7. The raven being a bird that lives on carrion might find food where the dove could not.

14. Noah was in the ark a whole year and eleven days. Thefe very particular notes of time fufficiently prove that there must have been fome method of recording them, whether by alphabetical writing or in fome other way.

21. I will not curse the ground for man's sake, tho' the imagination of man's heart be evil from his youth. Gale. Here again the Divine Being is reprefented with the fentiments of men, who are more favourably difpofed towards those who please them, and remit their anger on that account.

Ch. IX. 4. This permiffion to eat animal food feems to imply that before this men had lived on vegetables only; and yet unless the whole economy of the human body had been changed, there appears no reason for a change in his food, and other circumftances mentioned before feem to imply that animal food had been ufed before.

The prohibition to eat blood, in which life is fuppofed to refide, feems to have been intended as an acknowledgment that God is the giver, and confequently the fovereign difpofer, of life, and therefore that it was not lawful to take it without his permiffion. There follows an exprefs order to take it even from man in cafe of murder, which had not been permitted before, Cain not having been punished in this manner, but only banished. Some suppose that the practice of eating the blood or the flesh of living animals, as is the custom in

Abyffinia

Abyffinia, was forbidden in this place. But this does not feem to be a natural conftruction of the language.

17. It does not follow from this ufe of the rainbow that there had been no rain before the flood. The heavy rain of forty days which contributed to produce the flood is not mentioned as a new circumftance, except with respect to the long continuance of it. But the Divine Being was pleased to make use of this pheno menon, which always accompanies rain when the fun fhines, to quiet the apprehenfions of mankind, left it fhould be the beginning of another deluge.

21. We cannot infer from this, that either the culture of the vine, or the art of making wine was unknown to the antediluvians. Noah's planting a vine yard rather implies the contrary, as he would probably do what he had been accustomed to do before.

22. The mere circumftance of a fon's accidentally seeing his father in an indecent posture could not have been confidered as any crime. He must have endeavoured to expofe him, and to divert his brothers with the fight; and as the curfe fell upon Canaan, one of the fons of Ham, it is not improbable, as fome have fuppofed, that it was he who faw his grandfather in the fituation that is mentioned, and informed his father of it.

This may mean his grandson Canaan, who fir faw Noah, in the circumftances here mentioned.

24. What Noah here fays was in the fpirit of prophecy, no doubt from immediate infpiration; and it respected not the persons then living, but their role pofterity. And if there was a propriety in the generat

order of providence, that there should be fuch a thing as fervitude among men (and if it had not been fo it could never have taken place) there was a greater propriety and use in its being the lot of an undutiful fon, rather than that of one of the dutiful of Noah's fons. There are feveral other inftances in the fcripture history of men's remote descendants being gainers or lofers by the behaviour of their ancestors. Such was the case of the Hebrew nation in general, who, in themselves confidered, were not more deferving of particular favour than other nations, as is frequently obferved. And the fons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, are faid to have been punished not in their own perfons, but in the tribes defcended from them. This curfe was confined to the defcendants of Canaan, and did not extend to all those of Ham.

In this prophecy ufe is made of the fignification of the names of the fons of Noah, Canaan fignifying depressed and abject; Shem renowned, and Japheth enlarged. This prophecy of Noah has been remarkably fulfilled; many of the defcendants of Ham, who peopled Africa, having been reduced to fervitude. From Shem were defcended Abraham and the Ifraelitish nation, deftined to be the moft illuftrious of all others; and from Japheth all the northern parts of Afia, and the whole of Europe, received their inhabitants.

Dr. Geddes tranfpofes the claufe here refered to Japheth he shall dwell in the tents of Shem, and applies it to Shem, whofe name is hereby alluded to in the prophecy concerning him,as was that of Japheth in what was faid of him; and he renders it May he dwell in tents of renown. This feems a happy conjecture,

Ch.

Ch. X. To those who interest themselves in the early hiftory of mankind, the contents of this chapter are peculiarly valuable. All the heathen writers were too late to give us any light into times fo remote from their own. Here we have a diftinct account of the origin of all the most confiderable antient nations, and of the countries in which they were fettled; tho' at this dif tance of time, there is confiderable difficulty in the interpretation of fome of the paffages.

2. The defcendants of Gomer are by Bochart placed in Phrygia, but I think it more probable that they were the Cimmerii, or Cimbri, the ancestors of the antient Gauls and Britons. Magog was probably the ancestor of the Scythians, Madai of the Medes, and Javan of the Ionians or Greeks. From Tubal probably came the Tibareni, and from Meshech the Mofchi, near the black fca, now the Mufcovites. Tiras is fuppofed to have peopled Thrace; and as the Trojans had allies in that country, they may have had the fame origin.

3 Ashkenas is thought to have fettled in Bythinia, where was a city called Afcania; and the neighbouring fea, the Euxine, formerly called the Axine, may have been fo denominated from him. The pofterity of Riphath, or Diphath (as it is written i. Chron. 1. 6.) probably inhabited Paphlagonia, and the people called Riphæi might be of this country. Togarmah probably fettled in Capadocia, as we find the Trocmeni in that neighbourhood.

4. Elishah is thought to have fettled in Peloponnefus, where was the city of Elis; or he may have been the anceftor of the Eolians. From Tarfhish was perhaps derived

B 5

derived the name of the city Tarteffus in Spain; and Kittim is generally placed in Italy. In Latium there was a city called Cetia, and there was a river called Ceto near Cumæ. Both Latium and Kittim have the fame fignification, viz. to hide. The Dodanim (in i. Chron. 1. 7. Rhodanim) probably settled in France, where we find the river Rhodanus, and the coaft adjacent to it Rhodanufia.

5. By islands we are to understand all countries divided from Palestine by the fea, tho' they were on the continent; or the word may fignify countries in general, whether they went to them by fea or not. The language made use of in this place feems to imply that the emigration of the fons of Noah was not made at, random, but in an orderly manner, probably by divine direction.

6. The Cufhites were fettled on both fides of the Red Sea, fome in Ethiopia, and others in Arabia. From Mifraim Egypt, which is fo called in fcripture, was denominated. The defcendants of Phut were fettled in the western parts of Africa, where are found several names of places derived from that word. Canaan gave his name to the country afterwards occupied by the Israelites, especially the northermost part of it.

According to Mr. Bruce, the Cufhites were the fame people that are now called Shangalla, inhabiting that part of Africa which is to the weft of the Red fea, and alfo the oppofite coast of Arabia. They lived chiefly in caves dug in the rocks. They were the inventers of letters, tho' now they are wholly illiterate. Spreading northwards they built Thebes in Egypt.

The