// ppgen source helon1-src.txt
// 20151201064557strauss
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.dt Helon's Pilgrimage to Jerusalem Volume 1, by Frederick Strauss
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Transcriber’s Note:
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are referenced.
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linked for ease of reference.
At the end of the text, the translator provided a set of explanatory
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here using hyperlinks (e.g. as #Fish of the Nile:r_8.2#) for
ease of reference.
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see the transcriber’s #note:endnote# at the end of this text
for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered
during its preparation.
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HELON'S PILGRIMAGE | TO | JERUSALEM.
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HELON'S PILGRIMAGE
TO
JERUSALEM.
A PICTURE OF JUDAISM,
IN THE CENTURY WHICH PRECEDED THE ADVENT
OF OUR SAVIOUR.
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF
FREDERICK STRAUSS,
WITH NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE TRANSLATOR.
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[Greek: Ê( SÔTÊRIA E)K TÔN I)OGDAIÔN E)STIN.]
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VOL. I.
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LONDON:
PRINTED FOR J. MAWMAN, LUDGATE-STREET.
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1824.
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LONDON: PRINTED BY A. APPLEGATH, STAMFORD-STREET.
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CONTENTS.
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VOL. I. BOOK I.
.ta l:60 r:10
Chapter I.
| Page.
Alexandria | #1#
Chapter II.
The Departure | #19#
Chapter III.
The Caravan | #42#
Chapter IV.
The Halt at Casium | #70#
Chapter V.
The Halt at Ostracine | #94#
Chapter VI.
The Halt at Rhinocorura | #117#
Chapter VII.
The Halt at Raphia | #147#
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BOOK II.
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Chapter I.
| Page.
The Promised Land | #179#
Chapter II.
The Pilgrimage | #197#
Chapter III.
The Day of Preparation for the Passover | #226#
Chapter IV.
The Paschal Lamb | #259#
Chapter V.
The Day after the Passover | #275#
Chapter VI.
The Remaining Days of Unleavened Bread | #290#
Chapter VII.
Close of the Feast of the Passover | #313:Page_312#
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.sp 4
.h2
AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
.sp 2
The present work contains a picture of the Jewish
people, in which their ecclesiastical and civil constitution,
their social and domestic life are represented,
as they existed at the time when the
advent of the Messiah was at hand.
From his boyhood the author had been inspired,
by the perusal of similar works on Pagan antiquities,
with the wish to exhibit such a picture of
the Jewish nation; and, encouraged by men whose
opinion he valued, he had at an early period of life
formed the resolution to undertake it, had sketched
the general outline of his work, and even executed
particular parts of it. Just at this time, however,
it pleased the Disposer of events to call him from
the situation of leisure in which he had hitherto
been placed, to the execution of an office, whose
multiplied duties left him little time for any other
occupations; and he was compelled to abandon
the design which he had so long cherished. It
was not without pain that he resolved to make this
.bn 008.png
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sacrifice of an object which had long directed and
animated his studies. The images which it had
left in his mind recurred from time to time, and
revived his former wishes. In particular, whenever
he had occasion, in the discharge of his
pastoral duty, to narrate the histories of the Bible,
the question arose in his mind, whether it might
not be possible to delineate the peculiar system of
life in which these writings originated, according
to the picture which they had left in his own
mind, without descending to all the minutiæ of
antiquarian detail? In pursuance of this thought,
he has devoted his few and interrupted hours of
leisure, to the work which he now offers to the indulgence
of the reader, for which he hopes with
the more confidence, having had such large experience
of it on a former occasion.
The plan of the work is the following. A young
Jew, who had been enamoured of the prevailing
Grecian philosophy, has returned to the observance
of the law of his fathers, at one of those important
crises in life which decide the character of succeeding
periods. Bent on the fulfilment of the
law, which he believes it impossible to accomplish
any where but in the place where the altar of
Jehovah is fixed, he makes a journey from Alexandria,
where he had been brought up, accompanied
by his uncle, to Jerusalem, in the spring of
the year 109 before the birth of Christ, remains
there during the half year which included the principal
.bn 009.png
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religious festivals; becomes a priest; enters
into the married state; and, by the guidance of
Providence, and varied experience, attains to the
conviction, that peace of mind is only to be found
in believing in Him who has been promised for the
consolation of Israel.
The plan now traced, while it offered an opportunity
of delineating the progress of an interesting
change in the sentiments of Helon himself, seemed
also to present the means of combining with this
a living picture of the customs, opinions, and laws
of the Jewish people. No period of their history
seemed so well adapted to the design of this work,
as that of John Hyrcanus. It is about this time
that the books of the Maccabees close; it is the
last era of the freedom and independence of the
people, whose character and institutions at the
same time were so nearly developed and fixed, that
very little change took place between this and the
time of our Saviour. It was possible, therefore,
to give a picture which, as far as relates to usages
and manners, should be applicable to the times of
the New Testament. By selecting this period, it
was more easy to avoid the inconvenience of placing
fictitious characters in contact with the real personages
of history, than if the time of our Saviour
had been chosen. Hyrcanus and his sons have
only in one instance been brought upon the scene,
and even here care has been taken to keep them as
much as possible in the back-ground, to avoid
.bn 010.png
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mingling the individual realities of history with a
series of events, which the author has invented to
answer the design of his work.
It was in the last years of the long reign of Hyrcanus
that the opposing sects of Sadducees and
Pharisees first became conspicuous, and the one
hundred and ninth year before the Christian era is
the date of the destruction of Samaria. In the
description of the temple, however, I have allowed
myself to anticipate a little, in order to describe
its magnificence in the days of Herod, whose
temple was that to which our Saviour resorted.
In the description of the customs of sacrifice and
prayer, I have ventured to use, but with moderation,
the accounts of later times.
One thing it must be allowed to the author to
remark, in order to prevent the misapprehensions
of those, who do not know what properly belongs
to a work like the present, and that is, that he is
by no means to be understood as uniformly declaring
his own views; and he particularly wishes
this to be borne in mind in reading the first part.[1]
.fn 1
The translator wishes by no means to be supposed to
agree even in those opinions, which, from the manner of bringing
them forward, appear to be the author’s own. The discourses
of the old man of the temple with Helon, in the second
volume, are evidently an anticipation of Christianity, founded
upon the author’s views of the doctrines of the New Testament.
Those who agree with him in these views will think it reasonable,
that such anticipations of the nature and office of the
Messiah should be attributed to a Jew who was piously expecting
his appearance; those who do not, will perceive that the
prolepsis which the author has allowed himself adds nothing to
the evidence of the doctrines in question. I have passed over
these parts of the work generally without remark, the only
authority which could have been alleged in support of them
being passages of Scripture, respecting the meaning of which
the Christian world is far from being unanimous in its opinion.
.fn-
.bn 011.png
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It is well known that the want of a lively and
distinct picture of those local and national peculiarities
which are presented in the Bible, revolts
many from the perusal of it, and exposes others to
very erroneous conceptions. It is the author’s
prayer to Him, from whom these precious records
have proceeded, that the present work may serve,
under his blessing, to make the perusal of the
Scriptures more attractive and edifying; and he
hopes those who shall drink with pleasure from his
humble rill, will not be satisfied without going to
the fountain of living waters.
.bn 012.png
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.h2
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
.sp 2
The work which is now offered to the public,
appeared in Germany in 1820, unaccompanied by
notes or even references to Scripture. The author
alleged, as a reason for this omission, that the majority
of readers would not concern themselves
about authorities, and that the few who did might
easily find them. He was, however, soon convinced,
by the expression of public opinion, that he
had underrated the curiosity of the former class,
as much as he had overrated the patience of the
latter; and promised to remedy the deficiency.
As the work had been partly translated into Dutch
and illustrated with notes, by the Professors Vanderpalm
and Clarisse, he purposed to add his own
notes to theirs, when their translation should be
completed. It was my original intention to have
waited for the appearance of this appendix; but as
four years have now elapsed, and I have been
unable to hear any tidings of it from Germany,
I thought it better to endeavour to supply the
.bn 013.png
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defect. Having no clue whatever to guide me to
the sources of the author’s statements, it may
happen that I have not assigned the precise authority
which he had in view; and, in justice to him,
the reader will not conclude, that all which is not
fortified by a reference is destitute of a warrant from
antiquity, but only that the passage in which it is
found has not occurred to me.
The liberty which I have used with the original
consists wholly in retrenchments. Of these alterations
some have been made to prevent repetition
and diffuseness: in a very few instances what appeared
evidently fanciful or unfounded has been
silently effaced.
The reader who is not acquainted with any other
authority for Jewish antiquities than the Old and
New Testament, will not, perhaps, be displeased to
find here a brief statement of the sources whence
the materials of the following work have been derived.
He who chooses a distant age for the scene
of such a fiction as this, and endeavours to give
the form and colour of reality to the dim and
broken outlines, will find himself at a loss, even in
delineating the best known ages of Greece and
Rome. But our author has undertaken a task of
still greater difficulty. The Jews were entire
strangers to those kinds of literary production, in
which the living manners of a people are preserved
to posterity: literature among them was devoted
to higher objects than comedy, satire, and ethical
.bn 014.png
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description. The history of our Saviour, it is true,
carries us into the very bosom of domestic life
among his contemporaries; and the knowledge
which we thus acquire is peculiarly valuable, from
the stamp of truth which is impressed on every
part of it. But if we learn much from this source,
there is still more of which we are left ignorant.
Next to the books of Scripture, the Antiquities and
History of the Jews by Josephus, are the most
authentic sources of information. Philo, occupied
in pursuing the phantoms of allegorical interpretation,
gives less aid than might have been expected
from his voluminous writings. Among the Fathers
of the Christian church, Jerome, who was long
resident in Palestine, has left us, in various works,
very important information respecting the geography,
natural history, and customs of the country.
Of the heathen writers, even the gravest and most
learned so pervert and confound every thing relating
to the manners and religion of the Jews, that
they cannot be trusted for any thing beyond geography,
and the details connected with it.
The Rabbinical writings of the Jews are chiefly
occupied with that traditional law, which, in our
Saviour’s time, had almost strangled, by its parasitical
growth, the genuine stock of the Mosaic
institutions: but they also contain much information
respecting civil and religious customs, especially
the ritual of the second temple. According
to the Jewish doctors, there existed two kinds of
.bn 015.png
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law; the written, promulgated on Sinai, and preserved
in the Mosaic books; and the oral, delivered
at the same time,[2] but handed down, traditionally,
by a succession of teachers, to the captivity; and
thence from Ezra to the time of Rabbi Judah Hakkadosh,
(the holy,) who lived about the middle of
the second century after Christ. As the dispersion
of the Jews had rendered the oral transmission of
their learning more difficult and uncertain, he reduced
the traditions of the doctors into a system,
to which the name of the Mishna (repetition) was
given. It consists partly of civil and criminal laws,
partly of a ritual for the great Jewish festivals; in
both, the Mosaic precepts bear a very small proportion
to the later additions. The Mishna itself
was soon found to need commentary and supplement;
and the Gemara of Jerusalem was compiled
by Rabbi Jochanan, and two disciples of Judah
Hakkadosh, to supply its deficiencies. This collection
appears to have been received as of authority
by the Jews of Palestine, who cultivated Rabbinical
learning in the academies of Tiberias and
Jafnia. In the sixth century, Rabbi Asa, president
of the school of Sora, in the Babylonian territory,
where the Jews were numerous and flourishing,
compiled another Gemara. The original work of
the Mishna, with the addition of one or the other
of these Gemaras, forms the Talmud (doctrine)
.bn 016.png
.pn +1
of Jerusalem or Babylon.[3] The Talmud is the
oracle of the Jewish doctors, venerated by the
greater part of them as of equal if not greater authority
than the law itself; though many, as the
whole sect of Karaites, deny its authority. Probably
the first step towards the religious improvement
of the modern Jews, must be the abandonment
of the Talmud, and a return to the simplicity
of the Mosaic law.
.fn 2
See Maimonides, Preface to the Mishna, in Surenhusius, vol. i.
.fn-
.fn 3
Basnage, Hist. of the Jews, b. iii. c. 5-7.
.fn-
Besides this great repository of their traditions,
the Jews have commentaries of their Rabbins, of
uncertain age, on books of Scripture, under the
name of Medraschim; and collections of their
sayings. I do not mention here their cabalistical
writings; which are, evidently, too fanciful and
absurd, to furnish materials to the antiquary.
After participating in the darkness of the middle
ages, Jewish literature and science revived with
great brilliancy in the eleventh and twelfth centuries,
from the connection of the Jews with the
Saracens of Spain, and their acquaintance with the
Aristotelian philosophy. Of the learned men who
arose about this time, Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and
David Kimchi, are most celebrated for their grammatical
and critical works: Moses Ben Maimon,
or Maimonides, for the vigour of his understanding,
and his knowledge of the ancient rites and ceremonies
of his nation. He gave consistency and
.bn 017.png
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systematic form to the Jewish doctrines, and his
articles are the standard of Jewish orthodoxy. The
age at which these authors lived, however, prevents
us from receiving them as original testimonies to
any thing which concerns the state of the Jews
before the destruction of their polity. The question
how far Rabbinical authority can be relied on
for Jewish antiquity, resolves itself at last into the
credibility of those who wrote in the first five centuries
after the Christian era, and especially of the
Mishna and the Gemaras.
It is now pretty generally admitted, that these
works are very delusive guides, in respect to the
times of the Old Testament. But it might be
thought, that, having been compiled at so short an
interval after the destruction of Jerusalem, we
might have trusted to them safely for information
respecting the times of the preaching of the Gospel,
and the immediately preceding period. And it
cannot be denied that some advantage is to be derived
from them in this way, but much less than
might have been expected.[4] It is not necessary to
have recourse to works, which, like the Entdecktes
Judenthum of Eisenmenger, have been written purposely
.bn 018.png
.pn +1
to expose the Talmuds to contempt; it is
sufficient even to consult the professed extracts of
what is useful in them, such as the works of Lightfoot
(a name not to be mentioned without respect
and gratitude) to be convinced how large a proportion
is frivolous subtlety or groundless fiction.
Indulging themselves in an unbounded license of
invention, to solve difficulties, or exaggerate the
glories of their nation and religion, they incur the
usual penalty of those who violate the truth, and
are suspected of falsehood, even when they may be
innocent. The rule which Schöttgenius lays down—eligendum
est quod Scripturæ Sacræ magis convenit et
quod cæteris paribus aliorum antiquiorum auctoritas
sequendum suaserit—affords no guide in respect to
those accounts which Scripture does not confirm,
nor yet by its silence necessarily invalidate. Here
an author can only follow his own judgment and
feeling of probability. The reader must determine
for himself, whether, in the Pilgrimage of Helon,
only due weight has been given to Rabbinical authority.
I have endeavoured to enable him to ascertain,
by the references, what rests on this, and what on
more solid ground.
.fn 4
“Ne credant se ex Talmude multum in antiquitatibus
Hebraicis profecturos. Nam ubi Judæi, post destructionem
templi, inter se adhuc disputant, quomodo hæc vel illa res suscipienda
fuerit, quam tuto horum decisioni credas, qui te multo
quam antea incertiorem relinquunt.” Schöttgen. Hor. Heb. ii. 804.
.fn-
The descriptions given by travellers of the present
manners of the people of Palestine, Syria, and
Arabia, have furnished another and less fallacious
means of completing the picture of Jewish life.
Allied to the children of Israel, according to the
testimony of Scripture and their own traditions, by
.bn 019.png
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a common origin, and experiencing little change
from age to age, these nations still present the
strongest conformity with the manners described
in the Bible; nor has any thing contributed more to
its illustration, than the use which modern critics
have made of oriental voyages and travels. The
Arab Sheikh, among his flocks and herds, recalls the
very image of patriarchal times; allowing for the
change which religion has made, the mourning and
the festivity, the diet, dress, and habitation, of the
present natives of these regions, will be found
nearly what they were two thousand years ago.
It is true, that we advance a step further, when,
from the present state of the east, we describe what
it was at this distant period, than when we
merely illustrate scriptural allusions from modern
oriental manners: but among the various descriptions
which might be given, that will be nearest to
the truth which is most accordant with the known
usages of eastern nations; and though this presumption
can never amount to a positive proof of
its accuracy, the reader is not misled, provided he
is informed on what he relies. The author has
also occasionally attributed some of the practices
of the modern Jews to their ancestors of the
Asmonean period; and, perhaps, the singular inflexibility
which characterises the manners not less
than the faith of this people, may justify him in so
doing.
The reader may possibly think that too flattering
.bn 020.png
.pn +1
a portrait of the Jews has been drawn in the
Pilgrimage of Helon. Whoever is acquainted
with an earlier work of the same author, Die
Glockentöne, will perceive at once, that the piety,
enthusiasm, and ardent feeling, the sensibility to the
religio loci, which mark the hero of the narrative,
are the characteristics of the writer’s own mind.
And as every variety of temperament exists in
every age of the world, there is nothing unnatural
in the creation of such a character as that of Helon
among the Jewish people, if it only acts and is
acted upon, according to the principles and motives
of the times to which it is referred. If, in the
description of the national character, he has
heightened its virtues, or touched its faults with a
lenient hand, it must be remembered, that this
was the almost inevitable consequence of that
warm interest in his subject, without which he
could have had no power to engage his readers’
feelings. To those who cannot be satisfied, unless
the Jews are described as sunk in all the vices
which mark a people for the vengeance of heaven,
I would suggest how improbable it is, that the
religious and moral advantages which they enjoyed
should not have made them better than those
whose corrupt religion, if it had any, had a pernicious
influence on their morals—or that Providence
should select the instruments of the moral regeneration
of mankind from among a people, whose
depravity equalled or exceeded that of the heathen
.bn 021.png
.pn +1
world. Were this a proper place for entering on
such a discussion, it might not be difficult to show
how unjustly we identify the whole body of the
people with the hypocritical Pharisees whom our
Lord rebuked; or infer their ordinary character
from what Josephus says of the atrocities committed
by them, when stung by oppression, engaged
in a desperate struggle for independence
and existence, and maddened by faction and fanaticism;
under the influence of which, Christian
nations have manifested an equal disregard of
justice and humanity.
The translator may perhaps be singular in regarding
the Jewish people, even in the last days of
their national independence, as objects rather of
commiseration than abhorrence; but surely there
can be no question, that the language in which
they are perpetually spoken of must tend to retard
the event, which every true Christian earnestly
desires, the removal of that veil of prejudice which
hides from them the evidence of the divine origin
of the Gospel. Beneath the exterior appearance
of passive submission, which fear and oppression
have taught the Jew to assume, and the habits of
sordid worldliness to which our unjust laws condemn
him, lurks a deep-seated animosity against
the Christian name—a name associated in his
mind with the brutal outrages of fanatic mobs, the
extortion and cruelty of tyrannical rulers; and
though last, not least in bitterness, the harsh and
.bn 022.png
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contumelious language with which his nation is
assailed, as if they were branded with the curse of
heaven, and a perpetual memorial of its vengeance.
While the feeling continues which such reproaches
necessarily perpetuate, the efforts of Christians for
the conversion of the Jews will probably be as
fruitless as they have hitherto been. It would
well become the disciples of the religion of love,
to set the example of conciliation; and to renounce
the use of language which is equally unfavourable
in its influence on those who employ and those
who endure it.
.pm start_poem
Tuque prior, tu parce, genus qui ducis Olympo!
.pm end_poem
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.nf c
HELON'S PILGRIMAGE
TO
JERUSALEM.
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.h2
BOOK I. CHAP. I. | ALEXANDRIA.
.sp 2
The whole house was in commotion. The
camels were receiving their load in the inner
court, and drinking, before their journey, from
the fountain beneath the palm trees. The slaves
ran this way and that way: in the apartments
of the women the maid-servants were busily
preparing the farewell meal for the son of their
mistress, who, while she hurried in different
directions and issued her commands, was repeating
the words of the forty-second Psalm.—
.pm start_poem
As the hart panteth for the water-brooks,
So panteth my soul after thee, O God!
.bn 024.png
.pn +1
My soul thirsteth for God,
The living God!
When shall I return
And appear before the face of God!
.pm end_poem
She had been born in the Holy Land, and her
deceased husband had brought her to Egypt.
The country in which her youthful days had
been spent, and the journies to Jerusalem, in
which she had borne a part, rose up to her
remembrance, and with overflowing eyes she
proceeded:
.pm start_poem
My tears have been my food day and night,
While they say unto me continually
“Where is thy God?”
.pm end_poem
The thought of her deceased husband rushed
upon her mind, and her tears flowed in a fuller
stream. Yet with a lighter heart, and with a
less faltering voice, she proceeded: (ver. 4.)
.pm start_poem
When I remember these things, my heart melteth within me;
How I had gone with the multitude to the house of God,
How I had gone with the voice of joy and praise,
With the multitude that kept the festival.
.pm end_poem
At this moment Helon met her. She embraced
him and said, “So once I went to the holy
city, but now I must remain a captive in a
.bn 025.png
.pn +1
strange land. All the day long this psalm of the
sons of Korah dwells upon my mind. Thy father
sang it the last evening that we spent together.
Immediately after, he set out for the promised
land, and returned no more.”
Helon was moved by the distress of his
mother. His feelings had been the same as
hers, but he was near the accomplishment of
his wishes. He was about to visit the holy
city, and the grave of his father in the valley
of Jehoshaphat; and raising himself from his
mother’s embrace, he replied, “Hast thou
forgotten the thrice repeated chorus of that
psalm?”
.pm start_poem
Why art thou cast down, O my soul,
And why art thou disquieted within me?
Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him
Who is my deliverer and my God.
.pm end_poem
Sallu, a young Jew, who had been purchased
as a servant of the family six years before, now
entered the apartment. He was dejected, and
anxiously asked Helon, “Wilt thou not take
me with thee, master?” The mother replied,
“Thou art free; yesterday thy six years
.bn 026.png
.pn +1
expired, and it shall be Helon's last employment
before his departure solemnly to
thee.” The youth kept his eyes fixed upon
Helon, as if he was still asking him, “Wilt
thou not take me with thee, master?” “Why
dost thou refuse thy freedom, Sallu?” said
Helon. “Master,” replied he, “when thy
father bought me, six years ago, I was a houseless,
friendless boy. I have been brought up
with thee, and if I now must leave thee, I shall
be again without a friend or a home. I will
not leave thee: thou art going to Jerusalem,
and, if I go not with thee, I shall never behold
the altar of my God, nor the place to which
I direct my prayers. Take me with thee, and
I will be a servant in thine house all my days.
I have called the elders, and they will be here
immediately.”
They endeavoured to dissuade him from his
purpose. Helon painted to him the value of
freedom, and the mercy of Jehovah towards
the bondsmen in Israel, in appointing their
release in the seventh year. His mother
promised him that he should not go forth
.bn 027.png
.pn +1
empty handed; that she would give him “of
her flock, and of her barn, and of her wine-press,
of all in which the Lord her God had
blessed her,” as the Lord had commanded by
Moses in the law.[5] But Sallu replied, “Nay
but I will remain with thee: it is best for me
to be here.” The elders had now arrived.
.fn 5
Deut. xv. 14.
.fn-
“This youth,” said one of them, “will be a
servant of thy house. Come together to the gate.”
The elders, with Helon, his mother, and
Sallu, went through the covered way, as far as
the gate which opened to the outer court. Sallu
stood beside the gate-posts. The elder asked
him, “Wilt thou not leave Helon?” Sallu
replied, “I will not leave him; for I love him
and his house.” Then Helon took an awl,
and piercing his ears against the door-post,
made him his servant for ever. The elders
pronounced a blessing, and Helon put a ring
through the ears of Sallu, as a sign that he
was become his property. The youth bounded
for joy, and exclaimed, “I have bought thee
.bn 028.png
.pn +1
with my blood. Wilt thou not now take me with
thee to the Holy Land?” “Go,” said Helon,
“to look after the camels, and prepare thyself
for the journey.”
The mother invited the elders to partake of
the farewell supper with her and her son, at
which Elisama was also to be present. They
consented, and went back with her into the
inner court (the .) Helon remained
awhile behind, to inspect the preparations for
the journey. The slaves were equipping three
stately dromedaries, which, young, high-spirited,
and fleet, deserved the name of ships of the
desert. They had taken a long draught at the
well, while the slaves laid in order the baggage
which contained the food and clothing of the
travellers, and for their host in Jerusalem.
In the east, the expressions of friendship
were made by deeds rather than by words,
and the travellers destined for their host costly
caftans, Egyptian linen, a robe of thread of
gold, and some books written on papyrus. The
camels, kneeling down, received the burthen on
their backs.
.bn 029.png
.pn +1
Helon’s uncle, Elisama, who was to be his
guide on the pilgrimage to the Holy Land,
arrived, examined the preparations, and appointed
to the slaves the hour of departure.
Helon and he then went together into the ,
where the elders were sitting under the
palms beside the fountain, and enjoying the
refreshing coolness of the evening. This inner
court, around whose sides ran a portico and a
gallery, was paved with green, white, yellow,
and black marble. An awning of various colours
was stretched over it to shelter from the burning
rays of the sun; and in the middle was the
fountain with its lofty palms. In Alexandria,
as in the east generally, this was the place for
the reception of visitors.
The meal was prepared, and the elders arose
from beside the fountain to place themselves on
cushions around the table. A venerable man
with hoary locks took the place of honour, the
middle place, on the middle cushion. The
seven-branched lamp shed a bright light around,
from its one and twenty flames. The slaves
had strewed the table, the cushions, and the
.bn 030.png
.pn +1
floor with the flowers of spring. Sallu came
with a silver basin, poured water on the hands
of the guests, and when he had wiped them
sprinkled on them the fragrant . The most
delicate productions of fertile Egypt were served
up; among which the mother had not forgotten
, that her son might taste
them once more before his departure. Helon
, or, as it was called in the
east, in his bosom.
Elisama, acting as father of the house,
the bread. He spread both his hands over it,
and said, “Blessed be thou, O Lord our God,
King of the world, who causest bread to grow
out of the earth;” and the rest answered
“Amen.” As this was an entertainment, the
wine also was blessed. Elisama took the cup
with both hands, then holding it with the
right, at the height of a yard above the table,
he praised the Lord and said, “Blessed be thou,
O Lord our God, who hast given unto us the
fruit of the vine;” and the rest again replied,
“Amen.” The bread and wine were blessed
with both hands, that the fingers might be a
.bn 031.png
.pn +1
remembrance of the number of the commandments.
This done, he repeated the twenty-third
Psalm:
.pm start_poem
The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures,
He leadeth me beside the soft flowing waters,
He refresheth my soul,
He leadeth me in the straight path
For his name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil, for thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff comfort me.
Thou preparest a table for me
In the presence of mine enemies;
Thou anointest my head with oil;
My cup runneth over
Surely goodness and mercy follow me all my life,
I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
.pm end_poem
This was the prayer with which the festive meal
was usually hallowed in Israel. The guests
helped themselves and enjoyed the feast. When
the last dish was removed, Elisama began: “It
is long since I repeated that beautiful psalm,
with such a feeling of devotion as to-day. One
might think that it had been written expressly for
the feast on the evening before our departure for
.bn 032.png
.pn +1
the Holy Land. ' that
know the sound of the trumpet!'”
Helon’s kindling glance, thanked Elisama for
thus expressing the sentiment of which his own
heart was full. But one of the elders replied,
“The sound of the trumpet is heard also in
Leontopolis, and the psalm might be repeated
with equal propriety, before a journey to the
nome of Heliopolis.”
“I always maintain,” said Elisama, “that
Israel is Israel nowhere but in the Holy Land.”
“But does not the law itself declare,” said
the elder, “Thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian,
because thou wast a stranger in his land?[6]
Did not the patriarchs of our nation always
repair to Egypt in their distress, and did not
the land of Ham almost always show a brotherly
compassion for the children of Shem? Why
did our forefathers always resort to this land
of wonders, rather than to Syria or Mesopotamia?
Does it not appear as if some secret
guiding of Providence had always impelled
.bn 033.png
.pn +1
Israel to unite himself with his brethren of
Misraim? Was not our father Abraham himself
in Egypt?” “And well did Pharaoh reward
him by his treatment of Sarah,” interrupted
Elisama. “Jehovah himself forbad
Isaac to go down to Egypt.”[7]
.fn 6
Deut. xxiii. 7.
.fn-
.fn 7
Gen. xxvi. 2.
.fn-
“Yet,” replied the elder, “ with seventy souls; Joseph was proclaimed
the father of the land, and Pharaoh
said to him, I am Pharaoh, and without thee
shall no man lift up his hand or foot in the land
of Egypt.[8] Moses was born here and brought
up at court, and Jeremiah also was here.[9]
When Alexander founded this city, he brought
a multitude of our nation hither; the first
Ptolemy settled a hundred thousand of them in
different parts of the land, and because the
kings thought us to be the brethren of the
Egyptians, we have obtained the privileges of
the highest rank of citizens, and are called,
like the conquerors themselves, Macedonians.
The Lord has moved the heart of the king and
.bn 034.png
.pn +1
queen, and Onias, the son of Onias, has built us
a temple in Leontopolis, which is an exact copy
of that on mount Moriah. Soon shall we be
still more highly exalted. You know that let
the schemes of Ptolemy Lathyrus be what
they may, his mother Cleopatra, who is joint
regent with him, has the administration in her
hands, and by her means (a thing unheard of in
any other country) two of our nation, Hilkias
and Ananias, the sons of Onias, are at the head
of the army.”
.fn 8
Gen. xli. 44.
.fn-
.fn 9
Jer. xlii.
.fn-
“The God of Israel bless Cleopatra our
queen! May he increase her a thousandfold,
and cause her seed to possess the gate of their
enemies,” exclaimed the elders.
“What thou hast said of our fathers, and of
their journies into Egypt is true; but acknowledge
also,” said Elisama, “that they never
failed to return to the Holy Land, when they
had an opportunity; and we will do the same.”
“No,” said the elder, “we have our own
temple in Egypt, our Oneion.”
“But it is contrary to the law of the Lord;
on Moriah only should the temple and the altar
.bn 035.png
.pn +1
stand. Jehovah spoke to Moses saying,[10]
‘To the place which the Lord your God shall
choose out of all your tribes, to put his name
there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek,
and thither shall ye come, and thither shall ye
bring your burnt-offerings: but take heed that
thou offer not thy burnt-offerings in any place
that thou seest; in the place which the Lord
shall choose there shalt thou offer thy burnt-offerings,
and do all that the Lord thy God
requires of thee.’ And five hundred years
after, when the temple was built, he said to
Solomon, when he appeared to him in the night,
‘I have heard thy prayer and have chosen this
place to myself, as a house of sacrifice.’[11] And
this place is Moriah, where Abraham was about
to offer up his own son.”
.fn 10
Deut. xii. 1-14.
.fn-
.fn 11
2 Chron. vii. 12.
.fn-
“Knowest thou not,” continued the elder,
“what Isaiah, the greatest of all the prophets,
said two hundred years later? Our high priest
wrote the passage to the king and queen at the
building of the Oneion. In that day shall five
.bn 036.png
.pn +1
cities in the land of Egypt speak the language
of Canaan and swear to the Lord of Hosts:
one shall be called .”[12]
.fn 12
Is. xix. 18.
.fn-
Elisama replied, “I adhere to the words of
the psalm, ‘The Lord hath chosen Zion and
delights to dwell therein.’[13] To Isaiah also the
Lord spoke, saying, ‘I will comfort you as
one whom his mother comforteth, and ye shall
be comforted in Jerusalem.’[14] We might say
to you of Alexandria, what the Lord said by the
mouth of Jeremiah, 'Go up into Gilead and
take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt!'”[15]
.fn 13
Ps. cxxxii. 13.
.fn-
.fn 14
Is. lxvi. 13.
.fn-
.fn 15
Jer. xlvi. 11. 20.
.fn-
“Yet Jehovah, in the same chapter, calls
Egypt a fair heifer.”
“True, but he threatens her; ‘destruction
cometh from the north,’ and in us will his word
be fulfilled, 'ye shall be ashamed of Egypt as
thou wast ashamed of Assyria.'”[16]
.fn 16
Jer. ii. 36.
.fn-
“Now accursed be he who reviles the Oneion,
the temple of the Lord, and Egypt and the
queen,” exclaimed the elder, in vehement indignation.
They had long ceased to eat, as
.bn 037.png
.pn +1
their conversation became more animated, and
sat upright upon their cushions. The elder
started on his feet, and seemed about to offer
some violence to Elisama; but a grey-headed
elder, who had hither only listened, interposed
between them, and with the calmness of age
said to them both, “Peace, my children! There
is enough of strife in Israel; let not us increase
it. Do thou remain in Egypt, and thou Elisama
take thy way to Jerusalem. The Messiah
cometh and will teach us all things.”
The mother entered the room. “What sayst
thou, dejected mother in Israel,” continued the
aged man. “She could not,” she said, “divest
herself of the fear that one of the travellers
would never return. So it had been six years
before. Her only comfort was, that her deceased
husband had been buried in the valley
of Jehoshaphat, and nothing would have induced
her to consent to Helon’s departure, but
the thought that he would visit his father’s
grave. Ye all knew him,” said she, turning
to the guests, “he was a stay of Israel in a
foreign land.”
.bn 038.png
.pn +1
The elders turned to Helon and said, “Blessed
be thou, for thou art the son of an upright man,
and one that feared God.” “As to thy apprehension
that one of us may not return,” said
Elisama, “let us rather hope, that we shall
bring back with us a new member of the
family, a future mother, either from Jericho or
from Anathoth.”
The mother smiled, with a significant look,
which seemed to say that she already knew
more of this matter. The elder, who had
scarcely recovered from his passion, seemed
not well pleased that the number of Aramæan
Jews in Alexandria should be increased. Helon
blushed, and observed the modest silence which
became a youth in Israel, in the presence of his
elders.
“Of the two,” said the old man, “thou
wouldst rather receive thy new relation from
Anathoth.” “True,” she replied, “many of
our friends live there, and there the holy prophet
Jeremiah was born.” The mention of
Jeremiah was sufficient to kindle Elisama. His
forefathers had accompanied the prophet, when,
.bn 039.png
.pn +1
after Ishmael’s outrage upon Gedaliah,[17] he was
carried into Egypt, by the people who feared
the vengeance of the king of Babylon; and he
had sojourned with this family. “While there
lives one of our race,” exclaimed Elisama,
“never shall it be forgotten by us that we once
entertained a prophet of the Lord. His writings
are our favourite study, and by them we
are directed to seek the Holy Land.”
.fn 17
Jer. xli. xlii. xliii.
.fn-
The discourse assumed a more cheerful character.
The last cup was emptied. Sallu
washed the hands of the guests, and sprinkled
them with fragrant oil. Elisama pronounced
the thanksgiving, and the old man rising up,
took Helon’s hand and said, “Farewell, and take
with thee my blessing.” Then, laying his
hands upon the young man’s head, he said—
.pm start_poem
“He that keepeth Israel neither slumbereth nor sleepeth.
May Jehovah be thy keeper, thy shade on thy right hand!
May Jehovah preserve thy going out and coming in,
From this time forth and for evermore?”—Ps. cxxi.
.pm end_poem
The other elders also blessed him, but it was
.bn 040.png
.pn +1
evident that they would have done it with a
more hearty good will, if he had been going to
Leontopolis. All the guests took leave, and
returned to their respective abodes.
.bn 041.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER II. | THE DEPARTURE.
.sp 2
It was late in the evening: the slaves extinguished
the seven-branched lamp and laid
the cushions for beds in the porticoes which
surrounded the inner court. All retired
speedily to rest, that they might set out the
earlier on the following morning. But the
mother still lingered on the spot; her grief
increased as the time of departure drew nigh;
weeping she embraced her child, and said,
“Call me Mara, for I am a sorrowful mother in
Israel.” Helon in silence leant upon her bosom,
till Elisama came, and said to her: “Bethink
thee of what our prophet saith,[18] 'Rachel
weepeth for her children and refuseth to be
comforted. But thus saith the Lord, refrain
.bn 042.png
.pn +1
thy voice from weeping and thine eye from
tears: for thy work shall be rewarded and thy
children shall come again to their own border.'”
He forced her away into the inner apartments,
and himself lay down on one of the cushions in
the portico.
.fn 18
Jer. xxxi. 15.
.fn-
Helon did not attempt to sleep. Wishing
his uncle calm repose, he ascended the roof of
the house where stood the , a small apartment
like a turret, dedicated to secret meditation
and prayer. From the roof there was an
extensive view over the city of Alexandria; on
the north to the Mediterranean, on the south to
the lake Mareotis, and on the east to the Nile
and the Delta. Here he had often stood when
a boy, and with restless longing had looked
towards the Holy Land. It was a clear, calm
night of spring. Refreshing odours arose from
the surrounding gardens. The countless stars
shed down their twinkling radiance upon him,
and the moon’s new light was mirrored in the
lake and the canals of the Nile.
Before him lay the city of Alexander, justly
styled in the days of her highest prosperity, the
.bn 043.png
.pn +1
Queen of the East and the Chief of Cities. In
what stillness she now reposed, with her towering
obelisks! How deep the silence and the
rest which wrapt her 600,000 inhabitants, and
her five harbours, by day so full of activity and
noise! The house was near the , from
which the whole city could be seen at one view.
There stood the Bruchium which, besides the
royal palace, contained the Museum, rendered
the chief seat of the learning of the times, by
its library of 400,000 volumes, and by being
the residence of the learned men, whom the
munificence of the Ptolemies had collected
around their court. Here Helon had sat for
several years, at the feet of the philosophers.
He thought on those years, and, as he compared
them with his present hopes, he exclaimed:
.pm start_poem
Better is a day in thy courts than a thousand!
I would rather be a door-keeper in the house of the Lord
Than dwell in the tents of sin.—Ps. lxxxiv. 10.
.pm end_poem
“Truly the tents of sin,” said he to himself,
as he paced the roof, “even when I think on my
own people, who live here in high favour. Let
them be called Macedonians if they will, let
.bn 044.png
.pn +1
the sons of the high priest be the commanders
of the army, let them hope for still greater
distinctions from Cleopatra’s favour, it is still
an exile and Israel is in affliction. Their
schisms in doctrine and laxity of morals are too
plain a proof of it.”
He went into the alija and brought out his
harp; the plaintive tones resounded through
the still air of night as he sung
.pm start_poem
By the rivers of Babel we sat and wept
When we thought on Zion.
We hung our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.—Ps. cxxxvii.
.pm end_poem
“Here we ought to hang them upon the
pyramids,” continued he. “The controversy
which destroyed the harmony of our social meal
this evening still jars upon my soul. Praised
be God, that Jeremiah sojourned with my forefathers,
that they like myself have continued
Aramæan Jews, and have not gone over to the
Hellenists.”
The Diaspora, or body of the Jews dispersed
in foreign countries, was divided at this time
into Hellenists and Aramæan Jews. The Hellenists
.bn 045.png
.pn +1
had adopted the Greek, at that time the
universal language of the civilized and literary
world; the used, even in
foreign lands, the Hebrew, or rather a dialect
of that language, called the Aramæan. The
latter attached themselves to the temple at
Jerusalem, the former worshipped at Leontopolis
in Egypt. A division once begun is
easily extended to other points. With the
Greek language the Hellenists had adopted
Grecian culture, yet wished still to continue
Jews, and hence arose the necessity for uniting
philosophy with the law. The only way in
which this could be accomplished, was that
which they adopted, of attributing the doctrines
of Grecian wisdom to the law, as its inward
and spiritual meaning. In this undertaking the
Egyptians had led the way for them. Egypt
is the native country of . For a long
time past the popular religion had been very
different from that of the sacerdotal caste, and
they stood to each other in the relation of the
letter to the spirit; of the image to the reality.
The Hellenistic Jews had adopted this Egyptian
.bn 046.png
.pn +1
mode, and three classes had been formed
amongst them. One party openly renounced
both law and allegory, living without the law,
which indeed it was impossible to observe
exactly any where but in Judea. Another outwardly
conformed to the law, but did so for the
sake of its hidden and spiritual meaning. A
third set were contented with this spiritual
meaning, which they arbitrarily annexed to it,
and concerned themselves no further with the
literal observance. No little confusion had
arisen from this variety of opinions, and the
incessant controversies to which they gave
rise.
Helon had been hurried by the prevailing
spirit of his age and country for some years into
the vortex of allegory. A youth of such an
ardent temperament and high intellectual endowments,
connected with the most considerable
families of the Alexandrian Jews, could scarcely
escape this temptation. Had his father been
alive, he would have been a constant monitor
to him against the danger—but since his death
on the journey to the Holy Land, Helon’s
.bn 047.png
.pn +1
danger had increased, with the increase of his
liberty. It seems too as if it were necessary
that those master spirits, who are destined
successfully to oppose the errors of their times,
should themselves for a while be involved in
them. The scattered intimations which the
law itself affords opened to him a new and
attractive field, which he was eager to explore
completely. He was advised to make himself
acquainted with the Grecian philosophy, as the
source of the knowledge which he desired, and
for this purpose he resorted to the Museum.
His first instructor here was a Stoic, who demanded
from him a greater rigour than even
the law had required, but at the same time
taught him, that the knowledge of God was
not necessary. Helon forsook him, and applied
himself to an acute Peripatetic; but his
thoughts seemed more occupied with his pecuniary
remuneration, than with the high rewards
of wisdom and philosophy. Helon lost no time
in seeking another teacher. A Pythagorean
required, as a preliminary, a long study of music,
astronomy and geometry, and Helon thought
.bn 048.png
.pn +1
that the knowledge of the truth might surely
be attained by a less circuitous process. At last
a young and lively Greek of the name of Myron,
whom he had known as a child, introduced him
to a Platonic philosopher. In him he seemed
to have found all of which he had been in
search. He perused with Myron the dialogues
of him whom his disciples called the divine.
Those were hours never to be forgotten, in
which his doctrine of , of virtue
that is not to be taught or learnt, of That which
is, first irradiated his mind. About this time he
became acquainted with , who was
also a Platonist, and profoundly skilled in the
interpretation of the law. He could answer
every question which Helon wished to ask
respecting the sense of scripture. He explained
to him the seven days of creation, and
the ten commandments, in their spiritual import;
and taught him much respecting the
world of ideas, which he had not found even in
Plato. His new teacher represented the divine
intelligence, not as an attribute of God, but as a
being having a distinct existence, and called it
.bn 049.png
.pn +1
the image of God, his first born son, the highest
of the angels and the primeval man.
For a long time his fancy rioted in these
speculations, to which he was so entirely devoted,
that if he continued to observe the law,
it was owing to the pure and simple manners
to which he was accustomed in his father’s
family. But every thing which only gratifies
the understanding loses its charm, especially
with men of lively and ardent temperament,
when it loses its novelty. When Helon’s first
transport, at the enlargement of his views, had
subsided, and cool reflection began to resume her
sway; when he perceived that Myron could, with
equal ease, explain and vindicate the worship of
Jupiter, Bacchus, and Apollo—the Orphic and
Dionysian mysteries—and all the idolatries of
polytheism, by the aid of the same principles
which his teacher had applied to the interpretation
of scripture; suspicions were awakened in
his mind that these principles could not be true.
That which converts falsehood into truth, he
thought, can never increase the force and evidence
of truth. The promises which were given
.bn 050.png
.pn +1
to Israel, the threatenings and warnings of Jehovah
against participation in idolatry, recurred to
his mind. The image of his deceased father
was daily held up to him by his mother, as one
who had abhorred the system of the Hellenists.
A feeling of pride in his own nation, as the
chosen people of Jehovah, was awakened in his
bosom, and he could no longer take pleasure in
the society of Myron.
He began now to remark the endless varieties
and inconsistencies of these allegorical interpretations.
Every one, full of the persuasion
of his own wisdom, expounded the divine
word according to his own fancy. Helon could
not but perceive that all this wisdom was an
arbitrary, self-invented, human system of doctrine
respecting divine things, in opposition to
which, not only Plato but the whole tenour of
scripture taught him, that God only can be our
in things relating to himself, and that
human reason must here rely upon revelation.
This revelation he found in the law, delivered
to his nation upon mount Sinai, under circumstances
the most impressive and sublime.
.bn 051.png
.pn +1
While this train of thought tended to alienate
him from the Hellenists and their system, his
mother one evening remarked to him with sorrow
his slowness in fulfilling the divine precepts.
