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California is a great place to live. It consistently ranks high on quality of life indices, attracting people from all over the world. In fact, California has the largest foreign-born population of any other state.
Some of the Golden State's most attractive aspects include its:
- year-round pleasant climate;
- proximity to the Pacific;
- diverse population;
- world-class public university system;
- numerous health options; and
- booming industries, which make it the region with the sixth largest gross domestic product (GDP) in the world.
From another perspective, California also presents unique challenges for its residents. These include:
- a high cost-of-living, including high housing costs and tax rates;
- political gridlock which limits new construction and economic growth; and
- high levels of income inequality.
The thing is, how much any of the above factors impacts a California resident depends on where they live in the state. The average quality of life is very different in, say, San Jose than in Bakersfield.
Keep on reading for a glance at the quality of living in each of California's largest regions, organized from highest average quality of life to lowest.
Editor's note — Unless otherwise indicated, quality of life measurements come from the Social Science Research Council's Portrait of California 2014-2015 report. To figure each region's quality of life index figure, the researchers use three measurements: average life expectancy and overall health, access to education, and the average standard of living, measured by earnings.
California's overall quality of life
As a state, California scores above average on the Social Science Research Council's quality of life index, at 5.39 out of 10. The U.S. average is 5.07.
The average life expectancy in California is 81.2 years, compared to the U.S. life expectancy of 79.0 years. A higher percent of the population has college and advanced degrees, and average earnings are higher in California than elsewhere (though this is somewhat counteracted by our high cost of living).
However, California's below average high school graduation rate drags down its quality of life score. 81.5% of adults have a high school diploma here, compared to 86.4% of all U.S. residents.
1. Santa Clara and San Jose
The highest quality of life in the state can be found in Santa Clara and San Jose — specifically (ranked highest to less high) in:
- Mountain View;
- Palo Alto;
- Los Altos;
- Cupertino;
- Saratoga; and
- Los Gatos.
Here, the average quality of life index is 7.08 out of 10. The state average is 5.39. Average life expectancy is a high 83.9 years and 86.4% of adults have a high school diploma.
2. San Francisco and Contra Costa
The next highest quality of life is also found in the Bay Area, specifically in:
- San Francisco proper;
- San Ramon;
- Danville;
- Walnut Creek;
- Lafayette;
- Orinda; and
- Moraga.
In the San Francisco metropolitan area, the quality of life index score is 6.72 out of 10, compared to the state average of 5.39. Average life expectancy is 82.5 years and 87.5% of adults have a high school diploma.
3. Oxnard and Thousand Oaks
In third place, the Oxnard and Thousand Oaks metro has a quality of life score of 5.62 out of 10, higher than the state average of 5.39. The average life expectancy is 82.3 years, compared to the state average of 81.2. Further, 82.5% of adults have their high school diploma compared to 81.5% of Californians.
The top quality of life area in Oxnard-Thousand Oaks is the city of Thousand Oaks proper. However, the cities of Oxnard and Port Hueneme rank very low on the quality of life index, at just 3.96 out of 10. Here, only 64% of adults have a high school diploma.
4. San Diego
San Diego also has a relatively high quality of life, scoring 5.59 out of 10, compared to the state average of 5.39. The average life expectancy is also higher than average, at 81.7 compared to the state's average of 81.2. 85.3% of adults graduated high school, higher than the state average of 81.5%.
The places with the highest quality of life in the San Diego area are:
- Del mar Mesa;
- San Dieguito;
- Encinitas;
- Rancho Bernardo;
- Poway; and
- Carlsbad.
The areas with the lowest quality of life in San Diego are:
- Chula Vista (West);
- National City;
- Oceanside; and
- Camp Pendleton.
5. Sacramento
Moving down the quality of life index, Sacramento still receives a higher than average score of 5.47 compared to the state average of 5.39.
Life expectancy is lower in Sacramento, at 80.2 years compared to the state average of 81.2 years. However, the high school graduation rate of 87.7% in Sacramento is the highest of any metro area in the state. The state average is 81.5%.
The best quality of life in the Sacramento metro area is found in:
- Folsom City;
- Orangevale;
- Fair Oaks; and
- Elk Grove City.
The worst quality of life is in the City of Sacramento proper, specifically:
- North Highlands;
- Southeast/Fruitridge; and
- Avondale.
6. Los Angeles
Los Angeles can provide a high quality of living — but only in certain neighborhoods. It's a mixed bag in Los Angeles, with life expectancy and other measures of wellbeing varying wildly across this large region.
The areas with the highest quality of life are:
- Redondo Beach;
- Manhattan Beach; and
- Hermosa Beach.
In contrast, Los Angeles is also home to some of the state's neighborhoods for worst quality of life. The worst neighborhood in the state for quality of living is South Central/Watts, followed by:
- East Vernon;
- Southeast;
- Walnut Park;
- Florence-Graham; and
- Huntington Park.
On average, Los Angeles scores just above average for quality of life at 5.44, compared to the state's 5.39 score. The average life expectancy is slightly higher than average at 82.1 years, while the high school graduation rate is below average at 78.2%.
7. Riverside and San Bernardino
Riverside and San Bernardino score below average on the Social Science Research Council's quality of life index, receiving 4.59 out of 10, compared to the state average of 5.39. Average life expectancy is 79.8 years and only 78.6% of adults have graduated high school.
The highest quality of life in the Riverside metro area is in Temecula, where nearly 92% of adults have their high school diploma and life expectancy is 82.4 years. Other notable mentions include:
- Corona City;
- Murrieta and Wildomar Cities;
- Norco; and
- Palm Desert.
The area's lowest quality of living is found in:
- Indio;
- Coachella;
- Blythe; and
- the east neighborhood of La Quinta.
8-10. San Joaquin Valley
In the last three spots are:
- Stockton;
- Fresno; and
- Bakersfield.
Geographically, these three metros span the northernmost part of the San Joaquin Valley to the southern tip. For a national perspective, these three metros are on par with West Virginia and Mississippi in terms of quality of life.
Much of the reason for the low performance is due to the low-paying industries — oil, agriculture and manufacturing — dominant in the San Joaquin Valley. Of California's largest metro areas, the lowest quality of life is found in Bakersfield, in Kern County.
The average per capita income in Kern County is $37,355 as of 2015, a substantial difference from California's average per capita income of $53,741, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Further, the one-year income increase between 2014 and 2015 was just 1.9% in Kern County compared to the state income surge of 5.4% over the same year.
Not counted in the index but just as important for residents is the Central Valley's poor air quality. Bakersfield, followed by Visalia then Fresno, has the worst air quality in the nation, according to the American Lung Association. This has contributed to California's lowest life expectancy rates in Fresno, Stockton and Bakersfield.
Some good news: Bakersfield air quality has improved somewhat in recent years. Wood-burning rules have decreased air pollution in recent years, and today there are on average 73 fewer high ozone (smog) days per year compared to 2000, according to the American Lung Association.
How quality of life impacts local home values
California has the highest home prices in the nation — it also has the highest average quality of living. Coincidence? Not likely.
When zooming in to view home values across California's various large metro areas, this relationship plays out on a micro level, too.
San Francisco and San Jose experience the highest home values in the state — the average home value as of January 2016 is over $1.1 million in San Francisco and $843,200 in San Jose, according to Zillow. They also have the highest quality of living in the state.
The relatively low quality of life and low-paying industries mean housing in the San Joaquin Valley is cheap by comparison. The average home value in Bakersfield is $213,200 as of January 2016, according to Zillow. Bakersfield's highest home values are found in the Riviera-Westchester and Sagepointe neighborhoods. In Fresno, the situation is even worse, as the average home value is $201,600, according to Zillow.
Meanwhile, the average home price across California is more than twice that found in the Valley — $482,600 according to Zillow.
One caveat: to some extent, home values are included in quality of living indices, making it a self-referential measurement. That's because home values are determined in significant part by homebuyer incomes, which also form a large part in quality of living rankings. It makes sense that the highest home values in the state are found in the areas with the highest incomes, so home values and quality of life naturally go hand in hand.
For residents looking for a higher level of wellbeing, they may consider other aspects of quality of life than incomes, since income variations are often canceled out by each area's cost of living (including housing).
Agents and brokers: what makes your area a great place to live? Part of what makes a successful agent is a passion for their community. Even if you live in one of the regions with relatively low quality of life, search for the desirable qualities in your city and specific neighborhoods you serve and share these with your clients.
For instance, an agent in low-ranked Stockton knows their city has both relatively cheap housing and is in commuting distance to Silicon Valley. In nearby Fresno, agents can highlight their various outdoor recreation spots like the San Joaquin River and the numerous parks around the city. Bakersfield agents can talk up the area's many festivals, or local hot spots like Dewar's famous taffy and ice cream shop.
Agents and brokers: what makes your community a quality place to live? How do you sell your clients on the areas you serve? Share your experience in the comments below!


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Jewellery is used to make you gleam and is it only good till it sparkles. Most metals used to make jewellery do not require any maintenance over a short time. However, over 5 to 6 years, metals get tarnished or lose their shine. When you wish to use that jewellery you have to give it to a professional to clean. But what if you are in a hurry? If you do not have a lot of time on your hands, you can use some items that are found at home to clean and return your jewellery to its glory.
You may have to rely on professional help for a heavily studded piece of jewellery like solitaire pendants or a tiara but pieces which have higher metal surface are easy to clean. Here are some handy tips you can use to polish your jewellery.
- Effervescence – Want to make that solitaire ring from someone special shine again? You can do it quickly and efficiently. For jewellery that is lightly dirty but not tarnished jewellery, this is a quick solution. Choose a powder that is used to relieve gas and put it in a bowl. Add water and submerge your jewellery in it. Wait for 2 minutes, take it out, clean and dry it. This will get rid of the light dust that settles on your jewellery.
- Toothpaste – Toothpaste is a light abrasive and can be used to clean silver articles. You can also use teeth cleaning powder. Take some quantity on a dry cloth and rub some even across the object. Make sure you don't rub too harshly as that may scratch your jewellery. If you are using the powder, ensure you use one or two drops of water to make a very thick paste. Once that is done, clean it with a fresh and dry cloth.
