A. M. 2514. A. C. 1490; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3764. A. C. 1647. EXOD. xxxiv, 28—NUM. xviii.

tility of its soil, and the like, they set out upon their progress, and finished it in forty days.

At their return they passed through a valley, which, for its fertility in vines, is called the valley of Eshcol, which signifies a cluster of grapes; and here they cut down a branch with but one cluster upon it, which, by reason of its immoderate largeness, as well as to preserve the grapes from being bruised, they hung upon a pole, and carried between two men's shoulders. Nor was this the only product of that happy soil; the golden fig, and beautiful pomegranate, adorned the trees, and a variety of other fruits, of which they brought samples along with them, loaded the luxuriant branches.

Being at length happily arrived in the camp, they went and made their report to Moses and Aaron, in the presence of the elders, and of all the people. They began indeed with extolling the riches of the land, and showed them a specimen of some of the fruits which it produced; but when they perceived that this account had fired the people with a desire to become the happy possessors of it by a speedy conquest, ten of them then began to alter their tone, and to represent it as a thing impossible, both by reason of the strength of its fortified towns, and the valour and gigantic stature of its inhabitants.

them, they were deliberating upon a proper person to reconduct them into the land of their former thraldom; when, all on a sudden, the glory of God appeared in a brighter lustre than ordinary, in the tabernacle, and from thence was heard to speak to Moses in such threatening terms as gave the people cause to fear that some speedy and terrible judgment would be the reward of their rebellion and ingratitude.

Here Moses was forced again, as at several other times, to become their intercessor, and made use of such powerful arguments, and expostulations, as did in some measure avert the divine vengeance; but, as their ingratitude and infidelity were become intolerable, notwithstanding God's constant care in providing against their wants, screening them from their enemies, and preserving them from all dangers, he solemnly declared, that none of that generation, above twenty years of age, except Joshua and Caleb, who received his commendations for their fidelity, should enter into the promised land, but should wander from place to place in the wilderness, for the space of forty years; and as for the false spies, the immediate authors of this rebellion, they were all destroyed by a sudden death,1 and became the first instances of the punishment denounced against the whole

nation.

Joshua and Caleb were the only two that remained This severe punishment, joined with the sentence of true to their report, and gave them all imaginable en-exclusion from the promised land, gave the humours of couragement that the enterprise was practicable; but the cowardly account of the other ten had got such a powerful possession of them, that they cried out, one and all, that they could never hope to overcome such powerful nations, in comparison of which they looked upon themselves as mere grasshoppers and reptiles; and their murmuring, in short, grew to such a height by the next morning, that a return to Egypt was thought more advisable, than to face such an enemy. Nay, in the hearing of Moses and Aaron, of Caleb and Joshua, who endeavoured to dissuade them all they could, even to the hazard of being stoned by

a That there are vines and grapes of a prodigious bigness in those eastern and southern parts of the world, is a matter recorded by several writers. Straho tells, that in Margiana, and other neighbouring countries, there were vines so very thick about, that two men could scarce fathom them, and that they produced bunches of grapes of two cubits long. Pliny informs us, that in the inland parts of Africa there are bunches of grapes bigger than young children. Olearius, in his travels into Persia, acquaints us, that not far from Astracan, he saw vines which a man could hardly grasp with both his arms, and a cluster which produced three Scotch gallons of wine; and the learned Huetius affirms that in Crete, Chios, and other islands in the Archipelago, there tre bunches of grapes from ten to forty pounds in weight.Quæst. Alnet. b. 2., and Le Clerc's Commentary.

