He hath SETTLED ON HIS LEES] Hebrew, ve-shoqāt hu el shēmahrahv, ‘and he has settled himself upon his lees'; LXX., kai pepoithōs een epi tee doxee autou, ' and he has relied upon his glory'; V., et requievit in fecibus suis, 'and he has settled on his dregs.'

By a powerful image sensual Moab is compared to wine that had not been disturbed since it was put into its first vessel; and the threatening goes forth that he shall resemble not only wine transferred from one vessel to another, but wine which runs out and is lost, because the vessels containing it are emptied and broken. [See Note on Zeph. i. 12.]

CHAPTER XLVIII. VERSE 26.

Make ye him drunken: for he magnified himself against the LORD: Moab also shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision.

MAKE YE HIM DRUNKEN] Hebrew, hishkiru, 'make him drunk'; Lxx., methusate auton; V., inebriate eum. The subsequent allusion to the state of Moab indicates the intoxicating nature of the drink he is supposed to have swallowed. The Moabites were reputed an intemperate people, and some writers have fancied a connection of this propensity with the circumstances under which the founder of the nation traced his descent from Lot.

32

CHAPTER XLVIII. VERSES 32, 33.

3 O vine of Sibmah, I will weep for thee with the weeping of Jazer: thy plants are gone over the sea, they reach even to the sea of Jazer: the spoiler is fallen upon thy summer fruits and upon thy vintage. 33 And joy and gladness is taken from the plentiful field, and from the land of Moab; and I have caused wine to fail from the winepresses: none shall tread with shouting; their shouting shall be no shouting.

V. 32. O VINE OF SIBMAH] Hebrew, hag-gephen Sivmah, 'the vine of Sibmah.' For 'vine,' the LXX. has ampelos; the V., vinea. [See Note on Isa. xvi. 6.]

AND UPON THY VINTAGE] Hebrew, ve al-betzirak, and upon thy cutting' = the fruit of the vine cut off when ripe. LXX., epi trugeetais sou, upon thy vintagemen'; V., et (super) vindemiam tuam, and upon thy vintage-fruit.'

V. 33. AND I HAVE CAUSED WINE TO FAIL FROM THE WINEPRESSES] Hebrew, ve-yayin miqavim hishbati, ‘and wine from the presses I have made to fail'; Lxx., kai oinos een epi leenois sou, and wine was in thy presses'; V., et vinum de torcularibus sustuli, 'and I have removed wine from thy presses.'

If grapegatherers come to thee, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, they will destroy till they have enough.

GRAPEGATHERERS] Hebrew, botzerim, 'cutters' those employed to cut off the grapes at the vintage season; LXX., trugeetai, 'vintagers'; V., vindemiatores, 'vintage-men.'

SOME GLEANING GRAPES] Hebrew, oläloth, 'gleanings'; Lxx., kataleimma, 'a remnant'; V., racemum, 'a cluster.'

CHAPTER XLIX. VERSE 12.

For thus saith the LORD: Behold, they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunken; and art thou he that shall altogether go unpunished? thou shalt not go unpunished, but thou shalt surely drink of it.

The figure here, as in chap. xxv. 28, is that of a cup of retribution-intoxicating and prostrating-prepared by God for evil-doers; and which, despite their selfconfidence-even where, as in the case of the Jews, they relied upon their Abrahamic relationship-they would be constrained to drink up.

CHAPTER LI. VERSE 7.

Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD's hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.

THAT MADE ALL THE EARTH DRUNKEN] Hebrew, meshakkereth kahl hahahretz, 'making drunk all the earth'; Lxx., methuskon; V., inebrians.

OF HER WINE] Hebrew, miy-yaynah, from her wine'; LXX., apo tou oinou autees; V., de vino ejus.

ARE MAD] Hebrew, yithholelu, 'were infuriated'; Lxx., esaleutheesan, 'were shaken' (convulsed); V., commotæ sunt, 'have been perturbed.'

The image of an intoxicating potion is again presented, and though the cup is 'golden,' the effects are not less destructive.

CHAPTER LI. VERSES 39, 57.

39 In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD. . . . 57 And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.

V. 39. IN THEIR HEAT] Hebrew, bě-khummahm, 'in their heat'-the heat, says Gesenius, arising from wine.' LXX., en tee thermasia autòn ; V., in calore eorum. AND I WILL MAKE THEM DRUNKEN] Hebrew, ve-hishekkartim, 'and have caused them to be drunk'; Lxx., kai methusō autons; V., et inebriabo eos.

THAT THEY MAY REJOICE] Hebrew, le-maan ya-alozu, 'that they may exult'; LXX., hopōs karōthōsin, that they may be stupefied'; V., ut sopiantur, 'that they may be made senseless.'

AND SLEEP A PERPETUAL SLEEP] Hebrew, ve-yashnu shenath olahm, ‘and sleep a sleep forever.'

