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translation of the Old Testament, and who is said to have been exquisitely skilled in the original language, and to have aimed at a very literal version, has thus translated the first clause of this verse 1ltEQUYLON QUVBYTWY GUYZYZFLEXE, which words may be difficult to translate into English with energy, perspicuity, and conciseness, but seem to mean, the tuft of feathers which somewhat resembles a wing, and which those that are in a state of joy and thanksgiving wear, pleasingly intermixing its filaments when quivering from the motion given it.
The Septuagint themselves, who have declined translating the third word, which Aquila thought meant interweaving, or somewhat of that kind, translate the two first words Irequž TESTOLEVwv, “ the wing of those that are delighted.” And this is the natural sense of the two first words of the original, viz, 5'97 9.00 kenaf rananeem.
Now what can the wing, or the contexture of feathers resembling a wing, of those that are in a state of delight, or of disposedness to praise, more naturally mean, than those tufts of ostrich or heron feathers that are now so commonly worn in those countries, when in such a state. To which is to be added, that both those creatures are, I think, with certainty spoken of in the words immediately following: the noson chasidah," (which seems to
Carpzovii, Crit. Sac. p. 553—560. * The Hebrew is as follows: 0938 SX nobps S4337 0821 17on kenaf renaneem nealasah im ebroah chaseedah venotsah; which Montanus translates thus: Ala exultan. tium læta ; an penna ciconiæ et pluma? EDIT.
signify the heron as well as the stork, comprising both species in that single word of description,') in the latter clause of this 13th verse; and the ostrich indisputably in the short history given of this animal in the succeeding verses, and which satisfies me must be meant by the last word of the 13th verse, which the Septuagint leaves untranslated, using the word Negou to express the Hebrew term.
Nor can this be thought a harsh supposition, if we observe, that one of the three senses of the Hebrew root, according to Buxtorf, is to be laid waste; a noun formed from it then may very naturally signify the bird that is the most remarkable of any, by far, for living in desert and waste places. "
For the chasidah is said, in Psalm civ. 17, to make the fir-trees her house, as other birds made their nests in the cedars of Lebanon, which does not appear to be a just de. scription of the stork properly speaking, but truly repre. sents the natural history, in that point, of the heron. It may not be amiss to add, that it appears, by the collections of Lambert Bos on the Septuagint, that Olympiodorus ob. served, that Aquila always understood the chasidah to mean the heron rather than the stork, as some unskilful people supposed. But the two species resemble each other so much, that it is not improbable, but one Hebrew word stood for both. De Tott, among others, observes, that the stork feeds on serpents, builds its nest on the houses, and is re. vered by the Orientals, part 2, p. 42. Doubdan, however, supposes that storks in Palæstine roost in trees. See the succeeding article.
m Baron de Tott tells us, that the Arabs call the ostrich daivai-cooshoo, or the camel-bird; if then, besides its pro. per name, which according to Dr. Shaw is naamah, p. 449. it is called by a periphrasis the camel-bird, it may as well be described in sacred poetry by another--the desert bird, Mem. of de Tott, part 2, p. 41. VOL, .
I may add, that the celebrated Dr. Shaw, who supposes that the first clause speaks of the wing of the ostrich, not of the wing of those that rejoiced, yet understands the last word of the three of that first clause not as signifying goodly, as our translators do, but quivering or expanded, as the very learned Schultens also does; which agrees as well with what happens to the plumes worn on the heads of those that go in solemn joyful procession, as to what happens to the wings of an ostrich, according to the nice and entertaining observations made by Dr. Shaw on the natural history of that bird, for which the learned world is much obliged to him. Nor is expanded and quivering very remote from what seems to be the idea of Aquila, who appears to mean the intermixing the filaments of the feathers together, by the joyous motions of those that wore them, in times of pleasurable solemnity.
I would finish this article with observing, that the Septuagint translation of the second clause of this verse, makes the first word of it the second person singular of a verb. This only supposes that a single letter happens to be left out in our modern Hebrew copies, which will not appear at all strange to those that are acquainted with the collections of Dr. Kennicott, And if that alteration is admitted, we may understand the words as signifying. The plume of those that go in joyful pro
cession pleasingly quivers :
Hast thou reared up ( strengthened ) the heron
and the ostrich (from whom those feathers
are taken)? If we should be unwilling to suppose the custom so ancient as the days of Job, among the people of the land of Uz, I imagine it will be hardly contested, that it was known to A quila, and the elder translators of the Septuagint version, and that they supposed it was probably, at least, as ancient as the time of this celebrated personage of very remote antiquity
Persons not possessing the regal Dignity, sometimes
honoured by permission to sit on a Throne.
Though a throne and royal dignity seem to be correlates, or terms that stand in reciprocal relation to each other, yet the privilege of sitting on a throne has been sometimes granted to those that were not kings, particularly to some governors of important provinces.
In the book of Nehemiah in like manner, we read of the throne of the governor of this side the river"—the throne, in other words, the governor for the king of Persia of the provinces belonging to that empire on the west of the Euphrates.
So d'Herbelot tells us,o that a Persian monarch, of after-times, P gave the governor of one of his provinces permission to seat himself in a gilded chair, when he administered justice, which distinction was granted him on account of the importance of that post, to which the guarding a pass of great consequence was committed. . This province, he tells us, is now called Shirvan, but was formerly named Serir al dhahab, which signifies, in Arabic, the throne of gold. To which he adds, that this privilege was granted to the governor of this province, as being the place through which the northern nations were wont to make their way into Persia: on which account also a mighty rampart or wall was raised there.
* Ch. iii. 7. Lysias was in such a situation in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, i Mac. iii. 32. • P. 157. art. Bab al Abuab.
May we not, agreeably to this account, suppose, that the governor of the provinces on the western side of the Euphrates was looked upon as possessed of a post of the highest consequence, on aecount of the frequent irruptions of the Egyptian princes, and distinguished by this privilege of sitting on a throne for that cause, perhaps gilded, or otherwise adorned with gold.
And does not his having a palace at Jerusalem, in which perhaps was such a seat for the administration of justice, mark out the great consequence of Jerusalem, in the estimation of the Persian princes of those times, notwithstanding its having been so completely ruined, and but slowly emerging out of the heaps of ? He lived about 600 years after the birth of our Lord, as. ewiah lived somewhat more than 400 years before. .