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6. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores;

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and more: the whole head is sick, and them they have not been closed, neither bound up, whole heart faint. neither mollified with ".ointment. 1 Hebrew, increase revolt.

i Heb. alienated, or separated; Psa. lviii. 3. Jer. ii. 30; v. 3.

* Chap. ix. 13;

israel othi lo yada. The word 'othi has been lost out of the text. The very same phrase is used by Jeremiah, chap. iv. 22, w x y ammi othi lo yadau. And the order of the words must have been as above represented; for they have joined yisrael, with othi, as in regimine; they could not have taken it in this sense, Israel MEUS non cognovit, had either this phrase or the order of the words been different. I have endeavoured to set this matter in a clear light, as it is the first example of a whole word lost out of the text, of which the reader will find many other plain examples in the course of these notes. But Rosenmüller contends that this is unnecessary, as the passage may be translated, " Israel knows nothing my people have no understanding."

The Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, read y veammi," and my people;" and so likewise sixteen MSS. of Kennicott, and fourteen of De Rossi.

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Verse 4. Ah sinful nation—“ Degenerate"] Five MSS., one of them ancient, read 'n moschathim, without the first yod, in hophal corrupted, not corruplers. See the same word in the same form, and in the same sense, Prov. xxv. 26.

m Jeremiah viii. 22. ■ Or, oil.

its close and compressed structure, analogous to the sense which it expresses :

Γεμω κακων δη· κ' ουκετ' εσθ' όπη τιθη..

I am full of miseries: there's no room for more.
Herc. Fur. 1245, Long. sec. 40.

"On what part will ye strike again? will ye add correction ?" This is addressed to the instruments of God's vengeance; those that inflicted the punishment, who or whatsoever they were. Ad verbum certæ personæ intelligendæ sunt, quibus ista actio quæ per verbum exprimitur competit; "The words are addressed to the persons who were the agents employed in the work expressed by the original word," as Glassius says in a similar case, Phil. Sacr. i. 3, 22. See chap. viii. 4.

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ness.

Verse 5. The whole head is sick] The king and the priests are equally gone away from truth and righteousOr, The state is oppressed by its enemies, and the Church corrupted in its rulers and in its members. Verse 6. They have not been closed, &c.—" It hath not been pressed," &c.] The pharmaceutical art in the zur, to alienate, not from i nazar, to separate; East consists chiefly in external applications: accordso Kimchi understands it. See also Annotat. in Nol-ingly the prophet's images in this place are all taken dium, 68. Sir John Chardin, in his note on Prov.

Are corrupters" Are estranged"] Thirty-two MSS., five ancient, and two editions, read 111] nazoru; which reading determines the word to be from the root

from surgery.

They are gone away backward—"They have turn-iii. 8, "It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to ed their backs upon him."] So Kimchi explains it: thy bones," observes that "the comparison is taken "they have turned unto him the back, and not the from the plasters, ointments, oils, and frictions, which face." See Jer. ii. 27; vii. 24. I have been forced are made use of in the East upon the belly and stomach to render this line paraphrastically; as the verbal in most maladies. Being ignorant in the villages of translation," they are estranged backward," would have the art of making decoctions and potions, and of the been unintelligible. proper doses of such things, they generally make use of external medicines."-Harmer's Observations on Scripture, vol. ii. p. 488. And in surgery their materia medica is extremely simple, oil making the principal part of it. "In India," says Tavernier, "they have a certain preparation of oil and melted grease, which they commonly use for the healing of wounds." Voyage Ind. So the good Samaritan poured oil and wine on the wounds of the distressed Jew: wine, cleansing and somewhat astringent, proper for a fresh wound; oil, mollifying and healing, Luke x. 34. Kimchi has a judicious remark here: "When various medicines are applied, and no healing takes place, that disorder is considered as coming immediately from God."

