Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 4 · Psalm 90

Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms · Book 4 · Psalm 90

p. 451PSALM XC.

A Prayer‖‖or, for ל of Moses the Man of God.

Paraphrase. The ninetieth, being the first of the Fourth Book of the Collection of Psalms, is a complaint of the afflictions and shortness of life, together with a prayer for the returne of mercy; composed either by Moses, that††foreign the P…ophet of God Chald. eminent Prophet, which in Gods stead governed the people of Israel, and conducted them out of Aegypt; or else, as in his person, by some other, with reflexion on those times wherein Moses lived, when the children of Israel in the Wilderness were sorely afflicted, and great multitudes of them untimely cut off for their provocations.

1. Lord, thou hast beena. our††refuge, or help, or support dwelling-place in all generations.

Blessed Lord, we have never had any helper but thee, any other to whom we might resort for aid and relief, from time to time; Thou hast been our only protector and defender: O doe not now forsake and destroy us utterly.

2. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou**or the earth were in travail, hadst formed the earth, and the world,b. even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

Before any part of this world was formed by thee, thou hadst an infinite, incomprehensible being, a power by which this whole orbe, wherein we move, was at first created, and thou remainest immutably the same all-mighty power, and so shalt doe to the end of the world: O let us thine afflicted creatures receive at this time the benefits and auspicious effects of this thy both power and mercy.

3. c.Thou turnest man to‖‖a broken estate, destruction, and sayest, Returne ye children of men.

Thou art the great Ruler and most just disposer of all events; when those whom thou of thine infinite power and goodness didst create, fell off, and made defection from thee, 'twas then just with thee to punish them for their sins, and returne them back to the earth, that lowest and vilest condition, from which man was first brought forth by thy creative power. This was the sentence against Adam, and thus thou art at this time justly provoked to deal with great multitudes of us.4. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday, when it is past, and as a watch in the night.

And if in the old world, such as had thus offended, were permitted (some of them, even Adam himself, to whose sin death was awarded by God) to live near a thousand years after it, yet alas what is that, compared with thy infinity? Thou art without all beginning, O blessed Lord, most absolutely eternal; a thousand years being considered in thy duration, are but as a drop spilt and lost in the Ocean, no more than the shortest time among men, but a day, and that past and gone, or but the sixth part of that, the space of foure hours in the night (see note on Psal. cxxx. b.) which is insensibly past over in sleep.

p. 4525. d.Thou‖‖overflowest them, they shall be a dream in the morning as grass is changed, carriest them away as with a flood, they are as a sleep; in the morning they are as grass which groweth up:

6. In the morning it flourisheth and groweth up, in the evening it is cut down and withereth.

As for us men, we are naturally fraile and short-lived, our whole age is instantly at an end by the course of nature: But then when thy wrath also breaks forth against us, death comes as a torrent, and sweeps us away in the midst of our strength; our life then is but as a dream, when one awakes out of sleep, but a phansie at first, and that soon vanisht; whilst we live, we do but seem to live, and straight death comes, and that phasme vanishes. Our condition here is no more stable and durable than that of the flower or grass of the field, which when it flourishes most, is subject to instant fading and withering; but if the syth or sickle come, the emblem of thy judgments on sinners, then it falls in the prime of its verdure: In the morning it is fresh and prosperous and in its growth, and the very same day it is cut down, and then immediately fadeth, loseth all its verdure and beauty before the night.

7. For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.

8. For thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.

And just thus it is with us: Our sins have provoked thee to cut us off in the prime and most flourishing part of our age; our open and crying sins, these, as the Rector of the Universe, thou thinkest fit to punish with excision; and beside these, many more secret sins there are, unknown to men, but most clearly discernible by thee, our secret apostasies, and in our hearts returning to Aegypt, our dislike of thy methods, thy presiding and governing us, and preferring the satisfaction of our lusts before the observance of thy commands, and these also provoke thy wrath, call forth thy vengeance against us, and by this means (as with a torrent v. 5.) we are swept away, and consumed in a visible formidable manner.

9. For all our dayes are passed away in thy wrath; we††end foreign spend our yearse. as a**thought or breath. tale that is told.

Thou hast been incensed by our Atheistical murmurings, thy displeasure is gone out against us; and so the years that were allowed us here, and might otherwise have been prolonged for some time, are now suddenly cut off, our race is ended in a trice, we are seised on with a swift destruction.

