lack-lustre expression of the inebriate's eye. It is true that 'redness of eyes' is one feature in Solomon's portraiture of the drunkard; but this fact illustrates the proposition that 'the letter,' even of Scripture, may kill, if the spirit be overlooked. Piety revolts at the suggestion that Jacob promised as a blessing that which Solomon portrays as a curse. Professor Lee justly denounces this immoral exegesis; but when he substitutes for it the brightness of the eye 'refreshed' by moderate draughts of wine, he lays himself open to a triad of objections: First, that he excludes from khaklili the idea of color; secondly, that he makes this khaklili to depend on a limitation of wine, and not, as the passage itself implies, on its profusion; and thirdly, that the 'refreshing' effect he associates with the moderate use of wine is, physiologically, different in degree only from that which he condemns. When the eyes are lighted up with wine, can the brain be said to be perfectly sober? Has not the drinker then reached a stage of vinosity when he may regard himself as 'elevated,' but when calmer observers must look upon him as perceptibly lowered in his rational and moral standing?

These expositions may all be considered faulty, as based on the assumption that the phrase 'red as to his eyes' has regard to an appearance of the organ of vision itself; whereas nothing more may be intended than a dark red or deep-colored appearance round about the eyes, such as would be produced by contact with the blood of the grape.' Those who washed their very clothes in the flowing juice might be appropriately described as carrying the marks of it on their faces; or if allusion is made to the crowded wine-press and the 'crushing swains,' what is more natural than to suppose the juice dashing and coloring with its spray the eyes of the gleeful treaders? The same usus loquendi is seen in 2 Kings ix. 30, ‘And she [Jezebel] painted her face'—vattasem bap-puk ainiha; literally, ‘And she put into painting [or pigment] her eyes.' So Ezek. xxiii. 40, 'Thou paintedst thy eyes'— kakhalt ainaik. Pliny says of the Roman ladies, that they were given to selfdecoration, that their eyes must be painted' (or dyed)—ut tinguantur oculi quoque. In these and other instances the reference is not to the organ of sight itself, but to the eyelid, eyebrow, or other parts of the face. The English idiom furnishes parallel examples. In the familiar phrase, 'eyes red with weeping,' it is the border of the eyes, the cheek contiguous, which is meant; and in the 'blackened eye' some adjacent part. We conclude that khaklili indicates the color of the expressed juice of the grape, which (unless the juice were itself red) would take a purple hue from the coloring matter of the skin; and this purple, being a rich deep color, forms the best possible contrast to the whiteness of milk. The 12th verse may, therefore, be rendered, “Empurpled are his eyes with grape-juice, and white are his teeth with milk." Schumann explains the last clause, "as if milk distilled from his teeth." The description is redolent of the field and the fold, at once poetical and prefigurative, but yielding no approval, direct or indirect, to the use of intoxicating drinks.

In these verses what is said of Judah is, in reality, predicted of his descendants, whose future territory in the Promised Land was to be so prolific in vines, strong and of the finest quality, that young animals could be everywhere tied to them; while the vines should be so fruitful that, besides the quantities of grapes consumed as solid fruit, the clusters should yield enough juice to form streams like water, in which, if needful, the garments of the people could be bathed. The grape-treaders would be stained with wine up to their eyes; and being blessed with pastoral as well as agricultural wealth, their teeth would seem as if made white by the milk they should consume. This promised abundance of vine-fruit and milk may be under

stood as indicating the fertility of Judah's soil, and the fecundity of his flocks and herds. Whether a typical allusion to Messianic times is included under this description the reader must judge for himself. 'Judah' has been regarded as representative of the Redeemer, and also as collectively symbolizing the Christian church. The Targumists connect these verses with the 18th verse, and construe them exclusively of the Messiah and His warlike achievements. Even Onkelos, who is generally concise, and keeps close to the Hebrew, here becomes diffuse, though he is outdone both by Jonathan and the Jerusalem interpreter. Their three paraphrases are translated in a foot-note, and prove how little the cultivated Jewish mind could, of itself, and even with the aid of the prophets, have developed that ideal of suffering yet triumphant Goodness, which the Gospels supply in the life of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.*

The Targum of ONKELOS reads "Israel shall dwell in his city; the people shall build his temple, and they shall be righteous in his city, and doers of the law according to his doctrine. The finest crimson shall be his clothing, and his apparel shall be of silk dyed with scarlet and diverse colors. His mountains shall be red with vineyards, and his hills shall flow with wine (ba-khamar); his fields shall be white with corn and flocks of sheep."

