29. Let mine adverfaries, evdia Banλovles

be clothed with fhame.

4. is used to fignify human adversaries to the fons of God, or, the worshippers of the true God.

Job 1. 6. Now there was a day when the fons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan, daßoλos, came alfo among them. In the margin it is the adversary, which is the proper meaning of the term, and is a key to the fenfe of the word in all the following texts in the book of Job: i. 7, 7, 8, 9, 12, 12; ii. 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7. Job and his wife both attribute his afflictions to God, i. 21; ii. 9, 10; as well as his profperity, xlii.

10, II.

Barker, in his inquiry into the fcripture meaning of the word Satan, &c. has the following remarks upon these paffages:

"As the fons of God whom these adverfaries "came to oppose were men, it is most natural to un"derstand the adversary to be men also. These were

moftly fervants of other gods, idolaters. In the Sep"tuagint it is not the fons of God, but o ayyɛño, "the angels or meffengers of God; i. 6; ii. 1. It "must be observed alfo that this is not given us as "any thing fupernaturally revealed. The introduc"tion to this book, and the conclufion, have been

supposed to be allegorical. For we cannot imagine "that the Most High thus really converfed with fuch

"a fpirit as Satan is fuppofed to be; or that God "could be moved by fuch an one, or by any one, "against an upright man, without a caufe. ii. 3: "The adversary fays, he came from going to and fro “in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. “Job's human adverfaries were wanderers and rovers "that lived by plunder and devaftation; the Sabeans ❝and Chaldeans, ver. 15 and 17; besides fire and 'ftormy wind, ver. 16, 19. Satan is here used as an "appellative, not as a proper name for a real indivi"dual perfon. Thus when God Thus when God gave his command"ments, he faid, Hear, O lfrael; Deut. v. 1; vi. 3, 4; "ix. 1; 1 Kings xii. 19, 28. And David numbered • Ifrael, that is, all the people of Ifrael; 1 Chron. xxi. “1. In the fame manner Satan, in the book of Job, "is the representative of all his adversaries." See on Luke x. 18, in fect. iv. fubd. 3.

"The author of the book of Job has had recourse to perfonification, that he might by that means "bring Job's adverfaries into the prefence of God, "and by a fhort dialogue inform us at once of the "reafon and end of that man's fufferings. This per "fonification is judicioufly managed, and is agreeable "to the Eastern manner of writing, and to Greek and "Latin poets, whofe chief excellence confifts in this "fort of reprefentation. See the beginning of Vir"gil's firft Æneid; the council of the gods, book x. "is grounded on the fame plan of reprefentation with "this in Job." See alfo 1 Kings xxii. 18 to 23.

Zech. iii. 1. And he fhewed me Joshua, the highpriest standing by the angel of the Lord, and Satan, in the margin, an adversary, & diaßonos, standing at his right hand, i to refift him, in the margin, to be his adverfary, avixeodas.

Zech. iii. 2. And the Lord faid Tov diabolov, the Lord rebuke thee, διαβολε.

unto Satan, VI, O Satan,

The marginal readings of the first verse, namely adversary, are a key to the interpretation of the word Satan throughout the whole of this paffage.

Barker, in his inquiry, &c. obferves upon this paffage as follows:

"This is a prophetic vifion. Joshua, the then "high-priest, was one of the parties; Satan, or the

adversary, refifted or oppofed him, and confe"quently was another party; but the Lord ftood “with Joshua, and rebuked the adverfary. How"ever neither Joshua nor Satan were here, but only "their vifionary reprefentatives, called by the names "of the perfons they were intended to reprefent. I suppose then that Joshua, fome time or other, had "really to do with an adverfary or adverfaries; and "that the Lord ftood with him and rebuked the "opposer. The book of Ezra contains a fhort his

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tory of those times, and in this we shall find the "vifion explained by facts; fee ch. v. the beginning. "No doubt then the prophecy of Zechariah was "delivered about this time. Ch. iii. relates to "Joshua, and ch. iv. to Zerubbabel, to encourage

"them in rebuilding the temple. Joshua, however, "is forwarned (in the vision) of an adversary whom "the Lord would rebuke; as was Zerubbabel also "in the next chapter. Ezra proceeds and tells us, "how the Lord rebuked the adverfary, and stood "with Joshua, as the head of the people. Satan "must be understood here of Tatnai, the governor "on this fide the river, and of Shethar-boznai, and "his companions, (perhaps deputy governors) Ealav "must be either an enemy adversary, or several adver"faries collectively. For we read only of Joshua and "Satan standing by the angel of the Lord; and yet "the angel commanded those who stood by him to "take away Joshua's filthy garments, and let them "fet a mitre on his head, and they did fo. This is "doubtless to be understood of Satan, or the adver-. fary, and was fulfilled when Darius fent his decree "to those governors to affift the Jews out of the "king's goods; which decree the adversaries were "obliged to comply with. See the decree Ezra vi. "It seems there were seven adverfaries, and they are "the feven eyes fpoken of, Zech. iii. 9; iv. 10."

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5. is applied to the angel of Jehovah, as an adverfary to Balaam.

Numb. xxii. 22. And God's anger was kindled, because he went; and the angel or meffenger of Jehovah ftood in the way for an adversary against him, vdiaGaλλew. 32. And the angel or meffenger of Jehovah faid unto him, behold I went

out to withstand thee; in the margin, to be an adverfary unto thee; εις διαβολην σε.

The above, I believe, are all the texts in which

occurs in the Old Teftament, except Ezra iv. 6, and Gen. xxvi. 21, which we have before noticed. From a fair examination of the several paffages, it appears that the fense of adversary, as an appellative, is the true one; and that the tranflators of our common English Bible understood it to be fo, as their marginal readings manifeft: 2 Sam. xix. 22, is a pointed inftance of this. It appears, alfo, that the term is in all cafes applied to human adverfaries, except in two instances, in which it is ufed concerning the angel of Jehovah. It is, therefore, in no one inftance, employed to fignify an evil being of an order fuperior to man, or a fallen angel.

SECTION IV.

Σαταν and Σαγανας.

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THESE words are derived from the Hebrew and have the fame meaning. Proprié adverfarium quemlibet notat."-Schleufner on σalavas. The word raav occurs but once in the New Teftament, and without the article. Ealavas occurs in it thirty-five times, ufually with the article; but in the following texts without it-Matt. iv. 10; xvi. 23; Mark viii. 33; Luke iv. 8; Rev. xx. 1, 2; Mark iii. 23; Luke xxii. 3. See Griefbach's N. T.