(3.) л ATON, rendered she-ass. To these we must add y OREDIA, rendered wild-asses, Dan. v. 21, and y OIRIM, young-asses, Isai. xxx. 6, 24. I. The Ass is an animal somewhat resembling the horse in form; different however in having long ears, a short mane, and long hairs covering only the end of the tail. His body is covered with short and coarse hair, generally of a pale dun colour, with a streak of black running down the back, and across the shoulders. The prevailing colour of the animal in the East is reddish; and the Arabic word chamara signifies to be red. In his natural state he is fleet, fierce, formidable, and intractable; but when domesticated, the most gentle of all animals, and assumes a patience and submission even more humble than his situation. He is very temperate in eating, and contents himself with the most ordinary vegetable food; but as to drink is extremely delicate, for he will slake his thirst at none but the clearest fountains and brooks. Le Clerc observes that the Israelites not being allowed to keep horses, the ass was not only made a beast of burden, but used on journeys, and that even the most honourable of the nation were wont to be mounted on asses, which in the Eastern countries were much bigger and more beautiful than they are with us. Jair of Gilead had thirty sons who rode on as many asses, and commanded in thirty cities. Jud. x. 4. Abdon's sons and grandsons rode also upon asses. Jud. xii. 4. And Christ makes his solemn entry into Jerusalem riding upon an ass. Matth. xxi. 4. Joh. xii. 14. This was an accomplishment of a prophecy of Zechariah, ix. 9. (Comp. Isai. Ixii. 11.) It is called, indeed, his triumphant entry, but, as horses are used in war, he may be supposed by this action to have shown the humble and peaceable nature of his kingdom 65. To draw with an ox and ass together was prohibited in the Mosaic law. Deut. xxii. 10. This law is thought to have respect to some idolatrous custom of the Gentiles, who were taught to believe that their fields would be more fruitful if thus ploughed; for it is not likely that men would have yoked together two creatures so different in their tempers and motions, had they not been led to it by some superstition. It is more probable, however, that there was a physical reason for this. Two beasts of a different species cannot associate comfortably together; and on this account never pull pleasantly either in the cart or plough; and every farmer knows it is of considerable consequence to the comfort of the cattle to put those together that have an affection for each other. This may be frequently remarked in certain cattle, which on this account are termed true yoke-fellows. Le Clerc considers this law as merely symbolical, importing that' 65 See an eloquent Sermon by Bp. Horne, on Zech. ix. 9. in the first volume of his Sermons, p. 133. they must not form improper alliances in civil and religious life; and he thinks his opinion confirmed by these words of St. Paul, 2 Cor.vi. 14. "Be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers;" which are simply to be understood as prohibiting all intercourse between Christians and idolaters in social, matrimonial, and religious life. To teach the Jews the propriety of this, a variety of precepts relative to improper and heterogeneous mixtures were interspersed through their law; so that in civil and domestic life they might have them ever before their eyes. The ass was declared an unclean creature by the law, and no one was permitted to taste the flesh of it. This leads me to introduce the explanation of the passage 2 Kings, vi. 25, from "Scripture illustrated, in addition to Calmet ;" where it is said that "there was a great famine in Samaria, until an ass's head was sold for eighty pieces of silver." It is true there is no perplexity in this as read in our version. But it must be remembered that no kind of extremity could compel the Jews to eat any part of this animal for food. We read, 1 Sam. xvi. 20, that Jesse sent to Saul "an ass of bread," for in that place the words laden with are an addition of our translators: and the meaning must be, not an animal, but a vessel containing bread, a stated measure, or a pile. The Septuagint render youog agτwv, a chomer of bread. So we find in the Greek poet Sosibius," he ate three times, in the space of a single day, three great asses of bread," ARTWV TRE 185; which Casaubon (in Lection.Theoc.) understands of the lading of three asses; whereas it means the contents of three vases of the kind called an ass 66 We may also hint a doubt whether Abigail, 1 Sam. xxv. 18. really loaded asses with her presents to David; for the original literally is "she took two hundred of bread, &c. and placed them on THE asses; which seems to refer to something distinct from asses, animals; for then it