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No. 152. xiv. 17. Sealed up in a bag.] The money that is collected together in the treasuries of eastern princes is told up in certain equal sums, put into bags, and sealed. (Chardin.) These are what in some parts of the Levant are called purses, where they reckon great expences by so many purses. The money collected in the temple in the time of Joash, for its reparation, seems in like manner to have been told up in bags of equal value to each other, and probably delivered sealed to those who paid the workmen. (2 Kings xii. 10.) If Job alludes to this custom, it should seem that he considered his offences as reckoned by God to be very numerous, as well as not suffered to be lost in inattention, since they are only considerable sums which are thus kept.

HARMER, vol. ii. p. 285.

No. 153. xix. 23. Othat my words were now written.] "The most ancient way of writing was upon the leaves of the palm-tree. (Pliny, lib. xiii. cap. 11.) Afterwards they made use of the inner bark of a tree for this purpose; which inner bark being in Latin called liber, and in Greek ßßhos, from hence a book hath ever since in the Latin language been called liber, and in the Greek Bißλos, because their books anciently consisted of leaves made of such inner barks. The Chinese still make use of such inner barks or rinds of trees to write upon, as some of their books brought into Europe plainly shew. Another way made use of among the Greeks and Romans, and which was as ancient as Homer, (for he makes mention of it in his poems) was, to write on tables of wood covered over with wax. On these they wrote with a bodkin or style of iron, with which they engraved their letters on the wax; and hence it is that the different ways of men's writings or compositions are called different styles. This way was mostly made use of in the writing of letters or epistles; hence such epistles are in

Latin called tabellæ, and the carriers of them tabellarii. When their epistles were thus written, they tied the tables together with a thread or string, setting their seal upon the knot, and so sent them to the party to whom they were directed, who cutting the string opened and read them. But on the invention of the Egyptian papyrus for this use, all the other ways of writing were soon superseded, no material till then invented being more convenient to write upon than this. And therefore when Ptolemy Philadelphus king of Egypt set up to make a great library, and to gather all sorts of books into it, he caused them to be all copied out on this sort of paper; and it was exported also for the use of other countries, till Eumenes king of Pergamus, endeavouring to erect a library at Pergamus, which should outdo that at Alexandria, occasioned a prohibition to be put upon the exportation of that commodity. This put Eumenes upon the invention of making books of parchment, and on them he thenceforth copied out such of the works of learned men as he afterwards put into his library, and hence it is that parchment is called in Latin pergamena, that is, from the city Pergamus in Lesser Asia, where it was first used for this purpose among the Greeks. For that Eumenes on this occasion first invented the making of parchment cannot be true; for in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and other parts of the holy scriptures, many ages before the time of Eumenes, we find mention made of rolls of writing; and who can doubt but that these rolls were of parchment? From the time that the noble art of printing hath been invented, the paper which is made of the paste of linen rags is that which hath been generally made use of both in writing and in printing, as being the most convenient for both, and the use of parchment hath been mostly appropriated to records, registers, and instruments of law, for which, by reason of its durableness, it is most fit." (PRIDEAUX's Connection, vol. ii

p. 707. 9th edit.) It is observable also, that anciently they wrote their public records on volumes or rolls of lead, and their private matters on fine linen and wax. The former of these customs we trace in Job's wish, 0 that my words were now written! O that they were printed in a book! that they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! There is a way of writing in the East, which is designed to fix words on the memory, but the writing is not designed to continue. The children in Barbary that are sent to school make no use of paper, Dr. Shaw tells us, (Trav. p. 194.) but each boy writes on a smooth thin board, slightly daubed over with whiting, which may be wiped off or renewed at pleasure. There are few that retain what they have learned in their youth; doubtless things were often wiped out of the memory of the Arabs in the days of Job, as well as out of their writing-tables. Job therefore says, O that they were written in a book, from whence they should not be blotted out! But books were liable to injuries, and for this reason he wishes his words might be even graven in a rock, the most lasting way of all. Thus the distinction between writing and writing in a book becomes perfectly sensible, and the gradation appears in its beauty, which is lost in our translation, where the word printed is introduced, which, besides its impropriety, conveys no idea of the meaning of Job, records that are designed to last long not being distinguished from less durable papers by being printed. (HARMER, vol. ii. p. 168. vide also JONES's Vindication of the former part of St. Matthew's Gospel, chap. 14 and 15.

No. 154.-xx. 17. The brooks of honey and butter.] In these cool countries we have no idea of butter so liquid as described in these words; it appears among us in a more solid form. But as the plentiful flowing of honey, when pressed from the comb, may be compared to a little

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river, as it runs into the vessels in which it is to be kept; so, as they manage matters, butter is equally fluid, and may be described in the same way: "A great quantity of butter is made in Barbary, which, after it is boiled with salt, they put into jars, and preserve for use." (Shaw, p. 169.) Streams of butter then, poured, when clarified, into jars to be preserved, might as naturally be compared to rivers, as streams of honey flowing upon pressure into other jars in which it was kept.

HARMER, vol. iii. p. 176.

No. 155.-xxiv. 8. They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter.] This exactly agrees with what Niebuhr says of the modern wandering Arabs near mount Sinai. (Voyage en Arabie, tom. i. p. 187.) "Those who cannot afford a tent, spread out a cloth upon four or six stakes; and others spread their cloth near a tree, or endeavour to shelter themselves from the heat and the rain in the cavities of the rocks."

The

No. 156. xxiv. 16. Dig through houses.] houses were built of mud, or at best with bricks formed from it, of a very soft texture, which rendered them liable to such an assault; the thickness of the walls, however, would require considerable labour to penetrate, and consequently digging would be requisite to effect a breach.

No. 157.-xxvii. 16. Prepare raiment as the clay.] D'Herbelot tells us (p. 208.) that Bokhteri, an illustrious poet of Cufah in the ninth century, had so many presents made him in the course of his life, that at his death he was found possessed of an hundred complete suits of clothes, two hundred shirts, and five hundred turbans; an indisputable proof of the frequency with which pre

sents of this kind are made in the Levant to men of study; and at the same time a fine illustration of Job's description of the treasures of the East in his days, consisting of raiment as well as silver.

HARMER, vol. ii. p. 11.

No. 158.-xxvii. 19. He shall not be gathered.] "The heathens had a conceit that the souls of such persons as had not had the due rites of burial paid them, were not admitted into Hades, but were forced to wander a hundred years, a parcel of vagabond ghosts, about the banks of the Styx. Hence we find the ghost of Patroclus supplicating Achilles to give him his funereal rites. Bury me,' says he, 'that I may pass as soon as possible through the gates of Hades.' So speaks Palinurus in Virgil; Throw upon me some earth, that at last I may obtain rest in death, in quiet habitations.' Here the self-conceited philosopher smiles at the rite of sprinkling the body three times with dust; but this, although misunderstood, and tinged with the fabulous, was borrowed from the Hebrew nation.

"To gather denotes, as to the dead, the bringing of their souls to Paradise. Although this cannot be effected by mortals, yet they expressed the benevolent wish that the thing might be. On the other hand, Job says of the rich man, he shall lie down, but he shall not be gathered. In the ages which followed, the performance of this rite was termed sealing. Of this we have a bright instance in the second book of Esdras: "Wheresoever thou findest the dead, seal them, and bury them;" that is, express the benevolent prayer which is in use amongst the Jews to this day: May he be in the bundle of life, may his portion be in Paradise, and also in that future world which is reserved for the righteous.' It would also appear that, in this act of sealing a corpse, they either wrote upon the head with ink, or simply made the form with

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