Or the circumstances of Nahum's life nothing is known, except that he was a native of Elkosh (Ch. i. 1.), a village of Galilee, the ruins of which were shown to Jerome, as he informs us, Proem. in Com. in Nah. As to the time in which this prophet flourished, the most common, and the most probable opinion, gathered from the contents of the admirable little poem, the only production of his, which has come down to us, is, that he lived during the reign of Manasseh, whilst the tribe of Judah was yet in their own country, and after the captivity of the ten tribes. See i. 12-15. ii. 1, 2. He predicts the deliverance of his country from the Assyrians, and the destruction of Nineveh, the capital city of their enemies. This destruction he sets forth, as determined against them by God, in the language of poetry, not of history. He does not indicate the manner in which, nor the nation by which, the destruction of Nineveh was to be effected.

Nahum stands in the very first rank of the Hebrew poets. What he has left constitutes a complete and regular poem, distinguished by a certain classic elegance, which shows that care and study were united with genius in its production. His description is extremely vivid, and his language rich and forcible, and abounding in beautiful images.

I. 2.—keepeth indignation: i. e. remembers and punishes their offences. See Ps. ciii. 9. Jer. iii. 12.

4.-flower of Lebanon: i. e. the growth or cedars of Lebanon. 8.- her place: i. e. of Nineveh.

- darkness: a common meta

phor, denoting destruction. See Job xv. 22, &c.

9. Not the second time: i. e. her destruction shall be completed by the first blow. See 1 Sam. xxvi. 8.

10.— entangled, &c.: i. e. in inextricable difficulty, staggering in their purposes.

11. .one. Some suppose a particular Assyrian king to be denoted, as Tiglathpileser, &c.; others, the Assyrian kings successively.

14.- concerning thee: i. e. the king of Assyria. —be sown: i. e. thy race shall become extinct.

II. 3. Nineveh.

his mighty men: the army which should come against

5. He calleth, &c.: i. e. the Assyrian king calls for his warriors to defend the wall, who through haste and trepidation stumble on their way.

5. — assault-shelter. I have been obliged to coin a word, to denote a machine, similar to the vineæ, or testudines, of the Romans, i. e. moveable sheds, under cover of which the besiegers made their assaults. In the middle ages a similar machine was called mantelet. See Ivanhoe, Ch. xxvii. note.

6. The gates of rivers: a metaphor denoting the great number of the inhabitants of Nineveh, which passed through, or the great number of enemies, which now streamed or flowed into them. Comp. Is. ii. 2.

7. - uncovered: i. e. insulted, treated like a prostitute. See Is. xlvii. 2, 3.

8. a pool, &c.

10.- void, &c.

i. e. very populous.

The original is strongly emphatic. The words are of the same sound, forming what is called a paranomasia. They increase in length, as they point out great, greater, and greatest desolation. Bukah, u-mebukah, u-mebullakah.

11.- lions, &c.: i. e. Where is Nineveh, whose inhabitants were as bold and rapacious as lions, and which was as full of plunder as a lion's den of ravine?

5.

III. 3.-lightning of the spear. Comp. Hom. II. x. 154. xi. 65. 4.- sold nations by her whoredoms: i. e. by her intercourse or alliances with foreign nations, she brought them into subjection to her. over thy face. The metaphor is borrowed from the mode of punishing prostitutes in ancient times, viz. to strip them naked, or throw their clothes over their heads, and thus expose them to public execration.

8. No-Ammon. By this name is undoubtedly denoted ancient Thebes, the splendid metropolis of ancient Egypt, called by the Greeks Diospolis, and celebrated by Homer, (Il. ix. 383,) as the city of a hundred gates; szαтóμлviαi. The name No-Ammon was given to it from the circumstance that it was the chief seat of the worship of Jupiter Ammon; No-Ammon denoting the portion or possession of Ammon. The grandeur of its temples, obelisks, statues, &c. is apparent from its ruins, which are still the wonder of the world. When and by whom the destruction of Thebes here alluded to took place is uncertain. Gesenius supposes, that it was effected by Tartan, the general of Sargon, king of Assyria, about seven hundred and sixteen years before Christ. See Is. ch. xx.

11.

drink, &c.: i. e. of the cup of misery, or punishment. — hidden: i. e. unknown, as if thou hadst never existed.

18.

shepherds: i. e. rulers, prefects.

NOTES ON HABAKKUK.

