'And scarce the berries (with tough swollen skin)

Cortain the unmingled juice they hold within,'

so often quoted in its support with the mockery of a distorted translation, had failed to satisfy me that the prophet could have descended to such a puerility. The interpretation of 'berry' which the Septuagint had here given to tirosh appeared consistent with sound sense, and at once awakened the desire for a complete examination of every passage in which that word occurred. The issue of such enquiry, in my determining on a solid interpretation of the term in preference to a liquid, is sufficiently well known. I will only add, that altho an appeal to the Hebrew text was in the highest degree satisfactory in aiding my arrival at the decision, I am sensible that the same conclusion might have been reached from the English Version alone, could it have been presented to me without any knowlege of the translations new wine,' 'sweet wine,' and 'wine,' the bare word 'tirosh' appearing there in their stead.

Many attempts having been made to explain the terms tirosh and yitzhar by reference to a metonymy, and an intimation having been given that something upon it from the author of Tirosh lo Yayin, might be acceptable, I published, about the close of 1841, a Supplement' to that work, in A Letter to a Friend,' directed particularly to that view, which was not approved of by me, nor deemed needful to resort to so long as the literal meaning of the words could be applied in every instance. In this Supplement my seeming neglect of the texts in Isaiah, which you have singled out, was repaired by Notes of considerable length, and, as I flatter myself, of some value, since they afforded further illustrations on the general point in dispute. It also contained Notes on the two texts in Proverbs and Joel, tho framed exclusively with reference to the metonymical construction. I could have wished it had passed before you on another account-its illustration of the analogy to my view of yitzhar presented by the latin word pomum as a general term, importing, as far as one can see and understand its application, every description of fruit except the produce of the vine.

A сору of the Supplement shall be transmitted to you, but lest it should fail in its arrival I will transfer to this letter all the four Notes alluded to. The text in Zechariah alone will then require attention from me on the present occasion.

ALLUSION TO THE OFFERING OF FIRST FRUITS.

PROVERBS ii. 9, 10. "Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruits of all thine increase. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy yekabhim [vats, but here translated presses] shall burst out with tirosh" [here rendered new wine].

This is one of the texts in which, if tirosh is to be construed 'the wine in the

grape, an agency is imputed to it incompatible with its nature. It is evidently tantamount to the grapes themselves, because, how could it be in the grape unless the grapes are entire and the husks unbroken? It could not have been the wine in the grape independent of the husks, but the grapes themselves, which, lying in the vats and exerting their lateral pressure, were to burst them. If tirosh really meant wine, a rupture of the vats was rather to be deprecated, because the blessing would thereby have been frustrated by its escape and consequent loss.

THE BLESSING ON OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW OF MOSES.

JOEL ii. 19, 24. "Behold I will send you the dagan and tirosh and yitzhar, and ye shall be satisfied therewith. And the floors shall be full of wheat,

* *

and the vats shall overflow with tirosh and yitzhar."

This text is of the same class. If tirosh is to be treated as 'the wine in the grape,' and yitzhar as 'the oil in the olive,' how could the vats run over with the juice expressed out of either? What could they have run over with? If the answer with the wine in the grape and the oil in the olive, to what will it amount but saying, they shall run over with the fruit itself? See further in note to Isaiah lxii. 8, 9; also the blessing for obedience, Deut. xxviii. 1—14.

TIROSH FOUND IN THE FORM OF A CLUSTER.

ISAIAH lxv. 8. "As the tirosh [rendered new wine] is found in the cluster, and one saith, destroy it not for a blessing is in it."

2

Tirosh appears in this text to indicate the produce of the vine, either in the state of bowser,1 a bunch of grapes, full formed and just beginning to ripen, or as the simple gneenabh, or grape only just sufficiently formed to be called such. Perhaps the saying might have had reference, originally, to the practice of pruning, wherein the vine-dresser (bowtzeer) had a judgment to exercise in order to decide what sprigs and bunches he should cut off, and what he should leave as most likely to come to maturity without forcing the strength of the tree unnaturally. In accordance with this supposition, Isaiah might have here intended to convey the idea of something not quite so far advanced towards perfection as bowser, and, therefore, have preferred using the most indefinite term which was at his disposal. He might have wished to intimate "when the indefinite is assuming a definite shape' "when the grape, but recently emerged from the blossom, had assumed the describable form of a bunch," or possibly at a more advanced stage, "when the bunches of grapes had just gathered themselves into the form of a cluster." a

دو

Perhaps some light may be thrown upon this passage by another in Isaiah, which, however, is also somewhat obscured by our common version, the translators having reversed the order of the governing substantive and the governed. It is Isaiah xviii. 5: "For afore the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he shall both cut off the sprigs with pruning hooks, and take away and cut-down the branches." The translators were perhaps not very intimately acquainted with the processes of nature in the vegetable world. Bishop Lowth (you will pardon the reference, as his opinion is not quoted as infallible) complains of this rendering as a grievous mistake, and enquires- How can the swelling grape become a blossom? His own version runs thus:

Surely before the vintage, when the bud is perfect,

And the blossom is become a swelling grape,

He shall cut off the shoots with pruning hooks,

And the branches he shall take away, he shall cut down.

Bishop Horsley's translation is this:

For afore the harvest, when the bud is coming to perfection,
And the blossom is become a juicy berry,

He will cut off the useless shoots with pruning hooks,
And the bill shall take away the luxuriant branches.

TIROSH SOMETHING CAPABLE OF BEING HEAPED UP.

ISAIAH lxii. 8, 9. "The Lord hath sworn, surely I will no more give thy dagan to be meat for thine enemies; and the sons of the stranger im yishtoo [rendered, shall not drink] thy tirosh, for which thou hast labored: but they that have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the Lord: and they that have brought it together, yishtoohoo [rendered 'shall drink it'] in the courts of my holiness."

a A singular text occurs in the Apocrypha, 2 Esdr.ix. 20." So I considered the world.... 21. and I saw and spared it greatly, and have kept me a grape [Lat. granum] of the cluster, and a plant of a great people. 22. let the multitude perish then, which was born in vain, and let my grape be kept, and my plant."

Neither Hebrew nor Greek text of the 2nd Esdras being now extant, we of course quote this passage solely for the idea of the writer, not as a philological proof.-ED.

3

אָכַל

T

5

4

The main difficulty of this passage consists in the supposed opposition of the Hebrew words achal, 3 to eat, and shathah, primarily signifying 'to drink.' A difficulty on the other side is stated in the note to the same text in Tirosh lo Yayin. Verse 9 is translated by Bishop Lowth-"But they that reap the harvest shall eat it, and praise Jehovah;* and they that gather the vintage shall drink it in my sacred courts." And to it he has appended this note :

"This and the following line have reference to the law of Moses-Thou mayest not eat within thy gates the tithe of thy corn, or of thy wine, or of thy oil; but thou must eat them before the Lord thy God in the place in which the Lord thy God shall choose.' Deut. xxii. 17, 18. And when ye shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food, then ye shall count the fruit thereof as uncircumcised: three years it shall be as uncircumcised unto you: it shall not be eaten of. But in the fourth year all the fruit thereof shall be holy to praise the Lord withal, and in the fifth year ye shall eat the fruit thereof.' Levit. xix. 23-25. This clearly explains the force of the expressions, 'shall praise JEHOVAH, and shall drink it in my sacred, courts.'"Five M.S.S. (one ancient) have

fully expressed, and so likewise is found in nineteen M,S.S., three of them ancient."

Thus far Dr. Lowth. The texts cited by him furnish the true key to the interpretation of this passage in Isaiah. Still you will bear in mind that in both Deut. and Levit. the word achal, to eat,' is used, and not shathah, while Leviticus, moreover, speaks merely of fruit, and not of any liquid at all.

,

Notwithstanding Dr. Lowth quotes the common version of Deut. xii. 17, 18, 'of thy wine or of thy oil,' it is evident that the expression, shall drink it' in Isaiah, had struck him as rather singular, altho he was unable to account for its presence, except by some alteration in the Hebrew text made by the amanuensis in the course of copying the M.S.S., of the word yowchloohoo, 'they shall eat it, for yishtoohoo, they shall drink it.' As it is confessedly difficult to decide which is the correct reading, it becomes a point of importance to establish the true meaning of the verb shathah. If it can bear the meaning 'to suck' it will be a matter of indifference which of the two Hebrew versions is adopted, the same mode of consumption of the grapes, viz., in the solid state, being pointed out by each. Supposing yishtoohoo to have been the original reading, the alteration to yowchloohoo must have been made from an idea that a different mode of consumption from that of drinking must have been intended, but the converse does not certainly follow, if yowchloohoo was the original reading.

The same sentiment of eating and praising Jehovah occurs in Joel ii. 26: “And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God that hath dealt wondrously with you; and my people shall never be ashamed.' This is immediately subsequent to the promise in verse 24, that the floors should be full of wheat, and the yekebs should run over with tirosh and yitzhar.

In further illustration it may be observed, that the Hebrew verb kabhats, 5 of which the participle is here translated 'they that have brought it together,' implies the collecting of scattered things into a heap. Bishop Lowth has paraphrastically rendered it, they that gather the vintage.' The same verb is translated by 'gather' in Genesis xli. 35, 48, where Joseph, in Egypt, is represented as advising king Pharaoh to collect the corn of the seven plenteous years and lay it up, and as afterwards actually collecting it.

As I before observed, the ancients seem to have coupled with fruits something of an idea (which we have not) of drinking or sucking in order to allay thirst. As evidence of this it may be noticed, that the Latin word pomum, which included a vast variety of fruits, is represented by lexicographers as derived from яшμа (рomа)

* Dr. Lowth puts Jehovah in those places where our common translation has the word LORD in Roman capitals.

In the Hebrew, dagan vetirosh veyitzhar. yowchloohoo. yishtoohoo.

potus, drink. The Latin name for the fruit of the service tree was derived from the verb sorbere, to suck.

The act of sucking seems twofold, viz. first, that of an infant drawing the milk from the breast, and for which there is a specific term in the Hebrew; second, the reduction of some solid matter, such as jellies, jams, comfits, pulp of fruit, etc., to the state of a liquid, by compression between the tongue and the palate, assisted by the saliva. The Hebrew term shathah seems applicable in this sense to many sorts of grapes. R. Cobden, in his speech before the Anti-Corn-Law Committee at Manchester, on August 17th. 1841, used the phrase, sucking their luscious grapes." See report in the Leeds Times; also page 43 of the report published under the sanction of the committee.-Palladius, in Lib. iii., c. 29, commends a grape without pips as the pleasantest for sucking.b

Thus far my former Notes. It seems to me a waste of time to write more upon Prov. iii. 10, and Joel ii. 24, until some one further attempts to distinguish the yekebh there mentioned from the gath and poorah noticed elsewhere in the Old Testament. I say this because, in the absence of any certain information whereon all would agree, it is just as reasonable to assume it to have been the upper vat as the lower, and thus, independent of any peculiar opinion of my own, to establish it as the place where grapes were certainly placed, and would be looked for rather than wine.c As to Isaiah lxii. 8, it may not be deemed impertinent to refer to the Lord's curse on disobedience to his law pronounced thro Moses in Deut. xxviii. 30: "Thou shalt plant a vineyard and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.. v. 31, thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies......v. 32, thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people......and v. 33, the fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not, eat up." It was such a curse as the Almighty promised to remove when he said thrö his prophet Isaiah: "Surely I will no more give thy corn to be meat for thine enemies; and the sons of the stranger shall not yishtoo (the exact sense of which, as rendered drink,' we are not agreed upon) thy tirosh for the which thou hast laboured; but they that have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the LORD; and they that have brought it together yishtoohoo (also rendered 'shall drink it' but similarly disputed) in the courts of my holiness."

