with wax; but according to the present Eastern manner, with ink.

Next it is to be observed, that the word translated open (the evidence or book which was open) is not that which is twice made use of, Nehemiah viii. 5. And Ezra opened (" vayiphtach) the book in the sight of all the people (for he was above all the people,) and when he opened it, all the people stood up; but is a word which signifies the revealing future events unto the minds of men, by a divine agency;* and it is, in particular, made use of in the book of Esther, to express a book's making known the decree of an earthly king, chap. viii. 13. "The copy of the writing, for a commandment to be given in every province, was published (galuee,) unto all people," or revealed, as it is translated in the margin. They that look on the original, will find it is the same Hebrew verba galah, with that used in this 32d of Jeremiah, and the very same participle of that verb. The open book then of Jeremiah seems to signify, not its being then lying open or unrolled before them, while the other was sealed up; but the book that had revealed the will of God, to bring back Israel into their own country, and to cause buying and selling of houses and lands again to take place among them.

"Nor that used Neh. vi. 5, where mention is made of an open letter; nor that in Dan. vii. 10, which speaks of sitting in judgment, and opening books.

1 Sam. iii. 7-21. Dan. ii 1980, ch. x. l.

It appears, from the beginning of the 30th chapter, that Jeremiah had been commanded to write down the declaration GoD had made to him by the prophetic Spirit, concerning the bringing back the captivity of Israel and Judah, and their repossessing the land given to their fathers; now that writing, or the copy of some other similar prophecy, he produced upon this transaction, and commanded Baruch to inclose them both in the same earthen vessel, which might be exhibited afterwards as a proof of the veracity of their Prophets. I apprehend then the open book means a book of prophecy, opening and revealing the future return of Israel, and should somehow have been so expressed as to convey that thought to the reader's mind, not as a little volume not sealed up, in contradistinction from the state of the other little book ordered to be buried along with it, which was the purchase-deed.

The commentators I have seen do not give any such account. Calvin comes the nearest to it; but he only tells us, that he could not but believe, that a prediction of Israel's possessing again houses, and fields, and vineyards, must have been written in these two little books. But he supposed, according to the common notion, one was sealed up, and the other left open; and appears not to have apprehended, that the prediction was contained in one volume, and the deed of purchase properly sealed in the

▾ See verse 2.

other, much less that this was meant by the using these two different words. At least nothing of this sort appears in the account Pool has given of his sentiments, in the Synopsis.

OBSERVATION IV.

Of Inscriptions, Seals, &c. of Letters.

I HAVE elsewhere observed, that the Oriental books and letters, which are wont both of them to be rolled up, are usually wrapped in a covering of an elegant kind: I would here add, that they have sometimes words on these coverings, which give a general notion of what is contained in them; which management obtained in much elder times, and might possibly be in use when some of the Psalms were written.

Sir John Chardin, describing the manner of dismissing the ambassadors and envoys that were at the court of the Persian monarch, when he was there, after mentioning the presents that were made them, goes on to inform us, "That the letters to the crowned heads were sealed; that, for the cardinal patron was open: that for the pope, was formed so as to be larger than the rest; it was inclosed in a bag of very rich brocade, and sealed at the ends, which had fringes hanging down the bag half-way. The seal was applied to the place

2 The ambassador was a Dominican Monk.

where the knot was, on both sides, upon red wax, of the diameter of a piece of fifteen sols, and very thick. Upon the middle of one of the sides of the bag were written these two Persian words, Hamel Fasel, which signify, excellent or precious writing". After which he goes on to explain the reasons that occasion the Persian prince to treat the popes with such distinguished honour, which it would be of no use to consider here. The remark I would make relates to the inscription, on the outside of the rich bag inclosing these dispatches, and which, in few words, expressed the general nature of what was contained in the roll within it was a royal writing.

This practice of writing on the outside of the case of a letter, or book rolled up, seems to be at least as ancient as the time of Chry sostom, according to a note of Lambert Bos on the 39th Psalm, as it is reckoned in the Septuagint, verse 7. Chrysostom, we are told there, remarks, that they call a wrapper' the Kepahis, which is the word the Septuagint translators make use of to express the Hebrew word

megillath, which we translate volume: In the volume of the book it is written of me. Chrysostom seems to suppose there was written in or on the sacred volume, a word or words which signified the coming of the Messiah. But Chrysostom would hardly have thought • Voyage, tome 3, p. 246.

Which is No. 40 in our version.

• Ειλημα.

of such an interpretation, had it not been frequently done at Constantinople in his time, or by the more Eastern princes that had business to transact with the Greek emperors; or been known to have been before those times practised among the Jews.

e

Chrysostom lived in the end of the fourth century. Aquila, who is believed to have lived above a hundred years earlier, and is allowed to be a most closé translator of the Hebrew, uses, according to Bos, the same word λn, or wrapper, to express the above Hebrew word, which we translate volume. He therefore supposed that what was written, to which this passage refers, was written on the covering or wrapper of the sacred books, Though not a native Jew, yet he became a proselyte to the Jewish religion, and was well versed in their affairs.

This explanation, if it may be admitted that it is not improbable, that the Jews, even of the time of David, used such short inscriptions on the outside of their books, expressive of the general nature of the contents of them, affords a much more agreeable way of rendering the word than our English term volume. (In the volume of the book it is written of me,) since every ancient Hebrew book was a volume or roll; consequently it is nothing more than sayTo what ing, In the book it is written of me.