of land than they had at first. The Hebrew | heightened by the ornaments of dress. For word banoth, which we translate boughs, this we have no one word in our language. literally signifying daughters; some think It is true, that ND occurs in the sense of that, as he speaks of the sons of Joseph in" a bough," in which our public translation the foregoing part of the verse, so in this he takes it in this place. But this sense of the speaks of his daughters, that they should go word is figurative, because boughs are the to the wall, i.e., saith Dr. Lightfoot, even to ornamental dress of trees. the enemy; to repair the hostile tribe of Dr. Durell's interpretation may seem, in Benjamin; which otherwise had decayed some degree, countenanced by the parallel for want of wives. For so the word shur place of the last words of Moses, where signifies, and is translated by us an enemy Joseph is described under the image of a (Ps. xcii. 11). And D. Chytræus understands here by daughters, the cities of the tribe of Ephraim which should be well governed, though some should set themselves against it. Unless young bullock. But where is the propriety of setting the bullock by a well? He would be more fitly placed in a rich meadow. The necessity we shall be under, of placing our bullock by a well, seems an insuperable Rosen. Filius fructifer Josephus, filius objection to that interpretation. fructifer ad fontem. hic ramum denotat, indeed it could be supposed, that the meadow ideo cum femineo adjectivo jungitur, might be expressed by the well, or spring of quod habetur ratio nominis synonymi, water, which might be in the meadow, and s. m, ramus; nam quo minus in re- might contribute to the richness of the gimine positum censeamus, ut dicatur filius pasture. But this appears to me fructifera, illud impedit, quod in omnibus harsh metonymy. codd., non scribitur, quod esset status "Upon him are the eyes."-Although I regiminis. Est igitur constructio sensu render, as if the reading were, yet congrua, non voce, ut Jud. xviii. 7, mascu- I propose not any alteration of the text. lino subjungitur femin. , quia illud y would render that "eyes are upon notionem, societatis habet. a very renders that he is under the עלי עין "; pro him פּרָת , fructificans, seu fructifera, utrobique hic per Camez sub, ne putetur esse in regimine, ut solet fieri in dictionibus, in quibus femineum absolutum est, et pro ponitur, vid. Gesenii Lehrg., p. 467. eyes," which is the very same thing. Either expression denotes that he was the object of the attentive and interested inspection of the ladies. "When they walk." The plural noun may seem to require that the adjective should be plural. But the anomaly of construction is not indefensible. In the when two nouns occur one under the government of the other, it is not unusual, for an adjective, which ought to agree wholly with the one, to be made to agree partly with the one, and partly with the other. Thus, ακουω φθογγον ὄρνιθων κακῳ κλαζοντας οἶστρῳ. Soph. Antig., lin. 1013. Here opviewv is under the government of ployуov кλačovτas, which should entirely in concord with the former agree in number with that, but with the latter in case. So in the Hebrew, being under the government of, the Bp. Horsley.-22, 26 "Graceful is the person of Joseph."-Joseph has four stanzas, The first, a triplet, commending the beauty the of his person. The second, composed of best Greek writers, particularly the Attic, three couplets, describing the difficulties with which he had struggled through the malice of his enemies, and referring his deliverance and exaltation to the immediate interposition of Providence. The two last stanzas, consisting of five lines each, promise a continual manifestation of the favour of heaven in all manner of temporal blessings. "Graceful is the person," &c. For , I read, with Houbigant, and many of the best of the Jewish critics, ПND. The verb ND signifies "to decorate, to adorn, to make glorious." Hence come the nouns, adjective, which ought to agree entirely ND, ND, which signify "beauty, glory, with 2, is made to agree in number with . ornamental dress," in general; or, in par- Schum.-See below. ticular, certain ornamental parts of the head-dress. Hence I think that ND, or AND, may denote that attractive grace of Ged., Booth., Clarke.-Contended with person, which is the result of natural beauty him. 23 Au. Ver.-Shot at him. So Rosen., Gesen., Schum., &c. וישטמהו וימררהו ורבו בעלי הצים Rosen.