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WORMWOOD- WRESTLING.

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hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken | 1. 18.) The objects of God's anger or wrath are the with wormwood." (Lam. 3. 15.)

The prophet Amos, in one of his finest chapters, exhorting the wicked to repentance, especially addresses the corrupt judge, who turns "judgment to wormwood." (Amos 5.7.) And in Revelations 8. 11, we read that at the sound of the third trumpet, in the Apocalypse, when the star whose name was Wormwood fell and mingled with the waters, many men died.

Such are the remarkable passages in which the qualities of wormwood, rather than the plant itself, are named. Among the ancients wormwood was esteemed as a valuable medicine, peculiarly efficacious in epilepsy, and it continued in repute till of late years. The modern Italians indeed still continue to distil a pleasant bitter spirit from it, which they consider an excellent stomachic. With us it is mostly burnt on account of the quantity of potash it yields, from which the salt of wormwood is prepared. A.

WORSHIP, cultus Dei, amounts to the same with what we otherwise call religion. This worship consists in paying a due respect, veneration, and homage to the Deity, under a sense of an obligation to him. And this internal respect is to be shown and testified by external acts, as prayers, thanksgivings, &c.

Private worship should be conducted with:-1. Reverence and veneration. 2. Self-abasement and confession. 3. Contemplation of the perfections and promises of God. 4. Supplication for ourselves and others. 5. Earnest desire of the enjoyment of God. 6. Frequent and regular.

ungodly, whom He has declared He will punish. His wrath is sometimes manifested in this life, and that in an awful degree, as we see in the case of the old world; of Sodom and Gomorrah; the plagues of Egypt; the punishment and captivity of the Jews; and the many striking judgments on nations and individuals. But a still more awful punishment awaits the impenitent in the world to come, for the wicked, it is said, shall go away into everlasting punishment, (Matt. 25. 46;) where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. (See Rom. 2. 8,9.) A.

WREATH. See GARLAND.

WRESTLING. "The games of the lower orders, and of those who sought to invigorate the body by active exercises," says Wilkinson, "consisted of feats of agility and strength. Wrestling was a favourite amusement; and the painting of the grottoes at Beni Hassan presents all the varied attitudes and modes of attack and defence of which it is susceptible. And in order to enable the spectator more readily to perceive the position of the limbs of each combatant, the artist has availed himself of a dark and light colour, and even ventured to introduce alternately a black and red figure. It is not, however, necessary to give an instance of every position indicated in those varied subjects; and a selection of the principal groups will suffice to convey some idea of their mode of representing the combatants, and of their general system of attack and defence.

"It is probable that, like the Greeks, they anointed the body with oil when preparing for these exercises, and they were entirely naked, with the exception of a girdle, apparently of leathern thongs.

the manner best suited to his mode of attack.

It was

holding their arms in an inclined position before the "The two combatants generally approached each other body, and each endeavoured to seize his adversary in allowable to take hold of any part of the body, the head, neck, or legs; and the struggle was frequently continued on the ground, after one or both had fallen, a mode of wrestling common also to the Greeks.

"I do not find that they had the same sign of acknowledging their defeat in this game as the Greeks, which was by holding up a finger in token of submission; and it was probably done by the Egyptians with

Some who have acknowledged the propriety of private worship have objected to that of a public nature, but without any sufficient ground. For Christ attended public worship himself, (Luke 4;) he prayed with his disciples, (Luke 9. 28,29; 11. 1;) he promises his presence to social worshippers. (Matt. 18. 20.) It may be argued also from the conduct of the Apostles, (Acts 1. 24; 2. 4; 24. 1,4; Rom. 15. 20; 1 Cor. 14; Acts 21; 2Thess. 3. 1,2; 1Cor. 11;) and from general precepts, (1Tim. 2. 2,8; Heb. 10. 15; Deut. 31. 12; Psalm 100. 4.) "The scriptural obligation of public worship," says Mr. Watson, "is partly founded upon example, and partly upon precept; so that no person who admits that authority can question this great duty without manifest and criminal inconsistency. The institution of public worship under the law, and the practice of synagogue "They also fought with the single-stick, the hand worship among the Jews, from at least the time of Ezra, cannot be questioned, both of which were sanctioned by being apparently protected by a basket, or guard, prothe practice of Our Lord and his Apostles. The pre-jecting over the knuckles; and on the left arm they ceptive authority for our regular attendance upon public worship, is either inferential or direct. The command to publish the Gospel, includes the obligation of assembling to hear it; the name by which a Christian society is designated in Scripture is a church, which signifies an assembly for the transaction of business, and, in the case of a Christian assembly, that business must necessarily be spiritual, and include the sacred exercises of prayer, praise, and hearing the Scriptures." (See arts. CHURCH, CHRISTIANITY.

