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was made use of at Jerufalem, when they mourned the flaughter at Jotapata, as thefe Ægyptian Arabs did that of Mahomet of Ghinnah; fo I think it most natural to fuppose, they lamented them in public proceffions,

to you fuch airs as were played to thofe that dance, but ye would not dance: we have then tried you with those tunes that are used in times of lamentation, but you would not then act the part of mourners. The words of St. Paul, in 1 Cor. 14. 7, will appear with the greatest energy, if we confider them as fignifying, that for want of a due diftinction of founds, thofe by whom a proceffion according to the ufages of the East should pafs, might be at a lofs to know whether they fhould join them with expreffions of gratulation, or in words of lamentation. Irwin has given an inftance of fuch a joining in the latter case, p. 245, where speaking of the finging in a funeral procesfion, that went by their house, he fays, "There was an "Arabian merchant on a vifit to us, when the funeral "went by; and though in company with ftrangers, he

was not ashamed to run to the window, and to join au"dibly in the devotions of the train." If a pipe was defigned to regulate the expreffions that were to be made ufe of, if it gave an uncertain found, and fometimes feemed to announce a triumph or a wedding, and fometimes a proceffion on account of the dead, how fhould a by-ftander know how to behave himfelf? "Even things without life giving "found, whether pipe or harp, except they give a diftinc"tion in the founds, how fhall it be known what is piped "or harped?" how shall a man know what the mufic is defigned to produce: congratulation, or condolence? This is a much stronger fenfe, than the fuppofing, if the founds were irregular, the Apoftle meant, it was impoffible to tell what dance was intended. In truth, fuch an explanation would not well agree with the extemporaneoufnefs of Eaftern dances, for the hearer of the mufic might in that cafe know what was to be done, and all that would follow from it would be, that if the mufic was irregular, fo would the dance be.

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as thefe Arabs did: for how elfe could it have been known, if it had been only a general noise of weeping and groaning that had been heard in Jerufalem, on this occafion, who they were that they mourned for-that fome mourned relations, others friends, but all Jofephus? It is furely moft likely, that the mourners went about the streets, Eccl. xii. 5, declaring by their vehement exclamations whom they lamented. Sometimes only the females of one houfe forming a mournful proceffion; fometimes a combination of those of feveral, united together by relationship; and fometimes a troop of the principal ladies of Jerufalem, from all quarters, and unconnected by blood, or alliance, went about the city, lamenting with bitterness the death of Jofephus, the Jotapatene leader. Of which-various proceffions many, it fhould feem, were ennobled, or rendered more folemn, by melancholy music.

If we are difpofed to quit Jofephus, and turn to the facred writings, I would ask, whether it is not natural to fuppofe, that it was after this manner that the Ifraelites lamented the death of Mofes ? He was abfent from them, when he died; neither did they carry him to the grave, Deut. xxxiv. 1, 5, 6. But they wept for him in the plains of Moab, with fome expreflions of forrow, which after thirty days ceafed, ver. 8. These were neither the lamentations wont to be made' immediately upon the departure of the dead,

in the house in which the corpfe laid; nor the mourning of a funeral convoy carrying the body to the grave; nor the after-bemoanings over the fepulchre of the dead: but it fhould feem to mean proceffional folemnities of mourning through the camp of Ifrael, if we are to explain matters by the Arab ufages of modern Ægypt, or the customs of the Jews in the time of Jofephus.

It is however to be remarked, that the customs of these Ægyptian Arabs and of the Jews differed in one point, that is, the time of mourning the firft, according to Irwin, mourning only feven days, but the Jews of the time of Jofephus thirty, which also obtained in the days of Moses.

The mourning for Aaron, who died not in the camp of Ifrael, but in mount Hor, Numb. xx. 25-29, might be of the fame

nature.

It is to be remembered, that both Mofes and Aaron were Ægyptians by birth, and Ifrael were just come out of Egypt; it is not at all unnatural then to find a refemblance in their forms of mourning.

This paffage too of Jofephus may, probably, illuftrate the clofe of the 12th of Zechariah: "In that day there fhall be a great "mourning in Jerufalem, as the mourning of "Hadad-Rimmon in the valley of Megid"don. And the land fhall mourn, every family apart: the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the

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family of the houfe of Nathan apart, and "their wives apart; &c. All the families "that remain, every family apart, and their "wives apart."

Without attending to feveral questions that might be propofed here, it may be remarked, that it fhould feem from Jofephus, that in very fevere and bitter public mourning, there were not only general proceffions of lamentation, but families apart by themfelves mourned; not only their private loffes, but bewailed what was of a public nature too, and by these more unusual particular lamentations, when the fubject was of a public nature, testified the vehemence of their forrow.

In general proceffions of mourning decency might engage people very univerfally to attend; but when particular families formed extraordinary proceffions by themselves, fuch proceffions expreffed vehement emotions of grief, which could not be relieved by general mournings, without fpecial, feparate, and diftinct teftimonies of grief.

This obfervation accounts for families mourning apart: whether the men's mourning diftinct from the women's is defigned to be marked out by the prophet here; and if it be, whether it is intended to exprefs, with augmentation, the bitterness of the mourning, muft depend on the conftruction of the particle and :" Every family apart, and their wives apart." That particle is hardly to be understood, one would think, to be fimply VOL. III. Dd copulative,

copulative, if we confider, that the women alone, of the family of that Ægyptian Arab that Irwin speaks of, went about Ghinnah, in mournful proceffions, the men not appearing in those feveral modern folemn lamentations; and that the Old Teftament itself fpeaks of women, as more frequently appearing in the character of mourners in public, than the men. It's meaning then is, I fhould apprehend, either explanatory, and equivalent to namely, or fome fuch word, and fo the paffage would fignify each family, that is, the women of it shall mourn apart; or, as I much rather am inclined to believe, the particle is to be understood as fignifying as well as': the family of the house of David apart, as well as their wives apart, &c.

So it expreffes the unusualness of public mourning by the men, compared with the appearing of the women in that character; as the mourning apart also expreffes bitterness of grief. And thus an apocryphal writer understood the mourning for Jofiah to be by the men, as well as the women, 1 Efdras i. 32: "In all Jewry they mourned for Jofias, "and the chief men with the women made "lamentation for him unto this day and "this was given out for an ordinance to be "done continually in all the nation of Is

So Noldius obferves it is fometimes equivalent to nempe, nimirum, (Sig. 38;) but he remarks it fometimes fignifies ficut, quemadmodum, (Sig. 62.)

"rael."

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