BRED AMONG THE ANCIENT JEWS. 393 
with the disposition of the hen as a mother. It is known 
to all, that she sometimes sits upon the eggs of another 
fowl, not of her own kind, and when they are hatched, 
clucks with the brood, as if they were her own ; but they 
are not long of leaving their supposed mother, who is ill 
requited for her misplaced affection. 
By the ill return which the brood makes to the hen, 
when hatched from eggs not her own, the prophet paints 
the vexation which the miser suffers, when he loses wealth, 
which he has gotten by unjust means. However cautious 
and watchful he may be to secure it, a time may come, when 
it shall escape from his hands, and leave him poor, desti- 
tute, and mortified ; just as the brood of eggs, not her own, 
which the hen hatches, forsake her, when her affection for 
them is on the increase, if not at its height. 
If this interpretation be rejected, we are led to con- 
clude, that cocks and hens were not bred among the Jews, 
till they began to have intercourse with the Romans ; and 
hence we are enabled to account for the spare mention 
of them in the New Testament. In this sacred volume, 
the hen is mentioned once, and the cock once, though it is 
doubtful, whether the mention of the cock be figurative or 
not. 
The hen is thus introduced in our Lord's lamentation 
over Jerusalem: " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who killcst 
the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how 
often would I have gathered thy children together, even as 
a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would 
not — Matt, xxiii. 37. 
The passage is familiar to every Christian, and justly 
regarded as the truest burst of natural eloquence. One 
does not know, whether to admire more the pathetic sim- 
plicity of the expression, or the benevolent patriotism of 
him that uttered it. 