Verse 5. Why should ye be stricken any more
"On what part," &c.] The Vulgate renders by
al meh, super quo, (see Job xxxviii. 6; 2 Chron. xxxii.
10,) upon what part. And so Abendana on Sal. ben
Melech: "There are some who explain it thus: Upon
what limb shall you be smitten, if you add defection?
for already for your sins have you been smitten upon
all of them; so that there is not to be found in you a
whole limb on which you can be smitten." Which
agrees with what follows: "From the sole of the foot
even unto the head, there is no soundness in it :" and
the sentiment and image is exactly the same with that
of Ovid, Pont. ii. 7, 42:-

Vix habet in nobis jam nova plaga locum.
There is no place on you for a new stripe.

Or that still more expressive line of Euripides; the
great force and effect of which Longinus ascribes to

Of the three verbs in this sentence, one is in the singular number in the text; another is singular in two MSS., (one of them ancient,) van chubbeshah; and the Syriac and Vulgate render all of them in the singular number,

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• Deut. xxviii. 51, 52.-P Heb. as the overthrow of strangers.

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desolation of Zion

8 And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden. of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

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9 Job xxvii. 18; Lam. ii. 6.- - Jer. iv. 17. Verses 7-9. Your country is desolate] The de- from the heat by day, and the cold and dews by scription of the ruined and desolate state of the coun- night, for the watchman that kept the garden or vinetry in these verses does not suit with any part of the yard during the short season the fruit was ripening, prosperous times of Uzziah and Jotham. It very well (see Job xxvii. 18,) and presently removed when it had agrees with the time of Ahaz, when Judea was ravaged served that purpose. See Harmer's Observ. i. 454. by the joint invasion of the Israelites and Syrians, and | They were probably obliged to have such a constant by the incursions of the Philistines and Edomites. watch to defend the fruit from the jackals. The date of this prophecy is therefore generally fixed | to the time of Ahaz. But on the other hand it may be considered whether those instances of idolatry which are urged in ver. 29-the worshipping in groves and gardens having been at all times too commonly practised, can be supposed to be the only ones which the prophet would insist upon in the time of Ahaz; who spread the grossest idolatry through the whole country, and introduced it even into the temple; and, to complete his abominations, made his son pass through the fire to Molech. It is said, 2 Kings xv. 37, that in Jotham's time" the Lord began to send against Judah Rezin-and Pekah." If we may suppose any invasion from that quarter to have been actually made at the latter end of Jotham's reign, I should choose to refer this prophecy to that time.

AND your cities are burned.—Nineteen of Dr. Kennicott's MSS. and twenty-two of De Rossi's, some of my own, with the Syriac and Arabic, add the conjunction, which makes the hemistich more complete. Verse 7. D'i zarim at the end of the verse. This reading, though confirmed by all the ancient versions, gives us no good sense; for "your land is devoured by strangers; and is desolate, as if overthrown by strangers," is a mere tautology, or, what is as bad, an identical comparison. Aben Ezra thought that the word in its present form might be taken for the same with Dzerem, an inundation: Schultens is of the same opinion; (see Taylor's Concord. ;) and Schindler in his Lexicon explains it in the same manner and so, says Kimchi, some explain it. Abendana endeavours to reconcile it to grammatical analogy in the following manner: "Dzarim is the same with zerem; that is, as overthrown by an inundation of waters: and these two words have the same analogy kedem and kadim. Or it may be a concrete of the same form with shechir; and the meaning will be as overthrown by rain pouring down violently, and causing a flood." On Sal. ben Melech, in loc. But I rather suppose the true reading to be Dzerem, and have translated it accordingly the word ▷ zerim, in the line above, seems to have caught the transcriber's eye, and to have led him into this mistake. But this conjecture of the learned prelate is not confirmed by any MS. yet discovered.

as

קרם

קדים

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Verse 8. As a cottage in a vineyard-" As a shed in a vineyard"] A little temporary hut covered with boughs, straw, turf, or the like materials, for a shelter

"The jackal," (chical of the Turks,) says Hasselquist, (Travels, p. 227,) " is a species of mustela which is very common in Palestine, especially during the vintage; and often destroys whole vineyards, and gardens of cucumbers." "There is also plenty of the canis vulpes, the fox, near the convent of St. John in the desert, about vintage time; for they destroy all the vines unless they are strictly watched." Ibid. p. 184. See Cant. ii. 15.

