thou shalt rule over many nations, and they shall not rule over thee," לא ימשלו ומשלת בגוים רבים ובך. Compare also the very similar passages, Ps. cvi. 41: "And He gave them into the hand of the heathen, and they that hated them ruled over them," וימשלו בם; and Lament, v. 8: "Servants rule over us,"בנו משלו. That it is from prejudice alone that the selection of the signification "to mock" can be accounted for, appears also from the circumstance that all the old Translators (the LXX., _Jonath._, _Syr._, _Vulg._) render it by "to rule." More than one proof is offered by ver. 20: "And I will remove from you the Northman, and will drive him into the land dry and desolate; his van into the fore sea, and his rear into the hinder sea; and his stench shall come up, and his ill-savour shall arise, for he has magnified to do." 1. If we understand this literally, and refer it to real locusts, then the designation by הצפוני, _i.e._, "one from the North," "a Northman," is inexplicable. It is true that there is no foundation for the common assertion, that locusts move only from the South to the North (compare _Credner_, S. 284); but in all history there is not one instance known of locusts having come [Pg 318] to Palestine from the North--from Syria. But even although occasionally single swarms, after having come to Syria from their native country, the hot and dry South, may have strayed thence to Palestine, such is not conceivable of so enormous a swarm as is here described, which, with youthful strength, devastated the whole of Palestine from one end to the other. Is it, moreover, probable that the prophet, who, as we have already seen, prophesies things future, would mention a circumstance so accidental as the transient abode of a swarm of locusts in Syria? Such a residence, _besides_, would not justify the assertion. The termination ־ִ־י added to common names, indicates origin and descent. An inhabitant of a town, for example, who should reside for a short time in a village, could not for that reason be called a פרזי.--_Finally_--The native country of the real locusts is plainly enough indicated by the words: "And I will drive him into the land dry and desolate." Who does not see that, by these words, the hot and dry southern countries are marked out, and that the prophet expresses the thought, "The enemies will be driven back to the place whence they came," by mentioning the country from which the real locusts used to come? Our opponents are here greatly embarrassed. Some explain: "The locusts marching northward,"--_Hezel_ and _Justi_, without the slightest countenance from the _usus loquendi_: "The dark and fearful host." This opinion was approved of by _Gesenius_ in the _Thesaurus_; but in opposition to it _Hitzig_ may be compared, who himself gives the explanation, "The Typhonic." _V. Cöln_ (_de Joelis aetate_, Marb. 1811, p. 10). _Ewald_ and _Meier_ propose a change in the text. With the reasons preventing us from referring the