^ •WC"'^^ ^i a&t ^htalagie^t j^ %} PRINCETON, N. J. *A % Presented by Ws/SXCXarAV \ ^V\or^ THE POETRY OF THE HEBREW PENTATEUCH. THE POETRY OF THE HEBREW PENTATEUCH, BEING FOUR ESSAYS o^f MOSES AND THE MOSAIC AGE. REV. M. MARGOLIOUTH, M.A., LL.D., Ph.D., Etc. LONDON : SAMUEL BAGSTER AND SONS, 15, PATERNOSTER ROW. 1S71. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE, M.P., THIS WORK IS— IN TOKEN OF SINCERE GRATITUDE FOR VALUABLE HINTS DERIVED FROM HIS GREAT WORK, "STUDIES ON HOMER AND THE HOMERIC AGE" — RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR. PREFACE. The work herewith submitted to the pubUc, consists of the first series of a complete course of Essays on the Poetic Writings of the Old Testament. As may naturally be supposed, the Poetry of the inspired Hebrew writers occupied much of my thoughts, of my converse with literary friends, and of my pen. Fragments of this, the first series of Essays, appeared in a Hebrew Christian Monthly, which I originated and edited at Dublin, in 1847, under the title of " Star of Jacob." ' But the undertaking of a course of Essays on the Sacred Bards of the Old Testament, in all its fulness, was suggested to me by the perusal — immediately after its publication in 1858 — of Mr. Gladstone's great work, '* Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age." By way of complying, by anticipation, with probable demands for reasons, for his undertaking and publishing a work of the kind, Mr. Gladstone, at the very outset of his learned Prolegomena, vouch- safes the following : — " I will place in the foreground an explicit state- ment of the objects which I have in view. These objects are twofold : firstly, to promote and extend the fruitful study of the immortal poems of Homer; and secondly to vindicate for them, in an age of discussion, their just degree both of absolute and, more especially, of relative critical value." ' Adverse circumstances made that Magazine disappear from the literary horizon after a course of a few months. I have not, however, relinquished the cherished hope of seeing the Monthly not only in the ascendant, but enjoying a long and steady career. vin PREFACE. I became roused to the consideration that if an admirer of " Homer and the Homeric Age " feels so zealous for the honour of the object of his admiration as to become determined to bring his varied learning and colossal gifts to bear upon promoting and extending the fruitful study of the poems of his justly favoured Greek bard, — should not an humble, but devoted student of the inspired Bards, their respective poems and times, be equally solicitous for the honour and glory of the sacred compositions of those great, good and holy men. The twofold objects, then, which Mr. Gladstone had in view, in undertaking his great work, became the ruling objects with me. To promote and extend the fruitful study of the immortal Sacred Poems of the Old Testament ; and secondly, to vindicate for them, in an age of discussion, theirjust degree both of absolute, and, more especially, of relative critical value. I determined to do for Moses, Deborah, David, Isaiah, Micah, and other Heaven-taught bards, what Mr. Gladstone has done for the immortal poems of Homer. Most thankful do I feel to the accomplished Author of "Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age" for the idea. Not only for the idea, but also for the title, an adaptation of which surnames every series of my Essays. In this, the first series, however, I not only treat of the Mosaic, but also of the pre-Mosaic age. In token of my grati- tude I have presumed to dedicate this work to Mr. Gladstone, being the first fruits of the results of my labours in that field to which that brilliant genius has unwittingly directed my attention. I dare not presume, to pretend even, that I have approximated, ever so remotely, in the performance of my labours, the ability which my great model has displayed in his work. A work which is likely to prove as immortal and as cherished as the poems which he has so ably expounded and commended. It is not improbable that the professors of " a higher criticism" — as some designate arbitrary treatment of the Sacred VOLUME — may PREFACE. IX express some surprise, and perhaps indulge in some sagacious sneer, at my espousing views of the old Christian Divines. I beg therefore to submit, most respectfully, to those learned critics that I do not consider rejection, or even suspicion of everything Christian either a necessarj'^ qualification, or an essential feature in a sound critic of the Old Testament. As I have intimated elsewhere,* proficient Scholarship, and a thorough knowledge' of the Hebrew and its cognate languages, are the principal requirements. I have learnt by the same experience which taught the late Archbishop WHiately, that there is a blinder prejudice, in some quarters, in favour of everything that is not accounted sacred, than of that which for ages and ages has been accounted Divine. I subsci-ibe to his implied proposition : — Undue prejudice against whatever relates to religion is no proof positive of sound philosophy. The independent Hebrew scholar cannot help feeling surprised at the trifling originality, in modern works, on the Holy Scriptures, on either side. The "Orthodox School" are satisfied with such authorities as Bochart, Delitzsch, Havemick, Hengstenberg, Keil, Kurtz, etc., etc. after their kind. The " Higher Criticism School," are content to abide by the opinions of Astruc, Bleek, De Wette, Ewald, Kunen, etc., etc. after their kind. And when one is curious enough to look up the respective referees, in order to find out on what authority the latter founded their conclusions, then the curiosity is gratified by strings of references to former Authors, and so on and on. I have thought proper to give the original of the specimen quotations which I had occasion to adduce, in the form of foot notes. This may be considered by some as unnecessary in the case of the learned reader, and useless as regards the ordinary reader. The objection may be true as made with the respect to the latter ; but that made in * " The Oracles of God, and their Kimlication." X PREFACE. reference to the former, experience has taught me, does not hold good. The more learned a reader is, the more anxious is he to learn ; and he is too glad to have the lesson made pleasant to him, by having all the materials for work placed before him then and there, instead of having to cumber himself with a number of volumes. I have only to add here that long after the MS. of the following Essays had gone to the press, the first instalment of the Speaker's Bible — on the Pentateuch — made its appearance ; and I am glad to find that some of the views, propounded in this work, are being espoused by some of the learned Commentators of that work. As an instance I quote the following from the Bishop of Ely's " Introduction to the Pentateuch :" — " It is argued again, that the language of the Pentateuch, although in some few fragments apparently archaic, is for the most part too like to later Hebrew for us to believe that it came from Moses. To this it may be replied, that this is really what we might expect. A language is fixed by its great, and especially by its popular authors. It is commonly said, that English has been fixed by Shakspeare and the translators of the Bible. Moses, putting aside all question of inspiration, was a man of extraordinary powers and opportunity. If he was not Divinely guided and inspired, as all Christians believe, he must have been even a greater genius than he has been generally reckoned. He had had the highest cultivation possible in one of Egj'pt's most enlightened times ; and after his early training in science and literature, he had lived the contemplative life of a shepherd in Midian. We find him then with a full consciousness of his heavenly mission, coming forth as legislator, historian, poet as well as prince and prophet. Such a man could not but mould the tongue of his people. To them he was Homer, Solon, and Thucydides, all in one. Everyone that knew anything of letters must have known the books of the Pentateuch. All Hebrew literature, as far as we know, was in ancient times of a Sacred character ; at all events no other PREFACE. xi has come do-ttTi to us ; and it is certain that writers on Sacred subjects would have been deeply imbued with the language and the thoughts of the books of Moses. Eastern languages, like Eastern manners, are slow of change ; and there is certainly nothing strange in our finding that in the thousand years from Moses to Malachi, the same tongue was spoken, and the same words intelligible ; especially in books treating on the same subjects, and where the earlier books must have been the constant study of all the writers down to the very last." Compare Essay III., pp. 71 — -Ji, and Appendix B. M. M. Forest Hill, August, 1871. CONTENTS. PAGE. Essay I. An Apology for the Subject . . . . i Essay II. The Vestiges of Primeval Hebrew Poetry, traceable in the Book of Genesis . . .29 Essay III. Studies on Moses and the Mosaic Age . . 65 Essay IV. The bwa or the Hieroglyphic Poetry of the Pentateuch 97 Appendix -145 ESSAY I. AN APOLOGY FOR THE SUBJECT. I APPRECIATE a certain 7V;/f d' esprit, which is ascribed ^^/^"ribed to George III., said to have been spontaneous, on the *°^^''- "^■ occasion when a copy of Bishop Jewell's 'Apology for the Church of England ' was presented to his Majesty. The story circulates that when the king opened the volume, and read its title-page, he ex- claimed in his usual thrice-told, emphatic, curt manner, " An Apology for the Church of England ! An Apology for the Church of England ! An Apology for the Church of England ! The Church of England needs no Apology ! The Church of England needs no Apology ! The Church of England needs no Apology !" ^ I fully admit the justice of the reiterated royal sentiment. It applies with threefold force to the theme which I have set before myself to discuss in this and subsequent disquisitions. Nevertheless, I hold the somewhat paradoxical opinion that the first of a series of Essays, on the Poetry of the Hebrew Pentateuch, ought to deal in a sort of an apology. ' Another version of the anecdote is, to the effect, that the royal demurrer was enunciated on the occasion when a copy of Bishop Watson's "Apology for the Bible" was presented to George III. 2 2 ESSAY L An apology J am Hot Certain whether some precocious critics — for my apo- ■■■ i°ey- ^]^Q aj-g jj^ ^]-jg habit of pronouncing their opinions of books as soon as they have glanced at their title- pages — may not begin their strictures by protesting that the subject was too profound and abstruse to be capable of being treated in a popular style ; and demand, therefore, an apology for bringing it be- fore the British public. Their demand shall be satisfied. The gener- Mv plca is this : — Hcbrcw Poetry must needs make alityofEng- -^ ^ ^ lishmen are ^^g Biblc the Essayist's principal text-book. The prepared to j r r spirit' of° the volume of revelation is a book which in this land, at * ^"'^' least, is almost universally read. A considerable portion of its contents is familiar to the great majority of Englishmen ; so that a work on Hebrew Poetr>' must be apprehended, to a certain extent, by even moderate intellects. The minds of the majority of Englishmen are, in a manner, prepared to enter into the spirit of the theme. The metaphors, tropes, figures of speech, symbols, emblems, and other pecu- liarities of the sacred muse, are already familiar to the sons and daughters of Britain. So that the subject, notwithstanding its sublimity and profundity, is capable of being treated in so popular a manner, that " the reader of it may be most fluent in it." i ' Such is the real meaning- of the simple words of Habakkuk ii. 2 : n NTlp yiT ^I-d"?— words which have recently elicited so much ingenuity amongst a certain class of students of the Hebrew Bible and language. ESSAY I. 3 Moreover, I am desirous to contribute my mite J^f^^ ^''^^^ towards stimulating a craving, on the part of the s^ud^'of'tht Christian priesthood, for the cultivation of a knowledge guVe hacf"n of the sacred tongue ; the want of which is beginning giorious''Re- formation. to be felt most sensibly. We are accustomed to look back with pride and pleasure on the glorious days of the Reformation, — and justly so — for noble was the victory then gained ; but we must recollect that the revival and the study of the Hebrew language had no small share in achieving that victory ; nor can we view with indifference the efforts made to acquire this know- ledge by the goodly band of the early Reformers. We see how Reuchlin stepped forth at the first, and, in the words of the Poet, how he " cried aloud to God's dead language — live ! " We see how Melanc- thon and Luther patiently devoted days and nights to the hallowed study ; and, turning from the Vulgate to the pages of the Hebrew Bible, thence derived, in all their purity, truths, the might of which was destined to " shake the world." " It is necessary," observes Melancthon, " to pre- Meianc- thon's opin- serve the knowledge of the Hebrew tongue in the ionontheim- ° ° portance of a Church ; for although there are extant interpretations ['he'^'lalre"! necessary for the people, yet God wills there should always be witnesses of those interpretations. He wills that upon obscure passages, the fountains be consulted. How much clearer the meaning is to those who are acquainted with the fountains, the skilful are able to judge. This is plain, that when the language tongue. 4 ESSAY I. of the Prophets is known, ingenuous minds are de- hghted with the certainty of the sense." The gentle Reformer winds up his fervent appeal to the Clergy in behalf of the study of the sacred tongue, with the Saviour's dictum — " For unto every man that hath it shall be given, and he shall have abundance ; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away." I have no doubt that Melancthon's views and sentiments influenced, in a certain measure, the way- ward mind of the unaccountable Henry VIII. I cannot forego the inclination to quote a passage from a letter of the amiable Reformer, to the headstrong king : — " Away with all false pretences in divine things. Let us practise what the Holy Scriptures teach, and what the first Church kept for three centuries after the Apostles. Why has the boldness of men forsaken the ancient custom } Why defend the error of those who have changed the commandment of Christ .-' " Luther's es- Who is the Hcbrcw scholar that could withhold his timate ot the kno"wiedgeof Sympathy from that great Reformer, Luther, when, in Scriptures?'' humble gratitude, he recorded his sense of the im- portance of the sacred acquisition, saying : — " Scanty as the measure of my attainments in the knowledge of the sacred language is, I would not barter that which I possess for all the treasures of the universe." ^ The following Lutheran advice to young candidates for ' Etsi exig-ua sit mea linguje Hebraicse notitia, cum omnibus tamen totius mundi gazis non commutarem. The excla- mation of Henry VIII. ESSAY 1. 5 Holy Orders, though applicable to the present day, is scarcely translatable into our modern polite style of English writing. I leave, therefore, the characteristic counsel in Luther's own Latin : — " Qui cum unam Ebraem vocem sonare didicerunt, statim putant, se magistros hujus sacrae linguae. Ibi nisi nos earn tenuerimus tanquam assinis illudent et insulta- bunt, sin autem nos quoque muniti fuerimus cog- nitione hujus linguae, poterimus eis impudens os ob- struere .'' " It would appear that the observations of Melancthon and Luther found their way to the mind, if not to the ^TccounVof heart, of Henry VHI. — Both Reformers corresponded ablek^ckofa knowledge of with that king-. — The imperative necessity of culti- the sacred '-'■'• tongue a- vating a competent knowledge of the sacred tongue "^^^f^^^ ''^^j. forced itself upon his Majesty; who, with his wonted cht.r^ch"n'ws emphasis, exclaimed that " it was exceedingly to be Tappy effect lamented that our theologians were so deficient in a mation. knowledge of the sacred tongue, and neglectful of the learned languages ! " i There can be no doubt that the expression of the royal regret, on the melancholy condition of the then clerical acquirements, gave an impetus to the study of the Hebrew language, and produced a host of well-versed Hebrew scholars, in the reigns which immediately succeeded that of Henry VHI. Even ladies of high rank became ' "Vehementer dolere nostra Theolog'orum sortem sanctissime linguae scientia carentium, et linguarum doctrinam fuisse intermissam." Hody, p. 466. 