The plough was drawn by oxen, which were sometimes impelled by a scourge (Isa. x. 26; Nahum iii. 2); but oftener by a long staff, furnished at one end with a flat piece of metal for clearing the plough, and at the other with a spike for goading the oxen. This ox-goad might be easily used as a spear (Judg. iii. 31; I Sam. xiii. 21). Sometimes men followed the plough with hoes to break the clods (Isa. xxviii. 24); but in later times a kind of hammer was employed, which appears to have been then, as now, merely a thick block of wood, pressed down by a weight, or by a man sitting on it, and drawn over the ploughed field.

11. Sowing. Ancient Egyptian.

Ploughing in the Seed.-The Egyptian paintings illustrate the Scriptures by showing that in those soils which needed no previous preparation

by the hoe (for breaking the clods) the sower followed the plough, holding in the left hand a basket of seed, which he scattered with the right hand, while another person filled a fresh basket. We also see that the mode of sowing was what we call 'broad-cast,' in which the seed is thrown loosely over the field (Matt. xiii. 3-8). In Egypt, when the levels were low, and the water had continued long upon the land, they often dispensed with the plough altogether; and probably, like the present inhabitants, broke up the ground with hoes, or simply dragged the moist mud with bushes after the seed had been thrown upon the surface. To this cultivation without ploughing Moses probably alludes (Deut. xi. 10), when he tells the Hebrews that the land to which they were going was not like the land of Egypt, where they sowed their seed and watered it with their foot as a garden of herbs. It does not seem that any instrument resembling our harrow was known; the word rendered to harrow, in Job xxxix. 10, means literally to break the clods, and is so rendered in Isa. xxviii. 24; Hos. x. 11: and for this purpose the means used have been already indicated. The passage in Job is, however, important. It shows that this breaking of clods was not always by hand, but that some

Ancient Egyptian.

kind of instrument was drawn by an animal over the ploughed field, most probably the rough log which is still in use.

Harvest.--It has been already indicated that the time of the wheat harvest in Palestine varies. in different situations, from early in May to late in June; and that the barley harvest is about a fortnight earlier than that of wheat. Among the Israelites, as with all other people, the harvest was a season of joy, and as such is more than once alluded to in Scripture (Ps. xxvi. 5; Isa. ix. 3).

Reaping.-Different modes of reaping are indicated in Scripture, and illustrated by the Egyp

corn was plu ked up by the roots, which continued to be the practice with particular kinds of grain after the sickle was known. In Egypt, at this day, barley and dhurah (maize) are pulled up by the roots. Wheat, as well as barley in general,' says Russell, does not grow half as high as in Britain; and is therefore, like other grain, not reaped with the sickle, but plucked up by the roots with the hand. In other parts of the country, where the corn grows ranker, the sickle is used. When the sickle was used, the wheat was either cropped off under the ear or cut close to the ground. In the former case, the straw was afterwards plucked up for use; in the latter, the stubble was left and burnt on the ground for manure. As the Egyptians needed not such manure, and were economical of straw, they generally followed the former method; while the Israelites, whose lands derived benefit from the burnt stubble, used the latter; although the practice of cutting off the ears was also

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6, 21, 23; John iv. 36; James v. 4). Refreshments were provided for them, especially drink, of which the gleaners were allowed to partake (Ruth ii. 9). So in the Egyptian harvest-scenes, we perceive a provision of water in skins, hung against trees, or in jars upon stands, with the reapers drinking, and gleaners applying to share the draught. Among the Israelites, gleaning

16. Egyptian Harvest Scene.

was one of the stated provisions for the poor: and for their benefit the corners of the field were left unreaped, and the reapers might not return for a forgotten sheaf. The gleaners were however to obtain in the first place the express permission of the proprietor or his steward (Lev. xix. 9, 10; Deut. xxiv. 19; Ruth ii. 2, 7).

known to them (Job xxiv. 24). Cropping the ears short, the Egyptians did not generally bind them into sheaves, but removed them in baskets. Sometimes, however, they bound them into double sheaves; and such as they plucked up were bound into single long sheaves. The Israelites appear generally to have made up their corn into sheaves Gen. xxxvii. 7; Lev. xxiii. 10-15; Ruth ii. 7, 15; Job xxiv. 10; Jer. ix. 22; Mich. iv. 12), which were collected into a heap, or removed in a cart (Amos ii. 13) to the threshing-floor. The carts were probably similar to those which are still employed for the same purpose.

