ff'! Hunt , Thomas Dissertation on Proverbs VII. 22, 23 London, 1743 ¥A3k YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY From the COLLECTION OF OXFORD BOOKS made by FALCONER MADAN Bodley's Librarian O N PROVERBS VII.2a,2?. B E I N G A SPECIMEN of CRITICAL DISSERTATIONS O N T H E PROVERBS of SOLOMON: Addrefs'd to the Students in Arabic, and the other Oriental Languages, in the University of OXFOflJ). By Thomas Hunt, M. A. of Hertford College, Profeflbr of Arabic. [_4 ¦ , _—_——__________ ! To under ftand a Vr overhand the Interpretation. Prov. I. 6. ¦-¦- -LU'^H^-'-'B'JBag'"?" 0 X F 0 H 2>, Printed at the Th e ate r, for Richard Clements; ; And Sold by f, and P. Knapton in Ludgate-Street, J. Rivington in St. Paul's Church-Yard., and y. Roberts in WarwickzLme, Londo n. 1743. TO >T H E STUDENTS in ARABIC, AND THE OTHER ORIENTAL LANGUAGES, IN THE UNIVERSITY of OXFORD. Gentlemen, YOU may remember, that in our reading the Old Teftament together, I have, among the other di rections I have given you for your right underftand- ing the original language of it, often recommended to you one thing, which I take to be in the high eft degree condu cive to that ufeful end ; which is, your making your felves com petent mafter s of the neighbouring dialeils, the Chaldee, Syriac, Ethiopic, and, above all, the Arabic. By which advice, when apply d to the laft of thefe languages, I do not mean your acquiring fuch a knowledge of it, as will enable you to read the great variety of books , that have been written in it, readily and currently • much lefs, to write andfpeak it correUly and fluently : for this is a degree of proficiency, that mil require more time, perhaps, than you can well fpare from your other ftudies, and is fcarcely to be attain d by the clofeji application, where there is not a particular genius for this part of learning. The Arabic is a moft copiotis and extenfive language. It has fometimes [and, I think, not improperly) been compafd to a vaft ocean, in rejpeSt of which the Hebrew, ( that is, the fmall remains ^we now have of the Hebrew,) and all the feveral dialects fprung from it, are but as fo many rivulets, or fmall fir earns, which have, for a longfuc- ceffion of ages, been continually running into this great abyfs. a 2 But, [ ij ] ^^Bul^tWAgh 'we may not hope to explore the' extent of this, fpb- Wus fea,-and furvey all it's parts ; yet may we make fome port voyages in it with confiderable advantage :¦ We may, like dili gent coafters, examine it's Jhores j obferve the nature of the fe veral ftreams" that are flowing into it ; compare their waters with thofe of the great receptacle, into which they are receiv'd; go up as far as we pleafe in each channel • and fo return with much greater profit, than we Jbould ever have gain'd by confining our commerce to a fingle river. To fpeak without a metaphor : the degree of knowledge I would recommend to you, with regard to the Arabic, is, firft, fuch as may qualify you to read fome eafy books in that language-, fuch as Abulfaragius'x hiftory of the dynafties, AbulfedaV life of Mo hammed, the fecond part of Al-Makin'x general hiftory, &c. in print • and Al-MacriziV hiftory of Egypt, AbulfedaTr geography, the firii part of Al-Makin'j general hiftory, (3c. in manufcript- by doing of which, you will gradually become habituated to the ftyle and turn of the Oriental idiom in general ; 'which you will find to be of great fer vice to you, when you come to confider the meaning of any particular text in the Hebrew. Secondly, Tour knowledge fhould be fuch, as may enable you to confult the Arabic lexicographers, fuch as Jauharius, Firouzabadius, Zammachfha- rius, and others -y who will not only jhew you that the greatefi . part of the ancient Hebrew words andphrafes ftill remain in com mon and daily ufe among the people of the Eaft j but alfo explain them to you in the fame latitude and variety of meaning, in which they were ufed in the times that the feveral books of the Hebrew fcripture were written. In which refpeU, you may look upon the Hebrew to be ftill a living language, and, confequently, the Old Teftament that is written in it, to be capable of being more clear ly under ft ood (if ever the ftudy of thefe languages Jbould come to be duly cultivated) than moft of thofe writings that have been de liver d down to us in dead languages. Having [ v. ] * Having thus acquainted your felves with the nature "and 'ge nius of the Arabic tongue, and learn d io confult the- .'lexicons' that are written in it, you will meet with very few words in Jcripture, which you will not be able, by thefe means, to give a good account of Even the 0,7ml tepidf, ( as they are called in (jreek. ) thofe words which occur but once in fcripture, and fo hetve no parallel inftances, whereby to determine their fenfes ; and thofe other, thai occur but feldom, and fo have very doubtful and infufficient ones j may all, by being compafd with th* words that anfwer to them in the Arabic dialetl, and are of known ufe there, receive fo much light, as will for ever fix the genuine mean ings of them, and leave no more room to doubt of their fignifica- tions, than there is to queftion the fignifications of thofe Arabic ones, from whence they receiv'd their illuftration. This is the method which I my felf have, for many years, made ufe of in my own private ftudy of the Hebrew Bible ; and I beg leave to affure you, that what I take the liberty to recommend to you by way of precept, I have found verify' d by my own experience in abundance of inftances. I might mention fome of them, but JhaU content my felf {for brevity s fake) with referringyou to that of syiSD, tafofi in the following Dissertation. And, becaufe the language of the book of Jo b has been allow' d to have a nearer affinity with the Arabic, than that of any other part of the Old Teftament: And, moreover, becaufe 1 have al ways been of opinion, that the Proverbs o/Solomon not only fhare the common advantage of other books of fcripture, in being capable of receiving light from the Arabic and the other dialects j but likewife have this peculiar privilege of their own, that, being a collection of wife apophthegms, or moral fayings, they may ad mit of an additional illuftration from the Eaftern though this being- [ viii ] being a text, about which there is a great difference of opinion* among the interpreters and commentators, I was obligd to dwell longer upon it, than I have upon moft others. What I offer in ex plication of it, I drew up above eleven years ago, and have often review d fince that time -, nor have I, after the moft diligent en quiry, met with any thing to induce me to alter my opinion con cerning it. However, I publijh it, as I JhaU do every thing elje of this nature, by way o/conjedture only. For where there is fo much doubt among learned men, as there often is in thefe mat ters, it would ill become me to be pofitive. If from this, or any thing elfe I may fay or write in the fame way, any fmall benefit JhaU happen to accrue to you, I beg you. will join with me in making fuitable acknowledgments, where they are juftly due, to thofe worthy Governors of Colleges, whom Arch' Bijhop Laud entruftedwith the choice of his Arabic lecturer, and to his Grace the Arch-Bifhop of York, his Majefty 's Lord Al moner-, by whofe favour, my Jlation among you is become fuch, as may, in fome meafure, excufe my boldnefs in adventuring to lay before you, in this public manner, fome papers, which were origi nally drawn up, and chiefly intended, for my own private exer- cife and improvement : t$ feeming to me not reconcileable with the intention of my benefactors, to go on to enjoy the emolument which they have provided for me, without holding my felf ob ligd (as I have opportunity, and to the beft of my abilities) to give the public fome account of what I do for it. I am, Gentlemen, Hertford College, four very faithful, and affectionate Mat. 16. 1741. humble Servant, Tho. Hunt. / 7- "S> CO A DISSERTATION O N Prov. VII. 22, 23. hx tibo nans nnm mfm TTS» TIM TOD f n H^SJ^ T? xx. Htf goe/# after herflraightway, as an ox go- eth to the /laughter, or as a fool to the cor rection of the ftocks : 13. 