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iHOiy SCRIPTURE

to

GEOLOGY. BOTANY, ZOOLOGY,

% PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY,

BY THE

|REYIOHNDUNS,nD..ER.S.E

VOL. II.

■JOHN LCir.HTOM. F. S.A',»

WILLIAM MACKENSm;

. LONDON, GLASGOW,&EDINBURGH>

BIBLICAL

NATURAL SCIENCE:

THE EXPLANATION OF ALL KEFERENCES

HOLY SCRIPTURE

drolojgn, ^0lHng, ^oobgn, anb ^^gsiral ^-cngrap^n.

REV. JOHN DUNS, D.D., F.R.S.E.

VOL. II.

LONDON:

WILLIAM MACKENZIE, 22 PATERNOSTER ROW;

HOWARD STEEET, GLASGOW; SOUTH BRIDGE, EDINBURGH.

KTIiBKOTVHEl, AND PRIXTED Bt WILUAX HALKISZlt, U AMD tf HUWAKO STBKItT. Gl.iSOOW.

'■fl

DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER.

VOL. II.

PL.VTE OF CED.\RS. PI..VIE X.\I., .

M.\r,

XXII., .

xxiii., .

XXIV., .

XXV. .

XXVI.. .

XXVII. .

XXVIII.. .

XXIX. .

XXX, .

XXXI., .

XXXII , .

X.XXIII., .

XXXIV. XXXV.,

XXXVI.. XXXVII., XXXVIII.,

XXXIX..

MAP,

pL.\it:,

XI-

MAP,

XLI.. XLII.,

. TO FACB TITLE.

FAGK

Tl> K.MIi 74

ANAAN, TO ILLUSTR.VTE THE OLD TESTAMENT, 212

370 370 372

37';

378 382 386 408 428 412 4fi4 4G« 474 482 496 oM 518 520 526 556 574 586 592 59G hW C02

soy

01-

ROPHECY

THE COUNTRIES SEA OF TIBERI CANAAN, TO ILLUSTRATE TIIE

AS,

PLAN OF ANTIQUITIES OF ATHKN.S,

XLIIL,

ROMA ANTIQUA, PLAN. MAP, ASIA MINOR, SHOWING THE SEV CHURCHES,

NEW

TE.STA5IENT.

EN APOCALYPTIi;

oU8

505247

I

BIBLICAL NATUEAL SCIENCE.

EXODUS I.-II.

'IKE the other Books of the Pentateuch, Exodus may be looked at from three j^oiuts of view. Its contents are either histo- rical, or legislative, or doctrinal. The last feature is much more marked here than in Genesis. It opens by recalling '■ attention in a general way to the topics specially alluded to in Genesis xlvi. The writer repeats the statement, that " all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy" (ver. 5). The advent of a new dynasty brought trouble to the descendants of Jacob. " There arose a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph" (ver. 8). They were reduced to the condition of slaves. One act of oppression and another followed. " Their lives were bitter w'ith hard bondage " (ver. 14). The crowning act of tyranny, they were commanded to become the murderers of their own children: " Pharaoh charged all the people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river" (ver. 22). This despotic order was given when the tyrant failed to influence the midwives to make secretly away with the male infants at whose birth they assisted. The early attention given to various aspects of medical practice by the Egyptians has been noticed already (Gen. 1.) We learn from this incident that the accoucheurs were females. There are not awanting proofs that other features of the healing art were practised by women. " Diodorus writes that in Egypt, and chiefly at Heliopolis, there lived women who boasted of certain potions, which not only made the unfortunates forget all their calamities, but drove away the most violent sallies of grief or anger." Milton notes —

" That Nepenthes which the wife of Tlione In Egypt gave to Jove-born Helena." — (Comiis.)

" There went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived, and bare a son : and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when

VOL. 11. A

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein ; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink" (ver. 1-3). The mate- rials used by Jochebed for making the ark or cradle for lier infant son, were bulrushes and slime, or pitch. The word rendered "bulrush" is gome, or the plant specially distinguished for its power of absorbing water. It occurs in other three passages. Job asks (ch. viii. 11) —

" Can the rush {gome) grow up without mire? C.in the fl:ig (ac/ni) grow without water ? While it is yet in its greenness, and not cut. It withereth before any other herl)."

He wishes to show that while the wicked have their usual sources of happiness, and power to enjoy them, all is well. But if these be cut off, it is like withdrawing water from the rush and the flag. They cannot subsist without it. They droop, and wither, and die. The habitat of the bulrush and the flag is thus shown to be marshy lands by the brink of lake or river. In Isaiah xviii. 2, one of the uses to which the bulrush was put is mentioned. Boats were built of it. The Ethiopians are spoken of as " sending ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes." In chapter xxxv. 7, the same prophet, when describing the effects of a great revival, compares them, among other things, to fountains breaking forth in the lair of ravenous beasts, named as a i)lace " of reeds (iMneh) and rushes {gome}.'"

These references are all we have to enable us to identify the plant named here. It has been too hastily assumed that it must have been the true paper reed, or papyrus, for which Egypt in ancient times was celebrated. It is indeed true, that one of the passages quoted from Isaiah is clear on the point, that it was often used for this purpose, and that the notices of it which occur in profane authors point to the same fact. But this does not determine the matter. We know from Herodotus that sandals were frequently made from it, but this does not warrant the inference that all sandals were made from this material. The only conclusion to which in the circumstances we can come is, that under the term bulrush (Cgpents) any description suitable for this purpose may be referred to, and that under the term flags different sorts of reed-mace {Tgpha) are indicated.

The bulrush is one of the Sedge family of plants {Cyperacece). Several kinds are noted for the uses to which they are put. The edible cyperus (C. esculentus) is much cultivated in France. Its roots are

EXODUS I.-II.

Fig. 1.

sweet and agreeable to the taste. In Holland one species [G. arenari'a) is planted on the dykes, ■s\-hose soil it binds together by its intertwisting roots. But the most celebrated species is the true Paper-reed ( C. papy- rus), the Sacred Byblus {Bijhlus hieraticus) of Strabo. The cellular tissue of this plant ^Yas carefully divided, and when in a moist state, it was pieced together and made into a long roll. This when dried was used for writing on. Hence our word paper. The Hebrew gome points to the ab- sorbing power of the plant, and so does the Greek translation biblos, from which our word Bible is derived. This and allied species yielded matericil also for making boats, ropes, san- dals, baskets, and even articles of clothing.

Upwards of two thousand species are included in the Cyperacece. The papyrus of the Nile has a triangular stem, grows to the height of above six feet, and is noted for its gracefulness and beauty. It is now very rare in Egypt, if indeed it is to be found at all. Sir G. Wilkinson affirms that it is unknown. It is to be met with in Sicily, on the banks of the Anapus.

The flags among which Jochebed laid the ark were no doubt the marsh plants generally growing in such a situation. Among these the reed-maces [Typliacece) would prevail. In this verse the Hebrew word {suph) may be translated by reed-mace. The figure given above is that of the great reed-mace [Typha latifolia), with which most British readers must be familiar. It flourishes luxuriantly, during July and August, among other aquatic plants which fringe our quiet lakes and pools. Its stem is erect and often above six feet high. Its leaves are about an inch broad and four feet long. There is another British species which is well known — the lesser reed-mace {T. angus- tifoli'a), abundant in the neighbourhood of London.

The word used here is generally translated ^'' lied" when associated with sea. In this connection it occurs twenty-four times, and gives its name to the sea thus named — Red Sea or Yam Suph, Sea of Weeds.

3 {Typha lati/oiia).

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENX'E.

It is only thrice rendered " flags," twice in this cliapter, and once in Isa. xix. C, where it is associated with reeds (Jcaneli. — " The reeds and flags shall wither" — which see.

The river into which the children were to be cast was the Nile, which rises in Lake Victoria Nyanza, 3° S. of the equator, and then flows in a northern direction. On reacliing Darfur it is known as the Bahr- el-Ahiad, or White River. At Khartum (15° 38' N.L.) it meets its confluent the Bahr-el-Azrak, or Blue River, from Abyssinia. After receiving the Tacazze it leaves " the stony valleys of Nubia, after having ten times, terrace-like, dashed its floods over the rocks imped- ing its way; it enters Egypt, near Syene (at 23° 33' N.L.), where it forms its last cataract ; continues its sinuous way northward through a valley between five and ten miles wide, and shut in, on both sides, by two chains of irregular mountains of sandstone, till it divides itself, not far from Cairo (at the ancient Ccrcasorum), in two arms, which form the Delta, and discharge their waters into the Mediterranean at Damietta and Rosetta respectively. The eastern or Arabian range of mountains is overtopped by higher granite chains, it is more precipitous, crossed by several valleys in an oblique direction, and often approaches the > river so near, that the latter has scarcely more than room to pass. The valley ceases above Cairo ; from this point the Libyan chain advances in a north-westerly direction towards the coast, while the Arabian range proceeds almost rectangularly eastward to the Red Sea." At its entrance into the valley of Egypt the Nile is about four thousand feet wide ; above Cairo it is nearly three thousand feet wide.

Divine honours were paid to the river under the impersonated name Nilus, its Latin form. In earliest times of Egyptian story, the devo- tions paid to the water of their river were given to Osiris, the sun-god, wdio was believed to send the waters to the earth. Thus in a hymn to Osiris, to which the date of B.C. 1700 is ascribed, it is said, " From him descend the waters of the heavenly Nile, from him proceeds the wind. The air we breatlie is also in his nostrils for his own contentment and the gladdening of his heart ; he purifies the realms of space, which taste of his felicity, because the stars that move therein obey him in the height of heaven." — (M. Chabas, Rev. Archeol. 1857). In time the Nile came to take the place of the sun-god in the superstitious creed of Egypt — a fact curiously illustrative of a declension, even in the idolatry of that remarkable people. " The Egyptian mind," says Hard wick, " is seen descending more and more entirely from the worship of the heavenly bodies to the contemplation of the marvellous

EXODUS I.-II.

a^rencies at work in its immediate neidibourliood. In earlier times Osiris was enthroned upon the sun ; but now the Nile itself is sub- stituted for that glorious luminary. Then the spouse of the great sun-god was the mother and the nurse of universal vegetation ; now she is the single land of Egypt fructified and gladdened by the Nile. Then Osiris was a nature-god, a verbal representative of forces active in the varied processes of nature ; now he has been moulded into the great civilizing hero of Mizraim, binding men together in a fixed society, teaching agriculture, and subduing nations, not by force alone, but by the charms of eloquence and music. Then his death was the suspension of all vital power without the least distinction of locality ; now it coincides precisely with that season of the year in Egypt when decay and barrenness are everywhere ascendant through the valley of the Nile. The reason of this gradual localizing of the story — this confusion, one might call it, of the sun with the Egyptian river — is hardly to be sought in the prevailing fancy that the Nile and sun were wont to meet together at the western horizon, and after plunging down into the under-world came forth again together from the caverns of the east. An explanation, simple in itself and serving also to account for other kindred stories, is suggested by the fact that the Egyptian had been gradually tempted to associate every genial, fertilizing power in nature with the annual overflow of his great river. In one meaning of the phrase Herodotus was right, when he declared that Egypt is "the gift of the Nile." "My river is mine own" was the ungodly boast' ascribed to Egypt in the vision of the Hebrew prophet (Ezek. xxix. 3, 9), " My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself." " Turn the course of the Nile," it has been said, " and not one blade of vegetation would ever arise in Egypt." And the more intelligent of modern travellers, no longer open to the potent witcheries which nature once exerted on mankind, but recognizing the almighty hand of God himself throughout this " annual miracle of mercy," are still awe-struck by the grand phenomena presented to them as the river bursts afresh into its ancient channels. " All nature shouts for joy. The men, the children, the bufialocs, gambol in its refreshing waters ; the broad waves sparkle with shoals of fish, and fowl of every wing flutter over them in clouds. Nor is this jubilee of nature confined to the higher orders of creation. The moment the sand becomes moistened by the approach of the fertilizing waters, it is literally alive with insects innumerable." — See also under Genesis xli. 1, and Amos ix. 5.

BIBLICAL NATUK.\.L SCIENCE.

o

The cliild thus exposed is seen by Pharaoh's daughter, who had gone down to the river to bathe — " The babe wept, and she had com- passion on him." Rescued, he was named " Moses ; and she said. Because I drew him out of the water" (ver. 10). Early led to feel that he had been raised up as a deliverer, by one act and another he began to sliow it until he brought down on himself the wrath of Pharaoh, and was forced to flee into a foreign land. He betook himself to the wild Arabian Desert, made friends of a priest or prince of Midian, and married one of his daughters, by whom he had two sons. The immediate descendants of Levi may be named thus: —

Lo-i.

Gerslioii, KoiiATi!, Slcrari.

I Am HAM

lliiium. Aaron, Jlusus

K<id:>b, Abihu, Ei.EAZAU, Itli:im;ir. Gcrshuii, Eliozcr.

j\Ioses spent forty years in Arabia, during which time his brethren in Egypt continued to suffer deeply from the hands of their oppressors. The time of their deliverance came, and Moses was sent back to Egypt to make known to them the will of God.

EXODUS III.

EXODUS III.

OW Moses kept the flock of Jetliro his father-in-law, tlie priest of ]\Iidian ; and he led the flock to the back-side of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush ; and he looked, and, behold, v^^J;' the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed" (ver. 1, 2). The vision of the burning bush was in Horeb. " He came to the mountain of God, to Horeb." Was Horeb the name of a particular mountain ? Two answers have been given to this question- It has been urged by Dr. Robinson and others, that Sinai is used in the Scripture for a particular range of mountains, and Horeb as the name of one of them. Dr. Bonar holds that Horeb is the name of a region in which Sinai stands, and he proposes, " He came to the moun- tain of God, Horeb-ward," as the literal rendering of the last clauses of verse 1. These opinions have been very fully discussed. The question is of considerable interest, because of the references made to both localities in connection with some of the most momentous circum- stances recorded in the Scripture. Dr. Stanley, however, seems to me to have indicated the true import of the special use of Horeb and Sinai in the Old Testament. He says, " It appears to me that this depends rather on a distinction of usage than of place. 1. In Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Judges, Sinai is always used for the scene of the giving of the Law; Horeh being only used twice — for the scene of the Burning Bush and of the Striking of the Rock (Exod. iii. 1, xvii. G, are doubtful; Exod. xxxiii. 6, is ambiguous). 2. In Deuteronomy Horeh is substi- tuted for Sinai, the former being always used, the latter never, for the ]\Iou!itain of the Law. 3. In the Psalms the two are used indifferently for the ^Mountain of the Law. 4. In 1 Kings xix. 8, it is impossible to determine to what part, if to any special part, Horeh is applied." The expression here clearly points to an accessible locality in the Sinaitic range, in the neighbourhood of the spot which afterwards was distinguished by those glorious manifestations of the glory of the Lord which led to the name " Mountain of God." The reference to the same place in verse 12 corroborates this opinion — " When thou hast

BIBLICAL NATUKAL SCIENXE.

brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon, literally «'«, this mountain."

A description of the Laud of Promise and mention of the tribes which inhabited it occur in the address to Moses — " I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey ; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebu- sites" (ver. 8). See under Numb. xiii. 17. One of the products of the good land, "honey," is noticed under 2 Kings xviii. 32 — which see.

Moses was assured by the Lord himself, that he would influence the minds of the people in Egypt in such a way, as to make them willing to bestow upon them much which would afterwards be helpful to the Israelites. " And I Avill give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians ; and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty : but every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment ; and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians" (ver. 21, 22). Much has been made of this by that class of biblical critics who appear to study under the impression, that they are successful intepreters only in the measure in which they can point out so-called contradictions, or statements inconsistent with their views of the character of God. The incident narrated here, they hold, teaches principles which violate moral obligations of the strongest kind ! They refuse to be taught. Though the true rendering has again and again been shown to be " ask," not " borrow," they have as often returned to the charge of dishonesty. If the reader will turn to the following passages he will find the word rendered thus: — Gen. xxxii. 17, aslceth thee; Num. xxvii. 21, sliall ash; Deut. xviii. 16, tliou desiredst; Josh. ix. 14, aslced; Judges iv. 20, enquire; 1 Sam. xii. 13, desired; xxv. 5, greet; and so in above one hundred and fifty instances in which the word under

different forms occurs.

EXODUS IV.-VII.

EXODUS IV.-VII.

HE incident of the Burning Bush gives a distinct intimation that, in the narrative wliich folh)WS, we may expect to meet with miraculous manifestations of the Lcrd to man. Several of these occur in chapter iv. The miracles were signs of the divine commission of Moses. In the first he (^ was ordered to cast his rod on the ground, and it became a serpent, naJ/asJi. This has been specially noticed under Gen. ^' iii. 2 — which see. In the second he was told to put his hand in his bosom, " and when he took it out his hand was leprous as snow." This disease, when it attacked a man in health, was very slow in its progress. Here it was instantaneous. It generally became permanent, and in the rare cases in which a cure was efi'ected the recovery was gradual and often doubtful. Here, too, the restoration was immediate. Such features, even apart fi'om God's previous deal- ings with Closes, would have commanded his attention at once, as out of the ordinary course of things. The third was threatened. " And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land ; and the water, which thou takest out of tlie river, shall become blood upon the dry land" (ver. 9). — See below. The repeated messages only aggravated the sufferings of the people. Pharaoh's heart was hardened to his own hurt. An opportunity was given him to repent. He would not, and the first of the ten plagues was sent on Egypt — " Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning : lo, he goeth out unto the water ; and thou shalt stand by the river's brink against he come; and the rod which was turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thine hand. And thou shalt say unto hiui, the Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying. Let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness ; and, behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear. Thus saith the Lord, In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord ; behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood. And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink ; and the Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the water of the river. And the

10 BIEUCAL NATURAL SCIENC15.

Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out tliine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood ; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone. And Moses and Aaron did so, as the Lord commanded : and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants ; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood. And the fish that was in the river died ; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river ; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments ; and Pharaoirs heart was hardened, neither did he hearken unto them ; as the Lord had said. And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he set his heart to this also. And all the Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink ; for they could not drink of the water of the river. And seven days were fulfilled, after that the Lord had smitten the river" (vii. 15-25). Li a survey of the plagues, even from the point of view of this work, it must be kept in mind that in every case they bear on the false gods of Egypt. Pharaoh and his people were wedded to their worship, and treated with contempt the discovery which ]\Ioses had made to them of Jehovah, the living and the true God. This implies the presence of a far deeper conviction regard- ing the gods of Egypt, than that they were merely the fruit of the depraved imagination of the people. There are many proofs in the Scriptures that the idols of the heathen were representatives to the people of those " spiritual wickednesses," which enslaved their sinful nature and kept them in bondage to the great head of sin himself. There is much truth in the views of Dr. Kurtz on this subject: — "The whole of the ancient church was most fully convinced of the realitjj of the heathen gods. Idolatry in its esteem was devil-worship in the strict sense of the term. The fethers of the church had no more doubt than the heathen themselves, who still adhered without the least misgiving to the religion they had inherited from their fathers, that the gods and goddesses of mythology were real beings, and had a personal existence, and that the worship with which they were honoured was not only subjectively directed, in the minds of the worshippers, to certain super- natural beings, but actually reached such beings and was accepted by them. The fathers of the church undoubtedly lived in an age, when the original power of heathenism was broken ; but even this shattered

EXODUS IV.-YII. 11

Ueatlieulsm, the disjecta membra poetce, still produced upon their minds the powerful and indelible impression, that there was something more in this than the empty fancies or foolish speculations of idle brains ; that there were actually supernatural powers at work, who possessed a fearfully serious reality. The impression thus produced upon their minds, by their own observation of the tendency of heathen idolatry, was confirmed by their reading of both the Old and New Testaments ; and the greater the confidence with which they looked upon the salva- tion they had experienced in Christ, as something real and personal, the less doubt did they feel as to the reality of the powers of evil by which it was opposed in heathenism. In a word, the gods and god- desses of heathenism were in their estimation the destructive powers of darkness, the fallen spirits, the principalities and powers that rule in the air, of whom the Scriptures speak. It is not to be denied, that in this they went farther than the Bible authorized them to go. But it must be maintained, on the other hand, that they had laid hold of the substantial truth contained in the Bible ; whilst their error was merely formal, and confined exclusively to their doctrinal exposition of that truth. But modern theology, both believing and sceptical, by denying all objective reality to the heathen deities, and pronouncing them nothing but creations of the imagination, has departed altogether from the truth, and rendered it impossible to understand either heathenism itself, or the conflict which is carried on by the kingdom of God against the powers of heathenism." The question is a very wide one and of great interest.

Moses and Aaron were warned, that when they should appear before Pharaoh he would demand a sign from them: — You say that Jehovah has sent you. Show me a proof that he whom you name has power to do all that you threaten. " Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent. Now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents" (vii. 10, 12). The word for "serpent" here is tannin, and is evidently inter- changeable with naliasJi (iv. 3) — see also under Gen. i. 21. The fact that the magicians were able to do as Aaron had done, is corroborative of the view now given as to the gods of Egypt. Though Jehovah had manifested his supremacy — for Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods — the king's heart was hardened by the display of supernatural power by his magicians. To adduce, as the explanation of this apparent power, their skill in trickery, in snake-charming, is as little in keeping with

12 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

the context as it is derogatory to the demauds and signs made thi'ougli Moses and Aaron.

The first phague fell on the Nile. This they worshipped. " Osiris was the fertilizing river, the fruitful land of Egypt was his spouse." The words of the threatening refer to the great river only. The commission to work the miracle (ver. 19) includes all the waters of Egypt — river and rill, pond and pool, and even what the people had taken in for household use, wiiter in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone. The realization of the miracle, like the threatening, deals chiefly with the Nile, but of the exact fullilmcnt of the judgment there can be no doubt. In sending this curse room had been left for the magicians to try their power. As in the case of the serpents so here ; " the magicians of Egypt did so witli their enchantments ; and Pharaoh's heart was harc'ened." The expressions of verse 19, which seem to demand that the judgment should not only be wide spread, but uni- versal, must be looked at in the light of verse 22, from which it is clear, that there were still waters on which it had not fallen. Yet " there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt."

In order to understand the severity of this plague, and its hateful character to the Egyptians, reference must be made to the mythology of Egypt. Foremost among the legends of the people was that of Osiris and his spouse Isis, both born of Nutpe, who answers to the goddess Rhea of the Greeks and Latins, the daughter of Heaven (Ccelus) and Earth (Terra). To Nutpe were also born Typhon and Nephthys his wife — two who are ever in direct antagonism to the good deities, Osiris and Isis. Typhon was the representative of the evil principle — the source of all cruelty, oppression, violence, murder, and physical misery. Blood was ever associated with him. To touch it was pollution. In this plague they saw the triumph, as they would think, of the hated Typhon ; and the waters which they had regarded as the spouse of their benevolent divinity, herself adored, no longer offered them nourishment, but thrust on their notice wherever they found them the loathed presence of the head of all evil. They turned away with disgust from everything which reminded them of Typhon. "In some parts of Egypt a prejudice existed against the trumpet; and the people of Busiris and Lycopolis would never use it, because the sound resembled the braying of an ass, which, being the emblem of Typhon, gave them very unpleasant sensations, by reminding them of the Evil Being." — {WWdnson) In their efforts to propitiate this abhorred deity, they offered the, so-called, Typhonic victims, which

EXODUS IV.-VII. 13

were chosen fioiii their resembhiiice to blood, as red oxen, and even red-haired strangers, or typhouic men. Throughout the whole land of Egypt, the people, by means of this plague, were made to feel that contempt had been poured on the idols in which they trusted ; while they were forced to endure great hardship by the seven days' continu- ance of the judgment. They had no water ; the fish on which they counted for a supply of food died and began to corrupt ; the river itself stank. Such results of the miracle show how far from the truth that hypothesis is, which traces the redness to the usual yearly inundation of the Nile, at which season its waters are for a time of this colour. But then it is that they are most highly esteemed by the Egyptians, and yield the most abundant supply of food to the fishes. The miracle demands the belief that the waters were as thoroughly changed into blood, as the water at the marriage feast of Cana was into wine. In both the same almighty power is to be seen working.

u

BIBLICAL NATUKAL SCIENCE.

EXODUS VIII.

FTER seven days, Moses was sent with another demand and threatening — " Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me. And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs : and the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up, and come into

/j.^thiue house, and into thy bed-chamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneading-troughs : and the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants. And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt. And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt ; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt. And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said. Entreat the Lord, that he may take away the frogs from me, and from my people ; and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the Lord" (ver. 1-8). ]\Ioses entreated for Pharaoh and his people — "And the frogs died out of the houses, out of the villages, and out of the fields, and they gathered them together upon heaps ; and the land stank."

"Frogs" (Heb. tzephardca) are mentioned only in this chapter and in other three passages of Scripture, two of which refer to this plague :

" He sent divers sorts of flies among them, wLich devoured them ; And frogs which destroyed them." — (Ps. Ixxviii. 45.)

" Their land brought forth frogs in abundance, In the chambers of their kings."— (Ps cv. 30.)

The other passage is Rev. xvi. 13, in which the fi-og is named as an emblem of an unclean spirit — " I saw three unclean spirits like frogs (Gr. hatrachoi) come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet." In the Egyptian mythology the creative attribute of the supreme god was

EXODUS VII r.

15

named Pthali, one of whose emblems was the frog. This association is no doubt to be traced to the prolific character of the female, one of which will spawn from one to two thousand so-called eggs in one season. As the people met with it on the banks of the Nile, and noticed its slime-like spawn covering the pools among the reeds and rushes, their thoughts would rise to the creative Pthah. But here the creature linked up with their ideas of increase, and of the care of their god, leaves its accustomed places on the margin of the river, and spreads over the land, entering alike the cottage of the peasant and the palace of the king. That which they had been in the habit of regard- ing with feelinjrs akin to reverence, came now to be abhorred. The very agents to whom they might have looked for protection against them aggravated the plague. The magicians tried their power, and

Fis. 2.

Fig. 3.

Front Foot of Frog.

Hind Foot of Frog.

Month of the Frog

succeeded in bringing frogs where before they were not, but were help- less when asked to remove them. That the king entreated Moses to stay the plague, shows both that his magicians had tried and found themselves helpless to do so.

The species of frogs most common in Egj-pt would, in all likelihood, be those in connection with which the miracle was worked. These are — the common frog {Eana temporaiia), the edible frog {B. escuknta), aud the dotted frog {R. punctata). We have no material for a nearer determination of species ; so that to fix on the last named as having been that sent on Egypt, is wholly arbitrary.

The front feet of the frog, fig. 2, are cloven, the four toes being separated by three deep clelts. The hind feet, fig. 3, are palmate, or webbed, and fit the animal for swimming with ease and agility. The mouth, fig. 4, is wide, and in some species, as, for example, the

16

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

hull frog-, fig. 5, an American form, very large. The mouth of the frog, unlike that of the toad, is furnished with teeth.

The removal of the plague brought the king back to his old state of feeling — " When Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart and hearkened not unto them." The consequence was, that the tliird plague was sent on the land. " The Lord said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all tlie land of Egypt. And they did so : for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man and in beast : all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt. And tlie

Fig- 6-

Bull Frog (Uana mugiens).

magicians did so with their enchantments to bring fortli lice, but they could not : so there were lice upon man and upon beast. Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God : and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto tliem ; as the Lord had said" (ver. 10-19).

Is there good reason for the view, now generally held by interpreters, that the word rendered lice in these passages means gnats ? Two cir- cumstances have chiefly been appealed to in support of this translation. First, the Septuagint version renders it shiiphcft, the Greek term for gnat. Second, gnats, it is said, are still so abundant in Egypt as to be regarded even now as a plague. Much weight may no doubt be claimed for the opinion of men who lived in the country, and were acquainted

EXODUS VIII. 17

with its insects, but it should be remembered that their translation was made more than one thousand years after the time that ]\Ioses wrote, and when Egypt was almost wliolly under Greek influences. Nothing is more likely than that they should have been misled by the resem- blance of the Hebrew word in sound to the Greek word for gnat. The second consideration is even less worthy of notice, because if gnats at present may be regarded as a plague in Egypt, lice are no less so. A close examination of the text leads me to conclude, that the rendering of the authorised version is to be preferred. This is supported by the authority of Josephus, Luther, Bochart, and others. Indeed, the views of Bochart have never been set aside. He points out that they were to spring from the dust of the earth ; but if gnats had been referred to the waters would have been named as their source. The original word comes from a root signifying to fix or be firm. The Talmudists, he also shows, used a term (Idnnali) for the louse, bearing a close resem- blance to that used by Moses.

" Louse," Heb. hen {Pediculus humanus of zoologists). This form is ranked under a group to which the name Ano2)lura has been given, because they have no forked tail, or bristles on the abdomen, such as distinguish the group immediately below them in i-it-.a

the zoological scale. Unlike the members of the groups of insects both below and above them, lice do not undergo metamorphosis. Their nits, or eggs, are attached to the hairs of the skin, never, as used to be thought, below it, and from these they come forth complete. In the course of their growth tliej' shed their skin several times, on each occasion assuming greater symmetry. The Iront ot the head, ng. 6, is long, and tapcrmg on (highly magumcd). to form a snout, b. In this, as in a sheath, lies the instrument, a, with which it pierces the skin and draws blood. The Dutch naturalist, Leeuwenhoek, devoted much attention to the habits of the pediculus, notwithstanding the loathing and disgust which every look at the creature begets. Referring to its mode of feeding, he says — " In my experiments, although I had at one time several on my hand drawing blood, yet I very rarely felt any pain from their punctures ; which is not to be wondered at, when we consider the excessive slenderness of the piercer ; for, upon comparing this with a hair taken from the back of my hand, I judged, from the most accurate computation I could form by the microscope, that the hair was seven hundred times larger than

VOL. II. c

18 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE,

this incredible slender piercer, which consequently by its punctures must excite little or no pain, unless it happens to touch a nerve. Hence I have been induced to think that the pain or uneasiness those persons suffer who are infested by these creatures, is not so much produced from the piercer as from a real sting, which the male louse carries in the hinder part of his body, and uses as a weapon of defence." He has shown that their eggs are not hatched till they have lain eight days, that the females are a month old when they begin to lay, and that a single female in eight weeks will increase the vermin to five thousand. In that time he obtained ten thousand eggs from two females. Such particulars form a good background for bringing out the circumstances of this loathsome and disgusting plague. It is known that the Egyptians were careful to keep all infested with them out of their temples. Their priests were clad in linen garments when they ministered in them, and every precaution was adopted to keep them- selves free from such vermin. But in this visitation the plague was in man and in beast. The vermin clung to all — king, and priest, and peasant alike. Their sacred animals were also infested with them. Contempt was poured on all the gods of Egypt. The magicians them- selves felt the prevailing disgust, and acknowledged that this was the finger of God. " The Egyptians affected great external purity ; and were very nice both in their persons and clothing ; bathing and making- ablutions continually. Uncommon care was taken not to harbour any vermin. They were particularly solicitous on this head; thinking it would be a great profanation of the temple which they entered, if any animalcule of this sort were concealed in their garments. The priests, says Herodotus, are shaved, both as to their heads and bodies, every third day, to prevent any louse or any other detestable creature being found upon them when they are performing their duty to the gods. The same is mentioned by another author, who adds, that all woollen was considered as foul, and from a perishable animal ; but flax is the product of the immortal earth, affords a delicate and pure covering, and is not liable to harbour lice. We may hence see what an abhorrence the Egyptians showed towards this sort of vermin, and what care was taken by the priests to guard against them. The judgments, therefore, inflicted by the hands of Moses were adapted to their prejudices. It was, consequently, not only most noisome to the people in general, but was no small odium to the most sacred order in Egypt, that they Avere overrun with these filthy and detestable vermin." — {Bnjant.)

Even though the magicians were constrained to cry out, " This is

EXODUS VIII. 19

the finger of God," when they felt the power of the thh-d phigue, the king's heart was still hardened. He bowed not before the majesty of the Lord. ]\Ioses was sent to threaten another plague — " And the Lord said unto ]\Ioses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh (lo, he cometh forth to the water), and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me. Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses : and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are. And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there ; to the end thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. And I will put a division between my people and thy people : to-morrow shall this sign be. And the Lord did so : and there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants' houses, and into all the land of Egypt : the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flics" (vei\ 20-24).

" Swarm" of flies, Heb. drfw. The original word is derived from a root signifying " to mix." Li rendering drov by " swarms," our trans- lators wished to convey their impression that the instrument of Jehovah's vengeance in this phigue was not any one single species of fly, but various kinds of insects so named. Thus, in Psalm Ixxviii. 45, the same idea is more distinctly expressed by the translation, " divers sorts of flies." So likewise in Psalm cv. 3L Interpretations of this whole passage which proceed on the principle that each of the plagues contained in it something suggestive of judgment on the false gods of Egypt, assign the specific meaning of beetles to this expression, and find in it direct refei'ence to a coleopterous insect, the sacred beetle, used in the Egyptian sculptures as an emblem of the world, and worshipped as sacred to the sun and to the god Pthah the embodi- ment of the creative power. Wilkinson found it s„eredi^,o,i.,(w.^r,«,a^, imaged on sculptures, and embalmed in the tombs vei s. ivji.(wr«».). at Thebes. In their efforts to associate one form with widely different thoughts the people had recourse to extraordinary devices. Emblems of particular gods, and representatives of certain ideas, were thus dealt with ; " the most remarkable of which were scarabivi, with the heads of hawks, rams, cows. Of these, many are found made of

20 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIEXCE.

pottery, stone, and other materials, and the sculptures represent the beetle with a human head. Such changes did not render them less fit emblems of the gods : the scarabceus of the Sun appears with the head of a ram, as well as a hawk ; and the god Pthah was some- times figured with the body of a scarabaeus, and the head and legs of his usual human form." — [Wilhuison) The general idea attached in our version to druv^ leaves room for the recognition of such a reference to the gods of Egypt. But nothing more specific is to bo sought in this plague than insects generally which were hurtful to man. (For " Fly," see under Isaiah vil. 18.) The severity of the plague broke for a season the proud spirit of the tyrant. " Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron, and said. Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land" (ver. 25). The distinction made between Goshen and Egypt would tend to deepen the impression made by the plague itself The people would be seen to be in some sense peculiar, and yet their God to be the God of the whole earth.

The answer of Moses (ver. 26) gives us another glimpse into the animal Avorship of Egypt — "And Moses said. It is not meet so to do; for w^e shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God : lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us? We will go three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the Lord our God, as he shall command us." Both the sacrifices and their mode of ofiering them would have been detested by the people. Animals which they held peculiarly sacred were to be offered up ; and as this was to be done as God commanded them, Moses knew that the command would be of a kind fitted to show to the people of Israel, that his worship was wholly different from that offered by the Egyptians to their idols.

EXODUS IX.

21

EXODUS IX.

HE swarms of insects were removed, and " there remained not one." Freed from tins plague, Pliaraoli's lieart again rose in rebellion against God, and Moses was sent to announce the fifth judgment. This was a grievous murrain upon the cattle of Egypt. The pest was to influence the cattle, as deadly epidemic diseases do men. The animals spe- cially noticed are the " horse," Heb. sus — see under 1 Kings X. 28; the "ass," Heb. Tihdmdr, noticed under Ps. civ. 11 ; the •'camel," Heb. gamdl, Gen. xxx. 43; the "ox," Heb. halcdr. Lev. I. 5 ; and " sheep," Heb. tzon, Gen. iv. 2. The horse used in war, the ass employed as the beast of burden, the ox by whose help the land was ploughed, the camel of the merchant, and the sheep prized for its wool, were stricken with the terrible murrain. " All the cattle of Egypt died" — an expression again illustrative of the use of "all" for "a multitude," but not for "every one." Some of these animals, as the ox and the sheep, were sacred. The horse and the camel were not. The ass was regarded as an emblem of Typhon.

The sixth plague was that of the Boil with " Blains" {avaghitgoth). An extreme and violent form of elephantiasis, known as black leprosy, has been named as the scourge in this plague ; but the expression "man and beast" renders this more than doubtful. It is worthy of notice, that at the present time forms of small-pox, characterized by great ulcerous inflammation have fallen with deadly power on many men and beasts. Whole flocks of sheep have been destroyed by it, and in one or two localities many households have been made desolate. The boil with blains may not have been identical, but the import of these terms is to be sought in some such violent cutaneous disease. As a sign of the coming curse, the servants of God were to " sprinkle the ashes of the furnace up towards heaven in the sight of Pharaoh." This having been done, the malady laid hold on man and on beast, as boils breaking forth with blains. All the curative skill of the physi- cians of Egypt was unavailing. " And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils ; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians. And the Lord hardened the heart of

Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had spoken unto Moses" (ver. 11, 12).

The results of the hardened heart led to another grand manifestation of the sovereign power of Jehovah, in sending the seventh plague. The threatening is given in verses 13-19, the fulfilment in verses 22-26. " And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch forth tliine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt. And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven ; and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground ; and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast ; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail." It fell with tremendous power on Pharaoh and his people. " And Pharaoh sent, and called for IMoses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time : the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. Entreat the Lord (for it is enough) that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail ; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer. And Closes said unto him, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto the Lord ; and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail ; that thou mayest know how that the earth is the Lord's. But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not yet fear the Lord God." The force of verse 18 is greatly heightened by remember- ing the character of the climate of Egypt. Herodotus notices the unfrequency of rain in the neighbourhood of Memphis. In Upper Egypt showers fall only five or six times in a year, and a continuance of heavy rains there, or even at Cairo, would be regarded with the greatest wonder. The results would also be most destructive. Such an occurrence took place in 1823, and many of the mud-built houses were destroyed. But if such effects would result from rains, how much greater would they be in the case of hail, and especially in a hail storm like that now threatened?- — "I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail."

The appeal made to the Egyptians themselves is full of interest. The influences of God's dealings with them appear to have begun to touch the hearts of the people. While they came to Pharaoh and many

EXODUS IX.

23

others as judgments whicli would only harden, to some they were sent as messengers of grace. " Send therefore now, and gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field; for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die. He that feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses ; and he that regarded not the word of the Lord left his servants and his cattle in the field." Tlie accompaniments of the grievous hail are very vividly set before us. Dark clouds loomed over that usually cloudless sky. Thunder broke forth peal on peal. Lightnings darted from the gloom. " Fire ran along the ground." So there was hail, and fire mingled with hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it." Man and beast, herb and tree, all bowed before its influence.

The allusion to the state of the crops in Egypt at the time of this plague is equally full of interest. " And the flax and the barley was smitten : for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was boiled. But the wheat and the rye were not smitten ; for they were not gi'own up" (ver. 31, 32). From this we may form a pretty definite estimate of the season when this plague occurred. There is no reason to believe that the climate of Egypt has altered since the time of Moses. At present the barley is found in the ear about the middle of l\Iarch ; the flax is boiled, or fully developed in the stalk about the same period. The wheat and rye harvest occurs in April. These cereals had, therefore, not reached a condition of growth which would have made the hail equally fatal to them as it must have been to the barley and flax. The seventh plague must have been sent in the beginning of March.

The Hebrew word for the flax plant is pisldali. Flax {Linum vsitatissimiivi) belongs to the natural order Linacecc, or Flax family, under which two genera are ranked, namely, flax (Linum), and flax-seed (Badiola). Four British species are ranked under the former, and one under the latter. These are perennial flax {L. perenne), narrow-leaved

Flax riant (Linum usitntissimum).

flax {L. angiistifolium), common flax [L. nsitatissi'mum), purging flax L. cathartkum), and tliyme-leavcd flax-seed (7?. viillegrana). Like the cotton plant, flax may be traced to India, "wlience, at a very early period, it was carried to Syria and Egypt. It then spread westward, until, about the time of the Roman Conquest, it appears to have been introduced into Britain. The mode of dressing flax is noticed under Josh. ii. G, where another form of the word used in this passage is employed [pishtcli). The name given here by ]\Ioses occurs in only other two places, both of which are in Isaiah — " A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench : he shall bring forth judgment unto truth" (xlii. 3). " Smoking," literally " dim"— see under Isaiah. In the other passage it is rendered " tow," where the word is used in the sense of wick — " They are extinct, they are quenched as tow" (xliii. 17).

"Barley," Heb. shonlh, see under Ruth i. 22; "Wheat," Ileb. Jih'ttlh, Deut. xi. 1-1 ; " Rye," Heb. kusametii, Isa. xxviii. 25.

EXODUS X.-XII.

25

EXODUS X-XII,

'HE message from Jehovah again comes to ]\Ioses and Aaron. " Go in unto Pharaoh." " How long," they asked, " wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before the Lord?" The plague of the locusts was threatened. At the earnest request of his people Pharaoh was inclined to yield. But the evil nature again triumphed ; " and they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence. And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left. And IMoses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night ; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt : very grievous were they ; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such. For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened ; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left ; and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt" (ver. 10-15). " Locust," Heb. arheli; see under Deut. xxviii. 38. The agent employed to bring the locust was an east wind (ver. 15). Having covered the face of the whole earth they devoured the vegetation, and " there remained not any green thing in the trees or in the herb of the field" — see under Isa. XV. 6. As the wind blowing from Arabia had brought the locusts, another from Africa is employed to carry them away. " The Lord turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts and cast them into the Red Sea."

Before the last terrible appeals were to be made to Pharaoh and his people, IMoses and Aaron were fully informed of that sacramental feast, the Passover, which was to be equally the expression of a covenant people's gratitude and the figure of those " good things to come" which were to be closely linked up with Him who, as our Passover, was sacri- ficed for us. The animal used was to be of the young of sheep or goat—

VOL. II. D

" Speat ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house. And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it, according to the number of the souls : every man, according to his eating, shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year : ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats" (xii. 3-5). It has been shown, under Gen. xxvii. that the Hebrew term gedi means the young of the goat. Sell, on the contrary, may be rendered either by "kid" or "lamb." The latter word is used here. It is also translated sheep, as in chap. xxii. 1 ; eioe, Lev. xxii. 28; and cattle, Ezek. xxxiv. 17. The word is very general. Its definite meaning is to be determined by the context.

" They shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs shall they eat it" (ver. 8). Attempts have been made to identify the " bitter hei'bs" eaten with the paschal lamb, but the words are far too indefinite for this. They appear to have been left thus general, that the Jews might use such as they found plentiful in the places in which at Passover time they might be dwelling, or that when they should gather together at Jerusalem a choice might be left them. Mint (Mentha viridis) may have been used, Luke xi. 42 ; so may the lettuce [Lactuca sativa) in its wild state, or the wild chicory (Cichorium intyhus), or wild garlic (Allium ascalonicum). English Jews at Passover time were wont to eat with the lamb horse-radisli (Armoracia rusticana) and chervil (Anthriscus). "Leavened bread" (ver. 15), see under Proverbs x. 2G.

" And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side-posts with the blood that is in the bason ; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning" (ver. 22). " Hyssop," Heb. ezov, is the lascf, lussuff, or azefoi the Bedouins, the caper plant (Caijparis spinosa) of modern botanists. See under 1 Kings iv. 33.

Bishop Colenso points to the account of the institution of the Pass- over, contained in this chapter, as a notable example of the unhistorical character of the story of the Exodus. Having quoted verses 21-28, he remarks — " That is to say, in one single day the Avhole immense popu- lation of Israel, as large as that of London, was instructed to keep the Passover, and actually did keep it. I have said 'in one single day;' for the first notice of any such feast to be kept is given in this very chapter, where we find it written (ver. 12), ' I will pass through the

KX0DU8 XII. 27

land of Egypt tins m'gld, and will smite all tlie first-horn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast.' " A candid reader has only to peruse the narrative to see the frivolous nature of this criticism. " The Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying (ver. 1), Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying. In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house (ver. 3). And ye shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month" (ver. 6). From the tenth to the fourteenth was certainly not " one single day." How does Dr. Colenso meet this? "It is true," he says, "that the story, as it now stands, with the directions about ' taking' the lamb on the tenth day and ' keeping' it till the fourteenth, are perplexing and con- tradictory." They may be "perplexing" to such a critic, but they are not " contradictory." Dr. Colenso believes they contradict the state- ments in verses 12 and 14 — " I will pass through the land of Egypt tin's night;" " This day shall be unto you for a memorial." But does not every unbiassed reader at once acknowledge, that " this night" and "this day" are the day and night pointed to in the warning given before the tenth day dawned, when all Israel were to show that they credited the threatening given in chapter xi. 5. The attempt to limit the expression "about midnight" (xi. 4.) to the midnight of the tenth — " the midnight then next at hand" — is hardly worthy of notice. The precise directions contained in this chapter define the meaning attached by the speaker to the words "about midnight." Why has not this author referred to what must, on his principles of interpretation, appear to be another glaring evidence of the unhistorical nature of this narra- tive, in ver. 4, chap, xi., and ver. 29, chap. xii. ? In the former the terms employed are "about midnight;" in the latter, " at midnight." Here, surely, was material for another indignant paragraph !

"'Moses,'" continues Dr. Colenso, "'called for all the elders of Israel.' We must suppose, then, that the elders lived somewhat near at hand. But where did the two millions live? And how could the order to keep the Passover have been conveyed, with its minutest particulars, to each individual household in this vast community in one day — rather, in tioelve hours, since Moses received the command on the very same day on which they were to kill the Passover at even, Exod. xii. 6?" The position of the dwellings of the elders can have no weight either way here, because it is not true that Moses received the command on the very same day on which they were to kill it. This is plain from the narrative. If an order had to be given on the tenth, it

28 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

required to reach Moses before that day. The lamb was to be taken from the flock on the tenth (ver. 3), and when the order (ver. 21) was given, it proceeded on the understanding that the command of the tenth had been obeyed. The lamb was ready. The expression " called for all the elders" simply intimates that when the expected morning came the ordinary channels of communication with the whole congre- gation were informed of it. Any attempt to exaggerate the difficulties of communicating with the households of Israel, if honestly made, will take into account the circumstances in which the people now were. They had long been expectiug a deliverer, on whom the hope of the nation was united. The period over which the plagues extended had rallied the people around Moses, whose natural faculty for organizing would be brought fully into play. Every arrangement would be made to give direction and speed to the final move. All that the messengers sent by the elders would have to declare would simply be, " Act as you have been instructed." The command as to the taking of the lamb on the tenth day included all the particulars now referred to by Moses. Those only which stood directly related to the slaying of the first-born are mentioned. Thus no reference is made to the " unleavened bread" in the command after the elders were called. In modern times the power of speedy communication with great bodies of people might of itself have led this author to hesitate before he challenged the historical character of this narrative. The population of the United Kingdom is nearly 30,000,000, yet in one day the head of every household is com- municated with when the census is taken. The organization thereto is no doubt complete, and preparation is made beforehand ; but modifi- cations of both suited to the circumstances, would be equally effective when employed by Moses to communicate with the comparatively few households of Israel.

We have seen that when God announced to Moses the judgments which he was about to send on Egypt, he said — " And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians : and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty : But every woman shall borrow of her neighbour, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment : and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters ; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians" (iii. 21, 22). The reference to this transaction in this chapter is as follows — " And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses ; and they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment. And the Lord gave the people favour

EXIJDLS XII. 29

in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they requ'red : and tliey spoiled the Egyptians" (ver. 35, 36). Dr. Colcnso finds "prodigious difficulties" in this passage. He makes the women " hasten, at a moment's notice," to " borrow" in all direc- tions from the Egyptians. But why "at a moment's notice?" That they were to do so was announced before even the first plague fell on the land. As with the reference to taking the lamb on the tenth day, so here. What is stated before the transaction passes as information among the people, and on this they act. The duties of the fourteenth day are specially referred to on the understanding that those of the tenth had been performed. The whole narrative proceeds just as such a narrative would do still, when brevity of statement is particularly necessary. When we are informed that " the children of Israel did according to the command of Moses, and they borrowed of the Egyp- tians" (ver. 35), it might be asked, Where is the command of Moses? It is not stated here. Yet it had been given. When God at first told his servant (chap, iii.) that this was to be done, Closes had made it known to the people. They had thus plenty of time for the borrowing of jewels, &c. As one plague and another fell on them, the natural conscience of the people would be made increasingly active. They had oppressed and wronged their neighbours. Might they not save them- selves from farther visitations by making restitution ? Verses 35 and 36 do not settle anything regarding the time at which this was done; they only record it as an historical fact.

Another, and, to this one-sided critic, more formidable difficulty presents itself in the number of lambs which would be required for the Passover. Taking the people at 2,000,000, and reckoning ten as the average number of the people for whom one lamb would be required, they would need 200,000 lambs. " Taking twenty, they would require 100,000. Let us," he says, " take the mean of these, and suppose that they required 150,000. And these were to be all ' male lambs of the first year,' Exod. xx. 5. We may assume that there were as many female lambs of the first year, making 300,000 lambs of the first year altogether. But these were not all. For if the 150,000 lambs which were killed for the Passover comprised all the males of that year, there would have been no rams or wethers left of that year for the increase of the flock. And as the same thing would happen in each successive year, there would never be any rams or wethers, but ewe-sheep innu- merable." Such statements appear to be gravely made. The last sentence in this quotation supplies a good example of Dr. Colenso's

30

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

mode of looking at matters. One can fancy the Zulus of a coming generation dealing with the question of the authenticity of the bishop's book, and reasoning thus : — Dr. Colcnso was a cultivated man, and an accurate thinker. The author of this work, however, has told us that all the male lambs would be killed for the Passover, rightly concluding, that if such were the case, there would be no rams of that year left for the increase of the flock. Yet in successive years the flocks were to go on increasing until there were ewe-sheep innumerable. This involves the claim of immortality for the rams existing when all the males of the first year were killed. A claim so absurd could never have been made by Dr. Colenso ; therefore he could not have been the author of the work !

The question as to the number of lambs required has some light shed on it by a passage in Josephus. In his graphic description of the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, he refers to the vast multitudes who had come up from the country to celebrate the Passover. When they had entered the city, the forces of the conqueror came up against it. He then adds — " They slajL their sacrifices from the ninth hour till the eleventh, but so that a company not less than ten belong to every sacrifice, and many of us are twenty in a company." — (Wars, vi. 9, 3.) At that time it was found that there were 256,500 sacrifices in the city. Why has Dr. Colenso not brought his arithmetic to bear on the statement of Josephus ? He must hold it less worthy of credit even than anything in this chapter. Yet all men agree that the number given by the Jewish historian is near the truth. " Which," continues Josephus, " upon an allowance of no more than ten that feast together amounts to 2,700,000, and 200 persons that were pure and holy." On Dr. Colenso's principles this whole narrative must be regarded as unhistorical for two reasons : — (1) The space known to have been sur- rounded by the walls of Jerusalem could not have contained 2,700,000 persons and 256,000 lambs. Especially when it is borne in mind that those who, as ceremonially polluted, were not permitted to eat of the paschal lamb, and foreigners, who were also prohibited, must have been on the lowest calculation no fewer than 50,000. But to the lambs might fairly be added 50,000 more to serve as food, and as many cattle; giving, in round numbers, 400,000 sheep and cattle ! (2) Josephus must have been patching up a narrative long after the siege from several accounts, and in that want of attention to details which has led im into so many blunders, he did not observe that the arithmetic of

the account of the lambs did not agree with that of the number of the

people. Had lie brought both together, and taken ten as the average for one lamb, he would have found that, multiplying 250,500 by that number gave 2,565,000, and not, as in his account, which is every- where disfigured with blunders (as intelligent Zulus have pointed out) 2,700,000, and 200! We would soon get quit of all history were the text to be dealt with as this critic deals with the books of Moses.

Josephus intimates that, while the usual average was ten to a lamb, circumstances influenced the number. Times of crisis like the coming up out of Egypt, and the siege of Jerusalem, might greatly raise the average. He gives one instance of twenty. Dr. Colenso cannot prove that, in the case of the first Passover, it could not have been higher. He arbitrarily takes the mean between ten and twenty, making the number of lambs required 150,000. But suppose we should plead for forty at such a crisis, would 50,000 lambs not be easily within reach of a pastoral people numbering about 2,000,000?

Dr. Colenso having in liis characteristic way concluded that there must have been 400,000 male and female lambs of the first year, says — " Now, a sheepmaster, experienced in Australia and Natal, informs me that the total nund)er of sheep, in an average flock of all ages, will be about five times that of the increase in one season of lambing. So that 400,000 lambs of the first year implies a flock of 2,000,000 sheep and lambs of all ages. Taking, then, into account the fact that they had also large herds, ' even very much cattle,' we may fairly reckon that the Hebrews, though so much oppressed, must have possessed at this time, according to the story, more than 2,000,000 of sheep and oxen. What extent of land, then, would all these have required for pasturage?" The estimates of Australian and New Zealaud sheep- masters are stated, and Dr. Colenso ultimately allows '^five sheep to an acre." This would have required 400,000 acres. The people would thus be scattered over twenty-five miles square. How were they all to be informed in such a short time ? It has already been shown that there is no foundation for fixing the number of lambs, as this author has done. To take Australian or New Zealand pastures as standards of comparison with the rich lands of Goshen, is simply absurd. The rich pastures of Leicester or York would have been more to the pur- pose. The difficulty of informing the people of the arrangements for celebrating the Passover, and instructing them to borrow from the Egyptians, are formidable only when this is believed to have been all done in a few hours. This, we have seen, was not the case — a fact which implies a complete answer to his remarks on the " march out of

Egypt" (ver. 37, 38). "Here, then," he says, "we have this vast body of people of all ages, summoned to start, according to the story, at a moment's notice." In stating the difficulties that might be sup- posed to arise from the social condition and domestic circumstances of the people, he forgets, as indeed he does throughout, that all the circumstances of the Exodus were under the special care of God. This is carefully noticed by the Psalmist : —

" Israel also came into Egypt ; And Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. And lie increased his people greatly, And made them stronger than their enemies. He brought them forth also with silver and gold : And there was not one feeble among their tribes."

-(Ps. cv. 23, 24, 37.)

The plague of darkness had fitllen on the land. For three days "darkness which might be felt" brooded over Egypt. "They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days." But the distinguishing sovereignty of God was again displayed — " All the children of Israel had light in their dwellings." At last the tenth and most terrible plague of all fell with awful power on the people — " And it came to pass that at midnight the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne, unto the tirst-born of the captive that was in the dungeon ; and all the first-born of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians ; and there was a great cry in Egypt ; for there was not a house where there was not one dead. And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said. Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Isi'ael ; and go, serve the Lord, as ye have said. Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone ; and bless me also. And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We be all dead men" (ver. 29-33).

A general review of the signs and wonders wrought in the land of Egypt, on the threshold of Israel's deliverance from the bondage of Egypt, presses on us the lesson of the absolute sovereignty of God in working above what we are in the habit of calling "Nature." The purely miraculous element in God's dealings with Egypt lies on the front of these plagues. It greatly weakens their force, if we regard them as no more than the excess of some well-known phenomena.

EXODUS XII. 33

While it is true that natural means were used, everywhere we are forced to acknowledge the presence of an almighty power controlling them and giving them bearings, which they could no more have attained without this, than could the widow of Nain's only son have risen from the bier, had not the life-giving touch and voice of the Lord of life reached him. The rsjjUi of modern Egypt may have the power of serpent-charming, and of making the Naja stand out rigid as a rod in their hands; but to aver that it was by like legerdemain that the magicians of old competed successfully with Moses and Aaron, up to a certain point, can do no more than suggest to unbelievers the impres- sion, that the leaders of Israel in their success showed themselves only more skilful in this art than the magicians were. In this case it was Jehovah against the false gods of Egypt — the spiritual wickednesses who acted through the magicians.

To find a natural groundwork for the first plague, in the red mud which at the period of its rise the Nile brings down with it, is as much as to insinuate, that the water of the river was not as truly turned into blood as the water at the marriage feast was into wine. Referring to this association of the miracle with the rise of the Nile, Kurtz says, " We feel obliged to reject it as inadmissible : — (1) It is at variance with the time when the plague occurred ; for, unless we are entirely mistaken, the plague happened at the beginning of February, whereas the Nile does not turn red till July. (2) This phenomenon is only conceivable at the period when the Nile overflows ; but there is not the least indication of an overflowing in the whole of the narrative before us ; on the contrary, there arc several things which lead us to an opposite conclusion : for example, Pharaoh icalks to the hrinJc of the river, and the Egyptians dig round about the river for water to drink. (3) The fact that the water became putrid, was an indication of fermen- tation and decomposition, and this again of stagnation. But overflowing and stagnation exclude each other. (4) The effect of what Aaron did was immediate, it extended at once to all the canals, and trenches, and pools, which were connected with the Nile, and even to the water which had previously been taken from the river and was put by in wooden and earthen vessels to settle. (5) The ordinary redness does not render the water unfit for use; on the contrary, it cannot be used until it turns red, and this phenomenon has no injurious influence upon the fish in the river. There is not a single instance on record, in which the water Avas unfit for use when it was in this condition." AVhen interpreters attempt to shed light on the second plague by telling us, that the

Vol. n. k

34 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

banks of the Nile generally swarm with frogs ; or on the third and fourth by quotations from Herodotus touching the teeming forms of insect life in Egypt ; or on the fifth by informing us, that the cattle of Egypt are peculiarly liable to murrain ; or on the sixth by adducing proofs of the prevalence of cutaneous diseases at all times in the land, and so with the rest, what has been gained ? The grandeur of the acts has been toned down, and the majesty of Him who is mighty in working has been kept in the back ground. The narrative of the plagues every- where proclaims, that, while natural means were taken as a ground- work, these were in such a condition as to make the result evidently the fruit of direct miraculous power.

EXODUS XIII.-XV.

EXODUS XIII.-XV.

ILL the date of the Exodus the Hebrew year began with

the new moon of October. The change to the new moon

of April was made in obedience to the direct command of

God (xii. 2). Moses repeats this: — " And Moses said unto

the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from

Egypt, out of the house of bondage ; for by strength of hand

^ .M,p the Lord brought you out from this place; there shall no

(S^7/ H leavened bread be eaten. This day came ye out, in the month

Abib " (ver. 3, 4). Abib means ' the month of the ears of corn,"

for then the ears were ripe. On the sixteenth day of Abib ripe ears

were to be offered unto the Lord. The Jewish year came ultimately

to be divided as follows : —

1. Abib or Nisan,			April.
2. ZiforYiar, .			May.
3. Sivan,			June.
4. Tammuz,			July.
5. Ab, . . .			August.
6. Elul, .			September.
7. Ethanim or Tisri, .			October.
8. Bui or MarhhesLvan,			NoTember.
9. Chisleu,			December.
10. Tebetb,			January.
11. Sebat,			February.
12. Adar,			March.
13. Veadar,

Veadar, or the second Adar, was the intercalated month which, usually every third year, was introduced to keep the periods fixed for the great festivals undisturbed. The lunar month varied between twenty-nine and thirty days, and at certain periods it was discovered that the grain would not be ready for the time of the first-fruits, reckoned by the solar year. In such circumstances a thirteenth month was added, and a due adjustment thus made. In verse 5 the outstanding characteristics of the land promised to the fathers is described ; it was a laud flowing with milk and honey. The latter product is noticed under 2 Kings xviii. 32 — which see.

30 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

For good reasons the Israelites were not permitted to take tlie shortest route from Egypt to Palestine. " And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near ; for God said. Lest peradventure the people repent when they sec war, and they return to Egypt. But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. And the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt" (ver. 17, 18). Had they taken the direct road, they would have struck off to the north-east, journeyed at some distance from the eastern shores of the Great Sea, and reached the promised laud in a comparatively short time. Instead of this, they are made to take the widely circuitous route by the Red Sea and the great Arabian Desert. One reason for this detour is named here. The Philistines were a warlike people, and Israel would not have been able to stand before them. Yet they were to be the instruments by whom Philistia was to be depopulated. Other reasons will be found in the moral and spiritual discipline of the people, in the giving of the law at Sinai, and in the terrible overthrow of the hosts of Egypt at the Red Sea. The expression "harnessed" must not be pressed beyond the general meaning which here belongs to it. Dr. Colenso finds, in the statement that 600,000 men went armed out of Egypt, another insu- perable obstacle to his belief in the historical character of the Penta- teuch. " If," he says, " the historical veracity of this part of the Pentateuch is to be maintained, we must believe that 000,000 armed men (though it is inconceivable how they obtained their arms) had, by reason of their long servitude, become so debased and inhuman in their cowardice (and yet they fought bravely enough with Amalek a month after), that they could not strike a single blow for their wives and children, if not for their own lives and liberties, but could weakly Avail, and murmur against Moses, saying, " It had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness," Exod, xiv. 12.

Looking at the matter from this author's point of view, there are many things in the relation of varieties of the human race to each other quite as strange as this. For example. Dr. Colenso informs us in his " Ten Weeks' Tour," that the number of Zulus and other Kafirs in Natal is estimated at 100,000. But the whites are not more than GOOO. Looking at Kafir hatred of whites it is wonderful that the 100,000 do not murder them all in a night. A thousand illustrations might be gathered from history to show how long tribes equally powerful as their oppressors, have continued patient under ill treatment when they

EXODUS XIH.-SV.

37

might have, by united effort, made themselves masters of the situation. Only when they found a competent leader were force and purpose given to their feelings. Thus had it been with Israel. Only now had a leader equal to the time been raised up, and every believing reader of the Bible acknowledges that this was according to the will of God. The prophecy touching the time had gone before (Gen. xv, 13), and they must wait till its fulness came. But even at that time they were not in circum- stances to cope with the warrior hosts of Egypt. The visitation of the ten plagues proceeds on this condition of matters. As to the possession of arms, there is nothing in the account of the work which Pharaoh laid on Israel, which demands that they should have been destitute of all weapons of offence. On the contrary, the geographical position of Goshen was such as would make them prize such weapons. That they possessed them is virtually implied in chapter i. 10, and vii. 4.

The second resting-place of the hosts of Israel after the passage of the Red Sea was Elim. This locality is again mentioned in chap, xvi., Num. xxxiii. 9, 10, with reference to the same circumstances as those named here. The site of Elim is the modern ]Va(hj Ghmmndel, a valley formed by outliers of the chain of mountains known as the Jehel er-Baliah, running in a southerly direction between the desert proper and the sea. The wady stretches from the western slopes of this range in a south-west direction to the sea also. Here were twelve fountains of water and three score and ten palm-trees (xv. 27). " A better place for an encampment could not be found in all this desert plain than Wady Ghurundel, and I can scarcely tliink the weary host would have passed such an inviting spot. This then may safely be identified with Elim. The whole desert is almost absolutely bare and barren, but Wady Ghurundel is fringed with trees and shrubs, forming a charming oasis." — (Porter.) Wady Ghurundel is noted still for its fountains or springs and palm- trees. Acacias and tarfa-trees also abound. " The palms," says Dr. Stanley — " not the graceful trees of Egypt, but the hardly less pic- turesque wild palms of uncultivated regions, with their dwarf trunks and shaggy branches — vindicate by their appearance the title of being emphatically the 'trees' of the desert; and therefore, whether in the cluster of the seventy palm-trees of the second station of the wander- ings, or in the grove which still exists at the head of the Gulf of Akaba, were kno^Yn by the generic name of Elim, Elath, or Elotli, — 'the trees.'"

The palm-tree, Hebrew tdmiir, referred to here is the well known

38

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE,

date palm, Phoenix dactjjlifera, of botanists. It belongs to the Palmce, or palm order, a greatly prized and celebrated family of monocotyle- donous plants. See under Rev. vii. 9.

The stem of the date grows, when fully developed, to the height of above sixty feet, and stands prominently out in its native climes, noted above other trees for usefulness and great beauty. The geographical zone of the date-tree has for its north boundary parallel 34° N.L., and for its south boundary parallel 15' N.L. In certain localities, however.

Fig. ».

Palm-trees (Phanix daetylifara).

in which phj'sical features modify temperature, it bears fruit beyond these. The wood of the date-tree, like that of the endogens or inside growers generally, is soft and easily destroyed internally. On the outside it is comparatively hard and compact. The foliage falls off as the stem increases in height, leaving deep scars on the bark. When the tree is full grown the fronds hang in terminal fan-shaped clusters from the top. The Israelites would be well acquainted with the date-tree in Egypt, where it was and still is highly prized. When they stood by these palm-trees on the edge of the wilderness, the remembrance of

EXODUS XV.

39

their delivery would quicken their gratitude, and the sight of the much- prized tree would encourage them to go forward —

" Then, soft as Elim's well The precious tears of new-born freedom fell. And he whose harden'd heart alike had borne The house of bondage and the oppressor's scorn, The stubborn slave, by hope's new beams subdued, In faltering accents sobb'd his gratitude."— //eier.

The generic name Phjenix, it is alleged, has been given to several of the Pahnce from the fact, that when an aged palm dies, there often spring from its roots three or four young ones. The position of the palms near the twelve wells at Elim indicates a well known feature of their growth. " The palm," says Sir G. Wilkinson, " was another important gift bestowed on them; it flourished spontaneously in the valley of the Nile, and, if it was unable to grow in the sands of the arid desert, yet wherever water sufficed for its nourishment, this useful tree produced an abundance of dates, a wholesome and nutritious fruit, which might be regarded as an universal benefit, being within the reach of all classes of people, and neither requiring expense in the cultivation, nor inter- fering with tlie time demanded for other agricultural occupations." When the eyes of the pilgrim hosts who left Egypt at the bidding of the Lord, beheld the cluster of palm-trees rising before them at Elim, they would at once conclude that there were " springs" there likewise.

40

HIDLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

EXODUS XVI.

'AVING left Elim, the children of lyracl came Into the wilder- ness of Sin, Avliich is between Elim and Sinai (ver. 1). An account of their murmuring follows, the miracle of the manna is described, and the command to collect it is given. "Take ye every man for them which are in his tents" (ver. IG). The difficulty held by some (Colenso, »S:c.) to be in this statement is hardly worthy of notice. To read the words in the light of modern ideas of a tent is unfair. A very different shelter goes by the name in eastern lands still. A light pole and a few yards of canvass yield sleeping room for large families. Any objection urged on the score of the unlikelihood of their having such tents Avhen called to leave Egypt, proceeds on the belief that no preparations had been made for that event. But the whole drift of the narrative of the Exodus contradicts this. Moreover, any kind of shelter which, at this period, the situation might afford would be reckoned as a tent. This indeed appears to be hinted at in Lev. xxiii. 43, 45. " Quails," ver. 13 — see under Numb. xi. 31. The appearance of the "angel's food" is described — "The manna was like coriander-seed" (ver. 31). "Cori- ander," Hebrew ^«f?, is mentioned only in this place and in Numb. xi. 7, where the same transaction is described. The plant referred to is garden coriander [Coriandruvi sativum), one of the umbelliferous family. Its seeds have always been extensively used as a condiment in the East. It grows luxuriantly in the south of Europe, and is cultivated for the sake of its seeds in Britain also. The reference to it here sliows that the Israelites were well acquainted with it. The supply lasted till they reached the promised land : " They did eat manna until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan" (ver. 31). This statement Dr. Colenso, evidently much against his will, allows to pass without severe comment, but, like Joab with Abner, he smiles on it only because he is conscious of a concealed power to deal a deadly blow. Somehow the whole narra- tive of the support of Israel continues to be credited by the universal church, after gainsayers have shown, to their own satisfaction, that the thing was impossible; and even after this author's onslaught, and in the full knowledge of it, men's confidence in the narrative is not shaken.

EXODUS XVI.

41

" The people," says the Bishop, " we are told, were supplied with manna. But there was no miraculous provision of food for the herds and flocks. They were left to gather sustenance as they could, in that inhospitable wilderness," p. 05. What information have we as to the sheep and oxen possessed by the Israelites in the desert ? When they

Fig. :o.

Coriander {Coriandrum sativum).

left Egypt they had "flocks, and herds, even very much cattle" (chap. xii. 38). Under this expression it is held that at least 2,000,000 sheep and oxen are included. But we have seen, under chap, xii., that this estimate is not made on good grounds. The words " verv much cattle" do not warrant such an exaggerated estimate. Jacob, even when still serving Laban, is said to have had "much cattle;" but we never imagine the expression implies immense herds. It is doubtful if

VOL. II. p

42 BIBLICAL NATUILVL SCIENCE.

in his case we are warranted to reckon them by hundreds. If in the case under notice Ave count by thousands, we will be much nearer tlie truth than the bishop is, who pleads for hundreds of tliousands. In Numb. xi. the lusting of the people for flesh is described. " Israel wept again, and said. Who shall give us flesh to eat?" (ver. 4.) Moses asks, "Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people?" (ver. 13). And again, "The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen ; and thou hast said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month. Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them? or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suflice them ? And the Lord said unto Moses, Is the Lord's hand waxed short ? thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to pass unto thee or not" (ver. 21, 22). This happened in the second year of the Exodus. Why does Moses refer to the 600,000 warriors ? Is it not that he might show, that all the flocks and herds then in the wilderness would have been insufficient to feed them even for a short period, when they lusted for the flcsli ? And does not the answer of the Lord imply the same thing, in addition to the declara- tion, that as his power had been miraculously shown in Egypt, in the Exodus, and the passage at the Red Sea, it would continue to be so in the desert wanderings? But Dr. Colenso is a nmch better judge of what Moses meant than Moses himself was ! It is quite clear from the inspired account of Israel's life in the wilderness, that the chief suste- nance of the people was to be manna. " And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know ; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live" (Deut. viii. 2, 3). The flocks and herds appear chiefly to have been associated with the religious life of the people ; the manna was of a nature to provide for all the requirements of the body, and would be fitted to nourish both blood, and bone, and muscle.

Looking then at the wilderness provision of food for the flocks and herds, the herbage might be amply sufficient for them without miracu- lous interference. Miracle is not, however, to be banished from this aspect of wilderness life, merely because it is not directly stated, or because the acknowledgment of it would off"end the philosophy of Dr.

EXODUS xvr.

Colenso. It is quite within the range of possibihty, that the wilderness should have been as waste and howling when Israel wandered in it, as it is now, and, yet, that near the encampments of the people rich pasture grounds may have existed at that time which are not met with now. No traveller in the Arabian Desert scruples to describe it as waste, howling, awful in its solitude, grand in its very desolation, nothing but dreariness and death, and the like, because he finds here and there spots of rich verdure.

If we read Dr. Stanley's description of the desert in the light of these remarks, we can at once see how, even without a miracle, the flocks and herds of Israel could be sustained. " How far," he asks, " can we be sure that we have the same outlines, and colours, and forms, that were presented to those who wandered through these mountains and valleys three thousand years ago? It might at first sight seem, that in this, as in other respects, the interest of the Desert of Sinai would be unique; that here, more than in any other great stage of historical events, the outward scene must remain precisely as it was ; that the convent of Justinian with its gardens, the ruins of Paran, with the remains of hermits' cells long since desolate, are the only alterations which human hands have introduced into these wild solitudes. Even the Egyptian monuments and sculptures which are carved out of the sandstone are already there, as the Israelites passed by — memorials at once of their servitude and of their deliverance,

" But a difficulty has often been stated that renders it necessary somewhat to modify this assumption of absolute identity between the ancient and modern desert. The question is asked — ' How could a tribe so numerous and powerful as, on any hypothesis, the Israelites must have been, be maintained in this inhospitable desert?' It is no answer to say that they were sustained by miracles : for except the manna, the quails, and the three interventions in regard to water, none such are mentioned in the Mosaic history ; and if we have no warrant to take away, we have no warrant to add. Nor is it any answer to say that this difficulty is a proof of the impossibility, and therefore of the unhistorical character, of the narrative. For, as Ewald has well shown, the general truth of the wanderings in the wilderness is an essential preliminary to the whole of the subsequent history of Israel. Much may be allowed for the spread of the tribes of Israel far and wide through the whole peninsula, and also for the constant means of support from their own flocks and herds. Something, too, might be elicited from the undoubted fact, that a population nearly, if not quite

44 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

equal, to the whole permanent population of the peninsula does actually pass through the desert, in the caravan of the five thousand African pilgrims on their way to ]\Iecca. But amongst these considerations, it is important to observe what indications there may be of the moun- tains of Sinai having been able to furnish greater resources than at present. These indications are well summed up by Ritter. There is no doubt that the vegetation of tlie wadys has considerably decreased. In part, this would be an inevitable effect of the violence of the winter torrents. The trunks of palm-trees washed up on the shore of the Dead Sea, from which the living tree has now for many centuries disappeared, show what may liave been the devastation produced amongst those mountains, where the floods, especially in earlier times, must have been violent to a degree unknown in Palestine ; whilst the peculiar cause — the impregnation of salt — which has preserved the vestiges of the older vegetation there, has here of course no existence. The traces of such a destruction were pointed out to Burckhardt on the eastern side of Mount Sinai, as having occurred within half a century before his visit; also to Wellsted, as having occurred near Tur, in 1832. In part, the same result has followed from the reckless waste of the Bedouin tribes — reckless in destroying, and careless in replenishing. A fire, a pipe, lit under a grove of desert trees, may clear away the vegetation of a whole valley.

" The acacia trees have been of late years ruthlessly destroyed by the Bedouins for the sake of charcoal ; especially since they have been compelled by the pasha of Egypt to pay a tribute in charcoal for an assault committed on the Mecca caravan in the year 1823. Charcoal from the acacia is, in fact, the chief, perhaps it might be said the only, traffic of the peninsula. Camels are constantly met, loaded with this wood, on the way between Cairo and Suez. And as this probably has been carried on in great degree by the monks of the convent, it may account for the fact, that whereas in the valleys of the western and the eastern clusters this tree abounds more or less, yet in the central cluster itself, to which modern tradition certainly, and geographical considera- tions probably, point as the mountain of the burning "thorn," and the scene of the building of the ark and all the utensils of the taber- nacle from this very wood, there is now not a single acacia to be seen. If this be so, the greater abundance of vegetation would, as is well known, have furnished a greater abundance of water, and this again would re-act on the vegetation, from which the means of subsistence would be procured. How much may be done by a careful use of such

EXODUS XVI.

45

water and such soil as the desert supplies, may be seen by the only two spots to which, now, a diligent and provident attention is paid ; namely, the gardens at the wells of Moses, under the care of the French and English agents from Suez, and the gardens in the valleys of Jebel I\Iusa, under the care of the Greek monks of the convent of St. Catherine. Even as late as the seventeenth century, if we may trust the expression of Monconys, the wady er-Rahah in front of the convent, now entirely bare, was ' a vast green plain ' — ' une grande champagne verte.' And that there was in ancient times a greater population than at present, which would, again, by thus furnishing heads and hands to consider and to cultivate these spots of vegetation, tend to increase and to preserve them — may be inferred from several indications. The Amalek- ites, who contested the passage of the desert with Israel, were — if we may draw any inferences from this very fact, as well as from their wide-spread name and power even to the time of Saul and David, and from the allusion to them in Balaam's prophecy as ' the first of the nations ' — something more than a mere handful of Bedouins. The Egyptian copper-mines, and monuments, and hieroglyphics, in Surabit el-Kahadim and the wady Mughareh, imply a degree of intercourse between Egypt and the peninsula in the earliest days of Egypt, of which all other traces have long ceased. The ruined cities of Edom in the mountains east of the Arabah, and the remains and history of Petra itself, indicate a traffic and a population in these remote regions which now seems to us almost inconceivable."

46

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENX'E.

EXODUS XIX.-XXIV.

N the third month, wlien the chikh-en of Israel were gone fortli out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai" (ver. 1). The Lord called up Moses into the mountain, and gave him a message to the people. The beautiful figure in verse 4 forms part of this — " Tell the children of Israel ; Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyp- tians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself." The same figure is more fully brought out in Deut. xxxii. 11, 12 — " As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, sprcadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings • so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him." It has been customary to explain this by saying, that Moses simply makes use of a popular impression without any regard to its scientific truthfulness. This may have been the case, just as it is common among ourselves to speak of certain natural phenomena in ways which strictly speaking they do not warrant, such as the moving of the sun round the earth, the falling down of dew, and the like. The mode, however, in which Moses uses the figure in Deuteronomy, would lead one to look for the illustration of his words in the natural habits of the eagle. His long sojourn in the wild regions around the mount of God, must have made him familiar with the habits of several of the larger birds of prey. A friend, an accurate observer, has informed me, that he once witnessed the eagle, in one of the deep gorges of the Himalayas, thus teaching its young to fly. While with his glass he watched several young ones on a ledge of rock at a great height, the parent birds swept gently past the young, one of which ventured to follow, and seemed as if unequal to the flight. As it gently sunk down with extended wings, one of the parent birds glided underneath it, and bore it aloft again. Other birds have recourse to similar arts to support their young. The swan may often be seen sailing along with her cygnets on her back. So, likewise, with the wild duck. The observer will be amply rewarded for his patience in watching, if he once witnesses the arts brought to bear on the young by the parent bird, to prevail on them to rest on her as she glides from place to place. The other aspects of habit

EXODUS XIX.-XXIV. 4.7

noticed here have often been observed. " It is not necessary," says a recent traveller, writing in view of a deep chasm in the Lebanon range, " to press every poetical figure into strict prosaic accuracy. The notion, however, appears to have been prevalent among the ancients, that the eagle did actually take up her yet timid young, and carry them forth to teach them how, and embolden them to try their own pinions. To this idea Moses seems to refer in Exodus xix. 4 : 'Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.' The fact is not impossible : the eagle is strong enough to do it, but I am not aware that such a thing has ever been witnessed. I myself, however, have seen the old eagle fly round and round the nest, and back and forth past it, while the young ones fluttered and shivered on the edge, as if eager but afraid to launch forth from the giddy precipice. And no wonder, for the nest ' is on high,' and a fall from thence would end their flight for ever." Almost all kinds of birds try this " fluttering, and spreading abroad of their wings," to entice their young to leave their nest. Goldsmith has made fine use of the fact in his sketch of the village pastor : —

" But in his duty, prompt at every c;ill He watcli'd and wept, he pray'd and ft-It, for all : And, as a bird each fond endearment tries To tempt its new-fledged offspring to tlie skies, lie tried each art, reprov'd each dull delay, Allur'd to brighter worlds, and led the way."

" The eagle," Heb. nesher, is the golden eagle ; see under Leviticus xi. 13.

" Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in lieaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in tlie water under the earth : Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them : for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me" (xx. 4, 5). The precept strikes at the root of all idolatry. The expression " any thing that is in heaven above," is not to be limited to imaginary images of angels. This is no doubt included in it, but it is susceptible of an application much more purely Egyptian likewise. In early Egyptian astrology each planet had an animal consecrated to it, which was esteemed sacred by the people, and had divine homage paid to it. A blow is also struck at other gross forms of animal worship in the words " earth beneath, and waters under

48

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

the earth." A multitude of beasts, Lirds, and fishes were esteemed sacred by the Egyptians. Some of these were worshipped from dread ; most of them were so because of real or imaginary benefits they were held to bestow on man. But " the Bible denies that this gives man a right to declare them as Divine beings ; to assign whole provinces for their sustenance ; to offer to them voluntary gifts in gold and silver ; to collect alms for them ; to bathe and to anoint them ; to cover them with rich garments, and to place them on luxurious cushions; to erect

Golden Eiit;le (Aqiiila chr'/metos).

for them magnificent temples, and to scent the air which they inhale with the most costly perfumes ; to bewail their death more than that of a man ; to punish those who kill them as impious murderers, and to visit even their undesigned destruction ; to embalm their bodies, and to entomb them in beautiful sarcophagi with lavisli expense. The beasts are, according to the ]\Iosaic doctrine, beings that owe the breath of their life to the omnipotence of God ; to Him they are indebted for all

EXODUS XlX.-XXiV. 49

tlieir instincts ; and, if these serve the use and advantage of man, they fulfil merely their natural destiny ; and the honour belongs to Him alone who has endowed them with those wonderful powers."

See for notice of chap. xxii. 6, under 2 Kings xix. 2G. Chap, xxiii. is devoted to questions bearing upon the attitude of the people to one another, to the three great feasts, and to the promise of help in driving out the doomed people of Canaan from the promised laud. In verses 27-30 it is said — " I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come ; and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs uuto thee. And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee. I will not drive them out from before thee in one year ; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little aud little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased and inherit the land." The words "my fear" are evidently very general. That they are to be regarded as equivalent to " hornet," is not so clear as some have thought. They seem rather to include natural agencies of any sort, which would foil as a scourge on the people to be expelled from the land. One such agent was found in the hornet. There is no reason for taking this word as used metaphorically to express the curse of God which was to fall on the natives of Canaan. Examples are not awanting of the tremendous influence for evil of swarms of hornets. They may be regarded as having been actually sent on the Canaanites. Thus in the closing address of the Lord to the people by Joshua, it is said — " And I sent the hornet before you, which drave them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites ; but not with thy sword, nor with thy bow" (Josh. xxiv. 12).

"Hornet," Heb. tzireah, is the Vespa crahro of entomologists, one of the Vesjndce, or wasp family of insects. It is much larger than the common wasp, is of a dark brown colour, very active and fierce. Its sting is very severe and often deadly. It still abounds in Palestine. " The arms with which they annoy are two darts finer than a hair, furnished on the outer side at the end with several barbs not visible to the naked eye, and each moving in the groove of a strong and often curved sheath, frequently mistaken for the sting, which, when the darts enter the flesh, usually injects a drop of subtile venom, furnished from a peculiar vessel in which it is secreted, into the wound."

Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, went up into the Mount to meet with God — "And they saw the God of Israel : and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a

50

BIBLICAL NATUliAL SCIENCE.

sapphire-stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness" (xxiv. 10).

"Sapphire," Hob. sappir. This word occurs ten times in the Old and once in the New Testament. Tlie sapphire is a variety of corun- dite, a precious stone composed almost entirely of alumina. Corundites are of different colours, as grey, brown, red, and blue. The well-known emery, used in polishing stones, cutting glass, &c., has the grey colour predominating. When brown prevails, we have the, so-called, ada- mantine spar. Red yields the oriental ruby, and blue the sapphire. Alumina and silex, or rock-crystal, form the basis of nearly all precious stones. The tones of corundites depend on the proportion of oxide of iron and of silex they contain. Thus, while the noble corundite.

Fig. 12.

Group of Bock-ci7Stal.

sapphire, contains alumina 98'5, oxide of iron I'O, lime 0'5, the common corundite, emery, contains alumina 8G"0, silica 3'0, oxide of iron 4"0. The colour of the sapphire is a clear beautiful blue. Its hue varies from the most delicate azure to the bright indigo blue. Very valuable specimens have been obtained which are blue by day and assume a beautiful violet colour under artificial light. The sapphire is chiefly found in India and Ceylon. This accounts for the comparative fami- liarity of the Hebrews with it. They would obtain it, in the earliest period of their history, from the merchants who traded with India by the way of Arabia, and, in later times, it would be brought by the ships of Tarshish which traded between Ezion-geber and the southern shores of Asia.

EXODUS XIX.-XXIV.

61

In this passage the delicate blue of the sapphire stands specially out in the description of the wonderful scene on the IMount. Thus the reference to " the body of heaven" — the clear blue sky with whose hue they were well acquainted. This colour had been specially before them as they looked up both in the day-time and at night. In almost every scientific characterization of this precious stone, the hue of the perfect sapphire is set down as soft, rich, velvety. The aspects of " the body of heaven" in the Desert are described in nearly the same words: — " Every few minutes varied the scene — the clouds altered as the sun got low, and put on a darker tinge ; the sky took on a silky softness richer than anytliiiig we had seen at home ; the ridges of the hills came sharply out, with all their dark ravines ; till at length the sun went down behind Atakah, and the reflection of the last rays went and came, with a dull purple brightness, quivering for miles over the still face of the passive blue." Again — " I never saw anything so vividly, yet so mildly brilliant, as moonlight on the yellow sands of Arabia. There were just three great breadths or masses of colour — the sky, the moon- shine, and the sand, without anything of intermediate or contrasting hue to mar the effect of these — no rock, no tree, no patch of dark soil. These three — the blue, the yellow, and the white — had the whole scene to themselves, without a rival above, or beneath, or around. Their unbroken fusion into each other seemed to throw out a sort of inter- mediate brightness, belonging to all, yet distinct from each, and to produce an atmosphere of the softest and most mellow splendour I had ever seen. The blue was softer yet darker than usual, the white was moi"e intense, the yellow purer yet more vivid in its tinge, while, apart from these, there was a restless lustre filling the whole air, as if, in the braiding of these colours into one, their various threads were giving out their peculiar glow, which, as the big clouds hurried across, alter- nately lost and regained its richness." — (Bonar.) Scripture references to the sapphire are considered under Lamentation iv. 7, which see.

62

UIULICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

EXODUS XXV.

[FAT material niiglit be supplied for making tlie labcrnaclo, tlie pattern of which was given by Goil himself, Moses, luring the forty Jays and forty nights that he was with Gotl in the Mount, received instructions to appeal to the liberality of the people — " Speak unto the children of Israel, (^ that they may bring me an offering ; of every man that giveth Yf^ it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering" (ver. 2). The articles named were "gold, and silver, and brass, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' liair, and rams' skins dyed red, and l)adgers' skins, and shittim-wood, oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense, onyx-stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breast-plate" (ver. 3-7).

"Scarlet" (Heb. tdlaafh shfnii), litervally "scarlet worms." This colour is first mentioned in Genesis xxxviii. 28, where we have the account of the midwife's device for settling the priority of birth in the twin sons of Tamar. She tied a scarlet thread {shdni) on the hand of the infant Zarah. The passages in which sliuni stands alone will be noticed under Joshua ii. 18, which sec. The form of expression used here occurs in this book more than twenty times; see chapters xxvi. 1, 31, 3G ; xxviii. 5, 6, 8, 15, 33 ; xxxv. G, 23, 25, 35 ; xxxvi. 8, 35, 37 ; xxxviii. 18, 23; xxxix. 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 24, 29. In Leviticus xiv. it is chiefly associated with cedar wood and hyssop, the term denoting colour taking precedence {shdni tdlaafh), instead of as above. So likewise in Num. xix. 6. There are several passages in which the word is ren- dered " ivorm." From these we learn that the Hebrews, even from the earliest times of their history, were aware of the source whence this dye was obtained. Thus a caterpillar destructive to the vines is pointed to under this name, Deut. xxviii. 39 — " Thou slialt plant vine- yards, and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes, for the worms shall eat them." In Job xxv. G; Ps. xxii. G; Isa. xiv. 11, xli. 11, Ixvi. 24; and Jonah iv. 7 — it is translated worm.

Scarlet is produced by two of the scale insects {Coccinidcc) — namely, the oak bug {Coccus ilicis) of the scarlet-bearing oak {Ilex coccifera), a shrub indigenous in the south of Europe and in Syria, and the cactus

EXODUS XXV 53

bug (C. cadi), or well-known cochineal insect, a native of Mexico, but now abundant in other countries. The cochineal was brought to Europe for the first time in 152G. The former insect supplied the scarlet of Scripture ; the latter has now almost wholly superseded it. Not fewer than 70,000 insects are required to make one lb. weight of the scarlet dye, yet the consumption in Britain alone is nearly 200,000 lbs. The females, which are wingless, yield the dye. The males are provided with wings. The females fix their beaks on the tender branches and stems of the plant, and become perfectly motion- less. There their eggs arc deposited, and underneath their bodies they secrete a woolly matter, which covers the eggs and often the dead bodies of the females themselves. These secretions assume the shape and appearance of nut-galls. This circumstance, and the form of the female before depositing her eggs, led Reaumur to group these insects under the name Gallinsecta. The females produce several generations annually. These are removed from the stems and branches by means of a knife, killed by being dropped into hot water, from which they are quickly removed, and then dried in the sun, when they are ready for use. The gum known as shell-lac is obtained fi-om an Indian species of scale insect (Coccus lacca).

The varied uses to which scarlet was applied are noticed in Exod. xxxix. 29, Lev. xiv., and Heb. ix. 19. One of the coverings put over the table of shew-bread is described as " a cloth of scarlet." The singular masculine {tola) is rendered crimson in Isa. i. 18, and shdni is translated by the same word in Jer. iv. 30. The proper term for crimson hl-nrmfil, the use of which is limited to 2 Chron. ii. 7, 14; iii. 14. This word is interchangeable with those rendered scarlet. The Arabic name for the scarlet-producing coccus is kervies, whence harmozijn from which our word crimson is derived.

" Fine linen," see under Gen. xli. 42 ; " goats' hair," ch. xxxv. 2G ; "badgers' skins," xxxv. 7; " onxy -stones," Gen. ii. 12; "branches" (ver. 31), under Isa. xix. 0.

The bowls of the golden candlestick were to be shaped after the form of the almond, shlharl or almond-like (ver. 33). The word for the almond tree and its fruit is shalril, which is equivalent to the common almond, Amygdalus communis of botanists. See under Eccles. xii. 5, and Jer. i. 11. The term used here occurs only in Exodus, and is limited to the description of the " candlestick of pure gold" (ver. 34; xxxvii. 19, 20).

54 BIBLICAL NATUKAL SCIENCE.

Hi

EXODUS XXVIII.

N the description of the dress of the iiigh priest, the precious stones borne on the shoulders, and those set in the breastplate, are specially noticed. The former are associated with the ephod, a kind of tunic consisting of two parts. One part covered the back, and the other the breast of the priest. It was originally used only by the high priest, but afterwards came to be worn by all priests. The ephod, however, with the precious stones continued to be worn by the high priest alone. " And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple, of scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cunning work. It shall have the two shoulder- pieces thereof joined at the two edges thereof; and so it shall be joined together. And the curious girdle of the ephod, which is upon it, shall be of the same, according to the work thereof; even of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen. And thou shalt take two onyx-stones, and grave on them the names of the children of Israel : six of their names on one stone, and the other six names of the rest on the other stone, according to their birth. With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, shalt thou engrave the two stones with the names of the children of Israel : thou shalt make them to be set in ouches of gold. And thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod, for stones of memorial unto the children of Israel ; and Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord, upon his two shoulders, for a memorial " (ver. G-12). The two parts of the ephod were clasped at the shoulder by two large onyx-stones, and were brought together at the waist by the " curious girdle." " Onyx-stone," see under Gen. ii. 12. On the ephod was placed the breastplate of judgment — " And thou shalt make the breastplate of judgment with cunning work ; after the work of the ephod thou shalt make it : of gold, of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine twined linen, thou shalt make it. Four-square it shall be, being- doubled ; a span shall be the length thereof, and a span shall be the breadth thereof And thou shalt set in it settings of stones, even four rows of stones : the first row shall be a sardius, a topaz, and a car- buncle : this shall be the first row. And the second row shall be an

EXODUS XXVIII. 55

emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond. And the third row a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst. And the fourth row a beryl, and an onyx, and a jasper : they shall be set in gold in their inclosings. And the stones sliall be with the names of the children of Israel, twelve, accord- ing to their names, like the engravings of a signet ; every one with his name shall they be according to the twelve tribes" (ver. 15-21).

First row — Sardius {odem), topaz (jntddh), carbuncle (bareketh).

Second row — Emerald {nophek), sapphire {sappir)^ diamond {ydhaloin).

Third row — Ligure {leshem), agate (shevit), amethyst (ahhidma).

Fourth row — Beryl (farshish), onyx {shoharii), jasper {ydshepM).

The combinations of colours here are full of interest. Such varieties of these stones might be used as would give all the hues of tlie rain- bow. Thus, beginning with the first, there is red (sardius) ; and, taking the second of the next row, blue (sapphire); the third of the next, violet (amethyst) ; and the fourth of the last row, yellow (variety of jasper). Or, beginning with the last on the first row, we have red (carbuncle) ; then, taking the second last on the next row, we have again blue (sapphire) ; the first on the third row gives violet (variety of ligure) ; and the first on the last line, yellow (variety of beryl). Other combinations would bring out the hues of the rainbow more fully. This, however, may be fanciful. It is nevertheless hiteresting to uieet with anything, at this stage of the church's development, sugges- tive of the covenant bow.

" The sardius," sardine, and sardonyx, are to be regarded simply as varieties of chalcedony ; see under Gen. ii. 12. The blood-red cornelian may be held to be the sardius proper. It is chiefly found in Egypt. The sardonyx, as the name implies, has features common to the true sardius and the onyx. It takes its distinctive hue from a layer of red spots, the presence of oxide of iron, in the finest onyx. "Topaz" is mentioned thrice in the Old and once in the New Testament. It is one of the hardest of the, so-called, crystalline corundites. Among precious stones it stands third from the diamond in this respect ; the sapphire being second, and the ruby third. Berzelius gives its consti- tuent parts as — alumina 47"45, silica 3-i'24, and fluoric acid 7*75. The usual colour is bright yellow or citron ; but it passes from very dark to very pale yellow, and is even sometimes found with red and with blue lints. The dark yellow is most highly valued. Noble topazes, or the ]uost brightly transparent varieties, are found in India, in Asia Minor, in Egypt, in some parts of Europe, and in lirazil. The oriental topaz is the best, and the Brazilian the next in value. Egyptian topaz is

5G BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

softer than tlie oriental variety. In the days of Job an Etliiopian variety appears to have been most highly esteemed : —

" 15ut wliere shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding ? The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, Neither shall it be valued with pure gold." — (Job xxvii. 12, 10.)

Oriental topaz is no doubt referred to, Ethiopia being the Asiatic country of that name. The prophet names this gem among the precious stones which went to adorn luxurious Tyrus (Ezek. xxviii. i3). In tlic New Testament allusion to it, topaz is named in connection with " the foundations of the wall of the city — the New Jerusalem — gar- nished with all manner of precious stones" (Rev. xxi. 20).

" Carbuncle" is named again in chap, xxxix., and, under a slightly different form, in Ezekiel, as above. lu Isaiah liv. the same stone is mentioned in the common version ; but the original words used there mean stones whose lustre is like the burning coal — an expression evi- dently designed to include any precious stones of a brilliant yet soft red hue. Bareheth is rendered in the Septuagint by anthrax — a term at once suggestive of a red glow. The Greeks used this word for the garnet, from its exhibiting when held up in bright suidiglit the appear- ance of burning. The Romans named it carhunculus. Garnet does not occur in our translation, but it is altogether unlikely that such a gem was not used by the Hebrews. Taking carbuncle, then, as oriental garnet, the last stone of the first row of the breastplate was of a glow- ing fire, or flesh colour. Bright red transparent varieties are most precious. Of this kind are the deep red Indian ruhij garnet, and the soft glowing 2'>y'>'ope of Bohemia.

" Emerald," see under Rev. iv. 3.

" Sapphire," see under chap. xxiv. 10, and Lara. iv. 7. '"Diamond" is given as the translation of two words, ?/a7iaZo?ra and shdmir. The latter is used in Jer. xvii. 1 — " The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond." The reference is to the power of one stone to scratch another. In this case the stone referred to may have been any of the chalcedonies. The former word points to the precious stone which stands at the head of gems, as surpassing all others in hardness, lustre, and refracting powers. It is found in India, and thence would be brought into Egypt and Syria. The diamond was one of the gems used by Tyrus as an orna- ment on dress (Ezek. xxviii. 15). Its origin and true place in mine-

EXODUS XXVIII.

57

ralogical geology are not known. It is found in gravels and otlier shifting beds. It consists of pure carbon in a crystallized form.

" Ligure" is named only here and in chap, xxsix. 12. In Rev. xxi. 20, the " eleventh foundation" of the " holy city, New Jerusalem," is described as a jacinth, the translation of the Greek word hyadnthos, a stone ascertained to have been the same as the ligurion, the Septuagint rendering of the leshen, or ligure of this verse. The hyacinth's colour is generally reddish orange. There are, however, violet varieties. When the light yellow has a shade of scarlet in it, and is quite clear, the gem is most esteemed. It is found in several localities in Europe. The finest are obtained from mud beds in Ceylon.

"Agate" is one of the chalcedonies, or semi-transparent forms of rock crystal (quartz). Some of the forms are very beautiful. Tig.a.

They are met with in a great variety of colours, as red, brown, violet, blue, milk-white, yellow, &c. Much variety of structure likewise obtains among them. Oriental agate is most valued. Fortification agate, which is found in irregular rounded nodules, sometimes six inches in dia- meter, shows in its structure zigzag lines surrounding a fort-like centre. Panther agate is usually Itrown, with spots or waves in its ground. A more broadly marked variety, and of a coarser grain, is Fig. u.

known as clouded agate. Two Hebrew words are rendered " agate," shevii and kadkod. The former occurs here, the lat- ter in Isa. liv. 12, and Ezek. xxvii. 16. In both places the name is applied to a stone specially noted for giving out sparks when struck. Such is the meaning of the original word. Trans- lucent flint is most likely referred to.

Moss Agate.

ification Agate.

" Amethyst " is mentioned only in connection with the breastplate

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BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

and with the foundations of tlie " lioly city," Rev. xxi. 20. It is a precious stone of most beautiful violet colour, is hard as the ruby and

Fie. 15.

ClmidciJ Af,'ati>.

the sapphire, and suscep- tible of a rich and brilliant polish.

"Beryl" is six times named in the Old, and once in the New Testament. It is of a transparent yellow- ish green colour ; a variety of emerald. When the colour is yellowish green the stone is a heryl; when it is bluish green it is named nqiiamanne, and when the gieen is deep and rich, emerald. In the Song it occurs in the picture of the king — " His hands are as gold rings

beryl" (v.

set

14).

with the It enters

Fig. IC.

into Ezekiel's imagery (i. 16 ; x. 9 ; xxviii. 13). The body of the majestic One whom Daniel saw in the visions by the river Hiddekel is

described as being like beryl (x. 6).

"Onyx" — see under Gen. ii. 12. The last stone of the breastplate was "jasper." This is a compact, non- transparent variety of quartz, with a lustreless fracture, but capable of a fine polish. In colour it varies from dark, dull red to several varieties of yellow. When the lumps in which it is found are marked by bands, it is called riband jasper. Jasper was among the gems worn by Tyrus (Ezek. xxviii. 13). The throned One in Rev. iv. 3, was " to look upon like unto a jasper." It is thrice men- tioned in the description of New Jerusalem in Rev. xxi. Verses 33-35 — see under 1 Sam. xiv. 2.

Kiband Jasper.

EXODUS XXX.-XXXIV.

EXODUS XXX.-XXXIV.

ND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel, after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when thou uumberest them ; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them. This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary (a shekel is twenty gerahs) ; an half shekel shall be the offering of the Lord." Dr. Colenso quotes verses 11-13 as affording points of strong interest to him in his opposition to "the story" of the Pentateuch, as he takes pleasure in naming the sacred narrative. Lie says — " We may first notice in passing, that the expression, ' shekel of the sanctuary,' in the above passage, could hardly have been used in this way until there teas a sanctuary in existence, or, rather, until the sanctuary had been some time in existence, and such a phrase had become familiar in the mouths of the people. Whereas here it is put into the mouth of Jehovah, speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, six or seven months before the tabernacle was made. And in Exodus xxxvii. 24, 25, 26, we have the same phrase used again of the actual contributions of the people toioards the building of the sanctuary. But these words direct that, whenever a numbering of the people shall take place, each one that is numbered shall pay a ' ransom for his soul,' of half a shekel. Now, in Exodus xxxviii. 26, we read of such a tribute being paid, ' a bekah for every man, that is, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary, for every one that went to be numbered, from twenty years old and upward;' meaning that atonetnent-vioney be collected, but nothing is there said of any census being taken. On the other hand, in Numbers i. 1-46, more than six months after the date of the former occasion, we have an account of a very formal numbering of the people, the result being given for each particular tribe, and the total number summed up at the end ; here the census is made, but there is no indication of any atonement-money being paid. The omis- sion in each case might be considered, of course, as accidental, it being supposed that, in^ the first instance, the numbering really took place,

GO BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCJi.

and in the second, the tribute was paid, though iieitlier circumstance is mentioned. But then it is surprising tliat the number of adult males should have been identically the same (603,550) on the first occasion as it teas half a year afterwards."

The answer to this is exceedingly simple. The words " shekel of the sanctuary" are equivalent to "shekel of holiness," as indeed the Hebrew text might he rendered. They are used in this way to indi- cate the sacred character of the obligation. The standard as fixed by verse 12, became permanent in things pertaining to the sanctuary.

As regards the other point, the identity of the figures in the first numbering (Exod. xxxviii. 26) and the second (Numb. i. 46), it must be kept in mind that only a few weeks intervened. " On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation" (Exod. xl. 2). " On the first day of the second month — thirty days after the former date — the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel" (Numb. i. 1, 2). But after a comparison of passages, we find that a poll tax was taken subsequently to the free-will offering. The fruit of the free-will offering was the preparation of the whole material for the tahernacle, with the exception of the articles named in Exod. xxxviii. 27, 28. Give, then, ample time for all arrangements, and, at the utmost, not more than ten or twelve weeks could have elapsed between the numberings mentioned. Is this not sufficient to convince any candid reader, that virtually there had been only one census, which had given 603,550 men fit for war? The numbers taken for the poll tax are accepted when Moses takes the sum of the tribes individually. But even granting that six months had passed, and that the numbers continued stationary, the difficulty will strike very few besides Dr. Colenso.

Myrrh, cinnamon, calamus, and cassia, are called " principal spices " in verse 23 ! " Myrrh" is noticed under Psalm xlv. 8. " Cinnamon," Hebrew kinndmon, was the bark of a tree of the same name (Cimia- momum zeylanicwii), one of the natural order Laiiraccce, or Laurels, and a native of Ceylon. It is an evergreen. Though mostly found as a large shrub, it frequently assumes a complete tree-like form, and attains to a height of above thirty feet. When the plant is about nine years old, it comes to yield a pretty strong annual supply of twigs and branches, which are peeled during summer. The bark which is thin, when stripped off and laid in the sunshine, curls up into the shape of the cinnamon of commerce. More than 800,000 lbs. of this is yearly

EXODUS XXX.-XXXIV.

61

exported from Ceylon. Supplies are also obtaiued from India, China, and Java. The outer bark is coarse. The sweet or spicy cinnamon mentioned here is the very thin inner rind. In the earliest period of Hebrew history this, with the balm and myrrli named in Gen. xxxvii. 25, would be obtained from Ceylon through the Arabian traders. Later it would be brought by the ships of Tharshish (1 Kings x. 22).

Fig. 17.

Ciuuamou-tree (Cinnamomnm tej/tanicum),

" The present aspect of ' the cinnamon gardens,' which surround Colombo on the land-side, exhibits the effects of a quarter of a century of neglect, and produces a feeling of disappointment and melancholy. The beautiful shrubs which furnish the renowned spice have been allowed to grow wild, and in some places are scarcely visible, owing to undergrowth of jungle, and the thick envelopment of climbing plants, bignonias, ipomojas, the quadrangular vine, and the marvellous pitcher- plant {Nepenthes distillatoria), whose eccentric organization is still a scientific enigma. One most interesting flower, which encumbers the

62

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

cinnamon-trees, is a night-blowing convolvulus, the luoouflower of Europeans, called by the natives alanga, which never blooms in the day, but opens its exquisite petals when darkness comes on, and attracts the eye through the gloom, by its pure and snowy whiteness. Less than a century has elapsed since these famous gardens were formed by the Dutch, and already they are relapsing into wilderness. Every recent writer on Ceylon has dwelt on their beauty and luxuriance, but hence- forward it will remain to speak only of their decay." — {Sir E. Tennent.)

Fig. 18.

Sweet Cane {Aruiropogon aromatieus),

"Calamus," Hebrew /^-afte/i, is fully noticed under 1 Kings xiv. 15; 2 Kings xviii. 21; Job xxxi. 22; and Matt. xi. 7 — which see. A specitic form of calamus or reed is mentioned here, sweet, literally spicy, calamus {Kaneh bosem). The word expressing species is rendered '" spice " in chapter xxxv. 28, and in other five passages of Scripture. The plant referred to is the Andropogon aromatieus or fragrant beardgrass, known also under the name Calamus odoratus or sweet calamus. The roots, stems, and leaves are highly odoriferous. An oil noted for its

fragrance is distilled from theiu. This species is a native of India. It would be obtained by the Hebrews in the same way as cinnamon. This, as well as other sweet-smelling grasses, was made more widely known in Europe when the soldiers of Alexander returned from the Indian campaign. One species of beardgrass (A. muricatum) is well known in India, and its roots are much used in the manufacture of screens for doors and windows. In the heat of the day these are moistened with water, and as the breeze plays freely through them, they give off a delightful perfume.

This plant is not to be confounded with the Egyptian sugar cane {Saccharum cxjlindricum) ^ which many have held to be the sweet cane mentioned by Isaiah (xliii. 24). It is clear from the description of the prophet, that tlie species now under notice is referred to in that passage — which see. Calamus is named with cinnamon in Song iv. 15, and as among the merchandise which Dan and Javan brought to the markets of Tyre (Ezek. xxvii. 19).

" Cassia," Hebrew kidduh, was the other principal spice, which was to enter as a chief ingredient into this " ointment compound after the art of the apothecary." The Hebrew name is derived from a word meaning "to split." It is so called from the way in which the bark of the cassia shrub is prepared as a perfume. The plant referred to bears a close resemblance to cinnamon, and belongs to the same natural order. It is the cinnamon cassia of botanists {Cinnamoimim cassia), a native of India and China. It can be distinguished from cinnamon proper by certain characteristics of its leaves, which have three ribs uniting a little above the base. Cassia was also carried to the markets of T3're, as was cinnamon (Ezek. xxvii. 19). Dan and Javan journeyed far to obtain it. They " went to and fro." With these spices they brought " bright iron." In India still, the country of cinnamon and cassia, the bright iron is extensively prepared by the natives, whose mode of smelting is of the most primitive and simple description, and may not have altered since the day when they sent it to the markets of Tyre.

In Psalm xlv. 8, a different Hebrew word {ketzioth) is translated " cassia." It was one of the perfumes which made the garments of the king fragrant. The word is derived from a root which means to rub down or abrade, and no doubt points to a preparation of bark or wood used as a perfume, and scattered among clothes to repel moths, and at the same time make tlie garments fragrant. Several odoriferous woods are still used in Arabia and India for these purposes. Roylo believes that the Icetzioth is the koost of the Arabs, the sweet Aucklandia {A.

Gl

niBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

costi(s) of botanists, but the term does not appear to mean more than

abraded fragrant wood. Instructions are next with sweet spices after said unto Moses, Take galbaniun ; these sweet there be a like weight. tion after the art of the (vcr 34, 35).

given as to the perfume whicli was to be made the art of the apothecary. " And the Lord

unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and

spices, with pure frankincense ; of each sliall

And thou shalt make it a perfume, a confec-

apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy "

Fig. 19.

SUcte {Bahamodiiflron hita/).

" Stacte," Kehrev,' 71(1 filjjJi, is the gum of one of the myrrh-producing family of plants {Ainyridacece). The tree which produces stacte is the amyris, or Balsamodendron kataf of botanists. It was found by Professor Ehrenberg on the liorders of Arabia Felix.

" Onycha," Hebrew shchhvldli. The theory that this perfume was produced by an Indian mollusc is not tenable, though supported by the authority of several learned names. Like the other ingredients of this fragrant confection, it was, doubtless, a gum. The gum-benjamin tree {Shjrax henzoln) has been proposed as the most likely plant. The gum which exudes from this tree is still burned as incense in Roman Catholic and ]\Iahommedan places of worship.

EXODUS XXX.-XXXIV.

" Galbanum," Hebrew hhelhenah, was a resinous substance yielded by one of the umbelliferous family of plants. The Buhon galbanum of LinncQus has been by some identified with this plant. Others have held that it is to be ranked under the genus Ferula, along with the well known drug assafoetida (F. assafoetidce), and with gum-ammoniac {F. ammomfera). Recently Dr. Lindley has given the name OjJoidt'a (jalbanifera to a plant forwarded to him by Sir John ]\rNeil, as having been found growing in Persia, and as the vegetable which supplied the

Fig. 20.

^i/'

Galbanum (Hahon galhanum).

galbanum of the ancients. There seems to be little doubt that this yielded the Persian galbanum. From whatever source the gum was obtained, it did not yield a peculiarly fragrant perfume, but the con- trary. There is, however, historical proof that both the Greeks and Romans used it for the same jjurpose as the Jews.

" Frankincense," Heb. Icvdnftli, is now known to have been obtained from a tree indigenous in Arabia and India, the BoswelUa sen-ata, one of the myrrh-bearers. The frankincense named here is the pure gum, that, namely, supplied by the first incisions made in the bark of the tree. It is white, semi-transparent, and when dried, highly brittle. This

VOL. U. I

66 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

ingredient is more frequently mentioned in the sacred volume than any of the others. It was to be put into the meat-offering which the priest was to burn before the Lord (Levit. ii. 1, 2, 15). The sin- offering of the poorest was to have no oil or frankincense (ver. 11). Frankincense was to be put on "the twelve cakes" placed on "the pure table before the Lord" (xxiv. 7). It was excluded from the offering at the trial of jealousy (Numb. v. 15). The royal Bridegroom was perfumed with it (Song iii. G). And the Bride consoles herself with the resolution, " until the daybreak and the shadows flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh, and to the hill of frankincense" (iv. 6) ; a highly figurative expression for her determination to take delight in the service of God and of the sanctuary, even when darkness is round about her. Throughout Isaiah (chapters xliii. 23, Ix. 6, Ixvi. 3), and Jeremiah (vi. 20; xvii. 26; xli. 5) levondh is rendered incense. This spice is named lihanos by ]\Iatthew (ii. 2) as one of the gifts brought to the infant Saviour by the Eastern magi. The last reference to it is in Revelation viii. 3, 4, where the censer is named " libanoton," from the frankincense burned in it.

Chapter xxxi. 3-5, is noticed under Gen. iv. 22 ; chapter xxxii. under 1 Kings xii. 28, 29 ; chapter xxxiii. 3, under 2 Kings xviii. 32 ; and chapter xxxiv. 13, under Micah v. 14.

EXODUS XXXV.-XXXVI.

C7

EXODUS XXXV.-XXXVI.

ADGERS' skins" are named among the offerings asked for the making of the tabernacle (ver. 7). Badger, Hebrew fahhasli, is mentioned fourteen times in the Old Testament. Some have proposed to render tahhash a colour, blue or purple ; others think the word refers to a species of hyrena, and others believe it means a seal. Bochart pleads strongly and ably for the first meaning. But the reference in Ezekiel xvi. 10, is against this — " I have shod thee with badgers' skins." On the whole, an examination of the following passages is in favour of an animal, most likely the badger; Exod. xxv. 5; x.xxv. 7, 23; xxxvi. 19; xxxix. 34; Numb. iv. 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, U, 25; and Ezek. xvi. 10.

Fig. 21.

Badger (ifdes taxus).

The badger belongs to the family Melidce, which is intermediate between the Mustelidcv, or weasels, below, and the Ursidce, or bears, above. It rests the whole sole of its foot on the ground when walking. From this feature it forms one of the natural group of plantigrade animals. It lives on frogs, insects, roots, and different kinds of fruit. The common badger (Meles taxus) is met with all over Europe and in Asia Minor. Its skins would thus be within reach of the Israelites during their sojourn in Egypt, and might be obtained from specimens met with in their wanderings.

Verses 21-23 — see under Gen. iii. 21. Verse 2G — " All the women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom, spun goats' hair." Cloth was

68

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

frequently made from the long, silky hair of the Syrian goat, xxvi. 7 ; XXXV. G ; Numb. xxxi. 20; 1 Sam. xix. IG. " He made boards for tlic tabernacle of shittira-wood," ch. xxxvi. 20. Shittim-wood is mentioned twenty-six times in the Bible. All the passages occur in the books of Moses. In Isaiah's magnificent description of the mighty acts of Jehovah, in introducing the latter day glory, reference is made to the tree from which the wood is obtained : — " I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah-tree, and the myrtle," Isa. xli. 19. The shittah is a species of acacia (A. vera), very widely distributed in the East. It is met with on the sandy plains of Upper Egypt, in the Arabian desert,

Fig. 22.

Rliittini-wood {Acficia vera).

and thence to Imlia. This tree, specially fitted for the purposes for which the Israelites were ordered to use it, was plentiful in the region in which they at this time wandered. Its wood is comparatively light, and very durable. Its bark is covered with sharp and formidalile thorns. Another acacia [A. (jummiferci) yields the well-known gum- arabic of commerce. The shittah abounded in the plains of Moab, and gave its name to a place there, Ahel-Shittim, Numb. xxii. ; Micah vi. 5. On account of the lightness of its wood, its durability, power of resisting damp, and susceptibility of polish, it was peculiarly well fitted for making the ark of the covenant (Exod. xxv. 10), and for the boards of the tabernacle.

LEVITICUS T.-ir.

69

LEVITICUS I.-II.

HERE is no book, in the whole compass of that inspired volume which the Holy Ghost has given ns, that contains more of the very words of God than Leviticus. It is God that is the direct speaker in almost every page ; his gracious words are recorded in the form in which they were uttered. This consideration cannot fail to send us to lj\j>> the study of it Avith singular interest and attention. It has ' ' been called ' Leviticus,' because its typical institutions, in all their variety, were committed to the care of the tribe of Levi, or to the priests, who were of that tribe. The Greek translators of the Pentateuch devised that name. The Talmud for similar reasons calls it ' the law of the priests.' But Jewish writers in general are content with a simpler title ; they take the first words of the book as the name, calling it ' Vayikra,' as if they said, the book that begins with the words, ' And the Lord called ' " (A. Bonar). The first chapter opens with the Lord's commands to Moses, touching those offerings and sacrifices which were all typical of the priesthood of the promised Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. One or other of two thoughts meet us in all these arrangements. Either the worshipper's sense of sin is pointed to, leading liim to show that remission of sin is through the shedding of blood — true expiation ; or his gratitude as a forgiven man is shown— true thanksgiving.

This chapter is devoted to the " burnt-offering," which was a free will offering — "he sliall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle" (ver. 3). The design of the offering was to make atonement — "it shall be accepted for him, to make atonement for him" (ver. 4) It might be a "bullock" (ver. 5), a "sheep," or a "goat" (ver. 10 — see under Gen. iv. 2, and xxvii. 9); a "turtle dove," or a "young pigeon" (ver. 14). " He shall kill the bullock," literally the son of a bull. The offering was to be a male without blemish (ver. 3). It was the type of Christ, the second Adam, the holy one, and therefore it must be unblemished. Two words are chiefly used in Hebrew for bullock. Both occur in this book. The one (baJcar) is used here. It is met with one hundred and sixty-five times in Scripture. The other

70 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENX'E.

(par) is reudcred " bullock" in Levit. iv. 3, literally a steer, the son of a bull. It occurs one hundred and twenty-two times. In Genesis xxxii, 15, it is translated "bull" — "forty kine and ten bulls," and in Hosea xiv, 2, it is employed figuratively — " Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously, so will we render the calves of our lips." Calves were offered iu sacrifice, and the people who here pray for forgiveness say, that they will render unto God the sacrifices of praise and of thanksgiving — " the calves of their lips." The difference between the two terms seems to be, that the latter (p(7/') is much more definite than the former (bakar)^ which in other portions of Scripture is rendered in a very general sense. It is translated oxen, Gen. xii. 16 ; herds, xiii. 5 ; beeves, Levit. xxii. 21 ; calves, 1 Sam. xiv. 32 ; kine, 2 Sam. xvii. 29 ; and coic, Ezek. iv. 15. The terms were interchangeable, but, when a particular variety was specially meant, par was employed.

" Turtle dove," Hebrew tor, belongs to the Cohimbidce, or dove- family. Two species appear to be mentioned in Scripture, the true Syrian dove, or collared pigeon {Turtur rlsorius), and the turtle-dove proper (T. auritus) ; the former is a permanent resident in Palestine, the latter is migratory. The reference in Jer. viii. 7, is to this species — which see. The collared pigeon is that generally kept in cages in this country, and known as the turtle-dove. Turtur am-itus visits the south of England in spring, and retires to the north of Africa in Sep- tember. It visits Palestine and nests there at the same season. Turtur risorius is the species named in all passages in which the Hebrew yonali is rendered pigeons or doves, except two, Song ii. 14; Jer. xlviii. 28 — which see. This species is also noticed under Gen. viii. 8-12, which see. It is the "pigeon " of this passage No doubt, the migratory habits of the turtle dove are taken into account in the alternative presented to the poor, in regard to this offering. It was either to consist of turtle-doves or young pigeons ; the former to be taken at the season when they visited Palestine, the latter at any time.

Assumed here as a type of the promised Messiah, the dove is often referred to by the writers of Scripture. The well-known habits of the different species with which the people were acquainted, are used to express and illustrate many points of great interest connected with the person of the Saviour. Though not bearing on the words now under notice, reference may be fitly made to one or two of these here. To some they may suggest fresh aspects of Scripture illustration in bringing the truth of God under the attention of men. They are not fanciful, but fully warranted by the words of the Bible. What may be

LEVITICUS I.-II. 71

said of passages in which the dove is thus noticed, is equally true of Scri2:)ture references to the habits of many other animals. Moses, upbraiding Israel for their unfaithfulness to the Creator, says, " Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmiridful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee" (Deut. xxxii. 18). David looking up to him says, "0 Lord, my Rock" (Ps. xxxi. 1, 2). He was thus worshipped in olden times as the Eternal Rock — the Almighty, the Ever-living One. In John i. 18, Jesus is spoken of as " the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father." The king in the Song (ii. 14) is represented as saying to the royal bride, " 0 my dove that art in the clefts of the rock." Her "life is hid with Christ in God" (Col. iii. 3). "God, when we were, dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenlics in Christ Jesus" (Eph. ii. 5, G). This kind of remark might be continued, but look now at verses 14-17 : " And if the burnt-sacrifice for his offering to the Lord be of fowls, then he shall bring his offering of turtle-doves, or of young pigeons. And the priest shall bring it unto the altar, and wring off his head, and burn it on the altar ; and the blood thereof shall be wrung out at the side of the altar. And he shall pluck away his crop with his feathers, and cast it beside the altar, on the east part, by the place of the ashes. And he shall cleave it with the wings thereof, but shall not divide it asunder ; and the priest shall burn it upon the altar, upon the wood that is upon the tire ; it is a burnt-sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord." Keeping the eye fixed on the great Antitype, all is deeply significant. The head is wrung off — " it pleased the Lord to bruise him." The blood was wrung out — " his blood was shed for many, for the remission of sins." The crop was plucked away and cast beside the altar — even in the type it must stand out that he was holy and undefiled. Thus too the feathers were to be dealt with — he was to be left fully exposed to the whole wrath which had gone forth against sin — "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" It was to be cleaved, but not divided asunder — " a bone of him shall not be broken" — "all my bones are out of joint." In the arrangements for all the other offerings, the resemblance between type and antitype is not less complete.

" Frankincense," Heb. levondh (ver. 1) — see under Exod. xxx. 34.

" No meat-offering which ye shall bring unto the Lord shall be made with leaven : for ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the Lord made by fire" (ver. 11). This prohibition of leaven

72 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

and honey Las reference to tlie " meat-offering," so called from the cir- cumstance that most of it was used as food. The type is generally held to point to the complete personal dedication of the one offering it. The animal sacrifice pointed to the offerer's belief in remission of sins through the blood of atonement ; the meat-offering was the expression of his willingness to dedicate himself and all that he had to God, as a God of righteousness and grace. From this point of view alone can we fully understand such words as tliose of Paul to the church at Philippi — " But I have all, and abound : I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God," Phil. iv. 18.

Neither leaven nor honey was to be put into that which was thus typical of the saved man's personal surrender of himself and property to God. " Leaven indicates corruption, and is the very opposite of salt, which preserves (ver. 13), and which must never be wanting. Honey includes all that is sweet, like the honey of grapes, figs [dates], and the reed or calamus that grew on the banks of the waters of Merom ; and it is forbidden both because it turns to sourness, and leads to fer- mentation." "Leaven" — see under Prov. x. 26. "Honey" — under Judg. xiv. 8; 2 Kings xviii. 32 ; 2 Cliron. xxxi. 5 ; and Isa. vii. 15.

" And every oblation of thy meat-offering shalt thou season with salt ; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat-offering : with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt" (ver. 13). " Salt," Hebrew melach. The notices of the vale of Siddim (Gen. xiv), indicated whence abundance of rock salt might be obtained. Salt was an emblem of permanence bestowed on what had a tendency to corrupt. It said, This corruption is removed, and the offering made fit for an unchanging one. Common salt is the chloride of sodium of the chemist. It is found in certain countries in thick irregular beds, in which state it is known as " rock salt," and in saline springs. It is frequently mentioned in the Scripture, and sometimes associated with peculiarly interesting truths. In Numbers xviii. 19, it is mentioned as an emblem of lasting friendship ; in Judges ix. 45, as a figure of desolation ; and in Colossians iv. 6, it is spoken of as the element of heavenly wisdom in human speech — " Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt." The people of God are described as " the salt of the earth" (Matt. v. 13).

LEVITICUS IV.-XI. 73

LEVITICUS IV.-XI.

ND the skin of the bullock, and all his flesh, with his head, and with his legs, and his inwards, and his dung, even the whole bullock shall he carry forth without the camp unto a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn him on the Avood with fire ; where the ashes are poured out shall he be M^burnt" (ver. 11, 12). Dr. Colenso reckons that the camp must liave covered an area of above 8,000,000 square yards, or more than 1G52 acres of ground. He allows thirty-six square feet, or four square yards, to each person, and taking all Israel as number- ing not fewer than 2,000,000 persons, he concludes that such must have been the size of the camp. The refuse of the sacrifices was to be carried by the priest a distance of three quarters of a mile ! He does not believe this possible, and because he does not, he concludes that this is another evidence of the uninspired character of this portion of the word of God ! It does not appear to have entered into his thoughts, that there is sucli a tiling as a man doing a certain work by another. It is not now very likely that this author will be asked to carry the Bible to the Zulus ; yet there was a time when he might have been asked to do so, and yet have not touched one copy, while he, neverthe- less, might have fulfilled his commission. The other details which the bishop associates with this objection, are even less becoming a man of intelligence than those mentioned. The sanitary arrangements of every army in the time of war set aside the unworthy cavils to which so much prominence is given by this critic. " Leaven," vi. 17 — see under Prov. x. 26.

" And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying. Take Aaron, and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and a bullock for the sin-oifering, and two rams, and a basket of unleavened bread ; and gather thou all the congregation together unto the door of the taber- nacle of the congregation. And Moses did as the Lord commanded him ; and the assembly was gathered together unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Moses said unto the congregation, Thisis the thing which the Lord commanded to be done " (viii. 1-5). Here is a specimen of recent so-called high and independent criticism on this

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74 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

passage : — " Now the whole widtli of the tabernacle was 10 cubits or 18 feet, reckoning the cubit at 1824 foot (see Bagster's Bible), and its length was 30 cubits or 54 feet, as may be gathered from Exod. xxvi. (Homo's Introd. iii. p. 232.) Allowing two feet in width for each full grown man, nine men could just have stood in front of it. Supposing, then, that "all the congregation" of adult males in the prime of life had given due heed to the Divine summons, and had hastened to take their stand, side by side, as closely as possible, in front, not merely of the door, but of the whole end of the tabernacle in which the door was, they would have reached, allowing 18 inches between each rank of nine men, for a distance of more than 100,000 feet — in tact, nearly twenty miles ! Further, the court was 100 cubits in length and 50 cubits in breadth, Exod. xxvii. 18, that is, it was about 180 feet long and 90 feet broad. And, since the length of the tabernacle, as above, was 64 feet, we have for the space left between the tabernacle and the hangings of the court, before and behind, 126 feet, that is, 63 feet in front, and 63 feet behind, or, perhaps, we may say, 84 feet in front and 42 feet behind. Thus, then, 84 feet would represent that portion of the men in the prime of life, who could by any possi- bility have been crowded inside the court in front of the tabernacle, while the whole body would be represented by 100,000 feet ! Or, if we suppose them to fill the v:hoIe tcidth of the court, 90 feet, instead of merely the space directly in front of the tabernacle, 18 feet, still the whole body would extend to a distance of 6706 yards, nearly four miles; whereas that portion of them, who could find any room to stand in front of the tabernacle, filling up the whole width of the court, would be represented by 84 feet or 28 yards ! But how many would the whole court have contained? Its area (60 yards by 30 yards) was 1800 square yards, and the area of the tabernacle itself (18 yards by 6 yards) was 108 square yards. In fact the court, when thronged, could only have held five thousand people ; whereas the able-bodied men alone exceeded six hundred thousand. Even the ministering Levites, ' from thirty to fifty years old,' were eight thousand five hundred and eighty in number. Num. iv. 48 ; only five hundred and four of these could have stood within the court in front of the tabernacle, and not two-thirds of them could have entered the court, if they had filled it from one end to the other. It is inconceivable how, under such circumstances, all the assembly, ' the whole congregation,' could have been summoned to attend ' at the door of the tabernacle,' by the express command of Almighty God." — (Colenso.)

m^:?',

Felis Zeo. Lion .

JUis rattus Slack Rat .

Ovis aru^. Sharp-

Talpa ^Ttropxu .ViiJf

-t^}h ^,fs>

Sus icivta Sot]-

BsiliruaMvsncctus SMf/tm of Oifnilan.t Wluilr .

ASK NOW THE BEASTS. AXD THEY SHALL TEACH THEE: THE HAND OF THE LOED HATH WROUGHT THIS.— Job iu. /— 9. LEYIT. Xl. 29. 30.

MILLIkH MACK&llZie. GLASGOW. iOIBBUBCM. lOHOOH *«tr»0««

This is deplorable. Yet any intelligect child could set Dr. Colenso right on this matter : — (1) Even supposing that every man came to the place to which ho was sunmioned, is it in the least likely that the people would arrange themselves in this orderly way, " allowing 18 inches between each rank of nine men?" Would they not rather come in a crowd, and take up a great deal less room than if they took up military position and distance according to the bishop's liking? It is attempted to make the narrative declare that the six hundred thousand people at least were pushed into a space which could not hold more than fuur or five thousand. But the statement, when looked at in the light of the different parts of the tabernacle, implies nothing more than that the people were gathered to the open space in front of the tabernacle ; tiiat is, to the door, as is stated in the narrative. The tabernacle was rectangular, about 58 feet long, and about 19 feet wide — thirty cubits in the one case, and ten cubits in the other. The entrance to it, towards the east, was by an opening into the tabernacle proper, closed by a curtain. Then there was the court of the taber- nacle, entrance to which was by another opening, the so-called " door of the tabernacle of the congregation." Before this the multitude stood.

After the priest was fully set apart to his office, he was commanded to "take a young calf {egel) for a sin-offering" (ix. 2). In Exodus xxix. 1, the same command is given, but a different word is used — " Take one young bullock (pai-)." In this case the terms are inter- changeable ; see above, chap. i. 5. The word employed here is the same as that used throughout Exodus xxxii., where the lapse of Israel into the gross animal worship of Egypt is fully described ; see under I Kings xii. 28. There may thus be some truth in the Jewish notion, that the calf (egel) is referred to here in order to remind the high priest of that sinful transaction. The Egyptians worshipped the sacred calf, Mnevis, at On or Heliopolis. Jehovah in this passage connnands the calf to be sacrificed as a sin-offering. Thus the com})lete separation of Israel from the Egyptian idol was to be brought about. Jeroboam in after times endeavoured to neutralize this divine provision, and to lead the people back again to the degradation of heathenism. The "egel," or calf, was used by the people as food (1 Sam. xxviii. 24; Luke XV. 23), and also in connection with certain forms of covenant. This is described by Jeremiah (xxxiv. 18). See also under Genesis XV. 10-17.

" Bullock " (ver. 4) ; see under Num. xxii. 4.

70 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

" Aaron dipped his finger in the blood, and put it upon the horns of tlie altar, and poured out the blood at the bottom of the altar " (ver. 9) ; see under Gen. xxxvii. 31.

" And the Lord spake unto Aaron, saying. Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the taber- nacle of the congregation, lest ye die : it shall he a statute for ever throughout your generations : and that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean ; and that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses" (x. 8-11) ; under Num. vi. 3. -

Reference has already been made (Gen. vii. 2) to the general features of the distinction between clean and unclean beasts. Tiie separation was acknowledged as early as the time of Noah ; and the fact of his ready and intelligent obedience to the divine command, implies that he had been long accustomed to distinguish between these great groups of animals. As with other existing arrangements, it was God's plan, in the manifestation of his will to Moses, to give permanence to these in rescuing them from the uncertainty of tradition, by embodying them in a Written Revelation. The moral law of the ten commandments, set down in Exodus xx., was not only the concentration of all those scattered rays of true heavenly light, wliich, as still present with men and par- tially influential, told of the law written originally on man's heart, but it was, moreover, the statement anew of the great principles of that law, in a manner which made it, in a sense, independent of man's attitude to it. Thus embodied it stood out as a witness to the holiness of God, whether those to whom it was given should keep it or no. By the side of the moral law, acknowledged by some from the beginning, and more or less operative in all, though wholly separated in men generally from right views of the lawgiver, another code had grown up, which might be regarded as the application of man's knowledge of the law to circum- stances not directly pointed out by it. Among men there was a differ- ence between the good and the bad ; might there not be analogous distinctions among the creatures put under man ? The Creator recog- nized this tendency to distinguish between one animal and another, and in the arrangements regarding sacrifice he made highest moral uses of it. Clean beasts were originally such as were offered in sacrifice. The rest were unclean. As the race increased, the distinctions were carried farther. Men became acquainted with a greater number of animals. Certain animals also came to be associated with the idolatrous habits of certain tribes. This introduced other considerations. The habits again

LEVITICUS IV.-XI. 77

of some disgusted the conventional feelings of one tribe, while they were regarded with favour by another. Circumstances of climate also were taken into account in connection with the food best suited to the iiiliabitauts of such countries. All these things influenced men's views of the lower animals, and they are acknowledged in tlie Levitical arrangements. This chapter has been obscured by interpreters refusing to recognize all the circumstances, and by their resolving to look at it only in the light of some one of them. They are, however, all taken into account by Moses, who at the command of God gives them dis- tinct and direct bearings which they had not previously had. In a word, even in their daily meals they were to meet with the thought that they were a covenant people, set apart to a holy life before God. When the Christian asks a blessing on his daily food, he prays that his sin may be put away, so that he sliall not be hindered enjoying the good things of this life as God's gifts to him. The type of this attitude is found in the arrangements of this chapter. The food which went to nourish the body of the Israelite was set apart for him by his heavenly Father as holy. Every time he chose it, this thought was pressed upon him. All this is not the less suggestive, that a time was to come when every creature of God was to be regarded as clean, and to be received with thanksgiving. Yet even under this libertj', which so strongly contrasts with the bondage of the Levitical system, all these show that they are still under the power in some degree of such natural feelings as those named above ; and in their food they still keep up a distinction, though not the Levitical one, between clean and unclean.

The reader will bear in mind throuofhout the followin!? notes, that the efforts towards the identification of the animals referred to are made with every feeling of the uncertainty of the ground. " And the Loi-d spake unto Moses and to Aaron, saying unto them, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, These are the beasts wdiich ye shall eat among all the beasts that are on the earth. Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is cloven-footed, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat. Nevertheless, these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you. And the coney, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you. And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you. And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be cloven-footed, yet he cheweth not the cud ; he is unclean unto you. Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcase shall

78 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

ye not touch ; they are unclean to you " (ver. 1-8). In Deuteronomy xiv. 4, 5, the cud-cliewers are specified — " These are the beasts which ye shall eat : The ox, the sheep, and the goat, the hart, and the roe- buck, and tlie fallow-deer, and the wild goat, and the pygarg, and the wild ox, and tlie chamois." They were allowed to eat all those mam- malia in wliich the perfectly cloven hoof meets with the structural peculiarities of the stomach of the true ruminant. The stomach of the sheep may be taken as tlie type of that organ in the ruminants.

The chief features of the order Ruminantia, or cud-chewers, are these : — The feet terminate in two, so-called, fingers, the last joint of which is covered by a horny substance — the hoof The opposed surfaces of the hoofs are flat. The line at which they meet is the cleft ot the foot. They are, with the exception of the camel, destitute ot cutting teeth in the upper jaw, but have six of these teeth in the lower jaw. Typical species have six inolar teeth on each side of either jaw. Their stomach is compound. Its peculiarities are represented in the following cut : —

Fig. 23.

Stoinacb of the Sheep.

Here we have a, cesoidiagus ; h, rumen or paunch ; c, reticulum or water-bag ; J, psalterium or manyplies ; e, abomasum or red.

Camel, Heb. gamed. — The camel is first named as not fully answering the description of the typical cud-chewers — " he chewcth the cud, but divideth not the hoof." In zoological classification the camel belongs to the order jRutiiinantia, family Camelidce. The dromedary may be regarded as the type of this fomily. Its characterization here is very accurate. It chews the cud, but does not truly divide the hoof. Unlike the typical ruminants, it is destitute of horns, and possesses incisive teeth. The feet are only partially cloven, and the hoofs protect only the upper surface. The toes are conjoined below almost to the point. The upper lip of the camel is cloven. The name " camel " is generally

LEVITICUS IV.-XI.

79

given to the strongly-built variety, and "dromedary" to the swift one. But they constitute only one species [Camelus dromedarias). (Plate

Fig. 24.

Water Colls in the Panrch of the Camel.

XXXVI., Fig. 3.) This species has only one hump. The Bac- trian species {C. bactrianus) has two. In the walls of the paunch a series of water-cells occur, pe- culiar to this family, adn)irably adapted to their life in the desert.

Coney, Hebrew slidpluoi — see under Ps. civ. 18.

Hare, Heb. arneveth; Lepus of zoologists ; the arnahh of the Arabs. The word used here may be taken as generic. It will thus include the common hare [Lepus timidus), and the rabbit {L. cunt- cidus). Two varieties are met with in Palestine. The hares [Leporidoi) differ from the other lodents by having, along with other points of unlikeness, a small tooth behind each of the two large incisive teeth in the upper jaw. The features of the hare referred to here are, its chewing the cud and not dividing the hoof; see under Ps. civ. In both particulars it is classed with the coney or hyrax. The front feet of the hyrax are fur- ng.25.

uished with four toes, the hind feet with three. These toes are furnished with small flat hoofs. The inner toes of the hind feet terminate in curved pointed claws. The feet thus differ entirely from those of the typical rumi- nants. In the hare the difference is even greater. The fore feet have five toes, and the hind feet four, terminated with long compressed claws. (Plate XXXYL, Fig. 1.)

The Swine, Heb. Mdzir, is said here to " divide the hoof, and to be cloven-footed." This is to be taken in a modified sense. The remark is made as to the outstanding appearance of the foot of the swine (Sits scrofa), or common hog, in which the parts pressed on the ground are

Skull of KabbU.

80 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCK.

two hoofed toes. This has led to the popuUir opinion that the foot is bisulcate, or cloven. To this Moses here refers. However, there are other two toes placed a little higher on the back of the foot, making it thus four-toed. The flesh of swine was to be held in abomination by every Israelite. See under Is. Ixv. 4.

The more important beasts of the land, such as they might naturally think of as food, having been mentioned, the inhabitants of the water are next noticed : — " These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters : Whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat. And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living

Fig. 26.

X ^^ K^*;

Common Hare {Lepus timidus).

thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you. They shall be even an abomination unto you ; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination. Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you" (ver. 9-12). No examples are given, as in the other cases. The distinction is very general. They might eat every aquatic animal which had fins and scales ; but no creature crawling in the waters, and destitute of these, might be eaten. The reference here is not to be limited to the class Fishes (Pisces) ; it includes all the forms of aquatic life which might be esteemed edible. Thus water and amphibious reptiles [Eeptilui), as the tortoise, the crocodile, &c., were forbidden, as were all the members of the great group Molluscs (MoUusca). The crustaceans (Crustacea), as the crab and the lobster; the annelides

LEVITICUS IV.-XI. 81

{Annelida)^ as the leeches and the lob-worms ; the echinoderms {EcMno- dermata), as the star-fishes and the sea-urchins ; and tlie acalephs {Acalephce), as the sea-nettles, &c., were all to be reckoned iinclean. The number of fishes properly so called, destitute of fins and scales, which could come under this notice, was very small indeed. A half- naked stickleback (Gasteosteus) might be fished up in their ponds, but even its place here would be doubtful, because of its fully-developed fins. The minnow {Lct(Ci'scus), as some interpreters seem to suppose, is not destitute either of fins or scales. The Hebrew angler would thus not have any opportunity to " reject scrupulously the unclean minnows, and to choose the clean." On the shores of the Great Sea one or two of the group [Derniupteres), distinguished by their naked bodies, might occasionally find their way into their nets. One Clarias (Hasselqimii), might be taken from the waters of Palestine, or another {maijMs) from the Nile, arresting their attention by its mailed head and naked body, clad like those knights who wore plate armour on their breast alone, and made no provision for retreat. But the scarcity of such forms, some of which even tall short of the description, is enough to suggest that the distinctions drawn in these verses reach far beyond the class Fishes. The reference to this subject in Dcut. xiv. 9, 10, is much more brief than here — " These ye shall eat of all that are in tlie waters : all that have fins and scales shall ye eat : and whatso- ever hath not fins and scales ye may not eat ; it is unclean unto you."

Passing from the inhabitants of the water, Moses next directs special attention to those of the air. The commands regarding birds begin with those which all naturalists agree in placing at the head of orni- thological classification, the birds of prey: — "And these are they which ye shall have in abomination among the fowls ; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination : the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray, and the vulture, and the kite after his kind" (ver. 13, 14). The fol- lowing list contains the names of all the birds of prey {Itaptores) men- tioned in Scripture : —

1. Vulture (dCidh, ver. 14 ; dai/dh, Deut. xiv. 13).

2. Eagle {nesher, ver. 13, Exod. xix. 4; neshai; Dau. iv. 33).

3. Osprey {ozanijah, ver. 13, Deut. xiv. 12).

4. Ossifrage {peres, ib.)

5. Glede {rddh, Ueut. xiv. 13).

6. Kite {ai/ah, ver. 14, ib.)

7. Hawk {netz, ver. 16, Job xxxix. 2G).

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BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

8. Owl, great (i/ansiqyh, ver. 17, Dcut. xiv. IG ; Icippoz^ Isa. xxxiv. 15).

9. Owl, little [kos, ib.)

10. Owl {hath yandh = daughter of the owl, ver. IG, Job xxx. 29,

Isa. xiii. 21).

11. Owl, screech (lllith, Isa. xxxiv. 14).

In addition to these, other two birds have been named as belonging to this group — namely, the gier-eagle (^rahJiam, Lev. xi. 18; rahhdmdh, Deut. xiv. 17) and the night-hawk (taMmds, Lev. xi. 16, Deut. xiv. 15). It is, however, very doubtful if either of these be a bird of prey.

Vulture. — Two species seem to be mentioned. One, the tawny vulture, in verse 14; another, the true Egyptian species — the so-called " Pharaoh's chicken" — in Deut. xiv. 13, and Isa. xxxiv. 15, which see. (Plate XXXIV., Fig. 2.) The Septuagint renders dddh by gyps, hence

Fig. 27.

Fig. 28.

Head of Tawny Vulture.

Ifpad of Lgyptiau Vulture {Secphron percnopUrui)

the generic name of the tawny vulture ; and daijali liy ikt'nos, hence Ictinia of Viell, Gray, &c. The former Greek name evidently refers to the stooping attitude and bended neck of the vultures when they are at rest, the latter to their speed in coming to their prey. The one Hebrew term indicates power of wing, the other that which is dark. See also under Isaiah xxxiv. 15.

Eagle. — This word occurs twenty-eight times in Scripture, chiefly in the Old Testament. Its Hebrew name points to its habit of tearing the flesh from its prey as it eats. Nesher appears to have been used, as eagle is popularly still, to include both vultures and eagles, properly so called, and even as a general term for birds of prey. In at least four passages this is the case. Eagles kill the animals on which they feed. Vultures prey on the carcasses of the slain. Their structure answers to this difierence of habit. The eagle has the bill more hooked, the

LEVITICUS IV.-XT. 83

legs stronger, and the claws more rounded than the vultures, which do not carry off their prey, but feed where tliey find the carcass. In the .sublime reference to these birds in Job xxxix. 27-30, tliat named is one of the vultures : —

" Doth the eagle mount uj) nt thy command, And make her nest on high ? She dwelleth and abidetli on the rock, On the crag of tlie rock and the strong place. From thence she seeketh her prey. And her eyes behold afar off. Her young ones also suck up blood : And wliere the slain are, there is she."

Of the man that " mocketh his father," it is said that the young eagles shall eat his eyes ; cast out as slain, the vultures would prey upon him (Prov. xxx. 17). In the vision which " Micah saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem," reference is made to a characteristic mark of one of the vultures {neophron}^ which has its face, cheeks, and throat naked or bald. The genus Gijpactos has been named as that referred to here, but the head of the single species {G. harbatus) which belongs to this geims is feathered (Plate XXXIV., Fig. 3)—" Make thee bald, and poll thee for thy delicate children ; enlarge thy baldness as the eagle; for they are gone into captivity from thee" (Mic. i. IG). The bald eagle of modern systematists belongs to the ospreys. It is known as Haliaetos hucoceplialus, and is indigenous in America. Our Lord employed the word eagle in this popular way likewise — " For where- soever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together" (Matt. xxiv. 28). But the fact that the eagle is both here and in Deut. xiv. 12, 13, distinguished from the vulture and other closely related forms, implies that a distinct species was in the eye of Moses, most likely the golden eagle {Aquila clirysa'etos). See under Obadiah 4.

OsPKEY. — The name occurs only here and in Deut. xiv. It is the osprey, or fish hawk, still met with in the neighbourhood of the Red Sea.

OssiFEAGE, literally the "crusher" (peres), or the "bone-breaker" (pssifragd), the great sea eagle {Halia'etits ossifrofjus of Linnaeus), a bird nearly three feet long, and above seven feet from tip to tip of the wings. It frequents the north of Europe and Asia, but is also to be met with on the eastern shores of the Great Sea during severe winters.

Gi.EDE. — See under Deut. xiv. 13.

Kite. — The word rendered kite here and in Deut. xiv. 13, occurs in only one other passage, Job xxviii. 7, which see.

IIawk. — The term is to be taken as very general. It no doubt includes the other Falconidas not mentioned here, but with which Israel must have been well acquainted, both during their sojourn in Egypt and in their after wanderings. Four species, at least, of harriers are still to be met with in Egypt, two of which are abundant, the other two occasionally met with — namely, the marsh harrier {Circus rufus), the hen or common harrier (C. qjaneus), Montagu's harrier (C. cincra- ceus), and the pallid harrier {C. pallidus). It is not the least likely that birds of such mark would be overlooked in these arrangements. In Egypt, also, the people would be familiar with other species, more

Osprey {Pandvm HaluiTtius).

or less abundant still — as the lanner falcon {Faico lananits), the double- bearded falcon {F. hiarmicus), the peregrine falcon {F. jyercgn'mis), merlin (F. cvsalon), kestrel {F. tinnunculus), and sparrow-hawk {Acci- ptter m'siis). See also under Deut. xiv, 15, and Job xxxix. 26.

Great Owl. — Two words are thus translated — namely, yansiipli, Deut. xiv. IG, which see, and Iciijpoz, Isa. xxxiv. 15. Bochart proposes serpens jacuJus, or arrow-snake, as the most probable meaning of IvippOz, rendered great owl in our version. Arrow-snahe was a name given by some old naturalists to such so-called serpents as moved quickly, or darted with great suddenness and speed on their prey. But a close examination of the words in the light of the context convinces me, that "great owl" is to be preferred to "arrow-snake," which, in addition to its "vrant of harmony with the other part of the verse, has the strong disad-

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85

vantage of retaining an indefinite terra not now recognized in science. The words of Isaiali are — " There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow : there sliall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate." Bochart's objec- tions relate chiefly to the absence of any reference to " wings " in connection with " shadow." A reference to Ps. xci. 1, 4, will show that there is no weight in this. In verse 1 "shadow" is used by itself

Fig. 30.

— " He shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." The idea of wings was, however, present when the word was employed, though tliey are not mentioned. This is seen when his mind recurs to the thought, as in verse 4 —

" lie shall cover thee -with his feathers. And under his wings shall thou trust."

So it seems to have been with Isaiah ; for having mentioned the vul- tures, he thinks of them as flying — " Tlicy shall be gathered, every one with her mate."

