Fear, and the pit, and the snare, &c. Great and various judgments, some actually inflicted, and others justly feared, as the punishment of the last-mentioned perfidiousness of the Jews toward God and their own Messiah. He that fleeth from the fear, &c. Upon the report of some terrible evil coming toward him; shall fall into the pit When he designs to avoid one danger, by so doing he shall plunge himself into another and greater mischief. For the windows from on high are opened, &c. Both heaven and earth conspire against him. He alludes to the deluge of waters which God poured down from heaven, and to the earthquake which he often causes below. There is a remarkable elegance in the original of the 17th verse. The three Hebrew words, פחד, pachad, פחת, pachath, and פח, pach, being a paronomasia, or having an affinity in sound with each other, which cannot be translated into another language. And there is also great sublimity in the latter clause of the 18th verse, in which the ideas and expressions, taken from the deluge, are strongly expressive of that deluge of divine wrath which should fall upon, and totally overwhelm, the apostate Jews for rejecting and crucifying their own Messiah.

Continues after advertising
Continues after advertising