Arnon and Aroer
Deut. 2:36.—From Aroer, which is by the brink of the river Amon, and from the city that is by the river, even unto Gilead, there was not one city too strong for us; the Lord our God delivered all unto us.
MR. GEORGE GROVE, Cryst. Pal., Sydn.—There can be no doubt that the Wady el-Mojeb of the present day is the Arnon. It has been visited and described by Burckhardt, Irby, and Seetzen. The ravine through which it flows is still the “locum vallis in prærupta demersæ satis horribilem et periculosum " which it was in the days of Jerome. The Roman Road from Rabba to Dhiban crosses it at about two hours' distance from the former. On the south edge of the ravine are some ruins called Mehatet el-Haj, and on the north edge, directly opposite, those still bearing the name Arair (Aroer).—Smith's Dict. of the Bible, p. 164.
Edrei
Deut. 3:1.—And Og the king of Bashan came out against us, he and all his people, to battle at Edrei.
PROF. J. LESLIE PORTER, M. A.—Soon after leaving Busr, the towers of Edri came in sight, extending along the summit of a projecting ledge of rocks in front, and running some distance into the interior of the Lejah on the right. Crossing a deep ravine, and ascending the rugged ridge of rocks by a winding path like a goat-track, we came suddenly on the ruins of this ancient city. The situation is most remarkable: without a single spring of living water; without river or stream; without access, except over rocks and through defiles all but impassable; without tree or garden. In selecting the site, everything seems to have been sacrificed to security and strength. Shortly after my arrival, I went up to the terraced roof of a house to obtain a general view of the ruins. Their aspect was far from inviting; it was wild and savage in the extreme. The huge masses of shattered masonry could scarcely be distinguished from the rocks that encircle them; and all, ruins and rocks alike, are black, as if scathed by lightning. The houses are low, massive, gloomy, and manifestly of the highest antiquity. Though the ruins are some three miles in circuit, the place does not contain more than five hundred inhabitants. It still bears the name Edr'a. —Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 94, 95.
Cities of Bashan
Deut. 3:3, 4.—So the Lord our God delivered into our hands Og also, the king of Bashan, and all his people: and we smote him until none was left to him remaining. And we took all his cities at that time, there was not a city which we took not from them, three-score cities, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
PROF. J. LESLIE PORTER, M. A.—Often when reading the passage (the above), I used to think that some strange statistical mystery hung over it; for how could a province measuring not more than thirty miles by twenty support such a number of fortified cities, especially when the greater part of it was a wilderness of rocks? But mysterious, incredible as this seemed, on the spot, with my own eyes, I have seen that it is literally true. The cities are there to this day. Some of them retain the ancient names recorded in the Bible. The boundaries of Argob are as clearly defined by the hand of nature as those of our own island home. These ancient cities of Bashan contain probably the very oldest specimens of domestic architecture now existing in the world.—Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 13.
IDEM.—As we ascended the hills, the rock fields of the Lejah were spread out on the right; and there, too, the ancient cities were thickly planted. Not less than thirty of the three-score cities of Argob were in view at one time on that day; their black houses and ruins half concealed by the black rocks amid which they are built, and their massive towers rising up here and there, like the "keeps" of old Norman fortresses.—Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 28.
IDEM.—The Bible name of tills province, Argob, "The Stony," is strikingly descriptive of its physical features. Around Nejran, as far as I could see westward and northward, was one vast wilderness of rocks; here piled up in shapeless, jagged masses; there spread out in flat, rugged fields, intersected by yawning fissures and chasms.—Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 92.
Deut. 3:5.—All these cities were fenced with high walls, gates, and bars; beside un-walled towns a great many.
PROF. J. LESLIE PORTER, M. A.—Many people might have thought, and few still believe, that there was a large amount of Eastern exaggeration in the language of Moses when describing the conquest of this country three thousand years ago. No man who has traversed Bashan, or who has climbed the hill of Salcah, will ever again venture to bring such a charge against the sacred historian. The walled cities, with their ponderous gates of stone, are there now as they were when the Israelites invaded the land. The great numbers of un-walled towns are there too, standing testimonies to the truth and accuracy of Moses, and monumental protests against the poetical interpretations of modern rationalists.—Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 79.
MR. CYRIL GRAHAM.—When we find one after another, great stone cities, walled and un-walled, with stone gates, and so crowded together that it becomes almost a matter of wonder how all the people could have lived in so small a space; when we see houses built of such huge and massive stones that no force which can be brought against them in that country could ever batter them down; when we find rooms in these houses so large and lofty that many of them would be considered fine rooms in a palace in Europe; and, lastly, when we find some of these towns bearing the very names which cities in that very country bore, before the Israelites came out of Egypt, I think we cannot help feeling the strongest conviction that we have before us the cities of the Rephaim of which we read in the book of Deuteronomy.—Quoted in Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 85.
PROF. J. L. PORTER, M. A.—On one of the southern peaks of the mountain range stands the town of Hebran. Here are many objects of interest. The ruins of a beautiful temple, built in A. D. 155, and of several other public edifices, are strewn over the summit and rugged sides of the hill. But the simple, massive, primeval houses were to us objects of greater attraction. Many of them are perfect, and in them the modern inhabitants find ample and comfortable accommodation. The stone doors appeared even more massive than those of Kerioth; and we found the walls of the houses in some instances more than seven feet thick. Hebran must have been one of the most ancient cities of Bashan.—Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 88.
IDEM.—The monuments designed by the genius and reared by the wealth of Imperial Rome are fast mouldering to ruin in this land; temples, palaces, tombs, fortresses, are all shattered, or prostrate in the dust; but the simple, massive houses of the Rephaim are in many cases perfect as if only completed yesterday.
It is worthy of note here, as tending to prove the truth of my statements, and to illustrate the words of the sacred writers, that the towns of Bashan were considered ancient even in the days of the Roman historian, Ammianus Marcellinus, who says regarding this country: "Fortresses and strong castles have been erected by the ancient inhabitants among the retired mountains and forests. Here in the midst of numerous towns are some great cities, such as Bostra and Gerasa, encompassed by massive walls."— Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 85.
Deut. 3:13.—And the rest of Gilead, and all of Bashan, being the kingdom of Og, gave I unto the half tribe of Manasseh; all the region of Argob, with all Bashan, Which was called the land of giants.
PROF. J. L. PORTER, M. A.—Now the houses of Kerioth and other towns in Bashan appear to be just such dwellings as a race of giants would build. The walls, the roofs, but especially the ponderous gates, doors and bars, are in every way characteristic of a period when architecture was, in its infancy, when giants were masons, and when strength and security were the grand requisites. I measured a door in Kerioth: it was nine feet high, and four and a half feet wide, and ten inches thick—one solid slab of stone. I saw the folding gates of another town in the mountains still larger and heavier. Time produces little effect on such buildings as these. The heavy stone slabs of the roofs resting on the massive walls make the structure as firm as if built of solid masonry; and the black basalt used is almost hard as iron. There can scarcely be a doubt, therefore, that these are the very cities erected and inhabited by the Rephaim, the aboriginal occupants of Bashan; and the language of Ritter appears to be true: “These buildings remain as eternal witnesses of the conquest of Bashan by Jehovah."—Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 84.
Fish Idols
Deut. 4:18.—The likeness of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth.