With regard to the sickles, there appear to have been two kinds in use as among the Egyptians. The figures of these Egyptian sickles probably mark the difference between them. One

15. Sickles.

was very much like our common reaping-hook, while the other had more resemblance in its shape to a scythe, and in the Egyptian examples appears to have been toothed. The reapers were the owners and their children, men-servants and women-servants, and day-labourers (Ruth ii. 4,

17. Threshing by Cattle.

Threshing. The ancient mode of threshing, Egyptian monuments, is still preserved in Paas described in Scripture and figured on the lestine. Formerly the sheaves were conveyed from the field to the threshing-floor in carts; but now they are borne, generally, on the backs of camels and asses. The threshing-floor is a level plot of ground, of a circular shape, generally about fifty feet in diameter, prepared for use by beating down the earth till a hard floor xxiv. 16, 24). Sometimes several of these floors is formed (Gen. I. 10; Judg. vi. 37; 2 Sam. are contiguous to each other. The sheaves are spread out upon them; and the grain is trodden out by oxen, cows, and young cattle, arranged five abreast, and driven in a circle, or rather in all directions, over the floor. This was the common mode in the Bible times; and Moses forbade that the oxen thus employed should be muzzled to prevent them from tasting the corn (Deut. xxv. 4; Isa. xxviii. 28). Flails, or sticks, were only used in threshing small quantities, or for the lighter kinds of grain (Ruth ii. 17; Isa. xxviii. 27). There were, however, some kinds of threshing-machines, which are still used in Palestine and Egypt. One of them, represented in the annexed figure, is very much used in Palestine. It is composed of two thick planks, fastened together side by side, and bent upwards in front. Sharp fragments of stone are fixed into holes bored in the bottom. This machine is drawn over the corn by oxen, a man of boy sometimes sitting on it to increase the weight. It not only separates the grain, but

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АНАВ

45

'corn-drag,' which is mentioned in Scripture (Isa. xxviii. 27; xli. 15; Amos i. 3, rendered threshing instrument'), and would seem to have been sometimes furnished with iron points instead of stones. The Bible also notices a machine called a Moreg (2 Sam. xxiv. 22; 1 Chron. xxi. 23; Isa. xli. 15), which is unquestionably the same which bears in Arabic the name of Noreg. This machine is not now often seen in Palestine; but is more used in some parts of Syria, and is common in Egypt. It is a sort of

19. Threshing by the Noreg. frame of wood, in which are inserted three wooden rollers, armed with iron teeth, &c. It bears a sort of seat or chair, in which the driver sits to give the benefit of his weight. It is generally drawn over the corn by two oxen, and separates the grain, and breaks up the straw even more effectually than the drag. In all these processes, the corn is occasionally turned by a fork; and, when sufficiently threshed, is thrown up by the same fork against the wind to separate the grain, which is then gathered up

and winnowed.

Winnowing. This was generally accomplished by repeating the process of tossing up the grain against the wind with a fork (Jer. iv. 11, 12), by which the broken straw and chaff were dispersed, and the grain fell to the ground.

20. Winnowing.

AGRIPPA [HERODIAN FAMILY]. Although of the two Herods, father and son, who also bore the name of Agrippa, the latter is best known by his Roman name, it seems best to include him with the other members of the Herodian dynasty, under the name which he bore among his own people.

A'GUR, the author of the sayings contained in Prov. xxx., which the inscription describes as composed of the precepts delivered by Agur, the son of Jakeh,' to his friends Ithiel and Ucal.' Beyond this everything that has been stated of him, and of the time in which he lived, is pure conjecture.

A'HAB (father's brother), son of Omri, and the sixth king of Israel, who reigned twenty-two years, beginning in B.C. 918 and ending in 897. Ahab was, upon the whole, the weakest of all the Israelitish monarchs; and although there are occasional traits of character which show that he was not without good feelings and dispositions, the history of his reign shows that weakness of character in a king may sometimes be as injurious in its effects as wickedness. Many of the evils of his reign may be ascribed to the close connection which he formed with the Phoenicians. The wife of Ahab was Je zebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, or Ithobaal, king of Tyre. She was a woman of a decided and energetic character, and, as such, soon established that influence over her husband which such women always acquire over weak, and not unfrequently also over strong, men. Ahab, being entirely under the control of Jezebel, sanctioned the introduction, and eventually established the worship of the Phoenician idols, and especially of the sun-god Baal. Hitherto the golden calves in Dan and Bethel had been the only objects of idolatrous worship in Israel, and they were intended as symbols of JEHOVAH. But all reserve and limitation were now abandoned. The king built a temple at Samaria, and erected an image, and consecrated a grov to Baal. A multitude of the priests and prophets of Baal were maintained. Idolatry became the predominant religion; and Jehovah, with the golden calves as symbolical representations of him, were viewed with no more reverence than Baal and his image. At length the judgment of God on Ahab and on his house was pronounced by Elijah, that, during the reign of his son, his whole race should be exterminated. Ahab died of the wounds which he received in a battle with the Syrians, according to a prediction of Micaiah, which the king disbelieved, but yet endeavoured to avert by disguising himself in the action (1 Kings xvi. 29; xxii. 40).

