Λαος μου

of πρακτορες ύμων καλαμωνται ύμας

Και οἱ ἀπαιτουντες κυριευουσιν ὑμων.

LXX.

ἀπαιτοῦντες. Αq. ἀπαιτοῦντας. Theod. δανειστας.

"Populum meum exactores sui spoliaverunt,

Et mulieres dominatæ sunt eis."

St Jerom. et Vulg.

Hence it should seem that the reading of the LXX

was thus:

עמי נגשיך מעולליך

ונשין * משלו בך :

"O my people, thy oppressors are gleaning thee,

And thy usurious creditors lord it over thee."

The copies of St Jerome and the Vulgate gave the passage with less variation from the modern Masoretic text:

עמי נגשיו מעוללים

&c. 1

"My people, their oppressors glean them,

And women," &c.

Unless the use of the nouny, for a child,' can be supported by examples, the reading of the LXX seems to deserve the preference. It is to be remarked, that the principal variation of the reading of the LXX from the modern text is in "U", instead of

ומנושיו,Or *

; and in this their reading has the concurrent

testimony of Aquila and Theodotion. -"destroy the way of their paths."

-"efface

the track of their paths." The track of their paths is the line of moral conduct prescribed by God's law, or of political conduct advised by his prophets; which line the wicked leaders here mentioned effaced and obliterated, by bad advice and bad example., properly signifies to swallow up; thence to cause in any way to disappear; to destroy, so as to leave no vestige remaining. According to the different things to which it is in this sense applied, it may be rendered by the English words, to devour, to swallow up, to annihilate, to rase, expunge, efface, obliterate. In Numb. iv, 20, it is rendered in our modern Bible, to cover, and in Queen Elizabeth's, to fold up. But that verse should be rendered thus: "But let them not go in to see, when the sanctuary is taken to pieces, lest they die.” When the camp was to break up, the tabernacle was to be taken down, and the sacred utensils packed up by the priests, before the Kohathites approached. The taking of the sanctuary to pieces, and the packing up of its parts and furniture, was an entire abolition of its figure and form; a making of it to dis

appear. Hence the word signifies to take such

an erection to pieces.

Verse 18. For ➡y, the LXX and Bishop Lowth

.עמו read

"Jehovah appears to plead,

He rises up to enter into litigation with his people."

Verse 17.-" will smite with a scab;" rather, "will humble," the LXX, and Bishop Lowth. But there is no necessity for altering the reading of the Hebrew text. See Parkhurst's Lexicon, voce Пy.

CHAP. iv, 2. "the branch--the fruit of the earth." For a particular exposition of these phrases, as describing Christ by his divinity and his incarnation, see Vitringa.

many MSS. and editions. And

is the reading of Kennicott's MSS. 1. See De Rossi.

This fourth chapter and the two preceding clearly form one entire discourse. The general subject is,

VOL. II.

B

the first establishment of the Christian church, and the rejection of the Jewish people. The second opens with a view of the resort of all nations to the house of Jehovah, and the rejection of the house of Jacob. This is represented as the consequence of their own sins, and the effect of a scheme of Providence for the utter abasement of the power of the irreligious faction, the humiliation of all spiritual pride and hypocrisy, and the eradication of idolatry. For under the notion of such a scheme Christianity is described, chap. ii, 11-21. The third chapter, with the 1st verse of chapter iv, describes the judgments to be executed upon the Jews by foreign enemies, with particular allusion to the first in order of time, the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. The last verse of chapter ii, containing a general maxim, which the Prophet makes the moral, as it were, of his representation of God's scheme for the humiliation of his enemies, makes the transition easy from that discourse to the particular prediction of these judgments. The five last verses of chap. iv. describe the first plantation of the Christian churches.

CHAP. V, 1.-"" my well beloved-of my beloved -my well beloved." In the version of the LXX the pronoun my is not once expressed. If upon that

authority the pronominal suffix in the original may be thrown away, this verse might be thus rendered:

"Now will I sing for the beloved a tender song concerning his vineyard."

-"sing for the beloved"- i. e. in the person of the beloved.

.לידידי

ל

"Jarchii animadversio est, literam ? prefixam hic significare posse substitutionem; ut sit, loco dilecti mei, et instar legati vicem ejus occupantis. Elegans est expositio, quam non sperno; imo amplexum quoque eam esse video Liranum, Jarchio familiariter usum." Vitringa ad locum, vol. i, p. 112.k

"a tender song"

שר דודי

"carmen ama

bile," Castalio; "a song of loves," Bishop Lowth;

דודים an error of the transcribers for דודי who thinks

,דודיו Houbigant would read

"amoris ejus," which

I think an elegant emendation.

conveys the idea.

Verse 2." My well beloved"

"a tender song"

The LXX again

omit the pronoun. Αμπελων ἐγενηθη τῳ ἀγαπημενω "The well beloved hath a vineyard," &c. It cer

tainly is not usual with the Prophets to use the

familiar phrase of my beloved, in speaking either of God the Father, or of Christ. This second verse is