CHAPTER XLI. VERSE 5, &c.

PHARAOH'S DREAMS.

The first dream of Pharaoh is, that of seven ears of corn growing from one stem; according to the nature of certain of the Egyptian wheats. [Vide FRAGMENT, No. 147, and plate.] Now, observe the correspondence, 1st, of the number of the mouths of the Nile, seven, to the number of ears of corn, seven, also; 2dly, of the figure of these seven ears, spreading from one stem, as the Nile divides into seven branches, from one stream: compare the course of the Nile in a map of Egypt, to the figure of the Egyptian wheat on our plate. This infers, 1st, that the Nile had, or was reputed to have, seven mouths for discharge of its waters, even so early as the days of Joseph. 2dly, That maps might be then known in Egypt, though it has been supposed the earliest we read of is in the days of Moses and Joshua: so far I think is clear. But I would query further, whether the Egyptians in their symbols might not denote the ploughing season by a bullock? the labour of plough ing being always performed by bullocks. If so, the coming of these bullocks out of the river, whose overflow caused the fertility of Egypt, would signify so many ploughing seasons, influenced by so many good, or so many bad, overflowings of the river.

The east wind, P KADIM, is usually mentioned in Scripture as a burning, scorching, sultry wind, Exod. xiv. 21; xvii. 10; xix. 12; Hosea xiii. 15. perhaps however this wind might partake of a southern direction, and it is probably the campsin of the Egyptians, to which the sirocco wind of the modern Italians is allied. Alpinus thus describes it, Medic. Egypt. lib. i. cap. 7. "The winds of east and south are named campsin, passing over sandy deserts extremely heated, they blow in Egypt, where they cause such an insupportable heat, and bring with them such a quantity of dust and burning sand, that it might be thought they were thick clouds, and actual flames. This dust and sand brought by the wind, united with that which rises from Egypt itself, being agitated in the air, injures and lacerates what it happens to meet with, no less by its impulse, than by its heat; but especially it is very dangerous to the eyes, on which it produces soreness and inflammation. These winds blow by intervals, and without regularity; sometimes during three days, sometimes five, sometimes seven or nine days. I have remarked that while they blow, pestilential and frenetic fevers reign, and carry off the patients, not in a few days, but a few hours. I have also remarked many opthalmies, and inflammations of the eyes. The persons attacked with these maladies become debilitated, and are tormented with inextinguishable thirst; but look on food with dislike, and even a kind of horror."

Take of the best fruits of the land, balm, honey, spices, myrrh, nuts, and almonds.

The best of the land; Hebrew, "the praise of the land:" this phrase is very expressive. For balm, spices, and myrrh, vide chap. xxxvii. 25.

Honey was formerly the only sweetener in use, like our sugar; its value consequently was then more than it is now it was also a delicacy. Vide Cant. v. 11. When Hecamedes treated Nestor and Patroclus, he offered them, ueλ xλwpov, yellow honey, fresh honey, Iliad x. v. 630. Suetonius, in his Life of Nero, cap. 27. reports, "that he would be entertained in the houses of his best friends; and that at one of these repasts, the cost of pastry prepared with honey was a hundred and twenty thousand crowns;" for so Budeus has translated the passage. Judea was famous for honey, and for excellent honey: it was sent to Tyre, Ezek. xxvii. 17.

BATHENIM,, is variously rendered by translators. The LXX render turpentine. Onkelos, the Syriac, and the Arabic, not understanding it, have left it untranslated. Some think it means peaches, others nuts. Two towns seem to have been named from this fruit, Josh. xiii. 26; xix. 25. It is not easy to ascertain this fruit. There is a species of terebinthus which bears a kind of small nut, which some prefer to the pistachio: and some think it superior to the almond, Theophrast. iv. Hist. 5. The name of this kind of terebinthus is in Arabic beten, which has considerable resemblance to the Hebrew word.

The bethen of this passage is, probably, the pistachio nut, so called from its belly like form, as the word signifies. Bochart was of this opinion, and so was Dr. Shaw, Travels, p. 145. note, 4to edition. And, upon the whole, this seems the best supported.

CHAPTER XLIX. VERSE 3.

REUBEN, unstable as water, rather unconfinable, licentious, not to be restrained by mounds and banks, but overflowing all restrictions; "impetuous as a deluge, or a cataract."

VERSE 6.

