and between the stones of old walls, feeding on flies and other winged insects; this and other species of the same habits of life are doubtless intended by Bruce, when he says, 'I am positive that I can say, without exaggeration, that the number I saw one day in the great court of the temple of Baalbec amounted to many thousands; the ground, the walls, the stones of the ruined buildings were covered with them, and the various colours of which they consisted made a very extraordinary appearance. In like manner Lord Lindsay describes the ruins of Jerash as 'absolutely alive with lizards.'

-Mole.' non tinshemeth.-This word denotes an unclean bird in v. 18. Here it occurs again, doubtless as denoting a species of lizard, although the Auth. Vers., following the Septuagint and Vulgate, renders it by mole.' As this word comes from a root siguifying to breathe, we may apply it to the chameleon, which has lungs of such vast dimensions, that, when filled, the body is so much dilated as to appear transparent. The varying capacity of their lungs enables them, by exposing a greater or less portion of blood to the influence of the air, to alter the tincture of the circulating fluid at pleasure, which, when sent to the surface, must tend to give a colour more or less vivid to the skin. The chameleons form a small genus of Saurians, easily distinguished by the shagreen-like skin, and by the five toes being divided differently from those of other animals, there being, as it were, two thumbs opposed to three fingers. The eyes can be protruded to a considerable distance beyond the socket, can be moved separately, and directed backward or forward. Chameleous are slow, inoffensive, and are capable of much abstinence from food, which consists solely of flies, caught by rapidly darting forth its long, viscous, and barbed tongue. Among them

MOLE. CHAMELEON.

selves they are irascible, and are then liable to change their colours rapidly: dark yellow or grey is predominant when they are in a quiescent state; but while the emotions are in activity, it passes into green, purple, and even ashy black. The old story of their taking the colours of the objects on which it happens to rest is not now credited. This animal is not uncommon in Syria, in gardens and upon rocky hills, and the species is the same as that of northern Africa, namely, the Lacerta Africana.

32. Upon whatsoever any of them doth fall...it shall be unclean.'-The great inconveniences which the law connected with this and other defilements, necessarily obliged the Israelites to pay great attention to cleanliness; and this was probably what the laws on this subject had principally in view. The importance of regulations on such points are not so fully appreciated in this country as in the East, where all kinds of reptiles, many of them poisonous, find their way into the most private apartments, and conceal themselves in recesses, crevices, vessels, and boxes. We were taught by experience, during our own sojourn in the East, to observe the greatest caution in examining a box or vessel which had not very recently been disturbed, lest a scorpion, or other noxious reptile, might be concealed within it. On this subject, Michaelis observes that this law was well calculated to prevent accidents from poisoning: Of the poisoning of liquors by toads creeping into casks we often read; and Hasselquist relates an instance where the poison of a Gecko in a cheese had nearly proved fatal. Mice and rats likewise sometimes poison meat that is uncovered, by means of the poison laid for themselves being vomited upon it. I remember the case of a brewing of beer, which, to all the people of a town who had drunk it, occasioned most violent agonies; and in regard to which, although it was most peremptorily denied by the magistrates and the brewers, there appeared perfectly good reason for believing that arsenic had in this manner got among the malt.'

Skin.'-Harmer conjectures that this means trunks or baskets covered with skins. It is far more likely that the vessels of skin which we have described in the note to Gen. xxi. 14 are intended. These are of too much importance among the utensils of a nomade people (which the Israelites still were at this time), or of any people while on a journey, to be omitted in such a list as this.

47. To make a difference between the unclean and the clean, and between the beast that may be eaten and the beast that may not be eaten.'-Does not the latter clause explain the former-shewing, that to say a beast may or may not be eaten, is equivalent to saying it is clean or unclean? Michaelis is of opinion that clean' and 'unclean' are

expressions tantamount to beasts usual and not usual for food,' and we think his view corroborated by this text. It would be difficult to shew that the cleanness or uncleanness of particular animals meant anything else: and if so, the distinction is not, as we commonly suppose, one with which we are entirely unacquainted; for we and almost all nations make this very distinction, although we do not express it in the same form of words. The Jews abstained from eating certain animals which their neighbours did eat, and which we ourselves eat at this day; and in the same manner, though not on the same legislative principles, we refrain from various animals, not at all unfit for food, some of which the Jews might eat, and which are eaten in different countries. Among the animals from which we abstain may be mentioned horses, asses, dogs, cats, frogs, snails, and grasshoppers, all of which are good for food, and are more or less eaten by various nations, although, from not being used to them, we should regard their meat, if set on a table, with as much abhorrence as a Jew or Mohammedan could manifest with regard to pork.

