MONEY shekels of silver, current money with the merchant' (Gen. xxiii. 19). The brethren of Joseph carried back into Egypt the money in full weight' which they had found in their sacks (Gen. xliii. 21). (See also Gen. xxiv. 22; Jer. xxxii. 9; Amos viii. 5; Deut. xxv. 13). It was customary for the Jews to have scales attached to their girdles for weighing the gold and silver they received; but the Canaanites carried them in their hands. is considered to be the first mention of Hebrew money, properly so called. It consisted of shekels and demi-shekels, the third part of a shekel, and the quarter of a shekel, of silver. From the time of Julius Cæsar, who first struck a living portrait on his coins, the Roman coins run in a continued succession of so-called Cæsars, their queens and crown-princes, from about B.C. 48 down to Romulus Augustulus, emperor of the West, who was dethroned by Odoacer about A.D. 475. After its subjugation by Rome much foreign money found its way into the land of Judæa. The piece of tribute money, or coin mentioned in Luke xx. 24, as presented to our Saviour, bore the image and superscription of the Roman emperor, and it is reasonable to suppose that a large quantity of Roman coins was at that time in circulation throughout Judæa. There is no direct allusion in the sacred writings to coined money as belonging to the Jewish nation. In Gen. xxxiii. 19, Jacob is said to have bought a part of a field for an hundred pieces of money;' and the friends of Job are said to have given him each a piece of money' (Job xlii. 11). The term in the original is kesitoth, and is by some thought to denote sheep' or 'lamb;' by others a kind of money having the impression of a sheep or lamb; and by others again a purse of money. The most correct translation may be presumed to be that which favours the idea of a piece of money bearing some stamp or mark indicating that it was of the value of a sheep or lamb. Maurice, in his Antiquities of India (vol. vii.), bears testimony to the fact that the earliest coins were stamped with the figure of an ox or sheep. In the British Museum there is a specimen of the original Roman As, the surface of which is nearly the size of a brick, with the figure of a bull impressed upon it. Other devices would suggest themselves to different nations as arising out of, or connected with, particular places or circumstances, as the Babylonish lion, Ægina's tortoise, Boeotia's shield, the lyre of Mitylene, the wheat of Metapontum. Religion would also at an early period claim to be distinguished, and accordingly the effigies of Juno, Diana, Ceres, Jove, Hercules, Apollo, Bacchus, Pluto, Neptune, and many other of the heathen deities are found impressed upon the early coins. The Jews, however, were the worshippers of the one only true God; idolatry was strictly forbidden in their law; and therefore their shekel never bore a head, but was impressed simply with the almond rod and the pot of manna. MONEY CHANGERS. It is mentioned by Volney that in Syria, Egypt, and Turkey, when any considerable payments are to be made, an agent of exchange is sent for, who counts paras by thousands, rejects pieces of false money, and weighs all the sequins either separately or together. It has hence been suggested that the current money with the merchant,' mentioned in Scripture (Gen. xxiii. 16), might have been such as was approved of by competent judges whose business it was to detect fraudulent money if offered in payment. It appears that there were bankers or money-changers in Judæa, who made a trade of receiving money in deposit and paying interest for it (Matt. xxv. 27). Some of them had even established themselves within the precincts of the temple at Jerusalem (xxi. 12), where they were in the practice of exchanging one species of money for another. Persons who came from a distance to worship at Jerusalem would naturally bring with them the money current in their respective districts, and it might therefore be a matter of convenience for them to get this money exchanged at the door of the temple for that which was current in Jerusalem, and upon their departure to receive again that species of money which circulated in the districts to which they were journeying. These money-changers would, of course, charge a commission upon all their transactions, but from the observation of our Saviour, when he overthrew the tables of those in the temple, it may be inferred that they were not distinguished for honesty and fair dealing: It is written, my house shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves' (ver. 13). The first Roman coinage took place, according to Pliny (Hist. Nat. xxxiii. 