it referred, either to some warlike expedition before Abraham's time, in which the country had been ravaged, and griefs of no common kind had been occasioned; the bitterness of Jehovah meaning, in the Hebrew idiom, "a very great bitterness;" or it may be, that it related only to the productions for which the country around Jerusalem was famed-the myrrh of Jehovah," meaning, in the same idiom, excellent myrrh. Yet, whatever truth there may be in either of these suppositions, the fact is certain, that the bitterness of Jehovah, God-man the mediator, was afterwards experienced on these very mountains for the garden of Gethsemane, in which he suffered such dreadful agony, was on one of them; the places where he was mocked, scourged, and condemned were on another; and Calvary, where (while crucifying him) they offered him wine mingled with myrrh," was on a third. For though the term Moriah was afterwards confined to the individual hill on which the temple was built, it originally comprehended the several mountains that are round about Jerusalem. Hence, God said to Abraham, take thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering, upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of."

b

On the division of Judea among the twelve tribes, it so happened, that small as the space upon the top of Moriah was, it became the property of two tribes; for the greatest part of the courts was in the portion of Judah; and the altar, porch, holy, and most holy places, were in the portion of Benjamin. It is natural to think, however, that the summit of Moriah would at first be unequal, and its sides irregular; but it formed a part of the ambition of the Jewish kings to have it levelled and extended ; inso

a Mark xv, 23.

b Gen. xxii. 2.

much that, under the second temple, it formed a square of five hundred cubits, or three hundred and four yards on each side, allowing, as is commonly done, 21.888 inches to the cubit, or twenty-one inches and three quarters nearly. But as a space of so many cubits, or yards square, conveys but an imperfect idea of quantity to an English reader, it may be proper to change it into English acres. Let me remark, then, that the whole five hundred cubits square, at the rate of 21.888 inches to the cubit in length, or 479.064544 to the square superficial cubit, are equal to nineteen English acres, fourteen poles, twenty-eight yards, and five feet: an extensive foundation, indeed, for that noble structure; and divided, as we shall afterwards find, into the following parts:

Almost the whole of this space was arched under ground, to prevent the possibility of pollution from secret graves: and it was surrounded by a wall of excellent stone, twenty-five cubits, or forty-seven feet seven inches high; without which lay a considerable extent of flat and gently-sloping ground, that was employed in the buildVOL. I.

G

ings of the tower of Antonia, gardens, and public walks. The following is the appearance it presented to Maundrell, in the year 1696.- On the 8th of April," says he, "we went to see the place where we were told the palace of Pilate stood; but upon this spot is now only an ordinary Turkish house, from the terrace of which there is a full view of the place where the temple stood; and this is the only prospect of it that is allowed; for whatever Christian goes within the borders of this ground, must forfeit either his life or his religion. A fitter place for an august building could not be found in the whole world. It lies upon the top of Mount Moriah, opposite Mount Olivet, the valley of Jehoshaphat lying between. It was about five hundred and ninety of my steps in length, and three hundred and seventy in breadth. In the middle of the area, now stands a mosque of an octagonal figure, which is said to be built on the ground, where formerly stood the holy of holies." The mosque alluded to is denominated the mosque of Solomon, and is minutely described by Capt. Light."

According to the above account of Maundrell, if we were to deduct the five hundred cubits, or three hundred and four yards square above-mentioned, as the space inclosed by the high wall of twenty-five cubits, it would leave two hundred and eighty-six yards by sixty-six, or eighteen thousand eight hundred and seventy-six square yards for the tower of Antonia, gardens, and public walks, equal to three English acres, one rood, four poles, twelve yards. But having said this much concerning the Mountain of the Lord's House in general, let us next attend to those gates in the outer wall, and the adjoining buildings, whose names and situations are familiar to the Jewish scholar.

Travels in the Holy Land, 1814, p. 155.

We shall here enumerate them in their order, begin ning at the east, for that was the principal entrance to the temple; probably to teach the Jews, by turning their backs on the rising sun when they approached God, that the idolatry of the heathens, which consisted much in the worship of that luminary, was an abomination in his sight; and on this side of the outer wall, there was only one gate, which was named Shushan, or the King's Gate. The reason of its being named Shushan, or Shushen,

, was, because the city Shushan, the capital of Persia, was pourtrayed upon it: first, that they might remember their captivity, and the cause of it, so as to prevent them from falling again into idolatry: and secondly, that they might remember the feast of Purim, or of Lots, which was first established in that city, to commemorate their deliverance from the plot of Haman. The other name, or the King's Gate, was given, not as some have thought, because the Jewish kings commonly made their entrance through it when they went to the temple, (for that was commonly made by the opposite one on the west, as we shall afterwards see,) but because Solomon, the king, built it, and the rest of the wall on that side, at an extraordinary trouble and expense, raising the foundation four hundred cubits, or seven hundred and twentynine feet seven inches from the bottom of the deep valley of Kidron, by means of large stones, twenty cubits, or thirty-six feet five inches long, as Josephus informs us, and six cubits, or ten feet ten inches high," so as to be

a Job xxxi. 26. 28. Ezek. viii, 16, 17. < Esther ix. 26.

f Antiq. xx. 9.

d 1 Chron. ix. 18.

b Esther i. 5. Antiq. xv. 11.

When Capt. Light visited Jerusalem, in 1814, some of these large stones seem to have been remaining: for when describing the Turkish Aga's house, which is built on the spot where the house of Pontius Pilate formerly stood, he says, p. 157,"what attracted my observation most, were three or four layers of immense stones, apparently of the ancient town, forming part of the walls of the palace."

on an equality with the rest of the surface, and thus give a considerable space to what was commonly called the outer court, or court of the Gentiles."

This east gate, like all the other gates in the outer wall, was twenty cubits, or thirty-six feet five inches high, and ten cubits, or eighteen feet two inches wide. Nor are those who have read Josephus's Account of the Jewish War, V. 5, to imagine that this is erroneous: for his thirty cubits high, and fifteen cubits wide, take in not only the gate itself, but also the tower on the top, and the ornamental work on either side: so that the gates in the outer wall were still of the same dimensions as we have given them, according to the Talmud; but there were also a tower of ten cubits high over each, and an ornamental work of two cubits and a-half on either side, which Josephus, in his Account, adds to the gate.-It may be remarked, that this was the only gate, of all those in the outer wall, which had a lower tower than the rest; for while the rest had a tower of ten cubits, it had only a tower of six and the reason was, that the priest who

:

It would appear that the ancients delighted in building with these large kinds of stones: for in the ruins which we have of ancient buildings, they are often to be found of great magnitude. To instance one only:—Mr. Wood, in his Ruins of Palmyra and Balbec, states particularly of the latter, that the stones which compose the sloping wall are enormous. To the west, the second layer is formed of stones which are from twenty-eight to thirty-five feet long, by nine feet in height. Over this layer, at the north-west angle, there are three stones which alone occupy a space of one hundred and seventy-five feet and a-half, viz.:-The first, fifty-eight feet seven inches; the second, fifty-eight feet eleven inches; and the third, exactly fifty-eight feet, and each of these is twelve feet thick. These stones are of a white granite, with large shining flakes like gyp sum, immense quantities of which lie under the whole city, and in the adjacent mountain; and quarries of which are open in several places, and among others on the right, as you approach the city. There is still lying, he tells us, in this last place, a stone hewn on the three sides, which is sixty-nine feet two inches long, twelve feet ten inches broad, and thirteen feet three inches thick. What an immense labour would the quarrying, cutting, and laying of these occasion!