Though they might in their raging fits speak of returning into Egypt; yet it is an amazing thing, that they should continue in their madness, and deliberate about it, nay actually appoint them a leader, as Nehemiah (ix. 17.) says they did. For how could they get thither without food, which they could not expect that God would send from heaven, when they had thus shame fully forsaken him? How could they hope to find their way, when the cloud which directed them was withdrawn from them, or think of coping with such nations as would oppose their passage, in case they should hit upon the right way? And after all, if they came into Egypt, what reception could they expect from a people, whose king, and princes, and first-born had lately been destroyed upon their accounts? Nothing can be said in answer to these questions, but that outrageous discontent infatuates men's minds, and will not suffer them to consider any thing but that which grieves them.- Patrick's Commentary.

the people soon another turn: for, supposing that their forwardness now would make some atonement for their former cowardice, they assembled themselves together next morning, and offered to go upon the conquest. Moses endeavoured what he could to dissuade them from so rash an enterprise, by telling them that it was contrary to God's express command, and therefore could not prosper; that, by their late undutiful behaviour, they had forfeited his assistance and protection, without which it was impossible for them to succeed; and that, as the Amalekites and Canaanites had gained the passes of the mountains before them, there was no fighting them

Num. xiv. 36, 37.

c Josephus introduces Joshua and Caleb, in order to pacify the tumultuous people, delivering themselves in words to this effect. "How is it possible for you, good people, to distrust the veracity and goodness of God, and at the same time to give credit to stories and amazements about the land of Canaan, that are propagated on purpose to abuse you? Why should not you rather believe and follow those who have taken so much pains to put you into the possession and enjoyment of the blessings you desire? What is the height of mountains, or depths of rivers, to men of undaunted spirits, and of honourable resolutions; especially when God is both their protector and defender? Wherefore let us advance and attack the enemy, without ever questioning the event. Only trust God for your guide, and follow us where we shall lead you."—Jewish Antiquities, b. 3. c. 14.

d Moses here makes use of a round number, in allusion to the forty days of the spies searching the land; though it is plain, that the children did enter into the land of Canaan in less than thirty-nine years after this sentence was pronounced against their fathers. The truth is, Moses reckons the time past since they came first into the wilderness, which was a year and a half; so that the meaning of the sentence is,-That they should wander for forty years in all, before they went out of the wilderness: which, however, is not to be understood so precisely, as to want nothing at all of it: for since they came out of Egypt on the 15th day of the first month, and arrived in Canaan, and pitched their tents in Gilgal, on the tenth day of the first month, of the one and fortieth year after their departure out of Egypt, (Josh. iv. 19,) it is plain, that there wanted five days of full forty years.-Untversal History, b. 1. c. 7.; and Patrick's Commentary.

A. M. 2514. A. C. 1490; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3764. A. C. 1647. EXOD. xxxiv, 28—NUM, xyiÏÏ.

upon the par. But all this admonition had no weight with them, notwithstanding the ark of the covenant went not with them, notwithstanding Moses their general was not at the head of them, yet out they marched to the top of the mountains, where the enemy surprised, defeated, and having slain many of them, pursued the rest as far as Hormah.

While the people continued in the wilderness, many remarkable occurrences befell them, and seditions almost innumerable were daily fermenting; but one in particular was hatched, with the utmost deliberation, in the breast of one of the chiefs of the tribe of Levi, and countenanced by some of the most considerable mèn in the whole camp.

• Korah, the great grandson of Levi by his father Jabar, and consequently one of the heads of that tribe, impatient to behold Aaron and his family raised to the highest office in the priesthood, to which he thought him-nacle, from which God called to Moses and Aaron to self had an equal title, was always caballing against him, until he had drawn a considerable number of eminent persons into his interest, and among these, Dathan, Abiram, and On, who were heads of the house of Reuben. As soon as things were ripe for an open rupture, Korah appeared at the head of the faction, and publicly upbraided Moses and Aaron with an unjust ambition, in usurping upon the liberties of the people, in engrossing all power into their own hands, and excluding every body else.

A. M. 2514. A. C. 1490; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3764. A. C. 1647. EXOD. xxxiv. 25—NUM. xviil. and outrage they might proceed, they took sanctuary in | up in the ark of the covenant,' and gave an express the tabernacle; where they had no sooner entered, but prohibition, that none but the sons of Aaron should God threatened to destroy all the rest of the congrega- presume to come into the tabernacle, under pain of tion, as it were, in a moment, and had already sent out death. a plague amongst them; which Aaron, at his brother's directions, endeavoured to assuage by his interposing, with a censer of incense, between the dead and the living; but the plague, in this short time, had raged so violently, that no less than fourteen thousand and seven hundred persons, besides those that perished in the sedition of Korah and his company, were carried off by it.

