8. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils. A violent oriental method of expressing fierce wrath. Nothing makes God
so angry as an injury done to his children. God is not subject to the passions
which govern his creatures, but acting as he does with all the energy and speed
of one who is angry, he is here aptly set forth in poetic imagery suitable to
human understandings. And fire out of his mouth devoured. The opening of
his lips is sufficient to destroy his enemies. This fire was no temporary one
but steady and lasting: coals were kindled by it. The whole passage is
intended to depict God’s descent to the help of his child, attended by
earthquake and tempest: at the majesty of his appearing the earth rocks, the
clouds gather like smoke, and the lightning as flaming fire devours, setting
the world ablaze. What grandeur of description is here!
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