The Little Owl. — The name occurs thirty-two times, and is always

translated "cup." except in tliree passages — here, Deut. xiv. IG, and Ps. cii. G. In tlie first two it is rendered "little owl," in the last "like an owl." The rounded cup-like form of the head, doubtless, gave rise to the name. The LXX. have given nuld/korax, or night raven, as the equivalent of the Hebrew Jcos, thereby indicating their uncertainty as to the bird. Indeed, it may be remarked generally, tliat the Septua- gint's rendering of the names of animals is little to be relied on. The remark so often made by interpreters, that much weight is to be given to it because the translators belonged to the region in which most of the animals were to be met with, is not to the purpose. Everything depended on their acquaintance with the place of the animals in natural history. Though most learned and intelligent on other points, they might here make as many mistakes as men among ourselves would do, if, while wholly ignorant of zoology, they were set to translate this chapter again into Greek or Latin. In two ways mainly can an approach to accuracy be made in attempting to determine the beasts, birds, and insects named in this chapter. On the one hand, the deriva- tion of the names must be carefully considered ; on the other hand, and chiefly, the scope of the context must always be particularly noticed. The bird which most nearly answers the biblical references to the " little owl," is the Athene nocttia, or little night owl — a species which occurs in Western Asia. Another species {Athene mendionah's) is extremely common in Southern Palestine and in Egypt.

The Owl — literally, daughter of the owl ; see under Job xxx. 29.

"Every raven after his kind" (ver. 15). The word "kind" is not always to be taken in its correct scientific import. It may also be regarded from the popular point of view as including varieties merely. Here it has, no doubt, even the wider signification of the Crow family — Corvidce. See under Gen. viii. 7. In Canaan the Israelites would meet with numerous members of this family. Three species still abound — the raven, the hooded crow, and the rook. "When describing a thicket on the borders of the great Hideh marsh. Dr. Thomson says — " But this very impenetrability to man and beast makes it the favourite retreat of crows and rooks ; there they breed, and thither they return at night from their rambles over the country. Upon the mountain above Huniu I have watched them at early dawn rising in clouds from this jungle. On they came, like wild pigeons in the AVest, only their line was not across the horizon, but like the columns of an endless army, stretching from the Hideh up Wady et Teim farther than the eye could follow them ; the column, how-ever, grows less and less dense

LEVITICUS IV.-XI. 87

by the departure in every direction of small squadrons, according to some social regulations known only to themselves, until the whole is dissipated. These birds are the plague of the farmer. They light by thousands on his fields, and devour so much of the fresh-sown seed that he is obliged to make a large allowance for their depredations. It is utterly useless to attempt to frighten them away. They rise like a cloud at the crack of your gun, wheel round and round for a few minutes, cawing furiously at you, and then settle down again to their work of robbery as if nothing had Fig.si.

happened. They fly to an im- mense distance in their foraging excursions. I have met them at least fifty miles from this their roosting-place. It is curious to see them in the afternoon preparing to return hither from the wadies around the north end of Ilermon. They assemble in groups, caw and scream, and wheel round and round in ascending circles, until itca-iofthcRook.

almost lost in the blue dei)ths of the sk}- ; then they sail in a straight line for this marsh, chattering to each other all the way. Assembled in the evening, they report the adventures of the day in noisy conclave, loud as the voice of many waters."

Night Hawk, Heb. tahhrnds, is named only here and in Deut. xiv. 15. The Greek rendering is glaux, a term suggestive of quickness of sight. This has led many to understand another species of owl, in addition to those mentioned above, because this name was given to the owl. It occurs in an ancient proverb similar to that current among ourselves — " Carry coals to Newcastle." Owls abounded in the neighbourhood of Athens, and when men were taunted with doing needless work, they were said to be like those who " took owls to Athens." It is much more likely, however, that another and widely different bird is indicated here. Our translators appear to have had the now well-known goat- sucker in view, a bird which in this country still goes by the name of night-bird (iioctua), niglit-jar, and night-hawk. Its nocturnal habits; its irregular, swift, yet silent flight ; its harsh wktri; tohih; sounding from ruined wall or from the deep dark thicket — would not fail to impress the superstitious people of the East, and lead them to prejudice even iotelliu'ent travellers. The bird to which the inhabitants attributed

habits which distinguished it I'roin all others could, they thought, be no other than the night-liawk of Scripture. Hasselquist says — " It is of the size of the common owl, and lodges in the large buildings or ruins of Egypt and Syria, and soinetimcs even in the dwelling-houses. The Arabs settled in Egypt call it Massasa, and the Syrians Banu. It is extremely voracious in Syria ; to such a degree, that if care is not taken to shut the windows at the coming on of night, it enters the houses and kills the children ; the women, therefore, are very much afraid of it." This superstitious notion continues to be repeated with the respect due to truth alone. But there is no more ground for this " sucking of the blood of infants" than there is for the popular impression which gave the name of goatsucker to the bird now referred to. The goatsucker feeds on the insects which come abroad in the twilight, and fly during

Fig. 32.

l-ig. 33.

Foot of Goatsucker.

Head of Goatsucker {Caprimutgus Europaiut).

the night. The structure of the foot of this bird has attracted much attention. The front toes are conjoined at the base by a thin mem- brane, the outer toe is very short, the middle long and terminated with a serrated or comb-shaped claw. The bill, which is short, slender, and curved, is surrounded by strong bristles which point forward. The gape of the mouth is unusually large, extending to below the eyes. Two species at least are to be met with in Bible lands — namely, the European goatsucker and the Isabella goatsucker (C. Isabellinus). Plate XIV., Fig. 1.

Cuckoo, Heb. shahJuiph, is used only here and in Deut. xiv. 15. The LXX. render it laws, or gull. This has led to a very general impression that one of the sea-fowl is meant ; some think the common gull, others the tern — see under Deut. xiv. 15. The Hebrew word is derived from the root to waste away, to taper, to grow thin, and the LXX. having named a sea-bird, recent interpreters have inferred that the tern must be the bird alluded to, " because the terns are slender birds,

LEVITICUS IV.-XI.

89

Fiy. 31.

and resemble, with their long wings and forked tail, the comraou

swallow." But there are other birds which approach as near the

original moaning of this word as the terns. The cuckoo itself, which

our translators have set down as

the true rendering of sliahltai)li., docs

not come far short of them in slen-

derness, when seen on the wing.

(Plate XXXIII. Fig. 4.) It is,

moreover, frequently met with in

Palestine. " We soon," says Dr.

Bonar, describing the road between

Jerusalem and Jericho, "struck into

a deep ravine ; but the road lay

not at the foot, but a considerable way up its southern flank. We

noticed water at the bottom, and a tolerable amount of verdure. The

note of the cuckoo came, like a wandering voice, across the glen, though

there seemed no woods, in which this ' stranger of the grove,' this

'messenger of spring,' could find a place for rest or song." It loves

such haunts, and may often be heard in our own land in moorland

districts where there are only scattered hazel and alder bushes, or a

few stunted native oaks and birches. The cuckoo seldom utters its

soft plaintive note when at rest. When heard the bird is generally on

Head of Common Gull tj,arus caniii).

Fig. 35.

the wing.

It is curious that no one has suggested the flamingo as answer- ing the sliahhaph better than any of the birds mentioned. It must have stood conspicuously out be- fore the Israelites of the time of Moses. The great length and slenderness of its legs and neck, its curiously formed bill, and the beauty of its plumage, were sure to attract the notice of the people. It is still frequently seen in the Levant. Dr. Heuglin recently found flocks numbering about a hundred, on the shores of the Red Sea. It is met with also in the neighbourhood of the Sea of the Plain.

The Cokjiorant, Heb. shulfik, is mentioned also in Deut. xiv. 17. In Isa. xxxiv. 11, and Zeph. ii. 14, the tiebrew kdath is rendered cormo-

VOI.. II. M

Iload of flamingo {Phfrnicopknu ruber).

90

niBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

rant, but the pelican is the bird referred to — see under Ps. cii. 6. The common cormorant {Phalacrocorax carho) is abundant on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean sea. It measures about three feet in length, is black beneath and dark brown above, with a white patch on each thigh. The naked skin of the face and throat is yellow, bordered with white. It places its nest of coarse grass and sea-weeds on the ledges of lofty cliffs. The bill is rather long, nearly straight, and distinguished by the strongly hooked tip of tlie upper mandible. Mr. Waterton has graphically described some of its habits. He says: — " The cormorant may be justly styled the feathered terror of the finny tribe. His skill in diving is most admirable, and his success beyond belief; you may know him at a distance among a thousand water-fowl, by his upright neck, by his body being apparently half immersed in water, and by his being perpetually in motion when not on land. While the ducks, teal, and widgeon are stationary on the pool, the cormorant is seen swimming to and fro ' as if in quest of something.' First raising his body perpendicularly, down he plunges into the deep • and after staying there a considerable time, he is seen to bring up a fish, which he invariably swallows head foremost. Sometimes half an hour elapses before he can manage to accommodate a large eel quietly in his stomach. You see him straining violently, with repeated efforts to gulp it ; and when you fancy that the slippery mouthful is successfully disposed of, all on a sudden the eel retrogrades upwards from its dismal sepulchre, struggling violently to escape. The cormorant swallows it again, and up again it comes, and shows its tail a foot or more out of its destroyer's mouth. At length, worn out with ineffectual writhings and slidings, the eel is gulped down into the cormorant's stomach for the last time." The flesh of this bird is coarse, fishy, and disagreeable. One species {Ph. sinensis) is trained by the Chinese to fish for them. (Plate IV., Fig. 1.)

The Swan, Heb. tanshemeth. In verse 30, a similar word is rendered mole. In Deut. xiv. 16, it is translated swan. The root is ndshdm to breathe. It is joined here with the gier eagle and the pelican. The latter is noticed under Ps. cii. 6 — which see.

Gier Eagle, Heb. rdhhdm (ver. 18) rdlilidmah (Deut. xiv. 17). By some the word rendered swan is held to point out the sultana hen, or purple water-hen {Porphjno IiT/acinthis), a magnificent and beautiful species. By others the gier eagle is identified with this bird (Lauda- tissiina et nohilissima avis, cui rostrum et prcelonga crura ruhent. — Plin. X. 40, 49.) But though celebrated among the ancients, and though it

LEVITICUS IV.-XI. 91

is often to be met with iu Egypt, its comparative rarity in Palestine, and, generally, the absence of every thing but its beauty to distinguish it from some closely related birds, which must have stood much more out in the eyes of the peoijle, make it not at all likely that it is either the swan or the gier eagle of Scripture. The word rendered gicr eagle is suggestive of attachment to its young. Taking tanshemeth^ as was long ago done by Michaelis, to be' the goose {Anser ferns), and rdlJidm the swan (C>/gni(s ferns and G. olor), we have a rendering much more in harmony with the context. (Plate XXXI., Fig. 2.) The flesh of the goose constituted a chief part of the food of the Egyptians. It was, moreover, the emblem of Seb, one of their divinities, the father of Osiris. The red goose of the Nile is named chenal-opex by Hero- dotus, who notices it as a sacred bird. The habits of tlie goose are equally suggestive here. Its harsh hiss when irritated, and its audible breathing when feeding in the mud at the edge of the river or pond, are such as might have led to the Hebrew name. The devotion of the swan to its young has been often told. When disturbed she rallies them behind her, much in the same Avay as wild cattle do their young. She may be seen fondling them with her bill, and encouraging them to take a place on her back, and thus glide with her along the surface of the quiet water.

The Stork, Heb. hlutsidah (Ctcom'a alba et C. nigi-a), is noticed under 2 Chron, ix. 21 ; Ps. civ. 17 ; and Jer. viii. 7 — which see. (Plate IV., Fig. 2.)

The Heron, Heb. anCtphdli, occurs only here and in Dent. xiv. 18. The notice is more general than that of most of the other associated birds. It is " the heron after its kind." Among these may he mentioned the common heron [Ardea cinereci) ; the egrets {A. egretta=^ Egretta alba and Egretta garzetta). The former species has a yellow bill, sometimes tipped with black ; the latter, which is much smaller, has a black bill. Both the common heron and the egrets are abundant in Palestine. Other closely related species may have been included in the expression " heron after its kind," as Tantalus {T. ibis) and the Bittern {Bitaurus steUaris)~SQe Plate VIII., Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4.

The Lapwing, Heb. dtlhiphath (ver. 19, Deut. xiv. 18). Many claim the hoopoe {Upnpa epops, Plate XXV., Fig. 2) as the bird named here. The chief authority for this is, that the Greek rendering is epops, though this is not always decisive. The author of the " Land and the Book," holds by the English translation. He says: — " I have seen them coming down tlie coast in large flocks on the wings of the

92

UinUCAL NATURAL SCIENCK.

wild north wiiul. Tlioy then Jisperse over these mountains, and remain until early spi'ing, when they entirely disappear. They roost on the ground wherever night overtakes them. I liave frequently started them up from under tlie very feet of my frightened horse when riding in the dark, cspeeially along the spurs of old Hermon, and in Wady ct Teim, between the two Lebanons. They utter a loud scream when about to fly, whieh sounds like a prolonged tect, and Jience the name Bu-Tcet — father of tcct. It is the duhcpliatli of Rloses, translated lap- icimj in our version, and I think correctly, notwithstanding what some recent writers advance against it. It was classed by Moses among the unclean birds, and is so regarded now by tlie Arabs, who refuse to cat it. The upper parts of the body and wings are of a dull slate colour,

Fib-. 8G.

Cm-lew (Xuvirvius nrq'tata).

the under parts of both are white. It has a top-hnot on the hinder part of the head, jioinling backward like a horn ; and when running about on the ground, it closely resembles a young hare."

The hoopoe, however, is even more common, a tamer bird, and one much more likely to be thought of as food. An able ornithologist says of it in his notes on South Palestine birds : — " It is common about the towns and villages, frequents dunghills, and is extremely tame and familiar. The Arabs have a superstitious reverence for the bird, which they believe to possess marvellous medicinal qualities, and call it " the doctor." Its head is also an indispensable ingredient in all charms and in the practice of witchcraft" {Tristram). It is also alnmdant in Egypt. Another recent observer says : — " It is one of tlie connnonest birds of Egypt, especially abounding in the vicinity of the towns and villages.

LEVITICUS IV.-XI.

93

lu the month of January I used to notice these birds entering the holes in tlie crude brick wails ; I frequently dug tliera out, but never found any eggs. We found the hoopoe a very good bird to eat." — {Taijlor.) Both the Arabs and the Egyptians give it a name liaving considerable resemblance to the Hebrew. Taking all this into account, it seems most likely that this is the bird referred to here. But there is another bird frequently met with in the marshes of Syria and Egypt, which was scarcely likely to escape the notice of the Jewish leader, and which from its near resemblance to some of those mentioned here, might have been named in this list. The curlew in size and in habits must have stood more prominently out before the people than either the lapwing or the hoopoe. It may, indeed, have been included under the expres- sion "heron after her kind," though distinctly separated in modern classification.

Fig. 37.

Leaf Dat {Megndermfr /rons).

Long-eared Itat {PUcntm auritm). Heads of r>at8.

Ilorse-shoe Cat {lihinolophus /rTrum-fqninvm).

"The Bat," Heb. atalqjh (ver. 19; Deut. xiv. 18; Isa. ii. 20). It means the " flier in darkness," an e]iltliet preserved both in the Greek and Latin names for this animal. The bat seems mentioned in such a way as to link the true birds with the true insects. In Deuteronomy this is more evident than here : " The bat, and every creeping thing that flieth is imclean unto you." The organs of flight are specially taken into account in this arrangement. Even at a date so compara- tively recent as 1557, there were naturalists who assigned the bat a place among birds. In the Hisfona NatiirGlis of J. Johnstone all birds are classified as terrestrial, or as aquatic. Land birds are ranged in two groups. Flesh-eaters and Insect-caters, and the bat is set down as belonging to the former. But modern science lias determined their

94 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

true place, and has assigned to them a position in zoological classifica- tion much nearer man than are any of the domestic animals. The Cheiroptera^ or wiiig-handed mammals, meet the flying lemurs. These meet the apes, which stand next to man. The wings of the bat first attract the notice of observers. Derham in his " Survey of Quadru- peds" long ago spoke of " the wings of the bat as a prodigious devia- tion from nature's ordinary way." They are formed by an extension of the skin itself, and consist of an extremely thin and delicate mem- brane " extending in front from the neck and sides of the body to the extremity of the fingers of each upper limb, and behind to the tail and to the heels of the feet. All the parts of the bony skeleton are fruitful of remarkable illustrations of the adaptation between structure

The Lonfj-eared Bat {Phcotus aurib's).

and functions — see Plate IX., Fig. 9. The bats come abroad at night, and feed on the moths and beetles that are then on the wing. In all countries the larger forms have been regarded with dread and super- stition. Lying hid during the day in rock crevices, in old walls, and in the holes of decayed trees, no sooner has darkness begun to gather over the landscape than they come forth weird-like for their noc- turnal work. They were "the filthy birds of the sea" of the ancients; the harpies which came forth on bad intent ; the monsters ready to suck the life-blood of the sleeping child. Knowledge has dissipated such imaginings ; yet there are comparatively few who even yet have come to regard these animals with the interest which they deserve. Bats hybernate or sleep during winter. They seldom have more than one young one, and never more than two. These are suckled at two

LEVITICUS IV.-XI.

95

teats on the breast. The reference to the bat by Isaiali points to the dark places in which tliey lie during the day.

From the bat ]\Iosgs passes to insects. These are named " flying creeping things." Assuming that the Spirit of God made use of the attainments of his servant in communicating with his people, verses 21 and 22 show us how closely Moses had observed the creatures now referred to : — " Yet these may ye eat, of every flying creeping thing that goeth ujion all four, which have legs above their feet, to leap withal upon the earth. Even these of them ye may eat ; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind. But all other flying creeping things, which have four feet, shall be an abomination unto

Greater Horse-shoe Bat {Rhinolophts ffrrum-rqnmum).

you." The generic distinctions between the insects noticed are clearly indicated. The different direction of the two front legs from the four hinder ones is pointed out in such a way as to show that he looked upon the former as arms. Again, there is a well defined distinction made between "going" and "leaping." Insects of this group have both motions. The former is slow, awkward, and crawling; the latter is rapid, elegant, and lively. Even Shaw, with his powers of careful observation, failed to appreciate this distinc- tion in the spirit of the text. He says : — " It may be observed again, that insects do not properly walk upon four, but six feet. Neither is there any adequate description peculiar to this tribe conveyed to us, by their being said to have legs upon their feet, to leap withal upon the earth ; because they have this in common only with birds, frogs, and

several other creatures. Tlic original expression therefore may pro- bably bear this construction; viz., which have knees upon, or above their liindcr legs, to leap withal upon the earth. For to apply this description to the locust (the only one we know of the four that are mentioned, Lev. xi. 22), this insect has the two hindermost of its legs or feet much stronger, larger, and longer tlian any one of the foremost. In them the knee, or the articulation of the leg and tliigh, is distin- guished by a remarkable bending or curvature ; whereby it is able, whenever prepared to jump, to spring and raise itself up with great force and activity. As the principal distinction therefore betwixt the clean and unclean insects, seems to have depended upon this particular shape and structure of the hinder feet, the action wliicli is ascribed to the clean insects, of going upon four (viz., the foremost feet), and leaping upon the (two) hindermost, is a characteristic as expressive of the original text, as it is of the animals to whom it appertains." —(Travels ii., 288.)

This is only part of the trutli. If tlie verses now uniler notice be looked at in the light of even the most recent scientific definition of tliis group of insects, tlie reader will be struck with their precision. " Tlie fourth section, Saltatoria," says Mr. Westwood, " corresponds with the Linnaaan genus Gryllus, and consists of all those species which have the four anterior legs simple and short, and the two hind legs long and formed for leaping. For this purpose the femora are greatly tliickened, so as internally to afford support to the strong muscles by which the leap is effected; the posterior edge of the thigli is channelled, so as to receive tlie tibia when at rest ; the upper or posterior surfiice of the latter being generally strongly spined, and furnished at the tip with robust spurs, which assist greatly in effecting the leap of the insect, by offering resistance against the substance on which the insect is stationed. The body is generally compressed ; the tarsi vary in the number of their joints, as well as the antenna?, which are also greatly variable in length, being in some species several times longer than the body. The males are enabled to make a peculiar chirruping noise, which is produced in different manners in the different groups, being in some (Lociista) caused by the friction of the strong veins inclosing a talc-like spot, or crepitaculum, at the base of the wing-covers."

Another list of unclean animals is introduced here, which is omitted in Deut. xiv : — " These also shall be unclean unto you among the creeping things that creep upon the earth ; the weasel, and the mouse, and the tortoise after his kind, and the ferret, and the chame-

LEVITICUS IV.-XI.

97

leon, and the lizard, and the snail, and the mole. These are unclean to you among all that creep ; whosoever doth touch them, when they be dead, shall be unclean until the even. And upon whatsoever any of them, when they are dead, doth fall, it shall be unclean ; whether it be any vessel of wood, or raiment, or skin, or sack, whatsoever vessel it be wherein any work is done, it must be put into water, and it shall be unclean until the even ; so it shall be cleansed" (ver. 29-32).

The difficulties in the way of identifying the animals now named are many and great. But these have been increased by overlooking the manifest reference to habits, when we join the expression " creeping things that creep" with some of the animals known to be indicated here. The opinions of leading interpreters vary more widely than the rendering of the different versions of Scripture.

HEBREW SORIPTUEES.

Hholcd. Achhar. Tzav. Aniikali. Kualib. LetaSli.

Hhomet.

Tanshcinell).

SEPrnAOIST \-ERSION.

Weasel. Mniise. Crocotlile. Shrew-Mouse. Chameleon, Lizard (■SVc///o). Lizard (^iMcerlii), Jlole,

SYRIAC VERSION.

Weasel. Mouse. Crocodile. Lizard. Mole. Salamander. Lizard (SteUio). Centipede.

VDLOATE.

Weasel. Jlouse. Crocodile. Sliiew-mousc. Chameleon. Lizard.

ENGLISH VERSION.

Weasel. Mouse. Tortoise. Ferret. Chameleon. Lizard.

Lizard (^Lacrtu"). Mole.

Snail.

Mole.

Weasel, — The unwillingness of interpreters to admit the weasel, the mouse, and the mole into this list originates in the theory, that the " creeping things " must mean reptiles proper {Beptilia). But if the sly and stealthy way in which the weasel and the mouse move about in the grass or in other haunts, and the motion of the mole when it appears above ground, be taken into account, we cease to wonder at their presence here with the lizards and the snail, "Weasel" may be regarded as the name for the family {MusteJ/'dce). Besides the common weasel {Mustela vuhjaris) which is widely distributed, the polecat {M. putorius) is abundant in the temperate regions of Europe and Asia, The Mouse, — See under 1 Sam. vi, 4; Isa. Ixvi. 17, The Tortoise after his kind. Our translators refused to follow the leading versions here and render tzav, lightly I think, "tortoise," guided by the reference in the word to something covered, rounded, and fat-looking. Illustrations of the "tortoise after his kind" are given on Plate XII, — which see. The name "tortoise" is generally

VOL, II.

98

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

applied to the land and the fresh-\Yater forms ; " turtle " to those of the sea. Six genera of cheloiiian reptiles (Chehnm) are represented on the plate. Tliey belong to the group Catajjhracta, or reptiles with

Fig. 42.

Fig. 43.

Polecat {Mn^Uln pulorii's)

shields. The common tortoise {Teshido grceca, Fig. 1), and the Nilotic three-toed tortoise (Trionyx niloticus, Fig. 7) were those with wliich the Israelites would be acquainted. The others are introduced to show the leading forms. But if these commands took into account the scattering of the people into other lands, even before the Old Testament dispensa- tion closed, they might meet with other forms.

The skeleton of the tortoises (Plate IX., Fig. 11) is external, and acts as a shield to the mus- cular system. It consists mainly of two parts, namely, the cara- pace^ or upper part of the shield, and the plastron, or under part. The former is generally rounded ; the latter is flat. The plastron answers to the breastbone, or sternum, of birds, and the cara- pace to the chest, or thorax, in man and the higher animals. It is, indeed, nothing more than the ribs conjoined by a resembling solid cement. Eight pairs can be easily distinguished. The head is in most small. The anterior feet have generally five claws,

Stemnm of CheloniA.

LEVITICi::* IV.-XI.

99

Fig. «.

the posterior four. The tyrse {Triomjx niloticus, Fig. 7) is distinguished

by the absence of horny phites on the flat shickl, and by the swimming

feet liaving only three toes. The nose assumes

tlie form of an elongated snout (Fig. 6). A

rough skin covers its soft depressed carapace.

'J'he colour of the skin is dark brown, dotted

with yellowish white spots.

Ferret [MustcJa furo). The rendering of the English version cannot be retained, chiefly because this anim.al comes in as a weasel, it being only a domesticated variety of polecat, Ko.-oa„dHindLes«fTe.tuJo.

introduced into Europe originally from Africa. The Hebrew name is derived from a root which signifies to gnaw. The LXX. have rendered it by mygale, the word employed by Aristotle for the shrew-mouse [Sorex araneus). It is much more likely that the reference here is to one of the widely distributed tribe of lizards. One of the Gecko family {Gecko- tide^, the fan-foot, or house gecko {I'laty- dadjjlus gecko), very abundant in Egypt, answers the Hebrew word. It utters a croaking sound, softer than that of a frog, as it runs about in search of the insects, &c., on which it feeds. Taking then the lizards noticed here we have —

Ferret = Platydactylus gecko, Plate XL, Fig. 1. Carapace of Triouyx.

Chameleon = Chama;leo vulgaris, Plate IX., Fig. 12; X., Fig. 4. Lizard = Stellio vulgaris, Plate X , Fig. 3.

Snail = Lacerta ocellata, Plate VIII., Fig. 8 ; X., Fig. 2.

But many others of the so-called lizard group would come under their notice. The monitor, for example, Plate X., Fig. 1 ; the seine, Plate IX., Fig. 7; XL, Fig. 4; the triton, Plate XI., Fig. 2; and the sala- mander, Plate XL, Fig. 3.

Snail. — See under Ps. Iviii. 8.

" The ]\Iole." — It will be seen from the table given above that the LXX., Vulgate, and English versions agree in rendering taushemcth by " mole." The Syriac gives centipede. The only other reference in the English Bible to this animal is in Isa. ii. 20 — " In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made

100

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats." But there is no certain allusion here to the mole. The literal rendering of the Hebrew is "the dig-holes" — any animals which make for them- selves holes in the earth. Accordingly Gesenius proposes " rats" as a more appropriate translation ; erring in this respect with our trans- lators. The statement is of the most indefinite kind, and, clearly, not intended to indicate any one kind of animal. The idols of gold and silver shall be buried out of siglit in the earth, or they shall be thrust into such dark places of the rocks as those which the bats haunt.

The common mole {Talpa Europccd) is one of the insect-eating mam- mals (Insectwora), and the type of the mole foinily {Talpidce). The

Fig. dO.

anatomist has found in its skeleton some of the most striking illustrations of the adapta- tion of structure to habits which are to be met with among the mammalia (Plate XXL, Fig. 4). Its general shape is admirably fitted for its underground habits. The digging de- manded in order to the supply of its daily wants, implies great muscular power in the anterior limbs and fore part of the whole body. This is found to be strikingly developed, and to be associated with peculiarities in the bony skeleton fitted to co-operate with it to greatest purpose. The hands, or fore feet, are armed with strong claws, grooved beneath and converging at the tips. The feet themselves are formed like a scoop. Tlic mole makes for itself a habitation, whose construction bears

testimony to instincts as acute

'rout and Back View of Fore-foot of the Common Mole.

Fig. 47.

the

hut -building

Uabitntion of the Common JIolG.

as those of

beaver itself. " The fortress is domed by a cement, so to speak, of earth, which has been beaten and compressed by the archi- tect into a compact and solid state. Within, a circular gallery is formed at the base, and communi- cates with an upper smaller gallery by five passages, which are nearly at equal distances (fig. 47). Within the lower, and under the upper of these galleries, is the chamber or dormitory, which has access to the upper gallery by three similar passages." There are many other passages all arranged with great order, and fitted to enable it to reach the worms on which it feeds.

" And every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth shall be an

LEVITICUS IV.-XI.

101

abomination ; it shall not be eaten. Whatsoever gocth upon the belly, and whatsoever goeth upon all four, or whatsoever hath more feet among all creeping things that creep upon the earth, them ye shall not eat; for they are an abomination. Ye shall not make yourselves abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth, neither shall ye make yourselves unclean with them, that ye should be defiled thereby. For I am the Lord your God ; ye shall therefore sanctity yourselves, and ye shall be holy ; for I am holy ; neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth" (ver. 41-44).

" Whatsoever goeth upon the belly." The common slow-worm may be named as illustrative of this expression. It is to be met

Fig. 48.

'f^^lM/A^

Slow-Worm {Ahquxh fraijUU).

with in most countries of Europe, and is abundant in Western Asia. It is viviparous, feeds on insects, earth-worms, &c. Though popularly regarded as poisonous it is not so.

" Whatsoever goeth upon all four." The toad, the salamander, and the like, may be referred to here.

" Whatsoever hath more feet among all creeping things." All the forms of life included under the class Myriapoda, or Many-feet. The scolopendra or so-called centipede abounds in Palestine. A recent traveller says : — " I was somewhat startled to find myself this morning in close proximity to a more formidable species of vermin than either gnats or fleas. While seated on a dilapidated sepulchre, an immense centipede crawled out cautiously, and made direct for my head, which I quickly gave, and with it a smart stone, to add emphasis to the

102

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIEN'CK.

salutation. Are these ugly creatures really dangerous? I am sur- prised to find them stirring so early in the spring, though Tiberias is hot enough for them or i'or anything else. Tlie bite of the centipede is not fatal, but is said to be extremely painful, and very slow to heal. The Arabs say that it strikes its fore claws into the flesh, and there they

rig. 49.

Centipede {Scolopendra gigas).

break otT and remain, thus rendering the wound more troublesome. I never saw a person bitten by them, but their mere appearance makes one's flesh creep. While the locusts were passing through Abeith, they started up a very large centipede near my house, and I was greatly amused with its behaviour. As the living stream rolled over it without cessation for a moment, it became perfectly furious ; bit on tlie right hand and on the left ; writhed, and squirmed, and floundered in impo- tent wratli ; and was finally worried to death. During this extraordinary battle its look was almost satanic."

The millipedes are also widely distributed, and many of them would come under the notice of the Jews.

Millipede {Spiroatrijitus ohlusua).

The series of commands relating to the clean and unclean creatures is summed up with the statement of the high moral ends in all. " These," it is said, " ye shall give attention to, for I am the Lord your God ; ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy ; for I am holy : neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that crecpeth upon the earth. For I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God : ye shall therefore be holy ; for I am holy. This is the law of the beasts, and of the fowl, and of every living creature that moveth in the waters, and of every creature that creepeth upon the earth" (vcr. 44-47).

LEVlTICrS XIII., XIV

103

LEVITICUS XIII., XIV.

HREE kinds uf leprosy are named in these cliapters. 1. Leprosy on tlic luiman body (verses 1-46). 2. Leprosy in the garments worn by man (verses 47-59). 3. Leprosy in the walls of their dwellings (xiv. 33-48) This terrible malady is still more common in Egypt and Syria than in most other countries where it occurs. The Egyptian priest JLinctho (b.c. 300) alleged that the Hebrews had introduced this disease into Egypt. Tacitus, following his account, says that it is certain " the Jews, when in Egypt, were all afflicted with leprosy, and from them it spread to the Egyptians. When the king, Bochorus, inquired of Jupiter Amnion how his kingdom could be freed from this calamity, he was informed that it could be eftected only by expelling the whole multitude of the Jews, as they were a race detested by the gods." He adds other tables to those of the Egyptian priest, tells how Moses accidentally met the expelled people in the wilder- ness, and brought them under obedience to himself; how the leprosy had been caught from swine, and that thus swine's flesh continued to be held in abomination by the Jews. But both the testimony of Scripture and of antiquity is against this. Moses speaks of the " evil diseases of Egypt," and of " the botch of Egypt" (Deut. vii. 1.5; xxviii. 27). The heathen poet Lucretius {De Berum Natura) traces the worst kind of leprosy to the same country. He says that elephantiasis is produced by the waters of the Nile :—

" Est Elephas morbus, qui propter flumina Nili, Gigidtur ^-Egypto in Media."

The circumstances attending ]\Iiriam's leprosy showed that it was rare among the Israelites at the period of the Exodus.

" When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab, or bright spot, and it shall be in the skin of his flesh like the plague of leprosy ; then he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest."

In the description of leprosy here, the expression "bright spot," Heb. hachreth, is the general designation for the first appearances of this disease. But as there are bright spots which do not develope into

10-i BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

this deadly malady, a well-defined distinction is drawn, wliicli may be stated tlius : —

„ f Non-contagious leprosy, lejira alphos of the Greeks.

J^ Natural freckles.

_, ( Black leprosy, lepra melas.

\ M'lute leprosy, lepra leukc.

The Greek physicians described the non-con tagluus leprosy as a white efflorescence, occurring in bright spots with a pure and healtliy surface intervening. The black species had dark brown spots. The charac- teristic symptoms of the last kind were blanched skin, hair white like wool, the rapid drying up of the juices of the body, and the decay of one member and another. This was the vlttllfjo of Celsus. Moses names the following symptoms as good ground for suspicion : — (1) herpes (ver. 2, 10, 13, 19) ; (2) cirij scall (ver. 30, 31) ; (3) hvmid scall (ver. 39); (4) hn'glit white scall (ver. 19); (5) dnll white scall {ver. 2, 6, 7) ; (G) ioil (ver. 29, 42) ; (7) carhiincle (ver. 24j.

All this still meets the eye of the traveller in Palestine. " We reached," says Dr. Robinson, " the Zion gate just as it was opened at one o'clock. Within the gate, a little towards the right, are some miserable hovels, inhabited by persons called leprous. Whether their disease is or is not the leprosy of Scripture, I am unable to affirm ; the symptoms described to us were similar to those of elephantiasis. At any rate they are pitiable objects, and njiserable outcasts from society. They all live here together, and intermarry only with each other. The children are said to be healthy until the age of puberty or later, when the disease makes its appearance in a finger, on the nose, or in some like part of the body, and gradually increases so long as the victim survives. Tliey were said often to live to the age of forty or fifty years."

" You could not," says anothei", " be more surprised and startled than I Avas on my first introduction to this awful disease. Sauntering down the Jaffa road, on my approach to the Holy City, in a kind of dreamy maze, wdth, as I remember, scarcely one distinct idea in my head, I was startled out of my reverie by the sudden aijparitiou of a crowd of beggars, ' sans eyes, sans nose, sans hair, sans everything." They held up toward me their haudless arms, unearthly sounds gurgled through throats without palates — in a word, I was horrified. Having never seen a leper, nor had my attention turned to the subject (for a quarter of a century ago Jerusalem and its marvels were not so well understood as they are now), I at first knew not what to make of it. I

LEVITICUS XIII., XIV. 105

subsequently visited their habitations, as you have done to-day, and have made many inquiries into their history. It appears that these unfortunate beings have been perpetuated about Jerusalem from the remotest antiquity. One of my first thoughts on visiting tlieir dens of corruption and death was, that the government should separate them, and thus, in a few years, extinguish the race and the plague together; and I still think that a wise, steady, and vigilant sanitary system might eventually eradicate this fearful malady. But it will not be so easily or expeditiously accomplished as I then thought. It is not confined to Jerusalem, for I have met with it in different and distant parts of the country. And what is particularly discouraging is, that fresh cases appear from time to time, in which it seems to arise spontaneously, without hereditary or any other possible connection with those previ- ously diseased. This fact, however, has not yet been fully established. It is evident that Moses, in his very stringent regulations respecting this plague and its unhappy victims, had in view its extinction, or at least restriction within the narrowest possible limits. Those who were merely suspected were shut up ; and if the disease declared itself the individual was immediately removed out of the camp, and not only he, l)Ut everything he touched, was declared unclean. For all practical purposes the same laws prevail to this day. The lepers, when not obliged to live outside the city, have got a separate abode assigned to them, and they are shunned as unclean and dangerous. No healthy person will touch them, eat with them, or use any of their clothes or utensils — and with good reason. The leper was required by Moses to stand apart, and give warning by crying, "Unclean! unclean!" Thus the ten men that met our Saviour stood afar off, and lifted up their voice of entreaty. They still do the same substantially, and, even in their begging, never attempt to touch you. Among tent-dwelling

Arabs the leper is literally put out of the camp But though

we cannot comprehend the leprosy nor cleanse the leper, there are many things to be learned from this mysterious disease. It has ever been regarded as a direct punishment from God, and absolutely incur- able, except by the same divine power that sent it. God alone could cure the leprosy. It was so understood by Naaman the Syrian, who came from Damascus to Samaria to be cured by Elisha ; and when " his flesh came again as the flesh of a little child," he said, " Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel." It is a curious fact that this hideous disease still cleaves to Damascus, the city of Naaman, for there is a mild kind there which is sometimes

VOL. u. o

106 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENXE.

cured, or apparently cured, even at this day. I have met with cases, however, where the cure is only temporary, and perhaps it is so in every instance."

How vividly do we meet in all this with the moral condition of man ! Sin has spread its terrible leprosy over our whole spiritual nature. It has withered our love, eaten the very heart out of all true confidence in God as our Father. Having its seat in the affections, it has put the will past the power of ready obedience; it has darkened the understand- ing, broken the wing of hope, so that it uo more naturally enters into that within the vail ; and enfeebled every energy which otherwise would have worked Godward. As is the heart, so is the life of man. His actions are, even when best, not good in the sight of God. His lips speak not the praises of his father. Yea they often blaspheme his name. He is wholly vile. Yet there is a way for the cleansing of the leper ! But only one way — " the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin."

" Leprosy hi the garment." " The garment also that the plague of leprosy is in, whether it be a woollen garment or a linen garment, whether it be in the warp or woof, of linen or of woollen, whether in a skin, or in any thing made of skin ; and if the plague be greenish or reddish in the garment, or in the skin, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin : it is a plague of leprosy, and shall be shewed unto the priest. And the priest shall look upon the plague, and shut up it that hath the plague seven days. And he shall look on the plague on the seventh day : if the plague be spread in tlie garment, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in a skin, or in any work that is made of skin, the plague is a fretting leprosy; it is unclean." If such marks were observed, there was no remedy. The garment was burnt in the fire. But there was an alternative — " If the priest shall look, and, behold, the plague be not spread in the garment, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in anything of skin ; then the priest shall com- mand that they wash the thing wherein the plague is, and he shall shut it up seven days more. And the priest shall look on the plague, after tliat it is washed : and, behold, if the plague have not changed his colour, and the plague be not spread, it is unclean ; thou shalt burn it in the fire : it is fret inward, whether it be bare within or without." But if, after the washing, a blackish spot only was seen, it might be rent out of the garment, and the rest of it given to its owner again. " And if it appear still in the garment, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin, it is a spreading plague : thou shalt burn

107

tliat wherein tlie plague is witli fire. And the garment, either warp or woof, or whatsoever thing of skin it be, which thou shalt wash, if the plague be departed from them, then it shall be washed the second time, and shall be clean. This is the law of the plague of leprosy in a gar- ment of woollen or linen, either in the warp or woof, or any thing of skins, to pronounce it clean, or to pronounce it unclean.'

" Linen garment ;" see under Josh. ii. 6.

The marks named here might result either from the ravages of certain insects, or from vegetable mould. In both cases the washing would be a decided test. If the " fretting" were complete either in warp or woof, the garment on being washed would fall to shreds. The vegetable or animal dyes which did not yield to the water continued to tell tliat the plague was still in the garment, and rendered it unfit for wear. Clothes when exposed to damp, and shut out from the light and air, get mil- dewed or mouldy. I\]inute fungi {Mucorini) appear in spots on them. These soon spread and infect the intervening parts. They vary in colour from white to yellow, blue, green, red, and black. The references in this passage are not to be limited to white garments. Taking this into account, much of the obscurity hitherto held to attach to this passage is removed, especially when the fungoid influences are linked up with well-known ravages of insects in garments of linen, or of woollen, and in skins. It is in Fig. si.

the larval state ihat insects fret the garments. They furrow the 'N^. thick parts of woollen garments and furs, and in these furrows pass from the larval into the chrysalis state. One family of coleopterous insects, Bermesh'dce, is so named from the ravages they make in skins. " Perhaps," says Dermesto, (j^»n»,,.) and iarv«.

Mr. Kirby, " you imagine that these universal destroyers spare at least our garments, in which you may at iirst conceive there can be nothing very tempting to excite even the appetite of an insect. Your housekeeper, however, would probably tell you a different story, and enlarge upon the trouble and pains it costs her to guard those under her care against the ravages of the moths. Upon further inquiry, you would find that nothing made of wool, whether cloth or stuff, comes amiss to them. There are five species described by L'nm6, which are more or less engaged in this work : — Tinea vestianella,

108 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

tapeizeUa, jiellmieUa, Laverna sarci'ieUa, and Galleria viellonclla. Of the first we liave no particular history, except that it destroys garments in tlie summer ; but of the others Reaumur has given a complete one. T. tapetzeUa^ or the tapestry moth, not uncommon in our houses, is most injurious to the lining of carriages, which are more exposed to the air than tlie furniture of our apartments. These do not construct a movable habitation, like the common species, but, eating their way in the thickness of the cloth, weave themselves silken galleries in which they reside, and v/hich they render close and warm by covering them with some of the eroded wool. T. peJUoneUa is a most destructive insect ; and ladies have often to deplore the ravages which it commits in their valuable furs, whether made up into muffs or tippets. It pays no more respect to the regal ermine than to the woollen habiliments of the poor ; its proper food, indeed, being hair, though it devours both wool and fur. This species, if hard pressed by hunger, will even eat horse-hair, and make its habitation, a movable house or case in which it travels from place to place, in search of this untractable material. These little creatures will shave the hair from a skin as neatly and closely as if a razor had been employed. The most natural food of the next species, L. sarci'icUa, is wool ; but in case of necessity it will eat fur and hair. To woollen cloths or stuffs it often does incredible injury, especially if they are not kept clean and well aired. Of the devastation committed by Gnlleria mcllonella in our bee-hives 1 have before given you an account : to this I must here add, that if it cannot come at wax, it will content itself with woollen cloth, leather, or even paper. Mr. Curtis found tlie grub of a beetle {Ptinus fur) in an old coat, which it devoured, making holes and channels ; and another insect of the same order [Attatjenus pelUo), Linne tells us, will some- times entirely strip a fur garment of its hair. A small beetle of the Capricorn tribe {Callidnim pigmceuvi, Fabr) I have good reason to believe devours leather, since I have found it abundant in old shoes."

The sanitary bearings of the regulations in chapters xiii. and xiv. have not been sufficiently appreciated. Garments tainted in the way described would be positively injurious to the wearer, who, besides, was to regard himself as holy by the choice of a covenant-keeping God. Everything like impurity, even on the clothes of those whose bodies were to be presented to God as living sacrifices required to be put away. Dirt then, as now, led to disease. This was true in regard to the next kind of leprosy, as well as to the plague in the garment.

" The leprosy in the house." " When ye be come into the land of

LEVITICUS XIII., XIV. 109

Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession ; and he that ownoth the house shall come and tell the priest, saying, It scemeth to me there is as it were a plague in the house : then tlie priest shall command that they empty the house, before the priest go into it to see the plague, that all that is in the house be not made unclean ; and afterward the priest shall go in to see the house. And he shall look on the plague : and, behold, if the plague be in the walls of the house with hollow strakes, greenish or reddish, which in sight are lower than the wall ; then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut up the house seven days." Certain kinds of mould {miicor) fasten on damp walls, and assume just such appearances as those named here. But all the phases mentioned in this place may be seen in the walls of neglected stables, &c., where the conditions occur which lead to them. Whether the priest knew the cause or no, he was made the instrument of interfering with a condition of filth which would ultimately lead to pestilence itself. Let old mortar (liydrate of lime) be exposed to decay- ing animal refuse, exposed to the air, but sheltered from the rain, and an efflorescence appears on the surface, passing through all the appear- ances noted in this passage. This efflorescence is nitrate of potassa, or saltpetre. When it is noticed on walls, it may be concluded that refuse is at work tainting the place, which might lead to fever of some kind. These regulations thus tended at once to highest sanitary purposes.

" The law of the leper hi the day of his cleansing" is fully stated in chap. xiv. Verse 4 is the only other one that comes under our notice — " Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop." " Scarlet," see under Exod. xxv. 4 ; " hyssop," under 1 Kings iv. 33. It is not likely that the "cedar wood" named here was produced by the Lebanon species (Cedriis Libani), which was not known to have grown either in Egypt or in the desert in which this command was given. It is shown under 1 Chron. xiv. 1, that the name cedar, Heb. ezer^y Arab, arz, was frequently given to other species of cone-bearing trees besides the cedar of Lebanon. Indeed, the same mode of using the word exists amongst ourselves. We are in the habit of applying the term cedar to a species of juniper wood much used in commerce. But while this wood could only have been got by bringing it from a great distance, the Israelites could easily have obtained abundaiit supplies of fragrant wood from the junipers which still grow plentifully on the lower ranges of Sinai.

no

BIBLICAL NATUKAL SCIENCE.

LEVITICUS XVI. -XXII.

■\\'0 goats are specially mentioned in connection with the sin-oiTering — the "scape-goat" (dzdzel) and "the (live) goat" (sdhtr) — "And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the yin-offering which is for himself, and make an atonement • for himself, and for his house. And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats ; one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scape-goat. And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the Lord's lot fell, and ofter him for a sin-offering : but the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scape-goat, shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scape- goat into the wilderness" (ver. 0-10). Many fanciful interpretations have gathered round the word translated " scape-goat." It occurs only in this chapter (ver. 8, 10, 26). But the meaning is plain. The sins of the people are confessed over the goat ; they are in a figure laid on it, and borne away never more to be met with. In after ages the glorious view of grace set forth in this was brought out in different words ; but it was the same truth — " Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea" (Mic. vii. 19). The Lord laid on Jesus the iniquities of us all. He has borne them away. They will never more be remembered against us. The sin-bearer still lives. Resurrection comes after death. The (live) goat is thus introduced in a way to suggest that all the functions of life were continued in the goat which was spared. He is the sdhtr, or hairy one (ver. 9, 10, 15, 18, 20, 21, 22, 26, 27).

In many ways the sovereignty of God over the life is kept before the whole congregation of Israel. In every matter connected with slaying even the animals set apart for food, a constant recognition of this sove- reignty was demanded — " What man soever there be of the house of Israel that killeth an ox, or lamb, or goat, in the camp, or that killeth it out of the camp, and bringeth it not unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer an offering unto the Lord before the taber- nacle of the Lord, blood shall be imputed unto that man ; he hath shed

LEVITICUS XVI.-XXII. Ill

blood ; and that man sliall be cut off from among his people ; to tlie end that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices wliich they offer in the open field, even that they may bring them unto the Lord, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest^ and offer them for peace-offerings unto the Lord " (xvii. 3-5). Even the wild huntsman was to be arrested in his haste to gratify his appetite when out in the field — " And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten ; he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust. For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh : for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof; whosoever eateth it shall be cut off" (ver. 13-14). Great cruelties were apt to characterize all who lived the lives of men in situations like those described. No doubt they were common among the heathen from whom Israel was to sepa- rate. Even in recent times practices have been known to prevail in some countries, wliich those verses, along with other ends, may have been designed to rebuke in all time. An apt illustration of these occurs in Bruce's " Travels in Abyssinia :" — " Not long after our losing sight of the ruins of this ancient capital of Abyssinia, we overtook three travellers driving a cow before them. They had black goat-skins upon their shoulders, and lances and shields in their hands ; in other respects they were but thinly clothed ; they appeared to be soldiers. The cow did not seem to be fattened for killing, and it occurred to us all that it had been stolen. This, however, was not our business, nor was such an occurrence at all remarkable in a country so long engaged in war. We saw that our attendants attached themselves in a particular manner to the three soldiers that were driving the cow, and held a short con- versation with them. Soon after, we arrived at the hithermost bank of the river, where I thought we were to pitch our tent : the drivers sud- denly tripped up the cow, and gave the poor animal a very rude fall upon the ground, which was but the beginning of her sufi'erings. One of them sat across her neck, holding down her head by the horns, the other twisted the halter about her fore-feet, while the third, who had a knife in his hand, to my great surprise, in place of taking her by the throat, got astride of her before her hind-legs, and gave her a very deep wound in the upper part of the buttock. From the time I had seen them throw the beast on the ground, I had rejoiced, thinking that when three people were killing a cow, they must have agreed to sell part of

112 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

her to us ; and I was mueli disappointed upon hearing the Abyssinians say that we were to pass the river to the other side, and not encamp wliere I intended. Upon my proposing tliat they should bargain ibr part of tlie cow, my men answered, what they had already learned in conversation, that they were not then to kill her, that she was not wholly theirs, and they could not sell her. This awakened iny curio- sity ; I let my people go forward, and stayed myself till I saw, with the utmost astonishment, two pieces, thicker and longer than our ordinary beef-steaks, cut out of the higher part of the buttock of the beast : how it was done I cannot positively say, because, judging the cow was to be killed, from the moment I saw the knife drawn, I was not anxious to view that catastrophe, which was by no means an object of curiosity. Whatever way it was done, it surely was adroitly, and the two pieces were spread upon the outside of one of their shields. One of them still continued holding the head, while the other two were busy in curing the wound. This, too, was done not in an ordinary manner. The skin which had covered the flesh which was taken away was left entire, aud flapped over the wound, and was fastened to the corresponding part by two or more small pins or skewers." See also under Gen. ix. 4. This view of the prohibition is also countenanced by the opening of chapter xviii. : — " The Lord spake unto Moses, saying. Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the Lord your God. After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do ; and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do ; neither shall ye walk in their ordinances."

Watchful over the life of his creatures, the Lord reveals himself as equally so over the purity of individual species, not of man only, but of beasts also, and even of plants. He shows his wish to maintain that order and harmony of nature which at first he rejoiced over as " very good." See ver. 22-26, and xix. 19.

" Bullock," xxii. 23, 27— see under Num. xxii. 4.

LEVITICUS xxiii.-xxvir.

113

LEVITICUS XXIII. -XXVII.

HE tenth day of the seventh moiitli, Etltanini or Tisri, answering to our October, was to be entirely devoted to the Lord as " the day of atonement " — a day of bringing sin vividly to remembrance — a day of sorrow for sin, and of deep contrition before God. " It shall be an holy con- vocation unto you ; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord. And ye shall do no work in that same day ; for it is a day of atonement, to make an atonement for you before the Lord your God" (ver. 27, 28). But a season of gladness was soon to follow. The joy of the feast of taber- nacles was to tread closely on the heels of the sorrow of the day of atonement. " Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days : on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath. And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm-trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook ; and ye shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days " (ver. 39, 40). Great memories were to be associated with this feast — memories of the grace of a covenant God in putting away the guilt of sin, and of his rich goodness towards their lathers, when he dwelt among the tents raised by them in the wilder- ness. " Ye shall dwell in booths seven days ; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths ; that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt : I am the Lord your God " (ver. 42, 43).

Goodly boughs were to be used. The later Jews limit this to the citron {Citrus meJicus), but the branches of any other kind of trees found convenient in the circumstances in which the people might be placed, were to be used. Some of these are mentioned, as the palm- trees (see under Exod. xv. 2) and the willows (see Is. xliv. 4).

Israel still attempts to revive the gladness of tabernacle time, but in vain. The booths have for ever passed away. They served their day, as pointing to joy in the full manifestation of that " true tabernacle which God pitched" (Heb. viii. 2). Yet few things in the history of

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that people, still beloved for their fathers' sake, are more interesting tlian their clinging to these feasis appointed by the Lord in olden times. Whenever a season of special social blessing has been vouch- safed to them, they have felt as if the presence of the God of Abraham was specially among them, and, with Peter, have been forward to say, " Let us build tabernacles." Our own land has more than once witnessed the fruit of this feeling. One curious illustration occurred in the time of Cromwell. He permitted the Jews to settle in London, to build synagogues, and to practise the rites of their faith. When this became known, Jews from the Continent and from different parts of Britain gathered together in the seventh month, and celebrated the feast of Tabernacles among the willows on the borders of the Thames. This was the last public celebration of the feast in Britain.

" Every goodly tree furnishes its boughs for the occasion. The -palm — so specially used in after days to be a token of triumph, and a symbol of Judah's laud — the po/wi is first mentioned. Besides, it is the tree that had oftenest shelteied them in the wilderness, e.g., at Elim, being one of those that grow even in the sandy deserts. Then, tlie ' branches of thich trees,' or, of ' hushrj thick-twisted trees,' such as tlie myrtle — thus plucking some boughs from the lower thickets as well as from the lofty palms. In Neh. viii. 15, the myrtle is noticed by name. Next, ' the ta'llow' from the river side, hanging its boughs over the brooks of water, as if to shade them for Israel's sake from the sporching heat. There were also ^tJie olive and the 2nne' (Neh. viii. 15), the former representing the species that served for Israel's domestic uses, and the latter those that supplied public necessities ; the one yielding its olives, the other its massy beams. All these, and any other such (' any of the pine trees then in bloom,' says Rosenniiiller) were used on this joyful occasion. The booths so formed exhibited the scene of a world clad in rich, luxuriant verdure; men dwelling in peace, and sending up songs of praise amid every token of fresh and lively joy. Some have supposed that they see more still, as they gaze on these booths of every bough ; they think they see the love of the God of Jeshurun pictured forth as being noble and lofty in its bearing, like the pine or cedar ; fragrant and sweet as the myrtle ; triumphant over all obstacle^, like the palm; full of richness, like the olive; and like the tcilloic of the brook, it bends over the children of men, and over his own Israel above all, in lowly condescension. But, at all events, this is implied in the scene taken as a whole." — {A. Bonar.)

The law of retaliation is stated in chap. xxiv. 17-26. The circum-

LEVITICUS XXIII.-XXYII. 115

stances in which Israel was to be for many generations demanded that tlie relation of man to man should be clearly dellned. The man of violence would be forced to curb bis strong propensities, by remember- ing, that as he should do, it would be done to him again. " And he that killetli any man shall surely be put to death. And he tliat killeth a beast shall make it good; beast for beast. And if a man cause a blemish in his neighbour ; as he hath done, so shall it be done to him ; breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth ; as he hath caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again. And he that killeth a beast he shall restore it ; and he that killeth a man, he shall be put to death." It was still a time of bondage to the church. An end was to be put to all this when the eyes of God's people were to be tui'ned to him " who, when he was reviled, reviled not again ; when he suffered, he threatened not."

Besides the deep spiritual significance of the year of jubilee, com- manded in chap. xxv. 1-7, its bearings on the fruitfuluess of the land would be most important. " Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit tliereof ; But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord ; thou shalt neither sow thy fiekl, nor prune thy vineyard. That which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt not reap, neither gather the grapes of thy vine undressed : for it is a year of rest unto the land. And the sabbath of the land shall be meat for you ; for thee, and for thy servant, and for thy maid, and for thy hired servant, and for thy stranger that sojourneth with thee." The return of the ungathered crops of one year would, in a great mea- sure, restore those elements of fruitfulness which during the preceding years had been taken from it, for the food of man. " Image of stone" (xxvi. 1) — see under Prov. xxv. 2.

" If ye shall walk in my statutes and keep my commandments, and do them, then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. And your thrashing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage sliall reach unto the sowing time ; and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. And I will give peace in the land,, and ye shall lie down and none shall make you afraid ; and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land", (ver. 6-8). But if not, judgment was to come instead of blessing. The conditions continue in force still, but the nations " forget God."

"Barley seed," chap, xxvii. 16 — see under Num. v. I,').

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BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

NUMBERS IV. -VI.

ND they shall put thereon the covering of badgers' sidns, and shall spread over it a clotli wholly of blue, and shall put in the staves thereof. And upon the table of shew-bread they shall jiAiSiJ^I spread a cloth of blue, and put thereon the dishes, and the spoons, and the bowls, and covers to cover withal : and the continual bread shall be thereon. And they sliall spread upon tliem a cloth of scarlet, and cover the same with a covering of badgers' skins, and shall put in the staves thereof. And tlicy shall take a cloth of blue, and cover the candlestick of the light, and his lamps, and his tongs, and his snuff-dishes, and all the oil vessels thereof, wherewith they minister unto it " (ver. 6-9). " Cloth of scarlet" — see under Exod xxv. i.

" Blue," Heb. ttkcleth. The word occurs above tliirty times in Exodus, six times in Numbers, and nine times in other books. The colour named here was duller than the bright purple. " Violet" would be a more correct rendering. It was an animal dye, obtained by the ancients from a well known mollusc, lanthina communis, one of the family Ianthiinda\ or Violet Snails. Joscphus gives a fanciful " cxplt^- nation" of this colour and of others highly esteemed. He says — "The purple signified the sea, because that colour is dyed by the blood of a sea shell-fish ; the blue is fit to signify the air ; and the scarlet will naturally be an indication of fire" (Antiq. b. iii. c. vii. 7). The riband and fringe of the Hebrew memorial dress was to be of this colour. " Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments, throughout their generations,, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a riband of blue ; and it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the Lord, and do them ; and that ye seek not after your own heart, and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring : that ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God " (chap. xv. 38). It is mentioned in Esther i. G as the colour of some of the hangings of " the court of the garden of the king's palace; where were white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of

NKMBERS I v.- VI. 117

marble; the beds Avere of gold and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, and black marble." The idols of Babylon — "the stock a doctrine of vanities " — are described in Jer. x. 9 as clothed in blue garments — " Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing; they are all the work of cunning men. But the Lord is the true Go<l, he is the living God, and an everlasting King : at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation." In Ezek. xxiii. 6, Samaria is charged with " doting on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours, which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses." And in verse 12, such garments are styled " most gorgeous clothing."

The provision made in chapter v. for tlie maintenance of complete and cordial confidence between parties in the married state, is peculiarly striking. In this as in every other respect, the Lord wished to show the true type of the well ordered and trustful Christian household. The woman might sin, but she might also be perfectly pure and chaste, and yet be suspected of incontinence and infidelity by her husband. Thus the arrangement in " the trial of jealousy." The offering appointed for the man fo make in the name of his wife, in such a case, was "the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal" (ver. 15). A curious illustration of the association of barley with ideas of chastity occurs in Herodotus. In his account of the Hyperboreans, he repre- sents their women as sending gifts to Delos, wrapped in barley straw. Virgins had been employed originally to carry the gifts ; but as some of these died by the way, the inhabitants of the extreme north bound their offerings up in the straw of the plant emblematic of chastity, and had them carried by the intervening nations from the north to Delos. " Brouglit from the Hyperboreans, they came to the Scythians ; and from the Scythians each contiguous nation receiving them in succession, carried them to the extreme west as fiir as the Adriatic ; that beine: forwarded thence towards the south, the Dodon;vans, the first of the Greeks, received them ; that from them they descended to the Maliac Gulf, and passed over into Euboea, and that one city sent them on to another as ftvr as Carystus ; that after this Andros was passed by, for the Carystians conveyed them to Tenos, and the Tenians to Delos ; in this manner they say these sacred things reached Delos." The women of Thrace likewise offered gifts of barley straw to Royal Diana, the goddess of the chaste. Had the Divine arrangement referred to in this

118 lilKMCAl- XATL'liAL SCIENCK

passage been suggested to the Gentiles by the Jews in their intercourse with neighbouring nations ? Tliis may have l)een so, but it is more likely tliat barley became associated with such thoughts from tlie threatening aspect of its awns {arista). They stand out as guarding the grain, and as saying to all "touch not." Tluis "the chaste conver- sation coupled with fear," and thus the "ornanient of a meek and quiet spirit" (1 Pet. iii. 3, 4), which should characterize the Christian wife and maiden, will ever rebuke the vile and the impure — see under Ruth i. 22, ii. 4 ; Ezek. iv. 12 ; and John vi. 9.

A distinction is made in chap. vi. ver. 3, between wine and strong drink, and between vinegar of wine and vinegar of strong drink. Abstinence from all of these beverages formed part of the " vow of a Nazarite." " He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried." Both kinds of vinegar are explained under Prov. x. 26 ; Matt, xxvii. 34, 48 ; Mark xv. 23. Strong drink is named sJiechur in the OKI Testament Scriptures from the word sluicliar to be drunken. In the New Testajnent it is only once mentioned, but the name siL'cra clearly shows that the ancient beverage is referred to. An examination of the passages in wldch the word occurs leads to the following conclusions: — 1. It was, as is shown in the verse under notice, to be abstained from by those under special religious vows. Tliis is illustrated in the case of the Baptist. He was not to drink wine (paws) nor strong drink (sikera) — "for he shall be great in the sight of the Lord ; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb" (Luke i. 15). When the promise of a child was given by the angel to Manoah and his wife, it was accompanied by the command, expressed thrice, that, as the child was to be a Nazarite from the womb, Samson's mother was not to touch this liquor (Judg. xiii. 4, 7, 15). 2. Shechdr was permitted to the people as a beverage. It is even implied, that the priests might partake of it when not about to enter upon purely reli- gious duties (Levit. x. 9). The people were allowed to use it, as they were allowed to eat flesh — " And thou shall bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth ; and tliou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God" (Deut. xiv. 20). It is named along with bread as one of the articles in common use, for the want of which God miraculously made up in the wilderness — " Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink ; that ye might know that I

am the Lord your God" (Deut. xxix. 6). 3. In the people's departure from the belief, that God's lavish goodness affords to man an opportunity of practising temperance and sobriety in all things, they set their lusts upon what was permissively given to them, and abused God's gifts and their own bodies likewise. One of the prophets gives us a glimpse into the dissolute habits of many in his day. He says — " If a man, walking in the spirit and falsehood, do lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink ; he shall even be the prophet of this people" (Micah ii. 11). And even at a period so early as that of Eli's priest- hood, the women of Israel appear to have sometimes taken shechar to excess. Thus the suspicion which Eli entertained of Hannah. " Eli thought she had been drunken. And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken ? And Hannah answered and said. No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit ; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord" (1 Sara. i. 13-15). In the time of David " the drinkers of strong drink," for such is the literal meaning of the word " drunkard" as used by the psalmist, made a butt and jest of the good — " They that sit in the gate speak against jj me ; and I was the song of the drunkards " (Ps. Ixix. 12). No douljt this part of the prophecy was as completely fulfilled in the experience of our Lord, as were the words of verse 21, of the same psalm — "They '

gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." The intoxicating character of the shechar used in the time of Solomon is acknowledged in the words — " Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise" (Prov. XX. i ; xxxi. 4, 6). The terrible descriptions of Isaiah when he notices strong drink, show that shechar in his time had the same qualities — " Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink ; that continue until night, till wine inflame tliem!" (Isa. v. 11, 22; xxiv. 9; xxviii. 7; xxix. 9; Ivi. 12.) 4. Among the offerings of the sanctuary, a drink-offering of shechar is mentioned under the name of "strong wine:" — "And the drink-offering thereof shall be the fourth part of an bin for the one lamb ; in the holy place shalt thou cause the strong wine to be poured unto the Lord for a drink- offering" (Num. xxviii. 7). From the context, the passage last quoted appears more general than any of the others referred to. It no doubt includes, under the terms " strong wine," liquor of any sort devoted to this purpose except the juice of the grape. The substances from which " strong wine " was obtained are noticed under Isa. xxviii. 7.

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NUMBERS XI.

SPIRIT of habitual nuinuuring took possession of tlie people. In the literal sense of verse first, " they were as complainers, and it was evil in the ears of the Lord." The consequence was the manifestation of the fierce anger of Jehovah against them. " The fire of the Lord burnt among them." Moses prayed and the Lord liearkened ; " the fire was quenclied." The transaction was commemorated by the name given by the leader to the place — " He called it Taberah, or burning, because the fire of the Lord burnt among them." But the lesson was soon forgotten. They had those among them whose example was a constant tempta- tion away from God : — " And the mixed multitude that was among them fell a lusting ; and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, AVho shall give us flesh to oat ? We remember the fish which we did cat in Egypt freely ; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick ; but now our soul is dried away ; there is nothing at all, besides this manna, before our eyes" (ver. 4-6). An incidental allusion of Herodotus to an inscription on the great pyramid of Cheops, supplies a good illustration of this passage. It shows the love of the Egyptians for the vegetables mentioned here. It afibrds also an interesting proof of the very early use of iron among the people — see under Gen. iv. 22. " Twenty years were spent in erecting the pyramid itself: of this, which is square, each face is eight plethrn, and the height is the same ; it is composed of polished stones, and jointed with the greatest exactness ; none of the stones are less than thirty feet. This pyramid was built thus ; in the form of steps, which some call " cross;\j," others " bomides." When they had first built it in this manner, they raised the remaining stones by machines made of short pieces of wood. Having lifted them from the ground to the first range of steps, when the stone arrived there, it was put on another machine that stood ready on the first range ; and from this it was drawn to the second range on another machine, for the machines were equal in number to the ranges of steps ; or they removed the machine, which was only one, and portable, to each range in succession, whenever they wished to raise the stone higher ; for I should relate it in both ways, as

NUJIBI'.KS X[.

121

Kig. 52.

it is related. The highest parts of it, therefore, were first finished, and afterwards they completed the parts next following ; but last of all they finished the parts on the ground, and that were lowest. On the pyramid is shown au inscription, in Egyptian characters, how much was expended in radishes, onions, and garlic, for the workmen ; which the interpreter, as I well remember, reading the inscription, told me amounted to one thousand six hundred talents of silver. And if this be really the case, how much more was probably expended in iron tools, in bread, and in clothes for the labourers, since they occupied in build- ing the works the time which I mentioned, and no short time besides, as I think, in cutting and drawing the stones, and in forming the subter- raneous excavation." — (Herodotus, b. ii. 1247-125.) At the head of the list of vegetables for which the people lusted stands the " cucumber." The word used here differs from that translated cucumbers in Isa. i. 8 — which see. In the latter passage we have the Hebrew mi'kshah, " a garden of cucumbers," in the former kislioim. It was and is still a vegetable much cultivated and highly prized in Egypt. The common cucumber [Gucumis sati- vus), belongs to the natural order Cucurbi'tacea', or Gourd family. Be- sides this species there is another, the Gucumis chate of Linnaus, which is even more highly esteemed for its cool, refreshing, and generally deli- cious qualities.

" Melons," Heb. avattachlm, whose cool and juicy fruit was one of the luxuries enjoyed by the Israelites in the valley of the Nile, are next mentioned as specially missed by them in the Arabian desert. The common melon {Gucumis melo) may have been much used by the Israelites ; but as several other species, and especially the water melon ((7. citruUus), are still highly esteemed by the people, it is better to attach a generic signification to the Hebrew name and let it include all, than to attempt to limit it to any one species. If a specific meaning is to be put on the word, the water melon has stronger claims to be identified with the fruit named here than any

Cucumber {Cueumis tativus).

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other. In certain districts of Palestine they are as plentiful as in Egypt. " Em Khalid,'' says Dr. Thomson, " is famous for water melons beyond almost any village in Palestine, and vast quantities are taken by boats to Beirut, and other towns along the coast. Are these melons the ahattachim of Egypt, the remembrance of which augmented the murmurs of the Israelites in the wilderness? In all probability the same. The Arabic name butteekh is only a variation of the Hebrew, and nothing could be more regretted in the burning desert than these delicious melons, whose exuberant juice is so refreshing to the thirsty pilgrim. It is among the most extraordinary eccentricities of the vegetable kingdom, that these melons, so large and so full of water, should flourish best on such soil as this around Em KhrUid. Into this dry sand the vine thrusts its short root, and that in the hottest season of the year. Yet a thousand boat-loads of this most juicy melon are gathered from these sand heaps for market every summer. The leaves themselves must have the power of absorbing moisture from the heavy dews of the night,"

" Leeks," Heb. hhatzh: The common leek {Allium porrum) belongs to the natural order Liliaceoe, or Lily family. It is indigenous in Egypt and in other countries on the borders of the Mediterranean. In the valley of the Nile the climate and soil are peculiarly well suited to its growth. It is still a favourite article of diet among the peasantry of

Egypt. _

" Onions," Heb. betzel, belong to the same natural order. The common onion [A. cepa) abounds on the shores of the Great Sea also. It is much esteemed in southern climes, and is introduced into almost all kinds of cooked food.

" Garlick," Heb. shim, is ranked with the leek and the onion, under the same genus of liliaceous plants, as common or edible garlick [A. Ascalom'cum). The remarks made on these vegetables are equally appropriate here.

The people loathed the food which was both the type and the pledge of their standing as a covenant people. " There is nothing at all beside this manna before our eyes." They stood in the midst of miracles. The plagues of Egypt, the passage of the Red Sea, the pillar of cloud and of fire, and the " bread from heaven," all bore witness to Jehovah's miraculous interferences in their behalf But in their case, as afterwards in the case of their descendants at the time when the Son of God appeared on the earth, the powerlessness of mere miracles in nature to affect the heart and unite it for ever to the omul-

NUMBERS XI. 123

potent worker, was strikingly shown. Even witli the "angels' food" before them, tlieir hearts revolted from Him who had sent it. The inward working alone of the Spirit of God on the soul of man can unite it, lovingly and lastingly, to Him as our Father in heaven. If impressions resulting from ol)served miraculous action stand alone, they can only overlie our spiritual nature, and tlieir practical influence will be little, if anything at all. But, in the work of the Holy Ghost, the manifestations of the mind and heart of God in his word are woven, as it were, into our souls, pervade them in a rational way, and become part of our mental constitution.

If, then, even Israel, when in contact with the miracles, failed to be rightly influenced by them, and soon forgot the evidences of the pre- sence of the Almighty and All-sufficient One, it is not to be wondered that many who look at these miracles from the historical point of view alone, should fall far below Israel's degradation as to this, and boldly question the possibility of miracles altogether. This has often been, and even still is, done. The form in which it meets us is that of attempts to explain the wonder by the operation of common and con- stant natural causes. The manna, say such men, was simply an exuda- tion from a shrub indigenous in the wilderness through which the Hebrew people were led !

Two plants have been chiefly named in connection with this ration- alistic theory. One of these, the Alhagi, camel's thorn, or Judsean manna (31. Ilehraica), abounds in the Siuaitic desert, of which it is a native. It is also common in the Egyptian desert. In summer the so-called manna exudes in small drops from its leaves and falls to the ground. A highly imaginative person only, and one wholly unac- quainted both with the shrub and the exudation, could propose this plant as equal to the maintenance of two millions of people for forty years in the wilderness.

The other manna-yielding tree which, more than the camel's thorn, has been mentioned in explanation of this passage, is the tamarisk or tarfa tree [Tamarix cjaUica, var. mnnnifera), a native of the eastern deserts. Josephus first gave currency to this supposition. In the account of the incident (Antiq. iii. 16), he says — " As Moses was lifting up his hands in prayer, a dew fell down ; and Moses, when he found it stick to his hands, su])posed this was also come for food from God to them : he tasted it ; and perceiving that the people knew not what it was, and thought it snowed, and that it was what usually fell at that time of year, he informed them that this dew did not fill from heaven

124

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after the manner they imagined, but came for thoir preservation and

sustenance Even now, in all that place, this manna comes

down as rain." This feeble foundation has had a great superstructure reared on it, by writers who hold that there are no mysteries in God's ways with man, and no true miracles recorded in the history of those ways. The exudation is caused by the puncture of an insect {Coccus maniparus). The puncture is made iu the tender branches and twigs, and from this the saccharine matter known as manna flows at irregular periods. Sometimes over a wide area no exudation takes jjlace for a

Fig. 53.

Camel's Thoni (,Alhagi mnurorum).

period of four or five years. This is not to be confounded with the manna of commerce, a substance 3-ielded by one of the Oleacece — the ornus, or manna ash, which contains the principle known to chemists as manm'te. The exudation of the tamarisk is sugar ; it does not con- tain mannite.

The monks of St. Katherin, on Sinai, gather the manna of the tamarisk and sell it at a high price to Europeans as the veritable food on which Israel fed for forty years in the wilderness ! " It is found in shining drops on the twigs and branches. What falls upon the sand is

NUMBERS XI. 125

said not to be gathered. It has the appearance of gum, is of a sweetish taste, and melts when exposed to the sun or to the fire. The Arabs consider it as a great delicacy, and the pilgrims prize it highly." A recent traveller in the Desert of Sinai gives twelve reasons to show the impossibility of the exudation from the tamarisk answering the requirements of the text of Scripture. The following is a summary of these : — " 1. The tarfa exudes only small quantities of what is called manna. The Arabs could not exist upon it for a week. 2. The tarfa only exudes at certain seasons, March and April (Seetzen says June). When we passed through the desert there were no exudations. Every branch was bare and dry. Israel required manna constantly, in all seasons. 3. The tarfa does not yield its exuda- tions regularly, even once a year. Israel was fed for forty years upon the manna. 4. The exudations of the tarfa come out from the branches of the tree, they do not come do7vn from the air or sky. But Israel's manna is several times over said to fall from heaven. 5. The tarfa exudations are in composition and consistency somewhat like honey. They are quite unfit for grinding, or pounding, or baking, or boiling. G. The taste of the ancient manna was ' as the taste of fresh oil' (Num. xi. 8). No one who has tasted the tarfa-manna would compare it to oil. 7. The tarfa-manna does not stink nor breed worms in a single night. 8. The ancient manna evaporated as soon as the sun rose (Exod. xvi. 21). The tarfa produce does not evaporate. 9. The tarfa-manna does not fall in double quantity on Fridays, and cease to fall entirely on Saturday. This, however, was the case with the ancient manna (Exod. xvi. 29). 10. The tarfa-manna is medicine, not food. No Arab would think of feeding on it. It is, moreover, pur- gative. 11. The ancient manna was a thing quite unknown to the Israelites (Deut. viii. 3). The mixed multitude that came out of Egypt with them knew the tarfa well, for it is an Egyptian tree, and must often have tasted its manna. Nay, every Israelite in the camp knew the tarfa as well as he knew a palm, and had tasted tarfa-manna as often as he had done a date. 12. It is an established physiological fact that no one can feed long on one single substance with impunitv. If Israel had lived upon tlie manna of the tarfa-tree, two miracles would have been necessary — one to render the tarfas about ten thousand times more productive than they arc (and this all the year through), and then another to keep the children of Israel in bodily health while living on that one article." — {Bonar.)

The manna satisfied them for a short season only. God had given

12G BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

tliem bread from heaven fit for the nourishment of every part of their bodies. But this was not enough. They histed for flesh ; they were like rebellious children — " Moses heard the people weep throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent" (ver. 10). This led to a passionate burst of feeling on the part of Moses, and to another signal illustration of the forbearance of God — " Then Moses heard the people weep throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent : and the anger of the Lord was kindled greatly ; Moses also was displeased. And Moses said unto the Lord, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant? and wherefore have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of all this people upon me ? Have I conceived all this people? have I begotten them, that thou shouldest say unto me, Carry them in thy bosom (as a nursing-father beareth the sucking child) unto the land which thou swarest unto their fathers? Whence should I have flesh to give unto all this people ? for they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat. I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me. And if thou deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in thy sight ; and let me not see my wretchedness" (ver. 10-15). The message from God came — " The Lord will give you flesh" (ver. 18). " And there went forth a wind from the Lord, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day's journey on this side, and as it were a day's journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth. And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails : he that gathered least gathered ten homers ; and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp" (ver. 31, 32). Not the least interesting fact in this narrative, is the direct revival of true religious feeling in connection with the circumstances set down here. It will be noticed, that this did not come as a fruit of the miraculous power seen in the gift of the manna, but as the effect of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit of God. By this the seventy elders were raised to such views of their duty, and of the glory of God, as Moses himself had. The effects of this soon spread. Two of the men in the camp began to discourse on the ways of God, at a distance from tlie authorized place. A gleam of that liberty which was to shine fully and brightly out only when tabernacle and temple were to be superseded by the coming of Him to whom all pointed, broke on the people while they still lingered at a short distance from the very shadow of Sinai itself.

NUMBERS XI.

127

Fig. W.

" Quail," Heb. seldv, is no doubt the common species of the bird so named (Coturm'x dactylisonans) . This species is abundant on the north, the east, and the south coast of Africa, in Syria, and in the cultivated parts of Arabia. This bird is migratory. It passes from south to north late in spring, and returns south in the begiiuiing of winter. Its migrations seem to be determined more by cir- cumstances connected with food than • with climate. The people were now a station distant from Hazeroth, the modern Wady-el-Hadharah, three or four days' march, in a direction north- east, from Sinai. They were still be- tween the horns of the Red Sea, Bahr Suweis and Bahr-Akabah, the ancient Heroopolitan and Elanitic Gulfs. Tak- ing the season as that of the periodic migration of the quails, the direct agency of God in bringing them is stated in the words, " There went forth

as«W-:-\>^'^

Common Quail ^Coturnix daciylisonans).

wind from the Lord, and brought quails from the sea." Tlie fxvourite haunts of this bird are always in the neighbourhood of cultivated lands. At the season referred to, it is not at all likely they would abound in the localities through which the Israelites were now passing. They are indeed named by some travellers in the desert of Sinai, but the references are very unsatisfactory. On January 24, Dr. Bonar, describing the Wady Mukatteb, says — " Flocks of pigeon-looking birds, which we are told are quails, occasionally met us." But neither in form nor in flight is there the slightest resemblance between the quail and the pigeon. Like many other birds of passage, they perform their flight by night, or very early in the morning, and rest during the day for feeding.

The description of the way in which they were brought, when read in the light of their habits, is full of interest. If the sea named here was the Egyptian arm, Bahr Suweis, they were passing from the south- east of Africa northward, and when opposite the place in which Israel was encamped the strong west wind " from the Lord" met them, and left them wearied around the camps, just as they are often found still at the time of their migration on the northern shores of the Mediter- ranean. Or if the sea was the Arabian arm, Bahr-Akabah, they were on their way from the south of Arabia to favoured haunts farther north,

128 UUiLlCAL NATUUAL SCIENCE.

when another wind, the east, met them and drove them to Kibrotli- liattaavali.

Hasselquist, Kitto, and some others, believe that tlie bird referred to here was a species of sand grouse {Pterodes), and not a quail — the Pterocles aldiata of modern zoologists, the Tetrao alchata, Linn., and T. Israelitarum, Hasselq. But in addition to other objections which miglit be urged against this, the name which tlic Arabs give to the quail, sekiio, may be held to settle the matter.

Dr. Stanley on this passage gives currency to the very unsatisfactory explanation of the Rev. C. Foster (" Voice of Sinai") that the measure refers to tlie size of the birds, which he takes to be red-legged cranes. He says — "In connection with this incident of the 'quails,' may be mentioned the fact, that on the evening and the morning of our encampment, immediately before reaching the Wady Huderah, the sky was literally darkened by the flight of innumerable birds, which proved to be the same large red-legged cranes, three feet high, with black and white wings, measuring seven feet from tip to tip, which we had seen in like numbers at the first cataract of the Nile. It is remark- able that a similar flight was seen by Schubert near the very same spot. That any large flights of birds should be seen in those parts, at any rate illustrates the Scripture narrative. But if a recent explanation of the difficult passage in Num. xi. 31 be correct, and the expression " two cubits high upon the face of the earth" be applied, not to the accumu- lation of the mass, but to the size of the individual birds ; the flight of cranes, such as we saw, may be not merely an illustration, but an instance, of the incident recorded in the Pentateuch, and the frequency of the phenomenon in this locality may serve to show that Kibroth- Hattaavah, and Huderah were not far distant."

" They spread the quails all abroad for themselves round the camp." Having gathered them, they prepared them for food. Stripped and " drawn," they were laid on the hot sands and "the bare rocks to dry, after a fashion still prevalent in warm climates. The quail is reckoned with the grouse {Tetrao), and partridge {Perch'x) under the family Tetra- onidce — see under 1 Sam. xxvi. 20.

NUMBEUS XIII.-XVIII.

129

NUMBERS XIII.-XVIII.

HE tents of Israel having been pitched in the " wiUlerness of Paran" (ver. 3), "the Lord spake unto iloses, saying, Send thou men tliat they may search the land of Canaan, wliicli I give unto the children of Israel : of every tribe • of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among you" (ver. 2). " And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, get you up this way south- ward, and go up into the mountain ; and see the laud, what it is ; and the people that dwelletli therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many ; and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad ; and what cities they be that they dwell in whether in tents, or in strong holds ; and what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein, or not ; and be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. (Now the time was the time of the first-ripe grapes.) So they went up, and searched the land, from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath. And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron ; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs. The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence. And they returned from searching of the land after forty days. And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilder- ness of Paran, to Kadesh ; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land" (ver. 18-26). Tiie subjects which claim notice here are — (1) The point from which they were sent to search out the land, " the wilderness of Paran." It appears from verse 2C that Kadesh was in this tract, Kadesh again (xxxiii. 3G) stood in the wilderness of Zin. The region lies on the south of Palestine. In its widest sense it reaches to the

range of Seir on the east, and to the desert of Shur on the west, VOL. n. R

130 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCR.

including thus el-Glior, el-Arabah, the desert of Sin, and a wild tract to the west. It is not to be confounded with Feiran or Faran in the peninsula of Sinai. (2) " The land of Canaan." This expression answers to our name " Lowlands." It was given originally to the plains of Palestine. In chap. xxi. 31, that tract of the country is named the "land of the Ainoritcs." In 1 Sam. xiii. it is called the " land of Israel," and ultimately it became known as the " land of Judah" (Isa. xix. 17) or Judpea. Its boundaries and iidiabitants are pointed out under chapter xxxiv. (3) The season at which the spies were sent out. " The time was the time of the first-ripe grapes." The grapes in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem begin to ripen in the end of June. The first ripe clusters are gathered in the beginning of July. Among the natural productions for which Canaan was noted, "vines" are mentioned in Deut. viii. 8. When the spies reached the valley of Eshcol, they found the vines loaded with the blushing clusters, and brought back a magnificent bunch as a specimen. Some of the clusters still met with by travellers weigh from ten to twelve pounds. The grapes of Palestine appear to have been red. Thus the expres- sions in the blessing of Judah — " binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine ; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes" (Gen. xlix. 2).

" Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt in the valley," xiv. 25^see under 1 Chron. iv. 43.

We have an illustration in the story of Korah, Dathan, and Abirani, of God's sovereignty over those giant forces, whose manifestations are seen in the earthquake, which periodically cause ruin and wide-spread misery in a land. The "gainsaying of Core " is permitted at a time when volcanic forces, which still occasionally become active in Palestine, were about to disturb the surface of the earth. They rebel, and the earth at the bidding of Jehovah opens and engulfs them. " If the Lord make a new thing, and the earth open her mouth, and swallow thein up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down quick into the pit ; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the Lord. And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave asunder that was under them : and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that a]ipertained unto Korah, and all their goods" (xvi. 30-35).

The earthquake had been made God's servant in the judgment against Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. " The ground clave asunder that was under them." " All that appertained to them, went down

NUMBERS XIII.-XVIII. 131

alive into the pit, and the earth closed upon them." Overawed for a season, the congregation of Israel soon broke out again in rebellion. The spirit of murmuring took possession of them. They said to Moses and Aaron — " Ye have killed the people of the Lord." Thereupon the Lord threatened to destroy them. The work of destruction began. " Wrath went out from the Lord." A terrible plague broke out in the camp, and Moses hastened Aaron to make " an atonement for the people." "Aaron stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed" (chap. xvi. 27, 32, 33, 41, 45, 46, 48). In his long-suffering, God gave another proof of his presence with Moses and Aaron, and of his use of them as his servants. Twelve rods were to be prepared, one for each tribe. The names of the leaders of the tribe were to be written on the rods. Aaron's name was to be written on the rod of the tribe of Levi. " It shall come to pass that the man's rod, whom I shall choose, shall blossom ; and I will make to cease from me the murmurings of the children of Israel, whereby they murmur against you" (xvii. 5). The twelve rods were laid up " before the Lord in the tabernacle of witness." " And it came to pass, that on the morrow Moses went into the tabernacle of witness ; and, behold, the rod of Aaron, for the house of Levi, was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds. And Moses brought out all the rods from before tlie Lord unto all the children of Israel; and they looked, and took every man his rod" (ver. 8, 9). " Almond," Heb. shakcid, the fruit of the common almond-tree (Ami/f/- dahis communis) — see under Gen. xliii. 11 ; Eccl. xii. 5; and Jer. i. 11. The miracle recorded here is not lessened by the fact of the well known habits of the almond-tree. " This was miraculous rapidity certainly ; but a rod was selected for the purpose from that tree wliich, in its natural development, is the most expeditious of all ; and not only do tlie blossoms appear on it suddenly, but the fruit sets at once, and appears even when the flowers are yet on the tree, buds, blossoms, and almonds together on the same branch, as on this rod of Moses." In chapter xviii. Aaron is specially addressed. In verses 11, 12, he is told — " And this is thine ; the heave-offering of their gift, with all the wave-offerings of the chililren of Israel : I have given them unto thee, and to thy sons, and to thy daughters with tliee, by a statute for ever ; every one that is clean in thy house shall eat of it. All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine, and of the wheat, the first-fruits of them, which they shall offer unto the Lord, them have I given thee." — See under Dent. xi. 14.

132 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

NUMBEES XIX.-XXI.

'N ver. 2 we are introduced to the ordinance of tlie offering of the red heifer — see "cow" under Gen. xli. 2-4, in which the same word as that used in this passage (pdi-dh) is rendered " kine." Another term is transhited heifer, namely, er/Iah, as in Gen. xv. 9 — " Take me an heifer of three years okl ; " and in Deut. xxi. 3, 4, 6, as the sacrifice for the man slain by an unknown hand. It was to be an heifer which had not been wrought with ; the heifer was to be killed in a rough valley which had neither been eared nor sown ; the elders of the city next to which the dead man had been found were to wash their hands over the heifer that was beheaded in the valley ; they were to protest that they were innocent and were to pray — " lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel's charge." Ur/lah, heifer, also occurs Judges xiv. 18; 1 Sam. xvi. 2; Isa. vii. 21, where it is rendered cow, " a young cow," literally an heifer of the herd. Isa-. xv. 5 ; Jer. xlvi. 20, in which Egj'pt is compared to " a fair heifer." Jer. xlviii. 34, 1. 11. In Hos. x. 5, it is translated "calves." The same prophet compares Ejiliraira to " an heifer that is taught, and -loveth to tread out the com " (ver. 1 1).

In the passage now under notice, the usual Hebrew term for " cow" is employed. In glancing over these institutions the reader will have observed, that, in some instances, Moses alone is addressed by God, in others Aaron only is directly spoken to, while in a third class both Moses and Aaron are called to hearken to the words of Jehovah. The commands regarding the red heifer are given both to the civil and the ecclesiastical leaders of the great congregation. All were equally interested in it. " The Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord hath commanded, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring thee a red heifer without spot, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke : and ye shall give her unto Eleazar the priest, that he may bring her forth without the camp, and one shall slay her before his face. And Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle of her blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation seven times. And one shall burn the heifer in his sight ; her skin and

NUMBICRS XIX.-XXI. 133

her flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn" (ver. 1-5). Great prominence is given to the people's sin by the institution of this sacrifice for their purification. In contrast with both also, God's holiness is made to stand out very boldly. Having set up the ordi- nance, the manner of fulfilling it is stated with such minuteness, as to suggest its importance and the deep spiritual meaning underlying it. To see all this it is sufficient to compare the New Testament parallel passage with this one — " For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctirieth to the purifying of the flesh : how much more shall the blood of Christ, who throusfh the etei'nal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your con- science from dead works, to serve the living God?" (Heb ix. 13, 14.)

The colour of the heifer is noticed in a very marked way. It was " a red heifer." The explanation of this has generally been sought in the customs of Egyptian idolatrous worship. In what is called the Osiris group of Egyptian deities are Osiris and his spouse Isis, the good representatives of the principles of vitality and fruitfulness; Horus their child, " who has received the royalty of the two worlds ; " Thoth, the ibis-headed god, the hiventor of letters'; and Typhon witli his wife and sister Nephthys, the rei)resentatives of evil, and the constant antagonists of everything good. To Typhon and Nephthys red oxen were offered in sacrifice, and even human beings named typhonic men — red-haired captives — were slain as offerings to the evil deity. From this it has been alleged, that a separation was made between Israel and the Egyptians, by this sovereign act which ordained, that what in Egypt was associated with the religion of fear, should come in the camp of Israel to be linked up with the religion of love. " The truth will probably turn out to be, that the adoption of the red colour in both cases corresponded only because of its inherent fitness to express the thought which it was made to symbolize in each community. It was the colour of blood ; and, while in Egy])t this idea was readily con- nected with the deadly, scathing, sanguinary powers of Typhon, it became in the more ethical system of the Hebrews a remembrancer of moral evil flowing out into its penal consequences, or an image of unpardoned sin." Thus the strong expression of the prophet — " Your hands are full of blood." . . . . " Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord : Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as wliite as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isa. i. 18).

" And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to

134

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

bring us in unto this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink" (xx. 17). — See under 1 Sam. xiv. 2.

The people again forgot their mercies and murmured against Moses. " And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water ; and our soul loatheth this light bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people ; and nmch people of Israel died. Tiierefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned ; for we liave spoken against the Lord, and against thee : pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And IMoses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole : and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten.

Fig. 55.

Ileadof R«l.

when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole ; and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived" (ver. 5-9). This passage is also noticed under Gen. iii. 1-7. The word used in Genesis is repeated here, namely, nahasli, which points generally to one of the Pythons (Plates IV. Fig. 1, IX. Fig. 4).

The after history of the brazen serpent is indicated in 2 Kings xviii. 4 — Hezekiali discovered that the people liad come to worship the emblem of healing, while they forgot the gracious Healer himself. " He removed the high places and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made : for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it ; and he called it Nehushtan," a mere bit of useless brass. Yet the act of IMoses became the type of another and more gracious one ; " as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up" (John iii. 14). The rock snake "generally occurs from

NUMBERS XIX.-XXI. 135

seven to thirteen feet in length, but even Schlegel mentions having himself seen one that measured twenty feet. The colours are brilliant and lively. A pale yellowish coffee-brown colour predominates on the upper parts, losing itself in numerous gray marblings (jn the flanks, which scarcely allows the beautiful yellow colour of the ground to be seen, but which spreads uniformly over the belly. The head is varie- gated with red ; the muzzle is marked with a square brownish-black spot, another is seen above the eye, and a third, broad and club-shaped, is prolonged from behind the eye to the neck. The iris is of a golden yellow colour. The adults are more brilliantly coloured than the young. The head is distinct from the body, is tolerably broad, elongate, depressed on the suriimit, and terminates in a narrow rounded muzzle. The nostrils, large and round, are slightly distant from each other, and ai;e directed backwards. The eye is nearly lateral, and directed slightly forwards. The tail is much smaller in circumference than the trunk, and is rather short and conical. On the continent of India tliis serpent is known to the natives by the name of the hora or pedda jJoda, but by the English is called the rock snake." Other two Hebrew words are rendered serpent, zohhel, in Deut. xxxii. 24, and tannin, in Exod. vii. 9, 10, 12. The former refers to any creeping thing under the influence of fear. Thus in Micah vii. 17, it is rightly rendered "worms of the earth." In Deuteronomy it is translated " serpents of the dust^' — any of the snakes which, in the alarm of being trampled on, turn on men and bite them. The latter word is used for the serpents of the Egyp- tian magicians, to indicate their terrific appearance. When Moses threatens judgment on those who had grievously sinned against God, he says — " I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents." The association of the bite with the venom is highly suggestive. It is a well known fact, that, though the poison is deadly when put into the veins, it can be taken into the stomach without harm. This may have been in view here. It may have been known in the days of ]\Ioses. The Romans were femiliar with the fact. Celsus was acquainted with it. Lucan introduces Cato expounding the same thing to his soldiers —

" And now with fiercer licat the desert glows, And mid-day gloamings aggravate their woes. When, lo ! a spring amid the sandy plain Shows its clear mouth to cheer the fainting train. But round the guarded bank in thick array, Dire aspics roll'd their congregated way, And thirsting in the midst, the Dipsas lay.

Black horror seized tl-.eir veins, and at the view, Back from the fount the troops recoiling flew. When wise above the crowd, by cares unqtiellcd, Their awful leader thus their dread dispell'd ; Let not vain terrors thus your minds enslave, Nor dream the serpent brood can taint the wave: Urged by the fatal fang, their poison kills, But mixes harmless with the bubbling rills. Dauntless he spoke, and bending as he stood, Drank with cool courage the suspected flood."'

Bat tlie epithet " fiery" (sarapli) leads us away from the general mean- ing of the word here rendered serpent (naJiash), and indicates another form. NaJiash indeed appears to be used here in the same way as hi Isa. xiv. 29, where it is equivalent to the class Reptilia of zoologists. This is pointed out under that passage. Saraph, it is there shown, is mentioned by the propliet as a species of cockatrice, one of the egg- bearing reptiles, to be dittingushed from the vipers which are viviparous. They do not, however, escape from their parent in the way imagined by the old poet. —

" Thou mak'st the ingrateful viper, at his birth, His dying mother's belly to gnaw forth ! "

''Fiery" maybe associated with the eiTects of the serpent's bite, as causing burning thirst, rather than with the colour of the reptile, though it is to be remembered that in the Arabian desert several snakes abound whose colour was sufficient to suggest this epithet : —

" Adder, Snake, and Dipsas causing deadly thirst."

Some of the tree-snakes are remarkable for their activity. " There is, at Basna," says Niebuhr, in the 'Description of Arabia,' "a sort of snake called Ileie sursidre, or Het'e thidre. These snakes commonly keep upon the date-trees ; and, as it would be laborious for them to come down from a very high tree, in order to ascend another, they twist themselves by the tail to a branch, and impelled by the motion they give it, they launch themselves to the next tree. Hence it is that the modern Arabs call them flying serpents, Htie thidre."

" The children of Israel set forward, and pitched in Oboth. They jour- neyed from Oboth, and pitched at Ije-abarim, in the wilderness which is before Moab, toward the sun-rising. From thence they removed, and pitched in the valley of Zared. From thence they removed, and pitched on the other side of Arnou, which is the wilderness that cometh

NUMBERS XIX.-XXI. 137

out of the coasts of the Amoritcs : for Anion is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. Wherefore it is said in the book of the wars of the Lord, What he did in the Red Sea, and in the brooks of Arnon, and at the stream of the brooks tliat goeth down to the dwclHng of Ar, and lieth upon the border of Moab. And from thence they went to Beer : that is the well whereof the Lord spake unto Moses, Gather the people together, and I will give them water" (ver. 10-16). In their wanderings they reached the eastern borders of Edom, and halted for a season at " Oboth." This station has not been iden- tified by any modern traveller. It appears to have taken its name from the fact, that there travellers filled the skins with water to serve them in their journey into the desert. Their next halting-place was "Ije-abarira" (literally the heaps of Abarim), or "the heights on the other side," the region, namely, on the east of the Jordan, north of the Dead Sea, where the plain of the Jordan is about fourteen miles broad. The highlands on the east of Jordan known as Abarim, are several times mentioned. The statement in verse 11 is repeated in chap, xxxiii. 44. In verses 47 and 48 of the same chapter Abarim is again mentioned. Its position is afterwards clearly indicated in connection with the death of Moses — " Get thee up into this mountain Abarim, unto Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, that is over against Jericho, and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the chil- dren of Israel for a possession" (Deut. xxxii. 49). Jeremiah names it along with two other noted ranges — " Go up to Lebanon and cry, and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry from the ' passages ' — Aharim — for all thy lovers are destroyed" (xxii. 20). The "heaps" referred to were thus a range of highlands forming the eastern boundary of the plain of Jordan. They were in the land of Moab over against Jericho. The peaks of Abarim were Peor, Pisgah, and Nebo.

"'Arnon' is the modern Wady Mojeb, the river of Moab. It has cut deeply into tlie limestone strata, and has left on each side precipi- tous banks of naked rock. Here on the very brink of the precipice are the ruins of Ara'ir, in which we at once recognize that Aroer which stood 'by the brink of the river Arnon,' at the southern extremity of the country conquered by the Israelites. Deut. ii. 36, iv. 48 ; Josh, xiii. 9. It was the same Aroer which was rebuilt by the Gadites, mentioned as ' before Rabbah,' and beside which, ' toward Jazer,' Joab first pitched his tent when David ordered him to ' number Israel.' (Num. xxxii. 34 ; 2 Sam. xxiv. 5.) The valley, when viewed from this spot, ' looks like a deep chasm, formed by some tremendous convulsion

VOL. II. S

138 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

of the earth, into wliich there seems no possibility of descending to the bottom. The distance from tlie edge of one precipice to that of the opposite one is about two miles in a straight line. The bottom of the valley, through which the little stream runs, is a narrow verdant strip of level ground, about forty yards across. In Josh. xiii. 9, we find the somewhat puzzling sentence — ' From Aroer that is upon the bank of the river Anion, and the city that is in the midst of the ricer, and all the plain of IMedeba unto Dibon.' There nuist therefore have been some town or-' fortress' (Air) in the bed of the Arnon, at or near to Aroer. There is no trace of any, nor indeed is there room for one, at this spot ; but Burckhardt states that eastward, at the junction of Wady Lejum with the Arnon there is a level tract of pasture-ground, ' in the midi^t of which stands a hill with some ruins upon it,' and this may probably be the site of ' the city that is in the midst of the river.'

" The Arnon was the boundary between Moab and the Amorites in the days of Moses. It was upon its northern bank the Israelites first encamped after they had come round the eastern side of Moab ; and it subsequently formed the southern frontier of their territory on this side of the river. What from ' Dan to Beersheba' was on the west in after years, ' from the river Arnon unto Mount Herraon ' was upon the east of the Jordan. (Num. xxi. 13, 2G; Deut. iii. 8, 16; Josh. xii. 1.) As we cross this wild pass and see the dreary desolation of the country around, we may call to mind the solemn and beautiful language of Isaiah : ' For it shall be that, as a wandering bird cast out of the nest, so the daughters of Moab shall be at the fords of Arnon.' The heads of the wady stretch away out into the eastern plain ; but except during the brief winter rains no water flows into it from that arid region. The stream of the Mojeb during summer is very small. It enters the Dead Sea through a chasm in the sandstone rock not more than 100 feet wide, while the almost perpendicular sides range from 100 feet to 400 feet in height." — {Porter.) " Ar " means city, though the word is sometimes used for Moab generally. It lay between Kerek and the Wady ]\Iojeb.

" And Israel took all these cities : and Israel dwelt in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon, and in all the villages thereof. For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites, who had fought against the former king of Moab, and taken all his land out of his hand, even unto Arnon. Wherefore they that speak in proverbs say. Come into Heshbon, let the city of Sihon be built and prepared ! For there is a fire gone out of Heshbon, a flame fi'om the city of Sihon : it hath

NUMBERS XIX.-XXI. 139

consumed Ar of Moab, and the lords of the high pLaces of Arnon. Woe to thee, Moab ! thou art undone, 0 people of Chemosh ! he hath given his sons that escaped, and his daughters, into captivity, unto Sihon king of the Amorites. We have shot at them ; Heslibon is perished even unto Dibon, and we have laid them waste even unto Nophah, which reacheth unto Medeba" (ver. 25-30). Heslibon is represented by the place now called Heshihi. " The remains of this city stand on a little hill which rises considerably above the undulating plateau." " There are many cisterns among the heaps of rubbish ; and towards the south, a few minutes from the base of the^ hill, is a large ancient reservoir, which may call to mind the passage in the Song of Solomon — ' Thine eyes are like the fishpools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bcth-rabbim.' (vii. 4.) A commanding view is obtained from the summit of the hill, extending on the south to the mountains that surround Kerek ; on the east across the desert plain of ]\Ioab as far as the eye can see ; on the north to the wooded heights of 'Ajlun ; and on the west to the hill country of Judaea, where Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and the Frank moun- tain may be distinguished. A number of interesting sites, too, are within view. Through a depression on the west we look down into the Jordan valley, and obtain a glimpse of the Dead Sea beyond. Some two miles to the south are the ruins of JMain, the ancient Baal- meon which the Reubenites rebuilt. (Num. xxxii. 38.) Away beyond it, a little to the right rises up the barren peak of Attarus, which is generally (but incorrectly) supposed to be the Nebo from which Moses got his last view of the ' promised land,' and on which he died. Far away on the south-east, some fifteen or twenty miles off, may be seen the tower of Um-Rusas. A little over a mile north by east on the summit of a high tell is el-'Al, the -EleaJeh of Scripture ; and to the left of it, away on the distant horizon, the eye can just distinguish the outline of the commanding castle of es-Salt, the ancient Ramoth- Gilead."

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BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

NUMBERS XXII.-XXXII.

HE dread of ]\Ioab when Israel encamped in the plain of Jericho is graphically pictured in verse 4 — " Moab said imto the elders of Midian, Now shall this company lick up all that are round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field." When the ox is first turned into the pasture land it may be noticed eating round and round some tree or other object, the circle gradually decreasing as he proceeds, until the herbage is fully cropped and the ground begins to look bare. Literally he licketh the grass of the field. His elongated tongue twists the herbage into a wisp, and thus sets it in a favourable position for his cutting teeth on the front of the lower jaw. These hold it fast on the gristly front of the upper jaw until the jerk of the

SkiUl of the Ox (E03 taurus).

head is given which separates the herbage from its roots. Balak wished, in using this expression, to intimate both the completeness and the extent of the injury which Israel would do to Moah and Midian, if they were not hindered. The word translated ox in this verse is shor, which is used about eighty times by Scripture writers, and is for the most part rendered ox. In Leviticus iv. 10; ix. 4, 18, 19 ; xx. 23, and

NUMBERS XXII.-XXXII. 141

in one or two other passages, it is rendered bullock ; while in Leviti- cus xxii. 28, and Numbers xviii. 19, it is translated cow, and in Job xxi. 10, it is bull. The references to the ox (shOr) in Leviticus show, that it was used in the service of the sanctuary as a burnt-offering for sin and as a peace-offering. It was used by the husbandman in various agricultural operations, and is specially mentioned in the law of sab- bath rest (Deut. v. 14) as one of the animals which man was not to press into labour on the Sabbath-day — " Thou shalt not do any work, thou nor thine ox (shor)." The same divine compassion took it into account in the hardships of field labour to which it might be devoted, and commanded — " Thou shalt not plow with an ox and an ass together" (Deut. xxii. 10). The association would be equally painful to each, from the great disparity in size, shape, gait, and general habits. It would, too, have put Israel on a level with the heathen, who everywhere then as now sought to introduce confusion into God's fair world of order and harmony. A like tender regard for the " beasts that perish" is shown in the precept — " Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn" (Deut. xxv. 4). This, no doubt, implies much more than simply " God's care for oxen." Its higher bearings are pointed out under 1 Cor. x, 7-10.

" And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord, she fell down under Balaam : and Balaam's anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with a staff. And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass ; and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times ? And Balaam said unto the ass. Because thou hast mocked me ; I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee. And the ass said unto Balaam, Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day ? was I ever wont to do so unto thee? And he said. Nay. Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand ; and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face" (ver. 27-31). The sovereignty of God over his creatures, implied in this incident, has been fully discussed under Gen. ii. The power put forth was not exercised on the beast alone. A corresponding influence touched the vision of the prophet. " The Lord opened the eyes of Balaam." " Places of Baal" (ver. 14) were the heights consecrated to his worship. " Balak brought him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Fisgah, and built seven altars, and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar" (xxiii. 14). "God brought them out of Egypt ; he hath, as it were, the strength of an

142 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

unicorn" (ver. 22). "Unicorn" — see under Dcut. xxxiii. 17, and Ps. xxii. 21.

The hosts of Israel were encamped on the eastern side of the Jordan. " The place," says Dr. Stanley, "is so minutely specified, that it may be fixed in spite of the obscurity which still rests on the further bank of the Jordan. It was in the 'desert plain' of Moab, so called, pro- bably, in contradistinction to the cultivated 'fields' on the table-land above. It was in the long belt of acacia groves (sJn'tttm) which, on the eastern as on the western side of the Jordan, mark with a line of verdure the upper terraces of the valley. These groves indicate at once the issue of the springs from the roots of the eastern hills, and the tropical climate to which the Israelites had now descended, and which brought them under these wild and thorny shades — probably for the first time since they left them in the wilderness of Sinai. Their tents were pitched ' from Abel-Shittim ' on the north ' to Beth-Jeshimoth ' on the south ; from the ' meadow ' which marked the limit of those ' groves ' to the ' hamlet' or ' house,' which stood in the 'waste' on the shores of the Dead Sea. They looked straight across the Jordan to the green spot of Jericho on the western bank. High above them rose the mountains to which their descendants gave the name of ' Abariin ' — ' those on the further side,' the eastern wall of the valley, on whose tops they had so long sojourned in their long struggle with the Amorites of Heshbon.

" From these lofty summits were unfolded two successive views of the valley below, of the camp, of the opposite hills — awakening thoughts most diverse to tlie two seers, but of almost equal interest to future times. From the ' high places ' there dedicated to Baal, from the ' bare hill ' on ' the top of the rocks,' and lastly, from the culti- vated ' field ' of Zophim, on ' the top of Pisgah,' from the top of Peor, that ' looketh on the face of the waste,' ' the Assyrian prophet,' witli the king of Moab by his side, looked over the wide prospect :^

' He watch'd till morning's ray

On lake and meadow lay, And willow-shaded streams that silent sweep

Amid their banner'd lines,

Where, by their several signs, The desert-wearied tribes in sight of Canaan sleep.'

He saw, in that vast encampment amongst the acacia groves, ' how goodly are thy tents, 0 Jacob, and thy tabernacles, 0 Israel.' Like the water-courses of the mountains, like gardens by the side of his own

NUMBERS XXII.-XXXII.

143

great river Euphrates, with their aromatic shrubs, and their wide- spreading cedars — the lines of the camp were spread out before him. Ephraim was tliere with ' the strength of the wild bull ' of the north ; Judah, ' couching, like the lion ' of the south ; a people dwelling alone,' yet a mighty nation — ' who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel?' He looked round from his high post over the table-lands of Moab, to the line of mountains stretching away to Edom, on the south ; over the high platform of the desert beyond the Dead Sea, where dwelt the tribe of Amalek, then ' first of the nations;' over the Kenite, not yet removed from his clefts in the rocks of En-gedi, full in front of the prophet's view. And for each his dirge of lamentation went up ; till at the thought of liis own distant land of ' Asshur,' of the land beyond the Euphrates, of the dim vision of ships coming from the western sea which lay behind the hills of Palestine, 'to afflict Asshur and to afflict Eber' — he burst into the bitter cry, ' Alas, who shall live when God doeth this !' and he rose up and returned to his place."

Balaam's parable is one of great beauty. From his elevated position he beheld fertile plains stretching out among the hills, and reposing in quiet beauty in the sunlight. He had wandered through these and observed their fruitfulness. He had seen the husbandman plying his daily tasks, and reaping the reward in plentiful harvests. And now, when hearing the words of God, when seeing the visions of the Almighty, and when cast on the ground by the strong hand of God upon him, and still gazing on Israel, he cries —

" How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, tliy tabernacles, O Israel ! As valleys are tliey spread forth, as gardens by the river's side, As the trees of lign aloes which the Lord hath planted. As the cedar trees beside the waters." — (xxiv. 5, 6.)

" Lign aloes,^' Heb. ahCdim. This tree is the Aqidlaria AyallocJium, or aromatic eaglewood of botanists. Its wood is highly scented, and is much used in Romanist and Mahommedan countries for fumia-atins: their jilaces of worship and for incense. Eaglewood also yields, when parts of it decay, an oily substance much esteemed as a perfume. See under John xix. 39. The lign aloe is a native of Southern Asia and of some of the islands of the Eastern Archipelago. This fact has led many to doubt whether the plant mentioned by Balaam could really be the aquilaria of India. The alleged difficulty is believed to be removed either by rendering the Hebrew word {ahdUrii} "tents" instead of

144 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

" trees of lign aloes," or by substituting another tree for the aquilarla. The former interpretation has tliis in Its favour — the word in the singular (^7/ia/) is translated "tent" in Genesis xiii. 18, and another form iphal) is rendered " tent" in verse 5. But the whole scope of the vision of Balaam clearly demands that a tree be understood in tliis place. That the aquilaria was not a native of the region in which the Arabian prophet met Israel, might almost be gathered from the verse itself. The lign aloes were distinguished as trees which " the Lord had planted," while native cedars are simply characterized as " trees beside the rivers of waters." The difficulty which modern horticul- turists have experienced in rearing the lign aloe, in localities fiir removed from those in which it is indigenous, are sufficient to warrant the prophet in ascribing the presence and luxuriant growth of a much coveted tree, in a land in which it was not a native, to the goodness and care of the Lord. As the spice merchants carried to the north and east the wood and the rich atur, or oil-perfume, the desire of the people would be strengthened to have some of the trees among themselves. Balaam, moreover, designed by his words to present the attractiveness and beauty, the power and the fruitfulness, of the chosen people to Balak. The first of these features is suggested by the lign aloes, the second by the cedars, and the third by the agricultural allusions in verse 7. See also under Ps. xlv. 8. It will be seen from the extract given above, that Dr. Stanley explains these references by the hypo- thesis that Balaam drew his imagery from memory. Either this or the explanation now given illustrates the glowing utterances of the prophet.

" Lion," Heb. art, ver. 9 ; see under 1 Samuel xvii. 34. " And he looked on the Kenites, and took up his parable, and said. Strong is thy dwelling-place, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock : nevertheless the Kenite shall be wasted, until Asslmr shall carry thee away captive. And he took up his parable, and said, Alas ! who shall live when God doeth this? And ships shall come from the coast of Chittim, and shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber, and he also shall perish for ever " (ver. 21-24).

"The Kenites" are first mentioned in Gen. xv. 19, as inhabiting Canaan in the time of Abraham. Here they are noticed as dwelling in a mountainous situation bordering on the Amalekites. Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, was a Kenite, and for his sake the Kenites were spared when the other nations of Canaan were destroyed. They appear afterwards to have associated with the remnant of Amalek, for in the days of Saul they were found dwelling among the Amalekites —

NUMBERS XXII.-XXXU. 145

" And Saul said unto the Kenites, Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with tliem : for ye showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites" (1 Sam. xv. G).

" Asshur," or Assyria, -was to carry the Kenites into captivity. They had been preservea, both because of the relationship into which Moses had entered wilh the tribe, and also because the tribe itself had favoured Israel at the time of the Exodus. These things had ultimately led to their being regarded as if they had become incorporated with Israel. Accordingly, when the Assyrian conquerors came up against Palestine, the Kenites were carried away captive with the Israelites. " Asshur," see under Jonah i. 2.

The regulations regarding " the offerings and the sacrifices of the Lord" are again particularly mentioned in chap, xxviii. The drink offering was to be " the fourth part of an hiii for one lamb," and it is added, " In the holy place shalt thou cause the strong wine to be poured out unto the Lord" (ver. 7). "Strong wine," see under chap. vi. 3. Minute instructions are given in chap. xxxi. as to the mode in which they were to carry on the war of extermination against the Canaanites. These bear on the persons and the property of the people about to be vanquished. One of the rules in regard to the latter is stated in verses 21-24 — " And Eleazar the priest said unto the men of war which went to the battle. This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord com- manded Moses ; only the gold, and the silver, the brass, the iron, the tin, and the lead, every thing that may abide the fire, ye shall make it go through the fire, and it shall be clean ; nevertheless it shall be purified with the water of separation : and all that abideth not the fire, ye shall make go through the water. And ye shall wash your clothes on the seventh day, and ye shall be clean, and afterward ye shall come into the camp."

"Gold," Heb. zahav, see under Gen. ii. 11; "silver," keseph^ Job xxviji. 1 ; " brass," nehhdsheth, Gen. iv. 22 ; " iron," barzel. Gen. iv. 22; "-im" bedll; ''X^did;' aoplicrctlt.

" Tin," or native tin ore, is the well-known useful metal, the oxide of tin, or casst'teritc, of mineralogy. It occurs in veins in granite, gneiss, porphyry, &c. The supply of tin for Europe is mainly obtained from Cornwall. It appears to have been found in Palestine ; but there is little reason to doubt that, at a very early period, the Phamicians carried this metal from Cornwall to the countries lying along the northern and eastern shores of the Great Sea. In the next reference

VOL. n. T

1-16 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

till is evidently named as an alloy — " I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross and take away all thy tin" (Isa. i. 25). It is mentioned also in Ezek. xxii. 18, 20; xxvii. 12; and in Zech. iv. 10, the Hebrew name is translated " plummet."

"Lead" is very widely distributed. It is chiefly found as galena, lead glance, or sulphuret of lead. The Scripture references point chiefly to its weight. Its specific gravity is ITS. The mode of separating the metul from the dross is named in verse 23 — " Ye shall make it go through the fire." Lead melts at a temperature of 000° Fahr.

To the tribute of unwrought metals, and of sheep and oxen, was added that of the personal ornaments which the people had obtained in the land of Egypt — " ^\^e have therefore brought an oblation for the Lord, what every man hath gotten, of jewels of gold, chains, and bracelets, rings, ear-rings, and tablets, to make an atonement for our souls before the Lord" (vcr. 50). The Art of Egypt is thus laid as an offering on the altar of a covenant God, in circumstances which testify to the greatness and sovereignty of Him who had delivered his people from the iron furnace.

" Now the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, had a very great multitude of cattle : and when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that, behold, the place was a place for cattle ; the children of Gad, and the children of Reuben, came and spake unto Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and unto the princes of the congre- gation, saying, Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Hesh- bon, and Elealeh, and Sliebam, and Nebo, and Bcon, even the country which the Lord smote before the congregation of Israel, is a land for cattle, and thy servants have cattle : wherefore, said they, if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession, and bring us not over Jordan" (xxxii. 1-5). The land good for cattle coveted by Gad and Reuben lay on the east of the Jordan, chiefly between the Jabbok, on the south, and the Yarmuk, or Hieroinax, on the north. " The mountains rise from the valley of the Jordan to the height, it is believed, of two or three thousand feet, and this gives them, when seen from the western side, the appearance of a much greater actual elevation than they really possess ; as though they rose high above the mountains of Judtea on which the spectator stands. As they are approached from the Ghor, the horizontal outline which they always wear when seen from a distance is broken ; and it is described, that when their summits are attained, a wholly new scene bursts upon the view ; unlike anything which could be expected from

nujibf.es xxii.-xxxii. 147

below — unlike anything in Western Palestine. A wide table-land apjDears tossed about in wild confusion of undulating downs, clothed with rich grass throughout ; in the southern parts trees are thinly scattered here and there, aged trees covered with lichen, as if the relics of a primeval forest long since cleared away ; the northern parts still abound in magnificent woods of sycamore, beech, terebinth, ilex, and enormous fig-trees. These downs are broken by three deep defiles, through which the three rivers of the Yarnink, the Jabbok, and the Anion, fall into the valley of the Jordan and Dead Sea. On the east, they melt away into the vast red plain which, by a gradual descent, forms the level of the plain of the Hauran, and of the Assyrian desert. This is the general picture given of the trans-Jordanic territory." — [Stanlcij.)

148

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE,

NUMBERS XXXIII.

HESE are the journeys of tlie cliildren of Israel, which went forth out of the land of Egypt with their armies, under the liand of IMoses and Aaron. And Moses wrote their goings out according to tlieir journeys, by the coramand- - ■ ment of the Lord : and these are their journeys according to tlieir goings out. And they departed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month : on the morrow after the passover the children of Israel went out witli an high hand in the sight of the Egyptians" (ver. 1-3). Biblical geographers must be satisfied with a general outline of the route which Israel took, when they journeyed from Egypt to Canaan. The journeys are oftener to be traced by Scripture references to outstand- ing physical features, than by the identification of all the halting places named in this chapter. There is proof that several of these got their names from the people, because of some incident associated with the locality. There were, besides, but few places at which material struc- tures would be met with, whose ruins might have kept alive their names.

The first place named is " Rameses." Two meanings have been attached to this name — 1, " Son of the Sun ;" 2, " The Sun approves." It was evidently at first associated with the worship of the sun. It could not, as some have supposed, have taken its name from the renowned Egyptian monarch Remesis. Ilis reign was subsequent to the departure of the Israelites from Egypt. He may have taken his reigning title from the city. From the references to it in Scripture we learn — (1) that the name was in the time of Joseph given to'Goshen — " Joseph placed his fixther and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded" (Gen xlvii. 11). (2) That one of the cities built by the Israelites during the period of their oppression, bore this name — " Therefore they did set over them taskmasters, to afflict them with their burdens, and they built for Pharaoh treasure-cities, Pithom and Raamses" (Exod. i. 11). Taking the "treasure-cities" as buildings for storing the merchandise of the caravans from Arabia to

NUMBEItS XXXIII. 149

Egypt, attempts have been made to determine the position wlience Israel departed, by fixing on a place most suitable for a store-city. But tliis leaves out of view the likelihood that there were two cities of this name — one had given its name to the whole land ; the other built by the Israelites for the purpose mentioned. The point of departui'e may have been the former. This agrees much better with the most satis- factory hypothesis as to the position of Goshen, than the theory of Sicard, that the muster-place of Israel was at the modern Basatin.

From Rameses they passed to Succoth — the place of booths — and thence to "Etham, which is in the edge of the wilderness" (ver. 6). It will be noticed from verse 8, that after the passage of the sea they went three days into the wilderness of Etham. Compare with this the statements in Exod. xv. 22 — " Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur ; and they went three days in the wilderness." The tract referred to is the continua- tion of the desert, which is the direct route to Palestine, to the south, along the eastern shore of the Red Sea. When at Etham they were in circumstances to journey forward without having to cross the sea. But it was here they were ordered to turn, and to wander a consider- able distance to the south. " And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, speak ruito the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baal-zephon : before it shall ye encamp by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he shall follow after them ; and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his ]]Ost ; that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. And they did so " (Exod. xiv. 1-4). The position into which they came when they encamped before Pi-haliiroth, was that which is inclosed by the bold rocks of the modern Ii'as Atahah on the one hand, and the sea on the other, while Pharaoh's hosts were beliiud. They were literally " shut in," and cast on the onmipotence of Jehovah. The sea before, the sword of the Eg}'ptian warriors beliiud, preci[)itous rocks on the left, and a deep water-filled chasm on the right, there was no help for them but in the God of their fathers. Indeed, they had been brouglit to this point mainly that they might learn this. " In coming up to the sea at all, they were taking a circuit — a circuit which, without any com- pensating advantage, threw them upon their enemies, and made their position most perilous. But in going south along the western margin of the sea for miles, as they did, they were doing more than taking a

circuit. Tliey were deliberately interposing the sea between them and Sinai, and voluntarily imposing upon themselves the necessity for crossing a gulf -which they could easily have avoided, thereby making their extrication almost impossible. Had any general done so with his army, he would have been declared either mad or utterly ignorant of the country. But Moses knew the region well. He had more than once gone to Sinai, and was fully acquainted with the way. He could not but know that he was misleading Israel, unless he was conscious of divine guidance all the way — guidance which superseded and over- ruled his own judgment Only one thing can account for

this, and acquit him of the greatest folly ever manifested l)y the leader of a people. That one thing is, that it was at the direct command of God that all this was done. God's purpose was to show his power both to Israel and to their enemies. For this end he led them by a way which required the special and supernatural forthputting of that power. "What is the cleaving of the sea, or the levelling of a moun- tain, or the drying up of a river to him ? 3Ian is not entitled to lead others into difficulties in order to show his skill and power in their deliverance ; for he cannot calculate upon being able to effect his object in any circumstances. But it is otherwise with God ; and Israel's march down the western shore of the Red Sea is one of the most strik- ing examples of such a procedure. There was need of a stupendous miracle for many reasons. It was needed to overthrow the last remains of Egypt's pride, as well as to overawe them in all time to come. It was needful in order to strike alarm into the nations around ; and it was needful in order to give Israel one proof more — the crown- ing proof of all — of what Jehovah was ready to do in their belialf. By this was Israel in after ages furnished with matter of thankful song to all generations —

' To him who divided the Red Sea into parts ; For his mercy endureth for ever. And made Israel to pass through the midst of it; For his mercy endureth for ever.'" — (Boiiw.)

Marah, so named from its bitter waters, was reached after three days' march in the wilderness of Etham. " They removed from Marah and pitched in EHm ;" see under Exod. xv. 27. " They removed from Elim, and encamped by the Red Sea. And they removed from the Red Sea, and encamped in the wilderness of Sin." " From their encampment at the mouth of Wady et-Taiyibeh," says Dr. Robinson, " the Israelites would necessarily advance into the great plain which.

NUMBERS XXXIII. 151

beginning near el-Murkliali, extends with a greater or less breadth, almost to the extremity of the Peninsula. In its broadest part, north- ward of Tfir, it is called el-Ka,'a. This desert-plain I take to be the desert of Sin, the next station mentioned in Scripture. From this plain they would enter the mountains at various points either by the present nearer route through the Wadys Shellal and Mukatteb, or per- haps by the mouth of Wady Feiran itself. Their approach to Sinai was probably along the upper part of this latter valley and Waddy esh-Sheikh ; but the two subsequent stations, Dophkah and Alush, are mentioned so indefinitely, that no hope remains of their ever being identified." — {Researches^ vol. i., p. 73.)

Their next station was Rephidhn. Here the "chiding" with Moses took place. " And all the congregation of the children of Israel jour- neyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim : and there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said. Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me ? wherefore do ye tempt the Lord ? And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against ]\Ioscs, and said, Wherefore is this that tbou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us, and our children, and our cattle, with thirst ? And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying. What shall I do unto this people ? they be almost ready to stone me. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel ; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb ; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And I\Ioses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribali, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying. Is the Lord among us or not?" (Exod. xvii. 1-7.) "There is no proof, indeed," says Dr. Bouar, writing in tlie Wcuhj Feiran, " that this was Rephidim — nay, proof that it was not Rephidim, for there must always have been water here, so that Israel could not have lacked it, as we read that they did at Rephidim. But their next stage from this must have been Rephidim — and to that we are now proceeding. But before doing so, let us read the holy narrative. ' And all the congregation of the children of Israel jour- neyed from the wilderness of Sin (which they entered when they left Elim, Exod. xiv. 1), and pitched in Rephidim, and there was no water

152 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

for the people to drink ' (Esorl. xvii. 1). Up till the time when they reached Rephidim they had no lack of water, so that they must have left Wady Feiran and been a day's march on their way to Sinai before the ' chiding with Moses ' took place (Exod. xvii. 2). The region on which they entered at Rephidim is called Horeb (Exod. xvii. 6), or the wilderness of Sinai (Exod. xix. 1, 2), and appears to have been wholly destitute of water. We started about nine, feeling sure our halting- place would be somewhat near Beplddim, for next day was to bring us to Sinai. The air was chill, but as the wady was rather rough, we did not walk, but kept to our camels. The road winds like a princely avenue, through palms and tarfas — some of the former very tall and stately."

" And they departed from Rephidim, and pitched in the wilderness of Sinai. And they removed from the desert of Sinai, and pitched at Kibroth-hattaavah. And they departed from Kibroth-hattaavah, and encamped at Hazeroth" (ver. 15-17). "Besides the interest of the physical peculiarities of this route, is the faint probability that this beautiful valley and its neighbourhood may have been the scene of the first long halt after the departure from Sinai. After Taberah and Kibroth-hattaavah, the people ' abode ' ' for seven days ' at least, in Hazeroth. Burckliardt, and most travellers after him, have from the resemblance of the two radical letters in the two words, identified this with Huderah. Such a conjecture must be very uncertain, the more so, as the name of Hazeroth is one the least likely to be attached to any permanent or natural feature of the desert. It means simply the 'inclosures,' such as may still be seen in the Bedouin villages, hardly less transitory than tents. Three points, however, may be mentioned as slightly confirmatory of the hypothesis that the Israelite route lay in these valleys. First, the brook of el-'Ain, as its name implies, is emphatically ''tie water,' ''the spring,' of this region of the desert, and must, therefore, have attracted round it any nomadic settlements, such as are implied in the name of Hazeroth, and such as that of Israel must have been. If they descended at all to the western shores of the gulf of 'Akaba, this is the most natural spot for them to have selected for a long halt. Secondly, in the murmurs previous to their arrival- at Hazeroth, ' the sea ' is twice mentioned in a manner which may indicate its proximity, and which is therefore certainly more appropriate to these valleys touching on the gulf of 'Akaba, than to the more inland route over the Tib. ' Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them to suffice them ? or shall all the fish of the sea

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be gathered together to sufiice them ? ' ' There went forth a wind from the Lord, and brought quails y/'0)?i the sea.' " — {Stanlejj.)

" And they departed from Hazeroth, and pitched in Rithmah. And they departed from Rithmah, and pitched at Rimmon-parez. And they departed from Rimmon-parez, and pitched in Libnah. And they removed from Libnah, and pitched at Rissah " (ver. 18-21). The stations mentioned in tliese verses were, no doubt, named from the particular species of plant for which they were noted. Rimmon means pomegranate, Libnah white poplar, and liithmah is derived from rothem^ the word used in 1 Kings xix. 4 for broom — which see. In earliest times it appears to have been customary to name towns or villages from the kind of vegetation which abounded around them. Thus we have Z/?<,2 = almond, Gen. xxxv. G; jTcf/Mrtr^palm, Gen. xiv. 7; !rapj92<ac/i = apple-tree. Josh. xv. 3-4, &c.

Having removed the encampment from Rissah, they halted at other thirteen stations, and then readied Ezion-gaber, at the head of the eastern horn of the sea. The modern route is among the southern outliers of the range of mountains now named Jebel-et-Tih. The hills are generally of sandstone, much worn by the weather, and cut deeply in different directions by mountain streams. Their approach to the sea, after having passed that great and terrible wilderness, must have again cheered them. " Pleasant is the sight of the waters after the parched desolation of the rocky wilderness ; pleasant too is the gentle murmuring of the waves as they break on the pebbly beach, after the death-like silence of the glens of Sinai ; but pleasanter than all is the fresh breath of the zephyr, which, after playing with the sunlit waves, fans our burning cheeks. By the sea-side one never feels alone, even though the shore be solitary as that of Elath's Gulf. Every heaving of a wave seems like a throb of friendship's heart, and every ' voice of the waters ' like the whisper of affection. Here there is something more than this — the scenery on the one hand is so wild, so bare, and on the other so ethereal, so fairy-like, that one is never tired gazing on it. Now we glance at some new feature of the mountain barrier ; and now turn our eyes over the deep blue waters to the beau- tiful hills of Arabia, whose rich tints are ever changing, as the sun rolls on his course, from tlie ' russet hue ' of early morn to the light azure of noonday, and the deep purple of even ; and then besides, the countless shells that strew the beach, exhibiting endless varieties of graceful forms and delicate colours, fill the mind with admiration and wonder."

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Tlie baiting place named between Ebronah and Kadesb is mentioned in verse 35 — " Tbey departed from Ebronab, and encamped at Ezion- gaber," or " the giant's backbone." This station, like some of the other encamping places, afterwards became famous, especially in con- nection with the most glorious epoch in the history of Israel. When Moses at a later date reminded the people of all the way in which the Lord led them, he said — " And when we i)assed by from our brethren the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, through the way of the plain from Elath, and from Ezion-gaber, we turned and passed by the way of the wilderness of I\Ioab " (Deut. ii. 8). The place is again referred to as "being beside Elath, on the shore of the Red Sea," and as the port whence the united navies of Israel and Phoenicia sailed to Ophir (1 Kings ix. 26-28). Its site is even more directly pointed to in 2 Chronicles — "It was at the sea-side in the land of Edom " (viii. 17). The last time it is mentioned in Scripture, is in connection with the impolitic and disastrous alliance entered into between Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and Ahaziah, king of Israel. They joined together to send ships to Tarshisb, and " the ships were made in Ezion-geber." But having put to sea, " Eliezer, the son of Dodavah of Mareshah, prophe- sied against Jehoshaphat, saying. Because thou hast joined thyself with Ahaziah, the Lord hath broken thy works. And the ships were broken, that they were not able to go to Tarshish." Josephus speaks of Ezion-geber as " a certain place in the Elanitic bay of the Red Sea, now called Bernice, and not far from the city Elath " (Antiq. vi. 8, § 4). Dr. Robinson says of Ezion-geber and of Elath — " In very ancient times there lay at this extremity of the eastern gulf of the Red Sea, two towns of note in Scripture history, Ezion-geber and Elath. The former is mentioned first as a station of the Israelites, from wdiich they returned to Kadesh probably a second time ; and both towns are again named after that people had left Mount Hor, as the point where they turned eastward from the Red Sea, in order to pass around on the eastern side of the land of Edom. That they were near each other is also said expressly in another place. Ezion-geber became famous as the port where Solomon, and after him Jehoshaphat, built fleets to carry on a commerce with Ophir. Josephus says it lay near ^lana, {xnd was afterwards called Berenice. But it is mentioned no more, and no trace of it seems now to remain, unless it be in the name of a small wady with brackish water, el-Ghudyan, opening into el-Arabah from the western mountain some distance north of 'Akabah. May it not be, perhaps, that the northern shallow portion of the gulf anciently

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extended up to this fountain? In that case Elath was situated on a projecting point south of the northern extremity of the gulf, just where the great road from Petra, on the east of the mountains, descended through Wady el-Ithm to the shore.

" Elatli, called by the Greeks and Romans Ailah and ^lana, appears to have suppLanted by degrees its less fortunate neighbour, perhaps having been rebuilt by Azariah (Uzziah) about 800 d.c. Some fifty years later it was taken from the Jews by Rezin, king of Syria, and never came again into their possession. The notices of this city found in Greek and Roman writers, are fully collected in the great works of Cellarius and Reland. In the days of Jerome it was still a place of trade to India ; and a Roman legion was stationed here. Theodoret a little later remarks, that it had formerly been a great emporium, and that ships in his time sailed from thence to India. Ailah became early the seat of a Christian church ; and the names of four bishops of Ailah

are found in various councils from a.d. 320 to a.d. 536

When in a.d. G30 Muhammed had carried his victorious armies north- ward as far as to Tebuk, it was the signal for the Christian communi- ties of Arabia Petra^a to submit voluntarily to the conqueror, and to obtain peace by the payment of tribute. Among these was John, the Christian ruler of Ailah, who became bound to pay an annual tribute of three hundred gold pieces.

" From this time onward, Ailah became lost under the shroud of Muhammedan darkness, from which it has fully emerged only during the present century."

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NUMBERS XXXIV.

ND the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Command tlie cliildren of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land of Canaan (this is the land that shall fall unto you for an inherit- ance, even the land of Canaan, with the coasts thereof), then your south quarter shall he from the wilderness of Zin, along by the coast of Edora, and your south border shall be the outmost coast of the salt sea eastward. And your border shall turn from the south to the ascent of Akrabbim, and pass on to Zin : and the going forth thereof shall be from the south to Kadesh-ljarnoa, and shall go on to Hazar-addar, and pass on to Azmon. And the border shall fetch a compass from Azmon unto the river of Egypt, and the goings out of it shall be at the sea. And as for the western border, ye sliall even have the great sea for a border : this shall be your west border. And this shall be your north border : from the great sea ye shall point out for you mount Hor. From mount Hor ye shall point out your border unto the entrance of Hamath ; and the goings forth of the border shall be to Zedad. And the border shall go on to Ziphron, and the goings out of it shall be at Hazar-enan : this shall be your north border. And ye shall point out your east border from Ilazar-enan to Shepham. And the coast shall go down from Shepham to Riblali, on the east side of Ain ; and the border shall descend, and shall reach unto the side of the sea of Chinnereth eastward. And the border shall go down to Jordan, and the goings out of it shall be at the salt sea : this shall be your land, with the coasts thereof round about. And Moses commanded the children of Israel, saying, This is the land which ye shall inherit by lot, which the Lord commanded to give unto the nine tribes, and to the half-tribe. For the tribe of the cliildren of Reuben, according to the house of their fathers, and the tribe of the children of Gad, according to the house of their fathers, have received their inheritance, and half the tribe of Manasseh have received their inheritance : the two tribes and the half-tribe have received their inheritance on this side Jordan near Jericho eastward, toward tlie sun- rising" (ver. 1-15).

These verses raise the question of the geographical limits of the

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157

Holy Land. This question is one of much interest and importance, inasmuch as it raises a subordinate one regarding the ability of the hind to support the popuhition afterwards known to have dwelt in it. ]\Iany precious promises are likewise linked up with it. To reach a satisfactory conclusion on the matter, we need to have all the passages which bear clearly and closely oir it before us. The points in these which claim notice are the following: — The wilderness of Zin is in verse 36 of the preceding chapter, said to be identical with Kadesh. This place was the most important in it, and its name was interchange- able with Zin, which lay on the south of Edom. Thus it is said, " They removed from Kadesh, and pitched in Mount Hor, in *he edge of the land of Edom." The " Salt Sea," we learn from Joshua iii. 16, was another name for the Dead Sea. Thus, when the Jordan was divided, the " waters which came down from above," that is, from the Sea of Galilee, " rose up upon an heap, and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off." The "river of Egypt" was the Nile, and not the el-Arish, to which that name is sometimes given. See under Gen. xv. The " Great Sea," which lay on the western limit, was the Mediterranean. " Hamath," the ancient Epiphania, and the modern Hamah, was long a chief city of Upper Syria. It was situated in the valley of the Orontes, on both sides of the river. It has still a population of above thirty thousand. "The entering in of Hamath" is the expression used by ]\Ioses when defining the north border. " This phrase," says Dr. Robinson, " seems evidently to refer to some point or tract on the extreme northern border of the Promised Land, in its farthest extent, as laid down by Moses in the Book of Numbers. Hamath is here put for ' the land of Hamath,' the territory or kingdom which took its name from that city, and which extended so far as to include Riblah in the south. The Mediterranean being the western border, the northern border was to run from the sea to Mount Hor; thence ' unto the entrance of Hamath ;' and thence to Yedad, now Sudud, some hours south-cast of Hums. Solomon after- wards held a great festival, ' and all Israel with liim, from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of Egypt.' Further, among the portions of the land not subdued by Joshua or the people afterwards, was 'all Lebanon, on the east, from Baal-gad under Mount Hermon (or from Baal-hermon) unto the entering into Hamath ; ' that is, all Lebanon from the region of Dan and Banias to its northern extremity. It is further related that Jeroboam II. ' restored the coast of Israel from the entering in of Hamath unto the sea of the plain,' or Dead Sea ; and we

158 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

infer that the phrase has here its usual meaning, from tiie subsequent mention, that Jeroboam ' recovered Damascus and Hamath for Israel.' AH these notices show clearly that ' the entering in of Hamath' was at the northern extremity of Lebanon ; and that, when the children of Israel took possession of the Promised Land, this became a geographical name for the great interval, or depression, between the northern end of Lebanon and the Niisairiyeh mountains. Mount Hor was obviously between the sea-shore and the Bukei'a. ' The entering in of Hamath' may then refer either generally to the whole of the great depression, affording as it does an easy passage from the coast to the plain of the Orontes, or, specifically, to the pass through the ridge under el-Husn and the low water-shed east of the Bukei'a ; or, more specifically still, only to this low water-shed adjacent to the plain of the Orontes. In cither application the phrase is intelligible and sufiiciently definite." — (Researches, vol. iii., p. 568.)

The other passages of Scripture bearing on this question may now be grouped together, that the reader may see the grounds for the conclusions stated below. " In that same day the Lord made a cove- nant with Abram, saying. Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates : the Kenites, and the Kcnizzites, and the Kadmonites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites" (Gen. xv. 18-21). "And I w'ill set thy bounds from the Red Sea even unto the sea of the Philis- tines, and from the desert unto the river : for I will deliver the inhabit- ants of the land into your hand ; and thou shalt drive them out before thee" (Exod. xxiii. 31). " The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying. Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount : turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and unto all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the sea-side, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Euphrates. Behold, I have set the land before you : go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them, and to their seed after them" (Dent. i. 6-8). "Then will the Lord drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves. Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours : from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the utter- most sea, shall your coast be" (xi. 23, 24). " So Joshua took all that

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land, the bills, and all tlie south country, and all the land of Goshen, and the valley, and the plain, and the mountain of Israel, and the valley of the same ; even from the Mount Halak, that goeth up to Seir, even unto Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon, under Mount Hermon : and all their kings he took, and smote them, and slew them" (Josh. xi. 16, 17). "This is the land that yet remaiueth : all tbe borders of the Philistines, and all Geshuri, from Sihor, which is before Egypt, even unto the borders of Ekron northward, which is counted to the Canaanite: five lords of the Philistines ; the Gazathites, and the Ashdothites, the Eshkalonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites ; also the Avites : from the south, all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah tbat is beside the Sidonians, unto Aphek, to the borders of the Amorites : and the land of the Giblites, and all Lebanon, toward the sun-rising, from Baal-gad under Mount Hermon unto the entering into Hamath : all the inhab- itants of tlie hill country from Lebanon imto Misrephoth-maim, and all the Sidonians, them will I drive out from before the children of Israel : only divide thou it by lot unto the Israelites for an inheritance, as I have commanded thee" (xiii. 2-6). See also chapters xviii. and xix. ; Judges i; 2 Sam. viii. 3. "And Solomon reigned over all kingdoms, from the river unto the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt : they brought presents, and served Solomon all the days of his life. And Solomon's provision for one day was thirty measures of fine flour, and threescore measures of meal, ten fat oxen, and twenty oxen out of the pastures, and an hundred sheep, beside harts, and roebucks, and fallow-deer, and fatted fowl. For he had dominion over all the region on this side the river, from Tiphsah even to Azzah, over all the kings on this side the river : and he had peace on all sides round about liim. And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, all the days of Solomon" (1 Kings iv. 21-2G). "And Solomon went to Hamath- zobah, and prevailed against it. And he built Tadmor in the wilder- ness, and all the store-cities which he built in Hamath. Also he built Bcth-horon the upper, and Beth-horon the nether, fenced cities, with walls, gates, and bars ; and Baalath, and all the store-cities that Solo- mon had, and all the chariot-cities, and the cities of the horsemen, and all that Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and throughout all the land of his dominion. As for all the people that were left of the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Ilivites, and the Jcbusites, which were not of Israel, did Solomon make to pay tribute" (2 Chron. viii. 3-7).

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A careful study and comparison of tliese passages leads to the follow- ing inferences : — The limits on tlie east and on the south are not the same in all the passages. In that under notice, for example, the south- ern boundary is stated as " the wilderness of Ziii, along by the coasts of Edom." But in Exodus xxiii. 31, the southern boundary sweeps round Edom itself, and lies on the Eed Sea. Then as to the eastern limit, iu Numbers the Jordan was to be the line ; but in Gen. xv. 18, in Deut. i. 7, and in several other passages, the Euphrates is named as the boundary line on the east. The explanation of this apparent con- tradiction is, that in Numbers the territory to be divided when the Canaanites should be overcome is described ; in the other passages either the promise of the farthest limits of the land is stated, or a decided intimation is given that Israel was not to push their conquests farther at any period of their history than the Red Sea and the Nile on the south, the Euphrates on the east, the Mediterranean on the west, and the entering in of Hamath on the north. The boundaries of the land were thus much wider than the region actually possessed by the Israelites, except at one or two periods in their national history. Yet all the extent of territory, bounded as above, was pledged to them in the promise of God. That land is still embraced in the promise, and, even though we may see many difficulties in making out from Scripture that the Jews will be restored again as a nation to their own land, there can be little doubt that the promise to Abraham has still bearings on those who in the last days may be called to take possession of that whole region. "All Israel shall be saved.''

It is thus clear that any attempts to determine what number of inhabitants the Land of Promise could maintain, must not be regulated by the passage under notice, but by the other passages in which the whole extent of territory is described. But even within the limits laid down in Numbers at least twenty-five millions of acres were contained. Taking the average number in a family as five, and parcelling to each family six acres, four millions of families would be able to live in com- fort. But it is calculated that for one family engaged in agriculture, another related to it is employed in other occupations. Canaan would thus be able to support a population of at least forty millions. But if the southern boundary be regarded as the Red Sea and the Nile, and the eastern boundary the Euphrates, more than double this population could be supported on it.

" The ' breadth of Immanuel's land,' instead of being contracted to a span, is still more worthy of the name, and it stops not short of a

;^1

NUMBERS XXXIV. 161

navigable frontier everywhere, and on every side. The longitude of the Nile is 30° 2'; that of the Euphrates, as it flows through the Persian Gulf, 48° 26', or a ditference of nearly eighteen degrees and a half, or more than eleven hundred miles. So large is the space com- prehended, along the southern frontier, from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates, from the east side to the west side, or in the same latitude. On the northern extremity of the land, the range of Araanus, from the river Euphrates, to the uttermost sea, or extremity of the Mediterranean, scarcely exceeds one hundred miles. In round numbers the average breadth of the promised land would thus be 600 miles, which multiplied by its length, 500, gives an area of 300,000 square miles, or more than that of any kingdom or empire of Europe, Russia alone excepted. The jesting Frenchman is brought down from his boasting, when it is seen that a region half the extent of France would need to be added to its size, before the land of ' the great nation' would equal, in superficial extent, that land which the Lord gave to the seed of Israel. It exceeds, in the aggregate amount of square miles, the territories of ten kingdoms of Europe — Prussia, Belgium, the Nether- lands, Bavaria, Saxony, Hanover, Wirtemberg, Denmark, Sardinia, and Greece ; and its relative proportion to Great Britain and Ireland is 300 to 118, or more than two and a half to one. Were the average breadth to be reckoned at 500, instead of the medium 600 miles, which, from inequality of the sides, may be nearer the truth, the superficial extent of the promised land alone would still exceed that of the largest king- dom of Europe. But Israel, extensive as are its bounds, is not destined to stand alone. Its mightiest adversaries of old shall be its servants. No prince but of Israel shall rule in Egypt or Assyria. The former country will add to Israel's dominion, or subservient domain, an area of 150,000 square miles. The latter, including Mesopotamia, and ' stretching beyond the Tigris as far as the mountains of Media,' and from the mountains of Armenia to the Persian Gulf, leaves no region that shall not own immediate fealty to the kingdom of Israel, from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean to the borders of Persia, and the vicinity of the Caspian. Such is the power of the word of the livhig God ; such the liberality of his gifts to the people whom He chose, were they his own by another covenant than that which they have broken ; and such, in topographical relations alone, is the provision that is made, as thus revealed, for the completion of the promise, that Israel shall finally be a blessing in the midst of the earth." — [Keith.) " Inhabitants of Canaan;" see under Deut. vii. 1.

vol.. II.

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DEUTERONOMY I. -VI.

'HESE be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red Sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Leban, and Hazeroth, and Dizabah" (ver. 1). " And it came to pass IW^'" i^ the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, ws ' according unto all that the Lord had given him in command- ' ment unto him" (ver. 3). These words have helped to startle Dr. Colenso out of his ignorant trust in the Pentateuch as a divinely inspired book! He has joined two other passages with them, and devoted a chapter (i. 5) in his superficial but mischievous work, to point out their non-historical character. The other passages are — " And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, 0 Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your cars this day, that ye may learn them, and keep and do them" (v. i.), and Josh. viii. 33-35 — " And all Israel, and their elders, and officers, and their judges, stood on this side the ark, and on that side, before the priests the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, as well the stranger, as he that Avas born among them ; half of them over against Mount Gcrizim, and half of them over against Mount Ebal ; as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel. And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them." Here is this author's stumbling-block : — " There were upwards of two million of people; was it possible that any human voice could reach such a multitude? How, then, is it conceivable that a man should do what Joshua jf, here said to have done, unless, indeed, the reading every ' word of all that Moses commanded,' with ' the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law,' was a mere dumb show, without the least idea of those most solemn words being heard by those to whom they were addressed? For surely no human voice,

DEUTERONOMY I. -VI. 1G3

unless strengthened Ijy a miracle, of which the Scripture tells us nothing, could have reached the ears of a crowded mass of people, as large as the whole population of Londoii. The very crying of the ' little ones,' who ai'e expressly stated to have been present, must have sufficed to drown the sounds at a few yards' distance. It may be said, indeed, that only a portion of this great host was really present, though 'all Israel' is spoken of. And this might have been allowed without derogating from the general historical value of the book, though, of course, not without impeaching the literal accuracy of the Scripture narrative, which by some is so strenuously maintained. But the above words quoted from Joshua are so comprehensive, that they will not allow of tliis. We must suppose that, at least, the great body of the Congregation was present, and not only present, but able to hear the words of awful moment which Joshua addressed to them."

One feels as if it gave importance to such silly trifling to notice it ; and but for the social and ecclesiastical position of its author, it would have soon sunk out of sight. The president of the United States was recently said to have visited the great Federal army, and to have addressed the soldiers, as many in number as the warriors of Israel. Did it enter into the head of any sane man to denounce the statement as wholly untrue, on the ground that it was a physical impossibility for any man to make his voice be heard by such a vast multitude ? But more, every word of the address was declared to have been spoken to the whole American people. There is nothing in the passages quoted which should seem even to Dr. Colenso less worthy of belief than this !

Verses 7 and 8 — see under Num. xxxiv. Verse 8, chap. ii. undei- Num. xxxiii. 35. Chap. iii. 8, 9, under Ps. xxix.

" And I besought the Lord at that time, saying, 0 Lord God, thou hast begun to shew thy servant thy greatness, and thy mighty hand : for what God is there in heaven or in earth that can do accordinu- to thy works, and according to thy might? I pray thee, let me go over and see the good land that is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon. But the Lord was wroth with me for your sakes, and would not hear me ; and the Lord said unto me, Let it suffice thee ; speak no more unto me of this matter. Get thee up unto the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes : for thou shalt not go over this Jordan" (ver. 23-27). "To these mountains of Abarim, to the top of Pisgah, to a high place dedicated to the heathen Nebo, as Balaam's standing-place had been consecrated to Peor, ' Moses went

1G4 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

up from the desert plain of Moab over against Jericho.' In

the long line of those eastern mountains which so constantly meet the view of the traveller in all the western parts of Palestine, the ej'e vainly strives to discern any point emerging from this horizontal platform, which may be fixed as the top of Nebo. Nothing but a fuller descrip- tion than has ever yet been given of these regions, can determine the spot where the great lawgiver and leader of his people looked down upon their embattled ranks, and over the ' land which he was to see with his eyes, but was not to go in thither.' But the general account leaves no doubt that the place intended is some elevation immediately over the last stage of the Jordan. Northward, his eye turned to ' all the land of Gilead,' continuing the same eastern barrier as that on which he himself stood, till it ended, far beyond his sight, in Dan. Westward, there were on the northern horizon, the distant hills of ' all Naphtali.' Coming nearer, was ' the land of Ephraim and Manasseh.' Immediately opposite, was ' all the land of Judah ; ' beyond which, though unseen, lay ' the utmost sea' and the desert of ' the south ' — Jerusalem itself, in all probability, distinctly visible through the opening of the descent to Jericho. These were the four great masses of the future inheritance of his people, on which the narrative fixes our atten- tion. Immediately below him was the ' round ' of the plain of Jericho, with its oasis of palm-trees, and far away on his left, though hardly visible, the last inhabited spot before the great desert — ' Zoar.' It was a view, doubtless, which in its full extent was to be imagined, rather than actually seen. In this respect the Pisgah-prospect is a striking illustration of all the prophetic visions of the sacred writings. The foreground of the picture alone was clearly discernible; its dim distances were to be supplied by what was beyond, though suggested by what was within, the range of the actual prospect of the seer. But between him and that ' good land,' the deep valley of the Jordan intervened. ' So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord.' In language less simple, but hardly less touching, the Jewish historian adds — ' As he was bidding farewell to Eleazar and Joshua, whilst he was yet talking with them, a cloud suddenly stood over him, and he vanished in a ravine.'" — (Stanley.)

DEUTERONOMY VII.

165

DEUTERONOMY VII.

HE people were warned by I\Ioses against the idolatry and

immorality of the nations of Canaan. These were seven

in number, greater and mightier than Israel, namely, " the

Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the

' Cauaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the

Jebusites."

" The Hittites," or children of Heth the second son of Canaan (Gen. x. 15). They dwelt at the time of Abraham in Hebron and the mountain tract around it (Gen. xxiii). They appear to have greatly increased, and to have shed their political influence over the other tribes. Thus Joshua mentions Canaan as " all land of the Hittites" (i. 4). Even to a comparatively late period in the history of Israel, the chiefs of the Canaanitish tribes which survived the general slaughter, when the chosen people took possession of the land, were named " the kings of the Hittites" (2 Kings vii. G).

"The Girgashites" were descended from the fifth son of Canaan (Gen. X. 16). "We have nothing," says Josephus, "in the sacred books but their name, for the Hebrews overthrew their cities." The attempts which have been made to associate them with Gadara and Gerasa are not satisfactory.

" The Amorites" are first named in Gen. x. 16, as sprung from Canaan. Their name is usually held to mean " highlanders." They are named in the report of the spies as dwelling in the uplands — " The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south ; and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan" (Num. xiii. 29). They were a very powerful tribe, and had possessions both on the east and west of the Jordan. A tract stretching from the Arnon on the south to the base of Hermon on the north was occupied by them. They had, more- over, established themselves among the mountains which later fell to the tribe of Judah (Num. xxi. 13, 21, 26; Deut. ii. 26; Josh. ii. 10,

IX.

10, xxiv. 12

Judg.

XI.

?2, 23).

"The Canaanites," or "lowlanders" occupied chiefly the plains of Philistia, Sharon, Phoenicia, and Esdraelon. The tribe was one of

IGG BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

Hamites, which with the others hohl a distinct and independent tribal standing. The name is sometimes used for all the inhabitants of Pales- tine, at the period when Israel left the wilderness to take posscssioJi of their land.

" The Perizzites." This name seems to have been given to a tribe much behind the others in civilization. It answers to our expression " rude rustics." The Perizzites dwelt in the wildest tracts of the mountains later occupied by Judah and Ephraim (Exod. xxiii. 23; Josh. xi. 3, xvii. 15; 1 Kings xix. 20, 21 ; Ezra ix. 1).

" The Hivites," though a distinct standing was assigned to them as a tribe, were so intimately associated with the Amorites, as to be named after that tribe. They had possessions in the middle and north of Pales- tine (Gen xxxiv. 2 ; xlviii. 22 ; Josh ix. 7 ; 2 Sam. xxi. 2).

" Tlie Jebusites," or inhabitants of Jcbus, afterwards Jerusalem, dwelt in the region of which the Holy City was the centre. They were not completely conquered, and the city wrested from them, till the time of David. They were descended from the third son of Canaan (Gen. X. 16), In Numbers xiii. 29, their territory is said to have been among the mountains. After they were subdued by David they appear to have entered into friendly relations with Israel. " Araunah" tlie king, who gave to David the threshing floor as a place of sacrifice, was a Jebusite (2 Sam. xiv. 23 ; 1 Chron. xi. 4, 5 ; xix. 23).

Blessing in richest abundance was promised to them if they hearkened to the exhortations of God by his servant Closes — " He will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee : he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee" (ver. 13) — see under xi. 14.

Dr. Colenso devotes a cliapter to the statements in verses 20-23 — " The Lord thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed. Thou shalt not be aftVighted at them : for the Lord thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible. And the Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee. But the Lord thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed." He holds the account of matters here to be wholly unreliable ! The colony of Natal with a population of 150,000, dwelling on 18,000 square miles, has been freed from lions, elephants, rhinoceroses, and hippopotami. Leopards, wild

DEUTERONOMY VII. 167

boars, hj'senas, and jackals indeed are occasionally killed in the bush. " But the population of the land of Canaan would have been more than twenty times as thick as that of Natal ; " the conclusion being, that this statement as to the probable increase of wild beasts is not worth any attention at all ! But the physical features of the countries differ much. Besides, when Israel entered on the possession of the land, they would naturally first occupy the portions which were already in a state of cultivation. The wild beasts betook themselves to the mountain fortresses. But it was not the purpose of God that his people should have two series of battles to fight ; first with the inhabitants, and then with the beasts of prey. Many belonging to the nations to be extir- pated were driven into the mountains and made to destroy the " evil beasts," that when the people increased and felt fully at home in the land, the whole territory might be occupied with ease.

168

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

DEUTERONOMY VIII.-XII.

'HE design of God in leading his people into the wilderness is stated in verses 2, 3, and the proofs of his remarkable care are noticed in verse 4 — " And thou shalt remember all the v^'ay which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep ' his commandments, or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know ; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that pro- ceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years." In all the wondrous manifestations of his power at the time of the Exodus, and in all the evidences of his constant care in the " howling wilderness,"' the Israelites were to look beyond mere second causes. The circumstances amidst which they had been could not be understood otherwise. The unfaded garment and the unswollen foot were not to be mistaken. The blessings were directly from God.

The outstanding physical features of the land, and some of the natural products for which it was celebrated, are mentioned in verses 7-9 — " For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land ; a land of brooks of water, of fountains, and depths that spring out of valleys and hills ; a land of wheat, and Ijarley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates ; a land of oil-olive and honey ; a land wlierein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it ; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass." Every traveller in Palestine hastens to bear witness to the aptness of verse 7, as a description of the land. " Certainly this is a good land. I have never seen a better ; and none where the fountains and depths that spring out of the valleys and hills are so numerous, so large, and so beautiful. And then remember that this is a climate almost tropical, where water is fertility and life, and the absence of it sterility and death, and the greatness of the blessing is vastly enhanced. The number of these fountains and depths is prodigious. Many of those

DEUTEEOXOMY VIII.-XII. 169

whose united contributions make up the Jordan, we have looked into during these last few days; but the whole land is full of them: — those of the Dog River; of the River of Beiriit; of the Danuir; the Owely ; the Zahrany ; those of the Litany at Baalbek ; Zahleh, 'Ainjar, and J\Iush- garah; the great Ras el'Ain at Tyre; those of Kabery and the Naamany, on the plain of Acre ; and of the Kislion at Jenin, Lejjun, and Wady Kusaby ; of the Zerka, near Cassarea ; and those of tlie Aujeh at Anti- patris, and the Ras in Sharon. And thus we might go through all Palestine, on both sides of the Jordan, and enumerate hundreds of them — powerful fountains — the permanent sources of every river in the country. I have visited them often, and always with admiration and astonishment. Nor need we wonder that so much is made of them in the Bible : they are the glory and the life of the land, and they abound to an extent almost incredible. Many single villages in the mountains have scores of smaller springs, which run among the valleys, and give drink to every beast of tlie field. Some even boast of hundreds of these little sources of fertility. Many of these fountains have some peculiar characteristic about them. Some are tepid, as those along the shore of Tiberias ; many are slightly brackish, and not a few are remittent or wholly intermittent. Of this latter class is Neb'ah Fuarr, the source of the Sabbatic River ; the IMenbej, east of Beit Jenn, the head of the second river of Damascus. The main source of the Litany at 'Anjur is a remitting fountain of a very extraordinary kind. But we must not make a pleasant subject tedious by too much detail. Enough has been said to justify the declaration of Moses, that this is eminently the land of fountains."

The cereals specially mentioned as characteristic of the "good land" are wheat and barley, species of corn which were to become the food of the rich and the poor. " Barley," Heb., shorah, will be particularly referred to under Ruth i. 22 — which see. "Wheat" is given in our version as the translation of five different words, namely, hdr, Gen. xlii. 3 ; ddgun, Ps. iv. 7 — which see ; rtphotJi, Prov. xxvii. 22 ; hhinfm, Ezra vi. 9 ; and hhitdh in the passage under notice. Bipliuih properly means "flour" of any cereal. In 2 Sara. xvii. 19 it is rendered " ground corn." HMntJn is the Chaldee masculine plural used by Ezra for wheat. Ilhitah is the term for wheat properly so called, whether regarded as the plant, the seed, or as in the state of flour. Bar and darjan are rendered wheat when they refer to the best kind of grain.

" Wheat," Tr/'ticum, belongs to the natural order Graminete, or grass family of plants. It is the most highly esteemed of the cereal

VOL. U. Y

170

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

grasses, and has been very widely cultivated from time immemorial. It is first mentioned about two thousand years before the Christian era (Gen. XXX. 14). At that early date even it was in common cultivation. The native country of the cultivated wheat is not known. It has been found wild in Persia in circumstances removed from the influence of man. The high value set upon wheat is to be traced to its superior nourishing power as an article of diet. It contains more substance which speedily becomes blood than any other cereal grass. Thus its importance as food. This fact can be easily ascertained. If wheaten flour be mixed with water, and slowly passed through a very fine sieve until the whole of the starch in the meal has been carried away, there remains a sticky elastic substance known as gluten. Wlien this is boiled with strong spirits of wine, a residuum is obtained which is found to be identical in every respect with the fibrin of the animal frame. The nutritive quality in wheat varies according to the suitable- ness of the soil for its growth. Some soils yield wheat which, while it may be long in the stalk and spikes, may yet be far inferior in its power to nourish to that grown on land well fitted for it. The finest of the Avheat is not only that which is largest in the grain, but that which is most nourishing to man. The variation in the composition of wheat may be given thus : —

Diy. Freed from Ashes.

, ■ — ' , , A ^

1- ■2. 3. Me.in. 1. 2. 3. Menu.

Carbon 0-453 0-455 0-458 0-455 0-4G4 0-465 0409 0-4GC

Hydrogen 0059 0-055 0-056 0-057 0-060 0-056 0058 0-058

Azote 0-034 0 034 0034 0034 0-045 0-0345 00345 0-0345

Oxygen 0-431 0433 0-429 0431 0-4315 04445 0-4385 0-4415

Ashes 0-023 0023 0-023 0-023

1000 1000 1000 1000

10005 10000 10000 10000

When Palestine was characterized as a " land of wheat," it was implied that large portions of its soil was well fitted for raising wheat of the finest kind — see under Ezek. xxvii. 17. Travellers vie with each other in describing the fruitfulness of the land which now lies desolate. The capacity of the soil to grow richest crops of wheat has in recent times been fully tested ; and though a blight rests on Palestine because of the sins of that people who crucified the King himself, it is still, as in the days when Israel took possession of it, a " good land." Even Volney, who travelled with the avowed design of casting reproach on the Bible account of the land, says — " It is rich and loamy, and indi-

DEUTEKONOMY VIU.-XII.

171

cates the greatest t'ruitfulness. Almost everywliere the earth is brown, and as fine as garden mould."

" Vines" — see under Num. xiii. 20; "Fig-trees," Gen. iii. 7; "Pome- granates," 1 Sam. xiv. 2 ; " Oil-olive and honey," 2 Kings xviii. 32.

" Iron," Heb. barzel, has been fully noticed and illustrated under Gen. iv. 22 — which see. Among the cuts given under that passage two forms of iron pyrites are introduced, namely, arborescent iron

Fig. 57

Fig. 68.

Iron Pyrites, Rhowiiif; faces <jf the Crystals.

Needle Iron Ore.

pyrites, and pyrites in cubes. The accompanying figure (57) indicates the appearance which pyrites assume wlien met with as octahedrons, or crystals characterized by eight triangular faces. Fig. 58 repre- sents needle iron ore. All these with, so called, clay iron ore, are met with in Palestine.

"Brass," Heb. nchlwshetli, means "copper" in this place — see

Fig. 60. Fig. 69.

Crystals of Grey Cop|icr (^Fahl ore).

Kadi&ted Blue Copper (Asuriut).

also under Gen. iv. 22. In classifying the different kinds of copper, grey cop})cr is mentioned along with white, black, red, velvet, emerald, olive, and tile ores. Fig. GO shows the structure of another ore of copper, azurite. A peculiarly interesting and beautiful form occurs as copper glance, or vitreous copper, as it is sometimes called, fig. Gl. Its form is prismatic. In colour it varies from black to steel grey,

Fig. 61.

dusky yellow, and even indigo blue. The specimen represented here occurred in quartz rock.

Continuing his instructions, Moses bids them beware lest they forget

the Lord their God— " Who led thefe through that great and terrible wilder- ness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water ; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint" (ver. 15).

" Scorpion," Heb. akrdv, Gr. sJcorpws, is mentioned four times in the Old and Crystals of Copper- fourtimcs lu the New Testament. It is

ranked with the spiders, &c., under the class Arctchnida. With another family they form the order Pedipalpi, or true-jointed animals [Articu- lata), whose front pair of feet are used as feelers. They give their name to the family Scorpionidce. The scorpions are all natives of warm

climates. They are found in the south of Europe, but are most abundant and grow to the greatest size in tropical regions. They are numerous in Palestine. Travel- lers in the desert frequently meet with them in summer and autumn among heaps of loose stones.

The last joint of the tail-like abdomen is terminated by an incurved claw, which acts as a sting. The poison glands are situated at the base of this organ, and their ducts run to its point. When in motion ihc, so called, tail is turned up over its back, and the sting is carried as if in the act to strike. The eyes are placed on the last joint of tlie body {cephalotliorax). They are six in number, two in the centre and two at either side. The female, like other members of this class, shows great attachment to its young. The sting is very painful and sometimes mortal. Tliis, with the general appear- ance of the animal, has at all times surrounded it with feelings of dislike and fear. De Saulcy informs us that when one of his Arabs was stung

Scorpion {Scorpio Ceesar).

DEUTERONOMY VIII.-XII. 173

by a scorpion, he cut open the flesli where tlie wound had been made, poured some liquid ammonia into it, and gave the man a few drops to drink in a ghiss of water. The result was a perfect cure.

In the reference to this animal by the self-willed son of Solomon, there does not appear to have been more than the declaration that his oppressions would come to be as much dreaded by the people, if they were not submissive, as men dread the sting of the scorpion. There is no necessity for making out, that some kind of scourge bore that name (1 Kings xii. 11, 1-4). The enemies of the servants of God are compared to scorpions (Ezek. ii. 6).

With the "first rain and the latter rain" in its season promised by God to his people if they hearkened diligently to his commandments, weather was to be given favourable to the gathering in of the fruits of the land — "the corn, the wine, and the oil" (xi. 14). The general term translated "corn" is explained under Ps. iv. 7, which see. Like the word "corn (dagdn)" "wine (tlrusJ/)" is used in a very wide acceptation. It may mean grapes in almost any condition, and also certain preparations from the grape. Thus its meaning here is simply grape clusters. These are referred to, as is frequently the case, under the name of the juice yielded by them, as the olive is under the term "oil." The word occurs in Gen. xxvii. 28, 37 — "God give thee plenty of corn and wine." "With corn and wine have I sustained' him." In both passages "corn" includes every cereal which was in that land used for food, and " wine" all the various preparations from the grape. In like manner Aaron's portion was to consist in part of " the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine and of the wheat (ddgdn)" (Num. xviii. 12). The prophet, in the grand description of a ten'ible and wide-spread desolation, speaks of the new wine (tlrdsh) mourning, and the vine languishing. The picture brings out boldly the season at which this judgment was to overtake the earth. It was when the grapes were ready to yield their blood, and when the vine was in its beauty (Isa. xxiv. 7). The same prophet makes use of a like appearance in order to teach a widely different lesson. He describes the people of God as despised because of their sin, and in danger of being destroyed. But he wishes to convey the tidings that, notwithstaiKling all their iniquities, they still were loved by God. What God has blessed and will bless let not man destroy. " Thus saith the Lord, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith. Destroy it not ; for a blessing is in it : so will I do for my servants' sakes, that I may not destroy them all. And I will bring forth a seed out of

174

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains : and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there" (Ixv. 8, 9). The Hebrew word is translated "sweet wine" in Mic. vi. 15, which see. Besides those mentioned, it occurs in other twenty-nine passages, as " wine" and " new wine."

" And it shall come to pass, when the Lord thy God hath brought thee in unto the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt put the blessing upon jNIount Gerizim, and the curse upon Mount Ebal" (ver. 29). See under chap, xxvii. 12, 13.

The beasts of the land fit for food were freely permitted to them. They were to eat " whatsoever their souls lusted after, even as the roebuck and the hart is eaten" (xii. 15, 22).

" Roebuck," Heb. tzeci. The same word is rendered " beauty" in

Fig. 63.

^S--^

The Spring-boc {Gazelle tucliare).

2 Sam. i. 19; Ezek. vii. 10; "beautiful," Isa. iv. 2; "glory," Isa. xiii. 19; xxiii. 9; "glorious," xxviii. 1, 4; "goodly," .Jer. iii. 19, &c. It is clear that the animal referred to was noted for its gracefulness. Our translators, attracted, no doubt, by the beauty of the well-known British species, the roe {Capreolus dorcas), set it down as the tztvi o^ Scripture. It is a native of Britain, and is found wild both in the temperate parts of Europe and Asia Minor. It is worthy of notice, that one of the South African tribes gives a name, almost identical with

DEUTERONOMY VIII.-XII.

175

Fig. Ci.

Development of tlie Horns of the Red Deer.

the Hebrew one, to a beautiful gazelle, the spring-boc, which belongs to a different family, the Antihpidce. The roe is ranked under the deers proper {Cervidcp). See under Prov. vi. 5. (Plate XIII., Fig. 3.)

" Hart," Heb. wjCd, male; " hind," ai/dld/t, female. The Septuagint rendering is elaphas, the red deer (Cervi/s elaphas), or common stag of zoologists. Like the roe, this spe- cies is to be met with in Britain, and in the temperate parts of Asia Minor. The hart is distinguished, like the males of this family {Cervidoe), by branching horns, which are shed periodically. When the animal is two years old, the horn is a simple stem, a. It afterwards passes through the different forms, a to /, the last being its fully branched and mature condition. Great variety obtains both as to horns and teeth among the members of this family. In the muntjak, for example, another Asiatic species, the bones of the head are extended as strong columns on which the two-pronged horns are supported. This species is also distinguished by two tusk-like canine teeth in the upper jaw.

The hart is again mentioned in chap. xiv. o ; XV. 22. Its flesh formed part of the supply for Solomon's table (1 Kings iv. 23). The soul longing for God is said by the psalmist to be like the hart driven into barren solitudes, in which it misses the copious supplies of water in its native mountain haunts : —

" As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, So panteth my soul after thee, O God, My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God."

— ;Ps. xlii. I.)

Fig. Co.

In the Song the " Beloved" is compared to a young """"f '"e Ma-tjat. hart (ii. 9 ; viii. 14). When the Spirit of God was poured out, not only were the " weak hands strengthened, and the feeble knees confirmed," but the " lame leaped as an hart" (Isa. xxxv. 3-G). Jeremiah pictures the princes of the people during the dearth as " like harts that find no pasture" (Lam. i. 16). " Hind;" see under Ps. xviii. 33.

176 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

DEUTEEONOMY XIV.

'HE general principles illnstrated by the precepts in this cliapter have been noticed under Lev. xi. Some of the animals named here are not mentioned in Leviticus. These arc, " the hart, roebuck, fallow deer, wild goat, pygiirg, wild ox, and chamois" (ver. 5). The first two are noticed above. The name of the second occurs only here and in 1 Kings iv. 23. The other four are not referred to in any other passage but this — a circumstance which throws more or less uncertainty around them. " Fallow deer," Heb. yahhmur. The name is derived from a root signifying "brown." In summer the fur of the fallow deer [Cerviis dama) is light brown spotted with white, and in winter it is blackish brown. This has led to the supposition that this species represents the yahlimur of Moses. It is abundant in Palestine. See under 1 Kings iv. 23.

" Wild goat," Heb. ahho, the ibex {Capra ibex, Plate XIIL, Fig. 1), is found in the Swiss Alps, in the range of the Caucasus, and in the mountains of Syria. It is the connecting link between the sheep {JEgosceridce) and the antelopes {Antilopidce).

" Pygarg," Heb. dislwn, the common antelope {Antilope cervicapra, Plate XIIL, Fig. 2) of zoologists.

" Wild ox," Heb. teo, rendered "oryx" by the LXX. The leucoryx {Antilope leucoryx)^ or white oryx, is a native of Eastern Africa, where it is found in large herds. It must have been familiar to Moses. It is represented on Egyptian sculptures, and appears to have been highly esteemed by the people.

" Chamois," Heb. zetner. As the chamois proper {Antilope ritpicapra) is chiefly confined to the mountains of Western Europe, not being met farther east than Greece, it has been held that there was no likelihood Moses would mention it. The LXX. have rendered the word by camelopardalis. This has led Dr. Kitto and others to propose the giraffe as the animal here referred to. But the geographical range of the giraffe makes it not the least likely, that it would be named among beasts from whose flesh Israel was to abstain. They would never meet

DEUTERONOMY XIV.

177

it cither in the desert or in Palestine. The name zemer is derived from a root signifying to leap. It is thus much better to reckon it one of the antelopes abundant in Syria.

" Glede," Heb. rdah. The parallel passage in Lev. (xi. 14) has dddh. The similarity of the name has led to the supposition, that the first letter of the former word has been inadvertently put in when the first of the latter should have been used, both Hebrew letters being very like each

Fig C6.

Honey nnzzard (Per^iis aj^

other. It seems better, however, to retain the word as it now stands. In this case it points to quickness of vision, and not, as in some of the other birds of prey named here, to power of wing or to solitary habits. The bird referred to may be the honey buzzard, well known in Europe, and to be met with in Asia likewise. Its habits demand great quick- ness of sight. It feeds on insects, field-mice, &c., but its favourite food at certain seasons is the larvte of bees and wasps.

" Hawk," Heb. netz. I have pointed out under Levit. xi. 16, the wide and general character of this term. Among the species named there the peregrine falcon is given. This bird is still abundant in

Egypt and Syria. Its form and habits were sure to attract the atten- voi.. n. z

178 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

tion of the Israelites, and to secure it a place in the Levitical list. See also under Job xxxix. 2G.

"Great Owl," Heb. yansupli — see under Lcvit. xi. 17. In Isa. xxxiv. 11, this word is rendered by the general term owl — "The cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it." The LXX. have translated it ibis, but it is extremely doubtful, whether, on this account, we should give up the common

Fig. e7.

V

Porcgrine Falcon {F. ptregrinuB).

rendering — see under Isa. xxxiv. 11. Assuming that our version is right, the barn owl [Strix flamviea) will answer io yansupli, and the great eagle owl [Biiho maxiinus) to lilitit, rendered screech-owl in Isa. xxxiv. 14 — which see.

" The Cuckoo," Heb. sJiaJ/Iiaph. The common gull and the tern have been named as answering better than the cuckoo to the original word used here — see under Levit. xi. IG. " The flight of the terns, and indeed of the whole tribe, is not in the sweeping, shooting manner of the land swallows, notwithstanding their name ; the motions of their long wings are slower, and more in tlie manner of the gull. They have, however, great powers of wing, and strength in the muscles of the neck, which enable them to make such sudden and violent plunges, and that from a considerable height too, headlong on their prey."

DEUTERONOMY XIV.

179

"Thou slialt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk" (vcr. 23). Numberless interpretations have been proposed for this passage, which, however, finds its illustration in modern usages of the East. " While on the subject of cooking, take another favourite dish of the Arabs. They

Fig. 68.

The Common Tern (^Sterna hi, .;;^. ;.

select a young kid, fat and tender, dross it carefully, and then stew it ill milk, generally sour, mixed with onions and hot spices such as they relish. They call it Lehn immu — ' kid in his mother's milk.' The Jews, however, will not eat it. They say that Moses specifically forbade it in the precept—' Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk,' which he repeated three several times, and with special emphasis. They further maintain that it is unnatural and barbarous to cook a poor kid in that from which it derives its life. This may have been one reason for the prohibition — many of the Mosaic precepts are evidently designed to cultivate gentle and humane feelings; but 'kid in his mother's milk' is a gross, unwholesome dish, calculated also to kindle up animal and ferocious passions ; and on these accounts Moses may have forbidden it. Besides, it is even yet associated with immoderate feasting ; and originally, I suspect, was connected with idolatrous sacrifices. A great deal of learning has been spent upon this passage by critics, to ascertain what the law-giver referred to ; but after seeing the dish actually prepared, and hearing the very name given to it which Jloses employs, we have the whole mystery explained. I have repeatedly tasted Lehn immu; and, wdien well prepared, it has a rich and agreeable flavour." — [Thomson.)

180

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

J

DEUTERONOMY XVI.-XXVIII.

TTOU shall eat no leavened bread with it: seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction ; (for thou earnest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste ;) that thou niayest remember the day when thou earnest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy

thou

from

put tlie sicKle to the corn" (ver. 9).

^^ life" (xvi. 3) — see under Prov. x. 6. " Seven weeks shalt tl; ¥s. ' number unto thee : begin to number the seven weeks fri / ^ such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn" (ver. The last clause is noticed under 1 Kings xix. 2G. In verse 13 the term "thy corn" {goren) is, by a common figure, used for that on which the corn Avas threshed — "the threshing-floor" {rjoren) (Gen. 1. x.), or "threshing-place" (2 Sam. xxiv. 16), or "barn" (Job xxxix. 12), or simply " floor" (Judg. vi. 37). In 2 Chron. xviii. 9, the word is rendered a " void place." When the kings of Israel and Judah were inquiring whether they should go up against Ramoth- Gilead, they are represented as sitting " either of them on his throne, clothed in their robes, in a void place at the entering in of the gate of Samaria."

" And the officers shall speak unto the people, saying, Wiiat man is there that hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it? let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it" (xx. 5) — see Gen. iv. 17. "And it shall be, that the city which is next unto the slain man, even the elders of that city shall take an heifer, which hath not been wrought with, and which hath not drawn in the yoke" (xxi. 3); Num. xix. 2. "Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house ; and she shall shave her head and pare her nails" (ver. 12); Song i. 14. "Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together" (xxii. 10); Num. xii. 4. Everywhere throughout these precepts the great law of kindness to one another, and to the beasts of the field and the birds of the air put under man, is very strongly enforced. They have, no doubt, been regarded by some as trivial and commonplace — unworthy of the attention of the great and eternal God. But such objections are the fruit of ignorance, even though those who make them be persuaded that there is nothing

DEUTERONOMY XVI.-XXVIII. 181

which they do not know. Once acknowledge that God deals with man as a father, and that he cares for all his creatures, and all difficulty as to sucli passages vanishes. In verses 6-8 of chap, xxii., this tenderness is associated with an injunction which shows what careful regard the life-giving One has for the 4ives of his professing people. " If a bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young : but thou shalt in any wise let the dam go, and take the young to thee; that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days. Wlien thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence."

" Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the Lord thy God for any vow ; for even both these are abomination unto the Lord thy God" (xxiii. 18). "Dog," Kelev — see under Judg. vii. 5.

" And Moses charged the people the same day, saying, These shall stand upon Mount Gerizim to bless the people, when ye are come over Jordan ; Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Joseph, and Benjamin. And these shall stand upon Mount Ebal to curse ; Reuben, Gad, and Asher, and Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali" (xxvii. 11-13). In this and in chapter xxviii. we have a full statement by anticipation of the solemn acts whose fulfilment is noted in Joshua viii. The o'rand transaction had been much on the mind of Moses. At a still earlier period he had carefully given them materials for identifying the spot. " And it shall come to pass, when the Lord thy God hath brought thee in unto the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt put the blessing upon ]\Iount Gerizim, and the curse upon Mount Ebal. Are they not on the other side Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down, in the land of the Canaanites, which dwell in the champaign over against Gilgal, beside the plains of Moreh?" (Chap. x. 29, 30.) Ebal and Gerizim were in Samaria. The mountain range of Ephraim runs from south to north. At a point nearly equidistant between the Dead Sea and the sea of Galilee a deep broad fissure occurs in the direction east to west. In this lies Nablous or Shechem, with Mount Ebal on the north and Mount Gerizim on the south. The hills are each about six hundred feet in height. At the eastern end of the valley they are not more than sixty rods apart. " There," says Dr. Thomson, " the tribes assembled to hear the blessings and the curses read by the Levitcs.

182 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

We have tlicin in exienso in the 27th and 28th chapters of Deutero- nomy ; and in Joshua we are informed that it was actually done, and how. ' Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Joseph, and Benjamin, stood on Gerizim ; and Heuben, Gad, Aslier, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali, on Ebal ;' while ' all Israel and their elders, and officers, and their judges, stood on this side of the ark, and on that side before the priests which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord :' the whole nation of Israel, with the women and little ones, were there. And Joshua read all the words of the law — the blessings and the cursings ; there was not a word of all that Closes commanded which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel' This was, beyond question or comparison, the most august assembly the sun has ever shone upon; and I never stand in the narrow plain, with Ebal and Gerizim rising on either hand to the sky, without involuntarily recalling and reproducing the scene. I have shouted to hear the echo, and then fancied how it must have been when the loud-voiced Levites proclaimed from the naked cliffs of Ebal, ' Cursed be the man that niaketh any graven image, an abomination unto Jehovah.' And then the tremendous Amen ! tenfold louder, from the mighty congregation, rising and swell- ing, and re-echoing from Ebal to Gerizim, and from Gerizim to Ebal. Amen! even so let him be accursed. No, there never was an assembly to compare with this."

Longing earnestly that the people might be stirred up to " hearken diligently to the voice of the Lord God, and to observe to do all his commandments" (ver. 1), Moses promises all manner of blessing to the nation so long as it should continue faithful to God. Domestic happi- ness, commercial prosperity, and outstanding national influence were to be infallibly theirs, if they hearkened unto the voice of the Lord. But the contrary of all this was to fall on them, and continue with tliem as a terrible curse, should they become unfaithful to the Lord God of their fathers. Some aspects of the threatened curses are specially named. At the head of these stands the pestilence. " The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he hath con- sumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it" (ver. 21).

Much obscurity necessarily clings to our knowledge of the diseases mentioned in the Old Testament. An examination of passages referring to the pestilence leads to the following inferences: — 1. The word used here {dever) may be held to point to the plague, usually so called. It occurs about fifty times, and is always rendered " pestilence," except in Esod. ix. 5, where it is translated "murrain," and in Hosea xiii. 14,

^lEUTERONOMY XVI.-XXVIII. 183

where it lias the meaning of " pLagues." 2. In Exod. ix. 14, the Hebrew mdcjgrplialt. is rendered "plagues;" literally it points to any fatal calamity which comes quickly. Thus in Ezekicl xxiv. IG, it is characterized as " a stroke " — " Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke." In 2 Sam. xvii. 19, the import is " slaughter." So likewise 1 Sam. iv. 17; and 2 Sam. xviii. 7. It is rendered " plague" in other twenty passages, and may mean any sudden visitation. 3. The Hebrew malchdh contains yet another idea ; that namely, of a "wound." It points to injuries received in war, though it is translated "plagues" (Levit. xxvi. 21); "stripes" (Deut. xxv. 3); "slaughter" (Josh. x. 10) ; and " wounds" (Zech. xiii. 6). 4. Any disease which might become endemic was called ncga. This is the word used in Leviticus in connection with leprosy. 5. Of these general terms the first alone {dever) may be properly regarded as pointing to a form of contagious disease, in most respects similar to the modern plague. It is taken here in this sense, and the forms of disease men- tioned in verse 22 are regarded as different phases of the terrible malad}^ — " The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew ; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish." If to these we add the aspects of curse named in verses 27, 28, we shall have clearly before us the whole threatening from this point of view — " The Lord will smite thee with the botcli of Egypt, and with the emcrods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed." "The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart." We have thus : —

1. PESTILENCE.

1. As consumptum (shahepheth), a disease wliich is not to be con- founded with that known by this name in Britain. The word seems to point to the great quickening of the pulse and consequent rapid debility which are noticed in the first stage of the pestilence.

2. As fever (kaddahath), which always characterizes the plague — so much so indeed that many physicians have regarded it as a virulent form of typhus. In Levit. xxvi. IG, this word is rendered " burning ague."

3. As inflammation (dalleketh), a word used only in this place. It points to a constant symptom of plague.

4. As an extreme hurniiKj (hharlihur). Those who have had favour- able opportunities of watching the pestilence, invariably mention the " burning pains " which accompany it.

184

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

5. As a great thirst (liliorev) rendered "sword" in our version, but a reference to otlier parts of Scripture in which the word is used, and in which it is translated " heat," " dry," and " drought," warrants this view.

6. As rapid decay (shidapon), in the text " blasting."

7. As extreme paleness (jarkon), an expression pointing to tlie cliange Avhicli falls on grain when from disease the leaves and stalk become prematurely yellow. Tlius our translators give it as "mildew," but it is clear that symptoms of disease are referred to throughout these verses. The first five marks are connected with the influence of pestilence on vital organs ; the last two with the evidences of this.

IT. CUTANEOUS DISEASES.

1. The hotch of Egjjpt, a species of leprosy — elephantiasis (also verse 35).

2. Emcrods or certain kinds of tumors.

3. Scab, a condition of the skin answering to what is still so named.

4. Itch, a cutaneous disease prevalent in the East, where it assumes forms much more loathsome than it does among western nations. It is caused by one of the Acaridoe or mites {Sarcoptes galei) becoming parasitic in the human skin, and is highly infectious.

III. MENTAL MALADIES.

1. Madness. 2. Mental Blindness. 3. Horror, here named " aston- ishment of heart."

The strong expressions of verse 24 point to phenomena often wit- nessed in the East, and also in the African deserts. " The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust : from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed." The sand storms which often carry destruction with them in the desert, and which have been known to cover many men and many beasts of burden, are named as instruments in the Lord's hand for punishing those who " hearken not to his voice."

Their operations in the field and in the vineyard are noticed in verses 38-44, and they are threatened with the locust as another curse if they should fiill into unfaithfulness to God — " Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in : for the locust shall consume it. Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes : for the worms shall

DEUTERONOMY XVI.-XXVIII.

185

eat them. Thou slialt have oHve-trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil ; for thine olive shall cast his fruit. Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou slialt not enjoy them ; for they shall go into captivity. All thy trees, and fruit of thy land, shall the locust consume. The stranger that is within thee shall get above thee very high ; and thou shalt come down very low. He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him ; he shall be the head and thou shalt be the tail."

" Locust," Heb. arheh. This is the name usually given to this insect.. It means "a multitude," and may be taken in the wide sense in which some entomologists use the term locustarice. The group of insects thus named includes the crickets (AcJietidce) , the grasshoppers {GrfjUidce), the locusts proper {Locitsti'dce), of which the migratory locust (Locusta migratoria) is best known, and the mantis {Mantidce) of which Mantis religiosa is the type (Plate XXXIX., Fig. 7). The Hebrew

Fig. 69.

Locust (Locusta migratoria).

term "arbeh" may mean either the locust group generally, or the migratory species so named. This fact gives us a key to such pas- sages of Scripture as refer to destructive insects. These may be arranged thus : —

VOL. IL 2 A

186

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

Arbeh = Locusta;

TzELATZAL = Locusta ;

ARBEH = LOCUSTARIiE ■{

Hhagau = Gryllus;

Hhargol =AcJia:ta;

Salam

■■ Mantis;

Exod. X. 4 ; Deut. xxviii. 38 ;

Ps. Ixxviii. 46 ; Prov. xxx.

27 ; Joel i. 4 ; &c. Deut. xxviii. 38, so named from

tlie sounding of its wings. It

is evidently the same as the

arbeh of verse 38. Lev.xi.22; Numb, xiii.33; Eccl.

xii. 5 ; &c. Named from its

hiding in the grass. Rendered "beetle," Lev. xi. 22.

A name given to the cricket

because of its leaping. The " bald locust," Lev. xi. 22.

Mantis palliata.

The otiier forms referred to in Scripture point to immature insects. Thus gazam, or the devourer, is the locust in its first stage ; the

DEUTEKONOMY XVI.-XXVIII. 187

" pulmer-worm " of Joel i. i, li. 25; Ainos iv. 9. Ilhazil or great eater — the young locusts about to pass into the fully developed insect. Ydeh or greedy feeder — a full grown grub (Nahum iii. 15-17); the caterpillar of Ps. cv. 34; Jer. li. 14-27; and the cankor-worra of Joel i. 4, ii. 25. Gov the " crawler" may mean the caterpillar of any of the insects which deposit their eggs in the earth, or at the roots of grass and corn crops, whose grubs are vegetable-feeders — see under Nahum iii. 17. This attempt at identification has been made after a careful study of the Hebrew names, in the light of allusions to the ravages of these insects in Works of Eastern Travel.

The eggs of most of the Locustidoe are placed in small tubes of earth, and in holes of the ground, coated with a glutinous secretion from the

Fig 71.

iM^^-

Dccticua verrutivorus depOBitlng its eggs in a hole in the ground.

female. Each tube holds from sixty to one hundred eggs. The change from the egg to the fully formed animal is not, as in many insects, by a grub and a pupa unlike the perfect form, but by a series of moults, in the last of which wings are present. In the first stage — the so-called larva — there is no appearance of wings ; in the last but one rudi- mentary wings inclosed in cases appear. These forms pass into the imago, or perfectly developed locust. Fig. 72 shows the bald locust in the act of devouring its prey. The lower part of the cut represents one of the egg cases of the insect, from which the young are making their escape.

The devastating power of these insects is illustrated under Joel ii., which see. Southey thus describes the noise of their flight —

188

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

" Onward they came, a dark continuous cloud Of congregated myriads numberless, The rushing of whose wings was as the sound Of a broad river headlong in its course Plunged from a mountain summit, or the roar Of a wild ocean in the autumn storm, Shattering its billows on a shore of rocks."

"Syria, as well as Egypt, Persia, and almost all tlic south of Asia, is subject to another calamity uo less dreadful than earthquakes. I

Fig. 72.

mf^i

Eald Locust and Young.

mean those clouds of locusts so often mentioned by travellers. The quantity of these insects is incredible to all who have not themselves witnessed their astonishing numbers : the whole earth is covered with them for the sj^ace of several leagues. The noise they make in browsing on the trees and herbage may be heard to a great distance, and resembles that of an army foraging in secret. The Tartars them- selves are a less destructive enemy than these little animals; one would imagine that fire had followed their progress. Wherever their myriads spread, the verdure of the country disappears as if a covering had been removed ; trees and plants, stripped of their leaves, and reduced to their naked boughs and stems, cause the dreary image of winter to succeed in an instant to the rich scenery of spring. When these clouds of locusts take their flight to surmount any obstacle, or to traverse more rapidly a desert soil, the heavens may be literally said to be obscured by them." — {Volney)

DEUTEEONOMY XXIX.-XXXIV.

189

DEUTERONOMY XXIX.-XXXIV.

HE references in verse 6 are noticed under Numb. vi. 3. "A root that beareth gall and wormwood" (verse 18). "Gall," Jer. viii. 14; "Wormwood," Prov. v. 4.

Chajiter xxxii. contains the words of the sublime song which Moses spake in the ears of the assembled tribes of Israel. In the previous chapter (verse 28) we are told what object he had in view. He calls heaven and earth to witness. The thoughts which he was about to make known to Israel were to drop as the rain upon the earth, and to distil as the dew. The whole phenomena of the fertilizing power of rain and dew are referred to, that each hearer might apply the utter- ances to himself: — As is the rain to the weary earth, so should these gracious words be to me. As is the dew, which at night is formed on the herbs which were half burned by the scorching rays of the summer sun, to vegetation, so should God's gracious thoughts strengthen me amidst the temptations and trials of earth. And as are the showers to the tender herb, and the grass in sunny plain or on mountain side, so should the repeated evidences of God's grace, goodness, and mercy be to the whole congregation of Israel. " Dew," see under Judg. vi. 30. The tender care of Jehovah for his people is illustrated with touching beauty in verses 9-12 : — " For the Lord's portion is his people ; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness ; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fliittereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings ; so the Lord alone did lead him, and there

was no strange god with him."

The figure in verse 11 is noticed

under Exod. xix. 4.

To the acknowledgment of the Lord's direction and instruction, Moses adds that of his constant watchfulness under the concluding figure in verse 10 — " He found hira in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness ; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye." The general and varied use of the word "apple" are noticed under Prov. xxv. 11.

190 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCK.

The expression "apple of tlie eye" occurs five times in the OKI Testament. It is the transUition of three different words. That employed here is ishon, which is met with in other two passages —

" Keep me as tlie apple of thine eye : Hide me under the shadow of tliy wings" (Ps. xvii. 3).

" Keep my commandments and live ; And my law as the apple of thine eye" (Prov. vii. 2).

In Prov. vii. the same word is rendered "black" — "in the black and dark night " (verse 9) ; and in chapter xx. 20, a similar meaning is attached to it. It is said of the man that curseth his father or his mother, that " his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness." The pupil, or dark centre spot of the eye, is thus referred to as the " apple of the eye." When the pupil is injured, vision is impaired or de- stroyed ; thus it is carefully guarded by one divine arrangement and another. Man is ever on the alert to bring these into action, and, knowing this, the Psalmist prays, " Let thy care of me be like my care of the apple of mine eye; keep me as the apple of thine." So the Spirit of God appeals to man — You guard with constant care the apple of your eye, be it so with my commandments likewise.

The idea of " the apple of the eye " being the chief part is also implied in the word. The pupil is the little man Qiomulns) of the eye — a form of expression suggestive of a second word used for it, namely, bath or daughter. See under Lam. ii. 18.

The key to the explanation of the lavish goodness of God to this people is to be found in verse 9 — "The Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance." He led them into the enjoyment of the richest of the natural products of the country. Two of these are named in the beginning of verse 14 — " Butter of kine and milk of sheep." " Kine," see above, Gen. xli, 2 ; and " Sheep," Gen. iv. 14. " Butter," Heb. hliemah, a preparation from milk (Jihdldv) of cows. It is specially noticed as the food of the " promised child." See under Isa. vii. 15. The process by which it is prepared in the East is noticed in Prov. xxx. 33, which see. Dr. Shaw refers to a similar method as employed in Barbary. He says — " Their method of making butter is, by putting the milk or cream into a goat's skin turned inside out, which they suspend from one side of the tent to the other, and then, pressing it to and fro in one uniform direction, they quickly occasion the separation of the unctuous and wheyey parts. A great quantity of butter is made in several places of these kingdoms, which,

DEUTERONOMY XXIX.-XXXIV. 191

after it is boiled with salt, in order to precipitate the hairs and other Hastinesses occasioned in the churning, they put into jars, and pre- serve it for use. Fresh butter soon grows sour and rancid." — {Travels, i., 308.)

"The pure blood of the grape." The Hebrew word {hhemer) here rendered "pure" is the "red wine" of Isa. xxvii. 2, and of Ps. Ixxv. 8. The liquid referred to is the juice of the black grape {enav), as it is seen gushing from the vat bearing foam on its surface. It is the hhdmar of Ezra vi. 9, vii. 22 ; Dan. v. 1, 2, 4, 23. Like most of the other kinds of wine mentioned in the Bible, the hhemer, or red foamins: variety, was intoxicating. Daniel's references to it imply tliis.

" I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust " (verse 24). See under Kumb. xxi. 6. " Their vine is the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah : their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps " (verses 32, 33).

The expression "vine of Sodom" has passed into a proverb, under an altered form — " apples of Sodom." The change may be traced to an inexact rendering of the passage in Josephus in which " the Dead Sea fruits" are referred to. But his strong words on this subject are as little to be taken without qualification, as they are when he tells us that the shadows of the five cities are yet to be seen in the waters of the "Lake Asphaltites" {Wars of the Jens, b. iv., ch. 8, § 4). Hasselquist says, when noticing the Poma Sodomitica, or apples of Sodom, that they are the fruit of one of the nightshades {Solanacece). " It is a curious fact that one of the names of a species of Solanum ( S. incanum), allied to that to which I refer, is, among the Arabs, that of the 'Aneb edh dhib, or ' Grape of the Wolf.' It is sometimes ate by the poorer classes of Fellcihiu in Egypt." — {Wilson.)

Irby and Mangles point to a widely different plant, as that which yields the "Dead Sea fruits :" — " "We were here surprised to see, for the first time, the oskar plant grown to the stature of a tree, its trunk measuring, in many instances, two feet or more in circumference, and the boughs at least fifteen feet in length, a size which far exceeded any we saw in Nubia ; the fruit also was larger and in greater quantity. There is very little doubt of this being the fruit of the Dead Sea so often noticed by the ancients as appearing juicy and delicious to the eye, while within it is hollow, or filled with something grating and dis- agreeable in the mouth." Dr. Robinson thinks the same plant to be that now alluded to. It has indeed the strongest claims to be reckoned

the one on whicli the grajDes of gall and the bitter clusters grew. The words of verse 32 should not, however, be pressed too far. Moses may not have designed to mark any single species. All he may have wished to express may have been, that, as the joys of Sodom and Gomorrah ended in disappointment and ultimate ruin, so all pleasure enjoyed in sin and in hatred of God will end in bitterness and misery. See also under Jer. viii. 14.

" One of the first objects which attracted our notice on arriving at 'Ain Jidy was a tree with singular fruit, which, without knowing at the moment whether it had been observed by former travellers or not, instantlv susrsrested to our minds the far-famed fruits —

•oo^

' A\niic]i grew Near that bituminous lake where Sodom stood.'

This was the oskar of tlic Arabs, the Asclepias gigantea v. procera of botanists, which is found in abundance in Upper Egypt and Nubia, and also in Arabia Felix, but seems to be confined in Palestine to the borders of the Dead Sea. We saw it only at 'Ain Jidy ; Hasselquist found it in the desert between Jericho and the northern shore ; and Irby and Mangles met with it of large size at the south end of the sea, and on the isthmus of the peninsula.

We saw here several trees of the kind, the trunks of which were six or eight inches in diameter, and the whole height from ten to fifteen feet. It has a greyish cork-like bark, with long oval leaves ; and in its general appearance and character it might be taken for a gigantic perennial species of the milk-weed or silk-weed, found in the northern parts of the American States. Its leaves and flowers are very similar to those of the latter plant ; and, when broken off, it in like manner discharges copiously a milky fluid. The fruit greatly resembles externally a large smooth apple or orange, hanging in clusters of three or four together ; and, when ripe, is of a yellow colour. It was now fair and delicious to the eye, and soft to the touch ; but, on being pressed or struck, it explodes with a pufl', like a bladder or puff-ball, leaving in the hand only the shreds of the thin rind and a few fibres. It is indeed filled chiefly with air, like a bladder, which gives it the round form ; while in the centre a small slender pod runs through it from the stem, and is connected by thin filaments with the rind. The pod contains a small quantity of fine silk with seeds — precisely like the pod of the silk-weed, though very much smaller, being indeed scarcely the tenth part as large. The Arabs collect the silk and twist it into

DEUTERONOMY XXIX.-XXXIV. 193

matches for their guns — preferring it to the common match, because it requires no sulphur to render it combustible.

The most definite account we have of the apples of Sodom, so called, is in Josephus, who, as a native of the country, is a better authority than Tacitus or other foreign writers. After speaking of the conflagra- tion of the plain, and the yet remaining tokens of the divine fire, he remarks that — ' There are still to be seen ashes reproduced in the fruits, which indeed resemble edible fruits in colour, but on being plucked with the hands, are dissolved into smoke and ashes.' In this account, after a due allowance for the marvellous in all popular reports, I find nothing which does not apply almost literally to the fruit of the oskar, as we saw it. It must be plucked and handled with great care, in order to preserve it from bursting. We attempted to carry some of the boughs and fruit with us to Jerusalem, but without success. Has- selquist finds the apples of Sodom in the fruit of the Solanum meloncjena (nightshade, madapple), which he saw in great abundance at 'Ain Jidy and in the plain of Jericho. These apples are much smaller than those of the oskar, and when ripe are full of small black grains. There is here, however, nothing like explosion, nothing like 'smoke and ashes,' except occasionally, as the same naturalist remarks, ' when the fruit is punctured by an insect (Tenthredo), which converts the whole of the inside into dust, leaving nothing but the rind entire, without any loss of colour.' We saw the Solanum and the osher growing side by side — the former presenting nothing remarkable in its appearance, and being found in other parts of the country; while the latter immediately arrested our attention by its singular accordance with the ancient story, and is, moreover, peculiar in Palestine to the shores of the Dead Sea. — {Eohinson, Bih. Ees. 1, 522.)

" And this is the blessing wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death. And he said. The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them ; he shined forth from Mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints : from his right hand went a fiery law for them. Yea, he loved the people ; all his saints are in thy hand : and they sat down at thy feet ; every one shall receive of thy words. ]\Ioses commanded us a law, even the inheri- tance of the congregation of Jacob. And he was king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together" (xxxiii. 1-5).

In noticing the points which claim attention in this chapter, Genesis slix. comes also under consideration —

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REUBEN.

GENESIS. DEDTEKONOMY.

" Reuben, thou art my first-born, my "Let Reuben live, and not die ; and let mlglit, and the beginning of my strength, not his men be few." the excellency of dignity, and the excel- lency of power : unstable as water, thou shalt not excel ; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed ; then defiledst thou it : he went up to my couch."

To bring out fully the blessing of Moses, it requires to be compared with that of Jacob. When the after-history of each tribe is looked at in the light of these last utterances of men whom the Lord had greatly blessed, we have many most striking proofs of the watchfulness and care of God over his professing people. The history of the several tribes answers so exactly to the prophecy which had gone before, that a certain class of critics have laboured to make out a comparatively modern date for both chapters. Refusing to admit the prophetic character of these blessings, nothing, of course, is left to them but to propound the theory, that the description followed the events described. There have ever been men who have made their own imaginings the standard of truth. Such are those now alluded to.

Taking the tribes in order, it will be seen that while there are many points of comparison, there are many of contrast likewise in the two addresses. Thus with Reuben. Jacob says, " Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel" — an utterance suggestive of great historical inferi- ority, even though as to birth he was his father's " strength, excellency of dignity, and excellency of power." Moses desires that "his men might not be few." The original statement is not set aside, but all the blessing which could be harmonized with it, is longed for by Moses. The position of the tribe of Reuben was such as almost necessarily excluded them from political prominence and leadership. It was far less favourable even than that of Gad or Manasseh. They had only Jordan between them and the other tribes, but Reuben was geographi- cally isolated by the broad waters of the Dead Sea. Their pastoral habits would also lead them eastward, and thus still further separate them from the sphere of influence on the west of the sea and the

Jordan.

JUDAII.

GENESIS. DEUTEKONOMT.

" Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren " And this is the blessing of Judah : and

shall praise : thy hand shall be in the neck he saith, Hear, Lord, the voice of Judah,

of thine enemies ; thy father's children shall and bring him unto his people: let his

DEUTEEONOMT XXIX.-XXXIV. 195

bow down before thee. Judah is a lion's hands be sufficient for him ; and be thou

whelp : from the prey, my son, thou art an help to him from his enemies.''

gone up : he stooped down, he couched as a

lion, and as an old lion ; who shall rouse

him up ? The sceptre shall not depart from

Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his

feet, until Shiloh come ; and unto him shall

the gathering of the people be : binding his

foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto

the choice vine ; he washed his garments

in wine, and his clothes in the blood of

grapes."

Pre-eminence, irresistible strength, kingly dignity, and the enjoy- ment of plenty, are promised by Jacob to him who was the head of the "lion tribe." Moses had watched the development of the tribe, and had observed that the very enjoyment and possession of the bless- ings seen to be his in the visions of Jacob, would lead the tribe into difBculties, and raise up enemies around it. Thus his earnest cry, "Let his hands be sufficient." The spirit of the original utterance seems to have influenced the tribe long before the blessings were actually enjoyed. Royal honours were promised, but Judah did not grasp at them in haste. He waited his time. Levi long ruled through Moses, Ephraim through Joshua, and Benjamin through Saul. Judah's day of kingly dignity did not come till the time of David, but then it was that every word here stood out with a meaning never to be mistaken.

SISIEON AND LEVI.

GENESIS. DELTEEOSOMT.

" Simeon and Levi are brethren ; instru- " And of Levi he said. Let thy Thummim ments of cruelty are in their habitations, and thy Urim be with thy holy one, whom O my soul, come not thou into their secret ; thou didst prove at Massah, and with whom unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou didst strive at the waters of Jleribah ; thou united ! for in their anger they slew a Who said imto his father and to his mother man, and in their self-will they digged down I have not seen him ; neither did he acknow- a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was ledge his brethren, nor knew his own chil- fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I dren : for they have observed thy word, and will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them kept thy covenant. They shall teach Jacob in Israel." thy judgments, and Israel thy law : they

shall put incense before thee, and whole burnt-sacrifice upon thine altar. Bless, Lord, his substance, and accept tlie work of his hands : smite through the loins of them that rise against him, and of them that hate him, that they rise not again."

196 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

Jacob names Simeon and Levi as one. Moses concentrates his

attention on Levi. The contrast between the words of the patriarch

and those of the lawgiver is very bold. The point of harmony is, no

doubt, to be found in the expression, " I will divide them iu Jacob, and

scatter them in Israel." Looking at their fierce and cruel ways, he

says, " Cursed be their anger." Then led by the spirit of prophecy,

he tells of their being scattered. They were so. Simeon even stood

in such a relation to Judah, as to mere geographical position, that he

might be regarded as divided. Josh. six. 2, 3 ; 1 Kings xix. 3 ; 1 Sam.

XXX. 26, &c. But the scattering was specially true of Levi, who had

no inheritance except among the different tribes, for whose spiritual

instruction he had been set apart. With this all the blessing named

by Moses came.

BENJAMN.

GENESIS. DEUTERONOSir.

"Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the "And of Benjamin he said, The beloved morning he shall devour the prey, and at of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him ; night he shall divide the spoil." and the Lord shall cover him all the day

long, and he shall dwell between his shoul- ders."

The disposition of Benjamin, as suited to the geographical limits to be assigned to him, is chiefly in Jacob's view. He was fierce, daring, crafty, and intrepid. But for this, he would not have preserved his tribal independence, lying, as his territory did, between Ephraim on the north and Judah on the south. The boundary of Benjamin on the south, swept from the Jordan westward round the southern base of the Mount of Olives, taking in part of the hill on which the temple was built, and meeting Dan beyond Kirjath-jcarim. On the north it passed from the Jordan in a north-easterly direction above Bethel, touched the mountains of Ephraim, and again met Dan near Beth-horon. Tlius, while the territory included some of the most fertile spots of Palestine, it contained also many wild tracts in which the Avolf, to which Benjamin was compared, would find favourite haunts — places where it might " ravin ;" in the morning devouring prey which had been brought within its reach and power at night. When Moses describes Benjamin, he thinks chiefly of his position as one of privilege near to Judah, and lying closely on Jerusalem, to which, with the seer's eye, he looked forward as the place to become the capital of the tribe beloved of the Lord.

" Wolf," Heb. zcev, Gr. h/Jcos, is mentioned for the first time in Gen. xlix. Jacob's experience, both Avith Laban and when among some of

DEUTERONOMY XXIX.-XXXIV.

197

the wildest tracts of Palestine, would make liim familiar with the habits of the wolf, as he guarded his flocks from it by day aud by night. In the disposition of his youngest son, he had seen evidences of that craft and darintr which was afterwards to be transmitted to his children. Thus his words, " Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf"

The wolf [Cayiis lupus) is one of the most ferocious of the family {Canida) to Avhich it belongs. AVhen full grown, it measures about live feet and a half from the nose to the tip of the tail. It is about the size of a large dog. (Plate XV., Fig. 2.) The scourge of every country where it abounds, a constant and relentless warfare has ever been waged against it by man. Jacob's reference to its habits is peculiarly appropriate. Coming forth from its lair in the evening, it kills its prey whether impelled by hunger or not. Like the fox (Canis viilpes), to which it is nearly related, it drags its prey into the thicket or den, and under the deep shadows of the former, or in the utter dark- ness of the latter, when morning comes " it devours its prey." All the allusions to it by sacred writers point to its cruelty and ferocity. AVhen Isaiah pictures the prevailing power of grace over the wicked, whose work in the world is to hurt and destroy, he sets it boldly before us by the expressions, " The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb," "The wolf and the lamb shall feed together" (xi. 6; Ixv. 25). Jere- miah had noticed its ferocity at night ; aud when he speaks of those who had altogether broken away from God, he says — " A wolf of the evenings shall spoil them " (v. G). In Ezekiel's description of Jeru- salem's sins, the rulers are compared to wolves — " Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain " (xxii. 27). Habakkuk says of the Chaldajan cavalry — " Their horses are more fierce than the evening wolves " (i. 8). Zephaniah (iii. 3) refers to the same habits as Jacob did — " Her judges are evening wolves ; they gnaw not the bones till the morrow." In the New Testament references, the wicked and the heretical are compared to wolves. (Matt. vii. 15; x. IG; Luke x. 3; John X. 12 • Acts XX. 29.)

JOSEPH.

GENESIS. DEUTERONOSrr.

" Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a " And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the

fruitful bough by a well, whose branches Lord be his land, for the precious things of

run over the wall. The archers have sorely heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that

grieved him, and shot at him, and hated coucheth beneath, and for the precious

him : but his bow abode in strength, and fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the

the arms of his hands were made strong by precious things put forth by the moon, and

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BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

the hands of the mighty God of Jacob : for the chief things of the ancient moun-

(from thence is the Sheplicrd, the stone of tains, and for tlie precious things of the

Israel :) even by the God of thy father, who histing hills, and for the precious things of

shall help thee ; and by the Almighty, who the earth, and fulness thereof, and for the

shall bless thee with blessings of heaven good will of him that dwelt in the bush :

above, blessings of the deep that lieth let the blessing come upon the head of

under, blessings of the breasts and of the Joseph, and upon the top of the head of

womb : the blessings of thy father have pre- him that was separated from his brethren,

vailed above the blessings of my progenitors His glory is like the firstling of his bullock,

unto the utmost bound of the everlasting and his horns are like the horns of unicorns :

hills : they shall be on the head of Joseph, with them he shall push the people together

and on the crown of the head of liim that to the ends of the earth ; and they are the

was separate from his brethren" (ver. ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the

22-26). thousands of Manasseh " (ver. 13-17).

The parallel is not less striking here than in the passages already noticed. Both blessings point to great fruitfiilncss. Joseph's was to be a posterity so numerous, as to make it necessary to divide his descendants into two tribes. Thus he is likened to the fruitful bough of the tree planted in the most favourable situation — so fruitful, that it hung out its rich clusters beyond the place which it was originally expected to fill. A comparison of Jacob's blessing Avith that of Moses shows that to Joseph also was promised plenty of com and wine. " The precious fruits brought forth by the sun," were the product of fruit-trees generally, and of the vine in particular. "The precious things put forth by the moon," were, no doubt, cereal crops. The expression gives prominence to the popular belief of the influence of the moon in ripening the crops. "The blessings of heaven above" in the one passage, are represented by the dew in the other. Jacob's blessing on Joseph " prevailed to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills;" that of Moses told that his were to be "the chief things of the ancient mountains, and the precious things of the lasting hills." The fruitful slopes of Samaria, and all mineral treasures below the surface, were given to Joseph in promise. " The blessings of the deep that lieth under," answer to " the precious things of the deep, that coucheth beneath." Both point to the Great Sea, along whose shores the western limits of Ephraim and Manasseh lay.

The words " they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of him that was separate from his brethren," are enlarged and illus- trated in the words of Moses — " His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns."

" Unicorn," Heb. reem, is singular, and should not, as in our transia-

DEUTERONOMY XXIX-XXXIV.

199

tioD, have had a pkiral signification given to it. This has been done in the belief that the unicorn of Scripture is identical with the rhinoceros, the only species of which, at the time when our trasnlation was made, that was well known, was the Indian rhinoceros {EMnoceros Indicus), formerly termed the unicorn rhinoceros {It. unicornis) ; see Plate XXVI. Fig. 2. But while there are only two species which have one horn, there are five bi-horned species. One of the best known is represented in the accompanying cut. If it could be determined that the Hebrew reem is always used in the definite sense of species, we would have to render it by one English equivalent. But this cannot be done. Indeed,

Fig. 73.

Bi-horaeil Rhinoceros (i?. slmus),

the modern Arabs employ a corresponding word to include wild goats, deer, cattle, and the rhinoceros also. It is in the highest degree probable that the word was originally used in this general way by the writers of Scripture likewise. It is suggestive to find that the ancient writers of the West held views as general as those of the East, when referring to certain animals, for which modern authors have claimed the honour of representing the famed unicorn. For example, Pliny mentions " Indian oxen with undivided hoofs and a single horn " (Nat. Hist. viii. 21). Aristotle speaks of "a few solid-hoofed animals with one horn, such as the Indian ass and the oryx " (H. A. ii. 2).

200 niBLIOAL NATURAL SCIENCE,

Tlie literature which has gathered around the question, " What was tlie unicorn?" would fill several large volumes. I know above twenty monographs on the subject. These may be summed up thus : —

UNICORN =

r Fabulous animal, used as an emblem (Ps. xxii. 21). I The Oryx {Oryx Leucoryx, Plate V., Fig. 3).

The Rhinoceros (Plate XXVI., Fig. 2).

The Bufl'alo (see under Ps. xxii. 21).

Bochart pleads for the oryx, Bruce for the rhinoceros, and the majority of modern interpreters for the buffalo. The word is derived from a root which signifies height. It seems to have been applied to an animal specially suggestive of majesty. An examination of the passages in which the reeni is named, seems to me to warrant the inference, that in the Pentateuch and in Job the rhinoceros is pointed to, while in the later writers, David and Isaiah, the buffalo is the animal alluded to.

In the words under notice the figure is peculiarly suitable. Of the horns of the unicorn it is said, " They are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh." The former is compared to the large horn on the frontal bone, the latter to the smaller one behind. Moses' sojourn in Egypt must have made him acquainted both with the one-horned species, and with the African two-horned species. Bruce (Trav. V.) says: — "The rhinoceros is called in Geez, arw6 han'sh, and in the Amharic, aiiraris, both which names signify the large wild beast with the horn. This would seem as if applied to the species that had but one horn. On the other hand, in the country of the Shangalla, and in Nubia adjoining, he is called girnamgirn, or horn upon horn ; and this would seem to denote that he had two. The Ethiopic text renders the word rviim, arice han'sh ; and this the Septuagint translates, monoceros, or unicorn. If the Abyssinian rhinoceros had invariably two horns, it seems to me improbable that the Septuagint would call him monoceros; especially as they must have seen an animal of this kind exposed at Alexandria in their time, when first mentioned in history, at an exhibition given to Ptolemy Philadelphus at his acces- sion to the crown, before the death of his father."

There are several allusions in Job's reference to the recm, which do not suit the builalo : —

" Will the reem submit to serve thee ? Will he, indeed, abide at thy crib ?

Canst thou make his harness bind the reem to the furrow ? Will be, forsooth, plough up the valleys for thee ?

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201

Wilt thou rely on him for his great strength,

And commit thy liibour unto him ?

Wilt thou trust him that ho may briug home thy grain,

And gather in thy harvest ? "

But in Psalm xxii., the whole imagery points to one of the ox family {Bovidce). So in Isaiah — " Tlie unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls ; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness. For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance" (xxxiv. 7).

The following extracts will show whence we have derived the heraldic figure of the unicorn: — "The Onoi Agrioi are as large as horses, and even larger, with white bodies, red heads, blue eyes, and have each on their foreheads a horn a cubit and a half long, the base of which is white, the upper part red, the middle part black. Drinking- cups are formed of these horns ; and those who drink out of them are said to be subject neither to spasm nor epilepsy, nor to the effects of poison. Other asses have no astragalus ; but these have one, as well as a gall-bladder. The astragalus I have seen myself; it is beautifully formed, in shape like that of an ox, and very heavy and red through- out. The animal is so swift that no horse can overtake it, and so strong and fierce that it is with difficulty destroyed by arrows and javelins. It begins its running slowly, but gradually increases its speed. It shows great attachment to its young, which it defends against its pursuers, fighting with horn, teeth, and heels. The flesh is so bitter that it is not eaten ; but men set a high value on the horns and astragali." — {Ctest'as, B.C. 400.) "The Orssean Indians hunt a very fierce animal, called the monoceros, which has the body of a horse, the head of a stag, the feet of an elephant, and the tail of a wild boar ; it utters a deep lowing noise, and has a single horn, two cubits long, projecting from the middle of its forehead. They say this animal cannot be taken alive." — {Pliny, a.d. 70.) " The monoceros is as big as a full-grown horse, with a mane and yellow woolly hair, of greatest swiftness, with feet like the elephant, and the tail of a wild boar. It has a black horn growing between the eyebrows, which is not smooth, but with natural twistings, and is very sharp at the point. It utters loud harsh sounds. It lives peaceably with other animals, but quarrels with those of its own kind — the males even destroying the females, excepting at breeding-time, at which season the animals are gregarious ; but at other times they live in solitude in wild regions." — {JElian, A.D. 130.)

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ZEBULUN AND ISSACHAR.

OENESIS. DEUTERONOMY.

"Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of "And of Zebulun he said, Rejoice, Zebu-

thesea; and he shall be for an haven of lun, in thy going out; and, Issachar, in

ships : and his border shall be unto Zidon. thy tents. They shall call the people unto

Issachar is a strong ass couching down the mountain; there they shall offer sacri-

between two burdens : and he saw that rest fices of righteousness: for they shall suck

was good, and the land that it was plea- of the abundance of the seas, and of trca-

sant ; and bowed his shoulder to boar, and surus hid in the sand." became a servant to tribute."

Zebulun is named before his elder brother Issachar, and both are closely linked together both in the blessing of Jacob and of Moses. The former became specially noted for maritime enterprise, his western border being the shores of the Mediterranean — the sea of whose "abun- dance he was to suck." The treasures hid in the sand may have been the mollusc {Murex) from which the costly purple dye was obtained. Zebulun's boundary on the east was the sea of Tiberias. Issachar's territory was bounded on the north by Zebulun and Asher, on the south by Manasseh, on the east by the Jordan, and on the west by part of Manasseh. Some of the choicest parts of the rich plain of Esdraelon thus fell to Zebulun and Issachar. " Every traveller," says Dr. Stanley, " has remarked on the richness of its soil and the exuber- ance of its crops. Once more the palm appears, waving its stately tresses over the village inclosures. These inclosures are divided, each from each, by masses of wild artichoke. The very weeds are a sign of what in better hands the vast plain might become. The thoroughfare which it forms for every passage, from east to west, from north to south, made it in peaceful times the most available and eligible posses- sion of Palestine. It was the frontier of Zebulun — ' Rejoice, 0 Zebu- lun, in thy goings out.' But it was the special portion of Issachar ; and in its condition, thus exposed to the good and evil fate of the beaten highway of Palestine, we read the fortunes of the tribe which, for the sake of this possession, consented to sink into the half-nomadic state of the Bedouins who wandered over it — into the condition of tributaries to the Canaanite tribes, whose iron chariots drove victoriously through it. Rejoice, 0 Issachar, in thy tents they shall suck of the abun- dance of the seas [from Acre], and of the [glassy] treasures hid in the

sands [of the torrent Belus] Issachar is a strong ass, couching

down between two ' troughs : ' and he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant ; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute. In the gathering of the northern tribes against

DEUTERONOMY XXIX.-XXXIV. 203

Siscra and the Midianites, the name of Issachar is omitted ; and although in the former crisis they were not wholly absent, yet it was only ' the chiefs of Issachar ' who ' were with Deborah.' But still they were looked up to — perhaps on account of this very choice of land — as ' men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do ; ' and they, with the neighbouring tribes, were foremost in sending to David, on his accession, all the good things that their soil produced, ' bread, and meat, and meal, cakes of figs, bunches of raisins, and wine, and oil, on asses, and on camels, and on mules, and on oxen,' .... for there was joy in Israel."

DAX, NAPHTALI, ASHER, AXD GAD.

GENESIS. DEUTEROXOMT.

" Dan shall judge his people, as one of " And of Dan he said, Dan is a lion's the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent whelp : he shall leap from Bashan. And by the way, an adder in the path, that of Naphtali he said, 0 Naphtali, satisfied biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall with favour, and full with the blessing of fall backward. I have waited for thy salva- the Lord ; possess thou the west and the tion, O Lord. Gad, a troop shall overcome south. And of Asher he said. Let Asher him: but he shall overcome at the last, be blessed with children; let him be accept- Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he able to his brethren, and let him dip his shall yield royal dainties. Naphtali is a foot in oil. Thy shoes shall be iron and hind let loose: he giveth goodly words." brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength

be. And of Gad he said, Blessed be he that enlargeth Gad : he dwelleth as a lion, and teareth the arm with the cro^vn of the head. And he provided the first part for himself, because there, in a portion of the lawgiver, was he seated ; and he came with the heads of the people, he executed the justice of the Lord, and his judgments with Israel."

The subjugation of Laish (Judg. xviii.) and the exploits of Samson (Judg. xiv.-xvi.) may be regarded as the historical illustrations of the words of Jacob and Moses touching the tribe of Dan. Naphtali's portion is illustrated by the goodly words and the heroic deeds of Barak (Judg, iv., v. 1), and by the richness of the territory assigned to him. He was " satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of the Lord." Asher's lot lay in the north-west of Palestine, bounded on the east by Naphtali, south by Zebulun, west by the Mediterranean, and north by the outliers of Lebanon. " His strength was as his days." The mountain ridges of his northern boundary demanded, that in climbing them, his shoes should be shod with iron and with brass.

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Wheat, the vine, and the olive, grew luxuriantly in his vallej's, or on his sunny mountain slopes. He " yielded royal dainties, he dipped his feet in oil." The attitude of the Ammonites to Gad, and the victories of Jcphthah (Judg. x., xi.), shed historical light on the utterances of the patriarch and of the lawgiver concerning this tribe. In Jephthah, especially, the highly figurative expression " tearing the arm with the crown of the head" is vividly illustrated. His skill in planning, and his dauntless bravery in carrying out the expedition against the Ammonites, broke that arm of strength which had been powerful against the Gadites, who dwelt in Gilead. Jericho is distinguished here as " the city of palm-trees" (xxxiv. 3). The date palm {Phoenix dactijlifera) is the species referred to — see under Judg. i. IG ; Exod. XV. 27 ; Rev. vii. 9. Though frequently mentioned in Scripture, there is no proof that the palm was ever abundant in Palestine. " Another tree," says Stanley, " which breaks the uniformity of the Syrian land- scape by the rarity of its occurrence, no less tlian by its beauty, is the palm. It is a curious fact that this stately tree, so intimately connected with our associations of Judaea by the Roman coins, which represent her seated in captivity under its shade, is now almost unknown to her hills and valleys. Two or three in the gardens of Jerusalem, some few perhaps at Nablus, one or two in the plain of Esdraelon, comprise nearly all the instances of the palm in central Palestine. In former times it was doubtless more common. In the valley of the Jordan, one of the most striking features used to be the immense palm-grove, seven miles long, which suiTouuded Jericho ; of which large remains were still visible in the seventh century and the twelfth, some even in the seventeenth. Engedi, too, on the western side of the same lake, was known in early times as Hazazon-Tamar- — ' the felling of palm-trees.' Relics of its grove are still to be seen in the trunks of palms washed up on the shores of the Dead Sea, preserved by the salt with which a long submersion in those strange waters has impregnated them. Now, not one is to be seen in the deep thicket which surrounds its spring, and at Jericho, even the solitary palm, for many years observed by travellers as the only remnant of its former glory, has disappeared. On Olivet, too, where now nothing is to be seen but the olive and the fig tree, there must have been at least some palms in ancient days. In the time of Ezra they went forth ' unto the mount ' to fetch for the feast of tabernacles ' olive-branches, and pine-branches, and myrtle- branches, and palm-branches, and branches of thick trees.' Bethany, ' the house of dates,' in all probability derives its name from the same

DEUTERONOMY XXIX.-XXXIV. 205

cause, and with this agrees the fact that the crowd which escorted our Lord to Jerusalem from Bethany 'took branches of palm-trees.' Still, it is probable that even then the palm was rarely found on the high land which forms the main portion of historical Palestine. It is emphatically the 'tree' of the desert. It is always spoken of in Rabbinical writers as a tree of the valleys, not of the mountains. It grows naturally, and were it cultivated, might doubtless grow again in the tropical climate of the Valley of the Jordan. It is still found in great abundance in the maritime plains of Philistia and Phoenicia, or the ' land of palms.' But the climate of the hill country must always have been too cold for their frequent growth. Those on Olivet most likely were in gardens; the very fact of the name of the ' City of palm- trees applied as a distinguishing epithet to Jericho ; the allusion to the palm-tree of En-gedi, as though found there and not elsewhere ; the mention of the palm-tree of Deborah at Bethel, as a well known and solitary landmark — probably the same spot as that called Baal-Tamar, ' the sanctuary of the palm' — all indicate on the whole that the palm was then, as now, the exception, and not the rule."

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JOSHUA.

HE "book of Joshua" consists of tliree parts: — 1st. Tlie conquest of Canaan, cliapters i.-xii. This contains an account of Joshua's exhortations to the people after the death of Moses (i.); the mission of the spies to Jericho (ii.); the passage of tlie Jordan (iii., iv.) ; the general circum- cision (v.) ; the capture of Jericlio (vi.) ; and a detailed narra- tive of tlie victories over the Canaanitish tribes (vii.-xii). 2nd. The partition of Canaan, chapters xiii.-xxii. In this part of the book accounts are given of the territories assigned to the different tribes, the appointment of the Cities of Refuge, and the gift of certain cities to the Levites. 3rd. The farewell address of Joshua, his death and burial, chapters xxiii. and xxiv.

Joshua sent the spies from Shittim (ii. 1). In Numbers xxvi. a place of the same name is mentioned, and in xxxiii. 49 we meet with a station in the plains of Moab called Abel-Shittim, or the Meadow of the Acacia-trees. The locality whence the spies were despatched lay in a wide plain at the base of the mountains of Abarim. Their visit to Jericho leads to special mention of stalks of flax.

The flax plant {Liiiiim usitatissimum, Heb. pishfah) has been noticed under Exod ix. 31. The word used here {'pishteli) is associated with the boll, or stalk of the plant. In some other passages it indicates the fabric manufactured from the raw material. In Leviticus xiii. it occurs thus four times — " linen garment," " linen warp or woof" So like- wise in Deuteronomy xx. 2 — " linen garment." Jeremiah speaks of " a linen girdle" (xiii. 1), and Ezekiel of "linen bonnets and linen breeches" (xliv. 17, 18). It is also employed to designate the flax prepared as lint and as threads, but still unwoven — " The virtuous woman seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands " (Prov. xxxi. 13). In the " burden of Egypt " the prophet mentions, among other calami- ties that were to come on the land of the Pharaohs, the destruction of her linen manufactories : " Moreover, they that work in fine flax, and they that weave net-works, shall be confounded " (Isa. xix. 9). Israel drew supplies of flax from Egypt, and in the time of apostasy from God longed for the help of those who ministered to the luxurious habits

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of the people — " I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, ray wool aud my flax, mine oil and my drink " (Hos. ii. 5).

When the spies reached Jericho they went to lodge in the house of Rahab, being as strangers directed thither by those who had met them at the gates. The news of their arrival was carried to the king, who sent a command to Rahab to bring them forth. But the woman had discovered the importance of securing their friendsliip, and hastened to hide them in a place of safety : " She brought them up to the roof of her house, and hid them with the stalks of flax (pi'sMeh), which she had laid in order upon the roof" (ver. 6). The flax on the roof of Rahab's house was thus in its second stage of preparation for being worked into linen fabrics. After having been pulled and separated from the seed, it is steeped until the fibres readily separate from the hard straw bark. It is afterwards broken or scutched, and after being hackled it is fit for being spun into thread. That the Egyptians were well acquainted with all the steps of this process, is seen from ancient representations still pictured iu some of the tombs of Egypt. The paintings on the grotto el-Kab show the various steps with great distinctness.

Hid beneath the stalks of flax the spies were safe. Their pursuers took their way to the fords of Jordan with the view of intercepting them. After having told the spies of the great terror which had fallen upon the land, and having stated that she believed that the Lord was about to give the whole land to Israel, Rahab bargained with them to remember her and her father's house in the day of Jericho's doom. They give their solemn promise as she desired ; and that they might be reminded of this at the proper time, " the men said unto her. We will be blameless of this thine oath which thou hast made us swear: behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by : and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father's household, home unto thee " (ver. 17, 18).

" Scarlet thread," Heb. sJumi, has here, as in some other passages, reference rather to the material which has been dyed than to the dye itself. The colour is usually referred to as scarlet, literally scarlet worms (tolaaih shdni). See under Exod. xxv. 4 for the nature of this colour. The word is used as it is here other seven times. The thread with which the midwife bound the hand of the infant Zarah was a " scarlet thread" {shard j. The symbol of Rahab's faith is, at verse 21 of this chapter, called a " scarlet line." In David's pathetic lament over Saul, he says — " Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul wiio

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clothed you in scarlet." Tlie household of the prudent woman are " clothed in scarlet " (Prov. xxxi. 21). So also Song iv. 3, and Isa. i. 18, in which passages the colour itself is specially referred to without allusion to its source. In Jeremiah iv. 30, shdni is rendered crimson — " Though thou clothest thyself with crimson."

After the capture of Jericho (vi.), Joshua led the people up against Ai. Achan's sin had made the hosts of Israel weak, and the three thousand sent by their captain " to smite Ai " were ingloriously put to flight. The shame which followed the defeat, the search for the trans- gressor, his awful doom, and the second attack of Ai, are narrated in chapters vii. and viii. These things had struck the Canaanitish nations with great astonishment and alarm, and they resolved to band them- selves together in order to deal a decided blow on the intruders — " It came to pass, when all the kings which were on this side Jordan, in the hills, and in the valleys, and in all the coasts of the great sea over against Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard thereof, that they gathered themselves together, to fight with Joshua and with Israel, with one accord " (ix. 1, 2). The Gibeonites, part of a Hivite tribe, said that resistance was vain, and laid plans to entrap Joshua into an alliance with them — " They did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine-bottles, old, and rent, and bound up ; and old shoes and clouted upon their feet, and old garments upon them ; and all the bread of their provision was dry and mouldy. And they went to Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal, and said unto him, and to the men of Israel, We be come from a far country; now therefore make ye a league with us" (ver. 4-6). Their success irritated Adoni-zedek and the kings confederate with hini. " Come up unto me," said he, " and help me, that we may smite Gibcon " (x. 4). " And the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp to Gilgal, saying. Slack not thy hand from thy servants; come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us : for all the kings of the Amor- ites, that dwell in the mountains, are gathered together against us" (ver. 6). This incident led to the grand manifestations of the sovereignty and power of God narrated in this chapter. " Not a moment was to be lost. As in the battle of ilarathon, every thing depended on the suddenness of the blow which should break in pieces the hostile confederation. On the former occasion of Joshua's visit to Gibeon, it had been a three day's journey from Gilgal, as according to the slow pace of eastern armies and caravans it might well be. But

JOSHUA. 209

now by a forced march ' Joshua came unto them suddenly, and went up from Gilgal all night.' When the sun rose behind him, he was already in the open ground at the foot of the heights of Gibeon, where the kings were encamped. As often before and after, so now, ' not a man could stand before ' the awe and the panic of the sudden sound of that terrible shout, the sudden appearance of that undaunted host, who came with the assurance ' not to fear, nor to be dismayed, but to be strong: and of a orood courage : for the Lord had delivered their enemies into their hands.' The Cauaanites fled down the western pass, and ' the Lord discomfited them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to Beth-horon.' This was the first stage of the flight— in the long ascent which has been indicated from Gibeon towards Beth-horon the Upper. ' And it came to pass as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down of Beth-horon that the Lord cast great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah.' This was the second stage of the flight. The fugitives had outstripped the pursuers ; they had crossed the high ridge of Beth-horon the Upper ; they were in full flight down the descent to Beth-horon the Nether ; when, as afterwards in the fight of Barak against Sisera, one of the fearful tempests which from time to time sweep over the hills of Palestine, burst upon the disordered army, and they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword.'

" It is at this point that the Book of Jasher presents us with that sublime picture, which, however variously it always has been, and perhaps always will be interpreted, we may here take as we find it there expressed. On the summit of the pass where is now the hamlet of the Upper Beth-horon, looking far down the deep descent of all the west- ward valleys, with the broad green vale of Ajalon unfolding in the distance into the open plain, with the yet wider expanse of the Medi- terranean Sea beyond, stood the Israelite chief. Below him was rushing down in wild confusion the Amorite host. Around him were ' all his people of war, and all his mighty men of valour.' Behind him were the hills which hid Gibeon — the now rescued Gibeon — from his sight. But the sun stood high above those hills — ' in the midst of heaven ;' for the day had now far advanced since he bad emerged from his night-march through the passes of Ai ; and in front, over the western vale of Ajalon, was the faint figure of the crescent moon visible above the hailstorm, which was fast driving up from the sea in the valleys below. Was the enemy to escape in safety, or was the speed with

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210 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

which Joshua had ' come quickly and saved and helped ' his defenceless ■ allies, to be still rewarded before the close of that day by a signal and decisive victory?

"Doubtless with outstretched hand and spear, 'the hand that he drew not back, when he stretched out the spear, until he had utterly destroyed the inhabitants of Ai,' ' then spake Joshua to the Lord in the day when the Lord delivered the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the siirht of Israel —

'o'

Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon ; And tLou, Moon, in tbe valley of Ajalon.

And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies.'" — {Stanley.)

Any attempt to explain the mode in which these miraculous results were brought about, or to penetrate the mysteries distinctly implied in them, would be vain and fruitless. The hailstones might be traced to one of those concurrences of natural phenomena with events in providence, which, as in the destruction of the Spanish Armada (1588) for example, are regarded by the majority of men as happy accidents. But the arrestment of time implied in the apparent stoppage of the sun over Gibeon and the staying of the crescent moon over the western vale of Ajalon, are removed far away from every thing like a satisfactory explanation, on the ground of any mere natural laws with which we are acquainted. The events were purely miraculous, and the biblical student is not called upon to try and explain them, or to strip them of as much of the miraculous element as possible. The whole revelation of God proceeds on the recognition of God's own presence with his people, as one " mighty in working," and Avhose " footsteps are not known." As regards the language used by Joshua, it is just such as still would be employed, even with all the light shed around us by physical science. It is true that it was not the sun that " stayed still," but the earth which revolves around it. Joshua used the popular language of his time, yea, of all time. For even at this day learned and unlearned are in the habit of speaking of the sun's path in the heavens, of his going from east to west, &c. It is thus very absurd for any one to point to these words, as proof of the great ignorance of the intrepid captain of the armies of Israel.

After this complete discomfiture, the five kings fled and " hid them- selves in a cave at Makkedah " (ver. 16, 17). Most of the hills in the neighbourhood are pierced by caves. In some places the caverns occur

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in clusters, in others one is met with isolated from the rest. " These apartments," says Dr. Robinson, " are mostly in clusters, three or four together, communicating with each other. Around one pit towards the south-west we found sixteen such apartments thus connected, forming a sort of labyrinth. Tliey are all hewn very regularly; but many are partly broken down ; and it is not impossible that the pits themselves may have been caused by the falling in of similar domes. Some of the apartments are ornamented, either near the bottom or high up, or both, with rows of small holes or niches, like pigeon-holes, extending quite around the wall. In the largest cluster, in the innermost dome, a rough block of the limestone has been left standing on one side, ten or twelve feet high, as if a rude pulpit or a pedestal for a statue." Do these caves point back to a time when the whole region in which they occur was inhabited by Hon'tes, or cave-dwellers? and was Idumaea the last locality in which they held a place?

In the reference made (xiii. 3) to the limits of the land which still, when Joshua "was old and stricken in years," remained to be possessed, " Sihor, which is before Egypt," is specially named. "Sihor" is noticed under 1 Chron. xiii. 5.

The interview between Joshua and Caleb (xiv. 13) resulted in the gift to the latter of one of the most noted cities in the land — " Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, Hebron for an inheritance. Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite unto this day, because that he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel." " Hebron" — see under 2 Sam. ii. 1. But this gift is to be looked at in the light of the arrangements touching the Levitical cities : — " And they gave, out of the tribe of the children of Judah, and out of the tribe of the children of Simeon, these cities which are here mentioned by name, which the children of Aaron, being of the families of the Kohathitcs, who were of the children of Levi, had : for theirs was the first lot. And they gave them the city of Arba, the father of Anak (which city is Hebron), in the hill country of Judah, with the suburbs thereof round about it. But the fields of the city, and the villages thereof, gave they to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for his possession" (xxi. 9-12).

Many of the places mentioned in chapter xv. continue still under slightly altered names. If verses G, 33, 34, 35, 43, 44, and 57, be looked at, the following notes of a recent traveller in Palestine will indicate how many efforts are being made by the students of topography to shed light on the sites of noted places : — " There is a whole nest of

212 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

sacred sites scattered arouud this important centre. On the east we have Beit Nusib — Nezib ; and further over the hills to the north-east Jeb'a — the Gibeah of Judali ; and north, a little east, we find Shochoh in Shuvviekeh ; and beyond it Jarmuth in Yarinuk. 'Ain Shemsh is Beth-shemesh ; and north-west of this, Tibneh is the Timnath of Sam- son's wife. North-east of this is Zorah, the city of his father; and south-east of that is Zanuah. The wady in which Zorah lies is called Wady es Sumpt, and this is probably the battle-field of David and Goliath of Gath. Dr. Robinson thinks that Gath may have been at or near Deir Dubban, where are very remarkable excavations and other indications of an ancient city. It appears to me that Bethogabra — Eleutheropolis — Beit Jibrin, and Gath are all one and the same city. Khurbet Get — ruins of Gath — is the name now applied to one of the heaps of rubbish a short distance westward from the castle of Beit Jibrin. The Hebrew word Bethogabra and the Arabic Beit Jibrin may be rendered lionse of giants — which reminds us of Goliath of Gath and his family. And further, I think that the Mareshah of Joshua xv. 44, which was rebuilt by Rehoboam, and is repeatedly mentioned in con- nection with Gath, was a suburb of this great capital of the Philistines. Benjamin of Tudela makes Mareshah and Beit Jibrin identical, and Jerome places them so near each other that they may be regarded as one and the same place. Micah probably wrote ' Moresheth-gath ' in order to fix the location of the suburb by the name of the main city. All these identifications lend additional interest to this vicinity. Not only did Goliath and his family of giants reside here, but in this beau- tiful valley King Asa achieved that grand victory over Zerah the Ethiopian, with his host of ' a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots ;' for the battle was at Mareshah, in the valley of Zephathah."

Ml

i.'_

i*

II

3

JUIjGES.

213

JUDGES.

'HE period embraced in this book is about three hundred years. It may be divided into two parts — 1st. cliapters i.-xvi.; 2nd. chapters xvii.-xxi. Its design is to illustrate God's hatred of the sins of his professing people, and his *• readiness to deliver them whenever they cried to him. The judges named are fifteen in number, Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Barak assisted by Deborah, Gideon, Abimelech, Tola, Jair, Jephthah, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, Samson, Eli, Samuel. Among the localities which the Lord showed Moses from the top of Pisgah, mention is made of " the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm-trees" (Deut. xxxiv. 3). This is the city to which refer- ence is made in chapter i. IG— "And the children of the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, went up out of the city of palm-trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which lieth in the south of Arad ; and they went and dwelt among the people." It is also named in chapter iii. 13, as having been captured by Eglon, king of Moab — " And he gathered unto him the children of Amraon and Amalek, and went and smote Israel, and possessed the city of palm-trees." It appears from such notices that palm-trees were abundant in the neigh- bourhood of Jericho. The tree was the date palm [Phcenix dactijlifera), highly prized for its fruit, its leaves, wood, and sap. See under Exod. XV. 27 ; Ps. xcii. 12 ; John xii. 13 ; and Rev. vii. 9. The association of the date palm with Jericho in this marked and special manner, indicates that it was not very plentiful in other parts of Palestine. Josephus speaks of Pompey having " pitched his tent at Jericho where the palm-tree grows," an expression which shows that in his day, as in ancient times, the city was still celebrated for its dates. — (Antiq. xiv. 4. § 1.) Strabo (1. xvi.) describes it as "abounding with date-trees" (pleonazon to jyJioi'niki) ; and Pliny, as planted around with them (1. v.) When Shaw visited Jericho he found the palm still growing there. " There are," he says, " several of them at Jericho where there is the convenience they require of being often watered ; where likewise the climate is warm, and the soil sandy, or such as they thrive and delight in" (vol. ii. 151). In May, 1838, Dr. Robinson writes:— "One single

214 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

solitary palm now timidly rears its head where once stood the renowned 'city of palm-trees.'" (B. Res., vol. i., p. 552.)

" Achzib " (ver. 31) is noticed under Gen. xxxviii. 5 — which see. "Mesopotamia" or the region between the rivers, namely, the Euphrates and the Tigris (iii. 8). It was also known as Aram-Naharaira, or Syria of the two rivers, and part of it as Padan-Aram, or the Plain of Syria. It is the el-Jczirah, or Island, of the modern Arabs. It consists for most part of low, level, treeless plains, affording, however, luxuriant pasturage, in many places, to the flocks and herds of the Arabs. Scattered over it are immense mounds, the graves of its ancient, great, and magnificent cities. Chushan-rishathaim ruled over " Syria of the Two Piivers," when the generation who succeeded Joshua had turned aside to the service of " Baalim and of the groves." This king became the scourge in the divine hand. In their affliction they cried unto the Lord, and he " raised up a deliverer, even Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother" (ver. 9).

After the death of Ehud Israel appears to have flillcn into great national sin, and "the Lord sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor," the chief city of the north of Palestine. Hazor had been assigned to Naphtali (Josh. xix. 36), but the Canaanites still held possession. They were thus at hand, to become instruments in afflicting the chosen people when they turned aside from serving the Lord. Greatly oppressed by the captain of Jabin's host, Sisera, " the children of Israel cried unto the Lord." In answer lie raised up Deborah, " the great dame of Lapidoth," and sent her with his message to Barak the son of Abinoam, summoning him to lead the oppressed northern tribes against their foes. " And Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, she judged Israel at that time. And she dwelt under the palra-tree of Deborah, between Ramah and Beth-el in Mount Ephraim : and the children of Israel came up to her for judgment. And she sent and called Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedesh-naphtali, and said unto him, Hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded, saying. Go and draw toward Mount Tabor, and take with thee ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali, and of the children of Zebulun ; and I will draw unto thee, to the river Kislion, Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army, with his chariots, and his multitude ; and I will deliver him into thine hand '■' (iv. 4-7). The tent of the prophetess was pitched under the palm-tree between Ramah and Bethel. From her it took its name Tomer-Dchorali — the Palm-tree of Deborah.

The date palm may have been at one time a little more abundant in

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Palestine than it seems to have been at the period when Deborah "judged Israel." Throughout the time of Israel's occupation of the land, there is no proof of its having been much cultivated. Certain spots, however, were noted for them. Engedi was anciently known as Hazazon-taniar — " the felling of palm-trees " Gen. xv. 7 ; 2 Chron. XX. 2), This name was most likely given in time of war, when it was the custom to destroy the palm-trees in the invaded territories, or to render them unfit for bearing fruit for many years. Jericho, as we have seen, was specially noted for its palms (chap. i. 16). The tree under which Deborah sat prophesying victory to Israel, and urging the warriors to " go up to the help of the Lord against the

rig. 74.

mighty," was to become in after times the symbol of a conquered people, and of Israel's bondage to a foreign yoke. Vespasian struck several coins commemorative of the triumphs of the Roman armies in Palestine, on which the condition of the people is represented by a disconsolate woman sitting under a palm-tree, while the coins bear the legend Judea Capta.

" Tabor " (ver. 6) is named for the first time in Josh. xix. 22. It is mentioned here as the rendezvous of Barak and the ten thousand men of the children of Naphlali, and of the children of Zebulun. Later it became noted in Hebrew poetry for its beauty. It is the modern Jebal et Tu)\ lying in the highlands to the south-east of Nazareth. Thus

21G BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

Jeremiali's reference to it when speaking of tlie coining invasion of Nebuchadnezzar — " Surely as Tabor is among the mountains, and as Carmel is by the sea, so sliall he come " (xlvi. 18). " On one occasion I went directly up from Deburieh with my aneroid, and found the ascent from Esdraelon to be thirteen hundred and forty-five feet. I had formerly made the base of the mountain about four hundred feet higher than the Bay of Acre, and the entire elevation, therefore, is not far from eisrhteeu hundred feet. The southern face of Tabor is lime- stone rock, nearly naked ; but the northern is clothed to the top with a forest of oak and terebinth, mingled with the beautiful mock-orange (Syringa). The road (if road it may be called) winds up through them, and, notwithstanding the experience of other travellers, I have always found it difficult, and in certain parts actually dangerous. The mount is entirely composed of cretaceous limestone, as are the hills west and north of it ; but all to the east is volcanic. I have never seen a picture of it that was perfectly satisfactory, although every artist who comes in sight of it is sure to take a sketch. Their views differ widely, owing mainly to the points whence they are taken. Seen from the south or north. Tabor describes nearly an arc of a great circle ; from the east it is a broad truncated cone, rounded off at the top ; from the west it is wedge-shaped, rising to a moderate height above the neigh- bouring hills. Its true figure is an elongated oval, the longitudinal diameter running nearly east and west. The most impressive view, perhaps, is from the plain between it and En-dor." — {Thomson)

After the victory over Sisera, Deborah and Barak sang the trium- phant song in chapter v. The " horse hoofs " and the " mighty ones " (ver. 22) are noticed under Ps. Ixviii. 30 — which see.

The notices of Jael and of the mother of Sisera in this sublime and beautiful ode are peculiiirly picturesque : —

" Blessed above women Shall Jael the -wife of Heber the Kenite be, Blessed shall she be above women in the tent. He asked water ; she gave milk ; She brought forth butter in a lordly dish. She put her hand to the nail, And her right hand to the workman's hammer; And with the hammer she smote Sisera, She smote off his head,

When she had pierced and stricken through his temples. At her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down : At her feet he bowed, he fell ;

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Where he bowed, there he fell down dead.

The mother of Sisera looked out at a window,

And cried through the lattice,

Why is his chariot so long in coming ?

Why tarry the wheels of his chariots ?

Her wise maids answered her,

Yea, she returned the words to herself,

Have they not sped ?

Ilave they divided the prey ?

To every man a damsel or two ;

To Sisera a prey of divers colours,

A prey of divers colours of needlework,

Of divers colours of needlework on both sides.

For the necks of the takers of the spoU " (ver. 24-30).

Worn and weary, the captain of the Canaauitish host reached the

tent of Heber the Kenite. He asked for water, but Jael, Heber's wife,

gave him milk and butter. Not only would he be led to trust himself

implicitly to the care of the woman who thus showed such ready

hospitality, but the milk, lilialai\ and the butter, lihemdh, would be

more conducive to sleep than the water. Thus her opportunity. Dr.

Thomson, writing amidst scenes suggestive of this heroic incident,

says — " The ' nail ' which Jael used was a tent-pin, now, as then, called

loated; and the 'hammer' was the mallet with which it is driven into

the ground. It is not necessary to suppose that either of them was of

iron, as nail and hammer would imply. The wated was probably a

sharp-pointed pin of hard wood, and the hammer was the ordinary

mallet used by these tent-dwelling Arabs. There is a curious use of

the word nail in Isaiah xxii. 23, 25, which must also refer to those

wooden wateds, I suppose, for it is the same Hebrew word : ' I will

fasten him with a nail {jjutad) in a sure place ;' and again, in the 25th,

this yiifad, fiasteued in a sure place, shall be removed, and cut down,

and fall. It is not every place that will hold the tent ' nail ' securely ;

it must be driven into suitable ground. Doubtless a wooden pin or peg

is here meant, not an iron nail. It is, however, not a tent-pin, but a

peg driven into the icall, and used to hang clothes and household

utensils upon. There is significance in the statement that it should be

made fast in a sure "place, because, in general, these pins are driven into

the wall through the plaster, and are everything but steady and secure.

Not one in a score of them but what bend down, or get loose and fall

out. There is a reference to the same thing, and the same Hebrew

word, in Zech. x. 4 : ' Out of him came forth the corner, out of him the

nail — yutad.' And this, by the way, gives an intelligible idea to this vuL. n. 2 E

218 BIBLICAL NATUKAL SCIENCE.

expression of Zecliariali. The tent-pin is absolutely essential to the stability and safety of tho Arab's habitation. Again : it is absurd to suppose that Jael brought Sisera butter to drink. Neither the ancient nor the modern Orientals make butter at all, as we understand the word, and what takes the place of it is never used as a beverage. Butter is the exponent of milk in the other member of the parallelism, showing that sour milk, or leben^ was meant ; and this, properly pre- pared, makes a most cooling and refreshing drink. Lastly : the entire soliloquy of Sisera's mother is worked out with admirable skill and truthfulness. When standing on the lofty tell of Harosheth, which commands the view of the pass up the Kishon, and out into Esdraelon toward Megiddo, I could fancy her ladyship sitting at a latticed window, and impatiently looking up the wady. She knew that a battle was to take place, was certain of victory, and longed not so much to see her son as to grasp the spoils. Knowing that these lewd warriors would chiefly value the fair damsels of the Hebrews, she mentions them first, but does not appear to relish this sort of ' prey ' for her house, and therefore does not give any to Sisera — most mothers can understand and sympathize with her. But she feasted her imagination with the goodly garment of divers colours which her son was to lay at her feet. She looks at it again and again — turns it first over on this side, then on that, to see and admire the ' divers colours.' This is eminently Oriental and feminine ; and the childish repetition of ' divers colours ' is all the more striking in an ode distinguished for rapid narrative, abrupt exclamation, and the utmost conciseness of style and diction."

Shadows again crept over the national joy. Israel sinned against God, " and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years." " Midianites, and Amalekites, and the Beni Kedem, or children of the east, came up against them " (vi. 3). " They and their camels were without numlier."

" Camel," Heb. gdmdl. The other names used in the Old Testament for camel and dromedary are given under Gen. xxx. 43 — which see. Tlie camel {Camelus dromedan'us = arabicus) belongs to the order Buminanita, or cud-chewing animals. It gives its name to the genus Camelus, under which several so called species are ranged, as C. dro- medarius, and C. bactrianus. The former, or Arabian camel, has only one hump on the back ; the latter, or Bactrian variety, has two. Both have the cloven upper lip, long neck, and the toes conjoined underneath. The camel used as a beast of burden, stands in the same relation to the dromedary or swift camel, as our cart horses do to thorough-bred

JUDGES. 219

riding horses. The former can carry burdens upwards of a thousand pounds in weight. Camels feed on drj-, prickly plants, they seldom drink, and are in every way admirably fitted for living in the desert, where the herbage is scanty and water scarce. The Arabs appro- priately name them " the ships of the desert." The camel is a native of the warmer parts of Asia and Africa. The Arabian camel is chiefly met with in South-western Asia and in the north of Africa. The Bactrian camel is more widely distributed. It is dispersed over parts of China, India, and Persia, and an extensive region to the north-west of that in which the Arabian variety abounds. In localities where it is abundant, it is to the natives what the different varieties of the horse are to the people of the West. Docile, patient, equal to great fatigue, and capable of strong attachment to its owners, it is everywhere highly prized. The Arabs eat the flesh and drink the milk of the camel. The hair which varies in individuals from white and yellow to dark brown, is shed about breeding time, and is woven into cloth which is some- times made into garments. The Baptist's raiment was of camel's hair (Matt. iii. 4).

The dark shadows were about to be dispelled. The people cried unto God and were heard. He raised up Gideon, the son of Joash the Abi-ezrite, so named from Abiezer, the eldest son of Gilead the grandson of Manasseh, as their deliverer. The angel of the Lord met Gideon " under the oak at Ophra," a place situated among the hills of ]\Ianasseh overlooking the great plain of Esdraelon. " The Lord looked upon him, and said. Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites : have not I sent thee? (ver. 14.) Not satisfied with the might communicated in the look — " Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said, behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor ; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said. And it was so : for he rose up early on the morrow, and tlu'ust the fleece together, and wringed tlie dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water. And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once : let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece ; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew. And God did so that night : for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground (ver. 36-40).

The formation of dew has been noticed under Genesis ii. At night

220 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

the surface of the earth gives off a portion of its heat by radiation, and thus becomes colder tliau tlic immediately surrounding atmosphere. This leads to a deposit of the moisture, in the form of minute globules, on the surfaces of the bodies whose temperature has thus been reduced. Calm, serene weather, with a clear sky, is most favourable to the formation and deposition of dew. The bodies which radiate their heat most freely at night, receive dew most copiously. It is a curious fact, that wool is one of the substances best fitted for the reception of mois- ture in the form of dew. The metals are least so. Gideon was led to choose a substance on which the sign sought for would be most distinctly marked. It is not necessary here to seek to establish that the phenomena described were miraculous. They served as a sign; this was the only purpose for which they were regulated. By a few simple experiments the appearances which met the eye of Gideon can be produced. The point of the narrative is, that by the arrangement of Ilim in whose hands are all the forces of nature, the phenomena for which his servant looked were produced at the time and in the circumstances determined on by him, without any artificial inter- ferences thereto. Gideon had noticed that in nature, when dew was formed, all the articles in the same area became covered with it. Let there then be an exception to this — let the fleece be wet, and all the earth around dry. It was so. Again, let the earth be wet and the fleece dry. " And God did so that night : for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground." In the one case, the sky needed to be clouded except at the point which looked down on the fleece ; in the other, it needed to be all clear except above the fleece. Thus though natural means might be used in producing the effect, these were so guided as to shut Gideon up to the direct acknowledgment of God's interference in making the phenomena a sign.

In yet another way God was to make it clear that he had undertaken for his people. " And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many ; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there : and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee. This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee ; and of whomsoever I say unto thee. This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go. So he brought down the people unto the water: and the Lord said unto Gideon, Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink. And the number of them that lapped,

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putting tlieir hand to their mouth, were three hundred men : but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water. And the Lord said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand : and let all the other people go every man unto his place " (vii. 4-7). The illus- tration brings out the active, willing service to be rendered by the three hundred men with whom Gideon was to go against the enemy. The words " putting their hand to their mouth " explain the whole

Fig. 76.

Dogs from Egyptian Sculptures { Wilkinson),

passage. Instead of leisurely kneeling down, they caught the water up in their hands lest they should be taken off their guard. The dog forms the thin end of his tongue into a ladle-like shape, lifts up the water in this hollow ; and landing it in the canal-like depression in the middle of the tongue, or on the roof of the mouth above the throat, it is then transferred to the stomach.

" Dog," Heb. Jcelev, is mentioned three times before, Exod. xi. 7, xxii. 31 ; Deut. xxiii. 18. Thus early had it been brought under the

222 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

power of man. On early Egyptian sculptures dogs are represented as employed by man in the chase, as used in keeping cattle, and as domestic pets. The Jews seem to have used them in the same way, Isaiah mentions the dog in words which show that it was employed as a watch — " His watchmen are blind ; they are all ignorant, they are dumb dogs, they cannot bark " (Isa. Ivi. 10). Job notices them in connection with the flocks — " They that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock " (Job xxx. 1). As an unclean animal the dog became a term of reproach among the Jews, as indeed it is in the East generally, even still. Its structural resemblance to the wolf, and the fact that its period of gestation is the same, have led many to conclude that the dog {Canis famiUaris) is only a domesticated variety of wolf ( (7. lupus). It is quite likely, however, that there may have been several original stocks from which the varieties of the domestic dog may have descended. In the East the varieties represented on ancient sculptures are still to be met with. Some of them are strong, massive animals, exceedingly bold and daring, as for example the Thibetan mastiff (Plate XV., Fig. 3). " The barley cake " mentioned in the dream of the enemy's sentinel, is noticed under Ezek. xi. 12.

The word translated thorns (Jcotz) in chapter viii. 7, is the same as that used in Gen. iii. 18, in connection with the curse on the ground. It is a generic term, and includes all plants met with in Bible-lands armed with thorns or prickles. It occurs in this sense, Exod. xxii. 6 ; 2 Sam. xxiii. G; Ps. cxviii. 12; Isa. xxxii. 13, xxxiii. 12; Jer. iv. 3; Ezek. xxviii. 24 ; Hos. x. 8. As a general term it is sometimes associated with others which indicate a specific form. Such is the case here. Briers (hnrJcamm) are named with the thorns. This Hebrew word occurs only in this chapter. Its proper rendering is, no doubt, brier (Fosa canina), or dog-rose, a well known British hedge- row plant. The attempts to fix the meaning of " toothed thrashing instrument, or of "the scorpion whip" on this term are far-fetched. The expression is a very strong one, used to indicate the severe punishment which was to fall on the men of Siiccoth for their unfriendly reception of Gideon. There can be no mistake about the instrument. After the discomfiture of Zebah and Zalmunna, the Israel itish chief returned to Succoth ; " and he took the elders of the city, and thorns of the wilderness, and briers, and with them he taught the men of Succoth " (ver. 16).

The instrument which some have thought to be referred to here is that

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223

described by Dr. Robinson (Bib. Res. ii. p. 307): — "Here (near Sebastieli) we first fell in with the sled or sledge used for thrasliing. It consists simply of two planks fastened together side by side, and bent upwards in front. Many holes are bored in the bottom underneath, and into these are fixed sharp fragments of hard stone. The machine is dragged by the oxen, as they are driven round upon the grain ; sometimes a man or boy sits on it." It is difficult to see how this could possibly represent the hurJcamm of this verse. The other view to which reference has been made draws its strength from 1 Kings xii. 11 — " My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions;" and from the parallel passage 2 Chron. x. 11. But "scorpion" in this pas- sage has no reference to plants. It was simply the serpent-like scourge, and, like the whip, would most likely be formed of leather. The word (gaJcrdv) is the same as that used in Deut. viii. 15 — " fiery serpents and scorpions." — See under Gen. iii. 18.

The victory over Zebah and Zalmunna became ultimately a snare — " And Gideon said unto them, I would desire a request of you, that ye would give me every man the ear-rings of his prey : (for they had golden ear-rings, because they were Ishmaclites). And they answered. We will willingly give them. And they spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the ear-rings of his prey. And the weight of the golden ear-rings that he requested was a thousand and seven hundred shekels of gold ; besides ornaments, and collars, and purple raiment that was on the kings of JMidian, and besides the chains that were about their camels' necks. And Gideon made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city, even in Ophrah; and all Israel went thither a whoring after it : which thing became a snare unto Gideon, and to his house" (ver. 24-27). The colour of the raiment worn by the kings of JMidian was " purple" {argamdn), which is mentioned more than twenty times in the Old Testament, and ten times in the New Testanjent under its Greek name {porpJnira). This was the true Tyrian dye, so celebrated among the ancients. It was obtained from a mollusc belonging to the family IluridJcc, or rock-shells, many of which yield a purple dye. The well known purple shells, or dog-periwinkles, common on our coasts, used to be regarded as the source of this costly colour ; but there is now no doubt that it was obtained from a murex. The dye is secreted in a vein behind the neck of the animal, and as each animal yielded only one, or at most three drops, the colour became very expensive. Well-dyed wool used to sell at more than £35 per pound weight. Pliny speaks of it as " that glorious colour so

224

BIBLICAL NATUUAL SCIENCE.

full of state and majesty, that the Roman lictors with their rods, lialberds, and axes make way for; this is it that graces and sets out the children of princes and noblemen ; this makes the distinction between a knight and a councillor of state ; tliis is called for and put on, when they offer sacrifice to pacify the gods ; this gives a lustre to all sorts of garments ; to conclude, our great generals in the field, and victorious captains in their triumphs, wear this purple in their mantles, interlaced and Fig.7(3. embroidered among gold." All the

Scripture references to this dye point to its beauty and costliness. In Britain purple was obtained from the little purple, or dog-peri- winkle [Purpura ccqn'Uus), one of the whelk family {Buccimdce). So ate as 1684 it was used in Ireland for dyeing linen.

The account of the spoils taken from the Midianites affords evi- dence of great advancement among them in the fine arts. In addition to the purple raiment mention is made of golden ear-rings, and precious jewels, here named collars, with ornaments for their own persons, and golden ornaments for the necks of the royal camels.

Abimelech's craft secured for him the favour of the men of Shechem, the birth-place of his mother, one of Gideon's concubines ; and by them he was made king, to the exclusion of Jotham, the youngest legitimate son of Gideon. When the concubine's son mercilessly slew his brethren the sons of Jerubbaal upon one stone (ix. 3), Jotham had escaped and hid himself When tidings were brought to him that the Shechemites had raised Abimelech to the throne, Jotham, from the brow of Mount Gerizim, spoke to them the peculiarly graphic parable contained in verses seven to twenty-one. " In some places the preci- pices of Gerizim seem to overhang the town (Sychar), so that Jotham's voice, floating over the valley, might easily be heard by a quiet audience eagerly listening in the plain below."— See under Deut. xxvii. 12, 13. In Jotham's parable " the folly and ingratitude of the Shechemites in making the basest of Gideon's sons their king, and in murdering the rest ; the presumption and arrogance of Abimelech in aspiring to such an honour ; and the consequences of so unreasonable procedure — are

Murcx {Chicoreus infiatiu).

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225

represented with great ingenuity," faithfulness, and beauty. The men of Shechera are compared to the cedars, named " trees " in ver. 8, and cedars of Lebanon in ver. 15. Tiie sons of Gideon are referred to as " oHvc-trees," " fig-trees," and " vines," wliile Abimelech is marked out by tlie " bramble." Gideon's sons had drunk in their father's spirit. Israel had said to him — " Rule thou over us, both thou and thy son, and thy son's son also ; for thou hast delivered us from the hand of Midian. And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you ; the Lord shall rule over you " (ver. 22, 23). Jotham suggests this to the men of Shechem, as if he had said to them — " Had a king for you been according to the will of God, you might have found a suitable one among my brethren, one who would have enriched you as the olive does the people by its oil, or nourished you as the fig-tree does by supplying you with its fruit, or led you into joy as the vine which yields that juice from its luscious clusters, and " cheereth God and man." But now ye have chosen Abimelech, the son of my father's maid-servant, who will be to you only what the bramble is, a troublesome and unmanageable plant among the trees of the wood, fit for firebrands but for little else. When he had uttered all the words of his parable, " Jotham ran away, and fled, and went to Beer, and dwelt there, for fear of Abimelech his brother" (ver. 21).

" Bramble," Hebrew dtad, Greek hatos^ the common bramble [liuhiis fruticosus) of botanists — see under Luke vi. 44. A figure of the plant is given to illustrate Genesis iii. 18. In Psalm Iviii. 9, atad is rendered " thorns "—

'' Before your pots can feel the thorns, He shall take them away as with a whirlwind."

The word translated "brambles" in Isa. xxxiv. 13, is elsewhere rendered thorns and thistles — lioalJi — 2 Kings xiv. 9 ; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11; Hos. ix. 6, &c.; and in 1 Sam. xiii. 6, " in thickets " is given as its equivalent.

" Cedars of Lebanon " supply the emblem for the people, and especially the leaders of Shechem. The Hebrew avoixI invariably rendered cedar is erez. It occurs seventy-two times, and is in about twelve instances associated with Lebanon — the locality long famed for its cedar-trees. Of those passages only in which this union of terms occurs, can it be affirmed with certainty that the well known species Cedrus Libani is mentioned. This is to be kept in mind, because other species of this family were often spoken of as cedars.

VOL. II. 2 F

22G BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

The cedar gives its name to a genus of plants belonging to the cone- bearing natural order {Coniferoi). It attains to the height of above eighty feet, and to more than forty feet in girth. It is a stately and beautiful tree, when seen to advantage with its dark evergreen leaves, wide-spreading branches, and massive trunk. — See under 1 Kings iv. 33.

In the announcement of Samson's birth, repeated references are made to strong drink (ch. xiii. 4, 7, 14 ; see under Numb. vi. 3). When he was grown up, he is represented as going to Timnath after a daughter of the Philistines (xiv. 1). "Tiumath" is first mentioned in Genesis xxxviii. 12, which see. Among the names of places assigned to the tribe of Judah, it occurs as Timnah and Thimnathah (Josh. xv. 10, 57 ; xix. 43). During the reign of Ahaz, the Philistines made a raid on the territory of Judah, and, among other places taken, "Timnah, with the villages thereof," is named, 2 Chron. xxviii. 18. Here it is specially noted in connection with the exploits of Samson. Its in- habitants were named " Timnites " (xv. G). Timnath is now identi- fied with the modern Tibneh. Dr. Robinson, however, holds that the place mentioned in Gen. xxxviii. 12, and Josh. xv. 57, was situated among the mountains of Judah, and different from the scene of the deeds of Manoah's son (" Res. in Palest." ii. 17). But it is more likely that these places are identical. There is nothing in the topographical lists of Joshua which demands a separation. Timnath was situated on the border of Judah, " not far from Ekron, and was therefore counted to the plain of Judah. But this position at the boundary made its possession uncertain ; we find it, therefore, first in the hands of the tribe of Judah (Josh. xv. 57) ; then it was incorporated in the territory of Dan (Josh. xix. 43) ; in the time of the Judges it was under the dominion of the Philistines (xiv. 1-6) ; but later, reconquered by the Israelites, it gained importance, and acquired sovereignty over smaller towns, but was, in the reign of King Ahaz, again subdued by the Philistines (2 Chron. xxviii. 18). It was fortified in the period of the Maccabees (1 Mac. ix. 50), and was, in the time of Titus, still regarded as the fourth important town among the eleven which then enjoyed the chief influence in Judaea {Joseph.^ Bell. Jud. III., iii. 5). It is by Pliny mentioned among the principal toparchies (v. 15) ; and was, even in the time of Eusebius, known as a considerable village. — Kalisch.

Samson had cast the carcass of the lion by the way-side. The heat of the climate, and the abundance of the flesh-eating insects {sarco- phaf)a) always to be met with in such lands, would hasten the work of decomposition. In such circumstances the bony skeleton of the Hon

JUDGES. 227

would still be found bound together by the natural ligaments, which the insects are slow to touch. Bees do not easily take to any mass for a lodging which is putrifying. But this process would soon pass, and the cavity formed by the breast and ribs, or the skull cleared of the brain by the insects, would tempt a swarm, in a locality in which they seem ever to have abounded, to settle down (xiv. 5-9). Even in Britain, the head of a dead sheep, or fox, or dog, left exposed in the field for a couple of months, will often be found stripped of every particle of flesh, and completely freed from the brain. The bees which took possession of the lion's carcass, were honey bees (Ajn's meUifica), of which there are several varieties. Honey, Heb. deuash, is fully noticed under 2 Kings xviii. 32, and 2 Chron. xxxi. 5, which see.

This incident is referred to by Dr. Thomson. " There were then," he says, " vineyards belonging to Timnah, as there are now in all these hamlets along the base of the hills, and upon the mountain sides. These vineyards are very often far out from the villages, climbing up through wadies and wild cliffs, in one of which Samson encountered the young lion. He threw the dead body aside, and the next time he went down to Timnah, he found a swarm of bees in the carcass. This, it must be confessed, is an extraordinary occurrence. The word for bees is the Arabic for hornets, and these, we know, are very fond of flesh, and devour it with the greatest avidity. I have myself seen a swarm of hornets build their comb in the skull of a dead camel ; and this would incline me to believe that it was really our dehaht'r, hornets, that had settled in the carcass of Samson's lion, if it were known that they manufactured honey enough to meet the demands of the story. However, we find that not long after this bees were so abundant in a wood at no great distance from this spot, that the honey dropped down from the trees on the ground ; and I have explored densely-wooded gorges in Hermon and in southern Lebanon where wild bees are still found, both in trees and in the clefts of the rocks. It keeps up the verisimilitude of the narrative that these are just the places where wild beasts still abound ; and though bees ordinarily avoid dead carcasses, it is possible that they on this occasion selected that of the lion for their hive." But the honey made by the hornets would not " meet the demands of the story." The occurrence, when regarded in the light of the foregoing explanation, is just what in such circumstances might have been looked for.

The incident in the way to Timnath gave occasion for the riddle recorded in verse 14. The forfeit is named in verses 12 and 13 — "And

228 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

Samson said unto tlieni, I will now put forth a riddle unto you : if ye can certainly declare it me witliin the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty sheets, and thirty change of garments : but if ye cannot declare it me, then shall ye give me thirty sheets, and thirty change of garments. And they said unto him, Put forth thy riddle, that we may hear it." "Thirty sheets" (sheldshim sadinmm), or, as in the margin, "thirty shirts." The reference is clearly to an article of clothing. If " shirt " be the proper rendering, as it seems to be, the passage is worthy of notice, as showing that linen underclothing was in use in Syria very long before it was so among western nations. The emperor Severus (a.d. 193) is said to have been the first Roman who wore a linen shirt. Before that time shirts made of woollen were worn. The date of Samson's rule, as judge, was about B.C. 1156. The word now under notice occurs in two other passages. It is said of the virtuous woman — " She maketh fine linen (sadin) and selleth it " (Prov. xxxi. 24). One of the articles of luxury, of which the " haughty daughters of Sion " were to be deprived in the day of the Lord's judg- ment on them, because of their wantonness and pride, was the sadin, rendered in our version " fine linen " (Isa. iii. 23).

Samson's father-in-law brought destruction on himself and his house- hold by giving his daughter, who had been married to Manoah's son, to another man. Roused to indignation by this deceitful act, " Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took fire-brands, and turned tail to tail, and put a fire-brand in the midst between two tails. And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, with the vineyards and olives. Then the Philistines saith. Who hath done this ? And they answered, Samson, the son-in- law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife, and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire" (xv. 4-6).

" Fox," Heb. shudl, Greek alopex is named eight times in the Scriptures — five times in the Old, and thrice in the New Testament. With the dog, wolf, &c., it belongs to the family Cam'dce, or dog kind. It is the Cams vidpes, or, more correctly, the Vulpes vulgaris of zoologists (Plate XV., Fig. 1). Linnaeus assumed the Greek term as specific, and named it Cam's alopex. The animal used by Samson in setting fire to the crops of the Philistines has very generally been thought to be the jackal (Cam's aureus) a very closely related species, held by Pallas and other old naturalists to have been the original stock

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of the domestic dog (C. familmns). The Hebrew name appears, like tlie Latin cam's, to have been generic. It has passed into several lan- guages in forms suggestive of close relationship. Thus we have Heb, simal, Sansc. erigala, French ckacal, German schakal, and 'Eng. jacJcal. It is also the Teutonic goucl-tcolf and dog-wolf. Literally the meaning of the name is the " digger," or " burrower," a designation peculiarly suitable both to the fox and the jackal. The latter is found in flocks even still in Palestine, and may have been the animal used in this case. The difficulties which some have found in the statement that he got so many, and tied them tail to tail, are imaginary. To have any weight, they would need to be founded on the certainty, that at the time of Samson jackals were even rarer than they are now. Besides, there is nothing in the narrative which shuts us up to the belief that Samson had no help iu carrying out this act of revenge. He was of great note among the people at the time, and would have many to assist him. Dr. Thomson says : — "It is probable that by foxes jackals are intended, and these are even now extremely numerous. I have had more than one race after them, and over the very theatre of Samson's exploit. When encamped out in the plain with a part of Ibrahim Pasha's army, in 1834, we were serenaded all night long by troops of these hideous howlers. But if we must limit Samson to the ordinary meaning of fox, even these are to be found here. I started up and chased one when I passed over that part of the plain where Timnath is believed to have been situated. It must be admitted, however, that the number seems not only large in view of the difficulty of capturing them, but also far too great for the purpose intended. The object was to set fire to the dry corn which covered the plains of the Philistines. Now a spark would seem sufficient to accomplish this. During the summer months the whole country is one sea of dead-ripe grain, dry as tinder. There is neither break, nor hedge, nor fence, nor any cause of interruption. Once in a blaze, it would create a wind for itself, even if it were calm to begin with. And it would seem that a less number could have answered all the purposes of Samson ; but to this it is obvious to remark that he meditated no limited revenge. He therefore planned to set the fields of a great many towns and villages on fire at the same moment, so that the people would be confounded and bewildered by beholding the conflagration on all sides of them ; and each being intent on saving his own crop, no one could help his neighbour. Besides, the text implies that certain parts were already reaped, and this would produce interruptions in the continuity of the fields ; and, also, we

230 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

know not tlie modes of cultivation at that early period. Part of the land may have been permitted to lie follow, or might have been planted with ' summer fruits,' which, being green, would stop the conflagra- tion, and render necessary a greater number of firebrands. As to the difficulty of capturing so many foxes, we must remember that Samson was judge or governor of Israel at that time. He no more caught tliese creatures himself than Solomon built the temple with his own hands : and if we take two or three other facts into account, it will not appear incredible that the governor of a nation could gather such a number of foxes when he had occasion for them. The first is, that in those days this country was infested with all sorts of wild animals to an extent which seems to us almost incredible. This is evident from almost numberless incidental allusions in the Bible ; but the use of fire-arms for so many centuries has either totally exterminated whole classes, or obliged them to retire into the remote and unfrequented deserts. No doubt, therefore, foxes and jackals were far more numer- ous in the days of Samson than at present. The second fact is, that, not having fire-arms, the ancients were much more skilful than the moderns in the use of snares, nets, and pits for capturing wild animals. A large class of Biblical figures and allusions necessarily presuppose this state of things. Job, and David, and all the poets and prophets, continually refer in their complaints to snares, nets, pits, <S:c. We are justified, therefore, in believing that, at the time in question, the commander of Israel could with no great difficulty collect even three hundred foxes. He was not limited to a day or a week ; and though it may be true that in the whole country there are not now so many killed in an entire year, yet this does not prove that this number could not have been gathered by Samson from the territories of Judah, Dan, and Simeon, over which his authority more particularly extended. We therefore want no correction of the text to render the whole account credible, nor need we call in the aid of miracles. It was merely a cunning device of Israel's champion to inflict a terrible chastisement upon his enemies."

RUTH. 231

\V'> wa

RUTH.

HE time when the chief events narrated in this Book took place is noticed in verse 1 — " It came to pass when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land." Most recent interpreters accept Usher's opinion on this point, and hold that the reference here is to the scarcity that as brought about by the oppression of the Midiauites from ^^ ^ which Gideon delivered the people. There is no other ' historical notice of such a famine when the judges ruled. No definite conclusion as to the chronology of this Book, can be drawn from the genealogical tables given by Matthew (i.) and Luke (iii.). The history is one of great beauty and pastoral simplicity. The veil which, for the most part, conceals God's ways in his providences with households is drawn aside, and we get a glimpse of the close bearings of national events on family history. The famine which sent Elimclech and his wife Naomi into the country of Moab (ver. 2), determined the descent both of David and of David's Lord on the mother's side from a Moabitess, and again intimated, that, while God's special favour was continued on Israel as a covenant people, the door of mercy, goodness, and grace was open for the admission of those chosen from among the Gentiles.

Naomi's husband and her two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, died in the place of their sojourn. Her sons had married daughters of Moab, named Orpah and Ruth. When the famine in the land of Israel ceased, and Naomi heard that " the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread" (ver. 6), she resolved to return to her native country. Orpah stayed with her own people ; Ruth clave unto her mother-in-law and returned with her. Tlie season at which Naomi and her dausrhter-in- law reached home is distinctly stated in verse 22 — " They returned out of the country of Moab : and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest." Barley sown in autumn, in a climate like that of Palestine or of Egypt, is reaped in the middle or towards the latter end of March. — See under Exod. ix. 31. Seed sown in January ripens about the middle of April.

" Barley," Heb. shordJi, takes its name both in Hebrew and in Latin

232 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

from the threatenin,2^ aspect of its awns (arista). It gives the name to a genus of plants (Ilordeicm) belonging to the natural order Grammece or grasses. In attempting to trace its history we are led, as in the case of the other best known cereals, to the East. The species chiefly culti- vated in Britain, summer barley (Ilordeum di'stichum), has been found in a wild state in Mesopotamia. Sixteen or seventeen species have been named; but a strict examination of these, and an intimate acquaintance with the influence of climate, soil, and the like on them, will greatly reduce their number. Several should have been reckoned as varieties rather than as species. If the power of long cultivation in modifying outstanding and original peculiarities be taken into account, it will appear doubtful whetlier we are entitled to hold that the' six kinds cultivated for food should be regarded as specifically distinct. The likelihood is, that we have not more than four well-marked species.

None of the cereals can lay claim to such a wide geographical area as barley. It is largely cultivated in temperate climates, it grows well within the tropics, and is found ripening on the very borders of the frigid zone. It was much used by the Israelites, and is more than thirty times named in Scripture. When Moses tried to quicken the expectations of the people regarding the " good land," he spoke of barley as, equally with wheat, vines, fig-trees, and pomegranates, one of its products (Dent. viii. 8).

The notice of the harvest at Bethlehem introduces a picture of exceeding beauty (chap. ii). Nothing so well illustrates the change in the political condition of Israel, referred to in chapter i. G, as this picture of the harvest-field near Bethlehem. Naomi had resolved to leave the land of Moab when she heard that " the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread." The date of the migration of Elime- Icch's household to the land of Moab, seems to have been at the period which intervened between the death of Barak and the calling of Gideon, Judges vi. 1-14. Then Llidian prevailed over the people; Israel took refuge in the dens, and caves, and strongholds; their enemies destroyed the increase of the earth; they spread over their land as locusts, and " left no sustenance for Israel." But Gideon triumphed, and " the country was in quietness forty years." Naomi returned. Israel again became accustomed to prosperity. The peaceful scene pictured here was realized, and the meeting of Ruth and Boaz formed another great step to the bringing in of Messiah.

Barley is named generally in verse 2 as "ears of corn," and in verses 17, 23, it is again specially referred to. This was the grain which

Rutli gleaned. Barley meal held very much the same place among the Jews as it has done in most countries in which it is used. The bread used by the poor and by the industrious classes was chiefly made from it, as that of the wealthier classes was formed of wheaten flour. Its cultivation was thus general. When David fled from Absalom, his friends Shobi, Machir, and Barzillai, among other articles, brought him " wheat and barley " for himself " and for the people that were with him to eat." David's captain, Joab, cultivated it for his household. " Joab's field," said Absalom, " is near mine, and he hath barley there ; go and set it on fire " (2 Sam. xiv. 30 ; xvii. 28).

The kindly relationship subsisting between Boaz and his servants is set before us in beautiful and attractive simplicity in verse 4 — "Behold Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers. The Lord be with you. And they answered him. The Lord bless thee." —

" So is it with true Cliristian hearts ;

Their mutual share in Jesus' bioocl An everlasting bond imparts

Of holiest brotherhood : Oh ! might we all our lineage prove, Give and forgive, do good and love, By soft endearments in kind strife Lightening the load of daily life." — {KeJdi.)

As Ruth gleaned after the reapers, " Boaz said unto her, At meal- time come thou hither, and eat of the bread and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers : and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat" (ii. 14). "Vinegar" — see under Prov. x. 26. The vinegar and " parched corn " named here may still be seen in use at harvest-time among the reapers, in the very fields around Bethlehem in which the young Moabitess gleaned. " Parched corn is made thus : a quantity of the best ears, not too ripe, are plucked with the stalks attached. These are tied into small parcels, a blazing fire is kindled with dry grass and thorn bushes, and the corn-heads are held in it until the chaff is mostly burned off. The grain is thus sufficiently roasted to be eaten, and it is a favourite article all over the country. When travelling in harvest-time, my muleteers have very often thus prepared parched corn in the evenings after the tent has been pitched. Nor is the gathering of these green ears for parching ever regarded as stealing. After it has been roasted, it is rubbed out in the hand and eaten as there is occasion. This parched corn is often referred to in

the Bible."

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J

234 niBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

I. SAMUEL.

HE Jews regard the two books of Samuel as one. Much uncertainty hangs around their authorship. Samuel him- self is generally believed to have written chapters i.-xxiv. of the first book ; Nathan and Gad the rest. 1 Chron. xxix. 29, is often quoted in support of this supposition : — •' Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer." But this passage rather suggests the likelihood, that the Spirit of God employed some other man to reduce the books of contemporary history written by these men into the form of the narrative before us.

The birth of Samuel, his removal to Shiloh to be under Eli, the apostasy of Eli's sons, his death, the accession of Samuel as judge, the desire of the people for a king, and the appointment of Samuel to tliat office, are narrated in chapters i.-x. Saul's wars with the Philistines, his gross disobedience and departure from God, the choice of David as his successor, Saul's enmity against David, tlie death of Samuel, the defeat and death of Saul, are described in the remaining chapters, xi.-xxxi.

After Samuel's birth his mother went to Shiloh to give thanks to the Lord, who had hearkened to her cry and given her a son. In this remarkable outpouring of Hannah's soul she remembers her trials and God's gracious dealings. This leads her to the strikingly bold expression of her testimony to the divine sovereignty in providence, in creation, and in grace. In illustrating the second of these, she says " the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he hath set the world upon them " (ii. 7). The word pillar {nutzooUj is derived from a verb (tzooJc), "to rest heavily on" — tropically, " to entreat," " to constrain," " to straiten," and "to distress," Judg. xiv. 17; Job xxxii. 18; Jer. xix. 9 ; Isa. xxix. 7. The meaning of Hannah is simply " the founda- tions of the earth are the Lord's," though the word is not the same as that used in other passages in this sense, Deut. xxxii. 22 ; Job xxxviii. 4, &c. It is absurd to quote this expression, as has been done, as an illustration of the ignorance of the people at that time regarding the body of the earth. All that was implied in using it was, that God

I. SAMUEL.

235

shows his sovereign power in upholding the world, and that this same power is that which in grace " keeps the feet of his saints."

The hand of the Lord was strong on those who kept the ark, taken from Israel by the Philistines — " And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying. They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people. So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said. Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to its own place, that it slay us not, and our people ; for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city ; the hand of God was very heavy there. And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods : and the cry of the city went up to heaven " (ch. v. 10-12). The scourge on the land was a plague of mice ; that on the

Fig 77.

Jerboa {Dipus ^gyptiusj.

bodies of those wlio had not been stricken down by death was emerods. The ark was to be sent away, and with it golden images of what had been sent as the means of judgment — " Then said they. What shall be the trespass-offering which we shall return to him? They answered, Five golden emerods, and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of tlie Philistines : i'or one plague was on you all, and on your lords. Wlierefore ye shall make images of your emerods, and images of your mice that mar the land; and ye shall give glory unto the God of Israel : peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off" your gods, and from off your land " (vi. 4, 5).

" Emerods," Heb. aphalim, tumours {tumores ani).

" Mice," Heb. acliharim. The Arabs give a name nearly resembling this to the dipus or Egyptian jerboa, the Egyptian mouse {Mus JEgypthis) of Hasselquist. In Isaiah Ixvi. 17, reference is made to the

236 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

mouse (achbar) as an animal used for food by the idolaters whom backsliding Israel followed. It is known that the Arabs sometimes eat the jerboa, but we have no ini'ormation regarding any nation by whom the mouse, properly so called {Mus muscidus), or any one of the fieldmice {M. messoi-us, If. sylvatictis, Arvicola acjrestis, Plate XXXII.), was eaten. This has strengthened the belief that the jerboa is intended in this and other passages. But it is much more to the purpose to regard the Hebrew name as a general term for a group of animals of corresponding habits with the mice {Muridce), the voles (Ai-vt'coltdce), and the jerboas (Dipodidoe), of modern classification. The golden image made by the Philistines would represent the species which had spread over their fields as a plague. The reference to the mouse in Levit. xi. 29, is from this wide point of view. " Kine" are mentioned in verses 7, 10, 12, 14. — See under Genesis xli. 2-4.

In Samuel's instructions given to Saul after he had anointed him (x. 1-8), the " hill of God " is mentioned (ver. 5). This was not Mount Zion, but a high place which was at that time devoted to sacred purposes.

The strong desire expressed bj^ the people for a king to rule over them, was directly ascribed to their unbelief God had been their king from the days of old. Now, however, they wished to see the evidences of kingly pomp among them, as these stood out in the nations around them. Samuel wished to show them, that these views were not cherished by him from any feeling of disappointed ambition or pride. Thus he told them that God regarded them just as he had done : — " Now therefore stand and see this great thing, which the Lord will do before your eyes. Is it not wheat-harvest to-day ? I will call unto the Lord, and he shall send thunder and rain ; that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking you a king. So Samuel called unto the Lord ; and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day : and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not : for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king" (xii. 17). Rain at the time of wheat-harvest was evidently regarded by the people as miraculous. "When it fell with the accom- paniments noted here, " they greatly feared." The climate in the locality where they were, continues much the same now as at that time. The early rains begin gradually in the end of October or beginning of November. These continue till April. Slight showers

I. SAMUEL. 237

only fall occasionally at that season. The wheat-harvest occurs about the second week of May in the valley of the Jordan, when even the occasional showers have ceased.

After the rash act of worship (xiii. G-14), Saul betook himself to " the hill of Benjamin." The Philistines were encamped at Michmash. Thence they sent out their spoilers, one company of whom went to Ophrah, another to Beth-horon, a third " turned to the way of the border that looketh to the valley of Zeboim, toward the wilderness" (ver. 18). " Zeboim " means hjcenas. The ravine had been so named from its having been a noted haunt of these ferocious animals, just as " Ajalon " had got its name from the stag, " Lebaoth " from its lion- esses, and " Shaalbim " from \\s foxes.

Saul had virtually ceased to be on the Lord's side (xiii. 11-lC). He still fought as if for God against the wicked, but in reality it was for himself. Made weak by his sin, the influence of his condition spread like contagion among his soldiers. They were unwilling to meet the foe, and were consequently unable to do so. Under one of those impulses which frequently return with power to the backsliding, and lift them for a season to the level of past attainments, Saul led his soldiers up against the Philistines. In chapter xiv. they are seen face to face, as if about to try their strength, ilichmash lay in the north of those wide wild pasture lands where Jacob prophesied that Benjamin was to "ravin as a wolf, devouring the prey in the morning, and dividing the spoil at night" (Gen. xlix. 27). While waiting for an advantageous opportunity of attack, " Saul tarried in the uttermost part of Gibcah under a pomegranate-tree which is in Migron " (ver. 2).

" Pomegranate," Heb. rimmdn. This tree is the Punica granatum of botanists, one of the natural order Myrtacece, or myrtle family. It is a native of Asia, and was common in Palestine. It is found also in Northern Africa, and must have been abundant in Egypt at the time of the Exodus: — " Wherefore," cried the murmuring Israelites, " have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates ; neither is there any water to drink " (Numb. xx. 5). It is represented on Egyptian sculptures, whose date is as early as the Exodus, as a plant cultivated for its fruit, and as used in their temple worship. A figure of the pomegranate is given on the reverse of the coins of ancient Rhodes. " It is the ancient rkodon, or rose, which was used for its dye, and gave its name to the island of Rhodes." — (Wilkinson). Plinv notices it as " the flower called Balausticum."

238 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

Scripture references to the pomegranate represent it — (1) As char- acteristic of Palestine — " a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates" (Deut. viii. 8). When the spies returned from Eschol "they brought of the pomegranates and of the figs" to Kadesh " (Numb. xiii. 23). In Joel i. 12 it is mentioned with the vine, the fig, the palm, and the apple trees, and in Haggai ii. 19, with tlie vine, fig, and olive. (2) As embroidered on articles of dress. It alternated with the golden bells on the robe of the high priest : — " And beneath upon the hem of it, thou shalt make pomegranates of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, round about the hem thereof; and bells of gold between them round about : a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the hem of the robe round about. And it stall be upon Aaron to minister : and his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before the Lord, and when he cometh out, that he die not'' (Exod. xxviii. 33-35, and xxxix. 24-26). (3) As an ornament in architecture. Among Solo- mon's preparations for the temple, we are told " he made the pillars, and two rows round about upon the one net-work, to cover the chap- iters that were upon the top with pomegranates : and so did he for the other chapiter. And the chapiters that were upon the top ot the pillars were of lily-work in the porch, four cubits. And the chapiters upon the two pillars had pomegranates also above, over against the belly which was by the net-work ; and the pomegranates were two hundred, in rows round about upon the other chapiter. And he set up the pillars in the porch of the temple ; and he set up the right pillar, and called the name thereof Jachin ; and he set up the left pillar, and called the name thereof Boaz " (1 Kings vii. 18-21). These are mentioned in Jeremiah (lii. 20) as the " pillars which King Solomon made in the house of the Lord." They were carried to Babylon by Nebuzar-adan at the time of the captivity in " the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar." (4) As symbolic of spiritual graces. This use of the pomegranate is confined to the Song of Solomon. — See under Song iv. 3.

The pomegranate is still met with in Palestine — seldom, however, as a tree; mostly as a strong thorny-looking bush. Several varieties occur. " In Jebaah, on Lebanon, there is a variety perfectly black on the outside. The general colour, however, is a dull green, inclining to yellow, and some even have a blush of red spread over a part of their surface. The outside rind is thin but tough, and the bitter juice of it stains every thing it touches with an undefined but indelible blue.

I. SAMUEL.

239

The average size is about that of the orange, but some of those from Jaffa are as large as the egg cf an ostrich. Within, the " grains " are arranged in longitudinal compartments as compactly as corn on the cob, and they closely resemble those of pale red corn, except that they are nearly transparent and very beautiful. A dish filled with these " grains " shelled out is a very handsome ornament on any table, and the fruit is as sweet to the taste as it is pleasant to the eye. They are ripe about the middle of October, and remain in good condition all

Fig. 78.

romcgranato {Punka granatum).

winter. Suspended in the pantry, they are kept partially dried through the whole year. The flower of the pomegranate is bell or tulip shaped, and is of a beautiful orange-red, deepening into crimson on some bushes. There is a kind very large and double, but this bears no fruit, and is cultivated merely for its brilliant blossoms, which are put forth profusely during the whole summer." — (Thomson.)

In that rash impetuosity of spirit which so often led Saul into error, he had vowed for himself and his people that they would not taste

240 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE,

food till the Philistines were destroyed. The result led to much vexation, and to the widening of that breach between Saul and his people which had already begun to appear. A day of terrible disaster had fallen on the enemies of Israel, but Saul unwisely interfered with the habits of the soldiery, and we are told that " the men of Israel were distressed that day : for Saul had adjured the people, saying. Cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening, that I may be avenged on mine enemies. So none of the people tasted any food. And all they of the land came to a wood ; and there was honey upon the ground. And when the people were come into the wood, behold, the honey dropped ; but no man put his hand to his mouth : for the people feared the oath. But Jonathan heard not when his father charged the people with the oath : wherefore he put forth the end of the rod that was in his hand, and dipped it in an honey-comb, and put his hand to his mouth ; and his eyes were enlightened. Then answered one of the people, and said, Thy father straitly charged the people with an oath, saying. Cursed be the man tliat eateth any food this day, and the people were faint. Then said Jonathan, My father hath troubled the land : see, I pray you, how mine eyes have been enlight- ened, because I tasted a little of this honey ; how much more, if haply the people liad eaten freely to-day of the spoil of their enemies which they found? for had there not been now a much greater slaughter among the Philistines?" (xiv. 24-30.)

In estimating the effects of the honey on Jonathan, the time at which he partook of it must be taken into account. It was; evidently towards evening. Faint and weary, his strength had begun to fail, and the dimness of eye which comes with long-protracted fasting and exertion had stolen over him. In these circumstances he had eaten of the honey-comb found in the forest. The results were deliverance from great physical exhaustion, the passing away of dimness from the eye, and the recovery of his wonted strength — common physiological effects in such circumstances.

Some interpreters think that the honey mentioned in verse 25 was not the honey of wild bees, but the exudations from the leaves of certain trees, caused by the punctures of insects (Cocctdce). In this way the manna of commerce is produced from one of the tamarisks, the tarfa tree of the desert of Sinai — Tamanx manifera of botanists. But the whole narrative demands that the honey be regarded as honey of bees, such as that eaten in after days by the Baptist. ( — See under Matt. iii. 4.) The word {devash)^ rendered honey throughout this passage, is that

r. SAMUEL. 241

commonly used in Scripture for the produce of bees. As, however, this word means in some passages a preparation from grapes or from dates (see under 2 Chron. xxxi. 5), this might not be held conclusive. But the question is settled by the mention of " honey-comb " in verse 27, which is a compound of yaar, literally wood, and devash, honey, referring to the tree-like arrangement of the cells. Accordingly the usual word is met with in connection with the compound one in Song v. 1 — " I have gathered my myrrh with my spice ; I have eaten my honey-comb with my honey."

" Then came the word of the Lord unto Samuel, saying, It rcpcnteth me that I have set up Saul to be king : for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel ; and he cried unto the Lord all night. And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a place, and is gone about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal " (xv. 10-12). " Carmel," " where Saul set him up a place," or raised a memorial of his recent triumphs, is not the noted mountain of that name, but a town in the wild mountain districts of Judah, the residence of Nabal, and the native place of Abigail, thence named " ilie Carmelitess" (chapters xxv., xxvii).

Philistia seemed as if about to triumph. But at this crisis of their history the Lord again raised up a deliverer. The choice made by God through Samuel was about to be manifested in great historical facts. Three of the sons of Jesse, the Ephrathite of Bethlehem-Judah, had followed Saul to the war against the Philistines ; and their father, careful of their comfort, said to his youngest son, David, " Take now for thy brethren an ephah of this parched corn, and these ten loaves, and run to the camp to thy brethren ; and carry these ten cheeses unto the captain of their thousand, and look how thy brethren fare, and take their pledge " (xvii. 17, 18). The parched corn is still in common use in Bible-lands. " In the season of harvest," says Robinson, " the grains of wheat, not yet fully dry and hard, are roasted in a pan or on an iron plate, and constitute a very palatal )le article of food ; this is eaten along with bread, or instead of it. Indeed the use of it is so common in this season among the labouring classes, that this parched wheat is sold in the markets." The condition of the grains and their jirepara- tion are noticed in Leviticus ii. 14 — " And if thou offer a meat-offering of thy first-fruits unto the Lord, thou shalt offer, for the meat-offering of thy first-fruits, green ears of corn dried by the fire, even corn beaten

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242 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

out of full ears." And tliat this corn dried by the fire was to be for food to the people likewise, is to be inferred from the prohibition in Leviticus xxiii. 14 — " And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the self-same day that ye have brought an offering unto your God : it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings." It was used in the harvest-field of Boaz as part of the food for the reapers — " At meal-time come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers : and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed, and left" (Ruth ii. 14). And when David fled from Absalom, among the gifts which Shobi, Machir, and Barzillai brought to him, were "parched corn and parched pulse" (2 Sam. xvii. 28).

In addition to the parched corn and the loaves, David was to take the produce of his flock likewise ; he was to carry to the captain, under which his brethren served, " ten cheeses." — See under 2 Sam. xvii. 29.

" And David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and took, and went, as Jesse had commanded him : and he came to the trench, as the host was going forth to the fight, and shouted for the battle. For Israel and the Philistines had put the battle in array, army against army. And David left his carriage in the hand of the keeper of the carriage, and ran into the army, and came and saluted his brethren. And as he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion (the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name) out of the armies of the Philistines, and spake according to the same words : and David heard them. And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were sore afraid. And the men of Israel said. Have ye seen this man that is come up ? surely to defy Israel is he come up : and it shall be, that the man who killeth him, the king will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his father's house free in Israel. And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, "What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uucircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God ? And the people answered him after this manner, saying, So shall it be done to the man that killeth him" (ver. 20-27). Faith triumphed in the person of David. But then as now it awakened and called forth the enmity of the unbelieving. Eliab rebuked him :— " With whom hast thou left these few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride and the naughtiness of thine heart."

I. SAMUEL. 243

David meekly answered, " Is there not a cause ? " The name of that God with whom he had enjoyed sweet fellowship in the w^ilderness was blasphemed. This was cause enough for him to feel ashamed of the cowardice of those who trusted not in him. David's words reached the ears of Saul : — " And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him ; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine. And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him : for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth. And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock ; and I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth ; and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him" (ver. 32-35).

" Lion," Heb. ari. Five different words are used in the Old Testa- ment for lion. That which occurs here is the common name. It is employed about ninety times. This implies that it must have at one time been abundant in Palestine, though it is not now to be met with. A classification of these passages shows that Canaan was infested by lions, 2 Kings xvii. 25, 26. Described as — superior in strength, Judg. xiv. 18 ; active, Deut. xxxiii. 22 ; courageous, 2 Sam. xvii. 10 ; fearless even of man, Isa. xxxi. 4; Nah. ii. 11; voracious, Ps. xvii. 12 ; greatness of its teeth alluded to, Joel i. 6 ; God's power exhibited in restraining, 1 Kings xiii. 28; Dan. vi. 22, 27; lurketh for its prey, Ps. x. 9 ; roars when seeking prey, Ps. xxxi. 4 ; rends its prey, Ps. vii. 2 ; often carries its prey to its den, Nah. ii. 12. Inhabits — forests, Jer. v. 6 ; thickets, Jer. iv. 7 ; mountains. Song of Solomon iv. 8. Attacks the sheep folds — 1 Sam. xvii. 34 ; Amos iii. 12 ; Mic. v. 8. AttacJcs and destroys men — 1 Kings xiii. 24 ; 1 Kings xx. 3G. Univer- sal terror caused — by roaring of, Amos iii. 8. Criminals often thrown to, Dan. vi. 7, 16, 24. Slain by — Samson, Judg. xiv. 5 ; David, 1 Sam. xvii. 35, 36 ; Benaiah, 2 Sam. xxiii. 20. A swarm of bees found in the carcass of, by Samson, Judg. xiv. 8. Disobedient prophet slain hj,

1 Kings xiii. 24, 26. Illustrative — of Israel, Numb. xxiv. 9 ; of the tribe of Judah, Gen. xlix. 9 ; of the tribe of Gad, Deut. xxxiii. 20 ; of God in protecting his church, Isa. xxxi. 4 ; of God in executing judg- ments, Isa. xxxviii. 13 ; Lam. iii. 10 ; of brave men, 2 Sam. i. 23 ;

2 Sam. xxiii. 20; of cruel and powerful enemies, Jer. xlix. 14, Ii. 38; of persecutors, Ps. xxii. 13; of imaginary fears of the slothful, Prov. xxii. 13, xxvi. 13; of the natural man subdued by grace, Isa. xi. 7, Ixv. 25.

Ari is sometimes joined to el (God), and is translated lion-like in

244

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

Fig. 79.

Skull of Tiger.

2 Sam. xxiii. 20; 1 Chron. xi. 22. It is used as a proper name, Ariel, for Jerusalem in Isa. xxix. 1, 2, 7; and is rendered altar in Ezekicl xliii. 15, 16. Tlie Chaldee form ainjeh occurs in Daniel tlirougliout.

" The lion " {Felis leo, Plate XVI., Fig. 2) is one of the largest of the carnivorous group of animals [Carnword). It is ranked with the tiger, leopard, &c., under the family Felidcc, or cats. The Carnivora are sometimes grouped according to the mode in which they plant the

organs of motion on the ground. Thus we have the fin-footed animals {Pmmpedia), as the seals, &c. ; the animals which walk on the whole hand {carpus), and the whole foot kr 14^ (to?'s?vs), or jilantigrade animals (Pfow^^^j'rtf/rt),

\¥ '' ,;» as the bears; and the animals which walk

on the digits or fingers {Digitirjrada), as the lion, tiger, &c. As in birds of prey, so here, we find great beauty of adaptation between the form of the head and the feet when we take their habits into account. The Felidai have only one true molar tooth above and below. This naturally goes to the shortening of the jaws, which, to correspond witli their habits, require to be very strong. The premolar teeth are three above and two below. The great strength of the bones of the head corresponds to the rest of the osseous skeleton. — See skeleton of the lion, Plate XXI. Fig. 1. The structure of the limbs is equally suggestive of beautiful adaption between organs and functions. The bones of the fore arm are not only very powerful, but they are put together in a way adapted in the highest degree to give greatest force to them, in those terrible encounters to which they are exposed, when preying on some of the most formidable of the grass-eating quadrupeds.

The toes of the lion are armed with curved, acute, retractile claws. These are preserved from being broken or blunted by highly elastic bands attached to the claw joint and the joint behind it. When the soft pad of the sole is pressed to the ground, the claws are hid in the 8i^rtiiemusdr,&"=- sheaths and wholly concealed by the hair. Such power of jaw and limbs united to great strength of body, generally made it a much more daring feat to grapple with one sword in hand, than it is now to encounter one, armed with the deadly rifle. David traced his deliverance to God— " The Lord that delivered me out

Fig. so.

I. SAMUEL. 245

of tlie paw of the lion, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine."

After having feigned madness with the view of diverting the sus- picions of Achish king of Gath, and his courtiers, David watched an opportunity to escape from the danger which was all around him. He " departed thence and escaped to the cave Adullam : and when his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they went down thither to him. And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him ; and he became a captain over them : and there were with him about four hundred men " (xxii. 1, 2). The people and the place told emphatically the tale of outlawry to which the son of Jesse was at this time driven. Each adherent had his own grievance, and common misfortune made the band for a time fast friends. The place to which they had come to join David was " the cave of Adullam." There was a city of Adullam (Gen. xxxviii. 1 ; Josh. xv. 35), and also a cave so named. David in his straits betook himself to the cave. The town was situated in the shephelali or plain of Judah. Its site has not been identified, though there can be little doubt as to the district in which it stood. It was evidently a place of great antiquity. Hirah is named as an AduUamite in a way which, even in the days of Jacob, implied that Adullam was a well known city (Gen. xxxviii. 1). In Joshua xv. 35 (which see), it is named with Jarvmth and Socoh, and as the site of both of these towns has been identified Adullam may be looked for in the same district. In the list of the Canaauitish kings preserved in Joshua xii., the king of Adullam stands next to the king of Makkedah, and as the list runs in the order in which the territories of the respec- tive kings bordered on each other, Adullam must not have been at a great distance from the modern d-KIedinh, which has been identified as the site of the ancient town. Adullam appears to have stood on the edge of the plain of Judah, and the cave of Adullam to have been situated in the limestone cliffs of the neighbouring hills, in the direction of Bethlehem, which are below the level of Bethlehem itself, whence David's relatives " ivent doini to him" (ver. 1). Both Dr. Robinson and Mr. Porter are disposed to credit a tradition, which can be traced back to the time of the Crusades (a.d. 1096), that the site of the cave of Adullam is to be found near the ruins called Khureitun, in "Wady Urtas, lying among the hills to the south-west of Bethlehem. Mr. Porter in mentioning some of the circumstances " which favour the conclusion that the cave of Adullam was at least somewhere in this

24G DIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

mountcain region," says — " Tlie wilderness of Juclah was David's favourite haunt whenever danger threatened. While keeping his father's sheep, he had become acquainted with its wildest glens and most secure ' holds.' His minute knowledge of the de61es and passes would give him the advantage over every pursuer ; and it would seem from the narrative that the cave was not very far from Bethlehem, for, when his brethren and all his father's house heard that he was there, they went down thither to him. And then ' every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him ; and he became a captain over them ; and there were with him about four hundred men ' 1 Sam. xxii. 1, 2). There has been many a rebel chief, w'ithiu our own day, in Syria, who, so far as the character and habits of his followers are concerned, bore a close resemblance to David. Another incident occurred when David was in Adullam which favours the supposition that it was near Bethlehem. He longed for ' the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate ; ' just as many an exiled Arab longs now for the water of his native village. But Bethlehem was garrisoned by the Philistines, and the wish of David, to all appearance, it Avas impossible to gratif3\ Three of his ' mighty men,' however, broke through the lines of the enemy, drew water from the w^cll, and brought it in triumph to their chief If David was within an hour or so of Bethlehem, his wish to obtain some of its water was natural, and the expedition of the three men was only remarkable for devotion and courage ; but if he was a long day's journey off, on the borders of the plain of Philistia, the wish would by no means seem to accord with David's usual prudence (2 Sam. xxiii. 13-17; 1 Chron. xi. 15-19). From the cave of Adullam David took his parents across the Jordan, and placed them in safety with his kinsmen the people of Lloab" (1 Sam. xxii. 1-4).

Dr. Robinson descended from the " Frank Mountain " into the Wady Urtas. "It runs," he says, "about south-east, and soon contracts into a narrow picturesque gorge, with high precipitous walls on each side. High up on the southern side, at some distance below the entrance of the ravine, are the remains of a square tower and village, called Khureitun, which we had seen from the mountain ; and further down among the rocks on the same side, is an immense natural cavern, which my companion had formerly visited, but which we were now prevented from examining by the lateness of the hour. The mouth of the grotto can be approached only on foot along the side of the cliffs.

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My friend's description accorded well with the account of Irby and Mangles ; according to whom, the cave ' runs in by a long, winding, narrow passage, with small chambers or cavities on either side. We soon came to a large chamber with natural arches of a great height ; from this last there were numerous passages, leading in all directions, occasionally joined by others at right angles, and forming a perfect labyrinth, which our guides assured us had never been thoroughly explored — the people being afraid of losing themselves. The passages were generally four feet high by three feet wide, and were all on a level with each other. There were a few petrifactions where we were ; nevertheless the grotto was perfectly clear, and the air pure and good.' The valley here takes the same name, and is known as Wady Khureitiln.

"This remarkable cavern is regarded in monastic tradition, reaching back to the time of the Crusades, as the cave of Adullam, in which David took refuge after leaving Gath of the Philistines " (" Bib. Res.," vol. i., 479).

Mr. Porter gives a very graphic description of this remarkable cave : — " The door," he says, " is in the face of a cliff, and the only approach is along a narrow ledge, across which a fragment of rock has fallen, almost completely barring the passage. Clambering over this at the risk of limb, if not of life, we reach the low door. On entering, we squeeze through a narrow low passage into a kind of antechamber — a small irregular grotto, where it may be as well to leave all unnecessary raiment, for farther in the cave is both hot and dusty. From hence we advance along a winding gallery for some thirty feet to the great chamber, which may be called the salon. It is one hundred and twenty feet long, and varies from thirty to forty-five in breadth, with a high arched roof of natural rock. The dimensions of this noble room can only be seen by lighting some two or three dozen candles (a store of which should be laid in at Jerusalem), and attaching them to the walls on each side. The effect is fine — almost grand. The sharp projections of the sides, and the irregular arches and pendants of the roof, faintly seen in the dim light, remind one of an old Gothic hall. Numbers of narrow passages branch off from it in every direction ; but all of them soon terminate w;th the exception of one. Along this we proceed for thirty or forty yards, lights in hand, and then reach the side of a kind of pit or vault, into which we must drop to a depth of about ten feet. Passing through this, we enter another passage, low, narrow, and dusty, along which we first walk, then creep on all fours, and finally crawl like serpents, where neither walking nor creeping is longer practicable.

248 niBLICAL NATUKAL SCIENCE.

About seventy yards are passed by these various modes of locomotion, and we then enter another large chamber, which appears to be the end of the cave ; though the Arabs confidently affirm that it reaches to Tekoah, some even say to Hebron." The cave will hold above three hundred men.

"Keilah" (xxiii. 1), noted for the victory which David, even when Saul was in hot pursuit of him, gained over the Philistines. It lay about twenty-five miles south-west from Jerusalem. " Ziph " (ver. 14) also belonged to Judah. Near it was a wild region of uninhabited land and thicket wood, known as the wilderness of Ziph. "Maon" (ver. 24) means dwelling-place or den, as of wild beasts. It was another favourite resort of David and his men, when Saul sought to cut them off, and to maintain himself in the kingdom. The tract of country in which these places lay, was, from its ravines, its thickets, its moun- tain caves, &c., peculiarly well fitted to give a safe refuge to the criminal or the outlaw.

The complaint of the persecuted son of Jesse found expression in the words — " The king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains" (xxvi. 20). As if he had said, I am wholly undeserving that such value should be set on my life — I am as a flea, small, despised, and unworthy. Yet, notwith- standing this, you seek my blood as they do who seek the blood of the partridge, which they hunt for profit or for pleasure. He first compares himself to the flea (Pulex irntans), an obscure-winged (aphampterous) insect of the family of Pulicidai or fleas. Another species, which is much more to be dreaded than this one, is the "Penetrating flea," a native of the West Indies and North America. This is the well-known chigoe {Pulex penetrans) whose female inserts itself beneath the skin of the feet, or below the nails, and there deposits her eggs, causing intense pain to those thus afflicted. Of course, when David spoke of this insect as he does here, all he intended was to convey to Saul the expression of his self-abasement and humility. Looking at the insect from another point of view, that, namely, of the relation between its structure and its habits, it supplies to the naturalist a theme of great interest. The organs of the mouth alone would furnish many most attractive illustrations of the wisdom of the Creator, in the adaptions between means and ends. The name p)ardsli is not used in any other portion of Scripture except in this and in chapter xxvi. 20.

Though apparently destitute of wings, the flea has the rudiments of four, arranged as horny plates on the second and third rings of the

I. SAMUEL. 249

thorax. Those on the third ring (meta-thorax) are the largest. The flea is produced from eggs, deposited by the female in any dust which may be allowed to lodge in the corners of rooms, in the seams of the flooring, or on carpets and the like. The egg is succeeded by the larva, a footless grub, generally longer than the full-grown insect, and unlike the larvas of many other insects, characterized by a distinct homy head. In ten or twelve days the full-grown grub weaves a cocoon and passes into the inactive pupa state, in which it continues about fourteen days, when it becomes the fully-matured insect. The history of its transfor- mations will suggest motives for cleanliness. Well and frequently swept apartments go far to destroy the insect altogether.

The other figure used by David in his remonstrance with Saul, was taken from the habits of the people in pursuing wild birds : — " The king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains." This bird is only once more referred to in the Bible. When Jeremiah was sent to declare the contrast between the man that trusted in man, and the man that maketh God his trust, he is shown the influence of the deceitful heart in persuading those who are living only for the world, that the end sanctifies the means — that if riches be good, it does not much matter how they are gotten. And the reference to the partridge is introduced to show the folly of this — " The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked : who can know it ? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not ; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool" (Jer. xvii. 9-11). The Hebrew is the same in both passages — Jcoreh, from the verb to call. All have heard the characteristic note of the common partridge calling on its mate at the breeding season, or on the quiet evenings of autumn, after having been separated by the accidents of the day. The fact that the same word is used in both texts might have prevented a great deal of speculation as to the expression — " sitteth on eggs and hatcheth them not." The partridges [Perdicince) form a sub-family of the Tefraonidce, the family in which the well-known brown grouse (Tefrao Scoticus) occurs. These again are ranged under the order Gallince, a group to which our domestic fowls, pheasants, &c., belong. Associated with the partridges, and more or less closely related to them in structure and habits, are the francolins {Francolinus) ^ the quails {Coturnix), the American ^oHn-partridge or Virginian quail (Orti/x), &c. The familiar

&

VOL. II. '-i I

250 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

British species, the common or grey partridge [Perdix cinerca), may serve as an iUustration of the sub-family now under notice, and its well-known habits will help to shed some light on the passage quoted from Jeremiah.

"The word," says Scott in his notes on this passage, "rendered a partridge, is supposed to mean a kind of bird which was very difficult to be caught, and of very little use !" This note may be taken as a specimen of the kind of remarks which many are satisfied with. ]\Iost of the birds mentioned in the Bible have formed subjects of much speculation, when attempts have been made to identify them. The partridge forms no exception. The authority of Dr. Shaw has been frequently appealed to in favour of the Barbary partridge, as the repre- sentative of the bird named in I. Samuel and in Jeremiah. Some having made this statement, speak of this bird {Perdix pefrosd), as if it were identical with the Greek partridge or bartavella {Perdix Grceca = P. saxatilis). But these are different birds. Remarks are also quoted by several commentators, as if made by Shaw, which, however, nowhere occur in his works. In addition to those already mentioned, the red- legged or Guernsey partridge is to be met with in the middle and south of Europe. — Perdix {Caccabis) rubra, Plate XIV., fig. 3. This species was introduced into England about thirty years ago, and now abounds in some of the southern counties.

Any attempt to identify the bird now under notice, must fulfil two conditions. It must be shown (1) that it is the true partridge of Pales- tine ; and (2) that this partridge is hunted, as described in I. Samuel. It has been strongly argued that the partridge of Scripture was one of the sand grouse {Pterocles), and the pin-tailed species {Pt. alchatd) is specially pointed to. This is the Telras al Chata of the Arabs, and the Hebrew grouse {Tefrao Israelitarum) of Hasselquist, by whom the pin-tailed sand grouse was first discovered. Hasselquist was greatly taken with the form and beauty of this bird. " I was so delighted with the discovery," he says, " that I forgot myself, and almost lost my life before I could get possession of one." But Hasselquist does not try to identify this pterocles with the horeh or partridge of Scripture. He remarks — "These birds are undoubtedly the quails of the Israelites." The sand grouse does not, however, fulfil either of the conditions just mentioned.

The bird referred to in both passages of Scripture is, no doubt, that described in the following note by an acute and accomplished observer: — ''Caccabis saxatilis, the partridge of the country. The francolin.

I. SAMUEL. 251

which is stated to inhabit Palestine, did not come under my observa- tion. I cavmot help thinking there are two distinct races of C. saxaiilis^ neither of tliem agreeing exactly with the bird I have procured in Greece 4nd in Crete. The specimens I obtained in the cultivated districts are much lighter in colour than the Greek specimens. The black riollar is narrower, and the throat sandy-white instead of rufous. At thie same time they are at least one-third heavier, and at table rival the pheasant in size. They are of a flavour far superior to the French rer^-legged or Barbary birds. In the mountains I procured others very D].uch smaller than my Greek specimens, but of plumage more like ^^Jhem in hue. The eggs of a nest of this variety, which I took while in the mountains, eleven in number, are scarcely as large as those of Perdix pe^roso."— Tristram's " Notes on Birds observed in Southern Palestine" [Ibis), vol. i., p. 35. I would associate the mountain variety with the reference in the passage under notice ; and the variety met with in the plains, with whose habits the people would be more familiar, may be held as that named by Jeremiah.

If, as some have done, we plead for the idea of search after a rare bird, as embodied in this verse, the observer quoted above would supply another illustrative note : — " Caccabis Heyii (Temm.). Of this rare bird, perhaps one of the most elegant of its group, I was fortunate enough to obtain a fine specimen. Biding on a barren hill near the Dead Sea, we observed a pair of birds scarcely larger than a quail, running on the steep side with the swiftness of a dog. After a long chase, and forcing them with great difficulty to take wing, one of my companions succeeded in shooting the male bird. We afterwards saw another pair near Mar Saba." As this rare partridge hastened from its pursuers, hiding in a bush at one spot, and resting in the shadows of the stones at another, with its eye ever on its enemies, so David, when he fled from the hand of Saul, took refuge at one time in the mountains and forests, and at another time in dens and caves, warily the while watching all the movements of the tyrant who was in pursuit of him. But another idea is suggested here, which to this day has its illustration in the very localities in which the outlawed son of Jesse may have taken refuge. The expedition undertaken by Saul after David, was that he might be gratified by seeing the blood of one whom he believed an enemy, shed by himself or his servant. He hunted him "as one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains" — " the red-legged partridge," says Dr. Thomson, "of which there are countless flocks in those hills and wadies of Naphtali. It is at them that Salim is exercis-

252 BIBLICAL XATUKAL SCIENCE.

ing his skill. Should he succeed we shall have the better dinner, for they are twice as large as our American quail, to which, in other respects, they bear a close resemblance. Hear how they cackle and call to one another directly above our heads ! They are very wary, however, and often lead the vexed hunter over many a weary mile ol rough mountains before he can get a shot at them. The erae.ers and feudal chiefs of the country hunt them with the hawk, and keop up, with great pride, the ancient sport of falconry. The birds are gene^rally brought from Persia and the cold mountains of Armenia, and do piot thrive well in this climate. They are of two kinds, a large one f'or wood-cock and red-legged partridges, and a smaller for the quail. Tlii e Beg at the castle of Tibnin, which we are now approaching, always keeps several of these large falcons on their perches in his grand recep- tion-hall, where they are tended with the utmost care. I have been out on the mountains to see them hunt, and it is a most exciting scene. The emeers sit on their horses, holding the birds on their wrists, and the woods are filled with their retainers, beating about and shouting, to start up and drive toward them the poor partridges. When near enough, the falcon is launched from the hand, and swoops down upon his victim like an eagle hasting to the prey. After he has struck his quarry, the falcon flies a shoii; distance, and lights on the ground, amid the redoubled shouts of the sportsmen. The keeper darts forward, secures both, cuts the throat of the partridge, and allows his captor to suck its blood. This is his reward. Notwithstanding the exhilaration of the sport, I could never endure the falcon himself There is something almost satanic in his eye, and in the ferocity with which he drinks the warm life-blood of his innocent victim."

A good deal of skill has been put forth to little purpose, to discover in the well-known habits of some one member of this group of birds, an illustration of the verse quoted from Jeremiah. To delaj' the con- sideration of this verse until the book of Jeremiah comes under notice, would imply the repetition of a good deal of the matter given above : it is thus considered here.

The reader will observe that the prophet purposely indicates, that we are not to press the implied comparison as far as we might have done had he used such language as he does at ver. 6, 8, where the words " like " and " as " occur — " He shall be like the heath ; he shall be as a tree planted by the waters." By introducing "as" and "so" into this verse, our translators have suggested a much closer comparison than was in the mind of the prophet. His words are — " The partridge

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253

sitteth and liatclieth not ; lie that gettetli riclies and not by right," &c. He had seen what every observer of the habits of our own partridge must have noticed, that frequently, after patient sitting, young fail to make their appearance — the bird fails in the highest end of incubation. He had noticed, likewise, men hastening to be rich ; and when they seemed as likely to attain complete satisfaction in wealth, as the bird would in the midst of her young, their expectations are blasted. They must leave their riches, and be accounted fools, because they have failed in the chief end of their existence. They might brood over their wealth as the partridge over her eggs. She is often disappointed ; they are always so. The eggs of the partridge are very liable to be damaged. The female deposits from ten to fifteen, in many cases literally in the earth. I have met them in hollows without a stick or straw beneath them. In such circumstances a week of unfavourable weather will arrest the progress of the chick. And the female may be seen clinging to her nest for several days beyond the usual time of sitting. The position chosen is often as hurtful. Last breeding season (1862), a nest with thirteen eggs was noticed in a slight hollow close on a beaten cattle track, in danger a hundred times in the day to be trodden upon. Two of the eggs were actually trampled on, and the rest were preserved by a rail being put up to keep off the cattle as they passed. In this case the devotion of the female endangered her own life. The cattle were seen to leave the print of their feet so close to the nest when she was sitting on it, that it was difficult to see how they had not trampled on her. Some years ago I saw another nest with fifteen eggs in it, and as the breeding season had passed, they were broken, and found to contain chicks which must have been within a day or two of breaking the shell. Here again the partridge sat and hatched not. And this is all that the prophet had in view, when he laid such facts alongside of the experience of those that get riches and not by right. They lay every plan to get them ; they will even become blind to the interests of justice itself in pursuing them ; and having got them, they brood over their treasure as the partridge does over her eggs. But their experience is often like hers — when highest hopes just linger on the threshold of realization, they fail. The discovery is made that what they thought life turns out to be death, and such a rich man at his end is a fool.

The difficulty of this passage has been increased by the marginal reading introduced. In the margin our translators have rendered the expression — "As the partridge gathereth young which she hath not

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brought forth." But instead of gathering young thus, she attacks and kills any young which she has not hatched. Besides, the Hebrew words do not admit of such a construction. The current belief that the habits of the bartavella illustrate this verse, is scarcely worthy of notice. It is alleged that she seeks the eggs of the stranger, sits on them in its absence, but when the lawful owner returns the intruder is driven away, and that the intruder so expelled is like a man in low circumstances, <S:c.

" The Brook Besor" (xxx. 10) has not been identified. An exami- nation of the narrative shows, that it must have lain south of Ziklag in the extreme boundary of Judah.

" Cherethites " (ver. 14), more correctly Gheretldm, one of the smaller tribes of southern Philistia, generally believed to have been a colony of Cretans, who had passed at an early period into Palestine. They are not to be confounded with the " Cherethites and Peleth'tes" (execu- tioners and couriers) of David's body-guard (2 Sam. viii. 18 ; xv. 18 ; XX. 7 ; 1 Kino-s ii. 25, 34, 4G ; 1 Chron. xviii. 17).

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II. SAMUEL.

EBRON (ii. 1) has been specially noticed under Gen. xiii. 18. It is here chosen by the Lord himself, as the chief of tlie cities of Judah. Few, if any, of the other cities of the hind could lay claim to such a history as " the city of Arba, the old Canaanite Chief." In its neighbourhood Abraham first pitched his tent, after God had given him the special promise of the whole land. " AValk through the land in the length of it, and in the breadth of it ; for I will give it unto thee. Then Abraham removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the jilain of Mamre, which is in Hebron" (Gen. xiii. 18). Caleb chose it as his portion. "Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance. Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb" (Josh. xiv. 13, 14). Its historical associations, its elevated site, the fertile valleys in the neighbourhood, its groves of oak and terebinth trees, all gave importance to the ancient city of Ephron the Hittite (Gen. xxiii. 2). " Every traveller from the desert," says Dr. Stanley, " will have been struck with the sight of that pleasant vale, with its orchards and vineyards, and numberless wells, and in earlier times we must add the grove of terebinths and oaks, which then attracted from far the eye of the wandering tribes. This fertility was in part owing to its elevation into the cooler and more watered region above the dry and withered valleys of the rest of Judea. Commanding this fertile valley, rose Hebron on its crested hill. Beneath was the burial-place of the founders of their race. Caleb must have seen the spot, afterwards his own, when with the spies he passed through this very valley. When David returned from the chase of the Amalekite plunderers on the Desert frontier, and doubted " to which of the cities of Judah he should go up" from the wilderness, the natural features of the place, as well as the oracle of God, answered clearly and distinctly, " Unto Hebron " (" Syria and Palestine," p. 165).

The adherents of Saul still continued to keep together under the leadership of Abner, who had espoused the cause of Ish-boshcth the son of Saul, and had made him king at Mahanaira. David's men under Joab met Abner's at the great water tank outside of Gibeon, the old Hivite

256 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

city: — '■ And Abner the son of Ner, and the servants of Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon, And Joab the son of Zeruiah, and the servants of David, went out, and met together by the pool of Gibeon : and they sat down, the one on the one side of the pool, and the other on the other side of the pool. And Abner said to Joab, Let the young men now arise and play before us. And Joab said, Let them arise. Then there arose, and went over by number, twelve of Benjamin, which pertained to Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, and twelve of the servants of David. And they caught every one his fellow by the head, and thrust his sword in his fellow's side ; so they fell down together : wherefore that place was called Helkath-hazzurim, which is in Gibeon. And there was a very sore battle that day: and Abner was beaten, and the men of Israel, before the servants of David " (ii. 12—17).

" Gibeon " means the hill-city. The root of the word occurs frequently in the names of places in the same locality. Thus we have " Gibeah of Benjamin," and " Gibeah of Saul " (1 Sam. xiii. 15, xi. 4), a place lying about five miles to the north of Jerusalem, represented by the modern Tuleil el Ful, or Hill of beans ; " Geba" (1 Sam. xiii. 3), the scene of Jonathan's daring exploit, is now Jeba on the wild hills between Gibeah and Miclimash " (Stanle/j) ; "Gibeah in the field" (Judg. xx. 31), distinguished, in the narrative of the war of other tribes against Benjamin, from "Gibeah of Benjamin;" "The Meadows of Gibeah" (Judg. XX. 33) ; "the hill (Geba) of foreskins" (Josh. v. 3); "the hill of Phinehas" (Josh. xxiv. 33) ; "the hill of Moreh " (Judg. vii. 1); "the hill of Hachilah" (1 Sam. xxiii. 19) ; "the hill of Ammah " (2 Sam. ii. 2, 4) ; " the hill of Gareb " (Jer. xxxi. 39).

"Gibeon" is the modern el-Jib described by Dr. Robinson : — "We reached," he says, "the village of el-Jib situated on the summit of the hill. It is of moderate size ; the houses stand very irregularly and unevenly, sometimes almost one above another. They seem to be chiefly rooms in old massive ruins, which have fallen down in every direction." One large massive building still remains, perhaps a former castle or tower of strength. The lower rooms are vaulted, with round arches of hewn stones fitted together with great exactness. The stones outside are large, and the whole appearance is that of antiquity. Towards the cast the ridge sinks a little ; and here, a few rods from the village, just below the top of the ridge towards the north, is a fine fountain of water. It is in a cave excavated in and under the high rock, so as to form a large subterraneous reservoir. Not far below it, among the olive-

II. SAMUEL. 257

trees, are the remains of another open reservoir, about the size of that at Hebron ; perhaps one hundred and twenty feet in length by a hundred feet in breadth. It was doubtless anciently intended to receive the superfluous waters of the cavern. At this time no stream was flowing from the latter. It is not difficult to recognize in el-Jib and its rocky eminence the ancient Gibeon of the Scriptures, the Gabaon of Josephus ; although the specifications which have come down to us respecting the position of that place, are somewhat confused. There is, however, enough in connection with the name to mark the identity of the spot. The name Jib in Arabic is merely the abridged form of the Hebrew Gibeon ; and presents perhaps the most remarkable instance that occurred to us, in which the Ain of the Hebrew, that most tenacious of letters, has been dropped in passing over into the Arabic. In respect to the site of Gibeon the Scriptures are silent ; but Josephus relates that Cestus, marching from Antipatris by way of Lydda, ascended the mountains at Beth-horon, and halted at a place called Gabaon, fifty stadia from Jerusalem. Jerome also relates of Paula, that, passing from Nicopolis, she ascended the mountains at Beth-horon, and saw upon her right, as she journeyed, Ajalon and Gabaon, This ascent at Beth-horon is on the present camel road from Jerusalem to Ramleh and Zafa, which now passes along on the north side of el-Jib, as it anciently in like manner passed by Gibeon. These circumstances, taken together, leave little room for doubt as to the identity of the two places. Gibeon is celebrated in the Old Testament, but is not mentioned in the New. It was ' a great city, as one of the royal cities ; ' and to its juris- diction belonged originally the towns of Beeroth, Chephirah, and Kirjath-jearim. The city is first mentioned in connection with the deceit practised by its inhabitants upon Joshua ; by which although Canaanites (Hivites), they induced the Jewish leader not only to make a league with them and spare their lives and cities, but also in their defence to make war upon the five kings by whom they were besieged. It was in this great battle that ' the sun stood still upon Gibeon.' The place afterwards fell to the lot of Benjamin, and became a Levitical city, where the tabernacle was set up for many years under David and Solomon. Here the latter youthful monarch offered a thousand burnt- offerings ; and in a dream by night communed with God, and asked for himself a wise and understanding heart instead of riches and honour. Here too it was, that Abner's challenge to Joab terminated in the defeat and flight of the former, and the death of Asahel ; and here also

at a later period Amasa was treacherously slain by Joab."

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258 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

David's captain eagerly sought an opportunity to be revenged on Abner for the death of Asahel. This soon occurred : — " When Abner was returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside in the gate, to speak with him quietly, and smote him there under the fifth rib, that he died, for the blood of Asahel his brother" (iii. 27). The deed was one of extreme treachery. He smote him in a part of the body which was sure to prove speedily fatal. The twenty-four ribs of the human frame are divided into two classes. The seven uppermost on each side are marked true ribs ; they are united closely with the breastbone in front, and with the vertebral column behind. The five lower on each side are the false ribs. Three of these are remotely attached to the sternum, or breastbone, by bands of cartilage ; two — the floating ribs — are only joined to the backbone. Counting from the first rib below the clavicle, or shoulderblade, the point of a short sword thrust through the easily pierced layer of intercostal muscle, which unites the fifth and sixth ribs, would reach the vital parts at once.

On the death of Saul, Israel united with Judah and acknowledged David as their king. The neighbouring nations appear to have thought that this union would lead David to seek foreign conquest. It was thus their policy to weaken the Hebrews as much as they could. Accordingly the Philistines made war on them. Having become the aggressors, they set David free from any obligations which their past kindness to him might have begotten. The hostile forces met in the valley of Rephaim, and Israel conquered. David smote the Philistines in Baal- perazim. After a time the same hosts again met in Rephaim. The king enquired of the Lord and he answered — " Thou shalt not go up ; but fetch a compass behind them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees. And let it be, when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry-trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself: for then shall the Lord go out before thee, to smite the host of the Philistines" (v. 23, 24). The success was again complete; "David smote the Philistines from Geba until thou come to Gazer" (v. 25). The first victory had been marked by some divine interferences; hence the name Baal-perazim (Lord of breaches). The almighty arm had made a breach among the enemies of his people. The second triumph was associated with a sign — " the sound of going in the tops of the mulberry-trees." There is no ground here for the supposition, that this sound intimated to Israel the presence of angelic hosts — ^the tramp of specially-appointed supernatural armies. Though the sign was an intimation that the Lord had gone forth to fight for the people, we are

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distinctly informed that " David smote the Philistines." The likelihood is, that the same sound which was an encouraging sign to Israel would strike terror into their enemies, just as we are told that by the victory itself "the Lord brought the fear of him upon all nations" (1 Chron. xiv. 17).

" Mulberrytree," Heb. hciM. It has been too hastily assumed by some, that the mulberry is a native of China only, and was not likely to have been introduced into Palestine at a date so early as that of the incident mentioned here. But there is good reason to believe, that it was indigenous in countries much nearer the territories of David. It might thus have found its way to Palestine, long anterior to the period referred

Fig. SI.

to here. There is thus little cause for doubt that the mulberry, which at present is so often to be met with in that land, was the tree named in this passage. It occurs again in the corresponding narrative in 1 Chron. xiv., and is noticed in Psalm Ixxxiv. as giving its name to a valley : —

Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee ;

In whose heart are the ways of them :

Who passing through the valley of Baca make it a well.

The scope of the psalm leads to the choice of this reading, in preference to that which makes Baca equal to " weeping."

The Mulberry {Marus) is ranked botanically under the nettle tribe,

Urticacece, as the type of a sub-order {Morece). Two species are well- known — the black or common mulberry {M. nigra), and the white mulberry [M. alha), noted as supplying food to the silk moth caterpillar.

The fruit of the mulberry is edible, that of the black species juicy and pleasant to the taste. This tree was introduced into Britain at an early period by pilgrims from the Holy Land, but it has never been much or successfully cultivated.

David had pushed his conquests to the farthest limits assigned to Israel on the east. Hadadezer a Syrian king who reigned in Zobah, north of Damascus, had retaken the territory bordering on the Euphrates. In chapter viii. an account is given of David's march against him, and the results : — " David smote also Hadadezer, the son of Rehob, king of Zobah, as he went to recover his border at the river Euphrates " (ver. 3). "The valley of Salt (ver. 13), was part of the locality south of the Dead Sea, now named el-Ghor.

When David was in full flight from the presence of his rebellious son, Hushai the Archite appeared before Absalom, saying, " God save the king, God save the king" (xvi. IG). Hushai had agreed to David to do this in order to frustrate the counsels of Ahithophel, a crafty man who had deserted the service of David and become the chief adviser of Absalom. The king fled, and Ahithophel asked twelve thousand men with whom he might pursue him. But before granting this, Absalom advised Hushai to be consulted. "And Hushai said unto Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel hath given is not good at this time. For, said Hushai, thou knowest thy father and his men, that they be mighty men, and they be chafed in their minds, as a bear robbed of her whelps in the field : and thy father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the people. Behold, he is hid now in some pit, or in some other place: and it will come to pass, when some of them be overthrown at the first, that whosoever heareth it will say, There is a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom. And he also that is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, shall utterly melt : for all Israel knoweth that thy father is a mighty man, and they which be with him are vahant men" (xvii. 7-10).

"Bear," Heb. duv. The brown bear {Ursus arctos) is no doubt the species referred to here. It was, and still is, to be met with from Spain to the extreme east of Asia. It is common in Syria. The brown bear feeds on roots, fruits, honey, and, when pressed by want, on mammalia. The female's attachment to her young has become proverbial. Many most interesting stories illustrative of this occur in

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almost all popular works on zoology, and in books of travel in countries in which the bear is indigenous. When surprised with her cubs she will hasten with them into the cave or thicket, and return to drive away the intruder. She will hang for weeks over the body of a cub killed by the gun of the hunter, and watch with the greatest affection over one when wounded. When " robbed of her whelps," the first man met is regarded as the wrong-doer, and is set upon with great ferocity. The bear is frequently mentioned in the Bible. It was met and slain by David when keeping his father's flocks (1 Sam. xvii. 34, 3G, 37). Two she-bears " tore forty and two of the children of Bethel in pieces," who mocked Elisha (2 Kings ii. 23, 24). Solomon says, " Let a bear

Fit'. 32.

Crown Ecir ( Ursus arcCos).

robbed of her whelps meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly." He compares an unjust magistrate to the lion and the bear : — "As a roaring lion and a raging bear; so is a wicked ruler over the poor people" (Prov. xvii. 12, xxviii. 15). The time of blessing in the last days is compared by Isaiah to the "cow and the bear feeding together" (xi. 7). The same prophet represents the people under affliction as " roaring all like bears" (lix. 11). As the "man who had seen affliction," Jeremiah says of God's dealings with him, " He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places " (Lament, iii. 10). God met back- sliding Ephraim with the threatening, " I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and

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there will I devour them like a lion ; the wild beast shall tear them " (Hos. xiii. 8). Amos uses a figure in which it is implied, that the bear was as much to be dreaded as the lion (v. 19). The bear is also mentioned symbolically (Dan. vii. 5 ; Rev. xiii. 2).

" Cheese of kine " (xvii. 29). Reference has already (1 Sam. xvii. 17.) been made to cheese as an article of diet. David's friends hasten to supply his wants, and the wants of " the people that were with him.'' They bring to him "cheese of kine." The Hebrew words used differ in both passages. The only other instance in which cheese is referred to, yet another word is employed. In 1 Sam. xvii, 17 the Hebrew term is glidreetz, something cut; translated harrows in ch. xii. 31, and 1 Chron. viii. 12. Here the word is shdphdh, which points to the rubbing of the curd before it is pressed. In Job x. 10, where the patriarch bows before the mysteries of his own birth and growth, he exclaims, " Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese." In this passage the Hebrew is derived from a little-used root meaning to solidify — to coagulate. These terms are quoted to show, that in each of them an idea associated with cheese occurs, and, no doubt, an article of food, in some respects like that used by us, is spoken of. In Shaw's description of the domestic cattle of Barbary he says — " Here the sheep and the goats contribute also to the dairies, par- ticularly in the making of cheese. Instead of rennet, especially in the summer season, they turn the milk with tlie flowers of the great headed thistle, or wild artichoke, and putting the curds afterwards into small baskets made with rushes, or with the dwarf palm, they bind them up close and press them. These cheeses are rarely above two or three pounds in weight, and in shape and size like our penny loaves ; such perhaps as David carried to the camp of Saul." — ("Travels" i. 308). The cheese and the butter made from goats' milk are alluded to in Prov. xxvii. 27, as the rewards of those who " are diligent to know the state of their flocks, and who look well to their herds:" — "And thou shalt have goats' milk for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance for thy maidens."

If the " last words" of every man demand and never fail to secure attention, how full of interest must be those of David the son of Jesse, the sweet psalmist of Israel! "The Spirit of the Lord," he said, " spake by me, and his word was in my tongue " (xxiii. 2). The character in which he saw God when his shadow was lengthening out, and his sun was about to set in calm and peaceful majesty, is suggestive of the source whence flowed the success of his long and eventful life. " The

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God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me." All the comforts of grace, and all the blessings of truest and unfailing strength, arc indicated by the words, " God of Israel," and " Rock of Israel." As a true king, David had discovered the one great qualification for king- ship, and the duty associated with his position. Under the figures used in ver. 4, he describes the public aspects of the life of one " that ruleth over men." Whatever should be his personal troubles, house- hold anxieties, or individual feelings and prejudices, all must be laid aside when he comes to act as the king among the people. There are elements of social strife ever at work among the people — tendencies to social disorganization ever active ; and individual prejudices are ever apt to assume the form of political discontent. But before the king's presence all these must give way. No clouds must loom heavily on the State's horizon. The king " shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds." In the second part of ver. 4 another figure of great beauty is employed. As in that drawn from the light it is suggested that the king himself had known dark- ness— misfortune, social evil, and political wrong, in a word, the night of sorrow — so here a time of trial is implied as that threshold of disci- pline which must be passed in order to all true and good Avork. As the rain beautifies the green earth, so his trials were to be so blessed that the admiration of the people would be drawn to him. The king " shall be as the tender grass, springing out of the earth by clear shin- ing after rain."

For the vegetation referred to as " tender grass " {deshe), see vol. i., p. 59. In this passage it includes generally all the plants which go to make up pasture lands. The Hebrew word is rendered simply " green" in Psalm xxiii. 2. It is the " tender l>srb " named in Deut. xxxii. 2, Job xxxviii. 27; the "grass" in Jer. xiv. 5; and the "tender grass" in Prov. xxvii. 25. (See under Jer. xii. 4.)

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BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

I. KINGS.

HE first and second books of Kings continue tlie history begun in I. Samuel. Tiiey embrace mainly the period from the commencement of the reign of Solomon down to the Babylonish captivity. The writer must have had access X--SJ5 - "•• to important political records. He must also have been ^ well acquainted with the prophecies of Isaiah, and must have written the history before tlie exile (1 Kings xiv. 19, xxiii. 39; 2 Kings XX. 17). ,f When David was old, infirm, and unfit for public business, his •^ son Adonijah formed a strong political party, and resolved to take possession of the throne. He secured the co-operation of Joab the son of Zeruiah, and of Abiathar the priest. In order to liasten speedy action, he called all the influential people to a feast. " And Adonijah slew sheep, and oxen, and fat cattle, by the stone of Zoheleth, wdiich is by En-rogel, and called all his brethren the king's sons, and all the men of Judah the king's servants. But Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, and the mighty men, and Solomon his brother, he called not" (i. 9, 10). Nathan and Beniah soon showed that they were more than a match for Adonijah's faction. The place chosen for the feast was in the immediate neighbourhood of Jerusalem, near to a noted stone — the stone of Zoheleth. This again was close by En-rogel, the fountain of Rogel named in Joshua xv. 7, xviii. 16, as the boundary line between Judah and Benjamin. Dr. Bonar has the merit of having identified En-rogel with the spring which supplies the waters of the Pool of Siloam ("Land of Promise," p. 492).

The imderstanding heart for which Solomon had prayed, and which he had obtained (iii.), soon showed its influence on the affairs of the kingdom. The first proof which he gave that he was under its power, was seen in the decision regarding the two children referred to in the same chapter. In chapter iv., "the wisdom of God in him" crops out in the organization brought into action for the administration of his house and his kingdom. He surrounded himself witli men able to advise him (ver. 1-G), and appointed twelve governors of districts, who were not only to rule over them, but each in his month to provide

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265

victuals for the king and his household. Among these Abinadab, the son of Iddo, had Mahanaim, or "the Double Camp" — a name given to the place by Jacob (Gen. xxxii. 3), when the angel of God met him. It lay in Gilead, north of the Jabbok, in what afterwards became the boundary line between Gad and Manassch. It was one of the Levitical cities — the residence of Ish-bosheth during his short and troubled reign, and the place to which David fled at the time of Absalom's rebellion. " And Solomon's provision for one day was thirty measures of fine

Ten fat oxen, and twenty

flour, and threescore measures of meal.

rig. 83.

Fallow Deer (Cervus dama),

oxen out of the pastures, and an hundred sheep, besides harts, and roebucks, and fallow deer, and fatted fowl" (iv. 22, 23). The "fat oxen" are those referred to in Prov. xv. 17, as "stalled oxen." Verse 23 is more fully noticed under Deut. xiv. 5, and verse 28 under Ezek. iv, 12, which see. Three of the deer kind ( Cervtdce) are named here — the hart, the roebuck, and the fallow deer.

Solomon's botanical attainments are indicated in verse 33 — "He spake of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop

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that springs out of the wall." The place of the cedar in modern classification has been pointed out under Judg. ix. 15, which see. The learned and wise son of David " spake of the cedar (Heb. erez) of Lebanon" {Cedrus Lihani) ; that is, he described its place among the other fir-trees, pointed out, no doubt, its uses, and referred to its beauty as one of "the trees of God" (vi. 33).

The situation in which the cedars in the time of Solomon stood, may Fig. 84. be regarded geographically in

the centre of a vast region, whose extremities to the east and the west supply other two species, equally noted botani- cally with the cedar of Lebanon. These are the Atlantic cedar (C. Atlantica) of the forests of Algeria on the west, and the deodar (C. Deodara) of the grand Himalayan range on the east. And if, as it should, the Lebanon chain be taken as an offshoot from the Taurus, the cedars of that group may be looked upon as the connecting links between the cedar of Lebanon and the Cedar of Lebanon (c«/r«L,7«m). dcodar ; whllc anothcr species,

the silver cedar (C. argentea) of Asia Minor, links the trees of Lebanon with those of the Taurus. The Lebanon forest may also be regarded as bringing the forests of the Himalayas and those of Northern Africa into close relation. The cedar forests of Algeria are above one thousand four hundred miles distant from those of Asia Minor. The Kedisha valley of Lebanon, where the true cedars occur, is more than two hundred and fifty miles distant from the nearest point in the Taurus chain — the range of Bulgar-dagh, where cedar forests are found, to the east. Dr. Hooker visited the cedar grove of Lebanon in 1860. He reached with his party the Kedisha valley on the 29th of Septem- ber, and camped at its head in the evening, at an elevation of six thousand one hundred and seventy-two feet. They ascended the Lebanon twice, with the view of studying the relative position of the grove to the surrounding country. The trees were counted and measured. A section was made of the lower limb of one of the oldest

t. KINGS. 267

trees, which lay dead on the ground. This section gave them "a totally different idea of the hardness of cedar wood from what English-grown specimens do." " So far," adds Dr. Hooker, " as is at present generally known, the cedars are confined on Lebanon to one spot, at the head of the Kedisha valley ; they have, however, been found by Ehrenberg in valleys to the northward of this. The Kedisha valley, at six thousand feet elevation, terminates in broad, shallow, flat-floored basins, and is two to three miles across, and as much long ; it is here in a straight line fifteen miles from the sea, and about three or four from the summit of Lebanon, which is to the northward of it. These open basins have shelving sides, which rise from two to four thousand feet above their bases ; they exactly resemble what are called "corries" in many highland mountains; the floor of that in which the cedars grow presents almost a dead level to the eye, crossed abruptly and transversely by a confused range of ancient moraines, which have been deposited by glaciers that, under very different conditions of climate, once filled the basin above them, and communicated with the perpetual snow with which the whole summit of Lebanon was at that time deeply covered. The moraines are perhaps eighty to one hundred feet high ; their boundaries are perfectly defined, and they divide the floor of the basin into an upper and lower flat area. The rills from the surrounding heights collect on the upper flat, and form one stream, which winds amongst the moraines on its way to the lower flat, whence it is precipitated into the gorge of the Kedisha. The cedars grow on that portion of the moraine which immediately borders this stream, and nowliere else ; they form one group about four hundred yards in diameter, with an outstanding tree or two not far from the rest, and appear as a black speck in the great area of the corry and its moraines, which contain no other arboreous vegetation, nor any shrubs, but a few small berberry and rose bushes that form no feature in the landscape. The number is about four hundred, and they are disposed in nine groups, corresponding with as many hummocks of the range of moraines. They are of various sizes, from about eighteen inches to upwards of forty feet in girth ; but the most remark- able and significant fact connected with their size, and consequently with the age of the grove, is that there is no tree of less than eighteen inches' girth, and that we found no young trees, bushes, nor even seedlings of a second year's growth. AVe had no means of estimating accurately the ages of the youngest or oldest tree ; nor shall we have, till the specimens of the former arrive. It may be remarked, however that the wood of the branch of the old tree, cut at the time, is eight

2G8 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

t)

inches in diameter (exclusive of bark), presents an extremely firm, com- pact, and close-grained texture, and has no less than one hundred and forty rings, which are so close in some parts that they cannot be counted without a lens. This specimen, further, is both harder and browner than any English-grown cedar or native deodar, and is as odoriferous as the latter. These, however, are the characters of an old lower branch of a very old tree, and are no guide to the general character of the wood on the Lebanon, and still less to that of English- grown specimens, which are always very inferior in colour, odour, grain, and texture. Calculating only from the rings in this branch, the youngest trees in Lebanon would average one hundred years old, the oldest two thousand five hundred, both estimates no doubt widely far from the mark. Calculating from trunks of English rapidly-grown specimens, their ages might be calculated as low respectively as five and two hundred years ; while from the rate of growth of the Chelsea cedars, the youngest trees may be twenty-two, and the oldest six to eight hundred years old."

The cedar grove of Lebanon has ever had attractions to travellers. The association of the cedar with Solomon's botanical knowledge, the great prominence given to it in the writings of the prophets, and its use as one of the trees most frequently referred to as an emblem, have all thrown much interest around those still standing in the Kedisha, or Holy Valley. The records which travellers have left of their number, indicate how little influence the lapse of centuries has had on the oldest trees. " Probably," says Dr. Robinson, " no two persons would fully agree in respect to the number of the old trees, or of the whole. Yet I should be disposed to concur with the language of Burckhardt, who says : — ' Of the oldest and best looking trees, I counted eleven or twelve ; twenty-five very large ones ; about fifty of middling size ; and more than three hundred smaller and young ones.' Yet there is no room to doubt, but that during the last three centuries the number of earlier trees has diminished by nearly or quite one half; while the young growth has in great part, if not wholly, sprung up during that interval. Biisching enumerates by name no less than twenty-six travellers between a.d. 1550 and 1755, from P. Belon to Stephen Schulz, who had described and counted the trees ; and since that time the number of like descriptions has probably been hardly less than twice as many. In the sixteenth century the number of old trees is variously given as from twenty-eight to twenty-three ; in the seven- teenth, from twenty-four to sixteen ; in the eighteenth, from twenty

I. KINGS.

269

to fifteen. After the lapse of another century, the number of the oldest trees, as we have seen, is now reduced to about a dozen. All this marks a gradual process of decay ; and it also marks the difficulty of exact enumeration. This is rightly ascribed by Fiirer, and also by Dandini, to the fact, that many of the trees have two or more stems ; and were thus reckoned differently by different travellers, sometimes as one tree, and sometimes as two or more. All the travellers of the sixteenth century speak only of the old trees ; they nowhere mention any young ones. Ranwolf, himself a botanist, seems to say expressly, that he sought for young trees, without being able to find any. If this be so, it would appear, that with the exception of the few remaining ancient trees, perhaps none of those, which now make up the grove, can be regarded as reaching back in age more than three hundred years."

The following list gives the numbering of the cedars by different travellers : —

Authors. Belon, . .			Years . 1550	No. of Ancient Trees. ... 23
Fiirer, . .			. 1556	... 25
Ranwolf, . Jacobi,			. 1575 . 1599	... 24 ... 26	and two stripped of branches, including two dead ones.
Radzivil, .			. 1583	... 24
VillatQont,			. 1590	... 24
Haraut,			1598	.. 24
Dandini, .			1600	.. 23
Lithgow, . Roger,			1609 1632	.. 24 .. 22	seventeen others evidently young and two dead.
D'Arvieux,			1660	.. 23
De La Roquc,			1688	.. 20
ilaundre!.			1696	.. 16
Korte, . .			1758	.. 18
Pococke, . Schulz, . .			1739 1755 .	.. 16 .. 20	one prostrate.
Seetzen, ,			1805 .	14
Burckhardt, . Richardson, .			1810 . 1818	.. 11 .. 15	very old— 25 very large, younger.
Wilson, .			1843	12	very old — whole number in the gi
JThomson,			1857 .	.. 143	all sorts of one group.
Hooker, .			1860	.. 400	all sorts in the nine groups.

The variety in the estimates is to be found in the point of view of the travellers. Some give the numbers of those only which they believed must have flourished since the days of Solomon ; others reckoned

270 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

none but tlie very large ones; and others the whole number to be found in the neighbourhood of the Kedisha Valley.

In systematic botany the cedar gives its name to a genus of dicoty- ledonous plants (Cednis) belonging to the natural order Contfcra;, or cone-bearing family, like our pine (Pmus), fir (Abies), larch (Larix), &c. Like most of the trees of this order, it has a tapering trunk, branches thickest and longest nearest the ground, occurring at greater intervals as they approach the top of the trunk. Its wood is formed by the annual addition of a concentric ring, as in all the outside growers (exogens), and is hardest inside. The soft wood lies on the outside. Its leaves are narrow, long, pointed, clustered, and evergreen. Its cones are erect, oblong, broad at the point, with thickly-packed quad- rangular scales and seeds. The cone of Cedrus Lihani is larger than that of the African species. It is about the same size as the cone of the deodar, but it is distinguished from it by the form of its scales and seeds ; those of the deodar differing very little, if at all, from the cone scales of the African cedar.

Like most of the conifers, the cedar has wide-spreading roots, which pass generally beyond the area shaded by the branches. In situations such as those in which many of our pines and firs stand, where there is little surface earth lying on the rocks beneath, the cedar makes up for the thinness of the soil by a great extension of its root branches, which strike down also into the crevices of the rocks, and thus obtain such a firm standing as to be able to defy the hurricane itself.

The wood of the cedar is highly resinous, and when burned gives out a strong odour. It is reddish white, much lighter in hue than the so-called cedar wood, with which we are all familiar from its use in pencil-making. This is the wood of a juniper indigenous in the West Indian islands. See also under 2 Kings xiv. 9 ; 1 Chron. xiv. 1 ; Ezra iii. 7 ; Ps. xcii. 12 ; Isa. ii. 13 ; Zeph. ii. 14.

Solomon's botanical knowledge had made him familiar with the cedar wood — its beauty, durability, and general fitness for certain building purposes — and he set abo-ut providing supplies for the wood-work of the temple. He sent to his father's friend, Hiram king of Tyre, saying to him — "I purpose to build an house unto the name of the Lord my God, as the Lord spake unto David my father, saying. Thy son, whom I will set upon thy throne in thy room, he shall build iin house unto my name. Now therefore command thou that they hew me cedar-trees out of Lebanon ; and my servants shall be with thy servants : and unto thee will I give hire for thy servants, according to all that thou

I. KINGS. 271

shalt appoint" (v. 5, G). Hiram understood the request of Solomon as including not only cedars, but conifers generally, whicli were useful as building timber. Thus in his answer he says — " I have considered the things which thou sentest to me for : and I will do all thy desire concerning timber of cedar, and concerning timber of fir" (ver. 8). And again at verse 10 we are informed, that " Hiram gave Solomon cedar- trees and fir-trees according to all his desire."

" Fir," Heb. herosh. Though in this passage we are not warranted to assign more than a very general meaning to the word, there is certainly good ground for holding, that we have in Scripture material for a closer approach to the kind of wood mentioned by this name, than that it was simply timber of other coniferous trees besides the cedar. A clear generic distinction is drawn between " fir" and " pine," tidlidr, in Isaiah Ix. 13 — which see. We may safely take the modern botanical genera Abies (fir), and Pimis (pine), as illustrative of this distinction. In this case, the genus Cupressus or cypress would have no claim to be reckoned with the berosh or fir named here. Indeed, a glance at the magnificent description of the greatness of the Assyrian (Ezek. xxxi. 3-9), in which the fir-tree is specially noted for its boughs, might have suggested the impropriety of attempting, as has often been done, to identify the fir with the common cypress (C. sempervirens) . The branches of the cypress are not distinguished by their wide-spreading. They are erect, and close in on the trunk, like those of the Lombardy poplar. The same style of remark may be used as to Ps. civ. 17.

The " fir " is first noticed as having supplied wood for musical instruments, " David and all the house of Israel played before the Lord, on all manner of instruments made of fir wood " (2 Sam. vi. 5). As serviceable for building purposes, in addition to the passage under notice, it is specially referred to in chapter vi. 15, 34; 2 Kings xix. 23; 2 Chron. ii. 8, iii. 5. It is named in Ps. civ. 17, as supplying a resting- place for the stork — which see. The allusions to it by the prophets will be considered under Isa. xiv. 8.

" Hyssop," Heb. ezov. Hyssop is mentioned nine times in the Old and twice in the New Testament. Much attention has been given to it, chiefly because it is named in connection with the crucifixion of our Lord. John's words are — " There was set a vessel full of vinegar ; and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth " (xix. 29). Now ]\Iatthew says nothing about hyssop, but names a reed instead, as if it were the same as the hyssop of John : — :" Straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with

272

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vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink " (xxvii. 48) ; the force of the statement in both passages being, that the vinegar- filled spunge was put on the end of a rod. This did not require to be of great length, because the popular impression that the cross was highly elevated is not warranted. The feet of the one crucified were only raised a little above the stone which formed the socket for the cross. This should be kept in mind iu attempts to identify the hyssop of Scripture, Other passages in which it is mentioned refer to its

Fig. 85.

Caper Plant {Capparis spinoaa),

use (1) for sprinkling the blood of the paschal lamb on the door-posts at the time of the departure from Egypt (Exod. xii. 22), and (2) to its use in the Levitical ritual (Levit. xiv. 4, 6, 51, 52; Numb. xix. 6, 18). The chief points to be noticed in order to identification are — (1) That the hyssop spoken of as scientifically described by Solomon was relatively small. We are not entitled to assume that the cedar was the largest of trees, and the hyssop the smallest of plants, but only

I. KINGS. 273

that compared with the cedar the hyssop was very small. (2) That the plant supplied stalks which, when put together, formed a bunch that could be used in sprinkling blood. (3) That some of its stalks grew to the size and strength of short rods. (4) Subordinate to these, that a plant having such characteristics was associated in the minds of the people with matters of cleanliness and public health. Between twenty and thirty different plants have been proposed, but no one of them comes so near the above requirements as the caper plant {Capparis spinosa). It grows "out of the wall;" its stalks supply both bunch and rod admirably fitted for the ends indicated ; and it has ever been esteemed in the East as possessing cleansing properties. Royle has devoted very great pains to the identification of the hyssop. He is strongly in favour of the claims of the caper plant, and rejects those urged in behalf of the common hyssop {Hijssopus officinalis). " The lasaf or asaf," says Dr. Stanley, " the caper plant, the bright green creeper which climbs out of the fissures of the rock in the Sinaitic valleys, has been identified on grounds of great probability with the ' hyssop ' of Scripture, and thus explains whence came the green branches used, even in the desert, for sprinkling the water over the tents of the Israelites." This plant is the lasaf of Lepsius and Stanley, the aszef of Burckhardt and Eichardson, and the lussuff of Bonar, " This," says the last mentioned, " is Wady Taiyiheh or ' the good ' — so called from its tarfas, palms, and water, which latter, how- ever, we did not taste nor see. This valley winds for about a mile ; then the great white mountain-wall gradually lowers itself — notched and cracked all over as by some superhuman axe or hammer — leaving solitary peaks in the valley, and ridges, like camels' backs, abutting against it. A bright green plant or shrub inserts itself into the crevices, and adorns the yellow rock with its fringes or tassels of fair green. Lussuff, my guide called it; and probably it is the hyssop plant, as the likeness of the words seems to indicate ; if so, it illustrated the expression — ' the hyssop that groweth on the wall ' (1 Kings iv. 33). In leaf it resembled the Portugal laurel ; but in size it was much smaller. Israel would have access to it as they passed through the desert, and would have sufficient supply for the performing of the ceremonies appointed for the cleansing of leprosy. They were to take ' cedar- wood, and scarlet (wool or cloth), and hyssop ' (Lev. xiv. 4, 6, 51, 52), and dip them in the blood of the slain bird. For such a purpose the lussuff would suit well. The shrub, however, which is called hyssop by the monks, is not lussuff at all, but a sweet-scented

VOL. H. 2 M

274 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

plant of a mucli smaller size which they call Jadheh, which we often plucked among the sands and rocks."

The zoological attainments of the wise king embraced descriptions of beasts, birds, reptiles, and fishes. The importation of apes and peacocks by means of the ships of Tarshish (2 Chron. ix. 21), shows how diligently Solomon prosecuted his natural history studies. The lakes, rivers, and streams of his territory, all of which, with the exception of the Dead Sea, still abound in fish, would supply ample means for gratifying his mind in studying fishes. His opportunities of free communication with the Red Sea were much more frequent than a few years before his accession they could have been. There such forms as the Flying Fish [Dadijloptera Mediterraned), the common Remora {Echeneis remord), the IMediterranean Forkbeard {Phycis Medi- terraneus), the Oblong Sun-fisli {Orthorjorisciis ohlongiis), the Dory [Zeusfaher), and the Sword-fish {Xiphias gladius), would all afford rich themes to Solomon as he "spoke of fishes." See Plate XXVllL, Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

"Hiram was ever a lover of David" (v. 1); see under 1 Chron. xiv. 1. " Solomon sent and fetched Hiram from Tyre. He was a widow's son of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass" (vii. 13, 14); see vol. i., p. 153. "Lily-work" (ver. 22) ; see under Song ii. 1.

The navy of Hiram "brought gold from Ophir" (x. 11). Gold — see vol. i., p. 95. In Solomon's time it was imported from Ophir, and along with it " plenty of almug trees and precious stones." The use made of the almug trees is described in the next verse : — " And the king made of the almug trees pillars for the house of the Lord, and for the king's house, harps also and psalteries for singers : there came no such almug trees, nor were seen unto this day." The account of the same transactions given in 2 Chron. ix. 10, 11, differs in some features from this, and "a/»i?/r/" is there written "alguiu;" "And the servants also of Huram, and the servants of Solomon, which brought gold from Ophir, brought algum trees and precious stones. And the king made of the algum trees terraces to the house of the Lord, and to the king's palace, and harps and psalteries for singers : and there were none such seen before in the land of Judah." In one or two other passages more information is communicated regarding the mercantile alliance between the Phanician, Hiram king of Tyre, and the Hebrew monarch : — " For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram : once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver,

I. KINGS. 275

ivory, and apes, and peacocks" (ver. 22). Thus Solomon's great riches and his lavish means of luxury for his court : " And all the drinking- vessels of king Solomon were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold : none were of silver ; it was not any thing accounted of in the days of Solomon. For the king's ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram : every three years once came the ships of Tarshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks" (2 Chron. ix. 20, 21).

The places mentioned in these transactions claim special notice. Most attempts to fix the position of Ophir have been made from a wrong starting point. A gold-bearing region has been selected, and efforts made to bring the Scripture statements into harmony with the locality thus arbitrarily chosen. Wherever Ophir may have been, it must have been so situated that a fleet sailing from a port on the Eed Sea could reach it. In the preceding chapter we are distinctly informed, that " king Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon " (ix. 26-28). Ezion-geber, or gaber, was situated at the head of the Elanitic Gulf, or eastern horn of the Red Sea. It has been fully noticed under Numbers xxxiii. 35.

Three regions have been specially named in attempts to fix the geographical position of Ophir — the neighbourhood of Goa in India, the south of Arabia, and the districts of Zanquebar and Mozambique in Africa. The strength of the claim put in for each, is the alleged fact that all the articles of merchandise referred to in connection with the voyages of the Hebrew and Syrian ships from Ezion-geber, are to be met with there. But this is not true of all ; the almug wood is limited to one of the regions. Josephus after noticing the district of Eloth says : — " This country formerly belonged to the Jews, and became useful for shipping, from the donations of Hiram, king of Tyre ; for he sent a sufficient number of men thither for pilots, and such as were skilful in navigation, to which Solomon gave this command, that they should go along with his own stewards to the land that was of old called Ophir, but now the Aurea Chersonesits, which belongs to India, to fetch gold. And when they had gathered four hundred talents together they returned to the king again " (Ant. viii. 6. § 4). The belief in the Indian situation of Ophir has been most generally held by the

best scholars and historical critics. A curious light is shed upon the general character of this belief, during the middle ages, in the spurious work on the history of Phoenicia, forged during that period, and reproduced in Germany in 1837 as Philo's version of the Phoenician historian Sanchoniathon's history, fragments of which are preserved in Eusebius. The chief value of this work is, that, regarding it as a medioeval forgery, it has preserved to us the views held at the time it was written, on many points of ethnographical and purely historical knowledge. It was published at Bremen, and translated into Latin by F. Wagenfeld, purporting to be a MS. which had been recently dis- covered in a Portuguese monastery. A review of the controversy to which this pretended work of an historian believed to have lived before the time of the Trojan war led, leaves little doubt that it is of mediaeval origin, and may be quoted from this point of view. The period embraced in the following extracts is that during which Solomon reigned at Jerusalem, and Hiram at Tyre. The island named Rachius is Ceylon, the Ethiopians mentioned are inhabitants of India, Joramus is Hiram, and Irenius of Judea, Solomon : — " Joramus directed all the eparchs in the cities and islands to make out and send to Tyre descriptions of the inhabitants, their ships, their arms, their horses, their scythe-bearing chariots, and their property of all kinds ; and he ordered them to send to distant countries persons competent to draw up narratives of the same kind, and to record them all in a book. In this manner he obtained accurate geographical descriptions of all the regions to the east and the west, both islands and inland parts. But the iEthiopians represented to the king that to the south there were great and renowned countries, densely populated, and rich in precious things, gold and silver^ pearls, gems, ebony, pepper, elephants, monkei/s, parrots, peacocks, and innumerable other things ; and that there was a peninsula so far to the east that the inhabitants could see

the sun rising out of the sea." " Subsequently Joramus

addressed himself to Irenius of Judea, and undertook that if he would let the Tyrians have a harbour on the sea towards -^Ethiopia, he would assist him in the building of a palace, in which he was then engaged, and bind himself to supply him with materials of cedar and fir, and squared stones. Irenius assenting, made over to Joramus the city and harbour of Ilotha." . . . . " They sailed from Ilotha." . . . . " They then sailed eastward along the shore for ten days. There an immense region extends to the south, and the .^Ethiopians dwell in numerous populous and well-circumstanced cities, and navigate the sea. Their

I. KINGS. 277

ships are not suited for war, and have no sails. And having sailed thirty-six days to the southward, the Tyrians arrived at the island of

Eachius." " And when it was known that they had arrived

(for the rumour of their approach had preceded them), the inhabitants rushed from the city in a body to see the Tyrians ; some riding on elephants, some on asses, some in palanquins, but the greater part on foot. And the commander having conducted them into a spacious and splendid palace, caused the gates to be closed, that the crowd might not make their way in ; and led the Tyrians to the king Rachius, who was seated on a beautiful couch. Presents were then interchanged. To the Tyrians who brought horses and purple robes, and seats of cedar, the king gave in return pearls, gold, two thousand elephants' teeth, and much unequalled cinnamon ; and he entertained them as guests for thirty days. Some of the Tyrians perished in the island,

one indeed by sickness, but the others smitten by the gods."

" One of those who died was a native of Jerusalem." "They

find stones containing gold in the rivers, and pearls on the sea-shore. Four kings govern the island, all subordinate to the paramount sovereign, to whom they pay as tribute, cassia, ivory, gems, and pearls; for the king has gold in the greatest abundance.

" The first of these kings reigns in the south, where there are herds of elephants, of which great numbers are captured of surprising size."

" The second king governs the western regions, which

produce cinnamon ; and it was there the Tyrian ships cast anchor." — (See " Ceylon," by Sir Emerson Tennent, vol. i.)

In Genesis x. 29, we learn that Heber's second son's name was Joktan, and that among his children was one named Ophir. It is concluded from this, that, as Joktan's descendants took possession of Arabia, one of them gave his name, Ophir, to a gold-yielding district in that country. This passage is valuable from another point of view than that from which it is generally quoted. It shows that Ophir, " the far off," was truly a proper name, and not a general designation for a distant country. Arabia might supply some of the articles of commerce mentioned in the account of the voyage from Ezion-gebcr, but others were not to be found in it. The modern el-Ophii\ in the district of Oman, is most likely the only direct trace of the son of Joktan. It may fairly be accepted as such. This suggests the pro- bability that, as we shall see may have been the case with Tharshish, there were several places bearing this name. We must thus seek for the geographical situation in connection both with the name and the

products referred to. lu looking to the alleged African position, tlie same remarks hold good. There is, it has been said, a gold district called Phura in the interior of Mozambique. Is not this the Ophir of Scripture? Again, is it not most likely that the name Africa itself is a corruption of Ophir ? Even could an afSrmative be claimed in behalf of Phura and Africa being derived from the Scripture word, the question of the geographical position of Ophir would still remain. Tlie latest contribution to the literature of the questions now discussed, occurs in Max Miiller's lectures on the Science of Language. The following extract gives a general review of this passage : — " You remember," he says, "the fleet of Tharshish (1 Kings viii. 21) which came once in three years, bringing (jold and silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. The same navy, which was stationed on the shore of the Red Sea, is said to have fetched gold from Ophir (1 Kings ix. 26), and to have brought, likewise, great plenty of algum-trees and precious stones from Ophir. Well, a great deal has been written to find out where this Ophir was; but there can be no doubt that it was in India. The names for apes, peacocks, ivory, and algum-trees, are foreign words in Hebrew, as much as gutta-percha and tobacco are in English. Now, if we wished to know from what cownivy gutta-p>erclia was first imported into England, we might safely conclude that it came from the country where the name, gutta-percha, formed part of the language spoken. If, therefore, we can find a language in which the names peacock, apes, ivory, algum-trees, are indigenous, we may be certain that the country in which that language was spoken must have been the Ophir of the Bible. That language is no other but Sanskrit.

''^Apes are called in Hebrew Koph, a word without an etymology in the Semitic languages, but nearly identical in sound with the Sanskrit name of ape, Kapi.

'■^ Ivory is called either Karnoth-shen, horns of tooth; or sheyi hahhim. This hahhim is again without a derivation in Hebrew, but it is most likely a corruption of the Sanskrit name for an elephant, ihha, preceded by the Semitic article.

''Peacocks are called in Hebrew takhi-im, and this finds its explanation in the name used for peacock on the coast of Malabar, tog'ei, which in turn has been derived from the Sanskrit sikhin, meaning, 'furnished with a crest.'

"All these are indigenous in India, though of course they might have been found in other countries likewise. Not so the algum-tree; at least if interpreters are right in taking aJgum or almug for sandalwood.

I. KINGS. 279

Sandalwood is found indigenous on the coast of Malabar only ; and one of its numerous names there, is valguka. This vahju ilea) is clearly the name which Jewish and Phoenician merchants corrupted into alguni, and which in Hebrew was further changed into almitg.

"Now, the place where the navy of Solomon and Hiram, going down the Red Sea, Avould naturally have landed, was the mouth of the Indus. There gold and precious stones from the north would have been brought down the Indus ; and sandalwood, peacocks, and apes would have been brought from Central and Southern India. In this very locality Ptolemy (vii. 1) gives us the name Ahiria. In the same locality Hindoo geographers place the people called Ahlitra or Ahlitra; and in the same neighbourhood MacMurdo, in his account of the province of Cutch, still knows a race of Alius, the descendants in all probability of the people who sold to Hiram and Solomon their gold and precious stones, their apes, peacocks, and sandalwood." — (" Science of Language," p. 190.)

This is the nearest approach to certainty yet made, as to the true geographical situation of the region to which the ships of Solomon and Hiram sailed. The remaining references to Ophir will be noticed under 1 Chron. ix. 10, and the articles of commerce will be considered under the same passage.

If Ophir has perplexed interpreters, Tarshish has even more. It was pointed out in the review of Gen. x., that we may look for a key to the occurrence of the same names of cities or nations in widely different geographical situations, in the likelihood that emigrants from the regions first occupied by the immediate descendants of Noah would give the name of their fathers, or the places whence they went out, to the localities chosen by them. The various places proposed by inter- preters as the Tharshish of Scripture, may thus have all been founded by otf-shoots from the leading ethnic branch among whom the name was originally familiar. The different theories as to geographical situation may thus be harmonized, even though one points to Tarsus in Cilicia the city of Paul, another to Tartessus on the south of Spain, at the mouth of the Guadalquiver, a third to a place near the mouth of the Indus, and a fourth to a region on the east coast of Africa. The student of ethnology is year by year growing more willing to accept this theory of emigration, as helpful to unravel the tangled web which presents itself to him in his investigations into the language and customs of different tribes. "While the leading branches of language, which we trace back to the confusion at Babel, have great areas in which they find their

280 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

cliief development, the influence of one on another can often be seen, in localities in which it had been long believed the isolation must have existed for two thousand years at least. Too much prominence cannot be given to this view. Apart from it no satisfactory explanation could be given of the references to Tarshish. Take, for example, the following verses : — " Jehoshaphat joined himself with Ahaziah to make ships to go to Tarshish ; and they made the ships in Ezion-geber " (2 Chron. xx. 36). "Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa ; and he found a ship going to Tarshish ; so he paid his fare and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord" (Jon. i. 3; iv. 2). If Tarshish were to be found only between the mouths of the Guadal- quiver, how was it to be reached by ship from Ezion-geber on the Red Sea? To assert, as some have gravely done, that the united navies would sail down the Red Sea, along the south eastern coast of Africa, double the Cape of Good Hope, coast to the north along its whole western shore and pass the Straits of Gibraltar to Tartessus, is wholly incredible. So likewise, if there were only an Indian Tarshish, how could Jonah have hoped to reach it by ship from Joppa? Another reply to these questions has been given. It has been held that the name was used for any foreign region. But this falls far short of meeting the direct and specific language of Scripture.

When Isaiah describes the glories of the last days — the gathering of the people to the one Shepherd, the rejection of Israel after the flesh and the introduction of an election of grace from among all nations to their privileges — he mentions Tarshish as one of the nations to which chosen men from the literal Israel sliall go : " And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles " (Isa. Ixvi. 19). This passage is conclusively against the interpretation of Luther and others, who hold that, in all cases, Tarshish only means the sea [den heiden am vieer, Luther). It will also be observed here, that the nations associated with Tarshish are all Japhetan. This may be affirmed decidedly of each with the exception of Pul, which has not been identified. Now this corresponds with other allusions to the name, as for example when it denotes individuals. In this case, witli one exception, they belong to the races sprung from Japheth's immediate descendant. Tarshish named in Gen. x. 4 was Japheth's grandson.

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He is again mentioned in 1 Chrou. i. 7. A person of the same name was one of the seven princes of Persia and Media " who saw the face of Ahasuerus, and who knew the times, the hiw, and judgment " (Esth. i. 14). The exceptional case, however, is not Hamite, but associated with the descendants of Shem. In the genealogy of the generations, "heads of the houseof their fathers, mighty men of valour," of the tribe of Benjamin, Tharshish is named as the sixth among the seven sons of Bilhan (1 Chron. vii. 10). It has been too hastily assumed, that Tarshish was a purely Hamite colony, founded by Canaanites from Phoenicia. The only passage which appears to favour this view of its origin is Isa. xxiii.

1, 10—" The burden of Tyre " " Pass through thy land as a

river {like the river [AY/e]), 0 daughter of Tarshish : there is no more strength in thee." The last clause may be literally rendered, " there is no girdle longer," a translation which is wholly opposed to the common meaning attached to the passage. The verse has been inter- preted in a way applicable to Tyre, but not to a place so far removed from it. The scope of the chapter points to the only legitimate con- clusion— Tyre is threatened. One element and another of bitterness in the coming desolation is named. Among these is the freedom which the daughter — the people — of Tarshish were to assume in the day of Tyre's calamity. As the river passes in unrestrained liberty through the land watered by it, so might it be with the people of Tarshish. There was no girdle any longer — no restraint put on the colony by a dominant power. Tyre's fall was to bring freedom to the daughter of Tarshish. This rendering sheds light on another class of passages in which the word occurs.

It may be concluded that Tarshish was originally a Japhetan colony, and that, later, it had been acquired by the Phoenicians from Tyre and Sidon. It continued under the power of Tyre till the time pointed to in Isaiah xiii., when its freedom became complete. Its people passed through the land as a river. All foreign restraint was withdrawn. There was no girdle any longer. These remarks are applicable to any Tarshish thus held by the Tyrians, whether reached by the ]\Iediter- ranean or the Red Sea. When the Phoenicians occupied either place, they set apart a class of trading vessels for the specific purpose of visiting them. These were called "ships of Tarshish." The name was given to them, much in the same way as the vessels originally fitted out by the East India Company, to communicate with their stations in Hindostan, were called " East Indiameu." This designation soon came to be applied to all large vessels which traded with Asiatic and South

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African ports, even though they may never have touched the points for which such ships were originally intended. The navy of Solomon and Hiram is thus spoken of in 1 Kings x. 22, and 1 Chron. ix. 21. That of Jehoshaphat and Ahaziah is so named in 1 Kings xxii. 48, and in the latter part of 2 Chron. ix. 21. The vessels are referred to in Psalm xlviii. 7, "Thou brcakest the ships of Tarshish witb an east wind." In " the word that Isaiah saw concerning Judah," " the day of the Lord of hosts" was to be "upon all the ships of Tarshish" (Isa. ii. 16); and when the day of Tyre came, her navy was called upon to lament : " Howl ye ships of Tarshish ; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in " (xxiii. 1). The joy of her navy in Tyrus in the day of her prosperity — her beauty, and riches, and glory — is described by Ezekiel : — " The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market. And thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in the midst of the seas " (xxvii. 25). These ships are to be employed in the gathering of the election of grace to one centre: " Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the Lord thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee" (Isa. Ix. 9).

That Tarshish was the name of a place, and not a general designa- tion, either of the sea or of distant nations merely, is clear from passages already quoted. In addition to these it is mentioned in the glowing description of the Redeemer's triumphs in Psalm Ixxii. : —

" He sliall have dominion also from sea to sea, And from the river unto tlie ends of the earth. They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him ; And his enemies shall lick the dust.

The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts "— ("ver. 8-10).

In the other passages in which it is spoken of as a place, we get much information as to the products obtained in the markets of Tarshish. Jeremiah describing the idols on which the backsliding heart of Israel was wasting its aflectious, says — " Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder : blue and purple is their clothing ; they are all the work of cunning men " (x. 9). And Ezekiel joins it with Egypt, Zidou, Persia, Damascus, &c., as a country which traded with doomed Tyrus: "Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches ; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in

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thy fairs" (xxvii. 12). The same prophet mentions the merchants of Tarshieh along with Sheba and Dedan (xxxviii. 13).

It has been stated as an objection against the view which associates one Tarshish with Ophir, that two different fleets are referred to in

1 Kings ix. 27, 28, and 1 Kings x. 11. And it is concluded, that "one went by the Red Sea to Ophir, and the other to Tarshish by the Mediteranneau" ("Rennell's Geography of Herodotus"). But the answer to this is, that a comparison of 1 Kings ix. 27, 28, and x. 11, with

2 Chron. ix. 21, and xx. 36, 37, -when weighed without prejudice, plainly forbids such a construction. That two places at least are referred to under the name of Tarshish cannot be doubted, unless we do violence to the text of Scripture. One of these was situated, as there is good reason to believe, on the south of Spain, and the other in the same region with Ophir, on the south of India.

"Throne of ivory" (ver. 18) ; see under Ezek. xxviii. 15.

The strong expressions in verse 27, show strikingly the influence of the reign of Solomon on the material wealth of the people of the capital : " The king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars made he to be as sycamore-trees that are in the vale, for abundance." It is no doubt true that the capital, as is too often the case in the East, w^as enriched at the expense of the provinces. This may be gathered from the attitude of the people to Solomon's successor. Both silver and cedar wood had been comparatively rare in Jerusalem to the time of his reign. But by his enterprise and constant fostering care of a like spirit on the part of his people, all this had been changed. The silver had become plentiful ; the cedar wood abundant as that of the sycamore.

"Sycamore," Heb. shikmuh, Gr. syhomoria. This plant is named seven times in the Scriptures. It is certainly mentioned once in the New Testament (Luke xix. 4, which see). There is no good founda- tion for the supposition of some interpreters, that the Eastern plane- tree {Platanus orientalis) is the sycamore of the Bible. The sycamore is the Ficus sijcomorus of botanists, one of the ArtocarpacecB or bread-fruit family, and is properly separated from the Ficus can'ca, or common fig, which is ranked under the Urtt'cacece or nettle family. It was, and still is, abundant in Palestine and Egypt. It is highly prized in both countries for its timber, and especially for its fruit — sycamore-figs. "For coffins," says Sir G. Wilkinson, "boxes, tables, doors, and other objects which required large and thick planks ; for idols and wooden statues, the sycamore was principally employed ; and from the quantity discovered in the tombs alone, it is evident that

284

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

tlie tree was cultivated to a great extent. It had the additional recom- mendation of bearing a fruit, to Avhich the Egyptians were very partial ; and a religious prejudice claimed for it the name and rank of a sacred fruit-tree. It is even now looked upon with favour ; and when a foreigner is leaving the country, his Egyptian friends ask him if he has ever eaten any sycamore-figs, and on liis answering in the affirmative, express their delight at the prospect of their return, saying, ' Whoever has eaten sycamore-figs is sure to come back to Egypt.' " The syca- more was as much esteemed by the Jews as by the Egyptians. The great care taken of them is seen in the arrangements which David made

a» '?t^".

vv^ ~?..i>J?

"*

;. M.

Sycamore Tree {Ficus aycomorus).

for their culture and preservation. They are joined with the vineyards, olive-trees, and even with the herds belonging to the royal household — " And over the olive-trees, and the sycamore-trees that were in the low plains, was Baal-hanan the Gederite : and over the cellars of oil was Joash" (1 Chron. xxviii. 28). The value set on this tree by the Egyptians is implied in the reference to it in Ps. Ixxviii. 47, in which the mighty acts done for Israel in Egypt are recounted. The hand of the Lord was laid on much in which the people took the greatest delight —

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285

" lie destroyed their vines with hail, And their sycamore-trees with frost."

Wlieu the heathen went up against Israel, they cut clown the trees in which they delighted, and whose fruit supplied them with food. But refusing to be taught by the stroke of God, they took confidence from their sinful self-reliance, and said — " The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones ; the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars" (Isa. ix. 10). The fruit of the sycamore is specially referred to in Amos vii. 14, which see.

" Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and hnen yarn : the king's merchants received the linen yarn at a price. And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and an horse for an hundred and fifty : and so for all the kings of the Hittites, and for the kings of Syria, did they bring them out by their means " (ver. 28, 29).

"Horse," Heb. sus; "horsemen," Heh. pdmsJi ; "horseman," raJcdv. References to the horse are numerous in Scripture, and all bear on its use for warlike purposes, with one exception (Isa. xxviii. 28), wdiere it is named as driven over the corn in order to thrash out the grain. The earliest notice of the horse is connected with Egypt. During the great famine in Egypt, Joseph " gave the people bread in exchange for their horses" (Gen. xlvii. 17). Sir G. Wilkinson has pointed out the likeli- hood that horses were first introduced into Egypt by the Hyksos. " In Solomon's time," he says, "chariots and horsemen were exported from Egypt and supplied Juda3a, as well as ' the kings of the Hittites, and Syria;' but in early times they appear not to have been used in Eg}-]3t, and they are not found on the monuments before the eighteenth dynasty. For though the Egyptian name of the horse was hthor, the mare was called, as in Hebrew, sus (pi. susi'm), which argues its Semitic origin — faras, ' the mare,' being still the generic name of the Arab horse ; and if its introduction was really owing to the Shepherds, they thereby benefited Egypt as much as by causing the union of the whole country under one king."

The horse did not come to be much used in Canaan till the reiirn of David. When Absalom was about to rebel against his father, he is said to have " prepared him chariots and horsemen " (2 Sam. xv. 1). Solomon soon became distinguished for his cavalry — " He had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horse- men" (ch. iv. 2C). This large war establishment was not uuinfluential in securing peace. Thus, in the verse preceding that just quoted, we

28G BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

are told that " Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig-tree, from Dan even to Beersheha, all the days of Solomon." During the kingly period both of Judah and Israel, frequent notices occur of horses and horsemen. On the return from the cap- tivity, the list of the beasts for v?ar and of burden is thus given by Nehemiah — Horses, 73G ; mules, 245 ; camels, 435 ; asses, 6720 (vii. G8, 09). The glimpses obtained into the history of the nations border- ing on Palestine, from the historical books and from the writings of the prophets, show that the horse was much used in war by them. The Scripture references may be thus classified — The horse is represented as endued with strength by God, Job xxxix. 19. Described as — strong, Ps. xxxiii. 17 ; cxlvii. 10; swift, Isa. xxx. 10; Jer. iv. 13; Hab. i. 8; fearless, Job xxxix. 20, 22 ; fierce and impetuous. Job xxxix. 21, 24; warlike in disposition, Job xxxix. 21 ; Jer. viii. 6 ; sure-footed, Isa. Ixiii. 13 ; want of understanding in, alluded to, Ps. xxxii, 9 ; hard hoofs of, alluded to, Isa. v. 28 ; loud snorting of, alluded to, Jer. viii. 16, with Job xxxix. 20. Colours of, mentioned — white, Zech. i. 8 ; vi. 3 ; Rev. vi. 2 ; black, Zech. vi. 2, 0 ; Rev. vi. 5 ;.red, Zech. i. 8 ; vi. 2 ; Rev. vi. 4 ; speckled, Zech. i. 8 ; bay, Zech. vi. 3, 7 ; grisled, Zech. vi. 3, 6 ; pale or ash colour. Rev. vi. 8. Fed on grain and herbs, 1 Kings iv. 28 ; xviii. 5. Used for — mounting cavalry, Exod. xiv. 9 ; 1 Sam. xiii. 5 ; drawing chariots, Mic. i. 13 ; Zech. vi. 2 ; bearing burdens, Ezra ii. 66 ; Neh. vii. 68 ; hunting. Job xxxix. 18 ; conveying posts, &c., 2 Kings ix. 17-19; Est. viii. 10. Kings and princes rode on horses. Est. vi. 8-11 ; Ezek. xxiii. 23. It is governed by bit and bridle, Ps. xxxii. 9 ; James iii. 3 ; urged on by whips, Prov. xxvi. 3 ; adorned with bells on the peck, Zech. xiv. 20. Numbers of horses were kept for war, Jer. li. 27; Ezek. xxvi. 10; prepared and trained for war, Prov. xxi. 31 ; in battle protected by armour, Jer. xlvi. 4. The vanity of trusting to horses, shown in Ps. xxxiii. 17 ; Amos ii. 15. The Jews were for- bidden to multiply horses, Deut. xvii. 16. They were imported, from Egypt, 1 Kings x. 28, 29 ; multiplied, in Solomon's reign, 1 Kings iv. 26. Solomon was condemned for multiplying horses, Isa. ii. 7. Men not to put their trust in, Hosea xiv. 3 ; condemned for trusting to, Isa. xxx. 16 ; xxxi. 3 ; brought back many from Babylon, Ezra ii. 66. Notice of early trafiic in. Gen. xlvii. 17; sold in fairs and markets, Ezek. xxvii. 14 ; Rev. xviii. 13. Often suffered — from blindness, Zech. xii. 4 ; from plague, Zech. xiv. 15 ; from murrain, Exod. ix. 3 ; from bites of serpents. Gen. xlix. 17; in the hoof from prancing, Judg. v. 22; in battle, Jer. li. 21 ; Hag. ii. 22 ; dedicated to the sun by idolaters,

I. KINGS. 287

2 Kings xxiii. 11. Illustrative of- — beauty of the church, Song of Solomon i. 9 ; Zech. x. 3 ; glorious and triumphant deliverance of the church, Isa, Ixiii. 13 ; a dull headstrong disposition, Ps. xxxii. 9 ; impetuosity of the wicked in sin, Jer. viii. G.

The horse [Equus cahallus) is the type of the order SoUdungula, or animals whose hoofs are entire, and of the family Equidce. Its feet liave a single perfect toe inclosed in a horny box, or hoof. It has forty teeth — twelve of these are incisors, four are canine, and twenty-four are molars. The upper canine teeth are Fig.sr.

generally wanting in the female. The arrangement of the teeth is full of interest. A glance at the skull will show a clearly marked space between the incisive teeth and the front grinders. This receives the bit by which the whole head is controlled. Wild horses are found in the steppes of skuuofthenorse.

Asia, and on the upland plains of South America. These, however, are not indigenous. They are descendants of domestic individuals which have escaped from man. (Plate XIX., Fig. 1.)

The revolt of Jeroboam, and the secession of the ten tribes, soon came to bear fruits of a peculiarly deadly kind. Antagonistic political interests were strengthened and embittered, by a realized difference in the character and form of religious worship. Jeroboam was quick to see, that if the twelve tribes of Israel were to meet as before year by year at Jerusalem, for the worship of Jehovah, God of their fathers, unity of religious sentiment would soon lead again to unity in political standing. The device on which he fell to prevent this, bears testimony both to his great skill as an accomplished but unprincipled politician, and to his daring and hardihood in matters bearing on the relation of the people to God. " If this people," he said, " go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. Where- upon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them. It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem : behold thy gods, 0 Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt " (xii. 27, 28). The whole matter was, in the eyes of the son of Nebat, simply one of political management. He had so apprehended the disposition of the people as to know, that, in the crisis of their worldly interests, they would welcome almost any expedient which would secure to them

288 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

immunity from the evils they dreaded at the hands of Rehoboam. Their leader had tried to shake himself free from the influence of the worship of the true God. In the land of his exile he had united him- self to the royal family of Egypt, having married the sister of the reigning queen, and had become intimately acquainted with the animal worship of the people of the land. The fact of Jeroboam's sojourn in Egypt must be kept in mind, in any attempt to settle the meaning of the worship into which he led the ten tribes. It has been strongly pleaded, that the calves were only symbols of Jehovah, and not images truly worshipped by the people, as was the case in Egypt. But this leaves the matter unexplained. No doubt the educated Egyptian would be ready in controversy to fall back on the theory of " a cherubic symbol," and to say — "I do not worship the mere hawk-headed figure, the symbol of Phre, the sun-god, but I adore him whom I regard the Eternal Vivifier ;" and he might pass in the same way through the whole lists of Egyptian mythology. Jeroboam in setting up the calves, did no doubt give prominence to the name which stood out before the worshipper who frequented the temple at Jerusalem ; but he degraded that name by this association, and paved the way for the complete perversion of the people from true worship, and ultimately for the very grossest forms of idolatry, in which the image ceased to be a symbol, and was worshipped blindly by a people sunk in materialism and licentiousness.

In turning to the sacred text we have very clear illustrations of this. The worship of the calf {ecjel) is first met with among the Hebrews when they were encamped under Mount Sinai, shortly after they had come up out of Egypt. The circumstances are minutely detailed in Exodus xxxii. Moses delayed longer on Sinai than the people had expected. Degraded by the animal worship of Egypt, the Hebrews said to Aaron — " Up, make us gods, which shall go before us " — give us a visible form suitable to our present spiritual condition ; such a god as we have seen worshipped in Egypt. Too ready to gratify the popular demand, he took from them their ornaments of gold, and with the help of these he realized for them such a figure as they had often seen adored by the worshippers of Apis. " These," said Aaron, " be thy gods, 0 Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." Aaron sought to save his credit by associating the idol with the worship of the true God. He built an altar before the calf, and proclaimed a day of special joy before it — " To-morrow is a feast to the Lord." But that both the Lord himself and Moses regarded this as peculiarly gross idolatry, is

I. KINGS. 289

clear from the same chapter : — " And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down ; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves : they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them : they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said. These be thy gods, 0 Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt" (ver. 7, 8). "And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing : and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount. And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it" (ver. 19, 20). The licentious dancing, the nakedness of the people — " for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame" — and the death of about three thousand of the idolaters, all showed that the sin was much more heinous, and the guilt more deeply aggravated than would have been the case, had the act been nothing more than the setting up of a "cherubic symbol" by a people who still worshipped Jehovah. The reference made to it by Moses towards the close of his ministry among the people, shows how fresh the remembrance of the great sin continued in his memory : — " Ye sinned against the Lord your God, and made you a molten calf I did neither eat nor drink because of your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger. I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure, where- with the Lord was wroth against you to destroy you" (Deut. ix. 12-19). When, in rehearsing the history of Israel, Nehemiah came to this trans- action, he said, they " wrought great provocation" (Neh. ix. 18). The Psalmist characterizes the guilt as aggravated in being run into in the very place where God was manifesting his glorious and gracious presence : —

"They made a calf in Iloreb, And worshipped the molten image. Thus they changed their glory Into the similitude of an ox that eateth straw " (Ps. cvi. 1 0, 20).

Jeroboam intended to bring about-ft complete separation between Israel and Judah, He had, however, the sagacity to see, that any attempt to make a violent breach between the people and long-cherished religious convictions, would lead to a reaction as violent. Thus the prominence given by him to the worship of Jehovah. But the historic results of his expedient testify, that he had rightly calculated, when he

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allowed the association of the name of the Lord with the " similitude of an ox that eateth straw," to work out his design. The idol soon came to be everything — the influence of the higher and better thought was checked. " And now," says the prophet Hosea, " they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the crafts- men : they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves" (Hos. xiii. 2). So thoroughly had Jeroboam's plans succeeded, that even national affliction, in which they were made to feel forsaken of all divine help, failed once and again to lead them to return to the Lord. Instead of this, they multiplied their idols and their idolatrous rites : " Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples" (Hos. viii. 14). Thus the terrible threatening — " Thy calf, 0 Samaria, hath cast thee off; mine anger is kindled against them : how long will it be ere they attain to innocency ? For fi-om Israel was it also : the workman made it ; therefore it is not God : but the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces" (Hos. viii. 5, 6).

It is impossible to understand this gross animal worship into which Israel so often fell, unless we ascribe it to the influence of Egyptian idolatry. Its manifestation among the chosen people is first seen, after their long contact with the sunken heathenism of the land, in which they were kept for centuries as slaves. Its full inauguration as a system proposed to meet the religious instincts of the people, was brought about by one who had sojourned for years in Egypt, in peculi- arly close fellowship with those whose policy led them to seek the extension of their vile creed. The origin of this form of heathen super- stition is to be found, perhaps, in the long isolation of the first inhabi- tants of the valley of the Nile from the families in which primitive monotheism prevailed. In such circumstances, thoughts of a divine principle diffused in all living things lead to the elevation of nature to a self-existent place, and pantheism becomes virtually the prevalent superstition. Nothing is then wanted but circumstances calculated to elevate beast, or bird, or plant, or even stone, into a place of special prominence, and the tide of natural devotion sets in towards it. A review of the animals worshipped by the Egyptians would both illus- trate and corroborate these remarks.

On the same principle the Nile had divine honours paid to it. A peculiarity of the Egyptian mind may be noticed here. It did not, as a rule, as was the case with Gi'eek and Roman aspects of thought, ascribe human attributes to the gods. Men were not raised to the rank

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of gods. It went out iu the opposite direction of ascribing super- human characteristics to the brute creation. The moral degradation imphed in this may be easily imagined. The calf set up by Aaron, and afterwards by Jeroboam, was the imitation of the sacred calf, ^^Ifnevt's" of On or Heliopolis, the birth-place of Asenath, Joseph's wife (Gen. xli. 45). " In Egypt this zoolatry appears in such exaggerated shapes, and with such monstrous adjuncts, tliat to trace at length the stages of its progress and the secret of its perpetuity would fill a most remark- able chapter iu the history of civilization. The contemptuous exclama- tions of the later Greeks and Romans, on witnessing the coexistence of abstruse philosophy and artistic beauty with the worship of brute creatures, are familiar to all persons interested in this study. An admirer and apologist of the Egyptian creed was fully conscious of the reasons which had given birth to such opprobrious criticisms ; for he confesses plainly that the multitude did not stop short at merely relative worship, but adored the animals themselves. I must not, however, leave unquoted the remarkable passage of Clement of Alexandria, with reference to this question ; because it shows as well the sanctity with which the animals were all invested by Egyptians, as the feelings which zoolatry was then exciting in the minds of most spectators, whether Christian or heathen. After dwelling on the costliness and splendour of Egyptian temples, and directing our attention to the veil inwrought with gold, by which the adytum was curtained off from the rest of the building, he continues : — ' But if you pass beyond into the remotest part of the inclosure, hastening to behold something more worthy of your search, and seek for the image which dwells in the temple, a pastophorus (shrine-bearer), or some one else of those who minister in sacred things, with a grave air singing a paean iu the Egyptian tongue, draws aside a small portion of the veil, as if about to show us the god, and makes us burst into a loud laugh. For the god you sought is not there, but a cat, or a crocodile, or a serpent sprung from the soil, or some such brute animal, which is more suited to a cave than a temple. The Egyptian deity appears — a beast rolling himself in a purple cover- let! ... . Conspicuous at the head of the zoolatry of Egypt stands the worship of the great Meniphitic bull Apis (Hapi), which is carried back, in its more elementary condition, as far as the second dynasty. In the reign of Eamses II., the great bull is made to bear the title, Second life of Ptah — a fact which intimates that he was then regarded as the living shrine, or incarnation, of the chief god of Memphis ; and a similar exaltation is suggested iu the title. Image of the soul of Osiris,

wliicli has elsewhere been awarded to him. Viewed in this light, Apis was to the Egyptian worshipper a present or incarnate deity. The luxuries deemed appropriate to the highest earthly monarch were all lavished on his service. He was fed with a religious scrupulosity. He was anointed with the choicest unguents. Mates of spotless beauty were provided for him. At death he was embalmed and swathed ; his funeral was performed with a magnificence unrivalled in the case of men ; a sumptuous monument, which still attracts the admiration of all artists, was erected in his honour. And since mortals after death were thought to be in some mysterious way united with Osiris, the dead Apis also was entitled for this cause Osiris-Apis, or Serapis; and as such, was worshipped with supreme devotion in the interval which elapsed before the birth or manifestation of a new calf — the vehicle to which the soul of the departed Apis was believed to be immediately transferred.' "

One calf was set up in Bethel and another in Dan (ver. 29).

" Bethel," or the House of God, was a sacred city in the territory assigned

to the tribe of Benjamin. Its original name was Luz, a name which

it seems to have got from its almond-trees. It is the modern Beitin.

" Returning," says Robinson, "to the point where we had left our road

we now proceeded again at G'40, on the same general course towards

Beitin. We soon crossed a broad shallow wady, running nearly south,

apparently one of the heads of that passing down on the north side of

Deir Duwan ; and at 710 reached the eastern branch of the great

Nabulus road on the higher laud beyond. Hence Taizibeh bore N.

76° E. and el-Bireh S. 40° W. Descending gradually by this road

south-west, we came to the site of Beitin at half-past seven o'clock,

just at the left of the path ; making a distance of two hours from

Taizibeh. The ruins lie upon the point of a low hill, between the

heads of two shallow wadys, which unite below and run off S.S.E. half S.

into the deep and rugged valley es-Suweinit, 'which passes down

between Jeba and Mukhmas. The spot is shut in by higher land on

every side ; so that the only places we could see distinctly from the

ruins were el-Bireh S. 48° W. and Shc'itut S. 10° W. Perceiving,

however, some ruins across the valley S.E. half E. on the higher

ground, we immediately proceeded thither, and came in eight minutes

to what the Arabs called Burj Beitin and also Burj Makhrun, ' castle

of Beitin or Makhrun.' It is the ruin of a small square fortress of

hewn stones, including a Greek church. Several columns were lying

among the ruins, on one of which a cross was carved in relief Pro-

I. KINGS.

293

ceeding still in the direction S. by E. lialf E. we came in ten minutes more to tlie ruins of another larger Greek church, situated on the

higliest spot of ground in the vicinity We now returned to

the site of Beitin, and took a nearer survey of its ruins. They occupy the whole surface of the hill-point, sloping towards the south-east, and cover a space of three or four acres. They consist of very many foundations and half-standing walls of houses and other buildings. . . . There is little room for question, that botli the name and site of Beitin are identical with those of the ancient Bethel. The latter was a border city between Benjamin and Ephraim ; at first assigned to Benjamin, but conquered and afterwards retained by Ephraim. According to Eusebius and Jerome, it lay twelve Roman miles from Jerusalem, on the right or east of the road leading to Sichem or Neapolis (Nabulus). From Beitin to el-Bireh we found the distance to be forty-five minutes, and fi'om Bireh to Jerusalem three hours, with horses. The correspon- dence therefore in the situation is very exact ; and the name affords decisive confirmation. The Arabic termination hi for the Hebrew el., is not an unusual change ; we found indeed several other instances of it entirely parallel. Yet the name has been preserved solely among the common people. The monks appear for centuries not to have been aware of its existence, and have assigned to Bethel a location much further towards the north. Our friends the Greek priests at Faizibeh had also recognized the identity of Beitin and Bethel, and had endeavoured to brino: into use the Arabic form Beitil as being nearer to the original, but it had found currency only within the circle of their own influence. From them the missionaries in Jerusalem had heard of the place and had learned the name Beitil, though from others they had heard only of Beitin.

" Bethel is celebrated in the Old Testament. Abraham first pitched his tent in Palestine on the high ground eastward of this spot, still one of the finest tracts for pasture in the whole land. Here Jacob slept on his way to Haran, and saw in his dream the ladder, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon it ; and hither he afterwards returned and built an altar, and called the place Bethel, ' House of God.' Samuel came once a year to Bethel to judge the people. In later times it became notorious as a seat of idolatrous worship, after Jeroboam had erected here one of his golden calves. This was denounced at the time by a prophet of the Lord, who then transgressed, and was destroyed by a lion. Bethel came afterwards into the possession of Judali ; and king Josiah destroyed its altars and

294 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

idols, burning upon them dead men's bones from tbe sepulchres. After the exile, the place was again inhabited by the returning Jews, and was subsequently fortified. In the New Testament Bethel is not mentioned ; but we learn that it still existed, and was captured by Vespasian. The last notice of Bethel, as an inhabited place, is by Eusebius and Jerome in the fourth century, who speak of it as a small village in their day. Yet the present ruins are greater than those of a small village ; and the ruined churches upon the site, and beyond the valley, betoken a town of importance even down to the middle ages — so that it probably revived, and was enlarged."

" Dan " lay at the extreme north of Palestine. Its name was originally Laish, but having been captured by a company of Danites, they called it Dan, " after the name of their father who was born unto Israel."

God sent a message to Jeroboam by a prophet belonging to Judah (xiii. 1). When he reached Bethel he found the king, who liad assumed the priest's office as equally his with that of the supreme civil magis- trate, burning incense by an altar. The man of God prophesied against the altar (ver. 2); an act which Jeroboam held to be directed against himself, and he stretched forth his hand to seize him, but it became suddenly stricken by God — " It was dried up so that he could not pull it in again unto him " (ver. 4). After it was restored the man of God turned homeward, followed by an old prophet of Bethel, who prevailed on him to return back with him to Bethel, contrary to the distinct command of God. Having again set out, he was met by a lion and slain. The noble beast, however, neither tore the carcass nor attacked the ass. He was an instrument in the hand of God to punish the disobedient prophet. The incident shows, that, even when the laud was so thickly peopled as it must have been in the time of Jeroboam, the lion still had its lurking-places among the hills near Bethel. — See also XX. 3G.

Though Jeroboam had departed far from God, and had given him- self up to gross and wicked superstitions, he had not been able to shake wholly off the power of his early religious impressions. The hand of God had touched him in one of his deepest and tenderest affections. " Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick." He knew it was vain to seek help either at Dan or Bethel. The so-called religious rites of the animal worship practised there might do well enough in the time of prosperity ; but the true God alone could help him in the dark hour of his own and his household's sorrow. "Get thee," said he to his

I. KINGS. 295

wife, "to Sliiloli : there is Ahijah the prophet." She set out with loaves, sweet cakes, and a jar of honey (ver. 3), as an offering to tlie aged prophet of the Lord. The meeting between Jeroboam's queen and Ahijah was used by God for sending a message to the king of IsraeL This message has reference first to the family of Jeroboam, and second to the people of Israel. In the latter part of it the prophet says — " The Lord shall smite Israel as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of the good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their groves, provoking the Lord to anger " (ver. 15).

The word here rendered " reed " (kaneli)^ occurs twenty-seven times in Genesis and Exodus. In the former book, as in chap. xli. 5, it is rendered "stalk," in the latter "branch," as in chap. xxv. 31, and " calamus," in chap. xxx. 23. In the passage under notice, the precise meaning of "common reed" {Arundo donax), one of the grasses abun- dant on the banks of the Jordan, may be given to it. The force of the figure is in the reed being shaken until it is smitten, crushed, and bent, so that the weight of its head, made heavier by the water in which it has fallen, drags it to the bottom, where it is lost sight of. — See also under Exod. xxx. 23; 2 Kings xviii. 21; Job xxxi. 22; and Matt. xi. 7.

The dogs in the city and the fowls in the fields, have ever been the scavengers in eastern lands. On the watch for food, they fall speedily on the carcasses of men or of beasts exposed to them. Thus the hungry dog, the gluttonous vulture, and the greedy raven, ever meet us in those pictures of ruin, bloodshed, and death, associated with violent changes in the ruling classes of eastern tribes. " Him that dieth of Baasha in the city shall the dogs eat ; and him that dieth of his in the fields shall the fowls of the air eat" (xvi. 4; see also xiv. 11 ; xxi. 19, 23, 24; xxii. 38).

Ahab refused to listen to the pleadings of Elijah, and a dearth was threatened. It was to be brought about by withdrawing the fertilizing ministry of the dew and of the rain. Meanwhile special care was taken of the prophet, in ways, however, by which his faith was con- stantly called into healthful action. He is first sent to the brook Cherith, and afterwards to Zarephath, a city of Zidon (xvii. 3-9). The word "brook " answers to the modern Arabic " wady." It was one of those fugitive mountain-streams, which, wild and swollen in the rainy season, are either reduced to a tiny streamlet, or are dried up altogether. The Cherith has not been identified. The Wadj/ Kelt, Wady Alias,

and the Am Fasael, to the north of the first, have severally been proposed as representing the brook Cherith, but not on satisfactory grounds. The ravens supplied the prophet with food — " They brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the even- ing " (ver. C). The " raven," Heb. oreb, is the bird properly so called — the common raven (Corvus corax) ; see under Gen. viii. 7). No weight is to be attached to the conceit that the orebim were not birds, but men — the Arabians!

After three years (xviii. 1) Elijah is again seen in the presence of Ahab. " Gather," he says to the king, " all Israel to me unto IMount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred " (ver. 19). Then we have his appeal to the people, the challenge to the false prophets, and the grand results (ver. 21-40). Carmel is the highest peak of a range of hills running north-west from the plain of Esdraelon to the Mediterranean, ending in the promontory which forms the Bay of Acre. Its top is about 1200 feet above the level of the sea.

" As ' Tabor ' is, through its peculiar form, an elevation ' among the mountains ;' so is ' Carmel,' with its long projecting ridge, ' by the sea!' The name of Tabor is probably derived from its height ; that of Carmel is certainly taken from the garden-like appearance which it shares with Tabor alone, and which, as it has no peculiarity of shape, is its chief distinction. By this its protracted ranee of eighteen miles in length, bounding the whole of the southern corner of the great plain, is marked out from the surrounding scenery. Rocky dells, with deep

jungles of copse, are found there alone in Palestine Tlie large

caves, indeed, which exist under the western cliffs . . . may have been the shelter of Elijah and the persecuted prophets. The winding path through the rocks to the sea-shore below, must have been that by which Pythagoras, according to the idea of his biographer — himself a pilgrim to this ' haunted strand ' — descended, to embark in the Egyptian ship which he saw sailing beneath him. Either on this same point of Mount Carmel, or at the modern village of Caipha immediately below it, Avas the village of Ecbatana, in which Cambyses died on his return from Egypt to Persia, thus unexpectedly realizing the prophecy that he

should perish at Ecbatana But it could never have been here

that the great sacrifice took place, which formed the crisis in Elijah's life, and which is brought before us with such minuteness of detail, as to invite us to a full contemplation of all its circumstances. Carmel, as we have seen, is not so much a mountain as a ridge — an upland

I. KINGS. 297

park, extending for many miles into tlie interior of the country. At the eastern extremity, which is also the highest point of the whole ridge, is a spot marked out, alike by tradition and by natural features, as one of the most authentic localities of the Old Testament history. The tradition is unusually trustworthy. It is perhaps the only case in Palestine in which the recollection of an alleged event has been actually retained in the native Arabic nomenclature. Many names of tow-ns have been so preserved, but here is no town, only a shapeless ruin, yet the spot has a name — ' El-Maharrakah,' 'the burning,' or 'the sacri- fice.' The Druses, some of whom inhabit the neio-hbourinsr villages. come here from a distance to perform a yearly sacrifice ; and though it is possible that this practice may have originated the name, yet it is more probable that the practice itself arose from some earlier tradition attached to the spot. . . . But be the tradition good or bad, the localities adapt themselves to the event in almost every particular. The summit thus marked out is the extreme eastern point of the range, commanding the last view of the sea behind, and the first view of the great plain in front, just where the glades of forest, the ' excellency of Carmel,' sink into the usual barrenness of the hills and vales of Pales- tine. ^ There, on the highest ridge of the mountain, may well have stood, on its sacred ' high place,' the altar of the Lord which Jezebel had cast down. Close beneath, on a wide upland sweep, under the shade of ancient olives, and round a well of water, said to be peren- nial, and which may therefore have escaped the general drought and have been able to furnish water for the trenches round the altar, must have been ranged, on one side the king and people, with the eight hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and Astarte, and on the other side the solitary and commanding figure of the prophet of the Lord. Full before them opened the whole plain of Esdraelon, with Tabor and its kindred ranges in the distance ; on the rising ground, at the opening of its valley, the city of Jezreel, with Ahab's palace and Jezebel's temple distinctly visible ; in the nearer foreground, immediately under the base of the mountain, was clearly seen the winding stream of the Kishon, working its way through the narrow pass of the hills into the Bay of Acre."

The contest over, Elijah intimated that the dearth and the drought were about to end. He said unto Ahab — " Get thee up, cat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain. So Ahab went up to eat and to drink : and Elijah went up to the top of Carmel ; and he cast himself

down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees, and said to VOL. II. 2 p

I!

1 1

his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is notliing. And he said, Go again seven times. And it came to pass, at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariscth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not. And it came to pass, in the mean while, that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode, and went to Jezrecl. And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah; and he girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel" (ver. 41-40). "This," says Dr. Thomson, " lias always appeared to me most extraordinary conduct for a man of his age, character, and office. And yet, when rightly understood, it was beautiful, and full of important instruction. Elijah, as God's minister, had overwhelmed the king with shame and confusion in the presence of his subjects. The natural tendency of this would be to lower him in their eyes, and lessen their respect for his authority. It was not the intention, however, to weaken the government or to encourage rebellion. The prophet was therefore divinely directed to give a testimony of respect and honour to the king, as public and strik- ing as from necessity had been the opposition and rebuke to his idolatry. The mode of doing honour to Ahab by running before his chariot was in accordance with the customs of the East, even to this day. I was reminded of this incident more than twenty years ago at Jaffa, when Mohammed Aly came to that city with a large army to quell the rebellion of Palestine. The camp was on the sand hills south of the city, while j\Iohammed Aly stopped inside the walls. The officers were constantly going and coming, preceded by runners, who always kept just ahead of the horses, no matter how furiously they were ridden ; and, in order to run with the greater ease, they not only ' girded their loins ' very tightly, but also tucked up their loose garments under the girdle, lest they should be incommoded by them. Thus, no doubt, did Elijah. The distance from the base of Carrael across the plain to Jezreel is not less than twelve miles ; and the race was probably accomplished in two hours, in the face of a tremendous storm of rain and wind. It was necessary that the ' hand of the Lord should be upon' the prophet, or he would not have been able to achieve it."

Ahab, deeply impressed by the deeds of Elijah, hastened to Jezreel and informed his queen of all that the prophet had done. Uidike her husband, Jezebel grew more bitter against Elijah, and cherished towards him a deeper hatred, the more he showed by his words and

I. KINGS. 299

works tliat be was truly sent by God to tbeir wicked court. Wben sbe bad beard of tbe recent events, " Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijab, saying, So let tbe gods do to me, and more also, if I make not tby life as tbe life of one of tbem by to-morrow about tbis time " (xix. 2). Having escaped from Jezreel, he went with his servant to Beersbeba, and left him there, but " he himself went a day's journey into the wilder- ness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree : and he requested for himself that be might die ; and said, It is enough : now, 0 Lord, take away my life ; for I am not better than my fathers. And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him. Arise and eat" (ver. 4, 5).

" The Juniper tree," Heb. rothem, is also referred to in Job xxx. 4, and

Fig 83.

Tlie Common J?room {Snrothnmr.ns scj^i^nriit^). ,

Psalm cxx. 4. This plant is not a juniper, but a broom. The juniper (Juniperus) belongs to the natural order Coniferce, or cone-bearers ; the broom {Genista) to that of the LefjKmunferce, or pod-bearers. The species under which tbe prophet rested in the wilderness of Beersbeba, was the one-seeded broom {Genista vionosperm.a) , still called lidhem or Ritt'm by tbe Arabs. It is to be met with in Palestine, in the desert of Sinai, in Barbary, and in most of the countries on tbe borders of the

300 RIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

northern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The rothem was well-fitted to shelter the prophet. Describing the WaJtj-csli-Sheihh, or royal valley of Horeb, Dr. Bonar says : — " Wady-esli-Sheikh opens witli a l)retty wide circle, covered witli tarfas and shrubs of the common desert-class. On our right, shooting up over a huge mountain-wall, Scrhal peers down on us in majesty, like a watch-tower, commanding the whole stretch of the wilderness. Tiiree shrubs are specially noticed here — the BJertan, the Bvn'th, and the Bit£m or Bithem — the two former fragrant, the last a species of broom, with a small white flower, streaked with pink. It is translated 'juniper ' in our version, but it has no reseml)lance to that shrub ; whereas the Hebrew w^ord rotliem, as illustrated by the Arabic JRitt'm, shows us wdiat it is. It was under tliis tree that Elijah sat down to take shelter from the heat (1 Kings xix. 5) ; and more than once did we do the same, for some of these shrubs are bushy and tall, perhaps eight or ten feet high. They formed a shadow sometimes from the heat, sometimes from the wind, and sometimes from the rain, both for man and beast." Dr. Stanley met with it in Wady Sej'al. "This wady," he writes, "is a continu- ous descent between high granite rocks, occasionally red, sometimes like the deep red of old bricks. In this we encamped. The next day it widened, and the acacias increased into spreading mazy thorns. A sharp storm of rain, the only one we experienced in our whole journey, swept from the Sinai range, during which we took shelter under a ' Retem,' or broom." " From here," says Dr. Robinson, when referring to Bcersheba, " Elijah wandered out into the southern desert, and sat down under a shrub of Retem, just as our Arabs sat down under it every day and every night. The shrubs which we had met with throTighout the desert still continued. One of the principal of these is the Bdcm already mentioned, a species of the broom plant. Genista rectum of Forskall. This is the largest and most conspicuous shrub of these deserts, growing thickly in the water-courses and valleys. Our Arabs always selected the place of encampment, if possible, in a spot where it grew, in order to be sheltered* by it at night from the wind ; and during the day, when they often went on in advance of the camels, we found them not uufrequently sitting or sleeping under a bush of Retem, to protect them from the sun. It was in this very desert, a day's journey from Beersheba, that the prophet Elijah lay down and slept beneath the same shrub."

II. KINGS.

301

II. KINGS.

'HE sons of the prophets appear to have become much depressed by tlie prevalence of the famine. EHslia's appearance again at Gilgal shed energy and activity into the midst of tliem. Wherever he is introduced the narra- tive becomes more lively, and a business-like air is thrown over the scene. " And Elisha came again to Gilgal : and jv^ there was a dearth in the land ; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him : and he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets. And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap-full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage : for they knew them not. So they poured out for the men to eat : and it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, 0 thou man of God, there is death in the pot : and they could not cat thereof. But he said, Then bring meal : and he cast it into the pot ; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat; and there was no harm in the pot" (iv. 38-41). The herbs were gathered to make soup. Either those found were not well known in the neighbourhood, or the person who was sent out, had liitherto been little observant of the forms of vegetation around him. He found a wild vine {gephen sadeh), literally " vine of the field," and gathered its fruit, called here " wild gourds " (pakkaoth sJiadc'h). The use here of the word vine implies, that the plant had vine-like tendrils and leaves. One of the gourd femily (Ciicurln'taccfe), the colocynth, or bitter cucumber {Citrulhts coIoajntJns), most closely answers this description. It is common over most of .Palestine. It yields the strongly purgative drug of the same name. Prepared in the manner described here, it would be highly poisonous, and at once pro- ductive of the effects which led to the cry, " 0 thou man of God, there is death in the pot." There is another species for which this might, by an unobserving person, be mistaken, the Citrullus eduh's, which yields a refreshing juice. Dr. Thomson has recently selected another herb as having some claims to being the wild gourd : — " The Hebrew root seems to point to some herb that bursts or splits open, and I have

302

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

thought it might be the Elaterium, which is found all over the country, looks like a young squash, and is extremely poisonous. When green, it might be mistaken for an edible ' gourd ' or cucumber ; but when ripe it cannot be ' gathered ' at all, for it bursts on the slightest pressure with great violence, scattering the seeds in all directions." This is the so-called "squirting cucumber," the Echalium elaterium of botanists. But the colocynth plant suits the narrative much better.

Even the command, " Go and wash in Jordan seven times " (v. 10), was trying to the Syrian leper's pride, but this was aggravated by the non-appearance of Elisha — " Naaman was wroth, and went away, and

Fig 89

Wild Gonrd {C-immia prophetanm).

said. Behold, I thought. He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel ? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned, and went away in a rage" (ver. 11, 12). He nearly missed his opportunity, but his servants entreated, and he went and " dipped himself seven times." The cure was complete.

The "Abana" is now named Barada, and the "Pharpar" A'lcaj. They are still known as the rivers of Damascus. The former is the Chrijsorrlioas of the Greeks. " It rises in the high plain south of

II. KINGS. 303

Zebeduny, on Anti-Lebanon, and rushes in a south-easterly course down the mountain, till it issues at Mezzeh, from its chasm upon the plain. Here it turns eastward, and flowing along the north wall of the city, takes its way across the plain to the two northern lakes. The AicaJ is ibrmed by the junction of several smaller streams at or near Sa'sa'. One of these comes from the fountain near Beit Jenn, on the way from Sa'sa' to Bunias ; and receives further down a branch arising from the great fountain of Menbej." — (Iiohmson, "Res." iii., 447.)

" And it came to pass after this, that Beii-hadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria. And there was a great famine in Samaria : and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver" (vi. 24, 25). " Situated on its steep height, in a plain itself girt in by hills," says Stanley, " Samaria was enabled, not less promptly than Jerusalem, to resist the successive assaults made upon it by the Syrian and Assyrian armies. The first was baffled altogether ; the second took it only after a three years' siege, that is, three times as long as that which reduced Jeru- salem. The local circumstances of the earlier sieges are well brought out by M. Van de Velde : — 'As the mountains around the hill of Shemer are higher than that hill itself, the enemy must have been able to dis- cover clearly the internal condition of the besieged Samaria. . . . The inhabitants, whether they turned their eyes upwards or downwards, to the surrounding hills or into the valley, must have seen all full of

enemies thirty and tvo kings, and horses and chariots. The

mountains and the adjacent circle of hills were so densely occupied by the enemy, that not a man could pass through, to bring provisions to the beleagured city. The Syrians on the hills must have been able, from where they stood, plainly to distinguish the famishing inhabitants." It was in such circumstances that the head of an ass was sold for ibur- score pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of doves' dung for hve pieces of silver. There can be no uncertainty touching the first article. It was the head of the hliamor or domestic ass. If we take the price of silver named here as a shekel, which it most likely was, ten pounds would be paid for the almost fleshless head of an unclean animal. There has been much difference of opinion as to the "doves' dung." Is the statement to be understood literally, or is some kind of seed referred to under this name ? Some thiidv that the only satisfactory point of view from which to regard it is that indicated by the author of" The Land and the Book." " What," he asks, "have you to say to the extraordinary

304 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

food called ' doves' dung,' which was sold at a high price during that terrible siege of Benhadad ? I believe that the Hebrew chirhjonim, or khir yonim, was a name for a coarse and cheap sort of food, a kind of bean, as some think, to which this whimsical title was given on account of some fancied resemblance between the two. Nor am I at all sur- prised at it, for the Arabs give the most quaint, obscure, and ridiculous names to their extraordinary edible mixtures. I would, therefore, not translate at all, but let the passage read thus, ' A fourth part of a cab of khir yonim for five pieces of silver ;' and be content with that, until we know what kliir yonim really is." Bochart early gave prominence to the supposition that the article was a kind of pulse. " And indeed," says Shaw (i. 257), " as the cicer is pointed at one end, and acquires an ash colour in parching, the first of which circumstances answers to the figure, the other to the usual colour of pigeons' dung, the supposi- tion is by no means to be disregarded." The cicer referred to by Shaw is evidently the chick-pea {Cicer arietinum), which is much cultivated in the Levant, and has ever been used as a common article of food in the East. Lady Callcott pleads ably for the root of the common star of Bethlelieiu {Ornithorjalum umhellatum) as the representative of the famine diet in Samaria, having evidently been drawn to it by the generic name which signifies birds' milk. "The bulbous root," she says, " of the ornithogalum has in all times been used as an esculent vegetable in Syria and the neighbouring countries. Dioscoridcs says that it was sometimes dried, pulverized, and mixed with bread-flour ; and that it was also eaten, both raw and roasted. He remarks furtlier, that of thirty-six known species, one bearing a yellow flower yielded the

most agreeable food The plains and valleys about Samaria

abound in this pretty flower ; and the dearth of its roots, during the siege of the city of the Syrians under Benhadad, was a token of famine beyond endurance." In addition to tliis view it may be added, that the Arabs call the " parched pulse " (Iccdi) of 2 Sam. xvii. 28, " sparrows' dung."

But notwithstanding these plausible suppositions, it is more likely that the expression should be taken literally, just as we do the reference to the ass's head. It does not harmonize with the general impression conveyed by the context, to be told that, while the almost useless head of the dead ass brought fourscore pieces of silver, a quantity of any kind of vegetable food equal to three English jiints, brought only five pieces of silver. The latter would in every respect have been more highly esteemed, and would have brought a greater price than the

II. KINGg. 305

former. This objection is fatal to the idea that either pulse or the root of the ornithogalum is to be understood here. In favour of the supposi- tion that the words should be taken literally, is the fact that, in the great British famine of 131G, the excrement of pigeons is known to have been eaten by the poorest of the people. Such allusions as those in 2 Kings xviii. 27, and Isaiah xxxvi. 12, indicate that this may have been very far from unlikely. There is thus much more to be said in favour of the literal meaning of the statement, than of the proposal to understand here any one description of vegetable food.

There had been peace between the kingdom of Judah and that of Israel for more than a hundred years. The alliance, indeed, had not been conducive to the highest interests of either. It was not, however, to be lightly broken off and set aside. Yet Amaziah, lifted up by his victory over the Edomites, and most likely bent on bringing Israel once more under the power of Judah, sent a foolish challenge to Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, a man in whom much of the shrewdness and daring of his father were. "Come," he said, "let us look one another in the face" (xiv. 8). " Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz, son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, Come, let us look one another in the face. And Jehoash the king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, salving. The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son to wife : and there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trod down the thistle. Thou hast indeed smitten Edom, and thine heart hath lifted thee up : glory of this, and tarry at home ; for why shouldest thou meddle to thy hurt, that thou shouldest fall, even thou, and Judah with thee?" (xiv. 8-10.) As if he had said, I so despise you, that if you were to ask my daughter in marriage, I would trample you under foot, as the wild beast does the thistle on the mountain-side. You are not even a foe worthy of my regard. Judah is as the worthless thistle; Israel is as the cedar of Lebanon.

"Thistle," Heb. hoahh, means here any worthless, prickly plant growing on Lebanon, and which contrasts well with the great and wide-spreading cedar. The word properly rendered thistle is dardar. The term is sometimes used to denote the close brushwood met with in little-disturbed forests. In such a cover the men of Israel were wont to hide themselves from the Philistines — " When they saw they were in a strait, then the people did hide themselves in caves, and in ihkhets, and in rocks, and in high places, and in pits " (1 Sam. xiii. G). It was in such bushy entanglements and thorns that Manasseh was captured

VOL. II. 2 Q

30G BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

by tlie captains of Assyria. " And the Lord spake to Manasseh, and to Ills people ; but they would not hearken. Wherefore the Lord brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took ]\Ianasse]i among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon" (2 Chron. xxxiii. 10, 11). Such was Amaziah and the house of Judali. They were as the underwood to the lofty cedar overtopping it. And just as the boar when pursued tramples the brushwood down, breaks tlirough its opposing thorns, and treats it with complete disregard, so would the grandson of Jehu regard with contempt the son of Joash king of Judah.

"The cedar of Lebanon" {Cedrus Ldhani), Heb. erez. See under 1 Kings iv. 33 ; 1 Chron. xiv. 1 ; Ps. xcii. 12 — where the cedar is fully noticed. " The cedars," says Dr. Thomson, when pointing out the site of the present cedar grove, "are situated high up on the western slope of Lebanon, ten hours south-east from Tripoli. Besherrah is directly west, in the romantic gorge of the Kadisha, two thousand feet below them, and Ehden is three hours distant on the road to Tripoli. In no other part of Syria are the mountains so Alpine, the proportions so gigantic, the ravines so profound and awful. You must not leave the country without visiting the cedars. There are several routes to them, and all wild, exciting, delightful. One of the most romantic is to clindi Lebanon from Beirut quite to the base of Jebel Kniseh, then wind north- ward around the heads of the stupendous gorges made by the rivers of Beirut, Anfelias, Dog River, Nahr Ibrahim, Nahr el Jous, and the Kadisha. I have repeatedly followed that wildest of routes, with or without a path, as the case might be, clinging to the shelving declivities midway to heaven, with a billowy wilderness of rocks and ravines sinking away westward down to the sea. The very thought of it at this minute is positively intoxicating. The platform where the cedars stand is more than six thousand feet above the Mediterranean, and around it are gathered the very tallest and greyest heads of Lebanon. The forest is not large — not more than five hundred trees, great and small, grouped irregularly on the sides of shallow ravines, which mark the birth-place of the Kadisha, or Holy River. But, though the space covered by them does not exceed half a dozen acres, yet, when fairly within the grove, and beneath the giant arms of those old patriarchs of a hundred generations, there comes a solemn hush upon the soul as if by enchantment. Precisely the same sort of magic spell settles on the spirits, no matter how often you repeat your visits. But it is most impressive in the night. Let us by all means arrange to sleep there.

II. KINGS. 307

The universal silence is almost painful. The grey old towers of Lebanon, still as a stone, stand all around, holding up the stars of heaven to look at you ; and the trees gather like phantoms about you, and wink knowingly, or seem to, and whisper among themselves you know not what. You become suspicious, nervous, until, broad awake, you find that it is notliing but the flickering of your drowsy fire, and tlie feeble flutter of bats among the boughs of the trees. A night among the cedars is never forgotten ; the impressions, electrotyped, are hid away in the inner chamber of the soul, among her choicest treasures, to be visited a thousand times with never-failing delight."

" In the ninth year of Hosliea the king of Assyria (Shalmaneser) took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan" (xvii. 6). The difficulties connected with the identification of Halah and Habor cease to be very important when the geographical position of Gozan is ascertained. Gozan is the name of a region in Mesopotamia. It is the Gauzamiis of the ancients, and the modern Kushan. Halah lay on the borders of Gozan. Habor was the river which watered that province. It is now named Khahour.

The Assyrian captain, by the use of the striking figure in verse 21, endeavours to convince Ilezekiah and his people, that all reliance whicli kept them from yielding to Sennacherib would prove vain. The passage is repeated in Isaiah xxxvi. G with little variation. The Assy- rians imagined that the king of Judah held out against them from secret hopes of help from Egypt. " Now, behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it : so is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on him" (xviii. 21). Eabshakeh tries to show the vanity of hoping for assistance from this source. Egypt, he says, has already sufi'ered so much from Assyria, that it is no better than a bruised reed. It is held feebly together, but lean on it, take it for a staff, and it will pierce your hands. " The charge of relying upon Egypt may be either regarded as a true one, or as a malicious fabrica- tion, or as a mere inference from the analogy of other cases, and the habitual relation of the parties." For " reed" see above, 1 Kings xiv. 15. The figure of "the crushed reed" is used for another purjjose in Isa. xlii. 3, and Matt. xii. 19, which see.

In the description of " the good land " by Moses, mention is made of the richness and variety of its natural products (Deut. viii. 7-9). Among these oil and honey are named — " A land of oil olive {eretz zayith

shemen) and honey (devash)." The captain of the king of Assyria here acknowledges tliis feature of Palestine. The land to which he proposed to carry the people was, he said, like their own, " a land of oil olive {zayith yitzhdr) and of honey" (ver. 32). It will be noticed that the Hebrew word for oil differs in the two passages. In the former it is shemen, in the latter yitzluTr. The term translated "honey" is the same in both.

"Honey" (devash) is first mentioned in Gen. xliii. 11, as one of the characteristic natural productions of Canaan. The sons of Jacob were ordered by their father to take as a present to the governor of Egypt a " little balm and a little honey," &c. The same word occurs other forty-three times, and is to be understood as being either the honey of bees, or a preparation from fruit, as grapes and dates. In the passages in which it is named as one of the features of a plentiful land, it is to be regarded as the honey of the bee (Aj)is meUijica) — see Exod. iii. 8, 17; xiii. 5; Levit. xx. 24; Numb. xiii. 27, xiv. 8, xvi. 13, 14, &c. The same product is referred to in Ps. xix. 10; Ixxxi. IG ; and cxix. 103. Most travellers who have visited Palestine in summer, have had their attention directed to the abundance of honey, which the bees of the land have stored up in the hollows of trees and in crevices of the rock. This was the " wild honey " which formed part of the Baptist's food in the wilderness (Matt. iii. 4). It is often found dropping from the trees, when the wax is melted by the heat of the sun. And in localities where the bare rocks of the desert alone break the sameness of the scene, and all around is suggestive of desolation and death, the travel- ler has God's care of his chosen people vividly brought to mind, as he sees the honey, which the bees had treasured up beyond his reach, trickling in shining drops down the face of the rock : —

" Oil that my people had hearkened unto nie, And Israel had walked in my ways !

He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat : And with honey out of the rock should 1 have satisfied thee !"

In 2 Chron. xxxi. 5, " honey " is named along with first-fruits of " corn, wine, and oil," and is to be regarded as an artificial preparation, which see.

" I will punish," says the Lord to Isaiah, " the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks" (x. 12). A reference to the context in which this passage stands, sheds light on verse 23 of chapter xix. — " By thy messengers thou hast reproached the Lord, and hast said. With the multitude of my chariots I am come

II. KINGS. 309

up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down tlie tall cedar-trees thereof, and the choice fir-trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel." The prophet refers to the boasting language of Sennach- erib, and virtually adds — As you threatened to do, so shall it be done to you. The Assyrian by these expressions wishes to characterize all in which Judah delighted — Zion, the sides of Lebanon, its cedars (1 Kings iv. 33), and its fir-trees ; and the Lord answers his defiant words by his prophet, who expresses the greatness of the enemy under figures drawn from the vegetable world.

In other passages the cedar is thus used as an emblem of greatness and might. Job speaks of behemoth as " moving his tail like a cedar " (xl. 17). Jeremiah mentions the house of Judah as being to the Lord like " Gilead and the head of Lebanon" for grandeur and beauty, while the people walked with him. But they sinned, and he said — " I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons, and they shall cut down thy choice cedars " (xxii. 7). " The Assyrian," says Ezekiel, " was a cedar of Lebanon of an high stature " (xxxi. 3). And Amos compares the old enemies of Israel to this tree — "Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedar " (xi. 9).

Reference is made under Psalm xcii. 12, to other and more attractive moral features, which find fit emblems in this tree. In Psalm Ixxx. 10, it is said of the church when compared to a vine, that —

"The boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars.''

The bride in the Song (v. 15), in her praise of the king, speaks of —

" His countenance As Lebanon, excelling as the cedars."

The boastful words of the Assyrian monarch are so turned by Isaiah to the comfort of Hezekiah and his people, that "out of the devourer comes forth meat, and out of the strong one comes forth sweetness." It was true, he says, that Sennacherib had done great things. He had been a scourge of many nations ; but in all this he was but an instrument in the hand of God. " I have brought it to jiass, tliat thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps. Therefore their inhabi- tants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded ; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the house-tops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up " (xxxvii. 26, 27).

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The strikingly suggestive imagery of verse 27 has been somewhat weakened by the rendering of the Last clause. Instead of introducing ihe words " as corn," and dividing the reader's attention, the idea of grass should be kept hold of throughout. The subject does not demand a continued comparison, but a declaration suggestive of scorn and con- tempt. The people against whom you have hitherto proved successful, says God by his prophet, were destitute of that strength which is to be enjoyed by those who put their trust in me, and of that safety which lies in my protection. They were of weak and short hand ; they were terribly alarmed and confounded ; what were they ? " They were the grass of the earth, and the green herb, the grass on the house-tops, and blasted before ever it is stalked." The figure is very like that which occurs in our Lord's parable of the sower — " Some fell upon a rock ; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away" (Luke viii. 6).

This paraphrase of part of the address to Sennacherib, is in keeping with the use of the word here rendered in our translation " grown up," by the writers of Scripture. The Hebrew term is kdmah^ literally "that which stands erect." When used in connection with any form of vege- tation, it means the stalk. If the stalk be that of corn, it is indicated by the context. Among the regulations laid down by Moses for guid- ing the people in their social relationships, one relates to the breaking out of fires : — " If fire break out, and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of corn, or the standing corn, or the field, be consumed therewith ; he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution" (Exod. xxii. 6). Corn in the stack, or shock (gddtsh), is associated with corn in the stalk (Jcdmuh). The same association occurs in Judges xv. o. The begin- ning of the feast of weeks was to be when the harvest began : — " Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee : begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn (Jcdmdhy (Deut. xvi. 9). In the same book the word is used in a like way in another passage (xxiii. 25). Hosea also applies this term to corn :— " They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind ; it hath no stalk (kdmdJi) : the bud shall yield no meal : if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it" (viii. 7).

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N chapter iv. 21, a most interesting notice occurs. Mention is made of "the families of the house of them that wrought fine linen." In a word, we have presented to our minds a manu- facturing community, in which old and young were engaged , in an industrial occupation for which the present age has become specially noted. The term rendered " fine linen " Q)utz) occurs here for the first time in sacred writing. The introduc-

Fig.go.

I

Cotton Plant {Oosaifpium tuuminatum).

tion of a new name connected with clothing, supplies sufficient ground for expecting a reference to a new fabric. Accordingly, it is alleged with good reason that the ftibric alluded to here was cotton {gossf/pium), which at this period began to be used as a substitute for linen.

312 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

The cotton plant is a native of India, whence it seems to have come to Syria, whose trafliekers traded with Tyre in this article. " Syria," says the Lord to Tyrus, " was tliy merchant in fine linen (bilk)." From Tyre the cotton plant would find its way into Egypt, where it does not appear to have been known in the time of Herodotus. See under Prov. xxxi. 22. In chapter xv. 27, a distinction is made between this cloth and the linen of which parts of the dress of the priests were made : — "David was clothed with a robe of fine linen {biltz), and all the Levites that bare the ark, and the singers, and Chenaniah the master of the song with the singers : David also had upon him an ephod of linen (had)." The latter term (had) is never used except to distinguish some part of the priestly dress. Exod. xxviii. 42 ; Levit. xvi. 4, &c. If the fabric named here was cotton, it had come into use as an expensive garment. Thus it is linked up with crimson stuff, and named to indi- cate showy and costly apparel. Huram sent to Solomon a man " skilful to work in fine linen [biltz) and in crimson " (2 Chron. ii. 14). The vail of the tabernacle also was " of purple, and crimson, and fine linen" (2 Chron. iii. 14).

In the reign of Hezekiah, several Simeonite chiefs are said to have gone " to the entrance of Gedor, even unto the east side of the valley, to seek pasture for their flocks. And they found fat pasture and good, and the land was wide, and quiet, and peaceable ; for they of Ham had dwelt there of old" (iv. 39, 40). "Gedor," a place evidently lying between the south of Simeon and Edom ; not the place of the same name lying to the north of Hebron (Josh. xv. 58).

Another expedition of these daring chiefs of the same tribe is noticed in verses 42, 43 : — " And some of them, even of the sons of Simeon, five hundred men, went to Mount Seir, having for their captains Pela- tiah, and Neariah, and Rephaiah, and Uzziel, the sons of Ishi. And they smote the rest of the Amalekites that were escaped, and dwelt there unto this day." "The Amalekites" were not descended from Amalek, the grandson of Esau (Gen. xxxvi. 12). They were a power- ful tribe of wandering sheplierds, who appear at a very early period to have migrated from the south of Asia, to have chiefly taken possession of the i-egion of Sinai, and thence to have spread northward to the borders of Palestine. Later they became closely associated with the Edomites. Their power seems to have been for the first time thoroughly broken by the victory which Israel obtained over them at Rephidini. (Exod. xvii.)

The resolution of David to bring up the ark of God from Kirjath-

I. CHKOXICLES. 313

jearim results in showing, among other things, how widely the people were spread even in his time. He had to gather them even " from Shihor of Egypt" (xiii. 5). Shihor or Sihor means literally trotiUed, or mudchj, and is the name several times given in the Scriptures to the Nile. Thus Joshua claimed for Israel, according to the promise to Abraham (Gen. xv. 18), the territory bounded on one side by " Sihor, which is before Egypt" (Josh. xiii. 3). Tyre drew some of her riches from the valley of the Nile : — " By great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and she is a mart of nations" (Isa. xxiii. 3). When Israel forsook the Lord, he once and again went down to Egypt ; and on one such occasion the prophet forcibly asked — " What hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor?" (Jer. ii. 18). About the summer solstice the waters of the Nile, having their source in the great lake Victoria Kijanza, begin to give evidence of their approaching rise. They assume a darker and more tui'bid appearance than usual, caused by the addition to them of the debris on the banks, whence the superabundant waters are supplied. This changes to a darkish green, from their having be- come impregnated with plant colouring matter {chlorophjlle) ; and, ultimately, when the waters are at their height, the quantity of earthy matter which they hold, gives them a red, muddy colour. These last were the true waters of Shihor. See above. Gen. xli. 1.

The attachment which the king of Tyre had to David is very forcibly indicated in 1 Kings v. 1, on the occasion of the accession of Solomon to the throne : — "Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants unto Solomon (for he had heard that they had anointed hira king in the room of his ftither) ; for Hiram was ever a lover of David." On the death of David, Hiram's love was transferred to his son. In the first verse of this chapter, the attachment of the king of Tyre is shown in his anxiety to help David, now that he was confirmed king over Israel, to build a palace in which he might as successfully practise the arts of peace as he had hitherto done those of war. " He sent timber of cedars, with masons and carpenters, to build him an house."

" Cedar," Heb. erez, has been fully noticed under 1 Kings iv. 33 ;

which see. Some of its outstanding characteristics will be referred to

under Psalm xcii. 12. The wood of the cedar is named here as timber

employed in house carpentry. It has generally been held, that the

cedar wood of Scripture must have been obtained from the Lebanon

species {Ccdnis Lihani). But this is extremely doubtful. It is much

more likely that other species of cone-bearing trees yielded the timber , VOL. n. 2 R

314 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

SO much used in house-building. When the species is associated with Lebanon, there is every reason to hold that the name refers to the so-called true cedars. But the prevalence of other cone-bearers along the coasts and in the inland districts accessible to Hiram, makes it highly probable that they yielded most of the wood sent to Jerusalem for building pur- poses. Such species supply a timber much more suitable than that of the cedar for such ends ; and certain cypresses and pine-trees were anciently characterized in a general and popular way as cedars, after the same manner as cedars, fir-trees, and pines, are popularly known among us as "fir-trees." There is, moreover, good reason to doubt whether the cedars of Lebanon were ever plentiful in that region. Lr the oldest historical notices which we have of them they are described as few. If to those considerations we add the fact, that some of the trees grow- ing in Lebanon yielded timber, named cedar wood, for purposes other than the cedars could serve, the view now taken will seem even stronger. In Ezekiel's address to Tyrus, he says : — " Thy builders have perfected thy beauty. They have made all thy ship-boards of fir-trees of Senir ; they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts for thee" (xxvii. 5). But the mode of growth of Cedrus Lihani wholly unfits it for this purpose. It is gnarled, crooked, and irregular in its growth. Even the main stem seldom attains to a great height. The height of the tree, its noble, stately look, and generally imposing appearance, depend upon the development of the branches rather than on the size of the trunk. But there were many other cone-bearers which would easily be reached by the ship-builders of Tyre, and be found, from their clean growth, their height, and arrow-like straight- uess, peculiarly answerable for masts.

When we meet with the mention of cedars and cedar wood in the sacred narrative, it is better to determine for ourselves whether it be likely that the Lebanon species, or some other cone-bearer, is referred to. In regard, for example, to the passage quoted above from Ezekiel, we may almost with certainty conclude that a species of fir {Abies) or of pine {Pinus) is to be understood. At the present time it is cus- tomary, even for travellers of good scientific attainments, to overlook well-marked specific differences, and to speak of the cedar of Lebanon as occurring in many other parts of tlie range beside the Kadisha valley. Dr. Thomson, referring to this, says : — " Those travellers who speak of finding these cedars in abundance on other parts of Lebanon, are simply mistaken in the tree. There are considerable groves of cedar in various places, generally along the very highest range — for

I. CHKONICLES. 315

example, north of Tomat Niha, above Baruk, Aphcah, and other similar localities ; but they are quite ditfcrent from the cedar of Lebanon."

