to have been used about this time for picquets and ex- to fight in the valley of Megiddo. And the archers shot at King Josiah; and the king said to his servants, Have me away, for I am sore wounded. His servants therefore took him out of that chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had; and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in one of the sepulchres of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah." (2Chron. 35. 20-24.) "Jehu rode in a chariot, and went to Jezreel; for Joram lay there. And Ahaziah, king of Judah, was come down to see Joram. And there stood a watchman Here we see that chariots, which were only introduced on the tower in Jezreel, and he spied the company of in the reign of David, had become so important that a Jehu as he came, and said, I see a company. And second chariot was prepared for Josiah, in case of any Joram said, Take an horseman, and send to meet them, accident happening to that in which he entered the and let him say, Is it peace? So there went one on battle. The victory appears to have been decided by horseback to meet him, and said, Thus saith the king, Is the superiority of the Egyptian archers, who, according it peace? And Jehu said, What hast thou to do with to Jeremiah, were chiefly levied among the Lúddím, a peace? turn thee behind me. And the watchman told, people of northern Africa, tributary to the Pharaohs. saying, The messenger came to them, but he cometh not The prophet, indeed, in his description of the battle of again. Then he sent out a second on horseback, which Carchemish, or Circesium, has given a most lively came to them, and said, Thus saith the king, Is it peace? description of the state of ancient warfare in the seventh And Jehu answered, What hast thou to do with peace? century before the Christian era. "The word of the turn thee behind me. And the watchman told, saying, Lord which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the He came even unto them, and cometh not again; and Gentiles; against Egypt, against the army of Pharaohthe driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Necho, king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates Nimshi; for he driveth furiously. And Joram said, in Carchemish, which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, Make ready. And his chariot was made ready. And smote in the fourth year of king Jehoiakim, the son of Joram king of Israel, and Ahaziah king of Judah, went Josiah, king of Judah. Order ye the buckler and shield, out, each in his chariot, and they went out against Jehu, and draw nigh to battle. Harness the horses, and get and met him in the portion of Naboth the Jezreelite. up ye horsemen, and stand forth with your helmets: And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he furbish the spears, and put on the brigandines. Wheresaid, Is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, What peace, fore have I seen them dismayed and turned back? and so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her their mighty men are beaten down and fled apace, and witchcrafts are so many? And Joram turned his hands, look not back; for fear was round about, saith the Lord. and fled, and said to Ahaziah, There is treachery, O Let not the swift flee away, nor the mighty men escape; Ahaziah. And Jehu drew a bow with his full strength, they shall stumble and fall towards the north by the and smote Jehoram between his arms, and the arrow river Euphrates. Who is this that cometh up as a went out at his heart, and he sunk down in his chariot." flood; whose waters are moved as the rivers? Egypt (2Kings 9. 16-24.) riseth up like a flood, and his waters are moved as the rivers; and he saith, I will go up and cover the earth: I will destroy the city and the inhabitants thereof. Come up ye horses, and rage ye chariots; and let the mighty men come forth; the Ethiopians and the Libyans that handle the shield, and the Lydians (Luddim) that handle and bend the bow. For this is the day of the Lord God of hosts, a day of vengeance that he may avenge him of his adversaries, and the sword shall devour, and it shall be made satiate and drunk with blood; for the Lord God of hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates." (Jerem. 46. 1-10.) This magnificent prediction very forcibly describes the decisive battle of Circesium, which deprived the Egyptians of the Syrian provinces, and transferred the empire of Asia to the Babylonians. The use of cavalry, in addition to the corps of chariots, began to extend rapidly in the eighth century before the Christian era; and it appears to have been one great source of the rapid successes of the Assyrians. This explains the vaunting insolence of Rabshakeh when he summoned Hezekiah to become the vassal of his master Sennacherib. "I pray thee, give pledges to my lord the king of Assyria, and I will deliver thee two thousand horses, if thou be able on thy part to set riders upon them. How then wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? Am I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it?" (2Kings 18. 