number twelve has always been considered as a sacred number: witness the 12 great gods of the Greeks and Romans; the 12 altars of Janus, referring to the 12 months of the year, the 12 tribes of Israel, the 12 Apostles, and a hundred other instances that if necessary, might be cited.
A Wayfaring Man.—The word means a traveler, one who passes over the road—derived from way or road, and the word fare, in its old meaning of to pass or go over. Bailey defines a wayfaring man as "one who is accustomed to travel over the roads." It is with this meaning frequently found in Scripture, as in Judges xix. 17: "And when he had lifted up his eyes, he saw a wayfaring man in the street of the city." Such a man, having perhaps just landed at Joppa, and on his way to the interior, would be most likely to be met near that city, and would be best enabled to give any information wanted as to the condition of the shipping in the harbor, or in relation to any other matter connected with a passage.
The word "sea-faring man" sometimes ignorantly used in this place, is a monstrous corruption of the old term.
Joppa, which was by the Hebrews called Japho, and is now known as Jaffa, was and is a sea-port town and harbor on the coast of Palestine, about forty miles in "a westerly direction" (being about northwest) from Jerusalem. At the time of the building of the Temple it was the only sea-port possessed by the
