Asshur and Egypt, the kingdoms on the Euphrates and the
Nile, appear in chap. xxvii. 13: "And it shall come to pass in that
day, that a great trumpet is blown, and they come, the perishing ones
in the land of Asshur, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and
worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem;" Micah vii. 12; Jer.
ii. 18; Lam. v. 6. As annexed to Egypt, the _second_ pair presents
itself, representing the uttermost _South_; compare the expression,
"from the four comers of the earth," in ver. 12. Pathros, in Jer. xliv.
1, 15, also appears as a dependency of Egypt; and Cush, Ethiopia, was,
at the Prophet's time, the ally of Egypt, chap. xxxvii. 9, xviii., xx.
3-6. _Gesenius_ remarks on chap. xx. 4: "Egypt and Ethiopia are, in the
oracles of this time, always connected, just as the close political
alliance of these two countries requires."--From the uttermost South,
the Prophet turns to the uttermost East. "Elam is," as _Gesenius_ in
his Commentary on chap. xxi. 2 remarks, "in the pre-exilic writers,
used for Persia in general, for which afterwards [Hebrew: prs] becomes
the ordinary name;" and according to Dan. viii. 2, the Persian
Metropolis Shushan is situated in Elam. It appears in chap. xxii. 6 as
the representative of the world's power [Pg 129] which in future will
oppress Judah, and we hence expect that it will appear in an Elamitic
phase also.--Shinar, the ancient name for Babylon, is that world's
power which, according to chaps. xiii., xiv., xxxix., and other
passages, is to follow after the Assyrian, and is to carry away Judah
into exile. Elam and Madai appear in chap. xxi. 2 as the destroyers of
the Babylonian world's power; hence the Elamitic phase of it can follow
after the Babylonish only. The geographical arrangement only can be the
reason why it is here placed first.--The last of the four pairs of
countries is formed by Hamath, representing Syria, (comp. 1 Maccab.
xii. 25, according to which passage Jonathan the Maccabee marches into
the land of Hamath against the army of Demetrius,) and the islands of
the sea, the islands and the countries on the shores of the
Mediterranean in the uttermost West. As early as in the prophecy of
Balaam, in Numb. xxiv. 24: "And ships come from the side of Chittim and
afflict Asshur, and afflict Eber, and he also perisheth," we find the
announcement that, at some future time, the Asiatic kingdoms shall be
conquered by a power which comes from the West in ships, by Eu