Page 7.—The staircase from the roof to the outer court.] See Bishop Pearce on Mark ii. 4. Matt. xxiv. 17. Shaw’s Travels, p. 210, 214. The bishop supposes the staircase to have gone immediately into the street, but Shaw says that he never observed an instance of this.

Page 11.—The termination of the Kedron.] The author means by this expression the point where the Kedron, after skirting Jerusalem on the east, turns off towards the Dead Sea. See what was said in the note on p. 244, vol. i. of the locality of Siloah, and its identity with Gihon. The valley of the Son of Hinnom, in which Tophet was a high place, (2 Kings xxiii. 10. Jer. vii. 31.) appears to have been on the southern side of Zion and without the city. If it had been, as some suppose, the same with the Tyropoeon, which separated Acra from Zion, it would have been within the city, which is incredible, considering its pollution. What the author afterwards (p. 12) calls the valley of Siloah, appears to be the western end of the Tyropoeon, at the eastern end of which was the fountain Siloah.

Page 14.—Sepulchres of the kings.] See in Maundrell, p. 76, the description of their still magnificent remains. “For what reason they go by this name is hard to resolve, since it is certain that none of the kings of Israel or Judah were buried here, unless it may be thought perhaps that Hezekiah was buried here, and that these were the sepulchres of the sons of David. 2 Chron. xxxii. 33.”

Page 15.—Golgotha.] This spot, called also Calvary, according to the common opinion of travellers, is included within the present city of Jerusalem. See the plan in Shaw’s Travels, p. 277.

Page 16.—Castle of Baris.] Baris ???? is an appelative, signifying a tower, (Joseph. Ant. x. 11.) used as a proper name of the castle which John Hyrcanus built, (Jos. Ant. xviii. 6.) as the royal residence. It was afterwards enlarged by Herod and called Antonia. (Jos. Ant. xv. 14.) In the text, “north-east corner of the temple” has been inadvertently substituted for north-west, which was its real position.

Page 19.—The crowing of the cock.] It has been asserted, on the authority of the Rabbins, (see Lightfoot on Matt. xxvi. 34.) that no cocks were kept in Jerusalem; but this appears to have been a later and groundless tradition, (Kuinoel. Matt. xxvi. 74.) to exalt the purity of the Holy City. For the same reason they said that no gardens were allowed within the walls, Lightfoot, Matt. xxvi. 36.

Page 19.—Confines of Judah and Benjamin.] See Reland, 840. It is sometimes spoken of in Scripture as included in the territory of Benjamin; Judges i. 21. Sometimes of Judah; Josh. xv. 63. The Rabbins say that the boundary line passed through the temple. Josephus (Ant. v. 1. 22.) reckons it to belong to Benjamin.

Page 20.—A beautiful plain.] “Jerusalem is surrounded by precipices on the south-east, east, and west, having only a small level towards the south, and a larger one to the north, which forms the summit of the mountain over which is the road to Jaffa.” Travels of Ali Bey, ii. 240.

Page 21.—Absalom’s pillar.] A monument, in part of the valley of Jehoshaphat, which passes by the name of the pillar of Absalom, is represented by Pococke, vol. ii. p. 22. It is cut out of the rock, and the front is adorned with Ionic columns. It is probably a sepulchre of much later origin.

Page 23.—Modes of threshing.] See Russell’s Aleppo, i. p. 76. Lowth on Isaiah, xxviii. 27, 28. Fragments to Calmet, No. xlviii.

Page 25.—Anathoth.] “Civitas sortis Benjamin, sacerdotibus separata, in tertio ab Ælia milliario: de qua Hieremias propheta.” Hieronymus in locis.

Page 28.—Elisama had neither kindred nor even acquaintance in Anathoth.] The author appears to have forgotten what he had said, vol. i. p. 16.

Page 28.—Emmaus.] This is not the Emmaus mentioned Luke xxiv. 13., but a town afterwards called Nicopolis. See Reland, 146. The Emmaus of the gospel history was a village, and nearer to Jerusalem. Rama, too, must not be confounded with the town of this name now called Ramla, about three leagues from Joppa, on the road to Jerusalem. Pococke, ii. 4. The ruins of Modin are said to be still visible on the top of a high mountain to the south of the road from Joppa to Jerusalem, (Richardson, ii. 26.) but I am not aware that any modern traveller has explored them.

Page 31.—Lydda.] It is still known by the name of Loudd. It lies about a league east-north-east of Rama, and in the same fertile plain. Poc. ii. 4.

Page 31.—Ono.] See Lightfoot’s Works, ii. 320. Reland, Cat. sub. voce. It was three miles from Lydda. 1 Chron. viii. 12. From a passage quoted by Lightfoot it appears to have abounded in figs. Sharon was a continuation of the great plain of Sephela mentioned before. The whole coast of Palestine, from Carmel to the limits of Egypt, is level. “Pro campestribus in HebrÆo Saron ponitur. Omnis regio circa Lyddam, Joppen, et Jamniam apta est pascendis gregibus.” Hieronym. ad Jes. lxv. 1 Chron. xxvii. 29. Reland, 370.

Page 32.—The servants were treated as the chief persons.] The genius of the Mosaic law was considerate of the comfort of servants, who were to join in the festive meal made upon the unsacrificed portions of the free-will-offerings, Deut. xii. 18. and in the feast of Pentecost, Deut. xvi. 11. But I am not aware of any direct authority for representing it as a Jewish custom to make a feast for the servants, in which they were treated as the chief persons. Yet it is not probable that our Lord (Luke xii. 37.) would have represented the master as girding himself and waiting on the servants whom he wished to reward for their fidelity, if such a thing were wholly unknown. Bishop Pearce, in his note on this passage, explains it of the custom of the bridegroom’s waiting on the company as a servant, which he says was common not very long since in our own country. It would still remain to be explained how the servants came to be included in the company on which he waited. The Roman Saturnalia, however, may show that such an inversion of the customary relations of life was not altogether foreign to ancient manners.

Page 34.—Flight of locusts.] Blumenbach’s Nat. Hist. Art. Gryllus migratorius. The epitome of Livy, lib. lx. mentions a pestilence as breaking out in Africa, about this time, in consequence of the putrefaction of a vast swarm of locusts. According to other accounts nearly a million of persons perished. Oros. v. 11. Prid. Conn. An. 125. Of their devastations, see Shaw, 187. who illustrates almost every particular in the description of Joel, from his own experience. Hasselquist, 444. Bryant’s Plagues of Egypt, p. 133-152.

Page 36.—Joppa.] The author supposes this name to be derived from the Hebrew ??? beautiful. Under the name of Jaffa, this port is celebrated in the history of the middle ages, and in that of the late war. Josephus speaks of the badness of the anchorage, (Bell. Jud. iii. 8. 3.) and modern travellers confirm the account.

Page 37.—One of the towers of Jerusalem can be discerned.] ??pp?—?? ??e? ??a???, ?ste ?f???s??? fas?? ?p’ a?t?? t? ?e??s???a, t?? t?? ???d???? ?t??p????. Strabo, lib. xvi. 759. This circumstance is not confirmed by modern travellers. Pococke, ii. 3. “Joppa stood upon and under a hill, from whence, as Strabo relates, but impossible to be true, Jerusalem might be discerned; having an ill haven, defended on the south and west with eminent rocks, but open to the fury of the north.” Sandys, p. 118. Yet Josephus relates, (Bell. Jud. v. 4.) and in this he could hardly be mistaken, that the sea was visible from one of the towers of Jerusalem.

Page 39.—Grecian story of Andromeda.] “Est Joppe ante diluvium, ut ferunt condita: ubi Cephea regnasse eo signo accolÆ adfirmant, quod titulum ejus, fratrisque Phinei veteres quÆdam arÆ cum religione plurima retinent. Quinetiam rei celebratÆ carminibus ac fabulis servatÆque a Perseo AndromedÆ clarum vestigium, belluÆ marinÆ ossa immania ostendunt.” Pomp. Mela, i. 11.

Page 40.—A Nazarite.] See Lightfoot on Luke i. 15. 1 Cor. xi. 14. Jennings’s Jew. Ant. i. 415. Mich. Mos. Law, § 143.

Page 41.—Maresa.] See Josephus, Ant. xiii. 10. 2. Its capture by Judas MaccabÆus is mentioned, Ant. xii. 7. ad fin. It was at Maresa that Asa defeated the Ethiopians. 2 Chron. xiv. 10. Jerome and Eusebius place it at two miles from Eleutheropolis. Cellarius, iii. 13. p. 359.

Page 41.—Destruction of Samaria.] See Jos. Ant. xiii. 10. 3. Prid. Conn. An. 109. Antiochus Cyzicenus, who commanded the Egyptian auxiliaries, had fallen into an ambuscade, and lost many of his men. Callimander, whom he had left in command, was defeated and killed.

Page 43.—Gazera.] This place, called also Gezer, or Gadara, (to be distinguished from Gadara in the PerÆa mentioned in the New Test.) is several times spoken of by Josephus in connection with Joppa. Ant. xiii. 9. Reland, 778, 801. Strabo mentions it in connection with Ascalon and Ashdod, xvi. p. 759. It was the western boundary of the portion of Ephraim. The root of the word (???) denoting an enclosed place, gave rise to several names of towns; among others the Phoenician G?de??a, Cadiz.

Page 44.—The five cities of the Philistines.] Gath, Ekron, Ascalon, Gaza, and Ashdod, (Azotus.) Jos. Ant. vi. 1.

Page 44.—Eleutheropolis.] Though scarcely mentioned in the times of the Old or New Testament, it became afterwards a place of considerable importance, and the episcopal see of Palestina prima. Epiphanius was born there. Reland, 749.

