Page 200.—_Does it begin to be light towards Hebron?_] “Judæi in Talmud Joma, cap. 3. et Maimonides in eum locum referunt, missum quolibet mane fuisse, qui ex summo templo ortum diei pro sacrificio offerendo observaret; cui acclamarint, ‘_Num lux usque Hebronem sit_;’ hoc est num ita lux fugaverit tenebras, ut qui ortum spectet etiam Hebronem videre possit.” Cellar. lib. iii. c. 13. p. 345. Lightfoot, i. 943. The reader must not expect to find that every trait in this account of the going up to the Passover can be warranted by quotation from Jewish authors. That it was the custom to go up in large companies on this occasion, accompanied with song and music, (Is. xxx. 29. Harmer iii. No. lxxx.) there can be no doubt. See Luke ii. 14. John vi. 4.[134] In the description of the psalms which were sung, and other circumstances by which the picture is filled up, the author has allowably indulged his imagination. Footnote 134: This explains the connection between the fourth and fifth verses, and may remove the suspicion of a corruption or interpolation of the fifth, alleged by Pearce, Mann, and Priestley. Page 206.—_Bethshur_ (Josh. xv. 58.) was on the road from Jerusalem to Hebron, at the distance of twenty miles from the former. It is frequently mentioned in the books of the Maccabees and in Josephus as a fortress of great strength. Jos. Ant. xiii. 9. 1 Macc. vi. 7. In the second book of Maccabees, xi. 5. it is said to be only five stadia from Jerusalem, but this is evidently a false reading. See Reland, p. 658. Cell. iii. 13. 344. Page 208.—_Etham._] Ἡν δὲ χωρίον τι ἄπο δύο σχόινων Ἱεροπολύμων, ὁ καλεῖται μὲν Ἠθαμ, παραδείσοις δὲ καὶ ναμάτων ἐπιῤῥοίαις ἐπιτερπὲς ὁμοῦ καὶ πλόυσιον· εις τοῦτο τὰς ἐξόδους ἀιωρούμενος ἐποιεῖτο. Jos. Ant. viii. 7. 3. speaking of Solomon. An account of the modern state of these reservoirs may be seen in Maundrell, p. 88. Pococke, ii. 42. Buckingham, 224. Page 211.—_No beggar among you._] The reader will not suppose that these words occur in the law of Moses, in whose writings, as Michaelis observes, (Mos. Law, § 142.) the name of _beggar_ is not found, or any allusion to such a class of society: but that the spirit of his institutions excluded beggary. The laws respecting the treatment of the poor are found, Deut. xiv. 28, 29. xv. 1-11. xxiv. 19-22. xxvi. 11-15. Lev. xix. 9, 10. xxiii. 22.