women, ral times together, Loo! Loo! Loo! At their funerals, | to do honour to his memory, and who accompanied the proalso, and upon other melancholy occasions, they repeat the cession into the land of Canaan. (Gen. 1. 7-10.) At the same noise, only they make it more deep and hollow, and burial of Abner, David commanded Joab and all the people end each period with some ventriloquous sighs. The that were with him to rend their garments, and gird themgoras T, or wailing greatly (as our version expresses it, selves with sackcloth, and to mourn before Abner, or make Mark v. 38.), upon the death of Jairus's daughter, was, pro- lamentations in honour of that general; and the king himself bably, performed in this manner. For there are several followed the bier. (2 Sam. iii. 31.) All Judah and the inhahired to act upon these lugubrious occasions, who, bitants of Jerusalem did honour to Hezekiah at his death. like the prafica, or mourning women of old, are skilful in (2 Chron. xxxii. 33.) Much people of the city were with the lamentation (Amos v. 16.), and great mistresses of these me- widow of Nain, who was following her only son to the lancholy expressions: and, indeed, they perform their parts grave. (Luke vii. 12.) Josephus informs us that Herod was with such proper sounds, gestures, and commotions, that they attended to Herodium (a journey of twenty-five days), where rarely fail to work up the assembly into some extraordinary he had commanded that he should be interred, first, by his pitch of thoughtfulness and sorrow. The British factory has sons and his numerous relations; next, by his guards, and often been very sensibly touched with these lamentations, after them by the whole army, in the same order as when whenever they were made in the neighbouring houses."2 they marched out to war; and that these were followed by The Rev. William Jowett, during his travels in Palestine, five hundred of his domestics, carrying spices. arrived at the town of Napolose, which stands on the site of Further, it was usual to honour the memory of distinthe ancient Shechem, immediately after the death of the guished individuals by a funeral oration or poem: thus governor. "On coming within sight of the gate," he relates, David pronounced a eulogy over the grave of Abner. (2 we perceived a numerous company of females, who were Sam. iii. 33, 31.) Upon the death of any of their princes, singing in a kind of recitative, far from melancholy, and beat- who had distinguished themselves in armis, or who, by any ing time with their hands. On our reaching the gate, it was religious actions, or by the promotion of civil arts, had suddenly exchanged for most hideous plaints and shrieks; merited well of their country, they used to make lamentations which, with the feeling that we were entering a city at no or mournful songs for them: from an expression in 2 Chron. time celebrated for its hospitality, struck a very dismal im- xxxv. 25. Behold they are written in the Lamentations, we pression upon my mind. They accompanied us a few paces, may infer that they had certain collections of this kind of but it soon appeared that the gate was their station; to which, composition. The author of the book of Samuel has prehaving received nothing from us, they returned. We learned served the exquisitively beautiful and affecting elegy which in the course of the evening that these were only a small de- David composed on occasion of the death of Saul and Jonatachment of a very numerous body of cunning women, who than; but we have no remains of the mournful poem which were filling the whole city with their cries,-taking up a Jeremiah made upon the immature death of the pious king wailing with the design, as of old, to make the eyes of all Josiah, mentioned in the last-cited chapter: which loss is the inhabitants run down with tears, and their eyelids gush out the more to be deplored, because in all probability it was a with waters. (Jer. ix. 17, 18.) For this good service they masterpiece in its kind, since never was there an author would, the next morning, wait upon the government and more deeply affected with his subject, or more capable of principal persons, to receive some trifling fee." The Rev. carrying it through all the tender sentiments of sorrow and John Hartley, during his travels in Greece, relates, that, one compassion, than Jeremiah. But no funeral obsequies were morning, while taking a solitary walk in Egina, the most conferred on those who laid violent hands on themselves: plaintive accents fell upon his ear which he had ever heard. hence we do not read that the traitor-suicide Judas was la He followed in the direction from which the sounds pro-mented by the Jews (Matt. xxvii. 4.), or by his fellow-disceeded, and they conducted him to the newly-made grave of ciples. (Acts i. 16.) a young man, cut down in the bloom of life, over which a woman, hired for the occasion, was pouring forth lamentation and mourning and wo, with such doleful strains and feelings, as could scarcely have been supposed other than sincere. In proportion to the rank of the deceased, and the estimation in which his memory was held, was the number of persons who assisted at his funeral obsequies, agreeably to the very ancient custom of the East. Thus, at the funeral of Jacob, there were present not only Joseph and the rest of his family, but also the servants and elders (or superintendents of Pharaoh's house) and the principal Egyptians, who attended 1 Dr. Shaw conceives this word to be a corruption of Hallelujah. He remarks, Az, a word of the like sound, was used by an army either be fore they gave the onset, or when they had obtained the victory. The Turks to this day call out, Allah! Allah! Allah! upon the like occasion. Travels, vol. i. p. 435. note". (Svo. edit.) 2 Ibid. pp. 435, 