this custom was so ancient as Moses. Or, blessing to them all, before he begins to 2. To the place where the people waited speak in particular to each tribe: for that is when the law was delivered, which was at meant by "the Lord came from Sinai; " the foot of the mount. Shall receive of thy where he appeared in a most particular words; the people, easily understood from manner, and from thence promulgated his the foregoing words, did or will receive or law with the greatest solemnity (Exod. xx.). submit to thy instructions and commands. He came with ten thousands of saints.] Or, This may respect either, 1. The people's as our Mr. Mede thinks it shouid be transpromise when they heard the law, that they lated, "with his holy ten thousands," or would hear and do all that was commanded," myriads;" that is, attended with an inDeut. v. 27. Or, 2. The people's duty to do numerable company of angels, who waited $0. 3. The people's privilege, that they were on him at the giving of the law. See admitted to receive so great a privilege as the Psalm lxviii. 7; Dan. vii. 10, of which words and laws of God were. Enoch, perhaps, prophesied in part, Jude 4 Moses commanded us a law.] Moses 14, 15. And from hence it may be thought, speaks this of himself in the third person, that notion of the Jewish doctors, followed which is very usual in the Hebrew language. by St. Stephen and St. Paul, that the law The law is called their inheritance, partly was given by angels, had its beginning because the obligation of it was hereditary, (Mede, book ii., p. 437); that is, they atpassing from parents to their children, and tended upon God as his ministers when he partly because this was the best part of all himself gave the law. their inheritance and possessions, the greatest | Went a fiery law for them.] For the law of all those gifts and favours which God bestowed upon them. of Moses was given out of the midst of fire, and therefore called a fire of law, as the 5 And he was king in Jeshurun.] Moses words are in the Hebrew (Exod. xix. 16, 18; [Jarchi, Rosen., He, i. c., God; see below] Deut. iv. 11, 12; v. 22–24). The cabalists was their king, not in title, but in reality, (as Reuchlin observes) fancy that God being under God their supreme and uncon-wrote the law in a globe of fire, and sent it trollable governor and lawgiver: though the to them. But the Jerusalem Targum is word oft signifies only a prince or chief more sober, which thus expounds it, "He ruler, as Judg. xix. 1; Jer. xix. 3; xlvi. 25. In Jeshurun, i. e., in Israel, so called Deut. xxxii. 15. When the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together when the princes and people met together for the management of public affairs, Moses was owned by them as their king and lawgiver, and he directed and ruled them as their superior. This he saith to show that the people approved and consented to the authority and law of Moses. stretched his right hand out of the midst of flames of fire, and gave the law unto his people." And Onkelos still better, "The law written with his right hand he gave us out of the midst of fire." Or, as Campeg. Vitringa would have this latter part of the verse translated, "On his right hand a fire, and out of the fire a law for them." The meaning being, that God came to Mount Sinai with that fire; for, in Scripture, to be on the right hand of any one, is to accompany him (lib. ii. Observ. Sacr., cap. 4). Bp. Patrick.-1 The man of God.] Or, "the prophet of the Lord," as Onkelos By the conclusion of this verse it is aptranslates it: for prophets are called men of parent, that the former part of it belongs God in the holy books (1 Sam. ix. 6-8; entirely to God's mercy unto the children of 1 Kings xiii. 1; 1 Tim. vi. 11; 2 Tim. iii. 17; Israel, upon whom he bestowed his law, in 2 Pet. i. 21), because, in the exercise of their most illustrious tokens of his presence. sacred function, they did not deliver their Which makes it highly probable, that his own sense, nor the sense of other men, but the "rising up from Seir upon them, and shining mind and will of God who spake by them. from Mount Paran," belongs to the same 2 The Lord came from Sinai.] In the matter; that is, the cloud wherein he defirst place, he endeavours to make them scended on Sinai, with a vast host of angels, sensible of what God had done already for extended itself so far, as to cover the neighthem; and the chief of all of his benefits bouring mountains of Seir and Paran. being the revelation of his mind and will to Though the meaning may be, as I have them, he commemorates that as a common shown, that he continued his presence with them after they went from Sinai, through all their journeys in