Ye daughters, of Israel, weep— Nothing can be more elegant than this verse: while the warriors of Israel lamented their chiefs, the divine poet calls upon the women of the land to shed their tears over the ashes of princes, whose warlike exploits had so often procured them those ornaments which are perhaps too pleasing to the sex, and had enriched them with the spoils of their enemies. There is nothing for other in the Hebrew, which literally runs thus: Weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with, or in, delights; that is to say, in scarlet, wherewith you are so much delighted. Houbigant renders it, who clothed you in garments shining with purple: and Green, who clothed you in pleasing scarlet. He observes, that the prophet Jeremiah seems to have had his eye on this passage, when he addresses Jerusalem as a beautiful woman, chap. 4: 2 Samuel 1:1.

Continues after advertising
Continues after advertising