away a little every year, and keep pushing his ridge into the other's ground. Disputes of the most serious nature often occur on this account, and call for the greatest diligence and activity of the authorities. An injured man repeats to his aggressor the proverb, "The serpent shall bite him who steps over the ridge," i. e. he who goes beyond the landmark.-ROBERTS. CHAPTER XXVIII. Ver. 5. Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. Heb. "dough or kneading-trough." Eastern farmers have large baskets made of Palmirah leaves, or other materials, for the purpose of keeping their grain: they will contain from one hundred to one hundred and fifty parrahs. These baskets, then, were to be blessed; they were not to be injured by animals, nor robbed by man. But corn is also kept in a store which is made of sticks and clay, in a circular form. This little building is always elevated, to keep the grain from the damp, and is situated near to the house. When beggars have been relieved, they often say, "Ah! may the place where you make ready your food ever be blessed." "May the rice-pot ever prosper." Thus, that which corresponds with the "kneading-trough" of the Hebrews, has also its benediction.-ROBERTS. Hasselquist informs us, that baskets made of the leaves of the palm-tree are used by the people of the East on journeys, and in their houses. Harmer conjectures that such baskets are referred to in these words, and that the store signifies their leathern bags, in both which they used to carry things in travelling.-BURDER, Ver. 13. And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them. The prophet Isaiah, chap. ix. 14, says, "The Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail:" meaning, no doubt, those who were high, and those who were low. It is amusing to hear men of rank in the East speak of their dependants as tails. Has a servant not obeyed his master, the former asks, "Who are you? are you the head or tail?" Should a person begin to partake of food before those of high caste, it is asked, "What! is the tail to begin to wag before the head?" A husband, when angry with his wife, inquires, "What are you? are you the head or the tail?" -ROBERTS. Ver. 24. The LORD shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed. It may be of use to inquire a little into the nature and properties of such a kind of rain; in which the following extracts may assist us. "Sometimes there [in India] the wind blows very high in those hot and dry seasons-raising up into the air a very great height, thick clouds of dust and sand....These dry showers most grievously annoy all those among whom they fall; enough to smite them all with a present blindness; filling their eyes, ears, nostrils; and their mouths are not free, if they be not also well guarded searching every place, as well within, as without, our tents or houses; so that, there is not a little keyhole of any trunk, or cabinet, if it be not covered, but receives some of that dust into it; the dust forced to find a lodging anywhere, everywhere, being so driven and forced as it is by the extreme violence of the wind." (Sir T. Roe's Embassy.) To the same purpose speaks Herbert. "And now the danger is past, let me tell you, most part of the last night we crossed over an inhospitable sandy desert, where here and there we beheld the ground covered with a loose and flying sand, which by the fury of the winter weather is accumulated into such heaps, as upon any great wind the track is lost; and passengers (too oft) overwhelmed and stifled; yea, camels, horses, mules, and other beasts, though strong, swift, and steady in their going, are not able to shift for themselves, but perish without recovery: those rolling sands, when agitated by the winds, move and remove more like sea than land, and render the way very dreadful to passengers. Indeed in this place I thought that curse fulfilled, (Deut. xxviii. 24,) where the Lord, by Moses, threatens instead of rain to give showers of dust." These instances are in Persia: but such storms might be known to the Israelites; as, no doubt, they occur, also, on the sandy deserts of Arabia, east of Judea and to this agrees Tournefort, who mentions the same thing-" At Ghetsci there arose a tempest of sand in the same manner as it happens sometimes in Arabia, and in Egypt, especially in the spring. It was raised by a very hot south wind, which drove so much sand, that one of the gates of the Caravansary was half stopped up with it; and the way could not be found, being covered over, above a foot deep, the sand lying on all hands. This sand was extremely fine, and salt; and was very troublesome to our eyes, even in the Caravansary, where all our baggage was covered over with it. The storm lasted from noon to sunset; and it was so very hot the night following, without any wind, that one could hardly fetch breath, which in my opinion was partly occasioned by the reflection of the hot sand. Next day I felt a great pain in one eye, which made it smart, as if salt had been melted into it," &c. This may give us a lively idea of the penetrating powers of the dust of the land of Egypt; which (Exod. viii. 16) was converted into lice:-also, chap. ix. 8, of the effect of the ashes of the furnace, which Moses took, and sprinkled up towards heaven, and it became a bile, breaking forth in blains upon man and beast."