to bake it. Moreover, if it was a natural or common product, how is it that the Israelites did not know what it was? (v. 15, and Deut. viii. 16); and how, in that case, could it have been worth while, after the supply had ceased, to preserve a quantity of the manna in the tabernacle and temple as an evidence of the miracle to future generations? See further on this subject in the author's Physical History of Palestine, i. 275-278.

Since this note was first written in 1835, much attention has been given to the subject by traveliers and others; but we have nothing to add, as no new fact has been produced or fresh conclusion exhibited.

31. Coriander.'-It is generally agreed that the Hebrew word gad, does really represent the coriander. This, the Coriandrum sativum of botanists, is an umbelliferous plant akin to the parsley in family characteristics. The flowers grow in an umbel, and are individually small and white. The leaves are much divided, and smooth. The seeds are employed, from their aromatic nature, in culinary purposes, and hence their round and finished shape is well known. In the umbelliferous plants the fruit uniformly separates into two similar halves, which are the seeds; but in the coriander they continue united after they are ripe. If we examine the seed we shall perceive very readily that it is compounded of two, while a reference to the parsley, or any other example of the umbelliferous family, will illustrate the peculiarity of the coriandrum in this respect. The word kópiov, employed by the Septuagint, is evidently

the parent of kopíavvov of Theophrastus, whence the Latin coriandrum. It is diffused over all the regions of the old world, hence the simile is intelligible to the inhabitants of the greater portion of the globe.

33. Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein. -There have been very different opinions as to the material and form of this vessel. The Rabbins disagree among themselves on the subject, some describing it as of earthenware; while others think it was glass, and others still contend for brass or copper. But the Septuagint says it was of gold; and St. Paul, whose authority is fiual, states the same (Heb. ix. 4). As to its form, it is generally understood as of an urn-like figure. Reland thinks that it had a lid or cover like the pots in which wine was kept, and corroborates his conclusions on the subject generally by giving figures of the manna-pot, as represented on some Samaritan medals, which must be allowed to furnish the best authority on the subject that we are now able to obtain. These medals represent it as having two long handles or ears; and Reland shows that vessels of this form were called asses,' both by the Greeks and Romans; perhaps on account of the ears; and he very ingeniously traces to this circumstance the origin of a calumny, which Josephus confutes without explaining how it arose :-this was, that when Antiochus plundered the Temple, he found there the figure of an ass's head, all of gold, which was worshipped by the Jews. Others, however, account for this scandalous charge in a different way.

CHAPTER XVII.

1 The people murmur for water at Rephidim. 5 God sendeth them for water to the rock in Horeb. 8 Amalek is overcome by the holding up of Moses' hands. 15 Moses buildeth the altar JEHOVAH-nissi. AND all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and pitched in Rephidim and there was no water for the people to drink.

2 'Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may

drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the LORD?

3 And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?

4 And Moses cried unto the LORD, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.

5 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the

elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

7 And he called the name of the place 'Massah, and 'Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the LORD, saying, Is the LORD among us, or not?

8

"Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim.

9 And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.

10 So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the

hill.

2 Chap. 7. 20.

11 And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.

12 But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.

13 And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

14 ¶ And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for "I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.

15 And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it 'JEHOVAH-nissi :

16 For he said, "Because "the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

Verse 1. Rephidim.'-In the note on xvi. 1, we have brought the Israelites into Wady Feiran; and we have now to state that this valley appears to us to be the Rephidim of the text. The words 'in Rephidim,' which occur again in v. 8, indicate rather a valley or district than a particular spot; though we may admit that the name may have described rather a part than the whole of the valley. If we regarded Mount Serbal as Sinai, we should be inclined to place the camp of Israel towards the nearer or western extremity of the valley, but if Sinai be the mount indicated by tradition (Jebel Musa), then at the further or eastern end-for it is clear that, after leaving Rephidim, the host had one day's journey before arriving at the mount before which they so long remained encamped. The difference is of little consequence: but it is of much consequence that Rephidim should be sought in or near this valley; and all the reconsideration we have been able to bestow on the subject confirms rather than weakens the conclusion we ventured to advance when the materials for a correct judgment were much less copious than they have since become. Till we expressed this conviction, it had been the custom of travellers to accept without examination the tradition of the monks, and from them of the Arabs, who indicate the Rephidim of the text in the upper and central region of the mountains. In rejecting this position, we feel we are not only illustrating the consistency and truth of the narrative, but are also assisting to obviate a doubt which has been cast upon the miracle performed at Rephidim. If we take the place commonly indicated, at the very foot of Mount St. Catherine, as the true scene of the miracle, how happens it that, after leaving Rephidim, the Israelites made a further stage to Sinai, when the place locally indicated is at Sinai? and besides, here, in the higher regions of the mountains, water naturally abounds in every direction, and the miracle would not have been necessary; whereas, near the spot we indicate, no water is to be found; and the Hebrew host must have suffered so much in crossing the desert of Sin, as to account for their urgent need

