Asia, which were anciently famous for their fertility, are now quite barren.

27. The botch of Egypt. See the note on ch. vii. 15. Some writers think this the elephantiasis, and it may be so, although that appears to be sufficiently represented elsewhere as one of the forms of leprosy. We, however, incline rather to think that it may have been a disease more peculiar to Egypt; and in that case we might see sufficient analogy in a troublesome cutaneous disease which afflicts the people of that country towards the end of June or beginning of July, and which is on that account attributed to the rising of the Nile. It consists of an eruption of red spots and pimples, which for the time of their continuance occasion a very troublesome smarting.

'Emerods.'-See 1 Sam. v. 6.

The scab' (garab).-Probably a malignant kind of

scurvy.

The itch' ( cheres).-The itch is no doubt intended, from the analogy of the Arabic, in which the same word occurs as a verb, to scratch, to be rough or scabby, Its appearance here, in a list of the severest physical calamities, need occasion no surprise. The disorder is far more common and incomparably more formidable in the East than in Europe. It is not unusual to see a man covered from head to foot with the noisome and irritable sores of this disorder.

35. In the knees and in the legs.'--Roscumüller, in his Scholia, has shewn that this verse contains a very exact description of the elephantiasis, a disorder which in the middle ages was well known in Europe under the name of leprosy. This term was erroneously applied to it: but the mistake originating in the old Latin translators from the Arabic, is still kept up by travellers in the East, who usually describe as leprosy that which is in reality the elephantiasis. The following description of the disease forms part of the notice of it in Dr. W. A. Nicholson's Art. LEPROSY, in the Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature.

Elephantiasis first of all makes its appearance by spots of a reddish, yellowish, or livid hue, irregularly disseminated over the skin and slightly raised above its surface. These spots are glossy, and appear oily, or as if they were covered with varnish. After they have remained in this way for a longer or shorter time, they are succeeded by an eruption of tubercles; these are soft, roundish tumours, varying in

size from that of a pea to that of an olive, and are of a reddish or livid colour. They are principally developed on the face and ears, but in the course of years extend over the whole body. The face becomes frightfully deformed; the forehead is traversed by deep lines, and covered with numerous tubercles; the eyebrows become bald, swelled, furrowed by oblique lines, and covered with nipple-like elevations; the eyelashes fall out, and the eyes assume a fixed and staring look; the lips are enormously thickened and shining: the beard falls out; the chin and ears are enlarged and beset with tubercles; the lobe and alæ of the nose are frightfully enlarged and deformed; the nostrils irregularly dilated, internally constricted, and excoriated; the voice is hoarse and nasal, and the breath intolerably fetid. After some time, generally after some years, many of the tubercles ulcerate, and the matter which exudes from them dries to crusts of a brownish or blackish colour; but this process seldom terminates in cicatrization. The extremities are affected in the same way as the face. The hollow of the foot is swelled out, so that the sole becomes flat; the sensibility of the skin is greatly impaired, and, in the hands and feet, often entirely lost; the joints of the toes ulcerate and fall off one after the other; insupportable fœtor exhales from the whole body. The patient's general health is not affected for a considerable time, and his sufferings are not always of the same intensity as his external deformity. Often, however, his nights are sleepless or disturbed by frightful dreams; he becomes morose and melancholy; he shuns the sight of the healthy, because he feels what an object of disgust he is to them, and life becomes a loathsome burden to him; or he falls into a state of apathy, and after many years of such an existence he sinks either from exhaustion, or from the supervention of internal disease. The Greeks gave the name of elephantiasis to this disease, because the skin of the person affected with it was thought to resemble that of an elephant, in dark colour, ruggedness, and insensibility, or, as some have thought, because the foot, after the loss of the toes, when the hollow of the sole is filled up and the ankle enlarged, resembles the foot of an elephant.

33, 37. Thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway .... Thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations.'-How remarkably have these prophecies been accomplished in the whole history of this

singular people, since they became a people dispersed through all natious-cast down, but not utterly destroyed! Indeed the whole series of prophecies in this chapter have been so remarkably accomplished, that there could be few studies better adapted to convince a wavering mind of the Divine authority by which Moses acted and spoke, than to trace out the generally well known facts by which these most intelligible predictions were fulfilled, and are still fulfilling. Nor is there any other theory which will account for the amazing peculiarities which the Hebrew nation continues, at this day, to exhibit, than that which we find in the Divine intention, which is here expressed through Moses, and in after-times through other prophets. We shall hereafter have occasion to point out, in the Scripture history itself, the accomplishment of much that is here foretold: and shall chiefly limit the few following remarks to instances which occurred after the sacred history had closed. It is not part of the duty we have undertaken to investigate or point out generally the fulfilment of prophecy: but there will still be some conspicuous instances concerning which there is no difference of opinion, and which come fully within our plan. These are chiefly such as referred to the then future history of different nations, and which foretold the condition to which various countries and cities have long since been brought. Those who wish to trace the fulfilment of prophecy in detail will of course avail themselves of the assistance which the excellent works of Bishop Newton and Dr. Keith are so well calculated to afford.

