and Cherubim full of living motions; but as he continues to describe the motion of the throne by his wonderful forms, he makes unpleasing impressions. "Even where these consequences do not arise from the prolix details of the prophet, he is misled by them to other faults which are equally striking. They sometimes carry him to things which are unnatural. Thus he has acted against nature in slaying what is not food. How much superior is 2 Isaiah in a similar representation! And should not the great profusion of learning in the 3 elegy and funeral lamentation over Tyre, when she was destroyed, be quite removed from such a piece? "On the contrary, it was a happy invention that his lofty poems are sometimes interrupted by short speeches. They are not only useful for the illustration of his symbols, but also for the repose of the mind. By this change his readers are agreeably entertained; and their imagination finds resting places, so as to soar more easily after the imagination of the poet. "Ezekiel therefore remains a great poet, full of originality, notwithstanding all his faults: and, in my opinion, whoever censures him as if he were only an imitator of the old prophets, can never have felt his power. He must not in general be compared with Isaiah, and the rest of the old prophets. Those are great; Ezekiel is also great those in their manner of poetry, Ezekiel in his : which he had invented for himself, if we may form our judgments from the Hebrew monuments still extant. "The ideas which he has in common with them are general ideas, which none of the ancient prophets took out of their own stock, but probably from Moses, the prototype of the Hebrew poets and prophets.-Faithless Israel is with him a shameless harlot; as with Isaiah and other prophets: and was not the origin of this representation already in Moses? "In many poems, as far as we can discern, he is really new. The great piece of Gog and Magog is his own: the chariot-throne of God is his invention: the pleasing rainbow over the bright fire of God, to fortify the eye of the seer half consumed by it, is his creation." 1 C. xxxix. 18. 20. 2 C. xxxiv. 6. 3 C. xxvii. My own judgment on the distinguishing character of Ezekiel will naturally be expected, after so ample a detail of the sentiments which others have entertained on that subject. I do not consider him as the framer of those august and astonishing visions, and of those admirable poetical representations, which he committed to writing; but as an instrument in the hands of God, who vouchsafed to reveal himself, through a long succession of ages, not only in divers parts constituting a magnificent and uniform whole, but also in divers manners, as by a voice, by dreams, by inspiration, and by plain or enigmatical vision. If he is circumstantial in describing the wonderful scenes which were presented to him in the visions of God, he should be regarded as a faithful representer of the divine revelations for the purpose of information and instruction; and not as exhausting an exuberant fancy in minutely filling up an ideal picture. It is probable that Buzi, his father, had preserved his own family from the taint of idolatry; and had educated his son for the priestly office in all the learning of the Hebrews, and particularly in the study of their sacred books. Josephus says that he was a youth at the time of his captivity; and his first revelation was made to him only five years after that period. This is a season of life when a fervour of imagination is natural in men of superior endowments. His genius led him to amplification; like that of Ovid, Lucan, and Juvenal, among the Roman poets though he occasionally shews himself capable of the austere and concise manner; of which the viith chapter is a remarkable instance. But the divine spirit did not overrule the natural bent of his mind. Variety is thus produced in the sacred writings. Nahum sounds the trumpet of war, Hosea is sententious, Isaiah sublime, Jeremiah pathetic, Ezekiel copious. This diffuseness of manner in mild and affectionate exhortation, this vehement enlarging on the guilt and consequent sufferings of his countrymen, seems wisely adapted to their capacities and circumstances; and must have had a forcible tendency to awaken them from their lethargy. 2 But let us descend to particulars. We sometimes find in Ezekiel that clear and flowing eloquence which Tully calls "genus orationis fusum atque tractum, et cum lenitate quadam æquabili profluens." 1 Пoλvμeрws. Hebr. i. 1. So Aristotle speaks of μía πpážis woλvμephs. Poet. §. 23. 2 Пaîs, . Josiah is so called when he was sixteen years of age. 2 Chron. xxxiv. 3. 3 De oratore. ii. xv. The reader may observe instances of this, c. v. 5—17. vi. xiv. xviii. xx, 1-44. xxxiii. 1-20. xxxiv. xxxvi. But his manner of writing is never enervated: it is often strong and masculine. A perusal of the following passages will reward the lover of Hebrew composition: they are mostly instances of the true deivwors, or exaggeration, which Quinctilian defines to be, "rebus indignis, asperis, invidiosis, addens vim oratio." c. xx. 45-48. xxi. 3—7. xxii. 2-16. 24-31. xxiii. 31-34. xxvii. 