-TAYLOR IN CALMET. Ver. 27. The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed. This is a complaint which is far more common, and more formidable in the East, than in England. Those who live on bad food, or reside in the vicinity of a swamp, are the most subject to it. See the poor object with a small piece of cloth round his loins, a staff in his hand, his body "from the sole of his foot unto his crown" literally covered with sores, an imploring piteous look, a weak tremulous voice, and bowing to the earth to excite your charity. -ROBERTS. Ver. 39. Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress them, but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. This threatening has often been fulfilled to the great disappointment and injury of the inhabitants of those countries where wine is produced or consumed. An insect, called the vine weevil, which is a small beautiful beetle, is extremely hurtful to the vines. The caterpillar, which mines or cuts the leaves of the vine, has no feet; and yet, by a singular expedient, can make a progressive motion in all positions, and even over the smoothest and most polished bodies. It advances its body out of its oval pod, (constructed of the two outer skins of a vine leaf,) forms a kind of hillock of silk, and, by means of a thread which attaches it to it, draws its pod or case to the hillock. It continually repeats the same operation, and in this (laborious) manner advances progressively. The traces of its progress are marked by hillocks of silk at the distance of half a line from each other. Its food is the parenchyma or pith of the vine leaf, between the two epidermes, of which it eats out its oval habitation or pod. When it is taken out of its habita│tion, it never attempts to make a new one : it writhes about very much, but can make no progressive motion; and after having overspread the place in which it is with threads of silk, in an irregular manner, it dies at the end of twentyfour hours.-BURDER. CHAPTER XXIX. Ver. 23. And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning. When a place is noted for being unhealthy, or the land very unfruitful, it is called a kenthaga poomy, a place or country of brimstone. Trincomalee, and some other pla ces, have gained this appellation on account of the heat and sterility of the soils.-ROBERTS. the sea. The effect of salt, where it abounds, on vegetation, is described by burning. Thus Volney, speaking of the borders of the Asphaltic Lake, or Dead Sea, says, "the true cause of the absence of vegetables and animals, is the acrid saltness of its waters, which is infinitely greater than that of The land surrounding the lake being equally impregnated with that saltness, refuses to produce plants; the air itself, which is by evaporation loaded with it, and which moreover receives vapours of sulphur and bitumen, cannot suit vegetation; whence the dead appearance which reigns around the lake." Hence the ancient custom of sowing an enemy's city, when taken, with salt, in token of perpetual desolation. Judges ix. 45. And thus in aftertimes, the city of Milan was burnt, razed, sown with salt, and ploughed, by the exasperated emperor Frederick Barbarossa.BURDER. CHAPTER XXX. Ver. 14. But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. es a person pretend that he cannot understand another, that he must make additional inquiries, it will be said, "Do you not understand? In thy mouth are the words." Should a child at school be troublesome to the master, he will peevishly exclaim, In thy mouth are the words; meaning the inquiry was unnecessary, that the subject was well understood.-ROBERTS. Ver. 19. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live. In solemn oaths, people point to the clouds, to the earth, to the grass, to the herbs, to the trees, as witnesses to the truth of what they have said. "O ye clouds above! have I not said the truth? Ah! well do you know it: speak to this, unbeliever." "Ah! these trees can bear testimony to my veracity." When mariners are at sea, they appeal to it, or to Varuna the god. In storms, they say to the water, "O mother! be calm."-ROBERTS. CHAPTER XXXII. Ver. 2. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew; as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass. Oriental writers often speak of beautiful language as dropping upon the hearers. The Hebrew has for " prophesy," in Micah ii. 6, "drop." The same word is used for drops of rain, for tears, or for the dew dropping from flowers. When a man has received consolation from another, he says, "His words were like rain upon the scorched corn." Of a beautiful speaker, and an appropriate subject, "Ah! his speech is like the honey rain, upon the pandal bower of sugar."-ROBERTS. Ver. 5. Their spot is not the spot of his children. There may be here an allusion to the marks which the worshippers of particular idols had on different parts of their bodies, particularly on their foreheads. The different sects of idolaters in the East are distinguished by their sectarian marks, the stigma of their respective idols. These sectarian marks, particularly on the forehead, amount to nearly one hundred among the Hindoos, and especially among the two sects, the worshippers of Siva and the worshippers of Vishnoo. In many cases these marks are renewed daily; for they account it irreligious to perform any sacred rite to their god without his mark on the forehead. The marks are generally horizontal and perpendicular lines, crescents, circles, leaves, eyes, &c. in red, black, white, and yellow. It is pleasing to see the Hindoos every morning perform their ablutions in the sa cred lakes, and offer an innocent sacrifice under the solemn grove. After having gone through their religious ceremonies, they are sealed by the officiating Bramin with the mark either of Vishnoo or Siva, the followers of whom respectively form the two great sects among the Hindoos. The mark is impressed on the forehead with a composition of sandal-wood dust and oil, or the ashes of cow-dung and turmeric: this is a holy ceremony, which has been adopted in all ages by the eastern nations, however differing in religious profession.-FORBES. Ver. 10. 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. Where the wild beasts are, is called the place of howling. Thus relations, when their friends are on a journey, say, Ah! they are now in the place of howling." "My friend, go not through the howling desert." Precious things are spoken of as being the apple of the eye. Affectionate husbands say to their wives, "En kan mulli," i. e. 'apple of my eye." Of a beloved child, in relation to his parents, it is said, "He is the apple of their eye."-ROB ERTS. Ver. 11. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings. It is pretended by some writers, that when the eaglets are somewhat grown, the mother kills the weakest or the most voracious of them; but were the fact admitted, it is no satisfactory proof that she is without natural affection. It is well known that several animals of the mildest dispositions forsake their young, when they find it impossible to provide for their subsistence. The parent eagles, says Buffon, not having sufficient for themselves, seek to reduce their family; and as soon as the young ones are strong enough to fly and provide for themselves, they chase them from the nest, and never permit them to return. The account of this celebrated naturalist so far agrees with the statement of the sacred writer; according to whom, the eagle stirreth up her nest, that is, rouses her young from their sloth and inactivity, and provokes them to try their wings by fluttering about her nest. When she sees them indifferent to her admonitions, or afraid to follow her example, "she spreadeth abroad her wings; taketh them, and beareth them upon her wings." The remarkable circumstance of bearing them upon her wings, is alluded to in another part of scripture: "Ye have seen," said Jehovah to Israel, 'what I did unto Egypt, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself." Many passages in the writings of ancient authors countenance the idea, that the eagle actually takes up her timid young ones, and bears them on her wings till they venture to fly. Elian says, that when Tilgamus, a Babylonian boy, fell from the top of a tower, before he reached the ground, an eagle received and bore him up on her back. A similar story is recorded in the writings of Pausanias, who tells us, that an eagle flew under Aristimenes, who was cast by the Lacedemonians from the top of a tower, and carried him on her wings till he reached the ground in safety. These stories, although the mere creatures of imagination, show that the idea of the eagle bearing a considerable weight on her wings, was familiar to the ancients. It is not to be supposed, that she wafts her unfledged young through the void of heaven, or to distant places; the meaning probably is, that she aids with her wings their feeble and imperfect attempts to fly, till, imboldened by her example, and their own success, they fearlessly commit themselves to the air. So did Jehovah for his chosen people: when they were slumbering in Goshen, or groaning in despair of recovering their freedom, he sent his servant Moses to rouse them from their inglorious sloth, to assert their liberty, and to break their chains upon the heads of their oppressors. He carried them out of Egypt, and led them through the wilderness into their promised inheritance. He taught them to know their strength: he instructed them in the art of war; he led them to battle, and by his almighty arm routed their enemies.