heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.

10 Therefore remove 'sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh; for childhood and youth are vanity.

♦ Or, anger.

Verse 1 "Cast thy bread upon the waters."-Every explanation has been given to this text which ingenuity could possibly draw from maritime trade, or from the various circumstances under which the sowing of corn might relate to, or be associated with, rains or inundations. Understanding by "bread" any kind of bread-corn, the most usual interpretations are, that the allusion was derived from the practice of sowing rice in Egypt upon the mud, when the inundation of the Nile is subsiding, or indeed while a little water still remains upon the ground. This however assumes that the culture of rice was then practised in Egypt; but the date of its introduction into that country is quite unknown, and we have not the least evidence that it had taken place so early. Another conjecture is, that instead of upon the waters, we should read against the waters; that is, against the rainy season: and so Boothroyd. Upon the whole, however, we are disposed to take the explanation which Bishop Lowth gives, after Dr. G. Jebb, in a note to his 10th Lecture. He regards it as enforcing the great and disinterested liberality, of doing good to those from whom no return can be expected, and on whom the benefaction may seem as much thrown away as if a man were to sow his seed in the sea; but with the promise annexed, that it shall not be thrown away, but shall in the end receive its due recompense. This explanation has the advantage and full coincidence with the meaning usually assigned-agrees well with the context-and is supported by the ancient use of a similar figure. Dr. Jebb illustrates it from Theogonus and Phocylides, who intimate that to do acts of kindness to the ungrateful and unworthy is the same as sowing the sea, from which no harvest can be expected..

CHAPTER XII.

1 The Creator is to be remembered in due time. 8 The preacher's care to edify. 13 The fear of God is the chief antidote of vanity.

'REMEMBER now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;

2 While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:

3 In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened,

4 And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low;

be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.

7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

8¶Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.

9 And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs.

10 The preacher sought to find out 'acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth.

11 The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.

12 And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

13 'Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

5 Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets : 6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher 1 Prov. 22. 6. 2 Or, the grinders fail, because they grind little. 3 Gen. 3. 19. • Chap. 1. 2. 5 Or, the more wise the preacher was, &c. 1 Kings 4. 32. 7 Heb. words of delight. 8 Or, reading. Or, the end of the matter, even all that hath been heard, is. 10 Rom. 2. 16, and 14.10. 2 Cor. 5. 10.

14 For 10God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

CHAP. XII.-The present chapter contains a very striking and interesting picture of the infirmities of age under a variety of strong but appropriate figures. It has attracted great attention, and has perhaps received a larger amount of illustration, variously applied, than any portion of Scripture of equal extent. It has often been considered to form an allegorical description of old age, and its final close in death. But an allegory is a representation of one thing, which is intended to excite the representation of another thing-as where the vine is chosen by the Psalmist to depict the condition of the Hebrew people. Whereas, in the present chapter, no ruling and predominant object is selected for the comparison; but a variety of images are mingled together, to form a vivid description of venerable but complaining age. "It is not therefore," observes Mr. Holden, "strictly speaking, an allegory; and cannot without great caution be subjected to the rules of allegorical interpretation. It is to be considered only as a highly figurative and poetical representation of old age, in which the various infirmities and imbecilities of that period of life are pourtrayed

by a great variety of images, in themselves unconnected, yet mutually tending to identify the prototype." We ar disposed to agree with the same author, that there is no adequate foundation for the very elaborate, scientific, and medical investigation to which the description has been subjected by Scheuchzer, in his Physica Sacra;' Dr. Mead, a his Medica Sacra;' Dr. Smith, in his Solomon's Portraiture of Old Age;' and other distinguished writers. "It is he observes, "more just to consider it as a highly-finished picture of the pains and debilities consequent upon decaying nature; delineated, indeed, by a skilful hand and glowing imagination, but only intended to exhibit such effects of age as naturally suggest themselves to a sagacious and observing mind. It is therefore improper to explain by the aid of [modern] medical science a poetical description which requires a popular illustration, founded on Asiatic customs and the nature of figurative language."

Verse 2. "While the sun," &c.-This figure, derived from the observation of the sun, moon, &c., is thought by many to refer to the decay of the powers and faculties of the mind; but others, among whom is Holden, think that it is intended as a general statement of the pains and miseries of age, serving as an introduction to the more specific details which follow.