49. The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far.-This prophecy is thought to refer to the destruction of the Jewish nation by the Romans, to which it certainly most literally applies. They came from far; and the prophecy has a still closer application, when we consider that the soldiers themselves were mostly from France, Spain, Britain, and, what the Hebrews would call, the ends of the carth. Vespasian and Hadrian, the two great destroyers of the Jews, also came from commanding here in Britain. The eagle was their standard; and their language was far more unknown to the Jews than was that of the Chaldeans, to whom some would refer this prophecy.

50. Shall not regard the person of the old,' etc.-This was true of the Chaldeans. In 2 Chron. xxxvi. 17, it is said, 'He' (the Lord) brought upon them the king of the Chaldeans, who slew their young men with the sword.... and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old inan, or him that stooped for age.' This was also true of the Romans; for Josephus informs us, that when Vespasian entered Gadara, he slew all, man by man, the Romans shewing mercy to no age, out of hatred to the nation, and from a remembrance of their former injuries.' Similar slaughter took place at Gamala, where, as the same historian informs us, nobody escaped except two women, and they only by concealing themselves from the fury of the Romans when the city was taken. Not even the infants

were spared; but were snatched up by the soldiers, and thrown down from the citadel.'

53. Thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body.'-This was remarkably fulfilled at the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, as recorded by Josephus. But the same had previously happened also, when Samaria was besieged by the king of Syria in the time of Ahab. See the note on 2 Kings vi. 29; Luke xxi. 23. The prophecy probably refers to both, and to other similar events which may not have been recorded.

62. ' Few in number.'-The present number of the Jews throughout the world is not supposed by any to exceed six millions, and is reckoned by some at not above four millions, and this after the lapse of long ages during which peoples originally but few in number have grown into mighty and populous nations. It does not, however, appear that the present text refers to this, but rather to the numbers which would be left remaining after, as the following verse expresses it, they should be plucked from off the land' which they were then about to take for a possession. These are few indeed; and these few are aliens in the land that was once their own; and of all the aliens found in that land, they are the most oppressed and degraded.

68. There ye shall be sold.'-This was accomplished on several occasions. It is related both by Aristeas and Josephus, that in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus there were vast numbers of Hebrew slaves in Egypt, and that the king himself bought above 100,000 of them from their masters and set them free. Egypt indeed was the great slave mart of ancient times, and several of the conquerors and oppressors of the Jews sent, at least, a large proportion of their captives thither to be sold. Titus had 90,000 captives after Jerusalem was taken. Those above seventeen years of age were sent to different parts of the Roman empire to labour on the public works, besides great numbers who perished in compulsory combats with wild beasts. Those under seventeen were doomed to be sold for slaves; but in such deep contempt and detestation was the nation held, that few were willing to buy them; and the Jews who remained at large were too few and poor to be able to redeem their brethren. The market was also glutted with their numbers, so that they were sold at a mere nominal price-sometimes thirty for a small piece of money. Those who remained unpurchased were sent into confinement, where they perished by hundreds and by thousands together, from neglect and hunger. Egypt received a large proportion of these slaves, who were probably sent thither in ships, as the Romans had a fleet in the Mediterranean, and this was a much easier and safer way of transporting them than by land across the desert. The same things, precisely, took place on the final desolation of Israel by Hadrian, who may be said to have consummated their doom, by decreeing, with the concurrence of the Roman senate, that no Jew should ever, on pain of death, enter the land of his fathers.

said unto them, 'Ye have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land;

3 The great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles:

4 Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.

5 And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old

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upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot.

6 Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink that ye might know that I am the LORD your God.