-PAXTON. Ver. 13. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock. This must mean the procuring of it from the olive-trees growing there. Maundrell, speaking of the ancient fertility and cultivation of Judea, says, "the most rocky parts of all, which could not well be adjusted for the production of corn, might yet serve for the plantation of vines and olive-trees, which delight to extract, the one its fatness, the other its sprightly juice, chiefly out of such dry and flinty places."-BURDER. In Africa the bees deposite their honey on the trunks of trees and on rocks. Trees in some countries being scarce, the honey in most parts is found upon the front of rocks or cliffs, plastered on the outside, having a covering of wax to protect it from intruders. This outside coating, after a short exposure to the weather, assumes nearly the same colour as the rock, which, at a little distance, cannot easily be distinguished from the rock, so that a person making an incision with a knife, and putting his mouth to it to suck it, were a person a little way off to notice some of the honey dropping from his chin, would believe that he saw a man sucking honey from a rock; so that the scripture method of expressing it is very beautiful.-AFRICAN LIGHT. Ver. 15. But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. This does not appear to mean that Jeshurun had become fat in person, but fat or proud in spirit. Thus, of people who have risen from obscurity, and who conduct themselves proudly, it is said, "They have become fat." To hear, "how fat that man is now," might lead a stranger to suppose it was meant so literally; whereas the individual alluded to may be as meagre as one of Pharaoh's lean cattle.-ROBERTS. Ver. 25. Thy shoes shall be iron and brass. The Hebrew word here translated shoes, signifies bolts. The proper translation of this word is, thy bolts shall be iron and brass: that is, thy cities must be strong and secure against your enemies. To understand the force of these words, we must know that in the East, and even in modern times, the locks and bolts of houses, and even of city gates, were of wood. "Their doors and houses," says Rauwolff, are mostly closed with wooden bolts, which are hollow within; to open which they have wooden keys, which are a span long, and a thumb thick, and have on one side, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, &c. short nails or strong wires, so placed as to catch in others that fit into them, and thus move the bolt backward and forward." Thevenot observes, "all their locks and keys are made of wood; they have none of iron, not even those of the city gates, which are, therefore, also opened without keys." He describes the keys like Rauwolff, and adds, that the door may be opened without the key, by smearing the finger with clay.-ROSENMULLER, CHAPTER XXXIII. of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places." From his lurking-place, he commonly leaps upon the victim at one spring. So, in the farewell prediction of Moses, it is foretold, "Dan is a lion's whelp, he shall leap from Bashan." This fact is attested by all the ancient historians: Aristotle asserts, that when the lion judges himself within reach, he throws himself upon his prey; Pliny says, he leaps with a bound; and Solinus, when he is in full pursuit, he springs forward upon the game. When he leaps on his prey, says Buffon, he makes a spring of twelve or fifteen feet. In the same manner acted Dan; proceeding, as it were, by a single bound, from the one extremity of Canaan to the other, he invaded the city of Laish, which, after its reduction, he called by his own name.