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were publicly reduced to a Roman province. Such is a summary of the forms of government under which the Jews were placed between their deliverance from Egypt, and the complete destruction of their city and temple.

We know very little however of the funds which the Jewish kings had to support the expenses of government. The following short notices are all that I have met with. -In the reign of Solomon, he got from Ophir 420 talents of gold once in three years, which at 125 lbs. Troy, or 1500 ounces to the talent, and 47. to the ounce, made 2,604,000l. or 868,000l. yearly. The queen of Sheba presented him with 120 talents of gold, or 720,000l. And the whole weight of gold that came to him in one year is stated to have been 666 talents, equal to 3,996,000l.: but this was far from being the full amount of his revenue, for it is added, that he had these, besides that he had of the merchantmen, and of the traffic, and of the spice merchants, and of all the kings of Arabia, and of the governors of the country:" independent of the revenue which he drew from his subjects in Judea, which must have been very considerable, since, after his death, we hear them requesting of his son to alleviate their burdens. And if he exacted money of them in a rigorous and frequent manner, as Menahem king of Israel afterwards did, there was reason for the complaint. For Menahem, to pacify the wrath and purchase the friendship of Pul king of Assyria, gave him a thousand talents of silver, which he raised by a contribution on the monied men of fifty shekels apiece. And perhaps Solomon did something of the same kind, to complete his buildings, and defray the expenses of government. We hear nothing more of the revenue of the Jewish kings till the reign of Archelaus,

⚫ 1 Kings ix. 28. x. 10. 14, 15. 3

1 Kings xii. 4.

2 Kings XV.

20.

the son of Herod the Great, who obtained the half of his father's kingdom, as a grant from Cæsar; and whose revenues stood thus. Perea and Galilee paid annually 200 talents of silver: Batanea, Trachonitis, Auranitis, and a certain part called the House of Zenadorus, paid 100 talents; and the rest paid 300 talents; making in all 600 talents of silver annually; which at 1500 ounces to the talent, and 5 shillings to the ounce, made 225,000l. But, if this was the revenue of Archelaus, it will enable us to ascertain the revenue of his father Herod the Great; who, having had double the possessions of his son, may be supposed to have had double his income, or 1200 talents, besides having the fourth part which had been abated by Archelaus when he came to the kingdom, and was equal to 400 talents. So that the whole revenue of Herod the Great might have been 1600 talents of silver, or 600,000l. ;a a sum scarcely adequate, one would think, to bribe Pompey, Cæsar, and their minions, and to build the cities and edifices which distinguished his reign. The only other notice I have met with is in the days of Herod Agrippa, who killed James with the sword. His revenues are said to have been 12 millions of drachmæ, equal to three millions of shekels, which at half an ounce each, and 5 shillings to the ounce, came to 375,000l. Thus have we seen a gradual decrease. The Jewish glory, as a kingdom was at its height in the days of Solomon. It sank very low during the 70 years captivity. It rose on its return like a phoenix from its ashes. It was again at its height in the days of Herod the Great: but after his death it gradually declined, till it ceased to be reckoned in the list of nations.

With respect to their civil and criminal laws we need

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not be long for, having formerly, when describing the chamber Gezith, in the south-east corner of the court of Israel, mentioned the Council of Three, which held its sittings in an apartment adjoining to every synagogue, every lawful day, between the end of the morning prayers and the sixth hour; the Council of Seven, according to Josephus, or the Council of Twenty-three, according to the Talmud, which sat for the same length of time as the former court, in the gate of those cities which could boast of an hundred and twenty families at the least, and decided in causes of greater moment; and the Council of the Sanhedrin, which sat every lawful day, between the end of the morning and beginning of the evening sacrifice, and was the Supreme Court of the Jewish nation, it is needless to enter upon them again in this place. It will be sufficient, therefore, now to refer to the pentateuch, as the code of laws by which they were guided in their decisions; and to describe the sanctions, civil and ecclesiastical, by which they were enforced.

