TEHILLIM 48

1 (A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah.)

Great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised in the city of our Elohim, in the mountain of his holiness.

The Arabah

One result of the earthquake will be to surround the Holy Oblation with a ravine. Thus we read :

All the land shall be compassed as a plain (as the Arabah) from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem : and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place, from Benjamin's gate

unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel unto the King's wine-presses. (Zech. xiv. 10.)

The translation "as a plain "(Arabah) in the A.V. does not express the idea of the original.

The meaning is not that all the land will be turned into " a plain," but that a portion of it will be affected by the formation of a valley like the Jordan valley—the Arabah,which is well understood to refer to that remarkable depression in which is the Dead, or Salt Sea and the river Jordan. Such a valley is to compass (see margin of the A.V.) the land round Jerusalem " from Geba to Rimmon".

Now, Geba is supposed to be about six miles north of Jerusalem, a little to the eastward ; and since the Olivet earthquake is to form a " very great valley," it is not unreasonable to suppose that this valley will be wide enough to extend from Jerusalem northward as far as Geba. This supposition is confirmed by a prophecy contained in the forty-eighth Psalm, thus :

Great is Yahweh, and greatly to be praised in the city of our Elohim, in the mountain of his holiness.

Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King. (Verses 1, 2.)

This Psalm must be a prophecy, not only because Jerusalem is not now on " the sides of the north" but also because of the distinct reference to the immensity of its palaces and towers (verses 12, 13). Situated on the edge of a ravine, on the southern side of the new valley,

after the site of the Temple has been prepared by the earthquake " Mount Zion " will be on the sides of the north, or literally at the " extreme limit of the northern side."

Rimmon is supposed to be about twenty-eight miles from Jerusalem, in a south-westerly direction. For this point to be joined with Geba in the manner described by a new valley like the Arabah, that valley must extend eastward to the Jordan valley and thence southward and again westward, in order to encompass the land about Jerusalem.

This implies that the hostel city will occupy a position in the midst of this valley in its

southern area, and that this- valley will become the Levites' portion and " the possession of the city."

The Temple of Ezekiel's prophecy 6.4.

7 Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.

... the Anglo-Indian Lion of Tarshish, as lord paramount of Abyssinia, Nubia, Egypt, Cushistan, Sheba, Dedan, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, and protector of the Tenth in the midst of the land, must be the first of the great powers to be directly affected by the epiphany of the Davidian Power in Arabia.

The presence of this power would be, if in hostile activity, a very disturbing element of the situation; and eminently destructive of British interests in India and the East. It is impossible to speak with certainty of details not revealed. When we touch upon them, we speak only of what may probably be the course of things leading to a specified result.

With this understanding, I may say, that the alternative before the British Government, consequent upon its maritime disasters visited upon it in the Red Sea (Psa. 48:7) will be that of peace, or war, with the New Arabian Power. If the British Sheba Cabinet have acquired accurate knowledge of its Divine Elohistic character, there is sufficient Millenarianism in high places, to counsel and to cause it to seek as a suppliant, the favour of the

"greater than Solomon;"

so that, as protector of the Tenth in the midst of the land, including the ancient territory of Tyre, it might be accepted, after the examples of Hiram of Tyre and the Queen of Sheba, as the humble servant and ally of "the Great King".

This arrangement, of course only temporary, would fulfill Psa. 45:12, "the daughter of Tyre with an offering, even the rich of the people, shall entreat thy favour" the offering, minchah, being the tenth in the midst of the land (Isa. 6:12,13); as the earnest, or installment, of that greater ingathering after the Armageddon overthrow.

And again, in Psa. 72:10,

"the kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts"

- offer the countries over which they rule.

"Yea, all kings shall bow down to him; all the nations shall serve him".

Thus,

"the merchandise of Tyre will be for them who dwell before Yahweh, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing" (Isa. 23:18).

Eureka 16.11.4.0.