At first he was so much offended by it,
that he replied to her remonstrance only by a
sarcastic look, and retired to his books. But
conscience did not allow him to rest. Suddenly
the divine denunciation occurred to him, “The
eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth
to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley
shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat
it.”[19] He was deeply moved, and now saw with
opened eyes the abyss of immorality, to the
edge of which this new wisdom had conducted
him. He had long desired to be free from the
burthensome duties of the law, and he had now
transgressed against the first commandment
with promise. He felt to what this heathen
philosophy, this partial culture of the mind, was
bringing him; and in the lives of its professors
he saw, in all their rank maturity, the vices, of
.bn 052.png
.pn +1
which he discovered the seeds in his own
heart. They lived without a law, sunk in
heathen vice and immorality. He now perceived
that nothing but the most faithful obedience
to the law could make him truly happy,
that in this way only he became a partaker
in the promises of God to the upright,
and that the passion for allegories had corrupted
his mind instead of enlightening it. These reflections
determined him to return to the faith
of his fathers.
.fn 19
Prov. xxx. 17.
.fn-
He now felt himself once more at home under
his paternal roof; his former filial reverence for
his mother returned; his father’s spirit seemed
to smile on his conversion; and the experienced
counsels of his uncle proved much more than an
equivalent to him for all the wisdom of the
Museum. All the joys and the longings of his
childhood returned upon him; the feelings of
the present moment seemed to be linked immediately
to the remembrances of his boyish days,
and all that had intervened appeared like a
period of delusion. His desire to behold Jerusalem
came over him again, in all its original
.bn 053.png
.pn +1
vividness: it had been the strongest of his
early feelings, and the very names of Canaan,
Zion, and Jerusalem, had held a mysterious
sway over his imagination. His mother, as he
sat upon her knees, had told him of the place,
towards which he was taught to lisp his prayer;
of the thousands who went up to the feast;
of Moses, David, and Solomon; and had represented
Egypt as a land of exile, another Babel,
in comparison with the land of his fathers. He
often saw her weep when she spoke of Jericho
and her native city, and related how she, when
a maiden, had gone up in the choir of singers to
the festival, but must now remain in a strange
land. As the severest punishment for his
childish offences, he used to be told, that it
would be a long time before he would be fit to
accompany his father on a pilgrimage to the
Holy Land; and the reward of his proficiency
and his obedience was the promise of a sight of
Jerusalem. When Jews from the holy city
visited Alexandria, and, as their custom was,
came to see his father, it was a festival for
Helon; he regarded these strangers with
.bn 054.png
.pn +1
scarcely less veneration than his fathers had
done Jeremiah, and tried all the insinuating
arts of which he was possessed, to induce the
most courteous among them to tell him something
about the land of his ancestors. It was
the land of promise, the theme of sacred song,
the theatre of sacred history. When his father
was in a cheerful mood, he used to relate
anecdotes of his pilgrimages, beginning and
ending every narrative with the words of the
children of Korah:
.pm start_poem
The Lord loveth the gates of Zion,
Whose foundation is in the holy mountains,
More than all the dwellings of Jacob.
Glorious is it to speak of thee,
O city of God!—Ps. lxxxvii.
.pm end_poem
The journey from which his father never
returned, was to have been the last which he
made alone—on the next, Helon was to have
accompanied him. His grief at being obliged
to remain at home, his mother’s tears, his
father’s solemn farewell, as it were prophetic
of the fatal event; his mother’s daily remarks,
“Now they are in Hebron, to-day they will
reach Jerusalem; to-day the passover begins,
.bn 055.png
.pn +1
to-day it will be over;” their joyful expectations
of his return, and the overwhelming intelligence
of his death, had all combined to leave
an impression on his mind, which he had with
difficulty mastered for a time, and which now
revived with uncontroulable force. Since his
return to the law of his fathers, a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem had been his dream by night and his
thought by day. Leontopolis, the character
and proceedings of the Hellenists, and even the
conversation at this evening’s entertainment,
all conspired to convince him, that Egypt was
no place for the fulfilment of the law. It was
now the predominant wish of his soul to become
a true Israelite, a faithful follower of the law,
and a worthy member of the people of the
Lord, and he felt that only in the Holy Land
could he become so.
All these reflections and retrospects of his
past life filled the mind of Helon, as he laid
down his harp upon the parapet of the roof, and
paced up and down in strong emotion. At
times he stopped, and fixing his eyes on the
north-east, almost persuaded himself that the
.bn 056.png
.pn +1
clouds which he saw there were the hills of
Judah. In the mean time Sallu, who, like his
master, had been unable to sleep, had silently
placed a lamp in the alija. Helen was attracted
by the light and went in. A roll lay unfolded;
he looked into it, and opened at the splendid
description which an exile at Nineveh, of the
tribe of Naphthali, makes of the holy city.
(Tob. x.) “O Jerusalem, the holy city!
Many nations shall come from far to the name
of the Lord God, with gifts in their hands.
Blessed are they that love thee, and rejoice in
thy peace. Let my soul bless God, the great
King: for the Lord our God will deliver Jerusalem
from all her afflictions. The gates of
Jerusalem shall be built of sapphires and emeralds
and precious stones; thy towers and
battlements of pure gold: and the streets of
Jerusalem shall be paved with white marble,
and in all her streets shall they say, Hallelujah!
Praised be God who hath exalted her, and
may his kingdom endure for ever. Amen.”
“Hallelujah,” he exclaimed, “that before
me an could put such words into
.bn 057.png
.pn +1
the mouth of a captive at Nineveh.” He
hastened to his harp, and placing the footstool
under his foot, turned towards the Holy Land
as he sung
.pm start_poem
O Jehovah, thou art my God, early will I seek thee.
My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee,
In a dry and thirsty land.
Would that I might see thy sanctuary,
To behold thy power and glory.—Ps. lxiii.
.pm end_poem
He knew by heart all the psalms which had
any relation to Jerusalem, and no sooner had
he finished one, than his fingers and his voice,
unbidden, began another.
.pm start_poem
When Israel went out of Egypt,
The house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
Judah was his sanctuary,
Israel his dominion.—Ps. cxiv.
.pm end_poem
His own pilgrimage to Jerusalem seemed to
him like the departure of Israel from Egypt
fourteen hundred years before, and he was
transported at once to those remote ages with
so lively a feeling, that the psalm seemed to
him to spring fresh from his own soul, and to
have been dictated by his own emotions. The
forty-third Psalm occurred to his mind, and
.bn 058.png
.pn +1
with the raised look, but subdued voice of
humble devotion, he sung—
.pm start_poem
Send out thy light and thy truth and let them guide me!
Let them bring me to thy holy hill and to thy tabernacles!
Then will I go unto the altar of God,
Unto God my exceeding joy.
Yea upon the harp will I praise thee,
O God, my God!
Why art thou cast down, O my soul,
And why art thou disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall yet praise him
Who is the health of my countenance and my God.
.pm end_poem
The tones of the harp gradually died away,
and Helon remained absorbed in gratitude and
devotion towards Jehovah.
At length he arose to perform his evening
prayer. Since his return to the law of his fathers,
he had been rigid in the performance of this duty,
and without discriminating accurately, in the fervour
of his new zeal, between the commands of
God, and the usages established by tradition, he
would gladly even have added to their length
and frequency. There was at this time a distinction
commonly made among the Aramæan
Jews between the righteous man, who only
aimed to fulfil the law as it was left by Moses;
.bn 059.png
.pn +1
and the pious man, who, not content with this,
endeavoured by the performance of other ordinances
to attain a still higher degree of the
divine favour. At an earlier period of Helon’s
life, it would have seemed to him a superfluous
trouble, to endeavour to deserve the character of
the ; now, nothing could satisfy
him, but to aspire to the rank of a pious man.
The washing of the hands preceded prayer,
because nothing impure was to appear before
the purest of Beings. Helon next covered his
head with his mantle, a sort of . This
mantle had at the four corners fringes, which
were called zizis, consisting of eight double
twisted threads of wool, whose azure colour had
a reference to the heavens, with five tassels for
the five books of the law. The use of these
fringes had been commanded by God himself
to the children of Israel, “That they might look
upon them and remember all the commandments
of the Lord and do them, and seek not
after their own heart and their own eyes.”[20]
.bn 060.png
.pn +1
He next bound the , called tephillim,
on his forehead and his left arm, in
such a way, that the strings of the first hung
upon his breast, and the latter were wound
seven times round the fore-arm, then across
the fore-finger and the thumb, and finally three
times round the middle finger. These phylacteries
were little cases, containing strips of
parchment, on which the following sentences
of the law were written. Deut. v. 11, 13-21.
Exod. xiii. 11-16. Deut. vi. 4-9. and Exod.
xiii. 1-10. of which the Lord had commanded
“They shall be for a token upon thine hand
and for frontlets between thine eyes.”[21] In
the phylactery for the forehead there were four
strips, in that for the left arm only one.
.fn 20
Num. xv. 38.
.fn-
.fn 21
Deut. vi. 8.
.fn-
He now placed himself with his face towards
Jerusalem and prayed the Kri-schma, a prayer
which consisted of these three passages from
the books of Moses; Deut. vi. 4-9. in which
it is commanded to love and honour God alone;
Deut. xi. 13-21. where the promises are given
.bn 061.png
.pn +1
for the fulfilling of the law; and Numb. xv.
37-41. where it is required that the commandments
be diligently kept. He concluded all
with a prayer to God, as being, in every act
of religious worship, the beginning and the
end, the centre to which every thing tends.
Having performed his devotions, he descended
with a cheerful heart from the roof,
and laid himself beside Elisama in the portico.
At the first cock-crowing he arose; for strengthened
and animated by hope he had little need
of sleep.
He went first to the alija, and having repeated
the ceremonies of the preceding evening,
and again concluded with an act of praise
to God, he roused the slaves and bade them
lead the laden camels to the gate. His mother
came, with eyes red with weeping, from the
apartment of the women. The sun was rising
at that moment, and Elisama approaching her,
tried to console her with the words of the
eighty-fourth Psalm,
.pm start_poem
The Lord God is a sun and shield,
The Lord will give grace and glory;
.bn 062.png
.pn +1
No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
O Lord of Hosts
Blessed is the man that trusteth in thee!
.pm end_poem
“Yes,” she exclaimed,
.pm start_poem
Turn thee unto me and have mercy upon me,
For I am desolate and afflicted.
.pm end_poem
The travellers were invited to take some
food, but Elisama declared that only the servant
in Israel in the morning,
and to others it was a disgrace. The mother,
however, was not to be dissuaded, and compelled
them to take dates, figs, and honey. “Greet
thy father’s grave,” said she to Helon. “Let
thy first visit be to the valley of Jehoshaphat.”
Sallu led out the camels. He was full of joy,
and every moment touched his ear-ring as a
badge of honour. The mother embraced her
son, and weeping said to him,
.pm start_poem
The Lord bless thee and keep thee!
The Lord make his face to shine upon thee
And be gracious unto thee!
The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee
And give thee peace!
.pm end_poem
“Go then,” she exclaimed, “God be with
thee on the way, and his angel lead thee!”
.bn 063.png
.pn +1
Helon tore himself from her, and, accompanied
by his uncle, descended the inner court.
He had scarcely reached the outer, before
the delightful expectation of visiting Jerusalem
had already gained the ascendency in his
thoughts over the sorrow of departure. And
when from the end of the street he had cast
back a look on the parental house, and blessed
once more his mother and the alija, he proceeded
with alacrity on his way, repeating to
himself,
.pm start_poem
Blessed is the man who puts his confidence in thee,
And to Jerusalem.
.pm end_poem
No farewell to home is ever less painful than
the first.
.bn 064.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER III. | THE CARAVAN.
.sp 2
The slaves halted before the gate with the
camels and the horses. The camels bore the
travelling equipage, provisions, clothes, and
presents for the hosts. Sallu when weary was
to find a seat upon the one which was most
lightly loaded. Elisama and Helon mounted
two stately Egyptian horses, which they designed
to sell again at Gaza. Egypt abounds
with , and supplies the neighbouring
country with them.
They had arranged their journey so well, that,
by joining a Tyrian caravan from Pelusium to
Gaza, they would be able to arrive in Judea
time enough to accompany the pilgrims from
Hebron on their way to Jerusalem. From
.bn 065.png
.pn +1
Alexandria to Pelusium their road lay through
Egypt, and they might venture to make it alone.
Alexandria lies upon a tongue of land, between
the Mediterranean sea on the north, and
the lake Mareotis on the south. Their journey
at first lay between these two, affording them
views first of one and then of the other. The
shore of the lake was covered with palm trees
and papyrus, canals united it with the Nile, and
splendid buildings rose on every side of it.
Helon, in spite of his longing for the Holy
Land, was compelled to confess, that Alexander
had chosen a spot to bear his name, not only
preeminently convenient for trade, but delightfully
situated.
The places through which they passed, being
well known to both our travellers, offered nothing
to divert the course of their thoughts.
They halted one day, because it was ,
on which the law did not permit them
to travel more than a thousand paces. The
whole journey lasted nine days, in the course
of which they ferried over several , crossing both the great and the little
.bn 066.png
.pn +1
Delta. They passed through Naucratis, celebrated
for several centuries past, as the first emporium
of Grecian commerce with Egypt; Sais, with its
temple of Neitha; Busiris, with the ruins of the
largest temple of Isis in Egypt; and Tanis,
anciently the royal residence. This land of
wonders, however, had little other effect upon
Helon, than to make him often repeat—
.pm start_poem
Blessed is the man who puts his confidence in thee,
And thinks of the way to Jerusalem!
.pm end_poem
His uncle sometimes smiled at him, and
observed that it was well that they had left the
elder behind at Alexandria. For the rest but
little conversation passed. Elisama was wearied
by the journey, and Helon and Sallu were silent,
or repeated passages from the Psalms.
At length they came in sight of Pelusium,
where they were to meet the Ph[oe]nician caravan;
and Helon rejoiced that he should leave the
country of the grave and gloomy Egyptians, to
penetrate into the desert that conducted him to
the land of his forefathers.
.bn 067.png
.pn +1
As they made a circuit round the city, they
saw outside one of the gates a promiscuous
assemblage of men, goods, camels, and horses.
The neighing of the Egyptian and Arabian
steeds pierced through the hoarser cry of the
camels. Egyptians, Ph[oe]nicians, Syrians, Romans,
and swarthy Ethiopians, were hurrying
in every direction, between the piled up heaps
of merchandise; Greek, Aramaic, and Latin,
were blended in one confused murmur. The
main part of the caravan consisted of Ph[oe]nicians
from Tyre, who, according to the custom which
then prevailed, had carried wine in earthen jars
to Egypt, where . They
had gone through Alexandria to Memphis, and
as they passed, Elisama had agreed with them
to be conducted from Pelusium to Gaza. They
had just arrived from Memphis, and this
was the rendezvous for all who wished to
accompany them in their journey through the
desert. They had purchased, to carry back
with them, horses, cotton and embroidered
cloths, and the fine and costly linen of Egypt.
The leader of the caravan, busied with a variety
.bn 068.png
.pn +1
of cares, briefly saluted Elisama and Helon, and
informed them that he should depart on the
following morning at daybreak, and that the
camels should be arranged four and four. Half
the inhabitants of Pelusium had come out, to
traffic or to gaze, and the tumult and bustle were
indescribable.
While Elisama and Helon endeavoured to
find themselves a suitable lodging-place for
the night, in the around this city,
which borders on the vast sandy desert of
Arabia, and Sallu was following them with the
slaves, a well-known voice exclaimed, “Welcome
Elisama and Helon! Are ye also for
Tyre?” It was Myron, the young and handsome
Greek from Alexandria, Helon’s early
friend, who had introduced him to the knowledge
of Platonism, and studied Plato with him
in the Museum. Since his return to the law,
Helon had purposely avoided him, and would
willingly not have encountered him here, just
as he was entering on his journey to Jerusalem.
Myron was going to Damascus, and meant to
accompany the caravan to Tyre; and although
.bn 069.png
.pn +1
they told him that their intention was only to
go as far as Gaza, this did not prevent his
offering to join company with them to that
place; and he made his proposal with so much
of Greek urbanity, that they knew not how to
refuse. The pleasure of their society, he said,
would save him from dying of tedium; which,
if he kept company any longer with the Ph[oe]nicians,
who could talk of nothing but their
merchandise, threatened to be more fatal than
thirst to him in crossing the desert. “Your
oriental gravity,” said he, “will be enlivened
by my Grecian levity, and together we shall
form the most agreeable party in the whole
caravan.” He took the hand of Elisama with
a smile, and the bargain was concluded.
Long before sunrise on the following morning,
the tumult of the began again.
Helon’s camel was bound behind the three
camels of Elisama: Sallu led them, the slaves
urged them on, and the three travellers mounted
their horses. The trumpet sounded a second
time, as the signal of departure. The camels
were arranged four together, and our party
.bn 070.png
.pn +1
endeavoured to place themselves as near as possible
to the head of the line of march, to avoid
the clouds of sand which were raised in the
middle and near the end. Between every fifty
parties, came a horse with a guide, and a man
bearing a kettle of pitch, raised on a pole, which
was to be kindled during the night. The principal
guide, who had the superintendence of
the whole caravan, rode usually in front, on a
horse richly caparisoned, and accompanied by
a camel which carried his treasure. He was the
absolute master of the whole train; at his nod
the blasts of the trumpet were given, and every
one set forward or halted. A litter was borne
behind him, in which he occasionally reposed.
It was an hour after sunset before all was
arranged and the third blast of the trumpet was
given. The guide mounted his Arabian horse,
and the march began. Thousands of persons
from Pelusium and the neighbourhood, stood by
the road-side, and saluted them as they departed.
The slaves began to sing, and the bells
on the necks and feet of the camels chimed
between. Every thing in the caravan was
.bn 071.png
.pn +1
performed in measured time, the step of the
camels, the jingling of the bells, and the song
of the slaves. Both men and beasts were full
of alacrity, and thus, even in the desert, one
portion of the dreary way after another is
performed without tediousness.
Helon’s heart beat high with the thought
that he had entered on the road to Jerusalem;
and he could not refrain from exclaiming, when
the signal for the march was given, “Happy
are the people that know the sound of the
trumpet.” To Myron his exclamation was unintelligible,
and he continued to exercise his
Attic raillery upon every thing around him;
but Helon was too much absorbed in his own
thoughts to notice him.
The first day’s journey, as is usual with caravans,
was very short; and they halted, after a
march of an hour and a half, at , where
there was a fountain, by which they encamped.
All the press and tumult was renewed. The
beasts and the merchandise were placed in the
middle, and tents were erected all around, as a
shelter from the burning heat of noon. Myron’s
.bn 072.png
.pn +1
slave went to fetch wood and water: Sallu
unpacked the travelling equipage from the
camel, and the three travellers helped him to
set up the tent. He then spread a carpet, on
which Elisama seated himself; coverlets and
mattresses were brought out for sleeping; and
a , having rings at the
circumference which can be drawn together
like a purse by a string which runs through
them. This was to be laid on the ground
before the meal, that the dishes might be
placed upon it. The slave had brought the
wood—a fire was made in the sand, and the
camp kettle placed upon it.
While Sallu and the slave were preparing the
meal, Helon and Myron joined Elisama in the
tent. Myron’s slave brought a hare which he
had purchased of an inhabitant of Pelusium,
and was about to dress it. Elisama observed
it, and joined with Sallu, who thrust the slave
away, exclaiming, “that the animal was unclean,
and must not be dressed for food for his
masters.”
“Nay, what is this?” said Myron; “the
.bn 073.png
.pn +1
game is excellent, and I meant it to do honour
to my introduction into your society.”
“We may not eat of it,” replied Elisama;
“it is . It is forbidden in the law
to eat any animal, which ruminates without
dividing the hoof.”[22]
.fn 22
Deut. xiv. 7.
.fn-
“Ye are then worse off even than the Egyptians,”
said Myron, “who are only forbidden
to eat their sacred animals. We Greeks are
wiser than either: we eat what we like.”
“And do what ye like;” interposed Helon.
“But we have the law.”
“And what need,” said Myron, “of any
other law than that which is written in the
hearts of all men?”
“Yet that this law, written in the heart, is
not of itself sufficient, and does not supersede
the necessity of a revealed law, you might have
learnt from your own Socrates. Remember
what he says of his dæmon.”
“If the Jew attempts to turn the weapons
of the heathen against himself, let us see if the
.bn 074.png
.pn +1
heathen cannot do the same with those of the
Jew. Ye call Abraham the progenitor of your
people.”
“Undoubtedly,” said Elisama.
“Did he not live many hundred years before
the law was given by Moses? If so, which
you cannot deny, this progenitor, whom ye
prize so highly, and exalt above all men that
ever lived, had not even heard of the law, and
was no better than one of us.”
Helon was for a while silent and perplexed.
At length he replied, “The example of our
father Abraham urges us to obedience to the
law: for circumcision, which is a leading part
of it, was commanded to him, and he performed
it on all his house on the same day on which
Jehovah made a covenant with him and changed
his name.”[23]
.fn 23
Gen. xvii. 23.
.fn-
“I will give thee a better answer,” interposed
Elisama. “It is true, that Abraham had
not the law of Moses, and could not, in our
sense of the word, exhibit the righteousness of
.bn 075.png
.pn +1
the law. He received the commands of the
Lord immediately from himself, and therefore
needed not that they should be engraved on
tables of stone. And for the same reason he
was permitted to sacrifice elsewhere than in
Jerusalem, though his greatest and most costly
sacrifice, that of his son, was appointed to be
performed on , the hill where our temple
stands. The Lord, who himself gave him the
law, was every where with him, in Egypt as in
Mamre. But now, since Israel has been stained
with sin, the glory of Jehovah will dwell only on
his own holy hill; and it is our duty to repair to
Jerusalem and bring thither our offerings.”
A new view of the subject opened itself to
Helon’s mind, and Myron listened with great
attention; Elisama continued:
“Obedience to the law presupposes three
things. First, that a law is given. Secondly,
that external circumstances are so disposed
that the observance of the law is practicable;
and, thirdly, that there be willingness to obey.
The two first existed in Abraham, as perfectly
as in his descendents. The third could only
.bn 076.png
.pn +1
be formed in the people of Israel, by the events
of several centuries, confirming the promises to
the obedient and the threats denounced against
the disobedient. Israel is at length grown wise
by experience, and the time draws near, when
the Messiah shall come to deliver his people
from oppression, and bless all nations of the
earth by means of the law. But Abraham
needed no such discipline—he practised voluntary
obedience.”
“By Apollo,” said Myron, “thou speakest
wisely!”
“Such a man,” pursued Elisama, “do we
venerate in our great progenitor. Is there any
people that can produce one like him? In him
every thing was united essential to that happiness
which is attainable only by the law. For
this reason also he received the promise from
Jehovah, that in his seed all the nations of the
earth should be blessed. Abraham was to
become a people, and that people must attain
the righteousness of Abraham. But with a
people such a change must be progressive:
Israel first of all received the law on Sinai,
.bn 077.png
.pn +1
then the promised land and a temple; and only
through a long course of discipline learnt to
obey the law willingly. These three periods,
together with the end which is yet to come, and
the beginning in Abraham, form the series of
Jewish history. You Greeks like to have
things presented to you in such arranged and
comprehensive views.”
“With good reason,” exclaimed Myron,
who had all that curiosity for knowledge of
every kind, which was the characteristic of his
nation. “And now, my venerable Elisama, I
would fain hear from thee the whole history of
thy people, arranged according to the plan which
thou hast traced. Ere we reach Gaza, we shall
pass many an hour together, at the places of
encampment, which might be so employed,
agreeably to us all. You will delight in an
opportunity of relating what redounds so much
to the honour of your people; Helon will listen
as gladly as you will relate; and I shall rejoice
in an opportunity of hearing a connected
narrative of your history.”
“As thou wilt, Myron,” said Elisama, “in
.bn 078.png
.pn +1
the hope that you Greeks may also learn to
value duly the chosen people of Jehovah. It
is only of the history of such a people as Israel,
that such an orderly developement can be made:
it is necessary for this purpose that God himself
should have taught us what plan of his he
designs a nation to fulfil. Of Israel he declared
this, even when he had no political existence;
and we need only open our eyes upon his
history, in order to perceive the progressive
accomplishment of the promise. The Messiah,
when he comes, will perhaps teach us to what
purpose Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians have
existed. I know not what it may be, but this
I know, that theirs must be a subordinate part,
and an inferior destination to that of Israel.
This I tell you frankly, and you will see the
proofs of it still more strongly in the history
itself. Are you satisfied with it?”
“Only begin your discourse,” said Myron,
“and I promise you to listen, as the Hellenic
nation listened to Herodotus, when he recited
his history at the Olympic games. A Greek of
Athenian blood, a pupil as I boast myself to
.bn 079.png
.pn +1
be of the Alexandrian philosophy, knows no
greater pleasure than to acquire knowledge,
wherever he may find it. Pythagoras travelled
into the east, and Plato visited Egypt and Italy.
Conversation is the life of life; and a discourse
which is regularly renewed should have some
fixed object, by which it may be resumed
at each successive opportunity. Do us then
this favour, and relate the history of your
nation.”
Helon had been sitting absorbed in thought
on what he had heard from his uncle. “What
a noble subject,” he now exclaimed, “for our
conversation on our pilgrimage to the Passover!
What an excellent preparation for the momentous
times which are approaching! Truly,
‘days should speak and length of years give
understanding.’ How profound is the discernment
of those ‘whose delight is in the law of
the Lord, and who meditate upon it day and
night!’ Begin then, dearest uncle, and speak
of the glories of our forefathers.”
“Youths,” said Elisama, “I will not refuse
your request, though ye praise me too much.
.bn 080.png
.pn +1
I call to mind the psalm of Asaph, which I
will rehearse to thee, Myron:
.pm start_poem
Give ear, O my people, to my teaching!
Incline your ears to the words of my mouth!
I will open my mouth in parables;
I will declare the histories of old,
Which we have known and heard,
Which our fathers have told us
That we might not hide them from their children,
Showing to the generation to come the praise of Jehovah,
His strength, and the wonders he hath done.
He established a testimony in Jacob,
And appointed a law in Israel,
Which he commanded our fathers
That they should make known to their children;
That the generation to come might know them, the sons which should be born;
That when grown up they might declare them to their children,
That they might set their hope in God,
And not forget the works of God,
And keep his commandments.—Ps. lxxviii.
.pm end_poem
“Israel is rich in such psalms as this. The
history of our nation lives in their poetry, it is
interwoven with their prayers, it is the groundwork
of doctrine and the theme of narrative;
all our festivals rest upon it as their basis, and
nothing great or important can take place in
.bn 081.png
.pn +1
Israel, which has not an historical reference.
The cause of this lies in the promise of Jehovah
and in its fulfilment. We seek our wisdom in
the revelation which God has given us—ye
seek it in your own reflections: hence our
wisdom is historical, yours speculative. What
we know of God and of his law, was communicated
to us through the discourses of God to
our fathers, or derived from the observation of
his dealings with them. It is therefore a bold
undertaking in which I engage, to relate the
history of our nation, and I must stipulate
beforehand that you will not expect from me
any thing like a perfect view of it, in the halts
of a caravan. You must also permit me, Myron,
to go on, after the oriental manner, in an unbroken
narrative, which besides better suits a
history, than that dialogue form, interrupted by
question and objection, in which you Greeks
so much delight. There will be time for these
when my narrative is ended.”
“Make what stipulations thou wilt,” said
Myron, “only begin.”
“For to-day,” said Elisama, resuming,
.bn 082.png
.pn +1
“I must confine myself to the patriarchs, not
only because our discourse has been accidentally
led to them, but because the knowledge of their
history is absolutely necessary to understand
what follows.
“Our father Abraham is at once, the last
star in the night of primeval history, and the
morning star which announces the approaching
day. The history of the creation and the
fall you have doubtless heard already in the
Bruchium; for I am told that both your
and our Hellenists employ themselves
very diligently upon it; and I must lament,
that, leaving the true path of knowledge,
they should prize the interpretations of the
heathens above the genuine word of Jehovah.
But enough of these men.
“Notwithstanding the fall of our first parents,
they had still a just knowledge of God and of
his will, connected with his promise, that the
seed of the woman should bruise the head of
the serpent. But when Cain was compelled to
flee from his father’s house, unwilling to relate
to his children the story of his own fratricide,
.bn 083.png
.pn +1
he represented himself as the origin of the
human race, on which account his descendants,
who had been brought up in his sins, called
themselves the Sons of Men; in contradistinction
to which, the children of the other sons of
Adam, who were acquainted with the history
of the creation, called themselves Sons of God.
By the sins of these sons of men, and their
mixture with the sons of God, iniquity became
so prevalent upon the earth, that Jehovah sent
a deluge, in which only Noah and his family
were saved. In him and the descendents of
his son Shem alone, was the true knowledge of
God preserved, when the former iniquities
again obtained the ascendency among other
nations and they fell into idolatry. When the
true religion began to give way before the false,
even in Ur of the Chaldees, where Abram the
son lived, Jehovah bade him leave his
native country and his father’s house, to go to a
land which the Lord should show him. That
land was Canaan. This Abram is our father
Abraham, who, when he arrived at Bethel,
erected a tabernacle there, and built an altar,
.bn 084.png
.pn +1
and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The
Lord appeared often unto him and proved his
faith: ten of these trials are recorded in
scripture. The severest of them was that in
which he was commanded to offer up his son
Isaac, in whom the promise was to be fulfilled.
But his steadfastness in all these trials
made him worthy that on him all these promises
should rest. God promised him, in the
person of his descendents, the land of Canaan,
which on this account we still call the Land of
Promise. The Lord made him to come forth
from his tent, and said, ‘Look towards heaven,
and see if thou canst count the stars thereof—such
shall thy seed be.’[24] On the same day the
Lord made a covenant with Abraham, and said,
‘To thy seed will I give this land from the river
of Egypt unto the great river Euphrates.’
But these promises, to make his posterity a
mighty nation and to give them a fair country
for their inheritance, had their motive in a yet
higher promise. After he had endured, with
.bn 085.png
.pn +1
such noble firmness and resignation, the most
grievous of all his trials, God said unto him,
‘In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth
be blessed.’[25] This prophecy is the radiant
point of Jewish history, never obscured through
all the vicissitudes of our condition, nay, wonderful
to relate, shining most brightly in the
very circumstances which seemed most unauspicious
for its fulfilment. The promise was
renewed to his son Isaac, and his grandson
Jacob; its import involves the history of the
whole human race. Abraham stood alone in
his knowledge and his worship of the one true
God; except indeed that he found at Salem,
the present Jerusalem, a single priest of the
Most High, the king Melchisedec. It was
necessary therefore that the people of the promise
should separate themselves from all other
nations, even from the rest of Abraham’s descendents.
In Isaac they separated themselves
from Ishmael and his children; in Jacob from
Esau and his children, the Edomites: for thus
.bn 086.png
.pn +1
only could they continue to be the people of
the promise.
.fn 24
Gen. xv. 5.
.fn-
.fn 25
Gen. xxii. 18.
.fn-
“How great and dignified does the patriarch
appear, in whom were united all those qualities,
to which his descendents could only be formed
by the lapse of a thousand years—the knowledge
of the will of Jehovah from his own immediate
communication; in his own house,
and its precincts, a temple; unlimited faith and
unreserved obedience!
“While I mention these three distinguishing
characteristics of the patriarch, I cannot help
dwelling more particularly on the second, of
which I am reminded by the contrast of our
life in Egypt; and because our present situation,
living in tents and caravans in the desert, has
some analogy with his. His whole dwelling,
and the region in which for the time he had his
abode, were consecrated as a temple by the
manifestations of Jehovah. The manifold complexity
of relations and collision of interests,
which are so burdensome in the life of men in
cities, were unknown to him, in the simple
grandeur of his pastoral state. His days flowed
.bn 087.png
.pn +1
on in intercourse with God, amidst the groves,
the hills and the plains of the finest countries
of the east. Now he dwells upon the lofty sides
of Lebanon, near the cedars that pierce the
heavens; on the approach of the rainy season,
he drives his herds to the warmer plains of
Jordan. He is in the fields with the earliest
glow of morning, and his simple tent is designed
only for shelter at night, and during the rain.
Three hundred and eighteen servants, born in
his house,[26] feed his countless flocks of sheep
and goats, his herds of cattle, asses and camels.
In the fairest part of the pasture the dark brown
tents are pitched, and in the midst of them the
tent of the patriarch. Seldom does he come
into a city; for they are the abodes of corruption.
If a stranger makes his appearance, he
is hospitably received, the fatling of the flock
is killed, and while the patriarch’s own hands
prepare it for food, Sarah bakes cakes upon the
hearth; the guest is feasted, and not till he has
eaten and been satisfied is he asked who he is.
.bn 088.png
.pn +1
Benevolence guides all his actions. If he falls
in with another body of roving shepherds, he
says to Lot, ‘Why should there be strife betwixt
me and thee; if thou wilt go to the left
hand, I will go to the right; or if thou wilt go
to the right hand, I will go to the left.’ Independent
of all without, he rules as a king in
his own house: but his highest dignity is that
he is also a priest there. He walks before God
with a perfect heart: to him he repairs in
danger and in joy, to him he offers thanks, to
his command he is ready to sacrifice his dearest
hopes: to him he erects altars, raises memorials
of his providential guidance, and proclaims
his name. And Jehovah dwells with
his servant Abraham, he appears to him,
and blesses him in all things; he discloses
the future to him, and says, ‘Shall I hide
from Abraham that which I am about to
do, seeing that he shall become a great and
mighty nation; and all the nations of the earth
shall be blessed in him. For I know him that
he will command his children and his household
after him, and they shall keep the way of
.bn 089.png
.pn +1
the Lord, and do what is just and righteous,
that the Lord may accomplish unto Abraham
that which he hath spoken of him.’[27]
.fn 26
Gen. xiv. 14.
.fn-
.fn 27
Gen. xviii. 17.
.fn-
“Thus he lived a complete century in Canaan;
he came thither not as an old man, but in the
prime of life, in his seventy-fifth year, and in
his hundred and seventieth year he died, in
a good old age, and was gathered to his
people.
“His son Isaac and his grandson Jacob led
the same patriarchal life. Both took to themselves
wives from the native country of Abraham,
that they might form no connection with
the Canaanites. Jehovah appeared to both of
them, and their lives throughout, in an equal
degree, were simple and happy, like that of
Abraham.
“Such was the origin of our nation, and half
the world joins with us to extol our great progenitor.
The ; the Arabs, the
sons of Ishmael, and the Edomites, the children
of Esau, even Egypt itself celebrates the wisdom
.bn 090.png
.pn +1
of Abraham, and the whole east praises
his name.
“But the sun is already high in the heavens,
the slaves are waiting for us with the food, and
an old man needs rest before he undertakes a
further journey.”
The slaves brought the victuals prepared in
the Jewish fashion, the round piece of leather
was spread upon the ground; they sat around
it, ate, and were satisfied. Myron often wished
to renew the conversation, but Elisama did not
speak during the meal, and Helon was lost in
reflections on the glory of his nation, and in
anticipation of the delight of soon standing
where Abraham and Isaac had talked with God.
After the meal they all laid themselves down
during the heat of noon. The evening came—but
hardly had the night begun, when, at the
fourth hour, (about ten of our reckoning) the
trumpets sounded for the first time. The tent
was struck, the camels loaded, the travellers
mounted their horses, each party resumed their
former station in the line, and about midnight,
after the third blast, they broke up from Gerrha.
.bn 091.png
.pn +1
On account of the heat, caravans travel chiefly
at night, and halt during the hottest time of the
day. The march was now more orderly and
peaceable. The flames flashed from the burning
pitch-kettles which were borne aloft, and
threw their light over the desert. It was an
attractive sight, to behold them like scattered
suns, along a line of march extending for several
thousand paces, and to see men and beasts
travelling onward through the night by their
ruddy gleam. Their journey lay this night and
every night, as far as Gaza, along the sea,
whose distant thunder was occasionally heard,
mingling with the songs of the slaves and the
bells of the camels.
.bn 092.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER IV. | THE HALT AT CASIUM.
.sp 2
In the morning our travellers found themselves
in the neighbourhood of . The
march had not been long, but the situations of
the wells determine the halts of the caravans.
Near the town a large sand-hill extended into the
sea, on the point of which was built the temple
of Jupiter Casius. The active Greek set off,
though the distance was considerable, not for
the purpose of worshipping there, but of examining
it as a work of art. Helon felt no
desire to accompany him, for on a journey to
Jerusalem and in his present state of mind, it
seemed to him nothing less than a sin to visit a
heathen temple, even for the gratification of his
curiosity. Elisama praised his determination,
.bn 093.png
.pn +1
and reminded him of the reproof delivered by
the mouth of Jeremiah, “Thou hast always
broken thy yoke and burst thy bands; and hast
said, I will not be restrained, but on every high
hill and every green tree thou hast gone after
idolatry.”[28] In the mean time Elisama began,
and Helon devoutly joined in this psalm:
.fn 28
Jer. ii. 20.
.fn-
.pm start_poem
Bless the Lord O my soul,
And all that is within me bless his holy name!
Bless the Lord O my soul,
And forget not all his benefits;
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities,
Who healeth all thy diseases,
Who redeemeth thy life from destruction,
Who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercy.
He satisfieth thy mouth with good things
So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
Jehovah executeth righteousness
And judgment for all that are oppressed.
He made known his ways unto Moses,
His acts unto the children of Israel.
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
Slow to anger and plenteous in mercy.—Ps. ciii.
.pm end_poem
They next sang the hundred and sixth Psalm,
which describes the journey, the wilderness,
and the disobedience of Israel. “It is well,”
.bn 094.png
.pn +1
said Elisama, when they had done, “that our
Greek is not here, or his nascent reverence for
our people might be stopped in its growth. I
must confess his society was at first very burthensome
to me, but he is more open to the reception
of the truth than I had given him credit
for being, and I have hopes that he may become
a .”
Myron returned full of admiration of the precious
works of art which he had found in the
temple of the Casian Jupiter, in which however,
as a connoisseur, he found of course something
to blame. At the meal the discourse of
Helon and Myron (for Elisama was too oriental
in his habits to talk at such a time) turned
upon the ancient , in whose limits they
now supposed themselves to be. They agreed
that at the distance of fourteen hundred years
it was very difficult to identify it, but that probably
it was the district of Lower Egypt which
is bounded by the sea, by the eastern branch of
the Nile at Pelusium and by the river of Egypt,
and that it perhaps ascended as far as Heliopolis
to the south.
.bn 095.png
.pn +1
When they awoke towards evening, refreshed
by their sleep, the conversation respecting
Goshen was resumed. Elisama, seated upon
his carpet, thus took up the discourse:
“It seems then that we are at least on the
skirts of that fruitful district of pasturage, in
which the children of Abraham sojourned, and
where they grew from a family to a people.
Thou hast already heard, Myron, that our
father Jacob came down to Egypt, with seventy
persons, to his son Joseph, who had preserved
the land of Pharaoh, by his wise precautions,
from the miseries of famine; that two
hundred and fifteen years after Jacob went down
into Egypt, and four hundred and thirty years
after Abraham left his native country at God’s
command, 603,550 fighting men of the Israelites
quitted Egypt, without reckoning the 22,000
Levites, or the women and children. During
these Israel grew
into a nation.
“In order that the promise of Jehovah, ‘that
all nations should be blessed in Abraham,’
might be accomplished, it may easily be
.bn 096.png
.pn +1
conceived that it was necessary that Abraham
should become a people. But there was no
country where it could have been accomplished
in so short a time as in this. Canaan was
already fully peopled, but in Goshen there was
ample room for them to increase and spread.
The Canaanites would not have looked quietly
on for so many years, and have witnessed their
increase, whereas the Egyptians would feel
themselves bound by gratitude to Joseph, at
least during the first century after his death,
to abstain from any injury towards his nation.
Nowhere else could Israel have been kept so
free from mixture with other nations, as in the
neighbourhood of the Egyptians, whose religion
inspired them with a .
The land was at the same time fruitful, and
facilitated the existence of numerous families.
Finally, Egypt already possessed a civil polity
more perfect than existed at that time in any
other country; and though no human means
were necessary to form a lawgiver for Israel,
yet by constantly observing a people living under
a constitution which regulated the rights and
.bn 097.png
.pn +1
duties even of the lowest order of the people,
the Israelites were prepared to value and receive
a similar constitution themselves.
“When therefore Israel had become a numerous
people, and began to feel the want of a
system of laws, Divine Providence so arranged
circumstances, as to awaken in them a longing
for freedom and for the promised land. The
Pharaohs inhumanly oppressed them, and made
their lives bitter to them, by labour in brick
and tile, and in all manner of service in the
field. At length it was even given in command
to the midwives to kill all the male infants.
This was indeed, in one point of view, only a
just punishment for the guilt of Israel, in worshipping
the sacred animals of the Egyptians,
and leaving the service of the true God: but
as calamity, by the wise ordinance of Jehovah,
serves at once for punishment and deliverance,
the cruelty of the Egyptians proved the means
of Israel’s deliverance and exaltation.
“God raised up Moses and laid his spirit
upon him. After the command of Pharaoh for
the murder of the male infants, he was exposed
.bn 098.png
.pn +1
by his parents among the reeds of the Nile, and
rescued in a wonderful manner by the king’s
own daughter. At the royal court, where he
was brought up, he became acquainted with all
the wisdom of the Egyptians. When forty
years of age, hurried away by sympathy for his
suffering countrymen, whom even at Pharaoh’s
court he had not forgotten, he slew an Egyptian
who was committing an outrage upon an
Israelite, and was compelled to flee. He took
refuge in the wilderness, and by a pastoral
life of forty years formed his mind in solitude
and amidst the sublimities of nature, where
only a faint remembrance of the world remained
to him, and thoughts of God filled his
soul. Here God appeared to him in mount
Horeb, in a bush that burned with fire and yet
was not consumed. ‘And Moses said, I will
now turn aside and see this great sight, why the
bush is not burned. And when the Lord saw
that he turned aside to see, God called unto him
out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses,
Moses, and he said, Here am I. And he said,
Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off
.bn 099.png
.pn +1
thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is
holy ground. Moreover he said, I am the God
of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid
his face. And the Lord said, I have seen the
affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and
have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters.
I know their sorrows, and I am come
down to deliver them out of the hand of the
Egyptians, and to bring them out of that land
unto a good land and a large, a land flowing
with milk and honey. Come now, therefore, I
will send thee to Pharaoh, that thou mayest
bring forth my people, the children of Israel,
out of the land of Egypt.’[29]
.fn 29
Exod. iii. 2.
.fn-
“This was the calling of Moses. His apprehension
of his own unworthiness was removed,
and the Lord made known his name
unto him; I will be that I will be. He
began the great work, and at the first step had
to contend with the unsteadiness of Israel,
which, during the remaining forty years of his
.bn 100.png
.pn +1
life, occasioned him no less trouble than the
assaults of their enemies. Pharaoh refused to
let the people go, and nine plagues in succession,
which Jehovah denounced by Moses, and
then brought upon the land, were able only
for a time to overcome Israel’s fickleness and
Pharaoh’s obstinacy. At last the tenth was inflicted,
and on the fourteenth of the month
Nisan, Israel, with their wives and their children,
and all their possessions, came out from
the house of bondage in Egypt, and passed
through the Red Sea, in which the Egyptians,
following them, were drowned. This is, of all
the events in the history of our nation, the
most important, from its connection with the
giving of the law which immediately followed.
We keep the feast of the Passover in remembrance
of this event. Our great leader was
also a poet, and sang the following song, the
oldest and the noblest ode of victory that the
world can show:
.pm start_poem
I sing unto the Lord for he is great—
Chariot and horse he hath thrown into the sea.
The Lord is my strength, my song, my salvation:
.bn 101.png
.pn +1
He is my God, and I will sing praise unto him,
My father’s God, and I will exalt him.
Jehovah is mighty in war,
Jehovah is his name.
Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea,
His chosen captains are drowned in the Red Sea.
The depths have covered them,
They sank to the bottom as a stone.
Thy right-hand, O Jehovah, is become glorious in power,
Thy right-hand, O Jehovah, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.
In the greatness of thy might thou overthrowest them that rise up against thee,
Thou sendest forth thy wrath which consumeth them as stubble.
With the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together,
The floods stood upright as a heap,
The waves were congealed in the depths of the sea.
The enemy said,—
I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil,
My desire shall be gratified upon them, I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.
Thou didst blow with thy breath, the sea covered them,
They sank like lead in the mighty waters.
Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods?
Who is like unto thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
Thou stretchedst out thy right-hand—the earth swallowed them.
Thou hast led forth in thy mercy thy redeemed people,
Thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy place;
.bn 102.png
.pn +1
The people hear and are afraid
Anxiety taketh hold on the inhabitants of the land of the Philistines;
The princes of Edom quake,
Terror taketh hold on the mighty men of Moab,
All the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away.
