13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the

₫ Exod. 19. 4. Ch. 1. 31. Isai. 31. 5. & 46. 4. & 63. 9. Hos. 11. 3.—e Ch. 33. 29. Isai. 58.

probation of the wise and good in all countries, and formed the basis of the political institutions of all the civilized nations in the universe.

Notwithstanding the above gives the passage a good sense, yet probably the whole verse should be considered more literally. It is certain that in the same country travellers are often obliged to go about in order to find per passes between the mountains; and the following extracts from Mr. Harmer will illustrate this point.

pro

14 Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan; and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat: and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape :

14. Ezek. 36. 2-f Job 29. 6. Psa. 81. 16-g Psa. 81. 16. & 147. 14-b Gen. 49. 1L.

rael through deserts of the like nature, was through such an extent and variety of country, and in such circumstances, as to multitudes and incumbrances, as to make divine interposition necessary. The openings through the rocks seem to have been prepared by Him to whom all things from the beginning of the world were foreknown, with great wisdom and goodness, to enable them to accomplish this stupendous march."-See Harmer's Obser vat. vol. iv. p. 125.

"Jehovah certainly instructed Israel in religion, by delivering to him his law in this wilderness: but it is not, I presume, of this kind of teaching Moses speaks, as Bishop Patrick supposes, but God's instructing Israel how to avoid the dangers of the journey, by leading the people about this and that dangerous precipitous hill, directing them to proper passes through the mountains, and guiding them through the intricacies of that difficult journey, which might, and probably would, have confounded the most consummate Arab guides. They that could have safely enough conducted a small caravan of travellers through this desert, might have been very unequal to the task of directing such an enormous multitude, encumbered with cattle, women, children, and utensils. The passages of Irwin, that establish the observation I have been making, follow here. 'At half past eleven we resumed our march, and soon came to the foot of a prodigious hill, which we unexpectedly found we were to ascend. It was perpendicular, like the one we had passed some hours before; but what rendered the access more difficult, the path which we were to tread was nearly right up and down. The captain of the robbers, seeing the obstacles we had to overcome, wisely sent all his camels round the mountain where he knew there was a defile and only accompanied us with the beast he rode. We luckily met with no accident in climbing this height,' p. 325. They afterward descended, he tells us, into a valley, by a passage easy enough, and stopping to dine at half past five o'clock, they were joined by the Arabs, who had made an astonishing march to overtake them, p. 326. We soon quitted the dale, and ascended the high ground by the side of a mountain that overlooks it in this part. The path was narrow and perpendicular, and much resembled a ladder. To make it worse, we preceded the robbers, and an ignorant guide among our people led us astray. Here we found ourselves in a pretty situation! We had kept the lower road on the side of the hill, instead of that toward the summit, until we could proceed no farther. We were now obliged to gain the heights, in order to recover the road, in performing which we drove our poor camels up such steeps as we had the greatest difficulty to climb after them. We were under the necessity of leaving them to themselves; as the danger of leading them through places, where the least false step would have precipitated both man and beast to the unfathomable abyss below, was too critical to hazard. We hit at length upon the proper path, and were glad to find ourselves in the road of our unerring guides, the robbers, after having won every foot of the ground with real peril and fatigue,' p. 324. Again: 'Our road, after leaving the valley, lay over level ground. As it would be next to an impossibility to find the way over these stony flats, where the heavy foot of a camel leaves no impression, the different bands of robbers have heaped up stones at unequal distances for their direction through this desert. We have derived great assistance from the robbers in this respect, who are our guides when the marks either fail, or are unintelligible to us.' The predatory Arabs were more successful guides to Mr. Irwin and his companions, than those he brought with him from Ghinnah; but the march of Is

Fluttereth over her young] yeracheph, broodeth over them, communicating to them a portion of her own vital warmth: so did God by the influences of his Spirit, enlighten, encourage, and strengthen their minds. It is the same word which is used, Gen. i. 2.

