THE ASS. 59 



It is reasonable to suppose, that the manners and customs of the 

 chosen tribes underwent a change when the government became 

 monarchical, and the fascinating pleasures of a court began to exert 

 their usual influence ; still, however, the ass kept his place in the 

 service of the great. Mephibosheth, the grandson of Saul, rode on 

 an ass; as did Ahithopel, the prime minister of David, and the 

 greatest statesman of that age. Even so late as the reign of Jeho- 

 ram the son of Ahab, the services of this animal were required by 

 the wealthy Israelite : for the Shunamite, a person of high rank, 

 saddled her ass, and rode to Carmel, the residence of Elisha, to an- 

 nounce the death of her son to the prophet, and to solicit his assist- 

 ance, 2 Kings, iv. 8, 24. 



But as the number of horses increased in Judea, and people of 

 rank and fashion became fonder of pomp and show, the movements 

 of the nobler and statelier animal were preferred to the rapid but 

 less dignified motions of the ass. This change, it is reasonable to 

 suppose, began to take place from the accession of Solomon to the 

 throne of Israel; for that rich and splendid prince collected a very 

 numerous stud of the finest horses that Egypt and Arabia could 

 furnish. One thing is certain, viz. that after the Jews returned 

 from their long captivity in Babylon, the great and fashionable, for 

 the most part, rode the horse or the mule. The ass was resigned 

 to the use of the lower orders, and it quickly became a mark of 

 poverty and meanness to appear in public on that animal. It has 

 been for want of attending to this change in the customs of the 

 Jewish people, that some commentators of repute have ventured to 

 oppose the obvious meaning of Matt. xxi. 4, 5, which describes our 

 Saviour as riding into Jerusalem upon an ass ; a circumstance 

 which, both here and in the prophecy (Zech. ix. 9), is represented 

 as a proof of his meek and lowly spirit. They, however, by refer- 

 ring to the usage in the early periods of the common v/ealth, have 

 considered the circumstance as reflecting, in the estimation of the 

 people, high honor upon his character. 



The ass being an unclean animal, whose flesh was prohibited by 

 the Mosaic law, renders 2 Kings, vi. 25, somewhat perplexing: 

 ' And there was a great famine in Samaria, until an ass's head was 

 sold for eighty pieces of silver.' The difficulty in understanding 

 this passage, according to our translation, would not be so great, 

 did we not know, that however lax the Jews were in points of 

 morality, no kind or extent of suffering could induce them to vio- 

 late the ceremonial precepts of the law, and more especially those 

 which referred to meats. The late editor of Calrnet has succeeded, 

 we believe, in correctly interpreting the passage. In 1 Sam. xvi, 

 20, we read in our Bibles, 'And Jesse took an ass laden with 

 bread ;' where the words * laden with,' are an addition to our trans- 

 lators, the original being ass bread, or, an ass of bread, meaning, as 

 Mr. Taylor conjectures, not an animal, but a vessel, containing 

 bread ; a stated measure, or a pile ; the LXX. render * a chomer of 

 bread.' So we find in the Greek poet Sosibus, He ate three times 



