supposed by strangers to perform the ordinary duties of civil life-to eat, to drink, and even to sleep-without dismounting from their steeds.'-GIBBON, ch. xxvi.

19. A great shaking in the land.'-Most of the effects attending on a tremendous earthquake are described in this and the ensuing verse.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

1 God's judgment upon Gog. 8 Israel's victory. 11 Gog's burial in Hamon-gog. 17 The feast of the fouls. 23 Israel, having been plagued for their sins, shall be gathered again with eternal favour. THEREFORE, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal :

2 And I will turn thee back, and 'leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:

3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.

4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.

5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.

6 And I will send a fire on Magog, and among them that dwell 'carelessly in the isles and they shall know that I am the LORD.

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7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.

8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord God; this is the day whereof I have spoken.

9 And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the 'handstaves, and the spears, and they shall "burn them with fire seven years:

10 So that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with fire and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord GOD.

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11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there

of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call it The valley of 'Hamongog.

12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may

cleanse the land.

13 Yea, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I shall be glorified, saith the Lord GOD.

14 And they shall sever out "men of continual employment, passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.

15 And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man's bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamon-gog.

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16 And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.

17 And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak "unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my "sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood.

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18 Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan. 19 And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.

20 Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord GOD.

21 ¶ And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.

22 So the house of Israel shall know that

9 Or, mouths.

14 Heb. to the fowl of every wing.

15 Or, slaughter.

7 Or, javelins.

12 Heb. build.

Heb. the sides of the north. 8 Or, make a fire of them. 13 That is, the multitude.

16 Heb. great goats.

23 And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword.

24 According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my face from them.

25 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name; 26 After that they have borne their shame,

17 Chap. 36. 23.

trespassed against me, when they dwelt safely in their land, and none made them afraid.

27 When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and "am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations;

28 Then shall they know that I am the LORD their God, 18which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there.

29 Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have "poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.

Verse 3. I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand!There are several other passages which intimate that the bow was the principal weapon of the people intended, So it has always been among the Scythian nations. The long Tahtar bow,' says Gibbon, is drawn with a nervous arm; and the weighty arrow is directed to its object with unerring aim and irresistible force.' The same has been intimated in the extract, from the same author, under verse 9 of the preceding chapter. Compare also the enumeration of other articles of their military array in verse 4 of the preceding chapter, and verse of this, with the following law of Genghiz Khan's time. The arms appointed are the sabre, the bow, the battle-ax, with some ropes. The officers to wear helmets and breastplates of leather or iron, or an entire coat of mail. Soldiers who can afford it are permitted to wear armour. The officers are strictly to examine the edges and points of the sabres.' This law does not mention spears or lances, which we know to have been also favourite weapons among the ancient and modern Scythians. The 'hand-staves' in verse 9, are we suppose maces, which are also very common among them, and formidable in their hands.

9. They shall burn them with fire seven years.'—That is to say, that the shafts or wooden parts of their weapons should be so abundant as to last the people of the land seven years for fuel. This is intended, doubtless, to convey an idea of their prodigious numbers. But it is right to add, that the inhabitants of those genial climates make but a sparing use of fuel, which will explain any difficulty the text might be supposed to offer.

11. The valley of the passengers on the east of the sea.' -The Targum, followed by many Jewish and Christian interpreters, take this 'sea' to have been the Lake of Gen

nesareth. The valley near this sea may have been called "The valley of passengers,' because a great number of merchants, traders, and others, from Syria and other eastern countries, passed through it, in their way to and from Egypt. We see, in Gen. xxvii. 17, 25, that the Ishmaelite merchants to whom Joseph was sold, were passing this way towards Egypt.

14. They shall sever out men of continual employment. -It was anciently the usual custom for the conquerors to leave the bodies of their slaughtered enemies for a prey to the birds and beasts of prey; and this custom is frequently alluded to in Scripture. When however the slain were in great numbers, and the slaughter occurred in a peopled district, bodies were often disposed of, in some way or other, by the inhabitants, out of a regard to their own safety and comfort. Thus, also, it seems that when the Jews gained a battle on a foreign field they left their slain enemies unburied, or to be buried by others; but when, as in the present instance, the event happened in their own country, we discover from these verses that they were accustomed to inter the dead: and to this the Hebrews had not only the inducement common to all people, but another, more immediately constraining, which arose from the pollution which they incurred by the contact of a dead body; and to which they could not fail to have been constantly subjected while so many corpses remained uninterred. It seems that two sets of men were employed in this business, one to seek out the bodies and to set up a mark of direction for the others, whose duty it was to inter the bodies thus found. The mark set up for this purpose would also, in the mean time, by warning passengers from the spot prevent the danger of accidental pollution.

