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Verse 1. Thy servant my husband is dead.'-The Jewish interpreters suppose that this person was Obadiah, and that the debt was contracted on account of the expense of supporting the hundred prophets whom he concealed in caverns in the time of Ahab. But this is mere conjecture.

10. Let us make a little chamber.... on the wall.'-Not build a little chamber, but make one ready, and keep it in constant readiness for him. On the wall,' directs our attention to the situation of the chamber, as belonging to the outer tenement, one side of which is formed by the wall towards the street. Modern English commentators explain this with a reference to Dr. Shaw's description of an Oriental house. The description is very

CHAMBER ON THE WALL.

good, and perfectly intelligible to those who have an actual knowledge of the East; but as the details seem to be strangely misunderstood by those who have not had that advantage, we will volunteer, with reference to the present text, such an explanation as long residence in Oriental houses may enable us to furnish. It will be observed that the Hebrew word here used is hy aliyah, the same which is rendered 'summer parlour' in Judg. iii. 23, 25; 'loft,' in 1 Kings xvii. 19-23; and little chamber' here. Now the Arabic version employs here a precisely equivalent word in sound and orthography, which word fixes the signification with great propriety to the part of a mansion still thus denominated, and which is not, as some misunderstand Dr. Shaw to mean, a separate building standing

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apart like a summer-house in a garden, but such an annexed and communicating tenement as we have already slightly referred to in the note to 2 Sam. xviii. 24, and which may be loosely described as being to an Oriental house what the porch of a church, with its vestry or other rooms, is to the church itself. As a general idea, we may state that the principal part of an Oriental mansion occupies one, two, three, or even all four sides of an interior court or garden, none of the buildings of which have either the front or back towards the street; for, interposed between this and the street is another smaller court, with its distinct rooms, forming a smaller house or tenement. The entrance from the street is, through a passage, into this court, from which another passage conducts to the large interior court. This is the ground communication; besides which the first floor of both the houses has a communicating door, so that a person on the first floor of the one house need not descend to the court to enter the other. Now, in this small outer house there are seldom more than two or three little chambers,' besides that larger one which serves the owner as a divan or receiving-room (see the note on 2 Sam. xviii.), and which is usually built against the exterior front wall, over the outer entrancepassage, except when peculiar circumstances render it more desirable that this apartment should be on the opposite side, or even on one of the lateral sides of this outer court. If we have made this general description intelligible, the reader will comprehend our meaning, when we state our impression that the little chamber' prepared for Elisha was one of the little chambers of this small outer tenement. A person accommodated here can go in and out with perfect independence of the main building of the inner court, into which he probably never enters, and does not in the least interfere with the arrangement of the family. A visitor or friend is almost never accommodated any where else and certainly never in the interior court. Usage is against it; and no one expects, or would even accept it. A European who settles in an Oriental house, and does not care for or attend to this distinction of outer and inner, is soon reminded of it by the difficulty he finds in persuading a native visitor to proceed beyond the outer court, particularly if there are females in the family, and in the end he finds it convenient to adopt their custom, and to receive or accommodate them in a room of the outer court. Whether, therefore, we refer to the use of the word aleeah, or to the arrangement of Oriental buildings, or to the manners of the East, we have not the least doubt that Elisha's little chamber on the wall, and other such chambers mentioned in Scripture, were such as we have described. Our wood-cut represents the kiosk or balcony, projecting into the street, of such chambers on the wall as this note has in view.

A table.-The only tables now in use among the Orientals are stands on which are placed the trays in which food is brought in, as shewn in the annexed engraving.

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TABLES.-Modern Oriental.