This was enough, in all reason, to establish the authority, civil and ecclesiastical, in the hands of the two brothers: however, to put Aaron's claim beyond all manner of dispute, God was pleased to confirm it by one miracle more. Aaron, on the one side, and the heads of every tribe on the other, were ordered to bring each man his rod, with their respective names written upon them, and these were to be deposited in the tabernacle, until the next morning; by which time God would decide in favour of that family on whose rod some miraculous change should be seen. Accordingly, when they came to examine them next morning, Aaron's rod alone was found not only to have budded, but blossomed likewise, and brought forth ripe almonds; in memory of which remarkable decision, God ordered the rod to be laid

a

CHAP. II.-Objections Answered and Difficulties

6

Obviated.

In this state of our infirmity, indeed, we are obliged to repair the gradual decays of our bodies with a supply of daily food; but in that of a greater perfection, there will be no occasion for these weak supports of human nature. In the mean time we are assured, that ''man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God,' by whose command our natural perspiration may be so shut up, and the instru ments of our digestion so retarded, as to make a small quantity of meat subsist us for a considerable time. Elijah, we read, had but a cake baken on the coals, and a cruise of water' for his whole repast, even when he was going to undertake a long journey; and yet we find, that both under the fatigue of body, and expense of spirits, which travelling must necessarily occasion, he was enabled to go in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights.' And for the like reasons we may suppose, that Moses being now received within the a Some will needs have this rod of Aaron's to have been the cloud on Mount Sinai, might find no uneasy cravings of same with that of Moses, wherewith he wrought so many mira- appetite during his stay, and long conversation with God. cles in Egypt and at the Red Sea; but there is this argument The Jews have a proverb, with relation to this long against them, that the miracle of its blossoming had not been a sufficient conviction to the Israelites, if so be that Aaron's rod fasting of his, which tends to this purpose, that above, had not been of the same kind of the rest. For whatever had where there is neither eating nor drinking, Moses staid come to pass, they might have ascribed it to the singular quality eighty days, namely, at two different times, and became and virtue of the rod, especially had it been Moses' wonder-like the angels; and below, where men do eat and working rod, and not to the special hand of God interposing to establish the authority of Aaron; whereas, on the contrary, we find that the miracle had its intended eflect, and silenced for ever the pretences of other people to the priesthood. It is presumed therefore by some learned men, that the rods which the several princes brought Moses, were neither their common walking staves, nor any such wands as were a badge of their power and authority in their respective tribes, but rather certain twigs that were cut of from some almond-tree, and not improbably from one and the same tree, that there might be no manner of difference between them The difference, however, next morning, appeared in this:-That on the twig which bore Aaron's manie, there was, in some places, an appearance of buds coming forth; in others, the buds were opened, and shot forth into blossoms; and in others, the blossoms were knotted, and grown into almonds.-Le Clerc's and Patrick's Commentaries.

It is made a matter of some inquiry, whether this rod of Aaron's was put within the ark of the covenant, or only by it. God commanded Moses to put only in the tabernacle (Num. xvii. 4.) to be preserved there; but St Paul in Heb. ix. 4, says, that it was placed within the ark, with a pot of manna, and the tables of the law. Others affirm, that it was not put within, but only by the side of the ark; and for their opinion they allege a passage in 1 Kings viii. 9, which seems to intimate, that there was nothing in the ark but the tables of the law; but then their adversaries contend, that St Paul, in that passage to the Hebrews, is to be understood literally; that there could be no hinderance for its being put into the ark, since the ark was five feet long, and could not be but of capacity enough to hold it; and therefore, when the Scripture says, that there was nothing in the ark but the tables of the law, they conceive that it may be understood with this limitation,-That nothing else was originally in it, because the ark was primarily intended for that use; but this need not hinder but that afterwards other things likewise might be put in it. How long this wonderful rod continued in this repository, is nowhere mentioned in Scripture. When the ark

3

drink, ministering angels come down and eat and drink like them." Whereby they seem to impute this alteration of appetite in both to a change of climate, rather than a miracle. But whether the climate contributes to it or no, it is certain, that God, by influences and emanations from himself, can support a man as long as he thinks fit, and keep up his spirits in their just height, without the common recruits of any kind of aliment.

