amp on the hedges in the
day of cold. The sun has risen, and they flee away, and their place is
not known where they are." This passage just proves that [Hebrew: ilq]
must be _winged_ locusts. The inhabitants of Nineveh are numerous like
the locusts; numerous are her rich merchants; but suddenly there cometh
upon them a numberless host of locusts, who rob [Pg 306] them of
everything, and fly away. They who rob and fly away, in ver. 16, are
not the merchants, but the enemies. This becomes quite evident from the
comparison of ver. 15, where quite the same antithesis is found
between--"The sword shall eat thee up as the lickers" (Nominat.), and
"Make thyself many as the lickers." The verb [Hebrew: pwT], in its
common signification, _irruit_, _invasit ad praedam agendam_, is here,
in reference to the merchants, very significant. But what is decisive
against the explanation of _Credner_ is this:--that the signification
"to cast the skin" cannot be established at all, and that the whole
sense is utterly unsuitable. For the discourse is not here, by any
means, of mercenaries or foreign traders, but of the native merchants
of Nineveh, just as, in the subsequent verses, the discourse is
about her own nobles. How then could that image be suitable, which
must certainly denote a safe transition from one state into a
better?--_Credner_ moreover refers to Jer. li. 27, where to [Hebrew:
ilq] the quality [Hebrew: smr], _horridus_, is ascribed. This,
according to him, is to be referred to the rough, horn-like coverings
of the wings of the young locusts. But, according to the context, and
to the analogy of the parallel passage, li. 14, we should rather expect
that "horrid" is here a designation of the multitude. (Compare the
[Greek: hos akridon plethos] of the LXX.) But it is still more natural
to give to [Hebrew: smr] the signification of "awful," "terrible."
(Compare Ps. cxix. 120, where the verb occurs with the meaning "to
shudder.")--That by [Hebrew: ilq], not the young brood, but the winged
locusts are to be understood, appears also from a comparison of Ps. cv.
34 with Exod. x. 12 ff. In Exod. a single army of _flying_ locusts
overspread Egypt; the Psalmist, in recalling this event to memory,
says: "He spake, and the locusts came, and [Hebrew: ilq] without
number." From this passage, especially when compared with Ps. lxxvii.
46, where, instead of [Hebrew: ilq], [Hebrew: Hsil] is interchanged
with [Hebrew: arbh], which alone is found