And he smelleth the battle afar off, The thunder of the † captains, and the shouting. Job xxxix. 19-25. I shall in the next place select a few examples from among the many affecting elegies which occur in the Hebrew scriptures. David's most beautiful lamentation over Saul and Jonathan claims the first place. * O glory of Israel, slain upon thine high places! How are the mighty fallen! Tell it not in Gath, Publish it not in the streets of Askelon; Lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, Lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. Neither let there be rain, upon you; Nor fields that bear heave-offerings. For there the shield of the mighty was cast away; The shield of Saul, the || weapons of him who was anointed with oil. From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, The bow of Jonathan turned not back, Neither did the sword of Saul return, § empty. Saul and Jonathan Were mutually beloved, and dear, in their lives; And in their death they were not divided. They were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions. Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, Who clothed you in scarlet ++ and delightful apparel, Who put ornaments of gold on your garments. How are the mighty fallen, In the midst of the battle! O Jonathan, slain, upon thine high places! How are the mighty fallen, And the weapons of war perished! 2 Sam. i. 19-27. The prophet Jeremiah is peculiarly excellent in this species of writing. Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by the way? Behold, and see, + Or, leaders. H. of heave-offerings. | 1 MS. 2 edd. tt H. with delights. If there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which Jehovah hath Wherewith he hath afflicted me, in the day of his hot anger. Sometimes the grief of this poet expresses itself in a more lofty tone. Interdum tamen et vocem querimonia tollit. How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Sion with a cloud in his anger! And cast down from heaven to earth the beauty of Israel, And remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger! He hath bent his bow like an enemy;' he hath stood with his right And hath slain [every † youth,] all that were desirable to the eye; fury like fire. The elders of the daughter of Sion sit upon the ground, they keep silence; They cast dust upon their heads, they gird themselves with sackcloth: 1 Lam. ii. 1, 4, 10. and praises of the hymns of Homer The Hebrew poets often celebrate the actions Deity in poems which bear a resemblance to the and Callimachus. Bishop Lowth instances in the civth, the cviith, and the cxxxixth psalms, which are admirable in their kind. The ciiid psalm is a sacred hymn which has always forcibly affected me. Bless Jehovah, O my soul; And all that is within me bless his holy name: Bless Jehovah, O my soul; And forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; Who healeth all thine infirmities: Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; Who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies: Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, So that thou | renewest thy youth like an eagle. Chald. Bp. Lowth. Or, vigour. Cocc. lex. 8vo. .MS 1 תחדש .And who reneweth. Syr ומחדש | 1 See Præl. Hebr. xxix. Jehovah executeth righteousness, And judgment, for all them that are oppressed. And his works unto the sons of Israel. Slow to anger, and plenteous in loving-kindness. Neither will he keep his anger for ever. He hath not dealt with us according to our sins, For as the height of the heavens over the earth, Sot high is his loving-kindness over them that fear him. So far doth he remove our transgressions from us. As a father hath tender mercy on his children, So hath Jehovah tender mercy on them that fear him. He remembereth that we are dust. The days of man are as grass: As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; And the place thereof knoweth it no more. But the loving-kindness of Jehovah is from everlasting And his righteousness unto children's children; Among those that keep his covenant, And remember his precepts to do them. Jehovah hath established his throne in the heavens, And his kingdom ruleth over all. Bless Jehovah [all] ye his angels, That excel in strength, that execute his word," That hearken to the voice of his word. Bless Jehovah, all ye his hosts, Ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure. Bless Jehovah, all ye his works, In all places of his dominion. Bless Jehovah, O my soul. Of the odes which occur in the Hebrew scriptures some are remarkable for grace and elegance, others for grandeur and sublimity. Of the beautiful odes the most distinguished seem to be the * xixth psalm, the *xxivth, the lxxiid, and the cxivth; which last I shall subjoin. When Israel went forth from Egypt, And the house of Jacob from a people of a strange language; + Secker. Lowth. The lxx. Ar. Eth. Vulg. 4 MSS. The following similar letters, 2, seem to have excluded. See v. 21, 22. Judah was his holy portion, Israel his kingdom. The sea 2 saw him and fled, Jordan turned back. The 3 mountains skipped like rams; The hills like † young ones of the flock. What befel thee, thou sea, that thou fleddest? Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams? And ye hills, like young ones of the flock? 4 Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord; At the presence of the God of Jacob: Who turned the rock into a pool of water And the flint-stone into 5 springs of water. 6 The loftiness of Isaiah's triumphal ode over the fall of Babylon is justly insisted on by Bishop Lowth with an enthusiastic warmth of admiration. 1 How hath the oppressor ceased! the 7 exactress of gold ceased! + H. sons. -his.-Jehovah's, by way of eminence. There is no doubt, says Hare, but that the suffix must be referred to God. He suspects that this is a fragment. Otherwise, he observes that it is a remarkable example of the relative without the antecedent. was the holy portion : לקדש יהוה .i e לקדש י" was once written לקדשו Perhaps of Jehovah, But there is no trace of this reading in versions or MSS. instance v. 7, how easily the and are confounded. We have an Judah is used in the feminine gender; as Jer. xxiii, 6. Hare. It is equivalent to Israel; and put, by synecdoche, for the whole people of God, See ps. lxxvi, 1, 2. "Judah was his holy, or peculiar inheritance; Israel was the people over whom he vouchsafed to bear sway." Δὴ τότε μούνον ἔην ὅσιον γέιος υιες Ιούδα. Ἐν δὲ Θεὸς λαοῖσι μέγα κρείων βασίλευεν. 2 -saw him.-x: vidit eum. Syr. Secker. Milton. 3 The mountains skipped.—Lightnings and earthquake caused Sinai, Horeb, and their range of hills, to tremble. Exod. xix. 18. Ps. xxix. 6. lxviii, 7, 8. Hab. iii. 6. 4 Tremble.- "The lxx and Syr. have the preterperfect." Secker. Kennicott adopts this reading; but with some doubt. Remarks on select passages &c. 1787. But Mudge justly observes, that "the answer is elegantly understood, and turned into a command." Ye had just cause to tremble: the earth hath just cause, when God appeareth. 5 —— springs.— • ɔ`y, lxx. Syr. Vulg. Houbigant, Secker, Kennicott. 1 Kings xviii. 5. 6 See the close of his viith, xiiith, and xxviiith prelections: and his notes on Isaiah p. 88. The beautiful conduct and bold imagery of this ode are illustrated with great spirit and taste in his remarks; and strongly represented in his version of it into Alcaics. Two of our best poets, Mason and Potter, have also given excellent poetical translations of it in our own language. See other sublime odes Exod. xv. Deut. xxxii. Judg. v. Hab. iii. ——the exactress of gold." A Chaldee word for the Hebrew 1. Aurea, How hath Jehovah broken the staff of wicked men, the sceptre of the rulers! He that smote the people in wrath is1 smitten, without any to avert the stroke; He that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted without any to hinder. The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet : Even the fir-trees break forth into singing, And the cedars of Lebanon rejoice over thee: "Since thou hast lain down, no feller cometh up against us." The grave from beneath is troubled because of thee, to meet thee at thy coming: He stirreth up for thee the mighty dead, all the 3 chiefs of the He raiseth up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. "Art thou also made weak as we? art thou become like unto us? 4 thee?" 5 How art thou fallen from heaven, O bright star † of the morning! How art thou cut down to the earth, that didst weaken the nations! Yet thou didst say in thine heart, "I will ascend into the heavens ; Above the stars of God I will exalt my throne; 8 7 And I will sit upon the appointed mount, and upon the sides of I will ascend above the 9 heights of the clouds; I will be like The But thou art brought down to the grave, 10 to the sides of the pit. + H. son of the morning, auro ornata. Apoc. xvii. 4. in the Syriac version; where the very word in the text occurs." See J. D. Michaelis suppl. ad Lex. Hebr. But both this critic and Doederlein prefer ; which the latter commentator renders turbatrix, from 27 Syr. A gate of the temple of Mecca was called 7, inaurata. Rob. clav. pent. diss. p. 28. 1 -smitten., 7 MSS. 3 originally. This is the learned Mr. Green's division. Poetical parts, p. vii. 2 See also poetical parts &c. p. vii. 3 Hebr. rams. See Jer. 1. 8. Zech. x. 3, in both which places the Chaldee explains rams by princes. Ulysses is compared to a ram by Homer: 4 5 Il. iii. 196. Αὐτὸς δὲ, κτίλος ὡς, ἐπιπωλειται στίχας ἀνδρῶν· Defectiva sane lectio et singularis longe præferenda. De Rossi. 6 -the nations.-1 he lxx and Ar. add : all the nations. 7 And I will sit -The lxx, Ar. Vulg. omit and. 8 of the north.—The temple might be situated in the northern division of the city. But it is not necessary to suppose the latter clause in apposition with the former. 9 -the heights.—, 5 MSS. 10 -to the sides of the pit.—in opposition to the sides of the north. |