seeking relief, which he no where finds, from the extreme of necessity and poverty. Repelar is not only to pluck the hair, but to tear it up by the roots, pulling it against the grain of its growth. I must observe, that the word, which occurs in twelve passages, and no more in the whole Bible, besides this and the seventh verse of this chapter, is not used in any one of them in a moral sense, answering to the English word polite.' Nor can I find, that it bears that sense in any of the dialects. "to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto :" -to a people ter *- אל עם נורא מן הוא והלאה rible," &c. -" to wit, the Jews," says the annotator and a people hard [to encounter]. What people more so than this?" that is, what people more hard to encounter than this? - ov ovn kotiv imenɛwa. Symm. -"ad populum terribilem, post quem non est alius." Vulg." ad populum formidabilem ab eo et deinceps." Calv. " ad populum eorum qui sunt ultra ipsum formidabilissimum." Castalio. -" ad populum formidabilem ex eo loco atque ulterius." Jun. et Tremell." to a fearfull people, and to a people that is further than thys." Coverdale. "a fearfull people from their begynnyng hytherto." Great Bible, and Bishop's Bible. -"al pueblo lleno de temores des de su principio y despues." Span. -"al popolo spaventevole, che è più oltre di quel la." Diodati. Diodati conceives that the 713 DY, &c. is another people; for so he explains himself in his notes: -"al popolo c. a que' più salvatichi, c'habitano nell' Etiopia interiore, più lontani del mare, più neri, sparuti, horridi, e barbari," " vers le peuple terrible depuis là où il est, et par delà." Ostervald. -"populum formidabilem, à quo fuit et usque." Vitringa. -" ad populum fractum ærumnis et fatiscentem." Houbigant, applying this character to the Jews of the Prophet's times. But is never used as a participle passive, that is, as applied to the person affected with fear, as Houbigant understands it here." the people terrible not only where they are, but further." Purver. -" to a people terrible from the first and hitherto." Bishop Lowth. Of these renderings some seem to give hardly any sense; some, senses quite foreign to the context. The sense, which most naturally arises from the words, and best suits the context, is that which is given in the Great Bible, the Bishop's Bible, and the Spanish, and is adopted in our later English translations, and followed by Vitringa and Bishop Lowth. But even in these translations the word is not well rendered by fearful,'' lleno de temore,' or 'formidabilem,' or 'terrible.' The word, if I mistake not, is applicable to whatever excites admiration, or awe, with, or without, any mixture of terror. There is no word in the English language which will render it universally. It must be rendered differently in different places, according to its connection. Majestic, sublime, grand, awful, and sometimes terrible. In this place I would render it 'awfully remarkable.' But with respect to the 1 I agree with Vitringa, that it ,מן הוא והלאה phrase I will best suit the context, if it be understood not of 3 place, but of time. But understanding the time described as present by the adverb (hitherto), of the time present when the prophecy was uttered; he applies the character contained in these words, as rendered by himself and in our public translation, to the Egyptians; of whom he observes with truth, that they had been formidable from the earliest times to the times of the Prophet. But the time present in prophetic vision, is not the time of the delivery, but that of the fulfilment of the prophecy. The people to whom the character is to be applied, must exist, and the character must notoriously belong to them at the time of the accomplishment of the prophecy. If therefore the prophecy is not yet accomplished, which will appear to be the case, the application of this character to the people of Egypt must be erroneous. For that people is gone, and has long since ceased to be of any consideration. But the people of the Jews have been from their very beginning, are at this day, and will be to the end of time, a people venerable in a religious sense, awfully remarkable, (in which sense, rather than in that of terrible, as I have observed, I would take here), on account of the special providence visibly attending them. And, with this correction of the word * terrible," I should not much object to Purver's rendering. The words, I think, may bear it. And the sense it gives, applies more aptly to the Jews than to any other people. They have been a people awfully remarkable, not only in the part of the world where they were settled, but since their dispersion particularly, to the utmost corners of the earth. re a nation meted out and trodden down;" or, "a nation that meteth out and treadeth down." Margin. In these renderings, as well as in Vitringa's and Bishop Lowth's, the allusion seems to be to Egypt; but in the original, and in the antient versions, it is evidently to the Jews. The interpretations of the words -גוי קו קו ומבוסה are so various, and the manner of application so different, even among those who apply the words to the same people, that it will be proper to state the different renderings one by one; and the order, I shall observe in stating them shall be, to begin with those, which seem to me the most extravagant. The first therefore I shall mention, is that of Ostervald; because I have not the least conception of his meaning: vers la nation allant à la file, et foulée." The next shall be Diodati's: -" alla gente sparsa qua e la, e calpestata." This he applies VOL. II. K |