me; at one place the
seed is committed to the fields, and at another the wheat shoots up, at
another it gets ears, at another it is reaped, at another it is
collected, and [Pg 399] brought to the threshing-places, and thence to
the barn.'"--The second hemistich agrees with Joel iv. (iii.) 18 (which
is certainly not accidental; compare the introduction to Joel): "At
that time the mountains shall drop must, and the hills go with milk."
From a comparison of this passage it appears that the melting of the
hills can mean only their dissolving into rivers of milk, must, and
honey, with an allusion to the description of the promised land in the
Pentateuch (Exod. iii. 8) as a land flowing with milk and honey.

Ver. 14. "_And I turn Myself to the captivity of My people Israel, and
they build waste cities, and dwell, and plant vineyards, and drink
their wine; and they make gardens and eat their fruit._"

The captivity is a figure of misery. With reference to [Hebrew: wvb
wbvt] compare the remarks on Joel.

Ver. 15. "_And I plant them in their land, and they shall no more he
plucked up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord
thy God._" Compare p. 227 seqq.

Footnote 1: _Hofmann_, _Schriftbeweis_ I. S. 312, objects: "If this
were correct, Paul ought to have delivered that fornicator at Corinth
(1 Cor. v. 5), or Hymeneus and Alexander (1 Tim. i. 20), not to Satan,
but to the good angels." But the individuals mentioned were members of
the Church of Christ, and they were delivered to Satan, not for their
absolute destruction, but for their salvation: [Greek: hina to pneuma],
(which of course was still in existence; and it is just the [Greek:
pneuma] that separates between the world and the Church, compare Ps.
li. 13) [Greek: sothe en te hemera tou Kuriou, hina paideuthosi me
blasphemein.] It is, as in the case of Job, a punishment with a view to
purification, for which power is given to Satan, Heb. xii. 6. These
passages, then, serve only to confirm the view which we have expressed.

Footnote 2: The same is probably the case in vi. 14: "For behold I
raise up against you, O house of Israel, saith the Lord God of Hosts,
heathen people; and they shall afflict you from Hamath unto the river
of the wilderness." The river of the wilderness can here be none other
than the river of Egypt, which commonly appears as the boundary of the
whole. Compare 1 Kings viii. 65; 2 Chron. vii. 8, where Solomon
assembles the whole p