The Targum of JONATHAN runs:-"How beautiful is king Messiah, about to spring forth from the house of Judah! He shall gird His loins and descend to make ready the battle array against His enemies, slaying kings with their nobles; nor is there a king or noble who shall stand before Him who reddens the mountains with the blood of the slain, and whose blood-stained clothes resemble the skin of grapes. Beautiful as wine (k'khamrah) are the eyes of king Messiah, nor is He able to look upon impure connections and the effusion of innocent blood; His teeth are pure from milk, so that they shall not eat the spoil of rapine and violence; and therefore His mountains and winepresses shall be red with wine (min khamrah), and His hills shall be white with (min) corn and the wool of sheep."

The Jerusalem Targum is pitched in the same allegorical strain:-"How beautiful is king Messiah, about to spring forth from the house of Judah! He binds up his loins, and goes forth in battle array against those who hate Him, slaughtering kings with their nobles; He dyes the vines red with the blood of their slain, and turns the hills white with the fat of their mighty men. His garments are stained with blood, and He resembles one employed in treading grapes. How beautiful in their appearance are the eyes of king Messiah from wine! (min khamrah), so that He cannot behold impure connections and the shedding of innocent blood. His teeth are rather employed in sacred rites than in eating the prey of robbery and violence; His mountains are red with (min) vines, and His winepresses with His wine (khamrah); His hills are white with the abundance of corn and Bocks of sheep."

THE BOOK OF EXODUS.

CHAPTER III. VERSE 8.

And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.

FLOWING WITH MILK AND HONEY] Hebrew, zahvath khahlav u-d’vash. ‘Milk and honey' are used for the general produce of the land, and 'flowing with' is a striking figure of abundance. Concerning debash, see note on Gen. xliii. 11. The phrase 'flowing with milk and honey' has a proverbial iteration in the Pentateuch. Besides the above passage, it occurs in Exod. iii. 17; xiii. 5; xxxiii. 3; Lev. xx. 24; Numb. xiii. 27; xiv. 8; xvi. 13, 14; Deut. vi. 3; xi. 9; xxvi. 9, 15; xxvii. 3; xxxi. 20. Also in Josh. v. 6; Jer. xi. 5; xxxii. 22; Ezek. xx. 6, 15.

CHAPTER VII. VERSE 24.

And all the Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the river.

The Nile was emphatically the river of Egypt-its only river,—and, as rain seldom fell, the main source of its water supply for irrigation and potable use. The deliciousness of the Nile water passed into a proverb, and it was considered so fattening that (according to a tradition preserved by Plutarch) the sacred bull Apis was not allowed to drink of it. The modern Turks are said to excite their thirst for it by the use of salt. That the water of their beloved river, to which they paid divine honors, should have been made loathsome to them, was one of the severest trials possible to the Egyptians, and one of the most forcible evidences which the God of Israel could exhibit of His supremacy over the deities in which they trusted.

CHAPTER XII. VERSES 8, 15, 17-20, 34, 39.

8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. 15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel. . . 17 And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread. 18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at

even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even. 19 Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land. 20 Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread. . . . 34 And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading-troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. 39 And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt, for it was not leavened; because they were thrust out of Egypt, and could not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any victual.

V. 8, 15, 17, 18, 20, 39. UNLEAVENED BREAD] The Hebrew is matzoth, 'sweet things,' in all these passages. [On Matzoth, see Note on Gen. xix. 3.] In ver. 8 the Lxx. reads azuma, 'unleavened things,' and the Vulgate azymos panes, ‘unleavened loaves.' In ver. 15 the Lxx. has azuma, the Vulgate azyma. In ver. 17 a singular variation occurs. The Hebrew-Samaritan text, which is followed by the Samaritan version, has matzvah, 'precept,' instead of matzoth ; so that instead of "And ye shall observe [or attend to] the unleavened things," it represents as the true reading, "And ye shall observe the precept." This reading is followed by the Lxx., which has teen entoleen tauteen, this command.' But the Vulgate follows our present Hebrew text, and reads azyma, unleavened things'; and the same reading was evidently in the MSS. used by the Targumists. Several Jewish rabbis regard the words as a command to watch the unleavened cakes, lest they became accidentally leavened; and one rabbi draws the spiritual inference that care should be taken to keep the true doctrine from becoming corrupted by error.* In ver. 18, 20, the Lxx. has azuma, the Vulgate azyma. In v. 39, ugoth matzoth, rendered in the A. V. 'unleavened cakes,' is literally 'cakes-unfermented ones'; in the Lxx. it is azumous, 'unleavened' [artous, loaves, being understood]; and in the Vulgate panes azymos, ‘loaves unleavened.'

