at me they ftare and gaze :

they divide my garments among them,

19

and for my clothing they caft lots.

But be not thou, JEHOVAH! far from me:

20

haften thou, my ftrength! to mine aid:

refcue my life from the fword,

21

my dear life from the power of the dog:

fave me from the mouth of the lion,

and from the buffalo's horns defend me.

Thy name I will celebrate among my brethren;

mid the affembly I will praise thee thus

:

22

23

"Ye worshippers of JEHOVAH, to him give praise; 24 "all ye feed of Jacob, to him give glory;

"fince he hath not despised nor disdained

25

"the affliction of the miferable :

"from whom he hath not hid his countenance;

"but hath liftened to his invocation."

In the great affembly my praise fhall be of thee: in the prefence of thy worshippers I will pay my vows:

26

the needy fhall eat, and be fatisfied:

27

they who seek JEHOVAH, fhall praise him,

as, henceforth, their hearts fhall be refreshed.

The inhabitants of the land, to its utmoft limits,

28

fhall repent, and return to JEHOVAH,

and all the tribes of the people fhall worship him. For JEHOVAH's is the kingdom;

29

and of the people he is the ruler.

All the rich of the land fhall eat, and worship;

30

and those who are starving shall adore and be revived.

Pofterity fhall ferve him; and be reckoned his:

31

through generations, they fhall come,

and declare his juftice;

32

to people yet unborn, what he hath done!

NOTES.

There are many difficulties in this pfalm, which it is not eafy to furmount. Some fmall corruptions have crept into the text; but not so many as fome text-menders imagine. I have touched them with a tender hand; and never but when I found it abfolutely neceffary. The following notes will, I truft, make it intelligible to all capacities. -Ver. 10. Thou dreweft me from the womb, &c. This metaphorical language only fignifies that David from his first infancy depended on God as on a father. There may be, however, fome allufion to the mode of delivering women among the Hebrews. The father, probably, received the new-born infant on his knees. See Job 3. 12.-Ver. 13. A multitude of bulls. The bull is known to be a fierce animal; and thofe of Bashan, from its luxuriant pastures, were uncommonly fo. The author, in this and the following verses, accumulates, under various metaphors, every sort of distress and danger that can befall a miferable man.-Ver. 17. I have added the words a multitude of, on the authority of almost all the antient verfions; even of the Chaldee paraphrafe.-Ib. lacerating mine bands and my feet. There is here a word in the original that has been a strange subject of controversy, which I fhall examine in another place. I will here only fay, that I deem the prefent reading genuine, and that Christian commentators have vexed it without a caufe. The metaphor refers to the dogs in the first comma, for which reason I have, with Green, transposed the fecond, to make the fimile more ftriking. They who have seen a poor deer torn in pieces by cruel hounds, will be able to form a proper idea of the metaphor.-Ver. 18. all my bones they number. The present text has: all my bones I number, or may number: but I am perfuaded that the original reading was they number; which is that of all the antients, fave Chald. I have elsewhere accounted for the alteration.-Ver. 22. from the buffalo's borns. This wild animal is more fierce and fwifter than the common bull. Others render unicorn, that is, the rhinoceros.-Ver. 28. I was here under the néceffity of paraphrasing a little; but I am perfuaded I have given the meaning. This and the following verfes incline me to believe that the pfalm was compofed during the rebellion of Abfhalom, when all the other tribes and a great part of Judah had revolted; but who, when David returned victorious, relented and returned to their duty.-Ver. 30. all the rich, &c. lit. all the fat ones; who, when they come to worship,

D

shall bring euchariftic facrifices, out of which they shall give portions to the poor; so that those who would otherwise be in a starving condition would meet with refreshment, when they came to adore at the fanctuary: for fuch I take to be the meaning of the last comma of this verfe, which cannot be literally rendered with any degree of perspi cuity. It was usual for the great, and particularly for the prince, to diftribute meat and drink among the people, and for that purpose to facrifice a vast number of victims. See 2 Sam. 6. 19, and 1 K. 8. 5. -Ver. 31 and 32. I am not fure that I have rightly rendered these two verses: but I could make no other fenfe out of them, without altering my text; which I am always unwilling to do without a cogent reason.