the wilderness of Seir and Paran, till they came to the place where they now were. 3 And they sat down at thy feet.] The first word (which we translate sat down) being nowhere else found but here and Isa. i. 5, where it plainly hath another sense, hath occasioned various interpretations of this sentence. But most agree in this of Sol Jarchi, that as scholars sat at the feet of their master round about him, while he taught them their lesson, so the people encompassed the mount where God was, and heard his law, which he thence delivered. But it is a question, whether there was such a custom of scholars in those days; and the people did not sit, but stood at the foot of the mount (Exod. xx. 18). Therefore Onkelos understands this of their sitting down, or pitching their tents, where the glorious cloud that led them rested (Numb. x. 12, 33). Every one shall receive of thy words.] This still is commonly referred to the people's receiving the law. But Onkelos thinks it hath respect to their journeys at the commandment of the Lord" (Numb. x. 13). For so he interprets it, "They went forward according to thy word." And so the Jerusalem Targum expounds these and the foregoing words; Behold, they were led, and came to the foot of his cloud, and went forward and rested, according to the command of his word." It takes in also the other sense of the word tucchu (as it signifies smiting in Isa. i. 5) in this manner, "Though he inflicted many chastisements upon them, yet they did not cease, nor desist from the doctrine of the law." The inheritance of the congregation of And he became king in Jeshurun; Together with the tribes of Israel. The general nature of this solemn introduction is to shew the foundation, which Moses had for blessing his brethren; namely, because God had frequently manifested his glory in their favour. And the several parts 5. And he was king in Jeshurun.] Or, “for of this introduction are disposed in the folhe was king," that is, under God, the lowing order-The manifestation of the supreme ruler and governor of Israel; and Divine glory on Sinai, as it was prior in therefore, in his name, and by his authority, time and more magnificent in splendour, is required them to observe these laws. Ken.-1-5 These verses being remarkably unintelligible, the following correction and translation are offered, with deference, to the learned. properly mentioned first-That God manifested his glory at Seir, is evident from Judg. v. 4: "Lord, when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of the fields of Edom; the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped," &c. The next place is Paran; where "the glory of the Lord ap ו וזאת הברכה אשר ברך משה pired before all the children of Israel איש האלהים את בני ישראל לפני 2 יהוה מסיני בא וזרח משעיר למו : 3 הופיע מהר פארן (Numb. xiv. 10). And we read (Numb. xx. 1) that, towards the end of the forty years, they came to Kadesh, which we learn from ver. 13 was called Meribah, on account of their contentious opposition to the deter minations of God in their favour; and there signify; the regular word being, and it occurs in the third line following. Farther if could properly be translated saints; then, according to the rules of language, the relative pronoun, next following, could have no other antecedent : and hence it will follow, that the fiery law (generally supposed to be expressed in the next words) was given to these saints-he came with ten thousands of saints (i. e., angels) "from his right hand went a fiery law for them. Besides; the word saints the glory of the Lord again appeared, as we from his right hand a, מינינו אש דת למו .2 is רת 1. The words cannot regularly signify with ten thousands of saints; because|fire of law for them. The word the general senses of are ab and absque Chaldee; and is not found in any book writ (as in the three instances just before it in the before the captivity, but in this place: and same verse) and because 7 is not saints but here it is used very obscurely, because it holiness. But Moses seems in this, as in follows ; for certainly a fire of law (if we each of the preceding lines, to have given examine the ideas closely) is a phrase not the name of a place; and 7 is the constant very intelligible. But farther: the blessing name for Kadesh, otherwise called Meribah- of the law is gratefully acknowledged in Kadesh: and indeed the word is in this very ver. 4, where the law is expressed by its place rendered by the LXX, Kaons. In the proper word 7; and therefore we may eighth verse of this chapter it is called 7272, presume it was not intended here in ver. 2, Meribah; but, in the fifty-first verse of the and expressed by the Chald. word -a former, we have w 1272, Meribah-Kadesh :| word, which is not here acknowledged by the and so in Ezek. xlvii. 