Teftament. We fhall fet down the undoubt ed Significations of it as briefly as we can, and then enquire in what Senfe it is here to be taken. In the first place it fignifies any place below the Superficies of the Earth, whether made hollow by Art or Nature. Hence faiab metaphorically ufes it to denote a low and mean Condition, ch. 14. 11. and for the fame reafon Jonas calls the Fith's Belly by the fame name. Secondly, it is taken for a Grave or Sepulchre, f. 14. 15. where the King of Babylon is faid to be brought down to Hell, to the fides of the Pit; which words are there fet down as Synonimes. See likewife, Pfalm 141.7. In the third place it does not fo much feem to fignify the Grave, as the State of the Dead, or the Place where they are poetically feign'd to reft, and difcourfe together. Thus in the 14th Chapter of Ifasah, the King of Babylon, who is exprefly faid, V. 19, 20. to be caft out of the Grave, and to be denied a Burial, is yet in the ninth Verse fuppofed to go Scholah to Hell, where the Dead come to meet him. Hell (Schol) from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming; it stirreth up the Dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the Earth; it has raised up from their Thrones all the Kings of the Nations: All they shall speak, &c. fee Ezekiel, ch. 32. And by this word is meant not the

Man

Manfions of the happy, fuch as the Elyfan Fields, or the fortunate lands, were among the Grecians, but the common Receptacle of the Dead in general, as appears not only by the above-mentioned places, but Job, c. 2. 17. chro. 21. and feveral other Paflages of the Old Teftament. Now 'tis paft difpute that it is not here to be taken in the firft Sig nification; so that the Question is, Whether Facob meant the Grave, or elfe the Place and State of the Dead? It cannot be pretended that he meant the former; for how cou'd he fay, I will go down into the Grave to my Son, fince he did not believe him to be buried, but to be torn to pieces by a wild Beaft Therefore we muft understand it of the Place or State of the Dead, as the LXX Interpre ters have done, who have rendred it xalaβήσομαι πρὸς τὸ ὑολ με πενθῶν εἰς ἅδε; and the Vulgar, Defcendam ad filium meum lugens in infernum. But what Sentiments Jacob had of that State or Receptacle of the Decea fed, no Circumftances out of Hiftory inform us, nor can we fafely judge of his, by our own Opinion upon that matter.

You are Spies, to fee the Nakedness of the Land are you come, ch. 42. 9.] This Sufpi cion of Jofeph was fo much the more plau fible, because his Brothers came from thofe

X.3

parts,

parts, by which alone Egypt is acceffible on the fide of Afia. This is the only place, fays Herodotus, 1. 3. c. 5. where Ægypt can be openly enter'd; where he relates at large how Cambyfes invaded it, and marched with his Army this way. Confult but Ptolomy's Tables, and the matter appears plain enough. It was on all fides fecured from the hoftile Incurfions of the Africans, if we may believe Diodorus Siculus, lib. 1. Bibl. by large unpaffable Deferts, The Sea which lies to the Northwards of it, is fhallow and deftitute of Harbours, so that it did not fear an Invafi on from that quarter: Only on the Eaftern Frontier it lay open and unguarded. For this reafon Sefoftris to fecure this Pafs against the Irruptions of the Syrians and Arabians, fortified it with a Wall fifteen hundred, furlongs in length, which reached, from Pelufum to Heliopolis, Diod lib. I. p. 52 and upon the fame account perhaps it was that Nero the Son of Pfammetichus, King of Egypt, drew a Trench from the Peluftac Arm of the Nile, to the Gulf of Arabia, and endeavoured to joyn the Mediterranean to the Southern Sea.

They knew not that Jofeph understood them, for he spoke unto them by an Interpreter, ch. 42. 23. Although the Egyptian and He brew Language nearly refembled one another,

yet

yet there might be that difference between them, as the Canaanites and the Egyptians cou'd not understand one another in ordinary Difcourfe. Thus we fee the French don't understand the Italians or Spaniards, although these three Languages are derived from the Latin; and thus in the time of the Kings, the Jews did not commonly understand the Chaldean Tongue, as appears from 2 Kings, ch. 18. v. 26. Now 'tis evident from this place, that Jacob's Sons fpoke in the Canaanitish Language, unless we wou'd rather fuppofe them to speak Chaldee, and not a Tongue which was only peculiar to one Family, as the Rabbines pretend: for then how had it been poffible to have procured an Interpreter, unless we fuppofe that one of Jacob's Servants had run away from his Mafter, and fled into Egypt, of which we don't find the least mention.

They fate before him, the first-born according to his Birth-right, and the youngest according to his Touth; and he took and fent Meffes unto them, but Benjamin's Mefs was five times fo much as any of the rest, ch. 43. v. 33.1 Though we have no account in any Profane Authors of the Customs ufed by the Ancients at their Feafts, which equal this in Antiquity, yer it may receive fome Illustration X 4 from

from what we find in Homer. In the first place Homer's Heroes did not fit down promiscuously, as we do about our round Tables, but every Man according to his Quality, or the Refpect which the Master of the Feaft was minded to fhow him. Thus Hector upbraids Diomede when he run away, that the Grecians honour'd him with a Seat and Flefh, and full Cups.

Ἕδρη τε, κρεασίν τε, ἰδὲ πλείοις δεπάεσσι.

The de here feems to be the medela, as Euftathius has remarked upon this place, that is, the chief Seat at Table. Secondly, 'tis evident that in the Heroical times they ufed long Tables, or perpetuæ menfæ, as Virgil calls them: So that the most honourable Seat was confequently at the upper end, where we may fuppofe Reuben fate, and his other Brethren below him, according to their Age. Thirdly, as here in Mofes, fo we find in Homer that each of the Guests had his equal Dividend of Meat, unless a greater Portion was bestowed upon any one of them, to show him more Honour. For this reason, as Athe, naus informs us, II. Homer calls them dainas tious, or equal Feafts. In fhort, as it appears from the above-mentioned place in Homer, where mention is made of Diomede,

that