10. The dayes of our years‖‖to them are seventy years, aref. threescore years and ten, and if††in signs, eighty years, and the strength of them is labour— by reason of strength they be fourescore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we flee away.

The vast numbers of 603550. that were fit for warr, and so were listed at our coming out of Aegypt, do all drop away one after another, thy oath being gone out against them, that but two of that whole number shall enter into Canaan, all the rest leaving their carcasses in the Wilderness. By this means it comes to pass, that great multitudes die before they advance to more than the seventieth year of their age, viz. all that were but thirty years old at their coming out of Aegypt. Others that were then in their prime, about fourty years old, are sure not to out-live eighty (And for the youth that were not numbred, those that were to enter into Canaan and so out-live the rest, they have yet little joy in their life, nothing but wearisome journeys and turmoils, see Psal. Lxxviii. 33.) and so our complaint is most just, as to a vast multitude of us, that our age is even as nothing in respect of true duration, but a thought or breath v. 9. our most vigorous men being cut off in their prime, and so there is an end of them.

11. Who knoweth the power of thine anger?**as thy fear thy wrath, or and the terror of thine indignation, even according tog. thy fear so is thy wrath.

12. ‖‖To number our dayes, doe thou so teach us, that we maySo teach us to number our dayes, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdome.

Whilst thus we are daily cut off, the great unhappiness of it is, that no man is carefull to lay to heart these terrible effects of Gods heavy wrath upon us; no man is so farre instructed by what he sees daily befall multitudes of other men, as to be sensible of his own danger, and the shortness of his life, so as to live well, while he is permitted to live. Lord, be thou pleased to give us this grace, so to instruct us, and convince us of the shortness of our lives, that we may be brought to pay that constant reverence and obedience that is due to thee, and wherein true wisdome consists, there being nothing so unwise as our provoking of thee, and adventuring to be cut off in our sins.

13. Return, O Lord, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.

And if it may be thy good pleasure, O Lord, reverse that sentence of excision which is gone out against us: let it suffice that thy displeasure hath flamed to the devouring so great numbers of us, and at length vouchsafe to be pacified and reconciled with us.

p. 45314. O satisfie us early with thy mercy, that we may rejoyce and be glad all our dayes.

We have layn very long under thy wrath, O Lord, O delay not to afford us the full streams of thy mercy which we have thus long wanted and impatiently thirsted after; that so for the remainder of our time we may have some matter of ovation and rejoycing, after so much sadness.

15. Make us glad according to the dayes wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.

Our afflictions and miseries have lasted long; O let us have some proportion of joy to so much of sorrow.

16. Let thy worke appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.

O magnify thy glorious work of grace and mercy to us and our posterity, which is most properly thine, (thy acts of punishments being thy strange works, Is. 28.21.)

17. And let the‖‖sweetness foreign beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; and establish thou the worke of our hands upon us, yea the work of our hands establish thou it.

Shew forth thy loving kindness and light of thy countenance toward us, look gratiously and favourably upon us, give us thy grace to direct us in all our wayes, worke thou in us both to will and to doe, and then by thy good providence prosper our designes and undertakings.

Annotations on Psalm XC.

a.V. 1. Dwelling] From foreign to dwell, the noune foreign ordinarily signifies habitation, foreignand so the Syriack understands it here rendring foreign house. But the Arabick usage of the verbe in another notion, for aiding or protecting, is a signe that thus the word antiently signified; and so Deut. xxxiii. 27. the Lord foreign is thy refuge, we render it, foreign, shall cover thee, say the Lxxii. and so indeed every house being a covert, the notions of house and refuge will well agree: and Aben Ezra, that resolves this Psalm was written by Moses, proves it (among other reasons) by this word being there used by Moses in Deuteronomy. And then from that signification of it there, foreign may here best be rendred protector or helper; and so the Chaldee seem to have understood it, who having paraphrased the word Lord, with some reflexion on that notion of the word foreign in their dialect, wherein it signified the Temple, O Lord, whose habitation of the house of thy Schechina or Majestatick presence is in heaven, adde foreign thou hast been to us a helper. The Jewish Arab, which looks to the former notion, and renders it foreign, which is a place of abode, yet gives a reason of his version in a note, to this purpose, The meaning is, Thou hast borne (or supported) us much, and held our hands (or held us by the hand) and been to us as a place to bear us in our reliance on thee. To the same purpose Abu Walid, having interpreted the word foreign for an habitation, place, or place of abode, makes mention afterwards of this verse and some others, in which the word might seem not so exactly to bear that signification, and saith that it is attributed as an Epithet to God, from the notion of a place, which remaining bears or sustains him that is in it. Though God be the Creator both of place and time, and the destroyer of them, yet figuratively it is attributed to him: so that according to their understanding of it, it should be literally a place, but in signification, a support to us. Kimchi mentions another interpretation of his Fathers, who p. 454would have foreign derived from foreign an eye, as if it were, our respect, or whom we respect, on whom our eyes are set; but he himself puts for explication of it, foreign a place and refuge. The Lxxii. both here and Psal. xci. 9. render it foreign refuge, which being applied to a person, as 'tis here to God, must needs signify one, from whom he that flies to him expects help, and so [helper] will be the best rendring of it.

