104 ABROGATION OF THE SABBATH. 



The worcl " bless" very indefinite. Gen. ii. the reverse of prolcptic. 



by this word.* If we turn to Jerem. xvii. 22, we shall find 

 the true purport and application of the word in this connection. 

 ^' Neither do ye any work, but Dni^ip {fixda^litcnil — &et apart 

 the Sabbath day/' — separate it from labor. Nothing can be 

 more obvious, than that these two clauses — the p/'o7iÆitory and 

 the mandatory, are just commensurate with each other — that 

 the latter phrase enjoins aj/irmativelf/, exactly what the former 

 ene does negatively — and no more. ^^ Separate ye the Sab- 

 bath day" from other days, by "not doing any icorh'' upon 

 it. And this is all the word indicates in Gen. ii. 3, or else- 

 where. 



The word "113 (larakJi) — to "bless" — is scarcely more de- 

 terminate in its significance, or more available to my friend's 

 theory.f It is applied to the newly-created man (Gen. i. 28), 

 as properly as to the period of repose ; — to the meanest reptile 

 ( Ge?i. i.' 22), as expressively as to the viceroy, man. In the 

 book of Job, the same word is more than once translated to 

 " curse." (i. 5, 11 ; ii. 5, 9.) In 1 Khigs xxi. 10, it is rendered 

 " blaspheme." Its nonn "]~i3 (hereliJi) signifies the "knee." 

 — My friend's etymological argument is therefore worthless. 



J. N. B. gives four reasons why Gen. ii. 3 is not " Sipro- 

 lepsis or anticipation." (p. 48.) I agree with him. I hold 

 that the passage is just the reverse of di p)rolepsis. It is not 

 contemporari/ history : it is twenty-five centuries posterior to its 

 subject; itwas evidently written after the exodus from Egypt. J 



* Tlie noun occurs in Gen. xxxviii. 21, in such an application ; and 

 in Dcut. xxiii. 17, we have it in both its masculine siaå feminine forms ; 

 — ^^ qadesh" and "gideshah.'" The verb occurs in Numb. xi. 18; 

 " Pre/»a?-e yourselves," where it partakes of the nature of a threat: 

 (see verse2^:) and JbsÆ. xx. 7: "They ap^omiec?" certain cities, where 

 evidently nothing sacred is intended. In Isaiah Ixvi. 17, the word is 

 applied to violators of the law, &c. &c. 



f *' God blessed it, that is, pronounced it an happy day, all his works 

 bcing finished," &c. Gill. [Bodij of Divinity : vol. iii. Book iii. chap. 

 8.) 



.■j: " The most probable supposition is that Moses, who seems to have 



