CHAPTER XIII. VERSES 2-28. THE LEPROSY. In a former chapter the sacred legislator had distinguished between animals pure and impure, among other purposes designing that of preserving the health of his people; but in this chapter we find him supposing that certain of the most inveterate maladies to which the human frame is subject, might become the afflictions of individuals; and directing the proper procedure in such cases. The leprosy, in all its stages, and under all its appearances, is one of the most calamitous of diseases. We, in Britain, are happily freed from it by the coldness of our climate, and therefore are not able to form just conceptions of its various distinctions, and their appearances, in the hotter parts of the globe. The first disease mentioned is seeth, a rising; perhaps, a red pustulous rising; 2d, a scab, or shining spot, or a pustule full of pus; 3d, a whitish spot, without appearance of tumour. Perhaps these are Perhaps these are only different states of the same distemper, which gradually assumes these more decisive and mature appearances. As the completest information I know of, I shall translate what Niebuhr says on this subject. "The Arabs have three sorts of leprosy; 1st, bohak, which is neither contagious nor deadly. A negro who was attacked by it at Mocha, was sprinkled all over his body with white spots; it was said that the use of sulphur had relieved him for a time, without curing him. 2d, barras, which also is not dangerous. 3d, juddam, or majurdam. This leprosy is of the greatest malignity. According to the opinion of a Jew of Maskat, this is the same as is mentioned, Levit. xiii. 10, 11. and a Jew of Bagdad believed this to be the disease named in Hebrew, p jadakin. Juddam is apparently what Hilary calls the leprosy of the joints; for when I inquired at Bagdad in what species of leprosy those signs which accompany the Arabian leprosy appeared, such as numbness of fingers and toes, stinking breath, difficulty of breathing, swelling of the ears, cheeks, brows, &c. they answered me, that all these signs, together with the falling off of the nails, announced the majuddum. The schech, who governed at Aboushar, sent into the island of Bahrein those who were attacked with the species of leprosy called abbras; [barras ?] Some few years ago all the leprous persons at Basra were shut up in a separated house; and there is at Bagdad a quarter enclosed, and filled with barracks, to which the magistrate conveyed by force those leprous persons, who, being attacked by the juddam, did not give notice of their condition. But it seems that government has little care about these unfortunate persons, as they come every Friday to ask alms in the market place. I might have seen many of these sufferers, but I thought it most prudent to avoid them. It is said that they endeavour to assuage their miseries as much as possible, and shut up as they are, yet continue their amours. The leprosy is not uncommon at Bombay, among the lower class of Indians : but it is not malignant, for I heard say, that they permitted, without difficulty, those who were diseased to labour with those who were in health; they said too, that this leprosy, as well as the itch, was occasioned by bad nourishment, and especially by corrupted fish." The following observations are by Mr. Forskal: "Lepers are found at Cairo; however, they are not common. The Arabs name behaq that species of leprosy in which certain little spots discover themselves hither and thither on the body; and this, without doubt, is that named bohak, Levit. xiii. It is thought not to be contagious; insomuch, that it is said the patient may be slept with without hazard. When the leprosy spreads all over the body, the Arabs call it barras. It is easily distinguished in the East, where black hair is universal; because this disease renders the hair white. They say that this leprosy may be cured, when, in the midst of the white spots, the hairs continue black; but that it is incurable if they become white. A man of Aleppo, who had been at Damascus, said, that there were in that city two districts filled with lepers, one of Mahometans, the other of Christians; and that each was supported by the alms of those of the same religion. These fellows in imprisonment form alliances among themselves; and when a child is born, those of their faith who reside in the city, take it from the mother, and give it a healthy nurse. If after three months, this child has not the leprosy, it is brought up in the city; if he is infected, they return him to his parents: the healthy nurse fears no