more generally, both of decisions on points of secular, or civil law (Ex. xviii. 16, 20), and of the authoritative teaching given in Jehovah's name, either by priests or prophets, on questions of moral or religious duty. Thus Hosea (iv. 6-8) speaks of Jehovah's Torah as a moral agency, and attributes the crimes prevalent in Israel (iv. 16, 2) to the priests' forgetfulness of its true character (iv. 6 b), and to their worldly unconcern for the "knowledge" of God, which_its_possession implies (iv. 6a; comp. Jer. ii. 8): see also viii. 1, 12. In Is. i. 10 the Torah of our God' is the exposition which follows (vv. 11-17) respecting the true character of religious service; Is. v. 24 the Tôrah, which Judah has "rejected" (same word as in Am. ii. 4) consists of the precepts of civil righteousness and morality, the disregard of which the prophet has been just denouncing, vv. 8-23; Is. viii. 16, 20 it denotes the half-political, half-religious advice just given by the prophet (vv. 12—15); Is. xxx. 9 it is used similarly of the partly political, partly religious, warnings of the prophets (see vv. 10—15); Is. xxx. 20 the prophets are called by the corresponding subst., the 'directers' (teachers) of the people of Jerusalem. In Deuteronomy the exposition of moral and religious duty, which occupies the greater part of the book, is repeatedly described as "this Tôrāh" (i. 5, iv. 8, 44, xvii. 18 &c.). Jeremiah uses the word in a similar sense: e.g. vi. 19 (as in Is. i. 10, of the spirit in which religious duties should be performed, see v. 20); ix. 13 f. (of exhortations against idolatry probably those contained in Deuteronomy), xvi. 11 (similarly), xxvi. 4 (of the preaching of the prophets, see v. 5). It is also used of the authoritative religious and moral teaching, which the prophets picture as being given in the future to the world, either by God Himself, or by His representative: Is. ii. 3 (=Mic. iv. 2); Jer. xxxi. 33; Is. xlii. 4 (of the preaching of Jehovah's ideal "Servant "), li. 4. Here the context (comp. the note on lies, in the same verse), and the importance which Amos uniformly attaches to moral duties, make it probable that, like Isaiah and Jeremiah, he means by the term spiritual and moral teaching, uttered, whether by priests or prophets, in Jehovah's name.

ADDITIONAL NOTE ON CHAP. III. 13 (Jehovah of hosts).

The title "Jehovah of hosts" is one which occurs_with_great frequency in the prophets (except Obadiah, Joel, Jonah, Daniel, and, somewhat remarkably, Ezekiel: Hosea, Micah, Nahum, and Habakkuk, however use it each once only), and fifteen times in eight Psalms (Ps. xxiv., xlvi., xlviii., lix., lxix., lxxx., lxxxiv., lxxxix.): in the historical books it is found only in 1 Sam. i. 3, 11, iv. 4, xv. 2, xvii. 45, 2 Sam. V. 10 (=1 Ch. xi. 9), vi. 2, 18, vii. 8, 26 (=1 Ch. xvii. 7, 24), 27, 1 Ki. xviii. 15, xix. 10, 14, 2 Ki. iii. 14, xix. 31, several of these occurrences being in the mouth of prophets: it is thus preeminently the prophetical title of Jehovah. The origin of the expression is not certainly known. Host is used in Hebrew in the sense of an army of men (as in the common phrase, "captain of the host," I Ki. i. 19 &c.); in addition to this, however, the Hebrews pictured the angels (1 Ki. xxii. 19; cf. Ps. lxviii. 17, ciii. 21, cxlviii. 2), and also the stars (Dt. iv. 19; Jer. viii. 2;

