Footnotes

1.

For what is meant by “Structure,” see A Key to the Psalms, by the late Rev. Thos. Boys, edited by the present author, 7, St. Paul's Churchyard. Price Five shillings.

2.

Viz., in A (verses 7, 8),— “Converting,” from שׁוּב, to return, as the sun in the heavens. “Testimony,” from עוּד, to repeat, hence, a witness, spoken of the sun in Ps. lxxxix. 37. “Sure,” אָמַן, faithful, as the sun. (Ps. lxxxix. 37.) “Enlightening,” from אוֹר, to give light, as the sun. (Gen. i. 15, 17, 18; Isa. lx. 19; Ezek. xxxii. 7.) In B (verses 11, 12, 13),— “Warned,” from זָהַר, to make light, hence, to teach, admonish. “Keeping,” from שָׁמַר, to keep, observe, as the heavens. (Ps. cxxx. 6; Isa. xxi. 11.) Or as the heavenly bodies observe God's ordinances. “Errors,” from שָׁנַה, to wander, as the planets. “Keep back,” חָשַׂךְ, to hold back, restrain. “Have dominion over,” from מָשַׁל, to rule. Spoken of the sun and moon in Gen. i. 18. “The sun to rule the day,” &c. (Ps. cxxxvi. 8, 9.)

3.

The other half of the Psalm is just as perfectly arranged. For example, there are six words used (verses 7-9) to describe the fulness of the Word of God, and they are thus placed, alternately:— F | Two feminine singulars. (Law and Testimony.) G | One masculine plural. (Statutes.) F | Two feminine singulars. (Commandment and Fear.) G | One masculine plural. (Judgments.)

4.

From סָפֹר, to cut into, or grave, hence, to write. It has the two senses of our English verb tell, which means to count, and also to narrate. The first occurrence is Gen. xv. 5, “Tell (סְפֹר) the stars, if thou be able to number (לסֵפֹּר) them.” Gen. xxiv. 66, “The servant told Isaac all things that he had done.” Ps. lxxi. 15, “My mouth shall show forth (יְסַפֵּר, tell of, r.v.) thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers (סְפֹרוֹת, i.e., the accounts) of them,” i.e., all the particulars.

5.

From כָּבַד, to be heavy, weight, the context determining whether the weight spoken of is advantageous or not. The first occurrence is Gen. xii. 10, “The famine was grievous (כָּבֵד) in the land.” The next, xiii. 2, “Abram was very rich (כָּבֵד).” It is often applied to persons who are of weight and importance, hence, glorious and honourable. It is used of the glory of the Lord, and of God Himself, as we use Majesty of a person. See Isa. iii. 8; iv. 2; xi. 10; xliii. 20; Hag. ii. 8; Ex. xvi. 7; xxiv. 17; 1 Sam. iv. 21; Pss. xxvi. 8 (honour); lxiii. 3.

6.

From נָגַד, to set before, to set forth, to shew. First occurrence, Gen. iii. 11, “Who told thee that thou wast naked.” Ps. xcvii. 6, “The heavens declare His righteousness”; cxi. 6, “He hath shewed his people the power of his works.”

7.

This is the English idiom for the Hebrew “Day to day.” The ל is used in its sense of adding or superadding to, as in Isa. xxviii. 10, צַו לָצָו, “precept to precept;” i.e., precept after precept, line after line. Gen. xlvi. 26, “All the souls that came with Jacob” (לְיַעֲקֹב, to Jacob; i.e., in addition to Jacob. So here, “Day to day;” i.e., Day in addition to day, or, as we say, Day after day).

8.

From נָבַע, to tell forth, akin to נָבַא, to prophesy, from root to pour forth. Lit., here, poureth forth discourse. Ps. cxlv. 9, “abundantly utter.”

9.

