brated prophecy, which Godwin speaks of at the end of his first chapter. But as his account of it, and of the controversies concerning its meaning and accomplishment, is very imperfect, I shall here give a more full and complete one.

Concerning Jacob's Prophecy.

"The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be;" Gen. xlix. 10.

And here,

1st. I will consider the literal meaning of the words: And, 2dly. Their prophetic import.

1st. As to the literal meaning of those words, concerning which any doubt has been made, they are these four, Daw shebhet, the sceptre; mechokek, the lawgiver; ♫ raglaiv, his feet; and by Shiloh.

The first word is a shebhet, which we translate the sceptre; for which rendering we have the united authority of the three Targums, namely, Onkelos, Jonathan, and the Jerusalem; besides a great many of the modern rabbies. But others understand by it a tribe, as the same word sometimes signifies; particularly in the sixteenth and twenty-eighth verses of this very chapter in which the prophecy we are now considering is recorded, and in some other places. And so they make the meaning of the first clause to be, "Judah shall not cease from being a tribe." Others again (chiefly of the modern Jews), understand by a shebhet, the rod of correction or affliction, as the word sometimes imports: Job ix. 34; 2 Sam. vii. 14; Lam. iii. 1. Accordingly, they make this clause to signify, Judah shall not cease from being an afflicted people. But the peace and prosperity which Judah and all Israel have sometimes enjoyed, particularly during the reigns of David and Solomon, are a sufficient objection against adopting that sense in this place. The truth is, Daw shebhet, from a shabhat, produxit, to produce, primarily signifies a rod or wand, shooting from the root of a tree; and, in a metaphorical sense, it denotes correction, of which a rod is often the instrument; a tribe, which springs out of a common stock; a sceptre, and several other things. The meaning of it, therefore, in any particular place, must be determined by the context, and by the subject there spoken of. Now, as the context immediately preceding

this famous prophecy foretells the dominion of Judah, not only over his enemies, but over his brethren, ver. 8, 9, nothing can be so naturally understood by a shebhet, in this clause, as a sceptre; and so it predicts the continuance and duration of that power and authority which was just before promised. In this sense the same phrase is used, nor is it capable of any other, when it is said, "The sceptre of Egypt shall depart away;" Zech. x. 11.

The next word to be explained is pp mechokek, from pp chakak, scripsit, statuit, mandavit, to ordain, command; which is therefore very properly rendered a lawgiver. However, it seems to be a word of a lower signification than a shebhet, which denotes royal authority; as, "he that holdeth the sceptre," means the king; Amos i. 5. Accordingly, the Dipp mechokekim, mentioned in the book of Judges, are the chief men, or magistrates, of the tribes of Israel, Judges v. 9. 14; who, though they were governors, as we render the word, yet were not vested with royal and supreme authority.

The next word is ba¬ raglaiv, his feet; of the literal meaning of which there is no doubt, unless we admit the correction of Ludolphus, who for a raglaiv would read wha diglaiv, his banner, agreeably to the Samaritan copy. But there is no sufficient reason to admit this correction, contrary to the Targums, and most of the ancient versions. The phrase, therefore, han pan mibbein raglaiv, either signifies, as Waginseil renders it, even "to the last end of his state;" just as, “the people at the feet," an expression used in some places (Exod. xi. 8; 2 Kings iii. 9), denotes those that follow, or bring up the rear; or the word pan mibbein seems to determine raglaiv to the sense that is more commonly received, namely, from thy seed or posterity, referring to the situation of the parts of generation.

4thly. But the greatest controversy of all is about the meaning of the word by Shiloh, which our translators have not ventured to render by an English word, but have retained the original. As it is an aаž λɛyouɛvov, and nothing in the context will certainly determine from what root it is derived, interpreters are much divided about its signification. Le Clerc is for deducing it from the Chaldee word by shelah, cessavit, to cease, and so makes it to signify the end. Accordingly he represents the sense of this prophecy to be, "that from the time the sceptre came

into the tribe of Judah, it will continue in it, till that tribe be at an end." But this opinion has been confuted by Monsieur Saurin.* The translators of the Arabic and Syriac versions seem to have read w shelo, illius, his, or to him, and so render it, "whose it is," that is, the kingdom. And not much different is the Septuagint version, which renders › Shiloh, ra aπokeyμɛva avтų, donec veniant quæ reposita sunt ei, or, according to other copies, & awKEITα, he for whom it is reserved. Others derive it from 5 shil, which they will have to signify a son, because n shileiah signifies something that belongs to the birth. But I take the most probable opinion to be, either that Shiloh comes from now shilach, misit, to send, writing for П, and so it signifies him that is sent, or whom God would send; under which character our Saviour is often spoken of in the New Testament (and this is the opinion of Jerome and Grotius); or else it comes from n shalah, tranquillus est, quievit, and so it signifies peaceable, or a peace-maker; answerable to that name of the Messiah, Disar shalom, the prince of peace; Isa. ix. 6. But let the original of the word nbw Shiloh be what it will, it is almost universally acknowledged to mean the Messiah ; in particular, by all the Targums, as well as by many other ancient and modern Jews, as well as Christians. Having thus considered the literal meaning of the words of this prophecy, we are, 2dly. To inquire into its prophetical import, and the time of its accomplishment.