21-25.) Rabshakeh clearly could not have meant that Hezekiah did not possess two thousand warriors; his clear purpose was to taunt the Jews with the small amount of their skill in horsemanship, and their consequent want of cavalry, an arm of war in which his master was so powerful. The last great battle which the Jews fought before the captivity was that of Megiddo, in which King Josiah was slain. "Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Charchemish by Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him. But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war: for God commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not. Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came On referring to the accompanying engravings, the accuracy of the prophetic description will be made manifest; the Egyptian soldiers are represented both with the square buckler and round shield, and the great size of the shield borne by the figure to the right of the second engraving explains the reason of the prophet's dwelling so emphatically on this part of the armour of the Egyptian auxiliaries, "the Libyans that handle the shield." In the centre of the third engraving we actually see one of the Lúddím with his bow and quiver on his shoulder, and his bow-string in his hand; and to the extreme right is a warrior wearing the tight and neatlyfitting brigandine on his breast, instead of the heavy and cumbrous coat of mail. The encounter of the chariots in the first engraving is singularly illustrative of the terrific denunciation of Divine vengeance against Nineveh by the prophet Nahum, in which the hostile chariots occupy a conspicuous place. "Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not; the noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the prancing horses, and of the jumping chariots. The horsemen lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear: and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases; and there is none end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses." (Nahum 3. 1-3.) It may be noticed as illustrative of the importance of chariots in early warfare, that the office of charioteer was scarcely inferior in dignity to that of the warrior whom he drove through the ranks of the battle. We find Homer mentioning as no unusual occurrence that Nestor acted as charioteer for Diomede, when that hero was about to attack Hector: Nestor skill'd in war, Approves his counsel, and ascends the car; Two sons of Priam next to battle move, | to her, and enquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor." (1 Kings 28. 4-7.) From the time of David to the end of the kingdom, prophets were usually consulted, and hence arose the great numbers of false prophets mentioned in the history both of Israel and Judah. If the predictions appeared to be favourable, a solemn sacrifice was offered, after which the royal standard was displayed in some wellknown place of rendezvous, and all faithful subjects were summoned by sound of trumpet to rally round the banner of their sovereign. Jeremiah very powerfully describes these preparatory circumstances of war in his denunciation of Divine wrath against Babylon. "Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz: appoint a captain against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillars. Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion. And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the Lord shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation without an inhabitant. The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight, they have remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned her dwelling-places; her bars are broken. One post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken at one end, and that the passages are stopped, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come." (Jerem. 51. 27-32.) This took the charge to combat, that to ride.-Iliad, ix. The wars of the Maccabees with the Seleucidæ, and those of the insurgent Jews against the Romans, not belonging to Scripture history, do not come within the proper scope of this work. In fact, after the Babylonian captivity, the Jews lost all pretensions to military character, and virtually ceased to exist as an independent nation; our attention must therefore be confined to the circumstances connected with ancient warfare which are recorded in the Old Testament. Before a war was It does not appear that the ceremony of declaring war undertaken, it was customary to consult the diviners was always observed; on the contrary, it very often hapand soothsayers, that they might predict its event. The The pened that the first intimation which the peaceful inhaprophet Ezekiel describes the king of Babylon using the bitants of a country received of an invasion was from divination by arrows before he ventured to commence the signals displayed on the watch-towers and the most his march against Jerusalem; and it is singular that this prominent eminences, announcing that their enemies form of divination is still practised in Asia, though it were on the frontiers, or perhaps already in the land. was specifically forbidden by the lawgiver of the Mus- Isaiah, predicting the fall of Babylon, mentions as an sulmans. "The king of Babylon stood at the parting aggravation of the calamity, the unexpected appearance of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divi- of the enemy, coming from a distant land, whence hostination; he made his arrows bright, he consulted with lities could not have been anticipated either by the rulers images, he looked in the liver. At his right