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will be found perfectly confiftent with the whole Context; whereas the Sense of our Verfion feems at Variance with it.

יכרם רשע ילקשו : .and they gather the Vintage of the wicked

of THE TROUBLED, or OPPRESSED.

Rather
So yun is ufed Ch.
XXXIV. 29. Thus also the Vulgate — vineam ejus, quem vi oppresse-
rint, vindemiant.

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V.7. - that they have no Covering in the Cold. :p ID 181] Rather AND WITHOUT COVERING IN THE COLD.

118

V. 12. Men groan from out of the City, and the Soul of the wounded

ונפש חללים תשוע - : crieth out

The Words [מעיר מתים ינאקו

and are here equivalent; the dead and the flain: If the literal Verfion be thought too bold, viz. THE DEAD GROAN OUT of THE CITY, AND THE SOUL OF THE SLAIN CRIETH OUT; these Participles may perhaps be confidered as the Participles in rus of the Latins, which the Hebrews want.

V. 17.

if one know them, they are in the Terrors of the Shadow

A Subject is here wanting for [כי יכיר בלהות צלמות : .of Death

171

the Verb, for which I take the Morning from the preceding Hemistic, and render SURELY IT DISCOVERETH THE TERRORS OF THE SHADOW OF DEATH, viz. in their Countenances for Fear of being known.

[תקלל חלקתם בארץ

V. 18. He is fwift as the Waters; - ' " by am ] Rather HE is SWIFT UPON THE SURFACE OF THE WATERS: y being never used as a Particle of Comparifon. So the old Verfion. their Portion is curfed in the Earth.This and the next Hemiftic would perhaps be better rendered by the future Tenfe, as they are in the old Verfion: for this feems mentioned as a Judgment upon the Oppreffor.

V. 19.

[שאול חטאו :

fo doth the Grave those which have finned. Non bisw] The in Non feems to belong to the Beginning of the next Word: without it these Words will fignify · SINNER. So the old Verfion.

---

fo doth THE GRAVE THE

Rather ישכחהו רחם

; for Womb, without adding

V. 20. The Womb shall forget him, TENDER PITY, or COMPASSION the Words - which bore him, does not seem fufficiently clear.

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V. 22. he rifeth up, and no Man is fure of Life. paw, nh, Op. :] There feems to be fuch a Confufion of Perfons according to the prefent Reading, that it is difficult to make out any confiftent Senfe in this Verfe, and the two following ones, according to the Rules of grammatical Interpretation, I would therefore read and render -- HE DRAWETH THE MIGHTY ALSO WITH HIS POWER: THEY RISE UP; HE TRUSTETH NOT IN LIFE. (V. 23.) IT IS GIVEN HIM to be IN SAFETY, AND HE RESTETH THEREON; AND HIS EYES are UPON THEIR WAYS. (V. 24.) THEY HOLD THEMSELVES HIGH FOR A LITTLE WHILE, BUT ARE NOT, &c. The Meaning of which I conceive to be this; in Verse 21, is fhewn how the wicked Man oppreffes the weak and friendless. This, however, is not all; for V. 22. it is added be draweth (viz. to their Destruction, as the Word feems to fignify Pf. XXVIII. 3. and Ezek. XXXII. 20. as well as here) the mighty also with his Power: but as the Word draw feems to imply, that he could not make fuch fhort Work here as in the Cafe before mentioned, but that the Bufinefs required Time and Management; fo in the latter Hemistic of this Verfe the Reafon is affigned why he did fo; becaufe, if the mighty rofe up to oppofe him, he might run the Rifk of his Life. Therefore, as it follows (V. 23.) he contrives to live upon Terms of Security and Confidence with them; y, and upon this Ground he proceeds, or he rests himself here, and lies upon the Watch for an Opportunity to do them a Mischief. Then follows the Confequence, (V. 24.) They enjoy their Greatness for a little while, but are at length reduced and brought to nought by his Artifices, sharing herein the common Fate of all other.