-23 At exacerbarunt eum, s. exa- | order of the words, for one which seems more cerbarunt quidem eum et jaculati sunt, sc. in natural, at the same time that it is more eum, eique adversati sunt domini sagittarum, consistent with what we know of the laws of sagittarii. Sunt, qui de tota tribu in pos- Hebrew verse: terum intelligant, quod multos adversarios sit habitura. Verum de præterito potius hæc capienda videntur, ut sint in laudem Thus we have a couplet, of which the first ipsius Josephi, quod invicto robore tot line has fourteen letters, and the second adversarios superarit. Diction alludit twelve. But the first word of the second ad id quod fecerant illi fratres. Verba line, the verb 1, evidently wants two autem quæ sequuntur describunt eorum in letters, to bring it to an exact correspondanimis suis erga illum odium, et con-ence with the two other verbs; namely, the stantem malevolentiam atque indignationem;, the characteristic of the tense, and the simul vero etiam ipsius constantiam, cum of the suffix. Restore these two letters, peterent eum sagittæ noxiæ. 12 veterum (for which we have the authority of the plures retulerunt ad 2, unde, lis, Samaritan, which gives ), writing 127, jurgium, quasi scriptum esset, aut existi- and the two lines become exactly equal. marunt, habere h. 1. litigandi significatum, quum verba rad. 2, geminantia, et verba rad. 2, quiescentia, quæ duas reliquas appears to be the common subject of all radicales communes habent, significatione the three verbs. But if that order be the quoque haud raro conveniant. Hinc in true one, in which I place them, the noun textu Sam. 1 scribitur. In the order in which these five words stand in the printed Hebrew text, the noun , ירבהו is the peculiar subject of the verb בעלי : Ita Jonathan et contendebant cum eo, quem sequitur Persa. Ita et Hieronymus : et jurgati sunt. LXX. ἐλοιδόρουν. Sed recte alii ad 127, i.q. 77, jaculari, referunt, unde 27, jaculatores, Jer. 1. 29 Job. xvi. 13. Quod et nos haud dubitamus præferendum ob mentionem sagittariorum, Da, quæ subjicitur. nomini alii in statu regiminis præmissum and the other verbs have the indefinite The masters of archery have taken aim at -"taken aim at him." So I render indicare eum, qui rem, cujus nomen sub-27). The LXX. have expressed the same jicitur, tractat versatve, notum est. Vid. sense-ενειχον αὐτῷ. xiv. 13, et Gesenii Lehrgeb., p. 647. Bp. Horsley. In this couplet I have taken the liberty of making a conjectural emendation, which consists, however, merely in a transposition of the words, which in the printed Bibles stand thus: וימרוהו ורבי וישטמהו בעלי חצים Here are five words composed of twenty-six letters, which are twice as many as are usually contained in any couplet of trimeters of the mean length, and more, almost by a third part, than are to be found in any tetrameter in this poem. Of these five words, therefore, since they would make a single line too long, a couplet must be formed. But, preserving the order in which they stand, it is impossible to form them into two lines, which may be nearly of an equal length. An inequality so rarely to be found in the corresponding lines of the couplet, that wherever it occurs, it may be considered as a symptom of a corrupted Schum.-See below. Pool.-24 His bow, wherewith he opposed his enemies; which was no military bow, but that which he opposed to all their injuries, to wit, his own virtue, his innocence, his patience, his temperance, his faith and hope in God, whereby he resisted and vanquished all the temptations and difficulties which he met with, so that all his enemies could neither defile nor destroy him. The mighty God of Jacob, i.e., my God; the noun for the pronoun, which is frequent. When men forsook and persecuted him, my God and his God stood by him. He showed that it was not Joseph's wisdom or courage, but God's gracious assistance, that made him conqueror. From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel; either, 1. From that great deliverance vouchsafed by God to Joseph it is that Israel or Jacob hath a shepherd to feed him, a stone to lay his head upon, as once he did, Gen. xxviii. 