EXPOSITION. THE LJ.W OJI' TASSELS (vers. 37 - 41). and the method m which they were knotted Ver. 38.-Bi.d them that they JDAke them together, so as to set forth the whole 111,w with fringes. M1'¥, probably tassels. It seems all its several comma.ndments. The later to signify something ftower-like and bright, Jews, however, have always contrived, with like the blooms on a shrub ; the word rt is all their minute observance, to break the plain avplied to the shining plate of gold upon letter of the law : thus the modern tii.lUk is A:i.ron's head-band (Exod. :avili. 36). In an under, and not a.n upper, garment. Jer. xlviii 9 it seems to mean a wing, and Ver. 39.-That ye may look upon it, and in Ezek. viii 3 1W'1 is a lock of hair. The remember all the eomma.ndments. It was indeed a minute and apparently trivial dis- exact meaning mUBt be gathered from the tinction, and yet such an one as would most context, and on the whole that suggests a surely strike the eye, and through the eye taS!!el rather than a fringe. The word 0 1~'JJ, the mind. It was like the facings on a UBed in the parallel passage Deut. Xxil. 12, uni.form which reca.ll the fa.me and exploits seems to have this meaning. The Sep t of a. famous regiment. The ta.sealed Hebrew lenders it by 1<pa<11rioa, which is ad in was a. marked man in other eyes, and in his the Gospels (see on Matt. :xxiii 5). In the own ; he could not pass himself off as one of borders of their garment.a. Literally, "on the heathen ; he was perpetually reminded the wings,.. hri ra '11'1'lpvy,a. The outer of the special relation rn which he stood to garment ("'IJ; here, l"HCf in Dent. :uil. 12) the Lord, whose livery (so to spea.k)-or, to use another simile, whose colonre-he wore. "·as worn like a plaid, so folded that the (our No doubt the sky. blue string or thread corners were dependent, and on each of these which was so prominent wa.s meant to re- corners was to be hung a tassel It was also mind him of heaven, and of the God of used M a coverlet by the poor (Exod. nii. heaven. And that ye seek not after your own 27). That they put upon the fringe of the heart and your own eyee, after whioh ye border• a ribband of blue. Rather, "that uB& to go a whoring. The office of the! they put a. strin"' (or thread) of hyacinth-blue 0 te.ssele was to promote a. recollected spirit. I upon the ta.ssel of the wing." Septuagint, As it was, their fickle minds were always r:>.;;,<1µ,a i.,a,;/:v.!11:vov. This may have been a ready to stray a.way towards e.ny heathen. blue string with which to fasten the tassel to follies which their restless eyes might light the corner of the garment, as if it were the upon. The trivial but striking pe<'uliarity stalk on which this flower grew; or it may of their dress should recall them to the have been a prominent blue thread in the thought that they we1·e a peculiar people, t.assel itself. The later Jews seem to have nnderstood it in this sense, and coneerned holy to the Lord. the1nselves greatly with the symbolical ar- Ver. 41.-I a.m the Lord your God. This rangsmentB of the blue and other t.b.read.B1 intensely solemn formula., here twice repeated. <CH. XV. 37-41.] TIIE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 195
mrLy serve to show how intimately the smallest is further to be noted that this precept was ,observnnces of the Law were connected with given during the years of exile, and probably the profoundest and most comforting of given as one which they wuld keep, and spiritual truths, if only observed in faith which would be helpful to them, at a time and true obedience. The whole of religion, when almost all other distinctive observances theoretical and practical, lay in those words, were suspended. .aud that whole was hung upon a tassel. It