, and the reeds upon its banks should
wither and decay. The river was stocked with fish, but the fishermen
should cast their hooks and arrange their nets in vain. Even the workers
in flax (one great source of Egyptian wealth and luxury) should be
confounded. The princes were to become fools; there was to be general
confusion, and no work was to be done in manufactures. Even Judah should
become a terror to Egypt, and fear should overspread the land. To these
calamities there was to be some palliation. Five cities should speak the
language of Canaan, and swear by the Lord of Hosts; and an altar should
be erected in the middle of the land which should be a witness unto the
Lord of Hosts, to whom the people should cry amid their oppressions and
miseries; and Jehovah should be known in Egypt. "He shall smite it, but
he also shall heal it." And when we remember what a refuge the Jews
found in Alexandria and other cities in the no very distant future,
keeping alive there the worship of the true God, and what a hold
Christianity itself took in the second and third centuries in that old
country of priests and sorcerers, producing a Clement, a Cyprian, a
Tertullian, an Athanasius, and an Augustine; yea, that when conquered by
the Mohammedans, the worship of the one true God was everywhere
maintained from that time to the present,--we feel that the mercy of God
followed close upon his justice. Isaiah predicted even the divine
blessing on the land, which it should share with Palestine: "Blessed be
Egypt my people, and Israel mine inheritance."

It is not to be supposed that Tyre would escape from the calamities
which were to be sent on the various heathen nations. Tyre was the great
commercial centre of the world at that time, as Babylon was the centre
of imperial power. Babylon ruled over the land, and Tyre over the sea;
the one was the capital of a vast empire, the other was a maritime
power, whose ships were to be seen in every part of the Mediterranean.
Tyre, by its wealth and commerce, gained the supremacy in Phoenicia,
although Sidon was an older city, five miles distant. But Tyre was
defiled by the worship of Baal and Astarte; it was a city of exceeding
dissoluteness. It was not only proud and luxurious, but abominably
licentious; it was a city of harlots. And what was to be its fate? It
was to be destroyed, and its merchandise was to be scattered. "Howl, ye
ships of Tarshish! for your strength is laid waste, so that there is