In the present chapter no animal is forbidden for food, which Abraham or his descendants are at any previous

CHAPTER XII.

1 The purification of a woman after childbirth. 6 Her offerings for her purifying.

AND the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

2 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a 'woman have conceived seed, and born a man child: then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean.

3 And in the 'eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised.

4 And she shall then continue in the blood of her purifying three and thirty days; she shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying be fulfilled.

5 But if she bear a maid child, then she shall be unclean two weeks, as in her sepa

period represented to have eaten. We may therefore conclude that little more is now done than to convert ancient national custom into positive law, perhaps, however, excluding some animals that had previously been employed for food, and admitting others that had not formerly been used; the whole being reduced into what, on the principles of physiology, was actually a very easy and natural system. If it be admitted that the terms clean and unclean bear here the sense of to be used or not used for food,' it follows that the word 'unclean,' as applied to animals, is no epithet of degradation. In this sense, as Michaelis observes, 'Man himself was the most unclean, that is, human flesh was least of all things to be eaten; and such is the case in every nation not reckoned among cannibals. The lion and the horse are unclean, but were to the Hebrews just as little the objects of contempt as they are to us.' The same author points out the mistake of the common superstition, that the Jews durst not keep unclean animals in their houses, or have anything to do with them. But this was so far from being the case, that the camel and the ass were their common beasts of burden, in addition to which they had, in later times, the horse. All the three species were unclean.

ration and she shall continue in the blood of her purifying threescore and six days.

6 ¶ And when the days of her purifying are fulfilled, for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring a lamb of the first year for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon, or a turtledove, for a sin offering, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, unto the priest:

7 Who shall offer it before the LORD, and make an atonement for her; and she shall be cleansed from the issue of her blood. This is the law for her that hath born a male or a female.

Verse 8. If she be not able to bring a lamb, then she shall bring two turtles.'-The law in this chapter is interesting to the Christian reader; for we find that when the mother of Jesus went up to the Temple with her offering in obedience to this law, she was not able to offer a lamb, but was obliged to accept the alternative, allowed to the poor, of offering two turtle-doves or two young pigeons. Thus an interesting evidence is furnished of the low circumstances of the family into which our Lord was

born. While the Israelites remained in the wilderness, it is probable that the women brought their offering imme diately after their period of separation had expired. But when they were settled in Palestine, and many families lived at a distance from the Temple, it may be presumed that they were allowed to consult their convenience on this point. After the birth of Samuel, his mother, Hannah, did not go to the tabernacle until the child was weaned (1 Sam. i. 21).

CHAPTER XIII.

The laws and tokens whereby the priest is to be guided in discerning the leprosy.

2 When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a 'rising, a scab, or bright spot, and it be in the skin of his flesh like the plague of

saying,

3 And the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of the flesh: and when the hair in the plague is turned white, and the plague in sight be deeper than the skin of his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy: and the priest shall look on him, and pronounce him unclean.

4 If the bright spot be white in the skin of his flesh, and in sight be not deeper than the skin, and the hair thereof be not turned white; then the priest shall shut up him that hath the plague seven days:

5 And the priest shall look on him the seventh day and, behold, if the plague in his sight be at a stay, and the plague spread not in the skin; then the priest shall shut him up seven days more:

6 And the priest shall look on him again the seventh day and, behold, if the plague be somewhat dark, and the plague spread not in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him clean it is but a scab: and he shall wash his clothes, and be clean.

7 But if the scab spread much abroad in the skin, after that he hath been seen of the priest for his cleansing, he shall be seen of the priest again:

8 And if the priest see that, behold, the scab spreadeth in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a leprosy.

