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HOSEA.

CHAPTER III.

Ver. 2. So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for a homer of barley, and a half homer of barley.

Sir J. Chardin observed in the East, that in their contracts for thei. temporary wives, which are known to be frequent there, which contracts are made before the kady, there is always the formality of a measure of corn mentioned, over and above the sum of money that is stipulated. I do not know of any thing that should occasion this formality of late days in the East; it may then possibly be very ancient, as it is apparent this sort of wife is: if it be, it will perhaps account for Hosea's purchasing a woman of this sort for fifteen pieces of silver, and a certain quantity of barley.-HARMER.

CHAPTER IV.

Ver. 12. My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God.

The method of divination alluded to by the prophet in these words, is supposed to have been thus performed: The person consulting measured his staff by spans, or by the length of his finger, saying, as he measured, "I will go, or, I will not go; I will do such a thing, or, I will not do it;" and as the last span fell out, so he determined. Cyril and Theophylact, however, give a different account of the mat

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They say that it was performed by erecting two sticks, after which they murmured forth a certain charm, and then, according as the sticks fell, backward or forward, towards the right or left, they gave advice in any affair.-BURDER.

CHAPTER V.

Ver. 12. Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness. See on Job 4. 9. and 27. 18.

CHAPTER VI.

Ver. 4. O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.

። Early dew." "What, is this prosperity? what, this pleasure? Ah! what are my riches, and what my glory? Alas! 'tis like the dew, which flies off at the sight of the morning sun." "My son, my son, be not too confident; for life is like the dew."-ROBERTS.

Dr. Shaw, speaking of Arabia Petræa, says, "The dews of the night, as we had the heavens only for our covering, would (in the night) frequently wet us to the skin; but no sooner was the sun risen, and the atmosphere a little heated, than the mists were quickly dispersed, and the copious moisture, which the dews had communicated to the sands, would be entirely evaporated."-Burder.

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Ver. 9. And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent for they commit lewdness. The margin has, instead of "consent," "shoulder." The Hindoos for the SAME thing say, "with one HAND." Thus, hose people with "ONE HAND" have gone to the judge, i. e.

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Ver. 16. They return, but not to the Most High; they are like a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue. This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

The strings of African bows are all made of the en trails of animals, a kind of catgut. Moist weather renders it so soft, that they cannot shoot with it: should they try it, the string would either instantly break, or it would stretch sequence of this being the case, I have heard the remark to such a length that it could not impel the arrow. In conmade in Africa, that the safest time to travel among the wild Bushmen is in wet weather, for then they cannot shoot you. Were people using such bows for defence, and unacquainted with this effect of moisture, in a time of danger to seize their bow for self-defence, they would be grievously deceived, by finding them useless when most needed. They would thus prove deceitful bows.-CAMPBELL

CHAPTER VIII.

Ver. 8. Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure.

I believe this refers to an EARTHEN vessel, and not to one made of skin. People often compare each other to an UPPU-PANUM, i. e. literally, a salt vessel; because after it has contained salt it is most fragile, the least thing will break it to pieces. "What are you, sir? an uppu-panum," a salt vessel. "Lock at that poor salt vessel; if you touch him he will fall to pieces."-ROBERTS.

Ver. 9. For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers.

See on Job 39. 5-8.

CHAPTER IX.

Ver. 10. I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig-tree at her first time: but they went to Baalpeor and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved.

In Barbary, and no doubt in the hotter climate of Judea, after mild winters, some of the more forward trees will now and then yield a few ripe figs, six weeks or more before the full season. Such is probably the allusion in this place. (Shaw.)-BURDER.

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Ver. 8. The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars, and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.

Has a man by fraud gained possession of another person's land, then the imprecation is uttered, "Thorns and thistles shall ever grow there!" "He get rice from his land! Never! he will have thorns and thistles." "Yes, yes, the rice shall be as thorns in his bowels."-ROBERTS.

Ver. 12. Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.

It is said of a good king, "What a blessing is he to the land; he is always RAINING justice upon us." "You talk to me about the MERIT of remaining with such a master: he is always RAINING blessings upon him." A son after the decease of his father, asks, "Where is now the RAIN of love? alas! I am withered and dry." The figure is also used sarcastically, "Yes, indeed you are a very good friend, you are always RAINING favours upon me."-ROBERTS.