Let fear and dread fall upon them, by thy mighty arm,
Let them become stiff as stone,
Till thy people pass over, O Lord,
Till the people which thou hast purchased pass over.
Bring them in, plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance,
To the place of thy dwelling which thou thyself hast prepared,
To the sanctuary which thy hands have built.
Jehovah reigns for ever and ever.—Exod. xv.
.pm end_poem
“This first victory, which ennobled Israel as
a people, was destined to be the forerunner of a
series of victories, till its greatest, that over all
nations, shall be won. This first song of
triumph has given the model to a number of
similar compositions, all of which refer to it.
“Israel was now made free. But this was
scarcely accomplished when it was made also a
holy nation, and on the fiftieth day after the
departure from Egypt, God gave to our fathers
that treasure which hallows them above every
other people, the law upon mount Sinai. Yonder
.bn 103.png
.pn +1
in the desert, in the midst of a sandy and naked
region, rises a mountain, with two summits,
of which the lower is called Horeb, the higher
Sinai. Northward from them are two valleys,
terminating in a plain, in which the people was
encamped. In this impressive solitude, cut off
from all other nations of the earth, surrounded
with steep and pointed rocks, beneath a burning
sky, amidst the thunders and the lightnings
of Jehovah’s presence, they received the law.
“Jehovah declared to Moses that Israel
should be to him a kingdom of priests and a
holy people.[30] For this purpose they were
commanded to wash their garments and keep
themselves holy to the third day, and it was
forbidden that man or beast should ascend the
mountain, or even touch it with his foot. The
third day came. Early in the morning ‘there
were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud
upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet
exceeding loud, so that all the people that
were in the camp trembled. And Moses
.bn 104.png
.pn +1
brought forth the people out of the camp to
meet God; and they stood at the lower part of
the mount. And mount Sinai was altogether
in a smoke, because the Lord descended upon
it in fire, and the smoke thereof ascended as the
smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount
trembled greatly. And the voice of the trumpet
sounded long, and grew louder and louder, and
Moses spake, and the Lord answered him with
a voice.’
.fn 30
Exod. xix. 6.
.fn-
“Awful preparations! symbols of the presence
of Jehovah! who drew near to give the
law. While he thus displayed himself in all
the terrific majesty of heaven on the loftiest
pinnacles of the land; and the people, overwhelmed
with terror, felt their own feebleness
before him, he gave to Moses the tables with
the ten commandments, and afterwards the
rest of the law; and all was concluded with a
promise to the obedient, and the threat, ‘Cursed
be he that fulfilleth not all the words of this law
to do it. And all the people shall say Amen.’
“The whole constitution and legislation of
Israel rests on the relation of the people to
.bn 105.png
.pn +1
God as their king. From the covenant between
them arose a twofold authority. Aaron was
the first high priest and Moses the first chief.
The high priest conducted the worship of the
people before Jehovah; the chief directed their
civil and military affairs. Their employment
in the land which they were to occupy was to
be agriculture.
“But the Jews, who had been corrupted by
living in Egypt, were not fit subjects for such
a constitution. It was necessary that a new
generation should arise, and for this purpose
Moses led them forty years backward and forward
in the wilderness, and only two, of whom
he himself was not one, came into the promised
land. Forty-four stations in the desert are
reckoned up, in which they successively encamped,
as we do now; and it was only by the
severest discipline that they could be retained
in obedience. Often was Jehovah compelled to
visit them with heavy calamities, and sweep
them away by thousands. Yet he never ceased
also to perform miracles of mercy and almighty
power upon them.
.bn 106.png
.pn +1
“Amidst all these sins of the people, in their
forty years wandering in the wilderness, Moses
was the representative of the divine authority,
and the medium of divine communication.
Against him the fury of the rebellious people
was vented, and by him Jehovah both blessed
and punished them. Moses stood among them,
like a rock in the desert, a wonder, or rather a
miracle of firmness combined with meekness,
steadfast resolution, with wise indulgence,
absolute submission to God, with boldness and
determination in the guidance of the people.
In the long and unhappy period of forty years
of wandering, he displayed the aptitude for
command which his kingly education had given
him, joined with that love to his suffering
countrymen, with which he could only have
been inspired by being a native Jew.
“He died on mount Nebo, in the sight of that
land for which he had done and suffered all to
which human strength was equal. His eye
was permitted to behold it, but not his foot
to tread its soil. Firm as he was in acting and
in suffering, he had once allowed himself to be
.bn 107.png
.pn +1
overcome, and therefore he was not permitted
to attain the end of his journey, or go to his
rest in Canaan. Perhaps it was also the will of
God, that the hands which had been stretched
out over the Red Sea, which had received the
tables of the law from Jehovah, and had built
his tabernacle, should not be stained by the
blood of the Canaanites. Even in the battle
with Amalek, these hands were only lifted up
in the attitude of prayer.[31]
.fn 31
Exod. xvii. 11.
.fn-
“Listen to the last glowing words of this
extraordinary man!
.pm start_poem
Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak,
And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth!
My doctrine shall drop as the rain,
My speech shall distil as the dew.
As rain upon the tender herb,
And as the showers upon the grass.
For I will proclaim aloud the name of Jehovah,
Ascribe ye greatness unto our God!
He is a rock, his work is infinite,
All his ways are just.
God is truth, without deceit,
Just and right is he—
Remember the days of old,
Consider the years of many generations,
.bn 108.png
.pn +1
Ask thy father and he will show thee,
Thine elders, and they will tell thee,
When the Most High divided the lands to the nations,
When he separated the children of men,
He set bounds to the people,
That the numbers of Israel might have room to dwell.
For the Lord’s portion is his people,
Jacob is the extent of his inheritance.
He found him in a desert land,
And in the waste howling wilderness.
He led him about, he instructed him,
He kept him as the apple of his eye.
As an eagle covers her nest around,
And hovers over her young,
Spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them up,
And beareth them aloft upon her pinions,
So the Lord, he alone, did lead them,
And there was no strange god with him—
See now that it is I,
And there is no god with me.
I kill and I make alive,
I wound and I heal;
There is none that can deliver out of my hand.
For I lift my head to heaven,
And say, I live for ever.
If I whet my glittering sword,
And my hand lay hold on judgment,
I will render vengeance to mine enemies,
And reward them that hate me.
I will make my arrows drunk with blood,
And my sword shall satiate itself on carcasses,
On the blood of the slain and the captive,
On the bared head of mine enemies?—Deut. xxxii.
.pm end_poem
.bn 109.png
.pn +1
“Again in the animated commencement of
his benediction, imitated in so many later poems
of our nation:
.pm start_poem
Jehovah came from Sinai,
He rose up unto them from Seir;
He shined forth from Paran,
He came from the hills of Cadesh.
From his right hand darted the rolling fire;
Yea, he loved the people!
All his glory is around thee;
And sitting at thy feet they received thy words.
Moses commanded us the law,
The inheritance of the congregation of Israel.
He was king in Israel,
In the assembly of the heads of the people,
Together with the tribes of Israel.—Deut. xxxiii.
.pm end_poem
“In this manner, Myron, and by means of
such a man, did Israel obtain its treasure and
inheritance, the law. And this is the first
period of the history of our people.”
“Our best thanks belong to thee, venerable
old man,” said Myron, “for the relation of
it, and I can readily believe, that the history of
thy nation has more in it than is commonly
supposed. It was, I must confess, in a very
different way that Lycurgus, Solon, Numa
.bn 110.png
.pn +1
Pompilius, and even Pythagoras himself, gave
their laws. There is something grand, exalted
and divine, in the manner in which Moses
speaks and acts. But permit me to remind
you, that though you mentioned his being
brought up at the court of Pharaoh, and instructed
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,
you have given us no hint that he may have
learned much from the pillars of Isis, and that an
of the Egyptian polity is every where
conspicuous in your law, especially in the
double power of the king and the priest, the
institution of a sacerdotal caste, the encouragement
given to agriculture, your festivals,
and many other particulars.”
“I gave no hint of it,” said Elisama, “because
in this sense it does not exist. To say
nothing of its being as yet an undetermined
point, whether the Jews learned these things
from the Egyptians, or the Egyptians from the
Jews; I will suppose that the wisdom of the
Egyptians is of that high antiquity which you
ascribe to it, and maintain that Jehovah wisely
chose institutions for his people not too remote
.bn 111.png
.pn +1
from those to which they were accustomed;
that some things, which were for higher reasons
essential in the Jewish economy, have an
accidental coincidence with circumstances of
the Egyptian customs. But disregarding outward
and accidental things, let the spirit of the
two systems be compared, and you will find
that one is the spirit of God, and the other
the spirit of the world. In our religion there
is no worship of animals or of images, no polytheism,
no secret doctrines of the priests. These
are essential points, which show that the legislation
of Moses must have had a higher origin,
and was not learned by him from any other
nation. Would it, besides, be surprising if, in
giving a divine revelation to his people, Jehovah
should have chosen a form for its communication,
in which, as being familiar to them, they
would more readily adopt it? Though this
form was of human invention, it was purified
and hallowed by God’s adoption of it.”
“I will confute his heathen unbelief in another
way,” said Helon, “and turn his own
weapons upon him, more successfully, I
.bn 112.png
.pn +1
hope, than he lately endeavoured to do upon
me.”
“Speak then,” said Myron, “do you question,
and I will reply: here in the desert let us
renew our ancient practice among the Academic
philosophers. A dialogue will be a
relief too, for your uncle presumes upon more
patience in his hearers than belongs to Greeks
of Athenian blood.”
“This,” said Helon, “is not the only thing
which is tiresome to you.”
“I acknowledge it—a transient gleam of the
Divinity from time to time is well; but my
thoughts must return to the things of earth.”
“How well hast thou characterised thyself
and the religion of thy heathen brethren,” said
Helon. “You have, indeed, a gleam of divine
truth, a remnant of ancient, primeval tradition,
eclipsed and shrouded in the darkness of human
error.”
“To look on the sun, and only on the sun,
dazzles the eyes. Elisama is always pointing
thither, and my eyes already ache with straining.”
.bn 113.png
.pn +1
“The rising sun does not dazzle or strain
the eye,” replied Helon, “and Elisama will
tell you, that as yet we only see the dawn, and
that thousands of years will pass before noon
arrives. But I was going to confute you out
of your own Plato. Does he not say that truth
and virtue cannot be taught?”
“He does.”
“How then, O wise Myron, can they be
attained?”
“Only in the , as
we have often read in the dialogues of the god-like
sage,” replied Myron.
“What name then must be given to the
knowledge of that which is true, and which is?”
continued Helon.
“We must call it a reminiscence of that
divine condition, in which, according to Plato,
the soul formerly was, but from which it has
fallen.”
“And do not you yourself say, that all this
is merely an intimation of the truth, and that
that which is, cannot be comprehended by
means of such symbols? It is for this reason
.bn 114.png
.pn +1
that I call such knowledge, Revelation; and I
hold this doctrine of Plato to be a relic of those
primeval times, when the true and revealed
knowledge of God was not yet entirely obliterated.
But we can prove by historical evidence
that God spoke by Moses, and that our law
therefore is what it claims to be, a Revelation.”
“But what are these historical proofs, on
which all depends?” interrupted Myron.
“Has not Elisama given them in the course
of his narrative, and are they not plainly to be
discerned in our sacred writings? But I will
give you another proof. If Moses had read his
doctrines on the hieroglyphic pillars of Egypt,
how happened it that they were not read by the
priests of Isis, who must have had still readier
access to them?”
Myron appeared to be about to answer,
though somewhat perplexed by the question,
when they were interrupted by the well-known
blast of the trumpet. They had not observed
that they were prolonging their discourse far
into the night. Sallu and the slave came up,
and pulled the poles of the tent out of the sand.
.bn 115.png
.pn +1
“It is time,” said Elisama, “that we should
desist, and indeed such disputes, Helon, have
little results! Let him fear God, and he will
believe in the law.”
“In that case,” said Helon, “we should
as men enjoy that friendly communion in the
knowledge of the truth, of which as youths
we dreamt in the Bruchium.” He reached his
hand to Myron, who took it smiling, and
hastened to his horse.
.bn 116.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER V. | THE HALT AT OSTRACINE.
.sp 2
The march began, as usual, about midnight,
and terminated at . They had not
proceeded far from Casium, when they reached
the lake Sirbonis, whose surface was so covered
with the , that they had difficulty
in distinguishing it, in the darkness, from the
surrounding wilderness. A few sabbath-days’
journies farther on, they came to a green, fertile,
and blooming vale, called , in the
midst of the desert, like a flower growing in the
sand. A small brook discharges itself by this
valley into the lake Sirbonis. In summer, it is
commonly dry: now its clear waters were flowing,
and the stars were reflected in them.
Elisama checked his horse, as they were about
.bn 117.png
.pn +1
to cross it, and called to Helon, “Farewell to
Egypt; this is the boundary! I cross the .”
There seemed to be something melancholy in
his tone, as if the farewell were painful, notwithstanding
his approach to the Holy Land.
The ominous anticipations of Helon’s mother
occurred to him, and though at Alexandria he
had despised them as female weakness, he could
not shake them off. Helon called aloud, with
an animated voice, so that all before and behind
might hear him, “Farewell Egypt; I see thee
not again—or only as a new man!” He rode
forward, giving himself up to the imaginations
of his own mind, to which there was something
of a fascinating interest in this nightly procession,
amidst songs near and distant, the measured
tinkling of the bells, beneath the glimmering
light of the stars, and ruddy gleams of
pitch-kettles, which deepened the surrounding
shadows. He felt now more than ever that he
had left Egypt behind, and was surprised at
the almost poetical enthusiasm which began to
be awakened within him.
.bn 118.png
.pn +1
Two hours after sunrise, they arrived at
Ostracine. No one was weary. The tent was
pitched, and they laid themselves under it.
Myron was rather dissatisfied, as having had the
worst of the argument; Helon was full of the
animating reflections which the journey in the
night had excited in him; and Elisama still
under the influence of the melancholy which
had seized him at the river of Egypt. All
emotions are durable in the mind of an oriental,
and he does not quickly part either with his sorrow
or his joy. Yet all were full of alacrity, and
Myron, as usual, the first to speak, began thus:
“Though I have little chance of making my
cause good to any one’s satisfaction but my
own, while I continue with you, yet I shall
rejoice, Elisama, to hear the continuation of
your narrative. I presume we would all rather
speak and hear, than sleep.”
“Listen then,” said Elisama, “and perhaps
the narrative may enable me to throw off the
melancholy that weighs upon me. I related to
you, at Casium, that Jehovah had given the law
to our nation, in preference to every other, as
.bn 119.png
.pn +1
their inheritance, and their treasure. But
though given, much was yet necessary in order
that the law should be obeyed. It was not in
every land, nor under all circumstances, practicable
to walk blameless in all the commandments
of the Lord. The whole legislation on
mount Sinai had a reference to the future condition
of Israel in Canaan, where those circumstances,
under which alone the law could be
fulfilled, either already existed, or were to be
produced.
“First of all it was necessary, that the land
of Canaan, which was still occupied by many
native tribes, should be conquered. Moses, the
man ‘with whom Jehovah talked as a man
talketh with his friend,’[32] was dead. But he
had left his people the law, and an ardent longing
for rest in the land of which he had presented
so attractive a picture; and, besides all
this, he had left them a valiant successor to
himself, Joshua, the son of Nun, who, with
Caleb, had alone been found worthy, among so
.bn 120.png
.pn +1
many thousands, to enter into the promised
land. Joshua was indeed not a second Moses;
for a prophet like him has not since arisen
in Israel, who had known God face to face.
But, even in his youthful years, we knew
Joshua as a faithful servant of Moses, who
never quitted the tabernacle till his master
returned to the camp. At the same time we
saw him victorious over Amalek, in the valley
of Rephidim, while Moses, standing on the top
of Horeb, held up the staff of God. Next he
appears as one of those who explored the land
of Canaan, and brought back a true report of it,
with a specimen of its fruits; and last of all,
the Lord himself calls him a man in whom his
spirit is, and commands Moses ‘to lay his hands
upon him, and present him to the priest Eleasar,
and the whole congregation, and put his glory
upon him, that all the children of Israel might
obey him.’[33] Eleasar was to consult the Lord for
him; and, at his word, both he and all the
children of Israel were to go out and come in.
.bn 121.png
.pn +1
This Moses had done, and when he died the
Lord confirmed the appointment, and said to
Joshua, ‘Be strong, and of good courage, and
thou shalt divide unto this people the land which
I have sworn to their father to give them.’
.fn 32
Exod. xxxiii. 11.
.fn-
.fn 33
Num. xxvii. 23.
.fn-
“By him, accordingly, the conquest of the
land of promise was accomplished. The terror
of the Lord went before him; the swelling
Jordan divided itself to let him and the people
pass; Jericho and Ai fell before him, in a manner
equally wonderful and terrific, and the march of
the victorious army proceeded without a check
to Sichem, which Jacob had given to Joseph.
The craft of the Gibeonites and their neighbours
saved their lives, but furnished Israel with the
, the hewers of wood and drawers of
water.[34] Thus he smote one and thirty kings,
and divided the land among the tribes, established
cities of refuge, and built Timnath-Serah,
on the hills of Ephraim.[35] The tribes of Gad
and Reuben, and the half tribe of Manasseh,
received their inheritance on the eastern side of
.bn 122.png
.pn +1
Jordan; but, on condition that 40,000 men
from among them should assist in the conquest
of the country on the other side, and on their
return should erect, near the Jordan, a monument
of their having partaken in the war with
their brethren. A short time before his death,
he held a general assembly of the people, in
which he made Israel renew the covenant with
Jehovah.[36] When he died, he bequeathed to
fourteen judges, who ruled Israel in succession,
the difficult duty of upholding what
he had established. The people, not yet sufficiently
confirmed in the law, since more was
necessary for this purpose than the mere possession
of the land, allowed themselves to be
seduced into the idolatry of the Canaanites.
From without, the Mesopotamians, Moabites,
Canaanites of the north, Midianites, Amalekites,
Amonites, and Philistines, harassed and subdued
the yet unconsolidated nation. In this
way nearly 500 years elapsed, in which fourteen
heroes and sages, whom we call Judges,
arose, and each, in their time, employed their
.bn 123.png
.pn +1
energies in opposing the universal corruption,
or delivering the people from oppression. So
much did it cost to secure the possession of the
portion which Jehovah had given to his people!
Samuel closes this list of heroes, a man on
whom, in a peculiar manner, the spirit of the
Lord rested, and who, under the influence of
this spirit, established schools of the prophets,
to perpetuate the knowledge of the law.
.fn 34
Josh. ix.
.fn-
.fn 35
Josh. xix. 49.
.fn-
.fn 36
Josh. xxiii. xxiv.
.fn-
“Thus was the land acquired: but there
was still wanting a civil constitution, and a
vigorous executive government. Jehovah alone
would be their king; but the people felt the
necessity that this dignity should be embodied
to them in the person of one from among
themselves. Samuel disapproved this imitation
of the customs of the heathens, but he was
compelled to yield, and anointed first Saul, and
then David, king. In the whole history of our
nation, there is no character that takes a more
powerful hold of human sympathies than David,
from his youth and his friendship, his heroic
spirit, his conquests and institutions, his weaknesses
and his sufferings. Scripture calls him
.bn 124.png
.pn +1
‘a man after God’s own heart.’ Under him the
promise of God to Abraham was fulfilled in the
amplest sense, and from the river of Egypt to
the great river Euphrates, the whole country
was subject to Israel. But he did still more.
He became the central point to all the tribes
who had hitherto lived in nominal federation
and virtual independence. He united all the
five millions of his subjects by a common bond,
and made Jerusalem the capital. For the first
time, under him, it was possible to observe the
civil laws of Moses. Joshua had conquered a
country for the law, but David established a
state for it.
“Still one thing was wanting, the temple, in
which the glory of the Lord should dwell. The
tabernacle, its prototype, had been brought to
Shiloh, and from thence to Gibeon. The ark
had been captured by the Philistines, had been
brought back by them to Bethshemesh, thence
to Kiriath Jearim, to Gilgal, to Nob, to the
house of Obed-Edom at Gibeon, and finally to
Zion. In all these places sacrifices had been
performed. This was contrary to the will of
.bn 125.png
.pn +1
Jehovah. David, who knew this, had already
made preparations for the building of a temple,
but it was not the pleasure of Jehovah that he
should erect it. It was reserved for Solomon
his son, to be the third, who, after Joshua and
David, should furnish the last and most important
of those means, which still were wanting
to make the external observance of the law
practicable. And how did he perform this
duty! In what strains do our sacred books
speak of his wisdom, of his riches and of the
unparalleled splendour of his temple! Kings
and queens came from the east to behold this
wonder of the world.
“The reign of Solomon was the era in which
all was fulfilled, which Israel could still desire;
in which every thing united to give external
dignity to the worship of Jehovah. The country
was tranquil within, and at peace with its
neighbours, governed by its king with wisdom,
and united by the temple which served as a
central point to the whole nation. This is the
most splendid era of our history, and when an
Israelite pictures to himself days of happiness
.bn 126.png
.pn +1
and prosperity, it is under the image of the
reign of Solomon.
“Only read, Myron, the of our
Books of Kings, and you will be surprised to
find, that on reaching the reign of Solomon,
you are transported from the calm tone of
historic narrative, to the animated style of
poetry, as if its own traits and colours were
not strong or bright enough to do justice to the
reminiscences of those joyous, youthful days. In
the history of a nation, as in the life of an
individual, there is always some one period, in
which every thing is combined that contributes
to happiness; it comes once, and comes not
again!
“But I am wandering from my proper subject,
which is to describe to you the wisdom
and the riches of Solomon. The Books of
Kings relate, that at his entrance on his kingly
office, after he had sacrificed a thousand burnt-offerings
on the hills of Gibeon, Jehovah
appeared to him in a dream[37] and asked him
.bn 127.png
.pn +1
what he should give him. Solomon, in his humility,
calls himself a little child, who knew not
how to go out or to come in, and asks only an
understanding heart, to discern good from evil.
And the answer of Solomon pleased the Lord,
and God said unto him, ‘Because thou hast
asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself
long life, nor riches, nor the life of thine
enemies, but hast asked understanding to discern
judgment, behold I have given thee a wise
and understanding heart, so that there was none
like thee before thee, neither after thee shall
any arise like unto thee. And I have given
thee also that which thou hast not asked, both
riches and honour, so that there was none like
thee before thee, neither after thee shall any
arise like unto thee.’ Accordingly we are told
of his wisdom, ‘that he excelled all the children
of the east country and all the wisdom of
Egypt. For he was wiser than all men, than
Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol,
and Darda the sons of Mahol; and his fame
was in all nations round about. And he spoke
3000 proverbs, and his songs were 1005; and
.bn 128.png
.pn +1
he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in
Lebanon, to the hyssop that springeth out of
the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl,
and of insects, and of fishes. And there came
of all people to hear the wisdom of Solomon
from all kings of the earth which had heard of
his wisdom.’[38] Of his riches it is said, ‘Judah
and Israel were many as the sand which is by
the sea in multitude, eating and drinking and
making merry. And Solomon reigned over all
kingdoms from the river unto the land of the
Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt;
and they brought presents, and served him all
the days of his life. And Solomon’s provision
for one day was thirty measures of fine flour,
and threescore measures of meal, ten fat oxen
and twenty oxen out of the pastures, and a
hundred sheep, besides harts, roebucks, and
fallow deer, and fatted fowl. And Judah and
Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine
and under his figtree, from Dan even to
Beersheba, all the days of Solomon. And
.bn 129.png
.pn +1
Solomon had 40,000 chariot horses, and 12,000
horsemen.’[39] And the weight of gold that came
to Solomon in one year, was six hundred threescore
and six talents of gold, besides that which
he had of the merchant-men, and of the traffic
of the spice-merchants and the kings of Arabia
and the governors of the country.—He made a
great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the
best gold, there was not the like made in any
kingdom. All the drinking vessels were of
gold, and all the vessels in the house of the
forest of Lebanon were of pure gold, none
were of silver, it was accounted nothing of in
the days of king Solomon. ‘He made silver
to be in Jerusalem as stones, and cedars as
the sycamore trees that are in the vale, for
abundance.’[40]
.fn 37
1 Kings iii. 5.
.fn-
.fn 38
1 Kings iv. 30.
.fn-
.fn 39
1 Kings iv. 20.
.fn-
.fn 40
2 Chron. ix. 27.
.fn-
“When the queen of Sheba had visited him,
she said, ‘It was a true report that I heard in
mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom.
Yet, I believed not the words until I came and
mine eyes had seen it—behold the half was not
.bn 130.png
.pn +1
told me; thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth
the fame which I heard. Happy are thy servants
which stand continually before thee and
hear thy wisdom.’[41]
.fn 41
1 Kings x.
.fn-
“The temple was a monument both of his
wisdom and his wealth. Ph[oe]nicia excelled at
that time all other nations of the earth in skill
in the arts, and Solomon made a bargain with
Hiram, king of Tyre, both for workmen and
for cedar-wood from Lebanon. Solomon had
70,000 men who carried burthens, and 80,000
carpenters, on the mountain, without reckoning
the superintendents of the works. Seven years
was this multitude employed upon the erection
of the temple; the foundation was laid in the
fourth year of his reign, and it was completed in
the eleventh. When it was finished, he assembled
the elders of Israel, and the heads of tribes,
the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel,
in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark
of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of
David. And the priests brought in the ark of
.bn 131.png
.pn +1
the covenant of the Lord into its place, into the
oracle of the house, to the most holy place,
under the wings of the cherubim. And when
Solomon had offered his incomparable dedication-prayer,
and blessed the people, and had
sacrificed 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep, he
and all Israel held a feast, a great assemblage,
from the entering in of Hamath to the river of
Egypt, before the Lord for fourteen days. And
he sent the people away, and they blessed the
king, and went away unto their tents joyful and
glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord
had done for David his servant, and for Israel
his people.[42]
.fn 42
1 Kings viii.
.fn-
“Thus was the second period of the history
of our nation completed. In the first they
received the law; in the second they obtained
a country, a king, and a temple. Now every
man in Judah and in Israel might dwell securely
under his own vine and his own figtree, from
Dan to Beersheba, and serve Jehovah. We have
next to see whether they did so. But I will
.bn 132.png
.pn +1
break off here, that I may preserve unmingled
the remembrance of those glorious days.”
“Blessed be the Lord,” exclaimed Helon,
“the King of the world, who vouchsafed such a
time to his people!”
“It is not to be denied,” said Myron, “that
it must have been a joyful time in Jerusalem,
and the whole land of Judea under Solomon.
And yet your nation seems to me better fitted
for a wandering life through the wilderness,
such as was yesterday described to us.”
“Why so?” asked Helon.
“Because you knew not how to improve
your good fortune.”
Helon was astonished.
“I pity a people, so destitute of all taste and
skill in the fine arts as yours. They want to
build a temple and a house of the forest of
Lebanon—gold and silver they have in abundance,
but they are obliged to send for artists
from Tyre; they come, execute their works,
and leave these behind them, without having
communicated to your nation the smallest
portion of their dexterity.”
.bn 133.png
.pn +1
“There have not been wanting amongst us
in all ages,” said Helon, “excellent artificers.”
“Single instances decide nothing,” said
Myron, “but a nation which, in its most
flourishing period, is obliged to engage artists
from foreign kings, and can do nothing by its
own ingenuity and dexterity, is surely a poor
and helpless race. How different from the
great Hellenic people! Poetry in abundance I
have indeed heard from you, but this is the
only branch of art in which you have done any
thing. No painting, no statuary, no drama!”
“Thou speakest,” said Elisama, interposing
angrily, “like a blind heathen, and what I
have so often intimated seems to have been
lost upon thee. Israel was not designed, nor
ever aimed, to excel in such worldly arts. It
was to be a kingdom of priests and a holy
people, to receive and to preserve the law of
Jehovah; and on this account he calls it his
people, his Jeshurun, his beloved Israel. The
time which other nations might devote to the
culture of the elegant arts, Israel was to spend
in the observance of the law. You have
.bn 134.png
.pn +1
omitted all mention too of our music. This and
our poetry are alone worthy to accompany the
people before the presence of Jehovah; his temple
must be splendid, but it was of no consequence
that it was made so by foreign hands. Besides,
the present temple, which yields little if at all
to the former, was built by native artists; and
supposing that in Solomon’s time architecture
was unknown among us, could this skill be
reasonably expected in a nation, which had
struggled for five hundred years for the possession
of the soil, which even then had not
been completely united for more than half a
century, and had passed a considerable portion
even of that short time in internal commotion!
“You are unjust, Myron, in another respect,”
added Helon, “the state of the arts
among a people should be judged of from that
department, in which it has put forth its powers.
Compare our poets with yours; we have no
need to fear the comparison.”
“Mention to me then your Homer and
Sophocles,” said Myron.
“In those species of poetry our fathers have
.bn 135.png
.pn +1
written nothing. But name to me a Greek,
who has surpassed the odes of David, the
elegies of Jeremiah, or the epigrams and scolia
of
“I will read your poets,” said Myron,
“when I return to Alexandria, but it is impossible
that a barbarian should rival the great
masters of Greece.”
“Compare, with a mind free from prejudice,
as becomes a true critic of art, and you will be
astonished at the lyric flights of our psalms,
which leave Pindar behind; at the plaintive
tenderness of Jeremiah, more deep and touching
than that of Simonides. Remember, too,
that this poetry of ours was never designed by
its authors as a work of art, or a display of
poetic power, but was the effusion of a mind
swelling with the praise of Jehovah, lamenting
its own, or its country’s sorrows, or intent upon
enforcing the precepts of the law. With us the
artist is more prominent and interesting than his
work; you think you have succeeded, when the
artist is forgotten in the merit of his production.”
Sallu brought in the meal, and they ate and
.bn 136.png
.pn +1
drank in peace, Elisama and Helon ruminating
on the glory of Solomon, Myron not less
pleased with his reflections on the preeminence
of his own nation. They slept from the heat
of the noonday till the sun went down, and
when evening came on were still in a state
between sleeping and waking, enjoying the
coolness of the breeze. The stars had begun
to appear over the desert, when they were
roused by a blast of the trumpet, in its harshest
tone. They started up. “That,” said Elisama,
“is not the signal of the march; it is an
alarm.” Sallu rushed in and informed them
that a horde of Arabs was in sight, and threatened
an attack. The tumult was excessive.
The men mounted their horses and hastened to
the side on which the danger appeared. The
guides vociferated and endeavoured to restore
order. The bows were strung; the slaves
struck the tents, and were preparing to drive
the camels further into the rear. After all
these preparations had been made the enemy
retired, feeling himself probably too weak to
encounter such a resistance.
.bn 137.png
.pn +1
While all were resuming their places, Myron
seemed somewhat disappointed at the loss of the
adventure which he had promised himself, to
season the insipid sameness of the caravan’s
march, Elisama turned himself in the direction
of Jerusalem, and in an attitude of prayer
repeated,
.pm start_poem
When I call my enemies turn back;
This I know, for God is with me.
In God have I put my trust, I will not fear;
What can man do unto me?
Thy vows are upon me, O God!
I will pay my thank-offerings unto thee:
For thou deliveredst my soul from death,
My foot from falling,
That I may walk before God in the land of the living?
Ps. lvi. 10-14.
.pm end_poem
The guide was not willing to remain till
midnight in this place, and gave the signal for
departure. The alarm into which they had just
been thrown, the terrors of their fellow-travellers,
and the tumult of departure, were unable to
turn the minds of Helon and Elisama from the
glories of the age of Solomon, and they rehearsed
together the following psalm, which,
composed primarily in his honour, was supposed
.bn 138.png
.pn +1
to carry also a secret reference to one
much greater than Solomon.
.pm start_poem
The mountains shall declare peace to the people
And the hills announce righteousness.
They shall fear thee, as long as the sun and moon endure,
Throughout all generations.
He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass,
As showers that water the earth.
In his days shall the righteous flourish,
And abundance of peace, so long as the moon endureth.
He shall have dominion from sea to sea,
From the river to the ends of the earth,
They that dwell in the desert 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.
All kings shall fall down before him,
All nations shall serve him—
A handful of corn, scattered in the earth on the top of the mountains
Shall wave its fruit like the trees of Lebanon.
And the peopled cities shall flourish like grass of the earth.
His name shall endure for ever;
His name shall be continued as long as the sun.
Men shall be blessed in him;
All nations shall call him blessed!—Psl. lxxii.
.pm end_poem
.bn 139.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER VI. | THE HALT AT RHINOCORURA.
.sp 2
They arrived in safety, and at an early hour,
at , and encamped where a copious
stream from the mountains had produced verdure
and fertility upon its banks. Elisama,
who from his advanced age was easily exhausted
by any unusual excitement, was compelled
to lie down to rest immediately on his
arrival, and it was not till after the meal that he
was able to resume his narrative.
“I have,” said he, “a long and melancholy
history to relate. The vicissitudes of five
hundred years were necessary, in order to impress
upon the mind of Israel the conviction,
that the retributive Providence of God watched
over their observance of the law, and rewarded
.bn 140.png
.pn +1
or punished them according as they kept or
broke it. Yesterday we left our nation on the
highest and most brilliant pinnacle of national
prosperity, possessed of the law, of the land of
promise, and of a temple in which all the outward
rites of Jehovah’s worship might be
observed. One thing only was wanting to
make Israel that blessed people, by whom all
other nations were to be blessed—willing obedience.
But something more was necessary to
produce this obedience, than the possession of
the law and the means of keeping it. It must
be regarded as an extraordinary mark of the
favour of Jehovah towards Israel, that every
thing was so combined, as to impress the doctrine
of retribution upon them, both by fact
and precept. No people exhibits such a quick
succession and such a striking alternation of
reward and punishment, so that Jehovah may
be said to have set it up as a monument to the
nations of his retributive justice. Its history,
however, was not designed merely for the
instruction of others, but primarily to teach
Israel itself this great lesson; and for this
.bn 141.png
.pn +1
purpose a succession of prophets was raised up,
to enforce by their instruction the moral which
the events of history were teaching.”
Myron was about to interpose, but Elisama
made a sign to him and continued,
“I guess what you are going to say.”
“Allow me, however, this once to interrupt
you in your narrative, for you seem to me to
be going too far in your panegyrics. Has not
every nation and every religion its priests, its
prophets, and its inspired teachers?”
“You know,” said Elisama, “that I do not
relish the Grecian mode of interlocutory debate:
let me, if you please, go quietly on, and I hope,
before I have done, to remove all your objections.
Your own statement shows the difference.
Our prophets were not always priests.
They were sometimes shepherds, and were
chosen by God from all the tribes without distinction.
They were chosen messengers of
Jehovah; their office raised them above both
priest and people, and through them he made
known his judgments and his mercy. They
remind the people of the law, they point out in
.bn 142.png
.pn +1
passing, or in future events, the operations of
retributive justice; they promise rewards to
obedience and denounce punishments on disobedience,
and they disclose, in the distance,
the future glories of the days of the Messiah.
“Samuel had founded schools of the prophets,
and we read of Nathan, the prophet, in
the history of David. But it is to the period
which follows the reign of Solomon, that they
more appropriately belong. This period begins
with the separation of the kingdoms of Israel
and Judah. Even in the last years of his reign,
his splendour may have been a source of oppression
to his people, who called upon Rehoboam
his successor for alleviation of their
burthens. Young, and following the advice of
youthful counsellors, he threatened, instead of
granting their request. On this Jeroboam, who
had come out of Egypt, where he had premeditated
his destructive plans against the house of
David, was chosen king by ten tribes, while
Judah, Benjamin and Levi, adhered to Rehoboam,
and formed the kingdom of Judah; Jeroboam,
now become the king of Israel, erected his
.bn 143.png
.pn +1
throne at Sichem, and fearing that by going up
to the temple at Jerusalem, the people might
be tempted to reunite with the kingdom of
Judah, he set up the worship of the golden
calves, at Bethel and at Dan. He was the
exact opposite of David, and the scripture
designates him as ‘the man that caused Israel
to sin.’[43] This fearful degeneracy could not
pass unpunished. Ahia, the prophet, predicted
the extermination of his house. His son Nadab,
who walked in the way of his father, was killed
by Baasa, who succeeded him as king, and took
up his abode in Thirza, and who, walking in the
way of Jeroboam, received from the prophet
Jehu, the son of Hanani, a fearful denunciation
of divine vengeance.[44] His son Elah fell, when
in a state of intoxication, by the sword of
Zimri; and thus the prophetic word was a second
time fulfilled. Zimri, besieged in Thirza by
Omri, whom the people in the camp had chosen
king, set fire to the palace and perished in the
flames. Omri built Samaria, and was succeeded
.bn 144.png
.pn +1
by his son Ahab. Ahab was king of Israel, at
the same time as Jehoshaphat was king of
Judah. Though they were allied by the marriage
of their children, they were directly opposite
in their characters. Ahab, wicked and
devoted to idolatry, added the worship of Baal
to those which were already practised in Israel,
and thus brought upon himself the most awful
threatenings of Jehovah. Jehoshaphat, weak,
but faithful to the law, sent Levites through
the country to teach and judge,[45] and obtained
the mercy of Jehovah.
.fn 43
1 Kings xiv. 16.
.fn-
.fn 44
1 Kings xvi. 1-6.
.fn-
.fn 45
2. Chron. xvii. 7.
.fn-
“In the days of these two kings, Elijah
made his appearance; he may be called by
eminence the prophet. His native place was
Thisbah, but he traversed the whole country
from side to side, clad in a skin, with a leathern
girdle about his loin, denouncing, in the boldest
and most glowing terms, the worship of Baal—a
fearful and sublime phenomenon. Now he
appears boldly before the throne—now he
wanders a fugitive in the wilderness: at one
.bn 145.png
.pn +1
time he denounces the wrath of Jehovah on
backsliding Israel; at another he slaughters, on
Carmel, the idolatrous priests of Baal: to-day
he is the messenger of Jehovah to bring comfort
to the widow of Zarephath, to-morrow he
appears before Ahab and his queen, and predicts
their dreadful fate. His name carries
terror with it to the hearts of the guilty, and
inspires the righteous with courage.
“His disciple, Elisha, anointed Jehu, and
predicted that the kingdom should continue in
his family to the fifth generation. These kings,
though not acceptable to God as David was,
yet opposed the progress of idolatry. Jehu put
to death the worshippers of Baal, and made
a pool of his temple. In consequence this
dynasty continued on the throne and flourished
till the fifth generation; and under the fourth,
Jeroboam, the son of Joash, the ancient limits
were regained, and Israel extended from Hamath
to the sea of the plain, as Jonah, the son
of Amittai, had foretold to him.[46] Still, however,
.bn 146.png
.pn +1
the calves remained in Dan and Bethel, the
relics of that idolatry which the people had
learned in Egypt. As a punishment for this,
a terrible interregnum ensued, at the close of
which, Zechariah, the fifth from Jehu, came to
the throne, but was murdered by Shallum.
This is the third fulfilment of the prophecy of
Jehovah respecting the royal houses of Israel.
.fn 46
2 Kings xiv. 25.
.fn-
“This is the time in which Jonah, Amos,
Hosea, and the great Isaiah, prophesied. Jonah
was sent to Nineveh, the largest city then existing,
to preach the judgments of Jehovah.
Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoah, prophesied
to all the surrounding nations, and
last of all to Judah and Israel, the punishment
of their sins, beginning with these terrific
words:
.pm start_poem
The Lord will thunder from Zion,
And utter his voice from Jerusalem.
The habitations of the shepherds shall mourn,
And the top of Carmel shall wither.
.pm end_poem
“And as he successively denounces to Damascus,
to Gaza, to Tyre, and the other neighbouring
states, the punishments that awaited
.bn 147.png
.pn +1
them, he begins each prophecy with the alarming
words,
.pm start_poem
Thus saith Jehovah;
I have passed by,
The fourth I cannot overlook.
.pm end_poem
“He beholds first the approach of a desolating
flight of locusts, then a terrible fire, and having
interceded against both, he sees the Lord,
standing with a plummet in his hand beside the
wall, and hears the words:
.pm start_poem
Behold I will set a plumb-line in the midst of my people Israel;
I will not again pass by them any more.
The high places of Isaac shall be desolate,
And the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste,
And I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.—Amos vii. 7.
.pm end_poem
“Let me here subjoin, Myron, the history
which follows, which will show you clearly in
what relation the prophet stood to the priests:
‘Then Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent to
Jeroboam, king of Israel, saying, Amos hath
conspired against thee in the midst of the house
of Israel, the land cannot remain tranquil for
the words which he speaketh. For thus Amos
.bn 148.png
.pn +1
saith; Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and
Israel shall surely be led away captive out of
their own land. And Amaziah said unto Amos,
O thou seer, go flee away into the land of
Judah, and there eat bread and prophesy there:
but prophesy no more at Bethel: for it is the
king’s sanctuary and royal palace. Then answered
Amos and said to Amaziah, I was no
prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son, but I
was a herdsman, and I lived on sycamore fruit.
And the Lord took me, as I followed my flock,
and he said to me, Go prophesy unto my
people Israel. Now therefore hear thou the
word of the Lord. Thou sayest
.pm start_poem
Prophesy not against Israel
And stream not forth against the house of Isaac!
.pm end_poem
“But the Lord saith,
.pm start_poem
Thy wife shall be a harlot,
And thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword.
Thy land shall be divided by the line,
And thou shalt die in a polluted land,
And Israel shall be carried captive out of his land.[47]
.pm end_poem
.fn 47
Amos viii. 10.
.fn-
“Hosea, the son of Beeri, is first of all
.bn 149.png
.pn +1
commanded to contract a symbolical marriage,
to indicate the infidelity of the congregation of
Israel against Jehovah. Then he breaks forth
in the highest and boldest strain of indignation.
.pm start_poem
Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah,
The trumpet in Ramah!
Cry aloud at Bethaven
‘They are after thee, O Benjamin!’
Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke,
And upon the tribes of Israel
I make known what shall surely be.
The princes of Judah were like them that remove the landmark;
Therefore will I pour out my wrath upon them like water.[48]
.pm end_poem
.fn 48
Hos. v. 8.
.fn-
“The prophetic words were soon accomplished,
in the rapid downfal of the kingdom of
Israel. Assyria, which Jehovah calls the rod of
his indignation,[49] made Menahem, the next king
after Zechariah, tributary; and Tiglath-pilesar
carried away many of the inhabitants of Israel.
Galilee, and the district beyond Jordan were
lost. Hoseah, the last king of Israel, contrary
to the advice of Isaiah, made a league with So,
the king of Egypt, and was defeated by Salmanassar.
.bn 150.png
.pn +1
Samaria was destroyed, the inhabitants
carried beyond the Tigris, to the
of the river Chebar, and the Lord put
away Israel from before him, as he threatened
by his servants the prophets.
.fn 49
Isaiah x. 5.
.fn-
“Where once the tribes of Israel, the sons of
Joseph, Ephraim, and Manasseh had dwelt,
strangers from the east had settled themselves,
and being infested with lions, they requested
from the king that Israelitish priests might be
sent them; and so they polluted the land, the
village of Jacob, and many other sacred spots,
by a mixture of the worship of God with that
of idols, which continues to defile it even to
this day.
“Thus had Jehovah manifested, both by
deed and precept, his retributory judgments in
the case of Israel. Would that Judah had been
wise, and had learned from the fate of her sister
kingdom that lesson which they who will not
read must feel!
“Rehoboam sat upon the throne of David, but
had no resemblance to him in character. He
built high places and pillars, and planted groves,
.bn 151.png
.pn +1
and committed the abominations of the heathens,
whom the Lord had cast out before the children
of Israel, upon every hill and under every green
tree. Jehovah sent Sisak, king of Egypt, who
conquered all the cities and Jerusalem itself,
and carried away both the royal treasure and that
of the temple into his own country. Jehovah
had foretold this by the prophet Shemaiah[50]
and the king and the princes of Judah humbled
themselves. And when the Lord saw that they
had humbled themselves, he said, I will not
destroy them, but I will grant them a little
deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured
out upon them by the hand of Sisak. Nevertheless
they shall be his servants, that they may
know what it is to serve me, and what to serve
the kingdoms of the countries.
.fn 50
2 Chron. xiii. 5.
.fn-
“Abijah followed him. He trusted in Jehovah,
and was successful in a great battle
against Israel, in which he defeated an enemy
who was at least twice as numerous.[51] He
entered the battle with the words, ‘With us
.bn 152.png
.pn +1
is the Lord our God and we have not forsaken
him, and the priests which minister unto the
Lord, the sons of Aaron and the Levites in their
.fn 51
2 Chron. xiii.
.fn-
“His successor Asa, by the same faith, smote
again a mighty host of invaders from Arabia and
Ethiopia, as the prophet Azariah had foretold.