-"Nor the clouds return after the rain."-As clouds and rain do not appear during the summer in Judea, we may well understand this image to be taken from the winter season, denoting the succession of pains and infirmities, which so often attend the winter of life.

3. "The keepers of the house."-Probably the hands and arms are intended, as being to the body what guards and keepers are to a palace; or rather, perhaps, so called as providing for the sustenance of the house or body. How they "tremble" in old age is well-known. The Targum, followed by many, conceives the ribs to be intended; but they di not tremble, and indeed become more fixed in age than in youth.

"The strong men.”—As an incurvation of the spine is one of the infirmities of old age, some think that the vertebra of the back are here meant. But it seems more probable that the lower limbs, which bow and totter beneath the aged, are denoted.

-"The grinders."-The allusion is apparently derived from the females who daily grind the corn required for the day. It thus denotes the teeth which masticate and grind down the food for the stomach.

-" Those that look out of the windows."-This undoubtedly denotes the eyes, which in old age become dimmed of "darkened."

4. "The doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low."-This appears to refer to the act of eating, which, in consequence of the loss of teeth, is usually performed by aged persons with closed lips; and then also the gums, with their smooth surfaces, are obliged to perform the office of the teeth, masticating the food with slow and silent labour, which is probably what is meant by the low sound of the grinding.

"He shall rise up at the voice of the bird."-Some suppose the cock to be meant, and that the text denotes that the aged sleep so unquietly that they wake and rise at the cock-crowing. This has however the defect of not being true, since the aged are not remarkable for early rising. The text does not necessarily denote that they arise from bed at the voice of the bird, but that they are roused by it; and as people of any age may be roused by the crowing of the cock, we are disposed to take the word rendered "a bird" (Y tzippor), in its usual signification, as denoting a sparrow. or any small bird: and we shall then have the sense that the aged sleep so unsoundly that the twittering of the smallest birds will suffice to rouse them.

"The daughters of musick.”—Some refer this to the non-enjoyment of the songs of the singing women, which is ene of the circumstances by which old Barzillai describes the infirmities of age (2 Sam. xix. 35). But we are much more disposed to agree with those who suppose it to apply to the decay of the organs employed in the production and enjoyment of music.

5. "They shall be afraid of that which is high," &c.—This and the following clause doubtless apply to the difficulty which the aged find in ascending high places, as well as to the timidity which the consciousness of their infirm co dition leads them to exhibit when they venture to walk out in the public ways; and which, in the narrow streets of the East, is necessarily more marked than with us.

"The almond-tree shall flourish.”—As the almond-tree has white blossoms, this is generally supposed to refer to the white hair of aged persons.

"The grasshopper shall be a burden."-By the word rendered "grasshopper," a species of locust is doubtless in tended. Locusts are eaten in the East, and probably were so by the Jews; and as then it was probably the smalles creature eaten by them, this may explain why it is selected to denote that the least weight is a burden to a very aged man. Some however think that a comparison of an old person to a locust is implied; and they would translate. "the locust is a burden to itself.” This opinion has been advocated by Dr. Smith, whose explanation has been the summed up by Parkhurst, in :—“The dry, shrunk, shrivelled, crumpling, scraggy old man-his backbone sticking out, his knees projecting forward, his arms backward, his head downward, and the apophyses, or bunching parts of the bones, in general enlarged-is very aptly described by that insect. And from this exact likeness, without all dout arose the fable of Tithonus, that, living to an extreme old age, he was at last turned into a grasshopper." Such a con parison is not so fanciful as might appear at first sight; for not only has it often occurred spontaneously to ourselves when examining the locust, but it is actually a current comparison at this day in the East. The idea appears to have been also familiar to the classical ancients, for we find some engraved gems in which an emaciated old man is evidents represented by a locust walking erect on its hind legs, and in which all the characteristics enumerated above, a brought out with truly singular effect.

