ompare [Hebrew: mimi hia] Nah. ii. 9, and the expression: "from this
day and forward," 1 Sam. xviii. 9. For everywhere one people only is
spoken of, comp. ver. 1, according to which Egypt cannot be thought
of--[Hebrew: qv qv] "law-law" is explained from chap. xxviii. 10, 13,
where it stands beside [Hebrew: cv cv], and designates the mass of
rules, ordinances, and statutes. This is characteristic of the
Egyptians, and likewise of the Ethiopians, who bear so close an
intellectual resemblance to them. With regard to the connection of the
verse with what precedes, _Gesenius_ remarks: "The consequence of such
great deeds of Jehovah will be, that the distant, powerful people of
the Ethiopians shall present pious offerings to Jehovah,"--more
correctly, "present themselves and their possessions to Jehovah."--A
prelude to the fulfilment Isaiah beheld with his own eyes. It is said
in 2 Chron. xxxii. 33: "And many (in consequence of the manifestation
of the glory of God in the defeat of Asshur before Jerusalem) brought
gifts unto the Lord to Jerusalem." Yet, we must not limit ourselves to
that. The real fulfilment can be sought for only at a later time, as
certainly as that which the Prophet announces about the destruction of
the world's power exceeds, by far, that isolated defeat of Asshur,
which can be regarded as a prelude only to the real fulfilment; and
as certainly as he announces the destruction of Asshur generally,
and, under his image, of the world's power. "He who delights in
having pointed out the fulfilment of such prophecies in the later
history"--_Gesenius_ remarks--"may find it in Acts viii. 26 ff., and
still more, in the circumstance that Abyssinia is, up to this day, the
only larger Christian State of the East."--In consequence of the
glorious manifestation of the Lord in His kingdom, and of the
conquering power which, in Christ, He displayed in His relation to the
world's power, there once existed in Ethiopia a flourishing Christian
Church; and on the ground of this passage before us, we look at its
ruins which have been left up to this day, with the hope that the Lord
will, at some future time, rebuild it.

[Pg 141]

CHAPTER XIX.

The burden of Egypt begins with the words: "Behold the Lord rideth upon
a swift cloud, and cometh into Egypt, and the idols of Egypt are moved
at His presence, and the heart of Egypt melteth in the midst of it."
The clouds with which, or accompa