-PAXTON. Ver. 24. And of Asher he said, Let Asher be blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil. The juice of the grape, it is well known, is expressed in the East by treading, an operation which Dr. Chandler had an opportunity of seeing near Smyrna. Black grapes were spread on the ground in beds, and exposed to the sun to dry for raisins; while in another part, the juice was expressed for wine, a man with feet and legs bare, treading the fruit in a kind of cistern, with a hole or vent near the bottom, and a vessel beneath it to receive the liquor. When a few clusters of grapes are to be squeezed, it may be done commodiously enough by the hand; in this way, Pharaoh's butler supposed he took the grapes and pressed them into his master's cup. This, it is true, was only a visionary scene, but we must suppose it was agreeable to the custom of the country. But when a large quantity of juice was required, the grapes were subjected in the wine-press to the feet of a treader. Oil of olives was expressed in the same way, before the invention of mills. The existence of this practice in Palestine, is ascertained by that threatening in the prophecies of Micah: "Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap; thou shalt tread the olives, but shalt not anoint thee with oil; and sweet wine, but shalt not drink wine." But unequivocal traces of it may be discovered in ages long anterior to the days of that prophet; for in the blessing of Asher, we find Moses praying: "Let Asher dip his foot in oil." Whether any preparation was used in those ancient times to facilitate the expression of the juice, we are not informed; but it is certain that mills are now used for pressing and grinding the olives which grow in the neighbourhood of Athens, and probably in other eastern countries. These mills are in the town, and not in the spot where the olives grow; and seem to be used in consequence of its being found, that the mere weight of the human body is insufficient for the purpose of effectually extracting the oil.-PAXTON. CHAPTER XXXIV. Ver. 1. And Moses went up from the plains of Mr. Buckingham, travelling through the mountains of Gilead, says, "We were now in a land of extraordinary richness, abounding with the most beautiful prospects, clothed with thick forests, varied with verdant slopes, and Ver. 22. And of Dan he said, Dan is a lion's possessing extensive plains of a fine red soil, now covered whelp; he shall leap from Bashan. Although the lion fearlessly meets his antagonist in the open field, in this respect differing from leopards and some other beasts of prey, that never openly attack the fated victim, yet this bold and noble animal often descends to stratagem and ambuscade: "He couches in his den, and abides in the covert to lie in wait." He watches the approach of his victim with cautious attention, carefully avoiding the least noise, lest he should give warning of his presence and designs. Such has the glowing pencil of David painted the insidious conduct of the murderer: "He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den; he lieth in wait to catch the poor-he croucheth and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones." "Like as a lion that is greedy with thistles as the best proof of its fertility, and yielding in nothing to the celebrated plains of Zabulon and Esdraelon, in Galilee and Samaria. We continued our way to the northeast, through a country, the beauty of which so surprised us, that we often asked each other, what were our sensations; as if to ascertain the reality of what we saw, and persuade each other, by mutual confession of our delight, that the picture before us was not an optical illusion. The landscape alone, which varied at every turn, and gave us new beauties from very different points of view, was, of itself, worth all the pains of an excursion to the eastward of Jordan to obtain a sight of; and the park-like scenes, that sometimes softened the romantic wildness of the general character as a whole, reminded us of similar spots in less neglected lands." JOSHUA. CHAPTER I. Ver. 1. Now, after the death of Moses, the servant of the LORD, it came to pass, that the LORD spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, 2. Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. The conquest of Canaan, by the Israelites, having so often been the subject of cavil among the enemies of revelation, and being adverted to in terms of approbation above, may properly be considered in this place. Their conduct in this affair is satisfactorily vindicated by Mr. Townsend, in his "Old Testament historically and chronologically arranged," from which we transcribe the following passages:-God, the great governor, who possesses all power over his creatures, and may justly punish those who violate his laws, in that manner which to his wisdom may seem most impressive and useful, commanded the Israelites to exterminate the Canaanites, as the just retribution for their crimes and idolatries. God might have destroyed them by famine, by earthquake, by pestilence: He might have drowned by a local deluge, or consumed them by fire from heaven; instead of these, he commissioned the people of Israel to root them out by the sword. In so doing, the Almighty not only demonstrated to the whole world his hatred of the corruptions and pollutions of superstition, but he more particularly enforced on the Israelites the purity of his law, the certainty of their own punishment if they apostatized, and the freedom from temporal evil which they should