commands its performance; or, much rather, to a serpent, which being untamed opposes its sting and venom against the hand which would direct its motions.

But we must observe also, that the Hebrew words here used, chuber chubarim, have been rendered by us, on Deut. xviii. 11. in reference to conjurations, joining the junction, binding the bands, and so Montanus renders them in this place. Now it was, I believe, always the custom among conjurors, to add to their significative actions, expressions of the cause or purport of such actions; muttering the occasion of their spells. This may lead us to another view of the words; the asp which does not comply with, literally, top, the loud call, nor, p, the whispering, the learned whispering, employed while binding the bands, using incantations, which are intended to control it, and to diminish its powers of injury, to constrict, and to debilitate, perhaps we might say, to numb it. This agrees with the scope of the passage, q. "their poison is extremely venomous; their irascible passions are not to be soothed, either by open and fair proposals, or by secret management: therefore, O God, break their teeth in their mouth," which is the only way left of preventing them from being deadly. This is indeed the most certain and effectual mode of depriving serpents of their power to hurt. For the teeth of the serpent, which convey the poison into the wound they make, vide FRAGMENT, No.

498.

I find great difficulty in accepting the following sentence: "break out the great teeth of the young lions." It seems to me to be a very violent transition from the reptile tribe, the serpent, to young lions; and why young lions? the passage requires strong lions, deadly lions, to equal, much more to augment, the ideas already attached to the poisonous teeth of serpents; to which we ought to add, that immediately afterward the writer returns to the reptile tribe, the slug, or snail: with what propriety then does the lion, the young lion, come in between them? It is perhaps too bold to wish to read, instead of CAPHIRIM, [,] CI-APHARIM, from aphar, dust, and to consider the word as denoting serpents which dwell in dust, q. " dust serpents;" or CI-OPHERIM, spotted over, as if with dust, speckled in small grains, "dust speckled serpents.” Vide on Psalm xci. 13.

The same objection of impropriety occurs against reading waters in the next verse, and snail after it; for after the writer had wished his enemies dissolved like water, could he possibly wish them melted like a nail, which is by no means so essentially liquefied as water? Besides this, the word used, on, does not so properly signify to liquefy as to break off, to chip: it is therefore ill applied to water. May we venture To take ' MIM, for that slimy vermin, as denoting the watry, or LIQUEFYING, melting, creature? or,

may we read a megim, the dissolvers, the melters? this appellation would be very descriptive of a snail, or a slug; but I would much rather unite into one

which forms a ,כמגמים reading כמו מים the two words

regular plural; q. slugs, or snails: and I say either one or other, because, under our present difficulties, we may perceive that the two verses describe these two creatures, without being able to determine which is which, in creatures so closely allied in form and properties.

The reader will observe the perpetual recurrence of the identifying word, mu, in the latter verses of this Psalm; which seems to have affected the spelling in some places.

The work shabelul in the following verse has equal difficulty. The LXX and Vulgate read "like melting wax" so does the Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopian versions; Aquila and Jerom read "a worm which decayeth;" Symmachus reads, "the after birth," and most of the Rabbins read "a snail," which our version follows. Others, taking the waters in the former line for streams, take this word for the bed of those streams, which at least preserves a uniformity of imagery in the verse. To crown the whole intricacy of this passage, the following verses are rendered with equal variety; and we may pose the reader, effectually, by desiring him to state grammatically, the references and constructions of the words, "Before your pots can feel the thorns, he, who?. shall take them, the pots? away as with a whirlwind, both living, the pots? and in his wrath." A Psalm so full of difficulties, must needs suffer somewhat in restoring it to sense; the very attempt is a tissue of thorns.

Nevertheless, without in this place investigating, as we have done, every word, we shall offer what a naturalist may accept as its general import. The reader will guess the difficulties by the marks and supplements.

The legal, correct truth, O congregation,
The accurate judicial sentence, do ye declare ?
In righteousnesses do ye judge,

O sons of fallen Adam?

Rather, in heart ye work iniquity in the land; The guilt of your hands ye balance! ye estimate bribes by their respective weights.

The headstrong are abandoned so early as from the [maternal] belly;

They wander astray so early as from the womb! Their venom resembles the venom of a serpent; nachash.

