But the division is by no means necessary. A Church, as a collective body, may speak in the singular or plural number, I, or we, indifferently. PSALM XLV. [A] TITLE, למנצח על ששנים לבני קרח משכיל שיר ידידת TO THE GIVER OF VICTORY. UPON THE LILIES. A LESSON FOR THE SONS OF KORAH. A SONG OF LOVES. Τῷ νικοποιῷ ἐπὶ τοῖς κρίνοις· τῶν υἱῶν Κορὲ ἐπισήμονος, ᾆσμα προσ Φίλιας. Aquila. Ἐπινίκιον ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀνθῶν, τῶν υἱῶν Κορὲ συνέσεως, ᾆσμα εἰς τὸν ἀγαπητόν. Symm. Εἰς τὸ τέλος, ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀλλοιωθησομένων, τοῖς υἱοῖς Κορὲ εἰς σύνεσιν, ᾠδὴ ὑπὲρ τῇ ἀγαπητό. LXX. Εἰς τὸ νῖκος, ᾠδὴ τοῖς ἠγαπημένοις, τοῖς υἱοῖς Κορὲ συνέσεως, ᾆσμα εἰς τὸν ἀγαπητόν. Theodot. [B] Ver. 3. O thou that excellest in." E. T.; literally, "thou that art mighty in," &c. It is remarkable, however, that not one of the ancient ver sions adopts this construction. They seem all to have made a full pause at ; and 3 is certainly one of the titles of Christ;-Hero, Warrior, Mighty Man. The version of the Syriac is very remarkable, and may create a surmise that a verb is lost in the text, of which were the subjects. The Syriac is to this effect: and Warrior, place the sword upon thy loins, Thy beauty and thy glory is immaculate. So, I think, the verb should be rendered, not vincit. After all, I am persuaded that Luther gives the true exposition of this passage, viz. that the nouns TT and are accusatives, under the government of the verb, and signify the ornamental robes of majesty, which the Hero (2) is exhorted to put on, together with his sword. "Ebraica Vox Hod et Hadar valde est frequens," says Luther, " et sumpta est ex Mose. Significat autem ornatum vestimentorum.” [C] Ver. 4. And in thy majesty ride prosperously.” E. T. These three words the LXX render as והדרך צלח רכב three imperatives. Καὶ ἐντείνου, καὶ εὐοδοῦ (or κατευοδού), καὶ βαGive. It should seem that their copies gave the two last, as well as the first, with the conjunction. But it is of more importance to remark, that they took 7777 for the verb 777 in Hiphil, and thought that the verb, in that form, without any noun after it, denoting bows or arrows, might signify to "take aim." Relying, for the sense of the word, on their authority, I render the passage thus: Take aim, be prosperous, pursue,* In the name of truth, humility, and righteousness; That is, take aim at the enemy; be prosperous or successful in the aim taken; ride in pursuit of the vanquished foe. N. B. Solomon was no warrior; therefore, this and the next verse can have no reference to him. [D] Ver. 5. Thine arrows are sharpened." à Bian ou inoνημένα vnjeva duvati. LXX. They read, therefore, as Bishop Hare .חציך שנונים גבור conjectures [E] Ver. 8. All thy garments."-E. T. The LXX and Vulgate render, as if their copies had given " instead of before Tл. But there seems no necessity for a change. [F] excelling ivory palaces." -"out of the ivory palaces whereby they made thee glad."-E. T.; rather, " from cabinets of Armenian ivory they have pleasured thee." From cabinets or wardrobes, in which the perfumes, or the gar *Literally, "ride." Armenian ivory. So the Chaldee interpreter renders -See Archbishop Secker in Merrick's Annotations. But see my Sermons on this Psalm. [G] Ver. 9.thy bright beauties" -thy bright beauties"-" thy honourable women."-E. T. 66 יקרות The primary notion of "is brightness." Hence Л", bright sparks," scintillae. Hence beautiful women. "Kings' daughters were among thy bright beauties." The beauty certainly is mystic. The beauty of evangelical sanctity and innocence. But who and what are these King's daughters, the lustre of whose beauty adorns the great Monarch's court? Kings' daughters, in the language of holy writ, are the kingdoms and people which they govern, and of which, in common speech, they are called Fathers. The expression may be so taken here, and then the sense will be, that the greatest kingdoms and empires of the world, converted to the faith of Christ, and shining in the beauty of the good works of true righteousness, are united to Messiah's kingdom. But if the παρακοιτις, the partner of the royal bed, be peculiarly (as I am sometimes inclined to think) the Church of the restored and converted Jews, become the mother Church of Christen the ,שגל dom; then these daughters of Kings may be the various national Churches, fostered for many ages by the piety of Christian princes (Is. xlix, 23), and now brought to the perfection of beauty, by the judgements which shall have purged every one of them of all things that offend. [H] -the queen."-E. T. b. i. e. literally, "the bed-fellow." rvyxoitis. Aq. Conjunx. Hieron. [I] Ver. 12. See the daughter of Tyre with a gift!" I see no necessity for the alterations proposed by Bishop Hare and Houbigant, notwithstanding that they are approved by Bishop Lowth. The inspired Poet, describing the court of the Monarch, who is the subject of his song, mentions, in the 9th verse, the Consort, in rich apparel, at his right hand. In the 10th, 11th, and 12th verses, he addresses an admonition to this Consort, which stands, as it were, in a parenthesis, in his description. In the 12th verse, he tells the Consort, how she will advance her own importance by a dutiful submission to the great King, her Lord. Then, in the 13th verse, he returns to the description of the court, enlarging upon the beauty of the Consort's person, the richness of her dress, and the magnificence of her entry. In the clause, about the daughter of Tyre, either the verb substantive only is understood, or the conjunction is equivalent to ecce, a sense which I think it sometimes bears, |