In ii. 17, "Give not Thine heritage to reproach, _that the heathen should rule over them_" (למשל־בם גוים), the prophet drops the figure altogether, and allows the reality--the devastation of the country by heathen enemies--to appear in all its nakedness. (It is worthy of notice that by the term גוים in this verse, our remarks on גיו in ii. 6 receive a confirmation.) The defenders of the literal explanation have tried a twofold mode of escaping from this difficulty. _Michaelis_ explains thus: "Spare Thy people, and deliver them from that plague of locusts. For if they should continue to swarm any longer, the greatest famine would arise, and Thy people, in order to satisfy the cravings of hunger, would be compelled to flee into the territories of heathen nations to serve them for bread, and to submit not only to their sway, but to ignominy." But every one must at once see how far-fetched this explanation is. In all history we do not find any instance in which a devastation by locusts--which affects the produce of one year only, and even this never completely and throughout the whole country--has reduced a people to the necessity of placing themselves under the dominion of foreign nations. Modern interpreters--and especially _Credner_--take refuge in another explanation: "Give not up Thine heritage to the mockery of heathens over them." They assert that the signification "to mock" is required by the parallelism. But we cannot see how, and why. The ignominy of Israel consisted just in this, that they, the heritage of the Lord, were brought under the dominion of the Gentiles, It is Just by the parallelism that the signification "to rule" is required. For it is the heritage [Pg 317] of the Lord, and the dominion of the Gentiles, which form a striking contrast, and not their mockery. The very same contrast is implied in ver. 18, in the words: "Then the Lord was jealous for His land." In these, the prophet reports the manner in which the Lord put away that glaring contradiction. They are not natural locusts, but only the heathen enemies, who can be the objects of the jealousy of the Lord; _His_ land. _His_ people, He cannot give up as a prey to heathen nations. But _further_--and this alone is sufficient to settle the question--the explanation is altogether unphilological. The verb משל never has the signification "to mock;" the phrase מָשַׁל מָשָׁל, "to form a proverb," is altogether peculiar to Ezekiel, in whose prophecies it several times occurs. In the other books, nothing occurs which would be, even in the smallest degree, to the purpose, except that in the ancient language of the Pentateuch משלים occurs once, in Num. xxi. 27, in the signification "poets." The verb משל with ב means always, and without exception, "to rule over"--properly, "to rule by entering into any one." Thus it occurs especially in that passage which the prophet had in view, Deut. xv. 5, 6: "If thou wait hearken unto the voice of Jehovah thy God ...