SECT. IV.

Civil Punishments among the Jews.

1st. Inferior-as restitution, depriving them of their beards, destroying their houses, imprisonment with various aggravations, confinement in the cities of refuge, whipping, cutting off the hands and feet, putting out the eyes, fighting with wild beasts, slavery, selling children for their parent's debt, like for like. 2d. Capital-strangling, hanging, stoning, burning, beheading, crucifixion, dashing to pieces, drowning, tearing to pieces, trampling to death, sawing asunder, murdering in the dungeon.-An account of eastern prisons -the executioners of the law-and the ceremonies used before execution.

THE Civil punishments among the Jews were either inferior or capital.

The inferior were, 1. Restitution for theft, in certain

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proportions. 2. Depriving them of their beards. 3. Destroying their houses. 4. Imprisonment simply; or aggravated by the dungeon; by fetters; by a wooden yoke round the neck; by the stocks; by hard labour; and by the bread of affliction, and water of affliction.* 5. Confinement in the cities of refuge for man-slaughter, till the death of the high-priest.' 6. Whipping with a scourge of three cords, and thirteen strokes for one of fence, so as to give the culprit forty save one: as it is particularly described in Part II. Sect. 13, near the end. 7. Cutting off the hands and feet." 8. Putting out the eyes: a custom very frequent still in the East. In Persia particularly, as I am informed by one who was an eye-witness, it is no unusual practice for the king to punish a rebellious city or province by exacting so many pounds of eyes, and his executioners accordingly go and scoop out from every one they meet till they have the weight required. This is abundantly confirmed in many parts of Sir John Malcolm's History of Persia, and especially in vol. ii. ch. 19. p. 198, note. 9. Fighting with wild beasts, which was sometimes not mortal, as in the case of Paul ; but oftener mortal. 10. Slavery till the sabbatical year, or till compensation was made for theft." 11. Selling children for their fathers' debts. 12. Tallio, or like for like, either literally, or by compensation with money. In cases of bodily pains, therefore, the Hebrew doctors taught that the party offending was bound to a five-fold satisfaction. 1. The hurt in the loss of the

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Judg. xvi. 21. 1 Sam. xi. 2. 2 Kings xxv. 7. Is. xlii.

Judg. i. 6, 7. 2 Sam. iv. 12.

2 Macc. vii. 4.

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member. 2. The damage for the loss of labour. 3. The damage for the pain or grief occasioned by the wound. 4. The damage for the charge of curing it. And 5. For the blemish or deformity it occasioned. Hence Munster, on Exod. xxi., has rendered these five by the following words: Damnum, læsio, dolor, medicina, confusio. Such were the inferior civil punishments among the Jews.

The capital civil punishments were the following: 1. Strangling by two persons with a handkerchief: for the six following offences: adultery, striking of parents, man-stealing, old men who were notoriously rebellious against the law, false prophets, and those who prognosticated future events by using the names of idols. 2. Hanging till the person was dead; or exposing the body after death on a gibbet, either till the evening, or till devoured by fowls and other ravenous beasts. We find a punishment of this kind inflicted on the heads of the people who had gone over to Baal-peor, in Num. xxv. 4; and on seven of Saul's sons for his having slain the Gibeonites. But these appear to have been as a national expiation, and were called "hanging them before the Lord." 3. Stoning, which was always without the city, in the manner following: When they came to within ten cubits of the place where the person was to be stoned, they exhorted him to confess, and give God the glory, that although he died by the hand of the law, his soul might be saved in the day of the Lord. When they came within four cubits of the place, they stripped him naked (but if a woman she retained her clothes,) and the witnesses who condemned him also stripped themselves of their upper garments. The place of exe

Josh. x. 26. Josephus, War, iv. 5. • Acts vii. 59.

d 2 Sam. xxi. 9.

a Josh. viii. 29. Esther vii. 9, 10.
< Gen. xl. 19.
VOL. II.

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