JUDGES. CHAPTER I. meant than merely its having a large door, or being spa Ver. 7. Threescore and ten kings, having their cious; at least there are now other contrivances in the East, thumbs and their great toes cut off. The Hebrew has this, "the thumbs of their hands and of their feet." The Hindoos call the thumb the reria-viril, the great finger of the hand, and the large toe is named the great finger of the foot. This punishment was exceedingly common in ancient times, and was inflicted principally on those who had committed some flagrant offence with their hands and their feet. Thus, those convicted of forgery, or numerous thefts, had their thumbs cut off. The practice is abolished, but its memory will remain, as it is now one of the scarecrows of the nursery and domestic life: "If you steal any more, I will cut off your thumbs." "Let me find out the thief, and I will soon have his thumbs."— ROBERTS. CHAPTER III. Ver. 17. And he brought the present unto Eglon king of Moab and Eglon was a very fat man. 18. And when he had made an end to offer the present, he sent away the people that bare the present. See on Gen. 43. 45. แ There is often in the East a great deal of pomp and parade in presenting their gifts. Through ostentation," says Maillet, "they never fail to load upon four or five horses what might easily be carried by one. In like manner as to jewels, trinkets, and other things of value, they place in fifteen dishes, what a single plate would very well hold." Something of this pomp seems to be referred to in this passage, where we read of making an end of offering the present, and of a number of people who conveyed it. This remark also illustrates 2 Kings viii. 9. So Hazael went to meet him, and took a present with him, even of every good thing of Damascus, forty camels' burden.-HARMER. Ver. 19. But he himself turned again from the quarries that were by Gilgal, and said, I have a secret errand unto thee, O king: who said, Keep silence. And all that stood by him went out from him. From a circumstance mentioned by Mr. Bruce, it appears that Ehud acted in strict conformity to the customs of the time and place, so that neither the suspicion of the king nor his attendants should be excited by his conduct. It was usual for the attendants to retire when secret messages were to be delivered. "I drank a dish of coffee, and told him, that I was a bearer of a confidential message from Ali Bey of Cairo, and wished to deliver it to him without witnesses, whenever he pleased. The room was accordingly cleared without delay, excepting his secretary, who was also going away, when I pulled him back by the clothes, saying, stay, if you please; we shall need you to write the answer.' "BURDER. Ver. 20. And Ehud came unto him; and he was sitting in a summer-parlour, which he had for himself alone. Dr. Shaw tells us, their doors are large, and their chambers spacious; conveniences, as he observes, very well adapted to those hotter climates. But when Eglon is represented as receiving Ehud and Death, in a parlour of cooling, as it is called, in the margin of Judges iii. 20, or rather in a chamber of cooling, something more seems to be to give coolness to particular rooms, which are very common; and though the time in which Eglon lived, is acknowledged to be of very remote antiquity, yet we are to remember he was a prince, and in the palaces of such these contrivances without doubt began. The doctor is silent upon this point, but Russell has given us the following account of one of their methods of cooling rooms. Their great houses at Aleppo are composed of apartments on each of the sides of a square court, all of stone; and consist of a ground door, which is generally arched, and an upper story, which is flat on the top, and either terraced with hard plaster, or paved stone; above-stairs is a colonnade, if not round the whole court, at least fronting the West, off from which are their rooms and kiosques; these latter are a sort of wooden divans, that project a little way from their other buildings, and hang over the street; they are raised about a foot and a half higher than the floor of the room, to which they are quite open, and by having windows in front and on each side, there is a great draught of air, which makes them cool in the summer, the advantage chiefly intended by them. They have another way of cooling their rooms in Egypt. It is done by openings at the top, which let the fresh air into them. Egmont and Heyman, as well as Maillet, make mention of them, but the last-mentioned author gives the most distinct account of these contrivances: they make, he tells us, their halls extremely large and lofty, with a dome at the top, which towards the North has several open windows; these are so constructed as to throw the north wind down into these rooms, and by this means, though the country is excessively hot, they can make the coolness of these apartments such as, oftentimes, not to be borne without being wrapped in furs. Egmont and Пleyman speak of chambers cooled after this manner, as well as halls. Eglon's appears to have been a chamber, and what Shaw calls an olee, which gives a propriety to the mention that is made of Ehud's passing through the porch, which no interpreter before the doctor has, that I know of, remarked: but whether it was cooled by a kiosque, as they are called at Aleppo, or by an Egyptian dome, or by some contrivance distinct from both, is of no consequence to determine. That some contrivance to mitigate the extreme heat of that climate began early to obtain, in the palaces of princes, is natural to believe; that it began as early as the time of Eglon, this passage puts out of all doubt. It was the more necessary, as Eglon appears to have kept his court at Jericho, where the heat is so excessive, that it has proved fatal to some even in March.