SAMARITANS however, has shown the great improbability of any alphabet being derived from hieroglyphics. In fact, the Samaritan and Phoenician alphabets started immediately from picture-writing, as is evident from the slightest inspection of their characters. The Samaritan Pentateuch, though quoted by the early Fathers, was unknown in Europe until the seventeenth century, when four or five copies of it were obtained from the East at the expense of Archbishop Usher. It is certainly inferior to the Hebrew copy as an authority, bearing evident marks of having been interpolated to promote Samaritan interests and pretensions. In many parts also the text is corrupted through the carelessness and inaccuracy of transcribers. Gesenius has for ever set aside the superior authenticity which some preceding critics were disposed to ascribe to the Samaritan Pentateuch, and has aptly described it as "the more modern edition in the more ancient characters." SAMSON, a diminutive from W Shemesh, "the sun," the name of the most celebrated of the Jewish champions whose fame was celebrated in the heroic lays of their country. He was the son of Manoah, of the tribe of Dan, and was born B.C. 1155. From his birth he was a Nazarite (q. v.), and was distinguished for his extraordinary strength, which depended on the preservation of his hair. In his day the Israelites were grievously oppressed by the Philistines, and the hero's prowess was chiefly directed against these tyrants over his native land. St. Paul quotes him as an example of "faith," which was manifested in his various encounters with the enemies of his nation. At length, through the artifices of a wicked woman, the secret of his prowess was made known; his locks were shorn, his strength removed, and his person loaded with chains. After having been long detained in prison, he was brought out on the occasion of a solemn festival to make sport for the Philistines, when, seizing on the columns which supported the edifice, he broke them down, burying himself and his foes beneath the ruins. SAMUEL, N, a contraction for Shamuhel, “heard of God," the name of the first of the order of prophets and the last of the Judges. He was the son of Elkanah and Hannah, and, in the accomplishment of a Divine promise, was born B.C. 1156. He was eminent as a prophet and historian; but as a ruler he evinced a weak partiality to his sons, and did not check their exactions and oppressions. These circumstances induced the Israelites to demand a king, from which Samuel vainly laboured to dissuade them; but finally, by Divine command, he anointed Saul to the regal office. When Saul by disobedience forfeited the Divine favour, Samuel was directed to select David as his successor. He died before the change of the kingdom took place, in the ninety-eighth year of his age. To Samuel are ascribed the books of Judges and Ruth, and the first of the historical books which bear his name, but it is obvious that some additions were made to these works after his death. As a prophet Samuel is principally remarkable for the example he gave of boldness and fidelity in reproving regal delinquency; the order of prophets continued the same course until it ended with Malachi and Zechariah. SANBALLAT. A chief, or governor, of the Cuthite Samaritans, and a bitter enemy of the Jews. He is supposed to have built the Temple on Mount Gerizim by permission of Darius Nothus, about the middle of the fifth century before the Christian era. SANCTIFICATION. 1. The separating and appointing any person or thing to a holy use or purpose, or for the service of religion; under this view is included consecration. 2. The cleansing of any one from legal pollutions, the purifying of him, and rendering him fit to partake of holy things. 3. The sanctifying of God's name is the reverse of blaspheming it. It is to praise him, to acknowledge his power, and to endeavour to make him known and beloved. God sanctifies himself when he vindicates his own honour before us his sinful creatures. 4. The renovation wrought by the Holy Ghost in the spirits of justified persons, the making of them pure who were impure, and holy who were unholy, derived figuratively from the legal cleansing of the ceremonial law. In the Old Testament, sanctification signifies chiefly to separate from common use: to set apart and dedicate to religious purposes. To sanctify, is from the root T kedesh, to separate. It does not imply purity of character, or spiritual holiness, but an imputed sacredness, imparted by an outward act of consecration, or dedication, separating from common purposes, and devoting to higher uses than the ordinary. 