consequently enjoy if they persevered in their allegiance to him, their sovereign. Lest this invasion of Canaan by the Israelites, however, should be drawn into precedent by other nations, for ambition or religious persecution; they were assured by continued and powerful miracles, that their cause was just, that they should be successful, and that they were not subject at that period to the common laws of nations. The people of Israel was the sword of God, the great magistrate of earth, and they were no more to be condemned in thus acting in conformity to the commands of God, than the executioner can be who fulfils the last sentence of the law. Before, then, other nations invade the territory of their neighbours on the same supposed authority as the Israelites, the same commission from heaven must be given; and that commission must be authenticated by miracles equally evident, perpetual, and wonderful. Many, however, have not been satisfied with this argument; and would discard the doctrine of the peculiar providence, which regulated by a visible theocracy the conduct of the chosen people: they would defend the invasion of Palestine on other grounds. They would judge of the transactions of that period, (regardless of the peculiar circumstances under which they took place,) by modern ideas, and the present law of nations. Some suppose that the conduct of the Israelites was solely defensible, on the supposition that there had been a partition of the whole earth by the sons of Noah; and that Canaan had been allotted to Shem: the sons of Shem, therefore, were justified in claiming their ancient inheritance from the Canaanites, who were descended from Ham. Others have asserted that the Canaanites commenced the war by attacking the Israelites; an assertion that cannot be defended from the history. While others have affirmed, without any well-grounded arguments, that the Israelites, as a wandering people, having no certain home, were justified in forcibly invading, and taking possession of an adjoining territory. But Michaelis is of opinion that the right of the Israelites originated in their being actually the proprietors of Canaan, of which they had been unjustly dispossessed by the intruding and hostile Canaanites. The laws of nations are always the same. If any nation, or tribe, or part of a tribe, take possession of an unknown, undiscovered, unoccupied, or uninhabited country, the right of property vests in them; they are its proprietors and owners. After the deluge, the world might be said to be in this state; and Michaelis has endeavoured to prove, that the ancestors of Abraham were the original occupiers of the pasture land of Canaan. Canaan, therefore, by the law of nations, as well as by the promises of God, was the lot of Abraham's inheritance, and the rightful land of his descendants. The Canaanite and the Perizzite had only just established themselves in Canaan when Abraham removed from Haran to that country; and were so weak and few in number, that they never interfered with the right of sovereignty assumed and exerted by Abraham. The Canaanites were merchants and adventurers who had been originally settled near the borders of the Indian Ocean; and who, having been dispossessed by the Cuthic Sidonians, had migrated westward, to form establishments on the seacoasts of Palestine, and carry on commerce with the herdsmen who traversed it. They were for some time contented with their factories on the seacoasts, but they gradually obtained possession of the inland country. The Perizzites, too, were a warlike tribe, who now first made their appearance in Canaan; they had originally inhabited the northeast of Babylonia. Whether they had been dispossessed of their settlements; whether they were seeking new establishments; or for whatever purpose they were now in Palestine, they gave no interruption to the progress of Abraham, although Abraham entered upon the Holy Land and continued his journeyings with a large retinue, and as a powerful prince. He took possession of Canaan as the territory of his ancestors; not indeed as a fixed habitation, but as a pasture land adapted to his numerous flocks and herds. He traversed the whole country as a proprietor, without a competitor. He had the power of arming three hundred and eighteen of his own servants, born in his own house; and it is most probable that he had others who are not enumerated. He declared war as an independent prince of this country against five neighbouring princes; and formed an alliance with Abimelech, as an equal and, as a sovereign. It is true, he purchased land of the Canaanitish family of Heth, but this was because the Hittites had gradually made a more fixed settlement in that part of the country; their intrusion had not been at first prevented by the ancestors of Abraham; and by this sufferance they made