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.

CHAP. XVII. The Inclosure. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel. (Book 17)

ABOUT both these Courts thus laid, there was another inclosed space in∣compassing them in, and this by the Jews is called the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel: The word is used by Jeremy, Lam. II. 8. in that sense (as a 1.1 some Jews do interpret,) that we are to understand and describe here. Both the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel and the Wall mourn: by the Wall, being meant the Wall of the Court, and by the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel the space that incompassed it round about; and so translated by the Chaldee 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the incompassing or inclosure. The Scripture frequently useth the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 for a Wall, Trench, or Rampart, as 2 Sam. X. 15. 1 King. XXI. 23. Obad. ver. 20. Nah. III. 8. and its rendred variously by the He∣brew Expositors there, but of the sense of the word and nature of that place at the Temple that we are looking after, they give us this unanimous account, b 1.2 that it was a place or space of ten cubits broad, incompassed with a Wall, between the mountain of the house and the Courts. I cannot find a better name for it, than the inclosure or outer verge of the Courts.

The words of Rabbi Nathan in Aruch in two several places may move two several doubts about this place, for in one place he saith that the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 c 1.3 a place incompassed with a Wall between the mountain of the House and the Court of the Women. And in another place he saith, that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 d 1.4 Chel was a Wall higher than the Wall called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Soreg; Out of which words he seemeth to hold out these two opinions; the one, that the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel did not incompass all the Court, but only the Court of the Women; and the other, that the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel was not a space of ground, but a Wall; but these two doubts we shall clear as we go along.

And first to evidence that this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 was a space of ground, and not a Wall, we have not only the testimony of the Talmud and divers other Jews that measure out the breadth of it to be ten cubits, but we have mention abundantly in them of peoples coming into it, and standing and sitting in it, as R. Nathan himself giveth one instance, e 1.5 when he speaketh of a great 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Divinity School in the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel: And f 1.6 Abraham Zaccuth, speaketh of R. Johanan ben Zaccai having a Sanhedrin there. g 1.7 And Rambam relates at large how those that brought their Passover Lambs into the Court when they were dispatched, went and stood in the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel, and divers of the like examples might be added, which prove evi∣dently enough what kind of thing this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel was, namely, not a Wall but a space of ground. And so R. Nathan meaneth, even when he saith, It was a Wall higher than the Wall 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 for so the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 at large when it is taken for other places than this in the Temple, and is joyned with the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is defined by the Jews to mean 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 h 1.8 A Wall and a Son of Wall, or an inner and outer Wall; that is, a lower Wall be∣fore a higher, as Rabbi Solomon construes it, not close joyned together, but some space of ground between, and so our Author understands it, though he speak so short.

The Wall that inclosed the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Soreg in the Talmud and Rabbins Language, which Nathan rendreth plainly a Wall, but i 1.9 some other expound it for a Wall curiously la∣tized, and made of Wood, but Josephus comes and speaks further, somewhat like to both their senses▪ and tells us that it was of stone, but curiously wrought: Let us a little examine what he saith upon this place: k 1.10 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉

As you went through this (that is, the Mountain of the House) into the second Temple, there was a stone wall that went about of three cubits high of very curious work: wherein stood Pillars at an even distance; some in Greek and some in Latin letters, giving notice of the ho∣liness of the place; That no stranger must enter within the holy place: for the second Temple was called holy, and they went up 14 steps into it out of the first. And a little after, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. And above the fourteen steps it was ten cubits to the Wall (of the Court) and all even. Out of which relation we may observe these things remarkable.

• 1. That the outmost space of all, that lay within the great incompassing Wall (that which the Jews distinctively call the Mountain of the House) was also commonly called the first Temple: And in this very sense doth the Gospel speak very oft, using the word Temple when it meaneth but this outmost space, as John II. 14. Jesus found in the Temple those that sold Oxen, &c. Joha VIII. 1, 3. Mat. XXI. 14, 15.
• 2. That within this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel no strangers might come but Jews only, and for this pur∣pose there were Pillars in which there was so much written in Greek and Latine sentences.* 1.11 And so the Jews say that the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel was more holy than the Mountain of the House, because

• ... no stranger might come into it, nor none polluted by the dead. And upon this very thing we may conclude if we had no other ground to conclude it by, that the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel did incircle or incompass all the Courts and not the Court of the Women only: for if the ground along that Court for ten Cubits next to it were so holy that a stranger might not come upon it, certainly we must hold the ground along by the upper Court as holy and as unacces∣sible for strangers every whit. And therefore whereas R. Nathan in what was alledged before, saith that the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel did inclose the Court of the Women, and speaketh of in∣closing no more, he doth not exclude the other, but speaks according as the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel lay to one that came in at the East-Gate.
• 3. That into the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel there was the first rising, all being level from the East-Gate thither, and the rising into the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel was 14 steps or 7 cubits m 1.12 or as the Talmud more truly reckons, but 12 steps or 6 cubits (for every step was half a cubit rise) and the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel being ten cubits broad it was level to the Wall of the Womens Court.

The Wall that incompassed the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel was not high as were the other Walls about the Temple, but it was only as it were barrs before the higher Wall of the Court, but of three cubits high; the fashion or work of it being very curious, wrought into paves or latices, or such open work, that one might look through it as well as over it.

The passages into the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chel through this Wall were many, namely, one before every Gate that went into either of the Courts, and there on either side the passage, was a Pillar set up with the inscription mentioned, advising strangers to beware of the coming upon the holy ground.

Now in the Syrogecian Kings times when the Jews and Jerusalem lay in subjection to those Kings 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 this Wall that was the barr against strangers* 1.13 going any further, was broken by those Kings in thirteen places they scornfully and dis∣dainfully, and impiously breaking upon the holy ground 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 But the Jews made up the breaches again, and ordained thirteen adorations and oraisons to be made against the Heathen Kingdoms upon any ones coming to any of the places where breach had been.

Notes

• a 1.1

  Maym. in beth habbech. per. 5.
• b 1.2

  Mid. per. 2. §. 3. Maym. ubi sup.
• c 1.3

  Ar. in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉
• d 1.4

  Id. in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉
• e 1.5

  Id. ubi ante.
• f 1.6

  Iuchas. f. 21.
• g 1.7

  Pesa. per. 2.
• h 1.8

  R. Sol. in Lam. II. 8.
• i 1.9

  R. Semajah in Mid.
• k 1.10

  Ioseph. de bell. lib. 5. c. 14.
• * 1.11

  l Talmud. in Kelim. per. 1.
• m 1.12

  Mid. per. 2.
• * 1.13

  n Id. Ibid.