In 1 Sam. xxv. S, Nabal is said to have been "churlish and evil in his manners, and he was of the house of Caleb;" but this last is not a proper name. Literally it is "he was a son of a dog.” And so the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic render. It means that he was irritable, snappish, and snarling as a dog.

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The irritable disposition of the dog is the foundation of that saying, Prov. xxvi. 17. "He that passeth by, and meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears;" that is, he wantonly exposes himself to danger.

In Deut. xxiii. 18, CHELEB seems to be used for a pathic, a catamite, called plainly w, in the immediately preceding verse, and joined, as here, with the "whore." Such abominable wretches appear likewise to be denoted by the term nuves, "dogs," Rev. xxii. 15, where we may also read their doom. Comp. Rev. xxi. 8. The Pagan Greeks in like manner, though they practised the abomination without remorse, as St. Paul, Rom. i. 27, 28, and their own writers 50, abundantly testify, yet called male prostitutes nuvaido from nuwv, a dog, and aidas, modesty 51. The Son of Sirach Ecclus. xxvi. 25, says, 66 a shameless woman shall be counted as a dog."

The dog was held sacred by the Egyptians. This fact we' learn from Juvenal, who complains in his fifteenth satire,

66 Oppida tota canem venerantur, nemo Dianam.”

The testimony of the Latin poet is confirmed by Diodorus, who, in his first book, assures us that the Egyptians highly venerate some animals, both during their life and after their death; and expressly mentions the dog as one object of this absurd adoration. To these witnesses may be added Herodotus, who says, "that when a dog expires, all the members of the family to which he belonged worship the carcass; and that in every part of the kingdom the carcasses of their dogs are embalmed and deposited in consecrated ground."

The idolatrous veneration of the dog by the Egyptians, is intimated in the account of their god Anubis, to whom temples and priests were consecrated, and whose image was borne in all religious ceremonies. Cynopolis, the present Minieh, situated in the lower Thebais, was built in honour of Anubis. The priests celebrated his festivals there with great pomp. "Anubis," says Strabo, "is the city of dogs, the capital of the Cynopolitan prefecture. These animals are fed there on sacred aliments, and religion has decreed them a worship." An event, however, related by Plutarch, brought them into considerable discredit with the people. Cambyses, having slain the god Apis, and

50 See Leland, Advantage of Christianity, v. ii. p. 49, 61, and 126. Grotius de Verit, l. ii. c. 13. note 4. Wetstein on Rom. i. 27.

51 See more in Le Clerc's note on Deut. xxiii. 18, and Daubuz on Rev. xxii. 15.

thrown his body into the field, all animals respected it except the dogs, which alone eat of his flesh. This impiety diminished the popular veneration. Cynopolis was not the only city where incense was burned on the altars of Anubis. He had chapels in almost all the temples. On solemnities, his image always accompanied those of Isis and Osiris. Rome, having adopted the ceremonies of Egypt, the emperor Commodus, to celebrate the Isiac feasts, shaved his head, and himself carried the dog Anubis.

In Matthew, vii. 6, is this direction of our Saviour to his disciples:"Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine; lest these (the swine) trample them under their feet, and those (the dogs) turn again and tear you." It was customary not only with the writers of Greece and Rome, but with the Eastern sages, to denote certain classes of men by animals supposed to resemble them among the brutes. Our Saviour was naturally led to adopt the same concise and energetic method. By dogs, which were held in great detestation by the Jews, he intends men of odious character and violent temper; by swine, which was the usual emblem of moral filth, the abandoned and profligate; and the purport of his admonition is, "as it is a maxim with the priests not to give a part of the sacrifice to dogs, so it should be a maxim with you, not to impart the holy instruction with which you are favoured, to those who are likely to blaspheme and abuse you, nor that religious wisdom which is more precious than rubies, and of which pearls are but imperfect symbols, to the impure, who will only deride and reproach you 52"

Prudence will require you to consider the character of those whom we may wish to rebuke or exhort. For there are some such profane and bold contemners of every thing good and serious, that any solemn admonition would not only be lost upon them, but excite in them the most violent resentment; which, besides bringing us into difficulties, might cause even the name and truth of God to be blasphemed.

