Singular and pathetic A. M. cir. 3027. Ante U.C. c. 224. CHAP. XII. description of old age. A. M. cir. 3027 cir. 201. he shall rise up at the voice grasshopper shall be a burden, ters of musick shall be brought 5 Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the a 2 Sam. xix. 35.- bJob xvii. 13. go down the esophagus into the stomach. The doors or lips are shut to hinder the food in chewing from dropping out; as the teeth, which prevented that before, are now lost. streets: 6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be © Jer. ix. 17. flower in Judea, "like an old man with his white locks." 13. The grasshopper shall be a burden] Even such an inconsiderable thing as a locust, or a very small 7. The sound of the grinding is low] Little noise insect, shall be deemed burdensome, their strength is now made in eating, because the teeth are either is so exceedingly diminished. In cases of the gout, lost, or become so infirm as not to suffer their being especially in old men, the shadow of a person passing pressed close together; and the mouth being kept by puts them to acute pain! How much less can they shut to hinder the food from dropping out, the sound bear the smallest pressure! But probably the words in eating is scarcely heard. The teeth are divided refer to the man himself who, bent at the loins, and into three kinds :-1. The dentes incisores, or cutting his arms hanging down, exhibits some caricature of teeth, in the front of the jaw. 2. The dentes canini, the animal in question. The poor grasshopper is beor dog teeth, those in the sides of the jaws, for gnaw-come a burden to himself. Another interpretation ing, or tearing and separating hard or tough substances. has been given of the grasshopper; but I pass it by And, 3. Dentes molares, or grinding teeth, the poste- as impertinent and contemptible; such commenrior or double teeth in both jaws, generally termed the tators appear as if they wished to render the text grinders; because their office is to grind down the ridiculous. substances that have been cut by the fore teeth, separated into their parts or fibres by the dog teeth, and thus prepare it for digestion in the stomach. 8. He shall rise up at the voice of the bird] His sleep is not sound as it used to be; he slumbers rather than sleeps; and the crowing of the cock awakes him. And so much difficulty does he find to respire while in bed, that he is glad of the dawn to rise up and get some relief. The chirping of the sparrow is sufficient to awake him. 14. Desire shall fail] Both relish and appetite for food, even the most delicate, that to which they were formerly so much attached, now fails. The teeth are no longer able to masticate the food, or have all dropped out; the stomach no longer able to digest any thing; and, as the body is no longer capable of receiving nourishment, appetite and relish necessarily fail. 15. Because man goeth to his long home] by a b el beith olamo, "to the house of his age;" the place 9. All the daughters of musick shall be brought low] destined to receive him, when the whole race or course The VOICE, that wonderful instrument, almost endless of life shall be finished; for by olam takes in the in the strength and variety of its tones, becomes feeble whole course or duration of a thing; if applied to a and squeaking, and merriment and pleasure are no dispensation, such as the Law, it takes in its whole The tones emitted are all of the querulous or duration; to the life of man, it takes in the whole mournful kind. life; to time, it includes its whole compass; to eterVerse 5. When they shall be afraid of that which nity, it expresses its infinite duration. So old age more. is high] terminates the olam, the complete duration of human 10. Being so feeble, they are afraid to trust them-life; and when life is no longer desired, and nutrition selves to ascend steps, stairs, &c., without help. And when they look upwards, their heads turn giddy, and they are ready to fall. 11. Fears shall be in the way] They dare not walk out, lest they should meet some danger, which they have not strength to repel, nor agility to escape. A second childishness has taken place,-apprehensions, fears, terrors, and weakness. ceases, the olam of man is terminated. My old MS. Bible translates it, The hous of his everlastingness. 16. He is just departing into the invisible world; and this is known by the mourners going about the streets, the long hollow groans and throatrattlings which proceed from him; the sure prognostications of the extreme debility and speedy cessation of those essential animal functions next mentioned. Verse 6. Or ever the silver cord be loosed] We have already had all the external evidences of old age, with all its attendant infirmities; next follow what takes place in the body, in order to produce what is called death, or the separation of body and soul. 12. The almond tree shall flourish] yr yenaets, not flourish, but fall off. The hair begins to change, first grey, then white; it having no longer that supply of nutritive juices which it once had, this animal vegetable withers and falls off. The almond tree, having white flowers, is a fit emblem of a hoary head; or as Hasselquist says, who observed the tree in full | marrow, from which all the nerves proceed, as itself 1. The silver cord.