9 When the plague of leprosy is in a man, then he shall be brought unto the priest; 10 And the priest shall see him: and, behold, if the rising be white in the skin, and it have turned the hair white, and there be quick raw flesh in the rising;

11 It is an old leprosy in the skin of his flesh, and the priest shall pronounce him unclean, and shall not shut him up: for he is unclean.

12 And if a leprosy break out abroad in the skin, and the leprosy cover all the skin of him that hath the plague from his head even to his foot, wheresoever the priest looketh;

13 Then the priest shall consider: and, behold, if the leprosy have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague: it is all turned white: he is clean. 14 But when raw flesh appeareth in him, he shall be unclean.

15 And the priest shall see the raw flesh, and pronounce him to be unclean: for the raw flesh is unclean: it is a leprosy.

16 Or if the raw flesh turn again, and be changed unto white, he shall come unto the priest;

17 And the priest shall see him: and, be

2 Heb. the quickening of living flesh.

hold, if the plague be turned into white; then the priest shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague: he is clean.

18 The flesh also, in which, even in the skin thereof, was a boil, and is healed,

19 And in the place of the boil there be a white rising, or a bright spot, white, and somewhat reddish, and it be shewed to the priest;

20 And if, when the priest seeth it, behold, it be in sight lower than the skin, and the hair thereof be turned white; the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a plague of leprosy broken out of the boil.

21 But if the priest look on it, and, behold, there be no white hairs therein, and if it be not lower than the skin, but be somewhat dark; then the priest shall shut him up seven days:

22 And if it spread much abroad in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean it is a plague.

23 But if the bright spot stay in his place, and spread not, it is a burning boil; and the priest shall pronounce him clean.

24 Or if there be any flesh, in the skin whereof there is a hot burning, and the quick flesh that burneth have a white bright spot, somewhat reddish, or white;

25 Then the priest shall look upon it: and, behold, if the hair in the bright spot be turned white, and it be in sight deeper than the skin; it is a leprosy broken out of the burning: wherefore the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is the plague of leprosy.

26 But if the priest look on it, and, behold, there be no white hair in the bright spot, and it be no lower than the other skin, but be somewhat dark; then the priest shall shut him up seven days:

27 And the priest shall look upon him the seventh day: and if it be spread much abroad in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean it is the plague of leprosy.

28 And if the bright spot stay in his place, and spread not in the skin, but it be somewhat dark; it is a rising of the burning, and the priest shall pronounce him clean: for it is an inflammation of the burning.

29 ¶ If a man or woman have a plague upon the head or the beard;

30 Then the priest shall see the plague: and, behold, if it be in sight deeper than the skin; and there be in it a yellow thin hair; then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a dry scall, even a leprosy upon the head or beard.

8 Heb. a burning of fire.

31 And if the priest look on the plague of the scall, and, behold, it be not in sight deeper than the skin, and that there is no black hair in it; then the priest shall shut up him that hath the plague of the scall seven days :

32 And in the seventh day the priest shall look on the plague: and, behold, if the scall spread not, and there be in it no yellow hair, and the scall be not in sight deeper than the skin;

33 He shall be shaven, but the scall shall he not shave; and the priest shall shut up him that hath the scall seven days more:

34 And in the seventh day the priest shall look on the scall: and, behold, if the scall be not spread in the skin, nor be in sight deeper than the skin; then the priest shall pronounce him clean and he shall wash his clothes, and be clean.

:

35 But if the scall spread much in the skin after his cleansing;

36 Then the priest shall look on him: and, behold, if the scall be spread in the skin, the priest shall not seek for yellow hair; he is unclean.

37 But if the scall be in his sight at a stay, and that there is black hair grown up therein; the scall is healed, he is clean: and the priest shall pronounce him clean.

38 If a man also or a woman have in the skin of their flesh bright spots, even white bright spots;

39 Then the priest shall look: and, behold, if the bright spots in the skin of their flesh be darkish white; it is a freckled spot that groweth in the skin; he is clean.

