existing differences. What these original tongues or' dialects were is another point which has excited large debate, Sir William Jones being a very good authority in this matter, we may give his opinion, as collected by Dr. Hales from different volumes of the "Asiatic Researches." He discovers traces of three primæval languages, corresponding to the three grand aboriginal races, which he calls the Arabic, the Sanscrit, and the Sclavonic.

"1. From the Arabic or Chaldee spring the dialects used by the Assyrians, Arabs, and Jews.

"2. From the Sanscrit, which is radically different from the Arabic, spring the Greek, Latin, and Celtic dialects, though blended with another idiom, the Persian, the Armenian, and the old Egyptian, or Ethiopic.

"3. From the Sclavonic or Tartarian, which is again radically different both from the Arabic and Sanscrit, spring (so far as Sir William could venture to pronounce upon so difficult a point) the various dialects of northern Asia and north-eastern Europe."

Some other writers require a greater number of mother-tongues; while others are content, as we have seen, with that ancient Hebrew language into which the later Hebrew, the Chaldee, and the Syriac may be resolved.

The Rev. Joseph Roberts, in his valuable " Oriental Illustrations," informs us that the Hindoos believe there were originally eighteen languages, the names of which they have preserved. They have no tradition of a confusion of tongues.

28. “Ur of the Chaldees.”—Some difficulty has been felt in fixing the site of this city; but in the East it is generally identified with the present town of Orfah in Upper Mesopotamia, in E. long. 38° 51', and N. lat. 37° 9'. Local tradition ascribes the foundation of the town to Nimrod, and the Arabs, according to their usual custom, consider as his palace some remarkable ruins, with subterraneous apartments, apparently of great antiquity. The Jews still call the place by the name in the text, Ur Kasdim, or "Ur of the Chaldees," and it is a place of pilgrimage as the birth-place of Abram, in whose honour the Moslems have a fine mosque, in the court of which is a lake teeming with fish, preserved there in honour of the patriarch. The town was called Edessa by the successors of Alexander, from a city of the same name in Macedonia, and under that name was the capital of a territory called Osrhoene, occupying the northern and most fruitful part of Mesopotamia, and which, for about eight centuries before Christ, formed an independent kingdom. Its last king was Abgarus, of whom there is a well known tradition, that he wrote a letter to Christ, and received an answer, printed copies of which are common in many parts of England, and have a superstitious value attached to them, being considered to bless the house in which they are contained. The kingdom of Abgarus was appropriated by the Romans, and the king himself sent in chains to Rome. The place afterwards passed through the hands of the Saracens, the Crusaders, the Tartars, and was ultimately conquered by the Turks. It is now the seat of a pashalic, and is a large and tolerably well-built town, containing a population which Buckingham states at 50,000— an estimate which we have reason to believe much too large. It is a place of considerable trade, enjoying the advantage of being one of the principal stations on the great caravan route between Aleppo and Bagdad.

31. "Haran.”—This name affords one instance of the confusion which has arisen in the proper names of our translation, from its having been chosen to give the letter, ch, a power equivalent to, h. It ought to be Charan, and so it is in Acts vii. 2, where the Greek text has properly given the Hebrew 1. It is proper to observe that the translators have generally taken this course with the , as the practice sometimes makes such an alteration that it is difficult to recognise the names. The place in question is supposed to have derived its name from Haran (Charan) the father of Lot, and brother of Abram. It was called Charræ by the Romans. Its situation is fixed by Rennell in E. long. 39° 2′ 45′′, and N. lat. 36° 40', being 29 geographical miles S.S. E. from Orfah. It is situated in a sandy and flat plain. It is now a poor place, in the occupation of a few families of Bedouin Arabs, who have been drawn thither by the good supply of water from several small streams. Their presence renders a visit so unpleasant an undertaking, that no travellers have recently been there. The ruins of an old town and castle are still to be seen. The city must have fallen to ruin at an early period, for it seems to have been quite desolate when the Jew, Benjamin of Tudela, tra velled through Mesopotamia in the twelfth century. See Buckingham's "Travels in Mesopotamia," and Kinneir's "Geographical Memoir of the Persian Empire."

CHAPTER XII.

