It is said that the goddess Isis was changed into a swallow: and it is worthy of remark, that thirteen of Dr. Kennicott's codices in Jeremiah read D'D ISIS, as five more did originally. The swallow being a plaintive bird, and a bird of passage, perfectly agrees with the meaning of Isaiah and Jeremiah. The annual migration of the swallow has been familiarly known in every age, and perhaps in every region of the earth. Anacreon, in one of his odes, addresses her thus: "Friendly swallow, thou indeed, coming annually, buildest thy nest in the summer, but in winter disappearest." And Aristotle, 1. viii. c. 12, remarks in the sober language of history; "both the swallow and the turtle leave us, to spend the winter in other climes." The swallow, says Ælian, announces the most delightful season of the year; she remains in the northern latitude six months; and the thrush and the turtle only three. Mr. Jago wrote an exquisitely beautiful Elegy on the flight of swallows, from which I extract the following stanzas ; "Through sacred prescience full well they know For this, even now they prune their vigorous wing; And prove their strength in many an airy ring, "No sorrow loads their breast, or swells their eye "They feel a power, an impulse all divine, That warns them bence; they feel it, and obey; Unknown their destined stage, unmark'd their way," .THINSEMETH תנשמת .SWAN Occ. Levit. xi. 18; and Deut. xiv. 16. The Hebrew word is very ambiguous, for in the first of these places, it is ranked among water-fowls; and by the Vulgate, which our version follows, rendered "swan," and in the 30th verse, the same word is rendered "mole," and ranked among reptiles. Some translate it in the former place," the bat," which they justify by the affinity which there is between the bat and the mole, The LXX in the former verse render it rop@upava, the porphyrion, or purple bird, probably the flamingo; and in the latter," Ibis." Parkhurst shows that the name is given, from the creature's breathing in a strong and audible manner; and Michaelis, Quest cci. learnedly conjectures, that in v. 18, and Deut. xiv. 16, it may mean the goose, which every one knows is remarkable for its manner of breathing out or hissing when approached. SWINE. CHAZIR. - 09 gadi red bine et tl Occ. Levit. xi. 7; Deut. xiv. 8; Psal. lxxx.136 Prov. xi06 22; Isai. lxv. 4; and lxvi. 3, 17. And XOIPOΣ, Matth. vii. 6;' viii. 30; Mark, v. 14; Luke, viii. 38; xv, 5ted wollswed The plural of hog. An animal well known. In impurity and grossness of manners, this creature stands almost unrivalled among the order of quadrupeds; and the meanness of his ap pearance corresponds to the grossness of his manners. He has a most indiscriminate, voracious, and insatiable appetite. His form is inelegant. His eyes diminutive and deep sunk in hig head. His carriage mean and sluggish. His unwieldy shape renders him no less incapable of swiftness and sprightliness, than he is of gracefulness of motion. His appearance also is drowsy and stupid. He delights to bask in the sun, and to wallow in the mire. The flesh of this animal was expressly forbidden the Jews by the Levitical law; undoubtedly on account of its filthy character, as well as because the flesh, being strong and difficult to digest, afforded a very gross kind of aliment, apt to produce cutaneous, scorbutic, and scrophulous disorders, especially in hot climates. Maimonides, More Nevochim, part iii. c. 8, says, "The principal reason wherefore the law prohibited the swine was because of their extreme filthiness, and their eating so many impurities. For it is well known with what care and precision the law forbid all filthiness and dirt, even in the fields and in the camp, not to mention the cities: now had swine been permitted, the public places and streets and houses would have been made nuisances." So Novatian, c. iii. de cib. Judaic. "Cum suem cibo prohibet assumi, reprehendit omnino cænosam, luteam, et gaudentem vitiorum sordibus vitam, bonum suum non in generositate animi, sed in sola carnem ponentem.' And Lactantius, 1. iv. Instit. c. 17. "Cum Judæos abstinere Deus jussit a suibus, id potissimum voluit intelligi, ut se a peccatis et immunditiis abstinerent. Est enim lutulentum hoc animal ac immundum, nec unquam cœlum aspicit, sed in terra toto et corpore et ore projectum, ventri