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profligacy of Zimri, son of a chief house in Israel with Cozbi, daughter of a prince of Midian, Numb. xxv. 6, 14, 15, 18.

1 Kings, xi. "Solomon loved many strange women... who turned away his heart... he went after Ashtoreth, goddess of the Zidonians; and Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites . . . he built a high place for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon." I think it clear, that Molech is the very same as Milcom, being described under precisely the same character; and that Milcom is a goddess of the Ammonites, no less than Ashtoreth, with whom she is ranked, is goddess of the Zidonians. It is evident that female deities had turned the heart of Solomon. Ashtoreth and Molech were much the same divinity. 1 Kings, xxi. If we consider Ashtoreth and Molech as the same deity, it will, at least tolerate, an idea which I have entertained on the history of Naboth. Ahab, king of Israel, married Jezebel, a princess of the Zidonians. Moreover, Ahab built an altar, and temple for Baal, chap. xvi. 33. he also made a grove, rather, literally, an Ashreh, or Ashtaroth, either a shrine, or figure, or both; I mean, the very goddess which Jezebel had been used to worship at Zidon. This Ashreh, I suppose, to be a Syrian name for what the Hebrews called Molech, the king. We find by the history that Naboth was a worshipper of Jehovah; consequently was obnoxious, like Elijah, to the wrath of Jezebel; and when he pleads the laws of Jehovah against Ahab, verse 3. Jezebel directs the men of his city to proclaim a fast, not surely in honour of Jehovah, whom she hated, but of her own deity Molech; set Naboth at the head of the solemnity, who will act his part with a very ill grace; and let two witnesses watch his actions.. They proclaimed a fast; and made Naboth to sit at the head of the people and there came into the assembly, as if accidentally, two low men, sons of Belial, and sat down over against him, so as fully to see his deportment; and they witnessed against him, saying, Naboth does now blaspheme [bid farewell to, take leave of, quit, as if forsaking the worship of] the gods, even Molech. Naboth could not deny this charge; so they took him, and stoned him," &c. Naboth therefore fell a martyr to his religion; and this is the reason, as I conceive, that Jezebel, who had procured his death, is immediately threatened with punishment. For For this flagrant iniquity, in direct opposition to Jehovah, tell Jezebel, "the dogs shall devour her by the wall of Jezreel."

We may now notice some of those passages in which we find these deities, Baal and Moloch, considered as being of either sex, or of both sexes. The first indeed may be easier to prove from Scripture, than the latter; though the latter occurs often in profane antiquity, and perhaps occasionally in Scripture

also.

Baal Peor, Numb. xxv. 3. is certainly Baal with the distinctive mark of the female sex: to this agrees the impurities of his worship. Vide also Hosea ix. 10. where the Chiun of the passage in Numbers is described as "that shame:" using a feminine word. It should seem also, as if idolatry was called fornication, because fornication was an attendant on idolatry; and no wonder, as the double, or the united, sexes, of the chief idols, was adapted to promote that crime in their worshippers; certainly, not less than when a figure of either sex was the object of their adoration, as in Judg. ii. 13; iii. 7; vi. 28; x. 6; 2 Kings, xvii. 16; xxi. 3, &c. On consulting these passages it will be seen, that I consider Ashreh, or Ashteroth, as the female companion of Baal. The same, I apprehend, is Merodach, Nebo, and other titles: but these two I mean partly to examine.

The first is mentioned, in that curious passage, Jer. 1.2. "Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces: her idols are confounded: her images are broken in pieces." pieces." The rendering of the LXX in this passage is extremely remarkable. "Is abashed, deeply blushes, Bel, the fearless; the delicate Merodach is given up." It is clear, by their epithet the delicate, that they considered Merodach as a goddess: yet Mr. Parkhurst derives this title from a root signifying to break in pieces; however, we see by our subject, that these ideas are very compatible: for though in some of our medals, this goddess be armed, and truly formidable, yet she is delicate in other respects. Moreover, this may lead us to the sense of the Hebrew words in this passage. “Bel is abashed, timid; Merodach is divided, dismayed, overcome with trepidation. Her female labours are abashed; her [ludicrous] female idols are confounded.” Here we have, as appears to me, the characters of the female sex attributed to Bel; the words "idols,” and "labours," have the feminine form, although their relation to Bel be no less apparent than it is to Merodach. The prophet seems to employ equivocal terms throughout; and especially to play on the word idols; which should be "gods," alilim, for which he substitutes galilim, excrementitious deities.