1. The highest sanctifying in the Jewish law was that of the consecration of the high-priest, whereby he was entirely separated from the rest of the community, and dedicated in a solemn manner to the service of God. The high-priest was separated from all the rest of the community by his peculiar dress during the tabernacle and temple service, (Exod. 28,) by the laws concerning his marriage, (Lev. 21. 13,14,) concerning his mourning, (Lev. 21,) concerning his pedigree, (Numb. 3. 10.) and even concerning his personal qualifications. (Lev. 21. 21-23.) X The high-priest was also particularly sanctified by being a type of Christ the Holy One. The anointing of the high-priest with a holy oil, set apart for religious use alone, symbolized the Messiah. His tunic was without seam, like the seamless garment of Christ, (John 19. 23,) betokening unity: the community and fellowship of the saints. The inscription on the mitre of "Holiness to the Lord," (Exod. 28. 36,) had particu larly reference to that inward holiness, that spiritual sanctification, which was the great aim of Christ's teaching, but which, under the Mosaic dispensation, was very little understood by the Jews, if not wholly lost sight of amid outward ceremonies. It is remarkable that the Rabbins say that the high-priest was anointed on the forehead in the form of the Greek letter x chi, a cross. In the consecration of the high-priest, the blood of the sacrifice was not put, as in usual cases, on the horns of the altar, but on the tip of his right ear, the thumb of his right hand, and the large toe of his right foot; thus was he another type of Christ, who bore in his own person the blood of the great Sacrifice, and who is the High-Priest, ever living to make intercession for us. (Heb. 7. 25.) To consecrate, in the Old Testament, is not always expressed by the same Hebrew word,, as to sanctify, p kadash, but mala, to fill, or b mala jadi, to fill the hands, because the priest's hands were filled with parts of the burnt offering and the meat offering, sacrificed at the time of consecration. Wherefore, when to consecrate is attended with the idea of sacrifice, it is expressed by mala, or mala jadi, to fill the hands; so in Exodus 32. 29, when the Levites slew the idolatrous Israelites who had worshipped the golden calf, Moses told them they had consecrated themselves (such is Boothroyd's reading, not "consecrate" in the imperative mood,) by offering up the transgressors as a sacrifice. But in all places where to consecrate means to make holy, to devote, it is expressed by TP kedesh, separate or sanctify. Except in Numbers 6. 12, where the consecration of the Nazarite is expressed by nezer, to alienate oneself from, because the Nazarite was to abstain from some particular things. The separation for holy purposes implied by WP kadesh, was perpetual; that implied by nazir, or nezer, might be terminable, it being for an optional space of time, though there were some cases like Samuel and John the Baptist, where the Nazariteship was for life, but these cases were exceptions. Also in Micah 4. 13, to consecrate is not expressed by any of the foregoing words but by cherem, properly to anathematize, to devote to destruction; because the text speaks of the wealth of Gentile people, which was generally considered accursed, till it had been passed through fire, as a symbol of destroying its pollutions, and then it was dedicated to religious purposes. (Numb. 31. 22,23.) The Levites and ordinary priests, besides the ceremony of their consecration by lustral ablutions and sacrifices, were sanctified by being separated to God's sole service, in exemption from all worldly cares concerning the procuring of their own maintenance. Persons were sanctified to the Lord in a lesser degree than the priesthood, by being nominated as his. As the first-born of all the Jews, if males, (Exod. 13. 2,) or by a voluntary vow like the Nazarites. The nation also was sanctified to the Lord by the rite of circumcision, which separated them from the Gentiles. The Tabernacle and its furniture were sanctified by anointing, (Exod. 11,) and the Temple, by a grand and most solemn dedication. (2Chron. 5 and 6.) Mount Sinai was sanctified by the act of separating it from the people, by setting bounds around it. With respect to With respect to the sanctifying of the sheep-gate, at the rebuilding of Jerusalem, (Nehem. 