infection. "May 15, 1763. I saw, at Mocha, a Jew attacked by the leprosy bohak. The spots were of unequal sizes; they did not appear shining, were very little raised above the skin, and did not change the colour of the hairs. The spots were of a dull white, verging toward red. The patient whom I saw had the rest of his flesh blacker than is usual among the inhabitants of this country; but his spots were not so white as the skin of Europeans, who are not sunburnt. The spots of this leper did not appear in his hands, or around his navel; but on the neck and the face, not on any part of the head where the hairs were thick. They spread themselves by degrees; sometimes they last but two months, sometimes one or two years, and disappear of themselves. This disease is neither contagious nor hereditary, and occasions no inconveniencies. The Jews believe that it is produced by excessive joy; never by vexation or sorrow. [At Bagdad they say it is produced by drinking milk after having eaten fish.] We were afterward shewn an Indian who had the leprosy barras, and I found that his spots were of a different colour from those of the bohaq. The skin of the Indian was much blacker, and nearly approaching to soot; but his spots were much whiter than those of the Jew. By holding by the side of these spots the hollow of my hand, I found the shade equal. This unhappy sufferer had the leprosy in his hands, and on the soles of his feet; and the blotches spread on all sides, rising even to the legs. In this subject, the hairs, naturally black, were become white in the spots, and were fallen in several places. In his youth he had had the leprosy on his breast and in his face; but as he was going in pilgrimage to Mecca, a scherif had cured him, by spitting on the places which were infected. The hair of his head, his beard, and his breast, had retained their natural black colour," p. 121, &c. The foregoing account is so particular, that the sacred writer may almost stand as a commentator on the modern traveller; for Moses prescribes the visitation of the person afflicted, and the symptoms of the affliction, with an accuracy perfectly correspondent to the observant Dane. He notices the spots, the hair turned white, or not turned white, the spreading of the blotches, &c. It merely remains, that we observe the difference of the Hebrew names for the different species of this disease. Tjaroth, a leprosy of a bad kind: Greek, eux, white. [Observe, that Hippocrates, lib. ii. Prorhet. ad fin. mentions the leuce, as "one of the most dangerous distempers, such as that called the Phenician," and this disease was called some centuries ago, "the Tyrian leprosy." We infer, that, as it depends more or less on food, Moses could not too strongly prohibit such kinds of food as might promote it, to a people who were about to inhabit the seat of it, Syria and Phenicia.] The plague on the head and beard, verses 29, 30. may be considered as another kind of leprosy, distinct from the milder kind, which Mr. Forskal tells us, "did not come on any part of the head where the hairs were thick:" our scalled head is probably analogous to this kind of leprosy, called natak. Bohak, verse 39. is sufficiently explained above. As to the attentions of the priests, and the legal ceremonies to be observed on these occasions, they seem to be a mixture of precaution and of piety. Before we quit this extract from Niebuhr, I wish to direct the reader's attention to the action of the scherif, spitting on the places of the Indian where the leprosy appeared. May this serve to explain a passage where a leprosy also is the subject? Numb. xii. 14. Miriam was struck with a leprosy of the malignant kind, tjaroth, verse 10. Moses intercedes for her, the Lord replies, If her father had but spit in herface, or on any part of the surface of her skin, with design to cure her of the leprosy, bohak, or that of the slightest kind, should she not have been secluded, kept in private, to see the effect of this remedy, seven days? Now, if in that slighter state, she would have This account is long, distinct, particular, but very obscure. I shall first suppose, that the garments their wearers, become thereby unclean. That this worn by leprous persons, receiving infection from disorder may be communicated by such means, is evident from a history in Niebuhr on this subject; which at least supposes such communication was well known and expected to take place: "But a few years ago, a leprous person, in order to obtain a woman dress of fine linen, which he contrived should be sold whom he loved, wore during several days