They that see thee narrowly look at thee, and consider thee: "Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that shook kingdoms? That made the world like a desert, and destroyed its cities? 1 That dismissed not his prisoners to their own home?" All the kings of the nations, all of them, Lie down in glory, each in his own tomb: 3 But thou art cast out 2 of thy sepulchre, as an abominable 3 branch ; As the raiment of them that are slain, that are thrust through with the sword, That go down to the 5 stones of the pit : As a carcase 6 trodden under foot, thou art not joined 7 to them in burial; 1 That dismissed not &c.-Literally, That loosed not his prisoners homeward. There is no trace of on in versions or MSS. Were this reading admitted, the literal rendering would be; As for his prisoners, he opened not their prison-house : and a more elegant one, that of our English version : 2 That opened not the house of his prisoners. -of thy sepulchre.—It is said, v. 15, that the king of Babylon was "brought down to the grave, to the sides of the pit." Death had brought him down to the lower parts of the earth, to the caverns which were the receptacles of the dead. But he had not his honourable place allotted him in this mansion: he had no cell, or niche, where he was laid with his weapons of war, and his ensigns of royalty. 3 -branch.-Where y occurs elsewhere, Isai. xi. 1. lx. 21. Dan. xi. 7, it signifies a young branch; which, according to the sense of the verb y, requires to be preserved with care. See Tayl. conc. Christ says, If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered. Cocceius, in his lexicon, voc. yn, has this illustration: ut surculus abominabilis, venenatæ, noxia arboris; qui non conditur in terra, ut crescat, sed projicitur, ut exarescat. Vulg. Syr. Chald. Theod. represent the present reading in the text. But ó. Ar. have veкрòs, П, "as an abominable dead body:" Aq. has ixwp, tabes:" and Symm. čктρwμα, "an untimely birth," 5, which last would suit the place perfectly well. seems a corrupt reading. 4 As the raiment. Thus ó. Syr. Ar. But Vulg. has obvolutus; Chald. tectus, obductus; Bp. Lowth, cloathed; and Doederlein, obtectus. was, the reading of many MSS. is either the substantive, or the participle passive. On the latter supposition I would render, "Thou art covered with them that are slain, that are thrust through with the sword, "That go down to the stones of the pit; thou art as a carcase trodden under foot." prefer the former sense. Where the prosopopoeia is not used, I conclude from v. 4 that a Jew speaks: and, according to Jewish ideas, the bloody raiment of the slain was an object of abhorrence. But the reader will observe that in ó. there are two translations; and that, in the former of them, the words on was are rendered, μerà TоXXŵV TEOVNKÓTWV. This circumstance may lead him to suspect the genuineness of the text. 5 to the stones of the pit.-An emphasis will be given to this phrase, if we suppose a reference to the promiscuous burial of the common slain in pits covered with stones. 6 —trodden under foot.-A great indignity. 2 Kings ix. 33. The punctuation is Green's, ubi supra. -to them.-Unto the kings, who partake of an honourable burial. 1 Because thou hast destroyed thy country, and slain thy people. Prepare ye slaughter for his children, because of the iniquity of Lest they rise, and possess the earth; and fill the face of the world with cities. For I will rise up against them, saith Jehovah God of hosts; And will cut off from Babylon the name, and the remnant; 4 And the son, and the son's son, saith Jehovah. And I will make it an inheritance for the porcupine, and pools of water; 5 And will sink it in deep mire 6 and destroy it, saith Jehovah God of hosts. Jehovah God of hosts hath sworn, saying: Surely, as I have thought, so shall it be ; And as I have decreed, that thing shall stand : That I will crush the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountains tread him under foot: And that his yoke shall depart from off them, And his burthen depart from off 7 their shoulder." This is the decree which is † determined on the whole earth; And this is the hand which is stretched out over all the nations. For Jehovah God of hosts hath decreed; and who shall disannul it? And his hand is stretched out; and who shall turn it back? 8 Isai. xiv. 4-27. I cannot close this very confined and imperfect enumeration of the excellencies contained in the Hebrew poets, without adding a few instances of grand and sublime passages, where the conception is elevated or the passion vehement. I need not remind the reader that detached beauties of composition create a glare, which is softened down by the gradation of colouring, and proper degree of shade, allotted them in their natural situation. § H. decreed. 1 -thy country.—“ My country, my people." ó. Ar. Aq. Symm. Theod. But Bp.. Lowth. 2 -be renowned.—¡p occurs for renowned, Ezek. xxiii. 23. Chald. renders op, and Syr. □p; as if the reading in the Hebrew had been op, be established. 3 —their fathers.—, their father, 6. Syr. This resembles 4 And the son.-17, the son, 6 MSS. 3 originally, I ed. 5 6 7 -in deep mire.—See Bp. Lowth, and Michaelis: præl. Hebr. xxviii. . -their shoulder.