3. 1,) critics are of opinion that there is a mistake in the original text. Some propose that instead of 1 should be read 1, restored or renovated it; for we do not read that any of the other gates, in the rebuilding, were sanctified. But we read here that the high-priest, and his brethren the priests, did rebuild this particular gate, but not any of the others. Wherefore it seems most probable that the original text is correct, and that the sheep-gate was considered sanctified, either because such sacred persons had worked at it in preference to the other gates, or that they offered sacrifices at the conclusion of the work, as Josephus says Nehemiah and the people did when the walls of Jerusalem were finished. (Josephus, Ant. lib. xi. c. 5.) A man sanctified his house, when he devoted it, or the value of it, to the maintenance of the priests or the tabernacle, (Levit. 27;) in the same manner he sanctified his field, or a part of it, (that is, the produce of a part,) for he could not devote his whole property, to the injury of the interests of his children. 2. Sanctification, by cleansing from legal impurities, was effected by the use of the water of separation. (Numb. 19,) by ceremonial ablutions, and by sacrifices, (Levit. 14. 15.) Also they were called sanctified who kept themselves separated, kedesh, from any unclean or polluting contact, or from any unholy and prohibited thing, (Levit. 20. 6. 7; 11. 44.) To sanctify was also to prepare for some solemn service, or to stand in the presence of God, by prayer, by abstaining from various indulgencies, and by washings. (Exod. 19. 10; Numb. 11. 18.) The Hebrew word to sanctify, Wp kedesh, is in some places in our version rendered to "prepare." As in Jeremiah 6.4, "Prepare ye war against her," it is literally "sanctify" war, because it was a holy war-a war by divine commission of the Chaldeans against Judah for her punishment. Thus, in Jeremiah 51. 28, in denouncing God's judgments against Babylon, "Prepare against her the nations," is literally "Sanctify against her," &c. 3. The sanctifying of God's name, is the acknowledgment of its sacredness, of its vast right to our deepest reverence. In Matt. 6. 9, "Hallowed be thy name," is aylaσonтw, Sanctified be thy name. Α Rabbinical commentary (in Bab. Berac.) on Deut. 26. 13, "I have not trangressed thy commandments, neither have I forgotten," says, the latter words mean, "I have not forgotten to remember thy name, i. e., to remember the honour due to it." So in some of the Jewish thanksgivings we find these words, “Hallowed be thy name, and let the remembrance of Thee be glorified in heaven above, and in the earth beneath.” When man is commanded to sanctify God, (Isai. 8. 13,) Sanctify the Lord of Hosts himself, and let him be your fear," it is not to add one tittle to his glory (such a thought would be blasphemy), but it is to know him, to dread disobeying him, to confess him, to worship him, to vindicate his ways and his truth, and endeavour to make him known and loved by all men. When God is said to sanctify himself, as in Ezekiel 20. 41, Numbers 20. 13, He vindicates his truth from doubt and disbelief: his honour from blasphemy; he shows forth his power, so as to be feared; or his mercy, so as to be loved. When Christ says of himself that the Father sanctified him, he speaks of his appointment, ordination, and separation as head and high-priest of his church. In the Old Testament, when it is said that God sanctifies man, as in Exodus 31. 13, Leviticus 20. 8, Ezekiel 20. 12, it means that he is pleased to accept their service, their sacrifices, and their purifications, and to hold them as clean. It is not understood in the full spiritual sense of the New Testament, as the purifying and renovating operation of the Holy Spirit in the heart. For though the Jews were not ignorant of the existence of the Holy Ghost, or Spirit of God, and expected a particular outpouring of him in the days of the Messiah, yet in their carnal state they had but low views, and considered his operations rather as to convey some evident privilege and manifest power; such as that of prophecy, of seeing visions, of commanding evil spirits; all which might exist along with an unrenewed heart; and we have evidence from Scripture that they did; as in the cases of Saul, Balaam, and others. It is true that the prophets and inspired teachers did not fail to insist to the Jews upon the absolute necessity of the inward sanctification of a clean heart, as Isaiah 1. 