24 The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

25 The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. 27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

28 He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.

29 He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.

30 He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him he is filled full with reproach.

31 For the LORD will not cast off for ever: 32 But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.

33 For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.

34 To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,

35 To turn aside the right of a man before the face of "the most High,

36 To subvert a man in his cause, the LORD approveth not.

12

37 Who is he 13that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the LORD commandeth it not? 38 Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?

15

39 Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? 40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.

41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.

42 We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.

43 Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.

44 Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through. 45 Thou hast made us as the "offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.

9 Psal. 16. 5, and 73. 26, and 119. 57. Jer. 10. 16.
13 Psal. 33. 9.
14 Amos 3. 6.
19 Or, more than all.

46 All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

47 Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.

48 Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

49 Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,

50 Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven.

18.

51 Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.

52 Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.

53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.

54 Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.

55 TI called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.

56 Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.

57 Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee thou saidst, Fear not.

58 O LORD, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life. 59 O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.

60 Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.

61 Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against

me;

62 The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day. 63 Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their musick.

64 Render unto them a recompence, O LORD, according to the work of their hands. 65 Give them 20 sorrow of heart, thy curse

unto them.

66 Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the "heavens of the LORD.

Verse 10. 'A bear lying in wait.'-As the bear does not, like the lion and other animals of the feline race, spring forth from its secret covert upon its prey, the fact of its lying in wait has not been so much noticed. It is true however that the bear remains in ambush in some suitable place, as under a thicket, or on the skirts of a wood, and there waits patiently till an unwary passenger, or some other victim, not only appears, but seems to be off his guard, and then steals in silence upon him. If the intended human victim discover the bear's approach, the

animal will seldom persevere in its design, but withdraws sulkily to its covert, frequently looking back as if expecting to be pursued. That the bear comes suddenly upon the unwary, without its approach having been noticed, has been frequently mentioned, but it has not so often been stated, which, however, is obvious, that it bad previously been on the watch for the favourable moment. Compare Lewis and Clarke's Travels, i. 362, with various anecdotes in the Third voyage of William Barents,' in Harris's Collection, p. 552, etc.

2 The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!

3 Even the 'sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

4 The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.

5 They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.

6 For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was 3overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.

7 Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:

8 Their visage is 'blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.

9 They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.

10 The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their *meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

11 The LORD hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath

nant woman-the arrows being then properly the 'sons' of its womb. This comparison is very natural, and is not unknown in classical poetry. So Horace (lib. i. Ode 22): 'The man, who knows not guilty fear, Nor wants the bow, nor pointed spear; Nor needs, while innocent of heart,

The quiver, teeming with the poison'd dart.'-FRANCIS.

kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.

12 The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.

13 For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,

14 They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.

15 They cried unto them, Depart ye; 'it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there.

10

16 The anger of the LORD hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders.

17 As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.

18 They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets : our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.

19 Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

20 The "breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.

21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.

22 The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom ; he will discover thy sins.

18

8 Or, in that they could not but touch. 13 Or, carry thee captive for thy sins.

Verse 3. Even the sea monsters give suck to their young ones.'—The word here rendered 'sea-monsters' ('n tannin) is the same that is translated 'great whales' in Gen. i., and which is there explained. It certainly includes all the mammiferous animals of the deep; and the creatures of this class suckle their young ones, and exhibit the greatest attachment to them, encountering any danger in their defence. The cerebral hemispheres in cetaceous animals are large and well developed; and, whether from this or other causes, they far exceed the other inhabitants of the sea in sagacity, as well as in maternal tenderness.

7. 'Her Nazarites,' etc.-The word nazar means to separate, set apart, distinguish, from the common. Hence it gave a title to the Nazarites, who were separated and distinguished by a religious vow; but it also applies to nobles, chiefs, and others distinguished from the mass of the people by their dignity or rank. The context com. monly distinguishes the sense in which the term is to be understood. In the present instance it does not so very clearly; but it seems more properly to refer to the nobles and persons delicately brought up, than to the religious Nazarites.

Its

Their polishing was of sapphire.'-This is not very easily understood, nor is it clear how the sense of to polish' should be assigned to the word gazar. usual meaning is to divide or intersect; and as the veins thus intersect the body, and moreover present a blue appearance, which is considered beautiful, and may be compared in colour to the sapphire, Braunius, and, after him, Blayney and others, think the veins must be intended, translating Their veining was that of sapphires.'

