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curable in its pure state. 2. Carpobalsam, or the ointment obtained from pressing the fruit of the tree. 3. Xylobalsam, a resin got by boiling the twigs and branches of the tree, and then skimming the surface. The scarcity of this drug in a pure state has led to many imitations and adulterations of the true opobalsam.

After much discussion and countless theories, it may now be concluded, that the tzeri is the produce of a shrub known to botanists as the Balsamodendron Gileadense; the generic name being that given to it by Theophrastus (balsamon dendron). It belongs to the Natural Order of dicotyledonous plants Amyridaceae, or Myrrh family—a group remarkable for their fragrant resins; as myrrh, obtained from the Arabian balsamodendron (Kataf = B. myrrah); olibanum, the produce of Boswellia serrata—a plant which grows in the mountains bordering on the sources of the Ganges; bdellium, the googul of India, is yielded by another Himalayah plant (Amyris Agallocha), western elemi; another gum resin is obtained from the Brazilian Icica icariba, and eastern elemi from Balsamodendron zeylanicum. The gum resins known as Sicilian and Egyptian bdelliums are supplied by plants belonging to a widely different group-the Umbelliferæ. The Sicilian species is got from a vegetable of the carrot kind-the Daucus gummifer of Lamarck. A spurious article is manufactured in Palestine from the fruit of one of the oleasters called by the natives zukum, and sold to travellers as the famous balm of Gilead.

3. Lot, myrrh.-This word occurs only twice in Scripture, here and in chapter xliii. 11. The term most frequently used for the aromatic gum-the myrrh of commerce-is mohr. See under Ps. xlv. 8. Reference has been already made (ch. xxvii. 27) to Arabian ledanum— a fragrant gum alluded to by Herodotus. The word lot should be rendered ledanum instead of myrrh, as in our translation. It distils in summer from the leaves and branches of the Cistaceae or Rock-rose family of plants. Formerly it was much used as a pectoral remedy. This plant is represented by our well-known Cistus or Rock-rose (Helianthemum vulgare), the dark green leaves of whose shrubby prostrate branches, and the bright yellow tints of whose flowers shed much beauty on grassy upland slopes and gravelly banks in early

autumn.

"They blow

With such a simple loveliness among

The common herbs of pasture, and breathe out
Their lives so unobtrusively."

The ledanum of the south of Europe is obtained from the Cretan cistus (Cistus Creticus = ledanifera):

"The forest or the lonely heath wide spread,

Where Cistus shrubs, sole seen, exhaled at noon

Their fine balsamic odour all around,
Strewed with their blossoms, frail as beautiful,

The thirsty soil at eve; and when the sun
Relumed the gladden'd earth, opening anew
Their stores exuberant, prodigal as frail,

Whiten'd again the wilderness."-Southey.

It has been observed, that the ledanum cistus yielded its gum when its stems were broken or crushed by the goats which fed where it abounded. This led to the employment of various methods for obtaining it. That now had recourse to is to draw an instrument like a rake, to which broad pieces of leather are tied, over the plants. The gum clings to the leathern thongs, and when dried is scraped off by the collectors. The hair of the animals which feed among the shrubs is also, as of old, combed to secure the ledanum which may have become attached to it. Like the tzeri, the lot, or ledanum, is now seldom met with in its pure state, except in the localities in which it is gathered. It is still in use among the inhabitants of Asia Minor as a perfume.

Such were the wares with which the Midianite merchants were on their way down to Egypt when Joseph's brethren met them. Similar bands may be witnessed in the same localities still. "On leaving Jenîn," says Dr. Thomson, "the road follows the Wady Bel'amy for the first half hour, passing on the right an ancient ruin of the same name. This wady is full of fountains in winter, and very muddy, but hot as a furnace in summer. Rising out of this, over a long hill, you come down again to a considerable town called Kubatîeh. The hills about this place are covered with groves of flourishing olive-trees, and the net-work of vales and plains west of it is extremely pretty and fertile. In one of them is the site of Dothan, called now Tell Dothaim. This tell was once inhabited, and at its base is a fountain where the brethren of Joseph may have watered their flocks. The neighbourhood affords the very best pasturage; and this was the reason, no doubt, why they came to it from Nablûs. I am not aware that there still exist old cisterns about Dothaim, but there are very few ancient sites where they are not found; and, I presume, a careful search would reveal the very pit (beer) into which Joseph was cast. It is in pleasing agreement with the narrative in Genesis to find that the great highway

from Gilead to Egypt still passes near this place. The caravans come up the Ghor Beisan, pass by Zer'in and Lejjûn, enter the hill country of Samaria by the wady of Dothaim, and thence go on to Ramleh, Gaza, and Egypt. The large caravansary north of Beisan, called Khan el Ahmar, marks one important station on this route. It was along this road that those "Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spices, and balm, and myrrh, going to carry them down to Egypt," to whom the poor lad Joseph was sold by his cruel and envious brethren. It is worthy of remark that these modern Ishmaelites would not now hesitate to make just such a purchase, and actually do in certain parts of the country; and it is also interesting to find balm connected with Gilead at that early day. Jeremiah, long after, exclaims, "Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there?"

