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month, Ex. xiii. 4; xxiii. 15; Deut. xvi. 1; but after the exile it is called Nisan; Neh. ii. 1; Esther iii. 7. It was the month of the Paschal festival. He does not begin with the first portal, at the time when the day is shortest and the night longest, but with the fourth, when the day has been already lengthening, in order to accommodate his system to the Jewish almanac. Of this verse probably Anatolius, bishop of Laodicea, made use, as recorded in Euseb. H. E. 7, 32 as GTR—7. Twelve window-openings; the number determined by his general system of twelve, and presupposed at the other portals; cf. 72:3; 75:7. Flame probably is heat; cf. 75:7.—8. With this verse the course of the sun is commenced. The author’s system is briefly this: There are twelve portals, six in the east, and six in the west. The sun ascends and descends from the time of the shortest day in the year in the first portal to the time of the longest day in the sixth portal, in each one of them one month; all the time the days increase. Returning, he begins his course in the sixth, and returns by monthly changing his portal, and daily decreasing the length of the day, to the first portal. Thus the sun ascends in one portal, and descends in the corresponding opposite one for two months every year. Therefore, too, each portal in the east and its corresponding one in the west represent two signs of the zodiac. From the first to the sixth they are respectively Capricornus, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries, Taurus, and Gemini; and returning from the sixth to the first, respectively Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius. The months are nominally thirty days; but in order to at least approach a solar year, the author makes the third, sixth, ninth, and twelfth, or the months of the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, and of the summer and winter solstices, have thirty-one days “on account of its sign,” vs. 13, 19; but cf. 25:31. The author’s division of the GTR into eighteen parts and their increase and decrease is of course simply a production of this desire to systematize, without any scientific value whatever. Much less could it be cited as proof that the author did not write in Palestine, as Laurence asserted.—9. Mornings, as the chief part of the day for day itself in Job vii. 18; Ps. Ixxiii. 14; Lam. iii. 23.—-13. Its, referring to portal, being the point of solstice —15. Is raised, _ i.e. probably removed further from the earth, to explain the decreasing of the days. Dillmann translates, raises himself, i.e. starts on his trip anew, like a traveller —35. Sixty times, because the sun is two months in the same portal. The author here disregards the extra day in the third, sixth, ninth, and twelfth portals. Eternal, cf. Ps. Ixxii. 5, 17; Ixxxix. 37,—37. In size sun and moon are equal, but not in light; cf. 78:3 and Isa. xxx. 26. in which she rides is driven by the wind, and in a measure light is given to her. 3. Every month her ascent and her descent is changed; her days are like the days of the sun, and when her light is equal [full] her light is the seventh part of the light of the sun. 4. And thus she rises. And her beginning in the east comes forth on the thirtieth morning, and on that day she becomes visible and is for you the beginning of the moon, on the thirtieth morning, together with the sun in the portal whence the sun proceeds. 5. And the one half is prominent by the seventh part, and her whole circuit is empty, and there is no light with the exception of the one seventh part of the fourteen parts of light. 6. And on that day when she takes up the seventh part and the half of her light, her light contains one seventh and one seventh part and the half of it. She sets with the sun. 7. And when the sun rises the moon also rises with him and takes a half portion of light, and in that night in the beginning of her morning on her first day the moon sets with the sun, and is darkened in that night, with the seventh and the seventh portions and the half of one. 8. And she will rise on that day with SECTION XIV. CHAP. 73.—And after this law I saw another law with reference to the smaller luminary whose name is moon. 2. And her circuit is like the circuit of the heavens, and her chariot