GOVERNMENT OF THE HEBREWS. of the other tribes, Judges xx. 11-46; 2 Samuel ii. 4; Judges i. 21. If any affair concerned the whole or many of the tribes, it was determined by them in conjunction in the legislative assembly of the nation, Judges xi. 1-11; 1 Chron. v. 10, 18, 19; 2 Sam. iii. 17; Kings xii. 1-24. If one tribe found itself unequal to the execution of any proposed plan, it might connect itself with another, or even a number of the other tribes, Judges i. 1-3, 22; iv. 10; vii. 23, 24; viii. 1-3. But, although in many things each tribe existed by itself, and acted separately, yet in others they were united, and formed but one community: for all the tribes were bound together, so as to form one church and one civil community, not only by their common ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; not only by the common promises which they had received from those ancestors; not only by the need in which they stood of mutual counsel and assistance; but also by the circumstance that God was their common King, and that they had a common tabernacle for his palace, and a common sacerdotal and Levitical order for his ministers. Accordingly, every tribe exerted a sort of inspection over the others, as respected their observance of the law. If anything had been neglected, or any wrong had been done, the particular tribe concerned was amenable to the others; and, in case justice could not be secured in any other way, might be punished with war, Joshua xxii. 9-34; Judges xx. 1, &c. 6. When we remember that God was expressly chosen the King of the people, and that he enacted laws and decided litigated points of importance, Num. xvii. 1-11, xxvii. 1-11, xxxvi. 1-10; when we remember also that he answered and solved questions proposed, Num. xv. 32-41, Joshua vii. 16 —22, Judges i. 1, 2, xx. 18, 27, 28, 1 Sam. xiv. 37, xxiii. 9-12, xxx. 8, 2 Sam. ii. 1 ; that he threatened punishment, and that, in some instances, he actually inflicted it upon the hardened and impenitent, Num. xi. 33— 35, xii. 1-15, xvi. 1-50, Lev. xxvi. 3-46, Deut. xxvi.-xxx.; when, finally, we take into account, that he promised prophets, who were to be, as it were, his ambassadors, Deut. xviii., and afterwards sent them according to his promise, and that, in order to preserve the true religion, he governed the whole people by a striking and peculiar providence, we are at liberty to say, that God was, in fact, the Monarch of the people, and that the government was a theocracy. But, although the government of the Jews was a theocracy, it was not destitute of the usual forms which exist in civil governments among men. God, it is true, was the King, and the High Priest, if we may be allowed so to speak, was his minister of state; but still the political affairs were in a great measure under the disposal of the elders, princes, &c. It was to them that Moses gave the divine commands, determined expressly their powers; and submitted their requests to the decision of God, Num. xiv. 5; xvi. 4, &c., xxvii. 5; xxxvi. 5, 6. It was in reference to the great power possessed by these men, who formed the legislative assembly of the nation, that Josephus pronounced the government to be aristocratical. But from the circumstance that the people possessed so much influence, as to render it necessary to submit laws to them for their ratification, and that they even took upon themselves sometimes to propose laws or to resist those which were enacted; from the circumstance also that the legislature of the nation had not the power of laying taxes, and that the civil code was regulated and enforced by God himself, independently of the legislature, Lowman and Michaëlis are in favour of considering the Hebrew government a democracy. In support of their opinion such passages are exhibited as the following, Exodus xix. 7, 8; xxiv. 3-8; Deut. xxix. 9-14; Joshua ix. 18, 19; xxiii. 1, &c.; xxiv. 2, &c.; 1 Samuel x. 24; xi. 14, 15; Num. xxvii. 1-8; xxxvi. 1-9. The truth seems to lie between these two opinions. The Hebrew government, putting out of view its theocratical feature, was of a mixed form, in some respects approaching to a democracy, in others assuming more of an aristocratical character. 7. From what has been said, it is clear, that the Ruler and supreme Head of the political community in question was God, who, with the design of promoting the good of his subjects, condescended to exhibit his visible presence in the tabernacle, wherever it travelled and wherever it dwelt. If, in reference to the assertion, that God was the Ruler of the Jewish state, it should be inquired what part was sustained by Moses, the answer is, that God was the Ruler, the people were his subjects, and Moses was the mediator or internuncio between them. But the title most appropriate to Moses, and most descriptive of the part he sustained, is that of legislator of the Israelites and their deliverer from the Egyptians. If the same question should be put in respect to Joshua, the answer would be, that he was not properly the successor of Moses, and that, so far from being the ruler of the state, he was designated by the ruler to sustain the subordinate office of military leader of the Israelites in their conquest of the land of Canaan. 