These were very frequent: for besides their fasting twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays, they had a multitude of fasts upon divers occasions, particularly for rain. On this account they sometimes appointed thirteen fast days. They observed them on other accounts, as because of pestilence, famine, war, sieges, or inundations; sometimes for trifling things, as for dreams.-Burder's Oriental Customs, vol. ii. page 300.

IX.-15. "Can the children of the bride-chamber mourn." The Scripture informs us that the marriage festivals of the Jews lasted a whole week; as they do to this day among the Christian inhabitants of Palestine. Laban said: It must not be so done in our country to give the younger before the first-born. Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also. Genesis xxix. 26. 27. And Sampson said unto them, I will now put forth a riddle unto you: if you can certainly declare it me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty sheets and thirty change of garments: Judges xiv. 12. This week was spent in feasting, and was devoted to universal joy.-Horne, vol. iii.. page 413.

IX. -17. "New wine into old bottles." By remembering that the bottles of the Jewish people were made of skins, as also those of the modern Arabs, will elucidate many passages such as the following: Josh. ix. 4. Psm. exix. 83. Also the one in question.

IX.-20. "And touched the hem of his garment." To kiss the fringe of any consecrated robe was an act of the most profound reverence, so by touching the hem of our Saviour's garment she was persuaded that she should not only pay him the greatest respect, but dispose him to pity her, and heal her disease; which was instantly done. The garment of Christ in consequence of the humble appearance which he made upon earth, was not ornamented with that striking appendage,

which usually adorned the borders of the eastern garments; a beautiful fringe. Had his garment been in the prevailing fashion of the East, the woman, probably, would have been represented as touching the fringe of his garment, instead of its hem.-Burder's Oriental Customs, vol: ii. p. 301.

IX.-23. "And saw the minstrels and the people making a noise." The following account from Josephus will tend to illustrate the above passage. Respecting the fate of Jotapata and the supposed death of Josephus himself, our historian. states, "Yet were there fictitious stories added to what was really done; for it was reported that Josephus was slain at the taking of the city; which piece of news filled Jerusalem full of sorrow. In every house also, and among all to whom any of the slain were allied, there was a lamentation for them; but the mourning for the commander (meaning himself) was a public one; and some mourned for those that had lived with them, others for their kindred, others for their friends, and others for their brethren, but all mourned for Josephus; insomuch that the lamentation did not cease in the city before the thirtieth day; and a great many, hired mourners with their pipes, who should begin the melancholy ditties for them."Josephus, Art. Wars, b. iii. c. ix. s. 5.

IX. 36. "He was moved with compassion." Namely, his bowels yearned over them: for such is the sense of the Greek.

X.-4. "Simon the Canaanite." St. Luke says that this Simon was called Zelotes (vi. 15.) probably, because he had been one of those Galileans, or furious bigots, who obstinately refused to pay tribute to the Romans. Why St. Matthew calls him the Canaanite, may be because he was of Cana in Galilee. It is also very probable that St. Matthew, on the present cccasion, as on some others, has chosen rather to express himself in the language in which he thought, which was Syriac, than in the general language of his Gospel, which was Greck. According to this supposition, St. Matthew and Luke

say

the same thing of this Simon: the latter says that he was called a Zealot: and the former that he was a Zealot-ite, i. e. of the party of Zealots.

X.-9. "In your purses." The original word is girdles. These girdles were essentially necessary to the Eastern people to bind their flowing vestments about them. They were also used for carrying money through the means of a sort of fob-pocket made in their duplicature.

X.-10. "Neither shoes." Namely, they were not to put on the high kind of shoe or half boot which was the custom of the antients when about to make a long and arduous journey. Hence Horne, in speaking of the manner in which the Jews eat the passover, vol. iii. page 302. says, "They were to eat the passover with shoes on their feet, for in those hot countries they ordinarily wore sandals, which were a sort of clogs, or went barefoot; but in travelling they used shoes, which were a kind of short boots reaching a little way up the legs. Between St. Matthew and Mark vi. 9. there is a singular kind of agreement, which may be termed negative: for St. Mark does not say that the Apostles went with shoes or half boots, nor does St. Matthew say that they went without sandals.

