4

Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah.

8 In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is * "feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.

9 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for 4 Or, abject. 5 Heb. fallen. John 19. 34, 37. Revel. 1. 7.

Verse 3. 'A burdensome stone.'-It is not impossible that this allusion may be explained by a custom which Jerome describes as common in his time throughout Judæa. Large and heavy round stones were kept in the towns and villages; and the youths exercised themselves in a sort of game which consisted in lifting such a stone; he who lifted it highest being the victor. This exercise differed from the common ones of the athlete of Greece and Rome. However, something like it was not unknown; for Jerome goes on to say, that in the tower at Athens, near the statue of Minerva, he had seen a heavy globe of brass which he was himself unable to move; but on inquiring its use, he was told that it was employed for testing the strength of the wrestlers; none being admitted as combatants, till it was ascertained, by their lifting of this

CHAPTER XIII.

1 The fountain of purgation for Jerusalem, 2 from idolatry, and false prophecy. 7 The death of Christ, and the trial of a third part.

IN that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for 'unclean

ness.

2 ¶ And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land.

3 And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of the LORD: and his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth.

4 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be ashamed every one

1 Heb. separation for uncleanness.

him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

11 In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.

12 And the land shall mourn, 'every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;

13 The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart;

14 All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.

weight, with whom they should be matched. This reminds us that, in the piratical states of Barbary, when European captives were brought in to be disposed of as slaves, they were often compelled by their captors, or intended purchasers, to afford evidence of their strength by raising large and most burdensome stones provided for the purpose.

11. The mourning of Hadadrimmon.'—This was the great mourning for Josiah, 2 Chron. xxxv. 22-25. Jerome says that Hadad-rimmon was the name of a place which, in his time, went by the name of Maximianopolis, so called in honour of the emperor Maximian, and which was situated seventeen miles from Cæsarea and ten miles from Jezreel. This was perhaps the exact place, in the valley or plain of Megiddo, where Josiah was slain.

of his vision, when he hath prophesied ; neither shall they wear a rough garment 'to deceive.

5 But he shall say, I am no prophet, I am an husbandman; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.

6 And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.

7 Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: 'smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.

8 And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.

9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.

18 bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the LORD'S house shall be like the bowls before the altar. 21 Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the LORD of hosts:

18 Or, bridles.

and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the "Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts.

Verse 5. 'Like as ye fled before the earthquake.'--See the particulars of Syrian earthquakes given in the note on Amos i. 1. Some particulars which we have collected from different parts of Mr. Calman's Description of a Part of the Scene of the last great Earthquake in Syria, 1837, will give the reader an idea of the awful circumstances attending such visitations. The few survivors of that dreadful overthrow, like men whom consternation had divested of sound reason, brooding over the ruins of their habitations, and bemoaning the relatives who still lay buried beneath the ruins:-of those at Safet, with ghastly countenances and tattered clothes, scattered over the four sides of their mountain, destitute of raiment and shelter to screen them from the keen midwinter air of the mountains, and seeming as if they only survived to pine away more slowly and sufferingly than those whom the earthquake had overwhelmed ;-of faithful dogs trying, with indefatigable perseverance, to remove the heaps of stones which hid their owners from their sight, and breaking forth, every now and then, into the most mournful howlings, when they found that the efforts of their weak paws were spent in vain;-of the dreadful state of many who were wounded, their poor bodies crushed, broken, torn, in every possible way, beyond all hope of cure; and of the numbers who, in this state, lay upon or about the ruins, with none to care for them or to provide them help or shelter;-- of those who, for the first three or four days, continued alive under the ruins, sending forth bitter cries and lamentations, and vain entreaties for help, the attempts to give which, in many cases, crushed them to death by the displacement of the stones and beams which had given them protection;-of those who, after many days, were brought forth barely alive, and who opened their eyes once more upon the light of day, and by that light viewing their few surviving friends and their ruined cities, closed them again for ever;-of the bodies of the slain drawn out and dragged about the fields by greedy dogs, which, emboldened by their horrid fare, became at last dangerous to the living;-or, finally, of the wild inhabitants of the desert hastening gleefully-like vultures to the scent of blood-to reap the harvests for which they did not labour, and to gather the treasures which they never deposited, digging among the ruins, and bearing joyously to their tents and caverns the wealth of the living and the dead. See Calman, pp. 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 15, 18, 27. 18. The family of Egypt that have no rain.'This is a very remarkable distinction made with respect to Egypt. The nations that would not go up to Jerusalem were to be punished with want of rain; but since Egypt had no rain,' it would not be comprehended under this bann; and therefore a special clause is added for that country, denouncing on it a different punishment. The statement that Egypt had no rain is, like that of Pliny, to be understood in the qualified sense,-that Egypt had not rain so abundantly or frequently as other countries; and possessed, in the periodical overflowings of the Nile, and in the means of irrigation which that river at other times supplies, peculiar sources which would prevent even the entire deprivation of rain from producing calamitous consequences. (See the note on Exod. vii. 15.) The case is, that during the usual season of rain, which corresponds to our winter, falls of rain are rather frequent, though not of long continuance, in the provinces which border on the Mediter ranean, and in the deserts between the valley of the Nile and the Red Sea. But in the interior of Egypt it almost never rains; the inundation of the Nile, and the abundant

