NOTES.

M'

PAGE 2. VERSE 5.

Bless the Gods in their hearts.

ISS SMITH has here followed the interpretation of Parkhurst, and which I conceive to be the right one; but more of this hereafter.

VERSE 6.

The sons of perdition.

This is a bold variation from the generally admitted sense of the Hebrew phrase; but I am convinced, after the most mature consideration, that the conception of the passage is no less just, than it is original. It certainly is defensible upon the strongest ground, though not precisely upon that which the translator has chosen.

In her opinion, that the article

appears no where else, prefixed in regimine, except in the 6th chapter of Genesis, Miss SMITH is not quite correct. This usage of it is not uncommon, and particularly in 1 Samuel ix. 10, we find the man of GOD. It

might however have been fairly

urged, that except in

no where applied in

these two passages, the article is regimine to these specific words; and that universally, D is the expression used to denote the Yo sons of GOD, those, whom the New Testament calls born of God, begotten again by his word, and resembling their heavenly Father in their dispositions and actions. The emphatic prefixed, gives therefore great weight to her interpretation, and more especially from its being expressly used to contrast the false gods 1770

0 הודו לאלהי האלהים .with the great JEHOVAH

give thanks unto the God of all gods: Psalm cxxx. 2. The sense then will be, the sons of perdition, (viz.) those who, from their idolatrous apostacy, were deserving of, or liable to perdition, came to set themselves against JEHOVAH. And surely nothing can be more dramatically beautiful, than the placing Satan at the head of these his apostate followers; not to mention, that the subsequent question, hast thou considered my servant Job? whom thou hast not been able to seduce from my service, becomes more peculiarly apposite.

In reference also to what is said on the passage in Genesis, would not the same construction there, supposing it, in this place, to be well founded, go to clear up an ambiguity of expression? for though the meaning be evident, still, literally speaking, all were sons of GOD. If therefore the prefixed article will allow us to render the words according to Miss SMITH's suggestion, they will then mark the sons of idolatry, or apostate descendants of Cain, in contradistinction to the religious females of the offspring of Seth; the sense as to the impure mixture will be the same; the virtuous intermarried with the vicious, and hence arose the corruptions which finally brought the deluge upon the earth; and hence also, in the separation of GOD'S people from the idolatrous nations, we have a cause assigned, as it were, for the severe prohibitions against any connubial intercourse with them, which afterwards took place in the Jewish law.

PAGE 3. VERSE 11.

Whether to thy face He will not bless thee, (curse thee.)

It is evident from her mode of rendering this passage, that Miss SMITH is unwilling to abandon the invariable signification of the word 772 to bless, where it

is applied to express any intercourse betwixt GoD and man; and when it is considered, that there are only six passages, in which it can be made, or even supposed to deviate, in the smallest degree, from this its first and original meaning, that its secondary sense of genu flectere is derived from kneeling, in the act of worship to God; and that the more remote application of it, in which it is sometimes used, to signify piscina, may fairly be deduced from a sense of the great blessing experienced in those hot dry countries from the preservation of the rain water in large pools or reservoirs ; I shall not be accused of presumption for endeavouring (under the authority of Mr. Parkhurst) to support the consistency of adhering to the primitive signification of the word; and for wishing, if it be possible, not to change it; since from the nature of the Hebrew language, doubts must arise, and difficulties increase, with every variation of the radical term.

To get rid of the direct opposition of bless and curse in the same word 7, Schultens has undoubtedly offered a most ingenious solution; and which, if no better could be found, one would, for the same reason,

* The 5th and 11th verses of this chapter, 5th and 9th of the 2d chapter, and 10th and 13th verses of 21st chapter 1 Kings.