RESPECTING the life of Habakkuk, and the time in which he lived, we have no historical record. The story, in the apocryphal part of Daniel, that he brought food to Daniel in the lion's den, is sufficiently refuted by its fabulous aspect, and especially by its inconsistency with the contents of this poem. From these we may infer, with considerable probability, that he lived not far from the beginning of the Chaldean period, when the poet saw the growing power of the Chaldeans, and in his mind's eye discerned the calamities which his country was to receive from them. Ch. i. 6. The actual destruction of the Jewish nation is not referred to or implied in any part of the poem. The most common, and by far the most probable opinion in regard to the date of the prophecy is, that it was delivered in the reign of Jehoiakim. The prophet was therefore a contemporary of Jeremiah. Jahn argues from Ch. i. 2-4, which he considers as a description of Jewish immorality, that he must have lived in the early part of the reign of Manasseh. I think he is mistaken in the application of those verses; and

that they are descriptive of the evils inflicted by the Chaldeans. At first view, indeed, it would seem, that the Chaldeans, vs. 5-11, are introduced as agents to chastise the Jews for the iniquities, mentioned in vs. 2-4. But from a survey of the whole poem, or from Ch. ii. in particular, it appears that the Chaldeans are introduced as enemies, that were to be punished. In the text of this translation Habakkuk is accidentally placed before Zephaniah.

The production of Habakkuk is to be regarded as a whole; as constituting one poem or prophecy, in its form somewhat dramatic. The subject is, the calamities which had been brought, or which were threatened to be brought, upon his country by the Chaldeans. The prophet boldly expostulates with the Deity on account of these calamities, Ch. i. 2-17, and his expostulation seems to be followed by the revelation to him of the future punishment of the Chaldeans. Ch. iii. seems to set forth a manifestation of the Deity, as actually interposing, in answer to the prayer of the prophet, for the destruction of the enemies of the Jews, which was threatened in Ch. ii.

In general poetic effect, in strength and beauty of thought, in the union of the loftiest conceptions of lyric poetry with a considerable degree of clearness, and in elegance and purity of diction, Habakkuk is hardly surpassed by any of the Jewish poets. As a specimen of lyric poetry, Ch. iii. is probably unequalled.

I. 4.-law faileth, &c. The oppression of the Chaldeans would interrupt the regular administration of justice. This must always be the case when a country is invaded. It appears to me inconsistent with the whole tenor of the poem to understand vs. 2-4 as a description of the wickedness of the Jews. According to the representation of the poet throughout, the Jews are the righteous, the Chaldeans the

wicked.

See the introduction.

11. his god: i. e. he trusts to his strength, and to his weapons of war, rather than to God, according to the character ascribed to Mezentius. Virg. Æn. X. 773.

Dextra, mihi Deus, et telum, quod missile libro,
Nunc adsint!

My strong right-hand and sword assist my stroke!
Those only gods Mezentius will invoke.". - Dryden.

13.-Thou that art. The pronoun that is to be struck out; it was inserted accidentally.

II. 1. what I shall answer to my expostulation, or upon my expostulation. This rendering, though obscure at first view, on account of the conciseness of the original, and the peculiarity of the sentiment, is, I think, the true one; and is that of the ancient versions. I judged it best not to paraphrase the line. The meaning of the prophet is, that he would wait to see what by divine inspiration he should be enabled to answer himself and others, in regard to his own expostulation with God, or his complaints respecting the divine government, in Ch. i., and thus quiet his mind.

2. - may run: i. e. let the characters be very large and legible, so that one may read them running; may not need to stop, but hold on his course. In this case, as in others, I have preferred a strictly literal translation to one, which might express my interpretation of it more clearly. Others may interpret it differently. Thus Houbigant supposes the word run to be used in a figurative sense, so as to make the line mean, "That he may read it quickly, who reads it." Thus we speak of running over a book.

4. Behold, the, &c. This has special reference to the Chaldeans, in comparison with whom the Jews are called "just" in the antithetic line. — faithfulness: i. e. his truth and integrity. -shall live:

i. e. be safe, prosperous, happy.

9.- evil hand: i. e. from the assaults of his enemies.

11. the stone, &c. i. e. the very stones of the cities overthrown by the Chaldeans proclaim their violence and cruelty.

13.- for the fire: i. e. for that which is soon to be burned up, viz. Babylon their capital city. —for nought: i. e. for that which shall be brought to nothing. Comp. Jer. li. 58.

14.- knowledge of the glory, &c.: i. e. the perfections of God will be widely displayed in the destruction of Babylon, and the deliverance of his people.

15. — giveth his neighbor drink. Under this image the meaning is conveyed, that Babylon, in various ways, by arts and arms, had subjected nations to her, and treated them with the utmost scorn.

17.- Lebanon, in this verse, probably represents Judea. shall cover thee: i. e. fall, as a just retribution upon thine own head. -destruction of the beasts: i. e. the desolation and slaughter of the inhabitants of the land, with which they were terrified, as wild beasts by hunters. For as Lebanon in this verse denotes the land of Israel, so the beasts of Lebanon denote the people of Israel.

20.- keep silence. "When an Asiatic sovereign goes to the mosque on any of their great festivals, such as the Bairham, the deep