V. 57. AND I WILL MAKE DRUNK] Hebrew, vě-hishekkarti, and I will make drunk.'

Here God speaks, not as ordaining causes, but as connecting causes with effects. How this prophecy was fulfilled, secular history singularly testifies. [See Note on Dan. v. I, 30.]

CHAPTER LII. VERSE 16.

But Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard left certain of the poor of the land for vinedressers and for husbandmen.

FOR VINEDRESSERS] Hebrew, lè-korěmim, 'for vineyarders.'

26

THE BOOK OF THE

LAMENTATIONS OF JEREMIAH.

CHAPTER I. VERSE 15.

The Lord hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the Lord hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress.

IN A WINEPRESS] Hebrew, gath, 'the press.' The marginal reading is, "the winepress of the virgin.' Others propose, 'the Lord hath trodden the winepress as it respects the virgin.'

LXX. and V. have the Lord to the virgin daughter of Judah has trodden the winepress.'

CHAPTER II. VERSE 12.

They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.

WHERE IS CORN AND WINE?] Hebrew, ayya dahgan vah-yayin, 'where is corn and wine?' Yayin here seems (as in Jer. xl. 10, 12) to be substituted for tirosh, which in other places is uniformly connected with dahgan. In a country where grapes are an article of daily food it is natural that children should be described as crying out for them in the streets during a time of famine, especially since thirst would be equally allayed by sucking the grapes. Congruity and probability are alike shocked by supposing that little children would cry to their mothers for intoxicating drink because of the want of food and water! LXX., pou seitos kai oinos, 'where is corn and wine?' V., ubi est triticum et vinum? 'where is wheat and wine?'-the Syriac adds, 'and oil.'

CHAPTER III. VERSE 15.

He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.

It is to be noted, however, that this word is of wider use than 'press.' As Dindorf says, "the Hebrews truly distinguished gath into two parts; the first they called gath higher, the other gath lower. The first is the place in which the grapes were trodden, the wine (vinum) flowing into a lacus beneath, through a tube."

HE HATH MADE ME DRUNKEN WITH WORMWOOD] Hebrew, hirvani la-anah, 'he hath satiated me with wormwood.' Rahvah here reappears, and answers to hisbiani, he hath filled me' (from sahba) in the first member of the sentence.

J. G. Kohl, in his 'Travels in Austria,' notices a wine of wormwood in these terms:-"On Mount Badatschon, north of the Platten See, a kind of 'winedecoction' is made, known as 'Badatschon Wormwood,' and as renowned in Hungary as the Tokay Essence. To make it, the juice is boiled with certain herbs. The same thing is done with the best of the Schomlau grapes, to produce 'Schomlau Wormwood.'"-(P. 374, Lond., 1845.)

Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire.

A more literal rendering of this verse would be "Pure have been her Nazarites above snow, white above milk, ruddy in body above corals, (like) sapphire (has been) their form." The LXX., Codex B, gives ekathariōtheesan Naziraioi autees huper chiona, elampsan huper gala, epurōtheesan, huper lithou sappheirou to apospasma autōn: 'her Nazarites were purer than snow, they shone above milk, they were purified (as) by fire, beyond a sapphire stone was their polish.' Codex A has elampsan, huper gala eturōtheesetai huper lithous sappheirou, 'they shone, they were coagulated (made like cheese) above milk, above stones of sapphire was their polishing.' The V. has candidiores Nazarei ejus nive, nitidiores lacte, rubicundiores ebore antiquo, sapphiro pulchriores, 'whiter (were) her Nazarites above snow, more shining than milk, ruddier than old ivory, more beautiful than the sapphire.' The Syriac reads, 'her Nazarites were purer than snow, and whiter than milk in their pastures; their bones were brighter than the sardine, and their body than the sapphire.' The Arabic follows the LXX., but renders the last clause, 'their form (= aspect) was more excellent than a (well-cut) sapphire stone.' The T. of Jonathan reads, 'her Nazarites were whiter than snow, smoother than milk, ruddier in their appearance than flame-colored stones (or metals), and their countenance as the sapphire.' The Hebrew penninim has been variously understood, taking the sense of 'stone' or 'stones' in the Lxx., 'admirable things' (periblepta) in the version of Symmachus, 'old ivory' in the V., 'flame-colored things' in the T., 'rubies' in the A. V., and ‘corals' as suggested by Gesenius and adopted in our rendering. Whatever object was denoted must have been of a bright red color, or there would have been no force in the comparison that the Nazarites were 'ruddier' even than it.

This glowing description of the Nazarites is a testimony, as unimpeachable as it is splendid, to the physical advantages of abstinence from all intoxicating liquors; and the light emanating from this one text should have been sufficient to prevent the darkness of error as to the nature of strong drink from ever settling down upon the mind of Christendom. Every touch in this picture heightens the effect of the whole as a delineation of perfect health and vigor; the bright blood mantling through a clear complexion, and the whole frame beaming