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the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering." The probability is that the (vau) ought to be used ↑ disjunctively. And hence, as the passage is commented on in Mant's Bible, "the more true translation of these words would be-shall be the Lord's, or else I will offer it up for a burnt offering. The sense of the vow will then be, whatever cometh out of the house to meet me, shall be the Lord's. If it be a human person, servant, &c. it shall be dedicated to his ser

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law, in the Old Testament. 2. The case of Isaac, before the law, is irrelavent; for Isaac was not sacrificed; and it was only proposed for a trial of Abraham's faith. 3. No father, merely on his own authority, could put an offending (much less an innocent) child to death, upon any account, without the sentence of the magistrates, and the consent of the people, as in Jonathan's case. 4. The Mishna, or traditional law of the Jews, is pointedly against it. If a Jew should devote his son or daughter, his man or maid servant, who are Hebrews, the devotement would be void; because no man can devote what is not his own, or whose life he has not the absolute disposal of." (Anal. ut supra, p. 291.)

"The Rabbi Manasseh ben Israel affirms positively that she was actually sacrificed. His words are,-"I say the young woman perished; for although R. Levi ben Gershon and R. David Kimchi are of opinion that Jeptha's daughter was not sacrificed, but that her father shut her up to preserve her virginity during the remainder of her life; and Nicolas de Lyra, as also Vatabulus, consider the same; the truth is, that he did sacrifice her as the scripture plainly stateshe did to her according to the vow that he had vowed-and then that she and other young women bewailed their virginities, and that it remained a custom in Israel for the young women from time to tine, to go and bemoan the daughter of Jeptha; which would have been ridiculous and even insulting, had it only been to bewail that she was not married, as the learned R. Moses of Gerona, R. Bechayai, Josephus, Jerome, Augustine, and a Council of Toledo properly argue." (Concil. vol. ii. p. 38.)

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19 Michaelis, a very high authority, thinks that she was sacrificed.

vice; or if it be a beast fit to be offered, it shall be offered for a burnt offering."" Under this view of the case, the daughter of Jeptha would be consigned to perpetual celibacy, which the Jewish women considered little superior to death.

The glory which Jeptha had acquired in this expedition, added perhaps to a secret desire of sharing in the spoils which resulted from his success in the sack of twenty cities, induced the half tribe of Ephraim, who occupied the adjacent territories on the opposite bank of the river, to murmur and complain that they had not been invited to partake of the honours with which the valour and good conduct of Jeptha had been crowned. They proceeded to expostulate with him in haughty and overbearing language, and threatened to burn and destroy his house by fire. Nor were their taunts withheld from the elders of Gilead, whom they represented as being fugitives and outcasts from Ephraim and Manasseh.

Jeptha endeavoured to pacify them by mild and gentle means.12 But finding these peaceful arguments ineffectual, and rather tending to increase the

"The French writer Jurieu entertains no doubt in regard to her actual immolation, but loses all patience when he comes to consider the wailings of the damsel. "She desired," says he, "two months to bewail her virginity; but what occasion was there for her to bewail her virginity if she was to keep it for ever?" The ancients, both Jews and Christians, believed that the young woman was really offered up as a burnt offering; and their arguments, connected with the direct and obvious bearing of the sacred narrative, appear to me more conclusive than those of modern commentators. (Russel's Connection, vol. i. p. 492.)

12 Judges xii. 2, 3.

wrath of the Ephraimites, he brought forth the armies of Gilead and gave them battle.13 After a smart engagement, the Ephraimites found themselves unable to cope with the military skill of Jeptha; and therefore they sounded a retreat, and endeavoured to provide for their own safety by passing over the fords of Jordan, and seeking refuge in their own country. But Jeptha was too experienced in military tactics to allow them this advantage. He had taken the precaution to secure the passes of the river by strong bands of armed men, and the carnage became very great.' "And it was so, that when those Ephraimites which were escaped, said, Let me go over; that the men of Gilead said unto him-Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay; then said they unto him,-Say now Shibboleth; and he said Sibboleth; for he could

15

14

13 We have an old Masonic tradition on this subject, to the following effect. When the Ephraimites had assembled together to molest Jeptha, their leader encamped round a certain pillar, which being placed in an elevated situation commanded a view of the adjacent country where Jeptha was prepared to receive them. After the battle, when the Ephramites were retreating, Jeptha called a council of war to determine upon the necessary means of intercepting them; where it was agreed that they should be made to pronounce a pass word on the shores of Gilgal by which they might be distinguished in the dark as in the light. And as they were unable to pronounce this word, they were immediately slain. This test word having been thus used to distinguish friend from foe, &c.

