wing.

the congregation of saints.

A New Song.

(2) Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. (3) Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and

Fruitful trees.-Rather, fruit trees; the fruitbearing tree being representative of one division of the vegetable world, planted and reared by man, the cedars of the other, which are (Ps. civ. 16) of God's own plantation.

(10) So here we have wild animals and domesticated animals. (See Note, Ps. 1. 10.)

Creeping things.-This seems to include all the smaller creatures that move on the ground, in contrast with the birds that fly above it.

(11) All people.-And now the whole animate and inanimate universe having been summoned, man takes his place as leader of the choir; and here the poet's language is couched so as to include all, all ranks and nations, of every age, and each sex.

(13) Excellent.-Rather, exalted. As in Isa. xii. 4. So LXX. and Vulg.

Above the earth and heaven.-There is a fine artistic touch in the order of the words in this. All heaven and earth have been summoned to the chorus of praise, of Him who is now declared to be above earth and heaven. (14) He hath . .-Render, and he hath raised a horn for his people. Praise is for all His saints, for the sons of Israel, a people near Him.

The raising of the horn evidently implies some victory, or assurance of victory, which, no doubt, gave the first impulse for this song of praise. (See Introduction). For the figure see Note, Ps. lxxv. 4, 5.

The verse is a repetition of a frequent statement of the Psalms. While poetically all the universe, inanimate as well as animate, all men, heathen as well as Hebrews, can be called to sing "hallelujah,' it remains as it has ever been, the covenant privilege of Israel. This explanation disposes at once of the charge which has been brought against this verse of narrowing a grand universal anthem, and ending the psalm with an anti-climax.

CXLIX.

History supplies a terrible comment on this psalm. "Under the illusion that it might be used as a prayer without any spiritual transmutation, Ps. cxlix. has become the watchword of the most horrible errors. It was by means of this psalm that Caspar Scloppius, in his Classicum Biblia Sacræ, which, as Bakius says, is written, not with ink but with blood, inflamed the Roman Catholic princes to the thirty years' religious war; and in the Protestant Church Thomas Monzen stirred up the war of the peasants by means of this psalm" (Delitzsch).

So the fanaticism and cruelty of times that should have been more enlightened have been fed by the record the Jews have left of their blended religious and patriotic zeal. The age when such a psalm was most likely to be produced was undoubtedly that of the Maccabees, and the coincidence between verse 6 of the psalm and 2 Macc. xv. 27 may indicate the very series of events amid which, with hymns of praise in their throats, and a two-edged sword in their hand, the chasi dim in battle after battle claimed and won the honour of executing vengeance on Jehovah's foes. The synthetic parallelism is finely marked.

(1) A new song.-See Ps. xxxiii. 3.

The congregation.-Apparently the psalm puts us in the Maccabean age, when the chasidim was become a regular title for the patriotic party.

(3) In the dance.- Rather, as margin, with the pipe. The use of the word machol in what was evidently a list of all the orchestral instruments used in the Temple in the next psalm, would alone be almost decisive of the meaning. But one possible derivation is certainly in favour of this rendering, as also the translation in the Syriac version by the name of a flute still found in Syria. Its connection, too, with the timbrel or drum (comp. our pipe and tabor), just as a cognate, chalil, is connected in 1 Sam. x. 5; Isa. v. 12, points the same way. (See Bible Educator, i. p. 70, and Note to Song of Sol. vi. 13.)

Timbrel.-See Exod. xv. 20; Bible Educator,

i. 314.

Harp.-See Ps. xxxiii. 2.

(4) He will beautify the meek...-Rather, He adorns the oppressed with salvation. Not only is the victory which achieves the deliverance of the afflicted people a relief to them, but the honour won in the sight of the world is like a beautiful robe, a figure no doubt suggested by the actual triumphal dresses of the victors, or the spoils in which they appeared after the battle. (Comp. Isa. lv. 5, lx. 7; lxi. 3; Judges v. 30.)

(5) The two clauses are directly parallel :

"Let the chasidim raise a cry in glory: Let them sing aloud upon their couches." Either the rejoicing is carried far into the night, and when retired to rest the happy people burst out anew into singing; or (see Hosea vii. 14), the couches may rather be the divans where feasts were held.

(6) High praises.-Literally, exaltations of celebration, i.e., hymns of praise.

God's Mighty Deeds.

(2) Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.