b.V. 2. Thou hadst formed the earth] The phrase foreign will best be rendred,foreign and thou earth wert in travail; or, taking foreign in the third person, foreign being most usual in the faeminine gender, and the earth was in travail: so the Syriack sets it more plainly foreign before the earth fell in travail. By this phrase is poetically meant the earth's bringing forth the mountains, when from the first round or globular forme of it, some parts were lifted up above the rest, the high rising whereof became the mountains, which therefore may be called the issue of the earth: and then, as they are said to be brought forth in the former part of the verse, so by analogy the earth must be said to travail, and bring them forth. And this to express the very first minute that there was time to compute from, and so as farre as our expressions can goe, the infinity of God. The Jewish Arab version hath respect to another notion of the word for beginning, and renders it by foreign, Before thou broughtest forth the mountains, and begannest (or first createdst) the habitable, with the rest of the earth, or else (as, being without vowels, it may be read) before the mountains grew up (or were brought forth) and the habitable with the rest of the earth began.

c.V. 3. Turnest man] The Lxxii. begin this v. 3. with foreign not, either taking the Hebrew foreign God from the end of v. 2.foreign and converting it into foreign not, and prefixing it to this v. 3. or else reading the Hebrew by way of interrogation, which they therefore think fit to interpret by the negative, wilt thou turne man, &c. by foreign turne thou not. Which the Latine follow in the forme of a prayer, Ne avertas— Turne not man to humility— The word which they render humilitatem (from the Lxxii. their foreign) is in the original foreign from foreign to bruise or beat to pieces. By this,foreign destruction, or dissolution of parts in death, and the resolution of the body to dust, may be fitly exprest; and accordingly the Chaldee read foreign to death: and to that the insuing part of the Psalm may seem to apply it, treating of short life, and speedy death; and if so, then to this sense we must also, with the learned††in the word foreign Schindler, understand the immediate consequents, foreign and sayest, foreignReturne ye sons of Adam, i. e. returne to the earth, from whence Adam had his name, and from whence he first came, according to that of Gen. iii. 19. Out of the ground wast thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou returne. So Ps. cxlvi. 4. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth. And Eccles. xii. 7. then shall the dust returne to the earth as it was. But it is possible that foreign may signify no more then bringing low by punishment, and that in order to amendment, according to the importance of Ps. Li. 17. and Isa. Lvii. 15. and then foreign returne ye sons of men must be meant of returning by repentance; and thus indeed generally the Imperative foreign taken by it selfe signifies. To this those words of the Chaldee, which are inserted in the beginning of the second verse (but somewhat out of their place) seem to refer, foreign &c. When it was revealed before thee p. 455that thy people would sin, thou preparedst repentance; according to that tradition of the Jews, that repentance was one of the seven things created before the world. And thus the Arabick reads it more expresly, in the Lxxii. their forme of deprecation, Bring not men back to destruction foreign since thou hast said, come back ye children of men: he that hath promised to forgive upon repentance, defeats his own act of grace, if he cut off the transgressor in his sin. Thus Jarchi interprets the bringing to destruction to be foreign near to death, and the returning to be foreign from evill wayes. But still the context seems to authorize the former interpretation of destruction, and speedy returning to the earth, which is evidently the subject of the fifth and sixth verses. And for verse the fourth, it seems to be the preventing of an objection, ready to offer it selfe from the long lives of the Patriarchs, who lived neer a thousand years; but those, saith the Psalmist, are in Gods sight, or in respect of his infinity, but a very unconsiderable time. The number, saith Jarchi, hath a peculiar respect to Adam, to whom God had said, thou shalt die in the day that thou eatest, and yet he lived nine hundred and thirty years.

