Entered, according to Act of Congress in the year 1836, by JOHN C, HOLBROOK, in ¡bu Clerk's Office of the District Court of Vermont. RS 491 14 1865. PREFACE. NEXT in worth and importance to the possession, is doubtless to be estimated the correct interpretation of the sacred volume. Indeed, it is the latter which gives its value to the former. A revelation not understood, or not intelligible, is no revelation, as far as its recipients are concerned. The position, therefore, that the meaning of the Bible is the Bible, we consider as unquestionably true, and consequently any new accession of light, which goes to clear up its obscurities, and cause its genuine sense to stand forth in bolder relief upon the inspired page, is in reality enriching us with a larger amount of its treasures, and virtually bestowing upon us added communications of the Divine will. In this view, the progressive elucidation of the scriptures, whether by the expository labours of critics, the researches of travellers, or the fulfilments of prophecy, may be compared to the gradual rolling away of the morning mist from a splendid landscape. As the sun advances, the shades retire, and new and interesting features of the scenery are continually opening upon the delighted eye of the spectator. Or, it may be said to resemble the slow, but momentous process of unfolding the ancient papyri, which the ravages of time and fire have spared among the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Here, as every successive word and letter, which can be redeemed from the crisp and crumbling texture of the blackened parchment, is noted down with the most scrupulous care, as forming a part of the continuous record, and going to make out its entire sense; so the sense of the sacred volume is gradually elicited, item by item, and needs only to be collected and treasured up with equal solicitude, in order to constitute a possession of infinitely more value than the choicest literary relics of antiquity. Perhaps it may be safely affirmed, that the materials are at this moment in existence, for the satisfactory solution of nearly every doubtful passage of holy writ; but the great desideratum is to have them brought together-to collect them from their wide dispersion over a countless multitude of writings, in various languages, which the great majority of Christians can neither procure nor understand. It is only in this way that they can be made really available to the great end which they are calculated to subserve; and far from idle are the claims of any one who professes to bring from scattered sources a new quota to the general stock of biblical illustration. As the Bible, in its structure, spirit, and costume, is essentially an Eastern book, it is obvious that the natural phenomena, and the moral condition of the East, should be made largely tributary to its elucidation. In order to appreciate fully the truth of its descriptions, and the accuracy, force, and beauty of its various allusions, it is indispensable that the reader, as far as possible, separate himself from his ordinary associations, and put himself, by a kind of mental transmigration, into the very circumstances of the writers. He must set himself down in the midst of oriental scenery-gaze upon the sun, sky, mountains, and rivers of Asia-go forth with the nomade tribes of the desert-follow their flockstravel with their caravans-rest in their tents-lodge in their khans-load and unload their camels-drink at their watering-places-pause during the heat of the day under the shade of their palms-cultivate the fields with their own rude implements-gather in or glean after their harvests-beat out and ventilate the grain in their open thrashing-floorsdress in their costume-note their proverbial or idiomatic forms of speech, and listen to the strain of song or story, with which they beguile the vacant hours. In a word, he must surround himself with, and transfuse himself into, all the forms, habitudes, and usages of oriental life. In this way only can he catch the sources of their imagery, or enter into full communion with the genius of the sacred penmen. While, therefore, we readily concede the very high importance of critical and philological research in dissipating the obscurities of the scriptures, and fixing their exact sense, we cannot, at the same time, but think that the collatera. illustrations derived from this source, are deserving of at least equal attention from the student of revelation. The truth is, the providence of God, which is never more worthily employed than about his Word, seems now to be directing the eyes of his servants, as with pointed finger, to the immense stores of elucidation constantly accumulating from this quarter. The tide of travel within a few years, has turned remarkably to the East. Animated either by the noble spirit of missionary enterprise, of commercial speculation, of military adventure, or laudable curiosity, men of intelligence and observation have made their way into every region on which the light of revelation originally shone; exploring its antiquities, mingling with its inhabitants, detailing its manners and customs, and