A CLASS-BOOK OF OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY.

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Elementary Theological Class-Books.

A CLASS-BOOK

OF

OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY

BY

THE REV. G. F. MACLEAR, D.D.

WARDEN OF ST AUGUSTINE’S COLLEGE, AND
HONORARY CANON OF CANTERBURY.
LATE HEAD MASTER OF KING’S COLLEGE SCHOOL, LONDON.

WITH MAPS.

London:

MACMILLAN AND CO.

AND NEW YORK.

1894

[The Right of Translation is reserved.]

First Edition printed January 1865. Second Edition printed November 1865. Reprinted with slight alterations 1866, with slight alterations 1868, with slight alterations 1869, 1871, 1872, 1874, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1878, 1879, 1880, 1881, 1883, 1884, 1885, 1887, 1888, 1889, 1890, 1892, 1894.

NOTICE.

The present Volume forms a Class-Book of Old Testament History from the Earliest Times to those of Ezra and Nehemiah.

In its preparation the most recent Authorities[1] have been consulted, and wherever it has appeared useful, Notes have been subjoined illustrative of the Text, and, for the sake of more advanced students, references added to larger Works.

The Index has been so arranged as to form a concise Dictionary of the Persons and Places mentioned in the course of the Narrative, while the Maps, which have been prepared with considerable care at Stanford’s Geographical Establishment, will, it is hoped, materially add to the value and usefulness of the Book.

London, Christmas, 1864.

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS.

BOOK I.
FROM THE CREATION TO THE DISPERSION OF MANKIND.

CHAPTER I.
THE CREATION.
Gen. i. ii. B.C. 4004.

IN the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. With these simple but sublime words commences the History contained in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, teaching us that the Universe did not exist from all eternity, but owed its origin to the creative act of God. To us this truth appears so elementary and self-evident that we can hardly appreciate the dim and uncertain notions on this point, which the best and wisest of the heathen possessed. Certain it is, however, they were very much in the dark respecting the origin of the world. Some philosophers held that it existed from all eternity: others taught that there are two independent Causes, the one Light, and the other Darkness, and that out of the unending struggle between them the Universe had its origin; others imagined that all the marvellous order and harmony we see around us was the result of Chance; others, again, conceived that the world was an emanation from Deity, and a part of Deity. Distinct from all these guesses and conceptions is the declaration of the Scripture Narrative. It affirms that the world is not eternal; that it had itsorigin with time and in time; that it owed its beginning neither to Chance, nor Necessity, but the Creative will of a Personal God, infinitely exalted above it, the Maker and Sustainer of all things. (Comp. Joh. i. 1–3, Rom. xi. 36, 1 Cor. viii. 6, Col. i. 15, 16, Heb. i. 2, 3).

The creation, however, of the present order of things was not instantaneous, but progressive, and took place in six Days, or vast Periods of time. On the first day light was created, and divided from the darkness; on the second, the firmament, or atmosphere encircling the globe; on the third, a separation was made between the water and the land, and the surface of the earth was covered with vegetation, with the herb yielding seed, and the tree yielding fruit after its kind. On the fourth, the sun, moon and stars were bidden to give light upon the earth, and to be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years. On the fifth, animal life appeared in its lowest forms, the waters brought forth the various marine tribes after their kind, and this was succeeded by the creation of every winged fowl. The sixth day was marked by the production of land animals, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth, which, like all the preceding products of Creative Power, received the Divine approval, and were pronounced to be very good.

But the work of Creation was not yet complete. A being higher than any yet created was to be called into existence. Accordingly God said, Let us make Man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over every living thing, and over all the earth; and the Lord God formed Man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and Man became a living soul. Then having seen that all things He had made were very good God ended His work, and rested on the seventh day, sanctifying it as a day of Rest for man. (Gen. i. 2–26).

The language here employed in reference to the creation of man deserves attention. It teaches us that man did not, as some have taught, slowly emerge by his own efforts from a brutish state. Unlike other created objects, he was originally made in the image and after the likeness of God. Endowed not only with a body, but also with an immortal soul, he was to combine intellectual power with liberty of will, and the faculty of conscience. And as he was great himself, so also was the work to which he was called. His was to be universal dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. As God’s vicegerent, he was to exercise lordship over nature, and guide it towards its destined perfection (Gen. i. 26).

But though the first man Adam, was endued with those high prerogatives, he was not destined to attain immediately to the end for which he was created. His activity was to commence in a particular spot, and thence to extend in all directions, until all the earth was subdued and moulded to the will of its Creator. The Almighty, therefore, planted a garden in a region of the East, corresponding probably to the high table-land of the modern Armenia, and watered by four streams. Of two of these, Pison and Gihon, the situation is absolutely unknown, the others were the Tigris and Euphrates. Here, then, in a spot endued with everything pleasant to the sight and good for food, man’s work was to commence. Action and not contemplation only was essential to his nature, hence a charge was given to him to dress and keep the garden. Nor amidst everything to gratify his senses and supply material for his understanding and reflection was he left alone. A responsible being, bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh, was created a help-meet for him. The Lord caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and taking one of his ribs, He madethereof a woman, and brought her unto him, and Eve, the mother of all flesh, one with himself in nature and in origin, was united to him in holy bonds, which He, Who thus instituted them in Paradise, afterwards adorned and hallowed with His own presence and first miracle at Cana of Galilee (Joh. ii. 1; Eph. v. 23–33).

CHAPTER II.
THE FALL.
Gen. iii. B.C. 4004.

OF the life of the first human pair in Paradise we are told but little. We know, however, that it was not only a state of innocence, and therefore of happiness, but also, like all human life since, of probation. Besides the charge to dress and keep the fair enclosure in which they had been placed, our first parents received but one additional command. It was couched in negative terms, and forbade in the most distinct and solemn manner possible the eating of the fruit of a mysterious tree growing in the midst of the Garden, and called the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil. Of the fruit of every other tree they might eat freely, of the fruit of this tree the Almighty said to them, Ye shall not eat, for in the day ye eat thereof ye shall surely die. In this single prohibition lay the test of their loyal obedience to their Creator, on it depended their innocence and their happiness temporal and eternal. How long they were faithful and obedient we are not told. But whether the period was long or short, certain it is that it came to a close.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, implies that Evil was already present in God’s world, and therefore in part prepares us for the dark shadow that now gathers round the sacred page. The creation ofman had been watched by a supernatural Being of infinite subtilty and malignity, the Enemy of God and of all goodness. Respecting this mysterious Being, though the Sacred Narrative does not gratify our curiosity with any lengthened details, yet to his existence and his unceasing hostility to man, it bears direct and explicit testimony. The name under which the supernatural Tempter appears in the earliest and latest portions of the Bible is the same (comp. Gen. iii. 1, with 2 Cor. xi. 3; Rev. xii. 9, xx. 2), and though but seldom mentioned in the Old Testament (Job i., ii.; 1 Chron. xxi. 1; Zech. iii. 1, 2), the same attributes are uniformly ascribed to him. Created originally good, like all the works of God, he abode not in the truth (Jn. viii. 44), but rebelled against his Maker and fell from his high estate (1 Tim. iii. 6), and henceforth, at the head of numerous other spirits (Matt. xxv. 41), whom he had dragged down with him in his fall (2 Pet. ii. 4; Jude 6), he arrayed himself in conscious hostility to the Supreme.