semper et pabulo servit.""Interdixit ergo ne porcina carne vescerentur, i. e. ne vitam porcorum imitarentur, qui ad solum vitam mortem nutriuntur ne ventri ac voluptatibus servientes, ad faciendam justitiam inutiles essent ac morte afficerentur. Item ne fœdis libidinibus immergerent se, sicut sus, qui se ingurgitat cæno: vel ne terrenis serviant simulacris, ac se luto inquinent." Tacitus tells us that the Jews abstained from the flesh of swine in consideration of a“ leprosy by which they had formerly suffered, and to which this animal has a disposition." Plutarch, de Iside, affirms that those who drink of the milk of the sow become blotchy and leprous and Ælian, l. x. c. 16, quotes from Manetho, that whoever 4 Swine is formed from sow, as kine from cow. drinks sow's milk is quickly covered with scabs and leprous itches.-Michaelis observes that throughout the whole climate under which Palestine is situated, and for a certain extent both south and north, the leprosy is an endemic disease; and with this disease, which is preeminently an Egyptian one, the Israelites left Egypt so terribly overrun, that Moses found it necessary to enact a variety of laws respecting it; and that the contagion might be weakened, and the people tolerably guarded against its influence, it became requisite to prohibit them from eating swine's flesh altogether 5. The prophet Isaiah, lxv. 4, charges his degenerate people with eating swine's flesh, and having a broth of abominable things in their vessels. They had not yet neglected to bring their sacrifices to the altar of Jehovah; but they no longer served their God in sincerity and truth: "He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations." Isai. lxvi. 3. Conduct so contrary to their solemn engagements, so hateful in the sight of the Holy One, though long endured, was not always to pass with impunity. "They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens, behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the Lord." Isai. lxvi. 17. Such a sacrifice was an abomination to the Lord, because the eating of the blood was prohibited, and because the sacrifice consisted of swine's flesh; and, to aggravate the sin of the transgressor, such a sacrifice is compared with the killing of a human victim, or the immolation of a dog; both of which Jehovah regarded with abhorrence. To these precepts and threatenings, which were often supported by severe judg ments, may be traced the habitual and unconquerable aversion of that people to the use of swine's flesh; an aversion which the most alluring promises and the most cruel sufferings have been found alike insufficient to subdue. In such detestation was the hog held by the Jews that they would not so much as pronounce its name, but called it "the strange thing:" and we read in the history of the Maccabees, that Eleazer, a principal scribe, being compelled by Antiochus Epiphanes to open his mouth and receive swine's flesh, spit it forth, and went of his own accord to the torment, choosing rather to suffer death than to break the law of God, and give offence to his nation ". It is observed that when Adrian rebuilt Jerusalem, he set up 3 Commentaries on the Laws of Moses. Art. 203, v. ii. p. 230, Smith's translation. 62 Maccab. vi. 18, and vii. 1. the image of a hog, in bas-relief, upon the gates of the city, to drive the Jews away from it, and to express the greater contempt for that miserable people. It was avarice, a contempt of the law of Moses, and a design to supply the neighbouring idolaters with victims, that caused whole herds of swine to be fed on the borders of Galilee. Whence the occasion is plain of Christ's permitting the disorder that caused them to fling themselves headlong into the lake of Genezareth. Matth. viii. 327. In vindication of this transaction, which some have objected to as not conformable to the benevolent intention displayed by Jesus in his other miracles, Mr. Farmer (" Essay on Dæmoniacs," p. 294), observes: "It was a just punishment of the owners. For though Josephus calls Gadara, near which this miracle was wrought, a Greek city (Antiq. xvii. 11, 4; and elsewhere, Bell. Jud. ii. 18, 1, a city of the Syrians), and though it was a part of the province of Syria, yet, during the reign of Herod, it had belonged to Judea, on which country it