the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born. 6¶ And when I passed by thee, and saw thee 'polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live. 7 I have 'caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to 'excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. 8 Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine. 9 Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil. 10 I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. 11 I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck. 12 And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. 13 Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. 14 And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD. 15¶ But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was. 16 And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so. 17 Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them. 18 And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them. 19 My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord GOD. 20 Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them 'to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, 21 That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them? 22 And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, and wast polluted in thy blood. 23 And it came to pass after all thy wickedness, (woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord GOD;) 24 That thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place, and hast made thee an high place in every street. 25 Thou hast built thy high place at every head of the way, and hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, and hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms. 26 Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to provoke me to anger. 27 Behold, therefore I have stretched out my hand over thee, and have diminished thine ordinary food, and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee, the "daughters of the Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way. 28 Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied. 29 Thou hast moreover multiplied thy fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea; and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith. 30 How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord GOD, seeing thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman; 3 Or, trodden under foot. • Heb. made thee a million. 5 Heb. ornament of ornaments, 8 Heb. a savour of rest. 9 Heb. to devour. 10 Or, brothel-house. Heb. bloods. 7 Heb. of a male. 11 Or, cities. 31 "In that thou buildest thine eminent place in the head of every way, and makest thine high place in every street; and hast not been as an harlot, in that thou scornest hire; 32 But as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband! 33 They give gifts to all whores: but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them, that they may come unto thee on every side for thy whoredom. 34 And the contrary is in thee from other women in thy whoredoms, whereas none followeth thee to commit whoredoms: and in that thou givest a reward, and no reward is given unto thee, therefore thou art contrary. 35¶Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD: 36 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thy abominations, and by the blood of thy children, which thou didst give unto them; 37 Behold, therefore I will gather all thy lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even gather them round about against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness. 38 And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy. 39 And I will also give thee into their hand, and they shall throw down thine eminent place, and shall break down thy high places they shall strip thee also of thy clothes, and shall take thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare. : 40 They shall also bring up a company against thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their swords. 41 And they shall "burn thine houses with fire, and execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women: and I will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot, and thou also shalt give no hire any more. 42 So will I make my fury toward thee to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry. 43 Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, but hast fretted me in all these things; behold, therefore I also will recompense thy way upon thine head, saith the Lord GOD: and thou shalt not commit this lewdness above all thine abominations. 44 ¶ Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying. As is the mother, so is her daughter. 45 Thou art thy mother's daughter, that lotheth her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, which lothed their husbands and their children: your mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite. 46 And thine elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand and "thy younger sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand, is Sodom and her daugh ters. 18, 47 Yet hast thou not walked after their ways, nor done after their abominations: but, as if that were a very little thing, thou wast corrupted more than they in all thy ways. 48 As I live, saith the Lord GOD, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters. 49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. 50 And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me therefore "I took them away as I saw good. 51 Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast done. 52 Thou also, which hast judged thy sisters, bear thine own shame for thy sins that thou hast committed more abominable than they: they are more righteous than thou: yea, be thou confounded also, and bear thy shame, in that thou hast justified thy sisters. 53 When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them : 14 Heb. with judgments of. 15 Heb. instruments of thine ornament. 17 Heb. lesser than thou. 18 Or, that was lothed as a small thing. 19 Gen. 19. 24. 54 That thou mayest bear thine own shame, and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a comfort unto them. 55 When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou and thy daughters shall return to your former estate. 56 For thy sister Sodom was not 20mentioned by thy mouth in the day of thy pride, 57 Before thy wickedness was discovered, as at the time of thy reproach of the daughters of "Syria, and all that are round about her, the daughters of the Philistines, which "despise thee round about. 