This rendering I would, after all, adopt; for an emendation suggested by the authority of this very antient 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." wp.

nifies pulsare, percutere.

In Arabic p sig

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

[M] Ver. 18. Among a mighty people." So the Chaldee. And xy 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 5, read with the LXX, the Vulgate, Houbigant, and Bishop Lowth, ". "For they speak to me friendly lan

guage."

them that are quiet in the land." E. T. If, for y, 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 judgment. But taking the text as it stands, 8 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 1, of which it is hard, says Bishop Lowth, to make sense, would read "we have caught him;"

which would be parallel to my in the subsequent line. But I cannot think 1 hard to be understood.

PSALM XXXVI.

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

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

נאם פשע לרשע בקרב לבו

אין פחד: אין אלהים לנגד עיניו

Or, the repetition of may be saved, if, for 7, we may read. According to either emendation the passage will, I think, bear this rendering,-y, the Apostate,' or, 'the rebel,' (i. e. the Devil) y N 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 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 N 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

Arias Montanus, the passage will admit an easy interpretation, without any other emendation than the change of

into 2, which has the authority of the LXX, Vulgate, Syriac, and three MSS. Thus, "The oracular advice of the Apostate is to the impious in the innermost of his heart;" i. e. the maxims of the Apostate are deeply rooted in the heart of the impious. "There is no fear of God before his eyes." The verb substantive is understood in this first line, DN being the nominative case.

[B] Ver. 2. He giveth things a fair appearance.”—So I paraphrase the verb p. See Psalm v, 9. and XII, 2. This verse is well explained by Merrick; and his interpretation met with the approbation of Bishop Lowth. "He flattereth himself (or dealeth deceitfully with himself) as to the finding out," &c. i. e. so as not to find out. The same sense is expressed in the version of the LXX, notwithstanding the ignorant criticism of Le Clerc (well answered by Merrick), and in the literal translation of Arias Montanus. "Quoniam lenivit ad se in oculis ipsius, ad inveniendum iniquitatem suam ad odiendam." "For he has smoothed over, (or set a polish to himself), in his own eyes, with respect to the finding out of his own iniquity to hate it." He sets such a false gloss, in his own eyes, upon his worst actions, that he never finds out the blackness of his iniquity, which, were it perceived by him, would be hateful even to himself. The prefix may certainly signify "with respect to," and the verb

sometimes signifies" to find out," "to discover," "to discern," what was unknown or unperceived. See Eccl. VII, 29.

[C] Ver. 13. See there!" D dentinws.

PSALM XXXVII.

לדוד

[A] The Messiah, if not exclusively, is principally the subject of this Psalm. The stanzas J, 1, 5, D, D, Y, are hard

ly applicable to any other. seem chiefly addressed to him. dict the final prosperity of the

The admonitions of the Psalm

Many parts of it, indeed, preChurch, but these predictions

are, I think, in the shape of promises to the Messiah. The comminatory parts seem to respect the nation of the Jews immediately, and the antichristian faction of the latter times ultimately.

[B] Ver. 3.

and feed in security;"" and verily thou shalt be fed."-E. T. Bishop Hare, Houbigant, and Bishop Lowth, for would read 7, upon the authority, as they think, of the LXX. But Archbishop Secker thinks that N may signify plenty, as the root N signifies "to nurse, or nourish."-See MERRICK'S Annotations. But the Archbishop proposes another interpretation, which