displaying its physical, moral, and political circumstances. From these expeditions they have returned laden with the rich results of their industry, and the labours of the pen and the pencil have made thousands partakers of the benefit. Somewhat more than half a century ago, when the justly celebrated Observations of Harmer were given to the public, the range of materials to which he had access was comparatively limited. The travels of Chardin, Pococke, Shaw, Maundrell, Pitts, D'Arvieux, with Russel's Natural History of Aleppo, were his principal authorities-authorities, it is true, which have not yet been wholly superseded. But since his time, what an immense accession has the department of oriental travels received' The names of Volney, Niebuhr, Mariti, Clarke, Chateaubriand, Porter, Burckhardt, Buckingham, Morier, Seetzen, De Lamartine, Laborde, exhaust but a small part of the list of eastern tourists, whose labours have gone to make us familiarly acquainted with the land of patriarchs, prophets, and apostles. How desirable that the scattered gleams of illustrative light, which shine in their works, should be concentrated into one focus of illumination! This is the task which we have essayed in the present volume. In entering upon and advancing in this task, we have been more and more impressed with the remarkable fact of the permanence of eastern usages. True to the traditions of their ancestors, and impenetrable thus far to the spirit of innovation, their manners and customs, opinions and institutions, retain all the fixedness of their mountains, and flow on as unvarying as the course of their streams. To the question, therefore, whether the state of things in the East, as described by modern travellers, really coincides with that which existed at the time the scriptures were written, so that one may be cited as conveying a correct idea of the other; we may reply, in the words of Sir John Chardin, one of the most respectable and authentic of the number:-"I have written nothing," says he, "of the Indies, because I lived but five years there, and understood only the vulgar languages, which are the Indian and Persian, without the knowledge of that of the Brahmins; but, nevertheless, I did not spend my time there in idleness: on the contrary, as the winters in that country will not permit one to travel, I employed that time in a work which I had long in my thoughts, and which I may call my favourite design, by the pleasure wherewith I laboured in it, and the profit which I hope the public will receive thereby; which is certain notes upon very many passages of holy scripture, whereof the explication depends on the knowledge of the customs of the eastern countries; for the East is the scene of all the historical facts mentioned in the Bible. The language of that divine book (especially of the Old Testament) being oriental, and very often figurative and hyperbolical, those parts of scripture which are written in verse, and in the prophecies, are full of figures and hyperboles, which, as it is manifest, cannot be well understood without a knowledge of things from whence such figures are taken, which are natural properties and particular manners of the countries to which they refer. I discerned this in my first voyage to the Indies: for I gradually found a greater sense and beauty in divers passages of scripture than I had before, by having in my view the things, either natural or moral, which explained them to me; and in perusing the different translations which the greatest part of the translators of the Bible had made, I observed that every one of them (to render the expositions, as they thought, more intelligible) used such expressions as would accommodate the phrase to the places where they writ; and which did not only many times pervert the text, but often rendered the sense obscure, and sometimes absurd also. In fine, consulting the commentators upon such kind of passages, I found very strange mistakes in them, and that they had long guessed at the sense, and did but grope (as in the dark) in search of it. And from these reflections I took a resolution to make my remarks upon many passages of the scriptures; persuading myself that they would be equally agreeable and profitable for use. And the learned, to whom I communicated my design, encouraged me very much, by their commendations, to proceed in it; and more especially when I informed them, that it is not in Asia, as in our Europe, where there are frequent changes, more or less, in the form of things, as the habits, buildings, gardens, and the like. IN THE EAST THEY ARE CONSTANT IN ALL THINGS; the habits are at this day in the same manner as in the precedent ages; so that one may reasonably believe, that in that part of the world, the exterior form of things (as their manners and customs) are the same now as they were two thousand years since, except in such changes as have been introduced by religion, which are, nevertheless, very inconsiderable."