- Soap nut – Soap nut has been used for centuries in India and can be used in the place of a laundry detergent. Just like soap, the powder of this nut reduces the surface tension of water. You can make a solution of the powder and water and dip your jewellery for 5 minutes. After that, you can remove it and use a toothbrush to gently scrub the jewellery pieces to restore the shine.
- Window cleaner – A window cleaner can be used to liven jewellery that has metal and gems like diamond or rubies. However, do not use this in case it is studded with opaque gems like opal or turquoise then refrain from using a window cleaner. Corals or pearls can also get damaged with the window cleaner so ensure you are sure of the materials used on the piece of jewellery. Use a soft bristle brush to gently scrub away any dirt on the pieces.
- Aluminum foil – Line a bowl with foil and pour hot water. Add one spoon of powdered laundry detergent which is bleach-free and put the jewellery in. Let it soak for a minute, rinse and let it dry. This technique should be used on silver articles to make them shine again.
Every piece of jewellery holds special meaning to us and it takes just a little effort to keep all of them looking lively.

subset: commoncrawl


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Don't Jump to Conclusions in Your Business Email
With all the sites that I manage, I have had the experience of receiving emails containing accusatory comments or erroneous claims. I am sure you've found yourself in similar situations where you find yourself wondering "Where did that come from?".
There have also been times where my initial impression of an email is different if I take a break and re-read it later. I have even read emails out loud to make sure I am perceiving the correct intent and tone. Before I respond.
Nothing Like Face-to-Face
Being behind these screens makes it so much easier to type what may not be accurate or nice. Especially when you don't have to look them in the eyes and then have to deal with their reaction.
Because of this you may find that it is easier to over react or read things into a communication that aren't there. This happens more so with those we don't like or enjoy communicating with.
But the thing with professionalism is if we don't like or enjoy a business contact — they don't know that. We treat them with respect and professional courtesy because that's how professionals behave.
Almost everyone reading this post can admit to at some time mistakenly reading into an email what was not there. Or not receiving the response that you may, or may not, get.
Regardless, how you react puts your reputation and perception of professionalism on the line. In business, the wrong reaction can be fatal.
Don't Jump — Be Sure
Jumping to conclusions combined with the ease of typing things on the fly makes it too easy. You can type things you wouldn't normally say if in person which then contributes to more unnecessary misunderstandings.
The ability to Cc: the boss or BCc: coworkers with just a click, is the typical "just because you can" doesn't mean you do scenario. Concluding this is the best approach can ding your career.
The onus is on each of us to make sure that our intent and tone are crystal clear to minimize any room for incorrect assumptions. And that you don't jump to conclusions as well.
With business email communications, every email you send with your business email address will reflect on you and your business. Even if justified in a complaint, how you complain can make all the difference in the world.
Patience is a Virtue
Do you get impatient when you don't receive a reply as quickly as you think you should? Or what if you don't get the answers you want? There are so many things going on in the background that you are not aware of that can cause delayed emails or lack of response.
Then, what if your contact is in a hurry and types off a quick response that you then think is terse and vague. Because you pick-up an attitude or a response is not happening as quickly or the way you desire, doesn't necessarily make it so either.
That's why it is smart to always type what you mean and mean what you type. All the while ensuring that you set expectations (I need a reply pretty fast!) and make sure your tone is what you want to relay.
If you tend to assume, while you are at it, let's also assume that you do not know all the details or criteria that could be impacting the situation. All you have to do is ask for an explanation in a kind and courteous way.
Don't be an eTattler
When I don't receive a response to an inquiry in a manner or time I would prefer, I don't get rude or testy. I am always the epitome of professionalism. Even if my emotions are pushing me to respond otherwise. I don't.
While a lack of a response, or a less than professional approach may impact my perception of the other side I still don't change how I communicate. Rather I send a professional follow up confirming if the original request was received and, if apropos, ask if everything on the other side is okay.
If an email is terse or rude, I respond back with the courtesy not offered to me. This is how you set an example of how professionals communicate with email.
Jumping to conclusions many times only serves to expose your lack of knowledge, understanding or ability to act as a true professional under pressure. Instead use these type of situations as an opportunity to show otherwise.


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Gregg Berhalter is back as U.S. men's national team boss, the September international window is over and next summer's Copa America has come closer into focus.
Unlike when Berhalter first took over at the beginning of the 2022 World Cup cycle, there is no foundation to be laid. The bulk of the players who will be relied on in the coming years are known, and while there inevitably will be players to break through, the path to doing so is much more difficult.
This is all bodes well for the team as its aspirations climb.
It's always tempting to discuss the national team with the World Cup as the primary objective, but a Copa America on home soil next year is the next best thing. This is a high-stakes competition -- unlike the Gold Cup and Nations League -- that has the potential resonate broadly in the United States and a strong performance would be a nice table-setter for when the world trains its eyes on America in 2026.
In this version of the USMNT Big Board, we again look at the current state of the depth chart and choose a 26-player roster for the Copa America (it's unclear what roster size the tournament will use). For the purpose of this exercise, we'll assume all players are healthy.
- Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga & more (U.S.)
How we're doing this
As we have in the past, we're going position by position, from goalkeeper to attacker, and sorting the player pool in four tiers based on recent form and the coaching staff's perceived preferences. Those tiers:
Tier 1: Projected starter. Roster locks and players who are clear starters at their positions.
Tier 2: Contributor. Expected to be on the roster and contribute on the field, either as a sub or as a possible starter.
Tier 3: On the bubble. In contention to be on the 26-man squad and provide roster depth.
Tier 4: Out of the picture. Whether they are locks who are injured and thus unavailable, or they are players who have been around the team but likely won't receive much of a look for inclusion, this group is not in consideration right now.
Tier 1: Matt Turner (Nottingham Forest)
Tier 2: None
Tier 3: Ethan Horvath (Nottingham Forest), Zack Steffen (Manchester City), Gabriel Slonina (Eupen), Sean Johnson (Toronto FC), Drake Callender (Inter Miami CF)
Tier 4: Josh Cohen (free agent)
The good news for the United States' goalkeeping situation over the summer was that Turner is no longer a backup and will be getting regular minutes in the Premier League with Nottingham Forest. The bad news is that he is now club teammates with Horvath, which obviously makes it impossible for both to play regularly.
That is going to make it tough for Horvath to prove his worth as the U.S. No. 2, among a group that features a mixture of young (Slonina and Callender) and veteran (Steffen and Johnson) options.
Selections right now: Turner, Horvath, Slonina
Tier 1: Sergiño Dest (PSV Eindhoven), Antonee Robinson (Fulham)
Tier 2: Joe Scally (Borussia Monchengladbach)
Tier 3: Reggie Cannon (free agent), DeJuan Jones (New England Revolution), Bryan Reynolds (Westerlo), Shaq Moore (Nashville SC), Sam Vines (Antwerp), DeAndre Yedlin (Inter Miami CF), Kristoffer Lund (Palermo)
Tier 4: George Bello (LASK), Jonathan Gomez (Mirandes), Caleb Wiley (Atlanta United), Marlon Fossey (Standard Liege), Julian Gressel (Columbus Crew), John Tolkin (New York Red Bulls)
With Dest immediately slotting into a starting role at PSV and Robinson having signed a long-term contract with Fulham this summer, both starting full-backs are in great situations at the club level.
Scally didn't appear this window (he left early for family reasons), but starting for Monchengladbach to begin the Bundesliga season suggests his career continues to trend in a promising direction. For now, he looks like the best option to serve as the primary backup for both Dest and Robinson.
The most newsworthy development recently is the addition of Lund, who was granted a one-time switch from Denmark and is an option at left-back. It's still too early to say with any confidence how significantly he'll factor with the U.S., but added depth is always welcome. Jones and Reynolds both had strong Gold Cups and should be viewed as strong roster candidates.
Selections right now: Dest, Robinson, Scally, Reynolds
Tier 2: Chris Richards (Crystal Palace)
Tier 3: Erik Palmer-Brown (Panathinaikos), Auston Trusty (Sheffield United), Cameron Carter-Vickers (Celtic), Walker Zimmerman (Nashville SC), Mark McKenzie (Genk), Miles Robinson (Atlanta United)
Tier 4: John Brooks (Hoffenheim), Matt Miazga (FC Cincinnati), Aaron Long (LAFC), Jalen Neal (LA Galaxy)
After captaining the side against Uzbekistan, Ream remains the clear front-runner to start as the left-sided center-back. He'll turn 36 prior to the next window, though, and while his age isn't an immediate concern, it will factor into long-term planning.
The spot next to him is up for grabs among mostly the five-man group of Richards, Carter-Vickers, Zimmerman, McKenzie and Robinson (with Palmer-Brown also an option.)
Trusty got a Premier League move to Sheffield United, but he has yet to appear. If he's able to carve out a role there, he might be able to push Ream on the left side.
Selections right now: Carter-Vickers, Ream, Richards, Zimmerman, Robinson
Tier 1: Giovanni Reyna (Borussia Dortmund)
Tier 2: Weston McKennie (Juventus), Yunus Musah (AC Milan), Tyler Adams (AFC Bournemouth), Luca de la Torre (Celta Vigo)
Tier 3: Malik Tillman (PSV Eindhoven), Kellyn Acosta (LAFC), Johnny Cardoso (Internacional), Djordje Mihailovic (AZ Alkmaar), James Sands (New York City FC), Tanner Tessmann (Venezia)
Tier 4: Gianluca Busio (Venezia), Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders), Alan Soñora (CA Huracan), Aidan Morris (Columbus Crew), Richie Ledezma (New York City FC), Paxton Pomykal (FC Dallas), Timothy Tillman (LAFC), Jackson Yueill (San Jose Earthquakes)
Here is where personal preference might not necessarily line up with reality. The last time we saw Reyna playing with the U.S. -- in the Nations League this summer -- he was deployed in central midfield and was a game-changer. For a team that has struggled to consistently create chances, having Reyna play there feels like the best solution.
However, that came when B.J. Callaghan was serving as the interim coach, when Berhalter was still away from the team. Callaghan and Berhalter seem to be mostly aligned and were in touch during that period, but considering Berhalter never used Reyna in central midfield, it's unclear what his plans are when Reyna returns from injury. That, of course, runs parallel to the reality that Berhalter and Reyna still have not communicated -- as of the start of this window -- following the public feud between their families related to Reyna's playing time at the World Cup that contributed to Berhalter's monthslong absence from the team.