11, or a rock of refuge to fly to in his great distresses, or a foundation- | authority and stone signifies the foundation stone, or corner-stone, or pillar, to sustain (as Abarbinel here expounds it) upon which or preserve Jacob's house. Or rather, 2. the whole building relies: as Jacob and all From the hands of the mighty God of Jacob, his children did upon Joseph for their suslast mentioned. Or from the God of his tenance. father, as it follows the next verse. So the sense is this, Though Joseph was a blessed instrument in this wonderful work, yet the God of Jacob was the chief author of it, by whose wise and merciful providence it was so ordered that Joseph should be first sold, and afterwards advanced, and all in order to this end, that his Israel, with whom he had been pleased to make a gracious and everlasting covenant, should have a shepherd to feed him in the time of famine, and a stone or rock to support him. Some I find (particularly D. Chytræus) refer the words from thence unto Joseph: and then by the shepherd and stone of Israel, understand those excellent men, who by their wisdom and valour supported the commonwealth of Israel. Such as Joshua, the captain of the Lord's host, and Abdon, one of the judges, who were of the tribe of Ephraim: and Gideon, Jair, and Jephthah, who were of the tribe of Manasseh. But the following words incline rather to the former sense. Bp. Horsley.-n "recoiled," from 1, not from w. "While the arms of his assailants were Bishop Patrick.-24 But his bow abode in strength.] He armed himself with invincible patience; having nothing else to oppose unto their malicious contrivances. It seems enfeebled." This interpretation has the to be a metaphor from those soldiers, who have bows so well made, that though often, never so often bent, they neither break, nor grow weak. Joseph's mind. sanction of the version of the LXX., and all the ancient versions, except the Vulgate. In the Hebrew text we find only these two Such was the temper of words. The shortness of the line, as well as the form of the word ", which is evidently in construction, requires that a third word should follow. If be brought back from the following line, the equality of the lines of the next couplet will be destroyed, without any advantage to the sense of this; for "the arms of his hands" is, in any language, an absurd, an inexplicable image. It seems therefore almost certain, that a word in this place, under the government of, has been lost out of the text. To restore it, it will be necessary to ascertain whose arms are the subjects of the The arms of his hands were made strong ;] i.e., He was strengthened and supported: being like to a strenuous archer, the muscles and sinews of whose arms are so firm and compact, that though his hands draw his bow continually, he is not weary. or his By the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.] Which fortitude he had not from himself, but from the Almighty; who had supported Jacob in all his adversities; and made all that Joseph did (when he was sold and imprisoned) to prosper in his hands (xxxix. 3, 22, 23). The Hebrew word abir which proposition, whether Joseph's, signifies potent or powerful, and we trans- enemies; and this perhaps cannot otherwise late mighty One, is as much as the Lord of be ascertained, than by settling distinctly Jacob. For from power it comes to signify what the proposition is, of which arms are potestas, authority and dominion also, as the subject. According to modern interpreters, the proposition is, that arms were From thence.] From the Divine Providence strengthened; which can be understood of over him, before mentioned. Bochart observes. Is the shepherd.] Joseph became the feeder and nourisher of his father, and of his family, and of their flocks and herds; preserving them all from being famished. no arms but Joseph's. According to the LXX., the Syriac, the ancient Italic, Jonathan, and the Samaritan, the proposition is exactly the reverse, that arms were weakened; which can be understood The stone of Israel.] Who upheld them of no arms but those of Joseph's enemies. all, and kept them from being ruined. Or, According to the Vulgate, the proposition shepherd may signify his being made is, that arms were released from fetters; governor of all the land of Egypt; and the which, again, can be understood of no arms stone of Israel, the support of his family. but Joseph's. The version of the Vulgate, For shepherd is a name of dignity and and the other ancient versions, although : they present such different senses, seem to Admitting therefore that we have in the have been all formed upon one and the same version of the LXX. (with which, as hath reading of the Hebrew text; in