THE PRINCE OF PEACE 329
that which was used by Balaam ages before : " Behold the people (Israel) shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion. He shall not lie down till he eat the prey and drink the blood of the slain " (Num. xxiii. 24). It is also found in Mic. v. 8 : "And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations, in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep : who, if he go through, treadeth down and teareth in pieces, and there is none to deliver."
" The idea of actually drinking blood was repugnant to the Jewish religion, and condemned in both the Law and the Prophets ; but when nations are compared to wild animals, language must be used characteristic of the habits and usages of such animals." 1 " The one thought seems to be that their enemies should cease to be, so as not to molest them any more. . . . They should disappear as completely as fuel before the fire, or food before the hungry." z
The Authorised Version renders J^g 33K WMl (yekha- bhshu abhnei qela j \ " and they shall subdue with sling stones " ; but the sling stones cannot, as Keil points out, for gram matical reasons, if the whole sentence be considered, be taken in an instrumental sense that is, that Israel would overcome their enemies with mere sling stones, as David did Goliath.
The true meaning is rather that given in the Revised Version, " they shall tread down sling stones " ; and since in the next verse Israel is likened to the precious stones set in a crown, it is probably correct to suppose, with Heng- stenberg, Keil, Hitzig, Pusey, etc., that " the sling stones " are, in comparison, to be taken " as a figure denoting the enemy, who is trampled under the feet like stones."
The idea is further carried out in figurative language when the victorious Israelites are described in the second half of the I5th verse as making a noise like men drunk with wine the drink with which they are made drunk being the blood of the enemies of the Lord. " With this
1 Wright. a Pusey.