16, "Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings; cease to do evil: learn to do well." Jerem. 4. 14, “O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayst be saved. How long will vain thoughts lodge within thee?" and many similar passages. Yet this spiritual teaching was overlooked by the carnal-minded Jews in general; trusting to their ceremonial purifications, and to their privileges, as the chosen nation, and the sons of Abraham. Wherefore Isaiah reproaches them that they swore by the name of the Lord, and made mention of the God of Israel, but "not in truth nor in righteousness." (Isai. 48. 1,2.) And Jeremiah upbraids them that while they wrought wickedly, they yet came to the house of God, and vaunted themselves a holy people, saying, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these." (Jerem. 7. 2,3,4, and others.) In the New Testament, which is a more glorious and spiritual dispensation, sanctification is preached in its SANCTIFICATION-SAPPHIRE. full and excellent sense, as the fulfilment of all the purifying types of the Law; and as the operation of the Holy Spirit in the heart, renewing it to pureness of life, and endowing it with spiritual gifts and graces. It is that ghostly cleansing from the pollutions of sin which was typified in the legal cleansings from legal pollutions by the ceremonial washings, which under the Christian dispensation are replaced by baptism as the outward visible sign of an inward spiritual grace. Christ, in whose blood we are washed, is for this reason called our sanctification. (1Cor. 1. 30.) Spiritual holiness, or sanctification is the will of God. (1Thess. 4. 3,) "This is the will of God, even your sanctification." It is the preceding step to salvation. (2Thess. 2. 13,) "God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." It is absolutely necessary to salvation. (Heb. 12. 14,) "Follow peace and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." Holiness here is in the Greek ayiaoμov, the same word which is used for sanctification in the text above, viz., 1Thess. 4. 3. Justification is sometimes confounded with sanctification; but they differ essentially. Justification is the remission of guilt through the merits of Christ; sanctification is the purifying of the heart by the influence of the Holy Ghost, the conversion from evil to good. Justification is by the free grace of God perfect in this life; sanctification cannot be wholly so on account of our frailty, for even "a just man falleth seven times," (Prov. 24. 16;) his sins are not imputed, by the efficacy of justification: thus "The just lives to righteousness by faith." (Heb. 10.38.) It is in the next world only that the spirits of just men are made perfect, (Heb. 12. 23;) consequently it is only there that sanctification is perfected. SANCTUARY. See TEMPLE. SAND. A similitude from the sand of the sea is often used by the sacred writers to express a very great multitude. Thus it was promised that the descendants of Abraham should be numerous as the stars or the sand; and in the seven years of plenty, Joseph is said to have collected corn like the sand of the sea. Job applies the similitude in a different and rather unusual manner-to imply weight or heaviness: Would to God my grief were weighed in a balance, It would be found heavier than the sands of the sea. (vi. 2,3. WEMYSS's Translation.) SANDALS were at first mere soles tied to the feet with strings or thongs. In process of time they were changed into shoes or slippers, being often adorned with the richest work and embroidery. When Judith visited Holofernes we are told in the Apocrypha that "her sandals ravished his eyes." Sandals are frequently carried by servants after their masters, and no mark of servitude is considered more degrading. The Orientals usually lay aside their sandals when they visit any place of religious worship, and at the doors of an Indian temple or Mohammedan mosque, as many sandals and slippers are hung up as hats at some of our meeting houses. See DRESS, SHOES, &c. SANHEDRIM, or SANHEDRIN, ovvedptov. The great council of the Jews for deciding all affairs of religion and policy. A little before the time of Christ's death, two celebrated rabbins, Hillel and Schamai, had been presidents of the Sanhedrim, and had given opposite decisions on many important points, particularly on questions arising out of the law of divorce. This gave occasion to the interrogatories which the Pharisees 1183 addressed to Our Lord on the subject. (Matt. 19.3.) There were inferior Sanhedrim in most of the principal towns of Palestine, but an appeal lay from their decisions to the Great Council of Jerusalem. Christ alludes to the distinction between the two tribunals. (Matt. 5. 