This Being, then, here called the Serpent, in other places Satan, i.e. the Enemy, and the Devil, i.e. the Slanderer, approached the woman, as being the weaker vessel, for the purpose of seducing her, and so her husband, from their allegiance to their Creator. With affected solicitude he began by enquiring, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? To this the woman replied by repeating the Divine prohibition respecting the fruit of one particular tree. Thereupon the Tempter proceeded to declare that the penalty of death would not follow the eating of this fruit, nay that the Almighty knew that in the day they ate thereof, her eyes and those of her husband would be opened, and they would become as gods, knowing good and evil. A more subtle scheme for shaking her allegiance to the Almighty, and her confidence in His goodness and His love, could not have been devised.A prohibition hitherto regarded as a solemn but merciful warning was now invested with an arbitrary character, and a selfish motive. In mere envy, so the Tempter affirmed, the Almighty had denounced an impossible penalty; what she had been taught to observe as the condition of innocence and happiness was nothing more than the expedient of One, who grudged His creatures their rightful advancement, lest they should approach too nearly to Himself[2]. The idea of an envious God, of a hard taskmaster, was thus instilled into the mind of Eve, sapping the foundations of all real faith and trust, and rendering the more irresistible the temptation to disobey the command of Him, who had thus enviously set these bounds to her freewill. In an evil hour she believed the Tempter’s words, and seeing that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. Thus the fell counsels of the Tempter were accomplished. Through want of faith in God’s word, through a longing for independence, through a vain desire to become gods unto themselves, our first parents were beguiled into sin, and when their eyes were opened, instead of greater happiness they now experienced the strange and hitherto unknown consciousness of shame, and degradation, and unmeetness for God’s presence (Gen. iii. 1–7).

Brief and summary as is the information here given us respecting the enigma of enigmas, the origin of Evil, it is yet of unspeakable importance. For it teaches us that Sin is not a part of man’s nature, but the fault and corruption[3] of it, that it did not spring from his nature by any inevitable necessity, but in consequenceof his yielding to the seductions of a powerful and malignant Foe. He did not, like his Tempter, choose sin for its own sake, but was beguiled into it. Hence, though he became liable to all the penal consequences of his disobedience, though his being was poisoned with sin, yet it was not converted into sin. He did not lose all remembrance of his former state of purity and innocence; the shame which overwhelmed him and made him hide himself from the presence of God, testified to his consciousness of transgression, and in this sense of guilt lay the possibility of his restoration[4].

For now the Sacred Narrative, while it refuses to gratify our curiosity respecting a subject which doubtless passes our understanding, proceeds to do what is for us of far greater practical importance, namely, to place the inroad of sin in immediate connection with the Divine Counsels of Redemption. We learn that God in infinite mercy now intervened between His creatures and their Tempter. For them, indeed, it remained to taste the bitter fruits of their disobedience and mistrust. Eve was informed that sorrow and pain must henceforth be the condition of her existence; in sorrow should she bring forth children, her desire should be to her husband, and he should rule over her (Gen. iii. 16). Adam learnt that with himself henceforth nature too must undergo a change; thorns and thistles must grow upon the face of the earth, toil must be the price of his existence, and his end the silence of the grave, for dust he was, and unto dust he must return. Even thus, however, Justice was tempered with sweet Mercy, and Love mingled blessings with the bitterness of man’s cup. If pain and multipliedsorrow was to be woman’s lot, yet through pain she was to know a mysterious joy, and her anguish should be no more remembered, when she knew that a man was born into the world. And if grievous toil and irksome labour were to be the conditions of man’s existence, yet in the provision of these effectual antidotes to idleness and many other sins was truest mercy. But these gracious purposes extended only to man, they tempered not the judgment denounced on his Seducer. Utterly cursed was he above all cattle, and above every beast of the field. The very creature, over whom he had seemed to triumph, should prove his ultimate Conqueror. I will put enmity, said the Almighty to the Tempter, between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. In these words we trace the first distinct Promise of man’s ultimate Redemption. The state of degradation, into which he had suffered himself to be seduced, was not to last for ever. “In conformity with the Divine Equity, the deceiver was to be judged by the deceived, the Conqueror was to be overcome by the conquered[5].” Man need not give himself up to despair; there was still room for hope; in infinite mercy the Almighty had espoused his cause, and He would Himself provide a remedy for his fall.

We need not venture on any profitless speculations touching the precise amount of hope the early generations of the human family were likely to have derived from this first Gospel, this “first Promise” of a Saviour. In terms it was undoubtedly indefinite. Neither the time, nor the method, nor the precise mediating cause of man’s deliverance was made known. It was not revealed whether the promised “Seed” should be one or many, the collective Race, or a single Deliverer. On these points greater light was to be shed as timerolled on, and many things were to be revealed, which now man could not comprehend. But of the final Victory, and of its certainty, direct and explicit assurance was given. “Since religion cannot so much as exist without hope, the earliest intimation of Prophecy was adapted to the support of that essential feeling in the heart of man. It was clearly a promise of relief, an antidote to perfect despair. It contained the prediction that some one should be born of the Seed of the Woman, who ‘should bruise the head of the Tempter,’ by whom, therefore, the penal effect of man’s transgression should be in some way reversed. With all its uncertainty as to the mode in which this End should be effected, the Promise had within it a principle of Hope and Encouragement, and the materials of a religious trust fitted to keep man still looking to his Maker[6].”

In the encouraging assurance thus given to Adam, in this first Promise of a Saviour, Sacred History finds its definite starting-point, and the Old Testament becomes a true introduction to the New, because it reveals the several steps whereby the Divine Wisdom provided for its fulfilment. From first to last Sacred History is “instinct with life and hope;” it ever points onward to the future; its key-note is ever preparation for the Coming of Him, who was to be the true “Seed of the Woman,” in whom the Father counselled before the worlds to gather together in one all things, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth (Eph. i. 10; Phil. ii. 9, 10).

CHAPTER III.
THE FLOOD.
Gen. iv.–ix. B.C. 4004–2348.

THOUGH thus assured of ultimate restoration, the first man, as a fallen being, could not be permitted to remain in the region, which had been the scene of his trial and his failure. He might take of the fruit of another Tree, that grew in the midst of the Garden, the Tree of Life, and eat, and live for ever, and thus prevent the possibility of his recovery. Accordingly he was sent forth from the Garden, at the east of which were stationed Cherubim, a particular order, in all probability, of Angels (Comp. Ex. xxv. 17–22; Ezek. i. 5, Rev. iv. 6), while a flaming Sword which turned every way guarded the approach to the Tree of Life.

Thus driven forth from Eden, and re-commencing under new and altered circumstances their course of probation, Adam and Eve in due time became the parents of two sons, Cain (gotten, or acquired), and Abel (breath, transitoriness). From their earliest years the most opposite tendencies distinguished the brothers. The mysterious rite of sacrifice, which meets us at the very threshold of Sacred History, and which, it is supposed, not without probability, the Almighty Himself instituted, when He made for the first pair coats of skins, and clothed them (Gen. iii. 21), became the occasion of a fatal quarrel between them. Cain brought of the fruit of the ground, Abel of the firstlings of his flock, an offering unto the Lord. The offering of Abel was accepted, that of Cain rejected. The reason for this distinction cannot be pronounced with absolute certainty. Either the offering of Abel was a free and bounteous presentation of the best that hehad, while that of Cain was merely commonplace and perfunctory, or Abel brought his offering in a spirit of faith, and trustful acquiescence in a divinely-instituted though mysterious command (Heb. xi. 4), a motive which the offering of his elder brother lacked. Whatever was the precise reason of the distinction, it roused all Cain’s latent jealousy, and he became his brother’s murderer (1 Joh. iii. 12). For thus shedding righteous blood (Matt. xxiii. 35) he was condemned by the Almighty to perpetual banishment from the region of Eden. Fearful of vengeance from the other children of Adam, whose family we may infer from the mention of Cain’s wife had largely increased, he feared to depart before he received from the Almighty a special sign or pledge of security in the land of his banishment[7]. This having been granted, he removed into the region of Nod (exile), and there became the ancestor of numerous descendants, the heads of whom are enumerated to the sixth generation, under the names of Enoch, Irad, Mehu-jael, Methu-sael, and Lamech. In this region, too, he built the earliest city of which we have any record, and called it Enoch, after the name of his eldest son. The Cainite families were distinguished for their attention to the development of the arts and pleasures of life. As Cain built the first city, so Lamech instituted polygamy, while of his three sons Jabal introduced the nomadic life, Jubal the use of musical instruments, and Tubal-Cain the art of working in metals (Gen. iv. 16–24).

