in that passage, the dissolving effect of the
divine judgments, the instruments of which are the conquerors.
_Further_,--Ps. lxx. 4: "The earth and all the inhabitants thereof are
melted,"--by the success of the conqueror of the world, the earth is,
as it were, dissolved, and sunk back into the chaotic state of
primitive time.--The words, "And it riseth up," are to be explained
from the fact that the earth, changed into a great stream, cannot be
distinguished from the water which covers it. The earth rises up, it is
overflowed,--the earth sinks down, the water subsides. The last clause
of the verse must not be translated--as is done by _Rosenmueller_,
_Gesenius_, _Maurer_--"It is overflowed as by the stream of Egypt."
This explanation is unphilological, and contrary, at the same time, to
the parallelism, which requires that [Hebrew: kiar] be, both the times,
understood in the same way. The verb [Hebrew: wqe] means only "to
sink," "to sink down," and is used of the subsiding water, Ezek. xxxii.
14; of the subsiding flame, [Pg 382] Num. xi. 2; and of a sinking town,
Jer. li. 64. The last words thus rather contain the opposite of the
clause immediately preceding. But the sinking does not, by any means,
signify a freedom from the waters, nor is it to be conceived of as
remaining. All which is expressed is the change only,--the ebb takes
the place of the flood, and _vice versa_. This, however, is, on the dry
land, a very sad condition. The inundation is here an emblem of hostile
overflowing. Water is frequently an emblem of enemies; compare Ps.
xviii. 17, cxliv. 7. Overflowing streams are emblematical of the crowds
of nations, who, with a view to conquest, overflow the whole earth. Is.
viii. 7, 8, xvii. 12; Jer. xlvii. 2, xlvi. 7, 8, where Egypt rises as
the Nile, just as, in the case before us, the earth; with this
difference, however, that there the rising is an active, while here it
is a passive one: "Who is this who riseth like the Nile, whose waters
are moved as the rivers? Egypt riseth up like the Nile, and his waters
are moved like rivers, and he saith, I will go up and cover the earth,
I will destroy the city and the inhabitants thereof;" Ezek. xxxii. 14:
"Then will I make sink their waters, and cause their rivers to run like
oil," equivalent to: The conquering power of Egypt shall cease. Amos
viii. 8 is a parallel passage, in which, after the description of the
prevailing sin, it is said: "Shall not the earth tremble