Isaiah 66:18-20 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

It shall come, that I will gather, &c.— The prophet here describes the manner of converting the Gentiles, after the rejection of the greater part of the Jews. Vitringa thinks that this alludes to the first calling of the Gentiles, and that St. Paul manifestly refers to this passage, in his epistle to the Romans, Romans 15:16. The passage is sufficiently plain from what has gone before in this book. The author of the Observations remarks, that in the 20th verse there is an allusion to the mode of travelling in caravans in the East: the editor of the Ruins of Palmira tells us, that the caravan which his company formed to go to that place consisted of about 200 persons, and about the same number of beasts of carriage, which were an odd mixture of horses, camels, mules, and asses; but there is no account of any vehicle drawn on wheels in that expedition, nor do we find an account of any such things in other Eastern journeys. There are, however, some vehicles among them usual for the sick, or for persons of high distinction. Thus Pitt observes, in the account of his return from Mecca, that at the head of each division some great gentleman or officer was carried in a thing like a horse-litter, borne by two camels, one before and the other behind, which is covered all over with sear-cloth, and over that again with green broad-cloth, and set forth very handsomely. If he had a wife attending him, she was carried in another. This is apparently a mark of distinction. There is another Eastern vehicle used in their journeys, which Thevenot calls a coune. He tells us, that the counes are hampers, like cradles, carried upon camels' backs, one on each side, having a back, head, and sides, like the great chairs which sick persons sit in. A man rides in each of these counes, and over them is laid a covering, which keeps them both from the rain and sun, leaving as it were a window before and behind, upon the camel's back. The riding in these is also a mark of distinction, according to Maillet; for, speaking of the pilgrimage to Mecca, he says, "Ladies of any figure have litters; others are carried sitting in chairs, made like covered cages, hanging on both sides of a camel; and as for ordinary women, they are mounted on camels without such conveniences after the manner of the Arab women, and cover themselves from sight, and the heat of the sun, as well as they can, with their veils. These are the vehicles which are in present use in the Levant. Coaches, on the other hand, as Dr. Russel assures us, are not in use at Aleppo; nor do we meet with any account of their commonly using them in any other part of the East: but one would imagine, that if ever such conveniences as coaches had been in use, they would not have been laid aside in countries where ease and delicacy are so much consulted. As then the caravans of these returning believers are described by Isaiah as composed like Mr. Dawkins's to Palmira, of horses, and mules, and swift beasts; so I imagine are we to understand the other terms of litters and counes, rather than of coaches, or of chariots, in our common sense of the word. For, though our translators have given us the word chariot in many passages of Scripture, yet the wheel-vehicles which those writers speak of, and which our version renders chariots in the present text, seem to have been mere warlike machines; nor do we ever read of ladies riding in them. On the other hand, a word derived from the same original is made use of for a seat, however moved, such as the mercy-seat, 1 Chronicles 28:18 where our translators have used the word chariot, but which was no more of a chariot, in the common sense of the word, than a litter is; and that sort of seat, mentioned Leviticus 15:9 which they have rendered saddle, seems only to mean a litter or a coune." See Observations, p. 213. Instead of Tarshish, &c. Isaiah 66:19 we may read Tartessus, Phile,—Ethiopia, or the Ethiopians,—the Tubareni, and Greece.