institution to mark out these large portions of time for the readier computation of successive years of ages.

The typical use and design of the Jubilee is pointed out by the prophet Isaiah, when he says, in reference to the Messiah"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord," Isa. Ixi. 1, 2. Here, "the acceptable year of the Lord," when "liberty was proclaimed to the captives," and "the opening of the prison to them that were bound," evidently refers to the Jubilee; but, in the prophetic sense, means the Gospel state and dispensation, which proclaims spiritual liberty from the bondage of sin and Satan, and the liberty of returning to our own possession, to which, having incurred a forfeiture by sin, we had lost all right and claim.*

What we remarked concerning the non-observance of the Sabbatical year by the Jewish people, may also be extended to the year of Jubilee. No where in history is its celebration either mentioned or insinuated. No where do the sacred writers reckon by years of Jubilee, which would have been a much more convenient chronology than to date by the reign of their kings. From 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21, Michaelis infers that the celebration of the Sabbatical year was intermitted for seventy times in succession, and the Jubilee, of consequence, for ten times. He remarks, after it is there said, that for seventy years the land had, during the Babylonian captivity, kept Sabbath, that is, lain fallow, it is related, even until she could comfort herself for her disturbed sabbaths, and be, as it were, satisfied; or, as he proposes to render it, until she had numbered her unkept sabbaths. Here there is a manifest reference to Lev. xxvi. 34, 35—" Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye be in your enemy's land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths: as long as it lieth desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it."+

* Godwyn's Moses and Aaron, b. iii. ch. 10; Jennings' Jewish Antiq. b. iii. ch. 10.

+ Michaelis on the Laws of Moses, vol. i. p. 415.

469

SECTION V.

FESTIVALS AND FASTS NOT OF DIVINE APPOINTMENT..

Various Fasts-The Feast of DEDICATION The Feast of PURIM.

I. Besides those festivals which were appointed by the Mosaic law, we find intimations of the observance of other festivals and fasts by the Jewish people, in various parts of Scripture. Thus Jeremiah speaks of the fast of the fourth month, on account of the taking of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans (ch. lii. 6, 7); and of the tenth month, when the Babylonian army began the siege of Jerusalem, ver. 4. We also read of the fast of the fifth month, on account of the burning of the city and temple by the Chaldeans (2 Kings xxv. 8), and of the seventh month, in memory of the murder of Gedaliah, ver. 25. These fasts are all mentioned together in Zech. viii. 19, to which we may perhaps add the feast Xylophoria, or of the wood-offering, when the people brought great store of wood to the temple, for the use of the altar.This is said to be grounded on the following passage in Nehemiah: "We cast the lots among the priests, the Levites, and the people, for the wood-offering, to bring it into the house of our God, after the house of our fathers, at times appointed year by year, to burn upon the altar of the Lord our God, as it is written in the law," ch. x. 34. See also ch. xiii. 30, 31.* In addition to these fasts and festivals, the modern Jewish calendar is crowded with a multitude of others; but as there is no mention of them in Scripture, it is no part of our business to notice them. There are two festivals, however, which we have not enumerated in those above mentioned, which demand a specific notice, viz. the Feast of the Dedication, and the Feast of Purim.

II. THE FEAST OF THE DEDICATION, which was appointed by Judas Maccabeus, as a new dedication of the Temple and Altar, after they had been polluted by Antiochus Epiphanes, on the 25th of the ninth month (Chisleu), B. C. 170+, lasted for eight days. From the general illumination which took place during the continuance of this festival, it

* Jennings' Jewish Antiq. book iii. ch. 11.

+ Prideaux, Connex. A. A. C. 170.

obtained the name of "the Feast of Lights." The greatest religious countenance which was given to it while the Temple stood, was the singing the Hallel there every day, as long as the solemnity lasted. This festival is but once mentioned in Scripture, viz. in John x. 22, where Jesus is said to have been present at it.

III. THE FEAST OF PURIM, or oF LOTS, which commemorated the deliverance of the Jews from the plot laid against them by Haman, under the reign of Artaxerxes, was celebrated on the 13th, 14th, and 15th days of the twelfth month, Adar. The 13th was held as a fast, being the day on which they were to have been destroyed; and the two following days as a feast, for their glorious and providential deliverance. We know not whether any particular sacrifices were offered at the Temple on this occasion; but it is probable that the book of Esther was read through by some of the priests, in the court of the women. Calmet has collected from Basnage, and Leo of Modena, a number of particulars relative to the manner of observing this Jewish feast, the chief of which follow.

On the eve of the feast they give alms liberally to the poor, that these also may enjoy the feast of Lots; and on the feast day they send a share of what they have at table to those who need. On the evening of the 13th, they assemble in the Synagogue, and light the lamps; and as soon as the stars begin to appear, they begin to read the book of Esther. They continue reading it throughout. There are five places in the text in which the reader raises his voice with all his might, and makes such a dreadful howling as to frighten the women and children. When he comes to the place which mentions the ten sons of Haman, he repeats them rapidly, without taking breath, to shew that these ten persons were destroyed in a moment. Whenever the name of Haman is pronounced, the children furiously strike the benches with mallets, or stones, and make lamentable cries. It is said that they used to bring into the Synagogue a great stone, with HAMAN written on it, and that all the while the book of Esther was reading, they struck it with other stones, till they had beat it to pieces. After the reading is concluded they return home, where they make a meal rather of milk-meats than of flesh. Early on the following morning, they again repair to the Synagogue, where, after reading the account of the war of Amalek (Ex. xvii.), they again read the book of Esther, with a repetition of the ceremonies we have noticed. After quit

*Lightfoot, Temple Service, ch. xvi. sect. 5.

ting the Synagogue, they make good cheer at home, and pass the rest of the day in sports and dissolute mirth; the men dressing themselves in women's clothes, and the women in men's, contrary to the express prohibition of Deut. xxii. 5.Their doctors have decided that they may drink wine till they cannot distinguish between "cursed be Haman" and "cursed be Mordecai," because it was by compelling Ahasuerus to drink, that Mordecai obtained the deliverance of the Jews. They compel all-men, women, children, and servants—to be present at the Synagogue; because all shared in the deliverance, as all were exposed to the danger. *

*Calmet's Bib. Ency. art. "Purim."

472

CHAPTER VI.

SACRED PLACES OF THE JEWS.

BEFORE we proceed to notice the sacred buildings of the Jewish people, it may be necessary to remark that the whole land was by them considered as sacred, and was thence termed the Holy Land.* They divided the whole world into two general parts, the land of Israel, and the land out of Israel; that is, all the countries that were inhabited by the "nations of the world," or the Gentiles. All the rest of the world, besides Judea, was by them considered as profane and unclean. The whole land of Israel was holy, not excepting even Samaria; nor even Idumæa, especially after its inhabitants had embraced the Jewish religion. As for Syria, they considered it between both; that is, neither quite holy, nor altogether profane. Besides the holiness ascribed in Scripture to the land of Israel in general, as it was the inheritance of God's people, the place appointed for the performance of his worship, the Jews were pleased to attribute different degrees of holiness to its several parts, according to their different situation. Those parts, for instance, which lay beyond Jordan, were reputed less holy than those that were on this side; because the sanctity of a place was in proportion to its contiguity to the temple:† walled towns were also considered as being more clean and holy than other places, because lepers were excluded from them, and the dead were not buried there.

* See page 292, supra.

See Lightfoot, Temple Service, ch. i.

Even the very