—(Preface to Travels in Persia, p. 6.) Morier, an eastern traveller, says, "The manners of the East, amid all the changes of government and religion, are stil the same; they are living impressions from an original mould; and at every step some object, some idiom, some dress, or some custom of common life, reminds the traveller of ancient times, and confirms, above all, the beauty, the accuracy, and the propriety of the language and the history of the Bible." This very striking testimony to the conformity, or rather identity, of the modern with the ancient usages of the East, is abundantly confirmed from other sources, as scarcely a traveller has set foot upon oriental soil, without professing himself to be at once struck with the remarkable coincidence between the picture of ancient manners, as drawn in the sacred writings, and the state of things which actually meets his eye. This steadfast resistance to the spirit of innovation and change, which thus remarkably distinguishes the nations of the East, will probably, in the providence of God, remain unsubdued, till it shall have answered all the important purposes of biblical elucidation, when it will give way to the all-pervading, all-regenerating influence of the Bible itself, borne upon the bosom of a new tide of civilization and improvement, which shall, ere long, set in upon the East from the nations of Europe, and the great continent of the West. "By a wonderful provision of Providence," says De Lamartine, "who never creates wants without at the same time creating the means of satisfying them, it happens, that at the moment when the great crisis of civilization takes place in Europe, and when the new necessities resulting from it are revealing themselves, both to governments and people, a great crisis of an inverse order takes place in the East, and a vast void is there offered for the redundancy of European population and faculties. The excess of life which is overflowing here, may and must find an outlet in that part of the world; the excess of force which overstrains us, may and must find employment in those countries, where the human powers are in a state of exhaustion and torpidity, where the stream of population is stagnant or drying up, where the vitality of the human race is expiring." In the mean time, while the inevitable doom of revolution and transformation that awaits the East, lingers, it behooves us to make the most, for useful purposes, of that state of society which still exists, but which, ere long, will have passed away. With this view, we have endeavoured to imbody in the present volume a large mass of oriental illustration. The work is strictly of an eclectic character. Postponing the claims of originality to those of practical utility, the Editor, after arraying before him the amplest store of materials which he could command, set himself to the task of selecting and arranging the most valuable portions which he could bring within the limits of his plan. The kindred works of Harmer, Burder, Paxton, Taylor's edition of Calmet, scarcely any of which are in common accessible to the majority of biblical students, have been diligently gleaned, and all their important contents transferred to our pages. As these works are not likely ever to be reprinted in this country, there appeared no other way to arrest their progress to oblivion, and to secure a larger and wider circulation to the valuable matter which they contain. But the range of selection has been by no means confined to the works now mentioned. So prolific has been the press within the last twenty or thirty years, of books of eastern travels, illustrative of manners, customs, and religion, that our resources in this department have been almost indefinitely multiplied. But to one work in particular-Roberts' Oriental Пlustrations of the Sacred Scriptures, collected during a residence of nearly fourteen years among the Hindoos-the Editor desires, as an act of justice, to which he is sure the reader will most heartily respond, to express his very deep obligations. He considers himself peculiarly fortunate in meeting with this work just as he was entering upon his own undertaking, so that he has been able to incorporate it nearly entire in the present volume. Though abounding chiefly in illustrations drawn from the parabolical, idiomatical, and proverbial phraseolgy common in the East, yet his notes are so pointed and pertinent in their scope, so felicitous and graphic in their turn of expression, and so remarkable for the vividness with which the leading idea is exhibited, that we doubt not the reader will find in this part alone an ample equivalent for the cost of the whole volume. The Rev. T. H. Horne says he feels himself "justified in recommending Mr. Roberts' 'Illustrations,' as supplying an important desideratum in biblical literature. They furnish to very many difficult or obscure passages satisfactory explanations, which are not more original than they are entertaining and instructive." "Mr. Roberts' work," says the British Critic, "is replete with interesting matter, and, in a condensed form, contains more illustrations of Holy Writ than any other book we know of. He richly deserves our thanks, and the thanks especially of those who are not able to possess many volumes illustrative of the oriental rites and customs