an inner to her, at a very low price. When he had received information by his spies that she was infected, he acquainted the magistrates, and she was shut up," in the hospital where lepers, and himself among them, were secluded. This kind of infection gradually corrodes even the texture of garments; and is much dreaded in all countries subject to the plague, and by all persons exposed by attendance on purulent distempers. There is a second sense which may be attributed to the passage; that of a natural disease in garments, a disease appertaining to themselves. This, I apprehend, is the true meaning of the writer; but I know no traveller who has mentioned the subject; neither does the sacred legislator confine his remarks to one kind of garment, but he supposes that as well linen as woollen may be subject to it. I have read of woollen garments undergoing putrefaction, and even taking fire in consequence, [Dr. Watson's Chemical Essays, vol. i. p. 189. note,] but not of such accidents happening also to cotton or to linen. By way of conjecture I would ask, whether destruction of garments by an insect might be here intended? for we read, James y. 2. your garments are moth eaten; and, Luke xii. 33. the moth corrupteth, where the idea of corruption by the moth deserves notice; and, if admissible, would render the Mosaic account, and the precautions in consequence, clear and easy. CHAPTER XIV. VERSE 34. LEPROSY IN THE HOUSE. This also is a subject on which we have little information; the description of it by Moses is precise, but answers to no modern accounts that I have perused. I shall therefore add on this, and the former subject, merely to shew the power of contagion, and to justify the rigid precautions of the divine law, an extract from Dr. Mead on the Plague;" but I think I recollect to have read, that, during the great plague in London, the walls of the smaller rooms, where the sick lay, were discoloured, green, red, &c. by pestilential effluvia. We know too, that saltpetre incrustations are common in our walls, whether of stone or brick; and that no plaster can repel them; but I doubt whether this be correctly the disease referred to. The dry rot in timber is equally fatal and equally uncontrollable; but I do not know that it produces red, or green, &c. discolourations. probable, that these are among the sairim of our text. How far our translation is correct in rendering this word devils, we do not determine; but it should appear, that, in order to dissuade their converts, &c. from the worship of similar idols, the Christian fathers described them, and their nature, in terms the most terrific. CHAPTER XIX. VERSE 19. Thou shalt not let thy cuttle gender with a diverse Dr. Mead tells us, p. 9. 8vo edit. of the Plague of kind; nor sow thy field with mingled seed; nor wear London 1665, "that the contagion came by collon a garment mingled of linen and woollen. The deimported from Turkey;" that the houses themselves sign of this law being to prevent mixtures, one senwere infected. He conjectures that the matter of tence may contribute to explain another. The first contagion may be of the nature of a salt. "I am par- prohibits animal mules; the offspring of the ass and ticularly careful to destroy the clothes of the sick, mare, or horse and ass, &c. The second, I understand [by burning them,] because they contain the very also, prohibits vegetable mules; i.e. that when, for quintessence of contagion. A very ingenious author, instance, in a field or garden, to plants of different [Boccace, Decam. Gior. 1.] in his admirable descrip- kinds growing near together, the farina of one is contion of the plague at Florence, 1348, relates what him- veyed by the wind, or by insects, &c. and impregself saw "that two hogs finding in the streets the nates the other, the seed so impregnated, being a mixrags which had been thrown out from off a poor man ture, shall not be sown; in order that it may not bedead of the disease, after snuffing upon them, and come a prolific generation, but may terminate in the tearing them with their feet, fell into convulsions, and first instance. This may also include grafts of unlike died in less than an hour," p. 24. Dr. Russell menfruits; for instance, of an orange on an apple, &c. tions infection by clothes after a year. but, I suppose, one kind of apple grafted on another, or plum upon plum, is not prohibited. To this intimate mixture of subjects unlike, may be referred also the linsey-wolsey garment. I do not know that the leprosy had any relation to the plague, though it might have more than we know of: but