gauze; worn only by the most delicate women, and such as dressed themselves "elegantius, quam necesse esset probis." This sort of garments was afterward in use among the Greeks. Prodicus, in his celebrated fable (Xenoph. Memorab. Socr. lib. ii.) exhibits the personage of Sloth in this dress: εσθητα δε, εξ ής αν μαλιστα ώρα διαλαμποι.

"Her robe betray'd

Through the clear texture every tender limb.
Height'ning the charms it only seemed to shade;

And as it flow'd adown so loose and thin,

Her stature show'd more tall, more snowy white her skin." They were called Multitia and Coa (sc. vestimenta) by the Romans, from their being invented, or rather introduced into Greece, by one Pamphila of the island of Cos. This, like other Grecian fashions, was received at Rome when luxury began to prevail under the Emperors; it was sometimes worn even by the men, but looked upon as a mark of extreme effeminacy: (see Juvenal, Sat. ii. 65, &c.) Publius Syrus, who lived when the fashion was first introduced, has given a humorous satirical description of it in two lines, which by chance have been preserved:

66

Equum est, induere nuptam ventum textilem?

Palam prostare nudam in nebula lineâ ?"

24. Instead of perfume-] A principal part of the delicacy of the Asiatic ladies consists in the use of baths, and of the richest oils and perfumes: an attention to which is, in some degree, necessary in those hot countries. Frequent mention is made of the rich ointments of the spouse in the Song of Solomon:—

66

How beautiful are thy breasts, my sister, my spouse !

How much more excellent than wine;

And the odour of thine ointments than all perfumes!

Thy lips drop as the honey-comb, my spouse!

Honey and milk are under thy tongue :

And the odour of thy garments is as the odour of Lebanon."

Cant. iv. 18, 11.

The preparation for Esther's being introduced to King Ahasuerus was a course of bathing and perfuming for a whole year; "Six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours:" Esth. ii. 12. A diseased and loathsome habit of body, instead of a beautiful skin, softened and made agreeable with all that art could devise, and all that nature, so prodigal in those countries of the richest per

fumes, could supply, must have been a punishment the most severe and the most mortifying to the delicacy of these haughty daughters of Sion.

Ibid. A sun-burnt skin-] Gaspar Sanctius thinks the words an interpolation, because the Vulgate has omitted them. The clause 'D' seems to me rather to be imperfect at the end. Not to mention that, taken as a noun, for adustio, burning, is without example, and very improbable; the passage ends abruptly, and seems to want a fuller conclusion.

In agreement with which opinion of the defect of the Hebrew text in this place, the LXX, according to MSS Pachom. and I. D. II. and Marchal, which are of the best authority, express it with the same evident marks of imperfection at the end of the sentence; thus ταυτα σοι αντι καλANTIGUOU- The two latter add σou. This chasm in the text, from the loss probably of three or four words, seems therefore to be of long standing.

Taking in its usual sense, as a particle, and supplying from dos of the LXX, it might possibly have been originally somewhat in this form :

66

כי תחת יפי תהיה לך רעת מראה :

Yea, instead of beauty, thou shalt have an ill-favoured countenance."

יחת כי תחת יפי

л [q. ] for beauty shall be destroyed." Syr. from ллn, or лn. Dr DURELL.

66

May it not be, "wrinkles instead of beauty?" as

,כהה c. so from& מרי מרה from ;יפי is formed יפה from

to be wrinkled, D." Dr JUBB.

25. thy mighty men-] For 77 an ancient MS has 7. The true reading from LXX, Vulg. Syr. Chald.

.גבורך

.גבוריך seems to be

26. —sit on the ground.] Sitting on the ground was a posture that denoted mourning and deep distress. The Prophet Jeremiah has given it the first place, among many indications of sorrow, in the following elegant description of the same state of distress of his country :

"The elders of the daughter of Sion sit on the ground, they are silent:

They have cast, up dust on their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth:

The virgins of Jerusalem have bowed down their heads to

the ground."

Lam. ii. 10.

"We find Judea," says Mr Addison, (on Medals, Dial. ii.) on several coins of Vespasian and Titus, in a posture that denotes sorrow and captivity.-I need not mention her sitting on the ground because we have already spoken of the aptness of such a posture to represent an extreme affliction. I fancy the Romans might have an eye on the customs of the Jewish nation, as well as those of their country, in the several marks of sorrow they have set on this figure. The Psalmist describes the Jews lamenting their captivity in the same pensive posture: "By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, when we remembered thee, O Sion." But what is more remarkable, we find Judea represented as a woman in sorrow sitting on the ground, in a passage of the Prophet that foretells the very captivity recorded on this medal." Mr Addison, I presume, refers to this place of Isaiah; and therefore must have understood it as foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish nation by the Romans; whereas it seems plainly to relate, in its first and more immediate view at least, to the destruction of the city by Nebuchadnezzar, and the dissolution of the Jewish state under the captivity at Babylon.