It is exactly like, m, the poison of an aspic, peten, N.B. herosh, for n cheresh;

Of an aspic which shutteth his ears, That he may not hear, or obey, the loud call, Or, the gentler whisper of the expert, literally, learned, at binding the bands of conjuration over him.

spear of an ancient Egyptian king in his chariot, which is still extant among the hieroglyphical sculptures of Egypt. If then this hooked implement was an Egyptian or Canaanitish weapon, to see the sacred banner of the dove trampled on by rude enemies, together with the arms which should defend it, was an event which might well confound into paleness the kings which surrounded it; and who had expected victory from its supernatural influence, and its marvellous assistance.

VERSE 30.

Rebuke the company of the spearmen, literally, rebuke the beast of the reeds, or canes. This means the wild boar, in all probability; for the behemoth, or hippopotamos, vide Job xl. 16. is too distant. That the wild boar is considered as destructive to the people of Israel, vide Psalm lxxx. 13. That wild boars abound in marshes, fens, and reedy places, appears from Le Bruyn, who says,

"We were in a large plain full of canals, marshes, and bulrushes. This part of the country is infested by a vast number of wild boars, that march in troops, and destroy all the seed and fruits of the earth, and pursue their ravages as far as the entrance into the villages. The inhabitants, in order to remedy this mischief, set fire to the rushes which afforded them a retreat, and destroyed above fifty in that manner; but those that escaped the flames spread themselves all round, in such a manner, that the people themselves were obliged to have recourse to flight, and have never disturbed them since, for fear of drawing upon themselves some greater calamity. They assured me, that some of these creatures were as large as cows," Travels, vol. ii p. 62.

See also Apollonius, lib ii. v. 820; Virgil, En. x. Ovid, Metam. viii.

PSALM LXXIV. VERSES 14, 18.

Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters: thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.

These dragons are taninim, for which vide on Lam. iv. as these are mentioned with the leviathan, yet distinguished from him, it is clear this word cannot in this place represent that creature. It appears, also, that the reading of heads, plural, to leviathan, singular, must be erroneous; for, when had one leviathan more than one head? Moreover, "if the people inhabiting the wilderness," be the true import of the place, then no creature of the whale kind can possibly be intended by leviathan; for, how should a whale be found, or be cut up for food, in the wilderness? As to these "people of the wilderness," there is

great difficulty; Mr. Parkhurst thinks it were better to read "ravenous birds haunting the wilderness.' Bochart thinks, wild beasts; the word occurs Psalm lxxii. 9; Isai. xiii. 21; xxxiv. 14; Jer. 1. 39. Perhaps it means creatures, or persons, conversant with the waters, or the sea: sea men, or marsh animals. We know very well, that when a whale is killed by our fishermen, on the coast of Greenland, and is cutting up, the bears and the birds stand on the shore roaring and murmuring because their natural food is taken from them: and many of the birds will alight on the dead whale, and feast on what they can peck out from the huge animal. Crocodiles are so rare that we cannot affirm the same of the wild animals which inhabit the shores where they reside: but, we may imagine it, by parity of reason: for why should not vultures, &c. devour dead crocodiles, as sea birds do dead whales? Whether, therefore, "people inhabiting the wilderness," or "birds, &c. inhabiting the wilderness," are meant, may be questioned: perhaps it would be better to say simply "inhabitants of the desert shores." Job seems to hint at the improbability of parting the leviathan among the merchants, chap. xli. 6. so that the crocodile was not usually cut in pieces, as whales are, to be barrelled up for home consumption, or for exportation.

PSALM LXXX. VERSE 13.

The wild boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.

This should rather be, "the wild boar out of the marsh," or miry places; for which, vide Psalm Ixviii. 30. The wild beast is a general term for animals: it may mean such as weasels, polecats, &c. those of the productive field, rather than lions or tigers. This seems preferable to the idea which would render "a solitary wild boar ;" though that has authority on its side. For the figure of the wild boar, vide plate of Unclean Animals, Levit. xi.

PSALM LXXXIV. VERSE 4.

Yea, the sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest. . . . even thine altars, O Lord.

The word tsippor, rendered sparrow, signifies, much more generally, birds: as Deut. iv. 17. " the winged fowl that flieth in the air," Deut. xiv. 11. "Of all clean birds ye may eat," Deut. xxii. 6; Psalm viii. 9; Ezek. xxxix. 4, 17. where this word denotes birds of prey.