2

PSALM CL.

(1) 1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the 3 Or, pipe. firmament of his power.

Mouth.-Rather, throat.

(7) Heathen... people.-Rather, nations peoples.

(9) The judgment written. - If we knew the exact circumstance which produced the psalm, and had the names of the nobles and princes taken prisoners, we should easily guess at the contents of the "judgment written," which was, perhaps, some special order, the carrying out of which is celebrated here; or we may think of the judgments against the nation registered here and there in the sacred books, and so by prescription made legitimate, such as that of the Canaanites, Amalekites, &c.; or we may give the phrase a still more general sense, as in Isa. Ixv. 6: "Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom." Ought we not, however, to read the verse: To execute judgment upon them. It is written, This honour have all his

saints.

This honour.-Israel is here regarded as the instrument of God's righteous judgments on the heathen.

CL.

In the place of the short doxology, such as concludes each of the former books of the psalter, this psalm was fitly composed or selected to close the whole collection. It has been well called “the finale of the spiritual concert," and no doubt afforded a good musical display, music performed with full orchestra and choir, every kind of instrument known to the Hebrews, wind, string, and percussion, being mentioned, and in the last verse all who had breath and voice being invited to join. The form of the invocation embracing heaven and earth, and putting forward as the object of praise both Jehovah's majesty and His great works wrought for Israel, is also exactly suited for a conclusion to the great collection of Israelite song. The parallelism is perfect.

(1) Sanctuary-That is, the temple. Some take it in direct parallelism with firmament, and understand the "heavenly palace," or "Temple" (comp. Ps. xi. 4); but, as in Ps. cxlviii., the invocation to praise includes heaven and earth; so here, but in the reverse order, the

(3) Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery (4) Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. (5) Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.

(6) Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.

earthly sanctuary first, and the sublime things done on earth (verse 2), then heaven and the exalted greatness there.

(2) Mighty acts. . . excellent greatness.— The one displayed on earth, the other manifested in heaven. (See preceding Note.)

(3) Trumpet.-Heb., shophar. (See Pss. lxxxi. 3, xcviii. 6. LXX., σάλ#ıy§.) It was the crooked horn, sometimes also called keren. (Bible Educator, ii. 231.) Psaltery and harp.-See Note, Ps. xxxiii. 2. (4) Timbrel and dance.-See Ps. cxlix. 3. Stringed instruments. Minnim. Literally, parts, so threads, so here, as in LXX. and Vulg., "with" or on strings." (See Note, Ps. xlv. 9.)

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Organs.- Heb., 'ugab, which has been variously identified with the syrinx, or Pan's pipes, of the Greeks, with the "bagpipe," and even with a rude instrument embodying the principle of the modern organ. (See Bible Educator, ii. 70, 183, 229.)

(5) Cymbals.-Heb., tseltselim (2 Sam. vi. 5), a word evidently formed to express the sound of the instrument. Two kinds are evidently indicated in this verse, the "loud" cymbals (literally, cymbals of hearing), and "high-sounding" (literally, of tumult). As the Arabs use at present a larger and smaller instrument (see Bible Educator, ii., 211, 311), it is possible that the same distinction is made here, but which would be the larger instrument it is impossible from the Hebrew to determine.

- LXX.

(6) Everything that hath breath. "every breath;" Vulg., "every spirit; " literally, all breath. We naturally wish to give these words their largest intent, and to hear the psalter close with an invocation to "the earth with her thousand voices" to praise God. But the psalm so distinctly and positively brings us into the Temple, and places us among the covenant people engaged at their devotions, that we are compelled to see here a hymn specially suited to close the collection of hymns of the covenant, as the first and second were to begin it. It is, therefore, not all breathing beings, but only all assembled in the sanctuary, that are here addressed; and the loud hallelujah with which the collection of psalms actually closes rises from Hebrew voices alone.

