which significations, the derivative noun ww, Nasi, has acquired the twofold sense of CLOUD and PRINCE. Thus when it is said, three several times, in the Scriptures, "He "maketh THE CLOUDS to ascend from the , נשיאים orנשאים ed to signify clouds, is Nesiim; the singular of which, swi, Nasi, is the very word used here, in the Title of the Prophecy, to designate the Invader, whose invasion is immediately afterwards twice illustrated by the ascent of A CLOUD. But, of the two significations which equally appertain to this equivocal word in the Hebrew, viz. cloud, and prince, that which properly belongs to it in this place can only be determined by the general import of the context. And since, as I have shown, it cannot have been employed to denote the dominions of GOGUE, which are previously declared to be "the land of Magogue," since *Psalm cxxxv. 7. Jerem. x. 13. li. 16. that Invader is eminently characterized in the body of the Prophecy, as "a CLOUD" menacing a land; and since the word to be determined signifies cloud as well as prince; no reasonable doubt can remain, that the former of the two significations, (although so long overlooked,) is that which properly and peculiarly belongs to it in this place. The TRUE TITLE of this wonderful Prophecy will therefore stand at length thus lucidly exposed: GOGUE, of the land of MAGOGUE, the cloud "of Ros, Mosc, and TOBL!" 66 : How suitable is this compellation of AN INVADER, of whom the Prophet presently proceeds to declare, " Thou shalt come up as 66 A STORM, thou shalt be as A CLOUD to 66 cover the land!" And again "Thou shalt come against My people as A CLOUD to 66 cover the land!" That he should be described as the cloud of the countries which his ascent menaced, is equally sublime and natural; and conformable to the conceptions and figures in use among mankind. Thus Cicero, in his oration against Verres, calls him " THE TEMPEST, or STORM, of the "SICILIANS: TEMPESTAS SICULORUM*.” And, in another oration, he designates Clodius, "THE STORM of his native country, the WHIRLWIND and TEMPEST of peace and "tranquillity +." Much in the same manner, Homer makes the consternation of Ajax describe the onset of Hector as "a cloud," spreading darkness on every side; calling him, "THE CLOUD of war," ΕΚΤΩΡ †. πολέμοιο ΝΕΦΟΣ, περι πανία καλύπτει Which figure is borrowed by Pindar. It is likewise familiarly, and very commonly, employed to describe a numerous and armed host. So Plutarch, representing the assemblage of Northern nations which, in the time of Marius, threatened to overwhelm Gaul and Italy, says, "that they appeared ready to * "Hiemi sese, fluctibusque committere maluit (Pub. "Rupilius) quam non istam communem SICULORUM, TEMPESTATEM calamitatemque vitare, ii. 37." 66 + Tu PROCELLA patriæ, TURBO et TEMPESTAS pacis et otti.-Pro domo sua. c. 53. † Il. xvii. 243.Schol. επει πανταχοθεν ἡμᾶς ἐσκολωσεν ὁ Ἑκλως, καθαπες ΝΕΦΟΣ πολέμε. || Nem. x. 16. break over those countries like A CLOUD."ώσπερ ΝΕΦΟΣ εμπεσοιεν τη Γαλατια και τη Irana. And we know, how frequently an entire army is described by its CHIEF. And not foreign to this employment of the figure, is that of Virgil, in his description of a firm and calm resistance to the assailment of war: a description which, in a secondary view of the subject, may with the utmost justice be applied to the settled magnanimity, with which the actual sovereign of Ros, Mosc, and TOBL, disposed his mind to "sustain THE CLOUD of war, which was advancing against his Empire. "Ac velut, effusa si quando grandine nimbi "As when the rattling hail impetuous pours, "Vit. Marii." vol. ii. p. 820. 8vo. "En." x. 803; C To the safe shelving banks the swains repair, It was the ancient misapprehension of the import of this word, by which it was taken in the sense of chief or prince*, that gave rise to a traditional belief, not unfrequent in some parts of Europe, that GOGUE It may be well to consider, more particularly, the causes which have hitherto prevented the proper inter pretation of this word in the passage before us. The chief and governing cause, has been the want of experience of the fact which could alone determine and fix the interpretation. But other, and secondary, causes have contributed. The plural word 's'W], Nesiim, occurs only four times in the Hebrew Scriptures with the sense of clouds, though it occurs several times with that of princes. Its singular, Nasi, occurs also several times; but, in every other instance, except this of Ezekiel, with the sense of prince, or chief. From hence it has been hastily inferred, that the singular never denoted a cloud, and that it was used in that sense only in the plural. And, as the word is here used in the singular, it has been inveterately assumed |