David, to denote the reduction of the Moabites by his arms to the most abject and ignominious fervi, tude.

As to the rest of the paffage which he produces, I fuppofe it is his tranflation of the words of the Vulgate, in Pfalm lxvii. (with us, as with the Hebrews, the lxviii.) for they run thus, 'Mons Dei mons pinguis, mons coagulatus, mons pinguis. Ut quid fufpicamini montes coagulatos?' And I allow they were also intended to exprefs the fenfe of the Septuagint; as indeed learned men know, that the tranf lation of the Pfalms, in the Vulgate version, is Jerome's tranflation of them from the Greek, inftead of that which is called his tranflation from the Hebrew: for a regard to mens prejudices of education, which would not admit any great variation here, from what they had been accustomed to read and recite, or to hear read and recited in the church, perfuaded to continue the public ufe thereof without these improvements which his fuperior know, ledge of, and acquaintance with, the original language of the Pfalter, qualified him to make in it.Nevertheless, it may even be queftioned, whether Mr. Voltaire hath given § the true and genuine meanAnd having found hereon, that all exceedingly honoured it, he admonished his people, that in the same manner they should have respected him when raised to the throne, though he was of low original; thus comparing himself, in his humble ftate, to a veffel or pot to wash the feet in. See Herodot. Euterpe; or, lib. 2. cap. 172. edit. Stephan,

P. 177.

·

Whereas the epithet of congealed,' added to mountains,' awakes in the mind of an English reader, only the idea of their being covered with ice and fnow, which is not very suitable to the other quality of richness and fruitfulness, if fuch be their general vefture:

ing which its expreffions were defigned to convey. Be this however as the reader pleases, is that Latin verfion itself here, juft? It were easy to prove, though it were, it would not authorize the accufation against the Jews, in fupport of which it is brought, as much as they might deserve that charge on other accounts. For, may not a people celebrate the fertility of any part of their country, and praise God for it, without incurring the cenfure of carnal? But this is not my present scope. What I now infift on is, that the Vulgate does not exhibit the true sense of the Hebrew. Neither can I think that our own tranflation does it, which is, 'The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan, an high hill as the hill of Bashan. Why leap ye, ye high hills? this is the hill which God ' defireth to dwell in, yea, the Lord will dwell in it for ever.' And the reafons of this judgment will appear immediately.

It is remarkable that Pere Houbigant himself, hath departed far from the Vulgate here, for he * turns the paffage, The mountain of God is a fat

the appellation bestowed by the seventy interpreters, upon the mountain of God, τετυρωμενον, and upon the hills in general, τετυρωμένα, feems to have a relation to cheese, according to the constant use of the verb, and to denote a likeness in shape or figure thereunto: and may it not be thought this refemblance was alfo defigned by the author of the Vulgate, fince coagulo fignifies, to thicken milk, or turn it into a curd.

* Vide Houbigant Bibl. in locum. He reads twice over which fignifies, fat, rich, instead of upon no better foundation than this, that the Seventy, and Symmachus, and Theodotion, and the Arabic, which is very much a transcript of the Greek version, have fat in these places; and he fupplies in the beginning of the 17th verse without any authority at all, apprehending the copiers to have paffed

mountain. The mountain of heights, (that is, the lofty mountain,) is a fat mountain. Why do ye 'mountains envy the mountain of heighths? The 'mountain which God hath defired that he might ' inhabit, which alfo God will inhabit, for ever.' And he supposes the pfalmift to celebrate Zion, which was more raised by its fummit, under the name of the mountain of God, on account of its fertility, from the time of the fettlement of the ark there, through the fame divine bleffing which fo fignally profpered the family of Obed-edom, while that sym→ bol of the Deity abode with them. And then to rebuke the circumjacent or ambient hills, for casting. an invidious eye upon it, because it was honoured with the prerogative of God's refidence upon it above themselves; while in this reproof, he also fancies, he alludes to the uneafinefs of the neighbouring kings, at his own fuccefs in war, and the rifing glory of Jerufalem through his civil and military atchievements, wherefore they prepared to crush it. But though the sense he gives be very elegant and beautiful, I cannot adopt it as the juft one. For to fay nothing at all of his giving a wrong translation of one phrase over and over, of which afterwards, he takes fuch unwarrantable liberties in altering and adding to the text, as are with me a fufficient argument for rejecting his interpretation. While we retain the present Hebrew text, we may, I think, provided we read the paffage as an interrogation, (which may be done without any change of its original form, fince in all probability no punctuation was used at firft,) and proit, when they faw it in their MSS. as a faulty and useless repetition. of the first fyllable of the initial word there

