כימה

reason of the rains and storms that frequently rise with them. The Latins called them vergiliæ, from ver, the spring, because of their rising about the time of the vernal equinox. The original word in Job ix. 9. xxxviii. 31, is ' Cimè, or "heat," and is consequently the opposite of Cesil, or "cold," already considered. Hence, when Job says, ch. xxxviii. 31, "Canst thou bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades ?" the meaning is, Canst thou prevent the constellation Cimè from dispelling the cold and covering the earth with flowers and fruits? It is evident, therefore, as De Goguet thinks,” that Cimè means the Pleiades, which in Job's time introduced spring and in Dissert. 2d. he has endeavoured to show that the precession of the equinoxes is such as to make it probable that this was the case. In the prophecy of Amos, the power of God is mentioned as a reason why they should depend upon him. "Seek him who made n Cimè, the cold, Pleiades or seven stars, and Cesil, the Heat, or Orion," the various seasons. In Josephus Jews, when besieged by Antiochus, and in great want of water, were relieved by a copious shower of rain, which fell at the setting of the Pleiades," the heliacal setting of which, in the days of Antiochus, is computed by Whiston, in a note on the place, to have been in the spring, about February. And this, with an eclipse of the moon, mentioned in the reign of Herod, and an allusion to the eclipse of the sun that happened about the time of Julius Cæsar's death, are the only astronomical characters of time that we meet with in Josephus.d

him who rules over

we read, that the

The Chambers of the South, in Job ix. 9, are op

a Vol. i. Dissert. 3.

Antiq. xiii. 8.

• Thirteenth of March, Julian period 4710, in the fourth year before Christ, according to Whiston.

Antiq. xiv. 10. xvii. 6.

posed to the northern constellations; and because they do not appear at all in our hemisphere, or but for a very short time, they are called by this name to indicate that, with respect to us, they are in a secret or concealed place."

As for Mazzaroth, D, or Mezeruth, De Goguet understands it to mean the signs of the zodiac which appear successively above the horizon. Accordingly the words in Job xxxviii, 32, "Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season?" will mean, Canst thou bring forth each of the twelve constellations in the zodiac in their successive months, so as to produce their attendant diversity in the seasons?

Such is the common explanation of the several constellations mentioned in scripture; but Parkhurst translates them differently; for he makes Cesil the heat of an eastern morning, and Cimè the cold of an eastern night which are commonly antipodes to each other. His explanation, indeed, of the whole passages in Job and Amos, which we have been considering, is different from what is commonly assigned them. Thus his translation of Job ix. 9, is, "which maketh wy Osh, the blight, Cesil the cold, and Cimè the genial warmth, and the chambers or thick clouds of the south." His translation of Job xxxviii. 31, 32, is, "Canst thou bind up the delicacies of Cimè, the genial warmth, or loose the bands or contractions of Cesil, the

cold? Canst thou bring Mezeruth, the poisonous corrupting wind, called Sam, or Samiel, in his season? Or canst thou guide wy Osh, the blight, with his sons?" -meaning the insects it produces on diseased plants. And his translation of Amos v. 8, is, "who maketh' Cimè, the heat, Cesil the cold?" In short, his

idea is, that the verses in question do not refer to the constellations, but to the effects of heat and cold, blight and the Samiel, on the productions of the earth."

The only planet mentioned in Scripture is Lucifer, or the morning star, which means Venus, when seen in the morning, before sun-rise ; as Vesper, or the evening star, means Venus, when seen in the evening, after sunset. This is the most brilliant of the planets, always accompanies the sun, never receding farther from him than 45 degrees, and becoming, as she is on the east or west side, alternately the evening or morning star. Hesiod and Homer, like the Sacred Scriptures, make mention only of this planet; not so much because the others were unknown, as because its brilliancy afforded them the best subject of comparison: for it is generally understood that the five planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, being so conspicuous, have been known under different names from immemorial time. Pliny speaks of them very explicitly in the passage quoted below, where by Lucifer is understood Venus, when seen in the morning before sun-rise; and by Vesper, the same planet seen in the evening after sun-set. The Hesperus and Phosphorus of the Greeks, or evening and morning star, were at first supposed to be different; and the discovery that they were the same has been ascribed to Pythagoras. If he acquired that information while travelling in the East, it is not very likely that the learned among the Jews would be ignorant of it.

Whilst treating of subjects connected with astronomy, it is natural to notice the eclipse of the sun that hap

Lex. in. Verb.

Suus quidem cique color est: Saturno candidus, Jovi clarus, Marti igneus, Lucifero candens, Vesperi refulgens, Mercurio radians. Soli cùm oritur ardens, posteà radians. (Nat. Hist. Lib. ii. cap. 16.)

• Playfair's Outlines of Nat. Phil. Art. Astronomy, No. 153, 154.

pened at the time of our Saviour's death, and was extraordinary for several reasons. In the 1st place, all eclipses of the sun happen at the new moon; but this at the full, when the passover was celebrated. And 2dly, The eclipse at our Saviour's death lasted three hours, or from the sixth to the ninth hour, meaning from midday till three in the afternoon; whereas no ordinary solar eclipse can occasion total darkness over any place for more than a few minutes; because the eclipse is occasioned by the body of the moon being in a strait line between that place and the sun; and the body of the sun is so much larger than that of the moon, that the shadow of the moon cannot occasion a total darkness on any one place for any length of time. In both these respects, therefore, that eclipse was extraordinary. But

it

may still be asked, how that eclipse or darkness was produced? Was it really by the interposition of the moon between the sun and the earth, or by some other cause? Let us suppose it to have been occasioned by the moon, and see what follows. When the sun was directly. south, at the sixth hour, or 12 o'clock, at Jerusalem, the moon, as being full, must have been directly north. In order, therefore, to obscure the sun, she must have returned from north, by west, to south; or, in other words, she must have traversed the half of her orbit; and when in the south, the sun could not have been obscured for three hours together, or from the sixth till the ninth hour, unless she had travelled along with him all that time. But after the eclipse was ended, what was farther to happen? Nothing less than that the moon was again to outstrip the sun, and in three hours more to hasten through west and north towards the east, that she might appear there, as in her ordinary place, at the twelfth hour. Here are so many difficulties, that a rational inquirer will discard the idea of the moon being

a

the cause of the darkness, and ascribe it to the immediate agency of God in darkening the atmosphere, that whilst thoughtless men beheld the sufferings of Christ with indifference, nature herself might put on mourning. Nor was this darkness confined to Judea, for we read of a heathen philosopher, in a distant land, who on seeing it, and knowing that it could not be occasioned by an eclipse, exclaimed, "Either the God of nature suffers, or the frame of the world is dissolving." I shall conclude the article with an extract from the Tracts of Mr. James Fergusson, well known for his popular writings on various branches of Natural Philosophy. "I find by calculation," says he, "that the only passover full moon, which fell on a Friday from the twentieth year after our Saviour's birth to the fortieth, was in the 4764th year of the Julian period, which was the thirty-third year of his age, reckoning from the beginning of the year next after that of his birth, according to the vulgar æra; and the said passover full moon was on the third day of April. Phlegon informs us, that in the 202d Olympiad, or 4764th year of the Julian period, there was an eclipse the same as this mentioned here, which could be no other than this; for an ordinary one never totally hides the sun from any one part of the earth above four minutes. Besides, it must have been miraculous, because no eclipse ever happens at full moon, it being at that time in the opposite side of the heavens." One is pleased to hear the sentiments of a person so well qualified to judge.