Spreadeth abroad her wings, &c.] In order not only to teach them how to fly, but to bear them when weary. For to this fact there seems an allusion, it having been generally believed that the eagle, through extraordinary affection for her young, takes them upon her back when they are weary of flying, so that the archers cannot injure them, but by piercing the body of the mother. The same figure is used Exod. xix. 4. where see the note. The winesher, which we translate eagle, is supposed by Mr. Bruce to mean the rachema, a bird remarkable for its affection to its young, which it is known actually to bear on its back when they are weary.

Verse 12. So the Lord alone did lead him] By his power, and by his only, were they brought out of Egypt, and supported in the wilderness.

And there was no strange god] They had help from no other quarter. The Egyptian idols were not able to save their own votaries; but God not only saved his people, but destroyed the Egyptians.

Verse 13. He made him ride]

yorecebehu, he

will cause him to ride. All the verbs here are in the future tense, because this is a prophecy of the prosperity they should possess in the promised land. The Israelites were to ride, exult on the high places, the mountains and hills of their land, in which they are promised the highest degree of prosperity; as even the rocky part of the country should be rendered fertile by the peculiar benediction of God.

Suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock] This promise states, that even the most barren places in the country should yield an abundance of aromatic flowers; from which the bees should collect honey in abundance: and even the tops of the rocks afford suthcient support for olive trees, from the fruit of which they should extract oil in abundance: and all this should be occasioned by the peculiar blessing of God upon the land.

Verse 14. Fat of kidneys of wheat] Almost every person knows that the kidney is enveloped in a coat of the purest fat in the body of the animal, for which several anatomical reasons might be given. As the kidney itself is to the abundantly surrounding fat, so is the germ of the grain to the lobes, or farinaceous parts. The expression here may be considered as a very strong and peculiarly happy figure to point out the finest wheat, containing the healthiest and most vigorous germ, growing in a very large and nutritive grain; and consequently the whole figure points out to us a species of wheat, equally excellent, both for seed and bread. This beautiful metaphor seems to have escaped the notice of every commentator.

Pure blood of the grape.] Red wine, or the pure juice, of whatever colour, expressed from the grapes without any adulteration, or niixture with water: blood here is synonymous with juice. This intimates that their vines should be of the best kind, and their wine in abundance, and of the most delicious flavour.

19 And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons and of his daughters.

i Ch. 33. 5, 26. Isai. 41. 2-k 1 Sam. 2. 29.-1 Ch. 31. 20. Neh. 9. 25. Pen. 17. 10. Jer. 2 7. & 5. 7, 23. Hos. 13. 6.- Ch. 31. 16. Isai. 1. 4.-n Ver. 6. Isai. 51. 13. o 2 Sam. 22. 47. Psalms 89. 29. & 95. 1.-p1 Kings 14. 22. 1 Cor. 10 22.—r Lev. 17. 7. P. 106. 37. 1 Cor. 10. 20. Rev. 9. 20-s Or, which were not God. Ver. 21. t Isai. 17. 10-u Jer. 2. 32-v Judg. 2. 14.-w Or, despised. Lam. 2. 6. Verse 15. Jeshurun] the upright; this appellative is here put for Israel, and as it comes from yashur, he was right, straight, may be intended to show that the people who once not only promised fair, but were really upright, walking in the paths of righteousness, should, in the time signified by the prophet, not only revolt from God, but actually fight against him, like a full fed horse, who not only will not bear the harness, but breaks away from his master, and endeavours to kick him as he struggles to get loose. All this is spoken prophetically, and is intended as a warning, that the evil might not take place. For were the transgression unavoidable, it must be the effect of some necessitating cause, which would destroy the turpitude of the action, as it referred to Israel: for if the evil were absolutely unavoidable, no blame could attach to the unfortunate agent, who could only consider himself the miserable instrument of a dire necessity. See a case in point, 1 Sam. xxiii. 11, 12. where the prediction appears in the most absolute form, and yet the evil was prevented by the person receiving the prediction as a warning. The case is the following:

The Philistines attacked Keilah and robbed the threshing-floors; David being informed of it, asked counsel of God, whether he should go and relieve it-he is ordered to go, and is assured of success-he goes, routs the Philistines, and delivers Keilah. Saul hearing that David was in Keilah, determines to besiege the place. David finding that Saul meditates his destruction, asked counsel of the Lord, thus, "O Lord God of Israel, thy servant hath certainly heard, that Saul seeketh to come to Keilah, to destroy the city for my sake. Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul come down as thy servant hath heard?-And the Lord said, He will come down. Then said David, Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul? And the Lord said, They will deliver thee up. Then David and his men, which were about 600, arose and departed out of Keilah and went whithersoever they could go: and it was told Saul that David was escaped from Keilah, and he forebore to go forth." Here was the most positive prediction that Saul would come to Keilah, and that the men of Keilah would deliver David into his hands. Yet neither of these events took place, because David departed from Keilah; but had he continued there Saul would have come down, and the men of Keilah would have betrayed their deliverer. Thus the prediction was totally conditional-and so were all these prophecies relative to the apostasy of Israel. They were only fulfilled in those who did not receive them as warnings. See Jer. xviii. 8-10.

The Rock of his salvation] He ceased to depend on the fountain whence the salvation issued; and thinking highly of himself, he lightly esteemed his God; and having ceased to depend on him, his fall became inevitable. The figure is admirably well supported through the whole verse. We see first, a miserable lean steed, taken under the care and into the keeping of a master who provides him with an abundance of provender. We see, secondly, this horse waxing fat under his keeping. We see him, thirdly, breaking away from his master, leaving his rich pasturage, and running to the wilderness, unwilling to bear the yoke or harness: or to make any returns for his master's care and attention. We see, fourthly, whence this conduct proceeds; from a want of consciousness that his strength depends upon his master's care and keeping; and a lack of consideration that leanness and wretchedness must be the consequence of his leaving his master's ser

20 And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.

b

21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God: they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people: I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.

22 For da fire is kindled in mine anger, and ⚫ shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.

23 I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them.

24 They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter de

i

x Isai. 1. 2-y Ch. 31. 17.-2 Isaiah 30. 9. Matt. 17. 17.-a Verse 16 Pealms 79 58-b1 Sam. 12 21. 1 Kings 16. 13, 26. Psa 31. 6. Jer. 8. 19, & 10. 8. & 14 22 Jonah 28. Acts 14. 15.-c Hos L. 10. Rom. 10. 19. Jer. 15. 14. & 17. 4. Lam. 4. 11. e Or, hath burned.-f Or, hath consumed.-g lai. 25. 15.-h P. 7. 12, 13. Ezek. 5. 16.- Heb. burning coals. Hab. 3. 5.

vice, and running off from his master's pasturage. How easy to apply all these points to the case of the Israelites! and how illustrative of their former and latter state! And how powerfully do they apply to the case of many called Christians, who, having increased in riches, forget that God from whose hand alone these mercies flowed.

Verse 17. They sacrificed unto devils] The original word shedim, has been variously understood. The Syriac, Chaldee, Targums of Jerusalem and Jonathan, and the Samaritan, retain the original word; the Vulgate, Septuagint, Arabic, Persic, Coptic, and Anglo-Saxon, have devils or dæmons. The Septuagint has cÕvoar daipovivis, they sacrificed to dæmons: the Vulgate copies the Septuagint: the Arabic has shecateen, the plural of Sheetan, Satan, by which the rebellious angels appear to be intended, as the word comes from the root

ai shatana, he was obstinate, proud, refractory, went far away. And it is likely, that these fallen spirits having utterly lost the empire at which they aimed, got themselves worshipped under various forms and names in different places. The Anglo-Saxon has deoflum, derils.

New gods that came newly up] app Mikarob baoo, "which came up from their neighbours." Viz. the Moabites and Ammonites, whose gods they received and worshipped on their way through the wilderness: and often afterward.