8. But, although the Hebrew state was so constituted, that beside God, the invisible King, and his visible servant, the High Priest, there was no other general ruler of the commonwealth, yet it is well known that there were rulers of a high rank, appointed at various times, called w, a word which not only signifies a judge in the usual sense of the term, but any governor, or administrator of public affairs, 1 Samuel viii. 20; Isaiah xi. 4; 1 Kings iii. 9. lodged in these rulers, who are called judges in the scriptures, seems to have been in The power some respects paramount to that of the general comitia of the nation, and we find that they declared war, led armies, concluded peace; and that this was not the whole, if indeed it was the most important part, of their duties. For many of the judges, for instance, Jair, Ibzan, Elon, Abdon, Eli, and Samuel, ruled the nation in peace. They might appropriately enough be called the supreme executive, exercising all the rights of sovereignty, with the exception of enacting laws, and imposing taxes. They were honoured, but they bore no external badges of distinction; they were distinguished, but they enjoyed no special privileges themselves, and communicated none to their posterity. They subserved the public good without emolument, that the state might be prosperous, that religion might be preserved, and that God alone might be King in Israel. It ought to be observed, however, that not all the Judges ruled the whole nation: some of them presided over only a few separate tribes. 9. God, in the character of King, had governed the Israelites for sixteen ages. He ruled them, on the terms which he himself, through the agency of Moses, had proposed to them, namely, that if they observed their allegiance to him, they should be prosperous; if not, adversity and misery would be the consequence, Exod. xix. 4, 5; xxiii. 20—33; Lev. xxvi. 3-46; Deut. xxviii.-xxx. We may learn from the whole book of Judges, and from the first eight chapters of Samuel, how exactly the result, from the days of Joshua down to the time of Samuel, agreed with these conditions. But in the time of Samuel, the government, in point of form, was changed into a monarchy. The election of king, however, was committed to God, who chose one by lot: so that God was still the ruler, and the king the vicegerent. The terms of the government, as respected God, were the same as before, and the same duties and principles were inculcated on the Israelites as had been originally, 1 Sam. viii. 7; x. 17-23; xii. 14, 15, 20-22, 24, 25. In consequence of the fact, that Saul did not choose at all times to obey the commands of God, the kingdom was taken from him and given to another, 1 Sam. xiii. 5-14; xv. 1-31. David, through the agency of Samuel, was selected by Jehovah for king, who thus gave a proof that he still retained, and was disposed to exercise, the right of appointing the ruler under him, 1 Samuel xvi. 1-3. David was first made king over Judah; but as he received his appointment from God, and acted under his authority, the other eleven tribes submitted to him, 2 Sam. v. 1-3; 1 Chron. xxviii. 4-6. David expressly acknowledged God as the Sovereign, and as having a right to appoint the immediate ruler of the people, 1 Chron. xxviii. 7-10; he religiously obeyed His statutes, the people adhered firmly to God, and his reign was prosperous. The paramount authority of God, as the King of the nation, and his right to appoint one who should act in the capacity of his vicegerent, are expressly recognised in the books of Kings and Chronicles. 