,
i.e of the tribe of Isachar, for to that tribe did Jezreel belong; and
presently at the beginning of sect. 8, as also ch. 15. sect. 4, we may
read for Iar, with one MS. nearly, and the Scripture, Jezreel, for that
was the city meant in the history of Naboth.

[36] "The Jews weep to this day," [says Jerome, here cited by Reland,]
"and roll themselves upon sackcloth, in ashes, barefoot, upon such
occasions." To which Spanheim adds, "that after the same manner Bernice,
when his life was in danger, stood at the tribunal of Florus barefoot."
Of the War, B. II. ch. 15. sect. 1. See the like of David, 2 Samuel
15:30; Antiq. B. VII. ch. 9. sect. 2.

[37] Mr. Reland notes here very truly, that the word naked does not
always signify entirely naked, but sometimes without men's usual armor,
without heir usual robes or upper garments; as when Virgil bids the
husbandman plough naked, and sow naked; when Josephus says [Antiq. B.
IV. ch. 3. sect. 2] that God had given the Jews the security of armor
when they were naked; and when he here says that Ahab fell on the
Syrians when they were naked and drunk; when [Antiq. B. XI. ch. 5. sect.
8] he says that Nehemiah commanded those Jews that were building the
walls of Jerusalem to take care to have their armor on upon occasion,
that the enemy might not fall upon them naked. I may add, that the case
seems to be the same in the Scripture, when it says that Saul lay down
naked among the prophets, 1 Samuel 19:24; when it says that Isaiah
walked naked and barefoot, Isaiah 20:2, 3; and when it says that Peter,
before he girt his fisher's coat to him, was naked, John 21:7. What is
said of David also gives light to this, who was reproached by Michal
for "dancing before the ark, and uncovering himself in the eyes of his
handmaids, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself,"
2 Samuel 6:14, 20; yet it is there expressly said [ver. 14] that "David
was girded with a linen ephod," i.e. he had laid aside his robes of
state, and put on the sacerdotal, Levitical, or sacred garments, proper
for such a solemnity.

[38] Josephus's number, two myriads and seven thousand, agrees here with
that in our other copies, as those that were slain by the falling down
of the walls of Aphek; but I suspected at first that this number in
Josephus's present copies could not be his original number, because he
calls them "oligoi," a few, which could hardly be said of so many as
twenty-seven thousand, and beca