PROF. H. B. TRISTRAM, LL. D., F. R. S.—The worship of fish was prevalent among many nations of antiquity, and such idolatry is expressly prohibited in Deuteronomy. Among the Hindus, Vishnu is the fish pilot; and nations wide apart, as the Tartars and the ancient Britons, had their fish gods—the one the Nataghi, the other the Brithyll of the Kelts and Belgae. In Egypt many species of fishes were objects of veneration, as we are told by Herodotus. Cuvier has noticed no less than ten distinct species depicted on the walls of the sepulchral caves of Thebes, and the mummies of several kinds are found in great numbers stored up in the temples of Egypt.—Nat. Hist. of the. Bible, p. 293.
Moral Law
Deut. 5:5.—Thou shalt have none other gods before me.
SOPHOCLES.—There is in truth one only God, who made the heaven and the wide earth, and the blue depths of the sea, and the winds—Frag. spud Grot.
MENANDER.—The Lord and Father of all things; by whom all things were made, is alone to be worshipped as the inventor and creator of such excellent works—Apud Justin. de Monarch Dei.
CLEANTHES.—Most glorious of the immortals, by whatever name thou art ad dressed, everlasting and Almighty Jove, the author of all nature, ruling all things by thy law.—H. in Jov.
CICERO.—That same Jupiter, who is by the poets styled the father of the gods and men, is by our ancestors called the Best, the Greatest.—De N. D., ii., 25.
Deut. 5:8.—Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, etc.
DIODORUS SICULUS.—Moses set up no image; for he taught that God was not like any human being. —Fragm., 1. 40.
STRABO. —Moses, the Egyptian priest, declared and taught that the Egyptians and Africans entertained erroneous sentiments in representing the Deity under the likeness of wild beasts and cattle of the field; and that the Greeks also were in error in making images of their gods after the human form. For God, said he, may be this one thing which encompasses us all, land and sea, which we call Heaven, or the Universe, or the Nature of things. Who, then, of any understanding would venture to form an image of this Deity, resembling anything with which we are conversant? On the contrary we ought not to carve any images, but to set apart some sacred ground, and a shrine worthy of the Deity, and to worship Him without any similitude. —Strab., lib. xvi., c. 2.
PLUTARCH.—Numa forbade the Romans to represent the Deity in the form either of man or beast. Nor was there among them, formerly, any image or statue of the Divine Being. During the first 170 years they built temples, indeed, and other sacred domes, but placed in them no figure of any kind, being persuaded that it is impossible to represent things divine by that which is perishable, and that we can have no conception of God but by the understanding—Numa.. c. 8.
TACITUS.—The Egyptians offer divine worship to several brute animals, to images and works of art. The Jews know but one deity, to be conceived and adored by the mind alone. They hold as profane and unhallowed those who are accustomed to fashion their gods after the likeness of men, out of perishable materials—Hist., lib. v., c. 5.
Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.
THEOGNIS.—O that it might please the gods, that the fathers' infatuation should not in after time be a woe to the children; and that the children should not pay the transgression of their sires—Theog., v. 732.
EPICTETUS.—Not only my children, but my children's children will bear the punishment of this disobedience—Epict., lib. iii., c. 34.
STATIUS.—The weeping sons of Thebes atone For royal crimes and mischief not their own—Theb., iii., 206.
Deut. 5:12.—Keep the Sabbath day to sanctify it, as, etc.
HESIOD.—The seventh day is sacred—Apud Euseb. prœp. evan., 1. 13.
PLATO.—The gods pitying the laborious race of man, have ordained for it remissions from labor, the return of feast days, in honor of the gods.—De Leg., II., I.
PLUTARCH.—The Hebrews solemnize the Sabbath with mutual feasting. —Sympos., lib. iv., qu. 5.
OVID.—The seventh day, held sacred by the Jew.—De art. amand., i., 76.
TACITUS.—It is said that the Jews chose to rest every seventh day, because on that day their wanderings ended—Hist., lib. v., c. 4.
JUVENAL.—Some whose lot it is to have a father who reveres Sabbaths, worshipping nothing but clouds, the divinity of heaven: their father is to blame for this, to whom each seventh day was a day of sloth, and kept aloof from all share of life's daily duties.—Sat., xiv., v. 96.
Deut. 5:16.—Honor thy father and thy mother, etc.
PYTHAGORAS.—HONOR your parents and kinsmen—Aur. Carm., V. 4.
PLATO.—It is just for a person who owes the first and greatest of debts, to pay those that are of the longest standing, and to think that the things that he has acquired and holds, belong all to those who begot him and brought him up, for supplying what is required for their service to the utmost of his power; beginning from his substance; and in the second place from his body; and thirdly, from his soul; by paying off the debts due for their care of him, and in favor of those who gave the pangs of labor as a loan to the young, and by returning what has been due a long time to those who, in their old age, are in want. It is requisite, likewise, through the whole period of life, for a person to hold pre-eminently a kind language towards his parents.—De Leg., lib. iv., c. 8.
ARISTOTLE.—Children ought to assist their parents, most of all in nourishing them, being, as it were, in their debt. They should also give honor to their parents as to the gods.—Eth., ix., 2.
DEMOSTHENES.—To nothing are we more inviolably bound than to a just and cheerful discharge of that debt in which both nature and the laws engage as to our parents.—Philip. 4.
MENANDER.—It is right to honor parents even as the gods—Ap. Stob., 79.
Deut. 5:17.—Thou shalt not kill.
PLATO.—Whosoever shall` designedly and unjustly kill with his hand any one soever of his tribes-men, let him in the first place be debarred from legal rites; let him be amenable to anyone who is willing to avenge the dead. Let him who is convicted pay the penalty of death, and let him not be buried in the country of the murdered person.—De Leg., IX., II.
DIODORUS SICULUS.—He who willfully killed a freeman, or even a bondslave, was condemned by the laws of Egypt to suffer death—Diod. Sic., lib. i., c. 77.
Deut. 5:18.—Neither shalt thou commit adultery.
ARISTOTLE.—The law enjoins that the duties of a temperate man should be done, such as not to commit adultery.—Eth., V., I.
DIODORUS SICULUS.—By the laws of Egypt, a man guilty of adultery was to have a thousand lashes, and the woman her nose cut off—Diod. Sic., lib. i., c. 6.
QUINTILIAN.—The law justifies a man in killing an adulterer with the adulteress.—Quint., VII., I.
Deut. 5:19.—Neither shalt thou steal.
EURIPIDES.—The deity hates violence, and orders all men to obtain what may be acquired, not through plunder. For the heaven is common to all mortals, and the earth; in which it behooves us, dwelling in our houses, not to have other men's goods, nor to seize them by force.—Helen., v. 903.
LEX XII. TAB.—The law made a thief to be the slave of him from whom he stole, but condemned a nocturnal thief to death.—Apud Gell., lib. XX., c. I.
Deut. 5:20.—Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbor.
DEMOSTHENES.—A false accuser, my countrymen! is a monster, a dangerous monster, querulous, and industrious in seeking pretense of complaint.—De Corona.
DIODORUS SICULUS.—In Egypt, false accusers were to suffer the same punishment which those whom they accused would have undergone, if they had been convicted.—Diod. Sic., I., 77.
PLAUTUS.—Those who commence villainous suits at law upon false testimony, and those who in court upon false oath deny a debt, their names, written down, are returned to Jove. Each day does he learn who here is calling for vengeance. —Rud. Prolog.
