fame Author, together with his Philological Commentary on Ifaiah, Jeremiah, the Lamentations, and Obadiah; and two Differtations, one by John Smith, concerning Prophecy, and the other by our Author, concerning the Poefy of the Hebrews. In two large Volumes in Folio, printed at Amfterdam, 1731.

IN CE the Prefacer, to these two Volumes, has given us to understand, that this is the laft Work which the learned World is to expect from Mr. le Clerc, it may not be improper (after we have enquired into the Nature and Merit of this, what our Author hath done, and what, by reason of his Age and other Infirmities, he has been forced to leave undone, towards the Interpretation of this part of the Old Teftament) to give fome fhort account of his Life, and of the vaft Variety of Books, which he, in the course thereof, has been known to publish.

WHOEVER looks into his Annotations upon the Pentateuch, as well as the Hiftorical Books of the Old Teftament, cannot but perceive, that they must be excellent Helps towards a right understanding of that part of the Holy Scriptures; forafmuch as our Author has furnished us, upon each Book, with an exact Tranflation, and Paraphrafe, a Philological Commentary, Critical Differtations, Chronological Tables, and whatever else is neceffary or conducive to that End, as himself teftifies in his Bibliotheque Choifie, Vol. 21.

'Tis much to be wifhed, that he had applied himself to the Explication of the remaining Books,

Books, in the fame Method, while his Health and his Understanding were in their vigour : but fo it is, that, confiding a little too much in a good Conftitution, and fuppofing that the longer he delayed the Work, the more and better Materials he fhould every day be compiling; he went on employing himself in other Matters, till Years crept upon him, and in the end, a Fit of Sickness which impaired his Strength and Intellectual Faculties, fo as to render him incapable of compleating these two Volumes in the fame manner, as he had done the former.

He has given us indeed a New Translation, Paraphrafe, and Commentary upon the Book of Job, and the Pfalms; but upon the Proverbs, the Preacher, and the Song of Solomon, we have no Paraphrase. And, in like manner, in the fecond Volume he has given us a Tranflation, Paraphrafe, and Commentary upon Ifaiah, Jeremiah, the Lamentations, and the Prophet Obadiab, (which he first of all published in Quarto, by way of Specimen of the whole Work ;) but of the reft, both greater and leffer Prophets, we have nothing but a bare Verfion. He intended indeed to have made a Paraphrafe and Commentary upon these likewise, and to have annexed proper Differtations (to which he frequently remits the Reader) and Chronological Tables, to the Books of the Prophets; but while he was meditating on these things, with an Intent to make the whole perfect,

Omnia fert ætas animum quoque

Let us however take a fhort view of what he has offered to the World,

THE

THE Book of Job (wherewith the first Volume begins) is defervedly accounted one of the most abftrufe, as well as the moft fublime Compo fitions in Holy Writ; and therefore 'tis lucky for us, that our Author had finifhed his Paraphrafe and Commentary upon it. But the Dif fertation, wherein he promised to determine a Queftion, much agitated among the Learned, viz. Whether this Book is a fimple Narrative, or a kind of Parable with Poetical Embellishments, is wanting. We may however supply this Defect by turning to what he has faid on this Subject in his Sentimens de quelques Théologiens fur l'Hiftoire Critique, &c. Let. ix. p. 177, &c, where, from the feveral Circumftances of Job's Children feasting fo much together, which is not fo agreeable to the painful manner of Life among the Eastern People of the Devil's being among the Sons of God, and God's converfing fo familiarly with him; of the fudden and furprizing lofs of Job's Cattle and Children, and the power which God gave the Devil over his Body; of the long Silence, which his Friends, coming to vifit him, kept; the long Difcourfe which God held with him; his fudden Restoration, and longer Life than ordinary afterwards; as well as that the whole is manifeftly a Poetical Compofition: he seems to infer, that the Book of Job is a Dramatick Piece, fet off with proper Defcriptions and Decorations; and that the Author of it was not Mofes, while he abode in Midian (as fome Learned Men imagine) but one pofterior to David and Solomon, (as appears by the many Imitations of the Pfalms that occur therein) and who might probably live about the beginning of the Captivity, as the feveral Chaldaifms that here and there appear, do feem to denote.

THO'

THO' the Pfalms go under the name of David, yet they were far from being all compofed by him; they had different Authors, and were made at different Times: nor are they placed in the fame order, in point of time, wherein they were compofed; for the cxxxviith Pfalm was manifeftly wrote in the time of the Ifraelites Captivity, whereas the cxxvith is of no older a Date than their Reftoration. Whoever was the Compiler of this Body of the Pfalms, whether Efdras, or fome other, 'tis plain that he digested them at firft into five Books, whereof the firft proceeds to the xlit Pfalm inclufively; the second thence to the lxxiid; the third to the lxxxixth; the fourth to the cvith; and the fifth contains all the reft. Of this, and feveral other Matters, relating to the Pfalms, our Author promised a Differtation; but that omiffion may be fupplied by what he has faid in his Sentimens de quelques Théologiens, &c. Let. 9. p. 184. where he corrects the Mistake of fome Interpreters, who fuppofe that the lxxivth Pfalm was not wrote till the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, because of these Words, We fee not our Signs, there is no more any Prophet, neither is there among us any that knoweth how long; whereas the time of the Ifraelites Captivity, fay they, was determined by Jeremiah to feventy Years. But, befides that the Compofer of this Hymn might poffibly be ignorant of Jeremiah's Prophecy, 'tis certain that the Collection of the Holy Scriptures was compleated under Ptolemy Philadelphus, who caufed them to be tranflated into Greek; and as we meet with this Pfalm in the Verfion of the Septuagint, beyond all peradventure it was then in the Hebrew Text. In the fame Place he finds a palpable Error in Grotius, who would needs have this

Pfalm and the Deftruction therein mentioned [ver. 6.] to relate to the Captivity of the Tabernacle of Schilob [1 Sam. chap.4.] whereas, in the very fecond Verle of it, there is mention made of Mount Sion wherein thou haft dwelt: nor can he be reconciled to F. Simon's Conjecture, that the Titles of the Pfalms were impofed not by the Authors, but by the Compilers of them, and altered by the Seventy Interpreters. However this be, 'tis certain that our Author has taken more than ordinary pains in expounding fuch Prophetical Pfalms, as, either wholly, or in part, relate to Chrift, and the Times of the Gospel; and tho' they mention David or Solomon, or any other Perfon, are certainly conceived in fuch Terms, as are much more confonant to a Myftical Senfe.

To the other Hagiographa our Author has adjoined no Paraphrafe, because (according to his Prefacer) they feemed not to want any; efpecially the Book of Proverbs, wherein there is little or no Connexion. These Proverbs, in the Opinion of Grotius [vid.Sentimens de quelques Théologiens, p. 188.] were not the Invention of Solomon, but what he had collected from the Writings of feveral Wifemen, who lived before his time. The Collection however, according to Mr. Huet, feems to have been made by Efdras, or rather by feveral Hands, because it plainly confifts of three different Parts, whereof the first reaches to the ninth Chapter inclufively; the fecond to the xxivth; and the third to the xxixth. The xxxth and xxxift Chapters contain three Pieces, which feem not to be of Solomon's compofing; and our Author conjectures, that the Prophecy, afcribed to Agur the Son of Jaketh,

was