Their line, קָו, i.e., their measuring line. By the figure of metonymy the line which measures is put for the portion or heritage which is measured, as in many other places. See Ps. xvi. 6, “The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.” (See also Ps. lxxviii. 55, &c.) Here, it means that “Their measuring line has gone forth unto all the earth (אֶרֶץ)”; i.e., All the earth inherits this their testimony (i.e., has this testimony for its heritage), and to the ends of the world (תֵבֵל, the inhabited world) their instruction has gone forth. With this agrees, in sense, the LXX. here, and Rom. x. 16, which each has φθόγγος, a sound, or voice; i.e., a sound in relation to the hearer, rather than to that which causes it. The meaning of the passage is, “All the earth has their sound or testimony as its heritage, and the ends of the world hear their words.” Symmachus has ἦχος, a sound, or report.

10.

חֵמָה means that which is hot, and is a poetical name of the sun itself.

11.

Job is thought by some to be the Jobab mentioned in Gen. x. 29, the third in descent from Eber.

12.

Note the structure of this verse:— A | The seven stars, B | Orion, A | The twelve signs, B | Arcturus.

13.

General Chesney allowed the late Dean Goode to copy the passage, among other matters, from his private MS. The Dean quotes it in his Warburtonian Lectures (2nd Ed., Note I. to Sermon IV., p. 170-1.)

14.

Fragments of these coloured glazed bricks are to be seen in the British Museum.

15.

Babylonian Life and History, p. 36.

16.

τοῦ γαρ καὶ γένος ἐσμεν.

17.

τοῦ γαρ καὶ γένος ἐσμεν.

18.

Besides this monthly difference, there is an annual difference; for at the end of twelve months the sun does not come back to exactly the same point in the sign which commenced the year, but is a little behind it. But this difference, though it occurs every year, is so small that it will take 25,579 years for the sun to complete this vast cycle, which is called The precession of the Equinoxes; i.e., about one degree in every 71 years. If the sun came back to the precise point at which it began the year, each sign would correspond, always and regularly, exactly with a particular month; but, owing to this constant regression, the sun (while it goes through the whole twelve signs every year) commences the year in one sign for only about 2,131 years. In point of fact, since the Creation the commencement of the year has changed to the extent of nearly three of the signs. When Virgil sings— “The White Bull with golden horns opens the year,” he does not record what took place in his own day. This is another proof of the antiquity of these signs. The Ecliptic, or path of the sun, if it could be viewed from immediately beneath the Polar Star, would form a complete and perfect circle, would be concentric with the Equator, and all the stars and the sun would appear to move in this circle, never rising or setting. To a person north or south of the Equator the stars therefore rise and set obliquely; while to a person on the Equator they rise and set perpendicularly, each star being twelve hours above and twelve below the horizon. The points where the two circles (the Ecliptic and the Equator) intersect each other are called the Equinoctial points. It is the movement of these points (which are now moving from Aries to Pisces) which gives rise to the term, “the precession of the Equinoxes.”

19.

It is exactly the same with the books of the Bible. Their order and their names, as we have them in the English Bible, are those which man has given them, copied from the Septuagint and Vulgate, and in many cases are not the Divine names according to the Hebrew Canon.

20.

Here, the fact of His humiliation, together with this long period of His rejection, is leaped over, and the prophecy passes on at once—over at least a period of 1893 years—to this “glory which should follow.”

21.

ε, Al Mureddin.

22.

β, Zavijavah.

23.

The star now marked δ.

24.

The star ζ.

25.

The star α, Al Zimach.

26.

The stars are known by Greek letters and sometimes by numbers, &c. Alpha (α) denotes a star of the first magnitude; Beta (β), the second, and so on. This plan was originated by Bayer in his Uranometria, 1603. The star Alpha, as seen in the New Great Equatorial Telescope recently set up at Greenwich, is now discovered to be really a double star, though it had hitherto always appeared to be one.

27.

Jer. xxxiii. 15 being only a repetition of Jer. xxiii. 5.

28.

