foretold what would befal their families in future ages. Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, he reproached with their sinful conduct; and predicted how God would chastise it in the fate of their seed. He especially commended Judah and Joseph, and foretold the future glory of their fa milies. He foretold the coming of Christ, and the gathering of the Gentiles to him. Amidst the bles sing of his children, he expressed his strong desires of the Messiah's incarnation, and of his own full en he was bereaved of his children. On their return, he found that Joseph was yet alive, and governor of Egypt, and that he had sent for him and his family to come hither for subsistence. He, with great joy, left the plain of Mamre near Hebron, and moved towards Egypt. At Beer sheba he offered sacrifices to the Lord, and the Lord encouraged him to go down into Egypt, and assured him, that his seed should thence return to Canaan, in the time fixed by the promise; and that there Joseph should attend him in his last mojoyment of God. After charging ments, closing his eyes. He, and 66 of his offspring, with 8 wives, went down into Egypt, where were already Joseph and his two sons. Informed by Judah, who went before the rest, Joseph met him with the utmost expressions of tender affection. Jacob was by him presented to Pharaoh. He wished that moBarch all true happiness; and informed him, that he had lived 130 years chiefly in troubles. Let us learn the fruit of unbrotherly conduct, and of obtaining blessings by unhallowed means. Jacob and his family had lived but 17 years in Egypt, when he fell into his last sickness. Joseph, whom a little before he had caused swear he would bury him in Canaan, with his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim, came to visit him. He informed them of God's blessing him at Luz or Bethel; he blessed Joseph, assured him his sons should form two distinct tribes of the Hebrew nation, but that of Ephraim should be the most numerous and honoured. He assured him, God would bring all his posterity back to Canaan in due time; and assigned to Joseph's seed a piece of ground near Shechem, which he had first bought, and afterwards recovered by force out of the hand of the Amorites. After this, he convened his twelve sons, gave them his last benediction, and VOL. II. No. 9. his sons to bury him in the cave of Machpelah, where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, and Leah had been buried, he laid himself down on the bed, and breathed out his last, about A. M. 2316, or 2320, and in the 147th year of his life. After his body was embalmed, and a solemn mourning of 70 days performed for him in Egypt, Joseph and his brethren, with the chief men of Egypt, attended his corpse to its interment in Canaan. At the threshing-floor of Atad they stopped, and had a second mourning of 7 days: on account of which, the Canaanites called the spot Abel-mizraim, the mourning of the Egyptians. He was interred in the cave of Machpelah, Gen. xlii. 1. His posterity, as well as himself, are called Jacob, or Israel. A well which he used, and perhaps digged, near Shechem, is called his well. John iv. 12. Deut. x. 22. Josh. xxiii. 4. Psal. cv. 10,--23. Acts vii. 11,—16. Hos. xii. Was not our Redeemer, who is called JACOB and ISRAEL, prefigured by this patriarch? How long expected, earnestly desired, and supernatural his birth! how divinely was he chosen to be the father of the saved nations of elect men! how he took the first Adam by the heel, fulfilling the covenant which he had broken! how he supplanted and B overthrew sin and Satan! by what priest's request, eased the Jews of their tribute. But as none of Alexander's historians mention this matter, it is possibly a Jewish fable. JAH. See JEHOVAH. JAHAZ, JAHAZAH, or JAHZAH; probably the Ziza of Ptolemy, a city near Aroer, between Medeba and Diblathaim, on the north frontiers of Moab, and near to the spot where Moses defeated the army of Sihon. It was given to the Reubenites, and by them to the Levites, Numb. xxi. 23. Josh. xiii. 18. i Chron. vi. 78. After the death of Ahab, it seems, the Moabites seized on it. It shared in the ruinous ravage of the Assyrians and Chaldeans, Isa. xv. 4. Jer. xlviii. 21. JAIR: (1.) The son of Segub, the son of Hezron, of the tribe of Judah. By his grandmother, the daughter of Machir the Manassite, he fell heir to an estate eastward of Jordan, and conquered the whole country of Argob, as far as the borders of Geshuri and Maachathi, 1 Chron. ii. 21,-23. Numb. xxxii. 40, 41. (2.) A judge of Israel, who succeeded Tola A. M. 2795, or 2857, and governed 22 years. He was a Gileadite, probably of Manasseh. He had 30 sons, who rode on 30 ass. colts, and were lords of 30 towns, called Havoth-jair, or the towns of Jair, Judg. x. 3,—5. ..... His JADDUA, or JADDUS, the son of Jonathan, and high priest of the Jews. He officiated a considerable time after the captivity, Neh. xii. 11. He is thought to be the Jaddus who lived in the time of Alexander the Great. Josephus says, that Alexander, when besieging Tyre, demanded some assistance, Jaddus begged to be excused, as he had sworn fidelity to Darius the Persian. Highly provoked, Alexander vowed a revenge. After taking of Tyre, he marched towards Jerusalem. After the people had exercised themselves in fasting and prayer, Jaddus and his fellow priests, directed of God, met Alexander in their sacred robes. Struck with the appearance of the high priest, he, instead of reproach-him fear