11:38; the people who were driven to caves by persecution. Hebrew 11:38, see also Isaiah 2:19. These caves are frequently in the minds of the poets, especially in reference to refuge from danger. There is of course, at times, the idea of the ancient cities of refuge, Numbers 35:11, but those were only for the shedders of blood, while the idea of a general refuge is much broader as in Psalms 31:3, 71:3, 94:22. With the idea of the desert, through which the people had traveled in the Exodus, the edges of which extended to the eastern borders of Palestine, and of the desert tracts in Palestine itself, is associated the beautiful figure of Psalms 91:1. "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High We have such figures as these taken directly from the nature of Palestine: "A man shall be as a hiding-place from the wind, And a covert from the tempest, As streams of water in a dry place, As the shade of a great rock in a weary land." Isaiah 32:2 References to the sea are not uncommon, although the sea was not, like the mountains and valleys, always before the eyes of the poet. The fact that John conceives of the new earth as a place in which there will be “no more sea," Revelation 21:1, may have reference to what was a fact, that the sea was not regarded with pleasure in Bible times. But this attitude towards the sea is not peculiar to the Jew of old. The poetry of the sea, beyond allusions, is most of it modern, as is also, doubtless for the same reason, the poetry of the mountains. Certain general aspects and suggestions of both mountains and sea are recognized in ancient literature, the mountains suggest permanency, and the sea instability and change, but our modern ideas of the universe, and our improved means of travel and of protecting ourselves against the assaults of the elements, have had perhaps much to do with modifying our thoughts concerning them. Biblical references to the sea mention only its power, its restlessness, its changefulness, its treachery. Job says: "Am I a sea, or a sea-monster, That thou settest a watch over me?" Job 7:12. The Psalmist writes: "Yonder is the sea, great and wide, Wherein are things creeping innumerable, Both small and great beasts. There go the ships; There is leviathan, whom thou hast formed to play therein." Psalm 104:25-26. "They that go down to the sea in ships, That do business in great waters; These see the wonders of Jehovah, And his wonders in the deep. For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, They mount up to the heavens, They go down again to the depths: Their soul melteth away because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, And are at their wit's end. Then they cry unto Jehovah in their trouble, And he bringeth them out of their distresses. So that the waves thereof are still. Then they are glad because they are quiet; So he bringeth them unto their desired haven." Psalm 107:23-30. What a volume of meaning is conveyed by the lines: "He maketh the storm a calm, So that the waves thereof are still. Then they are glad because they are quiet." Psalm 107:29,30. On the sea of Galilee the disciples were in danger in their small boat, Matthew 8:24, and Paul had a rough experience with the Mediterranean, ending with shipwreck. Acts 27:6-44. Isaiah, more than any other poet in the Bible, speaks of the sea, as one who has seen it, in calm and in storm, and has noted its changing aspects. He refers not only to the "pleasant imagery" of "the ships of Tarshish," Isaiah 2:16, but also to the boisterous sea beating against the cliffs: "And they shall roar against them in that day, Like the roaring of the sea: And if one look unto the land, Behold, darkness and distress; And the light is darkened in the clouds thereof." Isaiah 5:30. And of the sea washing in on the beach: "But the wicked are like the troubled sea; For it cannot rest, And its waters cast up mire and dirt." Isaiah 57:20. A splendid passage in which, in Hebrew, by the use of long vowels and doubled consonants Isaiah has expressed "the slow lift and roll of the billows-their distant booming, their crash and hissing sweep along the Syrian coast," much of which will be felt on reading the English translation aloud, is the following: "Ah, the uproar of many peoples, That roar like the roaring of the seas; And the rushing of nations, That rush like the rushing of mighty waters! The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters But he shall rebuke them, And they shall flee far off, And shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, Isaiah writes also: "Oh that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! Then had thy peace been as a river, And thy righteousness as the waves of the sea." Isaiah 48: 18. He gives a wonderful picture of the Nile and of those who depended upon it for a living, the drying up of the Nile being a terrible calamity. G. A. Smith, The Early Poetry of Israel, pp. 6, 7. "And the waters shall fail from the sea, And the river shall be wasted and become dry. And the fishers shall lament, And all they that cast angle into the Nile shall mourn, And they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish." Bibical poets give us pictures, not only of the sea, the mountains and the fruitful fields, but also of the life of a great city, with its swiftly moving panorama, embracing the good and the bad, the rich and the poor. Isaiah speaks of the harlots, the haughty daughters of Zion that "walk with outstretched necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet," Isaiah 316. He enumerates their articles of-adornment, "their anklets, and the cauls and the crescents; the pendants and the bracelets, and the mufflers; the headtires, and the ankle chains, and the sashes, and the perfume-boxes, and the amulets; the rings and the nose jewels; the festival robes, the mantles, and the shawls, and the satchels; the hand-mirrors, and the fine linen, and the turbans and the veils," Isaiah 3: 18-23. A somewhat similar description of adornments is given in Ezekiel 16: 10-16, in the denuciation of Jerusalem, which played the harlot, and John in his vision, Revelation 17: 4-5, beheld the harlot arrayed in all her fine clothing and jewels. These descriptions are all from life as seen in the cities. Isaiah describes the drunkards that "reel with wine and stagger with strong drink;" "The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, They are swallowed up of wine, They stagger with strong drink; They err in vision, they stumble in judgment." Isaiah 28 7. The drunkard is a common illustration, and the results of drunkenness, such as brawling and quarreling, Proverbs 20: 1, Ephesians, 5 18, are held up as warnings. The caravans, the coming and going of which were so important in Palestine's prosperity, were in the author's mind when he wrote of the coming glory of Zion: "The multitude of camels shall cover thee, The dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; They shall bring gold and frankincense, And shall proclaim the praises of Jehovah." Isaiah 60: 6. In Proverbs 8:3, we have the vivid picture of Wisdom standing "Beside the gate, at the entry of the city" and calling to the people as they go in and out. Job gives us a scene in the streets of a city, with men of all kinds passing by: "When I went forth to the gate unto the city, When I prepared my seat in the street, The young men saw me and hid themselves, And the aged rose up and stood; The princes refrained from talking, The voice of the nobles was hushed, And their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth. For when the ear heard me, then it blessed me; And when the eye saw me, it gave witness unto me." Job 29:7-11. 'Salutations in the marketplaces" were greatly valued by men who liked to appear important. Luke 20: 46. Isaiah speaks of the merchants of Tyre who are "princes," and traffickers, who "are the honorable of the earth." Isaiah 23: 8. Another figure from the street scenes is found in Psalm 59:6, 14, where the poet says of his enemies: “They return at evening, they howl like a dog, And go round about the city." Sometimes the figures used, and pictures suggested, are those of household life, vivid and forceful as: "I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down." II Kings 21: 13. or: "Moab is my wash pot; upon Edom will I cast my shoe." or: "Fervent lips and a wicked heart "Are like an earthen vessel overlaid with silver dross." Proverbs 26: 23. |