6 ESSAY J. proficients in sacred philology. Queen Elizabeth herself was no mean adept in the original language of the Old Testament. I Great was the service of that study to the cause of the reformed Church in this land. But, alas, from various causes, that most important branch of the Christian minister's learning, has been permitted to slip out of the course of education, pre- scribed for the Candidates for Holy Orders, these \vhat Queen two ccuturies. Would God that the Sovereign of this Victoria might do. realm, in this our own day, would imitate, in this respect, Henry VHI., and speak out her mind over the crying neglect of this department of Christian theology ! An especial jg tlicrc no causc ! The study which did such good call for the •' ° days!' "°^^ service in the days of old, is as important now as then ; the knowledge of Hebrew cannot be too highly valued by Churchmen at the present time. Questions of weighty import are still at issue between the Churches of England and Rome. The flood-gates of scepticism have lately burst forth with fresh fury ; the war-horse of a certain neology has been let loose to career with unbridled scope. And when the few Scholars begin to examine the cause of the sudden movement, they discover it to be either an imperfect knowledge, or utter ignorance, of the Sacred tongue. The diligent study of the Hebrew language is, then, as of great importance now, as it was in the sixteenth century. ' See Appendix A. tions. ESSAY I. 7 Whether we argue about the canon of scripture as the alone standard of faith, or whether we wish to be pre- served from a specious criticism of the new School of divinity, it behoves us to be thorough masters of the " Hebrew verity." "The Hebrew verity" — observed the late Dr. or.McCaui •' on transla- McCaul, one of the most eminent Professors of Di- vinity of his day — " as it is well called by ancient writers, is that which was revealed by the Almighty. To it, therefore, must be the final appeal in all matters to be proved by the testimony of Moses and the Prophets. The man who is ignorant of Hebrew, can but imperfectly investigate the mind of the Spirit as revealed in the Old Testament. Whatever he may think of the right and duty of private judgment, he imposes very narrow limits for his exercise, who at the outset commits himself to the guidance of trans- lators, and whose faith must so far rest upon human authority. The advocate of unconditional submission to human authority may be ready to infer the happiness of him who can lean upon an infallible guide, without venturing himself upon the difficulties of interpretation. But such bliss is only that of the lazy mendicant who loves to beg rather than work ; or rather, the blind follower of the blind guide who sees not the danger to which he is hastening. There is no such thing as a version authorised by the Church Catholic. The modern Greek Church may maintain the authority of the LXX., and the Roman Church prohibit an appeal On the Au- thorised ver- sion. 8 ESSAY I. from the Vulgate ; but the Church Catholic, as has been abundantly proved by Hody, always referred to the Hebrew Verity as the only real authority," The same learned divine, when speaking of " the authorised version," remarks : — " Ignorance of Hebrew makes the Fathers unsafe guides in interpretation ; and convinces us of the possibility of our also going astray, if we labour under the same deficiency. It is very true that our own translators knew more about Hebrew than all the Fathers taken together, and that the authorised version is one of the best ever made ; but that it is faultless, or may serve the minister of the Gospel as a substitute for the original, cannot be maintained, at least in accordance with truth. It would be as easy to collect from modern sermons and popular religious works, as from the Fathers, an abundance of examples of involuntary perversions of God's Word, arising from ignorance of the original ; but the task is too invidious. It may, however, be observed that a pastor can hardly maintain the respect due to his office, if he is not able to give some answers to the inquiries of his people respecting difficulties and varieties of translations ; and such inquiries must multiply every day, as the study of Hebrew amongst the laity, and especially amongst females, is on the increase." ^ ' See also the Author's Revision Sermon, " The Oracles of God, and their Vindication." ESSAY I. 9 Such was the dehberate judgment of one of the ^^° ^^Zm most orthodox, pious, and learned divines of the ^^ TEfsh^p'^- Church of England. It is a fact, well worthy of the "'''^compe- tent Hebrew most serious consideration on the part of the Clergy, scholar, that the laity are beginning to view with impatience the lamentable ignorance of the sacred tongue amongst the priesthood of the Church of England. The evil is, that there is no reasonable prospect of a speedy improvement upon the present state of things. Scarcely half a dozen of our Bishops can, with a good grace, insist upon a Hebrew examination, from Can- didates for Holy Orders.^ The venerable Primate Sumner himself told me, in the course of a conversa- tion in 1842, when he was Bishop of Chester, that the little Hebrew he knew, ere he was raised to the epis- copate, he had since forgotten ; and that he never read farther than Habakkuk.2 No, not until it be- comes a moral practical sine qica non, that the Clergy- man who is to be preferred to the ofhce of a Bishop should understand as thoroughly the original of the Old Testament, as it is now a theoretical si7ie qua non, that he should understand the original of the New Testament, there is no reasonable hope of a speedy improvement in the present state of things. I cannot ' See Prospectus of the Pentateuch according to the Talmud at the end of this volume. ^ As the Hebrew Scriptures are arranged, Habakkuk occupies a position more central in the original of the Sacred volume than in the Authorised version. 10 ESSAY 7. help repeating my inmost wish that the Sovereign of this realm made known her sentiments in this respect, as did Henry VIII. \\^ni '"h'- ^ have said that the laity are beginning to view dericaVdutf with impaticnce the lamentable general ignorance of spect.'^ '^'^ the sacred tongue amongst the priesthood of the Church of England. The following extract from a letter addressed to me by an English Duke — in refer- ence to a certain work of mine, in which the same views were maintained — will corroborate the above affirmation : — " I entirely agree with what you con- sider the proper duties and proper studies of a Clergy- man, Many people read Homer and Horace for their relaxation ; and I do not see why all Clergymen should not read the Bible in the original." whyshouid So far, so good ; but I would most respectfully not educated ' o ^ r J la'^mencufti" submlt to hls Gracc, that I do not see why English kd|e^of"the Christian noblemen and gentlemen — who prefer read- the Old Tes- ing Homer and Horace in the original to translations, because the former is so much more interesting than the latter — should not also cultivate a knowledge of the Hebrew, that they might enjoy the luxury of reading the Old Testament in the original. Such reading is indeed a mental luxury of the most delect- able description. It is more delectable, to a person of true taste, than every species of luxury. It brings the mind into contact not only with the divinest of volumes, but with the most ancient and most brilliant writings extant. tament. world. ESSAY I n The volume of revelation, known in the modern Tj''^ /'"V" ' quity 01 the civilized world as " The Bible," contains productions, oul'a parai'iei not only incomparable in point of purity, and moral ture*'of the truth, and spiritual instruction, but also matchless in point of high antiquity, and literary excellence. It contains the Pentateuch, which was written upwards of five hundred years before the Iliad and Odyssey, by Homer ; or the Theogony, by Hesiod. It was written upwards of eight hundred years before "the Tale of the Philosopher," by Lao-tseu ; or, " The Five Sacred Books," by Confucius — the two oldest writers of ancient China. It was written upwards of six hundred years before Mahabhrata and Rig Veda, of the Indians. Moses was also the predecessor of Herodo- tus by upwards of a thousand years ; and that of Theocritus by about twelve hundred years. The Bible contains the Books of " The Psalms," and Pro- verbs ; whose authors wrote upwards of a thousand years before Horace. It contains the Book of Isaiah, which was written seven hundred years before that of Virgil. I might thus go on with every Book in the Sacred volume ; and demonstrate that no nation under Heaven can boast a collection of works, of the same venerable antiquity, as that contained in the Hebrew Bible. But there is no need ; the intelligent reader will be able himself to recognise the great difference between Hebrew lore and the Classical literature of other nations, according to the hint suggested. Is it not strange that philosophical and accomplished pro- 12 ESSAY L fessors of the science and development of language, should lose sight of this stubborn fact ! do^s°'the7ui^ The Bible should indeed be set forth, as it is in hrdweiiTn truth, the Book for all ; — to the simple and unlearned, HoiyBookis the best and the only infallible guide ; to the learned distinguish- . ^ - , ed for liter- and the Wise, to the man of feehng and taste, the noblest ary excel- lence. and most attractive object of study. Never, indeed, should we for a moment keep out of view the great fact, that the ultimate object of our studying the Holy Book, ought to be to imbibe the knowledge of its saving virtue, — the power whereby the engrafted Word of God is able to save the soul. Yet, still, it is not amiss to uphold even the literary excellence of the Bible, He who can estimate this most truly, will always be the best able to assign their real value to human compositions ; and while he enjoys their beauties, will be free from any overweening predilections for them, sidereZinthe ^^ ^^^ wout to hcar the praises of heathen authors of^vkw.^"'"' loudly celebrated. With what rapturous applause is the poetry of ancient Greece and Rome ever men- tioned ! In the usual routine of a liberal education, how large a portion of time is devoted to the gaining an acquaintance with the splendid remains of ancient literature ! I am very far from depreciating all this. I admire and respect the noble productions of genius ; I acknowledge that the poetry of these elder times possesses in it much, very much, to captivate and de- light ; but, then, I would have it remembered that the ESSAY I. 13 excellent, the beautiful, and the sublime are not con- fined to these nations, or these men alone. I would consider poetry itself in the highest point of view — not merely as the child of intellect, but as the hand- maid of religion. In a word, I would try to demonstrate that " the thoughts which breathe " are always best and grandest, when they have their origin from " the Spirit from on high;" and "the words that burn" do then burn brightest when they are kindled from the fire of the Sanctuary ; — when the Poet's lips, like those of Isaiah, have been touched with the living coal from the altar of the Most High. The examination of the poetry of ancient nations ."^^^ •^'i?™' J^ ■' ination of the is always most interesting. It leads us into the spirit denTnations of by-gone times ; and enables us to form an accurate "ting. estimate of by-gone men. The mind of man exhibits its working most plainly, and touchingly, in poetic effusions. It there sets forth its deepest feelings, its most ardent aspirations. Poetry is, indeed, the chosen means of expressing, to others, the vivid impressions which have been made upon ourselves ; and giving a lasting existence to the creations of the mind. Be- tween poetic expression, and religious feeling, there seems to be a natural and acknowledged connexion. Hence we see that the very early efforts of even the heathen muse were employed, not seldom, to give utterance to such feelings. Before the days of the father of the Grecian epic, we have traces of hymns and other songs of a similar class, in which were re- most inter- 14 ESSAY I. corded the veneration and the awe of rude and pristine men. I onhe^deveT ^ut the history of the development of Grecian Greci^ ° song is altogether different from that of the Hebrew muse. Living in the midst of some of the fairest of nature's scenery, and acquainted with nature in her most pleasing forms, the naturally susceptible imagina- tion of the early Greek was speedily touched by the perception of the beautiful ; and the Bard endeavoured to communicate the impression which was made upon him. He looked upon the world around him with deep and solemn feeling ; he expressed himself with energy and with grace. He succeeded well in one of the essential parts of superior poetry, in vivid and in natural colouring and in attractive ornament. To a certain degree, also, his language was elevated and powerful. Yet, he was not able to attain the true sublime. Unguided by the light of a revelation to dis- cern the truth, the quickness of his own feelings, and his appreciation of natural beauty, only led him into error ; and carried him away from the really noble. With him, after awhile, the operations of nature them- selves became deified ; and he worshipped the crea- ture rather than the Creator. The Greek As faucy bodicd forth new shapes, or observation poet alto- gether mis- presented to him new phenomena, he exalted them took the le- ^ ^ ficeof^'oetr"*^ into gods. The legitimate office of poetry was thus See " History of the Literature of Ancient Greece," by K. O. Muller. ESSAY 1. 15 altogether mistaken. Religion, in fact, became sub- servient to poetry, instead of poetry being found to minister to religion. It was thus that Homer and Hesiod were said to have invented the theology of Greece. Instead of raising their thoughts upwards to the Divine nature, they endeavoured to accommodate that nature to their own conceptions. The early Greek felt that there was something bright and glo- rious in the sun ; something calm and lovely in the moonlight ; something grand and impressive in the wild play of the billow, or in the roar of the storm. He faithfully expressed what he felt ; his poetry was natural, and it was impressive too. But here he stopped, unable to carry his view to the great source of all power and might. He could not ascend to the first principles of sublime conception. He knew not the real dwelling-place of sublimity, — that it is even with the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth Eternity — with Him whose name is Holy. It was thus that matters stood with the Greeks. TheHebrew poets pos- Very different, however, do we find the condition of n^Turli Ld^ Poetry among the Hebrew people. They too, like the Jh^^'Greeks, 1 1 1 r r which were Greeks, were much accustomed to the lace 01 nature ; purified by the presence they, too, had quick and lively feelings, and could well of God. understand the sensations produced by the beautiful. But then, they had God among them to guide and to instruct. Whenever His inspiration breathed upon their poetry, the natural powers of the mind were not i6 ESS A Y 1. shackled or confined ; but the imagination was purified, and the heart was enlarged. Their own appreciation of nature was allowed full scope ; but everything was put in its right place. Nature and her powers are most beautifully and graphically delineated, but these are only secondary objects. The truly sublime is successfully obtained by making the Supreme the First and the Last. There is never any confusion between the Deity and His works ; but the former is ever represented in His proper connexion with the latter ; and when the operations of nature are men- tioned, the mind is not suffered to rest here, but is carried on at once to the fountain and the source, — from nature itself to the God of nature. oJ^diFHe- Ancient Hebrew poetry, therefore, as an emanation gulge equal f^om Dcity, must needs be most perfect in these two ofVpoe"ry most important constituents of excellence, — nature and^ higher and subHmity. If from these general characteristics kind than the best and the of the Doctic conccption, we now turn our view to highest of ^ r ' II^^^^Grecian ^]^g geuius of the language in which we find them ex- pressed, we shall in it, too, discover much that is worthy of our applause. I know that it is the fashion with some, whose knowledge of the sacred tongue is just sufiicient to prove that department of their learn- ing " a dangerous thing," — to decry the Hebrew lan- guage as scanty and uncouth. When such critics treat on the merits of poetic composition, they are rash enough to pronounce the Hebrew language an inferior vehicle for elegant and forcible expression. ESSAY I. 17 On the other hand, a great deal is said about the force and beauty of the combinations of which the Greek language is capable, — the perfection of its structure — the music of its periods — and the picturesque variety of its words. I entertain too ardent a love for the Greek language to gainsay what is advanced in praise of it. I do feel and admire the power of that language which has transmitted unto us so much that is noble, so much that is commendable in the history of mankind. But my love for the Hebrew language is even more fervent than that for the Greek. I am penetrated to my heart's core with feelings of affection and admira- tion for its exquisite beauty — its matchless power and majesty. My intimate acquaintance with that lan- guage constrains me to maintain that the Hebrew is not one whit less adapted to the requirements of noble verse. Yes, I confidently affirm that it is even equal to the wants of a poetry of a better and higher kind than the best and the highest of the Grecian muse. In poetic expression, force and vigour especially impress our minds ; and we find much, very much, of this in the genius of the Hebrew language. The develop- ment of its verbal forms gives to the whole an air of activity and potency. The modification of ideas, re- sulting from these varied forms, very often produces extremely apt and beautiful imagery. The artful and masterly combinations of ideas, in its compound words, forms one of the most pleasing features of the Greek. The evolving of many various senses, through various 3 18 ESSAY I. inflexions, of the chief word in the language, the verb, is a pecuHarity of Hebrew. The constant employment, too, of the verb, as the predominant part of speech, contributes at once to perspicuity and force. Voltaire on Thcrc is such a revival in these days, in certain Hebrew phi- ■' loiogj'. quarters, of Voltairianism, as to render it necessary, in a work of this kind, to expose some of the lucubra- tions of the leading sinister genius of France, of the last century, on the subject of Hebrew philology. The wonderful discoveries which have of late years taken place in the East ; the progress and develop- ment of the science of criticism ; the unravelling of the hitherto enigmatical writings in the land of the Sphinx ; — all these tend to show that it is a culpable mistake, on the part of any Scholar, to sit at the feet of so superficial a master as M. de Voltaire. The would-be-universal genius must needs have something to say about the Hebrew language, — never mind whether he knew anything about it ; never mind its relevancy to the theme under his treatment. The Hebrew language is dragged into his Premier Me- lange ; forced into his Dictionaire Philosophiqtie ; smuggled into his Toleration ; and surreptitiously in- troduced into his Philosophy of History. As there is still a considerable class of readers who draw their information from those " broken cisterns," and as some such readers may chance to have their minds prepossessed in favour of M. de Voltaire's statements, and arguments — such as they are — with respect to the ESSAY I. 19 merits of the Hebrew tongue, — I deem it right, there- fore, to examine, in this my first Essay, those state- ments and arguments, and mark them with their just value ; peradventure I may be the means of putting some on their guard against the counterfeit learning. "The Hebrew language," observed Voltaire, "like all is a lan- o o ' guage neces- barbarous idioms, is scanty ; the same word serves for orSblrou'/ several ideas. The Jews, deprived of the Arts, could braces'^^'c™- not express what they were ignorant of" This pro- wWch ZtLl c IT--- • -1- 1 11 1^°'' several found disquisition was ingeniously introduced by the ideas? sage, into his treatise on " Toleration." Let me, in the first place, appeal to any linguist-philologist whether the inference is a reasonable one .