3070. [2 Sam. iii. 1, 2, &c.] The persons, here called sons of David, were such as were ennobled by him after he became king of Judah. Their mothers were the women that presented them to the king in this birth of honor and loyalty.

3071. [2 5.] See Kings xv. 2. These women were guardians to the princes. "In Egypt, as in most eastern empires, a decree might be made, which entrusted the guardianship of the minor princes to their mothers, or elder sisters, who appeared less dangerous than uncles and brothers. Thus Skemiophris, Amesses, and Achenckres, although inserted as real queens in some few catalogues of the dynasties, were nothing more than guardians of the presumptive heirs. (De PAUW, vol. i. p. 38.) — The education of the princes of the Medes and Persians was for many ages committed to the women. Dejoces, their first king, began the custom; and it was continued till some time after the reign of Cyrus, and is at this day practised in many places. of the East. These young monarchs were entirely entrusted to the care of women, till the age of fifteen or sixteen. (Dr. W. ALEXANDER's list. of Women, vol. i. p. 31.)— Cities, towns, countries, nations, provinces, and the four quarters of the globe, were represented on medals under the shape of women. (ADDISON, on Medals, p. 133.) A Gentile who is become a proselyte, and a slave who is set at liberty, are both as it were new-born babes; which is the reason why those who before were their parents, are now no longer so. Phil. 10.

MAIMONIDES.

3075. [2 Sam. v. 8.] Dr. GREGORY (in his Notes and Observations on passages of Scripture, pp. 29 - 34) as quoted in Patrick's Commentary on this passage, understands by the lame and the blind, the gods of this people, who, as the Psalmist expresses it (cxv), had eyes but saw not, and feet but walked not. Which opinion is supported and rendered very plausible by the following arguments: 1. How could David distinguish the halt, the lame, or the blind from able men, when posted on lofty walls. 2. How can it be supposed there was such a number of these wretched persons in so small a city, as to merit David's particular attention. 3. And why should he say, his soul hated them; when it would have been natural in him to have commiserated their unhappy condition?

Univer. Hist. vol. ii. p. 186.

3076. [6-8.] Several Jewish writers agree that the blind and the lame were images, and that these epithets were bestowed on them in derision: Ps. cxv. 5. 7. They were of brass, and are said to have had inscriptions upon them. They were set up in a recess of the fort. Though in scorn called the blind and the lame, yet they were so surely entrusted with the keeping of the place, that if they did not hold it out, the Jebusites said, they should not come into the house: that is, they would never again commit the safety of the fort to such palladia as these.

3077.

BURDER'S Oriental Customs, vol. ii.

p. 131.

Getteth up to the gutter] Rabatamana,

a city of Arabia, could not be taken, till one of the prisoners shewed the besiegers a subterraneous passage, through which the besieged came down for water.

POLYBIUS, Ed. Casaubon, vol. i. p. 578.
See Bib. Research. vol. ii. p. 77.

of Scripture where this word occurs, which are about 36, is any such sinister sense implied as harlots or prostitutes, Univer. Hist. b. i. 7. 4.

dead, not for merely touching the ark, but for attempting to seize it as his property. See his Treatise entitled Glory or Gravity, pp. 142-145. See also, on Num. x. 33.

3081. [2 Sam. v. 13.] When Hannibal passed through Gaul, the people of that country stipulated with him, that if they should have any ground of complaint against the Carthagenians, they would refer it to the decision of the Carthagenian chiefs; but that if the Carthagenians in turn should have any reason to complain of the Gauls, the women of the people last named should decide on the justness of such complaints. Women are still the lawgivers of the moral code, which is much more powerful than the legal. They should be invited every where to an equal participation of our fortuues and of our rights, as Nature has called them to be partakers of our pleasures and our pains.

St. PIERRE'S Works, vol. iv. pp. 300, 327.

3086. [2 Sam. vi. 14.] Did David accompany his dancing, on this occasion, with an appropriate sacred song, or festive Psalm? such, for instance, as Ps. Ixviii. If so, his conduct will receive illustration from the following incident, which occurred to Captain H. WILSON, at one of the Pelew Islands, when the natives kept a day of festivity, on the capture of a war-canoe. 'They ornamented themselves with plantain leaves, nicely paired into stripes, like our ribbons, which, being of a yellowish color, had a good effect on their dark skins; then forming themselves into circles, one within another, an elderly person began a song, or long sentence, and on his coming to the end of it, all the dancers joined in concert, dancing along at the same time; then a new sentence was pronounced and danced to; which continued till every one had sung, and his verse had been danced to. Their manner of dancing does not consist so much in capering and leaping, or other feats of agility, as in a certain method of reclining their bodies, and yet preserving their balance."