'Till a dart ftrike through his liver; as a Mrd hafleth to the fnare3 and knoweth not that it is for his life. E have here in the compafs of two verfes (according to the common divifion) three fimilitudes, the defign of which is to repre- fent, in the moft lively and affecting man ner, the folly and danger of the young adulterer, who is the fubjedt of this beautiful chapter. The meaning of the firft and A laft [*] laft of thefe fimilitudes is obvious: That of the fecond is not fo, as appears from the different opinions of translators and commentators concerning it, and the feveral ways they have taken to reconcile it to the other two. Ihe words of it are, 'tis idid by D3JO As a fool to the correction of 'the ftocks : 'Till a dart ftrike through his liver. Before I proceed to examine this text by the Rule (a ) laid down in the Introduction, and to oier fuch an expli cation of it, as will make it of a piece with the context, it may be proper to fee what account ha? been alseady given of it by expofitors. And here, not to trouble the reader with their verbal criticifms, the fum of what they have with any proba bility advanc'd on the paffage, may be compris'd in thefe few words, As a fool unwarily commits fuch things, as wiU expofe him to Jhame and punijhm.ent, fo the incautious young man goes after his neighbour's wife, till a dart strike through his liver; that is, as fome explain it, 'till the rage of jea- loufy pujh the husband on to murder him : or, as others, 'tiU he contraR difeafes, and become habituated to impurity ', and fo ruin himfelf both body and foul, by his lewd and dijorderly courfes. This is the ufual account that is given of this place ; but, I think, not the true one. For, not to mention that this in terpretation fuppofes the fool's going to the ftocks to ftand for his committing fuch things as, de ferve them -, which yet is no eafy fuppofition : 1 fay, not to mention this, it may be ask'd, where ( a ) Of making one of the hemiftics or half-verfes a comment upon the other. is [3] is the force of this comparifon?>what is this, but to compare one fool to another ; nay, a greater fool to a lefs j a fool that deferves death ( for adultery was capital among the Jews ) to one that is incurring the moft trivial and inconfiderable cor poral punifhment ? To fay, indeed, (as in the context) that the unwary youth purfues his unlawful amours as much with out thought and confideration, as the ox goes to the fiaughter- houfe, or the bird to the fnare of the fowler, much improves the image we have both of his fimplicity, and of the pernicious arts of the temptrefs -. whereas, the comparing him to the fool going to the ftocks is fo far from heightening the idea we have of either, that it in a manner deftroys our notion of both. Be fides, as this fenfe is very low and incoherent in itfelf, fo nei ther can the words be brought to fpeak it without great vio lence, (a) According to the order in which they lie in the ori ginal, their obvious conftru6tion would be, not, As a fool to the correction of the ftocks, but, As the ftocks to the correction of a fool. And whoever has the leaft acquaintance with the He brew idiom, will perceive, at firft fight, that they ought to be taken in that order. But what fenfe will they have then ? Some taking the fignification of the word DDJ/, ekes, here render'd flocks, from Ifaiah III. 1 8. where it is apply 'd to the wanton daughters ofj^ion, and by our tranflators render'd tink ling ornaments, are of opinion, that it here likewife fignifys rather fomething ornamental, than punitive -, rather a kind of drefs, in which the fool went to his punifhment, than an infiru ment of it : and conceiving likewife that the Jewijh oxen were led to the place of facrifice with crowns and other ornaments upon them, as thofe among the Heathens were, conned: this with the former hemiftic thus, As the ox marches unconcern d, (a) S»ik iDia Ss syjD A 2 with [ + ] with a crown or gafland on his head, to the place offacrifice ; and a fool in his tinkling ornaments to the place of punifhment ; fo this incontinent young man, aUur'dby fair fpeeches, and drawn in by promifes ofpleafure andfecurity, goes unthinkingly on to his own mifchiefand ruin. But this fenfe is liable to the fame objections with the former. The addition of drefs does not alter the im propriety of the notion : the comparifon is ftill foreign and infipid ; and the conftru&ion repugnant to the letter of grammar, which would then be, And the ornament to the cor rection of a fool-, and not, as in the tranflation, A fool to cor rection with an ornament. But, befides thefe difficulties, which this account has in com mon with the other, it has likewife feveral of it's own. For, firft, the word FOB, tebahh, properly fignifys fiaugbter, or butchery in general ; and is not to be reftrain'd to the particu lar notion of facrifice, without fome