-HARMER. Ver. 25. And they tarried till they were ashamed; and, behold, he opened not the doors of the parlour: therefore they took a key and opened them; and, behold, their lord was fallen down dead on the earth. The wooden locks commonly used in Egypt, "consist of a long hollow piece of wood, fixed in the door, so as to slide backward and forward, which enters a hole made for it in the doorpost, and is there fastened by small bolts of iron wire, which fall from above into little orifices made for them in the top of the lock. The key is a long piece of wood, having at the end small pieces of iron wire of different lengths, irregularly fixed in, corresponding in number and direction with the bolts which fall into the lock; these it lifts upon being introduced into the lock, which it then pulls back. The bolts of wire differ in number from three to fourteen or fifteen, and it is impossible to guess at the number a lock contains, or at the direction in which they are placed."-TURNER's Journal of a Tour in the Levant. Shaw, describing the tents of the Bedouin Arabs, says, "these tents are kept firm and steady, by bracing or stretching down their eaves with cords tied down to hooked wooden pins well pointed, which they drive into the ground with a mallet; one of these pins answering to the nail, as the mallet does to the hammer, which Jael used in fastening to the ground the temples of Sisera."-BURDER. CHAPTER V. Ver. 6. In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through by ways. There are roads in these countries, but it is very easy to turn out of them, and go to a place by winding about over the lands, when that is thought safer. Dr. Shaw takes notice of this circumstance in Barbary, where, he says, they found no hedges, or mounds, or enclosures, to retard or molest them. To this Deborah doubtless refers, though the doctor does not apply this circumstance to that passage, when she says, " In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through byways," or crooked ways, according to the margin, Judges v. 6. The account Bishop Pococke gives of the manner in which that Arab, under whose care he had put himself, conducted him to Jerusalem, illustrates this with great liveliness, which his lordship tells us was by night, and not by the highroad, but through the fields; “and I observed," says he, "that he avoided as much as he could going near any village or encampment, and sometimes stood still, as I thought, to hearken." And just in that manner people were obliged to travel in Judea, in the days of Shamgar and Jael.-HARMER. Ver. 10. Speak, ye that ride on white asses, ye that sit in judgment, and walk by the way. "In The ancient Israelites preferred the young ass for the saddle. It is on this account, the sacred writers so frequently mention riding on young asses and on ass colts. They must have found them, from experience, like the young of all animals, more tractable, lively, and active, than their parents, and, by consequence, better adapted to this employment. Buffon remarked particularly of the young ass, that it is a gay, nimble, and gentle animal, and therefore, to be preferred for riding to the same animal, when become lazy and stubborn through age." deed the Hebrew name of the young ass, y," from a root which signifies to rouse or excite," is expressive of its character for sprightliness and activity." On public and solemn occasions, they adorned the asses which they rode, with rich and splendid trappings. "In this manner," says an excellent writer of Essays on Sacred Zoology, "the magistrates in the time of the Judges, appear to have rode in state. They proceeded to the gate of their city, where they sat to hear causes, in slow procession, mounted on asses superbly caparisoned with white cloth, which covered the greater part of the animal's body. It is thus that we must interpret the words of Deborah: Speak, ye that ride on white asses,' on asses caparisoned with coverings made of white woollen cloth, 'ye that sit in judgment, and walk,' or march in state, by the way.' The colour is not that of the animal, but of his hiran or covering, for the ass is commonly dun, and not white." No doubt can be entertained in relation to the existence of the custom alluded to in this quotation. It prevails among the Arabs to the present day; but it appears rather unnatural, to ascribe the colour of a covering to the creature that wears it. We do not call a man white or black, because he happens to be dressed in vestments of white or black cloth; neither did the Hebrews. The expression naturally suggests the colour of the animal itself, not of its trappings; and the only point to be ascertained, is, whether the ass is found of a white colour. Buffon informs us, that the colour of the ass is not dun but flaxen, and the belly of a silvery white. In many instances, the silvery white predominates; for Cartwright, who travelled into the East, affirms that he beheld on the banks of the Euphrates, great droves of wild beasts, among which were many wild asses all white. Oppian describes the wild ass, as having a coat of silvery white; and the one which professor Gmelin brought from Tartary, was of the same colour. White asses, according to Morier, come from Arabia; their scarcity makes them valuable, and gives them consequence. The men of the law count it a dignity, and suited to their character, to ride on asses of this colour. As the Hebrews always appeared in white garments at their public festivals and on days of rejoicing, or when the courts of justice were held; so, they naturally preferred white asses, because the colour suited the occasion, and because asses of this colour being more rare and costly, were more coveted by the great and wealthy. The same view is taken of this question by Lewis, who says, the asses in Judea "were commonly of a red colour; and therefore white asses were highly valued, and used by persons of superior note and quality." In this passage, he clearly speaks of the colour of the animals themselves, not of their coverings.