et toute la doctrine de la philosophie orientale 90." Hasselquist supposed the plant here mentioned to be a species of moss, very common on the walls of Jerusalem. Professor Sibthorpe, who likewise visited that part of Asia, thinks it more probably a little plant, still called hyssopo, frequently growing on rocks in the Holy Land, of which he obtained a beautiful drawing. But Isaac Ben Omran, an Arabian author, says that the hyssop grows in abundance on the mountains about Jerusalem. The wall therefore may mean cliffs, or the passage may be rendered, around the walls. In John, xix. 29, it is observed that at the crucifixion of our Lord," they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth;" and in Matth. xxvii. 48, and Mark, xv. 36, the sponge filled with vinegar is said to be "put on a reed." Critics and commentators have puzzled themselves and others to account for this variety of expression in the Evangelists. Some have supposed that there must have been some plant in Judea of the lowest class of trees or shrubs, which was either a species of hyssop, or had a strong resemblance to what the Greeks called voowos, the stalk of which was what was meant by the reed in Matthew and Mark 91; and others, that there was a species of hyssop, whose stalk was sometimes two feet long, which was sufficient to reach a person on a cross, that was by no means so lofty as some erroneously imagine 92. Now, all the difficulty of this passage in St. John arises from an idea that voor here, must mean the same with naλauw in St. Matthew and St. Mark: whereas, St. John does not mention the reed; but says, that when they had put the sponge upon hyssop, i. e. when they had added bitter to the sour, or gall to the vinegar, they advanced it to his mouth, no doubt, with the reed. In St. Matthew and St. Mark the word is ezohεv: In St. John προσηνεγκαν αυτου το στομα", which makes the repetition of naλap less necessary. Add to this the paraphrase of Nonnus, who undoubtedly understood it in the sense it is here explained. Ωρεγεν ύσσωπῳ κεκερασμενον σε ολεθρο. In Pliny, Nat. Hist. 1. xxiii. c. 1, we have the vinegar, the sponge, and the bunch of hyssop, brought together, though on a different occasion. "Calidum acetum, in spongia appositum, adjecto hyssopi fasciculo, medetur sedis vitiis." See also lib. xiv. 16. INCENSE. Gum, thus; so called by the dealers of drugs in Egypt from Thur or Thor, the name of a harbour in the north bay of the Red Sea, near Mount Sinai; thereby distinguishing 90 Phys. Sacr. T. v. p. 27. 91 Dr. Campbell's Note, in loc. 92 See Salmasius, cited by Wolfius, and Scheuchzer, Phys. Sacr. on Matth. xxvii. 48. it from the gum arabic, which is brought from Suez, another port in the Red Sea, not far from Cairo. It differs also in being more pellucid and white. It burns with a bright and strong flame, not easily extinguished. It was used in the temple service as an emblem of prayer 93. Authors give it, or the best sort of it, the epithets white, pure, pellucid; and so it may have some connexion with a word, derived from the same root, signifying unstained, clear, and so applied to moral whiteness and purity 94 This gum is said to distil from incisions made in the tree during the heat of summer. What the form of the tree is which yields it we do not certainly know. Pliny one while says, it is like a pear-tree; another, that it is like a mastic tree; then, that it is like the laurel; and, in fine, that it is a kind of turpentine tree. It has been said to grow only in the country of the Sabeans, a people in Arabia Felix. And Theophrastus and Pliny affirm that it is found in Arabia. Dioscorides, however, mentions an Indian as well as an Arabian frankincense. At the present day it is brought from the East Indies, but not of so good a quality as that from Arabia. See FRANKINCENSE. The "sweet incense," mentioned Exod. xxx. 7, and elsewhere, was a compound of several drugs, agreeably to the direction in the 34th verse. Where so many sacrifices were offered, it was essentially necessary to have some pleasing perfume, to counteract the disagreeable smells that must have arisen from the slaughter of so many animals, the sprinkling of so much blood, and the burning of so much flesh. IRON. BARZEL. Occurs first in Gen. iv. 22, and afterwards frequently; and the Chaldeep in Dan. ii. 33, 41, and elsewhere often in that book. ZIAHPOΣ, Rev. xviii. 