Deut. 5:21.—Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbor's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbor's house, his field, or his servant, or his maid-servant, his ox, or his ass, or anything that is thy neighbor's.
HERODOTUS.—Glaucus, wishing to appropriate to his own use a sum of money which had been entrusted to his care, consulted the oracle whether he could be absolved from returning it. The priestess answered in the negative, upon which Glaucus entreated the deity to forgive him; but the priestess told him that the intention and the action were alike criminal.—Herod., lib. vi., c. 86.
PHILEMON.—He is not a just man who does injury to no one, but he who having the power to do injury does it not; nor, he who refrains from little thefts, but he who, when he might seize and retain great things without risk, perseveres in his integrity; nor he who merely observes this conduct, but who, being endued with an honest and pure mind, desires not to appear just only, but to be just.—Frag. apud Stob.
EPICTETUS.—No man's wife or child, or silver or gold, is to have any charms for you, but your own.—Epict., lib. iii., c. 7.
JUVENAL.—He who meditates within his breast a crime that finds not vent in words, has all the guilt of the act. —Sat., XIII., v. 209.
MENANDER.—
Covet not, Pamphilus,
Even a needleful of thread, for God,
Who's always near thee, always sees thy deeds.
Apud Clem. Alex. Strom.
(See Ex. 20:1-17.)
Door Inscriptions
Deut. 6:9.—And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
SIR J. G. WILKINSON.—According to the monuments, the name of the owner of a house among the Egyptians was not infrequently written upon the lintels of the doors. Besides the owner's name they sometimes wrote a lucky sentence over the entrance of the house for a favorable omen, and the lintels and imposts of the doors in the royal mansions were often covered with hieroglyphics, containing the ovals and titles of the monarch.—Ancient Egyptians.
DR. JOHN KITTO.—It is at this day customary in Mohammedan Asia for extracts from the Koran, and moral sentences, to be wrought in stucco over doors and gates, and as ornamental scrolls to the interior of apartments.—Pict. Bible.
Hebrew Exclusiveness
Deut. 7:3.—Neither shalt thou make marriages with them: thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take to thy son.
TACITUS.—The Jews are inflexible in their faith and adherence one to another, but towards the whole human race besides they retain deadly and implacable hatred. With all others they refuse to eat, with all others to lodge. —Hist., 1. V., c. 5.
Egyptian Diseases
Deut. 7:15.—And the Lord will take from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee.
DR. MASON Goon, F. R. S., F. R. S. L.—The Egyptian and Syrian climates, but especially the rainless atmosphere of the former, are very prolific in skin diseases, including in an exaggerated form, some which are common in the cooler regions of Western Europe. The heat and drought acting for long periods upon the skin, and the exposure of a large surface of the latter to their influence, combine to predispose it to such affections.—Study of Medicine, Vol. IV., p. 445.
ROSENMUELLER.—Pliny calls Egypt the mother of such diseases as lichenes, elephantiasis, the plague, etc. To these diseases seem to be referred the various kinds of ulcers, which were said to be sent by their angry goddess. Isis. Even now Egypt has various peculiar diseases.—Note In loco.
Hornets
Deut. 7:20.—Moreover the Lord thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed.
JOSEPH ROBERTS, M. R. A. S.—The people in England may deem this a puny way of punishing men; but they should recollect that the natives of the East wear scarcely any clothes, having, generally speaking, only a piece of cloth round their loins. They are, therefore, much more exposed than we are to the stings of insects. The sting of the hornet and wasp of those regions is much more poisonous than in Europe, and the insect is larger in size. I have heard of several who have died from receiving a single sting; and not many days ago, as a woman was going to the well to draw water, a hornet stung her in the cheek, and she died the next day. The Hindus often curse each other by saying,—"May all around thee be stung by the hornet! "—meaning the person and his relations. The god Siva is described as having destroyed many giants by hornets. Oriental Illustrations, p. 108.
The Promised Land
Deut. 8:7.—For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills.
PROF. H. B. TRISTRAM, LL. D., F. R. S.—Strange that while springs are so scarce in the west, and fed only by winter torrents, here, even where wood is absent, on these highlands of Moab it is still " a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills."—Land of Israel, p. 545.
DEAN STANLEY, D. D.—Along the banks of the Sea of Galilee, as we have already seen, the depth of its situation produced a tropical vegetation unknown in the hills above; and this vegetation was increased by the beautiful springs, which, characteristic of the whole Valley of the Jordan, are unusually numerous and copious along the western shore of this lake, scattering verdure and fertility along their short course.—No less than four springs pour forth their almost full-grown rivers through the plain of Gennesareth.—Sinai and Palestine, p. 366.
IDEM.—Palestine is well distinguished not merely as a land of wheat and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates. of oil-olive and honey, but emphatically, as "a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of plains and mountains."—Sinai and Palestine, p. 123.
Deut. 8:8.—A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil-olive, and honey.
PROF. H. B. TRISTRAM, LL. D., F. R. S.—The return of wheat varies exceedingly, and from the slovenly agriculture, the neglect of rotation of crops, and the almost entire absence of manure, is much less than it might be, or than it was in former times. Thirty-fold the seed is considered a good return. Our Lord speaks, in the Parable of the sower, of wheat in good ground producing a hundred-fold. We have often counted sixty grains in an ear, and even a hundred is sometimes reached; and when we remember that several ears may spring from a single seed, we may see that a hundred-fold under favorable circumstances would be no excessive produce.—Nat. Hist. of Bible, p. 488.
IDEM.—The Land of Promise was beyond all others renowned for its Vines, for their number, productiveness, and the quality of their wine. There is scarcely any region in the world more admirably adapted for wine culture than Palestine, with the exception only of its maritime plains and the Jordan Valley. It is the true climate of the Vine. The rocky hill-sides, with their light gravelly soil and sunny exposures, the heat of summer, and the rapid drainage of the winter rains, all combine to render it peculiarly a land of Vines.—Nat. Hist. of Bible, p. 403.
IDEM.—The Fig is one of the native fruit-trees of the Promised Land, and is found wild or cultivated in every part of it.—Nat. Hist. of Bible, p. 350.
IDEM.—The Olive Tree is abundant, not only in the heritage of Asher, but in every part of the Holy Land it is at this day the one characteristic tree of the country. In fact, a cursory observer has remarked, that it was the only tree he saw there. The most extensive olive yards are on the borders of the Phenician plain. But they are scarcely less important in the country of Ephraim: and all the valleys from the plain of Esdraelon to Benjamin, the patrimony of Manasseh and Ephraim, are clad with olives to this day. The vale of Shechem is one noble Olive Grove. The plain of Moreh beyond it is studded with them. They form the riches of Bethlehem, and cover the lower slopes of the valleys around Hebron. The plains of Gilead, and all the lower slopes, as well as the more fertile portions of Bashan, form a long series of Olive groves, neglected, indeed, but still ready to yield their fatness in return for the most trifling culture: and they are the wealth of the towns of Philistia and Sharon.—Nat. Hist. of Bible, p. 374.
Deut. 8:9.—A land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.
PROF. J. LESLIE PORTER, M. A.—Long belts of sandstone run along the western slopes of Lebanon, which is in places largely impregnated with iron. Some strata towards the southern end are said to yield as much as ninety per cent. of pure iron.—Smith's Dict. of the Bible, p. 1623.
