rate heat:-" velut arbores, cum frondes æstu torrente decusserunt." Ephræm Syr. in loc. edit. Assemani. Compare Psal. i. 4. Jer. xvii. 8. Upon the whole, I have chosen to make it the ilex; which word Vossius (Etymolog.) derives from the Hebrew ; that, whether the word itself be rightly rendered or not, I might at least preserve the propriety of the poetical image.

29. For ye shall be ashamed], in the second person, Vulg. Chald. two MSS. and one edition; and in agreement with the rest of the sentence.

30. —whose leaves] Twenty-six MSS. and three editions ready, in its full and regular form. This is worth remarking, as it accounts for a great number of anomalies of the like kind, which want only the same authority to rectify them.

30. a garden wherein is no water.] In the hotter parts of the eastern countries, a constant supply of water is so absolutely necessary for the cultivation, and even for the preservation and existence of a garden, that should it want water but for a few days, every thing in it would be burnt up with the heat, and totally destroyed. There is therefore no garden whatever in those countries, but what has such a certain supply; either from some neighbouring river, or from a reservoir of water collected from springs, or filled with rain-water in the proper season, in sufficient quantity to afford ample provision for the rest of the year.

Moses, having described the habitation of man newly created, as a garden, planted with every tree pleasant to the sight and good for food, adds, as a circumstance necessary to complete the idea of a garden, that it was well supplied with water: (Gen. ii. 10. and see xiii. 10.) "And a river went out of Eden to water the garden."

That the reader may have a clear notion of this matter, it will be necessary to give some account of the management of their gardens in this respect.

"Damascus, (says Maundrell, p. 122.), is encompassed with gardens, extending no less, according to common estimation, than thirty miles round; which makes it look like a city in a vast wood. The gardens are thick set with fruit-trees of all kinds, kept fresh and verdant by the waters of Barrady, (the Chrysorrhoas of the ancients,) which supply both the gardens and city in great abundance. This river, as soon as it issues out from between the cleft of the

mountain before mentioned into the plain, is immediately divided into three streams; of which the middlemost and biggest runs directly to Damascus, and is distributed to all the cisterns and fountains of the city. The other two (which I take to be the work of art) are drawn round, one to the right hand, and the other to the left, on the borders of the gardens, into which they are let as they pass, by little currents, and so dispersed all over the vast wood: insomuch, that there is not a garden but has a fine quick stream running through it. Barrady is almost wholly drunk up by the city and gardens. What small part of it escapes is united, as I was informed, in one channel again, on the south east side of the city; and, after about three or four hours' course finally loses itself in a bog there, without ever arriving at the sea." This was likewise the case in former times, as Strabo, lib. xvi. Pliny, v. 18. testify; who say, "that this river was expended in canals, and drunk up by watering the place."

"The best sight (says the same Maundrell, p. 39.) that the palace [of the Emir of Beroot, anciently Berytus] affords, and the worthiest to be remembered, is the orange garden. It contains a large quadrangular plat of ground, divided into sixteen lesser squares, four in a row, with walks between them. The walks are shaded with orange-trees, of a large spreading size. Every one of these sixteen lesser squares in the garden was bordered with stone; and in the stone-work were troughs, very artificially contrived, for conveying the water all over the garden; there being little outlets cut at every tree, for the stream, as it passed by, to flow out, and water it." The royal gardens at Ispahan are watered just in the same manner, according to Kempfer's description, Amoen. Exot. p. 193.

This gives us a clear idea of the D, mentioned in the first Psalm, and other places of Scripture," the divisions of waters," the waters distributed in artificial canals; for so the phrase properly signifies. The prophet Jeremiah has imitated, and elegantly amplified, the passage of the Psalmist above referred to:

'He shall be like a tree planted by the water-side, And which sendeth forth her roots to the aqueduct : She shall not fear, when the heat cometh;

But her leaf shall be green;

And in the year of drought she shall not be anxious,
Neither shall she cease from bearing fruit."

Jer. xvii. 8.

From this image the Son of Sirach has most beautifully illustrated the influence and the increase of religious wisdom in a well-prepared heart :

"I also came forth as a canal from a river,

And as a conduit flowing into a paradise.

I said I will water my garden,

And I will abundantly moisten my border:
And lo! my canal became a river,

And my river became a sea."

Ecclus. xxiv. 30, 31.

This gives us the true meaning of the following elegant proverb :—

"The heart of the king is like the canals of waters in the hand of

JEHOVAH ;

Whithersoever it pleaseth him, he inclineth it."

Prov. xxi. 1.

The direction of it is in the hand of JEHOVAH, as the distribution of the water of the reservoir through the garden, by different canals, is at the will of the gardener:

66

Et, quum exustus ager morientibus æstuat herbis,

Ecce supercilio clivosi tramitis undam

Elicit illa cadens raucum per levia murmur

Saxa ciet, scatebrisque arentia temperat arva."