19. My head, my head.-This was doubtless what is called a stroke of the sun.' Mr. Madden, who speaks of this infliction as a medical man, witnessed instances of it in the desert between Palestine and Egypt, two of which terminated fatally within forty-eight hours. He calls it 'the real inflammatory fever, or synocha of Cullen;' and adds, "This fever in the desert arises, I imagine, from sudden exposure to the rays of the sun. One of my cameldrivers was attacked during the journey. He complained suddenly of intense pain in the back of his head; he laid his finger on the spot, and from the moment of this seizure he had a burning fever..... All the symptoms of this complaint are those of coup de soleil in an aggravated form.' (Travels, ii. 190.) The sun of Palestine is strong enough to produce this effect, according to the testimony of various travellers. This is particularly the case in the plains, such as those of Jericho and Esdraelon. In or on the borders of the latter, Shunem was situated; and in a battle which was fought by the army of Baldwin IV., near Tiberias, on its eastern border, William of Tyre relates, that more soldiers were slain by the sun than by the sword. ['It fell,' in verse 18, means, it came to pass."]

24. Drive, and go forward.-She had required but one ass and a servant-the ass for herself to ride upon, and the servant to run behind and drive it. Some commentators, out of compassion to the servant, have supposed that he also was mounted: which is a most gratuitous supposition, equally disproved by the text and by the existing usages of the East. Without such an explanation, the description, as it stands in the text, exhibits a circumstance which a traveller in the East has continual occasion to witness. Women usually ride on asses, and are commonly followed by a man on foot, whose business it is to drive or goad the animal forward, at such a pace as the lady may desire. If the lady be of high consideration, perhaps one man goes before to lead the animal, while another follows to drive it on. The leader may be dispensed with, but the driver very seldom. The men do not feel it a very arduous duty to follow an ass; as will be easily apprehended after what we have on former occasions said concerning those who run before or beside even a horse. Saddled asses are let out for hire in all Oriental towns; and when one is hired, the owner, or some person employed by him, always runs behind to drive it on, whether the rider be a man or a woman.

29. Take my staff in thine hand, and go thy way?Perhaps the staff was of some form peculiarly appropriated to the prophets, and as such the symbol of their authority or functions. Sceptres were nothing more originally than rods or staves. In Ezek. xix. 11, we read of

strong rods for the sceptres of them that bear rule.' Now, the authority of the owner, of whatever kind, was and is considered to be as much delegated to the person to whom it is committed, as by a signet-ring. Various instances of this might be adduced. Thus, on leaving the camp of an Arab sheikh, Abou Raschid, that personage sent on with Irby and Mangles to Shobek his mace-bearer with his iron mace, to ensure for them the same reception as if he had himself been of their company. From this it would appear that Elisha, wishing to be spared the necessity of going himself, sent on his servant with his staff as a symbol of his authority, expecting that the same effects would be produced as by his own touch, which was considered necessary to the exercise of miraculous or extraordinary powers of healing. See the note on v. 11.

38. Set on the great pot and seethe pottage.'-The annexed engraving, from one of the mural paintings of ancient Egypt, shews the kind of pot in use, the mode in which it was set on,' and pottage seethed in it. The pot is of exactly the same shape with the crock' used in the south-western parts of England.

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SEETHING POTTAGE.

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39. Went out into the fields to gather herbs.'-This does not imply that culinary vegetables were not cultivated in gardens, for at this very time we know that Ahab, and doubtless many others, had gardens of herbs,' 1 Kings xxi. 2: nor, on the other hand, does it compel us to suppose that the sons of the prophets were restricted to wild vegetables. The fact is, that at the present day, even in places where garden culture is extensive, and the produce far more various and abundant than we can suppose it to have been in those times, wild pot-herbs are in most extensive use in Western Asia-far more so than with us, although many of our wild plants and roots are known to be excellent and

