He shall judge among the heathen, &c.— Capel in his Critica Sacra, p. 367 has out of St. Jerome's Latin translation helped us to a better reading of this place, says Mr. Mann; He shall judge the nations; he shall fill the vallies; (corresponding perhaps with the sense of Isaiah 40:4. Every valley shall be exalted, &c.) and smite in sunder the heads over divers countries: "He shall crush the head of the great ones on the earth;" which, in the opinion of Bruccioli, the author of an old Italian translation, may be pointed at Antichrist. Mr. Fenwick reads the second clause very differently:

He will our ruins, laid in dust, repair; And the proud heads of many countries wound:

Hebr. He fills, or will fill the carcases; those ruins of our poor earthly tabernacle. Or, if there be any ellipsis supposed, and supplied by, "He will fill the places, or the world, or the field of battle, with carcases," it may correspond with those prophesies which point at the gathering all nations to battle, before the universal reign of Christ takes place. And that this is the design and meaning, seems the more probable from the next line, which appears to point at the wicked one, the head of many lands, whom the Lord will destroy by the breath of his mouth, and the brightness of his coming.

Continues after advertising
Continues after advertising