CHAPTER XL.

1 The time, manner, and end of the vision. 6 The description of the east gate, 20 of the north gate, 24 of the south gate, 32 of the east gate, 35 and of the north gate. 39 Eight tables. 44 The chambers.

48 The porch of the house. In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after

that the city was smitten, in the selfsame day the hand of the LORD was upon me, and brought me thither.

2 In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain, 'by which was as the frame of a city on the south.

3 And he brought me thither, and, behold, there was a man, whose appearance was like

the appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed; and he stood in the gate.

4 And the man said unto me, Son of man, behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart upon all that I shall shew thee; for to the intent that I might shew them unto thee art thou brought hither: declare all that thou seest to the house of Israel.

5 And behold a wall on the outside of the house round about, and in the man's hand a measuring reed of six cubits long by the cubit and an hand breadth: so he measured the breadth of the building, one reed; and the height, one reed.

6 Then came he unto the gate 'which looketh toward the east, and went up the stairs thereof, and measured the threshold of the gate, which was one reed broad; and the other threshold of the gate, which was one reed broad.

7 And every little chamber was one reed long, and one reed broad; and between the little chambers were five cubits; and the threshold of the gate by the porch of the gate within was one reed.

8 He measured also the porch of the gate within, one reed.

9 Then measured he the porch of the gate, eight cubits; and the posts thereof, two cubits; and the porch of the gate was inward.

10 And the little chambers of the gate eastward were three on this side, and three on that side; they three were of one measure: and the posts had one measure on this side and on that side.

11 And he measured the breadth of the entry of the gate, ten cubits; and the length of the gate, thirteen cubits.

12 The 'space also before the little chambers was one cubit on this side, and the space was one cubit on that side: and the little chambers were six cubits on this side, and six cubits on that side.

13 He measured then the gate from the roof of one little chamber to the roof of another: the breadth was five and twenty cubits, door against door.

14 He made also posts of threescore cubits, even unto the post of the court round about

the gate.

15 And from the face of the gate of the entrance unto the face of the porch of the inner gate were fifty cubits.

16 And there were 'narrow windows to the little chambers, and to their posts within the gate round about, and likewise to the 'arches: and windows were round about 'inward: and upon cach post were palm trees.

17 Then brought he me into the outward court, and, lo, there were chainbers, and a pavement made for the court round about : thirty chambers were upon the pavement.

18 And the pavement by the side of the gates over against the length of the gates was the lower pavement.

19 Then he measured the breadth from the forefront of the lower gate unto the forefront of the inner court 'without, an hundred cubits eastward and northward.

20 And the gate of the outward court "that looked toward the north, he measured the length thereof, and the breadth thereof.

21 And the little chambers thereof were three on this side and three on that side; and the posts thereof and the 'arches thereof were after the measure of the first gate: the length thereof was fifty cubits, and the breadth five and twenty cubits.

22 And their windows, and their arches, and their palm trees, were after the measure of the gate that looketh toward the east and they went up unto it by seven steps; and the arches thereof were before them.

23 And the gate of the inner court was over against the gate toward the north, and toward the east; and he measured from gate to gate an hundred cubits.

24 After that he brought me toward the south, and behold a gate toward the south and he measured the posts thereof and the arches thereof according to these measures.

25 And there were windows in it and in the arches thereof round about, like those windows: the length was fifty cubits, and the breadth five and twenty cubits.

26 And there were seven steps to go up to it, and the arches thereof were before them: and it had palm trees, one on this side, and another on that side, upon the posts thereof.

27 And there was a gate in the inner court toward the south: and he measured from gate to gate toward the south an hundred cubits.

28 And he brought me to the inner court by the south gate: and he measured the south gate according to these measures;

29 And the little chambers thereof, and

the posts thereof, and the arches thereof, according to these measures: and there were windows in it and in the arches thereof round about it was fifty cubits long, and five and twenty cubits broad.

30 And the arches round about were five and twenty cubits long, and five cubits 10 broad.

31 And the arches thereof were toward the utter court; and palm trees were upon the posts thereof: and the going up to it had eight steps.

32 And he brought me into the inner court toward the east: and he measured the gate according to these measures.

33 And the little chambers thereof, and the posts thereof, and the arches thereof, were according to these measures: and there were windows therein and in the arches thereof round about it was fifty cubits long, and five and twenty cubits broad.

34 And the arches thereof were toward the outward court; and palm trees were upon the posts thereof, on this side, and on that side: and the going up to it had eight steps.