evident reafon from the context. Neither, fecondly, have thofe, who have advanc'd this folution, made it appear, either that the victims among the Jews were ordinarily led to be facrific'd in crowns ¦, or that their offenders went to the ftocks, or any other fort of cor rection, in tinkling ornaments. Thirdly, The word D3-JT, ekes, does not of itfelf fignify any fuch ornament, as the fool is here fuppos'd to wear, as will be fhewn by and by. Fourthly \ and laflly, To fuppofe that the fool is actually going to the place of punifhment, as his having his ornaments on plainly does, de- ftroys the propriety of the fimilitude. For if he is actually go ing thither, he muft be a fool indeed, (or, rather, a madmanr and fonot a fit object of punifhment,) not to perceive it: and if he does perceive it, he is improperly rank'd with the ox and the bird, who are therefore here fet forth as fit emblems o£ the incautious young man, becaufe they go to meet their re- fpe&ive fates, without the leaft perception of their danger. But But, after all, how comes the fool in here ? The defign of the wife man feems to be to exaggerate, in the moft lively manner, the folly and indifcretion of the incontinent young finner, by comparing him to the filly unthinking brutes. Having therefore taken his firft comparifon from the ox going to the fiaughter, 'tis more than probable he would have proceeded to fome other brute animal, and not have thrown in the fool and the flocks, and then have gone to the birdhaftening to the fnar'e of 'the fowler . What this fecond animal fliould be, is not hard to conjecture. It is the hart : a creature, from which comparifons are more frequently borrow'd in the facred writings, than from any other whatfoever; and therefore very fit to be joined 'with the ox and the bird, which are likewife very often introduc'd by the holy penmen on the fame account .- a creature too, of all others, the moft proper to be taken notice of on the prefenfi occafion; it being certain from the accounts we have of the ancient hieroglyphics, that the ufual reprefentation, whereby the (a j Egyptians figur'd out a man overthrown by flattery and fair fpeeches, as the poor young man in the text is defcrib'd to be, was the picture of a hart captivated and enfnar'd by the found of mufick; which is one way of taking that animal. Add to this, that, the comparifon we are here fpeaking of, taken in this fenfe, is no other, than what we have in the very laft chapter 5. where the wife man advifes his fon, who had brought himfelf into difficulties by paffing his word for his friend, to deliver himfelf as a roe from the ( b ) hand of the hunter, and as a. (a) Vide Hon Apollinaris Hieroglyphica iEgyptiaca. Lib. II. 87. Edit. Nic. Caufftni, Parif. 1618. (b) By the way, it may be obferv'd, that the Greek, verfion of the word "V,yad, which ufually fignifies hand, as our tranflators have render'd it, is &&%"> fnares ; which, perhaps, may be accounted for from the ufe of bird from the hand of the fowler, v. ?. Here the roe is mention d with the bird, as the hart is fuppos'd to be in the words before us. Now, it is well known, that the hart and the roe are often join'd together in the fcripture, as animals that bear a good deal of refemblance to each other in feveral qualities, fuch as fwiftnefs, beauty, and the like : and it is alfo certain from the natural hiftorians, that the ( a ) method of catching them is exactly the fame. As, therefore, in the former chapter, the roe and the bird were join'd together,to reprefent an incautious man's extricating himfelf out of difficulties, why may not the hart and the bird be us'd in conjunction here, to exprefs his running himfelf into them : the Jlrength and agility of the roe being not more proper there, than the fimplicity and precipi tancy of the hart are here > What gave me the firft hint of the hart, after I had com- par'd the hemiftics by the rule laid down in the intro duction, and perceiv'd the incongruency of the common tranflation, was the word eXa^er, hart, in the Greek verfion of the place. Obferving this, I eaft my eye upon the other (b) an cient verfions, the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic ; and found them all concurring with the Septuagint in this fenfe of the word. This confent of fb many verfions of great antiquity and au- of the Arabic verb c_?o£, yada, which fometimes fignifies to catch by the fore- foot, and is by the lexicographers apply 'd to the roe. So in Kamus, L5J, Mini. i thority [7 J thority could not, I thought with my felf, be without fome very good foundation. And now, what fhould that be, but that the feveral copys, from which they made their transi tions, inftead of ViK, avil, a fool, as our prefent Copys have it, read *?»