Page 45.—Institution of genealogists.] Michaelis supposes that the ????? (called officers in our translation, Josh. xxiii. 1, 2.) mentioned Exod. v. 10. were the genealogists of the Israelites. Mos. Law, § 51. Of the division into families (??????), houses of the fathers (??? ????), and heads of the houses (??????????), see Numb. i. 2. Jos. vii. 14. 16. 17. Mich. § 46. Lowman, Heb. Gov. chap. v. Thus in the affair of Achan, first the tribe of Judah is taken, then the family of Zerah, then the house of Zabdi, and lastly the individual Achan. Josh. vii. 16. The political institutions of the Jews, the right to landed property, &c. all depended on birth; and the keeping of accurate genealogies was of the very first necessity. Josephus, c. Ap. i. 7. describes the means which were taken to preserve the registers and to repair any mutilations or imperfections which might have been occasioned by political disturbances.

Page 46.—Their number was seventy-one.] There were twelve princes and fifty-eight heads of families. Num. xxvi. The supreme ruler for the time being, under Jehovah, would naturally preside. Whether the princes and heads were elective is doubtful. See Lowman, p. 77. The assembly of Israel at Shechem by Joshua, (xxiv. 1, 2.) is an example of such a Diet as the text mentions.

Page 48.—Lachish.] Rehoboam is said (2 Chron. xi. 9.) to have built Lachish, but it is evident from the connection that this means fortified: for he is said to have built Hebron and other cities, which were in existence long before. So when Solomon is said to have built Tadmor or Palmyra, the meaning probably is not that he founded, but that he fortified and garrisoned it. Michaelis, Mos. Law, § 23.

Page 48.—The grove of terebinths.] In the valley of Elah. 1 Sam. xvii. 2, 3. Dr. Clarke, iv. 421. describes it as being three miles from Bethlehem, on the road to Jaffa.

Page 56.—Aduffes.] The Aduffe (a word which through the Spanish and the Arabic appears to be connected with the Hebrew ??) is formed of a circle of metal, over which a skin is stretched, and hung with bells at the circumference. Mich. Mos. Law, § 197, note. Russell’s Aleppo, i. 152. where it is called Diff.

Page 56.—Jewish army.] In the times of the Maccabees the Jews, who had frequently served in the armies of the Grecian kings, appear to have adopted the Grecian armour and discipline, as far as they could. But we have few details of their military system in Josephus or the Apocrypha. Their triumphs had been celebrated from early times with dance, song, and sacrifice, and continued to be so under the Maccabees, 1 Macc. xiii. 51. iv. 34. Jos. Ant. xii. 7. 5. Judith xv. xvi. and probably in this respect, mutatis mutandis, they imitated the heathens. So at least our author presumes.

Page 57.—Military engines.] The battering ram (??) (Ezek. xxi. 22.) and other engines (xxvi. 9.) are said to have been used by the Babylonians, and the use of them might be learnt by the Jews. Uzziah is said (2 Chron. xxvi. 14.) to have constructed machines for throwing darts and stones. Calmet, Mil. des HÉb. Diss. i. 237. Under the Maccabees they appear to have been in common use. 1 Macc. xiii. 43.

Page 59.—New moon.] Of the annunciation of the new moon and the fraud of the Samaritans, see Lightfoot, Works, i. 950. “The Bairam,” or feast which succeeds the fast of Ramadan, “is announced at Aleppo by the castle guns, as soon as a declaration on oath has been made of the appearance of the new moon. The person who bears this testimony commonly comes from one of the villages.” Russell, i. 189.

Page 60.—Sid or Ijar.] See the note, vol. i. p. 260, respecting the Jewish calendar.

Page 61.—Being cut off from the people.] It is probable that in all cases where this is denounced as the punishment for violations of the Levitical law, it was supposed that they were committed presumptuously; and the omission of purification from forgetfulness would not have entailed the punishment. Mich. Mos. Law, § 249. Comp. 2 Chron. xxx. 18. “Quidquid de poen excisionis statuendum fuerit, certius nihil est quam eam nec a Talmudicis nec a KarÆis inter humanas aut forenses poenas censeri, sed pro divinitus tantum infligenc accipi.” Selden de Synedr. p. 95. This is not probable.

Page 62.—Touching a grave.] According to the law respecting impurities contracted by this means, (Num. xix. 19.) there should have been a purification on the third day.

Page 64.—Share of the priests.] See Deut. xviii. 1-5. Lev. vii. 28-38. Num. xviii. 8-20.

Page 66.—Removal of the Nazarite’s vow.] Numb. vi. 13-21. comp. Acts xxi. 24. Reland, Ant. Heb. 287. Id. 328. of the sacrifices which might or might not be eaten. Of the court of the Nazarites, Lightfoot, Works, i. 1092. As these sacrifices were expensive, it appears to have been a usual act of pious benevolence, to “be at charges” for poorer Nazarites. So Josephus (Ant. xix. 6.) relates, that Agrippa, on his coming again to his government, caused many Nazarites to be shaved. If the Apostle Paul’s vow was really a Nazarite’s, which many doubt, it should seem as if it sometimes extended only to seven days, the term during which, according to the original law, he remained unclean by funereal defilement, while his vow was upon him.

Page 78.—Gazith.] According to Reland, Ant. Heb. p. 104, half of this hall was in the court of the priests, half in the Chel. (See vol. i. p. 253.) The reason for this division was, that the court of the priests was within the precincts of the sanctuary, in which no one was allowed to sit, except kings of the family of David. The Sanhedrim sat therefore in the part which was not in the court of the priests. See Maimon. de Æd. Templi, vii. 6. Lightfoot, Works, i. 2005. It is said to have been built by Simeon Ben Shetach, a little later than the time of John Hyrcanus.

Page 79.—The Sanhedrim.] When Moses found the burden of judging the people too great for him, (Numb. xi. 16.) he appointed seventy men, elders of the people, to assist him. In the succeeding times of the judges and kings, the traces of this institution disappear; but after the captivity a great council (Synedrium) was formed, on the model and consisting of the same number as this, uniting the political functions of the diet and the juridical duties of Moses’s judges. Lowman, Heb. Gov. ch. ix. Mich. Mos. Law, § 50. Seventy was a favourite number, Jos. B. J. ii. 20. 5.

Page 80.—Scrutiny of the priests.] Reland, Ant. Heb. 184. Maim. de Rat. ad. Templi. c. vi.

Page 82.—Clad in black.] Josephus (Bell. Jud. v. 5. 7.) says, those who were excluded from the priesthood for bodily defects, wore common garments.

Page 83.—Sacerdotal robes.] Lightfoot, Works, i. 2049. Of the position of the vestry, see Reland, 104. The girdle was hollow like a purse: this is what is meant by being like a serpent’s skin.

Page 85.—The unction was imputed to him.] “Sacerdotes gregarii semel modo in solitudine adspersi fuere, uti JudÆi tradunt, sic ut vi unctionis illius vel adspersionis posteri eorum consecrati censerentur.” Reland, Ant. Heb. 148.

Page 90.—Behold thou delightest in the truth in secret things.] Such is the turn which the author gives to the words, which in our version are rendered, “Behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts; and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.” The whole connection is unfavourable to this interpretation, for David is evidently praying for moral purity. “Truth in the reins” is, probably, sincerity in virtue; and wisdom, in the book of Proverbs, is often used in the same sense. It may be observed here, once for all, that the author appears to put into the mouth of the old man of the temple, his own opinions respecting the typical nature of the ordinances and sacrifices of the law. Into this much controverted question the translator does not consider himself called upon to enter. Every reader will judge according to his own interpretations of the language of Scripture.

Page 99.—Carrying the shewbread into the sanctuary.] Reland, Ant. Heb. 225. who, however, represents only eight priests as engaged in this office. So Lightfoot, Works, i. 1082.

Page 100.—The nightly watch of the priests and Levites.] Maim, de Æd. Templi, c. viii. Fasc. Hist. et Phil. Sacr. vi. 69. Lightfoot, i. 941.

Page 101.—Casting lots.] Lightfoot, i. 942. Reland, 198.

Page 102.—Sloping ascent to the altar.] The altar of burnt-offering was not to be ascended by steps, (Exod. xx. 26.) but by an inclined plane. Of the men of the station (???? ????), see Reland, p. 186. Of the priests who resided constantly in Jerusalem. Lightfoot, i. 917.

Page 103.—The sun had risen.] It is commonly supposed that nine in the morning and three in the afternoon were the hours respectively of morning and evening sacrifice, as they were the two principal hours of public prayer. Lewis, Ant. i. 501. Josephus, however, represents the morning sacrifice as offered, p???, which, according to the common use of the word, (Larch. Herod, ii. 173.) must mean in the earliest of the morning, and this was the time of private morning prayer. Jos. Ant. v. 8.

Page 109.—The sacerdotal order is the most exalted in the world.] The priesthood was the Jewish aristocracy. ?spe? d? pa?’ ???st??? ???? t?? ?st? e??e?a?a? ?p??es??, ??t?? pa?’ ??? ? t?? ?e??s???? et??s?a te?????? ?st? ?????? ?ap??t?t??. Jos. Vit. i.

Page 111.—Only a sixth part.] “QuÆlibet sacerdotum curia dividebatur in familias septem, ex quibus unaquÆque unum hebdomadÆ diem obibat altaris munia.” Crenius, Fasc. Hist, et Phil. Sacr. vii. 795.

Page 116.—Jehovah our righteousness.] “Laudant qui in scriptis Rabbinorum Messiam Jovam nuncupari contendunt, Echa R. ad Thren. i. 16. fol. 59. 2. Quodnam est nomen regis MessiÆ? R. Abba f. Cahana dixit, Jova est nomen ejus, sec. Jer. xxiii. 6. ???? ????? (ubi tamen hoc nomine symbolico IsraelitÆ insigniuntur et Jer. xxxiii. 15. HierosolymÆ id ipsum nomen tribuitur) quod dixit R. Levi, Bonum est civitati si nomen habet quod rex et regi si nomen habet quod Deus ejus, sec. Ezech. xlviii. 35. Etiam Justi qui Dei favore perfruuntur, Dei nomine insigniuntur, Bava Bathra, fol. 75. 2. Tria sunt quÆ nomine ipsius Dei veniunt, nimirum Justi, Jes. xliii. 7. Messias, Jer. xxiii. 6. Hierosolyma, Ezec. xlviii. 35. Quo autem sensu Messias in Rabbinorum scriptis nuncupetur Jehovah Zidkenu docet R. Albo in Sepher Ikkarim (v. Schoettgen. Hor. Heb. ii. 200.) Scriptura nomen MessiÆ vocat Jehovah Zidkenu, quia mediator Dei est, per quem justitiam a Deo accipiemus. Kimchi: IsraelitÆ vocabunt Messiam hoc nomine Jehovah Zidkenu, quia temporibus ejus justitia Dei nobis firma et stabilis erit, quÆ nunquam recedet.” Kuinoel ad Joh. i. 1.

