XLIII
OF THE JEWISH PROPHETS
WE WILL take care not to confound the Nabim and the Roheim of the Hebrews, with the impostures of the other nations. We know that God did not communicate himself to the Jews, except in some particular cases; as for example, when he inspired Balaam the prophet of Mesopotamia, and when he made him utter the contrary of what he was to have been made to say. This Balaam was the prophet of another God, and yet it is not said that he was a false prophet. We have already observed that the priests of Egypt were prophets and seers. What idea was affixed to this word? that of inspired. At one time the inspired divined the past, and sometimes the future: they often confined themselves to figurative expressions. Wherefore St. Paul quotes these verses of a Grecian poet, named Aratus: “All things live in God, all things move, all things breathe in God”; he calls his poet a prophet.
Were the title and quality of prophet dignities amongst the Hebrews, that is, a particular ministry legally fulfilled by certain chosen persons, in the manner of the Pythian dignity at Delphos? No; prophets were nothing more than such persons as felt themselves inspired, and to whom visions appeared. Hence it was that false prophets often rose without missions, who thought that they had the spirit of God, and who frequently occasioned great misfortunes, like the prophets of the Cevennes in the beginning of this century.
It was difficult to distinguish the false prophet from the true one. Wherefore Manasseh, King of Judea, had Isaiah sawn asunder. The king Sedecias could not decide between Jeremiah and Ananiah, who foretold contrary things; and he imprisoned Jeremiah. Ezekiel was slain by Jews his fellow captives. Micaiah having prophesied misfortunes to king Ahab and Josephat, another prophet, named Tsedekia, son to Cana, gave him a slap on the face, saying the spirit of the eternal has passed from my hand upon thy cheek. Ozeus, chap. ix declares that the prophets are fools, stultum prophetam, insanum virum Spiritualam. The prophets treated one another as visionaries and liars. There was no other method then of separating the true from the false but by waiting for the accomplishment of the predictions.
Elisha having repaired to Damascus in Syria, the king, who was sick, sent him forty camels laden with presents, to know if he should recover: Elisha replied, “that the king might recover, but that he would die.” The king in fact died. If Elisha had not been a prophet of the true God, he might at all events have been suspected of equivocation; for if the king had not died, Elisha had foretold his curse, in saying he might recover, and as he had not specified the time of his death. But having confirmed his mission by striking miracles, his veracity could not be called in question.
We shall not here join with commentators in their endeavors to discover what was the double spirit that Elisha received from Elijah; nor the signification of the cloak which Elijah gave him, in ascending to heaven in a car of fire drawn by flaming horses, such as are figured by the Greeks in poetry, when they represent the car of Apollo. We shall not fathom the type, what was the mystical sense of those forty-two little children, who upon seeing Elisha in the crossway leading to Bethel, said to him in laughing, “Mount, bald-pate, mount”; and the prophet’s vengeance thereupon, in calling forth two bears, who devoured the little innocents. The facts are known, and the sense may, perhaps, be latent.
An eastern custom should be noticed here, which the Jews carried to a surprising height. This usage was not only speaking in allegories, but expressing by singular actions things they wanted to signify. Nothing was then more natural than this custom; for men not having for any length of time written their thoughts except in hieroglyphics, they must have accustomed themselves to speak as they wrote.
Thus the Scythians (if Herodotus is to be credited) sent to Darah, whom we call Darius, a bird, a mouse, a frog, and five arrows; which signified that if Darius did not fly as swift as a bird, or if he did not hide himself like a mouse, or a frog, he would perish by their arrows. The story may not be true; but it is always a testimony of the emblems in use in those distant times.
Kings wrote in enigmas; we have examples of this in Hiram, in Solomon, and in the queen of Sheba. Tarquin the Proud, being consulted in his garden by his son, upon the proper method of behaving to the Gabians, answers only by beating down the poppies, which grew higher than the other flowers. By this he sufficiently expressed that the great should be exterminated, and the people spared.
To these hieroglyphics we may attribute fables, which were the first kind of writing amongst men. Fable is of a much more ancient date than simple history.
We must be a little familiarized with antiquity not to be scared at the actions and enigmatical discourses of the Jewish prophets.
Isaiah wants to acquaint king Achas, that he will in some years be delivered from the king of Syria, and the melk or petit king of Samaria united against him; he says to him, “Before a child is at age to discern good from evil, you will be delivered from these two kings. The lord will hire a razor to shave the head, the hair of the groin (which is signified by the feet), the beard, etc.” Then the prophet takes two witnesses, Zachariah and Uriah; he lies with the prophetess; she brings forth a child, the Lord gives it the name of Maher-Salal-has-bas, “divide quickly the spoils:” and this signifies that the spoils of the enemies shall be divided.