35 And he brought me to the north gate, and measured it according to these

measures;

36 The little chambers thereof, the posts thereof, and the arches thereof, and the windows to it round about: the length was fifty cubits, and the breadth five and twenty cubits.

37 And the posts thereof were toward the utter court; and palm trees were upon the posts thereof, on this side, and on that side: and the going up to it had eight steps.

38 And the chambers and the entries thereof were by the posts of the gates, where they washed the burnt offering.

39 And in the porch of the gate were two tables on this side, and two tables on that side, to slay thereon the burnt offering and the sin offering and the trespass offering.

40 And at the side without, "as one goeth up to the entry of the north gate, were two

tables; and on the other side, which was at the porch of the gate, were two tables.

41 Four tables were on this side, and four tables on that side, by the side of the gate; eight tables, whereupon they slew their sacrifices.

42 And the four tables were of hewn stone for the burnt offering, of a cubit and an half long, and a cubit and an half broad, and one cubit high whereupon also they laid the instruments wherewith they slew the burnt offering and the sacrifice.

43 And within were hooks, an hand broad, fastened round about: and upon the tables was the flesh of the offering.

44 And without the inner gate were the chambers, of the singers in the inner court, which was at the side of the north gate; and their prospect was toward the south: one at the side of the east gate having the prospect toward the north.

45 And he said unto me, This chamber, whose prospect is toward the south, is for the priests, the keepers of the charge of the house.

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46 And the chamber whose prospect is toward the north is for the priests, the keepers of the charge of the altar: these are the sons of Zadok among the sons of Levi, which come near to the LORD to minister unto him.

47 So he measured the court, an hundred cubits long, and an hundred cubits broad, foursquare; and the altar that was before the house.

48 And he brought me to the porch of the house, and measured each post of the porch, five cubits on this side, and five cubits on that side and the breadth of the gate was three cubits on this side, and three cubits on that side.

49 The length of the porch was twenty cubits, and the breadth eleven cubits; and he brought me by the steps whereby they went up to it and there were pillars by the posts, one on this side, and another on that side.

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CHAPS. XL.-XLVIII. We have mentioned, in the Introduction, the great and acknowledged difficulty involved in the obscure vision contained in these chapters. For this reason the Hebrews forbade this portion of Scripture to be read by persons under thirty years of age; and many Christian expositors have abstained altogether from comment. We do not approve of this, being persuaded that all Scripture is profitable.' But as we should despair of giving a satisfactory explanation of all the details, and as the attempt would occupy more room than a regard

to our limits would allow us to spare for the subject, we shall confine our attention to a few detached passages which offer occasion for such remarks as we have been accustomed to give.

One of the great difficulties in this description is to understand its design. Perhaps none of the numerous conjectures which have been offered are entirely satis factory, and we are not disposed to add to the number. A very common explanation is, that, as the temple and city were overthrown, and the ecclesiastical and civil polity of

the Hebrews destroyed, these chapters were written to instruct them in what they were to do on their return from captivity, and in particular to give them such a detailed description as might enable them to build another temple, similar in form and dimensions to that of Solomon. It is under this explanation that the writers who have attempted to give us an account of Solomon's temple, have freely availed themselves of the present chapters to complete their descriptions.

It would however be difficult to shew that the temple of Zerubbabel answered to this description, or that it found a more complete fulfilment in the temple which, as reconstructed and enriched by Herod, existed in the time of our Saviour, and is described by Josephus and the Rabbins: and even allowing that the later temple did, in essential matters, correspond to this representation, it is certain that the division of the land was not the same after the return from the Exile, as is here prescribed, nor the governors and civil polity those which are here directed. On these grounds the Jews themselves admit that the directions given in these chapters have not hitherto been fol lowed, although the Mishnah alleges that the second temple was an intended imitation of that described by Ezekiel, so far as the means of carrying it out allowed. They believe, however, that many things which these chapters contain cannot be understood till Elias (whom they still expect) shall come and explain them; and that the temple here described will not be built, nor the regulations take effect, until the Messiah comes, to whose advent they still look forward. Some Christian writers have been disposed to apply the whole to the condition of the Jews under a future restoration to their own land and privileged condition; while others interpret the whole with a mystical application to the church of Christ. We cannot enter into these explanations; but the reader will be glad to see the observations of Professor Dathe, as applying to what we have stated as the more common explanation, and as meeting the objections to which that explanation is open. His opinion, which he submits with diffidence to the consideration of others, is, that the passage 'does not contain a prophecy, nor does it predict any future event; but it describes what ought to have been done, if the whole Jewish people, consisting of all the tribes, had returned from captivity to their own country. Liberty was granted to all, and all had it in their power to return. God now orders, by the mouth of his prophet, what should be the nature and character of his worship, and what division of the country should take place between the different tribes. There is nothing in the whole description which might not have been carried into effect, provided that all of them had returned, and taken pos session of the land, which God granted to them. In this new possession of the Promised Land, which God offered to his people, the same thing happened as on a former occasion, when they entered into the land, which they had so long desired, under their leader Joshua. The division which then took place was very different from that which ought to have been made, according to the will of God; for the sloth and cowardice of the people, dreading a protracted war, was the reason why a great part of the country was allowed to remain in possession of the first inhabitants; and the same baseness of disposition, or love of present advantage, now detained them where they were; so that they chose rather to live as exiles among the nations, than to return to their own country, which was now either laid waste or occupied by others.' This view receives much corroboration from the undoubted fact, that the decree of Cyrus allowed the temple to be much larger than that which was actually built, and which, therefore, it was intended to build, had the means been provided. See the note on Ezra vi. 3. The Jewish view, as set forth by Solomon Bennet in his curious work on the Temple of Ezekiel, 1824, agrees substantially with this-namely, that the insufficient means of the people who returned from exile prevented the original intention from being fulfilled; and as this insufficiency arose from the fact that the wealthiest, noblest, and most numerous part

