So men reputed Jesus. "He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him." Isa. viii, 2. The Hindoos, in self-abhorrence, exclaim, "What am I? A worm! a worm!" In contempt of others, "Worm, crawl out of my presence." Roberts.

A reproach of men, and despised of the people] A scorn of mankind, and despised of the nation-exegetical of “a worm, and no man," and parallel to Isa. liii, 3, "He was despised and rejected of men, and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not."

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Ver. 7. All they that see me laugh me to scorn] All who see me will mock at me. This mocking (1) is literally an imitating the sounds, or mimicry of the acts of another, for the purpose of merriment, of showing contempt and caricaturing, as 2 Chron. xxxvi, 16; Psalm xxxv, 16; Prov. xxx, 17. Compare Luke xxiii, 11, and Matt. xxvii, 28, 29: "And Herod with his men of war set him at naught, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate." “Then the soldiers stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!" This is the climax of all mockery.

They shoot out the lip] The idea is that of an opening and protrusion of the lips, somewhat as is denoted by our English word pout.

They shake the head] They wag the head. Another token of derision. The same word is used Psalm cix, 25, where David also prophetically speaks of Christ's treatment by his enemies. This wagging or shaking the head, that is, moving it irregularly, like the staggering motion of a drunken man, is often used in Scripture. The Septuagint, in the place before us and elsewhere, render it by Kivéw, kineo, the same Greek word used by Matthew and Mark, "They railed on him wagging their heads." Matt. xxvii, 39; Mark xv, 29.

Ver. 8. He trusted on the Lord] Literally, Roll upon Jehovah, or, Let him roll upon Jehovah. It is better to take the verb in the imperative form. His enemies deride his professions of confidence in God by calling upon him now to roll, or devolve himself upon, the Lord, that is, to fully and fearFOURTH SERIES, VOL. XXII.—7

lessly cast himself upon, or confide in, God. Their words must be understood as a bitter and heartless irony. The verse literally reads: "Let him roll himself upon Jehovah, he will deliver him; he will deliver him, for he delighted in him." With wonderful accuracy the enemies of Christ unwittingly fulfilled this prophecy, when, as if quoting these very words, they said, "He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, since he delights in him." Matt. xxvii, 43.

Ver. 9. But thou art he that took me out of the womb] The adversative force of, kee, but, indicates the firm stand which faith now again takes against the bitter taunts and revilings of his enemies. "But thou art he." God is my Father. I am his Son. Inimitably touching and beautiful is this appeal! "Thou art he that took me out of the womb." Aye, and for this very purpose. "For this cause came I unto this hour." "To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world." John xii, 27; xviii, 37. Was not the miraculous birth of Jesus an eternal pledge of the constancy of infinite, paternal love? "The Lord hath called thee from the womb." Isa. xlix, 1; vii, 14; Matt. i, 23.

Ver. 11. Be not far from me] The absence which caused the complaint (ver. 1) still continues. Against it he urges two reasons-"Because distress is near; because there is no helper."

Ver. 12. Many bulls have compassed me] Here begins a description of Messiah's persecutors under the names and habits of ferocious wild beasts. Rosenmüller thinks the bulls here mentioned are of the third year. He says, the noun means a two-year-old. They were proverbially ferocious and untamable.

Strong bulls of Bashan] Thrupp thinks the buffaloes of Hermon and Northern Gilead are meant, which were too wild for the yoke, and exceedingly fierce; and refers to Job xxxix, 9-12. Ver. 13. They gaped upon me with their mouth] They opened wide their mouth upon me. This was not an act of scorn, as the opening of the lip, (ver. 7,) but of threat, an expression simply of brutal ferocity, of greediness for prey. Hence the comparison which follows, as a ravening and roaring lion, which is a rising in the metaphor.

Ver. 14. I am poured out like water] My life is profusely

poured out, and cannot be recalled. Compare the phraseology, 2 Sam. xiv, 14, "For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again." In its application to Christ, compare Isa. liii, 12, "He hath poured out his soul unto death." Was it not so? "And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." Luke xxii, 44. Especially how rapidly are the vital forces wasted by the exhausting agonies of the cross!

All my bones are out of joint] All my bones have separated from each other, by enfeebling the muscles and dissolving the ligaments. This is a sensation, and often, to a great extent, a fact, attendant upon crucifixion. See ver. 17.

My heart is like wax] See the figure in Psalms lxviii, 2; xcix, 5; Micah i, 4; Josh. ii, 11; v, 1. Fear seems to dissolve the heart when courage and resolution forsake it. Does not this describe the Saviour's soul-struggle, when he was "sore amazed," very heavy," "troubled," "exceeding sorrowful even unto death," "afraid." Matt. xxvi, 37, 38; Mark xiv, 33, 34; John xii, 27; Heb. v, 7.