Fruits of the gourd kind, melons, water-melons, cucumbers, &c., are much used and in great request in the Levant, on account of their cooling quality. The Israelites in the wilderness regretted the loss of the cucumbers and melons among the other good things of Egypt, Num. xi. 5: In Egypt the season of water-melons, which are most in request, and which the common people then chiefly live upon, lasts but three weeks. See Hasselquist, p. 256. Tavernier makes it of longer continuance: L'on y void de grands carreaux de melons et de concombres, mais beaucoup plus de derniers, dont les Levantins font leur delices. Le plus souvent ils les mangent sans les peler, après quoi ils vont boire une verre d'eau. Dans toute l'Asie c'est la nourriture ordinaire du petit peuple pendant trois ou quatre mois; toute la famille en vit; et quand un enfant demand à manger, au lieu qu'en France ou aillieurs nous luy donnerions du pain, dans le Levant on luy presente un concombre, qu'il mange cru comme on le vient de cueillir. Les concombres dans le Levant ont une bontè particuliere; et quoiqu' on les mange crus, ils ne font jamais de mal; "There are to be seen great beds of melons and cucumbers, but a greater number of the latter, of which the Levantines are particularly fond. In general they eat them without taking off the rind, after which they drink a glass of water. In every part of Asia this is the aliment of the common people for three or four months; the whole family live on them; and when a child asks something to eat, instead of giving it a piece of bread, as is done in France and other countries, they present it with a cucumber, which it eats raw, as gathered. Cucumbers in the Levant are peculiarly excellent; and although eaten raw, they are seldom injurious.” Tavernier, Relat. du Serrail, cap. xix.

As a lodge, &c.] That is, after the fruit was gathered; the lodge being then permitted to fall into decay. Such was the desolate, ruined state of the

city,

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Lam. iii. 22; Rom. ix. 29. Gen. xix. 24." Deut. xxxii. 32; Ezek. xvi. 46. 1 Sam. xv. 22; Psa. 1. 8, 9; li. 16; Prov. xv. 8; xxi. 27; chap. lxvi. 3; Jer. vi. 20; vii. 21; Amos v. 21,

As a besieged city-" A city taken by siege"] So the s nohiç Tohιоркоνμεvп; Septuagint: see also the Vulgate.

Verse 9. The Lord of hosts-" JEHOVAH God of hosts"] As this title of God, na ni Yehovah tsebaoth, “JEHOVAH of hosts," occurs here for the first time, I think it proper to note, that I translate it always, as in this place, "JEHOVAH God of hosts;" tak

יהוה אלהי צבאות ing it as an elliptical expression for

Yehovah Elohey tsebaoth. This title imports that JEHOVAH is the God or Lord of hosts or armies; as he is the Creator and Supreme Governor of all beings in heaven and earth, and disposeth and ruleth them all in their several orders and stations; the almighty, universal Lord.

We should have been as Sodom] As completely and finally ruined as that and the cities of the plain were, no vestige of which remains at this day.

Verse 10. Ye rulers of Sodom-" Ye princes of Sodom"] The incidental mention of Sodom and Gomorrah in the preceding verse suggested to the prophet this spirited address to the rulers and inhabitants of Jerusalem, under the character of princes of Sodom and people of Gomorrah. Two examples of a sort of elegant turn of the like kind may be observed in St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, chap. xv. 4, 5, 12, 13. See Locke on the place; and see ver. 29, 30, of this chapter, which gives another example of the same. AND-like unto Gomorrah.-The 1 vau is added by thirty-one of Kennicott's MSS., twenty-nine of De Rossi's and one, very ancient, of my own. ver. 6.

See on

Verse 11. To what purpose, &c.-"What have I to do."] The prophet Amos has expressed the same sentiments with great elegance :

"I hate, I despise your feasts;

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12 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?