Meanwhile with another son Seth (substituted), who had been given to Adam in place of Abel, commenced a line distinct in its social and religious tendencies from that of Cain. The heads of this family are enumeratedto the tenth generation under the names of Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah. While the descendants of Cain advanced indeed in civilization, but were addicted to luxury and violence, the descendants of Seth were distinguished for pastoral simplicity. They called upon the name of the Lord (Gen. iv. 26); they were the chosen repositories of the Promise of Redemption, and the witnesses for a God of Righteousness in the midst of a generation which already began to become corrupt, and in the seen to forget the unseen. An eminent type of the characteristic virtues of this line was Enoch, the son of Jared, the seventh from Adam (Jude 14). All his life long he walked in closest communion with the Most High and the spiritual world. Faith (Heb. xi. 5), implicit trust in a Righteous Ruler of the Universe, was the principle of his life, and the secret spring of his holiness. One day he vanished from the society of his fellowmen. He was not, for the God whom he served took him to Himself, and translated him to the unseen world, without undergoing the penalty of death (Gen. v. 21–24).

A peculiar feature of this period was the great length to which human life was prolonged. Adam attained to the age of 930 years, Methuselah to that of 969, the others nearly as long. From this accrued many advantages to the race. It tended to promote its speedy increase, it preserved uninterrupted such knowledge as men were able to acquire, and pre-eminently the original revelation respecting the one true God, the remembrance of Paradise, and the hope of ultimate Redemption. But the great longevity of the men of this period did not tend to hinder their increasing alienation from the paths of righteousness, and obedience to the Supreme. Amidst the extreme brevity of the sacred narrative it is clear that the wickedness of men reached a desperate pitch, the earth was filled with violence,and all men corrupted their way upon it. At length this alienation from God reached its culminating point in a catastrophe, to which the Sacred Record attaches a peculiar and mysterious importance. When men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, and they took them wives of all that they chose. Whatever be the true meaning of the expression sons of God, whether it refers to the Angels, as some have thought, or the descendants of Seth, certain it is that a superhuman spirit of wickedness broke out at this period. From these mixed marriages sprang men remarkable for strength and power, for violence and arrogant wickedness, through whom both races speedily became hopelessly corrupt. The salt even in the line of Seth lost its savour, and the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually (Gen. vi. 1–5).

In this awful crisis one man only found favour with God, Noah, the son of Lamech, in whom at his birth, with prophetic glance his father beheld a pledge of that rest and comfort, which the men of faith felt they so sorely needed from the burden of weary and irksome labour on the ground which Jehovah had cursed (Gen. v. 29). When Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Like Enoch he was a righteous and perfect man in his generation, and in this age of universal apostasy maintained an unflinching trust in the Righteous Ruler of the Universe, and at length, when the cup of man’s iniquity was full, he received intimation from the Almighty of His intention to bring an awful judgment upon the world. Behold I, even I, said God, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; andeverything that is in the earth shall die. From the general catastrophe Noah and his family alone were to be preserved, and he was directed to construct an Ark, a huge vessel of enormous dimensions, into which, when completed, he was to repair with his wife, his three sons and their wives, and also two of every species of beasts and birds accounted “unclean” or unfit for sacrifice, and seven of every species accounted “clean.” The vessel thus ordered was to be constructed of gopher-wood, probably cypress, and was to be overlaid within and without with pitch or bitumen; in length it was to be 300 cubits, in breadth 50, in depth 30. But though the impending Judgment was thus announced, and a visible pledge of it directed to be constructed, the Doom itself was not to be as yet. He who afterwards waited 400 years till the cup of the iniquity of the Amorites was full, who gave the Ninevites forty days for repentance, now waited (1 Pet. iii. 20), with much long-suffering, for a space of 120 years.

During this period according to all that God commanded Noah, so did he. Though the things, of which he was warned, were not yet seen (Heb. xi. 7), nay, must have seemed to the men of his generation in the extremest degree improbable, moved with fear he yet persevered in his awful task, and by this act of faith, as well as by his own works, continued to warn his fellowmen of what was to come. But his warnings fell on unheeding ears. The men of his generation set at naught all his counsel and mocked at his reproofs: they did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage (Matt. xxiv. 38; Lk. xvii. 26, 27), until the day of Doom arrived. On the seventeenth day of the second month of the 600th year of Noah’s life he and his family entered into the Ark, and the Lord shut them in. Then, after a solemn pause of seven days, the elements of destruction were bidden to dotheir work. The fountains of the great deep were broken up, the windows of heaven were opened, and the rain descended, till the waters covered the highest hills, and all flesh wherein was the breath of life died, of fowl, of cattle, of wild beast, and of every creeping thing which creepeth upon the earth, and every man.

In these simple but impressive words the Sacred Narrative describes the appalling catastrophe. Written for a far higher purpose, it paints no scenes as a human writer would have done. “We see nothing of the death-struggle; we hear not the cry of despair; we are not called upon to witness the frantic agony of husband and wife, of parent and child, as they fled in terror before the rising waters. Not a word is said of the sadness of the one righteous man who, safe himself, looked upon the destruction, which he could not avert. But one impression is left upon the mind with peculiar vividness, from the very simplicity of the narrative, and it is that of utter desolation[8].” All flesh died, Noah only was left, and they that were with him in the ark. For 150 days the waters prevailed, till at length on the 17th day of the 7th month the Ark rested on one of the peaks of Ararat. From this time the waters gradually decreased till the first day of the 10th month, when the tops of the mountains having begun to appear, Noah sent forth a raven, which returned not to the Ark. A week afterwards he sent forth a dove, to see if the waters were abated from the lower and more level country. But the dove finding no rest for the sole of her foot returned unto the Ark. Again he waited seven days, and once more sent her forth, when she returned with a fresh olive-leaf pluckt off in her mouth, a sign that the waters had still further subsided. Yet again, after a similar interval, Noah sent her forth. This time, however,she did not return, having found on the earth a rest for the sole of her foot, and then he knew that the awful Judgment had indeed come to a close, and at the Divine command left the Ark, and set foot on the dry land[9] (Gen. viii. 1–19).

CHAPTER IV.
THE CONFUSION OF TONGUES.
Gen. x.–xi. B.C. 2347–2233.

