of Tobit, iii. 8, vi. 14, etc, The Shameer is mentioned in Jer. xvii. i; Ezek. iii. 9; Zech. vii. 12.  The Seventy in the former passage and the Vulgate passim take it for the diamond.

Six things are said respecting the children of men, in three of which they are like angels, and in three they are like animals.  They have intelligence like angels, they walk erect like angels, and they converse in the holy tongue like angels.  They eat and drink like animals, they generate and multiply like animals, and they relieve nature like animals.

Chaggigah, fol. 16, col. 1.

Six months did the Shechinah hesitate to depart from the midst of Israel in the wilderness, in hopes that they would repent.  At last, when they persisted in impenitence, the Shechinah said, “May their bones be blown;” as it is written (Job xi. 20), “The eyes of the wicked shall fail, they shall not escape, and their hopes shall be as the blowing out of the spirit.”

Rosh Hashanah, fol. 31, col. 1.

Six names were given to Solomon:—­Solomon, Jedidiah, Koheleth, Son of
Jakeh, Agur, and Lemuel.

Avoth d’Rab.  Nathan, chap. 39.

Six years old was Dinah when she gave birth to Asenath, whom she bore unto Shechem.

Sophrim, chap. 21.

“And the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household” (2 Sam. vi. 11).  In what did the blessing consist?  Rav Yehudah bar Zavidah says it consisted in this, that Hamoth, his wife, and her eight daughters-in-law gave birth each to six children at a time. (This is proved from 1 Chron. xxvi. 5, 8.)

Berachoth, fol. 63, col. 2.

Six things were done by Hezekiah the king, but the sages praised him for three only:—­(1.) He dragged the bones of his father Ahaz on a hurdle of ropes, for this they commended him; (2.) he broke to pieces the brazen serpent, for this they commended him; (3.) he hid the Book of Remedies, and for this too they praised him.  For three they blamed him:—­(1.) He stripped the doors of the Temple and sent the gold thereof to the King of Assyria; (2.) he stopped up the upper aqueduct of Gihon; (3.) he intercalated the month Nisan.

P’sachim, fol. 56, col. 1.

The hiding of the Book of Remedies, harsh and inhuman as it might seem, was dictated by high moral considerations.  It seemed right that the transgressor should feel the weight of his sin in the suffering that followed, and that the edge of judgment should not be dulled by a too easy access to anodyne applications.  The reason for stopping the aqueduct of Gihon is given in 2 Chron. xxxii. 3, 4.  The inhabitants of Jerusalem did the very same thing when the Crusaders besieged the city, A.D. 1099.  Rashi tries to explain why this stratagem was not commended; the reason he gives is that Hezekiah ought to have trusted God, who had said (2 Kings xix. 34), “I will defend the city.”

Six things are said of the horse:—­It is wanton, it delights in the strife of war, it is high-spirited, it despises sleep, it eats much and it voids little.  There are some that say it would fain kill its own master.