Notes Critical and Practical, on the Book of Genesis. By George Bush [pp. 271-301]

Bush on Genesis.
poetic language, thle idea that to the children of Sod there
should be perfect security from the various forms of evil. It
is written also in the same connection, "At destruction and
famnine thou shalt laugh;" yet this affords no ground for
supposing that by mneans offamine, also, the murderer's life
was taken. We consider the language as conveying nothing
more than that of the Psalmist xci. 3, 5, 6, "Surely he shall
deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence." "Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror
by night nor for the arrow that flieth by day," &c. summed
up in vs. 10. " There shall no evil befal thee, neither shall
any plague come nigh thy dwelling."
Our view of the passage receives confirmation from the
fact that by the Mosaic law the blood of a man was enjoined to be'required at the hand of' or avenged upon, the beast
that should murderously violate the sanctity of human life.
Exodus xxi. 28.
Again.-According to the proposed interpretation, vs. 5
is merely tautological of vs. 4, and however it may be referred to "a different state of society," no intimation of the
kind is furnished by the context, vs. 4, "By means of
every man will I seek your blood-by means of every man's
brother will I seek the life of man," vs. 5, "Whosoever
sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed."
The author's view of the following clause would also
seem to conflict with his version of this passage. The
reason assigned for ordaining man as the instrument by
whom God would avenge wilful assassination is, as he conceives, "that man bears a visible impress of the divine image
in the legal sovereignty with which he is invested." But
how then cotld there be committed to the brute creation the
same charge involving such representative capacity? Is it a
reason applicable only "at a more advanced stage of society?"
But surely, if it was necessary to commit the execution of
justice in any degree to the agency of beasts when the whole
race of man belonged to a single circle, and when an escape
from the avenging stroke of his fellow were scarcely possible, would it not mutch mnore have been required in later
times when the assassin could escape detection-could lose
himself amid a crowded population, and effectually elude
the most vigilant and persevering search of his fellow-men?
In present circumstances we could well accommodate the
author's theory, and plainly recognise a propriety in reversing the arrangemcnt he proposcs, making man alone the
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