Simeon and Levi are brethren, associates, fellows; in their self-will they digged down a wall. Many read, they slew a bullock; i.e. a prince, meaning the prince of Shechem, chap. xxxiv. 26. Whether this town was walled, and if it was, by what occasion the sons of Jacob were impelled to overthrow that wall does not appear; but that they slew the prince is recorded and this sense of the place depends on the pronunciation of the word Shor, or Shur, which may as well be pronounced to this sense as to the other.

VERSES 11, 12. JUDAH is a lion's whelp, as a lion, as an old lion, &c. Lion. This animal is well known among us. We shall observe the progress of the patriarch's comparison of his son to this species of creature. Judah is, 1st, a lion's whelp or cub: the word a GUR, is so used, Deut. xxxiii. 22; Jer. li, 38; Ezek. xix. 2; Nahum ii. 13. This word also signifies the cub or whelp of other kinds of animals, as bears, dogs, and even seals, Lam. iv. 3. From devouring the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched like, 'ARI, or ARIAH, a lion, about to spring upon his prey, and tear it to pieces: no longer a whelp, but able to provide for himself by his activity and like, 2 LABIA, a lioness; not an old lion, which gives an idea of decrepitude, but a lioness, having whelps; then most fierce and most active: whe shall then break into her den? who shall rouse her then? Here are two actions of these creatures: the ariah leaps on his prey; but the labiah defends her The lioness also is more fierce than the young. lion; and especially when her young are in danger. Elian, Hist. lib. xii. cap. 39. calls the lion a very strong, and even invincible animal: he also reports, that Semiramis, after having killed a panther, a lion, or other wild beast, was not greatly elated; but when she had killed a lioness she was very proud of her prowess; and she had reason; for among both birds and beasts of prey, the female is uniformly stronger than the male.

Binding his foal to the vine; i.e. the foal of his ass; and his ass's colt, rather, his she-ass, to the choice vine. Our translation loses the grace of this passage, by rendering "foal" and "coll," which are the same in import: whereas the first word properly signifies a lively young ass, the second a strong sheass and, moreover, of the race of those atonoth,

which we distinguished on chap. xii. 16. This greatly

raises the climax of the poetry.

:

I cannot refuse to insert the Jewish explanation of this simile they say, the foal of the ass signifies the young persons of this tribe; the she-ass, the aged; the vine, the law; the choice vine, the synagogue; the vestments washed in wine, the princes of the tribes who wore garments of purple and scarlet; the eyes red with wine, the mountains which yielded plentiful vintages; the teeth whiter than milk, the plains, &c. white with harvests, or with flocks and herds, which yielded milk! That Jews should adopt such sentiments as they supposed might dignify their nation, and its tribes, can occasion no kind of wonder; but, their conduct should sometimes serve as warnings to Christian commentators.

The second part of this description of Judah, besides rising above the former in the species of ass which the patriarch mentions, and which we may observe has usually a distinguished place whenever

mentioned, no doubt imports a superior kind of vine, which is named sorek in the original. I suspect that this kind of vine is less named from the place of its growth, though such is the prevailing idea, and seems to be countenanced by Isai. v. 11; Jer. ii. 21. than as a distinct kind. Rabbi Isaac Ben Geuth thinks these grapes were of a kind which has no seeds, and etymology favours the idea; for in Arabic the word signifies, among other things, to emasculate, to deprive: as if these grapes were deprived of their seeds. These fruits, however, have generally a transparent membraneous seed, though some are said to have actually none at all, whereby, while they are chewed, no seed is discoverable to the taste or tongue : yet it is apparent when the grape is cut with a knife, and seed is sought for, Niebuhr, French edit. p. 130. Whether this is the kind meant by the patriarch we cannot affirm. Nevertheless, as we partly suspect it, it may not be amiss to add the following information from Le Bruyn, vol. i. p. 226.

"In Persia they have ten or twelve sorts of grapes, which in general they call angoer, though each sort has a name peculiar to itself. They have three or four sorts that are blue, some of them round, others

long, and all very large. They have also two or three sorts that are white, and some of them VERY SWEET, AND WITHOUT STONES. They have another sort, whose bunches are a promiscuous mixture of large and small grapes, different from all I had ever seen elsewhere. They dry them every year, and making them a kind of comfit, they put them into earthen pots, and send them to Batavia, and elsewhere. In this manner it is they do it: they pick and cull the grapes very nicely, and cover them over with dry rose-leaves in a stone jug, which they then stop up so close, that no air can have admission; in this state they leave them for some days, after which they break the neck of the vessel and take out they put into another vessel; and being thoroughly the rose-leaves, and separate all the grapes, which dry, they send them into foreign parts. The roseleaves are only intended to give a pleasant flavour to the grapes; but care must be taken that none of them remain with the grapes, for fear they should cause a rot.

