thee," &c.; which he understanding (having asked them what they were doing), he cried out, "Here is the man," pointing to himself, "who am come five days sooner than I intended;" and immediately compassing them about with his legions, slew them all. "At this time" (so he concludes his story) "the horn of Israel was cut off from Israel, never to be restored into its place till the Son of David come." This passage is cited by J. B. Carpzovius out of Massec. Sanhedr.' Secondly, ""from the end of the earth.". Vespasian, Titus, and Adrian, the great conquerors of the Jews, had been generals in Britain before they took the command of the Roman levies destined for the siege of Jerusalem, which were chiefly draughted from Spain, Gaul, and Britain.

Thirdly, this nation is characterized by the rapidity of its march, "swift as the eagle flieth." Every student of history can attest the truth of this trait in the description of a Roman army. These words are, perhaps, to be understood, not of a bare similitude, but that the nation was to march as the eagle flieth, or to be directed by it. This was most minutely fulfilled when the Romans marched their eagles (which they are supposed to have borrowed from the Persians 2) against them. Ainsworth takes this as a prophecy of the Babylonians, "the lion with eagles' wings (Dan. vii. 4). So Nebuchadnezzar is likened to 66 a great eagle with great wings" (Ezek. xvii. 3. 12). But Parker is clearly of opinion that the prediction refers to the Romans; and he cites Dr. Jackson's opinion to the same effect. He says, "Their ensigns (being eagles) were as emblems of their swiftness to execute wrath upon this people; and Moses, in this place, by Divine inspiration, alludes to the Roman eagles. These particulars are everlasting monuments of the truth of Moses' prophecy,The Lord shall bring a nation,' &c." Manasseh Ben Israel is of the same opinion, and says peremptorily in his book De Termino Vitae, I. iii. § 3, “This is to be understood of the soldiers in Vespasian's army, which he brought out of England, France, and Spain, and other remote parts of the world." This Rabbi thinks that this 49th verse begins Moses' prophecy of the Jews' calamities under the second temple, as in the foregoing verses he describes their calamities under the first. And in this I think he saith right, “that there is scarce any thing mentioned in the following part of this chapter, but that which relates to what they suffered under the second temple, and since its destruction."

Fourthly, their language is said to be one which the Jews "should not understand;" and Latin was a strange tongue in Palestine, although the conquests of Alexander had introduced and established the Greek, which had become, before the Christian era, a medium of intercommunication among the Jews, not in their own country alone, but also in the various places of their dispersion.

Fifthly, this hostile people is described as one "of a fierce countenance." "How singularly applicable this characteristic was of the Romans," observes Dr. Hales, "may appear from the following instance out of many. In a war which broke out between the Romans and Samnites (A.U.C. 412), the latter attributed their defeat, after a long and obstinate engagement, to the fierce looks of the Romans. They said that the eyes of the Romans seemed to be on fire, their countenances were wild, and their looks furious; and that this excited more terror in them than any thing else." The word "nation" being used thrice in this (50th) and the foregoing verse, Manasseh Ben Israel (in the place above mentioned) is so critical as to observe, "that this repetition shows that Jerusalem was to suffer thrice by the Roman power: first, in the time of Pompey; secondly, when Sosius came to the assistance of Herod against Antigonus; and thirdly, when it was besieged and overturned by Vespasian and his son Titus 5."

Sixthly, "which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favour to the young." Josephus, relating the devastation of his country by the Romans, says, that in their rage they ceased not day nor night from ravaging the lands, plundering the goods slaying all that were of military age, and taking the weaker captives." He relates the sieges of the principal towns taken by the Romans, Jotapata, Gadara, Joppa, Tiberias, Taricha, and Gadala; at which last town in particular, after a long and obstinate defence, above 5000 persons precipitated themselves from the walls into a deep valley be neath; and the Romans spared not even the infants, but slung them in numbers from the citadel. Of Vespasian he says, that when he entered Gadara, "he slew all, man by man, the Romans showing mercy to no age." "He shall besiege thee in all thy gates," &c. -Upon this passage Bishop Newton observes, "The Romans demolished several fortified places before they besieged and destroyed Jerusalem. And the Jews may very well be said to have trusted in their high and fenced walls,' for they seldom ventured a battle in the open field. Jerusalem was a very strong place, and wonderfully fortified, both by na

5 Patrick in loc. Bell. Jud. 1. vi. c. 5.

ture and by art, according to the description of Tacitus, as well as of Josephus."