« (*)aiil, an hart; expreffing (as is often done) the yod that was imply'd in the ( b ) dagejh ? But thefe inter preters, not knowing what to make of a hart to bonds, fetters,. or chains ; and confidering that thefe were more proper for a dog, than a hart, they in fact apply 'd them to the ( c ) dog ; and fo made two fimilitudes of one. For fo the Greek, "sicanp kvuv \m aurpzif, >j a>$ iKoitpos -m^iv^a-n 7B7r\riyus «V tv nrm^. ( d ) And in ( a ) So the words fhould be written, when ftripp'd of the difguife and incumbrance of the Maforetical points. ( b ) This is no new obfervation. For Bochart fays, Alii obfervarunt Gtxcospro Vltf, ftulto, legiffe V'H, cervum. Hieroz,. Lib. II. chap. ytf. ad fin. But tho' others have obferv'd this, I do not find they have made that ufe of their obfervation, which rhey might have done. ( c ) It has been thought, that the Septuag'mt, inftead of the prefent Hebrew word Day, ekes, read 2*72, keleb, the ufual name of a. dog. And if, indeed, mm be the original reading of that verfion, the authors of it muft have had fome reafon for their fo rendering. But there is fo wide a difference between Day, ekes, and aSa, keleb, that is is hardly credible the one mould ever have been miftaken for the other. I fliould rather think that thefe interpreters, when they were tranfiating this palTage, had their eye on the Greeks proverb, Kw»v &ri <&<%**> A dog to chains, (which Erafmus, not unfuitably to our prefent purpole, expounds of one who plunges himfelf headlong into Jlavery, or mifery ; and adds, that the fafmg is taken from dogs, whom you may eafdy chain, if you tempt them with a bait of meat, Adag. Chil. II. Cent. VII. Prover. 67-) or, elfe, that they met with fomething in the ancient Hebrew, that appeared to them to favour that fenfe; which is not impoffible, if DD$?, a kits, in their days was underftood in the fame fenfe that (jZJ-c, akafh, in. Arabic is now, namely, of dogs furrounding a bull. Ramus, in the word ^£.£5. ( d ) A very learned and ingenious friend guefles that the true reading of the LXX verfion may be this : "£i; eftj^JW &n r opW. ( a ) The wotd, in this fenfe, is taken from nDK, which fignifies both to take and detain captive, and may eafily be apply 'd to the taking of the hart, whether we fuppofe it done by furrounding him with toyls or nets, which Budaus, in Gefner, calls carbafeum feptum ; or hampering him in the nooze of fome fuch fort of fnare, as the Greeks call mJb^a.Sn, of which we have a large defcription in Xenophon's Cynegetics. which [9] which fober and inquifitive men have taken with other wri tings ; and, where we meet with a reading, which will not, after our beft labour and pains with it, afford a tolerable fenfe, prefume to offer another, that feems to have a better. The holy fcriptures, tho' dictated by the Spirit of God, were committed to the cuftody of men ; and were to be de- liver'd down to future ages after the fame method, as all other writings are, that is, by fucceffive tranfcripts of them. And tho' we cannot, without great impiety, fuppofe that the eye of providence would not be in a particular manner watch ful over this facred depofitum, in which it's own glory and the good of mankind were fo nearly concern'd ; yet, to ex tend this divine interpofition in behalf of the integrity of the bible fo far, as to deny the poffibility of a variation in fo very minute a circumftance as this before us, is to run our felves into a greater difficulty on the other fide ; and that is, to maintain that the feveral tranfcribers, through whofe hands this book has pafs'd, were exempted from all poffibility of miftake ; which we cannot do, but by fuppofing them to have been perpetually under the immediate influence of di vine infpiration : a fuppofition, which thofe, who declare the moft warmly againft different readings, will not, I believe, be forward to allow. The poffibility, then, of fuch a variation being admitted, it will follow, that wherever