Our tranflator's note on the feventh verfe of the fourths chapter, and thine arm shall be uncovered, is, difengaged from the upper garment worn in the Eaft, and thus ready for action. Moft commentators explain the paffage in the fame way: but Harmer, (whofe third and fourth volumes* feem not to have reached Bishop N. before his work was finished,) fuppofes, and we think with fome degree of probability, that Ezekiel was not, by this action, to represent the exertions of the befieging army: but that he was to perfonate the Jewish people, as in the preceding verfes; and that his arm was to be uncovered for the purpose of expofing the bruifes which, agreeably to the Eaftern mode of lamentation, he had inflicted on it. VIII. 2. . And, lo! a likeness as the appearance of fire. Bishop N. retains the old reading of this paffage. Houbigant, on the authority of the LXX, and of chap. i. 26, reads 78872, as the appearance of a man. If, however, the paffage be confidered as corrupt, the conjecture of Archbishop Secker is much happier, who propofes The fenfe is precifely the fame, and the omiffion of the ', it is well known, is a very common error of transcribers. XIII. 17-21. Notwithstanding all the industry and all the ingenuity of the prefent tranflator, this difficult paffage ftill remains involved in almoft hopeless obfcurity. is rendered, and make ועשות המספחות על ראש כל coverings upon the head of every ftature. The explanatory notes on this claufe are: The falfe prophetefs did this without diftinction of stature or age. This may be a strong Eastern manner of exprefling that these women hoodwinked their votaries, and kept them in fpiritual darkness. Or the covering of the head may have been of the ornamental or triumphal kind, to denote profperity or victory; as pillows denoted tranquillity and plenty: and both may have been fignificantly applied to the heads and arms of thofe who confulted the propheteffes. The propheteffes may be reprefented as covering the head of thofe they by their prophefyings deftined to death; as the head of Haman was covered when he was really in those circumftances. "I am nevertheless difpofed to understand the clause in a different fenfe. These propheteffes did the fame thing by their fiattering words as would have been beft expreffed if they had thought fit to fignify the fame thing by actions only, (as the prophets fometimes did) by making bolsters for the arms, and prefenting them to the Ifraelitish women whom they wanted to affure of the continuance of their profperity; and embroidering handkerchiefs proper to See Review, vol. lxxix. p. 406. bind over the ornaments of females in a state of honour, and afterwards putting them on their heads." Harmer. ii. 98. Perhaps incantations were used. See Chald. on v. 20: and we learn from 1 Sam. xxviii. 7, and from the Greek and Roman writers, that women employed themselves in magical rites. It is not impoffible that every ftature may refer to images of different fizes. Lanea & effigies erat, altera cerea. Hor. Sat. 1. 1. viii. 30. Terque hæc altaria circum • Effigiem duco. Virg. Ecl. viii. 74.' The tranflation of verfe 20, is much improved by rendering nin, both in the middle and at the end of the verfe, that they may efcape, i. e. from your fnares. The common verfron of the word, to make them fly, conveys no meaning. XVI. 15.77, his it was, according to the old tranflation, is rendered by Bifhop Newcome, the like to which will not be again. He thinks that the true reading is, and that it fhould be tranflated, which should not have been done. We fee nothing, however, that calls for correction either in the common reading, or in the verfion. At the end of verse 16, is rendered, the like things to which have לא באות ולא יהיה not come to pass, and will not be again. 'This conftruction,' fays the author, fuppofes the verb fub דבר and,באות to be understood with הדברות ftantive, and יהיה with That But I prefer reading with 6. N: whither thou fouldeft not have come, neither should it have been done. the preter and future have this force, fee Gen. xxxi. 42. Numb. xxii. 33. Judg. viii. 19. Gen. xliv. 8. Lev. x. 18, 19.' We have fome doubts, however, whether the examples here cited, are fufficiently in point to juftify this mode of rendering the verb in the paffage before us. 1, and XXI. 15. The tranflator renderson their overthrown may be multiplied, pointing the latter word as in Jerem. xviii. 23. There is a harfhnefs in this expreffion, which offends the ear of the English reader; though the fenfe which it conveys, is probably the true one. The laft claufe of this verfe is connected with the beginning of the nextAh! thou that art prepared for glittering, that art furbished for flaughter, get thee different ways. Inftead of snn, a word which has been variously explained by tranflators and commentators, the learned prelate adopts the elegant reading of feveral MSS. in Kennicott's and De Roffi's collations, n, .alius אחר from XXI. 21. php, he made his arrows bright, according to the common verfion, is, we doubt not, very juftly rendered by Bishop N. he mingled his arrows. This kind of divination, we may obferve, like the exquavrsta of the Greeks, was common over all the Eaft. It is exprefsly forbidden in B 3 the the Koran, chap. v. O true believers, furely wine, and lots, and images, and divining arrows are an abomination of the work of Satan. The learned reader will find a particular and fatisfactory account of this practice, among the idolatrous Arabs, in Pocock's Specimen Hiftoria Arabum; a work from which may be drawn much ufeful illuftration of Oriental manners and opinions, and which, on account of the curious and valuable information that it contains, ought to be more frequently confulted by commentators on the Hebrew fcriptures. Bishop Newcome's rendering of the word may be yet further confirmed by the authority of Jerom, who thus paraphrafes the paflage. Stabit in ipfo compito, et, ritu gentis fuæ, oraculum confulet, ut mittat fagittas in pharetram, et COMMISCEAT eas infcriptas, five fignatas, nominibus fingulorum, ut videat cujus fagitta exeat, et quam prius civitatem debeat expugnare. קלקל XXIV. 5. Bifhop Newcome very properly adopts the mar and pile alfo וגם דור העצמים תחתיה ginal rendering of the bones under it. The common verfion of the word 17 is clearly wrong in this place, because it appears, from the end of verfe 4, sy nae, fill it with the choice bones; בשלו עצמיה בתוחה,and from the clofe of this fame verie let them feethe the bones of it therein, that the bones were to be boiled with the flesh. 