it, that Aaron and Miriam had quarrelled with Moses, because he had married a negro, or black-moor, the reproach was evident; whatever intrinsic merit Zipporah might have been found to have possessed afterwards, she must have appeared before the people, at first sight, as a strange woman, or Gentile, whom it was prohibited to marry. Besides, the innate deformity of the complexion, negroes were, at all times, rather coveted for companions of men of luxury or pleasure, than sought after for wives of sober legislators, and governors of a people.
The next instance I shall give is, Zerah of Gerar *[1], who came out to fight Asa king of Israel with an army of a million of men, and three hundred chariots, whilst both the quarrel and the decision are represented as immediate.
Gerar was a small district, producing only the Acacia or gum-arabic trees, from which it had its name; it had no water but what came from a few wells, part of which had been dug by Abraham †[2], after much strife with the people of the country, who sought to deprive him of them, as of a treasure.
Abraham and his brother Lot returning from Egypt, though poor shepherds, could not subsist there for want of food, and water, and they separated accordingly, by consent ‡[3].
- 2 Chron. chap. xiv. ver. 9. † Gen chap. 21. ver. 30.
‡ Gen. chap. 13 ver. 6. and 9.