22.) For further particulars respecting the two Sanhedrim, see COUNCIL, &c. SAPPHIRA. See ANANIAS. SAPPHIRE, DD The oriental sapphire is a pellucid gem, little inferior in hardness to the diamond. The best are found in Pegu, and in the sand of the rivers in Ceylon. They are very seldom found of a large size. Their colour is blue, varying through all the intermediate shades down to colourless. The deep blue are called male sapphires; the lighter, water sapphires, or female sapphires. The sapphire has been sometimes found red, and has then been mistaken for ruby. There is a gem called sapphiro-rubinus, which is a sapphire, part blue, part ruby-coloured: it is called by the Indians nilæcundi. (Rees's Cyclopædia). Precious stones were considered by the ancients to be emblematical of some faculty or virtue. Wherefore Pope Innocent III. sent to King John a present of four rings: the sapphire, denoting hope; the emerald, faith; the garnet, charity; the topaz, good works. The sapphire is the stone which in the high-priest's breastplate bore the name of Issachar. On account of the extreme difficulty of engraving on so hard a stone as the sapphire, and its being generally supposed that the ancients did not possess the skill requisite, it is conjectured by some commentators that the sapphire mentioned in Exodus 28. 18; 39. 11, is not the gem now known as the Oriental sapphire, but was the beryl, or aqua-marine. The antique gem engraven with the head of Julia, in the Museum of Paris (or formerly there), long supposed to be a sapphire, has been Scriptures has been conjectured to be the lapis lazuli, a discovered to be a beryl. Wherefore the sapphire of the beautiful blue mineral, with white clouds, and veins and and used as ornaments. The Rabbins, sensible of a difspots of pyrites, like gold. It was once much valued, ficulty concerning the engraving of the sapphire, have invented a baseless fable; viz., that the engraving was performed, not by human skill or tool, but by the aid of a miraculous insect, like a worm, about the size of a barleycorn, called the shamir, which had the power of penetrating everything, however hard. They fable that these worms were created on the evening of the first Sabbath, for especial purposes; that they were laid on the gems belonging to the high-priest's breastplate, and that they penetrated to a certain depth in each gem, in a pattern in which they were led or directed, thus engraving them in the required manner. They say that this worm has not existed since the building of the second Temple. See the Rabbinical books Sofa and Gillin. Rejecting of course such wild fables, some have conjectured that the engraving was performed by mere human skill, by some of Egyptian race in that "mixed multitude" (Exod. 12. 38,) which accompanied the Israelites out of Egypt; for the Egyptians were clever as handicraftsmen, jewellers, and lapidaries. But there is no occasion for either fable or conjecture, when the Scripture itself tells us that God chose handicraftsmen for his work, and especially inspired them with the skill and knowledge requisite to execute what he desired of them. (Exod. 31. 2,3,4,5.) "See I have called by name Bezaleel, and I have filled him with the spirit of God in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, to devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in cutting of stones, to set them." Now this cutting of stones to set them can only refer to gems, as there was no stone used in building the Tabernacle. (Ver. 6.) "And behold I have given with him Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach; and in the hearts of all that are wisehearted have I put wisdom, that they may make all that I have commanded thee." Many learned men have noticed the relation of Elian, that the chief judge among the Egyptians wore round his neck a sapphire, which was called aλncia, truth, the same word by which the Septuagint expresses the Thummim, (Exodus,) and which the Egyptians are supposed to have copied from the high-priest's pectoral during the correspondence between the Israelites and Egyptians after Solomon's marriage with Pharaoh's daughter. Some have written that the sapphire of the ancients was a blue stone, with white sparry veins or clouds, and specked with pyrites like golden stars. Pliny describes the sapphire as of an azure or sky-blue colour, glittering with golden spots, and rarely intermixed with purple; and he says that the best are found in Media. This description answers to that of the lapis lazuli. The description in Exodus 24. 