rld's power will not be a simple one, but
will present various aspects: "That which the _gnawer_ has left, the
_locust_ devoureth; and that which the _locust_ hath left, the _licker_
devoureth; and that which the _licker_ hath left, the _eater_
devoureth." The opinion has been entertained, that "the prophet does
not say, one cloud of locusts after [Pg 324] another, or swarms of
locusts of every description have come up; but, on the contrary, that
they are all contemporary, and that all of them devour the same
things." But a succession is quite obvious. The four parties do not
devour at the same time; but the second devours what the first has
left. It is true that the succession appears as very rapid; but that is
a peculiarity belonging only to the vision. If there be _at all_ a
succession of those extensive empires representing the world's power,
there must in reality be considerable intervals between them. The
question then arises, however, whether the number _four_ is to be
considered as a round number, so that the thought would only be this,
that several nations are to visit the people of the Lord, or whether,
on the contrary, importance is to be attached to the number _four_ as
such. According to _Jerome_, the Jews followed the latter view. In
accordance with their view, the first swarm denotes the Assyrians,
together with the Chaldeans; the second, the Medo-Persians; the third,
the Grecian kingdoms; the fourth, the Romans. The analogies of the four
horns in Zech. ii. 1-4 (i. 18-21), the four beasts in Daniel, the seven
heads of the beast in Revelation--denoting the seven phases of the
world's power opposed to God--are decisive in favour of the latter
view; compare my _Commentary on Rev._ xii. 18, xiii. 1. Now, if we
follow this view at all, we must, in determining the four swarms,
certainly assent to the opinion of the Jews, as given in _Jerome_; and
this so much the more, as the four swarms are, in that case, exactly
parallel to the four beasts in Daniel, which denote the Chaldean,
Medo-Persian, Grecian, and Roman monarchies. The fact that the
Assyrians are taken together with the Chaldeans can be the less
strange, because, so early as in the prophecy of Balaam, Asshur and
Babylon are comprehended under the common name [Hebrew: ebr], _i.e._,
"that which is on the other side,"--the power on the other side of the
Euphrates; and are contrasted with the new empire which pressed on from
the West--from Europe. (Compare m