The word deror, in the opinion of Bochart, signifies rather the pigeon than the swallow; and with him agree the versions, Greek, Vulgate, Chaldee, Arabic, and Syriac.

The word deror, signifies in some places, liberty, so that it may import a free bird: this particularly

agrees with the stock dove. St. Basil, Epist. 75. calls a covey of pigeons, "a free flight," autovoμOV ¿yɛλŋv, autonomos, signifies self governed; or following the determination of the party's self. But, I rather think the pigeon is a free bird, in the sense of not being molested; for Baron du Tott informs us, that thousands of them feed from the public granaries of corn, without being driven away.

PSALM XC. VERSE 11.

Even according to thy fear is thy wrath: that is, in plain English, "thy wrath extends commensurate to our fear of thee:" this certainly never could be the sense intended: for ' read », i.e. for 1, read 1801, “even far BEYOND thy fear, i.e. our fear of thee, is thy wrath.

PSALM XCI. VERSE 13.

Thou shalt tread on the lion, SHACHAL, and adder, PETEN: the young lion, CEPHIR, and the dragon, TANIM, shalt thou trample under feet.

1st, For the shachal, the black lion, vide Job iv. 10. 2dly, For the peten, the asp, or aspic, vide Job xx. 14. 3dly, For the cephir, vide Job iv. 11.

4thly, For the tanim, vide on Lam. iv. plate.

It is probable that the tanim may in some places mean a furious water animal, found in rivers; whether the crocodile, or some other.

It should be remarked, that the most ancient interpreters render shachal here, by a serpent of some kind; which, no doubt, preserves the parallelism with the adder, in the following member of the sentence. Besides this, they observe, that it is more natural to tread under feet serpents, than lions. Bochart thinks the same, and supposes the word here to mean, rather a black serpent than a black lion. Several species of serpents are black; as the soot coloured serpent, the hæmorrhois; the dipsas, which is brown, but black toward the tail; or others. We find, in Suidas, a manner of speech employed by those who undertook to interpret dreams, "He who dreams that he tramples on serpents, will escape the attacks of his enemies."

"Cephir does not here signify a young lion, but a serpent. Nicander, Theriac. v. 463. calls the Cenchris, serpent a spotted lion,' newv alonos: spotted, because, in fact, he is covered with specks; a lion, because, like that animal, he raises his tail when about to fight; and because, like the lion, he bites and fills himself with blood." [A more probable lection, and reason, we presume to think we have already given on Psalm Iviii. But this representation strongly supports our rendering in that place.] "If any one incline to refer this word to lions, see the instance of Daniel, Dan. v. For the treading on serpents, vide Mark xvi. 18; Acts xxviii. 5.

PSALM XCII. VERSE 10.

But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of a unicorn, RAIM; I shall be anointed with fresh oil. For the unicorn, vide RHEEM, Job xxxix. plate. The fresh oil of this place is, literally, green oil; meaning, I suppose, oil fresh drawn from the olive, as our translators understand it; but possibly it may denote fragrant substances infused in such oil, which may impart a greenish colour to it; so that it may be at once both fresh and fragrant ; vide Harmer.

VERSES 12, 13, 14.

The righteous shall flourish as the palm-tree, TAMAR; he shall grow as a cedar, ARETZ, of Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.

1st, Tamar, the usual word for the palm. 2dly, Arets, the usual word for the cedar.

Observe, on the planting of trees in the courts of the Lord's house, that the prohibition, Deut. xvi. 21. was not at this time understood to forbid all trees, ly rendered there, certain kinds of plantations only, nor perhaps all kinds of trees; but, if grove be right

vide Gen. xxi. 33.

PSALM CII. VERSES 7, 8.

I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I am like an owl of the desert; I watch, and am as a sparrow on the housetop.

1st, Pelican, kaat, vide the plate of Unclean Birds, on Levit. xi.

But this pelican is described as being of the wilderness on which we remark that this bird often hatches her young far from water, in some remote and private place, for security and though her young, like herself, be fond of water, yet they experience no deficiency of that article, she carrying plenty of it to them in the great pouch, or bag, under her throat.

2dly, The owl, cus. On Levit. xi. 17. we ventured to think this name designed a water bird; and being associated here with the pelican, it confirms our idea; perhaps it is the sea gull.

