insignificant, coined to strike a terror into weak and distempered minds.) Let him be swallowed up as Korah and his company, and let his soul depart with fear and terror. Let the rebuke of the Lord slay him; and let him be strangled like Achitophel. Let his leprosy be as the leprosy of Gehazi; neither let there be any restoration of his ruin. Let not his burial be in the burials of Israel; let his wife we given to strangers; and let others humble her in his death. Under this curse let such an one, the son of such an one, be, with his whole inheritance. But unto me, and all Israel, let God extend his peace and blessing. Amen."

To add to the terror of the above sentence, they usually accompanied the pronouncing of it with the sound of trumpets; as the Targum says Barak did in the cursing of Meroz." "He shematized him with four hundred trumpets."

Such, then, were the different degrees of ecclesiastical censure among the Jews. The first of which, we may well suppose, would not be unfrequent among so large a religious community as that of Israel; accordingly our Lord recommends it in Matthew xviii. 15. The second is thought to be referred to in John ix. 22. 34. xii. 42. xvi. 2, where the Jews determined to cast those who embraced Christianity out of the synagogue. The third is alluded to by the apostle in 1 Cor. v. 11. And of the fourth we have two instances: the first in 1 Cor. xvi. 22, where those who love not the Lord Jesus Christ are declared to be anathema maranatha, or under a curse, till the Lord come; and the second in Ezra x. 7, 8, where it is said that "they made a proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem, unto all the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves to

a Judg. v. 23.

gether unto Jerusalem; and that whosoever would not come within three days, according to the counsel of the princes and the elders, all his substance should be divided, and himself separated from the congregation of those that had been carried away." It will readily be noticed that a double penalty is here threatened to the disobedient ; viz. that they should be separated from the children of the captivity, or excluded from sacred privileges and looked upon as heathens, and that their substance was to be divided or confiscated, which commonly implied an application to pious purposes, or to the service of the temple, as the apocryphal book Esdras ix. 4, explains it. Hence some have made the following distinction between the different degrees of censure: The admonition was friendly and private, and lasted for seven days. The Nedui, or separation, was friendly and public; the censure being made known to the congregation, and implying an exclusion from sealing ordinances for thirty days. The Herem, or cutting off, implied both an exclusion from sealing ordinances, and many of the ordinary civilities of life and the Semetha, or exclusion with a curse, included an utter exclusion from the congregation of Israel, confiscation of property, and exposure to death by the visible interposition of God. It is thought by some that the apostle refers to this last part of the sentence, or death by the hand of God, in 1 Cor. xi. 30, when he tells the Corinthians that, in consequence of "in their improper observance of the Lord's supper, many were weak and sickly among them, and many slept or died by the visitation of heaven." And perhaps it is to this visible judgment of God in the apostolical age against egregious offenders, rather than to the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost, that the apostle John also refers in his 1st Epistle, v. 16, when he says, " If any man see his brother sin a sin, which is not unto

death, he shall ask, and God shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. But there is a sin unto death: I do not say that he should pray for it." He might pray for offenders in general, and even for the souls of those who were under this visible judgment; but he might not pray for their restoration to health, since God was more glorified, and men more awed by its continuance.

ᏢᎪᎡᎢ XI.

CUSTOMS OF THE JEWS.

In the former parts of this work we have considered the religion, learning, and laws of the Jews; but there are a number of customs in private life which give much insight into their real character, and serve as a commentary on sacred scripture that ought not to be overlooked. Our method of procedure, however, in these last, must be different from that which was adopted in the former; for besides relying on Jewish writers, whose intimations are few, we must call in the aid of travellers; since the customs of the East have been almost stationary, and the same things are observable in the present day that were practised in the days of the ancient patriarchs. It is granted, indeed, that this is only an approximation to the truth, but it is the best we have in our present circumstances, and affords the same kind of pleasure to the mind that collateral evidence is known to give in a court of justice. The light thrown is often unexpected, and pleases both by its variety and novelty. With these assistants, then, let us exhibit their customs in a variety of particulars.

• While the present work was in the press, Paxton's Illustrations of the Holy Scriptures from the geography, natural history, and customs of the East, made their appearance. As they illustrate and confirm many of the sections which follow, I feel a pleasure in recommending them to my readers.

SECT. I.

Habitations of the Jews.

These affected by the state of society. Tents in pastoral districts described. Villages of stone in rocky situations, and mud in plains. Fenced cities; their walls, gates, locks, wooden keys, bolts and bars. Private winter houses of the Jews; of stone, brick, or mud: manner of defending them from the weather. Doors often ornamented: the hole at the side for the portion of the law. Houses in the form of a square, with a court in the middle; their appearance plain towards the street; the windows, lattices; their appearance towards the court beautiful. Their chambers, kiosks, olee or upper rooms; door to the street low; doors into the court large. Ground floor for the family; principal rooms in the second story; fire-places in the family rooms; braziers in the public apartments. Stairs sometimes ornamented with vine; manner of finishing their principal rooms. Way of cooling their chambers; furniture of rooms, carpets; the divan. Chambers of the poor; their beds. The beds of the rich; their musqueto nets. Bed-chambers always lighted during the night; often alluded to in Scripture. The summer houses of the Jews described; the roofs of houses flat, with battlements: their utility. The eastern nails of houses; keys of wood described. Dr. Shaw's account of eastern houses. Streets of eastern cities dirty in wet, and dusty in dry weather; narrow; the reason why. The gate of the city the most public place. Bazars; Dr. Russell's and Mr. Kinneir's account of them. Tolls erected at the gate. No clocks; manner of knowing the hour. Police regulations; nuisances removed; water brought by conduits, tanks, or reservoirs. The pools of Solomon described; Gihon, Siloam, Jacob's well. Rights of citizenship. Roads between city and city. Dogs at large without any owner; several texts alluding to this.

It is impossible to form any very accurate notion of the modes of living among the ancient Jews, for we have few notices of them in history; but we may, pervery haps, arrive near the truth, by supposing them to resemble those of the present inhabitants of Palestine, and of the neighbouring countries. As a number of the Jews under the judges and kings were shepherds, their tents would not be unlike those of the present Arabs, as described by Shaw." 66 They are the very same," he observes, "which the ancients called mapalia,

a Vol. i. part 3. ch. 3. sect. 6.