36 The Rev. J. Hamilton on the Punic Passage in Plautm, 



to him concerning that matter or business," super hac re, in the original, "ill. 

 And in the prayer of the same person for the success of his undertaking, his 

 words are, "O Lord God of my master, if thou art prospering,*' &c. n"''7SD, 

 intzliahh* 



Let us now look into the account of Nehemiah's journey. In it, we have 

 already remarked that we find Hanno's word for journey is the one used by the 

 Persian monarch. Nehemiah, moreover, we also find, in praying for the success 

 of it, prosper I pray thee, uses Hanno's word ?^', n3, and for prosper and for 

 business, he (as well as Abraham and his servant) uses Hanno's word htzliahh 

 and dbr ; hlztiahh twice, both in the end of the first chapter before his jovirney, 

 and after it at the end of the second, when he expresses his confidence that God 

 would prosper it, (Jitzliahh), in reply to the adversaries who tauntingly demanded 

 of him the business of his journey, " Qucenam est hcec res, dbr in, quam 

 facitis?" The God of Heaven, he answered, He will prosper us, vS^t''. 



But there is another word of Hanno's prayer used by Nehemiah in his. We 

 have noticed the circumstance of Hanno's being a yoMrnej/ and business, o? search 

 and recovery ; and that, consequently, as a means of speeding it, he prays for 

 guidance or instruction. Such a journey, one of search and uncertain route, was 

 that in the wilderness, and one which required, and obtained, the same deside- 

 rated interposition of Providence. In commemorating which — (the guidance 

 afforded the Israelites) — Nehemiah notices, not only the outward guidance of the 

 fiery pillar, but God's giving his Holy Spirit to instruct the travellers. Nehe- 

 miah, ix. 20. Hanno's word is ■>'7'>DU?a, instructing me ; Nehemiah's Q'^o^n, to 

 instruct them ; the one the participle, the other the infinitive or gerund. So in 

 Psalm xxxii. the divine promise recognizes this peculiar aid as desirable in a 

 journey, " I will instruct thee in the way that thou shalt go," '7''Dtc^}. 



The last woi'd of Hanno's prayer which remains to be collated is caneth, 

 " repperire," to recover, Isaiah, xi. English version, Hebrew n^p.t By that 

 word we may consider Hanno expressing the end and object of his enterprise, 

 as a kinsman, to redeem his relatives from slavery, as their champion to rescue, 

 or liberate, them from exile and oppression, and as the pious father to 

 recover them as his posterity, the lost remnant of his line. Now when 

 Nehemiah speaks of his redeeming his kinsmen, the Jews, who were sold 



• Gen. x.\iv. 42. f Root HJp. 