THE first act of Noah on leaving the Ark was to build an altar, and offer burnt-offerings unto the Lord of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl. His sacrifice was accepted, and now for the first time a solemn Covenant was ratified between the Almighty and the Patriarch, to which definite promises were annexed, and “an outward and visible sign.” From its baptism of water the Earth had risen once more to be the habitation of man, and Noah and his sons were solemnly assured that all flesh should never again be cut off by the waters of a Flood, but that while the earth remained, seed-time and harvest, cold and heat,summer and winter and day and night should not cease. Again too the blessing of Paradise was bestowed, sovereignty and dominion over the animal creation were assured, and once more men were bidden to be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. At the same time animal food was expressly allowed, while the sanctity of human life was as solemnly enforced, whoso shed man’s blood, by man should his blood be shed. Of this covenant the Rainbow was the visible pledge, assuring man that he might enter afresh on his course of probation, nor dread its interruption by any catastrophe like that with which the earth had been so lately visited (Gen. ix. 8–17).

The elevation of the Armenian plateau, in the neighbourhood of which the Ark had rested, being equidistant between the Black and Caspian Seas on the north, the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean Sea on the south, being also the region in which all the great rivers of Western Asia, the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Araxes, and the Halys take their rise, formed a natural and convenient centre whence the descendants of Noah might overspread the whole earth. But on this migration they did not set out, before an unseemly incident revealed the natural character of his sons, prophetic of their future destinies. Noah began to practise agriculture, and planted a vineyard, and through ignorance, as it has been supposed, of its properties, drank of the wine in excess, and lay exposed in his tent. Ham, his youngest son, mocked him while he lay in this condition, but Shem and Japheth, with more filial feeling, averting their eyes covered their father with a garment. Awaking from his slumbers Noah became conscious of what his youngest son had done, and justly angry at the irreverence he had displayed, brake forth into prophetic utterances of blessing and cursing, foreshadowing the diverse destinies of the descendants of his family. Upon Canaan, the fourth son of Ham, and probably a partakerin his father’s transgression, he pronounced the doom of perpetual servitude to his brethren[10]. Shem he declared to be the chosen one of Jehovah, from whom the promised Salvation should proceed, while Japheth, multiplied and enlarged should dwell in his tents[11], and be received as a partaker in his spiritual privileges.

With their future destinies thus foretold, the sons of Noah went forth, and took up their abode for some time on the rich alluvial plain of Shinar between the Tigris and Euphrates. Here their descendants began to form a great fraternal community, which it was the more easy to do, seeing that they all proceeded from the same parental home, and had all one language. But here, in defiance of the Divine command, which bade them disperse themselves abroad and replenish the whole earth, they resolved to make a City and a huge Tower whose top might reach unto heaven, to serve as a central point of union, and a great World-Metropolis. But their design was counteracted. The Almighty interposed, and by confounding their language, so that they could not understand one another’s speech, rent the closest bond of human society. Unable to continue the erection of their City and Tower, which was henceforthcalled Babel or Confusion, they were scattered abroad over the face of the earth, and thus constrained to fulfil the eternal designs of Him, who has determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of the habitations of the sons of men (Acts xvii. 26)[12].

Before, however, it leaves them to pursue their own ways, the Sacred Narrative presents to us a Genealogical Table, in which the names of the several nations descended from Noah, and their geographical distribution, have been preserved. With this Table antiquity has handed down nothing that can be compared for accuracy or comprehensiveness. “It exposes the fallacies of the mythical genealogies of pagans, contradicts their fables respecting gods, heroes, and periods of millions of years, and also affords a firm foundation for investigations concerning the origin and the traditions of nations.” From this Table, then, it appears that

(i) The descendants of Japheth (enlargement) after leaving the original cradle of the human race, occupied chiefly the isles of the Gentiles, or the coast-lands of the Mediterranean Sea in Asia Minor and Europe, and thence spread chiefly in a northerly direction over the entire European Continent, and a great portion of Asia. Thus Gomer was the ancestor of the Cymmerians or Cimbri, Magog of the Scythians, Madai of the Medes, Javan of the Ionians and Greek race, Tubal and Mesech of the Tibareni and Moschi, two Colchian tribes, and Tiras of the Thracians.

(ii) The descendants of Ham (“heat”) proceeded in a southerly direction, and occupied the whole of Africa, and the Southern peninsulas of Asia, India, and Arabia. Of his four sons Cush extended his settlements fromBabylonia to Ethiopia, Mizraim colonized Egypt, Phut Libya, and Canaan the land called by his name.

(iii) The descendants of Shem established themselves in Central Asia, and thence extended in an easterly and westerly direction, Aram colonising the country afterwards known as Syria, Lud Lydia, Arphaxad Chaldæa, Asshur part of Assyria, Elam Persia, Joktan a portion of the Arabian peninsula (Gen. x. 1–26).

Thus He, who hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth (Acts xvii. 26), directed the repeopling of the world by the descendants of Noah. Like prodigal sons they were to go into far countries, and learn by bitter experience that neither human strength nor human wisdom can work out the righteousness of God, or win back for man his lost inheritance. But the preservation of their names in this Table of Nations is a proof that no one of them was forgotten by a God of Love; that though they might forget Him He yet guided their destinies, and overruled their counsels only to the accomplishment of His gracious purposes of Redemption. The Day of Pentecost in the New Testament corresponds to the Confusion of Tongues in the Old. Then, not till then, did men hear, each in their tongue wherein they were born, the Glad Tidings of One, very God and very Man, in whom there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither bond nor free, neither male nor female (Gal. iii. 28).

THE DISPERSION OF NOAH’S DESCENDANTS

CHAPTER V.
RISE OF IDOLATRY—THE PATRIARCH JOB.
Gen. x. 6–12. Job.

SACRED History does not record many facts connected with the immediate descendants of Noah. The scene of the Confusion of Tongues continued to attract around it a large number of the early inhabitants of the world, and here was established one of the earliest of the great empires of the earth by Nimrod, a son of Cush, and grandson of Ham. Of great powers and gigantic stature, he first obtained wide-spread renown by his exploits as a mighty hunter, and the services he rendered the surrounding populations by ridding them of the terror of noxious and terrible animals. In process of time, however, he combined with his exploits as a hunter the conquest of men, and founded a great empire on the plains of Shinar, the chief towns of which were Babel, Erech (Edessa), Accad (Nisibis), and Calneh (Ctesiphon). Thence (for such seems to be the meaning of Gen. x. 11) he extended his dominions along the course of the Tigris into Assyria, amongst the descendants of Shem, where he founded a second group of cities, Nineveh, Rehoboth, Calah, and Resen. At a period when men’s lives were prolonged so far beyond the period now allotted them, it is probable that this great conqueror may have carried on his successful invasions for nearly 200 years, and after death was worshipped under the title of Belus, or Bel, the Lord. Certainly the vast ruins that overspread the site of the ancient Babylonian empire seem to tell of the days when there were great heroes in the earth; and to Nimrod the modern Arabs ascribe all the great works of ancient times, the Birs-Nimrûd, near Babylon, Tel Nimrûd,near Baghdad, and the Mount of Nimrûd, near Mosul[13].

Whether the practice of idolatrous worship was introduced, as some have supposed, by this great hero of the ancient world, or not, certain it is that mankind became more and more addicted to idolatry. Though the knowledge of the one true God, and the promise of salvation, had been handed down by tradition, and though His invisible attributes, even His eternal power and Godhead, were clearly to be discerned in the works of creation (Rom. i. 19, 20), yet mankind glorified Him not as God, neither were they thankful. They began to worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator. The sun, moon, and stars, the principle of fire, even the inferior animals and departed heroes, came to be regarded with veneration, and usurped the worship due only to the Supreme. With idolatry came its usual consequences, a deep moral degeneracy, cruelty, tyranny, and licentiousness.

