The strikingly suggestive imagery of verse 27 has been somewhat weakened by the rendering of the last clause. Instead of introducing the words "as corn," and dividing the reader's attention, the idea of grass should be kept hold of throughout. The subject does not demand a continued comparison, but a declaration suggestive of scorn and contempt. The people against whom you have hitherto proved successful, says God by his prophet, were destitute of that strength which is to be enjoyed by those who put their trust in me, and of that safety which lies in my protection. They were of weak and short hand; they were terribly alarmed and confounded; what were they? "They were the grass of the earth, and the green herb, the grass on the house-tops, and blasted before ever it is stalked." The figure is very like that which occurs in our Lord's parable of the sower-"Some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away" (Luke viii. 6). This paraphrase of part of the address to Sennacherib, is in keeping with the use of the word here rendered in our translation "grown up, by the writers of Scripture. The Hebrew term is kāmāh, literally "that which stands erect." When used in connection with any form of vegetation, it means the stalk. If the stalk be that of corn, it is indicated by the context. Among the regulations laid down by Moses for guiding the people in their social relationships, one relates to the breaking out of fires :-" If fire break out, and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of corn, or the standing corn, or the field, be consumed therewith; he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution” (Exod. xxii. 6). Corn in the stack, or shock (gādish), is associated with corn in the stalk (kāmāh). The same association occurs in Judges xv. 5. The beginning of the feast of weeks was to be when the harvest began:-" Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn (kāmāh)” (Deut. xvi. 9). In the same book the word is used in a like way in another passage (xxiii. 25). Hosea also applies this term to corn :They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind; it hath no stalk (kāmāh): the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it" (viii. 7).

I. CHRONICLES..

'N chapter iv. 21, a most interesting notice occurs. Mention is made of "the families of the house of them that wrought fine linen." In a word, we have presented to our minds a manufacturing community, in which old and young were engaged in an industrial occupation for which the present age has become specially noted. The term rendered "fine linen " (butz) occurs here for the first time in sacred writing. The introduc

tion of a new name connected with clothing, supplies sufficient ground for expecting a reference to a new fabric. Accordingly, it is alleged with good reason that the fabric alluded to here was cotton (gossypium), which at this period began to be used as a substitute for linen.

The cotton plant is a native of India, whence it seems to have come to Syria, whose traffickers traded with Tyre in this article. "Syria," says the Lord to Tyrus, "was thy merchant in fine linen (būtz)." From Tyre the cotton plant would find its way into Egypt, where it does not appear to have been known in the time of Herodotus. See under Prov. xxxi. 22. In chapter xv. 27, a distinction is made between this cloth and the linen of which parts of the dress of the priests were made :— "David was clothed with a robe of fine linen (būtz), and all the Levites that bare the ark, and the singers, and Chenaniah the master of the song with the singers: David also had upon him an ephod of linen (bad)." The latter term (bad) is never used except to distinguish some part of the priestly dress. Exod. xxviii. 42; Levit. xvi. 4, &c. If the fabric named here was cotton, it had come into use as an expensive garment. Thus it is linked up with crimson stuff, and named to indicate showy and costly apparel. Huram sent to Solomon a man "skilful to work in fine linen (būtz) and in crimson" (2 Chron. ii. 14). The vail of the tabernacle also was "of purple, and crimson, and fine linen" (2 Chron. iii. 14).

In the reign of Hezekiah, several Simeonite chiefs are said to have gone "to the entrance of Gedor, even unto the east side of the valley, to seek pasture for their flocks. And they found fat pasture and good, and the land was wide, and quiet, and peaceable; for they of Ham had dwelt there of old" (iv. 39, 40). "Gedor," a place evidently lying between the south of Simeon and Edom; not the place of the same name lying to the north of Hebron (Josh. xv. 58).

Another expedition of these daring chiefs of the same tribe is noticed in verses 42, 43:-" And some of them, even of the sons of Simeon, five hundred men, went to Mount Seir, having for their captains Pelatiah, and Neariah, and Rephaiah, and Uzziel, the sons of Ishi. And they smote the rest of the Amalekites that were escaped, and dwelt there unto this day." "The Amalekites" were not descended from Amalek, the grandson of Esau (Gen. xxxvi. 12). They were a powerful tribe of wandering shepherds, who appear at a very early period to have migrated from the south of Asia, to have chiefly taken possession of the region of Sinai, and thence to have spread northward to the borders of Palestine. Later they became closely associated with the Edomites. Their power seems to have been for the first time thoroughly broken by the victory which Israel obtained over them at Rephidim. (Exod. xvii.)