d.V. 5. Carriest them away] To set down the shortness of mans life, the comparison is here made between God and us: A thousand years, which is longer then Adam or Methuselah lived, and since those dayes, as long as many ages of men, bears not the least proportion with Gods eternity v. 4. whereas (here v. 5.) mens years are presently at an end; foreign,foreign from foreign to overflow, and sweep, and carry away, thou (i. e. God) sweepest them away, with the same force and swiftness that a torrent carries any thing before it, and there is no resisting it. And to the same purpose, in another similitude, foreign a sleep shall they be, foreignor, as foreign also signifies, a dream. So the Chaldee, foreign as dreamers shall they be. To this I suppose foreign in the morning must be annext (and not prefixt to the consequents) a dream in the morning, foreignas that is all one with a dream when one awakes, Ps. Lxxiii. 20. in the notion of vanishing: as a dream, when the morning comes, and the man awakes, presently vanisheth; so shall they vanish (for to this of vanishing, and coming to nought, both here and Ps. Lxxiii. the phrase is used) no considerable matter is done by them in their lives, but a few slight actions, which have but the nature of dreams, and suddenly they dye, or vanish, as at the coming of morning, this sleep, or but dream as it were of life, is at an end. Both these expressions of the overflowing, and the dream, the Lxxii. by slight changes put together into one. For foreign thou overflowest them, they seem to have read with other points foreign their flowings, and rendring the sense, and not the word, translate that foreign, their being turned to nothing. Then for foreign dream or sleep, from foreign dormivit, they read foreign year, and so make but one sentence of both, foreign, their years are things of nought; very full to the sense, though not to the letter, and the two similitudes in the Hebrew. The same again is succinctly exprest by a third similitude,foreign foreign As grass is or shall be changed, or pass away (viz. the verdure and beauty of it.) The Hebrew foreign signifies to alter the thing, or the place, to change, or to pass away. The Jewish Arab renders it foreign, which in the ordinary use of the word signifies passeth away: and so is fitly applied to the grass. When that begins to fade, p. 456to lose its fresh green colour, 'tis then said to change and pass away; foreign pass away, say the Lxxii. and Latine, but the Chaldee foreign as the grass which is cut down foreign they shall be changed, i. e. lose their verdure, and wither, and so pass. To this of the grass the whole sixth verse belongs also, where we have another distant notion of foreign.foreign In the morning foreign they shall flourish, foreign and (not pass away, or fade, or change from better to worse, but, in a good sense) change to the better, spring, and grow, is renewed, saith Abu Walid: so that same word foreign signifies also to spring, or sprout out, Job xiv. 7. There is hope unto a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout out again. The Hebrew hath foreign, the Chaldee foreign, sprout out, the Lxxii. foreign reflourish. So Isa. xl. 31. They that wait on the Lord foreign shall (we render it) renew their strength, but the Chaldee foreign— shall adde or increase in strength, and be renewed to their youth foreign as a sprout that growes: and so the consequents interpret it, they shall mount up with wings as Eagles— And so sure 'tis here, foreign and it shall increase or grow, saith the Chaldee. And the using it here in this so different sense from that of v. 5. is not without example, but poetical and elegant, oft observable in these books, in this very Psalm, where foreign is v. 3. in the notion of a year, but v. 5. of a sleep or dream; Yet the Jewish Arab taketh foreign and foreign in the same sense in both places, and thus paraphrases the whole passage, So hast thou set them, or constituted them (the years foregoing) as if they flowed, and were as a sleep, and we in our morning are as grass that passeth away. For in the morning blossoming it passeth away, and in its evening is dry, and is broken. Abu Walid rendring the latter is renewed, declareth not his opinion of the former which he subjoyneth to it. And then it follows, In the evening foreign it shall be cut down foreign and be dried up or wither. foreignIn one and the same day it thus alters its fate, it is florid and thriving, sprouting out and growing in the morning; and before the end of that very day, it is cut down, and withers instantly.