That this continues to drag on months after Berhalter was rehired is bizarre.
Back to the depth chart. With Reyna slotted in here, that means either he or one of Musah, Adams and McKennie will sit. That any of those players won't start is a testament to the improved quality of the team, but there's also the reality that the team shouldn't bank on having all four healthy given recent history.
Behind them, De la torre and Malik Tillman are next up, with Tillman better suited to play in an advance role.
Selections right now: Reyna, Adams, McKennie, Musah, De la Torre, Malik Tillman
Tier 1: Christian Pulisic (AC Milan), Timothy Weah (Juventus)
Tier 2: Brenden Aaronson (Union Berlin)
Tier 3: Taylor Booth (FC Utrecht), Kevin Paredes (Vfl Wolfsburg), Jordan Morris (Seattle Sounders), Alejandro Zendejas (Club America), Cade Cowell (San Jose Earthquakes)
Tier 4: Paul Arriola (FC Dallas), Matthew Hoppe (Middlesbrough), Tyler Boyd (LA Galaxy)
Unless Reyna slots back in at winger, this one is straightforward with Pulisic and Weah the entrenched starters. Pulisic is off to a great start in Milan, and Weah is starting for Juventus (at wing-back). Aaronson's energy is a great asset off the bench and players such as Booth and Paredes have a chance to work their way into the mix.
Selections right now: Pulisic, Weah, Aaronson, Booth, Paredes
Tier 1: Folarin Balogun (Arsenal)
Tier 2: Ricardo Pepi (PSV Eindhoven)
Tier 3: Josh Sargent (Norwich City), Brandon Vazquez (FC Cincinnati), Haji Wright (Coventry City), Jesus Ferreira (FC Dallas)
Tier 4: Jordan Pefok (Union Berlin), Daryl Dike (West Bromwich Albion)
It's remarkable how quickly striker went from a glaring weakness to a position of strength. Balogun's arrival has a lot to do with that, but Pepi's form with the U.S. has been excellent, too (he scored off the bench against Uzbekistan and Oman). As long as those two stay healthy, Berhalter should feel confident the team will be able to capitalize in front of net.
Sargent was off to a great start in the Championship with Norwich City before suffering an ankle injury that will reportedly keep him out months. Ferreira scored seven goals in the Gold Cup, which warrants further call-ups, and has a goal and five assists in five games with FC Dallas since the tournaments ended. Vazquez hasn't been nearly as prolific, scoring just five goals in 22 games this year for Cincinnati.
Selections right now: Balogun, Pepi, Ferreira


text: Oh no not another one this time coming from Konami. Castlevania: Lord of Shadows- Mirrors of Fate has been officially delayed and releasing in 2013, according to Konami's Gamescom press release. Mirrors of Fate was scheduled to be released this fall  on Nintendo's 3DS and is a 2.5d platformer that includes co-op gameplay. We will have a bit more details about Castlevania as we head into Gamescom this week so stick around.


text: [1] The Amorites were one of the seven nations of Canaan. Hence Reland is willing to suppose that Josephus did not here mean that their land beyond Jordan was a seventh part of the whole land of Canaan, but meant the Arnorites as a seventh nation. His reason is, that Josephus, as well as our Bible, generally distinguish the land beyond Jordan from the land of Canaan; nor can it be denied, that in strictness they were all forgot: yet after two tribes and a half of the twelve tribes came to inherit it, it might in a general way altogether be well included under the land of Canaan, or Palestine, or Judea, of which we have a clear example here before us in Josephus, whose words evidently imply, that taking the whole land of Canaan, or that inhabited by all the twelve tribes together, and parting it into seven parts, the part beyond Jordan was in quantity of ground one seventh part of the whole. And this well enough agrees to Reland's own map of that country, although this land beyond Jordan was so peculiarly fruitful, and good for pasturage, as the two tribes and a half took notice, Numbers 32:1, 4, 16, that it maintained about a fifth part of the whole people. [2] It plainly appears by the history of these spies, and the innkeeper Rahab's deception of the king of Jericho's messengers, by telling them what was false in order to save the lives of the spies, and yet the great commendation of her faith and good works in the New Testament, Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25, as well as by many other parallel examples, both in the Old Testament and in Josephus, that the best men did not then scruple to deceive those public enemies who might justly be destroyed; as also might deceive ill men in order to save life, and deliver themselves from the tyranny of their unjust oppressors, and this by telling direct falsehoods; I mean, all this where no oath was demanded of them, otherwise they never durst venture on such a procedure. Nor was Josephus himself of any other opinion or practice, as I shall remark in the note on Antiq. B. IX. ch.4. sect.3. And observe, that I still call this woman Rahab, an innkeeper, not a harlot, the whole history, both in our copies, and especially in Josephus, implying no more. It was indeed so frequent a thing, that women who were innkeepers were also harlots, or maintainers of harlots, that the word commonly used for real harlots was usually given them. See Dr. Bernard's note here, and Judges 11:1, and Antiq. B. V. ch.7. sect.8. [3] Upon occasion of this devoting of Jericho to destruction, and the exemplary punishment of Achar, who broke that duerein or anathema, and of the punishment of the future breaker of it, Hiel, 1 Kings 16:34, as also of the punishment of Saul, for breaking the like chefera or anathema, against the Amalekites, 1 Samuel 15., we may observe what was the true meaning of that law, Leviticus 27:28: "None devoted which shall be devoted of shall be redeemed; but shall be put to death;" i.e. whenever any of the Jews' public enemies had been, for their wickedness, solemnly devoted to destruction, according to the Divine command, as were generally the seven wicked nations of Canaan, and those sinners the Amalekites, 1 Samuel 15:18, it was utterly unlawful to permit those enemies to be redeemed; but they were to be all utterly destroyed. See also Numbers 23:2, 3. [4] That the name of this chief was not Achan, as in the common copies, but Achar, as here in Josephus, and in the Apostolical Constit. B. VII. ch.2., and elsewhere, is evident by the allusion to that name in the curse of Joshua, "Why hast thou troubled us? -- the Lord shall trouble thee;" where the Hebrew word alludes only to the name Achar, but not to Achan. Accordingly, this Valley of Achar, or Achor, was and is a known place, a little north of Gilgal, so called from the days of Joshua till this day. See Joshua 7:26; Isaiah 65:10; Hosea 2:15; and Dr. Bernard's notes here. [5] Here Dr. Bernard very justly observes, that a few words are dropped out of Josephus's copies, on account of the repetition of the word shekels, and that it ought to be read thus: -- "A piece of gold that weighed fifty shekels, and one of silver that weighed two hundred shekels," as in our other copies, Joshua 7:21. [6] I agree here with Dr. Bernard, and approve of Josephus's interpretation of Gilgal for liberty. See Joshua 5:9. [7] Whether this lengthening of the day, by the standing still of the sun and moon, were physical and real, by the miraculous stoppage of the diurnal motion of the earth for about half a revolution, or whether only apparent, by aerial phosphori imitating the sun and moon as stationary so long, while clouds and the night hid the real ones, and this parhelion or mock sun affording sufficient light for Joshua's pursuit and complete victory, [which aerial phosphori in other shapes have been more than ordinarily common of late years,] cannot now be determined: philosophers and astronomers will naturally incline to this latter hypothesis. In the mean thee, the fact itself was mentioned in the book of Jasher, now lost, Joshua 10:13, and is confirmed by Isaiah, 28:21, Habakkuk, 3:11, and by the son of Sirach, Ecclus.46:4. In the 18th Psalm of Solomon, yet it is also said of the luminaries, with relation, no doubt, to this and the other miraculous standing still and going back, in the days of Joshua and Hezekiah, "They have not wandered, from the day that he created them; they have not forsaken their way, from ancient generations, unless it were when God enjoined them [so to do] by the command of his servants." See Authent. Rec. part i. p.154. [8] Of the books laid up in the temple, see the note on Antiq. B. III. ch.1. sect.7. [9] Since not only Procopius and Suidas, but an earlier author, Moses Chorenensis, p.52, 53, and perhaps from his original author Mariba Carina, one as old as Alexander the Great, sets down the famous inscription at Tangier concerning the old Canaanites driven out of Palestine by Joshua, take it here in that author's own words: "We are those exiles that were governors of the Canaanites, but have been driven away by Joshua the robber, and are come to inhabit here." See the note there. Nor is it unworthy of our notice what Moses Chorenensis adds, p.53, and this upon a diligent examination, viz. that "one of those eminent men among the Canaanites came at the same thee into Armenia, and founded the Genthuniaa family, or tribe; and that this was confirmed by the manners of the same family or tribe, as being like those of the Canaanites." [10] By prophesying, when spoken of a high priest, Josephus, both here and frequently elsewhere, means no more than consulting God by Urim, which the reader is still to bear in mind upon all occasions. And if St. John, who was contemporary with Josephus, and of the same country, made use of this style, when he says that "Caiaphas being high priest that year, prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation, and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad," chap.11;51, 52, he may possibly mean, that this was revealed to the high priest by an extraordinary voice from between the cherubims, when he had his breastplate, or Urim and Thummim, on before; or the most holy place of the temple, which was no other than the oracle of Urim and Thummim. Of which above, in the note on Antiq. B. III. ch.8. sect.9. [11] This great number of seventy-two reguli, or small kings, over whom Adonibezek had tyrannized, and for which he was punished according to the lex talionis, as well as the thirty-one kings of Canaan subdued by Joshua, and named in one chapter, Joshua 12., and thirty-two kings, or royal auxiliaries to Benhadad king of Syria, 1 Kings 20:1; Antiq. B. VIII. ch.14. sect.1, intimate to us what was the ancient form of government among several nations before the monarchies began, viz. that every city or large town, with its neighboring villages, was a distinct government by itself; which is the more remarkable, because this was certainly the form of ecclesiastical government that was settled by the apostles, and preserved throughout the Christian church in the first ages of Christianity. Mr. Addison is of opinion, that "it would certainly be for the good of mankind to have all the mighty empires and monarchies of the world cantoned out into petty states and principalities, which, like so many large families, might lie under the observation of their proper governors, so that the care of the prince might extend itself to every individual person under his protection; though he despairs of such a scheme being brought about, and thinks that if it were, it would quickly be destroyed." Remarks on Italy, 4to, p.151. Nor is it unfit to be observed here, that the Armenian records, though they give us the history of thirty-nine of their ancientest heroes or governors after the Flood, before the days of Sardanapalus, had no proper king till the fortieth, Parerus. See Moses Chorehensis, p.55. And that Almighty God does not approve of such absolute and tyrannical monarchies, any one may