holy water out of the laver in an earthen vessel, rendered bitter, as the Rabbins think, by the infusion of some herb, as wormwood, into which he put also some of the dust of the floor or pavement, together with the words of the curse, written on parchment or vellum at full length, with a kind of ink prepared for the purpose, as some of the Rabbins think, without any calx of iron, or other material that could make a permanent dye. The priest washed the writing off the parchment into the water which the woman was obliged to drink ; so that she drank the very words of the execration. St. Paul, in 1 Cor. xi, 29, seems to allude to this case of the guilty woman drinking the bitter cursed waters, that caused her destruction; there is also probably a reference to the same thing in Ps. cix, 18; and in Dan. ix, 11.

The words of the curse were to this effect; that if she had been guilty, those waters would swell and burst her belly, and rot her thigh: but if she was innocent, they would have no power to hurt her. The priest read aloud to her those words; and if she persisted to go on with the trial, she answered, Amen. After giving her this water to drink, the priest took the offering, and waved it before the Lord, and burned part of it upon the altar. The consequence was, if

* The form of the curse written on the parchment or vellum, according to the Rabbins, was the following:-" It a strange man have not come near thee, and thou art not polluted by forsaking the bed of thy husband, these b tter waters which I have cursed will not hurt thee: but if thou have gone astray from thy husband, and have polluted thyself by coming near to another man, may thou be accursed of the Lord, and become an example for all his people; may thy thigh rot, and thy belly swell till it burst! may these cursed waters enter into thy belly, and being swelled therewith, may thy thigh putrify!"

guilty, her belly bursted, and her thigh rotted, and she died but, if innocent, she became more healthy and fruitful, as a reward of her chastity.

The Rabbins have commented largely upon this awful ceremony, as if they have often witnessed it, though we have no instance of this kind of ordeal recorded in Scripture as having been ever resorted to. They say, that if the woman was guilty, as soon as she drank the water, she was seen immediately to grow pale, her eyes started out of her head, and lest the temple should be defiled with her death, she was carried out and died instantly with all the ignominious circumstances related in the curses, which they also say, had the same effect on him with whom she had been criminal, though he were absent and at a distance. They add, however, that if the husband himself had been guilty with another woman, then the waters had no effect even on his criminal wife; as in that case the transgression on the one part, was, in a certain sense, balanced by the transgression on the other.

Probably this kind of ordeal never was resorted to during the purer times of the Hebrew republic. God had rendered himself so terrible by his judgments, that no person would dare to appeal to this mode of trial, who was conscious of her guilt and in cases of simple adultery, where the matter was either detected or confessed, the parties were ordered by the law to be put to death.

III. Funeral Solemnities, and the manner of Mourning among the Hebrews.

WHEN a person died, the near relations came to the house in their mourning attire, and sat down on the ground with a mournful silence, while the voice of mourners and the sound of minstrels hired on the occasion were heard in the house. This lasted till the funeral was over, when the nearest relations resumed their mourning posture, sitting and lying upon the ground in profound silence. Their very food was defiled by those that eat of it. Hos. ix, 4. They abstained from every thing that could comfort or please them. There was a kind of repast for the other mourners, called the bread of men, and wine, or cup of consolation; (Ezek. xxiv, 17; Jer. xvi, 7.) but even then the meanest dishes, either of wood or common earthenware, were set on the tables, and they were not allowed then to drink above ten glasses of wine.

It was regarded as a duty incumbent on the nearest relation present to close the eyes of the deceased.* This custom is founded on the promise of God that Joseph should perform that office to his father Jacob. Gen. xlvi, 4. If the deceased was a person of distinction and rank, they embalmed him; but generally they only washed the body, and sometimes wrapped it with linen in a mixture of aromatics and spices, or

This was an ancient custom among the Greeks and Romans, as appears from frequent instances in their writers, and also among other nations.

burnt the mixture around the corps. 2 Chron. xvi, 14 ; Jer. xxxiv, 5; 2 Chron. xxi, 19; Matt. xxvii, 59, &c.

*

Though burying the dead was a duty of piety, yet there was no religious ceremony used at it; but on the contrary, it was a defiling employment, and rendered all those unclean that were concerned in it, till they were purified. Thus priests were so far from being necessary at burials, that they were prohibited even to assist at any, except of their nearest relations. Lev. xxi, 1-3.†

The most ancient, and perhaps the most natural mode of disposing of the dead, is that of interring, whereby the body is restored to the earth whence it was taken, and is decently hid in the womb of the common mother, to be new moulded and transformed; ‡ and this appears to be the invariable custom of the Hebrews. Gen. xxiii, 1--6.

We can form an idea of their funeral ceremonies from the burial of Abner, one of David's generals: the king's servants, with Joab at the head of the procession, as chief mourner, were ordered to proceed before the corps in deep mourning, with their clothes

* In Gen. 1, 2, 26, we read that Jacob and Joseph were enbalmed; but they both died in Egypt, and were to be carried from thence to be buried in Canaan. In the art of embalming, the Egyptians excelled all other nations: with them it was a general custom. The mummies found in different museums in Europe, which have all been brought from Egypt, are proof of the perfection to which they carried this art. Herodotus in his Euterpe, and Diodorus Siculus in his Bib. lib. i, have given a full account of this curious process. See also Greenhill's Necrokedia, or the art of embalming, 4to, p. 241.

+ Fleury, p. 136.

Mihi quidem antiquissimum sepulturæ genus id fuisse videter, quo apud Xenophontem Cyrus utitur. Redditur enim terræ corpus, et ita locatum ac situm, quasi operimento matris obducitur. Cicero De Leg.ii, c. 22.

rent, and girded with sackcloth, whilst the king himself followed the bier to Hebron, Abner's burying-place. At the grave David wept, and made a funeral oration in praise of the deceased; the people also wept again and mourned over him. We can infer that the day was not far spent when this funeral took place, for David, when entreated to take some refreshment, replied with an oath that he would neither eat nor drink, till the sun was down. 2 Sam. iii, 31--35.

The mourning of the Israelites was either for the dead, or for any calamity, private or public, and was expressed in both cases nearly in a similar manner. Besides weeping and lamentation, the common signs of grief, we find them rending their clothes, putting on sackcloth, uncovering their heads, smiting their breasts, tearing their hair, putting ashes on their heads, going barefoot, lying upon the ground, and fasting.* The mourning of the ancient Hebrews was usually of seven days' continuance; though, on certain occasions, it was extended to thirty days, but never longer. †

IV. Places of Burial.

THE Israelites had such an extreme abhorrence against having their bodies, or those of their friends, exposed after death, that they refused sepulture to none, but such as were guilty of self-murder, and not even to these, but till after sun-set. They had bury

* Gen. xxxvii 29, 34; 2 Sam. i, 11, 12; 1 Kings xxi, 27 ; Lev. x, 6; Isa. xv, 2; Jer. xli, 5; xlviii, 37; Ezek. xxiv, 16, 17. t Numb. xix, 19; Eccles. xxii, 12; 1 Sam. xxxi, 13; Numb.

xx, 29; Deut. xxi, 13; xxxiv, 8.