3dly, Sparrow, tsippor: see on Psalm lxxxiv. 4.

But we should remark that Jerom does not mention the sparrow, but merely reads "a solitary bird;" neither does any Rabbi mention the sparrow; from whence Scheuzer thinks an owl may here be intended; which kind of bird is well known as a frequenter of the housetops: against this it may be said, that tzippor should rather represent a clean bird, than an owl: perhaps, a bird accustomed to build among the residences of mankind, but now deprived of its mate If it were a custom in the East to keep birds in cages, I should refer to such a prisoner; the idea seems to be, that of a bird solitary, melancholy, and drooping much like our robin redbreast when confined in a cage.

PSALM CIII. VERSE 5.

Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's.

The eagle here is nesher; for which vide the plate of Unclean Air Birds, Levit. xi. The youth of this eagle is, probably, that renovation of strength and spirits which is experienced by this bird after moulting. As the eagle is a long lived bird, this renewal of youth might, perhaps, be a familiar phrase, as we say of a person reviving after illness, "He has taken a new lease of his life."

PSALM CIV. VERSES 10, 11, 12.

The springs...give drink to every beast of the field: the wild asses quench their thirst; around them the fowls of the heaven reside, which give forth their voices from among the branches.

1st, Beasts of the field, not of the sandy desert. Vide Psalm viii. 4.

2dly, Wild ASSES, paraim. Vide on Job xxxix. plate.

3dly, Wine, oil, bread, verse 15. need no explana

tion.

4thly, TREES of the Lord, verse 16. may these be ahalim of Numb. xxiv, which are no less the "plantation of Jehovah," than the cedars? i.e. may a specific kind of tree be intended here, to accompany the cedar, or only large trees in general?

5thly, Where the birds, tsiporim, make their nests. What birds build on the cedars ? tsiporim cannot here identify the sparrow.

6thly, As for the stork, chasidah, the fir-trees are her house. Vide the plate of Unclean Water Birds,

Levit. xi.

7thly, The fir-tree, berush, vide on 2 Sam. vi. 5. and what is said of the chasidah, by Dr. Shaw, &c. in the place referred to above.

8thly, The high hills are a refuge to the wild goats, iolim, the ibices. Vide the rock goat, Job xxxix. plate.

9thly, The rocks are a refuge to the conies, shaphanim. Vide on Prov. xxx. 26. plate.

10thly, Young lions, verse 21. cephirim. Vide on

Job iv. 10, 11.

Though the general intention is evident, yet the use of the word beast, to denote creatures which live in the sea, is highly improper; living creatures, or some more general term, had been more appropriate. 12thly, Leviathan, vide taninim, Lam. iv. plate.

PSALM CV. VERSES 27, &c.

1st, Vines, giphenim. These are probably a certain kind of vine, such as was in bloom, &c. at the season indicated. Guphenin, according to the gloss in the Gemara, means late vines. The author of Aruch observes, that it denotes wild vines [rather, natural vines, vines not carefully cultivated] that put forth at the end of the vintage.

2dly, Fig-trees, taanuth. If these fig-trees of Egypt were the same plant as was employed by Adam to make waist girdles of, Gen. iii. 7. and the same word is used in both places, then that was not an uncommon kind of fig, but the ordinary taanah; unless this word in this place may be interpreted to mean such a kind as has received the name of Adam's Fig, or any other of East Indian growth; which is at least attended with difficulty.

3dly, Locust, arbah. Vide Joel ii. plate.

4thly, Caterpillar, ialek. This may be a species of locust; but certainly not the arbeh, from which it is distinguished here, and in Joel i. 4; ii. 25. unless it may denote a different state of the locust, arbeh, ravaging either a little before, or together with the arbeh, or locust in its migratory state: in which case it may be the locust in its worm state: and this seems very probable, from the action attributed to the ialak in Nahum iii. 16. "The ialak has stripped off its has assumed another form, which, having wings, enaskin," cast its exterior covering, and consequently bles it to fly away. However, as many other worms, besides that of the locust, cast their skins, this particular only proves that the ialak is not that insect, or any other, in a winged state but it may be as the LXX render it in five passages out of eight, where it occurs, bruchus, the chafer, or may bug, in its grub

state.