which the been observed, the Syriac, the old Italic, word, that should be under the government Jonathan, and the Samaritan, agree) the of, was wanting, as it now is; but the true exposition of the verb ', the proverb in some other way expressed relaxation. position is, that arms were enfeebled. The Ludovicus Capellus, and Houbigant, in arms, of which this is affirmed, must have the persuasion that, the root of TM, the been the arms of Joseph's enemies and of verb we have in our modern text, predicates those persons the lost word, under the corroboration, concluded that some other government of , must have been deverb occupied the place of this in the copies scriptive. If I could allow myself to offer a which the ancient translators used, and set conjectural emendation, without the authothemselves to guess what that other yerb rity of any MS., and with the authority of should be. Capellus thinks it was . the ancient versions against me, I should say that is the word to be supplied: a word in sound, as well as letters, so nearly resembling, that it might the more easily be lost. But although I have nothing but conjecture for the word, and for that reason would not venture to insert, I have the authority of all the ancient versions, except the Vulgate, for rendering as if it were inserted. . יפגו Houbigant prefers But upon what ground has the sense of strengthening been affixed to ", the word of our present text? As a verb, the root occurs nowhere in the whole Bible but in this single passage. The participle Hophal 15 : """ "", "His strength is from the strength." See a similar use of DT, in the plural, for "strength, power, or ability," in Joshua viii. 20. Au. Ver. From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel.) Rosen. From that time he [i.e., Joseph] was the feeder and stone of Israel. Sed sedit, i.e., permansit in forti, in robore arcus ejus, valide se illis et robuste arcu suo opposuit. Et levia, agilia, expedita fuerunt brachia manuum ejus. simplici, brachia ejus, T plane redundante; ut in iis quæ statim subjiciuntur : pro occurs once (1 Kings x. 18) as an epithet of gold. The participle Piel occurs once (2 Sam. vi. 16), where some lexicographers give it the sense of exerting strength or agility. But it is applied to King David dancing before the ark, and seems to express the extravagant frantic motions of a man dancing for joy; a sense more allied to relaxation, than to strength or firmness. Wherever else the word occurs, it is as the noun, signifying the purest gold, and nothing else. Hence I should conjecture, that the primary meaning of the verb is to refine a metal by fusion in the crucible and that that "best gold," with which Solomon overlaid his ivory throne (1 Kings x. 18), was properly fused gold; that is, gold which had undergone fusion in the assayist's furnace, and had so been brought to its greatest purity. Now, if the primary sense of the word be "to melt down," that is, to destroy solidity and cohesion; its figurative | Inde pascens erat et lapis Israelis, i.e., ab sense will naturally be "to relax, to weaken, illo inde tempore (de cf. ad Hos. ii. 14), to enfeeble." And there will be no occasion quo rebus tam duris est eluctatus, sustinuit to feign a variety of the ancient copies to re- fulsitque Israelem, i.e., me cum tota familia. concile the ancient versions with the Hebrew 12 dσuvdéτws poni nemo facile miretur text. Nor will there be any reason to suppose, in carmine, in ea maxime oratione, quæ, that the author of the Vulgate had a reading quia a moriente est habita, hiatibus non of his own. It only appears, that he has in- modo verborum, sed etiam sententiarum terpreted the same word less accurately. He abundat. Pastorem Israelis Jacobus vocat understood it to signify "dissolvere;" but Josephum, quod ipsum una cum tota familia imagined that it might express a dissolution in Ægypto omnium rerum affluentia pavit. of external confinement, as well as of Nam qui beneficia in aliquem confert, is natural strength; not aware, that the former sort of dissolution has no connexion with the primary meaning of the word. TON 'TO, a manibus fortis Jacobi, Deum suum intelligit, quem Jacobus pro forti et potente habet, cujus robore et virtute ita robustum fuisse Josephum filium agnoscit. Hebræis, qui pascuis imprimis delectati sunt, pascere dicitur; Ps. xxiii. 