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    Notes on Passages of Scriptures . August 3 , 1825 . cc ——those heavenly stores [ the Scriptares ] are inexhaustible . * Bishop Lowth ,

    1 Kings xii . 11 , 14 : 4 € I will chastise you with scorpions . " MOST of the commentators agree that by scorpions are here designed instruments ot punishment , in use among the Jews , and far more dreadful , as to their appearance and effects .

    than whips . The implement is thus described — virgam spinis , ad instar scorpionzs , aculeatam . * Proof , however , seems to be wanting that this horribile flagellum was employed , at any time , among the Hebrews . 1 am dissatisfied with the authorities cited

    by Bochart and others , and believe that Rabbinical conjecture has been permitted to supply the place of unexceptionable testimony . Until better evidence be produced of the existence of the thing , I must rank myself among those who are of opinion , that these words of Rehoboam must

    be taken metaphorically . ^ The greater part of the monarch ' s insane reply ,, is couched in figurative language : why then should not these clauses be so interpreted ? Why have recourse to unverified and highly improbable suppositions ? As it is allowed , on both sides , that the king does not speak of scorpions literally , we may

    * Bocharti Opera , ( 1712 , ) Vol . Ill pp . 644 , 645 . t lkenit , Antiq . Hebr . cd . 2 , i > . 416 ,

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    width good reason conclude that this term was used by him altogether in the way of figure . Tertullian entitles his treatise against the Gnostics Scorpiacum , or * ' an antidote for the scorpion ' s bite

    In his worst taste and style he pour , trays the creature : € t Magnum de modico malum scorpium ^ erra sup . purat , tot venena quot ingenia , tot pernicies quot et species ; tot dolores

    quot et colorea Nicander scribit ct pingit , " &c . &c . Then he mentions a military engine , which is named Kcorpio 9 while h& maintains a profound silence concerning any kind of scourge so denominated . ¦

    1 Kings xviii . 24 , 25 : " ¦¦ - j uvoke ye your Gods / ' Received Tr&nsL , Geddes , &c . I should have suspected an error of the press , had it not been for this re * currence of the plural in English and other Bibles * Why any translators

    should have exlubited it , I must profess my ignorance . Although iht Heathens adored " Gods many and Lords many / ' yet , in the present case , a single idol * arid its priests are the objects of the prophet ' s animadversion : see verses 19 , 21 , 22 , 25 , 27 , &c

    Geddes , I know , has here the countenance of some of his predecessors ; at the same time that authorities equall y respectable , among which is Houbigant ' s , might l > e alleged against hiin . But I appeal not so much to names , as to the language and tenor of the narrative , and to the reason of ike

    thing * Job xxviii . 26 : •* Wlien he made a decree for the rain , " &c . This h a striking example of coincidence between the Hebrew and the

    English idiom : " when lie made , " i . e . appointed , " a ** decree . " So , in many instances , the kt * £ o > of the Greeks , and the facto and crao of the Romans . See Heb . iii . 2 .

    John xii . 29 : " The people that stood by , and heard it , said , that it thundered . " Of the occasion here mentioned the most remarkable circumstance was

    that of articulate sounds , distinct words , beinjj heard : vers . 28 , 30 . Therefore , it is not possible to resolve such incidents into ordinary and

    nattf-* Literally , « the Baal , or Lord ' c < the idol . "

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    464 Notes on Passages of Scripture .

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    " June 21 st . To White-Hall , where , the King been gone abroad , my Lord ami I walked a great while discoursing 4 > f the simplicity of the Protector , in his losing all that his father had left him . Mv Lord told me , that the last words

    that he parted with the Protector with ( when lie went to the Sound ) , were , that he should rejoice more to see him in his grave at his return home , than that he should give way to such things as were then in hatching , and afterwards did mine him : and that

    the Protector said , that whatever G . Montagu , my Lord Broghill , Jones , and the Secretary , would have hiin to do , he would do it , be it what it would . " ( To be continued . )

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1825, page 454, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2539/page/4/