Is. xxxiv. 4, xl. 26, xlv. 12), as forming a 'host.' Accordingly it is supposed by some (as Kautzsch, art. ZEBAOTH, in Herzog's Realencyclopädie; G. A. Smith, pp. 57 f. cf. Schultz, O.T. Theol. 1. 139 -141) that the expression originally denoted Jehovah as a warrior, the leader of Israel's forces (cf. Ex. xiv. 14, xv. 3; Numb. xxi. 14 [the "Book of Jehovah's Wars"], 1 Sam. xvii. 45, xviii. 17, xxv. 28; Ps. xxiv. 8, lx. 10); but (as it occurs in many passages where an exclusively martial sense would be inappropriate) that it was afterwards gradually enlarged so as to denote Him also as the God who had other "hosts" at His command, and could employ, for instance, the armies of heaven (cf. Jud. v. 20; 2 Ki. vi. 17) on His people's behalf: according to others (as Smend, Alttest. Religionsgeschichte, pp. 185-188) it had this wider sense from the beginning. Ewald (History of Israel, III. 62; Lehre der Bibel von Gott, II. i. 339 f.; comp. Oehler, O.T. Theol. SS 195-198) made the clever and original suggestion that the expression may have first arisen on occasion of some victory under the Judges, when it seemed as if Jehovah descended with His celestial hosts to the help of the armies of Israel (cf. Jud. v. 13): "born" thus "in the shout of victory," it fixed itself in the memory of the people, and larger ideas gradually attached themselves to it, until in the prophets it became "the loftiest and most majestic title" of Israel's God. Thus, whatever uncertainty may rest upon the origin of the expression, all agree that as used by the prophets it is Jehovah's most significant and sublimest title: it designates Him, namely, as One who has at His disposal untold 'hosts' of spiritual and material agencies, and is Lord of the forces of nature, in a word, as the Omnipotent (comp. Cheyne, Origin of the Psalter, p. 323). It is accordingly in the LXX. often (2 Sam. and Minor Prophets (usually), Jer. (frequently): elsewhere Kúpios Zapade is generally used1) very appropriately represented by kúρLOS πаνтокρáтwp2 ‘Lord Omnipotent' (more exactly 'Lord all-sovereign': Westcott, Historic Faith, p. 215). The prophets often employ the title with much effectiveness and force; and it is necessary to bear in mind the ideas suggested by it, if their use of it is to be properly understood (comp., for instance, its use in iii. 13, iv. 13, V. 14, 27, vi. 8, 14).

ADDITIONAL NOTE ON CHAP. V. 16 (Mourning ceremonies).

Mourning ceremonies belong to a class of institutions which change little from generation to generation; and Wetzstein, for many years Prussian Consul at Damascus, has given an account of them as observed in modern Syria, which throws light upon various allusions in the O.T.3

In the Psalms, and occasionally in other books, kúpios tŵv dvváμewv (i.e. of forces, hosts: see Numb. ii. and x. in the LXX. passim).

2 Comp. in the N.T. 2 Cor. vi. 18, and nine times in the Revelation, viz. i. 8, iv. 8, xi. 17, xv. 3, xvi. 7, 14, xix. 6, 15, xxi. 22 (ò lεòs о паνтокρáтwp; comp. in Amos Kúpios o deos о паνтокрάтшр. The rend. "Almighty" in Rev. connects the word wrongly with Shaddai [see p. 81], for which mаνтокράтwр stands only in Job, and never there with ò eòs preceding).

3 In Bastian's Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1873, pp. 295-301: some particulars are quoted by Budde in the Zeitsch. für die alttest. Wiss., 1882, p. 26 f. Mariti, an

The corpse, having immediately after death been washed, dressed, and bestrewed with spices, is laid out upon the 'threshing-board' mentioned above (p. 227), on which, as it were, it lies in state, the head being supported on the end which is curved upwards: on the following morning a tent of black goats' skin is erected, sometimes, if the deceased was wealthy, on the flat open house-top, but usually, at least in Syria, on the village threshing-floor: thither the corpse is brought on the threshing-board; soon after, a procession of the female relatives of the deceased, unveiled, with bare heads and feet, and wearing long black goats'-hair mourning tunics, advance from his house and form a circle round the tent. The professional mourners now begin to play their part. In the cities these consist of a chorus of women (laṭṭāmāt, 'those who smite themselves on the face'), of whom one after another successively takes the lead; in the country a single singer, called the kawwala, or "speaker," sometimes supported by one or two others, is deemed sufficient: in either case the singer must be able either to recite from memory, or to extemporise for the occasion, funeral dirges of sufficient length. Standing, if in Damascus, in the open court of the house, if in villages, round the tent just spoken of, in which the corpse lay, these women chant their ma'īd, or dirge (which must have a definite poetical form, with metre and rhyme), recounting the virtues of the deceased-his goodness, his nobleness, his hospitality, &c., or the circumstances of his death,—perhaps in defence of the cattle of his tribe against a raid of Bedawin,—and bewailing the pain of separation: at the end of each dirge, or, if it be a long one, at the end of each stanza of it, the female relatives of the deceased, who form another chorus, called reddādāt, the answerers,' or neddābāt, or nawwāḥāt, the 'mourners,' reply with the refrain, uttered with a prolonged note, into which much feeling is thrown, wêlī, "Woe is me!" The dirges for those who have fallen bravely consist of 30 or 40 stanzas, and are often, says Wetzstein, of great beauty. The dirges continue for two or three hours at the end of this time invited guests from the neighbouring villages come in order, men and women forming two processions, to pay their last respects to the deceased and to offer their condolences to his relations. The interment then takes place. The ceremony of singing the dirges is repeated on the next day, and if the family be a wealthy one is continued during a whole week1.

