palace; and that a complete revolution had happened in his favour ‘.

Here we see a civil magiftrate, who had been difpleafed with a great ecclefiaftic, fent his muticians to play at his archiepifcopal palace, in honour of him to whom this magiftrate was now reconciled. Elisha might require that a like honour fhould be done to him, and through him to the God whom he ferved, who had been fadly neglected and affronted in former times by the king of Ifrael. The propriety of it will appear in a ftill ftronger light, if we should fuppofe, that Elisha commanded the minstrel to fing, along with his mufic, an hymn to Jehovah, fetting forth his being the God that gave rain, that preferved fuch as were ready to perish, the giver of victory, and whofe power was neither limited to his temple, nor to the Jewish country facred to him, but equally operative in every place.

The coming of the fpirit of prophecy upon Elifha, enabling him to declare a speedy copious fall of rain in that neighbourhood, and a complete victory over their enemies, immediately upon the fubmifive compliance of this idolatrous prince with the requifition of the prophet, and fuch an hymn in praife of the God of Ifracl, feems to me full as natural an interpretation, as the fuppofing he defired the minstrel to come in order to play fome

I

Travels in Greece, p. 244.

foft

foft compofing tune, to calm his ruffled fpirits, and to qualify him for the reception of the influences of the fpirit of prophecy.

Was a warm and pungent zeal against the idolatries of Jehoram a difqualifying difpofition of foul'? and if it were, was mere mufic the happiest mode of inviting the divine influences? Yet after this manner, I think, it has been commonly explained *.

Singing was, and is fo frequently joined with the found of mufical inftruments in the Eaft, that I apprehend no one will think it ftrange, that I fuppofe the minstrel fung as well as played in the prefence of Elifha'; and when it is recollected that their fongs are very frequently extemporaneous, it is natural to fuppofe the prophet required something to be fung, fuiting both his character and the occafion.

OBSERVATION LXXXII.

Though a throne and royal dignity seem to be correlates, or terms that stand in reciprocal

The anger of Elifha, occafioned by the prophane mockery of fome unhappy youths, did not prevent his prophetically declaring the vengeance of God upon them, which effectually took place, 2 Kings 2. 23, 24.

2 See Bishop Patrick on the place.

31 Sam. 18. 6, 7. If. 23. 15, 16. Pl. 98. 5, &c. Shaw, tome 1, part 3, ch. 3, $4.

→ Sec Obfervations on Scripture, ch. 5, obf. 7. 2d ed.

relation to each other, yet it should seem that the privilege of fitting on a throne has been fometimes granted to those that were not kings, particularly to fome governors of important provinces.

In the book of Nehemiah, in like manner, we read of the throne of the governor on this fide the river-the throne, in other words, of the governor for the king of Perfia of the provinces belonging to that empire on the west of the Euphrates.

So d'Herbelot tells us, that a Perfian monarch, of after-times, gave the governor of one of his provinces permiffion to feat himself in a gilded chair, when he adminiftered justice, which diftinction was granted him on account of the importance of that poft, to which the guarding a pass of great confequence was committed. This province, he tells us, is now called Schirvan, but was formerly named Serir al dhahab, which fignifies, in Arabic, the throne of gold. To which he adds, that this privilege was granted to the governor of this province, as being the place through which the northern nations were wont to make their way into Perfia; on which account also a mighty rampart or wall was raised there.

Ch. 3. 7. Lyfias was in juft fuch a fituation in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, 1 Mac. 3. 32.

2 P. 157, art. Bab al Abuab.

3 He lived about 600 years after the birth of our Lord, as Nehemiah lived somewhat more than 400 years before.

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May we not, agreeably to this account, fuppofe that the governor of the provinces on the western side of the Euphrates was looked upon as poffeffed of a poft of the highest confequence, on account of the frequent irruptions of the Egyptian princes, and diftinguished by this privilege of fitting on a throne for that caufe, perhaps gilded, or otherwise adorned with gold?

And doth not his having a palace at Jerufalem, in which perhaps was fuch a feat for the administration of justice, mark out the great confequence of Jerufalem, in the estimation of the Perfian princes of those times, notwithstanding it's having been fo completely ruined, and but flowly emerging out of the heaps of rubbish into which the army of Nebuchadnezzar had reduced it?

OBSERVATION LXXXIII.

The word used for those martial enfigns of royal dignity, which were carried before King Solomon, and which our version renders targets, 1 Kings x. 16, were fuppofed by the Septuagint to fignify fpears or lances; and as the word is to be understood to fignify fome fharp-pointed weapon, it may be more natural to understand it of a lance, than of a defenfative piece of armour with a short sharppointed umbo in the middle, confidering that Shields of gold were alfo carried before this prince,

prince, at folemn feafons. One can hardly find a difpofition to admit, that two forts of things, fo much alike as targets and fhields, fhould be meant here; and if fuch fimilar defenfative pieces of armour were hardly meant, the tranflation of the Septuagint is as natural as any, to say nothing of the authority of so ancient a version, in which, so far as appears by Lambert Bos, all the copies, which frequently difagree in other matters,

concur.

But whatever we may think of this way of tranflating the original word, we can hardly fuppofe fuch martial enfigns of honour were unknown in the time when this tranflation was made. It is certain they now appear in the Levant. Thus Windus, in his defcription of a pompous cavalcade of the emperor of Morocco, tells us, that after several parties of people were paffed, " came Muley Mahomet "Lariba, one of the emperor's fons; he is

alcayde of the ftables, or master of the "horse there attended him a guard of horse "and foot, at the head of which he rode "with a launce in his hand, the place where "the blade joins to the wood covered with gold." Soon after which came the emperor himself.

The account of this lance feems to give a clear illustration, of what the Septuagint referred to in their tranflation of this paffage; if not of the original of the Hebrew hiftorian.