EXHIBIT OF BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 999 



and welcome to those nigh and far." Below, to the right, is a female 

 figiiie holding two burning hearts linked together by a chain, with the 

 adage, "A well-mated couple is chosen by God" (marriages are made 

 in heaven); to the left another female figure holding a tambourine and 

 a flower, with a quotation from Isaiah xxxii, 8. The representation at 

 the bottom, of Elijah ascending to heaven in a fiery chariot, his mantle 

 falling on his disciple and successor Elisha,' was probably suggested by 

 the name of the bridegroom. 



MiZRACH {the east). — Mizrach means east, literally the place of the 

 rising sun. There is hung in Jewish houses a tablet on the eastern 

 wall to indicate the direction of the face when at prayer. It contains 

 the Ten Commandments and various quotations from Scripture in 

 Hebrew. The idea which dictates this direction is that the face shall 

 be turned toward Jerusalem. West of Jerusalem the opposite direc- 

 tion would be chosen. In the temple itself the direction of prayer was 

 toward the west, the entrance being from the east. Ancient nations 

 that worshiped the sun tnrned wlien in i)rayer toward the east, the 

 place of the rising sun. This fact is alluded to in Ezekiel viii, 16: "At 

 the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, 

 were about five and twenty men with their backs toward the temple of 

 the Lord and their faces toward the east; and they worshiped the 

 sun toward the east." 



Knife with its sheath, used for the slaughtering of animals. (See 

 plate 17, fig. 3.) The killing of animals for food is performed by a 

 person especially trained and authorized, called shochet. The throat is 

 cut with a long knife (halaf) and the internal organs are examined for 

 traces of disease. The act of killing is called shechita; that of search- 

 ing, bedika. During both acts short prayers are recited. If there be 

 a notch {pegima) in the knife, or if any trace of disease be found, the 

 animal is unfit {terefa) to be eaten. 



ANTIQUITIES. 



Next to the Israelites, with whom the Scriptures originated, the 

 antiquities of those nations with whom Israel came in close contact, 

 and who to a great extent inflnenced the course and development of the 

 history narrated in the Bible, claim the interest of the Bible student. 

 Tbe exhibits in this department consisted of objects representing 

 Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, and the Hittites. 



EGYPT. 



Cast of a bust of Ramses II. — Ramses II ^ was the third king 

 of the nineteenth dynasty and the most brilliant monarch of Egypt. 

 He was formerly identified as the Pharaoh of the Exodus; later author- 

 ities hold that that event took i)lace five years after his death. He 

 was, however, in all probability, the Pharaoh of the oppression. The 



' II Kings ii, 11-13. ^ The Sesostris of the Greeks. 