A.

a word.

wore a straight piece of wood, bound on with straps, serving as a shield to ward off their adversary's blow.

"They do not, however, appear to have used the cestus, or to have known the art of boxing; nor was throwing the discus, or quoit, an Egyptian game." See Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians.

The Greeks, in their combats, were generally matched two against two; but sometimes several couples contended at the same time. In case the whole aim and design of the wrestlers was to throw their adversary upon the ground; both strength and art were employed for this purpose; they seized each other by the arms,

WRATH. Great and permanent anger. See drew forward, pushed backward, used many distortions

ANGER, ATONEMENT.

WRATH OF GOD, is his indignation at sin and punishment of it. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness." (Rom.

and twistings of the body, locking their limbs in each other's, lifting from the ground, dashing their heads together, and twisting one another's necks. In this manner the athlete wrestled standing, the combat ending with the fall of one of the competitors. To this combat the words of Eliphaz seem to apply: "For he

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stretcheth out his hand against God," like a wrestler challenging his antagonist to the contest, and "strengthening himself," rather, vaunteth himself, stands up haughtily and boasts of his prowess in the full view of "the Almighty," throwing abroad his arms, clasping his hands together, springing into the middle of the ring, and taking his station there in the adjusted attitude of defence, "he runneth upon him, even on his neck," or with his neck stretched out, furiously dashing his head against the other; and this he does even when he perceives that his adversary is covered with defensive armour, upon which he can make no impression: "He runneth upon the thick bosses of his bucklers." (Job 5. 25,26.) A.

WRITING. Like all the Semitic nations, the Hebrews began their writing at the right-hand side of the page, and continued it to the left, instead of writing as we do, from left to right. Among the earliest Hebrew writings which have been preserved, we find some very beautiful specimens of calligraphy, great care having been obviously bestowed both upon the formation and the ornamenting of the letters. The origin of the art of writing is lost in remote antiquity, but there is a general tradition in the East that it was divinely revealed to Adam. All our existing information points out inscriptions on stone as the earliest form of writing, and similar impressions were subsequently made on bricks. while in their soft state. The forms of the ancient

Of these four methods, the most extraordinary, at such an early age, is that which to moderns would appear the easiest, that is, "the simple writing" as a record in a book. The oldest books, properly so called, were made either of the leaves of such vegetables as the papyrus, or the leaves or bark of trees; and at a later on linen and the skins of beasts. Parchment was not known until a period subsequent to the age of Alexander the Great, when it is said to have been invented by Eumenes, king of Pergamus, as a substitute for papyrus, when the exportation of that vegetable substance from Egypt was prohibited by the Ptolemies.

In the age of the Jewish prophets, the materials used for writing were rolls either of skins or of linen; for we find Ezekiel directed to "take a roll of a book and write therein;" but when it was desirable that the writings should be immediately read, they were recorded on a tablet, or plain piece of board, the letters being most probably laid on with paint. Thus we read the following direction given to the evangelical prophet:

Go now,

write it before them on a tablet, And record it in letters upon a book, That it may be for future times

For a perpetual testimony.-Isaiah, 30. 8.

The second mode of writing mentioned by Job is, that on the tablet. It is well known that the Romans made their tablets of smooth boards, smeared over with wax, on which they traced inscriptions with an iron pen or stylus, which was nothing more than a pointed piece of metal, the blunt end of which was employed in erasures kind in the Sacred Scriptures; the nearest approach to if necessary. There is no allusion to any tablets of this them appears to have been thin plates of lead on which characters were sculptured by a sharp-pointed tracer made of some hard substance. A very distinct allusion to tablets of this kind is found in the writings of the

alphabets, which usually have their letters formed of
straight lines and angles, very clearly indicate their
monumental origin. It will, therefore, be advisable to
treat this subject in the next article, for ancient writings
varied according to the materials on which they were
inscribed. See, also, BIBLE, BOOK, LANGUAGE, SCRIP-made of some hard substance.
TURE, SCRIBE.

WRITING MATERIALS. The patriarch Job is prophet Jeremiah:

the most ancient describer of the materials used for recording events in the earliest ages. He exclaims,

O that even now my words were recorded!