How greatly was the power of Jehoshaphat
increased, by his zeal against idolatry, and his
obedience to God, and in how humbled a condition
did he return from a war in which the
prophet Micaiah had warned him not to engage!
He unfortunately gave to his son, Jehoram,
Athaliah, Ahab’s daughter, to wife; and when
the iniquity of Israel was thus communicated
to Judah, by this seed of Jezebel, punishment,
oppression and distress soon followed, till
Joash, who had escaped her murderous hand,
was brought forth from the temple where he
had been concealed by Jehoiada, and placed
upon the throne of David. Uzziah was prosperous
against all his enemies, as long as the
prophet Zechariah lived; but a grievous leprosy
fell upon him when he daringly presumed
.bn 153.png
.pn +1
to approach the Lord, and offer him
incense after the manner of the priests. To
him succeeded Ahaz, the worst and most
infatuated of the sons of David, who being
given up to Syrian idolatry and superstition,
closed the temple and sought aid of Assyria.
But how strikingly was his apostasy punished,
when he was compelled to give the treasures
of the temple to these very allies!
“Even down to this time, how triumphantly
had the retributive providence of God been
manifested in the history of our people! What
wonderful accomplishment of the prophetic
word, even in years, names, and individual
occurrences! But about this time Isaiah arose,
towering with an eagle’s flight, now encouraging
king and people with the promise of divine
favour, now humbling them with denunciations
against their sins, and above all predicting,
in clearer language than any preceding
prophet, HIM who was to be the consolation
and the glory of Israel—the Messiah! He
who, when he received his prophetic commission,
saw Jehovah seated on a throne, high
.bn 154.png
.pn +1
and lifted up, and the seraphim around him
crying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of
Hosts[52]—whose lips were touched with a live
coal from the altar; and whom the Lord himself
sent to speak in his name, was well fitted
either to denounce captivity and punishment to
the people, or to describe the glorious days of
Emanuel, the son of the virgin.
.fn 52
Isaiah vi.
.fn-
.pm start_poem
Behold the Lord, the Lord of Hosts
Shall lop the bough with a loud crash,
And the high tops shall be hewn down
And the lofty shall be made low.
He fells the thickets of the forest with the axe,
And Lebanon falls by a mighty hand.
Yet there shall come forth a shoot from the stem of Jesse,
And a scion shall grow out of his root;
And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
The spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The spirit of counsel and strength,
The spirit of the knowledge and fear of Jehovah.
He shall be of quick discernment in the fear of Jehovah,
And shall not judge according to appearances,
Nor decide according to hearsay.
But he shall judge the poor in righteousness,
And speak for the right of the oppressed in the land.
He shall smite the evil doer with his tongue,
And slay the wicked with the breath of his lips.
Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins,
.bn 155.png
.pn +1
And faithfulness the cincture of his reins.
Then shall the wolf dwell with the lamb,
And the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
And the calf and the young lion, and the fatling shall be together,
And a little child shall lead them.
And the heifer and the she-bear shall feed together,
Their young ones shall lie down together;
And the lion shall eat straw like an ox;
The suckling shall play upon the hole of the aspic,
And the weaned child lay his hand upon the den of the basilisk:
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain.
For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah,
As the waters cover the depths of the sea.—Is. x. 33.
.pm end_poem
“Contemporary with Isaiah, the sublimest of
our prophets, was Micah, the Morasthite, who
uttered these words:
.pm start_poem
The sun goeth down over the prophets
And the day shall be dark over them.
Then shall the seers be ashamed,
And the diviners confounded.
Yea, they shall all cover their faces
Because no fulfilment cometh from Jehovah.
But I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord,
Full of truth, and of courage,
To declare unto Jacob his transgression
And unto Israel his sin.
For this reason shall Zion be ploughed as a field,
And Jerusalem shall become heaps,
And the temple-hill as the high places of the forest.
But in the last days it shall come to pass
.bn 156.png
.pn +1
That the hill of the Lord’s temple shall be established on the top of the mountains,
And it shall be exalted above the hills,
And nations shall flow unto it;
And many people shall come and say,
Come and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah,
And to the house of the God of Jacob,
That he may teach us of his ways
And we may walk in his paths.
For the law shall go forth from Zion
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge among many people,
And be arbiter of strong nations afar off.
They shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
And their spears into pruninghooks;
Nation shall not lift up the sword against nation
Neither shall they learn war any more.
But they shall sit every man under his own vine and under his figtree
And none shall make them afraid:
For the mouth of the Lord of Hosts has spoken it.
Micah iii. iv.
.pm end_poem
“Such prophets as these spoke in the days
of Hezekiah, a weak but pious man. When
indeed could the word of prophecy be more
seasonable or more needed? The doctrine of
retribution was now fully developed. Israel
had ceased to be; Judah still existed, through
the piety of her kings. Had the prophet to
speak of judgment—he had only to point to the
.bn 157.png
.pn +1
hills of Ephraim, and to her sons on the banks
of Chebar; was the faithfulness of Jehovah—and
his recompense of obedience, the theme;—the
seed of David still sat upon the throne of
Judah, while so many dynasties had successively
occupied that of Israel. But there was
another occasion for a prophet: for danger
threatened on all sides, and Sennacherib with
his immense host besieged Jerusalem. To-day
the army of the conqueror stood around the
terrified city and its trembling king. He goes
dejected to the house of the Lord, spreads out
before him the letters and demands of the
haughty invader, and prays to Jehovah. Isaiah,
the prophet, declares to him, ‘He shall not
come into this city; for I will defend it to
save it, for mine own sake and for David my
servant’s sake.’[53] And in the morning Sennacherib
flees before the angel of the Lord, who
had smitten his host during the night. But
Jehovah, who was so benign towards those that
called upon him in humility, showed himself
.bn 158.png
.pn +1
equally severe towards the proud. When Hezekiah,
thoughtless and vain, had shown his
treasures to the Babylonians, a nation then of
little account in comparison with the Assyrians,
Isaiah appears before him, and says, ‘Behold
the time cometh, when all that is in thine house
and all that thy fathers have collected unto this
day shall be carried away to Babylon, nothing
shall remain saith Jehovah.’[54]
.fn 53
2 Kings xix. 33, 34.
.fn-
.fn 54
Isaiah xxxix.
.fn-
“To Hezekiah succeeded his son Manasseh, a
prince wholly unlike his father, who, as a punishment
of his offences, was carried away to Babylon,
and brought back when he repented and
returned to Jehovah. His reign is the picture
of the history of the people in this period; sin
and punishment, repentance and favour!
“Some time after began the days of Josiah,
who was pious and prosperous under the
guidance of Hilkiah, as Joash had been under
that of Jehoiada, and Uzziah under that of Zechariah.
The lost volume of the law was
found, the temple purified, the passover kept,
.bn 159.png
.pn +1
and the abominations of the high places, of the
valley of Tophet, and the horses of the sun,
were removed. The king stood by a pillar in
the temple and made a covenant with the Lord,
and it is written, ‘There was no king before him
like unto him, that turned to the Lord with all
his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his
might, according to all the law of Moses; neither
after him arose there any like him.’[55] For this
he was permitted to see the downfal of the
hostile kingdom of Assyria, and he and his
people were happy.
.fn 55
2 Kings xxiii. 25.
.fn-
“But after the death of Josiah, Judah hastened
with rapid strides to its destruction under the
government of wicked princes. The prophecy
of Isaiah to Hezekiah was fulfilled in the days
of Jehoiakim. The vessels of the temple and
the sons of the chief men of the land were carried
away to Babylon. Jehoiakim, his son and
successor, was deposed, after a reign of three
months, and all the men of valour or property
were removed to Babylon. Two prophets, who
.bn 160.png
.pn +1
accompanied their exile, Ezekiel and Jeremiah,
were chosen by Jehovah, in these awful times,
to make known his word to his people.
“The last king that sat upon the throne of
David was Zedekiah, another son of Josiah.
He was seduced, in the ninth year of his reign,
to rebel against Babylon and to league himself
with Egypt. The Chaldeans invested Jerusalem,
and it fell, in the three hundred and
seventeenth year of the division of the kingdoms.
The king was carried to Ribla, and his
eyes put out, after he had witnessed the
slaughter of his sons. He was then carried
captive to Babylon, and awfully was the prophecy
of Ezekiel fulfilled: ‘I will bring him to
Babel in the land of the Chaldeans, and he shall
die there; yet he shall not behold it.’[56]
.fn 56
Ezek. xii. 13.
.fn-
“The vessels of the house of God, small and
great, the treasures of the temple and of the
palace, and of all the princes, were carried by
Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon. The youths were
slaughtered in the sanctuary, and neither age
.bn 161.png
.pn +1
nor sex was spared; Jehovah gave every thing
into his hand. All that remained was carried
away to Babylon. They burnt the house of the
Lord, and the house of the king and all the
houses of Jerusalem. And the army of the
Chaldeans broke down the walls of Jerusalem
round about.
“Thus Jeshurun, the once beloved people of
Jehovah, the once glorious daughter of Zion,
lay in desolation and misery. The glory of
Solomon was scarcely discernible in its ruins;
the blessing of David had vanished from his
throne, and even that which Joshua and the
Judges had earned with toil and blood was lost.
David, Solomon, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah,
and Josiah, had called upon them to fear
Jehovah, but the superstitions of the neighbouring
nations had more powerful attractions,
and the law was too heavy a yoke for their
untamed necks. Hence this awful punishment
and unheard of retribution. Prophets were not
wanting, to point out and enforce the lesson.
Hear how our Jeremiah pours forth his heart-rending
sorrows:
.bn 162.png
.pn +1
.pm start_poem
How doth the city sit solitary that was full of people!
How is she become as a widow—once great among the nations!
The queen of the lands, how is she become a slave!
She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks.
Of all that loved her she hath none to comfort her,
All her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies.
She dwelleth among the heathens, she findeth no rest,
All her persecutors overtake her at the borders.
The ways of Zion mourn because no man comes to the solemn feasts;
All her gates are desolate, her priests sigh,
Her virgins are afflicted and are in bitterness.
Her adversaries are victorious, her enemies prosper;
For the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions.
Her children are gone into captivity before the enemy;
From the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed.
Her princes are become like deer, that find no pasture;
They fall without strength before the pursuer.
Jerusalem calls to mind in her misery the pleasures of the days of old.
Now she falleth into the hand of the enemy, and none help her;
Her adversaries see her and mock, because she must keep her sabbaths.
—She seeth that the heathens enter into her sanctuary,
Whom thou didst command that they should not enter into thy congregation.
—See if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow,
With which the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his
.pm end_poem
.bn 163.png
.pn +1
“Admirable!” exclaimed Myron, unable to
resist the beauty of this Lamentation.
Elisama continued: “It is the finest of all
the songs of our prophets, and its echo still
lives in the hearts of the children of Israel.
This melancholy tone never ceases to predominate
in their minds, no, not even in the days
of Hyrcanus. What must the prophet have
felt when he wrote,
.pm start_poem
All that pass by clap their hands at thee,
They hiss and shake the head at the daughter of Jerusalem;
Is this the city which men call the Perfection of Beauty, the joy of the whole earth?
.pm end_poem
“He had foreseen it all—he had taught
them how the calamity might be avoided, but
they would not listen to his voice; they had
persecuted him, and despised the prophetic
word. Now he had to endure the sight of that
which he had endeavoured to avert.
.pm start_poem
I am the man that hath seen affliction
Under the rod of his wrath.
He hath led me and brought me
Into darkness and not into light.
He turneth his hand against me every day.
.pm end_poem
.bn 164.png
.pn +1
“Jeremiah did not forsake his people. He
remained on the ruins of the temple, sitting
and lamenting with the inferior people, when
Nebuchadnezzar carried away the nobles and
the princes. Gedaliah was placed over those
who remained. He dwelt in Mizpah, and received
those who had fled during the presence
of the Chaldees. But scarcely had the hapless
people begun to recover from the miseries of
war, and to gather in the vintage and the summer
fruits, when Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah,
of the royal blood, came and slew Gedaliah.[57]
The people, fearing the king of Babylon, implored
Jeremiah to ask counsel at the Lord on
their behalf. After ten days the Lord answered
by Jeremiah, that they should remain
in the land and not fear the king of Babylon;
nor venture, under severe penalties, to take
refuge in Egypt. But they again disobeyed,
and betook themselves to Egypt—our ancestors,
Helon, were among the number; for
what could individuals do against the stream
.bn 165.png
.pn +1
which hurried them away. By the command
of Jehovah, Jeremiah accompanied them thither,
that by a symbolical action, before the door of
Pharaoh’s house, he might typify the defeat of
the Egyptians and the punishment of Israel.
He dwelt in our house, and died there. On
this pilgrimage we may well call to mind the
words which he spoke; ‘Yet a small number
shall return out of the land of Egypt into the
land of Judah, and all the remnant of Judah,
that are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn
there, shall know whose word shall stand, mine
or theirs.’[58]
.fn 57
Jer. xli.
.fn-
.fn 58
Jer. xliv. 28.
.fn-
“In the midst of these sufferings Jehovah
did not wholly forsake his people. While, by
the mouth of Jeremiah he spoke to those in
Egypt, Ezekiel, the son of Buzi, was his messenger
to the captives on the banks of Chebar.
Nearly 40,000 men had been carried thither
under Zedekiah; one hundred and fifty-three
years before, in the days of Pekah, Israelites
from Galilee and Gilead had been transferred
.bn 166.png
.pn +1
to Assyria, and Salmanassar, one hundred and
thirty-five years before, had carried those who
remained into the cities of Media. In this
manner they were dispersed through the east.
But the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, and
in bold and lofty images he announced their
return, and the glory of their future days. He
foretold too their union, at some future time,
after their present dispersion. The prophet was
commanded to take two rods, and write on one
of them, ‘for Judah and for the sons of Israel,
his companions;’ and on the other, ‘for Joseph,
the rod of Ephraim, and for all the house of
Israel, his companions,’ and then to join them
together as a symbol of their future union.[59]
.fn 59
Ezek. xxxvii. 16.
.fn-
“Thus Israel was not left wholly comfortless:
but her sins had been numerous and her punishment
was grievous. Driven from their home,
cut off from the land of promise, without a
temple, or a prince on the throne of David,
they were taught the power of Jehovah. He
had punished no other people so, for he had
.bn 167.png
.pn +1
loved no other so well. As they sat by the
rivers of Babel and wept, when they thought of
Zion, they felt that he was their judge, as well
as their lawgiver. What did it avail them, that
individuals of their nation rose to favour and
distinction, Daniel, Esther, and Tobias, when
the nation itself lived in misery and degradation?
The seventy years of the captivity were
tedious, mournful years, and while a child of
Abraham remains upon the earth, their features
will continue to bear the ,
which these years impressed upon them.
Every year we keep the mournful anniversary
of the destruction of the temple, though it has
been rebuilt, while, according to the words of
Jeremiah, ‘we sit solitary and are still.’”
Elisama ceased, and a grief, that could find no
vent in words, hung heavy about his heart and
that of Helon. The last glow of the departing
light had fallen on Elisama’s countenance, as
he related the destruction of Jerusalem. Night
succeeded; by the feeble glooming of the
hearth fire, he had described the ruin and
misery of Israel; and now all was darkness
.bn 168.png
.pn +1
and silence. The blast of the trumpet, which
gave the signal to prepare for the march, at
length broke in upon them and they arose.
.bn 169.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER VII. | THE HALT AT RAPHIA.
.sp 2
The caravan halted in the neighbourhood of
the ruins of ; their day’s journies had been
short, on account of the quantity of merchandise
which they carried. Raphia does not properly
belong to Egypt, and was reckoned as a part of
Syria; a hundred years before, Antiochus the
Great lost here a great battle with the Egyptians.
The space which lies between Egypt and Syria
had been for ages past the theatre of war between
the adjacent countries; a circumstance
that, before the captivity, had been the source
of frequent calamity to Israel, which could
scarcely fail of being involved either in the war
or its consequences. This thought occurred
to the minds both of Helon and Elisama, as
.bn 170.png
.pn +1
they crossed the field of battle—but they derived
some consolation from the thought, that
Judea’s conqueror had in his turn been conquered
here. Jehovah had indeed visited his
people with calamity, but their enemies, the
instruments in his hands, had always been
punished for their ambition. Antiochus after
the battle fled into his own kingdom, and left
Palestine again free.
When they all awoke after the sleep at
noon, Myron began, “Venerable Elisama, will
you not relate to us the remaining part of the
history of your nation? The journey to Gaza
will be the last that we shall make together.
Let us then pass these hours in something
more improving than listening to the noise of
camels and the Ph[oe]nicians’ talk of buying and
selling.” Elisama placing himself in a convenient
posture for narration, thus began:
“When Israel sat and wept by the rivers of
Babel, and hung their harps upon the willows,
‘the hand of the Lord was upon Ezekiel the
prophet,[60] and carried him out in the spirit of
.bn 171.png
.pn +1
the Lord, and set him down in the midst of a
valley which was full of bones; and caused
him to pass among them: and there were very
many on the surface of the valley, and they
were very dry. And he spoke to me and said,
Son of man, can these bones live? And I said,
Thou Lord knowest. And he said to me, Son
of man prophesy concerning these bones, and
say unto them, Ye dry bones, hear the word of
the Lord! Thus saith the Lord God unto these
bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter into
you and ye shall live! And I prophesied, as
I was commanded, and as I prophesied they
moved themselves, and the bones came together,
bone to bone. And I beheld and saw that
the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and
the skin covered them, but there was no breath
in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy
unto the wind; prophesy, O Son of man, and
say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God,
Come from the four winds, O breath, and
breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
So I prophesied, as I was commanded, and the
breath came unto them, and they lived and
.bn 172.png
.pn +1
stood up upon their feet, an exceedingly great
multitude. And he said unto me, Son of man,
these bones are the whole house of Israel.
Behold, they say, Our bones are dried up and
our hope is lost. Therefore prophesy and say
unto them, Thus saith the Lord; Behold I will
open your graves, and cause you to come up
out of your graves, and bring you into the land
of Israel.’
.fn 60
Ezek. xxxvii.
.fn-
“Thus the prophet consoled Israel, on the
banks of Chebar; but he lived not to witness
the deliverance which he announced. Not
long however after his death, the Lord stirred
up the spirit of Cyrus, the king of Persia, (who
had conquered Assyria and Babylonia) by the
means of the astonishment excited in him by
the prophecies communicated to him by Daniel.
Cyrus caused proclamation to be made through
all his dominions, saying, 'Thus saith Cyrus,
king of Persia; The Lord God of heaven hath
given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and has
commanded me to build him a house at Jerusalem
in Judah. Who is there among you of
all his people? his God be with him, and let
.bn 173.png
.pn +1
him go up to Jerusalem in Judah, and build the
house of the Lord, the God of Israel. And
whosoever remaineth in any place where he
sojourneth, let the men of his place help him
with silver and gold, and with goods and with
cattle, of freewill, for the house of God at
“Then rose up the chief of the fathers of
Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the
Levites, with all those whose spirit God had
stirred up, to go and build the house of the
Lord in Jerusalem. And all that were about
them strengthened their hands with vessels of
silver and vessels of gold, with goods and with
cattle, and with precious things, besides all that
was freely given. And king Cyrus brought
forth the vessels of the house of the Lord,
which Nebuchadnezzar had taken away from
Jerusalem, and had put them in the temple of
his gods, to the number of 5400, both gold and
[61]
.fn 61
Ezra i.
.fn-
“The word of the Lord by the mouth of
.bn 174.png
.pn +1
Jeremiah, respecting the seventy years, was now
fulfilled.[62] Forty-two thousand three hundred
and sixty men, with 7237 servants and maidens,
736 horses, 245 mules, 435 camels, and 6720
asses went with Zerubbabel and Jeshua to the
land of their fathers out of captivity, full of
thankfulness and praise. The expression of
their joy may still be heard in the 126th Psalm.
.fn 62
Jer. xxv. 11. xxix. 10.
.fn-
.pm start_poem
When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion
We were like them that dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter,
And our tongue with singing.
Then said they among the heathen,
“Jehovah hath done great things for them;”
Yea, Jehovah hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad.
Bring back, O Lord, our captives,
Like streams in a parched land.
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
The sower goeth forth with weeping, bearing the seed;
He cometh back with rejoicing, bringing the sheaves.
.pm end_poem
“Thus they returned to the Holy Land, Israel
and Judah one rod, according to the words of
Ezekiel. They take possession of the country,
build villages, and even raise Jerusalem out of
her ruins, but without repairing her walls. In
.bn 175.png
.pn +1
the next month, Tisri, the whole congregation
assembled at Jerusalem, as one man, to the feast
of tabernacles. They set up the altar upon its
base, amidst the ruins of the temple, and offered
thereon burnt-offerings, morning and evening,
according to custom, as the duty of every day
required; and afterwards the burnt-offerings
of the new moons, and all the feasts of the
Lord that were hallowed.[63]
.fn 63
Ezra iii.
.fn-
“In the second month of the second year of
their return, they laid the foundation of the
temple of Jehovah, the expenses being supplied
by their voluntary contributions. All set
their hands to the work, and the Levites, from
twenty years old and upwards, had the superintendence.
The foundation being laid, the
priests stood in their apparel, and the Levites,
the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the
Lord with the psalms of David, king of Israel,
and they sung in responsive strains, praising
and giving thanks unto the Lord, because he is
good and his mercy endureth for ever toward
.bn 176.png
.pn +1
Israel. And all the people shouted with a loud
shout, when they praised the Lord, because the
foundation of the house was laid. But many
of the aged priests, and Levites and chiefs, that
had seen the first house, when the foundation
of this house was laid before their eyes, wept
with a loud voice, and many shouted aloud for
joy; so that the people could not distinguish
the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping
of the people.
“The prophets Haggai and Zechariah arose
and encouraged the people to persevere—but
difficulties were thrown in their way by the
Samaritans, who, worshipping Jehovah along
with their idols, had been desirous of partaking
in the building of the temple.[64] As their proposal
was rejected, they obtained an order from
a king of Persia, a successor of Cyrus, that
the work should be stopped. But Jehovah
aided his people: the temple was at length
completed; and Haggai prophesied: The glory
of this latter house shall be greater than the glory
.bn 177.png
.pn +1
of the former, saith Jehovah of hosts, and I will
give peace in this place.[65] The new temple was
dedicated, and the passover kept with joy.
.fn 64
Ezra iv. 2.
.fn-
.fn 65
Haggai ii. 9.
.fn-
“Under that Xerxes, whose millions, you
Greeks, Myron, boast to have overcome, Ezra,
the priest and scribe, a teacher of the word of the
Lord, came from Babylon to Jerusalem. An
was Xerxes’ queen, a Jew his
prime minister, and Ezra was sent as viceroy to
Jerusalem, commissioned to appoint judges,
superior and inferior, to correct abuses and
enforce the observance of the law. He came
with a company of not more than 6,000 men.[66]
.fn 66
Ezra vii.
.fn-
“The work, however, proceeded slowly, and
incessant wars interfered with it. After thirty
years Nehemiah came, as viceroy from the
court of Artaxerxes, and urged on the building
and fortifying of Jerusalem, which the Samaritans,
Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem, had
hindered in every possible way. As Ezra had
been the restorer of the worship of God, Nehemiah
was the restorer of the civil constitution
.bn 178.png
.pn +1
of Israel. On his arrival, he makes the circuit
of the city in the stillness of the night; then
addressing the people, he encouraged them to
labour. Half the young men wrought at the
fortifications, the other half kept watch in arms,
and the rulers stood behind. If danger threatened
any where, the trumpet was sounded and
the people assembled from every part of the
walls; for even the builders wrought with a
sword by their side. Neither Nehemiah nor
any other took off their clothes, except for the
purpose of washing them.[67]
.fn 67
Nehem. ii. 12 iv. 13.
.fn-
“Thus were the walls completed; but the
space included between them was much greater
than was necessary for the actual population,
and very few houses had been built. The
feast of tabernacles was approaching. The
people assembled on the open space before the
Watergate, and Ezra read the law there, from
morning until evening.[68] And the people lifted
up their hands and wept when they heard the
words of the law. And Nehemiah and Ezra
.bn 179.png
.pn +1
said, This day is holy unto the Lord, therefore
weep not nor be sad: for the joy of the Lord is
your strength! Finding from the law that the
time of the feast of tabernacles was at hand,
they went to the hills and fetched olive branches
and pine branches, and myrtle branches and
palm branches, to make booths; and they made
them every one upon the roof of his house and
in their courts, and in the courts of the house of
God, and in the street of the Watergate, and in
the street of the gate of Ephraim. And the
whole congregation of those who were come
out of captivity made booths, and dwelt therein.
For since the days of Joshua, the son of Nun,
until that day, the children of Israel had not
done so. After this the people cast lots, to
decide who of them should occupy Jerusalem;
and who take up their abode in the towns. A
tenth part was destined to the city, where the
chiefs already dwelt.[69]
.fn 68
Ibid. viii.
.fn-
.fn 69
Nehem. xi. 1.
.fn-
“When all these arrangements were made,
the walls were consecrated. The Levites were
.bn 180.png
.pn +1
sent for from all parts, to give solemnity to the
consecration. The priests and Levites purified
themselves and the people, the walls and the
gates. The princes of Judah stood upon the
walls. Two choirs, with cymbals, psalteries,
and harps, went round the walls, as far as the
temple. On the same day great sacrifices were
offered, and the people rejoiced greatly, so that
the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off.
“Nehemiah was compelled to return to court;
but he revisited Jerusalem after some years,[70]
and laboured earnestly to induce the people to
put away their foreign wives, as Ezra had done
at an earlier period.[71] Their children spoke a
mixed dialect, half Hebrew, half the language
of Ashdod, Ammon, or Moab. Malachi, the last
of the prophets, enforced his advice with the
words of the Lord. Such support was necessary,
for some of the leading men were involved,
and Manasseh, (the son of Joiada the high
priest) who had married the daughter of Sanballat,
refused compliance. Nehemiah expelled
.bn 181.png
.pn +1
him from the city,[72] and as Sanballat had just
obtained from Darius Nothus permission to
build a temple on mount Garizim,
became high priest in it.
.fn 70
Nehem. xiii. 6.
.fn-
.fn 71
Ezra ix. 10.
.fn-
.fn 72
Nehem. xiii. 28.
.fn-
“Thus Israel had been restored to the possession
of the land of their fathers, had rebuilt
the holy city, raised the temple from its ruins,
and ordered the worship of God, according to
the law. So far was the law from having been
lost in their captivity, that in some parts it had
never been fully practised by the people till
now. The visitation of Jehovah had wrought
the designed effect on the minds of the people.
Since the days of Moses, an interval now of
1000 years, they had never manifested such
zealous obedience to the law. They had learnt,
by long and bitter experience, that obedience
and national prosperity were inseparably connected
together. In their captivity the better
part of the people had sought each other out,
had formed little associations, and had been
strengthened by the words of the prophets,
.bn 182.png
.pn +1
whom Jehovah sent to them for this purpose.
These formed the chief strength of the nation
which returned from the captivity. Their peculiar
institutions, especially that of circumcision and
the prohibition of eating unclean food, tended
powerfully to keep them, even in the midst of
strangers, a separate people; and the glorious
prophecies, whose fulfilment they still expected,
seemed to belong to them only so far as they
were the pure unmixed descendents of those to
whom the promises were given. The greater part
of those who returned were besides of the tribes
of Judah and Benjamin, who had before been
most faithful to Jehovah, and most closely connected
with the temple. The baser part of the
people remained behind in foreign lands, just as
they do now in Egypt. From this time, therefore,
a new period begins in Israel, in which the
fruits of the discipline which the people had
undergone in preceding periods are displayed.
The voice of prophecy is henceforth dumb: for
they had learnt that lesson, which prophets
were sent to impress upon them.
“It is true, that those revolutions in the
.bn 183.png
.pn +1
kingdoms of the earth, which are preparatory to
the coming of the Messiah, often interrupted
the internal peace of Israel. The Persians,
from whose subjection Judea was not entirely
free, were engaged in wars, in which we were
obliged to take part. The expedition of Alexander
brought him to Jerusalem, but the the merits of
Israel on the heights of Sapha, while Tyre sunk
beneath his sword. In the division of his
empire, Palestine fell to the share of Ptolemy,
king of Egypt, who took many Jews with him
into Egypt, and many emigrated thither of their
own accord. Antigonus wrested our country
from Ptolemy, and for more than a century it
was the theatre of war between Syria and
Egypt. But these wars were not so much
punishments of Israel, as the ways by which
Jehovah had decreed to weaken the heathen,
and prepare the way for the complete emancipation
of his people. This alone was still
wanting to their happiness. Israel was obedient
and walked all in the ways of the Lord.”
“Allow me, venerable Herodotus, for so I
.bn 184.png
.pn +1
must call you,” said Myron, “to make a remark
here. I know how much you dislike
interruption, but this will not displease you.
On the contrary, it will gratify you to find your
own account confirmed by the mouth of a
heathen. (it is true he was a native
of Abdera) has written a book respecting your
nation, in which he gives them the highest
praise for the firmness with which they adhered
to their law, when in the midst of foreign
nations, in military service, and on other
occasions.”
Elisama was pleased, and proceeded with
his narrative. “At this time too a work was
undertaken, which would never have been
thought of at an earlier period, the collection
of the oral traditions respecting the law. , president of the great council,
collected them in a volume. In earlier times
the simple law had been found too heavy a
burthen; now the people eagerly adopted
explanations and additions, by which it was
enlarged and made more precise. Such obedience
was occasionally rewarded by Jehovah’s
.bn 185.png
.pn +1
disposing the hearts of neighbouring princes
very favourably towards them. was so much pleased with the faithfulness
of Israel, that he commanded victims,
wine, oil, frankincense, meal, wheat, and salt, to
be furnished for the sacrifices; gave them wood
from Lebanon for the repairs of the temple;
recalled the Jews who had left their country,
and freed the nation from all tribute for three
years.
“Still the yoke of foreign dominion pressed
heavily, till at last Jehovah hardened the heart
of , king of Syria, who
carried his cruelty to such a length, as to prepare
the way for the complete emancipation of
Israel. This Antiochus, whom the surname of
Epimanes (frantic) would have better suited,
bestowed on the wretched Joshua, the brother
of Onias the third, the office of high-priest,
and allowed him, in consideration of an enormous
increase of tribute, to open a Grecian
gymnasium in Jerusalem, and grant to the
Jews the privileges of citizens of Antioch. A
strange infatuation seized a part of the people,
.bn 186.png
.pn +1
to witness the contests of this gymnasium;
even priests, for this object, forsook their duties
in the temple. His younger brother Onias,
(who as Joshua, in his passion for every thing
Greek, had called himself Jason, took the name
of Menelaus) tempted Epiphanes by still higher
offers, abjured in Antioch the religion of his
fathers, promised an increase of three hundred
talents of tribute, and by force of arms installed
himself high-priest. A report being spread,
that Antiochus had died in Egypt, Jason returned
with 1000 men of the Ammonites, and
possessed himself of Jerusalem. Antiochus
hastened back from Egypt, took Jerusalem,
plundered the city, cut to pieces 80,000 men,
and sold as slaves, or carried away captive, an
equal number. He added impiety to cruelty.
Entering the temple with Menelaus, he reviled
the God to whom it was dedicated, directed all
the gold and silver, the table of shew-bread and
the candlestick to be carried away, and then
offered—I can scarce relate the horrible atrocity,
a swine upon the sacred altar, and sprinkled
the whole temple with the water in which a
.bn 187.png
.pn +1
part of it had been boiled. This was not all
that Israel was doomed to bear from the heathen.
Some time after, being in Egypt, and being
compelled to return home by an embassy of the
Romans, he vented his ill-humour upon Jerusalem,
sent thither 22,000 men, who marched
in on the sabbath day, plundered the houses,
pulled down the walls of the city, turned the
hill of Zion into a fortification, and made the
streets of Jerusalem flow with the blood of
its inhabitants. The daily sacrifice ceased.
The worship of the Grecian idols was commanded
upon pain of death; the holy scriptures
were cut to pieces or taken away; the
temple on Garizim dedicated to Jupiter Xenius;
that at Jerusalem to Jupiter Olympius. On the
altar of burnt-offering another was erected to
these idols, and groves and shrines of idolatrous
worship were introduced into every town. To
practise circumcision, or to observe the sabbath,
was forbidden on pain of death. Two
women were discovered to have circumcised
their children; the infants were bound on their
breasts, they were led round the whole city,
.bn 188.png
.pn +1
and at last precipitated from the walls. Some
had crept into caverns near the city, in order
to keep the sabbath—they were all burnt alive.
Every month, at the return of the day on which
the king was born, the Jews were forcibly
driven to perform a sacrifice. On the festival
of Bacchus, they were made to appear in garlands
of ivy in his honour. Eleasar, an aged
man and learned in the law, had his mouth forced
open, that he might swallow swine’s flesh; but
in spite of force or fraud, he preferred to die,
rather than violate the law. A mother with
seven sons was taken, and scourging applied,
to make them eat the unclean food, but in vain.
The executioners then took the eldest of the
sons, cut out his tongue, lopped off his hands
and feet, and broiled him in the fire, while he
exhorted his mother and brethren, who were
standing by, to die undauntedly for the law.
The other sons shared the same fate, and last
of all the mother, who had thus addressed her
last son, ‘My dearest child, whom I bore nine
months beneath my heart, and three years at
my bosom, have pity upon me! Fear not the
.bn 189.png
.pn +1
man of blood, but die willingly, as thy brothers
have done, that the God of mercy may restore
you with them living to my embrace!’ What
miracles of steadfastness under such torments!
Israel was oppressed, as it had never been
before; but it stood the trial nobly, and deserved
to obtain its perfect freedom, which was
at length accomplished in the following manner.
“There lived in a priest of the name
of Mattathias, who had five sons, and whose
complaint it was that he had been born to
behold the oppression of his people and the
desolation of the holy city, without being able
to give them aid. He rent his clothes, and he
and his sons put on sackcloth. When the
captains of Antiochus came to Modin, and
seduced many of the people to apostasy from
the law, and endeavoured by promises of all
kinds to persuade Mattathias, who was one of
the most considerable of the inhabitants, to offer
sacrifice and burn incense, he not only openly
refused, but when a Jew, at the close of his
speech, went up to the altar and to the
idol, his zeal for the Lord of Hosts was so
.bn 190.png
.pn +1
kindled, that he ran up to him, slew both him
who had offered and the captain of Antiochus,
and overturned the altar. This done, he cried
aloud through the whole city, ‘Whoso is
zealous for the law and will keep the covenant,
let him go forth with me!’ This action
decided the emancipation of Israel.
“Many followed him into the desert, and a
multitude of pious Jews soon collected about
him. They traversed the whole country, throwing
down the altars of the idols, circumcising
the children on whom that rite had not yet
been performed, and attacking the ungodly.
Mattathias succeeded in maintaining the law
against all the power of the heathens. He was
already far advanced in age, and having blessed
his children, encouraged them to vigorous
resistance, reminded them of the deeds of their
fathers, and recommended his third son, Judas,
for their leader; and the second, the wise Simon,
for their counsellor; he died and was buried
with his fathers at Modin.
“, surnamed Maccabeus, or the Hammer,
continued the good work which his father
.bn 191.png
.pn +1
had begun. After gaining several glorious
victories over the Syrians, he entered in triumph
into Jerusalem. And when they saw how the
sanctuary was laid desolate, the altar defiled,
the posts of the gates burned, the space around
grown over with grass and trees, and the
cells of the priests fallen to ruin; they rent
their clothes and made great lamentations, they
strewed ashes upon their heads, fell down on
their faces, and blew the trumpet, and cried
towards heaven. The priests who were with
them purified the temple. The desecrated altar
was pulled down and a new one built. The
sacred vessels were renewed, a golden lamp-stand,
an altar of incense, and a table of shew-bread
made. They placed the incense on the
altar, lighted the lamps, laid the shew-bread on
the table, hung up the curtains, and restored the
temple to its former state. On the twenty-fifth
day of the ninth month, they arose early and
offered again according to the law, on the altar
of burnt-offering, with song and pipe, harp and
cymbal. This was the first offering since the
time when the heathen defiled the sanctuary.
.bn 192.png
.pn +1
This of the new altar was continued
for nine days, and there was great joy among
the people, that their disgrace was taken away.
It was resolved that it should be annually
observed, as a remembrance for ever. They
then built strong walls and towers around the
sanctuary on the hill of Zion. Judas proceeded
from victory to victory, till at length he lost his
life in an unsuccessful battle, after he had made
a league with the Romans. His brother Jonathan
followed him, and maintained himself and
upheld the law in very difficult circumstances.
He was appointed high-priest. The heroic
defender of Judea was made prisoner by stratagem
and shamefully put to death. He was
great in council, still greater in the field, and
those who saw him were compelled to confess
that Jehovah had raised him up to be the
guardian of the people in their time of need.
I saw him in my youth at Ptolemais, at the
espousals of king , of Syria,
with the daughter of the king of Egypt. There
sat the hero, in a robe of purple, among kings at
table, and surpassed them all in royalty of mien.
.bn 193.png
.pn +1
“Simon, the last of the sons of Mattathias,
now took the command of the army. It was
he whom his dying father had called the Wise,
and commanded his brethren to obey him.
For four and twenty years he had served his
brethren with counsel, and, though older than
Judas and Jonathan, had filled a subordinate
station with so much humility, as well to deserve
the honour of finally establishing the
independence of Israel. He had scarcely erected
a monument at Modin, to his father and his
valiant brothers, renewed the covenant with
the Romans, and sent an embassy to Demetrius
in Syria, when the Romans declared Israel free,
and Demetrius formally renounced all claims
upon them. This happy consummation, by
which Israel has been placed securely on an
eminence of prosperity unknown before, became
, and we are now in the thirty-fourth
year of freedom. The people dwell in
the land, serve no foreign master, possess the
temple and the law, and fulfil it gladly. Would
that this same period had not also witnessed the
erection of the Oneion at Leontopolis!
.bn 194.png
.pn +1
“I cannot refrain from adding a few events
of the latest times. Simon retook Gaza; Jerusalem
was purified. He besieged the garrison
in the castle, and when they surrendered
and retired, he entered with branches of palm
and the sound of the harp, singing praises to
God for having delivered Israel from tyranny,
and commanded that this day should be kept as a
perpetual festival. He built walls all around the
temple-hill, made the castle still stronger, and
took up his own residence there. The people,
as an expression of their gratitude, chose him
as their prince and high-priest, till God should
raise up the true Prophet. While Simon lived,
Judah had peace, every man cultivated his own
field, the land was productive, and there was
fruit in the vine. The elders exercised authority
and preserved good order, and the condition
of the citizens was greatly improved.
“What shall I say of John Hyrcanus, his
son and successor? Thou wilt see him thyself,
Helon, in all his majesty; and wert
thou, Myron, to see him, thou wouldest never
jest again at Israel’s expense. While we were
.bn 195.png
.pn +1
enduring in Egypt the cruelty of the abandoned
, and the men of science
and eminence in the arts were flying from the
country, Israel was happy under its wise and
heroic prince. If the oppression of the Syrians
was felt for a short time, Hyrcanus soon shook
off the yoke, and himself conquered the Syrian
cities, Madeba, Samega, and others. He next
humbled the Samaritans, and removed that offence
of every Jew, the temple on mount Garizim.
He gave the Idumeans their choice, to expatriate
themselves, or to receive circumcision, and
thus united the seed of Esau with the posterity
of Jacob. He has built the castle of Baris in the
holy city. He is distinguished, above all the
princes and fathers of Israel, by uniting in himself
the threefold office which the Messiah is to
bear, king, leader, and high-priest. At this
moment he has just annihilated the power of
the Samaritans by the conquest of their capital.
“To such a pitch of glory and to such hopes
has Jehovah exalted his people; to him be the
praise! He setteth us up on high. Since the
days of Abraham, no period has occurred, in
.bn 196.png
.pn +1
which Israel was so free and so pure. Great
was indeed the splendour of the reign of Solomon;
nor can we now boast, that silver and
gold are like the stones of the street—but in
his days neither sovereign nor people were
strict in the observance of the law. Now,
what zeal, what earnestness for the law is
manifested! Our fathers in those days were
little better in this respect than the Hellenists
in our own.
“I praise my God that he has permitted me
to behold the glory of his people, and to feast
my thoughts with the contemplation of it,
though I am not permitted to dwell with my
brethren in the Land of Promise, under the
sceptre of Hyrcanus. How important the present
condition of Israel is, may be judged from
the long preparations by which it has been
brought about, and the difficulties which
opposed and retarded it.
.pm start_poem
Had not the Lord been on our side
May Israel now say,
Had not the Lord been on our side,
When men rose up against us,
Then they had swallowed us up alive,
.bn 197.png
.pn +1
When their wrath was kindled against us;
The waters had overwhelmed us,
The stream had gone over our soul,
The proud waters had gone over our soul.
Blessed be the Lord!
He hath not given us a prey to their teeth,
Our soul is escaped, as a bird out of the snare of the fowler;
The snare is broken, and we are escaped.
Our help is in the name of Jehovah;
He made heaven and earth.—Ps. cxxiv.
.pm end_poem
“I perceive, Myron, that your eyes are turned
towards the west, and I read your meaning.
You think that the , before whom
already Carthage and Corinth have fallen, and
to whom so many nations have bowed the neck,
may threaten the liberty of Israel. But stern
and implacable as they are to all their enemies,
they keep faith with their friends and allies; and
he whom they aid may think himself secure
upon his throne. Besides, Israel has still
higher hopes. Let me only remind you of the
commencement of my narrative, in which I
showed, that Israel was destined to communicate
the faith of Abraham to all nations, by
means of the law; and that the Messiah is to
be the Patriarch of the human race. To bring
.bn 198.png
.pn +1
this to pass, Israel became a nation in Egypt,
received the law from Sinai, conquered the
Holy Land under the judges, obtained a temple
under its kings, and was taught obedience by
the vicissitudes of calamity and prosperity in
successive centuries. All now exists together—Israel
is a nation, has the law and obeys it
willingly. The time therefore cannot be remote,
when all the nations of the earth shall be
blessed in the seed of Abraham and the son of
David. The sins which are still found in Israel
alone prevent his immediate appearance. As
soon as they repent, and keep but one sabbath
as they ought, the expectation of Israel will
come. For thus has Isaiah prophesied; ‘Thus
saith the Lord; my salvation is near and my
righteousness is about to be revealed. Blessed
is the man that doeth this, and the son of man
that layeth hold on it, that keepeth the sabbath
free from pollution, and restraineth his hand
from doing any evil.[73] He that is promised shall
come and that speedily. Arise, shine; for thy
.bn 199.png
.pn +1
light is come, and the glory of the Lord is
risen upon thee! The Gentiles shall come to
thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy
rising.’[74] In this hope I conclude my narrative,
which, long as it has been, is too short for the
subject, with that psalm, so full of thankfulness
and hope:
.pm start_poem
Praise ye the Lord: for it is good to sing praises to our God;
For it is pleasant, and praise is comely.
Jehovah doth build up Jerusalem,
He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel;
He healeth the broken in heart,
And bindeth up their wounds.
He telleth the number of the stars,
He calleth them all by their names.
Great is our Lord, and of great power,
His understanding is infinite.
The Lord lifteth up the oppressed.
He casteth the wicked down to the ground.
Sing unto Jehovah with thanksgiving!
Sing praises upon the harp unto our God!
He covereth the heaven with clouds,
He giveth rain upon the earth,
He maketh grass to grow upon the mountains,
He giveth to the beast his food,
And to the young ravens when they cry.
.bn 200.png
.pn +1
He delighteth not in the strength of the horse,
Nor takes pleasure in the swiftness of a man:
The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him,
In those that hope in his mercy.
Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem!
Praise thy God, O Zion!
For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates,
He hath blessed thy children within thee;
He maketh peace in thy borders,
He filleth thee with the finest of the wheat.
He showeth his word unto Jacob,
His statutes and his judgments unto Israel.
He hath not done so with every nation,
They have not known his judgments.
Praise Jehovah!—Ps. cxlvii.
.pm end_poem
.fn 73
Isaiah lvi. 2.
.fn-
.fn 74
Isaiah lx. 1.
.fn-
“Amen!” “Amen!”
responded Elisama; and even Myron repeated
“Amen!”
.sp 8
.ce
END OF BOOK THE FIRST.
