ADDENDA
Page 19, note 3, add ed. of 1903, p. 207
„ 20, „ 3, „ ed. of 1903, p. 194
LECTURE I
INTRODUCTION
THE subject of ancient Hebrew social life and custom
must of necessity attract all serious students of ancient
Hebrew literature. The present treatment of it therefore
is no pioneer work, but is rather, in the main, the treading
of a path trodden in many generations by many earnest
explorers. Any one, accordingly, who attempts to deal
with such a subject is indebted to the labours of many pre-
decessors, and his only justification for traversing the path
which they have trodden is that even the most carefully
constructed and most frequented roads sometimes prove
inadequate to the exigencies of modem heavy traffic, and
need in places both widening and strengthening by the
application of fresh material.
In this course of lectures it is proposed to consider only
the evidence supplied by the Hebrew Scriptures. Although
much useful illustration can be gained both from the Near
East as it exists to-day, and from the customs of peoples of
more or less primitive culture in various parts of the world,
it must not be forgotten that even the ‘ unchanging East ’
has changed in the course of centuries ; and therefore that
it must not be assumed that what may be observed at the
present time is in all respects identical with what existed
in the age covered by the Hebrew Scriptures. Accordingly,
before attempting to illustrate an ancient Hebrew phrase
or story by modem usage, it is desirable to subject such a
phrase to careful scrutiny in order to determine whether
the proposed illustration is suitable to each occurrence of it.
In this connexion it is particularly important to emphasize
the paramount necessity of a careful study of Hebrew meta-
phor. That light should be thrown on a nation’s social life
and custom by its laws and by its stories of its past is indeed
self-evident ; but it is too often overlooked that equal light
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