From כָּמַה which occurs only in Ps. lxiii. 1, “my flesh longeth for thee.” It is akin to חָמַד, to desire. Ps. xix. 10; Is. liii. 2; Hag. ii. 7; etc.

29.

A Latin translation of his work is in the British Museum Library. He says the Persians understood these signs, but that the Indians perverted them with inventions.

30.

The constellations are called Decans. The word means a part, and is used of the three parts into which each sign is divided, each of which is occupied by a constellation.

31.

It appears that MM. Saulnier, fils, and Lelorrain arrived while Signor Bossi was engaged in copying it, but concealed their design to remove it. The King of France paid £6,250 sterling for it. It has since been copied, and lithographs have been published.

32.

Act IV., Scene 3.

33.

I.e., come forth (as in the r.v.). At, as the preposition מ is rendered in Gen. iii. 24. “There shall come forth a star at or over the inheritance or possessions of Jacob,” thus indicating the locality which would be on the meridian of this star.

34.

It ought also to be noted that in the preceding year there were three conjunctions of the planets Jupiter and Saturn, at the end of May and October, and at the beginning of December. Kepler (1571-1631) was the first to point this out, and his calculations have been confirmed by the highest authorities. These conjunctions occurred in the sign of Pisces: and this sign, according to all the ancient Jewish authorities (Josephus, Abarbanel, Eliezer, and others), has special reference to Israel. The conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, they hold, always marked the occurrence of some event favourable to Israel; while Kepler, calculating backwards, found that this astronomical phenomenon always coincided with some great historical crisis, viz.: the Revelation to Adam, the birth of Enoch, the Revelation to Noah, the birth of Moses, the birth of Cyrus, the birth of Christ, the birth of Charlemagne, and the birth of Luther.

35.

The ancient name could not have been Boötes! though it is derived from, and may be a reminiscence of the Hebrew.

36.

Aratus calls him Arctophylax, i.e., the guardian of Arctos, the flock of the greater fold, called to-day the Great Bear:— “Behind, and seeming to urge on the Bear, Arctophylax, on earth Boötes named, Sheds o'er the Arctic car his silver light.” By some moderns he is mistakenly called The Waggoner. Hence the allusion of Thompson:— “Wide o'er the spacious regions of the North, Boötes urges on his tardy wain.” This perversion scarcely does justice even to human common sense, as waggoners do not use a sickle for a whip!

37.

The constellation is a very brilliant one, having 54 stars, viz., one of the 1st magnitude, six of the 3rd, eleven of the 4th, etc. The constellation of the Canes Venatici (the Greyhounds), i.e., the two dogs (Asterion and Chara), which Boötes holds by a leash, is quite a modern invention, being added by Hevelius (1611-1687). The bright star of the 3rd magnitude in the neck of Chara, was named “Cor Caroli” (the heart of Charles) by Sir Charles Scarborough, physician to Charles II., in honour of Charles I., in 1649. This is a good example of the almost infinite distance between the ancient and modern names. The former are full of mysterious significance and grandeur, while the latter are puerile in the extreme, almost approaching to the comic! e.g., the Air Pump, the Painter's Easel, the Telescope, the Triangle, the Fly, the Microscope, the Indian, the Fox and Goose, the Balloon, the Toucan (or American Goose), the Compasses, Charles's Oak, the Cat, the Clock, the Unicorn, &c. The vast difference can be at once seen between those designed by the ancients and those added by astronomers in more recent times. These new constellations were added, 22 by Hevelius (1611-1687); and 15 by Halley (1656-1742). They were formed for the purpose of embracing those stars which were not included in the ancient constellations. This shows that the old constellations were not designed, like the modern ones, merely for the sake of enabling astronomers to identify the positions of particular stars. In this case all the stars would have been included. The object was exactly the opposite! Instead of the pictures being designed to serve to identify the stars, only certain stars were used for the purpose of helping to identify the pictures! This is another important proof of the truth of our whole argument.