Taking the "twenty of silver" (ver. 28), as "twenty shekels of silver," it appears that the Ishmaelites did not value Joseph at a price as high as the Hebrews were wont to value their slaves:-" If the ox shall push a man-servant or maid-servant; he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver."

The robe which an indulgent father had given to the child of his special care and love, was taken from Joseph and dipped in the blood of a kid of the goats killed for the purpose (ver. 31). "To dip" (taval) used here does not necessarily imply that the whole garment was soaked in the blood. The usual meaning applied to the part of the verb which occurs in this verse is, to put a part of the liquid on the object touched. Thus when the sons of Aaron brought the blood of the slain calf to their father, "he dipped his finger in the blood, and put it upon the horns of the altar, and poured out the blood at the bottom of the altar" (Levit. ix. 9). It has, however, sometimes the more general meaning. It is rendered plunge in Job ix. 31-"Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me." Joseph's brethren so stained the coat with blood as to deceive their father into the belief that he had been killed by a beast of prey. "He said, It is my son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces" (ver. 33). The incident shows very clearly that there was nothing improbable in such an event happening. Even at this day, a solitary lad wandering in an uninhabited district of Syria, would be in danger of a like fate from the hyæna, the leopard, or the wolf. And at the period referred to in the text, the king of "evil beasts"-the lion-roamed in the very locality in which Joseph wandered in search of his brethren.

VOL. I.

30

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GENESIS XXXVIII.

HE circumstances mentioned in this chapter show how soon the baneful influence of heathen depravity was felt in the household of Jacob. Judah, his fourth child by Leah, made friendship with a noted inhabitant of Adullam, named Hirah, to whom he went down, from the Hebron uplands where his father and brethren then dwelt. Adullam lay in the shephelah, plain or valley, to the north-west of Hebron, and is not to be confounded with the "cave of Adullam," which was situated at some distance in a mountain gorge. See under 1 Sam. xxii. 1. While sojourning with Hirah, Judah saw a young female, whose father's name was Shuah; and though he had joined in objecting to his sister's marriage with Shechem, yet he makes no scruple of taking this Canaanitish woman to be his wife; and that without at all consulting his father. The children which he had by this marriage were such as might be expected; and the loose life which he himself led, aided in it as he was, by his friend the Adullamite, was that of a man, who, weary of the restraints of religion, had given himself up to his propensities."

One of Judah's sons was born at Chezib. This is specially noticed. Bathshua "conceived again, and bare a son; and called his name Shelah; and he was at Chezib when she bare him" (ver. 5). In the Vulgate edition of the Scriptures (A.D. 383), Chezib is not regarded as a proper name, but is associated with the daughter of Shua-"when she had born Shelah she ceased to bear." But the translation which regards the word as the name of a town is to be preferred. It is held to be the ancient Achzib, which, like Adullam, lay in the plain of Judah. The literal meaning of the word is deceit a lie. Thus Micah's reference:"The houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel" (ver. 14). In the next verse the same prophet mentions Adullam as the glory of Israel (ver. 15). When the land was divided, Adullam and Achzib are named as belonging to the tribe of Judah (Josh. xv. 35, 44). This is most likely the Chezib of this chapter. Another town of the same name is mentioned as belonging to Asher, and as having continued a place of residence up to a time subsequent to the death of Joshua.

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"Neither did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Achzib" Judg. i. 31. Some have sought to identify this town with Achshaph, which lay on the border of Asher (Josh. xix. 25), but not on good grounds. Dr. Robinson supposes "that the true site of Achshaph may have been perpetuated under the name Kesaf," now represented by a heap of ruins on the border of Asher. The Achzib of Asher is now known as es-Zib. Maundrell (A.D. 1697) was the first English traveller who pointed out the likelihood of the identity between Achzib and es-Zib. "This Zib," adds Dr. Wilson on the passage from the old traveller, "which is now a village of no great magnitude, is, doubtless, the place it is here supposed to be. By Ptolemy it is called Ecdippa, and it is mentioned by him as intermediate between Tyre and Ptolemais. It receives the same name from Pliny. It stands close to a small brook, running into the sea from the east.'

In 1 Chron. iv. 21, 22, among the "sons of Shelah," the "men of Chozeba" are mentioned: "The sons of Shelah were Jokim and the men of Chozeba, and Joash, and Saraph, who had the dominion in Moab." It is most likely, both from the general resemblance of name, and from the name being associated with the descendants of Shelah, that Chozeba is the same with Achzib and Chezib, the birthplace of the third son of Judah.

Judah had completely separated himself from his brethren, and had chosen the society of the heathen. He still pursued the pastoral pursuits which had occupied him in his father's house. Thus when he fell into the abominable sin mentioned in this chapter, he was on his way, with his friend Hirah, to "Timnath unto his sheep-shearers" (ver. 12). See "Timnath" under Judg. xiv. 1. "Scarlet thread" (ver. 28) is noticed under Exod. xxv. 4, which see.

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