in the fourth century. The Æthiopic and Arabic versions are generally allowed to be translations from the Greek. The period which some learned men have assigned to the Æthiopic is the apostolical age. Saadias rendered the Pentateuch into Arabic about the year 900 of the Christian era. The other Arabic versions of the Old Testament are of an uncertain date. We also derive important assistance from the Masoretic punctuation; from the grammars, lexicons, concordances, and commentaries of the later Jews, and from the more complete, learned, and judicious ones of modern times; from that invaluable discovery, the text of the Samaritan Pentateuch; and from that grand and highly useful undertaking, the collation of Hebrew and Samaritan manuscripts.

The difficulties in the Hebrew scriptures will be diminished in proportion as our external helps are multiplied; and as these inestimable books are carefully studied by men who add to sagacity and judgment a large share of human learning, and that insight into the nature of language which arises from logical and critical enquiries, and from an acquaintance with the structure of the learned tongues and of the kindred oriental dialects. “The Hebrew language, like others," says 1 a competent judge, " has its ambiguities and anomalies; (for where is there one that has not?) yet it is in the main a regular and a beautiful language: like the works of God, at least in its original contrivance, wonderfully simple, and yet artificial; and very intelligible to those who will be at the pains to study it."

1

The last disparaging remark on the Hebrew language is, that it never received polish and elegance from a studious cultivation.

Whether we consider the historical style of Moses, or the 2 orations and poems interspersed in his books; he is the first of the Hebrew writers in point of excellence as well as antiquity. In him the Hebrew language attained its perfection at once; as the Greek did, long afterwards, in the poetry of Homer, and in the prose of Herodotus. We cannot doubt but that succeeding writers formed themselves by this great model; and particularly the prophets who were trained in the schools instituted by Samuel. Among these we

3

1 Peters on Job. Dissert. p. xxviii, 2d ed.

2 See Gen. xliv. 18-34: and the book of Deut. particularly c. iv. 1-40. vi. viii. x. 12-22. xxviii, xxix. xxx.

31 Sam. xix. 20.

find that the art of music was cultivated; probably because it was suited to the remarkable alternation which prevails in the Hebrew poetry: so that they were sister-arts, and might well flourish together. How far they pursued the other arts and disciplines which tend to polish and enrich a language, it is impossible to determine; but it is hardy to assert, with Le Clerc, that they were neglected and despised. On the rhythm and harmony of the Hebrew language we are wholly unqualified to pass a judgment: and the pleasure which would naturally have arisen from these sources is irrecoverably lost. Strength appears to be its characteristic: but a strength by no means void of manly beauty. Nor can its graceful dignity be always perceived in a verbal translation; which not uncommonly disguises the original, as much as a prosaic rendering would cast a veil over the beauties of Homer or Sophocles. However, various kinds of beauty will ever shine by their native splendour throughout the Hebrew scriptures.

4

6

We are often struck by the force and novelty of the eastern metaphor and periphrasis. The sword 2 devours flesh, and is made 3 drunk with blood; the floods clap their hands; the valleys, covered with corn, 5 shout for joy and sing; a fountain is an eye of water, the Arabian Gulf is the tongue of the Egyptian sea; a bird is the master of the wing, the pupil is the daughter of the eye, * an arrow is the 10 son of the quiver, a spark is the 11 son of the burning coal, * the most terrible destruction is the 1 first-born of death.

The peculiar conformation, or parallelism, of the sentences, is the grand artifice and principal characteristic of the Hebrew poetry; and a copious source of exquisite embellishment. This subject is largely and ably discussed in Bishop Lowth's excellent treatise on the Hebrew poetry; and in the very instructive preliminary dissertation prefixed to his comment on Isaiah. From the various examples of ornament and elegance which might be produced, I shall select a very few; and

1 1 Sam. x. 5.

