comes a boy, with a hoe or mattock, to complete the preparation of the soil, by breaking the clods and removing weeds. On this rough tillage there generally follows an abundant harvest. Dung is for the most part used only for producing what we should term hot-bed plants, such as artichokes, melons, &c. The ordinary grains are wheat and barley, which, in favourable spots, are of a very large and fine kind. The stalks grow, in such places, to so great a height, as to hide a man on horseback. Harvest is a season, as of abundance so of hilarity. Song lightens the labour-song, led by a single voice, the burden of which is repeated in chorus. The work of mowing is speedily despatched. The corn being conveyed to the granary, the grain is obtained by treading on the stalks, when the chaff is separated from the wheat by being shaken with a fork, and tossed about till it is quite pure. If requisite, a sieve is also employed. The meal is got by grinding, which is done in handmills by women and slaves, when they have first removed any small stones, or bits of earth, that may remain. The straw is used as fodder for oxen and horses.

In the earliest mode of life presented in the Bible, we find agriculture and the care of cattle the sole business. Adam's children, Abel and Cain, are the originators and representatives of these two pursuits (Gen. iv. 2). The care of cattle is in the hands of the favourite son, Abel; agriculture is prosecuted by Cain, who fell under God's displeasure. This representation is in entire keeping with the habits of nomad life which the primeval race pursued, and with what reason and analogy would lead us to expect. It may safely be assumed, that food was procured in the easiest way. Primarily, this way was to use the spontaneous productions of nature, whether offered in the vegetable or the animal world; but, as soon as some specific care became necessary, the keeping of flocks and herds was clearly the most obvious and the least costly mode of procuring subsistence. Agriculture, even in the East, is a comparatively laborious process, and one that does not afford the needful supply of food till after much delay and various manipulations. The agricultural is an advanced state of civilisation, and could have been reached only by slow degrees, which would be retarded the rather because the business of working the ground is little in unison with the Arab's love of ease, liberty, and independence. Accordingly, in the patriarchal age, the care of cattle held the predominance, and that to such an extent, that famine, even in so naturally productive a land as Canaan, was repeatedly endured. In progress of time, men began to feel that agriculture was the only sure source of sustenance; and, in Egypt, the Israelites received important lessons in the successful tillage of the soil.

Moses, accordingly, with characteristic wisdom, because he knew that a nomad could not be a highly civilised people, and because his people were now prepared for the civilised and civilising pursuits of agriculture, also because he was aware that these pursuits alone could furnish a constant supply of food, bound up agriculture with the civil and religious institutions of his nation. Yet the shepherd's life always held a high rank in the estimation and the practice of the Hebrews; and, in truth, Palestine afforded great facilities, as much for the one as for the other mode of existence (Prov. xxvii. 23—27),

While the reflex influence of later times is probably to be seen in Gen. ii. 15, and while, as we have intimated, the patriarchs were nomad chiefs, yet they were by no means unacquainted with agriculture (Gen. xxvi. 12; xxxvii. 7); a fact which might have been safely inferred from the comparatively high degree of culture which their history displays. But agriculture did not receive full attention till Moses came, and provided each Hebrew with his own estate, which was to be for ever inalienable (Lev. xxv. 10, seq. 23. Numb. xxvi. 53; xxxiii. 54). This division of the land, as it is the only just and safe one, so is it the only one that rests on divine authority. A state having such an arrangement for its basis, could not permit its members to fall into a condition of permanent slavery; and the extreme of poverty, as well as the destructive evils of pauperism, were to a great extent unknown.

The choice of an agricultural constitution, on the part of Moses, had also this advantage, that it effectually served one great instrumental purpose which he had in view; namely, the severing of his people from the idolatrous nations into the midst of whom they were going, and by whom they would unavoidably, and for many ages, be surrounded. The country, too, was eminently fitted to give scope and opportunity to the resources of agriculture. Its position on the globe is such as to secure a full supply of heat, while the proximity of the Mediterranean Sea tends to mitigate its fervours. Lebanon covered the land from the cold winds of the north. Other hills gave shelter, and formed warm vales; while they themselves afforded pasturage for cattle, and, by means of terraces, soil for culture under different degrees of heat. A large river runs through the length of the land, and is fed by many tributary streams; other rivulets cut Palestine from east to west, flowing from the hills into the Mediterranean. The rocky (limestone) nature of the land gave an abundance of fountains and brooks. The dewa are heavy. Rain falls plentifully in the opening and in the decline of the year. All these advantages contributed to make Isaac's wish a reality: -' God give thee of the dew

