I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts.
Ver. 23. I will also make it a possession for the bittern.] Which is a kind of water fowl that maketh a hideous noise.
And I will sweep it with the besom of destruction.] Scopa vastatrice verram eam, Vatab. I will not brush them for ornament, but sweep them, or rather scrub them to their ruin by my Persian Praedones, whom I will set upon them. And here the Jewish Rabbis acknowledge that they came to understand this text by hearing an Arabian woman mention a broom or a besom in her language, to her maid. a Apollos, a learned teacher, may yet learn of a tent maker.
a Scopis non purgatoriis sed perditoriis. - R. David in Radic. שׁא שׁא. - Mercer. in Pagnin. Thesaur.