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LIKE THE BEST WINE] Hebrew, ke-yayn hat-tov, 'like the wine of the good'= like very good wine. Lxx., hōs oinos ho agathos, 'as wine, the good (kind)'—ho (the) being emphatic; but Codex A is without the ho. V., sicut vinum optimum, 'as the best wine.'

THAT GOETH DOWN SWEETLY] Hebrew, holāk lē-dodi lē-maisharim, 'going to my beloved according to straightnesses' rightly. Lxx., poreuomenos tō adelphidō mou eis euthuteeta, 'going to my kinsman in a straight way.' V., dignum dilecto meo ad potandum, 'fit for my beloved to drink.' Symmachus, harmozōn tô agapeetō mou eis euthuteeta, 'fitted to my beloved in a straight line.'

CAUSING THE LIPS OF THOSE WHO ARE ASLEEP TO SPEAK] Hebrew, dovav siphthai yishanim, 'flowing over the lips of the sleeping.' Lxx., hikanoumenos cheilesi mou kai odousin, 'satisfying to my lips and teeth.' V., labiisque et dentibus illius ad ruminandum, ‘and (fit for him) to ruminate with his lips and teeth.' Symmachus, prostithemenos cheilesi, 'applied to the lips.'

CHAPTER VII. VERSE 12.

Let us get up carly to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves.

TO THE VINEYARDS] Hebrew, lak-keramim, ‘to the vineyards.’

IF THE VINE FLOURISH] Hebrew, im parkhah hag-gephen, 'whether buds the vine'; the Lxx., ei eentheesen hee ampelos, if the vine flowers'; V., si florunt vineas, if the vineyards are in flower.'

WHETHER THE TENDER GRAPE APPEARS] Hebrew, pittakh has-sèmahdar, '(whether) opens out the blossom (or young grape)'; Lxx., eentheesen ho kuprismos, (if) the blossom has flowered'; V., si flores fructús parturiunt, ‘if the flowers of the fruit put forth.'

AND THE POMEGRANATES BUD FORTH] Hebrew, hānātzu harimmonim, ‘(whether) are bright (or flourish) the pomegranates.' [As to Rimmonim, see Note on I Sam. xiv. 2.]

CHAPTER VIII. VERSE 2.

I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.

OF SPICED WINE OF THE JUICE OF MY POMEGRANATE] Hebrew, miy-yayin harèqakh, mā-asis rimmoni, 'from the wine of the spice, from the fresh juice of my pomegranate.' Yayin harèqakh, 'wine of the spice,' is equivalent to 'spiced (or seasoned) wine.' Asis is used of the newly expressed juice of the grape [see Prel. Dis., and Notes on Joel i. 5; iv. 18; Amos ix. 10], but is here applied to the fresh juice of the pomegranate. It is doubtful whether 'the juice of my pome granate' is identical with the spiced-wine'; or whether the yayin was mixed with the juice of the pomegranate,' and so was rendered 'spiced'; or whether the yayin was otherwise spiced and drunk along with the pomegranate juice. The Lxx. has apo oinou tou murepsikou, apo namatos rhoōn mou, from the myrrhed-wine, from my juice [spring] of the pomegranates'; Symmachus, 'from prepared wine'; V.,

ex vino condito et mustum malorum granatorum meorum, 'from prepared wine and must of my apples.' Instead of 'spiced,' the Syriac and the Arabic have 'sweetest.'

CHAPTER VIII. VERSE II.

Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver.

A VINEYARD] Hebrew, kèrèm, ' vineyard.'

THE VINEYARD] Hebrew, eth-hak-kěrěm, ‘the vineyard.'

CHAPTER VIII. VERSE 12.

My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.

MY VINEYARD] Hebrew, karmi, ‘my vineyard.'

THE

BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH.

[ISAIAH PROPHESIED ABOUT THE YEAR 750 B. C.]

CHAPTER I. VERSE 8.

And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.

AS A COTTAGE IN A VINEYARD] Hebrew, kěsukkah bèkarem, 'as a booth (made of leaves and branches) in a vineyard.'

CHAPTER I. VERSES 16, 17.

16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 17 Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

The real evidence of all repentance, and the essential condition of all acceptance with God, is the desire of amendment-a desire which, wherever it exists, necessarily prompts to the avoidance of known evil and its causes. If the people of this nation should sincerely repent of the national sin of intemperance, their abhorrence of it would lead them to shun all degrees of it and all participation in its sources; and until this repentance is experienced, all professions of regret, and all efforts to palliate the effects or materially to modify the symptoms of the disease, will neither satisfy God nor accomplish an abiding cure.

CHAPTER I. VERSE 22.

Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water.