13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I

22; Mic. vi. 7.- Heb. great he-goats.-
Exod. xxiii. 17; xxxiv. 23. Matt. xv. 9.
. 15.

Heb. to be seen.
Joel i. 14;

So has Persius; see Sat. ii. v. 71–75 :— 'Quin damus id Superis, de magna quod dare lanæ," &c. The two or three last pages of Plato's Euthyphrọ contain the same idea. Sacrifices and prayers are not profitable to the offerer, nor acceptable to the gods, unless accompanied with an upright life.

Verse 11. The fat of fed beasts, &c.] The fat and the blood are particularly mentioned, because these The fat was were in all sacrifices set apart to God. always burnt upon the altar, and the blood was partly sprinkled, differently on different occasions, and partly poured out at the bottom of the altar. See Lev. iv. Verse 12. When ye come to appear] Instead of leraoth, to appear, one MS. has liroth,

to see.

See De Rossi. The appearing before God here refers chiefly to the three solemn annual festivals. See Exod. xxiii. 14.

Tread my courts (no more)] So the Septuagint divide the sentence, joining the end of this verse to the beginning of the next: Πατειν την αυλήν μου, ου προσOngole; "To tread my court ye shall not add―ye shall not be again accepted in worship."

Verse 13. The new moons and Sabbaths-"The fast

and the day of restraint"] ave vaatsarah. These words are rendered in many different manners by different interpreters, to a good and probable sense by all; but I think by none in such a sense as can arise from the phrase itself, agreeably to the idiom of the Hebrew language. Instead of fix aven, the Septuagint manifestly read DIY tsom, vnorelav, "the fast." This Houbigant has adopted. The prophet could not well have omitted the fast in the enumeration of their solemnities, nor the abuse of it among the instances of their hypocrisy, which he has treated at large with such force and elegance in his fifty-eighth chapter. Observe, also, that the prophet Joel, (chap. i. 14, and

And I will not delight in the odour of your so- ii. 15,) twice joins together the fast and the day of lemnities:

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restraint :

צום קראו עצרה קרשו

atsarah kiru tsom kaddeshu

"Sanctify a fast; proclaim a day of restraint:" which shows how properly they are here joined together. yy atsarah, "the restraint," is rendered, both here and in other places of our English translation, "the solemn assembly." Certain holy days ordained by the law were distinguished by a particular

Exhortations and

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cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.

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18 Come now, and P let us rea-
son together, saith the LORD:

14 Your c new moons and your though your sins be as scarlet,
appointed feasts my soul ha- they shall be as white as snow;

e

q

threatenings.

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teth they are a trouble unto me; I am though they be red like crimson, they shall be weary to bear them.

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n

17 Learn to do well; " seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow..

b Or, griefC Num. xxviii. 11.—d Lev. xxiii. 2, &c.; Lam. fi. 6.e Chap. xliii. 24- Job xxvii. 29; Psalm cxxxiv. 2; Prov. i. 28; chap. lix. 2; Jer. xiv. 12; Mic. iii. 4,- - Psa. lxvi. 18; 1 Tim. ii. 8.h Heb. multiply prayer.- Chap. lix. 3. k Heb. bloods. Jer. iv. 14.

charge that "no servile work should be done therein;" Lev. xxviii. 36; Num. xxix. 35; Deut. xvi. 8. This circumstance clearly explains the reason of the name, the restraint, or the day of restraint, given to those days.

If I could approve of any translation of these two words which I have met with, it should be that of the Spanish version of the Old Testament, made for the use of the Spanish Jews: Tortura y detenimento, “it is a pain and a constraint unto me." But, I still think that the reading of the Septuagint is more probably

the truth.

as wool.

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"Neque amissos colores

Lana refert medicata fuco,"

says the poet, applying the same image to a different purpose. To discharge these strong colours is impossible to human art or power; but to the grace and

Verse 15. When ye spread] The Syriac, Septua-power of God all things, even much more difficult, are gint, and a MS., read beparshecem, without the conjunction 1 vau.