.bn 201.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
BOOK II.
.h2
CHAPTER I. | THE PROMISED LAND.
.sp 2
The way from Raphia to Gaza was travelled
with very different feelings by the several
members of our party.
Helon, as he proceeded, was constantly looking
to the right, towards the hills of Judah,
which rose black and dark in the starry night,
to the eastward of the road which they travelled
along the coast. His feelings grew more intense
with every glance; passages from the
Psalms and the Prophets perpetually rose to
his lips; and all the fatigues of the journey over
the stony and sandy soil were forgotten in the
reflection, that every step brought him nearer
.bn 202.png
.pn +1
to the Promised Land. The history of his
people passed in review before his mind, and his
imagination applied every thing around him to
cherish the illusion. Instead of a caravan of
Ph[oe]nician traders, he seemed to be in the
pastoral encampments of Abraham; with Moses
and the children of Israel in the wilderness;
in the caravan of the queen of Sheba, when she
came to visit Solomon; or amongst the exiles
returning with Zerubbabel, to rebuild the
ruined sanctuary.
Elisama was seated on his horse, his mind
full of the glory of Israel which was about to
be revealed; in the midst of the bitterness
against the heathens, which was become a
necessary excitement to his aged heart, and
the inward ill-will which he harboured against
Myron, he rejoiced in the triumph which he
had gained over him by his narrative, which
had been so complete, as to force the Greek, at
last, to assent to the praises of Israel.
Myron’s feelings were of a very mixed kind,
and some of them far from being pleasant.
He felt the Jewish pride in all its force, and
.bn 203.png
.pn +1
was perpetually tempted to keep it within
bounds, by applying to it the keen edge of Attic
wit. Yet when he reflected on the other hand,
that the society of these Jews had enabled him
to pass his time more pleasantly and instructively,
than he would have done among the
Ph[oe]nicians, and that the journey was now at
an end, he thought it was not worth while to
offend them, and so held his peace. He had a
further reason for not wishing to come to a
rupture with his fellow-travellers, that he might
not lose the invitation to Jerusalem upon which
he reckoned. For, notwithstanding all that was
offensive to him, he could not but acknowledge,
that the Jews were a people in the highest
degree remarkable, and he had a great curiosity
to see what they were in their native land,
where he had often been told they could alone
be fairly judged of.
With these feelings they came late at night
to . Elisama, while the tents were erecting,
paid the conductor of the caravan the sum
agreed upon for the journey. As he intended,
according to the ancient custom of his people,
.bn 204.png
.pn +1
to make the journey to the passover on foot, he
had already bargained with some one in the
caravan for the purchase of the horses. They
reposed for some hours, and rose again before
the dawn.
The caravan still lay buried in profound
slumber. By the time that the camels were
loaded and themselves ready to depart, the
morning began to dawn, and a singular spectacle
was unfolded by it. The camels were
crouching in a wide circle around the baggage,
the horses, and the merchandise; and their long
necks and little heads rose like towers above
a wall. The men had encamped round fires or
in tents. Most of the fires had burnt out, only
here and there dying embers occasionally shot
a flame, which feebly illuminated the singular
groups around. Within the great circle all
was still, save that the watchmen with their
long staves were going their rounds, and calling
their watchword in the stillness of the hour.
In the distance were heard the hoarse sounds
of the waves, breaking on the shore. On the
other side of the camp was Gaza with its
.bn 205.png
.pn +1
towers and ruins; and the fiery glow of morning
was lightening up the scene of the fearful
accomplishment of the word of prophecy. Gaza,
once so populous, magnificent, and strong,
when she committed the shameful outrage on
Sampson, had no longer any gates at the spot
where the mighty hero once lifted them up, and
placed them on the hill opposite to Hebron.[75]
Jeremiah had taken the wine-cup of fury from
the hand of Jehovah, to cause the nations to
drink of it to whom the Lord had sent him, and
Gaza was amongst them, that they might reel
and be mad because of the sword that he sent
amongst them.[76] The shepherd of Tekoah had
foretold this in yet plainer language.
.fn 75
Judg. xvi. 1-3.
.fn-
.fn 76
Jer. xlvii.
.fn-
.pm start_poem
Thus saith Jehovah,
Three transgressions of Gaza have I passed unnoticed,
But the fourth I cannot overlook.
And I will send a fire on the walls of Gaza,
Which shall devour the palaces thereof.—Amos i. 6, 7.
.pm end_poem
Zephaniah[77] had said, “Gaza shall be forsaken;”
and last of all Zechariah[78] had declared,
.bn 206.png
.pn +1
.pm start_poem
Ashkelon shall see it and fear,
Gaza also shall see it and grieve,
The king shall perish from Gaza,
And Ashkelon shall not be inhabited.
.pm end_poem
.fn 77
Zeph. ii. 4.
.fn-
.fn 78
Zech. ix. 5.
.fn-
What the prophets foretold against Gaza,
which was one of the five principal cities of the
south-west of Canaan, Alexander the Great had
fulfilled. Her ruins bore witness also to the
prowess of the later heroes of Israel, Jonathan
and Simon. The city had been originally allotted
to the tribe of Judah, and the Philistines
never prospered in their unjust possession of it.
It was the seat of the worship of , a
monstrous idol, whose lower half had the form
of a fish, and the upper of a woman. Helon
regarded the city as a monument of Israel’s
revenge, placed on the very confines of the
Promised Land. To-day he was to enter that
land, and it seemed as if this awful spectacle
had been exhibited to him, to impress indelibly
upon his mind the transition from the land of
the heathen to the land of Jehovah.
Lost in these thoughts, he stood unconscious
of what was going on around him. Myron
placed himself beside him, and, for a long time,
.bn 207.png
.pn +1
watched him with earnest curiosity. “In good
truth,” he at last suddenly exclaimed, “this is
oriental contemplation! Helon, thou thinkest
on Jerusalem!” Helon, disagreeably startled
from his sublime reflections, replied, “I was
not thinking on Jerusalem, but on that city of
the heathens, on which, as our prophet predicted,
‘baldness is come.’”
“It is indeed a revolting sight,” said Myron,
“and your prophet’s anticipation has proved
correct. But you are about to depart to-day
for Jerusalem. How I wish I could accompany
you, and enter this temple, whose magnificence
I have heard you describe, along with the train
of pilgrims to the passover!”
“You would find yourself,” said Helon, “in
a more disagreeable situation, than even on the
journey from Pelusium to Gaza.”
“I should be able to stand my ground nevertheless,”
said Myron: “I must now however
go to Sidon. But I have a plan to propose.”
He then told him what his own occupations
were, and suggested, that as they would probably
be terminated about the time when
.bn 208.png
.pn +1
Elisama and Helon would have celebrated the
two festivals, he should join them at Jerusalem,
and after visiting together some other parts of
the Holy Land, they should return to Egypt in
company. With the address of a Greek he
contrived to make his proposal acceptable even
to Elisama, who, offended as he was at his
sarcasms upon the Jewish people, cherished a
hope that by knowing them better he might
be persuaded to become, if not a proselyte of
righteousness, at least a proselyte of the gate.
Helon was convinced, that no true peace was
to be derived from all the boasted wisdom of
the Greeks, and ardently desired that the friend
of his youth, who had sought this peace with
him in philosophy, might be brought to confess
with him, that it was only to be found in the
law of Jehovah; and Elisama had often observed
that the scoffer is most easily converted
into a worshipper.
The zeal for making proselytes, by which
Israel was distinguished, may be easily accounted
for. Accustomed, for nearly two thousand
years, to believe, and on no less authority
.bn 209.png
.pn +1
than that of God himself, that salvation should
proceed from them, and in them all nations of
the earth be blessed, they could not for a moment
relinquish the desire of carrying this
prediction into effect; at this time they were
more peculiarly urged to it by the openly expressed
veneration or secret acquiescence of the
wisest men. Religious faith, although the most
deeply seated in the breast of any of our sentiments,
is, singular as it may appear, that which
we are most eager in communicating to others.
Whatever too has been long suppressed, breaks
forth with redoubled force when the obstacle is
removed. Besides, the religious sentiments of
the Jews were not, like those of the heathens,
the speculations of human reason, but truths,
confirmed by the sanction of God; and their
zeal in making proselytes was not the vain
desire to swell the numbers of a sect, but to
deliver those who were under the dominion of
error.
Myron and our travellers took leave of each
other, in the hope of meeting after a few
months. He went through the camp to seek
.bn 210.png
.pn +1
for company as far as Tyre, and they took the
road to Hebron.
From Gaza two roads conduct to Jerusalem.
One passes by Eleutheropolis and the plain of
Sephela; the other through the hills by Hebron.
Although the former was the easier and more
customary, Elisama preferred the latter. He
had a friend in Hebron, whom he had not seen
for many years, and in whose company he
wished to perform the pilgrimage; and he was
desirous of making Helon’s first entrance into
the Land of Promise as solemn and impressive
as possible. By taking the easier road, they
must have gone a long way through the country
of the Philistines, and not have been joined by
pilgrims, till they reached Morescheth, and
then only in small numbers. On the other
road, they entered immediately on the Jewish
territory, and their way conducted them through
scenes adorned with many an historical remembrance.
They had not proceeded far
inward from the sea, in the direction of the
river , when they reached the confines of
Judah; they stood at the foot of its hills, and
.bn 211.png
.pn +1
the land of the heathen lay behind them. Helon
seemed to feel for the first time what home and
native country mean. In Egypt, where he had
been born and bred, he had been conscious of
no such feeling; for he had been taught to
regard himself as only a sojourner there. Into
this unknown, untrodden native country he
was about to enter, and before he set his foot
upon it, at the first sight of it, the breeze
seemed to waft from its hills a welcome to his
home. “Land of my fathers,” he exclaimed,
“Land of Promise, promised to me also from
my earliest years!” and quickened his steps to
reach it. He felt the truth of the saying, that
Israel is Israel only in the Holy Land. “Here,”
said Elisama, “is the boundary of Judah.”
Helon, unable to speak, threw himself on the
sacred earth, kissed it and watered it with his
tears, and Sallu, letting go the bridles of the
camels, did the same. Elisama stood beside
them, and as he stretched his arms over them,
and in the name of the God of Abraham, of
Isaac, and of Jacob, blessed their going out and
their coming in, his eyes too overflowed with
.bn 212.png
.pn +1
tears, and his heart seemed to warm again, as
with the renewal of a youthful love. See, he
exclaimed,
.pm start_poem
The winter is past, the rain is over and gone,
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of the singing of birds is come,
The voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
The figtree putteth forth her green figs,
The vines give fragrance from their blossoms.—Cant. ii. 10.
.pm end_poem
They proceeded slowly on their way; Helon gazed around him on every side, and thought he
had never seen so lovely a spring. The had ceased, and had given a quickening
freshness to the breezes from the hills, such as
he had never known in the Delta. The narcissus
and the hyacinth, the blossoms of the apricot
and peach, shed their last fragrance around. The
groves of terebinth, the oliveyards and vineyards
stood before them in their living green: the
corn, swollen by the rain, was ripening fast for
the harvest, and the fields of barley were already
yellow. , covered with grass
for the cattle, the alternation of hill and valley,
the rocks hewn out in terraces, and filled with
earth and planted, offered a constant variety of
.bn 213.png
.pn +1
delightful views. You might see that this was
a land, the dew of which Jehovah had blessed,
in which the prayer of Isaac over Jacob had
been fulfilled, when the patriarch said, “God
give thee of the dew of heaven, and of the
fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and
wine.”[79] Helon drank of the pure, clear mountain
stream, whose sparkling reflection seemed
to him like a smile from a parent’s eyes on a
returning wanderer, and thought the
of the Nile, so praised by the Egyptians, could
bear no comparison with it. Elisama reminded
him of the words of the psalm:
.pm start_poem
lookest down upon our land and waterest it,
And makest it full of sheaves.
The river of God is full of water.
Thou preparest corn and tillest the land,
Thou waterest its furrows and softenest its clods;
Thou moistenest it with showers, thou blessest its springing,
Thou crownest the year with thy blessing,
And thy footsteps drop fatness.
They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness,
And the hills are encompassed with rejoicing:
The pastures are clothed with flocks,
And the fields are covered with corn:
All shout for joy and sing.”—Ps. lxv.
.pm end_poem
.fn 79
Gen. xxvii. 28.
.fn-
.bn 214.png
.pn +1
Helon replied to him from another psalm:
.pm start_poem
The springs arise among the valleys,
They run among the hills.
Here the thirsty wild beast cools itself,
The wild ass quenches his thirst.
The fowls of heaven dwell beside them,
And sing among the branches.
He watereth the hills from his clouds above;
The fruit of his works satisfieth the earth.
He maketh grass to grow for cattle,
And herb for the service of man,
Preparing bread from the earth
And wine that maketh glad man’s heart;
The fragrance of the oil for ointment,
And bread that giveth strength.
The cedars of Lebanon, tall as heaven,
He has planted, he watereth them!—Ps. civ.
.pm end_poem
“This,” exclaimed both together, “is indeed
the Land of Promise;” and Helon called
to mind the words of the prophet Ezekiel,
“Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, I lifted up my
hand to bring them out of Egypt into a land
which I had promised for them, a land flowing
with milk and honey, a land that is the glory of
all lands.”[80]
.fn 80
Ezek. xx. 6.
.fn-
.bn 215.png
.pn +1
These words Helon repeated incessantly as
he proceeded. The pure mountain air, which
he had never drawn before, inspired the body,
as the feeling of home refreshed the mind.
This moment, and that in which he had returned
to the law, moments of deep and indelible
interest, seemed to rise like lofty summits, far
above the ordinary level of the events of life.
When he thought on the narrative of his uncle,
he was inclined to compare the former of these
events with the terrific annunciation of the law
from Sinai—the latter, with the joy of Israel,
when, under the command of Joshua, they
crossed the Jordan, and first set their feet on
the Promised Land.
During the whole of this journey to Hebron,
external impressions seemed to have no other
power over him, than to awaken trains of
thought, connected with the subject by which
his whole soul was occupied. When Elisama
pointed out to him Minois and Gerar, which
lay far to the south; and reminded him that
Gerar was the place where Abraham had involved
himself in difficulties by the concealment
.bn 216.png
.pn +1
of the truth from Abimelech;[81] and where
the pious Asa had defeated the Ethiopians;[82]
these hints were sufficient for his imagination
to cover the plains with the flocks of the
patriarch, and the hosts of the virtuous king of
Judah.
.fn 81
Gen. xxvi.
.fn-
.fn 82
2 Chron. xiv. 13.
.fn-
They passed near Beersheba, which had
given rise to the expression so common in
scripture history, “from Dan to Beersheba,”
to denote the whole extent of the Holy Land,
from north to south. Beersheba was the frontier
town on the south, distant from Dan a hundred
and sixty sabbath-days’ journies, or fifty-three
leagues. Elisama related how Abraham and
Isaac had dug a well here, and called it Beersheba,
in memory of the oaths exchanged between
them and Abimelech;[83] how Jehovah had
here appeared to Jacob, and permitted him to
go down to Egypt to his beloved Joseph;[84] how
Elias the Tishbite had fled hither from the face
of Ahab and Jezebel;[85] how Samuel’s sons had
.bn 217.png
.pn +1
judged the people here;[86] and how, in latter
times, it had become a seat of idolatrous worship
under Uzziah; in consequence of which,
Amos had given the warning, “Pass not to
Beersheba,”[87] and had denounced calamity on
those who say, “The worship of Beersheba
liveth.”[88] At the return from the captivity this
was one of the first cities which the exiles
repeopled. Notwithstanding the length of the
journey, which they performed on foot, Elisama
seemed to feel no fatigue; and every hill or
valley, every town or village, which they passed,
gave him fresh occasion to produce his inexhaustible
store of historical recollections.
Their road lay by Debir, called also sometimes
Kiriath Sanna, sometimes Kiriath Sepher; and
it reminded him of the heroic prize, the hand
of his own daughter Achsa, which Caleb had
proposed to the man who should conquer it.[89]
.fn 83
Gen. xxi. 3.; xxvi. 33.
.fn-
.fn 84
Gen. xlvi. 1.
.fn-
.fn 85
1 Kings xix. 3.
.fn-
.fn 86
1 Sam. viii. 2.
.fn-
.fn 87
Amos v. 5.
.fn-
.fn 88
Amos viii. 14.
.fn-
.fn 89
Judges i. 12.
.fn-
At length Hebron rose before them, and
each approached it with characteristic feelings.
.bn 218.png
.pn +1
Helon viewed it only as having been for seven
years the city of David’s residence;[90] and could
have imagined, that the tones of the sweet
singer’s harp still lingered about its walls.
Elisama longed to see the friend of his youth,
and to repose under his hospitable roof. There
was an unusual commotion beneath the towering
palms at the gate and in all the streets.
It was evident that they were preparing to
depart for Jerusalem on the morrow.
.fn 90
2 Sam. ii. 11.
.fn-
They were received with the cordial welcome
of early but long separated friends. Elisama
had scarcely laid himself down, to have his feet
washed, when the discourse between him and
his host flowed as freely as if the old man had
only walked a sabbath-day’s journey. Helon
observed, that here the ancient custom was
preserved of at
meals; while in Alexandria they reclined on
Grecian cushions. He fell asleep, and night
prolonged the dreams of day.
.bn 219.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER II.| THE PILGRIMAGE.
.sp 2
At the first crowing of the cock, all was in
motion; their host was making the last arrangements
for his departure, the neighbours entered
to announce that the march was about to begin.
Refreshments were offered to the travellers,
and especially to Elisama; but he declared with
earnestness, that, even amidst the idolaters of
Egypt, he had scarcely ever allowed himself to
taste food early in a morning, and much less
would he do so in Israel, and in the city of
David, and on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The
commotion in the street became greater and
greater, and it was scarcely dawn, when they
set forth. All the doors of the houses were
open, all the roofs were covered with persons
.bn 220.png
.pn +1
watching their departure. Helon, as he passed
through the streets of in the ruddy
light of the dawn, and by the palm trees at the
gate, was reminded that Hebron was one of the
oldest cities in the world, even older than
Zoan in Egypt;[91] that it had been conquered
by Joshua, and given as a portion to Caleb,
the bravest and most faithful of the explorers
of the land;[92] that it had afterwards become a
city of the priests, and had been for seven years
the residence of David; that it had been taken
by the Idumeans, and reconquered by the
Maccabees,[93] and once more incorporated with
Judah. But when he had passed the gate, and
gained a view of the lovely valley full of vine-yards
and corn-fields, and looked around on
the region where patriarchs had tended their
flocks and pitched their tents, and lived in
friendly communion with Jehovah, all the
high and enthusiastic feelings of the preceding
day were renewed in his mind. From
all the cross-roads, men, women, and children
.bn 221.png
.pn +1
were streaming towards the highway to Jerusalem.
They had scarcely proceeded a sabbath-day’s
journey, when they saw the ; cymbals, flutes, and psalms
resounded from the midst of it, and hundreds
were standing under the turpentine-tree of
Abraham, a tree of immense size and wide-spreading
branches. Helon entered the grove
of Mamre with feelings of religious veneration.
Here Abraham had dwelt, here the angels had
appeared to him; beneath these trees Isaac
had been promised, and the rite of circumcision
instituted; here Ishmael had been born, and
driven from his father’s tent; and not far off
was the cave of Machpelah, where Abraham
and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob and Leah
were buried.[94] And on this spot, consecrated
by so many recollections, the children of these
patriarchs were now preparing to depart, on
their festal pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The
occasion and the place seemed to banish from
all hearts every other feeling but piety and
.bn 222.png
.pn +1
good-will; mutual greetings were exchanged;
friends and relations sought each other out,
and associated themselves for the journey, and
all faces beamed with joy. “It is time to set
out,” said some of the elders to the judge of
Hebron: “already has the priest asked the
watchman on the temple, towards Hebron?” The priests and
elders led the procession; the people followed,
and the slaves with the camels were placed in
the midst of them, the Levites had distributed
themselves with their instruments among the
multitude, and as they set forward they sung
this psalm:
.pm start_poem
How am I glad when they say unto me,
I will go up to the house of Jehovah!
My foot hath stood already in thy gates, O Jerusalem!
Jerusalem, thou beautifully built;
Chief city, where all unite together!
Thither do the tribes go up,
The tribes of Jehovah to the festival of remembrance,
To praise the name of Jehovah.
There are the thrones of judgment,
The thrones of the house of David.
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem;
May they prosper that love thee!
Peace be in thy walls,
.bn 223.png
.pn +1
Prosperity in thy palaces!
For my brethren and companions’ sake,
I wish thee peace!
For the sake of the temple of our God,
I bless thee with good.—Ps. cxxii.
.pm end_poem
.fn 91
Numb. xiii. 22.
.fn-
.fn 92
Josh. xiv. 14.
.fn-
.fn 93
1 Mac. v. 65.
.fn-
.fn 94
Gen. xiii. 18.; xviii. 1.; xxiii. 17.
.fn-
It is impossible to conceive of the soul-felt
exultation with which this psalm was sung, and
of its effect on old and young. Now the voices
rose, like the notes of the mounting lark, on
the summit of the hills, now sunk again in the
depths of the valleys. How differently did it
operate now upon the heart of Helon, and when
he sung it before to his solitary harp on his
roof in Alexandria! How did he bless the
memory of Samuel, who had given his schools
of the prophets the harp and the flute;[95] and
of David, who, bred up among them, did not
forget them even when seated on his throne,[96]
but appointed Levites for the cultivation of
music; and himself often laid down his sceptre,
to assume the harp. It was on such a
pilgrimage, with such accompaniments, that
the sublimity and force of the psalms, and the
.bn 224.png
.pn +1
superiority of Jewish poetry, made itself fully
felt.
.fn 95
1 Sam. x. 5.; xix. 20.
.fn-
.fn 96
2 Chron. vii. 6.
.fn-
Helon was astonished at the effect which
they had upon himself and all around him.
The youths and maidens bounded for joy, and
tears of pleasure stood in the eyes of the aged.
Those who were going up for the first time to
the festival looked and listened to those who
had already been there, as if to hear from them
an explanation of the full meaning of what they
sung. The old heard in these festive acclamations
the echo of their own youthful joys,
and while their hearts swelled with the remembrance
of the feelings of their earliest pilgrimage,
they beat yet higher with gratitude to
Jehovah, who had permitted them, in their
grey hairs, to behold such glorious days for
Israel, the Syrian tyranny overthrown, and
Hyrcanus seated on the throne.
Sublime are the acclamations of a people
freed from a foreign yoke! But here was
more. It was the fraternal union of a whole
people, in the holiest bond of a common faith,
going up to appear before the altar of Jehovah,
.bn 225.png
.pn +1
and to commemorate the wonders of love and
mercy which he had manifested towards their
forefathers. They seemed a band of brothers.
“In Alexandria,” said Helon, “Jew is
against Jew, and family against family—but
here is one holy people, loving each other as
the children of one Israel, joint heirs of one
great and blessed name.” Every one had
bidden adieu to the occupations and the anxieties
of ordinary life. They had come to give
thanks and to pray, and no sounds but those of
thankfulness and prayer were heard among
them. The hostilities and alienations produced
by self-love and the collision of interests appeared
to have been left at home, and the
general joy dispersed every melancholy feeling
which an individual might have been disposed
to indulge. On these pilgrimages they seemed
as free from care as the people of old, when,
rescued from Egyptian bondage, they were fed
by manna from heaven, on their way to the
land that flowed with milk and honey. Jehovah
had promised to protect the whole country, so
that no enemy should invade its borders, while
.bn 226.png
.pn +1
the people went up, thrice in every year, to appear
before him[97]—how much more confidently
might each father of a family intrust his own
household to his protection! Nothing was
more remarkable than that the aged and the
weakly were able to bear this journey of thirty-six
sabbath-days’ journies, over hill and dale,
without complaining of fatigue. It seemed as
if the strong had given to the weaker a portion
of their own vigour; or rather, as if Jehovah
himself had strengthened the feeble knees for
this journey. They expressed these sentiments,
by singing, immediately after the former, the
following psalm:
.pm start_poem
I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills
From which my help cometh.
My help cometh from Jehovah,
The Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not suffer thy foot to be moved;
He that keepeth thee will not slumber,
He that keepeth Israel neither slumbereth nor sleepeth.
Jehovah is thy guardian,
Thy shade upon thy right hand:
The sun shall not smite thee by day,
.bn 227.png
.pn +1
Nor the moon by night.
Jehovah shall preserve thee from all evil,
He shall preserve thy soul.
Jehovah preserveth thy going out and thy coming in,
From this time forth and for evermore.—Ps. cxxi.
.pm end_poem
.fn 97
Exod. xxxiv. 23.
.fn-
It was a beautiful sight, when the procession
came from the plain among the hills. The
rocky walls, between which their path sometimes
lay, re-echoed with their songs. Helon
withdrew a little from the line, to an eminence
which commanded a view in both directions,
and could see the train, covering both the
ascent and the descent of the hill, spreading
over the plain, and winding like a wreath around
the hill beyond.
In every town and village to which they
came, they were received with shouts of joy.
Before the doors of the houses stood tables
with dates, honey, and bread. New crowds of
persons, dressed in their holyday attire, were
waiting at the junction of the roads, in the
fields, and at the entrance of the towns, and
joined themselves to the long procession. Here
and there before the houses, in the fields or in the
vineyards, stood an unclean person, or a woman,
.bn 228.png
.pn +1
or a child, who had been compelled to remain
at home, and who replied with tears to the
salutation of the passing multitude. It seemed
as if the people carried all joy with them from
the country to Jerusalem, and only sorrow was
left for those who remained behind. Before a
house in , stood a fine boy of ten years
old. Tears streamed from his large dark eyes,
and the open features of his noble countenance
had an expression of profound grief. His
mother was endeavouring to comfort him, and
to lead him back into the court, assuring him
that his father would take him the next time.
But the boy listened neither to her consolations
nor her promises, and continued to exclaim,
“O father, father, let me go to the temple! I
know all the psalms by heart.” He stretched
out his arms to the passers-by in earnest entreaty,
and happening to see among them a
man of the neighbourhood whom he knew, he
flew to him, and clinging to his girdle and his
upper garment, besought him with tears to take
him with him, till the man, moved by his
earnestness, asked his mother to allow him to
.bn 229.png
.pn +1
go, promising to take care of him till he should
find out his father.
“And this,” said Helon, “is the object of
children’s longing in Israel; so early does the
desire of keeping the festival display itself!
Brought up in Palestine, he felt it would have
been with him exactly as with the
They now passed through a wood and then
descended a lofty hill whose slope was wholly
covered with vines. In the valley before them
lay the pools of Solomon. They slackened
their pace, and the following psalm was sung:
.pm start_poem
How lovely are thy tabernacles, Lord of hosts!
My soul longeth and fainteth for the courts of the Lord,
My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
As the bird that findeth her house,
As the swallow, a nest for her young,
So I thine altars, O Lord of hosts,
My king and my God!
Blessed are they that dwell in thy house;
They are still praising Thee;
Blessed is the man who placeth his confidence in Thee
And thinketh of the way to Jerusalem!
Should they pass through the valley of sorrow
They find it full of springs.
Blessings be on him who goeth before them,
They increase in strength as they go on,
Till they appear before God in Zion.
.bn 230.png
.pn +1
O Lord of hosts, hear my prayer!
Give ear, O God of Jacob!
O God, our shield, look down,
Behold the face of thine anointed!
A day in thy courts is better than a thousand.
I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God
Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.
For Jehovah our God is a sun and shield;
Jehovah giveth grace and glory,
No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.
O Lord of hosts,
Blessed is the man that trusteth in Thee!—Ps. lxxxiv.
.pm end_poem
They were now arrived at the pools of Solomon,
into which the brook was received,
and which had formerly supplied Jerusalem
with water, by means of a costly aqueduct.
The three pools lay on different levels, one
below another, on a sloping ground. Around
each was a double row of noble palms, in which
the whole of this spot abounded. Here, beside
the springs and in the refreshing shade of the
trees, the pilgrims encamped to rest at noon.
They had accomplished twenty-six sabbath-days’
journies of their march and ten yet
remained.
This aqueduct of Solomon’s was a stupendous
.bn 231.png
.pn +1
work. The fountain of Etham, whose waters
the pools received, was about one hundred and
fifty paces above them. The pools were of an
oblong form, the highest one hundred and sixty,
the second two hundred, the lowest two hundred
and twenty paces in length, and all
ninety paces in breadth. The celebrated gardens
of Solomon lay beneath these reservoirs,
and were a work equally admirable in their
kind. They lay in a rocky valley, enclosed by
high hills, and were five hundred paces long
and two hundred broad. A solitude, which had
nothing in it wild or savage, made them a
delightful retreat. In the stillness of this glen,
amidst fruit-trees of every variety, the king
might find a noble recreation from the cares of
royalty. From these extraordinary gardens
Solomon derived his imagery, when he said,
“A garden enclosed is my sister, ”[98]
and when he speaks in the same passage of a
spring shut up, and a fountain sealed, we are
reminded of the fountain of Etham, which Solomon
.bn 232.png
.pn +1
is said to have sealed with his own signet
ring. Both may serve to explain the words of
the Preacher. “I made me great works, I
builded me houses, I planted me vineyards; I
made me gardens and orchards, and I planted
trees in them of all kind of fruits; I made me
pools of water to water therewith the wood of
green trees.”[99] Both the reservoirs and the
aqueduct appeared, by the solidity of their
construction, to have been designed to last for
ever, and were worthy of the king by whom
they were made, and of his times, of which the
Book of Chronicles declares, that “Silver was
in Jerusalem like stones.”[100] Our travellers
blessed his memory, as they drank, beneath the
shade of the palms, the refreshing draught
of the cool rock water. It was just mid-day,
the heat of the sun was intense, and all longed
for repose and coolness.
.fn 98
Canticles iv. 12.
.fn-
.fn 99
Eccl. ii. 4.
.fn-
.fn 100
2 Chron. ix. 27.
.fn-
After a short rest the sacks and wine-skins
were unpacked from the camels, while others
produced their humble stores from their mantles
.bn 233.png
.pn +1
or their bosoms. The upper garments were
spread for carpets, on which they lay for rest,
or crouched to eat. Now you might see that
these pilgrims were a band of brothers. It is
true, the very poorest had brought something
with him. For weeks before, ever since the
feast of tabernacles, they had denied themselves,
in order to save something for this
festival; and on this day at least the command
of Moses might appear to have been literally
fulfilled, “There shall be .” But besides this the rich had provided
for the poor a supply of those things which on
ordinary occasions they were not able to procure
themselves. Some sent to the old men
a cup of generous wine, or regaled the children
with confectionary and fruits. From ,
the birthplace of the prophet Amos, which was
not far off, came asses loaded with the celebrated
honey of Tekoah; and from Beth-Cherem,
celebrated for its wines, others with
large and sweet raisins. From the cheerful
mirth which pervaded the whole assembly, and
the delightful coolness of the water and the
.bn 234.png
.pn +1
trees, they seemed more like a company celebrating,
in a fine evening, the festival of the
new moon, than a caravan halting at mid-day.
No one felt the heat or complained of weariness,
except a few aged and weakly persons, who
indulged themselves in a short rest.
Behind a hill the walls of Tekoah were discerned
in the distance, and beyond it the desert
of Tekoah, the free pasture of the bees, for whose
honey the town was celebrated. “Does not this
scene remind thee of the prophet-herdsman of
Tekoah?” said Elisama to Helon. “How
should it not,” replied Helon, “when I see his
prophecy almost fulfilled before my eyes?”[101]
.fn 101
Amos ix. 11.
.fn-
.pm start_poem
In that day will I raise up the fallen tabernacle of David,
And close up its breaches, and raise up its ruins,
And build it afresh as in the days of old,
That they may conquer the remnant of Edom,
And of all nations whom I will consecrate to myself,
Saith Jehovah who doeth this.
Behold the day cometh, saith Jehovah,
When the plowman shall overtake the reaper,
And the treader of grapes him that soweth seed.
And the mountains shall drop sweet wine,
And all the hills shall stream.
.bn 235.png
.pn +1
I will bring back the captivity of my people Israel
And they shall build the desolate cities,
And plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof,
They shall make gardens and eat the fruit of them,
And I will plant them firmly in their land,
And they shall no more be plucked out of their land which I have given them,
Saith the Lord thy God.
.pm end_poem
They waited another hour in this pleasant
valley, till the great heat of noon was moderated.
During this time some youths came to
Helon, and said to him, “Though you speak
our language you are not a youth of Judah,
your turban betrays you.” Helon informed
them that he was an Aramæan Jew, a native of
Alexandria indeed, but one who had chosen
Jerusalem, in preference to Leontopolis. They
acknowledged him with joy as one of themselves,
and invited him to accompany them in
a walk around the encampment. Helon gladly
accepted the offer.
What a multitude of interesting groups presented
themselves on every side, as they
wandered from one palm tree to another!
Every party as they passed offered them wine,
mead, honey, dates and the like, and greeted
.bn 236.png
.pn +1
them with friendly words. Boys had insinuated
themselves among the circles of the men,
and listened, with fixed eyes and open mouth,
to every word which they uttered respecting
Jerusalem and the festival. The boy whom
Helon had seen weeping so bitterly before the
solitary house had found out his father, was
lying in his lap and repeating to him the psalms
which he had learnt. A group of maidens were
listening to a description of the magnificent
vestments of the high-priest. They by a
company of men, who were speaking of the
heroic deeds of Hyrcanus and the Maccabees,
and rejoicing that Edom and Samaria had been
made subject by him to Israel. One feeling of
joy pervaded all bosoms, but it expressed itself
in various ways, according to the age or sex of
each.
One group rivetted the attention of Helon
so long, that he did not leave them till it was
near the time of departure. Under almost the
furthest palm trees sat seven robust young
men, with an equal number of women and
several children. “This is Mardochai of ,
.bn 237.png
.pn +1
with his children and children’s children,”
said one of the youths who accompanied Helon.
They approached him, took him by the hand,
and congratulated him upon being able to go
up to the feast, with such a train of his descendents.
“Yes,” exclaimed the old man,
while tears trembled in his dark eyes, “Jehovah
hath abundantly blessed me. I see my offspring,
like the sand on the seashore—children and children’s
children, to the number of fifty souls!”
This aged pair had not for several years gone
up to the festival: but their children had now
persuaded them to appear once more before
Jehovah. They had been the last in the procession,
and their sons and daughters had been
obliged almost to carry them in their arms—a
burthen which they had joyfully sustained—for
they had refused either to ride or be conveyed in
a carriage. “Where could a psalm of degrees
be more in its place?” said a lively youth of
the company. At the word several of them
ran to fetch their musical instruments, and
standing around the deeply moved old man,
they sung the following psalm:
.bn 238.png
.pn +1
.pm start_poem
Blessed is every one that feareth Jehovah,
That walketh in his ways.
For thou shalt eat of the labour of thy hands:
Happy art thou, and it is well with thee!
Thy wife is a fruitful vine, by the walls of thine house,
Thy children, like olive plants around thy table.
Behold, thus shall the man be blessed that feareth Jehovah:
Jehovah will bless thee out of Zion.
Thou shalt see the prosperity of Jerusalem thine whole life long,
Yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children.
Peace be upon Israel!—Ps. cxxviii.
.pm end_poem
During this time others had come up, and
soon the news was spread through the whole
assemblage, that Mardochai of Ziph was once
more among them; and nearly all the pilgrims
came and formed a circle about him. The
judges and elders of Hebron were among them,
and all greeted the venerable pair and wished
them peace.
“Ye shall lead the procession!” said an
elder of Hebron! “The place of honour belongs
to you. The pilgrims of Hebron cannot advance
with any blessing better or more rare.”
The sons took their father, the daughters
their mother, in their arms, the priests and
elders followed, and the march began again to
.bn 239.png
.pn +1
complete the ten sabbath-days’ journies which
they were still distant from Jerusalem.
Far from the expressions of joy being exhausted
by all the songs and acclamations of
the morning, they seemed only to be beginning,
when they set forward again. From the pools
of Solomon they took their way through the
hills to Bethlehem. The cymbals, cornets, and
timbrels of the Levites struck up their music
again, and many a soul-inspiring psalm was
heard from the lips of an assemblage now
swollen to several thousand persons. In a
pilgrimage to the temple, could he be forgotten,
whose pious heart first conceived the wish to
build a house for Jehovah? The warrior-bard
was commemorated in the following psalm:
.pm start_poem
Lord remember David!
All his afflictions.
How he sware unto the Lord
And vowed unto the Mighty One of Jacob;
Surely I will not go into mine house,
Nor go up into my bed;
I will not give sleep to mine eyes,
Nor slumber to mine eyelids,
Until I find out a place for the Lord,
A habitation for the Mighty One of Jacob.
.bn 240.png
.pn +1
Lo, we heard of it at Ephratah,
We found it in the fields of Jaar:
Let us go into his tabernacle,
Let us worship at his footstool!—Ps. cxxxii.
.pm end_poem
It seemed as if the multitude could not leave
the last strophe, which they repeated over and
over again. They then went on to the second
part of the psalm, which was probably sung at
the dedication of the temple, and repeated in
the same way the elevating words with which
it concludes,
.pm start_poem
Jehovah hath chosen Zion,
He hath desired it for his habitation.
.pm end_poem
The instruments now struck in with a louder
tone, and the multitude lifted up its voice, as
the words of Jehovah were repeated.
.pm start_poem
This is my rest for ever;
Here will I dwell: for I have chosen it.
I will abundantly bless her provision,
I will satisfy her poor with bread;
I will clothe her priests with salvation,
Her holy ones shall shout aloud for joy.
There will I exalt the might of David
And prepare a lamp for mine anointed.
His enemies will I clothe with shame,
But on his head shall the crown flourish.
.pm end_poem
.bn 241.png
.pn +1
Proceeding in this way they reached Bethlehem
Ephratah, “little among the thousands
of Judah,” and yet so highly honoured. Both its
names allude to the fertility of the country in
which it stands. Bethlehem signifies the place
of bread; and Ephratah, fruitful. In its luxuriant
pastures Jacob fed his flocks; in its
fertile fields Boaz was reaping when he found
his kinswoman Ruth. Here his seven sons
were born to Jesse, and here the man after
God’s own heart grew up, till the day when he
came forth to avenge the honour of his people
on the boastful heathen.
Bethlehem is a small town, six sabbath-days’
journies from the holy city. It is situated upon
a narrow, rocky ridge, surrounded by vallies and
hills, having an extensive view over the diversified
country in its neighbourhood, the region
around Jericho, the Dead Sea, and the Arabian
mountains. Before its gates you look to the
plain of the , and all around is
the garden of God. The Kedron flows through
its fruitful fields, which are thickly set with
olives and figtrees, with vines and corn. But its
.bn 242.png
.pn +1
greatest glory is that of which Micah prophetically
speaks, “And thou Bethlehem Ephratah,
who art little among the thousands of
Judah, out of thee shall he come forth that is
to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have
been from of old, from everlasting.”[102]
.fn 102
Micah v. 2.
.fn-
In Bethlehem they met with another company
of pilgrims, coming from Lachish, Adullam,
and Libna, which lie westward of Bethlehem.
All who could, endeavoured to make
Bethlehem in their way to Jerusalem on these
occasions. It was the city of David, the road
passed by the grave of Rachel, and it was dear
to many, as the city to which the greatest of
all the promises had been given.
The elders of the different cities had soon
agreed about the order of the march from
Bethlehem to Jerusalem. The venerable pair,
Mardochai of Ziph and his wife, were borne
before, the elders followed, but without any
distinctive badge, and the people arranged themselves
as they chose. Some time, however,
.bn 243.png
.pn +1
elapsed before they set out. There were greetings
of friends and acquaintance, who met after
a long interval; those who had travelled furthest
needed refreshment. At length the
Levites began their music and their songs, and
the people set forward. They had soon descended
from the heights of Bethlehem into the
valley of Rephaim. As the living stream
poured down from the hills, among the corn-fields
and mulberry-groves of the vale, this was
the praise of Jerusalem which ascended in a
mingled strain of voices and instruments.
.pm start_poem
They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion,
Which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever.
As the mountains are around Jerusalem,
So the Lord is round about his people,
From henceforth and for evermore:
For the sceptre of the wicked shall not remain on the lot of the righteous.
Do good, O Lord, unto those that are good,
To them that are upright in their hearts!
As for those that turn aside into crooked ways,
Jehovah shall destroy them, with all the workers of iniquity.
Peace be upon Israel!—Ps. cxxv.
.pm end_poem
When they had proceeded about two sabbath-days’
journies, or a little more, from Bethlehem,
.bn 244.png
.pn +1
they approached the .[103] At
another time this place of the rest of Jacob’s
beloved wife, the hardly earned recompense of
his labours, might have produced some melancholy
emotions, but now such thoughts were
banished by the universal joy. Helon remarked
to Elisama, that this was not the time of which
their prophet had spoken: “In Rama was
heard a voice, lamentation and bitter weeping;
Rachel weeping for her children.”[104] “May
it be always so with the children of Israel,”
replied Elisama.
.fn 103
Gen. xxxv. 16.
.fn-
.fn 104
Jer. xxxi. 15.
.fn-
The eager haste of the multitudes now increased
with every step, and their impatience
for the first sight of Jerusalem was expressed
in the following psalm:
.pm start_poem
Great is the Lord; and greatly to be praised
The mountain of his holiness in the city of our God.
Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole land
Is mount Zion, on the north of the city of the great King.
God is known in her palaces for a refuge,
We think of thy loving-kindness, O God,
In the midst of thy temple.
As thy name, so thy praise reacheth to the ends of the earth.
.bn 245.png
.pn +1
Thy right hand is full of righteousness.
Let the hill of Zion rejoice,
Let the daughters of Judah be glad
Because of thy judgments!
Walk about Zion, go round about her!
Tell her towers!
Mark well her bulwarks!
Consider her palaces!
That ye may tell it to the generation following.
For this God is our God, for ever and ever.
He will be our guide, as in our youth.—Ps. xlviii.
.pm end_poem
Expectation had reached the highest pitch.
The last strophes were not completely sung;
many were already silent, eagerly watching for
the first sight of Jerusalem. All eyes were
turned towards the north; a faint murmur
spread from rank to rank among the people,
only those who had been at the festival before
continued the psalm, and these solitary scattered
voices formed a solemn contrast with the
silence of the rest of the multitude. Helon’s
heart was in his eye, and he could scarcely
draw his breath. When the psalm was concluded,
the instruments prolonged the sound
for a moment, and then all that mighty multitude,
so lately jubilant, was still as death.
.bn 246.png
.pn +1
All at once the foremost ranks exclaimed,
Jerusalem, Jerusalem! Jerusalem, Jerusalem!
resounded through the valley of Rephaim.
“Jerusalem, thou city built on high, we wish
thee peace!” The children dragged their
parents forward with them, and all hands were
lifted up to bless.
The high white walls of the Holy City cast
a gleam along the valley: Zion arose with its
palaces, and from Moriah the smoke of the
offering was ascending to heaven. It was the
hour of the evening sacrifice. Scarcely had the
multitude recovered a little, when they began
to greet the temple and the priests:
.pm start_poem
Bless ye the Lord, all ye servants of the Lord,
Who stand by night in the house of the Lord!
Lift up your hands towards the sanctuary,
And bless the Lord.
So will Jehovah bless thee out of Zion;
He who made heaven and earth.—Ps. cxxxiv.
.pm end_poem
They had now reached the termination of
their march. The day of preparation was beginning;
the following evening was the Passover.
From the gates of Jerusalem came
forth, in every direction, the pilgrims who had
.bn 247.png
.pn +1
already arrived and the inhabitants of the city,
to welcome the new comers from Hebron and
from Libna. The venerable pair, Mardochai of
Ziph and his wife, who were still borne in front,
received the blessings of all who met them.
Close by the gate, some one from behind
laid hold of Elisama; “Art thou Elisama of
Alexandria?” Elisama turned round and recognised
Iddo, an old and faithful friend of his
family. The old men met with inexpressible
delight, and Elisama presented Helon to Iddo.
The pilgrims had now reached the city, and
were dispersing in different directions to
their respective quarters. Iddo conducted the
strangers through the Water-gate to his house
on the open place.
.bn 248.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER III. | THE DAY OF PREPARATION FOR THE PASSOVER.
.sp 2
Their in the house of Iddo surpassed
all Helon’s expectations. At the seasons
of the festivals, no inhabitant of Jerusalem
considered his house as his own. Their city
was the city of the whole people, not of the
inhabitants alone; and when Israel came up to
appear before Jehovah, every citizen regarded
his dwelling as belonging to his brethren as
much as to himself. Jerusalem lies on the
confines of Judah and Benjamin. Its names,
the Holy City, the City of the Congregation
of Israel, the Gate of the People, point out
its destination. No other city was ever in
the same sense the capital and centre of a
country.
