out of the fields four-square, and sowed with barley or oats, so that their roofs look like green meadows: and, that what is sown, and the grass that grows thereon, may not wither before plucked up, they very diligently water it. (De Ritu Gent. Septent. 1. ix. c. 12.) Maundrell (Fourney from Aleppo, p. 144.) says, that these words allude to the custom of plucking up corn from the roots by handfuls, leaving the most fruitful fields as naked as if nothing had ever grown in them; and that this is done that they may not lose any of the straw, which is generally very short, and necessary for the sustenance of their cattle, no hay being made in that country. No. 1015.-cxxxii. 18. Upon his head shall the crown flourish.] "This idea seems to be taken from the nature of the ancient crowns bestowed upon conquerors. From the earliest periods of history the laurel, olive, and ivy furnished crowns to adorn the heads of heroes, who had conquered in the field of battle; gained the prize in the race; or performed some other important service to the public. These were the dear bought rewards of the most heroic exploits of antiquity. This sets the propriety of the phrase in full view. The idea of a crown of gold and jewels flourishing is at least unnatural: whereas flourishing is natural to laurels and oaks. These were put upon the heads of the victors in full verdure." PIRIE'S Works, vol. iii. p. 124. No. 1016.-cxxxiii. 2. It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts of his garments.] The manner of performing the ceremony of anointing the high priest has been particularly transmitted to us by the rabbinical writers. They inform us that the oil was poured on the top of the priest's head, which was bare, so plentifully, as to run down his face upon his beard, to the collar (not the lower skirts) of his robe. It has been said, that at the consecration of the high priest the unction was repeated seven days together, an opinion founded upon Exod. xxix. 29, 30. JENNINGS's Jewish Ant. vol. i. p. 210. No. 1017.-cxxxvii. 9. Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.] This was an instance of cruelty frequently exercised in the sacking of towns. Thus Isaiah (c. xiii. v. 16.) foretells to Babylon, that her children shall be dashed in pieces before her eyes by the Medes. See also Hosea xiii. 16. So also in Homer one exclaims, My city burnt, My bleeding infants dash'd against the floor; Il. B. v. 22. POPE. He also represents Andromache lamenting over Hector: Thou too, my son! to barb'rous climes shalt go, The sad companion of thy mother's woe; Driv'n hence a slave before the victor's sword; Or else some Greek, whose father press'd the plain, Il. xxiv. 732. POPE. No. 1018.-cxlix. 5. Let them sing aloud upon their beds.] Among some of the most celebrated of the ancients war was proclaimed by the ministers of religion, and military expeditions were opened by devout processions and public sacrifices. The 149th Psalm was doubtless composed on such an occasion. It was sung when David's army was marching out to war against the remnant of the devoted nations, and first went up in solemn procession to the house of God, there as it were to consecrate the arms he put into their hands. The beds referred to, on which they were to sing aloud, were probably the couches on which they lay at the banquet attending their sacrifices; which gives a noble sense to a passage on any other interpretation hardly intelligible. DODDRIDGE'S Works, vol. iii. p. 52. No. 1019.-PROVERBS. i. 1. Proverbs. "In those periods of remote antiquity, which may with the utmost propriety be styled the infancies of societies and nations, the usual, if not the only, mode of instruction was by detached aphorisms or proverbs. Human wisdom was then indeed in a rude and unfinished state it was not digested, methodized, or reduced to order and connection. Those who by genus and reflection, exercised in the school of experience, had accumulated a stock of knowledge, were desirous of reducing it into the most compendious form, and comprised in a few maxims those observations which they apprehended most essential to human happiness. This mode of instruction was, in truth, more likely than any other to prove efficacious with men in a rude stage of society; for it professed not to dispute, but to command; not to persuade, but to compel: it conducted them, not by a circuit of argument, but led immediately to the approbation and practice of integrity and virtue. That it might not, however, be altogether destitute of allurement, and lest it should disgust by an appearance of roughness and severity, some degree of ornament became necessary; and the instructors of mankind added to their precepts the graces of harmony, and illuminated them with metaphors, comparisons, allusions, and the other embellishments of style. This manner, which with other nations prevailed only during the first periods of civilization, with the Hebrews continued to be a favourite style to the latest ages of their literature." LowTH's Lectures on the Hebrew Poetry, vol. i. p. 162. No. 1020-iii. 16. • hand, and in her left Length of days is in her right riches and honour.] Wisdom is here represented as a queen, holding in one hand, instead of a sceptre, length of days, and in the other, instead of a globe, riches and honour. The allusion is thought by some to be to an ancient custom of numbering things and the ages of men by the hand and fingers, beginning with the left hand; and when they came to a hundred, going on to the right. So that in her right hand might be said to be length of days, few persons arriving to that number. (Alex. ab Alex. Genial, Dier. l. i, c. 14.) To this Juvenal refers when speaking of Nestor, Suos jam dextra computat annos. Sat. x. 249. No. 1021. v. 15. Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.] There may be an allusion in these words to a law which Clement of Alexandria (Stromat. 1. i. p. 274.) says Plato had from the Hebrews, which enjoined husbandmen not to take water from others to water their lands, till they themselves had dug into the earth called virgin earth, and found it dry and without water, No. 1022.-vi. 1. if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger.] To strike hands with another person was a general emblem of agreement, bargaining, or suretyship. So Homer represents it, Il. ii. 341. and iv. 159. And Virgil, En dextra fidesque. Æn, iv. 597. See also Prov. xvii. 18. xxii. 26. Job xvii. 3. No. 1023.-xii. 27. The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting.] Solomon evidently |