Be not dismayed at the signs of heaven. — The special reference is to the “astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators” of the Chaldæans (Isaiah 47:13), finding portents either in the conjuncture of planets and constellations, or in eclipses, comets, and other like phenomena. In singular contrast with the abject attitude of mind thus produced, the prophet shows that what has been called in scorn an anthropomorphic theology, was then the one effectual safeguard against the superstition that bows in fear before anything that is unusual and unexplained.

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