-All the ancients in the London polyglot render as if they read, except the lxx: and in that translation avτ@v occurs Polygl. Antw. and is added in edd. Grabe, Breit. as found by Origen in some other Greek versions. These remarks are intended as supplemental to Bishop Lowth's. See Hebrew prelections: xvi. xvii. In many places sublimity arises from the greatness of the thought. * Let them praise the name of Jehovah ; * He spake, and it was done : Ps. cxlviii. 5. Ps. xxxiii. 9. * Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand; And comprehended the dust of the earth in a † measure; And the hills in a balance? Isai. xl. 12. * Thy mercy, O Jehovah, reacheth to the heavens, Thy righteousness is like the great mountains, Canst thou by searching find out God? Ps. xxxvi. 5, 6. Canst thou find out the Almighty to perfection? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, And broader than the sea. Job. xi. 7-9. Another source of the sublime is perturbation of mind, and impetuosity of passion. Admiration expresses itself grandly and concisely: * Who is like thee, O Jehovah, among the gods? Fearful in praises, doing wonders? Thou didst stretch out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them. Exod. xv. 11, 12. Nothing can be more magnificent than the following representation of the divine anger in the song of Moses: *I lift up mine hand to the heavens, Surely I whet my glittering sword, + H. tierce. Or, I swear. And mine hand taketh hold on judgment. And my sword shall devour flesh; Even with the blood of the slain and of the captives, Deut. xxxii. 40-42. In Isaiah these terrors are set in array against the enemies of the Jews: Howl ye, for the day of Jehovah is near : As a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. Therefore shall all hands be slackened; And every heart of man shall melt, and they shall be terrified. They shall be pained as she that travaileth: They shall look on one another with amazement; Their faces shall be as flames. Lo, the day of Jehovah cometh, Even fierceness, wrath, and hot anger; That he may make the land a desolation, And destroy her sinners out of her. For the stars of heaven, and the constellations thereof, Shall not send forth their light: The sun is darkened at his going forth, And the moon causeth not her light to shine. And I will visit the world for its evil, And the wicked for their iniquity. And I will cause the arrogance of the proud to cease, Isai. xiii. 6—13. Struck by such passages as these, and by numberless others, for it is more difficult to choose examples than to find them, Mr. Addison says; "As the Jewish nation produced men of great genius, without considering them as inspired writers, they have transmitted to us many hymns, and divine odes, which excel those that are delivered down to us by the ancient Greeks and Romans, in the poetry, as much as in 1 Spectator, N. 453. the subject to which it was consecrated. This, I think, might easily be shewn, if there were occasion for it." And a learned French writer gives this character of the Hebrew language: "It is the true language of poetry, of prophecy, and of revelation: a celestial fire animates and transports it: what ardour in its odes! what sublime images in the visions of Isaiah! how pathetic and affecting are the tears of Jeremiah! One there finds beauties and models of every kind. Nothing is more capable than this language of elevating a poetic spirit; and we do not fear to assert that the Bible, superior to Homer and Virgil in a great number of places, can inspire still more than they that rare and singular genius which is the portion of those who dedicate themselves to poetry." Encyclop. Yverdon. 4°. HEBRAIQUE lan ue. From particular beauties in the Hebrew writers, I might naturally pass on to their general character; to the lively dramatic spirit and enchanting simplicity of their historians, and to the discriminating marks and peculiar excellencies of their poets. But this field has been almost entirely occupied by the eminent author of the Hebrew Prelections. I shall therefore only add, as a supplement to that immortal work, the opinion which he elsewhere gives on "the characters of some of the principal Hebrew writers, and on the difference of style and manner which may, upon just grounds, be observed in them; yet only so far as may be necessary to throw some light on the question concerning the age of the book of Job. "Moses stands at the head of the Hebrew writers; not only in point of time, but in regard also of literary merit, as an historian, as an orator, and as a poet. Whatever defects may be noted in his history upon the whole, when compared with the more regular and more laboured productions of the polished historians of Greece and Rome; yet in many parts of it he has given evident marks of superior abilities in the character of an historian. The history of Joseph, for instance, is an example of simple, noble, elegant, interesting, pathetic narration; of justness, neatness, and perspicuity of historic composition; to which nothing equal, or in any degree comparable, can be produced from Herodotus or Xenophon, Sallust or Livy. As an orator, his exhortations in the Book of Deuteronomy have a force, a spirit, and an elegance equal at least to any thing of the same kind in the prophets of a later age. As a poet, his prophetic ode is superior to every thing of its kind, except perhaps that of Isaiah, c. xiv: and e |