sitions appear to be involved, only because the peculiar resources of their art, of which they made constant use, are either not contemplated or not understood by the general readers of Scripture. I therefore think that a proper understanding of the poetry of the Bible will throw more light upon the difficulties of the prophetical portions of that divine book, which are nearly all poetical, than studying the best commentaries ever written, which often contain the most extravagant speculations, especially where obscurity gives latitude for the exercise of an enthusiastic but ill-governed fancy.

Before I bring this chapter to a conclusion, I would direct the reader's attention to the figure employed in the fifth line, "Our hand is high." It has great force of signification: indeed it may be said, almost without a metaphor, to teem with meaning. Our "hand," that is, our power, is not like the power of men, but like that of God, mighty to destroy. This the heathen felt no shame in saying, for nothing could exceed their arrogance, and the Deity was unwilling to give them any additional cause to display it; he well knew how capable they were of manifesting the loftiest presumption. To him their haughty pride was no secret. They were in the habit of magnifying the power of. those idols which their own hands had fashioned, and of assuming for them an equality with him who created the material out of which they were constructed; thus extolling their own might in magnifying that of their gods. They claimed for themselves that sufficiency of power which

They were at all "their hand was

belongs alone to Omnipotence, assuming in their own persons the capability of doing what the Deity only could accomplish. times ready to maintain that high," and for this reason it was that the mighty Jehovah levelled them with the dust, frequently heaping upon them the most dreadful calamities. It is no wonder then that he forbore to exterminate his people Israel, lest their foes should not only triumph over them, but declare their own power to have been the cause of such triumph.

We have a common expression in use among us at this day, which approaches very near to the signification of that employed in the sacred text, and probably was originally adopted from it, for it has all the character of an oriental idiom. How often do we hear it said in common parlance, when a person boasts of something which he has accomplished out of the ordinary course of achievement, or when he assumes the character of potential influence"he carries it with a high hand," implying the assumption of superiority far above what is found generally to exist in the ordinary relationship betwixt man and man.

CHAPTER XX.

The prophetic ode continued.

IN what follows we have a remarkable example of that abrupt change of person so often observable in the Hebrew writings, especially in the poetical sections of them. The poet had, to the end of the passage quoted in the last chapter, represented the Deity as personally declaring his determination to visit the Israelites with terrible penalties as a just and reasonable punishment for their manifold offences. He now suddenly breaks off and speaks in his own person, apostrophizing his degenerate countrymen with great tenderness.

O that they were wise,

That they understood this,

That they would consider their latter end!
How should one chase a thousand,

And two put ten thousand to flight,
Except their Rock had sold them,

And the Lord had shut them up?

For their rock is not as our Rock,

Even our enemies themselves being judges.

There is considerable artifice of construction in the whole of these very pathetic lines, there

being a remarkable conformity in the hemistichs generally, besides a separate but close correspondency in several of the members.

O that they were wise,

That they understood this,

That they would consider their latter end!

Moses, in terms of the tenderest reproach, laments the perverseness of his countrymen, who, in spite of the numerous warnings they had received, would not take heed to their ways and turn their thoughts to that advancing future when the divine judgments were so awfully threatened; as if he had said, 'oh, that this perverse people would take warning by the chastisements to which they have already been subjected for their numerous defalcations and revolts, and carry their thoughts forward into the latter times-that is, into remote ages to come, when the prophecy which I have just delivered shall be consummated. Such a timely consideration would, perhaps, awe their stubborn hearts and bring them back to their former affiance in the divine love.'

The gradations of sense in this triplet cannot escape observation

O that they were wise,

that they had the requisite prudence to direct their minds to this subject, that they would think more of the future than of the present, and ponder the dreadful consequences of sin, rather than the animal gratification which it procures, the

one being infinitely permanent, the other in the highest degree transitory.

That they understood this.

They must first apply their minds to apprehend before they can understand it; they must become "wise" before they could relieve themselves, with God's grace, from their foolishness; they must acquire wisdom to think before they can have sagacity to understand:-they must do the one before they could be in a condition to do the other. Having acquired this understanding, a third process of the mind is demanded from them-that they would consider. Until they had arrived at a perfect understanding of the subject, they could not tell what would result from it. They were first then to apply their mental faculties to a right appreciation of divine judgments, and having acquired a just comprehension of their object and tendency, to consider future consequences: There is, in this triplet, a series of three dependant clauses, rising gradually in the order of climax, as will be perceived from the explanation just given. How much more expressive and forcible is this arrangement than that of Herder, who has thrown the passage into a single distich, in which the parallelism is exceedingly feeble and indistinct:

O! that they were wise to understand this,
That they would consider their latter end.

In this arrangement of the clauses, there is much