their names in much the same manner. See PLUCHE'S Hist. du Ciel, vol. i. p. 11. PARKHURST'S Heb. Lex. p. 2. No. 677.-xiii. 21. The Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light.] XENOPHON, in his Lacedæmonian republic, describing the march of a Spartan king when he goes out to war, mentions a servant or officer under the name of fire-carrier, who went before him with fire taken from the altar, at which he had just been sacrificing, to the boundaries of the Spartan territory, where, sacrificing again, and then proceeding, a fire, kindled likewise from this latter sacrifice, goes before him, without ever being extinguished. No. 678.-xv. 20. And all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.] Representations similar to this are frequently to be met with in the ancient writers. Hesiod describes the muses as dancing round the altar of Jupiter. Ορχεονται και βωμον ορισθενεος Κρονίωνος. Theog. V. 4ο Thus Theseus led the ring in the dance to the sound of the harp. (Callim. Hy. in Del. 301.) Plato assures us that the gods, and the children of the gods, were honoured with dancing. (De Leg. b. vii p. 815.) And he was for consecrating songs and dances to them; appointing feasts at proper seasons of the year, and for ordering by authority what songs were proper to be sung, and what dances to be used, at the sacrifices which were offered to them. Lucian also informs us, that the Indians adored the sun when they rose in the morning, not as the Greeks did, by kissing their hand, but by turning to the east and dancing, and thus appeased the deity morning and evening. (De Saltat. § 15, 16, 17.) CHANDLER'S Life of David, vol. ii. p. 116. No. 679.-xv. 23. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter.] Dr. Shaw (Trav. p. 314.) thinks that these waters may be properly fixed at Corondel, where there is a small rill, which unless it be diluted by the dews and rain, is very brackish. Another traveller (Journey from Grand Cairo to Mount Sinai, A. D. 1722, p. 14, 15.) tells us that, at the foot of the mountain of Hamam el Faron, a small but most delightful valley, a place called Garondu, is a rivulet that comes from the mountain, the water of which is tolerably good and sufficiently plentiful, but is bitter, though very clear. Pococke says, there is a mountain known to this day by the name of Le Marah, and toward the sea is a salt well called Birhammer, which is probably the same here called Marah. No. 680.-xvii.-6. Thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it.] This remarkable interposition of God for the Israelites appears to have been imperfectly known in other countries: and the remembrance of it is still retained in some of the heathen fables. There is a manifest allusion to it in Euripides (Baccha, 703.) where he makes one smite the rock at Citharon, and waters gush out of it. Huetius (Alnetana Quæstiones, 1, ii. c. 12. n. 18.) gives many such instances; and suggests that it is very probable, that the fable of Junus was forged from hence: alleging that the image is described as holding a rod in his left hand, with which he smites a stone, and causes water to flow from it. No. 681.-xvii. 16. Because the Lord hath sworn.] Saurin (Dissertations, vol. i. p. 433.) says, that the Hebrew of this text is equivocal: it signifies literally, because the hand on the throne of God, war of God against Amalek from generation to generation: and from Patrick he observes that it is pretended, that to put the hand upon the throne was in some countries a ceremony that attended a solemn oath, as laying it on the altar was in other places. This was as much as our laying the hand on the Bible, a principal external character of an oath: whence Juvenal (Sat. xiii. 89.) says, atheists do intrepidos altaria tangere, touch the altars boldly without trembling; that is, make no conscience of an oath. No. 682.-xviii. 12. The elders of Israel.] Not only fathers, but all old men, had great authority among the Israelites and all the people of antiquity. They every where, in the beginning, chose judges for private affairs, and counsellors for the public, out of the oldest men. Thence came the name of senate and fathers at Rome, and that great respect for old age which they borrowed from the Lacedæmonians. As soon as the Hebrews began to be formed into a people they were governed by old men. No. 683.-xx. 5. Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.] This part of the divine law is doubtless founded in wisdom and equity, though to many persons it may have appeared harsh and severe. The principle of it has however been extended by some modern legislators. Thevenot (part ii. p. 161.) says, that the punishment of the third and fourth generation does not always satisfy the king of Persia. "All the pearls that weigh half a medical or more, that are fished up at Bahreim, belong to the king; who, nevertheless, makes a liberal present to the fisherman who brings him such: but also, if any of them fail to do it, and sell such a pearl out of his dominions, were it even at the world's end, the king is soon acquainted with it, and to be revenged, he puts to death the whole family and all the kindred of the fisherman, even to the seventh generation, both males and females. Menu has also incorporated this principle in his laws. See Sir W. Jones's Works. No. 684.-xx. 12. That thy days may be long in the land.] As disobedience to parents is, by the law of Moses, threatened to be punished with death, so on the contrary, long life is promised to the obedient; and that in their own country, which God had peculiarly enriched with abundance of blessings. Heathens also gave the very same encouragement, saying, that such children should be dear to the gods, both living and dying. So Euripides. It was also one of their promises, thou shalt live long, if thou nourish thy ancient parents. Whence children are called by Xenophon Гороводков. PATRICK, in loc. No. 685.-xx. 24. An altar of earth shalt thou make unto me.] This command certainly imports, that the altars of the Lord were to be as plain and simple as possible. They were to be made either of sods and turfs of earth, which were easily prepared in most places, whilst they stayed in the wilderness, or of rough and unpolished stone, if they came into rocky places, where no sods were to be obtained; that there might be no occasion to grave any image upon them. Such altars, Tertullian observes (Apolog. c. 25.) were among the ancient Romans in the days of Numa; when, as they had no sumptuous temples, nor ima ges, so they had only temeraria de cespite altaria, altars hastily huddled up of earth, without any art. PATRICK, in loc. No. 686.-xxi. 6. And his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever.] This Jewish custom was borrowed by other nations, particularly by the Arabians, as appears from a passage of Petronius Arbiter, (Satyricon, p. 364.) where he introduces one Giton expressing himself in these terms. Circumcide nos, ut Judai videamur; et pertunde aures, ut imitemur Arabes. Juvenal puts the following expressions in the mouth of Libertinus. -Quamvis Natus ad Euphratem, molles quod in aure fenestræ Sat. i. 103. No. 687.-xxiii. 12. On the seventh day thou shalt rest; We should here obwho by this law re that thine ox and thine ass may rest.] serve the great clemency of God, quires some goodness and mercy to be exercised even to brute animals, that he might remove men the farther from cruelty to each other. The slaughter of a ploughing ox was prohibited by a law common to the Phrygians, Cyprians, and Romans, as we find recorded by Varro, Pliny and others. The Athenians made a decree, that a mule worn out by labour and age, and which used to accompany other mules drawing burthens, should be fed at the public expence. Ludit herboso pecus omne campo, Cum tibi nonæ redeunt Decembres : Festus in pratis vacat otioso. Cum bove pagus. Hor. 1. iii. Od. xviii. ad Faunum, 9. When the nones of December, sacred to you, return, all |