[638] Isa. xxxiii. 9, xxxv. 2; Micah vii. 14. Its beauty and fruitfulness are alluded to in Jer. xlvi. 18, l. 19; Amos i. 2, ix. 3; Nahum i. 4; Cant. vii. 5.
[639] Sir George Grove, to whose excellent article in Smith's _Dict. of Bible_ (i. 279) I am indebted, quotes Martineau (i. 317), Porter's _Handbook_, Van de Velde, etc. See, too, Stanley, _Sinai and Palestine_, pp. 353-56.
[640] On these _Lapides judaici_, see my _Life of Christ_, i. 129. Illustrations are given in the illustrated edition.
[641] Jambl., _Vit. Pythag._, iii.; Suet., _Vesp._, 5; Tac., _Hist._, ii. 78; Reland, _Palest._, pp. 327-30.
[642] Megiddo lies in the plain below, and this scene of conflict between good and the powers of evil was an anticipated Armageddon.
[643] Isa. xlix. 2; Cheyne, p. 16.
[644] LXX., 1 Kings xviii. 21, ἕως πότε ὑμεῖς χωλανεῖτε ἐπ' ἀμφοτέραις ταῖς ἰγνύαις. Vulg., _usquequo claudicatis in duas partes?_ Cheyne renders it: "How long will ye go lame upon tottering knees?" In Psalm cxix. 113, סֵעֲפִים are "the double-minded." In Ezek. xxxi. 6, סְעַפּוֹת, "diverging branches." In Isa. ii. 21, סְעִפֵי, "clefts of rocks" (Bähr).
[645] Herodian (_Hist._, v. 3) describes the dance of Heliogabalus round the altar of the Emesene Sun-god, and Apuleius describes at length the fanatic leapings and gashings of the execrable _Galli_--the eunuch-mendicant priests of the Syrian goddess. From these sources and from allusions in Seneca, Lucian, Statius, Arnobius, etc., Movers (_Phöniz._, i. 682) derives his description (quoted by Keil, _ad loc._, E.T., p. 281): "A discordant howling opens the scene. Now they fly wildly through one another, with the head sunk down to the ground, but turning round in circles, so that the loose flowing hair drags through the mire. Thereupon they first bite themselves on the arm, and at last cut themselves with two-edged swords, which they are wont to carry. Then begins a new scene. One of them who surpasses all the rest in frenzy, begins to prophesy with sighs and groans, openly accuses himself of past sins, which he now wishes to punish by the mortifying of the flesh, takes the knotted whip which the Galli are wont to bear, lashes his back, cuts himself with swords, till the blood trickles down from his mangled body."
[646] Verse 27. Others render it "meditating" (De Wette Thenius) or "peevish" (Bähr). Comp. Hom., _Il._, i. 423; _Od._, i. 22, etc.
[647] This instance of "grim sarcastic humour" is almost unique in Scripture. It was made more mordant by the paronomasia כִּי־שִׂיחַ לֹּו וְכִי־שִׂיג (2 Sam. i. 22).
[648] Plutarch (_De Superstit._, p. 170) says: "The priests of Bellona offered their own blood, which was deemed powerful to move their gods." Comp. Herod., ii. 61; Lucian, _De Dea Syra_, 50; Apul., _Metam._, viii. 28.
[649] הַמִּנחָה לַעֲלוֹת עַד, "till towards (Numb. xxviii. 4) the offering of the Minchah." LXX., θυσία; Vulg., _sacrificium_ and _holocaustum_. In verse 39 it is omitted in the LXX. "There is a great concurrence of evidence that the evening sacrifice of the first Temple was not a holocaust, but a cereal oblation" (Robertson Smith, p. 143, quoting 1 Kings xviii. 34; 2 Kings xvi. 15; Ezek. ix. 4, Heb).
[650] Heb., וַיִתְנַבְּאוּ; LXX., διέτρεχον; Vulg., _transiliebant_. Literally, they acted like frantic prophets (1 Sam. xviii. 10; Jer. xxix. 26).
[651] LXX., θαλάσσαν, or "sea"--the name given to Solomon's molten laver; but the description, "as great as would contain two _seahs_ of seed," is curious, for a seah was only the third of an ephah.
[652] Blunt (_Undesigned Coincidences_, II. xxxii.) thinks that as the drought had been so intense the water must have been sea-water. But Josephus says it was drawn ἀπὸ τῆς κρήνης (_Antt._, VIII. xiii. 5); and the well still exists.