And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of
the
uncircumcised
That is, shall not lie in such state, or be buried with such pomp
and magnificence, and have such sepulchral monuments erected to
their memory, as other heroes among the Heathens have had; such
as the mighty kings of Assyria and Persia before mentioned:
which are gone down to hell,
or "the grave", with their weapons of war;
which were never taken from them, and which they held in their
hands to the last, being never conquered, and died at last a
natural death, and not by the sword; or which were carried in
state before their hearse at the time of interment, as is the
custom to this day so to do at the funeral of great warriors,
generals, and officers: and they have laid their swords
under their heads;
as a sign and token, as Jarchi says, that the sword did not rule
over them, that they did not fall by it; either their statues and
sepulchral monuments were adorned with these, and other
instruments of war, as was the grave of Misenus by Aeneas
F4; and as is still the custom where
the heads of such mighty ones are laid, to engrave them on them:
or, literally, their swords and other weapons of war were put in
their graves under their heads; as it was usual, in former times,
in some places to put swords, shields, and other armour, in the
graves of military men, as were in the grave of Theseus, on the
bier of Alexander the great, and others, as reported by Plutarch,
Diodorus Siculus, and Sophocles F5: now the Scythians were not
buried: after this grand and pompous manner: but their
iniquities shall be upon their bones;
or the punishment of their sin should be, that their bones should
lie unburied and scattered about, or be dug up and broke to
pieces, and treated with inhumanity and contempt, as a just
reward for their savageness, and cruelty: though they were
the terror of the mighty in the land of the living:
not only the terror of the common people, but even of the most
powerful kings and mighty warriors.