According to the learned Joseph Mede, in his discourse on this prophecy, the sceptre, and the lawgiver, are pretty much synonymous terms, importing any power or majesty of government, under what form or name soever; and the meaning of the sceptre not departing from Judah is, not that it should not cease from having a king, or being a kingdom; but that it should not cease from being a state or body politic, or from having a power of government and jurisdiction within itself, till the Messiah came. Accordingly, it is observable, that Judah, with the little appendage of Benjamin, was the only tribe in which the sceptre did, in this sense, continue to the end of the Jewish polity. For it entirely departed from the other ten tribes at the Assyrian captivity.

See his Disc. Histor. disc. xli.

As for the last clause of the prophecy, " to him shall the gathering of the people be," Mr. Mede understands it of another event, which should also be accomplished before the sceptre departed from Judah, namely, the conversion of the Gentiles to the Christian faith. When, therefore, our Saviour foretells the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish state, he adds, "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness to all nations, and then shall the end come;" Matt. xxiv. 14. But Dr. Patrick inclines to Waginseil's sense; which is, that there should be either king or governor among the Jews till the coming of Christ; for the Vau before mechokek may as well be understood disjunctively as copulatively in which case," the sceptre" may refer to the royal government in the house of David; and the "lawgiver" (which, we observed before, is a word of a lower signification), to the form of government under Zerubbabel, the Maccabees, &c., till Judea was made a Roman province. For though some of these governors were not of the tribe of Judah; the Maccabees, for instance, who were priests of the tribe of Levi; nevertheless the tribe of Judah was the centre of the state, or the seat of government. And he farther observes, that these two forms of government, signified by the sceptre and the lawgiver, nearly divided the whole time, from the beginning to the end of Judah's authority, into two equal parts, there being a little more than five centuries under each. However, presently after our Saviour's birth, the Jews lost even their Dpprm mechokekim, or governors, as they had before lost the sceptre; and the administration of public affairs was no longer in their own hands.*

Mede's Diatribæ, disc. viii.; Kidder's Demonst. of the Messiah, part iii. chap. vii.; Saurin's Discours. Histor. disc. xli.; Patrick in loc.; Prideaux's Connect. sub. A. C. 8. vol. iv. p. 932, edit. x.; Bishop Sherlock's third dissert. in his Disc. on Prophecy; Bishop of Bristol (Newton) on the Prophecies, vol. i. p. 94, &c. An account of the various interpretations, both of the Jews and Christians, may be found, not only in these authors, but in Le Clerc in loc., and especially in Martin. Helvic. de vaticin. Jacobi, apud Critic. Sacr. tom. viii.; Huet. Demonst. Evang. prop. ix. cap. i . iv.; Christoph. Cartwright. electa Targumico Rabbin. in Gen.; and Jacobi Altingii Schilo, seu de Patriarchæ Jacobi vaticinio.

On the general subject of the preceding chapter, see Spencer de Theocratia Judaica; apud Leges Hebræor.; Witsius de Theocrat. Israelitica; and especially Mr. Lowman's Civil Government of the Hebrews.

CHAPTER II.

OF THE PUBLICANS.

BEFORE We treat of the publicans, or tax-gatherers, it will be proper to premise something concerning the Jewish taxes.

Of the Taxes.

It was observed, in a former lecture, that as the law of Moses was the only codex juris, or body of law, enacted by God, the king of Israel, for the government both of church and state; and as the priests were appointed to dispense it, they are properly to be considered as ministers of state, as well as of religion; and therefore the tithes, and the portion of sacrifices, which the law assigned for their maintenance, were in the nature of taxes, payable for the support of the government. Besides these, we read of no other stated taxes appointed by the law; except a poll-tax of half a shekel, which, when they were numbered in the wilderness, was levied upon every man from twenty years old and upwards; and it is said to be designed for "a ransom, or atonement, for his soul," and to be "appointed for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation;" Exod. xxx. 12-16. It is not provided that this tax should be paid annually; but being intended for the ransom of their souls, or as an act of homage and acknowledgment to God of their being his redeemed people, there was equal reason, in the opinion of the Jewish doctors, for its constant subsistence, as for its original appointment; and being devoted to the service of the tabernacle of the congregation, by which they understand their daily sacrifice and offerings, salt for the sacrifices, wood for the altar of burntoffering, incense, shew-bread, &c., which were constant national charges; from hence they infer, that the tax to support