cummin, garlic and cucumbers, were grown. Seeds of divers kinds might not be sown together (Deut. xxii. 9). The produce was so abundant that Palestine became an exporting country. Solomon bought timber of his friend Hiram, with twenty thousand measures of wheat for food, and twenty measures of pure oil, year by year (1 Kings v. 11. Ezek. xxvii. 17). For the winter, fruit sowing took place, a short time after the autumnal equinox, in October and November, when the early rains had moistened and prepared the soil; sowing for the summer fruit took place in January, but mostly in February, when the spring began. The harvest had its commencement in April. These customs still remain substantially the same. Our Lord intimates that the produce was sometimes so much as a hundred fold (Matt. xiii. 23), which is confirmed by other passages. Isaac received a hundred fold (Gen. xxvi. 12). As the Babylonians, the Israelites seem to have sown their seed in furrows or lines, wide apart, which would give full scope to the productiveness of the separate seeds. Agriculture was patronised and furthered by the laws which related to possession, the year of jubilee, landmarks, &c. Nor could there be any great disadvantage to the cultivator in the laws which gave privileges to the poor, such as plucking ears on passing through a field of corn, and the rights of gleaning, in a country which was so prolific, and in which, at least at the first, there were so few poor, who could also easily obtain employment at harvest season.

AGRIPPA (G. born with difficulty) was a son of Herod Agrippa I. 'Herod the king' of Acts xii. 1 and 23, on which account he was called Herod the Younger or II. He was the last king of Judea, and lived till after the destruction of Jerusalem. In Acts xxv. 13, it is this prince who comes with Bernice to Cæsarea, to salute Festus; in xxvi. gives Paul a hearing; in ver. 28, declares,' Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian;' and, ver. 31, 32, adds, This man doeth nothing worthy of death or bonds: he might have been set at liberty, if he had not appealed unto Cæsar.'

Agrippa was not more than seventeen years of age when his father and predecessor died; and it was only after a time, and by degrees, that he was permitted by the Romans to become king. He laboured to adorn Jerusalem and other cities. In consequence of his conduct, particularly of his arbitrarily appointing and deposing high priests, he was not esteemed by the Jews. When the last war against the Romans broke out, he took part with the enemies of his country. He died in the seventieth year of his age, the fifty-first of his reign, and the third year of the Emperor Trajan.

Was it in a mocking or a serious mood that Agrippa said to Paul,—'Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian'? Unbelief,

feeling that this confession was a signal tes timony to the gospel, has tried to make the words appear to be ironical. If this be so, the fact is a discredit to Agrippa, and to Heathenism. The occasion did not excuse, much less justify, a spirit of levity or scorn. The evidence, however, of one who was present decides adversely to this supposition; for Paul himself, as appears by his answer, most clearly took the words of the monarch as spoken seriously. Nor can any one who has studied the writings and character of Paul, feel any wonder, that powers such as his should have struck and shaken Agrippa's heart, and inclined him, at least momentarily, in favour even of the cause of one who stood accused before him. Such is the majesty of religion, when pure and undefiled. No durable effect, however, was to be expected. Near him sat Bernice, his sister, with whom he is suspected of having had an incestuous connection. The Heathenism in whose lap, at the court of Claudius, Agrippa had been educated, treated the whole affair as a piece of fanaticism, by the mouth of the Roman Festus; and taking counsel of these persons, and yielding to these influences, Agrippa sank back into congenial indifference, gave his heart to its old flatteries, and left the court a friend of Festus, a paramour of Bernice, and a slave of the world. How many other almost Christians have fallen in a similar manner!

There is no reason to wonder, that, under such a prince, and in the corrupt and degenerate state of the public character, Judea was finally vanquished by the Romans. Agrippa II. found the greater part of the country in their possession, under procurators. Of these there were the following in the time of Agrippa; namely, C. Fadus, T. Alexander, Cumanus, Felix, Festus, Albinus, and lastly, G. Florus; nearly all of whom came into conflict with the Jews, whose risings became more and more frequent, which the Roman power and party had difficulty to suppress. Armed bands made the hills into strong holds, and, as was convenient, infested the lower country. At last, the Romans seem to have provoked an insurrection. Florus purposely outraged the national feelings, and the fatal war commenced. Even the moderate party, with the high priest Ananias at their head, declared in favour of opposition to the common enemy; and a regular war was undertaken, with a view to obtain national independence. But soon the zealots gained the upper hand, when extravagance, disunion, and disorder, prevailed on the part of the Jews, till, at length, Jerusalem was taken, and the conquest completed, after a million of Israelites had been sacrificed, as much owing to internal dissension and consequent weakness, as to the skill and courage of the victors.