Your hands-" For your hands"] Ai yap xeipes— Sept. Manus enim vestræ-Vulg. They seem to have read ' ' ki yedeychem.

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Verse 16. Wash you] Referring to the preceding verse, your hands are full' of blood ;" and alluding to the legal washings commanded on several occasions. See Lev. xiv. 8, 9, 47.

Verse 17. Relieve the oppressed-" Amend that which is corrupted"] asheru chamots. In rendering this obscure phrase I follow Bochart, (Hieroz, Part i., lib. ii., cap. 7.,) though I am not perfectly satisfied with this explication of it.

Verse 18. Though your sins be as scarlet] shani, "scarlet or crimson," dibaphum, twice dipped, or double dyed; from n shanah, iterare, to double, or to do a thing twice. This derivation seems much more probable than that which Salmasius prefers, from

shanan, acuere, to whet, from the sharpness and strength of the colour, oğvooivikov; yn tela, the same; properly the worm, vermiculus, (from whence vermeil,) for this colour was produced from a worm or insect which grew in a coccus or excrescence of a shrub of the ilex kind, (see Plin. Nat. Hist. xvi. 8,) like the cochineal worm in the opuntia of America. See Ul

possible and easy. Some copies have Dɔ keshanim, "like crimson garments."

Though they be red, &c.] But the conjunction 1 vau is added by twenty-one of Kennicott's, and by forty-two of De Rossi's MSS., by some early editions, with the Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, and Arabic. It makes a fuller and more emphatic sense, "AND though they be red as crimson," &c.

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oyeb teachelu, "ye shall be consumed by the sword of the enemy." The Syriac also reads bechereb, and renders the verb passively. And the rhythmus seems to require this addition.-Dr. JUBB.

Verse 21. Become a harlot] See before, the Discourse on the Prophetic Style; and see Lowth's Comment on the place, and De Sacr. Poës. Hebr. Præl. xxxi.

Verse 22. Wine mixed with water] An image used for the adulteration of wines, with more propriety than may at first appear, if what Thevenot says of the peo

The degeneracy

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ISAIAH.

23" Thy princes are rebellious, | judge not the fatherless, neither
and ▾ companions of thieves: doth the cause of the widow come
every one loveth gifts, and fol-
loweth after

W

unto them. rewards they

24 Therefore saith the LORD,

of the people.

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u Hos. ix. 15.- - Prov. xxix. 24. - Jer. xxii. 17; Ezek. xxii. 12; Hos. iv. 18; Mic. iii. 11; vii. 3.– - Jer. v. 28; Zech. vii. 10.
ple of the Levant of late times were true of them for-wine is turbid: it is full of a mixed liquor, and he poureth
merly. He says, They never mingle water with out of it;" or rather, “he poureth it out of one vessel
their wine to drink; but drink by itself what water into another," to mix it perfectly, according to the read-
they think proper for abating the strength of the wine." ing expressed by the ancient versions,
an
"Lorsque les Persans boivent du vin, ils le prennent vaiyagger mizzeh al zeh, and he pours it from this to
tout pur, à la facon des Levantins, qui ne le mêlent that, "verily the dregs thereof," the thickest sediment
jamais avec de l'eua; mais en beuvant du vin, de temps of the strong ingredients mingled with it, "all the un-
en temps ils prennent un pot d'eau, et en boivent de godly of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them."
grand traits." Voyage, part ii., liv. ii., chap. 10. "Ils
(les Turcs) n'y meslent jamais d'eau, et se moquent des
Chrétiens, qui en mettent, ce qui leur semble tout à fait
ridicule." Ibid. part i., chap. 24. "The Turks never
mingle water with their wine, and laugh at the Chris-
tians for doing it, which they consider altogether ridi-
culous."