It is another notion of the Jews, that as eating and drinking are actions which prejudice the understanding, God, who intended to prepare his servant for the reception of the revelations he was going to communicate, withheld all meat and drink from him, that by depressing his bodily faculties he might exalt his intellectual. In the case of Daniel, it is certain, that in order to dispose him for the heavenly vision, he did eat no pleasant bread, neither came flesh or wine in his mouth, for three whole weeks together,' as himself testifies; and therefore, considering the many wonderful things which God intended to impart to Moses, there seems to be a propriety at least, if not an absolute necessity, of his being

' Mat. iv. 4. 1 Kings xix. 6, 8. 3 See Buxtorf. Patrick's Commentary. 5 Dan. x. 3. was brought into Solomon's temple, (1 Kings viii. 9.) there is no notice taken of it; and yet it seems reasonable to think, that it should have been preserved for some considerable time, and preserved in that very verdure, wherein it now appeared, with its buds, blossoms, and fruit, for the conviction of posterity.Calmet's Dictionary, under the word Rod.

A. M. 2514. A. C. 1490; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3764. A. C. 1647. EXOD. xxxiv. 28.-NUM. xviii.

put under the like regimen, to enable him, with more facility, to comprehend them.

no leisure to think of eating and drinking, or that, had he thought thereon, he could find in himself no call or occasion for it.

The word karan, which our translators have made shining, is by the Vulgate rendered cornutus, or horned; and from this misapplication of ideas, painters very probably have been induced to draw Moses with a pair of horns branching, as it were, out of his forehead; whereas the proper representation of him should be with a glory covering his head, in the manner that the saints are painted in the Roman church; for it is not improbable, that the hair of his head was interspersed with rays of light, at the same time that a certain beauteous lustre proceeded from his face, and dazzled the eyes of its beholders.

Moses was certainly in this, as well as many other things, an eminent type of our Saviour Christ, and the change of his countenance an emblem of our Lord's

5

evangelist relates the matter) did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.' In both cases, it was the glorious being within the cloud, that transfused this radiant splendour around his Son and servant; but the reason why Moses, at his first time of being upon the mount, and conversing with God, did not contract this wonderful brightness, seems to be this,-That he had not then seen the divine Majesty in so great a splendour as he did now. He was obliged then to keep at a more awful distance from the tremendous throne of God, and

St Paul is supposed to speak of himself, though modesty makes him conceal it, when he expresses his visions in these words :- -"I knew a man in Christ, above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body I cannot tell, or whether out of the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth,) such an one caught up to the third heaven; and I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth,) how he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful,' or, as the marginal note has it, 'not possible for man to utter.' Now wherever the divine presence is, there is paradise, and there is heaven: and therefore, if St Paul, when he was in a vision, and thought himself translated to the regions above, in the contemplation of the wonderful things he saw and heard there, lost all sense of his body, and perception of its affections; why may we not suppose, that the joy and ecs-transfiguration upon the mount, when his face (as the tasy wherewith Moses was transported, upon the like occasion, made him never think of once eating or drinking? A man must be a stranger to deep study and meditation, who has not experienced in himself a total forgetfulness for some time, not only of the nimble minutes, as they passed away, but of the necessities of nature likewise, as they came upon him; and even found, at length, that his recollection, and sensation of these things, proceeded from an imbecility of his mind, which was not able to endure a continued intention, or stretch of thought, more than any natural call, which seems to have been sus-not come within the circle of its refulgency; but now, pended as long as his superior faculties were thus agree- upon his humble petition, God was pleased to vouchsafe ably employed. With much more reason, therefore, we him such a sight of his glory as his human nature could may conclude, that in the presence of God, where the bear. So that, by being permitted to come within the mind might be impregnated with a power to sustain the circumference of it, he carried off, though unknown to fatigue of close perpetual thinking, the variety of objects himself, a such a beamy lustre from the divine refulgency which presented themselves would be so great, and the as, like the lambent fires wherewith the poets adorn the entertainment of its intellectual faculties so very strong, temples of their heroes, played about his head and face, as would quite absorb all corporeal desires and appetites. and there was permanent for some considerable time; Had Moses therefore been employed in no farther for Moses being now to bring down the tables of the capacity, than barely in contemplating the many amaz- covenant from the mount, that the people might not ing wonders of God's infinite being, which the irradia-suspect him of any fallacy or collusion, or think that his tions from his beatific presence must have transfused upon his mind, this had been enough to suspend all other operations, and engross, as it were, the whole complex of his faculties. But besides this, the Scripture informs us, that he took a review of the model of the tabernacle, and its furniture, which God had showed him when he was with him before, and, as we may suppose, received fresh instructions from God. This could not but take up some portion of his time; as most of the remainder of it seems to have been spent in 3 prayer and intercession with God for the people, that he would restore them entirely to his favour, and bring them, in his good appointed time, to their inheritance.