-The medulla oblongata or spinal does from the brain. This is termed a cord, from its exact similitude to one; and a silver cord, from its colour, as it strikingly exhibits the silver grey; and from its preciousness. This is said to be loosed; as the nervous system became a little before, and at the article of death, wholly debilitated. The last loosing being the fall of the under jaw, the invariable and never-failing evidence of immediate death; a few struggles more, and the soul is dismissed from its clay tenement. 2. The golden bowl be broken] The brain contained in the cranium, or skull, and enveloped with the membranes called the dura and pia mater; here called a bowl, from its resemblance to such a vessel, the container being put for the contained; and golden, because of its colour, and because of its exceeding preciousness, as has been noticed in the former case. Broken-be rendered unfit to perform its functions, neither supplying nor distributing any nervous energy. 3. Or the pitcher be broken at the fountain] The vena cava, which brings back the blood to the right ventricle of the heart, here called the fountain, prasm hammabbua, the spring whence the water gushes up; properly applied here to the heart, which by its systole and diastole (contraction and expansion) sends out, and afterwards receives back, the blood; for all the blood flows from, and returns back to, the heart. 4. The wheel broken at the cistern] The great aorta, which receives the blood from the cistern, the left ventricle of the heart, and distributes it to the different parts of the system. These may be said, as in the case of the brain above, to be broken, i. e., rendered useless; when, through the loosening of the silver cord, the total relaxation of the nervous system, the heart becomes incapable of dilatation and contraction, so that the blood, on its return to the right ventricle of the heart, is not received, nor that already contained in the ventricles propelled into the great aorta. The wheel is used in allusion to the Asiatic wheels, by which they raise water from their wells and tanks, and deep cisterns, for domestic purposes, or to irrigate the grounds. Thus, then, the blood becomes stagnate; the lungs cease to respire; the blood is no longer oxidized; all motion, voluntary and involuntary, ceases; the body, the house of the immortal spirit, is no longer tenantable, and the soul takes its flight into the eternal world. The man D-I-E-S! This is expressed in the following verse: description of old age. wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and 1 set in order many proverbs. f A. M. 3027. .. cir. 3 Ante I. Ol. cir. 201. Ante U.C.c. 224 10 The preacher sought to find out accept able words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth. 11 The words of the wise are as goads, and wise the preacher was, &c.-f1 Kings iv. 32.- Heb. words of delight. Verse 7. Then shall the dust return to the earth a it was: and the spirit shall return unto God] 5. Putrefaction and solution take place; the whole mass becomes decomposed, and in process of time is reduced to dust, from which it was originally made; while the spirit, haruach, that spirit, which God at first breathed into the nostrils of man, when he in consequence became a LIVING SOUL, an intelligent, rational, discoursing animal, returns to God who gave it. Here the wise man makes a most evident distinction between the body and the soul: they are not the same; they are not both matter. The body, which is matter, returns to dust, its original; but the spirit, which is immaterial, returns to God. It is impossible that two natures can be more distinct, oz more emphatically distinguished. The author of this book was not a materialist. Thus ends this affecting, yet elegant and finished picture of OLD AGE and DEATH. See a description of old age similar, but much inferior, to this, in the Agamemnon of Eschylus, v. 76–82. It has been often remarked that the circulation of the blood, which has been deemed a modern discovery by our countryman Dr. Harvey, in 1616, was known to Solomon, or whoever was the author of this book; the fountains, cisterns, pitcher, and wheel giving sufficient countenance to the conclusion. Verse 8. This affecting and minute description of old age and death is concluded by the author with the same exclamation by which he began his book: O vanity of vanities, saith Koheleth, all is vanity Now that man, the masterpiece of God's creation the delegated sovereign of this lower world, is turned to dust, what is there stable or worthy of contemplation besides? ALL ALL IS VANITY! Verse 9. Because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge] And in order to do this he took good heed-considered, what would be most useful. He set in order-collected and arranged, many parables, probably alluding to the book over which we have already passed. Verse 10. He sought to find out acceptable words) dibrey chephets, words of desire, words of will; the best, the most suitable words; those which the people could best understand. But these words were not such as might merely please the people; they were words of truth; such as came from God. and might lead them to him. Verse 11. The words of the wise] Doctrines of faith, as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given Ante U.C.c.224. from one shepherd. 12 And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books b much flesh. of the flesh. A. M. cir. 3027. Ante 1. Ol. Cir. 201. Ante U.C. c. 224. sion of the whole matter: "Fear God, and Ch. i. 18.