One of the earliest allusions to the worship of the heavenly bodies occurs in the Book of Job (xxxi. 26–28). The age and writer of this book are alike unknown; by some it is ascribed to Job himself, by others to Moses, by others to some writer who lived at a still later period. As, however, the scenes therein described had with great probability been referred to a period very little removed from that at which we have now arrived, it may be well to speak of them here. Job was an eminent Eastern chief, dwelling in very early times in the land of Uz (Job i. 1), probably Arabia Deserta, or, as some suppose, Mesopotamia. Greatest among “the sons of the East,” endowed with all the riches of his age, he ruled piously and wisely over a happy and numerous household, having seven sons and three daughters. Toconsiderable mental attainments he added a moral uprightness, which preserved him blameless in all the relations of life, and was declared by the Lord Himself to be without his like in all the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feared God, and eschewed evil (Job i. 8). With large and liberal hand he distributed to the necessities of the poor, so that whenever the ear heard him then it blessed him, when the eye saw him it gave witness to him; the blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon him, and he caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. But in the midst of this almost perfect temporal happiness he was suddenly overwhelmed with the heaviest misfortunes that can befall the sons of men. He who slandered God to Eve slandered Job before God, and affirmed that he did not fear Him for naught; that if he were stripped of all his possessions he would be as other men, and curse the Lord to His face (i. 11). To put, therefore, the patriarch’s faith to the most certain test, the Accuser of mankind received mysterious permission to cast him down, and try him with the most grievous afflictions. Blow after blow descended upon him. From being the lord of a numerous and attached household he suddenly became childless, for the storm of the desert swept over the house where his sons and daughters were assembled, and crushed them all beneath its ruins. From being the richest of the sons of the East he suddenly became a beggar, for the thunderbolt, “the fire of God,” fell and struck down all his sheep, as they were grazing quietly with their shepherds, while his camels were carried off by a band of Chaldean robbers, and his oxen and asses by a horde of Sabeans. And not only did he become a childless, beggared, ruined man, but upon his own body the black leprosy of the East set its awful mark, making him an object hateful and loathsome to look upon. Smitten with sores from the sole of his foot even untohis crown, he sat apart, forsaken by his friends and even by his wife. But amidst these awful trials his faith was not prostrated. When the terrible tidings reached him of the fate of his household he said, in words of sublime resignation, The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, and blessed be the name of the Lord; when his wife, utterly unable to bear up, bade him curse his Maker and die, he replied, What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? (Job i. 21, ii. 10).

Before long the news of his terrible affliction was noised abroad, and three of his old friends, Eliphaz from Teman, Bildad from Shuah, and Zophar of Naamath, came to mourn with him and to comfort him. In their presence Job at length brake forth into desperate words, and cursed the day of his birth (Job iii. 1). The storm of his soul was not calmed by the sympathy of his friends. Instead of pouring in the oil of comfort, they only heightened his griefs by ascribing his calamities to some great sin, some secret guilt, if not committed by himself at least by his children, for which he was now punished. A distinct question was thus propounded, Is great suffering a proof of great guilt? Job’s friends affirmed it was, and exhorted him to repent and confess. Job denied, and at great length laboured to refute this (Job iv. 5–xxxii). At the close of their dialogue, Elihu, another and younger friend of the patriarch, intervened, to moderate between the disputants. Unable to solve the problem of Job’s calamities, he declared that afflictions, even when not the direct consequences of sin, were intended for good, and he reproved his friend for justifying himself rather than the Almighty, and speaking unadvisedly of His works (Job xxxii–xxxvii). At length the Lord Himself condescended to interpose in the controversy. From the midst of a whirlwind, in words of incomparable grandeur and sublimity, he silenced themurmurs of his servant, bidding him reflect on the glory of creation, and learn from the marvels of the animal kingdom the stupendous power and wisdom of Him with whom it is useless for a created being to contend (Job xxxviii–xli). Thereupon, in deep contrition, Job acknowledged his error and supplicated the Divine pardon for the bitterness and arrogance of his complaints. This penitent acknowledgment was accepted, and Job’s three friends were severely reproved for their uncharitable surmises respecting the origin of his misfortunes. On the intercession, however, of the patriarch they were pardoned; and He who had suffered him to be thus sorely tried, when his trials had served the purpose for which they had been sent, once more showered down upon him the riches of His goodness, restoring him to still greater prosperity than he had even enjoyed before, and made him the father of seven sons and three daughters[14], celebrated for their beauty above all the maidens of the East. Job survived his altered fortunes upwards of 140 years, and then, having seen his children to the fourth generation, died in a good old age, an instructive example of integrity (Ezek. xiv. 14, 20), and of patience under the most trying calamities (Jas. v. 11).

BOOK II.
THE PATRIARCHAL AGE.

CHAPTER I.
THE CALL OF ABRAHAM.
Gen. xi. B.C. 1921.

THERE will always, perhaps, be a doubt as to the exact period after the Flood when Job lived, but there can be no doubt that neither his constancy nor his faithfulness to the one true God, were the characteristics of the age succeeding the Flood. Within ten generations after that event mankind had again become forgetful of their Maker, and corrupted their way, threatening a fresh outbreak of violence and irreligion. Now, however, it was not the purpose of the Almighty to visit the earth with any universal judgment. In the counsels of Redemption it was His will to select a man, and through him, a nation, to be His witness upon earth, to withdraw this nation from contact with the surrounding world, to place it under a special and peculiar constitution, to entrust to it the guardianship of ancient truths and of future hopes, and out of it to bring, in the fulness of time (Gal. iv. 4), the promised Saviour of the human race.

At this point, then, Sacred History becomes more full, and its stream hitherto slender widens into a broad river. Mighty empires and great nations seemfor a while to be forgotten, but only because we are now to be more especially concerned with the history of that particular nation, in and through which all nations of the earth were to be blessed (Gen. xii. 3).

The man selected by the Almighty to be the ancestor of a people destined to exert so momentous an influence on the salvation of the world was Abraham, or, as he was first called, Abram, the son of Terah, who lived in the eighth generation from Shem, in Ur of the Chaldees. Besides Abram, Terah had two other sons, Nahor and Haran, but Abram, though mentioned first, was in all probability the youngest of the three. From Ur, which may perhaps be identified with the modern Orfah[15], in upper Mesopotamia, where his family had become tainted with the generally prevailing idolatry (Josh. xxiv. 2, 14), Terah removed, and travelling in a southerly direction arrived at Haran or Charran[16], where he stayed. In this journey he was accompanied by his son Abram, his daughter-in-law Sarai, and his grandson Lot, and seems to have intended to go into the land of Canaan (Gen. xi. 31), but this was prevented by his death at Haran, when he had reached the age of 205. After this event, a still more distinct intimation of theDivine Will was made to his son Abram, bidding him leave his country, his kindred, and his father’s house, and go to a land which God would shew him. There, said the Almighty, I will make of thee a great nation, and make thy name great, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Severe as were the hardships which this call involved, painful as it must have been to flesh and blood to sever the ties which bound him to his family and his people, Abram did not refuse to follow the Hand which promised him guidance, protection, and a mighty future. At the age of 75, with his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all that he possessed, he left Haran, crossed the Euphrates, and commenced his journey southward and westward towards the Land of Promise (Acts vii. 4, 5).