1 God calleth Abram, and blesseth him with a promise of Christ. 4 He departeth with Lot from Haran. 6 He journeyeth through Canaan, 7 which is promised him in a vision. 10 He is driven by a famine into Egypt. 11 Fear maketh him feign his wife to be his sister. 14 Pharaoh, having taken her from him, by plagues is compelled to restore her.

Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: 2and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. 4 ¶ So Abram departed, as the LORD had

spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

6 ¶ And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Morch. And the Canaanite was then in the land.

7 And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.

8 And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the cast of Beth-el, and pitched his tent, having Beth-el on the west, and Hai

1 Acts 7.3, 2 Chap, 18, 18, and 22. 18. Acts 3.25. Galat. 3. 8.

3 Chap. 13. 15.

4 Chap. 13. 4.

on the east: and there he builded an altar | why didst thou not tell me that she was thy unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD.

9 And Abram journeyed, 'going on still toward the south.

10 And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.

11 And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon:

12 Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.

13 Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.

14 And it came to pass, that when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair.

15 The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.

16 And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels.

17 And the LORD plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.

wife?

19 Why saidst thou, She is my sister? so I might have taken her to me to wife: now therefore, behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way.

20 And Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him, and they sent him away, and his wife, and all that he had.

18 And Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? 5 Heb. in going and journeying. Verse 5. "The land of Canaan."-For a geographical notice of this country, see the note on Numbers xxxiv, 2-12, where the boundaries are particularly stated in the text.

6. "Sichem" (also spelt in different places as Sechem, Sychem, and Shechem; also called Sychar in the New Testament). It is named here by anticipation, for the town was built afterwards. There is not the least doubt of its identity with the present town, the name of which is variously spelt Nablous, Naplous, Napolose, and Naplosa. Its name frequently occurs in the sacred history in connexion with events of great interest and importance, some of which will afford us opportunities of noticing separately the objects which it continues to offer to the veneration of Jews and Christians. It is a town of Samaria, in Palestine, in E. long. 35° 20', and N. lat. 32° 17'. It occupies a most pleasant situation in a narrow valley, between Gerizim and Ebal, which press it so closely on each side as to leave no room to add to its breadth, although it might be indefinitely extended lengthwise. It consists, therefore, of two long streets; and has a population which Mr. Buckingham estimates at rather less than 10,000, mostly Mohammedans. It seems altogether a flourishing place, considering the general misery of the country, and is indebted for some part of its prosperity to the concourse of pilgrims to visit the well of Jacob in the vicinity, where Christ discoursed with the woman of Samaria (John iv). "There is nothing in the Holy Land," says Dr. Clarke, "finer than a view of Napolose from the heights around it. As the traveller descends towards it from the hills, it appears luxuriantly embosomed in the most delightful and fragrant bowers, half concealed by rich gardens, and by stately trees collected into groves, all around the bold and beautiful valley in which it stands."

"The Plain of Moreh," or rather "the terebinth tree of Moreh."-The word ailon, in some places translated a "plain," and in others an "oak," is generally considered to denote the terebinth, or turpentine-tree. The Pistachia terebinthus stands as the head and representative of a numerous family of trees, most of which are noted for the fragrant resins which they yield. The branches of this tree are large, and diffusive; the foliage a deep green, interspersed with clusters of reddish-white flowers. The best Venice turpentine, which, when it can be obtained in a genuine state, is superior to all the rest of its kind, is the produce of this tree. The place indicated is no doubt in the vale of Sichem, just noticed, where grew either a grove of trees, or some tree of remarkable size and appearance. The tree of Moreh seems to be mentioned in several other places. See Chapter xxxv. 4 and 8; Josh. xxiv. 26; Judges ix. 6. 8. "Beth-el."-This is an anticipation; the place was first called Bethel by Jacob, on his journey from Beersheba to Haran, its previous name being Luz. Beth-el means literally "House of God." It does not appear that any town was ever built on the precise spot to which Jacob gave this name; but the appellation was afterwards transferred to the adjacent city of Luz, which thus became the historical Bethel. It was included in the kingdom of Israel on the sepa

ration of the tribes; and Jeroboam set up one of his golden calves there. It was taken from Israel by Ahijah, king of Judah, and ever afterwards formed part of that kingdom. Bethel is supposed to have been situated in a narrow valley, about eighteen miles south from Naplous, or Sichem, where there is a ruined village and monastery.