-' Is it proof positive that because a language happens to embrace certain words which represent respectively several ideas, that that language is of necessity meagre.? Why! it is a characteristic common to the most copious and polished languages of the civilized world ! The Frenchman who could have employed such an argu- ment has not only convicted himself of an utter ignorance of the knowledge of Greek and Latin, but also of an imperfect acquaintance with his own mother- tongue. Those conversant with the languages which I have mentioned, will supply instances in them — as well as in the German, Spanish, Italian, and the lan- guage in which I write this — of the same words representing respectively several different ideas. Even a de Voltaire would not dare to designate the Greek, Latin, Spanish, German, Italian, French, or English^ 20 ESSAY J. barbarous languages ! Thus much I have written for argument-sake, t^gue^^'dfs'^ In the second place, let me state, as an incontro- n!fsrof"vo- vertible fact, that the Hebrew language, even in its versatiiit'y of prcscnt pcnurious state, has fewer words than any of glossary, ^11 charming va- tliosc lauguagcs named in the preceding paragraph "^'^^r.i^^iH'''' which stand for several ideas. On the other hand, no Fhilolo- ' duce'^fn a^ify ^^cn the fragment of the sacred tongue, which we only guage. *" possess at present, displays a richness of vocabulary, a versatility of glossary, a charming variety of syno- nyms, which no European Linguist or Philologist can adduce in any other language. To give a categorical list of instances would be to introduce upwards of one hundred pages of very dry and tedious reading. A few examples, however, I feel bound to give. This I do at hazardous random. As it happens to rain just now, — how many terms are there in the Greek, Latin, French, German, and English, for the word rain ? The following are the Hebrew synonyms for the one idea rain — Giicshcm, Matar, Bool, Sagreer, Zarzecf, besides Yoiireh, for " former rain," and Mal- koush, for " latter rain." i Looking out upon the garden from my study-window, I observe a branch broken off from a favourite tree. How many different terms have the Greek, Latin, French, German, and English, for the word branch } The following are the Hebrew synonyms for the one and self-same word : Naitzer, : ^pbo— mv— f|'m— T-UD— bin— iTQa— Duja (') ESSAY J. 21 Choiiter, Kataccr, Daleeth, TseinacJi.^ I hear the mis- tress of the house tell one of the men to go and help some one to draw water from a well, in an adjacent field. How many equivalents are there in those lan- guages already enumerated for the verb to draxv, that is, water from a well ? The following are the Hebrew synonyms for it: Cadoud, Daloh, SJuwub? There is, however, some difference in the full force of these roots. The first implies drawing water with great toil ; the second tells the tale of a very deep well ; the third intimates that the well overflows, and the drawing may be effected with ease, even with delight. But all the poetic variety is lost in translations ; lost with considerable detriment to the meaning of certain passages in Holy Writ ; — for instance, Isaiah xii. 3. — Draw, draw, draw, is the only word that the English language can afford for the various modes of obtaining waters from different wells. Ex uno disce onines ! Need I enumerate the legion of meanings which the verb to draiv is obliged to intimate in the English language .'' Any ordinary dictionary will do this. Shall I affect the pedant, and superciliously pronounce the secular languages which I have named, scanty, because they are poorer in synonyms than the sacred tongue .'' No, no. I leave such petty conceits for Voltairians ! It would be easy for me to multiply nos— n^*?!— t:?P— "iTcn— 123 (') 22 ESSAY I. illustrations ; every object round about me offers its service for the purpose : but I forbear, for the reason already given. But, argues Mon. de Voltaire, " the Jews, deprived ho^shaiTde- of" the Arts, could not express what they were ignorant When Vol- taire andVol- taire differ, cide of" I deal not at present in the skill which the Jews undoubtedly possessed as artizans ; and therefore pass the assertion of the ignorance of the Jews, without any further notice. My business, at present, is with the language which the Jews spoke. That language, in the plenitude of its vitality — like the Greek — consisted of several dialects, namely : — Phoenician, Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic. The Phoenicians were perfectly well ac- quainted with the Arts, for they taught them to the Greeks and others ; so that the Jews might have managed to express the terms of the Arts, though they might have been ignorant of the Arts themselves. In his Premier Melanges, Voltaire himself stated that " the most perfect languages must necessarily be the lan- guages of those nations who have most cultivated the Arts and Sciences." ..." The language of the Phoe- nicians was that of an industrious, commercial, rich nation, spread over the whole earth." But the same oracle inadvertently put down, in black and white, that "the Jews for a long time spoke no other language in Canaan than that of the Phoenicians." When Vol- taire and Voltaire differ, who shall decide ! ! ! Could the In his Dictionaire Philosophiquc, he informs his Hebrews have terms j-gadcrs that " tlic words astronomy and geometry were ESSAY I. 23 for astrono- my, geomc- always absolutely unknown amongst the Jews." That is a curious piece of instruction! The Babylonians vigatton?"* were astronomers, the Egyptians were geometricians, the Phoenicians were both, but the readers of the Philosopher's works will search in vain, in his pages, for the terms by which the Babylonians and Egyptians called those sciences. But I shall have occasion to point out, in a future Essay, that terms representing astronomy and geometry were perfectly familiar to the Jews. In the Premier Melanges, Voltaire exclaims, " How could the Hebrews have sea-terms, they who, before Solomon, had not a boat ! " As the Phoenicians were a great maritime nation, and as the Phoenician language was part and parcel of the Hebrew, the Jews might have had sea-terms, even if they had not a boat before Solomon. But I shall be in a position to demonstrate, in one of the subsequent Essays, that the Hebrews had many boats before Solomon.^ I will only add, by way of winding up the long di- tion^or"the' gression, that the extraordinary riches of the Hebrew bie has won- • T 1! 1 • 1 1 • /- derfully en- language, m Israels glorious days, may be mferred richedaiithe ^ ^ ' ^ / ' / Western lan- from the wonderful wealth which the mere fragment, g^^g"- preserved to us, possesses. I mean by the mere frag- ment, The Hebrew Bible. It is not only immeasur- ' Those who wish to see Voltaire's strictures on the Old Testament thoroug-hly exposed, let them peruse " Lettres de quelques Juifs Portugais, Allemand, et Polonais, a M. de Voltaire. Avec un petit Commentaire, extrait d'un plus grand. Sixieme Edition, augmentee et corrigee d'apres les Manuscrits de I'Auteur. Trois vol. in Svo. Paris: 1S05." See also " The Oracles of God, and their Vindication," p. 22. 24 ESSAY I. ably opulent in itself, but it has moreover enriched, by the various translations of it, all the Western languages. Let those who are curious in such matters compare the poverty-stricken European languages before the trans- lation of the Bible, with their sudden enrichment after that great event. Words had actually to be coined, in order to convey the meaning of the original. It is unmitigated conceit to talk of bringing back the English language to the stature of the old Saxon. It would indeed be an old, shrivelled, shrunk, dried up, illegible piece of mummy record. i^ig^u^lehas '^° come back to the immediate subject in hand, to''ensure°"' namely, the Poetry and the language of the Hebrews feMe? ^Her- — to point out how they suit one another. There is Gcr s csti" mate of .its not a thorough Hebrew Scholar who does not recog- nise that the language is essentially possessed of qualifications to ensure poetic excellence. Herder — a Gentile Poet and a Hebrew Scholar — who flourished in Germany in the middle of the last century — ob- served, "the very soul of poetry is action and senti- ment;" and he, lays it down as a maxim, not to be denied, that the language which frequently employs expressive picturesque verbs, is a poetical one. Lessing — another German Poet and Philologist of the last century, no second-rate authority on poetic excel- lence — has called attention to the verses of Homer. ^ He has shown how in them all was full of progress, poetic genius. ' See Lessingr's " Laokoon." ESSAY I. 25 life, activity, and spirit. The observation is true, and fits the Hebrew language to a nicety. Moreover, in Hebrew almost every word is a verb ; that is, every word, and everything in it, is life and action. It is admirably adapted for the purposes of the Poet, and the man of sentiment. Herder spoke like a practical Hebrew Scholar, which he was, when he described the sacred tongue in the following terms : — " Every- thing in it cries aloud, ' I live, I move, I work ; I am the creature of feeling and passion, not of abstract thinkers or philosophers : I am intended for the Poet ; yea, I am even myself altogether poesy.' " ^ It is impossible to take up any part of the Hebrew Bible, without perceiving the justice of these remarks. or"weakened Throughout the whole of its venerated records we ousomament ... 1 '" Hebrew- trace that remarkable combination of simplicity and poetry. force, which gives to writing its best charms, and to language its truest ornaments. But when we apply all this to the strictly poetic parts of the Bible, we find in them the amplest confirmation of the truth. In the Hebrew Poetry the leading ideas are always clearly and vividly marked out ; all is action and feeling. There is never anything diluted or weakened by superfluous ornament. There is all that is needed for the purposes of deep impression, but no more. There is never any- thing diluted ' " Alles in ihr ruft : ' ich lehe, bewege mich, wirke. Mich erschiiffen Sinne unci Leidenschaften, nicht ahstrakte Denker und Philosophen : ich bin also fur den Dichter, ja ich selbst bin ganz Dichtung." — Herder vom Geist der " Ebraeischen Poesie,' " vol. i. p. 8. 26 ESSAY I. The conception, too, is perfectly expressed at once, by the most energetic and animated term. The proba- This Striving after-action — if I may be allowed so Die cause of " "^ of^ pLraiier- ^'^ speak — which so much distinguishes the Hebrew dpai'featuTe language, has perhaps chiefly operated in determining poetry.^ "^^^ the form of its poetry. I mean in adopting that of parallelism, — which may properly be designated the rhyme of ideas — its principal feature. In this we know how the repetition of action contributes to em- phasis and effect ; and how the correspondence and alternation of ideas, produce at once variety and unity. The importance of parallelism to impressive poetry may be thus illustrated, after Herder : ^ — " When the heart overflows, wave, as it were, succeeds to wave — and such is parallelism ; it never exhausts itself, but has always something new to say. When the first wave, either gently flows away, or breaks proudly against the rock, a second takes its place." They who Nor is it merely to the exhibition of feeling and charge the "^ '-' ^^of\1ie^He- sentiment that parallelism is so well adapted ; it also oWrit^are coutributcs much to precision and perspicuity. They inThe'dark who chargc the sacred poetry of the Hebrews with genius of the pcculiar obscurity, are themselves under a cloud of Hebrew lan- guage, judicial darkness touching the genius of the Hebrew I "So bald sich das Herz ergisst, stromt IVelle aiif Jl^elle, das is Parol- lelismus. Es hat nie ausgeredet, hat immer etwas 7ieues zu sagen. So laid die erste JVelle sank verfliesst, oder sich pr'dchtig bricht am Felsen, kommt die zweite ffelle wieder." — Herder vom Geist der " Ebraeischen Poesie," vol. i. p. 21. ESS^Y 1. 27" language, as well as regards the mode of expression adopted by the inspired Hebrew bards. Indeed, if we but compare the subhme effusions of Hebrew poetry with the most finished specimens of Grecian art — for instance, with the Grecian choral poetry — it will not be hard to determine on which side the advantage lies : the former will be found to exceed the latter as much in genuine simplicity, as they are to be preferred to it in true sublimity. Such, in brief, is the poetry of the Hebrews — the most sublime, the most interesting, the most remarkable. The study of the sacred poetry of the Hebrews is o^tlfe Sacked full of instruction to the humble-minded believer, and ^°eb%ws '''i! full of delight to the Christian Scholar. Connected s"ruct°on To . the humble- as it IS With the earliest history of the Jewish people, minded be- liever, and interwoven with all their business and their pleasures, fu 11 of delight •"■ ' to the Chris- their sins and their sorrows, the poetry of the Bible "^" Scholar, possesses no small charm with men of a later age. Much of the pleasure which we derive from early lays, results from their historical associations. We like to read that poetry which tells of the glories of the past, — that poetry which, we know, has been fondly cherished by a nation, and handed down from father to son. When we peruse the " Tale of Troy divine " we feel delight in it, not merely from its own intrinsic merit, but also from considering it as the poetical inheritance of a great and intellectual people — the cherished trea- sure of a nation. Taking up the effusions of the sacred muse, and viewing them in this light, we can 28 ESSAY I. find nothing so striking in the whole history of our race. At a period when time itself was young, the voice of Hebrew melody was heard. When all the nations around them were in gross darkness, the children of Israel had light, even the light of the true God, shining unto them. Ages and ages before the human muse began to sing, inspired bards were giving utterance to their God-directed lays, and hymning, in strains designed to last till time shall be no more, the Majesty of the Lord of Hosts — now exulting in the commemoration of deliverance, or in the joys of a triumph which His right hand procured them, — now looking far off, in the distant future, and foreshadow- ing in verse divine its great events. This then, my first Essay, is my Apology for bring- ing the subject under the consideration of a// estates of men, in her Majesty's dominions. ESSAY II. THE VESTIGES OF PRIMEVAL HEBREW POETRY, TRACEABLE IN THE BOOK OF GENESIS. I INTIMATED, ill the course of my first Essay, that The Hebrew ' ' "' language, as the Hebrew language, as we possess it at present, is a days'^of yore! mere fragment — in point of glossary or vocabulary — of the sacred tongue, as spoken in the days of yore, in all the plenitude of vigour and vitality. I reiterate it the same : I confidently afiirm, by reason of strong conviction, that ere the tribes of Israel were scattered over the face of the earth ; ere their children were forced to learn strange languages, to the detriment of their own beloved tongue, the Hebrew language was one of the richest and the most widely extended over the face of the then habitable earth ; moreover, that it was unrivalled and matchless for energy, beauty, and grace. Let me fortify this position, before I proceed with my disquisitions on the subject under treatment. It does not immediately concern the subject which M^,tic'"'nar- I have in hand, to establish the remote, the hoary corT' rtcWy antiquity of the original language of the Pentateuch ; with quota- . . . tions. nor does the discussion of th« Eloliistic and JcJwvistic ' ' The general reader may require a few words of explanation of the above two technical terms. The former has been coined by a certain school, with questionably taste, to describe the earliest period of revelation, when the 30 ESSAY II. periods directly affect my theme. But it appertains to my thesis that I prove that the writer of that sacred chronicle, was instructed, one way or another, in the events which took place on this earth prior to his undertaking to record them in his marvellous com- pendium. There is something unspeakably grand in his appeal to the sons of Israel, saying : " Ask now of the earliest days, which were before thee, since the day that God created man upon the earth ; and ask from the one side of heaven unto the other, whether there had been any such thing as this great thing is, or hath been heard like it V'^ The poetic hyperbole does not do away with the implied prosaic matter of fact that there were some means of consulting certain authorities on the subject in question, whether oral or scriptory. Furthermore, no Hebrew scholar can read Almighty was known as Elohim — translated, by us, God. The latter was coined by the same school, and with the same taste, with reference to a later period, when the Great Being was made known as mrp — which Gentiles dare pronounce Jehovah, translated, by us. Lord. The Jews con- sider the original name ineffable, and never pronounce it after the manner of the Gentiles, as I have just, for this once, written it; they substitute for it, either the term Adonai, of which Lord is the literal translation, or the expression, Hashem, The Name. It is evident that our Saviour never, in His ordinary teaching, pronounced the word otherwise than Adonai ; and hence, in every quotation of that name which He made from the Old Testament, it is uniformly translated into Greek by the word Kvptos, Lord. Two references will suffice: Mat. xxii. 44; Lu. iv. iS. I shall therefore endeavour, in all humility, to act on this great authority, and use that sacred name with something of the same reverence which He, who spoke as never man spake, was wont to do when on earth. I shall, in future, use