———b Or, reading.- - Or, The end of the matter, even all that hath been heard, is.- d Deut. vi. 2. x. 12. illustrated by suitable language, are as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, mox by baaley asuphoth, the masters of collections, those who had made the best collections of this kind, the matter of which was of the most excellent nature; every saying sinking as deeply into the mind, by the force of the truth contained in it, as a nail well pointed does into a board, when impelled by the hammer's force. These masters of collections have been supposed to be public persons appointed by the prince himself, the sole shepherd, to see that nothing was put into the people's hands but what would be profitable for them to read; and that, when any wise man gave public instructions, a good scribe sat by to take down the words; and then the master examined what he had written, to see that it was upright, and that the words were doctrines of truth. These were something like our licensers of the press; but the existence of such is little more than conjecture. After all, masters of assemblies may mean public teachers; that which was written, the oracles of God, out of which they instructed the people; the one Shepherd, GOD ALMIGHTY, from whom they received their authority and unction to preach the truth; and by the energy of whose Spirit the heavenly teaching was fastened in their hearts, as a well driven nail in a sound piece of wood. the puzzled mind of every real student declare! And should none more worthy of the name of student be within reach to consult, the writer of this work is a proof in point. Verse 13. After all, the sum of the great business of human life is comprised in this short sentence, on which some millions of books have been already written! FEAR GOD, AND KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS. 1. Know that HE IS, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. 2. Reverence him; pay him adoration. 3. Love him, that you may be happy. Keep his commandments] They are contained in two words: 1. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart;" 2. "And thy neighbour as thyself." Blessed be God, much reading and much study are not necessary to accomplish this, which is called col haadam, the whole of Adam; the whole that God required of the first man and of all his posterity. But the gospel of Jesus Christ must be understood to comprehend the full force of this short saying. The word duty, added here by our translators, spoils, if not PERVERTS, the sense. The whole passage is rendered with great simplicity by Coverdale : "The same preacher was not wyse alone: but taught the people knowledge also. He gave good hede, sought out the grounde, and set forth many parables. His diligence was to fynde out acceptable wordes, right scripture, and the wordes of trueth. For the wordes of the wyse are like prickes and nales that go thorow, wherewith men are kepte together: for they are geven of one Shepherd onely. Therefore be warre (my sonne) that above these thou make thee not many and innumerable bookes, nor take dyverse doctrynes in hande, to weery thy body withall. "Let us heare the conclucion of all thinges: Feare God, and kepe his comaundementes, for that toucheth all men; for God shall judge all workes and secrete thinges, whether they be good or evell." Verse 12. And further, by these, my son, be admonished] Hear such teachers, and receive their admonitions; and do not receive the grace of God in vain. Of making many books there is no end] Two thousand years have elapsed since this was written; and since that time some millions of treatises have been added, on all kinds of subjects, to those which have gone before. The press is still groaning under and teeming with books, books innumerable; and no one subject is yet exhausted, notwithstanding all that has been written on it. And we who live in these latter times are no nearer an end, in the investigation of NATURE and its properties; of GOD, his attributes, This providence, his justice, and his mercy; of MAN, This animal life, his mode of nutrition and existence, and his soul and its powers; of JESUS, and the reI shall give the same from my old MS. Bible: demption by him; of ETERNITY, and what it implies And wan Ecclesiastes was most wiis he taght the peple, s exhibiting to us the pains of the cursed, and the and told out what he had don, and enserchinge maade glories of the blessed. Of several of these we know many parablis. He soght profitable wordis, and wrote no more than they who have lived five thousand most rigt sermons, and ful of trewth. The wordis of years before us; nor do we know any thing certainly the counseyle of maisteris ben geven of oon scheperd. wismen as prickis and as nailis into herte pigt: that bi by the endless books that have been published, exceptore thann thes sone myn, ne seche thou; of making what bears the seal of the God of heaven, as pub-many bokes is noon eend, and oft bethinking is tormenting ished in that word which was declared by his Spirit. of the Alesche. Eend of spekinge alle togydir heere mee. And much study is a weariness of the flesh.] Brede God, and his hestis kepe; that is eche man. how true is this! Let the trembling knees, the pal- thingis that ben maad he schal bringen into dome, for cche sied hands, the darkened eyes, the aching heart, and erid thinge, whithir good or evyl it be. Alle God shall bring every A. M. cir. 3027. B. C. cir. 977. Ante I. Ol. cir. 201. Ante U.C. c. 224. keep his commandments for work into judgment, with every this is the whole duty of man. a 14 For God shall bring every secret thing, whether it be good, a Ch. xi. 9. Matt. xii. 36. Acts xvii. 30, 31. Rom. ii. 16. xiv. 10, 12. 