we have occafion to fuppofe any, which, as I hinted before, fhould never be fuppos'd but in cafes of the utmoft neceffity, and where all other means fail, it will not only be allowable, but incumbent upon us, to give it a thorough examination, and to take all the advantage it will afford, in favour of a rational, coherent fenfe : efpecially, where fuch various reading has not only the reafon of the context, but likewife the authority of the ancienteft verfions, B to Cio] to plead for it, as the prefent has. This is not only doing- juftice to common fenfe, but putting thefe primitive tranfla- tions to their proper ufe; to the ufe for which they weredle- fign'd by God- himfelf, who, in purfuance of his gracious intention not only of ptiblifhing, but likewife of preferving the venerable inftructions, he had vouchfaf 'd to mankind by the mouths of his chofen fervants, was pleas'd to raife up a num ber of men, in the earlieft times, to tranflate them into their refpective languages, as the moft effectual means to fecure both thefe important ends. - But to return. Thus far, I fay, we are got, As a hart to the toyls, or fnares. There remains the word Day? tkes, about which interpreters are much divided ; as they are about other words, which fo feldom occurr, as this does. Our's, conceiving it to fignify fomething punitive, render it ftocks : and many others to the fame purpofe. But were there any grounds for this fenfe, as there are none, it could not be proper here. For what has the hart to do with ftocks ? Some other meaning, then^ more fuitable to the place, muft be lookd after.7 In doing which, we may obferve, that we have nothing either of this word, or any other of the fame origi nal, but what we meet with in the III. of Ifaiah above men- tion'd : and here it occurrs but twice ; once by way of verb, and once by way of noun ; and, confequently, all the light our prefent Hebrew is capable of giving it, muft be deriv'd from thence. And, becaufe in Hebrew, as in all the dialects foruhg from it, the verb is the radix from which the word is form'd, and by which it's fignification is determin'd, it is fit we begin with the verb ; the notion of which being once fettled, that of the noun will follow of courfe. The Prophet, then, in the chapter before us, upbraiding the Jewijh women, or, t« ] or, as fome think, the (a) effeminate part of the other fex, for the wantonnefs and extravagance of their behaviour and apparel, fays of them, among other things, that they did nJDayn DTV^m, beraglihem teakkafnah, which the LXX wn.- der by mdiv *»*£ U/Issi, they go bounding up and down, or throwing themfelves from fide to fide, here retains the verb o«Sc, akafa, the very Hebrew Day,, as thinking it the moft proper to exprefs the fenfe of the place ; render ing, cy.u»Ki* x^Xs^fj, i. e. They made fuch a motion with their feet, jus is imply'd in the verb {jaSs. Poc. numb. 32. B 2 con- [ IX ] confirms this fenfe, is it's agreement with that of the preced: ing words, roaSn ^v, tafof telaknab -, where the word epata, tafof, which our Englijh tranflators render walking and mincing as they go, (marg. tripping nicely) being an 'kntft, Myifdjjov, (no where to be met with but in this place) may perhaps receive fome light from the Arabic, in which language the word Ub, taffa, as explain'd by the author of the great Arabic lexicon call'd Kgmus, fignifies the fame with the two verbs Akafim, be at the 18th verfo; and CD>D3yn msSP, tifereth haakafim, will literally be, The ornament of their dancings : that is, according to the idiom of the facred tongue, Tlieir dancing ornament. (a) What fort of ornament this was, cannot, perhaps, be precifely deter- min'd : it being extremely difficult, at this diftance of time, to find a key to the wardrobe of the daughters of Zion, and to give a diftinct account of the feveral kinds of drefs, which the Prophet enumerates in this and the following verfes. But, whatever it was; whether a particular fort of (^)Jboes, as fome fuppofe it to be j or ( c ) bells about their fhoes, which rung as they went, as others ; or (d) chains or bracelets about ( a ) The Arabic tranflator, juft now mention'd, calls it j\ji*'i!