either Adonai, or its English equivalent. Lord. ' Deut. iv. 32. ESSAY II. 31 the first book of Moses without recognising the great difference between the phraseology of the narrator, and that of the various personages, some of whose sayings are briefly quoted. Every candid scholar must at once resolve the narrative into a record richly garnished with quotations. The very fact of the di- versity of style, proves that our author gave the quotations in the language in which they were originally uttered ; for a translation would at once have assimi- lated them to the style of the historian ; and that language is Hebrew, Let me adduce a few fragments of ante-diluvian ^ few frag- *-* merits of poetry, in illustration of the argument heretofore urged. p"et^'"Gen Moses writes, touching the mysterious creation and formation of Adam and Eve; he gives the grateful surprise of the father of the human race, as it was preserved in a couplet very different in structure and diction from Moses' own composition of the kind. Adam is said to have exclaimed : ^ This time it is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh ! This shall be called woman, for this was taken from man ! The moral drawn from it is forthwith given in the historian's own grave and dignified style : — " Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife : and they shall be one flesh." «• 23. ncaD iffin 'Dijyn d'sv Dyon n«T Gen. ii. 23. •.riNTnnp^ c'nd '3 rros Nip' rmTh 32 ESSAY II. Adam's epi- When, in the following chapter, the compiler of the grammatic ' o x / i. ^^^Jl Book of Genesis writes :— Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into the world, and all our woe — he describes the Creator's search for the lost creature, Man. The former is represented as calling the apos- tate to account in one word — A-YECAH ? " Where art thou ?" Adam's reply is again preserved in the form of a couplet : — ^ Thy voice I heard in the garden, and I was afraid. Verily, naked am I, and I have hid myself The Creator's remonstrance with Cain. The transition in style, from the second to the third chapter, is so patent that it is impossible not to admit that the latter is substantially a quotation, in an original language, and not by translation. The same may be said of the fourth chapter ; the change in style from that of the historian to that of his authorities, whoever they might be, is too obvious to be mistaken by even a tyro in the study of the Hebrew language. The Almighty is represented as endeavouring to rouse Adam's eldest son from his murderous cogitations, in the following remonstrance ; NT«1 pi 'TOOttJ "[bp-n« Gen. iii. lo. ' ESSAY II. 33 consisting of a seven-lines-stanza, of wonderful sen- tentiousness and energy : — i Why art thou wroth ? And why art thou pensive ? Is it not so — doest thou good ? exaltation ! But if thou doest not good — [Alas !] Sin croucheth at the door ; Its craving is for thee. But thou shouldst master it. The apparent obscurity proves that the little poem belongs to a class of historical reminiscences far an- terior to the days of Moses, 2 u^hen Hebrew prose and Hebrew poetry began to be written with a minuteness and perspicuity worthy of the best age in the history of any language. I pass over the dialogue between the Almighty and Cain, after the latter branded himself as a fratricide. The interlocution is evidently in the form of verse, and given in the very words in which they were originally uttered. ^ mn nab Gen. iv. 6, 7. \ :-p3Q ibQ: rvdr\ ' In my Essays on the Poetry of the Book of Job, I have endeavoured to point out the affinity, in style and structure, between the above stanza and the poetic compositions relating to the " man in the land of Uz." 4 34 ESSAY II. Gen. iv. 23, jn the same marvellously comprehensive chapter, the epitome of centuries of history, we have another poetic quotation. It is the well-known vindication of the first bigamist on record, before his two wives, respecting a certain homicide which he had committed. The quotation runs thus : — '^ Adah and Zillah, hear my voice ; Ye wives of Lamech, give ear unto my speech. Verily, I have slain a man, because of my wound ; A young man, because of my hurt. Truly, even Cain shall be avenged twice seven-fold, Then Lamech seventy-and-seven-fold. as'he'is^de" ^ ^^^^ ^°^ multiply examples; the few which I have the^^fncie^n't cltcd will scrvc to iUustratc my meaning. Here we have specimens of a language of striking beauty and force, the same which is now known as Hebrew, spoken by the earliest families of mankind, at a very early period of the world's history, before the calamity of the deluge, ere the catastrophe of the confusion of tongues. But what has become of their language and literature at large "> Those antediluvians — who could contrive all manner of musical instruments, and Chinese. •h-fp |ymD n'j!j'i mj? Gen. iv. 23, 24. ' ■•rsDb 'ruin xd'« '3 : ■ lteuT''%e\'- development of poetic feeling, to trace out the pro- L"n^ nlubn-- grcss of pocsy, from its simple and artless beginning, Dante,' to its most pcrfcct and elaborate polish. And it is Chaucer. . , - curious to observe how a poet of superior genius, in an early age, is able to produce a deep and lasting impression on the spirit of his nation, and on the men in after times. Some commanding intellect is found to start up from amongst the surrounding crowd, and to shed abroad a light — a light at which succeeding bards are fain to kindle their torch, and to which they are fain to be beholden. In this way we have seen how Homer moved the mind of Greece ; and we see, too, how Dante broke the slumbers of the muse in Italy ; and though he himself touched the lyre with stern and haughty feelings, he nevertheless called ESSAY in. 71 into being, in after times, the softest and the tenderest efforts of song; the most melodious and exquisite out- pourings of the spirit. Chaucer, too, with his half- formed lay and uncouth muse, speaking, as it were, in the lispings of infancy, still gave a powerful impetus to the minstrel spirit of this nation. He shone forth as a bright and morning star in the literary annals of this country. It is true, that when we are engaged in studyincf the Asfarasthe ' 00 y a structure 01 poetry of the Hebrew Bible, we cannot adopt the [angu^ge"^^!^ 1 • c J 1 • I. A. 1 ■ • concerned same Ime oi procedure which we take m perusmg there is uninspired compositions. The conceptions, which the difterencebe tween later Divine Spirit presented to the minds of the sacred ^nd earlier writers. penmen, are equally perfect in the earliest as well as in the latest times. As far as the structure of the Hebrew language is concerned, we are unable to trace, with any minuteness, its various transitions. The poems of David, of Isaiah, of Jeremiah, or Habakkuk, are not in this way so broadly distinguished from earlier compositions, as we find to be the case in the dates of merely human songs. It is sheer ignorance of this circumstance which J,,^??^''.'"^" "-> Philologists, made some rash Biblical critics hazard certain theories B"ritish"^'dis- respecting the dates and authorship of some portions of the Bible. The German Philologists, and their British disciples, reason on unsafe premises. It is this ignorance which betrayed some of the former, and misled some of the latter, to propound the prepos- terous idea that the Books of Moses, Isaiah, Daniel, ciples. 72 ESSAY in. were penned by various writers who flourished at different periods in the annals of the Jewish Church than those beheved in by scholars, who contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. iJng^u^ge"^^"^ The simple nature of the Hebrew language, admitted the '^purpose but of fcw inuovatious in the lapse of ages. More- of expressing . , . . , _ . -_ deep and over, it provcd — as it was in the nrst instance — sum- holy senti- ments. cicnt for tlic purpose of expressing deep and holy sentiments, it was the less needful to be anxious in the subsequent elaboration of it. The object, then, for comparing together Moses and the Prophets, is to see how his poetry and sentiments furnished materials for these latter — how his poetry and sentiments were expanded by them. conskr'"the The variety and beauty of Hebrew Poetry consist, beluty of'"^ not in the number of subjects of which it treats, for all pott^^ inspired writers had one and the same great subject before them : the glories and perfections of the Holy One. But the variety and beauty, which do exist in an uncommon degree in this poetry, consist in the ever new and inexhaustible riches which it lavishes on its theme. Just as the Holy One Himself is infinite in His goodness and His power, so the lay which tells of Him, under the management of those who wrote Inspired " as thcv wcrc moved by the Holy Ghost," is bound- writers not ■' •' "^ rowing ima- l^ss iu its trcasurcs. fxpretsions" Ouc inspired bard did not disdain to borrow an ^^htT image, or an expression, from another ; but this he so ESSAY in. 73 worked into the spirit of his own immortal song, or so expatiated upon, as to make it a new and fresh attesta- tion of the majesty of the Eternal One. Let me just advert to one of those striking pieces in the Pentateuch, which served as a model for some of the most glowing strains of the Hebrew Poets ; the earliest triumphal song on record^ — -that which was sung by Moses and the children of Israel, after the passage of the Red Sea. Considered as a whole, and viewed in connection with the circumstances which called it forth, it is one of the most wonderful poems in existence, and there is nothing which can properly be compared to it in the whole range of uninspired song. Victories achieved by the nations of the world, «T}^^^°"s '' ' U er found their minstrels to record them. The psean and dari^sel." the hymn spread around the strains of gladness after the toils of the battle ; and the lyre of the bard was listened to with pleasure, after the deeds of strife, when it recorded the glories and the exploits of the warrior. But never yet was heard among ancient lays, one like this of the faithful servant of God ; never yet did harp or lute attune to words like those to which that timbrel once attuned, when it sounded, " O'er Egypt's dark sea;" never was poetry so closely interwoven with history; never was there history which had so much the spirit of poetry itself. We are presented with a turning point in the story The purport of that song. of the chosen people. Brought out of Egypt with "a high hand and stretched-out arm," they now 74 ESSAY III. stood on the shores of that wild sea, where their God had manifested Himself in the most terrific majesty — The Lord of nature, the God of battles, and the Supreme Ruler of the elements. The song of triumph arose, but not over a battle-field dyed with blood — but over a scene far more deeply touching. Just at the place where Adonai Himself fought for Israel, they saw their enemies dead upon the sea-shore; and the wise Lawgiver, the inspired Prophet, and the Bard divine, under the direct inspiration of the Holy One, poured out the strains which were to cheer and to animate every Jewish heart at the time, and which were to descend to posterity along with his own wise laws, and which (taught by fathers to their children, and their children's children, through successive genera- tions), were to remind them of their high privileges, and their high responsibilities. The choice j^g passagc of the Red Sea, and the attendant subject of -i c> ' brew^bard^ circumstanccs, may be considered, so to speak, the cycle which many a Hebrew Bard selected. In that ancient Book of " the wars of God," this sub- ject was not forgotten, for there it was read : — "What He did at the Red Sea!" And the efiect of the Song of Moses itself, was felt in a far- distant age, in raising the drooping spirits of the Israelites. In the days of Nehemiah, the Levites speak in this wise : — " And Thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on dry land, and their pursuers ESS^Y III. 75 Thou threwest into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters." ^ My object, however, in this Essay, is to exhibit this ^The^ f^^^ divine song as the most ancient, and at the same time poit?^/'^'"' as the most perfect model of that species of composi- tion, in which the Hebrews most especially excelled — I mean the I'^li^ SHEER, lyric poetry. In its own nature, lyric poetry is peculiarly adapted for the high- est flights of genius, and for the expression of the sublime. Unlike the stately march of epic song, the The differ- •^ ■■■ ° ence between quick and sudden transition of the ode, the bold per- [jje ode*^ ''"'^ Bonification, the vivid and animated turns of it, take us by surprise. Now, softly and sweetly its music is poured upon the ear — now, loud and high swells the note of triumph and exultation. Here, we are set, as it were, in the very midst of the events described — there, we are hurried away to contemplate distant times and remote results. The characters of the epic and of the ode may be thus distinguished. The former may be compared to a flame fanned by the winds, which at last produce^ a general conflagration ; the latter to a flash of lightning, which strikes and dazzles on a sudden. I have already observed that Grecian poetry sue- The excei- ■' '■ •' len.ce of the ceeded well in correct and natural description, but was Greek ode. deficient in true sublimity ; because it was unable to ascend to the first principles of the really great and dignified. Now, it is, perhaps, in the comparison of the ' See Appendi.x B. 76 ESSAY III. lyric compositions of the polished Greeks with the Hebrew ode, that the advantage on the side of sacred poetry is most conspicuous, and perceptible. It is in this way that any attempt at comparison may be most fairly made. It was in her lyric effusions that the Grecian muse put forth all her strength, and upon them she bestowed her choicest ornaments. In them we find the most brilliant turns of expression, the most artificial contexture of language. Sometimes the theme, too, is high and solemn — the eternal rights of justice — the certainty of retribution to the guilty. Sometimes the description turns upon fair and happy scenes, and the bard with the spirit of a patriot, dwells on his country's glory, and the beauty of his native soil. The super- Nqw, itt thc Hcbrcw odc, there is all that we can excellence oi ' ' the Hebrew j^gj-jy admirc and applaud, in the best productions of the Grecian song. But again, there is to be found much excellence which we seek elsewhere in vain. Variety and elegance are its characteristics. More- over, there is a unity in the subject which makes all the parts harmonise. Amidst all the sudden transi- tions, or the bold personifications, we never lose the connection of the entire. Adonai stands forth as the first and the last. To him all is referred. the'^Mlemh Bishop Lowth has properly divided the Hebrew E!\^(Sius pL- odes into three classes. The first is characterised by emfnen"'"' its swcctncss ; thc second by its sublimity ; and the decree of subUmity third holds a middle rank. The ode in the fifteenth and sweet- ness, chapter of Exodus partakes in an eminent degree of ESSAY 111. Tj sublimity and sweetness. How marked is the con- trast between the fearful power of the Most High, His vengeance upon the enemies of Israel, and his tender and watchful care over Israel's self! High is the strain and animated the description, which records the deeds that have, been done by the Almighty One. The powers of Nature are tremblingly obedient to the God of Nature. The whirlwind hears His mandate, and issues forth on the errand of destruction. The wild sea waves hasten to do His pleasure. A picture of terror and dismay is presented to us. Then suddenly the scene is changed, and after the Thesudden- ^ ^^ ness of " hoarse loud verse," there follows a prophetic glance ^^^f^^^ ^^^ at the future prosperity of the chosen people, in which the calmness and sweetness of expression is beautifully contrasted with the preceding. Thus sings the Prophet-Bard in the seventeenth verse : — ^ Thou shalt bring them, and Thou shalt plant them On the mountain of Thine inheritance, A foundation for Thy abode. Adonai ! Thou hast done it ! Adonai ! The Sanctuary Thy hands have founded. mrr rhsu 78 ESSAY III. Hope and Jt has alwavs appeared to me, that this is the verse faith kept in y rjr ' view. from which we may most clearly discover the inspiration of the ode. Very splendid and very striking is the description of the past scene, but this vision of the future it is which stamps the composition as divine. I know of nothing to equal it, in the whole range of poetry. The contrast is so beautiful and yet so natural. Amidst the outpouring of gratitude and triumph, hope and faith are kept in view. And from the considera- tion of what had been achieved, the poet feels assured that the Holy One would "not suffer His truth to fail." hant ode'" Tliis odc lias bccu aptly described as the " untrans- "ud'ied^in latable oldest triumphal song in the world." i To be leiiouu^''-'^ fully appreciated it must be studied in its own simple and marvellous language, for no translation can ade- quately convey its power. Energetic as the English version generally is, it is yet unable to represent the striking beauty of the original. I would, however, point out a few of the more suggestive ideas, in this remarkable composition, which were adopted and ex- panded by subsequent poets ; and which, in fact, became constituent ideas in all Hebrew composi- tions. The lay of In Hancing at the more remarkable poems of which Deborah fc> £> r t^"hr"song t^'^^s song served as a model, I cannot pass by the S°eTsea. fanious lay of Deborah and Barak, in the fifth chapter of the Book of Judges, There are some ' Unuhersetzlaren altesten Siesesanse der Erde. Herder. ESSAY 111. 79 Striking points of correspondence between the two poems. They are both the productions of prophetic inspiration. They both record signal dehverances. Adonai stands forth, indeed, more remarkably dis- played in Moses' song, yet His workings are clearly acknowledged too, in the later poem. It is in the Mosaic song that we have the first poetic description of Adonai, under the title, by which His praises were afterwards so often celebrated. ^ Adonai is a man of war, Adonai is His name ! It was in the knowledge of this — that he fought for Israel — that the sacred penmen especially gloried ; and from this consideration of Him they derived many of their finest images. In the song of Deborah Adonai is represented as a warrior marching along: — - Adonai ! When Thou wentest out of Seir, When thou marchedst out of the field of Edom The earth trembled, Even the heavens quivered, The clouds also dropped water. n*Dn'?a ■!"« mn' Exod. xv. 3. ' : ^■axo ma' yTS'o -|nx2n r^^rr {■) □n« mco -[ii'>2i ; D'D 12'.:: d^j? cj 8o ESSAY III. whlrfiThe And when David too wishes to describe, in the madrofthe most glowing colours, the majesty of the Captain of Mos^s° our Salvation, he does so by representing the Redeemer as returning victorious to the high abodes of heaven, hke a warrior from a battle field : — ' Lift up your heads, O ye gates, And be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors ; And the King of Glory shall come in. Who is the King of Glory ? Adonai, Strong and Mighty — Adonai, the Mighty One in battle ! A specimen Quc of the most magnificent Oratorios, which we 01 an inspir- o ' ed Oratorio, i^^^tq jn the Book of Psalms, has been composed under the influence of the inspired ideas of this august ode. I mean the Forty-sixth Psalm. On examining this grand hymn of praise it is found to consist of four semi-choruses, two grand choruses, and a solo. Every one of its component parts re- minds us of the glorious triumph song, sung by Moses and the children of Israel after the Red Sea deliverance. I have already analysed and explained, DD'ir^l D'lyia l^ffi Ps. xxiv. 7, S. : rranVo iia: rwrv ESSAY III. 8i in former publications, ^ at some length, the charac- ter and significant import of that sacred oratorio; I shall therefore simply give here the arrangement of its respective parts, so as to make the Spirit, which animates the Red Sea song, perceptible in the hallowed piece divinely performed by the sons of Korah. FIRST RECITATIVE BY SEMI-CHORUS, First Re- citative. God is unto us a Refuge and Strength,'' A help in adversities, He is found very readily. Therefore we will not fear, "When the earth itself is changed, And the mountains moved Into the midst of the sea. SECOND RECITATIVE. Second Re- citative. Let their waters roar and foam,' Let the mountains be tumultuous. ' " Sacred Minstrelsy : a Lecture on Biblical and post-Biblical Hebrew Music." " The Haidad : a Harvest Thanksgiving Sermon." mi2i rr\X3 Ver. 2, 3. : co' r>-x 82 ESSAY HI. He continues in His majesty. Selah ! There is a River whose streams Shall make glad the city of God, The hallowed abodes of the Most High. Third Re- THIRD RECITATIVE. citative. God is in the midst of her ; ' She shall not be moved. God shall help her, At the dawn of the morning. Nations alarmed, Kingdoms tottered, By His voice He has ordained. The earth shall be subdued. First grand THE FIRST GRAND CHORUS. Chorus. Adonai Zebaoth is with us, ' A fortress unto us is the God of Jacob I : n!jD "ini«3i rate inj Ver. 4, 5. ; ]vb-2 •'23ffia ffilp : ipi mjD'j D'lJ "ion Ver. 6, 7. : y-i« Jinn 13)23? ni«n:? nin' (') Ver. S. : nte npr ■'n7« i:'? aaira ESSAY III. 83 FOURTH RECITATIVE. Go to, view the works of Adonai Wlio had made wonders in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of tlie eartli. He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear. As for chariots, He burneth in the fire ! THE SOLO. Understand, and know that I am God, ' I will be exalted over the nations, I will be exalted over [the earth. THE GRAND CHORUS REPEATED. Adonai Zebaoth is with us, ^ A fortress unto us is the God of Jacob ! Selah ! It is impossible, for a mind saturated with the poetry of the Old Testament, not to trace the Psalm which I have just quoted, to the same Divine Spirit, to the same genius, aye, and to the same dictation too, of the Fourth Re- citative. The Solo. Grand cho- rus repeated. The Psalm traceable in genius and diction to the ode of Moses. n':n yijpi 12©' mrp Ver. 9, 10. : ITNI fllffl' nbjj? Ver. II. :y-isa DTi^ nn:! miw The proper signification of the first word in this distich, or solo, proved a perplexing philological problem to me for a long time ; I venture to believe, however, that I have at last solved it. It is one of those vestiges of the lost Hebrew words, the meaning of which we must search in the cognate languages. The signification of this verb I find in the Arabic language — as every proficient in that language must at once recognise — which was once a dialect of the sacred tongue. (See p. 22.) i3Dy mm:? mrr (■') Ver. 12. ; nte ipr 'n7N 137 njco 84 ESSAY III. grand ode which Moses composed and sang at the Red Sea. Every idea in the latter has been incorpo- rated in the former, and the chief theme of both is Adonai as the God of battles. odeantmaTed Nor was tlic august Mosaic ode introduced only pious indi- into Israel's majestic songs of praise, in the liturgical vidualsin the .-,__,,., daysofafflic- scrvicc of the Temple; it also animated the solemn tion, e.g:. Ps. ixxvii. meditations of devout individual Israelites, and cheered them in their private communings with their souls and their God in days of trouble, sorrow, need, or any other adversity. We have a notable instance of its use and application, under such circumstances, in the case of the plaintive musings of the suffering Asaph, as preserved to us in the seventy-seventh Psalm. After indulging a good deal in querulous complaints about a complication of trials and suffer- ings, the afflicted Psalmist • is recalled to a sense of God's protecting care in the midst of apparent extreme dangers, when nothing but helpless despair stares man in the face, as was the case at the Red Sea. Asaph, therefore, at once accommodates the memorable events, and the language used on the occasion of Israel's great deliverance, and applies them to his own circum- stances, and glorifies the great Saviour and Redeemer. He therefore begins at the eleventh verse : — i Let me remember the works of the Lord : Verily, I do remember Thy wonders of old. : i«b2 mpn n"iDi« o ESSAY ill. 8s And having mused on all Thy deeds, Then let me contemplate Thy achievements. O God ! in holiness is Thy way : Who is so great a power as God ? Thou art the Power working wonderfully. Thou hast made known amongst the peoples Thy [strength. Thou hast redeemed Thy people with Thine arm, Even the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah ! The waters saw Thee, O God ! Yea, the waters saw Thee, they were affrighted, Even the very depths trembled. The clouds streamed with waters, The skies gave forth a voice ; Even Thy lightnings walked about.' ■[^^^ tJipa cnbx xba mrj? ^^^^ nrni. ■JOS' ynn nb«j iVn' D'o "pxi ! monn iwt f]j« mi3? CQ TO1T ' Compare Exod. ix. 23. 86 ESSAY in. The voice of Thy thunder was like heap upon heap ; ' The Hghtnings illumined the habitable world. The earth trembled and shuddered. Thy way is through the sea, And Thy path through many waters, But thy footsteps are not recognised. Thou hast led Thy people like a flock, By the hand of Moses and Aaron. M<»es' in- I ouo-ht to noticc licrc that in Asaph's inspired spired sue- •-> ^ ^ pHeT^occu^- allusion to the Almighty's conquests in behalf of do"n^appear Isfacl at thc Red Sea, some particulars are added teuch. which do not occur in the Mosaic narrative, or triumphal ode, touching the ever memorable event. It must be borne in mind that the necessary brevity, which the Father of divine Hebrew Historians, and the requisite conciseness, which the Prince of Sacred Poets observed, induced the chronicler and bard to omit many an incident. Asaph was not the only : ^Zl^: ab ^'mnpi-i 1Q3? ]«23 ri'm ' I believe Wjd, for which there is manuscript authority, is the right reading ; and I hold that the rendering which I proposed above is the correct meaninsr. ESSAY in. 87 inspired successor of Moses who supplied occurrences which are not recorded in the Pentateucli. In my next Essay I shall have occasion to quote the Prophet Micah as another instance. That the supplemental details, furnished by Asaph, were universally known and believed by the Jews, is attested by the record which Josephus has given of the concomitants of Israel's deliverance at the Red Sea. The following is his account of the catastrophe which overtook the Egyptians at the same time : — " As soon as ever the whole Egyptian army was within it, the sea flowed to its own place, and came down with a torrent raised by the storms of wind, and encompassed the Egyptians. Showers of rain also came down from the sky, and dreadful thunders and lightning ; with flashes of fire. Thunder-bolts also were darted upon them ; nor was there anything which used to be sent by God upon men, as indications of his wrath, which did not happen at this time ; for a dark and dismal night oppressed them." I Never did Hebrew song make a bolder flight than jJablk^uk when it contemplated the Almighty as going forth ^^^^ °[ ^^l — " conquering and to conquer." And it is remarkable that although the representation of Adonai in this His warlike character is so perfectly adapted to the comprehension of man, there is always a felt spiritu- ality about it, which places before us the difference Red Sea. ■ " Antiquities of the Jews," Book ii. chap. xvi. sec. 3. 88 ESSAY III. between the works of the Lord of Hosts, and the deeds of the arm of flesh. From this source the Hebrew poets derived many of their most subHme con- ceptions, by varying and enlarging the original simple idea. Let me just adduce, as another example, some portions of that wonderful composition — " The prayer of Habakkuk" — where the resistless might of the Lord of Hosts is the subject. Much of the imagery in it has a reference to the song of Moses; but how copious! how powerful is it ! Thus muses the poet at the eighth and following verses : — ^ Was Adonai displeased against the rivers ? Was Thine anger against the streams ? Was Thy wrath against the sea ? That Thou didst ride upon thy horses, Even Thy chariots of salvation. Thy bow was made quite bare. * * * * * ***** The mountains saw Thee, and they trembled ; mn' mn nnnD^n Hab. iii. S-io. ' □nn ib'n' iint ESSAY III. 89 The overflowing of the waters passed by, The deep uttered his voice, And hfted up his hands on high. In these passages we have a beautiful specimen of the way in which the sacred poets developed this imagery — the brevity of the Mosaic expression is en- larged, in all the pomp and circumstances of sublime description, by the later bard ; and the tenth verse finely expresses the general terror that pervaded nature, at the formidable appearance of its God. While Habakkuk has thus graphically described yJto^T^. the effect produced by God's manifestations, Moses elements 'to 1-1 1 ri'i -i-ii the sovereign has been no less successtui m the manner m which he behest of the Almighty. has set before us the stupendous miracle performed. The instantaneous obedience of wind and water to the sovereign mandate — the immediate succession of the effect to the cause — are described with the most con- summate brevity and force : — '^ By the breath of Thy face, The waters were heaped up. They stood upright like a bottle ; "113? D'Q n-IT 1 H'CJ im' DTI jc!< min Ex. XV. 8. ' 13 1DD 13:?3 go ESSAY III. Running waters became stagnant, Even the noisy waves in the heart of the sea. And the work of destruction upon the proud army of Pharaoh is represented as that of a moment : — ' Thou didst blow with Thy breath, The sea covered them ; They sank hke lead, In the mighty waters. What Lon- f^^d Lon^inus, when he wrote his Essay on the ginus might "-' "^ harhe°been Sublimc, posscsscd an acquaintance with the poetry of Schoiar^"^ the Hcbrcws, he would doubtless have assigned it no mean place in the scale of true excellence and dignity ; he would have coupled his energetic description of the mighty power of God, with that verse in the com- mencement of the Mosaic records which called forth his admiration. The description of the speed, with which the effect follows the cause, is no less striking here than in the words — " God said, let there be light, and there was light." ; n' ih nonn D' 1003 Ver. 10. : D'Tix D'oa ESSAY III. 91 The force of contrast lends much beauty to the com- The force of -' contrast position of the Hebrews ; some of this we have already be'Lttrto'^the seen in this ode. I may just adduce another example ofThTHe" from the ninth verse, where we have the haughtiness of man well contrasted with the supremacy of God : — ^ The enemy said I will pursue, I will overtake — I will divide the spoil ; It shall fill my very soul. I shall make my sword swift. My hand shall impoverish them. And then follows the emphatic description of the havoc wherewith God marred the pride, Thou didst blow with Thy breath, The sea covered them. They sank like lead, In the mighty waters ! There is also perceptible here a fine view of that irony The He- which the Hebrews used with so much effect in their irony with much effect. triumph songs. It is to an imitation of this passage that we should perhaps refer the words which Deborah and Barak put into the mouth of the mother of Sisera ; where the bitterness of disappointment and defeat are ■•tte: iQN'jDn Isaiah a great master of irony. 92 ESSAY III. SO well contrasted with the proud and arrogant antici- pations of success. I may also refer to another very- striking example from the poetry of Isaiah. In the magnificent ode of triumph over the king of Babylon, the mighty dead are represented as thus addressing the fallen one : — ^ Yet thou didst say in thy heart, I will ascend the heavens ; Above the stars of God My throne will I exalt. And I will dwell on a fixed mountain, In utteraiost secrecy. I will ascend above the cloudy heights, I will match the Most High ! But thou shall descend to the grave, To the extremities of the pit ! The Ode in Quc iustauce more, in illustration of the force of Num. .\.\i. contrast which lends such a peculiar charm to Hebrew "jnibi mo^ nn^^i Isa.xiv. 13-15. ' •'«DD ens : ]vbvb nmn :iu 'DDT bn ESSAY III. 93 Poetry. It consists of a little ode which was sung on the occasion of the conquest of Sihon, the Amorite sovereign. The composition of the laconic poem, pre- served in four verses of the twenty-first chapter of Numbers, is very spirited, and the conception truly poetical. In the first three verses the author, a Hebrew, personifying an Amorite, celebrates Sihon's conquest ; how he took Heshbon, enlarged and forti- fied it for himself, and made it the seat of his empire, and the centre of his further expeditions against the Moabites. He triumphs over them, as utterly subdued. In the last verse the would-be Amorite throws off the mask, and as a Hebrew, in one concise triplet com- memorates the conquest of Sihon by the Israelites, as the work of a moment. The ode is remarkable for its sententious brevity of style. Mark well the contrast between the boasted success of the Amorites, and their own subjugation by Israel : — i Come into Heshbon, she shall be built, And the city of Sihon shall be firmly established. For out of Heshbon a fire has gone, A flame from the city of Sihon ; r^lZTi \\y£n 1«1 Num. xxi. 27-30. ' pn'D nnpa r^irb 94 ESSJY III. It had consumed Ar of Moab, The possessors of the heights of Anion. Woe to thee Moab ! Thou art undone, thou people of Chemosh ! He hath given his surviving sons and daughters, Into captivity to the King of the Amorites, even Sihon ! But we have ploughed' them up — Heshbon was destroyed Yea we have laid it waste unto Nophah, [unto Dibon, Even as far as Medeba. The effect which the Ere I close this Essay I must revert once more to Exfdus'pro- the song of the Exodus, and the effect which it had duced upon , .,..- . . -^ .- , the martial upoH tlic martial Spirit oi patriotic J ews in alter days. spirit of pa- triotic Jews J havo HO doubt that it formed the principal war song in after days. •'■■'• ^ of the Israelites during the remainder of their forty years' wandering in the wilderness, and became well known and dreaded amongst those nations, through whose territories the redeemed of Egypt were led to !p3-i« mm 'Vyi 3«1D -p ■'Mi : pn'D noK -p'ob mmri \\yi ly ]iiffin ii« DT31 ' After much careful examination and thought, I came to the decision that the root of the original word is "ii:, and must be construed as above. ESSAY III. 95 their promised land. The burden of the hymn must t'^'=, '^'"'^■" J^ ■' standard. have reached the seer of Pethor ; evidence of which I shall adduce in my next essay. The effect which it produced upon the Hebrew patriots in after ages, we have the circumstantial, but most convincing evi- dence in the story of the conflicts and conquests under the leadership of the family of the venerable priest of Modin,'' Mattathias, who raised their banner of patriot- ism, in order to rid the Holy Land and their sacred city from the pollution of Antiochus Epiphanes.2 The fact — a fact it is, notwithstanding the fictitious explanations — that the motto which the banner dis- played ""asD, Grecocised into MaKKa^al, or Anglicised into Maccabce, the initials of the words T^'h'^l n3?03 "lO nin^, "Who is like unto Thee among the Gods, O Adonai!" taken from the eleventh verse of that famous ode, proves that that Mosaic song was one of the animating martial hymns of the Asmonean patriots. To judge of the effect which the sono- still produces How to -^ ° or- judge of the upon the spirits of the children of Israel, is to visit a ^^"on^'^t'j}} Jewish synagogue or family, the simple faith of whose upon^TI members has not been stultified by sophistry nor children of ^ Israel. ' I am convinced that Modin is mentioned in the g'eographical chart sketched in Deborah's song. pn'W UiS' (ludges v. lo), should never have been translated "ye that sit in judgment,"^ut "ye that dwell by Modin." " I have treated the subject at some length in the first volume of " The Scattered Nation." 96 ESSAY III. sullied by scepticism, on the Saturday when that por- tion of Scripture is read as the appointed lesson. The visitor could not help remarking that the virtue of patriotism still smoulders in the aching hearts and throbbing breasts of the race which God had first elected as His peculiar people.