which you shall wipe upon your own head, or, as Eustathius explains it, a crime which you shall make to cleave to your own head. A similar expression occurs in Sophocles: -καπι λεθροισιν καρα Κηλίδας εξέμαξεν. From whence it appears, that the blood which was found upon the sword was wiped upon the head of the șlain; an intimation that his own blood has fallen upon the head of the deceased, and that the living were free · from it. It was usual with the Romans to wash their hands in token of innocence and purity from blood. Thus the Roman governor washed his hands, and said respecting Christ. I am innocent of the blood of this just person. Matt. xxvii. 24. No. 847.-i. 17. And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son.] Threnetic strains on the untimely decease of royal and eminent personages were of high antiquity amongst the Asiatics. Instances of this kind frequently occur in the sacred writings. See 1 Kings xiii. 30. Jer. ix. 17. Amos v. 1, 2, 16. They are also to be met with in profane authors: as in EURIPIDES; Iphigenia in Taur. ver. 177. Orestes, ver. 1402. No. 848.-iii. 31. The bier.] The word here translated the bier is in the original the bed on these persons of quality used to be carried forth to their graves, as common people were upon a bier. Kings were sometimes carried out upon beds very richly adorned; as Josephus tells us that Herod was; he says the bed was all gilded, set with precious stones, and that it had a purple cover curiously wrought. PATRICK, in loc. No. 849. iii." 34. Thy hands were not bound, nor thy feet put in fetters.] The feet as well as the hands of criminals were usually secured, when they were brought out to be punished. Thus when Irwin was in Upper Egypt, where he was ill used by some Arabs, one of whom was afterwards punished for it, he tells us (Trav. p. 271, note.) "the prisoner is placed upright on the ground, with his hands and feet bound together, while the executioner stands before him, and with a short stick strikes him with a smart motion on the outside of his knees. The pain which arises from these strokes is exquisitely severe, and which no constitution can support for any continuance." HARMER, vol. iv. p. 205. No. 850.-iii. 35. And when all the people came to cause David to eat meat, while it was yet day—] This was the usual practice of the Hebrews, whose friends. commonly visited them after the funeral was over, to comfort the surviving relations, and send in provisions to make a feast. It was supposed that they were so sorrowful as not to be able to think of their necessary food. Jer. xvi. 5, 7, 8. Ezek. xxiv. 17. See also Oriental Customs, No. 283. PATRICK, in loc. No. 851.—v. 6—8. Wherefore they said, the blind and the lame shall not come into the house.] Mr. Gregory (Works, p. 29.) observes, that it was customary in almost every nation, at the founding of a city, to lay up an image magically consecrated, (or talisman), in some retired part of it, on which the security of the place was to depend. The knowledge of this practice he supposes will clearly illustrate the passage now referred to. Several Jewish writers agree that the blind and lame were images, and that these epithets were bestowed on them in derision. Psalm cxv. 5, 7. They were of brass, and are said to have had inscriptions upon them. They were set up in a recess of the fort. Though in scorn called the blind and the lame, yet they were so surely entrusted with the keeping of the place, that if they did not hold it out, the Jebusites said, they should not come into the house: that is, they would never again commit the safety of the fort to such palladia as these. No. 852.-vi. 14. And David danced before the Lord with all his might.] Upon this circumstance the Jews have grounded a ridiculous custom. In the evening of the day on which they drew water out of the pool of Siloam, those who were esteemed the wise men of Israel, the elders of the Sanhedrim, the rulers of the synagogues, and the doctors of the schools, met in the court of the temple. All the temple music played, and the old men danced, while the women in the balconies round the court and the men on the ground were spectators. All the sport was to see these venerable fathers of the nation skip and dance, clap their hands and sing; and they who played the fool most egregiously acquitted themselves with most honour. In this manner they spent the greater part of the night, till at length two priests sounded a retreat with trumpets. This mad festivity was repeated every evening, except on the evening before the sabbath, which fell in this festival, and on the evening before the last and great day of the feast. JENNINGS's Jewish Antiq. vol. ii. p. 235. No. 853. viii. 2. The opinion of the Casting them down to the ground.] learned authors of the Universal History, (Anc. Hist. vol. ii. p. 135. note 5.) is, that David caused them to fall down flat, or prostrate on the ground. Le Clerc also says, that it seems to have been the manner of the eastern kings towards those they conquered, especially those that had incurred their displeasure, to command their captives to lie down on the ground, and then to put to death such a part of them as were measured by a line. Both Dr. Chandler (Life of David, vol. ii. p. 157, note) and Bp. Patrick (Comment in loc.) are of opinion, that there is no evidence to prove the existence of such a practice amongst the Hebrews. No. 854.-xi. 4. And David sent messengers, and took her.] The kings of Israel appear to have taken their wives with very great ease. This is quite consistent with the account given in general of the manner in which eastern princes form matrimonial alliances. "The king, in his marriage, uses no other ceremony than this: he sends an azagi to the house where the lady lives, where the officer announces to her, it is the king's pleasure that she should remove instantly to the palace. She then dresses herself in the best manner, and immediately obeys. Thenceforward he assigns her an apartment in the palace, and gives her a house elsewhere in any part she chooses. Then when he makes her iteghe, it seems to be the nearest resemblance to marriage; for whether in the court or the camp, he orders one of the judges to pronounce in his presence, that he, the king, has chosen his handmaid, naming her, for his queen: upon which the crown is put on her head, but she is not anointed." BRUCE's Travels, vol. iii. p. 87. No. 855.-xii. 20. Then David arose from the earth, and washed and anointed himself, and changed his apparel.] During the time that David continued to mourn, it may be presumed from these words, that he was negligent of his apparel, and that it was not changed. This was also the custom of the Persians. They mourned forty days: and for a relation or a friend, it was denoted by a total negligence of dress, without any regard to the colour: during the forty days they affected not to shave, and refused to change their clothes. Goldsmith's Geography, p. 220. No. 856.-xii. 23. But now he is dead wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again?] Maimonides says that the Jews did not lament infants, who died before they were thirty days old; but carried them in their arms to the grave, with one woman and two men to attend them, without saying the usual prayers over them, or the consolations for mourners. But if an infant were above thirty days old when it died, they carried it out on a small bier, and stood over it in order, and said both the prayers and consolations. If it were a year old, then it was carried out upon a bed. This custom Gierus thinks that David followed, in making no mourning for his child when it was dead. Bp. Patrick however doubts whether the practice were so ancient as to have prevailed in his reign.. was No. 857.-xiii. 19. And Tamer put ashes on her head.] This was a general practice with the people of the East, in token of the extremity of sorrow, and common both to the Hebrews and the Greeks. Job ii. 12. They rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads towards heaven. Ezek. xxvii. 30. And shall cast up dust upon their heads. Homer affords some instances of the same kind, as it respects the Greeks. Thus of Laertes he says: Deep from his soul he sigh'd, and sorr'wing spread A cloud of ashes on his hoary head. Odyss. xxiv. 369. POPE. |