I insert these remarks to shew the absolute necessity of burning and totally destroying the seeds of infection, whether in clothes or houses, which the Mosaic appointment so strongly enjoins. What shall we think of the behaviour of David in after ages, who risked his person by visiting the streets of Jerusalem, during a similar contagion ? CHAPTER XVII. VERSE 7. They shall not sacrifice to devils. The original word, rendered devils, sair, or sairim, has several significations. It denotes creatures which are thickly clad with hair ; or, whose hair stands erect, such as goats. That the Egyptians adored these animals appears from Herodotus, lib. ii. cap. 46; Diod. Sic. lib. i. Strabo, lib. xvii. and even the name Mendes, given to one of their capital cities, signifies equally a goat, and the goat-formed deity, Pan. Pindar alludes to excesses of this kind, even by women, as quoted by Strabo, and by Elian, Nat. Hist. lib. vii. cap. 19. Herodotus says the same. Whether goats were the only sairim, hairy gods, of Scripture may be doubted. The hairy monkey cynocephalus, was probably one of these deities; as he certainly was worshipped in Egypt: and, if there were any proof that the hairy ourang-outang was known so far north as Africa, perhaps we might include him also among these divinities. Besides this, the heathen represented as partially brutal, Jupiter Ammon, with the head of a ram; Jupiter the Theban, in the form of a ram; Anubis, as a kid; Diana, as a cat, &c. it is It will be perceived, that I understand our translation to have hit the true sense of the text; but others render it as if it forbade the sowing the same land with two sorts of seeds; as of clover or wheat, or vines or cabbages, &c. at the same time, though the crops came to maturity at different periods. The Jews divided their seeds into three principal classes; 1st, seeds of revenue, corn; wheat, barley, rye, &c. 2d, pulse; pease, beans, lentils, &c. 3d, potherbs; onions, leeks, carrots, turnips, &c. They forbade that these should be sowed confusedly, mingled, or so near together that one could draw away the nourishment from another. The distance necessary between species, in a field, was ten yards; in a garden, ten feet. They might not place a row of cucumbers by the side of a row of melons, alternately; but must put two rows of cucumbers together, and must draw a trench between the rows of cucumbers and those of melons. I shall add the custom of Arabia at this day. inquired respecting the mixture of seeds from a Jew of Maskat, who had an estate in land. He answered me, he himself, like all the inhabitants of Omân, made no scruple of sowing in the same field two seeds mingled; when they thought it might be profitable but that it was prohibited to graft a tree, or, as he ex plained himself, to plant a shoot of white grapes on stem of black grapes; or to wear a dress whose war was of hair, [or wool,] and its woof was of cotton; an the same of a stuff, part cotton, part silk. NUMBERS. THE subject of the book of Numbers is among the most perplexing which occur in sacred history; that is to say, the great multitude of which the Israelite caravan was composed; said to amount to 600,000 men; and, as usually understood, BESIDES women and children. This, according to the most moderate calculation, allowing as many women as men, 600,000, and three children to a family, would make the whole descendants from Jacob, 3,000,000 at least. To this must be further added, the servants, &c. which accompanied Jacob and his sons into Egypt; i.e. the posterity of these servants. It is difficult to say what number should be allowed for these persons, and their families; Abraham had 318 servants, armed, trained to war; so that his household consisted of at least 1,000 persons, men, women, and children. Had Isaac diminished this number? or Jacob? I suppose not. If Simeon and Levi, with their servants, could destroy a city, Gen xxxiv. if Jacob could recover land from the Amorite, with his sword and with his bow, Gen. xlviii. 