'n probably means in the lower part of the cauldron. XXIX. 10. ממגדל סונה ועד The common tranflation of w from the tower of Syene, even to the border of Ethi- XXXII. 2. Bifhop Newcome very properly rejects the com and thou art as a whale ואתה כתנים בימים mon verfion of in the feas. There can be no doubt that the crocodile is meant, II both both here and in chap. xxix. 3. Every circumftance mentioned in both paffages, is ftrikingly defcriptive of this animal: but many particulars in the defcription cannot, without grofs abfurdity, be applied to the whale. The crocodile might very naturally be adopted by the prophet as a fymbol of Egypt; and from the evidence of feveral Roman coins, it appears to have been used for this purpofe in later ages. And I will .השמנה ואת החזקה אשמיד .16 .XXXIV defroy the fat and the frong. Instead of N, I will destroy, Bishop N. after Houbigant and Dathius, reads 'N, I will keep, or preferve, on the authority of the LXX, Arabic, and Syriac vertions. This emendation is confirmed by the last claufe of the verfe, where the good fhepherd is reprefented as feeding them with difcretion, and, by verfe 3, where the bad hepherd, by way of contradiftinction, is defcribed as flaying the fat of the flock. ממע לשם .והקמתי להם 6 XXXIV. 29. vos ons napn. And I will raife up for them a plant of renown, or for renown. The prefent tranflator, with Houbigant and Dathius, adopts the reading of the LXX, Arabic, and Syriac verfions, he, inftead of, and renders the paffage thus: and I will raise up for them a peaceable plantation-oblerving that not renown, but fecurity, profperity, and confequent exemption from famine, are infifted on.' With all due deference, however, to this high authority of critics and verfions, we apprehend that the common reading may be fuccefsfully defended. The Hebraifm is fufficiently intelligible, and the idea of renown is at leaft as closely connected with the laft clause of this verse, and they hall not bear any ולא ישאו עוד בלמת הגוים more the reproach of the Gentiles, as the ideas of peace, and fe curity, are with the preceding verses. XXXVII. II. 1, we are cut off for our parts. The elegant redundance of in the original, which feems to have been neglected, or overlooked, in all the ancient verfions, is very awkwardly, though accurately expreffed in the common English verfion by the phrafe, for our parts. Bishop N. has been more happy-as for us, we are cut off. Houbigant juftly obferves that the word is fo redundant as to add emphafis, and exprefs entire excision. To the fortieth chapter, are prefixed extracts from the works of Michaelis, Dathius, and Eichhorn, on Ezekiel's vifion of the temple. To thefe is fubjoined a very curious and learned differtation, on the fame fubject, from the papers of Archbishop Secker. With the greatest candour, and with the most respectful gratitude, Bifhop Newcome acknowleges the affiftance that he B 4 has has received from the MS. notes of Archbishop Secker, from feveral notes tranfmitted to him by Mr. Dimock of Glocefter, who is preparing a new verfion of the Pfalms, and from the friendly exertions of the late Dr. Woide. To this laft gentleman, he was indebted for a transcript of Archbishop Secker's papers, for collations of a Coptic verfion fuppofed to be of the fecond century, and of the Pachonian MS. of the Septuagint, ascribed to the tenth, or the eleventh; for an English translation of Michaelis's German annotations on the Bible, and for a curious extract from Profeffor Eichhorn's introduction to the Old Testament. Dr. Woide, as Bifhop Newcome has juftly remarked, deferved to be as well known for his courtesy in furnishing affiftance to editors, as for the literary productions with which he favoured the public. Since the appearance of the work which we have been confidering, death has deprived the world of the man whom we have juft mentioned: in whom, profound and various erudition was united with the molt amiable fimplicity of manners; and whose love of learning, and of learned men, was exceeded only by his love of mankind. If the relatives of fo accomplished a scholar, and fo exemplary a Chriftian, are, in fome measure, left by his death to the protection of a country in which he had himself found an honourable afylum, we may hope that, while his services and his virtues are remembered, the learned and the liberal of the British nation will be guardians of his orphan family. Par...s. ART. II. Mr. Alifon's Effays on the Nature and Principles of Tafte. [Article concluded from our laft.] OUR UR learned effayift introduces his Inquiry into the Origin of the Sublimity and Beauty of the Material World,' which conftitutes the subject of his fecond effay, in the following manner: If the illuftrations in the former Effay are juft, which fhew that no other objects are in fact productive of the emotions of Tate, but fuch as are fitted to produce fome fimple emotion (as the base of that complex emotion, which we call the emotion of Taste), there arifes a question of fome difficulty, and of confiderable importance, What is the fource of the Sublimity and Beauty of the Material World ?' On the one hand, it is obvious that many objects of the material world are productive of the emotions of fublimity and beauty; on the other, Mr. A. thinks it must be allowed, that matter is, in itself, unfitted to produce any kind of emotion; that all that it, in fact, produces, is fenfation; and that if we had |
