In allusion to the image of the key as the ensign of power, the unlimited extent of that power is expressed with great clearness as well as force, by the sole and exclusive authority to open and shut. Our Saviour therefore has upon a similar occasion made use of a like manner of expression, Matt. xvi. 19. and in Rev. iii. 7. has applied to himself the very words of the prophet."

No. 249.-xxii. 23. Nail.] In ancient times, and in the eastern countries, as the way of life, so the houses were much more simple than ours at present. They had not that quantity and variety of furniture, nor those accommodations of all sorts with which we abound. It was convenient, and even necessary for them, and it made an essential part in the building of an house, to furnish the inside of the several apartments with sets of spikes, nails, or large pegs, on which to dispose of and hang up the several moveables and utensils in common use, and proper to the apartment. These spikes they worked into the walls at the first erection of them, the walls being of such materials, that they could not bear their being driven in afterwards; and they were contrived so as to strengthen the walls by binding the parts together, as well as to serve for convenience. Chardin's account of the matter is this: "They do not drive with a hammer the nails that are put into the eastern walls; the walls are too hard, being of brick; or if they are clay, too mouldering; but they fix them in the brick-work as they are building. They are large nails, with square heads, like dice, well made; the ends being bent so as to make them cramp-irons. They commonly place them at the windows and doors, in order to hang upon them, when they like, veils and curtains." (HARMER, vol. i. p. 191.) They were put in other places also, in order to hang up other things of various kinds. Ezek. xv. 3. Zech. x. 4. Ezra. ix. 8.

No. 250.-xxiv. 17. Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee.] These images are taken from the different methods of hunting and taking wild beasts, which were anciently in use. The terror (so Bishop LowTH translates, instead of fear) was a line strung with feathers of all colours, which fluttering in the air scared and frightened the beasts into the toils, or into the pit, which was prepared for them. This was digged deep in the ground, and covered over with green boughs, or turf, in order to deceive them, that they might fall into it unawares. The snare or toils were a series of nets, inclosing at first a great space of ground, in which the wild beasts were known to be; and drawn in by degrees into a narrower compass, till they were at last closely shut up, and entangled in them.

No. 251.-xxv. 6. Wine on the lees well-refined.] In the East they keep their wine in jugs, from which they have no method of drawing it off fine: it is therefore commonly somewhat thick and turbid, by the lees with which it is mixed: to remedy this inconvenience they filtrate or strain it through a cloth, and to this custom, as prevailing in his time, the prophet here plainly alludes.

No. 252.-xxvi. 19. Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise.] It was a practice of high antiquity to plant herbs and flowers about the graves of the dead. Might not this custom originate from the belief of the doctrine of the resurrection, or perhaps from this passage of Isaiah: Thy dead men shall live; together with my dead body shall they arise: awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead? If it were practised still earlier, might not this passage have some reference to that custom? The women in

Egypt, according to Maillet, (Lett. x. p. 91.) go, at least two days in the week, to pray and weep at the sepulchres of the dead; and the custom then is, to throw upon the tombs a sort of herb, which the Arabs call rihan, and which is our sweet basil. They cover them also with the leaves of the palm-tree. Myrtle is also made use of to adorn the tombs. Chandler found some graves in Lesser Asia, which had each a bough of myrtle stuck at the head and 'the feet, (p. 200.) Dallaway, on ancient and modern Constantinople, describing the tombs of the Turks, says, "as even the humblest graves are marked by cypresses planted at the head and feet, the groves of these trees are extensive, and in every state of vegetation. The tombs of men are known by turbans, which, like coronets among us, denote the rank of the deceased: those of women have a plain round top. The inscriptions are delicately wrought, in raised letters of gold, on a dark ground. Between some of these tombs is placed a chest of ornamented stone, filled with earth, in which are planted herbs and aromatic flowers. These are regularly cultivated by females of the family, who assemble in groupes for that duty."

No. 253.—xxxii. 20. Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters; that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.] Chardin says, "this exactly answers the manner of planting rice, for they sow it upon the water; and before sowing, while the earth is covered with water, they cause the ground to be trodden by oxen, horses, and asses, which go mid-leg deep; and this is the way of preparing the ground for sowing. As they sow the rice on the water, they transplant it in the water." HARMER, vol. i. p. 280.

No. 254.-xxxv. 7. And the parched ground shall become a pool.] Instead of the parched ground, Bp.

LowTH'translates it, the glowing sand shall become a pool, and says in a note, that the word is Arabic as well as Hebrew, expressing in both languages the same thing, the glowing sandy plain, which in the hot countries at a distance has the appearance of water. It occurs in the Koran (cap. xxiv.) "But as to the unbelievers, their works are like a vapour in a plain which the thirsty traveller thinketh to be water, until, when he cometh thereto he findeth it to be nothing." Mr. Sale's note on this place is, the Arabic word serab signifies that false appearance, which in the eastern countries is often seen in sandy plains about noon, resembling a large lake of water in motion, and is occasioned by the reverberation of the sun beams. [' By the quivering undulating motion of that quick succession of vapours and exhalations, which are extracted by the powerful influence of the sun. SHAW's Travels, p. 378.] It sometimes tempts thirsty travellers out of their way, but deceives them when they come near, either going forward, (for it always appears at the same distance) or quite vanishes.

No. 255. xxxvii. 29. I will put my hook in thy nose.] It is usual in the East to fasten an iron ring in the nose of their camels and buffaloes, to which they tie a rope, by means of which they manage these beasts. God is here speaking of Sennacherib, king of Assyria, under the image of a furious refractory beast, and accordingly, in allusion to this circumstance, says, I will put my hook in thy nose. (See SHAW's Travels, p. 167. 2d edit.)

No. 256. xxxviii. 12. Mine age is departed and removed from me as a shepherd's tent.] Besides those who live wholly in tents, numbers of the eastern people spend part of the year in them. Pococke tells us, he fell in with a summer village of country people, whose huts were

made of loose stones, covered with reeds and boughs, their winter village being on the side of an hill at some distance. (Travels, vol. ii. p. 158.) He also mentions another village, the inhabitants of which lived under tents. It was done in a great measure for the accommodation of their flocks. Probably in this passage Hezekiah alludes to these portable dwellings.

No. 257.-xl. 12. Measured the waters in the hollow of his hand.] Having pointed out the hieroglyphic meaning of the other signs of the zodiac, Mr. MAURICE adds, "The Libra of the zodiac is perpetually seen upon all the hieroglyphics of Egypt, which is at once an argument of the great antiquity of that asterism, and of the probability of its having been originally fabricated by the astronomical sons of Misraim. By the balance they are supposed by some to have denoted the equality of days and nights, at the period of the sun's arriving at this sign. And by others it is asserted, that this asterism, at first only the beam, was exalted to its station in the zodiac from its being the useful nilometer, by which they measured the height of the inundating waters, to which Egyptian custom there may possibly be some remote allusion in this passage, where the prophet describes the Almighty as measuring the waters in the hollow of his hand."

Indian Antiquities, vol. iii. p. 240.

No. 258. xli. 15. Threshing.] The manner of threshing corn in the East differs essentially from the method practised in western countries. It has been fully described by travellers, from whose writings such extracts are here made, and connected together, as will convey a tolerable idea of this subject. In Isaiah xxviii. 27, 28. four methods of threshing are mentioned, as effected by different instruments: the flail, the drag, the wain, and the treading of the cattle. The staff, or flail