or hardihood; as Judah had been compared to a lion, to denote the courage and resolution of that tribe. It is a particularly apt and expressive comparison, and this singular felicity of illustration is remarkable throughout the Hebrew writings. The figures employed by the sacred authors, though frequently selected from among the commonest objects in nature, are never mean and feeble, but, on the contrary, always elevated and forcible in the

extreme.

The peculiar habits of the ass are familiar to all; the drift, therefore, of the comparison can be mistaken by none. The qualities of this animal are patience, gentleness, great capability of endurance, laborious exertion, and a meek submission to authority. As Judah, the forefather of a fierce and warlike community, had been previously compared to the most courageous and ferocious of quadrupeds, so Issachar, the progenitor of a race singularly docile and distinguished for their patient industry, is exhibited under the similitude of the meekest and most laborious. The industrious and pacific character of this latter tribe, together with their robust strength and rustic hardihood, could not have been better represented than under the figure of a strong enduring ass

Couching down between two burdens;

that is, to an animal, so patient under its load, that it will even lie down with it upon its back. This is a skilful, and at the same time an eloquent, heightening of the comparison, which is

no less original than just, most expressively characterizing, in five emphatic words, the submissive and indolent temper of this portion of Jacob's posterity.

And he saw that rest was good

that peace was preferable to war

And the land that it was pleasant.

Of the country inhabited by Issachar's posterity, Josephus says, in his Jewish war,*"it is fruitful to admiration, abounding in pastures and nurseries of all kinds, so that it would make any man in love with husbandry."

It was natural that Issachar, seeing himself in possession of such a productive territory, should prefer the repose of peace to the turbulence of war; the reason, therefore, of this preference, is left to be inferred from the latter line of the couplet. This mode of suggesting an inference is exceedingly happy. The impression made upon the mind, though less direct, is more positive. The suggestion working, as it were, through our own reflections and gradually opening upon the thoughts, until the idea obtains its full development and the whole inference is evolved, receives a charm from this gradual intellectual process of perception, which would be probably missed were the fact more explicitly stated and all stimulus to mental activity withdrawn. It is this pleasing exercise of the intel

Book 3, chap. 3.

lect which constitutes one of the most agreeable excitements of poetry.

Simple as the second couplet of this benediction is, it is a masterly specimen of condensation. In two short hemistichs as much is expressed, by inference as well as by words, as would be contained in a dozen lines of ordinary writing, and the mode of expression is far more satisfactory, besides the impression conveyed being more profound. The concluding distich further confirms the patient and submissive character of the descendants of Issachar. They became industrious husbandmen, and submitted to a heavy taxation rather than allow their peace to be disturbed. They were politic rather than cowardly, though not deficient in courage, as is evident from Deborah's song, in which they are extolled for the ready assistance offered by them on that critical occasion:-" The princes of Issachar were with Deborah."* They were evidently, therefore, not recreants, but a race of hardy, prudent agriculturists. Herder gives the following version of this prophecy :

It may be fairly asked, what is there in the second line of the first couplet characteristic of a beast of burthen? There is no just sequence

* Judges v. 15.

in the sense. The idea of a beast of burthen lying down" between two hills," is a simple one carried into the complex, without receiving the slightest augmentation of force. The animal might have been much more naturally represented as lying down between two hay-stacks, than between two hills, the former representation being much more pertinent to the description. No definite image is conveyed to the mind in the second hemistich, or rather I should say that the object represented by the image is not at all obvious, since it is a comparison without any apparent similitude. Neither is there sufficient grandeur to atone for the obscurity. The translation offered of these two lines by the writer in the Critica Biblica, is much more consistent; adopting the reading of the Septuagint, he renders them

Issachar, desiring good things,
Reposed between the borders.

The last word is likewise translated borders by the Vulgate. In this version, as is sufficiently clear, the highly expressive poetry of the original is converted into very ordinary prose; intelligible and consistent, indeed, but that is all-every spark of poetry is quenched.

The proper signification of the word meshpetim," says Dodd,* "here rendered burthens, is the divisions in a stall or stable, that is, the bars or boards which divide it into distinct standings. The two bars or rails, according to

See his Note on the passage.

Taylor, denote the labours of husbandry, and the extraordinary taxes they would submit to, to be exempted from the avocations and perils of war. Others suppose that this refers to the boundaries or limits of the other tribes; Issachar's being an inland settlement, therefore more suited to agriculture. Our translation, between two burdens,' agrees well with the context, and fitly marks the tame and indolent temper of this tribe."

The concluding distich, as rendered by Herder, is quite a new reading:

He stoopeth his shoulder to bear,

And serveth the vessels of water;

which he justifies with much plausibility in the following note. "The language here by no means relates to tribute, for how would that be consistent with the image of a beast of burden, the comparison with which is obviously continued in the representation of bearing upon the shoulder. The word in the original meant, undoubtedly, a bottle or leathern bag, and the notion of tribute came to be denoted from their bringing tribute in bags or sacks. Issachar came to dwell by the Kadumim, small streams and torrents, which were swollen in time of rain; and here, according to his patient nature, he was to divide the water to his brethren, the roving herdsmen, and obtain from it his own advantage. That in this region there were assemblages of herdsmen, for the distribution of water, we see from the song of Deborah."

Here the servitude of Issachar is more defi