W

ATER, like earthenware, is incapable of forming a perfect barrier to any kind of air: but it differs from earthenware in one respect; the last is alike permeable to all the gases, but water is much more permeable to carbonic acid gas, &c. than to others.

DALTON'S Chem. Philosophy, part i. p. 207. Verse 6. Into a bag with holes] The Maldivians have a large silk fringed girdle, in the left side of which is a pocket. for carrying their money and betel, and in the right a knife is stuck.

DE LAVAL.

4431. [Haggai ii. 3.] For several leagues below Montreal in America, the churches have spires, covered, according to the custom of the country, with plates of tin nailed on diagonally, the corners of which are folded over the heads of the nails, so as to guard them from moisture and prevent their becoming rusty. It is pleasing beyond description, as you sail along the river St. Lawrence, to behold these spires sparkling through the groves with which they are encircled, before the rays of the setting sun.

WELD'S Trav. in N. America, vol. i. p. 336.

4432. [Haggai ii. 29.] There have been three temples. at Jerusalem; the first built by Solomon in seven years, the second by Zerubbabel in forty-six, and the third by Herod the Great in eight. The last was the most stately. In this, and not in Zerubbabel's temple, was fulfilled the prophecy of Haggai, that the glory of the last house should be greater than that of the first.

COWLEY.

4433. [7.] The Chinese had, among their most valuable records, some signal prophecies of the Messiah's being to appear in human flesh in some of the Western parts of the world; and which were so plainly understood, so firmly believed, and so religiously preserved, that their great philosopher Confucius, who hved near 500 years before our Saviour, could point out the very year of their cycle, or sexagenary, in which he was to be born.

Modern Univer. Hist. vol. viii. p. 345.

4434. [ 19.] The word we translate harn, may also signify the plowed ground, wherein the seed is sown for to bring forth a crop the next year.

In this sense of the word, the general meaning of the passage will be, that the seed-corn was not yet sown. See WELLS, in loco.

THIS prophet began, about two months after Haggai, to

encourage the people to rebuild the Temple, by assuring them of the Divine protection and blessing during the accomplishment of the work.

See Univer. Ilist. vol. ix. p. 548.

4436. [Zech. i. 1.] The monument of the prophet Zechariah stands in the city Damascus. Jerusalem is only ten days' journey from Damascus. KHOJEH ABDULKURREEM, p. 147.

represented by an Osiris carried on a winged horse, the symbol of ships and their sails.

The bark with its sail, was represented in Egypt and Phenicia under the figure of a winged steed. On this account it was that the people of Cadiz, who were originally of Phenician extraction, antiently gave a ship, whether large or small, the name of a horse; and speaking of their barks they called them their horses.

They painted the figure of a horse on the stern of the Phenician ships.

STRABO, Geograph. l. 2. p. 99. edit.

Reg. Abbe PLUCHE'S Hist. of the Heav. vol. i. pp. 47, 205.

4437. [8.] Five hundred paces from the gate of the eity (Bagdad) we met a young man of a good family, for he was attended by two servants, and rode on an ass, the hinder part of which was painted red. (TAVERNIER'S Trav. p. 111.) And MUNGO PARK informs us, that the Moorish Sovereign Ali always rode on a milk-white horse, with its tail dyed red. See Zech. vi. 2. Rev. vi. 4.

Red horses] A species of camel. The Israelites had no horses, nor are they of any great use in mountainous countries: their kings had them out of Egypt, when they had occasion for them.

Clarke's FLEURY, p. 62.

The Tartars of the present day are said to hold white horses (their camels) in great estimation; how much they were esteemed in antient times, appears from various passages of different writers, who believed that they excelled in swiftness all horses of a different color.

Qui candore nives anteirent, cursibus auras.

Beloe's HERODOT. Melpom. c. xxiii, note 28.