"The mourners go about the streets.”—The preceding portion of this remarkable description refers to old age; we now come to another class of circumstances, descriptive of what attends and denotes death itself. The change f subject is clearly announced by the present clause, which refers probably to the attendance of actual or hired mourners On account of the extent of the notes to this chapter, we shall not here enlarge on this subject. But we have the opportunity of introducing an interesting illustration, copied from an oblong Egyptian tablet in the collection of Sig. Giovanni d'Athanasi, in whose Catalogue we have the following description:-"When this object was at Rome Rosellini stated it to be his opinion that the subject on it was intended as a representation of a Jewish funeral proces sion, and a tablet to one of that sect. This opinion is greatly supported by the total dissimilarity of the figures her represented to those found in the sepulchral tablets of the Egyptians, and also from the peculiar costume in which they are habited. It has likewise been advanced, that it only forms a portion of a procession, which fact does not a all appear conclusive. It probably represents an entire family of Jews, following the ashes or portions of the body of the deceased contained in the case before them: and, from an examination of the stone, it has evidently formed ont

end of a complete tablet. The entire absence of the usual symbols and Egyptian deities tend strongly to prove the correctness of Rosellini's opinion."

It is quite clear that the tablet does not represent an Egyptian procession; but that we should consider it a Jewish one, is not perhaps equally evident. Whether so or not, its proximity of time and place renders it an interesting relic in the way of illustration, particularly as it does, more than any other ancient remain which we have seen, exhibit some of the funeral customs distinctly mentioned in Scripture-such, for instance, as that of throwing dust upon the head. The mourning action in some of the figures, clearly denotes the funeral character of the procession.

6. "The silver cord."-This is usually interpreted of that resplendent white cord (the spinal marrow) which passes through the entire length of the backbone, and which is very liable to be relaxed and weakened in old age, or a part thereof altogether broken in its functions, producing the various paralytic complaints, the tremors and debilities, to which the aged are so frequently subject.

"The golden bowl."-This is commonly understood of the skull; and some pains have been taken to discover the source of the epithet "golden." There is, however, no occasion to suppose that it refers to colour or any physical circumstance; but we may conclude it to be a term of excellence, denoting the importance of the skull and its invaluable

contents.

"The pitcher...fountain...wheel...cistern."-The usual explanation of these terms is, that the pitcher denotes the large canals which issue from the heart, and receive therefrom the blood as from a fountain; that the fountain is the right ventricle of the heart, and the cistern the left ventricle; and that the wheel is the great artery called the aorta. For the reasons stated in the introductory note, we think these definite conclusions very uncertain and probably fallacious. In their literal import the series of images is evidently suggested by some hydraulic process for raising water from wells and cisterns. Of various methods employed for this purpose we recollect none which appears better to meet the allusions than one which is extensively in use in Egypt and Western Asia. It consists principally of a large vertical wheel, to which is attached a continuous series of earthen pots by cords, so that, by the revolution of the wheelwhich brings up the full pots in quick succession, while at the same time the discharged ones descend by the same impulse for a fresh supply-a constant stream is poured into a conduit, by which the water is conveyed to its destination, for the irrigation of gardens and plantations. This certainly has more analogy than any other explanation to that process, observed in the diffusion of blood through the body, to which the present text is supposed to refer. We cannot think that any thing more is intended than to indicate, by figures suggesting a general resemblance to the action of the vital system, the cessation, at death, of the functions involved in that action. To make an elaborate application of the discoveries of modern science, in order to elicit a most recondite and doubtful meaning from the details of a popular and poetical comparison, intended only to suggest a general idea, the accuracy of which, to the extent which it goes, has never been questioned-is little better than ingenious trifling, which from the forced and unsatisfactory character of its results, is scarcely calculated to be of any real use, but rather of disservice, in the work of Biblical illustration. The explanations to which we refer, necessarily assume that Solomon was acquainted with the circulation of the blood-that great secret which Harvey, at a late day, is supposed to have discovered. This opinion is indeed advocated by Witsius, Hottinger, Scheuchzer, Smith, and others; and Bishop Horsley says the passage cannot be easily explained on any other supposition. But the question is not what Solomon knew, but what was so well known to the people as to be intelligible even through the veil of highly figurative language; and no one contends that this was in ancient times a subject of common knowledge. Mr. Dutens, in his Inquiry into the Origin of the Discoveries attributed to the Moderns,' endeavours to prove that the circulation of the blood was known to Hippocrates and some other old physicians and philosophers; but the expressions cited by him seem, at the most, only to show that something of a circulation of the vital fluid was dimly suspected, while the principle and mode of operation was altogether unknown; and we certainly should not be disposed to contend that some such idea as to the bare existence of a circulation might not be known to the Hebrews and alluded to by Solomon.

