130 PAPER-REED. 



&quot;paper-reed,&quot; leads us to infer that the prophet had two 

 classes of vegetation in view, the wild and the cultivated 

 growth. He speaks of the troublesome times about to come 

 upon Egypt, arid of the failure of the waters. &quot; The paper-reeds 

 by the brooks, by the mouth of the brooks, and every thing sown 

 by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and be no more.&quot; 

 Here the prophecy seems to have referred to the general ver 

 dure by the brooks, which sustained the life both of man and 

 beast, as well as to that which w r as of use in the arts. Now, 

 the papyrus was only one of the important articles of growth 

 among the reed-kind which grew wild, and if cut off there 

 were others that would support the inhabitants and the cattle, 

 as we have shown under the article &quot; Flags.&quot; But a word 

 which signified all the green and wild reedy growth upon the 

 brooks would naturally be used when contrasting the unculti 

 vated with all that was cultivated. Hence it appears more 

 likely that the prophet referred to all that wild class of growth 

 known as reeds when he used the word arotli, translated &quot;paper- 

 reed.&quot; The word, therefore, as occurring in Isaiah, includes all 

 that remained to the flocks and herds, and to the inhabitants, 

 which they were accustomed to use when their crops should 

 fail. The prophet in the above passage, when he adds the 

 assertion, &quot; every thing SOWN by the brooks,&quot; would be under 

 stood to mean the total destruction of every hope of sustenance 

 from the soil. For when the brooks failed the drought com 

 menced; and that was a fearful time when the reeds by the 

 mouth of the brooks were unable to grow. 