-PAXTON. Ver. 11. They that are delivered from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water. Dr. Shaw mentions a beautiful rill in Barbary, which is received into a large basin, called shrub we krub, drink and away, there being great danger of meeting there with rogues and assassins. If such places are proper for the lurking of murderers in times of peace, they must be proper for the lying in ambush in times of war: a circumstance that Deborah takes notice of in her song, Judges v. 11. But the writer who is placed first in that collection, which is entitled Gesta Dei per Francos, gives a more perfect comment still on that passage: for, speaking of the want of water, which the Croisade army so severely felt, at the siege of Jerusalem, he complains, that besides their being forced to use water that stunk, and barley bread, their people were in continual danger from the Saracens, who, lying hid near all the fountains, and places of water, everywhere destroyed numbers of them, and carried off their cattle. To which may be added a story from William of Tyre, relating to Godfrey, Duke of Lorrain, afterward king of Jerusalem, who, stopping short of Antioch five or six miles, to which place he was returning, in order to take some refreshment in a pleasant grassy place near a fountain, was suddenly set upon by a number of horsemen of the enemy, who rushed out of a reedy fenny place near them, and attacked the duke and his people.-HARMER. Ver. 17. Gilead abode beyond Jordan: and why did Dan remain in ships? Asher continued on the seashore, and abode in his breaches. Though the coast of that part of Syria which is denominated Palestine, is not remarkable for. the number of its ports, yet besides Joppa, St. John d'Acre, Caipha under Mount Carmel, and a few others that might be named, there are some creeks, and small convenient places, where little vessels, and such are those that are used for fishing, may shelter themselves, and land what they take, though there are very few rivers on all that coast. To these places Deborah seems to refer, when she says, Asher continued on the seashore, and abode in his breaches, or creeks, as it is translated in the margin.-HARMER. Ver. 21. The river of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon. O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength. The Kishon, whose furious current swept away the routed legions of Sisera, though mentioned in scripture as a river, is only a small stream, except when swelled by the rain or melting snow. "That ancient river" pursues his course down the middle of the plain of Esdraelon, and then passing close by the side of Mount Carmel, falls into the sea at a place named Caipha. When Maundrell crossed this stream, on his way to Jerusalem, its waters were low and inconsiderable; but in passing along the side of the plain, he observed the tracts of many tributary rivulets falling down into it from the mountains, by which it must be greatly swelled in the rainy season. It was undoubtedly at the season when the Kishon, replenished by the streams of Lebanon, becomes a deep and impetuous torrent, that the bands of Sisera perished in its waters. The Kishon, like several other streams in Palestine, does not run with a full current into the sea, except in the time of the rains, but percolates through the sands which interpose between it and the Mediterranean. It has been immortalized in the song of Deborah and Barak: "The kings came and fought; then fought the kings of Canaan in Tanach by the waters of Megiddo; they took no gain of money. They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera." The confederate kings took no gain for money; they were volunteers in the war, stimulated only by hatred and revenge. But they strove in vain; the hosts of heaven fought for Israel; the stars in their courses, against the powerful bands of Jabin. By the malignant influences of the heavenly bodies, by the storms of hail, thunder, and rain, produced, it is probable, by the power, and directed by the sagacity of holy angels, the confident hopes of Sisera were blasted, and a mark of eternal infamy stamped upon his name. From heaven, says the Chaldee Paraphrast, from heaven, the place where the stars go forth, war was commenced against Sisera; the God of heaven shot forth his arrows, and discomfited the hostile armies; and the river of Kishon, swelled over all its banks by the furious tempests, engaged also in the warfare, by the command of its sovereign Lord, and swept the fugitives away. this stroke of vengeance, the Kishon was ordained of old: and this is the reason the inspired bard applies to it the distinguishing epithet in the text: "The river of Kishon swept them away; that ancient river, the river Kishon. O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength."-PAXTON. For Ver. 25. He asked water, and she gave him milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish. Though the bowls and dishes of the vulgar Arabs are of wood, those of their emirs are, not unfrequently, of copper, tinned very neatly: La Roque takes notice of this circumstance in more places than one. I have met with a like account, I think, in other travellers. May we not believe that the vessel which Jael made use of, to present buttermilk to Sisera, and which Deborah in her hymn calls a lordly dish, or a dish of nobles, was of this sort? Her husband certainly was an Arab emir; the working of metals much more ancient than her time, Gen. iv. 22; and the mere size of the vessel hardly could be the thing intended. La Roque, indeed, tells us, that the fruits that were brought in at the collation, that the grand emir of the Arabs, whom he visited, treated him with, were placed in a large painted basin of wood; its being painted was, without doubt, a mark of honour set on this vessel of the grand emir, which distinguished it from the wooden bowls of the commonalty; but a painted wooden vessel would have been not so proper for buttermilk, as one of copper tinned, which therefore most probably was the sort Jael used.