網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

an omer of it every day, neither more nor less ; and it is often said, that it was as much as a man could eat. Now, an omer, reduced to our measure, held above five pints, and its weight was more than five pounds and a half. It was then about eighty-four bushels per year : consequently, each arpent, or acre, could maintain but two men at most; and three millions of arures, making one million six hundred eighty-seven thousand five hundred arpents, would feed three million three hundred and twenty-five thousand men.

I know very well this number would not be sufficient to furnish out the one million two hundred thousand fighting men of Jehoshaphat. He had not dominion over half the land; and though all the Israelites bore arms without distinction, there were always a great many persons among them unfit for war. We must reckon nearly as many women as men, a great many old men, and more children and though in proportion they need less food, however, it must require a great deal to suffice such a multitude. Besides, they were obliged by the law to let the land have rest every seventh year.

But it must be observed that this passage in Hecatæus relates only to the plowed lands of the Jews, and those too that were most fruitful. For if we take the whole extent of the land of Israel, it would be fourteen times as much. It cannot be computed as less than five degrees square, according to our maps. Now one de

• Exod. xvi. 16.

Ibid. ver. 18.

gree makes two million, nine hundred thirty thousand; two hundred fifty-nine square arpents and the five degrees, fourteen million, six hundred fifty-one thousand, two hundred ninety-five arpents. So that it is evident that Hecatæus has reckoned only a small part. He has left out what the Samaritans enjoyed in his time; their lakes, desarts, and barren grounds, vineyards, plantations, and pastures, of which they must have had a large quantity for the support of their great herds of cattle. For, besides what they bred, they had some from other countries. The king of Moab paid Ahab king of Israel a tribute of a hundred thousand lambs, and as many rams. Other Arabians brought Jehoshaphat seven thousand seven hundred rams, and as many he-goats. All this eattle was a great help to maintaining them, not only by the flesh, but the milk. Considering that the Israelites lived in a simple manner, and laid out all their good ground in tillage; for they had few groves, no parks for hunting, nor avenues, nor flower gardens. We see by the Song of Solomon, that their gardens were full of fruit trees and aromatic plants; we may therefore be in still less concern for their lodging than their food, since half, nay a quarter of an acre, is more than sufficient to lodge, not only one man, but a whole family, with ease and convenience.

42 Chron. xvii. 11.

CHAP. IV.

The Riches of the Israelites.

EACH Israelite had his field to till, which was the same that had been allotted to his ancestors in the time of Joshua. They could neither change their place, nor enrich themselves to any great degree. The law of jubilee had provided against that by revoking all alienations every fifty years, and forbidding to exact debts, not only this forty-ninth year, but every sabbatical year for as the ground lay fallow those years, it was but reasonable to put a stop to law proceedings at the same time. Now this difficulty of being paid again, made it not so casy to borrow money, and consequently lessened the opportunities of impoverishment; which was the design of the law. Besides, the impossibility of making lasting purchases gave a check to ambition and anxiety: each man was confined to the portion of his ancestors, and took a pleasure in making the best of it, knowing it could never go out of the family.

This attachment was even a religious duty, founded upon the law of God: and thence proceeded the generous opposition made by Naboth, when king Ahab would have persuaded him to sell the inheritance of his fathers. So

Lev. xxv. 10, 11, &c. Joseph. Antiq. B. iii. c. 12, s. 3. Whiston's Edit. fol. Lond. 1737. ' 1 Kings xxi. 3.

the law says they were no more than usufructuaries of their land, or rather GoD's tenants, who was the true proprietor of it. They were

obliged to pay no rent, but the tenths and firstfruits which he had commanded: and Samuel reckons taxes upon corn and wine as one of the encroachments of kings with which he threatens the people." All the Israelites were then very nearly equal in riches as well as quality: and if, by the increase of a family, they were obliged to divide the estate in land into more shares, it was to be made up with industry and labour, by tilling the ground more carefully, and breeding greater numbers of cattle in desarts and commons.

Thus, it was cattle and other moveables that made one richer than another. They bred the same sort of creatures as the Patriarchs did, and always many more females than males; otherwise they had been liable to many inconveniences, for the law forbad them to castrate them. They had no horses, nor are they of any great use in mountainous countries: their kings had them out of Egypt, when they had occasion for them. The common way of riding was upon asses, even among the rich.. To give us a great idea of Jair, one of the judges over the people, the Scripture tells us that he had thirty sons who were rulers of thirty cities, riding upon thirty asses." It is recorded of Abdon, another judge, that he had forty sons,

Levit. xxv. 23.
* Levit. xxii. 24. ·

1 Sam. viii. 15.

* Judg. x. 4.

and thirty grandsons, that rode upon threescore and ten asses; and in the song of Deborah, the captains of Israel are described as mounted upon sleek and shining asses."

It does not appear that they had a great number of slaves, neither had they occasion for them, being so industrious and numerous in so small a country: they chose rather to make their children work, whom they were obliged to maintain, who served them better than any slaves. The Romans found a great inconvenience at last from that vast multitude of slaves of all nations, which luxury and effeminacy had introduced among them: it was one of the chief causes of the ruin of that empire.

Ready money could not be very common among the Israelites; there was no great occasion for it in a country of little trade, and where it was scarcely possible to alienate lands, or run into debt. They were forbidden to take usury of one another, though they might of strangers; but if they observed their law, it was no easy matter to have any dealing with foreigners." Thus their wealth, as I said before, consisted chiefly in land and cattle.

a

[ocr errors][merged small]

Judg. v. 10.- tsachar signifies not only white, as it is translated in our Bible, but sleek or shining; nitentes, as the Vulgate has it. And probably the asses here mentioned might be both; the author's words are ânes polis et luisans. The word occurs but twice in the Hebrew Bible: viz. in the above text, and Ezek. xxvii. 18. E. F.

[blocks in formation]

C

« 上一頁繼續 »