11. "The words of the wise are as gads," &c.-This is considered a very difficult verse, particularly as it respects the words rendered "masters of assemblies." The explanation of that eminent rabbinical scholar, Dr. Lightfoot, deserves attention. "I am mistaken if the servants that attend about the flock under the shepherd are not called by the owner of them Dya, Eccles. xii. 11: i.e. those that fold the sheep: at least if the sheepfold itself be not so called. And I would render the words, by way of paraphrase, thus: "The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by those that gather the flocks into the fold: goads, to drive away the thief or the wild beast; and nails, to preserve the flock whole and in good repair: which nails and goads are furnished by the chief master of the flock for these uses."" (Heb. and Talm. Exercitations, John x. 3.) The mention of the "chief shepherd" would certainly suggest a pastoral sense for the nails and the goads. But by a careful examination of the original, it will appear that the reference to the nails, to which the words of the wise are compared, as being fastened by the "masters of assemblies," is not strictly 721

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correct. The words of the wise are rather compared to goads and to deeply infixed nails; and then it is added, as an independent clause, but having reference to the same subject, what Boothroyd renders-"The collectors (of thes sayings of the wise) were appointed by one shepherd;" or, as Hales-"the master collections were given by one shep herd;" or, as Holden-"the collectors have published them from one shepherd." We should like to take this last version; but, instead of "collectors," would, with our version, read "masters of assemblies;" whom we may understand, after the rabbinical writers, to have been persons who were members of the assemblies of wise men. This will bring out the very intelligible sense, that these members of the assemblies made known to others the instructions they received from Solomon, who is probably to be understood by the "chief shepherd," the title of "shepherd" being fre quently applied to kings, guides, and instructors. But it is possible that the Heavenly Shepherd himself is denoted by this title; and then Solomon is to be understood as one of the wise men who made known the precepts received from Him

THE

SONG OF SOLOMON.

CHAPTER I.

1 The church's love unto Christ. 5 She confesseth her deformity, 7 and prayeth to be directed to his flock. 8 Christ directeth her to the shepherds' tents: 9 and shewing his love to her, 11 giveth her gracious promises. 12 The church and Christ congratulate one another.

HE song of
songs, which is

Solomon's.

2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: 'for "thy love is better than wine.

3 Because of the savour of thy good ointments thy name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee.

4 Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee.

5 I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.

6 Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me: my

mother's children were angry with me; they made me keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.

7 Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?

8 If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents.

9 I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots. 10 Thy cheeks are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold.

11 We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver.

12¶While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.

13 A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.

14 My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of En-gedi. 15 Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves' eyes.

16 Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green.

17 The beams of our house are cedar, and our 'rafters of fir.

THE SONG OF SOLOMON.-That Solomon was the writer of this poem has been in all ages so generally admitted, that it is unnecessary to state the evidence for that conclusion. It is, with very little exception, agreed that the poem. in its literal acceptation. expresses the circumstances and sentiments attending a marriage between Solomon and a lady who is generally conceived to have been the daughter of the king of Egypt; but there have been some modern commentators who have adduced arguments, perhaps not easily answered, to show that the bride must have been a daughter of Israel and a native of Palestine. Our limited line of illustration does not require the discussion of this question, for which, as well as for much other curious investigation, we may refer to the various valuable commentaries on this book which have appeared within about the last seventy years, among which we may particularly mention those of Bishop Percy, the Rev. T. Harmer, Mr. Williams, Mr. C. Taylor, and Dr. J. M. Good.

The structure of the poem, and the denomination which should be given to it, has occasioned no small amount of discussion. A drama; an epithalamium, or nuptial song; a pastoral; a series of idyls, are among the denominations which have been given to it. It may possibly be understood that it is neither a drama, nor an epithalamium, nor a pas723

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