58 Thou hast "borne thy lewdness and thine abominations, saith the LORD. 59 For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the cove nant. 60 Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant. 61 Then thou shalt remember thy ways, and be ashamed, when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy younger: and I will give them unto thee for "daughters, but not by thy covenant. 62 And I will establish my covenant with thee; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD: 63 That thou mayest remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord GOD. "Broidered Work." Verse 13.-Specimen of Ancient Egyptian Embroidery. 22 Heb. Aram. 23 Or, spoil. 24 Heb. bore them. 25 Galat. 4. 26. 20 Heb. for a report, or hearing. 81 Heb. prides, or excellencies. Verse 4. "Thou wast not salted at all."-The treatment of new-born children, mentioned in this verse, consists of various acts-some of which are physically necessary, and are universally practised, while others are matters of usage; examples of which may be found in some countries, and not in others. The passage is interesting, as showing what the customs of the ancient Hebrews were in this matter. According to R. Kimchi, all these acts were considered of such immediate necessity, that the traditions of the elders allowed them to be performed even on the sabbath-day. As to the salting, it is said to have been performed either by sprinkling the infant with salt. or by using salt and water. The custom was by no means confined to the Hebrews; it was in extensive use, and is still preserved, in some parts of the East. The salting was considered to dry up all superfluous humours, to purify the body, and prevent putrefaction. Galen recommends the sprinkling of a little salt upon the infant, to render its skin more dense and solid. 10. "Broidered work."-As we have on several occasions mentioned ancient and modern Oriental embroidery and embroidered dresses, we are now happy in affording the subject some pictorial illustration by adding two engravings. The first, from the ancient Egyptian paintings, shows a lady attired in one of those rich embroidered dresses to which the Scripture itself, on more than one occasion, alludes, and which have been mentioned by ourselves. The other engraving shows the manner in which kerchiefs and other small pieces are embroidered by the modern Egyptians, whose usages in this and many other respects are the same as those of south-western Asia in general. "Shod thee with badgers' skin."-See the note on Exod. xxv. 5. Most of the details enumerated in this description of a rich female dress, have already been considered under different texts of Scripture. See, in particular, "Slk."-This is the only chapter in which the word (WD meshi) occurs, which the generality of the Jewish Isa. iii. interpreters, and most modern translators, understand to denote silk. But to this it has been objected, that silk was not likely to have been known to the Jews, since the Romans were not acquainted with it till the time of Augustus; and since, if it was known to them, it will be necessary to suppose an intercourse with China, which has always been regarded as the native country of silk, and from which only it is probable that raw silk could be obtained. The obscurity of the ancient intimations does certainly involve the subject in great uncertainty. For as those from whom the western nations obtained their silk, made a great mystery of its origin and manufacture, the ancient writers give such intimations and explanations-made up of conjecture founded on some obscure hints which had, in the course of time, been collected that it might be at times doubtful whether they at all spoke of silk and the silk-worm, were it not that the later ancient writers, who lived when the article had become well known, continue to speak as obscurely as their predecessors about its origin. The question may be narrowed a little by the observation-that it is not necessary to suppose that the Hebrews of Palestine had any knowledge of silk as a material of dress. If silk be intended in the present instance, it proves nothing on this point; for Ezekiel had spent many years in captivity to the Babylonians, and the question evidently is only, whether silk was known to that people. Indeed. that the question should be strictly limited to this. seems evident from the fact, that the word does not occur in any portion of Scripture written in Palestine. In estimating this probability, we are to recollect that Ezekiel himself, in the ensuing chapter (verse 4), calls Babylonia "a land of traffic," and Babylon "a city of merchants." This passage forms the text of Heeren's inquiry into the commerce of the Babylonians, to which it makes a most interesting commentary. Babylon was in fact a great commercial city, forming the entrepôt for the commerce of the countries to the east and west, being, from the advantages of its intermediate situation, upon a great navigable river opening to the gulf of Persia, an immense caravanserai, in which character it has in later days been, on a more humble scale, represented by Bagdad. Babylon was itself a place of great demand and consumption for all the luxuries of far countries; and hence such luxuries were sought by its merchants, or brought to them by the great mercantile people of the time; and that these luxuries included goods obtained on the shores of India has already been intimated in the note on 2 Chron. xx. 36, to which we beg to refer the reader. It is quite true that silk does not occur in the list of the articles which was the object of the Indian trade; but that this list is very incomplete and unsatisfactory has been intimated in the note to which we refer. The country of silk, however, is not India, but China; the Indians them selves having been, down to a very modern date, supplied from that country. It is not, however, necessary to extend the voyages of the Babylonians, Phoenicians, or Ara ians to China, in order to bring them into a condition to obtai silk. It is sufficient to suppose that they got it from the Indians, who, not only from a very obvious probability, but from historical intimations, would appear to have traded with China, and to have partially arrayed themselves with its silks. As worn by them, it could not fail to attract the attention of the traders from Western Asia, who would desire to obtain it, and did obtain it at an enhanced price, from the Indians, and sold it at a price still more enhan dat Babylon. Indeed, the scarcity of silk even in Roman times, and the prodigious price which it brought (weig for weight with gold), seems to demonstrate that it had passed through several hands in its progress westward, and th the merchants did not immediately derive it from the country in which it was produced The conjectures would be of little