would be as it is in our version, "she placed them on asses." There is also a passage, Exod. viii. 14, where our translators themselves have rendered heaps, what in the original is asses' asses, "they gathered the frogs together asses' asses;" and so Samson says of his defeated enemies, a heap, heaps; ass, asses. Now, if we take our English word pile, to signify this quantity (not meaning to attempt to determine accurately, even if it were possible), it will lead us to the idea that Jesse sent to Saul a pile of bread; that a person ate three piles of bread in a day; that Abigail placed her bread, corn, raisins, &c. in piles; that the Egyptians gathered the stinking frogs in piles; that Samson's enemies lay in piles. Let this vindicate those Jews who translate, not "the head of an ass," chamor, but "head of a measure," chomer; for the letters are precisely the same in the ori ginal. Observe that the word rash, translated "head," signifies the total, the whole, as Psal. cxxxix. 17. "How precious also 66 See Fragment, in addition to Calmet, No. ccxxx. are thy thoughts unto me, O God; how great is the head of them!" Exod. xxx. 12. "When thou takest the head," that is the sum total, the enumeration of Israel. Numb. i. 2. "Take the head," sum total, "of Israel." See also chap. iv. 2, 22, xxvi. 2. xxxi. 26. These ideas combined will render the passage to this effect, "the famine was so severe that the whole of a pile, i. e. of bread, or a complete pile of bread, sold for eighty pieces of silver." How excessive was this price, when one glutton as we have seen could eat three asses, piles, of bread in a day 67 ! The Jews were accused by the Pagans of worshiping the head of an ass. Appion, the grammarian, seems to be the author of this slander 68. He affirmed that the Jews kept the head of an ass in the sanctuary; that it was discovered there when Antiochus Epiphanes took the temple and entered into the most holy place. He added that one Zabidus, having secretly got into the temple, carried off the ass's head, and conveyed it to Dora. Suidas (in Damocrito, et in Juda), says that Damocritus, or Democritus the historian averred that the Jews adored the head of an ass, made of gold, &c. Plutarch 69, and Tacitus 70 were imposed on by this calumny. They believed that the Hebrews adored an ass, out of gratitude for the discovery of a fountain by one of these creatures in the wilderness, at a time when the army of this nation was parched with thirst and extremely fatigued. Learned men, who have endeavoured to search into the origin of this slander, are divided in their opinions. The reason which Plutarch and Tacitus give for it has nothing in the history of the Jews on which to ground it. Tanaquil Faber has attempted to prove that this accusation proceeded from the temple in Egypt called Onion; as if this name came from onos, an ass; which is, indeed, very credible. The report of the Jews worshiping an ass might originate in Egypt. We know that the Alexandrians hated the Jews, and were much addicted to raillery and defamation. But it was extremely easy for them to have known that the temple Onion, at Helipolis, was named from Onias, the High Priest of the Jews, who built it in the reign of Ptolemy Philometer and Cleopatra 71. Others have asserted that the mistake of the heathen proceeded from an ambiguous mode of read 67 For the satisfaction of those who prefer the rendering of our common version, I would note that, Plutarch informs us that when the army of Artaxerxes, with which he had invaded the Cadusii, was in extreme want of provisions-ove κεφαλήν μόλις δραχμων εξήκοντα ωνιον ειναι —“ as ass's head could hardly be bought for sixty drachms;" [Plut. Artax. tom. 1. p. 1023. ed. Xylandr.] Whereas Lucian, reckons the usual price of an ass itself to be no more than twenty-five or thirty drachms. 68 Vide apud Josephus, lib. ii. contra. Appion. 69 Plut. Symposia, lib. iv. cap. 5. 70 Tacit. Hist. lib. 5. 71 A. M. 3854. ante A. D. 150. vide Josephus, Antiq. lib. xiii. c. 6. and lib. xiv. c. 14. De Belo. lib. i. c. 6. and lib. vii. c. 37. ing; as if the Greeks, meaning to say that the Hebrews adored heaven, ouranon, might in abbreviation write ounon; from whence the enemies of the Jews concluded that they worshiped onos, Or perhaps, reading in Latin authors that they worshiped heaven, cælum, an ass. "Nil præter nubes et cœli numen adorant," instead of cœlum, they read cillum, an ass, and so reported that the Jews adored this animal. Something of this we perceive in Petronius; "Judeus olicet, et porcinum numen adoret, et cilli summas advocet auriculas." Where the common reading is cœli, but corrected cilli, naλos, whence ovos, an ass. Bochart 72, is of opinion that the error arose from an expression in Scripture, "the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it;" in