learn that reads Deuteronomy 17:14-20, and 1 Samuel 8:1-22; although, if such kings are set up as own him for their supreme King, and aim to govern according to his laws, he hath admitted of them, and protected them and their subjects in all generations. [12] Josephus's early date of this history before the beginning of the Judges, or when there was no king in Israel, Judges 19;1, is strongly confirmed by the large number of Benjamites, both in the days of Asa and Jehoshaphat, 2 Chronicles 14:8, and 16:17, who yet were here reduced to six hundred men; nor can those numbers be at all supposed genuine, if they were reduced so late as the end of the Judges, where our other copies place this reduction. [13] Josephus seems here to have made a small mistake, when he took the Hebrew word Bethel, which denotes the house of God, or the tabernacle, Judges 20:18, for the proper name of a place, Bethel, it no way appearing that the tabernacle was ever at Bethel; only so far it is true, that Shiloh, the place of the tabernacle in the days of the Judges, was not far from Bethel. [14] It appears by the sacred history, Judges 1:16; 3:13, that Eglon's pavilion or palace was at the City of Palm-Trees, as the place where Jericho had stood is called after its destruction by Joshua, that is, at or near the demolished city. Accordingly, Josephus says it was at Jericho, or rather in that fine country of palm-trees, upon, or near to, the same spot of ground on which Jericho had formerly stood, and on which it was rebuilt by Hiel, 1 Kings 16:31. Our other copies that avoid its proper name Jericho, and call it the City of Palm-Trees only, speak here more accurately than Josephus. [15] These eighty years for the government of Ehud are necessary to Josephus's usual large numbers between the exodus and the building of the temple, of five hundred and ninety-two or six hundred and twelve years, but not to the smallest number of four hundred and eighty years, 1 Kings 6:1; which lesser number Josephus seems sometimes to have followed. And since in the beginning of the next chapter it is said by Josephus, that there was hardly a breathing time for the Israelites before Jabin came and enslaved them, it is highly probable that some of the copies in his time had here only eight years instead of eighty; as had that of Theophilus of Antioch, Ad Autolye.1. iii., and this most probably from his copy of Josephus. [16] Our present copies of Josephus all omit Tola among the judges, though the other copies have him next after Abimelech, and allot twenty-three years to his administration, Judges 10:1, 2; yet do all Josephus's commentators conclude, that in Josephus's sum of the years of the judges, his twenty-three years are included; hence we are to confess, that somewhat has been here lost out of his copies. [17] Josephus justly condemns Jephtha, as do the Apostolical Constitutions, B. VII. ch.37., for his rash vow, whether it were for sacrificing his daughter, as Josephus thought, or for dedicating her, who was his only child, to perpetual virginity, at the tabernacle or elsewhere, which I rather suppose. If he had vowed her for a sacrifice, she ought to have been redeemed, Leviticus 27:1-8; but of the sense of ver.28, 29, as relating not to things vowed to. God, but devoted to destruction, see the note on Antiq. B. V. ch.1. sect.8. [18] I can discover no reason why Manoah and his wife came so constantly into these suburbs to pray for children, but because there was a synagogue or place of devotion in those suburbs. [19] Here, by a prophet, Josephus seems only to mean one that was born by a particular providence, lived after the manner of a Nazarite devoted to God, and was to have an extraordinary commission and strength from God for the judging and avenging his people Israel, without any proper prophetic revelations at all. [20] This fountain, called Lehi, or the Jaw-bone, is still in being, as travelers assure us, and was known by this very name in the days of Josephus, and has been known by the same name in all those past ages. See Antiq. B. VII. ch.12. sect.4. [21] See this justly observed in the Apostolical Constitutions, B. VII. ch.37., that Samson's prayer was heard, but that it was before this his transgression. [22] Although there had been a few occasional prophets before, yet was this Samuel the first of a constant succession of prophets in the Jewish nation, as is implied in St. Peter's words, Acts 3:24 "Yea, and all the prophets, from Samuel, and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of those days." See also Acts 13:20. The others were rather sometime called righteous men, Matthew 10:41; 13:17. BOOK 6 Footnotes [1] Dagon, a famous maritime god or idol, is generally supposed to have been like a man above the navel, and like a fish beneath it. [2] Spanheim informs us here, that upon the coins of Tenedos, and those of other cities, a field-mouse is engraven, together with Apollo Smintheus, or Apollo, the driver away of field-mice, on account of his being supposed to have freed certain tracts of ground from those mice; which coins show how great a judgment such mice have sometimes been, and how the deliverance from them was then esteemed the effect of a divine power; which observations are highly suitable to this history. [3] This device of the Philistines, of having a yoke of kine to draw this cart, into which they put the ark of the Hebrews, is greatly illustrated by Sanchoniatho's account, under his ninth generation, that Agrouerus, or Agrotes, the husbandman, had a much-worshipped statue and temple, carried about by one or more yoke of oxen, or kine, in Phoenicia, in the neighborhood of these Philistines. See Cumberland's Sanchoniatho, p.27 and 247; and Essay on the Old Testament, Append. p.172. [4] These seventy men, being not so much as Levites, touched the ark in a rash or profane manner, and were slain by the hand of God for such their rashness and profaneness, according to the Divine threatenings, Numbers 4:15, 20; but how other copies come to add such an incredible number as fifty thousand in this one town, or small city, I know not. See Dr. Wall's Critical Notes on 1 Samuel 6:19. [5] This is the first place, so far as I remember, in these Antiquities, where Josephus begins to call his nation Jews, he having hitherto usually, if not constantly, called them either Hebrews or Israelites. The second place soon follows; see also ch.3. sect.5. [6] Of this great mistake of Saul and his servant, as if true prophet of God would accept of a gift or present, for foretelling what was desired of him, see the note on B. IV. ch.6. sect.3. [7] It seems to me not improbable that these seventy guests of Samuel, as here, with himself at the head of them, were a Jewish sanhedrim, and that hereby Samuel intimated to Saul that these seventy-one were to be his constant counselors, and that he was to act not like a sole monarch, but with the advice and direction of these seventy-one members of that Jewish sanhedrim upon all occasions, which yet we never read that he consulted afterward. [8] An instance of this Divine fury we have after this in Saul, ch.5. sect.2, 3; 1 Samuel 11:6. See the like, Judges 3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 13:25; and 14:6. [9] Take here Theodoret's note, cited by Dr. Hudson: -- "He that exposes his shield to the enemy with his left hand, thereby hides his left eye, and looks at the enemy with his right eye: he therefore that plucks out that eye, makes men useless in war." [10] Mr. Reland observes here, and proves elsewhere in his note on Antiq. B. III. ch.1. sect.6, that although thunder and lightning with us usually happen in summer, yet in Palestine and Syria they are chiefly confined to winter. Josephus takes notice of the same thing again, War, B. IV. ch.4. sect.5. [11] Saul seems to have staid till near the time of the evening sacrifice, on the seventh day, which Samuel the prophet of God had appointed him, but not till the end of that day, as he ought to have done; and Samuel appears, by delaying to come to the full time of the evening sacrifice on that seventh day, to have tried him [who seems to have been already for some time declining from his strict and bounden subordination to God and his prophet; to have taken life-guards for himself and his son, which was entirely a new thing in Israel, and savored of a distrust of God's providence; and to have affected more than he ought that independent authority which the pagan kings took to themselves]; Samuel, I say, seems to have here tried Saul whether he would stay till the priest came, who alone could lawfully offer the sacrifices, nor would boldly and profanely usurp the priest's office, which he venturing upon, was justly rejected for his profaneness. See Apost. Constit. B. II. ch.27. And, indeed, since Saul had accepted kingly power, which naturally becomes ungovernable and tyrannical, as God foretold, and the experience of all ages has shown, the Divine settlement by Moses had soon been laid aside under the kings, had not God, by keeping strictly to his laws, and severely executing the threatenings therein contained, restrained Saul and other kings in some degree of obedience to himself; nor was even this severity sufficient to restrain most of the future kings of Israel and Judah from the grossest idolatry and impiety. Of the advantage of which strictness, in the observing Divine laws, and inflicting their threatened penalties, see Antiq. B. VI. ch.12. sect.7; and Against Apion, B. II. sect.30, where Josephus speaks of that matter; though it must be noted that it seems, at least in three instances, that good men did not always immediately approve of such Divine severity. There seems to be one instance, 1 Samuel 6:19, 20; another, 1 Samuel 15:11; and a third, 2 Samuel 6:8, 9; Antiq. B. VI. ch.7. sect.2; though they all at last acquiesced in the Divine conduct, as knowing that God is wiser than men. [12] By this answer of Samuel, and that from a Divine commission, which is fuller in l Samuel 13:14, and by that parallel note in the Apostolical Constitutions just now quoted, concerning the great wickedness of Saul in venturing, even under a seeming necessity of affairs, to usurp the priest's office, and offer sacrifice without the priest, we are in some degree able to answer that question, which I have ever thought a very hard one, viz. Whether, if there were a city or country of lay Christians without any clergymen, it were lawful for the laity alone to baptize, or celebrate the eucharist, etc., or indeed whether they alone could ordain themselves either bishops, priests, or deacons, for the due performance of such sacerdotal ministrations; or whether they ought not rather, till they procure clergymen to come among them, to confine themselves within those bounds of piety and Christianity which belong alone to the laity; such particularly as are recommended in the first book of the Apostolical Constitutions, which peculiarly concern the laity, and are intimated in Clement's undoubted epistle, sect.40. To which latter opinion I incline. [13] This rash vow or curse of Saul, which Josephus says was confirmed by the people, and yet not executed, I suppose principally because Jonathan did not know of it, is very remarkable; it being of the essence of the obligation of all laws, that they be sufficiently known and promulgated, otherwise the conduct of Providence, as to the sacredness of solemn oaths and vows, in God's refusing to answer by Urim till this breach of Saul's vow or curse was understood and set right, and God propitiated by public prayer, is here very remarkable, as indeed it is every where else in the Old Testament. [14] Here we have still more indications of Saul's affectation of despotic power, and of his entrenching upon the priesthood, and making and endeavoring to execute a rash vow or curse, without consulting Samuel or the sanhedrim. In this view it is also that I look upon