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2009. [Exod. xv. 1, &c.] St. JEROM (Epist. ad Paulin. & præf. in chron. Euseb. vid. et comment. Ezek. c. xxx.) tells us, that the songs of Moses, the books of Isaiah, Job, and some others, were hexameters and pentameters; that the Psalms were sapi hic, iambic, and alcaic, after the manner of Horace, and Pindar; that the Lamentations were of the sapphic kind: and in his preface to the book of Job he says, that from the third verse of the third chapter, the verse is mostly hexameter and pentameter, consisting of dactyls and spondees; though, he adds, it is here and there intermixed with some other foot or feet, and that some verses, though still more irregular, do yet preserve such a cadence and harmony, as never fails of pleasing those who are judges of the rules of poetry. But, says he, Moses' song in Deuteronomy, the 119th Psalm with some others, were written in iambic verse of four feet. — Certainly however, say the Editors of Universal History (vol. iii. p. 392), the two solemn songs of Moses were of the lyric kind, composed and set to music, sung in an alternate manner, and accompanied with the sound of divers instruments, and with dances suitable to the music.

2010. JOSEPHUS says, Moses composed this song in Hexameter verse. (Antiq. b. ii. ch. xvi. § 4.) In Indian heroic or hexameter verse, the first line of each strophe consists of eighteen syllables or feet; the second has always twelve.

2011.

BARTOLOMEO, by Johnston, p. 369.

The sacred text of the four Hindoo Beids is chanted, without regard to the sense, as the length of the vowels is determined and pointed out by a musical note placed over every word. In the same kind of melody, the Jews in their synagogues chant the Pentateuch; and it is supposed that this usage has descended to them from the remotest ages.

The Sanscrit poetry comprehends

1. The line of twelve or nineteen syllables, scanned by three syllables in a foot: the most approved foot is the Anapæst.

2. The line of eleven syllables.

3. The line of eight syllables.

The stanzas generally consist of four lines; and the regular stanza has eight syllables in each line. The rhyme in this kind of stanza should be alternate; but this may be dispensed with, provided the feet of the verse be accurately kept. This kind of poetry is generally written by two verses in one line, with a pause between; the whole assuming the form of a long distich.

The irregular stanza comprises most commonly the line of eleven, and the line of eight syllables, alternately; resembling the Lyric measure of the English.

The Four BEIDS are not in verse, but in a kind of measured prose.

HALHED'S Preface to Gentoo Laws, pp. 24-30.

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2012. [Exod. xv. 20. A timbrel] This instrument con sisted of a skin stretched on a ring of metal, which was held in one hand, and beat with the other. On this ring are hung shells, which rattle, as the instrument is whirled round. It is engraved in Plate 14 of RUSSEL's Natural History of Aleppo, p. 94. Among the modern Greeks, the Great Lady still leads the dance; and is followed by a troop of young girls, who imitate her steps, and if she sings, make up the chorus. The tunes are extremely gay and lively, yet with something in them wonderfully soft. The steps are varied, according to the pleasure of her who leads the dance, but always in exact time; and infinitely more agreeable than any of our dances. (Lady WORTLEY MONTAGUE'S Letters, vol. ii. p. 45.) — During such festive rites, the Brahmius offer sacrifices in the temples and adjoining groves.

2013. [

FORBES' Oriental Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 295.

23.] As food entirely failed the Israelites whilst they were at this bitter fountain, it is certain they must either have eaten no flesh, or have wanted flocks and herds.

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2018. [Exod. xvii. 8.] In passing through this wilderness, it appears that cach tribe of Arabs has its particular road, to avoid disputes. (See VOLNEY's Trav. vol. i. p. 15.) — Was this the reason why Amalek here opposed the route of the Israelites?

2019. [9.] The Israelites might debate, but they could not fight with Amalek, as they came out of Egypt unarmed, or without weapons.

Exod. xiv. 14.