Page 125.—Covert of the sabbath.] See Lightfoot, i. 2028. 2 Kings xvi. 18.

Page 125.—Distance of Jericho from Jerusalem.] ?p??e? d? ?e??s????? ?? stad???? ??at?? p??t????ta, t?? d? ???d???? ??????ta. Jos. Bell. Jud. iv. 8. The view from the Mount of Olives is described by most travellers in the Holy Land.

Page 128.—The TherapeutÆ.] Philo, who is the only ancient author who speaks of the TherapeutÆ, says, (de Vit. cont. Op. 892.) that there were many of them in all parts of Egypt; but that their favourite residence was a hill near the lake Mareotis. The TherapeutÆ were, according to him, the contemplative Essenes. Op. 889. They were great allegorists; ??t???????te? t??? ????t?t??? ???as?, f???s?f??s?, t?? p?t???? f???s?f?a? ??????????te?. They were called TherapeutÆ, ?p? t?? ?e?ape?e?? t? ??, p. 890. The account of the Essenes and the other Jewish sects, the Pharisees and Sadducees, may be seen in Philo, Op. 876. Joseph. Bell. Jud. ii. 8. Ant. xiii. 5. xviii. 1. or Prideaux, Conn. An. 107. who has translated great part of what Josephus says.

Page 132.—A dreary waste.] “After some hours travel you arrive at the mountainous desert into which our blessed Saviour was led, to be tempted by the devil. A most miserable, dry, barren place it is, consisting of high rocky mountains, so torn and disordered as if the earth had here suffered some great convulsion, in which its very bowels had been turned outward. On the left hand, looking down in a deep valley as we passed along, we saw some ruins of small cells and cottages, which they told us were formerly the habitations of hermits, retiring hither for penance and mortification. And certainly there could not be found in the whole earth a more comfortless and abandoned place for that purpose. From the top of these hills of desolation, however, we had a delightful prospect of the mountains of Arabia, the Dead Sea, and the plain of Jericho.” Maundrell, p. 80. The reader will observe with what propriety this region has been chosen for the scene of the parable of the good Samaritan. See Buckingham, 292.

Page 134.—Valour of the Essenes.] Philo (Op. 877.) represents them as holding war in the utmost abhorrence, and never fabricating any instrument which could be employed in it. Josephus praises (Bell. Jud. ii. 8. 10.) the constancy which they displayed in the Roman war, but it was in enduring torture. He speaks of them, however, as carrying swords for their defence against thieves; and Philo mentions that the TherapeutÆ united for mutual protection, if their settlements were attacked. Op. 893.

Page 138.—Oasis of the Essenes.] It is placed in this neighbourhood on the authority of Pliny, who represents them as living near the Dead Sea, on the western side, but at such a distance as to avoid the effects of the pestilential effluvia. N. H. v. 17.

Page 138.—The books of doctrine and the names of the angels.] S??t???se?? ????? t?te t?? a???se?? a?t?? ???a ?a? t? t?? ??????? ???ata. Jos. Bell. Jud. ii. 17. Thus rendered by Prideaux, “to preserve with equal care the books containing the doctrine of their sect, and the names of the messengers by whose hands they were written and conveyed to them.”

Page 140.—Seated themselves at table.] This was the primitive custom of the Jews, (as of the heroic times of Greece, Athen. lib. i. p. 11.) See Gen. xxvii. 19. 1 Sam. xx. 5. 24, Amos ii. 8. is the first passage of Scripture in which the recumbent posture is mentioned.

Page 141.—No women were to be seen.] “Gens sola, et in toto orbe prÆter ceteras mira sine ull feminÂ, omni venere abdicatÂ, sine pecuniÂ, socia palmarum. In diem ex Æquo convenarum turb renascitur, large frequentantibus quos vita fessos ad mores eorum fortunÆ fluctus agitat. Ita per seculorum millia, incredibile dictu gens Æterna est in qua nemo nascitur.” Plin. N. H. v. 17.

Page 149.—The garden of God, the plain of Jericho.] See the description in Josephus, B. J. iv. 8. Huds. ?? ??? ?? ?a?te?? t??a ??p??ta, ?e??? e??a? t? ??????, ?? ? da???? t? spa???tata ?a? ?a???sta ?e???ta?. Other particulars respecting the city and the region which surrounds it may be found in Reland, 829. Most modern travellers to the Holy Land also describe it. See Maundrell, p. 80. seq. Pococke, ii. 31. Epiphanius describes Jericho as having a circuit of twenty stadia. It is generally supposed that the village of Rihhah, about three miles from the Jordan, marks the site, as it evidently bears the name of Jericho. But Rihhah has no ruins, such as might have been expected on the site of so considerable a city. Hence it has been thought that the ancient Jericho stood nearer the mountains, at a place where many broken shafts and other traces of buildings are visible, and at the distance of six miles from the Jordan. Buckingham, 295.

Page 158.—Chiefly inhabited by priests.] This circumstance serves still further to illustrate the local propriety of the parable of the good Samaritan.

Page 161.—Bethabara.] ???aa?? ??? ???? denotes a place of passage. John i. 28. Engeddi was called, from its palms, Hazazon Thamar, 2 Chron. xx. 2. It was a large village. Pliny, who calls it the second town in JudÆa after Jerusalem, (v. 17.) must have confounded it with Jericho. It was about three hundred stadia from Jerusalem.

Page 161.—Balsam shrubs.] Pliny N. H. xii. 25. ii. 672. Hard. “Omnibus odoribus prÆfertur balsamum, uni terrarum JudÆa concessum, quondam in duobus tantum hortis utroque regio, altero jugerum xx non amplius, altero pauciorum. Opes JudÆis ex vectigalibus opobalsami crevere, quod in his tantum regionibus gignitur. Est namque vallis quÆ continuis montibus velut muro quodam ad instar castrorum clauditur. Spatium loci ducenta jugera nomine Hierichus dicitur. In ea sylva est et ubertate et amoenitate insignis; palmeto et opobalsamo distinguitur. Arbores opobalsami formam similem piceis arboribus habent, nisi quod sunt humiles magis et in vinearum morem excoluntur. HÆ certo anni tempore balsamum sudant” Justin, xxxvi. 4. The balsam tree appears to be a native of Arabia Felix, (see Bruce’s Travels, v. 19-24.) and, according to Josephus, the queen of Sheba brought it into JudÆa, ?????s? d’ ?t? ?a? t?? t?? ?p?a?s??? ???a?, ?? ?t? ?a? ??? ??? ? ???a f??e?, d??s?? ta?t?? t?? ???a???? ???e?. Ant. viii. 6. Various ancient authors describe the shrub. See Dr. T. M. Harris’s Nat. Hist, of the Bible, published at Boston, N. A. Beneath the desolating sway to which Palestine is subject, the balsam has disappeared from the plain of Jericho. Pococke, 32. Volney, Voy. en Syrie, ii. 187. Arabia now supplies what is imported under the name of Balsam of Mecca. Hasselquist, 293.

What is now called the rose of Jericho is a species of thlaspi, according to Pococke. Mariti describes it as a small plant, having a number of stems which diverge from the earth; they are covered with few leaves but loaded with flowers, which appear red in the bud, but turn paler as they expand, and at length become white entirely. The flowers, he says, have a great resemblance to those of the elder, but have no smell. This can hardly be the plant of which Wisdom says, (Eccles. xxiv. 14.) “I was exalted like a palm-tree in Engaddi, and a rose plant in Jericho.”

Page 162.—The Dead Sea.] Of the ancient geographers, Strabo has given the fullest account of the Dead Sea, but strangely confounding it with the lake of Sirbonis, (xvi. p. 763. 4.) He particularly mentions the tradition of the country, that the cities had been destroyed by an earthquake and an eruption of sulphur and fire. It is not surprising that where there was so much to astonish, imagination should have exaggerated even the real wonders of the scene. What is mentioned in the text is agreeable to the observations of the latest travellers, except that it does not appear that those dark clouds of smoke rise from the surface, which the author has described, p. 133. What has given rise to the account has probably been the exhalations which often hang in a dense cloud over the stagnant waters. Volney, i. 182. 3. Irby and Mangles, p. 447. By far the most accurate account of the Dead Sea, is that which is given by the authors last referred to, in their unpublished Travels in Syria. Hitherto it had scarcely been explored by an European traveller on the southern side, and consequently its extent, in that direction, had been very much overrated. Including what they call its back-water, a shallow bay forming a prolongation of it on the south, (p. 454) it cannot exceed, they say, thirty miles at the utmost, though the ancients have assigned to it a length of from seventy-five to eighty. Nor is it possible that it should anciently have extended much further than it now does; because at the distance of about eight or ten miles to the south of the present limit of the backwater, a range of cliffs completely closes the valley of the Ghor, (p. 454.) This is therefore the utmost extent that the lake can have had in ancient times.

The saltness and bitterness of the water mentioned in the text does not arise from a mixture of naphtha and asphaltes, but from the large quantities of the muriates of magnesia, soda, and lime, which it contains, amounting to a fourth part of the weight, according to Dr. Marcet’s analysis. Phil. Trans. 1807, p. 296. Hence the great specific gravity of the water, which has been exaggerated as if the human body could not sink in it. Tac. Hist. v. 6.

Page 162.—Apples of Sodom.] Wisdom x. 7. (where, however, the land is only described as “bearing fruit that never comes to ripeness.”) Tac. Hist. v. 7. Jos. Bell. Jud. iv. 8. “Poma Sodomitica, are the fruits of the Solanum Melongena, LinnÆi; these I found in plenty about Jericho, in the vales near Jordan, not far from the Dead Sea. It is true they are sometimes filled with a dust, yet this is not always the case, but only when the fruit is attacked by an insect (tenthredo) which turns all the inside into dust, leaving the skin only entire, and of a beautiful colour.” Hasselquist, p. 287.

