--

thus

V. 13. Return, O Lord, how long? np w nim ] Rather WHEN will there be A RETURNING, O LORD? or perhaps RETURN, O LORD, BEFORE MY DEATH. before; fee Noldius, Art. 7. and is fometimes written without theas in their Death, and w, Ifa. LIII. 9.

fignifies עד

-and let it repent thee concerning thy Servants. Tay by onanı] Rather --- AND CONSOLATION WITH THY SERVANTS? or, AND A CHANGE OF PURPOSE IN RESPECT TO THY SERVANTS? for On has both Senfes and the Verb is to be understood from the preceding Claufe.

V. 17. And let the Beauty of the Lord our God be upon us :

ויהי

- ought to be tranflated in this Place נעם נעם יהוה אלהינו עלינו

THE GRACIOUSNESS, OF THE SWEET FAVOUR, instead of Beauty. and establish thou the Work of our Hands upon us; yea, the Work of our Hands establish thou it.

ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו - ומעשה

11] As the Repetition of this latter Claufe does not appear to be emphatical, and is not acknowledged by the Chaldee Paraphrafe, I am inclined to confider it as a Miftake of the Tranfcriber. At least, if I retained it, I would read in the first Hemiftic, and reject the laft with the Syriac, and render AND LET HIM ESTABLISH THE WORK OF HIS HANDS UPON US; LET HIM ALSO ESTABLISH THE WORK OF OUR OWN HANDS.

PSALM XCI.

V. 2. I will fay of the Lord, He is my Refuge, and my Fortress; my

--

[אמר ליהוה מחסי ומצודתי אלהי אבטח בו: .God, in bima coill I true

Rather, I think CALLING THE LORD MY REFUGE AND MY FORTRESS, MY GOD, IN WHOM I WILL TRUST. See Job XXXI. 24. Pf. LXXXII. 6. and the fame Ufe of the Particle 1, Pf. XLV. 4.

[רק בעיניך חביט

V. 8. Only with thine Eyes fhalt thou behold, muft either be conftrued in an exclufive Senfe, as Gen. VI. 5. thus, THOU SHALT ONLY BEHOLD (i. e. and nothing more) or it may be confidered as a Subftantive; thus WITH THINE EYES SHALT THOU BEHOLD THE VANITY, AND SEE THE REWARD, OF THE WICKED. See p thus used, Gen. XXXVII. 24. Deut. XXXII. 47.

V. 9. Becaufe thou haft made the Lord which is my Refuge, even the moft High, thy Habitation.

[כי אתה יהוה מחסי - עליון שמת מעונך :

Our

Our Translators, in order to avoid the Apoftrophe, run into an Hyperbaton. But, admitting that this Construction were juftifiable, yet could not the double Enallage of Perfons be avoided at V.14. I would therefore give the Words their apparent genuine Sense, viz. SURELY THOU, O LORD, art MY REFUGE; O MOST HIGH thou HAST FIXED THINE HABITATION; viz. in Sion. God's having fixed his Refidence there affording a fure Ground of Confidence that he would still protect his King there, as David (or as Solomon, if he be Speaker) had experienced. The Targum makes this Pfalm a Dialogue between God and Solomon: and the Thought does not seem to be ill founded. For it is certain that the Custom of repeating alternate Parts, or fometimes the fame Parts, by different Perfons, prevailed very early among the Ifraelites. We have an Inftance of fuch a Song, in which Mofes and his Company bore their Parts, and his Sifter Miriam and her Attendants bore their's; and where all I think joined in the Chorus. See Exod. XV. 1, 20, 21. and 18, 19. Thus alfo Virgil, Ecl. III. 59, 60. Incipe, Damata; tu deinde fequere, Menalca: Alternis dicetis: amant alterna Camanæ.

-

PSALM XCII.

and when all the workers of Iniquity, do flourish: it is that

ויציצו כל פעלי און - להשמדם עדי עד: .they hall be deftroyed for euer

V.7. The Conftruction is here very harsh and ungrammatical: but it may be remedied, I conceive, by referring the first Sentence of this Verse to the preceding one, and reading thus, (V. 6.) A BRUTISH MAN DOTH NOT DISCERN, NOR DOTH ONE OF SLOW UNDERSTANDING PERCEIVE THIS (i. e. the Profundity of God's Counfels) IN THE FLOURISHING OF THE WICKED LIKE GRASS. (V. 7.) FOR ALL THE WORKERS OF INIQUITY DO FLOURISH UNTO (or IN ORDER TO) THEIR EVERLASTING DESTRUCTION: according to that Adage of Solomon, The Profperity of Fools fhall deftroy them.

ותבט

V. 11. Mine Eye alfo fhall fee my Defire on mine Enemies, y an ] FOR MINE EYE SHALL LOOK DOWN ON MINE ENEMIES: and in the next Claufe MINE EAR SHALL HEAR IT OF THE WICKED. is fingular as well as "y, and therefore the Affix refers to the Destruction, V.9.

101

PSALM

PSALM XCIV.

V. 9. He that planted the Ear — yon] Rather

FIXED THE EAR

V. 10. he that teacheth Man Knowledge, fhall not he know?

,I would rather connect this with the next Verfe [המלמד אדם דעת:

thus HE THAT TEACHETH MAN KNOWLEDGE is THE LORD;

V.7. O

PSALM XCVI.