2022. [Exod. xviii. 6.] The words of Jethro in this verse must have been sent by way of letter, to prepare Moses for his reception. Had they becu nitered face to face, Moses could, with no propriety, be said afterwards to go out to meet his father-in-law. Nor could this notice have been delivered by a messenger, saying, "I, Jethro, am come to thee," &c. See LIGHTFOOT's Spicilegia in Exod. § xxiii.

2020. [

11. When Moses held up his hand] With the rod of God in it as a signal. See v. 9.

This holding up of the hand may be considered as the first natural ensign of military direction. The Romaus, it is well known, in after ages alluding to this primitive mode of giving command, terminated the tops of their standards in the figure of a wide-spread hand. If we attend to the import of the word hand in the sixteenth verse of this Chapter, in 1 Sam. xv. 12, and in 2 Sam. xviii. 18, we shall perceive, that military trophies, if not ensigns, had a similar figure among the antient Israelites. As these trophies were unquestionably constructed of durable materials, they were, in all probability, stone pillars, appearing at a distance like an elevated arm and hand.

The word ces (Hebr.) rendered, in the margin, throne, is probably an erroneous reading for nes. This being corrected, join the yod to nes and the he to melcheme; and you will read, consistently with nesi in the preceding verse, nesi emelchemi, the banners of war.

See HOUBIGANT's Biblia Hebraica.

Large stones, in form of columns, set erect, but quite rude, are frequent in North Wales, where they are called men-pillars: they are frequent in Cornwall, aud are also found in other parts of England. Their use is of great antiquity as memorials of the dead, as monuments of friendship, as marks to distinguish places of worship, or of solemn assemblies. The northern nations erected them to perpetuate the memory of great actions, particularly in Denmark and Scotland. Exod. xix. 18.

2021.

PINKERTON'S Coll. part. x. p. 261.

It is likely that Moses held up the rod of God in his hand, ver. 9, as an ensign to the people. Dr. A. CLARKE in loco. Verse 14 Rehearse it] This writing probably, was to be alphabetical, as hieroglyphic symbols conveyed sense rather than sounds.

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2023.

I, thy father-in-law] For ani (Hebr.), I; read hinneh, Behold: according to the Septuagint, the Syriac, and several Samaritan MSS. (KENNICOTT's Remarks.) — This renders the passage consistent. A Messenger might say, "Behold ;" but Jethro could not yet say, "I", as Moses had not yet come out to meet him.

Dr. A. CLARKE in loco. Dr. A. CLARKE has rendered it probable, that the fact here related of Jethro's coming to Moses, did not take place till the beginning of the 2d year of the Exodus. See also Num. x. 11.

2024. [ 19.] The Judges of Israel, before whom all culprits were cited and examined are represented as holy persons, and as sitting to execute Judgment in the Place of GOD. Deut. i. 17. — xix. 17. - D'ARVIEUX, in his travels through Palestine, relates, that among the Arabians the usual form of legal citation is still in these words, Thou art invited to the tribunal of GOD.

2025. [

See Smith's Michaelis, vol. i. p. 192.

21.] Whatever matter the decarchs could not decide upon, or terminate, went to the pentecontarchs, and from thence by degrees to the hecatontarchs, to the chiliarchs, to Moses, and at length to GOD Himself. Each magistrate had the care or inspection of only ten men: the decarch superintended ten private characters; the hecatontarch ten decarchs; and the chiliarch ten hecatontarchs. See SCHEUCHZER; and Dr. A. CLARKE, on Num. ii. 2.

In Egypt, the Bedouin Arabs are distributed into little companies, each with a chief, whom they call schech: they dwell always under tents, and each platoon forms a little camp.

NORDEN'S Trav. in Egypt, p. 96.

