The Prophet Isaiah, too, clearly inculcates the spirituality of the Godhead in the following declaration: But Egypt is man, and not God: and their horses flesh, and not spirit. (c. xxxi. 3.) * * *. In the former member the Prophet declares that Egypt was man, and not God; and then in terms of strict opposition enforces the sentiment by adding, that their cavalry was flesh, and not spirit; which is just as if he had said: But Egypt, which has horses in war, is only a man, that is, flesh, and not God, who is spirit.
Assuredly this is a false interpretation, and utterly unpoetical. It is even doubtful whether
(
ruach
) in this place means
spirit
in contradistinction to
matter
at all, and not rather air or wind. At all events, the poetic decorum, the proportion, and the antithetic parallelism, demand a somewhat as much below God, as the horse is below man. The opposition of