OBSCURE. We have already spoke of Obscurity as it is put for Adversity, under the Words Night and Darkness. An obscure, dark, or sad Countenance is oppos’d to a serene and open one. Jesus Christ upbraids the Pharisees, that they had obscure or sad Aspects1 when they fasted. And in Nah. xi. 10.Nahum, speaking of the Destruction of Nineve it is said, Facies omnium ut nigredo ollæ. Their Faces were as black as a Pot. The Hebrew says, as if they had black’d their Faces with Soot. Some Travellers affirm2, that by way of Mourning the Orientals daub their Faces with the black of a Joel xi. 6.Kettle. Joel makes Allusion to this Custom, Omnes vultus redigentur in ollam. And Isai. xiii. 8. Facies combustæ vultus eorum. And Ezek. xx. 47. comburetur or nigrescet omnis facies, ab austro usque ad aquilonem.
Psal. cxlii. 3.Obscure Places denote the Grave. Collocavit me in obscuris, sicut mortuos sæculi. In Ps. lxxiii. 21.another Psalm we read, Repleti sunt qui obscurati sunt terræ domibus iniquitatum: which some understand of the obscure Places of Prisons, wherein Tyrants often keep the Weak and Unfortunate, because the obscure of the Earth, the poor Israelites are reduced to Captivity in the Houses of the Babylonians. Solomon speaks of the obscure, the Poor, as oppos’d to the Great and Prov. xxii. 23.Rich. Vidisti virum velocem in opere suo? coram regibus stabit, nec erit ante ignobiles. The Hebrew says, coram obscuris.
In great Calamities, ‘tis said the Sun was obscur’d, and the Moon cover’d with Darkness. Matt. xxiv. 24 Luke xxiii. 45.Nahum says, Non est obscura contritio tua. Your Wound is not conceal’d. The Hebrew says, it is not bound up or closed. Nah. iii. 10.Jeremiah speaking of the Gates of Jerusalem, Portæ ejus corruerunt & obscuratæ sunt in terra; or according to the Hebrew, they are languishing and cover’d with Mourning upon the Earth. The Gates are put for the City.
The Obscurity of the Heart and of the Rom. i. 21. Eph. iv. 18.Mind, according to St. Paul, are put for the wilful Ignorance and Hardness of the Jews.
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