38.

See quotation from Dr. Budge, on page 12.

39.

And certainly the symbol by which it is still known ♎ is more like the top of an altar (See Ara, Plate XIV.) than a pair of balances, to which we can trace no resemblance whatever. See Note in the Appendix.

40.

Antares seems also to have been known as Lesath.

41.

Luke xxii. 53: comp. Col. i. 13 and Eph. vi. 12.

42.

In 1604 a new star appeared in the eastern foot of Ophiuchus, but disappeared again in 1605.

43.

There is an ancient Greek fable which calls Ophiuchus Æsculapius, the son of Apollo. Having restored Hippolytus to life, he was everywhere worshipped as the god of health, and hence the serpent entwined around him is, to this day, the symbol of the medical art! This, however, is, doubtless, another perversion of the primitive truth that the Coming One in overcoming the serpent, should become the great healer of all the sorrows of the world, and cause all its groanings to cease.

44.

Cerberus, or the serpent with three heads, was placed by Hevelius (1611-1687) by the side of Hercules. Bayer had previously placed the apple branch in his hand. This was symbolical of the golden apples of Hesperides, which he obtained by killing the three-headed hydra, by whom they were guarded. In our picture these are combined, and a bow and quiver added from other ancient authorities.

45.

In our picture we have combined the two great thoughts, taking the harp from a picture dug up at Herculaneum, and adding an eagle soaring up with it.

46.

This is the first time that the word “Alleluia” occurs in the New Testament, and it is praise for judgment executed. Where is its first occurrence in the Old Testament? In Ps. civ. 35, where we have the very same solemn and significant connection:— “Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, And let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the Lord, O my soul, Hallelujah (Praise ye the Lord).”

47.

There is a fish tail here. The third Decan of Capricornus is a fish (Delphinus). There is again a fish (Piscis Australis) in the next sign (Aquarius), and then the following sign is Pisces, or the Fishes. So that the Redeemed Multitudes are presented throughout this Second Book.

48.

When we come to the last chapter of this book we shall see that the Sun was in the sign of the other sacrificial animal, Aries, at the very hour of the Crucifixion. And Aries sets before us the victory of “the Lamb that was slain.”

49.

The eleventh, because everyone begins to reckon from Aries, and not as we have done from Virgo, as shown by the riddle of the Sphinx. See page 20.

50.

And in great contrast with several modern ones near it, e.g., the Balloon, the Sculptor's Apparatus, the Microscope, Euclid's Square, the Telescope, etc., etc.

51.

How inconsistent when there were three such conjunctions in one year, all in the same sign of Pisces, immediately preceding the birth of the woman's Seed; and in addition to this the new star which had been foretold. See under Coma, Pages 36, 37, 38.

52.

The figure of Tapeinosis, which calls our attention to that fact that He was delighted thus to be called.

53.

There are 113 stars in this sign, none of any great importance; only one of the 3rd magnitude, five of the 4th, etc.

54.

“El Nath” is used by Chaucer as the name of a spring star.

55.

Taurus then marked the Spring Equinox.

56.

“Thy beauty; for it was perfect through My comeliness, which I put upon thee (Jerusalem), saith the Lord” (Ezek. xvi. 14).

57.

Those who interpret the Queen here of the Church as the Bride, interpret the “Virgins” in Matt. xxv. of the Bride also. But how inconsistent! If the “Virgins” be the Church in Matt. xxv., then where is the Bride? If the Queen is the Bride (the Church) in Ps. xlv., then who are the “virgins her companions”? Both cannot be the correct interpretation. In fact, both are wrong, and hence the confusion. The Bride must be interpreted by the Old Testament scriptures, and the Prophecies which belong to Israel must not be robbed and given to the Church. They cannot be thus diverted without bringing confusion into the Scripture, and causing loss to our souls.

58.

See Job xxxix. 14, 15, where it is said, the ostrich “leaveth her eggs in the dust, forgetting that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them.”

