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and his two wives. 25 The birth of Seth, 26 and Enos.

noch born; the first city built; the generations of Cain. 19 ¶ Lamech and his two wives. 25 The birth of Seth and Enos.

It is not any part of my design to enter upon a minute examination of the preceding examples, but to show the necessity of adopting some regular method for indexing and establishing a Canon for the more certain direction of all persons, who, in reading, are willing to consult the contents of each chapter, and also of commentators, who may derive great advantage from seeing the limits and bearings of the arguments in the sacred text: and that the introduction of the ¶ into the contents of each chapter, together with the number of the verse, is the more conspicuous and certain method to effect it.

With respect to the marginal readings, they require many additions for the further understanding of the text; and that they may not be confounded with the old readings, a suitable distinction may be devised.

And with respect to references, those of sacred and apostolical authority should be specially distinguished: and next to them the parallel passages; and as to all others, care should be taken in the selection; for it is not their number, but their use, that is important.

Having finished my remarks, such as they are, I propose with all due respect my opinion, that there is wanting a revised edition of the English Bible of the present authorised translation, on the plan of the editions of the Latin Vulgate, and a restoration of all the italic words to the letter of the text or Roman character; that an uniform text may be given, consistent with the nature and description of a complete and perfect translation-and the more simple the form of it is, the better. Such an edition would remove many objections arising from the crude and unfinished appearance of the present text, disgraced and injured as it is by unmeaning and unwarrantable interpolations, as they now stand in a character different from the text: all such objections would immediately vanish, and the Bible appear in its native beauty and splendor.

T. Y.

249

THE ARITHMETIC OF THE HOLY

SCRIPTURES.

No. V. [Continued from No. LVI.]

II. Measures of Capacity.

THESE mentioned in Scripture, as in other writings, are necessarily of two kinds, or are employed for measuring substances in the two different conditions of liquid and dry. They would appear to have been more uniform, in their contents, among the Hebrews than ours are; for their DN or bushel, and their (for liquids), were equally large.

It is very certain that there was a standard of these measures in "the most holy place;" and that it stood before the ark of the covenant. Moses was ordered to place "the Omer of manua

עמר the) העמר מך לפני יהוה : before the presence of Jehovah

was the tenth part of the N or Hebrew bushel): and it seems that the vessel was not of wood, but of gold: Exod. xvi. 33, 36. Heb. ix. 4. That there were various other measures in use is not improbable; although Moses has not inserted in his writings any account of their contents. At this no one needs to be offended; for in fact measures of this description could not properly be specified in the book of the law, because the standard vessel, which was of gold, could not, without risk of being injured or stolen, be put into the view of every Israelite.'

To notice, however, some probable examples of standard measures of capacity, by which the sacred utensils were delivered to the priests and Levites: Numb. i. iv.: it may be remarked, that belonging to the table of shew-bread, there were not only golden tankards (p) in which wine stood, and from which it was to be poured out, but also small drinking vessels, shaped like our cups, likewise of gold. Now, considering Moses as merely versed" in the learning of the Egyptians," we must think it probable, that all these vessels had their contents very accurately determined. The very same, probably, was the case with regard to the basons belonging to the altar of burnt-offerings; and for regulating the baking of the shew-bread, the flour for which the law fixed by bushels, there may have been a standard EN

'Michaelis' Comment on Laws of Moses, iii. pp. 390-392.

within the Sanctuary. Before the tabernacle stood the brazen laver. In the more particular description of the vessels delivered to the priests it was perhaps specified, how much water this laver contained, both when quite full, and when filled only to a certain mark; and accordingly we find, that the contents of this brazen sea, as it was called, are mentioned in both respects, in the historical books of 1 Kings (vii. 26.) and 2 Chronicles (iv. 5.)

The Scripture Measures of Capacity.

In Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English.

Liquid: or
Wine-Measure.

Dry: Corn-Me

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Sect. 1. Liquid; or, according to Wine-measure.

a hollow, or palm of the hand :-denoting, therefore, that quantity of a liquid which may be contained in the hollow of the hand. In Num. vii. 14, 20. it is a Censer, buioxy.

15 in Lev. xiv. 10, signifies that measure of oil, which lepers were to offer at the temple after their cure; and, by Jewish writers,' is said to have contained the quantity of six eggs. Its ideal meaning is uncertain; but have we not traces of this word in the Greek Anyw, I cease, in the Swedish lagg, extremity, and the English lag? May it therefore denote, the small or last measure?

; אפה or the eighteenth of an ,סאה the sixth part of a קב

and therefore containing three pints and one third English. The least measure noticed in Scripture is py27: 2 Kings vi. 25. "fourth of a Cab."

was used for measuring oil: Exod. xxx. Ezek. xlv. 46; and wine: Exod. xxix. Levit. xxiii. It was probably thus de

' Kimchi and others interestingly noticed by the learned Leusden, in Dissert. xxxi. Philol. Hebr., &c. pp. 203-209.

nominated, because employed in presenting (from 3 to present) the liquids for the service of God. The Scripture furnishes no sufficient data for determining its capacity.