CHAPTER XI.

Ver. 2. As they called them, so they went from them they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burnt incense to graven images.

We read frequently of graven images, and of molten images, and the words are become so familiar, as names of idolatrous images, that although they are not well chosen to express the Hebrew names, it seems not advisable to change them for others, that might more exactly correspond with the original. The graven image was not a thing wrought in metal by the tool of the workman we should now call an engraver; nor was the molten image an image made of metal, or any other substance melted and shaped in a mould. In fact, the graven image and the molten image are the same thing, under different names. The images of the ancient idolaters were first cut out of wood by the carpenter, as is very evident from the prophet Isaiah. This figure of wood was overlaid with plates either of gold or silver, or sometimes perhaps of an inferior metal; and in this finished state it was called a graven image, (i. e. a carved image,) in reference to the inner solid figure of wood, and a molten (i. e. an overlaid, or covered) image, in reference to the outer metalline case or covering. Sometimes both epithets are applied to it at once. "I will cut off the graven and molten image." (Nahum i. 14.) Again, 'What profiteth the graven and molten image?" (Hab. ii. 18.) The English word molten conveys a notion of melting, or fusion. But this is not the case with the Hebrew word for which it is given. The Hebrew signifies, generally, to overspread, or cover all over, in whatever manner, according to the different subject, the overspreading or covering be effected; whether by pouring forth a substance in fusion, or by spreading a cloth over or before, or by hammering on metalline plates. It is on account of this metalline case, that we find a founder employed to make a graven image, (Judges xvii. 3;) and that we read in Isaiah xl. 19, of a workman that melteth a graven image; and in another place (chap. xliv.) we find the question, "Who hath molten a graven image ?" In these two passages the words should be overlayeth, and overlaid.-HORS

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Ver. 4. I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love; and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and laid meat unto them.

Here we have another figure to show the affection of Jehovah for backsliding Israel. An affectionate wife says of a good husband, "He has bound me with the cords of love." ." "Ah! woman, have you not drawn me with the cords

of love?" "True, true, I was once drawn by the cords of love, but they are now all broken."-ROBERTS. of raising the yoke forward to cool the neck of the labourIt is very probable that these words refer to the custom ing beast.-BURDER.

Ver. 11. They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria and I will place them in their houses, saith the LORD.

See on Is. 60. 8.

CHAPTER XII.

Ver. 1. Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he daily increaseth lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt. Syria is a land in which olives abound, and particularly that part of it which the people of Israel inhabited. This explains the reason why the Jews, when they wished to court the favour of their neighbours, the Egyptians, sent them a present of oil. The prophet thus upbraids his degenerate nation for the servility and folly of their conduct; Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind; he daily increaseth lies and desolation: and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt." The Israelites, in the decline of their national glory, carried the produce of their olive-plantations into Egypt, as a tribute to their ancient oppressors, or as a present to conciliate their favour, and obtain their assistance, in the sanguinary wars which they were often compelled to wage with the neighbouring states. be burnt in honour t

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the dead, whom they reverence with a religious kind of homage. Mr. Harmer thinks it most natural to suppose, he upbraids the Israelites with carrying oil into Egypt. that the prophet Hosea refers to a similar practice, when They did not carry it thither in the way of lawful commerce; for they.carried it to Tyre without reproof, to barter it for other goods. It was not sent as a present to the king of Egypt; for the Jewish people endeavoured to gain the friendship of foreign potentates with gold and silver. It was not exacted as a tribute; for when the king of Egypt dethroned Jehoahaz the king of Judah, and imposed a fine upon the people, he did not appoint them to pay so much oil, but so much silver and gold. But if they burnt oil in those early times in honour of their idols, and their departed friends, and the Jews sent it into Egypt with that intention, it is no wonder the prophet so severely reproaches them for their conduct. Oil is in modern times very often presented to the objects of religious veneration in Barbary and Egypt. The Algerines, according to Pitts, when they are in the mouth of the straits, throw a bundle of wax candles, together with a pot of oil, overboard, as a present to the marabot or saint who lies entombed there, on the Barbary shore, near the sea.-PAXTON.

CHAPTER XIV.

Ver. 5. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.

