power in ver. 14. [Hebrew: rpaiM], it is true, is there used of the
dead; but the signification of the word remains the same: The bodiless
spirits were called _giants_, because they were objects of terror to
the living; comp. remarks on Ps. lxxxviii. 11. The word is, in ver. 14,
used [Pg 154] with a certain irony.--"Light" is equivalent to
"salvation." The Plural signifies the fulness of light or salvation.
The complete fulfilment which the words, "Thy dead shall live," will
find in the resurrection of the body, affords a guarantee for the
fulfilment of the previous stages.

In chap. xxvii., it is especially ver. 1 which attracts our attention:
"_In that day the Lord with His sword, hard, great, and strong, shall
visit the leviathan, the tortuous serpent, and killeth the dragon that
is in the sea._"

We have here three designations of one and the same monster.
_Gesenius_, on the other hand, rightly brings forward the accumulation
of the attributes of the sword: With the three epithets applied to the
sword, the three epithets of the monster to be killed by it pertinently
correspond. The leviathan, the dragon, is, as it were, the king of the
sea-animals, compare remarks on Ps. lxxiv. 13, 14. In the spiritual sea
of the world, its natural antitype is the conquering world's power;
comp. remarks on Rev. xii. 3. But that which is meant is the whole
world's power, according to all its phases, which is here viewed as a
whole; comp. ver. 13, where it is designated by Asshur and Egypt. The
special reference to Babylon rests, here also, on a mere fancy.

* * * * * * * * * *

After the single discourses out of the Assyrian time, from chap.
vii-xxvii., there follows in chap. xxviii.-xxxiii. the sum and
substance of those not fully communicated. Even the uncommonly large
extent of the section suggests to us such a comprehensive character.
And so likewise does the fact that the same thoughts are constantly
recurring, as is the case in several of the minor prophets also, _e.g._
Hosea. But what is most decisive is, that in chap. xxviii. 1-4 Samaria
appears as not yet destroyed. Considering that the chronological
principle pervades the whole collection, this going back can be
accounted for only by the circumstance that we have here a
comprehensive representation. And we are the more led to this opinion
that, in other passages of the same section, Jerusalem is represented
as being threatened immedi