At the same time they send to the Indies almonds and pistachios; from whence, in exchange, they receive sweetmeats and other dainties."

I would also remark on this extract, that we find dried fruits, or fruits prepared with art and attention, are sent to foreign parts, even almonds and pistachio nuts, as well as grapes: may this assist our notions of the present sent by Jacob to Joseph? which we have observed consisted of fruits, some of which we have thought were almonds and pistachio nuts.

VERSE 17.

DAN shall be a serpent, vn NaсHаsн, in the way z an adder, SHEPHIPHUN, in the path.... Per

still keeps following, hopeless himself of overtaking the prey, but expecting that some other wolf will come to his assistance, and is then content to share the spoil with his associate :" so says Buffon. The present order of the words in our text has been suspected by others. Mr. Green was for transposing the two periods; and the Syriac translator was led to nearly the same order.

It is likely, that besides those wolves which seek for prey singly, some may hunt two or more together, and some may hunt in troops. Benjamin's partition of his prey leads to such kinds, if such be the character of Eastern wolves. The tribe of Benjamin was certainly warlike; and I presume they were cunning also: the sacred history proves it in a variety of passages.

CHAPTER III. VERSE 2.

THE BURNING BUSH.

THIS bush is called in the Hebrew, senah: and the number of these bushes in this place, seems to have given name to the mountain Sinai.

Whether it means any particular kind of thorny bush, for such is the import of the word, or a bush in general, seems to be uncertain.

As to the nature of the fire which burned in this bush, much might be said; possibly, it was the Shekinah, or usual token of the Divine presence; and if so, it may lead us to think, whether the Shekinah were not of a very mild and gentle, though luminous appearance. How far any natural meteors, or those now produced by electricity, may resemble that mark of the Divine presence, we cannot presume to

say.

CHAPTER IV. VERSES 3, 4.

And Moses cast his rod on the ground, and it became a serpent.

This serpent, which the rod of Moses became, is called in the original, nachash: but in chap. vii. 9. it is said, the rod, which some have understood to be that of Moses, was changed into a tannin. This seems to militate against our idea, that tannin signified, not a serpent, but amphibia.

We ought, however, to observe, that in chap. vii. 9, 10. it is the rod of Aaron, not of Moses, which is mentioned; but were it even the same rod as here, unless it could be proved that this rod was more easily convertible into one creature than into another, the argument would be inconclusive. It is probable, that the miracle consisted in enduing with life a dry stick from a tree: yet that on the mountain it was not turned into an animal proper to the waters, but into a serpent proper to a mountain; as Aaron's rod was not turned into a mountain serpent, but into a creature which the Egyptians were well acquainted with, &c. i.e. a water animal.

As to the change of the hand of Moses from a healthy into a leprous and diseased state, I shall only observe on it, that being his own personal suf

fering, his feelings must have thoroughly convinced him that the effect was no deception; it could be neither a juggling trick nor a mistake.

ON THE MIRACLES PERFORMED IN EGYPT.

It has long been a famous question, whether the Egyptian magicians imitated the miracles performed by Aaron, so far as they did imitate them, by means of juggling tricks, or of diabolical assistance? Juggling tricks may be taken, in this instance, for a kind of natural magic; that is to say, the effect of a superior knowledge of nature, and natural powers, united I suppose with great dexterity of management in the performance of them. To acquire some grounds for deciding this question, let us inquire, in the first place, what was the nature of these miracles.

MIRACLES REFERRING TO THE WATER.

1. The rod of Aaron turned into a tannin. [N.B. This is different from the rod of Moses, chap. iv. 3. moreover, the rod of Moses was turned into a nachash.] This was imitated by the Egyptians, whose rods became taninin," lengthened fresh water reptiles." Now, unless we knew precisely the species of this reptile, we are unable to determine whether it might be scarce or plentiful in Egypt; if plentiful, then we may suppose, for the present, that this was a substitution rather than a metamorphosis, on the part of these magicians.

2. The conversion of the waters into blood. There is nothing, I apprehend, contrary to possibility, in supposing, that the Egyptians might so change the colour and appearance of water by mixtures, as to deceive the eyes of spectators, or might even substitute a red liquor which might pass for blood: not to insist that they might procure and produce the very blood of animals.

3. Multiplication of frogs. These animals, no doubt, came up from the waters, where they were bred, and where they had hitherto remained latent : this miracle the Egyptians imitated.