6

20. The breath of our nostrils,' etc.-This doubtless refers to the king Zedekiah, whose flight was intercepted by the Chaldeans.

Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.' -The word rendered heathen' (Di】 goyim) means nations and peoples in the widest sense; and also in the more restricted, of foreign nations, as distinguished from the Jews. It is probably here to be understood of 'nations' indefinitely; and would then suggest that the Hebrews, in expecting to live under their king's shadow among the nations, had hoped, to the last, that their distinct political existence, as one among the nations, under their own king, would be preserved, as it had been on former occasions, whatever else might happen to them.

CHAPTER V.

A pitiful complaint of Zion in prayer unto God. REMEMBER, O LORD, what is come upon us : consider, and behold our reproach.

2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.

3 We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.

4 We have drunken our water for money; our wood 'is sold unto us.

5 2Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.

6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.

8 Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.

9 We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilder

ness.

10 Our 'skin was black like an oven because of the 'terrible famine.

11 They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.

12 Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.

13 They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.

14 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.

15 The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.

16 "The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!

17 For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.

18 Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.

19 Thou, O LORD, 'remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.

20 Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us "so long time?

21 Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.

Verse 4. We have drunken our water for money.'-In the East all water, except at a private well or fountain, is free; but it is so far bought, that householders, who have no supply of water close at hand, are necessarily obliged to pay persons for the labour of bringing it, as often as wanted, to their houses, unless this is done by members or servants of the family. Such payment can scarcely be supposed the present subject of complaint, since it is voluntary, and may be avoided by those who choose rather to labour than to pay the price of labour. If the prophet

speaks of Jerusalem, or of places in its neighbourhood, we know that there were no streams or rivers which furnished a constant and full supply of water, the most considerable being dry for a great part of the year. It appears that the supply was, in summer at least, derived from wells, fountains, and pools, which were free to the people, as appears from many passages of Scripture. The most obvious explanation of this passage is therefore to suppose that the Chaldæans took possession of those sources of supply, and required payment from the persons

who applied for water. This may have been a measure either of gain or precaution, or both: but it does appear, from the frequent mention of suffering from thirst, here and in the prophecy, that a drought at this time prevailed: and this fact will perhaps, better than anything else, supply the required explanation; for the Chaldæans, or any other ruling power, would naturally under such circumstances take possession of the existing public supply of water, and sell it to the mass of the people, to ensure a diminished consumption.

Many illustrations of the purchase of water for money, and at a high price, may be found. The following, occurring in the wilderness of Sinai, is related by Ali Bey:'I was witness to a very disagreeable scene at this place. Forty poor mendicant pilgrims on foot had exhausted all their water, and being tormented with thirst they shed tears, and uttered most lamentable cries: but no one could assist them, for we were in the middle of a desert, and were obliged to keep the water which we had as a treasure. A pilgrim on horseback, who also had no water, bought about half a pint from an Arab for the value of five francs. I gave some to a few of the pilgrims, but how could I quench the thirst of all these unhappy people? I was obliged at last to shut my eyes and stop my ears, to prevent my servants and myself from becoming victims of our compassion.'

In The Navigation and Voyages of Lewes Vertomanus, gentelman of the citie of Rome, to the regions of Arabia, Egypte, Persia, Syria, Ethiopia, and East India, both within and without the river Ganges, etc. In the yeere of our Lord 1503, conteyning many Notable and Straunge things, both Hystoricall and Naturall,' Lond. 1576; we find in the 10th Chapter 'Of the Cities of Sodoma and Gomorrha,' a passage very strikingly illustrative of this text, as well as of the offer of the Israelites to the king of Edom :-'If I and my cattle drink thy water, then I will pay for it.' (Num. xx. 19.) In fact the adventure occurred very nearly in the same neighbourhood, being some twenty miles to the south of the Dead Sea.