The earth, while it supplies the various plants which grow upon it, is supplied for that purpose very much by the dew, which is full of oleaginous particles. "The dews seem to be the richest present the atmosphere gives to the earth; having, when putrefied in a vessel, a black sediment like mud at the bottom; this seems to cause the darkish colour to the upper part of the ground; and the sulphur which is found in the dew may be the chief ingredient of the cement of the earth, sulphur being very glutinous, as nitre is dissolvent. Dew has both these." (Tull's Husbandry.) A lively comment this upon the promise in this passage, "I will be as the dew unto Israel."-BURDER.

A priest, or aged man, in blessing a newly married couple, often says, "Ah! may your roots shoot forth like the ArtGAPILLU," (Agrostis Lincaris.) This beautiful grass puts forth NUMEROUS roots, and is highly valued for the feeding of cattle.-ROBERTS.

Ver. 5. I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. 6. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive-tree, and his smell as Lebanon. 7. They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.

Le Bruyn concludes his description of Lebanon, with an account of the cedar-apples, or the fruit which these celebrated trees produce. He cut one of them in two, and found that the smell within exactly resembled turpentine. They exuded a juice from small oval grains, with which a great many small cavities are filled, which also resembles turpentine, both in smell and in clamminess. These cedarapples must be classed with the scented fruits of the oriental regions; and have perhaps contributed greatly to the fragrance for which the sacred writers so frequently celebrate the mountains of Lebanon.-PAXTON.

Not only both the great and small cedars of Lebanon have a fragrant smell, but Maundrell found the great rupture in that mountain, which "runs at least seven hours' travel directly up into it, and is on both sides exceedingly steep and high, clothed with fragrant greens from top to bottom, and everywhere refreshed with fountains, falling down from the rocks in pleasant cascades, the ingenious works of nature. These streams all uniting at the bottom, make a full and rapid torrent, whose agreeable murmuring is heard all over the place, and adds no small pleasure to it."-BURDER.

The approach to Lebanon is adorned with olive-plantations, vineyards, and luxuriant fields; and its lower regions, besides the olive and the vine, are beautified with the myrtle, the styrax, and other odoriferous shrubs: and the perfume which exhales from these plants, is increased by the fragrance of the cedars which crown its summits, or garnish its declivities. The great rupture which runs a long way up into the mountain, and is on both sides exceedingly steep and high, is clothed from the fop to the bottom with fragrant evergreens, and everywhere refreshed with streams, descending from the rocks in beautiful cascades, the work of divine wisdom and goodness. These cool and limpid streams uniting at the bottom, form a large and rapid torrent, whose agreeable murmur is heard over all the place, and adds greatly to the pleasure of that romantic scene. The fragrant odours wafted from the aromatic plants of this noble mountain, have not been overlooked by the sacred writers. The eulogium which Christ pronounces on the graces of the church, contains the following direct reference: "The smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon;" and the prophet Hosea, in his glowing description of the future prosperity of Israel, converts the assertion of Solomon into a promise:

"His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive-tree, and his smell as Lebanon."

The richness and flavour of the wines produced in its vineyards, have been celebrated by travellers in all ages. Rauwolf declares, that the wine which he drank at Canobin, a Greek monastery on mount Libanus, far surpassed any he had ever tasted. His testimony is corroborated by and more delicate than are to be found anywhere else in Le Bruyn, who pronounces the wines of Canobin better the world. They are red, of a beautiful colour, and so oily, that they adhere to the glass; these are so excellent, that our traveller thought he never tasted any kind of drink more delicious. The wines produced on other parts of the mountain, although in much greater abundance, are not nearly so good. To the delicious wines of Canobin, the prophet Hosea certainly refers in this promise: "They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon."