ус Kindreds of the People —Day Ove FAMILIES OF THE PEOPLE, as in the old Verfion.

V. 13. Before the Lord: for he cometh,

YE 0 [משפחות עמים

לפני יהוה כי בא

(Before the Lord) certainly belongs to the preceding Verfe,

PSALM XCVII.

We [ אור זרע לצדיק

V. 11. Light is fown for the righteous ought I think to read here IS RISEN; for all the old Versions so read the Text, and the Senfe requires it. The Mistake is easily accounted for from the Similarity of Sound. Some, however, may think. that the Lection of the Text may be justified from the Authorities which follow. Thus Virgil represents the Dawn,

Et jam prima novo fpargebat lumine terram. Æn. IV. 584.

So Pindar, Ifthm. Od. VI. 15.

Ει γαρ τις ανθρώπων δαπανα τε χαρεις

και πονῳ, πράσσει θεοδματος αρετας,

Συν τε οι δαίμων φυτεύει

Δοξαν επήρατον, εχατίας

Ηδη προς όλβο βαλλετ' αγκυ

σαν θέοτιμος εων

Whence it may be observed by the by that the blending of Metaphors

is not peculiar to the Hebrew Poetry.

PSALM

PSALM XCIX.

V. 3. Let them praife thy great and terrible Name: for it is holy.

Rather - LET THEM PRAISE [יודו שמך גדול - ונורא קדוש חוא :

: — 70017]

THY NAME, WHICH IS GREAT, VENERABLE, AND HOLY. See Pf. XLV. 4.

V. 4. The King's Strength alfo loveth Judgment,

[ אהב

Rather, I think

ועז מלך משפט

FOR thou, O MIGHTY KING, who LOVEST JUSTICE, DOST &c. I confider 78 as the Participle prefent; in order to avoid the Enallage in the next Hemiftic. Our Tranflators seem to have understood the King's Strength in the fame Sense as Homer ufes Βιη Ηρακληίη.

PSALM CI.

V. 2. I will behave myself wifely in a perfect Way; O when wilt

-With [ אשכילה בדרך תמים - מתי תבוא אלי ? thou come unto me

is מתי So

out Interrogation

used, Prov. XXIII. 35.

WHEN THOU COMEST UNTO ME.

PSALM CII.

V.7. I watch, and am as a Sparrow alone upon the Houfe top.

is a generic Name for צפור The Word [ואהיה כצפור בודד על גג :

any Bird: that it cannot mean here the Sparrow, is I think evident from the Circumstances; for it is intimated that it is a Bird of the Night, a folitary, and a mournful one; none of which Characteristics are applicable to the Sparrow, which refts by Night, is gregarious, and cheerful. I therefore think the Word muft here denote fome particular Species of the Owl. Thus Virgil, Georg. I. 402.

DE CULMINE SUMMO

Nequicquam feros exercet noctua cantus.

And still more to the Purpose, Æneid IV. 462.

SOLAQUE CULMINIBUS, ferali carmine bubo
Sæpe queri, et longas in fletum ducere voces.

V. 9. neither will be keep his Anger for ever.

ולא לעולם יטור :

Rather--- NEITHER WILL HE BEAR A GRUDGE (or, RETAIN RE

SENTMENT)

SENTMENT) FOR EVER for the Verb has that Signification, and is fo rendered, Lev. XIX. 18. and ought to be, Jer. III. 12.

V. 20.

- hearkening unto the Voice of his Word. :17 bpa row's] This Claufe is omitted in all the old Verfions, except the Vulgate and it appears redundant both as to the Senfe, as well as Verfe.

PSALM CIV.

Who maketh his Angels Spirits: his Minifters a flaming Fire.

Rather - WHO MAKE TH [עשה מלאכיו רוחות - משרתיו אש להט:

THE WINDS HIS MESSENGERS; AND THE FLAMING FIRE HIS
MINISTERS.

V. 13.

Rather [מעשיך תשבע הארץ:

-the Earth is fatisfied with the Fruit of thy Works. D THE EARTH IS FILLED WITH FRUIT BY THY MEANS: for Tey is the Participle preter, which rejects the on account of the Affix. The prefixed is the Prepofition.

V. 16. The Trees of the Lord are full of Sap: n' "yy vaw) I prefer our old Verfion in this Place, viz. THE HIGH TREES ARE SATISFIED; i. e. are fufficiently watered, as the Context fhews.

V. 25. So is this great and wide Sea, wherein are Things creeping innumerable, both small and great Beasts.

זה הים גדול ורחב ידים Rather [ שם רמש ואין מספר - חיות קטנות עם גדלות :

-

THE SAME IS THE SEA, GREAT AND WIDE IN EXTENT; WHEREIN are THINGS MOVING INNUMERABLE, BOTH SMALL AND GREAT CREATURES. For an fignifies literally wide of Arms; a Name very applicable to the Ocean, whofe many Streights and narrow Gulphs are not improperly called Arms. is not confined abfolutely to Reptiles, but is fometimes ufed, as well as nn, for all the Brute Creation. See Gen. IX. 3.

V. 26. there is that Leviathan

As the Leviathan [ לויתן

here doubtless means A WHALE, ought it not to be fo rendered?

V. 20.

- even the Ruler of the People, and let him go free.

: Innn" O'by ] By the Omiffion of 1, the old Verfion in much

clearer,