.bn 249.png
.pn +1
“You are at home,” said their host, as he
led them into his house; “and at this time, I
am not more so than you. The citizen of
Jerusalem considers himself, equally with his
brethren, as a pilgrim at the festival.”
In fact the whole house was filled with
strangers. Elisama found among them many
old acquaintances—but great was his joy when
he discovered, in the number, Selumiel of
Jericho, the brother of Iddo. His emotion
overpowered his utterance, and he could only
press him silently, and with tears in his eyes,
to his breast. Selumiel had been the dearest
friend of his youth; he had lived long in Alexandria,
and they had spent the earliest days of
manhood there together; they had imparted
each to the other all their youthful plans. At a
later period they had been separated, and had
not met for more than thirty years: but their
hearts had remained united, and their joy at
meeting was mutual. Elisama seemed to be
changed by the sight of him, as if youth itself
had returned with the friend of his youth.
While the feet of the guests were washing,
.bn 250.png
.pn +1
which is the first duty of hospitality in the East,
and indeed properly their welcome, Elisama
and Selumiel were engaged in uninterrupted
discourse, as if they had been sitting alone in
the court, and rapidly ran over earlier and later
times, Alexandria and Jericho. In the mean
time Iddo and some of the guests had joined
Helon, and were congratulating him upon his
first pilgrimage. Selumiel and Iddo had in
common a hearty and straight forward character,
by which they might have been known as
brothers. But, besides that they were attached
to different parties in religion, Iddo had more
liveliness and cheerfulness. “My son out of
Egypt,” he addressed Helon, “to-morrow at
this time, when the Passover begins, thou wilt
see what thou hast never seen before. Already,
on , I chose a lamb without
blemish for the occasion. Before sunset
this evening, I fetched the water into the house,
with which the unleavened bread is to be made.
If you please you shall go with me after supper
and seek the leaven in the house. A young
Israelite, who has come for the first time to the
.bn 251.png
.pn +1
Passover, should leave nothing unseen, but
learn all the practices of Israel in the most
complete manner possible. But I forgot, you are
come from Hebron to-day, and must be weary.”
Helon seemed almost offended to be suspected
of weariness, after a march made under such
circumstances. With glowing cheek he repelled
the imputation, and begged that Iddo
would not spare him.
“Just like his father,” exclaimed his host,
“jealous of nothing so much as of being thought
a genuine Aramæan Jew. To-morrow, I will
conduct thee to his grave in the valley of Jehoshaphat.
In truth he was a noble-minded man, an
Israelite without guile. He died in this house,
and it was of thee, Helon, that he spoke to me
in his last moments.” He then related the
circumstances of his death, and many anecdotes
of his intercourse with him. Their connection
had been much the same as that of Selumiel
with Elisama. Helon listened to him, as if
his father’s spirit spoke from his lips, so intimate
had been their friendship, so similar their
characters.
.bn 252.png
.pn +1
In such discourse the time passed rapidly, and
a servant came to call the guests from the
cooling fountain of the inner court to the roof,
where they were to sup. Here Iddo was accustomed
to entertain his guests at the festival,
when there was any one among them, on whom
the spectacle, beheld for the first time, was
likely to make an indelible impression. It was
a fine, clear, cloudless night. The moon shone
sweetly upon Jerusalem and changed the night
to a softer and cooler day than that which had
been twelve hours before. A breeze from the
Mount of Olives cooled the heated air. The
neighbours had in like manner brought their
guests to sup on the roofs of their houses, and as
far as the eye could reach on every side, feasting
and illumination were seen. A busy hum
ascended from the streets beneath, and the
white tents glistened in the valley of Kedron.
What a scene! The whole environs of Jerusalem
were turned into an encampment, all the
hills and vallies, all the streets and open places
were covered with tents. It was impossible
that the houses should contain all the strangers,
.bn 253.png
.pn +1
notwithstanding the unbounded hospitality
which was practised on these occasions, and
hence it was necessary that a large proportion
of them should remain in tents during the festival.
In the pleasant season of the year, at
which the Passover was held, this had nothing
inconvenient or disagreeable in it; it was the
universal custom at the feast of tabernacles,
and it reminded them of the patriarchal life,
and the wandering in the desert. This gave
to Jerusalem a singular but very interesting
appearance. All was motion, life and animation,
and the thought of the purpose for which
these myriads of men had come up from near or
distant regions, filled the mind with solemn and
elevated feeling.
have frequently been assembled here on such
an occasion, all for the purpose of appearing
with prayer and praise before Jehovah.
Carried away by the sight, Helon involuntarily
exclaimed,
.pm start_poem
Behold how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!
It is like the precious ointment upon the head of Aaron,
.bn 254.png
.pn +1
That ran down upon his beard,
That went down to the skirts of his garments.
So the dew of Hermon descends
Upon the hills of Zion:
For there hath Jehovah commanded his blessing,
Prosperity for ever more!—Ps. cxxxiii.
.pm end_poem
The guests gazed on him with surprise.
“Why,” continued Helon, “do you not see
before your eyes the application of the psalm?
On such an evening as this, or at least in the
view of such a spectacle as this, must it have
been composed. Is it not the dew of Hermon,—are
not these the sons of Israel from the Tyrian
Climax and the plain of Jesreel, which fall here
on the hills of Zion?”
“Listen!” said Iddo. Through the uproar
of the streets they could discern a distant sound
of cymbals, trumpets, and song, which came in
the direction of the New City. “The Galileans
are entering by the gate of Ephraim; they
are late; and yet they cannot this time have
been ; Hyrcanus
has removed that obstacle from their way.”
The distant sound of music and song, heard in
this calm, soft night, seemed to Helon even
.bn 255.png
.pn +1
more beautiful than the jubilation with which
the march from Bethlehem had been attended.
Penetrating through all the tumult of the city,
which he heard not as he drank them in, the
spiritual and ethereal tones seemed to him
almost like the heavenly host,
when they ascend from earth, to keep an eternal
festival before the presence of Jehovah.
On such an evening, what flight of imagination
could be too bold for a youth of such enthusiastic
temperament?
The guests had laid themselves down upon
the carpets, when Iddo took Helon by the arm.
Elisama had been compelled to occupy the
place of honour, and Selumiel and he were
inseparable. “You will stay by me,” said his
host to Helon, “and we will occupy as is
becoming, the lowest place. Look down below
on the square; there it was that Ezra once
stood, when the people returned from the
captivity, and read the law to them.”
“I remember it,” said Helon; “it is written,
Ezra read upon the open place before the Water-gate,
from the morning until mid-day, and
.bn 256.png
.pn +1
praised the Lord the great God; and the people
answered Amen, Amen, with lifting up their
hands, and bowed their heads and worshipped
the Lord with their faces to the ground.”[105]
.fn 105
Neh. viii. 3.
.fn-
“Often have I stood here,” said Iddo,
“contemplating that spot, with this history in
my mind, and have thought, with gratitude to
Jehovah who has delivered his people, on that
Amen, sent up by the assembled multitude,
lifting their hands to heaven. But let us eat
and be merry.”
Their mirth was such as suited the age and
the piety of the company, and their enjoyment
was heightened by the expressions of joy which
they heard all around them. The old men discoursed
of the felicity of the times, and the
glorious reign of Hyrcanus; above all, of the
victory which his sons had obtained over the
Samaritans, and the destruction of the abomination
of Gerizim.
In the mean time the master of the house
called upon his younger guests to assist him in
.bn 257.png
.pn +1
. This was
the evening of the fourteenth day of the month
Nisan, the preparation day for the Passover.
Lest the command of Jehovah, to eat unleavened
bread for seven days, and to allow no
leaven to be seen any where, should chance to
be violated, they performed the ceremony of
putting away the leaven on this evening. The
master of the family gave each of his guests a
torch, and led them in a solemn procession
through the house. He had himself a dish and
a brush in his hand, and he said “Praised be
thou, O Lord our God, king of the world, who
hast sanctified us by thy precepts, and hast
enjoined upon us to put away the leaven.” All
present said Amen. They then proceeded to
examine every corner of the house, opening
every drawer, chest, and cupboard. Here and
there lay a piece of leavened bread, purposely
left in the way; the master took it up, laid it
in his dish, and carefully swept the place.
When the company had gone round the house,
to the outer door, he said, “Whatsoever leavened
thing there is in my house, which I
.bn 258.png
.pn +1
have not seen nor put away, may it be scattered
in pieces and accounted as the dust of the
earth.” The search had lasted two hours; the
dish was locked up, and the guests retired to
sleep.
Unable, however, to obtain sleep, from the
crowd of feelings which coursed each other
through his mind, when he thought that he was
at length in Jerusalem, in the Holy City, Helon
was one of the first who arose. He went immediately
to the roof of the house—the Alijah
was open; he entered it and performed his
morning devotions, with a fervour which he
had never felt before, put the Tallith on his
head, bound the Tephillim on his brow and his
hand, and recited the Kri-schma. His whole
body was in agitation; now he lifted his hand
towards heaven, now threw himself on his face
on the ground, now bent his head to the
middle of his body. In the earnestness of his
prayer he seemed to wrestle with God. Here
in the Holy City, how much had he to ask from
the God of his fathers!
When his prayer was ended, and he came out
.bn 259.png
.pn +1
upon the roof, he looked down upon Jerusalem,
which now lay before him in all the brightness
of daylight. As yet all was still; even from the
temple, which above
the towers and palaces of the city, no sound
was to be heard. The loud tumult of the
strangers on the preceding evening was hushed,
and it seemed as if the repose which announced
the vicinity of the sanctuary, had diffused itself
around and reduced all to silence. All the
lofty emotions of his heart returned with equal
strength, but not the same impetuosity as on
the preceding evening. His inward delight
was even greater, but it was calm and holy.
He felt that near the presence of Jehovah, in
the solemn assembly of his people, on the spot
where the noblest and wisest of his countrymen
had met together for such high purposes, his
joy ought to be tranquil and sober, and the
emotion, thus driven back upon the heart, only
became the deeper and more vivid.
Helon felt that this was his initiation into a
new life. When the day dawns, on which all
the visions of childhood and the dreams of
.bn 260.png
.pn +1
youth are about to be fulfilled—to which the
man awakes, in the firm belief that it will
realize every thing for which his heart has
longed, there is a stillness, an earnest expectation,
a humble confidence which take possession
of such a youthful bosom, from which it is
easily anticipated, that a period decisive for the
formation of the character has arrived, and that
what is now felt and done will have a predominating
influence over all the future life.
Sallu came to him, to ask his commands.
When he had received them, he remained
standing a little while and said, “Master, I
am only a servant in Israel, but I too am of the
seed of Abraham, and I feel that this is the land
of our fathers and of their God. Let us not
return into Egypt!”
When Elisama arose, his first occupation was
to open the baggage and take out thence the
presents destined for his host. It was his rule
never to come empty-handed, and on this occasion
he had indeed come with his hands full.
To the mistress of the house he sent all that
remained, and it was no trifling store, of the
.bn 261.png
.pn +1
provisions for the journey, some skins of delicious
Chian wine, which he had purchased in
the caravan, and a quantity of the finest Egyptian
linen. To Iddo he gave a turban curiously
wrought, of a costly stuff, and an Alexandrian
robe of ceremony, informing him that it had
been his brother-in-law's, and that his sister
had destined it for him.
To Selumiel he carried a book. It consisted
of several pieces of , the stalk of which
is divided with a needle into thin leaves, which
are then laid together and fastened with the
water of the Nile. Several of them were then
laid upon each other and fitted together, and on
these oblong leaves the book was written. It
was an Egyptian invention and very highly
prized. “I have brought you,” said he to
Selumiel, “the Hebrew work of Jesus Sirach,
the same which his grandson has translated into
Greek. It is highly esteemed in Egypt both
by Jews and heathens. I could easily have
procured a transcript of the Greek version, from
one of our literati in the Bruchion; but that
would not have answered my purpose; it was
.bn 262.png
.pn +1
with difficulty that I could obtain this copy of
the Hebrew. I give it thee for the sake of the
passage on friendship. Read here; ‘A faithful
friend is the medicine of life, and they who
fear the Lord shall find him. For he who
feareth the Lord shall be happy in his friendship,
and as he is, such shall his friend be also.’[106]
And here too, ‘Forsake not an old friend.’”
Selumiel smiled, a thing which he rarely did,
and said, “I accept the present, on the condition
that you come to Jericho with me, in
order that I may be able to return it.” “We
shall see,” said Elisama, “but in so doing I
should be giving little, to receive much in return.”
“Friendship,” said Selumiel, “has all
things in common.”
.fn 106
Eccles. vi. 16.
.fn-
As our ,
it was necessary they should be purified before
they could go into the temple. This would
have prevented Helon from attending at the
morning sacrifice, and besides he wished first
to discharge a duty of filial piety, and to visit
.bn 263.png
.pn +1
the grave of his father, before he appeared in
the presence of Jehovah, whom his father had
taught him to honour.
When the ceremonies of bathing, cutting off
the hair, and others in which purification consisted,
were over, he went forth to the valley of
Jehoshaphat, to his father’s tomb. It was by
his own dying request that he had been interred
there; for Iddo would fain have given
him a place in the sepulchre of his own family.
From the words of the prophet Joel, “I will
gather all nations, and will bring them down to
the valley of , and will plead with
them there for my people,”[107] it had become a
prevalent opinion, that this would be the scene
of the general resurrection and of the judgment
of Jehovah, and therefore many of the Jews
wished to be buried there. It took its name
from the king Jehoshaphat, who was said to
have been interred in that place.
.fn 107
Joel iii. 2.
.fn-
Iddo, Elisama, and Selumiel accompanied
Helon. Leaving the city by the Water-gate,
.bn 264.png
.pn +1
they turned to the south-east and kept along
the brook Kedron. Willows and tall cedars
threw their shadows upon the graves. They
wandered silently along the Kedron, till they
saw a large stone, such as the Jews are accustomed
to place upon every grave, as a warning
rather than a monument, to prevent the passers-by
from defiling themselves unawares. To-day
especially, it was necessary for them to keep at
a distance of several paces from it, if they
would not render themselves so far unclean, as
to incapacitate them for taking any part in the
religious rites of the day. Helon felt an irresistible
impulse to throw himself upon the
grave, but the others forcibly held him back.
Tears streamed from his eyes as he incessantly
exclaimed, “My father! my father!” With
head and breast inclined forward he was supported
by his companions, scarcely conscious
what he did, to the Horse-gate, where they set
him down. They spoke to him of the virtues
of his father, of his surviving parent at Alexandria,
of the happiness of being buried in the
valley of Jehoshaphat. By degrees he became
.bn 265.png
.pn +1
more calm; his tears continued to flow, but
they were rather the effusion of tenderness than
of sorrow, and he seemed to have found his
father, rather than to have lost him. Iddo,
whose manner was somewhat abrupt, reminded
him of his obligations to them for having prevented
him from making himself unclean by
throwing himself on the grave, which would
have compelled him to keep the feast, with the
rest of those who were unclean, in the following
month. “Bethink thee, too, that Jehovah
himself has commanded that we should be
cheerful on this day. Thou shalt rejoice before
Jehovah thy God, at the place which the Lord
thy God has chosen that his name should dwell
there.”[108]
.fn 108
Deut. xii. 18.
.fn-
They now made a circuit round the city,
from the Horse-gate, which lies northward from
the Water-gate, till they came to the Water-gate
again. The whole circuit might be as
much as . Their
object in making it was rather to give Helon a
.bn 266.png
.pn +1
general view of the different quarters of the
city, and divert his thoughts by variety of
scene, than to examine any part minutely,
which indeed would now have been impracticable,
the whole ground being covered with
tents.
forms something of an irregular
oblong. In the middle of the eastern side,
which was one of the longest, rose the temple
on mount Moriah. Around the temple lay the
city, divided into three parts, built on three
hills. Directly behind the temple, in the
middle, and due west from it, was the Lower
City, on the hill Acra. On the other side south-west
from the temple, the Upper City crowned
the hill of Zion; north-west lay the New City,
on the hill Bezetha; and a small hill, Ophel,
lay southward from the temple. Thus it might
be said that the city, though of an oblong shape,
lay in a crescent round about the temple.
Jerusalem stood on a very elevated range of
hills; the last eighteen sabbath-days’ journies
in approaching it were almost a continued
ascent. Only towards the north, joining the
.bn 267.png
.pn +1
, there was some level ground, on the
other three sides it was surrounded with vallies.
On the eastern side, where the temple stood,
was the valley, which, from the winter torrent
which flowed through it, was called the valley
of Kedron. The Upper City was skirted on
the south side by the valley Ben-hinnom, where,
under some of the last of the kings, children
had been burnt to Moloch, at a place called
Tophet. On the western side, the valley of
Gihon bordered the Upper City, the Lower
City, and the New City.
Two walls surrounded Jerusalem: one enclosed
the Upper City and with it the southern
part of the temple; the other began from this,
and fortified the Lower City, joining the castle
of Baris, which lay above, to the north, near
the temple. The New City had at this time
no wall. On the first wall were sixty towers,
on the second fourteen, each twenty cubits
high.
The city had , the number which
Ezekiel had prophesied on the banks of Chebar.
But in regard to the position and names of the
.bn 268.png
.pn +1
gates, the instructions of Jehovah by his prophet
had been as little attended to as those
which he had given in the same passage for the
form of the city (which was to have been a
regular square) or for the division of the
country.[109] Every side was to have had three
gates, and each gate the name of one of the
twelve tribes, but in rebuilding the city they
adopted the names and sites of those which the
Chaldeans had destroyed.
.fn 109
Ezek. xlviii. 30.; xlv.
.fn-
In the middle of the eastern side was the
Sheep-gate, which led from the valley of Kedron
to the temple. At the building of the walls
under Nehemiah,[110] the superintendence of it
was on this account given to the priests, and
when it was ended, they consecrated it with
thank-offerings and prayer. Higher up towards
the north, but on the same side, was the Fish-gate,
leading from the valley of Kedron into
the New City, and not far from it the Old-gate,
leading from and to the same places. It had
its name from the circumstance of its not being
.bn 269.png
.pn +1
destroyed, when the others were razed by the
Chaldeans.
.fn 110
Nehem. iii. 1.
.fn-
On the north side was the gate of Ephraim,
and quite towards the west, the Corner-gate,
both leading into the New City. On the west
side the Valley-gate led from the valley of
Gihon and Siloam, into the Lower City, and
the Dung-gate and the Well-gate into the
Upper City.
On the eastern side you entered from the
vale of Kedron, by the Water-gate, close to
which was the open square, on which Iddo’s
house stood; and further up, by the Horse-gate
and the Eastern-gate, into the Upper City.
Lastly, the gate Miphkad, or the gate of
Judgment, so called from justice having been
long administered there, gave entrance into the
precincts of the temple. It was near the Sheep-gate
from which our survey began. In the
space now described about 120,000 inhabitants
commonly dwelt, but at the time of the Passover
not fewer than a million have been assembled
here.
The arrangement of the city bore some
.bn 270.png
.pn +1
to that of the camp in the wilderness.
There the tabernacle was placed in the middle,
and called the camp of the Majesty of Jehovah;
around it were encamped the 22,000 priests
and Levites, and round them, in a still wider
circle, was the encampment of the twelve
tribes, called the camp of Israel. So here at
Jerusalem, the temple was called the camp of
the Majesty of Jehovah, the exterior courts,
the camp of the Levites, and the city, the camp
of Israel. Thus the stranger, when he came
from foreign parts, to celebrate the festival of
Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, found here the
names and divisions which had been in use
among his ancestors in the desert, and the
whole city became as it were a permanent encampment,
a standing memorial of that wonderful
event, which is incomprehensible to
those who consider Israel as only under human
guidance. By remarks of this kind Elisama
endeavoured to divert Helon’s thoughts from
himself, to what concerned his nation. The
names of the different parts and public buildings
of Jerusalem had recalled many historical
.bn 271.png
.pn +1
events to his mind; its glory under David and
Solomon; its forlorn and ruined state when
Jeremiah poured forth his lamentations over
its smoking ashes, its new splendour when,
under Nehemiah, it arose from its ruins.
On the day of preparation it was customary
in Jerusalem to take an early meal, in order to
have time for the arrangements necessary before
the evening. The time of this meal, however,
had been long past, when they returned to the
house; the unleavened bread had been already
baked and lay on the tables in the women’s
saloon, and the cakes designed for the festival
had been taken from the oven in the adjacent
room. That which was the portion of the
priest, was of greater size than the rest; it was
baked the first, and lay on a separate table,
adorned with flowers. The father of the family
was to carry it to the temple in the afternoon.
“The first and best of every thing,” said he,
“belongs to Jehovah; in honouring his servants
we think we honour him, and we set apart
the first portion for the priest who lives by the
law.”
.bn 272.png
.pn +1
A short meal, at noon, was taken under the
palm-trees in the inner court, beside the fountain.
The greatest neatness reigned in the
whole house—all the furniture and vessels, all
the floors had been washed. Only the white
unleavened bread was seen at table. The
pilgrims had eaten it on their journey, but this
was the day on which it began to be exclusively
used. It consisted of thin flat crumbling cakes,
made of water and meal, full of little holes,
that not the smallest tendency to acidity might
be occasioned. It was the food of haste and
sorrow, and they had been commanded to eat
it, as a memorial of their being thrust out of
Egypt, without time for the preparation of their
food.
Immediately after the removal of the dishes
and carpets, a fire was made behind the women’s
saloon, in a small garden belonging to the
house. When it blazed up, the guests and
members of the family came and placed themselves
around it, and Iddo, bringing the dish
which contained the leaven, threw it into the
fire, saying at the same time, “May all the
.bn 273.png
.pn +1
leaven which I have seen or not seen, which I
have brought out or not brought out, be scattered
and destroyed, and accounted as the dust
of the earth!”
This ceremony had just been ended, and
some other trifling preparations for the festival
been made, when the trumpets from mount
Moriah announced the commencement of the
Passover, and a thousand horns, in the streets,
from the houses and the tents, replied to the
signal. The walls of the front court were
hung with tapestry, which had before been
suspended between the holy and most holy
place. Our pilgrims went up to the temple to
complete their purifications, and to show the
impatient Helon at least its general arrangement.
It was now about the eighth hour.
The had been
familiar to him from his youth. The mountain
Moriah had an average length and breadth
of five hundred cubits; its lowest part was
towards the east. As it could not contain
all the buildings of the temple, Solomon had
carried up a wall of great height and strength
.bn 274.png
.pn +1
from the valley of the Kedron, and filled the intermediate
space with earth, thus extending the
mountain into the valley. After the return
from the captivity, the people are said to have
erected huge masses of masonry, composed of
squared stones, from the valley, on the eastern,
southern, and northern sides, between three
hundred and four hundred cubits high.
Iddo led his friend through the Water-gate
into the valley of Kedron, that they might
receive an impression of the magnificent exterior
of this wonderful work, before they explored
the interior. They ascended a flight of
steps in the outer wall, and by the Beautiful-gate,
called also the gate Susan, entered the
court of the Gentiles. This court, a square of
five hundred paces, had porticoes on all four
sides, three on the south and two on the others.
The double row of pillars on the eastern side
was called the porch of Solomon. At its
western end, but more to the north, stood the
or temple, properly so called, with
its courts. Strangers from heathen countries
and uncircumcised persons were admitted into
.bn 275.png
.pn +1
the court of the Gentiles, but were warned by
an inscription, in Hebrew and Greek, on the
railing at the north-western end, not to proceed
any further. Behind this railing you ascended
fourteen steps and reached a level court, called
, ten cubits in breadth, in which was the
house of the exposition of the law. It ended
with five steps, leading to a second wall, which
on the outside was forty and on the inside
twenty-five cubits high. In it was the Lower-gate.
Here began a court, called the court of
the Women, or the Outer court, one hundred
and thirty-five cubits long and of equal breadth.
It was divided by a wall from the next court,
the court of Israel, which had also one hundred
and thirty-five cubits of length from north to
south, and eleven of breadth from east to west.
To go from the court of the Women to the
court of Israel, you ascended fifteen steps, and
passed through the gate of Nicanor. Next was
the court of the Priests, of the same dimensions
as the court of Israel. At its termination
stood the altar of burnt-offering, fifteen
cubits high and fifty in length and breadth.
.bn 276.png
.pn +1
Beside it was the bath which supplied the place
of the brazen sea in Solomon’s temple.[111] At
the distance of twenty-two cubits the sanctuary
with its triple division arose; being besides
twenty-two cubits higher than the court of the
Gentiles. Along the sides of these courts were
porticoes, and a multitude of considerable
buildings; the floor was throughout of marble.
.fn 111
1 Kings vii. 23.
.fn-
When Helon reached the Beautiful-gate, it
was scarcely possible to pass, so great was the
crowd of men and lambs. , out of all the tribes from Dan to Beersheba,
from the extreme point of Galilee to the
desert of Arabia, strangers from Egypt, Cyprus,
Syria, Cappadocia, and Babylon, were here
assembled in their festive attire. Every master
of a house carried his lamb upon his shoulder,
or had it driven before him by his servants.
In the spacious court of the Gentiles stood vast
flocks of lambs and kids, the dealers in which
carried on a very extensive traffic at the time
of the Passover. The bleatings of the sheep
.bn 277.png
.pn +1
and the exclamations of their drivers resounded
between the shouts of joy and the hymns of
praise.
Helon passed through the court of the Gentiles,
scarcely noticing what was going on there,
to the enclosure behind the railing, keeping his
eye fixed upon the altar of burnt-offerings.
He looked up the fifteen steps, on which the
Levites were already standing with their instruments,
through the gate of Nicanor, and gained
a view of the interior of the sanctuary. It was
like a glimpse of heaven to him. He saw not
the riches and splendour of the gold; he felt
not the pressure of the crowds around him. A
feeling of intense devotion wrapt his soul, and
for a time suppressed every other emotion.
His companions roused him, by directing his
attention to the court of the Priests. The
evening sacrifice, which this evening was killed
an hour earlier than usual, was already brought
to the altar, the holy place was illuminated,
and they were burning incense in it. Helon
gazed around him, on the sanctuary, the altar,
the courts, and the multitude which filled them,
.bn 278.png
.pn +1
bewildered and overpowered, and incapable of
fixing his attention upon any single object in
the scene. He did not even notice the absence
of the high-priest, whom in his imagination he
had always pictured as ministering at the altar,
or in the holy of holies; at this moment he
was engaged in some of the adjacent buildings,
making preparations for the festival.
The paschal lamb must be killed between the
two , the greater, which lasted from
the middle of the seventh hour to the middle
of the tenth, (half past twelve to half past four)
and the lesser, which lasted till sunset, or about
six o’clock. Iddo conducted Helon about this
time into the court of the Gentiles, where the
slaves with Sallu were waiting. The lamb
must be without blemish, more than eight days
and less than a year old. The people had
divided themselves into three great bodies in
the court of Israel. When the evening sacrifice
was over, a priest opened all the folding-doors
of the court of the Priests, and allowed one
division to enter. The priests stood in a row,
reaching from the place where the lambs were
.bn 279.png
.pn +1
killed to the altar, each holding in his hand
a basin, pointed at the bottom. Iddo was
among the first. He presented his lamb and
mentioned the number of the company who
were to partake of it. They must not be
fewer than ten, nor more than nineteen. He
then drew his knife through its throat, the
priest who was nearest to him received the
blood in his basin, and handing it to his neighbour,
it was passed from one to the other, till
it reached the priest who was next to the altar,
and who poured the blood upon it. Each as
he handed the full basin to his neighbour
received an empty one from him with the
other hand; thus all was done with incredible
despatch.
The killed the paschal
lamb himself. In ordinary cases the priests
were the sacrificers, but once in the year the
master of the house was himself a priest, as a
memorial that Israel was a nation of priests.
The Levites in the mean time sung on the
fifteen steps the great Hallelujah, and at each
psalm the priests on the pillar which stands
.bn 280.png
.pn +1
by the altar three times. Iddo
carried the lamb to the pillars, hung it to one
of the hooks, and taking off the skin and the
fat, gave the fat to the priest, who salted it and
laid it upon the altar. He then carried the
lamb home. So did every one of the body who
had been first admitted; and when they had all
finished, the folding-door opened again, and
a second body was admitted. Without the
greatest regularity, it would have been impossible
in so short a time that such a multitude
of lambs should have been killed. Helon descended
the steps with Iddo, who had also
offered a thank-offering; and as he paused at
the gate and looked back, he mentally exclaimed,
“Better is a day in thy courts than a
thousand elsewhere!”
.bn 281.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER IV. | THE PASCHAL LAMB.
.sp 2
The Passover was now begun. The day of
preparation was past; every master of a house
had killed his paschal lamb on Moriah, attaining
for this day an equal dignity with the
highest order in the state, and exercising a
sacerdotal function. The festival was called
in Hebrew Pesach, or according to the Chaldee
pronunciation, which was then become universal,
Pascha, the deliverance, or the passing
through. The companies who were to eat the
paschal lamb were already assembled, and the
lambs were roasting in the in the
women’s apartments.
These ovens were excavations in the ground,
about two feet and a half broad, and five to six
.bn 282.png
.pn +1
feet deep. The sides were covered with stones,
which were heated by a fire kindled at the
bottom, and then the lamb was suspended
within, on a piece of wood running lengthwise,
and crossed by another between the forefeet.
It was expressly commanded by Jehovah,
“Ye shall not eat of it raw, nor sodden with
water, but roast it with fire.”[112] The , or Abib (our April)
the first of the sacred year, was now arrived.
The Jewish day began with sunset, an emblem
that primeval darkness had preceded the birth
of light, and that all life has its origin in a
period of darkness.
.fn 112
Exod. xii. 9.
.fn-
When all the preparations were ended, and
the Passover just about to begin, Helon
hastened to the roof of the house. He looked
down on the open place and up to Moriah and
Zion, to the mount of Olives, and on the vallies
of Gihon and Kedron. “Wherever I look,”
thought he, “hundreds of thousands of the
children of Israel and the seed of Abraham reassembled
.bn 283.png
.pn +1
to commemorate their deliverance
from Egypt. They have come up to the hill
where Jehovah hath made his name to dwell,
and their minds are filled with the thought of
their fathers, and the mighty works which the
God of their fathers had done in their behalf.
Well is it said, Israel is Israel only in the
Holy Land.” He entered the Alijah, and remained
long in fervent prayer. When he came
again upon the roof, the last glow of evening
over Zion was illuminating the city, and the
lamps which were kindled in every house and
tent shone through the thin veil of vapour which
was spread over the prospect. He lingered on
the roof till the golden margin of the western
clouds had disappeared and the stars had begun
to twinkle in the firmament.
When he went down and entered the inner
court, he saw within the porticoes three rooms
brilliantly illuminated. It was not possible for
all the guests to with the
master of the house, because each company was
not to exceed twenty. Two other apartments
had therefore been prepared for other parties.
.bn 284.png
.pn +1
On such occasions, we have before observed,
no citizen of Jerusalem considered his house as
his own, but cheerfully resigned it for the use
of strangers, who, according to ancient custom,
acknowledged his courtesy, by the gift of the
skin of the paschal lamb. The light was streaming
through the lattices of all the rooms, and
Helon entered, with a beating heart, that which
was appropriated to the use of Iddo and his
peculiar guests. A multitude of smaller lamps
were suspended from the walls, and one of great
size stood in the middle. Costly carpets were
spread on the floor, tapestry was hung on the
sides, and gold and silver glittered on the ,
though it was not used on this evening; for
the paschal lamb was to be eaten standing.
The air was filled with the fragrance of Arabian
frankincense and the most exquisite perfumes.
The women were all richly clad, especially the
mistress of the house, who appeared this evening
in all her choicest ornaments, a mother in
Israel in the city of God. It was only on this
day that the women ate with the men; even
the men servants and maid servants were not
.bn 285.png
.pn +1
excluded. The whole household of every rank
and age, even the children, if they had begun
to taste flesh-meat, must be assembled, and all
must be Levitically clean. Of the inhabitants
not disqualified by uncleanness none were to be
absent, but strangers of the gate, hirelings, and
all uncircumcised persons: for such had been the
command of Jehovah, “There shall no stranger
eat thereof.”[113] All the rest were on this night
brethren, for all had been delivered by Jehovah
from the house of bondage. The bondsman was
as the freeman, the woman as the man; and
all partook alike of the festivity; all were the
people of Jehovah, and equal in his sight.
.fn 113
Exod. xii. 43.
.fn-
In the middle of the room stood the table,
which , because the
guests either lie around it on sofas, or sit on
carpets. On this occasion, however, there was
neither sofa nor carpet near the table, which
stood apart, as if the preparations were but half
finished. It was about the middle of the second
hour of evening (half past seven) when the
.bn 286.png
.pn +1
company, consisting of nineteen persons, assembled
around the table. Every one, though
splendidly clad, appeared prepared for a journey.
With sandals on their feet, which at other times
were not worn in a room, but given to the
slaves to be placed at the door, with their garments
girt, and a staff in their hands, they
surrounded the table. A large vessel filled with
wine immediately from the cask, stood upon it,
and the meal began by the master of the house
blessing it. He laid hold of it with both hands,
lifted it up with the right, and said, “Blessed
be thou, O Lord our God, thou king of the
world, who hast given us the fruit of the vine;”
and the whole assembly said, “Amen.” Next
he blessed the day, and thanked God for having
given them the Passover: and then, drinking first
himself from the cup, sent it round to the rest.
When this was over, he began again; “Blessed
be thou, O Lord our God, thou king of the world,
who hast sanctified us by thy precepts, and
commanded us to wash our hands.” He and
the whole company then washed their hands in
a silver basin, with water poured from an ewer
.bn 287.png
.pn +1
of the same metal. This was the emblem of
purification, and implied, that every one should
come with a pure heart, as well as clean hands,
to partake of the paschal meal. The unleavened
bread, (flat cakes with many small holes
in them,) the bitter herbs, a vessel with vinegar,
the paschal lamb, were placed upon the table,
and last of all the charoseth, a thick pottage of
apples, nuts, figs, almonds, and honey, boiled
in wine and vinegar, and not unfrequently made
in the form of a brick or tile, to remind the
Israelites of their Egyptian slavery, and strewed
with cinnamon, in imitation of the straw which
was mixed with the clay. The master of the
house then spoke again; “Blessed be thou,
O Lord our God, who hast given us of the
fruits of the earth.” He dipped some of the
herbs in vinegar, and the whole company did
the same. At this moment, the mistress touched
her little grandson, a child of ten years old.
Children were always present at this festival,
and one design of its establishment was, that
the son should learn from the lips of his father
the event to which it referred, and the remembrance
.bn 288.png
.pn +1
of it might thus be propagated to the
most distant posterity.[114] The child understood
the hint, and asked his grandfather, why on this
night alone the guests stood around the table,
instead of sitting or lying. With dignity and
solemnity, the grandfather, turning to the child,
related to him how their forefathers had been
oppressed in Egypt, and how the Lord had
brought them out thence with a mighty arm.
He described to him the evening which preceded
their flight from Goshen, their busy
preparation, and their anxiety to conceal it from
the Egyptians. The lamb was slain and the
blood sprinkled on the door-posts, that the
destroying angel of the Lord might pass by
their houses when he slew the first-born of
the Egyptians. It was to be roasted, not
boiled, that it might be sooner ready, and
strengthen more those who partook of it; it
was to be eaten in a standing posture, as by
men prepared for instant departure; it was to
be consumed entire, for the whole people were
.bn 289.png
.pn +1
to quit their dwellings and never to return to
them; and no bone of it was to be broken, for
this is the act of men who have time and leisure
for their meal. The bitter herbs were then
eaten, and the 113th and 114th psalms sung.
This formed the first half of the great song
of praise, which was called emphatically the
Hallel, consisting of six psalms, from the 113th
to the 118th, sung on all great festivities. A
second washing of the hands followed, the cup
was a second time blessed and sent round. The
master broke off a piece of the unleavened bread,
wrapped it in the bitter herbs, and, having dipped
it in the charoseth, ate it, and then distributed a
portion to each of the company, who did the
same; and now the eating of the lamb began,
in which the paschal feast properly consisted.
Along with the lamb the boiled flesh of the
thank-offering, which Iddo had made in the
temple, was placed upon the table, and blessed by
the master of the house. The lamb was wholly
consumed, it being forbidden by the law that
any part of it should remain till the next day.
If any part were not eaten, it was to be burnt.
.bn 290.png
.pn +1
The bones were not to be broken, for every
thing was to remind them of their hasty flight
from Egypt.
.fn 114
Exod. xii. 26.
.fn-
Festivity and cheerful conversation now
reigned among the whole assemblage. Whether
it be that a people, which had suffered so
much calamity and oppression, naturally enjoys
the more keenly a temporary interval of pleasure,
or that every approach to God is to the pure
mind a source of joy and peace, certain it is, that
no nation has ever more carefully studied to
remove all trace of sorrow from religious services
than the Jews. If the service of the
law was a heavy burthen, the service of God
was freedom and happiness. All the regulations
enjoin this, all the customs of Israel proceed
from this principle, that the marks of
mourning should be carefully removed from
their worship. To praise, to give thanks and
sing, to make a joyful noise unto the Lord, to
be glad on the day which he had made, to
rejoice in him, are all expressions by which
their religious services are described. The same
principle was kept in view in the purifications
.bn 291.png
.pn +1
which preceded the Passover. He who had
touched a dead body was held to be unclean,
and excluded from the feast. It was a sin for
the high-priest to make himself unclean, even
by the body of his nearest relative: for he was
to exhibit the divine life in all its purity before
the people. How earnestly do Ezra and Nehemiah
exhort the people to lay aside their
mourning, when the law was read at the feast
of tabernacles, and the curse on its violation
made known! “This day is holy unto the
Lord your God; mourn not nor weep; neither
be ye sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your
strength. Go your way, eat the fat and drink
the sweet; for this day is holy unto the Lord.”[115]
.fn 115
Neh. viii. 9.
.fn-
The company in Iddo’s house were not unmindful
of these precepts, and the time passed
on rapidly in animated discourse. The servants
were not excluded from their share; the
innocent playfulness of the children was not
repressed, and the gaiety of the females lent
wings to the conversation. Iddo was the
.bn 292.png
.pn +1
most animated of all, and Helon thought he
had never seen an old man so full of vivacity.
“See, thou mother in Israel,” said he to his
wife, “the Lord has blessed us and permitted
us to keep one Passover more, before we are
gathered to our fathers. Let us thank him for
his mercy, by the cheerfulness with which we
celebrate it. Who knows but this may be our
last? seldom does a year elapse, but some
one dies of those who kept the Passover together
at the beginning of it, and our turn, though
long delayed, must come at last. We were
blithe in our youthful days, half a century
since, what prevents our being so still? Thou
hast seen thy children and children’s children.
Join with me in her praise, my friends.—The
Lord has given her store of children and of
guests; and she has received them both as the
gift of God, and tended them faithfully!”
All present congratulated the venerable pair,
and Iddo continued, “Why didst not thou,
Selumiel, bring thy wife and Sulamith, who is
lovelier than the fairest rose of Jericho? A
prize for some fortunate youth, for as Solomon
.bn 293.png
.pn +1
has said, ‘A virtuous wife is more precious
than pearls.’”
“What would Israel be,” said Elisama, as
the sounds of festivity from the adjacent apartments
penetrated into theirs, “what would
Israel be without the festivals of Jehovah?
Here we are all assembled before the Lord, to
praise his faithfulness which is great, and his
mercy which is renewed every morning. What
compared with these are the Grecian games at
Olympia and Nemea? Would that Myron were
here! We children of Israel are one people;
we have one God, and one city of the Lord; and
every Jew in Egypt, Asia, Syria, and Chaldea,
always turns his eyes in his prayers towards
this one place. Think, my friends, that while
so many hundreds of thousands are assembled
in Jerusalem, millions in the remotest countries,
into which our people has been scattered, cast
longing looks this evening towards us, envying
us our joy, and desiring nothing more, than to
to be in the Holy City and in the courts of
Jehovah! I only regret that Gerizim and
Leontopolis——”
.bn 294.png
.pn +1
“Hush,” interposed Iddo, “to-day speak
only of pleasing subjects. Our prince has subdued
the rebellious daughter Gerizim. Jehovah
ceases not to concern himself with the injuries
of Joseph.”
“The prophet,” replied Elisama, “has declared
that all the nations of the earth shall be
united in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and when
the Messiah comes the sceptre of Judah shall
be extended over the whole earth.”
“Hyrcanus stands beside the altar,” said
another of the company, “and the family of
the Maccabees is flourishing. Who knows
whether the Messiah will not speedily appear
from among them?”
“No,” said Elisama, “the Messiah must
come from the family of David, and the Maccabees
are Levites of the family of Jojarib. The
Jewish people and the priests consented that
Simon should be their prince and high-priest,
till God raise up the true prophet unto them.
The Messiah, therefore, will not be a Maccabee
though unites in himself the
three offices to which he will be anointed.
.bn 295.png
.pn +1
But would that he who is promised were come!
His way is prepared; Israel is once more free,
and a people. What would I give, if in my
grey hairs I might yet be permitted to behold
him! What a glorious passover will that be,
when He keeps it with us, in Baris or on Zion,
and his people accompany him with palm
branches and Hosannas! I envy you, Helon,
for you may live to see that day.”
“It will be a happy day,” said “but
not more happy than this.” The old men
smiled at his enthusiasm, and rejoiced that
among the youth of Israel there should be such
joy in keeping the festivals of Jehovah.
It was now become late. The hired servant,
stationed by the waterclock in the court, called
the fifth hour of night, and the paschal meal
was not permitted to last longer than to the
end of the , which terminated
somewhere about an hour before midnight.
There were two other watches between
this and daylight, divided by the two cock-crowings.
They heard the guests in the other
apartments reciting the song of praise, and
.bn 296.png
.pn +1
hastened to conclude. With the same prayer
as before, they washed their hands again from
the silver basin, and Iddo having again blessed
the cup, they drank once more from it. This
was called the cup of thanksgiving. The
second part of the Hallel was now sung, consisting
of the 115th, 116th, 117th, and 118th
psalms. Helon thought of the words of Isaiah,
“Ye shall sing as on the night of a holy feast,
and rejoice in your hearts as when they go with
a pipe to the mountain of the Lord, to the refuge
of Israel.”[116] When the Hallel was finished,
hands were again washed, and the cup was
blessed and sent round for the fourth and last
time. Helon would gladly have joined in
praying the , as they call the series
of psalms from the 120th to the 137th, after
which it was customary to send round the cup
a fifth time, but midnight was already too
near. The company broke up, and all retired
to rest, designing to be early in the temple on
the following day.
.fn 116
Isaiah xxx. 29.
.fn-
.bn 297.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER V. | THE DAY AFTER THE PASSOVER.
.sp 2
While the paschal lamb was eaten by the
people, the priests in the temple were cleansing
the altar of burnt-offering. This was commonly
done in the last watch of the night,
towards the cock-crowing, but on this occasion
during the first. Next they themselves partook
of the paschal lamb, and
the gates were opened, for the ingress of the
children of Israel, many of whom were there,
even at this early hour, in order to see the
splendour of the illuminated temple. As soon
as the watchman had answered in the affirmative
the customary question of the priest,
“Does it begin to be light as far as Hebron?”
all the streets leading to the temple were filled
.bn 298.png
.pn +1
with men, dressed in their gayest clothes. On
no other occasion of the year was the temple so
crowded as on the morning after the Passover.
The was first of all
offered. The lamps were extinguished, incense
was burnt upon the altar, and the lamb was
sacrificed to Jehovah, with the usual meat and
drink offering. Then followed the special offering
for the feast, two young bullocks, a ram,
seven yearling lambs with meat and drink
offerings. Next, a goat was offered as a
sin-offering; the Hallel was sung, and the
blessing pronounced. The whole body of the
priests was assembled; on ordinary days, only
some families of the fathers were present; on
the sabbath the whole course; but on high
festivals the whole twenty-four courses, the
collective body of the priesthood.
Helon had been among the first who had
come up to the temple of Jehovah, at the crowing
of the cock. He beheld all with deep interest
and profound devotion, and as he gazed
on the temple and the splendid ritual performed
in it, the fond wish of his early childhood awoke
.bn 299.png
.pn +1
in his heart, that he too might be thought
worthy to become a priest of Jehovah, and to
minister at his altar. With increasing eagerness
he looked for the appearance of the high-priest,
the head and crown of the tribe of Levi
and of all Israel. He had expected him to
appear yesterday, and during the morning sacrifice,
but he had not shown himself. Helon felt
an enthusiastic admiration for the heroic family
of the Maccabees, and none of them all had
risen to such an eminence as John Hyrcanus.
