ed

passage of Jephthah's vow, Judges xi. 31. nbw wnbym, for 15 »byn y, I will offer him a burnt offering, for I will offer unto him (that is, unto JEHOVAH) a burnt offering; by an ellipsis of the preposition, of which Buxtorf gives many other examples, Thes. Grammat. lib. ii. 17. See also Note on chap. lxv. 5. A late happy application of this grammatical remark to that much disputed passage has perfectly cleared up a difficulty, which for two thousand years had puzzled all the translators and expositors, had given occasion to dissertations without number, and caused endless disputes among the learned, on the question, whether Jephthah sacrificed his daughter, or not: in which both parties have been equally ignorant of the meaning of the place, of the state of the fact, and of the very terms of the vow: which now at last has been cleared up beyond all doubt by my very learned friend Dr. Randolph, Margaret professor of Divinity in the University of Oxford, in his sermon on Jephthah's vow: Oxford, 1766.

19. —as he, to whom I have sent my messengers.] mbwx axbpɔ, "ut ad quem nuncios meos misi.” Vulg. Chald. almost the only interpreters who render it rightly, in consistence with the rest of the sentence, and in perfect agreement with the Hebrew idiom; according to which the ellipsis

כלאשר מלאכי אשלח is to be thus supplied

Ibid. —as he that is perfectly instructed] See Note on chap. xliv. 2.

Ibid. And deaf as the servant of JEHOVAH] For w, and blind, we must read wim, and deaf: napos, Symmachus; and so MS. The mistake is palpable, and the correction self-evident; and admissible, though there had been no authority for it.

:

20. Thou hast seen indeed] The text has л, which the Masoretes in the marginal Keri have corrected to a 18 as indeed a hundred and seven MSS. and five editions, now have it in the text. This was probably the reading of most of the MSS. in their time; which, though they approved of it, out of some superstition they would not admit into their standard text. But these wretched critics, though they perceived there was some fault, yet did not know where the fault lay, nor consequently how to amend it; and yet it was open enough to a judicious eye": na, sic Veteres ; & tamen forte legendum, л: vide Cap. vi. 9." SECKER. That is, . I believe no one will doubt of admitting

66

this as the true reading.

Ibid. —yet thou will not hear] For ynw, read ynwn, in the second person: so all the ancient versions, and forty MSS. (tour of them ancient :) and perhaps five more. Two others have own, second person, plural.

21. his own praise] For mn, the LXX. read 17.

92, are taken in the toils] For non, read man, in the plural num

ber, Hophal; as wann, which answers to it in the following member of the sentence: Le Clerc, Houbigant. ME, SECKER.

24. —they have sinned] For Non, first person, LXX. and Chald. read 180, in the third person.

25. -the heat of his wrath] For , the Bodley MS. has nan, in regimine; more regularly.

CHAP. XLIII.

1. I have called thee by thy name] "Sic versiones. Videtur ex versu 7mo & re ipsa legendum pwa T, [vocavi te meo nomine ;] nam sæpe usurpatur hæc phrasis, nunquam altera. Nam xlv. 24, de Cyro alia res est. Sed dum Deus Jacobum Israelem vocat, Dei nomine. vocat. Vide EXOD. xxxi. 2." SECKER.

3. I have given Egypt for thy ransom] This is commonly supposed to refer to the time of Senacherib's invasion; who, when he was just ready to fall upon Jerusalem, soon after his entering Judea, was providentially diverted from that design, and turned his arms against the Egyptians, and their allies the Cushean Arabians, with their neighbours the Sabeans probably joined with them, under Tirhakah. See Chap. xx and xxxvii. 9. Or, as there are some reasonable objections to his opinion, perhaps it may mean more generally, that God had often saved his people at the expence of oth er nations, whom he had, as it were in their stead, given up to destruction. Vitringa explains this of Shalmaneser's design upon the kingdom of Judea, after he had destroyed that of Samaria, from which he was diverted, by carrying the war against the Egyptians, Cusheans, and Sabeans: but of this, I think, he has no clear proof in history. It is not to be wondered, that many things of this kind should remain very obscure for want of the light of history, which in regard to these times is extremely deficient.