^ ' A celebrated Hebrew poet of the last century — Naphtali Hirtz Weizel, or Wesseley — wrote a Hebrew Epic in eighteen cantos, under the title of msDn 'T"!', " Song's of Glory." He treats of the history of the exodus till the giving of the Law on mount Sinai. His work, as a whole, is a most brilliant production ; but the glory of the Song of Moses is marred by the non-inspired bard's wordy diffuseness. See Appendix C. ESSAY IV . THE ^ti;f2, OR THE HIEROGLYPHIC POETRY OF THE PENTATEUCH. Mashal. Keminiscen- ces of Classic I PURPOSE to direct attention, in this Essay, to a style Jyphi^poe": of Hebrew poetry, the proper understanding of which P'ibie-or is required to an accurate appreciation of a great por- tion of the sacred volume. I mean that department of Hebrew poetry, which goes by the name of "ptm Mashal, translated, in the Authorised Version, PA- RABLE. I can find no better name for it than the Hieroglyphic Poetry of the Hebrew Bible. By way of illustration let me adduce the cultivated wayfarer. The traveller in Classic lands has his ^^^^• thoughts continually arrested by the splendid archi- tectural remains, which attest the genius of by-gone days. Powerfully and eloquently do the temples' crumbling frieze and sculptured column tell the story of the past, of forms instinct with life and grace, while all around is still. They lead us to observe the manner in which the Roman or the Greek expressed the conception of his mind. But if from these fair scenes the wayfarer should, perchance, turn his steps to Eastern climes — to that country which once held such an important place in the history of the world — 98 ESSAY IF. to Egypt, the cradle of learning and oi art ; there, too, will he behold many a memorial of the busy hands of men ; but how widely different from those ary''ofG?eece ^^ ^^^ before surveyed ! The breathing statues of contras^tid Grcece and Italy have but little in common with the Egypt. decorations which, with mysterious significance, dis- tinguish an Egyptian temple. The men who raised the mighty structures of Gizeh, Heliopolis, Thebes, Luxor, Karnak, the Memnonium, Edfou, and Abou Symbal, had but little sympathy with those who laboured on the Acropolis, or the shrines of the Paestum, ^gina, and Bassae. Yet these venerable relics of both the Eastern and the Western world are full of interest to the modern traveller, who investi- gates the workings of the human mind, and the phe- nomena of thought. The character of the men who have passed away is most instructively revealed in the monuments they have left behind. There is a There is a felt and acknowledg;ed connexion between connexion ■-* between the |-]^g g^j.|-g among thcmselvcs, so that much that holds good and true with regard to one is also applicable to Instance the auothcr. An aualocjy may oftcn bc obscrvcd betwecH styles of oy y and^aMn ^^^^ stylcs, for instaucc, of sculpture or of painting, and poetry. ^^^ thosc of poctry. The same spirit which animated the pencil, or the chisel, may be traced also in the effusions of the pen. Let me endeavour to apply this, in some measure, to the subject more immediately under review. I have already taken occasion to con- trast the classic efforts of the heathen muse, with the ESSAY ir. 95 higher and holier breathings of the songs of Sion, and have pointed out some of the leading pecuhari- ties of these latter. The Oriental and western styles of poetry are, how- "^^ ''''"'''=•■■ ■' i. J ■> ence between ever, in some points, so widely different, that it seems wes"enl ^^^ well to look for an explanation of the discrepancy, by """^^^ looking to the principles which regulated the poetic conceptions of each people. Something with regard to this may be learnt from the remains of art, of which I have just spoken. The Greeks have left to us numerous productions of their poetry and their sculpture ; in both we may observe the prevalence of the same spirit. In the language of Grecian poetry, ("'reci.-m there was always that " striving after objectivity," as an eminent writer styles it, which led the bards of Greece to search after precise, emphatic and picturesque words ; clearly and distinctly to express all their mental conceptions. So, too, in the arts of sight ; the artist laboured to represent to the life every sub- ject which employed his genius ; and to this, that observation and worship of external nature, to which I have already alluded in a former Essay — mainly contributed. They sought in everything to give ex- pression to their sentiments without disguise, and to lay open the source and springs of their feelings. But the spirit of the Oriental was opposed to all this ; there was with him too the " striving after objectivity," but he proceeded in a different way. The ancient Rsj-ptian sculpture. Egyptian linked thought to thought, resemblance to lOo ESSAY IF. resemblance ; but he endeavoured to express himself, not in words, but through the medium of things ; not directly, or unreservedly, but generally in a circuitous way, by some far-fetched emblem, or subtle device. Hence that multitude of dark and mysterious figures, the secret of which, thousands of years have kept so well, while the real development of their significance, after all the acuteness of the intellect of the moderns has been expended upon them, seems as yet to be but imperfectly understood. A parallel Now, whcn we investigate the very earliest speci- between the o ^ j. Bibi7andthe n^^ns of poctic composition with which we are ac- fngonhe^'- quainted — the poetry of the Pentateuch — it will be tkns. ^^ useful to bear in mind that a parallel exists between the style of it, and the mysterious Egyptian art of which I have just spoken. The poetic style of the Hebrew prophets and bards has nothing properly re- sembling it in the rest of ancient literature. But there may be traced a resemblance between the sacred sculp- ture, or picture writing of Egypt, and the emblema- tic and allegorical conceptions of the sacred volume. In "the sure word of prophecy," Adonai has raised for Himself a noble temple and memorial to His glory. One which shall stand when the proudest things of earth shall have passed away. It is full of mysterious figures and dark emblems ; but then, un- like the secret wisdom of human device, we have a key whereby we may understand its meaning. Time has even unlocked the explanations of the strange ESSAY ir. loi forms of Egyptian skill, in order to disclose more palpably the import, and confirm the truth of the word divine. It has translated, if I may so express myself, much of the Scripture Hieroglyphic, and ex- hibited its force with such distinctness, that the reader of it can do so with utmost fluency. Bishop Warburton has pointed out at considerable bu|.to°P^yi-he length and with much ingenuity, this peculiarity of fheHebrew the Hebrew style of composition. He notices the position.'^"'" reciprocal influence which hieroglyphics would exercise upon language, and remarks — " The old Asiatic style, so highly figurative, seems likewise, by what we find of its remains in the prophetic language of the Sacred Writers, to have been evidently fashioned to the mode of ancient hieroglyphics. ... In a word, the prophetic style seems to be a SPEAKING HIERO- GLYPHIC." He thence concludes that " These observa- tions will not only assist us in the intelligence of the Old and New Testament, but likewise vindicate their character from the illiterate cavils of modern liber- tines, who have foolishly mistaken that colouring for the peculiar workmanship of the speaker's heated imagination which was the sober, established language of the times — a language which God and His Son condescended to employ, as the properest vehicle of the high mysterious ways of Providence, in the revela- tions of themselves to mankind." ^ I have introduced ' " Divine Legation." Book iv. Sec. 4. 102 ESSAY ir. the subject here merely to set in a clear light the poetic spirit of the marvellous productions of the Hebrew Prophets, and with a more especial reference to one of the most striking in early times — I mean the fourfold vision of Balaam. of"BaiIam"'^ "'- ^ave already considered at some length other proper' chlr- poctic portions of the Pentateuch. I have spoken of theProphedc tlic influeuce which they exercised in forming the conceptions, and directing the choice of imagery, in later times of Jewish literature ; and I have con- trasted these early songs with classic compositions. I will now adduce the visions of Balaam, and the pro- phetic words which were put into the seer's mouth, as exhibiting distinctly and forcibly the proper charac- teristic of the prophetic style. This remarkable por- tion of Scripture is, in some respects, very different from the general tenor of the Pentateuch. — The cir- cumstance is, to my mind, one of the many un- designed arguments in favour of the historical vera- city of the five books of Moses. — Herder seemed so fascinated by the picturesque gracefulness which characterised the predictions of the Aramean seer, that he thought he discerned in them a finer poetic style than in the Divine Songs of the Author of the Pentateuch himself. Even a Herder may make mis- takes, if he inadvertently institutes a comparison afra-^mentof bctwccn different classes of compositions. between"^ Tlic oracular words of Balaam, however, seem to Baiak. " liavc bccn much regarded by succeeding prophets. ESSAY ir. 103 There is a very interesting fragment of his, preserved to us, by the prophet Micah, which we should ahvays connect, in our minds, with the Mosaic narrative. A dialogue is introduced between the king of Moab, and the soothsayer, to the following effect : — ^ My people, remember now What Balak, King of Moab, consulted, And what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, From Shittim as far as Gilgal. That ye may know the righteousness of Adonai. Balak. Wherewith shall I come before Adonai. Wherewith shall I bow myself before the God of [Heaven? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings ? With calves of a year old ? Balaam. Will Adonai be conciliated with thousands of WiUi myriads of rivers of oil ? [rams ? «2 "iDt '02? Mi. vi. 5-S. ' 2«iD -p^ pb2 \T rro iv:2 p Di-bi "inx mj? nm mn' nipH noa U'b'n 'D'^sa mrr ni'Tn 104 ESSAY IF. Balak. Shall I give my first born for my transgression ? The fruit of my body a sin offering for my soul ? Balaam. He hath declared unto thee, O man, what is good, And what doth Adonai require of thee ? Even to execute judgment, And to love mercy. And to walk devoutly with thy God. The differ- J bcHeve that these words have been faithfully re- ence between J Mose's^mid°^ corded by the Prophet ; and we may be sure that testrihe^in- Moscs too lias correctly transmitted to us the purport of the latter, of tlic diviner's prognostications. The more unlike in style the entire composition is to the great lawgiver's own songs, or prophecies, the more gloriously does it attest his own inspired truth. Few passages, indeed, in the history of any people, are so striking and inter- esting as the narrative here related by Moses. The dignified simplicity of the prose beautifully contrasts with the sublime and sententious turn of the poetry in the prediction, and no recital could tend more to in- vigorate and cheer the hearts of Israel than that of the blessings which an enemy was constrained to bestow. Each time that the oracles of God, respecting Israel, were delivered by Balaam, they are prefaced by the 'yvcD niD:: ^nxn : 'CD: nwTon 'i^Di no nra no m« -p tjh ip-o c-m mrr rrai ESSAY ir. 105 entranced seer and reluctant recorder, with the words Wehave in one word — )hli^D NCJ'n — according to the present Enghsh Author- S^n^port- ised Version — "And he took up his parable." That the Hebrew Version but inadequately conveys the force of the original. The word b\y^, Mashal, is one of manifold significance in the treatment of Hebrew Poetry. It is the term which expresses the speciality and functions of the Hebrew muse. It comprehends, in fact, the three different forms of the art of inspired Hebrew poetry — the sententious, the figurative, and the sub- lime. As the word, however, has much latitude of signification, it is both important and interesting to .observe the various transitions it has undergone in dif- ferent portions of the Bible. The earliest passage in which it occurs is Num. xxi. 27. As I have already illustrated in the last Essay, the word '?E^'n, Mashal, is there employed to characterise the style of the triumphal ode upon the destruction of Sihon's king- dom, and it is rendered in the English Authorised Ver- sion by the word Proverb. So far as this English term expresses the sententious brevity and point of the poetic style, the word is not amiss ; but still to the English reader it conveys an idea not at all suited to the real import of the composition. In another very ancient monument of Hebrew Poetry — The Book of Job — we find the term also in use ; for instance, the twenty-seventh chapter begins : hz^O 7\'^^ aVN ?1D''1 " And Job took up his Mashal once more." There the word more especially characterises the condensed, io6 ESSAY IF. terse and vigorous style which is so striking in the language and diction of the author under notice.^ It is also to be borne in mind, that the prophetic or didactic poetry of the Hebrews had always something ■jttjQ some- mysterious in its sublimity. The connexion between times used as •' w-fth^rn'rT ^^^^ mysterious and the dignified in the case of the Mashal is well illustrated in the fourth verse of the forty-ninth Psalm, where it stands, as a synonym with HT-n Cheedah, or enigma. The term In oroccss of time the original ideas contained in 7©Q became ^ •=> mo'dTfiTd'and ^hc word Mashal became qualified and modified ; itsfmp^ort'.'' the short, sententious turn, which belonged to the general poetic diction, and in which its mysterious significance was wrapped up, was applied to give ex- pression to subjects more commonly treated of, and more ordinarily understood ; it was, in fine, transformed into 3, proverb. "We have observed" — I quote once more Bishop Warburton — " how symbols which came from open hieroglyphics, lost their mysterious nature, and recovered again their primitive use in the flourish- ing ages of Greece and Rome. Just so, again, it was with the parable, which coming from the simple apologue, often returned to its first clearness, and be- came 2i proverb, plain and intelligible to all. ' In that day,' says the Prophet Micah, ' shall one take up a parable {^ut^) [Mashal] against you (chap. ii. 4). * Shall not all these,' says Habakkuk, ' take up a ' See Appendix D. ESSAY ir. 107 parable (^l*'d) against him and a taunting proverb ( nn'Ti nv^^QI ) against him, and say,' etc. (ch. ii. 6.) Herder, who has dihgently investigated the first ori- gin and source of poetry among the Hebrews, has well pointed out the comprehensive meaning of the Mashal, and its connexion with all the various kinds of composition. " I doubt," he writes, " whether this origin of poetry can be better expressed than by the Hebrew word hl^'TO. The word means to impress, to stamp, to imprint a figure or likeness ; then to speak in sentences ; then to divide, order, speak as a king or judge ; finally, to rule, govern, to be mighty through the word of one's mouth. Behold, then, the history of the origin and most important feature of the poetic art." I I proceed now to direct attention more immediately gj^s^P/gPa ''' to the prophecies of Balaam, in order to point out how 'fiuTtrl'tbns'' they supply us with illustrations of the different pecu- liarities^oT" liaritics to which I have already alluded. As to the poetry. sententious character of the Mashal — it is impossible to read over the predictions, about to be reviewed, with- out being struck by this conspicuous feature. The parallelisms are regular and exact. Each clause con- sists of brief sentences, minutely and nicely adapted to one another. The spirit of contrast, on which I re- marked as giving so much vigour to poetic expression, is here employed with much propriety and grace. ' " Geist der Hebriiischen Poesie." Vol. ii. loS ESSAY IF. Balaam's Xlius tlic first oracular utterance describes, in a few nrst oracular utterance. niajcstic couplcts, Balak's machinations against the elect people of God, and the Almighty's watchful care over his chosen ones. How sublime in its very sim- plicity is the laconic poem of which the word, which Adonai put into Balaam's mouth, formed the theme : — ' From Aram Balak would lead me. The King of Moab, from die mountains of the east. [saying] Go to, curse me Jacob, And go to, provoke Israel. What ! shall I curse, when God hath not cursed ! Or what ! shall I frown when Adonai hath not frowned. Verily, I see him from the top of the rocks, And from the heights, I espy him. Behold, it is a people that shall dwell alone, And shall not count itself among the nations. Who has counted the dust of Jacob, And the number of the fourth part of Israel ? ' ]hl '2n3' m« p Num. xxiii. 7-10. Dip nnno i«to ~p'o ■?« nnp vb np« no xrwrv DJM N*? □?)« noi JD-l" 111"? 02? p : icnn' sb cijai 2py' IDS? HDO 'D ESSAY IF. 109 Let me die the death of the upright,' And let my posterity be hke his. The intelligent and careful reader of this oracular utterance, on the part of a reluctant heathen seer, cannot help detecting a refined allusion to Israel's national sacred poems. In the couplet Behold, it is a people that shall dwell alone. And shall not count itself among the nations, Balaam summarises verses 13-16, of the Red Sea divine Pa^an. In the last couplet. Let me die the death of the upright, And let my posterity be hke his, the Aramaean diviner had in his mind's eye the death- bed song of benediction, by the last of the three great patriarchs — not in vain is Jacob twice mentioned in the brief Balaamic Mashal. The employment of the figurative style too. which The imagery ■'■ ^ c> J ) Balaam is such an important element in prophetical and poetic p^eXund diction, is singularly conspicuous, and most felicitous throughout the group of the inspired oracles pro- nounced by the far east mountain prophet. Sometimes the imagery is powerful and sublime ; sometimes the □nc mo •"rcD nnn ' The LXX. have, in this instance, given the most accurate rendering of the spirit of the original ; namely, xal yeVoiro to aTTipi>.a fxov loj to anepua TovTiiiv. no ESSAY IF. vivid feelings which the speaker experienced at the present, are clothed in figurative language. Anon, in dark and secret meaning he wraps his vision of the far distant future. ture°of'?he ^^^ ^-^^ prcscntcd by Balaam with two pictures of israe'i!