59.

The others have names, but they were given by the Greeks from the names of the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione. The Hyades were their sisters. Together they tell us that the saints will be secure with this mighty Lord when he comes to rule.

60.

The Pleiades and Hyades are sometimes spoken of as constellations, but this is a mistake; they are integral parts of Taurus.

61.

See Jer. xxx. 21; and Matt. xxi. 10.

62.

The star ζ (in the belt) is called Mintaka, dividing, as a sacrifice. (Lev. viii. 2.)

63.

Note, that— In a and a, we have the rising of Israel; In b and b, the light that is come upon her; In c and c, the glory of the Lord; and In d and d, the darkness of the world.

64.

It is also reckoned in the horn of Taurus.

65.

The same as in 2 Sam. iv. 1.

66.

Our English “Sir” is derived from this word.

67.

Euphratean Stellar Researches.

68.

Marg., “the captives of the just,” or, as read by the Vulg. and Syr., “the captives of the terrible.”

69.

The Scarabæus, passing its early existence as a worm of the earth, and thence issuing as a winged denizen of heaven, was held sacred by the Egyptians as an emblem of the resurrection of the body.

70.

The Ass was the emblem of Typhon, the king who smites or is smitten.

71.

The word is so rendered in Judges v. 16, in a.v.

72.

Euphratean Stellar Researches, pp. 8, 9.

73.

The Græco-Judean equivalent of Joshua or Jesus.

74.

Jamieson's Scientific Display, &c., p. 58.

75.

(1) Gor, a lion's whelp. (2) Ciphir, a young lion when first hunting for himself. (3) Sachal, a mature lion in full strength. (4) Laish, a fierce lion. (5) Labia, a lioness; and (6) Arieh, an adult lion, having paired, in search of his prey (Nah. ii. 12; 2 Sam. xvii. 10; Num. xxiii. 24).

76.

The passage consists really of two members, each of which is arranged as an introversion, where the subject of 1 corresponds to 7; 2 corresponds to 6; etc.

77.

General Vallancey spells Saros שׂערוֹץ, which amounts to 666 by Gematria! Viz., ש = 300 + ע = 70 + ר = 200 + ו = 6 + ץ = 90 = 666.

78.

These facts are kindly supplied by Mr. E. W. Maunder, of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, who gives another example, as follows:— In a.d. 586 there were two solar eclipses: on June 22 (Julian) the old and dying eclipse, and on July 22 (Julian) another (the new one). A Saros (viz., 18 years and 11 days) earlier there was only one, viz. on June 11 (Julian), a.d. 568, there being no eclipse on July 11 of that year. The last appearance of this new eclipse, which first appeared on July 22, 586, was on August 28 (Greg.), 1848, so that it had a life history of 70 Sari, amounting to 1,262 years 36 days (after the Julian dates have been corrected to correspond to the Gregorian). Thus the eclipse that died, so to speak, on August 28 (Greg.), 1848, first appeared on July 22 (Julian) in a.d. 586. See an important article on Eclipses by Mr. E. W. Maunder in Knowledge, for October 1893, where other life-histories of eclipses are given, and the whole subject of eclipses clearly explained.

79.

The relations between 595 years and 1,262 years 36 days, are the same as the relations between 594 years and 1,260 years. The difference of the 2 years 36 days is due to the excess of 10.96 days over the 18 completed years in each Saros.

80.

This is the date which concerns only the City of Jerusalem. The Romans were not completely driven out from the land until Cæsarea had fallen in 638, when the conquest was finally completed. See Gibbon's Decline and Fall.

81.

