ake a hole in the wall"). These parallel passages show
that the Sheol must be conceived of as being surrounded with strong
walls,--by which is expressed its inaccessibility to all that is
living. The fundamental passage is in Ps. cxxxix. 7, 8: "Whither shall
I go from Thy Spirit, and whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I
ascend up into heaven. Thou art there; if I make my bed in hell,
behold, Thou art there." David does not here speak in his own person,
but in that of his whole race. The Psalm is an indirect exhortation to
his successors on the throne, and at the same time to the people. "If
you are wicked," so he here addresses them, "you can never hope to
escape from the punishing hand of the Almighty." And since they have
become wicked, the words of David have acquired new emphasis.

Ver. 3. "_And if they hide themselves on the top of Carmel,_ [Pg 377]
_from thence I will search and take them out; and if they hide
themselves from My sight in the bottom, of the sea, from thence I will
command the serpent, and he bites them._"

The question here is:--Why is Carmel specially mentioned? Interpreters
remind us of the numerous caves of this mountain, which make it
peculiarly suitable for concealment. _O. F. von Richter_, in the
_Wallfahrten im Morgenlande_, S. 65, remarks on this point: "The caves
are extremely numerous in Carmel, especially on the west side. It is
said that there are more than a thousand, and that they were inhabited
in ancient times by monks, to whom, however, their origin cannot be
ascribed. In one part of the mountain, called 'the caves of the members
of the orders,' 400 are found beside each other. Farther down in the
hard limestone mountain, there is one which is distinguished by its
size, about 20 paces long, and more than 15 broad and high." Details
still more accurate are given by _Schulz_ in the _Leitungen des
Hoechsten_, Th. 5, S. 186, 303. According to him, the road is pure rock,
and very smooth, and so crooked, that those going before cannot see
those who follow them. "When we were only ten paces distant from each
other, we heard each other's voices, indeed, but were invisible to each
other, on account of the winding ways made in consequence of the
intervening by-hills.... Everywhere there are caves, and their mouths
are often so small that only one man can creep through at a time; the
approaches to them are so serpentine, that he who is pursued may escape
from his pursuer, and step in