logical proof. The preposition employed is never prefixed to the names of instruments. Flutes, though occurring in the schools of the prophets, 1 Sam. x. 5, formed no part of the temple music. We read of stringed instruments and trumpets, but never of flutes, in enumeration of instruments: Ps. cl. 2. Others suppose that the words refer to another hymn, the melody of which was to be applied to this. So Aben-Ezra, and Hitzig. But this is a violent assumption, supported by no analogy. 3. The third opinion is that the words refer to the subject of the psalm. This is the view expressed by the Septuagint and the Vulgate. So Luther renders it, For the inheritance.' Hengstenberg regards it as favourable to this view, that a critical examination of the most obscure and difficult titles, reveals an enigmatic allusion to the contents of the psalms which follow them respectively. The only other connexion in which this preposition appears in a title, Ps. lxxx. justifies this opinion. Nehiloth properly means that which is obtained, or possessed, and here, in the plural, possessions, lots. See Job vii. 3. Now the whole psalm is occupied in representing the two-fold lot of the righteous and the wicked.

The word 'Sheminith,' in the title of the sixth psalm, has been taken to denote an instrument, and particularly an eight-stringed instrument. But even if we translate 'the eighth,' it can scarcely mean an instrument of eight strings. Hengstenberg understands it to denote some specific intonation, unknown to us from our ignorance of Hebrew music.

In the seventh psalm, we have the word Shiggaion.' The translation Elegy,' or lamentation, by no means suits the predominant subject, here and in Habakkuk, chap. iii. where it also occurs The rendering carmen, adopted by some, after the Syriac, agrees as little with the latter place. That it is a musical direction, seems improbable, from its being prefixed to this psalm only. The radix means 'to wander the word itself wandering.' As applied to this psalm, it very naturally indicates the wanderings of the ungodly. This applies as well to the passage in Habakkuk.

Upon Gittith,' in the title of the eighth psalm, means upon the Gittite harp, a harp of Gath. This may have been either an instrument invented in that city of the Philistines, or a mode of singing derived thence. All the psalms so marked are of a joyful character. Muthlabben,'

Ps. ix. has vexed the grammarians. Winer and de Wette, by their mode of punctuation read 'Alamoth,' as in Ps. xlvi. and understand it of a melody. Labben,' they render, for Ben, or the Benites.' There is a Ben named in 1 Chron. xv. 18, among the singers. This is specious; but all external evidence is for the received division and punctuation. The grammatical difficulties of this interpretation are also great. Others take it to be the title of another psalm, of which the melody was to be used for this; but without the semblance of a parallel. Grotius surmised such a transposition of letters in Labben' as would read 'Nabal,' and took it accordingly as referring to the death of Nabal. Hengstenberg admits the probability of such a transposition, but translates the word, which gives the meaning, 'Upon the fool's death;' which is actually the subject of the composition.- Michtam' in the sixteenth psalm has given occasion to wonderful discussion, and the reader will find here the opinions of Aben-Ezra, Luther, Vorstman, Gesenius, Hitzig, and others. Hengstenberg interprets it Secret or mysterous;' as pointing out the profundity of the subject, a procul profani to irreverent

readers.

We must take leave to close this portion of our remarks by presenting the opinions of our author on that little stumblingblock, which from its frequent occurrence has impeded so many'devout readers, we mean the word 'Selah,' which first appears in the third psalm. This word occurs seventythree times in the Psalms and three times in Habakkuk. It is best deduced, says Hengstenberg, not from the Syriac, but from the Hebrew root to rest.' It may be taken either as a noun, 'rest, pause,' or with Gesenius, as an imperative, pause.' It is primarily a musical direction. But inasmuch as the musical pause always occurs where the feelings demand some rest, it is not less important for the sense; and those who omit it, as our author justly observes, take an unwarrantable liberty with the inspired word. This interpretation is confirmed by an examination of the passages in which the term occurs. It almost always follows just where a pause is in place. As some have supposed it to mark a change of strophe, it may be observed that this is always a proper site of a pause, but that such was its specific design, is disproved by the fact that it frequently occurs in the midst of strophes. The passage of Habakkuk where it occurs, is constructed in several respects upon the

plan of the psalms. Another confirmation of this view, is the concurrence of Selah in the ninth psalm, with Higgaion,' meditation. The unaided feeling of pious readers has often brought them to the same conclusion, and left them with the right impression, even when they did not understand the word. Such was the sentiment no doubt which led to what is perhaps the only introduction of the term into an uninspired work; we mean the dying expressions of Bunyan's pilgrim, in the waters of Jordan. "Selah," says Luther, "sheweth, that one must hold still, and diligently ponder the words of the psalm; for they demand a quiet and still-keeping soul, which may thus conceive and comprehend what the Holy Ghost here sets forth and represents."

Although it may be regarded as a sample-brick from the building, we nevertheless deem it proper to subjoin an extract for the purpose of shewing Hengstenberg's manner of treating the details of a passage. For this, we select the seventh verse of the fourteenth Psalm.

