Page 162.—_Apples of Sodom._] Wisdom x. 7. (where, however, the land is only described as “bearing fruit that never comes to ripeness.”) Tac. Hist. v. 7. Jos. Bell. Jud. iv. 8. “_Poma Sodomitica_, are the fruits of the _Solanum Melongena_, Linnæi; these I found in plenty about Jericho, in the vales near Jordan, not far from the Dead Sea. It is true they are sometimes filled with a dust, yet this is not always the case, but only when the fruit is attacked by an insect (_tenthredo_) which turns all the inside into dust, leaving the skin only entire, and of a beautiful colour.” Hasselquist, p. 287. Page 164.—_Ceremonies of circumcision._] These are described from the practices of the modern Jews; see Buxtorf. cap. ii. p. 79. Page 166.—_Every guest found in the fore-court a splendid caftan._] Comp. Matt. xxii. 11. the parable of the wedding garment; it has been reasonably concluded that so severe a punishment would not have been inflicted on the man who was not in a wedding garment, if it had not been offered to all the guests. Page 167.—_Mashal._] This name the Hebrews gave to those sententious and figurative maxims of moral wisdom of which the Proverbs of Solomon are a specimen. See Lowth, Prel. 24. Samson’s wedding affords an example of such “wit-trials” as are here described, Judges xiv. Page 176.—_Reckoning of the days from the Passover._] See Maimonides, ap. Cren. Fasc. vi. 477. Page 179.—_The Galileans._] Josephus (Bell. Jud. iii. 3.) describes the extent and the fertility of Galilee. Lightfoot, Works, vol. ii. p. 78, has collected from the Rabbins several instances of the false pronunciation of the Galileans. Wetstein on Matt. xxvi. 73. The contempt in which they were held by the learned inhabitants of Jerusalem is sufficiently known from the New Testament. Page 184.—_Insult offered to Hyrcanus by the Pharisees._] This circumstance is related by Josephus, (Ant. xiii. 10.) The reason alleged by the Pharisees, if it were their real motive, was honourable to them. Οὐ γάρ ἐδοκει λοιδορίας ἕνεκα θανάτῳ ζημιοῦν· ἄλλως τε καὶ φύσει πρὸς, τὰς κολάσεις ἐπιεικῶς ἔχουσιν οἱ Φαρισαῖοι. Page 186.—_Azereth._] See Lightfoot, “of the Pentecost, עצרת,” Works, vol. ii. p. 970. Josephus, Ant. iii. 10. 6. This name is given to other festivals in Scripture, but never to this, except by the Rabbins. It is not said in Scripture that the law was given on this day, but it is inferred by calculation of the time. The Israelites came out of Egypt on the fifteenth of Nisan, and they reached the foot of Sinai on the new moon of the third month from their departure, (Exod. xix. 1.) adding the fifteen remaining days of Nisan to twenty-nine of Siv, the first day of Sivan would be the forty-fifth from their departure. Five days more elapsed, (Exod. xix. 3. 7, 8. 11.) before the law was actually given. Jennings’s Jew. Ant.