Ver. 1. Give ear, O ye heavens— Nothing can be more elegant and magnificent than the exordium of this divine ode: its whole disposition and form is regular, easy, and accommodated to the nature of the argument, in an order nearly historical. It contains a great variety of important matter: the truth and justice of God; his paternal love, and most propense benignity to his peculiar people: and, on the other hand, the ungrateful and rebellious temper of this people; then the ardour of the divine indignation; and the most alarming menaces, delivered under a fine prosopopoeia, than which nothing more sublime is extant in the choicest treasures of poetry. Yet those tides of indignation are, at the same time, tempered with compassion and lenity; and the song concludes, at length, with promises and consolations. Not to speak of the sublimity of the ideas, and the force of the diction and figures, we may observe, that the nature of the argument is such, that the style and manner of the prophetic poetry is greatly imitated; so that to all the strength and glowing spirit of the ode are added the variety and grandeur of images peculiar to that kind of poetry, concerning which we shall speak more when we come to the prophets. See Lowth, Praelec. Poet. 18, &c. It is not possible for us here to enter into a discussion of the metre of the Hebrew poetry in general, or of this ode in particular. Upon this head we beg leave to refer our readers, for full satisfaction, to Dr. Lowth's third Praelection: observing only, as we have frequently done heretofore, that each succeeding clause corresponds to the preceding one; which the attentive reader will particularly remember, as it will serve greatly, not only in this, but in all writings of the same kind, to make them much more clear and intelligible. The three first verses should be read thus:
Ver. 1. Give ear, O ye heavens! and I will speak, And hear, O earth! the words of my mouth. Ver. 2. My doctrine shall drop as the rain; My speech shall distil as the dew; As the small rain upon the tender herb, And as the showers upon the grass. Ver. 3. Because I will publish the name of the Lord; Ascribe ye greatness unto our God.
See the notes on Genesis 49 and Numbers 23:24 :