“Psalmist. Break thou the arm of the impious and the evil. Thou shalt seek the impious and find him not." That extraordinary boldness, strength, and majesty, which may be said to be almost peculiar to the figurative diction of the Hebrew poetry, has been illustrated with an incomparable felicity by the venerable Dr. Lowth; and in his general display of these habitual graces and perfections of style, he has furnished Dr. Horsley with a kind of poetical key to the Psalter. That the dissertations of the Bishop of London, on the metrical and sententious divisions, or parallelisms, and the dramatic form of the Hebrew poetical composition, suggested the distribution of the Psalms into parts and dialogues, which has given great perspicuity to the translation before us, we have, we think, already shown. It will appear, that an equally advantageous use has been made by Dr. Horsley of the 13th prælection on the Prosopopoeia. Dr. Lowth's prælection thus begins: "Ex iis dictionis figuratæ partibus, quas, ut ad notionem T ben maxime accommodatas, tractandas proposui, ultima jam restat Prosopopœia. Ejus figuræ duo sunt genera: unum, cum rebus vel fictis, vel ratione ac sensu carentibus, actio et persona data; alterum, cum veræ personae probabilis oratio tribuitur." A little further he explains what he means by the second species of personification, i. e. a probable and appropriate speech attributed to, or put into the mouth of, a real person; and pronounces it to be a semblance of reality, which carries with it the highest evidence, authority, and weight. Among the instances of this transcendental form of writing he reckons," Imprimis Dei ipsius orationes divinissimas, tantaque majestate dignissimas; sermones. idoneos, et persone congruentes; fictionis credibilitatem, imitationis evidentiam, ac rei ipsius claram representationem." Under this form of Prosopopoeia Dr. Horsley has perpetually introduced the Messiah to our view. The instances are very numerous, but we will advert only to the 16th Psalm, where David is supposed to be personating and speaking as the Messiah, in his sacerdotal character. This Psalm is cited as David's by St. Peter and St. Paul, both of whom apply it to Christ. "Admitting," says Dr. Horsley, "that David was the author, of which, after the decision of the apostles, a Christian may hardly be at liberty to doubt, it is evident, from the structure of the Psalm itself, that it is, what the same authority hath pronounced it, prophetic. For the whole is uttered in the character of high priest. But with what propriety could David speak in that character otherwise than prophetically, in the hope of that priesthood which was to come into his family, in the person of his descendant." We here offer to the reader the translation itself, that he may observe how true it is to the Hebrew, and how greatly its importance, sublimity, and perspicuity, are improved and unfolded by this character of personification and prophecy. 66 "1. Guard me, O God, for with thee have I taken shelter; 2. I have said unto Jehovah; O Lord, Thou art my good,—not besides thee. 3. For the saints, which are in the land, And my glorified ones, all my delight is in them. 4. They shall multiply their sorrows [who] betroth themselves to another; I will not offer their libations of blood, Neither will I take their names within my lips. 5. Jehovah, my measured portion, and my cup 6. My territory is fallen in pleasant spots; A fair heritage is (allotted) to me. 7. I will bless the Jehovah, who hath been my counsellor, 8. I have set Jehovah always before me; Because he is at my right hand I shall not slip. 9. Therefore my heart is glad, my tongue rejoiceth; 10. For thou wilt not relinquish my soul to hell, Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. 11. Thou wilt show me the path of immortality, Fulness of joy, in thy presence; Pleasures at thy right hand for evermore." ,אמרתי To support the personification in this case, for no, which is the word in our Hebrew text, we must read with the LXX, Bishop Hare, and many MSS. ns, I have said." "I have said." Our translation, following our Hebrew printed Bible, renders it, "O my soul, thou hast said unto the LORD," adding the words "O my soul," and missing the beauty of the prosopopoeia, and the whole scope of the Psalm. The concluding part of the verse is not very intelligible in our English translation: "Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not unto thee." Dr. Horsley's commentary on this and the succeeding verse is in his best manner, and shall be produced, as conveying useful knowledge to the Hebrew student, and a good specimen of the spirit of the learned Bishop's emendations. "Thy Thummim is my lot." That eternal perfect priesthood is allotted unto me, of which the Levitical is the general type; of the glory of which the brilliant gems on the high priest's breast-plate are the particular symbols. See Denter, xxxiii. 8. Ver. 2, 3. I have said unto Jehovah," &c. For nos read with the LXX, Bishop Hare, and many MSS. лps, “I have said.” —my goodness extendeth not to thee." E. T. This passage is obscure, and may be suspected of corruption. Bishop Hare would omita, which would make the sense, "My goodness is [due] to thee." Houbigant, not expunging 2, would change by into . "My goodness is nothing without thee." Bishop Lowth seems to approve Houbigant's emendation, which he says is supported by Chald. Syr. Symmachus, and Jerome. The version of the LXX leads, I think, to an easier emendation, which will give as good a sense. For .My i. e * בל יועילך read בל עליך I am an unprofitable servant; thy kindness to me is gratuitous. The chief objection to be made to this emendation of the text, I take to be this; that the noun na, being feminine, (for I take it for the nominative singular in regimen of the suffix) requires the feminine form of the verb. And to put the verb in the feminine form, would be a considerable deviation from the present text. But the discord of the verb and the noun is so frequent, when the noun is any thing which belongs not naturally to either sex, that this objection is in truth of little weight. However, if it might be supposed that the original reading was this, which indeed would be the best of all, which the text would be brought to its present form. it were easy to trace the progressive errors by טובתי בל תועילך טובתי בלתי עילך .1 טובתי בלתי עליך .2 טובתי בל עליך .3 No space being left between words in the old MSS. the first error was nothing more than a 'mistake of a 1 for a. The