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nutritive vegetables. Thus Russel, after giving a long account of the garden-stuff of Aleppo, adds that, besides those from culture, the fields afford bugloss, mallow, asparagus, etc., which the people use as pot-herbs, besides some others which they use as salads. The common pottage of the East is made by cutting the meat into small pieces, and boiling it with rice (or meal) and vegetables, all of which is afterwards poured into a proper vessel. - 'Wild vine,' or literally, vine of the field. This was perhaps the colocynth, or Cucumis colocynthis, which was called a wild vine from the shape of its leaves and the climbing nature of its stem, just as the Spanish call every climbing plant Yedra, because in that particular it resembles the ivy. The fruit of the colocynth is yellow when ripe, and about the size of a golden pippin. The whole plant is noted among the ancients for its bitter taste, and for its violently purgative qualities. Gourds of different kinds form a common ingredient in the varieties of pottage so frequent in warm climates. When travelling, one of the most agreeable messes set before us owed its savour to the gourds that had been shred into it. The ni pakku’oth, or gourds, which the young men put into the pot, indicated their nature by the bitter taste they communicated to the preparation. The addition of flour commanded by the prophet was merely a continuation of the process; hence the wonderful change was to be ascribed, not to the method pursued, but to the faith entertained by the pro

phet and his disciples. The Colocynth or Celoquintida is essentially a desert plant; and in the desert parts of Syria, Egypt, and Arabia, and on the banks of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates, its tendrils run over vast tracts of ground, offering a prodigious number of gourds, which are crushed under foot by camels, horses, and men. In winter we have seen the extent of many miles covered with the counecting tendrils and dry gourds of the preceding season, the latter making precisely the same appearance as in our shops, and when crushed, with a crackling noise beneath the foot, discharging, in the form of a light powder, the valuable drug which it contains. It is found in the plain of Jericho, whence some have sought to identify it with the famous apples of Sodom,' fair to the eye, but within dust and corruption. This distinction has been competed by other plants, and among them by the Globe Cucumber, which, however, derives its specific name, Cucumis Prophetarum, from the notion that this was the gourd which the sons of the prophets' shred by mistake into their pottage, and which made them declare, when they came to taste it, that there was death in the pot!' This plant has a nauseous odour, while the fruit is to the full as bitter as the coloquintida; but the fruit being not larger than a cherry is not likely to have been that which was in the present instance shred into the pot. This fruit has a rather singular appearance, from the manner in which its surface is armed with prickles, which are, however, soft and harmless.

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CHAPTER V.

1 Naaman, by the report of a captive maid, is sent to Samaria to be cured of his leprosy. 8 Elisha, sending him to Jordan, cureth him. 15 He refusing Naaman's gifts granteth him some of the earth. 20 Gehazi, abusing his master's name unto Naaman, is smitten with leprosy.

Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man 'with his master, and honourable, because by him the LORD had given 'deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.

2 And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of

1 Heb. before.

the land of Israel a little maid; and she "waited on Naaman's wife.

3 And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.

4 And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel.

5 And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment.

2 Or, gracious. 3 Heb. lifted up, or, accepted in countenance. 4 Or, victory. 7 Heb. gather in.

8 Heb. in his hand.

5 Heb. was before.

6 Heb. before.

6 And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy.

7 And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me.

8 And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.

9 So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.

10 And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.

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11 But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and "strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.

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12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? he turned and went away in a rage.

13 And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?

14 Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and The was clean.

15 ¶ And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant.

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16 But he said, As the LORD liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it; but he refused.

9 Heb. I said.

12 Or, Amara.

17 And Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules' burden of earth? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the LORD.

18 In this thing the LORD pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the LORD pardon thy servant in this thing.

19 And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way.

20 T But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, Behold, my master hath spared Naaman this Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought: but, as the LORD liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him.

21 So Gehazi followed after Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running after him, he lighted down from the chariot to meet him, and said, "Is all well?

22 And he said, All is well. My master hath sent me, saying, Behold, even now there be come to me from mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets: give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of garments.

23 And Naaman said, Be content, take two talents. And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and laid them upon two of his servants; and they bare them before him.

24 And when he came to the tower, he took them from their hand, and bestowed them in the house and he let the men go, and they departed.

