consummation. This mode of description renders the past, so to speak, virtually present, and gives it all the effect of a new and immediate reality. I confess, therefore, that I prefer this reading to that in our common translation. It has this advantage too, that it not only brings the past back to the present, but actually carries it into the future, which, as this part of the poem, from the twelfth to the nineteenth verse, seems to have been a prediction of God's designed dispensations towards those whom he had so miraculously redeemed, I should say was intended by the inspired bard. The land of Canaan, to which the Israelites on their deliverance from Egyptian tyranny journeyed, was supposed by the Jews to be particularly holy, inasmuch as it furnished holy offerings for the temple; but not all parts of it indiscriminately. They supposed also, that neither the Shechinah, nor the sacred spirit, dwelt on any person, even a prophet, out of this land. The boundaries of this country are, the Mediterranean sea on the west; Lebanon and Syria on the north; Arabia Deserta and the land of the Ammonites, Moabites, and Midianites, on the east; the river of Egypt, or of the Wilderness, the Desert of Zin, the southern shore of the Dead Sea, and the river of Arnon, on the south; and Egypt on the south-west. Near Mount Lebanon stood the city of Dan, and near the southern extremity of the land Beersheba; hence the expression "from Dan to Beersheba," to denote the entire length of the land of Canaan. Its extreme length was about a hundred and seventy miles, and its width about eighty. By the Abrahamic covenant, recorded in Genesis xv. 8, the original grant of land to the Israelites, was "from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates." The boundaries of it are more accurately described by Moses in Numbers xxxiv. 1—16.* • See Calmet's Dictionary, art. Canaan. CHAPTER XXII. The Thanksgiving Ode continued, from verse 14 to the end. THE whole of what follows the thirteenth verse in the thanksgiving ode of Moses, was evidently composed under the influence of the spirit of prophecy, as it refers to events which had their accomplishment in subsequent generations, precisely as here stated. These events, indeed, are only referred to in general terms; they are nevertheless sufficiently distinct to show that the facts which afterwards came to pass were at this moment in the poet's mind, who saw with prophetic accuracy the future condition of Canaan. The people shall hear and be afraid : Sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina. The mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; I fully agree with Dr. Dodd, who says that "the sublimity of this passage would appear much more striking, if it were rendered agreeably to the Hebrew: The people hear; they tremble; Sorrow takes hold on the inhabitants of Palestina; Strait the dukes of Edom are amazed; The mighty men of Moab, trembling takes hold upon them: 66 All the inhabitants of Canaan melt away. Terror falls on them, and fear from the greatness of thine arm. Till thy people pass over, O Lord Till thy people pass over which thou hast purchased. Every reader of taste must discern the sublimity and energy which is given to this passage by reading the verbs throughout in the present tense."* What I have already said in the foregoing chapter will equally apply here. The reading suggested by Houbigant, and approved by Dr. Dodd, exhibits undoubtedly much more energy than that given in our authorized version. Kennicott reads part in the present and part in the future tense. The people shall hear and be afraid. This prediction we find afterwards confirmed in the reign of Joshua:-" And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites which were on this side Jordan, and all the kings of the Canaanites which were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted; neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel."+ Sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina. The Philistines, to whom allusion is here made, were a brave and warlike people, and frequently engaged in sanguinary encounters with the Israelites. Joshua took possession of their land; after him Shamgar, Sampson, and Saul, severally defeated them. They, however, maintained their independence until finally subdued by David.* Although the Philistines inhabited a part only of Canaan, it subsequently took its name of Palestine from that people. "The Philistines," says Calmet, "were a powerful people in Palestine even in Abraham's time, since they had then kings and considerable cities. They are not enumerated among the nations devoted to extermination, whose territory the Lord assigned to the Hebrews. They were not of the cursed seed of Canaan. However, Joshua did not forbear to give their land to the Hebrews, and to attack them by command from the Lord, because they possessed various districts promised to Israel. But these conquests of Joshua must have been ill-maintained, since under the judges, under Saul, and at the beginning of the reign of King David, the Philistines had their kings and their lords, which they called Sazenim ; since their state was divided into five little kingdoms or satrapies, and since they oppressed Israel during the government of the High Priest Eli, that of Samuel, and during the reign of Saul, for about one hundred and twenty years, from the year of the world 2840 to 2960. True it is that Shamgar, Sampson, Samuel, and Saul, |