In Egypt, in Hebron, on the pilgrimage, and
through the whole preceding day, he had been
hearing the praises of the man whom he was
now about to see.
He was standing upon the lowest of the
fifteen steps, which led from the court of Israel
to that of the women, when there arose a cry
among the thousands who surrounded him,
“The high-priest is coming!” He came from
an adjoining building and walked towards the
altar. The breastplate with its precious stones
beamed from his breast. Over the ordinary
of the priests, which descended in
.bn 300.png
.pn +1
folds to his feet, he wore a magnificent upper
robe of a blue purple. The bells between the
pomegranates, on the borders of his robe, gave
a clear sound as he walked. Over this upper
garment he had a third, which was shorter,
called the ephod, splendidly embroidered with
purple, dark blue, crimson and thread of gold,
on a white ground. On his head was a white
turban, and over this a second, striped with
dark blue. On his forehead he wore a plate of
gold, on which the name of Jehovah was inscribed;
and being at once high-priest and
prince, this was connected with a triple crown
on the temples and back part of the head.
The priests made way for him, as he entered
in his glory, and stepped in majesty along.
Arrived at the altar, he looked round on the
innumerable multitude that were assembled,
while silent congratulations were addressed to
him by every heart. Helon thought on the
splendid description of the high-priest Simon,
the son of Onias, in the book of Jesus the son
of Sirach.
“When he came from behind the veil, he
.bn 301.png
.pn +1
was as the morning star in the midst of a cloud;
and as the moon at the full. As the sun shines
on the temple of the Most High; as the rainbow
with its beautiful colours; as the beautiful rose
in spring; as the lily by the rivers of waters; as
the branches of the frankincense tree in time
of summer; as fire and incense in the censer;
as a vessel of beaten gold, set with all manner
of ornaments of precious stones; as a fair olive-tree,
budding forth fruit; as a cypress tree growing
up to the clouds! When he put on the
robe of honour, and was clothed with all his
glory, and when he went up to the holy altar,
he adorned the sanctuary all around. When
he took the portions out of the hands of the
priests, and stood by the hearth of the altar,
and his brethren stood around him, he was as
a young cedar in Lebanon, and they surrounded
him like palm-trees. All the sons of Aaron
in their glory had the oblations of the Lord in
their hands before all the congregation of Israel.
And he fulfilled the service at the altar, and
offered up a pious oblation unto the Most High.
He stretched out his hand to the cup and poured
.bn 302.png
.pn +1
out the blood of the grape, he poured it at the
foot of the altar, a sweet smell to the Most
High, King of all. Then shouted the sons of
Aaron and blew the curved trumpets and made
a great noise to be heard, for a remembrance
before the Most High. Then all the people
straightway fell down upon the earth upon their
faces, and worshipped the Lord God Almighty,
the Most High: the singers also sang praises
with their voices, there was made sweet melody
with great variety of sounds. And the people
besought the Lord, the Most High, by prayer,
that he would be merciful, till the worship of
the Lord was ended and they had finished the
service. Then he went down and lifted up his
hands over the whole congregation of the children
of Israel, and gave them the blessing of
the Lord with his lips, and wished them peace
in his name. And they bowed themselves
down to worship a second time, that they might
receive a blessing from the Most High; and
said, ‘Now therefore bless ye the God of all,
who alone doeth wondrous things every where,
who keeps us alive from the mother’s womb
.bn 303.png
.pn +1
and deals with us according to his mercy: may
he grant us joyfulness of heart, and that there
may be peace in our days in Israel for ever, and
that his mercy may abide with us, and that he
may deliver us at his time.’”[117]
.fn 117
Eccles. i.
.fn-
This description had often awakened the enthusiasm
of Helon, but now he saw it realized,
in the most impressive service ever performed
in Israel—that of the morning after the Passover.
There stood the high-priest, spiritual
and temporal sovereign of the people, on the
mountain of Jehovah, in sight of his sanctuary,
and looked through the lofty portico, full upon
the curtain of the most holy place. On the
other side, through all the courts even to the
foot of mount Moriah, was a countless multitude,
all occupied with prayer and praise, all
waiting anxiously for his blessing, and expecting
to be purified by his offering. Around him
were all the priests of Israel, obedient to his
nod, ministering to him in the most sacred
employment of the people, their appearance
.bn 304.png
.pn +1
before Jehovah. He himself, the man who bore
the name of Jehovah on his brow, with every
thing that oriental splendour could accumulate,
lavished on him, in honour of that name, surrounded
by the flames of the altar of burnt-offering,
which flashed up to heaven! It was a
sight to awaken every sublime religious feeling
of such a mind as Helon’s.
The Hallel was sung. The priests, stationed
on the pillars near the laver, accompanied the
song with the sound of their trumpets and the
on the fifteen steps sung it, with their
cymbals, cornets and flutes. David had appointed
four thousand Levites for musicians
and singers, and their number was probably not
much smaller now.[118] The multitude responded,
with its hundred thousand voices, to the song
of the choir; and when the Hallelujah, with
which the psalms begin and end, was thrice
repeated with the united volume of vocal and
instrumental sound poured forth at once, a less
lively imagination than Helon’s might have
.bn 305.png
.pn +1
fancied that Jehovah himself appeared in the
flames of the altar, to receive the homage of his
people. It was here only that one of these
psalms, so full of the boldest flights and of the
deepest emotion, must be heard, to be fully felt.
Such a moment had inspired them; such a
moment alone could revive that intensity of
feeling, which is necessary fully to comprehend
them.
.fn 118
1 Chron. xxiii. 5.
.fn-
Helon was so absorbed, that the wave of the
people had forced him, unconscious of it, far
down to the extremity of the court. He could
only see from a distance the movements of the
high-priest about the altar. His majestic
figure, as he passed to and fro before the
flames which arose in the back ground, received
from them a strong illumination, which
to Helon’s fancy gave something solemn and
unearthly to the form. When the sacrifice and
the Hallel were ended, the people fell on their
knees, and bowed their faces to the earth to
receive the high-priest’s blessing. He washed
his hands with the usual solemnities, and
advanced to the steps of the Levites, praying
.bn 306.png
.pn +1
thus; “Praised be thou, O Lord our God, thou
king of the world, who hast sanctified us with
the consecration of Aaron, and commanded us
to bless thy people Israel in love.” He then
turned first to the sanctuary and afterwards to
the people; then to the height
of his shoulder, and joining his hands together,
so as to leave five intervals between the fingers,
with eyes cast down on the ground, he laid the
name of Jehovah on the people and said,
.pm start_poem
The Lord bless thee and keep thee,
The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee,
The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon thee and give thee peace!—Num. vi. 24.
.pm end_poem
At every repetition of the word thee, he turned
to the north and the south. The people replied;
“Praised be the name of his kingdom
for ever!” They continued a while when the
benediction was concluded, each praying to
himself, while the high-priest, turning to the
sanctuary, said, “O Lord of the whole world,
we have done what thou hast commanded us,
and thou wilt do what thou hast promised.
Thou wilt behold us from the habitation of thy
.bn 307.png
.pn +1
holiness; thou wilt look down from heaven and
bless thy people Israel!”
The offerings which were now concluded had
a reference to the whole people; it remained
that individuals should offer for themselves,
both and burnt-offerings, in
order not to appear empty-handed before Jehovah.
The thank-offerings might only be offered
on this day, the burnt-offerings on the following
day also. Elisama had bought a goat without
blemish, for a thank-offering, in the court of
the Gentiles. The choicest parts, the breast
and the shoulder, belonged to the priest, the fat
to Jehovah; all the rest was cooked in some
of the out-buildings of the temple: for Iddo
had made engagements for their feasting there.
On this day no other flesh might be eaten, than
that of thank-offerings; the majority of those
who sacrificed carried the portions which they
retained for themselves, to consume them in
their houses or their tents. Elisama had invited
to his feast, his host, his host’s family,
and some Levites; bearing in mind the precept,
“Thou shalt not neglect the Levites as
.bn 308.png
.pn +1
long as thou livest upon the earth.”[119] They
assembled in a saloon allotted for this purpose,
in one of the courts on the south. Elisama, as
the offerer of the sacrifice, blessed the bread
and the wine, and they were all merry and
thanked the Lord. Helon, to whom this meal,
eaten within the precincts of the temple, seemed
like an anticipation of his future priestly functions,
thought of the passage of Isaiah, “They
that have gathered corn shall consume it and
praise Jehovah, and they that bring in their
wine shall drink it in the courts of the sanctuary.”[120]
.fn 119
Deut. xiv. 27.
.fn-
.fn 120
Isaiah lxii. 9.
.fn-
They remained together till the evening
sacrifice, and Helon did not leave the temple
till after it, in order that he might witness the
ceremony of the . This is the commencement
of harvest, which begins at the
time of the Passover, with the barley (in the
warm valley of the Jordan still earlier) and is
finished about Pentecost, with the wheat.
Every thing which concerned the people of
.bn 309.png
.pn +1
Israel, the harvest especially, must begin and
end with religious solemnity.
At sunset, the citizens who had been appointed
to cut the wave-sheaf by the Sanhedrim
came down through the courts, accompanied
by a great concourse of people, and
Helon joined in the procession. They went
to the nearest field of barley before the city:
the sixteenth of Nisan was begun, and the evening
star was already visible in the sky. The
person who was appointed to reap asked aloud,
“Is the sun gone down?” The people who
stood around answered, Yes.—“Shall I cut.”
“Yes.”—“With this sickle?” “Yes.”—“In
this basket?” “Yes.” The questions, thrice
repeated, being thrice answered in the affirmative,
he cut as much as would furnish an
omer, and binding the sheaves together, carried
them to the temple. The barley was there
roasted by the fire, cleared from the husk,
ground into meal, bolted thirteen times, and
the omer (a measure containing about forty-three
eggshells) of the finest meal was kept till
the following day.
.bn 310.png
.pn +1
Helon, having witnessed this ceremony, reluctantly
left the temple, and in his dreams
seemed to live over again the events of this
interesting day. The stately form of the high-priest
seemed to be before him, and the sacred
name upon his brow to shine with a lustre too
dazzling for him to behold. Then he appeared
to be in the crowd, urged by some irresistible
but inexplicable impulse, to force his way
amidst the waves of people, seeking something
which he could not find, and examining every
face, but without finding that of which he was
in search. Again, he seemed to be beside the
high-priest, and a feeling of unutterable joy
spread through all his frame. His uncle appeared
to him pale and sad, and beckoned him
from the temple to the valley of Jehoshaphat,
where he sat by his father’s tomb and wept.
A graceful and lovely form stood by his side,
and pointed towards the west; he followed her,
and as they went she too turned pale and sighed.
A murky, sultry atmosphere gathered around
him; the lightning struck a lofty cedar, the
deadly vapour almost choked his breath, and
.bn 311.png
.pn +1
he ran forward, a long and dreary way, without
finding any . At length a star
appeared, and twinkled on him with so mild a
ray that his oppression was relieved and his
cheerfulness returned. He looked around him,
and found himself on the north-west side of
the city, on a plain which he darkly remembered
that Iddo had called Golgotha. In his
astonishment he awoke.
.bn 312.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER VI. | THE REMAINING DAYS OF UNLEAVENED BREAD.
.sp 2
It was the morning of the second day after
the Passover. Helon was lying by Elisama
on the divan. Glad to be delivered from his
dream, he started up, performed his morning
devotions in the Alijah, saluted Moriah and Zion
from the roof, and endeavoured to shake off the
disagreeable impressions of the night, which
returned upon him with something of an ominous
import. When he came down into the
court, he found Iddo sitting under the palm-trees.
He endeavoured to think only of his
present happiness, and he felt, that as man is
never more purely and vividly happy than in
the morning of childhood, so the morning of
each day is the time, when he has the most
.bn 313.png
.pn +1
lively consciousness of every thing that is
agreeable in his condition.
They all went together to the temple to pray.
After the usual morning sacrifice of a lamb,
followed, as the day before, an offering appropriate
to the festival, of two young bullocks, a
ram, and seven yearling lambs, as a burnt-offering;
and a goat, as a sin-offering. The
high-priest ministered as before at the altar,
and the priests around him. The crowd was
scarcely less than yesterday, and nearly the
same ceremonies were repeated.
Next followed the offering of the first-fruits,
the omer of barley-meal which had been prepared
from the sheaves, cut the preceding
evening. A priest fetched the meal, in a golden
dish, from an apartment in one of the buildings,
mixed it in the presence of all the people with
a log (six eggshells) of the finest oil, and scattered
upon it a handful of incense. He brought
it to the high-priest, who stood beside the altar,
and he waved it towards all the four winds,
from east to west and from south to north, and
then ascended the altar. On the southern side
.bn 314.png
.pn +1
lay salt, with which he salted the meal and
threw a handful of it, with another of incense,
upon the flame. Immediately after, a special
sacrifice, a lamb with the meat and drink offering
that belonged to it, was offered; and the
high-priest concluded by giving his benediction.
The harvest was now solemnly begun, and
Israel might pursue its joyful labours. The
spectators dispersed themselves in different
directions; and many of the pilgrims, who had
neither time nor means to spend the whole
week of the festival in Jerusalem, returned
home on this day.
Only those remained behind, who purposed
to offer the , and these were the wealthier
part of the worshippers. Elisama, Helon, and
Sallu went down into the neighbourhood of the
porch of Solomon, to purchase a victim for this
purpose. A dealer in cattle, from Capernaum
in Galilee, furnished them with a calf of extraordinary
beauty, which they drove to the gate
on the northern side, at which the sacrifices
were admitted. Here they were compelled to
.bn 315.png
.pn +1
wait a considerable time, as a large number
had been admitted just before their arrival. At
length they entered: the animal was examined
and killed on the north side of the altar, the
offerers having first washed their hands, and
laid them upon it. The priests received the
blood and sprinkled it on the altar. The sacrificers
then took off the skin, took out the fat
and the entrails, and divided the flesh. The
whole was given to the priest, along with the
meat and drink offering; he salted it and threw
it into the fire. A burnt-offering was to be
wholly consumed, except the skin, which belonged
to the priest. While the priest was
sacrificing at the altar, Elisama, Helon, and
Sallu were praying that Jehovah would graciously
accept their offering; and when it was
ended, they and the rest of those who had been
admitted with them, went out at the southern
gate. Helon, while he had witnessed the
solemn ceremonial and the deep and reverent
silence of the spectators, had felt the dignity
of the priestly office, and as he prayed, had
said with David,
.bn 316.png
.pn +1
.pm start_poem
One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after;
To dwell in the house of the Lord, as long as I live,
To behold the glorious worship of the Lord,
And to wait in his temple!—Ps. xxvii. 4.
.pm end_poem
In the afternoon Iddo conducted him to one
of the places of public instruction, called by
the Greek name of Synagogue. Such buildings
had come into use only since the captivity, but
there were already a considerable number of
them in Jerusalem. In the days of David and
Solomon we find no trace of them. It is true,
we find very early mention of the , from which they may be considered
to have taken their rise. In the days of Elisha
it was customary to visit the prophets on the
day of the new moon and on the sabbath.[121] In
the captivity the people must have felt the
necessity much more of assembling on solemn
days, to obtain consolation and hope from the
discourses of some man learned in the scriptures.
On the fifth day of the sixth month, it happened,
we are told in the book of the Prophet, that
.bn 317.png
.pn +1
Ezekiel “was sitting in his house and the
elders of Judah were sitting before him.”[122]
After the return from the captivity this custom
was kept up, from the experience of its utility;
and these assemblages were held at first in the
porticoes of the temple, afterwards in buildings
appropriated to the purpose. Sacrifices could
be offered only in one place, the temple, but
prayer might be offered, and instruction communicated,
any where.
.fn 121
2 Kings iv. 23.
.fn-
.fn 122
Ezek. viii. 1.
.fn-
They went into a in the Lower
City, where an eloquent expounder of the law
was accustomed to teach. The arrangement of
the building had a good deal of resemblance to
that of the temple. A large quadrangular
space was surrounded on all sides with covered
walks or porticoes, resting upon a double row
of columns. In the middle, a circular roof
rested upon four pillars, and beneath it, on a
raised place, lay the rolls of the law. The
people stood upon the open space, which was
covered with an awning, and in rainy weather
.bn 318.png
.pn +1
took shelter in the porticoes, one of which was
set apart exclusively for the women. Before
the rolls of the law stood the reader and expounder,
who was also called the apostle or
ambassador of the assembly. He read the law
and the letters of other congregations; he delivered
the prayer, and thus, as it were, was
the messenger of the people to God, and the
interpreter of their desires. Besides him there
was also a ruler of the synagogue, or superintendent
of the school, who maintained order,
several elders of the congregation who assisted
him in his functions, a gatherer of alms, and a
servant. , not excepting
strangers, might stand up and teach.
The synagogue was already full when Helon
and his friends entered it, and after the usual
salutation, the service began by praising God.
The reader then going up to the rolls, which
lay under the circular roof, read a passage from
the law, which he at the same time interpreted
to the people. After a second ascription of
praise, he read the following passage from the
prophet Jeremiah: “Ah Lord God; behold
.bn 319.png
.pn +1
thou hast made the heavens and the earth, by
thy great power and thy stretched-out arm, and
there is nothing too hard for thee: thou showest
loving-kindness unto thousands, and recompensest
the iniquities of the fathers into the
bosom of the children after them. The great
the mighty God, the Lord of Hosts, is thy name:
great in counsel and mighty in work art thou,
whose eyes are open upon all the ways of the
sons of men, to give to every one according to his
ways, and according to the fruit of his doings;
who hast shown signs and wonders in the land
of Egypt, even to this day, and in Israel, and
among other men, and hast made thee a name,
as it is at this day, and hast brought forth thy
people Israel out of the land of Egypt, with
signs and with wonders, and with a strong hand
and with a stretched-out arm, and with great
terror; and hast given to them this land, which
thou didst swear to their fathers to give them,
a land flowing with milk and honey.”[123] When
he had read this passage, and translated it into
.bn 320.png
.pn +1
the common dialect of the country, the celebrated
teacher of the law, whom we have mentioned,
rose up, and proposed to deliver a
discourse.
.fn 123
Jer. xxxii. 17-22.
.fn-
Myron had objected to his friend Helon, that
the people of Israel were destitute of skill in
all the fine arts; and in respect to eloquence,
resembled their lawgiver, who was “slow of
speech and of a slow tongue.”[124] To the former
part of the imputation Helon had already
replied; to the latter he might have answered,
that although his nation never possessed an
Isocrates or a Demosthenes, no people ever had
orators, whose eloquence was more vigorous,
animated, or spirit-stirring than the prophets
in Israel. What artificial rhetorician, of the
schools or the Agora, ever graved his words so
deep in the hearts of his hearers as they did?
They spoke the word of Jehovah, by the command
and inspiration of Jehovah; the Greeks,
the words of human wisdom, at the suggestion
of vanity, or to promote the purposes of
.bn 321.png
.pn +1
ambition. How different is the effect of a discourse,
in which a divine power dwells, from
those which have been composed with the
strictest adherence to the rules of art!
.fn 124
Exod. iv. 10.
.fn-
Such might have been Helon’s answer to
his friend; for such was his own experience,
in listening to the orator in the synagogue.
His language was simple and unartificial, but
for this very reason the energy of the prophet’s
words, which he expounded, was the more
strongly felt. First of all he went through the
passage which had been read, and explained the
contents of the prayer, which, sublime in itself,
was still more so from the circumstances in
which it was spoken. He painted the forlorn
condition of the people when the land fell into
the hands of the Chaldeans, and the prophecy
which was involved in the purchase of the field
of Anathoth. When he came to speak of the
signs and wonders which Jehovah had shown
in Egypt, and of his having brought out his
people with an out-stretched arm, he pointed
out to the audience, that this great deliverance
was to be regarded as an everlasting pledge of
.bn 322.png
.pn +1
his redeeming mercy. For a thousand years
past it had served this purpose, and every
Passover revived and strengthened the impression.
He painted to them the condition of
Israel in Goshen, their inhuman oppressions,
the evening of the first Passover, their wanderings
in the wilderness, their rebellions against
God, and the firmness of their lawgiver. Thence
he past rapidly to the glorious days of the
first temple, and described the magnificence of
Solomon and the prosperity of Israel, while
the eyes of all his audience glistened with
sympathetic delight. Next he spoke of the
captivity in Babylon, of the silent tears of the
people as they sat by the streams of the Tigris
and Euphrates, and of the evening of the Passover,
when the fourteenth day of Nisan came
and no paschal lamb could be eaten, but only
the unleavened bread. No one drew his breath
while he delineated the picture of this misery.
“Unhappy, forsaken people!” he exclaimed;
“ye had sinned and Jehovah visiteth the iniquities
of the fathers upon their children. O
thou almighty and jealous God, thine eyes are
.bn 323.png
.pn +1
open on all the ways of the children of men!”
He paused for a moment, as if overpowered by
the contemplation of the might and justice of
Jehovah. Every bosom was agitated. “Woe,
woe to me and to my children!” exclaimed at
once a woman, so carried away by the words of
the speaker, that she forgot herself and the
presence of the multitude. “Woe to us all,”
resumed he, “if we forsake Jehovah, the living
fountain, and hew out to ourselves broken
fountains which hold no water.” In conclusion
he praised the restoration of the worship
of God, and the happy times in which they
lived; and earnestly exhorted them to celebrate
the feast of unleavened bread and of the
appearance before Jehovah, with becoming
gratitude, and faithfully to observe the law, in
the land flowing with milk and honey into
which he had brought them.
When the discourse was ended, praise was
again ascribed to God, and the prayer called
Kri-schma repeated. This was a feast-day;
but independently of this, it was the duty of
every adult Jew, on the second and the fifth
.bn 324.png
.pn +1
day of the week, as well as on the sabbath, to
pray, with the Tallith on his head, and the
Tephillim on his brow and on his hand. The
benediction was given, to which the assembly
replied Amen! and at the close of all, alms
were collected for the poor.
As they left the assembly, Helon remarked
to Elisama, how much superior, in regard both
to sacrifice and instruction, was the condition
of Israel to that of the heathens. They
offer sacrifice to their gods—but they are ignorant
of the law; they have temples and altars,
but no houses of religious instructions; they
have priests, but none to explain their duty to
them. On the following day, the third after
the Passover, the same offerings were made as
before; but the evening increased the solemnity,
by . It was
announced as usual by six blasts of the trumpet,
blown by a priest out of the chamber which
was situated on the southern side of the temple,
at the extremity of the court of Israel, and
which served at the same time for the watch-room
of the priests and Levites. In the country
.bn 325.png
.pn +1
towns the annunciation was made by blasts of
the horn. At the ninth hour (three in the
afternoon) the first blast was sounded, as a
signal for the cessation of all labour in the
field. Troops of reapers and other labourers
were immediately after seen coming from all
the adjacent country into Jerusalem. At the
tenth hour, the second blast was sounded, to
announce the time of closing the shops and
manufactories, completing the domestic preparations
for the sabbath, and putting on their
best attire. In every house, two loaves were
placed upon the table, as a memorial of the
double measure of manna, gathered in the
wilderness on the day before the sabbath. At
the third blast, the mother of the family lighted
the two lamps, which were to burn through
the whole of the sabbath. Light, being the
symbol of joy and of knowledge, was appropriate
to such a solemnity; hence the altar
blazed, and the household lamp was kindled.
The mother, assuming the priestly office, spread
out her hands towards the lamp when she had
lighted it, and said “Blessed be thou, O Lord
.bn 326.png
.pn +1
our God, King of the world, who hast sanctified
us by thy precepts, and commanded us to light
the .” The fourth, fifth, and sixth
blasts followed each other rapidly, as soon as
the sun was set; and the sabbath was now
begun.
was the first thing
done. The master of the house filled the cup,
when all were assembled around the table, and
blessed it, and said, “On the sixth day were
the earth and the heavens and all their glory
completed. For God finished by the seventh
day all the work which he had done, and rested
on the seventh day from all his labour, and
hallowed it, because on it he rested from all
the work which he had created and made.”
After a short pause, he proceeded, “Blessed
be thou, O Lord our God, who hast created the
fruit of the vine, King of the world, who hast
sanctified us by thy precepts, and commanded
us to keep thy sabbaths, and hast appointed
them to us of thy good pleasure, as a memorial
of the work of creation. It is also the beginning
of the assembling of thy saints, and of the
.bn 327.png
.pn +1
going out of Egypt: for thou hast chosen us
out from among all nations, and hast sanctified
us and hast appointed to us the holy sabbath.
We praise thee, O Lord, that thou hast made
the sabbath-day holy.” The cup was emptied,
the master of the house blessed the bread also
in the usual form of words, and the meal
began.
In the mean time the course of priests had
been changed in the temple, that which had
been on duty in the preceding week, giving
place to that whose turn of service it was for
the week following. The shew-bread was
changed, twelve of the priests bringing each
one of the new loaves in a golden dish, and
two others censers with incense. Then all the
children of Israel laid themselves down to rest,
in their own houses or in the temple, in joyful
expectation of the sabbath-dawn.
The sabbath was so solemnly and strictly
kept, that it was not allowed to be broken even
by the greatest of the festivals; it may indeed
be said, that as being the oldest, it was the
root and parent of all the rest. It was not
.bn 328.png
.pn +1
merely a day of cessation from labour; its
celebration was a weekly acknowledgment, that
the One God was worshipped as the creator of
heaven and earth; and thus it stood in the
closest connection with the first of the ten
commandments which God had given upon
mount Sinai. The command for its observance,
however, is as ancient as the first revelation
made by God to man, forming a part of the
narrative of the creation. At the giving of the
law, the precept for its observance was renewed
and enforced, “Remember the sabbath-day
to keep it holy;” and its high import was
expressed by the words, “Verily my sabbaths
shall ye keep, for it is a sign between me and
you throughout your generations, that ye may
know that I am the Lord that sanctifieth you.
Six days shall ye work, but the seventh is the
sabbath, a holy rest unto the Lord.”[125] And in
the renewal of the law it is said, “Thou shalt
remember that thou wast a servant in the land
of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought
.bn 329.png
.pn +1
thee out thence with a mighty and an outstretched
arm: therefore the Lord thy God
commanded thee to keep the sabbath-day.”[126]
So the prophets call the sabbath the sign of the
covenant between Jehovah and his people.[127]
It was besides a day of remembrance of the
deliverance from Egypt, a weekly passover.
The violation of the sabbath was punished with
the severest penalties. “Whosoever maketh
the sabbath unholy shall surely be put to
death;” and when it is added, as an explanation,
“whosoever doeth any work on the sabbath-day,
he shall surely be put to death,” this
deeper meaning is conveyed, that there is a
rest, which is more holy than labour. Outward
rest, consisting in the cessation of motion and
exertion, was the sign of that holy and inward
rest. While in the desert Moses commanded
the children of Israel, saying, “Behold the
Lord hath given you the sabbath; therefore he
giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two
days. Let every man therefore remain in his
.bn 330.png
.pn +1
own place, and let no man go out on the seventh
day.”[128] What a picture do these words convey,
of so many millions of human beings, by
whose activity the surrounding desert was enlivened
on every other day, but of whose
existence every trace seemed to vanish, as the
sun went down on the evening when the seventh
began! In pious fear of transgressing this
law, the Jews, in later times, never went further
than two thousand cubits; because they reckoned
that the remotest tent in the camp would
be one thousand cubits distant from the tabernacle,
and that their forefathers must have gone
and returned this distance, in order to appear
before Jehovah.[129]
.fn 125
Exod. xxxi. 13.
.fn-
.fn 126
Deut. v. 15.
.fn-
.fn 127
Ezek. xx. 12.
.fn-
.fn 128
Exod. xvi. 29.
.fn-
.fn 129
This is the foundation of the reckoning by a sabbath-day’s
journey, which was between six and seven stadia of
the Greek measure, and somewhat less than a mile of our
own.
.fn-
But if the sabbath was a mark of the covenant
between Jehovah and his people, and also
a day of rest, it could not be otherwise than a
day of joy; and so it was always considered in
.bn 331.png
.pn +1
Israel. In the burning east, rest is of itself a
pleasure; and as every thing else connected
with the service of Jehovah bore the character
of cheerful enjoyment, so also did the sabbath.
“If,” says Isaiah, “thou turn away thy foot
from the sabbath, and do not thy pleasure on
my holy day, and callest the sabbath a delight,
a solemnity of Jehovah, a day of honour; then
shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I
will cause thee to ride over the high places of
the earth, and will feed thee with the inheritance
of Jacob thy father—the mouth of the
Lord hath spoken it.”[130]
.fn 130
Isaiah lviii. 13, 14.
.fn-
If, however, the sabbath could not be suspended
by the festivities of the Passover, they
might receive additional solemnity from the
sabbath. Helon felt its sanctity with double
force, in this combination. He had risen early
in the morning, and could scarcely wait till the
hour arrived, for his going up with the old men
to the temple, for the first time in his life, to
spend a sabbath there. The morning sacrifice
.bn 332.png
.pn +1
consisted on this day of the usual offering of a
lamb; then followed the of the
sabbath, two lambs of a year old, with the
meat and drink offering that belonged to them.
Last of all, the festival-offering, which consisted
of two young bullocks, a ram, seven
yearling lambs as a burnt-offering, and a goat
as a sin-offering. In the mean time the sabbath
psalm was sung by the Levites from the
fifteen steps.
.pm start_poem
It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord,
And to sing praises unto thy name, O most High!
To show forth thy loving-kindness in the morning,
And thy faithfulness every night,
Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery,
Upon the harp with a solemn sound.
For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work,
I will triumph because of the works of thy hands.
O Lord! how great are thy works;
Thy thoughts are very deep!
A brutish man knoweth not this,
Nor doth a fool understand it.
When the wicked spring as the grass,
And when all the workers of iniquity flourish,
It is that they may be destroyed for ever:
But thou, Lord, art most high for evermore.
For lo! thine enemies, O Lord,
For lo! thine enemies shall perish!
All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.
.bn 333.png
.pn +1
But thou exaltest my horn like the unicorn’s;
I am anointed with fresh oil;
And mine eye shall see my desire on mine enemies,
And mine ear shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me.
The righteous flourisheth like the palm-tree,
He groweth like a cedar in Lebanon.
They that are planted in the house of the Lord
Shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bring forth in old age,
They shall be full of sap and flourishing,
To show that Jehovah is just,
He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.—Ps. xcii.
.pm end_poem
Helon remained the whole day in the
temple, witnessed the evening-sacrifice, and
heard the sound of the trumpet which proclaimed
that the sabbath was at an end. The
old men retired soon after the morning-sacrifices
leaving him to his own reflections, and
rejoicing that one was found among the youth
of Israel, so full of enthusiasm for the service
of Jehovah. Helon, as he wandered about
the courts of the temple, was revolving a
design, which had long been forming in his
bosom, and which had been rapidly matured
by the feelings of the last few days.
.bn 334.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
CHAPTER VII. | THE CLOSE OF THE FEAST OF THE PASSOVER.
.sp 2
Although the greater part of the people had
already returned to their homes, to begin the
harvest, and large companies had taken their
departure every morning with the music of
cymbals and psalms, all the priests and Levites
still remained, and a great multitude of the
people. Not fewer than were
still to be seen assembled in the courts of the
temple.
One day Helon was present at the evening-sacrifice,
and was witness of a novel scene.
He was standing beside the ,
which were placed in the court of the Women.
Each of these chests was inscribed with the
name of the gift which was to be deposited in
.bn 335.png
.pn +1
it. Some were for the capitation tax, others,
for the money which remained over and above
of the destined sum when the victim had been
purchased; others, for voluntary gifts for the
benefit of the temple. A Jew of Cyrene came
to bring the capitation tax of his countrymen.
The law had enacted as follows: “The Lord
spake unto Moses, saying, when thou takest the
sum of the children of Israel, they shall give
every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord,
when thou numberest them, that there may be
no plague among them when thou numberest
them: this shall they give, every one that is
numbered a half-shekel, according to the shekel
of the sanctuary: a half-shekel shall be the
offering of the Lord. Every one, from twenty
years and upwards, shall give an offering to the
Lord; the rich shall not give more, and the
poor shall not give less, than a half-shekel, that
it may be for a memorial unto the children of
Israel before the Lord, to make an atonement
for your souls.”[131] The shekel is a coin which
.bn 336.png
.pn +1
contains twenty gerahs,[132] and has at different
times been of different values, but since the
time of the high-priest Simon, has been equal
to a Grecian stater. The coin, as struck by
him, has a beautiful stamp: on the one side
is seen, in the centre, the budding rod of Aaron,
with the legend around it, “The holy Jerusalem:”
on the other side is a pot of manna,
and the words “Shekel of Israel.” Whole
and half shekels were coined. It was such a
half-shekel that every Jew of twenty years and
upwards was bound to give, as an acknowledgment
of his belonging to the people of Jehovah.
It might be considered as a capitation tax
levied in the last month of the ecclesiastical
year. On the first day of this month, Adar,
the Sanhedrim sent messengers through the
whole country, who demanded the half-shekel,
and fifteen days were given for the payment.
On the fifteenth day of Adar, the receivers of the
half-shekel took their seats beside the chests,
in the court of the Women, and all who were
.bn 337.png
.pn +1
twenty years and upwards brought their contribution.
If any one neglected to do so,
compulsory measures were resorted to, in order
to obtain it. To the very poorest persons a
further respite of a year was granted, and for
this reason a chest for the past year was placed
by that which received the contributions of
the present. At this time a multitude of the
poorer class were seen soliciting alms from the
rich, to enable them to discharge their debt.
This was the only kind of begging which the
law allowed in Israel. Strangers, who came to
Jerusalem chiefly at the festivals, were accustomed
to take these opportunities of discharging
the debt, especially at the Passover, which
was some weeks later than the day of the month
Adar, on which it became due.
.fn 131
Exod. xxx. 11.
.fn-
.fn 132
Numb. iii. 47.
.fn-
The Cyrenian had brought the sum which
was due from his Jewish brethren in Cyrene,
and was about to deposit it in the chest. But
it was necessary that it should be paid in
, and he had only foreign coin. As this
was a case of frequent occurrence, the receivers
of the shekel were also money-changers, and
.bn 338.png
.pn +1
had their tables beside the chests. For a certain
premium they gave Jewish shekels for the
Cyrenian coins. Helon witnessed the proceeding
with no small dissatisfaction.
He had the true
and trade, of which, in the whole law, no
single instance of encouragement is found.
Though Canaan lay on the shore of the Mediterranean,
and the example of their nearest
neighbours, the Ph[oe]nicians, encouraged the
Israelites to commerce, it was not the will of
Jehovah that his people should devote themselves
to traffic; agriculture, on the contrary,
was consecrated by its union with religion, and
all the great national festivals were as much
agricultural as historical. In this respect Israel
resembled the Greeks more than the Orientals,
among whom commerce is usually held in high
estimation, constitutes an order of nobility, and
engages even the prime ministers of the state.
The Greek, on the contrary, at least in the
earliest and purest times, considered such occupations
as a surrender of his dignity, and inconsistent
with the magnanimity of a free man.
.bn 339.png
.pn +1
Helon would fain have seen the same spirit
continuing to animate the Israelites, though
for a different reason. The constant intercourse
with foreigners, necessarily produced
compromises and conformity, which diminished
their attachment to the law and usages of
their forefathers. He disliked the mercantile
character of the Hellenists of Alexandria, as
much as their love of allegories, and deduced
indeed from the former their neglect of the
law, their indifference to the temple on Moriah,
and their endeavour to pacify their conscience
by allegorizing those precepts, which in their
literal acceptation too obviously rebuked their
practices. If the children of the captivity, he
thought, had not taken up the pursuit of commerce
on the banks of the Euphrates and the
Tigris, they would have returned in much
greater numbers, and so many of them would
not have been induced to prefer gain in a foreign
land to the recovery of their own. “And had
they returned in greater numbers,” he exclaimed,
“how soon would the Samaritans have
been expelled, Galilee purified, and the Philistines
.bn 340.png
.pn +1
been forced to bow their necks! Jerusalem
would have been inhabited by a totally
different race of men, and the days of Solomon
might have returned!”
With such feelings, it was natural that he
should turn away in disgust from all that
seemed to change the proper character of the
festival. This mixture of commerce with the
religious solemnity was indeed not new: it
seemed almost to arise necessarily out of the
circumstances of the case. The festivals were
not merely occasions of appearing before Jehovah,
for pious services, nor merely anniversary
assemblages of the people; they were also
the great national fairs. One end of the court
of the Gentiles served as a market-place; the
most extensive dealings carried on in it were in
cattle. Vast droves of sheep, goats, and bullocks
preceded the pilgrims on their way to the
city, to supply the sacrifices which were to be
offered there. As the animals so offered must
all be clean, it was necessary that this branch
of trade should be wholly in the hands of Jews.
The sheep came from the wilderness of Judah;
.bn 341.png
.pn +1
the bullocks from Galilee; Tekoah and Hermon
furnished honey, and Gilead its precious
balm. Ph[oe]nicians also came to the festival,
and brought with them foreign merchandise,
purple, Egyptian linen, &c.
Elisama was frequently among the merchants,
and judged of their wares with the eyes
of one experienced in such matters, for he had
himself been a merchant. But Helon could
never be persuaded to follow his uncle’s occupation,
and had been accustomed at Alexandria
to take refuge in the Bruchion, when exhorted
to engage in commerce. “O! that a prophet
would appear,” he exclaimed one day in the
temple, when his zeal was more than ordinarily
kindled, “who should overturn the tables of the
money-changers, and drive those who buy and
sell from the courts of Jehovah!”
These things however were only trivial diminutions
of his pleasure, small specks in the
bright glory which invested the temple and its
services to his imagination. When he went up,
morning or evening, and entered by the Beautiful-gate,
he hastened as speedily as possible
.bn 342.png
.pn +1
from the objects the sight of which displeased
him, to reach a scene more congenial to his
feelings, to ascend the flight of steps which
conducted to the altar of burnt-offering, to
wander in the spacious porticoes, to follow
with the eye the majestic steps of the high-priest,
or listen to the psalms of the Levites.
He had not words to describe the delight
in which he thus passed his hours away. He
inwardly resolved to become as it was then
called, a Chasidean, i. e. a perfectly righteous
man. He thanked Jehovah that he had so
happily escaped from the meshes of the Greek
philosophy, and had so pure and ardent a love
for the law of his fathers. He prayed to the
God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, to be
enabled to fulfil the law in all its rigour, and he
was conscious of a warmth of attachment to it,
and an energy of purpose, which left him no
doubt of succeeding.
The close of the festival was at hand; Helon
could scarce refrain from tears when, on the
evening of the seventh day, the sound of the
trumpets announced that it was over. The last
.bn 343.png
.pn +1
day, the twenty-first of the month Nisan, was
as holy as the first, and no work could lawfully
be done on either of them. The festival-offering
was presented on this as on every other of
the seven days: the ashes from such a multitude
of sacrifices, never having been cleared
away, had accumulated to a lofty heap upon
the altar. All those who had remained in Jerusalem
had assembled in the temple; in the
afternoon they went to the synagogue, and
with sunset the feast of unleavened bread was
over.
Helon went down from the temple, with slow
and melancholy steps. The pilgrims were preparing
for their departure, and the citizens
returning to their ordinary occupations. On
the following morning they were present at the
sacrifice, and returned thanks to Jehovah for
permitting them to join in the celebration of
his Passover. The tents were then struck; the
different companies arranged themselves, and
with the sound of cymbals poured out from the
different gates, after having taken a hearty
farewell of their respective friends.
.bn 344.png
.pn +1
Helon stood upon the roof, and saw the
commotion in the streets and at the gates.
The city gradually became more empty and
silent. He listened, as the songs of the pilgrims
died away in the distance, and when he
heard from the road to Bethlehem, where he
had himself joined in the chorus, the psalm
which they were singing on their return, the
sound fell on his heart, like the knell of departed
joy.
.bn 345.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.h2
NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
.il fn=i_005.jpg w=100px ew=20%
.ce
BOOK I.
.—Emancipation of servants.] The Mosaic law
did not prohibit domestic slavery, which, being universal
in the ancient world, it would have been impossible to
banish from among any single people;—it only endeavoured
to mitigate those evils which slavery must bring with
it, especially among a people little softened by civilisation.
In particular, its regulations were directed to prevent the
mischiefs which resulted in other countries from the hostility
against their master, which is engendered in the minds
of slaves, who see no prospect of any termination to their
miseries but that of their lives. Foreign slaves might be
purchased and retained during their whole lifetime in
slavery; (Lev. xxv. 45, 46.) but if a native Israelite had
been reduced to servitude by poverty, Josephus (Ant. iii.
12. xvi. 1.) adds, by crime, he was to be set free at the
end of seven years, or in the year of Jubilee, if this occurred
before his seven years of service had expired. (Exod.
xxi. 2-6. Lev. xxv. 39. Deut. xv. 12-18.) It would,
however, frequently happen that a servant would have
formed an attachment to his master’s house, which would
make him unwilling to leave it, especially as the children,
who might have been born to him by a female slave in the
family, continued the property of his master. (Exod. xxi. 4.)
.bn 346.png
.pn +1
In this case he was allowed to bind himself to his service
for ever: the compact, to prevent false claims on the
master’s part, taking place in the presence of witnesses,
with the ceremonies described in the text. Josephus (Ant.
iv. 8. 28.) appears to suppose, that even then he was released
in the fiftieth year. The time immediately preceding
the Passover is said to have been usually chosen for the
manumission of those who were to receive their freedom.
(Reland, Ant. Sacr. Heb. 452. Michaelis, Mos. Law,
§ 122-127.)
.—Thavech.] היך ([Greek: to\ meso\n], Luke v. 19.) is a
Hebrew word denoting the midst, and applied to the court
which formed the centre of the buildings of the house.
See Shaw’s Travels, p. 208.
.—Presents for the host.] “It is counted uncivil
to visit in this country without a gift in the hand. All
great men expect it, as a kind of tribute due to their character
and authority, and look upon themselves as affronted,
and indeed defrauded, when this compliment is omitted.
Even in familiar visits amongst inferior people you shall
seldom have them come, without bringing a flower, or an
orange, or some other such token of their respect to the
person visited: the Turks in this respect keeping up the
ancient oriental custom hinted at, (1 Sam. ix. 7.) ‘If we
go, what shall we bring the man of God? there is not a
present to bring to the man of God—what have we?’
which words are questionless to be understood as relating
to a token of respect, and not a price of divination,”—Maundrell’s
Travels, p. 26.
.—Respecting the construction of the better kind
of houses in the east, the variegated marble pavements, the
fountain with its cypress or palm-trees, the awning stretched
over it, &c. see Harmer’s Observations on Scripture,
.bn 347.png
.pn +1
i. 195. Ed. 1776. Russell’s Aleppo, i. 29. Shaw’s Travels,
207.
.—Nard.] The costly liquid perfume, called
nardus by the ancients, was obtained from the flowers of the
Indian plant Valeriana Jatamensi. (Roxburgh, As. Res. iv.
No. 33.) From the resemblance of the grains, with which
the lower part of the stem is covered, to an ear of corn, it
obtained the name of [Greek: na/rdou sta/chys], spikenard. (Mark
xiv. 3. John xii. 3.) When pure, a small quantity of it,
such as could be enclosed in a vase of onyx, was esteemed
of great value.—Hor. Od. iv. 12.
.pm start_poem
Sed pressum Calibus ducere Liberum,
Si gestis, juvenum nobilium cliens,
Nardo vina merebere,
Nardi parvus onyx eliciet cadum; caet.
.pm end_poem
.—Fish of the Nile.] Athen. vii. 312. [Greek: phe/rei de\ o(
Nei~los ge/nê polla\ i)chthy/ôn kai\ pa/nta ê)/dista.]—Diod. i. 36. The
fish of Egypt are regretted, along with its vegetables,
by the murmuring Israelites. (Numb. xi. 5.) In the hot
weather the languid appetite relishes scarcely any food but
this.—Harmer, ii. 327.
.—Posture at table.] “C[oe]nantes ita decumbebant,
ut capite leviter erecto, dorsoque pulvinis suffulto, lævo
cubito inniterentur. Singulos lectos terni solebant occupare;
primus pedes dorso secundi, secundus tertii dorso
proximos habebat. Primus dicebatur summus, qui ad
hujus pedes tertius imus erat, qui medius inter illos accumbebat
dignissimus habebatur.”—Quistorpius de Terra
Sancta; Fascic. Opusc. ix. 542.
