And no man reproveth:

And as is the provocation of the priest, so is that of my people.

clarative, and translates thus: " And particularly there is none that argueth, nor doth any man admonish." See also Syr.

The Arabic of the polyglot reads TN for 78, and furnishes an animated translation:

How doth no man contend,

And no man reprove!

And as-] The English translators render, "For thy people are as they that strive with the priest:" a conduct contrary to Deut. xvii. 12. But Houbigant objects that it could not be a crime to contend with idolatrous priests: and translates, "Nam populus tuus sequitur rebellionem sacerdotum:" and, word for word, "Nam populus tuus ut rebelliones sacerdotis." But the word does not occur as a plural substantive for rebellions, strivings, contentions. And thy people is abrupt.

ó. Arab. read my people, agreeably to . 6, 8, 12. And the Berlin MS. n. 150, ascribed by the learned Bruns to the 13th. century, reads ; as the contention, striving, provocation. Thus the sense will be, My people are as dead to all sense of duty as their idolatrous priests; whose conduct in departing from Jehovah is peculiarly aggravated.

An elegant reading would arise from transposing the letters in the first word;

וכעס כמריבת כהן :

And as is the people, so is the provocation of the priest. Or, by a different punctuation of we may render,

"And my people is as the priest who contendeth with me." See Job x. 2. and Ps. cxix. 42. nhu 2 Sam. xxiv. 13. Buxt. thes. Gramm. 512.

The guilt of the people, instructed and forewarned by my prophets, is as detestable and aggravated as that of the priest. I have since found that this is in part the rendering of Moerlius:

"Et populus tuus (est) sicut litigans mecum sacerdos." "By no means let any one expostulate, nor let any one reprove; for thy people are exactly like those who will contend with the priest." Horsley's ver. Note. "To contend with the priest, the authorized interpreter of the law, and the typical intercessor between God and the people, was the highest species of contumacy and disobedience, and by the law was a capital offence. See Deut, xvii. 12." Horsley.

But thou shalt fall in the day;

And the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night :
And I will cut off thy mother-city.

My people are cut off for want of knowledge.
Because thou hast rejected knowledge,

I will also reject thee from being a priest unto me:
And because thou hast forgotten the law of thy God,
I will also forget thy sons.

Even according to their multitude * have they
sinned against me.

*Hebr. so have.

5.-in the day] When it is least probable. Thou shalt fall, when thou thinkest thy state secure and prosperous. Comp Jer. xxiii. 12. Deut. xxviii. 29.

-the prophet] The false prophet.

-in the night] His revelations, to which he pretends in the night, shall be delusive and dangerous ones. Comp. Mic. iii.

6. See Pocock.

-thy mother-city] So Corn. a Lapide, Capellus. and Houbigant. Pocock also approves of this sense. See 2 Sam. XX. 19. Samaria is meant. Moerlius leads us to conjecture y thy people. Chald. has thy assembly. "Therefore thou shalt fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will cut off thy mother." Note. "The last sentence was addressed to the prophet-thy people, O prophet. This is to the people themselves: Thou, O stubborn people." Jerusalem is meant. For Samaria was the metropolis of the kingdom of the ten tribes, not of the whole nation, the chil dren of Israel in general." Horsley.

hast rejected]" Since the person threatened was to be rejected from being a Priest; he was a Priest, at the time when he was threatened: otherwise he had not been a subject of rejection. The person threatened therefore must have been the head, for the time being, of the true Levitical Priesthood, not of the intruded Priesthood of Jeroboam. This is a proof, that the metropolis, threatened with excision, is Jerusalem, not Samaria; and that the ten tribes exclusively are not the subject of this part of the Prophecy." Horsley.

6. I will reject] Instead of the anomalous word &NDNN, near one hundred MSS. or editions read DNI.

7. multitude] Their defection is general. Their acts of idolatry are in proportion to their number. "Were magnified,

8

9

10

I will change their glory into shame.
They eat the sin-offerings of my people;
And they set their heart on their iniquity.
And it shall be, as with the people so with the
priest,

And I will visit upon them their ways,

And their doings will I recompence unto them.
And they shall eat, but shall not be satisfied:
They shall commit fornication, but shall not in-

crease.

For they have left off giving heed unto Jehovah:

15. The word is applicable to increase in any way, either in size, numbers, power, or wealth, &c. See Drusius and Luther on the place. But as the Priests were greatly magnified in dignity and power, and there is no reason to suppose, that they were multiplied by natural increase, in a greater proportion than the rest of the people; I think the thing intended here is the elevation of the order in civil rank and authority." Horsley.

8. -the sin offerings] of these they gladly partake, without discouraging the people from the sins which occasion them. Lev. vi. 26. One MS. reads on with V. ó. Ar.