'Departing twenty miles from these cities, about thirty of our company perished for lack of water, and divers others were overwhelmed with sand. Going somewhat further forward, we found a little mountain, at the foot whereof we found water, and therefore made our abode there. The day following, early in the morning, came unto us 24,000 Arabians, asking money for the water which we had taken. We answered that we would pay nothing, because it was given us by the goodness of God. Immediately we came to hand strokes. We gathering ourselves together on the said mountain, as in the safest place, used our camels in the stead of a bulwark, and placed the merchants in the midst of the army, that is in the midst of the camels, while we fought manfully on every side. The battle continued so long that water failed both us and our enemies in the space of two days. The Arabians compassed about the mountain, crying and threatening that they would break in among the camels. At the length to make an end of the conflict, our captain assembling the merchants, commanded a thousand and two hundred pieces of gold to be given to the Arabians, who when they had received the money, said that the sum of ten thousand pieces of gold should not satisfy them for the water which we had drawn. Whereby we perceived that they begun further to quarrel with us, and to demand some other thing than money. Whereupon our captain gave commandment that whosoever in all our company were able to bear arms should not mount upon the camels, but should with all expedition prepare themselves to fight. The day following, in the morning, sending the camels before and enclosing our army, being about three hundred in number, we met with the enemies and gave the onset. In this conflict we lost only a man and a woman, and had none other damage: we slew of the Arabians a thousand and five hundred, whereof you need not marvel, if you consider that they are unarmed, and wear only a thin loose vesture, and are beside almost naked; their horses also being as evil furnished, and without saddles or other furniture.'

'Our wood is sold unto us.'-This is less remarkable than that, as the complaint implies, their wood should not previously have been sold to them. It appears, however,

GIRL BEARING WOOD.

that the woods in Israel were anciently common to the inhabitants; so that those persons who lived in towns or villages, the vicinity of which did not supply them with sufficient wood for fuel or other purposes, might obtain what they required from the common forests and wooded 458

places. The Jews allege a regulation of Joshua to this effect. Thus they had nothing to pay for wood, unless they saw fit to employ others to perform for them the service of cutting the wood and bringing it to their homes. It may therefore be conjectured that the Chaldæans, coming from a country where wood was scarce and costly, did not understand this state of things, but appropriated the forests as royal property, and obliged the remaining inhabitants to pay for the wood they required. Some conjecture that this verse, if not the whole chapter, applies to the condition of the Jews in captivity at Babylon. If so, they most certainly had to pay, for the wood they needed there, a price which must have seemed to them enormous. The condition of that country with respect to wood seems, from the ancient historians, to have been then much the same as at present. The fuel chiefly consists of brushwood, with which the rivers are in some parts very thickly lined. It is cut down by men who make this their employment, and who convey it to the towns for sale in clumsy boats laden half-mast high. On account of the distance from which it is brought, and the time and labour employed in cutting it down and transporting it, such a price is required from the consumer as renders it, although very sparingly used, one of the most costly articles of domestic consumption in the country. It is sold by weight, and the sellers are notorious for fraudulence in their dealings.

13. The children fell under the wood.'-In Palestine fire-wood is usually carried to the towns on the backs of mules and donkeys. Such doubtless was the case in ancient times, and that children should be employed in the labour of carrying heavy burdens of wood was therefore a sign of poverty and degradation. Children' implies young people, whether male or female. It is not now unusual in Western Asia-nor indeed in Europe, to see young women coming from the woods with enormous faggots upon their heads, but in the East it strikes one more unpleasingly than in Europe, as asses are so generally employed for such uses. Mr. Paxton, in his Letters on Palestine, writes, near Jerusalem :-'We met a number of females with large parcels of wood on their backs making their way towards the city. In some cases they must have to carry it from six to ten miles. What a labour for females! It is now as in the days of old, the women and children sink under the wood. In fact in these countries, as well as in Egypt, the duty of collecting fuel, whether wood or animal dung, falls upon the women and children of the peasantry, who are too poor to buythough when the fuel becomes an object of sale, men employ themselves in obtaining it, with the aid of asses. Hence the text seems to imply that the children of nobles were reduced to employments in which only the children of the poorest peasantry had been hitherto employed. We were ourselves much struck in journeying through the north-eastern part of Asia Minor, frequently to see at the same moment women with immense loads of wood upon their heads, and men sauntering about-knitting socks!