3), in the reign of Servius Tullius, about 550 years before Christ; but it was not until Alexander of Macedon had subdued the Persian monarchy, and Julius Cæsar had consolidated the Roman empire, that the image of a living ruler was permitted to be stamped upon the coins. Previous to that period heroes and deities alone gave currency to the money of imperial Rome. Antiochus Sidetes, king of Syria, is represented to have granted to Simon Maccabæus the privilege of coining money in Judæa (1 Macc. xv. 6). This MOON. The worship of the heavenly bodies was among the earliest corruptions of religion, which would naturally take its rise in the eastern parts of the world, where the atmosphere is pure and transparent, and the heavens as bright as they are glowing. In these countries the moon is of exceeding beauty. If the sun rules the day,' the moon has the throne of night, which, if less gorgeous than that of the sun, is more attractive, because of a less oppressively brilliant light, while her retinue of surrounding stars seems to give a sort of truth to her regal state, and certainly adds not inconsiderably to her beauty. The moon was therefore worshipped as a goddess in the East at a very early period; in India under the name of Maja; among the Assyrians at Mylitta; with the Phoenicians she was termed | The epithet 'queen of heaven' appears to have been very common. Nor was it, any more than the worship of the moon, unknown to the Jews, as may be seen in a remarkable passage in Jeremiah (xliv. 17), where the Israelites (men and women, the latter exert most influence) appear given over to this species of idolatry: We will certainly burn incense to the queen of heaven, and pour out drink-offerings unto her, as we have done, we and our fathers; for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, we have wanted all things.' The last verse of the passage adds to the burnt-offerings and drink-offerings, cakes to worship her.' Vows were also made by the Jews to the moon, which superstition required to be fulfilled (ver. 25). The baneful influence of the moon still finds credence in the East. Moonlight is held to be detrimental to the eyes. In Ps. cxxi. 6 we read, 'The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night; so that the impression that the moon may do injury to man is neither partial nor vague. Rosenmüller refers this to the cold of night, which, he says, is very great and sensible in the East, owing, partly, to the great heat of the day. If this extreme (comparative) cold is considered in connection with the Oriental custom of sleeping out of doors, on the flat roofs of houses, or even on the ground, without in all cases sufficient precautionary measures for protecting the frame, we see no difficulty in understanding whence arose the evil influence ascribed to the moon. MOON, NEW. [FESTIVALS.] MORDECAI selected for king Ahasuerus. Among them was Esther, and on her the choice fell; while, by what management we know not, her relationship to Mordecai, and her Jewish descent, remained unknown at the palace. The uncle lost none of his influence over the niece by her elevation, although the seclusion of the royal harem excluded him from direct intercourse with her. He seems to have held some office about the court; for we find him in daily attendance there, and it appears to have been through this employment that he became privy to a plot of two of the chamberlains against the life of the king, which through Esther he made known to the monarch. This great service was however suffered to pass without reward at the time. On the rise of Haman to power at court, Mordecai alone, of all the nobles and officers who crowded the royal gates, refused to manifest the customary signs of homage to the royal favourite. It would be too much to attribute this to an independence of spirit, which, however usual in Europe, is unknown in Eastern courts. Haman was an Amalekite; and Mordecai brooked not to bow himself down before one of a nation which from the earliest times had been the most devoted enemies of the Jewish people. The Orientals are tenacious of the outward marks of respect, which they hold to be due to the position they occupy; and the erect mien of Mordecai among the bending courtiers escaped not the keen eye of Haman. He noticed it, and brooded over it from day to day: he knew well the class of feelings in which it originated, and-remembering the eternal enmity vowed by the Israelites against his people, and how often their conquering sword had all but swept his nation from the face of the earthhe vowed by one great stroke to exterminate the Hebrew nation, the fate of which he believed to be in his hands. The temptation was great, and to his ill-regulated mind irresistible. He therefore procured the well-known and bloody decree from the king for the massacre of all the Israelites in the empire in one day. When this decree became known to Mordecai, he covered himself with sackcloth and ashes, and rent the air with his cries. This being made known to Esther through the servants of the harem, who now knew of their relationship, she sent Hatach, one of the royal eunuchs, to demand the cause of his grief: through that faithful servant he made the facts known to her, urged upon her the duty of delivering her people, and encouraged her to risk the consequences of the attempt. She was found equal to the occasion. She risked her life by entering