CHAPTER XXXVIII. Balaam's third prophecy, continued. I HAVE said that this third prophecy of Balaam abounds with images of singular force and beauty, imparting to it the character of the highest poetical inspiration. Let us now see how these encomiums are borne out by an examination of the poem. How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, As the valleys are they spread forth, As gardens by the river's side, As the trees of lign-aloes which the Lord hath planted, It will at once be perceived that the first pair of lines present a beautiful parallelism, in which the corresponding phrases rise gracefully in force of signification, tabernacles referring to more permanent dwellings than common tents, the former term being likewise associated with that sacred erection in the wilderness, into which the divine presence first entered in a visible form after the exodus; and Israel being the patriarch's name of honour, by which he was pre-eminently distinguished, rises in dignity above the mere patriarchal cognomen. In the fragments* to Taylor's edition of See Fragment 206. Calmet's Dictionary of the Bible, there is the following, to my mind, unsupported conclusion: "In the fifty-fourth chapter of Isaiah we find the prophet advising Zion-widen,' that is, spread farther out, 'the place of thy tent,' that it may occupy a greater space, ‘and the curtains of thy tabernacle enlarge,' do not stop those who are employed in this business: 'lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy pins,' or get thicker pins to be driven into the ground, that they may sustain greater stress. Here we have a distinction between a tent, or superior kind of dwelling, and a tabernacle, or inferior kind. Balaam makes the same distinction (Numbers xxiv. 5), How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, whence I suspect, that by tents he means those of the chiefs, leaders, principals of the tribes; and by tabernacles, those of the lower class of people." Now I draw the opposite conclusion from that very passage in Isaiah, which this ingenious writer quotes to support it. I consider that it shows tabernacles to have been superior to tents. These latter, being inhabited by the many, by the commonalty, the soldiers, and their families, were to be widened or enlarged; while the tabernacles, being occupied by the superior orders, that is, by the few, their curtains or decorations were to be improved. The whole passage of Isaiah is of course figurative, but it represents a Jewish encampment. The prophet placing tents before tabernacles is no argument in favour of the superiority of the former, but, as I apprehend, the reverse, for it was surely more natural that he should mention the general encampment, which conveyed the ideas of multitude and concentrated power, than the tabernacles of their rulers, which merely suggested those of rank and civil dignity. The sublimest thought ranked first on the prophet's mind, and was accordingly first delivered. Besides, we find the word tent commonly applied to the most wretched description of nomadic dwelling, but tabernacle never; and why was the latter term adopted to characterize the holy sanctuary in the wilderness, which was variously embellished and elaborately wrought, according to the means and capacities of the times, if the tabernacle were really an inferior order of erection to the tent? Surely the sanctuary in which God delighted to dwell, in which he was actually present, would have hardly been desecrated by an appellation which characterized an inferior order of structure. Above all, I think that the opening couplet of Balaam's third prophecy at once settles the question of superiority as belonging to the tabernacle. Looking on the Israelitish encampment, and seeing it spreading over the adjacent plain, he exclaims with prophetic rapture— How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, Here the obvious parallelism, in my opinion, settles the question of superiority: the sense rises from tents to tabernacles, as from Jacob to Israel-the one his name given to the patriarch by his parents, the other his name bestowed by God, and consequently the more honourable. It will be observed, too, that in the two couplets which follow, the distinction of inferiority and superiority is maintained in the alternate lines of each couplet. The tents are compared to spreading vallies, the tabernacles to cultivated gardens; the former to lign-aloes, the latter to stately cedars. In the third couplet reference is made to the posterity of Jacob in the grossthe inhabitants of tents; and in the fourth to their princes-the occupiers of tabernacles. In the verses preceding the latter four the encampment of the Israelites is compared to fruitful valleys, richly cultivated gardens, spicy trees, and lofty cedars, the different objects of comparison rising in strength and terminating in a fine climax; for the cedars of Libanus were held by the Jews to be among the noblest productions of the vege table kingdom, consequently, the stately tabernacles of the heads of tribes and rulers among the Israelites were fitly compared to them. The lign-aloe was an extremely fragrant tree, which grew in Arabia. It appears to have been one of the perfumed woods burned at the heathen sacrifices. The words, "which the Lord hath planted," probably signify no more than that they were not the result of cultivation, but of spontaneous growth; and this will better apply, as an object of poetical comparison, to the tents occupied by the multitude, than to the tabernacles occupied by the few. That the ancient cedar trees of Libanus really were, as the Jews held them to be, among the 66 most magnificent products of the soil, may be gathered from Maundrell's description of them in his "Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem.' "These noble trees," says that enterprising traveller, grow among the snow, near the highest part of Lebanon, and are remarkable, as well for their own age and largeness as for those frequent allusions to them in the word of God. Some of them are very old and of prodigious bulk, others younger and of a smaller size. Of the former I could reckon only sixteen, but the latter are very numerous. I measured one of the largest, and found it twelve yards and six inches in girth, and yet sound, and thirtyseven yards in the spread of its branches. At about five or six yards from the ground, it was divided into five limbs, each of which was equal to a great tree." "The cedar loves cold and mountainous places; if the top is cut it dies. The branches which it shoots, lessening as they rise, give it the form of a pyramid." Le Bruyn, in his journey to the Holy Land, says, "the leaves of the tree point upwards, and the fruit hangs downwards; it grows like cones of the pine tree, but is longer, harder, and fuller, and not easily separated from the stalk. It contains a seed like that of the cypress tree, and yields a glutinous thick sort of resin, transparent and of strong smell, which does not run, but falls drop by drop. This author tells us, that, having measured two cedars on mount * Page 142. |