Vers. 8. And the daughter of Zion shall remaine like a cottage in a vineyard, like a lodge in a garden of Cucumbers, and like a besieged citie.
HE alludes euen to that custome which is now in vse amongst vs in France: name∣ly, to a little cottage which the Vinekeepers prepare when the grapes doe ripen. Also he vseth another Similitude which is almost like vnto the former; drawne from the manner of that nation, when the seruants watched to keepe the gardens of cucumbers. After∣wards in vers. 9. he himselfe expounds what he meanes both by the one & by the other. Now the exposition may be double; to wit, that all the countrie should be wasted, and nothing left in safetie, but the citie of Ierusalem, which should remaine as a cottage: or, that the citie it selfe should bee brought to nought. The Iewes follow the first interpretation, and vn∣derstand this place of the siege of Senacherib: but I thinke it reacheth further off; namely, to the destructions which followed after∣wards. We may al••o referre it to the neerenes of neighbourhood, which being ruinated and destroyed amongst them, it could not bee a∣uoyded, but that the citie should feele great losse thereby. But as I take it, the true mea∣ning of the Prophet is, that the euils where∣of he speakes, should come euen to the citie it selfe, so as it beeing consumed, ruinated, and brought to nothing, and into derision, should become like a cottage. Now he calles Ierusalem, the daughter of Zion, by a phrase of speech vsuall in the Scriptures, which inti∣tleth some people by the name of daughter, as the daughter of Babylon, and Tyre, for the Babylonians, and Tyrians themselues. Also hee rather mentioneth Zion, then Ierusalem; because of the dignitie of the Temple: and this manner of speech also is very frequent thorowout the whole Scriptures.