attacked during the journey. He complained suddenly of intense pain in the back of his head; he laid his finger on the spot, and from the moment of this seizure he had a burning fever....All the symptoms of this complaint are those of coup de soleil in an aggravated form." (Travels,' vol. ii. p. 190.) The sun of Palestine is strong enough to produce this effect, according to the testimony of various travellers. This is particularly the case in the plains, such as those of Jericho and Esdraelon. In or on the borders of the latter, Shunem was situated; and in a battle which was fought by the army of Baldwin IV. near Tiberias, on its eastern border, William of Tyre relates, that more soldiers were slain by the sun than by the sword.

24. "Drive, and go forward."-She had required but one ass and a servant-the ass for herself to ride upon, and the servant to run behind and drive it. Some commentators, out of compassion to the servant, have supposed that he also was mounted; which is a most gratuitous supposition, equally disproved by the text and by the existing usages of the East. Without such an explanation, the description, as it stands in the text, exhibits a circumstance which a traveller in the East has continual occasion to witness. Women usually ride on asses, and are commonly followed by a man on foot, whose business it is to drive or goad the animal forward, at such a pace as the lady may desire. If the lady be of high consideration, perhaps one man goes before to lead the animal, while another follows to drive it on. The leader may be dispensed with, but the driver very seldom. The men do not feel it a very arduous duty to follow an ass; as will be easily apprehended after what we have on former occasions said concerning those who run before or beside even a horse. Saddled asses are let out for hire in all Oriental towns; and when one is hired, the owner or some person employed by him, always runs behind to drive it on, whether the rider be a man or a woman.

39. "Wild vine," or literally, "vine of the field." This was perhaps the colocynth, or Cucumis colocynthis, which was called a wild vine from the shape of its leaves and the climbing nature of its stem, just as the Spanish call every climbing plant Yedra, because in that particular it resembles the ivy. The fruit of the colocynth is yellow when ripe, and about the size of a golden pippin. The whole plant is noted among the ancients for its bitter taste, and its violently purgative qualities. Gourds of different kinds form a common ingredient in the varieties of pottage so frequent in warm climates. When travelling, one of the most agreeable messes set before us, owed its savour to the gourds that had been shred into it. The nyp pakkooth, or gourds, which the young men put into the pot indicated their nature by the bitter taste they communicated to the preparation. The addition of flour commanded by the prophet, was merely a continuation of the process; hence the wonderful change was to be ascribed, not to the method pursued, but to the faith entertained by the prophet and his disciples.

CHAPTER V.

1 Naaman, by the report of a captive maid, is sent to Samaria to be cured of his leprosy. 8 Elisha, sending him to Jordan, cureth him. 15 He refusing Naaman's gifts granteth him some of the earth. 20 Gehazi, abusing his master's name unto Naaman, is smitten with leprosy.

2

Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man 'with his master, and honourable, because by him the LORD had given 'deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.

2 And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she "waited on Naaman's wife.

3 And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.

4 And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel.

5 And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment.

6 And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent

A

7 And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me.

8¶ And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.

9 So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.

10 And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.

11 But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and "strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.

12 Are not "Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. • Or, victory. 5 Heb. was before. 6 Heh. before. 10 Or, I said with myself, He will surely come out, &c. 18 Or, Amuna.

Heb. before. Or, gracious. 3 Heb. lifted up, or, accepted in countenance. 7 Heb. gather in.

8 Heb. in his hand.
9 Heb. I said.
11 Heb. move up and down.

19 And he said unto him, Go in So he departed from him "a little way. 20 ¶ But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, Behold, my master hath spared Naaman this Syrian, in not re13 Lake 4.27. 14 Heb. a little piece of ground. 15 Heb. Is there peace? 16 Or, secret place.

