The works of the Reverend and learned John Lightfoot D. D., late Master of Katherine Hall in Cambridge such as were, and such as never before were printed : in two volumes : with the authors life and large and useful tables to each volume : also three maps : one of the temple drawn by the author himself, the others of Jervsalem and the Holy Land drawn according to the author's chorography, with a description collected out of his writings.

SECT. I. The King reading the Law.

MOSES had commanded, saying * 1.1 At the end of every seven years, in the solemni∣ty of the year of release in the Feast of Tabernacles when all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God, in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this Law, before all Israel in their hearing: The circumstances of time, place, and person, for this reading, the Jews do determine thus. ‖ 1.2 The reader was to be the King, the place, in the Court of the women, and the time, towards the end of the first holy day in the Feast of Tabernacles weeks. There was then a pulpit of wood set up in the midst of the Court of the women, for thither might women and children come to hear, as they were injoy∣ned, per. 12. which they might not do into the upper Court: And the King goes up into the Pulpit and sits him down. The Minister of the Congregation 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 takes the Book of the Law and gives it to the chief of the Congregation or Head of the Congre∣gation, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) The chief of the Congregation or Head of the Synagogue (for now they were in a Synagogue model) gives it to the Sagan, the Sagan gives it to the High-priest, and the High-priest to the King. The King stands up to receive it, and standing uttereth a Prayer, as every one did that was to read the Law in publique before he read: and then if he thought good he might sit down and read, but if he read stand∣ing, it was thought the more honorable, and so it is recorded that King Agrippa did when he was upon this imployment.

He began to read at the beginning of Deuteronomy, and read to vers. 10. of the 6. Chap. Thence he skipt to the thirteenth verse of the eleventh Chapter, and read to the two and twentieth verse of the same Chapter. There he skipt again to the two and twentieth verse of the fourteenth Chapter, and read to the second verse of the nine and twentieth Chapter. For they thought it was enough if he read those portions only, that were most pregnant and pertinent for the stirring of them up, to the observing of the Commandments, and for the strengthening of their hands in the Law of truth. And the Talmud relates of King Agrippa, that when he was upon this Service, and came to read that passage in Deut. 17. 15. One from among thy brethren thou shall set King over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee which is not thy brother, his eyes trickled down with tears, in remembrance that he was not of the seed of the Jews, so that the people were glad to chear him up, and cried out three times to him, Fear not Agrippa, thou art our brother.

The reading is called, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The lection of the King, and it is reckoned by the Jews to be one of those eight things that must undispensably be uttered in the Hebrew Tongue: Those eight things are these,

• 1. The words of him that presented his first fruits, Deut. 26. 5.
• 2. The words of the woman that pull'd off the shoe, Deut. 25. 7, 8, 9.
• 3. The blessings and the curses, Deut. 27. & 28.
• 4. The blessing of the Priests, Numb. 6. 24, 25, 26.
• 5. The blessing of the High-priest on the day of Expiation.
• 6. This lection of the King.
• 7. The words of the Priests incouraging to battel, Deut. 20. 3.
• 8. The words of the Elders over the beheaded Heifer, Deut. 21. 7, 8.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Deut. 13. 10, 11.
• ‖ 1.2

  Talm. in So∣tab. per. 7. R. Sol. in Deut. 31. Maym. in Hagi∣gah. per. 1.