corn.'

AND ALL THE best of the WINE] Hebrew, vě-kahl khalev tirosh, and all the best (or choice part) of the vine-fruit.' Tirosh is here again grouped with yitzhar (olive and orchard fruit), and with dahgan (corn of all kinds), the trio forming an ascending scale-yitzhar, tirosh, dahgan-of the most valuable natural products of the 'goodly land.' If any uncertainty existed as to these terms denoting the fruits of the soil in their solid state, it would be removed by the expression 'the firstfruits' (rashithim), and by the language of verse 13, "Whatsoever is first ripe in the land, which they shall bring unto the Lord, shall be thine: every one that is clean in thine house shall eat of it." The LXX. has kai pasa aparchee elaiou, kai pasa aparchee oinou, sitou, and all the firsts of oil, and all the firsts of wine, of The V. gives omnem medullam olei, et vini, ac frumenti, 'and all the choice part of oil, of wine, and of corn.' The Samaritan Version, instead of 'all the best of wine and corn,' has the strange reading of every liquor of dry or old.' The T. of Onkelos for tirosh has khamar. Jonathan gives 'every good of the wine of the grape'-khamar inbah. In Walton's Polyglot translation tirosh is rendered by musti, 'of unfermented wine.' With this also agrees the Arabic Version, which commonly translates tirosh by ětzer. This is a case, as a reference to the original will evince, in which the Jews of the Captivity seem to have lost the true and certain sense of the words tirosh and yitzhar (vine and orchard fruit), and to have narrowed their meaning down to that of a liquid prepared by man, and at the same time to have confused tirosh with a species of yayin (as ahsis or khěmer), and yitzhar with shemen, the conventional and specific word for oil. [See Prel. Dis.] The modern versions all follow in the traditional rut.

CHAPTER XVIII. VERSE 27.

And this your heave-offering shall be reckoned unto you as though it were the corn of the threshing-floor, and as the fulness of the winepress.

AND AS THE FULNESS OF THE WINEPRESS] Hebrew, vě-kamlāah min-hayyahqev, 'and like the abundance of the wine-vat.' Yahqev, as the vat or reservoir into which the juice flowed, is distinguished by some critics from gath, the receptacle of the grapes, where they were trodden, = the wine-press; but the soundness of this distinction is doubtful. The LXX. has aphairema apo leenou, 'and produce from the wine-press.' In the V. the whole sentence runs-Ut reputetur vobis in oblationem primitivorum tam de areis quam de torcularibus, 'that it may be reckoned to you as an oblation of firstfruits, as well from the threshing-floors as from the winepresses.' Ts. Onkelos and Jonathan have 'wine of fulness from the wine-press.' The Arabic Version has 'the expressed-juice (etzer) from the wine-press.'

CHAPTER XVIII. VERSE 30.

Therefore thou shalt say unto them, When ye have heaved the best thereof from it, then it shall be counted unto the Levites as the increase of the threshing-floor, and as the increase of the winepress.

AND AS THE INCREASE OF THE WINEPRESS] Hebrew, vě-kithvuath yahqev, 'and as the produce of the wine-vat.' The Lxx. reads, hōs geneema apo leenou,

'and as produce from the wine-press.' The Aldine edition of the LXX. has a phairema apo leenou, 'produce of the press.' The V. rendering is quasi de area et torculari dederitis primitias, 'as if yielding the firsts of the floor and the wine-press.' Onkelos gives 'as fruit of the wine-press.'

CHAPTER XX. VERSE 5.

And wherefore have ye made us to come up out of Egypt, to bring us in unto this evil place? it is no place of seed, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; neither is there any water to drink.

OR VINES] Hebrew, vě-gephen, 'and vine.' This makes it clear that the Israelites were accustomed to see, and probably to eat, the fruit of the vine, in Egypt. In regard to liquids, it is not the absence of wine of which they complain, but the want of water, and to supply this real necessity the miracle of the smitten rock is performed (verse 11).

CHAPTER XX. VERSE 17.

Let us pass, I pray thee, through thy country: we will not pass through the fields, or through the vineyards, neither will we drink of the water of the wells: we will go by the king's high way, we will not turn to the right hand, nor to the left, until we have passed thy borders.

OR THROUGH THE VINEYARDS] Hebrew, uv-kerem, and through (or into) a vineyard,' land set with vines and fruit-trees.

CHAPTER XXI. VERSES 16-18.

16 And from thence they went to Beer: that is the well whereof the LORD spake unto Moses, Gather the people together, and I will give them water. 17 Then Israel sang this song, Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it: 18 The princes digged the well, the nobles of the people digged it, by the direction of the lawgiver, with their staves.

TO BEER] Beer (or Baar) signifies 'well,' an etymology which throws light upon this passage. The Song of the Tribes is a beautiful tribute to the priceless value of water, an element most appreciated in a dry and thirsty land,' where running streams are absent. How strange that ‘a good creature of God' like this should be despised by those who bestow the title emphatically on the products of misapplied ingenuity !—and, stranger still, that they should regard this preference and characterization as a mark of superior wisdom!

