vitatis, quæ asperæ nimis vel incommoda videbantur, ad minimum calculum, decem millia radicum exstitere.". "The simple Hebrew verb, or root," says Dr. Murray, "consists of three consonants and two vowels. How it received this form, cannot be easily traced. It seems to have been at first a kind of interjection, rapidly uttered to express an act newly completed t."

It is by following up these principles that Grammarians and Lexicographers have been enabled to exhibit the Hebrew tongue as perhaps the most simple and systematic in existence. In some points of view, therefore, the etymological method is certainly possessed of much interest; and particularly in regard to the Arabic, the copiousness and complexity of which have passed into a proverb among the nations of Asia, the etymological plan, or that of reducing the words to their roots, seems to be the only practicable mode by which the "ocean," as it has been called, of this remarkable language, can be comprehended within the compass of any thing like an ordinary sized dictionary. Upon the alphabetical plan, indeed, the labour would be immense, and would go far to confirm the truth of the story which is told, that "a king having sent to a grammarian for the books in his possession relative to the Arabic tongue, he desired the messenger to inform the monarch, that, if he wished to have them, he must send sixty camels to carry the dictionaries alone." Richardson has attempted to follow the alphabetical method in his Persian and Arabic Dictionary; but how miserably inferior his performance is, if it can be called an ARABIC Dictionary at all, in comparison with that of Golius, or almost any other, which is formed upon the etymological plan, must be quite obvious to every scholar who has consulted them.

"In

With respect to the Hebrew language, however, the case is different; for on account of its small extent, the whole of what may be called classical Hebrew being contained within the bounds of the Old Testament Scriptures, it is certainly a work of no great difficulty for the Lexicographer to give all the words, whether derivative or primitive, in alphabetical order. fact, the Hebrew Lexicography," says our author, "on account of the small compass of the writings which it embraces, may boast of a completeness in this respect, to which no dictionary of any other ancient language could easily pretend." And besides, the principles upon which the etymological method proceeds, may fairly be questioned, in more respects than one. the first place, the established opinion that the Hebrew roots,

* Robertson's "Grammaticæ Hebrææ," p. 2. +"Outlines of Oriental Philology," p. 21.

In

or primitives, are all triliteral, useful as it may be in a gramma tical point of view, is far from being proved; and indeed some Hebrew philologists have with good reason asserted, that instead of referring monosyllables to triliterals, which, of course, is commonly done by the old system, we ought to invert the order, and refer the latter to the former. And, secondly, there are many words, the etymology of which may fairly be disputed. "Hence great confusion must necessarily arise; since one Lexicographer has placed a word here, another there; so that even the scholar himself frequently looks for it in vain: in many other cases, it is very difficult to ascertain the root, at least, to an inexperienced beginner."

For these reasons we are inclined to think, that Gesenius has acted very judiciously in having departed from the arrangement of former Hebrew Lexicons, and in having here, "for the first time," as he says, "preferred an entirely alphabetical, to an etymological order." We are aware that this has already been done in the Lexicon Hebræo-Chaldæo-Biblicum ad modum Buxtorfii of Opitius, which was printed at Leipsic in 1692; as well as in a Hebrew Dictionary by Frey, part of which was published in London several years ago.

"There is no other way," says Mr. Leo, "to account for the long neglect of adopting the present superior arrangement, than by the fact, that the etymological order in which all Hebrew Lexicons have been hitherto compiled, (and which those of the sister dialects, as the Syriac and Arabic, except Richardson's, still preserve,) having at all times been strongly recommended as necessary to the acquisition of Hebrew, has prevailed in all succeeding Lexicons, from an implicit reliance on the utility of an old and universal practice; without considering whether that practice was founded on just or erroneous principles."

The second property to which we have alluded, as likely to render this Lexicon singularly useful and popular, is the insertion of the geographical and proper names. These, although essentially necessary for the proper interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures, have been unaccountably neglected by other Lexicographers.

