At the—end shall the king of the south push, &c.— The kings of the south, and of the north, are to be explained according to the times of which the prophet is speaking. As long as the kingdoms of Egypt and Syria were subsisting, so long the Egyptian and Syrian kings were kings of the south, and of the north: but when these kingdoms were swallowed up in the Roman empire, other powers became the kings of the south and north. At the time of the end, that is to say, in the latter days of the Roman empire, shall the king of the south push at him; that is to say, the Saracens, who were of the Arabians, and came from the south; and under the conduct of their false prophet Mahomet, and his successors, made war upon the emperor Heraclius, and with amazing rapidity deprived him of Egypt, Syria, and many of his finest provinces. They were only to push at; and sorely wound the Greek empire; they were not to subvert and destroy it.—And the king of the north shall come, &c. that is, the Turks, who were originally of the Scythians, and came from the north; and, after the Saracens, seized on Syria, and assaulted the remains of the Grecian empire, and in time rendered themselves absolute masters of the whole. The Saracens dismembered and weakened the Greek empire, but the Turks totally ruined and destroyed it; and for this reason much more is said of the Turks than of the Saracens. Their chariots and their horsemen are particularly mentioned, because their armies consisted chiefly of horse, especially before the institution of the janissaries; and their standards are still horse tails. Their ships too are said to be many; and indeed without many ships they could never have got possession of so many islands and maritime countries, nor have so frequently vanquished the Venetians. What fleets, what armies, were employed in besieging and taking Constantinople, Negropont or Euboea,
Rhodes, Cyprus, and Candy, or Crete! The words, shall enter into the countries, and overflow and pass over, give us an exact idea of their passing over into Europe, and fixing the seat of their empire at Constantinople, as they did under their seventh emperor, Mahomet II. See Bishop Newton.