2020. [Exod. xix. 11, &c ] On the summit of Pen-maenmawr, in Csernarvonshire, Wales, there appears to have been one of the druid's consecrated high-places of worship. There, as on this mount of God, is, first, an outward line of holy separation, by which the whole mount is consecrated. Next, there is a double and more sacred separation, by which the top of the mount, the Bre-y-Tinas the mount of the Holy Fire, or the representative presence, is made secret and sacred; into this the arch-druid, or high-priests alone could enter. The space between the outward and inward, or more sacred, line of separation was the Pronaos, in which all the secondary rites of religion, and all those duties wherein religion mixed with the civil, were performed: such as the ordinary sacrifices, the consecration of the children, the judgments, the teachings and divming, and lastly the hurials. Hence it is, that in this space were found cromlechs, cistvaens, judgment-seats, holy basins, rocking-stones, and circular chapels. I do not mean, says the writer of this account, Governor POWNAL!, to be understood as supposing that all these several particulars are to be found within this space, on this Holy Mount, now the subject of my enquiry; but in this, and in that of Carn-bre (in Cornwall), I may venture to say all may be enumerated. (Archeologia, vol. iii. p. 352.) -Were these designed to be visible representations of the three distinct spiritual strata, supposed to rise circuitously, like Saturn's Belts, above our terrestrial ball, forming distinet apartments in the intermediate state or "World of Spirits", answering severally to the three superior Heavens, which spherically encompass the throne of God? See John xiv. 2, 3. and 2 Cor. xii. 2, 3.

2027. [15.] The Israelites left Egypt on the 15th of Abib or Nisan; they came to Sinai on the third day of the third mouth, and received the decalogue two days after their arrival at the mount. Hence the feast of Pentecost. See No. 772, 773, 775, 778.

2028. [Exod. xx. 5.] This, says MICHAELIS (by Smith, p. 267), being spoken of the Divine judgments on idolatry, is unquestionably to be understood in reference to leprosy, with which God is wont to threaten his people, if they transgress his commandments. Whatever may be thought of the hereditary nature of leprosy, this, says M. PEYSSONEL, may be depended on as a fact. We have seen (at Guadaloupe) whole families that were infected; and almost every child of a leprous father or mother, becomes generally leprous in its turn and yet in various other families we have seen some of the children sound, and others leprous, whose father died of leprosy, and they themselves were old before they took it. Hence, he remarks, although it certainly is hereditary, we are nevertheless of opinion, that its proccdure, in this respect, is the same as what is observed in asthma, stone, and other hereditary diseases, with which families are afflicted, and

which often descend from father to son, without always keeping one regular course, but attacking sometimes one, and, sometimes another of the progeny. We could never, he continues, discover any constant rule, as to the age at which this disease might be expected to shew itself in the children of infected parents, at least, in regard to males. In regard to females however, he adds, as far as our access to observation has extended, we have remarked, that it commences with the accession of the catamenia, but makes no considerable progress, until they have been once or twice in child-bed; after which its more striking and formidable symptoms make their appearance.

See on Lev. xiii. 2.

2029. [Exod. xx. 7.] Thou shalt not profane the name of the LORD thy God. See No. 789. SWEDENBORG, on Divine Providence, n. 230.

2030. [

13. Thou shalt not kill] Among all the mysteries and anomalies in the moral world, which at different times have led presumptuous man to question the benevolence, and distrust the dispensations of Providence, there is noue which so totally baffles oonjecture as the system of carnage and war. That nation shall confederate against nation, to soothe and gratify the distemper of a solitary madman; that the happiness of empires should be dependent, as it has been, upon the smiles and frowns of a capricious harlot, or the sordid treachery of an ambitious Minister: That the great mass of mankind, the reputed pride of the universe, the nominal Lords of Creation, should themselves be as toys and playthings, to be broken and destroyed by the mischievous hands of an ideot, or an infant;-that all this should happen, day after day, and year after year; that it should happen too, unheeded and unresented by the sufferers, appears, to the view of a superficial observer, as the act of some overruling necessity, unpropitious to the interests of man. Yet let not mau impiously inveigh against the order of the universe, but rather search for the cause of this evil in his own persevering indifference to the means of good rather let him consider the calamities of war as a just punishment for his voluntary acquiescence in it, as a merited return for his own share of a conspiracy against his own happiness.

TWEDDELL'S Prolusions.

