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24 For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.

25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

27 And I will put my 'spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

28 And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

29 I will also save you from all your uncleannesses and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.

30 And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen.

31 Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.

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32 Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord GOD, be it known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel.

33 Thus saith the Lord GOD; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded.

34 And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by.

35 And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited.

36 Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the LORD build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it.

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37 Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.

38 As the holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts; so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the LORD. 10 Chap. 28. 13. 12 Heb. flock of holy things.

11 Chap. 17. 24, and 22. 14, and 37. 14.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

1 By the resurrection of dry bones, 11 the dead hope of Israel is revived. 15 By the uniting of two sticks, 18 is shewed the incorporation of Israel into Judah. 21 The promises of Christ's kingdom.

THE hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones,

2 And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open 'valley; and, lo, they were very dry.

3 And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest.

4 Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.

5 Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:

bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with
and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live;

7 So I prophesied as I was commanded ; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.

8 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.

9 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.

10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: 6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and

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our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.

12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.

13 And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,

14 And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.

15 The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,

16 Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions:

17 And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.

18 And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these?

19 Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.

20 And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes.

3 John 10. 16.

21 And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:

22 And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and 'one king shall be king to them all and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:

23 Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.

24 And 'David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.

25 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.

26 Moreover I will make a "covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my 'sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.

27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

28 And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore. 5 Psal. 89. 3. Chap. 34. 25.

4 Isa. 40. 11. Jer. 23. 5, and 30. 9. Chap. 34. 23. 7 Chap. 11. 20, and 14. 11.

62 Cor. 6. 16.

Verse 20.

The sticks whereon thou writest.'-There are many curious traces of this kind of writing upon sticks or pieces of wood. This indeed is not the first instance of the practice in scripture; for so early as the time of Moses, we find a parallel example of writing upon rods. The custom existed among the early Greeks; as we are informed that the laws of Solon, preserved at Athens, were inscribed on billets of wood called axones. The custom has also existed in various applications in our own and other northern countries. The ancient Britons used to cut their alphabet with a knife upon a stick, which thus inscribed, was called Coelbren y Beirdd, the billet of signs of the bards,' or the Bardic Alphabet. And not only were the alphabets such, but compositions and memorials were registered in the same manner. These sticks were commonly squared, but sometimes were threesided, and, consequently, a single stick would contain either three or four lines. The squares were used for general subjects, and for stanzas of four lines in poetry; the trilateral ones being adapted to triads, and for a pe

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EZEKIEL.

stick might be turned for the facility of reading, the end of each running out alternately on both sides. A continuation, or different application of the same practice, is offered by the Runic clog (a corruption of log) almanacs, the employment of which was retained to a comparatively recent period, being described by Dr. Plot in his History of Staffordshire (1686), as still in common use in that county; some, of large size, being usually hung up at one side of the mantle-tree of the chimney, while others were smaller and carried in the pocket. Our engraving is copied from a representation of one of the family 'clogs,' given in his work. Properly, the almanac was a single four-sided stick, inscribed on each side; but, for the convenience of representation, it is shewn in plano, each angle of the square stick, with the moiety of each of the fat sides, being expressed apart.' The edges have notches, answering to the days of the year; the Sundays being distinguished by a larger notch. Connected with these, on one of the flat sides, are crosses, the form and size of which are varied, for the sake of distinction or to mark the rank which the saint of that day was supposed to occupy the dots are considered to denote the number of paternosters, aves, etc. appropriate to the day. The opposite side of the notched edge is occupied by arbitrary or significant signs to denote the greater festivals, or other commemorative occasions-as a star for the Epiphany, a branch for May-day, a sword for St. John, keys for St. Peter, and so forth. They were, in short, calendars containing similar indications to those prefixed to the books of Common-prayer. Dr. Clarke met with several of such Runic stave-calendars in Sweden, rather as curious antiquities than as things in actual use; although the inhabitants were well acquainted with them, and were often able to explain the meaning of the characters upon them, and the purpose for which these instruments were used. They were all of wood, about three feet and a half long, shaped like the straight swords represented in churches upon the brazen sepulchral plates of our Saxon ancestors. The blades were on each side engraved with Runic characters, and signs like hieroglyphics extended their whole length...We saw one of more elaborate workmanship, where the Runic characters had been very elegantly engraved upon a stick, like a physician's cane; but this last seemed to be of a more modern date. In every instance it was evident, from some of the marks upon them, that the first owners had been Christians: the dif ferent lines and characters denoting the fasts and festivals, golden numbers, dominical letter, epact, etc. custom of thus preserving written records upon rods or But the sticks is of the highest antiquity. There is an allusion to the custom in Ezek. xxxvii. 16-20, where mention is made of something very similar to the Runic staff.' The difference between these and the one represented in our cut, seems to be no more than in the variation of arbitrary signs and characters to denote the same objects.