CHAPTER IV.

1. And seven women-] The division of the chapters has interrupted the Prophet's discourse, and broken it off almost in the midst of the sentence. "The numbers slain in battle shall be so great, that seven women shall be left to one man." The Prophet has described the greatness of this distress by images and adjuncts the most expressive and forcible. The young women, contrary to their natural modesty, shall become suitors to the men: they will take hold of them and use the most pressing importunity to be married: in spite of the natural suggestions of jealousy, they will be content with the share only of the rights of marriage in common with several others; and that on hard conditions, renouncing the legal demands of the wife on the husband, (see Exod. xxi. 10.), and begging only the name and credit of wedlock, and to be freed from the reproach of celibacy, (see chap. liv. 4, 5.) Like Marcia, on a different occasion, and in other circumstances,

"Da tantum nomen inane Connubii; liceat tumulo scripsisse, Catonis Marcia."

Lucan. ii. 442.

2 Ibid. —in that day-] These words are omitted in LXX and MS.

Ibid. The Branch of JEHOVAH-] The Messiah of JEHOVAH, says the Chaldee. The Branch is an appropiated title of the Messiah; and the fruit of the land means the great Person to spring from the house of Judah, and is only a parallel expression signifying the same; or perhaps the blessings consequent upon the redemption procured by him. Compare chap. xlv. 8. where the same great event is set forth in similar images; and see the note there. Ibid. —the house of Israel.] A MS has n'a. 3.—written among the living.] That is, whose name stands in the enrolment or register of the people; or every man living, who is a citizen of Jerusalem. See Ezek. xiii. 9. where they shall not be written in the writing of the house of Israel," is the same with what immediately goes before, "they shall not be in the assembly of my people." Compare Psal. lxxxvii. 6. lxix. 28; Exod. xxxii. 32. To number and register the people was agreeable to the law of Moses, and probably was always practised; being in sound policy useful, and even necessary. David's design of numbering the people was of another kind; it was to enrol them for his army. Michaelis, Mosaisches Retch, Part III. p. 227. See also his Dissert. de Censibus Hebræorum. 4. "The spirit of burning,"] means the fire of God's wrath, by which he will prove and purify his people; gathering them into his furnace, in order to separate the dross from the silver, the bad from the good. The severity of God's judgments, the fiery trial of his servants, Ezekiel (chap. xxii. 18-22.) has set forth at large, after his manner, with great boldness of imagery and force of expression. God threatens to gather them into the midst of Jerusalem as into the furnace; to blow the fire upon them, and to melt them. Malachi (chap. iii. 2, 3.) treats the same subject, and represents the same event under the like images :

"But who may abide the day of his coming?

And who shall stand when he appeareth?

For he is like the fire of the refiner,

And like the soap of the fullers.

And he shall sit refining and purifying the silver;

And he shall purify the sons of Levi,

And cleanse them like gold, and like silver;

That they may be JEHOVAH's ministers,

Presenting unto him an offering in righteousness."

5.—the station-] The Hebrew text has, every station; but four MSS (one ancient) omit ; very rightly, as it should seem; for the station was Mount Sion itself, and no other. See Exod. xv. 17. And the LXX and MS add the same word before P, probably right: the word has only changed its place by mistake. Np, the place where they were gathered together in their holy assemblies," says Sal. b. Melec.

Ibid. A cloud by day-] This is a manifest allusion to the pillar of a cloud and of fire which attended the Israelites in their passage out of Egypt, and to the glory that rested on the tabernacle, Exod. xiii. 21. xl. 38. The prophet Zechariah applies the same image to the same purpose:-

Zech. ii. 5.

"And I will be unto her a wall of fire round about; And a glory will I be in the midst of her." That is, the visible presence of God shall protect her. Which explains the conclusion of this verse of Isaiah; where the makkaph between 5 and 3, connecting the two words in construction, which ought not to be connected, has thrown an obscurity upon the sentence, and misled most of the translators.

6. And a tabernacle-] In countries subject to violent tempests, as well as to intolerable heat, a portable tent is a necessary part of a traveller's baggage, for defence and shelter.

CHAPTER V.

THIS chapter likewise stands single and alone, unconnected with the preceding or following. The subject of it is nearly the same with that of the first chapter. It is a general reproof of the Jews for their wickedness: but it exceeds that chapter in force, in severity, in variety, and elegance; and it adds a more express declaration of vengeance, by the Babylonian invasion.

1. Let me sing now a song] A MS, respectable for its antiquity, adds the word (a song) after ; which gives so elegant a turn to the sentence by the repetition of it in the next member, and by distinguishing the members so exactly in the style and manner of the Hebrew poetical composition, that I am much inclined to think it genuine.

Ibid. A song of loves] 77, for DT7; status constructus pro absoluto, as the grammarians say; as Micah vi. 16.; Lament. iii. 14. and 66.: so Archbishop Secker. Or rather,