gant supplemental graces, such bold inflections of phrase, and such prismatic turns of thought, as to impart not only the charm of variety, but great additional spirit to the passages they are intended to embellish. Frequently, the figures employed to designate the same facts, or to characterize the same results under different conditions of circumstance, are as unlike as if they were intended to represent objects altogether oppugnant; and this inexhaustible variety, this profuse luxuriance, is not one of the least beauties of Hebrew poetry, which is distinguished by two very opposite qualities, condensation and exuberance;-condensation of thought and expression, and exuberance of imagery.

The limits of the tribe of Napthali extended into Upper and Lower Galilee, being bounded by the river Jordan on the east, by the portions of Asher and Zebulun on the west, by mount Libanus on the north, and by the tribe of Issachar on the south.

CHAPTER XVI.

The benediction pronounced upon Joseph.

THE blessing poured out upon Joseph is the most remarkable of the whole series. It contains some passages of almost inscrutable difficulty.

Joseph is a fruitful bough,

Even a fruitful bough by a well;

Whose branches run over the wall.
The archers have sorely grieved him,

And shot at him, and hated him.

But his bow abode in strength,

And the arms of his hands were made strong

By the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.

(From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel,)
Even by the God of thy Father, who shall help thee,

And by the Almighty, who shall bless thee
With blessings of heaven above,

Blessings of the deep that lieth under,

Blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

The blessings of thy father have prevailed

Above the blessings of my progenitors,

Unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills;
They shall be on the head of Joseph,

And on the crown of the head of him
That was separate from his brethren,

The first triplet in this highly figurative composition is full of beauty, though it must be confessed, that the interpretation is encumbered with some perplexity. Although, however, the

meaning is in a degree embarrassed, I think an obvious exposition may be easily found.

Joseph was his father's favourite son, and by much the most celebrated of his whole family; indeed, it may be truly said, that he was one of the greatest men of his time; nor do I think, upon the whole, that history exhibits a greater, if we refer to his conduct under difficulties the most startling, and under dangers the most trying. He was truly a great man, whether we look at him as a statesman, as a ruler, or in his social and kindred relations, in all which he was eminently distinguished. Jacob, therefore, bestows upon him a lengthened blessing full of fervour and sublimity. Nothing can exceed the grandeur of some parts of this prophecy. Joseph is compared to a bough, or rather to a fruitful vine, for this idea is evidently suggested by the passage, planted by a fountain, by means of which its productiveness is perpetually maintained. This prediction was accomplished in the posterity of Joseph; for in two hundred years from the delivery of the benediction, they amounted to seventy-two thousand seven hundred effective men. The line,

Whose branches run over the wall,

has been variously interpreted. I, however, believe it to be nothing more than an amplification, or rather, an extension of the image, representing the growth of a vine, which spreads with vast rapidity when supported by a wall. This, catching the warmth of the solar beam, diffuses it over the spreading growth. cherishing the

tender branches, and causing them to throw out their fruit in luxuriant abundance. Its roots absorb the moisture of the pure fountain waters, which causes its sap to rise and extend to the remotest shoots. Thus every part of the vine is nourished into a plentiful produce. In like manner, the posterity of Joseph, being especially sustained by the arm of Divine Providence, multiplied exceedingly, thus amply fulfilling the prophecy. There is an allusion here, as in most of the other blessings pronounced by the venerable patriarch, severally, upon his twelve sons, to Joseph's name, which imports growth or increase; thus the image, in the first hemistich of this benediction, is beautifully adapted to illustrate the productiveness implied by Joseph's name, and most fully realised in little more than two hundred years after this extraordinary prediction was delivered. This part of the prophecy had, no doubt, a general, but, nevertheless, indirect reference to the pre-eminent dignity to which Joseph was advanced, and to the vast wealth he acquired under Pharoah, who, after the cruelty practised towards their father's favourite son by the brethren of the unhappy Hebrew, made him second only to royalty in the government of Egypt, advancing him to a degree of power and authority unparalleled in the history of nations.

There is a version of this triplet, for which many contend; and it is declared, especially by the authors of the "Universal History," to be the true reading; but this, I confess, is to me more than doubtful; and I should be disposed

to think so, if for no other reason than that it gives a feeble and puerile sense. The proposed change is as follows:

Joseph is a son of beauty,

The daughters ran upon the walls to see him,

which they paraphrase thus: "Joseph shall increase daily more and more, as his name doth emphatically imply: his beauty attracted the eyes of the fair sex; the damsels ran upon the walls to see him." But how greatly does this descend in dignity from the elevation of the passage as given in our authorized version. The latter exhibits a magnificent image, the former, a mere prurient description, akin to the vapid sentiment of a love-song. The one is in the highest degree expressive, the other, in the last degree, trivial; it is altogether beneath the dignity of the subject. The idea of a number of curious women crowding upon the house-tops to gaze at a man's beauty, has nothing in it becoming the solemn dignity of prophecy; for, though many parts of this benediction manifestly refer to Joseph personally, yet the main design of the whole is to depict the temporal condition of his posterity. There can be no doubt that the original word translated branches in our Bible, signifies literally daughters, as in the margin; but that it is used figuratively the context shows sufficiently plain, Joseph being represented as a fruitful bough, or prolific tree, such as the vine, the branches or offspring of which speedily grow to productive maturity. In my judgment, the phrase, "daughters of the