to be found in the Bible. We have only to add, that this volume is worth all the twopenny trash which the last half dozen years have given birth to." As the present work is designed to be marked by somewhat of the same Comprehensive character which distinguishes the other biblical works lately issued from the press of the Publishers, the illustrations bear upon numerous other points than those relating to manners and customs. Every thing of a purely doctrinal character, about which the different denominations of Christians might be supposed to disagree, has been studiously excluded; at least such has been the Editor's intention, and if any thing should be met with that seems to gainsay this declaration, he begs it may be set down to the account of a momentary inadvertence, rather than of a determinate purpose. But with this exception, he has given himself as much latitude in the selection of matter, as was consistent with a prevailing unity of design in the structure of the whole. The subject of the Fulfilment of Prophecy, cannot well be lost sight of by any one conversant at once with the scriptures and the reports of modern travellers. The topographical descriptions of many of the most noted places of scripture, a department to which particular attention has been given in the ensuing pages, suggests at once the divine predictions bearing upon their future doom. The researches of tourists, both skeptics and Christians, have poured a flood of light upon this subject. It is perfectly astonishing, to one who has never examined the subject, to find how literally and minutely the prophetic declarations of scripture have been fulfilled, so that even infidel travellers and historians, as Volney and Gibbon, in their accounts of nations and countries, have unwittingly used for description, almost the words of scripture in which the events are foretold. Volney, particularly, (one of the bitterest opposers of Christianity,) in his published travels in the East, has afforded, unwillingly and unthinkingly, a wonderful attestation to the truth of the Bible, in the relation of facts which came under his own eye. There needs no better witness. Indeed, it is impossible for the most determined infidel carefully to examine and weigh this subject, and not be forced to feel that the Bible is divine; or, in the words of Bishop Newton, "he is reduced to the necessity, either to renounce his senses, deny what he reads in the Bible, and what he sees and observes in the world, or acknowledge the truth of prophecy, and consequently, of divine revelation." The researches of travellers in Palestine have been abundant, and the prophecies thereby verified are numerous and distinct, so that the facts may be related literally in the language of the prophecy. To use the words of a late writer in the London Quarterly Review, "we confess that we have felt more surprise, delight, and conviction, in examining the accounts which the travels of Burckhardt, Mangles, Irby, Leigh, and Laborde, have so recently given of Judea, Edom, &c. than we have ever derived from any similar inquiry. It seems like a miracle in our own times. Twenty years ago we read certain portions of the prophetic scriptures, with a belief that they were true, because other similar passages had, in the course of ages, been proved to be so, and we had an indistinct notion, that all these (to us) obscure and indefinite denunciations had been-we knew not very well when or how-accomplished: but to have graphic descriptions, ground plans, and elevations, showing the actual existence of all the heretofore vague and shadowy denunciations of God against Edom, does, we confess, excite our feelings, and exalt our confidence in prophecy, to a height that no external evidence has hitherto done. . . . . Here we have-bursting upon our age of incredulity, by the labours of accidental, impartial, and sometimes incredulous” (infidel) “witnesses-the certainty of existing facts, which fulfil what were considered hitherto the most vague and least intelligible of the prophecies. The value of one such contemporaneous proof is immense." Indeed, it would seem that in regard to such places as Babylon, Nineveh, Tyre, Moab, Edom, and others, the providence of God was no less conspicuous in bringing to light, in these latter ages, the evidence of the accomplishment of those prophecies, than formerly in working the accomplishment itself. The valuable labours of Keith in this department, arranged in accordance with our general plan, so as to exhibit the commentary under its appropriate text, will be found to have added much to the interest and profit of the reader in perusing our pages. The numerous highly finished engravings, executed by distinguished artists, from sketches taken on the spot, and accompanied, for the most part, with letter-press descriptions by the Rev. T. H. Horne, originally published in Finden's Landscape Illustrations, will go also greatly to enhance the value of this portion of the illustrations. A critical note is occasionally thrown in, where the point of a passage seemed capable of a happy explication, especially from a more exact analysis of the