“And again, there are two excellent satires to be found respectively in the 14th chapter of Isaiah, and in the 18th chapter of the 1st Book of Kings. In the first, one of the mighty Babylonian potentates is held up to derision, on account of the ignominious defeat he had sustained in his own dominions, after he had been for a long time a great terror to contemporary nations, living in various parts of the ancient world. Even the trees of the forests are represented there as having mocked at his fall, saying: ‘Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.’ In the second satire, the false prophets of Baal are ridiculed by Elijah for having maimed their bodies, in order to do thereby honour to a deity which is sometimes sarcastically referred to in the Bible as being ‘the god of flies.’

“Delightfully satirical are also the two fables quoted in the Bible in connection with Jotham and Nathan, the Prophet. These are commonly well-known, and no extracts from them need be given here.

“The satirical turn of mind manifested by Hebrew writers living in Biblical times, has been transmitted by them as a legacy to their descendants, who flourished in subsequent ages down to the present day. The first among them was Ben Sira who, in 180 B.C., wrote a book, some of the contents of which are satirical, for there the vanity of contemporary women, and the arrogance of some of the rich in the community are ridiculed with mild sarcasm.

“But much more keen was the sense of the satirical that was possessed by some of the ancient Rabbis, who were among those that brought into existence the vast and interesting Talmudical literature. One of their satires, called ‘Tithes,’ runs as follows:—

“In Palestine there once lived a widow with her two daughters, whose only worldly possessions consisted of a little field. When she began to plough it, a Jewish official quoted to her the words of the lawgiver Moses: ‘Thou shalt not plough with ox and ass together.’ When she began to sow, she was admonished in the words of the same lawgiver not to sow the fields with two kinds of seed. When she began to reap and pile up the stacks, she was told that she must leave ‘gleanings,’ the poor man’s sheaf, and the ‘corner.’

“When the harvest time came, she was informed that it was her duty to give the priest’s share, consisting of the first and second ‘tithes.’ She quietly submitted, and gave what was demanded of her. Then she sold the field, and bought two young ewes, in order that she might use their wool, and profit by their offspring. But, as soon as the ewes gave birth to their young, a priest came, and quoted to her the words of Moses: ‘Give me the first-born, for so the Lord hath ordained.’ Again she submitted, and gave him the young.

“When the time of shearing came, the priest again made his appearance, and said to her that, according to the Law, she was obliged to give him ‘the shoulder, the two cheeks, and the maw.’

“In a moment of despair, the widow said: ‘Let all the animals be consecrated to the Lord!’ ‘In that case,’ answered the priest, ‘they belong altogether to me; for the Lord hath said: “Everything consecrated in Israel shall be thine.”’ So, he took the sheep, and went his way, leaving the widow and her two daughters in great distress, and bathed in tears!”

A WIFE’S RUSE
(A Rabbinical Tale)

“There is a Rabbinical law which makes it obligatory upon every Jewish husband to divorce his wife, if after ten years of married life she shall remain childless. Now, there once lived in an Oriental town a man and his wife who were greatly attached to each other, but who had, unfortunately, no children, though they had been married for a considerable time.