DOVE.

JONA; Greek

οινος

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A bird too well known to need a particular description.

This beautiful genus of birds is very numerous in the East. In the wild state they are called pigeons, and generally build their nests in the holes or clefts of rocks, or in excavated trees; but they are easily taught submission and familiarity with mankind; and, when domesticated, build in structures erected for their accommodation, called "dove-cotes." They are classed by

52 Jones's Illustrations of the Gospels, p. 132.

53" Columbæ feræ genus, a vino, ovos, sic appellatum. Quia, Eusthathio auctore, oivos ro xewμa, id est, vinum, vel uvas maturas colore refert; vel quia vindemiæ tempore fere apparet." Aristot. Hist. lib. viii. c. 3. Athenæus, lib. ix. c. 2.

Moses among the clean birds; and it appears from the sacred, as well as other writers, that doves have been held in the highest estimation among the Eastern nations.

Rosenmuller, in a note upon Bochart 54, refutes the opinion of that learned man, and of Michaelis, who derive the name from lonia, by tracing it rather through the Arabic, where it signifies mildness, gentleness, &c. So Parkhurst derives the Hebrew name from a root which admits the sense of defenceless, and exposed to rapine and violence; remarkable characteristics of this lovely bird. Accordingly the dove is used in Scripture, as the symbol of simplicity, innocence, gentleness, and fidelity. Hosea, vii. 11; Matth. ix. 16. See PIGEON.

The first mention of the dove in the Scripture is Gen. viii. 8, 10, 11, 12; where Noah sent one from the ark to ascertain if the waters of the deluge were assuaged. The raven had been previously sent out; and it is generally supposed, flew off, and was seen no more. But this meaning, says Dr. Adam Clarke, the Hebrew text will not bear; for the original may be rendered "went, going forth, and returning." From whence it is evident that she did return, but was not taken into the ark. She made frequent excursions, and continued on the wing as long as she could, having picked up such aliment as she found floating on the waters; and then, to rest herself, regained the ark, where she might perch, though she sought not admittance. Indeed, this must be allowed, as it is impossible she could have continued on the wing during twenty-one days, which she must have done had she not returned. The dove, a bird of swift and strong wing, accustomed to light and feed upon the ground, and to return home every evening from the most distant excursions, was then selected as a more faithful messenger than the carnivorous raven, because she found nothing to tempt her to be faithless; as she fed, not on carrion, but on grains and vegetables, which were not yet to be had. She was sent forth thrice. The first time she speedily returned; having in all probability gone but a little way from the ark, as she must naturally be terrified at the appearance of the waters. After seven days, being sent out a second time, she returned with an olive leaf plucked off; whereby it became evident that the flood was considerably abated and had sunk below the tops of the trees: and thus relieved the fears and cheered the heart of Noah and his family. And hence the olive branch has ever been among the forerunners of peace, and chief of those emblems by which a happy state of renovation and restoration to prosperity has been signified to mankind. At the end of other seven days, the dove, being sent out a third time, returned no more, from which Noah conjectured that the earth was so far drained as to afford sustenance for the birds and fowls; and he therefore removed the covering of the ark, which probably 54 Hieroz. part ii. 1. i. c. 1; vol. ii. page 530.

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gave liberty to many of the fowls to fly off, which circumstances would afford him the greater facility for making arrangements for disembarking the other animals. See RAVEN.

Doves might he offered in sacrifice, when those who were poor could not bring a more costly offering.

Job's eldest daughter was called Jemima, probably from the Arabic name of a dove. This name was given to women of the greatest beauty in the East. So Semiramis had her name from semir jemamah," the brown dove," or as Hesychius explains it, "the mountain dove 55" The dove was made the bird of Venus; and we find it placed on the head of the Dea Syria, whom the orientals imagined, as Lucian says, to be the same with Semiramis; and it appears by medals that she was the same with Aphrodite, and with the mater deorum; and the same bird is her constant attendant when represented under those characters 56.