22. if Ephraim could war against Gath, 1 Chron. vii. 20, 21. these expeditions demonstrate that the Jewish patriarchs must have had numerous attendants; since not all their attendants could be soldiers. But, supposing that these were only the same number as the patriarchs, and had multiplied in Egypt like them, they would add 3,000,000 to the camp of Israel. We are informed further, that Israel was accompanied out of Egypt by "the mixed multitude." Of how many persons was this mixture composed? When we have added all these together, we shall find the total to be absolutely unreasonable, 6,000,000! Never yet did the earth behold so great a number of its inhabitants assembled in one company! How did they live in Egypt? how could that country sustain them? and, when fled, how could Pharaoh expect to subdue them? what line of march did they occupy? &c. We may further inquire into the possibility of expecting to feed this immense multitude: nor let this be esteemed frivolous; for whatever faith Moses might have in the Divine protection, whatever miraculous interference he might expect, the Israelites at large were by no means so well satisfied as their leader; and the mixed multitude, what dependence had They on Divine support? Yet we ought not, I think, to suppose that these were led blindfold, Numb. xvi. 14. on apparent ruin and starvation; to say nothing of the flocks and herds of oxen, sheep, camels, &c. Was the Hebrew nation 6,000,000 at any time, even Se Canaan? Major Rennell has demonstrated that Babylon could not have been fully peopled, without exhausting a fertile country half as large as Britain. The army of Xerxes, which amounted to a million of men, is considered as absolutely impossible to have been fed by the provinces through which it is reported to have passed. If these great numbers render such instances incredible, why should we suppose that the caravan of Israel exceeded them in a sextuple proportion? The fact is, the numbers as they stand by fair inference are impossible: but, where is the error? Whoever requires miracles where no clear necessity for them can be proved to exist, whoever stretches the possibilities of nature to the utmost, in order to establish an hypothesis which includes a supposed necessity, transgresses those rules of just reasoning and fair interpretation, whose paramount control is no less requisite in considering Israelitish histories, than in considering occurrences among other nations. Why then should we attribute an immense fertility to the children of Jacob while in Egypt? a fertility continued without intermission above two hundred years; incapable of failing in a single instance; which bestows a length of life on individuals, without exception; makes no allowance for premature deaths, by the sword, by pestilence, by accidents, &c. When we find St. Paul observing, that " ALL were not Israel who were of Israel" i.e. that besides the personal descendants of Jacob, many, not his descendants, were reckoned among his people, we are led to consider, whether the recorded numbers of the Israelitish camp, in the Old Testament, should be taken inclusively or exclusively; i.e. whether the descendants of the servants, &c. who went down into Egypt with Jacob, are not mustered as so many Israelites, capable of war. This, if admitted, diminishes greatly the miraculous fertility of the sons of Jacob while in Egypt, and renders much more credible the numbers attached to each tribe; so that we need not seek for the means whereby 70 or 75 persons should, in about 215 years, become some hundred thousands; a multiplication utterly irreconcilable with any natural principles: but not if we add to the 70 or 75 patriarchs, the increase fairly to be expected from domestics, &c. who accompanied them to Egypt. We might further ask, whether it be impossible that the true import of the passage understood to say "600,000 men, besides women and children," is not rather " 600,000 persons, women and children included." I do not urge this argument by any considera tion of grammatical construction, though, perhaps, something might be said upon it, not without plausibility. Observe further on the numbers recorded in this book, that they all end with a cypher. Is it not extraordinary that no one ends with a 4 or a 5? Not only every sum total ends with a cypher, but every tribe ends with a cypher also. To judge of this, calculate the chances that any twelve enrollments should all end with even numbers, or cyphers. We proceed now to consider this branch of argument; and, rather choosing to point out errors in other ancient books, even when copyists only are answerable for them, we shall consider some instances among them where their numbers are closed by cyphers. Sir William Jones has instituted a laborious calculation of Hindoo chronology, to shew that so long lives could not possibly come together, as the Puranas affirm. I took the trouble of reducing the numbers to figures, and, observing that they ended with cyphers, I cut off the cyphers from them; the result was, a coincidence with the numbers sir William had inferred by reasoning. An instance or two may be agreeable, p. 