NOTE 2. On the punctual fulfilment of the prediction of unexampled calamities denounced against the rebellious Jews, in Deut. xxviii. 53-57.

Adequately to describe the accomplishment of this terrible prophecy, would be to transcribe a large portion of the account which Josephus has given, in his Jewish War", of the siege and destruction of Jerusalem, and which Eusebius has inserted in his Ecclesiastical History". "The horrors of the siege of Jerusalem, aggravated by an intestine war in the city itself, by the three factions who occupied it, are depicted in the most lively colours by the Jewish historian; and especially the miseries of famine, when wives snatched the food from their husbands, children from their parents; and, what was most lamentable, mothers even from the mouths of their infants. While they themselves were not allowed in quiet to devour the prey; for the seditious broke into any houses which they saw shut, suspecting that provisions were concealed therein, and tore the morsels from their very jaws. The old men were beaten while grasping the food, the women dragged by the hair while hiding it in their hands. There was no pity for grey hairs nor infants; the children clinging to the pieces of food, were lifted up and dashed against the ground."

"The tender and delicate woman," &c. The following deed occurred near the end of the siege. Mary, the daughter of Eleazar, a woman of distinguished rank and fortune, at the breaking out of the troubles had fled to Jerusalem from Bethezob, the place of her residence, beyond Jordan, with the relics of her fortune, and whatever stock of provisions she could procure. But of these she was plundered every day in the domiciliary visits of the soldiers. Provoked at this, she often endeavoured to exasperate the plunderers, by reproaches and imprecations, to kill her; but in vain. Being reduced at length to absolute want, she was driven by pressing hunger to kill her sucking babe; and when she had dressed it she ate the half of it, and kept the remainder covered up. Immediately the seditious came to her, and attracted by the scent, threatened to slay her instantly unless she produced the provision she had prepared. Accordingly, she uncovered what was left of her son, telling them that she had reserved a good share for them. Struck with horror and amazement at the spectacle, they departed trembling, and with reluctance left the remains to the wretched mother. Upon this passage Bishop Newton observes, "Moses

7 Book v. c. Book ii. c. 6.

saith, 'The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness:' and there cannot be a more natural and lively description of a woman who was, according to Josephus, illustrious for her family and riches. Moses saith, 'She shall eat them for want of all things:' and according to Josephus, she had been plundered of all her substance and provisions by the tyrants and soldiers. Moses saith that she should do it 'secretly:' and, according to Josephus, when she had boiled and eaten half, she covered up the rest, and kept it for another time. Moses had foretold the same thing before (Lev. xxvi. 29); and it was fulfilled 600 years after his time among the Israelites, when Samaria was besieged by the king of Syria (2 Kings vi. 28, 29). It was fulfilled again about 900 years after his time among the Jews, in the siege of Jerusalem before the Babylonish captivity (Jer. iv. 10; Bar. ii. 1). Again it was fulfilled about 1500 years after his time, in the last siege of Jerusalem by Titus. At so many different times and distant periods hath this prophecy been fulfilled; and one would have thought that such distress and horror had almost transcended imagination, and much less that any person could certainly have foreseen and foretold it."

NOTE 3. On the words, "The Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships." Deut. xxviii. 68.

Many myriads of the Jews, as Hecatæus informs us, upon the death of Alexander, removed into Egypt and Phoenicia, on account of the seditions which at that time infested Syria. And Ptolemy Soter, having taken great numbers prisoners in Judea and elsewhere, transported them all into Egypt 1. This historian, giving an account of Vespasian's orders relating to the captives, after he had taken and burnt Jerusalem, has the following remarkable particulars: "Of the rest of the multitude, as many as were above seventeen years of age, he sent in chains to Egypt, to work in the mines there." Manasseh Ben Israel here observes, that Vespasian transported them into many and various regions; but Egypt is only here named, the more to reproach the Jews: as if he had said, "Ye shall be carried into that land as captives out of which ye came in a triumphant manner 3."

"With ships, by the way of the Red Sea." They were now at the mercy of those waves which, in their passage from Egypt, were absolutely at their command. Their being carried also by ships, made their con

9 Grot. in loc.

1 Joseph. Antiq. 1. xii. c. 1. 2 De Bello Jud. 1. vi. c. 9. De Termino Vitæ, 1. iii § 3.