1:8-16 The prophet laments that Israel's case is desperate; but declare it not in Gath. Gratify not those that make merry with the sins or with the sorrows of God's Israel. Roll thyself in the dust, as mourners used to do; let every house in Jerusalem become a house of Aphrah, a house of dust. When God makes the house dust it becomes us to humble ourselves to the dust under his mighty hand. Many places should share this mourning. The names have meanings which pointed out the miseries coming upon them; thereby to awaken the people to a holy fear of Divine wrath. All refuges but Christ, must be refuges of lies to those who trust in them; other heirs will succeed to every inheritance but that of heaven; and all glory will be turned into shame, except that honour which cometh from God only. Sinners may now disregard their neighbours' sufferings, yet their turn to be punished will some come.

Verse 15. - Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah. "Mareshah" sounds like Morashah, the Hebrew word for "inheritance;" so the play is, "I will bring an inheritor who shall claim your Heritage town." The "heir" is the Assyrian king, Sargon, into whose possession the city shall pass. Mareshah (Joshua 15:44; 2 Chronicles 14:9) was near Achzib, one mile southcast of Beit Jibrin, and is now called Mer'ash. He shall come, etc.; better, the glory of Israel shall come to Adullam; i.e. the nobility (comp. Isaiah 5:13) of Israel shall fly for refuge to such places as the cave of Adullam, David's asylum (1 Samuel 22:1, 2). So the Vulgate. The LXX. has, Κληρονομία ε{ως Ὀδυλλὰμ ἥξει ἡ δόξα τῆς θυγατρὸς Ἰσραήλ "The inheritance shall come to Odullam, even the glory of the daughter of Israel." But Rosenmuller, Henderson, Pusey, and others take the sentence as in the Authorized Version, making "the glory of Israel" in apposition with "Adullam," and understanding by "he" the heir or enemy. One knows no reason why Aduliam should be honoured with the above-named title; so the rendering given above is preferable. There is probably a paronomasia intended, "The glory of the Lord shall set (ad olam) forever." The city of Adullam, hod. Aid-el-Mah, lay in the valley of Elah, ten miles northwest of Hebron, halfway between Sochoh and Keilah. It was of great antiquity, being mentioned as the birthplace of Hirah, the friend of Judah (Genesis 38:12), and one of the cities fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11:7). In its neighbourhood is the celebrated cave, Mugha et Khureitun, which is pointed out as the traditional hold of David, and which has been carefully explored by Mr. Tyrwhitt Drake, of the Palestine Exploration Fund (see Thomson, 'Land and the Book,' pp. 332, etc.).

Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, O inhabitant of Mareshah,.... Another city in the tribe of Judah, mentioned with Achzib in Joshua 15:44; and by many thought to be the birth place of this prophet; and, if so, his faithfulness may be observed in declaring the whole counsel of God, though against his own fire place; and this must be an aggravation of the sin of the inhabitants of it, that they had such a prophet that arose from them, and they regarded him not. There is a beautiful allusion in the word "heir" to Mareshah (s), which signifies an "inheritance"; and here were an "heir" or heirs for it, as the Targum; not the Persians, as some in Aben Ezra, and in an Agadah mentioned by Jarchi, who descended from Elam the firstborn of Shem; and so had a right of inheritance, as those interpreters suppose; but the king of Assyria, who should invade the land, and seize upon this place among others, and possess it, as if it was his by right of inheritance, having obtained it by conquest: and this being by the permission and according to the will of God, he is said to be brought by him to it. Capellus thinks, on the contrary, that Hezekiah and his posterity are meant:

he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel; another city in the tribe of Judah, a royal one, Joshua 15:35; said by Jerom to be in his time no small village, and to be about ten miles from Eleutheropolis; called the "glory of Israel", having been a royal city in Joshua's time, Joshua 12:15; and a fenced city in the times of Rehoboam, 2 Chronicles 11:7; and Eusebius says it was a large town; and Jerom says it was not a small one in his time; though some think Jerusalem is meant, the metropolis of the nation, Israel being put for Judah, as in Micah 1:14; and to be read, "he that is the enemy and heir shall come to Adullam, yea, to the glory of Israel" (t); even to Jerusalem, the most glorious city in all the tribes; though others are of opinion that this is the character of the enemy or heir that should come thither, called so by way of contradiction, as coming to the reproach and disgrace of Israel; or, ironically, whom Israel before gloried in, when they had recourse to him for help. The margin of our Bible reads, "the glory of Israel shall come to Adullam"; that is, the great men, the princes and heads of the people, shall flee to the cave of Adullam (u), to hide them from the enemy, where David was hid from Saul; see 1 Samuel 22:1. Burkius (w), a very late commentator, takes Adullam for an appellative, and with Hillerus (x) renders it, "the perpetuity of the yoke"; and the whole thus, "at the perpetuity of the yoke, the glory of Israel shall come"; that is, when all things shall seem to tend to this, that the yoke once laid on Israel by the Gentiles shall become perpetual, without any hope of deliverance, then shall come the Deliverer, that is, Jesus, the Glory of Israel; and, adds he, God forbid we should think of any other subject here; and so he interprets the "heir" in the preceding clause of the Messiah; and which is a sense far from being despicable.

(s) & (t) So Piscator, Juuius, Drusius. (u) "Ad Adullam veniet gloria Israelis", Cocceius. (w) He published Annotations on the twelve minor Prophets at Heilbronn, 1753, which he calls a Gnomon, written in imitation of Bengelius's Gnomon of the New Testament, whose son-in-law it seems he is, and by whom his work is prefaced. (x) Onomast. Sacr. p. 739.

15. Yet will I bring an heir unto thee—rather, "the heir." As thou art now occupied by possessors who expelled the former inhabitants, so will I bring "yet" again the new possessor, namely, the Assyrian foe. Other heirs will supplant us in every inheritance but that of heaven. There is a play upon the meaning of Mareshah, "an inheritance": there shall come the new heir of the inheritance.

Adullam the glory of Israel—so called as being superior in situation; when it and the neighboring cities fell, Israel's glory was gone. Maurer, as the Margin, translates, "the glory of Israel" (her chief citizens: answering to "thy delicate children," Mic 1:16) "shall come in flight to Adullam." English Version better preserves the parallelism, "the heir" in the first clause answering to "he" in the second.

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