:

7 And when ye came unto this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us unto battle, and we smote them :

8 And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of Manasseh.

9 'Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that do. ye

10 ¶ Ye stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel,

11 Your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water:

12 That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the LORD thy God, and into his oath, which the LORD thy God maketh with thee this day:

13 That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

14 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath;

15 But with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day:

16 (For ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which ye passed by;

17 And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them :)

18 Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;

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19 And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the "imagination of mine heart, to add "drunkenness to thirst:

20 The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.

21 And the LORD shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that 'are written in this book of the law:

22 So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the LORD hath laid upon it;

23 And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath :

24 Even all nations shall say, 12 Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger?

25 Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt:

13

Verse 5. Your clothes are not waxen old upon you,' etc. -The Rabbins add many circumstances to explain and magnify this miracle, stating that the clothes and shoes grew with the growth of the individual who wore them;

but, as Patrick observes, there was no need of this, as the clothes of the persons that died would serve for their children when they reached their stature. The miracle, as expressed in the text, would be that the clothing which

the Hebrews had brought with them from Egypt, and that which they afterwards obtained as spoil from the Egyptians and Amalekites, did not wear out during their long wanderings. The great majority of interpreters in ancient and modern times understand the miracle literally as thus expressed; but there are also a considerable number of commentators, of piety and learning equally unquestioned, who do not take the text literally, but suppose it to express figuratively, that God had at all times kept them provided with sufficient clothing; or, that they were never, through mere poverty, reduced to wear their clothes and sandals till they were old and torn: just as Isa. xlviii. 21, They thirsted not when he led them through the deserts,' is not literally true, as they sometimes did thirst severely; but it is true figuratively, as their thirst was appeased by miraculous supplies of water. It is also observed, that if intended to be literally understood, so great a miracle would scarcely have been mentioned in so cursory a manner, not being at all noticed in the regular history, like all the other miracles, and only slightly referred to in exhortatory portions of the present book. It is further observed that God is not represented to work miracles, except when natural means fail; and yet here is one of the greatest, for which it is difficult to discover the occasion, as the people had numerous flocks of sheep and goats, and herds of cattle, which would amply supply them with wool, hair, and skins for their clothes and sandals; and that they knew how to spin and weave we see from Exod. xxxv. 25. They might also probably, if necessary, have obtained such articles by traffic with their Arabian neighbours. These arguments seem to have great weight; and while we would repel indignantly any attempt to explain away the detailed and manifest exhibitions of the Divine power which the sacred books contain, we rather incline to the opinion that the present text should be figuratively understood. Dr. Graves, indeed, in his Lectures on the Pentateuch, contends for the literal interpretation, on the ground that even though the above explanation were admitted, still linen, the most necessary and the least lasting part of the dress of every class,' could only be obtained by miracle.

But this is judging the customs of the East by those of Europe, and the wants of nomades by those of settled people. At this day the Bedouin Arabs do not generally wear any linen, but only a sort of woollen mantle wrapped around their naked bodies; and it is not only probable that the mass of the Israelites-while they also were wandering shepherds, and at a period so much more ancient-in like manner dispensed with linen, but that they even continued to do so long after their settlement in Canaan.

11. From the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water.'-These seem to have been regarded by the Hebrews as the lowest offices of useful service, and were commonly performed by slaves and aliens. The hewers of wood' probably not only felled the wood in the first instance, and brought it now to the camp and eventually to the towns, but also chopped it up for daily use as fuel. Fire-wood is usually brought to houses in rough branches, and cut up from time to time, as wanted; the trunk being reserved for building and carpentry. In Oriental towns, water is not conveyed to the several streets and houses by pipes or trenches. It must all be fetched from the river or drawn from the wells. In towns, this is seldom done by the householders themselves, or by their servants. There are men who make it a trade to supply every day, to regular customers, the quantity of water required. This they carry about in a well prepared goat-skin, which is slung to the back in the manner represented in our cut, the neck, which is usually brought under the arm and compressed by the hand, serving as the mouth of this curious but exceedingly useful vessel. Persons of larger dealings have an ass which carries two skins at once, borne like panniers and we have known very prosperous water-carriers who had ox-skins carried on a horse or camel. These men, continually passing to and fro with their wet bags through the narrow streets, are great nuisances in the towns, from the difficulty of avoiding contact with them. The care taken to avoid them, in some degree answers to that which people exhibit in our own streets to avoid carriages and carts. There are no draught vehicles in Asiatic towns; and the water-carriers with their bags,

CHAPTER XXX.

1 Great mercies promised unto the penitent. 11 The commandment is manifest. 15 Life and death are set before them.

AND it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee,

2 And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul;

3 That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.

4 'If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence I will he fetch thee:

5 And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and

1 Nehem. 1. 9.

thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.

6 And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love! the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.

7 And the LORD thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee.

8 And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the LORD, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day.

9 And the LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the LORD will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers:

10 If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.

11 ¶ For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off.

2 Chap 28. 11.