436. Jowett's Christian Researches in Syria, p. 194. The mourning of the Montenegrins bears a great resemblance to that of the oriental nations. On the death of any one, nothing is heard but tears, cries, and groans from the whole family the women, in particular, beat themselves in a frightful manner, pluck off their hair and tear their faces and bosoms. The deceased person is laid out for twenty-four hours, in the house where he ex: pires, with the face uncovered; and is perfumed with essences, and strewed with flowers and aromatic leaves, after the custom of the ancients The lamentations are renewed every monent, particularly on the arrival of a fresh person, and especially of the priest. Just before the defunct is carried out of the house, his relations whisper in his ear, and give him commissions for the other world, to their departed relatives or friends. After these singular addresses, a pall or winding sheet is thrown over the dead person, whose face continues uncovered, and he is carried to church: while on the road thither, women, hired for the purpose, chant his praises, amid their tears. Previously to depositing him in the ground, the next of kin tie a piece of cake to his neck, and put a piece of money in his hand, after the manner of the ancient Greeks. During this ceremony, as also while they are carrying him to the burial-ground, a variety of apostrophes is addressed to the defunct, which are interrupted only by mournful sobs, asking him why he quitted them? Why he abandoned his family? He, whose poor wife loved him so tenderly, and provided every thing for him to eat! Whose children obeyed him with such respect, while his friends succoured him whenever he wanted assistance; who possessed such beautiful flocks, and all whose undertakings were blessed by heaven! the funeral rites are performed, the curate and mourners return home, When and partake of a grand entertainment, which is frequently interrupted by jovial songs, intermixed with prayers in honour of the deceased. One of the guests is commissioned to chant a "lament" impromptu, which usually draws tears from the whole company; the performer is accompanied by three or four monochords, whose harsh discord excites both laughter and tears at the same time. Voyage Historique et Politique à Montenegro, par M. le Colonel Vialla de Sommières, tom. i. pp. 275-278. Paris, 1820. 8vo. Hartley's Researches in Greece, pp. 119. 120 Among many ancient nations, a custom prevailed of throwing pieces of gold and silver, together with other precious articles, into the sepulchres of those who were buried: this custom was not adopted by the Jews. But in Ezek. xxxii. 27. there is an allusion to the custom which obtained among almost all ancient nations, of adorning the sepulchres of heroes with their swords and other military trophies. The prophet, foretelling the fall of Meshech and Tubal, and all her multitude, says that they are gone down to hell (or the invisible state) with their weapons of war; and they have laid their swords under their heads. In Mingrelia, Sir John Chardin informs us, they all sleep with their swords under their heads, and their other arms by their sides; and they bury them in the same manner, their arms being placed in the same position. This fact greatly illustrates the passage above cited, since, according to Bochart and other learned geographers, Meshech and Tubal mean Mingrelia, and the circumjacent country.6 V. The most simple TOMBS or monuments of old consisted of hillocks of earth, heaped up over the grave, of which we have numerous examples in our own country. In the East, where persons have been murdered, heaps of stones are raised over them as signs; and to this custom the prophet Ezekiel appears to allude. (xxxix. 15.)7 The earliest sepulchres, in all probability, were caverns. Abraham purchased the cave of Machpelah of Ephron the Hittite for a family burial-place. (Gen. xxiii. 8-18.) Here were interred Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah; here also Jacob buried Leah, and charged his sons to deposit his remains. (Gen. xlix. 29-32. 1. 13.) The ancient Jews seem to have attached much importance to interment in the sepulchre of their fathers, and particularly to being buried in the land of Canaan (Gen. xlvii. 30. xlix. 29. 1. 25.), in which affection for the country of their ancestors they are not surpassed by their descendants, the modern Jews. Josephus, Ant. Jud. lib. xvi. c. 8. § 3. • Harmer's Observations on Scripture, vol. iii. pp. 55, 56. The modern Jews, in the time of Rabbi Solomon Jarchi, buried their dead immediately, and put wooden props in the tombs by their side, by leaning on which they would be enabled to arise more easily at the resur rection of mankind from death. They further persuade themselves that all the bodies of Jews dying out of Palestine, wherever they may be In Psal. xxviii. 1. cxliii. 7. and Prov. i. 12. the grave is represented as a pit or cavern, into which a descent is necessary; containing dormitories or separate cells for receiving the dead (Isa. xiv. 15. Ezek. xxxii. 23.), so that each person may be said to lie in his own house (Isa. xiv. 18.), and to rest in his own bed. (Isa. lvii. 2.) These sepulchral vaults seem to have been excavated for the use of the persons of high rank and their families. The vanity of Shebna, who was reproved for it by Isaiah, is set forth by his being so studious and careful to have his sepulchre on high, in a lofty vault, and, probably, in an elevated situation, that it might be the more conspicuous. (Isa. xxii. 16.) Of this kind of sepulchres there are remains still extant at Jerusalem, some of which are reported to be the sepulchres of the kings of Judah, and others, those of the Judges.3 also, was the grave in which the body of our Lord was deposited. Joseph of Arimathea, a person of distinction, by St. Mark called an honourable counsellor" (Mark xv. 43.), or member of the sanhedrin, "mindful of his mortality, had hewn out of the rock in his garden a sepulchre, in which he intended his own remains should be reposited. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was no man yet laid. When Joseph, therefore, had taken the body of Jesus, and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, he carried it into the tomb which he had lately hollowed out of the rock; and rolled a great stone to the low door of the sepulchre, effectually to block up the entrance, and secure the sacred corpse of the deceased, both from the indignities of his foes, and the officiousness of his friends. Sometimes, also, they buried their dead in fields, The following description of the Tombs of the Kings (as over whom the opulent and families of distinction raised they are termed), which are situated near the village of superb and ostentatious monuments, on which they lavished Gournou, on the west bank of the river Nile, will illustrate great splendour and magnificence, and which they so relithe nature of the ancient sepulchres, which were excavated giously maintained from time to time in their pristine beauty out of the mountains. "Further in the recesses of the and glory." To this custom our Saviour alludes in the folmountains, are the more magnificent Tombs of the Kings; lowing apt comparison: Wo unto you, scribes and Pharisees, each consisting of many chambers, adorned with hierogly-hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which in phics. The scene brings many allusions of Scripture to the deed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead mind; such as Mark v. 2, 3. 5., but particularly Isaiah xxii. men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly 16. Thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here, as he that hew- appear righteous to men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy eth him out a sepulchre on high, and that graveth a habitation and iniquity. (Matt. xxiii. 27.) But though the sepulchres for himself in a rock; for many of the smaller sepulchres of the rich were thus beautified, the graves of the poor were are excavated nearly halfway up the mountain, which is oftentimes so neglected, that if the stones by which they very high. The kings have their magnificent abodes nearer were marked happened to fall, they were not set up again, the foot of the mountain; and seem, according to Isaiah xiv. by which means the graves themselves did not appear; they 18., to have taken a pride in resting as magnificently in death were ada, that is, not obvious to the sight, so that men as they had done in life-All the kings of the nations, even all might tread on them inadvertently. (Luke xi. 44.) From of them, lie in glory; every one in his own house. The stuc- Jer. xxvi. 23. we may collect that the populace of the lowest coed walls within are covered with hieroglyphics. They order (Heb. sons or children of the people) were buried in a cannot be better described than in the words of Ezekiel, viii. public cemetery, having no distinct sepulchre to themselves, 8-10. Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the as all persons of rank and character, and especially of so wall, and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door. And honourable an order as that of the prophets, used to have. he said unto me, go in; and behold the wicked abominations After the deceased had been committed to the tomb, it was that they do here. So I went in, and saw and behold every customary among the Greeks and Romans, to put the tears form of creeping things and abominable beasts, and all the shed by the surviving relatives and friends into lachrymatory idols of the house of Israel portrayed upon the wall round about. urns, and place these on the sepulchres, as a memorial of The Israelites were but copyists: the master-sketches are to their distress and affection. From Psal. lvi. 8. it should seem be seen in all the ancient temples and tombs of Egypt."4 that this custom was still more anciently in use among the Farther, "it appears from the Scriptures, that the Jews eastern nations, especially the Hebrews. These vessels were had family sepulchres in places contiguous to their own of different materials, and were moulded into different forms. houses, and generally in their gardens:" and the same usage Some were of glass, and some were of earthenware,10 being obtained among the Romans and other nations.5 "Such diminutive in size and of delicate workmanship. was the place in which Lazarus was interred; and such, In order to do honour to the memory of the dead, their sepulchres were sometimes distinguished by monuments. interred, will perform a subterraneous journey into Palestine, in order that they may participate in the resurrection. S. Jarchi on Gen. xlvii.-Alber, Inst. Herm. Test. tom. i. p. 319. 1 Bp. Lowth on Isaiah, vol. ii. pp. 120. 170. 328, 329. 