al of
food, and hunger and thirst. It is questionable whether the mention of
the birth-day here belongs merely to the imagery, is a mere designation
of entire nakedness, because man is never more naked than when he comes
into the world; or whether it is to be understood as belonging to the
thing itself, and refers to the condition of the people in Egypt to
which they are now to be reduced. In favour of the latter explanation,
there is not only the comparison of the parallel passage in Ezekiel,
but, still more, the purely matter-of-fact character of the entire
description. Israel is, in this section, not _compared_ to a wife, so
that _figure_ and _thing_ would be co-ordinate, but appears as the wife
herself. Ver. 17 also is in favour of this interpretation.--The words,
"I make her like the wilderness," which, by _Hitzig_ and others, are
erroneously referred to the country instead of the people, are
pertinently explained by _Manger_: "The prophet depicts a horrible and
desperate condition, where everything necessary for sustaining life is
awanting,--where she has to endure a thirst peculiar to an altogether
uncultivated and sunburnt wilderness." The comparison appears so much
the more suitable, when we remark that wilderness and desert are here
personified, and appear as hungry and thirsty. This, however, was too
poetical for several prosaic interpreters. Hence they would in both
instances supply a [Hebrew: b] after the [Hebrew: k], "as in the
wilderness" = "I place her in the condition in which she was formerly,
in the [Pg 236] wilderness." But it is self-evident that such a
supplying of the [Hebrew: b] is inadmissible. If we were to receive
this interpretation, we must rather assume that here also there is
merely a comparison intimated: "as the wilderness,"--for, "as she was
in the wilderness." But even then, the interpretation cannot, for
another reason, be admitted. The impending condition of the people did
not, in the least, correspond to what it was in the wilderness. The
natural condition of the wilderness was not then seen in all its
reality; the people of the Lord received bread from heaven, and water
from the rock. It has its antitype rather in such a condition as that
which is to follow upon the punishment, ver. 16. The Article indicates
that, by "the wilderness," we are here to understand, specially, the
Desert of Arabia,--the desert [Greek: kat' exochen]. But that this
comes into consideration only as one espe