than what Josephus relates concerning that most horrible and fatal siege, with all its fearful circumstances of famine, demoralization, and despair. The instance to which we more particularly refer is that of a woman of superior station, who "when the famine pierced through her very bowels and marrow," slew her son, roasted the body, and had devoured part of it, when the fearful deed was discovered by others who were going about like wolves ravening for food. Happy are they who, in the enjoyment of the too lightly prized blessings of peace and satisfied appetite, cannot comprehend the induration of heart and savageness of feeling which are produced, even in the most refined and delicate, under cir cumstances of general calamity, whether of famine or pestilence! Individual calamity may relax and soften the heart; but, in a general calamity, all the softening sympathies of society are very soon lost;-there is no condolence, no pity, no love, no hope. The ties of life are broken, one after another, until even those which were most dear and cherished give way also, and every human being stands isolated in fierce or gloomy misery, after the first tender impressions of the rising sorrow have passed away. Pitiable as are the miseries which make the heart ache, they are light indeed compared with those long and general calamities in which the heart becomes so hardened-brutalized-that it can ache no more. The writer states the effects which he has witnessed, and with which he has struggled, in famine and pestilence; and his statement is true, for it is no other than that which the Sacred Writings gave when they foretold, that, under such circumstances, "The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter....for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates." (Deut. xxviii. 56, 57.)

1 Heb. a lord which belonged to the king leaning upon his hand.

of Israel that are left in it: behold, I say, they are even as all the multitude of the Israelites that are consumed :) and let us send and see.

14 They took therefore two chariot horses; and the king sent after the host of the Syrians, saying, Go and see.

15 And they went after them unto Jordan: and, lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. And the messengers returned, and told the king.

16 And the people went out, and spoiled the tents of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the LORD.

17 And the king appointed the lord on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of

the gate: and the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died, as the man of God had said, who spake when the king came down to him.

18 And it came to pass as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall be to morrow about this time in the gate of Samaria:

19 And that lord answered the man of God, and said, Now, behold, if the LORD should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof.

20 And so it fell out unto him: for the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died.

Verse 1. "A measure of fine flour...for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel.”—That is, roughly stated, a peck of fine flour for 2s. 6d. ; and two pecks of barley for the same.

3. "Four leprous men."-The Jews think these were Gehazi and his three sons; and this is not impossible, though we see no evidence either for or against this opinion. The law of Moses excluded lepers from the camp; and it is probable that they were afterwards, in like manner, excluded from the towns. It is difficult to understand otherwise than as hypothetical, the statement in verse 4, which seems to imply that these leprous persons were at liberty to have re-entered the town if they had so pleased. It seems that they had been recently expelled, whether on account of their leprosy, or to relieve the town from the charge of their maintenance, or else, that they had for some time been living without the town as lepers, and now ceased to receive from the besieged that scanty provision with which it is probable that they had hitherto been supplied. In either case, as the enclosing lines of the Syrian army shut them in between the besiegers and the town, and prevented them from seeking their living elsewhere, there seemed no other alternative than to throw themselves upon the compassion of the Syrians.

10. "Horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as they were."-Here the lepers, in describing what they found in the camp when they approached it, mention the cattle first; whereas the description of the flight of the Syrians from their camp (verse 7), mentions the horses and asses last. This is therefore one of many circumstances which we find in the Scripture to intimate that the ancient Oriental camps were arranged much on the same principle as at present-with the cattle outside the whole, tied by their halters to ropes or chains, extended on the ground and fastened to it by means of pegs of wood or iron. Thus the cattle form a sort of outer border to the camp; and this arrangement enables them to be taken abroad for forage or water, without interfering with the order of the camp, while they are the more in readiness to be mounted and ridden off on any sudden occasion that may arise. That the Syrians were afraid to lose even the few moments necessary to unslip the halters of their horses and ride them off, expresses strongly the dreadful nature of the panic with which they were inspired, and how imminent their danger appeared to themselves. 12. "I will now shew you what the Syrians have done."-Here we have a stratagem of war attributed to the Syrians, several examples of which might be adduced from the ancient and modern history of the East. The best perhaps is that quoted by Harmer, from the history of the revolt of Ali Bey; and it is the more interesting from its having been practised upon the Syrians. The pasha of Damascus found his enemy, the sheikh Daher, encamped near the sea of Tiberias. The engagement was deferred to the next day, but during the night the sheikh divided his forces into three troops, and silently moved from his camp, leaving the fires burning, with all the tents and stores as they were, including plenty of provisions and strong liquors. At midnight the pasha, thinking to surprise the sheikh, marched in silence to his camp, and, to his great astonishment, found it completely abandoned, and that too in such haste, that the baggage and stores had been left behind. Rejoicing in his bloodless success, the pasha determined to stay there and refresh his soldiers. They soon fell to plunder, and drank so freely of the liquors, that, overcome by the fatigue of the day's march and the fumes of the spirits, it was not long before they were all in a sound sleep. Then the supposed fugitives, who were well informed of these proceedings, marched back silently to the camp, and rushing suddenly from all sides upon the confused and sleeping enemy, obtained an easy victory over them. They slew eight thousand of their number, and the remainder, with the pasha at their head, escaped with great difficulty to Damascus, leaving all their own baggage behind them.-This was what the king of Israel feared.