28-32. xxxv. 5, 6. It is also evident that this prophet sometimes rises to the sublime. Let the truth of this assertion be tried by a few examples: When I shall send upon you the evil arrows of famine. C. v. 16. The king shall lament himself, and the prince shall be clothed with astonishment. C. vii. 27. Thou therefore, son of man, prophesy, And smite thine hands together; And bring the sword twice, yea, bring it thrice: It is the sword of the slain; The sword of great slaughter; it entereth into their chambers. That their heart may melt, and their overthrow may be multiplied, Ah! thou that art prepared for glittering, that art furbished for Get thee different ways, go to the right hand, go to the left hand, I also will smite mine hands together, And I will cause my fury to rest upon thee: I Jehovah have spoken it. C. xxi. 14-17. Lo, I am against thee, O Tyre; And I will cause many nations to come up against thee, C. xxvi. 3. Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters: Lo, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt ; C. xxvii. 26. That saith, 66 My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself. 1 Inst. orat. vi. 2. C. xxix. 3. At Tahapanes the day shall be darkened; When I break there the yokes of Egypt, And when the pride of her strength shall cease in her. And her daughters shall go into captivity. Thus saith the Lord Jehovah : In the day when he went down to the grave, I caused the deep to mourn, I covered it, for him ; C. xxx. 18. And I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed; And all the trees of the field fainted for him. Thou shalt go up, as a storm cometh ; C. xxxi. 15. C. xxxviii. 9. If this is the old age of the Hebrew language and composition, it is a firm and vigorous one; and should induce us to trace its youth and manhood with the most assiduous attention. THIS LANGUAGE is of very remote antiquity, and of a most curious structure; it abounds in those nerves of language, verbs and substantives; it occasionally furnishes the * onomatopoeia; its roots often express the leading † quality of the derivative: and it is singularly concise, forcible, and majestic. צעק and פעה,to blow פוח,to bray נהק,to howl ילל ,to be broken חתת As * to cry out, yy to break, by to beat the tabret, &c. thunder, wy to shake, N to roar, xw to pant, From the many instances which present themselves, I shall select the names for idols or images; from which the copiousness of the Hebrew language in some respects may also appear. 1. * an idol, because it is worshipped with terror, or occasions terror to its worshippers. ,to lament אלל or אלה an idol, because it is a thing of nought; or from אלל .2 3. as it is the cause of lamentation. an idol, from its polluting filthy nature: a signifying convolutio ster coris humani. 4. On an image, supposed to be that of the sun, from on to be hot. an image, from y, in Hiphil, to set up. an image. Arab. pacem fecit. xy an idol, from ayy to grieve, because it occasions grief. an idol, from y to tremble, because it is worshipped with trembling, or occasions trembling to its worshippers. .to engrave פסל an image, from פסל .9 10. y an idol, from 1 to straiten, to distress; because it straitens and distresses its worshippers. 11. by an image, from the Syriac verb imagine expressit. 12.,, an image, from the Arabic root similis fuit. 13. rpw, an idol, from ypw to be abominable. 14., an image, probably of a man. The defects commonly imputed to it are its want of copiousness, its want of perspicuity, and its want of culture and elegance. It undoubtedly was not the language of a people famed for commerce, arts, and learning; of an extensive country, or powerful empire: the usual sources from which languages have derived their copiousness and polish. The Hebrews inhabited a narrow territory; and their religious rites were intended to exclude them from intercourse with the idolatrous nations which surrounded them. But it must be observed that the remains of this language are comprehended in one volume; ample indeed, and greatly diversified as to its matter and style, but of very inconsiderable bulk when compared with the Greek and Roman writings which have escaped the wreck of time. Hence it follows that we are not acquainted with its full extent. If the book of Jasher and of 2 lamentations, all the odes 3 of Solomon, and all his 3 writings on natural history, were now extant; if the larger annals of the kings of Judah and Israel, and the histories ascribed to several 5 prophets, had also been transmitted to us; the Hebrew tongue would have been enriched with many additional words and phrases, and many dark passages in the books which are preserved would have been placed in the clearest light. It is true, as Le Clerc asserts, that there is a similar thread of narration, and much repetition of the same words and phrases, in the historical books of every age: but it is equally true that we find great variety in the manner and style of the poetical books, among which a large proportion of the prophetical writings is justly included. 4 On this supposed poverty of the Hebrew tongue let the reader weigh the opinion of an eminent judge; who appears to have studied the language as accurately, and to have understood it as intimately, as any modern critic. "As 7 to the nature of the language itself, which you say is the most barren of all languages; I take this to be a charge which you cannot prove. What did the Hebrew writers then want words and phrases, to express properly and fully the subjects of which they 1 Josh. x. 13. 2 Sam. i. 18. 2 2 Chron. xxxv. 25. 31 Kings iv. 32, 33. 5 See 1 Chron. xxix. 29. 2 Chron. ix. 29, xii. 15, xiii. 22, xx. 34, xxxii. 32, xxxiii. 19. 6 Diss. de lingua Hebraica, p. viii. prefixed to his comment on the Pentateuch. 7 Lowth's Letter to Warburton. 2nd. ed. Lond. 1766. |