His-glory covered the-heavens;
And-his-splendour filled the-earth,"

"The author proceeds to observe, that in some verses certain words occur, which make no part of the measures, or are not taken into the account of the verse. As in the Song of Deuteronomy:

"And-he-said:

I-will-hide my-face from-them :"

a

the word, 'And-he-said,' stands by itself, and the remaining words make a trimeter :

"I-will-see, what-is their-latter-end,"

a So far the observation seems to be just: and perhaps there may be two more examples of it in the same poem, ver. 26th and 37th, where, according to Azarias' doctrine, the words, “I said ;” “ And he shall say " may conveniently enough be considered as making no part of the verse. So in Isaiah the common forms, "Thus saith Jehovah ;""And it shall come to pass in that day;" and the like; probably are not always to be reckoned as making part of the measure, The period in the fourth Lamentation cannot well be divided into two lines, as it ought to be; but if the words php, "they cried unto them;" and, "they said among the heathen," are excluded from the measure; the remainder will make two lines of just length;

"Depart, ye are polluted, depart; depart ye, forbear to touch:

Yea, they are fled, they are removed; they shall dwell here no more.”

Or perhaps they may be two marginal interpretations, which by mistake have got into the text; which, I think, is better without them. So likewise, Lam. ii. 15. the word **, "of-which-they-said," either does not reckon in the verse, which with it is too long; or, as I rather think, should be omitted, as an interpolation.

is the trimeter answering to it. So in the prayer of Habakkuk :

"O-Jehovah,

I-have-heard thy-speech; I-was-afraid ;
O-Jehovah,

Revive thy-work in-the-midst-of-the-years :" "

the word, 'O-Jehovah,' is twice to be read separate; and the words added to it make a trimeter. But this verse;

"Though the-fig-tree shall-not blossom;"

is of a different sort, consisting of the subject and predicate:Though the-fig-tree,' being the subject; shall-not blossom,' the predicate. So in a verse containing twelve terms, those terms may be reduced to six measures. For you are not to reckon, either the syllables, or the words; but only the things. And for this reason a particle is often joined to the word next to it. The verses of the Psalms observe the same order:

Have-mercy-upon-me, O-God, according-to-thygoodness;

с

According-to-the-multitude-of-thy-mercies, blot-out

my-transgressions."

In order to make out the trimeter, it is necessary to suppose, that Azarias

.as one word בקרב שנים reads

Azarias takes the liberty of joining the two words Tn together by a Maccaph, which is not to be found in our editions, in order to bring the

These are trimeters. So likewise;

"In-God I-will-praise his-word: In-Jehovah I-will-praise his-word."

So likewise the Proverbs of Solomon:

"Wisdom crieth without;

In-the-streets she-uttereth her-voice."

"I am aware, adds he, that some verses are to be found, which I cannot accommodate to these rules and forms; and perhaps a great number. But by observing these things, the intelligent may perhaps receive new light, and discover what has escaped me. However, they may be assured, that all the verses, that are found in the sacred writings; such as the Song at the Red Sea, on the Well, of Moses, of Deborah, of David, of the book of Job, the Psalms, and the Proverbs; all of them have an established order and measure; different in different places; or even sometimes different in one and the same poem: as we may perceive in reading them an admirable propriety and fitness; though we cannot arrive at the true method of measuring or scanning them."

verse within his rules. The reader will observe, that this distich, which in the Hebrew contains but seven words, cannot be rendered in English in less than one and twenty words. By this he will judge, under what great disadvantage all the foregoing examples, whether of the parallelism, or of the metre of things, must appear in an English version, in which many words are almost always necessary to render what is expressed by one word in Hebrew.

"It is not to be wondered, that the same song should consist of different measures: for the case is the same in the poetry of the Greeks and Romans; they suited their measures to the nature of the subject and the argument: and the variations, which they admitted, were accommodated to the motions of the body, and the affections of the soul. Every kind of measure is not proper for every subject: and an ode, a panegyric, or a prayer, should not be composed in the same measure with an elegy. Do not you observe, says he, in the book of Lamentations of Jeremiah, that the periods of the first and second chapters each of them consist of three propositions; and every one of these of a subject, and a predicate, and of the adjuncts belonging to them? The third chapter follows the same method; and for this reason is placed next to them in order: but of this chapter every period is distributed into three initial letters. But the fourth chapter does not perfect the senses in every verse; but consists of

a

a He said above, that in the 1st and 2d chapters each separate verse, or line, was a single proposition: he now says, that this is not the case in the 4th chapter; for it does not perfect the sense in every verse; that is, each verse does not consist of one single proposition. As for example, the first line, or verse:

66

"How is obscured the gold! changed the fine gold!"

"How is obscured the gold!" makes one proposition, and two measures; changed the fine gold!" another proposition, and two other measures; which, according to him, make a tetrameter. This, he says, makes the difference between the three first and the 4th chapter. But there seems to be no such difference; many single lines in the three first containing two propositions, and many in the 4th containing only one.

two and two, which make four. But the fifth chapter, which contains a prayer, you will find to be built on another plan: that is, one and one, which make two; or a dimeter: like the verses of the books of Job, Psalms, and Proverbs. So the Song of Moses, and the Song of Deborah, have a different form; consisting of three and three, which make six; that is, hexameters ; like the heroic measure, which is the noblest of all measures."

66

Upon the whole, the author concludes, that the poetical parts of the Hebrew Scriptures are not composed according to the rules and measures of certain feet, dissyllables,. trisyllables, or the like, as the poems of the modern Jews are: but nevertheless have undoubtedly other measures which depend on things, as above explained. For which reason, they are more excellent than those, which consist

b

a According to the author's own definition of his terms, "one and one which make two," should mean, one term and one term making two measures, or a dimeter: but the 5th chapter does not at all seem to answer that description. Besides, he says, the verses of it are like those of Job, Psalms, and Proverbs, of two of which books he said before, that the verses were trimeters. I know not what he means, unless it be that one and one sentences make two, that is a distich; and that this chapter consists of distichs, of two short lines, as the books of Job, Psalms, and Proverbs, for the most part do; which is

true.

Perhaps the harmony might depend in some degree on both: for it may be often observed, that where the words of a hemistich happen to be longer, and consequently to consist of more syllables than the words of the adjoining hemistich, there the things expressed are fewer. See for example, Psal. cviii. 4, 5. Which seems to prove, that the measures of the verses did not depend on the things expressed only, but on the syllables also.