"Did not Cyrus overcome these nations? and might they not be given him for releasing the Jews? It seems to have been so from chap. xlv. 14." SECKER.

7. Whom for my glory-] Ten MSS. (three ancient) Syr. and Vulg. read 71, without the conjunction.

8. Bring forth the people blind-] I understand this of the Gentiles, as the verse following, not of the Jews. Their natural faculties, if they had made a proper use of them, must have led them to the knowledge of the being and attributes of the one true God: " for his eternal power and godhead, if well attended to, are clearly seen in his works;" Rom. i. 20, and would have preserved them from running into the folly and absurdity of worshipping idols. They are here challenged to produce the evidence of the power and foreknowledge of their idol-gods; and the Jews are just afterward, verse 10, appealed to as witnesses for God in this cause; there

1

fore these latter cannot here be meant by the people blind with eyes, and deaf with ears.

9. Who among them-] Seven MSS. (three ancient) and the first edition, 1486, with Syr. and Vulg. read, who among you. The present reading is preferable.

14. -the Chaldeans exulting in their ships] Babylon was very advantageously situated, both in respect to commerce, and as a naval power. It was open to the Persian gulph by the Euphrates, which was navigable by large vessels; and being joined to the Tigris above Babylon by the canal called Naharmalca, or the Royal river, supplied the city with the produce of the whole country to the north of it, as far as the Euxine and Caspian seas. Herod. i 194. Semiramis was the foundress of this part also of the Babylonian greatness; she improved the navigation of the Euphrates; Herod. i. 184, Strabo, lib. xvi. and is said to have had a fleet of three thousand gallies. Huet, Hist. du Commerce, chap. xi. We are not to wonder, that in later times we hear little of the commerce and naval power of Babylon : for, after the taking of the city by Cyrus, the Euphrates was not only rendered less fit for navigation, by being on that occasion diverted from its course, and left to spread over the whole country; but the Persian monarchs, residing in their own country, to prevent any invasion by sea on that part of their empire, purposely obstructed the navigation of both the rivers, by making cataracts in them; Strabo ibid. that is, by raising dams across the channel, and making artificial falls in them; that no vessel of any size or force could possibly come up. Alexander began to restore the navigation of the rivers by demolishing the cataracts upon the Tigris as far up as Seleucia; Arrian. lib. vii. but he did not live to finish his great designs : those upon the Euphrates still continued. Ammianus xxiv. 1, mentions them as subsisting in his time.

The prophet therefore might very justly speak of the Chaldeans, as glorying in their naval power in his time; though afterward they had no foundation for making any such boast.

15. The Creator of Israel] For 11, Creator, six MSS. (two ancient,) have, God.

20. The wild beast of the field shall glorify me— -] The image is elegant and highly poetical. God will give such an abundant miraculous supply of water to his people traversing the dry desert, in their return to their country, that even the wild beasts, the serpents, the ostriches, and other animals, that haunt those adust regions, shall be sensible of the blessing; and shall break forth into thanksgiving and praises to him for the unusual refreshment, which they receive from his so plentifully watering the sandy wastes of Arabia Deserta, for the benefit of his people passing through them.

22-24. But thou hast not invoked-] The connection is: But thou,

Israel, whom I have chosen, whom I have formed for myself, to be' my witness against the false gods of the nations; even thou hast revolted from me, hast neglected my worship, and hast been perpetually running after strange gods. The emphasis of this and the following parts of the sentence, on which the sense depends, seems to lie on the words me, on my account, &c. The Jews were diligent in performing the external services of religion; in offering prayers, incense, sacrifices, oblations; but their prayers were not offered with faith; and their oblations were made more frequently to their idols, than to the God of their fathers. The Hebrew idiom excludes with a general negative, in a comparative sense, one or two objects opposed to one another: thus, "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." HOSEA, vi. 6. "For I spake not to your fathers, nor commanded them,-concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices: but this thing I commanded them, saying, Obey my voice." JER. vii. 22, 23. And the meaning of this place of Isaiah seems to be much the same with that of Amos; who however has explained at large both parts of the comparison, and specified the false service opposed to the true:

"Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings,

In the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?

Nay, but ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch,

And Chiun, your images;

The star of your God, which you made to yourselves." Amos. v. 25, 26.