4 "Above half a mile from the wall" of Jerusalem, "are the Tombs of the Kings. In midst of a hollow, rocky and adorned with a few trees, is the entrance. You then find a large apartment, above fifty feet long, at the side of which a low door leads into a series of small chambers, hewn out of the rock, of the size of the human body. There are six or seven of these low and dark apartments, in which are hewn recesses of different shapes for the reception of bodies." (Carne's Letters from the East, p. 294. Three Weeks in Palestine, p. 75.) The "Sepulchres of the Judges, so called, are situated in a wild spot, about two miles from the city. They bear much resemblance to those of the Kings, but are not so handsome or spacious." (Carne's Letters from the East. p. 294.) "No shadow, not even of a rock, is spread over these long enduring relics, in which tradition has placed the ashes of the rulers of Israel. They consist of several divisions, each containing two or three apartments cut out of the solid rock, and entablatures are carved with some skill over the entrance. No richly carved relics, or fragments of sarcophagi remain here, as in the tombs of the kings; and their only use is to shelter the wandering passenger or the benighted traveller, who finds no other resting-place in the wild around." (Carne's Recollections of the East, pp. 135, 136.) Jowett's Researches in the Mediterranean, p. 133. • Thus, the Mausoleum of Augustus was erected in a garden. Dr. Munter has collected numerous classical inscriptions, which attest the application of gardens to sepulchral purposes. (Symbolæ ad Interpretationem Evangelii Johannis ex Marmoribus, pp. 29, 30.) The modern inhabitants of Mount Lebanon have their sepulchres in gardens. The Rev. Mr. Jowett, during his visit to Deir el-Kamar, the capital of the Druses on that moun tain, says, that while walking out one evening a few fields' distance with the son of his host, to see a detached garden belonging to his father, the young man pointed out to him near it a small solid stone building, very solemnly adding, "Kabbar Beity-the sepulchre of our family." It had neither door nor window, "He then" (adds Mr. J.) "directed my atten tin to a considerable number of similar buildings at a distance; which to the eye are exactly like houses, but which are, in fact, family mansions for the dead. They have a most melancholy appearance, which made him shudder while he explained their use."...."Perhaps this custom, which prevails particularly at Deir-el-Kumar, and in the lonely neighbouring parts of the mountain, may have been of great antiquity, and may serve to explain some Scripture phrases. The prophet Samuel was buried in his house at Ramah (1 Sam. xxv. 1.); it could hardly be in his dwelling house. Joab was buried in his own house in the wilderness. (1 Kings ii. 34.)" Jowett's Christian Researches in Palestine, p. 280. VOL. II. 2 C Harwood's Introduction, vol. ii. pp. 139. 141, 142. The sepulchres, described and delineated by Mr. Emerson, completely elucidate the form of the Jewish tombs. Letters from the Ægean, vol. ii. pp. 55-59. The following passage from Dr. Shaw's Travels affords a striking illustra tion of Matt. xxiii. 27. "If we except a few persons, who are buried within the precincts of the sanctuaries of their Marabutts, the rest are carried out at a smaller distance from their cities and villages, where a great extent of ground is allotted for the purpose. Each family has a particular part of it walled in, like a garden, where the bones of their ancestors have remained for many generations. For in these enclosures the graves are all distinct and separated, each of them having a stone placed upright both at the head and feet, inscribed with the name and title of the deceased; while the intermediate space is either planted with flowers, bordered round with stones, or paved with tiles. The graves of the principal citizens are further distinguished, by having cupolas or vaulted chambers of three, four or more square yards built over them: and as these very frequently lie open, and occasionally shelter us from the inclemency of the weather, the demoniac (Mark v. 5.) might with propriety enough have had his dwelling among the tombs: and others are said (Isa. lxv. 4.) to remain among the graves and to lodge in the monuments (mountains). And as all these dif ferent sorts of tombs and sepulchres, with the very walls likewise of their respective cupolas and enclosures, are constantly kept clean, whitewashed, and beautified, they continue to illustrate those expressions of our Saviour where he mentions the garnishing of sepulchres, and compares the scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites to whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but within were full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness." Shaw's Travels, vol. i. pp. 395, 396. Macknight's Harmony, sect. 87. vol. ii. p. 473. • Dr. Blaney's Jeremiah, p. 349. 10 Dr. Chandler's Life of David, vol. i. p. 106. Among the valuable remains of ancient art collected by Dr. E. D. Clarke among the ruins of Sicyon, in the Peloponnesus, were lachrymatories of more ancient form and materials than any thing he had ever before observed of the saine kind; "the lachrymatory phials, in which the Sicyonians treasured up their tears, deserve rather the name of bottles; they are nine inches long, two inches in diameter, and contains as much fluid as would fill a phial of three ounces; consisting of the coarsest materials, a heavy blue clay or marle.... Sometimes the vessels found in ancient sepulchres are of suc diminutive size, that they are only capable of holding a few drops of fluid in these instances there seems to be no other use for which they were fitted. Small lachrymal phials of glass have been found in the tombs of the Romans in Great Britain; and the evident allusion to this practice in the Sacred Scriptures-Put those my tears into thy bottle (Psal. lvi. 8.)-seems decisive as to the purpose for which these vessels were designed." Tra vels in various Countries of Europe, &c. vol. vi. pp. 541, 542. the Egyptians, who had a great regard for the patriarch Jacob, lamented his death threescore and ten days. (Gen. 1. 3.) The Israelites wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. (Deut. xxxiv. 8.) Afterwards, among the Jews, the funeral mourning was generally confined to seven days. Hence, besides the mourning for Jacob in Egypt, Joseph and his company set apart seven days to mourn for his father, when they approached the Jordan with his corpse. (Gen. 1. 