tuus, i. e., qui te populum fecit; non enim | the earth, and separated them into divers agit Moses de singulis Israelitis, sed de toto nations, by confounding their language populo. Sic apud Græcos Krige et condere (Gen. xi. 8, 9). apud Latinos, ubi de gente usurpatur, ejus rempublicam constituere significat.

7 μνήσθητε ἡμέρας αἰῶνος, σύνετε ἔτη γενεῶν γενεαῖς. ἐπερώτησον τὸν πατέρα σου καὶ ἀναγγελεῖ σοι, τοὺς πρεσβυτέρους σου καὶ ἐροῦσί σοι. 8 ὅτε διεμέριζεν ὁ ὕψιστος ἔθνη, ὡς διέσπειρεν υἱοὺς ̓Αδάμ, ἔστησεν ὅρια ἐθνῶν. κατὰ ἀριθμὸν ἀγγέλων θεοῦ. 9 Kai éyevin μερὶς κυρίου λαὸς αὐτοῦ Ἰακώβ. σχοίνισμα κληρονομίας αὐτοῦ Ἰσραήλ.

Au. Ver.-7 Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations [Heb., generation and generation]; ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.

8 When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.

He set the bounds of the people.] He had then the children of Israel in his mind, before they were a nation; and made such a distribution to other people (particularly to the seven nations of Canaan), within such bounds and limits, as that there might be sufficient room for so numerous a people as the Israelites when they came to take possession of that country [so Pool].

How the LXX came to translate these words thus, "He appointed the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels," it is hard to say. Bochartus hath made the best conjecture about it (which was hinted by De Muis before him), lib. i., Phaleg., cap. 15, that they had a bad copy before them, which left out the first three letters of Israel; and so they read Bancel, the children of God, meaning the Israelites. Instead of which some transcribers put the angels of God, because they are sometimes called his sons. Which led the ancient Greek fathers, who followed this translation, into great difficulties: and it grew a common opinion, that every nation was under the government of an angel; which seems to be the meaning also of the son of Sirach, Ecclus. xvii. 17. And many others fancying that God divided the nations according to the number of the children of Israel, when they came into Egypt, which was just seventy, they thence gather there were just so many distinct nations, and several languages; which is a conceit of some of the Jews, as Mr. Selden observes, lib. ii. de Synedr., cap. 9. But Bochart. in the place above-named, hath given the

so many

9 For the LORD's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot [Heb., cord] of his inherit-plain and simple meaning of this place in

ance.

7 Many generations. Ged., Booth., Rosen.—Each generation. Etatum singularum annos.-Rosen.

Bp. Patrick.-8 When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance.] He directs them still to look farther back, and they would find that long before Abraham's time God had them in his thoughts, even when he divided the earth among the sons of Noah and their posterity after the flood (Gen. x. 5, 25, 32).

When he separated the sons of Adam.] Or, "the sons of men;" who were one people, till he scattered them into several parts of

these words; "God so distributed the earth among the several people that were therein, that he reserved, or in his counsel designed, such a part of the earth for the Israelites, who were then unborn, as he knew would afford a commodious habitation to a most numerous nation."

Ged. 7, 8, 9, "Call to mind the days of old; review the years of each generation: ask your fathers, and they will inform you; your elders, and they will tell you:—how, when the Most High assigned to nations their inheritances; when he dispersed the children of Adam; he fixed the boundaries of peoples, exclusively of the children of Israel :- for the