this erection of a new altar by Saul, and his offering of burnt-offerings himself upon it, and not as any proper instance of devotion or religion, with other commentators. [15] The reason of this severity is distinctly given, 1 Samuel 15:18, "Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites:" nor indeed do we ever meet with these Amalekites but as very cruel and bloody people, and particularly seeking to injure and utterly to destroy the nation of Israel. See Exodus 17:8-16; Numbers 14:45; Deuteronomy 25:17-19; Judges 6:3, 6; 1 Samuel 15:33; Psalms 83:7; and, above all, the most barbarous of all cruelties, that of Haman the Agagite, or one of the posterity of Agag, the old king of the Amalekites, Esther 3:1-15. [16] Spanheim takes notice here that the Greeks had such singers of hymns; and that usually children or youths were picked out for that service; as also, that those called singers to the harp, did the same that David did here, i.e. join their own vocal and instrumental music together. [17] Josephus says thrice in this chapter, and twice afterwards, ch.11. sect.2, and B. VII. ch.1. sect.4, i.e. five times in all, that Saul required not a bare hundred of the foreskins of the Philistines, but six hundred of their heads. The Septuagint have 100 foreskins, but the Syriac and Arabic 200. Now that these were not foreskins, with our other copies, but heads, with Josephus's copy, seems somewhat probable, from 1 Samuel 29:4, where all copies say that it was with the heads of such Philistines that David might reconcile himself to his master, Saul. [18] Since the modern Jews have lost the signification of the Hebrew word here used, cebr; and since the LXX., as well as Josephus, reader it the liver of the goat, and since this rendering, and Josephus's account, are here so much more clear and probable than those of others, it is almost unaccountable that our commentators should so much as hesitate about its true interpretation. [19] These violent and wild agitations of Saul seem to me to have been no other than demoniacal; and that the same demon which used to seize him, since he was forsaken of God, and which the divine hymns and psalms which were sung to the harp by David used to expel, was now in a judicial way brought upon him, not only in order to disappoint his intentions against innocent David, but to expose him to the laughter and contempt of all that saw him, or heard of those agitations; such violent and wild agitations being never observed in true prophets, when they were under the inspiration of the Spirit of God. Our other copies, which say the Spirit of God came him, seem not so here copy, which mentions nothing of God at all. Nor does Josephus seem to ascribe this impulse and ecstasy of Saul to any other than to his old demoniacal spirit, which on all accounts appears the most probable. Nor does the former description of Saul's real inspiration by the Divine Spirit, 1 Samuel 10:9-12; Antiq. B. VI. ch.4. sect.2, which was before he was become wicked, well agree with the descriptions before us. [20] What is meant by Saul's lying down naked all that day, and all that night, 1 Samuel 19:4, and whether any more than laying aside his royal apparel, or upper garments, as Josephus seems to understand it, is by no means certain. See the note on Antiq. B. VIII. ch.14. sect.2. [21] This city Nob was not a city allotted to the priests, nor had the prophets, that we know of, any particular cities allotted them. It seems the tabernacle was now at Nob, and probably a school of the prophets was here also. It was full two days' journey on foot from Jerusalem, 1 Samuel 21:5. The number of priests here slain in Josephus is three hundred and eighty-five, and but eighty-five in our Hebrew copies; yet are they three hundred and five in the Septuagint. I prefer Josephus's number, the Hebrew having, I suppose, only dropped the hundreds, the other the tens. This city Nob seems to have been the chief, or perhaps the only seat of the family of Ithamar, which here perished, according to God's former terrible threatenings to Eli, 1 Samuel 2:27-36; 3:11-18. See ch.14. sect. D, hereafter. [22] This section contains an admirable reflection of Josephus concerning the general wickedness of men in great authority, and the danger they are in of rejecting that regard to justice and humanity, to Divine Providence and the fear of God, which they either really had, or pretended to have, while they were in a lower condition. It can never be too often perused by kings and great men, nor by those who expect to obtain such elevated dignities among mankind. See the like reflections of our Josephus, Antiq. B. VII. ch.1. sect.5, at the end; and B. VIII. ch.10. sect.2, at the beginning. They are to the like purport with one branch of Agur's prayer: "One thing have I required of thee, deny it me not before I die: Give me not riches, lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord?" Proverbs 30:7-9. [23] The phrase in David's speech to Saul, as set down in Josephus, that he had abstained from just revenge, puts me in mind of the like words in the Apostolical Constitutions, B. VII. ch.2., "That revenge is not evil, but that patience is more honorable." [24] The number of men that came first to David, are distinctly in Josephus, and in our common copies, but four hundred. When he was at Keilah still but four hundred, both in Josephus and in the LXXX.; but six hundred in our Hebrew copies, 1 Samuel 23:3; see 30:9, 10. Now the six hundred there mentioned are here estimated by Josephus to have been so many, only by an augmentation of two hundred afterward, which I suppose is the true solution of this seeming disagreement. [25] In this and the two next sections, we may perceive how Josephus, nay, how Abigail herself, would understand, the "not avenging ourselves, but heaping coals of fire on the head of the injurious," Proverbs 25:22; Romans 12:20, not as we do now, of them into but of leaving them to the judgment of God, "to whom vengeance belongeth," Deuteronomy 32:35; Psalms 94:1; Hebrews 10:30, and who will take vengeance on the wicked. And since all God's judgments are just, and all fit to be executed, and all at length for the good of the persons punished, I incline to think that to be the meaning of this phrase of "heaping coals of fire on their heads." [26] We may note here, that how sacred soever an oath was esteemed among the people of God in old times, they did not think it obligatory where the action was plainly unlawful. For so we see it was in this case of David, who, although he had sworn to destroy Nabal and his family, yet does he here, and 1 Samuel 25:32-41, bless God for preventing his keeping his oath, and shedding of blood, which he had swore to do. [27] This history of Saul's consultation, not with a witch, as we render the Hebrew word here, but with a necromancer, as the whole history shows, is easily understood, especially if we consult the Recognitions of Clement, B. I. ch.5. at large, and more briefly, and nearer the days of Samuel Ecclus.46:20, "Samuel prophesied after his death, and showed the king his end, and lift up his voice from the earth in prophecy," to blot out "the wickedness of the people." Nor does the exactness of the accomplishment of this prediction, the very next day, permit us to suppose any imposition upon Saul in the present history; for as to all modern hypotheses against the natural sense of such ancient and authentic histories, I take them to be of very small value or consideration. [28] These great commendations of this necromantic woman of Endor, and of Saul's martial courage, when yet he knew he should die in the battle, are somewhat unusual digressions in Josephus. They seem to me extracted from some speeches or declamations of his composed formerly, in the way of oratory, that lay by him, and which he thought fit to insert upon this occasion. See before on Antiq. B. I. ch.6 sect.8. [29] This way of speaking in Josephus, of fasting "seven days without meat or drink," is almost like that of St. Paul, Acts 27:33, "This day is the fourteenth day that ye have tarried, and continued fasting, having taken nothing:" and as the nature of the thing, and the impossibility of strictly fasting so long, require us here to understand both Josephus and the sacred author of this history, 1 Samuel 30:13, from whom he took it, of only fasting fill the evening; so must we understand St. Paul, either that this was really the fourteenth day that they had taken nothing till the evening, or else that this was the fourteenth day of their tempestuous weather in the Adriatic Sea, as ver.27, and that on this fourteenth day alone they had continued fasting, and had taken nothing before that evening. The mention of their long abstinence, ver.21, inclines me to believe the former explication to be the truth, and that the case was then for a fortnight what it was here for a week, that they kept all those days entirely as lasts till the evening, but not longer. See Judges 20:26; 21:2; 1 Samuel 14:24; 2 Samuel 1:12; Antiq. B. VII. ch.7. sect.4. BOOK 7 Footnotes [1] It ought to be here noted, that Joab, Abishai, and Asahel were all three David's nephews, the sons of his sister Zeraiah, as 1 Chronicles 2:16; and that Amasa was also his nephew by his other sister Abigail, ver.17. [2] This may be a true observation of Josephus's, that Samuel by command from God entailed the crown on David and his posterity; for no further did that entail ever reach, Solomon himself having never had any promise made him that his posterity should always have the right to it. [3] These words of Josephus concerning the tribe of Issachar, who foreknew what was to come hereafter," are best paraphrased by the parallel text.1 Chronicles 12:32, "Who had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do;" that is, who had so much knowledge in astronomy as to make calendars for the Israelites, that they might keep their festivals, and plough and sow, and gather in their harvests and vintage, in due season. [4] What our other copies say of Mount Sion, as alone properly called the city of David, 2 Samuel 5:6-9, and of this its siege and conquest now by David, Josephus applies to the whole city Jerusalem, though including the citadel also; by what authority we do not now know perhaps, after David had united them together, or joined the citadel to the lower city, as sect.2, Josephus esteemed them as one city. However, this notion seems to be confirmed by what the same Josephus says concerning David's and many other kings of Judah's sepulchers, which as the authors of the books of Kings and Chronicles say were in the city of David, so does Josephus still say they were in Jerusalem. The sepulcher of David seems to have been also a known place in the several days of Hyrcanus, of Herod, and of St. Peter, Antiq. B. XIII. ch.8. sect.4 B. XVI. ch.8. sect.1; Acts 2:29. Now no such royal sepulchers have been found about Mount Sion, but are found close by the north wall of Jerusalem, which I suspect, therefore, to be these very sepulchers. See the note on ch.15. sect.3. In the meantime, Josephus's explication of the lame, and the blind, and the maimed, as set to keep this city or citadel, seems to be the truth, and gives the best light to that history in our Bible. Mr. Ottius truly observes, [up. Hayercamp, p.305,] that Josephus never mentions Mount Sion by that name, as taking it for an appellative, as I suppose, and not for a proper name; he still either styles it The Citadel, or The Upper City; nor do I see any reason for Mr. Ottius's evil suspicions about this procedure of Josephus. [5] Some copies of Josephus have here Solyma, or Salem; and others Hierosolyma, or Jerusalem. The latter best agree to what Josephus says elsewhere, [Of the War, B. VI. ch.10.,] that this city was called Solyma, or Salem, before the days of Melchisedec, but was by him called Hierosolyma, or Jerusalem. I rather suppose it to have