Verse 11. "Strike his hand over the place."-This is a curious and a most ancient instance of a very prevalent superstition, which ascribed extraordinary healing powers to the touch of persons of high rank, or of real or reputed sanctity. The touch was in fact everywhere the established mode by which a person was expected to exhibit whatever healing tower he possessed or pretended to. At this day it is not unusual in the East for a European physician to be expected to heal a patient merely by stroking his hand over the ailing part; and still more is this the case, when the person applied to is supposed to be endowed with supernatural powers. We can find illustrations of this in England. Even so late as the reign of Queen Anne, our sovereigns were supposed to possess the power of healing the king's evil by their touch; and as it was found a convenient instrument of state for confirming the loyalty of the ignorant, the virtue thus liberally conceded to the touch of royalty, was not, until after the above-named reign, left unexercised. On stated occasions, the touch of the royal hand was bestowed on the afflicted, during a religious service appropriate to the occasion. Edward the Confessor and Charles II. are even reported to have healed the blind by the same process, as the emperor Vespasian was said to have done long before. This notion still lurks among us, as there may still, in our remote towns and villages, be found certain old women who are believed to have the power of curing warts and such things, by simply stroking the affected parts with their hands. The leading idea which assigns to the hands the faculty of transmitting spiritual powers, or of communicating healing virtues, is clearly taken from the common use of the same members in communicating or bestowing temporal benefits; and in conformity with it, the lame, the blind, and the deaf, who sought help from the Son of David," often received it through the imposition of his hands upon the parts affected.

12. “Abana and Pharpar."-Neither of these names can now be recognised at Damascus, though the "waters of Damascus" are still mentioned with rapture by the inhabitants. Maundrell, and others after him, speak but of one stream at Damascus-the river Barrady. It is true there is but this river immediately at the city; but before it reaches it, it receives another stream, which may be considered one of its sources, and was probably one of the two 2G 2 927

which in the partial eyes of Naaman eclipsed all the waters of Israel. The Barrady rises in the mountains of AntiLibanus, to the north-west of the town; and, at a considerable distance therefrom, receives the river Zebdeni, after which it rolls with increased volume its diversified and picturesque stream through the city and its surrounding gardens and orchards; in its passage through which, in four principal streams, it is made to supply those innumerable rills and fountains which render Damascus, perhaps, the most luxuriously watered city of the East, and cause it to be considered the site of Eden, by the natives of those usually dry and sultry regions. In this service the waters of the Barrady are nearly exhausted. The remains however are again united on leaving the town and its suburbs, and the weakened stream contrives to struggle on till it is finally lost in the bog of El Mardj. The river Barrady, before its division into the four streams, which are considered the four rivers of Eden by those who here fix the site of Paradise, is a rapid and broad stream, not generally fordable, and although not, as a whole or in part, at all comparable to the Jordan for size and importance, is in some respects more interesting to the traveller from the alternate circumstances of the confining cliff, the cascade, the broad valley, or the rich cultivation which it exhibits. There can be no question this river was either the Abana or Pharpar; but which was the other is very difficult to determine. If it was one of the many rivulets that enter the Barrady before it arrives at Damascus, the Zebdeni seems the most likely to be intended; but if not, probability would decide in favour of the Nahr el Berde, which, like the Barrady, rises in Anti-Libanus, and proceeding nearly due west, passes nearly three miles to the south of Damascus, and joins the Barrady as its attenuated stream advances, after having supplied the city, to the Bahar el Mardj. Perhaps the similarity between the names Barrady and Berde indicates such a correlative reference as fits them to be mentioned together, like the Abana and Pharpar. Certain it is that the rivers of Damascus are not less extolled by the present inhabitants than they were by Naaman of old.