בהנחל עליין גוים

בהפרידו בני אדם יצב גבולת עמו למספר בני ישראל : כי חלק יהיה יעקב

Lord's ow
own portion is his people Jacob, the lot Israel, because Israel is his own portion,'
of his own inheritance is Israel." Verse 8 The &c.? But give to the meaning which
author of Commentaries and Essays justly I think it here has, and see the consequence.
rejects Bp. Patrick's interpretation of this "When God first divided the nations, he
verse, and thinks that "the passage would assigned to each particular possessions,
be clear and intelligible, if we were to except to the children of Israel: because
understand to refer, not to the Gentiles, these, in due time, he meant to make his
but to the people of Israel. The meaning own proper inheritance." Compare the
(says he) would then be, that when God, by whole context with ch. xxvi. 5, and say if
his providential disposition of things, se- this interpretation be not highly plausible.
parated mankind into different nations, and Bp. Horsley.-8, 9, IIe set the bounds,
appointed them their inheritance, he did &c. Read thus,
then, in his foreknowledge, settle the bounds
of the Hebrew people; according to the
number of the sons of Jacob: i. e., accord- '
ing to their twelve tribes. He then deter-
mined to divide the land among them, and
in proportion to each tribe; which appoint-
ment he had now revealed to them very "When the Most High assigned the heathen
particularly (sce Numbers xxxiv.), and thus
had shown his peculiar regard to Israel,
because he had chosen them for his own
portion and inheritance." To support this.
not unspecions interpretation, he shows,
what cannot be doubted, that is often
used to denote a single people, and the
people of Israel in particular. But the
question here is not, what may some-
times signify; but what it significs in this
context: and I am clearly of opinion that it
cannot have that signification which by this
author is assigned to it, &c.-Houbigant I take the suffixed in 7, at the end
imagined that a transposition had been of the last line, as rehearsing "Jacob," not
made in the text, and would thus restore it:

הבל נהיתי עכיים:

their inheritance,

When he separated the sons of Adam,
He set the bounds of his own people,
According to the number of the sons of
Israel.

For the portion of Jehovah is Jacob,
The peoples are the measured lot of his
[Israel's] inheritance."
I bring the word
into the place of
word I carry into
it after 27.

from the 9th verse
in the 8th, and the
the 9th, but I place

Jehovah." And without altering a tittle

-of the II. brew test, except in the trans יצב גבולות עמים' חלק יהיה יעקב' הבל נחלתו ישראל' כי

His

not without an implied allusion to the
exaltation of the natural Israel, above all
the nations of the earth in the last ages.

shaney na nobeh (10 mp, Constituit ter- position of 2 and 1, I bring out the
minos populorum; pars Domini feit Jacob, sense expressed in this translation.
funis hæreditatis ejus Israel; quando partitas inheritance, that is, Jacob's; according to
est Dominus populum suum, juxta numerum the constant strain of prophecy, that ulti-
filiorum Israel. But this is certainly a most mately Jacob is to inherit all the nations.
unnatural, and in my opinion an unwarrant- Thus the passage describes the call of the
able, arrangement, &c., &c.-The learned Gentiles, as their incorporation with Israel,
reader will readily see that my version
arises chiefly from giving to the word
a meaning almost contrary to that which is
commonly ascribed to it; but which to me Rosen.-8, 9, Repetit beneficia Dei jam
appears to be highly unsuitable. To justify inde ab eo tempore, quo, ex veteri fama,
mine own version, let it be observed, that inducta Numinis nutu linguarum varietate
the preposition has a great variety of mortales a se invicem diducti varias terras
meanings; and among others, that of ab and petierunt (Gen. xi.). Quum possessionem,
præter. Now any of these will here serve inquit poeta, distribueret Altissimus gentibus,
my turn; and give a consistency to the quum homines dispartiret, constituit terminos
reasoning of Moses, which it has not as it is populorum pro numero Israelitarum. Sen-
commonly rendered. For, what sort of sus: jam tum, quando Deus varias mor-
connexion is this: "God divided the nations talibus terras assignando populos discerneret,
according to the number of the sons of jam tum, inquam, eertorum populorum

Horsley. He sustained him.