2 Deut. xxxii. 42.

3 Jer. xlvi. 10.

4 Ps. xcviii. 8.

5 Ps. lxv. 13.

6 Gen. xlix. 22.

7 Isai. xi. 15.

8 Prov. i. 17.

9 Lam. ii. 18.

10 Lam. iii. 13.

11 Job. v. 7.

12 Job. xviii. 13.

*The passages marked with an asterisk occur in the prelections on the Hebrew poetry; which may be considered as a storehouse of the beauties contained in the Old Testament.

those of that particular class, where the following clauses so diversify the preceding ones as to rise above them.

To bring him that is bound out of the dungeon;

And them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. Isai. xlii. 7.

And the night in which it was said, A man child is brought forth.

Job iii. 3.

He forsook God that made him ;

And lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. Deut. xxxii. 15.

He found him in a desert land,

And in the waste howling wilderness:

He led him about, he instructed him

He kept him as the apple of his eye.

Deut. xxxii. 10.

My substance was not hidden from thee,
When I was made in secret,

And curiously wrought in the lower 2 parts of the earth.

1 Wrought as embroidery, or needlework. Acupictus. Acupingendi artificium apud Hebræos dicatum sanctuario. Præl. Hebr. viii.

Tua pinxit acus mirabile textum. Ib. xxix.

2 The lower parts of the earth is a phrase equivalent to here below. Isai. xliv. 23.

Then the proud waters
Had † gone over our soul.

Ps. cxxiv. 2-5.

The comparisons in the Hebrew scriptures are apt, elegant, and magnificent.

* The heavens shall be rolled up as a scroll:

And all their host shall fade,

As the leaf falleth from the vine,

And as the falling fig from the figtree.

Isai. xxxiv. 4.

* The land staggereth greatly, as a drunkard; And moveth herself, as a lodge for a night.

Isai. xxiv. 20.

Nebuchadnezzar shall array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shep

herd arrayeth himself with his garment.

Jer. xliii. 12.

*As the rain cometh down,

And the snow from the heavens,

And returneth not thither;

But watereth the earth,

And maketh it bring forth, and spring up,

That it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

So shall my word be which goeth forth from my mouth;

It shall not return unto me void,

But it shall accomplish that which I have desired,

And prosper that for which I have sent it.

As when the lion roareth,

Even the young lion, over his prey;

ty. Hare.

d

Isai. lv. 10, 11.

See Chald.

Though the whole company of shepherds be called forth against him,
He will not be afraid because of their voice,

Nor abase himself because of their multitude:

So shall Jehovah God of hosts come down to fight
For mount Sion, and for the hill thereof.

1

Isai. xxxi. 4.

When the metaphorical style is continued, that species of writing arises which rhetoricians call allegory. I have already quoted one of Ezekiel's allegories, as an example of his poetical beauties. There is a well known 2 allegory in the psalms, which is deservedly admired for its happy adjuncts, and for the natural manner in which it gradually passes from the figurative to the literal style.

* Thou didst bring a vine out of Egypt;

Thou didst cast out the heathen, and plant it.

Thou didst prepare a place before it,

And didst cause it to take deep root; and it filled the land.

The hills were covered with its shadow,

And its boughs were like the goodly cedars.

She sent forth her branches to the

sea,

And her young shoots to the river.

Why hast thou then broken down her hedges,
So that all who pass by the way pluck her?

The boar out of the wood wasteth it,

And the wild beast of the field devoureth it.

Return, we pray thee, O God of hosts,

Look down from heaven, and behold,

And visit this vine;

And the stock which thy right hand hath planted,

And the † son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself.

It is burnt with fire, it is cut down :

They perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.

Ps. lxxx. 8-16.

The prophet Nahum thus exults over the fall of Nineveh; whose king had lately taken Samaria, and carried the ten tribes of Israel into captivity.

"Where now is the habitation of the lions,

And that which was the feeding-place of the young lions?
Whither the lion and the lioness went,

+ See versions and MSS.

1 Page viii.

2 See Præl. Hebr. x. 125.

The Mediterranean sea, and the river Euphrates, were the promised boundaries of Palestine, if the Israelites had faithfully served God. Deut. xi. 24. Josh. i. 4.