Of laurel. There much cattle lay at rest, Both sheep and goats. Around it was a court (aban), A high enclosure of hewn stone.” ‘*Odyssey,” ix., 181-185.
Dr. Thomson says: ‘The low building on the hill-side which we have just passed, with arches in front, and its enclosure protected by a rubble wall and thorny hedge, is a sheepfold or maréh. . . . The marahs are generally built in a valley, or on the sunny side of a hill, where they are sheltered from the winter winds. In ordinary weather the sheep and goats are gathered at night into the enclosed yard; but when the nights are cold and stormy the flocks are shut up in the marah. The sharp thorn-bushes on the top of the wall that surrounds the yard are a defence which the prowling wolf will rarely attempt to scale. The leopard and panther of this country, however, when pressed with hunger, will sometimes overleap this thorny hedge, and with one bound land amongst the fright- ened fold” (“Central Palestine and Pheenicia,” p. 591). Com- pare Homer:
‘¢ As a lion who has leaped Into a fold—and he who guards the flock Has wounded but not slain him—feels his rage Waked by the blow ;—the affrighted shepherd then Ventures not near, but hides within the stalls, And the forsaken sheep are put to flight, And huddling, slain in heaps, till o’er the fence The savage bounds into the fields again.”
“ Tliad,” v., 186-142.
Bring (ayayeiv). Better, lead, as Rev., in margin. Compare ver. 3, leadeth them out. The idea is not bringing them to- gether (as cvvaydyn, xi. 52), or conducting them to one place, but assuming the guidance.
There shall be (yevyjceras). More correctly, shall come to be. Some editors read yevycovras, they shall become.
One fold (ula roi). The A. V. entirely ignores the dis- tinction between ava, fold, and troiuvn, flock. The latter word is found Matt. xxvi. 31; Luke ii. 8; 1 Cor. ix. 7, and always
Vou. II.—13