versions, Matt. xi. 16. They were then, it seems, the common places for diverfion and amusement, ufed by old and young: by the aged for conversation', by the young for piping and dancing. 2. They held their markets in their gates, it should feem, anciently, from what is faid 2 Kings vii. 1, 18, where we read that a measure of fine flour was to be fold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria. It doth not appear why the gate should be mentioned, if it was not confidered as the public market, where the spoils of the Syrians were to be fold. In their gates then, or in a void space at the entrance of their gates, see 1 Kings xxii. 10, they held their markets and their courts of judicature both; as afterwards, it should feem, when their gates were not used for these purposes, the fame place that ferved for 5 The supposed scene of the first assembly, or moral difcourse, of the exquifite Arabian writer Hariri, entitled Sananenfis, seems to have been such an open and public place. It should not then have been represented, I apprehend, as it is by the learned Chappelow, in the preface to his tranflation, as "the subject of a friendly fociety at Sanaa, in "Arabia Felix." It appears from the manner of his withdrawment, p. 7, that the orator was supposed to be unknown, and that it was to be understood to be an occafional difcourse, pronounced by a Dervise, an Eastern religious beggar, who had gathered a great number of people about him, in some market, or fome such open place, preaching to them there the precepts of religion. We meet with accounts in travellers of fuch public discourses of their Religious. the the one was made use of for the other, Acts xvi. 19. People then might fit in the gate anciently for conversation and diverfion, as they do now, among the Arabs, in markets and fairs. It seems most natural to interpret Lot's fitting in the gate, Gen. xix. 1, after this manner. Certainly he did not fit there as a magiftrate, for had that been his character, they could not have reproached him, though a stranger, with setting up to be a judge, ver. 9; nor can we imagine he fat there purposely to invite all strangers to his house, that would have been carrying his hospitality to an excess, it being enough for one in private life to receive such as came in his way: he seems then to have placed himself there for amusement and society. Pf. lxix. 12. may be interpreted either way-Men of rank and influence in life speak against me; or, the children of my people, in their leisure hours, when they affemble in the gate for conversation, speak against me, and I am the song of the drunkard. If we suppose the Jews were wont to have moral and wife discourses in their gates, as the Arabs are supposed by Hariri to have had in public places, and as the Athenian Philosophers are supposed by St. Luke to have held in their markets, Acts xvii. 17, 18, there will appear a much greater energy in those words of Solomon, than is commonly apprehended, Prov. i. 20, 21, Wif"dom crieth without, she uttereth her voice 66 " in the streets: she crieth in the chief place " of concourse, in the opening of the gates," &c; and again, ch. viii. 3, "She crieth at "the gates, at the entry of the city," &c. The fynagogues were, in later times, the places for Jewish instruction; but are we sure there were synagogues in the days of Solomon ? OBSERVATION LXXII. Nothing is more common, in the East, than the comparing princes to lions, or better known to those that are acquainted with their writings; but the comparing them to crocodiles, if possessed of naval power, or strong by a watery situation, has hardly ever been mentioned. D'Herbelot, however, cites an Eastern Poet, who celebrating the prowess of Gelaleddin, surnamed Mankberni, and Khovarezme Schach, a most valiant Persian Prince, faid, "He was dreadful as a lion in the field, and not less terrible in the water "than a crocodile." The power of the ancient Kings of Ægypt seems to be represented after the fame manner, by the Prophet Ezekiel, ch. xxix. 3, Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh King " of Ægypt, the great dragon, (the great crocodile,) that lieth in the midst of his " rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it myself." In 66 his xxxiid chapter 2d verse, the fame Prophet makes use of both the fimiles, I think, of the panegyrist of Gelaleddin: "Take up “ a lamentation for Pharaoh King of Ægypt, and say unto him, Thou art like a “ young lion of the nations, and thou art as a whale (a crocodile) in the seas: and thou " camest forth with (or from) thy rivers, " and troubledst the waters with thy feet, " and fouledst their rivers." It is very odd in our tranflators, to render the original word whale, and at the same time talk of feet; nor indeed are rivers the abode of the whale, it's bulk is too great to admit of that: the term dragon, which is thrown into the margin, is the preferable version : which word in our language, as the Hebrew word in the original, is, I think, generic, and includes the several species of oviparous quadrupeds, if not those of the ferpentine kind*. A crocodile is, without doubt, the creature the Prophet means; and the comparifon seems to point out the puissance of the Ægyptian Kings of antiquity, powerful by fea as well as by land. 2 A collation of the several passages of the Old Testament, in which the word translated dragons occurs, confirms this description, but will not easily allow us to fuppose the jackall could ever be meant. See Dr. Shaw, p. 174, note 2. THE END. |