been so called after Abraham had received that oracle Jehovah Jireh, "The Lord will see, or provide," Genesis 22;14. The latter word, Jireh, with a little alteration, prefixed to the old name Salem, Peace, will be Jerusalem; and since that expression, "God will see," or rather, "God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt-offering," ver.8, 14, is there said to have been proverbial till the days of Moses, this seems to me the most probable derivation of that name, which will then denote that God would provide peace by that "Lamb of God which was to take away the sins of the world." However, that which is put into brackets can hardly be supposed the genuine words of Josephus, as Dr. Hudson well judges. [6] It deserves here to be remarked, that Saul very rarely, and David very frequently, consulted God by Urim; and that David aimed always to depend, not on his own prudence or abilities but on the Divine direction, contrary to Saul's practice. See sect.2, and the note on Antiq. B. III. ch.8. sect.9; and when Saul's daughter, [but David's wife,] Michal, laughed at David's dancing before the ark, 2 Samuel 6:16, &c., and here, sect. l, 2, 3, it is probable she did so, because her father Saul did not use to pay such a regard to the ark, to the Urim there inquired by, or to God's worship before it, and because she thought it beneath the dignity of a king to be so religious. [7] Josephus seems to be partly in the right, when he observes here that Uzzah was no priest, [though perhaps he might be a Levite,] and was therefore struck dead for touching the ark, contrary to the law, and for which profane rashness death was the penalty by that law, Numbers 4:15, 20. See the like before, Antiq. B. VI. ch.1. sect.4. It is not improbable that the putting this ark in a cart, when it ought to have been carried by the priests or Levites, as it was presently here in Josephus so carried from Obededom's house to David's, might be also an occasion of the anger of God on that breach of his law. See Numbers 4:15; 1 Chronicles 15:13. [8] Josephus here informs us, that, according to his understanding of the sense of his copy of the Pentateuch, Moses had himself foretold the building of the temple, which yet is no where, that I know of, in our present copies. And that this is not a mistake set down by him unwarily, appears by what he observed before, on Antiq. B. IV. ch.8. sect.46, how Moses foretold that, upon the Jews' future disobedience, their temple should be burnt and rebuilt, and that not once only, but several times afterward. See also Josephus's mention of God's former commands to build such a temple presently, ch.14. sect.2, contrary to our other copies, or at least to our translation of the Hebrew, 2 Samuel 7:6, 7; 1 Chronicles 17:5, 6. [9] Josephus seems, in this place, with our modern interpreters to confound the two distinct predictions which God made to David and to Nathan, concerning the building him a temple by one of David's posterity; the one belongeth to Solomon, the other to the Messiah; the distinction between which is of the greatest consequence to the Christian religion. [10] Whether Syria Zobah, 2 Samuel 3:8; 1 Chronicles 18:3-8, be Sophene, as Josephus here supposes; which yet Ptolemy places beyond Euphrates, as Dr. Hudson observes here, whereas Zobah was on this side; or whether Josephus was not here guilty of a mistake in his geography; I cannot certainly determine. [11] David's reserving only one hundred chariots for himself out of one thousand he had taken from Hadadezer, was most probably in compliance with the law of Moses, which forbade a king of Israel "to multiply horses to himself," Deuteronomy 17:16; one of the principal uses of horses in Judea at that time being for drawing their chariots. See Joshua 12:6; and Antiq. B. V. ch.1. sect.18. It deserves here to be remarked, that this Hadad, being a very great king, was conquered by David, whose posterity yet for several generations were called Benhadad, or the son of Hadad, till the days of Hazael, whose son Adar or Ader is also in our Hebrew copy [2 Kings 13:24] written Benhadad, but in Josephus Adad or Adar. And strange it is, that the son of Hazael, said to be such in the same text, and in Josephus, Antiq. B. IX. ch.8. sect.7, should still be called the son of Hadad. I would, therefore, here correct our Hebrew copy from Josephus's, which seems to have the true reading, nor does the testimony of Nicolaus of Damascus, produced in this place by Josephus, seem to be faultless, when it says that he was the third of the Hadads, or second of the Benhadads, who besieged Samaria in the days of Ahab. He must rather have been the seventh or eighth, if there were ten in all of that name, as we are assured there were. For this testimony makes all the Hadads or Benhadads of the same line, and to have immediately succeeded one another; whereas Hazael was not of that line, nor is he called Hadad or Benhadad in any copy. And note, that from this Hadad, in the days of David, to the beginning of Hazael, were near two hundred years, according to the exactest chronology of Josephus. [12] By this great victory over the Idameans or Edomites, the posterity of Esau, and by the consequent tribute paid by that nation to the Jews, were the prophecies delivered to Rebecca before Jacob and Esau were born, and by old Isaac before his death, that the elder, Esau, [or the Edomites,] should serve and the younger, Jacob, [or the Israelites,] and Jacob [or the Israelites] should be Esau's [or the Edomites'] lord, remarkably fulfilled. See Antiq. B. VIII. ch 7. sect.6; Genesis 25;9,3; and the notes on Antiq. B. I. ch.18. sect.5, 6. [13] That a talent of gold was about seven pounds weight, see the description of the temple ch.13. Nor could Josephus well estimate it higher, since he here says that David wore it on his head perpetually. [14] Whether Josephus saw the words of our copies, 2 Samuel 12:31, and 1 Chronicles 20:3, that David put the inhabitants, or at least the garrison of Rabbah, and of the other Ammonite cities, which he besieged and took, under, or cut them with saws, and under, or with harrows of iron, and under, or with axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick-kiln, is not here directly expressed. If he saw them, as is most probable he did, he certainly expounded them of tormenting these Ammonites to death, who were none of those seven nations of Canaan whose wickedness had rendered them incapable of mercy; otherwise I should be inclinable to think that the meaning, at least as the words are in Samuel, might only be this: That they were made the lowest slaves, to work in sawing of timber or stone, in harrowing the fields, in hewing timber, in making and burning bricks, and the like hard services, but without taking away their lives. We never elsewhere, that I remember, meet with such methods of cruelty in putting men to death in all the Bible, or in any other ancient history whatsoever; nor do the words in Samuel seem naturally to refer to any such thing. [15] Of this weight of Absalom's hair, how in twenty or thirty years it might well amount to two hundred shekels, or to somewhat above six pounds avoirdupois, see the Literal Accomplishment of Prophecies, p.77, 78. But a late very judicious author thinks that the LXXX. meant not its weight, but its value, Was twenty shekels. -- Dr. Wall's Critical Notes on the Old Testament, upon 2 Samuel 14:26. It does not appear what was Josephus's opinion: he sets the text down honestly as he found it in his copies, only he thought that "at the end of days," when Absalom polled or weighed his hair, was once a week. [16] This is one of the best corrections that Josephus's copy affords us of a text that in our ordinary copies is grossly corrupted. They say that this rebellion of Absalom was forty years after what went before, [of his reconciliation to his father,] whereas the series of the history shows it could not be more than four years after it, as here in Josephus; whose number is directly confirmed by that copy of the Septuagint version whence the Armenian translation was made, which gives us the small number of four years. [17] This reflection of Josephus's, that God brought to nought the dangerous counsel of Ahithophel, and directly infatuated wicked Absalom to reject it, [which infatuation is what the Scripture styles the judicial hardening the hearts and blinding the eyes of men, who, by their former voluntary wickedness, have justly deserved to be destroyed, and are thereby brought to destruction,] is a very just one, and in him not unfrequent. Nor does Josephus ever puzzle himself, or perplex his readers, with subtle hypotheses as to the manner of such judicial infatuations by God, while the justice of them is generally so obvious. That peculiar manner of the Divine operations, or permissions, or the means God makes use of in such cases, is often impenetrable by us. "Secret things belong to the Lord our God; but those things that are revealed belong to us, and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law," Deuteronomy 29:29. Nor have all the subtleties of the moderns, as far as I see, given any considerable light in this, and many other the like points of difficulty relating either to Divine or human operations. -- See the notes on Antiq. B. V ch.1. sect.2; and Antiq. B. IX. ch.4. sect.3. [18] Those that take a view of my description of the gates of the temple, will not be surprised at this account of David's throne, both here and 2 Samuel 18:21, that it was between two gates or portals. Gates being in cities, as well as at the temple, large open places, with a portal at the entrance, and another at the exit, between which judicial causes were heard, and public consultations taken, as is well known from several places of Scripture, 2 Chronicles 31:2; Psalm 9:14; 137:5; Proverbs 1:21; 8:3, 31; 31:23, and often elsewhere. [19] Since David was now in Mahanairn, and in the open place of that city gate, which seems still to have been built the highest of any part of the wall, and since our other copies say he went up to the chamber over the gate, 2 Samuel 18:33, I think we ought to correct our present reading in Josephus, and for city, should read gate, i.e. instead of the highest part of the city, should say the highest part of the gate. Accordingly we find David presently, in Josephus, as well as in our other copies, 2 Samuel 19:8, sitting as before, in the gate of the city. [20] By David's disposal of half Mephibosheth's estate to Ziba, one would imagine that he was a good deal dissatisfied, and doubtful whether Mephibosheth's story were entirely true or not; nor does David now invite him to diet with him, as he did before, but only forgives him, if he had been at all guilty. Nor is this odd way of mourning that Mephibosheth made use of here, and 2 Samuel 19:24, wholly free from suspicion by hypocrisy. If Ziba neglected or refused to bring Mephibosheh an ass of his own, on which he might ride to David, it is half to suppose that so great a man as he was should not be able to procure some other beast for the same purpose. [21] I clearly prefer Josephus's reading here, when it supposes eleven tribes, including Benjamin, to be on the one side, and the tribe of Judah alone on the other, since Benjamin, in general, had been still father of the house of Saul, and less firm to David hitherto, than any of the rest, and so cannot be supposed to be joined with Judah at this time, to make it double, especially when the following rebellion was headed by a Benjamite. See sect.6, and 2 Samuel 20:2, 4. [22] This section is a very remarkable one, and shows that, in the opinion of Josephus, David composed the Book of Psalms, not at several times before, as their present inscriptions frequently imply, but generally at the latter end of his life, or after his wars were over. Nor does Josephus, nor the authors of the known books of the Old and New Testament, nor