exodus

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1867 Excerpt: ...to be set of enchased in sockets of gold or some other metal, and they are called fillings because the stones when inserted filled up the cavities prepared for their reception. The precise manner in which these twelve precious stones, which had the names of the twelve tribes engraved upon them, were attached to the Breast-plate is not expressed in the text, though it is usually understood by commentators to have been upon the outside, and that they were fully exposed to view when worn upon the High Priest's bosom. This, however, is not asserted in the text, and we shall soon suggest several reasons for doubting whether it were the fact. It is certain that the stones were in some way appended to the Breastplate, and that they were arranged in four rows, three in each, but as to the peculiar manner in which they were adjusted to the supporting ground ol the tapestry, this is a point which is to be inferred from an attentive consideration of all the circumstances relating to the fabric itself, and upon this we shall be more full in a subsequent note At present we shall devote a page oi two to the consideration of the stones themselves, in relation to which we are constrained to remark that after all the research expended by antiquarians upon the subject much uncertainty still rests upon it. They cannot be satisfactorily identified'. We can only approach a 'probability, more or less strong, that the gems which we now call the topaz, emerald, sapphire, carbuncle, &c, do truly answer to the original terms which they are thus made to represent in English. Our explanations must be taken therefore by the reader subject to the necessary abatement on this score. 1. Sardius. Heb. tft odem, from the radical tn& adam, to be ruddy or red. Chal. pfrD samkan, and tl...