pretence to a correspondence with the Deity, as that of some subsequent lawgivers proved, was vain and fictitious, God was pleased to send along with him this testimony, as it were, of his having held communion with God. For the miraculous radiancy wherewith he was adorned, showed in what company he had been during his absence; confirmed his message to the people; and in every respect carried new credentials in it.

It may seem a little strange, indeed, why a people so immediately under the guidance of God, should every day stand in need of so many new credentials, and upon every little emergency, fall a murmuring and rebelling against the God of Israel, and his servant Moses. 5 Mat. xvii. 5.

Mat. xvii. 2.

St

Upon the whole, therefore, it appears, that as Moses was in the presence of God all the while that he continued on the mount; had a full employ for his mind a It was a custom amongst the ancient heathens, and probably and thoughts during that time; and by the divine influ-derived from what here befell Moses, to represent the gods with a ence, had his spirits sustained in their proper height, and his animal part preserved without wasting; he could have

12 Cor. xii. 2, &c.

beamy glory around their heads, to carry rays about their heads, as Lucian De Dea Syria has it. And hence it was, that the Roman emperors, who were raised so much above the rest of mankind, that they were honoured as a sort of deities, were thus represented, as appears from the testimony of Pliny, among many

From the beginning of the 25th chapter of Exodus to the end more, who, in his panegyric to Trajan, makes the radiatum pomitiani caput the subject of some banter.-Patrick's Commentary.

of the 30th chapter.

'Deut. ix. 18, 19, 25, 26. and x. 10.

A. M. 2514. A. C. 1490; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3764. A. C. 1647. EXOD. xxxlv. 28-NUM. xviii.

holy name.' And if any one fail to punish this idolater, ' then will I set my face,' says God, ' against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, from among their people.'

Now, if idolatry was a practice which the Israelites retained, and in some instances improved, after their departure out of Egypt, there is great reason to presume that these idolaters were the very murmurers also who infected the camp with their infidelity. They might believe, because they saw so many manifestations of it, the residence of a God among them, but then it is not unlikely, that they thought of him, as most of the heathens thought of their gods, that he was a local and limited deity, who had done something for them indeed, but could not do all they wanted; who had brought them into the wilder. ness, but had not the power to conduct them into Canaan.

Stephen, in quoting the prophet Amos, has let us into the cause of this people's frequent prevarications: 1 ́0 ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices, by the space of forty years in the wilderness? Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch," and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them.' By Moloch, the learned are pretty well agreed, that we are to understand the image of the sun, and by Remphan, that of the planet Saturn; and that the worship of these idols was a common thing among the Israelites, in the time of their sojourning in the wilderness, is manifest from that passage of the prophet, where he introduces God thus complaining of the perverseness of that people: In the day that I chose Israel, and lifted up my hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob, to bring them forth out of the land of Egypt, unto a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, then said I unto them," Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not your-reasoning with themselves. Shall this God of ours selves with the idols of Egypt: I am the Lord your God." But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me; they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt.' Nay, so far were they from forsaking the idols of Egypt, that we find them adopting | strange gods from every other neighbouring nation, which occasioned that severe commination in God: I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people, because he hath given his seed unto Moloch, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my