10 of the similitude of a sapphire under the feet of the Almighty, as it were the body of heaven in its clearness, harmonizes equally well with the idea of the pellucid blue sapphire, or with that described by Pliny; whose clear blue colour would represent the blue vault of heaven; the white veins, the clouds, and the golden spots, the stars. See also Ezekiel, "The firmament over their heads (the cherubim,) was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone;" and also Ezekiel 10. 1. To this representation of the heavens, with the golden specks, resembling the stars, Milton refers, Paradise Lost, book iv., Now glowed the firmament Parkhurst, under the article "Sapphire," has a remarkable note. He says, that Philostratus observes that there was a room in the palace of Babylon, vaulted like a heaven, and adorned with sapphires of the colour of heaven, with images of God, placed above, as it were in the air; and four golden charms, prepared by the magicians, hanging down, and which were called tongues of the gods. In this chamber the king was wont to give judgment; so that by this means it might appear to their subjects as if their judgments were divine oracles. The idea seems to have been taken from the gems in the sacred pectoral, under the Mosaic law, whose corruscations were oracular. Parkhurst refers to Ezekiel 28, | where the king of Tyre is said to have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire, i.e., shining like fire, which is very applicable to the sapphire with golden specks. The sapphire is specially mentioned in verse 13 of the same chapter, amongst the precious stones which were the covering of the king of Tyre. So that it would seem to refer to his becoming impious, and affecting divinity, like the king of Babylon beforementioned; and wickedly counterfeiting divine things; such as the oracular gems of the high-priest's breastplate were. The sapphire, as a blue stone, is used in Scripture to describe the veins, as in Song of Solomon, (v. 14), Lam. 4. 7. If we are to understand the sapphire as emblematic of Hope, the idea is extremely beautiful in Revelation 21. 19, of one of the foundations of the New Jerusalem, being the sapphire, or hope; as also in Isaiah 54. 11, where God promises to make the foundations sapphires of the "afflicted and tossed with tempest," but restored Jerusalem, typifying Hope. The etymology of sapphire seems to be from sepher, to cipher, count, or number. That the sapphire is precious, as being so few as to be easily numbered. The principal gems known in the patriarchal times. are thus enumerated by Job, in his beautiful Eulogium on Wisdom, ch. 26, of our translation, but ch. 42, according to the more accurate arrangement of Wemyss. But wisdom! where shall it be found? Where is the abode of understanding? Mortal man knoweth not its origin; Nor is it to be found in the land of the living. For the value of wisdom is far beyond rubies. Nor for the Arabian topaz can it be bartered. The Hebrews probably derived the name of this as of several other precious stones from foreigners, as the root cannot be satisfactorily identified in their language. I. SARAH or SARAI, the daughter of Haṛan, eldest brother of Abraham, sister of Lot and of Milcah, wife of Nahor, also brother of Abraham. (Gen. 11. 27,29.) The two brothers, Nahor and Abraham, married their nieces, Sarah and Milcah, their eldest brother Haran's daughters: a connexion that in those days of thin population was no more prohibited, says Jerome, than were the earliest marriages, of brothers and sisters (the sons and daughters of Adam). It appears that Sarah was originally named Iscah, (Gen. 11. 29,) “Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah." The Targums say that Iscah was Sarah: so also Buxtorf, Jun., the Talmudic book Megillah, and many other authorities, Jewish and Christian. Scripture does not tell us why she was called Iscah. The name seems to come from the verb Disach or jasach, to anoint; and would be applicable to her prophetically, as the future mother of the chosen nation. Rabbi Isaac says, she was called D Iscah, from sokah a tabernacle, or veiled place, because she was as an oracle to Abraham, for God commanded him, "In all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice." (Gen. 21. 