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V.

5. Behold even to the Moon, and it shineth not ; — bi ; qy p The Verb fignifies no where, either in Heb. or any of the Sifter Languages, to fhine: that Signification has been given to it from the fuppofed exigentia loci, or from fome of the Verfions. The Words I think ought to be translated --- BEHOLD HE WILL NOT INDEED PITCH HIS TENT NEAR THE MOON, viz. as not worthy of his Habitation.

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6. How much less Man, that is a Worm? and the Son of Man, which

As there are here [אף כי אנוש רמה ובן אדם תולעה: ? is a Worm

in the Hebrew two different Words to exprefs Man and Worm, would not one of each be better rendered by MORTAL and REPTILE?

Rather [ללא כח

CHA P. XXVI.

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V. 2. How haft thou helped him that is without Power? WHOM HAST THOU HELPED Who HAD NO POWER? So in the next Verse, mutatis mutandis.

--

V. 3. and how haft thou plentifully declared the Thing as it is? : myñın a ̃b mwn] 2. ought not these Words to be rendered → AND HAST THOU SHEWN KNOWLEDGE TO THE MULTITUDE ?

[ונשמת מי יצאה ממך : ? and whole Spirit came from thee

V. 4. Rather, I think ---AND WHOSE INSPIRATION CAME FROM THEE? as Ch. XXXII. 8.

V.

5. Dead Things are formed under the Waters, and the Inhabi

By this our הרפאים יחוללו מתחת - מים ושכניהם: :tants thereof

Tranflators understood Mines and Metals formed in the Bowels of the Earth. See the Note in the old Verfion. But the Word DND is never used in this Senfe, nor do I fee a fufficient Reafon for giving it fuch an Interpretation. The Passage has ever been confidered as very dark and difficult; but I flatter myfelf that I have at last hit upon its true Meaning. By I understand no other than the Manes mortuorum, the Spirits of deceafed Perfons, confined in, commonly tranflated Hell, but more properly to be ftiled the Place, or Manfion, of the dead, the fame as Ads in Greek, and Orcus in Latin. Whoever will take the Trouble of confidering attentively the following Texts, where the Word '85 occurs, Pf. LXXXVIII. 10. Prov. II. 18. IX. 18. XXI. 16. Ifa. XIV. 9. — XXVI. 14, 19. will fee Reason to conclude the Use of it in all thofe Places to be exactly as here represented. As the Point is curious, tending to throw fome Light upon the Notions of the ancient Jews concerning the State of departed Souls, I may be allowed to confider two or three of these Paffages at large. In Ifa. XXVI. 13. it is faid, Other Lords befides thee have had Dominion over us, viz. the Gods of the Heathen-But V. 14. it follows, these are no other than dead Men, D', (see Wild. XIV.