De la Roque, who also visited Canobin, entirely agrees with these travellers in their account of the superior quality of its wines; and expresses his full conviction, that the reputation of the wines of Lebanon mentioned by the prophet, is well founded. Volney asserts, indeed, that he found the wines of Lebanon of a very inferior quality; this may be true, and yet the testimony of these respectable travellers perfectly correct. He might not be presented with the most exquisite wine of Canobin, which has deservedly obtained so high a character; or the vintage of that year might be inferior. But whatever might be the reason, no doubt can be entertained concerning the accuracy of other equally credible witnesses, who, from their own experience, and with one voice, attest the unrivalled excellence of the wine of Lebanon. These travellers admit, that the neighbourhood of Canobin produces wines of inferior quality; but, when the wine of Lebanon is mentioned by way of eminence, the best is undoubtedly meant. In striking allusion to the scenery and productions of that mountain, it is promised in the sixth verse: "His branch shall spead, and his beauty shall be as the olivetree, and his smell (or his memorial, as the original term signifies) as Lebanon." His branches shall spread like the mighty arms of the cedar, every one of which is equal in size to a tree; his beauty shall be as the olive-tree, which is generally admitted to be one of the most beautiful productions of nature; and his smell, his very memorial, shall be as the wine of Lebanon, which delights the taste, and the very recollection of which excites the commendation of those that have drank it, long after the banquet is over. The meaning of these glowing figures undoubtedly is, that the righteous man shall prosper by the distinguishing favour of Heaven; shall become excellent, and useful, and highly respected while he lives; and after his death, his memory shall be blessed and embalmed in the affectionat recollection of the church, for the benefit of many who had not the opportunity of profiting by his example.-PAXTON.

JOEL.

CHAPTER I.

Ver. 6. For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. 7. He hath laid my vine waste, and barked my fig-tree; he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white.

So valuable is the fig-tree in the land of Canaan, and so high is the estimation in which it is held, that to bark and kill it, is reckoned among the severest judgments which God inflicted upon his offending people. The prophet alludes in these words to the destructive progress of the locust, which, with insatiable greediness, devours the leaves and bark of every tree on which it lights, till not the smallest portion of rind is left, even on the slenderest twig, to convey the sap from the root, and leaves it white and withering in the sun, for ever incapable of answering the hopes of the husbandman. Such were the people of Israel, delivered by Jehovah, for their numerous and inveterate transgressions, into the hands of their cruel and implacable enemies.-PAXTON.

The skin of a man is sometimes spoken of as the bark of a tree. Thus it is said of those who have been severely flogged, "Their backs are like the margossa-tree stripped of its bark:" which alludes to the custom of taking off the bark of that tree for medical purposes.-ROBERTS.

Ver. 13. Gird yourselves, and lament, ye priests; howl, ye ministers of the altar; come, lie all night in sackcloth, ye ministers of my God: for the meat-offering and the drink-offering is withholden from the house of your God.

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Dr. Shaw informs us, that " in Barbary, after the grain is winnowed, they lodge it in mattamores or subterraneous magazines, two or three hundred of which are sometimes together, the smallest holding four hundred bushels." And Dr. Russel says, that "about Aleppo, in Syria, their granaries are even at this day subterraneous grottoes, the entry to which is by a small hole or opening like a well, often in the highway; and as they are commonly left open when empty, they make it not a little dangerous riding near the villages in the night."-BURDER.

Ver. 19. O LORD, to thee will I cry for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burnt all the trees of the field.

There are doubtless different methods for felling timber, practised by various nations. In more rude and uncivilized times, and even still among people of that description, we may expect to find the most simple, and perhaps, as they may appear to us, inconvenient contrivances adopted. Prior to the invention of suitable implements, such means as would any way effect this purpose would certainly be resorted to. We must not be surprised then to find that formerly, and in the present day, trees were felled by the operation of fire. Thus Niebuhr says,

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help condemning the unskilful expedient which these highlanders employ for felling trees: they set fire to the root, and keep it burning till the tree falls of itself." Mr. Bruce mentions whole forests, whose underwood and vegetation are thus consumed. Possibly this custom may be alluded to in Zech. xii. 6: "I will make the governors of Judah like a hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf, and they shall devour all the people round about." Such fires may be kindled either from design or accident. In such instances, as obtaining the timber is the object, these fires are purposely lighted, and would be so managed as to do as little damage as possible, though some injury must certainly result from this method of felling trees. Strange as it may seem, we learn from Turner's Embassy to Thibet, that there "the only method of felling timber in practice, I was informed, is by fire. In the trees marked out for this purpose, vegetation is destroyed by burning their trunks half through; being left in that state to dry; in the ensuing year the fire is again applied, and they are burnt till they fall." An allusion to something of this kind the prophet Joel certainly has in these words. Perhaps it may be rather to a general undesigned devastation by fire, than to any contrivance for procuring the timber.-Burder.