This country, the future home of the great nation destined to spring from his loins, was in many respects eminently adapted for its special mission in the history of the World. In extent, indeed, it was but a narrow strip of country, but a little larger than the six northern counties of England, being nearly 180 miles in length[17], and 75 miles in breadth, and having an area of about 13,600 English square miles. Bounded on the west by the Mediterranean Sea, on the north by the mountains of Lebanon, on the east by the Syrian desert, on the south by the wilderness of Arabia, it was situated at the meeting-point of the two continents of Asia and Africa, “on the very outpost, on the extremestwestern edge of the East.” It was a secluded land. A wilderness encompassed it on the east and south, mountains shut it in on the north, and the “Great Sea” which washed its western shore was the terror rather than the thoroughfare of ancient nations. “Unlike the coast of Europe, and especially of Greece, it had no indentations, no winding creeks, no deep havens[18],” but one small port—that of Joppa—with which to tempt the mariner from the west. But while thus eminently adapted to be the “silent and retired nursery of the Kingdom of God[19],” it was in the very centre of the activity of the ancient world, in the midst of the nations, and the countries that were round about it (Ezek. v. 5). On the South was the great empire of Egypt, on the North-east the rising kingdom of Assyria. Neither of these great nations could communicate with the other without passing through Palestine, and so learning something of its peculiar institutions and religion; and when the fulness of time was come no country was better suited, from its position at the extremest verge of the Eastern World, to be the starting-point whence the glad tidings of Redemption might be proclaimed to all nations[20]. Moreover, narrow as were its limits, and secluded aswas its position, it yet presented a greater variety of surface, scenery and temperature than is to be found in any other part of the world, and needed not to depend on other countries for anything that either the luxuries or actual wants of its inhabitants required. Four broadly marked longitudinal regions divided its surface. (i) First, there was the low plain of the western sea-coast, broad towards the south, and gradually narrowing towards the north, famous for the Shephelah (the low country) with its waving corn-fields, and the vale of Sharon (level country), the garden of Palestine. From this was an ascent to (ii) a strip of table-land, every part of which was more or less undulating, but increasing in elevation from north to south[21], and broken only by the plain of Jezreel or Esdraelon. To this succeeded a rapid descent into (iii) a deep fissure or valley, through which the Jordan (the descender), the only river of importance in the country, rushes from its source at the base of Hermon into the Dead Sea, the surface of which is no less than 1316 feet below that of the Mediterranean[22]. Hence was a second ascent to (iv) a strip of table-land on the east similar to that on the west, and seeming with its range of purple-tinted mountains to overhang Jerusalem itself. Crowned by the forests andupland pastures of Gilead and Bashan, this eastern table-land gradually melted into the desert which rolled between it and the valley of Mesopotamia. Thus within a very small space were crowded the most diverse features of natural scenery, and the most varied products. It was a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills, a land flowing with milk and honey (Deut. viii. 7–9; xi. 10–12). The low plains yielded luxuriant crops of wheat and barley, of rye and maize; on the table-lands with their equable and moderate climate grew the vine, the olive, the fig, the almond, the pomegranate; in the tropical neighbourhood of Jericho flourished the palm-tree and the balsam; while the noble cedar waved on the mountains of Lebanon.

Such was the Land, secluded and yet central, narrow and yet wonderfully diversified alike in its natural features and its products, whither the Almighty now bade Abram direct his steps. Striking across the great Syrian desert, the patriarch kept on his southward course, and having crossed the Jordan, passed through the land, till he came to Shechem[23], situated between the mountains Ebal and Gerizim. This spot, destined afterwards to be so celebrated, was then only marked by the majestic oak of Moreh, probably a Canaanitish chief, but its many fountains, rills, and water-courses[24] made it then, as it ever has been since, a natural pasture-ground for flocks and herds; and here Abram halted, and learnt that he had reached the goal of his long journey. This land, said God, I will give unto thy seed; and at Shechem the patriarch built his first altar to the Lord in the “Land of Promise[25]” (Gen. xii. 6, 7).

Thence he afterwards removed southward a distance of about twenty miles, to the strong mountain country east of Bethel, or as it was then called Luz; one of the finest tracts of the land for pasturage, and here he erected his second altar unto the Lord. During his sojourn in this neighbourhood he learnt that, though the heir of mighty promises, he was not to be exempt from his share of trials and disappointments. The first that befell him was a grievous famine, caused probably by a failure of the usual rains; in consequence ofwhich, finding himself unable to support his numerous dependents, he resolved, though without direct Divine suggestion, to go down into Egypt, then, as always, the fertile granary of the neighbouring nations. As he drew near the land of the mighty Pharaohs, he reflected that the beauty of his wife might expose her to danger from the sensual, voluptuous Egyptians, and under the influence of these apprehensions persuaded her to stoop to an unworthy equivocation, and give herself out as his sister. What he anticipated came to pass. The princes of Egypt beheld the woman that she was fair, and recommended her to their monarch, by whom she was taken into his palace, while numerous presents of cattle and sheep were sent to her supposed brother. But the monarch found that the coming of the stranger into his palace involved him in serious troubles, the Lord plagued Pharaoh with great plagues, till, having ascertained the true relation between her and Abram, he sent her back to her husband, with a strong rebuke to the latter for the deception he had practised.

How long after this Abram stayed in Egypt we are not told. But at length his wealth in cattle, and gold and silver, having materially increased, he quitted the country, and once more took up his abode on his former camping-ground between Bethel and Ai. Hitherto his nephew Lot had accompanied him in all his wanderings, but now the increasing numbers of their flocks and herds generated a quarrel between their respective herdsmen, and it was plainly necessary that they should separate. With characteristic generosity Abram bade his nephew take the first choice, and select for himself, whether on the left hand or the right, a place for his new abode. From the high mountain-range[26] to the east of Bethel, where they were then encamped, Lot lifted up his eyes and looked down upon the wide and well-watered plainsouth of the Jordan, then a very garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt (Gen. xiii. 10) they had so lately left. As yet no terrible convulsion had effaced the site of Sodom and Gomorrah and the other cities of the plain. Fair and fertile the coveted possession stretched onwards unto Zoar, and in spite of the notorious wickedness of the inhabitants Lot chose it for his abode, and the two separated themselves the one from the other. Though Abram was thus left to wait alone for the fulfilment of the Promise, he was not forgotten by the God in whom he trusted. A more full and more definite promise was now vouchsafed to him. Lift up thine eyes, said the Almighty, and look from place to place where thou art, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward; all the land which thou seest to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever; and I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered (Gen. xiii. 14–17).