12, and the adjectives, Acts, xii. 10; Rev. ii. 27; ix. 9; xii. 5; and xix. 15. A well known and very serviceable metal. The knowledge of working it was very ancient, as appears from Gen. iv. 22. We do not, however, find that Moses made use of iron in the fabric of the tabernacle in the wilderness, or Solomon in any part of the temple at Jerusalem. Yet from the manner in which the Jewish Legislator speaks of iron, the metal, it appears, must have been in use in Egypt before his time. He celebrates the great hardness of it (Levit. xxvi. 19, Deut. xxviii. 23, 48), takes notice that the bedstead of Og, king of Bashan, was of iron (Deut. iii. 11), he speaks of mines of iron (Deut. viii. 9), and be compares the severity of the servitude of the Israelites in Egypt, to the heat of a furnace for melting iron (Deut. iv. 20). We find also that swords (Numb. xxxv. 16), knives (Levit. i. 17), axes, (Deut. xix. 5), and tools for cutting stones (Deut. xxvii. 5) were made of iron. 93 Psalm cxli. 2; Rev. viii. 3, 4. 94 Psalm li. 7; Dan. xii. 10. By the "northern iron," Jer. xv. 12, we may probably understand the hardened iron, called in Greek xaλu, from the Chalybes, a people bordering on the Euxine sea, and consequently lying on the north of Judea, by whom the art of tempering steel is said to be discovered. Strabo speaks of this people by the name of Chalybes, but afterwards Chaldæi; and mentions their iron mines, lib. xii. p. 549. These, however, were a different people from the Chaldeans, who were united with the Babylo nians. IVORY. ' SCHENHABBIM; from SCHEN, a tooth; and 'HABBIM, elephants. EAEDANTINOE, Rev. xviii. 12. The first time that ivory is mentioned in Scripture is in the reign of Solomon. If the forty-fifth Psalm was written before the Canticles, and before Solomon had constructed his royal and magnificent throne, then that is the first mention of this commodity. It is spoken of as used in decorating those boxes of perfume, whose odours were employed to exhilarate the king's spirits. It is probable that Solomon, who traded to India, first brought thence elephants and ivory to Judea. "For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish, with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold and silver, and ivory." 1 Kings, x. 22; 2 Chron. ix. 21. "India mittit ebur, molles sua thura Sabæi.” It seems that Solomon had a throne decorated with ivory and inlaid with gold; the beauty of these materials relieving the splendour, and heightening the lustre of each other, 1 Kings, x. 18. Ivory is here described as 7 SCHEN GEDUL, great tooth, which clearly shows that it was imported in the whole tusk. It was, however, ill described as a tooth," says the author of "Scripture Illustrated;" "for tooth it is not, but a weapon of defence, not unlike the tusks of a wild boar, and for the same purposes as the horns of other animals. This has prompted Ezekiel to use another periphrasis for describing it; and he calls it KEREN UTH SCHEN, horns of teeth." This, however, is liable to great objection, since the idea of horns and of teeth, to those who have never seen an elephant, must have been very confused, if not contradictory. Nevertheless, the combination is ingenious; for the defences which furnish the ivory answer the purposes of horns; while, by issuing from the mouth, they are not unaptly allied to teeth." Several of the ancients have expressly called these tusks horns, particularly Varro, de Ling. Lat. lib. vi. says of them, "Quos dentes multi dicunt, sunt cornua;" what many people call teeth are horns. The LXX render the two Hebrew words by odovтas eλeQavTIVOUS, and the Vulgate "dentes eburneos." The Targum, however, in Ezekiel, separates n and, explaining the former word by horns of the rock goats, and the latter, by elephant's teeth 95. Cabinets and wardrobes were ornamented with ivory, by what is called marquetry. Psalm xlv. 8. -"Quale per artem Inclusum buxo aut Oricia terebintho Lucet ebur." VIRG. En. x. v. 13596. These were named "houses of ivory," probably because made in the form of a house or palace; as the silver Nao, of Diana, mentioned Acts, xix. 24, were in the form of her temple at Ephesus; and as we have now ivory models of the Chinese pagodas or temples. In this sense I understand what is said of the ivory house which Ahab made. 1 Kings, xxii. 39: for the Hebrew word translated "house is used," as Dr. Taylor well observes, for "a place, or case, wherein any thing lieth, is contained, or laid up." Ezekiel gives the name of house to chests of rich apparel, ch. xxvii. 