REV. GEORGE E. POST, M. D., Tripoli, Syria.—Iron of a superior quality is mined and worked at the present day near the village of Duma, in Mount Lebanon. It is especially valuable for shoeing beasts of burden, and is greatly sought for throughout Northern Syria. It is probable that the merchants of Dan, who had possessions in the extreme north of Palestine in the neighborhood of Caesarea Philippi, derived from this source the " bright iron," mentioned by Ezekiel.—Smith's Dict. of Bible, p. 1144.
The Wilderness
Deut. 8:15.—Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were 'fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water.
DR. JOHN KITTO.—This description answers, to this day, with remarkable precision to these desert regions, and particularly to that part, about the head of the Gulf of Akaba, where the Israelites now were. Scorpions abound in all the desert, and are particularly common here, and they inflict a wound scarcely less burning than the serpents of the same region.—Pict. Bible, Non. 21:6.
HERODOTUS.—I went once to a certain place in Arabia, almost exactly opposite the city of Buto, to make inquiries concerning the winged serpents. On my arrival I saw the back-bones and ribs of serpents in such numbers as it is impossible to describe: of the ribs there were a multitude of heaps, some great, some small, some middle-sized. The place where the bones lie is at the entrance of a narrow gorge between steep mountains, which there open upon a spacious plain, communicating with the great plain of Egypt.—Euterpe, c. 75.
IDEM.—The Arabians say that the whole world would swarm with these serpents, if they were not kept in check.... Now with respect to the vipers and the winged snakes of Arabia, if they increased as fast as their nature would allow, impossible were it for man to maintain himself upon the earth.—Thal., c. 108-9.
Breeding Horses
Deut. 17:16.—But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses.
PROF. GEORGE RAWLINSON, M. A.—In illustration of the extensive possession of horses by the early kings of Egypt, it will be sufficient to adduce a passage from Diodorus, who says that " the monarchs before Sesostris maintained, along the banks of the Nile, between Memphis and Thebes, two hundred stables, in each of which were kept a hundred horses." Herodotus also notices that, prior to the reign of Sesostris, horses and carriages were very abundant in Egypt, but that subsequently they became comparatively uncommon, since the intersection of the whole country by canals rendered it unsuitable for their (employment. They were still, no doubt, bred and employed, and even exported to a certain extent.—Hist. Illust. of O. T., p. 79.
Landmarks
Deut. 19:14.—Thou shalt not remove thy neighbors' landmark, which they of old time have set in thine inheritance, which thou shalt inherit in the land that the Lord thy God giveth thee.
DIONYSIUS HALICARNASSEUS.—Numa commanded everyone to place stones at the boundaries of his property, and every year, on a day appointed, to perform sacred rites in honor of the tutelary deities who preside over boundaries. Anyone who might dare to destroy or remove these landmarks was counted guilty of sacrilege, and might be slain with impunity.—Dion. Halic., 1. ii
HORACE.—
The sacred landmark strives in vain
Your impious avarice to restrain;
You break into your neighbor's grounds,
And overleap your client's bounds.
—Hor.; 1. ii., carm. 18.
W. R. COOPER, ESQR., Sec. of Soci. of Bib. Archœology.—Among the interesting Assyrian inscriptions lately discovered are those which, dating from 1200 B. C. to 600 B. C., are called " boundary stones." These were set up to mark the angles which circumscribe the limits of fields of various land-owners. Upon them were generally inscribed the names of the parties, the value and limits of their properties, and dedications to different deities, whose emblems were inscribed upon the summit of the stone. Thus, as in many instances in the Bible, the same pillar partook of the nature of altar, deed, and milestone, and was accordingly.—Faith and Free Thought, p. 241.
False Witnesses
Deut. 19:18, 19.—And the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother; then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother.
DIODORUS SICULUS.—False accusers were, by the laws of Egypt, to suffer the same punishment as those whom they falsely accused would have undergone, if they had been convicted of the offense.— Diod. Sic., 1. i., c. 77.
Destruction of Fruit-Trees
Deut. 20:19.—When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an ax against them, for thou mayest eat of them, and thou shalt not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man's life) to employ them in the siege.
DIODORUS SICULUS.—There are laws in India which conduce much to the prevention of famine. Amongst other people, through devastations in time of war, the land lies untilled; but amongst the Indians husbandmen are never touched, though armies meet and engage under their very eyes. The husbandman is regarded as a servant of the common good, and is on that account sacred. Neither do they burn their enemies' country, or cut down their trees or plants.—Diod. Sic., 1. ii., c. 36.
Birds on the Nest
Deut. 22:6.—If a bird's nest chance to be before thee in the way in any tree, or on the ground, whether they be young ones or eggs, and the dam sitting upon the young, or upon the eggs, thou shalt not take the dam with the young.
PHOCYLIDES. —Let no one take a bird's nest with all its occupants, but let the mother go free, that she may again produce young.—Phocyl., carm. v., 79.
Abominable Offerings
Deut. 23:18.—Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the Lord thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the Lord thy God.
HERODOTUS.—The Babylonians have one custom in the highest degree abominable. Every woman is obliged, once in her life, to attend at the Temple of Venus. The money given to them is applied to sacred uses, and must not be refused, however small it may be.—Herod., 1. i., c. 199.
STRABO.—The temple of Venus at Corinth was so rich, that it had more than a thousand women consecrated to the service of the goddess, courtesans, whom both men and women had dedicated as offerings.—Strabo, I. viii., c. 6.
LUCIAN. —Such of the ladies as refuse to consecrate their hair (at the annual orgies in honor of Adonis), undergo the penalty of being obliged to offer themselves for hire in public for one day. Of the profits, an oblation is made to Venus.—Lucian, De Dea Syr., c. 6.
Restoration of Pledges
Deut. 24:12,13.—And if the man be poor thou shalt not sleep with his pledge: in any case thou shalt deliver him the pledge again when the sun goeth down, that he may sleep in his own raiment, and bless thee: and it shall be righteousness unto thee before the Lord thy God.
DR. W. M. THOMSON.—During the day, the poor, while at work, can and do dispense with their ' aba, or outside garment, but at night it is greatly needed, even in the summer. The people in this country never sleep without being covered, even in the daytime; and in this experience has made them wise, for it is dangerous to health. This furnishes a good reason why this sort of pledge should be restored before night; and I could wish that this Law of Moses were still in force.—The Land and the Book, I., p. 500.
Punishment by Stripes
Deut. 25:2.—And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault.
SIR J. G. WILKINSON.—Men and boys were laid flat upon the ground, and frequently held by the hands and feet while the chastisement was administered.—Ancient Egyptians, II., 40-42.
Deut. 25:3.—Forty stripes he may give him, and not exceed.
DR. JOHN. KITTO.—The importance of this restriction will be felt when it is known that in the East an offender is sometimes beaten to death, or so severely as to be lamed for life. Even the Romans sometimes lashed criminals to death, there being no limitation to the number of blows. Moses more wisely fixed the maximum at a moderate point, and left the rest to be determined by the circumstances of the case and the discretion of the judges. This is exactly the plan followed in the modern criminal code of Europe with respect to most crimes not capital.—Pict. Bib. In loco.
Treading Out the Corn
Deut. 25:4.—Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.
ROSELLINI.—As represented on the monuments, they make a great heap of ears in the midst of the threshing-floor, and cause them to be trodden out by six oxen, which are kept in constant motion by a man who goes behind with a whip.—In Pict. Bib.
