alvos un kαi aɛl σlηooμái: according to MSS. Pachom. and 1. D. 11. and edition Complut. which word by has been omitted in the text by an easy mistake of a transcriber, because of the similitude of the word preceding.

15. —dry deserts] Instead of ", islands, read ; a very probable conjecture of Houbigant.

16. And through paths-] The LXX, Syr. Vulg, and nine MSS. (two ancient), read.

Ibid. —will I do for them] ny, this word so written, as it is in the text, means, thou wilt do, in the second person: the Masoretes have indeed pointed it for the first person; but the in the last syllable is absolutely necessary to distinguish the first person; and so it is written in

עשיחים,.forty MMS

Jarchi, Kimchi, Sal. b. Melech, &c. agree, that the past time is here put for the future, wy, for mwyn; and indeed the context necessarily requires that interpretation. Farther, it is to be observed, that

I have done them, for I have done for thems ; as עשיתי להם is for עשיתים

w is for y, I have made myself, for I have made for myself; Ezek. xxix. 3. and in the celebrated passage of Jephthah's vow, Judges

-I will offer him a burnt העליתי לו עולה for,והעליתיהו עולה .31 .xi

offering, for I will offer unto him (that is unto JEHOVAH) a burnt-offering; by an ellipsis of the preposition, of which Buxtorf gives many other examples, Thes. Grammat. lib. ii. 17. See also note on chap. Ixv. 5. A late happy application of this grammatical remark to that much disputed passage, has perfectly cleared up a difficulty, which for two thousand years had puzzled all the translators and expositors, had given occasion to dissertations without number, and caused endless disputes among the learned, on the question, whether Jephthah sacrificed his daughter, or not: in which both parties have been equally ignorant of the meaning of the place, of the state of the fact, and of the very terms of the vow: which now at last has been cleared up beyond all doubt by my very learned friend Dr. Randolph, Margaret Professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford, in his sermon on Jephthah's Vow: Oxford, 1766.

19. -as he, to whom I have sent my messengers.] ́nbwx "ɔxbpɔ, “ut ad quem nuncios meos misi." Vulg. Chald. almost the only interpreters who render it rightly, in consistence with the rest of the sentence, and in perfect agreement with the Hebrew idiom; according to which the ellip

כלאשר מלאכי אשלח,sis is to be thus supplied

Ibid. -as he that is perfectly instructed] See note on chap. xliv. 2. Ibid. And deaf as the servant of JEHOVAH.] For ny), and blind, we we must read, and deaf: кwpoc, Symmachus; and so MS. The mistake is palpable, and the correction self-evident; and admissible, though there had been no authority for it.

20. Thou hast seen indeed], which the Masoretes in the marginal Keri have corrected to ; as indeed a hundred and seven MSS., and five editions, now have it in the text. This was probably the reading of most of the MSS. in their time; which though they approved of it, out of some superstition they would not admit into their standard text. But these wretched critics, though they perceived there was some fault, yet did not know where the fault lay, nor consequently

how to amend it: and yet it was open enough to a judicious eye: “M, sic veteres; et tamen forte legendum, : vide cap. vi. 9." SECKER. That is, . I believe no one will doubt of admitting this as the true reading.

Ibid. —yet thou wilt not hear] For O, read you, in the second person: so all the ancient versions, and forty MSS. (four of them ancient); and perhaps five more. Two others have won, second person plural. 21. —his own praise] For, the LXX read A.

22. are taken in the toils] For, read , in the plural number, Hophal; as, which answers to it in the following member of the sentence: Le Clerc, Houbigant. D, SECKER.

24. —they have sinned] For ND first person, LXX and Chald. read N, in the third person.

25. —the heat of his wrath] For, the Bodley MS. has, in regimine; more regularly.

CHAP. XLIII.

1. I have called thee by thy name] TOWA 'AN7P. “Sic versiones.

vocavite] קראתיך בשמי Videtur ex versu septimo et reipsa legendum

meo nomine]; nam sæpe usurpatur hæc phrasis, nunquam altera. Nam xlv. 24. de Cyro. alia res est. Sed dum Deus Jacobum Israelem vocat, Dei nomine vocat. Vide Exod. xxxi. 2." SECKER.

3. I have given Egypt for thy ransom] This is commonly supposed to refer to the time of Senacherib's invasion; who, when he was just ready to fall upon Jerusalem, soon after his entering Judea, was providentially diverted from that design, and turned his arms against the Egyptians, and their allies the Cushean Arabians, with their neighbours the Sabeans probably joined with them, under Tirhakah. See chap. xx and xxxvii. 9. Or, as there are some reasonable objections to this opinion, perhaps it may mean more generally, that God had often saved his people at the expense of other nations, whom he had, as it were in their stead, given up to destruction. Vitringa explains this of Shalmaneser's designs upon the kingdom of Judea, after he had destroyed that of Samaria, from which he was diverted, by carrying the war against the Egyptians, Cusheans, and Sabeans: but of this, I think, he has no clear proof in history. It is not to be wondered, that many things of this kind should remain very obscure for want of the light of history, which in regard to these times is extremely deficient.

