The Bible, it has been remarked, begins in Genesis with a seven, and ends in the Apocalypse with a series of sevens. God himself took a rest on the seventh day and was refreshed, or, as the Hebrew reads, took breath. The Passover and other festivals lasted seven days; Jacob bowed seven times; Solomon's temple was seven years in building; the tabernacle had seven lamps, a candlestick with seven arms, etc. In a variety of passages it seems, like 40, to have been a sort of round number--as people sometimes say a dozen for an indeterminate quantity. Thus in Daniel iii. 19 the fiery furnace was to be heated seven times more than it was wont to be heated. In Proverbs (xxiv. 16) we are told a just man falleth seven times and rises up again. One of the Psalmists says (cix. 164), "Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments" (see too Lev. xxvi. 18, 28; Dent, xxviii. 7, 35; Job ix; Psalm xii. 6, lxxix. 12; Isaiah iv. 1, xi. 15, xxx. 26; Jer. xv. 9, Matt. xii. 45). The week induced reckoning by sevens, and led to such enactments as that the Jews on the seventh day of the seventh month should feast seven days and remain seven days in tents. The root idea of the number is that of religious periodicity. We find it not only in the Sabbath, but in all other sacred periods. Thus the seventh month is ushered in by the Feast of Trumpets, and signalised by the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles and Yom Kippur. Seven weeks is the interval between Passover and Pentecost. The seventh is the Sabbatical year, when bondsmen were to be released and debts go free. With this custom is connected the binding of youths for seven years apprenticeship, and of punishing incorrigible offenders for 7, 14, or 21 years. The year succeeding seven times seven is the Jubilee. The earliest form, that of the menstrual period, is shown in the duration of various kinds of legal uncleanness, as after childbirth, after contact with a corpse, etc. So we have the sprinkling of the house seven times with the water of purification (Lev. xiv. 51), the command of Elisha to Naaman to wash in Jordan seven times (2 Kings v. 10). Hezekiah, in cleansing the temple, offered seven bullocks, seven rams, and seven he-goats for a sin offering. Septuple actions and agents abound. Thus the blood of sacrifices were sprinkled seven times (Lev. iv. 6, 17; xiv. 7, 16, 27; xvi. 14, 15). So Jacob bowed to his brother Esau seven times (Gen. xxxiii. 3). Balak built for Balaam seven altars, and prepares seven oxen and seven rams (Num. xxiii. 1, 4, 14, 29), and Abraham employed seven victims for sacrifice (Gen. xxi. 28, 30). We are reminded of the lines in Virgil's Æneid (vi. 58). Seven bullocks, yet unyoked, for Phoebus choose, And for Diana, seven unspotted ewes.