CHAMPOLLION.—In the subterranean apartment at Elkab (Eilethyas), which belongs to the reign of Rameses Meiamum, among other things, I saw there the treading out, or the threshing of the sheaves of grain by oxen, and over the engraving may be read, in almost entirely phonetic characters, the song which the overseer sings while threshing:
Tread ye out for yourselves,
Tread ye out for yourselves,
O oxen!
Tread ye out for yourselves,
Tread ye out for yourselves,
The straws;
For men, who are your masters,
The grain.
—In Pict. Bib.
False Weights
Deut. 25:13.—Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small.
REV. JOSEPH ROBERTS.—As in former times, so now, much of the business in the East is transacted by traveling merchants. The peddler comes to your door, and vociferates the names of his wares; and as soon as he catches your eye, begins to exhibit his very cheap but valuable articles. Have you agreed as to the price? he then produces the BAG of " divers weights;" and after fumbling some time in it, he draws forth the weight by which he has to sell. But, should he have to purchase anything of you, he will select a heavier weight. The man who is not cheated by this trader, and his “bag of divers weights," must be blessed with more keenness than most of his fellows.—Oriental Illust., p. 120.
The Curse of Removing the Landmark
Deut. 27:17.—Cursed be he that removeth his neighbor's landmark: and all the people shall say, Amen.
INSCRIPTION OF MERODACH BALADAN III. (B. C. 1340).—This land, for good have I given it like the treasure of heaven; as a land of acquisition have I settled it, as the result of his labors.... If a leader, or a citizen shall injure. or destroy the boundary stone here placed... may the gods Anu, Bel, Hea, Ninip and Gula, the Lords of this land, and all the gods whose memorials are made known on this tablet, violently make his name desolate; with unspeakable curse may they curse him; with utter desolation may they desolate him; may they gather his posterity together for evil and not for good; until the day of the departure of his life may he come to ruin, while the gods Shamas and Marduk rend him asunder; and may his name be trodden down.—Records of the Fast, Vol. IX., p. 31-36.
The Calamities That Would Follow Disobedience
Deut. 28:23, 24.—And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron. The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed.
PROP. J. LESLIE PORTER, M. A.—On emerging from the Olive Groves of Gaza, the desert was before us—bare, white, and monotonous, without a solitary tree, or " the shadow of a great rock," or a single patch of verdure. As we rode on we had overhead the bright sky and blazing sun; and beneath, the flinty soil, reflecting burning rays that scorched the weeds and stunted camel-thorn, and made them crackle like charred sticks under our horses' feet. As the day advanced, the sirocco came upon us, blowing across the great “Wilderness of Wandering." At first it was but a faint breath, hot and parching, as if coming from a furnace. It increased slowly and steadily. Then a thick haze, of a dull yellow or brass color, spreading along the southern horizon, and advanced, rising and expanding, until it covered the whole face of the sky, leaving the sun, a red globe of fire, in the midst. We now knew and felt that it was the fierce Simoon. In a few moments, fine impalpable sand began to drift in our faces, entering every pore. Nothing could exclude it. It blew in our eyes, mouths, and nostrils, and penetrated our very clothes, causing the skin to contract, the lips to crack, and the eyes to burn. Respiration became difficult. We sometimes gasped for breath; and then the hot wind and hotter sand rushed into our mouths like a stream of liquid fire. We tried to urge on our horses; but though chafing against curb and rein only an hour before, they were now almost insensible to whip and spur. We look and longed for shelter from that pitiless storm, and for water to slake our burning thirst; but there was none. The plain extended on every side, smooth as a lake, to the circle of yellow haze that bounded it. No friendly house was there; no rock or bank; no murmuring stream or solitary well. It seemed to us as if the prophetic curse pronounced by the Almighty on a sinful and apostate nation was now being fulfilled. We could see, at least, in the whole face of nature, in earth and sky and storm, how terrible and how graphic that curse was:—" Thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron. The Lord shall make the rain of the land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee."—Giant Cities of Bashan, p. 210.
PROF. E. Loomis, LL. D.—On the deserts of Africa and Arabia there sometimes prevails a wind extremely dry and intensely hot, which raises clouds of sand, and transports it to a great distance. These winds are known by the name of Simoon, Harmattan, etc., according to their locality. Plants are withered by this wind; men and animals suffer intensely from the heat and dryness of the air; and entire caravans have been buried in the drifting sand. This dust is sometimes transported across the Mediterranean into Spain, Sicily and Italy, where the wind which brings it is known by the name of Sirocco. In Sicily, during its continuance, the thermometer sometimes rises to a hundred and ten degrees in the shade. Treatise on Meteorology, p. 88.
Deut. 28:28.—The Lord shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart.
DR. THOMAS SCOTT—In the siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans this was the case, as it appears from history: but in that by Titus and the Romans, and in the subsequent conduct of the miserable relics of the Jews, their infatuation was so evident, that everyone who reads of their conduct must be convinced, they were given up to judicial blindness and madness, or they never could have been so bent upon their own destruction. While, by their obstinate resistance to the Roman power, without the least prospect of escaping, they ensured their own miseries; by their intestine rage, they became the executioners of the wrath of God upon themselves, almost saved their enemies the trouble of destroying them, and absolutely put it out of their power to preserve them.—Note In loco.
Deut. 28:29.—And thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.
DR. THOMAS SCOTT.—The unjust and cruel exactions and oppressions, accompanied by every token of contempt and abhorrence, with which the Jews have been treated, in almost every nation, and during every age, since the times of Christ, can scarcely be conceived, except by those who are conversant in their history; but it is impossible, within the limits of this exposition, fully to elucidate so compendious a prophecy; and it must suffice to say, that no people on earth have been so long and so generally insulted, oppressed, and crushed, as they have been, according to the "testimony both of their own writers and of others.—Note In loco.
BISHOP THOMAS NEWTON, D. D.—Only oppressed and spoiled evermore: and what frequent seizures have been made of their effects in almost all countries? how often have they been fined and fleeced by almost all governments? how often have they been forced to redeem their lives with what is almost as dear as their lives, their treasures? Instances are innumerable.—Dissertations on the Prophecies, p. 93.
SIR WALTER SCOTT.—They were a race which, during these dark ages, was alike detested by the credulous and prejudiced vulgar, and persecuted by the greedy and rapacious nobility. Except perhaps the flying fish, there was no race existing on the earth, in the air or the waters, who were the objects of such unremitting, general, and relentless persecution as the Jews of this period. Upon the slightest and most unreasonable pretenses, as well as upon accusations the most absurd and groundless, their persons and property were exposed to every turn of popular fury; for Norman, Saxon, Dane, and Briton, however adverse the races were to each other, contended which would look with greatest detestation upon a people whom it was accounted a point of religion to hate, to revile, to despise, to plunder, and to persecute. —Ivanhoe, Vol. I., p. 83, 120.
Deut. 28:37.—And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee.
BISHOP SIMON PATRICK, D. D.—The name of Jew has long been a proverbial mark of detestation and contempt, among all the nations whither they have been driven, and is so to this day; so that Christians, Mohammedans, and Pagans, join in it. " You use me like a Jew "—" None but a Jew would have done this "—" I would not have done so to a Jew,"—are expressions everywhere encountered.— Note In loco.
AN APPEAL OF THE JEWS TO THE JUSTICE OF KINGS AND NATIONS.—It seems as if our nation were allowed to survive the destruction of their country, only to see the most odious and calumnious imputations laid to their charge, to stand as the constant object of the grossest and most shocking injustice, to be as a mark for the insulting finger of scorn, and as a sport to the most inveterate hatred.—Trans. of Parisian Sanhedrim, p. 64.
Deut. 28:49,50.—The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young.
REV. GEORGE STANLEY FABER, B. D.—Remarkable, though perfectly familiar to every student of history, has been the accomplishment of this prediction also.
With the several languages of their immediate neighbors, the Jews were not unacquainted; for the Hebrews, the Phenician, the Syriac, the Chaldee, and the Arabic, are all dialects of one and the same primitive tongue. But the. Latin which was spoken by the Romans, and the various barbaric western languages which were spoken by their auxiliaries, were utterly unknown to the Jews as a nation. From far distant Italy came this people of a proverbially fierce countenance: and the strong fortifications of Jerusalem, in which the besieged obstinately placed their trust, and which excited even the admiration of Titus himself, were unable to defend them in the day of trouble.—Diffic. of Infidelity, p. 67.
JOSEPHUS.—When Vespasian entered Gadara, he slew all, man by man, the Romans showing mercy to no age, out of hatred to the nation, and remembrance of their former injuries.—The like slaughter was made at Gamala, for nobody escaped besides two women, and they escaped by concealing themselves from the rage of the Romans. For they did not so much as spare young children, but every one at that time snatching up many cast them down from the citadel.—Jewish Wars, B. III., c. 7, § r, and B. IV., c. i, § 10.
DR. ALEXANDER KEITH.—At the capture of Jerusalem, the Roman soldiers put all indiscriminately to death, and ceased not till they became faint and weary and overpowered with the work of destruction.—Evid. from Prophecy, p. 61.
Deut. 28:53, 54.—And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straightness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee. So that the man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children, which he shall leave.
BISHOP THOMAS NEWTON, D. D.—In the last siege of Jerusalem by the Romans there was a most terrible famine in the city, and Josephus hath given so melancholy an account of it, that we cannot read it without shuddering. He saith particularly that "women snatched the food out of the very mouths of their husbands, and sons of their fathers, and (what is most miserable) mothers of their infants; " and in another place he saith, that " in every house, if there appeared any semblance of food, a battle ensued, and the dearest friends and relations fought with one another, snatching away the miserable provisions of life." So literally were the words of Moses fulfilled,—" the man's eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward his children, because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straightness wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates; " and in like manner " the woman's eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter." —Dissertations on the Prophecies, p. 88.
Deut. 28:56, 57.—The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not have adventured to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straightness wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.
BISHOP THOMAS NEWTON, D. D.—This prediction was fulfilled in the last siege of Jerusalem by Titus; and we read in Josephus (J. W., B. VI., c. 3, § 4) particularly of a noble woman's killing and eating her own sucking child. Moses saith, “the tender and delicate woman among you, who would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground, for delicateness and tenderness; " and there cannot be a more natural and lively description of a woman, who was, according to Josephus, illustrious for her family and riches. Moses saith, “She shall eat them for want of all things; " and according to Josephus, she had been plundered of all her substance and provisions by the tyrants and soldiers. Moses saith, that she should do it “secretly," and according to Josephus, when she had boiled and eaten half, she covered up the rest, and kept it for another time. So clearly and minutely hath this prophecy been fulfilled; and one would have thought that such distress and horror had almost transcended imagination, and much less that any person could certainly have foreseen and foretold it.-Dissertations on the Prophecies, p. 89.
Deut. 28:62.—And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the stars of heaven for multitude.
BISHOP THOMAS NEWTON, D. D.—Now not to mention any other of the calamities and slaughters which the Jews have undergone, there was in the last siege of Jerusalem by Titus an infinite multitude, saith Josephus, who perished by famine; and he computes that during the whole siege the number of those who were destroyed by that, and by the war, amounted to 1,100,000, the people being assembled from all parts to celebrate the Passover; and the same author has given us an account of 1,240,490 destroyed in Jerusalem and other parts of Judea, besides 99,200 made prisoners, as Basnage has reckoned them up from that historian's account. Indeed, there is not a nation upon earth that hath been exposed to so many massacres and persecutions. Their history abounds with them.—Disserts. on Prophs., p. 90.
Deut. 28:63.—And ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.
REV. GEORGE STANLEY FABER, B. D.—Instead of being merely conquered and subjugated, the general fate of other nations attacked by the Romans, it was the harder lot of the Jews to be torn from their native country, and, on pain of death, to be prohibited from setting foot upon its soil.—Difficulties of Infidelity, p. 69.
TERTULLIAN.—A public edict of the emperor Adrian rendered it a capital crime for a Jew to set foot in Jerusalem, and prohibited them from viewing it even at a distance. Tert. Ap., C. 21.
Deut. 28:64.—And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other.
REV. GEORGE STANLEY FABER, B. D.-Where is the region in which the dispersed children of Israel are not to be found? Plucked violently from their own land, they meet us alike in Europe, Asia, Africa and America.—Difficulties of Infidelity, p. 69.
DR. ALEXANDER KEITH.—There is not a country on the face of the earth where the Jews are unknown. They are found alike in Europe, Asia, Africa and America. They are citizens of the world, without a country. Neither mountains, nor rivers, nor deserts, nor oceans—which are the boundaries of other nations—have terminated their wanderings.' They abound in Poland, in Holland, in Russia, and in Turkey. In Germany, Spain, Italy, France and Britain, they are more thinly scattered. In Persia, China, and India—on the east and on the west of the Ganges—" they are few in number among the heathen. "They have trod the snows of Siberia, and the sands of the burning desert; and the European traveler hears of their existence in the regions which he cannot reach, even in the very interior of Africa, south of Timbuktu. From Moscow to Lisbon, from Japan to Britain, from Borneo to Archangel, from Hindustan to Honduras, no inhabitant of any nation upon the earth would be known in all the intervening regions but a Jew alone.—Evidence from Prophecy, p. 69.
Deut. 28:65-67.—And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life: in the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.
REV. GEORGE STANLEY FABER, B. D.—For the exact accomplishment of this prediction we may confidently appeal to simple matter of fact. The description could not have been more vivid (or more accurate) had it been written in the present day, instead of many ages before the predicted dispersion of the house of Israel.—Difficulties of Infidelity, p. 69.
DR. ALEXANDER KEITH.—The history of the Jews throughout the whole world, and in every age since their dispersion, verifies the most minute predictions concerning them, and to a recital of facts too well authenticated to admit of dispute, or too notorious for contradiction, may be added a description of them all in the very terms of the prophecy. In the words of Basnage, the elaborate historian of the Jews, “Kings have often employed the severity of their edicts and the hands of the executioner to destroy them—the seditious multitude has performed massacres and executions infinitely more tragical than the princes. Both kings and people, heathens, Christians, and Mohammedans, who are opposite in so many things, have united in the design of ruining this nation, and have not been able to effect it. The Bush of Moses, surrounded with flames, has always burnt without consuming. The Jews have been driven from all places of the world, which has only served to disperse them in all parts of the universe. They have, from age to age, run through misery and persecution, and torrents of their own blood." (B. VI., c. I.) Their banishment from Judea was only the prelude to their expulsion from city to city, and from kingdom to kingdom. Their dispersion over the globe is an irrefragable evidence of this, and many records remain that amply corroborate the fact. Not only did the first and second centuries of the Christian era see them twice rooted out of their own land, but each succeeding century has teemed with new calamities to that once chosen but now long-rejected race. The history of their sufferings is a continued tale of horror.
