Original - The Preterist Archive

14 NAOMf.
though with little success. She wove for him the broadest
and most beautiful fringes to adorn the borders of his festal
garment according to the commandment of the Lord to Moses,
and fixed upon the fringe a ribbon of the brightest blue.*
And she employed the skill she had acquired from her father
(and which she possessed in a far higher degree than the
generality of Jewish females), in writing upon slips of white
parchment choice sentences from the law, to compose the
phylacteries that he wore on his forehead and on his wrist
a custom which the Jews derived from the direction to make
the commandments of God "a sign upon their hand, and a
memorial between their eyes."f Unhappily it had become
perverted from its original meaning, and had sunk into a mere
superstitious form; and many, especially of the Pharisees,
were contented to carry the law of the Lord upon their persons
and their garments, while it entered not into their hearts.
When Javan came home in a sullen mood, Naomi would take
her harp, and sing to him one of the songs of the royal
Psalmist ;
and her sweet voice had frequently the same effect
on her brother that the young shepherd's had on Saul the
evil spirit would depart from him. But it was not the psalm
of penitence or praise that he loved best to hear ; it was the
tone of exultation and triumph, or the prophecy of vengeance,
that breathes forth in some of the inspired songs of David,
which met with corresponding emotions in the breast of the
fiery young Jew, and recalled his spirit from its own passions
and resentments, to a contemplation of the promised restoration
and glory of his nation, and the signal punishment of all
their foes.
It was a frequent practice of Zadok, and several other of the
most learned of his fraternity, to meet together for the express
purpose of studying those parts of the Scriptures which so
clearly set forth the future prosperity of the Jews and the reign
of the Messiah : and endeavouring to calculate from the various
dates which refer to that blessed period, whether the appearance
of their King and Saviour might be speedily looked for, according
to the popular expectation. At these meetings Javan always
attended ;
and his ardent and enthusiastic notions and
wild conjectures called forth the smiles, and sometimes the
reproofs, of the graver and more cool-headed rabbin, though
they highly commended his zeal, and the industry with which
he pursued the study of the Holy Scriptures. He was already
a wonderful proficient in the sacred writings which compose
the Old Testament, and had transcribed a large portion of
* Numbers, xv. 38. * Exodus, xiii, 9.