10. On the subversion of the Babylonian empire by Cyrus, the founder of the Persian monarchy, (B. C. 543,) he authorized the Jews, by an edict, to return into their own country, with full permission to enjoy their laws and religion, and caused the city and temple of Jerusalem to be rebuilt. In the following year, part of the Jews returned under Zerubbabel, and renewed their sacrifices: but the re-erection of the city and temple being interrupted for several years by the treachery and hostility of the Samaritans or Cutheans, the avowed enemies of the Jews, the completion and dedication of the temple did not take place until the year B. C. 511, six years after the accession of Cyrus. The rebuilding of Jerusalem was accomplished, and the reformation of their ecclesiatical and civil polity was effected, by the two divinely inspired and pious governors, Ezra and Nehemiah; but the theocratic government does not appear to have been restored. The new temple was not, as formerly, God's palace; and the cloud of his presence did not take possession of it. After their death the Jews were governed by their High Priests, in subjection however to the Persian kings, to whom they paid tribute, Ezra iv. 13; vii. 24, but with the full enjoyment of their other magistrates, as well as their liberties, civil and religious. Nearly three centuries of uninterrupted prosperity ensued, until the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, when they were most cruelly oppressed, and compelled to take up arms in their own defence. Under the able conduct of Judas, surnamed Maccabeus, and his valiant brothers, the Jews maintained a religious war for twenty-six years with five successive kings of Syria; and after destroying upwards of two hundred thousand of their best troops, the Maccabees finally established the independence of their own country and the ag grandisement of their family. This illustrious house, whose princes united the regal and pontifical dignity in their own persons, administered the affairs of the Jews during a period of one hundred and twenty-six years; until, disputes arising between Hyrcanus II. and his brother Aristobulus, the latter was defeated by the Romans under Pompey, who captured Jerusalem, and reduced Judea to dependence, B. C. 59. GOVERNOR. Judea having been reduced into a province by the Romans, they sent governors thither, who were subject not only to the emperors, but also to the governors of Syria, whereof Judea made a part. GOURD, ¡pp, Jonah iv. 6, 7, 9, 10. Michaëlis, in his remarks on this subject, says, "Celsius appears to me to have proved that it is the kiki of the Egyptians." He refers it to the class of the ricinus, the great catapucus. According to Dioscorides, it is of rapid growth, and bears a berry from which an oil is expressed. In the Arabic version of this passage, which is to be found in Avicenna, it is rendered, "from thence is pressed the oil which they call oil of kiki, which is the oil of Alkeroa." So Herodotus says: "The inhabitants of the marshy grounds in Egypt make use of an oil, which they term the kiki, expressed from the Sillicyprian plant. In Greece this plant springs spontaneously, without any cultivation; but the Egyptians sow it on the banks of the river and of the canals; it there produces fruit in great abundance, but of a very strong odour. When gathered, they obtain from it, either by friction or pressure, an unctuous liquid, which diffuses an offensive smell, but for burning it is equal in quality to the oil of olives." This plant rises with a strong herbaceous stalk to the height of ten or twelve feet; and is furnished with very large leaves, not unlike those of the plane-tree. Rabbi Kimchi says that the people of the east plant them before their shops for the sake of the shade, and to refresh themselves under them. Niebuhr says, "I saw, for the first time at Basra, the plant ei-keroa, mentioned in Michaëlis's Questions.' It has the form of a tree. The trunk appeared to me rather to resemble leaves than wood; nevertheless, it is harder than that which bears the Adam's fig. Each branch of the keroa has but one large leaf, with six or seven foldings in it. This plant was near to a rivulet, which watered it amply. At the end of October, 1765, it had risen in five months' time about eight feet, and bore at once flowers and fruit, ripe and unripe. Another tree of this species, which had not had so much water, had not grown more in a whole year. The flowers and leaves of it which I gathered withered in a few minutes; as do all plants of a rapid growth. This tree is called at Aleppo, palma Christi. An oil is made from it called oleum de keroa; oleum cicinum; oleum ficus infernalis. The Christians and Jews of Mosul (Nineveh) say, it was not the keroa whose shadow refreshed Jonah, but a sort of gourd, el-kera, which has very large leaves, very large fruit, and lasts but about four months." The epithet which the prophet uses in speaking of the plant," son of the night it was, and, as a son of the night, it died," does not compel us to believe that it grew in a single night, but, either by a strong oriental figure that it was of rapid growth, or akin to night in the shade it spread for his repose. The figure is not uncommon in the east, and one of our own poets has called the rose "child of the summer." Nor are we bound to take the expression "on the morrow," as strictly importing the very next day, since the word has reference to much more distant time, Exod. xiii. 14; Deut. vi. 20; Joshua iv. 6. It might be simply taken as afterwards. But the author of "Scripture Illustrated" justly remarks, "As the history in Jonah expressly says, the Lord prepared this plant, no doubt we may conceive of it as an extraordinary one of its kind, remarkably rapid in its growth, remarkably hard in its stem, remarkably vigorous in its branches, and remarkable for the extensive spread of its leaves and the deep gloom of their shadow; and, after a certain duration, remarkable for a sudden withering, and a total uselessness to the impatient prophet." 