n viii.
10.--On the last words of the verse, which are to be considered as a
further explanation of, "Their end, or remnant, I will kill by the
sword," _Cocceius_ remarks: "This slaughter becomes the more thorough,
inasmuch as even they who flee, or seemed to have fled, are not
excluded from it." The second member seems to contradict the first; for
if none be allowed to flee away, how can any have escaped? Several
Interpreters have been thereby induced to give to the verb [Hebrew:
nvs] the first time, the signification "to escape,"--the second time,
"to flee." But the contradiction is quite similar to that which occurs
in the preceding context also, when all are dashed to pieces by
the ruins, and yet a remnant is spoken of. It soon disappears when
we consider that it Is the intention of the prophet to cut off every
possible way of escape, by which carnal security endeavoured to
save [Pg 374] and preserve itself against the impression of his
discourse--that it is equivalent to: "_All_ shall be buried under the
ruins, and although some should succeed in escaping from this kind of
destruction, yet the sword of divine vengeance would be behind them,
and slay them; flight shall not be possible to any man; and even
although it might be to some, it would be of no avail to them, for God
would be their persecutor." But another apparent contradiction must not
be overlooked. Even here, the destruction is most emphatically
described as being quite general; as such, it is minutely represented
in vers. 2-4. One cannot fail to see how anxious the prophet is to cut
off, from every individual, the idea of the possibility of an escape.
On the other hand, it is announced in ver. 8, that the house of Jacob
shall not be utterly destroyed; according to ver. 9, all the godly
shall be preserved; according to ver. 10, the judgment is to be limited
to the sinners from among the people,--a limitation which is also
presupposed by the description in the 11th and subsequent verses. In
iii. 12, the preservation of a small remnant amidst the general
destruction had been promised. The greater number of interpreters, in
order to reconcile this apparent contradiction, assume an hyperbole in
vers. 1-4. But this assumption is certainly erroneous. The ground of
this great copiousness,--the reason why the prophet represents the same
thought in aspects so various,--is evidently to prevent every idea of
an hyperbole,--to show that the words are to be taken in a