PSALM XXIII.-al. XXII.

This psalm is a happy specimen of Hebrew poetry, and bas been elegantly translated into verse, by Addison and others. It must have been composed after all David's first troubles were over; most probably in the beginning of his reign,

A PSALM OF DAVID.

JEHOVAH my fhepherd I shall never want; in verdant pastures he maketh me repose.

I

2

By gentle streams he leadeth me:

he recreateth my foul.

In direct paths he guideth me,

for his own name's fake.

3

But were I to walk in the dark vale of death;

I fhould dread no harm, while thou art with me:

thy staff and thy crook would comfort me.

A table thou haft fpread before me:

5

in the face of my foes thou anointest mine head;

with liquor my cup overfloweth.

Ah! may thy bounteous mercy follow me

6

during all the period of my life;

may

I dwell at the house of JEHOVAH,

for a length of days to come.

NOTES.

Ver. 1. Jehovah my shepherd. This metaphor naturally occurred to David from his first pastoral condition, and is most happily applied. -Ver. 4. in the dark vale of death, i. e. a very dark and dismal vale. -Ver. 5. thou anointeft mine bead. This has no allufion to the regal unction; but to the eastern custom of anointing the heads of great and noble guests with oil and other fragrant unguents; which was also customary among the Greeks and Romans. Chrift indirectly reproaches the Pharisee who had invited him to dine with him, for the omiffion of this part of hospitality. See Luke 6. 46.

PSALM XXIV.-al. XXIII.

This psalm is thought to have been composed, when the ark was brought from the house of Obed-edom, to the place which David bad prepared for it on Mount Zion.

2

A PSALM OF DAVID.

THE earth is JEHOVAH'S, with all its contents; the globe with all its inhabitants:

for he it was, who founded it on the feas,

and upon the rivers established it.

Who fhall afcend the mountain of JEHOVAH?

3

and who shall stand in his holy place?

4

The clean of hands, and the pure of heart;

who fetteth not his mind on falfehood;

nor fweareth with intent to deceive.

5

He shall receive a bleffing from JEHOVAH;
and be justified by the God of his falvation.

6

Such is the race of thofe who feek him;

who defire thy prefence, † O God of Jacob!

that the king of glory may come in.
"Who is this king of glory?"
JEHOVAH, ftrong and mighty;

JEHOVAH, powerful in battle.
Ye gates! lift up your heads;

ye lofty doors! be lifted up:

that the king of glory may come in.
"Who is this king of glory?"
JEHOVAH, the God of hofts-
He is this king of glory.

NOTES.

9

10

Ver. 7. Ye lofty doors. The common verfion is: "ye everlasting doors," i. e. very antient; fuch as the gates of Jerufalem are supposed to have been. I think the Hebrew word has here another meaning, and refers either to the loftiness of the doors, or to their being highly drawn up. They seem to have been portcullises; which were raised bigb, not opened wide, to admit those who entered.

PSALM XXV.-al. XXIV.

The title gives this psalm to David: but I am inclined to think this is a misnomer; and that it was composed by some minor poet during the Babylonish captivity. It is the first of the five psalms called alphabetic; because the verses are arranged according to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, in number twenty-two: a species of writing, somewhat similar to our acrostics: but which, I am persuaded, was not known in the days of David. Some errors bave crept into the text of most of those alphabetic psalms. The words bave been sometimes ill divided, and mispointed; and whole members of the sentence been omitted. I have endeavoured, in imitation of Hare, Kennicott, and others, to restore the text : but never without warning the reader of these restorations. It will be easily perceived, that it is impofsible to exbibit in a vernacular version the alphabetical arrangement of the original. I bave, however, prefixed the forms and names of the Hebrew letters to the sentences to which they belong.

A PSALM OF DAVID.

N. ALEPH.

TO thee, JEHOVAH! I raise my foul: my God! save thy servant trufting in thee.