17. "Two mules' burden of earth.”—The proceedings and requests of Naaman are throughout very remarkable for the illustration which they furnish of the great antiquity of many still existing usages and ideas. However the present application be interpreted, it must still intimate that the Syrian attributed a particular sanctity to the earth of the country in which the true God, whose power he had experienced, was known and worshipped. He might have taken as much earth as he pleased without troubling the prophet; but he probably thought, that whatever virtue it might possess, would be the greater if it were received from, or with the consent of, so holy a person. It is generally understood, that he intended with the earth to raise an altar of earth (according to the law) in his own country; and although the law does not direct any particular earth to be preferred for the purpose, it was perhaps excusable in so young a convert as Naaman, to conclude that the earth of Palestine would be preferable. But by the law of Mohammed, earth is allowed for the performance of ceremonial ablutions when water cannot be obtained: a person rubs himself with earth, as he would with water, and he is clean. Is it not conceivable that Naaman, having so lately experienced so much benefit through the waters of Jordan, might have desired, in his distant home, to use the waters of the land thenceforth in his ablutions ; and being unable to secure this benefit directly, sought to do so representatively, by means of the earth of the same land? But the Mohammedans also use the soil of their holy land Mecca in their devotions. They carry continually about with them a small quantity of it, in a little bag; and when they pray, they deposit this so upon the ground, that whenever their devotional ceremonies require them to lay their head to the ground, it may be placed upon this consecrated earth. But there is still another use for the earth of reputed holy places. He is considered particularly happy who can obtain interment in the land itself; but if this be impracticable, he is in the next degree happy who, in his own country, can secure such interment representatively, by being laid upon a bed of the sacred earth, or his head being placed upon a pillow of it, or some portion of it being in some way or other associated with his mortal remains. Mohammedanism affords examples enough of this; but we need not go so far, for to this day the same practice prevails among the Jews in England and elsewhere. He is the happiest of men, who, in the evening of his days can go to Jerusalem, and die and be buried there; he is happy in the next degree who dies and is buried in some country near the sacred land. The happiness diminishes with distance. But he is not unhappy in any country, nowever distant, with whose remains the smallest quantity of Jerusalem earth may be associated in the grave. In countries not remote from Palestine, a pillow of it may sometimes be laid under the head; but the general practice, here and elsewhere, is only for a very small quantity-as much as will lie upon a shilling-to be placed upon each eye. Hyam Isaacs (Ceremonies of the Jews,' 1836) says that during the late war, when the sea was infested by French privateers, which prevented the supplies of earth from coming in regular time, Jerusalem earth was often so scarce, that only half the usual quantity was employed. The earth is sent in barrels by the Rabbies at Jerusalem; and to prevent deception on the road, they deposit in each barrel certain articles, carefully distributed, which are mentioned in the invoice; so that on the arrival of the barrel, the identity of its contents is established by a careful comparison of the character and situation of the various articles there found with the indications of the invoice, which states, for instance, that, four inches from the top, there is a knife; a foot below, a piece of cloth, &c. For which of all these purposes the Syrian soldier desired to possess two mules' load of earth, the reader will determine according to the impression which the narrative makes upon his mind.

18. "Rimmon."-This name does not elsewhere occur in the Bible, nor is it mentioned by any ancient writer. It is therefore wholly uncertain what idol it denotes; but there has been no want of conjecture, which, in the absence of more certain data, has proceeded chiefly on the meanings which might be etymologically extorted from the name. The usual and proper signification of the word is that of a "pomegranate," though, by breaking it up, and speculating on its component syllables, other meanings may be found. A meaning implying "elevation," or " exaltation," in some form or other, is that which is usually elicited by this process. Of all the opinions, the most probable seem to be those which make Rimmon to have been either the sun, or the planetary system collectively taken; and, in either case, the pomegranate may have heen the sacred and denominating symbol. Its figure-that of an orb surmounted by a star-with the peculiarities of arrangement and appearance exhibited by its granulated contents, offered good materials for such a symbolization as the ancient idolaters were accustomed to employ.

27. "The leprosy...cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever."-The Rev. Mr. Osborn, Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, sent a letter to Maundrell, to ask him if he knew what was become of Gehazi's leprous posterity. Maundrell gave the best answer that could be given to this rather curious question. When I was in the Holy Land, I saw several that laboured under Gehazi's distemper; but none that could pretend to derive his pedigree from that person. Some of them were poor enough to be his relations. Particularly at Sichem (now Naplosa), there were no less than ten (the same number that was cleansed by our Saviour not far from the same place) that came a begging to us at one time. Their manner is to come with small buckets in their hands, to receive the alms of the charitable, their touch being still held infectious, or at least unclean." He then describes the distemper, but we do not quote his description, because we do not think it refers to Ciehazi's leprosy, which, from what follows" a leper as white as snow”—was clearly

prosis lepriasis candida, described in the note to Levit. xiii. 5. Maundrell then concludes: ""Tis no wonder if the at from him be by this time obscured; seeing the best of the Jews, at this time of day, are at a loss to make out genealogies. But besides, I see no necessity in Scripture for his line being perpetuated. The term (for ever) is, now, often taken in a limited sense in holy writ; of which the designation of Phineas's family to the priesthood 1. xxv. 13) may serve for an instance. His posterity was, you know, cut entirely off from the priesthood, and that ferred to Eli (who was of another line) about three hundred years after."

♦ Heb. heary. 7 Heb. come ye after me.

he sent them away, and they went to their | thy son, that we may eat him. and she hath master. So the bands of Syria came no more hid her son. into the land of Israel.