Page 164.—Ceremonies of circumcision.] These are described from the practices of the modern Jews; see Buxtorf. cap. ii. p. 79.

Page 166.—Every guest found in the fore-court a splendid caftan.] Comp. Matt. xxii. 11. the parable of the wedding garment; it has been reasonably concluded that so severe a punishment would not have been inflicted on the man who was not in a wedding garment, if it had not been offered to all the guests.

Page 167.—Mashal.] This name the Hebrews gave to those sententious and figurative maxims of moral wisdom of which the Proverbs of Solomon are a specimen. See Lowth, Prel. 24. Samson’s wedding affords an example of such “wit-trials” as are here described, Judges xiv.

Page 176.—Reckoning of the days from the Passover.] See Maimonides, ap. Cren. Fasc. vi. 477.

Page 179.—The Galileans.] Josephus (Bell. Jud. iii. 3.) describes the extent and the fertility of Galilee. Lightfoot, Works, vol. ii. p. 78, has collected from the Rabbins several instances of the false pronunciation of the Galileans. Wetstein on Matt. xxvi. 73. The contempt in which they were held by the learned inhabitants of Jerusalem is sufficiently known from the New Testament.

Page 184.—Insult offered to Hyrcanus by the Pharisees.] This circumstance is related by Josephus, (Ant. xiii. 10.) The reason alleged by the Pharisees, if it were their real motive, was honourable to them. ?? ??? ?d??e? ???d???a? ??e?a ?a??t? ??????? ????? te ?a? f?se? p???, t?? ????se?? ?p?e???? ????s?? ?? Fa??sa???.

Page 186.—Azereth.] See Lightfoot, “of the Pentecost, ????,” Works, vol. ii. p. 970. Josephus, Ant. iii. 10. 6. This name is given to other festivals in Scripture, but never to this, except by the Rabbins. It is not said in Scripture that the law was given on this day, but it is inferred by calculation of the time. The Israelites came out of Egypt on the fifteenth of Nisan, and they reached the foot of Sinai on the new moon of the third month from their departure, (Exod. xix. 1.) adding the fifteen remaining days of Nisan to twenty-nine of Siv, the first day of Sivan would be the forty-fifth from their departure. Five days more elapsed, (Exod. xix. 3. 7, 8. 11.) before the law was actually given. Jennings’s Jew. Ant.

Page 195.—Rama.] This, which signifies high, was a name borne by so many places in Palestine, that it is difficult to discriminate them. Reland, p. 581, 964, supposes that the Arimathea of the New Testament was near Lydda. 1 Macc. i. 34.

Page 197.—Lebona.] Now Leban, on the road from Jerusalem to Naplosa. Maundrell, p. 63.

Page 199.—Sichem.] Of its position see Buckingham, p. 63. Reland makes Sichem or Sichar (John iv. 5.) to be ten miles from Shiloh, and forty from Jerusalem, p. 1007. The town of Neapolis, called by the inhabitants Mabortha, (Jos. Bell. iv. 8.) was built so nearly on the site of Sichem, that it is generally spoken of as the same. The name is retained in the modern Naplosa or Nablous. Dr. Clarke bears testimony to the romantic beauty of the situation, (iv. 268.) Maundrell, p. 62, supposes that the city may have anciently extended nearer to Joseph’s well, as a mile seems a great distance to come to draw water. Mr. Buckingham, however, says that there are traces of sepulchres between the well and the city, which must have been without the walls. Travels, p. 543.

Page 200.—Moreh.] Like Mamre, it was celebrated for its terebinths, (Deut. xi. 30.) and the two places have sometimes been confounded together.

Page 203.—The Samaritans.] A remnant of this people, escaping the persecutions of the emperor Justinian, (Gibbon, viii. 323.) has still continued to inhabit Sichem, and to celebrate their festivals on mount Gerizim. Basnage, vii. c. 25, 26. Had the despot effected his purpose of exterminating or converting them, Revelation would have been deprived of the evidence which their copy of the Pentateuch furnishes of the general integrity of the Mosaic writings. This invaluable document was first brought into Europe about 1640 A. D. About forty of them still remain at Naplosa. Jowett’s Christian Researches, p. 425. No ancient authority supports the Samaritan reading of Gerizim for Ebal, Deut. xxvii. 4. Josh. viii. 30. Had the Jews corrupted the reading out of hatred to the Samaritan worship, they would have made Gerizim the Mount of Cursing, Deut. xxvii. 12.

Page 204.—Well may Shechem be called Sychar.] ???, Sicar, signifies in Hebrew to be intoxicated, and ??? to lye. Isaiah xxviii. 3. The Jews, even in their most serious compositions, delighted in this play on words. Isaiah x. 30.

Page 206.—Samaria.] Dr. Richardson’s Travels (ii. p. 414) contain the fullest account which any modern traveller has given of the present state of Samaria. There are still many magnificent remains of the buildings erected by Herod when he raised it from its ruins and named it in honour of Augustus, Sebaste. Jos. Ant. xv. 8. 5. The historian relates its destruction by Hyrcanus, Ant. xiii. 10. 4.

Page 206.—A tribe of wandering shepherds.] Compare the picture of the Bedouin Arabs in Volney (Voyage en Syrie, i. 235, 239, 40.) Clarke, vi. 248. and of the Turkmans, Russell, i. 388.

Page 211.—Route of the Tyrian commerce.] The remains of this paved road leading towards Tyre are still distinctly visible along the coast. See Irby and Mangles, Travels, p. 197.

Page 211.—Megiddo.] Called ?a?d???? by Herodotus, ii. 159. in his narrative of the victory of Pharaoh Necho.

Page 211.—Turris Stratonis.] It is uncertain from, whom this town received its name. Herod occupied ten years in restoring and beautifying it, and forming the harbour; and gave it, in honour of Augustus, the name of CÆsarea. Jos. Ant. xvi. 5. Bell. Jud. i. 21. It was called ?a?s??e?a Seast? (Augusta) and ?p? t? ?a?ass?, to distinguish it from CÆsarea Philippi or Paneas, near Dan. It was to CÆsarea Augusta that Paul was sent when his life was threatened by the Jews. Acts xxiii. 23. From the account of Josephus it should seem as if it had had no harbour before Herod formed one; for he observes, that the whole coast from Dan to Joppa was without a harbour. Bell. Jud. i. 21.

Page 213.—The purple dye.] The manner of making it is fully described by Pliny, N. H. lib. ix. 60. seq. “Two shell-fish were employed to furnish it, the murex and the purpura; the former gave a dark blue colour; the latter a brighter tint, approaching to scarlet. The liquor is contained in a sort of pouch, which occupies the middle part of the shell; the shells are carefully broken, so as to preserve the part entire; they are sprinkled with salt, and the mucilage which they form is put into a leaden caldron and heated; the fleshy particles are gradually drawn off and the liquor left pure. The purple tint was given by the mixture of the two juices.” Swinburne’s Travels in Sicily, ii. 64, 65.

Page 213.—Acco.] It received the name of Ptolemais from one of the kings of Egypt. In the middle ages, when it became celebrated in the history of the crusades, it resumed its original name, slightly altered, and is now called Acre. It lies on the northern side of the promontory of Carmel. See Maundrell, p. 54.

The ?????? ???a?, which, according to Josephus, (Bell. Jud. ii. 10.) was one hundred stadia north of Ptolemais, appears to have been the White Cliff in which the chain of Antilibanus terminates, and it probably derived its name from the road described by Egmont and Heyman, ii. 232. Maundrell erroneously places it to the north of Berytus, (p. 35.) It is so steep, says Mr. Buckingham, (p. 58) as “in some places to render steps necessary:” hence the name ???a?.

Page 215.—Lebanon.] “PrÆcipuum montium Lebanum erigit, mirum dictu tantos inter ardores opacum fidumque nivibus.” Tac. Hist. v. 6. ??? signifies in Hebrew white. Libanus and Antilibanus are described by Strabo, xvi. 755. Reland, lib. i. c. 47. The part of the chain Antilibanus, which was called Hermon by the Israelites, was called Sirion by the Sidonians, and Shenir (the Sannir or Sannin of the Arabs) by the Amorites, Deut. iii. 9. They are sometimes distinguished from each other (Cant. iv. 8.) as different points of the same mountain chain. Some geographers have placed another Hermon in Galilee, near Tabor, (see Reland’s and Pococke’s maps) from Ps. lxxxix. 12. where, however, Tabor and Hermon seem to be conjoined, as having each witnessed a signal display of Jehovah’s power. Josh. xi. 17. Judges iv. See Lightfoot, ii. 369.

Page 215.—Dan.] Josephus (Ant. v. 3. viii. 8.) speaks of Dan as situated in the great plain of Sidon, and near Libanus and the source of the Lesser Jordan. Lightfoot and Reland suppose that the Lesser is the Jordan before it reaches the lake Samochonitis. This seems not probable.

