yarda, beUer taken ns e. proper n11.me, Abel- custom mentioned by Sanchonia.tho (quoted tXJramim. The site is not certainly known. by Porphyry), of s1tcrificing to Saturn one of Eusebius speaks of two Abels, both fertile thoso most dear to them in timos of war in vineyards, one se,en Roman miles from pestilence, or drought ; the yc1trly s1tcrific~ Rabhah, which is probe.bly the one here at Carthage of a boy chosen by lot (' Sil, meant. Italicus,' 4, 765), and many other exnmplcs, Yer. 34. -To his house. Seever. 11. Ria prove the prevalence of human sacrifices in only child (Jc'hid)-the same term as is ap- early times, aud in heathen lands. This plied to Isaac (Gen. xxii. 2). Eusebius says must be borne in mind in reading the history thnt Cronus sacrificed his only son, who on of Jephthah. that. account was called J eoud, which in the Ver. 37.-And bewail my virginity. It Phcenician tongue me.ans an only son(' Prep. is a striking evidence of the strong desire Ernng.,' iv. 17). among Hebrew women to be mothers, as Ye!·. 35. -Thou hast brought me very seen in Sarah, Rachel, Hannah, and others, low-literally, thou hast thoroughly bowed 'l1Ul that it was the prospect of dying unmarriecl do1.en, i. e. with sorrow. I cannot go back. which seemed to Jephthnh's daughter the A forcible illustration of the evil of rash saddest part of her fate. So in Ps. lxxviii. vows. He who makes them is so placed 63, their maidens were not given to marriage that he must sin. If he breaks his vow, he is one of the items of the misery of Israel has taken God's name in vain; if he keeps (see too ver. 39). it, he breaks one of God's commandments. Ver. 39.-Who did with her according to So it was with Saul (1 Sam. xiv. 24, 39-45), his vow. Nothing can be more express than with Herod (Mark vi. 23) ; so it has often this statement. In fact, except the natural been since with those who have made unau- horror we feel at a human sacrifice, there is thorised vows, and who in attempting to nothing to cast the least shade of doubt upon keep them have fallen into deadly sin. the fact that Jephthah's daughter was offered Ver. 36. - My father, &c. See Numb. up as a burnt offering, in accordance with xxxii. 2. The touching submission of heathen notions, but, asJosephussays, neither Jephthah's daughter to her unnatural and "conformably to the law, nor acceptably to terrible fate, while it reveals a most lovable God." Most of the early Jewish comment- character, seems also to show that the idea. ators and all the Christian Fathers for ten or of a human sacrifice was not so strange to her eleven centuries (Origen, Chrysostom, Theo- mind as it is to ours. The sacrifice of his doret, ,T~rome, Augustine, &c.) held this eldest son as a burnt offering by the king of view. Luther's comment is, "Some affirm Moab, some 300 years later, as related 2 that he did not sacrifice her, but the text is Kings iii. 27 ; the intended sacrifices of clear enough." She knew. Rather, she had Iphigenia P,Dd of Phrixus in Greek mytho- known,. logy ; the sacrifices of children to Maloch, so Ver. 40.-The daughters of Israel, &c. often spoken of in Scripture ; the question No other trace of this custom, which was in Micah n. 7, "Shall I give my first-born probably con.fined to Gilead, remains. To for my transgression, the fruit of my body ,lament. The word rather means to praise, or for the sin of my soul ! " the Phaenician .celeb·rate, as in eh. v. 11 (rehearse).
HOMILETICS. Vers. 29-40.-Human perverseness embiitering the sweet cup. The tragic history of Jephthah and his daughter is one·of the saddest in the Bible. It forms a drai:n,a full of pathos, and with terrible contrasts of joy and sorrow. Indeed the whole hfe of Jephthah was one of startling incident. Driven from his home in youth to become a fugitive and an exile; leading the wil? and e~citing life of a ~aptain of free- booters till middle age ; then recalled to his father s ho~se to take his pla?e as head of the State with all the pomp and power of a great prince, a great warrior, a con- queror, and a judge; in the height o~ his joy and tri~mph struck to the g!o_und by a sorrow of the intensest bitterness, which must have blighted the few remauuug years of his life-his whole life was one of strange vicissitudes and sensational events. The stain of his birth was not, of course, any fault of his ; but it led to that irregular course of lawlessness anil violence which must have laid the seeds of many faults of character-recklessness, impulsiveness, and indifference to h!lman 1:i&hts and hu_man sufferings-which were mingled with many great and heroic quaht1es_. Espec1ally we see how the habit of fighting for plunder, and for the purely selhsh ends o~ a livelihood for himself and his followers, produced that lower type of greatness which bartered his own energies and prowe3s for place and po,ver, instead of the g1Jnerous OH, XI. 29-40.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES. 127