of Egypt, went up against the king of Assyria." In a similar connection, Asshur and Egypt, the kingdoms on the Euphrates and the Nile, appear in chap. xxvii. 13: "And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great trumpet is blown, and they come, the perishing ones in the land of Asshur, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem;" Micah vii. 12; Jer. ii. 18; Lam. v. 6. As annexed to Egypt, the _second_ pair presents itself, representing the uttermost _South_; compare the expression, "from the four comers of the earth," in ver. 12. Pathros, in Jer. xliv. 1, 15, also appears as a dependency of Egypt; and Cush, Ethiopia, was, at the Prophet's time, the ally of Egypt, chap. xxxvii. 9, xviii., xx. 3-6. _Gesenius_ remarks on chap. xx. 4: "Egypt and Ethiopia are, in the oracles of this time, always connected, just as the close political alliance of these two countries requires."--From the uttermost South, the Prophet turns to the uttermost East. "Elam is," as _Gesenius_ in his Commentary on chap. xxi. 2 remarks, "in the pre-exilic writers, used for Persia in general, for which afterwards פרס becomes the ordinary name;" and according to Dan. viii. 2, the Persian Metropolis Shushan is situated in Elam. It appears in chap. xxii. 6 as the representative of the world's power [Pg 129] which in future will oppress Judah, and we hence expect that it will appear in an Elamitic phase also.--Shinar, the ancient name for Babylon, is that world's power which, according to chaps. xiii., xiv., xxxix., and other passages, is to follow after the Assyrian, and is to carry away Judah into exile. Elam and Madai appear in chap. xxi. 2 as the destroyers of the Babylonian world's power; hence the Elamitic phase of it can follow after the Babylonish only. The geographical arrangement only can be the reason why it is here placed first.--The last of the four pairs of countries is formed by Hamath, representing Syria, (comp. 1 Maccab. xii. 25, according to which passage Jonathan the Maccabee marches into the land of Hamath against the army of Demetrius,) and the islands of the sea, the islands and the countries on the shores of the Mediterranean in the uttermost West. As early as in the prophecy of Balaam, in Numb. xxiv. 24: "And ships come from the side of Chittim and afflict Asshur, and afflict Eber, and he also perisheth," we find the announcement that, at some future time, the Asiatic kingdoms shall be conquered by a power which comes from the West in ships, by European nations--an announcement which was realised in history by the dominion of the Greeks and Romans in Asia. Ver. 12: "_And He setteth up an ensign to the Gentiles and assembleth the exiled of Israel, and gathereth together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth._"