often made a doleful and hideous noise, which would sometimes be like the roaring of a lion; at other times it would bear re semblance to the hoarser voices of other quadrupeds, particularly of the bull and I have often heard them groan, as if they the ox. were in the greatest agonies, an action beautifully alluded to by the Prophet Micah (i. 8), when it is said, 'I will make a... mourning as the owls, or rather, ostriches. f W. H. Groser. a Comp. Job xxiv. 8. b "Sodom was not given up into the hands of an enemy that laid of the finest kind of porcelain, in one of our midland cities. I 5-8. (5) delicately, or daintily. "Faring sumptuously every day." desolate, i.e. there are none to wait on them, or provide for them. Such persons are the most helpless in famine times. in scarlet, prob. referring to the luxurious scarlet couches of the grand houses. dunghills, are content to lie on the dunghills to secure a little warmth." (6) is greater,' bec. her knowledge and privilege were greater. no hands, etc., i.e. the lingering no human hands were wearied in the work of destroying her. (7) Nazarites, or separated ones; see Nu. vi. rubies, or coral. (8) visage, etc., these indicate the effects of prolonged famine." like a stick, withered and dry. siege to it, nor condemned to destruction of famine."-Lowth. "Sodom's sufferings in dying were brief; there were no starving infants, no mothers cooking their offspring for food."Nägelsbach. c Job xxx. 30. "In the morning, when you awake, accustom your self to think first Ostrich. This remarkable bird lives in the sandy deserts of Arabia and Africa, subsisting on the coarsest herbage and grain. When full-grown, the neck, particularly of the male, which before was almost naked, is now very beautifully covered with red feathers. The plumage, likewise, upon the shoulders, the back, and some parts of the wings, from being hitherto of a dark greyish colour, becomes now as black as jet, while the rest of the feathers retain an exquisite whiteness. The females form their nests in the sand, and cover their eggs, the same as the fowl or partridge. Several birds lay their eggs in the same nest, the males sitting on them at night, and the females doing so alterupon God, or nately in the day. As many as sixty eggs have been found in something in one nest, while several others were scattered around, which are order to His ser- said to have served as nourishment to the young ones when vice: and at night also let hatched, till capable of digesting harder food. The parent birds Him close thine take little care of their young. Dr. Shaw says that on the least eyes, and let your noise, or trivial occasion, she forsakes her eggs or her young sleep be necessary and health- ones, to which, perhaps, she never returns, or if she does, it may ful, not idle and be too late. Though the ostrich will sometimes engage in fierce expensive of time and angry combat, employing both its claws and bill, it neverand conveniences theless, when taken young, becomes as tame as the domestic of nature and fowl. The same author observes :-"I had several opportunities beyond the needs curious to see the when he is com- his chambers of the east! Jeremy Taylor. "But live content, which is of amusing myself with the action and behaviour of the ostrich. sometimes be It is very diverting to observe with what dexterity and equipoise of body it would play and frisk about on all occasions. In the heat of the day, particularly, it would strut along the sunny side of the house with great majesty. It would be perpetually fanning and priding itself with its quivering, expanding wings, and at other times it would continue its fanning, vibratory movements. With their help, it will go faster than the fleetest horse, and with two black boys on its back." With all their speed, however, they do not run in a straight line, but wheel round in circles of a greater or less extent, so that the Arab huntsman is able, after a very difficult chase, to approach and slay them with their clubs, preferring that weapon, that an effusion of blood may not spoil the feathers. These are chiefly obtained from the wings, which in a bird of full plumage contain forty; the tail feathers seldom exceed nine inches in length, and are of so little value, that they are seldom exported from the Cape, as the birds, when killed, are generally found with their tails worn to the stumps from working in the sand. 9-12. (9) better, bec. at once put out of their misery. pine away, Heb. flow out; as if the famine struck them, and life slowly ebbed away." (10) hands.. children, De. xxviii. 57; La. ii. 20. (11) accomplished, etc., by this expression we are recalled to the fact that this Divine visitation had been threatened. (12) not.. believed, bec. the city seemed to be so well fortified. In the calmest life; but pain is perfect misery, the and, excessive, overturns all patience." -Milion. worst of evils; or a "Stricken ger."--Henderson. Jews was omni- city was con is a tears. They are They Cooking in the East (v. 5).-In preparing their victuals, the Orientals are, from the extreme scarcity of wood in many countries, reduced to use cow-dung for fuel. At Aleppo, the inhabitants use wood and charcoal in their rooms, but heat their baths with cow-dung, the parings of fruit, and other things of a similar kind, which they employ people to gather for that purpose. Egypt, according to Pitts, the scarcity of wood is so great, that at Cairo they commonly heat their ovens with horse or cow dung, or dirt of the streets; what wood they have being brought from the shores of the Black Sea, and sold by weight. Chardin attests the same fact: "The Eastern people always use cow-dung" There for baking, boiling a pot, and dressing all kinds of victuals that sacredness in are easily cooked, especially in countries that have but little not the mark of wood:" and Dr. Russell remarks, in a note, that "the Arabs weakness, but of carefully collect the dung of the sheep and camel, as well as that power. of the cow; and that the dung, offal, and other matters used in speak more eloquently than the bagnios, after having been new gathered in the streets, are ten thousand carried out of the city, and laid in great heaps to dry, where tongues. They they become very offensive. They are intolerably disagreeable, while drying, in the town adjoining to the bagnios; and are so at all times when it rains, though they be stacked, pressed hard of deep contrition, and together, and thatched at top." These statements exhibit, in a unspeakable very strong light, the extreme misery of the Jews, who escaped love."Washingfrom the devouring sword of Nebuchadnezzar : They that feed delicately, are desolate in the streets; they that were brought up in scarlet, embrace dunghills." To embrace dunghills is a species of wretchedness perhaps unknown to us in the history of modern warfare; but it presents a dreadful and appalling image, when the circumstances to which it alludes are recollected. What can be imagined more distressing to those who lived delicately, are the messengers of over whelming grief, ton Irving. of "Thy tears are cheek: than to wander without food in the streets? What more disgusting and terrible to those who had been clothed in rich and splendid garments than to be forced by the destruction of their palaces to seek shelter among stacks of dung, the filth and stench of which it is almost impossible to endure? The dunghill, it appears from Holy Writ, is one of the common retreats of the mendicant, which imparts an exquisite force and beauty to a passage in the song of Hannah: "He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the beggar from the dunghill. to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory." The change in the circumstances of that excellent woman she reckoned as great (and it was to her not less unexpected) as the elevation of a poor despised beggar from a nauseous and polluting dunghill, rendered tenfold more foetid by the intense heat of an Oriental sun, to one of the highest and most splendid stations on earth. 13-16. (13) for the sins, etc., Je. v. 31, xxiii. 21.a shed ..just, Je. xxvi. 7-24. (14) with blood, by coming into contact with the many slain in the streets. could not touch, for fear of defilement. (15) they cried, i.e. men generally, even the heathen, cried against these polluted fugitives, and would not let them settle amongst them. (16) anger, lit. the face. they respected, men generally in the countries sought as asylums by the outlawed priests and elders. Effect of hunger.-I leave it to physicians and naturalists to determine, with minute exactness, what effect extreme hunger produces on the body, particularly as to colour. It is sufficient for me to remark, that the modern inhabitants of the East suppose it occasions an approach to blackness, as the ancient Jews also did. Her Nazarites," says the Prophet. complaining of the dreadful want of food, just before Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar, “her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire. Their visage is blacker than a coal : : they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick." Lam. iv. 7, 8. The like is said, ch. v. 10: "Our skin was black like an oven, because of the terrible famine." The same representation of its effects still obtains in those countries. So Sir John Chardin tells, that the common people of Persia, to express the sufferings of Hossein, a grandson of their prophet Mohammed, and one of their most illustrious saints, who fled into the deserts before his victorious enemies, that pursued him ten days together, and at length overtook him, ready to die with heat, thirst, and fatigue, and slew him with a multitude of wounds, in memory of which they annually observe ten days with great solemnity; I say he tells us, that the common people then, to express what he suffered, "appear entirely naked, excepting the parts modesty requires to be covered, and blackened all over; while others are stained with blood; others run about the streets, beating two flint-stones against each other, their tongues hanging out of their mouths like people quite exhausted, and behaving like persons in despair, crying with all their might, Hossein, etc. Those that coloured themselves black, intended to represent the extremity of thirst and heat which Hossein had suffered, which was so great, they say, that he turned black, and his tongue swelled out of his mouth. Those that were covered with blood, intended to represent his being so terribly wounded, as that all his blood had issued from his veins before he died." Here we see thirst, want of food, and fatigue, are supposed to make a human body look black. They are now supposed to do so; as they were supposed anciently to have that effect.< c Harmer. xxxvii. 4-10, 17-20. (17) watched.. nation, even the Egyptians. (18) a Je. viii. 20, they.. steps, referring to the missiles of the besiegers, whose engines were now advanced close to the walls. (19) pursued, any of the inhabitants who tried to escape. (20) breath . nostrils, Ge. ii. 7. anointed, the Jewish term for the king. taken.. pits, hunted like a wild beast. Persecution.