Virg. Georg. i. 107.

Solomon mentions his own works of this kind :

"I made me gardens, and paradises;

And I planted in them all kinds of fruit-trees.

I made me pools of water,

To water with them the grove flourishing with trees.”

Eccles. ii. 5, 6.

Maundrell (p. 88.) has given a description of the remains, as they are said to be, of these very pools made by Solomon for the reception and preservation of the waters of a spring rising at a little distance from them, which will give us a perfect notion of the contrivance and design of such reservoirs. "As for the pools, they are three in number, lying in a row above each other; being so disposed, that the waters of the uppermost may descend into the second, and those of the second into the third. Their figure is quadrangular; the breadth is the same in all, amounting to about ninety paces: in their length there is some difference between them; the first being about one hundred and sixty paces long; the second two hundred; the third two hundred and twenty. They are all lined with wall, and plastered; and contain a great depth of water."

The immense works which were made by the ancient kings of Egypt for receiving the waters of the Nile when it overflowed, for such uses, are well known. But there never was a more stupendous work of this kind, than the reservoir of Saba, or Merab, in Arabia Felix. According to the tradition of the country, it was the work of Balkis, that queen of Sheba who visited Solomon. It was a vast lake formed by the collection of the waters of a torrent in a valley, where, at a narrow pass between two mountains, a very high mole, or dam, was built. The water of the lake so formed had near twenty fathom depth; and there were three sluices at different heights, by which, at whatever height the lake stood, the plain below might be watered. By conduits and canals from these sluices the water was constantly distributed in due proportion to the several lands; so that the whole country for many miles became a perfect paradise. The city of Saba, or Merab, was situated immediately below the great dam: a great flood came, and raised the lake above its usual height; the dam gave way in the middle of the night; the waters burst forth at once, and overwhelmed the whole city, with the neighbouring towns, and people. The remains of eight tribes were forced to abandon their dwelling, and the beautiful valley became a morass and a desert. This fatal catastrophe happened long before the time of Mahommed, who mentions it in the Koran, chap. xxxiv. See also Sale, Prelim. sect. 1.; and Michaelis, Questions aux Voyageurs Danois, No. 94; Niebuhr, Descript. de l'Arabie, p. 240.

CHAPTER II.

THE prophecy contained in the second, third, and fourth chapters, makes one continued discourse. The first five verses of chapter second foretell the kingdom of Messiah, the conversion of the Gentiles, and their admission into it. From the sixth verse to the end of the second chapter is foretold the punishment of the unbelieving Jews, for their idolatrous practices, their confidence in their own strength, and distrust of God's protection; and moreover the destruction of idolatry, in consequence of the establishment of Messiah's kingdom. The whole third chapter, with the first verse of the fourth, is a prophecy of the calamities of the Babylonian

invasion and captivity; with a particular amplification of the distress of the proud and luxurious daughters of Sion. Chap. iv. 2-6. promises to the remnant which shall have escaped this severe purgation, a future restoration to the favour and protection of God.

This prophecy was probably delivered in the time of Jotham, or perhaps in that of Uzziah; as Isaiah is said to have prophesied in his reign: to which time not any of his prophecies is so applicable as that of these chapters. The seventh verse of the second, and the latter part of the third chapter, plainly point out times in which riches abounded, and luxury and delicacy prevailed. Plenty of silver and gold could only arise from their commerce; particularly from that part of it which was carried on by the Red Sea. This circumstance seems to confine the prophecy within the limits above mentioned, while the port of Elath was in their hands: it was lost under Ahaz, and never recovered.

2. in the latter days-] "Wherever the latter times are mentioned in Scripture, the days of the Messiah are always meant," says Kimchi on this place; and, in regard to this place, nothing can be more clear and certain. The Prophet Micah (chap. iv. 1—4.) has repeated this prophecy of the establishment of the kingdom of Christ, and of its progress to universality and perfection, in the same words, with little and hardly any material variation: for, as he did not begin to prophesy till Jotham's time, and this seems to be one of the first of Isaiah's prophecies, I suppose Micah to have taken it from hence. The variations, as I said, are of no great importance. Verse 2. N after NW, a word of some emphasis, may be supplied from Micah, if dropt in Isaiah: an ancient MS has it here in the margin: It has in like manner been lost in chap liii. 4. (see note on the place); and in Psal. xxii. 29. where it is supplied by Syr. and LXX.

,עמים all the nations, Micah has only,כל הגוים Instead of

peoples; where Syr. has Dy, all peoples, as probably it ought to be. Verse 3. for the 2d 5 read, seventeen MSS, two editions, LXX, Vulg. Syr. Chald. and so Micah iv. 2. Verse 4. Micah adds, PTY, afar off, which the Syriac also reads in this parallel place of Isaiah. It is also to be observed, that Micah has improved the passage by adding a verse, or sentence, for imagery and expression worthy even of the elegance of Isaiah: