Frankincense was also put thereon. This was to make a sweet odour in the court of the tabernacle, which otherwise would have been offensive by reason of the flesh which was daily burned there. This was common also in the sacrifices of the Gentiles, as appears by a passage in Ovid: Da mihi thura, puer, pingues facientia flammas, L. v. de Tristibus, Eleg. v il. No. 703.-vi. 13. It shall never go out.] This circumstance was so famous, that it was imitated by the Gentiles, who thought it ominous to have their sacred fire go out; and therefore appointed persons to watch and keep it perpetually burning. The great business of the vestal virgins at Rome was to look after what was called the eternal fire; imagining that the extinction of it purported the destruction of the city. The Greeks also preserved an inextinguishable fire at Delphi; so did the Persians, and many other people. See Bochart Hieroz. p. i. lib. 2. cap. 35. and Oriental Customs, No. 51. the Persians took great care to preserve a continual fire. 2. Curtius, giving an account of the march of Darius's army, says, the fire which they called eternal was carried before them on silver altars; the Magi came after it, singing hymns after the Persian manner; and three hundred and sixty-five youths clothed in scarlet followed, according to the number of the days in the year. No. 704.-vii. 8. The priest shall have to himself the skin of the burnt-offering which he hath offered.] It is probable that Adam himself offered the first sacrifice, and had the skin given him by God, to make garments for himself and his wife. In conformity to this, the priests ever after had the skin of the whole burnt-offerings for their portion. This was a custom amongst the Gentiles, who gave the skins of their sacrifices to their priests; by whom they were employed to a superstitious use, by laying upon them in their temples, hoping to have future things revealed to them in their dreams. This Dilherrus hath observed from Virgil: Huc dona sacerdos Quum tulit, et cæsarum ovium sub nocte silenti En. vii. 1. 86. "Hither when the priest had brought offerings, and in the deep silence of night laid him down on the outspread skins of the victims slain, and disposed himself to sleep, he sees many visionary forms fluttering about in wondrous ways, hears various sounds, and enjoys interviews with the gods." We find the priests of Hercules pellibus in morem cincti (Virg. Æn. viii. 282.) clad in skins after their manner, and in Lucian (de Dea Syr. tom. ii. p. 913. edit. Bened.) we meet with a remarkable rite, of the offerer himself squatting on his knees, upon the skin of the sacrificed sheep, and putting the head and feet of the victim upon his own head. No. 705.-vii. 15, 16. And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace-offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is offered-on the morrow also the remainder of it shall be eaten.-] The longest time allowed for eating the flesh of any of the Mosaic sacrifices was the day after that on which they were killed; the eating of it on the third day is declared to be an abomination. This precept may be thought to have been unnecessary in so warm a climate; but we are to remember that the drying of meat is often practised in those hot countries: that it is sometimes done with flesh killed on a religious account; and that this probably was the cause of the prohibition. The Mahometans who go in pilgrimage to Mecca are required to sacrifice sheep; part of which they eat; part they give to their friends, and part they dry for use at other times. HARMER, vol. iii. p. 157. No. 706-xi. 2. These are the beasts which ye shall eat.] The directions given by Moses in this chapter respecting clean and unclean beasts have a remarkable parallel in the laws of Menu. He forbids the brahmins. eating the milk of a camel, or any quadruped with the hoof not cloven. He orders to be shunned, quadrupeds with uncloven hoofs; carnivorous birds, such as live in towns; birds that strike with their beaks; webfooted birds: those which wound with strong talons; those which dive to devour fish; all amphibious fisheaters; also tame hogs, and fish of every sort. There are a variety of other circumstantial prohibitions, connected with those already cited, of a nature very similar to this specimen. No. 707.-xi. 33. And every earthen vessel where, into any of them falleth, whatsoever is in it shall be unclean, and ye shall break it.] The regard which the Jews pay to ceremonial purity is very great. The minutest attention is given by them to the vessels which are used in domestic economy, that they may avoid pollution. Leo of Modena informs us (page 8.) that "the vessels wherewith they dress their meat and serve it must all be bought new. They presume that some forbidden meats may have been dressed or put into them, and the fume may have pierced into the very substance of the vessel. If it be of metal or stone which cannot receive vapours, they make use of it, first putting it into the fire, or seething it in water. This they do from the prohibition of eating divers kinds of meats." No. 708.-xv. 13. And bathe his flesh in running water.] The difference between bathing in ordinary and in running water is here strongly marked, by a positive command in favour of the latter. This circumstance was not peculiar to the Jewish ritual, but is to be met with in the Mahometan law, and in the Indian religion. In the Indies it is a most meritorious act to pray to God in the running stream. Bernier's Travels, vol. ii. No. 709.-xv. 17. Every skin.] The same caution that has engaged the eastern people that tend cattle not to sleep in the open air, but to make use of tents, induces them not to sit or lie in their tents on the moist ground, but to make use of some kind of carpeting. The poorer sort of Arabs make use of mats, but others of goat-skins for this purpose. Dr. Chandler says (Trav. in Greece, p. 103.) that he saw some dervishes at Athens sitting on goat-skins: and that he was afterwards conducted into a room, furnished in like manner with the same kind of carpeting, where he was treated with a pipe and coffee by the chief dervish. Skins of goats, as well as sheep and bullocks, must have been among them very valuable things, and as such the priest that offered any burnt-offering was to have its skin. HARMER, vol. iii. p. 68. No. 710.-xvi. 8. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats, one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scape-goat.] The manner in which these lots were cast does not appear in scripture; but if we may credit the rabbies, there was an urn brought to the high priest, into which he threw two wooden lots, on one of which was written, for the Lord; on the other azazel, the word which we render the scape-goat. After he had shaken them, he put both his hands into the urn, and brought up the lots, one in each hand; and as the goats stood, one on each side of him, their fate was determined by the lot that came up in the hand next to them. If the right hand brought up the lot for the Lord, they regarded it as a good omen. If the left hand brought up that lot, they accounted it as a bad omen, and an indication that God was not pacified. JENNINGS's Jewish Ant. vol. ii. p. 267. No. 711.-xvi. 14. Seven.] The number seven was highly regarded, and thought of great efficacy in religious actions, not only by the Jews, but by the heathens. Apuleius says, Desirous of purifying myself, I wash in the sea, and dip my head seven times in the waves, the divine Pythagoras having taught, that this number is above all others most proper in the concerns of religion. (de Asino aureo, lib. xi.) Very frequent instances of the recurrence of this number are to be found in the scriptures. No. 712.-xviii. 21. Thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Moloch.] We have a particular description of this idol in the commentary of Rabbi Simeon upon Jer. vii. he says, "all the houses of idols were in the city of Jerusalem, except that of Moloch, which was out of the city in a separate place. It was a statue with a head of an ox, and the hands stretched out as a man's, who opens his hand to receive something from another. It was hollow within, and there were seven chapels raised, before which the idol was erected. He that offered a fowl or a young pigeon went into the first chapel; if he offered a sheep or a |