The sun shall not smite thee by day
With its rays, which it shoots forth like darts, and which fly swiftly, and pierce and hurt: hence Apollo, the same with the sun, is represented with a bow and arrows F15; so the rays of the sun seem to be called in ( Habakkuk 2:11 ) ;
nor the moon by night;
this clause should be supplied, as a learned man
``20 When the cold north wind bloweth, and the water is congealed into ice, it abideth upon every gathering together of water, and clotheth the water as with a breastplate. 21 It devoureth the mountains, and burneth the wilderness, and consumeth the grass as fire.'' (Sirach 43)see ( Genesis 31:40 ) ; and our English poet F23 expresses a sentiment to this effect; yet not what affects the bodies of men, but plants, trees, &c. and this not owing to the moon, but to the air. However, these clauses are not to be understood literally; for good men may be smitten and hurt by the heat of the one and the cold of the other, as Jacob and Jonah, ( Genesis 31:40 ) ( Jonah 4:8 ) ; but mystically, of persecuting antichristian tyrants, which are sometimes signified by the sun and moon, as both in Rome Pagan and Papal, ( Revelation 6:12 ) ( 16:8 ) ; and of persecution and tribulation itself, ( Matthew 13:6 Matthew 13:21 ) ( Song of Solomon 1:6 ) ; and is sometimes applied to the perfect state of the saints, either in the New Jerusalem, or ultimate glory, when there will be nothing more of this kind, ( Revelation 7:15 Revelation 7:16 ) . And there are some periods in the present state, when those entirely cease; nor are the saints ever really hurt by them, they being always for their good; or, however, not so as to affect their eternal happiness. The Targum is,
``in the day, when the sun rules, the morning spirits shall not smite thee; nor the nocturnal ones in the night, when the moon rules.''