V. 9. As a tale] foreign (from foreign e.to speak, foreignand that either with the tongue or heart) signifies either a thought or speech, and being here used to express the shortest duration imaginable, it may most probably signify a thought, as that which alone is quicker than a word is spoken. When the Latines would express the greatest swiftness, they do it by dicto citius, and this Castellio hath chosen to make use of here, finimus annos nostros dicto citius, we end (so foreign literally signifies) our years sooner than one can speak; foreignand that sure is as soon as one can think. If this be not it, then it must be remembred that foreign signifies also gemitus and halitus, a sigh and a breath, and accordingly the Chaldee render it here, foreign as the vapour or breath of the mouth in winter; agreeable to which is the definition of our life in Saint James c. iv. 14. What is our life? It is even a vapour, that appears for a little while, but afterward vanisheth. The Lxxii. here read foreign, our years as a spider have meditated; and the Latine, sicut aranea meditabuntur, or (as the conformity with the Greek exacts) meditabantur did meditate, reading for the noune foreign the verb foreign, and for foreign by a light change of מ into ט, foreign which the learned Schindler mentions (from foreign to spin) as all one with the Chaldee foreign or foreign a spider. For this the learned Hugo Grotius hath a more remote conjecture, supposing them for foreign to have read foreign, p. 457the word which is used for a spider Prov. xxx. 28. But besides that foreign is very distant from foreign (nothing but מ common to them) there would, in that supposed reading, be nothing to answer the Greek foreign, and though that also may be conceived to have been by them added by way of supply to an Ellipsis (as sometimes it is) yet still that makes the conjecture the more remote, which hath two such difficulties in it. Meanwhile their meaning, in these words, though somewhat obscure, may probably be this, Our years as a spider have meditated, or exercised themselves, or been imployed, viz. in weaving such webbs as the next broom sweeps away; our age is spent in fruitless slight labours, which presently come to nothing. And so this they might take for no inconvenient paraphrase of our years as a breath, or thought, which they found in the Hebrew, referring the foreign we have finished or ended to the former part of the period.

