and the land to which they were journeying, were, in the mind of God and of Moses, already present; and that Moses by these anticipated, as it were, in triumph the institutions and regulations which were to be formed.

"This song, of which I have given but a feeble echo, gave their tone to the triumphal songs of the Hebrews, as the song of Deborah and the sixty-eighth psalm evince. The rhythmical movement is animated by the same cœsuras and cadences, and by the same lively correspondencies of sound. The frequent exclamations, the oft-recurring

Praise to Jehovah!
Sing praises to Jehovah !

the excitations addressed to the hearers, or the singers themselves, which at intervals interrupt, or rather animate the current of thoughts anew, form, as it were, the stave, on which the historical song is arranged. In the Psalms, the hallelujah grew out of this, as an animating and joyous shout of the chorus, known to many nations in nearly the same form, and by the Hebrews consecrated to their Jah or Jehovah."

Now it is sufficiently evident, from the extract here given, that Herder not only admitted the existence of Hebrew metre, but considered the thanksgiving ode of Moses as composed in rhyme; and the authority of this eminent Hebrew scholar and sagacious critic will no doubt have great weight with many readers, who, with Le Clerc, hold that most of the poetry of the Scriptures was written in rhyme. Into this view of the

question I do not now intend to enter, having already expressed my opinion at length* in a former page. The manner in which Herder breaks the whole of this grand ode into hemistichs, in my opinion, gives to it a rhythmical flow and spirit not found in an equal degree in any other translation. As a whole, I prefer it to Kennicott's or any version I have seen, though there are certainly passages which fall below our common translation in literal truth and simple energy. No one, I think, can read it without feeling that this noble production merits all the praise I have bestowed upon it.

I have been the more particular in giving the two versions of this divine song, admitted by a host of critics as deserving of the highest commendation, in order that the general reader may see, under the sanction of high learned authorities, that what they may perhaps have been accustomed to peruse as mere ordinary prose contains some of the finest poetry which language has been employed to produce; for I feel satisfied that if the Bible were taken up by people of common penetration even as a book of the highest literary merit, it would not only have the effect of spiritualizing their minds, but of improving their tastes, since they could not fail to discover in it the noblest emanations of human genius. There is no just reason why we should not delight in the sublime eloquence and poetical beauty of the sacred writings, as well as venerate the divine truths which they contain; on the contrary, I am

* See chap. iv.

persuaded that an encouragement of the one will tend to confirm in our minds the vast importance of the other. They who begin by only admiring, will end in believing; I would therefore fain show how much there is to admire, in that inspired volume, which contains the oracles of God.

CHAPTER XXV.

Obscure passage in the twenty-first chapter of Numbers. Song of the well. Various versions. The book of the wars of the Lord.

THE next specimen of Hebrew poetry, which follows in order in the Pantateuch, is a very obscure passage in the twenty-first chapter of Numbers, which appears to refer to some chronicle then extant, and which was probably written in Hebrew verse. This seems to be the prevailing conjecture. That chronicle is thus mentioned in the chapter referred to at the tenth verse. "Wherefore it is said, in the book of the wars of the Lord, what he did in the Red Sea, and in the brooks of Arnon, and at the stream of the brooks that goeth down to the dwellings of Ar and lieth upon the border of Moab."

The book here named, according to Dr. Lightfoot, "seems to have been some book of remembrance and direction, written by Moses for Joshua's private instruction for the management of the wars after him."

Of this book Herder says*" When Moses, compelled by necessity, smote Amalek he began a book of the wars of Jehovah, which was afterwards continued. Only a few poetical passages of it, however, remain. A passage from the triumph of Moses over Amalek.†

Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, vol. ii. p. 179. ↑ Exod. xvii. 14.

I will blot out, utterly blot out

The memory of Amalek from under heaven.

"The altar which Moses built and which he called 'Jehovah, my banner of triumph,' has in like manner a poetical explanation:

Because my hand was raised to Jehovah's throne,
Jehovah will have war with Amalek

From generation to generation.

"It was not the hand of Amalek, but that of Moses, which was raised to Jehovah during the battle. It was supported by a stone, and this suggested the idea of an altar, which was called 'the banner of victory.' As a conqueror, Moses had raised his hand to the throne of Jehovah. We find afterwards other poems from this book."

The words quoted from the "book of the wars of the Lord," especially "what he did at the Red Sea, and in the brooks of Arnon," have baffled the sagacity of the ablest expositors. I shall not therefore attempt to perplex the reader with conjectures of learned scholiasts, as the question is of little importance, further than as it shows the existence of written authentic records in those early times. The Israelites being no doubt acquainted with the document from which Moses quoted on this occasion, for it is but reasonable to suppose that he had published it among those for whose benefit it was intended, the passage could not fail to be perfectly intelligible to them, and that it is not so to us matters little, since had it been of vital importance the inspired author would have, no doubt, rendered its meaning more obvious. It