1 Cor. iv. 5. 2 Cor. v. 10. MASORETIC NOTES. The ARABIC subjoins this colophon :-" Praise be to God for ever and ever!" Verse 14. For God shall bring every work into judg-eternal result. O God! prepare the reader to give ment] This is the reason why we should "fear God up his accounts with joy in that day! Amen. and keep his commandments." 1. Because there will be a day of judgment. 2. Every soul of man shall stand at that bar. 3. God, the infinitely wise, the heart-scarching God, will be judge. 4. He will bring to light every secret thing-all that has been done since the creation, by all men; whether forgotten or registered; whether done in secret or in public. 5. All the works of the godly, as well as all the works of the wicked, shall be judged in that day; the good which the godly strove to conceal, as well as the evil which the wicked endeavoured to hide. This, then, will be the conclusion of the whole mortal story. And although in this world all is vanity; yet there, "vanities will be vain no more." Every thing, whether good or evil, will have its own proper, stable, By the assistance of the Most High God this Book of Ecclesiastes, which is vanity of vanities, written by Solomon the son of David, who reigned over the children of Israel, is completed." The SYRIAC has, "The end of the Book of Koheleth." There are others, but they are of no importance. INTRODUCTION TO THE CANTICLES, OR SONG OF SOLOMON. THE 'HE Book before us is called in the Hebrew Own T Shir HASHSHIRIM, "The Song SHIR of Songs;" or, "An Ode of the Odes:" which might be understood, "An Ode taken or selected from others of a similar kind;" or, "An Ode the most excellent of all others;" this being an idiom common to the Hebrew language: e. g., the God of gods is the supreme God; the Lord of lords, the supreme Lord; the King of kings, the supreme King; the heaven of heavens, the supreme or highest heaven. It may therefore be designed to express "a song of the utmost perfection; one of the best that existed, or had ever been penned." Perhaps the title may have a reference to the other poetical compositions of Solomon which were no less than one thousand and five; and this was considered the most excellent of the whole, and the only one that remains, unless we suppose Solomon, with some of the Jews, to be the author of Psalms lxxii. and cxxvii.: but this cannot be proved. There have been some doubts concerning the author of this Book. Some of the rabbins supposed it to be the work of the prophet Isaiah; but this sentiment never gained much credit. Most have, without hesitation, attributed it to Solomon, whose name it bears and if the Book of Ecclesiastes be his, this will follow in course, as the style is exactly the same, allowing for the difference of the subject. Both books seem to have been written about the same time, and to have had the same author. This book, if written by Solomon, could not have been written in his old age, as some have supposed the Book of Ecclesiastes to have been, which sentiment is, I think, sufficiently disproved; for we find that long before Solomon's old age he had three hundred wives, and seven hundred concubines; but at the time this Song was written, Solomon had only sixty wives and eighty concubines. And the Song most certainly celebrates a marriage; whether between Solomon and the daughter of Pharaoh, or between him and some Jewish princess, has not been fully agreed on among critics and commentators. It is most likely to have been a juvenile or comparatively juvenile production; and indeed the high and glowing colouring, and the strength of the images, are full proofs of this. Though Anacreon made amatory odes when he was bald-headed, yet neither he nor any one else, humanly speaking, could have made such odes as the Canticles when stricken in years. But to what denomination of writing do the Canticles belong? Are they mere Odes, or Idyls, or Pastorals; or are they an Epithalamium? Let us define these terms, and examine the Song of Solomon by them. 1. The ODE is generally understood to be a species of poetry containing sublime and important matter, always sung, or accompanied by the harp, or some proper musical instrument. 2. The IDYL implies a short poem containing some adventure. 3. The PASTORAL Contains what belongs to shepherds, and their occupations. 4. The EPITHALAMIUM is the congratulatory song, sung to a new married pair, wishing them abundant blessings, a numerous and happy offspring, &c. Strictly speaking, the Book of Canticles falls under neither of these descriptions: it is rather a composition sui generis, and seems to partake more of the nature of what we call a MASK, than any thing else; an entertainment for the guests who attended the marriage ceremony, with a dramatic cast throughout the whole, though the persons who speak and act are not formally introduced. There are so many touches in the form and manner of this song like those in the Comus of Milton, that it leads me to doubt whether the English poet has not taken the idea of his mask from the Jewish. |