10.) In the time of Christ, it was customary for the nearest relative to visit the grave of the deceased and to weep there. The Jews, who had come to condole with Mary on the death of her brother Lazarus, on seeing her go out of the house, concluded that she was going to the grave to weep there. (John xi. 31.) The Syrian women are still accustomed, either alone or accompanied by some attendants, to visit the tombs of their relatives, and mourn their loss: and the same usage obtains almost throughout the East, among Jews as well as Christians and Mohammedans; and in Persia, Egypt, Greece, Dalmatia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Servia, Wallachia, and Illyria. The custom of erecting these seems to have obtained even the days of mourning. (Gen. xxvii. 41. and 1. 4.) Thus from the patriarchal age. Thus, Jacob erected a pillar upon the grave of his beloved wife Rachel. (Gen. xxxv. 20.) This is the earliest monument mentioned in the Scriptures: it is evident from that passage that it was standing when Moses wrote; and its site seems to have been known in the time of Samuel and Saul. (1 Sam. x. 2.) The monument now shown in the vicinity of Bethlehem, as Rachel's tomb, is a modern and Turkish structure, which may, perhaps, be the true place of her interment. In later times, inscriptions appear to have been placed on tombstones, denoting the persons who were there interred. Such was the title or inscription discovered by Josiah, which proved to be the burial-place of the prophet who was sent from Judah to denounce the divine judgments against the altar which Jeroboam had erected more than three centuries before. Simon Maccabæus built a splendid monument at Modin in honour of his father and his brethren. (1 Macc. xiii. 25—30.) In the time of Jesus Christ, it appears that the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees repaired and adorned the tombs of the prophets whom their ancestors had murdered for their faithfulness, under a sanctimonious appearance of respect for their memory. The ancient Arabs raised a heap of stones over the body of the dead (Job xxi. 32. marginal rendering), which was guarded. In the year 1820, Mr. Rae Wilson observed on the plain of Zebulun, not far from Cana, piles of stones covering over or marking the place of graves. Similar cairns, also the remains of remote antiquity, exist both in England and in Scotland.2 Among the Hebrews, great heaps of stones were raised over those whose death was either infamous, or attended with some very remarkable circumstances. Such were the heaps raised over the grave of Achan (Josh. vii. 26.), over that of the king of Ai (viii. 29.), and over that of Absalom (2 Sam. xviii. 17.); all which were sepulchral monuments to perpetuate the place of their interment. VI. A FUNERAL FEAST Commonly succeeded the Jewish burials. Thus, after Abner's funeral was solemnized, the people came to David to eat meat with him, though they could not persuade him to do so. (2 Sam. iii. 35.) He was the chief mourner, and probably had invited them to this banquet. Of this Jeremiah speaks (xvi. 7.), where he calls it the cup of consolation, which they drank for their father or their mother; and accordingly the place where this funeral entertainment was made, is called in the next verse the house of feasting. Hosea calls it the bread of mourners, (Hos. ix. 4.) Funeral banquets are still in use among the oriental Christians." The usual tokens of mourning by which the Jews expressed their grief and concern for the death of their friends and relations, were by rending their garments, and putting on sackcloth (Gen. xxxvii. 34.), sprinkling dust on their heads, wearing of mourning apparel (2 Sam. xiv. 2.), and covering the face and the head. (2 Sam. xix. 4.) They were accustomed also in times of public mourning to go up to the roofs or platforms of their houses, there to bewail their misfortunes, which practice is mentioned in Isaiah xv. 3. and xxii. 1. Anciently, there was a peculiar space of time allotted for lamenting the deceased, which they called Maundrell's Journey from Aleppo, p. 117. "It has all the appearance of one of those tombs often erected to the memory of a Turkish Santon." Carne's Letters, p. 277. Rae Wilson's Travels in the Holy Land, vol. ii. p. 5. third edition. It does not appear that there was any general mourning for Saul and his sons, who died in battle: but the national troubles, which followed upon his death, might have prevented it. David, indeed, and his men, on hearing the news of their death, mourned and wept for them until even. (2 Sam. i. 12.) And the men of Jabesh-Gilead fusted for them seven days (1 Sam. xxxi. 13.), which must not be understood in a strict sense, as if they took no food during that time, but that they lived very abstemiously, ate little, and that seldom, using a low and spare diet, and drinking water only. How long widows mourned for their husbands is nowhere told us in Scripture. It is recorded, indeed, of Bathsheba, that when she heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for him (2 Sam. xi. 26.); but this could neither be long nor very sincere. "A female, with part of her robe drawn over her head, or veiled, was seen seated by the tombs of her relatives on the summit of Mount Moriah, or along its sides, just beneath the walls of Jerusalem." Carne's Letters, P. 332 "We arrived" (at one of the villages of Elephantina, an island in the Nile) "just in time to witness a coronagh, or wailing for the dead. A poor woman of the village had that morning received the melancholy intelligence that her husband had been drowned in the Nile. He had been interred without her knowledge, near the spot where the body was found; and she, along with several of her female friends, was paying the unavailing tribute of lamentation to his departed shade." (Richardson's