They are defiling themselves by throwing dust upon their heads in grief. The four women may be hired mourners, whose trade it was to sing lamentations as they danced at a funeral. One stoops to the ground to pick up dust; one is throwing it on her head; one is beating her cheeks, and she thus explains to us how, in Hebrew and in Greek, one word signifies both to smite and to mourn.

NUMBERS, VII. 13.

"And his offering was one silver charger, the weight thereof was an hundred and thirty shekels, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary; both of them were full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meat offering."

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With this compare Amos, vi. 6.

They drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with chief ornaments."

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Also Zech. xiv. 20.

And the pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar."

The Hebrew word here translated "bowls' means sprinkling vessels, and may safely be translated “ sprinkling buckets.” Our texts show, that though on one particular occasion filled with flour, yet they were made to hold liquid; and, as they were kept near the altar,

we may conjecture that they were hung by the handle from the horns, which are described in Ezek. xliii. 15. (See Note.) They may have been used to purify the people by ceremonial sprinkling, as described in Num. viii. 7, and xix. 18.

We have here a drawing from an Egyptian sacrificial bucket made of bronze, now in the British Museum. In an Egyptian tablet in the museum at York is the representation of a worshipper with one of these buckets hanging on his arm. (See Egyptian Inscriptions, Second Series, Plate 57.) We may see an Assyrian sprinklingbucket held in the hand of the god Nisroch on the Assyrian sculptures of the British Museum. (See Note on 2 Kings, xix. 37.)

NUMBERS, XVII. 2.

"Take of every one of them a rod according to the house of their fathers."

An Egyptian of the reign of Amunmai Thori II., who lived at least two centuries before the time of Moses. He holds in his left hand his long staff of inheritance,the mark of his rank as a landowner and as the head of his family. In his right hand he holds the shorter stick, or sceptre. These were both used by the Jews, and are repeatedly mentioned in the Bible. The word "rod" in our text means the longer of the two, and would be more correctly translated "staff;" but in Jer. x. 16, and li. 19, where Israel is called the "rod" of the Almighty's inheritance, the shorter sceptre is the one spoken of. (From Egyptian Inscriptions, Plate 19.)

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NUMBERS, XXI. 9.

And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole."

An Egyptian standard, having a crowned asp on the top. This was the Serpent of Goodness, and was distinguished from the Serpent of Evil. Such standards, with a variety of animals and other ornaments, were carried by the Egyptians in their sacred processions.

The serpent made by Moses may have been like this. One, under the name of "Moses' Serpent," was long kept in Jerusalem, till King Hezekiah broke it to pieces, to stop the idolatrous burning of incense to it. (2 Kings, xviii. 4.)

NUMBERS, XXiv. 17.

"There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel."

Æ

A coin of Alexandra, a Jewish queen, of the family of the Maccabees. She reigned B. C. 78-69. On one side is an anchor and her name, "Alexandra the Queen ;" and on the other side a star with eight rays. (From Madden's Jewish Coinage.)

Others of this family had the same star on their coins, and our text probably points to these deliverers of the Jews under this emblem. The star is, in Hebrew, "cocab;" in Syriac, "cocaba ;" and from this word was probably derived the family name of Maccabee. This coin has its inscription in Greek letters; but their letters are more commonly Samaritan, and never the Hebrew square letters.

This agrees with our text, which says that the Sceptre is to arise out of Israel, or Samaria, and not out of Judah; but the situation of Modin, the native seat of the Maccabee family, is unknown.

The Maccabee princes maintained the independence of their country for about ninety years. Under the founder of the family the Jews threw off the yoke of the Greek kings of Syria, in B. C. 143, and they were conquered by the Romans in B.C. 63; who, in B. C. 53, changed the form of government into an aristocracy.