[194] A. B. Davidson, Syntax, § 57, Rem. 1.
[195] i. 19 f.
[196] Cf. Micah ii. 3. חֵלֶק is the word used, and according to the motive given above stands well for the climax of the fire's destructive work. This meets the objection of Wellhausen, who proposes to omit חֵלֶק, because the heat does not dry up first the great deep and then the fields (Ackerflur). This is to mistake the obvious point of the sentence. The drought was so great that, after the fountains were exhausted, it seemed as if the solid framework of the land, described with very apt pathos as the Portion, would be the next to disappear. Some take הלק as divided, therefore cultivated, ground.
[197] So for instance, Von Orelli.
[198] Chap. iv.
[200] Literally of the plummet, an obscure expression. It cannot mean plumb-straight, for the wall is condemned.
[201] 2 Kings xxi. 13: I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet or weight (מִשְׁקֹלֶת) of the house of Ahab. Isa. xxxiv. 11: He shall stretch over it the cord of confusion, and the weights (literally stones) of emptiness.
[202] John xix. 12.
[203] The word seer is here used in a contemptuous sense, and has therefore to be translated by some such word as visionary.