The resolution of David to bring up the ark of God from Kirjath

jearim results in showing, among other things, how widely the people were spread even in his time. He had to gather them even "from Shihor of Egypt" (xiii. 5). Shihor or Sihor means literally troubled, or muddy, and is the name several times given in the Scriptures to the Nile. Thus Joshua claimed for Israel, according to the promise to Abraham (Gen. xv. 18), the territory bounded on one side by "Sihor, which is before Egypt" (Josh. xiii. 3). Tyre drew some of her riches from the valley of the Nile :-" By great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and she is a mart of nations" (Isa. xxiii. 3). When Israel forsook the Lord, he once and again went down to Egypt; and on one such occasion the prophet forcibly asked"What hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor?" (Jer. ii. 18). About the summer solstice the waters of the Nile, having their source in the great lake Victoria Nyanza, begin to give evidence of their approaching rise. They assume a darker and more turbid appearance than usual, caused by the addition to them of the debris on the banks, whence the superabundant waters are supplied. This changes to a darkish green, from their having become impregnated with plant colouring matter (chlorophylle); and, ultimately, when the waters are at their height, the quantity of earthy matter which they hold, gives them a red, muddy colour. These last were the true waters of Shihor. See above, Gen. xli. 1.

The attachment which the king of Tyre had to David is very forcibly indicated in 1 Kings v. 1, on the occasion of the accession of Solomon to the throne:-" Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants unto Solomon (for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father); for Hiram was ever a lover of David." On the death of David, Hiram's love was transferred to his son. In the first verse of this chapter, the attachment of the king of Tyre is shown in his anxiety to help David, now that he was confirmed king over Israel, to build a palace in which he might as successfully practise the arts of peace as he had hitherto done those of war. "He sent timber of cedars, with masons and carpenters, to build him an house."

"Cedar," Heb. érez, has been fully noticed under 1 Kings iv. 33; which see. Some of its outstanding characteristics will be referred to under Psalm xcii. 12. The wood of the cedar is named here as timber employed in house carpentry. It has generally been held, that the cedar wood of Scripture must have been obtained from the Lebanon species (Cedrus Libani). But this is extremely doubtful. It is much more likely that other species of cone-bearing trees yielded the timber

VOL. II.

2 R

so much used in house-building. When the species is associated with Lebanon, there is every reason to hold that the name refers to the so-called true cedars. But the prevalence of other cone-bearers along the coasts and in the inland districts accessible to Hiram, makes it highly probable that they yielded most of the wood sent to Jerusalem for building purposes. Such species supply a timber much more suitable than that of the cedar for such ends; and certain cypresses and pine-trees were anciently characterized in a general and popular way as cedars, after the same manner as cedars, fir-trees, and pines, are popularly known among us as "fir-trees." There is, moreover, good reason to doubt whether the cedars of Lebanon were ever plentiful in that region. In the oldest historical notices which we have of them they are described as few. If to those considerations we add the fact, that some of the trees growing in Lebanon yielded timber, named cedar wood, for purposes other than the cedars could serve, the view now taken will seem even stronger. In Ezekiel's address to Tyrus, he says:-"Thy builders have perfected thy beauty. They have made all thy ship-boards of fir-trees of Senir; they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts for thee" (xxvii. 5). But the mode of growth of Cedrus Libani wholly unfits it for this purpose. It is gnarled, crooked, and irregular in its growth. Even the main stem seldom attains to a great height. The height of the tree, its noble, stately look, and generally imposing appearance, depend upon the development of the branches rather than on the size of the trunk. But there were many other cone-bearers which would easily be reached by the ship-builders of Tyre, and be found, from their clean growth, their height, and arrow-like straightness, peculiarly answerable for masts.

When we meet with the mention of cedars and cedar wood in the sacred narrative, it is better to determine for ourselves whether it be likely that the Lebanon species, or some other cone-bearer, is referred to. In regard, for example, to the passage quoted above from Ezekiel, we may almost with certainty conclude that a species of fir (Abies) or of pine (Pinus) is to be understood. At the present time it is customary, even for travellers of good scientific attainments, to overlook well-marked specific differences, and to speak of the cedar of Lebanon as occurring in many other parts of the range beside the Kadisha valley. Dr. Thomson, referring to this, says: Those travellers who speak of finding these cedars in abundance on other parts of Lebanon, are simply mistaken in the tree. There are considerable groves of cedar in various places, generally along the very highest range-for