of water and their clamour for it. Where we fix Rephidim, they must have wanted water; but where it is commonly fixed, they would have had ample opportunity to quench their thirst, not only on their arrival, but before coming thither. It is indeed certain that water was at no great distance before them, even at the Rephidim we have chosen; and it may be asked why they were not directed to advance, instead of being supplied by miracle. This question certainly conveys a less forcible objection, than to ask why they were supplied by miracle in a place where water was naturally abundant. The answer to the former question, however, might be that the Hebrews were at the last extremity of thirst, and too much exhausted by their journey through the desert to proceed further. But we have a still stronger answer, which to our minds is conclusive in favour of the position we have assigned, and which is also of importance for the incidental elucidation it affords of the attack of the Amalekites, which has hitherto only formed the foundation for random conjectures. The fact is, that their progress from the region of drought to that of water was cut off by the Amalekites, who occupied the outskirts of the watered region at Wady Feiran. We gather this fact from a passage, quoted for another purpose, from the Arabian geographer Makrizi, by Burckhardt, who does not himself seem to have perceived its important bearing on the present subject. Makrizi, in speaking of the town of Feiran here, in the valley of the same name, says it was one of the towns of the Amalekites. The ruins of this and other towns, with towers, aqueducts, and sepulchral excavations, still appear in the valley and the mountains on each side. The valley was evidently' then' once occupied by a settled people; and, as the sacred text mentions an attack from the Amalekites at Rephidim, it is satisfactory and reasonable to conclude that Makrizi is right in saying that the valley was occupied by this people; and it is safe to infer that they did not care to admit the further progress of the Hebrews, and perhaps, having also their cupidity excited by the rich spoils which the Israelites had gathered from the Egyp

tians, ventured to attack them, probably promising themselves an easy victory over such an undisciplined and mixed multitude.

The valley now called el Leja, which is usually indicated as the Rephidim of the text, occurs in the very highest region of the Sinai group, between the two peaks which respectively bear the name of Mount Musa, regarded as the Sinai of Scripture, and Mount St. Catherine, which is identified with Horeb. It is therefore so elevated a valley that it would be indeed miraculous were there no water in or near it. This valley is very narrow, and exceedingly stony, many large blocks having rolled down

from the mountains which overhang it. Upon the whole, there is not in the entire neighbourhood of the mountains a spot more unlikely to have been the scene of the miracle. However, in a place where the valley is about two hundred yards broad, there is an insulated block of red granite, about twelve feet high, and of an irregular shape, approaching to a cube, which the monks in the neighbouring convent concur with the Arabs in pointing out as the rock which Moses struck with his rod, and from which the water gushed forth. Down its front in an oblique line from top to bottom runs a seam of a finer texture, having in it several irregular horizontal crevices, some

what resembling the human mouth, one above another. These are said to be twelve in number, but Dr. Robinson could only make out ten. The holes did not appear to him to be artificial, as Burckhardt and others allege: they belong rather to the nature of the seam in which they are found; but it is possible that some of them have been enlarged by artificial means. The seam extends quite through the block, and is seen at the back, where also there are similar crevices, although not quite so large. The

rock is a singular one, and doubtless was selected on account of that singularity, as the scene of the miracle, without regard to the historical probabilities of the case. There are some apertures upon its surface from which the water is said to have issued; they are about ten in number, and lie nearly in a straight line around the three sides of the stone, and are for the most part ten or twelve inches long, two or three inches broad, and from one to two inches deep; but a few are as deep as four inches.

CHAPTER XVIII.

1 Jethro bringeth to Moses his wife and two sons. 7 Moses entertaineth him. 13 Jethro's counsel is accepted. 27 Jethro departeth.

WHEN 'Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father in law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, and that the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt; 2 Then Jethro, Moses' father in law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her back,

3 And her two sons; of which the 'name of the one was 'Gershom; for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land:

4 And the name of the other was 'Eliezer; for the God of my father, said he, was mine help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh :

5 And Jethro, Moses' father in law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped at the mount of God:

6 And he said unto Moses, I thy father in law Jethro am come unto thee, and thy wife, and her two sons with her.

7 ¶ And Moses went out to meet his father in law, and did obeisance, and kissed him; and they asked each other of their 'welfare; and they came into the tent.