the Hebrew, PiJehovah, or Pi-Jeo. Now, in the Egyptian language, pieo signifies an ass; the Alexandrian Egyptians hearing the Jews often pronounce this word pieo, believed that they appealed to their god, and thence inferred that they adored an ass. These explications are ingenious, but not solid. It is doubtful whether any one can assign the true reason for the calumny; which might have arisen from a joke, or an accident. M. Le Moine seems to have succeeded best, who says that in all probability the golden urn containing the manna which was preserved in the sanctuary, was taken for the head of an ass; and that the omer of manna might have been confounded with the Hebrew hamor, which signifies an ass. II. The wild ass, called PARA, is probably the onager of the ancients. It is taller, and a much more dignified animal than the common or domestic ass; its legs are more elegantly shaped; and it bears its head higher. It is peculiarly distinguished by a dusky woolly mane, long erect ears, and a forehead highly arched. The colour of the hair, in general, is of a silvery white. The upper part of the face, the sides of the neck, and the upper part of the thighs, are flaxen coloured. The fore part of the body is divided from the flank by a white line, extending round the rump to the tail. The legs and the belly are white. A stripe of waved, coffee-coloured, bushy hair, runs along the top of the back, from the mane to the tail. Another stripe, of the same colour, crosses the former at the shoulders. Two beautiful white lines, one on each side, bound the dorsal band and the mane. In winter the hair of this animal is soft, silky, and waving; it bears in this state a considerable resemblance to the hair of the camel. In summer, the hair is very smooth and silky; and certain shaded rays pointing downwards, mark the sides of the neck. We find Deborah, Judges, v. 10, addressing those "who rode on white asses, those who sit in judgment;" men of dignity. The word 72 Bochart, Hieroz. lib. ii. c. 18. here rendered white occurs also Ezek. xxvii. 18, and only there, where it is spoken of wool 73. These animals associate in herds, under a leader, and are very shy. They inhabit the mountainous regions and desert parts of Tartary and Persia, &c. Anciently they were likewise found in Lycaonia, Phrygia, Mesopotamia, and Arabia Deserta 74. They are remarkably wild; and Job, xxxix. 5-S, describes the liberty they enjoy; the place of their retreat, their manners, and wild, impetuous, and untamable spirit. "Who from the forest Ass his collar broke, Sees from afar the smoky city rise; Scorns the throng'd street, where slavery drags her load, A boundless range, he seeks his verdant food 75 " Xenophon, in his Anabasis, describing the desert of Arabia, says, "There, in a plain level as the sea, and devoid of trees, but every where fragrant with aromatic shrubs and reeds, he observed the wild asses which the horsemen were accustomed to chase, flying with unequal speed, so that the animals would often stop their course, and when the horsemen approached, disappear; and they could not be taken, unless the horsemen, placing themselves in different parts, wearied them by relays in successive pursuits." "Vain man would be wise, though he be born a wild ass's colt." Job, xi. 12. "ass-colt," not "ass's colt" being in apposition with &, and not in government 76. The whole is a proverbial expression, denoting extreme perversity and ferocity, and repeatedly alluded to in the Old Tes73 This corrects an error in Harmer, v. ii. p. 63. 74 Plin. Nat. Hist. 1. viii. c. 69. ,OIR PARA עיר פרא 75 Scott's version. 76 It should be observed that the word in the original translated "though he be born," should be rendered become, or turned into; and implies assuming or taking a new character. [See the use of the word in Prov. xvii. 17, and Bp. Patrick's note in his Paraphrase.] It is an Arabian phraseology. "Let the wild ass colt become a man." That is, as they explain it, Let a man who is intractable, become gentle, humane, and docile. [See Schulten's Comment. in loc. Scott, and Good.] The verse should be read That the proud may be made wise, And the colt of the wild ass become a man. There is a similar expression in Horace, [Art. Poet. v. 469]. Fiet homo. Nor if you bring him off his folly, will he thereupon become a man; that is, act a rational part for the future. 66 In a book now before me, by Dr. Edwards, “On the Uncertainty, Deficiency, and Corruptions of Human Knowledge," Lond. 1714, at the 79th page this verse is thus printed; “ Vain man would fain be wise, when he is born of a wild asses' colt." Here is probably a typographical error; but it created a smile that spoiled all the authority of the verse as a quotation to prove the hereditary depravity of mankind. |