O that they were engraven on a tablet,

With a pen of iron upon lead,

That they were sculptured for perpetuity on a rock.
Job 19. 3, WEMYSS' Trans.

The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron,
With the point of a diamond it is engraved
Upon the tablets of their heart,

And upon the horns of their altar.-Jeremiah 17. 1. Tablets of prepared wood, on which letters were written with a kind of ink which could be easily effaced, were introduced among the Jews after their return from

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WRITING MATERIALS.

the Babylonish captivity; the knowledge of them was probably derived from the nations of Central Asia, where similar contrivances for memoranda continue to be used at the present day. It was on a "writing-table" of this kind that Zecharias wrote the name of his son John the Baptist. (Luke 1. 63.) Tablets of ivory were used by the rich instead of these "writing-tables" of wood, for the wooden plates were both clumsy and incon

venient.

Oriental Writing Materials.

The modern Jews have always a roll of the Pentateuch in their synagogues, and they assign as a reason, that

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this was the form in which the Book of the Law was preserved from the earliest times. The pens employed to write on the linen or parchment, were formed from reeds like those of the modern Persians, and the ink used approached the consistency of paste. It is said, that the ink used for writing on linen was different from that employed for skins or parchments, but we possess no certain information respecting the composition of either.

Sculptured rocks abound in the East, and this mode of writing was probably mentioned last by the patriarch, on account of its being a more laborious and difficult process, as well as a more permanent memorial than any of the others. We need not add, that the implements for cutting monumental inscriptions on rocks have scarcely varied from the most ancient times.

It is curious to find that traces of the most ancient writing materials still exist in the ordinary terms applied to modern writings. Thus, volume properly signifies "a roll," and preserves the memory of the ancient rolls of linen or parchment; library is derived from liber, the inner bark of a tree, which was anciently used for books, and the paper on which we write preserves in its appellation the memory of the time when the papyrus-plant was the principal source from which writing materials were obtained. C.

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XERXES I. was the "fourth" king prophesied of in Daniel 11. 2. "Behold there shall stand up yet three kings in Persia, (Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius, son of Hydaspes,) and the fourth (Xerxes,) shall be far richer than they all; and by his strength through his riches he shall stir up all against the realm of Greece." Xerxes I. was the son of Darius, (son of Hydaspes,) and Atossa, daughter of Cyrus. He was declared heir to the kingdom of Persia a short time before his father's death, who preferred him before his elder brother Artabazanes, because the latter was born while Darius was a private individual; but Xerxes was born after his elevation to the throne. Xerxes, on his accession, (B.C. 485,) showed himself very friendly to the Jews of the captivity, and confirmed all the favours granted to them by his father; indeed Josephus (Ant. book xi., chap. 5,) ascribes to Xerxes the letter in behalf of the returning Jews, given in Ezra 7. 11-26. He began his reign by conquering Egypt; and rapidly subdued the Phoenicians, Cilicia, Pamphylia, Pontus, Pisidia, Lycia, Caria, Myria, Troas, Bithynia, the Hellespont, and the Isle of Cyprus. He then fulfilled the prophecy of Daniel above quoted, by marching against Greece with the prodigious army of 5,283,220 men, exclusive of suttlers, women, attendants, &c.; and a fleet of 1200 ships. The check given to this multitude at Thermopylae by Leonidas with his 300 Spartans, and the grand defeat of the Persian army at Salamis, are well known. After the return of Xerxes from his unsuccessful campaign, he ordered the demolition of all the Grecian temples in Asia; that of Diana at Ephesus alone being spared. He had been instructed in the religion of the magi by Zoroaster, and was inspired with a horror of idolatry; wherefore he also destroyed all the idols in Babylon; thus fulfilling the prophecies of Jeremiah 6. 2, and 51. 44-47, "Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces, her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces." "I will punish Bel in Babylon;" "I will do judgment upon the graven images of Babylon."

Xerxes was murdered in his bed at Ecbatana by Artabanus, a Hyrcanian, and captain of his guard, B.C. 464, according to most chronologers, but 473 according to some. He was succeeded by his second son Artaxerxes, surnamed Longimanus, (the Ahasuerus of Esther,) the elder son, Darius, having been also murdered by Artabanus. Artaxerxes was succeeded by his son Xerxes II., who reigned only two months. M.