12.) The name of Iscah, however, was changed, probably by Abraham on her marriage, for the appellation of endearment, Sarai, my Princess, or my Mistress. She was ten years' younger than Abraham, (Gen. 17. 17,) who was much junior to her father (sixty years, according to Bishop Patrick.) She appears to have been married after Haran's death (Gen. 11. 28,29,) who died in the lifetime of his father Terah. This Terah, according to Jewish commentators, was an idolatrous priest, who worshipped the fire; and because the Hebrew text says, that Haran died * by Gnal pení Terah, before the face of Terah, literally, the Talmudists write that Terah accused his sons to Nimrod, the tyrannical and idolatrous king, of having refused to worship the sacred fire, wherefore they were cast into it, and Haran was consumed; but that Abram was miraculously saved, and that to this deliverance God refers in Genesis 15. 7, "I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees," for Ur, N also signifies fire in Hebrew. Abram having been before converted from Sabianism (see article SABEANS,) himself, and had converted his father Terah, (according to the Jewish doctors,) and Terah not wishing to remain in the country after the death of Haran, left Chaldea, accompanied by SARAH. Abram, Sarai, and Lot, for the land of Canaan; but they stopped at a place called Haran, in Mesopotamia, near the river Chaboras, between it and the Euphrates. Bishop Patrick thinks they built a small town, and called it Haran, in commemoration of Sarai's father, and here Terah, her grandfather and father-in-law, died (Gen. 11. 31,32). Sarah was childless, and Abram adopted her brother and his nephew Lot. At Haran the Rabbins say they made many proselytes to the true faith; Abram instructing the men, and Sarai the women; for so they understand Gen. 12. 5, "The souls they had gotten in Haran,” which the Targum of Onkelos paraphrases, "The souls which they had rendered obedient unto the law in Haran." From this place Abram removed Sarai and the rest of his family, by command of God, under a promise of a great posterity and many blessings. (Gen. 12. 1, 4.) They passed on to Sichem, afterwards Shechem, and now Neapolis, or Naplous, in the north part of Palestine, then a pastoral valley, and perhaps famous for its trees; for critics are of opinion that the word translated in our version "the plain," of Moreh, should be the oak ( alon), and so the Septuagint reads, Tv Spvv Tηv viλov, the high oak, or rather the terebinth, an evergreen tree, with leaves shaped like those of the olive; the branches large; bunches of flowers, like those of the vine, but purple. This was a dangerous journey, for the "Canaanite," fierce and predatory, "was in the land.” was in the land." (Gen. 12. 7.) Here again the promise of offspring was renewed. Sarai was at this time above sixty. Again the family removed, and pitched their tents on the mountain east of Bethel; a town whose site was long forgotten, but has now been identified by Dr. Robinson with the ruins of Bestin, north of Jerusalem, from which it may be reached in three hours, forty-five minutes, with horses, and lies on the right of the road to Neapolis or Sichem. (Biblical Researches in Palestine, vol. ii. sect. 9.) Here Dr. Robinson found on the high ground to the east, the finest pasturage in Palestine. The patriarch's family, however, continued to lead a wandering life in Canaan, till the occurrence of a famine forced them to retire to Egypt, as a country always abounding in corn. Sarai must have been now at least between sixty and seventy; for Abram was seventy-five when he left Haran, and she was but ten years younger. Yet it appears that her beauty was still remarkable. It must have been very great, when the sacred text alludes to it twice in this chapter: "that she was a fair woman," and that "she was very fair." (Gen. 12. 