Shalt be over my house— Be the chief minister of my court, Psalms 105:21. He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance. And according to thy word, conformably to thy orders, shall all my people be ruled. The Hebrew is, according to thy word shall my people kiss; that is; they shall pay thee that submission and obedience of which the kiss was a token. See Psalms 2:12. 1 Kings 19:18. 1 Samuel 10:1 and in this sense it is taken by the LXX, the Samaritan, the Vulgate, and others. Some good critics prefer another translation, which appears to them more suitable to the conjuncture, and not less literal: all my people shall be nourished from thy mouth, i.e.. shall receive their nourishment by thy word or commandment. Houbigant renders it, ex tuis imperiis populus meus pendebit, my people shall hang or depend upon thy orders. The Eastern customs confirm the first interpretation; for they kiss what comes from the hand of a superior. So Dr. Pococke,* when he describes the AEgyptian compliments, tells us, that upon their taking any thing from the hand of a superior, or which is sent from such a one, they kiss it, and, as the highest mark of respect, put it to their forehead. But this is not peculiar to that country; for the editor of the Ruins of Balbec observed, that an Arab governor of that city respectfully applied the firman of the grand signior, which was presented to him when he and his fellow-travellers first waited on him, to his forehead, and then kissed it, declaring himself the sultan's slave's slave.
* Travels, vol. I. p. 182.