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Ver. 15. My strength is dried up like a potsherd] "My body is like a potsherd, all whose humidity was burned out in the furnace." Bythner. The comparison is twofold, denoting a shrinking and drying by heat, like a piece of baked pottery, and also, proverbially, worthlessness, as Isa. xlv, 9; Lam. iv, 2. The former is here the idea.

My tongue cleaveth to my jaws] The metaphor of the preceding member of the verse is continued. The humidity of the body is being exhausted by pain. The condition here described is one that involves great thirst. This is the specialty of the description. It prophetically points to the complaint on the cross, "I thirst." John xix, 28. After the soul agony of Jesus, which reached its awful climax in the complaint, "Why hast thou forsaken me?" had passed, and nature had returned to a consciousness of its own physical condition, the specialty of the Saviour's bodily sufferings was expressed in the complaint, "I thirst." This sensation rose above all others. It was a natural result of the treatment of the body, as attested by the laws of physiology, and by all analagous facts. The Septuagint, "My tongue is glued to my throat," (hápvyyi,) followed by the

Vulgate Latin (faucibus) are incorrect. Liturgy reads jaws. But the word is jaws, from p, lakahh, he received; because they receive the food.

The version of the ip, malkohha, my applies to the jaws,

Thou hast brought me into the dust of death] A strong expression for "Thou hast brought me down to the grave.' On the phrase, "dust of death," compare Psalms xxx, 9; vii, 6. The verb n, shahpath, means to set, put, place, and sometimes takes the sense of arrange, dispose, and hence some would read this, "Thou hast arranged me (laid me out) for the grave."

Ver. 16. For dogs have compassed me] Explained in the next line by "The assembly of the wicked have inclosed me," the verse forming a synonymous parallelism. The dog in Egypt, Arabia, and the East generally is a wild, ferocious, disgusting animal, often belonging to no master, and hence never caressed or regularly fed. His physiognomy is ignoble, and his appearance haggard and disagreeable. These dogs wander in packs like wolves, and human life is in danger from them by night, hunger making them savage and blood-thirsty. Thus their habits, disposition, and appearance make them proverbial for cruelty, impurity, and baseness. Such were David's enemies. He compares them to wild bulls, dogs, and lions; fit types of the persecutors of the holy and blessed Jesus.

Ver. 17. They pierced my hands and my feet] Does this describe a crucifixion-the nailing of the hands and feet to the cross? Few passages of Scripture have been more contested than this. The vexed question lies in the true reading and sense of the word translated pierced. Jews and rationalistic interpreters have attempted to evade its Messianic application to the crucifixion, and the former have been accused of altering the word in the Masoretic text. On the one hand, , kaaree, which is the word in the present Hebrew text, has been translated as a lion, which the form of the word admits, taking, ka, (as, like as,) for an adverb in composition with, aree, a lion. The passage would then read: "For dogs have compassed me; the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me; as a lion my hands and my feet." But this rendering is blind, and completely destroys the metaphor. For what sense is there in the representation that dogs, or the assembly of the wicked, like

lions, had inclosed or seized his hands and his feet? This is not the habit of the lion, which has no need to secure the hands or the feet of its victim in order to make it an easy prey. Mudge reads it, "They make holes in my arms and my legs," and says, "The image is of a man encompassed by dogs, and extending his arms to keep them off; but they come about him, and fix their teeth and claws in his arms and legs, as they could not reach his body." But though this method of attack may be suitable enough to dogs, or to wicked men, it is not lion-like, and utterly precludes the rendering we oppose.

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The learned Dr. Pocock, who was a strenuous advocate of the correctness of the present Hebrew text every-where, contends for it here, and argues that, kaaree, is a contracted form (from the plural, kaareem) of the present participle Kal, from , kor. This gives the rendering, piercing my hands and my feet. This, even Gesenius admits, is certainly possible, though extraordinary to find so anomalous a participial form; and this also is Kennicott's position. Parkhurst, in his lexicon, renders it piercing, or the piercers of my hands and my feet, and adds, "the word in this form may be considered either as a noun or as a participle." This view would suffice to establish the Messianic application of this important passage, though we still adhered to the present Hebrew text. But the probabilities seem clearly to preponderate against this hypothesis. The fact that the ancient versions expressed the word as a verb, seems decisive of the general opinion of the learned, that the original reading was not ", kaari, piercing, (participially understood,) but, kaaroo, they pierced; the difference in the form of the words being only the difference between the letters,, yod, and 7, vav, a difference easily overlooked by a transcriber. Kennicott, in his Dissertations, cites four Hebrew manuscripts in which, kaaroo, is the reading of the text, and , kaaree, the marginal reading, and adds, in closing his argument, "there seems to be but little doubt that the former word was the one originally written." De Rossi elaborates the argument. The Septuagint has ovžav, they pierced through, perforated, with which the Latin Vulgate, foderunt, agrees. The Chaldee paraphrases the word biting as a lion; but this is self-refuting, as is conceded on all hands, and Pocock suggests that it arose from an attempt to