"But these shall escape out of his hand, Edom and Moab, and the chief territory of the sons of Ammon."
These territories are not included in the Gogian empire. They are situated in the south and south-east of the Holy Land, and will fail under the dominion of another power, hostile to the King of the North. It is probable that the power holding these countries will for a time possess Egypt, but in the course of the war lose it; for "the land of Egypt shall not escape" the King of the North, which implies its independence of him to a certain time.
In the thirty-ninth verse of the eleventh chapter of Daniel, the phrase adamah yechallek bimchir, is rendered by Moses Stuart, "land will he distribute as a reward", and affirms it of Antiochus. But a general distribution of land to favourites is no special characteristic, but common to all powers. It is evidently some particular land or country the Little Horn is to treat as expressed by the words. The 1and is without doubt that which was to be trodden under foot by the Little Horn of the Goat abomination until the end--the Holy Land.
Now, though the words are susceptible of the rendering he has given, the testimonies of other prophets satisfy me that it is not the proper rendering in this place. I rather incline to the words, "he shall divide 'the country for a price", as foretelling a bargain and sale between the Little Horn and another power of a portion of the territory now in its possession. Yahweh addressing Israel upon the subject of their restoration, says by Isaiah, "I gave Egypt for thy ransom" (Isa. 43:3). Egypt acknowledges the suzerainty of the Porte, and is so situated that a tract including Edom, Moab, and the chief of the territory of the sons of Ammon could be easily commanded from thence by a naval power; so that while the King of the North is making great progress elsewhere, an adversary is securing. a maritime section of Ottomania for itself.
Besides the passage in Isaiah, there is a testimony strikingly to the point in Joel (Joel 3: 2). Speaking of the time when Yahweh will gather the armies of all nations into the valley of Jehoshaphat, on the east of the Holy City--which encampment there is the same as the King of the North's, "between the seas to the mountain, the glory of the holy"--the prophet says that they will be gathered there for a great overthrow because they have scattered Israel, and divided Yahweh's land. The words are in the English version, "parted my land"; "parted" being the same word in the Hebrew as "divide" in Dan. 11:39. In Joel the word for "land" is eretz, but in Daniel adamah. Now, though both words are applied to the Holy Land and other countries, I take it that adamah in relation to the Little Horn of the Goat, has reference to more country than that of the Holy; while eretz in Joel refers exclusively to Yahweh's land, which will suffer division or partition as a part of the adamah or country bargained for between the Constantinopolitan and his wealthy customer. The partition of countries in general by "the powers that be" is no offence against the Deity, because, although the earth is His and the fulness thereof, yet He does not lay claim to them in that special sense in which He does to Palestine. He has published to the world, "the Land is mine, and shall not be alienated" (Lev. 25:23); and because it is His, and all pertaining to it, therefore it is all holy--the land, the dries, the metropolis, and the nation. In relation to the Gentiles, they are under an interdict. They are forbidden to appropriate them, or to oppress and spoil them, under penalty of Yahweh's wrath and terrible indignation. Poland may be divided, and Lombardy and Hungary "plucked up by the roots" with impunity, because they are the lands of Israel's enemies, the worshippers of the. Beast that has made war upon the Saints and overcome them; but woe be to the peoples that divide the Holy, and burden themselves with Jerusalem, "the glory of the Holy". Hear what Yahweh proclaims in regard to this subject: "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people; all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it" (Zech. 12:2-3).
The country then divided off by the Constantinopolitan will include the south and south-east of the Holy Land, comprehending Edom, Moab, and the principal part of Ammon. I do not say that this will be all that will be purchased of the Constantinopolitan. I rather expect that all Palestine (which, however, does not comprehend in the modern use of that name all the Holy Land) may be included in the purchase; but what I mean is, that when the seat of war is transferred to the Holy Land, that portion of the purchase anciently styled Edom, Moab, and Ammon, in major part will be exempted from the fate of Egypt; and therefore form an asylum for refugees from the northern parts of the country. It will be the section preserved from conquest by the power of the purchaser at the time of the King of the North's overthrow by Michael, the great Prince Royal of Israel.
