When he went down and entered the inner court, he saw within the porticoes three rooms brilliantly illuminated. It was not possible for all the guests to eat the Passover with the master of the house, because each company was not to exceed twenty. Two other apartments had therefore been prepared for other parties. On such occasions, we have before observed, no citizen of Jerusalem considered his house as his own, but cheerfully resigned it for the use of strangers, who, according to ancient custom, acknowledged his courtesy, by the gift of the skin of the paschal lamb. The light was streaming through the lattices of all the rooms, and Helon entered, with a beating heart, that which was appropriated to the use of Iddo and his peculiar guests. A multitude of smaller lamps were suspended from the walls, and one of great size stood in the middle. Costly carpets were spread on the floor, tapestry was hung on the sides, and gold and silver glittered on the divan, though it was not used on this evening; for the paschal lamb was to be eaten standing. The air was filled with the fragrance of Arabian frankincense and the most exquisite perfumes. The women were all richly clad, especially the mistress of the house, who appeared this evening in all her choicest ornaments, a mother in Israel in the city of God. It was only on this day that the women ate with the men; even the men servants and maid servants were not excluded. The whole household of every rank and age, even the children, if they had begun to taste flesh-meat, must be assembled, and all must be Levitically clean. Of the inhabitants not disqualified by uncleanness none were to be absent, but strangers of the gate, hirelings, and all uncircumcised persons: for such had been the command of Jehovah, “There shall no stranger eat thereof.”[113] All the rest were on this night brethren, for all had been delivered by Jehovah from the house of bondage. The bondsman was as the freeman, the woman as the man; and all partook alike of the festivity; all were the people of Jehovah, and equal in his sight. Footnote 113: Exod. xii. 43.