The sacred story relates, that the frogs and the blood, came from the water, the fresh water of the Nile, may we not add, that the tanin also, into which

the rods of Aaron, &c. were changed, had relation to this element? if so, then these three miracles refer to the water, and to such productions of the Nile as the Egyptians were well acquainted with, and perfectly informed; these miracles they imitated; but those referring to the air they could not imitate.

MIRACLES REFERRING TO THE AIR.

4. The next in order is, that of converting the dust of the earth into GNATS, or lice; if they were gnats, then the seat of this miracle was the air, wherein these animals flew about, and visited both man and beast; indeed, if they were lice, it is scarcely credible that they crawled toward their subject, they must have made more rapid approaches.

5. The swarm of flies: the dog-fly, or simb, this also referred to the air.

6. The mortality among the beasts; this was, probably, analogous to what we read, of distempers among the horned cattle in Europe; therefore, by the same analogy, its seat was in the air.

7. The bile on man and beast; probably of the same nature; so far as to be communicated by the atmosphere.

8. Hail, lightning, &c. evidently meteors, whose seat is in the atmosphere.

9. Locusts: referred to the air on the principles above mentioned in reference to the gnats and the zimb.

10. Darkness. This also was seated in the air. Now, since those miracles, whose effects required a change in the nature, temperature, &c. of the atmosphere, or of which the atmosphere was the vehicle of conveyance, could not be imitated by the Egyptians, while they could imitate those derived from the water, I think it proves that sleight of hand had a much greater share than diabolical agency in their performances: since the devil is described as "prince of the powers of the air," and since no reason can be given for his impotence in effects depending on the atmosphere, or any of its properties.

Did all these miracles occur in rapid succession? Some have thought they did; and that a month or two was enough for the whole. I rather think they might be somewhat more distant in succession, and perhaps we might suppose them to be distributed throughout a year, or thereabout, without offence.

We have elsewhere given our reasons for supposing that the Egypt of these passages was a city, not a country; the capital of the kingdom. This accounts for the ready visits of Moses to Pharaoh, and the ready communication of this prince's orders to the chiefs of Israel. Had they been many miles asunder, this intercourse could not have taken place, as we are fold it did, in the course of a few hours, and sometimes in the same day, or in the same night.

I presume, too, we are to consider a part of the population of Israel, as dwelling in the royal city,

VOL. IV.

6

while the remainder was further distant in their cantonments, with their flocks, and herds, &c.

CHAPTER VII. VERSES 9, 12.

Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and bèfore his servants, and it became a serpent.

We are told that the rod of Aaron was changed into a tanin, which we take to be a water animal, not a serpent; we may find this word again in our progress, and shall note its application.

Aaron's rods swallowed up their rods. It may, perhaps, be doubted whether the word rendered swallowed up, should not be rendered, overwhelmed : that is to say, it vanquished, overpowered, destroyed, its opponents; but as to the action of swallowing them, that is not of necessity implied in the original term used. Vide FRAGMENT, No. 145.

CHAPTER VIII. VERSE 2.

THE PLAGUE OF FROGS.

The Hebrew word rendered frogs, has been so understood by all interpreters. It should be observed, that frogs are not born in their frog state, but are first tadpoles; and after a time become frogs, by a gradual and orderly change. The production of a number of perfect frogs, was therefore a very remarkable instance of a power overruling the ordinary course of nature. Nevertheless, this miracle might consist in, 1st, a sudden maturity imparted to an immense number of tadpoles so that they became frogs, without waiting for the proper and natural time of their birth into that state; or, 2dly, in giving an impulse to an immense number of these creatures, and raising in them a desire to quit the moist, cool, flowing waters of their nativity, for the dry land, the plains, the city, &c. which could not but be, by their heat and aridity, very contrary to the natural residence of these unwelcome visitors.

There is, however, an objection against this swarm of animals being truly frogs; because they came into the houses, into the chambers, into the ovens, into the kneading troughs. This strange representation of the matter is certainly more conspicuous in our version than in the original: frogs in ovens! [Hebrew, tanur ;] in kneading troughs! [Hebrew, mesharut.] But what were these tanuri, and these mesharuti, really? The answer to this question would remove a confusion from a passage in Levit. ii. 4. where we read "if thou bring a MEAT-offering, which seems to imply flesh meat, it shall be cakes of fine flour, or wafers baken in an oven." Flour, then, is this meat-offering. The words imply simply "the baking of the tanur ;” or tanur baken: so that whether the wafers were baken, as they might be, on the inside, or the outside, of this tanur, is not determined by the phrase used. Also, whether this tanur was the portable oven, resembling a