the royal presence uncalled, and having by discreet management procured a favourable opportunity, accused Haman to the king of plotting to destroy her and her people. His doom was sealed on this occasion by the means which in his agitation he took to avert it; and when one of the eunuchs present intimated that this man had prepared a gallows fifty cubits high on which to hang Mordecai, the king at once said, MOR'DECAI (supposed to come from the Persian word signifying little man, mannikin; or, according to others, from the idol Merodach, thus signifying a votary of Merodach. The last supposition is not unlikely, seeing that Daniel had the Chaldæan name of Belshazzar), son of Jair, of the tribe of Benjamin, descended from one of the captives transported to Babylon with Jehoia-Hang him thereon.' This was, in fact, a great chin (Esth. ii. 5). He was resident at Susa, then the metropolis of the Persian empire, and had under his care his niece Hadessa, otherwise Esther, at the time when the fairest damsels of the land were gathered together, that from among them a fitting successor to queen Vashti might be aggravation of his offence, for the previous night. the king, being unable to sleep, had commanded the records of his reign to be read to him; and the reader had providentially turned to the part recording the conspiracy which had been frustrated through Mordecai. The king asked what MOSES MOSES 593 vidence that the great and wonderful destiny of had been the reward of this mighty service, and being answered 'Nothing,' he commanded that any one who happened to be in attendance without, should be called. Haman was there, having come for the very purpose of asking the king's leave to hang Mordecai upon the gallows he had prepared, and was asked what should be done to the man whom the king delighted to honour? Thinking that the king could delight to honour no one but himself, he named the highest and most public honours he could conceive, and received from the monarch the astounding answer, 'Make haste, and do even so to Mordecai that sitteth in the king's gate!' Then was Haman constrained, without a word, and with seeming cheerfulness, to repair to the man whom he hated After Moses had grown up, he returned to his beyond all the world, to invest him with the brethren, and, in spite of the degraded state of royal robes, and to conduct him in magnificent | his people, manifested a sincere attachment to cavalcade through the city, proclaiming, Thus them. He felt deep compassion for their suffershall it be done to the man whom the king de- ings, and showed his indignation against their lighteth to honour.' After this it may seem that oppressors by slaying an Egyptian whom he saw it was a strong sense of the fitness of the case for ill treating an Israelite. This doubtful act bethe literal application of the lex talionis, that came by Divine Providence a means of advancing induced the king, when he heard of the gallows him further in his preparation for his future prepared for Mordecai, to command that Haman vocation, by inducing him to escape into the himself should be hanged thereon. Arabian desert, where he abode for a considerable period with the Midianitish prince, Jethro, whose daughter Zipporah he married (Exod. ii. 11, sq.). Here, in the solitude of pastoral life, he was appointed to ripen gradually for his high calling, before he was unexpectedly and suddenly sent back among his people, in order to achieve their deliverance from Egyptian bondage. Mordecai was invested with power greater than that which Haman had lost, and the first use he made of it was, as far as possible, to neutralize or counteract the decree obtained by him. It could not be recalled, as the kings of Persia had no power to rescind a decree once issued; but as the altered wish of the court was known, and as the Jews were permitted to stand on their defence, they were preserved from the intended destruction, although much blood was, on the appointed day, shed even in the royal city. The Feast of Purim was instituted in memory of this deliverance, and is celebrated to this day (Esth. ii. 5; x.) [PURIM]. A Mordecai, who returned from the exile with Zerubbabel, is mentioned in Ezra ii. 2, and Neh. vii. 7; but this cannot well have been the Mordecai of Esther, as some have supposed. MORI'AH, one of the hills of Jerusalem, on which the temple was built by Solomon (2 Chron. iii. 1). The name seldom occurs, being usually included in that of Zion, to the north-east of which it lay, and from which it was separated by the valley of Tyropœon (Joseph. Antiq. viii. 3-9) [JERUSALEM]. THE LAND OF MORIAH, whither Abraham went to offer up Isaac (Gen. xxii. 2), is generally supposed to denote the same place, and may at least be conceived to describe the surrounding district. The Jews themselves believe that the altar of burnt-offerings in the temple stood upon the very site of the altar on which the patriarch purposed to sacrifice his son. MOSE'RAH, MOSEROTH, a station of the Israelites near Mount Hor (Num. xxxiii. 