[B] Ver. 5. chase them." 'ExoniCwv avts.—LXX.

-

Read therefore OT with the suffix D.

[C] Ver. 7. There can be no doubt that the text is to be set right by Bishop Hare's transposition of the words:

כי חנם טמנו לי רשתם שחת חנם חפרו לנפשי :

Houbigant proposes the same emendation, and confirms it by the authority of the Syriac.

[D] Ver. 8. destruction." N. Procella cum fragore erumpens.-See Merrick's Annotations.

בשואה

-into that very destruction." For , I would read with the LXX and Vulgate, na-" and into the pit, into it let him fall."

[E] Ver. 10. 1, a diripiente eum.

[F] Ver. 11. Witnesses of violence."-False witnesses. E.T. -" witnesses of wrong, or violence;" i. e. witnesses deposing to acts of violence, as committed by the person accused. See Ps. xxvii, 12.

[G] Ver. 12. -the extermination," &c. This I take to

שכול לנפשי be the meaning of the phrase

[H] Ver. 14. It is difficult to make sense

of the

passage as it stands. If for N we might read ND, there might be

two ways of explaining it.

1st, Taking the words, with this emendation, in the order

may all be taken קדר and כאה כרע,in which they stand

for participles, and the verse thus rendered,

I went-about, with sinking-knees, and heavy-hearted,

I bowed-down, clad-in-mourning, as one that mourneth for his mother.

2d, Taking the further liberty to transpose the words

may קדר and כאה the words כאה כרע לי,thus כרע and

still be taken as participles, and the word for the noun y, with prefixed, the preposition of similitude; and the whole verse may be thus rendered,—

"I went about heavy-hearted (ND), as though misfortune (y) had happened to myself;

I bowed down," &c.

I give the preference to this latter exposition. But the Syriac version deserves great attention. It suggests perhaps a better emendation, and gives the true sense. This interpreter omits, and renders

"I behaved myself like a friend or a brother."

This rendering, I would, after all, adopt; for an emendation suggested by the authority of this very ancient version, is certainly to be preferred to any that is merely conjectural.

[I Ver. 15. -smiters. the abjects."-E. T. If may be taken actively, as rendering smiters, this passage will be a clear allusion to the insults which were offered to our Lord before his crucifixion. If render abjects, I know not the sense of the next words, " and I knew not." Our Lord was blindfolded, and knew not, otherwise than preternaturally, those who smote him. The LXX and Vulgate both confirm the sense of smiters.

[K]

laid on heavy blows." p. In Arabic y signifies pulsare, percutere.

[L] Ver. 16. See LXX, Vulgate, and Parkhurst, under the word .. "Venerandam faciem Dei Hominis," says Houbigant, "Judaei sputis contaminarunt."

[M] Ver. 18. Among a mighty people."-So the Chaldee. And yy seems more properly to express strength or power than number.-Is not this an indirect prediction of the establishment of Christianity" among the mighty people," i. e. in the Roman empire?

[N] Ver. 20. For they speak to me friendly language," &c.

For , read with the LXX, the Vulgate, Houbigant, and Bishop Lowth, ". "For they speak to me friendly lan

-them that are quiet in the land." E. T. If, for "ya, we had authority to read y, the sense would be, "him that would give quiet to the land, or to the earth." Christ is the restorer of peace and quiet to the earth, disturbed with sin and with the fear of judgement. But taking the text as it stands, † may be rendered "the tranquillizers of the earth,” i. e. Christ, and the first preachers of Christianity, preaching a doctrine of love and peace.

[O] Ver. 25. aha! we have-our-wish; so would we have it." Bishop Lowth approves Houbigant's conjecture, who, for , of which it is hard, says Bishop Lowth, to make sense, would read, "we have caught him;" which would be parallel to ay in the subsequent line. But I cannot think hard to be understood.

PSALM XXXVI.

,לבי For

66

[A] Ver. 1. The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, there is no fear of God before his eyes." E. T. my heart," the copies used by the LXX, and Vulgate, as it should seem, and certainly those of the Syriac interpreter, had 1, "his heart." And this is the reading of

one MS. of Kennicott's, and two of De Rossi's. But the passage, without farther emendation, seems to me inexplicable. Archbishop Secker's conjecture, that 8, in the second line, should be repeated, is plausible.

נאם פשע לרשע בקרב לבו

אין פחד : אין אלהים לנגד עיניו

Ör, the repetition of N may be saved, if, for 7, we may read. According to either emendation the passage will, I think, bear this rendering,-yw," the apostate," or "the rebel,” (i. e. the Devil) yes ON solemnly affirms to the impious man, "within his heart," (i. e. the devil assures him by secret suggestions), that there is no fear, i. e. no cause of fear. God (after these suggestions) is not at all before his

eyes.

The verb ON is properly a promantic term. Its sole use in the Prophets is, to introduce whatever they would seem to deliver as a message from God, in the words of God himself, in such forms as these, "I am against the Prophets, saith Jehovah;" "They shall not profit this people, saith Jehovah;" "I will even forsake you, saith Jehovah." And I know no example of its use without an enunciation of the special matter of the oracle. But if ONJ might be taken here as a noun, denoting oracular advice in general, or advice pretending to oracular authority, without reference to any particular oracle given upon any particular occasion, and so it is taken by