Page 218.—Tyre.] In the description of Tyre, v. 6, the islands of Chittim are Greece, Macedonia, Italy, and its dependent islands, Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, &c. Comp. Gen. x. 4. Dan. xi. 30. 1 Mace. i. 1. viii. 5. It is not wonderful that the Jews, knowing chiefly the southern parts of Greece, Italy, Gaul, and Spain, which are so deeply indented by the sea, should call them isles. Box, of extraordinary size, was produced in Corsica, Plin. N. H. lib. xvi. 28. The prophet here describes some extraordinary luxury in the equipment of a Tyrian vessel, not the ordinary construction of their ships. V. 7. Elisha is Hellas, Greece. Laconia was celebrated for its purple as well as many of the islands adjacent to the Peloponnesus:

See Bochart Geogr. Sacr. lib. iii. c. 4. It seems singular that Tyre, so renowned for its own purple, should be represented as buying it from Greece. Perhaps the fine linen or byssus of Elis, dyed purple, is meant. Arvad is the Aradus of the ancients, on the coast of Phoenice. V. 9. Gebal is the Byblos of the Greeks, another seaport of Phoenice, still called Djebel. V. 11. Who the GammadÆans were is unknown; some consider the word as meaning guards. See RosenmÜller in loc. V. 12. Tarshish is generally agreed to be Tartessus in the south of Spain, celebrated for its metallic riches. V. 13. The Tibarenians and Moschians (Tubal and Meshech) inhabited the southern shores of the Pontus Euxinus. Cappadocia, of which Tibarenia was a part, furnished many slaves to other parts of the world; “Mancipiis dives eget Æris Cappadocum rex.” Hor. Epist. i. 6. Bochart, G. S. iii. 12. V. 14. Togarmah is Armenia, which furnished an annual tribute of 20,000 colts to the kings of Persia. Strabo, xi. p. 529. V. 15. Dedan is supposed by Bochart, iv. 6. and Michaelis, Spic. Geogr. 201. to be Daden on the Persian gulf, and the ivory and ebony to have been brought from India or Ethiopia. V. 16. For ??? (Syria) the author has adopted the reading ???, Edom, or Idumea. V. 17. The narrow and rocky country of Tyre was “nourished” (Acts xii. 20. 1 Kings v. 9. 11.) from the abundance of corn in JudÆa, especially in Galilee. Minnith was on the other side Jordan; Pennag is unknown. It is supposed by Newcome to be the grain called panic. V. 18. Chalybon was the Greek name of the modern Haleb or Aleppo, whose wine was celebrated as the best of Asia in ancient times, ? ?e?s?? as??e?? t? ?a??????? ???? ????? ?p??e?. Ath. i. c. 51. p. 28) and still much esteemed. Russell’s Aleppo. V. 19. Nations of southern Arabia seem to be meant by the names in this verse. V. 20. Dedan here mentioned is not the same as that in v. 15, but an Idumean tribe. Isaiah xxi. 13. Gen. xxv. 3. V. 21. Kedar denotes an Arabic tribe, (Is. lx. 7.) celebrated for its pastoral riches. V. 22. Sheba is the SabÆans; Rama, a town on the Persian gulf, the Rhegma of Ptolemy; the wares which they are said to bring must have been imported by them from India. V. 23. Haran, Cane, and Eden, appear all to be places in Arabia; the meaning of Chilmedians is not ascertained. I have illustrated this passage at some length from its importance in the history of the Tyrians, a people by whom we have benefited so much, and yet of whom we know so little.

Page 221.—Damascus.] See the description of the Ager Damascenus in Volney, Voyage en Syrie, ii. 158. Egmont and Heyman, ii. 255.

Page 222.—The lake Phiala.] F????, patera, a round, or oval and shallow vessel for drinking or libation, was a name given by the ancients to other lakes from their form, especially those which are the first receptacle of the waters of a river after issuing from their source, Reland, p. 265. There can be little doubt that the lake of Phiala is that which is described by Captains Irby and Mangles, p. 387. “We saw close to us a very picturesque lake, apparently perfectly circular, of little more than a mile in circumference, surrounded on all sides by sloping hills, richly wooded. The singularity of this lake is, that it has no apparent supply or discharge, and its waters appeared perfectly still, though clear and limpid.” ?? ?? ??? t?? pe??fe???a? ?t???? F???? ?????ta? t????e?d?? ??sa ????? ??e?? d? ?p? ??????? a?t? ??e? t? ?d??, ?te ?p???st??? ?te ?pe??e?e???. Jos. Bell. Jud. iii. 9. Josephus makes the lake Phiala to be one hundred and twenty stadia from CÆsarea or Paneas, towards the Trachonitis, or north east; it also agrees with the lake mentioned by Captains Irby and Mangles. The apparent source of the Jordan at Banias, described with some exaggeration perhaps by Josephus, Bell. Jud. i. 21. Ant. XV. 10. 3. as in a mountain of immense height and itself unfathomable, is thus spoken of by Seetzen. “The copious source of the river of Banias rises near a remarkable grotto in the rock, on the declivity of which I copied some ancient Greek inscriptions dedicated to Pan and the nymphs of the fountain. The ancients gave the name of source of the Jordan to this spring: but in fact it appears that the preference is due to the spring of the river Hasberia, which forms the largest branch of the Jordan. The spring of Tel-el-kadi, which the natives take for the source of the Jordan, is that which least merits the name.” Yet the Tel-el-kadi, an hour and a quarter north-east from Paneas, appears from Burckhardt, p. 42, to be the real Lesser Jordan of Josephus. It not unfrequently happens that the smaller branch gives its name to the united stream, as in the case of the Yorkshire Ouse, which is very small compared with the waters of the Swale and Ure, whose names are lost in it. Whether the fountain of Paneas have really that subterraneous communication with the lake Phiala, of which Josephus Speaks, must be left to be ascertained by future travellers. The experiment of throwing substances into the lake which the spring casts up, is said by Josephus to have been made (Bell. Jud. iii. 9. 7.) by Philip, tetrarch of Trachonitis. Our author therefore speaks of it by a prolepsis. The Hasberia, which rises to the north-west of Paneas, joins the stream from that place, about an hour and a half below the town. Burckhardt, p. 38.

Page 223.—The lake SamochonitisSamochonitis.] Josephus, Bell. Jud. iii. 9. 7. iv. 1. Reland, 262. It is now called Houle,^[173] Burckhardt, p. 37. Pococke, ii. p. 73, says of it: “The waters are muddy and esteemed unwholesome, having something of the nature of a morass. After the snows are melted, it is only a marsh through which the Jordan runs. The waters, by passing through the rocky bed towards the sea of Tiberias, settle, purify, and become very wholesome.”

224.—The leprosy.] Of this disorder and the Mosaic regulations respecting it, see Michaelis, Mos. Law, 209. Jos. Ant. iii. 11.

Page 227.—Bethsaida.] The name ??? ????? implies a residence of fishers, Reland, p. 653. According to Josephus, Ant. xviii. 2. the same Philip who ascertained the real source of the Jordan, greatly enlarged this fishing village, and changed its name from Bethsaida to Julias, in honour of the daughter of Augustus. The old name however seems to have kept its ground: for we never find the place called Julias in the New Testament. According to Pococke, some ruins of it are to be found at a place called Telouy. He mentions, however, a large village, still bearing the name of Baitsida, about two miles west of the lake of Gennesareth, and near the southern extremity, which he supposes to be the Bethsaida of the gospels, while he regards the ruins of Telouy as marking the site of the Bethsaida of the Gaulonitis, ii. 68.

Page 227.—Magdela.] ????, signifying a tower, gave rise to the names of many places in Palestine, Megiddo, Migdol, Magdela, &c. There is a place which now bears the name of Magdol, a little to the north of Tiberias; but the Magdala of the New Testament (Matt. xv. 39.) appears to have been on the eastern side of the lake. Pococke, ii. 71. Lightfoot, from the Talmudical writers, fixes it to the vicinity of Gadara, or Omkeis, which is on the eastern side.

Page 227.—Lake of Gennesareth.] Josephus (Bell. Jud. iii. 9.) makes its length to be one hundred stadia, its breadth forty. Pococke thinks its real length is about fourteen or fifteen miles. Clarke estimated its breadth at six miles. “The water was as clear as the purest crystal; sweet, cool, and most refreshing to the taste. Swimming to a considerable distance from the shore, we found it so limpid that we could discern the bottom covered with shining pebbles.” Clarke, v. 224. Strabo, xvi. p. 755, mentions the aromatic plants of the shore; but Burckhardt, p. 319, says he did not observe any of them.

Page 227.—Capernaum.] Its situation is not accurately known; it is commonly supposed to be Telhoum, (Burckhardt, p. 319) between the Jordan and Tabegha. The plain of Gennesareth, (Pococke, ii. 71.) which adjoins the lake on its western side, by its fertility, corresponds very well with the description which Josephus (Bell. Jud. iii. 9.) gives of the environs of the fountain of Capernaum. The name signifies the beautiful town, (??? ???) an appellation which it must well have deserved, according to the description which Josephus gives of the plain of Gennesareth. ?a?ate??e? d? t?? Ge???s?? ?????? ???a, ?a?ast? f?s?? te ?a? ???????—????t??a? ?? t?? e?p?? t?? ??se?? ?asa???? e?? ?? s??a?a?e?? t? ???a ?a? t?? ???? ??a??? ???? ???st?? ?spe? a?t?p???????? t?? ??????? ?a? ??? ?? ???? t??fe? pa?? d??a? t?? d?af????? ?p??a? ???? ?a? d?af???sse?? t? ?? ?e as?????tata, staf???? te ?a? s????, d??a ?s?? ad?a?e?pt?? ?????e?? t??? d? ???p??? ?a?p??? d? ?t??? ???? pe??????s???ta? a?t???. This plain may perhaps be that which Burckhardt describes (p. 319) as lying at the southern foot of the mountain which stretches down to the lake. It may be objected that Tel-houm is not in this plain; but it is evident that Josephus speaks of a larger plain, thirty stadia in length, while Burckhardt describes only a part of it, which he occupied twenty minutes in crossing. The position which the author assigns to Chorazin, on the eastern side, is very doubtful. No traveller has hitherto been able to identify it. Jerome places it two miles from Capernaum; and Dr. Richardson says, that the natives, when he inquired for the ruins of Capernaum, told him that it and Chorazin were near.

Page 228.—Tabor.] The author (misled perhaps by the absurd prints in Maundrell’s Travels) has rather fancifully described Tabor as resembling a pillar; its real form is that of a truncated cone. Hence its name ????, umbilicus. See the view in Pococke, ii. pl. v. He says the ascent is about two miles by a winding route, and the top of it half a mile long and a quarter of a mile broad. Mr. Buckingham ascended it, with great exertion, in half an hour. Others reckon the ascent at four miles. Both Maundrell (p. 115) and Pococke speak of the magnificence of the view from the summit. Egmont and Heyman mention its abounding in game. (Travels, ii. 26.) I know not on what authority it is said that the exhalations of the Dead Sea may be seen from it. The rivulet mentioned as discharging itself into the sea of Tiberias, appears to be that called Serrar by Egmont and Heyman, ii. 27. Mariti, ii. 126. But Mr. Buckingham (p. 108) says, the Ain el Sharrar forms the Kishon; nor is it probable, from the nature of the country, that a stream should flow from the same point into the Mediterranean and the lake of Galilee. There was a town on mount Tabor called Atabyrium, (Polybius, v. 70.) which was taken by Antiochus. The mountain was very strongly fortified by Josephus, when he commanded in Galilee, (Bell. Jud. ii. 20.) and numerous traces of the works are still visible. Pococke, ii. 64. Burckhardt, p. 332.