AGUE (L. to drive, shake) is connected in the English Bible with the term burning

— 'the burning ague' (Lev. xxvi. 16). There is no separate word in the Hebrew for burning, the noun rendered ague denotes to burn; and in a passage of similar import in Deut. xxviii. 22, the same word is translated simply 'fever. This rendering is the more correct; for the original does not refer to the cold fits which are connected with intermittent fever, and give it popularly the name of ague, but to the fiery and wasting heat of such a fever as the typhus (from the Greek, to burn), with the root meaning of which our present Hebrew word is intimately allied. The description given of this burning ague' shows its nature that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart.'

AGUR (H. a collector), son of Jakeh, who spoke the words of the prophecy found in Prov. XXX.

Jerome held that Agur was a symbolical name for Solomon: but that monarch is described as the son of David; Agur, as the son of Jakeh.

AHAB (H. father's brother. A.M. 4641; A.C. 907; V.918), seventh king of Israel, son of Omri, reigned twenty-one years (918 -897). He did evil above all that were before him; took to wife Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him; he reared an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria, and made a grove for the idolatrous worship (1 Kings Avi 29-33). He oppressed the prophets of Jehovah, and supported four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and four hundred prophets of the grove, all of whom ate at the queen's table (1 Kings xviii. 4, 19). He was punished for his idolatry with a sore famine (1 Kings xvii. 1; xviii. 2); and was wroth against Elijah, who had foretold the punish ment (1 Kings xviii. 17). He made war with Benhadad, king of Syria, in three campaigns: in the first and second, which were defensive, he was successful; in the third, which was offensive, he was defeated and slain (1 Kings x-xxii.). He had caused Naboth to be put to death, because he refused to let him have his vineyard; for which crime Elijah prophesied against him-'In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thy blood.' He repented: the threatened evil was in consequence postponed (xxi.). He was misled by four hundred false prophets, in opposition to the counsel of Micaiah, to engage in the war, which led to his death at Eamoth-gilead. He was buried at Samaria, * and one washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood; and they washed his armour' (xxii. 38). His seventy sons, with Jezebel his wife, were all destroyed (2 Kings ix. x.).

Evil in this world is never found to stand alone: its presence, always under the wise and benign providence of God, calls its opposite, good, into active energy. So Ahab

and Jezebel are the occasion of our knowledge of the sublime virtues of Elijah. And if the perusal of the misdeeds of the former is offensive and painful, not less decidedly instructive and elevating is the study of the noble features of character displayed by the latter (1 Kings xix.—xxi.). The episode of Naboth's vineyard (xxi.) is one of those instances of striking and impressive reality, which assure us, while reading the Bible, that we have before us a transcript from actual life-passages whose truth an impartial reader can no more doubt, than he can doubt the sincerity of his infant's smile, or a tried friend's trustworthiness.

In

Ahab's vices are those of weakness. himself incapable of good, and unable to do well, he was led by his wicked and idolatrous wife, and presents to all ages a painful evidence, that weakness of character is nearly allied to baseness.

AHASUERUS, the title of several MedoPersian princes found in the Bible, which appears to be a general designation for such kings, applied to individuals, as Pharaoh and Agag, in the Old Testament; and Shah, Pasha, and Khan, among modern oriental nations. The name seems also to be an imperfect imitation of the Persian word, which is represented by the term Xerxes. Hebrew form of the name corresponds more nearly with the original Persian, whence it is taken. So far as can be ascertained, Ahasuerus denotes a wise or holy king.

The

In Dan. ix. 1, the person so named was the father of the Median Darius; in other words, Astyages, king of the Medes, and father of Cyaxares II. (Dan. v. 31).

The Ahasuerus mentioned in Esra iv. 6 is probably Cambyses, who reigned from the year 529 (A.C.), in all seven years and five months, and is described as of a severe and passionate temper.

The prince with whom Esther was connected (Esth. i. 1) is considered to be Xerxes (486-465,A.C.); whose known character well corresponds with the implications and narratives found in the book of Esther, in regard to Ahasuerus.

In the Apocrypha (Tob. xiv. 15), Nebuchadnezzar and Ahasuerus are mentioned as conquerors of Nineveh. Nabopolassar and Cyaxares are intended.