import of the original terms. Those bearing the signature of the Editor will perhaps usually be found of this character, and for any seeming infraction in this of his general plan, he solicits the indulgence not unreasonably claimed for a favourite mode of scripture exposition. They are, however, for the most part, "few and far between." As a prominent object aimed at throughout has been, not only to increase the facilities for a complete understanding of the inspired volume, but also to multiply the evidences, and vindicate the claims of its divine original, a portion of our pages has been allotted to the direct consideration of infidel objections and cavils. The most important extracts of this description have been taken from the valuable and now rare "Life of David," by Chandler, in which the insinuations of Bayle against the character of David, are canvassed and refuted with distinguished ability, though perhaps somewhat more verbosely than is consistent with the taste either of modern writers or readers. The original and acute remarks of Michaelis, on many points of the Mosaic laws and ritual, though sometimes bordering upon the fanciful, disclose a profound acquaintance with the genius of the East, and are generally entitled to deep attention. As the authorities employed in the preparation of the ensuing pages are usually quoted in a very general way—for *he most part merely by citing the writer's name-it will probably be rendering an important service to many of our readers, to give a more ample view of the sources upon which we have drawn for materials. The list is by no means complete, nor, as many have served us at second hand, is it perhaps practicable or necessary that it should be; but the most important and valuable will be found here grouped together, and ordinarily, by turning to this catalogue, the entire title, including edition and date, of any work cited in the ensuing pages simply by the author's name, will be found. Such a catalogue may be of service for other purposes than those connected with the present volume. HARMER'S Observations on Various Passages of Scripture, with ad | KEPPEL'S Narrative of a Journey from India to England, 8vo. 66 Oriental Literature, with Rosenmuller's Additions, 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1822. ROBERTS' Oriental Illustrations, 8vo. London, 1835. 66 RUSSELL'S Natural history of Aleppo, 2 vols. 4to. London, 1794. 66 MADOX's Excursions in the Holy Land, Egypt, Nubia, Syria, &c., 2 vols. 8vo. London, 1834. CALLAWAY'S Oriental Observations, 12mo. London, 1825. CAMPBELL'S African Light, 12mo. London, 1835. MORIER'S Journey through Persia, 8vo. Philadelphia, 1816. SMITH AND DWIGHT's Researches in Armenia, 2 vols. 12mo. Boston, JOWETT's Christian Researches in Syria and the Holy Land, 8vo. MODERN TRAVELLER, Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor, 3 vols. 12mo. HEEREN'S Asiatic Nations, 3 vols. 8vo. Oxford, 1833. BURNES's Travels in Bokhara, 2 vols. 12ino. Philadelphia, 1835. WILKINSON'S Thebes, and General View of Egypt, 8vo. London, 1835. STACKHOUSE'S History of the Bible, 2 vols. folio. Londca, 1755. MICHAELIS's Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, 4 vols. 8vo. Lon- GLEIG's History of the Bible, 3 vols. 12mo. New York, 1831 POCOCKE'S Theological Works, 2 vols. folio. London, 1740. The importance of the present work must be obvious, and being altogether illustrative, without reference to doctrines or other points in which Christians differ, it is hoped it will meet with favour from all who love the sacred volume, and that it will be sufficiently interesting and attractive to recommend itself, not only to professed Christians of all denominations, but also to the general reader. The arrangement of the texts illustrated with the notes, in the order of the chapters and verses of the authorized version of the Bible, will render it convenient for reference to particular passages, while the copious INDEX at the end, will at once enable the reader to turn to every subject discussed in the volume. It only remains for the Editor to remark, that he would by no means be held responsible for the truth or justice of every sentiment advanced by way of interpretation or illustration in the present work. He hopes not to be considered as adopting himself all the various explications of scripture which he has yet felt it his duty to propound. Many of them are proposed by their authors themselves merely as conjectures, and though he may occasionally have entertainec. doubts of their correctness, yet, as they involved only points of minor importance, he has seldom felt himself called upon to turn aside to question or confute them. A very large mass of obviously true or highly probable illustration, is here presented to the reader. As to the pertinency or verisimilitude of particular portions, he will of course exercise a due discrimination; he cannot be expected to forego his own judgment, nor will he find it necessary to presume upon that of him who has thus endeavoured, however feebly, to minister, by so great a variety of provision, to his instruction and pleasure. G. B. New York, May 1st, 1836. |