Perhaps this correlation is still stronger in the title of the deity Nebo, or Nebu: for it deserves remark, that the king called in the Hebrew Scripture, NEBUchadnezzar, is known throughout the East, under the title of BALchnazzar: so that Nebu and Bel are in this instance interchangeable. Nor is this all, for as we have seen female bashfulness attributed to Bel, we may perhaps find other femalities attributed to this deity: for which consult Isai. xlvi. 1. a passage hitherto unintelligible, because translators have not adverted to the attitude of women in delivery in the East, which is, standing, leaning forward, over a bed, &c. The words are literally: Bel croucheth the knees; Nebu bends the back; their labours were equal to animals; even to great animals; their burdens were

suspended; the bearing was to palpitation, or extreme lassitude. They have bent their backs; they have crouched their knees in union; [as if they were but one single person] they were unable to deliver the burden; but [even, INSOMUCH THAT, M.S.]their own lives in turning [straining] went forth." Observe how this sense of the passage is established by the antithesis following. Hearken unto me, O house of Israel, and all the remnant of the house of Israel; borne, by me, from the belly; carried, by me, from the womb and even to old age I am that person; and even to the turn of life [gray hairs, Eng. Tr.] I will carry you. I have made you, as children are made; and I will bear you, as children are borne; even I will carry you, as children are carried; and will deliver you, as children are delivered." It is frequent in this prophet to employ a repetition of words allied in sound, but varied in sense: and this renders the neatness of his turn of words extremely difficult to preserve in translation. In this passage he repeats several words: for instance, [the figures mark the verses, respectively.]

1. Omusiuth. 2. Shebi. 1. Neshati. 1. Nesha. 2. Meleth. 3. Omusim. 4. Shebeh. 3. Neshaim. 3. m-Nesha. 4. a-Meleth.

Surely this play of words demonstrates the connection of the verses with each other; and, as all interpreters agree in the rendering of the latter verses, it justifies our endeavour to give the former verses such

a sense as maintains their antithetical correspondence with their fellows. This sense, too, is coincident with the import of other passages of Scripture, as we have seen, and corroborates our principle, that the offices and peculiarities of the female sex are attributed to Baal, as well as to Moloch, who if she be sometimes a man, he is sometimes a woman; pregnant, but, says the prophet, to no issue; and suffering the pains of labour, but to no delivery.

It is every way credible that there are other female deities in Scripture, which ultimately terminate in Moloch, as, Baal Gad, Josh. xi. 17. Baal Shalisha [vide the three busts, in the temple of Elephanta.] Huzzab, Nahum ii. 7. et al. To investigate these would extend the subject to an inconvenient length; I therefore conclude, by referring to similar figures with those at Persepolis, cut in rocks, fifty cubits high, male and female, extant near Balk, and Bamyan, in the extreme east of Persia. Vide Hyde, de Relig. Pers. page 132. or Asiatic Researches, vol. vi. p. 465. Lond. edit. One is called the red idol, the other the gray idol: of which colours they appear to have been painted. They are extremely ancient; perhaps the nearest to the original idols of mankind of any now remaining in the world: under which notion of them we cannot but desire further information respecting them, as they might assist in ascertaining the nature, if not also the origin, of idolatry, that idolatry which overspread both east and west.

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OF THE MOURNING OF THE WOMEN AT RAMAH, OVER THE GRAVES OF THEIR

CHILDREN.

EXTRACT, TRANSLATED FROM LE BRUYN'S VOYAGE IN SYRIA, PAGE 256.