I have referred above to the likelihood that other coniferous species, besides tlie true cedar of Lebanon, were much employed by the Jews for building purposes. Dr. Hooker has carefully examined this ques- tion. " Whether," he says, " the grove has much diminished within the historic period, is a question which can only be decided by a careful collection and scrutiny of the records of old travellers. It would not surprise me, if proofs existed of its not having materially decreased since the days of Solomon ; for it is very doubtful whether the wood was ever largely used in Jerusalem for building purposes. The word cedar, as used in the Bible, applies to other trees, and only certainly to the Ceclrus Libani, when coupled with some distinctive epithet. The foreign timber trade was, in Solomon's time, in the hands of the Phoe- nicians, and the quantity of first-rate oak and pine, on all the coast- ranges from Carmcl northwards, was so great, that it is improbable that the almost inaccessible valleys of the Lebanon should have been ransacked for a wood tliat has no particular quality to recommend it for building purposes. The lower slopes of the Lebanon, also, border- ing on tlie sea, were and are covered with magnificent forests. So that there was little inducement to ascend six thousand feet, through twenty miles of a rocky mountain valley, to obtain a material which could not be transported to the coast without the utmost difficulty and expense. It is further to be remarked, that it is difficult to reconcile the hypo- thesis of the former great extent of the cedar forests, with the fact of almost the only existing habitat being the moraines of one of the most populous valleys on the mountain. Of mountain corrys, with the same elevation as that of the cedars, there are hundreds on the Lebanon, some said to be almost inaccessible, and others quite uninhabited ; had the cedar ever formed continuous forests on tlie mountain, from which it had been removed by man, we should certainly expect to find exten- sive groves in such localities. I desire not to be misunderstood in this matter, for the question is of some scientific importance ; I do not doubt that the Cedni$ Lihani is repeatedly alluded to in the Old Testament, by the prophets especially, who aptly and unmistakably designate that tree ; but if, as I believe is allowed by the best biblical critics and Hebraists, the word cedar applies in Chronicles, &c., to more than one kind of tree, it is, in my opinion, an open question whether the C. Libani is one of those wbich supplied most of the timber employed in building Solomon's Temple. The cypress (also called cedar by the

316

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

ancients), the Finns Halepensis, and the tall fragrant Juniperus of the Lebanon, with its fine red heart-wood, would have been for more prized on every account."

For the notice of verses 1 l-l 7 of this chapter, see under 2 Samuel V. 23 ; and for xv. 27, see iv. 21.

In chapter xxvii. 25-31, we get a glimpse of the industrial arts, to the cultivation of which David specially devoted his attention. The chief of these were connected with agriculture and pastoral life. He had barns in which the produce of the fields was stored (ver. 25) ; vineyards for the supply of the royal wine-cellars (ver. 27) ; places for storing fruit and oil (ver. 27) ; herds, Avhich supplied the royal house- hold with flesh (ver. 29) ; beasts of burden for necessary purposes (ver. 30) ; and flocks, which yielded wool (ver. 31).

"Onyx stones," xxix. 2; see vol. i. p. 98.

Cedars of Luljanon.

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317

II. CHKONICLES.

FTER the account of the queen of Sheba's visit with her presents of spices, gold, and precious stones, the commercial enterprise of Solomon is mentioned. His servants and those of Huram went to Ophir and brought home gold, algum-trees, and precious stones. The nearest approach to certainty regard- ing the geographical situation of Ophir (ver. 10) has been stated al)0ve fl Kings x. 11). Its connection with one region named Tar- shish has also been pointed out. It is mentioned thirteen times in Scripture, twice as the name of a man (Gen. x. 29 ; 1 Chron. i. 23), and in the other passages as a place. Some of these have already been quoted (1 Kings ix. 28, x. 11, xxii. 48 ; 2 Chron. viii. 18). As in these so in all the other passages, it is named as famous for yielding the finest kind of gold — gold in the lump or nugget — see under Gen. ii. 12. Eliphaz the Tcmanite proposes the possession of it to Job as a motive for acquainting himself with God and being at peace with him, and as a token to him of God's favour : — "If thou return to the Amighty thou shalt be built up, thou slialt put away iniquity far from thy taber- nacles. Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks. Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou shalt have plenty of silver. For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto God" (Job xxii. 23-20). And when the sorrow-stricken " man of Uz " got a bright glimpse of the excellency and beauty of that wisdom whose highest fruit is the fear of the Lord, and whose chief influence is to depart from evil, he felt that all the precious things of earth were as nought compared with it, because they cannot secure it to a single soul — " It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof. It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. The gold and the crystal cannot equal it; and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold" (Job xxviii. 15-17). Ornaments for the person were most precious when manufactured from the gold of Ophir. Thus the royal epithalamium, or nuptial song, in which the reunion of the Hebrew church — the queen —is celebrated, and the gathering of the nations

318 BIBLICAL NATUEAL SCIENCE.

to Christ described, presents to us a scene in " the palace of tlie king:"-

" King's daughters were among thy honourable women ; Upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gohl of Ophir " (Ps. xlv. 0).

In the prophet's description of the effects of tlie judgment of God upon the world for its wickedness, the Lord says — " I will make a man more precious than fine, gold ; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir" (Isa. xiii. 12) — I will so cut off the wicked from the earth that a man shall be as rare as is tlie ore of Ophir. In the Arabic version (a.d. 942) the last expression is rendered the stone of India, and the Septuagint (b.c. 282), " the stone which is in Zouphir," the Egyptian name for India.

" The servants which brought gold from Ophir, brought algum-trees and precious stones." " Algnin-trees" {algummlm), the Phoenician trader's rendering of the vaJcja {lea.) of the Malabar coast (see under

1 Kings X. 11) are by transposition written almug-trees (ahmlgt'm) in the book of Kings. The name which is confined to 1 Kings and

2 Chronicles, occurs six times, and always in connection with the league between Hiram, king of Tyre, and Solomon. The verse now under notice implies that the algum-trees were brought from Ophir. Indeed this is clearly stated in 1 Kings : — " The navy that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of almug-trees." This fact must modify, if not destroy, the conclusion which lias been drawn by many from 2 Chronicles ii. 8: — " Send me also cedar-trees, fir-trees, and algum-trees, out of Lebanon ; (for I know that thy servants can skill to cut timber in Lebanon;) and behold, my servants sliall be with thy servants." This verse has led to the supposition that the algum-tree was, like the cedar, a native of Lebanon, one of the Coniferaj, and identical with the common cyprus {Cuprcssus sem- pervirens). But had this been so, it is not the least likely that the ships from Ophir would have been burdened with wood, during a long and perilous voyage, which could have been obtained in great abundance so much nearer home. The explanation of this verse which has been proposed by Gesenius is satisfactory. The trees which Lebanon yielded were to be cut down, made ready for removal, and brought down to the coast. There they would be associated with the algum- wood imported to Phoenicia, and all kinds sent by sea to Joppa for transmission to Jerusalem. IMoreover, any attempt to put a con- struction on the verse which would make the algum a native of

II. CHRONICLES. 319

Lebanon, would lead to a more formidable difficulty in the interpreta- tion of the last clause of verse 11, and of 1 Kings x. 12 — "There were none such seen before in the land of Judah;" "there came no such almug-trees, nor were seen unto this day. " The wood was rare.

Two uses were made of the algum-wood. It was employed in architecture. — " Tlie king made of the almug-trees pillars for the house of the Lord, and for the king's house" (1 Kings x. 12). " The king made of the algum-trees terraces to the house of the Lord, and to the king's palace." In the margin pillars is rendered " rails," and terraces "stays." The word used in 1 Kings occurs only once, that employed here is of frequent occurrence. An examination of their roots leads to the conclusion, that the passage in Kings should rule the rendering of this one, and that "rail" is a better translation than "pillar." In the former passage the individual balusters, or supports of the rail proper, were in the mind of the writer ; in the latter, the whole railing guarding the stairs was intended. Algum would thus be used as we do cedar, mahogany, &c., in cabinet work. In both passages it is said that algum was likewise used for making " harps and psalteries for singers." It could form only part of these, and there is nothing in the verse which demands that we should find the word equal to the whole construction of these instruments. It may have been only used to ornament them. This view of the use of the wood removes other objections to the supposition, that sandal-wood is the almug referred to in Scripture. The articles named here are still formed from it in India and China.

Sandal-wood belongs to the natural order of dicotyledonous plants, Santalacece, or sandal-wood family. The species named here is not to be mistaken for the red sandal-wood of commerce (Pterocarpus scmtalinus), which yields the dye santaline. This is much better known than the other, but it belongs to a wholly difterent family. Representatives of the sandal-woods are found in all quarters of the world, either as herbaceous plants, or shrubs, or large trees. They are represented in Britain by the Lint-leaved Bastard Toad-flax {Thesium linophiUinii) ^ a rare parasitical plant, met with in some of the chalk districts of England. The white sandal-wood is a native of Malabar, where it grows to a great size, and from which it is exported as the almug-trees were in the days of Solomon.

Gold, see vol. i., p. 95; Silver, under Job xxviii. 1 ; and Rwy under Ezek. xxvii. 15. The united navy imported apes likewise.

Ape, Hebrew TcOpli, Greek pithecos. In the extract given above

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(1 Kings X. 11) from Max Miiller's " Science of Language," it will be seen that koph is a word without an etymology in the Semitic languages. It is, however, identical in sound with the Sanskrit name for the ape, Kapi — a term applied to it because of its great agility. If the initial k of the Sanskrit word be dropped, we have api, equal to the German affe, monkey, and affen, to make a fool of; the Anglo-Saxon apa; and the English ape. Many derivatives from Sanskrit have in their transition

Fig. 91.

Sandal-wood (Santalum alhum),

into other branches of language lost initial guttural letters in the same way. Thus the name which was originally applied to indicate the great agility of the apes, assumed an entirely different shade of meaning when men became better acquainted with their habits. The Teutonic tribes associated the idea of mimicry with the name ; an idea still preserved in the scientific designation of the family Simiidce.

In the passage under notice, the name is used in a very general way. It is to be looked at in the light of Solomon's known devotion to the study of zoology — " He spake of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping

II. CHRONICLES. 321

things, and of fishes." His collection, obtained by tlie voyagers sent to Opiiir and to Tarsliisli, would not be limited to one kind of ape. The Hebrew word may thus be held to include monkeys as well as the apes properly so called. The nearest approach to the knowledge of species brought to Solomon, is got by ascertaining what forms would be within reach of the traders to India by the Red Sea. The fact itself that, so early as the time of Solomon, a zoological collection had been made at Jerusalem is full of interest. It affords corroborative evidence of that advanced condition of civilization among the Jews, of which we have many proofs in the word of God.

In zoological classification the two highest orders have been named (1) Bimcma, or two-handed animals, (2) Quadriwiana, or animals witli four hands. The former is now generally limited to Man ; the latter includes all those widely-varying forms which, in general and popular language, are named Monkeys. The highest members of the quadru- manous orders are the antlimpoid or man-like apes. Two species are represented on Plate XX. — which see. The gorilla, fig. 2, is a native of Africa. " Gorilla-land is a richly wooded extent of the western part of Africa, traversed by the rivers Danger and Gaboon, and extending from the equator to the 10th or 15th degi'ee of south latitude." This form of ape is referred to here for the sake of com- parison with the orang-outang {Simia satijrus), fig. 3, a native of Borneo and other Indian islands. The report of the existence of this ape — "the wild man of the woods" — may have reached the Hebrew royal naturalist; and it is not unlikely that young orangs were brought to Ezion-geber by the voyagers of Solomon and Hiram.

Another genus of the Quadrumana, within reach of such traders lo India is named from their grave, venerable look, Semnopithecus. The Bornean proboscis monkey {Nasalis Iarvatus=Semn. larvatus) Plate XX., fig. 1, has attracted much attention from its characteristic arched snout. Anotlier species which abounds in India, and is a great favourite with the natives, is the well known sacred monkey, or hoonuman, of the Hindoos {Scmn. entellus) — a form which, in their doctrine of the trans- migration of souls, they believe represents princes and other great people. It is of a greyish-white colour, rises to the height of five feet when fully developed, has light coloured whiskers and a peaked beard. The points at which the voyagers touched the African coast might bring them in contact with the mandrill {Papio mormon), Plate XVII., fig. 1, the Indri {Indris hrevicaiidatiis), fig. 2, the ring-tailed macaco {Lemur catta), and the galago (Gal. senegalensis). The Bengal lori

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{Lons gracilis), fig. 4, would easily be obtained on the Indian coast. The family of night monkeys, or slow lemurs {Nycticehidce}, is repre- sented by the tarsier (Tarsius spectrum), fig. 5. The Asiatic gibbons, or long-armed apes, the macaques, the African long-tailed monkeys (Cercojnthecus), and the baboons, of the western shores of the Red Sea, the Derrias for example, may all have supplied representatives to the ships which every three years returned from Tarsliish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and ai)es, and peacocks to Solomon.

" Peacocks," Heb. iukhi-fm. The Sanskrit derivation of the name has been noticed above (1 Kings x. 11). The name leads us again to Southern Asia, the native region of this bird. In addition to the mention of the word peacock in the passages associated with the naval expeditions of Solomon and the king of Tyre, it is used in our trans- lation of the Scriptures in Job xxxix. 13 — " Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacock, or wings and feathers unto the ostrich." This, however, is a mistranslation. The passage is a difficult one. Its meaning when literally rendered is — " Goodly wings are glad ; the feathers of the stork (Heb. hhdsiddh), and the ostrich (nvtzah) [are so]." The allusion is to the flajjping of the wings by these birds as a sign of gladness, an action which may often be noticed among domestic ducks and geese.

The peacock belongs to the gallinaceous order of birds (Gallinoi), is ranked along with the family of the true pheasants {PhasianiJce) , and forms a small sub-family (Puvonince), of which the genus Pavo is the type. The peacock is a native of India, where it is found in great abundance frequenting the jungles and forests. It was introduced into Greece by the soldiers of Alexander the Great, and into Judaia nearly seven hundred years before. As with the apes, so likely with the birds now noticed ; it is most likely that other forms of the Phasianidje besides the common peacock (P. cristatus) would be associated under this name by the voyagers. Some of these are exceedingly beautiful, and would be sure to attract the attention of those Avho were com- missioned to collect for Solomon. Traders from regions lying beyond those visited by them might procure for them, as acquainted with the fixed time of their triennial visit, the magnificent golden pheasant of China {Ph. pidus), fig. 92, a fit inmate for a royal aviary.

The Sub-Himalayan districts would supply another beautiful species, the Impeyan pheasant [Luphopliorus Iinpeyanus), fig. 93. The islands which sent the anthropoid apes might furnish yet another splendid species to the royal collection, the Argus pheasant {Argus giganteus).

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323

one of the largest and most attractive birds of this family. More closely related than those to the common peafowl are the Thibet peacock {Pohipledwn Tebalanum) and the Javanese peacock {Pavo miiticus), both of which would be within roach of the voyagers. The peacock at a very early date after its introduction to Europe became associated with the idolatrous worship of Greece and Rome, and even shortly after the introduction of Christianity, gained a place among the observances of professing Christians. It was the bird of Juno and "an ancient Pagan symbol, signilying the apotheosis of an empress, as we find from many of the old Roman coins and medals. The early Christians, accustomed to this interpretation, adopted it as a general emblem of the mortal changed for the immortal state ; and with this signification we find the peacock, with outspread train, on the walls and ceilings of catacombs, the tombs of martyrs, and many of the sarcophagi, down to the fourth

Fig. 92.

^/ ^j^^y/ii/v\

Golden fheasaut [^Phasianwi putia).

and fifch centuries. *It is only in modern times that the peacock has become the emblem of worldly pride." So early as the time of Aristotle, however, the peafowl had become noted as an emblem of worldly pride and vanity ; and much has been made of the passage given above from the book of Job in this respect. Interpreters who dealt only with the English Bible have found the expression " goodly wings " a fruitful subject for remark. " Some fowls," says Joseph Caryl (1862), "have plain feathers to fly with and keep them from the cold, but the peacock and some others have gay feathers. And thus God deals with men and women, they have not all gay clothing and changes of raiment. Fine feathers are said to make proud birds, and no wonder if it be so with silly bird.«, for even wise men are not only apt to bo cheated with the gifts bestowed on them, but despise their fellows from whom God

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BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

in sovereignty has withheld them. We are in clanger of being proud even of some things of which we should be ashamed. If a man be proud of his knowledge or any internal endowment, they become vain to him, being hindered i'rom the present prevailing of pride from that which is one of the most proper works, the keeping him humble,

Impeyan Plicasaut {LophoiiltonLs Impeyanus),

empty, and notliing in his own eyes. Whatever" a man is proud of, is no better to him than a peacock's feather."

When Nicodemus obtained the body of Jesus, he took a mixture of myrrh and aloes, and wound the body in linen with the spices. The evangelist adds : — " So the manner of the Jews is to bury" (John xix. 39). The description of Asa's burial shows that the custom was a very ancient one : — " And Asa slept with his fathers, and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign. And they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had made for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odours and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries' art ; a)id they made a very great burning for him " (xvi. 13, 14). In Egypt, as we have seen (Genesis 1. 26), the corpse was cut in a variety of ways ; but as the

II. CHRONICLES. 325

Jews attained to well-defined views of the resurrection of the dead, and of the sacredness of the body as the temple of the Holy Ghost, every- thing- like interference with the completeness of the dead body was guarded against. A bed of spices was made ; myrrh, aloes, &c., were spread upon linen. In addition to this, however, perfumes were burned. The amount employed on such occasions depended on the rank of the dead. In Asa's case " they made a very great burning for him." Frankincense, myrrh, eaglewood or lign-aloes [Aciuilaria- agaUoclmm), were used for this purpose. See also under Numb. xxiv. G ; Ps. xlv. 8.

Moab and Aramon came up against Jehoshaphat (xx. 1). The news of the gathering in En-gedi alarmed the king. " He feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast." Having assembled the people together, he led their prayers to God in behalf of the nation. An answer was sent by Jahaziel, a Levite of the sons of Asaph." " Thus saith the Lord unto you. Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude ; for the battle is not yours, but God's. To- morrow go ye down against them : behold, they come up by the cliff of Ziz ; and ye shall find them at the end of the brook, before the wilder- ness of J cruel. Ye shall not need to fight in this battle; set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, 0 Judah and Jerusulem : fear not, nor be dismayed; to-morrow go out against them: for the Lord will be with you. And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa : and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said. Hear me, 0 Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem ; believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established ; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. And when Judah came toward the watch-tower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multi- tude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped. And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away the spoil of them, they found among them in abundance both riches with the dead bodies, and precious jewels (which they stripped off for themselves), more than they could carry away : and they were three days in gathering of the spoil, it was so much. And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the valley of Berachah : for there they blessed the Lord : therefore the name of the same place was called The valley of Berachah unto this day" (ver. 16, 17, 20, 24-26); "The Cliff Ziz " has not been identified. It was a steep pass in the neighbourhood of Hazazon-tamar or En-(jedi.

" Wilderness of Jeruel." This wilderness was commanded by a

326 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

watch-tower — a place of look-out on the north. The enemy were swarming from tlie mouth of the Dead Sea, and had now reached a place not more than tliirteen miles to the south-east of Jerusalem. The danger was thus both great and imminent. Jeruel must have been near Tekoa, the modern Teku'a, though the exact spot has not been identified. " Berachah" or "The Valley of Blessing" lies in the road between Hebron and Bethlehem. It is the modern Bereihut.

Hearkening to the command of Hczekiali, the people hastened to give the ordained portion to the priests and Levites : — "As soon as the commandment came abroad, the children of Israel brought in abundance the first-fruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the field ; and the tithe of all things brought they in abundantly " (ver. 5). The different articles were offered as prepared for use. It is almost certain that the "honey" {devasli) here mentioned was a prepa- ration from fruit. The same word, however, is used for the honey of the bee {Apis melUjica). See above, 2 Kings xviii. 32. Dr. Shaw ("Travels," vol. ii., 144) pointed out long ago the great similarity between the Hebrew name for honey and that current in his day in Palestine for an article manufactured from fruits, under the name dibs or dipse. At that time three hundred camel loads of tliis were sent to Egypt annually from Hebron and its neiglibourhood alone. When Dr. Robinson visited the same locality in May, 1838, he noticed that the people of Hebron still give much attention to the preparation of dihs from the grape. " The vineyards belonging to the city are very exten- sive," he says, " reaching almost to TeffCdi, and also for some distance towards Dhohoriyeh, and covering the sides of nearly all the hills. The lodges of stone, which serve for the watchmen, and also in part for the families of Hebron during the vintage, have been before mentioned. The vintage is a season of rejoicing and hilarity to all ; the town is then deserted, and the people live among the vineyards, in the lodges, and in the tents. The produce of these vineyards is celebrated throughout Palestine. No wine, however, or arack is made from them, except by the Jews, and this not in great quantity. The wine is good. The finest grapes are dried as raisins ; and the rest being trodden and pressed, the juice is boiled down to a syrup, which, under the name of dibs, is much used by all classes wherever vineyards are found, as a condiment with their food. It resembles thin molasses, but is more pleasant to the taste" (" Bib. Res.," ii. 81).

A syrup somewhat similar is prepared from the fruit of the date- palm — a circumstance which no doubt led our translators to insert

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327

" dates" in the margin opposite honey. Josephus, when describing the neighbourhood of Jericho, says : — " There are in it many sorts of palm- trees that are watered by the fountain, different from each other in taste and name ; the better sort of them, when they are pressed, yield an excellent kind of honey, not much inferior in sweetness to other honey." And he adds, as showing that he definitely distinguished the two : — " This country withal produces honey from bees " (" Wars," iv., c. ix., § 3). The honey of fruit, or dihs, seems to have been the article, the first of which was to be brought, as commanded by Hezekiah, along with the corn and the wine, to the priests.

Aiub Jitrrciiatitn nnd Caineiis

328 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

^l

EZRA,

TIE Jews had spent seventy years in exile. Tlie literature of that period, and of the return, was brought together by Ezra the scribe and priest, who gained the favour of Artax- erxes Longimanus, and was permitted by him to go from V^j ' Babylon to Jerusalem with about two thousand Jews, who Vj>^|f cl were captives with him in Babylon. Other companies followed, U jl\\ until, under the conduct of Ezra and then of Nelicmiah, the '^^' return was completed. The general contents of Ezra are the

proclamation of Cyrus as to the return ol the Jews, and his gift to tliem of the holy vessels taken by Nebuchadnezzar (i.) ; a list of the people who returned from the exile (ii.) ; the reorganization of public worship (iii.) ; the opposition of the heathen to the building of the city (iv.) ; the appeal to Darius, and his favourable answer (v., vi.) ; Ezra's special mission from Artaxerxes, and the genealogy of those who returned with him (vii., viii.) ; and the steps taken to purify the congre- gation from the heathen elements which had tainted it (ix., x.).

It was a time of great activity and not a little pious excitement for the returned captives, when their revived energies were thrown into the work of building again the waste places of Jerusalem, and especially the house of the Lord. The " ancient men who had seen the first house " (ver. 12) were specially engrossed with exhorting the people to "go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house" (Hag. i. 7). As Solomon in former times had done (1 Chron. xiv. 1), they accepted the help of the heathen to prepare wood for the building of the temple: — "They gave money also unto the masons, and to the carpenters ; and meat, and drink, and oil, unto them of Zidon, and to them of Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea of Joppa, according to the grant that they had of Cyrus, king of Persia " (iii. 7). Full notices of "cedar trees of Lebanon," occur under 1 Kings iv. 33 ; Ps. xcii. 12 ; Zeph. ii. 14. Dr. Robinson ("Later Res."), when referring to the cedar grove in the Kadisha valley, says : — " The cedars are not less remarkable for their position than for their age and size. The amphitheatre in which they are situated, is of itself a great temple of nature, the most vast and magnificent of all recesses of Lebanon.

EZRA. 329

The lofty dorsal ridge of the mountain, as it approaches from the south, trends slightly towards the east for a time, and then, after resuming its former direction, throws off a spur of equal altitude towards the west, which sinks down gradually into the ridge terminating at Ehden-. This ridge sweeps round so as to become nearly parallel with the main ridge, thus forming an immense recess or amphitheatre, approaching to the horse-shoe form, surrounded by the loftiest ridges of Lebanon, which rise still two or three thousand feet above it, and are partly covered with snows. In the midst of this amphitheatre stand the cedars, utterly alone, with not a tree besides, nor hardly a green thing in sight. The amphitheatre fronts towards the west ; and, as seen from the cedars, the snows extend round from south to north. The extremities of the arc in front, bear from the cedars south-west and north-west. High up in the recess, the deep precipitous chasm of the Kadisha has its begin- ning, the wildest and grandest of all the gorges of Lebanon. Besides the natural grace and beauty of the cedar of Lebanon, which still appear in the trees of middle ago, though not in the more ancient patriarchs, there is associated with this grove a feeling of veneration, as a representative of those forests of Lebanon so celebrated in the Hebrew Scriptures. To the sacred writers the cedar was the noblest of trees, the monarch of the vegetable kingdom. Solomon " spake of trees, from the cedar-tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall." To the prophets it was the favourite emblem for greatness, splendour, and majesty ; hence kings and nobles, the pillars of society, are everywhere cedars of Lebanon. Especially is this the case in the splendid description, by Ezekiel, of the Assyrian power and glory. Hence, too, in connection with its durability and fragrance, it was regarded as the most precious of all wood, and was employed in costly buildings, for ornament and luxury. In Solomon's temple the beams of the roof, as also the boards and ornamental work, were of the cedar of Lebanon ; and it was likewise used in the later temple of Zerubbabel. David's palace was built with cedar ; and so lavishly was this costly wood employed in one of Solomon's palaces, that it is called ' the house of the forest of Lebanon.' As a matter of luxury, also, the cedar was sometimes used for idols, and for the masts of ships. In like manner, the cedar was highly prized among heathen nations. It was employed in the construction of their temples, as at Tyre and Ephesus ; and also in their palaces, as at Persepolis. It is very possible that the name ccdnr was sometimes loosely applied to trees of another species." When Tatnai and his companions appealed to Darius, they informed

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him what the Jews said Cyrus had done for them, and asked that a search be made in the records of the kingdom, to see if their account could be corroborated : — " Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in the house of the rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon. And there was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of the Medes, a roll, and therein was a record thus written : In the first year of Cyrus the king, the same Cyrus the king made a decree concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, Let the house be builded, the place where they offered sacrifices, and let the foundations thereof be strongly laid ; the height thereof threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof threescore cubits ; with three rows of great stones, and a row of new timber : and let the expences be given out of the king's house. And also let the golden and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took forth out of the temple which is at Jerusalem, and brought unto Babylon, be restored, and brought again unto the temple which is at Jerusalem, every one to his place, and place them in the house ot God " (vi. 1-5). Some have proposed to render the Hebrew for "at Achmetha" by "in a chest or coffin,' but the ordinary interpretation is to be preferred. Achmetha was the name for Ecbatana, the capital of northern Media (lat. 3G' 28', long. 47° 9'), identified by Sir H. Rawlinson with the ruins at Takht-i- Sale'iman. Deioces (b.c. 700), says Herodotus, "built lofty and strong walls, which now go under the name of Ecbatana, one placed in a circle within the other ; and this fortification is so contrived, that each circle was raised above the other by the height of the battlements only. The situation of the ground, rising by an easy ascent, was very favourable to the design. But that which was particularly attended to is, that there being seven circles altogether, the king's palace and the treasury are situated within the innermost of them. The largest of these walls is about equal in circumference to the city of Athens ; the battlements of the first circle are white, of the second black, of the third purple, of the fourth blue, of the fifth bright red. Thus the battlements of all the circles are painted with different colours ; but the two last have their battlements plated, the one with silver, the other with gold." Cyrus had made this his capital, and no doubt it was in the palace there that Darius made search for the records referred to.

" The river of Ahava " (viii. 21, 31), one of those " rivers of Babylon beside which the captive Israelites sat down, and wept when they remembered Zion " (Ps. cxxxvii. 1). Ahava is believed to be repre- sented by the modern Hit, on the Euphrates.

ESTHER.

331

ESTHEE.

HE aiitliorsliip of this book is very generally ascribed to Mordecai, Esther's cousin. It opens with an account of the circumstances which led to Esther's elevation to be queen of Ahasuerus (i. ii.). Her cousin's influence in saving the king's life is described (ii. 21-23). Hainan's promotion, his jealousy of ]\Iordecai, and the persecuting decree f) \r against the Jews, are next set down (iii.). Esther's device to frustrate Haman ; her admission to the king's presence as a peti- tioner ; Haman's joy on being invited to a royal banquet, with his hatred of Llordecai as the shadow on his patli ; the advice of Zeresh his wife to erect a gallows on which the hated Jew should be hanged ; the king's dream, and Mordecai's honour — are all pictured in a peculiarly fresh and graphic way (iv.-vi.). The banquet scene, Haman's disgrace, his execution on the gallows made for Mordecai, the revocation of the royal edict, Mordecai's elevation, the joy of the Jews, and the institu- tion of Purim, are detailed in the other chapters (vii.-x.).

" Ahasuerus," or Ahhashverosh, was Xerxes the son and successor of Darius Hystaspes, who obtained the kingdom about 485 B.C.

The " Ethiopia " most frequently named in Scripture, lay on the south of Egypt, by which it was bounded on the north. Its eastern limit was the Red Sea. It stretched into the Abyssinian mountains on the south, and the great Libyan desert on the west (ver. 1). " Shushan the palace " (ver. 2) was the royal residence in Susa, the capital of Susiana or Elyniais, situated not far from the Ulai (Dan. viii. 2) or Eulceus, the modern Dizful, which falls into the Kai'un, a confluent of the great Shat el Arab.

" White " (ver. 6), Heb. It/nlr, is used only here, in chap. viii. lo, and in an adjective form in Daniel v. 9 — " white as snow." The word most frequently translated white in the Old Testament is Idvdn, or that which has the appearance of milk. It occurs above twenty times. When intense white is indicated, an adjective form of another word (tzahh) is used — " Her Nazarites were whiter {tzahhalih) than milk" (Lam. iv. 7). " Green" (ver. 6), Heb. Icarpas, occurs only here ; the usual word for green is rahhdndn ; thus Psalm Iii. 8, " I am like a green

olive-tree." "Red" (ver. 6), Heb. hahat, occurs only in this verse, and points ratlier to bright lilac than to red.

In answer to the king's command, Hadassali or Esther was brought among other fair virgins to Hegai, a cliicf eunuch, that one might be selected from the number to take the place of the deposed Vashti : — " Now, Avhen every maid's turn was come to go in to king Ahasuerus, after that she had been twelve months, according to the maimer of the women (for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours, and witli other things for the purifying of the women) ; then thus came every maiden unto the king ; whatsoever she desired was given her to go with her out of the house of the women unto the king's house" (ii.l2, 13).

Myrrh, an aromatic gum which exudes irom the bark of the myrrh balsam shrub (Balsamodendron myrrh(t), entered as a chief ingredient into this oil, or unguent, used in the house of Ahasuerus "for the puri- fying of the women " of the royal harem. After it had been employed in anointing the body for six months, the oil of myrrh was to give place to "the sweet odours and other things" used for this purpose. The custom alluded to here, sheds light on Song v. 4-6. The "beloved" is represented as approaching the chamber of his spouse when in the act of perfuming her person, after a fashion still prevalent in eastern lands. He is heard at the door, and her heart yearns towards him as he approaches : " I rose up to open to my beloved ; and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet-smelling myrrh, upon the handles of the lock." But there had not been "hasting to meet him," and he turns away from her because thus self-engrossed : " I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and had gone." So too verse 13, in which his words were as "the sweet-smelling myrrh."

JOB i.-v, 333

JOB I.-V.

p HE book of Job consists of five parts. The first includes chapters i. and ii. down to ver. 10; the second, chapters ii. from ver. 11 to the end of xxxi.; the third, chapters xxxii.- xxxvii.; the fourth, xxxviii.-xli. ; and the fifth, xlii. The /JLj^^ ' first is introductory to the whole. We have a description '^Mi\ "^ of Job's great wealth, his piety, Satan's envy, Job's compli- \y' cated trials, his own integrity, and his wife's failure under the terrible strokes which bad fallen on her husband and her house. In the second the lively, graphic, and highly dramatic controversy between Job and his friends Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, is minutely recorded. The discussions deal with some of the most important aspects of God's providence, in his ways with households and with individual men. The first great points which the three friends try to make good are, that suftering is always sent in anger ; that all sorrow is associated with sin, which should be sought out and forsaken ; and that all affliction is penal. These theories were applied to Job's case, and he was urged to acknowledge sin as the only way of getting again into prosperity. In answer to this. Job's conscience testifies that his friends judge him harshly. He shows that the wicked often prosper, when the good are bowed down with sorrow; that even robbers prosper, and those that provoke God are secure. The theory which his friends had formed of the divine government was thus in all respects false. He might not understand God's ways, but he would still trust in him. Tims he turns in earnest prayer to God, with whom, he feels, lies the jiower to deliver hira. If no deliverance is to come but with death, he longs for this that he might rest from his sore sorrows. The friends return again to their first position. Job's words had not altered their views. They were more deeply rooted, and now they boldly express what they had before insinuated. Job, they allege, must have been guilty of very great sin, since he had fallen under such heavy sorrow. Again they urge that there is a strict correlation between sin and its punishment. The charges are again rejected. In answering them Job rises to the true view of providence. He sets present experiences in the light of a future life. Here rays of comfort begin to break in on

334: BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENXE.

liiin. He gets hold of the persuasion that the justice of God's ways in the affliction of the righteous will all be revealed in the future. He not only gives evidence of his hope in a future life, but looks forward to the resurrection itself: —

" For I know that my Redeemer liveth, Aud lie shall stand at the latter da}' on the earth ; And though after my skin worms destroy this body, Yet ill my flesh shall I see God."

Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, take once more up the same views. Every time they answer, their theory is put more strongly. When Job responds, he makes use of their own arguments and illustrations, and shows the one-sided view in which they had put them ; he again makes his appeal to the Almighty, and acknowledges his unsearchable wisdom ; he sets his present sufferings in direct and bold contrast with his former life, and again leaves his case with God.

Tlie third general division of the book begins with the address of Elilm. The chief points in his speech are charges against the men who had been engaged in the controversy. He does not say that all affliction is penal ; but when God afflicts, he wishes men to learn the great lessons of humility, and of a tender and holy life. He shows that Job had given expression to low and unworthy views of God's ways with man, leads him out into nature, and opens up the manner in which the phenomena of the external world bear witness to the omnipotence of God, and generally prepares the way for the grand and matchlessly beautiful address of the Almighty.

In this address it is intimated that Job had indulged in low and severe thoughts of the ways of God, had entertained the suspicion that he had been hardly, if not even unrighteously dealt by, and harboured the imagining that he could better have ordered his lot than his Creator had done. A secret leaven of self-righteousness had been casting its influence over his whole spiritual nature. This must be broken. It must be seen, loathed, turned away from. The grand pleading of God with him, the revelation of his majesty aud his glory in his works, and the views of his omniscience overwhelm the patriarch, and as one who had learned the lesson which he needed to be taught, he cried out — " I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

No other book in the canon of Scripture has gathered around it so much controversy as the book of Job. Who was its author? At what time was it written ? What is its plan ? Is it an historical

JOB i.-v. 335

narrative ? Is it to be looked on as a religious fiction ? Is it true in its spirit, but unreal in the personages introduced? Is the language in which it is written comparatively modern, or suggestive of a date earlier than that of the Pentateuch ? These are only a very few out of a multitude of questions which are discussed in the literature bearing on this book. To the Christian, and to ordinary readers of the Bible, the references made in other portions of Scripture to the book of Job are evidence that it contains the history of a true, historical person, and the narrative of God's ways with him. Such dealings were designed to teach him, and, through him, all who read this book, some of the greatest lessons which any soul can learn — the lessons that affliction comes to God's people as fatherly discipline, that our heavenly Father knows our sorrows, that all nature teems with evidences of God's great- ness, wisdom, power, goodness, and love, that man is ignorant and sinful, that God is righteous, and that man's place is where Job cast himself, even that of lowliness, conscious sin, and undoubting submission to the will of God. See Ezek. xiv. 14; James v. 11.

Subordinate to the high moral and spiritual ends of the book of Job, is the remarkable use here made of appeals to the external world. This assigns special interest to it in a work on biblical natural science. Not only in the magnificent utterances of chapters xxxviii.-xli., but in all the discussions between the man of Uz and his friends, we meet with proof of the remarkably close attention which they bad paid to the works of God around them. It seems to have been God's design to make this book the constant protest against those, on the one hand, who are ever labouring to exalt nature into the place of the Creator, and those, on the other hand, who in the blindness of bigotry, and in their ignorance of science, are as diligent in depreciat- ing the study of the works of God, as the former class are in isolating them from the constant control of his personal will and working. It is forgotten by the latter, that we can have but a partial view of the glory of the Redeemer, if we do not see Him as the creator and upholder of all things.

In the present condition of religio-scientific thought, and as intro- ductory to our notes on Job, it may be of use to seek an answer to the question — What is nature? The use made of this word in some recent works in the popular literature of science, makes it needful to ask this question. As commonly used, the word nature means the whole external world. In the literature of theology, it is employed to indicate the fruit of creative acts — that which has been brouerht into beinir.

336 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

realized in time ; and until a very recent period this was held to be its scientific import also. There are, however, many symptoms of a return to such a use .of the word as obtained before the ancient physicists had that import thrust on them which was attached to it by primitive theism. The ancient physicists recognized no distinction between God and nature. Their speculations on the origin of matter and on the phenomena of the external world, never even lingered on the threshold of the recognition of a personal God. When they acknowledged a beginning, they attached self-originating power to nature. In this they have companions in modern thinkers. Not Mr. Emerson only, but names of greater note, might shake hands with Thales. The introduction of a higher view into the study of the external world, is to be traced to the influence of the original revela- tion which God made of himself to man. This, as in the case of Job, kept its place among the shepherds of Iran. Thence it found its way into Egypt, where its power is seen modifying the degraded animal worship — the idolatry of nature — of that country, by associating the animals worshipped with the name of some god. From Egypt it passed into Greece — the country which more than any other has influenced the scientific researches of later times. The association of the theistic idea with the worship of animals and the elements, was, however, the victory of the old superstition over the new thought ; and the hypothesis of the eternity of matter was simply the effort of the Greek intellect to get back to the sensualism of the point of original degradation. This purely theistic view of nature came to be the creed of heathenism, and in its period of highest cultivation it led to those remarkable apprehensions of God associated with the names of Socrates and Plato, Seneca and Cicero. Something like blessing followed it, because of the divine source whence it came. But its presence amidst the speculatists in the shaded walks of the Academia, as they groped after that true knowledge never more within the grasp of man in his own right, was only like carven imagery amidst ruins, not even truly beautiful, and not useful at all as to highest ends, because detached from, not built into, the divinely reared temple of truth. Thus, when the revelation made to the Hebrews, and especially when Christianity took a hold on the Western world, the theistic view of nature was everywhere attacked. The demand was made for the recognition of two revelations of God — the one in his works, and the other in his word, without which nature could not be understood. Theism came thus to mean the acknowledgment of God in nature, and the implied

JOB i.-v, 337

denial of the trustworthiness of any other revelation. This view con- tinued to influence the church, as to the use of the word nature and naturalist, till a comparatively recent period. You meet with it even in the apologetical writers of the seventeenth century as a correct form of speech. " This," wrote Rogers in his ' Naaman the Syrian,' "is the invention of Satan, that whereas all men will not be profane, nor natu- ralists, nor epicures, but will be religious, lo, he hath a bait for every fish, and can insinuate himself as well into religion itself as into lusts and pleasures." " Heathen naturalists," says Jackson in his treatise on ' Christ's Everlasting Priesthood,' " hold better consort with the primitive church concerning the nature of original sin than the Socini- ans." Whately uses the word in the same way : — " Of those who profess Christianity in a certain non-natural sense, while disbelieving what is commonly understood by that word, there are two principal sects, usually called the Mythic and the Naturalist : both of which arose in Germany (where, however, they are now out of fashion), but which are patronized by some English and American writers. The Mythics represent the whole of the Scripture history as a series of parables, never designed to be believed as literally true, though intended to convey some moral lessons. The Naturalists, on the contrary, maintain the general truth of the historj', but explain the miraculous portions of it as natural evils." (" Annot. on Paley," p. 3).

We owe the meaning which, until lately, all modern science has attached to the word nature, to the influence of the Scriptures on scientific research. It has been regarded as something brought into being by a creative act — an aggregate of effects, and in no sense a cause — a system in connection with which we meet with the action of a multitude of forces, which act not independently but are all under the power of the controlling Creator. The term thus covers the whole field of organic and inorganic being, and by some has been made to include the science of mind itself, on the ground, that as when we con- sider the lower animals we take into account their instincts, so when we deal with the place which man holds at the top of the zoological scale, and in his structural features possessed of a multitude of points of resemblance to the creatures put under him, we should give a place to the philosophy of mind in any complete scheme of natural science. But this assumes that the intellectual faculties of man differ only in degree from the instincts of the lower animals, and that there may be comparison where there is only strong contrast.

Job dwelt in the land of " Uz." In Gen. x. 23, the children of VOL. n. ■ 2 V

338 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

Shem's son Aram, are named " Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash." Among the descendants of " Scir the Horite," mention is made of " Uz and Aran" (xxxvi. 28). The list of the sons of Shem given at a compara- tively recent period in the history of Israel, contains the names of "Aram, Uz, Hul, and Gether" (1 Chron. i. 17). In this case, as often occurred, the grandchildren are counted as children. When the " cup of fury" was threatened against the nations, of those who were to drink it Jeremiah mentions "all the kings of the land of Uz" (xxv. 20). The same prophet afterwards says : — " Rejoice and be glad, 0 daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz ; the cup shall pass through unto thee" (Lam. iv. 21). These are all the passages bearing on the question of the region in which the land of Uz lay. It has been too hastily assumed that the last passage warrants the inference that it lay in Edom. In Jeremiah xxv., mention is made of the " mingled people" — the offshoots of different tribes which had become located in districts remote from their original scat. In the last-quoted passage, a daughter of Edom had manifestly gone to dwell in the land of Uz, as in after- times the daughter of Zion did in Babylonia. Uz was evidently a territory first occupied by a Shemite tribe. The portion of it in which Job dwelt must not necessarily have been near Edom, as has been so often argued. Eliphaz was an Edomite, Bildad most likely a descen- dant of Abraham in the line of Keturah, and Zophar may have been an Edomite, for Naamah lay on the extreme limit to the south-east of the territory, afterwards assigned to Judah, " towards the coast of Edom" (Josh. XV. 20, 41) ; but these may have only been wanderers from the place of their first habitation. The references here to the Sabajans and Chaldseans show that Uz lay much farther to the south-east, in the plain of Iran. The names of his friends, however, determine the period about which Job must have lived — that, namely, which intervened between the days of Jacob and the time of Moses. The former date is indicated by the name Eliphaz the Temanite, a descendant of Eliphaz a son of Esau ; the latter by the style and language, as well as the aspects of religious thought in the book of Job.

Job cursed his day : — " Let the day perish wherein I was born" (iii. 3), were the words which burst passionately from his sorrow- stricken heart —

"Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; Let it look for light, but have none; Neither let it see the eyelids of the morning" (ver. 9).

The allusions here are very beautiful. He thinks of the gradually-

JOB i.-v. 339

darkening twilight as the sun sinks out of sight, and the vapours floating in the atmosphere receive less and less of his light to reflect down on the eartli. But, just when all seemed about to be shrouded in darkness, the stars of the evening, one after another, break on the view, and tell the tale again of God's faithfulness. As the darkness deepens, the numbers and the brightness of the stars seem to increase. Let not, he says, the day on which I w-as born have any such tokens of God's care about it; has he not forsaken me altogether? Of daybreak he speaks as the lifting up of the eyelids of the morning. The appear- ance of the sun above the eastern horizon, is the full opening of the eye of day. The night was thus to him that which lay in light itself He now wishes for one day in the revolving year of continued darkness — the day on which he was born. Thus he spake unadvisedly.

Eliphaz points out the connection between sin and sorrow (iv. 8) — iniquity is the soil, wickedness the seed, and sorrow the fruitful crop. Eiiphaz had no words of genial sympathy for the sorely-stricken Job. He puts him in mind of his ways with others, when it was well with himself You helped others, why not help yourself? You com- forted others ; why then, when you so much need it, do you not take comfort to your own soul ? You suffer; there must then be good cause for it : —

" Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity And sow wickedness, leap the same" (ver. 8).

They may, as the king of beasts, have had strong confidence in them- selves that they would never be moved. But this is vain : —

"The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, And the teeth of tlie young lions, are broken. The old lion perisheth for lack of prey, The stout lion's whelps are scattered abroad" (ver. 10, 11).

"Lion," Heb. ariyeh; see under 1 Sam. xvii. 34. "Fierce lion," shahhal. "Young \\o\\"hep1iir; see under Psalm xvii. 12. "The old lion," layish. "The stout lion," lama.

Shahhal means "the roarer." It occurs other six times. As in the passage under notice, it is translated " fierce lion" in chapters x. 16, xxviii. 8. In the other passages in which it is met with, it is simply rendered "lion" (Ps. xci. 13 ; Prov. xxvi. 13 ; Hos. v. 14, xiii. 7).

Layi'sh, or the strong beast, is used in two other passages only (Prov. XXX. 30 ; Isa. xxx. 6).

Lavia points to the low growling of the beast. In one passage it is

340 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

rendered "like a lion" (Isa. v. 29) ; in another, "a great lion" (Joel i. 6); and in another, "tlie old lion" (Nahum ii, 11). The cubs of the lion are named gdr. Thus, " Judah is a lion's tchelp" (Gen. xlix. 9).

In a vision of the night, a spirit had passed before his face, and he had heard a voice, saying —

" Shall mortal man be more just than God ? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?" (vcr. 17.)

The question is answered — He trusts not his servants, nor even the holy angels themselves ; " how much less them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?" (ver. 19.) Man and his dwelling-place are constantly changing. The race continues. Individuals die. Tlieir houses are clay-built, and the foundations thereof are in the dust. All is fleeting and uncertain. The heaving earthquake may overwhelm the proudest monuments man can raise ; the electric flash may rend them in pieces ; the torrent may sweep them away : and, when such active forces are not at work, time hastens decay. So with the body of man himself " It is crushed before (literally, in the presence of) the moth ;" that is, the insect which all regard as short-lived, may survive when man is cut off. The words have been unnecessarily surrounded with difficulty. "Moth," Heb. ash, is named in other two passages in this book in a similar connec- tion. Speaking of man's body, he says, as with himself so with all the race — "And he, as a rotten thing, consumeth, as a garment that is moth-eaten" (xiii. 28). Man that is born of a woman is of few days. Of the hypocrite he says, " He buildeth his house as a moth ;" wraps himself in his pride of health and of substance, as the moth in its larval state does in its pupa case. But the birds may pick it up ; other insects may pierce it ; the foot of man or of beast may crush it. The grounds on which the hypocrite rely are as uncertain ; and even the fair outside only conceals the wickedness within — the case around the larva conceals the crawling worm.

Any one of the numerous scale-winged {Lcpidoptera) order of insects answers this description, but especially the genus Tinea.

JOB vi.-xiv, 341

JOB VI.-XIV.

I'ONTINUING bis discourse, Eliphaz says, trouble does not come unsent, " yet man is born to it, as tbe sparks fly upward." Is it not tben bis duty to turn to God? "I would seek after God, and unto God would I commit my

^y. cause" (v. 7, 8).

However far mistaken Elipbaz may bave been in bis estimate of Job, his words bere are full of beauty. Tbe filling in of tbe picture, sketcbed so boldly in outline in verse 17, is peculiarly striking: — " Bebold, bappy is tbe man wbom God correctetb ; therefore despise not tbou tbe chastening of tbe Almighty." The language and senti- ments anticipate, by more than a thousand years, tbe apostolic exhor- tation— " My son, despise not thou tbe chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him : for whom the Lord loveth be chasteneth, and scourgeth every son wbom be receiveth" (Heb. xii. 5, 6). The blessings vouchsafed to tbe "afflicted man" are named by Eliphaz in brief graphic expressions. He may count on deliverance in many troubles, protection in famine and war, and shelter from " tbe scourge of tbe tongue" (ver. 19-22). All nature would be made helpful to bis happiness ; he would be " in league with tbe stones of the field, and the beasts of tbe field would be at peace with him" (ver. 23). Peace was to be in bis dwelling. Like David in after-days, be was to " walk within bis bouse with a perfect heart" (Ps. ci. 2) ; and bis family was to become great and powerful (ver. 2-1, 25). Tbe finishing touch of this picture of exceeding beauty is given in verse 2G : —

" Thou sbalt come to thy grave in a full age, Like as a shock of corn cometh in his season."

" Shock of corn," Heb. gddisli, points to any kind of fully ripe grain after it has been cut, and, with the straw, put up in bundles ready to be threshed. In Exodus xxii. 6, it is rendered "stacks of corn," and in Judges xv. 5, it is named along with "the standing corn" (JMtndh) — "And when be had set the brands on fire, be let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both tbe shocks, and also tbe standing corn, with the vineyards and olives."

I I

A singular use is made of tlie same word {gddlsh) by Job himself in his answer to Zophar : —

"Do ye not know tlicir tokens, Tliat the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? They shall be brought forth to the day of wrath. \^^lo shall declare his way to his face? And who shall repay him what lie hath done? Yet shall he be brought to the grave, And shall remain in the tomb" (xxi. 29-32).

"The tomb" (gudlsh) is rendered "heap" in the margin. Tlie force of the figure has been mistaken. Job does not mean to indicate, that in respect of the mere fact of death there is any difference between the rigliteous and the wicked. There is here an implied contrast. He had before been told that the death of the good man came like " the shock of corn in its season:" he was prepared for it, and would die in good hope — would be gathered into the garner of glory and eternal joy. But now, he says, the wicked remain as the shock too, though theirs must be a fearful looking for of judgment. As if he had said, If you wish to comfort me, you must set forth something more than mere natural readiness for dying, because in this respect it comes alike to all. He exposed the one-sidedness of their teaching, and exclaimed —

" How then comfort ye me in vain ? Seeing in your answers abideth falsehood" (vcr 34).

Chapter vi. 5 ; see under xxiv. G, and Isa. i. 3. Job follows in the line of the exhortations of Eliphaz, and makes himself, as throughout, master of the situation. It is no merit, he argues, not to complain when there is no cause for it : —

" Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass ? Or loweth the ox over his fodder ?"

I would not, he continues, have had recourse to such modes of comfort- ing others as you have. Tliey were as unsavoury meat to me, tasteless as the white of an egg, but now the things I refused to touch are as my sorrowful meat. My grief has become to your words as the spice to unsavoury food, as the salt to the white of an egg. Set along- side of my grief, they have distinct bearings on me. At other times I would not have cared for them, but now in their very cruelty, and in the evidences they supply that you do not understand my case, they influence me (ver. 6).

JOB vi.-xiv. 343

" My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, And as the stream of brooks they pass away ; Which are blackish by reason of the ice, And wherein the snow is hid : What time they wax warm, they vanish : When it is hot they are consumed out of their place" (ver. 15-17).

" This," remarks Dr. Thomson, " is a singular brook which we are fullowing down the wady. Back yonder I thought of watering my horse, but, supposing the stream would become larger, I omitted it, and here it has vanished altogether, like one of Job's deceitful friends — I mean brooks. The phenomena of streams in this country aptly illus- trate the character of his false friends. In winter, when there is no need of them, they are full, and strong, and loud in their bustling pro- fessions and promises ; but in the heat of summer, when they are wanted, they disappoint your hope. You think your fields will be irri- gated, and yourself and your flocks refreshed by them, when, lo ! they deal deceitfully and pass away. Nearly all the streams of this country, ' what time they wax warm,' thus vanish, go to nothing, and perish. Such were Job's friends. There is another illustration equally perti- nent. You meet a clear, sparkling brook, and, so long as you follow it among the cool mountains, it holds cheerful converse with you by its merry gambols over the rocks ; but as soon as you reach the plain, ' where it is hot,' it begins to dwindle, grow sad and discouraged, and finally foils altogether. Those which suggested the comparison of Job probably flowed down from the high lands of Gilead and Bashan, and came to nothing in the neighbouring desert ; for it is added that the ' troops of Teeman looked, the companies of Sheba waited for them, and were confounded because they had hoped.' It was on those high mountains only that Job could become familiar with the winter pheno- mena, where the streams are ' blackish by reason of the ice ;' for not only are Lebanon and Hcrmon covered with snow in winter, and the brooks there frozen, but the same is true also of the higher parts of the Hauran, and of the mountains to the south of it, where Job is supposed to have resided."

" The servant earnestly desireth (greedily looks for) the shadow" (vii. 2), the evening — the time, namely, when the slanting rays of the setting sun lengthen the shadows of all the objects on the earth, the period of rest and quiet repose to the toil-worn hireling.

"0 remember that my life is wind" (ver. 7) — fleeting as the breeze (ruach) which this moment is felt, and the next has passed away —

344

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

Fig. 94.

uncertain as atmospheric movements, coining when not looked for, departing as suddenly as they came.

"Am I a sea {yilni), or a whale (tannin), that thou settest a watch (mi'shmdr) over me?" (ver. 12.) The leading thought in this verse is restraint in order to safety. In God's works this has its illustration in the bounds which he has set to the sea, and in his control over any of its greatest inhabitants. Job sees the former dashing against the rocks

on its shore, chafing to burst its barriers, but it is still held back by the power of Jehovah. Am I, he asks, so wild — am I animated by passions furious as ocean's waves — that I must thus be kept back from joy? The huge crea- tures which swim the deep may require constant restraint, but why should I, frail, helpless, short-lived, be hemmed in with sorrow on sorrow ? (Plate III.) Bildad the Shuhite takes the place of Eliphaz the Temanite in dealing with Job (viii.), and distinctly charges him with wickedness (ver. 6) and hypocrisy (ver. 13). No more, he argues, would such affliction as you bear come without great sin as its cause, than the rush ^ji_ would grow without water (ver. 11) ; see under Exod. xi. 3, and chap. xl. 21. / / The hypocrite's life shall perish" (ver.

13)-

" Whose hope shall be cut off, And whose trust as a spider's web" (ver. 1 4).

" Spider," Heb. alckavish. The same The word ren-

r .

I Epeira diadema — a, female; h, male.

word occurs in Isaiah lix. 5 in a similar connection dered spiders in Proverbs xxx. 28, is scmdmith.

The form referred to here, was no doubt one of the garden, or gossa- mer spiders (fig. 94), which w-eave their beautiful nets on trees and bushes. When the sun shines on them after a dewy night has hung them thickly with globules, or one of hoar frost has feathered them with purest white, every observer has acknowledged their extreme beauty. They are "the gossamers in air that sail" —

JOB VI.-XIV.

345

" Sailing mid the golden air In skiffs of yielding gossamer."

They are the " scorched dew" of Spenser, " the fihny tlireads of dew evaporate" of Tliomson. They have attracted the atteutiuu of almost every poet. Shakspeare says : — -

" A lover may bestride the gossamer, That idles in the wanton summer air, And )'et not fall, so light is vanity."

Coleridge mentions it in one of the most striking passages of the "Ancient Mariner" (iii. 9) : —

"Alas! (thought I, and my heart beat loud) How fast she nears and nears! Are those her sails that glance in the sun, Like restless gossameres?"

Fig. 95.

The spiders form the order Aranet'dea, of the class Amchm'ila, which includes spiders, scorpions, and mites. The head of the spider forms part of the body (cephalo- thorax). Its eyes vary from two, as in many of the well-known harvestmen (Phalanf/iiini), to eight, as in the, so-called, bird- spider {Jli/gale). The garden spider {Epcirci) has four in the middle of the thorax, arranged in a square, and two placed obliquely at a distance from the middle four. Spiders have no feelers or antennoa. The number of legs varies from six to ten. They are eight-jointed, and fur- nished with claws at the point. "''^''^• The abdomen is soft, oblong or globular, of one piece, and not ringed as in insects generally ; marked at the apex by fleshy teat-like organs, from which the substance for the web is drawn by spinning. The accompanying cut (fig. 95) will help to illustrate this description.

The hypocrite's trust might thus be beautiful as the spider's web, "quick glancing to the sun," but ib was equally frail

VOL. II.

2x

" The spider's most attenuated thread Is cord, is cable, to man's tondcrest tie On earthly bliss; it breaks at every breeze." — Yovng.

BiUlad next likens him to an licrbacoous plant — -" green before the sun, the branch shooting forth in his garden, the root even firmly rooted in the soil" (ver. 16, 17), bnt the drought and heat wither it, the blight falls on it. For the summer it is well enough, but with wintef it passes away.

In chapters ix., x.. Job answers his over-zealous friend. He acknow- ledges all that has been said as to man's weakness and God's greatness. The thought of God raises his heart to him. "AVho is like to God?" he asks —

"AVho removeth the mountains and they linow not; Who overturneth them in liis anger ; Who shaketh the earth out of her place, And the pillars thereof tremble ; Who coramandeth the sun and it riseth not; AVho sealoth up the stars ; Who alone sprcadeth out the heavens, And treadeth on the waves of the sea ; Who maketh Ash, Kesil, and Kimali, And the chambers (Jiltadar) of the south {tcman)" ver. 5-9.

Thus he celebrates the sovereignty of God over all nature — the earth, the ocean, and the starry sky. The earthquake ; the darkness like that of Egypt, or later, like that which happened at the Redeemer's death ; the clear blue sky, and the hosts which thence look peacefully down on man ; and the sea in its seasons of calm, or its periods of storm— all testify to the majesty and might of the glorious One by whom they arc controlled.

Ash (ver. 9) is rendered Arcturus in our version. The same name is given in xxx. 36, as the translation of Aijish — " Canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?"

If the reader will turn to the star map of the Northern hemisphere, the constellation Uisa Ilajor, or the Great Bear, will be seen repre- sented by the outlines of a bear. At the extreme point of the tail a star of the third magnitude, n, is marked, and nearly opposite, one of the fourth magnitude, x, in the left arm of Bootes. Tracing this figure to the left knee, Arcturus, a, in Bootes is set down as a star of the first magnitude.

Kesil is rendered Orion. Referring to the same map, and tracing the line (circle) marked Coluriis Solstitt'orum, from the Pole-star to the

JOB vi.-xiv. 347

outer circle, Orion is seen represented by tlie figure of a man, the body being shown in tliis map, the legs in that of the Southern hemisphere. The three belt stars — " the bands of Orion" (xxxviii. 31) — appear in a straight line, the two shoulder stars above, and the two heel stars below. Orion is one of the winter evening constellations, which rise and set in the latitude of England. On a clear night in IMarch it may be noticed about nine o'clock, midway between the zenith and the south. The usual rendering of the Hebrew hesil is " fool," as, for example, in Psalm xlix. 10 — " Wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish." The prophet Amos uses the word as here — " Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion" (v. 8).

KimdJi, the Pleiades. Turning to the star map of the northern hemisphere, and following the outline of the right arm of Orion, a star of the first magnitude is marked in the eye of the constellation Taiiruf;, or the Bull. This is Aldeharan (ci, Tauri), the Arabic name for the star. In the neck of Taurus, the well known group Pleiades appears, consisting of about sixty stars. Six or seven of these stand brightly out. Thus the name often given to the whole group is the " Seven Stars." Pleiades is derived from the Greek pMn^ to sail. The Greek mariner believed that it was safe to sail in the Great Sea after their return to their place in the firmament, easily observed by him, and that sailing was dangerous after the constellation disappeared. The Romans named this cluster of stars Virgilia?, from virga, a twig, because in Italy they were first seen in May, and thus marked the beginning of summer. The Latins had their constellation which pointed directly to the w'eather, as the Pleiades did to the state of the sea. The seven stars in the head of Taurus were named Pluvice, or the rain-foreboding stars, because wdien they were observed to rise with the sun, it was believed that rain would be sure to follow. Thus also the appeal to Job :—

" Canst tliou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, Or loose the bands of Oiion?" (xxxviii. 31.)

The rapid lapse of time is noticed in vei'se 26. Job says his days "flee away," they are "as the eagle that hasteth to his prey." The speed as of an arrow shot by a strong arm, marks the flight of the birds of prey when they sweep, from the height at which they have been hovering, down on their quarry.

In chapter xiv. Job continues his answer to Zophar. His theme is still the shortness, the uncertainty, and the afflictions of life. Man comes forth as a flower, fidl of promise and beauty, but only to be cut down ;

r'

348 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

and as the severance of the root from the stalk results in the death of both, thus man passes away. Yea it is worse with man than even with some of the forms of vegetation. If the tree be cut down (ver. 7), it will not fail to spring again. The root sap will force it to bud and sprout ; and thougli it can never be equal to its former condition when the main shoot rose upwards as a noble tree, yet it lives —

" But man dictli and w.isteth a\v;iy ; Yea, man givcth up the ghost, and where is he?" (ver. 10.)

Eliphaz still longs to bring homo his views of the moral government of God to Job. He is still persuaded that there must be a deep sub- stratum of evil about Job, which, by hypocrisy, he managed to conceal from his friends —

" Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity : For vanity shall bo his recompense. It shall be accomplished before his time, And liis branch shall not be green. He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine, And shall cast off his flower as the olive " (xv. 31-33).

The vine forces from the fruit branch the bastard grapes whose growth has been arrested. They once gave fair promise like the others, but the value and beauty of the fully ripe clusters would be man-ed if they still hung on. As the green buds of spring push off tlie withered leaves from the beech branches, so the grapes which have not followed the law of their growth are shaken off. Vanity, he adds also, is nothing more to truth, than the faded flowers of the olive are to the oil-full berry. If the soul is to stand out as true, truth-loving, and truth- working, it must shed these flowers of vanity. The vain man cannot have the communion of a child with God as his father, for God is true, he loves truth, all his works are in truth.

JOB XVI.-XXX.

349

JOB XVI.-XXX.

'HE peculiar bitterness of Job's affliction and misery again comes out, in his acknowledgment of the immediate hand of God in them all. "God," he says, "hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the liands of the wirked. I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me for his mark. His archers compass me round about; he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground. He breaketh me with breach upon breach; he runneth upon me like a giant" (xvi. 11-14). After the general expression "he hath broken me," he descrilies the " neck as shaken to pieces," the " reins — the loins, or region of the kidneys — as cleaved asunder," and his "gall as poured on the groimd." The word " gall " will be fully examined under Jeremiah viii. 14. Meanwhile it may be noted here, that, as used in this passage, it is to be held to point to the gall cyst of the human body. The Hebrew word is mererah, from the root which signifies " to be bitter." Tlie same organ is spoken of in chapter xx. 24, 25, under the name merorah — " He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through. It is drawn, and cometh out of the body ; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall : terrors are upon him." The gall-bladder is a pear-shaped sac, of a yellowish green colour, lying under the right side of the liver. It communicates with the liver by means of the vessel (biltari/ duct) through which the bile is discharged into the gall-cyst, and it is connected with the intestines by their first fold (the cliiodenum). In Job's pathetic wailing, he complains that the hand of God was not only on his soul, but on his whole body, whose organs could not perform those offices needful to health and happiness —

" I have said to corruption, Thou my father ; To the worm, My mother and my sister " (xvii. 14).

" Worm," Heb. rimmiih, is the common earth-worm {Liimhricus terrestn's), the type of an order of the so called ring-formed invertebrates {Annelida). They are named Terricolce from having their usual dwelling-

350 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

place in earth or in miul. The Hebrew word occurs seven times, and always, with one exception, must mean the well known earth-worm. The exceptional passage is Exod. xvi. 24, in which the form of life referred to must liave been a grub of some insect which deposited its eggs in matter corresponding to the manna. The word is used once ^by Isaiah (xiv. 11) — "The worm {rimmdli) is sjjread under thee, and the worms (toledh) cover thee." Babylon's humiliation was complete. Her pomp was brought down to tlie grave, and her bed was with the earth-worm, while her outward beauty was marred with disease as loathsome as that of which Herod died (Acts xii. 23). The latter word always points to a form of life distinct from the former. liiminah is used other four times in this Book — vii. 5 ; xxi. 2G ; xxv. G. In the last passage, as in Isaiah, it is associated with toledh—

How much loss man, that is a wnrm {rinnitdh) ? And the son of man, which is a worm {tokrJi)?

lie is mean as the cartli-wurm ; one from whom God might turn away as man does from the crawling grub.

Two other words are translated "worm" in the Old Testament, namely, sds and sdhhal. The former occurs in Isaiah li. 8 — "The worm shall eat them like wool;" the latter in Micah vii. 17 — "They shall move out of their holes like worms." In the one case the grub of a garment-eating moth is referred to ; in the other the earth-worm, or any creeping thing which when alarmed leaves its hiding-place.

" Brimstone {fjophreth) shall be scattered upon his habitation " (xviii. 15). The original word points to something inflammable, as the gum which exuded from the gopher-tree. When Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, the Lord rained upon them "fire and brimstone." These brought desolation, and from that time the term has been used to indicate barrenness wherever it prevails (Ps. xi. G ; Isa. xxxiv. 9).

Zophar the Naamathite feiled to sympathize with the low, heart- sprung wail of Job. He saw God dealing with him, as he believed only the wicked were dealt with. This circumstance led him to make haste to answer Job (xx. 2). This he does in a graphic picture of the wicked. He says " his triumphing is short, his joy but for a moment " — "he shall fly away as a dream" (ver. 5, G). His children, alarmed by the judgment, will seek in vain to make up for their father's sin — " they shall seek to please the poor, and his hands shall restore their goods " (ver. 10). The very mercies which others enjoy cease to be to him means of food —

JOB xvr.-xxx.

351

" His meat in his bowels is turned, It is the gall of asps withiu him. He shall suck the poisou of asps; The viper's tongue shall slay him " (vct. 1-1, IG).

"Asp," Pleb. jJcthen, the Egyptian cobra (Naj'a haje)^ one of the venomous colahrine snakes [Colubridce). This is one of the so called Hooded Snakes, with which serpent-charmers chiefly deal — see under Psalm Iviii. 4, 5. The Spectacled Suuke proper {Naja fnjjudians) is a closely related species (Plate IV., fig. 5). The well known Cobra di Capello is another. They are all noted for their deadly bite. The hollow fangs communicate with a poison gland, which being pressed in

Fit'. '-O-

Ueiid of the Cobra.

the act of biting, sends a few drops into the puncture. The venom quickly acts on the whole system, and death soon ensues. It is a blood poison, and may be taken into the stomach without any evil effects.

The pethen is referred to three times in Scripture, besides the pas- sages now under notice. Moses threatens those who "provoked the Lord to jealousy" with "bitter destruction." "Their wine," he says, "is the cruel venom of asps " (Dent, xxxii. 33). The word is rendered "adder" in Psalm xci. 13. The promise given to the man "that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High" is — ■

"Thou shall tread upon the lion and adtler."

Among the illustrations used in Isaiah xi., to set forth the glories of the time of world-wide blessing, it is said — " The sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp " (ver. 8).

352 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

" Viper," Heb. cpheh, is named in the Old Testament only here and in Isaiah xxx. 6; lix. 5. It is tlie viper {ecJn'dna) of Matt. iii. 7 — "When John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, 0 generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" So likewise, xii, 34, xxiii. 33; Luke iii. 7; and Acts xxviii. 3. In the last passage the deadly character of its bite is implied. See Plate IV., fig. 3.

The vipers {Viperidoe) are generally met with in dry sandy districts. This fact gives much force to the reference to the great Arabian desert as the place named in Isaiah xxx., whence they were said to come — "The burden of the beasts of the south : Into the land of trouble and anguish,

I'ig. tJ7.

Cut showing the forked tongue of Serpents.

from whence come the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches upon the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels, to a people that shall not profit them." The expression used by Zophar is, " the viper's tongue shall slay him." The cut given above is introduced to show the slender, tapering, and forked character of the tongue of the serpents. But however fierce and dangerous the form of the outstretched tongue may seem, it is not hurtful. The popular notion has ever been, that the tongue acted as a sting. Reference is made to this here. Shaks- 2?eare makes one of his characters exclaim, regarding his lieartless daughter : —

" She has ........

Looked black upon mo ; struck mo with her tongue Most serpent-like."

JOB xvi.-xxx. 353

Another is introduced saying, in regard to a supposed murder : —

" And hast thou killed him sleeping ? 0 brave touch ! Could not a worm, an adder, do so much ? An adder did it, for with doubler tongue Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung."

One of the vipers is mentioned under anotlier name in Gen. xUx. 17 — ■" Dan shall be an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels so that the rider shall fall backward." " Adder," Heb. shejyMphon, the Cerastes Ilasselquistii of naturalists. It is plentiful in Egypt and Syria. Its head is large and tlattened above. Its colour is light brown, with darker marking, making it not unlike the colour of the soil where it has its abode. Thus it is often trodden on by cattle, on which it inflicts its venomed wound.

Another species is named in Psahn cxl. 3, as the acksub, or adder. It is said of the evil and of the violent man —

" They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent ; Adder's poison is under their lips."

This passage is noteworthy on account of the reference to the place of the poison gland. So, likewise, the strong expression in Romans iii. 13 — "Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit ; the poison of asps is under their lips."

"Steel" (ver. 24), see under Gen. iv. 22; "Gall" (vcr. 25), see under ch. xvi. 13; "Bull" (xxl. 10), under Numb. xxii. 4; "Cow" (ver. 10), Gen. xli. 2-4 ; " Ophir " (xxii. 24), 2 Chron. ix. 10.

It had been urged that sin is followed by suffering, and that God's ways with man are retributive. There was truth in both allegations, but not all the truth. The application of these views of providence to the case of Job was unwarranted. Feeling this, he again sets the matter in its true light. If, he argues, such a manifest connection can be always made out between sin and suffering, as to warrant the con- clusion that all who suffer greatly must be greater sinners than those who suffer little, and must contrast remarkably with those who do not suffer at all, how is it that so many whose sins against social relation- ships are great and aggravated do not suffer at all? You see some removing landmarks, and taking by open violence the flocks of their neighbours (xxiv. 2). Others there are who deprive even the widow and the fatherless of their only means of worhlly support — "They drive away the ass of the fatherless, they take the widow's ox for a pledge"

(ver. 3). Others again without scruple lay their hands on their neigh- voL. n. 2r

351 BIBLIC.Vf. NATURAL SCIENCE.

hour's crops — "Tliey reap every one his corn in tlie field" (ver. 6). " Corn," Heb. hel'd^ is to be taken here for the crops which specially supply food for cattle, and may mean either the straw, or the gi-ain when separated from it. In chapter vi. 5, it is thus used : " Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass? or lowcth the ox over liis fodder (beltl)?" See also under Isaiah i. 3. When the prophet enumerates the special blessings of a time of great revival, and of the close adherence of the people to God, he says — " In that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures. The oxen likewise, and the young asses that ear the ground, shall eat clean provender (belli), whicli hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan " (Isa. xxx. 24).

" He biiildeth up the waters \a his thick clouds; And the cloud is not rent under them " (xxvi. 8).

The line of thought in the reference here to the waters, to the binding of them up, to the compassing of them with bounds, to the water in the cloud, and in the thick cloud, point to Job's views ot the sovereignty of God over the clouds of heaven and the waters contained in them. The same views were urged in days long after by Jeremiah during the "dearth" (xiv. 22) — " Are there any among the vanities (idols) of the Gentiles that can cause rain ? or can the heavens give showers ? Art not thou He, O Lord God? therefore we will wait on thee." Dwelling in parched lands, seeing the dark cloud hanging heavily on the horizon, knowing that it was loaded with blessing to man, feeling that naturally the rain should hasten down from these clouds surcharged with watery vapour, while it was still withheld, how appropriate were Job's utter- ances to his views of the sovereignty of God over the treasures of rain !

" By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens ; His hand hath formed the crooked serpent" (ver. 13).

"The crooked serpent." When Job uses this expression, he is contemplating the heavens. He has acknowledged God's power in the phenomena of clouds and rain. Now he turns to the stars. The glorious orbs which shone down on him, declared equally to him as to David the glory of God — " By his spirit he has garnished the heavens." In garnishing the heavens he formed "the crooked serpent," the con- stellation Draco, indicated in the star map of the Northern hemisphere by a serpent, whose tail commences in star \ of Draco, Ij'ing between a of Ursa ^lajor and the Pole. From this point, and occupying portions of circles two, three, and four, it twists to the south of Ursa Minor,

JOB xvi.-xxx. 355

touches the constellation Cepheus with one of its folds, and, in the fourth circle, its eye is marked by a star, /3, of the second magnitude, in a position under the right foot of Hercules. (See Map of the Stars.)

The 28th chapter contains a contrast between the highest efforts of the wisdom of man and the fruits of the wisdom of God, "who looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven" (ver. 24). The former is equal to many and great achievements, but it cannot unaided lead one human soul into " the fear of the Lord, which is wisdom," or even " to depart from evil, which is understanding" (ver. 28). All thus endowed have been taught of God. He has instructed them " whence cometh wisdom, and where is the place of understanding" (ver. 20). In the light of these general considerations Job endeavours to set forth boldly the proudest attainments of man over creation, that he may contrast them again with the power of him " who made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of thunder" (ver. 26). The whole of the description contained in verses 1-11 bears on the forth-putting of man's powers in connection with mining operations in his search for the precious and useful metals.

" Surely there is a vein for the silver" — man knows that such is the case. He has traced it through the Fig.93.

rocks. Its beauty has led him captive, and he has followed it into the bowels of the earth — " the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death" (ver. 3). The description is as true as it is beau-

ijr.-l Native Arborescent Silver.

" Silver," Heb. Icesej^li, Greek argimon, Latin argentiim. As native silver it occurs among the oldest rocks. It is found also in the same rocks associated with ores of other metals, as gold, antimony, &c. In the secondary strata it is often joined with iron, lead, &c., and in the metamorphic rocks with copper. The earthy minerals with which it is most frequently united are granites, porphyries, and various meta- morphic shales.

It is so frequently mentioned in Scripture, that it must have been as much in use among the Hebrews as it is in Britain. Whence was it obtained? Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel point to Tarshish. (See above, 1 Kings X. 22.) The former notices Tarshish as being for silver, what Uphaz (Ophir?) was for gold. " Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz" (x. 9). The latter associates it with iron, tin, and lead — "Tarshish was thy merchant, with

35G

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

silver, iron, tin, and lead" (xxvii. 12). There can be little doubt that Tartcssus on tlie south of Spain -is referred to here. Silver mines were extensively worked in Spain even in the years when the Phoenician traders from Tyre and Sidon frequented her coasts, and continued to be so till a comparatively recent period. Britain would supply the tin and lead. Iron is to be met with in great abundance in Spain. In some of the northern districts its stones arc literally iron. Kidney-shaped ironstone occur in great abundance by the road-sides and on the surface of the soil. Silver in its pure state even, but espe- cially associated with copper and with lead, might have been exported from Britain likewise. In several places veins of silver have been worked, and silver is present in Cornish copper and among the lead ores of Scotland to the extent of from three to twenty per cent.

That in common use among the Hebrews seems to have been ^'''J^' obtained in an impure state — "Take

away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer" (Prov. xxv. 4). Thus the acknowledgment "the fining-pot is for the silver" (Prov. xvii. 3) — man may purify the silver, "but the Lord search- eth the heart." The touching words of Zechariah (xiii. 9) assume their full meaning when regarded from this point of view : — " And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried : they shall call on my name, and I will hear them : I will say. It is my people ; and they shall say. The Lord is my God." When the silver was thus dealt with it became "refined" (1 Chron. xxix. 4); "choice" (Prov. viii. 9); and "fire-abiding" (Numb. xxxi. 22, 23).

The uses of silver were many. We have mention made of it as current "money" (Gen. xxiii. 15, 16, xxxvii. 28; 1 Kings xvi. 24; 2 Chron. xvii. 11; Neh. v. 15). It was made into "cups" (Gen. xlix. 2); "ornaments" (Exod. iii. 22); and "idols" (Ps. cxv. 4; Isa. ii. 20; XXX. 22). It was extensively used in the work of the tabernacle and temple, and manufactured into a great variety of articles besides those mentioned. Some of its peculiarities are also referred to. Thus its

Native Silver in Cubes.

JOB xvi.-xxx. 357

bright colour is noticed in Ps. Ixviii. 13 — "The wings of a dove covered with silver" — the slieen, namely, on the wing-coverts.

In Hebrew poetry it is frequently named in a figurative way. Thus the words of the Lord are " choice silver" — they are " pure words as silver tried in a furnace of earth" (Ps. xii. 6). " The tongue of the just is choice silver" (Prov. x. 20). The "wicked are reprobate silver" (Jer. vi. 30).

Tliere is not only a vein for the silver, but also a place for " gold" {zdhdv). This word occurs above three hundred times in the Old Testament. It is given to gold because of its yellow colour. Several other words are translated " gold," as hetzar, xxxvi. 19; deliav, the use of which is confined to Ezra and Daniel; hliarutz, Ps. Ixviii. 13; ketliem, Job xxxi., and verses 16, 19 of this chapter. This is " the most fine gold " of Song V. 11 ; segor, also used here (ver. 15). Zdhdv is the common name. Its quality was indicated by the addition of the adjectives "pure," "fine," "refined," &c. Ilharutz and kethem are poetical terms. The ideas underlying all the names are those of something precious, needing to be sought out, mixed and requiring to be separated, concealed and worthy of being searched for. Scripture writers fre- quently use gold as an illustration. Job (xxiii. 10) compares the afilictious of God's people to the metallurgic process of gold-refining : — •

" But be knowetli the way that I take : When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold."

When the Psalmist (xix. 10) thought of those aspects of the character of God revealed under the form of his law, his testimony, his statutes, his commandments, his fear, and his judgments, he exclaimed —

" Here to be desired are they than gold, yea, much fine gold."

In Daniel's (xi. 38) interpretation of his vision to Nebuchadnezzar, he said — " Thou art this head of gold." The thoughts, experiences, and works of believers which are the fruit of the Spirit's indwelling, arc said by Paul to be lasting as gold — they are built on the everlasting foundation, the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. iii. 14). The trial of the believer's faith is said in 1 Peter i. 7, to be " more precious than that of gold." The risen Saviour exhorted the church of Laodicea to forsake carnal confidence, and to cast herself on his rich grace, in the words — " Buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich."

The references in this chapter are to " the place of gold," " the dust of gold," "the gold of Ophir," and to "gold" used as a medium of

358

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

exchange (ver. 1, G, 15, IG). Tlie place of gold — its geological position — has already been noticed (vol. i., p. 9G). Native gold is often found in a crystallized form. Tiiese crystals are generally six-sided {/tcxahednil), fig. 100. Recent extensive acquaintance with native gold has made known eight-sided forms {octahedral), fig. 101, in which the octahedron

Fig. 100.

Fig. 101.

Fig. 102.

Fig. 103.

_ O

Fig. 101.

Fig. 105.

Crystals of Gold.

was found complete. In other cases, fig. 102, only one lialf of the perfectly formed octahedron was found, its base blending with rough, shapeless gold. The planes of these crystals are smooth, but along their edges a projecting border occurs, as marked in the cuts. In some specimens this ridge or border is double, fig. 103. The following sections of a modern gold deposit will help to show the geological

position in which this precious metal is often found. When Job speaks of its "place where they fine it," he evidently refers to the work of washing or crushing, to separate the ore from its matrix or natural bed.

Fig. 104 is a section of a deep gullet in which the gold-bearing ore occurs at a depth of tliirty-six feet. Fig. 105 represents a "surface gullet" in which the gold is met with at a depth of about sixteen feet. " The corresponding letters, in both sections, indicate similar strata ; a, black loam and quartz ; i, white loam, claj", and sand; o, brown clay; d, gold layer; e, yellowish- brown rock; yy quartz in a concrete mass; g, stratum of sand ; h, common clay. The auriferous ore earth is generally of a light colour, or largely mixed with quartz pebbles, very tenacious and difficult to wash. It lies upon a yellowish-brown rock, of a rotten texture, known as fixed slate, whilst higher up, above the gold, the strata present igneous features."

•^^••l.rJ

d

■J^

JOB xvi.-xxx. 359

"Brass" (ver. 2), literally "copper" {neJiusJidh), has been fully noticed under Genesis iv. 22 — which see. The direct references in the sacred writings to this metal are numerous. Besides those quoted under Genesis iv., we have the following : — In the contrast which Elihu (xxxvii.) draws between God's majesty and the littleness of Job, the question is asked (ver. 18) — " Hast thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking-glass " — words which indicate that, even in Job's time, brasen mirrors were in as common use as they were at the period of the exodus from Egypt. Thus we are told (Exod. xxxviii. 8) — " He made the laver of brass, of the looking-glasses of the women assembling, which assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation." In the prophetic utterances of Moses (Deut. xxxiii.) Asher is told — " Thy shoes shall be iron and brass ; and as thy days so shall thy strength be" — an intimation which has light shed on it fi-om several points. The locality assigned to the tribe of Asher furnished both the copper and the iron with which tlie sandals were to be shod. It also bordered on the sea strongholds held by the Phoenician traders, whose wares proved such a strong attraction for the members of this tribe that they entered into amity with those whom they were expected to exterminate. From them the iron and brass could be purchased in abundance. But chiefly the first words of the intimation are to be looked at in the light of the last clause — " As thy days, so shall thy strength be." The soft leather-soled sandals which would suit well enough for the plains and the little hills of Palestine, would not answer for the Asherites when they took to the rugged slopes of Carmel and the mountains to the north. The importation of copper to Tyre is expressly mentioned by Ezekiel (xxvii. 13) : " Javan, Tubal, and JMeshech, tliey were thy merchants ; they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy market." The metal was put to a great variety of uses. Chains were forged from it (Judges xvi. 21). " The Philistines took Samson, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass." The temple furnishings were made of brass (1 Kings vii. 15, IG) : " He cast two pillars of brass, of eighteen cubits high apiece ; and a line of twelve cubits did compass either of them about. And he made two chapiters of molten brass, to set upon the tops of the pillars." Again we are told in 2 Kings (xxv. 13) that " the pillars of brass that were in the house of the Lord, and the bases, and the brasen sea that was in the house of the Lord, did the Chaldees break in pieces, and carried the brass of them to Babylon." Weapons of war were also formed of

360 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

this metal. In the description of the armour of Goliath of Gath it is related, that "he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail ; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass. And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders" (1 Sam. xvii. 5, 6). And of the Philistine, Ishbi-benob, it is said (2 Sam. xxi. 16), that "the weight of his spear weighed three hundred shekels of brass in weight; he, being girded with a new sword, thought to have slain David."

The figurative references to this metal are equally interesting. " Is my strength," asks Job (vi. 12), "the strength of stones? or is my flesh of brass?" In the case of the unfoithfulness of Israel tlie Lord threatened — " I will break the pride of your power ; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass" (Levit. xxvi. 19); and in Deuteronomy (xxviii. 23) — " Thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass;" an expression which may have suggested to Coleridge oue of the boldest images in the " Ancient Mariner : " —

" Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, 'Twas sad as sad coidd be ; And we did speak only to break Tlie silence of the sea ! All in a hot and copper s/c>/, The bloody sun, at noon. Right up above the mast did stand No bigger than the moon."

]\Ian grapples with the difficulties which beset his endeavours to make his own the riches which lie far out of sight among " the stones of darkness." The pent up waters breaking out in a flood are not allowed to hinder him. " They are dried up." But all the riches of the earth lie not thus far out of reach. The soil, equally with the rocks which underlie it, ministers blessing to man (ver. 5) : — " As for the earth, out of it cometh bread."

Having noticed this, he returns again to the rocks (ver. 5) ;

"And under it is turned up as it were fire."

In it lie hid " the stones of fire" (Ezek. xxviii. 14) — the sapphire, the onyx, the ruby, and the topaz. But with all this knowledge, there are secrets into which man has not penetrated, paths in which it has not been given him to walk (v. 7) : —

" There is a path which no fowl knoweth, And which the vulture's eye hath not seen."

JOB XVI.-XXX.

361

"Vulture," Heb. ayah, a word which occurs in only other two passages (Lev. xi. 14; Deut. xiv. 13), in which it is rendered kite. This meaning is assigned to it here.

The red kite or glede is one of the most beautiful of the Falconidce. The length of the male is twenty-five inches, that of the female twenty- seven inches. The wings from tip to tip are upwards of five feet, and very powerful. This size of wing gives characteristic beauty to its flight. At one time it may be seen gliding gently along with expanded wing ; at another almost passing out of the spectator's view as it soars

Fig. 106.

The Common Kite (UUvui regalia).

to a very great heiglit. This is the feature referred to here. Let it fly high as it may, let it soar beyond the view of man, there is yet "a path which its eye hath not seen." Several species are to be met with in the region whose scenery is described in the book of Job. Two species are European, namely, the common kite {M. regalis), and the black kite (il/. niger). The fomier used to abound in Britain, but it is now com- paratively rare.

That I\Ioses should have specially noticed the kite in the Levitical

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362 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

arrangements regarding food, was to be expected. It has always been very common in Eygpt. The Arabian kite {M. JEgyptkus) is found even frequenting the towns and villages in the valley of the Nile. It is the most abundant of birds of prey in Eygpt.

"Ophir," see under 2 Chron. ix. 10; "Onyx" (ver. 16), Gen. ii. 12; "Pearls," Rev. xxi. 21; "Rubies" (ver. 18), Lam. iv. 7; "Topaz" (ver. 19j, Exod. xxviii. 17 : —

" No mention shall be made of coral or of pearls : For the price of wisdom is above rubies" (ver. 18).

"Coral," Hcb. rdmotli, is mentioned only here and in Ezck. xxvii. 16. In the latter passage it is named as one of the articles with which Syria traded in the markets of Tyre. This must have come to Syria, througli Arabia, from the Indian Ocean. The most valuable species was the well known "red coral" {his nohilis, Plate XXXVII. fig. 6). This was most likely the form referred to by Job. The root of the word points to one of the tree-like species. Red coral was in ancient times much more valuable than it is now, chiefly because the means of obtaining it w^ere not so easy. See under Ezekiel as above. This species is still dredged from the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. In the latter it is abundant.

Job turns from the grand, general utterances of chapters xxvii. and xxviii, and after a pause he "continues his parable," in terms much more direct and personal than before. "Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me" (xxix. 2). "Months," says Joseph Caryl quaintly, "are measured by the course of the moon, they are called Moons. Job's moon was changed, it was full moon with him once, but now his light is almost gone." In the days of his gladness, God was consciously with him as his guide; "his lamp was upon his head, and by his light he walked through darkness" (ver. 3). Job's dwelling was then a peculiarly blessed place. There friend met friend to commune together concerning the things of God. The secret of God was upon his tabernacle ; view's of God's character and ways which only the friends of God can entertain were held there. In Old Testament times the children of the kingdom were thus abreast of our Lord's first disciples themselves: — "Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth" — the servant has not his secret: "but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I liave made knowm unto you" (John xv. 15). David, too, realized the blessing in this : —

JOB xvi.-xxx. 363

" The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him ; And he will show them his covenant" (Ps. xxv. 14).

In those good days of his youth, his children were about him, his flocks yielded him abundance, and the olive-clad hills supplied him with plenty

of oil : —

" When I washed my steps with butter, And the rock poured me rivers of oil" (ver. 6).

"Butter," Heb. hhemah, see under Deut. xxxii. 14, and Isa. vii. 15.

He compares himself in the days of his prosperity and joy to the tree planted by the waters, and blessed with the good ministry both of the healthful stream, and the rich gifts of the atmosphere ; root and branch alike receiving nourishment.

" My root was spread out by the waters, And the dew lay aU night upon my branch" (ver. 19).

If he had but few friends now, and if those who professed that they were friends brought only sorrow, it was different in the days of his sunshine ; his words were to those about him like rain to the cracked and parched ground, or to the scorched herbage.

" XnA they waited for me as the rain ; And they opened their mouth wide, as for the latter rain" (ver. 23).

Some of the social changes which had accompanied Job's sore sorrows are noted in ch. xxx. 1-15. Chief among them was the attitude to him of those who had risen in prosperity, while he had sunk into poverty and complicated trials. They were people whose fathers he would have disdained to set with the dogs of his flocks, who in former times had been reduced to such straits that they had to flee into the wilderness in search of food, and "who cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat." The juniper roots were obtained from the one-seeded broom {Genista monosperma). See under 1 Kings xix. 4.

"Mallows," Heb. mallualih, is no doubt the Corcliorus oliforius, or Jews' mallow, which is still eaten by the poor in Eygpt, Arabia, and Palestine. "These poor women," writes Dr. Thomson, "who are cutting up mallows by the bushes to mingle with their broth, are only doing that which want and famine, divinely sent, compelled the solitary to do in the days of Job."

The Jews' mallow belongs to the natural order Tiliacece or lime-tree tribe of plants. It is a native of Asia, Africa, and America, and is much cultivated in Syria and Eygpt as a pot-herb. The British common

364

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

mallow (Malva si/Ivesfn's) is an entirely different plant, ranked under the natural order Malvacece, and of old higlily esteemed by the herbalist.

" The ined'cinalle mallows here,

Assuaging sudden tumours ;

The jagged polypodium there

To purge out evil humours." — {Drayton.)

One of this tribe, the edible Hibiscus {H. esculentus) is also used in the south and south-east of Europe as food. It is alluded to by Horace in the poet's prayer —

'' Let olives, endive, mallows light Be all my fare."— (0. .xxsi. B. i.)

It was under the "rothem," or juniper, named here as supplying roots

Fig. 107.

JewB' Mallow t^Corchorus oUtorius).

to the poor, that in after times Elijah took shelter. "I remember," says the author quoted above, "attempting to shelter my aching head from the burning sun under a stunted juniper tree. Yes; and in your disappointment said that, if Elijah's juniper afforded no better shade than yours, it was not at all surprising that he requested for himself

JOB xvi.-xxx. 365

that he might die. And certainly these straggling bushes cast but a doubtful sliade at all times, and lend no effectual protection against such a sun and wind as beat upon us in our 'wilderness.' Still, the prophet slept under one, and the Bedawin do the same, when wandering in the desert, where they often furnish the only shelter that can be found. Job, as translated, has a curious reference to this tree in the 30tli chapter of his remarkable dialogues. He says that those contemptible children 'whose fathers he would have disdained to set with the dogs of his flock,' flee into the wilderness, and for want and famine 'cut up mallows by the bushes, and juniper roots for their meat.' These mallows are a coarse kind of greens, which the poor boil as a relish for their dry bread. I have often seen the children of the poor cutting them up under dry hedges and by the bushes in early spring; so that this rendering seems natural and appropriate to us who reside in the country, and therefore I accept the rendering, without noticing the arguments of learned critics against it. "What sort of juniper can be used for food is more than I can discover or comprehend. They are exceedingly bitter, and nothing but the fire will devour them. Burckhardt found the Beda-^-in of Sinai burning theni into coal, and says that they make the best charcoal, and throw out the most intense heat. The same thing seems to be impHed in Psalm cxx. 4, where David threatens the false tongue 'with sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.' Perhaps the meaning of Job is, that the poor cut up mallows to eat, and juniper roots with which to cook them. This would give a sense in accordance v^ith the known use of these roots, and still preserve the connection with the food of the poor. The Arabic word is retem, the same as the Hebrew; and Forskall calls it genista rcetam. It is, therefore, a species of broom, and not that kind of juniper which bears the famous berries, and whose oil assists in the composition of certain varnishes." — [Dr. Thomson.)

Of "the children of fools" Job goes on to say that they were driven forth to dwell in caves of the earth, and he adds —

" Among the bushes they brayed; Under the nettles they assembled" (ver. 7).

"Nettles," Hebrew hhdrul, belong to the natural ox Aqx Urticacece^ or nettle tribe. As with us, so in the country in which Job dwelt, both the common nettle {Udica choica) and the Roman nettle {U. piluUfera) are to be met with. The plant is mentioned here as characteristic of the wilderness into which the people referred to by Job were forced to retire. Out of this they had come, having prospered until they despised

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him in the day of his sorrow. Their prosperity seemed to have become permanent; but he could say in the bitterness of his soul, "My welfare passeth away as a cloud" (ver. 15). See also under Zeph. ii. 9.

His sorrows continue. "My bones are pierced in the night season: and my sinews take no rest;" expressions vividly descriptive of severe rheumatic pains. "Thou art become cruel unto me." " When I looked for good, then evil came unto me" (verses 17, 21, 2G) :

" I am a brother to dragons, And a companion to o\vls"(vcr. 29).

"Dragons," Heb. fanmnim, see under Gen. i. 21, and Isa. xxxiv. 13. "Owls," Heb. bath ijiindh, literally daughters of the owl, see under

Fig. 108.

Long-i

kl\:d U»l , <Jit

Lev. xi. IG. This expression may be regarded as very general, and as used to include owls of different species. It occurs other seven times — Leviticus as above; Deut. xiv. 15; Isa. xiii. 21; xxxiv. 13; xliii. 20; Jer. 1. 39; Mic. i. 8. "Daughters of the ostrich" is proposed in the margin as an alternative rendering, but owl is better. "Ostrich" (struthos) is given by the LXX., but the passage in Micah indicates a feature which is not found in the ostrich — "I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls."

JOB XXXI.-XLII.

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JOB XXXI.-XLIL

'HE leading thought throughout this chapter is, that Job was so thoroughly conscious of uprightness, as to be willing that any of his bodily members which had been the instru- ments of unjust, harsh, or cruel dealing should be destroyed.

" If I have lifted my hand against the fatherless, When I saw my help in the gate: Let mine arm be broken from the shoulderblade, And mine arm be broken from the bone" — (ver. 21, 22).

The shoulderblade or scapula is the large, flat, triangular bone on the upper part of the back, which forms the shoulder. It is attached to, or articulates with, the collar bone {clavicle) and the bone of the upper arm (Jiumerus). "Arm" in the last clause is the fore-arm, with its two bones — radius and ulna. These details are required to bring out the force of the word hdneh, translated "bone." Its literal meaning is stalk (Gen. xli. 5), or that which is crowned by a head, like corn straw. It afterwards came to be specially applied to a "reed" {arundo), 1 Kings xiv. 15, which see, and later it is rendered a measuring "reed" (Ezek. xl. 3, 5, 6, 7, 8; xlii. 10, 17). Here it is applied to the idna or ell-bone, used in early times for measuring. This use of it is present to the mind of Job, when he expresses his willingness that it should be broken if he has been oppressing the fatherless.

"Let thistles grow instead of wheat." If, he said, I have acted the part of a niggard, a covetous person, and oppressor, let my land turn away from its design when under cultivation ; when I sow wheat let it not spring up, but let thistles come in its place. The word rendered thistle here is koahh, which points to prickly underwood of any or of different sorts (2 Kings xiv. 9). That it is employed by Job in this way is evident from chapter xli. 2, where he asks concerning leviathan —

" Canst thou put a hook in his nose ? Or bore his jaw through with a thorn?"

Thorn in this passage is the translation of the same word, here translated thistle — "As a thorn (hoaJih) goeth up into the hand of a drunkard," says Solomon, " so is a parable in the mouth of fools"

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BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

Fig. 109.

(Prov. xxvi. 9). In Song ii. 2 it is used to bring out the contrast between the lily and its position — "As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters." It is translated brambles in Isaiah xxxiv. 1 3, and thorns in Hosea ix. 6. The various renderings bring out the whole signification of the word as pointing to underwood, in which different species of prickly plants are formed into a thicket (1 Sam. xvii. 6).

" Let cockle grow instead of barley." " Barley," see under Exod. ix. 31 ; Num. v. 15 ; Ruth i. 22.

"Cockle," Heb. boshah. This word occurs only in this place. The

plural form masculine is rendered wild grapes in Isaiah v. 2, 4, a passage which has been too much overlooked in attempts to identify the plant named by Job. The name is derived from a root signifying to stink, and is not to be pressed into a specific meaning. The import of the expression simply is — let any of those weeds which sometimes infest the barley crop, take complete pos- session of the ground, and wholly hinder the growth of the grain which was sown with care, and of which a plentiful harvest was expected. The corn cockle (Agrostemma coronan'a) could not have been present to the mind of Job as one of the bad weeds, since it does not occur in Arabia. Other equally bad ones were before him. All that the passage requires is something of a useless or hurtful kind, to contrast with the barley essential to the sustenance of his house- hold. See also under Isaiah as above. Royle believes that one of the nightshades (Solanacece), common in cultivated grounds both in Syria and Arabia, is referred to. The Arabs call the berry of the night- shade, " wolfs grape." But it is better to give this wide and indefinite signification to the expression.

" So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram

Com Cockle {Affro8temma coronaria).

against Job was his wrath

JOB xxxi.-XLii. 369

kindled, because he justified himself rather than God" (xxxii. 1, 2). While Abraham sojourned at Beersheba, tidings were brought to him that Milcah had born eight children to Nahor his brother. Amonsr these "Buz" is mentioned as the second child, and "Kemuel" as the third. Of the latter it is said that he was " the father of Aram" (Gen. xxii. 20, 21). The father of Elihu was a descendant of Buz, and closely- related to the immediate offspring of Aram, here called Ram. This branch of the Shemites appear to have occupied part o^ Arabia Deserta. " Buz" is afterwards named in the same list with "the kings of the land of Uz," and associated closely with "Dedan and Tema" (Jer. xxv. 23). " But none saitli. Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night ; who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?" (xxxv. 10, 11.) Men, says Elihu, are more alive to men's dealings with them than they are to God's. He works in order to lift up their hearts to him, but in vain. The beasts will groan under oppression, the fowls will beat their wings against the fowler's snare (Plate XL., fig. 3), but this without any true understanding of their position. But God has given man powers equal to seeking after him ; he has in this respect made a wide gulf between him and the beasts or the fowls. Yet none saith, " Where is God my maker?"

"Behold, God is great, and we know him not, Neither can the number of his years be searched out. For he maketli small the drops of water : They pour down rain according to the vapour thereof. Which the clouds do drop and distil on man abundantly. Also can any understand the spreading of the clouds, Or the noise of his tabernacle? Behold, he spreadeth his light upon it. And covereth the bottom of the sea. For by them he judgeth the people ; He giveth meat in abundance. With clouds he covereth the light ; And controUeth what cometh between. The noise of the cloud is its witness, And the cattle concerning its rising" (x.\xvi. 26-33).

The phenomena of rain, and of the modifications of light by the influence of the clouds, are indicated here with great beauty. As the cloud darkens, he said, it becomes its own witness ; the rolling thunder speaks (ver. 33) to the power contained in the cloud. The whole subject of the influence of evaporation on the fertility of the soil, is also testified to by the cattle which rejoice in the rich pastures, which result

VOL. IL 3 a

from those alternations of rain from the sky and vapours from the earth — of bright sunshine, and of ever-changing clouds —

"Those thin white flakes, those purple clouds, Bathed in rich amber-glowing floods of light."

In chapter sxxvii., Elihu continues his illustrations of the power and majesty of God, drawn from the phenomena of thunder, of rain and snow, of the changes of day and night, heat and cold, and of "the balancing of the clouds." A review of this chapter from the point of view of recent discoveries in meteorology, shows how carefully and accurately these appearances were noted in the very earliest times. The lightning flash shone from east to west — " the ends of the earth" — and it was followed by the loud thunder-peal — "After it a voice roareth" (ver. 2, 3). The echoes of peal on peal are pointed to in the words, "He will not stay them, when his voice roareth." The expres- sion, " balancings of the clouds," points to such influence over them as man employs in altering the shape of anything, in bringing it to a definite weight. The scientific classification of the clouds gives us — 1, The Stratus or couch-shaped mass, with its upper and under sur- faces parallel with the horizon. 2, The Cumulus, with its rounded masses ; sometimes to the eye like that seen by the prophet from the top of Carmel, "a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand" (1 Kings xviii. 44) ; at other times they raise to heaven in grandeur their rounded snow-white columns, like mountain piled on mountain. When the slanting beams of the setting sun shoot through them, or linger on their folded margins, the strong expressions of the poets are realized — " the burnished waves," " the lines of purple gold," " the billowy clouds, edged with intolerable radiancy," " the clouds of feathery gold," which —

" Shaded with deepest purple, gleam Like islands on a dark blue sea."

3, The Cirrus, with its hair-like structure, spread as a curtain over the height of heaven. These are the mackerel clouds, the mares' tails, the streamers, &c., of the vulgar, popularly yet truly held to indicate a falling temperature, and to forebode speedy atmospheric changes — the coming of wind, or rain, or icy cold. Plates XXII., XXIII.

Elihu concludes his appeals by again referring to the unsearchable glory and excellency of Jehovah — " We cannot find him out." Job is silent too. "Then the Lord answered him out of the whirlwind," in

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JOB XXXI.-XLII.

the matchless language of chapters xxxviii.-xl. His sovereign and absolute power ; his glory, as the eternal God and creator of all tilings ; his constant care over all his creatures ; his might and majesty, seen in the greatest of the beasts which he has made ; his complete control of all those laws under which nature is put — are all set before us in words of incomparable grandeur, beauty, and force —

" Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? Or bast thou walked in the search of the depth? Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? Or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?"

Trench, on the miracle of "the walking on the sea," says: — " Euse- bius finds a special fulfilment of these words of Job in this miracle of our Lord, as also he finds in these waves the symbol of a mightier and wilder sea, even that of sin and death, which Christ trod under his feet when he, in a far higher sense than that in which the words were first spoken —

' metus omnes et inexorabile fatum Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari ;'

and he quotes Psalm Ixxiv. 13, 14 — ' Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength : thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest them to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness;' and Job xxxviii. 16, 17, where the Almighty says to man — ' Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea ? or hast thou walked in the search of the depth ? Have the gates of death been opened unto thee ? and hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?' that is, Hast thou done this as I have done?"

" Hast thou entered into the treasures of the sno^\ ? Or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail ? Out of whose womb came the ice? And the hoar-frost of heaven, who gendered it?" (ver. 22, 29.)

The reader is referred to Plates XXIV., XXX., for illustrations of the great variety of forms which crystals of snow and hail, and of the hoar-frost assume. A glance at the figures will show what treasures of symmetry and beauty are hid in every flake of snow, and every stone of the hail.

"Canst thou bind the sweet influences cf Pleiades, Or loose the bands of Orion ? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season ? Or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?" (ver. 31, 32.)

"Pleiades," "Orion," "Arcturus," are noticed under chapter ix.

OiZ BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

"Mazzarotli," literally the Forewarners, denotes the signs of the zodiac or path in the heavens which the sun seems to describe by the eartli's revolution around it. It ia divided into twelve equal parts of thirty degrees. Each part is represented by a sign, as Sagittarius, the Archer ; Scorjn'o, the Scorpion ; Libra, the Balance, &c. The zodiac contains all the stars which lie in the so-called path of the sun. These luminaries are seen to traverse the circle once a year, and thus different parts of it receive them monthly. Thus their place as signs.

"The wild goats of the rock," or the yehelim (xxsix. 1), the Hebrew name for the ibex [Capra ibex, Plate XXII. fig. 1). When the hinds calve, "their young ones are in good liking, they grow up with corn; they go forth and return not unto them" (ver. 4). " Corn," see under Gen. xlii. 3.

"Who liatli sent out the wild ass free? Or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass ? Whose house I liave made the wilderness, And the barren land his dwellings, lie scorneth the multitude of the city, Neither regardeth he the crying of the driver. The range of the mountains is his pasture, And he searcheth after every green thing" (ver. 5-8).

"The wild ass," 'Roh. pereh, in the first clause of verse 5, and drod, in the second. Two species seem to be referred to here. Have we any distinct traces of them in those regions with which Job must have been more or less acquainted? In the deserts of Syria, Mesopotamia, and Northern Arabia, the so-called " wild horse" of recent travellers is still abundant. It is not, however, a horse, but a true ass {Asinns hemippus; the Equus Asinus onager of some naturalists). In the wild uplands of Thibet, and thence northward into Mongolia and Southern Siberia, another species is abundant. This is the "dshitggetai " or " kijang" {Asimis hemionus; Equus hemioniis of Pallas). The former answers to the drod of Job, the latter to the pereli. Another wild ass is named in some parts of India, the "ghor-khur," or "koulan." This has by many been held a distinct species ; but Mr. E. Blyth has recently shown that is to be regarded as a variety only. Mr. Layard met the hemippus in the desert of Tel Afer, in his way from the Sinjar to Mosul: — "We attempted to follow them. After running a little distance, they stopped to gaze at us, and I got suflSciently near to see them well ; but as soon as they found that we were in pursuit, they hastened their speed, and were soon lost in the distance." He adds in a note ("Nineveh and its

pr.ATF 24

CRYSTALS OP SNOW AND HAIL.— Job xnria U.

DIAGRAM OP THE SEASONS.— Qes. vui. 22.

JOB XXXI. -xLii. 373

Remains," vol. i., 323) : — "The reader will remember that Xenophon mentions these beautiful animals, which he must have seen during his march in these very plains. He faithfully describes the country, and the animals and birds which inhabit it, as they are to this day, except that the ostrich is not now to be found so far north. ' The country,' says he, ' was a plain throughout, as even as the sea, and full of worm- wood ; if any other kinds of shrubs or reeds grew there, they had all an aromatic smell ; but no trees appeared. Of wild creatures, the most numerous were wild asses, and not a few ostriches, besides bustards and roe-deer (gazelles), which our horsemen sometimes chased. The asses, when they were pursued, having gained ground of the horses, stood still (for they exceeded them much in speed) ; and when these came up with them, they did the same thing again ; so that our horse- men could take them by no other means but by dividing themselves into relays, and succeeding one another in the chase. The flesh of those that were taken was like that of the red deer, but more tender ' (' Expedition of Cyrus'). In fleetness they equal the gazelle ; and to match them is a feat which only one or two of the most celebrated mares have been known to accomplish. The Arabs sometimes catch the foals during the spring, and bring them up with milk in their tents. I endeavoured in vain to obtain a pair. They are of a light fawn colour — almost pink. The Arabs still eat their flesh." See also under Psalm civ. 11.

The true rendering of verse 13 is referred to under 2 Chron. ix. 21 ; which see. The peculiarities of the ostrich, noticed in verses 13-18, are her joy in the flapping of her wings — "goodly wings are glad" — her habits of nesting, and her great speed. Shaw long ago pointed out the truthfulness to nature of this description of the ostrich {Stndhio camelus). The great number of observers since his day have corrobo- rated his notices. As to this flapping of the wings, implied in the original, he says : — " Whilst I was abroad, I had several opportunities of amusing myself with the actions and behaviour of the ostrich. It was very diverting to observe, with what dexterity and equipoise of body it would play and frisk about on all occasions. In the heat of the day particularly, it would strut along the sunny side of the house with great majesty. It would be perpetually fanning and priding itself with its quivering expanded wings ; and seem, at every turn, to admire and be in love with its shadow. Even at other times, whether walking about or resting itself upon the ground, the wings would continue these fanning vibrating motions, as if they were designed to mitigate and

374 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

assuage that extraordinary heat, wherewith their bodies seem to be naturally affected."

They pair at breeding season, and are not polygamous. The hen lays her eggs in a nest, or rather hole, dug by the feet in the sand. This hole sometimes contains as many as forty eggs. The hens gener- ally watch them closely. They are, however, frequently left to be hatched by the warmth of the sun. Almost the only evidence of care which the hen shows, is seen in depositing a certain number of eggs around the nest. These are not covered by the sand, and are not hatched, but they serve as food for the chicks, when they burst their shells. Shaw adds: — "Yet, notwithstanding the ample provision which is hereby made for a numerous offspring, scarce one quarter of these eggs are ever supposed to be hatched ; and of those that are, no small share of the young ones may perish with hunger, from being left loo early by their dams to shift for themselves. For in these, the most barren and desolate recesses of the Sahara, where the ostrich chooses to make her nest, it would not be enough to lay eggs and hatch them, unless some proper- food was near at band, and already prepared for their nourishment. And accordingly, we are not to consider this large collection of eggs as if they were all intended for a brood ; they are, the greatest part of them, reserved for food, which the dam breaks and disposes of, according to the number and the cravings of her young ones.

" But yet, for all this, a very little share of that sforge, or natural affection, which so strongly exerts itself in most other creatures, is observable in the ostrich. For upon the least distant noise, or trivial occasion, she forsakes her eggs or her young ones, to which perhaps she never returns ; or, if she does, it may be too late either to restore life to the one, or to preserve the lives of the others. Agreeably to this account, the Arabs meet sometimes with whole nests of these eggs undisturbed ; some of which are sweet and good ; others are addle and corrupted ; others again have their young ones of different growths, according to the time, it may be presumed, they have been forsaken by the dam. They oftener meet a few of the little ones, no bigger than well-grown pullets, half starved ; straggling and moaning about, like so many distressed orphans, for tlieir mother. And in this manner the ostrich may be said (ver. 16) 'to be hardened against her young ones, as though tliey were not hers ; her labour (in hatching and attending them so far) being in vain, without fear,' or the least concern of what becomes of them afterwards. This want of affection is also recorded in

JOB XXXI.-XLII. 375

Lam. iv. 3 — ' The daughter of my people,' says the prophet, 'is cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.'" — i^" Travels," ii. 3-iO.)

Dr. Livingstone's notices of the ostrich shed light on other aspects of its habits as referred to in this passage. Of its speed, he says : — " When the ostrich is feeding, his pace is from twenty to twenty-two inches ; when walking, but not feeding, it is twenty-six inches ; and when terrified, as in the case noticed, it is from eleven and a half to thirteen and even fourteen feet in length. Only in one case was I at all satisfied of being able to count the rate of speed by a stop watch, and, if I am not mistaken, there were thirty in ten seconds ; generally one's eye can no more follow the legs than it can the spokes of a carriage-wheel in rapid motion. If we take the above number, and twelve feet stride as the average pace, we have a speed of twenty-six

miles an hour The ostrich begins to lay her eggs

before she has fixed on a spot for a nest, which is only a hollow a few inches deep in the sand, and about a yard in diameter. Solitary eggs, named by the Bechuanas 'lesetla,' are thus found lying forsaken all over the country, and become a prey to the jackal. She seems averse to risking a spot for a nest, and often lays her eggs in that of another ostrich, so that as many as forty-five have been found in one nest." —("Travels," pp. 153-155.)

The ostrich appears to have been much more widely distributed in Asia in ancient times than it is now. On the Asiatic continent it is chiefly, if not altogether, confined to Southern Arabia. (Plate XXV., fig. 1.)

The description of the war-horse (ver. 19-25) is incomparably grand. His strength, his streaming mane, his noble boundings, his snorting — "the glory of his nostrils" — his eagerness for the fight as his highlv sensitive frame catches the spirit of his dauntless rider, his behaviour on the battlefield amidst the clash of arms, the shouts of victors, the groans of the dying, are all set before us in language unmatched for its sublimity and force : —

" He mocketli at fear, and is not affrighted ; Neither turneth he back from the sword. The quiver rattleth against him, The glittering spear and the sword."

Every line indicates how thoroughly the spirit of the warrior was sym- pathized with by his horse. Indeed, no other of the domestic animals, with the exception of the dog, comes so easily under the power of man, or is so readily impressed by the nervous characteristics of his owner.

37G

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

A horse which is sure-paced, steady, and willing for any effort with one rider, becomes foltering, unsteady, and shy with another. He returns trust at once, but is always ill at ease when he feels he must take care of his rider.

The questioning again changes abruptly. The same power which

Fig. no.

stands so grandly out in the war- horse, is wielded in controlling and directing the birds of prey. The habits of the hawk (ver. 26) are regulated by the wisdom of the Crea- tor ; and if the eagle mount up on high, or dwell in "the strong place," it is all in obedience to his command (ver. 28)—

" Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, And stretch her winss towards the south?"

" Hawk," Heb. 7ietz. This term is very general, and may include any of the Falcom'clce, which are known to change their abode at particular seasons ; the reference in this question being, no doubt, to the partial migration of the birds named. Several particulars in this chapter are suggestive of a cultivated plain stretching in the direction of the desert (ver. 10 with ver. 14). The habits of the peregrine folcon would thus answer the description. At the breeding season it betakes itself to mountainous districts, where it can breed in security. See under Levit. xi. 13, for the notice of verses 27-30.

"Behold now Behemoth, which I made with thee; He eateth grass as an ox. Lo, now, his strength is in his loins, And his force in the navel of his belly. He moveth his tail like a cedar : The tendons of his haunches are \\Tapped together. His bones are as strong pieces of brass ; His bones are like bars of iron. He is the chief of the ways of God : He that made him can make his weapon approach. Surely the mountains bring him forth food,

Pei-ogrine Falcon (Fulco pereffrinus).

QAVEST THOU W1NG3 AND FEATHEB8 UNTO THE OSTBICH?— Job xxili. 13.

U Himltivus /)i'/tifs/i, i,'',-i f,

YE ENOW NOT WHEN THE MASTER COMETH, AT COCKCEOWING, OE IN THE MORNING.— Mark lili. 35.

JOB XXXI.-XLII.

377

Where all the beasts of the field play.

lie lieth under the shady trees.

In the covert of the reeds and fens.

The shady trees cover him with their shadow ;

The willows of the brook compass him about.

Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not :

He trusteth that he can draw uji Jordan into his mouth.

He taketh it with his eyes;

His nose pierceth through snares" (xl. 15-24).

The elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, and the extinct mammoth (!) have been severally proposed as the Behemoth of Job. It would be very unprofitable to repeat the arguments which have been used in favour of each by their advocates. The now well known hippopotamus (//. amphibias, Plate XXVI., fig. 3) may be regarded as answering best to the highly poetical description of behemoth in this passage. Those who have appealed to the mention of Jordan (ver. 23) as opposed to the claims of the hippopotamus, cannot have been aware that the designation means any "rapid river."

Behemoth's place of feeding is said to be the mountains (ver. 20). This finds a striking corroboration in Dr. Livingstone's interesting notice of the hippopotamus observed on the Lceanihje. " The rapids," he says, " in the part of the river between Katimamolelo and Nameta are relieved by several reaches of still deep water, fifteen or twenty miles long. In these, very large herds of hippopotami are seen, and the deep furrows they make, in ascending the banks to graze during the night, are everywhere apparent. They are guided back to the water by the scent ; but a long-continued pouring rain makes it impos- sible for them to perceive, by that means, in which direction the river lies, and they are found standing bewildered on the land. The hunters take advantage of their helplessness on these occasions to kill them. It is impossible to judge of the numbers in a herd, for they are almost hidden beneath the waters ; but as they require to come up every few minutes to breathe, when there is a constant succession of heads thrust up, then the herd is supposed to be large. They love a still reach of the stream, as in the more rapid parts of the channel they are floated down so quickly, that much exertion is necessary to regain the distance lost, by frequently swimming up again — such con- stant exertion disturbs them in their nap. They prefer to remain by day in a drowsy yawning state, and though their eyes are open, they take little notice of things at a distance. The males utter a loud

succession of snorting grunts, which may be heard a mile off. The VOL. n. 3 B

378 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

caiioe in which I was, in passing over a wounded one, elicited a distinct grunting, though the animal lay entirely under water. The young, wlien very little, take their stand on the neck of the dam, and the small head, rising above the large, comes soonest to the surface. The dam, knowing the more urgent need of her calf, comes more frequently to the surface when it is in her care. But in the rivers of Sunda, where they are much in danger of being shot, even the hippopotamus gains wit by experience ; for while those in the Zambesi put up their heads openly to blow, those referred to keep their noses among water plants and breathe so quietly that one would not dream of their existence in the river, except by footprints on the banks."

" Canst thou draw out leviathan witli an hook ? Or his tongue with a cord which thou letttst dowu? Canst thou put an hook into his nose ? Or bore his jaw through with a thorn '? Will he make many supplications unto thee ? Will he speak soft words unto thee ? Will he make a covenant with thee? Wilt thou take him for a servant for ever? Wilt thou phiy with him as with a bird? Or wilt thou bind liim for thy maidens ? Shall thy companions make a banquet of liim ? Shall they part him among the merchants? Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons ? Or liis head with fish spears ? Lay thine hand upon him, Kemember the battle, do no more. Behold, the hope of him is iu vain : Shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him ? None is so fierce that dare stir him up : Who then is able to stand before me? Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him ? Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine. I will not conceal his parts, nor his power. Nor his comely proportion. Who can discover the face of his garment ? Or who can come to him with his double briuU^? Who can open the doors of his face ? Ills teeth are terrible round about. His scales are his pride, Shut up together as with a close seal. One is so near to another, That no air can come between them. They are joined one to another, They stick together, that they cannot be sundered.

ri.rn: 26

JEK. XII. 9. f/ Stnutfi Sill/',;/ lh<ni,i

KJlllHH i-i'US

JOli XI,. IS— 21.

////'/''•/"•''"'I'l' (iliij'lllhllis J]lf>j>i<l'ol,iliiii.'

JOB xxxi.-xLii. 379

By his neesings a light doth shine,

And his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.

Out of his mouth go burning lamps,

And sparks of fire leap out.

Out of his nostrils goeth smoke,

As out of a seething-pot or cauldron.

His breath kindleth coals.

And a flame goeth out of his mouth.

In his neck remaineth strength.

And sorrow is turned into joy before him.

The Hakes of his flesh are joined together:

They are firm in themselves ; they cannot be moved.

His heart is as firm as a stone ;

Yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone.

When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid :

By reason of breakings they purify themselves.

The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold ;

The spear, the dart, nor the habergeon.

He esteemeth iron as straw,

And brass as rotten wood.

The arrow cannot make him flee :

Sling-stones are turned with him into stubble.

Darts are counted as stubble :

He laugheth at the shaking of a spear.

Sharp stones are under him :

He spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire" (xli).

The question of tlie identity of the animal referred to in tliese sublime utterances, has been as fruitful of controversy as that regardino- behemoth. Little notice requires to be taken of the literature of this subject. We must be guided wholly by the Scripture references as to the use of the word, and the approach of any living animal in its general features to this poetical description.

" Leviathan," Heb. h'njdflu'm. The word occurs six times in the Old Testament. Its root points to something icrcathal or ticistcd. When Job curses his day, it has been rendered ■mourniwj by our translators —

" Let them curse it that curse the day. Who are ready to raise up their mourning" (iii. 8).

The meaning seems to be that of marshalling against tlie liirthday arrival anything that would lead men to regard it with fear and loathing, as men do leviathan. In Psalm Ixxiv. 14, it is evidently inter- changeable with dragons (tanm'n), which certainly means crocodiles; the reference being to the discomfiture of Egypt at the time of the Exodus : —

380 niBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

'• Tliou didst divide the sea by thy strength : Tlioii braki'st the heads of tlie dragons in the waters. Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces."

When celebrating the wisdom, power, and goodness of God in creation, the Psalmist says : —

"The earth is full of thy riches. So is this great and wide sea, Wlierein are things creeping innumerable, Both small and great beasts. There go the ships ; There is that leviathan, whom then hast made to jjlay therein " (civ. 24-26).

Tlie nssociatioii of llio animal in this passage witli the sea, forbids us

Fi^- in.

Crocoiiilxu SUolicus,

to hold that the crocodile is referred io. Thongh the crocodile used to abound in the Delta, its habitat is fresh water — the river, and not the sea. The only alternative is to regard it as pointing to one of tlie order Cetacea, or whales. The dolphins abound in the Mediterranean ; but these do not answer this description. The spermaceti whale {Physetcr macrocej/J/dhifi) or blunt-headed cachalot has been observed in the Mediterranean ; and though its visits may now be as rare as to our own shores, in ancient times, when the waters were comparatively little disturbed, it may have been a frequent visitor. (Plate III., fig. 1.) The only other reference is Isaiah xxvii. 1 — " In that day the Lord, with his sore, and great, and strong sword, shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea." The name here is used sym- bolically, for some great opjjrcssive power, most likely Babylonia.

None of these passages help much to identify the animal named leviathan. But an examination of the cliajjter under notice, clearly points to one of tlie family Crocodih'ch', or crocodiles. His stupid ferocity, his tremendous strength, his nose, his terrible teeth, the fire in his sharp piercing eyes, the foldings of his flesh, his scales which turn darts aside as harndess, and the tremendous lash of his tail, are all highly characteristic of the huge full-grown crocodile of the Nile {Crocodihis vidgarin — C. m'/of/'c/is, Plate XXVII., figs. 2, 2). Other

JOB XXXI. -XLII. 381

two species are introduced on Plate XXVII., for the sake of comparison — the gavial or Indian crocodile {Gavial/'s gangetiais, figs. 1, 1); and the jacare or spectacled alligator {Jacare sclerojjs, figs. 3, 3). "The large front teeth of the gavials fit into a notch in the front of the upper jaw, and the canines into a notch also. In the crocodiles the canines fit into a notch, as in the gavials, but the large front teeth fit into a pit or perforation in the front of the upper jaw ; and in the alligators, both the canine and large front teeth fit into pits or perforations in tlie edge of the upper jaw." — {Gray.) See also Plate IX., figs. 1, 2, and 3, for illustrations of skeletons of alligator, crocodile, and gavial.

Herodotus gives an account of the crocodile which, though graphic and interesting, has in several particulars given rise to erroneous notions in the popular literature of science. He says — " The following is the nature of the crocodile. During the four coldest months it eats nothing, and though it has four feet it is amphibious. It lays its eggs on land, and there hatches them. It spends the greater part of the day on dry ground, but the whole night in the river ; for the water is then warmer than the air and dew. Of all living things with which we are acquainted, this, from the least beginning, grows to be the largest. For it lays eggs little larger than those of a goose, and the young is at first in proportion to the Qgg ; but when grown up it reaches to the length of seventeen cubits, and even more. It has the eyes of a pig, large teeth, and projecting tusks, in proportion to the body ; it is the only animal that has no tongue ; it does not move the lower jaw, but is the only animal that brings down its upper jaw to the under one. It has strong claws, and a skin covered with scales, that cannot be broken on the back. It is blind in the water, but very quick-sighted on land ; and because it lives for the most part in the water, its mouth is filled with leeches. All other birds and beasts avoid him, but he is at peace with the trochilus, because he receives benefit from that bird. For when the crocodile gets out of the water on land, and then opens its jaws, which it does most commonly towards the west, the trochilus enters its mouth and swallows the leeches; the crocodile is so well pleased with this service that it never hurts the trochilus." The pretty story of the trochilus and the leeches is unfortunately more than doubt- ful. Leeches are not found in the Nile, nor have modern observers been able to corroborate the pleasant tale of the father of history. The bird referred to is one of the plovers {Pluvius cpgyptictis), which is attracted to the neighbourhood of the crocodile to pick up the flies, &c., which surround him when he takes to the banks of the Nile for repose.

382

BIBLICAL NATUEAL SCIENCE.

The lair of behemoth is under the shady trees which fringe the banks of the river, and in the covert of the reed (kdneh) and fens {hi'tzdJi) ver. 21. In chapter viii. 11, and in Ezek. xlvii. 11, the hitter word is rendered "mire" and "miry places" respectively. It indicates such a position as reed-like vegetation delights in. For the fuller consider- ation of "reed," see under Exod. ii. 3, xxx. 23; 1 Kings xiv. 15; 2 Kings xviii. 21 ; Isa. xix. 6, xxx v. 7; and Matt. xi. 7.

The following species may be named as occurring in the haunts of behemoth: — Of the Sedge family (Ci/peracece), the Nile reed or galan- Fi2.n2. gal {Cyperus m'lotica), and the true bul-

rush [Scirpus lacustn's), the reed-like .,■ crrasses(6^;'aTO?Ha<?eff'), the common arrow

jed (Arundo chnax), the common mea- low reed {A.phragmi'tes), Egyptian sugar _ ,, ,^^^B^^H^H^^^, cdne {SaccJiaritm cf/Imdnciim), and the ''' ^^^B j/^^^P-^^^B beard grass {Andropogon arundinacea). "Z^fifp- '^'*^' '^^***^^3 -- ^"'^'^^ As to the true paper reed ( Cyp. papyrus), ^^" ' '"" the prophecy of Isaiah has been literally

fulfilled — " it is withered, driven awav, Birropou,musar.pj,mus. j^,^^} j^^ morc." Tlus euumcration includes

only a few of the best known and outstanding species. A great many more flourish luxuriantly in the same localities, which have been described as " dense thickets of reeds."

Job had beheld the glory of God, and acknowledged himself vile (xl. 4). Light from heaven broke in on his heart and his house (xlii. 10, 11). " And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, wlicn he prayed for his friends: also tlie Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintatice Jaefore, and did eat bread with him in his house ; and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him : every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an ear-ring of gold." " Piece of money," or kesitak (ancient Hebrew). Pieces of money may be reckoned thus : —

s d.

Gerah, 1 -20th of a shekel, 0 1^

Agora, 5 gerahs, or l-4th of a shekel, . . . .0 7^

Bekah, 10 gerahs, or half a shekel, . . . . . 1 .3

SUfkel, 20 gerahs, or 2 bekahs, . . . . . .26

Kesitah, 4 shekels, . . . . . . . .10 0

"Kesitah," see also under Genesis xii. IG.

a en

o

o o

a 3

3

PSALMS I.-XXII.

383

PSALMS I.-XXII.

HE leatling thoughts in this precious psalm (i.) are the

blessedness of the righteous and the misery of the wicked.

The strong and confident expressions touching the character

of the former, have their origin in the apprehension, on the

■ part of the Psalmist, of the grand truth brought fully to

light in the gospel of Jesus Christ, that "the righteousness of

the law is fulfilled in those who walk not after the flesh, but

after the Spirit" (Rom. viii. 4. 8).

" Happy is the man Who walketh not in tlie counsel of the erring, Nor standeth in the way of the wicked, Nor sittcth in the seat of the scornful : But his delight is in the law of Jehova ; And in his la^y doth he meditate day and night."

Passing from both negative and positive marks of the blessed one, he defines and illustrates the "blessedness' verse third : —

under the beautiful figure of

" And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of waters. That bringeth forth his fruit in his season ; His leaf also shall not wither, And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper."

What is the species of tree referred to here? It will be shown under Psalm xxxvii. 35 that it is not likely the bay-tree {Laurus nohilis) was ever so well known hi Palestine as to enter into the popular religious songs of the people. It is, indeed, doubtful if this beautiful tree be ever named by Scripture writers. " The cause," says Dr. Royle, " why the laurel is not more frequently mentioned, is probably because it was never very common in Palestine; as otherwise, from its pleasing appearance, grateful shade, and the agreeable odour of its leaves, it could hardly have failed to attract attention." The tree which, both from its beauty, its abundance, and its habits of growth, best answers the similitude of the psalmist is the Oleander or Rose bay {Neriuvi Oleander) one of the natural order of plants the dog-banes (Apoa/naceoe).

384 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

"There is one tree," says Dr. Stanley, "only to be found in the valley of the Jordan, but too beautiful to be entirely passed over — the oleander, with its bright blossoms and dark green leaves, giving the aspect of a garden to any spot where it grows." The oleander flourishes lu.xuriantly on the western shores of the lake of Gennesaret. Thus Keble's lines —

" What went you out to see

O'er the rude sandy lea Where stately Jordan flows by many a palm,

Or where Gennesaret's wave

Delights the flowers to lave, That o'er her western slope breathe airs of b;ilra ?

All through the summer night

Those blossoms red and bright Spread their soli breasts, unheeding, to the breeze,

Like hermits watching stUl

Around the sacred hill. Where erst our Saviour watch'd upon his knees."

Psalm ii. — After Peter and John were released from prison (Acts iv.) they went to their own company and "repeated all that the priests and elders had said unto them" (ver. 23). Then all lifted up their hearts to God, as one " who by the mouth of his servant David had said. Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?" They then apply verse 2 of this psalm to Jesus. This makes it certain how the Jews looked on the psalm, when under the direct teaching of the Holy Ghost. Among the promises of the Father to the eternal Son there is named here "the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession"— a promise equal to the spread of Christ's kingdom over the whole world.

Psalm iv. — The experience of David set forth in this psalm may legitimately be regarded as the type of certain aspects of the experience of Christ and of his church in him. It is not of prime importance to determine the exact historical incident which called forth tliis utterance of the "man after God's heart." It may have been the revolt of Absalom. Strong confidence in God is throughout the leading thought. One forcible illustration of tiiis is given in verse 7 —

'' Thou hast put gladness in my heart, More than in the time that their corn and wiue increased."

Many had begun to despair. They saw the enemy prospering, while they were sore pressed and in straits. Verse 7 indicates that the psalmist had triumphed over all. He had felt warmth and strength

PSALMS I.-XXU. 385

in the light of the Lord's countenance (ver. G) ; and as one made glad with a joy which the abundance of earth could not give, nor the poverty of earth take away, he could add (ver. 8) —

" I \vill both lay me clown in peace, and sleep : For thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety."

The word rendered "corn" is one of several used in scripture to distinguish grain in general. Two of these have been noticed under Genesis xlii. 2, 3. A third {dagdri) occurs here. Though indefinite, several shades of meaning are attached to it. Of the country which became the portion of the chosen people it is said — "The fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine" (Dent, xxxiii. 28). It is joined with wine both here and in Gen. xxviii. 28, 37; Numb, xviii. 12, 37; Dent. vii. 13, xi. 14, xii. 17, xiv. 23; 2 Kings xviii. 32; Isa. xxxvi. 17; Jer. xxxi. 12; Lam. ii. 12; Hos. ii. 8; and Zech. ix. 17. All the cereals whose first fruits were to be offered unto the Lord are included under this term; Deut. xviii. 4. The Psalmist in another song dwells on it with much satisfaction as God's special gift to man : —

" Thou visitest the earth and waterest it ; Thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God which is full of water : Thou preparest them corn when thou hast so provided it " (Ixv. 9).

In Psalm Ixxviii. 24, the term is associated with the manna given in the wilderness : —

" And had rained down manna upon them to eat, And had given them of the corn of heaven."

The frequency with which this word (ddgdn) is associated with wine suggests the question — Is the term translated wine in this psalm as general in its scope ? A cursory glance even at the passages in which this word (tlrdsh) is employed shows, that it corresponds with the some- what vague meaning given to corn. As ddgdn includes all cereals, so tlrdsh is used for the grape in all its stages, and for any one preparation from it likewise (Deut. xi. 14).

Psalm viii. — Several points in this psalm claim attention. The out- standing thoughts in it are — the soul's apprehension of the glory and excellency of God in creation, man's acknowledgment of his own insignificance, and his testimony to the grace of God in having originally assigned to man the place of head over all his creatures. And, no doubt, this was the point of view from wliich it was regarded by the church before the manifestation of Christ in the flesh. After that event the Holy Spirit of God taught man to look at it in another light altogether. In

VOL. II. 3 c

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Heb. ii. 6-8, it is applied to Jesus as the "Son of Man," and the "Son of God :" — " But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest liim? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels ; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands : thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet." As Jesus walked about among men he ever realized his standing as in this psalm. Thus when the children of Jerusalem shouted " Hosanna" before him, he accepted their praise as the fulfilment of ver. 2 (Rlatt. xxi. IG). He is Lord of nature ; " the heavens are the work of his fingers, he has ordained the moon and the stars;" but the Father is seen by the Psalmist in this character, and the Son is spoken of as man, and the son of man : —

" What is man that thou art mindful of him ? And the son of man that thou visitest him ?" (ver. 4.)

" Man " in the first clause is enosli, that is, man bearing evil, and frail because of this. In the second clause "man" is adam — the earth- made one. And to this answers the twofold standing of Christ : — He bare our sins in his own body — became enosh — and as such " he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." He took a " true body and a reasonable soul" — true manhood, a child of Adam, the "son of man." In this twofold aspect of his nature as " for man," the Father greatly honours him, calls him "his beloved son," and leads the Psalmist in the spirit of prophecy to celebrate his glory as over all nature : —

" Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands : Thou liast put all things under his feet : All sheep and oxen, Yea, and the beasts of the field ; Tlie fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, And whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas."

Psalm xi. — In times of trial from the wicked, it is the privilege of the servant of God to continue devoted to the cause of his Lord. Many will urge him to forsake his post and consult his safety, but he must be steadfast to his testimony. This is the condition of matters described in this psalm. The opening words contain David's remonstrance to those who were eagerly urging him to escape the bent bow and set arrow of the wicked : —

" In the Lord put I my trust : How say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain ? "

Tilt- Suvni/is-h. FISHES OF TUE "GEEAT SEA."— Ps. vui. &

PSALMS I.-XXII. 387

When the hunter lias brought his bow to his eye, and the arrow is already on the string, flight is the bird's only hope. The carnal eye could not see that the analogy would not hold true. David was already his " mountain." His trust was in Jehova, and he was in good in keeping : —

" His eyes behold, His eyelids try, the children of men. His countenance doth behold the upright " (ver. 4, 7).

Psalm xvii. — Hengsterberg says — "This psalm has many coincidences with Psalm xvi., which are so important that they favour the idea of both psalms having been united by the author into one pair." This consideration has justly strengthened the belief that Christ speaks here as the suffering Saviour. In the opening verse he appeals to his Father: —

" Hear the right, O Lord, attend unto my cry."

He felt that he stood on slippery ground as one bearing the sins of many, and was constantly watched by the Adversary : —

" Hold up my goings in thy paths, That my footsteps slip not " (ver. 5).

But even as man, and the servant of Jehova standing as head and representative of his people, he had taken refuge in the Father : —

" Keep me as the apple of the eye; Hide me under the shadow of thy ^\-ings " (ver. 8).

" Apple of the eye," see Ueut. xxxii. 10. The " shadow of the wing" points to such safety, warmth, and comfort, as the bird enjoys under the shelter of the wing, and among the soft feathers of the parent bird. The wicked were strong upon him. They taunted him with proud words, they compassed his steps to hurt him, and were ready to pounce on him like " evil beasts" on their prey :■ —

" Like as a lion that is greedy for its prey, And as it were a young lion lurking in secret places " (ver. 12).

"Lion," Heb. ariyeli; "young lion," hepliir. The former word is fully noticed under 1 Sam. xvii. 34. The latter points to the shaggy appearance of young lions. It occurs above thirty times, and is for the most part rendered as in this place. It is translated " lion" in Prov. xix. 12, XX. 2, xxviii. 1.

Psalm xviii. is given in 2 Samuel xxii. — "David spake unto the Lord

388

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

the words of this song, in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul." The imagery used throughout is highly figurative. In describing some forms of God's self-manifestation, the Psalmist says : —

" And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly : Yea, he did fly upon the wings of the mnd" (ver. 10).

" Cherub" is used here as meaning an agent employed by God in Fig.,,3 his great scheme of providence. The

riding points to the place in the chariot. The phrase is thus virtually, that God uses such agents as man would his chariot, in setting out to some great undertaking. The win":s of the wind are the clouds.

" The Lord thundered iu the heavens, And the Highest gave his voice ; Hailstones and coals of fire" (ver. 13).

See under Psalm xxix. The " coals of fire" were the lightning flashes which jpauiM. accompanied the peals of thunder.

" He maketh my feet like hind's feet, And setteth me on my high places" (ver. 33).

" Hind," Ileb. aydlCih, the female of the hart. See under Deut. xii. 22. Allusions to the swiftness of this deer (Cervus elaphas) occur also in Gen. xlix. 21 ; 2 Sam. xxii. 34; Hab. iii. 19. Bochart proposed to render ajjfilCtli in the first passage by "goodly tree." But the use of the word in other passages is against this. The terror of the hind in a thunder-storm is noticed in Psalm xxix. 9. The word occurs in other three passages, namely. Job xxxix. 1 ; Song ii. 7, iii. 5.

Psalm xix. — The ministry of blessing yielded by the heavens to the earth, is stated and illustrated in verses 1-6. Unceasingly and universally the orbs of heaven declare God's glory. Chief among these is the sun, from whose heat nothing is hid. Leaving the Works of God, he bends his mind to the Word of God. The glory of Jehovah in the heavens becomes naturally suggestive of his glory in the reve- lation which he has made of himself to man in the law. The Psalmist has the whole written word in A-iew; and in verses 7-11 he dwells on the purity, preciousness, pleasantness, and profitable character of the law of the Lord : —

PSALMS I.-XXII. 389

" The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul : The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple : The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart : The commandment of the Lord is pure, enliglitening tlic eyes : The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever : The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, much fine gold ; Sweeter also than honey, and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned : And in keeping of them there b great reward."

Gold is tlie most precious of metals, he says; but though it might "answer all things," the revelation of God to man is better, more precious, more to be desired even than the fine gold itself Honey, he adds, is the sweetest of all known substances, but still the word which tells man of a heart of gi-ace and fatherliness in God, is more pleasant to the taste even than the purest of honey — that which drops from the comb itself.

"Honey," Heb. devdsJ/, see under Judg. xiv. 8; 2 Kings xviii. 32; and 2 Chron. xxxi. 5. The word used here for honeycomb is nopheth, literally the droppings. Thus the rendering in the margin. The term comes to be used for that from which the honey drops — the honeycomb. The lips of " the strange woman" are said to " drop as an honeycomb" (Prov. v. 3). The youth is exhorted to eat it — "My son, eat thou honey {deuash), because it is sweet ; and the honeycomb {nopheth), which is sweet to thy taste : so shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul" (xxiv. 13, 14). It is turned away from by those fully satisfied — " The full soul loatheth an honeycomb, but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet" (xxvii. 7). "The king" in the Song (iv. 10, 11) addresses the "bride" in glowing terms: —

" How beautiful thy love, my sister-spouse ! Sweeter thy love than is the juice of grapes! The perfume of thy unguents, than all spices ! Thy lips, O spouse, drop as honeycomb : Honey and milk are upon thy tongue."

The apostle Peter, referring to the prophets " who inquired and searched diligently, and prophesied of the grace that should come," represents them as "searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified before- hand of the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow" (1 Peter i. 10, 11). We have both aspects of Christ's experience in this Psalm (xxii.). Interpreters generally have held, that we have

390 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

here the prophecy of the sufferings and the glory which followed. The title of the psalm, moreover, makes it almost certain, tliat it was regarded in the same light by the spiritually minded among the Jews, long before the advent of our Lord. Aijeletli shahar (the hind of the morning) — an expression used to indicate that the appearance of the persecuted One, heralded the immediate bursting forth of the full bright day of grace and of gospel liberty.

Several of the deer family [Cervidoi) are noticed as emblems of gentleness, innocence, and beauty : — " Naphtali is a hind let loose : he giveth goodly words" (Gen. xlix. 21) ; "Let her be as the loving hind and the pleasant roe" (Prov. v. 19) ; " Make haste my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of spices" (Song viii. 14). In another passage the idea of the dawn is expressly, as in this psalm, associated with this animal — " Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether" (Song ii. 17).

The "Hind of the morning" is represented here as surrounded by enemies. Carrying out the emblematical form of the title, the hind is pictured in the midst of wild " evil beasts" —

"Many bulls have compassed me: Strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round. They gaped upon me with their mouths, As a ravening and a roaring lion.

And thou hast brought me to the dust of death.

For dogs have compassed me ;

The assembly of the wicked have inclosed me :

They pierced my hands and my feet" (ver. 12, 13, 15, IG).

Thus pressed and persecuted by the wicked, he leaves his people an example in such circumstances, by committing himself to the Father. Thus he prays —

" Be not thou far from me, O Lord : O my strength, haste thee to help me. Deliver my soul from the sword ; My darling from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth : For thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorn" (ver. 19-21).

It has recently become the custom, especially with those who write practical notes on Holy Scripture, to set down the unicorn as the wild buffalo of Syria, but the question of identification is not so clear as they seem to think. It is much more likely that the Hebrew term, reem,

PSALMS I.-XXII.

391

was employed in the same way as the modern Arabs use a correspond- ing word to include wild goats, deer, and even wild oxen. The question is fully discussed under Deuteronomy xxxiii. 17, which see. The reference in this passage is no doubt to one of the oxen {Bovidcp), most likely to the wild buffalo, which has ever been celebrated for its

Fig.lU.

Bufialo {SoshiiUxlus).

ferocity. "I do not think," says one who had much opportunity of observing them in their native haunts, " there can be a more menacins: object than a single wild buffiilo." The suffering Saviour is represented as surrounded by a multitude of wicked men — fierce, savage, implacable as the enraged buffalo or bull.

392

BIULICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

PSALM XXIX.-LVII.

WELL-DEFINED and intelligent understanding of the refer-

i^-i^M ences to the external world by the Psalmist, is necessary to

the right interpretation of Psalm xxix. A review of these

will show us that they are used to manifest the sovereign

majesty and glory of Jehovah on the one hand, and to comfort

liis jDcople on the other. His church is taught the blessed truth

^that the Lord has might, in order that she may go to him in her

I weakness and trial, and get might from the Lord. Thus, as

Hengstenberg has put it, "the key to the interpretation of this

psalm is to be found in its conclusion" —

"The Lord will givu might unto his people; The Lord will bless his people with peace" (ver 13).

The princes and leaders among the people, and through them all the nations, are addressed in verse 1 (see vol. i., p. 175-182). They are pointed to the true place of worship, even "his glorious sanctuary" — the temple — as the expression, "beauty of his holiness," should be rendered. Then we have " the voice of Jehovah," named in verse 3, as being "upon the waters," and as "upon many waters." It was heard rolling from the far west, across the waters of the great sea. Then filling the land, it sounded along the valley of the Jordan, from the Dead Sea on the south, up by the Sea of Galilee to the waters of Merom on the north, while the awe-stricken multitude crowded the courts of the "glorious sanctuary" at Jerusalem. The voice of the Lord is explained in verse 3 —

" The God of glory thundereth."

In all times this has been held by men to be the voice of God. In one of the plagues, " the Lord sent thunder" (Exod. ix. 23) ; and when Pharaoh humbled himself, he cried, " Entreat the Lord that there be no more voices of God " (ver. 28). " God," says Job, " thundereth marvel- lously with his voice" (xxxvii. 4). Isaiah tells us that God's use of all the wildest forces of nature was his voice to Assyria — "And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting

PSALMS XXIX.-LVII. 393

down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones. For through the voice of the Lord sliall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod" (xxx. 30, 31). So too, when David in another place refers to one of the glorious manifestations of God before his people, he says : —

"The Lord also thundered in the heavens, And the Highest gave his voice" (xviii. 13).

The majesty of this voice is specially shown in God's dealings with " the glory of Lebanon" —

'■ The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars ; Yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon" (ver. 3).

Rolling in peal on peal from the shores of the Mediterranean, it is represented as reaching the white cliffs of goodly Lebanon, and there the tempest breaks the trees. The thunder-bolts crash those giant cedars of Lebanon themselves, which had held their ground for centuries. It has been pointed out already (1 Kings iv. 23 ; 1 Chron. xiv. 1), that " cedar" is sometimes applied to the cone-bearing trees generally, and to the Lebanon species iu particular. The first clause of verse 5 may be regarded as descriptive of the power of the tempest on all great trees, and the last as specially on the cedar of Lebanon (C'edrus Lihani). The power of the hurricane reaches the very mountains themselves. Shaken by the full thunder of Jehovah's might, they are represented as being made "to skip like a calf." With us this word is generally used in a joyous sense, but its Hebrew equivalent may mean to leap or bound either in joy or in sorrow and terror. Here, and in Psalm cxiv., it has the latter signification, and indicates the excitement and haste with which the young of the terror-stricken herds hasten to a place of shelter when the thunder-storm breaks over them. The mountains named are Lebanon and Sirion. The latter is Hermon, called in Deuteronomy by the same name — " And we took at that time, out of the hand of the two kings of the Amorites, the land that was on this side Jordan, from the river of Arnon unto ]\Iount Hermon ; which Hermon the Sidonians call Sirion, and the Amorites call it Shenir" (iii. 8, 9). The wilderness generally is then mentigned, and that of Kadesh is specified, to indicate that the voice was heard over all the land, from Kadesh on the southern border to the range of Anti- Libanus and the snow-clad peaks of Hermon on the north.

The prevailing terror reaches the deer straying on the forest-

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394 BIBLICAL XATUliAL SCIENCE.

skirted plains, or in the open glades of their water-courses. The voice "discovereth or makes bare the forest;" and the hind— the ciydlah, the female of the aijdl or hart — drops lier calf prematurely. The effects of all this on the minds of those who stand in his holy habitation is fully but briefly told in ver. 9 —

"In his temple doth every one speak of his glory."

But what to man might seem only the wild war of confused forces — the raging of the elements in uncontrolled power — was guided by Jehovah's sovereign hand. In the midst of all —

'O^

" The Lord sits upon the flood ; Yea the Lord will sit king for ever."

Psalm xxxii. — Justification is of faith, and not of works. In arguing this question (Rom. iv.) Paul appeals to the words of David — " Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying. Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin" (ver. 4-8). This shows us the general scope of the psalm. In God's dealings with him David could say, " I kept silence —

For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me ; My moisture is turned into the drought of summer."