Travels, vol. i. p. 355.) "One inorning," says the same intelligent traveller, "when standing among the ruins of the ancient Syene, on the rocky promontory above the ferry, I saw a party of thirteen females cross the Nile to perform the lugubrious dirge at the mansions of the dead. They set up a piteous wail on dirty robes of beteen. entering the boat, after which they all cowered up together, wrapt in their On landing they wound their way slowly and silently along the outside of the walls of the ancient town, till they arrived at their place of destination, when some of them placed a sprig of flowers on the grave, and sat down silently beside it; others cast themselves on the ground, and threw dust over their heads, uttering mournful lamenta. tions, which they continued to repeat at intervals, during the short time that I witnessed their procedure." (Ibid. vol. i. p. 360.) Mr. Jowett witnessed a similar scene at Manfelout, a more remote town of Upper Egypt. Christian Researches in the Mediterranean, p. 162. Alber, Inst. Herm. Vet. Test. tom. i. pp. 311-319. Calmet, Dissertation sur les Funérailles des Hebreux. Dissert. tom. i. pp. 290-309. Pareau, Antiquitas Hebraica, pp. 472-477. Jahn, Archæol. Bibl. $$ 204-211. Stosch, Compendium Archæologiæ Economica Novi Testamenti, pp. 121-132. Brünings, Compendiun Antiquitatum Græcarum, pp. 388-400.; and his Compendium Antiquitatum Hebræarum, pp. 257-261. The subject of Hebrew sepul chres is very fully discussed by Nicolai, in his treatise De Sepulchris He bræorum (Lug. Bat. 1706), which is illustrated with several curious plates, some of which, however, it must be confessed, are rather fanciful. ANALYSIS OF SCRIPTURE. PART V. ANALYSIS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. CHAPTER I. ON THE PENTATEUCH, OR FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. SECTION I. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE PENTATEUCH. I. Title.-II. Argument of the Pentateuch.-III. Notice of other Writings ascribed to Moses. I. THE PENTATEUCH, by which title the five books of Moses are collectively designated, is a word of Greek original, which literally signifies five books, or volumes; by the Jews it is frequently termed an (TORAH) the Law, or the LAW OF MOSES, because it contains the ecclesiastical and political ordinances issued by God to the Israelites. The Pentateuch forms, to this day, but one roll or volume in the Jewish manuscripts, being divided only into paraschioth and siderim, or larger and smaller sections. This collective designation of the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, is of very considerable antiquity, though we have no certain information when it was first introduced. As, however, the names of these books are evidently derived from the Greek, and as the five books of Moses are expressly mentioned by Josephus, who wrote only a few years after our Saviour's ascension, we have every reason to believe that the appellation of Pentateuch was prefixed to the Septuagint version by the Alexandrian translators. must be applied also to the nine following psalms, is not sufficient. The greater part of the titles of the psalms is not original, nor, indeed, very ancient; and some of them are evidently misplaced: we find also in these psalms the names of persons, and other marks, which by no means agree with Moses. 4 II. This division of the sacred volume comprises an account of the creation of the world, and of the fall of man, the outlines of the early annals of the world, and a full recital of the Jewish law, and of the events which happened to the Israelites from their becoming a distinct people to their departure out of Egypt, and their arrival on the confines of the land of Canaan,—a period of two thousand five hundred and fifteen years according to the vulgar computation, or of three thousand seven hundred and sixty-five years, according to the computation established by Dr. Hales. "It is a wide description gradually contracted; an account of one nation, preceded by a general sketch of the first state of mankind. The books are written in pure Hebrew, with an admirable diversity of style, always well adapted to the subject, yet characterized with the stamp of the same author; they are all evidently parts of the same work, and mutually strengthen and illustrate each other. They blend revelation and history in one point of view; furnish laws, and describe their execution; exhibit prophecies, and relate their accomplishment."5 III. Besides the Pentateuch the Jews ascribe to Moses ten psalms, from psalm xc. to xcix. inclusive. There is, however, no solid evidence to prove that these psalms were composed by him; for the title of the ninetieth psalm (“ a prayer of Moses the man of God"), which, they pretend, 1 HATTEUXs, from Ts, five, and Tuxes, a book or volume. Bible de Vence, tom. i. p. 310. 2 For an account of these divisions, see Vol. I. 213. The author of the treatise De Mundo, which is commonly ascribed to Philo Judæus, was of opinion that Moses himself divided his work into five books; but he assigned no authority for such opinion. Jesus Christ and his apostles never cite the five books of Moses under any other name than that of Moses, or the Law of Moses; as the Jews ordinarily do to this day. Calmet conjectures that Ezra divided the Pentateuch into five books. Dissertations, tom. ii. p. 23. P. In his Jewish Antiquities, Josephus terms the Pentateuch the "Holy Books of Moses” (lib. x. c. iv. §2.); and in his Treatise against Apion (lib. i. c. 8.), when enumerating the sacred writings of the Jews, he says that FIVE of them belong to Moses."-Some critics have imagined that this distinction of the Pentateuch into five separate books was known to and recog nised by St. Paul (1 Cor. xiv. 19.), by the term five words; but the context of that passage does not authorize such a conjecture. Bp. Gray's Key to the Old Testament, p. 76. 