not, but only believe. When ing him, fell at his feet, and told they entered the house, they found Parmenio his general, that such a the mourners prepared to attend the form had appeared to him in Mace- corpse to the grave, and making a donia, and promised him the empire noise. Jesus bade them be silent, as of the world: and, at the high the maid was not to be given up for JAIR, or JAIRUS, a chief ruler of the synagogue at Capernaum. daughter falling grievously sick, he begged that Jesus would come, lay his hands on her, and cure her. On their way to the house, some from it met him, and told him it was needless to trouble our Saviour, as Jesus bid his daughter was dead. dead. They laughed at him. To panish their derision of him, he put them to the door; and when no more but her father and mother and three of his disciples were present, he took her by the hand, and bade her arise. She did so, and Jesus ordered to give her some victuals. Matth. ix. 18,-26. Mark v. 21, 43. Luke viii. 41,-56. JAMES the Great, or Elder, and JOHN the Evangelist, sons of Zebedee and Salome, were originally fishers of Bethsaida in Galilee, and left every thing at our Saviour's call to follow him, Matth. iv. 21. | Both were constituted apostles: both were witnesses of Jesus' transfiguration: Matth. x. 2. and xvii. 2. Both begged his leave to call down fire from heaven on the Samaritans, who refused to receive him; and on this account, as well as for their bold preaching, were called Boanerges, or Bane regem, the sons of thunder. He checked their furious zeal, and told them that they knew not what unreasonable temper they were of, Luke ix. 54. Our Saviour's singular honour of them, and regard to them, occasioned their mother's begging they might be made chief ministers of state in his temporal kingdom. After they had professed their ability to undergo sufferings along with him, he told them, that suffer they must, but his Father had the disposal of eminent places in his kingdom, Matth. xx. 20,-24. Mark x. 35,-45. They witnessed his agony in the garden, Matth. xxvi. $7. After our Saviour's resurrection, it seems they for a while returned to their business of fishing, John xxi. 2, 3. About A. D. 42 or 44, if not 49, James was taken and murdered by Herod, Acts xii. 1.; and is now the pretended patron of Spain. Whether his brother John was the bridegroom at Cana of Galilee, we know not; but he was our Saviour's beloved disciple. To him Jesus, as he sat next to him on the couch at the passover, intimated who should be the traitor. It is believed, that he went up to the high priest's hall, and, being known to the servants, introduced Peter; but perhaps that disciple might be Nicodemus, or Joseph of Arimathea, John xviii. 15, 16. He, at our Saviour's dying direction, took home the blessed vir. gin to his house, and provided for her. At the Galilean sea he first discovered our Saviour on the shore to Peter, John xix. 25, 26, 27. and xxi. 1,-7. After dinner with our Saviour there, Peter asked him what should become of John! Jesus replied, that it was none of his business though he should live till his coming. This expression, fondly mistaken, made many primitive christians imagine that John should never die; but himself, and other histories, contradict this ill-grounded fancy, John xxi. 18,-26. He for a time shared along with Peter, in preaching, working miracles, and enduring persecution from the Jews at Jerusalem; and at Samaria they conferred the Holy Ghost, by the laying on of hands, Acts iii. iv. v. and viii. About A. D. 51, John continued noted pillar of the Christian church in Judea, Gal. ii. 7. It is said, he thereafter preached the gospel to the Parthians and Indians; but it is more evident that he preached some time in Lesser Asia. In Domitian's persecution, about A. D. 95, it is said, he was cast into a caldron of boiling oil, and coming out unhurt, vigorous, and clean, was banished to Patmos, to be starved to death. Under the Emperor Nerva he was recalled from exile, and returning to Ephesus, preached the gospel there till he died, about 90 or 100 years old. He appears to have been of a most kindly and affectionate temper; and yet it is said he leapt out of the bath whenever he understood that Cerinthus, who denied the divinity of our Saviour, was in it: so great was his zeal. In his old age, he wrote three epistles, one to the Jewish Christians in general, another to a noted Lady, and a third to one Gaius. The scope is, to inculcate brotherly love, holy conversation, self-examination, and cautious shunning of false teachers, particularly such as denied the incarnation and true godhead of our Saviour. He wrote an history of Jesus' life, containing a great many things omitted by the other three evangelists, chiefly a number of excellent discourses. It is principally calculated to evince -Our Saviour's divinity. In the isle of Patmos he had various revelations and visions. Thence, from Jesus' mouth, he wrote seven epistles to the Asian churches; and in this book of Revelation, under the visions of seals opened, trumpets sounded, and vials poured out, &c. he exhibits the whole state of the Christian church to the end of the world. From the sublimity of his revelations, and his vindication of our Saviour's divinity, he came to be called John the Divine. The book of his Travels, and of his acts, and of the Virgin Mary's death, and assumption to heaven, and the creed ascribed to him, contain plain documents of forgery. 