There is evidently so much of parallelism in the uses of tirosh and yitzhar that it is presumed this concession will readily be made, viz. that on due proof being furnished of the former denoting a solid, there will remain no difficulty in attaching a similar meaning to the latter. For this reason it is not deemed necessary to advert further to Joel ii. 24, conceiving that text to have been sufficiently considered in the Notes to tirosh, my additional remarks above on Prov. iii, 10, being also applicable. Attention will therefore be given exclusively to Zech. iv. 14.

Your own construction of this text appears to depend upon the reconcilement of the common version 'the two anointed ones' with the hebrew sheneey beneey-hayyitzhar, the two sons of the yitzhar;' your own assumption being that the latter term signifies "of oil, with a plain and definite reference to the ceremony of being anointed," and thence the conclusion that it must of course have been a liquid.

The arguments already adduced in my various Notes on the texts

b Pallas, in his travels in Southern Russia, enumerates several species of Grapes used only for sucking.-ED.

Ecclesiasticus xxxiii. 16, may illustrate this:-"I filled my winepress, like a gatherer of grapes."-ED.

שני

בְנֵי

wherein both yitzhar and tirosh occur illustrative of tirosh being a solid rather than a liquid, apply equally to yitzhar. They scarcely need to be recapitulated, but you will bear in mind their general basis,-the fact of these terms being connected with the idea of some produce of a vegetable nature in a state of growth. It then only remains for criticism to illustrate the use of the word beneey-to show, in short, that the Hebrew been 'son' (much as the statement may surprize the mere English reader), is not unfrequently employed to signify a plant.

8

My first illustration is derived from the prophetic announcement by the dying Patriarch Jacob, in Genesis xlix. 22, concerning the future destinies of his sons. You will observe that he notices the House of Joseph as being been powrath (literally, a son of fruitfulness,' and rendered in the authorized version a fruitful bough') been powrath (repeated) even a fruitful bough over a wall, whose banowth (literally daughters' and rendered 'branches') run over the wall. Probably the word been here denoted the parent stock, and banowth the fruitbearing shoots; but whether it be so or not, at all events, been refers literally to a plant or tree-such, for instance, as a vine-and figuratively to a person, in the same way as the expression in Zechariah's vision, the main resemblance here intended being in fertility-which fell out as foretold, for the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, were found in the numbering of the tribes previous to their entry into the Land of Promise, to exceed together every one of the other tribes, except that of Judah. See Numbers i. 27, and 32-35. Their superior powers and influence were also acknowledged, in the case of the daughters of Zelophehad of their tribe. See Josh. xvii. 3-6; and again, when claiming an increase of the territory assigned them, see v. 17: and their participation with Judah in the first division of the land before the allotments to the other tribes. See Joshua, xviii. 2, etc.

9

d

Psalm lxxx. affords another instance of the use of the word been,' 'son,' in connection with the vine, to which Asaph there compares the people of Israel, the metaphor extending thus thrö verses 9-18,-"Thou (that leadest Joseph like a flock, see v. 1) hast brought a vine out of Egypt (alluding to the Israelites); thou hast driven out the nations (that previously inhabited Canaan, aptly likened as heathens to the briars and thorns that infested the ground), and planted it" (literally 'her,' the Hebrew for vine being here of the feminine gender). Then follow allusions to the soil being prepared for the vine, its casting forth roots, and filling the land a with its shadow, its branches being like those of the mighty cedarsits sending forth its boughs towards the sea, and its roots unto the river. The Psalmist then breaks forth into the complaint, "Why hast thou broken down her hedges; so that all that pass by pluck at her. The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the beasts of the field devour it." Then follows the supplication commencing at verse 14 (Heb. 15); ‘Return, we beseech thee, O God of Hosts, look down from Heaven,' the remainder being here arranged as for more convenient comparison of the literal reference to the vine, etc., with the figurative one to the people, and vice versa, thus :

def There were hills in every quarter; the Mediterranean sea was on the west, and the river Jordan flowed thro the middle of Canaan. See the boundaries of the inheritance set out to Joseph's sons, who are named with Benjamin in verse 2nd of this Psalm, fully described in Josh. xvi. and xvii.