19, p man, but in Greek and Syr. versions. And that was ch. xlviii. 28, -exactly the same not originally the word here, may be farther as in the instance just quoted from the presumed, because one of the Sam. MSS., chapter preceding, and as in the instance No. 51, reads ; and in another, No. 50, before us, excepting the change of one letter. the ran is placed over the word, as if omitted. The three preceding lines then containing each the name of a place, and these two words being (with the change of a single letter) the name of a fourth place, from whence also the Divine glory was manifested in the wilderness; it seems preferable to consider these words as implying this place, rather than to translate Habakkuk-C, saints, which it does not properly These several reasons concurring against the present reading, let us see what prospect there may be of a rational emendation; and perhaps the true sense of this difficult place may be best illustrated by its parallel place, in the sublime and justly-celebrated ode of אלוה מתימן יבוא 3 originally completed this proposition. And, amidst the uncommon confusion of interpreters and commentators, the Sam. version alone seems to have preserved it. For that version, which in general exactly expresses the words of the text, reads the line here, וקדוש מהר פארן כסה שמים הודו ותהלתו מלאה הארץ : 4 ונגה כאור תהיה קרנים מידו לו ושם חביון עזה : מימינו so that the first word מימינה נור אורה לון 3 God came from Teman, And the Holy One from Mount Paran; His glory covered the heavens, And the earth was full of his praise. 4 And his brightness was as the sun; The splendours (issuing forth) from his hand, For there was the manifestation of his power. being the very same, and the second being the Chald. word for , we have the third which) אש to agree with אור or אורה word . דות is sometimes of the masculine and sometimes of the feminine gender), and this word fills up the line, instead of the present irregular word 7, or as it has been sometimes writ And indeed this various reading in the Sam. MSS. strongly confirms this correction; for, whence can the in be derived, but Before this passage be applied, it may be from the middle of the original word, proper to offer a few observations upon it. which has been corrupted in its other two As 8, in Job xxxi. 26, signifies the sun letters? One of the other letters (7) is very (which, being the principal source of light similar to, and therefore may easily have through this system, may properly be called been mistaken for : and (which is exlight, or the light, Kar' egoxnv), that ren- tremely observable) the sense with this verb dering seems to improve the sense here. perfectly coincides with the words of As is derived from 77, splendere, radios Habakkuk before cited; there it is "the splendoris emittere, it is much better ren- splendours (issuing forth) from his hand;" dered here splendours than horns. And as and here-" the fire shone forth upon them the hand, and right hand, and arm, are from his right hand." It having been just expressions frequently applied to God, upon presumed, that the in is the middle any signal display of the Divine power, letter of , we may remark, that this verb perhaps the hand of God cannot so properly has the in the preter tense; as appears be said to hide and conceal, as to exert and from Buxt. Thesaur., pag. 208, where we manifest his power and majesty; and that read—78 "Cholem per totum præteritum the verb, from whence the noun 7 is retinet." derived, had this idea of showing forth, is 3. The next line, that requires illustration, evident from several places in the Samaritan is 17, omnes sancti ejus in manu Version; as Gen. xli. 25, what God is about tud; and certainly if ever a line wanted to do he hath discovered (or, made illustration, we have such a one now before known) to Pharaoh. In this illustrious passage then, which is parallel, or at least remarkably similar, to that of Moses, we see the brightness or splendour is poetically represented as streaming from the hand of God; that awful hand, which is mighty in operation, and has so often manifested the Divine power to a wondering world. Three, therefore, of the four words here seem to be determined; for, as in Habakkuk the brightness streams from the hand of God, so here the fire proceeds from, or kindles at, the right hand of Jehovah. מימינו אש......