{ cAia».2\j, i- e. The pride they take in their light and nimble motions. ( b ) Jarchi in loc. ( c ) Kimehi in loc. ( d ) R. Tanchum in voce D'DDy, Vatabl. in loc. &c their [13] thek legs, (fuch as (a) travellers tell us are worn by the Eajtem women at this day,) as others. rather think ; whatever it was j it's ufe undoubtedly depended upon it's motion: and, if it made a tinkling, as our tranflators, and others fuppofe, the found of the ornament was owing to the (b ) gefticulation of the perfon that wore it ; as that of their chains at this time is obferv'd to be ; there being not the leaft room to fix any other notion to the noun, than what it has from the verb, which is that of dancing or skipping in general, whatever the particular manner of doing it may have been. (a) So Rauwolff, They alfo wear RINGS about their legs and hands, and fometimes a good many together, which in their ftepping and working, flip up and down about their legs and feet, and fo make a great noife. Ray's collect. of travels and voyages, p. 166. And of this cuftom Mr Sale interprets thofe words oi Mohammed in the 24th chapter of the Koran, of -"aa b$ t*^**^-?, Let them, ( i. e. the women ) not make a noife with their feet, &c. That is, fays he, by flaking the RINGS, which the women in the eaft wear about their ancles, and are ufually of gold or filver. And then he adds, (what fhould not be overlooked on this occafion) The pride which the Jewilh ladies of old took_'m making a tinkling with thefe orna ments of their feet, is among other things of this nature feverely reproved hy the prophet Ifaiah. Tranflation of the Koran, pag. 192. And Mr La Roque, in his voyages, has given us the Arabic name of their Rings: EUes ( les femmes ) ont d! autres gros anneaux creux, ou plutot de cer- cles garnis de petits anneaux, qui pendent a I'entour. On remplit ces creux de petits cailloux, qui foment comme des grelots lorfqu elles marchent : ces gros anneaux font overts par un endroit en forme de croiffant, par ou elles paffent le plus menu de la jambe. Enfin ces anneaux, qu'on appelle Khalkhal, font autant de fonnets qui avertiffent que la maitreffe du logis, ou d' au tres femmes parent ; alors les domeftiques fe tiennent dans un certain refpecl, les autres perfonnes fe cachent, oufe retirentpour ne pas les regarder. Voyage, p. 264. The Arabic name, which Mr La Roque gives us, is J.^3*", which is the very word by which R. Tanchum, and other Arab Jews in terpret D'DDy, Akafim. ( b) And this was Calvin's opinion of the thing, who fays, Llbenter recipio illam interpretationem, quod sonitum ambulando ediderintv Not. in loc. And [ 14 ] And now, to apply what has been faid to the cafe be fore us; I take the word Day to be a verb, as the turn of the expreffion, which is exactly parallel to that in the next verfe, -nay inaa, ke-maher tfippor, evidently fliews it tobe; and to fignify the fame here, as njDayn, teakkafnah, does Ifaiab III. 16. vi% to dance, skip, or bound. To which if we add the notion of the Arabic (a) \jfc, akajh, To rujh into, or run upon, ( for the final letters are commutable,) the fenfe of the place will be, As an hart skips, or bounds, or rujhes into the toyls. After which will follow, in the moft natu ral, proper, and eafy fenfe of the words, until a dart Jlrike through his liver. And to this fenfe agrees the verfion of Symmachus, who, though he read tyix, avil, and not "?>k, aiil, as his atypav, fool, plainly fhews, yet renders Day, ekes, by mi prav, leaping ; as proper a word, as any he could have chofen, whereby to exprefs the nimblenefs and agility of the hart. Let us now read the two verfes together, pointed agreea bly to this fenfe : He goeth after her ftraightway, as an ox goeth to the fiaughter : or as an hart boundeth into the toyls, 'till a dart ftrike through his liver : As a bird hajleth to the fnare, and knoweth not that it is for his life, (b ) Here the firft and fecond fimilitudes are of a piece with each other, and ( a ) The author of Ramus explains it by the two Arabic words vjv^ak. and (JiSoc, both which fignify (among other things) to rufh upon, or run into. He likewife compares it with LLaJ, to encompafs, or furromd ; and applys it to dogs inclofing, or befetting a bull, as was above obferv'd : a notion not unfiiitable to this place. (b) The Greeks verfion of the word QNHSj in the firft verfe, which is here render'd ftraightway, is by the LXX tranfiated kj^mSdV, de- joy'd, feduced, infatuated, &c. in the notion of nD2, feduclus, pelletlus fuit. The words of it are, 'o