which once was so flourishing, full of towns, and thickly populated." (_Ritter_, _Erdk._ 1 _Ausg._ ii. S. 387.) We may add, that, in the same plain also, the battle was fought in which Saul and Jonathan perished (for the plain of Esdrelon is bounded on the south-east by the mountains of Gilboa), and so likewise was the battle between Ahab and the Syrians. To it also belonged the plain near the town of Megiddo, where Josiah, in the battle against Pharaoh-Necho, was mortally wounded. Compare _Rosenmüller_, _Alt._ ii. 1, p. 149. Ver. 6. "_And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And He said to him, Call her name Lo-Ruhamah_ (_i.e._, one who has not obtained mercy): _for I will not continue any more to have mercy upon the house of Israel; for I will take away from them._"--Interpreters ask why the second child was a female; and this question is by no means an idle one, since the prophet everywhere else adheres closely to the subject-matter, and adds no feature, merely for the sake of giving vividness to the picture. We cannot for a moment suppose, as _Jerome_ and others do, that the female child denotes a more degraded generation. For why, then, is the third again a male child? The supposition proceeds from the altogether unfounded notion that the three children denote different generations. The reason must, on the contrary, be sought for in the name. _Schmid_ says: "It seems to have reference to the weakness of the sex. For the female sex [Pg 210] finds greater sympathy than the male." The verb רחם does not denote any kind of love, but only the love of him who is high to him who is low, of the strong to the weak; and hence the LXX., whom Peter follows in 1 Pet. ii. 10 (οὐκ ἠλεημένη), render the word more accurately than Paul, in Rom. ix. 25 (οὐκ ἠγαπημένη). Hence it is never used of man's love to God, but only of the love of God to man,--of His mercy. The only passage which seems to contradict this, Ps. xviii. 2, is not to the purpose, as, there, the _Kal_ is used. But the female sex, being weaker, stands in greater need of the compassion of men, than does the male. Is. ix. 16. The female child places the neediness and helplessness of the people in more striking contrast with the refusal of help from Him who alone can bestow it. The רחמה is either _Participle_ in _Pual_ which has cast off the מ, or the 3d fem. _Pret. in pause_; thus _Cocceius_, who explains it by: "She has not obtained mercy." It is in favour of the latter view, that according to _Ewald_, § 310 b, לא does not often stand before a _Participle_. The words, "_I will not continue_," refer to the former great manifestations of divine mercy, and especially the last under Jeroboam, which the people still, at that time, enjoyed; compare 2 Kings xiii. 23: "And the Lord was gracious unto them, and had _mercy_ upon them, and turned towards them because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, neither cast them from His presence." Upon this contrast,