PSALM XLI.

[A] Ver. 1. the poor." E. T.; rather, "him that is reduced to poverty." The Hebrew is literally, "one exhausted" of all he had, and so made poor. Compare Phil. ii, 7.

.ואל נתנהו

[B] Ver. 2. - -thou wilt not deliver him." E. T. The LXX have the third person, μ agad. Their copies, therefore, gave . But the present reading is as good, if the passage is to be taken, as the LXX render it, namely, as a prayer on behalf of the lowly one's friend.

[C] Ver. 3. the couch of langour." The LXX have duvns air. Their copies, therefore, gave " with the suffix 1.

[D] Ver. 4. ——for I have sinned against thee." E. T. In this Psalm, the Messiah is the speaker, who, in his own person, was sinless. But the words may be rendered, "Surely I bear blame before thee." Personam peccatoris apud te gero. So the word N is used, Gen. xliii, 9. Kennicott renders the sentence as a question: "Have I sinned against thee?" But I much doubt the use of the particle as an interrogative.

[E] Ver. 8. Some cursed thing," &c. The copies of the LXX certainly gave py for py, and 1 for '2. But the reading of the modern text gives a good sense, so that any alteration of it seems unnecessary.

[F] Ver. 9. has practised the greatest treachery against me."-hath lifted up his heel against me." E. T.—'Eμɛyáλvvev in' iμì wregvıoμóv. LXX. "Magnificavit super me supplanἐμὲ πτερνισμόν. tationem." Vulg. And to the same effect, Chaldee and Syriac. "Levavit contra me plantam." Hieronym. But I do not believe that the Hebrew verb ever signifies "to lift up." The quotation of the text in St John, in these words, i ręŃywv μετ ̓ ἐμὲ τὸν ἄρτον ἐπῇρεν ἐπ ̓ ἐμὲ τὴν πτέρναν αὐτε, (John xiii, 18.) is no confirmation of St Jerom's rendering. For the Greek noun Tigra, like the Hebrew apy, though literally it signifies the "heel,” signifies also, by a figure taken from racers or wrestlers, "a tripping up,” dóλos, im.bean. See Stephan. This, and St John's words, should be rendered, "He that eateth bread with me hath raised up a great plot against me." The verb ię, applied to Trigva in this figurative sense, expresses the raising of the plot to size and magnitude, numbers being engaged, and these, persons of power.

[G] Ver. 13. This thirteenth verse, having no particular connection with the subject of this Psalm, is thought, by Bishop Hare and Bishop Lowth, to have been added to it, at the time when the Psalter was divided into books, by him

who made the division; for no other reason but because this Psalm happened to be the last of a book. It is tacked, för the same reason, to the last Psalm of every one of the three following books.

PSALM XLII.

למנצח משכיל לבני קרח.

TO THE GIVER OF VICTORY. A LESSON FOR THE SONS OF

CORAH.

This 42d Psalm, and the following, certainly make one entire piece.

The suppliant, in this sacred song, is a person under persecution. (v. 3, 9, 10.-xliii, 1, 2.) The persecution is carried on by an "ungodly nation," and an individual, described as "a man of deceit and fraud;"-expressions easily applicable to the atheistical confederacy in the latter ages, under Antichrist as the leader. By the strong attachment which the suppliant discovers to the Holy Land, it appears, that he is of the race of Israel. But he is at a distance from the Holy Land, which he laments, at the same time that he expresses the most confident hope of being conducted thither

in triumph by the special providence of God; (verse 4, and xliii, 4). This expectation is derided by his persecutors, and his distress is greatly aggravated by their insults.

From all this it should seem, that the suppliant is of the natural Israel; a convert to the faith of Christ in the latter ages, suffering under the persecution of Antichrist; but under that distress looking forward to the restoration of the Jewish nation, as a thing at hand, and deriving comfort and joy from that expectation. The Psalm is the suppliant's earnest prayer, for the accomplishment of God's promises to the natural Israel. Whether the suppliant be an individual of the Hebrew race, or a Church of the circumcision, is doubtful. That God will gather to himself such a church in the times of Antichrist, previously to the restoration of the Jewish people, many passages in the ancient prophets and in the Apocalypse seem to intimate.

[A] Ver. 2. and appear before God."-E. T.; rather," and behold the face of God." "Contemplabor faciem Dei." Houbigant.

[B] Ver. 4. "When I remember these things."-E. T.; rather, "while I bear these things in mind, [i. e. these taunts of infidels] I pour out my soul upon myself," that is, I indulge my own thoughts in secret, and comfort myself with these reflexions, y ", "that I am to pass over," &c.

Interpreters have been much perplexed with the remainder of the verse. The difficulty lies chiefly in the verb OTIN, which occurs but in one other text, namely, Isaiah xxxviii, 15, where, however, it occurs without the suffix, if the verb be really the same, as is generally supposed. The verb TTTN, in Isaiah, may be referred to the root TTT, if indeed such a root exists in the Hebrew language, which is very doubtful; and those who suppose it to exist are but ill agreed about the sense of it. Some say that it signifies, to walk with a slow gentle pace; sensim incedere, or pedetentim ambulare. • Molliorem gressum notat,' says Bythner. But St Jerome, in his translation of the text of Isaiah, gives it the sense of recollecting, 'meditating upon,' reputare. And this sense is adopted by Bishop Lowth, though the other, I think, is more generally received. In the passage under consideration, OTN hạs been generally referred to the same root; and some of the most learned critics would resolve it into DDY MAN, (see Geierus and Piscator in Poole's Synopsis, and Bythner's Lyra,) alleging that, formative of Hithpael, is often omitted when the first radical is 7, 2, 2, or л, being absorbed, as they express it, in the Dagesh of such first radical; and that the final of the verb, and the word Dy, consisting of the preposition y, and the pronominal suffix, are somehow or other compressed into the single letter, annexed to the verb. For this syncopation, as they call it, I cannot find that they pretend to give any general rule. And of the supposed absorption of the ♫ of Hithpael, by Dagesh following, it is