14

Shibboleth signifies waters. Thus, when the Ephraimites prayed the men of Gilead to allow them to pass over, and were asked in return,-To pass over what? they could not answer Shibboleth, or the waters, without betraying themselves to the enemy.

15 "So essentially necessary is it," say the Grand Inspectors

not frame to pronounce it right.16 Then they took him and slew him at the passages of Jordan; and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand.'

99 17

Such is the historical account of the origin and result of the warfare of Jeptha with the Ephraimites; and the reputed origin of the symbol and its interpretation,18 because the battle took place in a field of corn near the river Jordan.

General of Sublime Freemasonry, in their address to the Fraternity, dated Dec. 4, 1802, "for a man of science to preside over a Lodge, that much injury may arise from the smallest deviation in the ceremony of initiation, or in the lectures of instruction. We read in the Book of Judges, that the transposition of a single point over the Sheen, in consequence of a national defect among the Ephraimites, designated the Cowans, led to the slaughter of 40,000 men."

16 The word chosen by the Gileadites, meaning a stream of waters, being the object immediately before them, was well calculated to put the Ephraimites off their guard. We need scarcely remark that sh is of peculiarly difficult, if not impossible pronunciation to persons whose organs have not, in childhood, been tutored to it. It is entirely wanting in many languages; and when persons to whom such languages are native, attempt to learn a language which has it, they find it not the least arduous part of their task to master and use proproperly this difficult sound. We can easily understand the peculiarity of conformation in the organs of speech which produced this defect. A native of the Continent of Europe experiences great difficulty in articulating the English th. In countries adjacent to Palestine the same defect prevails. Niebuhr says that while some of the Arabs give the usual pronunciation to the letter k, others pronounce it as tsch. Thus bukkro kiab, is called butscher tschiab. In fact they were unable to pronounce the letter Schin.

17 Judges xii. 5, 6.

18 This symbol was found in the spurious Freemasonry of all

nations.

wrath of the Ephraimites, he brought forth the armies of Gilead and gave them battle.13 After a smart engagement, the Ephraimites found themselves unable to cope with the military skill of Jeptha; and therefore they sounded a retreat, and endeavoured to provide for their own safety by passing over the fords of Jordan, and seeking refuge in their own country. But Jeptha was too experienced in military tactics to allow them this advantage. He had taken the precaution to secure the passes of the river by strong bands of armed men, and the carnage became very great." "And it was so, that when those Ephraimites which were escaped, said, Let me go over; that the men of Gilead said unto him-Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay; then said they unto him,-Say now Shibboleth; and he said Sibboleth; for he could

13 We have an old Masonic tradition on this subject, to the following effect. When the Ephraimites had assembled together to molest Jeptha, their leader encamped round a certain pillar, which being placed in an elevated situation commanded a view of the adjacent country where Jeptha was prepared to receive them. After the battle, when the Ephramites were retreating, Jeptha called a council of war to determine upon the necessary means of intercepting them; where it was agreed that they should be made to pronounce a pass word on the shores of Gilgal by which they might be distinguished in the dark as in the light. And as they were unable to pronounce this word, they were immediately slain. This test word having been thus used to distinguish friend from foe, &c.

"Shibboleth signifies waters. Thus, when the Ephraimites prayed the men of Gilead to allow them to pass over, and were asked in return,-To pass over what? they could not answer Shibboleth, or the waters, without betraying themselves to the

enemy.

13" So essentially necessary is it," say the Grand Inspectors