24. Dr. Durell, in his note on Psalm xlv. 8, quotes places from Homer and Euripides, where the same appropriation is made. Hesiod makes the same, Op. et D. v. 96. As to dwelling-houses, the most, I think, we can suppose in regard to them is, that they might have ornaments of ivory, as they sometimes have of gold, silver, or other precious materials, in such abundance, as to derive an appellation from the article of their decoration; as the emperor Nero's palace mentioned by Suetonius, in Nerone, c. 31, was named "aurea," or golden, because "lita auro," overlaid with gold. This method of ornamental buildings, or apartments, was very ancient among the Greeks. Homer, Odys. iv. v. 72, mentions ivory as employed in the palace of Menelaus at Lacedæmon. Χαλκε τε τεροπην, και δώματα ηχηεντα Χρυσε τ', ηλεκτρο τε, και αργυρα, η δ' ελέφαντος. And studded amber darts a golden ray. And Bacchylides, cited by Athenæus, lib. ii. says, that in the island Ceos, one of the Cyclades, the houses of the great men χρυσω δ' ελεφανι τε μαρμαίρουσιν, glister with gold and ivory. Lucan, in his description of the palace of Cleopatra, Pharsal. 1. x. v. 119, observes, that "Ebur atria vestit," ivory overlays the entrances. And that the Romans sometimes ornamented their apartments in like manner, seems evident from Horace, Carm. 1. ii. Ode xviii. v. 1. 95 See Michaelis, Geogr. Hebr. Exter. pars i. p. 204. 96 See also Athenæus, l. ii. Lucan, Pharsal. l. x. v. 119. Horat. Carm. 1. ii. Od. 17, v. 1. Ovid Met. 1. ii. v. 3. "Non ebur, neque aureum Mea renidet in domo lacunar." Nor ivory, nor golden roof And no doubt, when Ovid. Metam. 1. ii. v. 3, said of the palace of the sun, his idea was taken from some ancient palaces or temples. So, in modern times, Lady M. W. Montague, affirms, Let. xxxix. v. ii. p. 146, that in the Haram of the fair Fatima of Constantinople, which she had seen, "the winter apartment was wainscotted with inlaid work of mother-of-pearl, ivory of different colours, and olive wood." Our marginal translation in Cantic. v. 13, renders the Hebrew words," towers of perfumes," which Harmer, Outlines, p. 165, says may mean vases in which odoriferous perfumes are kept. Amos, vi. 4, speaks of beds, or sofas of ivory. So we read in Homer, Odyss. xix. v. 55, of xλovdivтyv ελεDavтi naι αgrew, a couch wreathed with ivory and silver: and Odyss. xxiii. v. 199, οἱ λεχος δαιδάλλων χρυσω τε και αργυρω ηδ' ελεφαντι, variegating a bed with gold, silver, and ivory. If we might trust to the Chaldee interpreter, the knowledge of ivory would be much more ancient than we have supposed it; for this authority informs us, that Joseph placed his father Jacob on a bed of ivory. "I would not altogether reject this interpretation (says the author of 'Scripture Illustrated'), for ivory might be known in Egypt, either from Ethiopia, or by the caravans from the central parts of Africa, or it might be procured from India by means of trading vessels or trading merchants; and certainly, its beauty and ornament would well become the residence of the Nazir, or Lord Steward of the royal household of the Egyptian Pharaohs." In Ezek. xxvii. 6, the benches of the Tyrian ships are said to be "made of ivory." The meaning is, ornamented. The author of "Fragments in continuation of Calmet," No. ccxvii. asserts, that "shrines" must be intended. On Rev. xviii. 12, see Kypke, Obs. sacr. tom. ii. p. 461, for some observations concerning the value which the ancients set upon ivory, and the various uses to which they applied it. JACINTH. ΥΑΚΙΝΘΟΣ. Occ. Rev. xxi. 20; and, as an adjective, ch. ix. 17. The name of a gem, or precious stone97, of a violet colour, arising from an admixture of red and blue. 97"Hyacinthus lapis habens purpureum, et cæruleum colorem, ad modum illius floris." Vet. Dict. in Dict. Phil. Martini citatus. 66 Hyacinthus ex nominis sui flore vocatur." Isiodorus, lib. xvi. cap. ix. |