the Apostolical Constitutions, seem to have ascribed any of them to any other author than to David himself. See Essay on the Old Testament, pages 174, 175. Of these metres of the Psalms, see the note on Antiq. B. II. ch.16. sect.4. [23] The words of God by Moses, Exodus 30:12, sufficiently satisfy the reason here given by Josephus for the great plague mentioned in this chapter: -- "When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague amongst them, when numberest them." Nor indeed could David's or the neglect of executing this law at this numeration of half a shekel apiece with them, when they came numbered. The great reason why nations are so committed by and with their wicked kings and governors that they almost constantly comply with them in their of or disobedience to the Divine laws, and suffer Divine laws to go into disuse or contempt, in order to kings and governors; and that they sub-political laws and commands of those governors, instead of the righteous laws of God, which all mankind ought ever to obey, let their kings and governors say what they please to the contrary; this preference of human before Divine laws seeming to me the principal character of idolatrous or antichristian nations. Accordingly, Josephus well observes, Antiq. B. IV. ch.8. sect.17, that it was the duty of the people of Israel to take care that their kings, when they should have them, did not exceed their proper limits of power, and prove ungovernable by the laws of God, which would certainly be a most pernicious thing to their Divine settlement. Nor do I think that negligence peculiar to the Jews: those nations which are called Christians, are sometimes indeed very solicitous to restrain their kings and governors from breaking the human laws of their several kingdoms, but without the like care for restraining them from breaking the laws of God. "Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto men more than to God, judge ye," Acts 4:19. "We ought to obey God rather than men," ver.29. [24] What Josephus adds here is very remarkable, that this Mount Moriah was not only the very place where Abraham offered up Isaac long ago, but that God had foretold to David by a prophet, that here his son should build him a temple, which is not directly in any of our other copies, though very agreeable to what is in them, particularly in 1 Chronicles 21:25, 28; 22:1, to which places I refer the reader. [25] Of the quantity of gold and silver expended in the building of Solomon's temple, and whence it arose, see the description of ch.13. [26] David is here greatly blamed by some for recommending Joab and Shimei to be punished by Solomon, if he could find a proper occasion, after he had borne with the first a long while, and seemed to have pardoned the other entirely, which Solomon executed accordingly; yet I cannot discern any fault either in David or Solomon in these cases. Joab's murder of Abner and Amasa were very barbarous, and could not properly be forgiven either by David or Solomon; for a dispensing power in kings for the crime of willful murder is warranted by no law of God, nay, is directly against it every where; nor is it, for certain, in the power of men to grant such a prerogative to any of their kings; though Joab was so nearly related to David, and so potent in the army under a warlike administration, that David durst not himself put him to death, 2 Samuel 3:39; 19:7. Shimei's cursing the Lord's anointed, and this without any just cause, was the highest act of treason against God and his anointed king, and justly deserved death; and though David could forgive treason against himself, yet had he done no more in the case of Shimei than promised him that he would not then, on the day of his return and reinauguration, or upon that occasion, himself put him to death, 2 Samuel 19:22; and he swore to him no further, ver.23, as the words are in Josephus, than that he would not then put him to death, which he performed; nor was Solomon under any obligation to spare such a traitor. |


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CEO and President Derek Maunus congratulates the GILLIG team on reaching the 100th electric bus milestone.
North American manufacturer GILLIG announces it had completed production of its 100th battery electric bus. The bus is scheduled for delivery to Metro Transit in St. Louis, Missouri in October. By the end of 2021, Metro Transit will have a total of 10 GILLIG battery electric buses in its fleet.
The first electric bus was introduced by GILLIG in 2016. More than 50 customers across the country are now operating GILLIG's battery electric bus or have orders for the vehicles. The bus builder is currently booking new bus orders into 2023.
GILLIG's current electric bus is a second-generation product built on the company's Low Floor Platform. The bus features a Cummins powertrain and is supported by Cummins service centers located throughout the country
"We set out to do whatever we could to make sure we had the best electric bus in the industry, and that is what we've done," said GILLIG President and CEO Derek Maunus. "I couldn't be prouder of the amount of hard work and energy that went into this accomplishment. This truly has been the most remarkable team effort."


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Facebook announced Tuesday that it has received an infusion of $200 million from Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian Internet firm, which has a 1.96% ownership in Facebook. This now valuates Facebook at $10 billion and adds Digital Sky as the second company to invest heavily in Facebook after Microsoft acquired 1.6% of Facebook for $240 million in 2007 and rights to Facebook search & advertising spots.
Under the terms of the deal, Digital Sky will not receive a seat on the board at Facebook and will be acquiring $100 million of common shares from Facebook employees (current and former) who are looking to move some of their holdings in the company.
One might think that the mix of Russia and Facebook may not make much sense, but it is a safe investment for Digital Sky, which is not asking for much in return, and Facebook has become quite popular in Russia over the past 6 months as domestic social networks seem to be having problems keeping up with Russian demand for social connecting and photo tagging online.
Digital Sky also has interests in Mail.ru (the largest portal in Russia) and other Russian and Eastern European social networks like Odnoklassniki.ru (which is similar to MySpace) and VKontakte, which is almost just like Facebook.


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For shopping fans too the Klostergärten are ideally located: just a few minutes' walk take you to lively Alexanderplatz with its numerous stores at the foot of the TV tower. Just three minutes on foot from the Klostergärten is one of Berlin's largest shopping malls, the ALEXA.
Facing directly onto Alexanderplatz with stylish understatement is the GALERIA Kaufhof department store. Awaiting customers on six floors is an international array of merchandise representing over 600 exclusive brands, plus an excellent gourmet department.
A little bit further on – all around Hackescher Markt square, in the middle of Berlin's creative scene – there's a young, hip crowd bustling about in the many small designer showrooms.
And those who like things to be especially elegant are in turn excellently catered for by Berlin's most prestigious shopping street, Friedrichstraße: temptingly waiting here are Quartier 206, the Galeries Lafayette and a multitude of international showcase stores for major luxury labels, including Gucci, Armani and Yves Saint Laurent.


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Want to reduce your blood sugar levels? Consider brewing a pot of black tea and indulging in a mug or two. Countries with high black tea consumption have significantly lower rates of Type 2 diabetes, according to research reported in Medical News Today.
Researchers analyzed data on fermented black tea consumption in 50 countries. The Irish drink more tea than any other nation, followed by the United Kingdom and then Turkey, according. Residents of Morocco, China, Brazil, and South Korea drank the least black tea.
"Black tea slows down the digestion of glucose when taken with a meal," says Cheryl Reitz, RD, CDE, of the Cleveland Clinic. "Even though black tea is not recommended as a replacement for diabetic medication, it may help reduce glucose absorption."
But that doesn't mean you should dress it up with lots of milk and sugar. "Try to drink the tea without sweeteners, if possible,"says Alison Massey, MS, RD, LDN, CDE, of Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore. "Adding sugar to tea negates the beneficial effect. If you want to splash in a little milk, that wouldn't count as a significant amount of carbohydrates." If you like your tea sweet, consider using an artificial sweetener, Reitz says.
But, she warns, adding milk to tea can decrease its beneficial health effects. Some research shows that tea drinking offers heart health benefits that range from lowering heart attack risk to lowering LDL cholesterol (or "bad" cholesterol.)
Teas may be black, green, white, or oolong (which is lighter than black but darker than green); the current study focused on black tea. All varieties come from the same plant, but the method of processing and the level of oxidization combine to make them different. Black teas, for example, are oxidized for up to four hours. Within the family of black teas are numerous varieties, from orange pekoe (a high-quality tea grown in South Asia) to English Breakfast (a robust, full-flavored tea that is a blend of Ceylon, Kenyan, and Indian teas) to Earl Grey (a blend of Sri Lankan and Indian black teas that's perfumed with oil of bergamot, an acidic orange).
To brew perfect tea every time, always use cold water fresh from the tap. Preheat the teapot by pouring very hot water into it. Measure tea leaves into the preheated pot, using one tea bag or one to two teaspoons of loose tea for each cup of water. Black tea should steep for at least three minutes but no more than four or five minutes.
To make iced tea, prepare hot tea but use twice the quantity of leaves. Stir the tea, strain it, and pour it over ice. Optional garnishes that add flavor but not carbs? Lemon slices or fresh mint sprigs.
"Black tea could lower your diabetes risk." 9 November 2012. Medical News Today.
"The tea experience: home brewing." The Tea Association of the USA.
"Tea fact sheet." The Tea Association of the USA.
Alison Massey MS, RD, LDN, CDE reviewed this article.


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Early Tuesday morning, CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story actress Drew Sidora and husband Ralph Pittman welcomed a baby boy, People reports.
The family's newest addition was scheduled for delivery in August, but everyone was shocked when he was delivered one month early. After being hospitlizaed for nearly three weeks, doctors induced the expectant mom's labor.
"Mother and baby are in good health and resting," a rep confirmed.
Collectively, Sidora, Pittman, and their 4-year-old son, Josiah, decided to name the baby Machai after turning to the Bible for inspiration.
"We would consider a name and then we would read the story and be like, 'Well, he was eaten by the lions. We don't want that name,' " she shared back in May. "We thought about Jayden, but Josiah let us know, 'I don't like that name. I don't want that to be my brother's name!' But when we told him about Machai, [which is the name of a prophet in the Bible,] he said, 'I like that name.'"
The rep continues:
"At 4 lbs. 4.5 ounces and 16.5 inches, Machai is truly a miracle. We're asking for prayers and wishing her and her husband the best."'
For now, the Sister Code actress will focus on her family and completing her upcoming cookbook.