2. JAMES the Less, called the brother of our Lord. He was the son of Cleophas by Mary the sister of the blessed Virgin. For the admirable holiness of his life, he was surnamed the Just. Our Saviour appeared to him, by himself, after his resurrection, 1 Cor. xv. 7. About three years after Paul's conversion he was at Jerusalem, and considered as a pillar or noted supporter of the church there, Gal. i. 19. About 14 years after, he was present at the apostolic council; and, speaking among the last, he gave his sentiment, that as God, according to the ancient promises, had called a church from among the Gentiles to himself, it was not proper to burden them with Jewish ceremonies, so hard to be borne; but merely to require them, for the sake of edification, in the present circumstances, to forbear eating of things strangled, or blood; and to abstain from fornication, and meats offered to idols. To this all present agreed. About 9 years after, he wrote an epistle to the Jewish believers, wherein he sharply reproves such as pretended to faith without good works, indulging themselves in instability, naughtiness, partiality, reviling, covetousness, oppression, vain swearing, &c. About A. D. 63, when Festus was dead, and Albinus had not come to succeed him, the Jews being exceedingly enraged at the suc cess of the gospel, Annanus, son of ANNAS, it is said, ordered James to ascend one of the galleries of the temple, and inform the people that they had without ground believed Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah. He got up and cried with a loud voice, that Jesus was the Son of God, and would quickly appear in the clouds to judge the world. Many glorified God, and believed; but the Pharisees threw him over the battlement. He was sore bruised, but got up on his knees and prayed for his murderers amid a shower of stones which they cast at him, till one beat out his brains with a fuller's club. To the death of this just man some Jews ascribe the ruin of their nation. The Talmud ascribes a variety of miracles to James, the disciple of Jesus, there called the carpenter. JANGLING; vain or contentious talking about trifles, or what people do not understand, or know what they would be at, 1 Tim. i. 6. JANNES and JAMBRES, called by Pliny Jamne and Jotape, and by some Jewish writers Johanne and Mamre, were two principal magicians of Egypt, who withstood Moses in aping some of his miracles, in the change of their rods into serpents, turning waters into blood, and producing frogs, 2 Tim. iii. 8. Exod. vii. viii. Jonathan the Chaldee paraphrast, fabulously says, they were Balaam's sons, and attended him when he went to Balak. JANOAH, JANOHAH; a city of the Ephraimites, on their north border, and about 12 miles eastward from Shechem, Josh. xvi. 6. It was taken and ruined by Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, 2 Kings xv. 29. JAPHETH, the elder son of Noah, and born A. M. 1556, Gen. x. 21. and v. 32. To reward his kind and modest covering of his father's nakedness as he lay drunk, his father blessed him, saying, that God would enlarge and persuade him, and make him to dwell in the tents of Shem, and render the offspring of Canaan his servants. His posterity were prodigiously numerous; he had seven sons, Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. Their posterity peopled the north half of Asia, almost all the Mediterranean isles, all Europe, and, I suppose, most of America. How the GREEKS and ROMANS seized on the original residence of the descendants of Shem, in Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Persia, &c. how the Scy. thians, Tartars, Turks, or Moguls, the descendants of Gog and Magog, have made themselves masters of Southern Asia, may be seen under these articles. How the Dutch, English, Portuguese, Spaniards, and Danes, have seized the islands or other settlements in Southern Asia and its adjacents, is notour. I know no country of note originally belonging to the offspring of Shem, part of Arabia excepted, that has not, or is not now claimed or possessed by the offspring of Japheth. God has persuaded multitudes of them to become his peculiar people, when the Jewish descendants of Shem are cast off. How the CANAANITES in Canaan, Phenicia, North Africa, Bæotia, Hereclea, Arcadia, or Italy, have been enslaved by Japheth's Grecian, Roman, Vandal, or Turkish descendants, is marked in that article; Gen. ix. 27. As Ja, pheth or Japetus was the father of the Greeks, no wonder he be so often mentioned in their ancient fables. JAPHIA, probably the same as Japha, a city belonging to the Zebulunites, surrounded with a double wall, but taken and cruelly ravaged by the Romans, Josh. xix. 12. JAPHO. See JOPPA. JAREB. We find no certain evidence that there was such a king of Assyria; perhaps it might be read the king of Jareb, because he might dwell at a place called Jareb; or the word may be rendered the king that shall strive, i. e. fight against, and ruin them, Hos. v. 13. and x. 6. JARMUTH, or JERMUS: a city about 10 miles south-west of Jerusalem, and as much north-east of Elentheropolis, once a famed city of Judea. It was a village about 1400 years ago, Josh. x. 5. The book of JASHER, was probably some noted history of the Jewish nation, wherein things were recorded with great care and integrity, but it was not inspired, Josh. x. 13. 2 Sam. i. 18. JASHOBEAM, the Hachmonite, or Tachmonite, the same as Adino the Eznite. It seems he sat on a kind of throne at the head of David's mighty men. He in one |