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Bonechi, Matteo

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(prop. עֶצֶם , ettsem; ὄστεον), the hard parts of animal bodies (Exodus 12:46). The expression " bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh" (Genesis 2:23), "of his flesh, and of his bones" (Ephesians 5:30), may be understood as implying the same nature, and being united in the nearest relation and affection. Iniquities are said to be metaphorically in men's bones when their body is polluted by them (Job 20:11). The " valley of dry bones" in Ezekiel's vision represents a state of utter helplessness, apart from Divine interposition and aid (Ezekiel 37:1-14). The Psalmist says, "Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth" (Psalms 141:7). This appears to be a strongly figurative expression; but that it may be strictly true, the following extract from Bruce demonstrates: " At five o'clock we left Garigana, our journey being still to the eastward, and at a quarter past six in the evening arrived at the site of a village whose inhabitants had all perished with hunger the year before; their wretched bones being all unburied, and scattered upon the surface of the ground where the village formerly stood. We encamped among the bones of the dead; no space could be found free from them." The judgment of the Lord is denounced against the King of Moab, " because he burnt the bones of the King of Edom into lime" (Amos 2:1), or, as the Chaldee paraphrase explains it, "to plaster the walls of his house with it," which was a cruel insult. A piece of barbarity resembling this is mentioned by Sir Paul Rycaut, that the wall of the city of Philadelphia was made by the bones of the besieged by the prince who took it by storm. The passage in Amos 6:9-10, Roberts says, "alludes to the custom of burning human bodies, and to that of gathering up the half calcified bones, and to the putting them into an earthen vessel, and then to the carrying back these fragments to the house, or into some outbuilding, where they are kept till conveyed to a sacred place. In India this is done by a son or a near relation; but in case there is not one near akin, then any person who is going to the place (as to the Ganges) can take the fragments of bones, and thus perform the last rites."