Verse 18. Of the Rock that begat thee] Tour, the first cause, the fountain of thy being. See the note on

ver. 4.

Verse 19. When the Lord saw it, &c.] More literally, And the Lord saw it, and through indignation, he reprobated his sons and his daughters. That is, When the Lord shall see such conduct he shall be justly incensed, and so reject and deliver up to captivity his sons and daughters.

Verse 20. Children in whom is no faith.] N N lo amen bam-"There is no steadfastness in them;" they can never be depended on. They are fickle, because they are faithless.

Verse 21. They have moved me to jealousy] This verse contains a very pointed promise of the calling of the Gentiles, in consequence of the rejection of the Jews, threatened ver. 19. and to this great event it is applied by St. Paul, Rom. x. 19.

Verse 22. The lowest hell] nnn by sheol tachtith, the very deepest destruction; a total extermination, so that the earth, their land, and its increase, and all their property, should be seized, and the foundations of their mountains, their strongest fortresses should be razed to the ground. All this was fulfilled in a most remarkable manner in the last destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans; so that of the fortifications of that city not one stone was left on another. See the notes on Matt. xxiv.

Verse 23. I will spend mine arrows upon them.] The judgments of God in general, are termed the arrows of God, Job vi. 4. Psal. xxxviii. 2, 3. xci. 5. see also Ezek. v. 16. Jer. i. 14. 2 Sam. xxii. 14, 15. In this and the following verses, to the 28th inclusive, God threatens this people with every species of calamity that could possibly fall upon man. How strange it is, that having this law continually in their hands, they should not discern those threatened judgments, and cleave to the Lord that they might be averted.

It was customary among the heathens to represent any judgment from their gods, under the notion of arrows, especially a pestilence; and one of their greatest deities,

n

25 The sword without, and terror m within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also, with the man of gray hairs. 26 I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men:

r

27 Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries P should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the LORD hath not done all this.

28 For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. 29 "O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their lat

u

ter end!

30 How should

one chase a thousand, and

k Lev. 26. 22- Lam. 1. 20. Ezek. 7. 15. 2 Cor. 7. 5-m Heb. from the chambera-n Heb. bereace-o Ezek. 20. 13, 14, 23.-p Jer. 19. 4-r Psa. 140. 8. Or, Our high hand, and not the LORD, hath done all this.-t Isai. 27. 11. Jer. 4. 22 u Ch. 5. 29. Psa. 81. 13. & 107. 43. Luke 19. 42-v Isai. 47. 7. Lam. 1.9-w Lev. 26. 8. Josh. 23. 10. 2 Chron. 24. 24. Isni. 30. 17.-x Psa. 44. 12. Isai. 50. 1. & 52. 3.-y 1 Sam.

Apollo, is ever represented as bearing a bow, and quiver
full of deadly arrows: so Homer, II. i. v. 43. where he
represents him, in answer to the prayer of his priest
Chryses, coming to smite the Greeks with the pestilence.
Ως έφατ' ευχόμενος του δ' εκλυε Φοίβος Απόλλων
Βη δε κατ' Ολύμποιο καρήνων χωόμενος κηρ,
Τοξ' ώμοισιν εχων αμφηρεφέα τε φαρέτρην.
Εζετ' επειτ' απάνευθε νεων ; μετα δ' τον έηκε
Δείνη δε κλαγγή γεννετ' αργύρεοιο βιοι», κ. τ. λ.

Thus Chryses pray'd: the favouring power attends
And from Olympus' lofty top descends.
Bent was his bois, the Grecian hearts to wound;
Fierce as he mov'd, his silver shafts resound-
The fleet in view, he twang'd his deadly bow
And hissing fy the feather'd fates below.
On mules and dogs th' infection first began;
And last, the vengeful arrows fix'd in man.

How frequently the same figure is employed in the Sacred Writings every careful reader knows; and quotations need not be multiplied.

Verse 24. They shall be burnt with hunger] Their land shall be cursed, and famine shall prevail. This is one of the arrows.