ימו [ us. Moses, speaking of Jehovah, is here supposed to say "Truly he loved the people, all his saints are in thy hand!" But whose saints? And in whose hand? According to the Vulgate the line should be 172 1977, all his saints are in his hand; and the Chaldee paraphrase gives the same sense. This indeed somewhat mends the matter; but yet the Syr. version scems to have preserved the truer reading, which is 4:D scopo posadoo וכל קרשיו ברך Et omnibus sanctis suis benedixit. This reading of 7 instead of 772 is a very From his right hand a fire......to them. small variation, as to the letters; but it It only remains then to consider here, makes a great improvement in the sense of what was most probably the word, which the line, which is now made perfectly to agree with the context- Truly he loved the manded Moses and you? And if such people, and he blessed all his saints." This language would be absolutely absurd, no reading is confirmed by the Sam. version, friend to the character of Moses will, I supwhich has ; which cannot signify in pose, insist upon its having dropped from manu tua, but seems to be T with the him on this solemn occasion. But farther: addition of to express the Kametz, and a if Moses could have been the person here 7 for a 7. The addition of before the first spoken of (as well as the person here speakword has the authority, not only of the ing) he must be also the person intended in Syr. version, but also of the Sam. text. the next verse, as king of Jeshurun or Israel. But this is a title, which he never assumed, or rather disclaimed; see Deut. xvii. 14; and indeed God himself was the only king of Israel before Saul: see 1 Sam. viii. 7, &c. 4. The words and should probably be and ; because it seems necessary to the sense, that the pronoun here suffixed should be of the third person. There can be no doubt, but the authors of the Greek version read the latter Tis very probable then, that this word word 7, as they have rendered it año has been inserted by mistake, on account of Twv λoywv avtov: and the Vulgate has the its remarkable likeness to the very next for ; מירשה or מרשה and מישה or משה-pronoun in the third person, in both in- word transcriber of MS. 4 (2 Kings xv. 17) finding some copies had 1, Ozihu and others 77, Ozriku, has inserted both; and as Camb. MS. 1 has rs, Maoth and res, moth, in Ezek. xlv. 2; and lastly, as in the printed text of Isaiah xii. 2, are inserted have been inserted 7, Moshe, and T, Morshe.-- Kennicott's Dissertation on 1 Chron. xi., page 123, &c. stances; reading-pedibus ejus, and doctrina other instances may be produced, where a illius. The variation seems to have been letter having been negligently omitted or introduced by some ignorant transcriber, added, transcribers have afterwards inserted who altered these two words, to make them both the proper and improper word, that agree with 772, which had been before cor- they might be sure of having the true readrupted from T. (See page 417.) The ing in one of them. Wherefore, as the context is uniformly in the third personJehovah came-he arose-he shone-he loved -he blessed consequently the sense here should be--they sat down (not at thy, but) at his feet, and received of his words. The first of these nouns, though singular in the printed Hebrew, is plural not only in the, Jah and m, Jehovah; so here may Sam. text, but in Heb. MSS. 1, 5, 11, 12, 14, 63; in Camb. 2; and in Erfurt 1, 2, 3, 4. 5. That the verb & should be w, will be soon evident; because it follows a verb Kennicott's Posthumous Remarks.-Deut. plural, refers likewise to time past, and has xxxiii. 1--5. This introduction to the final the same plural nominative case. Accord- benediction by Moses is generally considered ingly we find, that in the Sam. Pentateuch the as relating only to the Israelites. But the word is 8, which undoubtedly was at learned Father Houbigant seems justly to first ; not only because the, which is suppose, that it relates also to the rest of preserved in the Hebrew, is necessary, but mankind, as not excluded from the Divine because the word in the Sam. version is regard; but who were all to be favoured, in , et acceperunt. The Syr., Ar., and future times, with the revelation of God's Chald. versions have this verb in the plural number, with the conjunction preceding it. The omission of both at the beginning and end of this word is just such another corruption, as has been remarked, page 167; . יבנידי is writ instead of בניה where 6. That Moses should (in this his final blessing) speak of himself by name, in the third person, is very improbable: and, as the pronoun, nobis, occurs in the some line, it seems impossible. For could Moses say-Moses commanded us, i. c., Moses commanded me and you, i. e., Moses com will, as certainly as Israel had been already. And he arose from Seir upon them; for them. 3 Truly he loveth () the nations, And all that are holy he will bless: |