16. And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver: behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes, unto all that are with thee, and with all other; thus she was reproved. "Charillus being asked why, at Sparta, virgins were suffered to appear in public unveiled, but wives only with veils, replied: That maidens may find husbands, and that wives may keep those they have found.”—PLUT. Apoth. Lacon. Charyl. GENESIS XXI. 20. Ishmael dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer. The Ituræans, who were descended from Jetur, a son of Ishmael, were famous for their use of the bow; as were, also, the men of Keder. Is. xxI. 17. "The Ituræan yew Receives the bending figure of a bow.."-VIRG. Georg. l. II. v. 488. Hence Ituræa's sons their arrows shot."-LUCAN. 1. VII. v. 230. 33. And Abraham planted a grove in Beer-sheba, and called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God. Groves and sacred trees are frequently mentioned by the early writers. See 2 Kings XXIII. 7. "The trees formed the first temples of the gods, and even at the present day the country people, preserving in all their simplicity their ancient rites, consecrate the finest among their trees to some divinity; indeed, we feel ourselves inspired to adoration, not less by the sacred groves and their very stillness, than by the statues of the gods, resplendent as they are with gold and ivory. Each kind of tree remains immutably consecrated to its own peculiar divinity-the beech to Jupiter, the laurel to Apollo, the olive to Minerva, the myrtle to Venus; besides which, it is our belief that the sylvans, the fauns, and various kinds of goddess nymphs have the tutelage of the woods, and we look upon those deities as especially appointed to preside over them by the will of heaven."-PLIN. Hist. Nat. 1. XII. c. 2. "Meantime the guardian of the Trojan state, "Where the great oak, sacred to Jove, stretches its vast branches, or where the dark grove of Ilex trees bestows its sacred shade."-VIRG. Georg. 1. III. v. 333. 7. GENESIS XXII. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? 8. And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering so they went both of them together. Although the story of the sacrifice of Iphigenia is founded most probably upon that of Jephtha's daughter (Judges XI. 39,) the following passages from EURIPIDES bear so strong a resemblance to some parts of the history of Abraham's offering upon Mount Moriah, as to demand insertion here. 9. "AGAMEMNON. It behoves me to offer a certain sacrifice here. "IPHIGENIA. But it is with the priests that thou shouldest consider sacred matters. "AGAMEMNON. I deem thee happier than myself, for that thou knowest nothing." And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. Isaac, like the divine Saviour whom he foreshadowed, was a willing victim; nevertheless, he was bound as was Jesus, this being the custom at sacrifices. "IPHIGENIA. Thou hast nurtured me for a glory to Greece, and I will not refuse." Sinon says IBID. V. 1502. my brow. I "The salted cakes were prepared and the sacred fillet was around broke my bonds, and saved myself from death."-VIRG. Æn. 1. II. v. 134. "Orestes and Pylades are led to the pitiless altar, their hands bound behind their backs."-Ov. de Pont. 1. III. Eleg. 2. 10. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. 11. And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham; and he said, Here am I. 12. 13. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. "MESSENGER. The priest, taking the knife, prayed, and viewed her neck, that he might find a place to strike: and no little pity entered my mind, and I stood with eyes cast down; but suddenly there was a marvel to behold. For every one could clearly perceive the sound of the blow; but beheld not the virgin, where on earth she had vanished. But a stag lay panting on the ground, of mighty size and beautiful in appearance, with whose blood the altar of the goddess was abundantly wetted; and upon this Calchas thus spake :-O leaders of this common host of the Greeks, behold this victim which the goddess hath brought to her altar, a mountain-roaming stag. This she prefers greatly to the virgin, lest her altars should be defiled with generous blood." EURIP. Iph. in Aul. v. 1578. "On the occasion of a plague at Falerii an oracle required that a virgin should be sacrificed to Juno. When Valeria Luperca had been chosen by lot for the sacrifice, and the sword was already drawn to slay her, an eagle came down from heaven and carried it away and laid it upon the head of a young heifer which was feeding near the temple, and which was then sacrificed in her stead."-PLUT. Parall. c. 35. 17. That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the the sea shore. "If thou would'st all his generous deeds explore, As soon the sandy grains thy tongue shall number o'er." PIND. Olymp. II. v. 179. From prescient Ammon's sultry dome Many as stars that silent ken At night, the stolen loves of men," &c.-CATUL. Carm. 7. "I have suffered woes countless as the stars in heaven, or as the dry grains of dust."-Ov. Trist. 1. 1. Eleg. 4. GENESIS XXIII. 3. And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth saying, 4. I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. 5. And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him, 6. Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead. The ancients attached great importance to the burial of their dead.-See Notes on Jer. vIII, 2., and xxII. 18. Cheops intended the Pyramids as a place of burial for himself. They were in an island which he formed by introducing the waters of the Nile.”—HDT. 1. II. c. 124. "In this reign, when commerce was checked and injured from the extreme want of money, an ordinance passed that any one might borrow money, giving the body of his father as a pledge. By this law the sepulchre of the debtor became in the power of the creditor, for if the debt was not discharged, he could neither be buried with his family nor in any other vault; nor was he suffered to enter into one belonging to his descendants." IBID. C. 136. "An Egyptian, when he lacks money to supply his wants, not unfrequently relieves his necessity by pawning the dead body of his brother or his father."-LUCIAN. de luctu, c. 21. 16. Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver. "The Lydians are the first people on record who coined gold and silver into money, and traded in retail."