The use of sticks and pieces of wood in keeping accounts, has been retained much longer than the other applications; and has indeed remained to our own day, in evidence of the s. s. d. s. d. d. d. s. d. d. d. 1 1 1 1 1 6 6 16 1 1

d. d.
1 1 1

[B.C. 587. various purposes of this kind for which sticks have been employed. We have seen alphabets, records, books, poems, and calendars of stick; and the account sticks may be

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briefly noticed to complete the series. The most perfect and interesting of those which have remained in modern use appears to be the Saxon Reive Pole, still, or down to 1 1 1 1 16 d. d. d. d. d. d. s. d. d. d. d. d. d. d. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

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SAXON REIVE-POLE.

s. d. d. d.
1 6 11 1

d. d. d. d.
6 11 14

EXCHEQUER TALLY.

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a recent date, used in the island of Portland for collecting the yearly rent paid to the sovereign as lord of the manor. The lands of this island are denominated ancient customary demesne and lands of inheritance, paying a yearly rent of 14l. 14s. 3d., and collected by the reive or steward every Michaelmas, the sum which each person pays being scored on a square pole, as shewn in our present engraving. The black circle at the top denotes the parish of Southwell, and that side of the pole contains the account of the tax paid by the parishioners; each person's account being divided from that of his neighbour by the circular indentations between each. In the present instance the first pays 24d., the second 4s. 2d., the next one farthing, and so on. This will sufficiently appear from the explanatory

marks which have been set along the edges of the engraving. The other side of the pole, as seen in the cut, is appropriated to the parish of Wakem, the cross within a circle being considered the mark of that district. In this, as in other instances, we find ancient methods of proceeding retained by governments long after they have been abandoned by individuals. This is shewn in the present matter, by the Reive-Pole in the island of Portland, and still more by the tallies' or notched sticks, so long and so recently used in the accounts of the public Exchequer, and which still give name to the office of certain public functionaries, the Tellers (Talliers) of the Exchequer.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them

1 The army, 8 and malice of Gog. 14 God's judg- that are at rest, that dwell 'safely, all of them ment against him.

AND the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

2 Son of man, set thy face against 'Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,

3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal :

4 And "I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:

5 Persia, Ethiopia, and 'Libya with them ; all of them with shield and helmet:

6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands and many people with thee.

7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them. 8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.

9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.

10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt 'think an evil thought:

1 Revel. 20. 8.

6 Or, confidently.

2 Or, prince of the chief.

dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,

12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey, to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?

14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GoD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?

15 And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:

16 And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.

17 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?

18 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face.

19 For in my jealousy and in the fire of

3 Chap. 39. 2.
7 Heb. to spoil the spoil, and to prey the prey.

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Verse 2.Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.'-Great diversity of opinion has been entertained concerning the situation of Gog and Magog, and the various alternatives suggested have given occasion to no common amount of discussion. This we cannot follow but content ourselves with stating that the opinion which seems to us the most probable, and which moreover has the support of Josephus, is that these are to be understood as names applied to the Scythians of the ancients, answering to the Tahtars of the moderns-a people extending through the centre of Asia, and the south-east of Europe, and who, at various times, have left their native plains to overrun the civilized countries of Asia and eastern Europe, overthrowing thrones and kingdoms before them. Gog and Magog are probably to be understood as applied to this people in the most extensive sense; Meshech and Tubal being limited to the nearer and better known portions of the whole. Considering that the present Turks are descended from the Tahtars, many commentators seem disposed to consider that the prophecies concerning Gog and Magog have an ultimate reference to that people. It is, however, allowed, on all hands, that this is one of the most difficult prophecies of the Old Testament, and interpreters are greatly divided about its application.

