e eyes of men,
prevents them from appearing as sinners, _e.g._, in the case of Miriam,
Uzziah, Gehazi, 2 Kings v. 27. In the Law, there are many warnings
against it, _e.g._, Deut. xxiv. 8; and David wishes, 2 Sam. iii. 29,
that the threatening of the Law might be fulfilled upon the house of
wicked Joab. The leprosy of houses, too, comes into consideration only
as an image of spiritual leprosy, as is seen from the command in Lev.
xiv. 49: "And he shall take to cleanse the house two birds, and cedar
wood, and scarlet, and hyssop; ver. 53: and make an atonement for the
house, and it shall be clean." The procedure here is quite the same as
that which was applied in the case of sin and sinners; and since the
house cannot sin, it follows that a symbolical action only can here be
spoken of.--Goah, in this context, in the midst of unclean places, can
hardly be anything else than some unclean place; and it is a very
obvious supposition that this nature is expressed in the very [Pg 454]
name. This signification interpreters usually endeavour to obtain by
deriving the word from [Hebrew: geh] "to roar," of which it is properly
the Partic. Fem., hence "the roaring one;" but it is more easily
obtained by adopting the derivation from [Hebrew: gve], just as
[Hebrew: wve] is derived from [Hebrew: wve], a derivation which was
first proposed by _Hiller_, S. 127. [Hebrew: gve] is used of a violent
death, no less than of a natural death; thus Numb. xvii. 27, 28, of a
death like that of the company of Korah, Datham, and Abiram; comp.
Zech. xiii. 8. This derivation being assumed, Goah would denote
"expiring," "hill[6] of expiring," which would be a very suitable name
of the place for the execution of criminals. _Vitringa_, in commenting
upon Is. xxx. 33, already expressed the conjecture that Goah, [Hebrew:
gl gveth] might perhaps be identical with Golgotha, but retracted it,
because the Evangelists explain Golgotha by [Greek: kraniou topos]. But
this is no sufficient and conclusive reason. When the Aramean became
the prevailing language, the name of the place may have received a new
etymology, just as the Fathers of the Church derive [Greek: pascha],
from [Greek: paschein], and many similar instances. It has already been
observed that the appellation, "place of skulls," is rather strange,
inasmuch as the skulls did not remain in the place of execution.[7] The
use of "skull" for "the place of skulls," as well as the omission of
the _L_, have be