-HDT. 1. I. c. 94. See Gen. XLVII. 17. GENESIS XXIV. 8. And if the woman will not be willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be clear from this my oath: only bring not my son thither again. Pylades, being bound by oath to deliver a certain letter, stipulates for a similar exemption : "Grant me this one exception; if the vessel suffer any harm, and the letter be lost in a storm, together with the goods, and I can save my person only, that this mine oath be no longer valid."-EURIP. Iph. in Taur. v. 755. 15. And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder. "When near the fam'd Phæacian walls he (Ulysses) drew, The beauteous city opening to his view, His step a virgin met and stood before; A polish'd urn the seeming virgin bore."-Hoм. Odyss, 1. vII. v. 18. "Before the town a virgin, bearing forth Descending from the gate she sought the fount From that pure fountain for the city's use."-IBID. 1. x. v. 105. "Pygres and Mantyes, natives of Pæonia, the government of which had become the object of their ambition, adopted the following artifice :-They decorated their sister, a person of great elegance and beauty, in the best manner they were able, and sent her to draw water. She had a vessel on her head, she led a horse by a bridle, fastened round her arm, and she was moreover spinning some thread. When she came to the river she gave her horse some water, and then filled her pitcher. Having done this, she returned by the way she came, with the pitcher of water on her head, the horse fastened by a bridle to her arm, and, as before, employed in spinning."-HDT. 1. v. c. 12. This was done with a view to persuade Darius that all the women of the Pæonians were accustomed to labour. Cheirisophus came to a village just as it was dark, and at a fountain without the walls, he found some women and girls who belonged to it carrying water." XEN. Anab. 1. iv. c. 5. "The vestal approached the waterside, bearing upon her head an earthen pitcher." Ov. Fast. 1. III. v. 13. GENESIS XXVII. 12. My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver; and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing. 13. "Their father's curse, Fatally cruel, sweeps them both away."-ESCH. Sept. c. Theb. v. 819. And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son: only obey my voice, and go fetch me them. ""Tis ever found that mothers Plead for their sons, and in the father's wrath Defend them." TER. Heaut. Act v. sc. 4. 27. And he came near and kissed him: and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed : "When after long continued drought the rain has soaked the ground, then it is that the earth exhales a divine odour that is so peculiarly its own, and to which, imparted to it by the sun, there is no perfume, however sweet, that can possibly be compared." PLIN. Hist. nat. 1. XVII. c. 3. 46. And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth: if Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me? Thou, my child, I hear, art both joined in marriage, and hast the joys of love in a foreign family, and cherishest a foreign alliance: intolerable to this thy mother and to the aged Laius, the woe of a foreign marriage brought upon us."-EURIP. Phæniss. v. 337. GENESIS XXVIII. 12. And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. The Greeks and Romans believed in the existence of a superior order of beings whom they called Dæmons; very different in their nature from those whom the Scriptures call angels. Hierocles says-" They have a superior and inferior part in them, and their superior part is an incorporeal substance, their inferior corporeal." They were supposed to be the guardians of mortal men, and especially of those who were distinguished for piety or virtue. "The whole dæmon kind is partly divine and partly mortal. It interprets for and transmits to the gods what is sent from men, and for and to men what is sent from the gods; from men their petitions and sacrifices; from the gods their commands and returns for sacrifices; and being in the middle space between gods and men, it fills up the whole, so that by it all have been bound together into one."-PLAT. Sympos. c. 23. "A good angel attends every man, who may be unceasingly the director of his life; but it is not to be believed that an evil genius also follows him to do him injury, for God desires that every one should be good."-MENAND. ap. Clement. Strom. 1. v. Cassius, arguing with Brutus after he had seen the vision of his evil genius a short time before the battle of Philippi, says: "It is improbable that there should be any such beings as dæmons or spirits, or that if there were such they should assume a human shape or voice, or have any power to affect us. At the same time I own I could wish there were such beings, that we might not rely on fleets or armies, but find the concurrence of the gods in this our sacred and glorious enterprise."-PLUT. Brutus, c. 37. "No sooner are we come into the world than each of us hath two angels called dæmons, appointed to us to take the charge and oversight of our life.” IBID. de tranq. an. c. 15. 16. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. 17. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. "Who is there who when he thinks that he is an object of divine care, does not feel an awe of the divine presence day and night ?"-Cic. Quæst. Academ. c. 38. 18. And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. 19. And he called the name of that place Beth-el: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first. The word Beth-el signifies "the house of God," and was the usual patriarchal name for altars and other sacred structures. Sanconiatho speaks of stones called Baitulia, which were contrived by Uranus, and which possessed the power of motion, as if they were instinct with life. They were in all probability sacred rocking stones similar to those erected by the Druids in this country. The worship of these stones consisted in anointing them with oil. The title bestowed by Jacob upon the place of his vision has been adopted into all languages, in spite of the utmost diversities of belief. The very syllables of Jacob's exclamation form the title of the chief sanctuary of the Mahommedan world-the BeitAllah of Mecca. "The superstitious man, when he passes the consecrated stones, placed where three ways meet, is careful to pour oil from his cruet upon them; then, falling on his knees, he worships and retires."-THEOPHRAST. Charact. XXxx. E |