EXTREME, Extremity, last. Extremi populi, the lowest of the people. Jeroboam appointed Priests of the High-places out of the lowest of the people: the Hebrew literally, 1 Kings xii. 31. Gen. xlvii. 2. Judg. xviii. 2.of the Extremities of the people. Joseph, in the book of Genesis, presents five of his youngest brethren to Pharaoh; Extremos fratrum suorum quinque viros. They of Dan sent five men of their Extremities; or five men out of the lowest among them, to go and seek a more commodious habitation for their tribes. Isaiah says, that God hath removed all the Extremities Isai. xxvi. 15.of the country, the last and lowest of the land.
But some interpreters maintain, that the Extremities in these passages do not signify the last and meanest, but on the contrary the first and most distinguished; as if one should say, they who are at the head, at the top, at the honourable Extremity. Others assert, that these expressions denote Grot. Vatab. Jun. Fag. &c.no choice or distinction of honour; that the five brethren here presented by Joseph to King Pharaoh, were the first that came to his hand.
The Extremity of the Earth. The praise of the Lord will be heard from the Extremity Isai. xlii. 10. Isai. xliii. 6. Ps. cxxxv. 7. Jerem. x. 13. Isai. xli. 9.of the world, from all places in the world. The Lord will bring back his people from the Extremity of the earth. He causeth the vapours to ascend from the Extremity of the World. He calls Abraham from the Extremity, the ends of the earth. All these expressions are marks of a remote country; as we say, that people come from the end of the world, when they come from a great distance.
Numb. xxiv. 14, 24. Deut. xxxi. 19. Isai. lxii. 11. עיןOculus, Fons, Color. Numb. xi. 7.The last times, Extremo tempore, or ad extremum, denote either some very remote time; or the time of the Messiah, or sometimes the end of the world.