FINAL CONFLICT AND DELIVERANCE 429
It has been pointed out that there is a gradation in the thought, both in the figure of the " burdensome stone," which cuts and wounds those who try to lift it, whilst the " reeling cup " in the 2nd verse only makes powerless ; and also in the description given of the hosts gathered for the attack. In the 2nd verse the nations round about Jerusalem are spoken of, but in the 3rd verse it is " all peoples " and " all nations of the earth."
The magnitude of the danger and of the sufferings of Jerusalem are brought before our minds in the last clause of the 3rd verse, and are to be inferred from the fact that " all nations of the earth" represented, no doubt, by the flower of their armies, " will be gathered against it."
" The gathering of these hosts is not unfrequently referred to in the Scripture, and always in language calculated to impress the mind with the peculiar magnitude of the power to be displayed in this last great effort of man under Satan. In the Revelation, for example (chap. xvi. 14), it is said that spirits of devils, working miracles, shall go forth to gather the kings of the whole world to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." T Joel also speaks of the same mighty confederation : " Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles, prepare war, wake up the mighty
usage," he says, "is kept up to this day throughout Judea, that in villages, towns, and forts round stones are placed, of very great weight, on which young men are wont to practise themselves ; and, according to their varying strength, lift them some to the knees, others to the navel, others to the shoulders and head ; others lift the weight above the head, with their two hands raised up, showing the greatness of their strength. In the Acropolis at Athens I saw a brass globe, of very great weight, which I, with my little weak body could scarcely move. When I asked its object, I was told by the inhabit ants that the strength of wrestlers was proved by that mass, and that no one went to a match until it was ascertained, by the lifting of that weight, who ought to be set against whom."
But, as it has been observed, the stone of which the prophet speaks here was not such a round stone, but one with sharp edges by which those who sought to raise it were lacerated. Keil may be more correct in considering that the figure is taken from operations connected with building. Another has suggested that the reference is to " one of the large stones half buried in the earth, which it is the effort of the husbandman to tear from its bed and carry out of his field before he ploughs it."
1 B. W. Newton.