I do not enter into the allegorical and infinitely respectable sense which is given to this prophecy; I shall confine myself to the consideration of those customs which appear so extravagant to us at present.
The same Isaiah walks quite naked in Jerusalem, to signify that the Egyptians shall be entirely stript by the king of Babylon.
What! will it be said is it possible that a man should walk quite naked in Jerusalem, without being taken notice of by justice? Yes, certainly; Diogenes was not the only one of antiquity who had this effrontery. Strabo in his fifteenth book, says there was a sect of Brachmanes in India, who would have been ashamed of wearing any clothing. We may still see penitents in India, who walk naked, loaded with chains, and an iron ring fixed to the penis, to expiate the crimes of the people. There are also some in Africa and in Turkey. These manners are not our manners; and I do not believe that in the time of Isaiah, there was a single custom that resembles any of ours.
Jeremiah was only fourteen years of age when he received the spirit. God stretched out his hand, and touched his mouth, because he had some difficulty in speaking. He immediately sees a boiling cauldron turned toward the north: this cauldron represents the people, who are to come from the North; and the boiling water signifies the misfortunes of Jerusalem.
He purchases a flaxen belt, puts it round his loins, and is going to hide it by God’s order in a hole near the Euphrates. He afterwards returns for it, and finds it rotten. He explains to us himself the parable, saying, that the pride of Jerusalem shall rot.
He puts ropes round his neck, he loads himself with chains, he puts a yoke upon his shoulders; he sends these cords, chains, and yoke, to the neighboring kings, to direct them to submit to the king of Babylon, Nabuchodonosor, in whose favor he prophecies.
Ezekiel may surprise still more; he foretells to the Jews that the fathers will eat their children, and children will eat their fathers. But before this prediction is made, he sees four animals sparkling with light, and four wheels covered with eyes; he eats a volume of parchment; he is bound with chains. He draws a plan of Jerusalem upon a brick; he throws down an iron pan; he lies three hundred and ninety days upon the left side, and forty days upon the right side. He is to eat bread made of wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and to cover it with human excrements. Thus, said he, will the children of Israel eat their bread besmeared with those nations among whom they shall be driven. But after having eaten this bread of sorrow, God allows him to cover it with only the excrement of oxen.
He cuts off his hair, and divides it into three parts; the first he puts into the fire, he cuts the second with a sword round the city, and disperses the other with the wind.
This same Ezekiel has still more surprising allegories.
He introduces the Lord, who speaks in this manner. “When thou wast born, thy navel-string was not cut, thou wast neither washed nor salted, thou hast become big; thy breast is formed, thy hair has appeared; I passed, I knew it was the time for lovers—I covered thee, and I stretched myself over thine ignominy—I gave thee covering for thy legs and feet, gowns of cotton, bracelets, necklace, and ear-rings—But fully confident of thy beauty, thou hast given thyself up to fornication—thou hast built a bad spot; thou hast prostituted thyself in the open ways; thou hast opened thy legs to every passenger—thou hast sought the most robust—courtesans receive money, and thou hast given money to thy lovers.”
“Oolla has committed fornication upon me, she hath been furiously enamored with her lovers, princes, magistrates, and cavaliers.—Her sister Ooliba hath prostituted herself with greater rage—Her luxury sought those who had the member of an ass, and who—like horses.”
These expressions appear to us very indecent and barbarous; they were not considered in this light among the Jews; they signified the apostasies of Jerusalem and Samaria, These apostasies were frequently represented as fornication or adultery. Once more, we must not judge of the manners, customs, and modes of expression of the ancients by our own: they no more resemble each other than the French language does the Chaldean and the Arabic.
The Lord, at first, orders the prophet Hosea, chap. i to take for his wife a prostitute, and he obeys. This prostitute bears him a son. God calls this son Jezreel; this is a type of the house of Jehu, which must perish, because Jehu had killed Joram in Israel. The Lord afterwards commands Hosea to wed an adulteress, who was beloved by another, as the Lord loves the children of Israel, who pay respect to foreign gods, and who love the skin of the grape, chap. iii. The Lord in the prophecy of Amos threatens, that the cows of Samaria, chap. iv shall be put into the cauldron. In a word, every thing is opposite to our manners and the turn of our minds, and if we examine the customs of all the Eastern nations, we shall find them equally opposite to our usages, not only in remote times, but even at present, when we are better acquainted with them.