erateness reserved the half of the horrible meal for
those murderers who daily broke in upon her to rob her of what scanty
food had been left her; nor yet other of those incidents, too revolting
for needless repetition, which the historian of the last siege of
Jerusalem chronicles. But how often, these many centuries, must Israel's
women have felt that terrible longing for childlessness, and how often
must the prayer of despair for the quick death of falling mountains and
burying hills rather than prolonged torture (Hosea 10:8), have risen to
the lips of Israel's sufferers! And yet, even so, these words were also
prophetic of a still more terrible future (Rev. 6:10). For, if Israel
had put such flame to its 'green tree' how terribly would the divine
judgment burn among the dry wood of an apostate and rebellious people,
that had so delivered up its Divine King, and pronounced sentence upon
itself by pronouncing it upon Him!"--Edersheim, _Life and Times of Jesus
the Messiah_ vol. 2, p. 588.

Concerning the prayer that mountains fall to crush and hide, Farrar
(_Life of Christ_, p. 645, note), says: "These words of Christ met with
a painfully literal illustration when hundreds of the unhappy Jews at
the siege of Jerusalem hid themselves in the darkest and vilest
subterranean recesses, and when, besides those who were hunted out, no
less than two thousand were killed by being buried under the ruins of
their hiding places." A further fulfilment may be yet future. Consult
Josephus, Wars, vi. 9:4. See also Hos. 9:12-16; 10:8; Isa. 2:10; compare
Rev. 6:16.

3. "The Place of a Skull."--The Aramaic Hebrew name "Golgotha", the
Greek "Kranion", and the Latin "Calvaria" or, as Anglicized, "Calvary",
have the same meaning, and connote "a skull". The name may have been
applied with reference to topographical features, as we speak of the
brow of a hill; or, if the spot was the usual place of execution, it may
have been so called as expressive of death, just as we call a skull a
death's head. It is probable that the bodies of executed convicts were
buried near the place of death; and if Golgotha or Calvary was the
appointed site for execution, the exposure of skulls and other human
bones through the ravages of beasts and by other means, would not be
surprizing; though the leaving of bodies or any of their parts unburied
was contrary to Jewish law and sentiment. The origin of the name is of
as little importance as are the many divergent