A clear distinction, it will be here noticed, is drawn between the 'dirge,' which is an ode sung solely by the professional mourners, and the wailing refrain, which is joined in by all the others, whenever a

Italian priest, witnessed a similar ceremonial near Jaffa in 1767; extracts from his description are given by Budde in the Zeitsch. des Deutschen Palästina-Vereins, 1883, p. 184 ff., and compared in detail with the particulars stated by Wetzstein.

1 The threshing-board' is regarded by the Syrian peasant with a superstitious reverence. It is used not only at funerals, but also at marriages: covered with a decorated cloth, it is arranged to form a throne, on which a newly-wedded couple, during the seven days (the "King's week") following their marriage, play king and queen, and songs are sung before them by the villagers and others (see the writer's Introduction, ed. 5, p. 537, ed. 6, under the Song of Songs). A threshing-board, it is said, is never stolen: the would-be thief, when he sees it, is reminded of the day when he will be laid upon it himself, and dreads to touch it.

pause is made by the singers. The ma‘id corresponds to the ķīnāh, or artistically constructed dirge,' of the O.T. (comp. on v. 1), the professional mourning women correspond to the wise women (i.e. those instructed in their art), who 'chant dirges,' to whom Jeremiah alludes (ix. 17)1: the refrain of woe reminds us of the hōy, hōy (or hō, hō), quoted in the note on v. 16.

ADDITIONAL NOTE ON CHAP. V. 23 (nēbhel).

The Hebrew word nebhel is rendered viol in A.V., R.V., of Am. v. 23, vi. 5, Is. xiv. 11, and in A.V. of Is. v. 12 (R.V. lute), elsewhere in both versions psaltery (2 Sam. vi. 5; 1 Ki. x. 12, &c.); in the P.B. V. of the Psalms, lute (Ps. xxxiii. 2, lvii. 9 (=cviii. 3), lxxxi. 2, xcii. 4, cxliv. 9, cl. 3)2, once (Ps. lxxi. 20) vaguely music. Although there is no excuse for the same Heb. word being thus rendered differently in one and the same version, it is true that the exact instrument meant is uncertain. The LXX. usually represent nebhel by váßλa, or (Psalms generally, Is. v. 12, Neh. xii. 27) aλτýpov, here and vi. 5 by the general term opyava. The váßλa was known to the Greeks as a Sidonian instrument (Athen. iv. P. 175); and we learn from Ovid (Ars Am. 3. 327) that it was played duplici palma. It is often in the O.T. coupled with the kinnōr; according to Josephus (Ant. viii. 3. 8) the difference between the κɩvúpa (=kinnōr) and the váßλa was that the former had ten strings and was played with the plectrum, the latter had twelve notes, and was played with the hand. These are substantially all the data which we possess for determining what instrument the nebhel was. Kinnōr in A. V., R. V., is always represented by harp and if this rendering be correct, nebhel might well be the lyre. There is, however, force in the remark that the kinnōr is mentioned much more frequently than the nebhel, and seems to have been in more common use; the nēbhel was used at the feasts of the wealthy (Am. vi. 5 ; Is. v. 12, xiv. 11), or in religious ceremonies; it was therefore probably a more elaborate and expensive instrument. This consideration would point to kinnōr being the lyre, and nebhel the harp. The large and heavy stationary harp of modern times must not, however, be thought of the nebhel could be played while the performer was walking (1 Sam. x. 5; 2 Sam. vi. 5); and the ancients had small portable harps,

:

1 In later times such dirges were accompanied by the flute: see Matth. ix. 23; Joseph. B. 7. 111. 9, § 5.

2 All these names of instruments occur frequently in old English writers, though they are now practically obsolete. The viol (Norm. viele, Prov. viula, Span. vihuela, viola, Dan. fiddel, A.-S. fidele,-from Low Lat. vitula, vidula), was a bowed instrument, in use from the 15th to the 18th centuries, an early form of the modern violin. The lute (Fr. luth, Ital. liuto, Port. alaude, from the Arab. 'al'ûd, with the a of the article elided, 'the wood,' applied, κar' éέoxýv, to a particular instrument of wood, Lane, Arab. Lex., p. 2190), resembled a guitar, having a long neck with a bulging body, or resonance-box. It was played with a plectrum: among the Arabs it has been for long a popular instrument: see representations in Lane, Mod. Egyptians, chap. xviii. (ed. 5, ii. 67, 68), or Stainer, Music of the Bible, Figs. 18, 21. The psaltery may be described generally as a small lyre (see further D. B.1, and Grove's Dict. of Music, s.v. PSALTERY)

3 Riehm, Handwörterbuch des Bibl. Alt. p. 1030 (ed. 2, p. 1044); Nowack, Hebr. Arch. i. 274.