The Prophet describes here the state of the city and the desolation of the country. He says, that the habitations of flocks would be in the midst of the city Nineveh. The city, we know, was populous; but while men were so many, there was no place for flocks, especially in the middle of a city so celebrated. Hence no common change is here described by the Prophet, when he says, that flocks would lie down in the middle of Nineveh; and he adds, all wild beasts. For beasts, which seek seclusion and shun the sight of men, are wont to come forth, when they find a country desolate and deserted; and they range then at large, as it is the case after a slaughter in war; and when any region is emptied of its inhabitants, the wolves, the lions, and other wild beasts, roam here and there at full liberty. So the Prophet says, that wild beasts would come from other parts and remote places, and find a place where Nineveh once stood. It is literally, “every wild beast of the nation,”—[נוי],—“of the land,” in the Septuagint. What is meant is, every wild beast that belonged to that country.—Ed. He adds that the bitterns, or the storks or the cuckoos, and similar wild birds would be there. Both Newcome and Henderson render the two words, “the pelican and the porcupine.” The former says that [קאת], “pelican,” comes from [קאה], to vomit, because it casts up fish or water from its membranaceous bag; and [קפד], “porcupine,” according to Bochart, is from the verb, which means to cut off as by a bite, or rather, he says, from its Syriac meaning, to dread, for it is a solitary animal. See Newcome. But Parkhurst contends that it is the hedgehog, and both the Septuagint and Vulgate render it so. What Calvin translates “in postibus ejus,” [בכפתויה], is rendered by Newcome, “in the carved lintels thereof,” by Henderson, “in her capitals,” and by Parkhurst, “in her door-porches,” i.e. when thrown down.—Ed. As to their various kinds, I make no laborious research; for it is enough to know the Prophet’s design: besides, the Jews themselves, who boldly affirm that either the bittern or the stork is meant, yet adduce nothing that is certain. What, in short, this description means, is—that the place, which before a vast multitude of men inhabited, would become so forsaken, that wild beasts and nocturnal birds would be its only inhabitants.