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CHAPTER II.

Ver. 4. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they 5. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. 6. Before their face the people shall be much pained; all faces shall gather blackness. 7. They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks.

I never saw such an exhibition of the helplessness of man, as I have seen to-day. While we were sitting at dinner, a person came into the house, quite pale, and told us that the locusts were coming. Every face gathered darkness. I went to the door-I looked above, and all round, and saw nothing. "Look to the ground," was the reply, when 1 asked where they were. I looked to the ground, and there I saw a stream of young locusts without wings, covering the ground at the entrance of the village. The stream was about five hundred feet broad, and covering the ground, and moving at the rate of two miles an hour. In a few minutes they covered the garden wall, some inches deep, and the water was immediately let into the channel, into which it flows to water the garden. They swim with the greatest ease over standing water, but the stream carried hem away, and after floating in it about a hundred paces, they were drowned. All hands were now at work to keep them from the gardens, and to keep them from crossing the streams. To examine the phenomenon more nearly, I walked about a mile and a half from the village, following the course of the stream. Here I found the stream extending a mile in breadth, and, like a thousand rivulets, all flowing into one common channel. It appeared as if the dust under my feet was forming into life, and as if God, when he has a controversy with a people, could raise the very dust of the earth on which they tread in arms against them. Men can conquer the tiger, the elephant, the lion, and all the wild beasts of the desert; he can turn the course of the mighty rivers. he can elude the violence of the tr

pest, and chain the wind to his car; he can raise the waters into clouds, and by the means of steam, create a power that is yet beyond human measurement; he can play with the lightnings of heaven, and arrest the thunders of heaven; but he is nothing before an army of locusts. Such a scene as I have seen this afternoon would fill England with more consternation than the terrific cholera. One of the people here informs us, that he had seen a stream that coninued ten days and nights flowing upon his place. During that time every person in the place was at work, to preserve his garden; as to the cornfields, they were obliged to give them up. They continued to the fifth day defending their gardens; on the evening of the fifth day, the locusts were between five and ten feet deep, and the mass by this time became terrible, and literally fell in pieces over the garden walls.-CAMPBELL.

In some regions of the East, the whole earth is at times covered with locusts for the space of several leagues, often to the depth of four, sometimes of six or seven inches. Their approach, which causes a noise like the rushing of a torrent, darkens the horizon, and so enormous is their multitude, it hides the light of the sun, and casts an awful g.com, like that of an eclipse, over the field. Major Moore, when at Poonah, had the opportunity of seeing an immense army of these animals which ravaged the Mahratta country, and was supposed to have come from Arabia. "The column they composed," says he, "extended five hundred miles; and so compact was it when on the wing, that like an eclipse, it completely hid the sun, so that no shadow was cast by any object;" and some lofty tombs distant from his residence not two hundred yards, were rendered quite invisible. The noise they make in browsing on the trees and herbage may be heard at a great distance, and resembles the rattling of hail, or the noise of an army foraging in secret. The inhabitants of Syria have,observed that locusts are always bred by too mild winters, and that they constantly come from the deserts of Arabia. When they breed, which is in the month of October, they make a hole in the ground with their tails, and having laid three hundred eggs in it, and covered them with their feet, expire; for they never live above six months and a half. Neither rains nor frost, however long and severe, can destroy their eggs; they continue till spring, and, hatched by the heat of the sun, the young locusts issue from the earth about the middle of April.

From the circumstance of their young ones issuing from the ground, they are called, gob or gobai, from an Arabic verb, which signifies to rise out of the earth. Another name is gazam, from the root gazaz, to cut off, or to spoil; and more destructive and insatiable spoilers were never let loose to desolate the earth. Pliny calls them a Scourge in the hand of an incensed Deity. Wherever their innumerable bands direct their march, the verdure of the country, though it resembled before the paradise of God, almost instantaneously disappears. The trees and plants, stripped of their leaves, and reduced to their naked boughs and stems, cause the dreary image of winter to succeed in an instant to the rich scenery of spring; and the whole country puts on the appearance of being burnt. Fire itself devours not so fast; nor is a vestige of vegetation to be found when they again take their flight to produce similar disasters. In a few hours they eat up every green thing, and consign the miserable inhabitants of the desolated regions to inevitable famine. Many years are not sufficient to repair the desolation which these destructive insects produce. When they first appear on the frontiers of the cultivated lands, the husbandinen, if sufficiently numerous, sometimes divert the storm by their gestures and their cries, or they strive to repulse them by raising large clouds of smoke, but frequently their herbs and wet straw fail them; they then dig a variety of pits and trenches, all over their fieids and gardens, which they fill with water, or with heath, stubble, and other combustible matter, which they set on fire upon the approach of the enemy. These methods of stopping their march are of great antiquity, for Homer familiarly refers to them as practised in his time. But they are all to no purpose, for the trenches are quickly filled, and the fires extinguished, by infinite swarms sucreeding one another; and forming a bed on their fields of SIX or seven inches in thickness. Fire itself is not more active than these devourers; and not a trace of vegetation is to be discovered, when the cloud has resumed is flight.

