rather God's song, than Moses's. In the preceding chapter God commands him to write this song, and to teach it to the children of Israel, that it might be a witness against them. It seems therefore to have been a form of words dictated by God himself. The last words of Moses, which he uttered as a prophet, in his own person and in his own character, we have in chapter xxxiii.

Verse 2.-" as the small rain," rather,

"As showers upon the grass,

As dew-drops upon the herbage."

Verse 4. "He is the Rock". This word

occurs six times in this song as an appellation of the Deity, or something taken for a deity; namely, in this place, in verses 15 and 18, twice in verse 31, and once again in verse 37. In all these six places it is an appellation of the true God, except in the second place of verse 31, where it is applied to the Gods of the Gentiles. But in none of these six, either the LXX or the Vulgate express it by a word rendering a "Rock;" but the LXX express it by Osos, and the Vulgate by Deus. Aquila expressed it by στερεος, Symmachus and Theodotion by φυλαξ. See Hexapl. v. 31. Aquila's translation is the best,

as it gives the exact sense, without losing the image of the original word. The original word expresses, the immutability of purpose, the unassailable strength of power in God, and the stability of effect, under the image of the solidity of a rock. Queen Elizabeth's translators render it, in verse 15, "the strong God," in verse 31, simply "God," and in the three other places, "the mighty God." The English language has certainly no word that will clearly and adequately convey the same idea under the same image. The different expressions of " The Almighty," "The irresistible God," "The unchangeable God," "The Strength," may be used, as one or another of them may best suit the particular passage where the word occurs. Here,

The Almighty! his work is perfect.

Verse 5. Read with Samaritan, LXX, Houbigant, and Kennicott,

שחתו לא לו בני מום

"They are corrupted; they are not his; children of pollution."

Verse 6. Divide the two last lines, and place the stops thus,

"Is he not thy father? Thy owner he?

He made thee, and set thee in order."

The making and setting in order intended here, are the making of the Jewish nation, and the setting in order of their polity.

-"set thee in order."

Queen Elizabeth's Bible.

-"proportioned thee,"

Verses 8, 9. "he set the bounds," &c. Read

thus,

בתנחל עליון גויס

בהפרידו בני אדם

יצב גבולת עמו למספר בני ישראל :

כי חלק יהוה יעקב

חבל נחלתו עמים:

"When the Most High assigned the Heathen their inheritance,

When he separated the sons of Adam,

He set the bounds of his own people,

According to the number of the sons of Israel.

For the portion of Jehovah is Jacob,

The peoples are the measured lot of his [Israel's] inheritance."

I bring the word y from the 9th verse into the place of ➡y in the 8th, and the word "y I carry into the 9th, but I place it after py".

I take the suffixed in, at the end of the last

line, as rehearsing " Jacob," not " Jehovah." And without altering a tittle of the Hebrew text, except in the transposition of "y and "y, I bring out the sense expressed in this translation.

"his inheritance," that is, Jacob's; according to the constant strain of prophecy, that ultimately Jacob is to inherit all the nations. Thus the passage describes the call of the Gentiles, as their incorporation with Israel, not without an implied allusion to the exaltation of the natural Israel, above all the nations of the earth in the last ages.

Verse 10." He found him," &c. Read with Sa

ישמנהו and יאמצהו,maritan and Houbigant

"He sustained him in a desert land,

And in the howling waste he fed him plenteously with luscious food."

-"fed him plenteously with luscious food. " This, and nothing less, I take to be the force of the word," saginavit eum."

Verses 11, 12. -"spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings; [so] the Lord alone did lead him."

-"taketh them, beareth them." The pronominal suffixes of the two verbs in the original are singular,

and can rehearse no other noun than "Jacob," or "Israel," as the singular suffixes of the verbs in the preceding verse. The young of the eagle is expressed by the plural noun, which could only be rehearsed by plural pronouns. Instead, therefore, of "taketh them," and "beareth them," we should read "taketh him," beareth him." "Him," namely, "Jacob." Jacob, therefore, being the person taken and borne, Jehovah, not the eagle, must be the taker and bearer; and the whole should be thus rendered,

11" As the eagle stirreth up her nest,

Hovereth over her young;

He stretched his wings, he took him up,

He bore him on his pinions,

12 Jehovah alone conducted him," &e.

The passage is rightly rendered by the Vulgate,

and Houbigant.

Verse 14." and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats." Literally,

and rams,

Sons of Bashan, and goats."

"Sons of Bashan," I take, with the LXX and Ken