i^Sl ^^ ^^fTED er & /7. >^ VO UfHEF^OUS W'OOD-CUT^, / ft-^iv^ '■/// '"^ ■'^ 7 >^n a ---^i %: BEII^d THE E)^P'L/>)vi;iTlOJ\/ OF /ILL F^EFEF(E^CfE^ If^ 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 Kb, 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 VOL. II. H 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, " 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 VOL. II. K 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). VOL. II. I' 82 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- LEVITICUS IV.-XI. 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 VOL. II. p 114 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE. 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,'). IIG 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^'^ 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, 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." 140 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, Jacob, and thy tabernacles, 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 NUMBERS XXXIII. 153 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 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." VOL. n. 2 G 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 VOL. II. 2 II 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. I. SAMUEL. 247 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 I. SAMUEL. 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 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE. 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, 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.) 2G4 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 I. KINGS. 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 VOL. II. 2Xj 206 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE, 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 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE. 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. I. KINGS. 281 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]), 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 VOL. II. 2 N 282 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE. 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 I. KINGS. 283 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 — I. KINGS. 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, ; 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, 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, 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, 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 VOL. ^|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 VOL. II. 2 T 330 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE:. 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, 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, 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 ? 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 2z VOL. II. 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 366 BIBLICAL NATURAL SCIENCE. 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 ,