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This was not the situation of the פילגשים or * concubines amongst the Jews; these seem to have been looked upon as wives, though, in some respects, of an inferior rank. They were so far considered as wives, that the man who took them had such a propriety in them, as to make it a very great offence, if not adultery itself, to violate them; as appears in the cafe of Jacob's concubine Bilbah. Reuben, the eldeft fon of Jacob, had lain with her; and Jacob, Gen. xlix. 4. calls it going up to “ his bed and defiling it."

Though the children of the concubine did not inherit as the children of the wife in most cafes, yet in one very remarkable one we find they did, and that by the difposal of God Himself. Leah and Rachel

* Dr. Johnson, in his Dictionary, makes a concubine fignify- a woman kept in fornication, a whore,

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a strumpet:" but no fuch meaning of the word פילגש is to be found in the sacred scriptures. It is greatly owing to such interpretations of words which are used in our translation, that we are led to have very false conceptions, not only of words, but of whole passages, in the sacred volume.

So the word adultery-instead of keeping to the unvaried use of the Hebrew נאף we make it fignify every thing which our ideas have annexed to the English term adultery. At this rate, the truth of scripture can never be fixed, but must alter with the languages into which it may happen to be tranflated, or with the ideas which change of times, or opinions, may affix to certain words in those languages.

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are called the wives of Jacob ; Bilbah and Zilpah were his concubines (as may appear from Gen. xxxv. 22.); yet the children of these inherited the land of Canaan equally with the children of the former.

I confefs myself not master enough of the subject to define exactly the difference between אשה a wife, and פילגש a concubine, in all respects; neither have I been fortunate enough to meet with so precife a definition in any author, as to warrant a * determination of the question. This is

* The authors of the Univ. Hist. (vol. iii. p. 141.) call the נשים wives of the first rank and the פילגשים wives of the second rank; "which last, say they,

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though most versions render by the word concubines, " harlots, and prostitutes, yet in none of those places " of scripture where the word is used, which are "about thirty-fix in number, is any fuch finifter " sense implied." However, they state a two-fold difference between these and the wives of the first rank. "First-that the latter were taken with the usual ce

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remonies, and the former without. Secondly, with " respect to their authority, and the honour paid to "them and their children."

This is very clear, that the sacred tongue, made ufe of by the Holy Ghost in the scriptures, makes distinctions, which amount to demonstration of there being no foundation for confounding the פילגשים with whores or harlots. The words אשה and פילגש are sometimes used for the same person. See Gen. xxv. 1. 6. (xxx. 4. with xxxv. 22.); but פילגש and זונה are never thus used.

Calafio defines פילגש as-Ancilla unita & addicta viro absque fcriptura, i. e. contractu dotali & fponfalibus.

is certain, no mark of disapprobation is set upon concubinage in the sacred fcriptures, though they speak so feverely against whoredom; which, to me, is an evident and conclusive proof, that there is some specific difference between them. Indeed we find the owner of the concubine called her huf band; the his wife. So the text, Judges xix. 1. a certain Levite took to himפיל אשה uxorem pellicem. Mont.; a wife concubine: and in verse 3. he is called אישה vir ejus. Mont.; her husband, as we tranflate it. So the Fr. of D. Martin, fon mari. The damsel's father is called, ver. 4. his )the Levite's( חתן father-in-law; and ver. 5. the Levite is called חתנו bis (the damsel's father's) fon-in-law; each of these relations by marriage being expressed by the word חתן. Surely this affords a conclusive proof, that the concubines, in those days, were in some sense wives; but, in what sense, it may be very difficult to determine exactly. The root חתן fignifies to contract affinity by marriage. Gen. xxxiv. 9. Josh. xxiii. 12. In this last passage, the LXX render it by ἐπιγαμίας ποιῖιν, to make marriages. So that though we cannot state the precise difference between the wife and

bus. "An handmaid united and devoted to a man, or husband, without writing-i. e. without any contract for dower or espousals."

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the concubine in every particular, yet there ✓ was too great a fimilarity between them, not to be both widely different from what we call a kept mistress, in whom the man claims not a jot more property, than in an horse hired for a day's journey, nor,is more care or concern usually taken about them, when once the fancy or humour of the keeper leads him to refolve upon difmission.

The remedy of this mischief depends on that of the others which have been mentioned; all must stand or fall together.

CHAP.

1

CHAP. III.

Of ADULTERY.

COME now to confider an offence

I against the positive prece

which is of the most malignant kind, that of commerce between the sexes, where the woman is the wife, consequently the inviolable and unalienable property of another man.

This is truly and properly adultery, and defcribed in the seventh commandment by a word, which, throughout the whole Hebrew scriptures, is confined to that single idea. Hence it is, that it is used, in a figurative sense, to denote the turning from Gon to the worship of idols. GOD calls himself the husband of His church; the church is represented under the figure of a spouse or wife; therefore, apostatizing from JEHOVAH to idols, is called, in a fpiritual sense, adultery, If. liv. 5. * Thy

Maker

* The words in the original are בעליך עשיך in the plural number, thy husbands, thy makers; then follows, Jehovah Sabaoth is His name. Surely here, as in Eccl. xii. 1. and in many other passages, the careful reader must see a plurality of persons in Jehovah openly

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