We have in the Asiatic Researches, vol. iv. p. 168, a Hindu story on this subject. The Puranas relate that Sami Rama, in the shape of a dove, came and abode at Asc'halanaschtan, which is obviously Askalon. Here Semiramis was born, according to Diodorus Siculus, and here she was nursed by doves; and Herodotus says, lib. i. c. 105, "of all the sacred buildings erected to the celestial Venus, the temple at Askalon is by far the most ancient. The Cyprians themselves acknowledge that their temple was built after the model of this, and that Cythera was constructed by certain Phoenicians, who came from this part of Syria."

Gaza was formerly called Ionen, which has relation to the Hebrew ioneh, which signifies a dove; and as Gaza was so near Askalon, it is probable that there too the goddess was worshiped. In fact, the whole coast was called "the coast of the Ionim," [doves] as the sea which surrounds it was called "the Ionian sea," quite to the Nile.

In Psalm Ixviii. 13, is a reference to the dove; and as the passage is obscure, it may be well to attend to the illustration. Though ye have lien among the pots, yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove covered with silver."

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Bp. Lowth gives up this and the following verse as inexplicable. Dr. Green understands the first part of this, of the contemptible state of the Israelites in Egypt (Gen. xlvi. 34), and that the Psalmist in the following similitude beautifully sets forth their opposite situation, by alluding to the splendour of the wings of the dove, so different from the filthiness of their former

55 The Babylonians worshiped Semiramis, and carried a Dove in the standard in honour of her memory.

"Quid referam ut volitet crebras intacta per urbes
Alba Palæstino sancta columba Syro."

TIBUL. I. 7.

56 See Costard on the Mythological Astronomy of the Ancients, and Heath on Job, p. xxxiv.

situation. Dr. Durell renders it, "Did ye not lie among the sheep-folds, O ye wings of a dove, covered with silver, and with burnished gold in her feathers?" And supposes it to be an allegory referring to Reuben, Manasseh, Dan, and Asher, who did not assist Deborah in the battle against Sisera. Jud. v. 16, 17, 18. They are called doves as being the fittest emblems of their cowardice; and the gold and silver, to which the wings are compared, may allude to the riches which these tribes seem to have acquired by preferring a domestic to a warlike life. But this construction is far-fetched, and seems to break the connexion.

Mr. Wm. Baxter translates the original thus-" Si requieveris sub oris alarum columbæ de argentatæ, cujus alarum terga sunt de fulgore auri; hæc, ubi disperserit Saddai reges per eam, nivea comparebit in vexillo." It was the custom, he tells us, for the Hebrew armies, as well as the Syrians and Assyrians, to have a dove for their standard; to which the Psalmist alluding, says, "If you shall abide by your standard, the silver coloured dove, whose wings are gilt with gold, when the Almighty by its means has scattered the kings, the marks of victory shall be displayed in your ensign, and your dove appear white as snow.' All interpreters have blindly followed the Septuagint in this place, who, either ignorantly, or perhaps wilfully, rendered it obscure; for, being unwilling to gratify the Syrians, who worshiped a dove, with so honourable a mention of their deity, instead of translating the Hebrew word a standard, as they ought to have done, they made a proper name of it, and rendered it Mount Selmon 57.

The author of "Scripture Illustrated" enlarges upon this construction, and gives a new version, accompanied with remarks, which elucidate other passages. I shall insert it here, with a few emendations; previously observing that the whole of this Psalm appears to be a triumphal ode for success in battle.

Jehovah gave the matter of these glad tidings.

Kings and hosts did flee, did flee;

And the spoil was divided among those at home.

Now how is it possible that the same persons who had put to flight these kings, and had taken the spoil home to their families, should lie among the pots! How should these soldiers suffer such disgrace, and that at the very time when they enjoy their victory!-But if we recollect that the standard of the dove was used as a military ensign, and suppose it to be alluded to here, then we have an entirely distinct view of the article, and may understand it accordingly.

Kings and armies did flee, did flee,

And the homestead of their pursuers divided the spoil;

57 Bowyer's tract entitled "A View of a Book under the title of Reliquiæ Baxterianæ." p..33.