hand, was or the citizens. the divination for Jerusalem, to appoint captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with shouting, to appoint battering rams against the gates, to cast a mount, and to build a fort. And it shall be unto them as a false divination in their sight, to them that have sworn oaths, but he will call to remembrance the iniquity, that they may be taken." (Ezek. 17.) These and similar practices were forbidden to the Jews, but in the early part of their history we find that they were accustomed upon such occasions to consult the Urim and Thummim, (which see,) and if these were silent, they were filled with consternation and perplexity. It was this silence which induced Saul to apply to the witch of Endor. "And the Philistines gathered themselves together, and came and pitched in Shunem: and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they pitched in Gilboa. And when Saul saw the host of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart greatly trembled. And when Saul enquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets. Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go "The noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together: the Lord of Hosts mustereth the host of the battle. They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the Lord, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land." (Isai. 12. 4,5.) War-cries were raised in the onset of battle, and the Hebrews, like most Orientals, generally decided the fate of the day by the first charge; if this was defeated, they could rarely be persuaded to renew the combat. It was by their superior steadiness and firmness in the ranks that the Greeks and Romans prevailed over the Asiatic hordes, though vastly superior to them in numbers, and indeed the victories of the English in India may, for the most part, be attributed to the same cause. The return of a victorious army from war was celebrated with great pomp and exultation, (See TABRET, TRIUMPH, &c.), popular songs were composed in honour of the favourite hero, and his entire family participated in the favours bestowed upon him by the nation or the sovereign. WAR-WASILING OF HANDS. We It has been questioned whether wars are, under any circumstances, justifiable on the Christian system; but at all events, it is clear that they can only be consistent with the new law of mercy given to the world by Our Lord and Saviour when undertaken on the clear and obvious ground of necessity and of self-defence. may be assured, for the words of truth have spoken it, that as his Gospel is diffused over the earth, wars shall be no more, "kingdom will rise no more against kingdom, nor nation against nation," and the promise made to the world by the herald angels who proclaimed the advent of the glorious and beneficent Messiah will be fulfilled; the whole earth will echo back to the angelic messengers with one acclaim, "Glory to God in the highest; on earth, peace, good-will towards men." T. WARS OF THE LORD. This is the title of a book quoted by Moses in the Pentateuch; the work has long been lost, and commentators are not agreed as to the probable nature of its contents. We have given our conjectural opinion in the preceding article. T. WASHING. See BATH; BATHING. WASHING OF HANDS. We learn from the Rabbinical traditions that the punctilious washing of hands before eating was a matter by which the Pharisees distinguished themselves, not only from the heathen, but also from "the men of the earth," as they called the common people of their own nation. In 2Kings 3. 11, we read that “Elisha poured water on the hands of Elijah." This was the act of an attendant or disciple, and it was so much his established duty that the mere mention of it sufficed to indicate the relation in which Elisha had stood to Elijah. It is also an indication that the Hebrews were accustomed to wash their hands in the manner which is now universal in the East, and which, whatever may be thought of its convenience, is unquestionably more refreshing and cleanly than washing in the water as it stands in a basin, which is a process regarded by the Orientals with great dislike. The hands are, therefore, held over a basin, the use of which is only to receive the water which has been poured upon the hands from the jug or ewer that is held above them. This cannot very conveniently be managed without the aid of a servant or some other person, who approaches with the ewer in his right hand, and the basin in his left, and when the hands have been placed in a proper position over the basin, which he continues to hold, lets fall a stream of water upon them from the ewer, suspending it occasionally to allow the hands to be soaped or rubbed together. In modern times, no towel is offered, as every one dries his hands in his handkerchief, or however else he pleases; but, in ancient times, we know from the classical writers, that the servant whose duty it was to attend to the washings of his master, or his master's guests, girded himself with a long piece of linen cloth, the end (or both ends) of which being left hanging loose, supplied the towel with which the hands were wiped after being washed. Indeed, the towel round the waist was a proper and essential part of the equipment of the servant who discharged this office. The water is usually tepid, and always so after a meal, in order