"WE have formerly described the great mournings of the women of Turkey, on account of the deaths of their husbands and relations. This custom is not so peculiar to them, but what we find it also among other. Orientals, as well Maronites as Cophtes, and the other Christian sects. The women go in companies on certain days, out of the towns to the tombs of their relations, IN ORDER TO WEEP THERE; and when they are arrived, they display very deep expressions of grief.

"While I was at Ramah, I saw a very great company of these weeping women, who went out of the town. I followed them, and after having observed the place they visited, adjacent to their sepulchres, in order to make their usual lamentations, I seated myself on an elevated spot, from whence I designed the annexed Plate. They first went and placed themselves on the sepulchres, and wept there; where, after having remained about half an hour, some of them rose up, and formed a ring, holding each other by the hands, as is done in some country dances. Quickly two of them quitted the others, and placed themselves in the centre of the ring; where they made so much noise in screaming and in clapping their hands, as

together with their various contortions, might have subjected them to the suspicion of madness. After that, they returned, and seated themselves to weep again; till they gradually withdrew to their homes. The dresses they wore were such as they generally used, white, or any other colour; but when they rose up to form a circle together, they put on a black veil, over the upper parts of their persons, as is endeavoured to be shown in the Plate." [This was at Ramah, between Joppa and Jerusalem, near Lydda.]

I would observe on this extract, that it seems to be the remains of a custom observed in ancient times: we read of Mary's supposed, "going to the grave to weep there," John xi. 31. of "weeping with howling," Isai. xv. 3. of "the noise of weeping equalling the noise of joy," Ezra iii. 13. and of other expressions of public and ceremonious weeping, even so early as the days of Abraham, Gen. xxiii. 2. and Moses, Deut. xxxiv. 8. The present, however, is not an opportunity to discuss the mode of weeping, so much as the place of it. I would observe, that mountains seem to have been the usual places for conspicuous weeping and lamentation; so we read, Isai. xv. 2. "he is gone up to the high places to weep," whether

hills, or temples upon them: and, Jer. iii. 23. "A voice was heard on the high places, weeping;" also, chap. xlviii. 5. "in the going up of Luhith continual weeping shall go up," et al. We see this custom continued in the extract before us, and I think it may illustrate the phraseology of "Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted, because they are not." I the rather suggest this, because, the Jews insist, and Mr. Levi, lately, that Rachel is very ill introduced by the evangelist Matthew in reference to the children slain by order of Herod at Bethlehem. They say, that the lamenta tion of Rachel referring only to the carrying away of captives to Babylon, and being connected with a promise of their return, it is not of that desperate description to justify the application of it by the evangelist. The passage stands thus, Jer. xxxi. 15.

Thus saith the Lord;

A voice was heard in Ramah,
Lamentation and bitter weeping;
Rachel weeping for her children,

Refused to be comforted, because they were not.
Thus saith the Lord:

Refrain thy voice from weeping,

And thine eyes from tears:

For thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord;
And they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord,

That thy children shall come again to their own border. Certainly this passage closes with hopeful and grateful ideas; so far, therefore, as the prophet apostrophizes the tender mother of the tribes of Joseph and Benjamin, he addresses consolation to her: not so the evangelist; whose Rachel deplores her children hopelessly cut off, and departed for ever.

I would wish, therefore, to state, on the authority of Le Bruyn, that it is customary for mothers in the East to seek the graves of their children, in order to weep over them, when departed: I infer, that this being a custom in the East at the present time, it was so anciently; so that in point of lamentation, any mourning mother might have answered the allusion of the evangelist as well as Rachel.

2dly, That it is probable, the high places or hills out of the towns, were usually the scenes of such lamentations, in ancient times, as we find by the passages already quoted; and that such weepings are now maintained in the same places: the same customs for the most part prevailing in modern as in ancient times.

3dly, That the word Ramah signifies high places in general; and that any high place, the usual scene of such maternal lamentation, would have answered the evangelist's purpose in reference to mourning mothers.