3087. [14, 16.] This evidenee is enough to prove, that David and the people danced in circles. (See HUTCHINSON'S Principia, part ii. p. 288.)-See the reason for such dancing in Ezek. chap. i.

3088. [20.] Arab Chan, governor of Schamachie, made a great procession to receive the envoy, who brought him a letter from the king. He went out to the king's garden, and being come within ten or twelve paces of the envoy, he very cheerfully put off his garment and turban ; but perceiving the envoy stood a while without saying aught to him, he began to be a little startled and out of countenance, till the envoy said to him, "Ai Arab Chan"; who answered, "What saidst thou ?" The envoy continued, "Scha Sefi sends thee a garment, and a letter of favor; thou art certainly beloved of the king." The Chan replied very courageously, "May the king's wealth continue for ever; and may every day of his be as a thousand. I am one of the king's servants. He then took the garment with very great submission.”

Ambassadors' Trav. into Persia, p. 400. Apply this to Esth. viii. 8, 9, 13. Dan. v. 29. x. 11, 19. Ps. lxxxiv. 10. Coloss. iii. 9, 10.

3089. [21. It was before the LORD] That is, in reverence of the Divine Presence accompanying the ark, that

I uncovered myself. In Captain Cook's Second Voyage, we are told that, at Oparree, all the king's subjects, his father not excepted, are uncovered before him: which uncovering is there explained to be, the making bare the head and shoulders, or wearing no sort of clothing above the breast. It is added, "when Otoo came into the cabin, Ereti and some of his friends were sitting there. The moment they saw the king enter, they stripped themselves in great haste, being covered before. This was all the respect they paid him; for they never rose from their seats, nor made any other obeisance."

MAVOR.

Tinah, king of Matavai, told Captain BLIGH, that no person could see his son, who was not uncovered down to the shoulders. - Tinah himself had uncovered his shoulders, as did his attendants in this visit.

the idolaters and apostates had such likewise for their idols. PARKHURST'S Hebrew Lexicon, P. 736.

3098. [2 Sam. vii. 13. For my Name] Where-ever the Romans fixed their standards they looked on that place as their country, and thought themselves obliged to defend it with their lives. For this reason their standards were always carried before them when they went to settle themselves in a colony. ADDISON, on Medals, p. 110.

3094. [16.] House, in this Chapter, is used in the same sense as we use the phrase "House of York," or "House of Lancaster."

3090. [2 Sam. vii. 2.] The cedar bears a narrow leaf, of a sad green; with a cone or apple like that of the pine tree, but darker, and of a smooth coat. Its top is broad and flat resembling an umbrella. (Univer. Hist. vol. ii. p. 238.)- Is this apple one of the eatables mentioned in Scripture ?

3091.

There are two sorts of cedar, the white and the red; but both have nearly the same sort of bark. These trees are low, bushy, and full of branches and little leaves, each resembling the tag of a lace. The wood of this tree is almost as light as cork consequently the savages make use of it in the wreaths and ribs of their canoes. The red sort looks admirably well, aud may be made into household goods, which will ever retain an agreeable smell. PINKERTON'S Coll. part liii. p. 361.

3092. [- — 6.] It appears from the words of Gen. iii. 24, critically examined, that there was at the east of the garden of Eden, a Tabernacle (resembling doubtless, the Mosaic) in which the Cherubim and emblematic fire or glory were placed [under the tree of life] from the fall (compare Wisd. ix. 8.); and which surely continued in the believing line of SETH. Whether this same sacred Tabernacle were preserved by NOAH in the ark, and remained in the family of EBER, till the descent of the Israelites into Egypt, and were brought up by them from thence, cannot perhaps now be determined. Certain however it is from Exod. xxxiii. 7 - 9 (compare Exod. xvi. 33, 34. 1 Sam. iv. 8), that the Israelites had a tabernacle or tent, sacred to JEHOVAH, before that erected by Moses; and it appears from Amos v. 26, and Acts vii. 43, that soon after the Exodus

COWPER'S Iliad, vol. ii. p. 70. l. 461. In the annals of Octavian Ubaldini, who filled the episcopal chair of Bologna from the year 1260 to 1295, it appears that lines and marks were set up by order of the govern ment, within which each of the hostile families (the Lambertazzi and Gieremei) were bound to confine themselves for the prevention of all true as well as pretended causes of vengeance. No member of the one family could transgress those boundaries and break in upon the line of the other without exposing himself to immediate death.