This date 636-7 is a great and important central date, whether we reckon backwards or forwards; whether we reckon them as Lunar, Zodiacal (360 days), or Solar (365 days) years. (1.) If we take Lunar years (= 1222-1/2 Solar)— (a.) reckoning backward, we get to 587 b.c., the very date of the destruction of the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar. (b.) reckoning forward, we get to 1860 a.d., the very date of the European intervention in the Lebanon, which has brought the Eastern Question into its present prominent position. (2.) If we take Zodiacal years (= 1242 Solar)— (a.) reckoning backward we get to 608 b.c., the date of the battle of Carchemish (2 Chron. xxxv. 20), when Babylon completed the conquest of Assyria, and became supreme; utterly shattering all the hope which Israel had in Egypt. (b.) reckoning forward brings us to 1879 a.d., when, by the Treaty of Berlin, Ottoman power received a blow from which it has never recovered, and which has prepared the way for its extinction. (3.) If we take Solar years, then— (a.) reckoning backward, we get to b.c. 624 (a.m. 3376), the beginning of the Babylonian kingdom, the “head of gold.” (b.) reckoning forward we get to 1896-7 a.d., which is yet future. These reckonings in their beginnings and endings form an introversion, or Epanodos, thus:— 587 b.c. ... 606 b.c. ... 624 b.c. ... dates increasing. 1860 a.d. ... 1879 a.d. ... 1896-7 a.d. ... dates increasing. The Solar reckonings are the more important dates; the Lunar are next in significance; while Zodiacal reckonings furnish us with dates which, to say the least, fit neatly into their places.

82.

These dates are those furnished by the Monuments, as given by Dr. Budge, of the British Museum, in his Babylonian Life and History, R.T.S., 1885. They also agree with the dates dug up by Sir Henry Rawlinson in 1862, consisting of fragments of seven copies of the famous “Eponym Canon of Assyria,” by which the Assyrian chronology has been definitely settled. Before this, historians had to be content with inferences and conjectures.

83.

In adjusting the a.m. and b.c. dates, the latter are always apparently one year in advance of the former, because b.c. 4000 was a.m. 1, and b.c. 3999 was a.m. 2. Hence a.m. 3376 is not b.c. 624, but it is b.c. 625.

84.

Cyrus took Babylon, according to the Monuments, in the 17th year of Nabonidus, b.c. 539. 1 Maccabees i. begins the first of Alexander from the death of Darius Codomannus in a.m. 3672. This would slightly vary the above distribution of the years of separate duration.

85.

In passing from b.c. dates to a.d. dates, one year must always be deducted, e.g., from b.c. 2 to a.d. 2 is only three years, not four! Thus— From Jan. 1 b.c. 2 to Jan. 1 b.c. 1 is one year. From Jan. 1 b.c. 1 to Jan. 1 a.d. 1 is one year. From Jan. 1 a.d. 1 to Jan. 1 a.d. 2 is one year. These make only three years. Hence, b.c. 31 to a.d. 636 is 666 years, not 667.

86.

While the premisses of the Historicist school are thus strengthened, their conclusions are shown to be erroneous.

87.

And cause sacrifice and oblation to cease (Dan. ix. 27). We know that is referred, by historicists, to the Messiah. But they are not entitled to so interpret this passage unless they take with it viii. 11, xi. 31, and xii. 11, where the same event is distinctly referred to, and is spoken, not of Christ, but of Antichrist.

88.

See Aratos, line 440.

89.

As proved by Mr. Robt. Brown, junr., in his Remarks on the Euphratean Astronomical Names of the Signs of the Zodiac (p. 16).

90.

By the kind permission of Mr. Robt. Brown, junr., The Celestial Equator of Aratos, p. 466.

91.

See this shown on the cover of this book.

92.

Menant, Empreintes de Cachets Assyro-Chaldéens, 9. “Sur un contrat daté du 8 Tisri, de l'année de Bin-takkil-ani, 690 ou 645 avant J.C.”

93.

Researches on the Euphratean Astronomical Names of the Signs of the Zodiac, p. 17.

94.

In Georgica, i. 33.

95.

Ap Petavius, Uranologion, 168, “The claws, called by the Egyptians Zugon,” i.e., the yoke that joins any two things together.