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2035. [25.] This prohibition was undoubtedly designed, among other reasons, to prevent the appearance of those sculptured figures of animals, &c. which were invariably cut upon the altars erected for idolatrous worship. In the island of Rhenia, which borders upon Delos so famed for idolatry, "M. TOURNEFORT says, he counted above a hundred and twenty altars; most of which were cylindrical, three feet six inches high, and near three fect in diameter, adorned with festoons, and the heads of rams or oxen.”

See No. 303, 785, 780, 784, 786, 789, 791, 792, 797, 809, 816, 801, 126, 798, 811, 96, 830, 136, 140, 836, 841, 779, 843, 771, 949.

Smith.

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2037. [- -2-6.] If any one be sold to one of his own nation, let him serve six years, and on the seventh go free But if he have a son by a woman-servant, in his purchaser's house, and if on account of his good-will to his master, and his natural affection to his wife and children, he will be his servant still, let him be free only at the coming of the year of Jubilee, which is the fiftieth year; and let him then take away with him his children and wife, and let them be free also.

JOSEPH. Antiq. b. iv. ch. viii. § 28.

2038. [Exod. xxi. 4.] It is appointed by Law in America, says KALM, that in case you have not only male but likewise female negroes, they must intermarry, and then the children are all your slaves; but if you possess a male negro only, and he has an inclination to marry a female belonging to a different master, you do not hinder your negro in so delicate a point; but it is no advantage to you, for the children belong to the master of the female. The children which a freed negro had begot during his servitude, are all slaves, though their father be free. See No. 445.

2039.

See Pinkerton's Coll. part liii. pp. 501, 502.

In some Prussian families you find domestics zealous, affectionate, respectful, and attached to their masters, who are born, marry and die in the house of the master; and you frequently find under the same roof a succession of fathers and sons, who have been masters and servants for two or three centuries successively.

2040.

Advertisement to Studies of Nat. p. 23.

Among the American Creeks and Siminoles, all slaves have their freedom when they marry, which is permitted and encouraged: they and their offspring thence, are every way on an equality with their conquerors.

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2043. [- -18.] Some American Indians that inhabit the country bordering on the South Sea, in attacking their enemies on horseback, encumber themselves with no other weapon, than a stone of a middling size, curiously wrought, which they fasten by a string, about a yard and a half long, to their right arms, a little above the elbow. These stones they conveniently carry in their hands, till they reach their enemies, and then swinging them with great dexterity, as they ride full speed, never fail of doing execution.

CARVER'S Trav. in N. America, p. 191.

2014. [Exod. xxi. 18.] A curiously cut stone (which appears to have been formed for boxing with), was found 14 feet under ground, about 50 yards from the side of a large river, three miles from the sea, iu the island of Dominica, in the year 1800. The period of time necessary for 14 feet of solid earth to be accumulated over this stone, must have been very long, as it did not appear probable that it had been buried there. The fine polished figure into which the stone had been cut, was (probably) the workmanship of the Charaibes or aborigines of these islands, before Europeans had visited them, or the use of iron-tools were known there.

Archæologia, vol. xv. p. 406.

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2051. [Exod. xxii. 13.] When a cow-herd has led cattle to any distant place to feed, if any die of some distemper, notwithstanding the cow-herd applied the proper remedy, he shall carry the head, the tail, the forefoot, or some such convincing proof, taken from that animal's body, to the owner of the cattle; having done this, he shall be no further auswerable: if he neglect to act thus, he shall make good the loss. HALHED'S Gentoo Laws,

p. 150.

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2053. Here it is by no means certain, that the original word signifies the owner, for it may signify the possessor, and the law may import, that the borrower ought not to lose sight, when he can possibly avoid it, of the thing borrowed; but, if it was intended, that the borrower should always answer for casualties, except in the case, which must rarely happen, of the owner's presence, this exception seems to prove, that no casualties were meant, but such as extraordinary care might have prevented; for I cannot see, says Sir W. JONES, what difference could be made by the presence of the owner, if the force, productive of the injury, were wholly irresistible, or the accident inevitable.

See his Works, vol. vi. p. 647.

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