of the nation remained behind, the two explanations virtually coincide. Bennet says: "Notwithstanding that at the period of the erection of the second temple, the house of Israel was rich in the possession of men skilled in divinity and jurisprudence, and eminent for heroism, yet it was far from distinguished for pecuniary wealth. As the population increased, and the territory improved, there arose a necessity for many public works, such as aqueducts, fortresses to secure them from the annoyance of their jealous neighbours, and arsenals with magazines of warlike stores. These were supplied at considerable expense, consisting principally of body-armour, of which we are told they possessed great abundance. These burdens necessarily increased with their increasing population and prosperity, and extended defensive warfare became necessary in proportion as their growing importance drew upon them the envy and the fears of their neighbours. Abundant proof of this may be seen in the books of the Maccabees, in Josephus, Philo, and others, from whom we learn, that from the time of the re-establishment of the second temple, the Hebrews were engaged in continual hostilities with the neighbouring Greeks and Arabians; and, finally, in the long and uninterrupted war with the Romans which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus Vespasian. These reasons will be considered, I hope, as a sufficient explanation, why the temple was not completed according to original intention; which the Judeans had neither the means, nor the opportunity, of effecting.'

Verse 3. A line of flax.... and a measuring reed.'The former for measuring large dimensions, and the latter for those of inferior magnitude.

16. Arches.'-The marginal reading, galleries, or porches,' as understood of a covered walk with pillars, is that which most interpreters seem to prefer. We are not, upon the whole, disposed to contest this preference; but there is one reason adduced in support of it, from which we are obliged to withhold our assent: this is, that the arch is a comparatively late invention and could not have been known to the Hebrews. Now as this reason involves the conclusion that no arches appeared in the public or private constructions of the Hebrews, though they abound in modern Oriental architecture, a question of some interest is suggested by the occurrence of the word here, which we may be expected to notice briefly, without its being necessary to shew that the word is in the present instance properly used.

One of the arguments that was employed against the early antiquity of the arch, was its alleged absence from the more ancient architecture of the Egyptians. If therefore we can shew that this impression is incorrect, and that the more ancient Egyptians were acquainted with the principle of the arch and did employ it in their constructions, we suppose it will no longer be contended that it was unknown to the Jews, who had so much intercourse with Egypt. Belzoni was decidedly of opinion that he had found Egyptian arches of very remote antiquity, and gives the specimens which we have copied; but his evidence on the subject is less conclusive than that which has since been supplied by Wilkinson, and others.

It is shewn by Sir J. G. Wilkinson that the arch existed in brick in the reign of Amenoph I., as early as B.C. 1540; and in stone in the time of the second Psamaticus, B.C. 600. This evidence is derived from the ascertained date of arches now actually existing; but the paintings at BeniHassan afford ground for the conclusion that vaulted buildings were constructed in Egypt as early as the reign of Osirtasen I., who is presumed to have been contemporary with Joseph. Indeed, although the evidence from facts does not ascend beyond this, the evidence from analogy and probability can be carried back to about B.C. 2020 (Ancient Egyptians, ii. 116; iii. 316). Wilkinson suggests the probability that the arch owed its invention to the small quantity of wood in Egypt, and the conse quent expense of roofing with timber. The proofs may be thus arranged in chronological order :

The evidence that arches were known in the time of