° the people of Israel ; in the one, the subject is their prowess in war, and the might which they have de- rived from Adonai — their glory and triumph over enemies. In the other, we meet with a milder and softer description of the choice blessing and supreme felicity which they enjoy, in the watchful guardianship of their father's God. The propriety of the images, and the differences in style, are worthy of observation. They are exemplified in the poetic renderings by the heathen prophet-bard of the two next WORDS, which Adonai put into his mouth. Let me cite them in the wWcVrriir order in which they come. First the "word which faam'smouth Adonai put iuto Balaam's mouth," and the seer's Pisgah. rendering thereof, on the top of Pisgah : — ^ Rise up, Balak, and hear ; Give ear unto me, Zipper's son. He is not a man-god that He should forsake Nor a son of man that He should re-consider. roiri "phi Dip Num. xxiii. iS-24. ' : iici* 1:2 nr nr-xn ESSAY IF. Hath He said, and shall He not do it ? Hath He spoken, and shall He not ratify it ? Behold, I am taken • to bless, And blessing ' and I shall not turn aside. He hath not looked at the iniquity in Jacob, Neither hath He eyed the wearisomeness in Israel. Adonai his God is with him. And the triumph of a King is in the midst of him. God who brought them out of Egypt, He is like the soaring of heights unto him. Verily, there is no enchantment against Jacob, Neither is there divination against Israel. Now it A\ill be said respecting Jacob, And respecting Israel, What hath God wrought ! nic5' x"?"! "TON Ninn : ni'd'-p'' vb^ ini 'nnp'? -pa n:n Tar rrhn mn' : 13 i'?n nrnm 2pyu cm «b '3 !?«"iic'3 CDp vh^ :b« bi-D rva bwiir'bi ' The original word must be read '"P^Ii^ ' The Prophet intimates, by the repetition of the word "pa, the deter- minate counsel of the Almighty touching Israel. 112 ESSAY IF. Behold, the people shall rise up like a lioness. Yea like a lion shall he raise himself; He shall not lie down till he devoured the prey, And drink the blood of the slain. Distinct ai- j^ this oracular poem we have ae^ain distinct allusions lusions to the J^ o of jaco'ir'and to thc sacrcd poems by Jacob and Moses, and the ^°^^^' patriarch's name is brought once more prominently under notice. Jacob, on his dying bed, had fore- shadowed the might of the tribe of Judah, under the image of a lion. The image became a favourite one among the Easterns, both in their sculpture and their poetry. Here Balaam applies it to the congregated hosts of Israel, as we have seen in the last verse of the oracle just quoted. In the two verses which precede that, we have a refined reference to the deliverance from Egypt, and to its wondrous concomitants, to the Red Sea triumph song, and to the august prophecy contained therein. Who can help comparing the couplet, Now it will be said respecting Jacob, And respecting Israel, What hath God \vrought ! with a verse in the song of Moses, (Exod. xv. 17) which I have already quoted in the last essay : — utterance on mount Peor. ESSAY 1 r. 113 Thou wilt bring them, and wih plant them, In the mountains of Thine inheritance, A foundation for Thy abode. Thou hast wrought, O Adonai ! The Sanctuary, O Adonai, Thy hands have founded. It is, however, in the second picture — sketched on Balaam's the top of Peor, where, we are told, "the Spirit of God came upon Balaam " — that we can most dis- tinctly perceive the beauty and exuberance of the poetic ornament. It is indeed impossible for descrip- tion to supply the place of painting better than it does in the following account : — " And when Balaam saw that it pleased Adonai to bless Israel, he went not as at other times to confront enchantments, but he set his face towards the wilderness. And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel tabernacling ac- cording to their tribes ; and the Spirit of God came upon him. And he took up his Mashal and said : — How good are thy tents, O Jacob,' Thy tabernacles, O Israel ! Like streams are they stretched out, 2pr' "pbnn UC rto Num. xxlv. 5-7. 114 ESSAY IF. Like gardens by the sides of a river, Like aloe trees which Adonai has planted, Like cedar trees by the sides of waters. He shall distil the water out of His bucket, He shall sow him amongst many people, i And He will extol his King above Agag, And His Kingdom shall be exalted aloft. How beautiful and diversified are the images here used ! The inspired one seems for a while diverted from the proper office of a foreteller of things to come, and appears riveted for a moment in contemplation of the present ; he gives utterance, in the most glow- ing terms, to his thoughts. It was, however, but a moment that he gazed on the scenes below. Again he turns his thoughts upwards and onwards. The notion Xlic Oriental seer influenced by the general belief of of the anci- ?^'s the^T^' his countrymen, that when Aquarius — the technical AqTsSuf term, for that sign of the Zodiac, in Hebrew, is >^i Dclcc, Bucket — appeared on the horizon, an abundance 13'ja 33«0 DTI ! in3:n xcsm ' 1 have no doubt in my own mind that D'Di-a, and not □'n3, is the correct reading^. ESSAY ir. 115 of rain came down upon the earth; hence the astro- nomical allusion, i " He shall distil water out of His Aquariusr But onwards the prophet's view stretches. Israel's King of Glory, and His august kingdom, and its boundless limits, engross all his attention, and direct all his after words. The more he looks into coming events, the more exalted is his style, and the more impressive is his language. The last prophecy which Balaam delivered may Balaam's r tr J J last prophe- be referred to as a perfect model of the prophetic modei^oT'the Hebrew style ; and as embracing, in a brief space, Hebrew"^ the leading characteristics of it. In it we observe, in bold relief, the nature of the speaking hieroglyphic. It is, in fact, the symbol translated into words. But the mysterious figure, the dark intimation, the em- phatic earnestness of the speaker, straining, as it w'ere, the very eyes of his soul to look narrowly into the future, and yet withheld by some uncon- trollable power from obtaining the full perception of what he was obliged to declare to others, are all, in the highest degree, striking and magnificent : — 2 I shall see Him, but not now, I shall behold Him, but not speedily. style. ' I have treated the signs of the Zodiac, as they appear in the Old Testament, at some length, in a paper entitled, "What did the ancient Hebrews know of Astronomy?" The Essay appeared in the first volume of " The Scattered Nation." With reference to the sign '"?l Delee, Aquarius, see Appendi.x E. nnj? Hb^ VHMi Num. xxiv. 17. - ii6 ESSJY IF. A Star shall come out of Jacob, And a Sceptre shall arise out of Israel, And shall wound the locks of Moab, ^ And the pate of all the sons of low estate. 2 The em- Xhc emblem of the Sceptre denoted one endowed blems Star ^ and Sceptre, -^yith glory and power. The Star, in the exalted and mystic language of prophecy, had the same signifi- cation, and significance, as in the secret picture- writing of the Egyptians,^ — a God was the subject which the image betokened. Ages rolled away, and David mounted the throne of Israel, and swayed the sceptre of Judah, and then, as "through a glass darkly," a portion of the Midianite's oracle was dis- covered, and was understood to have received its asio \-iKD ynoi ' amo 'DNS cannot be translated here otherwise than the comers of the hair of the head which descend over the cheeks. Such of the Orientals as shaved them were reproached by the nickname HMD '"Si^p, (Jer. ix. 26; XXV. 23 ; xlix. 32), mistranslated in the Authorised version by "that are in the uttermost corner." The Jews, who hold it a religious duty to wear those corner-locks which I have described, call those appendages m!oct. With no common pathos did he set before his people the blessing and the curse — the glorious reward for obedience, the terrible penalties for transgression ; The divine and iu all this the Spirit of God moved him, and the object of the epilogue. wisdom of God instructed him. Adonai well knew the faithless and stubborn generation with whom he had to deal, and He takes especial care to have a means of preserving in their minds the nature of their ESSAY IF. 121 responsibilities when their venerable guide should no more be present to instruct them in person ; and nothing would be more likely to possess a lasting hold upon the affections, or remain more imprinted in the memory, than the parting w^ords of one whom they revered, set forth in an elevated and poetic strain. Fathers, while they recounted to their children the ancient glories of their nation, would not forget to instruct them in the way in which Moses, the " Man of God," spake; and the words of his time-honoured song would be repeated by many a mouth, and listened to with delight by many an ear. This song of Moses is important to the general ^'^ impon- o sr o ance to the student of Hebrew, because, situated as it is in the aem''of He- Bible, it affords him a favourable opportunity of tracing out the distinction between the poetic and prosaic styles of composition. Much of the substance of this ode is to be found in the preceding chapters, expressed in very forcible terms, and with considerable copious- ness. The last ode is a sort of summary of what went before, with every variety of ornament and grace of diction. As far as purity and correctness of language its purity ^ J ^ ° and correct- are concerned, this portion of the Bible belongs to the "^^^ °^ '^"■ best age of Hebrew literature. When we read from the twenty-eighth chapter onward — when we arrive at the thirty-second chapter, it is something like turning from the vigorous and glowing declamation of an Attic orator, to the highly wrought and picturesque eftusions of the Greek lyric Poet. ESSAY IF. It forms a This divInc ode — as Bishop Lowth justly observed- connecting link between and lyric composi- tions. theprophetk fomis a Ivliid of conuLXting link between the prophetic and the strictly lyric compositions of the Hebrews. While we meet in it some of the genuine traits of the ^K'o Mashal, it is also one of the most brilliant specimens of the 'y<^ SHEER, or Sacred Ode. It combines the force, the energy, and the boldness of the one, with the picturesqueness of the other. The dififer- Xlie commcncemcut is in the, more properly so, ence between umsofTacob pi'ophetic Style ; containing a solemn exhortation, Balaam, and g^j^-g^^ |-q j-^g gravity aud importance of the Oracle. Let me digress for a moment, in order to contrast the openings of the poetic effusions of Jacob and Balaam with the exordium of Moses' dying song. How admirably is the language of each of these divine poems adapted to the circumstances. In the calm and dignified exordium of the dying Father of the twelve tribes, we recognise the voice of the Patriarch Shepherd : — Assemble yourselves, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; Yea, hearken unto Israel your father.' Balaam, when about to deliver his prediction, calls the attention of him for whom it was especially designed : — Rise up, Balak, and hear ; Give ear unto me, thou son of Zippor ! ° ' See page 49. ' See page no. ESSAY IF. 123 But now the " man of God," as about to deliver truths, the greatest, most vakiable that the world had ever heard, solemnly invokes all nature to hear and observe his words : — ^ Give ear, O ye Heavens, and I will speak ; And let the earth hear the utterances of my mouth ! The solemnity and propriety of this introduction were p^"''^"'^'"= not lost upon succeeding Poets, who freely adapted ?;^ted'th^' or imitated, as suitable to the language of prophetic speech"' inspiration. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others availed them- selves of that splendid Mosaic poetical apostrophe. The Evangelical Prophet-Bard thus begins his de- nunciatory vaticination : — - Hear, O Heavens, and give ear, O earth. For it is Adonai that hath spoken. I ought to state here that in this single distich Isaiah had accommodated the opening and the closing of the first stanza of the marvellous Mosaic epic. That stanza consists of the first three verses of the thirty- second chapter of Deuteronomy, which ends with the mi-iNi c'Ow-n insn Deut. xxxii. i. : 'D nos psrt rnirm ^"i« 'ri«m wa-o ^t-d-a Isa. i. 2. ' 124 ESSAY ir. all-prevailing argument for attention, on the part of Heaven and Earth, to the summons of man : — i For I invoke in the name of Adonai, Yield the excellency due to our God ! Isaiah the Indeed, it is impossible to read Isaiah without observ- exponent of ' ^ b^ng^"^^'"" '^^S that by far the greatest portion of his sublime prophecies is an exposition or expansion of the Mosaic epic under treatment. If certain would-be Biblical Critics — such as Spinoza, and after him De Wette, Bleek, Kiinen, Ewald, Davidson, Colenso, etc., etc., — had thoroughly entered into the spirit of Isaiah's writings, they would not have committed themselves, in the way they have so fatally done, with regard to the authorship of certain portions of the Pentateuch, and to the number of Isaiahs. This vexed question has been considered, in all its bearings, in a series of Essays on the Poetry of Isaiah, which may ere long be submitted to the criticism of the learned public ; as well as in my Annotated Hebrew Old Testament, Kips ^\^rv d© 'd (') The above I consider the only intelligfible, and the only correct rendering- of this beautiful Hebrew distich. I construe DttJ as if it had been spoken □•>D2. Any one well conversant with his Hebrew Bible will easily adduce to himself instances where the 1 is, like here, elliptical. Moreover, the Samaritan version, as well as some important Hebrew MSS. of the Old Testament, actually have the 3 prefixed to the word DTD. ^T■^biib should have been translated here as it was, and properly so, in Deut. xxix. 29 [Hebrew text, ver. 28], in the case of ^Trhti r^^rrb. The word "belong" in that instance need not have been printed in italics. ESSAY ir. 125 which has been mouldering in MS. nearly a quarter of a century. Let me endeavour to illustrate the connexion be- "^^^ u""" nexion be- tween the great Poets, Moses and Isaiah, as inspired poet'o-'of Author and expounder, by a few examples from their tharof^" Isaiah. respective compositions. After Israel's deliverer enunciated his summons to Heaven and Earth, for attention, he proceeds to describe, in terms of exquisite poetic beauty, the nature and mission of his immortal song : — I My doctrine shall drop like the rain, My saying shall distil as the dew. Like small rain upon verdure, And as showers upon grass. ^T- 1 • • '11 1- • . What the i aken in connection with the preceding verse, it is a Author of "Studies on sublime introduction to an august poem. How infi- Homer and " ■*■ the Homeric nitely more sublime than the opening of the Iliad ! hfvCdo'^e^'^' Had that accomplished and refined Scholar, the Author of " Studies on Homer and the Homeric Acre," Mr. Gladstone, known as much of the beauties of Hebrew Poetry as he does of those of the Greeks and Latins, he might probably have done as much for the compositions of the bards of Judah and Israel as he has TipV ■t::'OD F|ir' Deut. xxxii. 2. \n-\tDH b'z:i bin 126 ESSAY ir. Isaiah's pa- raphrase of the above Mosaic done for those of Greece and Italy : but to return to greater men than Homer, and his brilliant modern interpreter — even to Moses and his interpreter. The stanza which I have just quoted from the Poem under notice, with all its picturesque loveliness, might have caused much perplexity to many as to its exact import. In what manner was the inspired Bard's doctrine to drop like rain, and his saying distil like dew.-* Isaiah, the heaven-taught interpreter of Moses, dissipates the perplexity. The following is the Evangelical paraphrase of the Mosaic stanza : — For as the rain cometh down, And the snow, from heaven ; And thither it will not return, But feedeth the earth, And maketh it bring forth and bud, So that it giveth seed to the sower, And bread to the eater ; So shall my word be that shall go forth out of my mouth : It shall not return unto me void. But it shall do that which I delight in. And shall make him prosper to whom I sent it.' The difference in the styles is at once bold and marked ; the Mosaic verse is concise, curt, epigramatic, and almost enigmatical, notwithstanding its inimitable finish. Isaiah is minute, precise, copious, and almost ' Isa. Iv. 10, II. brew Bards. ESSy^Y IF. 127 elaborate. The reason is obvious ; the later Bard was so charmed with the divine imagery of his great predecessor, that he delighted to give the full value of the same by displaying its comprehensiveness in " instruction in righteousness." One of the peculiar characteristics, which lends such The sudden ^ and bold a charm to the poetic compositions of the ancient pe^JIdkr'cha- Hebrew Bards, is strikingly exemplified in the Sacred andenf'He- Song under review. Sudden and bold transitions, powerful and striking contrasts, are over and over again made manifest. For instance, the stanza which follows the verses I have already noticed, treats of the transcendant attributes of the " Rock of Ages." Whilst the contemplation of the reader is being fastened upon the most high theme, it is suddenly hurried off to the consideration of the degeneracy and backsliding of the people of Israel, whose weakness and faithlessness opposed themselves to the power and truth of their Lord God. This is followed up by a descriptive and detailed record — now chiding now cheering, historical and prophetic — of God's dealing with His people. His guiding providence, His tender care, His never-ceasing bounty. All subsequent Prophets have paid due homage to the wonderful copiousness and beauty of the various similes em- ployed ; none more so than the Evangelical Prophet. Even the most Holy Poet, who came down from Heaven, condescended to adapt some of the Mosaic images used in this matchless song. I2S ESSAY IF. A descrip- I cannot help directing attention to a couple of tion of God's . . solicitude for stanzas, in illustration of that which I have iust the salety ot ' -' His people, gtatcd. The first describes God's solicitude for His people's safety and welfare; the second depicts the degraded condition of the object of the divine solici- tude. Where in the whole range of poetry can be found a stanza to match the following : — i As the eagle waketh up his nest, Fluttereth over his young ones, Spreadeth out his wings, taketh him, Beareth him on his pinion, — So Adonai alone will lead them, And no strange god with Him.