2. AHAB and ZEDEKIAH. The names of two false prophets, who deceived the Israelites at Babylon. For this they were threatened by Jeremiah, who foretold that they should be put to death by the king of Babylon in the presence of those whom they had beguiled; and that in following times it should become a common male diction to say, 'The Lord make thee like Ahal

AHAZ

clemency and magnanimity by the acts recorded of him in Ezra and Nehemiah, and by the accordant voice of profane writers, prevents us from recognising Artaxerxes in the debauched, imbecile, and cruel tyrant of the book of Esther. On the ground of moral resemblance to that tyrant, however, every trait leads us to Xerxes. The king who scourged and fettered the sea; who beheaded his engineers because the elements destroyed their bridge over the Hellespont; who so ruthlessly slew the eldest son of Pythius because his father besought him to leave him one sole support of his declining years; who dishonoured the remains of the valiant Leonidas; and who beguiled the shame of his defeat by such a course of sensuality, that he publicly offered a reward for the inventor of a new pleasure--is just the despot to divorce his queen because she would not expose herself to the gaze of drunken revellers; is just the despot to devote a whole people, his subjects, to an indiscriminate massacre; and, by way of preventing that evil, to restore them the right of self-defence (which it is hard to conceive how the first edict ever could have taken away), and thus to sanction their slaughtering thousands of his other subjects.

There are also remarkable coincidences of date between the history of Xerxes and that of Ahasuerus. In the third year of his reign the latter gave a grand feast to his nobles, which lasted 180 days (Esth. i. 3); the former, in his third year, also assembled his chief officers to deliberate on the invasion of Greece. Again, Ahasuerus married Esther at Shushan, in the seventh year of his reign: in the same year of his reign, Xerxes returned to Susa with the mortification of his defeat, and sought to forget himself in pleasure;--not an unlikely occasion for that quest for fair virgins for the harem (Esth. ii. 2). Lastly, the tribute imposed on the land and isles of the sea also accords with the state of his revenue exhausted by his insane attempt against Greece. In fine, these arguments, negative and affirmative, render it so highly probable that Xerxes is the Ahasuerus of the book of Esther, that to demand more conclusive evidence, would be to mistake the very nature of the question.

The fourth Ahasuerus is mentioned in Tobit xiv. 15, in connection with the destruction of Nineveh. That circumstance points out Cyaxares I. as the person intended.

had imposed upon the Hebrew kings, and had regard only to his own depraved inclinations. He introduced the religion of the Syrians into Jerusalem, erected altars to the Syrian gods, altered the temple in many respects after the Syrian model, and at length ventured to shut it up altogether. Such a man could not exercise that faith in Jehovah, as the political head of the nation, which formed the courage of a Hebrew king. Hence, after he had sustained a few repulses from Pekah and Rezin, his allied foes, when the Edomites had revolted from him, and the Philistines were making incursions into his country, notwithstanding a sure promise of divine deliverance, he called Pul, the king of Assyria, to his aid [ASSYRIA]. He even became tributary to that monarch, on condition of his obliging Syria and Israel to abandon their design of destroying the kingdom of Judah; and thus afforded to Tiglath-pilezer, the successor of Pul, an opportunity of conquering Syria, Israel beyond Jordan, and Galilee. The Assyrians afforded Ahaz no real assistance; on the contrary, they drove him to such extremities that he was scarcely able, with all the riches of the temple, of the nobility, and of the royal treasury, to purchase release from his troublesome protectors. He died at the age of thirty-six (2 Kings xvi. ; 2 Chron. xxviii.; Isa. vii.).

1. AHAZI'AH (whom Jehovah sustains); son and successor of Ahab, and seventh king of Israel. He reigned two years, B.C. 897, 896. It seems that Jezebel exercised over her son the same influence which had guided her husband; and Ahaziah pursued the evil courses of his father. The most signal public event of his reign was the revolt of the Moabites, who took the opportunity of the defeat and death of Ahab to discontinue the tribute which they had paid to the Israelites. Ahaziah became a party in the attempt of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, to revive the maritime traffic by the Red Sea; in consequence of which the enterprise was blasted, and came to nothing (2 Chron. xx. 35-37). Soon after, Ahaziah, having been much injured by a fall from the roof-gallery of his palace, had the infatuation to send to consult the oracle of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron, respecting his recovery. But the messengers were met and sent back by Elijah, who himself announced to the king that he should rise no more from the bed on which he lay (1 Kings xxii. 51, to 2 Kings i. 18).

A'HAZ (possessor), son of Jotham, and eleventh ing of Judah, who reigned sixteen years, beginning in B.C. 741, and ending in 726. Ahaz was the most corrupt monarch that had hitherto appeared in Judah. He respected neither Jenovah, the law, nor the prophets; he broke through all the restraints which law and custom

wicked counsels of his idolatrous mother, Atha. liah. He cultivated the connections which had unhappily grown up between the two dynasties, and which had now been cemented by marriage. Hence he joined his uncle Jehoram of Israel in an expedition against Hazael, king of DamaceneSyria, for the recovery of Ramoth-Gilead; and afterwards paid him a visit while he lay wounded in his summer palace of Jezreel. The two kings rode out in their several chariots to meet Jehu ; and when Jehoram was shot through the heart, Ahaziah attempted to escape, but was pursued, and being mortally wounded, had only strength to reach Megiddo, where he died. His body was