Follow Jazmine on Twitter @JazmineDenise


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David W. Hood, President, 2015-2016
Hello again, and welcome to our April edition of the NCADA's monthly newsletter, The Resource. This month I want to remind you all that while membership in the NCADA is a good first step towards improving your practice, involvement in the necessary next step. There are several opportunities coming up for you to take this next step, and I encourage you to take advantage.
First, of course, we have the Annual Meeting in June. Additional information is available elsewhere in this issue, but right now I want to focus on one of the many reasons you should be registering for this event in Asheville. There will be a number of judges in attendance, from both the trial and appellate courts, as well as the Industrial Commission (the new Chair Charlton Allen included.) This is an excellent chance to get to know these folks apart from representation in particular cases, and that knowledge will help you become a better advocate and a better lawyer overall. Given the number of social events forming part of this year's programming, making those contacts with not only the judiciary but fellow lawyers from around the state will be easy, and, in my opinion, extremely productive. So go to our awesome ncada.org website and register today.
Second, if you are able to be in the Raleigh area on May 12, you should sign up to attend the Judicial Reception to start at 5:30 at Jimmy V's Osteria and Bar. We sponsor these judicial receptions at five different locations in North Carolina, and they are another great way to meet and greet the judiciary and fellow lawyers in your area. I have been to several of these outside of my geographic region, and can tell you the value of this type of networking even if you just happen to be in the area from out-of-town. This is not a seminar, so no programming per se, but just an opportunity for social interaction. Use it.
Finally, new members or those without heavy NCADA involvement so far often ask me how best to become more involved. In addition to going to events as mentioned above, the next thing to do is to contact the Practice Group leadership in one or more of your areas of practice, and offer to help. (Other options would include the Committees for Young Lawyers, Women Litigators, and Diversity). The Chairs and Vice-Chairs are always looking for help, and would be glad to put you to work in some fashion. Become the type of person that folk can rely on for assistance – that could lead all sorts of places for you, including into leadership positions if you are interested in that. The leadership team for Practice Groups and selected Committees is profiled elsewhere on the ncada.org website, for your convenience.
I hope to see you at a future NCADA event!
North Carolina Association of Defense Attorneys 4441-106 Six Forks Road, #107 Raleigh, NC 27609
Phone: 919-239-4463 firstname.lastname@example.com
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The Commandant is hurt by the narrator's implication in his confession that life in the camp is worse than death. The narrator acknowledges that, given that he's now a prisoner and the Commandant is in charge, it may be hard for the Commandant to sympathize. The Commandant insists that the narrator isn't a prisoner; he's a guest. Then, the Commandant corrects himself and labels the narrator a "patient" who has been exposed to and infected by dangerous ideas. As a result, the Commandant and the commissar are quarantining him. He tells the narrator that, when his confession satisfies them, he'll move on to what they hope will be the last stage of his re-education. The Commissar believes that he's ready to be cured.
The Commandant doesn't want to believe that his camp is a prison. Instead, he sees it as a place where misguided people receive corrections. This is why he refers to the narrator as a "patient." The ideas with which the narrator has been "infected" are Western ideas. The narrator says that the Commandant is unable to sympathize with him because the narrator is a total devotee of Communism, which makes it difficult, if not altogether impossible, to see that the other side also has some good points.
The Commandant talks about the narrator's origins and describes the relations between the narrator's mother and father as his curse. The Commandant shows him a jar containing a naked, pickled baby with one body and two heads, and two faces pointed in different directions. Two legs are spread to reveal "the boiled peanut of the masculine sex." The narrator has seen the jar several times already. The infant is a result of American experimentation. The Commandant goes on to say that they could have simply shot all of the prisoners, particularly Bon. However, the Commissar believes that they can all be rehabilitated. He then says that the Commissar wants to meet the narrator in the evening. No other prisoner has met him personally. The Commissar wants to clarify some issues with the narrator.
The Commandant thinks that the narrator presents a problem due to his inability or unwillingness to choose a side, which he blames on the narrator's biracial identity. He thinks that these origins have confused him. The pickled baby is representative of others' perceptions of the narrator as a grotesque mistake. Though the narrator isn't American, he is both devoted to American ideas and to his Vietnamese identity, just as he is both Vietnamese and French. The Commandant believes that these qualities make the narrator inherently confused and conflicted.
The narrator knows that he can shorten his stay by just writing what they want: Communist slogans. He believes in the slogans but can't bring himself to write them. His resistance to the appropriate confessional style irritates the Commandant, who accuses the narrator of being a bourgeois intellectual. The narrator counters that Karl Marx didn't exactly write for the people. The Commandant is offended by the narrator's comparison of himself to Marx, thereby confirming his elitism. The Commandant then asks how he likes his wood pigeon. The narrator says that it's delicious. The Commandant tells him that "wood pigeon" is a euphemism for rat, or what he'd call a "field mouse."
The narrator's personal integrity prevents him from simply telling the Commandant and the commissar what they want to hear so that he can leave. He takes interest in the project of writing his confession because it gives him an opportunity to confess for his true crimes and also to come to terms with mistakes that he's made. The narrator points out the hypocrisy of Communists who are rabidly anti-intellectual when their original ideas are rooted in intellectualism.
Throwing the fiber cover back over the jar containing the pickled baby, the Commandant congratulates the narrator for finishing the written phase of his education. He then invites him to meet the Commissar. They ascend a hill toward the Commissar's quarters and stop at some stairs leading up to his balcony, where the baby-faced guard and three other guards await them. The Commandant tells the narrator that the Commissar is in charge of him now. If it were up to the Commandant, the narrator would be sent to the fields for his final cure, due to all of his failures, particularly his failure to undermine the production of The Hamlet. The narrator thanks him anyway for what he's done for him, and this seems to mollify the Commandant. Before departing, the Commandant reminds the narrator to strive toward sincerity, which is what education is all about.
The baby-faced guard will be one of the narrator's main tormenters, particularly zealous in his effort to inflict sleep torture. The young guard is symbolic of how fanatical ideology is instilled in people while they are very young to make them lifelong devotees who believe that they have a purpose. The guard's fanaticism parallels with that of Bon, though they are politically opposed. The Commandant's allusion to "the fields" means that, if it were up to him, the narrator's punishment would be permanent forced labor in conditions similar to those of a gulag, or labor camp.
Get the entire The Sympathizer LitChart as a printable PDF.
The narrator feels his stomach churn as he knocks on the Commissar's door. A voice tells him to come in. The voice sounds familiar. The narrator enters a room filled with bamboo. There's an altar on which sits a gold-painted bust of Ho Chi Minh. At the far end of the room is a platform bed draped in a cloud of mosquito netting. A shadow stirs. A burned red hand parts the netting, revealing "a visage of fearful asymmetry." The face has been scorched away. The Commissar asks if the narrator recognizes him. He reminds the narrator that he asked him not to return. Man is the Commissar.
The narrator is nervous to meet the mysterious Commissar, a man that everyone has only seen from a distance. Man's scorched body has resulted in his transformation from the "blood brother" whom the narrator once knew to the fearsome leader of a Communist cell and a detention camp where he holds his old friends captive. He, too, is a man who knows what it is to live with two faces.


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SeaExplorer 65 Damen
If you have any questions about the SeaExplorer 65 information page below please contact us.
65m/213ft expedition yacht SEAXPLORER 65 is constructed with a Lloyds Polar Class 6 ice breaker hull and meets the IMO Polar Code for the comfort of guests and the protection of the marine environment.
NOTABLE FEATURES OF SEAXPLORER 65: ~Capable of 40 days of autonomy ~Helipad and hangar ~Dive centre ~Extensive range of tenders and water toys ~Owner customisation of interior amenities and layout ~Crow's nest ~Sundeck Jacuzzi
Built by Dutch builders Amels and Damen, she features an exterior by Azure Naval Architects and there is extensive indoor and outdoor space to ensure that guests have the opportunity to make the most of every destination they visit. The accommodation sleeps a maximum of 12 guests with a crew of 20 for exceptional service throughout the cruise.
On the main deck, guests have access to two side balconies where tenders and water toys are stored as well as an aft balcony for easy access to the vehicles. The upper deck is partially shaded and the area towards the stern is raised for a sizable helipad with room for a hangar below. Forward of the helipad is a swimming pool and exterior lounge and dining area for guests.
The bridge deck contains two double-sized sunpad/sofas and underneath the sundeck overhang there is room for a broad C-shaped sofa for casual outdoor lounging and alfresco dining.
On the expansive sundeck guests have a choice of resting on the aft sun loungers, soaking in the expensive forward Jacuzzi able to host multiple guests, or drying off on the sunpads. For the best views on board, guests can whale watch and observe the surroundings from the crow's nest.
SeaExplorer 65 Specifications
Type/Year: | Damen/2018 |
Refit: | |
Beam: | 14m (46') |
L.O.A.: | 65m (213') |
Crew: | 20 |
Guests: | 12 |
Max Speed: | 15 knots |
Cabins: | 6 |
Engines: | |
Cruise Speed: |
Builder/Designer: | Damen |
Locations: | Luxury Yachts At Events, Gulf Islands, Canary Islands, Honduras, Venice, Fiordland, ANTARCTICA, Greece |
The interior arrangement across the decks can be customised to the Owner's desires and their choice of designer can further personalise the interior.
The deck space and storage has room for a helicopter, a submersible, a dive support boat, a rescue boat, two zodiacs and four Waverunners.
Yacht Accommodation
The accommodation sleeps 12 guests in cabins and the crew of 20 will ensure that guests have a fantastic time among the world's most exotic and remote destinations.
Amenities and Extras
We do have available further amenity, owner and price information for the 65m (213') yacht SeaExplorer 65, so please enquire for more information.
SeaExplorer 65 Disclaimer:
The luxury yacht SeaExplorer 65 displayed on this page is merely informational and she is not necessarily available for yacht charter or for sale, nor is she represented or marketed in anyway by CharterWorld. This web page and the superyacht information contained herein is not contractual. All yacht specifications and informations are displayed in good faith but CharterWorld does not warrant or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the current accuracy, completeness, validity, or usefulness of any superyacht information and/or images displayed. All boat information is subject to change without prior notice and may not be current.