° Can anything surpass this for elaborate finish, vivid power of description, or felicity of expression ? There is no language in which the beauty of this simile would not be felt ; but in the original it is extremely * striking — the words are so expressive and so dignified, and the construction of the verse so terse and so concise. IDp T'J?' "IMJDD Deut. xxxii. II, 12. ' r]nT vVn: '72? mnp' vd:d 'SJID' "ijny ni mrp : 1D3 ■?« TO3? ]'«T ° I have translated this stanza, according to the original, in the masculine g-ender. ESSAY jr. 129 How well such a Poet as Isaiah must have appre- isaiah's ap- •■■ '■ preciation of ciated its excellencies ! That he did so, we have fencroT'he evidence in more than one instance. At the end of Ju^^'ceAy^' that pathetic and scientific chapter — the theme of ces°'"^^" which is COMFORTING God's PEOPLE, the Prophet- Bard concludes the stanza which begins : — Why will Jacob say, And [why] will Israel speak, etc. with the following lines : — But they that hope in the Lord shall have a change of [strength, They shall wing their soaring like the eagles ; They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.' The Prophet's subject being God's dealings with Israel, the short poem in the nineteenth chapter of Exodus, the fourth, fifth, and sixth verses, and the stanza in Deut. xxxii. ii, 12, naturally suggested the imagery, which so wondrously depicted Adonai's watchful care over the House of Jacob. There is another evident allusion to the incomparable imagery, though the picturesque simile is not named, in the verse of Isaiah's epitome of the annals of Israel, and ^^aiah'sepi- ■»- ■ tome 01 the his solicitude in behalf of his people, in the form of ^eT'' °^ ^^" Isa. xl. 27-31. 10 130 ESSAY IF. an anthem and a prayer, as given in his sixty-third chapter : — In all their affliction He was afflicted, And the Angel of His presence saved them : In His love and in His pity He redeemed them : And He bare them and carried them all the days of old. ' How this verse reminds us, not only of the splendid imagery under consideration, but also of the Almighty's first appearance to Moses, when Adonai told Jethro's Shepherd of Israel's suffering in Egypt, and added, in words of the most touching sympathy, " for I know their sorrows." 2 Isaiah's di- g^^ ^ grreatcr than Isaiah — even Isaiah's Master, vine Master c> ' t'ofhelteak "ot only as regards divine right, but his Master in piaure-M- ^^^ genius and art of Poetry — the Lord Jesus, had the Mosaic picture-simile in view, when He apostrophised apostate Jerusalem, and her dispersed children, in His last address in the Temple ; as recorded in the twenty- third chapter of the Gospel of St. Matthew : — " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not ! " 3 It was the dispersion of Israel which suggested the substitution of the solicitude of a different bird from that of the eagle. ' Isa. Ixiii. 9. ' Ex. iii. 7. ^ Mat. xxiii. 37. ESSAY IF. 131 In the stanza consistinq- of the twentieth and five ,A"?''"='' o brilliant following verses we have one of the brilliant transitions transition. in this divine Song. The pathetic and fascinating delineations of Adonai's tenderness gives place to His terrible indignation. That part of the composition is evidently a poetic paraphrase of some of the male- dictory threats in the twenty-eighth chapter. Unin- spired compositions have nothing which can compete with the majestic verse in that stanza. I must quote one more stanza from the sacred ^reT'to"^- Poem, which subsequent Prophets, and the Lord and'^grape"^' Jesus Himself, honoured for its descriptive applicability. It consists of the thirty-second and thirty-third verses of the chapter under dissertation : — Verily their vine is of the vine of Sodom, » And from the fields of Gomorrah ; Their grapes are grapes of gall, They have clusters of bitterness. Their ^vine is the poison of dragons, And the cruel venom of asps. No one can read certain passages in the first and fifth pJI'^on'^en-' chapters of Isaiah without having his mind reverted isafah.*"^ c:sj CIS ^r^o o (') irn '2:^- ran:!? : TO? miD n'7DCf< c:" c:':n non : iw« C':ns ct^ii 132 ESSAY IF. to the glorious thirty-second chapter of Deuteronomy. Isaiah endorsed the accuracy of the comparison be- tween Sodom and Gomorrah, and backsHding Israel and treacherous Judah. Thus did the later Prophet apostrophise his own people, in his opening chapter : — Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom ; Give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.' But it is in the opening of his fifth chapter that Isaiah adds his own graceful embellishments to the Mosaic imager}^ : — My well-beloved hath a vineyard On a fruitful hill. And He fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, And He planted it mth the choicest vine, And He built a tower in the midst of it. And He also made a winepress therein ; And He waited that it produce grapes, But it produced wild grapes. .;■ -;;- -» * * What could have been done more to my vineyard. And I have done in it. Wherefore when I have waited that it might produce [grapes. It produced Avild grapes ? ' Nor did the stern Ezekiel fail to make use of the poetic imagery of his great predecessor ; he employs ' Isa. i. 10. ' Isa. v. 1-4. ESSAY ir. 133 the vine figure more than once in his denunciations against his apostate nation, i Our blessed Lord Himself set His seal to the poetic The Saviour ■■■ set His seal metaphor in one of His most poetic parables, so metaphor'"^ replete with thrilling tenderness, and sorrowful stern- ness ! It was delivered on the same day, when He went into the Temple and " cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought ;" after which He pro- nounced the ominous sermon, to which allusion has already been made.^ It was delivered, like the song of the deliverer of Israel from Egypt, a few days before the Redeemer of the world laid down His life, and the following is the parable : — "A certain man planted a vineyard, and let it forth to husbandmen, and went into a far country for a long time. And at the season, He sent a servant to the husbandmen, that they should give Him of the fruit of the vineyard ; but the hus- bandmen beat him, and sent him away empty," etc., etc.3 No one — who is thoroughly conversant with the Old and New Testament — can help observing the additional connecting link between the two which the imagery of the vineyard furnishes, and thus enhances the importance and significance of the dying song of Moses. I must not omit to notice the valedictory bene- Moses' vale- dictory bene- diction of " the man of God," though it was obviously diction. ' Eze. XV. 6-S; xix. 10-14. See page 130. ^ Luke xx. g-16. 134 ESSAY IP. committed to writing by other hands than those of the departing inspired composer of the blessing. Moses had evidently made Jacob's death-bed benediction his model. Both blessings are great national poems, — both were the offspring of the same inspiration — both were delivered on the most solemn occasions. The dying Patriarch foretold the future destiny of the children whom he loved ; the Lawgiver, just on the borders of a land of promise which he himself was not permitted to enter, set forth the estate of those whom he taught so faithfully and led so long. How ad- mirably is the language of each of these divine poems adapted to the circumstances ! In my introductory remarks to the Patriarchal benediction, I pointed out the suitability of its pre- fatory distich. I In the glowing and sublime com- mencement of Moses' blessmg, we have the leader of a mighty people calling to their minds the glories of the past, and impressing them with the sense of their responsibilities for the future. — A splendid burst of poetry it is ! Can anyone be insensible to the Seraphic blaze of poetic fire which illumines that composition ! How august ! how majestic is the Moses' ex- dying chicf s benediction ! With what irresistible ordium. ^ *-* force must a retrospect of Israel's past have presented itself before the assembled multitude, when Moses thus began : — ' See page 49. ESSAY ir. 135 The Lord came from Sinai, And rose up from Seir unto them ; He shone forth from mount Paran, Yea, He came from infinite Hohness, From Him are their springs.' No reader of the original of this glorious stanza can fail perceiving, with Rosenmuller,^ that the coming of Adonai is here compared to the gradual illu- mination of the sun from dawn to meridian. In some of the blessings which Moses pronounced he was somewhat more concise, and in others more elaborate than the Patriarch was. For instance, Judah — the pro- genitor, after the flesh, of Israel's Spiritual Redeemer fa°ught"to"ex- — is dwelt upon, at some length, by Jacob; the pro- don through . . .,,.,,. - the tribe of phetic communication, respecting the high destiny of jtidah. Pharaoh's bondsmen N2 'yDo r^^rr Deut. xxxiii. 2. ' : Ts"? rnc« [1:00] irO''Q It is impossible to construe the fourth and fifth Hnes, so as to make the inspired speaker intelligible, otherwise than I have here proposed. It is impossible to translate UJlp millQ " with ten thousands of saints." The most ingenious philological quibbling will not succeed in producing an acceptable meaning of the fifth line, as we now have it, which should com- mend itself to'B. well-read critical Hebrew Scholar, - "Observa perpetuam metaphoram a sole desumptam, qui initio lucem praemittit, (f<2) postea oritur ipse, (mi) tandem terras illustrat, (l"S"in) et totum coelum percurrit, (nn«). Sic gradatim Deus praesentiam suam in populo declaravit, quacunque iter fecit, inde a termino ^gypti, usque ad fines Cananseos." 136 ESSAY IF. that tribe, was then made for the first time; and the soul of the dying Prophet loved to dilate on the bliss- ful prospect of Shiloh's reign. That prophecy had since become familiar to Jacob's descendants. In bondage though they were, the light of faith was not altogether quenched amongst the oppressed Israelites ; they looked forward to a Deliverer from the tribe of Judah. It is true that their expectations — as those of their descendants long after— may have been wholly centered upon a temporal Deliverer; but expectations of deliverance through the tribe of Judah, Pharaoh's Moses' be- bondsmcn confidently indulged in. Moses therefore, nediction to that tribe in his dying benediction on that tribe, compresses his significant y o ' x ^d sugges- blessing in one laconic stanza, but wonderfully signi- ficant and suggestive : — ^ Hear, Adonai, the voice of Judah, And when to his people Thou shalt bring him, Let his hands be sufificient for him. And be Thou a help from his enemies. But to intimate to "the heads of the people, and the gathered tribes of Israel," that salvation through the tribe of Judah was yet afar off, Moses proceeded at once to bless the tribe of Levi — a tribe, whose temper and disposition Jacob bewailed, — he dwelt at some mm' bip mn' i-o© Deut. xxxiii. 7. : rrnn visd iin ESSAY IF. 137 length, whilst blessing that tribe ; and thus more than hinted that for an appointed time Israel would be under the tuition and rule of a sacerdotal regime. As regards Joseph, Moses seems to have treated billowed'''"^ Jacob's blessing as particularly sacred ; he therefore "p°"J°=^p^- adopted many of the terms of it. Yet by a beautiful allusion he showed how he himself repeated the bless- ing, and made it his own, to the tribe of Joseph, when he spoke of the " good will of Him who dwelt in the bush." Every Israelite would thus call to mind the circumstances of the first appearance of the great I AM to their Lawgiver, and connect the name of Moses as the pronouncer of the benediction with that of Joseph as the blessed. We cannot help observing, whilst scanning this benediction, how skilfully the imagery is varied to suit the circumstances. Jacob's comparison of his son to the " fruitful bough," may convey in it some allusion to Joseph's having been " made fruitful by God in the land of his affliction ; " but in the time of Moses the family of Joseph had become great and strong ; the little ones, Ephraim and Manasseh, had become thousands. Hence in his blessing we meet, with singular propriety, the following simile : — i His beauty is like the firstling of his bullock, And lofty horns, are his horns ; 'b mn 11111? IIDl Deut. xxxiii. 17. ' roip D«T 'Jlpl I3S ESSAY IF. With them shall he gore the nations. Both together, even to the ends of the earth. And they [the both together] are the myriads of Ephraim, And they are the thousands of Manasseh. Mo'les'unpar- TakcH Es a wholc, thls song of Moses has no equal aiieied. .^ ^j^^ wholc range of poetry. After-ages drank deeply from its source, and had its imagery before them. Succeeding Prophets looked up with venera- tion to the ancient servant of Adonai. He had fought a good fight, he had well run his course, and now at the last he left behind him a memorial destined to be had in remembrance, until that time when the Angel shall lift up his hand to heaven, and swear by Him that liveth for ever, that time shall be no more. scSiety kls If l^he life of Moses was replete with the majesty of ih'j^^his life poetry divine, scarcely less so was his death. Before I close this last Essay on the Poetry of the Pentateuch, I must give a sketch of it, as it forms to my mind one of the most interesting links between himself and the greater than Himself — even the Prophet like unto him, which, he predicted, should in fulness of time be raised The moun- ^p to Isracl. The mountain on which " the man of hl'dkd wen'j God" died was named by three different terms, namely, feVntnLes! Pisgah, Ncbo, and Abarim. Travellers who are inter- na:' D'ny cm y-i« 'CCN nn' : mij:a 'e^« am ESSJY IF. 139 ested in identifying the localities mentioned in sacred writ, will find their researches plenteously rewarded if they devote a few days to the examination of a certain mountain in the plains of Moab, over against Jericho. They will perceive that the mountain is peculiarly formed ; it will appear to them to consist of three hillocks perched upon one another. The highest peak answers, according to the topographical delineation " over against Jericho," to Pisgah; the first projecting peak observable on the mount's declivity, towards Jordan, must be Nebo; and the next peak, lower still, must be^Abarim. The formation of the mountain accounts for its triple designation, which I have just enumerated. At the foot of the last, and lowest hillock, stood The con- necting link Bethabara — Ferry house ; probably called so for the ^idTna nilv same reason that the hillock was named Abarim, the til^T^^' place where people were ferried across ; and there John began the baptism of repentance, ' where the Redeemer Himself came to be baptised. So that on the top of Mount Abarim, Moses ceased his ministra- tions ; and at the foot of the same mountain at Bethabara, He, of whom Moses was a type, (whom Moses but a few weeks ere his death described as the Prophet like unto him) began His ministrations; re- specting whom a voice from Heaven, coming as it were from this Pisgah's summit, proclaimed, " This is ■ Jno. i. 2S. 140 ESSAY ir. my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased ! " This circumstance adds a most interesting link to the chain of incidents and coincidences in the Life OF Jesus. Here is a bright link In the beautiful chain of harmony between the old and new dispensations — which so in- dissolubly unites the history of Israel, and their leader of old, with the Church of Christ and the Chief Shepherd of the same ! But what a glorious theme for a Poet ! I am not surprised that a youthful bard, a native of the Holy City, Mr. Arthur Henry Finn, (son of the excellent Mr. Finn who for nearly twenty years was H.B.M. Consul at Jerusalem,) should have obtained the from "Mo^sls Godolphin prize, for a poem on that very theme, MoSES Neb ' ^ ' brew Poetry, gygj-y J^opc that animates us, every promise that glad- dens our hearts, every assurance that sustains our souls, — all we enjoy in this life, and all we anticipate in the next, — stands associated with Hebrew Poets — stands indissolubly connected with HEBREW POETRY. APPENDIX A. In an interesting work entitled " Opuscula Hebrasa, Gra^ca, Latina, Gallica, Prosaica et Metrica," by Anna Maria Schurman, there are three Hebrew letters extant, written, in very good Hebrew, by the said A. M. Schurman. One of them, dated Utrecht, August, 1638, is addressed to the Honourable Lady Dorothea Moor — Dowager of a nobleman — of Dublin, in which the writer distinctly mentions, that Queen Elizabeth and Lady Jane Grey were adepts in a knowledge of the sacred Tongue. B. The whole of Nehemiah ix., the chapter from which the quotation is made, is one of the finest specimens of chaste historical Hebrew diction, and is too evident an adaptation of the style of Moses. This specimen makes abundantly manifest, how profoundly the minds of the learned Hebrews of old were imbued, not only with the Mosaic Spirit, but with the rhetoric of the Mosaic Age, which they endeavoured to imitate and adapt to their own themes. The passage adduced from Nehemiah, as well as the latter part of Exodus xiv., and the first nineteen verses of Exodus XV., form part of the Jevdsh daily prayer now-a-days. The superior pathos of the Hebrew prayers, composed in modern days, to the petitions indited by Christian Divines, is owing to the fact that the Jewish petitions approach nearest the style of the sacred \vriters. A marked difference between such prayers, and the Hebrew doggrels which found their way into the Jewish ritual for Sabbaths, feasts, II 146 APPENDIX. and fasts, during the middle ages. The D"'t3VS, as those doggrels are called, consist of flippant acrostics of the Hebrew Alphabet and certain proper names, distinguished for ingenious jinghng of rhyme, but reason is conspicuous by its absence. c. Those interested in modern Hebrew poetry, let them peruse the thirteenth Canto of Weizel's Shiray Tiphereth, or "Songs of Glory," Whilst they will be charmed with the poet's gifts, and mastery in his art, they will regret his diluting the splendid triumph-song of Moses into about two hundred and fifty Hnes. D. The DvL^?D put into Job's mouth, which consist of chapters xxvii. — xxxi., and Avhich forms the afflicted patriarch's last rejoinder, is the most perfect poem of the Mosaic Age. I have carefully analysed its exquisite diction and structure in one of my Essays on " The Poetry of the Book of Job." *** Por Prospectus and Appendix E., referred to on pp. 9 and 115, apply to the Author, I, Plymouth Terrace, Forest Hill, S. E. DATE DUE r^^mi^miiS^ GAVLORD PRINTED IN U S.A