1 Acts vii. 42, 43. 2 * Ezek. xx. 5, &c. 3 Lev. xx. 3, &c. a Thus the Seventy, from whom St Stephen took this pas sage in Amos, translate it; but the import of the Hebrew text is this, Ye have borne the tabernacle of your kings, and the pedestal (so the word Chiun signifies) of your images, the star of your gods, which ye made to yourselves." So that it seems very probable that the LXX read Rephan or Revan, instead of Chiun or Chevan, and thereby mistook the pedestal for a god. Kircher, however, and Salmasius assert, that Kiion is Saturn; that his star is called Keiran among the Persians and Arabians, and that Remphan, or Rephan, signified the same thing among the Egyptians; and therefore they suppose, that the Septuagint, who made their translation in Egypt, changed the word Chiun into that of Remphan, because they had the same signification. Remphan is generally supposed to have been an Egyptian god; and Hammond, in his notes upon Acts vii. 43, is of opinion, that this was the name of a certain king of Egypt, who, after his death, was deified by his subjects: but of what make and figure the image of this idol was, or in what manner he was worshipped, we can nowhere learn.-Calmet's Dictionary, under the words

Chiun and Remphan.

The rabbins assure us, that the idol Moloch, which was the same as Baal, the sun, or Lord of heaven, worshipped by all the people in the east, had its image made of brass, sitting upon a throne of the same metal, having the head of a calf, adorned with a royal crown, and his arms extended as it were to embrace any thing; but what the children's passing through the fire means, they are not so well agreed. Some of them are of opinion, that parents, in the worship of this idol, did not actually burn their children, but only caused them to leap through fire that was lighted before it, or to pass between two fires placed opposite to each other, by way of lustration; but the expressions of David are a little too strong to admit of this interpretation. For when he tells us, that they sacrificed their sons and daughters unto devils, and that they shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,' Ps. cvi. 37, 38, we cannot but infer, that they did actually murder their children in this execrable way. When any infants were to be sacrificed, the idol was made hot by kindling a great fire in the inside of it; and when it was heated to a most intense

In this manner it is, that the Psalmist represents them

prepare us a table in the wilderness? He smote the stony rock indeed, that the water gushed out, and the streams flowed withal; but can he give bread also, and provide flesh for his people? Many of these miracles they saw wrought before their eyes; but then they might look upon Moses who did them, to be no more than a mere magician, though perhaps of a better sort than those of Egypt; and consequently might be apprehensive that upon every new turn and exigence, his art would fail him; and therefore having no better notions of God, and so gross a conception of their leader, it is no manner of wonder that they ran into murmuring and discontent, into riot and disorder, upon every little difficulty that pressed them.

6

Two times we find them complaining for the want of such food as they desired; once in the wilderness of Sin, a few days after their passage of the Red Sea, and again at the encampment of Kibroth-Hattaavah, not long after their departure from Mount Sinai; and at both of these times God thought proper to send them quails; not out of any destitution or scarcity of other provision, 'for all the beasts of the forest are his, and so are the cattle upon a thousand hills; he knows all the fowls upon the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field are in his sight,' but for this very reason,—that how willing soever he might be to supply his people's necessities, he had no design to pamper their appetites with a needless variety, or to multiply miracles without any just occasion. And therefore, as both these events happened in the spring, when quails, which are found in great quantities upon the coasts of the Red Sea, are accustomed to pass from Asia into Europe, God caused a wind to arise, which in their flight drove them towards the camp of the Israelites, and, as the eastern tradition has it, was so very violent, that it broke their wings, and made them fall at a convenient distance, and in proper condition to be taken up.

9

Ps. lxxviii. 20. 21.

Bibliotheca Biblica, vol. iv. Occasional Annotations, 5. * Exod. xvi. 3, 13. 7 Num. xi. 34. 8 Ps. 1. 10, 11. 9 See Bibl. Orient. p. 749, col. 1.

degree, the miserable victim was put into its arms, and soon consumed by the violence of the heat; but that the cries of the children might not be heard in their extremities, the people were wont to make a noise with drums and other instruments about the idol.-Calmet's Dictionary, and Dissertations.