our flocks sport in the

fields: and the whole vil

grassy

lage, celebrating your festival, divert themselves in the meadows with the ox, who that day is allowed to rest: See also Tibullus, l. ii. El. i. 5. Juv. Sat. vi. 536. POPHAM on Pentateuch.

No. 688.-xxiii. 16. The feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.] The same custom prevailed among the Gentils, who, at the end of the year, when they gathered in their fruits, offered solemn sacrifices, with thanks to God for his blessings. Aristotle (Ethic. lib. viii.) says, that the ancient sacrifices and assemblies were after the gathering in of the fruits, being designed for an oblation of the first-fruits unto God.

No. 689.-xxiv. 11. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand.] It is usually said that God laid not his hand in a way of terror, or anger, on these nobles on account of their intrusion: but in the Monthly Magazine for January, 1804, is the following description of the appearance at court of the Mogul's officers, who partake of his bounty or rewards. "Those officers of the districts, whose time has expired, or who have been recalled from similar stations, repair to the imperial presence, and receive the reward, good or evil, of their administration. When they are admitted into the presence, or retire from thence, if their rank and merit be eminent, they are called near to his majesty's person, and allowed the honour of placing their heads below his sacred foot. The emperor lays his hand on the back of a person, on whom he means to bestow an extraordinary mark of favour. Others from a distance receive tokens of kindness, by the motion of the imperial brow or eyes." Now

if the nobles of Israel were not admitted to the same nearness of approach to the deity as Moses and Aaron, perhaps this phrase should be taken directly contrary to what it has been. He laid not his hand in a way of special favour, nevertheless they saw God, and did eat and drink in his presence. This sense of laying on the hand is supported by a passage in BELL's Travels to Persia, p. 103. "The minister received the credentials, and laid them before' the shab, who touched them with his hand, as a mark of respect. This part of the ceremony had been very difficult to adjust for the ambassador insisted on delivering his letters into the shah's own hands. The Persian ministers on the other hand affirmed, that their king never received letters directly from the ambassadors of the greatest emperors on earth.”

Theological Magazine, vol. iv. p. 140.

No. 690.-xxv. 10. They shall make an ark.] We meet with imitations of this divinely instituted emblem among several heathen nations, both in ancient and modern times. Thus Tacitus (de Mor. German. cap. 40.) informs us, that "the inhabitants of the north of Germany, our Saxon ancestors, in general, worshipped Herthum, that is, the mother earth, and believed her to interpose in the affairs of men, and to visit nations: that to her, within a sacred grove, in a certain island of the ocean, a vehicle, covered with a vestment, was consecrated, and allowed to be touched by the priest alone, who perceived when the goddess entered into this her secret place, and with profound veneration attended her vehicle, which was drawn by cows. While the goddess was on her progress, days of rejoicing were kept in every place which she vouchsafed to visit. They engaged in no war, they meddled not with arms, they locked up their weapons: peace

and quietness only were then known, these only relished, till the same priest reconducted the goddess, satiated with the conversation of mortals, to her temple."

Among the Mexicans, Vitziputzli, their supreme god, was represented in a human shape, sitting on a throne, supported by an azure globe, which they called heaven. Four poles or sticks came out from two sides of this globe, at the ends of which serpents' heads were carved, the whole making a litter, which the priests carried on their shoulders whenever the idol was shewn in public." Picart's Ceremonies, vol. iii. p. 146.

In Lieutenant Cook's voyage round the world, published by Dr. Hawksworth, vol. ii. p. 252, we find that the inhabitants of Huaheine, one of the islands lately discovered in the South Sea, had "a kind of chest or ark, the lid of which was nicely sewed on, and thatched very neatly with palm-nut leaves. It was fixed upon two poles, and supported upon little arches of wood, very neatly carved: the use of the poles seemed to be to remove it from place to place, in the manner of our sedan chair: in one end of it was a square hole, in the middle of which was a ring touching the sides, and leaving the angles open, so as to form a round hole within, a square one without. The first time Mr. Banks saw this coffer, the apperture at the end was stopped with a piece of cloth, which, lest he should give offence, he left untouched. Probably there was then something within but now the cloth was taken away, and upon looking into it, it was found empty. The general resem-blance between this repository, and the ark of the Lord among the Jews, is remarkable: but it is still more remarkable, that upon enquiring of the boy what it was called, he said, Ewharre no Eatau, the house of God: he could however give no account of its signification or use." PARKHURST's Heb. Lex. p. 690, 4th edit.

No. 691.-xxviii. 30. The Urim and the Thummim.] There was a remarkable imitation of this sacred ornament among the Egyptians; for we learn from Diodorus (lib. i. p. 68, ed. Rhod.) and from Elian (Var. Hist. 1. xiv. c. 34.) that "their chief priest, who was also their supreme judge in civil matters, wore about his neck, by a golden chain, an ornament of precious stones called truth, and that a cause was not opened till the supreme judge had put on this ornament."

No. 692.-xxix. 20. And sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about.] It is, says Bp. Patrick, no improbable conjecture of Fortunatus Scacchus, that from hence the heathens learned their Taurobolia, and Criobolia, which in process of time they disguised with infernal rites and ceremonies. "The Taurobolium of the ancients was a ceremony in which the high priest of Cybele was consecrated, and might be called a baptism of blood, which they conceived imparted a spiritual new birth to the liberated spirit. In this dreadful and sanguinary ceremony, according to the poet Prudentius, cited at length by Banier on the ancient sacrifices, the high priest about to be inaugurated was introduced into a dark excavated apartment, adorned with a long silken robe, and a crown of gold. Above this apartment was a floor perforated in a thousand places with holes like a sieve, through which the blood of a sacred bull slaughtered for the purpose descended in a copious torrent upon the inclosed priest, who received the purifying stream on every part of his dress, rejoicing to bathe with the bloody shower his hands, his cheeks, and even to bedew his lips and his tongue with it: when all the blood had run from the throat of the immolated bull, the carcass of the victim was removed, and the priest issued forth from the cavity, a spectacle ghastly and horrible, his

head and vestments being covered with blood, and clotted drops of it adhering to his venerable beard. As soon as the pontifex appeared before the assembled multitude, the air was rent with congratulatory shouts; so pure and so sanctified however was he now esteemed, that they dared not approach his person, but beheld him at a distance with awe and veneration.”

MAURICE'S Ind. Ant. vol. v. p. 196.

No. 693-xxix. 24. And thou shalt put all in the hands of Aaron, and in the hands of his sons, and shalt wave them for a wave offering before the Lord.] Waving the sacrifice before the Lord is a very ancient sacrificial rite. It was of two kinds: one was performed by waving it perpendicularly, upward and downward: the other by waving it horizontally, towards the four cardinal points, to denote the consecration of what was thus waved to the Lord of the whole earth.

JENNING's Jewish Ant. vol. i. p. 291,

No. 694.-xxx. 19. For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat.] The care which was taken respecting ablutions in general, and with regard to sacrifices in particular, was not confined to the Jews; it is to be observed also amongst the Gentiles. There are numerous passages of Homer which clearly evince this. Speaking of the great sacrifice that was preparing to be offered for appeasing Apollo, he says,

Σερνίψαντο δ' έπειτα, και αλοχύτας ανέλοιτο.

Il.i.

Upon which words Eustathius observes, that it was the ancient custom, before they sacrificed, to wash their hands, for that none but those who were clean and pure might meddle with sacred things.