"Who shall rule my people the Israel "[of GOD]. 2. "(But his issuings forth are from old, "From days of eternity.) 3. "Therefore, He will give them up [for "a season], 66 "Until the time that She which shall "bear, have borne. "Then shall the residue of thy brethren 66 "return, Along with the Sons of Israel. "And He shall stand, and guide them "And when they return, He shall be "Unto the ends of the earth: "And He shall be [their] PEACE.” RRMARKS. The first branch of the prophecy is thus finely and freely translated by Matthew, seizing the spirit of the original, in a way greatly superior to the Septuagint, and all the other ancient versions: "And "And thou Bethlehem, territory of Judah, "Art by no means least among the Captains of Judah: "For from thee shall issue forth A LEADER, "Who shall guide my people the Israel [of God].” Here the Evangelist has expressed the place Ephratah, by its situation in the land allotted to the tribe of Judah, more intelligibly than in the original of Micah; and has explained the thousands," by "the Cap "tains of thousands." The question in Micah, “ Art thou little "to be esteemed?" &c. (as it ought to be rendered) is to be understood negatively; for the answer implied is, "Thou art not :” and accordingly, the Evangelist has removed the ambiguity by his translation. This abrupt and lively mode of interrogation, is frequent in the Scriptures; especially in the prophecies, and is indeed characteristic of animated and impassioned conversation, in all ages and countries of the world, especially in the East. Thus in Nathan's famous prophecy, as recorded in the parallel passages, 2 Sam. vii. 1-15; and I Chron. xvii. 1-14: the question proposed in the former, "Shalt thou build ME a house for my dwell ing?" is expressed absolutely in the latter, "Thou shalt not build ME a house to dwell "in." See similar instances, Job xxx. 35; Isa. x. 9; 1 Kings xxi. 7. How grossly reprehensible then, are the writers of the Socinian and Unitarian schools, Priestley, Wakefield, Evanson, &c. who tax the Evangelist with mistranslation in this place, and affect to depreciate his style!-only betraying their own ignorance and incapacity, as fully equal to their presumption and malignity in reviling those sacred and genuine aπоμiημоveνμaтα, or " Memoirs of CHRIST," contained in the four Gospels, which they did not, and indeed could not understand, blinded as they were by their prejudices. απομνημονευματα, *This may help to clear up a considerable difficulty in our translation of Job, i. 11; ii. 5-9. In all which passages, the verb Barak, 772, which signifies literally "to bless," is rendered "to curse." In the two first passages, Satan's malicious insinuations against Job should be rendered interrogatively," Will he bless Thee to thy face?" intimating the reverse. In the last, Job's wife sarcastically and ironically advises him, "Bless God, and die!" alluding to his pious resignation before, Job i. 20-21. In the term 'Hygμevos, “Leader,” Matthew has supplied an important omission, both in the present Hebrew text of Micah, and also in the Septuagint version, of the Nagid; which is a usual epithet of THE MESSIAH, 1 Chron. v. 2; Isa. lv. 4; Dan. ix. 25, &c. and in all these places is rendered by the Septuagint, Hyeμevos. The next term, woἩγεμενος. Mave, finely expresses the nature of the Leader's “rule,” (generally expressed by the Hebrew, n,) as a shepherd his flock; so intimated by Micah himself in the third branch of the prophecy, y, xas wolfEVEL, ποιμενεις as rendered by the Septuagint, in the place. Whence our Lord is styled "The Shepherd · of Israel," Ps. lxxx. 1; "Shepherd," 1 Pet. v. 4. 66 and the " "Chief And he assumed the title of "the good Shepherd," and delegated the power of "guiding or pasturing "his sheep" to his Apostles. The second branch of the prophecy seems to be incidentally introduced to guard against the erroneous notion, that the human birth of the MESSIAH at Bethlehem was his first or original birth; and accordingly states his antecedent or eternal generation. And such 1 was was the explanation of the primitive Jewish Church, preserved in the Pirke of R. Eliezar: 66 Egressiones ejus sunt ab initio."-" Hoc est, "Quum mundus nondum esset conditus :" evidently explaining this passage by that parallel description of WISDOM personified, Prov. viii. 22. "THE LORD got Me the beginning of his way, 66 Before his works of old: "From eternity was I ordained, from first, 66 Long before the Earth," &c.-See Diss. VII. In conformity with both these passages, our Lord explicitly states his own pre-existence, before the world was"-" before the 66 66 foundation of the world:" John xvii. 5-14; and the apostle John styles him " the beginning of God's creation;" Rev. iii. 14. And Paul, "the first-born of all creation;" Col. 66 i. 15. In the third branch of the prophecy, our Lord's miraculous conception seems to be obscurely intimated in the remarkable expression paritura pariet, “She "that shall bear, have borne ;" which may perhaps best be explained by Isaiah's illus trious |