that district their peculiar property. As Abraham thus traversed and possessed Canaan, with undisputed authority, so too did Isaac and Jacob in like manner. No one opposed their right. They exercised, as Abraham had done before them, sovereign power; they never resigned that power; nor gave up to others the property of that land, which now, by long prescription, as well as by the promise of God, had become entirely their own. The ancestors, then, of the Israelites, Michaelis argues, were either the sole sovereigns, or the most powerful of those princes who possessed, in early ages, the Holy Land. By the famine which occurred in the days of Joseph, they were compelled to leave their own country, and take refuge in Egypt: yet they never lost sight of the sepulchre of their fathers. And though we do not read that acts of ownership were continued to maintain and perpetuate their right, we can have but little doubt, that something of the kind took place, for Jacob was taken from Egypt to be buried there; Joseph assured them that they should return; and the Egyptians, their oppressors, a kindred branch of the powerful tribes which had by this time entirely taken possession of Palestine, kept them in bond age, and refused to let them go, lest they should claim the inheritance of their fathers. If this claim of the Israelites can be proved to be well founded, they would have been entitled, by the law of nations, forcibly to take possession of the Holy Land; and it will be interesting to observe how the merciful providence of God afforded them the opportunity of successfully regaining their lawful inheritance, and at the same time accomplishing his own divine purposes, to the fulfilment of his prophecies, and to the happiness and security of his church. The Israelites may be considered as the servants and ministers of God, punishing the idolatry of the Canaanites, and instituting in its place, in the midst of an apostate world, the religion of the one true God. In every victory they obtained, they must have admired the faithfulness of that promise which had foretold their entire possession of this land; and they must have been persuaded, that if they served other gods, they would bring down upon themselves the punishments predicted by Moses.-Vide Michaelis, Comment. &c. vol. i. book ii. ch. iii. p. 155, &c.; Hora Mosaicæ, vol. i. p. 458; Faber's Origin of Pag. Idol. vol. iii. p. 561, &c.Townsend's Old Testament, vol. i. pp. 444 446.—CRITICA BIBLICA. CHAPTER II. Ver. 1. And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into a harlot's house, named Rahab, and lodged there. Most of the eastern cities contain one caravansary at least, for the reception of strangers; smaller places, called choultries, are erected by charitable persons, or munificent princes, in forests, plains, and deserts, for the accommodation of travellers. Near them is generally a well, and a cistern for the cattle: a bramin or faquir often resides there to furnish the pilgrim with food, and the few necessaries he may stand in need of. When benighted in a dreary solitude, travellers in India were thus certain, within a moderate distance, to find one of these buildings appropriated for their accommodation, and were often supplied with the necessaries of life gratis. (Forbes.) Dr. Franklin says, that among the Indians of North America, there is in every village a vacant dwelling, called the stranger's house. Hither the traveller is led by two old men, who procure him victuals, and skins to repose on, exacting nothing for the entertainment. Among the ancients, women generally kept houses of entertainment. " Among the Egyptians, the women carry on all commercial concerns, and keep taverns, while the men continue at home and weave." Herodotus asserts, that "the men were the slaves of the women in Egypt, and that it is stipulated in the marriage contract, that the woman shall be the ruler of her husband, and that he shall obey her in all things."—Burder. CHAPTER III. Ver. 15. And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest.) The largest and most celebrated stream in Palestine, is the Jordan. It is much larger, according to Dr. Shaw, than all the brooks and streams of the Holy Land united together; and, excepting the Nile, is by far the most considerable river, either of the coast of Syria or of Barbary. He computed it to be about thirty yards broad, and found it nine feet deep at the brink. This river, which divides the country into two unequal parts, has been commonly said to issue from two fountains, or to be formed by the junction of two rivulets, the Jor and the Dan; but the assertion seems to be totally destitute of any solid foundation. The Jewish historian, Josephus, on the contrary, places its source at Phiala, a fountain which rises about fifteen miles from Cesarea Philippi, a little