25 But he went in, and stood before his master. And Elisha said unto him, Whence comest thou, Gehazi? And he said, Thy servant went no whither.

26 And he said unto him, Went not mine heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants?

27 The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.

10 Or, I said with myself, He will surely come out, &c. 13 Luke 4. 27. 14 Heb. a little piece of ground. 17 Heb. not hither, or thither.

16 Or secret place.

11 Heb. move up and down. 15 Heb. Is there prace?

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Verse 11. Strike his hand over the place. This is a curious and a most ancient instance of a very prevalent superstition, which ascribed extraordinary healing powers to the touch of persons of high rank, or of real or reputed sanctity. The touch was in fact everywhere the established mode by which a person was expected to exhibit whatever healing power he possessed or pretended to. At this day it is not unusual in the East for a European physician to be expected to heal a patient merely by stroking his hand over the ailing part; and still more is this the case, when the person applied to is supposed to be endowed with supernatural powers. We can find illustrations of this in England. Even so late as the reign of Queen Anne, our Sovereigns were supposed to possess the power of healing the king's evil by their touch; and as it was found a convenient instrument of state for confirming the loyalty of the ignorant, the virtue thus liberally conceded to the touch of royalty was not, until after the above named reign, left unexercised. On stated occasions the touch of the royal hand was bestowed on the afflicted, during a religious service appropriate to the occasion. Edward the Confessor and Charles II. are even reported to have healed the blind by the same process, as the emperor Vespasian was said to have done long before. This notion still lurks among us, as there may still, in our remote towns and villages, be found certain old women who are believed to have the power of removing warts and curing burns, by simply stroking the affected parts with their hands. The leading idea which assigns to the hands the faculty of transmitting spiritual powers, or of communicating healing virtues, is clearly taken from the common use of the same members in communicating or bestowing temporal benefits; and in conformity with it, the lame, the blind, and the deaf, who sought help from the Son of David,' often received it through the imposition of his hands upon the parts affected.

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is but this river immediately at the city; but before it reaches it, it receives another stream, which may be considered one of its sources, and was probably one of the two which in the partial eyes of Naaman eclipsed all the waters of Israel. The Barrady rises in the mountains of AntiLibanus, to the north-west of the town; and, at a considerable distance therefrom, receives the river Zebdeni, after which it rolls with increased volume its diversified and picturesque stream through the city and its surrounding gardens and orchards; in its passage through which, in four principal streams, it is made to supply those innumerable rills and fountains which render Damascus, perhaps, the most luxuriously watered city of the East, and cause it to be considered the site of Eden by the natives of those usually dry and sultry regions. In this service the waters of the Barrady are nearly exhausted. The remains, however, are again united on leaving the town and its suburbs, and the weakened stream contrives to struggle on till it is finally lost in the bog of el-Mardj. The river Barrady, before its division into the four streams, which are considered the four rivers of Eden by those who here fix the site of Paradise, is a rapid and broad stream, not generally fordable, and although not, as a whole or in part, at all comparable to the Jordan for size and importance, is in some respects more interesting to the traveller from the alternate circumstances of the confining cliff, the cascade, the broad valley, or the rich cultivation which it exhibits. There can be no question this river was either the Abana or Pharpar; but which was the other is very difficult to determine. If it was one of the many rivulets that enter the Barrady before it arrives at Damascus, the Zebdeni seems the most likely to be intended; but if not, probability would decide in favour of the Nahr el Berde, which, like the Barrady, rises in Anti-Libanus, and proceeding nearly due west, passes nearly three miles to the south of Damascus, and joins the Barrady as its attenuated stream advances, after having supplied the city, to the Bahar el-Mardj (Lake of the Meadow). Perhaps the similarity between the names Barrady and Berde indicates such a correlative reference as fits them to he mentioned together, like the Abana and Pharpar. Certain it is that 337

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