“4801.] 
Op halt : 
Concerning a Hebrew Dirge. 
219 
Population of Gofport, taken under the A; exclufive of the Army, Navy, and Militia. 
Uninha- 
Inhabited} ited 
houfes noufes 
Fami- 
lies 
Town of Gofport 
in Alverftoke- 
parith 
{Liberty part of Al- 
verftoke or Vici} 456 17 618|1287/1693| 2980 | 244! 404 [2332 18 
nity of Gofport 
oe 
Total} 1906 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, ; ; 
N the fecond book of the Jewifh Chro- 
nicles (XXXV 25) it is ftated that 
Jeremiah compofed a funeral fong on the 
death of king Jofiah, who was killed at 
Hadadrimmon in battle: that ‘this dirge 
was regularly performed at Jerufalem by 
the band of temple-fingers: and that it 
was preferved with his other elegies. No 
fuch poem however occurs in this authot’s 
Lamentations, which all relate to the dif. 
trefs of Jerufalem after its capture by the 
Perfians; fo that it is commonly fuppofed, 
like the works the of bardIddo, to have been 
loft. All the reliques of Hebrew literature 
which have defcended to thefe times, are 
precifely the compofitions preferved in the 
temple-library ; can it then have happened 
that a fragment, by its very deftination 
neceflary there, flrould have undergone a 
feparate deftruction? Befides Jofephus 
(X Ant. Y. 1.) ftill knew the poem. 
A dirge, the public performance of 
which by the finging-men and women was 
snade an ordinance in I{rael, mult have been 
tranfcribed, it fhould feem, with fome 
folicitude of ‘attention; and that too 
among the other poems appropriated for 
national folemnities and focial worfhip. 
Amid the Plalms then is there no part 
at leaft of fo celebrated a compofition ? 
The book of Pfalms is an anthology of 
“poems, differing in antiquity, in merit and 
mm matter: it confilts chiefly of hymns in- 
_ deed, fome perpetual and national, fome 
occafional and perfonal; but it alfo con- 
tains epithalamiums,war-fongs and elegies. 
This book was certainly compiled after 
the reftoration of the Jews; as fome of the 
foremore poems celebrate the return from 
captivity. According to a tradition pre- 
ferved by Theodoret and others, it was 
probably compiled by Zechariah, to whole 
manner of compofition the latter portions 
of the collection remarkably approximate. 
David, having exceiled as a_ harper, is 
likely to have bequeathed, fircugh Afaph 
Fe- 
Males |males 
a ee | oe ee ee ee 
: 1440 26 |2072/3466/4349) 8315 | 0/1320 = |6995 
42 269014753 16542/11295 244.) 1724 9227 102 
‘reftoration was ‘efieéted. 
Em- Notofthe § inns, 
Total ployedjIn trade |preced- Taverns 
of per- jinagri-}é manu-fing de- nd Ale- 
fons culture/facture |fcription oufes 
——\ . reese 
(1 Chron. XVI. 5—7), many popular 
melodies to the band of temple-fingers. 
If the fuperfcriptions ‘* of David,”’ ¢ of 
Afaph,” ‘*of Heman,”’ .«* of. Ethan,” 
were not intended merely to indicate the 
adapted fuze of fuch pfalms, the Editor, » 
in afhxing thefe titles, muft have relied on 
deceptious tradition, or guefled with 
blundering rafhnefs; for, among the 
pfalms called §* of David”, a great man 
(V, XI, XVIII, XXIV, XXVII, &c.) al- 
lude to the temple as already built; anda 
great many more (XIV, LIII, LXIX, &c.) 
allude to the captivity as aétual; although 
David died fome years before the commence-= 
ment of the firit temple, and fome centuries 
before the commencement of the Babylo- 
nian captivity. The fuperfcription of a 
pfalm is therefore lefs to be relied on than 
internal evidence, in allotting it to a given 
author. : 
The ftudier of Jeremiah’s writings will 
frequently deteé&t among the pfalms a reed ' 
analogous to his: for inftance, in the 
XXU, XXXV, LV, LXIX, LXXf, 
LXXIV,LXXIX,LXXXVIII,LXXXIX, 
CII, and in many others. In fome of 
thefe pfaims allufions occur to Jeremiah’s 
quarrel with his nephew Seraiah (LXIX 8) 
and with the prieft Zephaniah (LV 33), 
who were bath of the A®gyptian faction 
(2 Kings XXV 18); fo that they were 
written during the fiege of Jerufalem. It 
is the more natural that compofitions of 
Jeremiah fhould have been induttrioufly 
introduced into Jewifh worfhip, as he was 
fon to Hilkiah, the revifer of the liturgy, 
as he bore an almoft exceptionable alle- 
giance to the Perfian or Babylonian party, 
was recompenfed by the befiegers, (Jere- 
miah XL. 5) after the capture of Jerufa- 
lem, and at all times fpoke the language 
of thofe families under whofe au(pices the 
To the Aigyp- 
tian faétion he was fteadily hoftile (M. M. 
VI 98and 99); he even accompanied 
Johanan and his followers to Atgypt, 
rather to thwart than to affit their setrle- 
PLZ ment 
/ 
