sword, saith the Lord God. For I have caused my terror in the land of the living: and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that are slain with the sword, even Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord God (verses 17-32). Two weeks after the lamentation over Pharaoh, the prophet uttered this solemn and most impressive elegy over the multitude of Egypt and the heathen nations who have gone into sheol. It has been called a weird Dantesque funeral-march over the whole heathen world; but it is more than that. We look here into sheol and see the nations gathered there, stripped of their glory, in deepest abasement and shame. Their bodies are in the pit, the grave, and their souls in sheol, the unseen regions. God's patience was exhausted with them, the measure of their wickedness became full, then judgments swept them off the earth and they passed away and descended into sheol. And what irony there is connected with it! "Whom dost thou surpass in beauty? Go down and be thou laid with the uncircumcised." And as the King came there with his multitudes, whom did they find there? Asshur, that is Assyria, is mentioned first: "Asshur is there and all her company." She was a cruel, pitiless, destructive power, and now she, who once caused "terror in the land of the living," is helpless, with all her power gone in the unseen world. Elam, Meshech, Tubal, Edom, the princes of the North and the Zidonians are named as being in existence there. Once great powers but now cut off; they lie with the uncircumcised in weakness and disgrace. While in chapter xxxi:16 the dead and gone nations were comforted over Pharaoh who descended into sheol; in this passage Pharaoh, who sees these nations, now is himself comforted as he discovers his former enemies there. A similar statement about sheol as a place of departed nations, who are nevertheless conscious, is found in the book of Isaiah. There the King of Babylon is seen in his descent into sheol. "Sheol from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming; it stirreth up the dead for thee, all the chieftains of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the Kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? Are thou become like unto us? Thy pomps are brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols, the worm is spread under thee, and the worms over thee?" (Is. xiv:9-11). Solemn words these are behind which stands the undeniable truth of a conscious and eternal existence of the human race. But only the New Testament Scriptures give the full light upon the future state. II. PREDICTIONS AFTER THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. Chapter xxxiii-xlviii. COMMISSIONS. JERUSALEM'S FALL ANNOUNCED. Chapter xxxiii.