...

nocturnal dews, being the sole fertilizing principles. This extraordinary dryness of the valley of the Nile is to be attributed to the heat of the sun, and to the course of the winds which, as determined by the form of the valley, blow pretty constantly from the north-west. The clouds formed from the vapours of the seas, which bound Egypt on the north and east, are drawn into this current of air, which drives them towards Nubia and Ethiopia, where they speedily fall in rain upon the woods and mountains -thus ultimately benefiting Egypt by rendering the increase of its river more abundant. The currents of air which traverse the valley of the Nile are most sensible at a distance from the mountains which confine that valley on the east and west; near these mountains the effect of the currents is less powerful; and there it sometimes rains.

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20. The bells of the horses.'-Dr. Gill, who wrote about a hundred years since-when, from the bad conditions of the roads, goods were conveyed by pack-horses far more extensively than of late years-says, that they, as well as draught-horses, were often furnished with bells, under the notion that the animals were encouraged and enlivened by the sound. We are not aware that packhorses now wear bells in this country; but they have not wholly disappeared from draught-horses. In Western Asia, where there are no draught-horses, bells are much employed on baggage-animals, that is, in caravans, except in districts which, on account of danger from robbers, it is desired to pass through in silence. When this consi

deration does not prevent, the continual jingling of numerous bells is a remarkable characteristic of an Oriental caravan. The objects of this usage are alleged to be-to encourage the beasts, to frighten animals of prey, and, above all, to keep the party together, enabling those who may have strayed or lingered to rejoin the caravan by following the sound of the bells. This is an object of great importance in countries where the routes pass over trackless plains and mountain-passes, marked by no regular roads or pathways. The bells, which are thick, are

seldom very musical, are attached in various fashions, but generally as in our cut, and always under the animal's throat. Frequently a single animal has but one bell; but we have seen baggage-mules, which seem to have been regarded as a sort of leaders, furnished with seven or eight bells. The bells are in general about the size of our common house-bells, but not so broad in proportion at the base. It is singular that the Orientals do not use bells for any other purpose whatever than this.

As to the inscription upon the bells of the horses, it is of course a figurative expression to denote the consecration of the meanest things to the Divine glory. Nevertheless, the mention of bells with pots, in this connection, reminds us to mention that the expression might contain an allusion to an actual practice; for nothing is more common than for the Orientals to have the name of God, or some pious text or moral maxim, inscribed upon their vessels of metal, generally in such a manner as to form an ornamental border near the rim. We have ourselves used cups and dishes of tinned copper thus ornamented; and we had almost said that we have seen the same on the bells of animals; but feeling slightly doubtful as to the accuracy of our recollection, we abstain.

HERE, at the close of Zechariah's book of prophecy, we proceed to notice, as promised in the introductory note, the sepulchral structure which stands in the valley of Jehoshaphat, bearing the name of the Tomb of Zechariah; and a representation of which is contained in the subjoined engraving. It will be seen that, in its general character, it resembles Absalom's Tomb in the same valley (see 2 Sam. xviii.): and, like that, belongs rather to sculpture than architecture, being altogether a mass

of hewn rock. Mr. Buckingham has given perhaps the best description of it, as follows:-It is a square mass of rock, hewn down into form, and isolated from the quarry out of which it is cut, by a passage of twelve or fifteen feet wide on three of its sides; the fourth, or western side being open towards the valley and to Mount Moriah, the foot of which is only a few yards distant. This square mass is eight paces in length on each side, and about twenty feet high in the front, and ten feet high at the back, the hill on which it stands having a steep ascent. It has four semi-columns cut out of the same rock on each of its faces, with a pilaster at each angle, all of a bastard Ionic order and ornamented in bad taste. The architrave, the full moulding, and the deep overhanging cornice which finishes the square, are all perfectly after the Egyptian manner; and the whole is surmounted by a pyramid, the sloping sides of which rise from the very edges of the square below, and terminate in a finished point. The square of this monument is one solid mass of rock, as well as its semi-columns on each face; but the surmounting pyramid appears to be of masonry: its sides however are perfectly smooth, like the coated pyramids of Saccara and Dashour, and not graduated by stages as the pyramids of Gizeh in Egypt... There is no appearance of an entrance to any part of it; so that it seems, if a tomb, to have been as firmly closed as the Egyptian pyramids themselves; perhaps from the same respect for the inviolability of the repose of the dead.' The same was the case with the Tomb of Absalom' till a passage was broken into it. Pococke was informed that there was a subterraneous entrance to this tomb, known to none but the Jews; and he thought this not unlikely.