had his native language permitted him, a translator would but inadequately execute his undertaking, were he to neglect that advantage and to content himself with such a servile adherence to the letter, as, since it does not convey the meaning of the original, is little other than a mere counterfeit of the Hebrew diction.

The only word left to be examined is on, in the rendering of which, the desolated, agree with Dr. Blaney and most others against Mr. Faber, who renders it actively, the desolator. Taken by itself the participle will admit of either rendering; but if the prophet had intended to express the very same idea, as he had done by the former participle, own, one should expect, that he would have done it by repeating the same word or by employing a synonime from a different root; for by the use of a conjugate it seems reasonable to infer, that he meant to express the same radical idea indeed, but with some difference in the manner of signification. This has been remarked above; and therefore I need only repeat, that as we have before had the two conjugates, o and on the desolation and the desolator, so now we have a third, o, the desolated, that is, the nation, the people desolated. In this sense the word may be found in the following places and probably in others also; Isaiah,

xlix. 8, po mn, the desolate heritages; liv. 1, pp, the children of the desolate Lamentations, i. 4, po my, her gates are desolate; i. 13, ppi ɔn), he hath made me

בני שוממים

desolate; i. 16, 2, my children are desolate; and iii. 11, ow, he hath made me desolate.

CHAPTER III.

Containing certain preliminary positions intended to fix and regulate the interpretation in the succeeding chapter.

IN his fifth chapter Mr. Faber endeavours to establish twelve positions, which he represents as abstract, that is, according to his reference to the learned Joseph Mede's synchronisms in his Clavis Apocalyptica, drawn from a comparison of the several parts of the prophecy between themselves, and intended to regulate in general the following interpretation of it and to be the test, to which every particular exposition may be referred. I think it will appear to the attentive reader, that some of those positions do not sufficiently answer to the character of abstract, and even that several of them are liable to strong and fatal objections. Yet duly appreciating the use of such preliminaries, I shall venture to follow Mr. Faber's example in laying down FIFTEEN positions intended to ascertain the nature, purpose,

and mutual relation of the several periods of weeks proposed and determined in the prophecy, to fix in a general way the signification of some principal points, and to serve in a great measure for a basis, on which the succeeding interpretation is to be erected, and for a standard, to which it may be referred. I have also contemplated in the following positions the advantage of preventing or shortening several long digressions and discussions, of which still too many unavoidably remain, in the body of the interpretation. To this motive some of them entirely owe the place they hold, particularly the last two, which, as it should seem, would have been with greater propriety brought forward in the second chapter. But the great length of the fifteenth having induced me to set it by itself, the close connexion of the fourteenth therewith naturally carried that also to the same part of the work. The great majority of my positions are, as may be expected from what I have already said, different from those of Mr. Faber, and some even in opposition to his, while others agree or are at least reconcilable with them. Here too it must be confessed, that several of those which follow, have no pretence to be considered as strictly abstract, or drawn from a mere comparison of the different parts of the prophecy one with another. The whole prediction seems to

me not sufficiently extensive in itself or various in its parts, to enable an expositor to follow Mede at any length or with much success in his synchronisms. I have therefore referred without scruple, but still not largely, to other passages of holy writ. The main point, which I have kept in view, is to avoid the assuming of any interpretation, and as far as possible, (though it has not always been possible even in the two preceding chapters,) the anticipation of any thing that properly belongs to the following chapter.

But before I proceed, I must intreat the reader to reperuse the prophecy in the translation before given, which is repeated below, and to which is prefixed, as forming the introductory part of it, though not needing a new version or particular illustration, the preceding verses of the chapter, as they stand in our authorized English bibles.

CHAP. IX.

1. In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which

was made king over the realm of the Chalde2. ans; In the first year of his reign, I Daniel understood by books (or, by computations) the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet,