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. XXIX. Beth Mokadh. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (Book 29)

OUR Survey is to begin at the North-west corner of the Court-wall, and there we meet with the building called Beth Mokadh, a place of remarkableness for several particulars.

1. It was a building so large that a 1.1 it raught from the North-west Angle of the Wall to the Gate below, of the same name, and so it took up a fourth part of the length of that side of the Court: b 1.2 and it contained four several rooms in the four corners of it; that room which was properly called the room Mokadh being in the midst of them as the Cen∣ter: And this the Treatise Middoth uttereth in these expressions, c 1.3 There were four rooms in Beth Mokadh 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Like bed Chambers opening into a dining-room: Two of which Chambers stood within the Court and two without, and marks were set within to shew where the two grounds parted.

2. The four rooms in the four corners of it, were these.

d 1.4 The South-west room was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Lamb room, e 1.5 because there they lodged the Lambs that were appointed for the daily Sacrifice. f 1.6 And the room was ne∣ver without six Lambs in it a day together. For no Lamb was offered but which had been taken up four days before: and so this necessitated, that if two of the six were taken out to day for the Morning and Evening Sacrifice, other two must be brought in before night: And by this means it was never without six in it a whole day to∣gether.

2. g 1.7 The South-west room was the room of those that prepared the Shewbread, which God had appointed to be set before him on the golden Table every Sabbath. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The Family of Garmu was for this work. These two rooms mentioned stood either whol∣ly* 1.8 or some part of them within the Court.

3. i 1.9 The North-west room 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 was the place where the Maccabean family laid up the stones of the Altar, which the Grecian Kings had defiled. k 1.10 For when Antiochus Epiphanus had made such miserable havock at Jerusalem, as that he had laid Religion, Laws, Liberties, Altar, Sacrifice, and all wast, and had defiled the Altar with abominable Sacrifices, Judas Maccabeus and his Brethren getting a little ground of their enemies and of their miseries, began to purifie and restore the Temple: and consulting what to do with the Altar stones which were prophaned, and which Mattathias their Father had therefore pulled down, 1 Mac. II. 25. they laid them up in this room till a Prophet should come that might resolve what to do with them, 1 Mac. IV. 44. &c.

4. l 1.11 The North-west room was a room through which they went to a bathing place, out of the middle room which was properly called Beth Mokadh, whosoever had recei∣ved any nocturnal pollution in their sleep. Now where this bathing place was it is con∣troverted, whether under ground, or whether on the out-side of the outmost wall; The Treatise Tamid gives account of it in these words: m 1.12 Doth a nocturnal pollution by Gonorrhea happen to any of them? He gets out and goes along in the Gallery that goeth under the Temple, and candles burn on either side, till he came to the bathing place: there was a closet and a stool: and if he found the door lockt he knew there was some one there, but if open he knew there was no body there: so he goes down and bathes himself, wipes himself, warms him∣self in the closet, and comes again and sits among his Brethren.

3. The room Mokadh which was in the midst of these four, they being as it were Par∣lors in the four corners of it, is said to be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 n 1.13 built archwise: not that the sur∣face or upmost part of it was like an arch of stone without any other roof, but that be∣ing raised and roofed like the other buildings about the Court, it was only in this lower room made archwise, because there was a passage through it out of the Chel into the Court. And there were two Gates to this room of passage, one towards the Chel, and the other towards the Court, and that into the Court had a Wicket in it, through which they commonly went in and out, the great Gate standing shut: and so it is like had that also into the Chel. And this passage I suppose is that which Aba Jose calleth the Gate of Jechoniah, of which we made mention before.

4. This room was called Beth Mokadh, or the place of the burning fire, because a fire was kept here continually, all the cold time of the year for the Priests, both by day and by night: By day to warm themselves at when they came from the service, for upon that they attended barefooted and very thin clad, and in the night to keep them warm as they kept their Guard: for in this room was a Guard of the Priests as was observed

before, and this was the chiefest Guard of all: o 1.14 Beth Mokadh (saith the Talmud) was a great arched room, and it was set about with stone benches: on which the Elders of the House of their Fathers slept, and the keys of the Court were in their keeping: But the young Men of the Priest-hood slept in their garments on the ground: they slept not in the holy garments, but put those off, folded them up and laid them under their Heads, and lay in their own wearing clothes: So that this room was both a thorough pass, and a great Hall, where was kept a common and a constant fire: and the Gates on either side of the arch being shut, it was as a close room, and as if it had not been a thorough passage at all.

5. In this room there was a box or cabinet as we may call it, in which were laid up the keys of the Court, and taken out and in, as the Doors were locked or to be unlocked. The Talmud describes it thus, p 1.15 There was a flag of Marble and a ring was fastned in it, and a chain, at which the keys of the Court were hung: when the time of locking the Gates came, he took up the flag by the ring, and took the keys off the ring, and locked the Gates within, and when he had done he put the keys on the chain, and the flag in its place again: Now this marble flag, which in Hebrew is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 A table, on the upper or outside of it had a ring by which to take it up, and on the innerside, a chain so wrought as that the keys might fitly and readily be hanged on or taken off as there was occasion: And this box appeareth to have been in the ground, partly because we have mention of such another flag with a ring in it, and that lay upon the ground, and dust was taken from under it for the trial of the suspected Wife, and partly because the Tradition saith 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 That after the Priest had laid up the keys and laid down the flag, he laid his pillow upon it and there slept.

6. If any in their sleep suffered Gonorrhea, they were to bath, as was said before, and the way to the bathing place is expressed in these words 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 He goeth down a turning stair case that went under the Temple. The word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 doth gene∣rally signifie all the body and buildings of the Temple, as the whole stood like a sumptu∣ous and goodly Palace (for so the word doth properly signifie) and so it is used, 1 Chron. XXIX. 1, 19. Therefore it is hard to tell which way this passage to the bathing place lay, since the word will inlarge it to any part of the Temple. It appeareth that it was some vault under ground through which they passed; into which vault they went down by a turning pair of stairs, out of the North-west room of Beth Mokadh. And from thence whither they went, whether under the Chel, as Rabbi Eliezer conceiveth, or under some part of the Court, or Mountain of the House, it is but in vain to search: It seemeth the Bath was under ground, and a room by it with a fire in it to warm themselves at when they had done bathing.

Notes

• a 1.1

  Tamid per. 8.
• b 1.2

  Mid. per. 1. Maym. in beth ha••bechir. per. 5.
• c 1.3

  Mid. per. 1.
• d 1.4

  Mid. ibid.
• e 1.5

  R. Sol. in 1 Chron. XXIII. 25.
• f 1.6

  Maym. in Ta∣mid. per. 1.
• g 1.7

  Mid. ubi su∣pra, & Tamid. ubi sup.
• * 1.8

  h Shekalim per. 6.
• i 1.9

  Mid. ubi sup.
• k 1.10

  Ios. Ant. lib. 12. cap. 7. 1 Mac. 1. &c.
• l 1.11

  Mid. ubi sup.
• m 1.12

  Tamid. per. 1.
• n 1.13

  Maym. in bee•• habbecb. per. 5.
• o 1.14

  Tamid. ubi supra.
• p 1.15

  Mid. ubi sup.