5th edit. Further, some of the ancient fathers have thought that Moses was the author of the book of Job: Origen, in his commentary on Job, pretends that Moses translated it out of Syriac into Hebrew; but this opinion is rejected both by Jews and Christians. Besides, if this book had really been composed by Moses, is it likely that the Jews would have separated it from the Pentateuch 26 There are likewise ascribed to Moses several apocryphal books; as an Apocalypse, or Little Genesis, the Ascension of Moses, the Assumption of Moses, the Testament of Moses, and the Mysterious Books of Moses. The principal part of the "Little Genesis" was transferred by Cedrenus into his chronological history: it was extant in Hebrew in the fourth century of the Christian æra, for we find it cited by Jerome. From the apocalypse just noticed, it has been pretended that Saint Paul copied Gal. v. 6. and vi. 15.; and it has been imagined that what is said in the Epistle of Jude (verse 9.), respecting the archangel Michael's contention with Satan for the body of Moses, was taken from the apocryphal Ascension of Moses. Such was the opinion of Origen, who, though he cites it in another place, alludes to it as not being in the canon.3 All these pretended Mosaic writings, however, are confessedly spurious, and are supposed to have been fabricated in the early ages of Christianity. On the difference between the Hebrew and Samaritan Pentateuchs, or, rather, editions of the Pentateuch, see Volume I. p. 204.; for a view of the Genuineness and Credibility of the Pentateuch, see Volume I. pp. 32-38.; and for a List of the principal Commentators on this portion of the Sacred Scriptures, see Volume II. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX, PART II. CHAP. V. SECT. III. § 4. SECTION II. ON THE BOOK OF GENESIS. I. Title.-II. Author and date.-III. General argument.- 1. THE first book of the Pentateuch, which is called GENESIS (TENEZIZ), derives its appellation from the title it The book of Job was composed many ages before the time of Moses See chap. iii. sect. i. infra, of this volume. Cedrenus, enumerating the authorities consulted by him, says, that he "collected not a few things from the Little Genesis, &O THS ARTHS TV. Historia Compendiaria, tom. i. p. 2. edit. Venet. 1729. Cedrenus frequently cites this apocryphal book in the course of his work. See the passages of Origen at length in Dr. Lardner's works, vol. ii. pp. 483-512. 8vo. or vol. i. pp. 541–557. 4to. 203 bears in the Greek Septuagint Version, BIBAOE TENEZENE; if we consider the state of the world when the Pentateuch which signifies the Book of the Generation or Production, because it commences with the history of the generation or production of all things. The Jews name the books of the Old Testament either from their authors, or the principal subjects treated in them, as the five books of Moses, and the Lamentations of Jeremiah,-or from the first Hebrew word with which they begin thus, the book of Genesis is in Hebrew called N BERESHITH, that is, in the beginning, from its initial word.! II. Although nothing is more certain than that this book was written by Moses, yet it is by no means agreed when he composed the history which it contains. Eusebius and some eminent critics after him have conjectured, that it was written while he kept the flocks of Jethro his father-in-law, in the wilderness of Midian. But the more probable opinion is that of Theodoret, which has been adopted by Moldenhawer and most modern critics, viz. that Moses wrote this book after the departure of the Israelites from Egypt and the promulgation of the law from Mount Sinai; for, previously to his receiving the divine call related in Exodus iii., he was only a private individual, and was not endued with the spirit of prophecy. Without that spirit he could not have recorded, with so much accuracy, the history of the creation, and the subsequent transactions to his own time: neither could he have foretold events then future, as in the predictions concerning the Messiah, and those respecting the descendants of Ishmael and the sons of Jacob; the verification and confirmation of which depended on circumstances, that had neither taken place nor could have happened at the time when the history was written in which they are recorded but which circumstances, we know, did take place exactly as they were foretold, and which may be said, even now, to have an actual accomplishment before our eyes. A third conjecture has been offered by some Jewish writers, after rabbi Moses Ben Nachman, who suppose that God dictated to Moses all the contents of this book, during the first forty days that he was permitted to hold a communication with the Almighty on Mount Sinai, and that on his descent he committed the whole to writing. This hypothesis they found on Exodus xxiv. 12. where Jehovah says unto Moses, -Come up to me in the mount, and be thou there, and I will give thee the tables of stone, and the law, and the precepts, which I have written to teach them :-understanding by the tables, the decalogue; by the precepts, all the ceremonial and judicia. ordinances; and by the law, all the other writings of Moses, whether historical or doctrinal. It is, however," as a pious writer has well remarked," as impossible, as it is of little consequence, to determine which of these opinions is best founded; and it is sufficient for us to know, that Moses was assisted by the spirit of infallible truth in the composition of this sacred work, which he deemed a proper introduction to the laws and judgments delivered in the subsequent books." III. The book of Genesis comprises the history of about 2369 years according to the vulgar computation of time, or of 3619 years according to the larger computation of Dr. Hales. Besides the history of the creation, it contains an account of the original innocence and fall of man; the propagation of mankind; the rise of religion; the general defection and corruption of the world; the deluge; the restoration of the world; the division and peopling of the earth; the call of Abraham, and the divine covenant with him; together with the first patriarchs, to the death of Joseph. This book also comprises some important prophecies respecting the Messiah. See iii. 15. xii. 3. xviii. 