2. We read of the wild gourd in 2 Kings iv. 39; that Elisha, being at Gilgal during a great famine, bade one of his servants prepare something for the entertainment of the prophets who were in that place. The servant, going into the field, found, as our translators render it, some wild gourds, gathered a lap-full of them, and, having brought them with him, cut them in pieces and put them into a pot, not knowing what they were. When they were brought to table, the prophets, having tasted them, thought they were mortal poison. Immediately, the man of God called for flour, threw it into the pot, and desired them to eat without any apprehensions. They did so, and perceived nothing of the bitterness whereof they were before sensible. This plant or fruit is called in Hebrew Лyp and y. There have been various opinions about it. Celsius supposes it the colocynth. The leaves of the plant are large, placed alternate; the flowers white, and the fruit of the gourd kind, of the size of a large apple, which, when ripe, is yellow, and of a pleasant and inviting appearance, but to the taste intolerably bitter, and proves a drastic purgative. It seems that the fruit, whatever it might have been, was early thought proper for an ornament in architecture. It furnished a model for some of the carved work of cedar in Solomon's temple, 1 Kings vi. 18; vii. 24. GRACE. This word is understood in several senses: For beauty, graceful form, and agreeableness of person, Prov. i. 9; iii. 22. For favour, friendship, kindness, Gen. vi. 8; xviii. 3; Rom. xi. 6; 2 Tim. i. 9. For pardon, mercy, undeserved remission of offences, Eph. ii. 5; Col. i. 6. For certain gifts of God, which he bestows freely, when, where, and on whom, he pleases; such are the gifts of miracles, prophecy, languages, &c., Rom. xv. 15; 1 Cor. xv. 10; Eph. iii. 8, &c. For the gospel dispensation, in contradistinction to that of the law, Rom. vi. 14; 1 Peter v. 12. For a liberal and charitable disposition, 2 Cor. viii. 7. For eternal life, or final salvation, 1 Peter i. 13. In theological language grace also signifies divine influence upon the soul; and it derives the name from this being the effect of the great grace or favour of God to mankind. Austin defines inward actual grace to be the inspiration of love, which prompts us to practise according to what we know, out of a religious affection and compliance. He says, likewise, that the grace of God is the blessing of God's sweet influence, whereby we are induced to take pleasure in that which he commands, to desire and to love it; and that if God does not prevent us with this blessing, what he commands, not only is not perfected, but is not so much as begun in us. Without the inward grace of Jesus Christ, man is not able to do the least thing that is good. He stands in need of this grace to begin, continue, and finish all the good he does, or rather, which God does in him and with him, by his grace. This grace is free; it is not due to us: if it were due to us, it would be no more grace; it would be a debt, Rom. xi. 6; it is in its nature an assistance so powerful and efficacious, that it surmounts the obstinacy of the most rebellious human heart, without destroying human liberty. There is no subject on which Christian doctors have written so largely, as on the several particulars relating to the grace of God. The difficulty consists in reconciling human liberty with the operation of divine grace; the concurrence of man with the influence and assistance of the Almighty. And who is able to set up an accurate boundary between these two things? Who can pretend to know how far the privileges of grace extend over the heart of man, and what that man's liberty exactly is, who is prevented, enlightened, moved, and attracted by grace? GRAPE, 21, the fruit of the vine. There were fine vineyards and excellent grapes in the promised land. The bunch of grapes which was cut in the valley of Eshcol, and was brought upon a staff between two men to the camp of Israel at Kadeshbarnea, Num. xiii. 23, may give us some idea of the largeness of the fruit in that country. It