served on Agu, or on Sunday, Tuesday and Friday. Such were their rules for what was termed political translation. With respect to the mixed translation, it was that in which both the lunary and political met in the changing of days, and was divided by the Jews into simple and double. Simple translation was when the feast was translated to the next day following.-For example, if the moon changed after 12 o'clock on Sunday, the feast was translated for two reasons: the first lunary, because the point of the change was after 18 hours; the second political, because the rule Adu forbade Sunday to be kept. Notwithstanding, inasmuch as the next day, namely, Monday, was observed, the translation was termed simple. Of this sort was that translation which they called Betu-thekpet (5) a word of no particular meaning, but invented for the help of memory, each letter being a numeral, and thus resolved: equal to 2, equal to 15, and p equal 1 to 589; the meaning of which is, that in the year following that one in which one whole month was intercalated, if the point of the change happened upon the second day of the week, that is, on Monday, and not before the 15th hour, and the 589th moment (1080 moments being an hour,) then the feast of the new moon was translated to Tuesday. But how the lunary and political translations work in this change, must be referred to Scaliger, de Emend. Temp. lib. ii. p. 87.— This, then, may serve as an explanation of simple mixed translation. And with respect to the double mixed translation, it was when the feast was translated, not to the next, but to some further day; as if the first day of the month Tizri, or the first day of their civil year, should happen upon Saturday; here, if the moon had not finished her conjunction before the afternoon, lunary translation removed this feast till Sunday, because of

תקפט

1

the or 18 hours; and political translation removed it till Monday, as appeareth by the rule Adu, forbidding Sunday. Of this sort was Getred (7,) a word of no meaning, but composed to assist the memory, of a set of numerals thus explained: signifies 3, signifies 9, and 204 :-The meaning, therefore, is, that if in their common year, when a whole month was not inserted, the point of change happened on the third day of the week, viz. Tuesday, and not before the 9th hour, and the 204th moment of an hour, then the new moon was translated to Thursday.

The feast of tabernacles was observed in the month Tisri, and therefore that could not be observed on the morrow after the sabbath, as appeareth by the rule Adu. The passover was observed in the month Abib or Nisan, and therefore that might be observed the morrow after the sabbath, by the rule Bedu. Should it be asked, however, why the passover might be observed on the day after the sabbath, and the feast of tabernacles might not? I answer, that all the subsequent translations depended on the first translation of the first new moon in Tisri: but as that could not be changed so as to prevent all concurrence between the several feasts, they thought the above plan the most convenient, since the greater part of them were thereby prevented."

So much, then, concerning the Jewish methods of fixing the times of their feasts and fasts. They were, indeed, a solemn kind of trifling, but they show the desire which the Jews had for accuracy, and may gratify the curiosity of some of my readers. I might add, that the Jews never counted by the year of the world till A.D. 1040, when, being driven from the East, and

a Godwin's Moses and Aaron, book iii. ch. 8.: but to be found at large in Maimonides, de consecratione Calendarum, et de ratione intercalendi. Cap. 6-21.

forced to remove to Spain, France, England, and Germany, they learned it from some of the Christian chronologers. Their common method of fixing dates before that was, by the reigns of their kings; and afterwards by the æra of the Selucidæ, called by them the æra of contracts: because, after they fell under the government of the Syro-Macedonian kings, they were forced to use it in all their contracts about civil affairs.-It began at the retaking of Babylon by Seleucus, A.A.C. 312.*

SECT. XI.

Commerce of Judea.

Internal; external with Arabia, Egypt, and Tyre; remarks on the nations that have distinguished themselves by trade. The fleets of Solomon to Tarshish and Ophir particularly considered. The situation of these two places.

THE Commerce of Judea was either domestic or foreign. The domestic commerce consisted in those numberless exchanges which the individuals of the tribes made with each other, either for money or produce; and the foreign, that which was carried on with other nations, either near or remote. With Babylon and Persia, on the north-east, the Jews seem to have had little intercourse, till a late period of their history, and even then it was rather military than commercial. They had more with the Arabs on the east, who were naturally of a restless turn, and acted as the carriers of their own surplus produce, and that of their more easterly neighbours. So early as the days of Joseph do we read of them going southward to Egypt in caravans: for they were the persons who bought him from his brethren, and sold him to Potiphar. The Egyptians and Jews had indeed a considerable traffic: for in times of scarcity the Jews

Prideaux, Connect. sub Ann.

b Ecclus. xxvi. 29.

went down to Egypt for corn; and Solomon bought from thence large quantities of linen yarn, either for the purposes of weaving or embroidery: and, to add to his magnificence and military strength, he also purchased chariots from the same quarter, for 600 shekels of silver each, and horses for an hundred and fifty shekels each. He was, indeed, the first king of Judea who attended to this species of force, and had no fewer than sixteen hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen." But we read little of the commercial relations between Judea and Egypt from the time of his death till the conquests of Alexander the Great, who, in order to people his new capital, settled a great many Jews in Alexandria, and granted them privileges equal to those of the Macedonians.-This increased the intercourse between these nations, which was still farther cemented by Ptolemy Soter who carried numbers of Jews to the same place, and gave them such encouragement, that multitudes more went voluntarily to settle there; insomuch, that Philo reckons that in his time there were a million of Jews in that country. It is easy to see how the productions of either country would come into request in such circumstances.-As for the Phoenicians, they very early distinguished themselves as a commercial nation, especially the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon; and, being on the shore of the Mediterranean, and on the confines, or rather within the limits of the land of Judea, the Jews and they had frequent intercourse. From Tyre, therefore, as from the best frequented market in the world, did the luxuries of other nations find their way among the Jews, during the pros perity of these interprising cities.-They were, indeed, excellently situated for trade: and as trade, and not territory, was the cause of their greatness, they found it

their interest to draw every nation to their ports. Hence the numerous caravans from every quarter by land, and the ships by sea. It deserves notice, that the greatest trading nations in the world have not had originally the greatest territory. The domains of Tyre extended only a few miles from the coast: when Solomon, therefore, built the temple, he paid the Tyrians in wheat, barley, wine, and oil, rather than in money." Carthage on the coast of Africa, which was founded by a colony of Tyrians, was according to Strabo xvii. 832, only three hundred and sixty stadia, or forty-five miles in circumference. Venice and Holland, to which the centre of commerce was chiefly transferred, after the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, are only of narrow limits; and Britain, which is now the principal commercial nation, is only an inconsiderable island, as to extent. It is true that, as these increased in commercial prosperity, they increased in colonies; but the original observation still holds good, that great nations, like extensive landed proprietors, have in general, rather contented themselves with the fruits of the soil, internal commerce, and becoming the customers of general merchants, than been general merchants themselves: whilst several of the smaller states, who had no extensive territory to boast of, and where situated on the seashore, have turned their genius from their soil to their ships, and, by becoming the centre of attraction and confidence, have bettered themselves and become the benefactors of the universe. Let us look at Tyre only, at present, for a confirmation of this remark.-Although originally an inconsiderable city, and now a rock to dry nets on, yet, in the days of her prosperity, she was the emporium of every trading nation:-to her, as to a centre, came all

a 2 Chron. ii. 10-15.