bordered, and was no doubt, in part, inhabited by Jews, who probably owned the swine: for to that people Christ's personal ministry was confined, and on their territory he then stood. Now the Jews were prohibited, as Grotius observes, by the laws of Hyrcanus, from keeping swine (which laws, however, sufficiently intimate the prevalence of the practice), and by the laws of Moses from using them for food. Their breach of the former restriction naturally led to the violation of the latter. Our Lord, though he declined acting as a magistrate, yet as a prophet, he might be commissioned by God to punish them either for this or any other crime. And there was the greater propriety in this act of punishment, as they were not subject to the jurisdiction of the Jewish sanhedrim, living under heathen government. The disposition they discovered upon this occasion, in being more impressed with the loss of their substance than with the miracle wrought for their conviction, shows how well they deserved correction; as the miracle itself served to manifest Christ's own regard to the law of God." We read, Matth. vii. 6, "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet and turn again and rend you." There is a similar maxim in the Talmudical writings. "Do not cast pearls before swine:" to which is added, by way of explanation, "Do not offer wisdom to one who knows not the value of it, but profanes its glory." Another proverbial expression occurs 2 Pet. ii. 22. "It has happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire."-This is in part 7 For an explication of this, see Bp. Pearce," Miracles of Jesus, vindicated.” Works, v. ii. p. 350. ed. 4to. F a quotation from Prov. xxvi. 11. Gataker takes these two proverbs to have a poetical turn, and to have been a distich of iambics. Horace has a plain reference to both, lib. i. Ep. 2. v. 26. where he is speaking of the travels of Ulysses, and says, that if he had been conquered by the charms of Circe, "Vixisset canis immundus, vel amica luto sus.' He had lived like an impure dog, or a sow fond of the mire. Blackwall says, this proverb with great propriety and strength marks out the sottishness and odious manners of wretches enslaved to sensual appetites and carnal lusts; and the extreme difficulty of reforming vicious and inveterate habits. SYCAMINE. ΣΥΚΑΜΙΝΟΣ. Arab. sokam. Occ. Luke, xvii. 6. The This is a different tree from the "sycamore" mentioned Luke, xix. 4. Dioscorides, l. i. c. 181, p. 144, expressly says that this tree is the mulberry; though he allows that some apprehend that it is the same with the sycamore; and thus Galen, lib. ii. de Alimentis, and Athenæus, 1. ii. Galen has afterwards a separate chapter on the "sycamorus," which he speaks of as rare, and mentions as having seen at Alexandria in Egypt. Greeks name the "morus" the sycamine. Grotius says the word Gunaшuvos has no connexion with unen, the fig tree, but is entirely συκάμινος Syrian pw, Hebr. p. It should seem, indeed, to be very similar to the mulberry, as not only the Latin, but the Syriac and the Arabic render it by "morus:" and thus Coverdale's, the Rheims, and Purver's English translations render it by the "mulberry;" and so it is in Bp. Wilson's Bible. Hiller, Hierophyt. v. i. p. 250, and Celsius, Hierobot. v. i. p. 288, with much learning prove it to be the morus; and Warnekros 9 contends that by the Euxauvos of the ancients, and in Luke, xviii. 6, we are to understand the mulberry; and takes notice of several mistakes of the learned on this subject. .SCHIKMIM שקמים,SCHIKMOT שקמות .SYCAMORE Occ. 1 Kings, x. 27; 1 Chron. xxvii. 28; 2 Chron. i. 15; Psal. lxxviii. 47; Isai. ix. 9; Amos, viii. 14. * ΣΥΚΟΜΩΡΑΙΑ. Luke, xix. 4. "A large tree, according to the description of Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Galen, resembling the mulberry tree in the leaf, and the fig in its fruit; hence its name, compounded of ounen fig, and uogos mulberry: and some have fancied that it was originally produced by ingrafting the one tree upon the other. Its fruit is palatable. When ripe it is soft, watery, somewhat sweet, with a little of an aromatic taste. 8 Sacred Classics, v. ii. p. 82. 9 Historia naturalis sycamori ex veterum botanicorum monumentis et itinerariis delineatio; in Repert. Lit. Bibl. et orientalis ab Eichornio'edit. t. xi, p. |