would be easy to produce a great number of witnesses to prove that the grapes in those regions grow to a prodigious size. By Calmet, Scheuchzer, and Harmer, this subject has been exhausted. Doubdan assures us, that in the valley of Eshcol were clusters of grapes to be found of ten or twelve pounds. Moses, in the law, commanded that when the Israelites gathered their grapes, they should not be careful to pick up those that fell, nor be so exact as to leave none upon the vines: what fell, and what were left behind, the poor had liberty to glean, Lev. xix. 10; Deut. xxiv. 21, 22. For the same beneficent purpose the second vintage was reserved this, in those warm countries, was considerable, though never so good nor so plentiful as the former. The wise son of Sirach says, "I waked up last of all, as one that gleaneth after grape-gatherers. By the blessing of the Lord, I profited, and filled my wine-press like a gatherer of grapes," Ecclus. xxxiii. 16. It is frequent in scripture to describe a total destruction by the similitude of a vine, stripped in such a manner, that there was not a bunch of grapes left of those who came to glean. The prophecy, "He shall wash his clothes in wine, and his garments in the blood of the grape," Gen. xlix. 11, means that he shall reside in a country where grapes were in abundance. The vineyards of Engedi and of Sorek, so famous in scripture, were in the tribe of Judah; and so was the valley of Eshcol, whence the spies brought those extraordinary clusters. "It appears," says Manti, "that the cultivation of the vine was never abandoned in this country. The grapes, which are white, and pretty large, are, however, not much superior in size to those of Europe. This peculiarity seems to be confined to those in this neighbourhood; for at the distance of only six miles to the south, is the rivulet and valley called Escohol, celebrated in scripture for its fertility, and for producing very large grapes. In other parts of Syria, also, I have seen grapes of such an extraordinary size, that a bunch of them would be a sufficient burden for one man. It is not at all surprising, therefore, that when the spies, sent by Moses to reconnoitre the promised land, returned to give him an account of its fertility, it required two of them to carry a bunch of grapes, which they brought with them suspended from a pole placed upon their shoulders." Many eye-witnesses assure us, that in Palestine the vines, and bunches of grapes, are almost of an incredible size. "At Beidtdjin," says Schultz, a "village near Ptolemais, wé took our supper under a large vine, the stem of which was nearly a foot and a half in diameter, the height about thirty feet, and covered with its branches and shoots (for the shoots must be supported) a hut of more than fifty feet long and broad. The bunches of these grapes are so large that they weigh from ten to twelve pounds, and the grapes may be compared to our plums. Such a bunch is cut off and laid on a board, round which they seat themselves, and each helps himself to as many as he pleases." Forster, in his Hebrew Dictionary, (under the word Eshcol), says, that he knew at Nurnburg a monk of the name of Acacius, who had resided eight years in Palestine, and had also preached at Hebron, where he had seen bunches of grapes which were as much as two men could conveniently carry. The wild grapes, □’WN2, are the fruit of the wild or bastard vine; sour and unpalatable, and good for nothing but to make verjuice. In Isaiah v. 2-4, the Lord complains that he had planted his people as a choice vine, excellent as that of Sorek; but that its degeneracy had defeated his purpose, and disappointed his hopes: when he expected that it should bring forth choice fruit, it yielded only such as was bad; not merely useless and unprofitable grapes, but clusters offensive and noxious. By the force and intent of the allegory, says Bishop Lowth, "good grapes" ought to be opposed "to fruit of a dangerous and pernicious quality," as, in the application of it, to judgment is opposed tyranny, and to righteousness oppression. Hasselquist is inclined to believe that the prophet here means the solanum incanum, " hoary nightshade,” because it is common in Egypt and Palestine, and the Arabian name agrees well with it. The Arabs call it aneb el dib, "wolf's grapes." The prophet could not have found a plant more opposite to the vine than this; for it grows much in the vineyards, and is very pernicious to them. It is likewise a vine. Jeremiah uses the same image, and applies it to the same purpose, in an elegant paraphrase of this part of Isaiah's parable, in his flowing and plaintive manner: "I planted thee a Sorek, a scion perfectly genuine. How then art thou changed, and become to