to clear the grease contracted by eating with the hands. In the East, the basin, which, as well as the ewer, is usually of tinned copper, has commonly a sort of cover, rising in the middle, and sunk into the basin at the margin, which, being pierced with holes, allows the water to pass through, thus concealing it after it has been defiled by use. The ewer has a long spout, and a long narrow neck, with a cover, and is altogether not unlike 1339 our coffee-pots in general appearance; it is the same which the Orientals use in all their ablutions. It is evident that a person cannot conveniently thus wash his own hands without assistance. If he does, he is obliged to fix the basin, and to take up and lay down the ewer several times, changing it from one hand to the other. Therefore a person never does so, except when alone. If he has no servant, he asks some bystander to pour the water upon his hands, and offers a return of the obligation, if it seems to be required. Snow-water was held in peculiar estimation. the whiteness and purity of snow, the ancients believed that its water was better suited for purification than any other; and we read that it was preserved in vessels for personal ablution. It was believed that it not only whitened the skin, but that it also strengthened it, by preventing perspiration and contracting the fibres. From In Mark 7. 2-5, we find the Scribes and Pharisees upbraiding the disciples for eating with unwashed hands, and Our Lord reproving them for their hypocrisy and lip-service: "For this people honoureth me with their lips, when their heart is far from me." The practice of so frequently washing hands appears to have been founded on the traditions which alleged that defilement was contracted by the touch of so many different things, far beyond what the legislator contemplated. Indeed, it was almost impossible for one who held these traditions to avoid the frequent defilement of his hands. And it was held that the hands being defiled, communicated their defilement to the meat which they touched, rendering it unclean; the hands were constantly and curiously washed before eating, even when the man knew not that his hands were defiled, as he could not be certain that they had received accidental pollution. It was for this reason, among others, that the Pharisees refused to eat with the common people, who were less attentive to these solemn trifles. It appears that the hand only was washed for the eating of ordinary food; but the hand and arm to the elbow for eating such food as had been offered at the altar. They also washed their hands in the common way, by having water poured upon them, for common food; but for the holy food, they were careful to dip their hands in the water. There were otherminute regulations in this matter, which distinguished ceremonial washings from those which had nothing but personal cleanliness in view. When the Pharisees returned from the market, they were careful to wash, lest in the concourse they should have received some accidental pollution. This they could not well avoid, as it was held that the merc contact of the clothes of "the people of the earth”—the unwashed multitude-conveyed pollution, and rendered purification necessary. Hence we are told by Maimonides, that in walking the streets they were careful to go by the side of the way, that they might not be defiled by touching the common people. This was, indeed, a literal exemplification of the feeling, "Stand by, for I am holier than thou." On returning, they washed by plunging their hands into water; whereas, unless holy food were to be eaten, the common pouring of water (in the traditional manner) sufficed for those who remained at home, and had not knowingly contracted any pollution. Gill supposes that the whole person was washed on returning from market, but we have the sanction of Lightfoot in thinking otherwise. There appears no good reason for the supposition expressed in the Oriental versions, that the articles bought at the market were washed when brought home, for there were necessarily many articles which could not be washed. For the eating of fruits, wash ing was deemed superfluous; and he who did wash was regarded, even by the Pharisees, as an ostentatious man. The Law directed that in certain cases the Jews should wash their hands, to signify that they were guiltless of the blood of an unknown person found murdered. Pilate was probably aware of this custom, for, from Matthew 27. 24, we find, "When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it." He knew that this symbolical act was calculated to make an impression, and would be distinctly understood. To himself, also, the adoption of this ceremony was perfectly natural, as the rite was common among the Greeks and Romans as one of expiation for an act of unintentional or unwilling homicide. The practice of frequent ablutions was not peculiar to the Hebrews: we find it rigidly enjoined by the Mohammedan law. We quote the following extract from Taylor's History of Mohammedanism. "The Sonna of the Mohammedans exactly corresponds with the Mishnah of the Jews, and comprehends all their religious traditions. From it we take the following account of the greater purification, Ghasl. It must be remembered that there are seven species of water fit for rightly performing religious ablutions; that is to say, rain, sea, river, fountain, well, snow, and icewater. But the principal requisites for the lustration Ghasl are three: 1. Intention. 