f.V. 10. Threescore years] In this verse what is said of the age of man,foreign that it is but foreign seventy, or at most foreign eighty years, is thought by most to belong to later ages than that of Moses, by whom the Psalm is supposed to have been composed. The period of life is indeed by Solon thus set, foreign, the terme of a mans life is seventy years, saith Herodotus of him, L. 11. and so Laertius in his life, foreign, Solon saith seventy years are the terme of mans life. But in Moses's time it was sure much larger, Moses himselfe was cxx. years old, and his eye was not dimme, nor his natural force or vigor abated, Deut. xxxiv. 7. and was eighty years old when God made him Captain of his people, as Aaron likewise was eighty three before he was made High-Priest, Exod. vii. 7. which is evidence enough, that that age of eighty was not an extreme decrepit age at that time. This hath made many resolve that this Psalm was of a farr later date than that of Moses. But with how little reason they have thus resolved, will soon be made manifest, and the difficulties of this verse sufficiently cleared, by remembring the subject matter of the whole Psalm, the afflictions, and shortness of life, not absolutely to all at that time, but peculiarly foreign to them that are there spoken of;foreign foreign to or among them saith the Syriack, foreign the Lxxii. the Latine in ipsis, in or among them, i. e. to the children of Israel in the desert, when for their murmurings and other provocations which they were guilty of, Gods wrath and oath was gone out against them, that of all that were numbred of them at their coming out of Aegypt, not one, save onelyonly Caleb and Joshua Numb. xiv. 29, 30. Deut. i. 35. no not Moses himself Deut. xxxii. 52. Numb. xvii. 13. should enter into Canaan. This oath of Gods was to be exactly performed in the space of fourty years (whilst they wandred in the Wilderness from place to place, without any house or city to dwell in) the whole number of those that were then numbred, all the males from twenty years old and upward that were able to go forth to warr, except only those two, were consumed. How great that number was, appears by the list appointed to be made Numb. i. 3. six hundred thousand, and three thousand and five hundred and fifty, Numb. i. 32. Of this number then, all that were but twenty years old were ('tis evident) cut off before they exceeded the sixtieth year of their age; of all that were but thirty years old, none p. 458out-lived the seventieth year; of all that were fourty, none, save only those two out-lived his eightieth. And of these that exceeded not fourty, and were not under twenty at the coming out of Aegypt, who consequently, all but two, died before they attained to eighty years, certainly the number must be very great, probably near three hundred thousand, it being unlikely, that the number from fourty to the age of discharge from war, should doe much more than equal that from twenty to fourty; and consequently the reason of the complaint very considerable in that age, beyond any other age of those times, that without any Epidemical disease, so vast a number should dye before eighty years old. This I suppose the meaning of the addition here foreign and if in vigor, fourescore years. foreign is a strong man, and foreign ordinarily used for a warlike person, and foreign 2 King. xviii. 20. strength for warre; and the prime age for such was about or under fourty years old. Those then that at their numbring were not above fourty years old, might possibly live to fourescore, but falling (all but two of them) in the Wilderness in the fourty years space, they cannot be imagined to have survived that age. And for all others, those under twenty years old, that were not numbred at the coming out of Aegypt because of their youth, the next part of the period seems to belong to them, foreign and the strength of them is labour and sorrow. By foreign foreign(from foreign strong) Abenezra and Rabbi Solomon understand the strength of youth, i. e. of the best of mans age, the strength, or firmness that is in, or to a man in those dayes. And thus it may signify Synecdochically (as by the Youth of the nation we mean in ordinary stile) those under twenty years old. The Lxxii. reads foreign, which the Latine renders, Quod amplius eorum, the overplus of them, taking foreign in the notion of foreign from foreign multitude; so Abu Walid, reading foreign, doth yet render it, the overplus, what exceeds of them. And thus the sense will well bear, the overplus of them, that is the youth that were not numbred; and to this the Chaldee and Syriack seem to refer, who both render it foreign and the increase of them, not plerique ipsorum, the most of them, as the translator of the Syriack renders, but the increase of them, i. e. of the Israelites, viz. their little ones Num. xiv. 31. which God there promised to bring into the land of Canaan, when all that were numbred, should fall in the Wilderness, v. 29, 30. Of these therefore it is added, that though they were not so short-lived, yet for that while they had little comfort of their lives; though they survived and entred into Canaan, Numb. xiv. 31. yet all the space of the fourty years in the Wilderness, it was most true of them what here follows, their life for that space was foreign foreignhard travail or moyle, the Lxxii. duly renders it foreign lassitude or wearisome toyle; foreign foreignand sorrow or labour, foreign say the Lxxii. dolor the Latine, both joyned to express the wearisomness of their tedious desart-marches. This later passage seems to be here set in a parenthesis (to give some account of the over-plus, those that were not numbred, as well as the former words did of those that were) for not to them, but the former belongs the conclusion of the verse, with the causal particle in the front; foreign foreign— for it is suddenly cut off, and we flee away; so to all them it was that were numbred at the coming out of Aegypt, save only to Caleb and Joshua, in the space of fourty years their carcasses fell all and every of p. 459them in the Wilderness, and so they were foreign mowed grass, or stubble, cut up by the roots, (so the word signifies from foreign to pluck up) and like stubble before the wind, or a rolling thing before the whirle-wind Isa. xvii. 13. they fled away. The Jewish Arab reads, when the harvest is nigh, we flee, so taking it from foreign. If it be deduced from foreign it may then be compared with the Arabick foreign or foreign to pass along, and so R. Solomon renders it by foreign. But to the rest this cannot be applied, who did survive in Canaan, and were not thus cut off. This the Lxxii. have much transformed, foreign, and so after them the Latine, for mansuetude is come upon us, and we shall be stricken. How they came thus to render the words, is not, that I finde, taken notice of by any. That which seems to me most probable is, that the Greek copies are corrupt, and that their original reading was, not foreign or foreign, as now we have it, but foreign, it is early gone and we shall be smitten. For so foreign foreignand foreign, which signifies to cut off, signifies also to pass and goe away, and so might probably be rendred foreign is gone away; and foreign foreignceleriter quickly, might as fitly be rendred foreign early, as that is frequently used for quickly (see v. 14.) and so the Chaldee here addes in the end of the verse, foreign in the morning, to express the swiftness of the flight. And then for foreign foreignfrom foreign to flee, they seem to have deduced it from foreign to smite, changing the ע into נ, and so to have rendred it foreign and we shall be smitten,