"With regard to the geographical names," says our author, "Eichhorn preceded me in inserting them, with propriety, in the dictionary. But in fact, perhaps scarcely half of them, more especially those of. which Michaelis had treated in the Supplement, have been introduced there. But if they are to be admitted at all, it plainly follows that the admittance ought to be general. To wish to restrict the admission to the more important ones, would be manifestly quite nugatory; for in

* Vide Hurwitz's "Vindicia Hebraicæ," p. 41-44,

what does the criterion of importance consist? Must a word occur twice, thrice, or a fourth time, to deserve admission into the dictionary ? And ought not the reader to be informed precisely, when the word ocours only once, that the place is otherwise unknown, does not occur élsewhere, and can only be determined by this passage? J. D. Michaelis, moreover, in the Prospectus of his Supplement (Orien. Bibliotheca, vol. xx. in the Appendix) had no fixed principles on that point. I had even at the very outset embraced this plan of admitting all geographical names, but had made use of an auxiliary, the incompleteness of which I discovered, alas! too late, and not till after the impression of the first sheets; and this has reduced me to the disagreeable necessity of making up for my oversight at the end of the first volume. The proper names of persons ought properly to be excluded from the plan of this Lexicon; yet I am now convinced of the utility of their admission; (1.) because the beginner, who, as is to be wished, does not consult a translation in his studies, would often hesitate whether a word be a proper name or appellative; (2.) because they themselves, being originally appellatives, according to their signification, belong to the small store of Hebrew which has been handed down to us ; and the existence of many a root in Hebrew is further confirmed by means of them. If, therefore, any room be found, they ought to be added in an Appendix to the second volume * ."

We shall now present our readers with a few extracts from this valuable work, in confirmation of the opinion that we have given of its merits. The first we shall select is the explanation of the important word mbs, DN GOD.

to fear, to be afraid ; (2) to wor الله 8 m. God. (Root

ship.) By way of pre-eminence, of Jehovah, but also of other gods, Dan. xi. 37. 39. however in sing. only in the latter writings and poets, Neh. ix. 17. 2 Chron. xxxii. 15. Deut. xxxii. 15. 17. most frequently in Job iii. 4. 9. v. 17, &c. (Thus in Chaldee and Syriac.) Job xii. 6.

MİN NE The who carries the deity in his hand, i. e. whose hand is his god. Comp. Hab. i. 11. Plur. D.

"1. Gods, in plur. Exod. xx. 3. 20. Deut. iv. 18. hence god-like apparitions, 1 Sam. xxviii. 30 (13) 177 1 1 1 DI san gods ascending out of the earth, i. e. apparitions of supernatural beings. Also, i. q. D sons of gods, i. e. kings, Ps. lxxxii.

1.6. It has also been understood of other authorities and judges, e. g. Exod. xxi. 6. xxii. 7, 8. (But Deut. xix. 17. shows that it is here to be understood of God himself, whom the arbitrating priests only represented.)

،،

2. is as plural excellentie, God. It is applied to idols, 2 Kings

* "Are alphabetically inserted in the Translation."

i. 2, 3. 1 Kings xi. 33. Exod. xxxii. 23. Judg. xvi. 23. But by way of pre-eminence, especially to Jehovah. It is construed (contrary to the usage of the plural excellentia) with the adjective in plural, e. g. 1 Sam. iv. 8. xvii. 26., but with the verb almost always in the singular, as Gen. i. 1. Exceptions to this rule are, Gen. xx. 13. xxxi. 53.

2 Sam. vii. 23. Ps. lviii. 12."

"The following constructions and phrases are yet to be noticed: (a) the Son of God, applies,

" (a) To Kings, Ps. ii. 7. lxxxii. 6. Comp. 2 Sam. vii. 14., also Ps. lxxxix. 27., in which David is called the first born, i. e. the dearest son of Jehovah. The usual notion of the ancients, that the royal dignity was derived from God, is here traced to its foundation; hence the Homeric δυογένης Βασιλευς, comp. Il. I. 279. II. 196. 97. Το which belongs the almost divine reverence paid to oriental kings; whence it is perceivable how they themselves came to be called gods, Ps. lxxxii. 6. xlv. 7, 8.)

