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which afforded shelter, similar to those which modern travellers in the East have seen and described. Family sepulchres were in gardens. (John xix. 41.)

A funeral feast commonly succeeded the Jewish burials. Thus, after Abner's funeral was solemnised, the people came to David to eat meat with him, though they could not persuade him to do so. (2 Sam. iii. 35.) He was the chief mourner, and probably had invited them to this banquet. Of this Jeremiah speaks (xvi. 7.), where he calls it the cup of consolation, which they drank for their father or their mother; and accordingly the place, where this funeral entertainment was made, is called in the next verse the house of feasting. Hosea calls it the bread of mourners. (Hos. ix. 4.)

The usual tokens of mourning, by which the Jews expressed their grief and concern for the death of their friends and relations, were, the rending of their garments, putting on sack-cloth, sprinkling dust upon their heads, wearing mourning apparel, and covering the face and head. (Gen. xxxvii. 34. 2 Sam. xiv. 2. xix. 4.)

Antiently, there was a peculiar space of time allotted for lamenting the deceased, which they called the days of mourning. (Gen. xxvii. 41. and 1. 4.) Thus, the Egyptians, who had a great regard for the patriarch Jacob, lamented his death threescore and ten days. (Gen. 1. 3.) The Israelites wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. (Deut. xxxiv. 8.) Afterwards, among the Jews, the funeral mourning was generally confined to seven days. Thus, besides the mourning for Jacob in Egypt, Joseph and his company set apart seven days to mourn for his father, when they approached the Jordan with his corpse. (Gen. 1. 10.) No particular period has been recorded, during which widows mourned for their husbands. Bathsheba is said, generally, to have mourned for Uriah (2 Sam. xi. 26.); but her mourning could neither be long nor very sincere. The Jews paid a greater or less degree of honour to their

kings after their death, according to the merits of their actions when they were alive. On the death of any prince, who had in any way distinguished himself, they used to make lamentations or mournful songs for them. From an expression in 2 Chron. xxxv. 25. Behold, they are written in the Lamentations, we may infer that they had certain collections of this kind of composition. The author of the book of Samuel has preserved those which David composed on occasion of the death of Saul and Jonathan, of Abner and Absalom: but we have no remains of the mournful elegy composed by Jeremiah upon the immature death of Josiah, the exemplary king of Judah.

367

PART IV.

ON THE ANALYSIS OF SCRIPTURE.

BOOK I. - ANALYSIS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

CHAPTER I.

ON THE PENTATEUCH.

THE Pentateuch, by which title the five first books of Moses are distinguished, is a word of Greek original, Πεντάτευχος (Pentateuchos) from πεντε (pente) five, and TEUXOS (teuchos) a book or volume, which literally signifies the five instruments or books; by the Jews it is termed Chometz, a word synonymous with Pentateuch, and also, more generally, the Law, or the LAW OF MOSES, because it contains the ecclesiastical and political ordinances issued by God to the Israelites. The pentateuch forms, to this day, but one roll or volume in the Jewish manuscripts, being divided only into larger and smaller sections. This collective designation of the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, is of very considerable antiquity, though we have no certain information when it was first introduced. As, however, the names of these books are evidently derived from the Greek, and as the five books of Moses are expressly mentioned by Josephus, who wrote only a few years after our Saviour's ascension, we have every reason to believe that the appellation of Pentateuch was prefixed to the Septuagint version by the Alexandrian translators.

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The first book of the Pentateuch, which is called GENESIS (TENEEIE), derives its appellation from the title it bears in the Greek Septuagint Version, BIBAOX TENEZENE (Biblos Geneseos): which signifies the Book of the Generation or Production, because it commences with the history of the generation or production of all things. Different opinions have been entertained concerning the time when Moses wrote it (for it is indisputably his production): but the most probable conjecture is that, which places it after the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, and the promulgation of the law. It comprises the history of about 2369 years according to the vulgar computation of time, or of 3619 years according to the larger computation of Dr. Hales; and may be divided into four parts, viz.

PART I. The Origin of the World. (ch. i. ii.)

PART II. The History of the former World. (ch. iii. -vii.

PART III. The General History of Mankind after the Deluge. (ch. viii—xi.)

PART IV. The particular History of the Patriarchs, (ch. xii-1.)

SECTION II. On the Book of Exodus.

The title of this book is derived from the Septuagint version, and is significant of the principal transactions which it records, namely, the EEOAOE (Exodos), EXODUS, or departure of the Israelites from Egypt. It comprises a history of the events that took place during the period of 145 years, from the year of the world 2369 to 2514 inclusive, from the death of Joseph to the erection of the tabernacle. Though the time when it was written by Moses cannot be precisely determined, yet, since it is

a history of matters of fact, it must have been written after the giving of the law and the erection of the tabernacle. This book shows the accomplishment of the divine promises made to Abraham, of the increase of his posterity, and their departure from Egypt after suffering great affliction. It contains,

I. An account of the Oppression of the Israelites, and the transactions previously to their departure out of Egypt. (ch. i-xi.)

II. The Narrative of the Exodus or Departure of the Israelites. (ch. xii. xiii.)

III. Transactions subsequent to their Exodus. (ch. xiv-xviii.)

IV. The promulgation of the Law on Mount Sinai. (ch. xix-xl.)

In ch. xxxii-xxxiv. are related the idolatry of the Israelites, the breaking of the two tables of the law, the divine chastisement of the Hebrews, and the renewal of the tables of the

covenant.

SECTION III.

On the Book of Leviticus.

LEVITICUS (by the Septaguint styled AETITIKON, Levitikon,) derives its name from the circumstance of its containing the Laws concerning the religion of the Israelites. It is cited as the production of Moses in several books of Scripture; and is of great use in explaining many passages of the New Testament, especially the Epistle to the Hebrews, which would otherwise be inexplicable. The enactments it contains may be referred to the four following heads, viz.

I. The Laws concerning Sacrifices, in which the different kinds of sacrifices are enumerated, together with their concomitant rites. (ch. i-vii.)

II. The Institution of the Priesthood, in which the consecration of Aaron and his sons to the sacred office

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