Burning heat No showers to cool the atmosphereor rather, biles, blains, and pestilential fevers; this was a second.

Bitter destruction] The plague; this was a third.

Teeth of beasts with the poison of serpents] The beasts of the field should multiply upon, and destroy them; this was a fourth; and poisonous serpents infesting all their steps; and whose mortal bite should produce the utmost anguish, was to be a fifth arrow. Added to all these, the sword of their enemies-terror among themselves, ver. 25. and captivity, were to complete their ruin, and thus the arrows of God were to be spent upon them. There is a beautiful saying in the Toozuki Teemour, which will serve to illustrate this point, while it exhibits one of the finest metaphors that occurs in any writer, the Sacred Writers excepted.

"It was once demanded of the fourth Khaleefch (Aaly,) on whom be the mercy of the Creator, 'If the canopy of heaven were a Bow; and if the earth were the cord thereof; and if calamities were ARROWS! if mankind were the mark for those arrows; and if Almighty God, the tremendous and the glorious, were the unerring ARCHER; to whom could the sons of Adam flee for protection?' The Khaleefch answered, saying: 'The sons of Adam must flee unto the Lord.""

Verse 27. Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy] Houbigant and others contend, that wrath here, refers not to the enemy, but to God; and that the passage should be thus translated, "Indignation for the adversary deters me, lest their enemies should be alienated, and say, -The strength of our hands, and not of the Lord's, hath done this." Had not God punished them in such a way, as proved that his hand, and not the hand of man had done it; the heathens would have boasted of their prowess, and Jehovah would have been blasphemed, as not being able to protect his worshippers, or to punish their infidelities. Titus, when he took Jerusalem, was so struck with the strength of the place, that he acknowledged, that if God had not delivered it into his hands, the Roman armies never could have taken it.

31 For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.

32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter:

33 Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.

34 Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?

35 To me belongeth vengeance and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.

36 For the LORD shall judge his people," and repent himself for his servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left.

2. 2-z1 Sam. 4. 8. Jer. 40. 3.-a Isai. 1. 10.-b Or, is worse than the vine of Sodom, &c.-b Ps. 58. 4-e Psa. 140. 3. Rom. 3. 13.-d Job 14. 17. Jer. 2 22. Hos. 13. 12. Rom. 2 5-e Psa. 94. 1. Ecclus. 28. 1. Rom. 12. 19. Hebr. 10. 30-f 2 Pet. 2. 3. g Psa. 135. 14-h Judg. 2. 13. Psa. 106. 45. Jer. 31, 20. Joel 2 14. 2 Mac. 7. 6.-i Heb. hand-k 1 Kings 14. 10. & 21. 21. 2 Kings 9. 8. & 14. 26.

rious days of the Messiah, who, according to the flesh, should spring up among them. Should they carefully consider this subject, and receive the promised Saviour, they would consequently act as persons under infinite obligations to God; his strength would be their shield, and then,

Verse 30. How should one chase a thousand] If, therefore they had not forgotten their Rock, God their Author and Defence, it could not possibly have come to pass, that a thousand of them should flee before one of their enemies. Verse 31. For their rock] The gods and pretended protectors of the Romans.

Is not as our Rock] Have neither power nor influence like our God.

Our enemies themselves being judges.] For they often acknowledged the irresistible power of that God who fought for Israel. See Exod. xiv. 25. Numb. xxiii. S-12-19, 20, 21. 1 Sam. iv. 8.

There is a verse in Virgil, Eclog. iv. ver. 58. very similar to this saying of Moses.

Pan etiam Arcadia mecum si judice certel,
Pan etiam Arcadia dicat se judice victum."

"Should even Pan contend with me" (in singing the praises of the future hero, the deliverer, prophesied of in the Sybilline books) "were even Arcadia judge, Pan would acknowledge himself to be vanquished; Arcadia herself being judge.'

Verse 32. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom] The Jews are as wicked and rebellious as the Sodomites; for by the vine the inhabitants of the land are signified: see Isai. v. 2, 7.