It is remarkable that whereas the Greeks and Latins by mixed wine always understood wine diluted and lowered with water, the Hebrews on the contrary generally mean by it wine made stronger and more inebriating by the addition of higher and more powerful ingredients, such as honey, spices, defrutum, (or wine inspissated by boiling it down to two-thirds or one-half of the quantity,) myrrh, mandragora, opiates, and other strong drugs. Such were the exhilarating, or rather stupifying, ingredients which Helen mixed in the bowl together with the wine for her guests oppressed with grief to raise their spirits, the composition of which she had learned in Egypt :

Λυτικ' αρ' εις οινον βαλε φαρμακόν, ένθεν επινον,
Νηπενθές τ' αχολον τε, κακών επιληθον ἁπάντων.
HOMER. Odyss. lib. iv., ver. 220.

"Meanwhile, with genial joy to warm the soul,
Bright Helen mix'd a mirth-inspiring bowl;
Temper'd with drugs of sovereign use, to assuage
The boiling bosom of tumultuous rage:
Charm'd with that virtuous draught, the exalted mind
All sense of wo delivers to the wind."

POPE.

Such was the "spiced wine and the juice of pomegranates," mentioned Cant. viii. 2. And how much the Eastern people to this day deal in artificial liquors of prodigious strength, the use of wine being forbidden, may be seen in a curious chapter of Kempfer upon that subject. Amen. Exot. Fasc. iii., Obs. 15.

Thus the drunkard is properly described, Prov. xxiii. 30, as one "that seeketh mixed wine," and "is mighty to mingle strong drink," Isa. v. 22. And hence the poet took that highly poetical and sublime image of the cup of God's wrath, called by Isaiah li. 17, the "cup of trembling," causing intoxication and stupefaction, (see Chappelow's note on Hariri, p. 33,) containing, as St. John expresses in Greek the Hebrew idea with the utmost precision, though with a seeming contradiction in terms, KɛKεрáoμevov akpaтov, merum mixtum, pure wine made yet stronger by a mixture of powerful ingredients; Rev. xiv. 10. "In the hand of JEHOVAH," saith the psalmist, Psa. lxxv. 8, "there is a cup, and the

R. D. Kimchi says, "The current coin was adulterated with brass, tin, and other metals, and yet was circulated as good money. The wine also was adulterated with water in the taverns, and sold notwithstanding for pure wine."

Verse 23. Companions of thieves-" Associates"] The Septuagint, Vulgate, and four MSS., read an chabrey, without the conjunction ↑ vau.

Verse 24. Ah, I will ease me-" Aha! I will be
eased"] Anger, arising from a sense of injury and
affront, especially from those who, from every con-
sideration of duty and gratitude, ought to have behaved
far otherwise, is an uneasy and painful sensation: and
revenge, executed to the full on the offenders, removes
that uneasiness, and consequently is pleasing and quiet-
ing, at least for the present. Ezekiel, chap. v. 13, in-
troduces God expressing himself in the same manner :—
"And mine anger shall be fully accomplished;

And I will make my fury rest upon them;
And I will give myself case."

This is a strong instance of the metaphor called an-
thropopath, by which, throughout the Scriptures, as
well the historical as the poetical parts, the sentiments,
sensations, and affections, the bodily faculties, qualities,
and members, of men, and even of brute animals, are
attributed to God, and that with the utmost liberty and
vious; it arises from necessity; we have no idea of
latitude of application. The foundation of this is ob-
the natural attributes of God, of his pure essence, of
his manner of existence, of his manner of acting: when
therefore we would treat on these subjects, we find our-
selves forced to express them by sensible images. But
necessity leads to beauty; this is true of metaphor in
general, and in particular of this kind of metaphor,
which is used with great elegance and sublimity in the
sacred poetry; and what is very remarkable, in the
grossest instances of the application of it, it is generally
the most striking and the most sublime.
The reason
seems to be this: when the images are taken from the
superior faculties of the human nature, from the purer
and more generous affections, and applied to God, we
are apt to acquiesce in the notion; we overlook the
metaphor, and take it as a proper attribute; but when
the idea is gross and offensive, as in this passage of
Isaiah, where the impatience of anger and the pleasure
of revenge is attributed to God, we are immediately
shocked at the application; the impropriety strikes us
at once; and the mind, casting about for something in

D

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