Thus encouraged, the Friend of God (Jas. ii. 23) removed his tent, and travelling southward took up his abode under the spreading terebinth[27] of Mamre, an Amorite prince (Gen. xiv. 13, 24), near Hebron, or as it was then called Kirjath-Arba, the City of Arba the father of Anak and the progenitor of the giant Anakim (Gen. xxiii. 2; xxxv. 27; Josh. xiv. 15). While dwelling peacefully in this neighbourhood, which like all other places he hallowed with an altar to Jehovah, he received one day unexpected tidings of his nephew Lot. The chiefs of the five cities in the tropical valley of the Jordan, Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboim, and Belah, had for twelve years been subject to Chedorlaomer, a powerful king of Elam or Mesopotamia. But they had lately united together to throw off his yoke. Thereupon the King of Elam, aided by three otherconfederate chiefs, proceeded to make war against the southern kings. Sweeping down on a sudden foray, he smote the countries on the eastern uplands of the Jordan and the southern region of Mount Seir. Returning thence he ravaged all the country of the Amalekites, and with his allied chiefs met the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah in pitched battle in the Vale of Siddim, probably at the north-west corner of the Dead Sea. The five southern kings were utterly routed, and with much spoil and many captives the Assyrian invader commenced his return northwards. It was the news of this sudden invasion which now reached the ears of Abram. Without losing a moment he instantly armed his 318 trained servants, and, aided by the confederate chief Mamre and his brothers Eshcol and Aner, arose and pursued the Assyrians by night. The latter had in the meantime reached the neighbourhood of the Sidonian Laish, far up in the northern mountains. Thither, however, Abram pursued them, and falling upon them suddenly, while all unconscious of coming danger, he smote them and chased them to Hobah, on the left of Damascus. Thence, with the recovered captives, amongst whom was Lot, he returned, and at the King’s Dale, not far from Hebron, was met by the King of Sodom, accompanied by a mysterious personage, who now meets us for the first and only time, named Melchisedec, a king of Salem and priest of the Most High God. The sudden appearance of one thus uniting the kingly and priestly functions, of whose origin and family we know nothing, has led to much speculation. Putting aside more improbable conjectures, we may perhaps conclude that he was an eminent Canaanitish prince in the line of Ham, who had maintained the pure worship of the One true God, and who, according to a custom not uncommon in patriarchal times, was at once king and priest[28]. A sufficientproof of his high dignity is afforded by the fact that to him the patriarch Abram reverently gave tithes of all that he had taken in his late successful expedition, and received his solemn blessing (Heb. vii. 2, 6). Before they parted the King of Sodom pressed Abram to take a portion of the spoil as his reward. This, however, the latter with his usual generosity firmly declined; he would take nothing, from a thread even to a shoelatchet (Gen. xiv. 23), save only a portion for his allies, the chiefs Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, and then returned to the shade of the oak or terebinth near Hebron.

CHAPTER II.
LIFE OF ABRAHAM CONTINUED.
Gen. xv.–xxv. B.C. 1913–1822.

WE now enter on another and a different scene in the history of Abram. He had been victorious over the Assyrian kings; he had gotten him honour as the prompt avenger of injustice and oppression before the chiefs of the land in which he was a pilgrim and a sojourner; he had been solemnly blessed by the King of Righteousness; but where was the fulfilment of the promise for which he had so long been waiting? He had no son, no single pledge of the mighty nation destined to spring from his loins. When, therefore, his all-merciful Guide appeared to him again in vision, to assure him of safety and protection, he could not restrain the deep sorrow of his heart, and mournfully complained that in place of a son, one born in his house, probably Eliezer of Damascus, would be his heir. On this occasion theAlmighty not only solemnly assured His desponding servant that a son should be born to him, an earnest of a seed as numerous as the stars of heaven, and that the land on which he walked should undoubtedly be their inheritance, but, as in the case of Noah after the Flood, he vouchsafed to him an outward and visible sign to strengthen and support his faith. He bade the patriarch take a heifer, a ram, and a she-goat, each three years old, together with a turtle-dove and a young pigeon, and after dividing them all, except the birds, to lay them piece by piece over against the other. Familiar, doubtless, with this ancient method of ratifying a covenant, Abram did as the Lord had told him, slew the victims, and laid the divided portions in order. Then from morning until evening he watched them, and from time to time drove away the birds of prey which hovered over them. At length the sun went down, and a deep sleep fell upon him, and a horror of great darkness gathered around him. Amidst the deepening gloom there appeared to him a Smoking Furnace and a Burning Lamp passing along the space between the divided victims. Presently a Voice came to him telling him that his seed should be a stranger in a land that was not theirs, that there they should suffer affliction 400 years; that afterwards, in the fourth generation, when the cup of the Amorites was full, they should come out with great substance, return to the spot where the patriarch now was, and enter on their promised inheritance. Thus, amidst mingled light and gloom, the ancestor of the elect nation was warned of the chequered fortunes which awaited his progeny, while at the same time he was assured of the ultimate fulfilment of the Promise, and the actual boundaries of the lands of his inheritance were marked out from the river of Egypt to the distant Euphrates; and in this confidence Abram was content to possess his soul in patience (Lk. xxi. 19).

As yet, it will be observed, it had not been expressly said that his wife Sarai was the destined mother of the long-promised son. As the prospect, therefore, of her contributing to the fulfilment of the Promise became more and more remote, she seems to have concluded that this honour was not reserved for her, and accordingly persuaded her husband to take her handmaid, Hagar, an Egyptian, as a secondary wife, that by her he might obtain what was denied herself. Abram complied with her suggestion, and Hagar conceived; but the consequences did not tend to increase the patriarch’s happiness. In a moment of elation Hagar mocked her mistress, and Sarai dealt hardly with her, till she fled from her into the southern wilderness, on the way that led to her native land. There, as she halted near a fountain of water, an angel of the Lord met her, and bade her return and submit herself to her mistress, assuring her at the same time that she should give birth to a son, whom she was to call Ishmael (whom God hears). Though the son of a bondwoman (Gal. iv. 22, 23), no mean future lay before him; he should become the ancestor of a numerous seed, who, like himself, would be true roving sons of the desert, their hand against every man, and every man’s hand against them. In remembrance of this incident Hagar named the fountain Beer-lahai-roi, (the well of the God that appeareth), and returned to the tents of Sarah, where, in process of time she gave birth to Ishmael, when Abram was 86 years old.

Again thirteen years rolled away, and still the Promise was not fulfilled. But when hope might almost have ceased to hope, God appeared once more to Abram, recapitulated the main outline of the Covenant-Promise, changed his name from Abram (a high father), to Abraham (the father of a multitude), and assured him that at length the long-expected time was well-nigh come. But in prospect of the peculiar blessing about to be bestowedupon him, he himself, and all his seed after him, must carry about with them a perpetual pledge of their covenant relation to Jehovah. The rite of Circumcision must now be adopted by him, and instead of being the badge of any favoured class amongst the nation destined to spring from his loins, was, on pain of excommunication, to be open to the lowliest member of the Hebrew commonwealth, even to the bond-servant and the stranger. At the same time it was intimated to the patriarch that his wife Sarai, whose name also was now changed to Sarah (princess), and no other, was to be the mother of the promised child, that it would be born during the next year, and be called Isaac (Laughter); while Ishmael also, for whom Abraham had prayed, would not be forgotten, but be a partaker in the Divine blessing, and become the father of twelve princes, the ancestors of a great nation. Thereupon Abraham complied with the Divine command, and was circumcised, together with Ishmael, now thirteen years of age, and all the male members of his household.