4thly, That Rachel was buried at, or near, Ramah, Gen. xxxv. 9; xlvii. 7; 1 Sam. x. 2. where the

Israelites were assembled to be carried into captivity, Jer. xl. 1. This was not the Ramah mentioned by Le Bruyn, but another near to Bethlehem.

5thly, That the same custom of women's weeping for their children was probably maintained in the evangelist's time at Ramah near Bethlehem, as Le Bruyn found at the Ramah near Lydda; that Ramah being a high place fit for similar purposes, and such high places being selected as proper for maternal lamentations. It will appear, therefore, that there is nothing forced, or constrained, in the reference of St. Matthew, ii. 18. to a mourning of mothers over their children, and refusing to be comforted, since such was, as it still is, the custom of the country. The allusion to such a custom would be still more conspicuous, if it was, as I doubt not it was, maintained at Rachel's Ramah; and the apostrophe to Rachel would be still more impressive, if these mournings were exhibited adjacent to where she was buried. It requires little poetic vigour to call such mournings, the mournings of Rachel; not to say that such a name might actually be given to them.

These remarks set in a very easy light the accom. modation employed by the evangelist; who, certainly, selects Rachel as a mother of the most affectionate character, and instances in her, that grief which other mothers felt, and under which other mothers lamented. This seems to justify also, the expression of the evangelist, "then was fulfilled the language of Jeremiah the prophet ;" for if Rachel lamented, according to the custom of the country, on account of the departure of her children into captivity; if when they were not slain, but only deported, she was, as it were, raised out of her tomb to grieve, to lead the lamentations of the weeping mothers, surely when her children were really slain she might well break the bonds of silence, and express by loud and bitter cries, those agonies which rent her sympathetic bosom: she might preside over the sorrows, the public sorrows, which such an occasion demanded, and which, after such deprivations, were expected, according to established usage. In short, if the prophet had any right to raise the dead, on account of a circumstance of temporary, but not hopeless distress, the evangelist had, at least, equal, not to say greater, right to do the same, on occasion of a slaughter, which was neither alleviated by hope of return, nor by possibility of future restoration, but was the fatal result of tyrannical jealousy, and of vindictive anticipation. This was a fulfilment of the allusion and intent of Jeremiah, much beyond that of the prophet himself; it was a deeper completion of his words; a more entire termination of his sentiment; founded, like his, on the custom of the country, and, like his, supported by the daily occurrences of time and place, and by the general manners of the persons, to whom his narration was addressed.

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MILL, OR QUERN, FOR GRINDING CORN. MATTHEW XXIV. 41.

THE following extracts are from that intelligent traveller, Mr. Pennant; consequently I need say nothing in support of their correctness or their authenticity.

At Kinloch Leven. "Saw here a quern, a sort of portable mill, made of two stones, about two feet broad, thin at the edges, and a little thicker in the middle. In the centre of the upper stone is a hole to pour in the corn, and a peg by way of handle. The whole is placed on a cloth; the grinder pours the corn into the hole with one hand, and with the other turns round the upper stone with a very rapid motion, while the meal runs out at the sides on the cloth. This is rather preserved as a curiosity, being much out of use at present. Such are supposed to be the same with what are common among the Moors, being the simple substitute of a mill," Tour in Scotland, 1769, p. 231.

In the Isle of Rum, or Ronin. "Notwithstanding this island has several streams, here is not a single mill; all the molinary operations are done at home; the corn is graddaned, or burnt out of the ear, instead of being threshed: this is performed two ways; first, by cutting off the ears, and drying them in a kiln, then setting fire to them on a floor, and picking out the grains, by this operation rendered as black as coal. The other method is more expeditious, for the whole sheaf is burnt, without the trouble of cutting off the ears; a most ruinous practice, as it destroys both thatch and manure, and on that account has been wisely prohibited in some of the islands. Graddaned corn was the "parched corn" of Holy Writ. Thus Boaz presents his beloved Ruth with parched corn; and Jesse sends David with an ephah of the same to his sons in the camp of Saul. The grinding was also performed by the same sort of machine, the quern, in

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