of the Received Version of the Scriptures. 181 



decay when the brazen ones were substituted by Pope Eu- 

 genius IV., a period of 1100 years. Indeed its unequalled 

 durability serves much to identify the tree, for the ark is con- 

 sidered to have been no less than 120 years in building, and 

 if made of a more perishable material, one part would have 

 decayed ere the other were completed. 



The Kopher is thrice mentioned in the Canticles. In 7th 

 chap. " Come my beloved, let us lodge in the villages" {baki- 

 pharim), " among the cypress trees" would be more in keeping 

 with the context. In the 1st and 4th chap, where it is called 

 ' camphire,' ' camphire spikenard,' ' a cluster of camphire,' the 

 fragrant shrub and its precious oil mentioned by Pliny (lib. 12. 

 cap. 24-.) as cupros, and which grew in abundance in Egypt, 

 Cyprus, Ascalon, &c, are understood, and were doubtless in- 

 tended. There seems to have been no very marked distinction 

 of name between the tree and the shrub. Pliny is certainly 

 treating of the tree in lib. 1 6. cap. 33., though he refers to Cato 

 De Re Rustica, who noticing the Cupressus, mentions the sow- 

 ing and weeding of it, (cap. 48 & 151). The difficulty, per- 

 haps, may be thus explained. The cypress probably grew in 

 plantations to the common size of a branch, or was trained to 

 shoot out small branches. These were used on funeral occa- 

 sions, as well at the house entrance as in the procession, at the 

 pile and at the tomb, and were so valuable that a fall of cy- 

 press, made once in thirteen years, sufficed for a daughter's 

 portion {ibid.). 



The same name having been given in both languages to the 

 shrub, and the same or a similar name by the Greeks to the 

 tree, favours the inference that for some reason common to 

 both people, though not manifest to us, the like term was used 

 in each language for the two productions. 



I think it results from the foregoing remarks that we should 

 be justified in reading the passage under consideration thus: 

 "Make thee an ark of cypress wood {Kopher) : thou shalt make 

 rooms in the ark, and with cypress {Kopher) shalt thou cover 

 it within and without." A Hebrew critic has lately proposed 

 to render the latter Kopher ' atonement'. It will certainly 

 bear at least as well the construction of ' covering ' only, and 

 would then be read (though 1 prefer the former reading), with 

 n slight change of words, but with the same import, " thou 

 shalt make it of cypress wood, and cover it, &c, with a cover- 

 ing," i. e. " thou shalt thus completely or surely cover it;" a 

 mode of expression often occurring in the Hebrew Scriptures, 

 ftu in Isaiah xxii. 17., where it is found in both parts of the 

 verse: " The Lord nbpbu? ^pbDD {mclaUclka taltielah), 