40 And the man whose hair is fallen off his head, he is bald; yet is he clean.

41 And he that hath his hair fallen off from the part of his head toward his face, he is forehead bald; yet is he clean.

42 And if there be in the bald head, or bald forehead, a white reddish sore; it is a leprosy sprung up in his bald head, or his bald forehead.

43 Then the priest shall look upon it: and, behold, if the rising of the sore be white reddish in his bald head, or in his bald forehead, as the leprosy appeareth in the skin of the flesh;

44 He is a leprous man, he is unclean; the priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean; his plague is in his head.

45 And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare,

and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean.

46 All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be.

47 The garment also that the plague of leprosy is in, whether it be a woollen garment, or a linen garment;

48 Whether it be in the warp, or woof; of linen, or of woollen; whether in a skin, or in any thing made of skin ;

49 And if the plague be greenish or reddish in the garment, or in the skin, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin; it is a plague of leprosy, and shall be shewed unto the priest :

50 And the priest shall look upon the plague, and shut up it that hath the plague seven days:

51 And he shall look on the plague on the seventh day: if the plague be spread in the garment, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in a skin or in any work that is made of skin; the plague is a fretting leprosy; it is unclean.

52 He shall therefore burn that garment, whether warp or woof, in woollen or in linen, or any thing of skin, wherein the plague is: for it is a fretting leprosy; it shall be burnt in the fire.

53 And if the priest shall look, and, behold, the plague be not spread in the garment, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin;

54 Then the priest shall command that they wash the thing wherein the plague is, and he shall shut it up seven days more:

55 And the priest shall look on the plague, after that it is washed: and, behold, if the plague have not changed his colour, and the plague be not spread; it is unclean; thou shalt burn it in the fire; it is fret inward, whether it be bare within or without.

56 And if the priest look, and, behold, the plague be somewhat dark after the washing of it; then he shall rend it out of the garment, or out of the skin, or out of the warp, or out of the woof:

57 And if it appear still in the garment, either in the warp, or in the woof, or in any thing of skin; it is a spreading plague: thou shalt burn that wherein the plague is with fire.

58 And the garment, either warp, or woof,

7 Heb. vessel, or, instrument.

or whatsoever thing of skin it be, which thou shalt wash, if the plague be departed from them, then it shall be washed the second time, and shall be clean.

59 This is the law of the plague of leprosy in a garment of woollen or linen, either in the warp, or woof, or any thing of skins, to pronounce it clean, or to pronounce it unclean.

Verse 2. He shall be brought unto Aaron the priest, or unto one of his sons the priests.'-This chapter forms the most ancient medical treatise in the world, and completely to illustrate it would require a rare combination of medical and oriental knowledge. Dr. John Mason Good, in whom these qualifications were eminently united, has done much to elucidate it in his Study of Medicine. Michaelis also has given much attention to the subjects embraced in this and the two following chapters; and to these two authorities we are indebted for the substance of a large proportion of the observations we have to offer. In the note on Gen. 1. 2, we have already spoken of the state of medicine in Egypt; and it may here be added, that the profession of medicine was in that country in the hands of the priestly caste, being exercised by the lowest of the three orders into which that caste was divided. This class (called Neocoroi) seems to have corresponded pretty nearly to the Levites among the Hebrews; and if this division subsisted at the time of the Exode, the Mosaic law would seem to have raised the medical profession a grade higher than it had been left in Egypt; for not only the proper priests, but even the high-priest, are instructed to take cognizance of infectious diseases. Probably a certain number of the whole priesthood gave their particular attention to medicine. It is evident that medical science had at this time been reduced to a system, from the nice discrimination of infectious disorders, and the symptoms by which they were characterized. It is true that these specifications are on divine authority; but we conceive that they merely refer to what was previously known, and are only intended to indicate precisely the particular disorder to which the respective regulations were to apply. We must not omit to direct attention to the most wise exclusion, which we see in this chapter, of that Egyptian principle of immutable rules which must have operated so injuriously on the improvement of the art. There is not a

word said about the medical treatment of the disorders brought under our notice; all that is stated refers to the cognizance of symptoms of infectious disorders, and the sanatory precautions for the public health which may in consequence become necessary. This is all of which legislation can properly take cognizance. Curative means were perhaps employed in ancient times, although we are aware that leprous disorders were not generally considered curable by any medical treatment. But that particular remedies were not prescribed, seems to us so far from being an objection, as some regard it, that it may be taken in evidence of the Divine wisdom from which these laws proceeded.