11,14). It is probable that the freshness and youthful appearance of her person were especially preserved, on account of the promise that she was to become a mother out of the course of nature. Abram, fearful that her extraordinary beauty would attract some powerful man among the Egyptians, who would not scruple to murder him, in order to marry his widow, entreated her to consent to pass for his sister, to which she consented. As he feared, Sarai's charms soon fascinated the Egyptians. Besides her natural beauty, and its miraculous preservation, she possessed the adventitious advantage of a contrast between her fairer and more ruddy complexion, and the dry, swarthy, sun-burnt faces of the native Egyptian And the princes of the country spoke so much of her, that she was taken into Pharaoh's house, or, as we may understand it, to his harem. The Jewish book Bereshith Rabbah, speaking of Sarai's beauty, says that Abram conveyed her to Egypt in a chest, and that when he opened it, the lustre of her beauty illuminated all the land of Egypt. This seems absurd enough, unless we understand it figuratively, (as indeed the Rabbins must often be so interpreted,) that the chest was a kind of palanquin, or boarded and curtained litter; and that women. 1185 the fame of her beauty was quickly noised abroad in Egypt. Pharaoh, after taking Sarai to his palace, gave to Abram, as her next of kin, for her dowry, great wealth in flocks, herds, and slaves. (ver. 16.) But she was delivered from Pharaoh by some miraculous interposition of heaven, (ver. 17,) and Pharaoh, ascertaining the truth of her connexion with Abram, reproached him for his deception, and returned her to him, desiring him to quit Egypt. Josephus says that God sent a distemper on Pharaoh, and a sedition among his people; and that he, inquiring of his priests and their oracles the cause of these calamities, was informed it was on account of the foreigner's wife. He also says, that Abram, during his sojourn in Egypt, conferred with their priests and wise men, and convinced them in many things, and taught them arithmetic and astronomy. Josephus, Antiquities, lib. i. c. 8. After leaving Egypt, Abram, with his wife and her brother, returned to their old abode, the high land near Bethel. But here they had to part from Lot, on account of the quarrels between their respective herdsmen. (Gen. 13. 1,3,7.) And Abram and his wife removed to the plain of Mamre, near Hebron, otherwise called Kirjath-arba, which was indeed the earliest name for Hebron. In this place again the word which we render the plain, is translated by the Septuagint, the oak of Mamre, παρα την δρυν την Μαμβρη. Josephus says that Abram dwelt by an oak called Ogyges, near to Hebron. (Antiquities, lib. i. c. 10.) He says that there was a large oak or terebinth tree about six furlongs from Hebron, said to have existed since the creation. (Jewish War, lib. iv. c. 9.) By this great oak Abram halted; and the place is remarkable as being the longcontinued abode of Sarai, neighbouring to the scene of her interment. her interment. Here the aged couple began to despair of the long-promised offspring; and Abram, in a conversation he is represented as holding with God, (Gen. | 15,) alludes to one Eliezer of Damascus as his steward, and one born in his house, (apparently a son of that Eliezer,) as his adoptive heir. Though the promise of posterity was again and most solemnly renewed, Sarai's faith seems to have been exhausted; and despairing of a child herself, she gave to Abram as a concubine, her her servant Hagar, “her handmaid an Egyptian,” (Gen. 16. 1,) possibly one of the slaves given by Pharaoh, in order to adopt, according to Oriental custom, any child she might have. When Hagar found herself likely to become a mother, she became insolent and triumphant over her disappointed mistress, who bitterly complained to Abram, and in the excitement of her feelings, between envy, disappointment, and offended pride, acted so harshly to Hagar, that she fled from her irritated mistress into the wilderness; but returned on a solemn warning from an angel. (Gen. 16. 5,6,7,9.) And after her return she became mother of Ishmael. Sarai was near ninety, the often-reiterated promise was renewed, and now the future son's name was given, Isaac, or "laughter," because Abram laughed secretly at the idea of Sarai bearing a child at her advanced age. (Gen. 17. 17,19.) And now, by command of God, her name was changed from Sarai, my princess, to Sarah, a princess, (over many, not the princess of one family, as before,) and Abram's appellation was correspondingly changed from Abram, or high father, to Abraham, father of a multitude. (Gen. 17. 5.) When After this, a most remarkable circumstance took place; a supernatural appearance from the Lord visited him at his tent, in the semblance of three men, wayfarers, whom Abraham entreated to stay and partake of some refreshment, which was readily and instantly |