to themselves a distinct poetical dialect. Thus far, therefore, I think we may with safety affirm, that the maritan copy: although it may possibly be meant for a pronominal affix. the VULGATE read on, and the context favours this reading. These are most, if not all of them, examples of anomalies, which serve to distinguish particularly the poetic Dialect. To demonstrate more fully, how freely they are made use of by the sacred poets, I shall annex a specimen, which Abarbanel exhibits as collected from one short poem, namely, the song of Moses. "You may observe," says he, "in this poem, words "sometimes contracted for the sake of the measure, and sometimes length"ened and extended by additional letters and syllables, according as the "simple terms may be redundant or deficient. The letters which in this "canticle are superadded, are as follow: the vau and jod twice in the word " for in reality would have been quite sufficient: the jod is also the vau also in : תורישמו the vau in ; יאכלמו the vau in : כאדרי st added in In truth this form of) אימתה the that in : אחומר in ; תבלעמו in ; כסמו 66 nouns appears to be altogether poetical; many examples of which may be found in GLASS. Phil. Sac. p. 269. all of them, however, from the poetic and prophetic books.) The deficient are jod תטעמו in ; תביאמו The vau in * ; נהלתו for כחלת The vau in : תמלא מהם for תמלאמו so in ; וימרת יח in » "so also the word as is deficient in the verse 10; for the "prince of the prophets cannot be suspected of erring in grammatical or "orthographical accuracy; but the necessity of the verse and a proper re"gard to harmony so required it." ABARB. in Mantissa Dissert. ad Libr. COSRI. a BUXTORFIO, edit. Basil, 1660, p. 412. To these examples one might add from the same canticle twice in 1, . Epithentic in 1998, ירגזון Paragogic in Concerning the glosses or foreign words, which occur in the Hebrew poetry; in the present state of the Hebrew language, it is difficult to pronounce on the ruins, as it were, of neighbouring and contemporary dialects: since possibly those words which are commonly taken for Chaldaic (for instance) might have been common to both languages; on the contrary, some of those, which more rarely occur, and the etymology of which we are ignorant about, may have been borrowed from the neighbouring dialects. Since, however, there are some words which more frequently occur in the poetical remains, and which are not elsewhere to be found but in the Chaldee; we may reasonably conjecture concerning these, that they have been introduced into the Hebrew, or at least, after becoming obsolete in common language, might be again made use of: such are the following, Bar (a son) Koshet (truth) Sega (he increased) Shebach (he praised) Za Hebrew poetry is metrical. One or two of the peculiarities also of their versification it may be proper to remark, which as they are very observable in those poems, in which the verses are defined by the initial letters, may at least be reasonably conjectured of the rest. The first of these is, that the verses are very unequal in length; the shortest consisting of six or seven syllables; the longest extending to about twice that number; the same poem is, however, generally continued throughout in verses not very unequal to each other. I must also observe, that the close of the verse generally falls where the members of the sentences are divided.* kaph (he lifted up) Gnuck (in the Hebrew Tzick,) he pressed, &c. Ob serve Moses, however, in the exordium of his last benediction, Deut. xxxiii. has he not also frequently admitted of Chaldaisms? What is in? which again occurs, ver. 21. What is aan? in both form and sense Chaldaic. What ♫? a word scarcely received into common use among the Hebrews till after the Babylonish captivity; especially since the Hebrew abounded in synonymous terms, expressive of the Law of God. (But perhaps this last word in this place is rightly suspected to be an error. See KENNICOTT, Dissert. I. of the Hebrew Text, p. 427, and HOUBIGANT in loc.) Isaiah, however, elegantly adopts the Chaldaic form, speaking of Babylon, in the word TD, which in the Hebrew would be nam, chap xiv. 4. Not less appositely on the same subject does the Psalmist introduce the word , PSAL. cxxxvii. 3, which is the Chaldaic for 1, as the Chaldean paraphrast himself allows, who renders it by the synonymous term am, as elsewhere he renders the word bbw; (see Ezek. xxvi. 12. xxix. 19. xxxviii. 12, 13.) nor indeed do the other interpreters produce any thing to the purpose. Some instances of grammatical anomalies in the glosses have been detected; such are the following, Syriac or Chaldaic: for, PSAL. cxvi. thrice; ciii. five times; also in JER. xi. 15. PSAL. CXVI. 12. as a termination plur. nom. masc. for D, JOB. 22. xxxi. 10. and frequently elsewhere; also PROV. xxxi. 3. Lam. iv. 3. EZEK. XXVI. 18. Mic. iii. 12. for ךהי iv. 2. xxiv. "n, the SAMARITAN has 8, in the Arabic form. 237, nano, are "Chaldaic as well as Arabic. n, but this word seems to have follow"ed the etymology of the Arabic verb ↳n, he bound, he led captive; whence "the Septuagint awayayovles nuas; and the Chaldaic 1, he carried away "captive." H. Author's Note. 4 This mode of versification is not altogether foreign to our own language, as is evident from some of our earliest writers, particularly PIERS PLOWMAN. S. H. As to the real quantity, the rhythm, or modulation, these from the present state of the language seem to be altogether unknown, and even to admit of no investigation by human art or industry. It is indeed evident, that the true Hebrew pronunciation is totally lost. The rules concerning it, which were devised by the modern Jews many ages after the language