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territory, thought to have been Sardis, and since Jews got to Lydia under Antiochus, we may understand Sardis as the place meant. (Comp. Gesenius in v.) High authorities. favour this, but it implies the whole passage to be a late addition, and it disturbs the parallelism, since the preceding Canaan was not a place of captivity, but an object of occupation.

Thirdly, Sepharad may not be a local name, but a term of dispersion, answering to the Greek diaoropá, whether formed from Jerome's Assyrian word sapharad, a boundary, (if there were such), or compounded out of the Hebrew

and T, or lastly a Hebrew root Latinised by assimilation to the word SePaRaTe, which may have been applied to themselves by the Western Jews, from B. c. 200 to B. c. 100. This hypothesis has least philological authority, and suits the parallelism as little as the second did; but it falls in best with the subsequent tradition of the word, which, however, may have been distorted from some name in this

text as it originally stood.

No one of these explanations is destitute of recommendation, or free from objection.

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In the same passage, v. 20, the words any way difficult, whether pointed as a Hiphil præt. or infinitive, to suit the Greek τῆς μετοικεσίας ἡ ἀρχή (which has also Rabbinical authority, and I suspect is right), or whether treated as a variation of a host, therefore a crowd, which approaches the Latin "transmigratio exercitus ei." Without venturing to alter the text, I will just suggest that the seconds before 770 may have dropt out of its place originally before, and that the first s before is (as Ewald first saw) a misreading for land, or cities. My mistrust of the Septuagint does not prevent me from thinking that it preserves best the leading idea in this passage, although its Ephratha can neither be adopted, nor made, as by Jerome, even

VOL. I.

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while he does not adopt it, a prediction of Gospel fruitfulness: "nulli dubium est (?) quin Christi intelligatur fides!"

The punctuation of Obadiah has a doubtfulness which may pass among signs of antiquity. In vv. 9, 10, ancient and modern versions have joined to the second verse, in the sense of "propter interfectionem," " for killing ;" but the Hebrew retains it in the first verse, requiring thereby strange explanations. In vv. 6, 7, I seem alone in joining the words to the preceding sentence; but it is possible that the old interpreters understood it so, and the sense and rhythm require it. I suspect that in many passages, where from habit we little notice it, the true Hebrew rhythm would lead us to discard the Masoretic punctuation. A more questionable instance may be suggested in vv. 7, 8, where the words, "There is no understanding in him," may be a speech of the scornful confederates upbraiding Edom, but more probably begin the new sentence, and introduce the idea of Jehovah's cutting off from Edom the shrewd sayers of proverbs, such as the friends of Job and others, whose maxims of experience and cunning pass in the East for wisdom.

In the hands of Jerome, Edom becomes Heresy. "Vide "Marcionem et Valentinum, et omnes hæreticos," on verse 6; and on verse 11, "Juxta est, O Hæretice, dies domini, "sicut fecisti contra ecclesiasticos, convertetur in caput "tuum." From other writers, whose mysticism is not checked as Jerome's was by genuine Hebrew teaching, such interpretations might be multiplied to any extent, and might convey a good moral in a bad interpretation. Thus they of the plain, or the flat (Sephelah) may mean the humble in heart. But the historical investigator of Obadiah's meaning sees a real Edom, and a real passion against it, such as the old clansmanship of the English and Scottish borders in its fiercer moods engendered, and such as

still betrays itself in Teutonic jealousies of the quicker Gallic wit, or lurks in the dislike of the rural English to the name of foreigner. Those who think such antipathies natural in different races, should observe that they are never so bitter as between branches of the same ethnological stem, as was the case with Jews and Edomites, and has at times seemed with Germans and Scandinavians.

A poem so patriotic seemed to justify the retention of the Hebrew word Jahveh, in its usual form Jehovah. In cases where it is connected with a nobler and more enduring spirit, it deserves to be rendered the Eternal; for such is the profound idea which it once conveyed of God, as the only True Being. By retaining Jehovah always, one would merge that true and metaphysical idea of Deity in the mere national God of the Hebrews: yet by never giving Jehovah one would conceal the national conceptions which accompanied, and sometimes encumbered, the deeper idea. Again, our word LORD, though familiarly sacred, would suit equally well Baal, Adonai, Adonis, and expresses a mere supremacy of power, far unlike the claim of right by which the true God merits our obedience.

OBADIA H.

THE VISION OF OVÁD-YAH.-THUS SAITH THE LORD JEHOVAH TO EDOM.

1. We have heard a rumour from Jehovah, and round among the nations is sent a message, rouse,' and let us rise against her to battle.

2. Behold, I have made thee small among the nations: thou art despised exceedingly.

3. The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, dweller in the clefts of the rock; in the height of his abode he saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to earth?

4. Though thou mountest high as the eagle, and though

1 Rouse, Hebr. Arise. 2. "I have made thee small" is improperly applied by Jerome to the Prophet, instead of to Edom. 3. Mountest high, lit. makest high.

Whether rumours were abroad that Joash after taking Jerusalem, or Nebuchadnezzar after destroying it (1 Kings xiv. 13, and 2 Kings xxv.) was turning victorious arms against Edom, or whether Arabian or Moabite had broken a temporary league with kindred marauders, (comp. 2 Chron. xx. 23, and xxviii. 17, 18), or whether sorrowful indignation joined with faith in God made some devout patriot forebode, as he desired, calamity upon Mount Seir, either the description of an invasion, or possibly its immediate anticipation, takes outward form as an audible threat from the Judge of the whole earth.

1-8. Not as thieves taking their fill, and then sparing,

thou settest thy nest amongst the stars, from thence will I bring thee down, is the saying of Jehovah.

5. If thieves came to thee, if robbers of the night, how hadst thou then been cut off! yet would they not have stolen their fill? if grape-gatherers came to thee, would not they have spared the tender bud?

6. How are the recesses of Esau searched; his lurkingplaces are sought out; even to the boundary have they cast thee forth.

7. All thy confederates deceived thee: the men of thy peace were strong against thee; for thy bread they set

under thee a wound.3

8. There is no understanding in him: shall it not be in that day, is the saying of Jehovah, that I destroy the wise out of Edom and understanding from Esau's mount,

9. And thy mighty ones, Teman, shall be dismayed, so that warrior be cut off from Esau's mount;

10. For slaying," for violence to thy brother Jacob, shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for

ever.

2 Vulg. Quomodo scrutati sunt Esau, investigaverunt abscondita ejus ! a rendering which observes the plural of the verb, but overlooks its passive voice. Probably the nominative "secret places," should be applied to both clauses, or some parallel noun has dropt out of the first clause.

3 A round, or a snare, or, by another derivation, anything disgusting and repulsive; which may be the meaning here; the Babylonian or Ephraimite conqueror took bread of the Edomite and loathed its giver.

* Dismayed, or broken.

5 For slaying, for violence, &c., or, changing the accentuation, "for slaying thy brother out of violence."

but with thorough searching, hungry foes hunt out Edom even to his border, no longer sparing him for a temporary alliance's sake against Judah.

8-11. Their craft no longer avails the retailers of

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