g.V. 11. Thy fear] All difficulty will be removed from this verse, if only the כ in foreign foreignmay be taken, as an expletive, unsignificant, for then the words will ly plainly thus, who knows the power of thy anger, foreign and thy terror or terribleness of thy wrath? Thus the Syriack have taken it, rendring foreign by foreign and the terror. Thus to know the force and terror of Gods wrath, is to discerne the cause of it, our sins, and to be truly affected with it, so as to prevent it by seasonable reformation. This is the interpretation of knowledge in Scripture-stile, as 'tis used for spiritual prudence, and practice proportionable to our knowledge. And this the Chaldee have paraphrastically and more largely exprest, foreign — Who is he that knoweth to avert the strength of thy anger, but the just who fear thee and appease thy fury? The rendring the particle ככ as, or according to, seems not here so facile or agreeable; for by that according to thy fear, signifying our fear of God, 'tis certain that Gods wrath is not proportioned to our fear of him. And that our fear of God should signify our want of that fear, to which only his wrath is apportioned, is very remote and without example. Aben Ezra would have it to signifie the same with those words of the Law, Levit. x. 3. I will be sanctified in all them that come nigh me, viz. that Gods anger is encreased according to our knowledge of him, and so Jarchi, and Kimchi. But seeing the knowledge of God is oft separated from obedience to him, but the fear of God in the sacred style is not so separable, and therefore they that know God, and so only approach him, may incurre his highest displeasure, but they that fear God cannot be imagined to do so; therefore I cannot adhere to that notion. Yet if the former shall seem remote, then I shall propose this third, that the phrase foreign as thy fear thy wrath, shall bear proportion with p. 460that way of speaking Jud. viii. 21. foreign as a man, his strength; which proverbial for me may probably have been transferr'd to other things, and then the meaning here may be, that Gods wrath is equal to what men fear or apprehend of it; God affrights not with vain, empty terrors, but will really inflict on impenitent sinners to the utmost of his threats, or of what they can apprehend, or expect. This may not improbably be the meaning of the phrase. Yet the context seems better to accord with the other, the prayer following, So teach us, being fitly opposed to the former complaint, that no man takes notice, or layes to heart the terribleness of Gods wrath, in cutting off so many daily before their eyes. And therefore of that only I have taken notice in the paraphrase. For indeed that which follows in our books, as the beginning of v. 12. foreign foreignto number our dayes, will best be adjoyned to this v. 11. and so the Lxxii. joyne foreign — (only for foreign our dayes, they seem to have read foreign thy right hand, and so render it foreign.) If thus we set it, the sense will be most current in the first way of interpretation, Who knows the power of thine anger, &c.— to number, i. e. so knows the power of Gods anger, and terror of his indignation, as thereby to be moved, or to learn to number his dayes, i. e. to look upon his life as short and fading (for so we number that which is short, pauperis est numerare pecus, the poor man, that hath but a few cattel, may number them, the flocks of the rich are innumerable) and accordingly to spend it the more to his eternal advantages. The asking the question foreign foreignWho knows? signifies a strong negation, and complaint, that no man knows, they fall every day, and no man considers it so (in the example of others) as to number his own dayes, or apply it to his own benefit or amendment. And then follows a prayer to God foreign foreignDoe thou so teach us or make us know, that we may apply— or as that phrase may better be rendred, foreign that we may bring an understanding heart; so foreign an understanding spirit Ex. xxviii. 3. and Isa. xi. 2. and in many other places: and then by that will be signified that knowing the terribleness of Gods wrath, the want of which was matter of the complaint, v. 11. And so this is a facile and obvious rendring of these two verses. Yet it is not amiss to mention other descants. The Jewish Arab seems not to take foreign v. 11. for wrath, but (according to an Arabick use of that word) for consideration, and so goes in his interpretation farr different from others, thus, foreign &c. And who knows the power of thy wrath, so as to consider thy fear? As the number (or according to the numbring) of our age which is known, that we might bring an heart of wisdome, or wise heart. Adding in a note, that the meaning is, that our dayes are numbred and known, and if we did continually know (or acknowledge) the power of thy wrath, and punishment, as we acknowledge that our dayes and ages are fading, we would come before thee with a wise heart, and by repentance turn unto thee. foreign he seems to take not for the Imperative, but for the preterperfecttense passive. Abu Walid takes that in another sense, and thus interprets it, According to the measure of our age, so discipline (or chastise) us, exceed not measure in chastising us, because our age is short, &c. and he compares it with Job vii. 19. How long wilt thou not depart from me, nor let me alone, &c. But this Kimchi in his Rootes seems not to like of. R. Moses, mentioned by Aben Ezra, thus makes p. 461the meaning, He that knowes the force of thy wrath, and knowes how to number our dayes, the truth is known to him.