verfions, Matt. xi. 16. They were then, it feems, the common places for diverfion and amusement, ufed by old and young: by the aged for converfation', by the young for piping and dancing. 2. They held their markets in their gates, it fhould feem, anciently, from what is faid 2 Kings vii. 1, 18, where we read that a measure of fine flour was to be fold for a fhekel, and two measures of barley for a fhekel, in the gate of Samaria. It doth not appear why the gate fhould be mentioned, if it was not confidered as the public market, where the fpoils of the Syrians were to be fold. In their gates then, or in a void space at the entrance of their gates, fee 1 Kings xxii. 10, they held their markets and their courts of judicature both; as afterwards, it fhould feem, when their gates were not used for these purposes, the fame place that ferved for 5 The fuppofed fcene of the firft affembly, or moral difcourse, of the exquifite Arabian writer Hariri, entitled Sananenfis, feems to have been fuch an open and public place, It should not then have been represented, I apprehend, as it is by the learned Chappelow, in the preface to his tranflation, as "the fubject of a friendly fociety at Sanaa, in "Arabia Felix." It appears from the manner of his withdrawment, p. 7, that the orator was fuppofed to be unknown, and that it was to be understood to be an occafional difcourfe, pronounced by a Dervise, an Eastern religious beggar, who had gathered a great number of people about him, in fome market, or fome fuch open place, preaching to them there the precepts of religion. We meet with accounts in travellers of fuch public difcourses of their Religious. the the one was made use of for the other, Acts xvi. 19. People then might fit in the gate anciently for conversation and diverfion, as they do now, among the Arabs, in markets and fairs. It seems most natural to interpret Lot's fitting in the gate, Gen. xix. 1, after this manner. Certainly he did not fit there as a magistrate, for had that been his character, they could not have reproached him, though a stranger, with fetting up to be a judge, ver. 9; nor can we imagine he fat there purposely to invite all ftrangers to his house, that would have been carrying his hofpitality to an excess, it being enough for one in private life to receive fuch as came in his way: he seems then to have placed himself there for amusement and fociety. Pf. Ixix. 12. may be interpreted either way-Men of rank and influence in life fpeak against me; or, the children of my people, in their leifure hours, when they affemble in the gate for conversation, Speak against me, and I am the fong of the drunkard. If we fuppofe the Jews were wont to have moral and wife difcourfes in their gates, as the Arabs are supposed by Hariri to have had in public places, and as the Athenian Philofophers are fuppofed by St. Luke to have held in their markets, Acts xvii. 17, 18, there will appear a much greater energy in those words of Solomon, than is commonly apprehended, Prov. i. 20, 21, Wif"dom crieth without, fhe uttereth her voice in the Streets: fhe crieth in the chief place "of concourfe, in the opening of the gates," &c; and again, ch. viii. 3, "She crieth at "the gates, at the entry of the city," &c. The fynagogues were, in later times, the places for Jewish inftruction; but are we sure there were fynagogues in the days of Solomon? OBSERVATION LXXII. Nothing is more common, in the East, than the comparing princes to lions, or better known to thofe that are acquainted with their writings; but the comparing them to crocodiles, if poffeffed of naval power, or strong by a watery fituation, has hardly ever been mentioned. D'Herbelot, however, cites' an Eaftern Poet, who celebrating the prowess of Gelaleddin, furnamed Mankberni, and Khovarezme Schach, a moft valiant Perfian Prince, faid, "He was dreadful as a lion in the field, and not lefs terrible in the water " than a crocodile." The power of the ancient Kings of Ægypt feems to be reprefented after the fame manner, by the Prophet Ezekiel, ch. xxix. 3, "Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh King of Egypt, the great dragon, (the great "crocodile, that lieth in the midft of his rivers, which hath faid, My river is mine own, and I have made it myself." In 66 his xxxiid chapter 2d verfe, the fame Prophet makes ufe of both the fimiles, I think, of the panegyrift of Gelaleddin: "Take up a lamentation for Pharaoh King of Ægypt, and say unto him, Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art as "a whale (a crocodile) in the feas: and thou "cameft forth with (or from) thy rivers, "and troubledft the waters with thy feet, "and fouledft their rivers." It is very odd in our tranflators, to render the original word whale, and at the fame time talk of feet; nor indeed are rivers the abode of the whale, it's bulk is too great to admit of that: the term dragon, which is thrown into the margin, is the preferable version: which word in our language, as the Hebrew word in the original, is, I think, generic, and includes the feveral fpecies of oviparous quadrupeds, if not thofe of the ferpentine kind'. A crocodile is, without doubt, the creature the Prophet means; and the comparison feems to point out the puiffance of the Ægyptian Kings of antiquity, powerful by fea as well as by land. 2 A collation of the feveral paffages of the Old Testament, in which the word tranflated dragons occurs, confirms this defcription, but will not eafily allow us to fuppofe the jackall could ever be meant. See Dr. Shaw, p. 174, pote 2. THE EN D. |