The Lord concludes his oracle by a repetition of that solemn appeal to the event in proof of his being the true messenger of God the Father; "and thou shalt know that Jehovah of hosts hath sent me unto thee." This form of words is plainly intended to conclude the passage, to which it is annexed. But then the messenger of Jehovah and speaker of the words will be so clearly proved to be Jehovah himself, that Dr. Blaney's hypothesis founded on Hebrews, i, 1, 2, must fall to the ground. He has therefore endeavoured to cut off these words from the context, by three different means. First he renders the connective particle* "then," instead of "and,” contrary to his own practice in the three other instances in which the phrase occurs. But since

* In his appendix to Zechariah, p. 81. Dr. Blaney contends for his right to assign to the particle, the signification of "then," as "being allowed it in other places, and as being a liberty which absolutely and in itself, no sound Hebrew critic will be inclined to disallow." Certainly not. But that liberty must not be used capriciously, but must be regulated by right reason; and the signification of the particle, or rather the mode, in which it connects the following with the preceding words, must be determined by the exigency of the passage Vide Gussetii Comment. Ling. Heb. p. 406, or the citation therefrom, which Tympius has brought forward with approbation in his note on Noldius de particulis, p. 283. Now Dr. Blaney, by rendering the particle, by the English conjunction "and" in other places, where the connection is altogether similar to that before us, has precluded himself from the right of rendering it here by " then;" for I apprehend that the support of his hypothesis cannot be reckoned the same thing, as the exigency of the passage.

that does not extend to break off the connection, but only to impair its closeness, it would by no means suffice to assign over the words to the proclaiming angel, instead of Jehovah; he has therefore in the second place had recourse to an altered punctuation, placing a full stop, equivalent to the ending of a verse, where our translators have set a comma, and where the Masorites have used a point of less distinction than our colon; and in the third place, having resorted to the modern contrivance of inverted commas, to mark the preceding words as the speech of Jehovah, he breaks them off here; by which method the eye of the reader is caught, and his attention following his eye is turned aside from the arbitrary and confused application of the personal pronoun. The means when discerned defeat the end.

To conclude this long, and perhaps somewhat tedious discussion. There is a passage in the book of Exodus, xxix. 45, 46, which completely vindicates the authorized translation and the commonly received interpretation against Dr. Blaney's. "And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God. And they shall know that I am Jehovah their God, that brought them" &c. In this text we find the parallel form of words, "ye shall know" &c.

connected with preceding words closely parallel. to those in the passage before us, and in a mode also of connection equally parallel, affording altogether such an instance of triple parallelism, as is rarely to be found; and such as to prove, that the words in question have been rightly rendered by our translators, and are referable only person, who is the speaker in the foregoing

to the

sentence.

The words, that follow, make no part of the Lord's message, but are pronounced by the angel of the proclamation, as a part thereof and as an inference drawn from the divine oracle. The particle, "and," therefore couples them with the reason assigned by the angel for his exhortation to sing and rejoice, for which they afford an additional argument. But since they also contain an inference drawn from the message, the Hebrew particle may be rendered by some English particle slightly illative, or "and" may be understood in that sense; "so will the Lord inherit Judah his portion in the holy land and will yet again choose Jerusalem." For God having such great blessings in store for his chosen people, and having published his gracious intentions by proclamations openly delivered by an angel in his own presence and in the hearing of the prophet, could no longer be considered, as

retaining any portion of displeasure against them. On the contrary, the positive declarations of God's gracious intentions toward them in time to come, amount to plain and direct assertions, that he will in the mean time preserve and maintain them, in order to be such distinguished objects of his future mercy. Thus understood, the words are plainly calculated to effect the primary and immediate intention of Zechariah's vision; viz, to reanimate and encourage the Jews in rebuilding the temple and returning to Jerusalem. And thus too they may be justly considered, as a repetition and ratification of the words of comfort in the first part of the vision, that "Jehovah will yet again comfort Zion and will yet again choose Jerusalem."

The last verse of the proclamation is a summons to all mankind. "Be silent," or rather, "hush,' for the Hebrew monosyllable is as nearly allied to the English in sound, as in sense; "Hush, O all flesh before Jehovah, for he is roused up from the habitation of his holiness," or from his holy habitation. All the kindreds of the earth, as being deeply and equally concerned, are here called and bidden to attend in reverent expectation to the things about to be declared in the following parts of the vision. God is roused up; as if he had before been in an inactive state, as

he is represented in Isaiah, xviii, 4, taking his rest, considering his dwelling place; but at the appointed season rousing himself to action*. This is quite agreeable to the words of St. Peter, in Acts, xiv, 16, that "God in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways," and to St. Paul's declaration, in Acts, xvii. 30, that "the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent." The Most High is preparing himself

"This fourth verse," says Bishop Horsley, "represents a long cessation of visible interpositions of providence, under the image of God's sitting still; the stillness of that awful pause, under the image of that torpid state of the atmosphere, in hot weather, when not a gleam of sunshine breaks for a moment through the sullen gloom; not a breath stirs ; not a leaf wags; not a blade of grass is shaken; no ripling wave curls upon the sleeping surface of the waters; the black ponderous cloud, covering the whole sky, seems to hang fixed and motionless as an arch of stone; nature seems benumbed in all her operations. The vigilance nevertheless of God's silent providence is represented under the image of his keeping eye, while he thus sits still, upon his prepared habitation. The sudden eruption of judgement, threatened in the next verse, after this total cessation, just before the final call to Jew and Gentile, answers to the storms of thunder and lightning, which in the suffocating heats of the latter end of summer, succeed that perfect stillness and stagnation of the atmosphere. And as the natural thunder at such seasons, is the welcome harbinger of refreshing and copious showers; so it appears, the thunder of God's judgements will usher in the long desired season of the cousummation of mercy." Critical Disquisitions on Isaiah, xviii. p. 96. The above cited passage presents us with so fine an example of the temperate sublime, that I could not resist the temptation to introduce it at length.