CHAP. LXIV. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness.-Verse 5. Does a man expect a guest for whom he has a great regard? he goes forth to meet him. The omission of such a mark of personal attention, would show a great deficiency in affection and etiquette. CHAP. LXV. I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people. Verse 2. This is an allusion to the manner in which people supplicate each other for mercy or reconciliation. See that poor man entreating his chief for a favour: he bows and pleads, weeps and spreads out his hands. What an amazing instance of condescension, therefore, is it that Jehovah describes himself as spreading forth his hands to a rebellious people, and as entreating them to come to him! Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine's flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels; which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou.-Verses 4, 5. "Which remain among the ments." graves, and lodge in the monu Come not near to me; for I am holier than thou-Here we have another instance of the glaring wickedness of the Jews, in their imitation of the heathen devotees, who resembled the Hindoo Yogees. Those men are so isolated by their superstition and penances, that they hold but little intercourse with the rest of mankind. They wander about in the dark, in the place of burning the dead, or "among the graves," or "lodge in the monuments!" There they affect to hold converse with evil and other spirits; and there they pretend to receive intimations respecting the destinies of the living. They will eat things which are religiously clean or unclean they neither wash their bodies, comb their hair, cut their nails, nor wear clothes. They are counted to be most holy among the people, and are looked upon as beings of another world.* ; But ye are they that forsake the Lord, that forget my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish the drink offering unto that number.-Verse 11. The margin has, instead of troop, or Gad," and, in place of number, "or Meni." See the remarks on Jer. vii. 18; xliv. 17, 18. There have been many disputes among the learned, as to the meaning of the words "troop" and "number." I think, however, it will appear, both from the testimony of several eminent commentators, and from facts to be adduced, that the words Gad and Meni, as found in the margin, are the See the remarks on 1 Sam. xix. 24; and the note on John xiv. 2. The sepulchral monuments of the East are reared by either filial, national, or superstitious attachment, and often outvie in splendour the mansions of the living. Lieutenant Burnes says of one which he saw : "The stranger must cross the Ravee to behold the finest ornament of Lahore, the Shah Durah, or 'tomb' of the Emperor Juhangeer, which is a monument of great beauty. It is a quadrangular building, with a minaret at each corner rising to the height of seventy feet. It is built chiefly of marble and red stone, which are alternately interlaid in all parts of the building. The sepulchre is of most chaste workmanship, with its inscriptions and ornaments arranged in beautiful mosaic; the shading of some roses and other flowers is even preserved by the different colours of the stone." In another part he observes: "The mosques and tombs which have been more stably built than the houses, remain in the midst of fields and cultivation as caravansaries for the traveller." (Vol. iii. p. 159.) Arundell also, in his "Discoveries in Asia Minor," says of the village of Suleiman, "The houses were few in number; some of the families dwelling with their cattle in the tombs." (Vol. i. p. 80.) In these notices also we see an illustration of the man who "had his dwelling among the tombs.” (Mark v. 3; Matt. viii, 28; Luke viii. 27.) proper readings, and that they actually refer to deities of that name. Calmet says on N, Mene or Mane, as found in Daniel v. 25, "It is a Chaldean word, signifying, he has numbered, he has counted." But on the word Meni, as it occurs in Isaiah lxv. 11, his remark is: "The goddess Meni is the moon: her worship was popular in Palestine, and among the Hebrews. Meni is probably Astarte, and Venus Cœlestis, honoured among the Phoenicians and Carthaginians." Parkhurst observes: ", Meni, a name or attribute under which the idolatrous Jews worshipped the material heavens. We find other traces of this attribute, Meni, among the idolaters. The Arabians worshipped the idol Mona, in order to obtain seasonable showers.* Festus relates, that the Salentines, a people of Italy, threw a horse alive into the fire, in honour of Jupiter Menzan, that is, Jupiter, Meni." "His name in Greek was M, Meen." "We see, also, the god Men, or Lunus, on several medals of the towns of Lydia, Pisidia, and Phrygia. On a medal of Antiochus, struck in Pisidia, the god Lunus hath a spear in one hand, and holds a victory in the other, and hath a cock, a symbol of the rising sun, at his feet." The Rev. Thomas Hartwell Horne, on Isaiah lxv. 11, observes: "Gad is unquestionably joined with Meni, (or the moon,) and both are names of idols." "Ye...... have deserted Jehovah, And have forgotten my holy mountain; And fill out a libation to Meni." BISHOP LOWTH's Version. It is an interesting fact, in reference to this passage, that the idolaters of the East have a deity of the same name, Meni, in whom, or in her daughter, all the attributes and symbols alluded to find a parallel. Let it be well impressed on the reader's mind what it was which the Jews were accused of having forsaken,-" my holy mountain," in allusion to Mount Moriah, on which God's house was built. In that learned work, the Sanscrit Dictionary, printed at Calcutta, is the following article:-" Meni, the wife of the Hima-laya The people of the East believe that rain is produced by the moon. mountain," which signifies, "To me any one not comparable or equal." Her name, in Tamul, is Meni. She was the mother of Parvati, the wife of the god Siva. "The sacred mountain Maga-Meru, is the daughter of the Hima-laya, and is more honoured than the mother." In addition to the observations on Isai. xiv. 13, 14, and the note, the following remarks on the Hima-laya are taken from the Sanscrit Dictionary: "The Hima-laya range of mountains, which bound India on the north, and separate it from Tartary, the Imaus and Emodus of the ancients, giving rise to the Ganges, the Indus, Bramaputra, and many other considerable rivers, and containing elevations which have been calculated to exceed the Cordilleras. In mythology, the mountain is personified as the husband of Meni, and the father of Gunga or the Ganges, and Durga or Uma, in her descent as Pārvati, the mountain-nymph, to captivate Siva, and withdraw him from a course of ascetic austerities, practised in those regions." But what are the mountains Imaus and Emodus, said to be the same as the Hima-laya range? "Imaus, a large mountain of Scythia, which is part of Mount Taurus." "Emodus, a mountain of India."-(Pliny.) "Imaus is a part of Mount Taurus." "Taurus, the largest mountain of Asia as to extent. One of its extremities is in Caria, and it extends not only as far as the most eastern extremities of Asia, but it also branches in several parts, and runs far into the north. Mount Taurus was known by several names, particularly in different countries; between the Hyrcanian and Euxine seas, by that of Caucasus!" "Caucasus is the name of a series of mountains, of which Ararat is a part; and another part of Caucasus is named Taurus." "This immense range is constantly called in Sanscrit, Himáchel, or Snowy Mountain, and Himálaya, or the Abode of Snow."* Here then we have a remarkable identity in the sublime and sacred heights of the Imaus, the Emodus, the Taurus, the Caucasus, the Ararat, the Kilāsu, the Maga-Meru, and the Hima-laya, of ancient and modern, of Eastern and Western, Heathenism; and here we have another deplorable instance of the profanity of the Jews, who forsook the "holy mountain" of Jehovah for "Meni," the wife of the personified Himalaya, See Lempriere and Calmet, and the Sanscrit Dictionary under Emodus, Imaus, Taurus, Caucasus, or Hyma-laya. the mother of the goddess Parvati, whose emblem is the crescent moon! Prepare for that troop (Gad)-The Tamul translation is: "Prepare a feast." In the Fragments to Calmet (p. 108) it is said, "We see how Gad and Meni terminate in the sun and moon." In this conclusion I cheerfully join with the learned editor. The word Gad signifies "good fortune, fecundity, plenty;" the sun is the great source of plenty, the moon also is believed to bring forth innumerable "precious things;" and here again we see the great orbs of night and day shine forth in Siva, the supreme lord of those holy mountains, and in his consort Parvati, that is, Meni; for the sun is believed to be his right eye, and the moon his left; and in his temples, his cars, in the houses of his worshippers, may be seen a representation of the sun and the crescent moon. But allusion is also made to those who "furnish the drinkoffering unto that number," that is, to Meni. In general, drink-offerings are not presented to the gods of the Hindoos: but to Kāli, an incarnation of Parvati, the daughter of Meni, arrack and toddy are offered. That the Heathen have taken their ideas of the gods descending or dwelling in the Hima-laya, or the Taurus, or Caucasus, from events alluded to in the sacred scriptures, I cannot doubt; and perhaps there is nothing which led mankind, in the earliest ages, to reverence and almost adore those sublime heights of created nature, more than the single circumstance of the ark of Noah having rested on "the mountains of Ararat," which form a part of the glorious Taurus and Caucasus of the West, and the Hima-laya of the East. In all There are, however, four demons to whom arrack, toddy, and other intoxicating articles are offered. |