more nor less than the former, though exhibited under a beautiful paraphrase, and at the same time presenting an elegant image. A better idea of profuse plenty could not well be conveyed, than the juice of grapes being so common, as to be used for the purpose of cleansing foul garments. It was saying in other words, as Durell observes, that wine should be as plenty as water; and this hyperbole will appear less extreme, when it is considered that in all hot countries, water is comparatively scarce.

The concluding distich of this benediction is encumbered with some difficulties of explication.

His eyes shall be red with wine,
And his teeth white with milk.

This may be a mere oratorical figure, signifying that the descendants of Judah shall inherit so fruitful a country as to enable them to drink wine and milk in such quantities, that their eyes shall assume the sparkling ruby tint of the one, and their teeth the immaculate whiteness of the other. A very slight alteration would present a perfect specimen of constructive parallelism.

His eyes shall be red with wine,

His teeth shall be white with milk.

Here the emphatic terms in each line are exactly correspondent, and at the same time most happily opposed.

Eyes are probably used in this passage for the whole countenance, as the original word has sometimes this signification; the entire

couplet, however, is clearly only a poetical picture, as the tying of asses to vines, and washing of garments in the juice of grapes; some commentators adopt the following reading,

His eyes shall be brighter than wine,

And his teeth whiter than milk.

The changes here proposed undoubtedly simplify the sense, and reduce the hyperbole in both lines, but I do not think, nevertheless, that much is gained by this alteration; it is only an abatement of the figurative exaggeration so common to Hebrew poetry, and forming one of its paramount beauties.

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Dr. Dodd gives the following paraphrase of this notable prophecy. Judah, thy name signifies praise, and accordingly thou shalt have the praise of all thy brethren. They shall fall prostrate before thee, as before their king and sovereign, and thy enemies shall be forced to submit their necks to thy yoke. Like a young lion shall my son fall upon his prey; and like an old lion, or as a fierce lioness, ready to rush upon it; who shall dare to rouse him up? The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh, the Messiah, come, and the people be gathered unto him. His portion shall abound with such fertile vineyards, fruitful trees, and pasture grounds, that he shall tie his ass to the vine and palm tree, and wash his garments in the juice of the grape, and his teeth with the milk of his kine."

To look upon the modern Jews and reflect what they were in the days of their national

prosperity, conveys in truth a melancholy lesson, Their condition, since the decline of their political power, might well excite the beautiful lament of George Herbert, a poet of distinction in the reign of the first James, but now little known.

Poor nation, whose sweet sap and juice
Our scions have purloined and left you dry:
Whose streams we got by the Apostles' sluice
And use in baptism, while ye pine and die;
Who by not keeping once, became a debtor,
And now, by keeping, lose the letter.

Oh! that my prayers,-mine alas!
Oh! that some angel might a trumpet sound:
At which the church, falling upon her face,
Should cry so loud, until the trump were drowned;

And by that cry of her dear Lord obtain,

That your sweet sap might come again.

CHAPTER XIV.

The benedictions pronounced upon Zebulun, Issachar, and Dan.

I SHALL now pass on to the third blessing of the venerable patriarch:

Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea;
And he shall be an haven for ships;

And his border shall be unto Zidon.

In the division of Canaan, the portion of Zebulun extended from the Mediterranean sea on the west, where there was a haven for ships, to the sea of Tiberias, commonly called the sea of Galilee in the New Testament, on the east. It is here predicted that this tribe shall extend along the sea-coast, where they shall have commodious harbours, and their territories shall reach to the country of Zidon, or Phoenicia. Bishop Patrick states, upon the authority of Bochart, that "the Zidon mentioned in this passage does not refer to the city of Zidon, for the tribe of Zebulun did not extend itself beyond Mount Carmel, which is at least forty miles from thence, but to the country of Zidon, that is Phoenicia, which the Zebulunites touched."

The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel gives a very intelligible paraphrase of the passage.

"Zebulun shall be on the coasts of the sea, and shall rule over the havens; he shall subdue the provinces of the sea with his ships, and his border shall extend unto Sidon."

"Had Jacob been present," says Stackhouse, "at the division of the land of Canaan, he could hardly have described Zebulun's lot more exactly than he did, two hundred and fifty years before it was settled. It extended from the Mediterranean sea on the west, to the lake of Gennesaret on the east, and was very commodious for trade and navigation. Such particulars as these must have convinced the Israelites that it was not chance, nor power, nor policy, that gave them the land of Canaan, but God's right hand, and his arm, and the light of his countenance, because he had a favour unto them."

As the triplet which contains the prediction concerning Zebulun's posterity, presents nothing very remarkable in a poetical point of view, I shall at once proceed to what follows.

Issachar is a strong ass,

Couching down between two burdens:
And he saw that rest was good,
And the land that it was pleasant;

And bowed his shoulder to bear,
And became a servant unto tribute.

These couplets are eminently poetical, the first more especially. Issachar being principally engaged in husbandry, is fitly compared to a strong ass, a patient drudging animal, capable of undergoing the severest labour, without suffering any diminution of strength