V. 15, 19. LEAVEN] The Hebrew is seor, Lxx. zumee, Vulgate fermentum. Seor is supposed to be a derivative of soar, an unused root, related to shoar and sir, 'to boil up,' 'bubble up.' Zeō, from which comes the Greek zumee, and ferveo, the root of the Latin fermentum, have similar significations. Seor may be regarded as any substance capable of producing fermentation,-all yeasty or decaying albuminous matter. Such a substance tenaciously adheres to vessels containing fermented fluids, however carefully racked; and among a people possessed of imperfect refining contrivances, the command to put away all seor out of their houses and accustomed quarters during the passover feast, could never have been rigidly carried out if fermented liquors had been retained upon their premises. Seor occurs only in three other places-Exod. xiii. 7; Lev. ii. II; and Deut. xvi. 4,-where it is rendered 'leavened bread.' Seor is supposed by some critics to enter into the composition of mishereth [s being changed into sh], rendered in the plural 'kneading-troughs' (ver. 34). The word also occurs Exod. viii. 3, and Deut. xxviii. 5, 17. Others prefer to derive it from shah-ar, 'to be left' or 'remain,' and understand by mishereth the remains of the dough left over from a

previous baking; and to this construction the Lxx., Vulgate, and Targums incline: but that the reference is to some portable vessels used in the preparation of dough seems certain from the context in each of the places where the word occurs. Seor is related to the word sour-being, in fact, the 'sourer,'-and hence contrasts with matzah, 'the sweet' or 'fresh,' unspoilt.

V. 15. LEAVENED BREAD] Hebrew, khahmātz; Lxx. sumeen; Vulgate fermentatum. Khahmātz is generically any fermented substance-anything which has been subject to the action of seor. It might seem superfluous to raise the question whether khahmātz includes liquids as well as solids, since it is equivalent to asking whether fermentation is itself or something different. The modern Jews differ in their view of this question; for though they generally include under khahmātz fermented fluids made from corn, the majority of them do not include under it fermented wine. This inconsistency is defended by a theory of the mediæval Rabbins, "that the juices of fruits, including grape-juice, do not ferment." Now it must have been patent to all careful observers, first, that the juice of crushed grapes did ferment-'boil up' or 'bubble'-when left exposed to the air for some hours, and without the adoption of preventive measures; and secondly, that the cause of this fermentation was the prior fermentation of something (gluten). in the grape, which had thus become a powerful ferment, i. e. a seor. This seor decomposes the sugar of the grape-juice (glucose), the elements of which, entering into a new chemical relation, are changed into alcohol and carbonic acid gas. [See Note on Gen. 29.]

V. 19. THAT WHICH IS LEAVENED] In ver. 19 the Hebrew kal okāl makhmetzeth is literally "every one eating [or consuming] a fermented thing,”—from khahmātz as above. In ver. 19 and 20 the Lxx. has zumōton, the Vulgate fermentalum. In ver. 20, "Ye shall eat nothing leavened," the Hebrew stands kal makhmetzeth lo tokalu, "everything fermented ye shall not eat."

V. 34. BEFORE IT WAS LEAVENED] The Hebrew is terem yekhmatz; the Lxx., pro tou zumōtheenai; the Vulgate, antequàm fermentaretur.

V. 39. FOR IT WAS NOT LEAVENED] The Hebrew, ki lo khamātz; Lxx., ou gar ezumōthee; Vulgate, neque enim poterant fermentari.

The substance of this decree may be succinctly stated. From the 14th day of the month Nisan, nothing that could cause fermentation, or that had undergone fermentation, was to be found in the houses, or to be used as articles of food by the Jewish people. The decree was strict, absolute, and universal, admitting of no exception as to place or person during the period named. To guard against a possible violation, the Rabbins afterward included the 14th day in the prohibited term-so far, at least, as to make a diligent search that every particle of the proscribed substance might be put away. The loss of civil and religious privileges was to follow disobedience to this statute—that is, as we may suppose, where the violation arose from willful carelessness or contempt, and not from involuntary oversight. The rigor of the law was, doubtless, mitigated in its administration by a regard to extenuating circumstances.

Observation 1. The prohibition against the presence of ferment and the use of all fermented articles is very explicit and emphatic, and the penalty for disobedience reads exceedingly severe. That a capital penalty was intended is, however, too probable, though some sentence resembling outlawry is involved.

2. That a prohibition so strongly declared and supported was not arbitrary in its origin is unquestionable, unless the divine legation of Moses is wholly rejected.