the children of Moab, &c. Indeed all these people were still distinct: they knew their own origin, and took a pride in preserving the name of their author. Thence probably it comes that the name of children signified, with the ancients, a nation, or certain sort of people. Homer often says, the children of the Greeks, and the children of the Trojans. The Greeks used to say, the children of the physicians and grammarians. With the Hebrews, the children of the East, are the eastern people; the children of Belial, the wicked; the children of man, or Adam, mankind. In the gospel we often see, the children of this world; of darkness; and of light; and also, the children of the bridegroom, for those who go along with him to the wedding. FLEURY'S Hist. of Israelites, p. 18. No. 662.-EXODUS i. 16. And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives,When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them on the stools, if it be a son, then ye shall kill him ; but if it be a daughter, then she shall live. To understand the word stools as referring to the women to be delivered involves the passage in perplexity: but if it be interpreted of those troughs or vessels of stone, in which new born children were placed for the purpose of being washed, it is perfectly clear and intelligible. This custom in relation to children is justified by eastern usages; and such a destruction of boys is actually practised in the courts of eastern monarchs. Thevenot (part ii. p. 98.) hints at both these principles. He says that "the kings of Persia are so afraid of being deprived of that power which they abuse, and are so apprehensive of being dethroned, that they destroy the children of their female relations, when they are brought to bed of boys, by putting them into an earthen trough, where they suffer them to starve." No. 663.-ii. 5. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river.] The people of Egypt, and particularly the females of that country, express their veneration for the benefits received from the Nile, by plunging into it at the time of its beginning to overflow the country. Is it not probable that when the daughter of Pharaoh went into that river, it was in conformity with that idolatrous practice? Irwin (Travels, p. 229, 259.) relates, that looking out of his window in the night, he saw a band of damsels proceeding to the river side with singing and dancing, and that the object of their going thither was to witness the first visible rise of the Nile, and to bathe in it. HARMER, vol. iv. p. 279. No. 664.—iii. 2. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire.] The traditionary notion of a miraculous light or fire being the token of a divine presence, prevailed among the Greeks in the time of Homer: for, after relating that the goddess Minerva attended on Ulysses with her golden lamp, or rather torch, and afforded him a refulgent light, he makes Telemachu cry out to his father in rapture. Ω πατερ, η μεγα θαυμα τοδ' οφθαλμοισιν ορωμαι, &c. What miracle thus dazzles with surprise? Odyss. xixe The walls, where'er my wondering sight I turn, Some visitant of pure ethereal race With his bright presence deigns the dome to grace, POPE. No. 665.-iv. 25. A bloody husband art thou to me.] The learned Joseph Mede (Diss. xiv. p. 52.) has given to these words of Zipporah the following singular interpretation. He says that it was a custom among the Jews to name the child that was circumcised by a Hebrew word, signifying a husband. He builds his opinion upon the testimony of some rabbins. He apprehends that she applied to the child, and not to Moses, as most interpreters think, the words above mentioned. Chaton, which is the term in the original, is never used to denote the relation between husband and wife, but that which is between a man and the father or mother of the person to whom he is married: it signifies a son in law, and not a husband. A person thus related is a son initiated into a family by alliance. It is in this view of initiated, that Zipporah says to her son, a bloody husband art thou to me; that is to say, it is I who have initiated thee into the church by the bloody sacrament of circumcision. He endeavours to justify his criticism upon the word Chaton by the idea which the Arabians affix to the verb, from whence this noun is derived. The Chaldee Paraphrast also annexes the same notion to the words of Zipporah. SAURIN (Diss. on O. T. vol. i. p. 371.) does not seem altogether satisfied with this interpretation of· the passage: whether it be just or not must be left to the decision of the learned reader. No. 666.—v. 7. Straw to make brick.] Whether this were given and used, to mix with the clay, as is done in some places, that the bricks made thereof might be firmer and stronger; or to burn them with in the furnaces: or to cover them from the heat of the sun, that they might not dry too soon and crack, is not easy to determine. It is said that the unburnt bricks of Egypt formerly were, and still are, made of clay mixed with straw. The Egyptian pyramid of unburnt brick, Dr. Pococke (Observations on Egypt, p. 53.) says, seems to be made of the earth brought by the Nile, being a sandy black earth, with some pebbles and shells in it: it is mixed up with chopped straw, in order to bind the clay together. The Chinese have great occasion for straw in making bricks, as they put thin layers of straw between them, without which they would, as they dried, run or adhere together. Macartney's Emb. p. 269. No. 667.—vii. 18. The Egyptians shall loath to drink of the water of the river.] A peculiar energy will be discovered in these words, if what the abbot Mascrier has said (Lett. i. p. 15.) of the water of the Nile be at tended to. "The water of Egypt is so delicious that one would not wish the heat should be less, nor to be delivered from the sensation of thirst. The Turks find it so exquisitely charming, that they excite themselves to drink of it by eating salt. It is a common saying among them, that if Mahomet had drank of it, he would have begged of God not to have died, that he might always have done it." HARMER, vol. ii. p. 295. No. 668.-x. 26. There shall not a hoof be left behind.] Bp. Patrick observes, that this was a proverbial speech in the eastern countries; similar to a saying amongst the Arabians, which was first used about horses, and afterwards transferred to other thingspresent money even to a hoof, that is, they would not part with a horse, or any other commodity, till the buyer had laid down the price of it to a farthing. No. 669.-xii. 3. In the tenth day of this month they shall take to themselves every man a lamb; ver. 6. and ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month.] From hence it appears that the lamb was to be taken from the flock four days before it was killed. For this the rabbies assign the following reasons: that the providing of it might not, through a hurry of business, especially at the time of their departure from Egypt, be neglected till it was too late: that by having it so long with them before it was killed, they might have the better opportunity of observing whether there were any blemishes in it; and by having it before their eyes so considerable a time, might be more effectually reminded of the mercy of their deliverance out of Egypt; and, likewise to prepare them for so great a solemnity as the approaching feast. On these accounts some of the rabbies inform us it was customary to have the lamb tied these four days to their bed-posts: a rite which |