ΤΟ

The contents of this book cover a wider space of ground than its English title would lead anyone to expect; for the Hebrew word mashal, translated

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Proverbs" in our version, while, indeed, it bears this sense, includes also several other meanings. Originally, it would seem, it signified a "figure" or comparison," and we find it used in Holy Scripture for (1) a parable," such as those in the Gospels, inculcating moral or religious truth, in which the figure and the thing signified by it are kept distinct from each other. Examples of this are to be found in the parables of the two eagles and vine, in Ezek. xvii., and of the boiling pot, in Ezek. xxiv. It is also used (2) for "a short pointed saying," in which, however, a comparison is still involved: for instance, Prov. xxv. 25, "As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country." Hence it passed into the sense of (3) "a proverb," in which a comparison may still be implied, though it is no longer expressed, such as Ezek. xviii. 2, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." Lastly, the sense of comparison or figure being lost, it became equivalent to (4) an "instructive saying," such as Prov. xi. 4, "Riches profit not in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivereth from death." The form of this might be lengthened till it became equivalent to (5) "a didactic poem," such as Ps. xlix. 4, "I will incline mine ear to a parable," &c. Of this kind were the prophecies of Balaam, in Num. xxiii. and xxiv., in which he is said to have "taken up his parable." In certain cases this form of parable might become equivalent to "satire," as in the prophet's song of triumph over fallen Babylon, in Isa. xiv. Of these various forms of the mashal, it would seem that (1) and (3) do not occur in the Proverbs, (5) is largely employed in chaps. i-ix., while (2 and (4) are frequent in the later chapters of the book.

As to the poetical form which the mashal of Solomon assumes, the thought of the writer is most generally completed in the distich, or verse of two lines. But the relation of the two lines to each other may vary in different cases. Sometimes (1) the idea contained in the first is repeated in the second with slightly altered form, so as to be brought out more fully and distinctly, as in chap. xi. 25, "The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth shall be watered also himself." Or (2) the second line may illustrate the first by presenting the contrast to it, as in chap. x. 1, A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother." Or, again, (3) a distinct truth may be presented to the reader in each line, with little apparent connection between them, as in chap. x. 18, "A cloak of hatred are lying lips, and he that spreadeth slander is a fool." Many distichs contain entire parables in themselves, a resemblance to the lesson inculcated being drawn from every-day life, as chap. x. 26, "As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke

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to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him." In all these cases it will be noticed that the distich is complete in itself, without any further explanation being required. But sometimes the subject extends to four (chap. xxv. 4, 5), six (chap. xxiii. 1–3), and eight (chap. xxiii. 22-25) lines, or, it may be, to three (chap. xxii. 29), five (chap. xxiii. 4, 5), or seven (chap. xxiii. 68). It may even be prolonged beyond these limits to an indefinite number of verses, as in the acrostic (chap. xxxi. 10, sqq.) in praise of a virtuous wife.

As to the general contents of the Book of Proverbs, it will be noticed on examination that they do not form one harmonious whole, but that they naturally fall into several clearly marked divisions, each of them distinguished by peculiarities of style. They are as follows: (1) Chap. i. 1-6, an introduction, describing the purpose of the book.

(2) Chaps. i. 7-ix. 18, comprising fifteen didactic poems-not single unconnected verses, like most of the book-exhorting to the fear of God and the avoidance of sin. Many of these are addressed to "my son"; in others Wisdom is introduced as pleading to be heard, and setting forth the blessings she brings with her.

(3) Chaps. x. 1-xxii. 16, the second great division of the book; these are headed by a new title, "The proverbs of Solomon." They consist of 375 separate distichs, quite unconnected with each other, the sense being completed in each verse of the English Version; in the first six chapters of this collection the antithetic form of proverb chiefly prevails, but the other forms mentioned above as employed in this book are also represented.

(4) To this course of distichs follows an introduction (chap. xxii. 17-21), containing an exhortation to "hear the words of the wise"; the style of this is not unlike section (2). This serves as a heading to the (5) appendix of chaps. xxii. 22-xxiv. 22, in which every form of the mashal may be found, from the distich up to the lengthened didactic poem, such as was frequent earlier in the book.

(6) Next comes a second appendix (chap. xxiv. 23— 34), beginning, "These also belong to the wise” (i.e., as their authors), containing proverbs of various lengths. which resemble chaps. i. 7-ix. 18, and the Book of Ecclesiastes.

(7) This is followed by the third great division of the book (chaps. xxv.-xxix.), with the title, "These are also proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out." It differs from the previous collection (chaps. x.-xxii. 16) in this respect: that the verses are chiefly parabolic, not antithetic, in their character, and the sense, instead of being completed in a distich, extends to five lines, or even further.

(8) At this point the proverbs of Solomon are ended, for the rest of the book does not profess to have been composed by him. It consists of three appendices :