When months have passed and no rain has fallen, when even the dew's ministry of blessing has ceased, as the burning sun beams down on fields already cracked and parched by the long-continued drought, the vital sap in the herbage ceases to be equal to its support — " its moisture is turned into the drought of summer." Thus was it with the Psalmist. Those blessed gifts from heaven which had been vouchsafed to him in his joy, those springs of richest consolation which had been his when hope's eye was bright, and faith's arms strong, and affection's heart direct in its love to God, were all taken from him. God's hand lay heavily on him. He had not the heart to look up. His moisture too was turned into " the drought of summer." But God had in the lavish riches of his grace again visited him. He had looked to his heavenly Father as a " hiding-place," and had heard his voice : —

"1

rsALMS xxix.-Lvii. 395

" I will instruct thee, and teach thee in the way which thou shall go: I will guide thee with mine eye. Be ye not ;is the horse,

Or as the mule, which have no understanding : Whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, Lest they come near to thee" (ver. 8, 9).

Man's position is that of a cliilJ. As the turn of the father's eye is euougli to influence the son whose heart is loving, whose will is in harmony with that of his parent, so when we are right with God, we will be watchful of his providences. We will take them as to us the expression of the Father's heart, and we will be influenced by them. The brutes, as the horse and the mule, demand physical constraint, but God's people are a willing people.

Psalm xxxiii. — The key to this psalm is given in verse 5. It is said of God—

" lie loveth righteousness and judgment: The earth is full of the eoodness of the Lord."

I

As illustrations of his power he appeals to the creation of the heavens, i and to the glory of all the hosts of them. As evidences of his uncon- trolled sovereignty, he points to the seas and God's dealings with them : — ■

" He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap : lie layeth up the depth in store-houses" (ver. 7).

The popular idea of the height of the waters of the ocean was present with him. To one standing on the shore and looking seaward, the waters seem to rise high above the land. Their natural tendency is to seek a level. Thus the common thought, that they are kept by an unseen hand as in an heap.

Psalm xxxvii. 35. — The Psalmist here compares the wicked to "a green tree growing in its own soil," as the words "green bay-tree" are given in the margin of our Bibles : —

'• I have seen the wicked great in power. And spreading himself like the green bay-tree."

It has been questioned if the bay-tree {Lauriis nohilis) is mentioned in the Scripture. The word used here is csrdcJi, which points to any great tree native to the soil. This fiict has led many to translate it, with the Septuagint, " cedar." But this is not admissible. It would demand the transposition of the second letter of the Hebrew, in order to make the feminine form of erez, cedar. Such a liberty should never

39G BIBUC'AL NATURAL SCIENCE.

be taken with any word, unless in cases on wlilcli all biblical critics are agreed. The marginal rendering — " a tree that growetli in his own soil " — is no doubt, the true one.

The idea 'generally formed of this passage by tlie reader of tlie English Bible, is that the tree referred to was the bay laurel {Primus laiirocerasus) or cherry laurel of our gardens. But this plant belongs to an entirely different family. The bay and the Portugal laurels, whose forms of growth and evergreen leaves make them highly orna- mental in shrubberies, belong to a sub-family {Drupacece, Lind.) of the rose tribe [liosaceoe), but the bay-tree proper, which flourishes luxuri- antly in Southern Europe, is the type of the laurel family {Lauracece). Several circumstances make it unlikely that the true bay-tree represents the Hebrew esrdch. There is no evidence that it was ever so plentiful in Palestine as to be chosen by the Psalmist as an illustration in a poem for popular use. It is indeed to be met with, but that chiefly in locali- ties on the borders of the eastern shore of the Great Sea. The chief objection to the supposition that the bay-tree was referred to by the royal poet, is to be found in the psalm itself. Having mentioned it in the lines quoted above, he adds : —

" Yet lie passed away, and, lo, he was not ; Yea, I sought him, but he could not be found."

The idea here is not one which could be represented and illustrated by an evergreen plant, slow of growth, and yet reaching in maturity a height of above thirty feet. The words demand a quick-growing tree, in a soil more than usually favourable to its growth. Thus planted, and shooting up in calm and sunshine, it would attract every eye ; but when the storm broke over it, when the strong wind swept impetuously through its branches, it would not stand. Torn up by the root, and its timber comparatively useless, like Abraham's dead, it would be buried out of sight. And thus with the wicked. He was sought but could not be found.

Psalm xxxix. — Man's frailty when under the stroke of God, when he is shown his sins, and made to feel that sorrow is their fruit, is set before us by a striking figure in verse 2 : —

'• When thou whh rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, Thou mukest his beauty to consume away like a motli : Surely each man is vanity."

The reference here is to the larvge of certain moths which waste the beautv of clothes, furs, tapestry, «S:c. Tliey work in the dark, and

often when the garment is put on to display its grandeur, it is found useless. Or "the worm i' the bud" may have been in the mind of the Psalmist. Just when the bud is about to burst, when its half-opened calyx leaves give promise of the rich beauty of the expanded flower, it is found —

" Bit with an envious worm Ere it can spread its white leaves to the air, Or dedicate its beauty to the sun."

Psalm xlii.— "The hart," verse 1— see under Deut. xii. 22. " The land of Jordan," here the region on the east of the Jordan. " The Hermon- ites," correctly the Hermons or peaks of Mount Hermon ; a subordinate height in the neighbourhood being the hill Mizar" (ver. 6).

" Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water-spouts; All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me."

" Water-spout," Heb. tzindr, used only here and in 2 Sam. v. 8, where it is rendered " gutter" in the sense of water-course. Literally^ it points to a rushing sound. The roar of the billows, as in a storm they rush landward, is implied in this figure. "Waves," literally breakers. Sorrow on sorrow had rushed over his soul, until he was made to "go mourning;" but he found a refuge in God. Thus his earnest expostulation with himself —

•' Why art thou cast down, 0 my soul ? And why art thou disquieted within me ? Hope thou in God ; for I shall yet praise him, Who is the health of my countenance and my God" (ver. 1 1).

Psalm xlv. — In the version of the Scriptures known as "Queen Eliza- beth's Bible," the heading of this psalm is — " The majestic of Solomon, his honour, strength, beauty, riches, and power, are praised ; and also his marriage with the Egyptian, being an heathen woman, is blessed." This used to be, and too frequently still is, a favourite mode of characterizing the psalm. But a greater than Solomon is here. Indeed, it is almost certain that it can have no reference to Solomon's espousal to Pharaoh's daughter. The quotation from it in Heb. i. 7-9, settles this point. Jesus, as Lord of creation, and King and Head of the church which lie has espoused to himself, is the theme throughout.

"Inditing" (ver. 1\ rather "bubbling up," as the spring does which draws its waters from hidden depths.

Tlie attire of the royal bridegroom is referred to in verse 8- — " Gar- ments smelling with myrrh, and aloes, and cassia." His robes were

398

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

perfumed with mynli — an aromatic gum-resin, obtained from one of the Amjiridaceoe, or myrrh family of pLiiits, the Bahamodendron myrrha, and also from a distinctly marked variety known as B. katnf. The latter used to be considered the only shrub which yielded the myrrh of commerce ; but when Ehrenberg visited one of the localities in which the former abounds, he found the best kind of myrrh exuding from its bark. It has been pointed out under Genesis xxxvii. 25, that the word lot, rendered rayrrh in our version, should have been translated ledanum, a I'ragrant resin derived from one of the rock roses (Ctstus creticus = C. lendanifera). The word used here is mdh\ literally, that which flows or distils (in bitterness). It occurs twelve times in the Fig. 115. Old Testament, and its Greek

equivalent [myrrha) occurs three times in the New Testament. The myrrh-balsam is a native of Abys- sinia and of Arabia Felix. It is a low-growing, stunted-looking, shrubby plant. The leaves, set on short stems, are divided into three unequal leaflets. The bark is smooth and ashen grey, the wood yellowish white, and both bark and wood have a strong odour when broken.

Myrrh is of two kinds. The best is Known as " tear myrrh" [Myrrha electa), and the inferior kind as "myrrh in sorts." The latter is generally much adulterated, by being mixed with gum-arabic, and other common resins. Myrrh was put to four uses during the period (1.) It constituted an ingredient in the oil of holy ointment, " the ointment compound after the art of the apothecary," which the Lord commanded Moses to make for anointing "the tabernacle of the congregation," and its furniture (Exod. xxx. 22-33). The kind to be employed by Moses was the " myrrh in tears" — " Take thou also unto thee principal spices of pure myrrh, five hundred shekels," &c. (ver. 23). (2.) It was used as an ointment for the body. See under Esther ii. 12. (3.) It was a favourite perfume. Thus its

c^,^

Myrrh {Bahamodendron myrrha).

embraced in the Bible narrative

PSALMS XXIX.-LVII. 399

use here — the garments smelled witli it. The twigs of the rayrrh-tree appear to have been used in a bunch as perfume : "A bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto me ; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts" (Song i. 13). As he came up from the wilderness, the place in which the myrrh-trees grew, his garments, like Esau's, were fragrant with the Held : " Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense?" (iii. G.) In the Song, likewise, we have the "mountain of myrrh" (iv. 6), and "the garden enclosed" with its trees of "myrrh and aloes" (iv. 14). lu Proverbs vii. 17, "the strange woman," whose house is the way to hell, "going- down to the chambers of death," is represented as saying to " the young man void of understanding" — " I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon." (A.) Myrrh was sometimes mingled with wine, and used as a draught to deaden pain. See under Mark xv. 23.

Myrrh was formerly much more in vogue than it is now. It is still, however, much used as a tincture for wounds, as a chief ingredient iti many tooth-powders, for the cure of certain diseases of the mucous membrane of the stomach and bowels, and as a remedy in some kinds of disease of the lungs. The plant known as myrrh in Britain is widely different from that now described. It is one of the Umbelliferce — the sweet chervil or sweet cicely [Myrrlms odorata), frequent in pasture lands in the north of England, and in the Lowlands of Scotland. Branches of sweet cicely foliage were in olden times carried about the person as a remedy against the plague.

"Aloes," Heb. dhdloth, were also used to perfume the garments of the king. Another form of the plural (dhcilim) is translated " trees of lign aloes" in Numbers xxiv. Ci, which see. The tree from which the "aloes" were obtained, is the eaglewood tree, Aqiiilana agaUocJmm, one of the natural order, Aquilariacece, or aloe family. It is a native of Southern Asia, and when full grown, reaches the height of above one hundred and twenty feet, with a girth of twelve to fourteen feet. " The bark of the trunk is smooth and ash-coloured ; that of the branches, grey, lightly striped with brown. The branches themselves are each divided into two at the extremities, and the young shoots are covered with white silky hairs. The wood is w^hite, and very light and soft." When the wood is burned, it emits a sweet odour. The leaves are deep green, lance-shaped, and from three to six inches long. The tree bears small yellowish flowers, whicli hang in tassels fi-om the branches. The seed is a pale green berry Aloes' perfume is secreted in the form of an oily substance in decayed portions of the wood. See

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under John xix. 39. " Cassia," see under Exod. xxx. 23. " Ivory palaces," Ezek. xxvii. 15. "Ophir," 2 Chron. ix. 10.

"He-goats," Heb. atood, Psalm 1. 9. In verse 13 of the same psalm it is rendered "goats." He-goat, or leader of the flock, is its

Fig. 116.

Lign .Vloe {Aquilttri'i <ij allodium). ,

true meaning. Thus its metaphorical use, Isaiah xiv., where it is translated "chief ones."

Psalm Iv. — This psalm is the utterance of one under deep affliction, and suffering persecution. He says —

"I mourn in my plaint, and make a noise; Because of tlie voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked."

With a "heart pained," with death's terrors fallen on him, with fear- fulness and trembling come upon him, he exclaims —

" Oh that I had wings like a dove ! For then would I fly away, and be at rest. Lo, then would I wander far off, And remain in the wilderness" (ver. 5, 6).

PSALMS XXIX.-LYII. 401

"Dove," Hub. yonah, see under Lev. i. 14; Song ii. 11; Isa. Ix. 8; Nah. ii. 7. Shut up in the darkness of sorrow, surrounded on every side with trials, " fightings without, fears within," he for the time saw no way of escape. The dove was more privileged than he — Oh that I had her wings, then would I fly away : —

"In her nest witliin some cavern liung, The dove sits trembling o'er her callow young. Till roused at last by some impetuous shock, She starts surprised, and beats around the rock ; Tlien to the open fields for refuge flies. And the free bird expatiates in the skies ; Her pinions poised, tlirough liquid air she springs, And smoothly glides, nor moves her levell'd wings." — (Virgil.')

The title of the next psalm is suggestive of one still under the same experiences. It is Yonatli-elem-rechohim, the "mute dove among strangers." In Psalm Ixviii. 13, the dove is introduced to illustrate a widely different state of feeling. The people had been afflicted — they had "lien among the pots ;" but glory awaited them : —

" Ye shall be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, And her feathers with shining gold."

A variety of dove bred in the neighbourhood of Damascus, and much esteemed as a domestic pet, answers faithfully the description of the Psalmist.

The "wandering far off," referred to above, is noticed by Ezekiel (vii. 16). The people escaped, "all of them mourning for their iniquity." Dissatisfied with God, they sought help from other sources. Thus Hosea represents Ephraim as "a silly dove without heart" (vii. 11, 12). For this God threatened to " bring them down as the fowls of heaven." Then they were to return, and the time of their captivity was to pass away— " Thej' shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria : and I will place them in their houses, saitli the Lord " (xi. 11).

Figures of several of the most beautiful species are introduced on Plate XXIX. Fig. 1 is the Waalia pigeon {Treron Abyssinica) ; fig. 2, white-booted pigeon {T. Sieholdii); fig. 3, crowned pigeon [Goura coronafa). These might have been obtained by Solomon along with the apes and peacocks brought in the ships of Tarshish.

"The shadow of thy wings," Psalm Ivii. 1. A favourite figure (Psalms xvii. 8, xxxvi. 7) for the soul's confidence in the faithfulness of God. The image is suggestive of the young bird nestling among the feathers of its parent.

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rSALMS LVIII.-CII.

HE foundations were out of course. Those wlio should have administered justice witli impartial hand, perverted judgment. Thus the strong remonstrance and address in verses 1 and 2 —

'• Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation ? Do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men ? Yea, in heart yc work wickedness ; Ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth."

Their words are next specially noticed. " The tongue can no man tamo ; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison," says James (iii. 8). The same tliouglit is set before us here —

" Tlieir poison is hke the poison of a serpent : They are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear ; Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, Charming never so wisely" (ver. 4, [>).

This leads to the cry, as from the depths of a wounded heart, and to the direct appeal to God " that judgeth in the earth" —

"Break their teeth, 0 God, in their mouth ; Break out the great teeth of the young lions, 0 Lord. Let them melt away.

As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass av.-ay" (vcr. G-8).

" Serpent," Heb. nahash, see vol. i. 103-108. Poison being associ- ated with the serpent named here, shows that the original word is not used for the pythons only, but in a general way for the order OpMdia, or true serpents, which contains the two families, the vipers ( Viperidce) and snakes (ColuhnJce), most of which are venomous. One of these is mentioned here as the "adder," Heb. pethen, the Egyptian cobra {Naja haje). This is the well-known asp or aspic of Egypt, noted in poetry and in history in connection with the story of Cleopatra's death : —

" Hast thou the pretty worm of Nilus there, That kills and pains not V"

This species is more fully noticed under Job xx. 14, 16, which sec.

PSALMS LVIII.-CII.

403

Fig. 117.

From its power to disteud greatly the ribs and the skin of the neck, it has, with other closely-related species, obtained the name of Hooded Snake. Its graceful motions in this respect, and its susceptibility of being influenced by musical sounds, have made it a favourite with serpent-charmers. Allusion is made to serpent-charming in verse 5. This shows that the same arts which are still practised with these snakes in the East, were well known at the time when David lived. It seems to be a well- established fact, that the power referred to here can be exercised over certain species of snakes. It is, however, equally true, that much deceit and jugglery are practised on the people by the serpent- charmers. In many cases the poison fangs Kajahajc. have previously been extracted, and tlie creatures thus rendered harm- less to those handling. It is also well known that they can be tamed and made to follow a familiar voice, or to keep time with a musical

Fig. 118.

instrument by the motion of their heads. Yet making all allowance for such decep- tion, intelligent travellers have satisfied themselves that such an influence as is noticed here, can actually be obtained over these snakes. Even the type of another family, the rattlesnake [Crotalus horridus^ Plate IX., fig. 6), is not beyond the power of the charmer. Chateaubriand gives an account of one which entered the encamp- , ,„ ment of his party in Canada, and was met ^^s by a man who could play on the flute. "On the approach of its enemy, the haughty reptile curled itself into a spiral line, flat- tened its head, inflated its cheeks, contract- ed its lips, displayed its envenomed-fangs

and its bloody throat; its double-tongue themusdeB. ha. eUvato. .a depress .he hood.

glowed like two flames of fire ; its eyes were burning coals ; its body, swollen with rage, rose and fell like the bellows of a forge ; its dilated skin assumed a dull and scaly appearance ; and its rattle, which sounded

Section of the Neck of a Cobra, to show

404 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

tlie denunciation of deatli, vibrated with extreme velocity. The Canadian now began to play upon his flute : the serpent started with surprise, and drew back its head. In proportion as it was struck with the magic effect, its eyes lost their fierceness, the vibrations of its tail became slower, and the sound which it emitted gradually became weaker and ceased. The folds of the fascinated serpent became less perpendicular upon their spiral line, expanded by degrees, and sunk one after another upon the ground, forming concentric circles. The colours recovered their brilliancy on its quivering skin ; and slightly turning its head, it remained motionless in the attitude of attention and pleasure. At this moment the Canadian advanced a few steps, produc- ing with his flute sweet and simple notes. The reptile inclining its variegated neck, opened a passage with its head through the high grass, and began to creep after the musician, stopping when he stopped, and following him again as soon as he moved forward." " I have seen many serpent-charmers," says a traveller in Palestine, " who do really exercise some extraordinary power over these reptiles. They carry enormous snakes, generally black, about them, allow them to crawl all over their persons and into their bosoms, always, however, with certain precautions, either necessary or pretended to be so. They repeatedly breathe strongly into the face of the serpent, and occasionally blow spittle, or some medicated composition upon them. It is needless to describe the mountebank tricks which they perform. That which I am least able to account for, is the power of detecting the presence of serpents in a house, and of enticing or 'charming' them out of it. The thing is far too common to be made a matter of scepticism. The following account by Mr. Lane, is a fair statement of this matter : — ' The charmer professes to discover, without ocular perception (but perhaps he does so by a peculiar smell), whether there be any serpents in the house ; and if there be, to attract them to him, as the fowler, by the fascination of his voice, allures the bird into his net. As the serpent seeks the darkest place in which to hide himself, the charmer has, in most cases, to exercise his skill in an obscure chamber, where he might easily take a serpent from his bosom, bring it to the people without the door, and afSrm that he had found it in the apartment ; for no one would venture to enter with him, after having been assured of the presence of one of these reptiles within. But he is often required to perform in the full light of day, surrounded by spectators ; and incredulous persons have searched him beforehand, and even stripped him naked ; yet his success has been complete. He assumes an air of

PSALMS LTIII.-CII. 405

mystery, strikes the walls with a short palm stick, whistles, makes a clucking noise with his tongue, and spits ujion the ground, and gene- rally says— I adjure you by God, if ye be above, or if ye be below, that ye come forth. I adjure you by the most great Name : if ye be obedient, come forth ; and if ye be disobedient, die ! die ! die ! The serpent is generally dislodged by his stick from a fissure in the wall or from the ceiling of the room. I have rig. us.

heard it asserted that a serpent-charmer, before he enters a house in which he is to try his skill, always employs a servant of that house to introduce one or more serpents ; but I have known instances in which this could not be the case, and am inclined to believe that the dervishes above mentioned are generally acquainted with some physical means of discovering the presence of serpents without seeing them, and of attracting them from their lurking-places. What ^"''' '">"««™'-

these physical means may be is yet a secret, as also the means by which persons can handle live scorpions, and can put them into their bosom without fear or injury. I have seen this done again and again, even by small boys. This has always excited my curi- osity and astonishment, for scorpions are the most malignant and irascible of all reptiles. The Hindoos, and after them the Egyptians, are the most famous snake-charmers, scorpion-eaters, &c., &c., although gipsies, Arabs, and others are occasionally found who gain a vagabond livelihood by strolling round the country and confounding the ignorant with these feats.'" But it is also true that "the serpent will bite without enchantment," or in spite of all the efforts which may be made to charm it (Eccles. x. 11). " Roberts mentions the case of a serpent- charmer in India, who came to a gentleman's house to exhibit tame snakes. He was told that a cobra was in a cage in the house, and was asked if he could charm it. He replied in the affirmative. The serpent was released from the cage, and, doubtless, in a state of great irritation ; the man began his incantations, and repeated his charms : they, however, produced no effect on the snake ; it refused to hear the voice of the charmer ; it darted at him, and fastened upon his arm ; \\^ was dead before night."

" Snail," Heb. shavlul. In Leviticus x. 30, the word hhomet is

406 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

rendered snail, but is properly a species of lizard. In the word used liere, reference is made to the trail of the animal. The shining, gluti- nous slime, which marks the track over which it has gone, was regarded as the wasting away of the snail. Thus the expression — " Let them melt away as a snail melteth." The description answers any of the slugs {Lt'mactdce), as Liinax, Helix, Anon, Zonites, Testacella, &c. See Plate XVIIL, figs. 1, 2, 1, 1, 2. The two best known are the slug proper, and the common garden snail. Several species of the former are widely distributed, as the black slug {Limax ater), the milk slug {L. agrestis), the black-striped slug {L. maximus). Of the former we have the true garden snail [Helix aspera), and the wood snail {H. nemoralis). The slugs have four highly sensitive feelers, which are concealed when in repose. One pair is longer than the other. At the end of the longer pair the eyes are placed. Their eggs are like little bags, of semi-transparent, whitish, or yellowisli jelly. The snails are also produced from eggs laid in heaps in the earth, amounting in number from twenty to eighty, globular and whitish. They carry their shells with them, and have the power of enlarging them from their own secretions. The waste noticed by the Psalmist, is only apparent. The popular impression is used to illustrate a great truth — the wicked may prosper for a time, but the day will come when they will melt away, when there shall not be, as in the case of the snail, a provision made for them renewing opportunities. They shall melt awa)', every one of them shall pass away.

Psalm Ixv. — "The blessedness of the man whom God chooses," is celebrated in this psalm. He tastes the goodness of God in his courts, and is led forth to witness his ways in providence, and his sovereignty over the soil. The picture opened up to us from the middle of verse 8 to the end of the psalm, is one of exceeding beauty. The " rejoicing of the morning and the evening," suggests the chorus of birds meeting the dawn, and welcoming the season of rest by prolonging their notes into the twilight. " The river of God," is the rain given by him to fertilize the soil, and make the fields glad.

Psalm Ixviii. — The tribes of Israel are marshalled on an occasion of national joy, and amidst all the evidences of the favour and friendship of their covenant God. They are reminded of what they had been (ver. 13) — see under Psalm Iv. 6. The exultant shout is now —

" Bless ye God in tlie congregations, Even the Lord from tlie fountain of Israel" (ver. 26).

The chosen people were regarded as under special blessing, because

PSALMS LVIII.-CII. 407

they were of him who is the fountain of Israel. They were monuments of his grace, and they found their strength in him. And thus they were ranked before him : — -

" There is little BeDJamin with their ruler, The princes of Judah and their council; The piinces of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali " (ver. 27).

When they are all before the Lord, and when all equally feel blessed, they put God in remembrance of his promises — they ask him to fultil his word concerning the nations. These nations would not turn to him until every other help had been found vain, when they were under sorrow.

" Rebuke the company of spearmen, The multitude of bulls, with the calves of the people, Till every one submit himself with silver : Scatter them that deliglit in war. Princes shall come out of Egypt ; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God" (ver. 30, 31).

The expression, "company of spearmen," is more correctly and literally rendered in the margin, " beast of the reeds." " The king of Egypt is," says Horsley, " described under the image of the hippopotamus, the wild beast that lodges in the rushes on the banks of the Nile." It is much more likely that the crocodile {Croc, vulgaris, Plate IX., fig. 2), was the animal in the thoughts of the Psalmist, when he referred to Pharaoh. So Ezekiel — " I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers" (xxix. 3).

In the same verse the great ones of the earth are spoken of as "bulls," and the princes are characterized as "calves of the peojDle." For "calf," see above, 1 Kings xii. 28. The Hebrew word for bull {ahh'ir) literally means strong, mighty, valiant : " He draweth also the iniglitij with his power" (Job xxiv. 22). " Why are the valiant men swept away? they stood not because the Lord did drive them" (Jer. xlvi. 15). The original meaning of the word has been applied to an animal of great strength — tlie bull ; as here, " the multitude of bulls." But the association is not limited to bulls. It is sometimes connected with the horse : " Then were the horse hoofs broken by means of the pranciiigs, the prancings of the mighty ones {ahhlri)'" (Judg. v. 22). "At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong horses, at the rushing of his chariots, and at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers shall not look back to their children for feebleness of hands" (Jer. xlvii. 3), The abhln were not only the " bulls," but the head shep-

408

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herds who waited on them. When David went to see Ahimelech, the priest at Nob, he found tliere " a certain man of the servants of Saul ; his name was Doeg the Edoraite, the chiefest (ahhlr) of the herdsmen that belonged to Saul" (1 Sam. xxi. 7). In the Book of Psalms itself, it is used in different connections : —

"The stout- (nhbtri) hearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep; And none of the men of might have found their hands" (Ixxvi. 5).

In recounting the great doings of God for his people, the Psalmist says —

" Slan did eat angels' (ahbirim) food : He sent ihem meat to the full" (l.xxviii. 25).

Literally, "every one did eat of the bread of the mighty." The com- pany of the mighty, " Herod and his men of war," who surroimded the Saviour when he hung on the cross, are compared to bulls, and strong ones of Bashan : —

" Many bulls (parim) have compassed me : Strong {abhiri) bulls of Bashan have beset me" (xxii. 12).

In the verse now under notice, the other images used show the suit- ableness of the rendering, "multitude of bulls." The reference to Bashan points out the locality, whose deep forests and rich pasture- lands made it to be celebrated for its flocks and herds. " It was," says Dr. Stanley, " the forest-land, the pasture-land of Palestine. The . smooth downs received a special name, expressive of their contrast with the rough and rocky soil of the west. The ' oaks' of BasJian, which still lill the traveller with admiration, were to the prophets and psalmists of Israel the chief glory of the vegetation of their common country. The vast herds of wild cattle which then wandered through the woods, as thos&)K)f Scotland through its ancient forests, were, in like manner, at once the terror and pride of the Israelite — ' the fat bulls of Bashan.' The king of Moab was but a great ' sheepmaster,' and ' rendered ' for tribute ' an hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand rams with the wool.' And still the countless herds and flocks may be seen, droves of cattle moving on like troops of soldiers, descend- ing at sunset to drink of the springs — literally, in the language of the prophet, ' rams, and lambs, and goats, and bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.' It is striking to remember, that with this land in their possession— a land of which travellers say, that in beauty and fertility, it as far surpasses western Palestine as Devonshire surpasses Cornwall — the Israelites nevertheless pressed forwards through the Jordan-

Tf«on

G L oionata ._ uotmed Jiaeon

• WJii/e -booted H/jeon.

I'liUiiiili

C CErLas._iii*^ , ,

.. lA- iliH'e .

w^

C Pniiicea, _ \%if Whitfheaded TijQi'on

THB WINGS OF A DOTE COVERED WITH SILVER, AND HER FEATHERS WITH YELLOW

GOLD.— Ps. Uviii. IS.

ILLIftH UACXE hZH. CLA5C0H, E Dl N BURbH. lON OOH tMEWVORK

PSALMS LVIII.-CIt. 409

valley, up the precipitous ravines of Jericho and Ai, and settled in the rugged mountains of Judah and Ephraim, never to return to those beautiful regions which had been their first home in the promised land. The Lord had made them ritle on the high places of the earth, that they might eat the increase of the fields ; and he made them to suck honey out of the ' cliff, and oil out of the flinty rock ; butter of kine, and milk of sheep ; with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats ; with the fat of kidneys of wheat, and . . . the pure blood of the grape.' "— (" Syria and Palestine," p. 324.)

Psalm Ixix. 12^see under Numb. vi. 12; ver. 21, under Mark xv. 1^: Ixxi. 4, under Prov. x. 26.

Psalm Ixxii. — To his people fearing him the Saviour will come, bestowing blessings like those brought to the grass of the earth by the rain when by close cutting its vital parts are exposed, and when a con- tinuance of heat and absence of moisture would soon wither it up : —

" He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass ; As showers that water the earth " (ver. G).

The Hebrew word (gez), which means here the grass still in the soil after it has been cut, points in Amos vii. 1 — which see — to the hay itself In Deut. xviii. 4, and in Job xxx. 20, it is translated fleece : —

" There shall be an handful of corn on the tops of the mountains ; The fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon : And they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth"' (ver. IG).

Solomon is the type, throughout the psalm, of Messiah the King, and his reign of Messiah's kingdom. The dominions of the son of David were during his own and his fether's reign, stretched to the farthest limits assigned to Israel in the promise. This was, however, only typical of the coming world-wide extension of the kingdom of Christ. There may be only a very few now truly attached to him; but, just as an handful of seed shows from four to an hundredfold of increase when it springs uji, so shall it be here. This seed of life, even though cast into most unpromising soil, shall yet yield a fruitage which shall wave in beauty and in strength before the nations, like the cedars of Lebanon themselves.

Psalm Ixxx. — The Jewish nation, as both the type and representative of the church, is in this psalm spoken of under the figure of a " vine" which God brought up out of Egypt. A beautiful picture of its fruit- fulness is drawn in ver. 10, 11 : —

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" She sent out her boughs unto tlie sea, And her branches unto the river."

The picture is suddenly clianged. All this fertility and beauty is marred, ver. 12, 13: —

" Why hast thou then broken clown her hedges, So that all they which pass by tlie way do pluck her? The boar out of the wood doth w;iste it, And the wild beast of the field doth devour it."

" Boar," Heb. liliazir. This word is rendered " swine'' in the other six passages in which it occurs. See under Isa. Ixv. 4. Tlie natural

Wild Biiar {f^as scrofa).

food of the sow in its wild state is the tender roots of trees, of strong grass, rushes, &c., and fruits, such as beech-mast, and acorns. When its haunts lie in the neighbourhood of gardens, " the boar out of the wood often wastes them." It is still found wild in several countries of Europe. Ehrenberg says it is often to be met with among the marshes in the valley of the Nile, and among the woods on Lebanon. Burck- hardt often saw it in Syria. " Intending," say Irby and Mangles, " lo proceed to the valley of the Jordan by a place ctdled Rajib, where we expected to find the ruins of Ragaba, we quitted Djcrash iu the after- noon, and passed through Katty. About half an hour after, we traversed another village, in the mosque of which there are some Roman remains. We entered a very picturesque country, most beauti-

PSALMS LVIII.-CII. 411

fully varied with hanging woods, mostly of the Vallonia oak, laurestinus, cedar, common arbutus, arbutus Andrachne, &c. At times the country had all the appearance of a noble park ; indeed, nothing could exceed the beauty of this day's ride ; there were some few spots cultivated with corn. As we advanced, the wood became more dense ; and at dark we stopped at a small open space covered with high grass and weeds. We went with our guide a short distance to endeavour to shoot some wild boars ; we hid ourselves close to the water, where all the trees were marked with mud, left by the hogs in rubbing them- selves. We plainly heard some of these animals advancing towards us ; but one of the horses unluckily making a noise, they all ran off."

The blessings forfeited by Israel's disobedience are named in Psalm Ixxxi. 14^16 — victory over their enemies, the power to meet their adversaries in the strength of Jehovah; the acknowledgment on the part of the haters even of the Lord that he as in the oldeu times was with his people, and both strength and pleasure in the gifts of his providence : —

" lie should have fed them .also with thu finest of the wheat : And with honey of the rock should I have satisfied thee."

By finest of wheat we are not to understand wheat in its best form, but the best variety, even as the honey from the rock is held to be peculiarly sweet, both in itself and as partaken of in circumstances fitted to give a special relish for it. In Old Testament times there appear to have been recognized varieties of this cereal, even as among ourselves. This shows that it had been long cultivated by the Jews, because thus are varieties multiplied. Moses speaks of " the fiit of kidneys of wheat" (Deut. xxxii. 14). Isaiah notices "the principal wheat," and Ezekiel refers to " the wheat of Minuith" as distinguished for its quality (Isa. xxviii. 25; Ezek. xxvii. 17). The quality of wheat varies. This has been shown under Deut. viii. 8 — which see. Its superiority to other cereals results from the great quantity of gluten which it contains. Thus while, in 100 parts, barley yields 6 "00 of gluten, rice only 3"60, wheat gives 23'00. When we have the statement that the Lord would have fed them with the finest of the wheat, we are to conclude that, even as wheat which yields most gluten is best for the body, so God's gifts which bring us in privilege nearest to him are best for the soul — sweetest, most nourishing. All these indeed are enjoyed by " the people near to him : " —

" He maketh peace in thy borders. And fiUeth thee with the finest of the wheat" (Ps cxlv. 11, 14).

412 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

Psalm Ixxxiii. contains the cry of tlie Churcli against the oppositior of the World. This is set before us in connection with a confederacy of the tribes mentioned in verses 6-8 against Israel : —

" The tabernacles of Edom, and the Islimaelites ; Of Moab, and the Hagarenes ; Gebal, and Animon, Amalek, The Pliilistines, with the inhabitants of Tyre ; Assur also is joined with thera : They have holpen the children of Lot."

All the tribes appear to have lain on the borders of the land of Israel, taking that territory in its widest limits. " Ishmaelites," strictly descendants of Abraham's son. "Hagarenes" and "Hagarites" are generally regarded as descendants of Hagar. But the marked way in which they are distinguished from the offspring of Ishmael, makes it much more likely that they were a tribe of the Beni Kedem, already noticed, who took tlieir name from the place in which they dwelt. " Gebal is named by Ezekiel (xxvii. 9) in such a way as to warrant the conclusion, that it was a Phoenician city. Its inhabitants are believed to have been the " Giblites" (Josh. xiii. 5), and the city itself to have been the " Byblus " of the ancients, a frontier city of Phoenicia. " Moab and Ammon" were the "children of Lot," to whose assistance the other tribes had come. Their territory lay along the east of the Dead Sea and of the lower parts of the Jordan. They were noted for their cruelty, their marauding habits, and constant hatred of Israel.

Psalm Ixxxiv. — When David w'as driven from Jerusalem by his rebellious son Absalom, he had the memory of the precious seasons he had enjoyed in the " courts of the Lord " brought very freshly before him. This is the burden of this psalm : —

" Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, Even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God " (ver. 2, 3).

" Sparrow," Heb. tzippor, Gr. struthion. The word is I'endered sparrow only twice in the Old Testament — here and in Psalm cii.; fowl is given as its translation six times, and bird above thirty times. The name appears to have been used in a very general way for any little bird with which the people were very familiar. Three species of sparrow are abundant in Palestine. The species which frequents towns and villages is the Cisalpine sparrow {Passer cisaJpinus), and is most likely the bird referred to here. The swallow of Palestine is the Hirundo rufula — Teinm. The figures of two well known species are

PSALMS LVIII.-CII.

given on Plate XXXIIL, figs. 1, 2. A closely related bird, the swift (Ci/psehis), is represented by at least two species (C. opus; C. melbd) in Palestine. The generic name of the swallow Fig.121.

{Hinindo) is often given to this form, but, generically, a broad difference obtains between them. The foot, for example, is wholly unlike that of the swallow. The hind toe (liallux) is turned forwards, as shown in the cut; whereas the swallow shows only three toes in front.

The thought which filled the mind of the Psalmist, rootofthes<rtft as memory recalled the scenes from which he had (Cyp>ti>u apm). been driven, is one of great beauty and touching tenderness. Many since his day have been able to sjTnpathize with him very fully. Samuel Rutherford when in banishment from a beloved people wrote to Lady Kenmure — " I am for the present thinking the sparrows and swallows that build their nests in Anwoth blessed birds."

Psalm xci. — The blessedness of an abiding interest in God as a

covenant God is celebrated here. One fruit of which is stated in

ver. 4 : —

" Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler."

See Plate XL., fig. 3.

Psalm xciv. — As a " Song for the Sabbath-day," this psalm makes known to us the topics which filled the mind of the wor- shipper in olden times, when the "day of rest" returned, after the toil and weariness of worldly occupations. The whole day to him lay between the soul's acknowledgment of the lovmg-kindness of God, when the sweet light of morning broke in upon the world, and the soul's expression of thankfulness for God's faithful care and keeping, when the shades of night fell upon the earth : —

" It is good — To show forth thy loving-kindness in the morning, And thy faithfulness every night " (ver. 2).

The Psalmist's heart was not originally glad. It had no natural cause of rejoicing, but in grace God had led it into joy. It is good, he says, to praise thee : —

" For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work."

Creation and Providence are spread out before him. The works of Jehovah are wonderful, but more wonderful still are his ways. His mind is revealed in his works; his heart is shown in his ways. In both,

414 BIBLICAL NATUliAL SCIENCE.

liuwever, he so acts as to keep the Sabbath-worshipper feeling, that he knows very little of either —

" O Lord, how great arc thy works ! And thy thoughts are very deep " (ver. 5).

He knows something of tliese, which is good. But better than this is to trust in the Worker, even when the end of his doings is not seen, and to have confidence in his tlioughts, when they seem only severe. Many know not tliis. The ignorant know it not. It is hid from " the brutish man and the fool." These are the wicked on whose cud he now meditates : —

" When the wicked spring as the grass, And when all the workers of iaii|uity do flourish : It is that they shall be destroyed for ever " (ver. 7).

From these he turns away to his own case. His trust was in God, and he had the strong confidence of a child that his heavenly Father would abundantly bless him : —

" But my horn shalt thou exalt like an unicorn : I shall be anointed with fresh oil" (ver. 10).

As with himself so shall it be with all who love the Lord. His affec- tions are quickened as he meditates, and from himself as blessed of God, he turns to those who like him are righteous: —

" The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree ; He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that he planted in the house of the Lord Shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall bring forth fruit in old age ; They shall be fat and flourishing" (ver. 12-14).

We see here the full force of the contrast. The wicked spring as the grass; the righteous flourish like the palm, and grow like the cedar.

"Grass" (ver. 7), Hebrew esher, is a general term answering to herbaceous plants — see under Jeremiah xii. 14.

" Unicorn" (ver. 10), Hebrew rean — see under Numbers xxiii. 26.

"Oil" (ver. 10), Hebrew i^hemen — see under 2 Kings xviii. 36.

"Palm-tree" (ver. 12), Hebrew tamdr. The species of palm referred to here is the date-palm [Plicenix dadijlifera). It is fully noticed under Exodus xv. 27 — which see. It is named here as an emblem of the life of the righteous — " They shall flourish as the palm- tree." The wicked are likened to the grass, or herbaceous plants,

PSALMS LVIII.-CII. 415

which never rise high above the ground, which are weak, proverbially short-lived and fading, and which are generally cut down even before their full maturity. The palm-tree, on the contrary, shoots up towards the sky — a stately tree. In favoured situations it grows for years in beauty and in strength. AVhercver it is found, the people guard it carefully as one of the plants of which they are ever ready to say, " Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it." With the Jew the palm-tree and the cedar were reckoned emblems of immortality. The righteous are represented here as " planted in the house of the Lord, and as flourishing in the courts of our God." They are the Lord's peculiar people and special care. They dwell with him — have a place in his house among his chosen on the earth, and will for eternity dwell amidst such beauty as eye hath not seen. The connection between their lot and the emblems used here is to be found in the figures of the palm-trees in the teraple-adornings, and in the use of the cedar in its building. The palm-tree likewise often graced the com'ts devoted to religious worship. " The royal poet has derived more than one figure from the customs of men, and the habits of this noble tree, with which to adorn his sacred ode. The palm grows slowly but steadily, from century to century, uninfluenced by those alternations of the seasons which afil'ct other trees. It docs not rejoice overmuch in winter's copious rain, nor docs it droop under the drought and the burning sun of summer. Neither heavy weights which men place upon its head, nor the importunate urgency of the wind, can sway it aside from perfect uprightness. There it stands, looking calmly down upon the world below, and patiently yielding its large clusters of golden fruit from generation to generation. They bring forth fruit in old age. The allusion to being planted in the house of the Lord is probably drawn from the custom of planting beautiful and long-lived trees in the courts of temples and palaces, and in all "high places" used for worship. This is still common ; nearly every palace, and mosque, and convent in the country has such trees in the courts, and, being well protected there, they flourish exceedingly. Solomon covered all the walls of the "Holy of Holies" round about with palm-trees. They were thus planted, as it were, within the very house of the Lord ; and their presence there was not only ornamental, but appropriate and highly suggestive ; the very best emblem, not only of patience in well-doing but of the rewards of the righteous — a fat and flourishing old age — a peaceful end — a glorious immortality."

" The righteous shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon." The emblem

416 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

is highly suggestive. The grass springs up in a summer morning. Its duration is short. The burning rays of tlie sun wither it, the beasts of the field lick it up, or the scythe of the husbandman mows it level with the ground. Such is the lot of the wicked. But the growth of the cedar is slow. Silently it shoots upwards, and casts its wide- spreading branches with their clustered evergreen leaflets over the soil. When centuries have passed away, it stands in the vigour and freshness of youth. Its roots spread widely out around, and even in positions seemingly least favoured it finds nourishment. The sunshine of centuries falls on it. The stars look down on it, and the rain and the dew water it, while generation after generation of men are gathered to their fathers. Even as a seedling it gives promise of its after characteristics. The embryo stalk shoots quickly into the sunlight, and a cluster of needle-shaped, light green leaflets give at once their shadow to tiny plant or blade below. Thus the righteous grow. Upward and onward ever are their paths. Rooted and grounded in love, they are not excited and agitated by the things which destroy the peace of others. They truly live ; their life is hid with Christ in God ; and spiritual life, like natural life, is calm and noiseless in its manifesta- tions. These become seen of all, but only in the way in which the growth of the palm-tree and the wide-spreading branches of the cedar are. " By their fruits ye shall know them." The cedar yields to man the pleasure of beholding its strength, and its steady, stately growth. It ministers to his comfort, and guides his thoughts upward as one of " the trees of God." The psalm teaches the great lesson of unselfish- ness. It bears fruit for others : —

" Freely thou givest, and Thy word Is, ' Freely give.' He only, who forgets to hoard, Has learned to live."— (A'ei/e.)

Psalm cii. — The whole scope of this psalm verifies the title — "A prayer of the afflicted when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the Lord." Crying as from the depths of intense suffering and spiritual darkness, he prays—" Hide not thy face from me, incline thine ear unto me, answer me speedily." His days passed away like the smoke rising from the fire, his " bones were burned as an hearth, his heart was smitten, and withered like the grass," when it has yielded to the scythe of the mower, and been exposed to the heat of tlie sun. His agony was such that the juices of nature were dried up— his

PSALMS LVIII.-CII. 417

" boues cleaved to his skiu." Separated from the sympathies of his fellows, he says : —

" I am like a pelican of the wilderness : I am like an owl of the desert" (ver. 6).

"Pelican," Heb. haath. In two of the five passages in which the word occurs, it is translated "cormorant" (Isa. xxxiv. 11 ; Zeph. ii. 14). But it is better to follow the other three passages, and to render it by "pelican" in these also, giving the word used for cormorant {shCddJS) in Levit. xi. 17; Deut. xiv. 17, as the right one for that bird. Isaiah and Zephaniah allude to the pelican, as a bird whose favoured haunts were found in those desolate and wild regions, which, because of the sins of those who had dwelt in them, had fallen under a curse. The desert- loving nature of the pelican is alluded to in this psalm. It is still usually met only in such places : — Fig.m.

" This Hideh — plain, marsh, lake, and surrounding mountains — is the finest hunting-ground in Syria, and mainly so because it is very rarely visited. Panthers and leopards, bears and wolves, jackals, hyenas, and foxes, and many other animals, are found, great and small, while it is the very paradise of the wild boar and the fleet gazelle. As to water- — tr^rswe^ .fowl, it is scarcely an exaggeration to affirm that the lower end of the lake common Peu«n.

is absolutely covered with them in the winter and spring. Here only have I seen the pelican of the wilderness, as David calls it. I once had one of them shot just below this place, and, as it was merely wounded in the wing, I had a good opportunity to study its character. It was certainly the most sombre, austere bird I ever saw. David could find no more expressive type of solitude and melancholy by which to illustrate his own sad state. It seemed as large as a half-grown donkey, and when fairly settled on its stout legs, it looked like one. The pelican is never seen but in these unfrequented solitudes, and to this agree all the references to it in the Bible." — {Thomson.)

This bird belongs to the group Natatores, or swimmers, and is the type of a family to which it gives its name — the Pelecam'dce. It is the Pelecanus onocratulus of zoologists. The colour of the common pelican

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418

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

Flg.ia.

I'ellcan's Foot

is white, slightly tinged with a delicate rose hue. Its bill is loug. The upper mandible is tipped by a bright red nail. The lower mandi- ble has the characteristic leathery yellow pouch attached to it, in which it puts the fish which it carries to feed its young, or takes with it into localities far from the waters iu which the fish abound. Its habit of

pressing this pouch on its breast when feeding its young, to raise the fish up to the bill, gave rise to the fable that it supplied nourishment to the young by drawing blood from its own breast. The Pele- canidce differ from swimmers in the structure of their feet. The hinder toe is turned in- wards, and joined to the inner fore toe by a narrow triangular web. The legs are short, the wings very large and powerful, often measuring thirteen feet from tip to tip. Plate XXXI., fig. 1.

'•I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house-top" (vtr. 7).

" Sparrow," Heb. tzvppdr. Perhaps nothing more is indicated here than simply — "I am as a little bird sitting alone." The use of the w^ord has been pointed out under Psalm Ixxxiv. 3. Mr. Waterton believes that the solitary sparrow {Passer soJiiariiis) is the bird referred to here. "It is," he says, "a thrush in size, in shape, in habits, and song ; with this difference, that it is remarkable throughout all the East, for sitting solitary on the habitations of man." And he adds — " It is, indeed, a solitary bird, for it never associates with any other, and only with its own mate at breeding time ; and even then it is often seen quite alone upon the house-top, where it warbles in sweet and plaintive strains, and continues its song as it moves in easy flight from roof to roof. It lays five eggs, of a very pale blue. The bird itself is blue, with black wings and tail ; the blue of the body becoming lighter when placed in different attitudes."

PSALMS OIII.-CL.

419

PSALMS CIII.-CL.

HIS psalm (ciii.) has been termed " a still, clear, running brook of the praise of God." The remark is happily made. It is a song of unmingled thanksgiving. Even the view of the shortness and uncertainty of life in verses 15, 16, is

•'• not permitted to interrupt the flow of the joyous stream of his thoughts, for he hastens to say —

'But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting To everlasting upon them that fear him, And his righteousness unto children's children."

^He tells of "iniquities forgiven," "diseases healed," "a life redeemed from destruction," and the whole man "crowned with loving-kindness and tender mercies." Still looking God- rig. 124.

ward, he says : —

'' Wlio satisfieth thy mouth with good things ; So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle's."

"Eagle,

Heb. nesher — see under Levit. xi. 13, and Jer. xlviii. 40. Much ingenuity has been exercised to find something in the habits of the eagle, answering to the view which is generally taken of this verse. The fruits have not been satisfactory. If the reference were only to the periodic moulting of that bird, why have chosen it in preference to any other, for in this respect it in no way differs from other birds? To suppose that the great age to which the eagle lives is the point referred to, is not more to the purpose. It attains to maturity by increasing in age, and not by renewing its youth. There is nothing in the construction of the original words opposed to a different rendering. The Psalmist has spoken of the " mouth being satisfied with good things" — strength- ening food. Thus, h§ says, thy youth is renewed — the strength of youth is carried into ripening years. Tlie comparison is not between

youth and youth, but between strength and strength — thy strength is like the strength of the eagle. Thy youth is renewed, you become strong — strong even as the eagle, ever able and ready for upward flight.

Psalm civ. — In the Septuagint this psalm is inscribed as a psalm of David, " On the ordering of the world." The author celebrates the power, wisdom, goodness, and care of God in his works of creation and providence. By one instance and another, he illustrates the glory of God in these. Like thoughtful men generally, he saw underlying " the things that are seen" great spiritual realities, of which that which is visible was only a type. He calls upon his soul to " bless the Lord," as one who is very great, and clothed with honour and majesty" (ver. 1). "Dwelling in the light inaccessible" God is rei:)resented as covering himself with light as with a garment, and as stretching out the heaven like a curtain, that is, as the awnings of the tabernacle. " The cham- bers" (ver. 3) point to the region of the clouds, and the clouds are "the

FiE 125.

The Dshiggetai or Kyang (Amxu hemimut).

wings of the wind." His sovereignty over the elements is noticed in verse 4 ; over the earth and sea in verses 5-9.

" He sendeth springs to the valleys, Which run among the hills. They give drink to every beast of the field : The -wild asses quench their thirst" (ver. 10, 11).

"Wild ass," Heb. pereli; in Job xxix. 5, arod, wliich see. The animal referred to here is not the wild ass properly so called, as the

PSALMS CIII.-CL.

421

original of the domestic breed, but one wlilcli is to be regarded as a different species — the "dshlggetal kyang," or "ghor-kliur" {Asinus hemionus). This is the species alluded to in Job vl. 5, xl. 12, xxlv. 5, xxxix. 5 (first clause) ; Isa. xxxii. 14 ; Jor. ii. 24, xiv. G ; Hos. vlii. 9. The genuine wild ass is the untamed individual of the common ass species {Asinus vulgaris, Plate XIX., fig. 2) — the true Onager of old naturalists, which is still found wild in the north-east of Africa, and sometimes in South Arabia. It is named IJidindr in Scripture, and is very frequently referred to as a beast of burden. The following species may be named, of which the aboriginally wild ass is the type — the quagga and zebra (Plate XIX., fig. 3), both natives of South Africa. The hemippus and dshiggettii, met with in Asia.

The prophet Ezekiel (xxxi. 3-9) names the cedar, fir, and chestnut, or rather plane, as " trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God." The cedar and the fir are mentioned here as " the trees of the Lord full of sap" — great trees with noble trunks and wide-spreading branches. The figure is not uncommon. Thus in Psalm xxxvi. 7, we have the expression —

" Thy righteousness is like the great mountains,"

literally, " like the mountains of God." Abraham was called by the

children of Heth "a mighty prince" — a prince

of God. The power and glory of the Creator

are held to be most fully made known by the

noblest and greatest of the objects named —

as the highest mountain, the largest trees, and

the most powerful man.

" Cedar," Heb. erez, one of the trees of God, is the Lebanon species {Cedrus Lihani). See under 1 Kings iv. 33, v. 8, 10. " Fir," Heb. berdsJt, is fully noticed under the latter passage. The reference to the fir, as pre-eminently one of the trees which declare the greatness of God, is another proof that the true rendering of herosli is not Cupressus sempervirens. The stork is here said to make her nest in the fir-tree. The fir or the cedar, from the mode in which their branches grow, would be much more suitable for receiving the dry twigs of which the nest is built, than would the cypress with its upright branches gathered close to the central stem. " The storks," says Shaw (ii. 272), " breed })leutifully in Barbary every summer. They make their nests with dry

White Stork.

twigs of trees, which they place upon the highest parts of old ruins or houses, in the canals of ancient aqueducts, and frequently, so familiar are they by being never molested, upon the very tops of their mosques and dwelling-houses. The fir, and other trees likewise, when these are wanting, are a dwelling for the stork." The allusion by Milton to the nesting places of the eagle and the stork is perfectly true to nature : —

' The eagle and the stork On cliffs and cedar tops their eyries build."

" Stork," Heb. Ji/wsuM. (Plate XIV.). The stork {Ciconia) is ranked under the Heron family [Anhidce) and the order Grallatores. Two species were common in Bible lands, the white stork (C. alia, Plate Fig. 127. XV., fig. 2), and the black stork (C.

nujra). The stork is named in Levit. x. 19, and Deut. xiv. 18, as one of the birds not permitted to be eaten. It was a migratory bird, Jer. viii. 7, visiting Pales- tine and breeding there : —

" The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats ; And the rocks for the conies " (vcr. 1 8).

" Wild goats," Heb. yehelim — see under Job xxxix. 1. 'Wy /^^i "Coney," Heb. shapJuln. This word

Wild Goat (Cr.pr<"««)- occurs four times. In Levit. xi. 5, and

Deut. xiv. 7, the coney is mentioned along with the camel and the hare, as a beast which was not to be eaten. The reason assigned for the prohibition was, " because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof." The characterization of the camel in the same chap- ters is so accurate, that we should expect the same precision in the description of the coney and the hare. Both are said by Moses to chew the cud ; but neither of them does so, if we hold that the same ideas were implied in the expression used in Scripture as we attach to the word " ruminating." Both the coney and the hare belong to zooloo-ical groups which differ much in structure and habits from the Einninantia. The distinctions drawn by Moses in Levit. xi. 1-8, were such as would attract the notice of those who were familiar with the animals. The ox, the sheep, and the goat, chewed their food twice. Was there any thing in the habits of the coney and the hare analogous to this? There are animals which, while they differ structurally from the true ruminants, as, for example, the kangaroo, bring their food into

PSALMS CIII.-CL.

423

the mouth a second time and rechew it. This power of regurgitating the food is clearly all that is implied in the words of Moses. I have noticed it in tame rabbits. The poet Cowper mistook this for true cud-chewing in the case of his pet hares, one of which, he says, " hid himself generally under the leaves of a cucumber vine, sleeping or chewing the cud till evening." The Jewish lawgiver was not describ- ing peculiarities of internal structure, but characteristics which a close observer would notice in the animals referred to. Some of these re-chewed their food, as a habit associated with marks of structure which modern science recognizes, and assigns to them a well-marked place in classification. Others gave evidence of corresponding habits, and are popularly linked up with these.

The coney is now well known. It is the hyrax [Hijrax Si/n'acus), an animal whose zoological place is among the pachyderms, or thick- skinned mammals, between the rhinoceros and the tapir. It was first scientifically described by Pallas, as Cavia capensis, from a specimen

Vis. 1-28.

Hyrax (//. Capensis).

j^!f^-<*.^(%^ ■

brought from the Cape in 1700. Bruce sent a drawing and description of another species to Buffon from Abyssinia in 1782. In the beginning of the present century Shaw found it abundant in Syria. He refers to it as the Daman. The daman Israel, he says, " is an animal likewise of Mount Libanus, though common in other places of this country. It is a harmless creature, of the same size and quality with the rabbit, and with the like incurvating posture and disposition of the fore-teeth. But it is of a browner colour, with smaller eyes, and a head more

424 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

pointed, like the marmots. The fore-rfeet likewise are short, and the hinder are nearly as long in proportion as those of the jerboa. Though tliis animal is known to burrow sometimes in the ground ; yet, as its usual residence and refuge is in the holes and clefts of the focks, we have so far a more presumptive proof that this creature may be the saphan of the Scriptures than the jerboa. I could not learn why it was called daman Israel, i.e. Israel's lamb, as those words are inter- preted." Dr. Wilson found the hyrax at M;ir Sabtl, " gamboling on the heights." " We watched them narrowly," he says, " and were much amused with the liveliness of their motions, and the quickness of their retreat within the clefts of the rock when they apprehended danger." Having climbed up to see their nest, they found it a hole in the rock, comfortably lined with moss and feathers. It has considerable resemblance to a rabbit, and thus our word " coney" from the specific name for the rabbit [Lepus cuniculus). Its hair is o'i a duskier brown than that of the rabbit. Bristles occur around the nostrils and above the eyes, and long bristle-like hairs are scattered among the short hair of the body. The hyrax is tailless. The Arabs call it " Ghanmein beni Israel," the sheep of the Jews.

Reference is made to the hyrax in " the words of Agur the son of Jakeh " (Prov. xxx. 26) — " The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks." They are little but " exceeding wise." Wycliffe prettily renders this passage, " A litil hare, a folc unmyzti, that in a ston his bed settith." Noticing the great castle of Kurein, Dr Thomson says : — " When I first climbed into the castle, I was delighted to see, quietly sitting among the ruins, a beautiful little coney. It had shown that wisdom in selecting the rocks for its refuge which Solomon commends in Proverbs xxx. 20 — ' The conies are a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks.' I have seen them on the wild clitTs of the Litany, Below Blut, and also above the rocky pass of el Buiyad, on the Ladder of Tyre. In shape they resemble the rabbit, but are smaller, and of a dull russet colour. Our friends of Alma call them tiibsun, and are well acquainted with them and their habits, as they are with the jerboa and many other animals rarely met with except in such rocky regions as this."

" He caiisetb the grass to grow for the cattle, And herb for the service of man ; That he may bring forth food out of the eartli ; And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, And oil to make his face to shine, And bread which strengtheneth man's heart" (ver. 14, 15).

PSALMS CIIl.-CL. 425

Pastures for the flocks and herds, fields of corn for the use of man, and the preparation of the fruits of the earth in forms in which they are readily useful, as wine, oil, and bread, are named here. The wine mentioned had the quality of fermented liquors; it gladdened the heart. Thus, if taken to excess, it would have led to intoxication. The Hebrew terra is yayin, answering to the Greek oinos, and including every form which the juice of the grape might be made to assume as a beverage. It was this of which Noah partook when he became drunken (Gen. ix. 21, 24). Melcbizedek brought it forth to Abraham (Gen. xiv. 18). Lot's daughters gave it to their father and made him drunk (Gen. xix. 35). From this the Nazarite was to separate himself (Num. vi. 3-20). Tliis is the highly intoxicating drink so often mentioned by Isaiah v. 11-22, xxii. 13, xxviii. 1-7), etc.; but just because of this, it might become to man one of those mercies in connection with the use of which he was to exercise constant self-control. Taken to excess it was a curse ; enjoyed as from God, it was something for which man was called to be thankful.

Psalm ex. — The frequency with which this psalm is referred to in the New Testament, and the use made of its opening verse, leaves no doubt as to its scope. Christ was David's Lord : —

" Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness, From the womb of the morning thou hast the clew of thy youth" (ver. 3).

Some interpreters have proposed to render the word used here for "dew" by "male child." Others believe it should be "lamb." These alternative renderings have resulted from a want of true appreciation of the bearing of the figure. "The day of God's power" is to the soul the time of the new birth crisis, and the new man stands forth in the beauties of holiness. The garments of righteousness are lovely as the " dew-bespangled herb and tree." The vegetation receives its fresh adorniugs from the womb of the morning, and the willing people theirs from the influences in that Jerusalem which is above and is the mother of us all (Gal. iv. 26). Thus decked they are given to Christ, in his Mclcliizedek or eternal priesthood.

This and the fourteen following psalms are called " Songs of Degrees" — songs to be sung by the Israelites in their periodic journeys up to Jerusalem at the seasons of their great feasts. In this psalra the pilgrim recalls some of the bitterest experiences of the past, and realizes the circumstances of his present lot. Hating insincerity he cries —

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420 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

" Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue.

What shall be given unto thee? or what shall lie done unto thee, tliou false tongue? Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper" (ver. 1-4).

The word (rothem) translated "juniper," has been identified under 1 Kings xix. 4 — wliicli see. The wood of the retem (Genista) is still used as fuel in Egypt and Syria. It retains heat for a longer time than many other kinds of wood. Thus the expression points to severe and long-continued punishment. " Coals of juniper," or charred rotliem-wood.

Psalm cxxi. is a true pilgrim song. Setting out on a visit to the Holy City the Wanderer or Exile says — " I will lift up mine eyes to the hills." " From a mountain sanctuary, as it were, Israel looked over the world. ' The mountain of the Lord's house ' — ' established on the tops of the mountains' — 'exalted above the hills' — to which 'all nations should go up' — was the image in which the prophets delighted to represent the future glory of their country. When ' the Lord had a controversy with his people,' it was to be ' before the mountains and the hills,' and ' the strong foundations of the earth.' When the messengers of glad tidings returned from the captivity, their feet were 'beautiful upon the mountains.' It was to the 'mountains' of Israel that the exile lifted up his eyes, as the place ' from whence his help came.' To the oppressed it was 'the mountains' that brought 'judg- ment, and the hills righteousness.' ' My mountain' — ' my holy moun- tain'— are expressions for the whole country." — (Stanley.)

" The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night." He who created those orbs promised to the returning exile that their influences would be restrained for his sake. He would not be afflicted with that terrible calamity sunstroke ; and when sleeping in the open air with the cold moonbeams falling on him, and all the atmospheric influences which accompany it in full operation, God would yet be his protector ; nothing should hurt him.

Psalm cxxviii. — Earthly prosperity was to be to Israel an evidence of the favour of God. This helps to explain some of the allusions here ; the expression for example —

" Thy children, like olive-plants, round about thy table." "Follow me," says a recent traveller in Palestine, " into the grove, and I will show you what may have suggested the comparison. Here we have hit upon a beautiful illustration. This aged and cLecayed tree is sur- rounded, as you see, by several young and thrifty shoots, which spring from the root of the venerable parent. They seem to uphold, protect.

PSALilS CIII.-CI..

and embrace it. We may even fancy that they now bear that load of fruit wliicli would otherwise be demanded of the feeble parent. Thus do good and affectionate children gather round the table of the right- eous. Each contributes something to the common wealth and welfare of the whole — a beautiful sight, with which may God refresh the eyes of every friend of mine."

Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, each in its turn, hated Zion and persecuted her. The church speaks, in Psalm cxxix., of her many afflictions, and appeals to God to undertake for her.

" Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion : Let them be as the grass upon the house-tops, which withereth afore it groweth up." " Groweth up" — more correctly, "is plucked up." To the flat roofs of eastern dwellings, when the dust is permitted to collect, the breezes carry the seeds of grass. These spring up under the clouded sky and amidst the abounding moisture of the rainy season. But so frail and insecure are their roots, that a few davs of a briirht sunshine destroys them. " They are withered before they are plucked up."

Psalm cxxxiii. — The goodness and beauty of brotherly love and for- bearance form the theme of this psalm. "Dwelling together in unity" is said to be —

" As the dew of Hermon, that descended on the mountains of Zion."

Our translators have inserted ^'mid as the den;'' with the view of dis- sociating Hermon and Zion. But this spoils much of the beauty of the figure. " Hermon" — the modem Jebel-esh- Sheikh — is the name given to the high southern outliers of Anti-Libanus. Its highest point is Hermon proper, or "The lofty peak." "From the moment that the traveller reaches the plain of Shechem in the interior, nay, even from the depths of the Jordan-valley of the Dead Sea, the snowy heights of Hermon are visible. , . . The 'dews' of the mists that rose from its watery ravines, or of the clouds that rested on its summit were perpetual witnesses of freshness and coolness, the sources, as it seemed, of all the moisture which was to the land of Palestine what the fragrant oil was to the garments of the High Priest ; what the refresh- ing influence of brotherly love was to the whole community." — {Stanley.) Psalm cxxxvii. — I\Iemories of the captivity at Babylon, and of the treatment of the people in their bondage, crowd in upon one of the captives, and he strikes his harp to this plaintive strain : —

"By the rivers of Babylon there we sat down; Yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof."

428 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

"The beautiful house where their fathers had worshipped" was laid waste. Their position in Babylon told them that they had been unfaithful to God. Present sorrow was the fruit of sin — they wept and hanged their harps on the willows.

" Willow," Heb. crev^ is no doubt the weeping willow [Selix Bahj- lonicd) still abundant in the region pointed to, the banks of Euphrates and Tigris, drooping over pools which tell of the famous canals of Babylon (Isa. xliv. 4). The plant has ever been a favourite in song, lending beauty to places —

" Where the willow keeps A patient watch over the stream that creeps Wanderingly."

What were the rivers of Babylon, by which the captives sat down? The answer has generally been, "The canals between the Euphrates and the Tigris." But they were more likely these great rivers themselves. The word rendered "rivers" is that associated with the waters of Eden (Gen. ii). It denotes a much larger flow of water than a canal. It is used one hundred and fourteen times in the Old Testament, and always in the modern sense of a river, as distinguished from a stream, or the artificial gathering of water. Both kinds are pointed out by Mr. Lay- ard as characteristic of Babylon : — " Long before Babylon had overcome her rival, Nineveh, she was famous for the extent and importance ot her commerce. No position could have then been more favourable than hers for carrying on a trade with all the regions of the known world. She stood upon a navigable stream that brought to her quays the pro- duce of the temperate highlands of Armenia, approaclied in one part of its course within almost one hundred miles of the Mediterranean Sea, and emptied its waters into a gulf of the Indian Ocean. Parallel with this great river was one scarcely inferior in size and importance. The Tigris, too, came from the Armenian hills, flowed through the fertile districts of Assyria, and carried their varied produce to the Babylonian cities. INIoderate skill and enterprise could scarcely fail to make Baby- lon, not only the emporium of the Eastern w^orld, but the main link of commercial intercourse l)etween the East and the AVest. Tlie inhabit- ants did not neglect the advantages bestowed upon them by nature. A system of navigable canals that may excite the admiration of even the modern engineer, connected together the Euphrates and Tigris, those great arteries of commerce. With a skill showing no common knowledge of the art of surveying, and ot the principles of hydraulics, the Babylonians took advantage of the different levels in the plains,

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.».

ss^^

Z}^

12

^iv^X-^Vv?^^

-■\^T^-^

^^Si:^

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HE SCATTERETH THE HOARFROST.— Ps. cxlvil. 16.

i..tL>*V lifcCiOJit &L»SCOW tCIWflUMw iWOOi i •ftw^CP-

PSALMS CIII.-CL. 429

and of the periodical rises in the two rivers, to complete the water communication between all parts of" the province, and to fertilize by artificial irrigation an otherwise barren and unproductive soil. Alex- ander, after he had transferred the seat of his empire to the East, so fully understood the importance of these great works, tliat he ordered them to be cleansed and repaired, and superintended the work in per- son, steering his boat with his own hand through tlie channels." — ("Nineveh and Babylon," p. 534.)

Psalm cxxxv. — " God has chosen Israel for his peculiar treasure." This gracious and blessed fact was to become a motive for the halle- lujahs of priests and people. He by whom Israel is chosen is the Great God. One evidence of his greatness is statfed in verse 7: — ■

o'

"lie causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth ; He maketh lightnings for the rain ; He bringeth the wind out of his treasures."

The illustration is taken from the almost constantly accompanying phe- nomena of a thunderstorm. There is first the depressing lull, tlien tlie lightning flash, followed by the peal of thunder, and to this succeeds the storm of wind and rain. All these are under God's sovereign control : —

" Fire and liail ; snow, and vapours ; Stormy wind fulfilling his word " (cxlvili. 8).

God's ministry in the kingdoms of Grace and of Nature is celebrated in Psalm cxlvii. The varied phenomena of nature referred to here have already been noticed in other parts of this work.

430

lilBLICAL NATUUAL SCIENCK.

PROVERBS I.-IX.

HE liebrew name of this Book is Mnshah'm — Parables,

Sententious Sayings. The Book consists chiefly of the

i^roverbs of Solomon. Chapters xxv.-xxix. contain a col-

ection made by learned men in tlie reign of Hezekiah ;

XXX. is ascribed to Agur ; xxxi. was taught King Lemuel

by his mother.

" Surely in vain is the net, spread in the sight of any bird" (i. 17). If the bird see the net it will become alarmed and liasten away. Be wise, says Solomon to the young man, as the bird. The character of the Avicked and the tendencies of all evil are pointed out. Flee from them. " If sinners entice thee, consent thou not" (ver. 10). Much use is made throughout the Bible of the wiles of the fowler to illustrate the guileful character of those who hate God : Job xviii. 8; Ps. ix. 15, xxxv. 7; Prov. xxix. 5; Eccles. ix. 12; Mic. vii. 2 ; Ps. xci. 3, cxix. 10, cxl. 5; 1 Tim. iii. 7, &c. (Plate XL., fig. 10.) One reason for the earnest exhortations to the young man to attend unto wisdom, bow the ear to understanding, and regard wisdom is, that he may be enabled to avoid the "strange woman." Her power of sensuous fascination is described in verse 3 : — " The lips of a strange woman drop as an honey-comb, and her mouth is smoother than oil." The contrast to the false joy of her first wiles is brought out in verse 4 : — " Her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. Her feet go down to death." They that are led away by her shall be like her in the end.

" Honey-comb" has been noticed under Psalm xix. 10 — which see. " Wormwood," Heb., laandh, Greek, apsinthos. The name occurs ten times in the Scriptures. In Amos vi. 12, our translators have rendered it "hemlock." See under Hos. x. 4.

The wormwood plant itself (Artemisia) is not mentioned. In each passage the iuice of the plant only, or the drug prepared from it, is referred to. The plant is one of the natural order Comjjositce, or com- pound flower -bearers. With the well-known crysanthemum, aster, dahlia, &c., it is ranked in a sub-order named Corymhifera. One species is very common, the southernwood {A. ahrvtanuvi) of the

PKOVERBS I.-IX.

431

cottage garden. Common wormwood {A. ahsinthium) is abundant in Britain, and used to be more in request than it is now. Its seeds were preserved till spring, when they were decocted and given to the young. Thus the advice of the old poet: —

"While wormwood hath seede get a handful or twainc, To save against March."

Distillutions of this species are used, chiefly on the Continent, as

Fig. 1J9.

condiments, or because of their tonic powers, under the names Eaii d' Absinthe, Crcme cV Ab- sinthe, &c.

None of our British species are found in Palestine. The species most frequently to be met with there are Judaean wormwood {A. t72<fZ«'?ca), Roman wormwood [A. Romano), and southernwood {A. Abrotana), which grows very luxuriantly in the Holy Land.

When Moses warns the people against idolatry, he compares the natural tendency of the people to depart from God, to a root of bitterness. The Lord, he says, will not spare such. Take heed then, and beware, " lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations ; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood" (Deut. xxix. 18). When the Jews of an after age fell hopelessly into the worship of Baalim, the prophet was sent to them with the threatening — " Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink" (Jcr. ix. 15). And when the prophets fell into the same sin, when they "prophesied in Baal, and caused God's people Israel to sin," Jeremiah was sent with the word — " Behold, I will feed them with wormwood" (xxiii. 15). When "the arrows of Jehovah's quiver

Wormwood {ArUmisia Judal-.a).

432 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

eutered into the reins" of his sorrow-stricken servant, he cried out in the agony of a broken heart — " He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood" (Lam. iii. 15, 19). Amos addresses those who were departing from God as men " who turn judg- ment to wormwood," who make truth and equity to be hated as is the juice from the root of bitterness. In Rev. viii. 11, the Apsinthos is associated with the other symbols, which point to the direful plagues with which the enemies of Christ are visited at the time indicated by the sounding of the third trumpet: — "And the name of the star is called Wormwood : and the third part of the waters became wormwood ; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter." These passages show that, while the plant may have been in the view of the writers, their expressions, for the most part, point only to something peculiarly bitter. In such cases the term " wormwood " is exceedingly general, and is not to be confined to the plant properly so called.

The hazard of being surety, either for friend or stranger, is pointed out in chapter vi. 1, 2. It may have been hastily and unadvisedly done. If so, take the earnest advice of one wise in the ways of men — " Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend" (ver. 3). Get him to free you from obligations which you cannot meet. It was wrong to incur them ; you will be in the way of honesty, justice, and prudence, if you lawfully withdraw from them. The position is one of danger — "Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids. Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler."

"Roe," Heb. tzevi, female; roebuck, male. The roe is the Capreo- lus dorcas of zoologists ; see under Deut. xii. 15, 22.

The roe is nicntioned in Deut. xiv. 5, as one of the clean beasts which might be eaten. It has ever been noted for its swiftness of foot — "Asahel was as light of foot as a wild roe" (2 Sam. ii. 18). Its favourite haunts are incidentally noticed in the list of those who gathered to David at Ziklag — "And of the Gadites there separated themselves unto David, into the hold to the wilderness, men of might, and men of war fit for the battle, that could handle shield and buckler, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as the roes upon the mountains" (1 Chron. xii. 8). Solomon loved to refer to it. Thus he takes it as the figure of cheerfulness and nuptial joy — " Rejoice with the wife of thy youth. Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe" (ver. 18, 19). In the Song he mentions it as an emblem of Christ

PROVERBS I.-IX.

433

— " My beloved is like a roe or a young hart. Be thou like a roe or a young hart" (ii. 9, 17). The instruments of consolation provided for man in the church are named — " Two breasts like two young roes that are twins" (iv. 5, vii. 3).

" Go to the ant, thou sluggard ; consider her vfajs, and be wise : which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest" (ver. 6-8). It does not admit of aay doubt that none of the ants in this country store up food in the way described here. This fact has led many to the some- what hasty conclusion, that no ants do so. One Indian species at least {Pheidole providens) is known to store. But it is enough to appeal to Solomon's use of a wide-spread popular impression, in order to teach a lesson to the sluggard. He may, however, have been acquainted with a species, in whose hills he had seen food laid up for the winter. An old writer makes a good use of the popular belief when expounding this chapter. He says quaintly: — "Man that was once the captain of God's schoole, is now (for his truantlinesse) turned down into the lowest forme, as it were, to learn his ABC again, yea to be taught by these meanest creatures. So Christ sends us to schoole to the birds of the air, and lilies of the field, to learn dependence upon divine providence (Matt, vi.) ; and to the stork, crane, and swallow, to be taught to take the seasons of grace, and not to let slip the opportunities that God putteth into our hands (Jer. viii. 7). This poore despicable creature, the ant, is here set in the chaire to read us a lecture of sedulity and good husbandry. What a dcale of graine gets she together in summer! What pains doth she take for it, labouring not by daylight only, but by moonshine also ! W^hat huge heaps hath she ! What care to bring forth her store, and lay it a-drying on a sunshine day, lest with moisture it should putrifie ! &c. Not only Aristotle, yElian, and Pliny, but also Basil, Ambrose, and Hierom, have observed and written much of the nature and industry of this poore creature, telling us withall that in the ant, bee, stork, &c., God hath set before us as in a picture the lively resemblance of many excellent virtues, which we ought to pursue and practice. These, saith one, are the veri Icdcorum Uhri\ the true laymen's books, the images that may teach me the right knowledge of God, and of his will, of themselves and their duties." — (Trapp.)

"Ant," Heb. nemdidh, is referred to only here and in xxx. 25, where

their allej-ed storing habits are again noticed. The ants best known in

Britain are the wood ant [Formica nifa), the dark brown ant [F.fitsca),

the garden ant {F. nigra), and the yellow ant [F.flava). Any popular VOL. II. 3 I

434

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

account of their habits opens up very many points suggestive of lessons, for which we may all go very profitably to the ant, to consider her ways in order to be wise, as among other things we note —

"The intelligence that makes The tiny creatures strong by social league Supports the generations, multiplies Their tribes, till we behold a spacious plain Or grassy bottom, all with little hills. Their labour, cover'd as a lake with waves; Thousands of cities in the desert place, Built up of life, and food, and means of life." — {Worclsivorth.)

Chapter vll. — The bed was decked by the harlot " with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt." The word here rendered "fine linen" (ver. 16) is etilm. Several other words are of frequent use in scripture, as pisldali^ the flax-plant — see under Exod. ix. 31; pishteh, the boll, or stalk of the common flax. Josh. ii. 6; hutz, cotton, 1 Cliron. iv. 21; shesh, linen. Gen, xli. 42; had, linen, 1 Chron. iv. 21 ; and sdd'in, linen sheets or shirts, Judg. xiv. 12. The term used by Solomon points to curtains of finest linen — muslin-like — curiously adoi'ned, into which gold and silver threads were woven. Such hangings are known to have been in use in Egypt, in the houses of the rich and luxurious, at a very remote period. Syria drew its supply of this article from Egypt.

rig 130.

.- c---.

Fibres of Cotton and Flax contrasted— magnified 40O diameters. A Cotton. B Kaw I'lax. c Maoufacturcd.

PROVERBS X.-XXXI.

43

oo

PROVEKBS X.-XXXI.

OSITIVE inconvenience results from tlie employment of the sluggard in any matter of business. "As vinegar to the teeth, so is the sluggard to them that send him" (x. 2G). The acid acts especially on the worn parts of the enamel, and produces the sensation popularly named " setting the teeth on edge." If the slothful be sent on a message, his carelessness and delay will react on the sender. The result will be to him " as vinegar to the teeth" — something inconvenient rather than seriously hurtful. The same truth is declared in the second clause of this verse — " As smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him."

" Vinegar," Heb. IJiometz, Greek oxos, is either simply sour wine, or a dilute acetic acid prepared from inferior wine, or a liquid obtained from malt or from wood by a more complicated process of distillation. The first three kinds of vinegar are mentioned in Scripture.

The mode in which different forms of the Hebrew root are employed by the sacred writers is interesting. In Psalm Ixxi. 4, one form is translated " cruel :" —

" Deliver me, O God, out of the hand of the wicked, Out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man."

Another is rendered "to be leavened"^ — "They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened" (Hos. vii. 4; Exod. xii. 19, 20, 34, 39). In a third form it is translated " leaven" and " leavened bread:" — "No meat-offering, which ye shall bring unto the Lord, shall be made with leaven : for ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the Lord made by fire'' (Levit. ii. 11, also vi. 17, xxiii. 17, Amos iv. 5); "Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses : for whoso- ever eateth leavened bread, from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel" (Exod. xii. 15, also xiii. 3, 7, xxiii. 18; Levit. vii. 13; Deut. xvi. 3). In Isaiah the participle of the verb "to leaven" is rendered " dyed" — " Who is this that cometh from

Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrali ? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save" (Ixiii. 2). And in Psalm Ixxiii. 21, it is met with in the sense of " to be jrrieved : " —

&'

" Thus my heart was grieved, And I was pricked in my reins."

The closing scene on the cross contains a reference to vinegar as sour wine — " And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani ? that is to say. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias. And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. The rest said, Let be, let us see Avhether Elias will come to save him" (IMatt. xxvii. 46, 49 — which see). This, as we learn from Ruth ii. 14, was used at the meals of the people. It was given to the reapers in the time of harvest, as licer is generally given in Britain to the field-workers at that season : — " And Boaz said unto her, At meal-time come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers ; and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed, and left." Sour wine of this description formed part of the daily rations of the Roman soldiers. It is still used in wine-growing countries.

Among the precepts given by the Lord to Moses concerning the Nazarites, mention is made of two kinds of vinegar — that already referred to, and another which corresponded with the vinegar manufac- tured from malt : — " He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes, or dried" (Num. vi. 2). " The vinegar of strong drink" was that made from an inferior kind of intoxicating drink, or, by a different process, from the material used in distilling strong drink. See under Numb, vi. 4. The reference to vinegar in Psalm Ixix. 21, points to Mark xv. 23 (see), and is also to be reckoned " sour wine:" — "They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink." Its influence on a substance mentioned in Prov. x, 26, and Jer, ii. 22, erroneously believed to be the same as our saltpetre {nitre, or nitrate of jMtassa), is thus stated — " As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart." Professor Hitchcock gives the only satisfactory explana-

PROVERBS X.-XXXI. 437

tion of this passage. He says ("Geology and Religion," p. 20) — "We should expect from this statement that when we put vinegar upon what we call nitre, it would produce some commotion analogous to the excite- ment of song-singing. But we should try the experiment in vain ; for no effect whatever would be produced. Again, it is said by the prophet Jeremiah (chap. ii. ver. 22), 'Though thou wash thee with nitre, and take I thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord.' Here, too, we should expect that the use of the nitre would increase the purifying power of the soap; but the experiment would prove rather the reverse. The chemist, however, informs us that there is a substance, namely, the carbonate of soda, which, if substituted for the nitre, would effervesce with vinegar, and aid the purifying power of soap, and thus strikingly illustrate the thought both of Solomon and Jeremiah. And on recurring to the original, we find that nether {nitrum, natrum) does not necessarily mean the salt which we call nitre, but rather a fossil alkali, the natron of the ancients, and the carbonate of soda of the moderns."

" In the light of the king's countenance is life ; and his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain" (xvi. 15). The early rain was the first showers of autumn, which partially revived the scorched vege- tation, and especially fitted the hardened ground for the plough. The latter rain was the occasional showers which fell after the close of the rainy season — showers which helped on the growth of the cereal crops, helping them to shadow all the ground.

Drunkenness and gluttony must be guarded against, and riches, which are apt to encourage natural tendencies thereto, are not to take captive the affections of the young. The wise heart is the only true safeguard. " My son, if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine." Be wise then, " and guide thine heart in the way." Keep far off from the drunkard and the glutton. " Be not among wine-bibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh," for they shall come to poverty. There is no sure ground of safety but in the love and fear of God : " My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways" (ver. 15, 19, 20, 26). Drunkenness brings with it a crowd of evils. " Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine ; they that go to seek mixed wine. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright: at the last it biteth like a serpent, an^l stingcth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and

438 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

thine heart shall utter perverse things : yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick : they have beaten me, and I felt it not : when shall I awake ? I will seek it yet again" (ver. 29-35).

" Serpent," Heb. nahash—see vol. i., p. 103-109. "Adder," Heb. tzepha, " like an adder," tziphoni. The word occurs other four times, and is, except here, rendered "cockatrice" — "The sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den" (Isa. xi. 8). " Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken : for out of the serpent's {nahash) root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent {saraijh) " (Isa. xiv. 29). "They hatch cocka- trice' eggs, and weave the spider's web : he that eateth their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper (epJieh)" (Isa. lix. 5). " For, behold, I will send serpents (nahash), cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord" (Jer. viii. 17).

It will be seen from these passages (1) that the word serpent is used in a very wide sense, and includes ophidians generally. Thus in the text quoted it is used as a heading, "I will send serpents;" and the species which shall be sent is the cockatrice. (2) That the cockatrice was one of the egg-bearing reptiles. This is clear from Isa. lix. 5. It was not then one of the vipers, as has so often been alleged, because they are viviparous. The statement that the egg when crushed breaks out into a viper, means no more than that the young of the cockatrice were regarded as hurtful, like those of the epheh (Job xx. 14 ; Isa. xxx. 6, lix. 5). (3) That the fully developed form was known as the saraph, or " fiery flying serpent." Isa. xiv. 29 is suggestive. AVe have, first, the serpent's root, or one of the leading forms of the Reptilia; second, the generic form springing therefrom ; and third, the species, namely, nahash, tzepha, and saraph. For the last see under Numb. xxi. 6. The power of flying ascribed to the fiery serpent, refers, no doubt, only to the rapid, darting motions of the snakes referred to.

Volumes of fable have gathered round the name " cockatrice." Sir Thomas Browne supplies some curious information on the subject in his "Vulvar Errors." It was held to have obtained its name from a cock's egg! These unnatural productions, they imagined, having once or twice been realized, frogs were believed to have hatched them, and thus the cockatrice was obtained which had power to propagate its species ! Others

rnovERBs x.-xxxi. 439

traced its origin to the ibis. That bird " feeding on serpents, that venomous food so inquinates their ovall conceptions, that they some times come forth in serpentine shapes, and therefore they ahvaies break their eggs, nor would they endure the bird to sit upon them ! " The fabu- lous representation of the cockatrice was generally either an image with a crowned cock's head, the body of a lizard, the tail of a serpent, and eight webbed feet, or a huge serpent, with tapering, prehensile tail, tongue out-darted, and head with a crown set on it. This last feature came to associate the cockatrice with the equally fabulous basilisk, or regulus of the ancients. " Many opinions," says Sir T. Browne, " are passant concerning the basilisk, or little king of serpents, commonly called the cockatrice ; some affirming, others denying, most doubting the relations made hereof" The power attributed to the eye of the basilisk is well known. It was believed to strike dead every one on whom it looked. Even in the midst of the fables which ignorance has heaped around the animals mentioned in Holy Writ, we get glimpses of higher and grander truths. Thus here : — A serpent like to the fiery serpent was lifted up on a pole, that the poisoned Israelite might look to it and be cured. Christ looks on those who trust in him, and that look kills sin. The health and healing in the thought were lost sight of The sign of spiritual blessing became confounded with influences on the body, and the serpent passed into the basilisk and the cockatrice of fable and superstition : —

" But fiercely hissing througli the poisoned air, The basilisk exerts his deathful glare ; At distance bids each vulgar pest remain, And reigns sole monarch of his desert plain." — (Lucan.)

" What shield of Ajax could avoid their death By th' basilisk, whose pestilentiall breath Doth pierce firm marble, and whose baneful ey Wounds with a glance, so that the soundest dy." — {Du Bartas.)

" Would they were basilisk's, to strike thee dead."^SfiaI,-s])eare.)

Verse 11 has given rise to many interpretations. There is, how- ever, not much difficulty in it, when it is considered in the light of the context, and of the Scripture use of it. Verses 8-12 should be taken together: — " Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof, when thy neighbour hath put thee to shame. Debate thy cause with thy neighbour himself, and discover not a secret to another; lest he that heareth it put thee to shame, and thine infamy

440

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turn not away. A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. As an ear-ring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear." Reference is made to disputes with a neighbour. The wise man counsels forbearance. If a disagree- ment happen, and a cause must be discussed, let it be between two. A third party will take the side of one or the other, and two shall be against one. When you do speak, let the right word be spoken at the Fig.i3i. right time — "on the wheel" as it

were; for "a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. " The fruit of the right word is found in the obedient ear. Its effect is seen at once. Even the reprover comes to be regarded with love. He is as an ear-ring of gold, and as an ornament of fine gold, to the one reproved by him. Criticisms on verse eleventh have almost, without exception, proceeded on the assumption that something to be seen in nature is referred to in it. The use of the word " apple" has also been over- looked. This has resulted in the proposal to render the words " golden-coloured citrons in silver baskets." The fruit pointed to is held to be that of the citron ( Citrus medico). Such a view of the pas- sage is arbitrary, and does violence to the words of the Spirit of God. There can be no doubt that the "gold and silver" mentioned are the precious metals so called. Nor is there much difficulty with regard to the term " pictures." It is not to be held as equivalent to " paintings." The use of the word in other passages is conclusive on this point. Two terms are translated " pictures" in the Old Testa- ment. One of these, which is only once named, occurs in Isa. ii. 16, and most likely points to painting as distinguished from sculpture. Because of the sins of the people, destruction was to come on all " pleasant pictures (sekli/dh)." The other term (masJdth) occurs six

Citron (Ciinu mtdica).

PIIOVERBS X.-XXXI. 441

times, including the test before us. In the others it is used thrice to indicate sculptured figures, and twice to express the peculiar idea which may be held characteristic of the artist before he has given outward form to it. In the former class of passages we have — "Neither shall ye set up any image of stone" or any figured stone like the has- reliefs of the Nineveh religious sculptures (Levit. xxvi. 1) ; " Ye shall destroy all their pictures" (Numb, xxxiii. 25), an expression used in connection with the breaking down of the idol temples, " the high places," and clearly meaning sculptures again ; " Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery" (Ezek. viii. 12)? a passage which again points to carved work in stone. In the latter we have the mental conditions — desire and self-confidence; the former borrowed from the artist's state of mind when he is anxious to realize the mental image ; the latter from the same when he has given form to his imaginings, and is satisfied with the results. " The wicked," says the Psalmist, " have more than their heart could icish " — they pass the thoughts of their hearts (Ps. Ixxiii. 7). " The rich man's wealth," says Solomon, " is as an high wall in his own conceit. If the meaning of the word " pictures" in the passage under notice, is to be determined by its use in other portions of Scripture, there is little doubt that some- thing carved or chased is referred to.

" Tajjpriach" is the Hebrew for the apple-tree and for its fruit. But, assuming that the use of the term here points to carved work in gold and silver, it is in the highest degree likely that the Jews used it, as almost all nations have done, in a very wide and general sense. The Latin ^;om?/7??, apple, included under it many kinds of fruit, besides that of the true apple-tree. Thus, when the peach {Amggdahis Persicus) found its way to Italy and the West, it was received as the Persian apple {Pomum Per). In like manner the quince [Cijdonia vulgaris), when introduced from Asia Minor into Europe, was known as the apple of Sidon. The pine-apple {Ananassa sativa), a native of the warmest regions of South America, the fruit of a monocotyledonous family of plants (Bromeliacece) is in no sense an apple ; yet as an edible fruit it is now chiefly known as such. The potato (Solanxm tuberosum) has been regarded from the same point of view by the French, who have named it Earth-apple [Pomme de terre). Many other examples might be given. The text may thus be held to point to any kind of much esteemed fruit, imitated by the workers in precious metals — apple-like ornaments of gold in silver settings. The intercourse between the

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Jews, in the days of Solomon, and the Phoenicians indicates the source whence the " apples of gold in the pictures of silver," may have been obtained. We know that he was indebted to Phoenicia for the artist who prepared the ornamental metal- work for the temple (1 Kings vii. 13, 14). The attractive beauty in such work is implied; and on this the wise man makes his appeal — speak the right word in the right spirit and at the right time. For "apple of the eye" see above, Deut. xxxii. 10; and for " apple-tree" see below, Song ii. 3.

" As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come" (xxvi. 2). Effort must be put forth even by the birds in order to follow their instincts. Where the curse falls, there is a reason for it. It not only never comes without being sent, but when it is sent there is a divine end in it. Either we are to look for a retributive element in it, or, as in Job's case, one of discipline. The wicked are chiefly in the mind of Solomon here. Judgment had fallen on them ; and there was a cause. " Swallow," Heb. deror — the bird with great freedom in its flight, the swallow of Palestine {Hirundo rufula).

" The horse-leech hath two daughters, crying. Give, give" (xxx. 15). "Horse-leech," Heb. aluhdh. There seems no good reason to doubt, that one of the well-known family Hirudinidce or leeches is the animal named here. The British horse-leech {Hcemopsis sangm'suga) is noted for its greedy bite. It is, however, surpassed in this respect by the medicinal species (Sangm'suga medicinalis). Both of these abound in some parts of Syria, and might be well-known by Agur. The likeli- hood is, that the medicinal species is that referred to here. The marshes of the mountain lake, Phiala, situated to the south-east of Banias (Paneas-Ccesarea), abound with them. Dr. Robinson says of Phiala : — " The water of the lake is stagnant and impure, with a slimy look. Just at the margin it was muddy for a few feet, and did not seem to be clear and pure in any part. At a short distance from the shore was a broad belt of water plants, now turned brown, and in some places resembling islands. The middle of the lake was free. Wild ducks were swimming in different parts. A large hawk was sailing above them, and occasionally swooping down to the surface of the water, as if to seize a duck or a frog. Our Druzes fired at him, and broke his wing ; he fell among the water plants, and could not there be reached. Myriads and myriads of frogs lined the shores ; and it was amusing to see them perched thickly along the stones, as if drawn up in battle-array to keep off intruders. It is the very paradise

PI^TK M

Fel. Onocrotalus (hnutum Ihliian .

I AM LIKE A PELICAN OF THE WILDEENESS^Ps. cil 18.

Cyguus.

C. Ferns WUcL Swa/t.

THEY SHALL NOT BE EATEN; THE SWAN AND THE PELICAN.— Lit. xL 18.

WILLIAI* MACHENZlt. CLASCOM. EOHSURGH. LOMOOH IMEW^tORM

PROVERBS X.-XXXI. 443

of frogs. The lake supplies the whole country with leeches ; which are gathered by men wading in, and letting the leeches fasten themselves upon their legs. The ground along the margin is mostly without reeds or rushes, and is covered with small black volcanic stones. The shores and sides of the water exhibit everywhere small, glistening, black crystals, resembling hoi'nblende."

"Young eagles" (ver. 17); see under Levit. xi. 13. "Conies" (ver. 20); under Psalm civ. 18. "The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces" (ver. 28). The species alluded to is the house spider {Aranea domesh'ca), which weaves a close and almost horizontal web in the corners of chambers. At the point furthest from the margin which does not touch the wall, a hollow tube of net is woven. In this the spider lurks as it watches for its prey. This is the "meshy fortress" in which the spider —

" Spends his life, Unless you pull it dowu, and scare him from it."

" Greyhound," Heb. zarztr moihnayim. The name points to an animal noted for the narrowness of its loins. The greyhound answers better to this description than any other animal. It is moreover, as here, noted for its speed. The greyhound is represented on the sculptures of Egypt. " He-goat," tayish. The name is derived from a root signifying " to strike." It occurs also Gen. xxx. 35, xxxii. 14; 2 Chron. xvii. 11.

The comparison of the wringing of the nose to the churning of butter (ver. 33), is much more expressive when regarded in the light of the habits of the East. "What," asks one as he looked on the process of butter-making, "are these women kneading and shaking so zealously in that large black bag, suspended from this three-legged crotch? That is a bottle, not a bag, made by stripping off entire the skin of a young buffalo. It is full of milk, and that is their way of churning. When the butter ' has come,' they take it out, boil or melt it, and then put it in bottles made of goats' skins. In winter it resembles candied honey; in summer it is mere oil. This is the only kind of butter we have. Do you mean to say that our cooking is done with this filthy preparation ? Certainly; and this Huleh butter is the best in the country. Some of the farmers have learned to make our kind of butter, but it soon becomes rancid, and indeed it is never good. I believe it is always so ; and thus, too, I suppose, they made butter in olden times. Solomon says, ' Surely the churning of milk bringeth

444 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENX'E.

forth butter, and the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood.' But the word for ' churning ' and 'wringing' is the same in the Hebrew. It is the wringing of milk that bringeth forth butter, just as these women are squeezing and wringing this milk in the ' bottle.' There is no analogy between our mode of churning and pulling a man's nose until the blood comes, but in this Arab operation the comparison is quite natural and emphatic. The Arab translation of this proverb is curious, and very far from the original : ' He that wrings the dug violently that he may bring out milk, brings forth butter ; and he who milks harder still will bring out blood.' "

" Strong drink" (xxxi. 4, G); see under Numb. vi. 3; Mark xv. 23.

" Clothed with scarlet" (ver. 21); under Josh. ii. 18. The virtuous woman's clothing is not only comfortable, but in material and colour it distinguishes her above others ; " her clothing is of silk and purple." " Silk," Heb. shesh, has already been referred to, when noticing the royal vestures of Joseph (Gen. xli. 42). Three meanings have been attached to the scriptural use of this word : fine linen (Exod. xxvi. 1) ; marble (Esth. i. 6) ; and silk\ as here. Another rendering has been proposed. It is alleged that most likely cotton is referred to under this name.

Special notice has been taken of the varied use of the word under Gen. xli. 42, which see. The cotton plant [GossypiuTn) belongs to the natural order Malvacece, or mallow family. It has been shown (1 Chron. iv. 21) that cotton is indigenous in India, and now very widely distributed. Herodotus names it among the rare and character- istic productions of India. "Certain wild trees there," he says, "bear wool instead of fruit, that in beauty and quality excels that of sheep ; and the Indians make their clothing from these " (iii. 106). The value of this remark is evident. Egypt was at one period noted for its growth of cotton ; but had this plant flourished in Egypt at the time of the Greek historian, he would not have failed to notice it, especially as he has particularly referred to linen. Assuming the date of the visit of Herodotus as about 440 B.C., it is not likely that a people so tenacious of old customs and so watchful over art as were the ancient Egyptians, would have lost sight of the cotton plant, and the art of manufacturing the cotton wool — the hairs which surround the seeds — if these had been known when Joseph was grand vizier of Egypt, 1715 b.c. These considerations make it not the least probable that shesh, here rendered "silk," and in Gen. xh. 42, "fine linen," meant cotton.

The old Greek historian makes another statement which helps us to limit the meaning of this word (shesh) still further. Referring to the

PKOVEUBS X.-XXXI. 445

Egyptians, lie says : — " They are of all men the most excessively attentive to the worsliip of the gods, and observe the following cere- monies. They drink from cups of brass, which they scour every day ; nor is this custom practised by some and neglected by others, but all do it. They wear linen garments, constantly fresh washed, and they pay particular attention to this. They are circumcised for the sake of cleanliness, thinking it better to be clean than handsome. The priests shave their whole body every third day, that neither lice nor any other impurity may be found upon them when engaged in the service of the gods. The priests wear linen only, and shoes of byblus, and are not permitted to wear any other garments, or other shoes. They wash themselves in cold water twice every day, and twice every night ; and, in a word, they use a number of ceremonies " (ii. 37). Jewish and Hindoo priests were likewise ordered to wear linen garments. It is, however, to be kept in mind, that the passage now under notice plainly points to expensive garments. These may have been of tine linen (most likely they were), and yet so high-priced as to distinguish the prudence and industry of the woman who possessed them. The linen of ancient Egypt, with which we have become acquainted chiefly through the wrappings of mummies, is generally coarse and thick. It would not answer either the description of Joseph's vestures or of the silk of the virtuous woman. But some of it was exceedingly fine, and would suit both purposes. Sir G. Wilkinson has in his possession a piece which gives five hundred and forty threads to the inch — two hundred and seventy double threads in the warp, and one hundred and ten in the woof It was sometimes made so fine as to be almost transparent. Such as this, no doubt, constituted the fine linen of which Joseph's vestures and the clothing of the virtuous woman were made.

It is, notwithstanding, highly probable that the Hebrews, in the later period of Old Testament history, were acquainted with cotton (1 Chron. iv. 21). But it does not appear to have been introduced from Egypt. It is more likely that Egypt obtained both the plant and the knowledge of the art of manufacturing it through Palestine. It would reach Syria from India. From India it would pass into Egypt, carried thither by the merchants of Tvre. See also under 1 Chron. iv. 21.

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ECCLESIASTES.

' *'™" -^|HE Hebrew title is Koliekth, or "The Preacher." The book contains pictures of two great phases of Solomon's spiritual life, and a full statement of his views on men and things. In chapter i., verses 5-7, he likens the prevailing unrest among men to the constant changing of the wind. The present generation is but for a day, as the light of the sun is. Men die, and others take their places. After night comes the morning and the returning sun. The well known laws of evaporation supply another figure. The clouds receive their supply of moisture from sea, and lake, and river. But the moisture is not retained. It hastens down again to water the earth, to supply the rivers, to find its way to the ocean, "All things are full of labour," is the cry : " man cannot utter it."

" Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour " (x. 1). The verb here is singular ; its nominative is plural. This is designed to show that any one of the flies is sufficient to corrupt the precious ointment. Even a little folly may destroy a great name for "wisdom and honour."

" Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days" (xi. 1). "Only believe." Keep not even back thy daily food, if God ask it for himself in his people or his cause. The widow of Zarephath trusted, and her barrel of meal and cruise of oil wasted not. Keep not back thine energies. The use of them often may seem like the act of the Egyptian husbandman in the eye of a stranger, when he casts precious seed into the slimy mud of the Nile valley. But does not he reap abundant harvests? The "bread" here, is the "bread corn " of Isaiah xxviii, 28 — which see.

Another striking feature in this portrait is brought out by the expres- sion— " The almond-tree shall flourish." The tree here mentioned is the common almond-tree (Heb. shdJced), the Amygdalus communis of botanists, to which reference has already been made under Genesis xliii. 11, where its fruit is named as part of the present sent by Jacob to the governor of Egypt, when his sons went down a second time to buy corn. This tree is ranked under the natural order Rosacece, or

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447

rose family, and gives its name to an important sub-section, the Amyy- dalece, noted for their drupaceous or flesh-covered fruit, and for several highly poisonous substances extracted from them. The leaves, flowers, and fruit of most yield prussic acid. The plum {Primus) and the cherry (Cerasus) are classed with the almond [Amyydalus) in this sub- section. The almond-tree is a native of Northern Africa, and abounds also in Asia. It is of frequent Fig. 132.

occurrence in Palestine, where at the present day it is cultivated for the sake of its fruit, which is sent to Europe under the name "Jordan almonds."

The almond is mentioned four times in Scripture as shdkeJ, and six times as sZ!a^'aJ= almond- like. The former term occurs here ; the latter has been noticed under Exod. xxv. 33 — -which see.

This figure — " The almond- tree shall flourish " — has been almost universally held to point to the hoary head of age. Some, however, have thought that a different turn should be given to the expression. The blos- soms of the almond-tree, it is alleged, are not white, but pinkish, or even rose-coloured. It is concluded from this, that the expression is not to be regarded as containing another feature of old age, but as indicating that all the features named will as surely hasten to characterize the evil days, as the almond blossoms do to meet the opening spring and to anticipate the coming summer. The literal meaning oi shdked is "the watcher." Thus — "Like as I have watched (shaJcad) over them," &c. (Jer. xxxi. 28.) But if the original meaning of the word is to be attached to it in this picture of old age, the dis- tinctive character of the figure ceases. Any other tree might, with equal appropriateness, have been used. Whatever the import of the figure may be, we are to seek its fitness in some outstanding resemblance to one of the marks of old age. The idea of wakeful watching is associated with the almond-tree in Jer. i. 11 — which see. Like other emblems

Almoml Draiicbc3 — Flowers and Fruit.

448 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

used by the writers of Scripture, this one has often suffered from interpreters stretching it too far. Its import here is plain and simple enouirh, when the hal>its of the almond-tree are taken into account. It blossoms earlier than any other fruit-bearing tree, in lands in which it is indigenous. A recent traveller in the East, when describing the garden of the convent of Mount Sinai, says : — "As this was the month of January, there was not much to be seen. The fruit trees were not in leaf; but the almond was covered with its bright pink and white blossoms." — {Bonar.) The appearance here alluded to is really all that is needed, to show the appropriate character of the figure. When the branches are bare and withered-looking, and when there is no green leafage to attract the eye, the flowers appear like a crown on the almond-tree when looked at from a short distance, and the pinkish colour comes to stand out like white, from the contrast between them and the branches on which they stand. So is it with age. The limbs become shrivelled and dry-looking, but the hoar head takes the atten- tion of all. It stands fully out before the eye. " The almond-tree flourishes." This white appearance of the blooming almond-tree attracts the attention of travellers in Palestine. " What tree is this on our right," asks one in the great plain of Acre, "dressed out in white

blossoms so early in the season?" This is the almond In

that affecting picture of the rapid and inevitable approach of old age drawn by the royal preacher, it is said that " the almond-tree shall flourish" or blossom. The point of the figure is doubtless the fact that the white blossoms completely cover the whole tree, without any mixture of green leaves, for these do not appear until some time after. It is the expressive type of old age, whose hair is white as wool, unrelieved with any other colour.

The points of difference between the figure and the reality will at once strike the reader. The blossoms of the almond-tree appear in early spring ; the hoary head generally in old age — the winter-time of life. In the tree, the fruit follows the flowers ; in the man, deeds — earnest thought and energetic action— precede grey hairs, the flourish- ing of the almond-tree.

SONG OF SOLOMON. 44.9

TUE SONG OF SOLOMON.

N chapter i. 12-15, the king and his royal bride are seen among the joys of social intercourse. They eat together, and the bride sings of the interchanges of affection. Her graces are as spikenard, and he is to her as a bundle of myrrh and a cluster of caniphire. Many have loved to find in this scene tlie foreshadowing of the last supper in the upper room at Jerusalem, on the night on which Jesus was betrayed. It comes thus to be associated with the sacrament of the Lord's supper, when the Saviour blessed his people with special views of the great love wlicre- with he has loved us, and when —

'• Faith may feed her eager viuv.', With wondtrs Sinai never knew."

These figures are used to bring out the interchange of spiritual delights — sweet-smelling spikenard, a bundle of myrrh, and a cluster of camphire.

" Spikenard," Heb. nerd^ Gr. nardos. The word occurs five times — twice in the New, and thrice in the Old Testament. In the latter its use is confined to this book, here and in chapter iv. 13, 1-1. The New Testament references are Mark xiv. 3, and John xii. 3, in which the incident of the breaking of the " alabaster-box of ointment of spikenard, very precious," is narrated. Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, when the woman came to him, and thus, as Jesus himself said, anointed him "against the day of his burying."

A species of beardgrass {Andropogon nardus) yields one kind of spikenard, long highly esteemed in the East. The true spikenard, however, is the produce of one of the Valerian family of plants, the Nardostachjs jatamansi\ a native of the lower slopes of the Himalayan mountains. We are indebted mainly to Sir William Jones for the identification of the spikenard of Scripture with the Indian jatamansi. The ointment and perfume were prepared from its leaves and flowers. These were in hi"-h esteem both among the Hebrews and the ancient Gentile nations.

" Myrrh," see under Psalm xlv. S.

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" Campliire," Heb. hopher. This word is rendered " pitch " in Gen. vi. 14; "ca ransom," Exod. xxx. 12; "satisfaction," Numb. xxxv. 31, 32 ; and "a bribe," Amos v. 12. In each case the leading idea is to hide, or cover. In the first passage the pitch is said to have been put over the gopher-vpood of the ark ; in the second and third, a sinful state is kept out of view, by a kind of atonement being made ; and in the fourth, the magistrate turning away from the mind of God, accepts a bribe, that he may conceal the truth, and thus lead to a false judgment.

Camphor ((^amphora e^jUkinarum).

Here, and in chapter iv. 14, the same idea lurks in the word. The plant thus named, yielded a substance which was used to cover certain parts of the body.

Camphire has been supposed by many to be identical with the camphor of commerce, which is obtained cliiefly from one of the laurels (Ca7nj)Jiora officinarum). A finer and much more rare kind is secreted in the wood of the Brijohalanops aromatica., indigenous in the Malayan peninsula, and in Sumatra and Borneo. Tiiis is known as Malayan

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451

camphor, which is little, if at all, used in Europe. But neither of these was the campliire of Scripture. It is generally agreed that the refer- ences in the Song are to a product of the Laicsonia inermis, the noted henna, which the females of the East use still as a dye for the palms of their hands, their finger nails, and their lips and teeth. The dye is procured from the leaves.

The custom of staining parts of the body with henna is very ancient. Mummies have been found, Fis.m.

in some of the oldest tombs, with their nails thus dyed. Solomon seems to have ob- tained plants of camphire, and to have raised them in Engedi. In later times Pliny informs us that the best cupros, or henna, was in his day obtained from Pales- tine.

The practice is still common both in Egypt and the East. Shaw, in his Travels in Bar- bary, says : — "At Gabs there are several large plantations of palm-trees, though the dates are much inferior, both in size and taste, to those of the Jireed. But the chief branch of trade, for which this emporium, as Strabo calls it, is famous at present, arises from the al-hennah, which is plentifully cultivated in all their gardens. This beautiful odoriferous plant, if it is not annually cut, and kept low, as it is usually in other places, grows ten or twelve feet high, putting out its little flowers in clusters, which yield a most grateful smell like camphor, and may therefore be alluded to. Cant. i. 14, where it is said — ' BIy beloved is to me as a cluster of cypress (or al-hennah) in the vineyards (or gardens) of Engedi.' The leaves of this plant, after

T^waonia inermis.

452 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

tliey are dried and powdered, are disposed of to good advantage in all the markets of this kingdom. For with this, all the African ladies that can purchase it, tinge their lips, hair, hands, and feet, rendering tliem thereby of a tawny saffron colour, whicli, witli them, is reckoned a great beauty. The al-lienuah, no less than the palm, requires to be frequently watered ; for which purpose the river that runs through these plantations is cantoned out, as it seems to have been in the time of Pliny, into a number of plantations."

Branches or clusters of the fragrant flowers of the Laiosonia are still much used by eastern ladies, as ornaments for the breast and the hair. The expression, "pair her nails," given by our translators in Deutero- nomy xxi. 12, is rather " adorn her nails," and most likely refers to the eastern use of the henna.

Three different plants are named in that part of the dialogue con- tained in verses 1-3. The division of the context into chapters should have taken place at verse 16, chap. i. —

Bride. — " Behold, 0 my beloved, thou art fair,

Yea gracious ; and our bed is freshly green. RoofJ-o'er with cedars, cypress intertwined. I'm Sharon's rose, and lily of the vale. King.— As lily 'mong the thorns, my love, thou art; BuiDE. — The apple among trees is my beloved.

With deep delight I sat beneath his shade, His fruit was very pleasant to my taste."

" Rose," Heb. hhdvtzeletJi, is properly a flower growing in rich land. Is the translation botanically correct ? The question has been variously answered. A few interpreters plead for its correctness. Many will have it, that the cistus (see vol. i., p. 471) is the plant referred to. Some would translate the word by " narcissus," others by " aspho- del," '"iiid one or two by "crocus." But no satisfactory reason has been assigned for setting aside the common rose. The word is only used here and in Isaiah xxxv. 1. The scope of the latter passage goes far to warrant the favourite translation.

The prophet uses the word in his description of the great and glorious change which was to come on the church. It was to be like the desert becoming clothed with luxuriant vegetation. Its beauty was to be of the highest kind — a beauty which might be compared wath that of the flower most prized — the rose — both for its loveliness and its perfume —

"The rose looks fair, but fairer we it deem, For that sweet odour which doth in it live."

SOXG OP SOLOMON. 453

Roses abound in Palestine. Hasselquist names the four leading varieties — the damask, the double white, the common red, and the cinnamon roses. One variety in the time of Solomon had grown luxuriantly and in great perfection on the rich plain of Sharon, and to this he makes the bride compare herself — " I am the rose of Sharon." In Persia the rose grows to the height of fourteen or fifteen feet, and when in full flower, its beauty baffles description, and the perfume which it gives out is felt around. The rose gives the name to the natural order, JRosacece, or rose-family of plants, and to the sub- order, Rosece. It is to be found in most parts of the world. It is not, however, indigenous in South America or Australia. In Syria and the East it attains to its fullest growth and beauty.

The bride in that familiarity of love which thinketh no evil, and conscious that her words will at once he accepted, says of herself — " I am the lily of the valleys." The king hastens to acknowledge her beauty, but throws in another idea. True thou art the lily, but dangers are all around you — "As the lily among thorns art thou." In the Old Testament, one word under three different forms is used for " lily "- - slwsMn, sMshan, and shoshanndh. The Greek name is hrinon. The root of the Hebrew word leads us in trying to identify the plant, to seek for one with a light-coloured flower — L'ither w^hite or light yellow. Such varieties abound in Palestine. " This little brook we are cross- ing," says a recent traveller, " comes from Ijon, by Abel. It is asso- ciated in my experience with the beautiful Hfdeh lily, the flower, as I believe, mentioned by our Lord in that delightful exhortation to trust in the kind care of our Heavenly Father — ' Consider the lilies how they grow : they toil not, they spin not, and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.' This Iluleh lily is very large, and the three inner petals meet above, and form a gorgeous canopy, such as art never approached, and king never sat under, even in his utmost glory. And when I meet this incom- parable flower, in all its loveliness, among the oak woods around the northern base of Tabor and on the hills of Nazareth, where our Lord spent his youth, I felt assured that it was to this he referred. We call it Hideh lily because it was liere that it was first discovered. Its botanical name, if it has one, I am unacquainted with, and am not anxious to have any other than that which connects it with this neighbourhood. I suppose, also, that it is this identical flower to which Solomon refers in the Song of Songs — ' I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.'

454 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

The bride, comparing her beloved to a roe or a young hart, sees him feeding among the HHes. Our flower dehghts most in the valleys, but is also found on the mountains. It grows among thorns, and I have sadly lacerated my hands in extricating it from them. Nothing can be in higher contrast than the lu.xuriant, velvety softness of this lily, and the crabbed, tangled hedge of thorns about it. Gazelles still delight to feed among them ; and you can scarcely ride through the woods north of Tabor, where these lilies abound, witliout frightening them from their flowery pasture."

The first word occurs only once in the singular. When the pillars Jachin and Boaz, with their mystic meaning, were set up in the temple, we are told that their capitals were adorned with " lily work " (1 Kings vii. 22). The plural form, slioshannim, occurs in the titles of Psalms xlv., Ixix., and Ixxx. In this book it is used six times : —

" Mine, mine is my beloved, and I his. Among the lilies feeding" (ii. IG).

"Twin roes thy breasts that feed among the lilies" (iv. 5).

"His cheeks a bed of spices, heaps of perfume; His lips are lilies dropping flowing myrrh" (v. 13).

" Gone to his garden my beloved is, To feed midst spices, and to gather lilies. I am my beloved's, my beloved mine. Feeding among the lilies in the garden" (vi. 2, 3).

" As wheaten sheaves with lilies comp.issed round, Thy belly" (vii. 2).

Shushan is twice used. Like the former word, it is translated " lily" in 1 Kings vii. 19^" The chapiters that were on the top of the pillars were of lily work." It also occurs in the title of Psalm Ix.

Shushannuh is the term employed in the passage under notice, and is met with in 2 Chronicles iv. 5, and Hosea xiv. 5 also. In the former l)lace, " the brim of the molten sea" is said to be " like the work of the brim of a cup, with flowers of lilies ;" in the latter, revived Israel is " to grow as the lily."

Dr. Royle and others have alleged that the lily thus frequently men- tioned in the Old Testament, is the well-known Lotus lily {Nym'phcea Lotus) of the East. But how should the roes feed among such water- plants, and where shall we find the propriety of the figure of " the lily among thorns," were this the case? See also under Luke xii. 27. The species most likely referred to here is the white lily {Lilium

SONG OF SOLOMON. 455

candiclum)^ which is abundant in Palestine, but botanical correctness is not to be looked for in the circumstances. Yellow varieties answer equally well for the aspects of truth embodied in the context.

The other plant named in this part of the dialogue, is the " apple- tree," Hob. tappuach. Interpreters have been much at sea as to the true meaning of this word. In their attempts to identify the tree referred to, they have been led astray by attaching a meaning to Proverbs XXV. 11, which that verse was not designed to bear; which see. The remarks made on the general use of the word "apple," and the examination of that passage, have prepared us to consider the tree mentioned here. Tappuach occurs six times — once in Proverbs, four times in the Song, and once in Joel. The allusions to it in the Song, in addition to the text under notice, are —

" Stay me with perfumes, and the apple's fruit Strew round me, for my soul is faint with love" (ii. 5).

'' Thy breasts shall be As clusters of the vine, thy breath like apples" (vii. 8).

" Under the apple-trees I raised thee, And there thy mother first enfolded thee" (viii. 5).

The apple-tree is named by Joel with the fig, pomegranate, and palm, as influenced by the prevailing judgments on the people because of their sins : — " The vine is dried up, and the fig-tree languisheth ; the pomegranate-tree, the palm-tree also, and the apple-tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered : because joy is withered away from the sons of men" (i. 2). Attempts to identify, the tree now named have very generally ended in the choice of the citron {Citrus medico) as the tree noticed by Solomon and Joel. This choice, however, is the result of an erroneous interpretation of Prov. xxv. 11. Indeed there is no good reason for any other rendering than that which our translators have given. The tree is the apple-tree. The citron falls far short of the requirements of the word. This is well brought out by the author of " The Land and the Book." In his notice of Askelon, he says — " It is especially celebrated for its apples, which are the largest and best I have ever seen in this country. When I was here in June quite a caravan started for Jerusalem loaded with them, and they would not have disgraced even an American orchard. Dr. Kitto has laboured in several of his works to prove that the Hebrew word taffuah, translated ' apples,' means citron ; but I think this is one of his least happy criticisms. The Arabic word for apple is almost the same as the

456

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENX'K,

Hebrew, and it is as perfectly definite, to say the least, as our English word — as much as the word for grape, and just as well understood — and so is that for citron ; but this is a comparatively rare fruit. Citrons arc also very large, weighing several pounds each, and are so hard and indigestible that they cannot be used except when made into preserves. The tree is small, slender, and must be propped up, or the fruit will bend it down to the ground. Nobody ever thinks of sitting under its shadow, for it is too small and straggling to make a shade. I cannot believe, therefore, that it is spoken of in the Canticles. It can scarcely be called a tree at all, much less would it be singled out as among the choice trees of the wood. As to the smell and colour, all the demands of the Biblical allusions are fully met by these apples of Askelon ; and no doubt, in ancient times and in royal gardens, their cultivation was far superior to what it is now, and the fruit larger and more fragrant. Let tafftiah, therefore, stand for apple, as our noble translation has it " (vol. ii. p. 328). The apple-tree belongs to the natural order Pomacece, or apple-family. It is the Pijnis mains, or Mains communis of botanists, and is well known. It is associated with the pear {Pijrus communis), with the common mountain ash (P. aucupand) or rowan-tree, and with

Fig. 133

The Nightingale (^rhlhme'a lusuhna).

the service-tree (P. domestica). Another species known to most is the common wild apple of British hedgerows {Mains acerha). The beverage named cider is manufactured from the apple, and perry from the fruit of the pear-tree.

SOXG OF SOLOMOX. 457

The return of early summer supplies the beautiful allusions in verses 11-13. Many of the birds which make our woods and fields glad with their songs in spring and early summer, are to be met with in Palestine. Warblers, stoncchats, thrushes, tits, starlings, larks, &c., are all met with. The cuckoo is heard on the bushy hill sides, and the turtle- doves in the groves. — (Plate XXXIII.) The nightingale abounds in different districts, and must often have been heard by Solomon in the royal gardens ; to him, as to us, as he listened to it among the pome- granate groves, or as the "chantress from the accustomed oak," higlily suggestive ; —

" At that calm hour, so still, so pale, Awakes the joyous nightingale ; And from a hermitage of shade Fills with her voice the forest glade.

And sweeter far that melting voice Than all which through the day rejoice; And still shall bard and wand'rer love The twilight music of the grove.

Father in heaven ! oh ! thus when day With all its caics hath pass'd away, And silent hours waft peace on earth, And hush the louder strains of mirth.

Thus may sweet songs of praise and prayer To Thee my spirit's offering bear ; Yon star, my signal, set on high, For vesper hymns of piety.

So may Thy mercy and Thy power Protect me through the midnight hour ; And balmy sleep and visions blest Smile on thy servant's bed of rest."

Verse 14 has already been referred to under Levit. i. 14— which see. The king addresses the royal bride : —

" O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, In the secret places of the stairs, Let me see thy face, let me hear thy voice. For sweet thy voice, and thy face comely."

The dove referred to here and in Jeremiah xlviii. 28, was tlic rock- dove. Several species of doves (Columhula;) are named in Scripture — the Syrian dove {Turtur n'son'us) as wild (Gen. viii. 8-12; Levit. i. 14); and as tame (Isa. Ix. 8) ; the turtledove proper (Turtur mmtus), (Levit.

VOL. H. 3 M

i. 14; Jer. viii. 7); and the rock-dove or true wild pigeon {Coluviha livia). In addition to the passage under notice, there are other five in the Song in which mention is made of the dove {jjunali). " Behokl thou art most fair; behold thou art most fair; thou hast dove's eyes" (i. 15). The same thought is again intimated — " Thou hast dove's eyes within thy locks ; thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from Mount Gilead " (iv. 1). In the former passage the voluptuous, dreamy softness which the imagination of eastern poets attribute to the eye of the dove, is referred to ; in the latter, the contrast between the soft, light-coloured eye of the pigeon, and the locks glossy black as the hair of the goats which feed on Gilead, is suggested. Again, when describing lier beloved, the bride sings — -"His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of water, washed with milk, and fitly set." " The bride repeats the compliment to her beloved, and even exaggerates it — ' His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk, and fitly set.' There is a luxurious, delicious haze and indistinctness about such poetic extravagances which captivate the oriental imagination. Nor is the comparison wholly extravagant. Doves delight in clear water-brooks, and often bathe in them ; and then their liquid, loving eyes, ' fitly set ' within a border of softest skyey blue, do look as though just washed in transparent milk."

The king uses the term as one of endearment (v. 2) : —

" I sleep, but my heart waketh ; 'tis the voice Of my beloved, and he knocketh, saying, Open, my sister, unto me ; my love, My dove, my iindefiled, my head with dew Is filled, my locks with drops of night."

So in vi. 9, likewise — "My dove, my undefiled is one." In the time of her "sleep" he had been waiting long — his head had become wet with dew. Eeviving, she heard his voice still in tenderness, and deep affec- tion, saying " My dove, my undefiled."

The appearance of the ripe pomegranate (iv. 3) {Punica granatum) supplies another figure to the king in the praise of his "fair love." Nature and art are alike drawn on to furnish imagery to denote her spiritual beauty. Raven locks are parted on a pale brow. Snow-white teeth are seen between "lips like a scarlet line." The affection which fiushes her temples as she gazes on the king and hearkens to his words, leads him to say —

"Pomegranate-like thy temples 'neath thy locks" (ver. 3).

SONG OF SOLOMON.

459

The same plant is used to indicate other aspects of grace in the church —

"Thy plants an orcliard are of pomegranates" (ver. 13).

The sentiment in verse 3 is repeated at chapter vi. 7, where, too, the bride is represented going down to her garden of nuts to see whether the pomegranate " budded." In chapter vii. 12, she is introduced asking the king to accompany her to see again if " the pomegranates

rig. 13G.

Saffron Crocus (C. Sativus).

bud forth." " Spiced wine of the juice of the pomegranate " is referred to in chapter viii. 2. This plant has been fully noticed under 1 Sam. xiv. 2 — which see.

In his praises of his spouse, the king names the treasures of her garden or paradise. Among these he mentions "spikenard and saffron,

460

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

calamus and cinnamon." "SaSi-on," Heb. Icarlcdm, is the only "sweet" in the garden which foils to be noticed here. Saffron is produced by- one of the Iris fomily of plants (Indacece), the so-called saffron crocus {Crocus sativus). It is used as a dye and a drug. The sweet-scented Syrian variety yielded a costly perfume.

The stigmata of this crocus are of a deep orange colour, and highly aromatic. These are gathered, and form the saffron of commerce. It is imported into England from the Levant, Sicily, France, and Spain. That of English growth is most higlily esteemed for its deep shade. It is still cultivated in Cambridgesliire, and has given its name to a town in Essex, Saffron Walden. It was much more used in medicine in olden times than it is now. An old herbalist refers to it as "an herb of the sun, under the Lion, and therefore, he says, you need not demand the reason why it strengthens the heart so exceedingly. Let not above ten grains be given at a time ; for the sun, which is the fountain of light, may dazzle the eyes and make them blind ; a cordial being taken in an inordinate quantity, hurts the heart instead of healing it." It was also much used in cookery. In chemistry the colouring matter of true safft'on is known as crocine.

AVhen Jacob told his sons to go a second time down to Egypt, he ordered them to take, among the other fruits of the land, some " nuts" as a present for the ruler. The word used in Genesis {hotnlm) differs from that employed in vi. 11. Following the exclamation of the " virgins" (ver. 10), the " bride" says —

" I went down to the garden of the nuts To see the valley's fruits."

" Nuts," Heb. egoz. The resemblance of the current Arabic name for walnuts to the Hebrew term used here, warrants the belief that this kind of fruit is referred to by the bride. See under Gen. xliii. 11.

The walnut-tree {Juglans regia) belongs to the natural order of dicotyledonous plants Juglandaceoe, or walnut family. It is a native of the East, but is now common in temperate and southern Europe. It is cultivated chiefly as an ornamental tree in Britain, though in some of the midland counties and in the south of England its fruit fully ripens. It is found in most countries of temperate and southern Asia. The generic name "Juglans," is a contracted form of Jovis glans, the nut of Jupiter. " Walnut" is equivalent to walled-nut; so called from the membrane which, from a central stalk in the heart of the kernel, divides the grain of the nut into four lobes.

SONG OF SOLOMON.

4G1

There are severcal well-known species of walnut-trees, all of which when full-grown are of a large size. In a congenial soil it will add two feet to its height annually until it reach to twenty or twenty- five feet, when its upward growth becomes either very slow or is arrested altogether. The trunk Fis.137.

«»iitj^i

of the common walnut-tree {Juglans regia) is covered witli a brown, deeply furrowed bark. The branches are wide- spreading, grey- coloured, and smooth. The leaves are elon- gated, oval, smooth, slightly serrated, and of a beautiful dark-green colour. The flow- ers, which appear in April, are male and female. The two sexes grow on the same tree, and are easily distin- guished. The male or stami- niferous flowers are arranged in single drooping catkins, and are borne by shoots producf;d a year before the catkin. The female or pistiliferous flowers are placed on the end of shoots developed in the same year as the flower. The nut is inclosed in a drupe, or fleshy covering, like the plum, &c. The wood of the walnut-tree is much used in carpentry. It is variously veined and shaded with black streaks on a brown ground, and is susceptible of a high polish. The fruit yields an oil of various qualities ; the best of which is used by painters in preparing their colours.

The king, addressing the royal bride, speaks of her beauty, of her statcliness, and of the joy which her presence would yield to him : —

" How fair art thou, beloved, and bow pleasant 1 Thy stature's like a palm, thy breasts as clusters. Now will I to the palm-tree go, I said, And of its boughs take hold ; thy breasts shall be As clusters of the vine."

The palm-tree's usual form of growth is erect. The stem, bursting

TTftTnut-treo {Juglnm rtgia).

402 niBLlCAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

from the root, generally shoots straight upwards, and arrests the eye by its stately beauty. The " clusters" named in ver. 7, have, without good reason, been associated in our translation with the vine. Grape clusters are specially named in ver. 8. In the first reference we have the palm {Phoenix dactylifera) and its clusters of dates; in the second, the vine and its branches of ripe grapes. The dates are linked up with the stature of the bride ; the grapes with her person, yielding joy to her royal spouse. In the one case we have the outstanding beauty of the churcli, as she hangs forth her supplies of food to the hungry; in the other, her spiritual loveliness revealed to Him who rests in his love over her. Jeremiah makes another use of the erect appearance of the palm-tree. When characterizing the vanity of the idols cut from the trees of the forest, decked with silver and gold, and fastened to their places with hammers, he says : — " The customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest (the work of the hands of the workmen) with the axe : they deck it with silver and with gold ; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm-tree, but speak not ; they must needs be borne because they cannot go" (x. 3-5).

ISAIAH i.-xiv. 4G3

ISAIAH I.-XIV.

j,^^^ HE prophet's design in the first chapter is to show the close Erti'-J' 1 connection between the sins and the sufferings of the .._/i : iieople of God. He characterizes the moral state of Judah - " as peculiarly bad, and calls on the heavens and the earth , to hearken to the complaint of God as a Father — " I have

1^1/ c^ nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled > ^ against me" (i. 2). Yea they were not only stubborn, rebel- lious, and greedily set on sin, but stupidly ungrateful likewise. They were dependent on him for every mercy, in providence and in grace ; but they did not see this. He was their owner, but their attitude to him was worse than that of the dull ox and not very saga- cious ass: — " The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider" (ver. 3). Job names the ox (shdr) to illustrate a widely different state of feeling — not that of unthankfulness, but quiet satisfaction, and wishes his friends to feel that if he complained, it was because he had good reason for doing so. " Loweth," he asks, " the ox over his fodder?" " He does not, and I would not have opened my mouth and cursed my day (iii. 1) had not the arrows of the Almighty been within me, drinking up my spirit with their poison (vi. 4). Had I complained without due cause, the ox itself would have rebuked me."

The ox is again associated with the ass when Isaiah describes some of the effects of the full revelation to the world of the " man who shall be an hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest." To those wlio look to him there will be blessing ; to those who refuse homage to him evil shall come. It will especially be well with all who in every circumstance realize their duty aaid do it : — " Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass" (xxxii. 20). See also under Gen. xii. IG, xli. 2 ; Numb, xxii. 4 ; and Dent. xxv. 4.

The land was to be made desolate because of its sins. In ver. 8, the extent of the desolation is indicated by striking figures : — " The daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city." In the first two figures the

o

464 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

idea of being forsaken, and of the complete cessation of joy is embodied. In the third that of present trouble is indicated. When men went out into the vineyards at joyous vintage -time, they erected booths for temporary shelter from tlie extreme heat of noon, and from the cold dews of night. But when the grapes were gathered, and their blood squeezed out, the cottage was deserted. So, likewise, when the cucum- bers were becoming ripe the lodge or shed for the watchman was erected. When the season passed it was deserted. To loneliness is added tribulation — the daughter of Ziou becomes also like a besieged city.

" Cucumbers ' — see under Numb. xi. 4-6. The lodge or shed was a very frail erection. " Passing," say Messrs. M'Cheyne and Bonar, " a garden of melons and cucumbers, we observed ' the lodge' in the midst of it, a small erection of four upright poles, roofed over with branches and leaves, under the shadow of which a solitary person may sit and watch his garden." " I can confirm," says a recent traveller, " the statement of Burckhardt, that the Arabs of Butaiha have the earliest cucumbers and melons in all this region. I once visited it in early spring with a guide from Safed, who came, according to custom, to load his mules with these vegetables for the market in that town. The vines are already up and spreading rapidly ; and there comes the gardener with a basket of cucumbers to sell — which, of course, we will purchase for our salad in the evening. And that is the lodge, I sup- pose, which Isaiah speaks of; just as the frail, temporary thing suggested that sad complaint of the prophet — ' The daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers.' No doubt, but the true point of the comparison will not appear until the crop is over, and the lodge forsaken by the keeper. Then the poles fall down, or lean every way, and those green boughs with which it is shaded will have been scattered by the wind, leaving only a ragged, sprawling wreck — a most affecting type of utter desolation — 'as Sodom, and like unto Gomorrah.'"

" Scarlet" (ver. 18)— under Numb. xix. 2. " Crimson "—Josh. ii. 18.

Chapter ii. 13. — " Cedars of Lebanon " — see under 1 Kings iv. 33 ; 1 Chron. xiv. 1 ; and Psalm xcii. 12. The hand of man became the means of "bringing the day of the Lord upon all the cedars of Lebanon." " The frequent mention," says Dr. Robinson, "in Scripture of the cedars of Lebanon, and the uses to which it was applied, made it apparent, that in ancient times large tracts of the mountain were covered with forests of this tree. Diodorus Siculus also relates that Lebanon was full of

/■/..rn;

T.I p.

T. Eiij^tpa-n. f'ommi^n l/o/.

.> .^htj/i^is _ 0>//uiii>/i .»■/>/>■//.

.Uy' . /y/-//.i/f.ir/ii ,~ ' >''rfni'i!.'

THE MOUSE AFTEK ITS KIND.— Lev. xi. 29.

/' S/ie,hiitn V.itiifimr- /t.U

CAST HIS IDOLS TO THE MOLES AND TO THE BATS.— ISA. U. S&

' ow. EotMBURC"

ISAIAH I.-XIV. 465

cedars and firs and cypresses of wonderful size and beauty. But the destruction of them for architectural uses was far more rapid than their growth ; so that when Justinian in the sixth century erected the church of the Virgin (now el-Aksa) at Jerusalem, there was great difficulty in obtaining timber for the roof; though after much search a spot was found full of cedar-trees of great height. The destruction still went on ; and it would appear, that as late as the middle ages, private houses in Sidon, and probably also in Tyre and other Phoenician cities, were ceiled and ornamented with the cedars of Lebanon." — ("Later Res.") In this way, and in such manifestations of his glorious power as have been noticed under Psalm xxix., the strong hand of judgment was laid literally on the cedars of Lebanon. The cypress here, however, is figurative. The cedars of Lebanon and the oaks of Bashan point to the proud and self-exalted among the princes of Judah. Judgment was to fall on them for their sins. They had led the people into foreign alliances ; and, as a consequence, superstition, reliance on wealth and power, and the practice of gross idolatry, filled the land. But the threatening was to take effect — -for "the loftiness of man shall be brought down, and the haughtiness ot men shall be made low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day" (ver. 17).

"Fine linen" (iii. 23) — see under Judges xiv. 12.

Chapter v. — The prophet's theme is the iniquities and backsliding of Judah, and the judgments which were to come on the people because of these. His words assume the form of a parable, with his own commentary on it. They are not to be limited to any one period in the history of that people, but were descriptive of all the occasions on which they departed from God and were rebuked because of their sin. The parable is characterized by great beauty. It is the utterances of a beloved friend touching his vineyard. The owner of the vineyard was God ; the vineyard itself was "the house of Israel, and the men of Judah were the pleasant plant" (ver. 7). The word rendered "choicest vine" is soreh, which is used in the same way by Jeremiah (ii. 21 — "I had planted thee a noble vine (soreJc)." This variety gave its name to the valley in which Delilah dwelt (Judg. xvi. 4). We thus see the point of contrast. The vine was the best of its kind, and should have yielded choice grapes. But instead of this it produced only wild grapes (heushim). The singular form feminine of this word is translated "cockle" in Job xxxi. 40: — "Let cockle grow instead of barley" — let any kind of noxious weed spring up which shall take the place of the useful barley. This mode of interpretation is to be followed in the

VOL. II. 3 N

4G6 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

passage under notice. The fruit of this vine instead of being the large luscious clusters which the sorek bears, was only the acrid and unwhole- some bunches which may be gathered from the wild neglected vine.

"Briers" (ver. G' — Judges viii. 7. "Strong drink" (ver. 11) — Numb. vi. 3. " Flint," Heb. tzor, used also in Exod. iv. 25 (where it is trans- lated " sharp stone," literally, knife of flint), and in Ezek. iii. 9. Another word, lihaldmuth, is rendered "flint" and "flinty" (Deut. viii. 15, xxxii. 13), "rock" (Job xxviii. 9), and "flint" (Psalm cxiv. 8; Isa. 1. 7). The word appears to have been used in the same way as among us.

Chapter vi. 1-4. — The glorious vision struck terror into the mind of the prophet. "Woe is me," he cried, "for I am undone." Re-assured by the symbolic act (ver. 6, 7) and the putting away of his sins, he becomes fit to hearken to the "voice of the Lord " — "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me" (ver. 8). His offer of service is accepted, but with the distinct and humbling assurance, that his labours will only deepen the guilt of the people, and hasten the threatened judgment. " And he said, Go, and tell this people. Hear ye indeed, but understand not ; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes ; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate. And the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land " (vers. 9-12). But here the divine grace is again revealed to strengthen the afflicted prophet, whose heart still yearned over his kinsfolk according to the flesh, and whose warm patriotism led him still to long for the good of Israel. "But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten : as a teil-tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves, so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof " (ver. 13). The force of the promise is the salvation of a remnant from the desolation threatened in verse 11. Even after this, he says, there shall be in the land a tenth, or small proportion of the whole, who shall be left from those carried away captive. But this only that a portion of the remnant shall again be afflicted, or as here, " eaten," used in the sense of to consume. These, he continues, shall be like the teil-tree and the oak-trees, with which they were held to be well acquainted — which even when they are to all appearance dead still retain their vitality. And thus the holy seed shall be the substance of the tenth

ISAIAH I.-XIV.

467

preserved, wliicli some might deem completely destroyed. The tnith taught here is similar to that referred to in Romans xi., in which Paul declares that there was still among unbelieving Israel a remnant accord- ing to the election of grace.

A distinction is made here between the teil-tree {elali) and the oak (allon). The oak has already iis.isa

been fully noticed (vol. i. p. 302). Are we in the other passages in which elah occurs, to render it by "terebinth" {Pistacia tere- hinilms) ? Or, may there not be good reason for the proposal made by some, to render elah in this verse by " lime " or "linden tree?"— (Fig. 138.) The lime, which is a tree of great beauty, grows luxuriantly in Lebanon and Bashan, where such a scene as that described by the German poet has often impressed tra- vellers—

" Linden blossoms drunk with moonlight Fly about in fragrant showers ; And the nightingale's sweet music Fills the air and leafy bowers."

Lady Calcott and others plead

for "lime-tree," as the best

translation of elah in this place ;

but it is more in keeping with its use in other passages to retain " teil"

or "terebinth."

Chapter vii. forms the first of severiil (vii.-xii.), which contain a series of prophecies, uttered during the reign of Ahaz. In the opening words, the king is warned of the approaching invasion of the land by Rezin and Pekah. He is, however, informed that their counsel shall not stand. Ahaz continued incredulous. Thus the proposal of the prophet in regard to the sign (ver. 11). The king refused, and the prophet said — " Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign ; behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and thou shalt call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good" (ver. 14, 15). The general scope

Lime-tree [TUia Earapaa).

468 BIBLICAL NATUKAL SCIENCE.

of this passage is admitted by most to be a clear statement of the miraculous conception and birth of our Lord Jesus Christ— the true Immanuel, "God with us." No doubt great difficulty meets the inter- preter, when he tries to lay his hand on the precise historical incidents referred to by the prophet for the encouragement of the people. It is evident that the people, to whom his words were addressed, would ascribe a meaning to them bearing intimately on their present experi- ence. But whatever that may have been, it was in complete harmony with the grander and more glorious bearing of the words on the incar- nation of the Messiah. Yet here, as in innumerable portions of the word of God, it is necessary that we have a well-defined view of the context, before such expressions as specially demand our attention in this work can be explained. Regarding the 15th verse from the point of view of the whole prophecy, two interpretations may be attached to it. First, It may be held to imply, that two children are spoken of by the prophet. The circumstances connected with one of these, born in the reign of Ahaz, may have been the fulfilment of the prophecy, and the type of Him who was to be born "God with us." Second, It may he held that the words distinctly foretell the birth of Christ, and intimate that the circumstances connected with it would resemble the great deliverance promised to Ahaz and his people. But this question of the first bearing of the prophecy is a subordinate one. "While some diversity of judgment ought to be expected and allowed, in relation to this secondary question, there is no ground, grammatical, historical, or logical, for doubt as to the main point, that the church in all ages has been right in regarding this passage as a signal and explicit prediction of the miraculous conception and nativity of Jesus Christ."

It has been the custom to explain the reference to the food of the promised child, in a way to make it imply plenty, and the best of its kind. But the opposite is the case. In this chapter another allusion to food occurs : — " It shall come to jiass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep ; and it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give, that he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land " (ver. 21, 22). The land was to be depopulated. Its agricultural operations were to cease. The inhabitants were to be cast back on the natural products of the country. But God would bless even their scanty supply. One cow and two sheep would yield abundance. The point of the expression "butter and honey" in verse 15, lies in this. It does not mean " food of the rich," nor " best of food,"' nor " luxurious food,"

P/^Te ■■■:

Ilimiulo

//, ltii.'ilc(t . f'hun/irii S'li iill(<n

('v]jselij_s.

\

ILIrhiixi . Ilciisi' Miiiiin .

Mvisfjrapa

*^.>>^

CuchIhs

iV \l Ciiispola. S'ii,iit,'ii FlrttTtihfr .

Z')

(\\V\\\\\S CiLUOl-llS CurU

I'Viii'^ill.i

■ 'htu'linch . SWALLOW OATH FOLXD A NEST FOR HERSELF.— Ps. Uixir. 8.

TUE TIME OF SINGING BIKD3.— Cast. U. 1».

ISAIAH I.-XIV. 469

nor " most generous diet," but simply food which could be given to the child at a period or in circumstances when the land was unquiet, and when the labours of the husbandman had ceased, or when the circum- stances of those referred to were such that they were prevented enjoying the fruits of industry and agricultural enterprise. The last was actually the experience of Joseph, ]Mary, and the infant Jesus, when they were forced to flee into Egypt, " Most recent writers are agreed in giving to the twenty-second verse its true sense as a prophecy of desolation. This of course determines that of the fourteenth, as if Isaiah had said — ' This is what I meant by saying that the child should eat butter and honey, for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land.' "

" Butter," Heb. hhcmdli, may sometimes mean " milk" or " cream," as well as the article usually so called. As used in Job xxix. G, the word has two long vowels, hlianali — which see ; also Deut. xxxii. 14. "Honey," Heb. devash, is to be understood as " honey of bees" (Levit. ii. 11 ; Judg. xiv. 8 ; 2 Kings xviii. 32 ; and Matt. iii. 4).

Verses 17-20 demand such a view of the context as that given above : — " The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah ; even the king of Assyria. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria : and they shall come, and shall rest all of them in the desolate valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all thorns, and upon all bushes. In the same day shall the Lord shave with a razor that is hired, namely, by them beyond the river, by the king of Assyria, tlie head, and the hair of the feet ; and it shall also consume the beard."

I have pointed out under Exod. viii. 20-24, that the term {drov) rendered " swarms of flies" points to divers kinds of insects which, in piopular language, are named flies. The word used here {zevuv or zehuh) is still of a very general kind, but it has a limited meaning assigned to it, by being associated with " tlie rivers of Egypt." It is thus also with the word translated " bee" (devorah), which may be regarded as including not only the honey bee (Apis mellifica), but also the wasp (Vesjpa vulgaris), and the hornet (F. crabro). Of these the one which can be most naturally joined with Assyria is to be taken. The present Arabic name for the hornet is debahir, manifestly no more than a modi- fied form of the Hebrew word for bee. We may thus very safely hold that zebub means flies of several kinds, but when joined to Egypt it is

470

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

Jris.139,

to be rendered gnat {Culex pipiens). In like manner devorah, when joined with Assyria, and when the habits of the insects are alluded to, as here, may be held to mean the common Arabian hornet, or dehahir. See under Exod. xxiii. 28.

The gnat (Culex) gives its name to a family of insects, the Culicidie,

rig.iio. whose structure and habits

l)roadly distinguish them from other members of the great natural group to which they belong. The mouth organs {prgana ciba- ria) are produced into a long slender cylinder h, b, nearly half the length of the insect. This proboscis con- sists of several distinct pieces, d, c, which form the blood-sucking instrument.

The head is hemispheri- cal, covered almost wholly by two compound eyes. At the point nearest the mouth, where the eyes come very near each other, two bulbs are placed side by side. From the centre of these the two antennte spring, consisting of twelve joints beset with hairs. The lower lip of the insect assumes the form of a long cylinder, and stretches out between the antennae. This is slightly thickened at the tip, where it opens and displays sets of lancets. One set answers to the lower jaws, the other to upper, and between them is the slender tubular tongue. The whole mechanism is highly suggestive of illustrations of the wisdom of the Creator, lying far out of view of the natural power of the human eye.

" The extreme irritation produced by the bite of the gnat, is too well known even in our own country. The manner, however, in which the operation is effected is interesting ; thirsting for its evening meal, the little animal enters our apartments, and instead of whirling, like the moths, round the light, it betakes itself to its employment ; sounding an approach, however, by a tolerably loud humming, which, in our

Head of Mosquito Guat.

ISAIAH I.-XIV. 471

chambers at least, is often sufficient to banish sleep. Taking its station upon an uncovered part of the skin, with so light a motion as not to be perceptible when it alights (although it will not hesitate to make its attacks occasionally through our thick clothing), it lowers its rostrum and pierces the skin by means of its exceedingly slender needle-like lancets, which are barbed at the tips ; and as by degrees it pushes these deeper into the skin, the lower lip or sheath, in which they were inclosed when at rest, becomes more and more elbowed towards the breast, until the whole length of the lancets are introduced into the skin. It is supposed that, at the same time, it instils into the wound a venomous liquid, which, while it enables the blood to flow faster, is the chief cause of the subsequent irritation." — (Westicood.)

" But of all the insect-tormentors of man, none are so loudly and uni- versally complained of as the species of the genus Culex — Linn., whether known by the name of gnats or mosquitos. Pliny, after Aristotle, distinguishes well between Hijmenoptera and Diptera, when he says the former have their sting in the tail, and the latter in the mouth; and that to the one this weapon is given as the instrument of vengeance, and to the other of avidity. But the instrument of avidity in the genus of which I am speaking, is even more terrible than that of vengeance in most insects that are armed with it ; like the latter also, as appears from the consequent inflammation and tumour, it instils into its wound a poison ; the principal use of which, however, is to render the blood more fluid, and fitter for suction. This weapon, which is more complex than the sting of hymenopterous insects, consisting of five pieces besides the exterior sheath, some of which seem simply lancets, while others are barbed like the spicula of a bee's sting, is at once calculated for piercing the flesh and forming a siphon adapted to imbibe the blood. There are several species of this genus whose bite is severe, but none is to be compared to the common gnat — ( Cidexpipiens — Linn.)

" Although with us they are usually rather teasing than injurious, yet upon some occasions they have approached nearer to the character of a plague, and emulated with success the mosquitos of other climates.

" In the year 17GG, in the month of August, they appeared in such incredible numbers at Oxford as to resemble a black cloud, darkening the air, and almost totally intercepting the beams of the sun. One day, a little before sunset, six columns of them were observed to ascend from the boughs of an apple-tree, some in a perpendicular and others in an oblique direction, to tlie height of fifty or sixty feet. Their bite was so envenomed, that it was attended by violent and alarming inflammation;

472 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

and one when killed usually contained as much blood as would cover three or four square inches of wall. Spenser seems to have witnessed a similar appearance of them : —

' As when a swarme of gnats at eventide Out of the fennes of Allan doe arise, Their murmuring small trumpets sownden wide, Whiles, in the air their clust'ring army flies, That as a cloud doth seem to dim the skies ; No man nor beast may rest or take repast For their sharp wounds and noyous injuries : Till the fierce northern wind with blust'ring blast, Doth blow them quite away, and in the ocean cast.'"