second was only the transposition of a ; which might be intentional, to produce a significant word; a word in itself significant, though not obviously connecting with any thing that precedes or follows. The third error was only the omission of 'n, considered as a prolongation of the negative 2 not affecting the sense. Ver. 8. But to the saints," &c. Read with LXX, or rather with the Vulgate, לקדושים אשר בארצו המה יאדיר יהוה כל חפצי בם For the saints that are in his land, Jehovah hath gloriously-accomplished all my good-wishes- David, personating the Messiah in his sacerdotal character, says, although my goodness is of no profit unto thee, yet thou hast granted, in the most ample manner, all that I can ask or wish, for the saints in thy land, the true members of the Christian Church, the heirs of the spiritual Canaan. Even of the perfect righteousness of the man Christ Jesus; of his righteousness as a man, it may be said with truth, it ought to be said, that it was of no profit unto God. Nothing was added to the Divine Nature by the virtue of the Man to whom the Word became united; nothing was added to its glory by his virtue; nothing was added to its happiness by his enjoyments in his exalted state. His righteousness and his exaltation are a display of the divine goodness and power, in that wonderful instance; no acquisition of goodness and power not enjoyed before. Although these alterations of the text, and the rendering founded upon them, are not without the authority of the ancient versions, especially of the LXX and the Vulgate, I am, after all, disposed to think, that the text, as it stands, admits a very good meaning. 2 אמרתי ליהוה אדני אתה טובתי בל עליך: 3 לקדושים אשר בארץ המה ואדירו כל חפצי בם: : 2 I have said unto Jehovah : O Lord, Thou art my Good;-not besides thee, i. e. I have no other good besides thee. 3 For the saints, which are in the land, And my glorified ones, all my delight is in them. In the second verse, the final word of the first clause 'na is understood to be repeated as the first of the following clause. If it were actually repeated thus, אתה טובתי : טובתי בל עליך the sense would be clearly what I offer. In the third verse, the 5 prefixed top is carried over to by the force of the copulative 1. I am inclined to rest in this as the true exposition of the passage. Though I confess it is an objection of some weight, that it is strange, if this be the true construction, it should be missed by the LXX and Vulg. and not fully comprehended, as it should seem, by the Syriac interpreter or the Chaldaic. (Vol. I. p. 183.) In treating of this Psalm, Dr. Horsley has left untouched the great vexata questio, whether we should read on, which is the word in the printed Hebrew text, and which literally signifies, thy saints, or holy ones, or 770, the sense of which is Holy One. The latter word, in the singular number, and literally warranting our English translation, is in 27 out of 31 of Dr. Kennicott's Heb. MSS. Dr. Horsley, as appears above, has translated the word in the singular number, which renders the passage infinitely more important, as being prophetic of the Saviour only. If he thought with Dr. Parry that the word is rightly printed in the plural in our Bible, he must have thought with him that the plural number is only used emphatically, according to the Hebrew idiom, to signify the Most Holy One. However this be, it is evident, that it was a prophecy of the particular resurrection of Jesus Christ, as both St. Peter and St. Paul quote the passage to that purpose; and it follows, that David was not here speaking in his own person, but in the person of the Messiah. David himself saw corruption, but Jesus, whom God did not leave in the grave, saw no corruption. This, therefore, is the true ground of the Christian application of this Psalm. We cannot subscribe, however, to every word of Dr. Horsley's translation of this divine Hymn; and especially, we prefer the phrase in the Bible," my flesh also shall rest in hope," to that of Dr. Horsley, "my flesh also shall rest in security. The word 'hope' is more in the spirit of the Psalm, and we venture to say, a more exact translation of the Hebrew word no. The 22d Psalm is very important on account of its prophetical character, (and it is to these Psalms that we shall principally address our comments) a character which is given to it in the Mischna, Tchillim, and the Talmud of the Sanhedrim. Dr. Horsley observes, that "it seems to be the best account that can be given of this Psalm, to say that the Psalmist personates the Messiah in the garden; first oppressed with the foresight of the circumstances of his sufferings. O my Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me." It is a little remarkable that no notice is taken by him of that passage, which many learned persons have thought to indicate a fraudulent corruption of the text by the Jews. In the 16th verse, the words of our Bible translation are, "they pierced my hands and my feet," whereas, in the original, it is like a lion my hands and my feet." The difference in the words is so small, for 18, that it has been thought hard to impute to the Jews so impious a design, where the change is so likely to have happened from inadvertency even in the least careless transcriber. And it has been well observed that the Jews would have got nothing by the fraud; for if the present reading be the true reading, that is, "like a lion-my hands and my feet, some verb, such as "they have torn," must be supposed wanting to complete the sense, and must therefore be supplied by the reader. Thus in Psalm vii. 2, the words are "lest he tear me to pieces like a lion;" and in the 21st verse of the Psalm under consideration, "save me from the lion's mouth." It is dangerous to religion in the extreme, for the sake of establishing a prophecy founded on a particular passage, to arraign the honesty and fidelity of those out of whose hands these sacred records have been received by us Christians. It is sacrificing life itself, to the object of saving a limb. And how little a foundation there is for such a suspicion appears from Josephus, who declares, that the Old Testament had suffered no alteration from the beginning down to his own time. The hope, indeed, of us Christians, of ultimately bringing the Jews to the sanctuary of Jesus, rests on the standing testimony of the Scriptures which they have providentially preserved. The 45th Psalm, which Dr. Horsley styles A Mystic Song upon a King's Marriage, Messiah the Bridegroom, the Church |