As an anathema enters all the two hundred and fortyeight members of the body, so does it issue from them all. Of the entering-in of the anathema it is written (Josh. vi. 17), " And the city shall be accursed; by Gematria amounting to two hundred and forty-eight. Of the coming-out of the anathema it is written (Hab. iii. 2), " In wrath remember mercy; a transposition of the letters of the word for accursed, also amounting by Gematria to two hundred and forty-eight. Rabbi Joseph says, "