30) [WANDERING]. On His entry upon this vocation was not in consequence of a mere natural resolution of Moses, whose constitutional timidity and want of courage rendered him disinclined for such an undertaking. An extraordinary divine operation was required to overcome his disinclination. Mount Horeb he saw a burning thorn-bush, in the flame of which he recognised a sign of the immediate presence of Deity, and a divine admonition induced him to resolve upon the deliverance of his people. He returned into Egypt, where neither the dispirited state of the Israelites, nor the obstinate opposition and threatenings of Pharaoh, were now able to shake the man of God. Supported by his brother Aaron, and commissioned by God as his chosen instrument, proving, by a series of marvellous deeds, in the midst of heathenism, the God of Israel to be the only true God, Moses at last overcame the opposition of the Egyptians. According to a divine decree, the people of the Lord were to quit Egypt, under the command of Moses, in a triumphant manner. The punishments of God were poured down upon the hostile people in an increasing ratio, terminating in the death of the firstborn, as a sign that all had deserved death. The formidable power of paganism, in its conflict with the theocracy, was obliged to bow before the apparently weak people of the Lord. The Egyptians paid tribute to the emigrating Israelites (Exod. xii. 35), who set out laden with the spoils of victory. MO'SES, the lawgiver of Israel, belonged to the tribe of Levi, and was a son of Amram and Jochebed (Exod. vi. 20). According to Exod. ii. 10, the name means drawn out of water, and is The enraged king vainly endeavoured to detherefore a significant memorial of the marvel-stroy the emigrants. Moses, firmly relying upon lous preservation of Moses when an infant, in spite of those Pharaonic edicts which were promulgated in order to lessen the number of the Israelites. It was the intention of divine pro- | miraculous help from the Lord, led his people through the Red Sea into Arabia, while the host of Pharaoh perished in its waves (Exod. xii.xv.). After nis began the most important functions of Moses as the lawgiver of the Israelites, who were destined to enter into Canaan as the people of promise, upon whom rested the ancient blessings of the patriarchs. By the instrumentality of Moses they were appointed to enter to intimate communion with God through a sacred covenant, and to be firmly bound to him by a new legislation. Moses, having victoriously repulsed the attack of the Amalekites, marched to Mount Sinai, where he signally punished the defection of his people, and gave them the law as a testimony of divine justice and mercy. From Mount Sinai they proceeded northward to the desert of Paran, and sent spies to explore the Land of Canaan (Num. x.-xiii.). On this occasion broke out a violent rebellion against the lawgiver, which he, however, by divine assistance, energetically repressed (Num. xiv.-xvi.). The Israelites frequently murmured, and were disobedient during about forty years. In a part of the desert of Kadesh, which was called Zin, near the boundaries of the Edomites, after the sister of Moses had died, and after even the new generation had, like their fathers, proved to be obstinate and desponding, Moses fell into sin, and was on that account deprived of the privilege of introducing the people into Canaan. He was appointed to lead them only to the boundary of their country, to prepare all that was requisite for their entry into the land of promise, to admonish them impressively, and to bless them. It was according to God's appointment that the new generation also, to whom the occupation of the country had been promised, should arrive at their goal only after having vanquished many obstacles. Even before they had reached the real boundaries of Canaan they were to be subjected to a heavy and purifying trial. It was important that a man like Moses was at the head of Israel during all these providential dispensations. His authority was a powerful preservative against despondency under heavy trials. Having in vain attempted to pass through the territory of the Edomites, the people marched round its boundaries by a circuitous and tedious route. Two powerful kings of the Amorites, Sihon and Og, were vanquished. Moses led the people into the fields of Moab over against Jericho, to the very threshold of Canaan (Num. xx., xxi.). Moses happily averted the danger which threatened the Israelites on the part of Midian (Num. xxv.-xxxi.). Hence he was enabled to grant to some of the tribes permanent dwellings in a considerable tract of country situated to the east of the river Jordan (Num. xxxii.), and to give to his people a foretaste of that well-being which was in store for them. Moses made excellent preparations for the conquest and distribution of the whole country, and took leave of his people with powerful admonitions and impressive benedictions, transferring his government to the hands of Joshua, who was not unworthy to become the successor of so great a man. With a longing but gratified look, he surveyed, from the elevated ground on the border of the Dead Sea, the beautiful country destined for his people. Moses died in a retired spot at the age of one hundred and twenty years. He remained vigor MOTHER ous in mind and body to the last. His body was not buried in the promised land, and his grave remained unknown, lest it should become an object of superstitious and idolatrous worship. The Pentateuch is the greatest monument of Moses as an author. The ninetieth psalm also seems to be correctly ascribed to him. Some learned men have endeavoured to prove that he was the author of the book of Job, but their arguments are inconclusive [JOB]. Numerous traditions, as might have been expected, have been current respecting so celebrated a personage. Some of these were known to the ancient Jews, but most of them occur in later rabbinical writers. The name of Moses is celebrated among the Arabs also, and is the nucleus of a mass of legends. The Greek and Roman classics repeatedly mention Moses, but their accounts contain the authentic Biblical history in a greatly distorted form. MOTH occurs in Job iv. 19; xiii. 28; xxvii. 18; Isa. 1. 9; li. 8; Hosea v. 12; Matt. vi. 19. 20; Luke xii. 33; Ecclus. xix. 3; xlii. 13. There is no Biblical insect whose identity is better ascertained. The following allusions to the moth occur in Scripture:-to its being produced in clothes for from garments cometh a moth (Ecclus. xlii. 13): to its well-known fragility 'mortal men are crushed before the moth' (Job iv. 19), literally before the face of the moth.' The allusion to the house of the moth' (Job xxvii. 18) seems to refer plainly to the silky spindle-shaped case, covered with detached hairs and particles of wool, made and inhabited by the larva of the Tinea sarcitella; or to the felted case or tunnel formed by the larva of the Tinea pellionella; or to the arched gallery formed by eating through wool by the larva of the Tinea tapetzella. References occur to the destructiveness of the clothes-moth: as a garment that is moth-eaten' (Job xiii. 28); the moth shall eat them up' (Isa. 1. 9); the moth shall eat them up like a garment' (li. 8); 'I will be to Ephraim as a moth,' i. e. will secretly consume him (Hos. v. 12); comp. Matt. vi. 19, 20; Luke xii. 33; James v. 2, metaphorically. Since the 'treasures' of the Orientals, in ancient times, consisted partly of garments, both new and old' (Matt. xiii. 52; and comp. Josh. vii. 21; Judg. xiv. 12), the ravages of the clothes-moth afforded them a lively emblem of destruction. Moths, like fleas, &c., amid other more immediate purposes of their existence, incidentally serve as a stimulus to human industry and cleanliness; for, by a remarkable discrimination in her instinct, the parent moth never deposits her eggs in garments frequently overlooked or kept clean. Indeed, the most remarkable of all proofs of animal intelligence is to be found in the larva of the water-moth, which get into straws, and adjust the weight of their case so that it can always float: when too heavy they add a piece of straw or wood, and when too light a bit of gravel. MOTHER. The ordinary applications of the word require no illustration; but the following points of Hebrew usage may be noticed. When the father had more than one wife, the son seems to have confined the title of mother' to his real mother, by which he distinguished her from the other wives of his father. Hence the source of MOUNTAINS Joseph's peculiar interest in Benjamin is indi- | cated in Gen. xliii. 29, by his being his mother's son.' The other brethren were the sons of his father by other wives. Nevertheless, when this precision was not necessary, the step-mother was sometimes styled mother. Thus Jacob (Gen. xxxvii. 10) speaks of Leah as Joseph's mother, for his real mother had long been dead. The step-mother was however more properly distinguished from the womb-mother by the name of father's wife.' The word mother' was also, like father, brother, sister, employed by the Hebrews in a somewhat wider sense than is usual with us. It is used of a grandmother (1 Kings xv. 10), and even of any female ancestor (Gen. iii. 20); of a benefactress (Judg. v. 7), and as expressing intimate relationship (Job xvii. 14). In Hebrew, as in English, a nation is considered as a mother, and individuals as her children (Isa. 1. 1; Jer. 1. 12; Ezek. xix. 2; Hos. ii. 4; iv. 5); so our mother-country,' which is quite as good as father-land,' which we seem beginning to copy from the Germans. Large and important cities are also called mothers, i. e. 'mother-cities,' with reference to the dependent towns and villages (2 Sam. xx. 19), or even to the inhabitants, who are called her children (Isa. iii. 12; xlix. 23) [WOMAN]. 