me the degenerate shoot of a strange vine!" Jer. ii. 21. From some sort of poisonous fruits of the grape kind, Moses, Deut. xxxii 32, 33, has taken those strong and highly poetical images with which he has set forth the future corruption and extreme degeneracy of the Israelites, in an allegory which has a near relation, both in its subject and imagery, to this of Isaiah : "Their vine is from the vine of Sodom, Their wine is the poison of dragons, GRASS, W, Gen. i. 11, the well-known vegetable upon which flocks and herds feed, and which decks our fields, and refreshes our sight with its grateful verdure. Its feeble frame and transitory duration are mentioned in scripture as emblematic of the frail condition and fleeting existence of man. The inspired poets draw this picture with such inimitable beauty as the laboured elegies on mortality of ancient and modern times have never surpassed. See Psalm xc. 6, and particularly Isaiah xl. 6—8: • The voice said, Cry! And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Verily, this people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand for ever." As, in their decay, the herbs of the fields strikingly illustrate the shortness of human life, so, in the order of their growth, from seeds dead and buried, they give a natural testimony to the doctrine of a resurrection. The prophet Isaiah, and the apostle Peter, both speak of bodies rising from the dead, as of so many seeds springing from the ground to renovated existence and beauty, although they do not, as some have absurdly supposed, consider the resurrection as in any sense analogous to the process of vegetation, Isaiah xxvi. 19; 1 Peter i. 24, 25. It is a just remark of Grotius, that the Hebrews ranked the whole vegetable system under two classes, py, and awy. The first is rendered ξύλον, or δένδρον, tree: to express the second, the LXX. have adopted Xópros, as their common way to translate one Hebrew word by one Greek word, though not quite proper, rather than by a circumlocution. It is accordingly used in their version of Genesis i. 11, where the distinction first occurs, and in most other places. Nor is it with greater propriety rendered grass in English than xópros in Greek. The same division occurs in Matt. vi. 30, and Rev. viii. 7, where our translators have in like manner had recourse to the term grass. Dr. Campbell prefers and uses the word herbage, as coming nearer the meaning of the sacred writer. Under the name herb is comprehended every sort of plant which has not, like trees and shrubs, a perennial stalk. That many, if not all, sorts of shrubs were included by the Hebrews under the denomination, tree, is evident from Jotham's apologue of the trees choosing a king, Judges ix. 7, where the bramble is mentioned as See HAY. one. . GRASS-HOPPER, 217, Leviticus xi. 22; Num. xiii. 33; 2 Chron. vii. 13; Eccles. xii. 5; Isaiah xl. 22; 2 Esdras iv. 24; Wisdom xvi. 9; Eccles. xliii. 17. Bochart supposes that this species of the locust has its name from the Arabic verb hajaba, "to veil," because, when they fly, as they often do, in great swarms, they eclipse even the light of the sun. "But I presume," says Parkhurst, "this circumstance is not peculiar to any particular kind of locust: I should rather, therefore, think it denotes the cucullated species, so denominated by naturalists from the cucullus, cowl' or hood,' with which they are furnished, and which distinguishes them from the other kinds. In Scheuchzer may be seen several of this sort; and it will appear that this species nearly resemble our grass-hopper." Our translators render the Hebrew word locust in the prayer of Solomon at the dedication of the temple, 2 Chron. vii. 13, and with propriety. But it is rendered grass-hopper, in Eccles. xii. 5, where Solomon, describing the infelicities of old age, says, "The grass-hopper shall be a burden." To this insect," says Dr. Smith, "the preacher compares a dry, shrunk, shrivelled, crumpling, craggy old man; his backbone sticking out, his knees projecting forwards, his arms backwards, his head downwards, and the apophyses or bunching parts of the bones in general enlarged. And from this exact likeness, without all doubt, arose the fable of Tithonus, who, living to extreme old age, was at last turned into a grass-hopper." Dr. Hodgson, referring it to the custom of eating locusts, supposes it to imply that luxurious gratification will become insipid; and Bishop Reynolds, that the lightest pressure of so small a creature shall be uncomfortable to the aged, as not being able to bear any weight. Other commentators suppose the reference to the chirping noise of the grass-hopper, which must be disagreeable to the aged and infirm, who naturally love quiet, and are commonly un |