The female gnat alone is the bloodsucker. In cases then in which their jjresence has become a plague and a judgment, there must have been an excess of females. This prominence is given to an account of the structure and habits of this insect, with the view of showing how terrible the visitation must have been when the Lord sent swarms on Egypt. Here he suggests this to the people when he threatens once more to bring such a plague on those who despised his warnings, both by his jirophets and by his providences. " The Lord shall hiss," literally "whistle," "for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of Egypt." The association of the fly with the rivers, and the bee with the land, is peculiarly true to nature. The gnats deposit their eggs on the decaying leaf, or blade of grass, or fragment of bark found floating on the surface of the water. The eggs in a couple of days pass into the larval condition. The larvaj are fitted to hang on the surface of the water, with head downwards. They breathe by a tube near the star-like tail. Having once or twice changed their skin, they pass into the pupa state, in which they move with the head upwards, but do not eat. At the end of about three weeks the skin of the pupa splits, and the full-formed, winged insect emerges, using the cast-off skin as a little boat on which it may float till the wing membrane is hardened. It then takes wing. The uttermost part of the rivers — all the canals formed for irrigating the land by the waters of the Nile — would be specially favourable to the increase of the " fly of Egypt."

Chapter xiii. 1. — "Babylon" has already been refeiTed to (vol. i., pp. 272; 273). Babylon was the capital of Babylonia. It lay on the Euphrates about three hundred miles above the point at which the united Tigris and Euphrates flow into the Persian Gulf. The latter river flowed through the city, dividing into two parts. The area occupied by the city was above two hundred square miles. It was

ISAIAH I.-XIV. 473

noted in ancient times for its massive walls. These were of bricks cemented by bitumen. They are said to have been eighty-seven feet thick, and more than eight hundred feet high. Water was led from the Euphrates into the country around the city for purposes of irriga- tion. These were " the rivers of Babylon." Babylon reached the height of its power and splendour during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. The city was besieged and taken by Cyrus, B.C. 538, when it ceased to be tlie capital of an independent state. In the course of centuries it gradually fell into ruins, and all the terrible prophecies uttered against it were literally fulfilled.

I have shown under 1 Kings v. 8, 10, and Psalm civ. 17, that there is no warrant to render herosh "cypress," instead of, as uniformly in our translation, "fir." The uses of the fir-tree are specially noticed under the former passage. The mode in which it is alluded to by the prophets falls to be considered here. Isaiah names the herosh, or fir- tree, five times. In chapter xiv. the prophet's theme is again the overthrow and complete destruction of Babylon. He tells the "house of Jacob" of his favour to them, and gives them the distinct assurance that they shall change conditions with their oppressors. They were to be exalted, but their enemies were to be so dealt with, that this taunt would come to be used concerning them — " How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased !" As the judgment is being executed, the whole earth is represented as at rest (ver. 7). The work having been accomplished, the prophet, by the bold figure in verse 8, repre- sents the external world breaking into a song of triumph — "The fir- trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon." Personified inanimate nature speaks and tells of the ruin of the proud tyrant. Thus, too, Virgil (Eel. V. 63) speaks of the wild, wooded, mountains lifting up their joyous voices to the stars, the rocks rejoicing, and the groves them- selves breakinof into songs —

" Ipsi ]a?titia voces ad sidera jactant Intonsi monies : ipste jam carmina mpcs, Ipsa sonant aibusta."

See also under xxxvii. 24.

vol.. 11.

3o

47-i

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIEXCE.

ISAIAH XV.-XXXIV.

0 the destruction of the cities is added the desoLation of the

land — " In the way of Horonaim they shall raise up a cry

uf destruction" (xv. 5). By the failure of the vegetation,

the waters of Nimrim (Beth-nimrah, Numb, xxxii. 3, 36)

are made desolate, for the hay (Jilidtzir) — the grass fully

v^/lV <" grown and ready for cutting — is withered away ; the grass

/i\S ' {desJie) — common pasture plants — faileth, there is no green

« thing (yerek) — a term including the other two. It occurs in Gen.

i. 30, ix. 3, as the "green herb" which was given for meat. In

Exod. X. 15, it indicates the leaves of the trees. The destruction caused

by the locusts was such, that "there remained not any green thing in

the trees." The yerek was "the grass" of the field, which the ox licked

up (Numb. xxii. 4). In Psalm xxxvii. 2, it is said of evil doers and

workers of iniquity, that " they shall soon be cut down like the grass

(yerek), and wither as the green herb (deshe)." See under Jer. xii. 4 ;

2 Sam. xxiii. 4.

The difficulty of giving a clear translation of verse 7, is felt by all interpreters. Its obscurity has been increased by the variety of ren- derings proposed for the last clause — "That which they have laid up, shall they carry away to the brook of the willows." In the margin of the English bible, " valley of the Arabians" is given as the equivalent of "brook of the willows," from the resemblance between the Hebrew term translated " willow" and the name Arabia. A like circumstance has led to another rendering, namely, "the stream of the ravens" {Nahal Orehirri) or " Ravensbrook." Bochart believes that Babylon is referred to, whose plains abound in willows. But everything favours the common translation — "brook of the willows." The meaning of the passage is, that the Moabites, thus broken down and spoiled, would hasten to carry all they could save of their substance, out of their own country, to the region farther south. They would take it into Edom. The brook of the willows (Nahal Haarahim) has been identified by Robinson. It communicates with the Dead Sea at its south-east corner, where it is named Wady el Kurahy. Farther from the sea it is known as Wady el Ashy, the Wady el Ahsa of Burckhardt, Irby, and

PLATS, .if

//////// Mnnachus ^aMan ViJture.

•o/ihro7i PerriwpterilS . JuDpUim I ///////

tTvpa^tos Marhatus Bearded Vulture.

THERi: SHALL Tllli VULTURES ALSO BE GATHEKF.D.— Isa. xxxir. 15.

J.WiLouri' Jcuift}

HILLlay UACHtllitC. •iKSCOn. EBlNtURCH. LOMDON «MEW-V0flN

ISAIAH XV.-XXXIV.

475

Mangles, &c., but not to be confounded with the Wady el Asal, which enters the same sea much farther to the north.

" Willow," Heb. erev, see under xliv. 4.

Chapter xix. — "The burden of Egypt." The prophet announces to the Jews the coming destruction of that great political power in which they were too ready to trust, under images borrowed from well-known features of Egyptian social life and scenery. As usual, the description is highly figurative. There may, however, have been a specific and literal fulfilment of some of the threatenings. The waters of the Nile may have failed, the rich meadows of its banks may have withered, and its fishermen may have cast their nets in vain into its streams. But nothing more is demanded here than Figui.

the recognition of the truth, that judgment was to come on Egypt, which might be compared to all these results, had they actually taken place. The Nile might at the season over- flow its banks, its borders might flourish in green beauty, and abun- dance of fish be found in its waters, and yet Egypt might be smitten, " given over into the hand of a cruel lord," and "like unto women, afraid because of the shaking of the hand of the Lord of hosts."

In verse 1, the manifestation of the power of the true God is set boldly before us, by its influence on the idols of the land. God was to a}:fpear, and the idols were to be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt was to melt in the midst of it. The figure of a " swift cloud" raperRcea(cvpm„p«pyn„).

is used to indicate the source and the mode in which the judgment shall come. Like the cloud, it was to be directly from heaven ; and it was to' be speedy, like the cloud flying swiftly before the wind. The judg- ments assume spiritual bearings, and fall first on all the superstitious agencies which kept the people from the acknowledgment of the true God (ver. 3). Then we have the physical features of the land used to give point and prominence to its political and social condition. This

47G BIBLICAL NATUKAL SCIENCE.

was to be as if the waters of the sea were no more to lave its shores — as if its river was to be wasted, and its brooks dried up — as if its vegetation was to be withered, and its fishermen made to mourn, because the waters yielded them no more fish. See for " brooks" under Genesis xli. 1. In verses 6, 7, three forms of vegetation are specially named — reeds, flags, and paper reeds.

" Reeds," Heb. kdnelt^ answering to our word cane {Arundo donax), one of the grasses {Cframinaceoe), The earliest use of this word by Scripture writers, was to express "the stalk" on which the ears of corn grow (Gen. xli. 5, 22). Throughout Exodus it is translated "branches," and is specially used in the description of the "candlestick of pure gold, of beaten work." In 1 Kings xiv. 15, it is first rendered "reed" — which see. The term "flags" (sfiph) has been explained under Exod. xi. 3. See also under Jonah ii. 5.

" The paper reeds," Heb. haroth, are no doubt species of the plants named " bulrushes" in Exodus ii., though referred to under a different word. The gome, we have seen, may be held to mean gener- ically cyperus; the word used here is specific — the paper plant or papyrus {Cyperus papyrus) — and the prophecy is literally fulfilled con- cerning it. The papyrus has perished from the brooks of the Nile. It is very rarely, if ever, found there. It is " withered, driven away, and no more." The term employed by the prophet is borrowed from the naked-looking appearance of the fuU-growTi papyrus, which, though sometimes rising to the height of twelve or fourteen feet, is nearly destitute of lower leaves.

Chapter xxviii. — Wine-smitten Ephraim, and Samaria her crown of pride, had sunk into one of the lowest forms of vice. How wide-spread the sin had become, is evident from verse 7 : — " They have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way ; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink ; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment." The loathsome effects, as described here, give greater relief to the picture of social degradation : " For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean " (ver. 8). It cannot be doubted that actual drunkenness is referred to by the prophet. Of course moral and intellectual consequences are implied. But to understand the words only in a spiritual sense, is to miss their meaning. I have brought together all the scriptual references to the shechdi; or strong drink, mentioned in verse 7, under Numbers vi. 3. What were the substances which yielded this beverage ? This question

ISAIAH XV.-XXXIV. 477

can be answered only after having ascertained the nature of the products, which yield a liquor similar to the Hebrew shechdr to those nations which use it. Under Numbers vi. 3 the words of xxviii. 7 are quoted to show that the ancient beverage, '" strong wine," included liquors obtained from very different substances. Does the glowing promise of Zechariah regarding the fruits of the renewed favour of God, and the return to him of a backsliding people, point to corn {ddgdn) as one substance from which the shechdr was obtained? " The Lord of hosts shall defend them ; and they shall devour, and subdue with sling-stones ; and they shall drink, and make a noise as through wine ; and they shall be filled like bowls, and as the corners of the altar. And the Lord their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people ; for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land. For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! Corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids" (Zech. ix. 15-17). The imagery employed by the prophet is suggestive of a preparation from the "corn." The people were "to drink," "to make a noise as through wine," and the young men were to be made "cheerful" with the corn, as the maids were to be with the new wine. " Cheerful " (noav) indicates a disposition to happy talk.

There is the strongest likelihood that the ancient "stronsr drink" — shechdr and sikera — was similar to the modern arrack or raki, the form of strong drink chiefly in use in eastern lands. Indeed one kind of arrdck is still known as sakar — a word which plainly points to a similarity between the ancient and modern liquors. The use of this beverage can be traced from Russia in Europe over the whole of the Asiatic continent, and in all the islands on the south-east and south of Asia. In Africa it is a favourite beverage : it is largely used in South America, and was found among the natives of the South Sea islands when first discovered by modern voyagers. Two principal sources from which it is obtained are different species of palm-trees and rice. The cocoa nut, the apple, &c., readily yield it likewise. The palm-honey described by Shaw is a form of shechdr. He says, " It is usual with persons of better fashion, upon a marriage, at the birth or circumcision of a child, or upon any other feast or good day, to entertain their guests with the honey, or dipse as they call it, of the palm-tree. This they procure by cutting off the head or crown (the epikope of Theophrastus, to which the Hazazon Taniar is supposed to relate) of one of the more vigorous plants, and scooping the top of the trunk into the shape of a

t)

478 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

basin, where the sap in ascending lodges itself, at the rate of three or four quarts a day during the first week or fortnight ; after which the quantity daily diminishes, and at the end of six weeks, or two months, the juices are entirely consumed, the tree becomes dry, and serves only for timber or firewood. This liquor, which has a more luscious sweetness than honey, is of tlie consistence of a thin syrup, but quickly grows tart and ropy, acquiring an intoxicating quality, and giving by distillation an agreeable spirit or anVaj, according to the general name of these people for all hot liquors extracted by the fl^e??ii2e/i'."— ("Travels," vol. i., 262.) All the sorts are, either when first made or in a very short time, highly intoxicating. One palm will yield from four to a hundred pints in twenty-four hours.

The people against whom the preceding threatenings had been uttered, sought to comfort themselves by two considerations. On the one hand, they believed that delay in their fulfilment warranted the hope that they would not come at all ; and, on the other hand, they thought themselves justified in their low thoughts of God by being able to point to what they held to be arbitrary proceedings on his part, in his dealings with men. The prophet is sent to set God's dealings with them in their true light : — " Give ye ear, and hear my voice ; hearken, and hear my speech. Doth the plowman plow all day to sow ? doth he open and break the clods of his ground? When he hath made plain tlie face thereof, doth be not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat, and the appointed barley, and the rye, in their place? For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him. For the fitches are not thrashed with a thrashing-instrument, neither is a cart-wheel turned about upon the cummin ; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod. Bread-corn is bruised ; because he will not ever be thrashing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen. This also comcth forth from the Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working " (ver. 23-29). As if he had said. The delay of judgment no more proves that it will never come, than the patience of the husbandman, and his preparatory labours, prove that he expects no harvest ; and the difference of God's dealings with different men is no more inconsistent with his general purposes of wrath or mercy, than the husbandman's treatment of the different grains is inconsistent with his general purpose of securing and enjoying them. The husbandman plows with the intention of sowing different grains in their proper season. But he sows also that he might reap, and he treats the ripened

ISAIAH XV.-XXXIV.

479

ears in the way best suited to get the corn out of them. The knowledge which leads to this distinguishing of different plants, and to variety in their mode of treatment, is God's gift to men, whether it be acknowledged or no. " God doth instruct him to discretion and doth teach him."

Much difference of opinion has existed as to the plant which om* translators have named "fitches." Two Hebrew words are thus translated, namely, Jcefsach, as in this passage, and hlsemeth, used in Ezekiel iv. 9. By comparing the expressions of the two prophets, in the light of the context, it appears that kefsach is used to denote a seed employed for purposes corresponding to those for which the cummin associated with it is, and that Msemetk formed an ingredient of the mixed bread which Ezekiel was commanded to eat: — "Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, according to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side ; three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof And thy meat which thou shalt eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day : from time to time shalt thou eat it." Equally with the flour of the wheat and barley, that of the "fitches" was baked into this bread. This fact determines that the fitches of Ezekiel were not seeds used as a condiment, as those of the cummin were. Our translators have suggested "spelt," in the margin, as an alternative rendering. This has been generally accepted by recent interpreters ; but not on good grounds.

"Spelt" {Tnticinn speJta of Linnceus) is a species of wheat — spelter wheat — and was not at all likely to be used along with the common wheat {T. vuJgai-e) in making bread. The grain translated " fitches," would differ as much from the other kinds mentioned, as barley would do from wheat, or lentiles from millet. We may be almost certain that the true fitch, or vetch {Vida sattva), is the grain referred to by Ezekiel. It may, no doubt, be objected to this inference, that the " bean" which is closely related to the " vetch," is also named by the prophet. But the relation is far more distant than that which obtains between the spelter wheat and the common wheat. In the former case the differ- ence is generic. The bean is ranged among the natural order Legu- minacecp, or pod-bearers, under the genus Faba ; the vetch under that of Vida.

In Exodus ix. 32, and also in the passage before us (ver. 25), huse- metk is rendered " rye" (Secale cereale); but, as in Ezekiel, " vetch" is the appropriate term. Vetches are cultivated for the sake of their grain in several countries. A large white variety is ground into meal

480 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

in some parts of Germany. They are plentiful in Egypt, where they have been used for bread, and are abundant in Palestine. Pigeons are exceedingly fond of them, and a suggestion, not to be overlooked, has been made, that among other reasons for their cultivation among the Jews one may have been, that they might supply food for the turtle- doves which the poor of the people offered to the Lord. In the famine of 1555, multitudes of the people in Britain went out into the wood- lands in search of wild vetches, and supported themselves on their fruit.

Twelve species occur in Britain, and eight species of a closely related form — the vetchling {Lathyrus) — are to be met with. Most wanderers in the woods and fields must have admired, and loved to linger in

the spots —

" Where profuse the wood-vetch cHngs Round ash and elm, in pencill'd rings, Its pale and azure pencill'd flower."

In the Septuagint version hetsacli is rendered melantMon, or black grain, the Nigella sativa, or black poppy, of botanists — one of the natural order EanuncuJaccce, or crow-foot family of plants, ranged with a few others with the hellebores under the sub-order Hellehorece. This is a native of the north of Africa and of the East. It is sometimes used as a, condiment for food, and for the adulteration of pepper. The only reason for identifying this with the " fitches" of the text, is the rendering of the LXX. But its association with cummin, and the description of the mode in which it is threshed, leads us to identify it with the common dill [Andhum graveolcns). See under Matt, xxiii. 23.

"Cummin," Hob. kamon, is the only representative of the genus Cuininum (C. cyminum) of botanists. It belongs to the natural order UmheUiferce. Like the dill, caraway, &c., it is used as a spice, and in medicine for its stomachic and carminative qualities. It is still cultivated in Egypt and Palestine, but chiefly in Malta, as an article of commerce. When threshed, it is beaten out as described here — not with the heavy waggon-wheel, but with the rod or the slight switch. This plant is only twice mentioned, here and in Matt, xxiii. 23.

The mode of preparing " bread-corn" is diiferent. The paraphrase of the passage will run thus: — Dill and cummin must be threshed out with the flail ; wheat and barley may be more severely dealt with ; they will bear the wheel, but not the hoofs of horses. The " bread- corn" is chiefly obtained from the wheat (Tritieum vulgare), and the barley {Hordeum vulgare). The variety in the ways of treating all

ISAIAH XV.-XXXIV. 481

tliese is again traced to God's teaching — " This also cometh forth from Jehovah of Hosts; he is wonderful in counsel, and great in wisdom."

Chapter xxxiv. — The threatenings of this chapter are directed (1) against the nations in general by whom Israel had been oppressed ; and (2) specially against Edom. The divine foreknowledge of coming events is indicated by the highly poetical expressions of verse 5 — " i\Iy sword shall be bathed in heaven : behold it shall come down on Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment." The judgments are then likened to a general slaughter : — " The sword of the Lord is filled with blood ; it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams : for the Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea. And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls ; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness. For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion " (ver. 6-8). The complete desolation of the land is then described : — "And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day ; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever : from generation to generation it shall lie waste ; none shall pass through it for ever and ever" (ver. 9-10). Thus swept by the terrible curse of Jehovah, the whole land was to become the habitation of beasts and birds which loved the solitude of desert places: — "The cormorant and the bittern shall possess it ; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it : and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness. They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing. And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof; and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls. The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow ; the screech-owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest" (ver. 11-14).

"Cormorant," Heb. hlaih. This word occurs in other four passages, in which it is translated " pelican," the meaning to be assigned to it here. See under Ps. cii. 6.

" Bittern," Heb. kippud. See under Zcph. ii. 14.

"Owl," Heb. ijansiiph, a term rendered "great owl" in Lev. ii. 17- Deut. xiv. 16 — which see. It has been proposed to translate Ymisuph

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BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

by "ibis," as has been done by the LXX. But "owl " better answers the context. This is pointed out below.

The vegetable marks of the desolation were nettles (see under Zeph. ii. 9) and brambles (under Judges ix. 14). The tangled thicket was to have its inhabitants — dragons {tanm'm'm), see under Gen. i. 21; and owls {bath ydndh, lit., daughters of the owl), see under Job xxx. 29. These are again noticed in vcr. 14. Tanmnim may include "wild

Fig 142.

Sacred Ibis (.Gcronticua JEI)iiBpteus).

beasts of the desert, wild beasts of the island, and satyrs;" while hath yam'ih, owls in general, takes in the "screech-owl." Before looking more closely at these we notice, ver. 15 : —

"Great Owl," Heb. hippdz. See under Lev. xi. 17.

"Vulture," Heb. dayah. Two species have been already specially referred to under Lev. xi. 14, which see. Several species seem to be mentioned here. The words, "every one with her mate," are not to be understood as pointing to males and females, for both " vulture" and " her mate" are feminine. The popular belief was, that as the females of the birds of prey are generally larger than the males, so for the most part they are more rapacious, and the prophet names the female vul- tures, to give intensity to his threatening. As if he had said. Such birds of different species will be gathered, each one agreeing with the other, in the wild region to be left desolate. Three species may be specially named. The Arabian vulture {Vultur vionaclms; Plate XXXIV., fig. 1), the Eg3'ptian vulture {Neophron Percnopterus, ibid., fig. 2), and the Bearded vulture [Chjpa'etos barbafiis, ibid., fig. 3). Another species,

PLAITS

PL.,.-,

-^d?*>

A' I'lhl/iiui I r^ti, 111,11 yrii/

Delphuius .

D Del/i/iis _ Dolfi/m

THE 8EA-M0NSTEBS DRAW OUT THE BREAST.— Lui. iv. a

ViLLIAU UACH&II2II. CL*$COW. CDlHBuRCH. lONDOK INEWVOOh

ISAIAH XV.-XXXIV.

483

l-'ig. U3.

which may chiefly be regarded as a European bird, is also to be met witli in the north of Africa, in some parts of Asia Minor, and in Persia. This is the griffon or tawny vulture, which has already been noticed under Lev. xi. 14 — which sue. We have now before us the outstanding points in this chapter, and may return to ver. 11. Taking kdat//, cor- morant, as pelican, the first clauses name birds uoted as loving such desert regions as that described in the last clause. The pelican and the bittern haunt the pool and the marsh land ; the owl and the raven frequent the lonely forest or the wild mountain cliffs. Their presence is at once I suggestive of the absence of man : " They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, '''•'""'• ^''"'"' ^o,p,/uivu,).

but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing" (ver. 12).

The explanation of ver. 13 given above, is much truer to nature than the proposal to render tanniiiini "wolves," and bath yandh "daughters of the ostrich." If the words of verse 14 be regarded as referring to par- ticular forms of life embraced in the general statement at the close of the preceding verse, the whole may be rendered thus : — " Desert creatures shall meet with howling creatures, and the shac!;gy monster (satyr) shall call to his mate; only there shall the great bird of night (the screech- owl) repose, and find for herself a resting-place. The desert creatures referred to were most likely wolves, and the howling creatures jackals." The shaggy monster may have been the hyaana, which is still to be met with in the same region, and the screech-owl the bird so called.

" Screech-owl," Heb. lilitit, is not met with elsewhere. The original word indicates the bird's nocturnal habits. The screech-owl of Britain is the howlet or tawny owl [Strix stridula = S. alaco). It is, however, more likely that the great eagle owl {Biiho ma.rimi/f:) is the species referred to in this passage. It sometimes ventures abroad in the day- time, but is always most active at night, when its weird cry may be heard in the wild districts which it loves.

484

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

ISAIAH XXXV.-LVIII.

HE general scope of xxxv. 7 has already been referred to under Exodus ii. 3. The word dragons {tanninlm) means ravenous beast, whether of the land or sea. The Syrian wolf or the jackal may be specially intended, but more • likely the term was designed to leave the species undeter- mined. The pouring out of the Spirit, and therewith the revival of the church, are set forth under the figures of pools in the parched ground, and springs in thirsty lands. The character- istic vegetation which fringes the water is then alluded to. In the lair of the beast of prey " shall be grass with reeds and rushes." "Reed," Heb. huneh — see under 1 Kings xiv. 15. "Rush," Heb. gome — see under Exod. ii. 3.

Chapter xxxvii. — Rabshakeh's blasphemous boasting was taken to heart by the king, who deeply humbled himself before God, and com- mitted his cause to him. On this the prophet was sent with the re-assuring message — "Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard." He then recounts the topics in Sennacherib's message, in order to bring out in bold contrast the purposes of God concerning the Assyrian. Among other things the messengers of the heathen king had said in his name — " By the multitude of my chariots am I come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon ; and I will cut down the tall cedars thereof, and the choice fir-trees thereof: and I will enter into the height of his border, and the forest of his Carmel" (ver. 24). The last clause would be better rendered — " I will reach its extreme height, the garden (Carmel) of its forest." The foreigner's power to do mischief is then represented by cutting down the cedars, erez {Cedrus Ltbam"), and the fir-trees, herush {Abies). See under 1 Kings v. 8, 10. The fir is again mentioned by Isaiah as one of the trees which were to be planted in the desert (ch. xli. 19), as that which was to take the place of the thorn (ch. Iv. 13), and which was to be associated with the cedar, the pine, and the box, in beautifying the place of God's sanctuary (ch. Ix. 13); the references being all figurative of times of spiritual revival and large spiritual blessing.

Other prophets allude to the berosh, or fir, in a figurative way also.

ISAIAH XXXV.-LVIII. 485

See under Ezek. xxxi. 3-9. Hosea describes revived Ephraim as saying ■ — "I am like a green fir-tree" (xiv. 8). Nahum, when predicting evil on the "excellency of Jacob," represents the mighty men as alarmed — "The fir-trees shall be terribly shaken" (ii. 3). And Zechariah pictures all the great ones of the land as cedars of Lebanon, as fir-trees, and as the oaks of Bashan. As some of their number were stricken, the rest were to become alarmed : — " Open thy door, 0 Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars. Howl, fir-tree ; for the cedar is fallen ; because the mighty are spoiled : howl, 0 ye oaks of Bashan ; for the forest of the vintage is come down" (xi. 1, 2).

Chapter xlii. — Christ and his people, represented as a complex person, are here introduced as the "Servant of Jehovah" — "Behold my servant whom I uphold : mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth." Among the figures used to point out the peacefulness of his kingdom and the tender- ness of himself and people, are those contained in verse 3 — " A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench : he shall bring forth judgment unto truth." See also under Exod. ix. 31, and Josh. ii. G. " The application of these figures to the sparing of enemies, or the indulging of weak friends, or the sustentation of sincere but feeble faith, is too specific and conclusive. The verse continues the description of the mode in which the Messiah and his people were to bring forth judgment to the nations, or in other words, to spread the true religion. It was not to be by clamour or by violence. The first of these ideas is expressed in the preceding verse ; the last in this. That such is the true import of the words is clear from the addition of the last clause, which would be unmeaning if the verse related merely to a compassionate and sympathetic temper. That this verse is included in Matthew's quotation (xii. 19), shows that he did not quote the one before it as descriptive of a modest and retiring disposition. The only way in which the whole quotation can be made appropriate to the case in hand, is by supposing that it was meant to be descriptive, not of our Saviour's human virtues, but of the nature of his kingdom and of the means by which it was to be established." It was not to be by the exercise of mere force, as one would rend asunder the crushed reed, which might yet live if healed ; nor was it by rudely putting out the flame of the dimly-burning wick of flax, which might yet burn brightly if strengthened. The Saviour was the strong one and the strength- giver ; he was both health and the healer, and the people in him are called to be like him. They are to promote his glory, not by violence, but by peaceful endeavours. "They arc not by brutal force to break the

486 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENXE.

crushed reed or quench the dim wick, but to conquer by healing and imparting strength."

Chapter xliii. 24. — As the people formed for himself, it should have been Israel's highest duty and privilege to show forth Jehovah's praise. The leading thought is, that just as in admiring a work of art we praise the artist, and give to him the merit of every touch of beauty ; so, in being attracted to the loveliness of holy service rendered to God by his professing people, our admiration is really the ascription of glory to God himself, whose indwelling life makes his people equal to the living service. It was Israel's work to attract the eyes of the Gentiles to their God. This they would best do by giving proofs of their devotion to him in maintaining the completeness of the sanctuary services. This they had not done. They had been weary of God (ver. 22), and had shown that they were so by neglect of temple services : — " Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt- oiferings, neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices: I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense. Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices ; but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities (ver. 23, 24).

The "sweet cane" was the Indian fragrant beard-grass {Andropocjon aroniaticus, Calamus odoratns of some authors). That it was brought from a far country excludes all likelihood of its being the Egyptian sugar cane {Saccharum cylmdncurri). The same plant is noticed by Jeremiah in connection with a different state of religious feeling. Here the people did not pretend to continue faithful to God. In Jere- miah's day they added hypocrisy to prevailing sin : — " To what purpose Cometh there to me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country ? your burnt-offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto me" (vi. 20). Tlie use of the sweet cane in the service of the sanctuary is referred to under Exod. xxx. 23 — which see.

Chapter xliv. 1. — Glorious promises are held out to " Jacob the servant of the Lord," and to " Israel his chosen one." That there might be no distrust on the part of the people, the wisdom, goodness, and power of Jehovah are pledged to the fulfilment of all his gracious words. To the church times of great revival are spoken of, and, as a chief result, the turning of many to God who were still alienated from him. Many among his peoi)lc had become spiritually like wuary ones parched with thirst, or as the soil cracked by long-continued heat. To them his Spirit was to be like " water upon him that is thirsty, and

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487

floods upon the dry ground." Rapid spiritual growth, accompanied l)y a cordial testimony to the glory of God's grace, was to be the fruits of this season of mercifid visitation. " And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water-courses. One shall say, I am the Lord's ; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel (ver. 3, 5).

" Willow," Heb. erei\ occurs other four times. It is used by Isaiah

Fig. 144.

Wooping Willow I^Salix Saiylmka).

as the name of a brook— "the brook of the willows"— Wady Kunlhy at tlie south-east corner of the Dead Sea (chap. xv. 7 — which see). It is named among the "boughs of goodly trees" which the rejoicing Israelite was to take on the first day of the feast of tabernacles. Israel still, though separated from the true joy of this feast-time, hangs the willow branch in tlie synagogue, or uses it for making the tent in bis courtyard or his garden— a melancholy imitation of the days of gladness gone by,

488

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

jinJ never to return until all Israel shall acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah promised to their fathers. See under Lev. xxiii. 40.

Job describing the haunts of Behemoth, " chief of the ways of God," says : —

" He lieth under the shady trees, In the covert of reeds, and fens. Thick trees cover him with their shadow ; Willows of the brook compass him about" (xl. 22).

It was the willow of the brook on which the sorrow-stricken Jewish captive hung his harp when his spoilers called for mirth. See under Psalm cxxxvi. 2. In the texts referred to we have most likely three species noticed — the white willow (Srdix alha), the osier (S. vinnnah's), and the weeping willow (S. Bahylonicci). The first is emphatically " the willow of the brooks," or, as liere, " the willow of the water- courses." The second would shelter behemoth, as he wandered on the marshy edges of his favourite rivers. The third was the weeping willow, in whose drooping branches, and dark shadow reflected in the waters beside which they sat down, the captives of Israel would recognize something like evidences of sympathy with them in their grief. The willow belongs to the natural order Amcntacece, or catkin- bearers. It gives its name to the sub-order Salicinece.. There are one hundred and fourteen now generally reckoned as indigenous British plants. In all ages the willow has been noted in connection with religious rites, in poetry, and for the gi-eat variety of uses to which it has been applied. In religion we meet with it among the goodly bouglis of the feast of tabernacles. " A sad tree," says Thomas Fuller, " whereof such as have lost their love make their mourning garlands ; and we know that exiles hung their harps on such doleful

supporters:" —

" Wlien once the lover's rose is dead, Or laid aside forlorn, Then willow garlands round the head Bedew'd with tears are worn."

Graham notices in characteristic lines, its social uses : —

" The basket's various forms For various purposes of household thrift, The wicker chair, of size and shape antique, The rocking couch of sleeping infancy — These, with unnumbered other forms and kinds. Give bread to hands unfit for other work."

When the waters are poured on the thirsty and the floods upon the

ISAIAH XXXV.-LVIII. 489

dry ground — when the heritage of God are revived — then liis people will grow as the willows, whose roots perennially come in contact with the fresh streams on the edges of which they stand. They shall grow as the willows do among the grass in moist places. " Willow-tree," Heb. tzaplizdpltali — see under Ezek. xxxvii. 5.

In verse 8 the question is asked by Jehovah — " Is there a God besides me? yea there is no God ; I know not any." This allusion to idols leads to a detailed contrast between God and the work of the image-carver (ver. 9-17). In this contrast reference is made to the trees chiefly used for making the vanities of the heathen — " He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest ; he planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it" (ver. 14).

"Cedars" {Cedrus Libaui) — see under Judges ix. 15; "Cypress" {Gnpressiis semp>ervirens} — see under Gen. vi. 14; "Oak" {Quercus rohur) — see under Gen. xii. 6. The fourth tree from whose wood the idol was sometimes made, is here named " the ash,' Hebrew oren. It occurs only in tliis place. Much difference of opinion obtains as to the kind of tree referred to. In the Septuagint the word is rendered by ■pitus, or pine-tree, and in tlie Vulgate translation hy pinus, which also signifies pine-tree. This circumstance has led interpreters generally to regard oren as one of the fir-trees. But this is not a satisfactory reason for giving up the rendering of our version. The root of the word may help to identify the tree. The root signifies graceful, and as the most beautiful Syrian forms of the fir-tree — cedar and cypress — have been named, it is most likely another species of a different family would be associated with them. The similarity of sound between the Latin " ornus" and the Hebrew " oren" has suggested the flowering, or manna ash (0. JEuropcea) as the tree named by Ezekiel. Certainly so far as beauty goes, the conclusion is warranted. In summer its half- drooping branches, bright green leaves, and numerous pretty white flowers give it a truly beautiful appearance. It is, however, more likely that, as with the cedar and cypress, the people chose the tree for image-making, which was associated with feelings having a strong resemblance to those which led to idol worship. The common ash {Fraxmus excelsior) one of the Oleacece and tlie type of the sub-order Fraxincce, or ash-trees, answers most closely to all the requirements of the text. It has in all lands and in all times been noted for its beauty. Virgil refers to it as the tree "fairest in the groves (Fraxinus in sylvis pidclierrima,'' Eel. vii. G5). Tli,e elegance of its whole form —

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490 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

trunk, branches, drooping twigs, pendant light-green leaves — has gained for it the title Sylvan Venus : —

" Its buds, on eitlier side opposed In couples, each to each, enclosed In caskets black and hard as jet, The ash-tree's graceful branch beset : The branch, which, clothed in modest grey, Sweeps gracefully with easy sway, And still in after life preserves ^ The bending of its infant curves."

The very uses ascribed to it by the prophet has led to the ash being named " the husbandman's tree." The mode in which its growth is hastened, adds another element to the probability, that the prophet names it in this place. He says, "The rain doth nourish it" — an expression not applied to cedar and Cyprus. The influence of moisture on the growth of the ash-tree is most marked. If one be planted by the edge of a stream, it will very soon overtop the highest growers around it. If placed even at a distance of twenty yards from it, the rootlets will shoot out in the direction of the water, and serve as channels through which the whole tree is nourished.

Around few other trees does the class of feelings which found full development in idol worship, cling so much as around the ash. It has a place in the superstitions of the people of every country in which it grows. In the days of Homer its wood was held both the best and luckiest to be used as spears. Pliny ascribes a power to its leaves which would hinder the adder from biting if surrounded by them. It is the Askr of the Norse, which the gods changed into man, giving to it a human soul. Vala in her visions sings —

" I knew an ash, it is called Iggdrasill A feathery tree, wet by a brilliant cloud, From whence proceeds the dew which falls in the valleys, It raises itself always green."

Of the mythic ^sir she says —

" Under the tree of the world, they sit as powerful judges."

This superstition links Scandinavia with Persia, by that wonderful plant which the Persians believed had yielded as its fruit the progenitors of the human family. Egypt shows another link, central Africa another. The superstitions associated with the ash in Britain are known to most. Its keys, or w^inged seeds, were worn as a charm. Most districts of England could boast of its '^ shrew ash," which supplied twigs and

ISAIAIl XXXV.-LVIII. 491

branches for the cure of cattle. Gilbert White has left a graphic description of the shrew ash of Sclborne.

The chief objection to retaining "ash" in this passage, is its rare occurrence in Palestine. Of its former existence in that land there can be little doubt. It is indigenous in all the countries of the Levant ; and its comparative absence now from Palestine proper, is to be traced to the same cause as that wliich has made other great trees scarce. " Trees of any kind," says Messrs. M'Cheyne and Bonar, " are few in the Holy Land." " All the trees of the field are withered, because joy is withered away from the sons of men" (Joel i. 12).

Displeased with Israel because of their unfaithfulness to him and their wickedness, God threatened to reject them altogether. They had added hypocrisy to wickedness. Thus the rapid and searching inquiries of Iviii. 5 — " Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down the head as a bulrush?"

" Bulrush," Heb. agmon, is not, as many have alleged, the true papyrus {Cyj^erus iMpyrus) of the Nile. The plant named here belonged to the reed-like vegetation which fringed the waters of the Jordan. The Hebrew for paper reeds is haroth (Isa. xix. 7), and for the genus which supplied the plant from which the papyrus rolls were obtained, gome, Exod. ii. 3 — which see. Agmdn, both in this and in other passages in which it occurs, is to be taken as the true club-rush or bulrush [Scirpus lacustn's), well known in Britain, as used for making mats, chair-bottoms, &c., and by coopers for filling up spaces between the seams of casks. This species grows to the height of six feet, and is characterized by the graceful bend of its stalk and of every one of its leaves, which all droop as if growing down into the water. This is the appearance noticed by the prophet. The word which has given rise to much useless speculation, is only five times named in Scripture. It first occurs in Job xli. 2 — " Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook (agvion)?" that is, with the line or rope made of the scirpus, to which the hook was attached, a mode of expression still common among anglers. In the same chapter it is translated "caldron" — " Out of his nostrils gocth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron" (ver. 20). As in the text last noticed, the word is used here for that with which it is associated, the reference being to the smoke given out by the newly-gathered rushes when put under a vessel and lighted. "For the people," says Isaiah, " turneth not unto him that smiteth them. Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch {hipdh) and rush (agmdn)" (ix. 14, xix. 15\

492

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

ISAIAH LX.-LXVI.

N chap. Ix. 9, the question asked in the preceding verse is answered: "Who are these that fly as a cloud?" — They are the ships of Tarshish hastening with Zion's " sons from far, their silver and their gold with them.'" " Who are these that fly as doves to their windows?" They are Zion's sons taking refuge " in the name of the Lord their God;" "the name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it and is safe" (Prov. xviii. 10). The questions of verse 8 have been much obscured by interpreters having associated " clouds" with the flight of the doves, whereas they are to be regarded as distinct. When the query as to the clouds was asked, the prophet saw the ships of Tarshish on the distant horizon, yet hastening, like tlie clouds, to their destined haven. The doves' windows were in the towers built for these birds,- which in olden times, as now, were in the East mucli cared for on account of their dung, used by the Orientals in raising their favourite fruit-melons : — " When travelling in the north of Syria some years ago, T noticed in certain villages tall square buildings without roofs, whose walls were pierced inside by numberless pigeon- holes. Li these nestled and bred thousands of these birds. They are very strong, swift of wing, and extremely wild. Their foraging excursions extend many miles in every direction, and it is curious to notice them returning to their ' windows' like bees to their hives, or like clouds pouring over a sharp ridge into the deep wady below." (T/iomson.) " In the environs of the city (Ispahan) to the westward, near Zainderood, are many pigeon-houses, erected at a distance from habitations, for the purpose of collecting pigeons' dung for manure. They are large round towers, rather broader at the bottom than the top, and crowned by conical spiracles, through which the pigeons descend. Their interior resembles a honey-comb, pierced with a thousand holes, each of which forms a snug retreat for a nest. The extraordinary flights of pigeons which I have seen upon one of these dwellings afford, perhaps, a good illustration of the passage in Isaiah \x."—{Moner.)

It has been pointed out under 1 Kings v. 8, 10, that there are

ISAIAH LX.-LXVI. 493

good grounds for holding that the words of verse 13, "the fir-tree {heruah), the pine-tree (tt'dhar)," are used generically. Berosh is equivalent to ahies^ or fir-tree kind, and tidhar to pinus, or pine-tree kind, of modern botany. Many species may be included under both. For the former, see also under Psalm civ. 17 ; Isaiah xiv. 8, xxxvii. 24 ; and Ezekiel xxxi. 3-9. Thougli the fir is frequently mentioned, the pine occurs only here and in chapter xli. 19, where it is again named along with the fir-tree. The word is given in our translation as the sense of the Hebrew for " oil {sliUmpji) " — " Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive branches, and pine branches," literally, "branches of trees of oil." The expression includes any of the cone-bearing trees, noted for the natural resin obtained from them. But the firs and the pines are widely distributed over the world, and are all more or less useful for industrial purposes. In Asia Minor, some of them grow to a great size. Mr. W. F. Ainsworth, describing a locality above twenty miles south of the Black Sea, says : — "As we gained the tops of the hills, we entered upon extensive pine forests. The chief species, and the one most remarkable for its growth, was the Pinus pinea. Some trees which we measured were upwards of one hundred feet high, and three feet four inches in diameter, cutting into timber one foot nine inches square. The mean elevation of this upland forest was four thousand feet above the level of the sea."

Among the trees noticed in verse 13 as employed in beautifying the temple, when God graciously revived his people, is the " box-tree." It is also named in chapter xli. 19, as a tree which, with the cedar, the shittah, the myrtle, &c., was to be planted in the desert, when the wilderness should become pools of water, and the dry land springs of water — when, in a word, the renewing grace of Jehovah should beautify his spiritual heritage, the church, and when his people should be as the "trees of righteousness" of the Lord's own planting.

" Box," and " box-tree," Heb. teassliur. It has been asserted that a species of cedar represents the box-tree of our translation, but not on good grounds. The cedar for which this claim is made, is said to be named scherbln by the Arabs. But when we attempt to identify the schei-bm, authorities are found divided in opinion as to the tree meant by the Arabs. I prefer the common rendering, "box-tree {Buxus sempervirens)" one of the spui'ge family of plants [Eiiphorhiacece), known to have abounded on Lebanon, of which it was one of the trees of " its glory." "The box-tree," says Royle, "being a native of mountainous regions, was peculiarly adapted to the calcareous formations of Mount

494 niBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCK.

Lebanon, and therefore likely to be brought from thence with the coniferous woods for the building of the temple, and it was well suited to change the face of the desert." Attempts have been made, but unsuccessfully, to show, that in Ezekiel xxvii. 6, instead of "Ashur- ites," we should read " ashur-wood," or box. See under the passage referred to. Both as an ornamental and as a valuable tree, the box answers well to the tree named by the prophet. It is noticed as a tree of beauty in the scene described in chapter xli., and here as one of use- fulness— " The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir-tree, the pine-tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary."

The chosen people of God continued obstinately rebellious. God could say of them — " I have spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts" (ver. 2). They had become gross idolaters on the one hand (ver. 3), and bigots on the other (ver. 5). They sacrificed to their idols in gardens, and burned incense on altars of brick. They ate swine's flesh, and broth of filthy things, yet in their sinful self-compla- cency, they said to the Gentiles around them — " Stand by thyself, come not near to me ; for I am holier than thou." The result of all this was to be their rejection, and the calling of the Gentiles to the enjoyment of their privileges — " I said. Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name" (ver. 1).

Chapter Ixv. — " Swine," Heb. lihazir, was the common hog {Sus scrofa), one of the even-toed promiscuous feeders (Ommvora). The Israel- ites were forbidden to eat the flesh of swine. See under Levit. xi. 7, 8. This command is broken here in connection with several aggravating circumstances. The people had fallen into the most gross and abomin- able idolatry. The meat offered to idols, associated with every wicked and licentious thought, was partaken of by them. Such an act meant that they wished to be conformed to the moral features attributed to the idols. The sow was offered to the bloody and revengeful Typhon by the Egyptians. " Those," says Plutarch, " who sacrificed a sow to Typhon once a year, at the full moon, afterwards ate the flesh." "According to Herodotus," says Wilkinson, "the only two festivals in which it was lawful to sacrifice pigs, were those of the Moon and Bacchus : the reason of which restriction he attributes to a sacred reason, which he does not think it right to mention. ' In sacrificing a pig to the moon, they killed it ; and when they had put together the end of the tail, the spleen, and the caul, and covered them with all the fat from the inside of the animal, they burnt them ; the rest of the

ISAIAH Lx.-Lxvi. 495

victim being eaten on the day of the full moon, which was the same on which the sacrifice was offered, for on no other day were they allowed to eat the flesh of pig. Poor people who had barely the means of subsistence, made a paste figure of a pig, which being baked, they offered as a sacrifice.' The same kind of substitute was, doubtless, made for other victims, by those who could not afford to purchase them • and some of the small glass and clay figures of animals found in the tombs, have probably served for tliis purpose. ' On the fete of Bacchus, every one immolated a pig before the door of his house, at the hour of dinner ; he then gave it back to the person of whom it had been bought. The Egyptians,' adds the historian, 'celebrate the rest of this fete nearly

rig 115.

The Tame Boar (Sus tcrx/n).

in the same manner as the Greeks, with the exception of the sacrifice of pigs.'"

But even if the flesh was not that offered to idols, the people sinned greatly in treating with open contempt the positive command of God touching this matter — "The swine though he divide the hoof, and be cloven-footed, yet he cheweth not the cud ; he is unclean unto you. Of their flesh ye shall not eat, and their carcase ye shall not touch ; they are unclean unto you." Reasons bearing closely on the public health in a climate like Palestine might be found for this prohibition. The fi-equent use of pork in warm, and even in temperate climates, renders men liable to several diseases of the skin. The light, moreover, which modern science has shed on the habits of internal parasites (Enfozoa) is highly suggestive when taken along with the Lcvitieal command. The immature forms, known as Cysticerci, of so-

496 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

called riband entozoa, are known to abound in such rodents as the hare, and such pachyderms as the coney (lli/rax) and the sow. Swine's flesh known as " measly" is to be traced to the presence of these producing disease. As such qjsticerci are known to reach their mature forms in the human body, abstinence from this kind of animal food in a climate where it might be hastily and imperfectly prepared, could not but be conducive to the public health. It is not, indeed, asserted that this aspect of the matter was in the mind of the Jewish lawgiver when these arrangements were made ; but He who spake by Moses knew what was best for the social comfort of the people whom he had specially chosen as his own.

Swine's blood and flesh are again mentioned by Isaiah in the next chapter (ver. 3, 17), in which even greater distinctness is given to the promises of the change of dispensation and the bringing in of the Gentiles. The great and eternal God will then not look for a gorgeous ritual, similar to the tabernacle and temple service, as the mark of his presence with them. He will regard only the state of the heart. Thus the people are told that even the ancient sacrifices instituted at the command of God, would become to him like the worship offered to idols. " Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my foot-stool : where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord : but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. He that killeth an ox, is as if he slew a man ; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck ; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood ; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol : yea they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations" (ver. 1-3). Apostate and unfaithful Israel chose the companionship and followed the practices of idolaters. Among other things they "ate swine's flesh" (ver. 17), and as a punishment they w^ere to be visited with the judgments which fall on the worshippers of idols.

The same ideas of grossness and impurity are connected with the mention of this animal in other passages of Scripture. When Solomon characterizes the personal beauty, which is often found connected with low, or even depraved moral tastes, he says, " As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion " (Prov. xi. 22). In the New Testament the case of those who, under the influence of the reflex power of gospel truth, had for a season taken to holy habits but had relapsed, is thus described — " It is happened unto

fLdrt: m:

I.ep Tiiniilns CuniiiKin Barv .

DEGT. XV. 7.

X> .f'.av/itius. Eiiyiitiiiii .Icrlmii

ISA. LXVI. 17.

I' Divnitiliiriiis iJri'iiii-iltiry GEN. XXX. 43.

wmikll HACHIHI'C. CLASCOM. EDIN8VR':n. LOIiOO« JNEW-VOnM

ISAIAH l.X.-LXVI. 497

tliem aeconling to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again ; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire " (2 Peter ii. 22). Thus too in our Lord's discourse — " Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you " (Matt. vii. G). The references in Matt. viii. 30; Mark v. 14; Luke XV. 15, 16, are equally suggestive.

" They shall not build, and another inhabit ; they shall not plant, and another eat : for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands " (Ixv. 22). The promise is, in substance, that they shall long enjoy the work of their hands. The list given by De Candolle of the ages of certain trees may be taken as an illustration of this verse, though the computation in some of the instances given is necessarily very doubtful.

Years. Elm ( Ulmus campestris), about ....... 335

Cypress {Cupressus semperviremi), ....... 350

Cheirostemon platanoides, ........ 400

Ivy {Hedera Helix), ......... 450

Larch (Lariv europwa), ........ 576

Chestnut (Castanea vesca), .... .... 600

Orange {Citrus Avrantiinn), ........ 630

Some Palms {Ceroxijlon and Cocos), 600-700

Olive {Oka ewopcea), 700

Oriental Plane {Platamis orientalif), ...... 720

Cedar {Cedrus Lihani) 800

lAm^ {Tilia europaea), 1076, 1147

Oak {Quereits robur), 810, 1080, 1500

Yevi {Taxushaccata), 1214,1458,2588,2880

Taxodium distichum, 3000 or 4000

ViAohah {Adansonia diyitata), ahoni ...... 5000

Israel in his blindness refused to regard the warning words of Jehovah : " They have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations" (Ixvi. 5). They were to eling to the divinely appointed forms of outward worship, after those had served their day. Ceasing to be means of spiritual strength, these forms led them easily, in their desire for rest, into the practices of the heathen : " They did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which I delighted not " (ver. 4). But their fall was to be the rise of the Gentiles. Zion was to rejoice in other children than the seed of Abraham according to the flesh : " Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once?

VOL. II. 3 R

498 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the Lord : shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb? saith thy God. Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her : rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her" (ver. 8-10). Then follows the picture of peace and quiet joy in verses 12-14 : — " Thus saith the Lord, Behold I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream : Then shall ye suck, ye shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees. As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you ; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And when ye see this, your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb ; and the hand of the Lord shall be known toward his servants, and his indignation toward his enemies." But his dealings with the obstinate idolaters shall be in bold contrast to all this : — " For behold the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For by fire, and by his sword, will the Lord plead with all flesh : and the slain of the Lord shall be many. They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and tlie mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the Lord" (ver. 15-17). "The abomination" of ver. 17, is equal to the " broth of abominable things " of Ixv. 4. It includes every kind of vermin used by the heathen as food, but which Israel was accustomed to regard as unclean. " The mouse (achbar) " may have been the Egyptian jerboa — see under 1 Sam. vi. 4.

" Your bones shall flourish like an herb." The words are a beautiful allusion to the swelling of the bud in spring on the dry, withered- looking twig or branch, or to the late scorched herbage becoming green ao-ain. Blessing shall come in the belief of the promise.

JEKEMIAII.

499

JEREMIAH.

HE prophet was overwlielincd by the views given him of tlie sovereignty of God, in his calling to be a messenger to the nations, and by the greatness and difficulty of the work to which he was called. " Ah, Lord God," he said, " I cannot speak ; for I am a child" (i. 6). But He who had raised him up could fit him for the work : — " Say not thou art a child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak" (ver. 7). He had been chosen for the work, the purpose of God had been brought out in his being raised up, and he had been appointed to it by God himself. He was ready, and God promised to realize the providences which were to bring the prophet specially out before the people. He had become fully persuaded of all this. " The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou ? And I said, I see a rod of an almond-tree. Then said the Lord unto me, thou hast well seen : for I will hasten my word to perform it" (ver. 11, 12). The almond- tree [Amygdalis conwium's), is specially referred to under Eccles. xii. 5 — which see. The word used here is also employed to designate the fruit of this tree. See under Gen xliii. 11, and Numb. xvii. 8.

The people had been upbraided for their unteachableness and back- sliding, but in vain. The hopelessness of their case was manifested by their inability to see that they had done anything amiss. " No man repented him of his wickedness, saying, what have I done ? every one turned to his course" (viii. G), under the blind force of simple impulse. Times of temptation came, opportunities of sin presented themselves, and sinful instincts became excited by the presence of objects alluring to sin. " As the horse rusheth into the battle," so they hastened to make themselves vile before God. Yea their case was worse even than the irrational creatures. They were daily dealt with by priest and prophet — daily by the privileges of the sanctuary reminded of their duty to their heavenly Father — but in vain. The birds of the air regularly obeyed the laws under which they had been put by the Creator, but not so the people whom God had chosen in grace, and on whom he had Lavished the proofs of his kindness and love : — " Yea, the

500 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIIiNCli.

stork iu the heaveu kiiowetli her appointed times ; and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow, observe the time of their coming ; but my people know not the judgment of the Lord. How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it ; the pen of the scribes is in vain. The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken : lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord ; and what wisdom is in them?" (ver. 7-9.)

" Stork," Heb. hhdsiddh, is noticed under 2 Chron. ix. 21 ; Ps. civ. 17 — which sec. It is named here as a bird of passage. Two species are still common in their season in Palestine — the white stork [Oiconia alba, Plate IV., fig. 2), and the black stork (C. nigra).

" The turtle," Heb. td>\ was the migratory species {Tartar auritus) as distinguished from the permanent resident {T. risortus), the Syrian dove proper (Lev. i. 14). The original word is sometimes translated simply " turtle," as in Song ii. 12 — " The flowers appear on the earth ; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land." The church is spoken of by the Psalmist as God's " turtle-dove :" —

" O deliver not the soul of thy turtle-dove unto tlie multitude. Forget not the congregation of thy poor for ever" (Ixxiv. 16).

The thoughts suggested by this allusion have been set in other lights in modern poetry. When God was angry with Aaron and might have destroyed him, Moses " prayed for Aaron" (Deut. iv. 20): —

" So let thy turtle-dove's sad call arise In doubt and fear Through darkening skies, And pierce, O Lord, thy justly sealed ear, Where on the house-top, all night long She trills her widow'd faltering song."

"The crane," Heb. si's. Bochart has laboured to make out that this word should be rendered " swallow," and the next " crane." In either case it is believed we have undoubted reference to the crane (Grus), one of the Gruidce or crane family. The common crane is an inhabitant of Europe, Asia, and Africa. It spends its summer iu the temperate regions, and migrates southward in autumn.

" Gilead " (ver. 22)— see vol. !., p. 443.

The people " who had slidden back by a perpetual backsliding, who held fast deceit, and refused to return" unto the Lord (ver. 5), are brought to acknowledge the hand of God : — " The Lord our God hath

JiiKEMIAU.

501

I'ig. MG.

put US to silence, and yiveu us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord " (ver. 14). In the view of referring again to "gall," under Mark xv. 23, the allusions to it in other passages may be considered here. Two Hebrew words, untier different forms, are translated gall, naniel}', rosh and iiicrOrali^ the latter from vidrar, to be bitter, hence Marah. The former is the word employed by Jeremiah. It is first met with in Deut. xxix. 18, where it is spoken of as the produce of a root, and as a bitter sap it is associated with woinnvood — " Lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall." This pas- sage may be associated with the New Testa- ment strong expression — " Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God ; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be dctiled " (lieb. xii. 15). In Deut. xxxii. 33, the same word is rendered " venom " — " Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps." And in verse 32, written in an- other form, it is again translated gall — "Their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah : their oau„uu„c.an.(6'™.,-„.™).

grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter." When Zophar the Naamathite chai\icterizes the triumph of the wicked and the joy of the hypocrite, he says of each : — " He shall suck the poison {rush) of asps, the viper's tongue shall slay him " (Job xx. IG). In Psalm xxii. 21, gall is described as the meat offered to the Saviour on the cross — a prophecy literally fulfilled, ]\Iatt. xxvii. 34 — "They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall." Jeremiah uses the same word in other four passages, besides the one under notice. Address-

502 HIBLIC.VL NATURAL SCIliNCK.

ing those who were " walking after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim," the prophet adds : — "Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink" (ix. 15j. And when "the horrible thing" was laid to the charge even of the prophets of Jerusalem, the same form of judgment was threatened (xxiii. 15); so likewise Lam. iii. 5, 18, 19. In the grievous departure of Israel from God, Amos complains that one fruit of this was the "turning of judgment into gall" — the complete perversion of truth and righteous- ness (Amos vi. 12). Hosca uses the same word in a passage in which our translators have rendered it " hemlock " (Hos. x. 4).

The other word also rendered gall is so translated in Job xvi. 13 — " His archers compass me round about ; he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare ; he poureth out my gall upon the ground." The term used here {nicrcrah), as 1 have shown under this passage, refers to the gall cyst or bladder of the human body. In Job xx. 14, the word (merorah) indicates what is bitter and poisonous — " His meat in his bowels is turned ; it is the gall of asps within him." But that the same expression may be applied to the gall-bladder, is clear from verse 25 of the same chapter — "The glittering sword cometh out of his gall."

The conclusions to be drawn from the interpretation of the passages quoted are: — (1) The word is used for bitter things in general; (2) When a specific meaning is attached to it, the context demands it, as in Hosea x. 4, and Job xvi. 13, xx. 25 — " I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter ; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me" (xi. 1(^. The Hebrew aUrn:)h is nowhere else, except in Psalm cxliv. 14, rendered " ox." The general sense is — I was as the tenderest or as the strongest of the animals which men slaughter for food. The term is translated "duke" throughout Genesis xxxvi.— "duke Teman, duke Omar," &c. ; "guide" in Psalm Iv. 13; "friend" in Prov. xvi. 28; "captain" in Jer. xiii. 21; and "governor" in Zech. ix. 7 ; the prevalent idea being that of full maturity and strength.

The sin and hypocrisy which the prophet saw all around him, are represented as influencing all nature, and in his deep mental depression Jeremiah asks — "How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? the beasts are consumed, and the birds ; because they said, He shall not see our last end " (ver. 4). "The herb," Heb. cslicr, points to herbaceous plants generally, which supply food for man or for the beasts. The original word is sometimes rendered "grass" (Deut. xi. 15; 2 Kings xix. 26;

JEREMIAH. 503

Job V. 25 ; Ps. Ixxii. IG, xcii. 7 ; Prov. xix. 12, &c.) In the first of these passages, "the grass" is joined with tlie promised blessings of corn, wine, and oil, which were to be given to Israel, if they hearkened diligently to the commandments of God : " I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full " — I will give plenty for man and for beast. The secoud passage has been referred to in its place. In the third, Eliphaz the Temanite tells Job, if he will but look at affliction from his point of view, amonsr other blessings which shall be his, " his seed shall be great, and his offspring as the grass of the earth "^as herbaceous plants innumerable. When the Psalmist pictures the prosperity of Messiah's everlasting kingdom, he says —

"They of the city shall flourisli hke grass of the eartli."

And when he would give us a lively impression of the rapid, but short- lived prosperity of the wicked, he speaks of them as "springing as the j grass," or green herb. In the last passage, the term is connected with ' a thought of great beauty — " The king's favour is as dew upon the grass." When the dew is withheld in a land like Palestine, every herbaceous plant droops ; when it falls in plenty, every leaf is enabled j to live through the heat of the scorching sun. Under an absolute i monarch like Solomon, his favour was, to those on whom it rested, as the dew to the green herb. The same term occurs twenty-seven times in addition to those now referred to. See also under Araos vii. 1, 2.

" Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird ; the birds round i about are against her : come ye, assemble all the beasts of the j field, come to devour" (ver. 9). The LXX. render the original \ of the words " speckled bird " by " ravenous hyaena," and are fol- i lowed by Bochart, who has elaborately and strongly advocated this rendering. The word means streaked ; its association with cuj/'t (bird), which is elsewhere translated "fowl," has always been found a difficulty in the way of accepting this rendering. But the fact that o>jit means ravenous — something given to take the spoil — in a great measure does away with the difficulty. Hyenas appear to have once been numerous both in Egypt and Palestine. They are still to be met with in the Holy Land. Dr. Stanley saw one on the southern Carmel. " Zeboim " (1 Sam. xvii. 8) means " the ravine or valley of the hyaenas." —(Plate XXVI., fig 1.)

" Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots ? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil" (xiii. 23). " Leopard," Heb. nami-r. In the Song (iv. 8) reference is made to the

504

BIBLICAL XATUKAL SCIENCE.

" mountains of tlic leopards." As a figure of the time of uuivers.il peace, it is promised that — " The lenpanl sliall lie dowu with the kid " (Isa. xi. G). In addition to Jciviniah's notice of it hero, it. is named

Fi:;. 1:7.

Syrinn I.pnpanl (F-lis tcptrdtts).

in V. G also. The other references are — Dan. vii. G ; Hos. xiii. 7 ; Hab. i. 8. The species is more fully noticed under the last passage — which sec.

The man " whose heart deparleth from the Lord," was to become like the "heath in the desert" (xvii. G). The full force of the figure is to be learned from verse 8, in which the man "whose hope is in the Lord" is compared to a tree planted b}' the rivers of water. In the one case most f;ivourable circumstances have no influence on him ; in the other every circumstance becomes the means of good. The heath inhabits parched lands ; the tree planted by the waters stands in a fertile soil. The one plant has enough to do to maintain its position ; the other flourishes even in the drought itself, which is fatal to so many plants. Thus is it with the classes contrasted here.

"Heath," Heb. an'ir, is one of ihc Eri'cacece, or heather family of plants. The species which best answers this reference by the prophet, is the common ling {Caluna vuhjari'ti). The tamarisk (Taman'.c galh'ca} has been proposed as the rendering here, but not on good grounds. In chapter xlviii. 6, the Hebrew arovi- is translated heath — " Flee, save yourselves, and be like the heath in the w'ilderness." The action described in the beginning of the verse, has led some to seek a diiferent rendering. They so read the word here as to make it equivalent to

JEKEMIAH.

505

sec under Lev. xi, 13.

Fib', lis.

Its mode of flight is

"wild asses," but unsuccessfully. "Heath" lits much better into the context in both passages.

The ChakUean power, of which at the time when the events recorded in this chapter occurred Nebuchadnezzar was the head, is here (xlviii. 40) symbolized by an eagle. The god Nisroch worshipped by the Assyrians, is represented on the sculptures with the head of uu eagle. The bird was borne on the standards of their wamors as the symbol of courage. Later, the same standard was appropriated by the Romans, I'rora whom it has passed into several modern nations.

"Eagle," Ileb. nesher, alluded to here. The figure is strikingly true to nature : — "Thus saith the Lord, Behold, he shall fly as an eagle, and shall spread his wings over Moab " (ver. 40). When the eagle hunts for his jirey he flies low, seldom sailing, but advancing by oft-repeated beats of his strong wings. Having discovei'ed his prey, he darts on it with arrow- like swiftness, catches it U23 in his powerful talons, and spreading his wings over it, soars aloft, and bears it to some favourite secluded spot to be devoured. It is to this spreading of the wings when her })rey is secured, that reference is made here. The certainty of Moab's destruction is thus forcibly intimated.

Another aspect of this appears to have been in the mind of Solomon when describing the uncertainty of riches — " Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings ; they fly away as an eagle towards heaven" (Prov. xxiii. 5). See also 2 Sam. i. 2, 3; Job ix. 20; Isa. xl. 31; Lam. iv. 19; Ilab. i. 8; where nesher is used to indicate the true eagle as distinguished irom the vulture, dCidh.

"Damascus" (xlix. 24), see vol. i., p. 337.

Iniiicriiil Kjiglc (--I^uiVa mprrluUs).

VOL. II.

3s

50G IJIULICAL NATUltAL SCIKNCK.

LAMENTATIONS.

N I lie depth of their calamities, the people cried unto the Lord IJIJ; out of the anguish and distress of their hearts; and called on others to lament over the wall of the daughter of Zion, which was about to be levelled with the ground, to complete their desolations." Tlie wall is said to lament because its ruins are objects of sorrow (Lam. ii. 8), and here it is addressed as a person, while the afflicted ones look up to God — " Their heart cried unto the Lord, 0 wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night : give thyself no rest ; let not the apple ol thine eye cease." The expression "ajjple of the eye," has been noticed already under Deut. xxxii. 10 — which see. It is, however, the trans- lation of a diiferent word in this passage {bath), and is literally " the daughter of the eye," even as tshon is the little man (Jiomulus) of the eye. Both words are met with in Ps. xvii. 8, where the terms may be rendered — "Keep me as the dark spot of the daughter of the eye." Here apple of the eye is used for the whole eye, the channel through which the tears of the afflicted flow. See under Zech. ii. 8.

"Even the sea-monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones : the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness" (iv. 3). Seals and dolphins are abundant in the Slediterranean. Any of these may be regarded as referred to here. See Plate XXXIV. figs. 1,2. A flgure of the walrus is intro- duced on the same plate ((ig. 3) for the sake of illustration. These, with the whales (Plates XXI. fig. 6, and XXIII. flgs. 1, 2, 3), are the sea-monsters which "draw out the breast." See also figs. 149-151.

Even those who had devoted themselves to a life of self-denial and constant waiting on God, shared in the terrible calamities which liad overtaken Ihe people. Their present condition is set in strong contrast with their former state in ver. 7, 8 — " Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire : their visage is blacker than a coal ; they are not known in the streets : their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick."

" Rubies," Heb. pminwi, are named seven times in the Old Testa-

.'i

,ii?^/^''v..

Fig. 140.— Tlie UrcBted Seal (^Stemmalopus crislalus).

Fig 150. — The Sefl-Iilopliaiit < Mortivtin prohoscidfti).

Tig. 151.— The Sea-Lion (Ofnria mhaUi).

r.VEX THE SEA-JtONSTERS ni?.\TV OFT THE REEAST, TIIF.V fllVE SfCK TO THEII? YOLNfi ONES.— L.\MnsTAlinxs iv.3.

ment. They are not referred to in tlic New Testament. The ruby is one of tlie most precious gems. It ranks witli the diamond, tlie sapphire, and the emerald, and is higldy valued. It is red, and as its brilliance loses nothing when seen in artificial light, it has ever been highly esteemed. The finest are those which are either of a pure carmine or of a blood-red colour. There are many varieties ; some- times it is bright rose-red, and passes from that colour to the soft, delicate hue of the peach blossom. The most valuable specimens are obtained from soulliern India and Ceylon. Oriental garnets are some- times mistaken for rubies, but they differ both in natural form, in lustre, and in their constituent parts. The colouring matter of the garnet is oxide of iron ; that of the ruby is chromic acid.

Job acknowledges its preciousness when he says, " The price of wisdom is above rubies." Solomon also sets the value of wisdom in contrast with this gem — " She is more precious than rubies" (Prov. iii. 15), and "better than rubies" (viii. 11, 15).

" vSapphire," Ileb. sap2^ii\ has been fully noticed under Exod. xxiv. 10 — which see. This precious stone is frequently referred to. It stood in the second row of the breastplate of the high priest, between the nopheh or emerald, and the -ijalinlom^ or diamond (Exod. xxviii. 18). In Job's sublime words in regard to the earth it is said —

" The stones of it are the place of sapphires : And it hath dust of gold " (xxviii. G).

The finest varieties, however, are found in the alluvial soil of Ceylon, <S:c. He again mentions it along with the gold of Ophir, and the precious onyx (ver. IG). It is introduced into the description of the glorious person of the royal bridegroom (Song v. 14). Part of the promise of rich blessing to Zion was, " I will lay thy foundations with sapphires" (Isa. liv. 11). Ezekiel names it thrice (i. 26, x. 1, xxviii. 13). Job's reference to sapphires in connection with their place in the rocks, has led some to suggest other minerals as much more likely to answer the mppir of the Hebrews than the modern gem of that name. Azurite has been named ; but, however beautiful the colour and structure, it could not have been applied to such uses as sapphire was. Lapis lazuli, the "sapphire blue" of the Romans, has also been named. It is true that this stone is met with in its brightest forms in central Asia, and may have come under the notice of Job ; but it could not with propriety be associated, as to beauty and value, with the gold of Ophir, the onyx, the ruby, and the topaz — all named as very precious l)y the patriarch, but yet not of such value as wisdom.

EZEKIEL.

509

EZEKIEL.

OME most valuable light has recently been shed on this highly symbolical book by the discoveries of Mr. Layard and others. Many of the symbols made use of by the prophet liave been dis- covered by ]\Ir. Layard on ancient sculptures. It would be foreign to our present task to examine the symbolical imagery, so copiously drawn from art by Ezekiel. The reader is referred to "Layard's Nineveh," vol. ii., pp. 307-309, 404, &c. Chapter iv. 9. — The meat prepared by the prophet was to be eaten as " barley cakes." Bread made from barley (Heb. shordh, Lat. hor- deum) was reckoned homeliest fare. Contrasted with wheat, it was characterized as fit only for the poorest and meanest among the people; it was the r/7e honhiim of classic authors. Thus there was a double degradation ; the food was loathsome because of the mode in which it was prepared, and the thought of the condition of those whose meat consisted chiefly of barley cakes would be ever present with the prophet. He had been made as one of them. This estimate of the barley cake sheds light on Judg. vii. 13:— "When Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that told a dream unto his fellow, and said, Behold I dreamed a dream, and, lo, a cuke of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and smote it that it fell." Gideon the son of Joash, of a family "poor in IManasseh, and the least in liis father's house," little known, and of no estimation among the people like a cake of barley bread, was to fall on Midian and Amalek, and smite them with the sword.

In 2 Kings iv. 28 barley is spoken of as food for horses and drome- daries. Thus in the Talmud, one says, " There is a fine crop of barley," and another answers, " Tell this to the horses and asses." One of the indignities put on the Ronum soldier who quitted his ranks before the enemy, was being fed on barley instead of wheaten bread (Liv. i. 27, c. 13). Up to a comparatively recent date the great majority of the people in the rural districts of Scotland used only bread made from the floiu- of oats or of barley. Wheaten

ilO

BIULICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

bread was a luxury seldom enjoyed. See under Ruth i. 22, ii. 4 ; John vi. 9.

The corn ingredients in iho meat which Ezekicl was to eat as bar- ley cakes have been noticed already, with tlie exception of " millet,"

Ileb. doltlian. This is the only pas- sage in whicli this word occurs. Millet {Panicym miliaccum) is one of the grasses much cultivated in the East.

In this wonderful dealing in grace '-'^;^?^v^^^\w'^ with the once polluted and outcast S^>^^^NJ> « h' l^ ^^"1) the washing and tlie anointing with oil are follow-ed by the clothing: — " I girded tliee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk" (xvi. 10). The broidered tunic, the sandals of badgers' skins, the linen girdle, and the robe of silk, tell here the same tale as the parable of the prodigal son does — " The fatlier said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him ; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet" (Luke xv. 22).

The word used by Ezekiel for fine linen is sitesh and for silk mesM. The former has been rendered "silk" (Prov. xxxi. 22); but that finest linen was meant is pointed out under that passage, and under Gen. xli. 42. The latter term is the only one which may consistently be held to indicate silk. The garment made from it was the " best robe." It is mentioned as an article with wdiich the people were well acquainted. The description of the gracious dealings of God with the nation was designed for popular use. It is thus almost certain that silk was known in Palestine at a date long anterior to tlie time of Ezekiel.

Every attempt to trace the history of the use of silk as an article of clotliing, leads us to the north of China. The inhabitants of that region were acquainted with it from time immemorial. It would reach Syria and Egypt by way of India, both in its raw state, and as woven into garments. In its progress from China to Western Asia, it has been

Common Millet.

EZEKIEL.

ill

traced through India, Assyria, and Persia in its manufactured state, until it reached the kind of the Pharaohs. Thence it found its way to Greece, and ultimately to the nations of Western Europe bordering on the Great Sea. It is clear that the fabric was known long before the nations of the West were acquainted with the source whence the thread was obtained. Some imagined that it was the entrails of a spider. Virgil speaks of " Ethiopic groves white with soft wool" (cotton?), and of the Seres " wlio draw the tender threads iix)m leaves" ("Georg." ii. 120). " The mode of producing and manufacturing this precious material was not known to Europe until long after the Christian era, being first learned, about the year 550, by two monks, who procured in

=^-" '■ Fig. 153.

Silk-worm Muth.

India the eggs of the silk-worm moth, with which, concealing them in lioUow canes, they hastened to Constantinople, where the moths speedily multiplied and were subsequently introduced into Italy, of which country silk was long a peculiar and staple commodity.

In the natural order of insects to which all our butterllies and moths belong — Lcpidoptcra, or scaly-winged — a group is named night moths {Nocturna) from their habits. Among them is the silk-producing family of moths {Bomhjcidce) ^ and under this the silk-woi'm moth {Bovihijx mori) occurs. The specitic name (J/or«.s, or Mulberry) is given to it because of its fondness, in its caterpillar state, for the mulberry-tree. When the caterpillar (see initial letter above) arrives at maturity, it spins for itself a thick cocoon in one continuous thread, and prepares to pass into the next stage of development. — the pupa. This thread has been known to exceed one thousand feet in Icmrth. It is twisted with such regularity that it can be wound off, often without

512 BILLIUAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

a break. The bold contrast between the producing worm and the precious product, especially when the silk has been woven and made into garments, has been a favourite theme of moralist and poet. Milton asks —

" Wherefore did nature pour her bounties forth With such u full .Tud unwithdrawing hand, Covering the earth with odoiu's, fruits, and flock?, Thronging the seas with spawn innumerabk-, But all to please and sate the curious taste, And set to work millions of spiuuing-wornis. That in their green shops weave the smooth-haired silk, To deck her soos'i "^Cotnus.)

Chapter xviii. 1-10. — The chief natural objects employed by the prophet in the construction of this " riddle," or parable, are the cedar {Cedrus Ltbani), the willow (Salix safsaf), and the vine (Viti's vi/ii/era), among plants ; two kinds of eagles among birds ; the first being most likely the golden eagle (Ar/uila cJinjsaetos), and the second the Egyptian vulture {Neophron percnopterus). Two countries and their great rivers are also rei'erred to. With these objects he forms his riddle and brings before the people certain great truths in which they were all most deeply interested. The parable is one of great beauty. Any exposition of it must take chiefly into account the leading features — the outline — indicated in the general mention of the figures used. There are many minute expressions which have been introduced to lend the charm of natural truthfulness to the riddle, as a whole, which are not in themselves designed to convey special aspects of truth. We are not, for example, called upon to show any peculiar fitness between the eagle and the act ascribed to it, when it is repre- sented as cutting off with its bill the cedar-top and carrying the seed of the land away to another region. No sucli fitness could be made out. The truth to be declared was simply, that a warlike prince, tlie great eagle, would carry away the people to whom the prophet spoke — represented by the cedar, and the seed of the land.

Looked at from this general point of view, the riddle and parable fit into the context. The king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, is the " great eagle, with great wings, long-winged, full of feathers, which had divers colours " (ver. 2). The king of Egypt, Pharaoh-hophra — Apries of profane history — is the other " great eagle, with great wings and many feathers;" a description designed to convey the idea of one of less power and note than Nebuchadnezzar. The highest branch of the cedar of Lebanon was the royal house of Judah, and " the top of

EZEKIEL.

tlig young twig " cropped off by the eagle was Jelioiacliin, the son and successor of Jehoiakiui, the Jeconiah of Jeremiah xxiv. 1, tlic Couiah of Jeremiah xxxvii. 1, and the Jechouias of Matthew i. 12. The "seed of Ihe kind " represented the people of Judah, who also with their king are spoken of as "the vine, its roots, and its branches." The land of traffic (vcr. 4) was Babylonia, and "the good soil by great waters" (ver. 8) leads us at once to the rich alluvial plains in the valley of the Nile. Babylonia and its rivers, Euphrates and Tigris, are named as the fruitful field and great waters, in verse 5. With this general outline we can have little difficulty in filling the subordinate particulars, and in understanding the whole in the light of the context. There are only two other points which must be noticed :—

The cedar placed by great waters is said to have been " set as a willow-tree" — Hebrew tzaplulplidh^ the safsaf {Sulix safsaf) of Hasselquist. This plant is abundant in Syria and in Babylonia, where like our sallow, or goat willow {Salix caprea), it grows luxuriantly in moist places, but is met also in dry and sandy places. It gives its name to one of the peaks of the range of Sinai, lias cs Sufsufth, so called from the willows which grew in the Wady Sufsufeh. This passage is the only one in which this species is referred to. See for " willow " under Isa. xliv. 3.

The people who trusted in Pharauh-hophra were to begin to be satisfied with their condition. At the close of the parable they are warned by the prophet not to do so : " Thus saith the Lord God, Shall it prosper? shall he not pull up the roots thereof, and cut off" the fruit thereof, that it wither ? it shall wither in all the leaves of her spring, even without great power, or many people to pluck it up by the roots thereof Yea, behold, being planted, shall it prLi8pLr ? shall it not utterly wither when the east wind toucheth it ? it shall wither in the furrows where it grew " (ver. 9, 10). This allusion to the east wind has led some to seek for an extra-Egyptian influence for the evil which was to overtake the people who rested under the shadow of Pharaoh's protection. But the point and force of the passage is, that the hurt to the Jews was to come from the very power in which they trusted. The evil influence of this power is described by the cast wind, a reference which would at once be understood by all who had had deal- ings with Egypt. At different times, in the months of April and May, Egypt is subject to a wind similar to the sirocco, the Shu-Kizch of the Arabian deserts. In Egypt it is known as the Kliamsi'n. During its prevalence dark clouds loom in the firmament, the atmosphere " is

VOL. II. 3 T

514 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

heated to a high degree, and the wind is strong. It frequently brings a bliglit on vegetation. When the protector shall become the persecutor, shall it not be with the people as with tlie plants stricken by the Khamsin? " Shall it not wither when the east wind toucheth it?"

Chapter xxvii. 15. — Among the riches brought to Tyrus were elephants' tusks, called here "horns of ivory." The elephant itself is only indirectly mentioned in Scripture — see above, 1 Kings x. 11. However, the mode in which it is alluded to, and the circumstances associated with the passages in which the references occur, have attached much interest to it. The Hebrew word for tooth is shen — " tooth for a tooth " (Levit. xxiv. 20). This is translated ivoiv/ eight times in its simple form, and twice in which it may be regarded as part of a compound word, in this passage, and again in 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles.

If Psalm xlv. be a psalm of David, which there is every reason to believe, ivory is first mentioned (ver. 8) in his day (b.c. 1055) : —

" All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, Out of thu ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad."

It has been proposed to render "palaces " by casque ts, or boxes — perfume boxes of ivory ; but this falls altogether short of the requirements of this royal song. The scene of the king's palace, and the filling in of the picture, must consist with this. Horsley and others are disposed to take " whereby " as a proper name, Minni (Jer. li. 27), and to render the line — "From the ivory palaces of Armenia they make thee glad." There is much to be said in favour of this version. It gives strength to the description of the bringing in of the Gentiles, and preserves the true meaning of the " ivory palaces." Amos when threatening judgment on "the backsliding house ot Jacob," whose luxurious habits fostered its departure from God, says — " I will smite the winter house with the summer house ; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end " (iii. 15). The dwellings of ivory thus alluded to are again mentioned in connection with the "acts of Ahab " — "the ivory house which he had made" (1 Kings xxii. 39). They appear to have been houses whose internal decorations consisted chiefly of ivory — panels of ivory on their walls — couches of ivory on which their inmates reclined — and, if palaces, a throne of ivory for the king. " Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near ; that lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall " (Amos vi. 3, 4).

PUT/:

"\fgan3rin;>, ceredn/hrmis

T

2 -f. Tubipora miLsira^

Aslrra ,^^ttnns.

I'^lS //,>/>///■

Caryoplwllia soU-taria,.

Ociii 111:1. vancosa

Ocuhua. i-artcos'i-

'/Ml IV

^^?^;WS^

Gorgojjii* paiiJu

2P H Mmndruw £trru*sa .

SYRIA WAS THY MERCHANT ; THEY OCCUPIED IN THY FAIRS WITH COBALS.— Ezbk. xxtU. 1«.

William HkCNCNZIt. ClASCON CO'lluttCH kONOON t XtM-tCA*-

EZEKIEL. OiO

When Solomon, leaving the royal simplicity of his father, took to imitating tlie luxurious arrangements of neighbouring courts, " he made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the best gold" (1 Kings x. 18). And in ver. G of this chapter, among other evidences of the luxury of Tyrus in Iniilding her ships, it is said that " the company of Ashurites made the (rowing) benches of ivory, brought out of the land of Chittim," or Kt'ttfm, Cyprus, which appears to have been a depot of merchandise brought by the PiuToiiicians from Africa and Southern Asia. ]\Iany illustrations of these remarks occur in classic literature. Ivory is described by Homer as used in tlie decoration of the palace of Menelaus : —

"Above, beneath, around the palace shines The sumless treasure of exhausted mines : Tlie spoils of elephants the roofs inlay, And studded amber darts a golden ray." — {Odys. iv.)

The bed in Penelope's nuptial bower was overlaid with ivory : —

"Athwart the frame, at equal distance lie Thongs of tougli hides, that boast a purple dye ; Then polishing the whole, the finish'd mould AVitli silver shone, with elephant and gold."— (Of/ys. xxiii.)

Penelope's key also was ornamented with ivory : —

" The prudent queen the loflj stair ascends, At distance due a virgin-train attends ; A brazen key she lield, the handle turn'd, Willi steel and polish 'd elephant adorn'd : Swift to the inmost room she bent her way, Wliero, safe repos'd, the roj-al treasures lay." — {Odys. xxi.)

The ivory was supplied to Tyrus by the Ashurites or Assyrians, whose geographical situation near the great river routes between central and southern Asia, would put them in possession of tlie merchandise of regions in which ivory abounded. Mr. Layard met with many traces of the skill of the Assyrians in working in ivory, when examining the ruins of Nineveh aiid Baliyhm.

The Hebrew term used by Ezekiel {Ivmimtli-xhen) lets light on the popular idea of the nature of ivory. The prevailing opinion in his day seems to have been, tliat the ivory formed the horns of the animal from which it was obtained. This goes also to show that the Hebrews were not, up to that period, familiar with the elephant. This may account for its being named only as a foreign animal by the voyagers of Solomon and Hiram. They brought from the distant region visited

51G BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

ivory ^elephants' teeth [ahcn-lialhim). The literal meaning of the appellation is given under 1 Kings x. 22.

In the Song, ivory is referred to as illustrative of the beauty and strength of the "ro3'al beloved" — "Bright ivory overlaid with sapphires " (v. 14) ; and of the corainanding attractiveness of the " prince's daughter " — " Thy neck is as a tower of ivory " (vii. 4).

Ivory is obtained from the tusks, which answer to the incisive teeth, of the elephant {Elq)Jias^. It was long believed that the elephant peri- odically slieds his tusks. This supposition is stated in a comparatively recent work on science. (" Nat. Lib.," vol. ix.) But the impression is erroneous. The beast must be destroyed in order to get possession of his tusks. The permanent tusks are like the otlier teeth, preceded by " milk tusks." After these are shed, the permanent tusks cut the gum a month or six weeks later. They are dark-coloured and ragged at the ends when they first appear, following thus the characteristics of the other teeth, but are worn smooth by use, and soon lose all traces of roughness. Chemical analysis of the tusk yields the following result, as the constitution of ivory : — -

Phosphate of Ume, with trace of fluate of lime, .... 38'48

Carbonate of lime, ......... 5'G3

Phosphate of magnesia, . ....... 12*01

Salts, 0-70

Chondrine (principle of cartilage), ...... 4294

F.it, 013

10000 The ivory obtained from the African elephant is more esteemed in commerce than that got from the Asiatic species. " The annual importation of ivory into Great Britain alone, for the last few years, has been about one million pounds ; which, taking the average weight of a tusk at sixty pounds, would require the slaughter of eight thousand three hundred and thirty -three male elephants." — (»??> E. Temient)

The accompanying section (fig. 154) of the elephant's skull, will show how the tusks are planted in the upper jaw-bones (premax- illarks). It will be noticed that the brain cavity is very small, com- pared with the size of the animal, and that it does not bear out any theory which associates sagacity in the lower animals with their proportion of brain. The sagacity of the elephant has in all ages been a favourite theme with writers on its habits and instincts. Numerous illustrations will occur to every reader. In most cases tliese have been drawn from the habits of the tame animal, and show his great capacity

EZEKIEL.

of being trained. But tliis sagacity appears to distinguish him in liis wild state likewise. Dr. Livingstone, describing the pitfalls on tlie banks of the Zonga for entrapping wild animals, says — " Old elephants have been known to precede the herd and whisk off the coverings of the pitfalls all the way down to the water. We have known instances in which the old among these sagacious animals, have actually lifted the young out of the trap."— (" Travels," p. 70.)

The trunk or proboscis of the elephant is a marvel of mechanism. Other parts of its body present all those rich adaptations between means and ends, structure and habits, which may be equally met with in other lower animals. But the trunk of the elephant is characterized by a sensibility equal to that of the tendercst parts of the human body.

Fig. 154

Elephant's SkuU.

It resembles the organs of taste in man, the prehensile anterior limbs in monkeys, and approaches in variety of use to the human hand itself. It can pick up the smallest coin, or tear up the great tree with equal readiness. This organ contains from thirty to forty thousand muscles. The poet's lines are scarcely an exaggeration : —

'' Nature's great masterpiece — an elephant ; The-only harmless great thing." — (Donne.)

The same thought is pressed on us, when the great size of the elephant is regarded in the light of its habits, and the use to which it is put by man. Every bone comes to tell the tale of divine wisdom, and to con- tradict the absurd imju'essions to which ignorance of its structure gave rise; as, for example, that its legs had no joints, or such only that were useless —

518

BIBLICAL NATUnAL SCIENCE.

Fig. 155.

"The elephant hath joints; but none for courtesy: His legs are for necessity, not flexure " {S/ialcspeare) ;

tliat it always sleeps while leaning against something, anrl that it cannot rise \vhen it chances to fall.

In the geological sketch, given at the beginning of this work, refer- ence has been made to the mastodon and the mammoth, fossil forms of ElephanHJce (Plate XXXVIII.).

The men of Dedan were also importers of ivory into Tjtc (ver. 15). Dedan is again mentioned (ver. 20) as trading with Tyre in " precious clothes for chariots." In Gen. x. 7, Dedan is named with Sheba as a son of Ramah, the son of Gush, and in Gen. xxv. 3, with another Sheba the son of Joksham, a son of Abraham's second wife, Ketiirah. These two families intermarried, and one branch, the Cushite Dedan, settled on the shores of the Persian Gulf, while the other, the Ketu- rahite Dedan, took possession of the borders of Idumcea. This accounts for the mode in which they are referred to here.

In addition to ivor}', the merchants of the Cushite Dedan traded with

Tyre in "ebony," Hob. hahcnirn. The plural form points to ebony wood in planks or logs. The tree which yield the ebony wood of commerce is the Diospyros {D. ebenas), one of the natural order Ehcnaccce. It is a large tree, a native of Ce3'lon, ^ladagascar, &c., and is noted for its valuable wood. Nearest the bark the wood is white and soft, but deeper very hard and black. It lias ever been highly esteemed for mak- ing valuable articles of household furni- ture. It is very durable, and takes a high polish. One of the species sup- plies the so called " date plum" of China, which is much relished by the Chinese, and is sometimes imported into Britain as a preserve.

" Syria was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of the wares of thy making : they occupied in thy fairs with emeralds, purple, and broidered work, fine linen, and coral, and agate" (ver. IG). "Emeralds," see imder Rev. iv. 3 ; " Purple," Judges vili. 2G ; " Fine Linen," 1 Chron. iv. 21 ; "Agate," Exod. xxviii. 18.

" Coral," Heb. ramoth, occurs also in Job xxviii. 18, as a substance of great value. The general division liadiata is the lowest but one in

DraTicli of Ehony-Tree {Diospyros e7>mas).

Mastodon.

^>>">

M.(jl(/<l'if''ll/ii ■ /,/i'il/ll/r Xfii.'/iu/i'/i ,

Elephas

??

*'.;

->.-

/L./ni//auf. Iru^tii/i AV(f'/ianl .

1 KINGS X. IS: PSAL. XLV. S- EZEK. XXVII. 6.

. iZ'fc. ClA&COn c&tMBURCH

EZEKIEL.

510

the scientific classification of tlie animal kingdom. The first class in this division is that of Polijpi, under which several families are ranked. One of them is the Cortkidce, or bark-covered corals, which includes the genera, CoralUum, Isn's, and Gorgonia (Plate XXXVII., figs. 6, 9). Several other well-known forms are ranked under this class, as Meandrina, fig. 1 ; Tuhipora, figs. 2, 3, 4 ; Asfrcea, fig. 5 ; Caryophjlla, fig. 7 ; Oculina, fig. 8. All these would be within reach of Syria, either from the Great Sea, or through Arabia, from the Indian ocean. But the red coral {Isis nohilis) was the species most highly prized. It is found in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and in different parts of the south coasts of Asia. The labours of the so called coral- worms in rearing pile on pile of calcareous matter until it rises above the surface of the water, and in time forms great islands, have ever attracted to them the interest of the naturalist, and the glowing admir- ation of the poet : —

" Compared with this am.izing edifice, Raised by the weaknst creatures in existence, What are the works of intellectual man, — Towers, temples, palaces, and sepulchres ; Ideal images in sculptured forms ; Thoughts hewn in columns, or in domes expanded, Fancies through every maze of beauty shown, Pride, gratitude, affection, turned to marble. In honour of the living or the dead ? What are they? miniatures of art!"

The contributions from the land of Israel proper to the merchandise of Tyre are named in ver. 17 — "Judah, and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants : they traded in thy markets wheat of Minnith and Pan- nag, and honey, and oil, and balm. The site of Minnith has not been identified. We learn from Judges xi. 33, that it belonged to the Ammonites. The soil in the neighbourhood of Minnith must have been peculiarly favourable for the cultivation of wheat. Hence the Hebrews, when they took final possession of Ammon, carried their wheat to the market of Tyre.

One of the outstanding features of Palestine was its peculiar suitable- ness for the cultivation of wheat. See under Deut. viii. 8. Early mention is made of ditfereut varieties of this most highly esteemed cereal. Thus we have "wheat," Judges vi. 11, "finest of the wheat," Ps. cxlvii. 14, "principal wheat," Isa. xxviii. 25, and here "wheat of INIinnith." See under Ps. Ixxxi. IG.

"Pannag" is named only in this passage. The uncertainty of its

520

BIBLICAL NATUUAL SCIENCE.

derivation, taken in connection with its being mentioned only once, has led to much profitless speculation as to the object indicated by it. Some have believed that Pannag, like Minnith, is the name of a place. The translation required to sustain this would be " wheat of IMiunith and of Pannag," but the original will not bear this. Others have asserted that both words, rendered as proper names in our version, should not have been'so. The true rendering they assert is "olive and fig." To support this, they allege a corruption of the text in regard

Fig. 150.

Pannag (A qwiquf/olium).

to both words, in a way which would land us in complete uncertainty as to a hundred other words of whose meaning there can be no doubt. In the Septuagint, Pannag is translated cassia; in the Syriac version, millet; in the Targum, siveet-pasfnj. This last has led some to render the word by siceet-cake, defined to have been made up of figs, raisins &c. Luther believed that balsam was referred to under this name. Hiller in his " Sacred Botany" has suggested a preparation from one of the ivy family {Araliacece), the Panax (P. qmnquefoh'um), from which

V

EZEKIEL.

521

a medicine useful in so many diseases was made, as to originate the common word panacea. This is the (jtnsany of the Chinese. But whatever Paunag was, it must have been as thoroughly associated with Palestine as tLj wheat of Jlinnith. This is not the case with the Panax to which one or two interpreters have been led, hj the phonetic resemblance of the Hebrew and Latin terms. We must as yet remain satisfied with the information, that it was an article in which the Hebrews traded with the pe(j[de of Tyre. The most likely supposition is that it was a kind of spice for which the land of Judah was noted.

" Behold the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature ; and his top was among the thick boughs," &c. (xxxi. 3-9.) This passage is one of great beauty. The imagery is of the richest kind. His theme is " the glory of Assyria," and the Lord's ways with " him who had lifted himself up in height." He was like the giant cedar of Lebanon, whose "fair branches" cast a welcome shadow for the wayfarer, when the sun burned fiercely on his path. He was like the tree planted by the rivers of water. The deep set him up on high with her rivers running round about his plants. That from which he drew strength yielded strength for his children also, '' His height was above all the trees : " he stood out as a political power above all other nations. " The fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs:" surrounding tribes sought his protection, and believed themselves safe under his care. But tall as might be the cedars in the garden of God — in the place specially suited for them — they could not hide this one who towered above them all. The fir-tree might stretch out its arm-like and goodly branches, l)ut these were not to be compared with Assyria's commanding influence and protecting power. Yea the plane-tree, noted in these lands for its beauty of form, wide-spreading shade, magnificent trunk, and rich palmate foliage, could serve only as a faint and imperfect emblem of the grandeur, majer.ty, and attractive lustre of the Assyrian power. " There was no tree in the garden of God like unto him in his beauty." God had " made him fair by the multitude of his branches."

"Cedar," Heb. ercz. The species named here is the cedar of Lebanon {Cedrus Libanij. See under I Kings iv. 33.

"Fir," Heb. hervsh. This tree is again mentioned by Ezekiel (xxvii. 5). See under 1 Kings v. 10.

'■ Chestnut," Heb. armdii. That the plane-tree [I'latanus on'entalis), should be understood here, has already been pointed out. — (Vol. i. 440.)

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522

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

HOSE A.

liEFEKENCE was made to the poplar (iv. 13) under Gen. x.\x. 37, where two derivatives from the same Hebrew root occur. The tree whose rods Jacob pilled was the poplar (Ih-neh), and the result of taking off the green bark was to make the rods white {Idvdhn). This should be kept in mind in every attempt to identify the tree mentioned here. The general natural appearance of the plant was like the branch when tlie bark was taken off. I refer to this because several interpreters hold that the tree mentioned in Gen. xxx. and in this verse is the storax {Styrax officinale). I have noticed the storax under Gen. xxxvii. 25, where a woodcut is likewise introduced, with the view of indicating that it was little likely, from any outstanding features, to be named with the oak and the elm. The chief ground for holding "storax" the right rendering here is, that in Arabia it is named lobnah, a word from the same root as livneh. But if a little attention be given to the Scripture references, when the Arabic name held to shed light on them is noticed, little force would be attached to this. Jacob had clearly in view a tree not unlike the pilled rods. He had respect to the wood and the general appearance of the plant. The branching white, or cream-coloured flower-stalk of the storax was as likely to lead the Arab to name it lobnah, as the blossoms of the hawthorn have led to its being often spoken of as white-thorn. Again, the distinctive feature noticed by Hosea is the shade of the tree : — "They burn incense under oaks, and poplars, and elms, because the shadow thereof is good." The oak {Quercus rolur) and the terebinth-tree [Pistacia terebinthus), here rendered elm, but which is the same word as that used by Isaiah (vi. 13), both answer the prophet's description ; but the common storax does not. The livneh may thus be regarded as the white poplar, which is a common tree in Palestine. It is to be found by the way-sides near villages. In the outskirts of towns it is sometimes met with bordering the roads, and a sight not uncommon is the —

" Spring and vale Edged with poplar pale."

In everv case it is noted for the cool shade it affords in the heat of the

HOSE A.

523

day. The poplar is one of the catkin-bearing group of trees {Amen- tacece), and belongs to a sub- family of the group — the willows (Salicinece). The species best known in Britain are the black, the white, the aspen (P. tremula), and the Lonibardy poplar {P. fasti<jiata).

Fig. 157.

^':lv

The last named throws little shade. It gathers its branches close around the main stem, and shoots up per- pendicularly towards the sky. The aspen has touched the eye and heart of almost every poet. Chau- cer writes : —

"And quake as doth the leaf of aspen green.''

And Spenser speaks of one —

" Whose hand did quake And tremble like the leaf of aspen greene."

The white species is —

"The poplar, that with silver lines his leaf"

This tree is united by yet another feature with the thoughts of the prophet. He sees it used for pur- poses of idolatrous worship. So was it among the Gentiles. Hercules is often represented with a garland of white poplar on his head. It was, likewise, the only wood permitted to be burned on the altar of Jupiter at Elis.

It is said of Ephraim — " The wind hath bound her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices" (ver. 19). Ephraim was joined to idols, and the Lord left the people to the fruit of their grievous apostasy from him. Tliat fruit was vanity and prevailing unrest — constant changes, as if they were bound up in the cloud driven across the sky by every changing breeze.

Another figure is used (vi. 4) for the inconstancy of Israel and Judah — " 0 Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee ? 0 Judah, what shall I do unto thee ? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away." Even while it lasts, it is no more to be reckoned on than the cloud wdiich hangs on the sky at early dawn. To this uncertainty is added the fact of its short-lived nature. " It goeth away as the early dew." Slight trials as surely bring it to an end as the first acts of radiation after sunshine clear the dew from the

White \'t3^\i^r {^Fupulus alba).

524 BIBLICAL NATUKAL SCIENCE.

herbage. "Leavened" (vii. 4), sec under Prov. x. 2G ; verses 11, 13, see Ps. Iv. 6 ; viii. 7, see 2 Kings xix. 26.

Chapter ix. 1. — Backsliihng Israel was taking a joy to wliicli they were not entitled. "' Rejoice not," said the prophet, " for joy as other people." Egypt and Assyria were again to spoil them, and the con- sequent desolation is described in verse G — " Lo, they are gone because of destruction : Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them; the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess them : thorns shall be in their tabernacles.'' " Nettles," Heb. klmush — see under Zeph. ii. 9.

"Israel is an em[)ty vine, he bringcth forth fruit unto himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars ; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images" i^x. 1). The change was not one of unfruitfulness, but of intense selfishness. The fruits which should have been " unto Goil " were "consumed on their own lusts" (James iv. 3). Israel was greatly blessed, but it was with them like heaping favours on a naughty child. The evil increased. Self-absorbed, mercies were esteemed only as they gratified the longings of sinful nature.

The influence of the divided heart (ver. 2) told directly lor evil, both on the religious profession and on the social life of Israel. Mad upon their idols, they multiplied altars ; and, regardless of the claims of truth on man's dealings with man, they were not careful of it in their transactions Avith one another — "They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant ; thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field" (ver. 4). The word i-ush, here rendered " hemlock," has been fully considered under her. viii. 14. Its usual meaning is gall, and it may refer to bitter things in general. The meaning in this passage is limited, and requires a specific translation. This has been felt by our translators, who have attached to it the signi- fication given above. The word hemlock occurs only once more in the English Bible — " Shall horses run upon the rock ? will one plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock" (Amos vi. 12). See under Jer. viii. 14. The Hebrew in this passage is laandh, a word which elsewhere is more correctly rendered " wormwood." If hemlock is mentioned in Scripture, it is in the verse under notice.

Some of the oldest and most judicious Jewish rabbins are agreed, that the hemlock is the plant named rosh by Hosea. This verse itself leaves little doubt on the subject. The context requires a noxious plant

HOSEA.

525

rig 15a

which niiicht yrow in the furrows with wholesome ones, but so like them that it might not be distinguished. All falsehood is like truth — so like it indeed as to draw its power to deceive from tlie rescmldance. The people " who swore falsely in inaking a covenant," persuaded the other covenanting parties that the oatli was true. Now both anise {PimpiiicUa anisiim) and dill {Anethum gra- veoleiis) have ever been much cultivated in Bible lands ; and were the liemlock to find its wiiy into the furrows, it might be gathered with either and not be observed. Moreover,' as a poisonous element would thus be introduced, so tlie false oath drops moral poison in the soul of him who makes it, and in the lot of him to whom it is given. "Hem- lock springeth up in the furrows of the field." This plant belongs to the natural order Umhellifem, and is associated with several others of the same family whose seeds are not hurtful. It is now generally believed that the coneion drunk by Socrates was a poison obtained from the coniuui or hemlock. It grows abundantly near Athens ; the other plants are not found in that part of Greece.

" Calves" (ver. 5), see under Numb. xix. 2 king is cut off as the foam upon the face of the water" (ver. 7). Many readers will have their attention called to one of the truest and most beautiful figures in modern poetry, when they peruse this verse : —

'• But pleasures are like poppies spread, You seize the flnwer, its bloom is shed ; Or like the snow-falls in the river, A moment white — then melts for ever."

Chapter xi. 1 1 — see Ps. Iv. G. " Calves of our lips" (xiv. 2) — Levit. i. 5. "Grow as the lily" (ver. 5) — Song ii. 1. " Revive as the corn." In spring a grub frequently eats the main shoot just above the root. Fields lately green become withered and yellow-looking. Showers fell ; the root survives the injury done, and, technically, tillers, or sends up several other stalks, and the fields become green again. Or after a scorching sun has for a day shone on the corn till every blade bends its head, copious dew falls at night and it is again revived. Thus is it in God's ways with his people.

TTenilock {Conium mnculatum).

" As for Samaria, her

526

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIEXCE.

JOEL.

HE havoc begun by cankerworm and caterpillar is com- pleted by a terrible drought. The strong expressions in cliap. i. 8-13, give great prominence to this. Wiiat grief so bitter as that awakened in the hopeful young heart when the stroke of death falls suddenly on the newly wedded youthful husband ? Such grief, says the prophet to the people, shall be yours — " Lament like a virgin girded with sackcloth for the husband of her youth" (ver. 8). So great was the scarcity to become, that the people were to be unable to yield obedience to ordinances sacred both by the command oi God and their own religious sentiments. " The meat-offering and the drink-offering is cut off from the house of the Lord : the priests, the Lord's ministers, mourn" (ver. 9). Thus all classes were to be brought to feel the pressing calamity. " Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests ; howl, ye ministers of the altar ; come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God : for the meat-offering and the driuk-offering is withholden from the house of your God" (ver. 13). The picture becomes very vivid in verses 10-12 — " The field is wasted, the land mourneth ; for the corn is wasted : the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. Be ye ashamed, 0 ye husbandmen : howl, 0 ye vine-dressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. The vine is dried up, and the fig-tree languisheth : the pomegranate-tree, the palm-tree also, and the apple-tree, even all the trees of the field are withered away from the sons of men." The vine {Vitis vinifera), see under Gen. ix. 20, 21. The fig {Fiais carica), Gen. iii. 7. The pome- granate (Pum'ca fjranabim), 1 Sam. xiv. 2. The apple-tree {Pyrus malus), Song iii. 3. Like the trees of Eden, these were all both pleasant to the eye and good for food. "When the palm-tree is added to the number which were dried up and which were languished because of the drought, the wide-spread misery of the visitation becomes apparent. The palm-tree (Phoenix dactijUfera), or date-palm, has been noticed under Exod. xv. 27 ; Dent, xxxiv. 3 ; Judg. i. 10 ; and Ps. xcii. 12 — which see.

Linked up here with the vine, fig, pomegranate, and the apple, the

I

Ka-i'is rioi^na

0*am bii s nuity/aiitt'/his

Cei'osioiua jr\' l^steUji-

Fidouia atorn^ir la

ilantis rdi^iosa . Prtjyina 3fantiji-

Erasmia pTilchella.

Cvclosia saiiguii"lxia_

Apliis y^^'s:*- Phnit he^ otth^Rosr.

Luraiitis (>nus LEVIT. XI. 22: JOEL I. 2—4.

.S'toy hectic

>kM UKCHtNZlC. ClASCOW. IDIHBllKCH. lOHOOK « NLW TORK

JOEL.

527

usefulness of the pahu is specially suggested. The ancients boasted that three hundred and sixty uses could be made of the products of the palm-tree. See under Rev. vii. 9. The natural order (Palmce) to which the date-tree belongs, is celebrated for the usefulness of the genera ranked under it. Their wide-spread distribution in tropical climes; their number, about one thousand species; their graceful forms; and the great size to which many of them grow — have thrown an interest around them denied to most other plants. Their geographical range supplies a fine illustration of the goodness of God. They furnish

Fig. i;9

Fig ll».

Social lar\-iB of Hyponomputa feeding on the Apple-tree.

Social larva? of Procosslonary Motli {Eriogaatcr Uiwstris) feeding on Lime-tree.

the people of the regions in which they are indigenous with more varied means of enjoyment than any other member of the vegetable kingdom. To Israel in the desert, or when at rest in the plains of Palestine, the date-tree was of the highest interest. It became woven into their poetry, and associated with some of the most significant of their religious symbols. Its leaves were waved by the hands of rejoicing thousands, at a season when the religious heart of the nation was stirred to its depths by conscious joy. The highest expression for a

528 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

soul growing up into the image of a covenant God, was in the words of tlie king to the royal bride : —

" How fair art thou, BulovL'd, and how pleasant ! Thy stature is like a palm" (Song vii. 7).

The coming calamity announced by Joel was to extinguish all these pleasant thoughts ; for the palm and all the trees of the field were to be blasted, and joy itself was to " wither away from the sons of men."

To the drought was added the terrible visitation of the devouring locusts. This chapter (ii.) is chiefly devoted to the description of the appalling ravages of this "great people and strong:' — "A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth : the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses ; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. Before their face the people shall be much pained ; all faces shall gather blackness. They shall run like mighty men ; they shall climb the wall like men of war ; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks : neither shall one thrust another ; they shall walk every one in his path : and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. "Tliey shall run to and fro in the city ; they shall run upon the wall ; they shall climb up upon the houses ; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. The earth shall quake before them ; the heavens shall tremble : the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars sliall withdraw their shining : and the Lord shall utter his voice before his army ; for his camp is very great : for he is strong that executeth his word : for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?" (ver. 3-11.) It is worthy of notice that the name anciently given to these insects illustrates the strong expression in verse 3 — locust = locus, " a place," and ustus, " burned and scorched." The entomological place of the locust has been pointed out under Deut. xxviii. 38 — which see.

Nearly all travellers in Asia and Africa refer to the havoc committed by this " army of God." The Arabians make a locust address Mahomet — " We are the army of the great God ; we produce ninety-nine eggs ; If the hundred were completed, we should consume the whole earth and all that is in it." "Here," says Dr. Thomson, "on the side of this mountain above Fiiliyeh, I had my first introduction, some twenty years

JUKL. 529

ago, to the far-famed locusts of the East. . . . Never shall I lose the impression produced by the first view of them. I had often passed through clouds of flying locusts, and they always struck my imagination with a sort of vague terror ; but these we now confronted were without wings, and about the size of full-grown grasshoppers, which they closely resembled in appearance and behaviour. But their number was astound- ing ; the wliole face of the mountain was black with them. On they came like a living deluge. We dug trenches, and kindled fires, and beat, and burned to death ' heaps upon heaps ;' but the effort was utterly use- less. Wave after wave rolled up the mountain side, and poured over rocks, walls, ditches, and hedges — those behind covering up and bridging over the masses already killed. After a long and fatiguing conquest, I descended the mountain to examine the depth of the column ; but I could not see to the end of it. Wearied with my hard walk over this living deluge, I returned, and gave over the vain effort to stop its 'pro- gress. By the next morning the head of the column had reached my garden, and, hiring eight or ten people, I resolved to rescue at least my vegetables and flowers. During the day we succeeded, by fire and by beating them oft' the walls with brushes and branches, in keeping our little wiru-\vonaCGn.b„f..i,«,«»c„(«,„,,

garden tolerably clear of thein ; Ijut it was perfectly appalling to watch this animated river as it flowed up the road, and ascended the hill above my house. At length, worn out with incessant skirmishing, I gave up the battle. Carrying the pots into the parlour, and covering up what else I could, I surrendered the remainder to the conquerors. For four days they continued to pass on toward the east, and finally only a few stragglers of the mighty host were left behind. In every stage of their existence these locusts give a most impressive view of the power of God to punish a wicked world. Look at the pioneers of the host— those flying squadrons that appear in early spring. Watch the furious impulse for the propagation of their devourhig progeny. No power of man can interrupt it. Millions upon millions, with most fatal industry, deposit their innumerable eggs in the field, the plain, and the desert. This done, they vanish like morning mist. But in six or eight weeks the very dust seems to waken into life, and moulded into maggots, begins to creep. Soon this animated earth becomes minute grasshoppers ; and, creeping and jumping all in the same general direc- tion, they begin their destructive march. After a few days their

VOL. II. . 3 X

530

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

Fig. 162.

voracious appetite palls ; they become sluggish, and fast, like the silk- Avorins, for a short time. Like the silk-worms, too, they -epeat this

fasting four times before they have completed their trans- mutations and are accommo- dated with wings. I do not remember to have seen this fact in their history noticed by any naturalist. In their march they devour every green thing, and with won- derful expedition. A large '\ vineyard and garden adjoin- ing mine was green as a meadow in the morning, but long before night it was naked and bare as a newly-ploughed field or dusty road. The noise made in marching and foraging was like that of a heavy shower on a distant forest."

The two chapters now noticed supply many most striking illustrations of the

o, Ceddomjia tritici. i The same, natuial size, r, Cocoon. treineudoUS agCncieS for ludg-

rf, Antenna of the male. «, An ear of wlicat attacked. ~ Jo

/, A grain attacked. ,, The Chinch Bug. ^^^.^^ ^ ^^-I^J^.^-^ ^^.^ g^Cr lU thc

hand of Jehovah, in forms which man least regards —

" Unconscious, not unworthy, instruments. Omnipotence works in tbcni, by them, with them."

The theme, as a whole, is deeply interesting and suggestive. Joel seems to have given more attention to it than any other writer of Holy Scripture. A brief notice of the general subject may be useful here, both to set us in direct sympathy with the views of this prophet, and, also, to show us that the same God works in similar ways still. The destructive power of insects may be looked at — 1st, in connection with vegetation ; and 2nd, with animal life. Every tree has not only some characteristic insect form which preys on its wood, leaves, or fruit, but most have many, either limited, or common to them with others. The

JOEL.

531

larvae of the procession motljs feed on the leaves of the lime-tree. In a few nights a colony will strip a noble tree bare. These moths inhabit a common nest during the day, which they leave at night, in order to feed, leturning again to it as morning draws near. In

Fig. ICS. Fig. IC 1.

Thrips, greatly magnified.

a, Larra. &, Pupa, c Perfect insect, d. Section of apple, showing the lan'a track.

social habits, another larva of one of the small moths {Hyponomeuta padeUa) is very hurtful to the foliage of the apple-tree, while that of the apple moth {Curpocapsa pomonella, fig. 1G4) preys upon the apple itself. An allied species {Earis chlorana) is figured on Plate XXXIX.,

Fig. 163. Fig. 166.

Sarrothripus cribralis.

a. MeloIontliR Tiilgaris. b, Larva, e. Pupa. d. Antenna of male. e. Profile of the abdumCD.

fig

1. The influence of various forms of plant-lice. Aphides, on vege- tation is well known. These increase at an almost incredible rate in a season. I have more than once witnessed an extended avenue of noble

532

ItlBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCK.

trees despoiled of their beauty by the ravages of these tiny creatures. They sometimes become a perfect plague over wide areas. The Aphis htm'gcra produces each year ten viviparous broods, and one wliich is oviparous, and each generation averages one liunch'ed individuals.

1st Generation, 1 apliis produces

2nd	(1	100.
3rd	((	10,000.
4th	(I	1,000,000.
5th	ll	100,000,000.
Gth	((	10,000,000,000.
7th		1,000,000,000,000.
8th		100,000,000,000,000.
9 th		10,000,000,000,000,000.
10th	U	1,000,000,000,000,000,000

Corn crops are specially liable to the attacks of insecls. Some of their enemies work under ground, as the Avire-worms, or skip-jacks, as they are popularly named. These are the grubs of beetles. Ten or twelve of the most destructive species belong to the elaters {Elateridce). Many of these inhabit the soil for three to five years before they come to maturity, and all the while they prey on the roots of cereals. But the most destructive of all is the well-known wheat- midge {Ceeidomyia trifm), before whose ravages whole fields of wheat have been destroyed. Its egg is deposited when the wheat begins to

flower, at the root of the flower

Fig. 167.

leaf. A species of thrips (Limo- tJirips cerealtum) is also much dreaded by the husbandmen. It prej's chiefly on the grain, from which it extracts its natural moisture. The grain then shrivels up, and becomes, in rustic speech, "pungled." Pas- ture-lands suffer in their turn from the larva? of the crane- flies (Tipiilidce), and those of several beetles. The common cock- chafer's grub {Melolonthd) devours the roots of the grass — and in years favourable to their increase, or in localities in which man, blind to his own best interests in the matter of worldly profit, has waged an exterminating war against the birds which feed on them — they commit great havoc on pasture-lands. All countries have their character-

Tse-tse (Gtoas'na morsitam'}.

JOKL.

533

istic forms, according to the crops most cultivated. In the West India islands, for example, whole acres of sugar-cane are often destroyed by the larv?e of a species belonging to the family Pyralidce.

If from the world of vegetation we turn to that of animal life, the destructive power of insects might be fully illustrated also. Dr. Living- stone has made us acquainted Fig.iG8. with the dreaded tse-tse of southern Africa, whose poison- ous bite is certain death to ox,

horse, and dog.

" The ravages

Tahanus hovinus.

Fig. 169.

it commits are sometimes

enormous. Seljituane once

lost nearly the entire cattle of

his tribe, amounting to many

thousands, by unwittingly intruding on the haunts of this murderous

insect." In our own country the annoying power of the breeze-flies

is well known. One of these attacks cattle. Other quadrupeds

are attacked by bot flies {(Estridce).

The CEstms Trompe preys upon

deer. Its eggs are deposited in their

nostrils, and the larva penetrates and

feeds in the frontal sinus of the head.

The reindeer has its dreaded enemy

in (Estrits tarandi. If six or eight

of these attack any individual, death '. cEs.n,s Trompe. 2, La.... 3,pupa.

is almost certain. Q^. cqui attacks the horse, and CE. ovis the sheep. These simple facts are referred to in illustration of the Word of God, as to other forms and other facts of a similar nature^—" My Great Army which I sent among you" (ii. 25). A thousand more might be

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

AMOS.

HE figures used in verses 1 and 2 were such as Araos, the herdman of Tekoa, would have often under liis eye : — " Thus hath tlie Lord God showed unto me ; and, behokl, lie formed grasshoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth after the king's mowings. And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the , J land, then I said, 0 Lord God, forgive, I beseech thee : by ^' whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small " (vii. 1, 2). It is clear from this passage, that, contrary to general usage (Jer. xii. 4), the Hebrew eshev, here translated grass, does not refer to herbaceous plants of different kinds, but to grass properly so called, which is made by man into hay. The reference to " the latter growth " implies that at that time, as now, there were first and second crops. The first crop is named the " king's mowing " — the tribute of the land for the support of the public burdens, whether they were paid in kind, or the hay sold and the price given to the king. The latter growth thus became of special interest to the people. Should it fail, what would become of them ? Their cattle — the chief elements of their wealth — would die, and famine would fall on all the land. " By whom" then "should Jacob arise?" This was the tender appeal of Amos. As if he had said. If you destroy that on which all the people depend for subsistence, will there not be a complete end of them ? The prayer of the righteous man prevailed. The Lord said, " It shall not be." The grasshopper, (jov, which was the instrument at work in destroying the latter growth, is translated " green worm " in the margin. It was doubtless the larva of some insect which deposits its eggs at tlie roots of young grass. The larva of any of the well-known crane-flies {Tipulidce) would, in a very short time, work all the damage dreaded by the prophet. Those of the lady birds {Goccinellidce), the small spotted beetles with which children in country districts are so familiar, are often also very destructive. The grub of the long-legged gnat {Tipula oJeraced) is specially injurious to pasture lands in which clover abounds. Hundreds of acres of hay have been known to be destroyed by them in a few weeks in spring. In one case, when a square foot of turf was examined,

AMOS.

535

no fewer than one hundred and twenty grubs were counted in it. See under Nah. iii. 17 and Ps. Ixxii. 6.

Set upon departing from God, the people are met by him with the words of threatening^" The liigli pUices of Isaac shall be desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste ; and I will rise aijainst the house of Jeroboam with the sword" (ver. 9). Tidings of these threatened calamities were carried to the king. The prophet is made aware of this, and is exhorted to flee into the land of Jiulah. " Prophesy not again at Bethel," said Amaziah to him, "for it is the king's chapel, and the king's court" (ver. 13). "Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's son ; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of syca- fij, i-o_

more-fruit : and the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel " (ver. 14, 15). The fruit which the herdman named was much esteemed both in Syria and Egypt as food. The "sycamore," Heb. sJn'kmdh, is the Ficus sycomortis, or Egyptian fig of botanists. Pliny early pointed out a characteristic of this tree, when he distinguished it by "fruit growing on the stem itself." The sycamore figs grow on the stem and leading branches. In Egypt, says Sir G. AVilkinson, " figs of the sycamore must have been highly esteemed, since they were selected as the heavenly fruit, given by the goddess Netpe to those who were judged worthy of admission to the regions of eternal happiness." Amos represented himself as a gatherer, or preparer of this fruit, in allusion to the habit of cutting off part of the end of it to hasten the ripening process, and to withdraw some of the sap ; thereby making it more palatable. The figure used in chap. viii. 8, is again employed here (ix. 5). Some aspects have already been noticed. See under Gen. xli. 1. The reference is to the periodic rise and overflow of the waters of the Nile. The wicked shall be " drowned as by the flood of Egypt" (ver. 5). The prophet must have been acquainted with the phenomena which occasionally accompany the overflowing of the Nile. The bounds which the waters reach as a rule are well known, and are marked off. But when these bounds, as is sometimes the case, are

Rranch of Sycarnort: Figs.

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCli.

passed, great destruction of life is the result. The mud houses of the villages are swept away, the flocks and herds are destroyed, and many of tlie people even perish. Thus were the judgments of God to come upon the land because of the sins of the people.

The overflow of the Nile has in all ages exercised the curiosity of men. The graphic account of Herodotus is well known {Ijooh ii.) llicli stores of information have been associated Avith the description of the father of history, by the fruitful labours of Sir G. AVilkinson and others. For a long time it was believed to be the result of the melting of great masses of snow in the mountain range wliere the river was held to take its rise. But the prevalence of the rainy season in the neigh- bourhood of its sources, is now generally reckoned sufficient to explain tlie phenomena. Approaching tlie region of the probable source of the Nile from the valley of the river itself, it is known that the rainy season, in the highlands of Abyssinia, commences about the middle of June, and continues to the middle of September. In the latitude of Memphis the Nile begins to rise about the end of June. About the 10th of August it attains the height at which canals are made for taking it into the interior. It is at its highest about the end of Sei)tember. " Beginning at the summer solstice," says Herodotus, it " fills and overflows for a hundred days." The time is from ninety-two to a hundred days.

The cut given below will illustrate some of the physical phenomena to be seen at the point where the Nile reaches the Mediterranean. " The Nile, which has been estimated to deliver a body of water annually into the Llediterranean about three hundred and fifty times that which flows out of the Thames, must thrust forward, from its periodical rise and fall, fine sedimentary matter with great regularity, tending thus to produce consecutive layers or beds of mud and clay of considerable uniform thickness and character, in those situations where modifying conditions do not interfere. Part of the fine matter brought down from the interior in mechanical suspension is deposited on the lower grounds traversed by the Nile ; and it has been calculated that the surface of Upper Egypt has, in this manner, been raised more than six feet since the commencement of the Christian era. The fine matter not so deposited, passing with the river waters seaward, is necessarily borne furthest outwards when the greatest force of the river water prevails — namely, in August of each year. The water thus borne seaward may be kept a greater or less time mechanically suspended, according to the agitation of the surface by winds, but, as a whole, there nmst be an

AMOS.

537

average area over \vliicli it is thrown down ; the greatest distance of the deposits from tlie mouths of the Nile being attained in August, though the greatest thickness of a year's deposit will be nearer the land. " Where the surface of the sea cuts the slightly-inclined plane of sedimentary matter, partly in the sea, and partly on the land, the breakers separate the finer from the coarser substances, keeping the

	Fig 171.
^^hV^S	P	^WU
^^^^^P^^V ^^"^		^ / tHB^H
^/^^Pw >	J^C	1/
^v^t
	\^	)i ■
	\ ^	I)/
	\	P

Diagram of Mouths of the Nile.

former easily in mechanical suspension, and removing them from the shore outwards. The result is, an arenaceous boundary, with banks so formed as to include lagoons."

The mouths, strictly speaking, are only live, though seven are counted at the Delta. The Damietta mouth is represented by the dark line on the right of the cut; the Rosetta mouth by that on the left. Sir G. Wilkinson has shoAvn that the river still enters the sea at the same distance from Lake Moeris as it did in earliest times. The chief eftects of the annual inundation are mainly seen in the elevation of the land vv^hich the Greek historian had noticed: — "If," he asks, "the land below Memphis should continue to increase in height in the same proportion as it has in time past, what else will happen but that the Egyptians who inhabit this part will starve, if their land shall neither be watered by rain, nor the river be able to overflow their fields ?" The level of the bed of the river rises with the elevation of the banks. The rate at which the waters flow is favourable to this. The average fall of the river be- tween Asouan and Cairo is little more than half a foot in a mile, and from Cairo to the Damietta branch it is only three and three quarters inches.

VOL. II.

3 V

538 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIEN'CE.

JONAH.

"ON AH Avas sent to Nineveh on the great errand narrated iu this Book. The name of the city means the dwelHng of Nm, or Ninus (voL i. 271-274). It continued to be the capital of the great Assyrian empire till about B.C. GOG, when it was besieged and taken by Cyaxares the Median, aided by a great army of Persians and Babylonians. Nineveh is described here as "an exceeding great city of tlirec days' journey" (iii. 3). The application of historical criticism to the disco- veries of Mr. Layard, has shed much light on the history of the once magnificent capital of one of the most powerful states of antiquity. Remarkable corroborations of the Scripture references to Nineveh have also been obtained from the same quarter. These are so well-known as not to require more than this reference here. The city appears to have been divided into different quarters, each of which may have been surrounded with gardens, all lying in a peculiarly fertile plain. The remains of these are found in the several great mounds from which Assyrian sculptures, bronzes, pottery, &c., have been obtained. The most noted of these are the great mounds of Khorsabad, Nimrud, and Kou- yunjik.

''Tarshish" ^i. 3)— see under 1 Kings x. 22.

Jonah was as one dead. Thus he speaks of the belly of the fish as the grave — "Out of the belly of the grave I cried" (ii. 2). Cast into the deep, the wild waves rolled over him. " The waters compassed me about to the soul : the depths closed me round about, the weeds wrapped about my head." "Weeds" (sfqyli) are rendered "flags" in Isa. xix. 6. The same plant is named as growing on tlie banks of the Nile when the mother of Moses laid her child among them in the ark of bulrushes. See under Exod. ii. 3. This fact is fatal to the supposition, that the flags of Scripture always mean sea-weed, and especially the well-known sea-wrack {Zostera marina). That Jonah should mention the siiph as having been wrapped round his head, is not opposed to the attempt to identify it with one of the reed-maces {Tijphace(^) in the passage last referred to. He would be well acquainted with the long leaves of the flags which fringed the banks of the Jordan ; and when the ribbon-like

JONAH. 539

zostera clung to his head, as he descended to meet the fish miraculously prepared, he would naturally use the word afterwards in describing the scene as it had appeared to him. It is true that the same word is employed as the name of the Red Sea, yam suph, in which case it refers to the abundance of weeds on the margin and in the waters of the sea ; but the resemblance of the long ribbons of the zostera to the fronds of the true flags, and the existence of the flags tlicmselves in the same locality, were sufficient to warrant this name.

The cry, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown," startled the people. They " believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them." "God saw their works, that they turned from their evil w^ay; and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them ; and he did it not" (iii. 4, 5, 10). "But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry." His self-love was wounded. He had pledged his word to the destruction of Nineveh ; but now that he saw it was not to be overthrown, he felt as if his own veracity and his standing as a prophet were imperilled. This became the occasion for a vindication of his past conduct : — It has all happened as I said. After I have given the distinct and positive statement that Nineveh should be overthrown, such is not to be. "I knew that thou art a gi'acious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil." The incidents recorded in iv. 5-8, were arranged to teach the prophet the sinfulness of his feelings. "Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city. And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm, when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gour<l that it withered. And it came to pass, Avhen the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind ; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said. It is better for me to die than to live."

Just as it would be impossible to explain the narrative of the swallowing of Jonah by the fish, without the broad recognition of miraculous agency, so here. The repeated words " God prepared" are in themselves suggestive of this. But this recognition should not hinder us from trying to identify the plant which was made the means through which the supernatural power acted. The plant was clearly one with

Fig. 172.

Gourd ArboHi-.

which the propliet was familiar. He had made for himself an imperfect shelter in the booth which he had erected. Nor is there any weakening of the miraculous agency and results, in imagining that the bootli was in the midst of the plants named in this passage. The presence of divine interference is to be sought in the fact, that the plant was made to develope as it did. In a niglit it overshadowed the prophet's booth. He had resolved to wait more than a month, " till he might see what would become of the city." A shadow for his head from the sun at

noon, and from the cold and heavy dews at night, could not but be grateful- '•' So Jonali was exceeding glad of the gourd."

This joy was soon broken. " God prepared a worm," which, liaving gnawed around the stalk, destroyed the connection between the absorbing roots and the sap vessels spreading over the plant, and the plant withered. Nor shall the withered leaves mat together and make a pleasant shade, for an east wind was prepared which left the petulant prophet's head shelter- less, and he " wished in himself to die."

" Gourd," Heb. hlhaydii. Few of the plants of Scripture have given rise to so much speculation as Jonah's gourd. Not content with agreeing to differ on a matter which must continue surrounded with doubt, interpreters have become angry with one another, and, as in the case of Jerome and Augustine, liave impugned each other as heretics. Jerome ventured to suggest the comparatively slow-growing ivy [Uedera helix) as the most likely plant ; but Augustine held that it could be no other than the gourd with which he was familiar [Cucurhita maxima), distinguished for its rapid nm, when it has once fairly taken to the soil. Luther followed Augustine, and rendered the Hebrew by the German Kiirhifi, or gourd. Our translators acknowledge the difficulty, and gave in the margin " palmcrist, Heb. kikayon." The pahnciist is the castor-oil plant {Palma Christi) of botanists, a native of Palestine, and still abundant both there and in the locality to which Jonah was sent. The opinion of the majority of interpreters is in favour of the castor-oil plant. This has drawn its chief strength from the resemblance of the Hebrew name to the hild of the Egyptians, the name for the castor-

JONAH. 541

bean — tlie c/r/ of Pliny. This yields the " oil of kik" still burned by Jews in their sabbath lamps. Niebuhr, in the "Description of Arabia" referring to it says : — " I saw for the first time at Basra, the plant d-l^croa. Tt has the form of a tree. The trunk appeared to me ratlier to resemble leaves than wood ; nevertheless it is harder than that which bears the Adam's fig. Each branch of the keroa has Ijut one large leaf, with six or seven foldings in it. This plant was near to a rivulet, which watered it plentifully. At the end of October, 17C5, it had risen in five months about eight feet, and bore at once flowers and fruit, ripe and unripe. The flowers and leaves of it which I gathered, withered in a few minutes, as do all plants of rapid growth. . . . The Christians and Jews at Mosul say, it was not the keroa whose shadow refreshed Jonah, but a sort of gourd, el-kerra, which has very large leaves, very large fruit, and lasts about four months."

But, notwithstanding all this, there has not been given any valid reason for rejecting the usual reading "gourd," especially as species of Cucurhita are still not unfrequeutly used just as the Icikayon of the prophet was. " It would be impertinent," writes Dr. Thomson, " to say or imply that there is no reason for supposing that the castor-plant was that used, or for any other opinion adopted by learned and impartial men, after careful investigation ; but their arguments do not for a moment disturb my settled conviction that it was a gourd. The cause of the mistake may probably be found in the fact that, in these modern Shemitic dialects, the word kur'ah — gourd — closely resembles, both in form and sound, khurwah — castor-bean ; just as the h'Icion — gourd — of Jonah resembles the Egypto-Greek ki'ki — castor-bean — according to Dioscorides. These accidental resemblances may have led Jerome and others into the opinion that they were the same plant. But Orientals never dream of training a castor-oil plant over a booth, or planting it for a shade, and they would have but small respect for any one who did. It is in no way adapted for that purpose, while thousands of arbours are covered with various creepers of the general gourd family."

One reason given by God for sparing Nineveh, besides the i)resence in it of more than one hundred and twenty thousand children, was that there "was also much cattle" (ver. 11). This aspect of the government of God has more than once been alluded to already (vol. i. p. 18-i). The subject is one fruitful above many to the thoughtful. It is, moreover, capable of being set in lights most interesting to those who look upon all animal life as sacred

542 BIBLICAL NATUliAL SCIENCE.

ill tlie e3'c of God. There arc three points especially, in the history of God's proceedings with man, at which the tie between man the head of earthly life and the interpreter of nature, and the beasts that perish, is vividly brought out. The first of these was in Eden, when God constituted man lord over the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air. The second was at the Deluge, when the representa- tives of the animals indigenous in the area to be covered by the flood were sent with man into the ark. The third was when Christ as the second Adam, the great head of the covenant people, was left alone with the wild beasts, that they might be held as having witnessed his triumph over Satan, as before the beasts had been present at man's fall. See Gen. i. 2G, ii. vii.; Mark i. 13.

In the passage now under notice, God is revealed recognizing the importance of the lower animals in his dealings with men. Many other passages will readily occur to the reader, illustrative of his care over them, of the use which he makes of them in carrying out his own purposes, and of the tender regard which he lavishes on them. One arrangement and another in the Levitical code, was made specially for them. He sent the ravens with food to Elijah ; he led the lions to bow before his image in Daniel ; and the sparrows fall not to the ground without his knowledge.

MICAH-ZEPHANIAII. 543

MICAH— ZEPHANIAH.

"st-

WILL make ca wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the || owls " (Mic. i. 8)— see under Job xxx. 29.—" Swift beast " in ••|Hj verse 13 was the horse, which was yoked to the war chariot, I gl as oxen were to conveyances used in the work of the husband- man.— " Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moresheth-gath : the houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel " (ver. 14) — Josh. xv. 57 ; Gen. xxxviii. 5. — " Enlarge thy baldness as the eagle" (ver. 16) — Levit. xi. 13. — "Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest" (iii. 12). — " Field," Heb. sadeh, is the word generally used in the Old Testament for cultivated ground. It is of frequent occurrence. Gen. xli. 48, xlvii. 20, 24; Levit. xix. 9, 19; Numb. xvi. 14, xx. 17; Ruth ii. 2, 3; 2 Sam. xxiii. 11 ; 1 Chron. xi. 13 ; Job xxiv. G, &c. Writing of the field of Shechem, Dr. Stanley says, "The wide field," — 'the cultivated field,' as it is thus distinctively called — indicates by the mere fact of its selection, the transition of the patriarch from the Bedouin shepherd into the civilized and agricultural settler." In Gen. xiv. 7, xxxii. 3, sadeh is rendered " country."

The chosen people were to be scattered among the gentiles, but not in vain : — "And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor w^aiteth for the sons of men" (v. 7). The blessing which was to come to the gentiles through the remnant of Jacob, was to have as clear evidences of the sovereignty of God about it, as are found in the refreshing dew and the fertilizing showers.

" And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee : so will I destroy thy cities " (v. 14). " Grove," Heb. ashcrah, a name generally used both for the image of the Phoenician idol AshtoretJt, and the shady place in which it was worshipped.

The nearness and aggravated bitterness of the desolation threatened because of sin, are brought very boldly out in vi. 14, 15 — "Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied ; and thy casting down shall be in the midst of thee ; and thou shalt take hold, but shalt not deliver ; and that which thou

544 lUBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

deliverest will I give up to the sword. Thou shalt sow, but thou slialt uot reap ; thou shalt tread the olives, but thou shalt not anoiut thee with oil ; and sweet wine, but shalt not drink wine." The seed was to be cast in, but between seed-time and harvest the judgment was to overtake them ; the hope of the husbandman took not hold of God, and b}' the disappointing of it God was to turn the minds of men to himself again. The time when the oil-ladeu olive berries were to be crushed by the feet of the gatherers was to come, but the riches of the olive were to be given to others. The vine was to hang forth its blushing clusters at the vintage-time, and the juice was to be pressed from tliem, but the backsliding people were not to driidv of the " sweet wine." The import of the word has been fully considered under Deut. xi. 14, which see. The term (tlrosh) is one of wide acceptation, and its precise meaning in each of the thirty-eight passages in which it occurs, is to be determined by the context. It is properly rendered "sweet wine" in that now under notice. The other clauses of the verse indicate such a period as is between seed-time and harvest. The unstored juice of the grape was called "sweet wine." The term then is equivalent to wine of the first year.

"Worms of the earth," Heb. zdlJioI, any reptile or worm which, when disturbed, leaves its hole for safety (Numb. xxi. C). Here it best answers the context to understand earthworms {lumhricus terrestris). When the mole is heard by the earthworm, it hastens to the surface to escape from its enemy. Thrushes may be seen making similar sounds by tapping the turf with their bills. They then watch eagerly, and seldom fail in bringing a worm within reach.

The conqueror from Babylon had come up against Nineveh " as the dasher in pieces," and the stirring war-cry rings throughout the great city, "Keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily." The hour of crisis had arrived. Tlie mighty men were harnessed for the battle, the war chariots were prepared, and Nineveh's day was about to close. " To what does Nahum allude when he says, ' And Huzzab shall be led away captive ; she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabering on their breasts?' (Nah. ii. 7.) Huzzab is another name for Nineveh, who was to go into captivity, led by her maidens tabering on their breasts as doves do — for it was the mourners, and not the doves, who tabered. There is foundation, however, in the manners of our bird ibr the comparison. When about to utter their plaintive moan, they inflate the throat, and throw it forward until the neck rests upon the

MICzVII-ZEPHANIAH. 515

bosom. Thus they 'taber' on their breasts." The coo of the dove has ever been regarded as suggestive of grief The simple notes have a melancholy sound, even when heard in circumstances otherwise su"-fes- tive of joy. They have thus always formed ready illustrations of human grief. In " the writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and was recovered from his sickness," the expression occurs, "I did mourn as a dove" (Isa. xxxviii. 9, 14). The same prophet represents a people realizing the burden and the evil of sin, as saying, " We mourn sore like doves" (Isa. lix. 11).

Nineveh's discovery of her pressing and imminent danger led to earnest efforts to ward it off, but in vain. Her very means of defence were to become instruments of hurt. The fire was to devour, and the sword to destroy. This is the cliief thought in chap. iii. 15-17. The fire which they kindled for making strong the brick-kiln was to be turned against them. The weapons of defence in which they trusted were to be wielded by arms stronger than theirs, for the people had become as women in their weakness (ver. 13). The destruction was not only to be great, it was to be complete also. As the canker-worm devours the vegetable, root and branch, so were they to be eaten up. Tliis reference to the caterpillar becomes suggestive of other thoughts. They were many, and so were the locusts. The enemies of Nineveh were as these insects in multitude.

" Canker-worm," Heb. yelek. The word occurs nine times, and is thus translated both in the passage before us and in Joel i. 4, ii. 25. It is rendered "caterpillar" in Ps. cv. 34; Jer. li. 14, 27. The insect referred to is one of the vegetable-eating grubs. The expression "fleeth away" (ver. 16), is not to be taken as implying that the canker- worm had wings. The reference is to the transformation of the insect, when it passes from the wingless larval state to that of the imago or fully-developed and winged insect. As the canker-worm it spreads itself abroad wherever food is to be found. It then passes into another condition and " fleeth away." As if he had said to the Ninevites, The merchants you have multiplied continue with you so long as any profit is to be made ; but when times of scarcity or of peril come they desert you. Yea, the very princes in whom you trusted and highly prized treat you thus also — " Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, wliich camp in the hedges in the cold day ; but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are" (ver. 17). The locusts were highly prized by tlie Assyrians as an article of diet, and when they saw the great grass-

VOL. II. 3 z

5-iG BIBLICAL NATUliAL SCIENCE.

hoppers {gov), they would regard them as the leaders of the locust, and trust that supplies of the food in which they delighted would soon be abundant. It is only from this point of view that we can see the full meaning of such figures as are used here. Mr. Layard gives us a good illustration. Describing the sculptured slabs, which were dis- covered panelling the walls at Konyunjik, he says of one of these which represented a procession of servants carrying supplies for a banquet : — " The attendants who followed carried clusters of ripe dates, and flat baskets of osier-work tilled with pomegranates, apples, and bunches of grapes. They raised in one hand small green boughs, to drive away the flies. Then came men bearing hares, partridges, and dried locusts fastened on rods. The locust has ever been an article of food in the East, and is still sold in the markets of many towns in Arabia. Being introduced in this bas-relief amongst the choice delicacies of a banquet, it was probably highly prized by the Assyrians. "— (" Nineveh and Babylon," p. 338.)

Thus the main idea is not, that their rulers would be slain and left on the ground as worthless, but that, though greatly esteemed by the people, tliey would prove useless in the time of their national troubles. They would desert them in the hour of danger, and for their own preservation, would prove false to the trust committed to them. This is again referred to under the figure of insect transformation. The larvae are represented as " camping in the hedges," passing from the pupa state into the fully-formed insect, waiting till the heat of the sun hardens their wings, and then taking flight, " and their place is not known where they are." Shaw, speaking from observation ("Travels," i., p. 342), says of the locust grubs, that after having lived a month in that condition devouring every thing that came in their way, " they arrived at their full growth, and threw off their nynipha-state, by casting their outward skin. To prepare themselves for this change, they clung by their hinder feet to some bush, twig, or corner of a stone- and immediately, by using an undulating motion, their heads would first break out, and then the rest of their bodies. The whole transformation was performed in seven or eight minutes, after which they lay for a small time in a torpid and seemingly in a languishing condition ; but as soon as the sun and the air had hardened their wings by drying up the moisture that remained upon them after casting their sloughs, they resumed their former voracity, with an addition both of strength and agility.

" Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce

MICAH-ZEPHANIAH.

547

than the evening wolves : and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far ; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat" (Hab. i. 8).

" Leopard," Heb. ndmci: This species is one of the most beautiful of the Feh'dce. The whole family are noted for their swiftness, their easy and graceful movements, and their fierceness when at bay. They are widely distributed. The lion {Feh's leo), the tiger (F. figris), the

Fig. 173.

.-'A.

Lt^opard (/•'etia teopard'iB).

leopard, the cheetah, and the caracal (F. caracal) are indigenous in Africa and Asia. The puma (F. concolor), and the oimce (F. onca) occur in America. The Egyptian cat {F. manicuhta), the parent of the domestic species, is met with in the north of Africa, while the wild cat {F. cattus) inhabits the northern parts of Central Europe, and is still found in the north of Scotland. The Europa2an lynx {F. Lynx) is well known.

A distinction is drawn in popular literature between the leopard and the panther, or pard {F. pardus), of Northern Africa, Imt the pard is no more than a variety of leopard. Most likely the species referred to by Habakkuk, was the hunting leopard, noted for its swiftness of spring. It is still trained in the East for the chase. " Tlicy are terrible and dreadful" like the enemies described by the prophet, and come from the region where this anhnal abounded and was much used.

548

BIBLICAL NATUKAL SCIENCE.

The complete desolation of Moab and Amraon is pictured vividly in Zeph. ii. 9 — " Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ainmon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of nettles, and salt-pits, and a perpetual desolation : the residue of my people shall spoil them, and the remnant

Fig. 174.

Cheetah or Hunting Leopard t^F.juhata).

of my people shall possess them." The presence of the nettles was to tell not only the tale of a desolate place, but also of ])laccs once inhabited ; and the reference to salt-pits pointed at once to the plain in which the destroyed cities stood.

"Nettles," Heb. M/drul, a word believed by some to be the root of cJnirl, an ill-natured and self-willed person. The species of nettles common in Britain are to be met with in Palestine likewise, growing in situations similar to those in this country, in which they specially thrive. The common nettle [Urtica dioicci) is best known. In the East other species are to be met with far more formidable than any with which we are acquainted — plants whose sting has been known to produce violent fevers.

The same word is rendered nettles in Prov. xxiv. 31 : — " I went by the field of the slothful ; and by the vineyard of the man void of under- standing ; and, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down"

MICAH-ZEPHANIAH.

549

— marks as faithfully characteristic of the field of the slothful now as in the days of Solomon. A different word is used by Isaiah (xxxiv. 13) — "Thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles (kiimuosh) and brambles in the fortresses thereof" See also under Hos. ix. H.

The effects of the judgments of God on Nineveh are seen in the con- dition of the houses when the day of visitation had come : — " Desolation shall be in the threshholds : for he shall uncover the cedar-work" (ver. 14). "Cedar-tree" (1 King iv. 33; 1 Chron. xiv. 1; and Ps. xcii.

Fig. 175.

, yfy'

Nettle (i7r( ica Dhica).

12). The word used here is arzaJi, and points to cedar-work or beams of cedar. Ezekiel uses another term for this wood. He says, " that the chests in which the clothes, embroidered work and rich apparel were placed, were made of cedar, ai-fizun. INIr. Layard, when compar- ing the palace of Sennacherib at Konyunjik with the temple of Solomon, says — " The ceiling, roof, and beams of the temple were of cedar- wood." The discoveries in the ruins at Nimroud show that the same precious Avood was used in the Assyrian edifices ; and the king of Nineveh, as

550 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

we learn from the inscriptions, employed men, precisely as Solomon had done, to cut it in Mount Lebanon. 'Fir also was employed in the Jewish buildings, and probably in those of Assyria. Even at this day the passage has much light shed on it. The cedar-work is still being uncovered. " Standing," says Mr. Layard, "one day on a distant part of the mound, I smelt the sweet smell of burning cedar. The Arab workmen, excavating in the small temple, had dug out a beam, and, the weather being cold, had at once made a fire to warm themselves. The wood was cedar ; probably one of the very beams mentioned in the inscription as brought from the forests of Lebanon bj' the king who built the edifice. After a lapse of nearly three thousand years, it had retained its original fragrance. Many other such beams were disco- vered, and the greater part of the rubbish in which the ruin was buried, consisted of charcoal of the same wood. It is likely that tlie whole superstructure, as well as the roof and the floor of the building, like those of tlie temple and palace of Solomon, were of this precious material."

"Cormorant," Heb. hdath; rather "pelican" (Ps. cii. 6).

"Bittern," Heb. htppod. The word occurs three times, Isa. xiv. 23, xxxiv. 11 — which sec — and in this passage. It has been rendered ottei\ tortoise, and owl. Even men like Bochart, Shaw, and Lowth, believe that porcupine is the true translation, and Scheuchzer pleads for the heaver {Castor filer) as the animal referred to ! Isaiah, speaking of the desolation about to come on Babylon, says — "I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water;" and of tlie desolation of Eden, he says, " The cormorant and the bittern shall possess it." Adding this passage to these, it is conclusively evident that no one of the renderings proposed is satisfactory. "Their voice," says Zephaniah, "shall sing in the windows." " Bittern" is freer from objections than any other bird which might be proposed. The common bittern (Botaurus steJIaris) belongs to the group Grallatorcs, or Waders. It is a solitary bird, and loves such haunts as would be supplied by the marslies which were found in districts of Edom, and Babylon, and Nineveh, as the fruit of the desolation sent on them. It feeds at night, and hides during the day among the long grass and rushes of its favourite habitats. See Blate VIII., fig. 3.

ZECHAUIAH-IIALACHI.

551

r

ZECHAEIAH— MALACIII.

HE prophet Zechariali most likely wa.s the Zacharias men- tioned by our Lord, Matt, xxiii. 35 ; Luke xi. 5L He began to prophesy two months after Haggai (Hag. i. 1), at a time when there was no king in Israel from whose reign to date his prophecy. Thus he sets it down as " in the second

year of Darius" — the son of Hystaspcs — who, like Cyrus, favoured

the Jews. The prophecy opens with a call to repentance, and an

earnest exhortation to the people not to be as their fathers. The

account of the visions proper begins at ch. i. 8 : — " I saw by night, and

behold a man riding upon Pig. ug.

a red horse, and he stood

among the myrtle-trees

that were in the bottom ;

and behind him were red

horses, speckled, and

white."

"Myrtle-trees," Heb.

kadds, are again named

in verses 10 and 11. A

slightly different term

(Jiddas) is used by Isaiah

(xli. 19, Iv. 13), for the

same plant. In Nehemiah

(viii. 15), the name for

the myrtle which was to

supply branches for cover- ing the booths at the

feast of tabernacles, is the

same as that in the pas- sage before us. There is

no doubt regarding the Myrtie(ifyr<«, ««•.„„»;.).

plant referred to. It is the common myrtle {mijrtus commnms), whose berries are to this day sold in the bazaars of India under the name of hadas. — {Boyle.) With the flowers they are used as spice. The bark

552 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

and roots of the myrtle are used for tanning Russian leather, to which they communicate the characteristic perfume.