4. I will turn thee back.'-It therefore appears that the people in question had at this time made an incursion from their native wilds into the countries with which the Hebrews were acquainted. It corroborates the conclusion stated in the preceding note, that this actually happened in the time of Ezekiel, with respect to the Scythians, and not, so far as history certifies, with respect to any other people. This prophecy has no date: and if we assign it an early one, there is every historical and internal probability that the first part of the chapter refers to the expulsion of the Scythians, after they had for several years (28) assumed a position in south-western Asia which made them and their peculiar habits well known in that part of the world, and which may well be taken to explain the allusions which Ezekiel seems to make to them. About the time of the fall of Nineveh, they made their appearance in Upper Asia, and were about to enter Media, when they were opposed by the king of that country (Cyaxares I.) who sustained a signal defeat. The Scythians then proceeded, and extended their conquests over Syria to the confines of Egypt, which they were only prevented from entering by entreaties and valuable presents from the king. On their return they passed through the land of the Philistines, in their progress through which some stragglers of their main body plundered the temple of Venus (Astarte) at Askelon, which was believed to be the most ancient in the world dedicated to that goddess. It does not appear that they molested the kingdom of Judæa, and the already desolated country of the expatriated ten tribes offered them little temptation. They did however appropriate to themselves the town of Bethshan, in the territories of Manasseh west of Jordan, which

GOD: every man's sword shall be against his brother.

22 And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.

23 Thus will I "magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD.

1 Chap. 36. 23, and 37. 28.

long retained, for this reason, the name of Scythopolis, or 'city of the Scythians.' After this people had for twentyeight years remained in possession of the two Armenias, Cappadocia, Pontus, Colchis, Iberia, and the greater part of Lydia, their chiefs were cut off by a treacherous stratagem of the same king of Media whom they had in the first instance defeated. The expulsion of their dispirited followers was then easily effected; and to this event, which happened in his own time, the prophet may well be supposed to refer, while his view extends from thence far forward into the future history of the same people, to an extent which we cannot follow through its disputed appli

cations.

9. Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm.'-This verse does very strikingly describe the character of a Scythian or Tahtar invasion, the force of which is illustrated by every account of such transactions which has been preserved. Their vast numbers covering the land like a cloud, their rapid and irresistible progress, compared to a storm-are circumstances to which the prophets allude, and which all historians describe with wonder. Gibbon's notice of the invasions of China by the Tahtars contains a passage strikingly illustrative of this verse; and it is always a pleasant office to oblige infidels to bring evidence of the truth of the descriptions and prophecies of that Divine Book which they affect to contemn. The cavalry of the Tanjou frequently consisted of two or three hundred thousand men; formidable by the matchless dexterity with which they managed their bows and their horses; by their hardy patience in supporting the inclemency of the weather; and by the incredible speed of their march, which was seldom checked by torrents or precipices, by the deepest rivers, or by the most lofty mountains. They spread themselves at once over the face of the country; and their rapid impetuosity surprised, astonished, and disconcerted the grave and elaborate tactics of a Chinese army. The vast numbers of men which were brought into the field by the people in question are repeatedly noticed in this and the following chapter: and indeed it used to be a matter of wonder how such immense bodies of men as the ancient Scythians and modern Tahtars assembled could be brought together. But this is accounted for by the recollection, that among all the Tahtar tribes every adult serves, when required, as a soldier; so that their thinly-peopled wildernesses have often been able to send forth armies far exceeding those which the most populous civilized countries could ever raise. One of the laws of the Mongol Tahtars, in the time of Genghiz Khan, was, 'Husbands are to be employed solely in hunting and war; all other occupations belong to women.'

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15. All of them riding upon horses.'-' The plains of Tahtary are filled with a strong and serviceable breed of horses, which are easily trained for the purposes of war and hunting. The Scythians of every age have been celebrated as bold and skilful riders; and constant practice has seated them so firmly on horseback, that they were

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