126. Asiatic Researches, Calcutta edit. "Vaivaswata, [i.e. Noah,] reigned 3,892,000 years ago." Cut off the last three figures, it makes 3,892: which, that it is nearly the true number is evident, from a remark, p. 132. "The hypothesis that government was first established, laws enacted, and agriculture encouraged in India, by Rama, about 3,800 years ago, agrees with the received account of Noah's death, and the previous settlement of his immediate descendants :" 3,892 is sufficiently near to 3,800. P. 134. "The reigns of these princes are supposed to have lasted 864,000 years; a supposition evidently against nature; the uniform course of which allows only a period of 870" cut off the cyphers; 864 is sufficiently near to 870. There are other instances besides these. The same principle is applied to Herodotus, vide FRAGMENT, No. 322: and the same must be done with Diodorus Siculus, who tells us, book i. "The remainder of 15,000 years has been filled by Egyptian kings, in number 470," cap. 3. sect. 2. but in cap. 4. "The priests say their books mention 47 tombs of kings." How is this? each king is supposed to have had his tomb; 47 tombs to 470 kings! Correct this by cutting off the cypher from the larger number, [as the 15,000 years itself requires a similar diminution.] Compare also, lib. ii. cap. 21. "The Chaldeans say, they began their celestial observations 473,000 years before Alexander," with the Egyptian account, lib. i. sect. 2. cap. 21. "Egypt was governed by native kings 4,700 years." This being the same space of time referred to by both nations, the lesser number must correct the greater, by cutting off two cyphers, which will make them agree; as Chaldea was settled earlier than Egypt. Since then we find that the ancient Hindoo books, the ancient Chaldean books, the ancient Egyptian books, all agree in the same mode of incorrectness, and are apparently restored to correctness by removing the cyphers, need we wonder if a similar evil has, in one or two places, attended the Hebrew copies also? But to what could this be owing? Did the original writers use cyphers? or, did they use terms whose genuine signification was afterward lost, or the notation of which became misunderstood? How should this happen in countries so remote? There must be some common source of this error; for that it is a wilful mistake I cannot allow. [N.B. If we consider a single cypher as cut off from the number of the Israelites, 600,000, to meet the first numeral figure, the tribe of Gad, 4,565, it would reduce the descendants of Jacob to 60,000 men; to which add women, children, servants, &c. it would, on the calculation adopted above, fix the number of the whole caravan at 600,000.] We may have occasion hereafter to consider the modes of numeration among the Orientals; at present, I shall subjoin a manner which would certainly puzzle an European. "The Arabians have a very singular idiom in their dates, and other large numbers, placing, generally, the units before the tens, the tens before the hundreds, and the hundreds before the thousands; though it is not uncommon, even in the same passage, to follow both methods; as, the chronologist says, that in the Rabiu' l'awel, May, of the year twelve and three hundred of the Hejra, there appeared a comet, sending forth rays and sparks of fire, and there followed it three bright flames; and it was at the fourth hour of the night, which was as light as day: and this happened in the six thousand and four hundred and sixteenth year of the world," Richardson, Arab. Gr. p48. If it be asked, whether this mode of placing units before tens, tens before hundreds, hundreds before thousands, is ever used in Scripture? I would ask in return, whether it will explain satisfactorily the num ber of people smitten at Bethshemesh, 1 Sam. vi. 19 ? "The Lord smote among the people 50,070 men." But here the smaller number, 70, is put before the larg er, thousand, and the word men comes between them the word fifties also is plural, or dual; and the word thousand is singular; therefore, does not agree wit it. Suppose we place this literally, "The Lore smote seventy men, fifties, a thousand men ;” this according to the Arabic notation just mentioned would make 1170 persons; which, whether it b most credible for the small town of Bethshemesh, th reader will judge: we can hardly think 50,070 pe sons had looked into the ark; and, if they had, wh not say so at once? why put the 70 before the tho sand, with the word men between them? If the same principles of enumeration were applie to the loss of the Assyrian army, Isai. xxxvii. 36. |