18. xxii. 18. xxvi. 4. xxviii. 14. and xlix. 10. IV. The SCOPE of the book of Genesis may be considered as twofold:-1. To record the history of the world from the commencement of time; and, 2. To relate the origin of the church, and the events which befell it during many ages. The design of Moses in this book will be better understood, To avoid unnecessary references to the same authorities, it may here be stated, that besides the treatises referred to for particular facts and arguments, in this and the following sections of the present volume, the author has throughout consulted the dissertations of Calmet, Carpzov's Introductio ad Libros Biblicos Veteris Testamenti, Jahn's Introductio in Libros Sacros Veteris Fœderis, and Ackermann's expurgated edition of it; the prefaces of Alber in his Interpretatio Sacræ Scripturæ, Heidegger's Enchiridion Biblicum, on which treatise Van Til's Opus Analyticum is a commentary, and Moldenhawer's Introductio in omnes Libros Canonicos Veteris et Novi Testamenti. Of all these works an account will be found in the Appendix to vol. ii. For the plan of the prefaces to most of the books of the Old and New Testament, the author is indebted to the excellent works of Moldenhawer and Heidegger. See this fact fully proved, supra, vol. i. pp. 32-38. Pareus, Proleg. in Genesin, pp. 9, 10. Francofurti, 1647. Roberts's Clavis Bibliorum, p. 5. folio edit. was written. Mankind was absorbed in the grossest idolatry, which for the most part had originated in the neglect, the perversion, or the misapprehension of certain truths, that had once been universally known. Moses, therefore, commences his narrative by relating in simple language the truths thus disguised or perverted. In pursuance of this plan, he relates, in the book of Genesis, the true origin and history of all created things, in opposition to the erroneous notions entertained by the heathen nations, especially by the Egyptians: the origin of sin, and of all moral and physical evil; the establishment of the knowledge and worship of the only true God among mankind; their declension into idolatry; the promise of the Messiah; together with the origin of the church, and her progress and condition for many ages. Further, it makes known to the Israelites the providential history of their ancestors, and the divine promises made to them; and shows them the reason why the Almighty chose Abraham and his posterity to be a peculiar people to the exclusion of all other nations, viz. that from them should spring the Messiah. This circumstance must be kept in view throughout the reading of this book, as it will illustrate many otherwise unaccountable circumstances there related. It was this hope that led Eve to exclaim,—I have gotten a man,— the Lord. (Gen. iv. 1. Heb.) The polygamy of Lamech may be accounted for by the hope that the Messiah would be born of some of his posterity, as also the incest of Lot's daughters (Gen. xix. 31-38.), Sarah's impatience of her barrenness (Gen. xvi.), the polygamy of Jacob (Gen. xxix.), the consequent jealousies between Leah and Rachel (Gen. xxx.), the jealousies between Ishmael and Isaac, and especially Rebekah's preference of Jacob to Esau. It was these jealousies, and these pretensions to the promise of the Messiah, that gave rise to the custom of calling God the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and not the God of Lot, Ishmael, and Esau, the promise having been particularly made and repeated to those three patriarchs. V. TYPES OF THE MESSIAH are Adum, as being a public person and federal head (compare Rom. v. 14. Gr. and 1 Cor. xv. 45.); Melchizedek (Psal. cx. 4. Heb. vi. 20. and vii.); and Isaac. (Gen. xxii. with Heb. xi. 18, 19.) VI. The Jews divide the book of Genesis into twelve paraschioth or larger sections, and forty-three siderim or smaller sections; in our Bibles it consists of fifty chapters, the general contents and leading divisions of which are exhibited in the following SYNOPSIS: PART I. The Origin of the World. (Ch. i. ii.) SECT. 2. The history of Adam and his descendants to Noah. SECT. 3. The increase of wickedness in the world, and its destruction by the deluge. (vi. vii.) PART III. The General History of Mankind after the Deluge. SECT. 1. The restoration of the world. (viii.) SECT. 3. The peopling of the world by his descendants. (x.) birth of Isaac (xxi.), trial of Abraham (xxii.), the death of SECT. 2. The history of the church under the patriarch Isaac. (xxv. xxvi.) SECT. 3. The history of the church under the patriarch Jacob. (xxvii.-xxxvi.) SECT. 4. The history of the church under the patriarch Joseph. (xxxvii.-l.) $i. The afflictions of Jacob and Joseph:-Joseph sold into Egypt (xxxvii.), the incest of Judah (xxxviii.), the imprisonment of Joseph by Potiphar (xxxix. xl.) $ii. The deliverance and prosperity of Joseph :-his promotion in the court of Pharaoh (xli.), the journeys of his brethren in Egypt to purchase corn (xlii-xlv.), the descent of Jacob into that country, and settlement there with his family (xlvi.—xlviii.), his prophetic benedictions of his children (xlix.), the burial of Jacob, and the death and burial of Joseph. (1.) Allix's Reflections upon Genesis. Bishop Watson's Collection of Tracts, 247-259. vol. i. pp. |