terras ac terminos destinavit, qui futuræ Israelitarum multitudini capiendæ satis Ged. He provided for them [Sam.]. essent. LXX, κατὰ ἀριθμὸν ἀγγέλων Θεοῦ, Rosen.-Invenit eum in terra deserta, quæ versio tamen non arguit variam lec- veluti rem ad nullius potestatem attinentem tionem, quam potius respicere videtur anti- primus occupavit, sibi vindicabit. Poëtice quissimam Judæorum traditionem, Deum in hoc expressum, quia poëta omissis pluribus divisione populorum singulis populis et seculis statim ad ea tempora transit, quibus regionibus singulos angelos attribuisse, qui Israelitæ Nomadum more Arabiam desertam illorum curam haberent, præter populum pererrarunt. Igitur non est quærendum: Israeliticum, cujus Deus ipse immediate quomodo dici potest Deus invenisse populum curam in se suscepit. 9 102 mim phu 29, in deserto, in quod eum ipse deduxerat? Nam portio Jova, e reliquis populis electa, Poëtam hic legimus, non scriptorem historiest populus suns. Redditur caussa, cur Deus cum. huic populo certam sedem ad habitandum assignarit: quia cum e tot nationibus et populis unicum suum populum elegit.

confortavit eum. Ita videntur quoque legisse LXX, qui habent aurápknσev autóv, Vulgatus: sufficientem eum sibi fecit, Onkelos: tribuit eis necessaria, et Saadias: providit (nisi hi fortasse legerint in Hiphil 2).

ei

In the waste howling wilderness. So Pool, Patrick. Howling where nothing

, Jacobus est funis hæreditatis suæ. Nihil hoc est diversum a præcedenti quoad sensum. 2, Funis hæreditatis, i. e., certa quædam hæreditatis portio, quæ Deo obveniebat, ut ceteri populi præ Israelitico quasi a Deo relicti et idololatriæ atque in- was to be heard but the howlings and yellanibus diis permissi videri possint. beings of wild beasts (Deut. viii. 15).— commode reddi potest tractus, terra; nam terrarum et agrorum divisiones illis temporibus fiebant funibus, cujus rei exempla plara habemus in libro Josuæ. Cf. ad iii. 4; Ps. xvi. 6.

Ver. 10.

Bp. Patrick.

Houb. In loco arenoso pinguem fecit eum [Sam.].

Dathe. In locis aridis lautè eum aluit. Horsley. And in the howling waste he fed him plenteously with luscious food.

Ged. And in the arid deserts he fed them. Booth. And nourished them in the sandy desert.

Rosen., In deserto ululatus ferarum, puta, noctu ad fontes convenientium. habet inna

aйτáρкησev auTÒV Év Tŷ épýμg, er die Cod. Sam. pro

καύματος ἐν γῇ ἀνύδρῳ. ÉKÚKλwσEV AUTÒV kaì, 1750 quod (vere monente Gesenio in Comἐπαίδευσεν αὐτὸν, καὶ διεφύλαξεν αὐτὸν, ὡς [mentat. de Pentat. Samar., p. 13) pronunκόρην ὀφθαλμοῦ.

Au. Ver.-10 He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about [or, compassed him about], he instructed him, he kept him as the apple

ciandum est : 7ppqy mibbona, in laudationibus posuit eum, i.e., gloriosum reddidit eum, collata lectione Samaritana vs. 18. 55 Deus gloriosum te reddens. Quomodo legerint ceteri veteres, haud facile quisquam of his eye. definiverit. Utuntur enim vocabulis, quibus He found him. So Pool, Patrick, Rosen.sensum magis, quam propriam verborum Bp. Patrick.-10 He found him in a significationem expressisse videntur. LXX, desert land. There he first took the Israel-ev diyet kaúμatos év dvédpo. Similem in ites to be his peculiar people; for so the modum Onkelos: in loco sicco ubi non erat word we translate found frequently signifies. aqua. Syrus interpres vel omnino non, As in Ps. cxvi. 3, 66 the pains of hell gat aut ut unam cum legit: vertit enim, et hold upon me;" where in the Hebrew the in deserto Aschimon. words are, found me." And in the New Testament (Rom. iv. 1), "What shall we say then, that Abraham our father hath found?" that is, attained. Hopb.Aluit eum.

He led him about. So Patrick. Pool. He led him about; he conducted them from place to place by his cloudy pillar and providence. See Exod. xiii. 18, &c. Or, he compussed him about [so

Clarke, Rosen., Gesen.], by his provident up her nest.] Flutters over her brood to care over him, watching over him and pre-excite them to fly; or, as some think, disserving him on every side. Compare Ps. turbs her nest to oblige the young ones to xxxii. 7.

