Ver. 23. "_In that day there shall be a highway out of Egypt to Asshur, and Asshur cometh into Egypt, and Egypt into Asshur, and Egypt serveth with Asshur._" עבד with את has commonly the signification "to serve some one;" here, however, את is used as a preposition: Egypt serves God _with_ Asshur. Yet there is an allusion to the ordinary use of עבד with את in order to direct attention to the wonderful change: First, Egypt serves Asshur, and the powers that follow its footsteps; then, it serves _with_ Asshur. Here also it becomes manifest that the deliverer in ver. 20 is no ordinary human deliverer; for such an one could help his people only by inflicting injury upon the hostile power. Ver. 24. "_In that day Israel shall be the third with Egypt and with Asshur, a blessing in the midst of the earth._" The "blessing" is not "that union of people formerly separated," but it is _Israel_ from which the blessing is poured out upon all the other nations; compare the fundamental passage, Gen. xii. 1-3, and the word of the Lord: ἡ σωτηρία ἐκ τῶν Ἰουδαίων ἐστί, John iv. 22. Ver. 25. "_For the Lord of Hosts blesseth him, saying: Blessed be Egypt my people, and Asshur the work of mine hands, and Israel mine inheritance._" The suffix in ברמ refers to every thing mentioned in ver. 24. "Assyria and Egypt are called by epithets which elsewhere are wont to be bestowed upon Israel only." It is scarcely necessary to point out how gloriously this, [Pg 146] prophecy was fulfilled; how, at one time, there existed a flourishing Church in Egypt. Although the candlestick of that Church be now removed from its place ("_Satanas in hac gente sevit zizania_"--_Vitringa_), yet we are confident of, and hope for, a future in which this prophecy shall anew powerfully manifest itself The broken power of the Mahommedan delusion opens up the prospect, that the time in which this hope is to be realized is drawing nigh. CHAPTER XXIII. THE BURDEN UPON TYRE. In the view of Sennacherib's invasion, the eyes of the Prophet are opened, so that he beholds the future destinies of the nations within his horizon. It is under these circumstances that it is revealed to him that Tyre also, which, not long before, had successfully resisted the attack of Asshur, and had imagined herself to be invincible, would not, for any length of time, be able to resist the attack of the Asiatic world's power.