Page 229.—Nazareth.] “Nazareth,” says Dr. Richardson, “stands in a vale, resembling a circular basin encompassed by mountains: it seems as if fifteen mountains met to form an enclosure for this delightful spot; they rise round it like the edge of a shell, to guard it from intrusion.” Travels with Lord Belmore, ii. 434. It does not stand, nor do the words of the Evangelist imply it, (Luke iv. 29.) on the summit of a hill, but on the side. Yet we should expect that the “brow” there spoken of should be nearer to Nazareth than two miles, (Pococke, ii. 63.) or a mile and a half, (Richardson, ii. 441.) and Buckingham (p. 99) mentions a precipice just above the town.

Page 231.—Scythopolis.] It is uncertain for what reason the Greeks gave the name of S????p???? to Bethshan, unless from some event connected with the incursion of the Scythians mentioned by Herod, i. 104. who spread themselves to the confines of Egypt, in the middle of the seventh century before Christ. The present name is Bysan: many remains of the ancient town of Su are still visible, from which Burckhardt estimates its ancient circumference at three miles, (p. 343.) Here he crossed the Jordan. From Bethshan to near Jericho, the western bank of the Jordan is very barren, and there are no remains of cities on it, (345 note.) Herod built a city to the north of Jericho, and thus produced an increase of cultivation in the surrounding country, before desert. Jos. Ant. xvi. 5. 3. The great plain of Esdraelon begins near Bethshan, and extends across to Carmel. Egmont and Heyman, ii. 28. Jos. Ant. xii. 8. 5. The boundaries of Galilee are laid down by Josephus, and its fertility and populousness described, Bell. Jud. iii. 3. Vit. 45.

Page 233.—The gate with its pious inscriptions.] The Jews of the present day, to avoid profaning the word of God by public exposure, write the passages of the law on parchment, (called Mezuzoth) and enclose it in the door-post. Leo of Modena, P. i. c. 2.

Page 237.—“He giveth it to his beloved in sleep.”] “Perennem et solidam felicitatem dat suis quasi in somno,” Dathe, i. e. without thought or labour on their part.

Page 241.—There are allusions in many passages of Scripture to parts of the nuptial ceremonies; as Gen. xxiv. xxxiv. 8. Judges xiv. Isaiah lxii. 10. Esther ii. 8-12. Tobit viii. 19. 1 Maccab. ix. 37. Matth. ix. 15. xxii. xxv. John ii. 1-10. Ps. xix. 5. Jer: vii. 34. But the circumstances by which our author has filled up his description, are chiefly taken from the accounts of nuptial ceremonies among the nations of the east at the present day. See Russell’s Aleppo, i. 281; 436. ii; 48. 79. Harmer, iii. 295. Calmet’s Dict. Art. Marriage, Fragments to Calmet, Nos. xlix. clvii. clxiii. Calmet’s Dissert. vol. i. 277.

The lifting of the bride over the threshold appears to be a Greek rather than an Oriental custom; at least I do not remember to have seen it mentioned in the authors who have described Oriental marriages. Nor is it very probable that a Gentile, as Myron was, should have been allowed to take part in so sacred a ceremony. Besides these companions, the New Testament alludes to one, the paranymph or friend of the bridegroom, (John iii. 29.) who stood at the door of the nuptial chamber.

Page 245.—These benedictions are those (much abridged) which the Jews still employ at marriages. See Calmet.

Page 251.—The Orphici of Thrace.] Of the Orphic and Pythagorean discipline, see Herod, ii. 81. and Valckenaer on Euripid. Hipp. 956. The Tomyri of Dodona were the priests of Jupiter, Strabo, 1. vii. p. 506. They were the same probably as the Selloi, whose rigid mode of life is alluded to by Homer, II. xvi. 233. ?p?? d? Se????, S?? ?a????’ ?p???ta? ???pt?p?de? ?aa?e??a?. Soph. Trach. 1168. Heyne, Excurs. ad Il. loc cit. A fragment of the Cretans of Euripides, preserved by Porphyry, shows that the Curetes, priests of IdÆan Jupiter, led a life very similar to the Essenes. ?a? ?????ta? ?????? ???????, ?s??????. ????e??a d’ ???? e?ata, ?e??? G??es?? te ??t?? ?a? ?e???????? ?? ???pt?e???? t?? t’ ?p????? ???s?? ?dest?? pe???a?a?.

Page 251.—Worship of the earlier Samaritans.] When Salmanassar had led captive the inhabitants of the kingdom of Israel, he supplied their place by colonies from Babylon and other places, (2 Kings xvii.) who brought with them their various idols. From this people and the Israelites left in the land, sprung the Samaritans, who, if the Jews may be believed, joined the worship of Jehovah with that of idols. Selden, de Dis Syris, p. 327. Addit. p. 285.

Page 253.—Insult to the beard.] The Scriptures contain proofs of the susceptibility of the Hebrews on the subject of an indignity offered to their beards, 2 Sam. x. 1-5. “The Arabs,” says Niebuhr, “never shave off their beard. In the mountains of Yemen, where strangers are seldom seen, it is a disgrace to appear shaven: they supposed our European servant had committed some crime, for which we had punished him by cutting off his beard.” I am not aware, however, that the cutting off the hair was a judicial punishment among the Jews, unless Nehemiah xiii. 25. Isaiah 1. 6. should be thought to refer to it. The effect produced upon Elisama, by Myron’s action, will hardly be thought to be exaggerated when compared with the following passage from D'Arvieux’s account of the Arabs: “The Arabians have so much respect for their beards that they look upon them as sacred ornaments; nothing can be more infamous than for a man to be shaved; they make the preservation of their beards a capital point of religion, because Mahomet never cut off his. Among them it is more infamous for any one to have his beard cut off, than among us to be publicly whipped or branded with a hot iron. Many men in that country would prefer death to such a punishment. The wives kiss their husbands’ beards and children their fathers’, when they come to salute them: the men kiss one another’s beards when they salute in the streets, or come from a journey. They admire and envy those who have fine beards. ‘Pray do but see,’ they cry, ‘that beard; the very sight of it would persuade any one that he to whom it belongs is an honest man.’ If any one with a fine beard is guilty of an unbecoming action, ‘What a disadvantage is this,’ they say, ‘to such a beard! How much such a beard is to be pitied!’ If they would correct any one’s mistakes, they will tell him, ‘For shame of your beard! Does not the confusion that follows such an action light on your beard?’ If they entreat any one, or use oaths in affirming or denying any thing, they say, ‘I conjure you by your beard, by the life of your beard, to grant me this—or by your beard this is or is not so,’ They say farther, in the way of acknowledgment, ‘May God preserve your blessed beard! May God pour out his blessings on your beard!’ And in comparisons, 'This is more valuable than one’s beard,'” Moeurs des Arabes par M. D'Arvieux, quoted in Fragments to Calmet, xciii. Niebuhr (Descr. de l'Arabie, p. 26) mentions an Arab who was so highly offended that a man had even accidentally let fall some of his spittle on his beard, that it was with great difficulty he could be prevented from taking sanguinary vengeance for the affront. The reader who remembers Dr. Clarke’s description (Travels, v. 242.) of the paroxysm of ungovernable rage produced in an Arab by a blow, will not think the account in the text hyperbolical. “The Arab, recovered from the shock he had sustained, sought only to gratify his anger by the death of his assailant. Having speedily charged his tophaike, (musquet) although trembling with rage to such a degree that his whole frame appeared to be agitated, he very deliberately pointed it at the object of his revenge, who only escaped assassination by dodging beneath the horses, as often as the muzzle of the piece was directed against him. Finding himself thus frustrated in his intentions, his fury became ungovernable: his features livid and convulsed, seemed to denote madness: no longer knowing what he did, he levelled his tophaike at the captain of Djezzar’s guard.”

Page 254.—Ramoth Gilead.] It was fifteen miles to the westward of Philadelphia or Amman. (Reland, p. 474, Burckhardt, p. 358.) Its site, therefore, must be near that of Szalt, (Burckhardt, p. 347) perhaps El Meysera, which stands on the Zerka, the Jabok of Scripture, and near the mountains which are still called Djebal Djalaad (Gilead.) Or if the words of Jerome, (Loc. Heb.) “juxta fluvium Jabbok,” should be thought not necessarily to imply that it was on the Jabbok, the site of the ruined towns Djelaad and Djelaoud on mount Gilead itself, (Burckhardt, 348.) will suit the elevated position implied in the name Ramoth. The Arnon is now called Modjet. See Burckhardt’s map. Mr. Buckingham supposes Ramza (which is not upon the Zerka, nor on mount Gilead) to be Ramoth. Travels, p, 337.

Page 255.—Dromedaries.] The camel is the heavy beast of burden; the dromedary is used on all occasions which require great expedition. Shaw’s Travels, 167. The Arabs represent their speed as many times exceeding that of the fleetest horse.

Page 256.—The GoËl.] The Jewish law respecting homicide and the avenger of blood, has been fully discussed by Michaelis, § 131-136, who has well illustrated the humanity and wisdom of the Mosaic legislation, especially as contrasted with the precepts of the Koran. What is said in the text of the practice of the east, applies in modern times, at least, chiefly to the Bedoween Arabs. See Niebuhr, Descr. p. 28.

It may be observed, that GoËl denoted the next of kin, not merely in his character of avenger of blood, but as having the right of redemption of an estate; (Mich. §. 137.) which may seem to make the etymology given in the text doubtful.