"Hai," also "Ai," a place two or three miles west of Bethel. We find a small city here in the time of Joshua; and the history of the assaults upon and ultimate destruction of the town by the Israelites occupies a very prominent place in the history of their conquest of Canaan. See Josh. ch. vii. and viii.

13. "Say thou art my sister."-She was his step-sister, the daughter of his father, but not the daughter of his mother (ch. xx. 12). This, therefore, was a truth in terms, but a moral untruth, because it was intended to convey the impression that Sarai was nothing more than a sister to him.

15. "Pharaoh."-This is not a proper name: Josephus says the word signified king in the Egyptian language; and it seems to have been used as a prefix to the proper name in the same way that Ptolemy was, after the subjugation of Egypt by the Greeks. Used independently of the proper name, it served sufficiently to distinguish the king of Egypt from other monarchs.

"The woman was taken into Pharaoh's house."-Of course Abram could not have been a consenting party in this transaction; and yet it does not appear that the king intended to act, or was considered to act, oppressively in taking away a man's sister without thinking his consent necessary. The passage is illustrated by the privilege which royal personages still exercise in Persia and other countries of the East, of claiming for their haram the unmarried sister or daughter of any of their subjects. This exercise of authority is rarely, if ever, questioned or resisted, however repugnant it may be to the father or brother: he may regret, as an inevitable misfortune, that his relative ever attracted the royal notice, but, since it has happened, he does not hesitate to admit the right which royalty possesses. When Abimelech, king of Gerar, acted in a similar manner towards Sarah, taking her away from her supposed brother, it is admitted that he did so "in the integrity of his heart, and innocency of his hands," which allows his right to act as he did if Sarai had been no more than Abram's sister.

16. "Oxen."-The ox is an animal extremely well known, both in respect to his form and utility; but whether the oxen of Abram bore the same shape as our own is very much to be questioned. Animals in a state of domestication are liable to such changes in appearance, that their identity with the wild or original species can seldom be traced with any degree of certainty. In the Hebrew, the words denoting an "ox" and the "morning" are, in respect of their consonants, alike: this arose perhaps from a fancied resemblance which the horned front of an ox bears to the amber radiance of the sun when on the point of just emerging from below the horizon.

"He asses and she asses."-When we find original terms so unlike each other as chamor and athon," he ass" and "she ass," we are apt to think that a different animal must have been meant by athon-such as the zebra, for example. A species of equus so strong, so fleet, and beautiful, in a state of domestication, would always have merited a distinct allusion, as we see it was customary to make to the "she ass.' But the natural fierceness of the zebra renders it, with a few exceptions, almost incapable of a regular training. We might, however, get over this difficulty by supposing, that men who had wholly addicted themselves to the pursuits of herdsmen were better acquainted with the art of manage than we are found to be in later times. In that memorable passage from the ninth verse of the ninth chapter of Zechariah, we have "an ass, the foal of a she ass," where the terms chamor and athon occur in the relation of mother and son. This passage shuts the door against all the excursions of further conjecture, by showing that our translators have properly rendered the words. Besides, in the Arabic we find the word athen or aten given to the ass in general.

An extended note on the ass would be here misplaced; and we shall only state our belief that the real worth of this creature is not understood. He has seldom the benefit of training, but in its stead a mode of treatment extremely calculated to impair the growth and destroy the spirit. It is not improbable that the herd of Abraham offered specimens of size, strength, and agility, far superior to any that were ever seen in later times.

