Horat. 1. xviii. 94. Deme supercilio nubem. Hom. Il. A. 105. Μάντι κακῶν, οὐ πώποτέ μοι τὸ κρήγυον εἶπας· 1 Kings, xxii. 8. There is yet one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may enquire of the Lord: but I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil. Sallust. Catil. 54. (of Cato.) esse, quam videri, bonus malebat. So Eschylus (of Amphiaraus) vii, ad Theb. 589. 1 Sam. ii. 8. He raiseth the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, &c. Ovid. Trist. 11. vii. 41. Nempe dat id, cuicunque libet Fortuna, rapitque— Shakspeare. Jul. Cæs. Act iii. See how the wounds do ope their ruby lips, Crashaw. Sospetto d'Herode, 1. O be a door Of language to my infant lips, ye best Of confessors! whose throats, answering his swords, THE ARITHMETIC OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. No. IV. [Continued from No. LIV. p. 257.] HAVING concluded the suggestions on Biblical numbers, the next subject is the consideration of MEASURES, on which a variety of particulars must naturally claim attention. The word measure is applied, in the Sacred Writings, to different and manifold objects, without, however, any material deviation from its original meaning. A man of * אנש מדה or איש A common Hebrew idiom is measure." As 1 Chron. xx. 6: DN, rendered by the LXX άνÝр úπерμeɣéons. And Num. xiii. 32: ♫ WN, are translated procera statura, by Jerome. The usual appropriation of the word is, to the taking dimensions of any thing: as Num. xxxv. 5. DNT21 And ye shall measure." It is employed to express the amount or period of human life. Ps. xxxix. 5: "And the measure of my days." The word D, as in Lev. xix. 35, may be translated literatim et verbatim and at the same time exhibit the Etymological origin of the English term, measure. : The idea of capacious comprehension is sometimes intimated. Is. xl. 12: whwab “And contained in a measure." In the New Testament there are such applications of the word as the following: John iii. 34: Où yàp ex péтρou didwσr ó EOS TO πVEUμa, "For not by measure hath God given the spirit.” Eph. iv. 13 : Εἰς μέτρον ἡλικίας τοῦ πληρώματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ, « Το the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." The terms usually applied to this subject, by Biblical writers, are the following: Tor, which appears commonly to denote measure in length and breadth; but sometimes also in capacity. Hence podios, modius, perpov, and to mete, are obviously derived. to regulate, to rule, to regulate by measure. This word retains its primary meaning through all the 11 applications so instructively illustrated by Parkhurst. has the same signification, and seems to be the parent of the word Tex, art, rule. See Exod. v. 8. Ezek. xlv. 11. to contain, to hold as a measure: and this is its ordinary meaning also in the dialects of the Hebrew language. Mergov (in Syr. Ua) a measure, is the only Greek term expressive of this idea; and regards either longitudinal or capacious measures. But see Mintert's' Lexicon. The measures noticed in Scripture are of the two usual kinds : either of application or length, as ПON, πxus, a cubit; or of capacity, as DN, 014, an ephah. Whether there were any fixed standards for these ancient measures might admit of investigation, though the affirmative was maintained, and has been interestingly amplified, by the late Sir J. D. Michaelis. In the chef d'œuvre of that learned writer, it is stated, "The weights and measures were preserved in the tabernacle of testimony, in more ways than one, and partly in the view of every individual, for at least many hundred years. Some of them, it is true, might by use and time, suffer some change; but for that very reason, there were various standards, so that the error of any one could always be rectified by the others, and some of them were kept within the sanctuary itself, and were thus less liable to variation." Nor may it be proper to omit this additional and certainly very just observation :"The very specification of longitudinal measures, which we find so frequently repeated, answered one of the most important purposes of police to the Israelites, and as a master-piece of legislative wisdom in this respect, it merits our admiration." I. Of Length or Application. These measures owe their origin principally to certain members of the human body: (a very natural mode of measuring in primitive times) as it is reasonably supposed that the practice of counting by tens took its rise from the number of the human fingers and toes. "That there might be no deceit," it has been said, "the ground of these measures was the breadth of so many barley corns, middle-sized, laid by one another."3 But "the longitudinal measure was fixed for future ages in a great variety of ways. The measures of the court of the tabernacle and its hangings: Exod. xxvii. 8-19. of the curtains that covered the tabernacle: xxvi. 1-13: of the boards that framed it, which were made 'This intelligent Lexicographer remarks, that the LXX have used μeтpov for, as in Exod. xxvi. 2, 8; and in other places: for, as in Ezek. iv. 11, 16: for, as in 2 Kings xxi. 13: for , as in Ps. lxxx. 6: for N, as in Deut. xxv. 14: for ND, as in Gen. xviii. 6 : for, as in 2 Chron. ii. 14. 2 "Commentaries on the Laws of Moses," iii. p. 385, 386. 3 See Godwyn's "Moses and Aaron," p. 259. of a wood very little apt to alter: xxvi. 15, 16: of the tabernacle itself, which was 30 ells long, and 10 broad; of the altar of burnt offerings, overlaid with copper: xxvii. 1: are all specified in ells; and that in a book which every Israelite was to read." Besides, there were the "archetypes of the ell, that were kept in the sanctuary itself. Of the table of show-bread: Exod. xxv. 23. the altar of incense: xxx. 2. the ark of the covenant: xxv. 10: all the dimensions are specified." "But the most invariable of all the standards of longitudinal measures, as being made entirely of gold, is the lid of the ark, which was two ells and a half long, and one ell and a half broad: xxv. 17.”—“ When the tabernacle was 480 or 592 years old, and must certainly have been pretty much decayed, Solomon began the building of his temple. At this time, they would, from the remains of the tabernacle, still be able to ascertain the Mosaic ell. This measure was transferred to the temple; and that edifice which, being built of stone, was liable to still fewer changes, particularly in a southern country, where no severe frosts make the stones of a building separate from each other, was 60 ells long, and 20 broad; and thus, without taking into account other expedients that Solomon might have employed for the purpose, the ancient Mosaic ell was preserved until the time of Nebuchadnezzar, by whom this temple was destroyed."1 The following, selected from various writers, is submitted as presenting "It is true," continues the celebrated critic, "that the curtains and the wood might be affected by exposure to the atmosphere, although perhaps one error would correct another: but still, every Israelite that came to attend divine service, in any future age, would here obtain a pretty A cursory illustration of the longitudinal measures may be attempted, as they are found in various parts of the Sacred Writings. yay signifies a finger or a toe. It is used by the prophet Jeremiah as a measure. lii. 21. WAYN YAN, four digits or fingers. According to Josephus, it is, but according to Arbuthnot, the 21, of an inch. , axgov, pollex, a thumb or great toe. A thumb's breadth is found in some of the Jewish writings: and is reckoned 1.16 of an inch. Junius and Tremellius on Ezek. xl. 5. have this remark: "Digiti quatuor, sive tres pollices." , a palm or hand's breadth, in Exod. xxv. 25. is translated, quatuor digitis." Lam. ii. 20. by mean, either the children a hand's breadth long, of whom women procured abortions to sustain them in the siege; or rather young children who yet required the constant attendance of their mothers to stretch out their limbs and lay them smooth: comp. v. 22. Parkhurst. , a span, denoting as much as a man can measure with his hand expanded from the thumb to the little finger. That it was П, half of the cubit, appears from comparing Ezek. xliii. 13. with the 17th verse of that chapter. by, pes, a foot. This does not appear to have been a Biblical measure; but is usually regarded by Jewish writers as comprising 12 inches.-See Godwyn. ON, a cubit, so called from its having been the mother or standard of the Hebrew longitudinal measures; and contains the distance, in the human arm, from the elbow to the extremity of the middle finger. This idea is suggested by the import of its Latin and English names. According to the statements of Mintert, Calmet, Parkhurst and Ewing, it comprised about 18 inches; but Arbuthnot, Cumberland, Pelletier, Lamy, Josephus and Horne say, about 21 inches The cubit was probably fixed by Noah: as may particularly be inferred from the construction of the ark: and in Egypt, which required the use of established measures, it has been preserved to the present day.1 Moses therefore may be understood accurate view of the ell, and might at any rate measure some of these things with more correctness, and thus judge whether the nation still retained in common use the ancient original cubit or not." Michaelis' Comment. Laws of Moses, iii. p. 387. Lamy, who also observes, that Mr. Greaves, who measured the pyramids of Egypt with great exactness, says, that in all the dimensions he took, he found that they who had built these great edifices, had made |