Page 259.—The balm of Gilead had been applied externally and internally.] The balm of Mecca is at this day used internally in Palestine, according to Hasselquist; but I am not aware of any proof that it was so anciently. “Les HÉbreux ne parlent jamais des remÈdes, quand il s’agit de maux internes, de fiÈvres, de langueurs, de peste, de douleurs de tÊte ou d’entrailles, mais seulement lorsqu’il y a blessure, ou fracture, ou meurtrissure.” Calmet sur la MÉdecine des HÉbreux, Diss. vol. i. p. 331. That the Levites practised medicine, is probable from the analogy of other sacerdotal castes, and from their being appointed to decide in cases of leprosy: in their forty-eight cities they would be sufficiently dispersed throughout the country to serve as physicians to the people.

Page 261.—Customs of mourning.] That it was usual in mourning to cover the lower part of the face, appears from Ezek. xxiv. 16. where the prophet is forbidden to adopt the customary marks of grief. “Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of thine head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men.” It appears from Addison’s account of the Jews in Barbary, (Harmer, iii. 382.) that they still muffle the lower part of the face in mourning. Probably the object was the same as that of the muffling the lower part of the leper’s face, (Lev. xiii. 45.) to give an indistinct and lugubrious sound to the voice. Geier de luctu HebrÆorum, 259. The same passage of Ezekiel shows that it was customary to lay aside the turban, (Harmer, iii. 386. Baruch vi. 31.) and go barefoot in mourning, (Judith x. 4.) “Habebis calceamenta in pedibus quÆ lugentes solent abjicere: unde et David, Abassalon filium fugiens et penitens super nece UriÆ, nudis pedibus incedit.” Hieronym. in Ezek. loc. cit. 2 Sam. xv. 30. The laying aside the sandals was a mark of humiliation, as well as sorrow; hence in times of public calamity the Romans practised a solemn supplication, called nudipedalia. “Cum stupet coelum et aret annus nudipedalia denunciantur, magistratus purpuras deponunt.” Tert. de Jej. 16. Geier, p. 306. The rending of garments, beating the breast, strewing ashes on the head, and putting on sackcloth, need no illustration.

The Alijah was probably the upper chamber in which the body of Tabitha (Acts ix. 37.) was laid. Of the hasty interment of the Jews in later times, the history of Ananias and Sapphira is a sufficient proof. Such is the present practice of the east. Russell, i. 306.

It is plain, from the New Testament, that the custom of employing hired mourners prevailed among the Jews in our Saviour’s time; (Matt. ix. 23. Mark v. 38.) and probably the “mourning women” (Jer. ix. 17.) are to be understood of hired mourners, such as the Romans called prÆficÆ. It is mentioned (Amos viii. 3.) as a characteristic of a great mortality, that the dead should be cast forth in silence. Males seem also to have been employed as mourners. Amos v. 16.

Page 262.—The body was wrapped in a sheet.] That the arms and feet were swathed separately, and not fastened to the body or together, is rendered probable by John xi. 44. where Lazarus, when raised to life, is represented as coming forth from the sepulchre, before the grave clothes are taken off. The sheet is the s??d??, in which, according to Matt, xxvii. 59. Joseph of Arimathea wrapt the body of our Saviour, on the evening of the crucifixion, when there was no time for the minute bandaging with the ?e???a?, mentioned in the history of Lazarus. But whether both were combined, as mentioned in the text, may be doubted.

The wringing of the hands above the head was a mark of extreme grief. Jer. ii. 37. Geier, 290.

Page 264.—Burning was reckoned dishonourable.] “Corpora condere, quam cremare, e more Egyptio.” Tac. Hist. v. 5. They differed, however, in this from the Egyptians, that they only wrapt the body in spices, and did not fill the cavities with them. The burnings mentioned in Scripture, in connection with royal funerals, appear to have been burnings of spices, (2 Chron. xvi. 14.) in other cases a mark of a great mortality, as (Amos vi. 10.) requiring a more expeditious kind of sepulture. Josephus (cont. Apion. ii. 26.) is referred to as mentioning the custom of all who met a funeral joining in the lamentation; ??s? d? t??? pa????s? ?apt????? t???? ?a? s??e??e?? ?a? s??ap?d??as?a? ?p??se ?????. The common reading, however, is pe????s?, “survivors of the family,” which suits the connection better. Of the Hebrew sepulchres a large account is given in Nicolaus de Sepulchris HebrÆorum, Lugd. Bat. 1606. The custom of throwing a sod is introduced from the practice of the modern Jews. Buxtorf Synagoga, c. 35. p. 502. The annual whitening of the sepulchres was, according to the Rabbins, a charge of the magistracy, and performed in the month Adar, (Nicolaus, p. 237) i. e. a short time before the Passover; a circumstance of which Harmer (iii. 449.) does not appear to have been aware. It is remarkable that the Mahometans whiten their sepulchres before their great solemnity of Ramadan.

Page 265.—The bread of mourning and the cup of consolation.] This custom is alluded to in Ezek. xxiv. 17. Jer. xvi. 5. 7. 8. “Neither shall men break bread among them on account of a mourner, to comfort him over a deceased friend; nor shall men make them drink of the cup of consolation because of one’s father, or because of one’s mother.” Blayney’s Translation, and the margin of the common Bible. “The origin of this custom undoubtedly was, that the friends of the mourner who came to comfort him; (and that they often came in great numbers we may learn from John xi. 19.) easily concluding that a person so far swallowed up of grief as even to forget his bread could hardly attend to the entertainment of so many guests, each sent in his proportion of meat and drink, in hopes to prevail on the mourner, by their example and persuasion, to partake of such refreshment as might tend to recruit both his bodily strength and his spirits.” Blayney. Geier de luct. Heb. p. 166.

Page 265.—The mourning lasted seven days.] The shortest term of mourning appears to have been seven days; (Gen. 1. 10. Jos. Ant. xvii. 8.) many extended it to thirty. Num. xxxiv. 8. Bell. Jud. iii. 8. “At Aleppo,” says Russell, “the near relations visit the sepulchre on the third, the seventh, and the fortieth day after the interment. The women likewise visit the graves on their ordinary garden days. They set out early in the morning, attended by a small train of females, carrying flowers and aromatic herbs to bestrew the tomb. The moment they arrive at the place, they give loose afresh to their sorrow in loud screams interrupted at intervals by the chief mourner, who, in a lower tone of voice, recalls the endearing circumstances of past times, or, in a tender apostrophe to the deceased, appeals to the pains she incessantly employed to render his life happy: she describes the forlorn condition of his family now he is gone, and mingles fond reproach with professions of unalterable affection.” ii. 311.

269.—The palms.] See the account of the various uses of this tree (the natives reckon up 360) in Mariti’s Travels, ii. p. 348. Harris’s Nat. Hist. of the Bible. “A considerable part of the inhabitants of Egypt, Arabia, and Persia subsist almost entirely upon its fruit; they boast also of its medicinal virtues. Their camels feed upon the date-stone; and from the leaves they make couches, baskets, bags, mats, and brushes; from the branches, cages for their poultry, and fences for their gardens; from the fibres of the boughs, thread, ropes, and rigging; from the sap is prepared a spirituous liquor, and the body of the tree furnishes fuel.” Clarke, v. 409. Notwithstanding their being wholly destitute of lateral branches, and of great height, they are climbed with ease by the prominences of the bark, which form a kind of natural ladder. “The terebinth,” says Mariti, (iii. 29.) “has leaves of a figure much like that of the olive. The flowers are like those of the vine, and grow in bunches; they are of a purple colour, and produce no fruit. The fruit grows among the branches; they are of the size of juniper berries, hang in clusters, and contain each a small seed, of the size of a grape-stone: they are of a ruddy purple colour and are remarkably juicy.” The pistachio, is the ??? of the Hebrews, (Gen. xliii. 11.) still called bouttoum in the Holy Land. (Burckhardt, 346.) Harris’s N. H. of the Bible, Art. Nut. It was found, if not exclusively, at least in the highest perfection, in Syria and Palestine; (Bochart, Geogr. Sacr. lib. i. c. 10. Op. iii. 387.) and is reckoned by Jacob (Gen. xliii. 11.) among the choice fruits of the land which his sons were to carry down as a present into Egypt.

Page 269.—The balsam was scraped from the tree.] “Balsamum, modica arbor: ut quisque ramus intumuit si vim ferri adhibeas, pavent venÆ: fragmine lapidis aut testa aperiuntur.” Tac. Hist. v. 6. This was the most precious kind of the balsam, called opobalsamum; that expressed from the seeds, carpobalsamum; that obtained by crushing and boiling down the shoots, xylobalsamum.

Page 275.—The simoom.] Dr. Clarke (iv. 252.) says of the simoom, as experienced by him in Palestine, “Its parching influence pervaded all places alike, and coming as from a furnace, it seemed to threaten us all with suffocation. The author was the first who sustained serious injury from the fiery blast, being attacked by giddiness accompanied with burning thirst, headach, and frequent fits of shivering ensued, and these ended in violent fever.” Notwithstanding the respectable authorities for its deadly effects in the desert, the accurate Burckhardt (Travels in Nubia, p. 189) says, “I inquired, as I had often done before, whether my companions had often experienced the Semoum, which we translate by the poisonous blast of the desert, but which is nothing more than a violent south-east wind. They answered in the affirmative; but none had ever known an instance of its having proved fatal. I have been repeatedly exposed to the hot wind in the Syrian and Arabian deserts, in Upper Egypt and Nubia. The hottest and most violent I ever experienced was at Suakin, yet even there I felt no particular inconvenience from it, although exposed to all its fury in the open plain. For my own part I am perfectly convinced that all the stories which travellers, or the inhabitants of the towns of Egypt and Syria, relate of the Semoum are greatly exaggerated, and I never could hear of a single well-authenticated instance of its having proved mortal either to man or beast. I never observed that the Semoum blows close to the ground, as commonly supposed, but always observed the whole atmosphere appear as if in a state of combustion: the dust and sand are carried high into the air, which assumes a reddish, or bluish, or yellowish tint, according to the nature and colour of the ground from which the dust arises.”