-HARMER. Speaking of the hospitable manner in which he was received at a house in Trony en in Norway, Dr. Clarke says, "If but a bit of butter be called for in one of these houses, a mass is brought forth weighing six or eight pounds; and so highly ornamented, being turned out of moulds, with the shape of cathedrals set off with Gothic spires, and various other devices, that, according to the language of our English farmers' wives, we should deem it almost a pity to cut it. Throughout this part of Norway, the family plate of butter seemed to be the state dish of the house: wherever we sat down to make a meal, this offering was first made, as in the tents of the primeval Arabs, when Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, brought forth butter in a lordly dish."-BURDER. Ver. 30. Have they not sped? have they not divided the prey; to every man a damsel or two; to Sisera a prey of divers colours, a prey of divers colours of needle-work, of divers colours of needle-work on both sides, meet for the necks of them that take the spoil? See on Is. 3. 18. CHAPTER VI. Ver. 19. And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour: the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out unto him under the oak, and presented it. All roasted meat is a delicacy among the Arabs, and rarely eaten by them, according to La Roque; stewed meat also is, according to him, only to be met with among them at feasts, and great tables, such as those of princes, and consequently a delicacy also; the common diet being only boiled meat, with rice pottage and pillaw. This is agreeable to Dr. Pococke's account of an elegant entertainment he met with at Baalbeck, where he tells us they had for supper a roasted fowl, pillaw, stewed meat, with the soup, &c.; and of a grand supper prepared for a great man of Egypt, where he was present, and which consisted, he tells us, of pillaw, a small sheep boiled whole, a lamb roasted in the same manner, roasted fowls, and many dishes of stewed meat in soup, &c. This soup, in which the stewed meat is brought to table, or something very much like it, was, we believe, the broth that Gideon presented to the angel, whom he took for a mere mortal messenger of God. Many a reader may have wondered why he should bring out his broth; they may have been ready to think it would have been better to have kept that within, and have given it to the poor after the supposed prophet, whom he desired to honour, should be withdrawn, but these passages explain it: the broth, as our translators express it, was, I imagine, the stewed savoury meat he had prepared, with such sort. of liquor as the eastern people at this day bring their stewed meat in, to the most elegant and honourable tables. What then is meant by the flesh put into the basket, Judg. vi. 19?" And Gideon went in, and made ready a kid, and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour; the flesh he put in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out to him under the oak, and presented it." The preceding quotations certainly do not decipher this perfectly; but I have been inclined to think, there is a passage in Dr. Shaw that entirely unravels this matter, and affords a perfect comment on this text. It is in his preface: "Besides a bowl of milk, and a basket of figs, raisins, or dates, which upon our arrival were presented to us, to stay our appetites, the master of the tent where we lodged, fetched us from his flock, according to the number of our company, a kid or a goat, a lamb or a sheep, half of which was immediately seethed by his wife, and served with cuscasoe; the rest was made kabab, i. e. cut into pieces and roasted; which we reserved for our breakfast or dinner next day." May we not imagine that Gideon presenting some slight refreshment to the supposed prophet, according to the present Arab mode, desired him to stay till he could provide something more substantial for him; that he immediately killed a kid, seethed part of it, made kabab of another part of it, and when it was ready, brought the stewed meat in a pot, with unleavened cakes of bread which he had baked; and kabab in a basket for his carrying away with him, and serving him for some after repast in his journey? Nothing can be more conformable to the present Arab customs, or a more easy explanation of the text; nothing more convenient for the carriage of the reserved meat than a light basket; so Thevenot informs us he carried his ready dressed meat with him in a maund. What others may think of the passage I know not, but I never could, till I met with these remarks, account for his bringing the meat out to the angel in a basket. As for Gideon's leaving the supposed prophet under a tree, while he was busied in his house, instead of introducing him into some apartment of his habitation, and bringing the repast out to him there, we have seen something of it under the last observation; I would here add, that not only Arabs that live in tents, and their dependants, practise it still, but those also that live in houses, as did Gideon. Dr. Pococke frequently observed it among the Maronites, and was so struck with this conformity of theirs to ancient customs, that he could not forbear taking particular notice of it: laymen of quality and ecclesiastics, the patriarchs and bishops, as well as poor obscure priests, thus treating their guests.-HARMER. Ver. 37. Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth besides, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by my hand, as thou hast said. |