Palestine, or, the Holy Land Part 17

[11] Judges i. 3.

[12] Joseph. contra Apion. cap. 1. 2 Kings xvii. 24.

[13] Reland, Palestina Ill.u.s.trata, lib. ii. c. 5. Spanheim, Charta terris Israelis. Lowman on the Civil Government of the Hebrews.

[14] Lev. xxv. 23.

[15] Lev. xxv. 24-28.

[16] Judges xxi. 8-13.

[17] Numbers xxvi. 02.

[18] Joshua vii. 16, 17, 18.

[19] I Chron. ii. 10, 11.

[20] Deut. iv. 1, 2; xii. 32. "Hoc igitur argumento maximo est; juris illius majestatis quod in legibus ferendis est positum, nihil quicquam penes hominem fuisse."--_Conringius de Repub. Heb_.

[21] Livii. Hist. lib. xxviii. 37; lib. x.x.x. 7. Bochart, Geog. Sacra, part ii. lib. ii. 24.

[22] Complete History of the Canon, book 1. c. 3.

[23] Deut. xvi. 18, 19. Josephus's Antiquities, book iv. 8.

[24] Reland. Antiq. Sac. Pars, ii. c. 7.

[25] Fleury, Moeurs des Israelites, xxv.

[26] Lewis, Orig. Heb. lib. i. 6.

[27] Michaelis's Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, art. 44; and Joshua xviii. 3.

[28] 1 Samuel xxv. 4-14.

[29] Judges vi. 12. 2 Samuel xiii. 23, 24.

[30] Numbers x.x.xv. 2, 5, 7.

[31] Joshua xx. 7, 8. Numbers x.x.xv. 6, 15. Deut. xix. 4, 10.

[32] Michaelis's Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, vol. i. art. 52.

Jablonsky Panth. AEgypt. Prolegomena, 21, 41, 43.

[33] Isaiah xl. 13.

[34] 1 Samuel viii. 4, 21.

[35] Deut. xvii. 14-20.

[36] 2 Samuel viii. 1, 2. 1 Chron. xviii. 1, 2; xix. 1-20.

[37] 1 Chron. xxii. 8.

[38] 2 Chron. ii. and ix. throughout.

[39] 1 Kings xi. 1-8.

[40] Maundrell's Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem in 1697.

[41] 2 Kings xvii. 1-7.

[42] 2 Kings xxv. 4-13.

[43] Lamentations i. 1-4.

[44] Heber's Palestine.

[45] History of the Jews (Nos. 1, 2, 3, Family Library), vol. ii. p. 39.

[46] History of the Jews, vol. ii. p. 40.

[47] The effects produced upon the mind of the king by the murder of Mariamne are powerfully described by two poetical writers, the author of the History of the Jews, and the unfortunate Lord Byron. "All the pa.s.sions," says the former, "which filled the stormy soul of Herod were alike without bound: from violent love and violent resentment he sank into as violent remorse and despair. Everywhere by day he was haunted by the image of the murdered Mariamne; he called upon her name; he perpetually burst into pa.s.sionate tears. In vain he tried every diversion,--banquets, revels, the excitements of society. A sudden pestilence broke out, to which many of the n.o.blest of his court, and of his own personal friends, fell a sacrifice; he recognized and trembled beneath the hand of the avenging Deity. On pretence of hunting, he sought out the most melancholy solitude, till the disorder of his mind brought on disorder of body, and he was seized with violent inflammation and pains in the back of his head, which led to temporary derangement."--vol. ii. p. 90.

I.

"Oh, Mariamne! now for thee The heart for which thou bled'st is bleeding; Revenge is lost in agony, And wild remorse to rage succeeding.

Oh, Mariamne! where art thou?

Thou canst not hear my bitter pleading: Ah, couldst thou--thou wouldst pardon now, Though heaven were to my prayer unheeding.

II.

"And is she dead?--and did they dare Obey my phrensy's jealous raving?

My wrath but doomed my own despair: The sword that smote her's o'er me waving.

But thou art cold, my murder'd love!

And this dark heart is vainly craving For her who soars alone above, And leaves my soul unworthy saving.

III.

"She's gone, who shared my diadem; She sunk, with her my joys entombing; I swept that flower from Judah's stem Whose leaves for me alone were blooming; And mine's the guilt, and mine the h.e.l.l, This bosom's desolation dooming; And I have earned those tortures well, Which unconsumed are still consuming."

_Hebrew Melodies_.

[48] History of the Jews, vol. ii. p. 96.

[49] Matth. ii. 22, 23. "Among the atrocities which disgraced the later days of Herod, what we called the Ma.s.sacre of the Innocents (which took place late in the year before, or early in the same year with the death of Herod) pa.s.sed away unnoticed. The murder of a few children in a village near Jerusalem would excite little sensation among such a succession of dreadful events, except among the immediate sufferers. The jealousy of Herod against any one who should be Born as a _king in Judea_,--the dread that the high religious spirit of the people might be re-excited by the hope of a real Messiah,--as well as the summary manner in which he endeavoured to rid himself of the object of his fears, are strictly in accordance with the relentlessness and decision of his character."

_History of the Jews_, vol. ii. p. 106.

[50] Acts xii. 21, 22, 23.