Page 277.—The law respecting the water of jealousy will be found Num. v. 11-31. and the Rabbinical traditions in Lightfoot, Works, i. 982. Jos. Ant. iii. 11. 6. To many readers it will doubtless appear a harsh and unequal institution, authorizing one party to impose upon the other an oath of purgation, to be taken under circumstances very painful to the feelings, to remove a suspicion which might originate in unreasonable jealousy. But it must be remembered, that the idea of equality between the parties in the conjugal relation never entered into the minds of the ancients, least of all of the Orientals; and that the jealous husband would often have taken the law into his own hands and put the suspected wife to death, if this mode of satisfying his doubts had not been prescribed by the legislator. The Mosaic law did not undertake, by a perpetual miracle, to create in a barbarous age and in the bosom of the east, a people characterised by the refined humanity and respect for the rights of human nature which the influence of Christianity and centuries of improvement have produced in modern Europe, but to soften and elevate as far as possible the national character. Regarded in this light, the Mosaic law of the water of jealousy will be considered like the institution of the cities of refuge, as a humane appointment, to moderate an evil which it was impossible to eradicate. Michaelis (Mos. Law, § 263.) has shown how well the whole ceremony was adapted to strike terror into a guilty person, and prevent all but the most abandoned and hardened from attempting to perjure themselves—so that it would rarely happen that divine interposition would be called for to punish the crime. It does not appear from the law in the book of Numbers, what was, to be the punishment of the woman, if, under the influence of conscience and apprehension, she made confession. The Rabbins say that she was to be divorced; (Lightfoot, ubi supra) they also tell us that the punishment sometimes did not follow the drinking of the water for two or three years. It seems more probable, however, that it was the intention of the lawgiver, whatever the practice might be, that the woman, if she confessed, should be punished in the usual way as an adultress. See v. 31. We are told by the Rabbins that the use of this test was abolished, when the Sanhedrim lost the power of life and death. Such an ordeal was indeed very abhorrent from the Roman jurisprudence. Lightfoot, Works, ii. 111.

It may be observed, that the law does not require the husband to put the offering of jealousy into the wife’s hand, as represented in the text, but into the priest’s.

Page 291.—Blowing of trumpets.] The object for which this was appointed is not well ascertained, and various fanciful reasons are given by the Jews. Reland, Ant. Heb. p. 509. Perhaps it was nothing more than to mark the commencement of the civil year.

Page 297.—A goat for a sin-offering.] The directions for sin-offerings are found, Lev. iv. Num. xv. 22. From these passages it appears, that these offerings were prescribed in the case of sins of ignorance; unintentional, and at the time unobserved, violations of the Levitical law. The sacrifice of Helon in the text, appears to be represented by the author as a voluntary expression of remorse for his unjust conduct; a purpose very foreign from the design of the sin-offerings spoken of in the passages above quoted. It may also be observed, that the law takes no notice of the case of a priest incurring guilt: perhaps he might be included under the general term ruler.

Besides sin-offerings, (called ????) trespass-offerings ??? were also to be presented, Lev. v. vi. xiv. 12, 13. xix. 20. 22. Num. vi. 11, 12.; chiefly in cases of the breach of some social duty, and in addition to the penalties provided against the offence, but also for Levitical defilement and sins of ignorance. They differed chiefly in this, that a sin-offering was sometimes made for the whole congregation; a trespass-offering only for individuals; a bullock was never sacrificed for a trespass-offering, and the blood of the latter was sprinkled at the bottom of the altar, not dropped on the horns. Jennings’s Jew. Ant. ii. 332. Lightfoot, Works, i. 929. &c.

Page 302.—The ritual for the day of atonement will be found, Lev. xvi. xxiii. 27-32. Num. xxix. 7-11. What is described in the text beyond the warrant of these passages, is derived from Rabbinical authority. See the treatise Joma ???? i. e. the day ?at’ ??????) in Surenh. Mischna, ii. 206. et seq. Lightfoot, i. 961. It is doubtful whether a substitute were chosen to fill the place of the high-priest; for Josephus (xvii. 6. 4.) mentions an instance in which, having incurred pollution just before the day of atonement, it was necessary to create another for the rites of this day. As the high-priest had on this day to perform the office of a common priest, for which his splendid robes of ceremony would have been inconvenient, he went through this part of his duties in the ordinary sacerdotal dress of byssus, i. e. probably at this time cotton. The word by which the material of the priest’s dress is described in the Mosaic law is ?? or ??, ??? (byssus) not occurring in any of the books of Scripture before the captivity. As the Jewish ritual was formed in so great a degree upon that of Egypt, where the priests certainly wore linen garments, in a country early celebrated for its flax, (Exod. ix. 31.) it is probable that the garments of the priests were directed by the law to be made of this material, but that when the use of cotton was learnt, it was substituted for linen. This appears to have been the case in Egypt also; for Herodotus (ii. 81.) describes the priests as wearing ?????a? ???e???, but the mummies as being swathed, s??d???? ?ss???? te?a?s? (85.) while Pliny (N. H. xix. 1.) says, “Superior pars Ægypti, in Arabiam vergens, gignit fruticem quem gossypion vocant; vestes inde sacerdotibus Ægypti gratissimÆ.”

Page 306.—He hurled the goat down.] It does not appear that the goat was to be thrown from the rock for the purpose of destroying it, but to be turned into the wilderness, (Jos. Ant. iii. 10. 3.) as an emblem of the sin of the people, pardoned and removed from sight. This is the obvious etymology of the name ?? ???, caper abitus, or scape goat, as our translation renders it. The desert of Zuk appears to have no existence but in Rabbinical geography.

Page 307.—His meil.] The meil (????)of the high-priest was worn immediately over his linen vest or tunic, and had bells and pomegranates round the borders; it had no sleeves, and sat close round the neck. The dress of the ordinary priests and the high-priest is described by Josephus, (Ant. iii. 7.) who also unfolds the spiritual meaning of every part.

Page 314.—The Feast of Tabernacles.]—The law for its observance is found Exod. xxiii. 16. (where it is called “the feast of ingathering at the end of the year.”) Lev. xxiii. 33-43. Deut. xvi. 16. Jos. Ant. iv. 8. 12. It was one of the greatest of all the Jewish festivals. Jos. Ant. viii. 4, The treatise entitled Succah in the Mishna, (Surenh. ii. 259.) contains the traditions of the Rabbins. See Lightfoot, i. 974. Reland, p. 477. It was at once a memorial of the wandering in the desert, and a thanksgiving for the close of harvest.

The Jews, both in ancient and modern times, (Jos. Ant. iii. 10. xiii. 13. 5.) have interpreted the command in Lev. xxiii. 40. “And ye shall take unto you the boughs of goodly trees,” to mean branches of the citron. They make them into a bundle with the other boughs there mentioned, though it is probable that the goodly trees are pointed out as the materials of which the booths were to be constructed. Comp. Nehem, viii. 18. The Samaritans (Basnage, History of the Jews, vii. c. 26.) and the Karaite Jews (Reland, 485.) appear to understand the words of the law in this sense.

Page 317.—Drawing of water from Siloah.] This was evidently practised in our Saviour’s time; who, according to his usual custom of making passing events subservient to purposes of instruction, “cried in the temple on the last the great day of the feast, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.” John vii. 37. Which words, according to the Evangelist, referred to the effusion of the Holy Spirit. It is probable that the custom originally alluded to the rain: for, according to the Mishna, they began to pray for rain after the Feast of Tabernacles, and continued to do so till the Passover. Surenhus. ii. 356. It is doubtful whether the drawing the water were performed, as here represented, on every day of the festival: from the Evangelist we should rather conclude that it was only on the last. The Rabbinical traditions are discordant.

Page 319.—I know not on what authority it is related that the people showered their leaves and fruit on the high-priest; and I suspect that it may have originated from a misapprehension of a passage in Josephus, (Ant. xiii. 13. 5.) in which the Jews are said to have done this as a mark of their displeasure against their high-priest Alexander. Another instance is mentioned in the Talmud, in which the people testified in the same way their displeasure against some one who had performed his office carelessly, Lightfoot, i. 976.

Page 321.—Dancing at the Feast of Tabernacles.] See Lightfoot, i. 978. and comp. 2 Sam. vi. 14.

Page 329.—Prophecies which pointed to JudÆa for their accomplishment.] “Percrebuerat Oriente toto vetus et constans opinio, esse in fatis ut eo tempore JudÆa profecti rerum potirentur.” Suet. Vesp. 4. Tac. Hist. v. 13. Jos. Bell. Jud. vi. 5. 4,

Page 330.—Submitting to circumcision.] That among the Jews themselves there was a variety of opinion respecting the necessity of circumcision, is evident from the story of Izates, (Jos. Ant. xx. 2.) who was first converted by a Jew who advised him to neglect this rite, as a non-essential of Judaism, and afterwards was induced to submit to it by a more rigid missionary.

Page 331.—The tribunal which sat in the gate of Nicanor.] According to the Rabbins, two tribunals sat in the temple, one in the gate of Nicanor, another beside the entrance to the court of Israel. Mishna, Surenh. v. 332.

Page 333.—The Dionysian festivals of the Greeks.] The remark of Myron, respecting the similarity of the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles to the Dionysia, is founded on a passage of Plutarch, Probl. Symp. iv. Prob. vi. vol. iii. p. 745, ed. Wyttenb. 8vo. The similarity is certainly striking, and, according to the reasoning which was once commonly applied to such coincidences, would be regarded as a proof that the rites of the heathens were derived from the Jews. In the present state of historical criticism, such a supposition would be thought improbable, especially as none of all the circumstances in which the similarity appears, is found in the institution of the festival by Moses, nor even in the account of the first celebration of it after the captivity.

Page 336.—The last day of the Feast.] It is doubtful whether “the great day of the feast” (John vii.) were the seventh or the eighth. Jennings (Jew. Ant. ii. 228.) supposes that the Feast of Tabernacles lasted seven days, and that the eighth was the Feast of Ingathering.

Page 338.—Day of rejoicing in the law.] Josephus represents it as an injunction of Moses, that the law should be read every sabbath; (c. Apion. ii. 17.) but this is only true of the practice of the Jews in later times, after the establishment of synagogues.