LT.-COL. G. MACKINLAY ON BIBLICAL ASTRONOMY. 137 



ones. If the literal rendering were always given, and if a 

 short explanation were made at the beginnings of all Bibles of 

 the ancient way of regarding the East as the front, every 

 reader would be able to judge for himself from the context 

 when front, left, etc, meant East, North, etc., and several 

 marginal readings might be avoided. It would then be clear 

 that Solomon's temple was oriented like the Tabernacle in the 

 wilderness (Ex. xxvi, 22 ; 1 Kings vi, 16, K.V.). 



At the present time we in England employ a somewhat 

 similar plan in topography ; we speak of the right or left bank 

 of a river, and we give a clear impression of our meaning to 

 anyone familiar with the conventional plan, that the right bank 

 is that on the right hand of anyone looking dow T n stream. It 

 is somewhat remarkable that we now look down the course of 

 the stream, but the ancient Hebrews looked towards the course 

 of the Sun, and many modern Easterns do the same. 



In this connection Job xxiii, 8, 9, E.V., calls for attention : 



" Behold, I go forward, but He is not there ; 

 And backward, but I cannot perceive Him ; 

 On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold Him, 

 He hideth Himself on the right hand that I cannot see Him." 



The cardinal points are almost certainly intended in this 

 passage, and they are so rendered in both French and Spanish, 

 but not in either our A.V. or Revised Versions. The mention 

 of hiding Himself on the right hand probably refers to the 

 hiding of His works, i.e., the stars, in the south, a fact also 

 alluded to in the expression, " Chambers of the South," in 

 Job ix, 9, when again the full meaning appears to have been 

 missed by our translators in both versions, but recognised by 

 both the French and Spanish, as they correctly give " chambres 

 cachees " and " lugares secretos " as the meaning of the word 

 which we render simply " chambers."* The hiding of the stars, 

 below the horizon in the south must have been noticed by 

 travellers in Bible times, specially by voyagers on the Nile,, 

 which stretches north and south through many degrees of 

 latitude. A description of the south as a place where stars. 



* In Sanscrit the Bev. A. Margoschis states that avaci, meaning " lower 

 region," is a word used to express the South. The Bev. A. Elwin, late 

 missionary in China, states that in Chinese, South, is " below." The Bev. 

 W. C. Whiteside, Western India, says that South is sometimes described 

 in Sanscrit as "the door." South is also called vamaya in Sanscrit 

 from yama, the God of death. The connection between the hidden 

 chamber and the dead seems to be obvious from Gen. xxiii, 4 and 8, 

 "Bury my dead out of my sight." 



K 2 



