xxiii. 23, 24, and sees in it a reference to the kingdom of Samalla,

to the north-east of the Gulf of Antioch. The two verses become in his translation, ‘[And he saw Samalla], and began his speech, and said, Alas, who will survive of Samalla? And ships [shall come] from the coast of Chittim, and Asshur shall oppress him, and Eber shall oppress him, and he himself is destined to destruction.’ Samalla, however, was only the Assyrian name of a district called by natives of Northern Syria Ya’di and Gurgum; nor is it easy to understand how Balaam could have ‘seen’ the north of Syria from Moab. Professor Hommel is more probably right in his view that Asshur here does not signify the Assyrians, but the Asshurim to the south of Palestine (Gen. xxv. 3, 18).

Footnote 244:

For the Messianic prophecy of Ameni, see above, p. 175.

Footnote 245:

Similar cities of refuge, called _puhonua_, existed in Hawaii. ‘A thief or a murderer might be pursued to the very gateway of one of those cities; but as soon as he crossed the threshold of that gate, even though the gate were open and no barrier hindered pursuit, he was safe as at the city altar. When once within the sacred city, the fugitive’s first duty was to present himself before the idol and return thanks for his protection’ (Trumbull, _The Threshold Covenant_, p. 151, quoting Ellis, _Through Hawaii_, pp. 155 _sq._, and Bird, _Six Months in the Sandwich Islands_, pp. 135 _sq._). For the _asyla_ of Asia Minor see Barth, _De Asylis Græcis_ (1888); Daremberg et Saglio, _Dictionnaire des Antiquités, Grecques et Romaines_, i. pp. 505 _sqq._; Pauly’s _Real-Encyclopädie_ (ed. Wissowa), iv. pp. 1884-5.

Footnote 246:

Erman, _Life in Ancient Egypt_ (Eng. tr.), p. 299.

Footnote 247:

Cornelius Nepos, _Them._ ii. 10.

Footnote 248:

Mahaffy, _The Empire of the Ptolemies_, pp. 144, 156-158. For the _hiera_ or priestly cities of Asia Minor, see Ramsay, _The Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia_, pp. 101 _sqq._; their constitution resembled very closely that of the Levitical cities in Israel. Examples of such cities in the history of Israel are Nob in the time of Saul and Anathoth in the age of Jeremiah.

Footnote 249:

The order of events is in many places confused, which probably points to later insertions in the text. See, for example, Deut. x. 6-9, which interrupts the context, and has nothing to do either with what precedes or with what follows.

Footnote 250:

_E.g._ Deut. xiv. 21, compared with Lev. xvii. 14-16.

Footnote 251:

In this respect it resembles the ‘Negative Confession’ of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, which the soul of the dead man was required to make before the judges of the other world (Wiedemann, _Religion der alten Aegypter_, pp. 132, 133).

Footnote 252:

Levi is included among the six tribes which stood on Mount Gerizim to bless. This is an inadvertency, as the Levites were placed on both mountains, it being their duty to utter the curses as well as the blessings.

Footnote 253:

If it did so, xxxiii. 4 can hardly be original. Perhaps Yahveh rather than Moses was described as ‘king in Jeshurun’ (cf. _v._ 26). A very ingenious attempt has been made by Dr. Hayman to explain the corruptions of the text in the song by the theory that it was originally written on a clay tablet, a fracture of which has caused some of the words at the ends of the lines to be lost.

Footnote 254:

Cf. 1 Chron. iv. 22.