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No. 79.-iii. 31. And after him was Shamgar, the son of Anath, which slew of the Philistines six hundred men with an ox-goad.] Mr. MAUNDRELL, (Journey at April, 15.) has an observation which at once explains this transaction, and removes every difficulty from the passage. He says, "the country people were now every where at plough in the fields, in order to sow cotton. It was observable, that in plowing they used goads of an extraordinary size; upon measuring of several, I found them about eight feet long, and at the bigger end six inches in circumference. They were armed at the lesser end with a sharp prickle for driving the oxen, and at the other end with a small spade, or paddle of iron, strong and massy, for cleansing the plough from the clay that encumbers it in working. May we not from hence conjecture, that it was with such a goad as one of these, that Shamgar made that prodigious slaughter related of him, Judges iii. 21. I am confident that whoever should see one of these instruments, would judge it to be a weapon not less fit, perhaps fitter, than a sword for such an execution. Goads of this sort I saw always used hereabouts, and also in Syria; and the reason is, because the same single person both drives the oxen, and also holds and manages the plough; which makes it necessary to use such a goad as is above described, to avoid the incumbrance of two instruments."

No. 80.-iv. 17-20.] PococKE, giving an account of the manner in which he was treated in an Arab tent, in his journey to Jerusalem, says his conductor led him two or three miles to his tent, and that there he sat with his wife and others round a fire. "The Arabs are not so scrupulous as the Turks about their women, and though they have their harem, or women's part of

the tent, yet such as they are acquainted with come into it. I was kept in the harem for greater security; the wife being always with me, no stranger ever daring to come into the women's apartment, unless introduced." Vol. ii. p. 5. Nothing can be a better comment on this passage than this story.

No. 81. iv. 21. A nail of the tent.] SHAW, describing the tents of the Bedoween Arabs, (p. 221.) says, "these tents are kept firm and steady, by bracing or stretching down their eves with cords tied down to hooked wooden pins well pointed, which they drive into the ground with a mallet; one of these pins answering to the nail, as the mallet does to the hammer, which Jael used in fastening to the ground the temples of Sisera."

No. 82. v. 6. In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath, the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through by-ways.] Though there are roads in the eastern countries, it is very easy to turn out of them, and to go to a place by winding about over the lands when that is thought safer. Shaw took notice of this circumstance in Barbary, where he says they found no hedges, or mounds, or inclosures, to retard or molest them. (Travels, pref. p. 14.) To this Deborah doubtless refers, when she says, In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through by-ways. The account Pococke gives of the manner in which the Arab, under whose care he had put himself, conducted him to Jerusalem, greatly illustrates this circumstance; he says, "It was by night, and not by the high road, but through the fields; and I observed that he avoided as much as he could going near any village or encampment, and some

times stood still, as I thought, to hearken." Just in that manner people were obliged to travel in Judea in the days of Shamgar and Jael. HARMER, vol. i. p. 452.

No. 83.-v. 25. Butter.] D'ARVIEUX informs us (Voy. dans la Pal. p. 200.) that the Arabs make butter by churning in a leathern bottle. Hence Jael is said to have opened a bottle of milk for Sisera, Judges iv. 19. Mr. HARMER (vol. i. p. 281.) supposes that she had just been churning, and pouring out the contents of her bottle into one of the best bowls or dishes she had, presented this butter-milk to him to quench his thirst.

No. 84.—vi. 38. And it was so; for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.] It may seem a little improbable to us who inhabit these northern climates, where the dews are inconsiderable, how Gideon's fleece, in one night, should contract such a quantity, that when he came to wring it, a bowl full of water was produced. Irwin, in his voyage up the Red Sea, when on the Arabian shores, says, "difficult as we find it to keep ourselves cool in the day time, it is no easy matter to defend our bodies from the damps of the night, when the wind is loaded with the heaviest dews that ever fell; we lie exposed to the whole weight of the dews, and the cloaks in which we wrap ourselves, are as wet in the morning as if they had been immersed in the sea.' p. 87.

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No. 85.-ix. 27. Trod the grapes.] In the east they still tread their after the ancient manner. grapes gust 20, 1765, the vintage (near Smyrna) was now be gun, the juice (of the grapes) was expressed for wine; a man, with his feet and legs bare, was treading the fruit in

a kind of cistern, with a hole or vent near the bottom, and a vessel beneath to receive the liquor."

CHANDLER'S Travels in Greece, p. 2.

No. 86.-xvi. 27. There were upon the roof about three thousand men and women.] "The Eastern method of building may assist us in accounting for the particular structure of the temple or house of Dagon (Judges 16,) and the great number of people that were buried in the ruins of it, by pulling down the two principal pillars. We read (v. 27,) that about three thousand persons were upon the roof to behold while SAMSON made sport. Samson must therefore have been in a court or area below them, and consequently the temple will be of the same kind with the ancient Teμévy, or sacred inclosures, surrounded only in part or altogether with some plain or cloistered buildings. Several palaces and dau-wânas, as they call the courts of justice in these countries, are built in this fashion; where upon their festivals and rejoicings a great quantity of sand is strewed upon the area for the wrestlers to fall upon, whilst the roof of the cloisters round about is crowded with spectators of their strength and agility. I have often seen several hundreds of people diverted in this manner upon the roof of the dey's palace at Algiers; which, like many more of the same quality and denomination, bath an advanced cloister over against the gate of the palace, Esther v. 1, made in the fashion of a large pent-house, supported only by one or two contiguous pillars in the front, or else in the centre. In such open structures as these, in the midst of their guards and counsellors, are the bashas, kadees, and other great officers, assembled to distribute justice and transact the public affairs of their provinces. Here likewise they have their public entertainments, as the lords and others of the Philis

tines had in the house of Dagon. Upon a supposition therefore that in the house of Dagon there was a clois tered structure of this kind, the pulling down of the front or centre pillars only, which supported it, would be attended with the like catastrophe that happened to the Philistines." SHAW's Travels, p. 283.

No. 87.-xxi. 18. Cursed be he.] The ancient manner of adjuring subjects or inferiors to any conditions, was by their superiors denouncing a curse on them, in case they violated those conditions. To this manner of swearing our blessed Lord himself submitted, Matt. xxvi. 63. It may be further remarked, that when the curse was expressed in general terms, as cursed be he, i. e. whosoever doth so or so, the superior who pronounced it was as much bound by it as the inferior who heard it; thus there can be no doubt but the curses pronounced, Deut. xxvii. 14, obliged the Levites who pronounced them; and those also, Joshua vi. 26, and 1 Sam. xiv. 24, obliged Joshua and Saul, who pronounced them, as much as the other people. They therefore by pronouncing those curses, sware or took an oath themselves. PARKHURST's Heb. Lex. p. 20, 3d. Ed.

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