CHAPTER VIII.

1 The Shunammite, having left her country seven years, to avoid the forewarned famine, for Elisha's miracle sake hath her land restored by the king. 7 Hazael, being sent with a present by Ben-hadad to Elisha at Damascus, after he had heard the prophecy, killeth his master, and succeedeth him.

16 Jehoram's wicked reign in Judah. 20 Edom and Libnah revolt. 23 Ahaziah succeedeth Jehoram. 25 Ahaziah's wicked reign. 28 He visiteth Jehoram wounded, at Jezreel.

THEN spake Elisha unto the woman, 'whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise,

1 Chap. 4. 35.

26 Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri king of Israel.

27 And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did evil in the sight of the LORD, as did the house of Ahab: for he was the son in law of the house of Ahab.

Ahab to the war against Hazael king of Syria in Ramoth-gilead; and the Syrians wounded Joram.

29 And king Joram went back to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael king of Syria. And Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick. 10 Heb. wherewith the Syrians had wounded.

28 And he went with Joram the son of

Verse 1. "The Lord hath called for a famine."-We incline to the opinion, which has been adopted by many commentators, that Elisha said this before the circumstances recorded in the two last chapters; and that now the woman's return after the restoration of plenty, affords occasion to mention the prediction which, seven years before, had induced her to leave her country. The famine in the city of Samaria, which has just been recorded, would then seem to have been a result not merely of the siege, but of the general dearth and consequent distress.

3. "To cry unto the king for her house."-Perhaps the estates of those who left the country without permission. were confiscated to the king. It is true that there is nothing of this in the law of Moses; but when the regal government was established, and the kings found that confiscation was almost the only process by which a royal demesne could be formed, they would naturally be anxious to fix this penalty as the consequence of certain measures or offences (see the note on 1 Kings xxi, 15). Probably this, of being absent in a foreign country beyond a given time, might be of the number. Such a law has existed, and does exist, among different nations; and the kings of Israel might think themselves the more warranted in adopting it, because the evident spirit of the law of Moses was to keep the nation as much as possible within its own territory, apart and separate from strangers. No such law, however, existed before the time of the Kings, for we see in the book of Ruth, that after Elimelech's family had resided ten years in the land of Moab-for the same reason which induced the Shunammite to remain seven years in the land of the Philistines-and after the father and his two sons had died there, the surviving females retained the family estate (Ruth i. 4; iv. 5). Some think that the next of kin had seized the Shunammite's lands; and others, that her agent had been unfaithful; but the explanation we have given seems the most satisfactory.

4. "The king talked with Gehazi."-Some consider this a proof that the whole transaction occurred at a still earlier 234

period than we have supposed, that is, before the visit of Naaman to Elisha, and consequently, before Gehazi became a leper, particularly as he is still called "the servant of the man of God." This is not impossible; but we do not think the leprosy of Gehazi, taken alone, renders such an explanation indispensably necessary. If he had at this time been smitten with leprosy, there was nothing to prevent him from speaking to the king at a proper distance, since contact only, conveyed ceremonial pollution. And if lepers were excluded from towns, it is not difficult to imagine many circumstances under which the king may have conversed with him outside the town. The king might, for instance, in going to one of his gardens, have had his attention directed to Gehazi, as one who had been Elisha's servant, and had miraculously become a leper; and in his desire to be informed of the particulars, may have required him to relate them on the spot, or, which is more probable, to follow him to the garden for the purpose. Either way, the relation of one miracle would lead to the mention of another, until that of the Shunammite came to be narrated, just at the time when the woman herself appeared to prefer her petition ;-the good providence of God directing this concurrence of circumstances to establish the evidence of his own power and compassion, as well as to procure from the king that attention to her request, which she might not otherwise have obtained.

9. "Forty camels burden."-This introductory gift must have been very valuable. It does not however necessarily follow that every camel carried the full load it would bear, since it is a very common practice in the East, for the sake of parade, to employ a far greater number of men and animals in the conveyance of a gift than is actually required. It will be useful, however, to mention what is to be considered a camel's burden. This is no determinate weight, since the burden depends on various circumstances. We copy Burckhardt's statement, which we believe to be substantially correct, being corroborated by our own information, so far as it extends:-"The common load of an Arabian camel is from four to five hundred pounds upon a short journey, and from three to four hundred pounds on a journey of considerable distance. The camels employed between Djidda and Tayf. in the year 1814 or 1815, for carrying provisions tc Mohammed Ali, had loads not exceeding 250 pounds. The well-fed and well-watered Egyptian camels are equal in strength to the Anadolian; those of the largest size at Cairo will carry three bales of coffee, or fifteen hundredweight, from the town to the water-side, about three miles distant. From Cairo to Suez, the same camels will carry ten hundredweight; and that space is a journey of three days. The longer the journey to be undertaken, and the fewer 2H 2 235