But the two most powerful destroyers of these insects, is the south, or southeasterly winds, and the bird called the samarmar. These birds, which greatly resemble the woodpecker, follow them in large flocks, greedily devour them, and besides, kill as many as they can; they are, therefore, much respected by the peasants, and no person is ever allowed to destroy them. The southerly winds waft them over the Mediterranean, where they perish in so great quantities, that when their carcasses are cast on the shore, they infect the air for several days to a considerable distance. In a state of putrefaction, the stench emitted from their bodies is scarcely to be endured; the traveller, who crushes them below the wheels of his wagon, or the feet of his horses, is reduced to the necessity of washing his nose with vinegar, and holding his handkerchief, dipped in it, continually to his nostrils.

One of the most grievous calamities ever inflicted by the locust, happened to the regions of Africa, in the time of the Romans, and fell with peculiar weight on those parts which were subject to their empire. Scarcely recovered from the miseries of the last Punic war, Africa was doomed to suffer, about one hundred and twenty-three years before the birth of Christ, another desolation, as terrible as it was unprecedented. An immense number of locusts covered the whole country, consumed every plant and every blade of grass in the field, without sparing the roots, and the leaves of the trees, with the tendrils upon which they grew. These being exhausted, they penetrated with their teeth the bark, however bitter, and even corroded the dry and solid timber. After they had accomplished this terrible destruction, a sudden blast of wind dispersed them into different portions, and after tossing them awhile in the air, plunged their innumerable hosts into the sea. But the deadly scourge was not then at an end; the raging billows threw up enormous heaps of their dead and corrupted bodies upon that longextended coast, which produced a most insupportable and poisonous stench. This soon brought on a pestilence, which affected every species of animals; so that birds, and sheep, and cattle, and even the wild beasts of the field, perished in great numbers; and their carcasses, being soon rendered putrid by the foulness of the air, added greatly to the general corruption. The destruction of the human species was horrible; in Numidia, where at that time Micipsa was king, eighty thousand persons died; and in that part of the seacoast which bordered upon the reigon of Carthage and Utica, two hundred thousand are said to have been carried off by this pestilence. When Le Bruyn was at Rama he was informed that the locusts were once so destructive there, that in the space of two hours they ate up all the berbage round the town; and in the garden belonging to the house in which he lodged, they ate the very stalks of the artichoke down to the ground.

This statement will show, that the locust is one of the most terrible instruments in the hand of incensed Heaven; it will discover the reason that the inspired writers, in denouncing his judgments, so frequently allude to this insect, and threaten the sinner with its vengeance; it accounts, in the most satisfactory manner, for the figures which the prophets borrow, when they describe the march of cruel and destructive armies, from the character and habits of this creature. The narratives of Volney, Thevenot, and other travellers, who have seen and described the innumerable swarms of the locusts, and their wasteful ravages, fully confirm the glowing description of Joel and other inspired prophets, quoted in the beginning of this article. "A nation," says Joel, "has come up upon my land, strong and without number. He has laid my vine waste, and barked my fig-tree; he has made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white-the vine is dried up, and the fig-tree languishes, the pomegranate-tree, the palm-tree also, and the apple-tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered; because joy is withered away from the sons of men." "A day of darkness and of gloominess, à day of clouds and thick darkness. A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth. They march every one in his ways; they do not break their ranks, neither does one thrust another. The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness." "They shall the wall; they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter into the windows like a thief. The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble, the sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall

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