slope of the desert; in vain, in Upper Egypt has a third been added since about the time of the Exodus. Egypt is stricken. Canals and even arms of the Nile, were allowed to choke up. Of the seven branches of the Nile, two only, at first artificial, remain. : "The others have either entirely disappeared or are dry in summer."The great eastern arm, the Pelusian, is nearly effaced "buried almost wholly beneath the sands of the desert.": "The land at the mouth of the canal which represents it, is a sand waste or a marsh.": "There is now no trace of vegetation in the whole Pelusian plain. Only one slight isolated rise has some thickets on it, and some shafts of columns lie on the sand.": "In the midst of a plain the most fertile, they want the barest necessaries of life."

The sand of the desert, which was checked by the river and by the reeds on its banks, has swept over lands no longer fertilized. : "The sea has not been less destructive. It has broken down the dykes wherewith man’ s labor held it in, and has carried barrenness over the productive lands which it converted into lakes and marshes."A glance at the map of Egypt will show how widely the sea has burst in, where land once was. On the east, the salt lake Menzaleh, (itself from west-northwest to southeast about 50 miles long, and above 10 miles from north to south) absorbs two more of the ancient arms of the Nile, the Tanitic and the Mendesian . The Tanitic branch is marked by a deeper channel below the shallow waters of the lake . The lake of Burlos "occupies from east to west more than half the basis of the Delta."Further westward are a succession of lakes, Edkou, Madyeh (above 12 12 miles) Mareotis (37 12 miles). : "The ancient Delta has lost more than half its surface, of which one-filth is covered with the waters of the lakes Mareotis, Madyeh, Edkou, Bourlos, and Menzaleh, sad effects of the carelessness of the rulers or rather spoilers of this unhappy country."Even when the lake Mareotis was, before the English invasion in 1801, allowed nearly to dry up, it was but an unhealthy lagoon; and the Mareotic district, once famous for its wine and its olives and papyrus , had become a desert. So far from being a source of fertility, these lakes from time to time, at the low Nile, inundate the country with salt water, and are "surrounded by low and barren plains".

The ancient populousness and capabilities of the western province are attested by its ruins. : "The ruins which the French found everywhere in the military reconnaissances of this part of Egypt attest the truth of the historical accounts of the ancient population of the Province, now deserted"; "so deserted, that you can scarce tell the numbers of ruined cities frequented only by wandering Arabs."

According to a calculation lower than others, 13 of the land formerly tilled in Egypt has been thrown out of cultivation, i. e., not less than 1,763,895 acres or 2755.710 square miles . And this is not of yesterday. Toward the end of the 14th century, the extent of the land taxed was 3,034,179 feddans , i. e., 4,377,836.56 acres or 6840.13 square miles. The list of lands taxed by the Egyptian government in 1824 yields but a sum of 1,956, 40 feddans , or 2,822,171 acres or 4409 square miles. Yet even this does not represent the land actually cultivated. Some even of the taxed land is left wholly, some partially, uncultivated .

In an official report , 2,000,000 feddans are stated to be cultivated, when the overflow of the Nile is the most favorable, i. e., 47 only of the estimated cultivable amount. The French, who surveyed Egypt minutely, with a view to future improvement, calculated that above 1,000,000 feddans (1,012,887) might be proximately restored by the restoration of the system of irrigation, and nearly 1,000,000 more (942,810) by the drainage of its lakes, ponds and marshes, i. e., nearly as much again as is actually cultivated. One of the French surveyors sums up his account of the present state of Egypt ; "without canals and their dykes, Egypt, ceasing to be vivified throughout, is only a corpse which the mass of the waters of its river inundates to superfluity, and destroys through fullness. Instead of those ancient cultivated and fertile plains, one only finds, here and there, canals filled up or cut in two, whose numerous ramifications, crossing each other in every direction, exhibit only some scarcely distinguishable traces of a system of irrigation; instead of those villages and populous cities, one sees only masses of bare and arid ruins, remnants of ancient habitations reduced to ashes; lastly, one finds only lagoons, miry and pestilential, or sterile sands which extend themselves, and unceasingly invade a land which the industry of man had gained from the desert and the sea."