"Camels"-Gemallim.-The camel (Camelus dromedarius) is one of the most interesting as well as the most useful of animals. The physical constitution of the camel seems to have been especially adapted by Providence to the condition of the country in which it is found and the wants of the inhabitants. The humble fare with which it is contented-its extraordinary power of enduring thirst-and the peculiar adaptation of its foot to the soil which it has to traverse-are points to which our admiration is continually directed, and on which it is unnecessary to expatiate in this place. One of the important services which that most observant traveller Burckhardt has rendered to the cause of science and general knowledge, consists in his correction of some impressions that have been entertained concerning this remarkable animal; and to these we shall at present limit our statement. We have all heard stories of travellers who, when ready to perish with thirst in the Desert, have been saved by slaughtering the camels, and extracting the water contained in a reservoir in their stomachs. But Burckhardt assures us (Notes on the Bedouins,' p. 260) that he never, in all his extensive experience, saw or heard of such a circumstance. He does not absolutely deny its possibility; but he believes the practice to be unknown in Arabia: and even the Darfur caravans, which are often reduced to incredible suffering by want of water, never resort to such an expedient. "Indeed," he remarks, "the last stage of thirst renders a traveller so unwilling and unable to support the exertion of walking, that he continues his journey on the back of his camel, in hopes of finding water, rather than expose himself to certain destruction by killing the serviceable creature." He adds, that although he had frequently seen camels slaughtered, he never discovered a copious supply of water in the stomachs of any but those which had been watered on the same day. Our own observations, as far as they go, confirm this in all points; as our acquaintance with camels and caravans never brought us acquainted, even by report, with an instance of a camel being killed for the sake of the water in its stomach.

In another of his works (Travels in Syria') the same traveller corrects another impression concerning the camel; which is, that the animal delights in sandy ground. It does indeed cross such ground better than any other animal; "but wherever the sands are deep, the weight of himself and his load makes his feet sink into the ground at every step, and he groans, and often sinks under his burden.” He found that the skeletons of such animals as had perished in the Desert were most frequent where the sands were deepest: and adds, that the hard gravelly grounds of the Desert are the most agreeable to this animal. In his other work (On the Bedouins') he says, it is also an erroneous opinion that camels are not capable of ascending hills. They are certainly "capable," for we have often met them in the mountains of Persia ; but we still think that, although they may in the abstract be able to ascend as well as other beasts of burden, yet that the rocky asperities and the hollows of the mountain pathways and defiles are very inconvenient and distressing to their "unaccustomed feet."

CHAPTER XIII.

1 Abram and Lot return out of Egypt. 7 By disagreement they part asunder. 10 Lot goeth to wicked Sodom. 14 God reneweth the promise to Abram. 18 He removeth to Hebron, and there buildeth an altar.

AND Abram went up out of Egypt, he and his wife, and all that he had, and Lot with him, into the south.

2 And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver and in gold.

3 And he went on his journeys from the south, even to Beth-el, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Beth-el and Hai;

4 Unto the 'place of the altar, which he had made there at the first: and there Abram called on the name of the LORD.

5 And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents.

6 And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together: for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together.

7 And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle, and the herdmen of Lot's cattle and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land.

8 And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren.

9 Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go the left.

10 And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.

11 Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed cast: and they separated themselves the one from the other.

12 Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.

13 But the men of Sodom were wicked, and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.

14 And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:

Verse 1. "Into the south."-Of course not southward from Egypt, but into the southern parts of Canaan, which is called "the south" and "the south country" in different parts of Scripture.

