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CHAPTER XX.

Consideration of the Thanksgiving Ode continued, from verse 6-11.

THE next pair of couplets, which follow those noticed in the last chapter, are full of grandeur

Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power :
Thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.
And in the greatness of thine excellency,

Thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee.

The first of these distichs offers a favourable example of the common gradational parallelism. The opening members of both lines are mere repetitions, though admirably adapted to dignify the sense; and the latter members are, to a certain extent, exegetical the one of the other. The divine power was manifested in "dashing in pieces the enemy:" the latter consequently, namely the destruction of the enemy, signalized the former, namely the divine power. This apposition of the thoughts, and progressive elevation of the subject, are eminently happy specimens of epic grandeur.

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Thy right hand.” This alludes to God's omnipotence. The right hand, being naturally the strongest because most employed, is an apt metaphor, representing the highest degree of

power. It is a favourite figure with the Hebrew writers, being unquestionably a very elegant one, and is frequently used by the sweet Psalmist of Israel. The repetition of the term, as it is exceedingly significative, gives additional emphasis to the passage, in combination with the kindred specifications which follow in each clause. The description in the first is general, in the second, specific, and the repeated phrase is equally applicable to both lines. The image appears to be amplified by this repetition, borrowing a hue of force from the more awful and imposing picture to which it is allied in the concluding member of the second line.

And in the greatness of thine excellency.

Patrick has some good observations on this clause. "All words being too low to declare the greatness of God's power, which appeared in the overthrow of the Egyptians, he endeavours to rise higher and higher in his expressions, to show how much he admired it."*

It is certainly true that the expressions do rise considerably in dignity as the inspired bard proceeds, as if, in proportion as he warmed with the fire of his subject, sublimer phrases rose to his mind, and he became animated with a more exalted fervour. He loses no opportunity of magnifying the divine attributes, but continues to dwell upon them, as the means of his and of his country's deliverance from Egyptian bondage.

* See Patrick's note on the passage.

Thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee.

This refers to Pharoah's rebellion against God, in pursuing his people Israel, after the numerous warnings which he had already received that they were under the divine protection; for this had been sufficiently proved to him by repeated miracles wrought for their deliverance. He therefore placed himself in daring opposition to the will of heaven, and consequently, at length provoked the terrible exercise of that omnipotency which he had so often and so wantonly defied.

I think Kennicott has given additional force to the last line, by adopting the present instead of a past tense, as it expresses the Almighty power, not only as it was exhibited in the one stupendous manifestation, when Pharoah and his hosts were the victims of its potency, but in its general and universal supremacy. He translates the line, to my feeling, with much judgment:

And in the greatness of thine excellency,

Thou overthrowest them that rise against thee.

Here is a general, not a specific, declaration of omnipotent agency, and I think this much better accords with the simple dignity and elevation of the passage than as our translators have given it. Isaiah, in allusion to this signal deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian tyranny, has a truly magnificent passage:* "Then he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people, saying

Chap. lxiii. 11-14.

Where is he that brought them up out of the sea

With the shepherd of his flock?

Where is he that put his Holy Spirit within him?

That led them by the right-hand of Moses with his glorious arm?
Dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name?
That led them through the deep, as a horse in the wilderness,
That they should not stumble?

As a beast goeth down into the valley,

The spirit of the Lord caused him to rest :

So didst thou lead thy people to make thyself a glorious name."

Here is a beautiful poetical commentary upon the greatest deliverance which history has recorded, save that prophesied in Eden and consummated by Christ.

Thou sentest forth thy wrath,

Which consumed them as stubble :
And with the blast of thy nostrils
The waters were gathered together :
The floods stood upright as an heap,

And the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.

A very slight alteration would greatly improve this passage, without in the remotest degree interfering with the sense.

would it read thus:

How much better

Thou sentest forth thy wrath ;-
It consumed them as stubble.

With the blast of thy nostrils

The waters were gathered together:
The floods stood upright as an heap,

And the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.

By simply exchanging it for which, and leaving out the and in the third line, a flow and compactness is given to the whole passage, which, as first quoted, is certainly wanting to it in a great degree. The whole of this quotation is extremely grand

Thou sentest forth thy wrath.

Like a dreadful projectile, thou didst direct thy wrath against the foes of Israel, scattering desolation and death. It quitted the pillar of fire, which guided the Israelites on their journey toward the wilderness, like a flash of lightning, or like the desolating blast of the desert; and as either withers the grass, or shrinks up the standing corn, so did they fall prostrate before it, and perished under the stroke of Almighty vengeance. Stubble is a thing at once useless and easily consumed, so were the heathen armies of the Egyptian despot worthless in the estimation of him, in whose eyes the wicked are as dross, and who has sufficiently proved that beneath the might of his arm they are as chaff before the wind.

And with the blast of thy nostrils.

Nothing can be grander than the image here employed. It signifies, that the gathering together of the mighty waters was an immediate act of divine power: the poet, therefore, represents the Deity as actually emitting from his nostrils the wind, which produced an effect never before, nor since, witnessed by man. The figure, too, sustains in the imagination the idea of Almighty wrath previously expressed-the inflated nostril, from which the blast of God's vengeance was ejected, conveying a distinct and emphatic notion of active anger. It is a singularly forcible picture, heaping upon the plastic imagination a crowd of vigorous ideas, rising out of, and fructifying from, this single but prolific root. We seem to have the whole process of sublime destruction brought at once before the mind by

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