more fixed inhabitants of those countries, and think themselves unable to stand against them, they withdraw into the depths of the great wilderness, where none can follow them. (Diodorus Siculus, lib. xix. p. 722. Niebuhr, vol. ii. p. 199.) Thus also very expressly M. Savary; (tom. ii. p. 8.)" always on their guard against tyranny, on the least discontent that is given them, they pack up their tents, load their camels with them, ravage the flat country, and, loaded with plunder, plunge into the burning sands, whither none can pursue them, and where they alone can dwell." Is it not then most probable that the dwelling deep, mentioned in these words, means their plunging far into the deserts, rather than going into deep caves and dens, as has been most commonly supposed? This explanation is also strongly confirmed by verse 30. Flee, get you far off, dwell deep. HARMER, vol. i. p. 101.

No. 301.-li. 44. The wall of Babylon shall fall.] "We are astonished at the accounts which ancient historians of the best credit give, of the immense extent, height, and thickness of the walls of Nineveh and Babylon; nor are we less astonished when we are assured, by the concurrent testimony of modern travellers, that no remains, not the least traces, of these prodigious works are now to be found. Our wonder will, I think, be moderated in both respects, if we consider the fabrick of these celebrated walls, and the nature of the materials of which they consisted. Buildings in the East have always been, and are to this day, made of earth or clay mixed or beat up with straw, to make the parts cohere, and dried only in the sun. This is their method of making bricks. The walls of the city were built of the earth dug out on the spot, and dried upon the place; by which means both the ditch and the wall were at once formed, the former furnishing materials

for the latter. That the walls of Babylon were of this kind is well known, and Berosus expressly says, (apud Joseph. Antiq. 11.) that Nebuchadnezzar added three new walls both to the old and new city, partly of brick and bitumen and partly of brick alone. A wall of this sort must have a great thickness in proportion to its height, otherwise it cannot stand. The thickness of the walls of Babylon is said to have been one fourth of their height, which seems to have been no more than was absolutely necessary. Maundrell, speaking of the garden walls of Damascus, says, "they are of a very singular structure. They are built of great pieces of earth, made in the fashion of brick, and hardened in the sun. In their dimensions they are two yards long each, and somewhat more than one broad, and half a yard thick;" and afterward speaking of the walls of the houses, says, "from this dirty way of building they have this amongst other inconveniences, that upon any violent rain the whole city becomes, by the washing of the houses, as it were a quagmire," (p. 124.) When a wall of this sort comes to be out of repair, and is lected, it is easy to conceive the necessary consequences,' namely, that in no long course of ages it must be totally destroyed by the heavy rains, and at length washed away, and reduced to its original earth." Bp. LowTH'S note on Isaiah xiii. 19.

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No. 302.-LAMENTATIONS i. 3.

All her persecutors overtook her between the straits.

It was the practice with those who hunted wild beasts to drive them, if possible, into some strait and narrow passage, that they might more effectually take them, as in such a situation an escape could hardly be effected. It is to this circumstance that the prophet alludes in these words. The same metaphor is supposed also to occur in Psalm cxvi. 3. The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.

No. 303.—iv. 5. They that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.] On account of the scarcity of fuel, ovens are commonly heated with horse or cow-dung. D'Arvieux (Voy. dans la Pal. p. 193.) says, that the people are very careful to lay up a stock of it for consump. tion, and that he saw the children gather, and clap it against a wall to dry. As it could not remain so during the rainy season, Mr. Harmer, (vol. i. p. 256.) conceives that it might usually be collected together in some outhouse when properly prepared, where the wretched wanderer, spoken of by the prophet in these words, might take refuge, and thus be said to embrace dunghills. (1 Sam. ii. 8.)

No. 204.-v. 4. Our wood is sold unto us.] The woods of the land of Israel being from very ancient times common, the people of the villages, which had no trees growing in them, supplied themselves with fuel out of those wooded places, of which there were many anciently, and several that still remain. This liberty

of taking wood in common, the Jews suppose to have been a constitution of Joshua, of which they give us ten. The first, giving liberty to an Israelite to feed his flock in the woods of any tribe. The second, that it should be free to take wood in the fields any where. (Vide Reland Pal. p. 261.) But though this was the ancient custom in Judea, it was not so in the country into which they were carried captives; or if this text of Jeremiah respects those that continued in their own country for a while under Gedaliah, as the 9th verse insinuates, it signifies that their conquerors possessed themselves of these woods, and would allow no fuel to be cut down without leave, and that leave was not to be obtained without money. It is certain that, presently after the return from the captivity, timber was not to be cut without leave. (Neh. ii. 8.) HARMER, vol. i. p. 460.

No. 305.-EZEKIEL iv. 7.

Thine arm shall be uncovered.

AMONG other rites of mourning made use of by the oriental Jews in the time of St. Jerome, was the beating of their arms with such vehemence as to render them black and blue. It will not then be an unnatural supposition to consider Ezekiel's uncovering of his arm, when he was personating the Jewish people at the time Jerusalem was besieged, as the exposing the bruises of lamentation he had inflicted on that part. Jerome tells us, that on the return of the day on which Jerusalem was taken by the Romans and demolished, the Jews annually assembled in great numbers, many of them decrepit old women and aged men in rags, bearing the marks of God's displeasure both in their persons and dress, and while the memorial of the death and resurrection of the Lord appeared with great splendour, and the figure of the cross shone on the top of Mount Olivet, these miserable people mourned over the ruins of their temple; and though their cheeks were covered with tears, their arms black and blue, and their hair all in disorder, the soldiers demanded money of them for the liberty of protracting their lamentations a little longer. HARMER, vol. iii. p. 413.

No. 306. iv. 9. Millet.] This is a kind of plant, which perhaps derives its name from its thrusting forth such a quantity of grains. Thus in Latin it is called milium, as if one stalk bore a thousand grains. (Martinii Lex.) it is doubtless the same kind of grain as that which is called in the East durra, which now according to Niebuhr, is a kind of millet, and when made into bad