1. Nec minus apte Josephum vocat lapidem Israelis, A A quod erat ipsi et suis fulcimento et sus- By the Almighty.] Or, from him who is tentaculo. Sunt, qui ad Deum reall-sufficient; by which name he revealed ferant, et utramque dictionem in nominativo himself unto Abraham, when he entered vertant, ut sit: inde, a Deo inquam, est into covenant with him and with his seed pastor, lapis Israelis; Deo gratiæ debentur, (xvii. 1). quod Josephus me et meos aluit sustinuitque. Bless thee with the blessings of heaven LXX., ἐκεῖθεν ὁ κατισχύσας σε Ιακώβ, παρὰ above, blessings of the deep that lieth under.] TOÙ ƉEOÙ TOÙ TATρós σov, inde qui confortavit The meaning seems to be, that his posterity te, Jacob, a Deo patris tui. Sed verba apà should be planted in a very fertile soil, τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ πατρός σου, quæ in libris editis watered from above with the dew of heaven huic versui accensentur, exprimunt prima and with showers of rain, and watered vs. sq. verba, TN, ita ut duo nomina beneath with springs and rivers. As G. , tanquam iσodúvaμa, unico κATIO- Vossius well interprets it, lib. 1. de Idolol., χύσας σε expressa sint. Syrus reddidit: et cap. 77. a nomine pastoris lapidis Israel, omne illud Blessings of the breast, and of the womb.] proficiscitur. Apparet, pro interpretem A promise of a numerous and thriving prolegisse, probante Tellero, qui in Nott. geny. Or, of a vast increase of cattle, so Crit., p. 47, locum sic vertit: propter nomen well fed, that they should bring up their pastoris lapidis Israelis, i.e., propter majes- young prosperously, as well as bring them tatem, honorem ejus, qui custodivit illum forth abundantly. lapidem, in quo Jacobus cubuit (xxviii. 12, 13). Sed duriuscula est hæc dicendi ratio: Deus pastor, i.e., defensor lapidis est.-Rosen. Schum.-See below. Au. Ver.-Even by the God of thy father. So Pool, Patrick, &c. Rosenmüller separates this verse from the preceding. From the God of thy father shall all these blessings come. Pool. Here he explains and determines that doubtful expression from thence, by TEN, A Deo patris tui, non patre tuo, adding, even by (or rather from, as this hæc, inquam, omnia tibi sunt et fuerunt, particle mem properly signifies, and was nam et eum fortem Jacobi nominarat, just now used) the God of thy father, i.e., pro, qui tibi auxilio erit,, et who hath chosen and loved thy father, and ab Omnipotente; ante est quoque ante made a league with him, and blessed subaudiendum; et qui benedicet him with all manner of blessings. Blessings deinceps, ut cœpit, tibi, te fortunabit et of heaven above, i.e., the sweet and powerful augebit, idque omnis generis prosperitate, influences of the heavenly bodies, and the uti subjungit, yn, benedictionibus dews and rains which fall from heaven, cœli desuper, i.e., pluviis suo tempore dewhereby the fruits of the earth are pro- missis et copiosis roribus, quibus fœcundatur duced in great plenty. See Lev. xxvi. 4; humus, ut uberes segetes emittat. Illud Deut. xxviii. 12; xxxiii. 14. Blessings of posset salvo sensu abesse, sed antiquisthe deep, i.e., of that great sea of waters simæ simplicitatis est, talia pleonastice adboth about the earth and in the earth, jungere, quemadmodum in his, quæ sebenedictionibus , בְּרֹרֹת תְּהוֹם רֹבֶצֶת קְחַת,whence come those springs and rivers by | quuntur which the earth is moistened and made abyssi, i.e., voraginis subterraneæ cubantis fruitful. See Gen. i. 2; vii. 11; Deut. infra, quibus significatur terra fontibus, viii. 7. Blessings of the breasts and of the lacubus et rivis irrigua, et hinc fertilis et womb, whereby both men and beasts shall amœna. Verbis, DD, benedicbe greatly multiplied, and abundantly sup- tionibus uberum et uteri, promittit numeplied with all necessaries. rosam et læte florentem sobolem, nam benedictione uberum significatur, haud fore ubera arida, nec futurum esse, ut infantes defectu lactis moriantur, benedictione uteri vero, non perituros fœtus in matrum utero. Contrarium est in malorum imprecatione, Hos. ix. 14. Neque tamen repudianda plane aliorum sententia, significari h. 1. Bp. Patrick.-25 Even by the God of thy father.] Or, from him that blessed me; and advanced thee to be the support of my family. For it refers to all that went before. Who shall help thee.] Having said what God had already done for him, he now foretels what he would do hereafter, which relates to all his posterity, whom God would lactis copiam et pecudum multitudinem, quæ protect and defend. utraque apte subjungatur terræ fertilitati |