"(3) In pl. to the inferior gods, angels, Gen. vi. 1., &c. Job i. 6. ii. 1. xxxviii. 7.

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(7) To a faithful adherent, worshipper of God, Deut. xiv. 1. Ps. lxxiii. 15. Prov. xiv. 26.

"(b) a man of God, used of angels, Judg. xiii, 6. 8. Prophets, 1 Sam. ii. 27. ix. 6. 1 Kings xiii. 1., and other faithful servants of God, e. g. Moses, Deut. xxxiii. 1. David, Neh. xii. 24. 36, The same is DNN a prince of God, Gen. xxiii. 6. of Abraham, with the accessary idea of princely dignity.

"(c) Great before God, in the sight of God, i. e. very great, Jonah iii. 3. Dubnb by a city great before God, comp. Acts vii. 20. doréios rü Otw and Gen. x. 9. a mighty hunter, before Jehovah."

In most Hebrew dictionaries, and especially in that of Parkhurst, where there is a very long, and, in our opinion, a very unsatisfactory discussion on the subject,-the above word is referred to the root, to swear; but it is certainly much more reasonable to refer it, as Gesenius has here done, to the verb

, which is found in Arabic, signifying trenuit, coluit, to dread, to adore and hence, in Arabic, with the definite article J, prefixed to it, we have U, ALLAH, THE ADORABLE God. p is also used in regard to idols, or false gods, as is mentioned above; but it ought to be observed, that when it has the definite article prefixed, without any exception,

which we have yet discovered in the Hebrew Bible, it means God himself, The true God, Jehovah God.

, Covenant, is another word, the proper root and original meaning of which have given occasion to as much, if not more disputation than the word D, as may be seen by consulting Archdeacon Sharpe's two volumes of" Dissertations concerning the etymology and Scripture meaning of the Hebrew words Elohim and Berith." The following is our author's plain and judicious explanation of this controverted vocable.

بري

"1. Alliance, covenant, treaty, (root, Arabic, præcidit, præsecuit, according to the custom on such occasions, of cutting up the victims, and passing between them. See ). In the sense of en

בּוֹא עָבַר בְּ כָּרַת הֵקִים ,tering into a covenant, are used the verbs הֶפֶר,of

of revoking it,. The genitive often denotes the person with whom one enters into a covenant. Levit. xxvi. 45.: D

the covenant with the ancestors. Deut. iv. 3. the covenant with thy fathers; hence, with a double genitive, Levit. xxvi. 42.

,my covenant with Jacob בְּרִיתִי יַעֲקֹב

"2. The condition of the covenant on one side only, is often implied; and thence it signifies frequently the same as the law, when it refers to the covenant of God with the Israelites, e. g. nan jing, the ark of covenant, Josh. iii. 6., otherwise, the ark of the law, han nimb, the tables of the covenant, the tables of the law, Deut. ix. 9. Hab, the book of the covenant, the collection of laws, from which, according to Exod. xxiv. 7., Moses read to the people; 2 Kings xxiii. 21. the institution of the passover is cited

,the words of the covenant דִבְרֵי הַבְּרִית עֲשָׂרָה הַדְּבָרִים,therefrom

the ten words, for the Ten Commandments.

3. As concrete,, the author, founder, of a covenant, Isa. xlii. 6.: Dy ♫, he who establishes a covenant with the people. Chap. xlix. 8."

The following complete explanation of the root W, affords a good specimen of the clear and distinct manner in which our author divides his subject, arranges his observations, and adduces his authorities.

esse.

, occurs in three conjugations; in Kal, i. q., rectum