Revolt is natural, to the oppressed; and their frequent seditious were productive of renewed privations and distresses. Emperors, kings, and caliphs all united in subjecting them to the same “iron yoke." Constantine, after having suppressed a revolt which they had raised, and having commanded their ears to be cut off, dispersed them as fugitives and vagabonds into different countries, whither they carried, in terror to their kindred, the mark of their suffering and infamy. In the fifth century they were expelled from Alexandria, which had long been one of their safest places of resort. Justinian, from whose principles of legislation a wiser and more humane policy ought to have emanated, yielded to none of his predecessors in hostility and severity against them. He abolished their synagogues—prohibited them, even from entering into caves for the exercise of their worship—rendered their testimony inadmissible, and deprived them of the natural right of bequeathing their property; and when such oppressive enactments led to insurrectionary movements among the Jews, their property was confiscated, many of them were beheaded, and so bloody an execution of them prevailed, that, as is expressly related, " all the Jews of that country trembled: " a trembling heart was given them. (Basnage, B. VI., c. 21.)
In the reign of the tyrant Phocas, a general sedition broke out among the Jews in Syria. They and their enemies fought with equal desperation. They obtained the mastery in Antioch; but a momentary victory only led to a deeper humiliation, and to the infliction of more aggravated cruelties than before. They were soon subdued and taken captive; many of them were maimed, others executed, and all the survivors were banished from the city.
Gregory the Great afforded them a temporary respite from oppression, which only rendered their spoliation more complete, and their suffering more acute, under the cruel persecutions of Heraclius. That emperor, unable to satiate his hatred against them by inflicting a variety of punishments on those who resided within his own dominions, and by finally expelling them from the empire, exerted so effectually against them his influence in other countries, that they Suffered under a general and simultaneous persecution from Asia to the farthest extremities of Europe. (Bas., B. VI., c. 21, sec. 17.) In Spain, conversion, imprisonment, or banishment were their only alternatives. In France, a similar fate awaited them. They fled from country to country, seeking in vain any rest for the sole of their foot. Even the wide-extended plains of Asia afforded them no resting-place, but have often been spotted with their blood, as well as the hills and valleys of Europe.
Mahomet, whose imposture has been the law and the faith of such countless millions, has, from the precepts of the Koran, infused into the minds of his followers a spirit of rancor and enmity towards the despised and misbelieving Jews. He set an early example of persecution against them, which the Mohammedans have not yet ceased to imitate. In the third year of the Hegira, he besieged the castles which they possessed in the Hegiasa, compelled those who had fled to them for refuge and defense to an unconditional surrender, banished them the country, and parted their property among his Mussulmans. He dissipated a second time their recombined strength, massacred many of them, and imposed upon the remnant a permanent tribute.
The Church of Rome ever ranked and treated the Jews as heretics. The canons of different councils pronounced excommunication against those who should favor or uphold them against Christians— enjoined all Christians neither to eat nor to hold any commerce with them—prohibited them from bearing public offices or having Christian slaves—appointed them to be distinguished by a mark—decreed that their children should be taken from them, and brought up in monasteries; and, what is equally descriptive of the low estimation in which they were held, and of the miseries to which they were subjected, there was often a necessity, even for those who otherwise oppressed them, to ordain that it was not lawful to take the life of a Jew without any cause. (Dupin's Ecc. Hist.)
Hallam's account of the Jews during the middle ages is short, but significant. “They were everywhere the objects of popular insult and oppression, frequently of a general massacre. A time of festivity to others was often the season of mockery and persecution to them. It was the custom at Toulouse to smite them on the face every Easter. At Beziers they were attacked with stones from Palm Sunday to Easter, an anniversary of insult and cruelty generally productive of bloodshed, and to which the populace were regularly instigated by a sermon from the Bishop." (Hallam's History of the Middle Ages, Vol. I., 2, 33.)
It was the policy of the kings of France to employ them as a sponge to suck their subjects' money, which they might afterward express with less odium than direct taxation would incur. It is almost incredible to what a length extortion of money from the Jews was carried. Philip Augustus released all Christians in his dominions from their debts to the Jews, reserving a fifth part to himself. He afterward expelled the whole nation from France. St. Louis twice banished and twice recalled them; and Charles VI. finally expelled them from France. From that country, according to Mezeray, they were seven times banished. They were expelled from Spain; and, by the lowest computation, 170,(Doo families departed from that kingdom. (Bas., B. VII., c. 21.) "At Verdun, Treves, Mentz, Spires, Worms, many thousands of them were pillaged and massacred. A remnant was saved by a feigned and transient conversion; but the greater part of them barricaded their houses, and precipitated themselves, their families, and their wealth into the rivers or the flames. These massacres and depredations on the Jews were renewed at each crusade." (Gibbon's Hist., Vol. VI., p. 97.)
In England, also, they suffered great cruelty and oppression at the same period. During the crusades, the whole nation united in the persecution of them. In a single instance, at York, fifteen hundred Jews, including women and children, were refused all quarter—could not purchase their lives at any price— and, frantic with despair, perished by a mutual slaughter. Each master was the murderer of his family, when death became their only deliverance. So despised and hated were they, that the barons, when contending with Henry III., to ingratiate themselves with the populace, ordered seven hundred Jews to be slaughtered at once, their houses to be plundered, and their synagogue to be burned. Richard, John, and Henry III often extorted money from them; and the last, by most unscrupulous and unsparing measures, usually defrayed his extraordinary expenses with their spoils, and impoverished some of the richest among them. His extortions at last became so enormous, and his oppressions so grievous, that, in the words of the historian, he reduced the miserable wretches to desire leave to depart the kingdom; but even self-banishment was denied them. Edward I. completed their misery, seized on all their property, and banished them the kingdom. Above 15,000 Jews were rendered destitute of any residence, were despoiled to the utmost, and reduced to ruin. Nearly four centuries elapsed before the return to Britain of this abused race.—Evidence from Prophecy, p. 70-74.
Deut. 28:68.—And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships, by the way whereof I spake unto thee, Thou shalt see it no more again: and there ye shall be sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bond women, and no man shall buy you.
JOSEPHUS.—Titus appointed Fronto to decide the fate of those taken alive... and of the young men he chose out the tallest and most beautiful, and reserved them for the triumph; and as for the rest of the multitude that were above seventeen years old, he put them into bonds, and sent them to the Egyptian mines.—Jewish Wars, B. VI., c. 9, § 2.
ST. JEROME. —After their last overthrow by Adrian many thousands of the Jews were sold; and those who could not be sold, were transported into Egypt, and perished by shipwreck or famine, or were massacred by the inhabitants.—Hieron. in Zachariam, c.
Deut. 29:22, 24.—So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the Lord hath laid upon it;... even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this land? What meaneth the heat of this great anger?
REV. GEORGE STANLEY FABER, B. D.—It is universally taught and believed, that the Jews labor under the special curse of God. Their troubles are not viewed as a matter of ordinary occurrence, which may reasonably deserve and attract a little attention: but they are considered as something out of the common course of nature; and they are contemplated, as an awful indication of the Divine displeasure. According to the prophecy, as a simple fact, this opinion always has been entertained.—Diff of Infid., p. 67.