vided we give to every word its proper fignification, explain it to have a meaning very fpirited and worthy of the occafion, after this manner. The pfalmift first propofes a queftion, Is the hill of God (the hill which God hath chosen to inhabit, by the ark,) the hill of Bashan? Is it the hill with its craggy tops, (or eminences,) the hill of Bashan? Why 'look with ye envy, ye craggy hills?' On Zion, he means, as having the peculiar privilege to be the fixed feat of the divine fymbol. Then the pfalmift fpeaking of mount Zion, fubjoins This is the hill ' which God defireth to dwell in. Yea, the Lord will dwell in it for ever. And fo I fee Dr. Chandler hath interpreted it, who beautifully imagines these laft words to have been fung in view of mount Zion, and even at the beginning of the afcent of the proceffion with the ark into it. Now, how appofite to the folemnity of the introduction of the ark thither! how confonant to the original this version, in opposition to the Vulgate, which our author follows,

* I reckon the term

Bahan is a proper name, in which fense it occurs v. 22. and often elsewhere; a mountainous ridge to the east of the Jordan being so denominated, which belonged formerly to Og, but was afterwards conquered by the Ifraelites, and affigned to the half tribe of Manasseh, Joshua, xxii. 7. xxi. 6. It is celebrated in Scripture for the goodness of its paftures, and the excellency of its cattle, Deut. iv. 5. Pf. xxii. 13. Ezek. xxvii. 6. Micah, vii. 14. &c. As to in the 16th verse of the Pfalm, it seems to denote strictly and literally, a hill with craggy fummits or gibbous protuberances, while more hills of this kind are mentioned in the fucceeding verfe. So the famous Schultens hath observed in his notes on the Arabic conference of Haririus, that the 'v. 17. are to be turned Montes gibbofi, edito vertice praediti' Harir. Confess. I. pag. 2. And having remarked in his Key to the Dialects, that

but perhaps ill expreffes its intention at the fame time! and how far from affording any handle to revile the Jews as a carnal people!

Of his affirming in his Treatife on Toleration, that Ezekiel speaks of pigmies, perfons not above a cubit high.

TO these inftances, Í only add another from his Treatife on Toleration, where he is, I think, very injurious to Ezekiel, foon after the paffage concerning him quoted thence in a former fection. Ezekiel, fays Mr. Voltaire, speaks of pigmies, (gamadim) not

is, cheese, properly milk coagulated and gathered into greater clodders, from the root Arab. ghaban, he adds that is, gibbous, and that the original expreffion v. 17. fignifies, gibbous mountains, mountains rough and unequal with tops, as the correfpondent Arabic term is, rough, fcabrous and uneven ground, and thence, a church-yard, a burial-place. Clav. Dialect. page 196, 197. In this fenfe too, Fagnin, Tremellius, and Geierus, do very much agree, as indeed Aquila the Jew, who is allowed to be no mean judge of the import of the Hebrew, turns it in his Greek translation, browed hills, wa puoμera. Then the verb which is rendered in the Vulgate and Seventy, to look upon, and by us, after good critics, to leap, is properly used of a wild beast lying in wait to catch its prey, upon which it looks with an oblique eye, and hence fignifies, to envy, fuch a caft of the eye be ing a natural indication of this temper; and the address is not to men, as the Seventy and Vulgate make it, but to the furrounding hills by a TроowTоTоiα Yet it will make little difference, though with the Chaldee we translate it, 'Why leap ye?' viz. with over-valuation of your felves; or with Aquila, Why ftrive ye?' viz. in point of dignity and honour, Compare Chandler's Life of David, vol. 2. p. 72.