24¶ And it came to pass after this, that Ben-hadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria.

25 And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver.

26 And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king.

27 And he said, "If the LORD do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barnfloor, or out of the winepress?

28 And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and we will eat my son

to morrow.

29 So 'we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the "next day, Give

11

8 Or, Let not the LORD save thee.

30 And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes; and he passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within sackcloth within upon his flesh.

31 Then he said, God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day.

32 But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat with him; and the king sent a man from before him: but ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, See ye how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head? look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door: is not the sound of his master's feet behind him?

33 And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him: and he said, Behold, this evil is of the LORD; what should I wait for the LORD any longer?

9 Deut. 28. 53. 10 Heb. other.

Verse 25. "An ass's head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver.”—As the ass was not allowed for food by the law of Moses, there have been some ingenious attempts to prove that the corn measure called homer, and not the head of an ass (hamor), is intended. But besides the liberty taken with the usual exhibition of the word, how are we to read "the head of a corn measure?" or how account for the absence of the usual specification of the kind of corn intended? The uncleanness of the animal could be no objection when mothers were reduced to such extremity as to eat their own children. The price paid (if shekels be intended, as the Targum explains) was nearly equal to about ten pounds of our money-which shows very strikingly the melancholy condition of the besieged town with respect to food. The case is not without example. Plutarch, in his life of Artaxerxes, notices a famine which happened in the army of that monarch, in the country of the Cadusii (near the Caspian). This vast army could find nothing fit to eat in so poor a country, nor could supplies be brought to them from a distance; whence they were obliged to live upon their horses and beasts of burden; and this kind of provision sold at a very high price, so that the head of an ass could not be obtained for less than sixty silver drachmæ, equal to nearly two pounds sterling, which, however, was a low price, compared with what the unhappy Israelites in Samaria paid. This food was lawful among the Persians. We wish here to mention, that in stating corresponding values in English money, our own price for the same weight of gold or silver only is given, without taking into account the real value of money as influenced by the cost of commodities in different ages and countries. the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver."-This was about half a pint for 12s. 6d. There has been much diversity of opinion about this "dove's dung." Some of the Rabbins inform us that it was used for fuel; Josephus says that it was purchased for its salt; some think it means grain taken from the crops of pigeons, which could of course get out of the besieged town and feed in the open country; many believe that it was wanted for manure; and Bochart, followed by most modern commentators, contends that the name, though literally "dove's dung,” means an article of vegetable food. As he observes, the Arabs give the name of "dove's dung" to a kind of moss that grows on trees and stony ground, and also to a sort of pulse or pea which appears to have been very common in Judea, and which may be the article here indicated. Large quantities of it are parched and dried, and stored in magazines at Cairo and Damascus. It is much used during journeys, and particularly by the great pilgrim caravan to Mecca; and if the conjecture be correct, it may be supposed to have been among the provisions stored up in the besieged city, and sold at the extravagant price mentioned in the text. It is clear that, if doves' dung be really intended, it could not be used as an article of food; and then we are thrown upon its use as manure. This use is best exemplified in Persia, where it is highly valued for quickening the growth and improving the quality of melons and other esculent vegetables. These form such essential articles of food in some warm climates, that vast quantities are consumed; and, in besieged towns, persons who have been rather delicately brought up have been known to pine away, and die, for the want of such essential provision, even when corn was abundant. On this point Mr. Morier observes: "The dung of doves is the dearest manure which the Persians use; and as they apply it almost entirely to the rearing of melons, it is probably on that account that the melons of Ispahan are so much finer than those of other cities. The revenue of a pigeon-house is about a hundred tomauns per annum; and the great value of this dung, which rears a fruit that is indispensable to the existence of the natives during the great heats of summer, will probably throw some light on that passage of Scripture, where, in the famine of Samaria, the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung was sold for five pieces of silver." (Second Journey.' p. 141.) We think that the alternatives lie between this explanation and that which Bochart has given, although neither of them seems entirely free from grounds of objection.

29. "We boiled my son, and did eat him."-This was foretold by Moses (see Deut. xxviii. 53); and similar things happened at the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar (Ezek. v. 10), and again, when the same city was besieged by the Romans under Titus, as foretold by Christ. As illustrating the present text, nothing more expressive could be adduced