3098. [2 Sam. viii. 3.] JOSEPHUS (Antiq. lib. vii. 6) shews from Nicolaus Damascenus' History, that Adad, who reigned over part of Syria, made war with David king of the Jews, and was overcome at the Euphrates; that his posterity reigned to the tenti: generation, having the same name (Does this prove that Adad was a title, like Doge, &c. ?); and that the third Adad, to take away the dishonor thrown upon his pre lecessor, fought against the Jews, and wasted Samaria (1 Kings xx). The last of those kings might be Rez:u, mentioned 2 Kings xvi. 9.

In this light Hezer is the name; Adad the title; and the H prefixed, is the Heb. particle for the equivalent, when combined, to some such title as, the usurper (for that appears to be the character of) Hezer.

more or less homage. This monarch had his residence near Heliopolis, in the vicinity of Goshen. Chron. Pasch. p. 33.

3103. [2 Sam. viii. 17.] In India the Shanaboga, or accomplant of the village, who is always a Brahmin, not only keeps all the accompts, but writes all the letters as dictated to him by the chief of the village.

BUCHANAN, in Pinkerton's Coll. vol. viii. p. 647.

3106. [2 Sam. x. 5.] It is customary to shave the Ottoman princes, as a mark of their subjection to the reigning emperor. (De la MOTRAYE, p. 247.) — In the mountains of Yemen, where strangers are seldom seen, it is a disgrace to appear shaven. The beard is a mark of authority and iberty among the Mahometans, as well as among the Turks: the Persians, who clip the beard and shave above the jaw, are reputed heretics. They who serve in the seraglio, have their beard shaven as a sign of servitude: they do not suffer it to grow, till the sultan has set them at liberty. Among the Arabians it is more infamous for any one to have his beard cut off, than among us to be publicly whipped, or branded with a hot iron. Many in that country would prefer death to such a punishment.

3108. [2 Sam. xi. 1.] We look with expectation every winter, to the period when the swallow and the nightingale shail announce to us the return of serenity. How much more affecting would it be to behold the People of distant lands arrive with the Spring on our shores, not with the dreadful noise of artillery, like modern Europeans, but with the sound of the flute and of the hautboy, as the antient Navigators in the earlier ages of the world!- Did men live in peace, every sea would be navigated, every region would be explored, all their productions would be collected. What a gratification of curiosity would it be to listen to the adventures of foreign travellers, attracted to us by the gentleness of our manners! They would not be slow in communicating to our hospitality the secrets of their plants, of their industry, and of their traditions, which they will for ever conceal from our ambitious commerce. - What a sublime satisfaction would it be to us, to enjoy their joy, to behold their dances in our public squares, and to hear the drums of the Tartar, and the ivory cornet of the Negro re-echo round the statues of our Kings.

See No. 967.

St. PIERRE's Studies of Nature, vol. i. pp. 92, 94.

3109. [2. Washing herself] Not bathing, as she was probably on the exposed terrace of her own house. I went up, says DANDINI, one evening on the terrace, to take the air, and survey the city Tripoli as much as I could: I perceived some Jewish women on the terraces of the neighbouring houses; and I easily comprehended by this means, that the place where David saw Bathsheba, was only a terrace of this kind at the top of the house. (Voyage au mont Liban, chap. v.) — Thus circumstanced, the renowned Bathsheba, in simply washing herself unveiled, displayed innocently and unintentionally to the youthful king, the usually hidden features of her lovely face. (See Susanna 31, 32.) No gloves are worn in the East.

Sir JOHN CHARDIN.

appear that Bathsheba was only betrothed, not married to Uriah.

3112. [2 Sam. xi. 4.] The crime of adultery, in India, can be committed by betrothed as well as married

persons.

3113.

BARTOLOMEO, by Johnston, p. 270.

David sent messengers, and took her] That is, to wife. The King, in his marriage, uses no other ceremony than this: He sends an Azagi to the house where the lady lives, where the officer announces to her, 'It is the king's pleasure that she should remove instantly to the palace.' She then dresses herself in the best manner, and immediately obeys. Thenceforward he assigns her an apartment in the palace, and gives her au house elsewhere, in any part she chooses. Then when he makes her Iteghe, it seems to be the nearest resemblance to marriage; for whether in the court or the camp, he orders one of the judges to pronounce, in his presence, that he, the King, has chosen his handmaid, naming her, for his Queen; on which the crown is put on her head, but she is not anointed. BRUCE's Trav. vol. iii. p. 87.

3114. [9. Uriah slept at the door] In India, M. Jallabert's two servants had thrown themselves down on mats, spread out in the fore-hall, in order to sleep. See No. 2804.

BARTOLOMEO, by Johnston, p. 14.

3115. [— 21. Jerubbesheth] Instead of Jerubbaal, Gideon's Pagan name: the Jews abhorring Baal's name, substituted for it Bosheth, shame; as Ish-bosheth, for Ish-baal. Univer. Hist. vol. iii. p. 459.