2. Let my instruction drop as the rain, Let my speech distil as the dew; As the dew-drops upon the grass, * The rain, and especially the dew, are among the most frequent images of the more modern poetry of the East, to describe whatever is acceptable and delightful: the word I have rendered dew-drops means that dewy moisture which, in a still and calm morning, stands erect; as the word implies, is bristled on the spray of the plants on which it settles; an exact parallel to the drizzling rain of the next line, unshaken from the loaded bough. The whole is metaphorical, I conceive, of the silent attention, as well as delight, with which the divine instructions ought to be received. 4. The Founder of Israel,' + his work is perfect, Surely all his ways are right! A God of truth, and without iniquity, Just and upright is He. The Founder or Creator of Israel, is not to be understood of the great Maker as forming man from the dust of the earth; but of God, as the framer and institutor of the civil and ecclesiastical existence of Israel as a people and church. The sentiment meant to be expressed in the text is the same as that in the parable of the vine .שעירס صور † from, arcteré, premere, ligare, formare; like the Arab. and the Syr. 3. Bishop Horsley prefers the rendering of Aquila, στερεος. yard in Isaiah,* or more briefly by Jeremiah: "I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed; how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?" It follows: 5. This is a corruption, their blemish is not of his children, 'It is' a generation perverted and distorted. The sacred song proceeds to expostulate with this apostate people; and in all his dealings with his professing, but not spiritually quickened, church, God will be found"true," as St. Paul remarks, though "certain of them have not believed."+ 6. Is this your return unto Jehovah, O people, weak and unwise? Was not he thy Father who formed thee,' Is it not he who created and established thee? 7. Remember the days of old," Consider the years of generation beyond generation; Ask thy fathers, and they will tell thee; 8. When the Most High portioned out the nations, He set the boundaries of the peoples, This is justly considered as a difficult passage. The last verse might, perhaps, be rendered," he set the boundaries of the tribes according to the number of the sons of Israel." But, upon the whole, I believe, it signifies not only that the Most High, in his original division of the earth among mankind, predestined the Holy Land to be the future residence of Israel; but that in fixing the bounds of the several nations of the earth, both in regard of time and place, he had in his view the future instrumentality to which he destined that people-to be the keepers and promulgators of his holy religion so that, in the first instance, by their means, a remnant of all might be saved; and, finally, that in Abraham, and his seed, all the families of the earth may be blessed. Has not the apostle this text in his view, when he tells the Athenians, "The Lord of heaven and earth has made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth; and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him," &c. And when we consider the central position of the land of Canaan, and its advantages for communication by water with all parts of the globe, by the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Euphrates, not to mention a remarkable alteration in the face of the country, that the word of prophecy seems to foretell, we cannot but be struck with the suitableness of the Holy Land to be the spot selected for the grand emporium of spiritual light and blessing, to all the nation's that dwell on the face of the whole earth. * Acts, xvii. 9. Surely this people was the portion of Jehovah, Jacob was the lot of his inheritance; 10. He nourished 1 him in the land of the desert, He made him fat on the shining waste;' He led him about, he instructed him; 3 He guarded him as the pupil of his eye: 11. As the eagle he brooded his nest, He spread his wings, and received him, 12. Jehovah alone conducted him, And no strange God was with him. I hardly need stop to remark, that this refers to the supply of manna, and to the miraculous passage of the desert. Next follows a description of their taking possession of the rich country of Canaan : 13. He caused him to mount the heights of the land, He suckled him with honey from the cleft, 14. The butter of the herd, and the milk of the flock, And rams, the breed of Bashan,' and goats; And thou drankest wine from the blood of the grape; Thou wast fat, thou wast thick, thou wast well covered." The ingratitude of this highly favoured people, their pride, and rebellion, and subsequent idolatry, is next described, as seen in the foreknowledge of God: 15. Jacob ate, and was full, And Jeshuron waxed fat and kicked! And he forsook Eloah, his Maker, And he slighted the author of his prosperity. 16. He angered him with strange gods, With abominations did they provoke him. 17. They sacrificed to demons, and not to God; To Elohim, whom they knew not. New ones, lately come, Your fathers feared them not. 18. Thou hast forgotten the Creator that produced thee, And thou rememberedst not the God that formed thee. 19. And Jehovah beheld, and saw with indignation, The provoking of his sons and of his daughters 20. And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their latter end will be. Truly these are an apostate race, Children in whom is no truth! In this declaration of God's vengeance to apostate Israel, the expression, "I will see what their latter end will be," may, perhaps, denote that he would give them up for the present, and take them in hand again in the last days. 21. They have moved me to jealousy by that which is not God, - They have angered me by their vanities; And I will move them to jealousy by that which is not a people, And by a foolish nation will I anger them. |