Some of the Prophet's reflections have been omitted, as not being prophetical.
That the reader may not think that we have made an error in regard to a Remnant of the Tyrians being saved, the following quotation from the same Prophet is given, wherein the same figure of speech is used concerning the fall of Israel, and the safety of a small portion.
"And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh [i. e. race] shall wax lean. And it shall be as when the harvest-man gathereth the corn, and reapeth the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathereth ears in the valley of Rephaim. Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of the olive-tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof, saith the Lord God of Israel." [Isaiah xvii. 4—6.]
The comparison of the remnant of a nation, to the few remaining grapes upon the vine, or in the baskets, after a general gathering of the harvest, is used also by Jeremiah in prophesying the destruction of Judæa,—the word "remnant" is distinctly used.
"Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my Soul depart from thee: lest I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited. Thus saith the Lord of hosts,—They shall throughly glean the REMNANT of Israel as a vine: turn back thine hand as a grape-gatherer into the baskets." [Jeremiah vi. 8, 9.]
The same simile is found in the Apocrypha. [2 Esdras xvi. 29—31.]
The preceding figure of speech used by the Prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah was evidently taken by them from the words of the first Lawgiver, spoken over seven centuries before, in reference to the stranger's, the widow's, and the orphan's right to the remnants of the field, and of the fruit trees. This law is practised and permitted even to this day, by that class of harvest-followers, called gleaners,—the modern Ruths,—from the original of whom sprang the all-charity Saviour! Moses commanded that—
"When thou cuttest down thine harvest in the field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it:—it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow,—that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands. When thou beatest thine olive-tree, thou shalt not go over the boughs again,—it [the remnant] shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow. When thou gatherest the grapes of thy vineyard, thou shalt not glean it afterwards,—it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow."
The remnant—or gleanings—of a Nation, as applied to the Tyrians by Isaiah must be apparent to the reader:—its application to the present Work (together with other portions of the Prophecy), will be proved, as we advance, from the records of Classic and acknowledged History.