XYLOPHORIA, Euλopopeia, the name given by Josephus to the festival of bringing in wood for the keeping up of the perpetual fire in the Temple. There is no mention of it in the Pentateuch, or early Scripture, but it is alluded to in Nehemiah 10 and 13. Among the later Jews this festival was one of much solemnity and rejoicing.

There were several days for the people to hew the wood, but the twenty-second day of the month Ab (July) was the day for bringing it in, and offering it; and on that day, Maimonides says, it was not lawful for any to work, to mourn, or to fast. Nehemiah (10. 34) says: "We cast lots among the priests, the Levites, and the people, for the wood-offering, to bring it into the house of our God, after the houses of our fathers, at times appointed, year by year, to burn upon the altar of the Lord our God, as it is written in the Law;" whence it appears that it was determined by lot how much each person should bring in for himself. The Rabbins say that the wood was prepared with great care, and made very clean, and no mouldy or rotten pieces permitted to be amongst it.

According to the Mishna, the first gate on the south side of the great court of the Sanctuary was called the Gate of Burning, because the wood was brought in through it, to be laid up in store, for use in the Temple. Each family, as they brought in their contributions, sacrificed an offering called the corban of wood. M.

YEAR, shanah, from

YARN. Solomon is described as having received | or to sell any instrument of husbandry, such as a plough, yarn from Egypt. (1 Kings 10. 28,) “And Solomon had or a harrow. Latterly, however, when the Jews became horses brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn; the king's subject to the Gentile nations, and were obliged to merchants received the linen yarn at a price." See also maintain their armies, the Rabbins say, it was permitted 2Chron. 1. 16; and article WEAVING. to sow just as much as was necessary for that purpose. During the Sabbatic year, the Jews lived upon the surplus produce of the former years. God had promised that the produce of the sixth year should be treble that of any other year. (Levit. 25. 21.) The spontaneous fruits of the earth during the Sabbatic year was left free for the use of the poor, the stranger, and the animals; this was a kind of tribute paid by the people to the Creator of all things; and was also calculated to inculcate humanity. In this year, slaves were released, and debts cancelled. (Exod. 21. 2; Deut. 15. 1,2.)

shanah, to iterate, to repeat. "A year, the iteration or repetition of the solar light's revolution over the whole face of the earth, by its annual and diurnal motion and declination;" or as Buxtorf, though not with such philosophical strictness, "the year is called shanah, from iteration or repetition, because it is iterated by the sun's returning to the same point whence he set out, and always revolves or returns upon itself by its own path." It is well observed by the learned Mr. Kennedy, Scripture Chronology, page 37, that we cannot define as applied to the sun, without defining at the same time, the tropical year. (Gen. 1. 14; 5. 3; Deut. 32. 7.) Parkhurst.

From the enumeration of days of the Deluge, (Gen. 7,) it appears, that in the beginning, the year of the Hebrews consisted of three hundred and sixty-five days; in twelve months, eleven of which contained thirty days, and the twelfth, thirty-five days. It is supposed that they inserted an intercalary month at the end of one hundred and twenty years, at which period their new year would be out of its place by thirty days. From the time of Moses' mission, the years were lunar, consisting of twelve lunar months, or three hundred and fifty-four days; because the festivals were regulated by the moon. As this computation would however, in progress of time, throw all the festivals out of place, it was necessary to accommodate the lunar years to solar, which they accomplished by adding a whole month to the year whenever requisite, which was sometimes at the end of two years, but most usually at the end of three years. This intercalary month was added at the end of the Ecclesiastical year, immediately after the month Adar, and was called, Ve Adar, the second Adar, or more literally," And Adar," for Ve is, in Hebrew, the conjunction "and." Concerning the Jewish year, Maimonides says, that the months were lunar, but the year solar. After the Babylonish Captivity, the Jews used the solar year; but on becoming subject to the Macedonian government, they were obliged to resume the lunar. The modern Jewish year is lunar, having twelve months in the common years, and thirteen in the intercalated years, (as above mentioned,) and its commencement is fixed at the next new moon after the autumnal equinox. The intercalary year is called Meubar. Besides the civil and ecclesiastical year, (see art. MONTH,) the Jews had:

I. The Year of Plants and Trees, which begins in Shebat, (the month answering to our January,) on the fifteenth day, according to the school of Hillel; because at this time they paid the annual tithe fruits of their plants and trees.

II. The Year of Beasts, beginning the first day of Elul, (August,) because they then paid the tithe of the lambs born within the year, from Elul to Elul.