4438. As the Phenicians and others every year landed in Egypt at the island of Pharos, thence to fetch flax, beeve-hides, the oils of Sais, vegetables, corn and provisions of all kinds; the annual return of the fleet was

4441. [Zech. iii. 1.] According to the Chronicon Alexandrinum, this highpriest Jeshua, who accompanied the first Jews that returned from captivity under the decree of Cyrus, died in or about the third of the reign of Xerxes, and in the fifth year of his own high-priesthood. He was succeeded by his son Joiakim (Nehem. xi. 10. JOSEPH. Antiq b. xi. ch. v. § 1), who continued high-priest thirty years, dying about the To him succeeded twelfth year of Artaxerxes Longimanus.

his son Eliashib (Nehem. iii. 1), who was high-priest forty

years. This Eliashib, who died in the eleventh year of Dasius Notho, was the last high-priest during the canonical history of the Old Testament, which ends with the book of Nehemiah.

See WELLS' Contin. of Jewish Hist. p. 81.

4442. [Zech. iii. 1. A satan] He and Joshua, then on earth, were seen as here described, at the extremities of their own spheres before the Lord; in the world of spirits which is above and around our earth: see Acts xvi. 9.

As to the real man who was the principal satan or adversary to Joshua on this occasion, the following extracts will prove that it was Tatnai, called by the Greeks Sisinnes. "Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Josadak, began to build the house of God at Jerusalem. Then came Tatnai, with Shethar-boznai and others, and said to them, Who commanded you to build this house? — and, to stop the building, wrote a letter to king Darius." Ezra v. 2, &c.

When Zorobabel the son of Salathiel and Jesus the son of Josedec began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, Sisinnes with Sathrabuzanes came and said to them, By whose appointment do you build this house? 1 Esdras vi. 2, 3, &c.

Sisinnes and Sathrabuzanes writing to Darius to put a stop to the building of the Temple, he returned for answer Having found a copy of this (inclosed) Epistle among the records of Cyrus, I have sent it to you; and I will that all things be done as is therein written."

JOSEPH. b. xi. ch. iv. § 4, 5, 6, &c. Thus Tatnai opposed Joshua in re-building the Temple, as Sanballat afterwards resisted Nehemiah in repairing the Walls and Gates of Jerusalem.

See Nehem. ii. 10, 19. — iv. 7, 8, &c.

4443. [- 3] It was usual, especially among the Romans, when a man was charged with a capital crime, and during his arraigument, to let down his hair, suffer his beard to grow long, to wear filthy ragged garments, and appear in a very dirty and sordid habit. (Alex. ab. Alex. Genial. Dier. l. iii. c. 5.) — The guilty person sometimes appeared before the judges clothed in black, having his head covered with dust. BURDER'S Oriental Customs, vol. ii. p. 289.

4444. [ 9.] The word in the Coptic of Upper Egypt, signified LIGHT, and the Arabic, the eye or fountain of light. Archæologia, vol. xiv. p. 207.

4445. [Zech. iv. 10.] It is not to force that God gives a durable empire: it is to harmony. By their harmony, little things adhere and become great; and it is frequently by means of their force that great things separate, clash, break in pieces, and become small.

We must not form a judgment of the goodness of machines from the magnitude of their movements: if the great produce a greater effect than the small, it is only because their levers are longer. The same is true of the comparative powers resulting from public and private virtues.

It is unquestionably certain that if, at a critical period, every Citizen would re-establish order in his own house only, general order would speedily result from the prevalence of universal domestic order.

St. PIERRE'S Works, vol. iv.pp. 215, 398. Some millions of men live on the product of the silk-worm and the burret.

4447. [———————— 1, 2, 3.] These Post Animals of different colors, dispatched by Ahasuerus to reverse the decree he had given Haman for the utter destruction of the Jews, were horses, mules, camels, and young dromedaries.

See Esther viii. 10. Verse 8. These that go towards the north] On mules and camels, the black and white horses; of verse the 6th.

Verse 7. To and fro through the earth] That is, from east to west, and vice versa; as, in tropical regions, the winds and tides regularly go to and fro; i. e. from east to west and from west to east.