CHAPTER XXI. VERSE 22.

Let me pass through thy land: we will not turn into the fields, or into the vineyards; we will not drink of the waters of the well: but we will go along by the king's high way, until we be past thy borders.

OR INTO THE VINEYARDS] Hebrew, uv-kerem, 'and into (or through) a vineyard.'

CHAPTER XXI. VERSE 29.

Woe to thee, Moab! thou art undone, O people of Chemosh: he hath given his sons that escaped, and his daughters, into captivity unto Sihon king of the Amorites.

CHEMOSH] Hebrew, Kěmosh. “Some," says Rosenmüller, "think this the same with the Greek Comus, the god of feasting (or guzzling), drinking, and all lasciviousness and wantonness. Others think the word the same with kemus, the Arabic for 'lice,' and that it was the image of one made with astrologic art to extirpate lice. So the Acaronites worshipped Baal-zebul, 'the fly god."" Gesenius considers it to signify 'subduer,' 'conqueror.'

CHAPTER XXII. VERSE 24.

But the angel of the LORD stood in a path of the vineyards, a wall being on this side, and a wall on that side.

IN A PATH OF THE VINEYARDS] Hebrew, bě-mishol hak ramim, 'in a narrow path of the vineyards,'- -a road running through a district set with vines. These paths were exceedingly narrow, and sometimes flanked, as in this case, with walls made of the stones taken from the land.

CHAPTER XXVIII. VERSE 7.

And the drink-offering thereof shall be the fourth part of an hin for the one lamb in the holy place shalt thou cause the strong wine to be poured unto the LORD for a drink-offering.

DRINK-OFFERING] Hebrew, nesek, 'a libation,' that which is poured out. AN HIN] Hebrew, hin. See Note on Exod. xxix. 40.

THE STRONG WINE] Hebrew, shakar, 'sweet drink.' The Lxx. has sikera; the V., vini, 'of wine.' The T. of Onkelos has 'a libation of old wine' (dakhamar attiq). The Jerusalem T. renders khamar bekhir, 'a choice wine.' Jonathan agrees with Onkelos, but adds, "If old wine cannot be found, let wine of forty days be poured out before the Lord." This is the only place where the A. V. gives to shakar the rendering of 'strong wine;' probably to make the passage agree with verse 14, and with Exod. xxix. 40, where wine (yayin) alone is mentioned. Shakar may here be taken in its most comprehensive sense, as including all sweet drinks, even yayin in its sweet condition; or the injunction may be read as a permission to use either shakar or yayin, as might be most convenient. [See Note on Cant. viii. 2.]

It is not necessary to quote at length the other passages in this chapter where the word nesek, 'drink-offering,' or better, 'libation,' occurs. A reference will suffice to verses 9, 10, 14, 15, 24, 31.

CHAPTER XXVIII. VERSE 14.

And their drink-offerings shall be half an hin of wine unto a bullock, and the third part of an hin unto a ram, and a fourth part of an

E

hin unto a lamb: this is the burnt-offering of every month throughout the months of the year.

OF WINE] Hebrew, yayin, 'wine'; the LXX. oinou, and V. vini, ‘of wine.'

CHAPTER XXVIII. VERSE 17.

And in the fifteenth day of this month is the feast: seven days shall unleavened bread be eaten.

UNLEAVENED BREAD] Hebrew, matzoth, 'unfermented-cakes'; the Lxx., azuma, 'unfermented-things'; the V., azymis, 'with unfermented things.'

CHAPTER XXXII. VERSE 9.

For when they went up unto the valley of Eshcol, and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, that they should not go into the land which the LORD had given them.

UNTO THE VALLEY OF ESHCOL] Hebrew, ad nakhal Eshkol, 'to the valley of Eshcol. [See Note on Numb. xiii. 23.]

THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY.

CHAPTER I. VERSE 24.

And they turned and went up into the mountain, and came unto the valley of Eshcol, and searched it out.

THE VALLEY OF ESHCOL] See Notes on Numb. xiii. 23, 24.

CHAPTER II. VERSE 6.

eat; and ye

Ye shall buy meat of them for money, that ye may shall also buy water of them for money, that ye may drink.

The value attached to water in the East is here brought strikingly before us; also the justice which characterized the policy of the Jewish lawgiver. The Edomites were in possession of the wells, and the fluid of life must be paid for, if money would be accepted.

CHAPTER VI. VERSE II.

And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full.

VINEYARDS] Hebrew, kerahmim, 'vineyards.'

CHAPTER VII. VERSE 13.

And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.

AND THE FRUIT OF THY LAND] Hebrew, u-phri admahthekah, and the fruit of thy soil.' Pěri, fruit,' is derived from pahrah, 'to bear,' and is here used comprehensively of the three principal productions of the Holy Land, dahgan, tirosh, yitzhar-corn, vine-fruit, and orchard-fruit.

THY WINE] The Hebrew is vě-tiroshkah, 'and thy vine-fruit.' Onkelos has v'kamrak, ‘and thy wine'; the LXX., tou oinou sou, of thy wine.' So the