22. Neither hast thou laboured-] For ny, LXX. and Vulg. read ny; Houbigant. The negative is repeated, or referred to, by the conjunction; as in many others places. See Note on chap. xxiii. 4.

28. And thy princes have profaned-] Instead of "w bb7181, read 155ƒ” T. So Syr. and LXX. xai suvar di agxovles ta dyia μov, w¶p. Houbigant. Oi apxories σou, MSS. Pachom. and 1 D. ii. and Marchal.

Ibid.

to reproach.], in the singular number: so an ancient MS, and LXX. Syr. Vulg.

CHAP. XLIV.

2. Jeshurun means Israel. THIS name was given to that people by Moses, DEUT. xxxii. 15, xxxiii. 5 and 26. The most probable account of it seems to be that in which the Jewish commentators agree; namely, that it is derived from , and signifies upright. In the same manner, Israel, as a people, is called obwn, perfect, chap. xlii. 19. They were taught of God, and abundantly furnished with the means of rectitude and perfection in his service and worship.

4. as the grass among the waters] yn ra, “They shall spring up in the midst of, or rather, in among, the grass." This cannot be right: ten MSS. and two editions, have 25, or 12. Twenty-four MSS. read it without the, 13; and so reads the Chaldee; the Syriac pan. The true read

ing is in all probability ; and the word on, which should have follow ed it, is lost out of the text: but it is happily supplied by the LXX. : s ανα μέσον ύδατος. "In every place where there is water, there is always grass for water makes every thing grow in the East." Sir John Chardin's Note on 1 KINGS Xviii. 5. Harmer's Observ. i. p. 54.

5. —shall be called] Passive, xp, xanonserai, Symmachus.

ליהוה אני fore

Ibid. And this shall inscribe his hand to JEHOVAH] Ka regos exiygafer χειρι (χειρα, Aq. Sym.) αυτου, του Θεού ειμι : "And another shall write upon his hand, I belong to God." LXX. They seem to have read here, as beBut the repetition of the same phrase without any variation is not elegant. However, they seem to have understood it rightly, as an allusion to the marks, which were made by punctures rendered indelible by fire, or by staining, upon the hand or some other part of the body, signifying the state or character of the person, and to whom he belonged: the slave was marked with the name of his master; the soldier, of his commander; the idolater, with the name or ensign of his god: siyμara επιγραφόμενα, δια των ςρατευομένων εν ταις χερσιν. Aetius apud Turnebum Advers. XXIV. 12. "Victuris in cute punctis milites scripti & matriculis inserti jurare solent." Vegetius, ii. 5. And the Christians seem to have imitated this practice, by what Procopius says on this place of Isaiah: ro de THE ΧΕΙΡΙ, δια το σιζειν ίσως πολλους επι καρπών, η βραχιονών, η του σαυρου το σημείον, η την Χριςου προσηγορίαν. "Because many marked their wrists, or their arms, with the sign of the cross, or with the name of Christ." See REV. XX. 4. Spencer, De Leg. Hebr. lib. ii. cap. 20.

7. let them declare unto us.] For ab, unto them, the Chaldee reads ♫, unto us. The LXX. reads 05, unto you;, which is preferable to the reading of the text. But n and are frequently mistaken one for the other: see chap. x. 29, PSALMs lxxx. 7, lxiv. 6.

8. Fear ye not-] " SECKER. Two MSS. read

nusquam occurrit: forte 18, timete." .

9, 10. That every one may be ashamed, that he hath formed a god] The Bodleian MS. one of the first extant for its antiquity and authority, instead of at the beginning of the 10th verse has, which greatly clears up the construction of a very obscure passage. The LXX. likewise closely connect in construction the end of verse 9, with the beginning of verse 10, and wholly omit the interrogative, which embarrasses the sentence: αισχυνθήσονται οι πλάσσοντες Θεόν, και γλύφοντες παντες ανωφελη : agreeably to the reading of the MS. above-mentioned.

11. Even the workmen themselves shall blush] I do not know, that any one has ever yet interpreted these words to any tolerably good sense: BIND MAN D'WIN. The Vulgate, and our translators, have rendered them