"Did not Cyrus overcome these nations? and might they not be given him for releasing the Jews? It seems to have been so from chap. xlv. 14." SECKER.

7. Whom for my glory-] Ten MSS. (three ancient), Syr. and Vulg. read, without the conjunction .

8. Bring forth the people blind-] I understand this of the Gentiles, as the verse following, not of the Jews. Their natural faculties, if they had made a proper use of them, must have led them to the knowledge of the being and attributes of the one true God; "for his eternal power and Godhead, if well attended to, are clearly seen in his works;" Rom. i. 20. and would have preserved them from running into the folly and absur

dity of worshipping idols. They are here challenged to produce the evidence of the power and foreknowledge of their idol gods; and the Jews are just afterward, ver. 10. appealed to as witnesses for God in this cause; therefore these latter cannot here be meant by the people blind with eyes, and deaf with ears.

9. Who among them-] Seven MSS. (three ancient), and the first edition, 1486, with Syr. and Vulg. read who among you. The pre

sent reading is preferable.

14. -the Chaldeans exulting in their ships] Babylon was very advantageously situated, both in respect to commerce and as a naval power. It was open to the Persian Gulf by the Euphrates, which was navigable by large vessels; and being joined to the Tigris above Babylon by the canal called Naharmalca, or the Royal River, supplied the city with the produce of the whole country to the north of it, as far as the Euxine and Caspian Seas. Herod. i. 194. Semiramis was the foundress of this part also of the Babylonian greatness; she improved the navigation of the Euphrates; Herod. i. 184. Strabo, lib. xvi. and is said to have had a fleet of three thousand gallies. Huet, Hist. du Commerce, chap. xi. We are not to wonder, that in later times we hear little of the commerce and naval power of Babylon: for, after the taking of the city by Cyrus, the Euphrates was not only rendered less fit for navigation, by being on that occasion diverted from its course, and left to spread over the whole country; but the Persian monarchs, residing in their own country, to prevent any invasion by sea on that part of their empire, purposely obstructed the navigation of both the rivers, by making cataracts in them; Strabo, ibid.; that is, by raising dams across the channel, and making artificial falls in them, that no vessel of any size or force could possibly come up. Alexander began to restore the navigation of the rivers by demolishing the cataracts upon the Tigris as far up as Seleucia, Arrian. lib. vii.; but he did not live to finish his great designs: those upon the Eu. phrates still continued, Ammianus, xxiv. 1. mentions them as subsisting in his time.

The prophet therefore might very justly speak of the Chaldeans, as glorying in their naval power in his time; though afterward they had no foundation for making any such boast.

15. The Creator of Israel] For , Creator, six MSS. (two ancient) have, God.

20. The wild beast of the field shall glorify me—] The image is elegant and highly poetical. God will give such an abundant miraculous supply of water to his people traversing the dry desert, in their return to their country, that even the wild beasts, the serpents, the ostriches, and other animals that haunt those adust regions, shall be sensible of the blessing; and shall break forth into thanksgiving and praises to him for the unusual refreshment, which they receive from his so plentifully watering the sandy wastes of Arabia Deserta, for the benefit of his people passing through them.

22-24. But thou hast not invoked-] The connexion is: But thou, Israel, whom I have chosen, whom I have formed for myself, to be my witness against the false gods of the nations; even thou hast revolted from me, hast neglected my worship, and hast been perpetually running after

strange gods. The emphasis of this and the following parts of the sentence, on which the sense depend, seems to lie on the words Me, on My account, &c. The Jews were diligent in performing the external services of religion; in offering prayers, incense, sacrifices, oblations: but their prayers were not offered with faith; and their oblations were made more frequently to their idols, than to the God of their fathers. The Hebrew idiom excludes with a general negative, in a comparative sense, one of two objects opposed to one another: thus, "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." Hosea vi. 6. "For I spake not to your fathers, nor commanded them,-concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices; but this thing I commanded them, saying, Obey my voice." Jer. vii. 22, 23. And the meaning of this place of Isaiah seems to be much the same with that of Amos; who however has explained at large both parts of the comparison, and specified the false service opposed to the true:

"Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings,

;ויגעת

In the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?

Nay, but ye bave borne the tabernacle of your Moloch,
And Chiun, your images;

The star of your God, which you made to yourselves."

Amos v. 25, 26.

22. Neither hast thou laboured-] For ny, LXX and Vulg. read y: Houbigant. The negative is repeated, or referred to, by the conjunction ; as in many other places. See note on chap. xxiii. 4. 28. And thy princes have profaned--] Instead of x), read 5. So Syr. and LXX, και εμιαναν οἱ ἄρχοντες τα άγια μου, p. Houbigant. Oi aρxovтes σov, MSS Pachom. and 1. D. 11. and Marchal.

Ibid. —to reproach], in the singular number: so an ancient MS., and LXX, Syr. Vulg.

CHAP. XLIV.

2. JESHURUN means Israel. This name was given to that people by Moses, Deut. xxxii. 15. xxxiii. 5. 26. The most probable account of it seems to be that in which the Jewish commentators agree; namely, that it is derived from, and signifies upright. In the same manner, Israel, as a people, is called b, perfect, chap. xlii. 19. They were taught of God, and abundantly furnished with the means of rectitude and perfection in his service and worship.

4. —as the grass among the waters] V, "They shall spring up in the midst of, or rather, in among, the grass." This cannot be right: ten MSS., and two editions, have , or 1 Twenty-four MSS. read it without the, ; and so reads the Chaldee; the Syriac, P. The true reading is in all probability ; and the word, which should have followed it, is lost out of the text: but it is happily supplied by the LXX: wc ava peσov údaros. "In every place where there is water, there is always grass: for water makes every thing grow in the east." Sir p. 54. John Chardin's note on 1 Kings xviii. 5. Harmer's Observ. i. 5. —shall be called] Passive, P, Anoncerai, Symmachus. Ibid. And this shall inscribe his hand to JEHOVAH] Kai έrepog eπiypakei 66 And another shall write χειρί (χειρα, Ag. Sym.) αυτου, του Θεου ειμι:

upon his hand, I belong to God." LXX. They seem to have read here, as before, N. But the repetition of the same phrase without any variation is not elegant. However, they seem to have understood it rightly, as an allusion to the marks, which were made by punctures rendered indelible by fire, or by staining, upon the hand or some other part of the body, signifying the state or character of the person, and to whom he belonged the slave was marked with the name of his master; the soldier, of his commander; the idolater, with the name or ensign of his god: στιγματα επιγραφομενα, οία των στρατευομενων εν ταις χερσιν. Aetius apud Turnebum Advers. xxiv. 12. "Victuris in cute punctis milites scripti et matriculis inserti jurare solent." Vegetius, ii. 5. And the Christians seem to have imitated this practice, by what Procopius says on this place of Isaiah: το δε ΤΗι ΧΕΙΡΙ, δια το στίζειν ίσως πολλους επι καρπων, η βραχιόνων, η του σταυρου το σημείον, η την Χριστου προσηγορίαν. "Because many marked their wrists, or their arms, with the sign of the cross, or with the name of Christ." See Rev. xx. 4. Spencer, de Leg. Hebr. lib. ii. cap. 20.

7. —let them declare unto us.] , unto us. The LXX read the reading of the text. But

For, unto them, the Chaldee reads unto you; which is preferable to and are frequently mistaken one

for the other: see chap. x. 29. Psal. lxxx. 7. lxiv. 6. 8. Fear ye not—]

SECKER. Two MSS. read

A nusquam occurrit: forte, timete."

9, 10. That every one may be ashamed, that he hath formed a god] The Bodleian MS., one of the first extant for its antiquity and authority, instead of at the beginning of the 10th verse has, which greatly clears up the construction of a very obscure passage. The LXX likewise closely connect in construction the end of ver. 9. with the beginning of ver. 10. and wholly omit the interrogative, which embarasses the sentence: αισχυνθήσονται οἱ πλάσσοντες Θεον, και γλυφοντες παντες ανώφελη : agreeably to the reading of the MS. above-mentioned.

11. Even the workmen themselves shall blush] I do not know, that any one has ever yet interpreted these words to any tolerably good sense: DIND MDM O. The Vulgate, and our translators, have rendered them very fairly, as they are written and pointed in the text: "Fabri enim sunt ex hominibus.” “And the workmen they are of men," Out of which the commentators have not been able to extract any thing worthy of the prophet. I have given another explanation of the place; agreeable enough to the context, if it can be deduced from the words themselves. I presume, that DTN, rubuit, may signify erubuit, to be red through shame, as well as from any other cause; though I cannot produce any example of it in that particular sense: and the word in the text I would point; or if any one should object to the irregularity of the number, I would read DTND. But I rather think, that the irregularity of the construction has been the cause of the obscurity, and has given occasion to the mistaken punctuation. The singular is sometimes put for the plural; see Psal. Ixviii. 31. and the participle for the future tense; see Isa. lx. 11.

12. —cutteth off-] Ty, Participium Pihel of Ty, to cut; stil?