The myrtle-trees are described as being "in the bottom." The reference in Nehemiah helps to identify the locality. Ezra found writ- ten in the law — "That they should publish and proclaim in all their cities, and in Jerusalem, saying. Go forth unto the mount, and fetch olive-branches, and pine-branches, and myrtle-branches, and palm- branches, and branches of thick trees, to make booths, as it is written." The mount was Olivet. " The bottom" would thus be one of the valleys at its foot. Emblems of beauty, myrtles have been celebrated by ancient and modern poets. Virgil sings of "shores rejoicing most in myrtle-groves." Milton introduces it into the picture of the blissful bower of Paradise : —

"A place Chosen by the Sov'ran planter, when he framed All things to man's delightful use ; the roof Of thickest covert was inwoven shade, Laurel and myrtle."

Esther's name (ii. 7) HadassaJi, means myrtle. The plant still flourishes luxuriantly in Palestine ; and with its dark -green leaves, graceful branches, and pale white flowers, forms one of the most beautiful trees of the country.

Few figures could have supplied such a vivid illustration of God's sympathy with, watchfulness over, and constant care, as that used in ii. 8 does — " For thus saith the Lord of hosts. After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you ; for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye." Two other words are used in the Old Testament for " apple of the eye." See under Deut. xxxii. 10, and Lament, ii. 18. The Hebrew in this passage is hdvdh^ or the hollow — an expression which indicates that the prophet had in view what might popularly be held to be the shape of the reverse of the convex form of the eye, of which the pupil is the centre. As if the Lord had said, INIy people are cared for by me as men do the apple of the eye. I take them as such to myself, and if any man afflict or persecute them, I hold all as done against myself. He identifies himself with his people. The thought which thus meets us amid the shadows of the olden dispensation is precisely the same as that which breaks forth in the light from heaven when Jesus himself spoke to one who was to be " a chosen vessel unto him" — " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" (Acts ix. 14.)

ZECIIARIAn-JIALACHI. 553

Malaclii chap. iii. opens with a prophecy of the coming of John tlie Baptist, the messenger of the Messiah. The way having been prepared for the advent of Jesus, he was to come suddenly to his temple, as the messenger of that covenant of grace which he was to reveal fully to man. The effects of his appearing are indicated in ver. 2, 3 : — " But who may abide the day of his coming ? and who shall stand when he appeareth ? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap : and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver : and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." Two aspects of trial are implied — one connected with the circumstances which were to accom- pany his coming; another with the influence of his truth on the spiritual nature of men. The dangers, difficulties, reproach, and persecutions which fell on those who acknowledged Jesus as the eternal son of God, were like the refiner's fire. They alone stood firm in whose hearts true love to him had a place, as the precious metal in the matrix in which it was hid. The holiness of his doctrine, the searching spirituality of his teacliing, the flashes of light, from truth spoken by divine living lips, into the most secret recesses of the soul, were what no hypocrite could stand. They were like the fuller's soap, removing defilement and briniring out the beauty of truth.

This reference to the refining of gold and silver implies, that much attention continued to be given by the Hebrews to difl'erent branches of metallurgy. There is proof that they had carried with them from Egypt the knowledge of the methods employed in that country for making metals into articles of luxury and of use. The expression, " he shall sit as a refiner," is exceedingly precious. As the ancient metal- lurgist sat and watched the refining process, keeping the molten mass in motion till every particle of dross was destroyed, so does Christ watch with a yearning heart and with active hand over his people in their seasons of sorrow from the devil, the world, and the flesh, until his work in them is completed and they are fitted for unimpeded ftdlow- ship with him. The sons of Levi, typical of the New Testament ministry, are specially named in this refining work. Oidy after such dealing would they be able to " offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." Levi no longer stands ministering before God. His place has been taken by those who, as " separated unto the gospel of God," like Paul style themselves "servants of Jesus Christ" (Rom. i. 1). But the experience of Levi is still continued in them. As one with Him who was made perfect through suffering, they hear Him

VOL. II. 4 A

554 DIBLU'AL NATUUAL SCIENCE.

saying; — "In the world ye shall have tribulation." It is thus with them that they may be fitted to enter into the thoughts of their living Head, and enabled to follow his example : —

" The Christian pastor, Irow'J to earth

With thankless toil, and vile esteem'd.

Still travailing in second birth

Of souls that will not he redeeni'd ;

Yet steadfast sot to do his part,

And fearing most his own vain heart."

The work of tlie fuller is several times referred to in Scripture. In 2 Kings xviii. 17, " the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the high way of the fuller's field" is mentioned. So Isaiah vii. 3; xxxvi. 2. In Mark's description of the transfiguration we are told that Christ's " raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow ; so as no fuller on earth can white them" (ix. 3). The art of the fuller Avas practised at a very early time in Egypt. " Many persons, both men and women, were engaged in cleansing cloths and stuffs of various kinds ; and the occupation of the fuller form one of the numerous subjects of the sculp- tures. It is probable they were only a subdivision of the dyers. In early times before, and even after the invention of soap, potash, nitre, and several earths were employed for cleansing cloths, as well as various herbs, many of which are still in use among the Arabs, one of which was doubtless the alkaline plant horeeth, mentioned by Jere- miah (ii. 22) and Malachi (iii. 2). Many of the Sucedas (sea-blites) and Salsolas (salt-worts), and other alkaline plants, are found in the Egyptian deserts, as well as the (jilloo, also called 'the soap plant;' and the people of Cairo and the Barbary coasts use certain woods for cleansing manufactured stuffs." "Soap," continues Wilkinson, "was not unknown to the ancients, and a small quantity has been found at Pompeii. Pliny, who mentions it as an invention of the Gauls, says it was made of fat and ashes ; and Aretseus, the physician of Cappadocia, tells us, that the Greeks borrowed their knowledge of its medicinal properties from the Romans."

The soap used by the Israelites was, no doubt, a compound of some fatty substance with alkaline matter obtained from plants. The Arabs of the present day obtain a material named horalc from the Salsolas of the desert. From one of these, the soda saltwort (Salsola soda), until a comparatively recent date, the carbonate of soda was manufactured. The article known as barilla, still employed in the manufacture of soap, is procured from this plant. ]\Iany other vegetables supply saponine—

ZECHAEIAH-MALACHI. 555

a soapy principle — and are used in different countries for the same purposes as tlie soap of commerce. These Bible references to soap are thus suggestive of the application of chemistry, on the part of the Hebrews, to the preparation of a substance of great usefulness in the industrial arts. The fuller had his soap prepared for liira by a compli- cated process, implying, on the part of many, considerable attainments in chemical knowledge. The substance known as fuller's earth is an oily clay, obtained from oolitic and chalk strata. It was wont to be much used in " fulling '' woollen fabrics, but is now greatly superseded by soap. A bright vision of Messiah's near approach flashed on the mind of the prophet (iv. 2). The world was sunk in darkness, but its Light was near. The rays of the morning w'ere already shooting above the horizon. The church was as the tree cut over by the earth, but it was soon to bud. " Behold the man whose name is the Branch ; and he shall grow up out of his place" (Zech. v. 12). Sin-burdened ones were weary ; Israel, beginning to doubt the promise of his kingdom, was cheered by new assurances : —

" He shall redeem them one by one Where'er the world-encircling sun

Shall see them meekly kneel: All that he asks on Israel's part Is only, that the captive heart

Its woe and burthen feel."

To the waiting and anxious company alive to their deep spii'itual maladies, healing and health were once more promised before the Saviour, the great Physician himself, should come in the flesh : " Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings."

556 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

ST. MATTHEW.

i)OW when Jesus was born at Bethlehem of Judea, in tlie clays of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying. Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him" (ii. 1, 2). "Wise men from the east" (inafjoi apo anatolou). The name innf)i seems to have been given to them from their being guided by the star. The class thus "'named pretended to a knowledge of the future, and were generally known as " astrologers," " stargazers," " prognosticators," " diviners," "soothsayers," &c. Isa. xliv., xlvii; Dan. i., ii., iv., v. That Daniel was classed among them (v. 11) is a proof that all thus named Avere not pretenders. As in the cases of I\Ielclusedek and Job, we once more meet here with men to whom the Lord made known his mind, who could not be said to belong to the " chosen people." Kepler's pious attempt to identify this star with a periodically occurring astronomical fact (the conjunction of two planets) is not satisfactory. A revelation had been made to the " wise men," as truly as to the shepherds in the fields around Bethlehem. Thus they followed the divinely guided luminary. Miracle properly. so called meets us at the opening of the New Testament, equally as it does in the first w^ords of the Old Testa- men.t. He who is above nature uses it for the manifestation of his own highest purposes concerning the church.

Chapter iii. 4. — The " wild honey," Gr. meli agrion, answers to the "honey of bees," Heb. devdsh, of Judges xiv. 8; the honey characteristic of Canaan as a plentiful land, Exod. iii. 8, and the honey out of the rock, of Ps. Ixxxi. 15. Attempts have been made to identify it with the manna of commerce, an exudation produced by insects (Cocci'dce) from the leaves of the tarfa-tree [Tamarix manniferd). But this is far fetched. See under 1 Sam. xiv. 24-30. The honey which formed a part of the Baptist's food was the honey of wild bees. This still abounds in Palestine, and amongst the rocks in the desert of Sinai. It is noticed by travellers as one of many present characteristics of those lands, which corroborate and shed light on the sacred Scriptures. Honey has always constituted an article of diet in lands where wild bees abound.

ST. MATTHEAV. 557

It is specially so in Arabia at the present time. It was eaten either by itself or with some other article of diet, like it the natural produce of the land. Jonathan is described by Samuel as finding honey dropping from the trees in the forest near Bethaven, and eating it. When David fled from Absalom, Shobi, Machir, and Barzillai brought "honey, butter,, sheep, and cheese of 'kine, for David, and for the people that were with him, to eat" (2 Sam. xvii. 29). Milk and honey are very frequently spoken of as eaten together. It was also used with articles prepared with olive oil. In Luke xxiv. 41, 42, when Jesus met with his disciples after his resurrection, he partook of honey and fish : — " While they believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of broiled fish, and of an honey-comb. And he took it, and did eat before them." Here honey is associated with locusts. The desert region on the west of Jordan and the Dead Sea in which John spent his time, preparatory to his public ministry in a more populous neighbourhood, was just such a place as would supply him with " locusts and wild honey."

"Locusts," Gr. acrides, Heb. arheli; see under Deut. xxviii. 38. The conceit that the locusts eaten by John were the fruit of the Khdriib tree need only be referred to ; see under Luke xv. 16. It has given the name, "St. John's bread," " Johannisbrod " of the Germans, to the fruit of the Ceratonia sih'qua, the tree whose husks are named in the parable of the prodigal son. The locusts which formed part of the food of the second Elijah were the insects properly so named — the acrides of the Greek naturalists. Even at the present time they are eaten by the dwellers in the Arabian Desert. At an earlier period in the history of eastern nations they appear to have been much more common, as an article of diet, than they now are — see under Nah. iii. 15-17. They were named in the Mosaic arrangements regarding food as " flying creeping things" which might be eaten (Levit. xi. 21, 22).

Classical students are familiar with the stories told by ancient writers of the Acridophagi or locust-eaters, an Ethiopian tribe said to have lived almost entirely on this insect ; thereby, it was alleged, shortening their lives, and all becoming afflicted with that most loathsome of all diseases, pldldriasis — the malady which cut off the two Herods. Burck- hardt says : — " All the Bedawin of Arabia, and the inhabitants of towns in Nejd and Hedjaz, are accustomed to eat locusts." " I have seen," says another, " at Medina and Tayf locust shops, where these animals were sold by measure." " When sprinkled with salt," says Shaw, " and fried, they are not unlike in taste to our fresh water cray-fish."

558 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

The influence of the religious revival wliich came Avilh the ministry of John, spread to classes which might have been held little likely to come under it. Leading Pharisees and Sadducees even " came to his baptism." These he addressed in such forcible and uncompromising words as — " 0 generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" Their influence oil others was like the poison of the viper {eclddna) on those bitten by it. In the latter case, the poison speedily corrupted the blood and hastened on death ; in the former case, the hypocrisy and formalism of the Pharisee, and the open atheism of the Sadducec, shed their baneful influences into the moral nature of others, and led them away from the knowledge of the living and the true God. John met both in a spirit which showed he had not much reliance on tin ir show of zeal. They were at once put to the test : — " Bring forth fruits meet for repentance." Nothing short of this would do, and they had little time. They were as the tree which had stood for ages, planted in the old soil of gracious promises which they had not appropriated, and watered by privileges which had long ceased to be channels of spiritual life and blessing. But the day was at hand when all this would be violently brought to an end : — " And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees.: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire" (ver. 10). They are then pointed to Jesus, who had come regarding Israel as the harvest gathered from among the nations. The wheat and the chaff were still mixed up, but he was to separate them : — " Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire" (ver. 12). While the Baptist's voice thus rung in the ears of men, as he ministered at Bethabara on the east of the Jordan (John i. 28), Jesus was on his way from Galilee to meet him : — " Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto Jo'hn, to be baptized of him. But John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me ? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him. And Jesus, when he was bap- tized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him : And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (ver. 13-17).

" Dove," Heb. yonah, Gr. peristera — see under Levit. i. 14 ; Ps. Iv. G ; Song ii. 14 ; Nah. ii. 7. The dove is introduced here as an emblem

ST. MATTHEW. 559

of tlie Holy Ghost. The same transaction is referred to by the otiier tln-ee evangelists. The dove was early taken as a symbol. In Levi- ticus it is represented as a type of the Messiah, in some of the most precious aspects of his work as our substitute. It has become more or less linked up with all Christian poetry and art, as the emblem of the Spirit, of meekness, of gentleness, and of quiet submission. On some of the old Gothic baptismal fonts it is inti oduccd with the salamander, as the signs of the truth brought out in verse 12 — " He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire."

Chapter iv. 18. — "Sea of Galilee," named also "Lake of Gennesaret," and " Sea of Tiberias." " The first full view of it," says Dr. Stanley, " as it is approached by the regular road, is on the descent through the hills whose summits from the boundary of the plain of Hattin, and which on the other side slope abruptly down to the lake itself, as it lies a thousand feet below the level of the country. It is a monument, if any, when recollections of the past disarm any attempts to criticise the details of the actual scene. Yet whether it be tame and poor, as some travellers say, or eminently beautiful, as others, there is no doubt that it has a character of its own which shall here be, if possible, described. It is about thirteen miles long, and in its broadest parts six miles wide, that is, about the same length as our own Windermere, but of a con- siderably greater breadth. In the clearness of the eastern atmosphere, it looks much smaller than it is. From no point on the western side can it be seen completely from end to end ; the promontorj^ under which Tiberias stands cutting off the southern, as the promontory over the plain of Gennesaret the northern extremity ; so that the form which it presents is generally that of an oval. But that which makes it unlike any of our English lakes is the deep depression, which gives it something of the strange, unnatural character that belongs in a still greater degree to the Dead Sea, and in some degree to all lakes of volcanic origin, such as those of Alba, Nemi, and Avernus. The hills on the eastern side partake of the horizontal outline which belongs to the whole eastern barrier of the Jordan valley. But the western mountains, especially those at the northern end, are varied in form, the long curve of Tabor, with the horned platform of Plattin, and with the jagged summits of Safed, standing out from the otVshoots of Lebanon. Their appearance, even in the view from the west, where alone they are usually seen, presents a complication of striking features such as is hardly elsewhere visible in Palestine ; and this must be still more the case, in the aspect which they present to a spectator on the opposite

5G0 niRUCAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

eastern sliore, now for the most part entirely unfrequented. This plain is ' the land of Gennesarct,' identified by its agreement with the graphic though somewhat exaggerated description which Josephus gives of ' the country of Gennesar.' No less than four springs pour forth their almost full-grown rivers through the plain ; the richness of the soil displays itself in magnificent corn fields ; whilst along the shore rises a thick jungle of thorn and oleander, abounding in birds of brilliant colours and various forms. The whole impression even now recalls the image of the valley of the Nile ; and thus the Jews of old were not unnaturally led, in those days of fanciful similitudes, to look on one of these fertilizing streams as a vein of the Nile, abounding even in the same fish, and producing the same effects on its banks. This ' paradise' or ' garden' of Northern Palestine (so we may best interpret the mean- ing of its name) is doubtless a close likeness of what the ' vale of Siddim' was, where stood the five cities when Lot saw that it was 'well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt.'

" This contrast with the present aspect of its sister lake on the south, gives to the natural features of the sea of Galilee a peculiar interest. If the southern lake is the Sea of Death, the northern is emphatically the Sea of Life. And it is still by nature what it was at the time ot the Christian era by art also. With that turn for magnificent buildings which so distinguished his fiamily, and which perhaps had been encouraged in himself by the sight of the splendid Roman villas along the shores of the Lucrine lake, where most of his own early life had been spent, the younger Herod and his brother Philip built two stately cities, called after the names of the Emperor Tiberius and the Princess Julia, daughter of Augustus. The first, ' Tiberias,' was near the warm spring at the southern extremity; the second, 'Julias,' by the entrance of the Jordan at the northern extremity ; and these, with the surround- ing edifices, must have given to the lake the beauty which we are accustomed to consider as peculiar to the shores of Como and England. But the chief centre of activity was to be found in the little plain just described, crowded with towns and villages. Nor was the life confined to the land. The lake, probably from the numerous streams, including the Jordan itself, which discharge their produce into its waters, abounds in fish of all kinds, which there increase and multiply', as certainly as in the Salt Sea they are ca^t up dead upon the shore."

" Ye are the salt of the earth : but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted ? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to

ST. MATTHEW. 5G1

be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick ; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (v. 13-16). When "his disciples came unto him he taught them." The listeners to whom were specially spoken the words of this discourse (v.-vii.) were those whom he had chosen as his personal friends and scholars. " In him was life ; and the life was the light of men" (John i. 4). This is illustrated here by the figures " salt of the earth," and " light of the world." The " life " was, as received from him, to be like the penetrating and conservative power of common salt {clduride of sodium), as economically used for preserving animal matter. His spirit in them was to leaven Avith a living 2)ower their whole moral nature, in order to their usefulness in influencing others. Withdraw from salt its distinctive chemical element, and it becomes worthless — " it is cast out and trodden under foot of men." Let the disciple cease to remember that life in Christ is given to him, that he might become a centre of living and inoculative power to otliers, and he ceases to be useful — he falls short of the high end of his being, the glory of God.

The sun is the light of the material world, and the church is to be the light of the moral world. Christ as the Sun of righteousness, promised to the fathers, is her light. She is to show the righteousness and grace of the Father, but this can only be done by witness-bearing. Thus the call to works of faith and labours of love. God has committed the manifestation of his name to his people. He has chosen that by them only is the world to be warned, and seeking souls attracted to the lavish riches of grace in him. " Let then your light shine before men." Thus only will you come to glorify your Father who is in heaven. See under Luke xi. xii.

The Baptist's faithful rebuke of sin had brought him into difficulties. The fame of his preaching had reached the ears of royalty. Even Herod Autipas had listened to him gladly. And so long as the stem ministry of the preacher of righteousness did not cross the path of the king's lusts, he had been willing to live for a season as if truly influenced for good by the Baptist's exhortations. In lawless disregard of the law of God and the claims of social morality, Herod Autipas had taken to himself the wife of his brother Philip, and John had denounced this conduct as sinful. In consequence he was cast into prison. The place

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562 mULICAL XATUKAL SCIENCE.

of liis imprisonment was the lonely custle of Machairas, situated in a wild region on the eastern shores of the Dead Sea. Thence he sent two of his disciples to Christ saying, " Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?" (xi. 3.) In answer Jesus sends them back with the words in verses 5 and G.

The arrival and departure of the messengers from John, gave the Saviour the opportunity of opening up to the multitudes the character and work of the Baptist. He began to say unto them concerning John, " What went ye out into the wildei-ness to see? a reed shaken with the wind?" When John entered on his public ministry he had come up from the desert region on the west of the Dead Sea, and had chosen a place more suitable for his work, as nearer Jenisalcm, tlie great centre of population and of interest. In the wilderness, or thinly peopled pastoral district in the plain of the Jordan, he entered on his great work of summoning the people to prepare for the coming IMessiah. He was in the very locality where the people woidd see reeds growing luxuriantly, even as they still grow there, and shaken to and fro by the wind. Thus, the opening words of our Lord would recall to many the scenes amidst which they had first listened to the grand and stirring appeals and exhortations of him who was more than a prophet.

The force of the figure " a reed shaken with the wind," is thus to be learned from the context. It does not point only to a weather- beaten man inured to hardships. This may indeed be included in it, if set in contrast with the next query, " What went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment?" But the meaning is to be gathered from the first impressions which the question of John's dis- ciples must have had on the people, and even on the immediate disciples of Christ themselves. Had John, they might ask, begun to waver in his confidence in the Messiahship of Jesus ? The Lord answers these thoughts. He says — When ye went out to the wilderness of Jordan to see John, you did not go to behold a man who was not sure of his own relation to me, and of my relation to the kingdom of God. You did not listen to one whose convictions as to my eternal Sonship were wavering and fickle, like the reeds which grow on the water's edge and are shaken by every breeze which blows. Do not conclude that John's message to me implies the least doubt or uncertainty, on his part, as to who I am and what are my claims. His testimony would now, were he to speak to you from the gloomy walls of Machajrus, be the same as when he cried, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."

" Reed," Heb. Icaneli^ Gr. halamos, is the common reed (Arundo donax) of botanists, one of the grasses (Grcnm'nacece), which still flourislies on the banks of the Jordan. See under Exod. ii. 3; 1 Kings xiv. 15 ; 2 Kings xviii. 21 ; Job xxxi. 21 ; Isa. xix. G, 7.

"As long," says Calvin, "as the church continues on the earth, there shall be in it bad men and hypocrites mixed with the good and sincere, tliat the people of God may arm themselves with patience, and still retain, amidst tlie troubles to which they are subjected, a firm f;iith in God." This is substantially the train of thought in this parable (xiii. 24-34). The church is represented as set up in the world as a visible institution, containing within it a mixture of good and bad. Tlic former alone constitute the church in the eye of God, but man, who cannot judge the heart, must make profession and not true spiritual life his standard of membership, in all cases in which profession is not contra- dicted by immoral conduct. These two classes are to continue together to the end of time, when a complete and eternal separation will be made by the Head of the church himself But the association of the insincere Avith the truly good does not change their nature. The difference between them continues as distinctly marked as in the difference between wheat and tares. Any attempt to identify the plant translated " tares" must keep this fact in view.

Good seed was sown (ver. 24). Those to whom the care of the field was intrusted fell into a state of lukewarmness and carelessness as to its interests, and thus while they slept, the enemy of the chief sower " came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way " (ver. 25). But there is a persistent energy in all error, because it is associated as really with the living head of sin, as truth is with the person of the True One. The germinating power in the tare is as strong as that in the wheat. This force, in a short time, was awakened in both. " AMien the blade (of the wheat) was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also" (ver. 2G). Struck and alarmed by the presence in the field of what they never had counted on, the servants hasten to the householder, siiying, " Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?" (ver. 27.) The grace of the chief sower is to be noted here. The servants were to blame for their sleepiness and sloth, but he does not upbraid them Avith the sins of the past. They were alive now, and zealous for his honour and for the purity of his house. This satisfied him. " I will no more remember thy sins." In their zeal they wish to make speedy ^vork— "Wilt thou that we go and pull them up?" (ver. 28.) He

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BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

holds them back from the dangerous position: — "Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them " (ver. 29). This answer does not touch the question of discipline in the church of Christ. Full provision and clearly defined rules are laid down for this Fig. 177. in other portions of Scripture. But it does touch

the hazardous attempts which men sometimes make to separate between the precious and the vile, taking for their rule their own estimate of what must characterize a true Christian. When the Lord lays an arrest on such forms of judging, he gives prominence to that charity which " bcareth all things, believetli all things, hopcth all things, endureth all things."

" Tares," Greek, zizania. The points in the narrative, specially helpful to the identification of the tare, are its growth contemporaneously with the wheat — ripening as it ripened — its close resemblance to the wheat up to the time when the ear was developed, its noxious character, and our knowledge of a corresponding condition in the crops of Syria at the present day. The corn-cockle {Agrostemma cjitliago) has been pro- posed as the plant named here, but if all regard to the geographical distribution of plants, and to tlie manifest requirements of the parable are to , ^ ^ be disregarded, it were fiir better to take poppies

licirrtcd narncl (.Mium IrmHlf^lam) {PapttVeV rllOiUs)

" That flash and ghmce with their scarlet sheeu, The bending ears of the wheat between."

The beautiful corn-cockle with its "flow'rets in the sunlight shining," is not, unhappily for this guess, a native of Palestine. Couch-grass [Tritkum rcpens) has also been named as a plant which may have been in the mind of our Lord in this parable. This is indeed a pest to the farmer; but it would have been easily known by the servants, long before the stem was fully developed. Besides, its grains arc not hurtful like those of the tare named here. Neither could the true tare, or vetch [vicia sativa), have been the plant sown by the enemy. The bearded darnel (fig. 177) is the oulj' grass which answers all the requirements of the text. It bears much resemblance to Avheat. The

ST. MATTHEW. 505

time required for its full development is also the same. Its seeds tare liiglily injurious when eaten ; and it occurs in Palestine in circum- stances precisely similar to those described in the parable. The writer had presented to him lately darnel grains picked from Syrian wheat imported into Liverpool. Some of them were eaten to try their effects, and they produced great dizziness. This species is the only one of the family which is poisonous. Verses 31, 32 — see under Luke xiii. 19.

Tlie all-renewing power of the truth is set forth (ver. 33) under the figure of leaven hid in meal. Little in its beginnings, truth received gradually influences the whole spiritual nature of man. It assimilates to itself every desire and affection, as the leaven does the dough in which it is hid.

Even as the all-renewing influence of truth lies out of view of man, so the glory of the kingdom of Christ is internal and hidden. It is as a treasure hid in a field (ver. 41). There is no question as to the reality of the treasure. It has been in the world since man needed it, but comparatively few have thought of seeking for it. It has been like treasure-trove under ruins ; like gold hid in a most unpromising an

unattractive-looking matrix. The thought of its reality, and the impression that it is worth obtaining, have led some to seek for it. When sought, it is always sure to be found, and when found it brings great gladness to the soul. This is all brought out here in a very touching wa3^ The finder hides it. Its preciousness seems such to him, that at first he cannot think of making any man partaker of his joy. True, he lives to find that his own joy becomes intensified by others being brought to share in it ; but this is not his first experience. He is willing to give up everything, that he might have the assurance of having found Christ, and being found in him. The very field in which the treasure was discovered becomes precious in his sight. He becomes devoted to the cause of Christ in the world, in connection with the purity and usefulness of the church. Verses 45, 46 — see under Rev. xxi. 21.

" They make broad their phylacteries " (xxiii. 5). This expression may be noticed because of the material of which some of the phylac- teries were made. The frontlets (Exod. xiii. 16; Deut. vi. 8) consisted of strips of parchment prepared from cows' hide, on which were written four passages of Scripture (Exod. xiii. 2-10, 11-17; Deut. vi. 4-9, 13-22). These were then put in a thin case of calf-skin, which was joined to soft leather of another kind, to which a riband was attached, for binding the frontlet round the head. Other forms were suited for

5GG BIBLICAL NATUKAL SCIENCE.

the left arm, others again for the door posts (Plate XL., fig. 2). The Jewish name for these is Tcphilliii.

When our Lord appeared on the earth lie found two standards of moral conduct, and two systems for the regulation of the religious life of the people, acknowledged among the Jews. The law of God specially regarded as contained in tlie five books of Moses contained one standard, and one system — the traditions of the Elders ; the rules of their noted Eabbins formed another. Here and elsewhere the Saviour often contrasts the two. AVhile the Scribes and Pharisees would have shrunk from the open expression of a preference for that system of ceremonies and code of moral conduct which had been engrafted on the law, as above the precepts of Moses, they had virtually come into this position. The highly artificial, arbitrary, and in many cases, super- stitious observances imposed on them by man, had almost universally usurped the place of the commandments of God. The inevitable fruit had soon appeared. The heart was eaten out of the religious life of the people, and their religious observances were little else than the covering by which hypocrisy sought to hide the ruling lust and unsub- dued sin which filled the soul. The eye of Jesus looked through all this. Thus the terrible words which, as in this passage, fell from his lips, whenever he came openly in contact with these leaders of the people.

The form which this spirit had assumed in regard to paying tithes is specially referred to in verse 23. " The weightier matters of the law" are contrasted with aspects of giving of substance for religious purposes, which might have an important meaning, if they were the fruits of a pious man's sense that he owed all he had unto God. But they were worse than mockery of God when put in the place of "judgment, mercy, and faith." To this, however, their rabbinical rules tended; and a multitude of religious duties, a scrupulous attention to little acts of a religious kind, but which did not touch their consciences at all, were held to compensate for a habitual neglect of the personal piety and spiritual obedience which should have characterized them. There is nothing in the law of Moses which implies that it was a duty to pay tithes of such articles as are here mentioned. But as our Lord would not interfere with anything through which a religious man might show his gratitude to God, he does not condemn, but rather favours, the act — "These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the others undone."

" Mint," Gr. hedihsmon. See under Luke xi. 42. "Anise," amtlion, is not to be confounded with the " star aniseed" of commerce. Star- anise is the seed of a Chinese plant, the Illidum {I. anisatum) which

Fig. 17B.

is imported into Europe from China, and is used in medicine as a stimulant. In the south of Europe it is employed as a condiment, and an oil distilled from it is used in the manufacture of the liqueur Anisette de Bordeaux. The anise tithed by the Jews is the lierb "dill" (Anethum graveolens or common dill), one of the umbel- liferous fiiraily of plants {Umhelliferce) which is both cultivated and found growing wdld in Pales- tine, Egypt, &c. Pliny mentions it as " serving as well for seasoning all kinds of food as for mak- ing sauces." It is used in medicine also.

The British plant which is likest the anise of Matthew is the well known species Anethum foemcidum, or common fennel, frequent by the sea-side, associated with Am.c (,(»«»,™ j™v,!e,„).

the sea-lavender, thrift, and sandworts. In olden times it was much cultivated in England, and boiled witli fish. It is mentioned by Parkinson (1G29) among the "divers physical herbes, fit to be planted in gardens to serve for the especial use of a familie." Many supersti- tious notions have gathered round this British anethum. Some of these are referred to by the poet: —

'' Above the lowly plant it towers, The Fennel with its yellow flowers ; And in an earlier age than ours W'as gifted with the wondrous powers

Lost vision to restore. It gave new strength and fearless mouj, And gladiators fierce and rude Mingled it with their daily food ; And he who battled and subdued,

The wreath of Fennel wore."

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" Cummin," Heb. kaman, Gr. Jalmmon, is also named by our Lord as tithed by the later Jews. " Tithing of corn is of tlic law," some were wont to say, " and tithing of garden herbs was of the rabbins." Cummin has already been noticed under Isaiah xxviii. 25 — which see.

" Gnat," Gr. hvnOps — see under Isa. vii. 18. It has been proposed to render the expression here " strain out." But the alleged difficulty is not thus got quit of. All intended by the figure is, You exaggerate small and inditferent matters as if great princij^lcs w^ere involved, while you habitually neglect those broad precepts about which there cannot be a mistake. In your conduct you are scrupulous in things which lead to no true self-denial, but which in their performance are self- pleasing, while the mighty truths of God are neglected or dishonoured. " Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes ; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify ; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city : that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you. All these things shall come upon this genera- tion. 0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stoncst them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you. Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord" (ver. 34-39). What comment on these words could match that of Bunyan? He leads Christiana into the Interpreter's house, that she may have unfolded to her under one figure and another that "God has made nothing in vain. Then they seemed all to be glad ; but the water stood in their eyes : yet they looked upon one another, and also bowed before the Interpreter,

"He had them then into another room, where was a hen and chickens, and bid them observe a while. So one of the chickens went to the trough to drink, and every time she drank she lifted up licr head and her eyes towards heaven. See, said he, what this little chick doeth, and learn of her to acknowledge whence your mercies come, by receiving them with looking up. Yet again, said he, observe and look ; so they gave heed, and perceived that the hen did walk in a four-fold method towards her chickens. L She had a common call, and that she had all the day long. 2. She had a special call, and that she had but some-, times. 3. She had a brooding note. And 4. She had an outcrjj.

•ST. MATTHEW. 5G9

" Now, said he, compare this here to your king, and those cliickens to Ids obedient ones. For, answerable to her, himself has his methods, which he walketh in towards his people : by his common call he gives nothing ; by his special call he always has something to give : he has also a Irooding voice for them that are under his wing ; and he has an outcry, to give the alarm when he seeth the enemy come. I choose, my darlings, to lead you into the room where such things are, because you are women, and they are easy for you."

" And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli! Eli! lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me ? Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said. This man calleth for Elias. And straightway one of them ran, and took a sponge, and tilled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. The rest said. Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him" (xxvii. 46-49). Our Lord had already refused the myrrhed wine (ver. 34 ; see under Mark xv. 23) ; but the vinegar which was oftcred him on the sponge seems to have been received. Indeed, John distinctly says : — " When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished : and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost." With reference to the spiced or medicated wine, whicli is fully examined under Mark xv. 23, the evangelist ]\Iatthew mentions a circumstance unnoticed by the other evangelists. He says : — " They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall : and lohen he had tasted thereof, he loould not drmk." He was not willing that the least thing should be done by him to hasten his own death. The whole guilt of that deed must rest on man, and, accordingly, when the sour wine, which constituted a daily beverage of the people, was offered to him, it was at once received. It was wine of this kind which was used in the harvest-field of Bethlehem by the reapers of Boaz (Ruth ii. 14), and which constituted part of the rations of the Roman soldiers. See under Prov. x. 2G, for references to the nature and kind of vinegar used in Old Testament times.

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570 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

ST. MARK.

HE voice of -one crying in the wilderness" (i. 3). I\Iattlicw

names the scene of John's first ministry, " the wilderness

of Judea" (iii. 1). The locality referred to embraced the

whole desert region lying on the immediate west of the

Dead Sea, and reaching to the north the valley of the

John fulfilled his ministry chiefly in the upper part

of this wide wild tract.

- " Verse 13 " — see under Jonah iv. 11.

/ " Capernaum " (ver. 21) lay on the north-western shore of the Sea of Galilee. Dr. Robinson believes it to be represented by the mound now known by the name Khau-Minyeli. Jesus and his disciples appear to have entered it after they were forced to retire from Nazareth. It was frequently Christ's residence afterwards, and came to be called "his own city" (Matt. ix. 1).

" No man also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment ; else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse. And no man putteth new wine into old bottles ; else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred : but new wine must be put into new bottles " (ii. 21, 22). Christ's mission was not to mend what had served its day and become useless. This would have been like putting unfulled or undressed cloth into an old garment. Such material would expand under the influence of heat, or it would contract under that of moisture, and the rent would be made worse. Or like new wine put into the old leathern goat-skin bottles, which had been distended to the utmost, when the process of fermentation began in the new wine, the increase of bulk would burst the bottles. Christ came to renew the whole system of religious worship. Jewish types and ceremonies could not contain the grand thoughts which he brought out among men. He made all things new.

The kingdom of God in the world and in the heart of man is likened to the growth of the wheat seed (iv. 26-29). The germinating power begins unobserved. No man knows " the new name saving he that receiveth it" (Rev. ii. 17). But grace is given in order to its mani-

ST. MARK. 571

festatioH. Tlie seed germinates. One form of growth strikes down- wards, another rises into the light of day. There is first the blade, then the ear, after tliat tlie full corn in the ear.

Jesus had left the neighbourhood of the Sea of Galilee, and had gone to the borders of Tyre and Sidon — Phoenician territory. Here the circumstance noticed in chap. vii. 24-30 occurred. The reference to the dogs (ver. 28) gives us a glimpse into the household life of these Gentiles. The dogs among them were associated with the people as domesticated animals. Our Lord took advantage of this in .order to bring out the faith of the Syro-Phoenician woman. " It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the do2:s." "Dojxs," literally "little dogs." The word hpiarion^ "little dog," is used as a familiar diminutive, just as tliygater, "daughter," becomes ihygatrion, "dear little daughter." Such incidents shed much light on the perfect humanity of Christ.

" And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out : it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell-fire ; where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Salt is good : but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it ? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another" (ix. 47-50). His hearers had been warned against offending any who believe in him. He now asks them to regard themselves as individuals in danger of allowing sinful tendencies to mar their usefulness, and blight their hopes as children of God. Should these tendencies seem dear to them, as hand, or foot, or eye, they must be destroyed. The exhortation is backed by the terrific threatening — "Hell, the fire that never shall be quenched; where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." "Hell," Gehenna, or the valley of Hinnom, lying on the south of Jerusalem, noted as a place of idolatrous worship, where human sacrifices were offered to Moloch. This supplied the imagery here, under which the threatening of everlasting punishment is brought out. The awful idea is that of eternal dissolution — ever dying, never dead. The reference to the "salting with fire " comes here to assume terrible force. As salt pre- serves that on which it is rubbed, the fire shall not only consume, but shall act as salt in still keeping endlessly the victim under the great anguish — the deathless worm. The warning is followed up Avith another exhortation — " Have salt in yourselves." " Salt is good." It is the figure in this expression for true moral worth. " Have this"

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

— let it be yours, as penetrating your whole being and preserving you blameless till the day of Christ. Show that you have it by being at "peace one with another."

" And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry : and seeing a fig-tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find anything thereon : and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves ; for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it. No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it. And in the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig-tree dried up from the roots. And Peter, calling to remembrance, saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig-tree which thou cursedst is withered away. And Jesus answering, saith unto them, Have faith in God " (xi. 12-1-4, 20-22). Cumbered as this passage has been w^ith conflicting attempts to explain it, the difficulty ceases to be formidable if we bear in mind, first, that the tree was taken by cur Lord in order to bring out, under a symbol, certain great aspects of truth ; second, that, carrying out the symbolic idea, he dealt with the tree as if it were a moral agent ; and third, that the narrative itself contains an intimation of the figurative use made of the tree — " the time of figs was not yet." This indeed is the key to tlie passage. The time of figs is in July. The earliest are not found sooner than about the middle of June, in any abundance. Prior to that date, however, some "first ripe figs" may be gathered. When the foliage is fully developed, as in this case, edible figs may be expected. The tree thus put forth a show of fruitfulness. It was dealt with as a pretender, in order that the disciples might infer, that God would deal with those who profess to have spiritual experience, of which they are destitute, in the same way. Profession is not enough : " Have faith in God."

" Alabaster " (xiv. 3) is a well known marble-like mineral, used in inferior statuary, but mainly for vases, boxes, and similar articles. It abounds chiefly in tertiary strata. There are two kinds — one whose chief constituent is sulphate of lime, and another in which carbonate of lime prevails.

In noticing the various uses of myrrh, under Psalm xlv. 8, the twenty- third verse of this chapter was referred to as illustrative of the employ- ment of myrrh, administered in the form of a tincture, to deaden pain. Here as in other passages, with the exception of Gen. sxxvii. 25, xliii. 11, the myrrh spoken of was the produce, by exudation, of the Balsa- madendron myrrJia, or its variety the B. Jcataf, a shrub belonging to the natural order Amyridacece or myrrh family. The words " wine

ST. MAKK. 573

mingled -with myrrh" (xv. 23), sliould have been " myrrhed wine" {esmyrnismenon oinori). This brings out the strength of the original expression by suggesting, that the bitter flavour of the spice predomi- nated in the draught, ^^'ine thus medicated was given to criminals before their execution, with the merciful motive, no doubt, of rendering them less sensible of pain. It was supposed to act in a similar way to a strong dose of laudanum. A little myrrh would have had a contrary effect. It would have acted as a stinudaut and tonic, giving energy to all the vital organs, and thus making the subject more acutely alive to bodily pain. Accordingly the wine was "myrrlied" — myrrh was the strongest element in the draught. This act of mercy could not be regarded as any relenting, or even as the springing up of compassion in the heart of the murderers of the Prince of Life, because it was a mere thing of custom, and showed that to the very last the Jews nationally looked on him as a common criminal. Thus the offer of the myrrhed wine came to be the literal fulfilment of the prophecy in Ps. Ixix. 20, 21. The practice was one of long standing. It is referred to in "the pro- phecy which King Lemuel's mother taught hini" (Prov. xxvi. 6).

I have shown, by a comparison of passages under Jeremiah viii. 14, that the writers of Scripture use the different words translated "gall" for " bitter things" in general, except in such cases as those in which the scope of the context clearly demands a specific application. Matthew's account of the transactions on the cross bears, that they gave Jesus "vinegar to drink mingled with gall" (xxvii. 34). This has been explained under Matt, xxvii. 48. Mark, like the other evangelists, uses the term "vinegar" in the second offer of drink made to him (ver. 36). The Greek oxos was most frequently used in the sense of the Latin posca, the sour wine used by the Roman soldiers, much in the same way as the lowest class of French common red wine ( Vin ordin- aire) is used by the peasants in wine-growing countries. The Hebrew equivalent of both was the hlioinetz^ or vinegar, mentioned in Numb. vi. 2, under which the various kinds of vinegar in use in Bible times are referred to and illustrated.

There is thus no difference between the accounts of Mark and Matthew, when the former says, that " they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh," and the latter, that " they gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall." The gall included in it the myrrh, and the wine was used as expressing the juice of the grape in general, one form of which was the oxos or sour wine named by iMatthew aud by John (xix. 29).

574

ninLlCAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

ST. LUKE.

HE pcoi)le witli whom onr Lord and Iiis disciples were called to associate, liail, very generally, come to put outward observances in the place of inward lite. They had degraded religion from its spirituality, and practised its requirements as so many external rites, which had no influence either on the state of their hearts or on their hearing towards their neighbours. "Want of charity in judging others was the fruit of an exaggerated opinion of themselves. They were outwardly religious, but had wholly forgotten that the test of religious acts is to be found in the motives from which they spring. The mistake Avas fatal. It led them to neglect the state of the heart, and thus while they did much which seemed for God, they retained sin itself unchecked and unsubdued. These considerations show the point of our Lord's words. He says to them, Ye are not in circumstances to pass a judgment on your neighbour's conduct, if you have not previously formed a right estimate of your own. You are not equal to good acts if your hearts are still evil — your motives still only those of sin. As well might the blind talk of seeing, as you may of being able to judge one another ; and as well might men look for the nutritious fig on the thorn bush, or the luscious grape on the bramble, as I may for pious, holy, upright lives from you, when God's love aud grace do "not influence your hearts. Every thing depends on the state of the heart. " For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good ; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil : for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh" (vi. 44, 45).

The " bramble," Gr. latos, is the —

" Wild bramble of the brake,"

the common bramble, Buhus fruiicosics of botanists, the plant which yields the well known " blackben'ies " of British hedgerows. It gives its name, Ruhus, to a genus of plants belonging to the natural order

TITLE OF THE CROSS.— Johh xta. 19, 20.

ni-Zee-Z<rfn' /-rrl^ ,eC/ftr>.' A/:>/.i.

/'^<'/l//r''f^.

JEWISH PHYLACTERIES.— Matt. nlii. 6.

THE SNARE OF THE FOWLER.-PS. ici. 3.

./ n' ioirn- . jntfyr.

aiLLlAU y*CKENllt 0 L»SCO*- tOl N BU«CW tOWDOU 1 •«£• > ''I-

ST. LUKE 575

Rosacea:, or rose family. With the raspberry {It. idceus) it is met with in most parts of Britain. It is common in Palestine also.

"And why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like : he is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock ; and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it ; for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that, without a foundation, built an house upon the earth ; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and imme- diately it fell; and the ruin of that house w'as great" (ver. 46-49). " The image with which, both in St. Matthew and St. Luke, the discourse concludes, is one familiar to all eastern and southern climates — a torrent, suddenly formed by the mountain rains, and sweeping away all before it in its descent through what a few minutes before had been a dry channel. Yet it may be observed that it is an image far more natural in Galilee than Jordan ; whether we take the perennial streams wliich run through the plains of Genncsareth, or the torrent streams of the Kishou and the Belus, which on the west run through the plain of Esdraelon to the Mediterranean. As applied to them, this likeness has far more aptitude than if derived from the scanty and rare flooding of the Kcdron and the wadys of the south. The sudden inundation of the Kishon is a phenomenon already historical from the Old Testament; and if we are to press the allusion to the "sand," on which was built "the house that fell," then there is no other locality in Palestine to which we can look, except the long sandy strip of land which bounds the eastern plain of Acre, and through which the Kishon flows into the sea." — {Stanleu)

" And when much people were gathered together, and were come to him out of every city, he spake by a parable : A sower went out to sow his seed : and as he sowed, some fell by the way-side ; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock ; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns ; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it. And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundred-fold. And when he had said these things, he cried. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear" (viii. 4-8). The imagery of the parables was borrowed from the scenes amidst which they were spoken. The details of this one must have often come under the notice of his hearers. So vivid are they,

576 BIBLICAL NATUUAL SCIESCE.

that the reader feels at once they must have been before the speaker. The scope of the parable is the dependence of the efficacy of the word on the spiritual condition of the hearers. It is the same word which meets the different classes of hearers. On some of these it has no effect. Sown on the highway, the seed was trampled down by the hoofs of beasts, and the tread of human feet, while the birds devoured every vestige of it. Men sunk in sin, hardened in careless sensualism, listen unmoved to the most earaest appeals through the word of God. On others the word seems at once to fall with power. Seed dropped in a thin layer of soil spread over an underlying rock quickly germin- ates in early spring. Occasional showers still fall on it, dews by night are formed on the new-sprung blades, and the rapid radiation communicates a strong impulse. But the rain ceases, and the scorch- ing summer sun beams down on it. The underlying rock itself gets heated. The roots become sapless, the blades fall prostrate. The whole is withered up. Tlius the influence of the word on im- passioned, emotional, and sentimental dispositions. Love -appeals soften, pictures of a sorrow-stricken Saviour stir emotion to its very heart, and soon the life for a season assumes all the evidences of a thorough change. But the hard heart of worldliness has not been broken, self has not been crucified, and as impressions lose their fresh- ness these hearers return again to the service of the devil, the world, and the flesh. Some of the seed fell among thorns, which sprang up with it and choked it. The effect was similar to what might be seen any spring-time. Cast wheat seed on ground where our common furze is deeply rooted, and where its young shoots are in full vigorous growth, and it would be choked. Respect for the word on the part of those who are still devoted to the world — its cares, its pleasures, its riches — saves them not from eternal shame at last. They cannot serve two masters. The fruits of the Spirit and the fruits of sin cannot grow equally together in any heart. The latter, when cherished, always overmaster the former. That which fell on good ground sprang up, and bare fruit an hundred-fold. This our Lord explains of those who "have honest and good hearts" (ver. 15). It was no part of his design to explain at the time the source of the goodness and honesty. We are less teachable than his hearers on this occasion, if we raise here the question of man's natural ability, or of his inability, to make his own the spiritual gifts oSl-red to him. The question is wholly foreign to the parable.

Jesus had just taught them what to pray for, and how to pray. He

ST. LLKli. 577

then goes on to assure tbem that they will be heard. "And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth ; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. If a son sliall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone ? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent ? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion ? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more sliall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" (xi. 10-13.) To demand a great similarity between the things set in such strong contrast here, is to miss the main point in our Lord's teaching. There is no likeness between bread and a stone. If he ask bread, will you present to him something that he cannot eat? If he ask a fish, will you present to him a creature from which he will turn away with fear ? If he ask an egg, will you instead offer to put into his hand the deadly scorpion ? All theorizing about white scorpions, and about the oval form of the scorpion's body, is vain. There is not the most distant resemblance between an egg and the black scorpions, of Palestine. Had the Saviour wished to associate with this idea regarding the father's willingness to give what is good, the thought of an attempt to deceive on the part of the earthly parent, he could have named tlie egg of any of the oviparous reptiles, and not the scorpion. The stone, he says, is useless, the serpent dangerous, the scorpion deadly. Earthly parents know this, and knowing the wants of their children whom they love, they will not mock them when they ask for something to nourish their bodies. So with our Father in heaven. He knows that his children have need of the Holy Spirit. Let us pray to bim, for w^e are assured that he " will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him."

" Scorpion," Heb. akrdv, Gr. scorpios — see under Deut. viii. 15.

The place which the tithing of herbs (ver. 42) holds in the context has been fully indicated above — see Matt, xxiii. 23. Two herbs are mentioned by Luke, one of which is not named by Matthew, namely, " rue."

" Mint," heduosmon, the generic term for several of the natural order

of plants Labiatoe, may, as used here, include both the spear-mint

{Mentha vindis) and the pepper-mint {M. piperita). Both species are

very wide-spread, being found in most parts of the Avorld. Their uses

are known to all. The scrupulousness and hypocrisy of the Scribes

and Pharisees are specially shown by their making a show of paying VOL. II. 4 D

♦ 678 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

tithe in this herb. The wheat and the barley when offered to the Lord implied self-denial on the part of the offerers. But by tithing their mint they laid claim to having performed the religious obligation, when they were serving the Lord with that which cost them nothing.

" Rue," pegdnon, gives its name to tlie natural order Ilutacea} or rue family. The species referred to by Luke is the common rue {Riita graveohns), once much more frequently cultivated on account of its medicinal properties in cottage gardens than it is how. It is to be met with growing wild in most of the countries on both sides of the Mediterranean. It has been found in considerable abundance in Pales- tine, especially about Carmel and Tabor. Growing readily and without much care, it would form an easy substitute for the weightier matters of the law, which the Pharisees neglected. Rue is an herbaceous plant. Its stems, however, attain to a considerable length, and are often of a half-woody appearance. If we may credit Josephus, it sometimes attains to the rank of a true tree. In his notes on " the city called Machserus," he says, "Now within this place there grew a sort of rue, that claims our admiration on account of its largeness, for it was in no way inferior to any fig-tree whatsoever, either in height or in thickness ; and the report is, that it had lasted ever since the time of Herod, and would probably have lasted much longer, had it not been cut down by those Jews who took possession of the place afterwards." —("Wars," vii. 6, § 3.)

" Lilies" (xii. 27), Heb. shdsMnmm, Gr. kri'na, have been noticed under Song ii. 1 — which see. The lily [Liliinn) belongs to a family of plants {LiliacecB) which contains above one hundred and thirty genera, many of them differing very widely from each other, in size, colour, &c. Several species are abundant in the localities in which our Saviour wandered. Dr. Bouar, referring to the heights above Beersheba, says:— "On these heights the lilies abounded, with grass and low shrubs between. I noticed that the camels did not touch the lilies at all ; but cropped what lay between. It reminded me of the words — 'He feedetli among the lilies' (Cant. ii. IG). We did not here see any flocks feeding, or any 'young harts' leaping; but in other places we had frequent occasion to notice the sheep and lambs browsing on the like pastures — among but not on the lilies ; for while the lily furnishes no acceptable food for flocks and herds, it seems by the shade of its high broad leaves, to retain the moisture, and so to nourish herbage wherever it grows. The place of lilies would thus be the place of the richest pasture, as Solomon evidently indicates when,

Fig. 179.

again using the figure, he speaks of the ' young roes wliich feed among the lilies' (Cant. iv. 5, and again vi. 3). They grew in almost incredible numbers and luxuriance, often where nothing else flourished, corro- borating the prophet's allusion — 'he shall grow as the lihj' (Hosea xiv. 5). Their tapering leaf is richly green, and hence the 'heap of wheat set about with lilies' (Cant. vii. 2), would form, by the contrast, an object of no common beauty, the pale yellow and the vivid green setting off each other, as the leaf of the primrose does its own yellow blossom. Close by these lilies there grew several of the thorn-shrubs of the desert ; but above them rose the lily, spreading out its fresh leaf of green as a contrast to the dingy verdure of these prickly shrubs. ' As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters' (Cant. ii. 2). Whether this be the lily of the valley, I do not know. It grows on hill and valley, all over the region. Nor is it of one species only, but of several, as we could easily see, though only one species was in flower. That which was in flower the Arab's called zisiceit/i. It was larger than the others, and shot up its lilac, hyacinth-looking flowers from a tapering stalk, sometimes two feet long."

Were we to look for botanical exactness in the words of our Lord, his expression, '' lilies of the field," might be limited to one species — the scarlet martagon lily [Liliiim chalce- cZo?izc?<m), which grows abundantly in Palestine. But there is little doubt that his words included all the species which came under his eye, when he pointed his hearers to the plants of the field, as illustrative of the divine care, wisdom, and glory. The quiet beauty of the white and the yellow varieties, and the gorgeous hues of the scarlet, would contrast favourably with all the magnificence which man's art could throw into royal robes.

" He spake also this parable : A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard : and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard. Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none : cut it down ; why curabereth it the ground? And he, answering, said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it : and if it bear fruit, well ; and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it

&vrmn I.ilr.

580 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

down" (xiii. 6-9). "Fig-tree," vol. i., p. 134. "The peculiarity of the image — that of a fig-tree in a vineyard — however unlike to the European notion of a mass of unbroken vine-clad hills, is natural in Palestine, where fig-trees, thorn-trees, apple-trees, whether in corn- fields or vineyards, are allowed to grow freely wherever they can get soil to support them." — {Stanlejj)

In this parable the object of the Saviour is to communicate a true impression of the progressive development of his kingdom. The points to be specially illustrated, are the smallness of its beginning, the gradual character of its progress, and its great and glorious results.

"Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and wherc- unto shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard-seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden ; and it grew, and waxed a great tree ; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it" (ver. 18, 19). Matthew gives the parable more fully : — "Another parable put he forth unto them, saying. The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard- seed, whicli a man took and sowed in his field : which indeed is the least of all seeds ; but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof" (xiii. 31, 32). In Mark's account, special attention is called to the development of the branches : — "And he said, Where- unto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it ? It is like a grain of mustard-seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth : but when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches ; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it" (iv. 30-32). The points of comparison appear on the surface of the parable. If the progress of the gospel among men be taken as the ground of comparison, it is seen, in the babe born at Bethlehem, as the grain of mustard-seed. Its growth is illustrated in the adhesion of the Galilsean fishermen to the testimony of Jesus, in the gradual extension of the kingdom of God in apostolic times, and in its triumph over nations as the generations passed. It grows still, and will continue to grow, until the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth. If the progress be regarded from the point of view of influence on the spiritual nature of each man brought to Christ, it finds its illustration in the gradual subjection of the whole man to the will of God, and in the usefulness which comes to mark every one who has become conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. "At the first there were thoughts of Jesus, which many times flashed upon us, clear

ST. LUKE. 581

thoughts, though still overshadowed with doubts. By degrees, how- ever, tlie doubts became more rare and feeble ; convictions on the other hand, built upon the foundation which has already been laid, find their way into our heart. At first there were inclinations to Jesus, which often stirred the heart — pious inclinations, but still intermingled with the love of sin. By degrees, however, we come to crucify the ungodly nature and the lusts of the flesh; attachment, strong and pure, such as he demands, found its way into the heart. At first there were feelings for Jesus, holy feelings, but still alternating with impatience, lust, passion, and a thousand interruptions. By degrees, however, the storm was allayed, a calmness, serene as the clear heaven, the offspring of a peace which is higher than all reason, found its way into our heart." But this peace is not unbroken. The leaf withers on the tree before its season, the branch is liable to disease, the roots are not always equal to a healthy absorbing power. Thus with man in contact with Jesus, and having His life in the soul. There are shadows as well as sunshine in Christian experience. To push the comparison farther would be to pervert the words of the Lord.

"The mustard-tree," Gr. sinapt, supplies in this case the figure around which these views of the kingdom are brought out. In attempt- ing to identify this plant, it was very early found that the annual herbaceous species, common mustard [Sinapis nigra), which supplies the well-known spice, would not answer the description of our Lord. Irby and j\Langles were the first to direct attention to a plant in all respects like that described here. Between the south end of the Dead Sea and Kerak, they found a tree to which they thus refer : — " There was one curious tree which we observed in great numbers, and which bore a fruit in bunches, resembling in appearance the currant, with the colour of the plum. It has a pleasant though strong aromatic taste, resembling mustard, and if taken in any quantity, produces a similar irritability in the nose and eyes. The leaves of this tree have the same pungent flavour as the fruit, though not so strong. We think it probable that this is the tree our Saviour alluded to in the parable of the mustard-seed, and not the mustard-plant, which is to be found in the north ; for although in our journey from Bysau to Adjeloun we met with the mustard-plant growing wild, as high as our horses' heads, still, being an annual, it did not deserve the appellation of a tree ; whereas the other is really such, and birds might easily, and actually do, take shelter under its shadow" (chap. vii). The travellers do not name this plant, but fuller inquiry has identified it with one of the

582

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

salvidoras (S. persica), a tree which attains the height of twenty-five feet. The seeds are very small, and are used as mustard. The Sahi- dora persica grows abundantly in the neighbourhood of the Sea of Galilee.

The Hebrew name for mustard is chardel. In the Syriac version oi the New Testament, the word used by the Evangelist — sinapi — is rendered k-Jiardel, the name given in the nortli of India to the Salvidora persica. Dr. Royle, after arguing ably in favour of this identiflcatinn,

FlK. ISO.

Salvidora persica.

says : — " We have in it a small seed, which, sown in cultivated ground, abounds in foliage. This being pungent, may, like the seed, have been used as a condiment, as mustard and cress is with us. The nature of the plant, however, is to become arboreous ; and thus it will form a large shrub, or a tree, twenty-five feet high, under which a horseman may stand, where the soil and climate are favourable. It produces numerous branches and leaves, among which birds may and do take shelter, as well as build their nests."

" What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it ? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them,

ST. LUKK.

583

Rejoice with me ; for I have found my sheep which was lost, I say unto you, That hkewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, Avhich need no repentance" (xv. 4-7). The charge was brought against Jesus by the Pharisees, that he "received sinners." In their hearing he proceeds to set fortli the value put by God on the soul of the sinner, under the parables of the lost sheep, the lost silver, and the lost son. They are all of great beauty. The scope of the second is, that because Christ re- gards the sinner as his, he has devised a plan for his salvation, out this

In bring-

m<x

he came

Syrian Sheep ( Ovis aries),

into tlie world — went into the wilderness after the lost ones, fouud them, and brought them back to the joy in the presence of God.

One aspect of the sinner's case, as brought out in this parable, is indicated in verse IG. Sunk to the deepest and most hopeless degra- dation, he is willing to seek solace and strength in that which is the plainest evidence of his misery. " He would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat; and no man gave unto him." The " husks," keratia, were the pods of the kharub tree or ceratonia (C. sih'qua) one of the pod-bearing {Lcgummiferce) family of plants. The tree is a native of Palestine, and is abundant both there and on the northern shores and islands of the Mediterranean. It is evergreen and yields pods which, from their resemblance to a horn {keras), give their name to the tree.

The husks which are still used to feed swine, were formerly much more in request for that purpose than they are now, though in JIalta, in Spain, and Italy, they continue to be given to swine and cattle. In times of scai'city they are eaten even by men. The full-grown pod some- times reaches ten inches in length, and nearly two inches in breadth. In Turkey they are given to camels, under the name Camels' bread. They are also known as Locust-beans, and as St. John's bread.

The lesson of forgiveness here (xvii.) pressed on the disciples, awoke in them a deep feeling of helplessness even as to this homely duty. To

584 131DL1CAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

forgive a penitent brother as often as lie came confessing that in injur- ing them he had done wrong, demanded attainments in spiritual life far ahead of anything they could lay claim to. Thus the cry — " Lord, increase our faith." " And the Lord said, If ve had faith as a ffrain of mustard-seed, ye might say unto this sycamine-tree, Be thou plucked

Fig. 182.

l*oils of Klianib Tree.

up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea ; and it should obey you" (xvii. 6).

" Sycamine-tree," Gr. sycaminos, one of the mulberry-trees. Some plead for the sycamore (Ficus sycomorus) as the tree referred to in this passage. Had the sycamine been identical with the sycamore, it is not the least likely that Luke would have named the former sycaminos in this verse, and yet have given another distinctive name to the latter, sycomoiia, in chap. xix. 4. That he did so, indicates very clearly that he regarded them as specifically distinct. Besides, the black mulberry {Moms nigra) is to this day known in the Levant as the sycamenia. The mulberry-tree is noticed under 2 Sam. v. 23 — which see.

It was customary to plant rows of sycamore trees by the road-side. Zaccheus was eagerly anxious to see Jesus in his passage from Jericho to Jerusalem. " And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore- tree to see him : for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zaccheus, make haste, and come down ; for to-day I must abide at thy liouse. And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully" (xix. 4-6). The tree named here was not, as some have alleged, the eastern plane-tree, but the so-called Pharaoh's fig (Ficus sycomoi-ns), thus named from its abundance in Egypt. Its botanical place and its uses have been pointed out under 1 Kings x. 27, and Amos vii. 14. "This tree was a tree of the plain — chiefly of the plain of the sea- coast — also, as we know by one celebrated instance, in the plain of

ST. LUKE.

585

Jericho. As Jericho derived its name from the palms, so did Syca- niinopolis — the modern Caipha — from the groves of sycamores, some of which still remain in its neiglibourhood." — [Stanleij) " That noble tree before us, with giant arms low down and wide open, must be the

Syrian sycamore Nothing is easier than to climb into these

sycamores ; and, in fact, here is a score of boys and girls in this one ; and as its giant arms stretch quite across the road, those in them can look directly down on any crowd passing beneath. It is admirably adapted for the purpose for which Zaccheus selected it." — (Tliomson.)

"And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me" (xxii. 34i. In ]\Iark's gospel the words are : — " Verily I say unto thee, that this day, even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice" (xiv. 30). The times of cock-crowing were, first, near midnight ; and second, a few hours later. " This day" includes the whole twenty- four hours; and Mark's statement, "in this night," has reference to that portion of the twenty-four hours associated with darkness. " Domestic cock" {Galbis Banlcivus) — see Plate XXVI., fig. 2,

Fig. 1R.3.

Tbe Jordan.

VOL. II.

4 B

58G

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

ST. JOHN.

HE Baptist had pointed out Jesus to his disciples as the antitype to whom the paschal feast had been j^ointing ever since "the night to be remembered," on which Israel came up out of Egypt — •" Behold the Lamb of God, '•frT"' '•'■ wliich taketh away the sin of the world" (i. 29). Inocu- y c^ lative power accompanied the words. Some of them followed Jesus. One of these was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter. So soon as his own heart was touched, he brouglit Peter to the Lord. Jesus himself the next day met Philip, and spake to him *^ the influential words of life, " Follow me." " Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter" (ver. 44). " Bethsaida," or House of fish, lay on the western shore of the sea of Galilee, not far from Caper- naum. There was another town of the same name in Gaulonitis on the eastern shore, distinguished as " Bethsaida Julias;" compare Mark vi. 31-53 with Luke ix. 10-17).

" Marvel not that I said unto thee. Ye must be born again. The wind (fbpneumd) bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth : so is every one that is born of the Spirit" (iii. 7, 8). Though modern meteorological science has explained many atmospheric phenomena hitherto mysterious, it has not Interfered with the deep significance of the figure used here. On the contrary, it has set this verse before us in even more interest- ins: lidits. Tlie laws which storms follow have been determined with considerable exactness ; but the meteorologist still meets innumerable instances in which premonitory symptoms are not followed by the action of these laws. But even if this science, as yet only in infiincy, were to reach a point at which symptoms of changes were unfailingly followed by changes, and distinct warnings could be given of every approaching storm, these words spoken nearly two thousand years ago, would still testify to the same truth. There will still be hidden, in depths into which man cannot penetrate, the power by which the causes are controlled which lead to the Avind's "coming," and which deter- mine its "going." The chief point, indeed, in the figure is just this — the " new birth," the regeneration of the soul in the image of God,

c

Cl

r

ST. JOHN. 587

is not hidden as to its effects, its fruits. But as the work throughout of a supernatural One — the Holy Spirit of God — there are many things about it which flesh and blood can never understand. I prefer the common rendering of verse 8 to that which gives the clause thus — "The Spirit bloweth where he willeth." The power of the comparison is lost in this translation.

John was baptizing in /Enon near to Salim, because there was much water there. " Much water," literall}-, " many streams."

The common people had heard him gladly. He was now in an unfrequented and secluded place on the eastern side of the sea of Galilee. Luke informs us that " he went privately into a desert place belonging to a city called Bethsaida" (ix. 10). ]\Iark, referring to the same time and circumstances, says that when they were on the western side of the sea, Jesus addressed them, saying — " Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest awhile." And he adds — "They departed into a desert place by ship privately" (vi. 31, 32). Thus we can trace them to the wilderness on the north-east of the hike of Tiberias, and south of Bethsaida Julias. Luke also tells us that " the people followed him, that he received them, and spake unto them of the kingdom of God." The multitudes appear to have chiefly been of the common people, one of whom had taken with him barley bread (vi. 9) as a supply for himself and some friend. The barley loaf was used chiefly by the poorer and industrious classes. The bread of the rich was made from wheaten flour. See under Ruth i. 22, ii. 4 ; and Ezekiel iv. 12.

The Lord in his sovereignty chose the five barley loaves as the basis, as it were, of the miracle. The result is before us. The people were completely satisfied, and twelve baskets were filled with the fragments, "which remained over and above unto them that had eaten." Like the lad's loaves the fiire provided by the miracle was of the homeliest kind, but it was that which constituted the chief article of bread diet of the people whose w-ants he had thus satisfied. In 2 Kings iv. 42-44, we meet with the Spirit of Jesus enabling Elisha, in circumstances suggestive of those described here, by a miracle to feed a hundred men — " And there came a man from Baal-shalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the first-fruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof: and he said, Give unto the people, that they may cat. And his servitor said, "What ! should I set this before an hundred men ? He said again, Give the people, that they' may eat : for thus saith the Lord, Tliey shall eat, and shall leave

588 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

thereof. So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the Lord." In this case, equally as iu the mii-acle of our Lord, the manner of the miracle is hidden. We see the loaves, we listen to the commanding word of the prophet, " Thus saith the Lord," or we realize what is implied in the expression regarding Jesus, that " when he had given thanks" he distributed the loaves to the people; but we are left in complete ignorance of the mode in which the five loaves were so increased as to be able to supply five thousand, or how Elisha's loaves and ears of corn so multiplied as to be able to satisfy a hundred men.

" An analogy has been found in this miracle, and as it were an help to the understanding of it, in that which year by year is accomplished in the corn-field, when a single grain of corn cast into the earth multi- plies itself, and in the end unfolds in numerous ears; and with allusion to this analogy many beautiful remarks have been made — as this, that while God's every-day miracles had grown cheap in men's sight by continual repetition, he had therefore reserved something, not more wonderful, but less frequent, to arouse men's minds to a new admiration. Others have urged that here, as in the case of the water made wine, he did but compress into a single moment all those processes which in ordinary circumstances he, the same Lord of nature, causes more slowly to follow one another. But, true as in its measure is this last observation, it must not be forgotten that the analogy does not reach through and through. For that other work in the field is the unfolding of the seed according to the law of its own being. Thus, had the Lord taken a few grains of corn and cast them into the ground, and, if a moment after, a large harvest had sprung up, to this the name of such a ' divinely-hastened process' might have been fitly applied. But with bread it is otherwise, since before that is made, there must be new interpositions of man's art, and those of such a nature as that by them the very life, which hitherto unfolded itself, must be crushed and destroyed. A grain of wheat could never by itself, and according to the laws of its natural development, issue in a loaf of bread. And, moreover, the Lord does not start from the simple germ, from the lifeful rudiments, in which all the seeds of a future life might be sup- posed to be wrapt up, and by him rapidly developed, but with the latest artificial result. One can conceive how the oak is enfolded in the acorn, but not how it could be said to be wrapped up in the piece of timber hewn and shaped from itself This analogy then, even as such, is not satisfying; and renouncing all helps of this kind, we must

ST. JOHN. 589

simply behold in this nmltiplyiug of the bread an act of divine onnii- potence on his part who was the \yord of God — not indeed now, as at the first, of absolute creation out of nothing, since there was a sub- stratum to work on in the original loaves and fishes, but an act of creative accretion; the bread growing under his hands, so that from that little stock all the multitude were abundantly supplied : ' they did all eat and were filled.'" — {Trench)

Chapter x. 1-18. — The Lord's standing as the only Redeemer and shepherd of " the flock of God," the ready response to him of all who are divinely set to care for the sheep, the violence of intruders, the danger of the flock, the heartlessness of those who, like Eli's sons, have assumed the pastoral oSice for a bit of bread, Christ's position as the true door into the fold, his devotion to the flock in laying down his life, the ready obedience of the sheep to him, and their eternal safety as in his hands, are all set touchingly before us in this chapter. Every traveller bears testimony to the truthfulness of the picture to scenes which may yet be witnessed in parts of Syria where the wolf {Canis lupus) abounds. " Owing to the wild wadies covered with dense forests of oak and underwood, the country above us has ever been a favourite range for sheep and goats. Those low, flat buildings out on the sheltered side of the valley are sheepfolds. They are called marah, and, when the nights are cold, the flocks are shut up in them, but in ordinary weather they are merely kept within the yard. This, yon observe, is defended by a wide stone wall, crowned all around with sharp thorns, which the prowling wolf will rarely attempt to scale. The nimer, however, and fahed — the leopard and panther of this country — when pressed with hunger, will overleap this thorny hedge, and with one tremendous bound land among the frightened fold. Then is the time to try the nerve and heart of the faithful shepherd. These humble types of him who leadeth Joseph like a flock never leave their helpless charge alone, but accompany them by day, and abide with them at night. As spring advances, they will move higher up to other maridis and greener ranges ; and in the hot months of summer they sleep with their flocks on the cool heights of the mountains, with no other protection than a stout palisade of tangled thorn-bushes. Nothing can be more romantic. Oriental, and even Biblical, than this shepherd life far away among the sublime solitudes of goodly Lebanon. Indeed, I never ride over these hills, clothed with flocks, without meditating upon this delightful theme. Our Saviour says that the good shepherd, when he putteth forth his

J

590 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

own sheep, goeth before them, and they follow. This is true to the letter. They are so tame and so trained tliat they foUoio their keeper with the utmost docility. He l^ds them forth from the fold, or from their houses in the villages, just where he pleases. As there are many flocks in such a place as this, each one takes a different path, and it is his business to find pasture for them. It is necessary, therefore, that they should be taught to follow, and not to stray away into the unfenced fields of corn which lie so temptingly on either side. Any one that thus wanders is sure to get into trouble. The shejjherd calls sharply i'rom time to time to remind them of his presence. They know his A'oice, and follow on ; but, if a stranger call, thej^ stop short, lift up their heads in alarm, and, if it is repeated, they turn and flee, because they know not the voice of a stranger. This is not the fiiuciful costume of a parable; it is simple fact. I have made the experiment repeatedly. The shepherd goes before, not merely to point out the way, but to see that it is practicalile and safe. Some sheep always keep near the shepherd, and are his special favourites. Each of them has a name, to which it answers joyfully ; and the kind shepherd is ever distributing to such choice portions which he gathers for that purpose." — {Thomson)

" Behold, thy king cometh," cried Zechariah (ix. 9) as he pointed the men of his day to the purpose of God in the manifestation of the Messiah. Here the same Spirit who spoke by the prophet, fitted the people "that were come to the feast" for welcoming Jesus as the royal one. " They took branches of palm-trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna : Blessed is the king of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord" (xii. 13). The "branches" named were the long feathery leaves of the date palm {Phoenix dactijlifera), which has been specially noticed under Exod. xv. 27.

This incident might at first seem to imply, that the date palm was much more plentiful in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem at that time than it is now. But both the climate, its position among the hills, and the character of its soil, make it little likely that the date palm was ever very abundant there. Attempts to make out that this tree must have once abounded near the Holy City, leave out of view the fact, that multitudes who came up to the feast may have carried with them the palm-branches from localities in which they flourished luxuriantly. It was thus that in olden times the British pilgrim to Palestine obtained the name of Fahncr from the palm-leaves which he brought back with him from Judea, as proofs that he had visited that renowned land. Shaw says — " At Jerusalem, Sichem, and other places

to tlie northward, I rarely saw above two or three palms together : and even these, as their fruit rarely or ever comes to maturity, arc of no further service than (like the palm-tree of Deborah) to shade the retreats or sanctuaries .of their slieikhs, as they might formerly have been sufficient to supply the solemn processions with branches. From the present condition and quality therefore of the palm-trees, it is very probable that they could never be either numerous or fruitful" (vol. ii. 152). The scarcity of these trees, in a land in whose history so many references to them occur, strikes travellers still. Many passages m.ight be quoted from recent works regarding the solitary palm-tree which is occasionally met with in the land. The Jews who visited Jerusalem at this feast-time were gathered from great distances, and knowing the scarcity of this symbol of joy and victory in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, they would be sure to carry the branches with them to the city of the great King. The list preserved in Acts ii. 9-11, indi- cates that they came from localities in which the date-tree flourished luxuriantly and abundantly. They were " Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in jMesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappa- docia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes, and Arabians."

" Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved" (xiii. 23). " Leaning:" this is the same verb as is rendered "sat at meat" (IMark ii. 15), "as they sat" (]\Iark xiv. 18), and " lay" (Mark i. 38). It strictly means " reclining," in allusion to the eastern posture at meals. See Plate XL I.

The necessity of vital union with Christ in order to a life for him in the midst of the world's sorrows, temptations, and persecutions, and to cherishing the good hope of heaven, is set down in the parable of the vine and its branches (xv. 1-10). A distinction is drawn between two kinds of branches — those really in the vine, and those only apparently so. The former represent all whose profession is the fruit of indwell- ing spiritual life enjoyed in Christ ; the latter, all whose profession results from the imitation of Christians, and not from the life of Christ. The theme is set in yet more significant aspects in the next two chapters.

Jesus " bearing his cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew, Golgotha; where they crucified him, and two other with him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst. And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. This title

592 BEBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

then read many of the Jews; for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city ; and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin" (xix. 17-20). Death by tlic "cross" was a Roman mode of capital punish- ment. It was formally abolished by Constantine. The cross was originally a broad stake, to which the murderer or the thief was bound. It came, however, to assume different forms, as, for example, that in which two beams of equal length crossed each other in the middle, each having its lower end fixed in the ground. This was the crux decussaia of ancient authors. The crux commissa, again, consisted of an upright stake with a cross beam or transom fastened on the top. The crux immissa was the form on which our blessed Lord was crucified. It consisted, like the last named, of a strong upright stake, with the transom so fastened tliat a considerable part of the stake rose above it. This is the typical Latin cross. On the projecting part of the upright beam the "title" or "accusation" was written, containing the name, address, and crime of tlie culprit. This fact, taken into account with the very earliest figures of the cross on coins and over the dead, has led to the conclusion that the cross raised on Calvary was of this shape. See Plate XL., fig. 1.

Reference has already been made to myrrh and aloes (xix. 39). The former spice has been identified under Psalm xlv. 8; and the aloes noticed in the Old Testament scriptures has been considered under the same passage, and also under Numbers xxiv. G. The purpose for which the produce of the aloe-tree is used here, is suggestive of another plant than that referred to in these passages, as the " eaglewood-tree," Aquilaria agallnchum of botanists, a native of Southern Asia. But while this is so, it is most likely both kinds were present here. Indeed, such is known to have been the case in "the Jews' manner of burial." Both may be more fully noticed in illustration of this verse.

The Egyptians used aloes in the process of embalming. This was an exudation from the Socotrine aloe {Aloe Socotrina), so named from Soco- tra, an island in the Red Sea. It belongs to the natural order Liliacea:. It gruws five or six feet higli, with leaves of a bright green colour, and flowers of scarlet, white, and green. The bitter aloes of commerce is the produce of several species obtained in different parts of the world. The Jewish manner of burial was to lay the dead body in spices, with- out, however, cutting it in any way, as was done by the Egyptians in embalming. Thus Asa (2 Chron. xvi. l-i) was laid in a "bed of spices" when he was buried "in the sepulchre which he had made for himself in tlie city of David." So here with our Lord's body — "it was wound

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.0«. CDilluKCN. tONDON » llfW-fOIIK

ST. JOHN.

593

iu linen clothes." As tlie spices gave their flavour to the body, the pungent myrrh and the bitter aloe kept the crawling worm from the

Fig. 184.

corpse. Decay was not hastened by the worm. Dissolution was gradual, and dissoci- ated from much which in all ages has linked an unpleasant idea with the process by which the body returns to its kindred dust.

To the aloe, usually so called, was often added the produce of the sweet-scented Aqui- laria — the lign-aloes of Numbers xxiv. 6. This was used as a precious perfume — " I have per- fumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinna- mon," said the strange woman. This is the attar of aloes, an oily perfume obtained from decayed parts of the trunk and branches of the Aqm'laria, which sells for its weight in gold. It secretes in veins of the wood, which become dark-coloured. These are cut out, bruised, steeped in water for a time, and distilled. The product is aloe perfume.

^•-

Socotrine Aloe.

Fig. 185.

Otilhbciuaue,

VOL. U.

4f

594 BIRLICAL NATUUAL SCIENCE.

ACTS.

N the account of the remarkable outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, Rome (ii.' 10) is named as one of the localities whence strangers had come to Jerusalem — see Plate XLIIL, for View of Ancient Eome. J The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch" (xi. 27). The city thus distinguished w'as the Syrian city of that name, situated mainly on the left bank of the Oroutes, in the region where the chains of Taurus and Lebanon meet. It was founded about B.C. 300, by Seleucus, one of the captains of Alexander, who named the city after his father Antioclius. Antioch became the capital of Syria during the rule of the Selcucidte, which continued more than two hundred years. It was a magnificent city, had at one time more than five hundred thousand inhabitants, and exerted a powerful influence on surrounding states. The situation was peculiarly favourable as a centre for Christian action. On this account it was much cared for by the apostles, and Christianity very soon began to assume the importance of a powerful and highly influential creed in the eyes of its inhabitants. The light has left it. Its inhabitants sit in moral darkness, and amidst ruins. The city itself is little better than a collection of miserable hovels.

"Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout per- sons, and in the market daily with them that met with him. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans and of the Stoics encountered him. And some said. What will this babbler say ? other some. He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods : because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection. And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears : we would know therefore Avhat these things mean. (For all the Athenians, and strangers which were there, spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.) Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars-hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that

ACTS.

595

in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, To the Unknown God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God, that made the world, and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwellcth not in temples made with hands ; neither is worshipped with men's liands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things ; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of

Fig. 186.

Fig. 187.

Circassian.

riiinosp.

their habitation ; that tliey should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not for from every one of us" (xvii. lG-27). The discourse touches on questions of greatest interest. The one-blood relationship of all the tribes " on all the face of the earth," chiefly claims our attention. Paul reached Athens about A.D. 52. While he waited for Silas and Timothy, his spirit was deeply moved as he witnessed the gross idolatry of the people. Li Athens especially he would meet with all those forms of sin which he after- wards set forth in the terrible picture of Romans i. 21-23. The aspects of Athenian morality with which, in his preaching in Athens, he sought

596

BIBLICAL NATURAL fiCIENCK.

to deal, were idolatry, licentiousness, materialism, and highly-developed religious feeling of a sort.

As he passed from the Piraeus to the Agora, or market-place, the heart of the city, lying in the valley formed by the three noted hills, the Areopagus, Pnyx, Acropolis, and Musajum, ho would soon see that the Athenians were, indeed, utterly given to idolatry. Images of the gods stood out in niches in the walls, at the corners of the streets, in all public places. Genius, no doubt, working by the cunning hand of art, had in these given material expression and permanence to ideal strength, or wisdom, or beauty, but they nevertheless told to him the sad tale

Materialism and sensual-

of the ignorance of the living and true God

Fig. 188.

Fig 189.

American Indian.

Malay.

ism were wedded to Athenian pride ; and evidences of impurity and practical atheism would not unfrequently be seen in forms that could not be named. Slavery, too, assumed aspects of the most debasing and brutalizing kind. That there were many labouring after something higher, could not be doubted. Their very progress in art, their great intellectual culture, quickened all those sentiments which lie on the threshold of conscience, thereby throwing their influence over it. In order to get rest, the people multiplied the numbers of their idols, of their feast days, and temple services. But in vain ! Conscience still craved, the heart still hungered, the wliole spiritual nature was still

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weary, and in their efforts to get peace, to break for ever this terrible unrest, tliey raised an altar to the Unknown God. To meet all this, Paul preached unto them Jesus and the resurrection. He spoke of Jesus as the Creator, the Redeemer, the Judge, and of the resurrection from the dead as a certainty. The leading and influential thoughts are — man the child of God, all men brethren, all men sinners and needing a Saviour, Jesus that Saviour, responsibility for belief, a final judgment, and the resurrection of the body in order to this.

All men are brethren, because all are of one blood — the same nature (ver. 20). The unity of origin of all the varieties of mankind is thus clearly taught in this expression, if we associate it with Genesis ii. 21,

Fig. 191.

Negro.

Caffro.

25, and Matthew xix. 4-9. This subject continues to be nuich dis- cussed. Its antagonism to the scheme of grace has been already pointed out in the review of the theory of pre-Adamite men. It may be safely affirmed, that while many matters connected with it still wait for scientific explanation, the very highest researches in anatomy, ethnology, and language, go directly to corroborate what is generally believed to be the biblical view of this important question. The argu- ment from language is noticed under Genesis xi. The cuts given above indicate the typical features of each of the five sections proposed by Blumerbach ("De Generis Humani Varietate nativa," 1795). These comprise three principal varieties, namely, the Caucasian, the Ethiopian,

598

BIBLICAL NATUUAL SCIENCE.

ami the Mongul. Subordinate to these are two intermediate varieties, through wliich the extreme types are linked with the Caucasian or Iranian. Thus the Malay comes between the Caucasian and the Negro ; the American indian links tlie former with the other extreme, the Mongul. The Caffrc is represented along with the Negro, to indicate widely-different varieties of the Ethiopian tribe. Blumenbach's classifi- cation is based — 1st, on the form of the skull ; and 2nd, on the colour of the skin, hair, and eyes. It is not asserted that this scheme is free from very many objections. This notice of it as illustrative of verse 26, is introduced with the view of suggesting to the reader some of the links through which those family varieties run.

Paul preached to the Athenians the resurrection. In another place (1 Cor. XV.) he argues this question very fully, and grounds his hope on the resurrection of Christ — a fact as fully corroborated as any other stated in history. There is nothing in nature from which we can learn this grand doctrine and glorious hope. It must be revealed. It lias been so, to the unspeakable comfort of all who have hope in Christ. Appeals have been made to facts in organic chemistry, with the view of estaljlishing an argument from analogy for the resurrection, but these are only partially illustrative, and fall far below even the natural phenomena referred to by Paul in his epistles.

Fig. 102.

Athens.

" Syracuse" (xxviii. 12), the capital of ancient Sicily — see Plate XLIL, figs. 3, 4.

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PAULINE EPISTLES. 590

PAULINE EPISTLES.

SRAEL had been rejected because of their unbelief, und Israel's blessings were given to the Gentiles. But the casting off was not universal. Paul himself, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin, was a notable proof of this (Rom. xi. 1). The Jews had stumbled and fallen. They believed that per- fection was in the Mosaic system, and refused to hearken to the voice of him who was the fulfilling of all that had gone before. The Gentiles had heard and had obeyed. They were consequently admitted to the full enjoyment of those privileges which the Jews had forfeited. Lest they should be uplifted above measure and pass into that high-mindedness and spiritual pride into which Israel had fallen, the apostle sets before them their true relation to the Jews in verses 11-15, and urges on them strong cautions against self- righteousness. "If," he says, "the casting away of Israel was the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead." They are now rejected, but glorious promises still cluster around them. They are again to be restored. He then con- tinues (ver. 16-24) — " For if the first-fruit be holy, the lump is also holy ; and if the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive-tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive-tree ; boast not against the branches : but if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, Tlie branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in. Well ; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by foith. Be not high-minded, but fear : for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. Behold therefore tlie goodness and severity of God : on them which fell, severity ; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness ; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in : for God is able to graff them in again. For if thou wert cut out of the olive-tree, which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive-tree ; how much more shall these which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive-tree?"

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BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

A glauce at almost any even of the most trustworthy and judicious commentaries on tliis passage, is sufficient to show how distrustful their authors are of their ground in looking at the main points of the chief figure here, the grafting of the wild branch on the cultivated stock. " It has sometimes been remarked," says Haldane, " that there is no grafting in the olive-tree. But this makes no difference. The illus- Fig. 103. tration from the process of

grafting is the same, whether the operation be performed in the particular tree mentioned or not." "The Jewish church," says Hodge, "is compared to the olive-tree, one of the most durable, productive, and valu- able of the productions of the earth, because it was highly fovoured, and therefore valued in the sight of God. The Gentiles are compared to the wild olive, one of the most worthless of trees, to express the degradation of their state, considered as estranged from God. As it is customary to ingraft good scions on inferior stocks, the nature of the product being determined by the graft and not the root, it has been thought that the illustration of the apostle is not very apposite. But the difficulty may result i'rom pressing the comparison too far. The idea may be simply this, 'As the scion of one tree is ingrafted into another, and has no independent life, but derives all its vigour from the root, so the Gentiles are introduced among the people of God, not to confer but to receive good,' It is however said, on the authority of ancient writers and of modern travellers, to have been not unusual to graft the wild on the cultivated olive." Others might be quoted. Now it is not the least likely that Paul, who must have been intimately acquainted

■\ViW nilre.

PAULINE EPISTLKS. 601

with the whole method of treatment of the olive-tree, would have taken the olive as a figure, if any other tree would have answered equally well. Nor would he have used any illustration ^Thich was not apposite. The key to the figure is to be found in verse 24, in the expression "wert graffed contrary to nature." The drift of the argument is to show how completely the Gentiles owed their newly acquired privileges to the sovereign grace of God. Tlius, he says, it is natural to graft the cultivated branch on the wild stock, the inserted branch in this case gives its nature to the wild. It is neither natural nor useful to graft the wild branch on the cultivated stock; yet God's dealings with the Gentiles have been like this — contrary to nature, yet in grace over- ruled for highest ends even to the Jew — "that they might be provoked to emulation."

Light is shed on the figure of the root by a recent traveller. Resting in one of the olive-groves on the road from Beirut to Damascus, he asks — " Have all the trees in this vast grove been reclaimed from a wild state by grafting? Certainly not. The apostle himself speaks of the root of the good olive — implying that, by some means or other, it had been changed. The jarocess by which this result is reached is quite simple. You observe certain knobs, or large warts, so to speak, on the body of this tree. Cut oiT one of these which has a branch growing out of it, ahove the place where it has been grafted ; plant it in good soil, water it carefully, and it will strike out roots and grow. It is now a good tree from the root, and all scions taken from it are also ' good by nature.' But if the knob, or branch, be taken below the grafting, your tree comes wild again. The greater part of this grove is now ' good ' from the root. I am told, however, by olive-growers, that there is a tendency to degenerate, and that it is often a great improvement to graft even a good tree with one that is still better."

When expounding the law of Christian liberty, and illustrating its limits (L Cor. ix. 1), Paul puts forth his claim to the consideration of the Corinthians on grounds which spring naturally out of the great doctrine which he set before them in so many lights in the previous chapter. That he had for Christ's sake become their servant, did not, he protests, imply that he had relinquished personal liberty, or that in any way he had shut himself out from the power of admonishing them as to all duty. If he had not made these demands on their worldly substance for the cause of Christ, and for his own support as a minister of Christ, it was not, he says, from any want of a feeling of complete right to do so. On the contrary he states the claim, and does

VOL. II. 4 G

002 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

not at all feel laid under obligation, even should he hold by it until the Corinthians acknowledged it — " If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?" (ver. 11.) It is not: for " who goeth a warfare at any time on his own charges? who plaiiteth a vineyard, and catcth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen ? Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes no doubt" (ver. 7-10). The quotation from the law of Moses is made from Deut. xxx. 4, where the usual Hebrew word for ox (shor) is used. The Greek equivalent {bous) occurs here. The text is one of many which indicate that deep spiritual meaning lies in Old Testament words which, as first employed, seemed to have relations only to very common earthly matters. In the Epistle to Timothy the right which Paul claimed for himself and Barnabas is, by special direction, made over to otliers. " Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine. For the Scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, the labourer is worthy of his hire" (1 Tim. v. 17, 18). With the Gentiles it seems to have been otherwise in their dealings with the labouring yoke. But God wished his people to differ, even as regards tlieir care of the oxen, and under this simple illustration he brought them in contact with great and vital truths. Where the Gentiles did not muzzle the patient oxen, they appear to have permitted them to take the straw only. An interesting proof of this was brought to light by the younger Cham- poUion, in 1828. He found on an Egyptian monument, of very ancient date, a picture of peasants engaged on the threshing-floor, and, in hieroglyphics, the following song written over their heads : —

" Tread ye out for yourselves, Tread ye out for yourselves,

O oxen ! Tread ye out for yourselves, Tread ye out for yourselves.

The straw ; For men, who are your masters,

The grain.

" The Fellahs of the present day," says Gliddon, " sing in all their agricultural occupations ; and the words of their simple melodies are

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often identical in nature to the above ; while I have no doubt that the air of the ancient chant of ' Maneros' is still preserved in the plaintive notes of modern Egyptians." It is, however, more to our purpose to find in this threshing-song, which may have been heard by Moses himself, one reason for the command, " Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn."

" For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance ; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. For the earth, which drinketh in the rain that comcth oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God : but that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing ; whose end is to be burned. But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak " (Heb. vi. 4-9). By means of this striking figure, the apostle presents very boldly before us the danger of neglecting privileges. Those who receive line upon line of doctrine, and who stand in the midst of bless- ings— hearkening to the former, enjoying the latter — are compared to the earth, whose fruitfulness is the answer to the fertilizing rays of the sun, the distilling of the dew, and the dropping of the clouds. It answers the Creator's purpose, and thus receives blessing from God. But those who as partakers of the same revelation, admitted to tlie same privileges, and summoned to the enjoyment of the same hope, do nevertheless meet all this with ingratitude or open sin, and bring forth fruits to themselves, are likened to the well-watered earth whose only return is briers and thorns. Its end is to be burned. This last thou2:ht leads to the very earnest and heart-sprung cry — " Beloved, we are persuaded better things of you."

G04

B113LICAL NATUn.VL SClliNXC

THE REVELATION.

X tlic visions of God given to John in Patraos lie saw "a tlirone set in lieaven." He that sat on it " was to look npon like a jasjjcr and a sardine stone." "Jasper" (tasjm) — see nnder Exod. xxviii. 17. "Sardine" {sa7xlmos) — see the same. " There was a rainbow round about the tlirone, in sight like unto an emerald (iv. 3). " Emerald," lieb. ndpheli, Gr. smaragdlaos. This gem gave its

rich, soft green hue to the other colours of tlie rainbow, without destroying their individuality. In nature this is sometimes seen. The yellowish lustre of the jasper, and the blood-red tints of the sardine, imply the presence here of other distinctive hues.

The finest emeralds are brought from Peru and Brazil. They are, however, also to be met with in Egypt, where, it has been ascertained, a regular trade was carried on in manufacturing them. "The immense

emeralds," says Sir G. Wilkinson, " mentioned by ancient authors were doubtless glass imitations of those precious stones. Such were the colossal statue of Serapis in tlie Egyptian labyrinth, nine cubits, or thirteen feet and a half, in height; an emerald presented by the king of Babylon to an Egyjitian Pharaoh, which was four cubits, or six feet long, and three cubits broad ; and an obelisk in the temple of Jupiter, which was forty cubits, or sixty feet in height, and four cubits broad, composed of four emeralds; and to have formed statues of glass of such dimensions, even allowing them to have been of different pieces, was a greater triumph of skill than imitating the stones.

" That the Egyptians, more than three thousand years ago, were well acquainted not only with the manufacture of common glass for beads and bottles of ordinary quality, but with the art of staining it of divers colours, is sufficiently proved by the fragments found in the tombs of Thebes ; and so skilful were they in this comi^licated process, that they imitated the most fanciful devices, and succeeded in counter- feiting the rich hues and brilliancy of precious stones. The green emerald, the purple amethyst, and other expensive gems, were success- fully imitated ; a necklace of false stones could be purchased at an Egyptian jeweller's, to please the wearer, or deceive a stranger by the appearance of reality ; and some mock pearls (found by me at Thebes) have been so well counterfeited, that even now it is difficult to detect the imposition.

"Pliny says the emerald was more easily counterfeited than any other gem, and considers the art of imitating precious stones a far more lucrative piece of deceit than any devised by the ingenuity of man. Egypt was, as usual, the country most noted for this manufacture ; and we can readily believe that in Pliny's time they succeeded so completely in the imitation, as to render it 'difficult to distinguish the false from real stones.' "

The emerald was the first precious stone in the second row of the higli-prlest's breastplate (Exod. xxviii. 18, xxxix. 11). It was one of tlie gems worn by the Tyrians in their clothing, and obtained by them through Syria (Ezek. xxvii. 16, xxviii. 13).

Judgment was arrested until " the servants of God were sealed in their foreheads " (vii. 3). As the seer gazed on the visions passing before him, he sees " the multitude which no man could munber." Their character as righteous through the righteousness of Christ, the Lamb, is brought out by a simple figure — " They were clothed with white robes." Their condition is as simply and as briefly indicated —

" Tliey had palms in tlicir hands." The leaves of the date palm {Phoenix dactylifera) were used as symbols of gladness after victory. "With these Israel was commanded to cover their booths in that most joyful of all their feasts, the feast of tabernacles, when they were to 'rejoice before the Lord seven days' (Lev. xxiii. 40). With the figures of these the gold of 'the holiest' was carved (1 Kings vi. 29), and the ' wall of the house round about ' (2 Kings vi. 29), and 'the two doors' of the temple (2 Kings vi. 32), and 'the ledges and borders of the bases' (2 Kings vii. 3G), and the golden 'ceiling of the greater house' (2 Chron. iii. 5). On all parts of Ezekiel's temple, which is in reserve for the day of Israel's glory, the palm-tree is seen — on the 'posts' (xl. 16), on the southern gate (xl. 2G), on the eastern gate (xl. 34), on the northern gate (xl. 37), on the doors and windows every- where (xli. 18, 19, 20, 25, 26). For great and marvellous Avill be the triumph of that day. It was ' branches of palms ' that the people took, when bidding welcome to the King of Zion (John xii. 13). And witli this same emblem the triumphant multitude appears — ' I beheld, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the tlirone and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.'" See under Exod. xv. 27, and John xii. 13.

The visions of the resurrection and the great day of judgment pass away from the rapt gaze of the seer. The new heavens and the new earth are fully realized. John hears a great voice out of heaven pro- claiming— -" Behold the tabernacle of God is with men." He is then taken to get a full view of " tlie bride, the Lamb's wife :" — "And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God : and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper-stone, clear as crystal " (xxi. 10, 11). The glory of the foundations, walls, and gates of the holy city, are then described: — "And the building of the wall of it was of jasper : and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper ; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; the fifth, sardonyx ; the sixth, sardius ; the seventh, chrysolite ; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus ; the eleventh, a jacinth ; the twelfth, an amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls ; every several gate was of one pearl : and the street

Tllli REVELATION.

607

of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass" (ver. 18-21). Most of the precious stones mentioned in Scripture have been noticed under Gen. ii. 12; Exod. xxiv. 10; xxviii. 17, 18; Lam. iv. 7; and Rev. iv. 3 — whicli see. The " crystal named in verse 11 was no doubt pure rock crystal, or perfectly transparent quartz, with hues like the finest jasper. The original meaning of the Greek hnjstallos was ice, and the popular Ijelief regarded rock crystal as water Fig.195.

permanently frozen. In verse 19 the third foundation is stated to have been " a chalcedony " (Gen. ii. 12). The absence of agate from this list might lead us to » / «v

expect some reference to it under another name. Chalcedony proper is a translucent, highly crystalline variety of quartz, generally of a yellowish grey colour. Some of the finest have different shades of yellow, laid down in bands, as shown in fig. 193. Many-coloured chalcedonies are known as agates. The oriental ''i<=>''"u«i cbakedony. agate is in colour milk-white, tinged with yellow, and generally in structure like the accompanying cut. When the second colouring matter is orange, the stone is named sardonyx, when green it becomes a chrysoprasus, when a dash of red is laid on the ground hue it is called sardiiis. The "chrysolite" may be best understood if it be likened to the highly crystallized variety of quartz knowTi generally in Britain as " cairngorum."

The twelve gates were twelve pearls. " The pearl," Heb. ydvish, Gr. viaryantes, is only once directly named in the Old Testament. Job says —

"No mention shall be made of coral or ot' pearls: For the price of wisdom is above rubies" (xxviii. 18).

Bochart and others will have "rubies" {peniniin) in this passage to mean " pearls" but the scope of the verse, were there nothing else, is against this. Rubies can buy pearls ; but wisdom is better than rubies, therefore let no mention be made in this contrast between wisdom and the choicest gems of earth. The Hebrew word {garish), moreover, points to something like small hail. This has led our translators rightly to render it pearls. This jewel has been referred to also under Gen. xi. 12 — which see.

The pearl of commerce is obtained from the shell of one of the Avicultda?, or wing-shelled family of molluscs, the pearl-oyster (Am'cida margaritifera) represented on Plate XVIII., fig. 1, as Margarita mar-

&

garitifera. This shell yields the well-known " mother of pearl" which is much used for ornamenting furniture, articles of luxury, &c. The play of the suidight on this was sufficient to suggest it to John in the description of the gates of the Holy Jerusalem. The vision is gloriously bright. The foundations are exposed, and seem to him like all "manner of precious stones" — congregated gems of a lustre and size which the wealth of the world could not purchase. Tlie wall is of jasper, the appearance of the whole like pure gold, gleaming before the eye like glass. The twelve gates were twelve pearls. They seemed like the nacre of the pearly shells Avlien bright light strikes on it. There is no good ground for the popular opinion, that the pearl jewel is the result of disease. Injury done to the nacreous mass of these shells, docs undoubtedly lead to concretions which go to form pearls proper, but they are generally found in circumstances in which nothing like injury to the general layer can be afhrmed. When a section is made in a pearl, a nuDiber of laminte, or thin plates, arc arranged over each other like the layers of the onion. The layers are always of the same kind with those which constitute the mother of pearl itself. As far as is yet known, then, pearls are simply the result of a superabundance of the nacreous matter which goes to form the shell. " Perhaps the only species operated on by man is the famous Chinese pearl mussel [Barhala pli- cata). The people of the Celestial Emj^ire produce artificial pearls in this shell, by introducing wire and other foreign bodies under the mantle of the animal. In the British IMuseum specimens may be seen where pearls of a fine lustre have been thus produced, as well as a series of little 'josses,' made of metal, and which, having been intro- duced under the mantle while the animal was alive, have gradually become quite coated with pearly matter."

The genus BarhaJa belongs to the family UnioniJce^ or river mussels.

In addition to those already noticed, other five passages contain references to the pearl. When instructing his disciples in the sermon on the mount, our Lord urged to prudence and discrimination in the exercise of their spiritual gifts. It was not enough that they detected sin and had hearts to rebuke offenders, they needed also to judge both of the persons and circumstances met by them in fulfilling their ministry. They might meet men on whom reproof would be thrown away, and the word of God itself brought into contempt ; such, for example, as would be seen were a sober man to lecture a drunkard on the evils of drunkenness when in a state of intoxication. " Cast not your pearls before swine."

n>

THE REVELATION'.

609

In Matt. xiii. 45, 4G, our Lord says — " Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchantman seeking goodly pearls : who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it." Thus he sets before us the incomparable excellence and value of his kingdom. Tlie passage has often been perverted from its true meaning, by men dwelling on the nature and properties of the pearl, and finding at each point some outstanding feature in Christ. His person is not referred to here, but his gospel, and peace through him to every seeker. The points of special moment brought out in the figure are dissatisfaction with present possessions, leading to search after something better, and the fact that, while thus seeking, he finds what is best of all. He had wants which nothing in nature could satisfy — he sets out to seek goodly pearls. God has provided in the gospel of Christ for the highest satisfaction of the seeking soul — he finds a pearl of great price. His estimate of the kingdom of God, of the gospel, and of all to be got in it, influences him to complete self- surrender, and perfect peace results.

This reference to the great price of the pearl shows that in our Lord's day, as well as in modern times, there were jewels of this sort of great value. Mention is made of one an inch broad and one inch and a half long from the fishery of Catifa, which sold for £50,000. CcBsar presented to Servilia the mother of Brutus, a pearl valued at upwards of £48,000. If the often-repeated story of Cleopatra's folly may be credited, she dissolved in vinegar a pearl worth £80,729. Pearls of great price have ever been eagerly coveted. To this our Lord refers here, and leaves us in contact with the lesson — Be willing to give up every thing you most prize, rather than lose a place in the kingdom of God.

In apostolic times as now, pearls were coveted by the rich and luxurious as ornaments. Even professing Christian women were apt to be led away by the example around them. The heathen maiden had little else to occupy her attention than personal adorning. It was not thus with those who had found life and peace in Jesus Christ. Thus the force of Paul's words to Timothy — " I will, in like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest aj)parel, with shamefacedness and sobriety ; not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works" (1 Tim. ii. 9, 10). The woman " who sat on the scarlet- coloured beast," is described by John as " decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls" (chap. xvii. 4). "When her judgment comes

VOL. II. 4 11

610

BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE.

and her plagues overtake her, it is said, " that no man buyeth any more her merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and pearls" (xiii. 12j.

"The pearly gates" and the lustrous precious stones of fire open to faith a vision of exceeding beauty. " And I saw no temple therein : for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it ; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it." " He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly : Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Anion."

THE END.

-'^s^

INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS.

VOL. II.

Pase

Alabaster, 572

Alguin-trees, ...... 274, 318

Alrnond-trec, . . . . . . 44 1

Aloes 399, 592

Anise, 4x0, 566

Autelopes, 174, 176

Apes, . 278

Apes, anthropoid, . . . . . .321

Aphis, 532

Apple moth, 531

Apples, ....... 455

Apples of gold, ...... 440

Apple-tree, . . . . . . .441

Arctorus, . 346

Anack, ....... 477

A^p 351

Ass, wild, 372, 420

Badger, 67

Balaam, 141, 144

Bald locust, 188

Barley, 169, 231

Bats, 93. 95

Bay-tree, 395, 383

Beard-grass, ....... 449

Bees, 227

Behemoth, 377

Bittern, 481, 550

Blue, 116

Boar, 410

Bochart, ....... 67

Bootes 346

Botflies, 533

Box-tree 493

Bramble, 225, 574

Brass, 359

Briers, 466

Brimstone, 350

Broom, 299

Butialo, 391

Bug 630

BuUock, 09

Bulls, 408

Bulrush, 2, 491

" uses of, 2

Burning bush, 9

Butter, 218, 363

Calamus, .... . . 60

Calf, 75

Calves, golden, 292

Camel, . . ...... 78

Camels 218

Camel's thorn, 124

Page

Camphire, 450

Camphor, . 450

Cana.-m, nations of, 165

" features of, .... . 168

Cane, sweet, . 486

Canker-worm, ...... 545

Cassia, ........ 60

Cedar, 306

Cedars 266, 270, 315

Centipede 102

Chalcedony, 607

Charcoal, ....... 44

Chrysolite, 607

Chrysoprasus, ...... 607

Cinnamon, ....... 60

Citron, 440

Clouds, 369

Cobra, 351

Cockatrice, 438

Cockchafer 532

Cockle, 368

Colenso, Bishop, . . . .20, 32, 36, 162 Colours, various, . . . . . .315

Coney 422, 443

Constellations, ...... 371

Copper, different kinds, . . . . .171

Corals, 362, 619

Coriander, ....... 41

Cormorant, 89

Com, 180, 310

Cotton, 311, 444

Cr.ine flies, 634

Creeping things, 101

Crocodiles 382

Cross, form of, ..... . 590

Crons, ........ 86

Cuckoo, 88, 178

Cucumbei-s, 121, 404

Cummin, 480, 566

Darnel, 564

Desert, Arabian, ...... 43

Dew, fonnation of, 219

'* of Hermon, ...... 427

Dill, . 525

Dogs, 221

Dolphins, 380

Doves, 401, 457

Doves' dung, 304

Dragons, ....... 366

Drink, 477

Eagle, 82

" golden 48, 419

C12

INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS.

Eagle, imperial, Eagles, Ebony-tree, . Egypt, diseases of, Egyptians, plaf^ues of,

" medical knowledge Elain, . Elephant, fossil. Emerald, Emeralds, Exodus, contents ol Eye, apple of,

Falcon,

Fallow deer, .

Ferrets,

Fir, .

Firs,

Fishes, different kinds of,

Fitches,

Flamingo,

Flax, .

Frankincense,

Frontlets,

Galbanum, . Gall, . Garlic, . Gier eagle, Gledc, . Gnats, . Goat, wild, . Goatsucker, . Gold, . Gourds, Gourds, arbour of,

Hare, .

Harrower,

Hawk, .

Heath, .

Heifer, red, .

Hemlock,

Heima,

Heron, .

High priest, dress ol

Hind, .

Hippopotamus,

Honey,

" wild, . Hoopoe, Hornet, Horse-leech, . Horses, . Husks, . Hyssop,

Ibis, . Images, graven. Ivory, .

Jackals, Jacob, sons of. Jerboa, . . Jeruel, wilderness of. Juniper,

Kenites, Kesitah, Kite, .

of,

Page

. 605

46

. 518

103, 183

10, 21

1

. 37

. 518

. 508

. 604

1

. 190

. 376 . 265 . 99 . 271

314, 484 . 274 . 479 . 89

206, 434 . 65 . 565

. 65

349

122

90

177

0, 568

372

88

318, 358

301

540

79

85

84, 177

504

132

524

451

91

54

390

377

240, 308, 389

556

92

49

442

284

583

271

482

47

278, 517

. 229 194, 205 . 235 . 326 . 299

. 144 . 382 84, 361

Kurtz, Dr.

Lapwing,

Leeks, .

Leopard,

Leprosy, diUVrent kinds of

Leviathan,

Lign aloes.

Lilies, ,

Linen, .

" fine, . Lion, . Locust-eaters,

Mallows,

Manna,

Mantis,

Melons,

Men, varieties of,

Metals,

Millet, .

Millipede,

Mint, .

Mole, .

Months, Jewish,

Moses, .

Mouse, ,

Mustard-tree,

Myrtle-trees, .

Nail, .

Nature, meaning ol Nettles, Night-hawk, . Nightingale, .

Nile, . Nitre, , Nuts, .

Oak, . Oil, . Oleander, Olive, wild, • Olive-trees, . Onions, Onycha, Orion, . Ostrich, Owls, . Ox, .

Palm crist, . Palm-trees, .

" branches of. Papyrus, Partridge, Peacocks, Pearls, . Pelican, Pheasants, Phthiriasis, . Phylacteries, . Pines, . Plant lice, Pleiades, Polecat, Pomegranate, Poplar, Poppies, Processionary moths,

Page . 33

. 91 . 122 504, 647 104, 109 . 379 . 143 453, 578 . 445 . 510 144, 213, 339, 387 . 557

. 363

. 40

. 186

. 121

. 695

. 145

. 510

. 102 566, 577

. 100

. 35 . 1—8

. 97

. 581

. 551

. 217

. 3.')6

365, 549 . 87 . 456 3, 536 . 436 . 460

467, 522 414 384 600 225 122 64 346

366, 375 85, 178

. 140

- . 540

38, 414

. 590

3, 475

249—253

279, 322

607—610

. 417

. 323

557

. 565

. 314

. 532

. 347

98

. 237

. 522

. 564

. 522

INDEX OF NAMES AND SUBJECTS.

613

	Page		Page
Processionary moths, larvae o	f, . . . 527	Sun, standing still of the,	. 210
Psylli, ....	. 33	Swallows,	. 413, 442
Purple,.	. 223	Swan, ....	. 90
		Swine, ....	. 79, 494
Quails, ....	. 40, 127	Sycamine-tree,	. 584
		Sycamore,	. 283
Rabbit,	. 79
Reeds, ....	. 295, 470	Tabernacles, .	. 114
Reptiles,	97	Tabor, Jlount,	. 215
Rock snake, .	. 134	Tamarisk,	. 123
Roe, ....	. 432	Tares, ....	. 564
Rose	. 452	Taurus,	. 347
Raby, oriental,	. 50	Teil-tree,	. 467
Rue, ....	. 578	Terns, ....	. 179
		Thistle,	. 305
Saffron crocus,	. 459	Thunder,	. 392
Salt, ....	. 72	Tortoise,	. 97
Salt Sea,	. 157	Trees, age of.	. 497
Sandal-wood,	. 319	Tse-tse,	. 532
Sapphire,	50, 508	Turtle-dove, .	. 70
Sardine stone.	. 604
Sardonyx,	. 607	Unicom,	. 198, 414
Sea-monsters,	. 507	Ursa Major, .	. 346
Sea-wrack, .	. 538
Se«, Red, . . .	3	Vinegar,	. 118,435
Sedges,	. 382	Vines, ....	. 171
Serpents,	. 402	Viper, ....	. 352
Srape-goat, .	. 110	Vultures,	82, 482
Scarlet,	. 52
Scorpion,	. 172, 577	Walnut-tree, .	. 461
Sheep, Syrian,	. 583	Waterspout, .	. 397
Shittim-wood,	. , . 68	Whe.at,.	. 170
Silk, ....	. 510	Wheat-flies, .	. 530
Silk-worm moth, .	. 511	Wilkinson, Sir G. .	. 39
Silver, ....	. 355	Willows, brook of, .	. 474
Slow-worm, .	. 101	Wind	. 343
Snail	. 99	Wine,	. 118
Soap, ....	. 554	Wire-worms,	. 529
Sodom, wine of.	. 191	Wolf,	. 197
Sparrows,	. 412	AVorms, i	. 544
Spice, ....	60, 324	Wormwood, .	. 430
Spiders,	. 344
Spikenard,	. 449	Xenophon, quoted, .	. 373
Stacte, ....	. 64
Stanley, Dr. .	43, 142	Year, Jewish,	. 35
Stones, precious, .	55, 58	Yerek,	. 474
Stork, ....	. 422, 500
Strong drink,	. 118	Zizania, . . . .	. 564

, 1
1 1 1 !	SCIENTIFIC INDICES.
I-	MAJIMALIA.	flencra.
Gener.i.		Capriniulgus, .... Vol. ii. page 88
Antilope, .	. Vol. i. page 475; ii. 176	Ciconia,				ii 91, 422
Arvicola, .	. ii. 230	Cinclus, .				. i. 565
f Asinus,	ii. 21,201, 42U	Circus,				. ii. 85
i Bos, ....	i. 307; ii. 21, 140, 201, 391	Columba, .				. i. 223
j Camelus, .	. i. 306, 441; ii. 78, 218	CorTOS,	i	219,	476,	559 ; ii. 82, 80, 296
1 Canis,	i. 511; ii. 181, 196, 221, 589	Coturui-t, .				. ii. 127, 24!)
i Capra,	i. 413 — 415; ii. 170, 422	Cuculu.s, .				. ii. 178
Caprcoluy, .	i. 471;ii. 432	Cygnus, .				. " 91
1 Castor,	. ii. 550	Cypselus, .				. " 413
' Cervus,	. ii. 175, 265, 388	Egrctta, .				. " 90
I Dipus,	. ii. 235	Falco,				. " 376
Eqaus,	i. 306, 530 ; ii. 21, 287, 372	Francolinns,				. " 249
i lu-lis, i. 518; ii. 230	, 243, 339, 388, 504, 518, 547	Gallus,				. " 685
' Galago, .	. ii. 321	Geronticns,				. " 482
Gazelle, .		. " 174	Goura,				. ■' 401
; Gorilla,		. i. 640	Grus,				. " 601
j Hippopotamus, .		i, 672 ; ii. 377	Gypaetos, .				. " 482
Hvrax, .		. ii. 423	Gyps,				i. 476 ; ii. 82
Ibex,		. i. 471	llaliaetus, .				. ii. 82
Indris.		. ii. 321	Hirundo, .				. " 418
Lemur,		. " 321	Ictinia,				.■ " 82
Lepus,		ii. 79, 424	Laras,				L 565 ; ii. 89
Megaderma,		. ii. 93	Lophophorus,				. ii. 322
Melcs,		. " 67	Milras,				ii 82,361,362
Morunga,		. " 507	Neophron, .				L476;u. 82, 482
Mus,		. " 236	Numenius,				. ii. 91
Mustela, .		. " 97	OtHS,				. " 366
Nasalis, .		i. 510; ii. 321	Pandion, .				. " 82
Otaria,		. ii. 507	Passer,				. ii. 412, 418
Ovis,	i. 143, 3	06;ii. 21, 140, 583	Pavo,				. " 322, 323
Papio,		. ii. 321	Pelccanns, .				1.501; ii. 417
I'hysetcr, .		. " 380	Perdix,				. ii. 250
I'lecotus, .		. " 93	Pliasianus,				. " 322
liliinoceros,		. " 199	Pbilomela,				. " 456
Rlilnolophus,		. " 93	Pliocnicopterus,				. " 89
yemnopithecus, .		. " 321	Polyplectron,				. " 323
Simia,		. " 321	Porphyrio,				. " 90
Stemmatoptis, .		" 507	Pterocles, .				. ii. 128; 250
Sus,		ii. 79, 409, 494	Stri-x,				. " 178; 482
Talpa,		. ii. 1(10	Struthio, .				. ii. 373
Tarsus,		. " 322	Treron,				. " 401
Ursus,		. " 200	Turtur, .				. i. 222; ii. 70, 457
Vulpcs,		. i. 511	Vulture, .				. ii. 482
I	I.— AVES.	III.— REPTILIA.
Anscr,	. ii. 91	Anguis, ii. 101
Aquila,		ii. 48, 83, 505	Boa, i. 117
Ardea,		. ii. 91	Cerastes, ii. 353
Argus,		. " 322	Chamajleo i. 401
Atliene,		. " 86	Chelonia, i. 441 ; ii. 98
Botaurus, .		. " 550	Chelys i. 441
Ei.bo,		. ii. 178, 483	Cistuda, i. 411
1

SCIENTIFIC INDICES.

615

flenera.		GcneTa.
Cobr;^	Vol. ii. page 351	Melelontha,	. Vol. ii. page 531
Coluber, .				. ii. 172	(Esti-us,					. ii. 533
Crocodilus,				. ii. 380, 407	Pedicuius, .					. '■ 17
Crotnlus, .				. ii 403	Ptinus,					. " 108
Einjrs,				. i. 441	Pulcx,					. " 248
Gavialis, .				. ii. 381	San"othripus,					. " 531
.lacare.				. " 381	.Scarabit'us,					. " 18
Lacerfa, .				. i. 401	Tabalius, ,					. " 532
Monitor, .				. " 401	Tlirips,					. " 530
Naja,				ii. 351, 402, 405	Tinea,					ii. 108, 340
Platydactylus,				. i. 421	Tipula,					" 532, 634
Python,				.i. 117; ii. 135	Vespa,					" 49, 419
Rana,				ii. 15
Salamandra,				. i. 421
Sciiicus, . Stcllio,				. "421 . " 401		VIII.— MOLLCSCA.
Tcstudo, . Tryonix, .				i. 441;ii. 98	Arion,		. ii. 40G
. 11. ^0	Avicula,		. " 607
		Barbala, .		. " 608
		lleli.'c.		. " 406
	IV.— PISCES.	Lima.\, Murex,		. " 406 . " 224
Dactyloptera,	ii. 274	Testacella,		. " 406
EchcnSis, .				. " 274	Zonites,		. " 406
Ortlingoriscus,				. ■' 274
Phycis,				. " 274
Xiphias, . Zeus,				. " 274 . " 274		IX.— ANNELIDA.
		Hcemopsis,		. ii. 442
		Hirndo,		. " 442
	V.-ARACHNIDA.	Lunibricus, Sanguisuga,		ii. 349, 644 . ii. 442
Aranea, .	. ii. 34.5, 443
Epeira,				. ii. .'i44
Myf;ale, Plialanglum,				. " 345 . •' 345		X.-ANTHOZOA.
Scorpio, .				. " 172	Astrxa,		. ii. 519
		Caryophylla,					. '• 519
		Corallium,					. " 519
	VI.— MYRIAPODA.	Gorgonia, . Isis, .					. " 519 . " 519
Scolopendra,	ii. 102	Mcandi'ina,					. " 519
Spirostreptus,	" 102	Oculina, .					. " 519
		Tubipora, .				. " 519
	VII.— INSECTA.	XI	.— PAL^ONTOLOGl	r
Aiheta,	ii. 189
Alaus,				. " 529	Ammonites,		. i. 19
A]jhis,				. " 531	Apiocrinites,					. " 23
Apis,				ii. 227, 308, 32«	Arenicola, .					. " 11
Attagcnus,				. ii. 108	Astoria,					. " 14
lionibys, .				. " 511	Asteropbyllitcs,					. " 21
Callidium, .				. " 108	Atrypa,					. " 13
Cccidomyia,				. " 529	Avicula, .					. " 14
Coccinella,				. " 534	Bclemnitcs,					. " 26
Coccus,				ii. 51, 63, 124, 55fi	Bellerophon,					. " J8
Decticus, .				. ii. 187	Calymeue, .					. '■ 13
Dcrmestcs,				. " 107	Cariuaria, .					. " 18
Eriogastcr,				. '• .527	Ccphalaspis,					. " 16
Formica, .				. " 433	Coccosteus,					. " 16
fialleria, .				. " 108	Cyathopbyllum,					. " 13
Glossina, .				. " 532	Cycadooidea,					. " 26
Grj-llus, .				. " 185	Cyclopteris,					" 19
Hyponomeuta,				. " 527	Cypria,					" 27
Lavenia, .				. " 108	Dentalimn,					" 27
Locusta, .				. " 185	Didymograpsus,					" 13
Mantis,				. " 185	Dinotheriuin,					. •' 28

GIG SCIENTIFIC INDICES.
Gencrft.	Genera.
Diplograpsus, .... Vol. i	. page 13	Artemisia, . . . Vol. ii. page 430, 431
Elephas, .					" 31	Arundo, .		. ii. 295, 476 | |
Euomphalus,						" 13	Asclepias, .			. ii. 192
Favosites, .						" 18	Astragalus,				. i. 465
Uraptolites,						" 13	Atropa,				. " 435
Gnphaja, .						" 25	Balsamodendron,			i. 4	69; ii. 64, 331, 398
Halysites, .						" 13	Boswcllia, .				. ii 65
Holoptychius,						" 17	Btixus,				. " 493
Hyperodapedon, .						" 21	Byblus, .				. " 3
Ichthyosanrus, .						" 27	Calamus, .				. " 486
Laophis,						" 114	C.dtha, .				. i. 61
1 Lepidndendron,						i. 12, 20	Caluna,				. ii. 504
j Lcptnlepis,						i. 26	Campliora,				,. " 450
Libellula, .						" 24	Capparis, .				ii. 26, 272
Lithostrotion,						" 19	Carduus, .				. i. 121
Lituitcs, .						" 14	Ccdrus,			206,	306, 313, 393, 489
Maclnrca, .						" 14	Ccratonia,				. ii. 557, 583
Megatbcriain,						" 29	Chionanthus,				. i. 220
M icvolcstcs,						" 24	Cicer,				. ii. 304
Modiolopsis,						" 14	Ciiinauioinuin,				. " 63
Ncuropteris,						" 19	Cistus,				. " 398
Oi^'gia,						" 13	Citrullus, .				. " 301
Oldhamia, .						" 11	Citrus,				ii. 113, 440, 454
Orthis,						" 14	Conium,				. ii. 525
Palaeophis,						" 114	Corcliorus,				. " 364
1 Palseopyge,						" 11	Coriandruni,				. •' 40
P:da>otheriuni,						" 27	Crataegus, .				. i. 122
Paleryx,						" 114	Crocus,				. ii. 459
Pecopteris,						" 19	Cucumis, .				. ii. 121, 302
Pentamcrus,						" 13	Cucurbita, .				. ii. 639
Phacops, .						. 14, 145	Cuminum,				. " 480
Pholadomya,						. i. 26	Cuprcssus,			i. U	i5;ii. 271,314,318
Platysomus,						" 23	Cydonia, .				. ii. 411
Plesiosaurus,						" 126	Cyperus, .				ii. 2, 382, 475, 491
Pleuroriiyncus,						. " 19	Diuspyros, .				. ii. 618
I'leurotoinaria,						. " 18	Dryobalanops,				. " 450
Pliosaurus,						. " 26	Ecbalium, .				. " 302
Productus,						i. IB, 19	Faba,				. " 479
Protaster, .						i. 14	Ficus,		i. 1	34,1	36,535,584; ii. 283
Ptericltliys,						. " 16	Ferula,				. ii. 65
PtcTodactylus,						. " 127	Fr.agaria, .				. i. 136
Pycnodus,						. " 25	Fra.xiiuis, .				i. 226, 488
Kiistrites, .						. " 13	Galbanuui,				. ii. 65
Sigillaria, .						. " 20	Genista,				. ii. 299, 363
Splienopteris,						. " 19	Gossypium,				. " 311, 444
Spinifer, .						. " 18	Iledera,				• ii. 539
Stigmaria,						. " 19	Hordeum, ,				. i. 520; ii. 232, 480
Syringopora,						. " 18	Ilyssopus, .				. ii. 273
Telerpeton,						. " 21	Juglaus,				. " 460
Trigonia, .						. " 25	Juniperus, .				. " 299
Turbo,						. " 27	Latliyrus, .				. " 480
Voluta,						. " 27	Ligustrum,				. i. 226
	Lilium,				. ii. 454, 577
	Linuni,				. ii. 23, 24, 26, 206
	Lolium,				. ii. 564
Xtl.— BOTAMY.	Lycium, Malus,				. i. 120 . ii. 456
Abies ii. 271, 314	Mundragora,				. !. 431—434
Acacia,					. '• 67, G8	Mentha,				. ii. 26, 577
Agrosteinina,					. " 368, 564	Morus,				. " 259, 584
Alh.igi,					. ii. 124	Myrtus,				. " 237, 650
Allium,					. ii. 122, 26	Nardostachys,				. ii. 449
Aniygdalus,			. i. '	185;	i. 63,441,446	Nymphiea,				. " 454
Aniyris,					. ii. 64	Olea,				i. 226;ii. 124
j Ananassa, .					. " 441	Ononis,				. i. 120
Andropogon,				.	i, 62, 449, 486	Ornus,				. ii. 489
Anethum, .					. ii. 525, 567	Oryza,				. i. 123
Antbriscus,					. ii. 26	Panax,				. ii. 620
Aquilana, .					. ii. 143, 399	Panicum, .				. "510
Anuoracia,					. ii. 26	Papaver, .				. " 564

1
SCIENTIFIC	INDICES. 617 1
Genera.
Plianix, Vol. ii. page 38	XIV.— GEOGRAPHY.
Piinpinella,				. iL 527
Piiius,				. " 271	Abana V	ol. ii. page 302
Pistacia,				. " 522	Abarim,			. " 138 1
PlaUnus, .				. " 283	Abhira,			. " 297
Populus, .				. " 523	Accad,				. i. 271
Pruiius,				. i. 120	Ahava,				. ii. 330
Punica,				ii. 237, 239, 458	Ain Fasael,				. " 295
Quercus, .				i. 18C;ii. 522	Ajalon,				. " 210
niiamnus, .				. i. 120	Arabia Fehx,				. " 192
Ko»a,				. " 121	Ararat,				i. 203—208
KubaSf				L 122 i ii. 574	Araxes,				i 90, 211
Ruscus,				. i 121	Archipelago, Grecian, .				. i. 261
Kuta,				. ii. 578	Armon,				. ii. 138
Saccharum,				. " 486	Aroer,				. " 138
Salix,				. ii. 487, 488	Asshnr,				. i. 95
Salsola,				. ii. 533	Assyria,				. ii 538
Salvidora, .				. " 582	Babel,				. i. 275
Sarotbamuus,				. " 299	Babylon, .				. ii. 472
ScirpiLS,				. " 491	Banias,				. " 428
Secale,				. •' 479	Betbab.ara,				. " 558
Styrax,				. ii. 64, 522	Bethel,				. " 292
Syringa, .				. i. 226	Bethlehem,				. " 246
Tamarix, .				ii. 123, 504, 556	Beracbab, .				. " 326
Tilia,				. ii. 497	Bir Suweis,				. i. 377 1
Ulex,				. i. 123	Calah,				i. 95, 271
Urtica,				. ii. 584	Callirhoe, .				. i. 370
Vicia,				:. 402 i ii. 429	Canaan,		ii	130,	156, 165, 168
Zea, .				. i. 123	Carmel,				. i. 299
	Caspian Se.i,				. "211
	Caucasus, .				. "210
	Ceylon,				. u. 276
XIII.— MINERAI-OGY.	Cush, Damietta, .				. i. 90 . ii. 4
Adamantine spar Ii. 50	Dan, .				. " 294
Agate,			. i. 99 i ii. 57	Darfur,				. " 4
Amctliyst, .				. ii. 55	Dead Sea, .			i.	317, 366, 373
lienl,				. i. 99 ; ii. 55	Ebal.				. i. 299
Bitumen, .				. i. 187	Eden,				i. 90—99, 200
Brass,				. ii. 145, 359	Egypt,				. i. 349
Carbuncle, .				. i. 99; ii. 50	El-Maharrakah, ,				. ii. 297
Chalcedony,				i. 99 ; ii. 55, 607	Enrogel,				. " 204
Clirysolite, .				. ii. 607	Ercch,				. i. 271
Chrysoprasua,				. " C07	Erythr^an Sea, .				. " 209
Copper,	i.	94, 1	53, 1,	)6, IGO; ii. 171, 356	Ethiopia, .				ii. 276, 331
Corunditcs,				. ii. 50	Euphrates,				. ii. 428
Diamond, .				i. 94, 98;ii. 56	Ezion Gaber,				ii. 154, 274
Emerald, .				" 99 ; ii. 55, 604	Gerizim,				. i. 299
Flint,				. ii. 466	Gibeon,				. ii. 250
Galena,				. " 146	Gilead,				. " 139
Gold, . i. 94	,98;	ii. 54	, 145	278, 317. 365, 609	Ghor,				. i. 317
Iron, .			. i. 1	)7, 160 ; ii. 145, 356	Goshen,				. " 486
Jade,				. i. 521	Haran,				. " 294
Jasper,				i. 99 ; ii. 58, 604	Havilah, .				. " 90
Lead,				. ii. 145, 350	Hebron,				. ii. 255
Ligure,				. ii. 57	Heliopolis, .				. i. 481
Nephrite, .				. i. 521	Horcb,				. ii. 4
Ony.'!,				. i. 94, 97 ; ii. 54	Ijon, .				. " 453
Pyrites, copper,				. i. 150	Jeruel,				. " 352
Quartz,				. " 99	Kadisha, .				ii 300, 328
Rock crj'stul,				. ii. 50	Keilah,				. ii. 248
Ruby,				ii. 50, 007	Khartum, .				. " 4
Sapphire, .				. i. 99 ; ii. 50	Kishon,				. " 297
Sardine,				. ii. 004	Lake of Genncsaret,				. " 559
Sardius,				. " 55	Mar Saba,				. " 424
Sardony.\, .				. " 607	Mediterranean Sea,				i. 200
Silver,			. i.	W; ii. 145, 278,355	Mesha,				. ii. 274
Sulphur, .				. ii. 350	Mosul,				. " 372
Tin, .				. " 356	Nablu^s .			'. . i 299 1
Topaz,				. " 55	NUe, .			ii. 4, 536
VOL. II.	4 I
■ !

618

SCIENTIFIC INDICES.

Kimrond, .

Nineveh, .

Nod, .

Ophir,

Paran,

Pbarpar, .

Phcenicia, .

Rameses, .

Ras Atakab,

Eehobotb, .

Rosetta,

Samaria, .

Sea of Galilee,

Sea of Tiberias,

Shinar,

Sinai,

Somme, valley of,

ge 278
11	544
i	95
11	274
1	481
11	302
i	269
11	148
i*	149
1	95
11	4
"	303
u	559
■'	559
i.	280
11	4 1
'•	525

Tabor,

Tacazze,

Tarsus,

Tartessns,

Taurus,

Tharsbisb,

Tigris,

Tyre,

Ulal, river of,

Ummiyeb, .

Wady Alias,

Wady-esb Shcikb,

Wady-et Taiyibeb

Wady Kelt,

Wady Mukatteb,

Wady Sbellal, .

Ziph,

Vol. ii.

page 215 ii. 4 " 279 '• 279 i. 210 ii 274 " 427 " 281 i. 444 "219 ii. 295

155. 300 ii. 150 " 295 " 151 ■' 151 " 248

INDEX OF SCRIPTURE TEXTS ILLUSTRATED.

	GENESIS.
Chap.	■\	'erso	Page
L		21...	.. 1—11
({		26...	324
11.		12....	..54, 362
"		11...	145
111.		2...	9
t(		21...	67
((	1	-7...	134, 171
u		18...	223
IV,		2...	.. 21, 69
11	17,	22..66	120,180
Vll.		2...	76
ii		7...	86
Vlll.	8,12	28...	70
X.	15,	IG...	165
it		17...	75
t(		29...	277
xu.		16...	..70,463
Xlll.		6...	70
it		18...	144, 255
XIV,		7...	..72,153
XT,		13...	37
'*		9...	132
(t		19...	144
"	18-	-21...	158
n		7...	215
4t		18...	413
sxm.		2...	255
xxvu.		9...	69
	28-	-37 ..	173
XXVUl.		12...	226
XXIX.	15	16...	356
XXX.		W...	170
(L		43...	21
xxxu.		3...	205
»*		17...	8
XXXV.	1	,26...	53
XX XVI.		12...	312
XXXVIK		25...	61
It		31...	76
-XXVIU.		28...	52
(t		5...	214
"		12...	220
"		1...	245
xli.	2	—4...	132, 236
It		1...	... 5,313
tt		42...	53
xlU.		3...	169
xliii.		11...	131
xlvi.	5, 8, 14	22...	1
xlvii.		11...	148
xlviii.		22...	166
xlix.		2...	130

	VOL. II.
Chap.	Verso		Page	Chap.
xli.t.	9...		243	XXXVIl.
"	27 ..	... ..	237	XX.XV1I1.
it	17...		353	(t
I	10...		180	SXXIX.
	EXODUS.			xl.
1.	11...		148
11.	3...		382
111.	1...		7
Vll.	9, 10, 12...		135	i.
IX.	14... 31...		183 231	ii.
"	23...		392	IV.
X.	4...		186	"
XI.	7... 31...		221 306	XI.
Xtl.	6...		27
(t	22...		272	xiv.
XIV.	1—4...		149	xvi.
11	12...		36	xxu.
XV.	2...		113	•'
"	22, 27...	149	150	XXIU.
"	27...	204	213	"
xvt.	21—29...		125	XXVI.
XVll.	6... 1—7...		7 151	tl
XIX.	1,2... 4..		152 186
xxn.	6...	222	341	i.
XXUl.	23... 31...		166 158	iv.
XXV.	4...	109	207	V.
"	10..		68	vi.
"	33..		447	ix.
XXVi.	1, 31,36..		52 74	xi.
xxvii.	18..		74	xii.
XXVUl.	5, 6, 8.. 15, 33.. 17..		52 62 362 .	xiii. <(
u	18..		518	"
u	33, 35..		238	xviii.
((	42..		312	u
SXIX.	1..		75	••
XXX.	23.. 34..		400 71	xix.
XXXIII.	6..		7	x.x.
XXXV.	6, 23.. 7, 23..		62 67	xxi.
*'	25, 35..		62	xxii.
XXXVI.	19..		67	"
"	8, 35, 37..		52	xxiii.
XXXV 11.	19, 20..		53	xxiv.

Verso Pago

24,25,26 59

18,23 62

27, 28 60

1,2,3,5 52

34 67

24, 26 23.i

2 60

LEVITICUS.

5 21

11 435

12—15... 66, 241

3 70

10 140

13 47

14—22... 177, 186

29 236

4, 6, 51, 52 272

4 312

28... 26, 141

21 70

43—15 40

14 212

21 183

19 360

NUMBERS.

1, 2 46, 60

0—25 67

48 74

15 66, 115

3 76, 189

4—6 464

7,31 40

8 125

4 180

17 8

20 171

29 166

33 186

12 173

12, 37 385

19... 72, 141

2 180

6, 18... 42, 272

6 237

6 191

13, 26... 138, 165

— 68

4. .76, 112,463 26 414

6 325

620

INDEX OF SCRIPTURE TEXTS ILLUSTRATED.

Chap, sxiv.

xxvii, xxviii,

xxxi.

xxxii, xxxiii.

TU,

viii.

XI.

xiv.

XIX. XX.

xxii. xxiii.

XX7.

xxvii. xxviii

(I

xxix. xxxii.

xxxui. xx.xiv.

Verso Pape

9 243

21 8

7 119

20 C8

38 139

35 163

49 20G

DEUTERONOMY.

C— 8 158

8, 36... 137, 154

8, 16 138

48 137

14 141

1, 15... 103, 161

2, 3... 42, 125

8... 130, 232

15... 223, 466

14 24

4, 5... 78, 265

9—16 81, 84

26 118

4 385

38 25

5 432

2 206

10 141

2 2G3

18 221

4... 141, 463

12, 13 224

23, 27... 103, 360 38, 39... 52, 186

6 119

18 70

11,12 46

24 135

17... 142, 391

22—28 385

3 213

	JOSHUA
ii.	C.	107,434
u	10..	165
u	18..	444
Till.	33—35..	162
IX.	7..	166
X.	10..	183
XI.	3..	166
"	16, 17..	159
XII.	1..	138
XI u.	5..	313
"	9..	137
XIT.	13, 14..	255
XV.	7..	264
11	10, 57..	226
tt	34..	153
4(	44..	212
XVII.	15..	166
XVIU.	16..	264
XIX.	22..	215
tl	36..	214
"	43..	226
XXIV.	12.. JUDGES.	49, 165
i.	16..	204

Chnp.

X1I1.

xiv.

XV.

xvi.

XX.

x.\ii.

Xlll.

xiv.

XVI.

xvii.

xix. xxii. xxiii.

XXV.

xxvi.

xxviii.

XXX.

Vlll.

xiv.

XVlll.

xxi.

Verfic Page

20 8

22 407

1—14 232

36 189

1 266

5 181

7 406

26 518

15... 266,418

45 72

II 203

22, 23 165

4—15 118

8... 72, 556

12 465

16 203

18... 132, 243

5 341

21 359

33 256

31 256

RUTH.

22... 24, 366

4 118

14... 242, 436

1 SAMUEL.

13, 14 119

17 183

4... 97, 498

4 256

13 8

3—15 2.i6

2... 171, 469

32 70

6 145

2 132

5, 6 360

34... 243, 387

16 68

1, 2, 4 246

19 256

• 5 8

20 128

24 75

26 196

2 SAMUEL.

19 174

23 213

2, 4 256

23 316

3, 18... 159, 254

23 166

30 233

1 285

10 243

19... 169, 183

■ 28 233

7 183

7 408

16 360

6 222

11 543

20 244

5 137

16 180

xm. xiv.

XVI.

xix.

1 KINGS.

Chap. Verse Page

iv. 33... 309, 328

V. 1—10 313

ix. 26, 28... 278, 317

X. 11... 283,317

22... 61,356

" 28, 29... 21, 286

xii. 11—14 173

28, 29... 66, 75

24—29 243

15... 366, 563

19 264

24 356

8 7

20, 21 159

26 180

17 264

36 243

39 264

2 KINGS.

23, 24 261

29 606

21 278

9... 225, 366

25, 26 243

21 02

32 8, 171

36 414

23 271

26 414

1 CIIRONICLE,S.

23 317

21 518

43 130

10 281

12 262

4, 5 106

22 244

1 109

17 264

23 166

28 284

29 234

2 CHRONICLES.

ii. 8 271

14 312

iii. 5 271

" 14... 53, 312

viii. 3—7 159

18 317

ix. 10, 11... 274, 302

" 21... 91, 282

X. 11 223

xi. 7—14 53

.xvii, 11 356

xviii. 9 180

XX. 2, 36... 215, 280

36,37 283

xxviii. 18 226

xxxi. 5... 72, 227 xxxiii. 10, 11 306

EZRA, iii. 7 270

VI.

viii. xiv.

xvii. xviii.

XIX.

xxiii.

vu.

viii.

xi.

xiv.

xviii.

xix

xxviii.

xxix.

INDEX OF SCKIPTURE TEXTS ILLUSTKATED.

621

Chap. vi. vii. ix.

111.

viii.

ix.

X,

sviii.

XX.

sxi. xxiv.

XXV.

XX vii. sxviii.

sxxi.

xxxii.

xxxvii.

xxxTiii.

IV.

ix.

X.

xi. xvii.

xviii. xxii.

XXIIl.

xxxi.

xxxii.

xxxiii.

xlv.

Iviii.

Ixx-iii.

Ixix.

Ixxviii.

Ixsx.

Ixxxi.

Ixxxir.

xct

xcii.

cii.

VerBC Page

9... 1C9, 191

22 191

1 1G6

NEHEMIAII.

15 35G

15 114

ESTHER.

6 IIG

14 281

12 398

JOB.

3 338

11 2

26 505

10 262

8 430

2 350

14, IG 402

10 141

22 407

C 52

12, 19 5G

7 84

15-17 317

1 222

29... 84, 86

32 295

18 234

4 392

4 234

27 263

1 388

13 322

19—30... 88, 286

4 382

PSALMS.

7 173

15 430

9 243

6 350

3 190

12 243

33 175

G 52

13 243

21 142

2 2G3

1, 2 70

4 243

9 287

17 286

8... CO, 325

8 99

80 216

21 430

46... 14, 19

47 284

10 309

15 556

3 417

13 339

12... 270, 328 G 86

Chnp. civ. cv.

cviil.

CSX.

cxxxvii. cxl.

V.

vi. vii. viii.

z.

t(

((

XV.

xvii.

xviii.

xix.

XX.

xxii.

XXV.

ti xxvi. XX vii.

i(

xxviii. xxix.

XXX.

It

Verso Pago

11, 17... 21, 91

30 14

23—37 32

12 222

4... 299, 365

1 330

3 353

PKOVERBS.

15 508

19 390

5 175

2 190

9 366

6 180

20 357

26... 20, 233

17 265

12 261

10 492

20 387

1 119

13 243

2 115

11 189

13 243

22 169

25 263

16 261

5 4:!0

17 83

33 190

13 206

22 312

SONG OF SOLOMON.

i. 14... 58, 180

ii. 7 388

9 175

" 14... 70, 401

iii. 5 388

6 66

iv. 3 238

8 243

" 10, 11 389

15 63

V. 4—6 332

" 15 309

viii. 14 175

ECCLESL\STES.

xii. 5... 53, 131 5 186

ISAIAH.

ii. 20 99

V. 11, 22 119

" 29 340

vii. 15... 72, 363

18 20

21 132

xiii. 12 318

xiv. 11 52

" 23 550

" 29 438

XV. 5 132

" 6 25

Chnp. Verse Pape

xviii. 2 2

xix. 6, 17... 53, 13U

xxiv. 9 119

xxviii. 7 119

25 24

xxix. 9 119

XXX. 6... 339, 352

xxxiv. 2 417

11 89

" 13... 366, 549

XXXV. 7....:.... 2

xxxvi. 17 385

xl. 31 605

xli. 14 52

xliii. 23 66

xliv. 4 113

IvL 12 119

Ixv. 4 80

IxvL 17 98

JEREMIAH.

i. 11 53

iii. 19 174

iv. 7 243

" 13 286

30... 53, 208

V. 6 243

vi. 20 66

viiL 7... 91, 458

" 14 189

X. 9 117

xiii. 1 206

xiv. 5 263

xvii. 1 56

" 26 66

xix. 9 234

xxxi. 12 385

39 256

xli. 6 66

xlvi. 20 132

xlvii. 3 407

xlviiu 38 132

xlix. 14 243

Ii. 14,27 545

Iii. 20 238

LAMENTATIONS.

i. 16 175

ii. C 385

" 18 190

iii. 10 243

" 15, 19 432

iv. 7... 51, 362

21 338

EZEKIEL.

i. 16 58

ii. 6 173

iv. 12 118

15 70

vii. 10 174

X. 9 58

xi. 12 222

xiv. 14 335

xvi. 10 67

xxiv. 16 183

xxvii. 16 57

G2-2

INDEX OF SCIJIPTORE TEXTS ILLUSTKATEU.

VI.

vii xi.

vm. ix. X.

Chap. Verse Page

xxviii. 12 14G

" 13, 15, 24... 5C, 222

xxix. 3 — 9 5

xxxi. 3—9 271

xxxiv. 17 26

xl. 3 — 8 3GG

xliii. 15, IG 241

xliv. 17, 18 206

xlvli. 11 382

DANIEL.

i. — 55G

ii. — 556

iv. 33 81

V. 1—23 191

7—27... 191, 2t3

7—21 2G2

38 357

HOSEA.

8 385

14 339

5—14 290

G 225

4, 5... 132, 430

" 8 222

xiii. 7 339

" 8 202

14 182

JOEL.

i. 4 187

" 6 243

" 12 491

" 42 238

ii. 25 187

AMOS.

ii. 15 286

iii. 12 243

iv. 9 187

vL 12 430

vii. 1 409

14 689

ix. 5 5

JONAH.

i. 2 145

ii. 5 476

iv. 7 52

MICAH.

i. 8 366

IG 83

ii. 11 119

v. 8 3CG

" 14 GG

vi. 5 68

" 15 174

vii. 17... 135, 350

" 19 110

NAHUM.

ii. 11, 12 243

iiL 15, 17 187

	IIABAKKUIC.
Chai).	Verse	PaRo
],	8...	5115
111.	19... ZEPHANIAU.	388
ii.	9...	3C6, 524
u	14...	89,417
it	14...	270
(t	14...	328
111.	3 . ZICOHARIAH.	197
ii.	8...	5116
IV.	10...	146
V.	12...	655
VI.	1—8...	286
IX.	7,15...	477, 602
X.	4...	217
XII.	4...	.... 28G
XIll.	6...	183
XIV.	15, 20... MALACIIL	286
ii.	22...	554
111.	— ...	553
"	2...	654
	S. MATTHEW
ii.	2...	GG
m.	4...	219
It	7...	352
V.	13...	72
vn.	15...	197
vm.	30...	497
X.	16...	197
XI.	7...	295, 382
XXI.	16...	386
XXIU.	23...	480
XXIV.	28...	83
xxvii.	34, 48...	118
tt	46, 49...	436
ZXVIU.	34...	501
	S. MAEK.
i.	13...	542
ii.	15...	691
v.	14...	497
XIV.	18...	691
XV.	13...	409
It	23..	118, 399
	S. LUKE.
i.	15..	118
III.	7..	351
VI.	44..	226
ix.	10—17..	586
X.	3..	197
xi.	51..	551
XII.	27..	454
ZIII.	19..	565
XV.	1.5, 16..	497
XIX	4..	283
XXIV.	41, 42.. S. JOHN.	557
i.	4..	5G1

Chap.	Verso	Pago
1.	18	... 71
111.	14	... 134
V.	15	... 3G2
VI.	9.. ..	... 118
X.	12	... 196
XII.	13	... 213
XI .\.	20, 39... 400, 573
	ACTS.
ii.	9-H	... 691
IX.	14	... 652
sx.	29	... 197
XXVUI.	3 ROMANS.	... 352
i.	1	.... 553
IV.	—	... 394
VIII.	4-8	.... 383
1 CORINTHIANS
iii.	14	.... 357
ix.	)	.... 601
X.	7 — 10 EPHESIANS.	.... 141
ii.	6, 6 PHILIPPIANS.	.... 71
iv.	18 COLOSSIANS.	.... 72
iv.	6 1 TLMOTIIY.	'2
ii.	9,10	.... 609
111.	7 HEBREWS.	.... 430
i.	7—9	.... 397
vm.	2	. .. 113
ix.	13, 14....	.... 133
tt	19	.... 63
	JAMES.
iv.	3....	.... 524
v.	11.... 1 PETER.	.... 335
i.	7....	.... 357
tt	10, U....	.... 389
iii.	3, 4.... 2 PETER.	.... 118
ii.	22.... REVELATION.	.... 497
iv.	3...	66, 518
VII.	9...	38, 213
vm.	4,11...	66, 432
XIU.	2...	.... 262
XVI	13....	.... 14
XVIII.	13....	.... 286
XXI.	20....	.... 57
"	21.. .	.... 3G2

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