Yet this is wholly unnatural. In the prophet’ s time, it was contrary to all experience. Egypt is alike prolific in its people and in the productions of the earth. The Egyptian race is still accounted very prolific . So general is this, that the ancients thought that the waters of tim Nile must have some power of fecundity . Yet with these powers implanted in nature unimpaired, the population is diminished, the land half-desert. No one doubts that man’ s abiding misgovernment is the cause of Egypt’ s desolation. Under their native princes, they were happy and prosperous . Alexander, some of the Ptolemies, the Romans, saw, at least, the value of Egypt. The great conception of its Greek conqueror, Alexandria, has been a source of prosperity to strangers for above 2000 years. Prosperity has hovered around Egypt. Minds, the most different, are at one in thinking that, with a good government, internal prosperity and its farfamed richness of production might at once be restored. Conquerors of varied nations, Persians, Macedonians, Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Georgians, Tartars, or Turks have tried their hands upon Egypt. Strange that selfishness or powerlessness for good should have rested upon all; strange that no one should have developed its inherent powers! Strange contrast. One long prosperity, and one long adversity. One scarcely broken day, and one troubled night. And that doom foretold in the mid-day of its prosperity, by those three words, "Egypt shall be a desolation."

Edom shall be a desolate wilderness - Edom, long unknown, its ancient capital, its rock-dwellings, have been, within these last forty years, anew revealed. The desolation has been so described to us, that we have seen it, as it were, with our own eyes. The land is almost the more hopelessly desolate, because it was once, artificially, highly cultivated. Once it had the "fatness of the earth and the dew of heaven from above"Gen 27:39 : it had Num 20:17 "cornfields"and "vineyards"in abundance, and "wells"of water; its vegetation, its trees, and its vineyards, attracted the dew by which they were supported. "Petra,"says Strabo, (xvi. 4, 21), "lies in a spot precipitous and abrupt without, but within possessed of abundant fountains for watering and horticulture."The terrace-cultivation, through which each shower which falls is stored to the uttermost, clothing with fertility the mountain-sides, leaves those steep sides the more bare, when disused. "We saw,"says a traveler , "many ruined terraces, the evidences and remains of a flourishing agriculture, which, in the prosperous days of Edom and Petra, clothed many of these now sterile mountains with fertility and beauty. Fields of wheat and some agricultural villages still exist in the eastern portion of Edom; but, with very slight exceptions, the country is blighted with cheerless desolations and hopeless sterility. The hill-sides and mountains, once covered with earth and clothed with vineyards, are now bare rocks. The soil no longer supported by terraces and sheltered by trees, has been swept away by the rains. The various contrivances for irrigation, which even now might restore fertility to many considerable tracts, have all disappeared. Sand from the desert, and the debris of the soft rock of the mountains, cover the valleys which formerly smiled with plenty."

Now "the springs have been dried up to such an extent, as to render the renewal of the general fertility of Edom (well nigh) impossible. In places along the course of the stream, reeds and shrubs grow luxuriantly, oleanders and wild figs abound, and give proof that a little cultivation would again cover the rock, and fill the cliffs with the numberless gardens which once adorned them. The traces of former fertility are innumerable; every spot capable of sustaining vegetable life was carefully watered and cultivated. There are numerous grooves in the rocks to carry rainwater to the little clefts in which even now figs are found. Every spot capable of being so protected has been walled up, however small the space gained, or however difficult the means of securing it. The ancient inhabitants seem to have left no accessible place untouched. They have exhibited equal art and industry in eliciting from the grand walls of their marvelous capital whatever the combination of climate, irrigation and botanical skill could foster in the scanty soil afforded them. The hanging gardens must have had a wondrous effect among the noble buildings of the town when it was in all its glory."This desolation began soon after the captivity of Judah and Edom’ s malicious joy in it. For Malachi appeals to Judah, that whereas God had restored him, He had "laid the mountains and the heritage"of Esau "waste for the jackals of the wilderness"Mal 1:3.