.—Blessing the bread.] The prayers of the Jews
before their meals beginning with the words ברוך אהה יהוה
the word to bless, ([Greek: eu)logei~n]) came to be used, as we find it
.bn 348.png
F.pn +1
in the New Testament, for giving of thanks before a meal,
and was applied to the food itself, though properly referring
to God. (Kuinöel on Luke ix. 16.) What is here said
respecting the ceremonies with which the meal was accompanied
must be understood to rest on Rabbinical authority,
or the practice of the later Jews. See Calmet Dict.
Prayer; Diss. sur le Manger des Hébreux, i. p. 350.
Buxtorf. Synagoga Judaica, 7.
.—“Happy the people,” &c.] These words will
not be found in our version of Psalm lxxxix. 15., but
“Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound.” The
author has followed the version of Dathe and others. “O
beatum populum, qui novit clangorem tubæ.” “Israelitis
dies solemnes et festivi clangore tubæ annunciabantur,
Lev. xxiii. 24. qui deinde ad eos peragendos in loco sacro
conveniebant. Laudat igitur poeta felicitatem populi ex
eo, quod hæc sacra ex præscripto Deo peragere possit.”
Dathe. The modern Jews repeat this verse, when the
trumpet is blown in the synagogue at the Feast of Trumpets.—Jenning’s
Jewish Ant. ii. 253.
.—History of the Jews in Egypt.] According
to the account of Aristeas, to whom we owe the fable of
the origin of the Greek version of the Old Testament, the
Jews had settled in Egypt as early as the time of Psammetichus,
670 B. C. This, however, is not confirmed by
֖more credible authors. Herodotus mentions only Ionian
and Carian mercenaries, (ii. 152.) as having served Psammetichus;
Diodorus (i. 66.) does indeed add Arabians,
under whom Jews may have been included; but there is
nothing in the sacred volume to countenance the supposition.
After the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar,
Gedaliah, whom the Babylonians had left in command
over the remnant of the people, was murdered by Ishmael,
.bn 349.png
.pn +1
a prince of the house of Judah, who had taken refuge with
the king of Ammon. The people, fearing the vengeance
of Nebuchadnezzar, determined to take refuge in Egypt.
Jeremiah, who endeavoured to dissuade them from it, was
compelled to accompany them in their flight, and probably
died in Egypt. (Jer. xli. xlii. xliii.) The fugitives took
up their abode in the country adjacent to Pelusium, (Jer.
xliv.) at Memphis and Thebes. It was predicted by Jeremiah
that they should be cut off, but we know not in
what manner the prophecy was fulfilled: probably from
this time to that of Alexander the Great, a considerable
number of Jews remained in the principal cities of
Egypt. Alexander, when he founded the city which bore
his name, brought a great number of Jews to settle there,
(Jos. Bell. Jud. ii. 18. 7. cont. Apion. ii. 4.) allowed
them to be called Macedonians, and gave them a quarter
of the city, adjoining the palace, for their peculiar residence,
that they might observe their national customs
without molestation. Ptolemy Lagi, the founder of the
kingdom of Egypt, endeavoured to possess himself of
Palestine, but was driven out by Antigonus, and in his
retreat carried with him a great number of Jewish families;
(B. C. 312) some of whom he placed in his garrisons,
others he sent to Cyrene, (Jos. Apion. ii. 4.) but the greater
part he settled at Alexandria, continuing to them the
privileges which had been granted to them by Alexander.
After the battle of Ipsus, (301) Judæa remained in the
hands of Ptolemy, and many more of the Jews were
attracted to the new capital of Egypt. (Jos. Ant. xii. 1.)
Their number must have been very great, if we could rely
on the account given by Josephus, that 120,000 of them
were ransomed from slavery by Ptolemy Philadelphus,
(B. C. 277, Ant. xii. 2. 1.) when he caused the Jewish law
.bn 350.png
.pn +1
to be translated into Greek. The succeeding princes of
this family treated the Jews with great kindness, desirous
probably of attaching their countrymen in Palestine, and
thus securing their possession of that region, so eagerly
contested between them and the kings of Syria.[133] In the
reign of Ptolemy Philometor, Onias, whose father, the
third high-priest of that name, had been murdered, fled
into Egypt, and rose into high favour with the king and
Cleopatra, his queen. The high-priesthood of the temple
of Jerusalem, which belonged of right to his family, having
passed from it to the family of the Maccabees, by the nomination
of Jonathan to this office, (B. C. 153) Onias
used his influence with the court to procure the establishment
of a temple and ritual in Egypt, which should entirely
detach the Jews who lived there from their connection
with the temple at Jerusalem. The king readily complied
with the request, hoping thus to assimilate the Jews more
completely with his subjects, and to retain at home the
gifts and tributes which they sent to the temple at Jerusalem.
It was a bold innovation on the Jewish law,
which had prescribed that sacrifices should be offered at
one place only, for which purpose Jerusalem had long
been appropriated. But on the other hand it might be
urged that this law was given only in the contemplation of
the Israelites living altogether in their own land, and that
the case of a large number of Jews dwelling in a foreign
.bn 351.png
.pn +1
country, not having been in the view of the lawgiver, was
to be provided for when it arose. To reconcile the Egyptian
Jews to a second temple, Onias is said to have
alleged a passage in Isaiah, (xix. 18, 19.) of which we shall
have occasion to speak hereafter. The place which he
chose for the purpose was a ruined temple of Bubastis, at
Leontopolis, in the Heliopolitan nome, one hundred and
eighty stadia from Memphis; and the king having granted
it to him, he repaired it, built a city resembling Jerusalem
in miniature, (Jos. Bel. Jud. i. 1.) and erected an altar in
imitation of that in the temple, constituted himself high-priest,
and appointed priests and Levites from among the
Jewish settlers. The king granted a tract of land around
the temple for the maintenance of the worship, and it remained
in existence till destroyed by Vespasian. (Jos.
Ant. xiii. 3. xx. 9. Bell. Jud. vii. 11.) The chief seat of the
Jews in Egypt, after Alexandria, appears to have been
the district in which this temple stood, and which was
called, from the founder, [Greek: O)ni/ou Chô/ra]. (Jos. Ant. xiv. 8.)
Onias was also a great warrior, and jointly with another
Jew, Dositheus, was intrusted by Ptolemy with the
management of all his civil and military affairs. When,
after the death of Philometor, a dispute arose between
Cleopatra and Ptolemy Physcon about the succession,
Onias raised an army of Jews, and came to her assistance.
During the reign of this voluptuous and cruel prince,
(145-117 B. C.) the Jews in Egypt probably suffered in
common with the other inhabitants of Alexandria, who
were more than once in open rebellion against him; but
nothing particular is related respecting them, if we except
the circumstance mentioned in the preceding note, which
the Latin translation of Josephus contra Apionem refers to
the reign of Ptolemy Physcon. His queen Cleopatra
.bn 352.png
.pn +1
associated with herself in the kingdom her eldest son,
Ptolemy Lathyrus, and they were jointly sovereigns of
Egypt at the time when the pilgrimage of Helon is supposed
to take place. Cleopatra, jealous of Lathyrus, whom
she had been compelled to take as her partner in the
regal power, instead of his younger brother Alexander,
(Jos. Ant. xiii. 10. 4.) gave her whole confidence to Hilkias
and Ananias, sons of that Onias, by whom the temple of
Leontopolis was built, gave them the command of the
army, and was guided in every thing by their advice. The
attachment of the Jews appears to have been the great
support of Cleopatra’s power, almost all the other persons
whom she employed going over to the side of Ptolemy.
Thus favoured by the ruling powers, the Jews seem
to have increased in population and wealth, so as to
form no inconsiderable proportion of the inhabitants of
Alexandria. [Greek: Tê~s tô~n Alexandre/ôn po/leôs a(phô/risto me/ga me/ros
tô~| e)/thnei toutô~|.] Strabo ap. Jos. Ant. xiv. 7. 2. Philo,
Leg. ad Caium, says they were [Greek: myria/des po/llai]. Besides
the enjoyment of their own religion, they had their own
Ethnarch, who administered justice among them, according
to their own law; so that, according to Strabo, they formed
a sort of independent community in the bosom of the state.
(Jos. Ant. xix. 5. 2.) It seemed desirable to present the
reader with this connected view of the origin and state of
the Jews in Egypt, as it is disclosed only gradually, and
by allusion, in the work itself.
.fn 133
A tale, not very credible, is related by the author of what is
called the Third Book of the Maccabees, of Ptolemy Philopater’s
attempting to compel the Jews in Egypt to forsake their religion.
Josephus takes no notice of it in his Antiquities; it is found in the
Latin translation of the Treatise against Apion. It may have had
its foundation in some persecution raised against them by that
king. See Prideaux’s Connection, under the year 216 B. C.
.fn-
.—Irhaheres, Leontopolis.] Isaiah xix. 18. This
is the passage which Onias is said to have alleged, in
order to induce the Jews to acquiesce in the erection of the
temple at Leontopolis. The words which stand in our
common Hebrew Bibles are these, עִיר ההרס יאמר לאחת
rendered in our translation “One shall be called, the City
.bn 353.png
.pn +1
of Destruction.” Those who impute a misapplication of
the passage to Onias, suppose that he read it ציר החרס,
which, according to the meaning which the word bears,
(Job ix. 7.) would signify City of the Sun, i. e. Heliopolis;
and some modern interpreters consider this as the more
probable reading. See Vitringa in loc. It is supported
by Symmachus, who renders it [Greek: po/lis ê(li/ou;] and Jerome
“Civitas Solis vocabitur una.” The rendering of the
Seventy is different from either, [Greek: po/lis Asede\k klêthê/setai ê( mi/a
po/lis], as if they had read הצדק, whence Prideaux (Conn.
Book iv. p. 377. Ann. 149.) infers that the translation of
this prophet was made by the Jews who worshipped at
Leontopolis, and that they corrupted the text to pay a
compliment to the temple there. Our author has followed
an interpretation different from any of the above,
which is thus given by Dathe, who has adopted it in his
translation: “Quæ sit עיר ההרם incertum non est, postquam
Ikenius in Diss. Philol. Diss. xvi. p. 258, plane
demonstravit eam esse Leontopolim; origo nominis superest
in lingua Arabica, in qua דרם leonem significat. Templum
vero illud Oniæ IV. de quo sine dubio propheta loquitur, in
nomo Heliopolitano ad urbem Leontopolim extructum esse
Josephus diserte testatur Antiq. xiii. 3.”
It may be observed that the prophecy of Isaiah might
naturally be considered as a justification of the erection
of a temple in Egypt, without either corruption or mistranslation,
as it certainly speaks of an altar to Jehovah
there.
.—The Alijah.] See Shaw’s Travels, p. 214.;
Taylor’s Heb. Concord. sub voce (עליה). It appears to have
been the chamber over the gate, to which David (2 Sam.
xviii. 33.) retired to weep for Absalom, and the [Greek: y(perô~on]
(Acts ix. 37.) in which the corpse of Tabitha was laid.
.bn 354.png
.pn +1
.—The Panium.] [Greek: E)/sti de\ kai\ Pa/neion, y(/psos ti\
cheiropoi/êton, strobiloeide\s, e)mphere\s ochthô| petrô/dei, dia kochli/ou
tê\n a)na/basin e)/chon a)po\ de\ tê~s koryphê~s e)/stin a)pidei~n o(/lên tê\n
po/lin y(pokeime\nên a)utô~| pantacho/then;] Strabo, xvii. p. 795. The
Bruchium (a corruption of [Greek: pyrouchei~on], granary) was situated
at the north-eastern angle of the city. See the plan of Alexandria,
ancient and modern, in St. Croix Examen des Historiens
d’Alexandre, ed. 2. p. 288. Alexandria had two
principal harbours, the Great Harbour to the east, on
which the Bruchium stood, and the Port of Eunostus to
the west. The separation between them was made by the
shallows between the Pharos and the land, afterwards
covered by the mole of the Heptastadium. The modern
city of Alexandria stands on the ground which has accumulated
about the Heptastadium.
The Museum, where men of letters lived in common and
at the royal charge, (Strabo, xviii. 794. Gillies’ Hist. of the
World, i. 496.) was founded by Ptolemy Lagi, and the
library enlarged by Philadelphus and succeeding kings,
till it amounted to 400,000 volumes. The Serapeum contained
300,000 more. The library in the Bruchium was
burnt in the wars of Cæsar; that in the Serapeum suffered
much in the religious dissensions, and what remained was
destroyed by the Saracens.
That the population of Alexandria has not been overrated
by the author, at 600,000 souls, may be inferred from
what Diodorus says, that when he was in Egypt, (60 B. C.)
it appeared from the registers that there were 300,000
free men in Alexandria. Now in ancient cities the slaves
were commonly at least double the number of the free inhabitants.
Hume Ess. i. p. 442. It was the second city of
the Roman world after Rome itself. Diod. xvii. 52.
.—Aramæan Jews.] Aram, in its largest sense,
.bn 355.png
.pn +1
comprehended Syria, Mesopotamia, and Palestine, all
whose languages are closely allied. (Deut. xxvi. 5. Ezra
iv. 7.) Though politically distinguished from Syria, Palestine
has no geographical demarcation, and hence was
often reckoned to belong to it. (Reland, Pal. p. 42.) Of the
hatred which the Jews of Palestine bore to those of Egypt,
who had attached themselves to the temple, see Maimonides
de Reg. Hebr. c. 5. and the commentary in the
Fascic. Hist. and Phil. Sacr. ix. p. 63. seq. The Greek
learning was as odious to the zealous Aramæans, as to
Cato himself. Ernesti op. Phil. xxiii. “Ut gliscenti
malo, quod genuisse Ægyptiacas synagogas querebantur,
obicem ponerent, sanxere Maledictus esto quisquis filium
suum sapientiam Græcanicam edoceat.” (Brucker, ii. 705.)
The inveteracy of the two sects against each other appeared
immediately in the Christian church. Acts vi. 1.
Wetstein in loc.
.—Of the origin of the love of allegory among
the Jews of Alexandria, from their acquaintance with a
corrupted form of the Platonic and Pythagorean philosophy,
see Brucker, Hist. Phil. ii. 690. “Cum reliquæ
Græcorum sectæ a Judaica theologia nimis distare crederentur,
et nec Peripatetica mundi æternitas, nec Stoica
mundi anima cum placitis Mosaicis, etiam allegoriarum ope
satis conciliari posse videretur, sola Pythagorico-Platonica
doctrina saniora et digniora Mosaicis præceptis afferre
existimata est, eo quod sublimius de Deo divinisque et
spiritualibus substantiis philosophari putabatur. Ast magnum
cum esset inter Pythagorico-Platonica dogmata et
legem Mosaicam discrimen, adhibita est regionis docendi
methodus, et allegoriæ beneficio in concordiam ire jussa
sunt præcepta longe diversissima.” Eichhorn Allge. Bibl.
v. 233.
.bn 356.png
.pn +1
.—Doctrine of reminiscences.] Plato’s doctrine,
that the soul’s present knowledge is only a remembrance
of a former state, is the basis of much of his reasoning in
favour of the immortality of the soul in his Phædo, sect.
xviii. ed. Forster. [Greek: To\ o)/n], that which is, is the real nature
of things, the knowledge of which it is the highest flight of
philosophy to attain.
.—A wise Jew who was also a Platonist.] In
this description, the author evidently refers to Philo,
(Brucker, ii. 193.) who lived a little after the time of our
Saviour, but may be fairly presumed not to have been
the founder of this system of Platonico-Mosaic allegory,
since he speaks of it himself as old; Op. p. 1190, Ed. Par.
although he was so eminent in it, that Photius, ciii. says of
him, [Greek: e(x ou~) oi~)mai kai\ pa~s o( a)llêgoriko\s tê~s graphê~s e)n tê~|
e)kklêsi/a| lo/gos e)/schen a)rchê\n]. The author supposes Philo to
have conceived of the [Greek: Lo/gos] as a being distinct from the
mind of God—yet strongly as many passages in his works
favour this opinion, all seems at other times to resolve
itself into a personification of a divine attribute and
energy. See Mosheim ad Cudw. Syst. Int. i. 835. “Vocabulorum
et nominum quibus hunc [Greek: lo/gon] Judæus noster
multis in locis ornat ea vis et ratio est, ut si ex usû et
recepta loquendi consuetudine æstimantur, notionem personæ,
summo licet Numine inferioris, in animis pariant—Ego
vero vehementer metuo, ne si umbræ dissipantur quibus
dictionem suam obscuravit Philo, idem nobis de hoc verbo
dicendum sit, quod de binis potentiis ejus de quibus antea
egimus.—Qui de hominum cogitationibus tam argute ac
figurate philosophatur, is si Dei sapientiam et rationem
aut divina decreta et cogitata primogenitum Dei filium
vocat, nihil ab institutis suis alienum admittat.” On the
other side of the question may be consulted, Kidder’s Demonstration
.bn 357.png
.pn +1
of the Messiah, P. iii. ch. 5, 6.; Bull, Def.
Fid. Nic. i. 1. 16.
.—God only can be our instructor in things
relating to himself.] See Plato, Rep. vii. init. Leland’s
Necessity of Revelation, i. 270.
.—An Egyptian Jew.] The book of Tobit
was probably composed before the time of our Saviour,
but when, or where, is very uncertain. (Eichhorn, Einl.
ins A. T. 4. 410.) Alexandria, however, was the great
workshop of the Jewish apocryphal writings, and probably
produced this.
.—A righteous man.] See Godwin’s Moses and
Aaron, lib. i. c. 9. respecting the distinction between the
חסידים, who to the obedience of the law added many other
observances, designed to show their zeal for it; and the
צדיקים, who contented themselves with keeping the
written law. From the books of the Maccabees (1 Mac.
ii. 42. vii. 13.) where the [Greek: A)ssidai~oi] are mentioned, it is
clear that this name was given to those who were zealous
for the law; the existence of the others as a distinct class
is more doubtful. Prideaux supposes that as the Chasidim
gave rise to the Pharisees, so did the Tsadikim to the
Karaites, who reject all tradition. Conn. vol. iii. An. 107.
.—The Tallith.] See Calmet’s Dictionary, Art.
Taled. The fringes were designed to be worn on the
ordinary garments, but the Jews in later times affixed
them to this mantle, which they wore only in prayer.
.—Ceremonies of Prayer.] See Calmet’s Dict.
Art. Phylactery. Surenh. Mishna i. 9. The use of them
was at least as old as the time of our Saviour; but in describing
the particular mode of making and wearing them,
our author has followed Leo of Modena’s account of the
modern Jews. Kri Schma, or Kiriath Shema, is derived
.bn 358.png
.pn +1
from the word שמע (“Hear, O Israel,”) with which the
passage in Deuteronomy begins. See Vitringa, Synagoga
i. 279; Cérémonies des Juifs traduites de l'ltalien de
Leo de Modene, par Simonville, p. 30.; Prid. Connect.
P. i. B. i. 6. vol. ii. 545. Some have supposed that when
Christ asked the lawyer (Luke x. 26.) “What is written
in the law? how readest thou?” he pointed to the phylactery
on which Deut. vi. 4. seq. was written. See Kuinöel
ad locum.
.—Taking food early in the morning.] “Woe
unto thee, O land, when thy princes eat in the morning.”
(Eccles. x. 16.) The Talmud prescribes eleven o’clock in
the forenoon, as the time when it is proper to take the first
meal. See Calmet’s Dict. Art. Eating. On the sabbath,
and all festival days, it was usual to fast till noon. See
Hammond on Acts ii. 15.
.—And thinks of the way to Jerusalem.] There
is no mention of Jerusalem in the text of this passage.
(Ps. lxxxiv. 5.) Our author follows Dathe, who renders
.pm start_poem
O beatum hominem! qui spem suam in te collocat;
Qui perpetuo de viis ad ædem tuam cogitat.
.pm end_poem
.—Egypt abounds with horses.] The horse appears
to have been used by the Egyptians long before it
was common among the Jews, or even the Arabians,
though Arabia has been supposed to be the native country
of this animal. Horses formed no part of the riches of the
patriarchs: it is only in connection with Egypt that we
find them mentioned in early Scripture history. See
Mich. Mos. Law § 166, and Appendix. It was forbidden
the Israelites to breed many horses, (Deut. xvii. 16.) a
mountainous country being indeed ill adapted for this
purpose. Solomon, when he married the daughter of
.bn 359.png
.pn +1
Pharaoh, in violation of this law, procured horses from
Egypt, (1 Kings x. 28, 29. 2 Chron. i. 16, 17.) and even
carried on a traffic in them. And when Zedekiah (Ezek.
xvii. 15.) is about to rebel, he sends to Egypt for cavalry.
It is true that the Egyptian horses do not appear to have
been highly valued for their qualities by the Greeks and
Romans; and that Egypt is never mentioned by those who
have treated of the places in which this animal is found in
the greatest perfection. See Bochart Hierozoicön, ii. 9.
Yet, even in later times, when the great increase of canals
had both lessened the necessity for the employment of
horses, and had made the use of them difficult, (Herod. ii.)
we find from Appian that the Ptolemies kept on foot
40,000 cavalry, Rom. Hist. Præf. 10.
.—Sabbath-day’s journey.] In the remainder
of his work the author generally uses the sabbath-day’s
journey as equivalent to somewhere about three quarters
of an English mile.
.—Branches of the Nile.] Alexandria lying
beyond the Canopic, the westernmost mouth of the Nile, all
the seven branches of the river would, of course, be crossed
by our travellers, in order to reach Pelusium, which was
situated beyond the easternmost. The greater Delta is
the whole country lying between these two branches; the
lesser, that which is included between the Bubastic (or
Pelusiac) and the Busiritic (or Phatnitic) channel, itself
a branch of the Bubastic. Champollion, ii. 13. The distance
from Alexandria to Pelusium, according to the
Itinerary of Antoninus, was two hundred and thirteen miles.
Naucratis stood on the eastern bank of the Canopic branch:
it was for a long time the only place to which the jealousy
of the Pharaohs allowed foreign merchants to resort; and
under Amasis the Greeks were permitted to establish themselves
.bn 360.png
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there. (Herod. ii. 178.) Sais, one of the most celebrated
cities of the Delta, stood about two leagues eastward
from the Canopic branch: the goddess Naet, (or Neitha) who
was worshipped there, was identified by the Greeks with
their own Athene. See Jablonski Panth. Æg. lib. i. c. 3.
Busiris was near the centre of the Delta, and on the
western bank of the Phatnitic branch, distant twenty leagues
from the apex of the Delta, and an equal number from the
sea. Tanis, the Zoan of Scripture, was situated on the
eastern bank of a subordinate branch of the Pelusiac,
which from it took the name of Tanitic. Josephus describes
it as having dwindled into an insignificant place,
but the remains of several obelisks attest its ancient magnificence.
Champollion, ii. 101.
.—Little wine was produced in Egypt.] Herodotus,
iii. 16. says that wine was brought from Greece and
Ph[oe]nicia into Egypt. Ph[oe]nicia was celebrated for its
wines:
.pm start_poem
Vina mihi non sunt Gazetica, Chia, Falerna,
Quæque Sareptano palmite missa bibas.—Sidonius, xvii. 15.
.pm end_poem
Herodotus (ii. 77.) says that Egypt produced no wine,
and his testimony is confirmed by Plutarch, who says (De
Iside et Osir. 6.) that before the time of Psammetichus
no wine was drunk in Egypt nor offered to the gods. The
mention of vines in Egypt in the book of Genesis (xl. 10.)
shows that the assertion of Herodotus is to be taken with
some limitation, but there can be no doubt that it was
generally true. The level plains of Egypt are not suited to
the cultivation of the vine—apertos Bacchus amat colles—and
are besides overflowed precisely at that time when
the vintage should ripen and be gathered. What wine
therefore is grown in Egypt is beyond the inundations, in
.bn 361.png
.pn +1
Fayoum, or on the border of the lake Mareotis; and perhaps
Herodotus only meant to apply his remark to what
he calls [Greek: ê( speirome/nê A)/igyptos], i. e. the country which was
annually overflowed.
.—Marshes around Pelusium.] This was the
last town of Egypt on the side of Asia, and from its
strength (for which reason it is called by Ezekiel, xxx. 15.
Sin, the strength of Egypt) was the key of the whole
country. The Greek name, [Greek: Pêlou/sion], (Strabo, xvii. 802.)
the Hebrew סין (Boch. Geogr. Sac. iv. 27.) the Arabic
Thineh, and the Coptic Feromi, (Champollion, ii. 86.) all
denote the marshy soil in which it stood.
.—Order of the caravan.] The principal circumstances
mentioned in the text are derived from Pitt’s
account of the Mecca Caravan. See Harmer, i. 465.
.—Gerrha.] According to the Tabula Peutingerana,
distant eight miles from Pelusium. Cellarius
Geogr. ii. Africa, p. 26. Josephus who (Bell. Jud. iv. 11.)
describes the route of Titus from Pelusium to Gaza, makes
his first day’s march to have been as far as the temple of
the Casian Jupiter. But the speed of a Roman army and
a caravan are very different. Philo, Vit. Mos. p. 627,
represents Canaan as two days’ journey from Egypt.
.—A round piece of leather.] This is still the
common substitute for a table in travelling in these
countries. Volney, Voyage en Syrie, ii. 244.
.—The laws respecting clean and unclean
animals are found in Lev. xi. and Deut. xiv. Michaelis,
in his Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, § 200 et seq.
has shown that the foundation of the distinction was the
practice already established by the usage of centuries
among the Israelites, and in most points also among the
kindred nations in their neighbourhood, of using certain
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animals for food to the exclusion of others. It has been
doubted whether the hare ruminates or not; it was the
opinion of ancient naturalists that it did not; Arist. Hist.
Anim. iii. 16. ed. Schneid. Blumenbach, Comp. of Nat.
Hist. Lepus, inclines to the opinion that both the hare and
the rabbit ruminate. The poet Cowper, who had the best
opportunities of observing, also pronounces the hare to
ruminate; and Dr. Shaw confirms it from dissection of the
animal. See Wellbeloved’s Notes on Lev. xi. 6.
.—Moriah.] Josephus (Ant. vii. 10.) observes,
that the threshing-floor of Araunah, where David determined
to build his temple, was the place where Abraham
was about to offer Isaac, 2 Chron. iii. 1.
.—Use made by the philosophers of the Mosaic
history.] See Huet. Dem. Evang. Prop. iv. Many of
the statements on which he relies are very questionable;
but they show what was the opinion of the Jews, from
whom the Christian fathers also derived it.
.—The Magi of Persia.] Kleuker, in his edition
of the Zend-Avesta, Append. vol. ii. P. i. p. 39,
observes, that the name of Abraham is well known to the
Ghebers, from their intercourse with the Mahometans, but
is unknown to the Parsees, the fire-worshippers of Guzerat.
This correction must be applied to the accounts given by
Prideaux, Conn. P. i. Book iv. An. 486, and others, (see
Calmet’s Dict. Abraham) of the veneration in which
Abraham is held by the followers of Zoroaster. There
can be no doubt however, that the tradition of his power,
wisdom, and virtue, has been handed down from the
earliest times, among those nations which Scripture represents
to have sprung from him. See D'Herbelot Bibl.
Orient. i. 65.
Even the profane historians speak of him. Justin, xxxvi. 2.
.bn 363.png
.pn +1
.—Casium.] [Greek: E)/sti to\ Ka/sion thinôdês tis lophos
a)krôtêria/xôn, a)/nydros, o(/pou tou~ Pompêi΅ou tou~ Ma/gnou sô~ma
kei~tai, kai\ Di/os e)/stin i(eron Kasi/ou.] Strabo, xvi. p. 760.
There was another Mons Casius, which must not be confounded
with this, near Seleucia in Syria, and to the latter
belong the medals inscribed [Greek: Zeu/s Ka/sios]. The ancients
fabled that Typhon had been buried under the Casian
mount, or in the lake Sirbonis, which is near it. (Herod.
ii. 6.) According to Herodotus, this mountain was the
eastern boundary of Egypt.
.—A stranger of the gate.] The Jewish writers
(not however those of the New Testament) speak of
two kinds of proselytes, the גדי צדק Proselytes of Righteousness,
and גרי שער Proselytes of the Gate. The former
were those who submitted to circumcision, and in every
respect conformed to the Mosaic law. (Exod. xii. 48.)
The proselyte of the gate, so called from the expression
“the stranger who is within thy gates,” frequent in the
Mosaic law, was one who lived among the Jews; generally
it should seem in a servile or menial capacity, only
so far conforming to the law, as not to offend against any
of its sacred and fundamental principles—not sacrificing
to any false God, perhaps not working on the sabbath-day.
Jennings’s Jew. Ant. i. 144. Others suppose that the proselytes
of the gate were bound to observe the seven precepts
imposed on the descendents of Noah. See Calmet’s
Dict. Art. Noachidæ, and the commentators on Acts xv.
20. In the earlier times of Jewish history, none would
embrace their religion but those who were domiciliated
among them; but when they became dispersed over the
world, and their doctrines more generally known, many
appear to have attached themselves to the worship of the
one God, without further conformity to the Mosaic institutions.
.bn 364.png
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Many learned men, however, suppose that only
one kind of proselytes was known among the Jews,
namely, those who had received circumcision. See
Lardner, Works, vi. 523.
.—Goshen.] Respecting its situation see Jablonski,
Diss. de Terra Gosen; Opusc. ii. 77. seq. According
to him it was the Heracleotic name, an island in
the Nile, above Memphis, and answering to the modern
Fayoum. His reasons, however, seem insufficient to
counterbalance the strong presumption (arising from the
absence of all mention in the Exodus of crossing any
branch of the river) that the abode of the Israelites must
have been in Lower Egypt and beyond the Nile. Such is
the general opinion of commentators.
.—The martyr Stephen (Acts vii. 6.) appears
to speak of the captivity of Israel in Egypt as lasting four
hundred years. So Jos. Ant. i. 10. 3. ii. 9. 1. In Exod.
xii. 40. their sojourning is said to have been four hundred
and thirty years; Gen. xv. 13. it is foretold by God to
Abraham, that his seed should be afflicted in a foreign
land four hundred years, to which it is soon after subjoined,
(ver. 16) “and in the fourth generation they shall come
hither again.” It is, however, generally supposed, that the
sojourning of Abraham and his descendents in Canaan,
where they were strangers, is included in the four hundred,
or four hundred and thirty years. Accordingly Usher
reckons the first period at two hundred and fifteen years,
and the Egyptian bondage at about the same number. The
difficulty remains that only four generations, inclusive,
elapsed from the going down into Egypt to the Exodus;
for Moses and Aaron were sons of Amram, the son of
Kohath, the son of Levi; this the author solves, by reference
to the prolonged term of human life in those ages.
.bn 365.png
.pn +1
.—Egyptian horror of pastoral tribes.] Gen.
xlvi. 34. [Greek: A)igypti/ois a)peirême/non ê)/n peri\ noma\s anastre/phesthai.]
Jos. Ant. ii. 7. 5. It is generally supposed that this horror
arose from the shepherds killing the sacred animals of the
Egyptians; others regard it as a piece of policy on the
part of the Egyptian priests to keep up a horror of the
nomadic tribes, in order to confine the people to agriculture;
others, as the effect of what the country had suffered
from the irruptions of these tribes, especially that of the
Hycsos or Shepherd kings. Jos. c. Apion. i. 15.
.—Mosaic imitation of the Egyptian polity.]
Whether any part of the Jewish laws and institutions were
borrowed by Moses from the Egyptians, is a question of
which the affirmative side has been maintained, with great
learning, by Spencer, in his treatise De Legibus Hebræorum;
and the negative by Witsius in his Ægyptiaca. Witsius, not
denying many of the coincidences, alleges, that many
things in which the Egyptians and the Jews agreed, may
have been borrowed by the former from the latter. Considering
that Egypt was a civilized, populous, and wealthy
country, when Israel had not even become a people, this
seems not probable. Some of those customs and rites
which were observed by both nations, do not appear to
have exclusively belonged to either, e. g. the remarkable
custom of circumcision, the hereditary succession of the
priesthood, the dress of the priests, the multiplicity of
purifications, &c. Customs either exactly corresponding or
nearly analogous to these, may be found in other nations;
they had their origin from wants and feelings common to all,
or had been handed down from primeval times. In regard
to the coincidence between the civil laws of the Egyptians
and the Jews, Michaelis well observes, “Without in the
least degree derogating from his divine mission, I may be
.bn 366.png
.pn +1
allowed to conjecture, that he may have adopted from other
nations what he found among them deserving of imitation.
If it be no presumption against his prophetic character,
that he changed the traditionary usages of the nomadic
Israelites into laws; neither is it any that he incorporated
with his code the wisest civil regulations of the most
civilized people.” Mos. Law, § 4. The grand peculiarity
of the system of Moses, the unity, spirituality, and providence
of God, he could have learnt neither from the
wisdom of the Egyptians, nor that of any other nation;
and on this argument may we safely rest the proof that he
was really a prophet of the Most High. Compare Prichard’s
Analysis of Egyptian Mythology, ch. iv.
.—Only in the state of divine inspiration.] Plato
quoted by Leland, Necess. of Rev. i. 258.
.—Drifted sand.] “The lake Sirbonis is bordered
on each side with hills of sand, which, borne into the
water by the wind so thicken the same, as not by the eye
to be distinguished from part of the continent, by means
whereof whole armies have been devoured.” Sandys’
Travels, p. 107.
.—Larish.] So Baumgarten writes the word commonly
and more correctly spelt El-Arish, Churchill, i. 411.
.—Ostracine.] It was distant, according to the
Itinerary, sixty-six miles from Pelusium. Cell. Geogr. Afr.
ii. 28. The lake Sirbonis was parallel to the sea, a space
of not more than fifty stadia lying between them, where
the interval was the broadest. It was connected with the
sea by a narrow channel, called [Greek: E)/krêgma], (Strabo, lib. xvi.
760.) now choked up. Sandys, p. 107. Ostracine was so
remarkably destitute of water, that to ask water from an
inhabitant of Ostracine was a proverb for a vain request.
Rel. Pal. p. 60. The ancient route passed between the
.bn 367.png
.pn +1
lake Sirbonis and the sea; the modern keeps on the
southern side of the lake; hence the exact position of
Ostracine has not been ascertained.
.—The river of Egypt.] This appears to have
been between Rhinocolura and Pelusium; whence the
Septuagint (Isa. xxvii. 12.) renders [Greek: e(/ôs Rinokoro/urôn]. Our
author follows D’Anville, who says that the entrance of a
ravine into the Sirbonian pool, receiving the waters of
many torrents from the Arabian desert, is the Torrens
Egypti of the Scriptures. Shaw, Travels, p. 181, contends
that it was the Nile. The name of El-Arish (celebrated
in the history of the late war) appears to be Arabic
and modern. El-Arish and Casium (Katieh) are the only
places between Raphia and the eastern branch of the Nile
which produce any vegetation useful for man. The rest is
moving sand or a desert strongly impregnated with salt.
Pref. to Burckhardt’s Travels in Syria, p. viii. note. The
deserts of Asia, however, are much less dreary and destitute
of vegetable life than those of Africa. See Irby and
Mangles’ account of their journey from Egypt to Palestine,
Travels, p. 169.
.—The Nethinim.] These, so called from the
Hebrew נתן (to give) were the menial servants of the
sanctuary, who fetched the water and hewed the wood for
the service of the temple. In the history of the conquest
of Canaan by Joshua, (ix. 23.) the Gibeonites are said to
be made hewers of wood and drawers of water for the
house of God; but the name of Nethinim is never given
to them; and Ezra (viii. 20.) says that David and the
princes had appointed the Nethinim for the service
of the Levites. It is probable that when the service of
God was renewed, and its rites performed with more order
and magnificence under David, the Gibeonites, who had
.bn 368.png
.pn +1
become mingled with the body of the people, were found
insufficient, and the Nethinim were appointed; perhaps
from among the captives made in the wars of David.
.—Translation of the Books of Kings.] The
first translation of the Hebrew Scriptures made by the
Greeks of Alexandria included only the Pentateuch; (Jos.
Ant. Pro[oe]m. 3.) the other historical books were translated
at various times; (see Hody, Vers. Græc. ii. 9.) the
prophets probably soon after the time when the Jews of
Palestine began to read them in their Synagogue, as a substitute
for the reading of the law, forbidden by Antiochus
Epiphanes. Eichhorn Einl. i. d. A. T. i. 342. ed. 3.
.—Rhinocorura.] This place, sometimes spelt
Rhinocolura, as observed before, is El-Arish. It is said
to have taken its Greek name from the mutilation of the
nose which a king of Ethiopia, when master of Egypt,
inflicted on those whom he sent to reside here, Strabo, xvi.
p. 759. It was twenty-six miles from Ostracine.
.—“Three sins have I passed by.”] The words
with which Amos prefaces his denunciations have been
variously explained. Literally they are, “For three transgressions
of Damascus, and for four will I not avert it.”
Our author supposes an ellipsis, “For three transgressions
I did avert the punishment, but for four I will not avert
it.” Others with more probability suppose, that three and
four are used here for an indefinite number, as six and
seven, Job v. 19.
.—Traces of melancholy.] The author has
applied to the first destruction of Jerusalem, what the
modern Jews say of themselves with reference to the
second. Buxtorf. Syn. Jud. 124. 479.
.—Raphia.] “The name is still retained in
Rafa, six hours’ march to the south of Gaza, where there
.bn 369.png
.pn +1
are many remains of ancient buildings, and among them
two columns of granite, which are supposed by the natives
to mark the boundary of Asia and Africa.” Pref. to
Burckh. p. viii. note. It was distant, according to the
Antonine Itinerary, twenty-two miles from Rhinocolura,
Cellar. Book iii. cap. 13. p. 372. The battle of Raphia was
fought between Ptolemy Philopater and Antiochus, B. C.
217, and the result was that Antiochus, being totally
defeated, was obliged to yield C[oe]le-Syria and Palestine to
Ptolemy.
.—An Israelitish maiden was Xerxes’ queen.]
That Xerxes was the Ahasuerus of Scripture was the
opinion of Scaliger. It is examined and opposed by
Prideaux, Conn. P. i. Book iv. An. 465. Usher thought
that he was Darius Hystaspis; Prideaux himself, Artaxerxes
Longimanus. The subject is embarrassed with
difficulties apparently inextricable, though there can be
little doubt that the author of the Book of Esther intended
some Artaxerxes by the name of Ahasuerus. Jos. Ant. xi. 6.
.—Manasseh became high-priest.] It must be
observed that Nehemiah only says that one of the sons of
Joiada the high-priest was son-in-law to Sanballat, but
does not call him Manasseh. Josephus, under the reign
of Darius Codomannus, (Ant. xi. 7, 8.) relates the marriage
of Manasseh, grandson of Joiada, with the daughter
of Sanballat, and his being appointed high-priest of the
newly-built temple in Gerizim. As there is a difference
of between seventy and eighty years between the date of
Scripture and that of Josephus, some (see Hudson’s note
on Josephus, Ant. xi. 7.) suppose two Sanballats, having
daughters married to sons of the Jewish high-priests. This
cheap but dangerous expedient of multiplying historical
personages is justly rejected by Prideaux, Conn. An. 409.
.bn 370.png
.pn +1
.—Alexander acknowledged the merits of
Israel.] The narrative of Alexander’s expedition to Jerusalem
is contained in Jos. Ant. xi. 8. According to him,
Alexander, while occupied in the siege of Tyre, ordered
Jaddua the high-priest to send him supplies, and as he
refused on the ground of having sworn allegiance to Darius,
Alexander, incensed at the refusal, set out as soon as he
had finished the sieges of Tyre and Gaza to punish the
Jews. He had advanced as far as Sapha, on his way to
Jerusalem, when he was met by the high-priest and the
whole sacerdotal order. On seeing the name of Jehovah,
which was inscribed on the tiara, Alexander
prostrated himself before him; and when Parmenio asked
him how he, whom the rest of mankind adored, should
prostrate himself before the Jewish pontiff, he replied that
he recognised in his figure and vestments the person who
had appeared to him in a dream before he left Macedonia,
and had encouraged him to undertake the expedition, by
assuring him that he should overturn the throne of Darius.
Accompanying the high-priest to Jerusalem, he was shown
by him the prophecy of Daniel, in which it was clearly
marked that he should overthrow the Persian monarchy.
Before he left the city, he promised to the Jews that they
should be governed by their own laws and exempted from
tribute every seventh year.
The truth of this narrative has been severely attacked by
Moyle, Works, ii. 26. and others, see Hudson’s note,
p. 503; and defended by Chandler on Daniel, and Prideaux,
An. 332, St. Croix, Examen Critique, ed. 2. p. 547. Besides
the suspicion which is thrown upon it, by its being
unnoticed by the historians of Alexander, it contains
circumstances both improbable and contradictory. The
high-priest, who shows to Alexander the prophecy of
.bn 371.png
.pn +1
Daniel, in which he is foretold as the conqueror of Persia,
refuses submission to him, because he had sworn allegiance
to Darius. But can it be believed that if he had known
that Alexander was the person predicted long before by
Jehovah, as his instrument for overthrowing the dominion
of Persia, he would have been withheld by an oath of
allegiance to the sovereign, whose reign the prophetic word
declared to be ended? So little scruple was there on this
subject, that, according to Josephus, many Jews enrolled
themselves in his army to fight against Darius. Alexander
too is made to know at once, that the characters inscribed
on the tiara of a high-priest were the names of Jehovah;
and Parmenio asks him why he, who was adored by all,
([Greek: proskuno/untôn au)ton a(pa/ntôn]) adored the Jewish high-priest;
though Alexander never received these honours till his
overthrow of Darius at Arbela had intoxicated his mind.
The circumstance of the dream certainly may be true; but
it has much the air of a romantic fiction. On the whole it
appears most probable that the Jews made their submissions
to Alexander as Justin says the princes of Syria
generally did, (x. 10.) either during the siege of Tyre, or
afterwards, when Curtius tells us that he reduced the
neighbouring cities which refused his yoke, iv. 5.
.—Hecatæus of Abdera.] According to Josephus
(Cont. Ap. i. 22.) he was a contemporary of Alexander
the Great, and a friend of Ptolemy Lagi. He wrote
a treatise expressly relating to the Jews, and mentioned
especially the firmness with which they adhered to their
laws in the midst of persecution. He shows so much
more knowledge of Judaism, and speaks of it so much
more respectfully, than the heathens commonly did, that
the work has been suspected to have been the forgery
of some Hellenistic Jew. See Origen, cont. Cels. lib. i.
.bn 372.png
.pn +1
p. 13, ed. Spencer. This was the opinion of Scaliger.
Spencer, in his note on the passage in Origen, defends its
authenticity. The reader will observe the sarcasm, in
Myron’s mention of Hecatæus as a native of Abdera, a
town proverbial for the dulness of its inhabitants; Abderitanæ
pectora plebis habes.
.—Antigonus of Socho.] See Prideaux, Conn.
An. 263. He was the first of the Mishnical school of
Jewish doctors, who taught that the law and the traditions
were of equal obligation. The founder of the sect of Sadducees
was his son. Socho, from which he took his name,
was a small town half way between Jerusalem and Eleutheropolis.
Reland, Palæst. 1018. 2 Chron. xi. 5.
.—Favour shown by Antiochus the Great to
the Jews.] See Jos. Ant. xii. 3. 3.
.—Antiochus Epimanes.] [Greek: To\n E)piphanê~ A)nti/ochon,
o(/n dia\ ta\s pra/xeis Poly/bios E)pimanê~ kalei~.] Athen. ii. 23. The
history of the persecution of the Jews by Antiochus will
be found in Joseph. Ant. Jud. xii. 5. seq. xiii. 1-9. The
first book of the Maccabees, after a brief notice of the
empire of Alexander the Great, takes up the Jewish history
(i. 10.) at the accession of Antiochus Epiphanes, and continues
it to the death of Simon, a period of about forty
years.
.—Modin.] The site of the birthplace of the
Maccabees is not exactly known: it must have been near
the sea, since their monument was a mark to sailors,
1 Macc. xiii. 30. Eusebius places it near Diospolis or
Lydda. Reland, p. 901. Maundrell says he passed near it
in an excursion from Bethlehem to the convent of St. John;
but this is probably a mistake.
.—Judas surnamed Maccabeus.] Different
etymologies of the name Maccabee are assigned. That
.bn 373.png
.pn +1
which derives it from מקבת a hammer, (q. d. Martel)
seems more probable than the common one; (according
to which it originated in their inscribing on their standards
the initial letters of Exod. xv. 11.) because it appears to
have been the surname of Judas before the war began.
See 1 Macc. ii. 4.
.—