Proverbs 30:26

The coneys [are but] a feeble folk,.... Or "rabbits"; though some think these creatures are not intended, because they are not so little as those with which they are ranked, the ant, the locust, and spider; and because of the places in which they burrow and make their houses, which though in holes and caverns of the earth, yet not in rocky but sandy places; rather therefore it is thought that the mountain mouse, or bear mouse o, as Jerom calls it, is meant; of which, he says p, there were great numbers in Palestine, and which had their habitations in the holes of rocks; though if Spain has its name from שפן, as some say, because of the multitudes of coneys in it; and hence that part of Spain called Celtiberia is called by Catullus q Cuniculosa; the coney may be thought to be meant by this word, and so it is translated in Leviticus 11:5; the only places where it is elsewhere used; and the word may be derived either from

ספן, to "cover", by a change of the letters ש and ס; or from

שוף, which has the signification both of breaking, and of hiding and covering, Genesis 3:15; and this creature breaks the earth and hides itself in it r;

yet make they their houses in the rocks; it is usual with other writers to call the receptacles of any creatures, beasts, birds, or insects, their houses so we read of the house of the ant, and of the tortoise and snail s; and which, because it carries its house era its back, it is called by Cicero t "domiporta"; see Psalms 104:17; the coneys make theirs in the rocks, to cure themselves from their more potent enemies; and thus what they want in strength is made up in sagacity, and by their wise conduct they provide for their safety and protection. These are an emblem of the people of God, who are a weak and feeble people, unable of themselves to perform spiritual duties, to exercise grace, to withstand the corruptions of their nature, resist the temptations of Satan, bear up under afflictive providences, and grapple with spiritual enemies, or defend themselves from them: but such heavenly wisdom is given them, as to betake themselves for refuge and shelter to Christ, the Rock of Israel; the Rock of salvation, the Rock that is higher than they; a strong one, on which the church is built, and against which the gates of hell cannot prevail: and here they are safe from the storms of divine wrath, and the avenging justice of God; from the rage and fury of men, and the fiery darts of Satan; here they dwell safely and delightfully, and have all manner of provision at hand for them; they are the inhabitants of that Rock, who have reason to sing indeed! see Isaiah 33:16.

o שפנים οι χοιρογρυλλιοι, Sept. "choerogryllii", Vatablus; "mures montani", Junius Tremellius, Cartwright "arctomyes", Schultens. p Epist. ad Sun. Fretelli, fol. 30, C. tom. 3. q Cuniculosa Celtiberia, Epigram. ad Contubernales, 35. v. 18. r Gaudet "in effossis habitare cuniculus antris", Martial. Epigr. l. 13. Ep. 58. s Phaedri Fab. 37, 80. t De Divinat. l. 2. c. 64. and so by Hesiod and Anaxilas in Athenaei Deipnosoph. l. 2. c. 22. p. 63.