"The Psalmist concludes with an expression of his longing for the salvation promised in the preceding verses, to be accomplished in God's destruction of those who oppressed his church. O that the salvation of God were come out of Zion, and that the Lord would return to the captivity of his people! Then exult Jacob, and rejoice Israel! The former clause is literally, Who will give out of Zion the salvation of Israel? The phrase who will give,' as is well known, is used in Hebrew to mark the optative, being equivalent to 'O that it were!'-'Out of Zion,' because there, as in the sanctuary of his people, the Lord is enthroned. De Wette, very unjustly, would represent the Psalmist as absent from his native land and looking back to it. The expectation of help from Zion is found throughout those psalms which are clearly by David, or at any rate earlier than the captivity; such as Ps. iii. 4. He heard me out of his holy hill;' xxviii. 2, xx. 2, cxxviii. 5, cxxxiv. 3. In expressing this expectation, the sacred psalmists remind God, that it is his province to help, because as the Head of the divine kingdom he cannot abandon it to the desolations of the wicked. If the psalm belonged to the time of the captivity, the writer could not expect help out of Zion. For this, since the destruction of the temple, was no longer the central point of the kingdom of God, as appears from Ezek. xi. 22, where the Shekinah, or visible symbol of the divine presence is solemnly lifted up from the temple. And though, after the destruction of the temple, Daniel turns his face in prayer towards Jerusalem, he does this out of regard to what had been there, and what was to be there again. He did not expect help out of Zion, but directed his face thitherward, because he accounted the place holy, where the temple had once stood, and where a temple was yet to stand. The only passage which De Wette makes available, to show that even during the captivity, help was expected from Zion, namely Ps. cxxi.

1, derives all its seeming pertinency from the arbitrary assumption that it belongs to the time of the captivity; a supposition, of which the unreasonableness is sufficiently apparent from the opening words, 'I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. The words before us therefore prove, that the psalm was not composed, as recent interpreters allege, during the captivity, and so render that interpretation of the sequel, which is founded on this supposition, inadmissible.

"The return to the captivity of his people,' presents more distinctly the mode in which Israel's help should come out of Zion. It comes thence, because the Lord, enthroned on Zion, pities the wretchedness of his people, and returns to them in the demonstrations of his grace. The recent interpretations generally give; when the Lord brings back the captives of his people.' From this they derive a proof that the psalm was not written by David, and not before the Babylonish captivity. Others, attributing the psalm to David, are thereby led to consider this verse as a subsequent addition; as did the author himself at a former period; a supposition which is the more hazardous, as the verse recurs in the fifty-third psalm, and as the seven-fold repetition of the divine names, above-mentioned, is thus disturbed. But the whole exposition is clearly wrong; for 1. The verb here used never has the meaning to bring back,' transitively, but always to return.' 2. It is asserted altogether without proof, that the noun signifies captives,' as it rather signifies in all cases where it occurs independent of the present phrase, the captivity'-status captivitatis. 3. The whole phrase demonstrably means in many passages, gracious commiseration in general. Captivity is a figure of misery, as are often the prison, Ps. cxlii. 7, and bonds, Ísa. xlii. 7, xlix. 9, etc. So Job xlii. 10, God turned him to the captivity of Job,' though Job had not been a captive. In Jer. xxx. 18, I will turn me to the captivity of Jacob's tents,' is used for their lamentable situation, because the tents cannot be regarded as captive. Ezek. xvi. 53, 'I will return to their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters,' &c., means, I will have compassion on their misery; inasmuch as Sodom and the other cities of the plain were not carried into captivity, but were totally destroyed. On the other hand, there is not a single place to be found, in which this phrase can be proved to be used of exiles. 4, The origin of all the passages, where this phrase occurs, is to be found in Deut. xxx. 3, And the Lord thy God will turn back to thy captivity.' That the verb 'turn' is there used in its usual intransitive sense, with the object to which the return is made in the accusative, is undeniable. In the first six verses alone this verb occurs six times, and in five of these is taken in the sense to return to'; why should it in the sixth have the other meaning? If, further, regard be had to the special reasons, in respect to this very passage, against a reference to restoration from exile, such as the longing for help out of Zion, the entire contents of the psalm, which has not the slightest allusion to the captivity, but rather concerns itself with a general relation pervading all times, and finally the inscription, no doubt will remain that the only true interpretation is: when the Lord returns to the captivity,' i. e. to the misery. The accusative is here used, as with verbs of motion; compare Ex. iv. 19,20, Num. x. 36, Is. lxxxv. 5, Isa. lii. 8, Hab. ii.

3. But David had occasion the rather to wish that the Lord should have mercy on the misery of his church, in a psalm designed for the general use of the pious in all ages, from the peculiar greatness of the troubles of which he had himself been a witness in the times of Saul and Absalom.

"The wish here expressed received its highest accomplishment only in Christ, and of this the highest point is yet in the future, when instead of a militant, shall be a triumphal church. Till then, we have abundant cause to make the wish of the pious psalmist our own. Our joy over the inferior fulfilment can never prevent our longing for that last and greatest consummation."

Our author vindicates the title of the third psalm, against the objections of De Wette and others; shewing in an admirable manner the conformity of its contents with the circumstances of David during the revolt of Absalom. He argues at some length for the reference of the fourth psalm to the same period. He objects, however, to any such special application in regard to the fifth. The seventh he places, after a rigid examination of contrary opinions, in the period of Saul's persecution. In the eighth psalm he recognises no direct Messianic character. In regard to the eighteenth, he dissents from Venema, who supposes it certain that it was composed at an earlier period than the mournful events which gave occasion to the fifty-first; and, on the authority of the books of Samuel, assigns it to the closing period of David's life. We have particularized these, as the only portions comprised in this volume, of which it has been attempted to assign the period.

In reading the admirable works of such a writer as Hengstenberg, one who seems to be set for the defence of the gospel amidst a host of unbelievers, we have sometimes been disposed to wish that he had chosen to write in the Latin tongue; that so his labours might be accessible to all educated theologians of other countries. And we have mourned over that decay of Latin learning which has confined the theology of recent times to the countries in which the several works have appeared. But when we consider that of late years no country of the European continent, except Germany, has produced any considerable amount of valuable matter, and that in that country, since the irruption of neology, the chaff has been a hundred fold greater than the wheat, we are ready to reconsider our lamentation. It may be in mercy, that Providence has locked out from English readers a multitude of insidious works, by keeping them in an unknown tongue. It is matter of thankfulness that the worst productions of the German press