Yet Edom was the center of the conversation of nations. Occupying, as it did in its narrowest dimensions, the mountains between the south end of the Dead Sea and the Aelanitic gulf, it lay on the direct line between Egypt and Babylonia. A known route lay from Heroopolis to Petra its capital, and thence to Babylon . Elath and Ezion-geber discharged through its vally, the Arabah, the wealth which they received by sea from India or Africa. Petra was the natural halting-place of the caravans. "The Nabataeans,"says Pliny , "enclose Petra, in a valley of rather more than two miles in extent, surrounded by inaccessible mountains, through which a stream flows. Here the two roads meet of those who go to Palmyra of Syria, and of those who come from Gaza."Eastward again, he says , "they went from Petra to Fora, and thence to Charax"on the banks of the Tigris, near the Persian gulf.

Yet further the wealth of Arabia Felix poured by a land-route through Petra. : "To Petra and Palestine, Gerraens and Minaeans and all the neighboring Arabs brought down from the upper country the frankincense, it is said, and all other fragrant merchandise."Even after the foundation of Alexandria had diverted much of the stream of commerce from Leuce Come, the Aelanitic gulf, and Petra to Myos Hormus on the Egyptian side of the Red Sea, the Romans still connected Elath and Petra with Jerusalem by a great road, of which portions are still extant , and guarded the contact by military stations . Of these routes, that from Arabia Felix and from Egypt to Babylonia had probably been used for above 1000 years before the time of Joel. Elath and Eziongeber were well-known towns at the time of the Exodus Deu 2:8.

The contact was itself complex and manifold. The land exports of Arabia Felix and the commerce of Elath necessarily passed through Edom, and thence radiated to Egypt, Palestine, Syria. The withdrawal of the commerce of Egypt would not alone have destroyed that of Petra, while Tyre, Jerusalem, Damascus, still received merchandise through her. To them she was the natural channel; the pilgrim-route from Damascus to Mecca lies still by Petra. In Joel’ s time, not the slightest shadow was cast on her future. Then Babylon destroyed her for a time; but she recovered. The Babylonian and Persian Empires perished; Alexander rose and fell; Rome, the master alike of Alexandria and Petra, meant Petra still to survive. No human eye could even then tell that it would be finally desolate; much less could any human knowledge have foreseen it in that of Joel. But God said by him, "Edom shall be a desolate wilderness,"and it is so!

As, however, Egypt and Edom are only instances of the enemies of God’ s people and Church, so their desolation is only one instance of a great principle of God’ s Government, that "the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the ungodly for a moment"Job 20:5; that, after their short-lived office of fulfilling God’ s judgment on His people, the judgment rolls round on themselves, "and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate"Psa 34:21.

Judah shall dwell for ever - Not earthly Judah, nor earthly Jerusalem, for these must come to an end, together with the earth itself, of whose end the prophets well knew. It is then the one people of God, the true Judah, the people who praise God, the Israel, which is indeed Israel. Egypt and Edom and all the enemies of God should come to an end; but His people shall never come to an end. "The gates of hell shall not prevail against her."The enemy shall not destroy her; time shall not consume her; she shall never decay. The people of God shall abide before Him and through Him here, and shall dwell with Him forever.

For I will cleanse her blood that I have not cleansed - The word rendered "cleansed"is not used of natural cleansing, nor is the image taken from the cleansing of the body. The word signifies only to pronounce innocent, or to free from guilt. Nor is "blood"used of sinfulness generally, but only of the actual guilt of shedding blood. The whole then cannot be an image taken from the cleansing of physical defilement, like the words in the prophet Ezekiel, "then washed I thee with water; yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee"Eze 16:9. Nor again can it mean the forgiveness of sins generally, but only the pronouncing innocent the blood which had been shed. This, the only meaning of the words, fall in with the mention of the "innocent blood,"for shedding which, Egypt and Edom had been condemned. The words are the same. There it was said, "because they have shed innocent blood; dam naki;"here, "I will pronounce innocent their blood, nikkethi damam.""How,"it is not said. But the sentence on Egypt and Edom explains how God would do it, by punishing those who shed it. For in that He punishes the shedding of it, He declared the "blood"innocent, whose shedding He punished. So in the Revelation it is said, "I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held, and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?"Rev 6:10-11. : "Then, at the last judgment, when the truth in all things shall be made manifest, He shall "declare the blood"of His people, who clave to Him and His truth, which blood their enemies thought they had shed justly and deservedly as the blood of guilty persons, to have indeed been innocent, by absorbing them from eternal destruction to which He shall then adjudge their enemies for shedding of it."