III. The Sabbatic Year, (Levit. 25,) which was kept every seventh year, as a Sabbath, or rest for the land. During this year, it was forbidden to plough, sow, plant, or perform any agricultural labour; according to Maimonides, it was unlawful even to remove withered leaves or branches, to destroy caterpillars, uproot brambles, pick stones from the fills, shelter uarij e fruits, &c., &c.,

It has been a question whether all debts of every kind were cancelled in the Sabbatic year. The Rabbins say that all simple debts were, but not those of mortgage or security.

The remission of debts related only to those due by native Hebrews; not to those due by proselytes or strangers. Some have thought that the Sabbatic year began in Nisan, (March,) like the Sacred or Ecclesiastical year; but it is generally thought, with more probability, to have begun like the Civil year in Tisri, (September,) after the harvest was made; for had it commenced in Nisan, the people would not have been able to get in the harvest of the sixth year.

It is believed by Bishop Patrick, Morery, and others, that the calculation of the Sabbatic year did not commence from the time that the Jews came into Canaan, because they were at war with the inhabitants, but from the time when they had rest, and peaceable possession of the land. Morery fixes the first Sabbatic year in Tisri, the year of the world 2594. Maimonides makes it the twenty-first year after entering Canaan.

IV. The Year of Jubilee, which was the seventh Sabbatical year, or every forty-nine years, though for the sake of round numbers, it is generally called the fiftieth year. It was a year of solemn rest, and of perfect and general release and remission. (See art. Jubilee.)

Lightfoot calculates that Our Lord suffered in a year of Jubilee. Morery fixes the first Jubilee in the autumn of the year of the world 2637; and Maimonides in the sixty-fourth year after the Jews came into the Holy Land.

V. The Prophetic year, containing three hundred and sixty-five days: this is the computation used in Daniel 7 and 12; and in Revelations 11 and 12. Tradition says that the ancient year of the Chaldees was three hundred and sixty days, which Abraham retained and transmitted in his family.

The Jews have used different eras at various times, from which they have computed the beginning of their years: i. e., from the lives of remarkable persons, as in Genesis 7. 2, from the birth of Noah; from the departure out of Egypt, as in Exodus 19, 1, and other parts of the Pentateuch; from the building of the Temple, as in 1Kings 9. 10; from the reigns of their kings, as 1Kings 6. 1, and other places; from the Babylonian Captivity, as in Ezekiel 1. 1.

Afterwards they computed from the era of the Seleucidæ, which is called in Maccabees, the era of the Greeks, and began from the time that Seleucus Nicanor obtained sovereign power, 312 B.C.; and this era they used for about a thousand years. In 1 Maccabees 12 and 14, we find traces of reckoning according to the

YEAR- -YOKE.

years of the Asmonean princes, as in Matthew 2. 1;

Luke 1. 5.

Since the completion of the Talmud, the Jews have used the Creation of the world as the era whence to date their years; and the modern Jews admit into their calendar the festivals and holy days of the Christians, in order to know the days on which they may not trade

with them.

The solar year is divided by the Jews into four quarters, called Tekuphat, or revolutions of time: viz., Tekuphat Nisan, the vernal equinox; Tekuphat Tisri, the autumnal equinox; Tekuphat Tebeth, the winter solstice; Tekuphat Tammuz, the summer solstice.

It is a tradition among the Jews, that on the first day of the new year God judges all the actions of the past year, and regulates all the events of the opening one. Wherefore they use the month Elul (the last in their year) as a time of penance and repentance, performing ceremonial ablutions, making confession of sin, reciting the penitential psalms, giving alms, fasting, &c.

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months of being completed: in this, his second year, he chose three thousand military, &c., guards.

"The same principle may account for the phrase (amo dieтns) used to denote the age of the infants slaughtered at Bethlehem, (Matt. 2.16,) from two years old and under. This difficulty has been strongly felt by the learned, and has been made the most of by the antagonists of Christianity. This is regulated at once by admitting the existence of this mode of calculating time, or, rather, of expressing a mode of calculating time; by the idea that they were all of nearly equal age, being all recently born; some not long before the close of the old year, others not long since the beginning of the new year. Now, those born before the close of the old year, though only a few months, or weeks, would be in their second year, as the expression implies; and those born since the beginning of the year would be well described by the phrase 'and under,' i.e., under one year old. Some two years old, though not born a complete twelvemonth (perhaps, in fact, barely six months); others under one year old, yet born three, four, or five months, therefore a few days younger than those previously described according to the time which he had diligently 'inquired of the wise men,' in their second year, and under. The influence of this remark on the proper placing of the birth of Our Lord before the death of Herod is considerable; it lessens, too, the number of infants slain, and shortens the interval between the appearance of the star to the Magi, and their visit to Jerusalem." (Taylor's Calmet.) M.

