of the Spanish Armada the protestants were freed from the dangers and the fears of a general persecution, and their religion was established on a solid and permanent foundation. From that time the Turks have ceased to conquer, nor has the protestant church enlarged its boundaries by any national additions. Of course it is not meant to say, that all the above points of comparison are specially predicted in the words of the angel. But it is evident that he intended to turn the thoughts of the prophet from the scene of Mahometan imposture, flourishing with the advancement of the Ottoman empire, to the contrast which the progress of the third chariot opened to view, in the propagation and establishment of truth, morality, and liberty; and since the angel's words were certainly recorded for our instruction, we may consider ourselves, as summoned with Zechariah to contemplate the same subject; which we could not more profitably do, than by comparing some of the different stages, through which the two chariots synchronically passed in their career.

PART IX.

CAP. VI. 9—15.

We are now arrived at the last portion of this truly admirable prophecy. It can hardly be called the last part or scene of the vision, since there is not any celestial or symbolical appearance described in it, but a command alone is related to have been communicated by divine revelation to the prophet, to be performed by him accordingly.

9. And the word of Jehovah came unto me, 10. saying, "Take some of the captivity, one

*The prefix is often used partitively, with nouns of the plural number and nouns of multitude, as here, where the captivity signifies those, who had returned from the Babylonian captivity. Take some part or number of them; which number is immediately afterwards defined to be one of the family of Heldai, and of the others named. But it is very rarely found prefixed in this sense to proper names, Yet we have an instance of it in Numbers, xxiv. 19. , "and one from Jacob," or one of the house of Jacob, (for wx is understood and seems to be used, not only partitively, but elliptically also, for man,) "shall

of the family of Heldai, one of Tobijah, and one of Jedaiah, and go thou this day, and enter into the house of Josiah, the son of Zephaniah, who are come from Babylon*."

reign." Another instance is found in 2 Chronicles, xx. 4. "And Judah assembled m upah, to seek from the Lord." Our translation inserts "help" perhaps, a word, 27, would have been better; but it seems yet more agreeable to the context, to understand wx, and to consider the prefix as put elliptically for wa; for in answer to their petition the prophet Jahaziel immediately appears. Dr. Blaney conceives the to be redundant or expletive in this place, and appeals to Noldius for instances of this use of it before accusatives. He gives eight, of which, however, only one, that above cited from 2 Chronicles, xx. 4, is a proper name, not one is decisive, and hardly any at all to the purpose. Besides, in the instance before us, if the particle be taken as merely expletive, or as forming a periphrasis accusativi, when prefixed to the proper names, it must be taken for the same, when prefixed to an ; yet Dr. Blaney has there rendered it partitively; as the sense of the text plainly requires. We ought then to give it the same sense with the proper names, understanding with each of them wx, a man, because the individuals to be taken are afterwards specified, and we find them to be no more than three, one from each of the three houses above mentioned. Arch. bishop Secker, quoted by Archbishop Newcome, observes, that "what shall be taken is not said, till the next verse:" whence he seems to have thought, that silver and gold were to be taken from the persons named, and were consequently the words to be understood before, and then the beginning the next verse must be rendered, "yea," or "even," But, as Dr. Blaney justly observes, "the prophet is not required to take the silver and gold from the persons named, but to take them," or rather the persons afterwards named, of their families, "as witnesses of what he was going about."

*Our translators have removed this last clause from the end of the verse, where it is found in the original Hebrew and in all the ancient versions, and have placed it after the names of the persons above mentioned. They were undoubt

Zechariah is commanded to collect that very day a small number of those persons, who had returned from the captivity in Babylon. The number is in all four. Three persons are first described, merely as members of their fathers' houses, as if the choice of the individuals had been left to Zechariah; though it was not so, because we afterwards find them particularly named. With those three he is directed to go into the house of Josiah, the son of Zephaniah, where they will find another individual, afterwards named, who is to be joined, as a witness, with the former, and to be a partaker in the high honour done them.

11. "And take silver and gold and make crowns*,"

edly led to do this by the verb being in the plural number, Na, which has for its nominative the relative wx, seemingly referring to the individual Josiah or Zephaniah. The difficulty arising from the plural verb, has been long ago felt, for the LXX, Syriac, Arabic, and Chaldee have rendered it in the singular number, as if they had read x2, which is the reading of a single manuscript, formed probably by conjecture, and which Dr. Blaney prefers. But if we consider the relative to refer, as it certainly may, or rather must, to the two individuals Josiah and his father Zephaniah, the grammar will be easy and the sense clear. In their house, it should seem, that Joshua the high-priest resided, and there too Zechariah would find the other person, who is mentioned in the fourteenth verse.

*The word my here appears in the plural number, written in full. But six manuscripts ready, which may be the singular number; and the Syriac and Chaldee, with

Probably the prophet was to take the silver and gold with him to Josiah's house, as he might not find such materials there, unless the matter had been previously arranged, which the shortness of the notice shews to be very unlikely. We are not, however, to imagine, that the metals were to be taken in the mass or ingot, and

three manuscripts and one edition of the LXX render in that number. In the fourteenth verse the word occurs without the Vau and is connected with a verb in the singular number, which seems to give some support to the various reading before mentioned. Dr. Blaney, in his note, does not venture to determine, whether the singular or plural is to be preferred, but in his text he translates in the singular. Nevertheless, since the great majority of manuscripts read in the plural form fully written, and the LXX, (for what signify three manuscripts and one edition ?) the Vulgate, and the Arabic render agreeably thereto, the commonly received reading is still to be esteemed the genuine one; especially since the other is likely to have arisen from the abbreviated form of writing and from the use of the singular verb in the fourteenth verse. As to the Chaldee paraphrast, although he has rendered the noun in the singular, the probability is, that he read it with the Vau; for he has rendered it, not simply, a crown, but 7, a GREAT CROWN, in conformity with the rule laid down by Hebrew grammarians, that some nouns singular have their termination in m, to augment the force of their signification; although there does not appear to be any reason here for that, since the meaning of the symbolical act would not be rendered clearer, or expressed more forcibly, by the superior magnitude of the crown. I therefore claim the Chaldee as a witness for the common reading, which, notwithstanding his gloss, is without doubt in the plural number. The difficulty of the construction in the fourteenth verse (see the note there) may be obviated without having recourse to any alteration of the text, or to the supposition, that my is a noun singular. At any rate there should be, as Dr. Blaney observes, an uniformity in the two verses.