2. "Rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.”—The Arab tribes, which claim to be descended from Abraham, and still wander in or near the regions which the patriarch traversed, still follow a mode of life which affords the most instructive illustrations of the primitive manners described in the Book of Genesis. The wealth of their sheikhs, and other persons of distinction, is nearly the same as that of Abram. It is true that few are rich in "silver and gold;" but many are very rich in cattle, and in the same kinds of cattle which are assigned to Abraham in verse 16 of the preceding chapter. The number of the patriarch's cattle is not given; but, in considering the number which makes an Arab rich, we may have some idea of the property in cattle which made Abram "very rich." Burckhardt says, that the property of an Arab consists almost wholly in horses and camels. But this must be understood with limitations; for we have known tribes which, in favourable situations, have few camels or horses, but extensive flocks of sheep and goats. Burckhardt proceeds to say, that "No Arab family can exist without one camel at least; a man who has but two is reckoned poor; thirty or forty place a man in easy circumstances; and he who possesses sixty is rich." The standard of wealth is of course lower in poor tribes. The same author mentions sheikhs who had as many as three hundred camels; and one, who was his guide to Tadmor, was reputed to possess one hundred camels, between three hundred sheep and goats, two mares, and one horse. In the richest tribes, a father of a family is said to be poor with less than forty camels; and the usual stock of a family is from one hundred to two hundred. Although some Arab families pride themselves on having only camels, there is no tribe wholly destitute of sheep or goats. It is observable that Abram is not stated to have had any horses. The horse was not much in use among the Israelites till the time of Solomon, nor does it appear to have been very common then or afterwards. Horses are even now by no means so common among the Arabs as the reports of some travellers would lead us to conclude. Among the Aeneze tribes Burckhardt could not find more than one mare to six or seven tents; but they are rather more numerous in some other tribes. Some tribes exclusively use the mares, selling the male colts to the peasants and townspeople.-[See Burckhardt's Notes on the Bedouins,' pp. 39, 40, and 138, 139.] Upon the whole, it seems that the property of these Arab sheikhs, whose wealth is rumoured far and wide in the East, seems in most cases very moderate when estimated by European standards of value. It may be useful to remember this when riches in cattle are mentioned indefinitely in the Old Testament. We may conclude, however, that Abraham's wealth approximated more nearly to that of Job than to that of most of the present Arab sheikhs. In the note on Job i. 3, we shall therefore attempt to estimate the value of the property which constituted Job “ the greatest of all the men of the East." The statement there given fortunately enables us to see the amount of property which constituted wealth in the primitive times. Abram's silver and gold" no doubt arose from the same source which supplies the conveniences of life to the existing nomade tribes; namely, the sale of animals for slaughter, and of butter, cheese, and wool, to the townspeople. He would naturally accumulate much property from this source in Egypt, the inhabitants of which depended chiefly for their supplies upon the pastoral people who abode in or near their country. The Egyptians themselves hated pastoral pursuits. See note on Chap. xlvi. 34.

"Silver."-We see at this early period that the precious metals, especially silver, were used as the general representative of all kinds of property, and the medium of exchange. Silver, which often in the original corresponds to our word money, was in all probability the first metal that was converted to this use, since it is found in a state of comparative purity in a much greater abundance than gold. Specimens of native silver are among the most elegant of minerals. They consist sometimes of thin plates or spangles, and at others of minute threads, variously entangled with each other. In some specimens the silver is crystallized in cubes, or three, four, and six-sided pyramids, of very great minuteness, which are heaped one upon another in the most fanciful manner. Silver is found alloyed with copper, antimony, and arsenic; but the variety we have described is nearly if not quite pure.

7. "There was a strife."-The cause of strife between the herdsmen is not mentioned; but it appears from the context that the flocks and herds of the uncle and nephew were so near that mutual encroachments took place either upon the good pasture grounds or the wells of water, or both. As quarrels about water are particularly mentioned in chap. xxvi. 20, see the note on that passage. Quarrels from both causes still arise among the Arab tribes, although the pasture boundaries and the property of wells are in general carefully defined. The noble and disinterested conduct of Abraham on this occasion can only be well appreciated by those who know the practical importance of the privilege of selection which in this instance he conceded to Lot.

10. "Jordan."-This river, being the principal stream of Palestine, has acquired a distinction much greater than its geographical importance could have given. It is sometimes called "the river," by way of eminence, being in fact almost the only stream of the country which continues to flow in summer. The river rises about an hour and a quarter's journey (say three or three miles and a quarter) north-east from Banias, the ancient Cæsarea Philippi, in a plain near a hill called Tel-el-kadi. Here there are two springs near each other, one smaller than the other, whose waters very soon unite, forming a rapid river, from twelve to fifteen yards across, which rushes over a stony bed into the lower plain, where it is joined by a river which rises to the north-east of Banias. A few miles below their junction the now considerable river enters the small lake of Houle, or Semechonitis (called "the waters of Merom" in the Old Testament). This lake receives several other mountain-streams, some of which seem to have as good claim to be regarded as forming the Jordan with that to which it is given in the previous statement; and it would perhaps be safest to consider the lake formed by their union as the real source of the Jordan. After leaving the lake, the river proceeds about twelve miles to the larger lake, called by various names, but best known as the Sea of Galilee: after leaving which, it flows about seventy miles farther, until it is finally lost in the Dead or Salt Sea. It discharges into that sea a turbid, deep, and rapid stream, the breadth of which is from two to three hundred feet. The whole course of the river is about one hundred miles in a straight line, from north to south; but, with its windings, it probably does

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