positive worth were they supported by probabilities only. But, in fact, "Assyria" (under d of Babylonia in the large sense) was the source from which the Romans continued to derive their silk even in the time of Pliny; and this is always mentioned, previously, as the country from which silk was brought; although the nat ons of Eastern Europe were not ultimately unaware that it came from a more remote country, which they called Serica, concerning which they had many absurd ideas, but by which China appears to have been vaguely underVOL. III. T 137 stood. From this it will appear that the question as to the existence of silk in Babylonia is merely one of date, and although it may not be possible to find any positive statement to indicate its presence there at the time when Ezekiel wrote, there is every probability in favour of this conclusion; as, when we first find it in those intermediate countries, there is not the least intimation that it had there only newly become known; and we can come near enough to show, that, if it had not been newly introduced, it must have been known there in the time of Ezekiel. It is a remarkable fact, that the first persons who brought wrought silk into Europe were the Greeks of Alexander's army, which conquered the Persian empire, in which Babylon was then included. In other words, about 250 years after Ezekiel, silk is known to have been used in the dress of the Persians. Jahn even conjectures that the famous robe, which the Persians adopted from the Medes as a dress of honour, was of silk; and if so, as the luxury of the Medes was contemporary with that of the Babylonians, we should find silk on the frontiers of Babylonia even about the time of Ezekiel. Now, what was known to the Persians, and possibly to the Medes, was not likely to be unknown to the still more luxurious Babylonians, who moreover had access to the shores of the country where silk might be found; and should it be alleged that the Persians had greater facilities of obtaining silk by the land route from the frontiers of China, the effect will be the same, for we may be sure that the results of Persian, as well as of Arabian and Phoenician, commerce, found their way to the great mart of Babylon. As the Medes and Babylonians (or at least the latter) were luxurious and wealthy, and fond of rich dresses, it may well be supposed that they absorbed all the limited supply which reached them; and as the nations more west were less rich and of plainer manners, the merchants had no motive to carry the commodity to a more western market. This will show that silk may long have been in use in Babylonia before it was known in Europe and on the western shores of Asia. It is a remarkable circumstance that the silk came to the west manufactured in cloth half silk; and it is said the plan was devised of unravelling the stuff, which was rewoven into cloth of entire silk. The only proper silk manufactures that we can find to have existed in the west were those of the Phoenicians at Tyre and Berytus; which seems to show that the Phoenicians not only possessed the trade in silk but the process of manufacture, which they carefully kept secret. As the dress described in this chapter is intended to be of the richest materials, it might well be supposed that the prophet would mention silk, if silk were known to him. Silk continued to bear an astonishing high price down to 3 comparatively late period. Thus we find that silk was forbidden to be worn by men, under Tiberius. When they did wear it, silk formed only a part of the fabric, robes entirely of silk being left to the women. It is numbered among the most extravagant luxuries or effeminacies of Heliogabalus, that he was the first man who wore a robe of entire silk; and the anecdotes are well known of the emperor M. Antoninus, who caused a silk robe which had become his property to be sold: and of the Emperor Aurelian, who refused, on the ground of its extravagant cost, a silk dress which his consort earnestly requested from him. Such anecdotes have an emphasis here, where, by a figurative reference to the most rich and costly articles of dress then known, God describes the precious and glorious things with which he had invested the people he redeemed from the bondage and misery of Egypt. 12. "A jewel on thy forehead.”—This doubtless means a nose-jewel, as we have explained on former occasions. See the marginal reading. 13. "Thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil.”—This probably means that the honey and oil were mixed with the fine flour to make cakes. Such are still made in the East, and are much liked. It may be, however, that cakes of fine flour were dipped in the honey or oil, this being also an Oriental custom of eating. 26. "The Egyptians...great of flesh."-This certainly cannot mean that the Egyptians were a corpulent, full-fleshed people, as some commentators imagine. Their climate is not favourable to corpulency; and among the thousands of figures of ancient Egyptians which occur in the remaining paintings and sculptures, a corpulent person is almost never seen. They appear to have been a light and active race of people. The word (W bashar) “flesh" is here, and in one or two other places, used, by an euphemism, to intimate what could not be plainly expressed, in describing the sensual character of the Egyptians. CHAPTER XVII. 1 Under the parable of two eagles and a vine, 11 is 2 Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the house of Israel; 3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; A great eagle with great wings, long-winged, full of feathers, which had 'divers colours, came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar: 4 He cropped off the top of his young twigs, and carried it into a land of traffick; he set it in a city of merchants. 5 He took also of the seed of the land, and 'planted it in a fruitful field; he placed it by great waters, and set it as a willow tree. Heb. embroidering. 6 And it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and the roots there of were under him: so it became a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs. 7 There was also another great eagle with great wings and many feathers: and, behold, this vine did bend her roots toward him, and shot forth her branches toward him, that he might water it by the furrows of her plantation. 8 It was planted in a good soil by great waters, that it might bring forth branches, and that it might bear fruit, that it might be a goodly vine. 9 Say thou, Thus saith the Lord God; Shall it prosper? shall he not pull up the roots thereof, and cut off the fruit thereof, that it wither? it shall wither in all the leaves of her spring, even without great |