of the singular verb." And he will set up a standard for distant nations, and hiss unto him [i. e. tọ the Roman emperor, the leader of those nations from the extremity of the earth. And, behold, he shall come," e. the Roman emperor shall come, &c. And this, as I guess by his translation and his commentary, was St Jerome's notion of the passage.

Verse 30." they shall roar against them;" literally," he shall roar over him ;" i.e. he, the person described under the image of the lion, shall roar over him, i. e. over the prey. The pronominal suffix in rehearses . This is the only way in

which I can expound the passage.

"if one look unto the land" The mention of the roaring of the sea introduces a new image of distress, that of mariners in a coasting vessel (such as all the vessels of the antients were) overtaken with a storm, and looking for the nearest land, which the darkness of the storm conceals, so that darkness and danger alone may be said to be visible. The darkness, however, is mystical; a darkness of religious light and comfort.

-"in the heavens thereof;" rather," in its defluxions." See Parkhurst's Lexicon, y, and Vitringa upon the place. The heavens and the lumi

naries are so totally invisible, that it seems as ir the light were choaked up in its first emanations; "and the light is confined in its defluctions."

CHAP. VI, 2. "Above it stood the seraphim.' St Jerome remarks, that this is the only passage in the canonical scriptures in which the word occurs, as denoting attendants of the Divine pre

sence.

"the seraphim." Observe that the original has nothing answering to the. " Above it seraphim were standing."

"Above it (or above him)

stood"

1

1

The word

Ty does not necessarily express the posture of standing upright upon the feet, but only the being present. See Parkhurst's Lexicon. From what is said afterwards, it should seem that the posture of the seraphim was that of hovering, on the expanded wings, over the throne of God. The passage might be rendered, "Over it (or him) seraphim were at*tending."

"six wings.” The cherubs in the temple had but two wings, and Ezekiel's but four.

Verse 9.-"hear ye indeed

deed" rather,
rather, “hear a report

and see ye in

and see a sight."

, audiendum quid; "8", videndum quid.

Verse 10. "Make the heart of this people fat," &c.; rather, “The heart of this people is made fat, their ears blunted, and their eyes shut." To this effect Symmachus, the LXX, and St Mathew xiii. Nothing but the points make it necessary to take the verbs

for imperatives in Hiphil, rather השע,הכבד השמן

than indicatives in Hophal. But if the verbs were indicatives in Hophal, the two and y ought to be plurals, 17 and W. But the sentence admits another grammatical exposition, which will bring it to the same, or even to a stronger sense. Let the verbs be taken as indicatives in Hiphil;

לב
העם

take away the Makkaph between and Dyn; take Dyas the nominative of each of the Hiphil verbs, and , ", and ", as accusatives after them respectively.

"This people hath made gross the heart,

And blunted their ears, and closed their eyes."

up

"

The LXX and St Mathew (Symmachus's varieties I have not at present at hand) take the first verb pun in Hophal, and the two following in Hiphil; but there is no necessity for this difference. They may be all in Hiphil. So I find Symmachus takes them as he is quoted by Parkhurst.

13" And yet a tenth part shall remain in it,

But again it shall be [appointed] for destruction.

Like the ilex and the oak, which

At the casting of the leaf have their trunks standing,

A holy seed shall be the trunk of this nation."

CHAP. vii, 2.

"Syria is confederate with Ephraim." Houbigant's emendation, 3 for n, is unnecessary. See Vitringa upon the place.

OMEN by DIN MI"Syria is confederate with

T:

Ephraim," Publ.; or, "Syria was supported by Ephraim," Lowth; "Syria is arm in arm with Ephraim," Stock. But the verb is somewhat difficult of exposition. At first sight it appears to be the third person preterite masculine of the verb

in Kal. But how to bring the sense of “ confederate with," or "supported by," or "arm in arm with," out of the verb n, or any sense that may suit this place, it is not easy to explain. But I take the word to be the feminine singular of the participle Benoni in Kal of the verb ma, regularly formed according to the rule of conjugation of the verbs Ain. It is feminine to agree with, which, taken as the proper name of a country, is feminine; and the literal rendering would be, Syria is repos ing upon Ephraim;" and the sense is, that the Sy

rian relied with confidence on the support of Ephraim as a powerful ally. Lowth's rendering, therefore, "Syria was supported by Ephraim," is very good. There is nothing in the original to convey the image which Bishop Stock introduces of two persons walking arm in arm. And this image is at variance indeed with the original, for it gives an idea of strict alliance indeed, but at the same time of entire equality between the allies; whereas the idea of the original is that of a weaker relying on a stronger for support. And for the same reason, Bishop Lowth's is much to be preferred to the public version.

Verse 4. these smoking firebrands." Firebrands smoke when they are upon the point of going out. Smoking firebrands, therefore, are an expressive image of the two kings of Ephraim and Syria upon the verge of their ruin.

"with Syria." Read, "of Resin, and the son of Remaliah," omitting" of Syria," with the Syriac, and Bishop Lowth.

Verse 5. "Because of Sýria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah," &c. I suspect that the words

,have crept in from the preceding verse ובן רמליהו

and should be expunged in this place; and the rest of this verse should be thus arranged,

VOL. II.

C