"Nor yet staves." The Greek word is used in the singular number, and may signify a supernumerary staff; for as they were not to take two coats, neither for the same reason, were they to take two staves. See St. Mark vi. 8. The following remark is extracted from Horne's Introd. vol. iii. page 302. "So necessary in these countries was a staff or walking stick on a journey, that it was a usual thing for persons when they undertook long journies, to take a spare staff with them, for fear one should fail. When Christ, therefore, sent his Apostles on the embassy above mentioned, he ordered them not to take staves, that is, only one staff or walking stick, without making provision of a spare one, as was common in long journies."

X.-11. "And into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy, &c." Antiently they had no places of entertainment for the accommodation of travellers, but only houses for lodging them, called by the moderns, caravansaras, into which travellers brought their own provisions, and accommodated themselves in the best manner they could. But it was common for persons of humane dispositions, such as our Lord here calls worthy persons, to entertain strangers according to their ability.-Ostervald.

X.-14. "Shake off the dust of your feet." This custom the Jews practised when they came to their own land from any heathen country, lest they should defile the holy inheritance.

X.-17. "And they will scourge you." The most common corporal punishment of the antient Mosaic law was ́scourging. (Lev. xix. 20.) After the captivity it continued to be the usual punishment for transgressions of the law, so late indeed as the time of Josephus; and the Apostle tells us that he suffered it five times. (2 Cor. xi. 24.) In the time of our Saviour it was not confined to the judicial tribunals, but was also inflicted in the synagogues. (Matt. x. 17. xxiii. 34. Acts xxii. 19.) The penalty of scourging was inflicted by judicial sentence. The offender having been admonished to acknowledge his guilt, and the witnesses produced against him as in capital cases, the judges commanded him to be tied by the arms to a low pillar: the culprit being stripped down to his waist, the executioner who stood behind him upon a stone, inflicted the punishment both on the back and breast with thongs ordinarily made of ox's hide or leather. The number of stripes depended upon the enormity of the offence. According to the talmudical writers, while the executioner was discharging his office, the principal judge proclaimed these words with a loud voice: If thou observest not all the words of this law, &c. (Deut. xxviii. 58. 59.) adding, keep there

fore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do (Deut. xxix. 9.); and concluding with these words of the Psalmist (lxxviii. 38): But he being full of compassion forgave their iniquities; which he was to repeat, if he had finished these verses before the full number of stripes was given. It was expressly enacted that no Jew should suffer more than forty stripes for any crime, though a less number might be inflicted. In order that the legal number might not be exceeded, the scourge consisted of three lashes or thongs: so that, at each blow, he received three stripes consequently when the full punishment was inflicted, the delinquent received only thirteen blows, that is, forty stripes save one; but if he were so weak, as to be on the point of fainting away, the judges would order the executioner to suspend his flagellation. Among the Romans however, the number was not limited, but varied according to the crime of the malefactor and the discretion of the judge.-Horne, vol. iii. page 137.

X.- -25. "If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub." Baal-zebub, was the idol-god of Ekron. This name, signifying Lord of flies, does not seem to be given him in contempt, since Ahaziah his adorer called him by it; but either because he was painted as a fly, though others say he was figured as a king on his throne; or because he was supposed to chase off the hurtful swarms of flies; and might be the same as the god Achor at Cyrene, who was reckoned a preserver from flies. As the prince of devils is in the New Testament called by this name Beelzebub, one is tempted to suspect he might be the Pluto, or god of hell of the Greeks. 2 Kings i. 2. Matt. xii. 24. also x. 25.-Brown.

X.-27. "What ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the house-tops." In the synagogues of the Hellenists or Greek Jews, the law was always read in the Alexandrian or Greek version; but in those of the native Jews, the law was

1