-One Palmer, of Reading, being condemned to die, in Queen Mary's time, was much persuaded to recant, and among other things a friend said to him, "Take pity on thy golden years and pleasant flowers of youth, before it be too late." His reply was as beautiful as it was conclusive, "Sir, I long for those springing flowers which shall never fade away." When he was in the midst of the flames he exhorted his companions to constancy, saying, "We shall not end our lives in the fire, but make a change for a better life; yea, for coals we shall receive pearls." Thus do we clearly see that, although "if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable," yet the prospect of a better and enduring substance enables us to meet all the trials and temptations of this present life with holy boldness and joy. 66 b"Towards the end of the siege the towers erect ed by the enemy would command the streets, and such spots would avoided.". be Spk. Com. c Comp. Je. lii. 8, 9. "Whose hearts are ready at humanity's soft call to drop the tear." -W. Mason. a Comp. Ecc. xi. 9. cover how great thine iniquities are, by the re 21, 22. (21) rejoice, this call to an enemy of God's people appears to be ironical. Rejoice while thou mayest." "a cup, of Divine judgment. (22) accomplished, carried through, and "He will discompleted. discover thy sins, bec. the evil of sin is shown in God's judgments upon it." God's discovery of man's sins (v. 22).-I. It is a vast discovery.markable judg. Think-1. Of the significance of each separate sin; 2. Of the number of each man's sins. II. It is a terrible discovery. III. It is an inevitable discovery. 1. Sometimes made here-Cain, Belshazzar, Judas, Felix; 2. Is certain to be made hereafter.c c Dr. Thomas. CHAPTER THE FIFTH. ments wherewith He punisheth thee."-Lowth. 1—5. (1) reproach, or national disgrace. (2) our inherit-a Le. xx. 24. ance, Ps. lxxix. 1. aliens, foreigners. (3) fatherless.. widows, bec. the war destroyed so many of the men. (4) water for money, no sign of scarcity could be more forcible than this,--even water must be paid for. wood, necessary for firing. (5) necks, whereon yokes were laid. b "Reference is most prob. to the sojourn in Babylon, where one of the hardshipswas the necessity for paying a tax on water, a tax for access to the rivers and fountains."-Fausset. Wood for fuel (v. 4).-That numbers of the Israelites had no wood growing on their own lands, for their burning, must be imagined from the openness of their country. It is certain, the Eastern villages now have oftentimes little or none on their premises: so Russell says, that inconsiderable as the stream that runs at Aleppo, and the gardens about it, may appear, they, however, contain almost the only trees that are to be met with for twenty or thirty miles round, "for the villages are destitute of trees," and most of them only supplied with what rainwater they big can save in cisterns. D'Arvieux gives us to understand that apart and weep. VOL. IX. O.T. P c De. xxviii. 48. "Thy heart is Get thee Passion I see is catching; for mine eyes, seeing those beads of sorrow stand in thine, begin to water." Shakespeare. "Unvalued here such tears may fall; but know, each tear will prove a precious pearl in heaven above." The Triumph of Time. "Ah! bitter chill it was; the owl, thers, was a-cold; the hare limp'd trembling through the frozen grass, and silent the for all his fea was flock in woolly feld."-Keats. "The nunneries of silent nooks, the murmur'd longing of the wood."-Lowell. d Harmer. "Look upon any duty or grace, and you will find it lie between Scylla and Charybdis, two ex tremes alike dan gerous. Faith, the great work of God, cuts its way between the mountain of presumption and the gulf of despair. so necessary that Patience (a grace several of the present villages of the Holy Land are in the same situation; for, observing that the Arabs burn cow-dung in their encampments, he adds that all the villagers who live in places where there is a scarcity of wood take great care to provide themselves with sufficient quantities of this kind of fuel. This is a circumstance I have elsewhere taken notice of. The Holy Land appears, by the last observations, to have been as little wooded anciently as at present; nevertheless, the Israelites seem to have burnt wood very commonly, and without buying it too, from what the Prophet says, Lam. v. 4. Had they been wont to buy their fuel, they would not have complained of it as such a hardship. The true account of it seems to be this: The woods of the land of Israel being from very ancient times common, the people of the villages, which, like those about Aleppo, had no trees growing in them, supplied themselves with fuel out of these 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 anywhere. But though this was the ancient custom in Judæa, 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 awhile under Gedaliah, as the ninth 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. 8.4 6-10. (6) given the hand, as a pledge of fidelity; submitted ourselves. with bread, i.e. to get mere food to keep us alive. (7) our.. not, Je. xxxi. 29; Eze. xviii. 2. (8) servants have ruled, Neh. v. 15. (9) sword.. wilderness, fig. for the perils from the Arabs. (10) black, ch. iv. 8. Danger may be near when we least expect it.-The Rev. John Newton sometimes said he had received more damage at his own door than in all the countries he had been in abroad; for he had twice fallen down the steps at his own door, each time spraining a knee. So much injury he had never received abroad. Such a fact shows clearly the necessity of our always living as if exposed to danger, and thus committing ourselves to the Divine prowe cannot be tection.-Life full of dangers.-I sometimes think that life is like without it a day, the experience of a man that climbs Alpine glaciers. His life is except we would be all that while perpetually threatened by deep crevices covered with snow, steep He is beside ourselves) declivities, uneven ledges, and impending avalanches. keeps us that we met by dangers at every step; and when the ascent is accomfall neither into plished, he can count twenty places where he might have been plexy of a block- dashed in pieces for one where he was absolutely safe." the sleepy apo 11-15. (11, 12) hanged.. hand, prob. aft. their death, to expose them to public contumely." (13) grind, the house hand-mill; the work of female slaves. under the wood, i.e. under the heavy burdens of wood which they were compelled to fetch and carry. (14) ceased.. gate, from attending as magistrates. (15) dance, the sign of cheerfulness. |