15.) in Oppofition to the living God; they are, departed Spirits, who have not Power to ftir from their Place of Confinement, they cannot rife. Again V. 19. the 7, thy dead Men who should live and rife again, the Dy, the Inhabitants of the Duft, who are called to awake and fing, and the '¬, the dead, to be cast out by the Earth, are all the fame Individuals. In that beautiful Profopopaia, Ifai. XLV. 9. Hell (to which is added from beneath, nnn, the very Word used in the Paffage before us) is poetically defcribed as stirring up her Inhabitants, ND, the dead, the Spirits of departed Captains and Kings, represented as fitting there upon their Thrones, to meet with Taunting and Infult the haughty Tyrant of Babylon, on his being brought down to those infernal Shades. But the Paffage, Pf. LXXXVIII. 10, &c. not only illuftrates the Signification of NO in the present Text, but both the Senfe and Terms so aptly correfpond in both Places, that I can hardly fuppofe one written without Allufion to the other. There it is faid, Wilt thou fhew Wonders to the dead, 'nh? Shall the dead, DND, (which for the Sake of Variation I would tranflate, the deceafed,) arife and praise thee? Shall thy loving Kindness be declared in the Grave? (p, the fame as ) or thy Faithfulness in Destruction? (11728 in both Places) Shall thy Wonders be known in the dark, rather, the Place of Darkness? and thy Righteousness in the Land of Oblivion? Thus much may fuffice to afcertain the general Import of 'ND"; let us now attend to the Connection of the Verfe before us. In Ch.XXV. Bildad had spoken of God's Majefty, and Man's Impurity in respect of him. To which Job replies, and farcastically afks, V. 4. whether he thought the Perfon he spoke to did not know as much as himself; and how he came by his Knowledge? whofe Spirit, or rather Infpiration (as the Word now is rendered Ch. XXXII. 8.) came from thee? DID (fays he, V.5.) the ND, ANY DEPARTED SPIRITS BRING it THEE FROM BENEATH? (the Place of their Abode under Ground) or FROM THE SEA AND ITS INHABITANTS? The prefixed marks the Interrogation; and 1 is the Preter Pihel from, which admits of that Senfe. See Prov. XXV. 23. Margin. It deferves Notice, that Ch. IV.15, &c. Eliphaz had faid, that a Communication of the same Import had been made to him by a Spirit or Ghoft in the Visions of the Night; to which I cannot but think Job alludes, afking Bildad if he too, as well as his Friend, had been favoured with fuch an extraordinary Vifitant. Not that he thought the Thing impoffible in itself, though perhaps he doubted of it in the present Inftance. On the contrary, the Poffibility of its happening by God's fpecial Direction and

E 2

רפאים

Appoint

Appointment seems strongly intimated in the next Verfe; where, as if he had faid from the before cited Pfalm, that the 'ND could not of themselves rife up again to tell of God's Wonders and Righteousness, he fubjoins, that God himself had Power, if he pleased, to fend them on such an Errand; for fuch, I think, is the Connection of being naked before him, and 8 (a Word of the fame Import) being without a Covering, or Cover, i. e. the Gates of the lower Regions were always open to his Command. And this he confirms by fhewing how all other Things in Nature were difpofed to obey the Divine Power. That the Jews had a Notion of the separate Existence of the Souls of the dead, and the Poffibility of their revifiting the Earth, is evident from Saul's Application to the Witch of Endor, and particularly from the Parable of the rich Man and Lazarus, Luk. XVI. 24. where the rich Man requests Abraham to fend Lazarus to admonish his Brethren. But Abraham replies, that what he asked was impoffible, meaning doubtlefs without exprefs Commiffion from God, because the dead were not otherwise allowed to pass the Gulph fixed between them and the Earth. As to the latter Hemiftic, which I render from the Sea and its Inhabitants, the Meaning is fufficiently clear from Rev. XX. 13. where at the general Refurrection it is faid, The Sea gave up the dead which were in it, and Death and Hell delivered up the dead which were in them; as if those who were drowned or buried in the Sea had their Place under the Waters, as thofe who were buried on dry Land had their's under Ground. It is not however impoffible that by the Sea might be meant the Sea of Sodom, or the Lake Afphaltites, which bordered upon Idumea, the Scene of Action, the Waters of which were faid to be of fuch a peftilential Quality, as to kill the Birds that attempted to pass over it; whence perhaps it was called the Dead Sea. And I submit it to Confideration, whether the Notion, that prevails among the Vulgar, of Ghofts being laid or confined in the Red Sea (mistaken perhaps for the Dead Sea on Account of its fimilar Sound, the one Name being alfo more familiar to the common People than the other) might not have arisen from fome fanciful Tradition concerning the Habitation of departed Spirits in that Place of Horror.

V.6. Hell is naked before him:

The Word [ ערום שאול נגדו

fignifies here and Ch. XI. 8. THE NETHER RECESSES or LOWER PARTS OF THE EARTH. It has a very extenfive Signification which is to be determined by the Context; as for Inftance, when Jonah faid that he cried out of, the Word certainly means THE WHALE'S BELLY, wherein he was then confined; and fhould not be

rendered

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