Their grapes] their actions, are gall and wormwood; producing nothing but mischief and misery to themselves and others.

Their clusters are bitter] Their united exertions, as well as their individual acts, are sin, and only sin continually. That by vine is meant the people; and by grapes their moral conduct, is evident from Isa. v. 1-7. It is very likely that the grapes produced about the lake Asphaltites, where Sodom and Gomorrah formerly stood, were not only of an acrid, disagreeable taste, but of a deleterious quality; and to this, it is probable, Moses here al

ludes.

Verse 33. Their wine] Their system of doctrines and teaching, is the poison of dragons, &c. fatal and destructive to all them who follow it.

Verse 34. Sealed up among my treasures?] Deeds or engagements by which persons were bound, at a specified time, to fulfil certain conditions, were sealed, and laid up in places of safety: so here God's justice is pledged to avenge the quarrel of his broken covenant on the disobedient Jews: but the time and manner were sealed in his treasures, and known only to himself. Hence it is said,

Verse 35. Their foot shall slide in due time, &c.] But Calmet thinks that this verse is spoken against the Canaanites, the enemies of the Jewish people.

3. To warn them against irreligion and apostasy—to show the possibility of departing from God, and the miseries that would overwhelm them and their posterity, should they be found walking in opposition to the laws of their Creator.

4. To give a proper and impressive view of the providence of God, by referring to the history of his gracious dealings with them and their ancestors; the minute attention he paid to all their wants; the wonderful manner in which he led, fed, clothed, protected and saved them, in all their travels, and in all perils.

5. To leave on record an everlasting testimony against them, should they ever cast off his fear, and pollute his worship; which should serve at once as a warning to the world, and a vindication of his justice, when the judgments he had threatened were found to be poured out upon them: for he who loved them so long, and so intensely, could not become their enemy, but in consequence of the greatest, and most unprincipled provocations.

6. To show the shocking and unprecedented ingratitude, which induced a people so highly favoured, and so wondrously protected and loved, to sin against their God; and how reasonable and just it was, for the vindication of his holiness, that God should pour out upon them such judg ments as he had never inflicted on any other people, and so mark their disobedience and ingratitude with fresh marks of his displeasure, that the punishment should bear some proportion to the guilt; and that their preservation, as a distinct people, might afford a feeling proof both of the providence and justice of God.

7. To show the glory of the latter days, in the re-election of the long-reprobated Jewish nation, and the final diffusion of his grace and goodness over the earth, by means of the Gospel of Christ.

8. And all this is done with such strength and elegance of diction; with such appropriate, energetic, and impressive figures and metaphors; and in such a powerful torrent of that soul-penetrating, pure, poetic spirit, that comes glowing from the bosom of God, that the reader is alternately elated or depressed, filled with compunction or confidence, with despair or hope, according to the quick transitions of the inimitable writer to the different topics which form the subject of this incomparable, and wondrously varied ode. May that Spirit, by which it was dictated, give it its fullest, most durable and most effectual impression upon the mind of every reader!

NOTES ON CHAPTER XXXIII.

and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with Pten thousands of saints: from his right-hand went 9 a fiery law for them.

3 Yea, he loved the people; all his saints

are in thy hand: and they sat down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words.

4 Moses commanded us a law, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob.

r Exod. 19. 5. Ch. 7. 7, 8. Paa. 47. 4. Hosea, 11. 1. Mal. 1. 2.-8 Chap. 7. 6. 1 Sam. 2. 9. Pa. 50. 5.- Luke 10. 39. Acts 22. 3.-u Prov. 2 1-v John 1. 17. & 7. 19. w Psa. 119. 111.

