From Book: A New Literal Translation From the Original Greek of All the Apostolical Epistles, Essay VIII,
"Concerning The Right Interpretation of the Writings in which the Revelations of God are Contained", p. 702, 1841.

Because nations and cities anciently were represented on coins, and on sculptured stone, by the image of a young woman splendidly attired and seated- on a throne, ( Sect. 2. No. 6.), the prophet Isaiah hath formed an allegorical prediction on that emblem, in which he hath described the judgment and punishment of the Chaldeans for oppressing the Jews by the pulling down of a tender and delicate virgin from her throne, and stripping her of her ornaments, and making her a slave, and forcing her to perform the offices of a slave, and treating her with the utmost indignity. Isa. xlvii, ' Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon. There is no throne, О daughter of the Chaldeans ; for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate. 2. Take the millstones and grind meal; uncover the locks; make bare the leg ; uncover the thigh ; pass over the rivers. 3. Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea thy shame shall be seen. I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man. As for our Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts is his name. 5. Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, О daughter of the Chaldeans, for thou shalt no more be called the lady of kingdoms. 8. Therefore hear now this, thou that are given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that, sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else besides me ; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children,' &c.

Upon the same symbol Ezekiel, to make the Israelites sensible of their sin in forsaking the true God and worshipping idols, hath formed an allegory, in which he represents God's choosing the Israelites to be his people, and his giving them his statutes, under the idea of his taking up a female infant, which, when born, had been exposed naked and helpless; his nourishing it till it grew up ; his making her his own by marriage, after her breasts were fashioned, and her hair was grown, Ezek. xvi. 4-8. ; and then clothing her with fine raiment, and adorning her with costly jewels, so that the fame of her beauty went forth among the heathen, ver. 9-14. But this beloved married wife, forgetting her obligations and vows, played the harlot, by making images of men, which she worshipped with the flour, and the oil, and the honey wherewith her husband fed her, ver. 17, 19, and by sacrificing the sons and the daughters which she had brought forth to him, ver. 20. — This adultery she committed with the Egyptians, the Assyrians, and the Chaldeans, ver. 26. 28. — Wherefore, in the same figurative language, God thus addressed the Israelites : — Ver. 35, ' O harlot, hear the word of the Lord. 38. I will judge thee as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged ; and I will give thee blood and fury in jealousy. 39. They shall strip thee also of thy clothes, and shall take thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare. 40. They shall also bring up a company against thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their sword.'

On the other hand, in allusion to the same symbol, the prosperity of a city or nation, after great affliction, is represented by a woman's cleansing herself from filth, and adorning herself with beautiful garments. Isa. lii. 1, ' Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion, put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city. 3. Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, О Jerusalem, loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, О captive daughter of Zion.' — In like manner, a nation expressing its joy for being delivered from oppression, is represented by a woman's singing and shouting. Zeph. iii. 14, ' Sing, О daughter of Zion, shout, О Israel ; be glad and rejoice with all thy heart, О daughter of Jerusalem. 15, The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy ; the king of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee ; thou shalt not see evil any more.'

In allusion to the same symbol, Isaiah foretold the restoration of Tyre to her former wealth, and pride, and wickedness under the image of an harlot's resuming her former manners. Isa. xxiii. 15, ' After the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot. 16. Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten, make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered. 17. The Lord will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.'

In the ancient picture-writing, (Sect 2. No. 4.), the sun, moon, and stars, being used as symbols to denote cities and kingdoms as well as princes and great men, the temporary disasters of cities and kingdoms, in allusion to these symbols, are in the prophetic writings represented by the extinction of the sun and moon ; and the destruction of the cities and states, by the falling of the stars from heaven. Thus Isaiah, foretelling the destruction of Babylon by the Medes, saith, chap. xiii. 10, ' The stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light ; the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.' Chap, xxxiv. 4, ' All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll, and all their hosts shall fall down as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.'--In like manner, the destruction of Egypt is thus allegorically described, Ezek. xxiii. 7, ' When I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark: I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. 8. All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord.' —Joel also, upon the same symbols, hath formed an allegorical prophecy concerning the overturning  of the Jewish state, and the destruction of the heathen idolatry. Chap. ii. 30, 'I will shew wonders in the heavens, and in the earth blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. 31. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come. 31, And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered.' —These grand events our Lord hath foretold in the same allegorical language, Matt. xxiv. 20.

On the other hand, national prosperity is allegorically represented by an increase of the light of the heavenly bodies: Isa. xxx. 26, 'Moreover, the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be seven-fold, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.'

In picture-writing, tribes and nations being represented by the figures of the things which they carried in their ensigns, (Sect. 2. No. 5.), various allegorical prophecies were formed on these symbols. Thus, because the Assyrians, it is supposed, had the river Euphrates painted on their standards, Isaiah foretells their invasion of Judea by an allegory formed on that symbol. Isa. viii. 7, 'Behold the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory ; and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks. 8. And he shall pass through Judah, he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck.'

Sect. 2, No. 2. In picture-writing, a crocodile being one of the symbols by which Egypt was denoted, Ezekiel upon that symbol hath formed the following beautiful allegorical prophecy, chap. xxix.2, 'Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophecy against him, and against all Egypt. 3. Speak and say, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.

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