For - (literally and) the Lord dwelleth in Zion He closes with the promise of God’ s abiding dwelling. He speaks, not simply of a future, but of an ever-abiding present. He who is, the unchangeable God , "the Lord, infinite in power and of eternal Being, who gives necessary being to all His purposes and promises,"dwelleth now in "Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem"(Heb 12:22; add Gal 4:26; Rev 3:12; Rev 14:1; Rev 21:2, Rev 21:10), now by grace and the presence of His Holy Spirit, hereafter in glory. Both of the Church militant on earth and that triumphant in heaven, it is truly to be said, that the Lord dwelleth in them, and that, perpetually. Of the Church on earth will be verified what our Saviour Christ saith, "lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world"Mat 28:20; and of its members Paul saith, that "they"are "of the household of God, an holy temple in the Lord, in whom they are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit"Eph 2:19, Eph 2:21-22. Of the Church triumphant, there is no doubt, that "He"doth and will there dwell, and manifest His glorious presence forever, "in"whose "presence is the fullness of joy, and at His Right Hand"there are "pleasures for evermore"Psa 16:1-11 :12. It is an eternal dwelling of the Eternal, varied as to the way and degree of His presence by our condition, now imperfect, there perfected in Him; but He Himself dwelleth on for ever. He, the Unchangeable, dwelleth unchangeably; the Eternal, eternally.

: "Glorious things are spoken of thee, thou city of God"Psa 87:3 Jerusalem, our mother, we thy children now groan and weep in this valley of tears, hanging between hope and fear, and, amid toil and conflicts, "lifting up our eyes"to thee and greeting thee from far. Truly "glorious things are spoken of thee."But whatever can be said, since it is said to people and in the words of people, is too little for the "good things"in thee, which "neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor hath entered into the heart of man"1Co 2:9. Great to us seem the things which we suffer; but one of thy most illustrious citizens, placed amid those sufferings, who knew something of thee, hesitated not to say, "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory"2Co 4:17. We will then "rejoice in hope,"and "by the waters of Babylon,"even while "we sit and weep,"we will "remember thee, O Zion. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget"her cunning. "Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, I do not remember thee, if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy"Psa 137:1-9.

O blessed longed-for day, when we shall enter into the city of the saints, ‘ whose light is the Lamb,’ where ‘ the King is seen in His beauty,’ where ‘ all tears are wiped off from the eyes’ of the saints, ‘ and there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor pain, for the former things have passed away Rev 21:23; Isa 33:17; Rev 21:4. "How amiable are Thy tabernacle, O Lord of Hosts! My soul longeth, yea fainteth for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God"Psa 84:1-2. "When shall I come and appear before God?"Psa 42:2, when shall I see that Father, whom I ever long for and never see, to whom out of this exile, I cry out, "Our Father, which art in heaven?"O true Father, "Father of our Lord Jesus Christ"(Rom 15:6, ...), "Father of mercies and God of all comfort!"2Co 1:3. When shall ‘ I see the Word, who was in the beginning with God,’ and who ‘ is God?’ Joh 1:1. When may I kiss His sacred Feet, pierced for me, put my mouth to His sacred Side, sit at His Feet, never to depart from them? O Face, more Glorious than the sun! Blessed is he, who beholdeth Thee, who hath never ceased to say, ‘ I shall see Him, but not now; I shall behold Him, but not nigh’ Num 24:17. When will the day come, when, cleansed from the defilement of my sins, I shall, ‘ with unveiled face, behold the glory of the Lord’ 2Co 3:18, and see the sanctifying Spirit, the Author of all good, through whose sanctifying we are cleansed, that ‘ we may be like Him, and see Him as He is?’ 1Jo 3:2. ‘ Blessed are all they that dwell in Thy house,’ O Lord, ‘ they shall ever praise Thee’ Psa 84:4; forever shall they behold Thee and love Thee."

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