AND was exactly double the size of a 1, or 2 gallons. According to Dr. Bernard,'-"Urna Romana, sive sesquimodius Romanus: i. e. 24 sextarii Romani."

μετρητας

rendered Bail; but also μerpτns: 2 Chron. iv. 5.: and repapios: Is. v. 10. It was the tenth part of the Omer in liquids, as the Ephah was in dry things: Ezek. xlv. 11. In John ii. 6. METρηTaç should be translated, not by the modern word "firkins," but by measures or baths. So large a quantity (about 40 gallons) was probably designed not only to supply the new married couple with wine during the seven days of their nuptial feast (Jud. xiv. 12. with Gen. xxix. 27, 28. Tobit xi. 19.) and to provide for their future occasion; but also to prove most specially the reality of the miracle. 3

the same as the 1, xopos, was the largest of these measures: Ezek. xlv. 14.

Sect. 2. Dry; or, according to Corn-measure.

is represented by Mr. Horne as the smallest: but whence has he taken it-for it has not been noticed by Godwyn, Stocke, Buxtorf, Lamy, Calmet, or Parkhurst?

The p is explained by Josephus, by Eeory, the Roman Sextarius: a little more than our pint. It does not appear in sacred history, till the reign of Jehoram, king of Israel; 2 Kings vi. 25. 1

Dy, being the 10th part of an ephah, and equal to about six pints English, is said to have been thus applied from its primary meaning to press, as being the most contracted of these measures: Exod. xvi. 36.

Xov, a Grecian measure for corn: Rev. vi. 6.: by some reckoned equal to about a pint and a half English. It should be read a Chanix, 5 instead of our indefinite and unmeaning translation, "a measure."

In his elaborate "Mensura Concav. Antiq." appended to Dr. Pococke's Comment. on Hosea.

2 Dr. Campbell's Four Gospels translated, &c.; see particularly Vol. iii. pp. 295, 296. Edinburgh ed. 1821.

3 Dr. Pearce's Miracles of Jesus vindicated, &c.; Part iii., cited in Parkhurst's Greek Lex. p. 432.

4 Introduction to the H. Script. &c. Vol. iii. p. 60.

5 Part I. of a most judicious Prelim. Dissert., No. VIII. of Dr. Campbell, Vol. i. pp. 316-328.

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AND literally denotes a measure; and therefore with propriety applied to a specific purpose. In the reduplicate form: Is. xxvii. 8: NDND, it signifies a repeated or exact measuring.

which may be literally called איפה or, more frequently אפה

the baking measure; for this quantity was usually baked at one time; as well as the radical intimation of the word. The Septuagint have often translated it by Пeμua, a baking. Equal to 7} gallons; or near an English bushel.i

containing half an Omer or Cor. So several of the Hexaplar versions Huxopov, and Vulg. dimidio coro: Hos. iii. 2. Sixteen pecks, or four bushels, or two strikes.

n derives its appellation, according to Godwyn,2 from an ass, because it contained the quantity of grain which an ass could conveniently bear. But, says Parkhurst, "the largest measure; in which many things were often jumbled (from A to disturb) together." It held to the amount of 32 pecks and upwards, or about 1 quarter:3-and consequently equal to eight cubic feet of water.

CHAP. III. WEIGHTS.

4

As the ancient Hebrews were chiefly an agricultural people, they were not much addicted to commercial pursuits-and consequently a primitive simplicity would characterise their weights and all their mercantile transactions. Indeed, all their weights refer to money; and might properly be arranged under our Troy or Jewellers' weight.

Among the Biblical terms usually applied to this subject, the following deserve notice:

bp to weigh, is the word most generally employed to express this idea: Gen. xxiii. 16. pm, in Dan. v. 25, 27, is only the Chaldaic form of the same word.

as

, literally a stone, signifies also a weight; which was, frequently with us, of stone: Deut. xxv. 13. and Prov. xvi. 11.5 are beautiful allusions to the stony weights of the Hebrews.

I Gusset, &c. quoted by Parkhurst, in his Heb. Lex. p. 34. 2 Moses and Aaron, Civil and Eccles. Rites, &c. p. 262.

3 A Quarter of wheat was so called, on the supposition that it weighed 500lb., or a quarter of a Ton.-A cubic foot of water weighs 1000 ounces; of course 32 cubic feet weigh 2000lb., which were formerly a ton. The bushel, or one eighth of a quarter, is equal to 1000 ounces, or a cubic foot of water.-Joyce's Pract. Arithm. pp. 48, 49.

4 Fleury's Manners of the Ancient Israelites, &c. p. 63.

5 The Hebrew weights were not made of metal, lest the rust should

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