Verse 3. Yea, he loved the people] This is the inference which Moses makes from those glorious appearances, that God truly loved the people-and that all his saints, kedoshair, the people whom he had consecrated to himself, were under his especial benediction. And that in order to make them a holy nation, God had displayed his glory on mount Sinai, where they had fallen prostrate at his feet with the humblest adoration, sincerely promising the most affectionate obedience. And that God had there commanded them a law, which was to be the possession and inheritance of the children of Jacob, ver. 4. And to crown the whole, he had not only blessed them as their Lawgiver, but had also vouchsafed to be their king, ver. 5. Dr. Kennicott proposes to translate the whole five verses thus:

Ver. 1. And this is the blessing wherewith Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel before his death. And he said

2. Jehovah came from Sinai,

And he arose upon them from Seir;

He shone forth from Mount Paran,
And he came from Meribah-Kadesh:

From his right hand a fire shone forth upon them.

3. Truly, he loved the people,

And he blessed all his saints:
For they fell down at his feet,
And they received of his words.

4. He commanded us a law,

The inheritance of the congregation of Jacob.

5. And he became king in Jeshurun:

When the heads of the people were assembled,
Together with the tribes of Israel.

We have already seen, that Dr. Kennicott reads
p Meribah-Kadesh, the name of a place, instead of

na Meribeboth Kadesk, which, by a most unnatural and forced construction, our version renders ten thousand saints, a translation which no circumstance of the history justifies.

Instead of a fiery law, ♫ wн esh dath, he reads, following the Samaritan version, esh aur, a fire shining out upon them. In vindication of this change in the original, it may be observed. 1. That though dath, signifies a law; yet it is a Chaldee term, and appears nowhere in any part of the Sacred Writings, previous to the Babylonish captivity: an torah, being the term constantly used to express the law, at all times prior to the corruption of the Hebrew by the Chaldee. 2. That the word itself is obscure in its present situation, as the Hebrew Bibles write it and esh in one word, л eshdath, which has no meaning; and which, order to give it one, the Maso

1. The manifestation of the Divine glory on Sinai, as it was prior in time, and more magnificent in splendour, is mentioned first.

2. That God manifested his glory at Seir, is evident from Judg. v. 4. Lord, when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of the fields of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, &c.

The next place is Paran, where the glory of the Lord appeared before all the children of Israel, Numb. xiv. 10. Instead of he came with ten thousand saints, by which our translators have rendered p na Meribboth Kadesh, Dr. Kennicott reads Meribah-Kadesh, the name of a place for we find that toward the end of forty years the Israelites came to Kadesh, Numb. x. 1. which was also called Meribah, on account of their contentious opposition to the determinations of God in their favour, ver. 13. and there the glory of the Lord again appeared, as we are informed ver. 6. These four places, Sinai, Seir, Paran, and Meribah-Kadesh, mentioned by Moses in the text, are the identical places where God manifested his glory in a fiery appearance, the more illustriously to proclaim his special providence over, and care of Israel.

nected. 3. That the word is not acknowledged by the two most ancient versions, the Septuagint and Syriac. 4. That in the parallel place, Habak. iii. 3, 4. a word is used which expresses the rays of light, kernim, horns, that is, splendours, rays, or effulgence of light. 5. That on all these accounts, together with the almost impossibility of giving a rational meaning to the text as it now stands, the translation contended for should be adopted.

Verse 3. Instead of All his saints are in his hand, Dr. Kennicott reads, He blessed all his saints-changing 72 beyadca into barac, he blessed, which word, all who understand the Hebrew letters, will see might be easily mistaken for the other; thedaleth and theresh, being not only in MSS. but also in printed books, often so much alike, that analogy alone can determine which is the true letter: and except in the insertion of the yod, which might have been easily mistaken for the apex at the top of the beth, very frequently in MSS. both words have the nearest resemblance. To this may be added, that the Syriac version has 4 barac, he blessed.

Instead of a lerageleca, and para midabeṛoteyca, THY feet, and THY words, Dr. Kennicott reads the pronouns in the third person sing. r leregelair, and midebaratair, mis feet, HIS words, in which he is supported both by the Septuagint and Vulgate. He also changes Nyissa, HE shall receive, into Nyisseu, THEY shall receive.

He contends also that nwo Mosheh, Moses in the fourth