ld turn their eyes, upwards or downwards, many
things would appear to fill them with terror. Hence the language of the
prophet amounts to this:--that never had the state of things in the
world been so miserable,--that never had there appeared so many and so
terrible signs of the anger of God."--We have already seen that the
prophet has before his eye the Egyptian type. The darkness upon the
whole land of Egypt, while there was light in the dwellings of the
Israelites, represented, in a deeply impressive manner, the anger of
God in contrast with His grace, of which the symbol is the shining of
His heavenly lights. The extinction of these is, in Scripture,
frequently the forerunner of coming divine judgments, or an image of
those which have been already inflicted; compare the remarks on Zech.
xiv. 6. Thus it has already occurred in the Book of Joel itself, in the
description of the former judgment; compare ii. 2: "Day of darkness and
gloominess, day of clouds and mist;" ii. 10: "Before Him quaketh the
earth, and trembleth the heaven; the sun and the moon mourn, and the
stars withdraw their shining." Thus it returns in iv. [Pg 343] 14, 15:
"The day of the Lord is near in the valley of judgment. The sun and the
moon mourn, and the stars withdraw their shining." The passages in
which, as in the one before us, the extinction has not a _figurative_,
but a _typical_ character, must not be limited to a single phenomenon.
Everything by which the brightness of the heavenly luminaries is
clouded or darkened, eclipses of the sun or moon, earthquakes,
thunderstorms, etc., fill with fear those in whose hearts the sun of
grace has set.

Ver. 5. "_And it comes to pass, every one who calls on the name of the
Lord is saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be such as have
escaped, as the Lord hath said, and amongst those who are spared is
whomsoever the Lord calleth._"

We must first determine the signification of [Hebrew: pliTh]. The
greater number of interpreters explain it by "deliverance;" but it
means rather "that which has escaped." This appears, 1. from the form.
It is the fem. of the Adj. [Hebrew: pliT], the [Hebrew: -i] of which
has arisen from [Hebrew: --] by means of lengthening; hence it is that
[Hebrew: plTh] is thrice formed without [Hebrew: -i]. It is, then, an
adjective of intransitive signification. Now it is true that, by means
of the feminine termination, adjectives are changed into abstract
nouns, but never i