fix had gradually lost its power. But it is perhaps more
natural to suppose that the article sometimes lost its power, and
coalesced with the noun. The frequent use of the _Status emphaticus_ in
undefined nouns, in the Syriac language (compare _Hofmann_, _Gram.
Syr._, p. 290), presents an analogy in favour of this opinion.--The
last words graphically describe the noise produced by a numerous,
closely compacted flock. The plur. of the Fem. refers to the
sheep.--[Hebrew: MN] denotes the _causa efficiens_. They make a noise;
and this noise proceeds from the numerous assembled people. The same
connection of figure and thing occurs in Ezek. xxxiv. 31: "And ye
([Hebrew: vatN]) are My flock, the flock of My pasture are ye men;"
compare Ezek. xxxvi. 38.

Ver. 13. The whole verse must be explained by the figure of a prison,
which lies at the foundation. The people of God are shut up in it, but
are now delivered by God's powerful hand. By the "breaker," many
interpreters understand the Lord Himself. But if we consider, that in a
double clause, at the end of the verse, the Lord is mentioned as the
leader of the expedition if we look to the type of the deliverance from
Egypt, where Moses, as the breaker, marches in front of Israel; and if,
further, we look to the parallel passage in Hosea, where, with an
evident allusion to that type, the children of Israel and of Judah
appoint themselves one head; we shall rather be disposed to understand
by the "breaker" the _dux et antesignanus_ raised up by God. With the
raising up and equipping of such a leader every divine deliverance
commences; and that which, in the inferior deliverance, the typical
leaders, Moses and Zerubbabel, were, Christ was in the highest and last
deliverance. To Him the "breaker" has been referred by several Jewish
interpreters (compare _Schoettgen_, _Horae_ ii. p. 212); and if we
compare chap. v., where that which is here indicated by general
outlines only is further expanded and detailed, we shall have to urge
against this interpretation this objection only, viz., that it
excludes the [Pg 439] typical breakers,--that, in the place of the
_ideal_ person of the breaker, which presents itself to the internal
vision of the prophet, it puts the individual in whom this idea is most
fully realized.--The words [Hebrew: viebrv wer] are, by several
interpreters, referred to the forcing and entering of hostile gates.
Thus _Michaelis_, whom _Rosenmueller_ follows: "No gate sha