8 And Moses told his father in law all that the LORD had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, and all the travail that had come upon them by the way, and how the LORD delivered them.

9 ¶ And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the LORD had done to Israel, whom he had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians.

10 And Jethro said, Blessed be the LORD, who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who hath delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.

11 Now I know that the LORD is greater

than all gods: 'for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them.

12 And Jethro, Moses' father in law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God: and Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses' father in law before God.

13 ¶ And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to judge the people: and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening.

14 And when Moses' father in law saw all that he did to the people, he said, What is this thing that thou doest to the people? why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning unto even?

15 And Moses said unto his father in law, Because the people come unto me to enquire of God:

16 When they have a matter, they come unto me; and I judge between one and another, and I do make them know the statutes of God, and his laws.

17 And Moses' father in law said unto him, The thing that thou doest is not good.

18 "Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou, and this people that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; thou art not able to perform it thyself alone.

10.

19 Hearken now unto my voice, I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee: Be thou for the people to God-ward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God:

20 And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do.

21 Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens :

22 And let them judge the people at all seasons and it shall be, that every great

4 That is, my God is an help.

e Heb. a man and his fellow.

matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge: so shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee.

23 If thou shalt do this thing, and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people shall also go to their place in peace.

24 So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father in law, and did all that he had said.

25 And Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.

26 And they judged the people at all seasons: the hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.

27 And Moses let his father in law depart; and he went his way into his own land.

Verse 2. After he had sent her back.'-We do not read in Exod. iv. of Moses sending back his wife and sons to Midian. He certainly took them with him when he set out for Egypt. It is concluded that he sent them back after the transaction, on the road which the fourth chapter records; but some of the Rabbins say that he took this course by the advice of his brother Aaron, when the latter came out to meet him on his approach to Egypt. Jarchi even gives the conversation that is pretended to have taken place on the occasion. The fact probably is, that he sent them back when he found that their safety might be endangered if they went with him, or from feeling that his care for them would, for the time, interfere too much with the due discharge of the great duty he had undertaken.

25. And Moses chose able men,' etc.-Many writers think that, notwithstanding the subsequent appointment of the great council of seventy elders (Num. xi. 16.), the constitution here established continued to operate not only during the forty years' wanderings, but after the settlement in Canaan. In Egypt, the Israelites were probably subject to the Egyptian judges, and hence, no rules for the administration of justice being in operation among them when they left Egypt, Moses necessarily remained the sole judge of the nation, until the present very judicious plan was adopted. The institution is on a peculiar arithmetical principle, associated, apparently, with the military division of a host into thousands, hundreds, and tens. This was a model proper for them when encamping and marching in military array; but, if it continued to exist, it must have undergone considerable modification when

they came to settle in irregular masses in the land of their possession. It seems that the judges of tens decided small matters, but referred causes that could not be decided by them, or in which their decision was appealed from, to the judges of hundreds, and these again to the judges of thousands: Moses himself remaining the last resource. This arrangement is not in its principle unlike our own old Saxon constitution of sheriffs in counties; hundredors, or centgraves in hundreds; and decinors, or tythingmen, in tythings: and it probably affords the idea on which the latter institution was formed. Alfred, its author, was well acquainted with the Bible. In his institution the centgrave was subordinate to the sheriff, and the tythingman to the centgrave; and that the case was the same among the Hebrew judges is an obvious conjecture. Alfred's plan applied the principle to the state of a settled country, and furnishes an illustration of the manner in which it might have been, if it was not, applied when the Hebrews had obtained possession of Canaan. The Saxon plan made a territorial division into counties, hundreds, and tythings, corresponding to the division of jurisdiction; and this indeed seems an essential feature in the application of the principle to the state of a settled country. There must have been in the host of Israel sixty thousand judges of tens; and, as Michaelis observes, it is by no means probable that, in the public deliberative assemblies, they all had seats and voices. It is more probable that only those of hundreds, or even thousands, are to be understood when mention is made of judges in the great councils of Israel.

CHAPTER XIX.

1 The people come to Sinai. 3 God's message by Moses unto the people out of the mount. 8 The people's answer returned again. 10 The people are prepared against the third day. 12 The mountain must not be touched, 16 The fearful presence of God upon the mount.

IN the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai.

2 For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount.

3¶ And 'Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain,

saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;

4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.

5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:

6 And ye shall be unto me a 'kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

7 ¶ And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him.