if the first day of the month Tisri, or the first day of their civil year, should happen upon Saturday; here, if the moon had not finished her conjunction before the afternoon, lunary translation removed this feast till Sunday, because of the Mor 18 hours; and political translation removed it till Monday, as appeareth by the rule Adu, forbidding Sunday. Of this sort was Gethered, (1) a word of no meaning, but composed to assist the memory, of a set of numerals, thus explained: 1 signifies 3, signifies 9, and 204: The meaning therefore, is, that if in their common year, when a whole month was not inserted, the point of change happened on the third day of the week, viz. Tuesday, and not before the 9th hour, and the 204th moment of an hour, then the new moon was translated to Thursday.

ג

The feast of tabernacles was observed in the month Tisri, and therefore that could not be observed on the morrow after the sabbath, as appeareth by the rule Adu. The passover was observed in the month Abib, and therefore that might be observed the morrow after the sabbath, by the rule Bedu. Should it be asked, however, why the passover might be observed on the day after the sabbath, and the feast of tabernacles might not? I answer, that all the subsequent translations depended on the first translation, of the first new moon in Tisri: but as that could not be changed, so as to prevent all concurrence between the several feasts, they thought the above plan the most convenient, since the greater part of them were thereby prevented."

a Godwin's Moses and Aaron, book iii. ch. 8: but to be found at large in Maimonides, de Consecratione Calendarum, et de ratione intercalendi. Cap. 6-21.

So much, then, concerning the Jewish methods of fixing the times of their feasts and fasts. They were, indeed, a solemn kind of trifling, but they show the desire which the Jews had for accuracy, and may gratify the curiosity of some of my readers. I might add, that the Jews never counted by the year of the world till A. D. 1040, when, being driven from the East, and forced to remove to Spain, France, England, and Germany, they learned it from some of the Christian chronologers. Their common method of fixing dates before that was, by the reigns of their kings; and afterwards by the era of the Seleucidæ, called by them the era of contracts: because, after they fell under the government of the Syro-Macedonian kings, they were forced to use it, in all their contracts about civil affairs.-It began at the retaking of Babylon by Seleucus, A. A. C. 312.a

SECT. XI.

Commerce of Judea.

Internal; external with Arabia, Egypt, and Tyre; remarks on the nations that have distinguished themselves by trade. The fleets of Solomon to Tarshish and Ophir particularly considered. The situation of these two places.

THE Commerce of Judea was either domestic or foreign. The domestic commerce consisted in those numberless exchanges, which the individuals of the tribes made with each other, either for money or produce; and the foreign, in that which was a Prideaux, Connex. sub Ann.

b Ecclus. xxvi. 29.

carried on with other nations, either near or remote. With Babylon and Persia, on the northeast, the Jews seem to have had little intercourse, till a late period of their history; and even then it was rather military than commercial. They had more with the Arabs on the east, who were naturally of a restless turn, and acted as the carriers of their own surplus produce, and that of their more easterly neighbours." So early as the days of Joseph, we read of them going southward to Egypt in caravans for they were the persons who bought him from his brethren, and sold him to Potiphar. The Egyptians and Jews had a considerable traffic. In times of scarcity, the Jews went down to Egypt for corn. Solomon bought from thence, large quantities of linen yarn, either for the purposes of weaving or embroidery: and, to add to his magnificence and military strength, he also purchased chariots from the same quarter, for 600 shekels of silver each, and horses for 150 shekels each. He was, indeed, the first king of Judea who attended to this species of force, and had no fewer than sixteen hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen. But we hear little of the commercial relations between Judea and Egypt, from the time of Solomon's death, till the conquests of Alexander the Great; who, in order to people his new capital, settled a great many Jews in Alexandria, and granted them privileges equal to those of the Macedonians. That kindness of his increased the intercourse between these nations, which was still farther cemented by Ptolemy Soter, who carried

a See a full proof of this in Montesquieu's Spirit of Laws, book xxi. chap. 16. b 1 Kings x. 28. 1 Kings x. 26—29. 2 F

VOL. II.

numbers of Jews to the same place, and gave them such encouragement, that multitudes went voluntarily to settle there; insomuch, that Philo reckons, that in his time there were a million of Jews in that country. It is easy to see how the productions of either country would come into request, in such circumstances. As for the Phoenicians, they very early distinguished themselves as a commercial nation, especially the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon; and being on the shore of the Mediterranean, and on the confines, or rather within the limits of the land of Judea, the Jews and they had frequent intercourse. From Tyre, therefore, as from the best frequented market in the world, did the luxuries of other nations find their way among the Jews, during the prosperity of these enterprising cities.—— They were, indeed, excellently situated for trade: and as trade, and not territory, was the cause of their greatness, they found it their interest to draw every nation to their ports. Hence the numerous caravans from every quarter by land, and the ships by sea.

It deserves notice, that the greatest trading nations in the world had not originally the greatest territory. The domains of Tyre and Sidon extended only a few miles from the coast; neither of them, according to Dr. Chandler, exceeding twenty miles in length, and four or five in breadth. When Solomon's temple, therefore, and that after the captivity were building, the Tyrians and Sidonians were paid in wheat, barley, wine, and oil, rather than in money. Carthage, on the coast of Africa, which was founded by a colony of Tyrians,

a 2 Chron. ii. 10, 15. Ezra iii. 7.

was only three hundred and sixty stadia, or fortyfive miles, in circumference. Venice and Holland, to which the centre of commerce was chiefly trans-, ferred, after the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, are only of narrow limits. And Britain, which is now the principal commercial nation, is an inconsiderable island, as to extent. It is true that, as these increased in commercial prosperity, they increased in colonies; but the original observation still holds good, that great nations, like extensive landed proprietors, have, in general, rather contented themselves with the fruits of the soil, internal commerce, and becoming the customers of general merchants, than been general merchants themselves; whilst several of the smaller states, who had no extensive territory to boast of, and were situated on the sea-shore, have turned their genius from their soil to their ships, and, by becoming the centre of attraction and confidence, have enriched themselves, and become the benefactors of the universe. Let us look at Tyre only, at present, for a confirmation of this remark. Although originally an inconsiderable city, and now a rock to dry nets on, yet in the days of her prosperity, she was the emporium of every trading nation:-to her, as to a centre, came all that was valuable; and from her, as the general market of nations, did all derive those foreign productions which they severally required. In the 27th chapter of Ezekiel, we have a catalogue of part of those articles in which she traded, and the effect they had in increasing her prosperity. It is painful to add, that they accelerated her fall, by exciting the jea

a Strabo, xvii. 832.