Ged., Booth. He protected them.
Houb. Aderat circum eum.
Rosen.--Circumdedit eum, ut instar muri
eum ab hostium incursu protegeret, conf.
Ps. xxxiv. 8; cxxv. 2; Zach. ii. 9.
He instructed him. So Patrick. i. e.,
Gave them his laws (Exod. xx. 1, 2, &c.;
xxxiv. 1, 10, &c.).

Gesen.-Pil. i. q. Kal no. 2, Deut.
xxxii. 10, he surrounded and
gave heed to him. Circumdedit et curavit eum.
Prof. Lee. Pih. 7, Made him dis-
cerning, gave him intelligence.
Rosen.—

plures vertunt erudivit eum,

leave it; so God by his plagues in Egypt obliged the Israelites, otherwise very reluctant, to leave a place which he appeared by his judgments to have devoted to destruction.

Fluttereth over her young.], yeracheph, broodeth over them, communicating to them a portion of her own vital warmth: so did God, by the influences of his Spirit, enlighten, encourage, and strengthen their minds. It is the same word which is used in Gen. i. 2.

Spreadeth abroad her wings, &c.] In order, not only to teach them how to fly, but to bear them when weary. For to this fact there seems an allusion, it having been ge

et de lege Israelitis a Deo data interpre- nerally believed that the eagle, through tantur. Sed mallem reddere curam ejus extraordinary affection for her young, takes gessit, collato Arabico 8 (pro) con- them upon her back when they are weary siderare aliquid per partes, h. c., adcuratius. Hoc curam omnimodam indicat, qua Deus omnibus rebus populi Israelitici prospexit. Ita ex antiquioribus interpp. etiam Syrus: et amore cum amplexus est.

of flying, so that the archers cannot injure them but by piercing the body of the mother. The same figure is used Exod. xix. 1; where see the note. The , nesher, which we translate eagle, is supposed by Mr. Bruce to mean the rachama, a bird remarkable for its affection to its young, which it is known actually to bear on its back when they are weary.

On

Pool.-11 Her nest, i. e., her young ones
in the nest, by a common metonymy.
her wings, or, as on her wings, i. e.,
gently, and tenderly, as if she carried
them not in her claws for fear of hurting
them, but upon her wings. So it is only an
ellipsis of the particle as, which is frequent,
as hath been showed. Though some say the
eagle doth usually carry her young ones
upon her wings.

Bp. Horsley.-
11" As the eagle stirreth up her nest,
Hovereth over her young;
Hefi.e., Jehovah] stretched his wings,
Le took him [i. e., Jacob] up,
He bore him on his pinions,

12

Jehovah alone conducted him," &c. The passage is rightly rendered by the Vulgate, and Houbigant.

11 As an cayle stirreth up her nest. So Bochart., Patrick, Gesen. As the cagle Vulg. 11 Sicut aquila provocans ad vostirreth up her nest, provokes her young to landum pullos suos, et super eos volitans, fly, Vulg., ad volandum. 777 Pic, to cle- expandit alas suas, et assumpsit cum, atque id one's young, to brood or her over portavit in humoris suis. 12 Dominus solus (comp. in 1. 2), as the eagle its young, dux ejus fuit, &e. Deut. xxxii. 11.--Geson.