VOLNEY.—I wandered over the country—I enumerated the kingdoms of Damascus and Idumea, of Jerusalem and Samaria. This Syria, said I to my. self, now almost depopulated, then contained a hundred flourishing cities, and abounded with towns, villages and hamlets. What are become of so many productions of the hand of man? What are become of these ages of abundance and of life?—Great God! from whence proceed such melancholy revolutions? For what cause is the fortune of these countries so strikingly changed? Why are so many cities destroyed? Why is not that ancient population reproduced and perpetuated?—Ruins of Empires, p. 7, 8.
DR. ALEX. KEITH.—Such are the prophecies, and such are the facts respecting the Jews;—and from premises like these the feeblest logician may draw a MORAL, DEMONSTRATION.—Evi. from Prophecy, P. 79.
BISHOP THOS. NEWTON, D. D.—Here are instances of prophecies, prophecies delivered above three thousand years ago, and yet as we see fulfilling in the world at this very time: and what stronger proof can we desire of the Divine Legation of Moses? How these instances may affect others I know not; but for myself I must acknowledge, they not only convince, but amaze and astonish me beyond expression.—Disserts. on Prophs., p. 96.
The Parent Eagle
Deut. 32:11, 12.—As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the Lord alone did lead him. SIR HUMPHREY DAVY.—I once saw a very interesting sight above one of the crags of Ben Nevis, as I was going on the 20th of August in the pursuit of black game. Two parent eagles were teaching their offspring, two young birds, the maneuvers of flight. They began by rising from the top of the mountain in the eye of the sun; it was about midday, and bright for this climate. They at first made small circles, and the young birds imitated them; they paused on their wings, waiting till they had made their first flight, and then took a second and larger gyration, always rising towards the sun, and enlarging their circle of flight so as to make a gradually extending spiral. The young ones still slowly followed, apparently flying better as they mounted; and they continued this kind of sublime exercise, always rising, till they became mere points in the air, and the young ones were lost and afterward their parents to our aching sight. —Salmonia, 99.
Honey Out of the Rock
Deut. 32:13.—And he made him to suck honey out of the rock.
DR. W. M. THOMSON. —In a gigantic cliff of Wady Kurn immense swarms of bees have made their home. The people of M'alia, several year ago, let a man down the face of the rock by ropes. He was entirely protected from the assaults of the bees, and extracted a large amount of honey; but he was so terrified 'by the prodigious swarms of Bees that he could not be induced to repeat the exploit.—The Land and the Book, I., p. 460.
PROF. H. B. TRISTRAM, LL. D., F. R. S.—The innumerable fissures and clefts of the limestone rocks, which everywhere flank the valleys, afford in their recesses secure shelter for any number of swarms, and many of the Bedouin, particularly in the wilderness of Judea, obtain their subsistence by Bee-hunting,' bringing into Jerusalem jars of that wild honey on which John the Baptist fed in the wilderness, and which Jonathan long before had unwittingly tasted, when the comb had dropped on the ground from the hollow of the tree in which, it was suspended. The visitor to the Wady Kurn, when he sees the busy multitudes of bees about its clefts, cannot but recall to mind the promise: “With honey out of the strong rock would I have satisfied thee." There is no epithet of the Land of Promise more true to the letter, even to the present day, than this, that it was “a land flowing with milk and honey.".—The Land of Israel, p. 88.
The View from Pisgah
Deut. 34:1-4.—And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho: and the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan, and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea, and the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm-trees, unto Zoar. And the Lord said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.
PROF. H. B. TRISTRAM, LL. D., F. R. S.—On these brows overlooking the mouth of the Jordan, over against Jericho, every condition is met both for the Pisgah of Balaam and of Moses. Here we halted and gazed upon a prospect on which it has been permitted to few European eyes to feast. The day was clear, and revealed to us (whether or not we were standing on the exact spot) at least the very same landscape as that on which “Moses, the servant of the Lord," closed his mortal eye. The altitude of this brow cannot be less than 4,500 feet, so completely does it overlook the heights of Hebron and of central Judea. To the eastward, as we turned round, the ridge seemed gently to slope for two or three miles, when a few small, ruin-clad tells, or hillocks, broke the monotony of the outline; and then, sweeping forth, rolled in one vast unbroken expanse, the goodly Belka—one boundless plain, stretching far into Arabia, till lost in the horizon—one waving ocean of corn and grass, of which the Arabs may well boast.
As the eye turned southwards towards the line of the ridge on which we were clustered, the peak of Jebel Shihân just stood out behind Jebel Attarus, which opened to reveal to us the situation of Kerak, though not its walls. Beyond and behind these sharply rose Mount Hor and Seir, and the rosy granite peaks of Arabia faded away into the distance towards Akabah. Still turning westwards, in front of us, two or three lines of terraces reduced the height of the plateau as it descended to the Dead Sea, the western outline of which we could trace, in its full extent, from Usdum to Feshkhah. It lay like a long strip of molten metal, with. the sun mirrored on its surface, waving and undulating in its further edge, unseen in its eastern limits, as though poured from some deep cavern beneath our feet. There, almost in the center of the line, a break in the ridge, and a green spot below, marked Engedi, the nest once of the Kenite, now of the wild goat.—The fortress of Masada and jagged Shukif rose above the mountain-line, but still as far below us, and lower, too, than the ridge of Hebron, which we could trace, as it lifted gradually from the southwest, as far as Bethlehem and Jerusalem. The buildings of Jerusalem we could not see, though all the familiar points in the neighborhood were at once identified. There was the mount of Olives, with the church at its top, the gap in the hills leading up from Jericho, and the rounded heights of Benjamin on its other side. Still turning northward, the eye was riveted by the deep Ghor, with the rich green islets of Ain Sultan and Ain Duk—twin oases, nestling, as it were, under the wall of Quarantania. There, closer still, beneath us, had Israel's last camp extended, in front of the green fringe which peeped forth from under the terraces in our foreground. The dark sinuous bed of the Jordan, clearly defined near its mouth, was soon lost in dim haze. Then looking over it, the eye rested on Gerizim's rounded top; and, further still, opened the plain of Esdraelon, the shoulder of Carmel, or some other intervening height, just showing to the right of Gerizim, while the faint and distant bluish haze beyond it told us that there was the sea, " the utmost sea." It seemed as if but a whiff were needed to brush off the haze and reveal it clearly. Northwards, again, rose the distinct outline of unmistakable Tabor, aided by which we could identify Gilboa mid Jebel. Duhy. Snowy Hermon's top was mantled with cloud, and Lebanon's highest range must have been exactly shut behind it; but in front, due north of us, stretched in long line the dark forests of Man, bold and undulating, with the steep sides of mountains here and there whitened by cliffs, terminating in Mount Gilead, behind Es Salt. To the northeast, the vast Hauran stretched beyond, filling in the horizon line to the Belka, between which and the Hauran (or Bashan) there seems to be no natural line of separation. The tall range of Jebel Hauran, behind Bozrah, was distinctly visible.
We did indeed congratulate each other on the privilege of having gazed on this superb panorama, which will live in memory's eye. "And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan, and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea, and the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm-trees, unto Zoar. "—Land of Israel, 540-543.