-Their heart] For the phrase of lifting up the soul, that is, setting the heart, see Deut. xxiv. 15. Jer. xxii. 27. V. ó. Ar. Syr. Chald. read : and this reading is confirmed by one edition, eight MSS: and perhaps one more. Two MSS. read so originally.

The priests are spoken of from "Because, &c." in v. 6.
9. upon them] by i. e. the people. As v. 12.

10.—giving heed] Hebr. observing. So Virg. Georg. iv. 210.
Præterea regem non sic Ægyptus, &c.

Observat. See Ps. xxxvii. 37. After referring to the versions, Secker adds," Vix puto y infinitivum cum regere; vel hominem dici Deum, sed Dei mandata, servare." "Because they have forsaken the JEHOVAH, to devote themselves to dalliance and wine, and the intoxicating juice, which take possession of the heart." Horsley's ver. "With respect to Secker's query, it is certain that never once occurs as the object of the verb ; and after a nice examination, I scruple not to assert, that the verb ay never governs its immediate object, the person or

11

12

13

Fornication, and wine, and choice wine, take away their heart.

My people ask counsel at their stocks,

And their staff declareth unto them.

For the spirit of fornications hath caused them to err;
And they have committed fornication, and have
revolted from under their God.

On the tops of the mountains they sacrifice,
And on the hills they burn incense;

Under the oak, and the poplar, and the green oak,
§ Hebr. Or, inquire.

thing forsaken, abandoned, or left off, with the prefix . It follows of necessity, that the order of construction cannot be that which our public translation demands. Namely, this, y

,לשמר את יהוה,,For in this order, the sentence .לשמר את יהוה

is the object of the verb y, and connects with the verb by the prefix 5.

"The verb y always governs its immediate object without any prefix. But when a noun, following this verb, is connected with it by, the noun expresses either the person to whom, i. e. to whose possession, use, and advantage, or the thing in return for which, as a more desired object, or the end and purpose for which, or, the time for which, the dereliction is made. Ps. xlix. 11. Is. xviii. 6." Horsley.

11. -take away] has this signification. Ezek. xxiii. 26, 29. xxxviii. 13. Joel iii. 5. It also signifies to win, or allure. Prov. vi. 25. Syr. renders by a word signifying portavit, sustulit, abstulit, præcidit: and also supplies the pronoun their. -heart] Understanding.

12. stocks] Idols of wood. As Jer. ii. 27. Hab. ii. 19. -staff] This refers to the divination by rods, or staves, which was anciently practised in the east. On one staff was written, God bids; on the other, God forbids. See Pocock.

-from their God] The Hebrew phrase occurs more at length 2 Chron. xxi. 8. The Edomites revolted from under the hand [power, dominion] of Judah.

13.-mountains] This was the custom of the nations. Deut.xii,2. -oak] The original word, says Celsius, is from robur: which is the Latin word for the oak, on account of its hardness and strength.

-poplar] Properly the white poplar, from white.

-green oak] Or ilex. See Bishop Lowth on Isai. i. 29.

14

15

Because the shade thereof is good

Therefore your daughters commit fornication,
And your wives commit adultery.

Shall not I visit your daughters because they
commit fornication?

And your wives, because they commit adultery?
Because they separate themselves with harlots,
And sacrifice with strumpets?

Therefore the people, which understandeth not,
shall fall.

If thou commit fornication, O Israel,
Yet let not Judah offend.

And come ye not unto Gilgal,

Neither go ye up to Bethaven :

Or. punish. Hebr. visit upon.

Therefore your daughters] "Since thus it is, let your daughters play the wanton, and your daughters-in-law commit adultery." Horsley's ver. Note. "This I take to be the force of

6

5. The phrase is more emphatical than therefore,' in the English language, or than the simple copula in the Hebrew. It refers distinctly to what has gone before concerning the manners of the people, as the ground of God's dealing with them in the manner declared in what follows." Horsley.

14. Shall I not visit-] See & for Nold. § 3. "I will not visit upon your daughters, when they play the wanton; nor upon your daughters-in-law, when they commit adultery. Because themselves separate themselves with harlots, and sacrifice with the women set apart to prostitution." Horsley's ver.

est animal ex iis פרד 6

-separate themselves] Unnaturally, from those with whom they ought to have united themselves. parentibus natum, qui a naturali consorte separantur, ut cum alienis copulentur." Boch. Hieroz. p. 231.

strumpets] Persons consecrated, as it were to flagitiousness. --fall] From the Arab. affligere terræ, conjicere in terram. Pass. concidit, prostratus fuit. See Schultens on Job x. 8. whó renders the word, Cecus & præceps ruit.

"Here the chapter ought to end." Horsley.

15. Gilgal] See on Am. iv. 4.

-Bethaven] Either a place in the neighbourhood of Bethel, Josh. vii. 2; or rather Bethel itself; c. x. 5; here called, by way of derision and contempt, Bethaven, The house of iniquity, in

R