2. A perfect cleansing. 3. That the water should touch the entire skin and every hair. And there are five requisites of the traditional law, or Sonna: 1. Appropriate phrase, Bismillah, (In the name of the most merciful God,') must be pronounced. 2. The palms must be washed before the hands are put into the basin. 3. The lustration Wodú must be performed. 4. The skin must be rubbed with the hand. And 5. It must be prolonged. . . . (We omit the cases in which this lustration is required.) The second lustration, Wodú. The principal parts, indeed, the divine (they are called divine because taken from the Koran,) institutions of the lustration Wodú, are six: 1. Intention. 2. The washing of the entire face. 3. The washing of the hands and fore-arms up to the elbows. 4. The rubbing of some parts of the head. 5. The washing of the feet as far as the ancles. And 6. Observance of the prescribed order. And the institutes of the traditional law about this lustration are ten. 1. The preparatory formula, Bismillah, must be used. 2. The palms must be washed before the hands are put into the basin. 3. The mouth must be cleansed. 4. Water must be drawn through the nostrils. 5. The entire head and ears must be rubbed. 6. If the beard be thick, the fingers must be drawn through it. 7. The toes must be separated. 8. The right hand and foot should be washed before the left. 9. These ceremonies must be thrice repeated. 10. The whole must be performed in uninterrupted succession. (We omit the cases .... in which this lustration is required.) "Of purification by sand. The divine institutions respecting purification by sand are four: 1. Intention. 2. The rubbing of the face. 3. The rubbing of the hands and fore-arms up to the elbows. And 4. The observance of this order. But the Sonnite ordinances are three: 1. The formula Bismillah. 2. The right hand and foot precede the left. And 3. That the ceremony be performed without interruption. The Mohammedans have borrowed the permission to use sand for water, in case of necessity, from the Jews. Indeed, Cedrenus mentions an instance of sand being used for a Christian baptism. Their necessity dictated the per WASHING OF FEET. The Orientals used to wash the feet of strangers who came from off a journey, because they commonly walked with their legs bare, their feet being defended by sandals only. (Gen. 18. 4; 24. 32; and 43. 24.) This office was commonly performed by servants and slaves. Abigail answers David, who sought her in marriage, that she should think it an honour to wash the feet of the king's servants. (15am. 25. 44.) When Paul recommends hospitality, he would have a widow, assisted by the church, to be one who had washed the feet of saints. (1Tim. 5. 10.) In a moral sense, to wash the feet signifies, to purify from earthly and carnal affections. Our Saviour after his last supper, gave his final lesson of humility by washing his disciples' feet. (John 13. 5,6.) "After that He poureth water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, and wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. Then cometh He to Simon Peter, and Peter said unto him, Lord, dost Thou wash my feet?" When we read that Christ poured water into a basin, we know that it was intended for washing the feet, for hands were washed by water being poured upon them. The traditionary regulations of the time determined that the basin for washing the feet should hold from two logs (or about four pints,) to nine cabs, (about four pints and a half); as they held a less quantity of water was not consistent with cleanliness. We see much reason to conclude that the Jews never did introduce the feet or any other members into the vessel containing the water. The operation upon the feet appears to have been performed as the persons reclined at table, without its being needful for them to make any change in their posture. The servant came, and gently raising the foot, inserted under it a basin of water; he then laved the foot and rubbed it with his right hand, while he held it with his left, finally wiping it with the towel with which he was girded. Our Lord inculcated humility upon His Apostles by Himself washing their feet, an act which was considered so servile, that it was never performed by superiors to their inferiors, and rarely by equals to each other. The Rabbinical writers let us know by whom this service was usually performed, namely, by the servant for his master, by the wife for her husband, by the son for his father, and by the disciple for his master. The last, indeed, is not said expressly, but is implied in the general rule, that, "All works which a servant does to his master, a disciple does to his master, except that of unloosing his shoes." (T. Bab Cetubot, fol. 91. 1.) A. 66 WATCH. The division of the night into four watches, each of three hours' length, ending at nine, midnight, three, and six respectively, was introduced into Judea by the Romans, and is mentioned only in the New Testament. Among the earlier Jews, the night appears to have been divided into two portions, and consequently the watch was only once relieved. C. WATCHERS. Angelic beings mentioned by Nebuchadnezzar in the description of his dream. (Dan. 4. 13-17.) The Chaldeans believed that God had dele |