The festival of the New Year, called the Rosch Hashanah, is ushered in by the sounding of a ram's horn from the place where the Law is read in the synagogue, in order, they say, to warn them of God's judgments; the horn is blown all day, from sun-rise to sun-set, at intervals. In the morning they go to the synagogue clothed in white, as an emblem of purifica. tion (after the penances of the former month); and some wear the clothes intended for their burial, as a mortification. They use many prayers for a happy year, and for pardon of sins; with thanksgivings for past favours. The Pentateuch is brought out, and five different persons read the account of the sacrifice that used to be offered on this day; the Haphtorah, or portion, is read from the Prophets by a young person, and a blessing invoked upon their prince. At home, they serve up at table honey with leavened bread, sweet fruits, various herbs, and every thing that may seem to presage a fertile year. They eat small fishes and pomegranates, praying that their merits and good works may be multiplied as the fishes in the waters, and as the seeds in the pomegranates. They salute each other on meeting with, "Be thou written in a good year,” and spend the day in devotion and hearing sermons. As the ancient Jews used to lay their sins on the head of the scape-goat, so the modern Jews in Germany lay theirs upon the fish; YOKE. In the Hebrew Scriptures, we find three they go, after dinner, to the brink of a pond, and shake different kinds of yokes mentioned, viz., by gnol, their clothes over it, as typical of casting off their sins mut, and tzemed. by gnol is derived from y into it; they found this custom on Micah 7. 19: "Hegnalal, to work. It is used to express the yoke borne will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities: and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." The festival of the New Year, or Rosh Hashana, generally lasts two days. (See Buxtorf, Synagoga Judaica, and Picard's Ceremonies of the Jews.)

There have been some difficulties in Scripture concerning the use of the word "year," arising from the manner in which the Orientals computed time, frequently reckoning a part as the whole; a few hours as a day; part of a year, as the entire twelvemonth, &c. "This may contribute to explain a passage or two which are not commonly seen in this light. (1Sam. 13. 1.) 'A son of one year old was Saul in his kingdom, and when he had reigned two years over Israel, Saul chose him three thousand men of Israel,' &c., i. e., say he was inaugurated in June, he was, consequently, one year old, as king, on the first day of January following, though he had only reigned six months; the son of a year: but after (and on?) this first of January, he was in the second year of his reign, although, according to our computation, the first year of his reign wanted six

YESTERDAY, WON emesh, from TD mashah, to withdraw, remove, recede, the receding of time. The word is often used in Scripture to denote not merely the preceding day, but past time in general. Exodus 21. 27, "If the ox was wont to push with his horns in time past," (Heb. yesterday;) Isai. 30. 33, "Tophet is ordained of old," (Heb. from yesterday.) Heb. 22. 8, "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and for ever." It also implies "lately," as 2Samuel 15. 19,20, "Thou art a stranger and in exile: whereas thou camest but yesterday." Job 8. 9, "We are of yesterday, and know nothing." M.

by a heifer working. (Numb. 19. 2.) The red heifer commanded to be slain for the lustral purposes, is directed to be one on which the yoke (gnol) never came. The Ark of God was sent home by the Philistines in a cart drawn by two kine never before bearing a yoke, (gnol, 1Sam. 6. 7.) It appears to have been also put on the necks of slaves, (refractory ones probably,) for this kind of yoke is the one almost always named in Scripture to signify oppression, tyranny, subjection to the enemy.

It is used to express the yoke of the Assyrian, (Isai. 14. 25,) and the yoke of the king of Babylon. (Jerem. 28. 2,4.) It is with this kind of yoke that Rehoboam threatened to oppress his subjects, (1Kings 12. 11;) and that the Lord threatened to lay upon Israel a "yoke" of iron if they proved disobedient. (Deut. 28. 48.) It appears to have been composed of bars, for the word mototh, which signifies bars, (sometimes translated bands,) is frequently used in conjunction with it, as in Ezekiel 24. 27, "When I have broken the bands ( mototh,) of their yoke (gnol.) This yoke had apparently chains, which fastened it on the neck. (Lam 1, 14,) "The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his

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