Verse 8. Quieted my spirit] So that the Lord had no occasion to send deliverance from Nineveh which lay north of Jerusalem. See Esther iv. 14. Or, quieted His spirit at Shushan, among the Jews, particularly in Mordecai, Esther, &c. See Esther ix. 18. And in Ahasuerus, vi. 1.— vii. 10.

--

Verse 5. The lord of all the earth] Ahasuerus, who had dominion over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces. Esther i. 1.

4448. [ 2, 7. Red or bay] The color of the vicuna camel on the upper parts is a reddish brown, and the remainder of an isabella color, except the breast, belly, insides

of the thighs, and under part of the tail, which are white. It was formerly domesticated in Peru, as the lama is at present.

REES.

4449. [Zech. vi. 3. Grizled] The horses of Thibet are a peculiar race, generally pied, not exceeding the English galloways in size, natural amblers, and much valued as pads. FORBES' Oriental Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 100.

4450. [7. That they might walk] The camel walks at the average rate of ten or twelve leagues a-day. When he accelerates his pace, it is in the same manner as a horse ambles; though to the rider ten times more jolting than a horse's hardest trot.

REES.

4455. [Zech. ix. 1. The burden] The judgment: Num.

xi. 17.

Verse 2.] See 2 Kings xvii. 24, 25, compared with Ezra ix. 1, 2.

Verses 4, 6.] Ezra x. 3, 16, 117, compared with 2 Kings xvii. 28 33.

Verse 6. A bastard] In Ezra, the decree is that the bastard breed born of the strange women should be put away. See Ch. x. 3.

Verse 8.] See Neh. iv. 7, 8. - Returneth, Neh. xiii. 6, 7. Verse 13.] Neh. iv. 16.

Verse 12. Prisoners of hope] See Esther viii. 16.

4456. [9.] This is an account of Nehemiah's first coming to Jerusalem, under a commission for 12 years' absence. Nehem. v. 14.

After the 12 years, he returned to Babylon; where, having tarried some years, he again obtained leave from Artaxerxes to return to Jerusalem. Nehem. xiii. 6.

4451. [Zech. vii. 1.] This second captivity commenced at the destruction of Jerusalem, and ended precisely 18 years after the former, at the publication of Darius's decree for rebuilding the Temple and restoring liberty to the Jews. See 2 Kings xxiv. 10-16.

See Univer. Hist. vol. ix. p. 499.

4457.

Zechariah was probably put to death for› thus proclaiming Nehemiah "a king in Judah." (Compare Nehem. vi. 7 with Zech. xii. 10.) It is certain that Sanballat, Tobiah, and other heads of Samaria, sought the life of Nehemiah under that pretence. Nehem. vi. 12.

4452. [3. Should I weep &c.] God did but appoint one day of fasting and weeping for sin, the expiation-day, or day of atonement: Lev. xxiii. 26, &c.

4453. [5.] These fasts, still kept by the Jews, were in commemoration of, 1. Nebuchadnezzar's first laying siege to Jerusalem. 2. Of its being taken by him. 3. Of its being burnt together with the Temple. 4. For the murder of Gedaliah.

See Univer. Hist. vol. ix. p. 515.

4458. [13.] There were two kinds of bows in use among the Laplanders; the one called the Hand-bow, because it was stretched by the hand alone. This instrument was very simple, consisting of one arch, properly so called, and a string. The arrow, which was fitted to the hand-bow, was rather long, with a very sharp point, made of bone, or iron.

The other was called the Foot-bow. This besides the bow and string, was furnished with a wooden handle and button, made from the horn of the rein-deer, on which the string held when the bow was bent. The arrows placed in this bow were without point; but the foot-bow was stretched no less by the aid of the feet than the hands, whence it had its name. PINKERTON'S Coll. part iii. p. 421.

4454. [Zech. viii. 23.] Ten principal men came from Ahasuerus who reigned over 127 provinces, with Zerubbabel : Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mizpah, Bigvai, Rehum, Banaah. Ezra ii, 2.

4459. [Zech. x. 4. Every oppressor] That is, Joshua, Nehemiah, &c.—every governor, that kept the Lord's people in subjection to Cyrus, Artaxerxes, &c.