Note 28 — I.
Reading edition
The above-mentioned exegetical canons, however, are not peculiar to the Kabbalah. They have been in vogue among the Jews from time immemorial. Thus the difficult passage in Isa. xxi, 8 , ויקרא אריה which is rendered in the Authorised Version, and he cried, A lion! or ‘as a lion,’ as the margin has it, is explained by the ancient Jewish tradition as a prophecy respecting Habakkuk, who, as Isaiah foresaw, would in coming days use the very words here predicted. (Comp. Isa. xxi, 8, 9 , with Hab. ii, 1 ); and this interpretation is obtained by rule i; inasmuch as אריה lion and חבקוק Habakkuk are numerically the same, viz.:—
ה י ר א and ק ו ק ב ח
5 + 10 + 200 + 1 = 216 and 100 + 6 + 100 + 2 + 8 = 216
(See the Commentaries of Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and Kimchi on Isa. xxi, 8 .) Again, in the fact that Jacob made Joseph ‘a coat of many colours’ ( Gen. xxxvii, 3 ), as the Authorised Version has it, or ‘pieces,’ as it is in the margin, the Midrash or the ancient Jewish exposition, sees the sufferings of Joseph indicated; inasmuch as פסים according to rule ii, is composed of the initials of פוטיפר Potiphar, who imprisoned Joseph; סוחרים merchants ישמעאלים Ishmaelites and מדינים Midianites, who bought him and sold him again as a slave. ( Gen. xxxvii, 25–28 ; xxxix, 1; comp. Rashi on Gen. xxxvii, 3 .) For more extensive information on this subject, we must refer to Ginsburg’s Historical and Critical Commentary on Ecclesiastes, Longman, 1861, p. 30, &c. ↑