of their ancestors had fallen into disuse, have been long since suspected by the learned to be destitute of authority and truth : for if in reality the Hebrew language is to be conformed to the positions of these men, we must be under the necessity of confessing, not only, what we at present experience, that the Hebrew poetry possesses no remains of sweetness or harmony, but that it never was possessed of any. The truth is, it was neither possible for them to recal the true pronunciation of a language long since obsolete, and to institute afresh the rules of orthoepy; nor can any person in the present age so much as hope to effect any thing to the purpose by the aid of conjecture, in a matter so remote from our senses, and so involved in obscurity. In this respect, indeed, the delicacy of all languages is most remarkable. After they cease to be spoken, they are still significant of some sound; but that in the mouth of a stranger becomes most dissonant and barbarous: the vital grace is wanting, the native sweetness is gone, the colour of primeval beauty is faded and decayed. The Greek and Latin doubtless have now lost much of their pris tine and native sweetness; and as they are spoken, the pronunciation is different in different nations, but every where barbarous, and such as Attic or Roman ears would not have been able to endure. In these, however, the rhythm or quantity remains, each retains its peculiar numbers, and the versification is distinct; but the state of the Hebrew is far more unfavourable, which, destitute of vowel sounds, has remained altogether silent (if I may use the expression) incapable of utterance upwards of two thousand years. Thus, not so much as the number of syllables, of which each word consisted, could with any certainty be defined, much less the length or quantity of the syllables: and since the regulation of the metre of any language must depend upon two particulars, I mean the number and the length of the syllables, the knowledge of which is utterly unat tainable in the Hebrew, he who attempts to restore the true and genuine Hebrew versification, erects an edifice without a foundation. To some of those indeed who have laboured in this matter, thus much of merit is to be allowed; that they rendered the Hebrew poetry, which formerly sounded uncommonly harsh and bar, barous, in some degree softer and more polished; they indeed furnished it with a sort of versification, and met, rical arrangement, when baffled in their attempts to dis cover the real. That we are justified in attributing to them any thing more than this, is neither apparent from the nature of the thing, nor from the arguments with which they attempt to defend their conjectures. Their endeavours in truth would rather tend to supersede all inquiry on a subject which the most learned and ingenious have investigated in vain; and induce us to relinquish as lost, what we see cannot be retrieved. But although nothing certain can be defined concerning the metre of the particular verses, there is yet another artifice of poetry to be remarked of them when in a collective state, when several of them are taken togeth er. In the Hebrew poetry, as I before remarked, there may be observed a certain conformation of the sentenç* See the brief confutation of Bishop Hare's Hebrew Metres. es, the nature of which is, that a complete sense is almost equally infused into every component part, and that every member constitutes an entire verse. So that as the poems divide themselves in a manner spontaneously into periods, for the most part equal; so the periods themselves are divided into verses, most common ly couplets, though frequently of greater length. This is chiefly observable in those passages, which frequently occur in the Hebrew poetry, in which they treat one subject in many different ways, and dwell upon the same sentiment; when they express the same thing in different words, or different things in a similar form of words; when equals refer to equals, and opposites to opposites : and since this artifice of composition seldom fails to produce even in prose an agreeable and measured cadence, we can scarcely doubt that it must have imparted to their poetry, were we masters of the versification, an exquisite degree of beauty and grace. In this circumstance, therefore, which is common to most of the Hebrew poems, we find, if not a rule and principle, at least a characteristic of the sacred poetry: insomuch that in that language the word Mizmor (or Psalm) according • Zamar, he cut off, he pruned, namely, the superfluous and luxuriant branches of trees. Hence Zemorah, a branch, or twig; Marmarah, a pruning-hook. Also he sung, or chanted; he cut his voice by the notes in singing, or divided it. Shur signifies singing with the voice (vocal music :) Nazan, to play upon an instrument. Zamar implies either vocal or instrumental melody. Thus Bineginoth mismor shir (See PSALM 1xvii. 1.) I think means a metrical song, accompanied with music. Thus I suppose mismor to denote measure, or numbers, what the Greeks called guμov (Rythmon.) It may also be more immediately referred to the former and original sense of the root, as signifying, a poem cut into short sentences, and pruned from every luxuriancy of expression, which is a distinguishing characteristic of the Hebrew poetry. Prose composition is called Sheluchah, loose or free, diffused with no respect to rule; like a wild tree, luxuriant on every side in its leaves and branches: Metrical language is Zimrah, cut and pruned on every side into sentences, like branches, distributed into a certain form and order; as vines, which the vine-dresser corrects with his pruning-knife, and adjusts into form. Author's note. |