The power that comes into possession of "Tyre and Sidon, and all the coast of Palestine" (Joel 3: 4), with Edom, Moab, Arnrnon, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba, is the great Latter-Day antagonist of Gog, whose dominion attains to the full after the rushing forth of the King of the North like a tempest against the Ottoman element of the Little Horn of the Goat; and because it possesses these countries in "the time of the end., it is the Tyre, or Daughter of Tyre, the Edom, the Moab, and so forth, of the latter days; so that the prophecies treating of those lands at the time, are really delivered concerning that power; for the prophets speak not so much of races and individual potentates, as of powers on the territories named from the ancient founders of states upon them.
Let us take Moab as an illustration. Moab has evidently a latter-day history, from the notice taken of her in Daniel; and from the saying, "I will bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter days, saith Yahweh" (Jer. 48: 47). We are not, however, to expect that the real descendants of Lot will return there; for their race is melted down and lost among the nations; but that the country called Moab, now a desolate portion of the Constantinopolitan, or Dragon empire, will be occupied by a power that shall restore prosperity to the country previous to its coming into the possession of the occupant of David's throne, who will make her the washbowl (Psa. 108:9) of his kingdom.
When the northern Gog invades the Holy Land and advances against Jerusalem, there will of course be great alarm among the Jewish inhabitants of the country, whose especial enemy he is. As the power that overshadows them with its protection is compelled to fall back on Edom, Moab, and Arm-non, where it will maintain its position, they will retire with it as "outcasts" from its northern section, which will then be in the hand of Gog the "spoiler", the "extortioner", and the "oppressor" of Judah. Now in view of this situation of affairs, the Spirit of God has oracularized the following address to this Moabitish power, saying, "Take counsel, execute judgment; make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts, betray not him that wandereth. Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler .. From this it is evident that in the time of the end the power occupying Moab is antagonistic to the spoiler, and the protector of Yahweh's outcasts; which a Moabitish power has never been before. The protection will certainly be accorded until the Deliverer come to Zion. If the power understood the oracle, its energy of resistance would be increased by it; because the exhortation to become the protector of the Jewish outcasts is immediately followed by the announcement that "the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth, and the oppressors are consumed out of the land"; as the result, doubtless, of the King of the North "coming to his end with none to help him .. The power occupying Moab, then, would not be disposed to enter into terms with Gog and to deliver up the refugees; but would be stirred up to make great efforts in hope of more prosperous campaigns than heretofore; assuredly gathering that the overthrow of the enemy was not remote.
The consumption of the oppressors out of the Holy Land can only be coetaneous with the fall of Gog upon the mountains of Israel by the fury of Adonai Yahweh (Ezek. 38:18; 39:3,4); the overthrow of the king of the north by Michael (Dan. 8: 25; 11:45; 12:1); the smiting of the image on the feet by the stone; the consumption of Paul's Man of Sin; and the beating down of the Assyrian by the voice of Yahweh (Isa. 30: 30, 31). They are all one and the same event happening to the same power--the treading of the winepress in the day of vengeance, when the hero of Bozrah tramples the people in his anger, and makes them drunk in his fury, and brings down their strength to the earth (Isa. 63: 4, 6).
But when it shall be said, the treaders down are consumed out of the Holy Land, what order of things will obtain there from that time forward ? Will the Moabitish protector of Judah advance his forces and reoccupy the scene of Gog's disaster; or what other alternative will remain ? The answer is, by no means! The oracle of the Deity declares, in this same prophecy concerning Moab, that when the oppressors are consumed out of the land, The throne shall be established in mercy; and he (whose right it is) shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness" (Isa. 16: 3-5). When this establishment of the kingdom of David is perfected, Yahweh will have accomplished to scatter the power of the Holy People; an event which marks the terminus of the "time, times, and a half", and finishes the things revealed in Daniel's book.
