Psalms 118:12

They compassed me about like bees; they are quenched as the fire of thorns - I shall refer to Dr. Delaney's note on this passage. The reader has here in miniature two of the finest images in Homer; which, if his curiosity demands to be gratified, he will find illustrated and enlarged, Iliad ii., ver. 86.

- Επεσσευοντο δε λαοι.π

Ηΰτε εθνεα εισι μελισσαων αδιναων,Πετρης εκ γλαφυρης αιει νεον ερχομεναων,Βοτρυδον δε πετονται επ ' ανθεσιν ειαρινοισιν,Αἱ μεν τ ' ενθα ἁλις πεποτηαται, αἱ δε τε ανθαπ

Ὡς των εθνεα πολλα νεων απο και κλισιαωνπ

Ηΐονος προπαροιθε βαθειης εστιχοωντοπ

Ιλαδον εις αγορην .

- The following host,

Poured forth by thousands, darkens all the coast.

As from some rocky cleft the shepherd sees,

Clustering in heaps on heaps, the driving bees,

Rolling and blackening, swarms succeeding swarms,

With deeper murmurs and more hoarse alarms:

Dusky they spread a close embodied crowd,

And o'er the vale descends the living cloud;

So from the tents and ships a lengthening train

Spreads all the beach, and wide o'ershades the plain;

Along the region runs a deafening sound;

Beneath their footsteps groans the trembling ground.

Pope