AHAZ (H. one that takes and plunders. A.M. 4811; A.C. 737; V. 742), twelfth king of Judah, was son of Jotham. He was twenty years old when he began to reign. He reigned sixteen years. He diverged from the way of David to idolatry, walking in the way of the kings of Israel; he even made his children to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the Heathen, and sacrificed and burnt incense on the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree. Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came

and besieged him in Jerusalem; on which Ahaz applied for help to Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, sending to him at the same time, as a present, the silver and gold that was found in the house of Jehovah, and in the treasures of the king's house. The king of Assyria complied, went to Damascus, took it, carried the people captive to Kir, and slew Rezin. After this, Ahaz paid a visit to Damascus; and, finding there an altar that pleased him by its magnificence, he sent a pattern of it to Urijah the priest, who built one after this pattern, in Jerusalem. On returning home, Ahaz offered his offerings on the new altar; and, having removed the old brazen altar, he commanded that in future the usual sacrifices should be made on that which owed its existence to himself (2 Kings xvi.; comp. xx. 11. Isa. vii.; xxxviii. 8). His innovations, which did not stop with this affectation of splendour, were of a nature to prove that his heart was alienated from God, and given to the idolatry of the senses. He had one refuge, and to that he did once apply. Having consulted the prophet Isaiah, he was assured that God did not intend to allow the house of David to become extinct, and that the enemies of Judah would shortly find in the king of Assyria an adversary whom they could not withstand. As an assurance of this succour, there was a sign given him, namely, the birth of a son of the prophet (Isa. viii. 3); and it was foretold, that, before the child should have knowledge to cry my father, and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria should be taken away before the king of Assyria. But Ahaz had not the moral qualities needful to enable him to profit by the timely succour. He became hopelessly corrupt, even sacrificing to the gods of Damascus that smote him, saying, Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, will I sacrifice to them, that they may help me' (2 Chron. xxviii. 23). Neither good nor ill fortune availed to bring him to repentance. At last he went to such a pitch of wickedness as to set up idolatry in its most revolting shapes, in every city and town of his dominions. His name became odious; and, dying in universal contempt, he was not honoured with a burial in the royal sepulchres. The night ushers in the day: the wicked Ahaz was succeeded by his son, the wise and pious Hezekiah.

To Ahaz belongs the unenviable distinction of being the worst king that ever occupied the throne of Judah; and his history affords a striking proof that sin and wretchedness are yoke-fellows in human life (1 Chron. iii. 13. 2 Chron.xxviii. xxix. 2 Kings xvi. Isa. vii. viii. ix.; xxxviii. 8).

AHAZIAH (H. the Lord's possessor. A.M. 4000; A.C.888; V. 897), the eighth king of Israel, son and follower of the idolatrous Ahab, and Jezebel. He walked in the way of

his father, and in the way of his mother, serving Baal. Having fallen down through a lattice in his upper chamber, in Samaria, and endangered his life, he sent to inquire of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron, whether he would recover; for which he was told by Elijah that he should die. Two troops of fifty men with their commanders, sent by the king to seize Elijah, perished. A third company was spared, and to them Elijah repeated the threat. So the king died, according to the word of Jehovah, which Elijah had spoken.' He joined with Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, in a plan for equipping a fleet at Ezion-gaber, to carry on trade on the Red Sea, the failure of which is ascribed to Ahaziah's taking a part therein (1 Kings xxii. 49, seq. 2 Chron. xx. 35, seq.). In this king's reign, the tributary Moabites set themselves free (2 Kings i.).

There was another person of this name, sixth king of Judah (A.M. 4672; A.C. 876; V. 885). He was the son and successor of Jehoram. Two-and-twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign. His mother's name was Athaliah, daughter of Ahab, granddaughter of Omri, king of Israel. Being 'son-in-law of the house of Ahab,' he pursued the idolatrous practices of that samily. The corresponding passage in 2 Chron. xxii. 3, adds, 'his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly.' He joined his relative Joram, king of Israel, in war against Hazael, king of Syria. The battle was fought at Ramoth-gilead, and Joram was defeated. Ahaziah, going to see Joram when he lay in Jezreel ill of the wounds which he had received, was involved in his fate, being put to death by Jehu's command (2 Kings viii. 25, seq. 2 Chron. xxii.).

AHIEZER (H. brother of help), captain of the children of Dan, in the time of Moses, who is distinguished for the liberality of his contributions on occasion of the consecration of the tabernacle in the wilderness (Numb.i. 12; ii. 25; vii. 66).

AHIJAH (H. brother of the Lord), a prophet of Shilo (a city in Ephraim), hence called the Shilonite, in the days of Solomon. Meeting with Jeroboam alone in a field, he seized a new robe, with which he had clad himself, and, tearing it in twelve pieces, gave Jeroboam ten; signifying thereby, that God had, after a similar manner, rent the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, in consequence of idolatry, and given ten of the tribes to Jeroboam (1 Kings. xi. 26, seq.). He also announced condign punishment against that prince himself, when he, too, gave his heart to idolatry. (1 Kings xiv.). Little in detail is known of Ahijah, except that he was blind in his old age; but his affliction had not subdued his spirit, which appears to have been worthy and fit for the high office which he had to fulfil. The prophecy of Ahijah' mentioned with the visions of Iddo the seer,' in 2 Chron. ix. 29, is not extant-a fact