3. ' Leprosy.'—It is currently stated by the Greek and Roman writers that the Israelites were driven out of Egypt on account of their being generally infected with leprosy. They no doubt learnt this statement from the Egyptian priests; and it has often appeared to us that all the misrepresentations concerning the Jews, traceable to that source, must have arisen after the Hebrew Scripture had been translated into Greek. Through this means the sacred history became in some degree known to the civilized world; and this gave the priests an interest in setting up the most plausible counter-statements in their power, as to those facts in which the honour of their own country was deeply implicated. Josephus (contra Apion) distinctly attributes the origin of this and many other calumnies to the Egyptians, and refutes them by many solid reasons, to which others have been added by Michaelis, Faber, and other modern writers. The present misinterpretation is on many accounts highly plausible and ingenious-quite sufficiently so to impose upon the Greeks

and Romans, but not enough so to escape detection. The things are true, separately taken; but false, when stated as cause and effect. It is true that the Hebrews were driven out forcibly by night, and it is true that they were infected with leprosy; but it is not true that they were driven out forcibly on account of leprosy. They were forcibly driven out, on the spur of the moment, because an awful calamity had befallen the Egyptians for their obstinate refusal to allow them to go out peaceably, as they had urgently requested. It was very clever dishonesty in the Egyptian priests to combine these two unconnected circumstances, making one the consequence of the other. Some zealous writers have thought it necessary to deny that the Hebrews were affected with leprosy at all; but that they actually were so seems to us evident from this and the following chapters. What can be the meaning of all these minute laws and regulations, of these strict precautions to prevent the spread of contagion, unless leprosy was a very prevalent and well-known disease? But this equally proves that they were not wholly a leprous people, as their ancient calumniators alleged; for then these regulations would have been quite superfluous. Moses would never have enacted such severe laws against leprosy had he himself been a leper, and the leader of an army of lepers. Besides, leprosy is even to this day, after several thousand years, a common disease throughout Egypt, Syria, and Palestine; it was therefore endemic both in the country to which they were going, and in that which they had left. Indeed, in the latter, it was and is so frequent and virulent, that Egypt has always been regarded as the principal seat of the leprosy; and that disorder could not be expected to be otherwise than common among a people recently come from thence; and this renders it clear that it was the Israelites who were endangered by the leprosy of the Egyptians, and not the Egyptians by that of the Israelites. This again answers the charge of their expulsion on that account; for, as Michaelis well asks, What sovereign, not an absolute blockhead, would expel a people, consisting of C00,000 adult males, and therefore, with their wives and children, amounting to two millions and a half, on account of a disease endemic in his dominions?' Dr. J. M. Good dwells on the subjugated and distressed state of the Israelites, and the peculiar nature of their employment, as tending to produce the leprosies and other cutaneous disorders with which they seem to have been affected. In producing such results, he says, 'There are no causes more active or powerful than a depressed state of body or mind, hard labour under a burning sun, the body constantly covered with the excoriating dust of brick-fields, and an impoverished diet-to all of which the Israelites were exposed whilst under the Egyptian bondage.' It may then be freely admitted that the Hebrews were, to a large extent, infected with leprosy and other cutaneous disorders; while we deny that they were expelled from Egypt on that account. Their continuance for forty years in the arid deserts of Arabia, together with the wise sanatory regu lations in this and the following chapter, may have done much to diminish its prevalence among them; for although Arabia is not exempt from leprosy, its dry air is less favourable to infection than the moister atmosphere in some parts of Egypt, and even in Palestine. So much of the present subject as relates to the setting apart of the leper from common intercourse will be considered in the notes to Num. v. 2. We shall at present limit our attention to the forms of the diseases mentioned; and which are so admirably discriminated, and their symptoms described, in the chapters before us.

4. Bright spot.'-Three distinct forms of leprosy are