106 



which they all at once understood. When the dream is re- 

 lated to Jacob, this Patriarcli, with equal promptitude, perceive* 

 the allusion : " what is this dream that thou hast dreamed," he 

 impatiently exclaims ; " shall I, thy mother, and thy brethren, 

 " indeed come to bow to thee to the earth ?" or, in other words, 

 is our subjection thus clearly designated by signs which we can- 

 not mistake ; signs so intelligible, that " his father observed the 

 *' saying," while, equally perceiving Uieir manifest import, " his 

 " brethren envied him." From these texts it appears im questionable, 

 that the figures which represented the twelve divisions of the 

 Sun's celestial course, bore, in those days, an acknowledged re- 

 ference to the sons of *Judah : and, further, it seems probable 

 that the connexion was yet more antient, and that it was com- 

 bined with revelations deeply affecting the family of Israel, and 

 consequently the human race, or it would not be thus particu- 

 laily recorded. 



The zodiacal signs appear, from this part of Joseph's history, to 

 have home a relation to him and his brethren, and the Cherubim 

 did so too ; these hieroglyphics then bore a relation to each other i 

 a fact which will acquire certainty from the examination of the 

 celebrated vision of Ezekiel. 



* I do not rest upon the blessing of Judah in Gen. 49. nor on that of the tribes in Deu- 

 ter. 33, nor endeavour to reconcile the allusions in them with each other, or with the Zo- 

 diacal signs; but it is material certainly to observe concerning these, that Judah is, ia 

 both texts, a lion ; Ephraim in Deuteronomy, a bullock; (and also in Hos. 10. U.) and 

 Ban is, in Genesis, a serpent. In a paper in V. 5. of the Acad, des Inscrip. p. 31. where 

 an attempt is made to explain all these matters, it is remarked, that Reuben is a man pour- 

 ing out water, agreeable to the text, " Unstable as Water," &c. in Gen. 49. It is also 

 proper to remark the abrupt transition, in Deut. v. 26, from the blessing, to the praise 

 of the " God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon " the Heaven, &c." as if such a theme natu- 

 rally followed, as connected with the allegory of that just preceding it. 



