pursued her eight hundred miles into her own countrytaking her principal towns, and returning with many prisoners; and, in a second campaign, compelled her to sue for peace, and imposed upon her such severe terms, that Augustus, upon her direct petition to himself, greatly relaxed them. Thus the Libyans and Ethiopians were at

his steps.

At the 44th verse, there occurs a difficulty in the progress of our illustration, the nature of which we desire to present in its full and fair bearing, as it first offered itself to our notice; and, at the same time, to give the reasons, for which,-after, we trust, a careful examination of this part of the text, and the order of the whole prophecy,—we deem it more apparent than real. The terms of the verse

are:

V. 44th. "And tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him; and he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many."

The nature of the difficulty, here, is as follows:-The chief agent to the verbs, and antecedent to the pronouns, of the passage, has been a king of the north, ever since he was introduced in the 40th verse, down to the conclusion of the 43d verse.-We have interpreted the king of the north to mean Augustus Cæsar, or the Roman power wielded by him; and have seen how accurately literal a prediction, the terms of the prophet, down to the end of the 43d verse, form of the actions of that conqueror in the Actian war. We cannot discover, however, that the terms in the 44th verse are predictions of any thing that Augustus did, or was concerned in, at the conclusion of that war. But let us review the terms, and structure,

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and meaning of the prophecy, and see whether there is any other agent, of whose actions or condition, this verse can be interpreted as a prediction. When we make the review, we discover, that all that relates to the king of the north may well be considered as completed, at the conclusion of the 43d verse, He is first introduced as engaged in war with a king of the south. The succeeding clauses describe war, and the progress of conquest; and the war against a king of the south comes to an evident conclusion, with the conquest of Egypt, and the laying open of Libya and Ethiopia ;-for the king of the south, all through this chapter, has signified the sovereign of Egypt. From observing, in this way, the completion of the war, we may very reasonably expect, that the agency of the king of the north is ended; and infer, that we are to find another agent when we come to the 44th verse. On examining further, we discover, that there is another agent, The King of the 36th verse, who cannot be considered as having yet disappeared from the scene. discover him last in the 40th verse, involved in a war between a king of the south and a king of the north, and taking side with the former; but we naturally expect to hear something more about him, considering how remarkable a personage he is in the prophecy; and considering, also, that the contest, between a king of the south and a king of the north, appears introduced as only a secondary subject to all that relates to him. He is named with the emphatic article; but a king of the south and a king of the north are not so distinguished. His character, and actions, and fortune form, therefore, the prime subjects of the passage. If we understand him to be Herod,—and his

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character and actions, as we have seen hitherto, admirably agree with those of that tyrant,- then we perceive, that the fortune of his country is particularly distinguished from that of other countries, in the events of the war. While many countries have been overthrown by the king of the north, that king has only entered into the glorious land-the kingdom of Herod: but neither yet has "the king" of the 36th verse disappeared; nor has the king of the north stretched forth his hand upon his country, nor taken possession of his treasures, as he has done in respect of Egypt. If we take The King of the 36th verse,—who is thus yet present in the prophetic scene, as the antecedent to the pronouns in the 44th verse, then we can shew, that the predictions in that verse had a clear fulfilment, in that historical order, in which, down to this point, we have discovered the fulfilment of all that precedes; and, at the same time, the text preserves a lucid and clear arrangement. The 40th, 41st, 42d, and 43d verses assume then a parenthetical form, within the predictions that refer to the king of the 36th verse, and the parenthesis forms a distinct and complete series of actions,-opening up with a war between a king of the south and a king of the north, and ending with the overthrow of the kingdom of the south.-Looking at the passage in this light, the antecedent to the pronouns in the 44th verse is to be found at a considerable distance backwards from them. But this is in consistency with a practice, which is not unfrequent in the Hebrew prophets. Bishop Horsley has noticed this practice of theirs in his criticism of the xviii. chapter of Isaiah. Remarking on a particular example of it in that chapter, he says, "To those, to whom the prophetic style

in the original is not familiar, but to those, I think, only, it will appear strange that a pronoun should refer to an antecedent at so great a distance."*

The difficulty that appeared to impede our way, in tracing out a fulfilment of this part of the prophecy, in the continuous order of history, thus disappears from the text, when we look at the passage relating to the kings of the south and of the north,-which comprehends a subject so much complete in itself,-as parenthetical. The King of the 36th verse becomes again the immediate subject of the prophecy of the 44th verse; and as, according to our preceding illustration, he is Herod the king of Judea, we again return from two foreign kings to that, which, in the commencement of the vision, it had been announced to Daniel, would be the main subject of the prophecy, his own people.+

And the correctness of this view of the whole passage, is confirmed by the literal manner in which the predictions in this 44th verse, and in the remaining verse of the chapter, were fulfilled in Herod. In giving an historical account of the tidings out of the east that troubled him, the Evangelist Matthew would seem to have translated some of the terms of this prophecy foretelling them, as best of all suiting his narration, Now, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to

Horsley's Bibl. Crit. in loco.

Daniel x. 14.

worship him. When Herod the king heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him."* These tidings alarmed the jealous usurper and tyrant, who had already put to death his wife's grandfather, and brother, and mother, and his own two sons, lest they should become pretenders to his throne, of which they were rightful heirs. He resolved therefore to cut off one, who was announced in such a signal manner, as being now born to be the King of the Jews. Having failed to obtain information through the wise men,-who were warned not to return to him,— in what particular family the new-born King of the Jews was to be found, he was filled with the utmost indignation; and the Evangelist, in describing his fury, and the cruel effect of it, would seem, here also, to have translated some of the terms of Daniel's prediction. "Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men."+Such were the tidings out of the east that troubled him, and such the great fury with which he went forth to destroy and utterly to make away many; for we need not remark to those who are conversant with the language of the Old Testament, that a king is said to go forth, for effecting any purpose which he desires, when he sends forth his officers and servants to execute it, in his stead; as may be instanced in 2d Samuel xi. 1 ; where we find it said, that at the time when

Matthew ii. 1, 2, 3.

+ Matthew ii. 16,