feasting and entertainment: and Abimelech departed from him in peace. And that very day. Isaac's servants came and told him they had dug and found water, "And he called it Sheba, therefore the name of the city is Beersheba * unto this day." THE CAPTIVE NATION. JUDAH is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude: she dwelleth among the heathen, and findeth no rest: the ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness. Thus wrote one of Judah's inspired prophets, in that most touching lament over a ruined city and a captive people. If such deep and piercing sorrow were called forth on account of desolation, which was to endure for only. seventy years, over a temple from whose ruins another should arise, though not in the glory and beauty of that former house, over the subjection of the nation for only that short period, what human language can give expression to the grief which must fill full the heart of every reflecting Israelite who loves his nation, and who regards its long captivity, of not seventy but of nearly eighteen hundred years, as the mark of the Divine displeasure? May we not almost imagine that we see written in every thoughtful Jewish countenance the question of their mourning prophet, "Is it nothing to you all ye that pass * 66 The well of the Oath." + Lamentations i. 3, 4. by?" and the appeal which follows, "Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger."* Well did their Heathen conqueror represent the sad state of ruined Judah, when he caused her to be pourtrayed as a mourning female weeping beneath the palm-tree, whilst her conqueror stood in triumph by. In the legend of that Roman medal "Judæa Capta," volumes are contained. Judæa capta! Is it nothing to you that she being desolate sitteth on the ground a captive, "weeping sore in the night, while her tears are on her cheeks: and among all her lovers she has none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they are become her enemies." + The compilers of the Liturgy at present used by the Jews, must have known something like the anguish of the prophet's soul, when they inserted in their various services, those beautiful and most affecting prayers for deliverance from captivity. In the service used daily in the synagogue some of these petitions are to be found. We believe our young friends will be much interested in reading them, and have therefore extracted those which follow. To show how great an emphasis there must have been in these prayers in former days, even in our own country, we have given some facts from the chronological record of the "Jewish Alma*Lamentations i. 12. + Ibid. i. 2. The form of daily prayers, according to the custom of the German and Polish Jews, as read in the synagogues and used in their families, carefully revised by Isaac L. Lyon, Professor and Teacher of the Hebrew Language. nack," for the years 5606 and 5607, according to the Jewish chronology. These years are the periods of time between October 2, 1845, and Sept. 20, 1846; and Sept. 21, 1846, and Sept. 10, 1847. The prayers which we extract are as follow: "O Lord God of Israel, turn from thy fierce wrath, and alter the evil decree concerning thy people." "O look down from heaven, and see how we are become a mockery and derision among the nations; and accounted as sheep led to the slaughter to be slain and destroyed, to be buffeted and reproached. "And yet, for all this, we have not forgotten thy name, we therefore beseech thee not to forget us. O Lord God, &c. "Strangers say, there is neither hope nor expectation for us; O be gracious unto the people who put their trust in thy name. O thou, who art a pure God, cause our salvation to draw nigh: for we are weary, and not permitted to rest; may thy tender mercy suppress thy wrath from us! "We beseech thee to turn from thy wrath, and compassionate the peculiar people which thou hast chosen. O Lord God, &c. "Have compassion on us, O Lord! in thine abundant mercy, and deliver us not into the power of the cruel ones; wherefore should the Gentiles mock, and say, Where is now their God? For thine own sake deal kindly by us, and delay not. "We beseech thee to turn from thy wrath, and compassionate the peculiar people which thou hast chosen. O Lord God, &c. "O hear our voice and be gracious unto us; and leave us not in the power of our enemies, that our name may not be extirpated; but remember what thou hast sworn to our ancestors, I will multiply your posterity as the stars of heaven! though we now remain but a few from many. "And yet for all this we have not forgotten thy name; we therefore beseech thee not to forget us, O Lord God, &c. "Help us, O God of our salvation! for the sake of thy glorious name. "O deliver us, and pardon our sins, for thy name's sake. "O Lord God of Israel, turn from thy fierce wrath, and alter the evil decree concerning thy. people." Even to this day in many lands is captive Judah oppressed and afflicted. We should thank God that English Christians, and true Christians everywhere, learn to pity and to pray for the "afflicted people." But it was not always thus in our native land. The Jews have constantly before them, in their almanacks as well as in history, records which remind them of a period when our forefathers could oppress and most cruelly illtreat their nation. In the "Almanack referred to above, we read 92 In 1170 Henry III. ordered the Jews to quit England, but they were permitted to remain by paying 5,000 marks. 1189 Massacre of the Jews at the coronation of Richard I. 1190 Massacre of the Jews at Norwich. 1210 King John ordered all the Jews in England to be imprisoned until they made a discovery of their property; he extorted from them 60,000 marks. One at Bristol had a tooth ex tracted daily till he paid 10,000 marks. 1220 The Jews compelled to pay one-third of their moveables into the Exchequer. Their magnificent synagogue in London was taken from them and converted into a church. 1232 Henry III. extorted 18,000 marks from the Jews. -1235 The Jews at Norwich were accused of crucifying a boy. The populace burnt their houses. 1237 Henry III. extorted 10,000 marks from the Jews. 1242 Henry III. summoned a Jewish Parliament, and compelled them to raise for him 10,000 marks at Midsummer, and 10,000 at Michaelmas. 1245 Four thousand marks again extorted by Henry III. 1262 Seven hundred Jews were massacred in London. 1264 The Jews in London were plundered. 1272 Two hundred and eighty Jews were executed, having been falsely accused of clipping the coin. 1287 The Jews imprisoned throughout England. 1290 Edward I. banished the Jews from England on pain of death. Sixteen thousand quitted in one day, the 9th of October. We have given the above extracts from a Jewish chronological record, published in their almanacks. What a terrible register to look back upon! The perpetrators of these cruelties were called Christians! ..In 1235 the Jews at Norwich had their houses |