THY WINE MIXED WITH WATER] Hebrew, sahvāk mahhul bam-maim, 'thy soveh is cut with water.' Lxx., oi kapeeloi sou misgousi ton oinon hudati, thy hucksters (low taverners or vintners) mix the wine with water.' Aquila has sumposion sou, 'thy banquet' (drinking-feast); Symmachus, ho oinos sou, 'thy wine.' The T. has khamraik, 'thy wine'; V., vinum tuum mistum est aqua, ‘thy wine has been mixed with water.' Sovch, 'that which is eagerly sucked up'

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[see Prel. Dis.], here manifestly denotes some luscious preparation, probably of boiled grape-juice. Mah-al, 'to cut,' 'prune,' or 'circumcise,' is a figure for the dilution commonly practised by the lower class of liquor venders, who tried to pass off a thin watery article for the superior and genuine soveh. The idiom is common in the East, and is to be found in the poet Martial (Ep. i. 18),—jugulare vetat Falernum, 'he forbids the Falernian (wine) to have its throat cut' to have its strength diminished. Dr Gill quotes Gussetius as suggesting that mahal is contracted from meholal, which signifies 'infatuated,' so that the meaning would be 'thy wine is infatuated into water.' The erudite author of 'Tirosh lo Yayin' traces to soveh the Latin sapa, which was must boiled down to one-third its original bulk, and by an apt quotation from Varro (lib. i., cap. 54) shows how the figure of circumcision might come to be applied to wine unduly diluted with water. Varro, speaking of grapes that had been trodden and then put under the press, adds, "When the must has ceased to flow from the press some persons circumcise the extremities (of the grape-mass) and press again, and what results from the second pressure they call circumcisitum”—cum desiit sub prelo fluere, quidem circumcidunt extrema, et rursus premunt, et rursus cum expressum circumcisitum appellant. He also cites Cato (xxiii. 76) as applying to the wine made from a similar pressure of grape husks, etc., the name of vinum circumcidaneum, and Columella (xii. 36) the name of vinum circumcisivum.

CHAPTER II. VERSE 8.

Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made.

This may be truly said of the monster idols of Great Britain-fermented and distilled liquors of every quality, color, and denomination, and of the temples of Bacchus and Tobaccos. The land is full of them.' Evil drinks occupy tens of thousands of breweries, distilleries, warehouses, cellars, and shops, and in the more than religious homage which millions pay to them, we have an example, the most painful and shameful, of the worship that men render to 'the work of their own hands.'

CHAPTER III. VERSE I.

For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water.

Bread and water are here described as the two stays or supports of physical existence-bread, the one typical food; water, the one essential liquid. Unlike such imaginary and fictitious supports as alcoholic beverages, these have no tendency to excite a morbid appetite, and if taken even to excess they can never generate moral and social evils of a malignant and destructive kind. The wisdom and goodness of God are displayed in withholding from the materials constituting our daily sustenance any property prompting to their abuse, and any power, if abused, to pervert reason and deprave the soul. He provideth no 'deceitful meat,' no drink that 'mocks' and 'deceives.' Articles possessing such characteristics must, in reason, be set aside as neither essential nor useful to health and vigor.

CHAPTER V. VERSE I.

Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill.

TOUCHING HIS VINEYARD] Hebrew, le-karmo, 'concerning his vineyard.' The Lxx. has 'to my vineyard.'

A VINEYARD] Hebrew, kerem. So in ver. 6 also.

IN A VERY FRUITFUL HILL] Literally, 'in the horn of the son of fatness.' Vines were planted on hill-sides. So Virgil,-Bacchus loves the open hills.'

CHAPTER V. VERSE 2.

And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

THE CHOICEST VINE] Hebrew, soraq, a noble vine'; Lxx., ampelon sōreek [Codex A has sōreek], 'a vine sorek.' Aquila and Theodotion have soreek; but Symmachus has eklekteen, which appears in the V. electam ‘choice,'—vitem, ‘vine,' being understood. In a note on this passage St Jerome, while observing that the only Greek translator who had rendered sōreek by 'choice' was Symmachus, says that it seemed to him he was expressing the sense though breaking the letter of the original word, "for the Jews say that sorek is a species of the best vine, which yields the juciest and most constant fruit. Whence sorek by some is interpreted kallikarpos, which we may translate into pulcherrimos fructus ('the most beautiful fruits')." [See Note on Gen. xlix. 11.]

A WINEPRESS] Hebrew, yeqeb, 'a wine-press'; Lxx., proleenion; V., torcular. A TOWER] Hebrew, migdol 'a watch-tower.' These towers are common in all Eastern countries in the midst of vineyards and orchards.

GRAPES] Hebrew, anabim, 'grape-bunches'; Lxx., staphuleen, V. uvas, 'grapes.'

WILD GRAPES] Hebrew, běushim, 'bad' or 'vile.' Běushim is from bah-ask, 'to have a bad smell.' If beushim refer to a bad species of grapes, we have here an example of our idiom when we contrast the 'real' substance with 'rubbish,' though both may be the same in nature, and differ only in their quality. "He looked that it should bring forth grapes-grapes deserving to be called so; and it brought forth grapes indeed, but of a smell so sickly as to make them unworthy of the name." Anabim, grapes, may, however, be contrasted with some spurious berries resembling grapes, if at all, in nothing but their outward and clustered form. The Lxx. and Theodotion read akanthos, 'thorns' or 'brambles.' The V. has labruscas, 'wild grapes' produce of the wild vine. The same terms are used in ver. 4.

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CHAPTER V. VERSE 3.

And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you betwixt me and my vineyard.

MY VINEYARD] Hebrew, karmi, 'my vineyard.' So verses 4 and 5, èl-karmi, 'to my vineyard.'

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