6 MOUNTAINS. The mountains mentioned in Scripture are noticed under their different names, and a general statement with reference to the mountains of Palestine is given under that head. We have therefore in this place only to notice more fully some remarkable symbolical or figurative uses of the word in the Bible. In Scripture the governing part of the body politic appears under symbols of different kinds. If the allegory or figurative representation is taken from the heavens, the luminaries denote the governing body; if from an animal, the head or horns; if from the earth, a mountain or for tress; and in this case the capital city or residence of the governor is taken for the supreme power. These mutually illustrate each other. For a capital city is the head of the political body; the head of an ox is the fortress of the animal; mountains are the natural fortresses of the earth; and therefore a fortress or capital city, though seated in a plain, may be called a mountain. Thus the words head, mountain, hill, city, horn, and king, are used in a manner as synonymous terms to signify a kingdom, monarchy, or republic, united under one government, only with this difference, that it is to be understood in different respects; for the term head represents it in respect of the capital city; mountain or hill in respect of the strength of the metropolis, which gives law to, or is above, and commands the adjacent territory. When David says, Lord, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong' (Ps. xxx. 7), he means to express the stability of his kingdom. It is according to these ideas that the kingdom of the Messiah is described under the figure of a mountain (Isa. ii. 2; xi. 9; Dan. ii. 35), and its universality by its being the resort of all nations, and by its filling the whole earth. The mystic mountains in the Apocalypse denote kingdoms and states subverted to make room for the Messiah's kingdom (Rev. vi. 14; xvi. 20). The Chaldæan monarchy is described as a mountain in Jer. li. 25; Zech. iv. 7. In this view, then, a mountain is the symbol of a kingdom, or of a capital city with its domains, or of a king, which is the same. Mountains are frequently used to signify places of strength, of what kind soever, and to whatsoever use applied (Jer. iii. 23). Eminences were very commonly chosen for the sites of pagan temples: these became places of asylum, and were looked upon as the fortresses and defenders of the worshippers, by reason of the presence of the false deities in them. On this account mountains were the strongholds of paganism, and therefore in several parts of Scripture they signify idolatrous temples and places of worship (Jer. ii. 23; Ezek. vi. 2-6; Mic. iv. 1; comp. Deut. xii. 2; Jer. ii. 20; iii. 16; Ezek. vi. 3). MOURNING. This head embraces both the outward expressions of sorrow for the dead, referred to in the Scriptures, and those expressions which were intended to exhibit repentance, &c. These subjects may be noticed according to Townsend's chronological arrangement, and since they nearly approximate, will be pursued together. Under this arrangement, the earliest reference to any kind of mourning is that of Job (B.c. 2130), who, being informed of the destruction of his children as the climax of his calamities, arose, rent his mantle, shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground and worshipped' (Job i. 20), uttered sentiments of submission (ver. 21), and sat down among the ashes (ch. ii. 8). His friends came to him by an appointment among themselves to mourn with him and comfort him (ver. 11); they lift up their voices and wept upon a view of his altered appearance; they rent every man his mantle and sprinkled dust upon their heads towards heaven (ver. 12), and sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, waiting till his grief should subside before they commenced their office as mourners. Job then bewails aloud his unhappy condition (ch. iii.). In ch. xvi. 15, 16, reference is made to the customs of sewing sackcloth upon the skin, defiling the head with dust, and suffering the face to be begrimed with weeping. Clamour in grief is referred to (xix. 7; xx. 28): it is considered a wicked man's portion that his widows shall not weep at his death (xxvii. 15). However it is to be accounted for, in the course of the book of Job nearly all the chief characteristics of eastern mourning are introduced. This will appear as we proceed. The next instance is that of Abraham, who came to mourn and weep for Sarah (B.c. 1871), words which denote a formal mourning (Gen. xxiii. 2). Days of mourning are referred to in regard to the expected death of Isaac (Gen. xxvii. 41). These appear generally to have consisted of seven, as for Saul (1 Sam. xxxi. 13). Weeping appears (B.C. 1729), either as one chief expression of mourning, or as the general name for it. Hence when Deborah, Rebecca's nurse, was buried at Bethel under an oak, at this period, the tree was called Allon-bachuth, the oak of weeping (Gen. xxxv. 8). The children of Israel were heard to weep by Moses throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent (Num. xi. 10; comp. xiv. 1; xxv. 6). So numerous are the references to tears in the Scriptures as to give the impression that the Orientals had them early at |