 but for the daemon (' ut doceat non sibi fieri sed daemoni). The Targum of Jonathan is very vague-' and mingle cups for their idols;' and the Syriac translators either omit the word altogether, or had a different reading, perhaps לָמוֹ, lamo, 'for them.' Some variation of the same kind apparently gave rise to the super eam of the Vulgate, referring to the 'table' mentioned in the first clause of the verse. From the old versions we come to the commentators, and their judgments are equally conflicting. Jerome :(Comm. in Es. 65:11) illustrates the passage by reference to an ancient idolatrous custom which prevailed in Egypt, and especially at Alexandria, on the last day of the last month of the year, of placing a table covered with dishes of various kinds, and a cup mixed with mead, in acknowledgment of the fertility of the past year, or as an omen of that which was to come (comp. Virgil, AEn. 2:763). But he gives no clue to the identification of Meni, and his explanation is evidently suggested by the renderings of the Sept. and the old Latin version; the former, as he quotes them, translating Gad by 'fortune,' and Meni by 'demon,' in which they are followed by the latter. In the later mythology of Egypt, as we learn from Macrobius (Saturn. 1:19), Δαίμων and Τύχη/ were two of the four deities who presided over birth, and represented respectively the Sun and Moon. A passage quoted by Selden (De Dis Syris, i, c. 1) from a MS. of Vettius Valens of Antioch, an ancient astrologer, goes also to prove that in the astrological language of his day the sun and moon were indicated by δαίμων and τύχη, as being the arbiters of human destiny. This circumstance, coupled with the similarity between Meni and Μήν or Μήνη), the ancient name for the moon, has induced the majority of commentators to conclude that Meni is the Moon god or goddess, the Deus Lunus, or Dea Luna of the Romans; masculine as regards the earth which she illumines (terrce maritus), feminine with respect to the sun (solis uxor), from :whom she receives her light. This twofold character of the moon is thought by David Mill to be indicated in the two names Gad and Meni, the former feminine, the latter masculine (Diss. v, § 23); but as both are masculine in Hebrew, his speculation falls to the ground. Le Moyne, on the other hand. regarded both words as denoting the sun, and his double worship among the Egyptians: Gad is then the goat of Mendes, and Meni =Mnevis worshipped at Heliopolis. The opinion of Huetius that the Meni- of Isaiah and the Μήν of Strabo (xii, c. 31) both denoted the sun, was refuted by Vitringa and others. Among those who have interpreted the word literally ' number' may be reckoned Jarchi and Abarbanel, who understand by it the 'number' of the priests that formed the company of revellers at the feast, and later Hoheisel (Obs. ad. diffc. Jes. loca, p. 349) followed in the same track. Kimchi, in his note on Isa 65:11, says ofMeni, 'It is a-star, and some interpret it of the stars which are numbered, and they are. the seven stars of motion,' i.e. the planets. Buxtorf (Lex. Hebr.) applies it to the 'number' of the stars which were worshipped as gods; Schindler (Lex. Pentagl.) to the ' number and multitude' of the idols, while according to others it refers to ' Mercury, the. god of numbers;' all which are mere conjectures, quot homines, tot sententice, and take their origin from the play upon the word Meni, which is found in the verse next following that in which it occurs ('therefore will I number [וּמָנַיתַי, um- ninithi], you to the sword'), and which is supposed to point to its derivation from the verb מָנָה, manah, to number. But the origin of the name of Noah, as given in Genesis v. 29, shows that such plays upon words are not to be depended upon as the bases of etymology. On the supposition, however, that in this case the etymology of Meni is really indicated, its meaning is still uncertain. Those who understand by it the moon, derive an argument for their theory from the fact that anciently years were numbered by the courses of the moon." The fact of 