on the right hand, and not much out of the way to Trachonitis. It is called Phiala, or the Vial, from its round figure; its water is always of the same depth, the basin being brimful, without either shrink ing or overflowing. From Phiala to Panion, which was long considered as the real source of Jordan, the river flows under ground. The secret of its subterraneous course was first discovered by Philip, the tetrarch of Trachonitis, who cast straws into the fountain of Phiala, which came out again at Panion. Leaving the cave of Panion, it crosses the bogs and fens of the lake Semichonitis; and after a course of fifteen miles, passes under the city of Julias, the ancient Bethsaida; then expands into a beautiful sheet of water, named the lake of Gennesareth; and after flowing a long way through the desert, empties itself into the lake Asphaltites, or Dead Sea. As the cave Panion lies at the foot of mount Lebanon, in the northern extremity of Canaan, and the lake Asphaltites extends to the southern extremity, the river Jordan pursues it course through the whole extent of the country from north to south. It is evident also, from the history of Josephus, that a wilderness or desert of considerable extent, stretched along the river Jordan in the times of the New Testament; which was undoubtedly the wilderness mentioned by the evangelists, where John the Baptist came preaching and baptizing. The Jordan has a considerable depth of water. Chateaubriand makes it six or seven feet deep close at the shore, and about fifty paces in breadth a considerable distance from its entrance into the Dead Sea. According to the computation of Volney, it is hardly sixty paces wide at the mouth; but the author of Letters from Palestine, states that the stream, when it enters the lake Asphaltites, is deep and rapid, rolling a considerable volume of waters; the width appears from two to three hundred feet, and the current is so violent, that a Greek servant belonging to the author who attempted to cross it, though strong, active, and an excellent swimmer, found the undertaking impracticable. It may be said to have two banks, of which the inner marks the ordinary height of the stream; and the outer, its ancient elevation during the rainy season, or the melting of the snows on the summits of Lebanon. In the days of Joshua, and it is probable for many ages after his time, the har vest was one of the seasons when the Jordan overflowed his banks. This fact is distinctly recorded by the sacred historian: "And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water (for Jordan overfloweth all his banks all the time of harvest.") This happens in the first month of the Jewish year, which corresponds with March. But in modern times, (whether the rapidity of the current has worn the channel deeper than formerly, or whether its waters have taken some other direction,) the river seems to have forgotten his ancient greatness. When Maundrell visited Jordan on the thirtieth of March, the proper time for these inundations, he could discern no sign or probability of such overflowing; nay, so far was it from overflowing, that it ran, says our author, at least two yards below the brink of its channel. After having descended the outer bank, he went about a furlong upon the level strand, before he came to the immediate bank of the river. This inner bank was so thickly covered with bushes and trees, among which he observed the tamarisk, the willow, and the oleander, that he could see no water till he had made his way through them. In this entangled thicket, so conveniently planted near the cooling stream, and remote from the habitations of men, several kinds of wild beasts were accustomed to repose till the swelling of the river drove them from their retreats. This circumstance gave occasion to that beautiful allusion of the prophet: "He shall come up like a lion, from the swelling of Jordan, against the habitation of the strong." The figure is highly poetical and striking. It is not easy to present a more terrible image to the mind, than a lion roused from his den by the roar of the swelling river, and chafed and irritated by its rapid and successive encroachments on his chosen haunts, till forced to quit his last retreat, he ascends to the higher grounds and the open country, and turns the fierceness of his rage against the helpless sheep-cots, or the unsuspecting villages. A destroyer equally fierce, and cruel, and irresistible, the devoted Edomites were to find in Nebuchadnezzar and his armies. The water of the river, at the time of Mr. Maundrell's visit, was very turbid, and too rapid to allow a swimmer to stem its course. Its breadth might be about twenty yards; and in depth, it far exceeded his height. The rapidity and depth of the river, which are admitted by every traveller, although the volume of water |