Dr. A. Clarke.- 11 Is an eagle stirreth

Houb-Ut Aquila, nidum relinquens, supervolitat pullos suos ita expandit alas

suas, et eum assumens sustulit pennis suis. Bp. Patrick.-13 He made him ride on the 12 Dominus erat, solus qui eum abduceret. high places of the earth.] Brought the IsRosen.-11 Verba plures raelites in a triumphant manner to possess a vertunt: sicut aquila excitat nidum suum, noble country, full of lofty and very fruiti. e., pullitiem suam, sc. ad volandum. Sed ful mountains, which were in Canaan, where illum sensum non ferunt, quæ sequuntur: they lived deliciously. So to ride signifies, 7 phi, super pullis suis molli fotu in- as Bochartus thinks, laute et opipare vivere. cumbit. Nam dum pullos fovet aquila, ad Which he justifies by that place in Hosea volandum utique non provocat. Dein sub-x. 11, "I will make Ephraim to ride; Judah jicitur expansis alis tollit eos, gestat eos shall plough, and Jacob shall break his super pennis suis (vid. ad Ex. xix. 4). Hic clods;" that is, saith he, the people of Isdemum habes, quod pullos volare doceat. rael lived in pleasure, when Judah lived Propria autem vis verbi est in fervendo laboriously (par. i. Hierozoic., lib. i., (vid. N. G. Schroderi Orig. Hebrr., cap. ii., cap. 41). But to ride signifies, also, to p. 23), ut locus noster ita vertendus sit: subdue and conquer [so Pool]; which may quemadmodum aquila fervet nidum suum, be the meaning here, Ps. xlv. 4; lxvi. 12, i. e., pullitiem suam fervente complectitur and to have dominion and rule, as Maiamore. Similiter Latini dicunt ardere ali- monides interprets it, in his More Nevochim, quem, pro ardenter amare. Significatur par. i., cap. 70. In which sense it is said itaque hic flagrans Dei in populum suum of God himself, in the next chapter of this affectus, ex quo providi patris familiæ instar book, "He rideth upon the heavens for thy victum suis aliaque necessaria procurat. Ad help," ver. 26. And he rideth upon Araboth illustrandum figuram facit hie Eliani locus the highest heavens (Ps. lxviii. 4.) in Hist. Animal. ii. 40. Znλoтuñóτatov dé Dr. A. Clarke.-, he will cause him hy Coov ȧeròs πрòs тà veóτтia. Aquila erga to ride. All the verbs here are in the future pullos ferventissimi est amoris. Ubi animad- tense, because this is a prophecy of the vertendum, in Čŋλóτuños eandem esse meta-prosperity they should possess in the prophoram, quæ in, nam λos a Céw ferreo mised land. The Israelites were to ridedescendere constat. Quod ad rem cf. d. a. exult, on the high places, the mountains, u. n. Morgenl., p. ii., p. 53. 77, and hills of their land, in which they are Et super pullis incubat. 7, coll. consono promised the highest degrees of prosperity; verbo Arab., proprie est massam forendo, as even the rocky part of the country should emollire, hinc de avibus usurpatum, molli | be rendered fertile by the peculiar benedicfotu incubare. Conf. ad Gen. i. 2. Pulchretion of God. hac imagine pingitur illa tenerrima Dei cura, Rosen.—13 g mig man, l'exit eum qua populum a se amatum molliter tractavit super excelsa terræ, quibus verbis interpp. et formavit. expansionem alarum plures significari putant, duxisse Deum Isaquila in pullos suos, ad cos tum fovendos raclitas ad regionem montanam, i. e., Patum defendendos notat.

Ver. 13.

ר' יתירה

קמיין בז 'ק

læstinam, quæ ita appelletur a montibus, quibus fere ab omnibus partibus circumdatur. Sed alia loca, quibus eadem phrasis legitur, Jes. lviii. 14; Am. iv. 13; Hab. iii. 19; Ps. xviii. 34, suadent illam potius hoc dicere: in loca tutissima, hostibus inaccessa, eum duxi, phrasi desumta a victore prædominante, qui equo aut curu vectus bellum gerens occupat montes, arces, munimenta eaque sibi subjicit. in 2, Ut comederet proaveißarer avrois ènì Tỳ løxiv Ths vis. ventus agrorum. est fructus naturalis, ἐψώμισεν αὐτοὺς γεννήματα ἀγρῶν. ἐθήλασαν ] ut cuique terra sua est indoles, germen ; μέλι ἐκ πέτρας, καὶ ἔλαιον ἐκ στερεᾶς πέτρας. proventus continuo progerminans, a 2, Au. Ver.—13 He made him ride on the germinavit. i. q. 7, forma stylo poehigh places of the earth, that he might eat tico priva, vid. ad Ps. viii. 8.

the increase of the fields; and he made him,

to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock.

Honey. See notes on Gen. xliii. 11. Rosen.--, Sugere eum fecit, i. e., lactavit cum melle de petra. Nonnulli