Shortly after this, as the patriarch sat, in the heat of the day, under the oak of Mamre, he received a visit from three mysterious Strangers, whom he entertained with becoming hospitality. The meal over which he had hastily prepared, one of them inquired for his wife, and formally announced that within the year she would be the mother of a son. His words were overheard by Sarah, and she laughed incredulously at the possibility of such an event, but was thereupon reproved by the Speaker, and assured in a still more confident manner of the fulfilment of His word. Then the Three left the tent and turned their steps eastward towards Sodom. Abraham accompanied them, and on the way one of them, in whom he recognised no other than the Angel of the Covenant, informed him of the real purport of this visit to the cities where his nephew Lot had takenup his abode. The sin of these cities was very great, and their cup was now full; their inhabitants had wearied themselves with wickedness, and their licentiousness and iniquity called to Heaven for a visible revelation of Divine wrath, and judgment was now even at the door. Informed of the impending doom the Friend of God drew near, and with marvellous boldness blended with the deepest humility pleaded with the Almighty for the guilty cities. Peradventure there might be found therein at least fifty, or forty-five, or forty, or thirty, or twenty, or even ten righteous souls, would the Lord of all the earth spare them for ten’s sake? Thereupon he was assured that if only ten righteous souls could be found the cities should be spared. While he was thus pleading with God, the two other angels entered Sodom, and were hospitably entertained by Lot. But their celestial beauty only served to excite the wickedness of the inhabitants, who surrounded Lot’s house, and, in spite of his earnest expostulations, would have offered them personal violence had they not been suddenly stricken with blindness. As the night wore on, his visitors assured Lot of the certain destruction of the city, and warned him to gather together with all speed every member of his family if he would save them from the impending judgment. Lot did as he was advised; but his warning was lost upon his sons-in-law and his daughters-in-law, and he seemed unto them as one that mocked. When the day dawned, the angels broke off any further delay by laying hold on him, and his wife, and his two daughters, and having dragged them forth beyond the city, bade them flee to the neighbouring mountain range if they would not be consumed. But thither Lot was afraid to flee, and in compliance with his urgent entreaty was permitted to betake himself to the town of Bela, or Zoar (Little), on the southern extremity of the Dead Sea. The sun rose as he entered this city of refuge, and then theLord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire out of heaven, and utterly swept away by an awful convulsion every trace of the guilty cities and their inhabitants, the site of which became henceforth a perpetual desolation. Few as were the remnants of this fearful overthrow, yet one of these few failed to reach the little city of refuge. In spite of the Angel’s reiterated warning, Lot’s wife lingered, looked back, and, caught by the advancing sulphurous tide, was smothered as she stood, and became a pillar of salt (Gen. xix. 26; Lk. xvii. 32). As for Lot himself, afraid to dwell even in Zoar, he fled with his two daughters to the eastern mountains, and became the father of two sons, Moab and Ben-Ammi, the ancestors of two powerful nations—the Moabites and Ammonites.

Shortly after this terrible judgment, Abraham left the oak of Mamre, where he had so long encamped, and journeyed in a southerly direction towards Gerar, between Kadesh and Shur, at that time the principal seat of the Philistines, whose chief was known by the hereditary title of Abimelech, or Father-King[29]. Under the same apprehensions which he had felt when drawing nigh to Egypt, Abraham wished that Sarah should pass for his sister, and again exposed her to imminent risk. But, as before, the Lord mercifully intervened, and the Philistine chief restored his wife to the patriarch, together with ample presents (Gen. xx. 14–16). At length the time had come for which Abraham, now upwards of 100 years of age, had so long waited. Either at Gerar or Beersheba, Sarah gave birth to the child of promise, who was duly circumcised on the eighth day, and named Isaac (Laughter) according to the Divine command. At the feast given on the occasion of his weaning, Ishmaelmocked, or in some way insulted the child. This act, observed by Sarah, roused all her animosity, and she demanded the instant dismissal of the boy and his mother. Though sorely against his will, Abraham, advised by God, yielded to his wife, and early on the following morning Hagar and her son were sent away to wander in the wilderness of Beersheba. In a short time the water in her skin-bottle was spent, and the boy tormented with thirst seemed at the point of death. Unable to endure the sight of his sufferings, Hagar laid him under the shade of the desert shrubs, and sat down about a bowshot off. But the boy was not thus to die; God heard his cry, and the angel of the Lord called to Hagar out of heaven, and bade her not despair. At the same time her eyes were opened to discern a well of water, with which she filled her bottle and gave the lad drink. Thus his life was preserved, and he grew and prospered, and dwelt in the wild desert of Paran, near Mount Sinai, and was renowned for his skill in the use of the bow. Marrying an Egyptian he became the father of twelve sons and one daughter (Gen. xxv. 13–15; xxviii. 9; xxxvi. 3), the ancestors of the chief portion of the wild Arab tribes, living by warlike forays and plunder, their hand against every man, and every man’s hand against them.

Meanwhile Abraham was living in peace and security, feared and respected by his Philistine neighbours in the south country, near Beersheba, when a far keener trial befell him than any he had yet experienced. The call from his own country, the famine that drove him into Egypt, the desertion of Lot, the long deferring of the promised seed, the separation from Ishmael, all these had been sore trials to flesh and blood. But now, when the hope of his life seemed at length to have been gained, he was commanded to take his son, his only son Isaac a three days’ journey into the land of Moriah, andoffer him up as a burnt-offering on one of the mountains that should be shown him. Utterly inexplicable as this command must have seemed, and indescribably painful to his feelings, the patriarch’s trust in God did not falter. Assured that He who had called him into being could, if it pleased Him, raise up his son even from the dead (Heb. xi. 19), he rose up early in the morning, clave the wood for the sacrifice, saddled his ass, and with two young men and Isaac commenced his journey. On the third day he lifted up his eyes, and beheld the spot afar off; thereupon leaving the young men behind, he laid the wood upon his son, and with the fire in his hand, and a knife, ascended the mountain to the spot[30] of which God had told him. Marvelling that no victim had been brought, but assured that a lamb would be provided for a burnt-offering, Isaac accompanied his father to the summit, and when the altar had been built and the wood laid thereon, submitted without a murmur to be bound and placed upon it. Another moment and the father’s hand was actually outstretched to slay his son, when a voice from heaven arrested him, and bade him forbear to proceed further, seeing that the end for which this mysterious trial had been sent was now gained, for Abraham had not withheld his only son, but given proof of his willingness to surrender even him to the Divine call. At the same moment the patriarch looked, and beheld behind him a ram caught in a thicket by its horns, which he took and offered as a burnt-offering instead of his son. In memory of this eventful day he named the place Jehovah-Jireh, i.e. Jehovah will see or provide, and again received the assurance of the Divine blessing upon himself and his future descendants,who should be multiplied as the stars of heaven, and as the sand upon the seashore, and become the channel of blessings to all the nations of the earth.

This is the culminating point in Abraham’s life. Implicit trust in the Most High, unfaltering obedience to His will, had never been more signally displayed, and his faith was counted to him for righteousness (Rom. iv. 3, 9). From this time his course was calm and peaceful. Leaving Beersheba he turned northwards, and once more abode under the oak of Mamre. Here he lost the partner of his long and eventful career. At the age of 127 (the only instance in which the age of a woman is recorded in Scripture) Sarah died, and was laid in the cave of the field of Machpelah, a spot now covered by the Mosque of Hebron, which Abraham bought for 400 shekels of silver, for a possession of a burying-place, of Ephron the Hittite. So deep was the respect of the children of Heth for the mighty prince who had so long lived among them, that in spite of the usual Oriental jealousy on this point they would willingly have permitted him to bury his dead in the choicest of their own sepulchres. But this Abraham declined, and the Cave of Machpelah with the surrounding field was made over to him for a possession for ever[31].

Three years afterwards, anxious to prevent an alliance between his son and any of the Canaanitish nations, he sent the eldest servant of his house, probably Eliezer of Damascus, into Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor his brother, to procure from thence a wife for him. His servant faithfully discharged his commission, and thepiety he displayed reflecting the goodness of the patriarch himself was rewarded. At a well outside the city of Haran he met Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel[32] the son of Nahor, going forth with her pitcher on her shoulder to draw water. In answer to his inquiries she told him who she was, and conducted him to the house of her brother Laban. There he recounted all that had befallen his master in the land of his pilgrimage, and made known the purpose of his errand. Rebekah, when asked by her brother and mother, announced her readiness to accompany the servant to the tents of Abraham, and in the course of time became Isaac’s wife (Gen. xxiv.).

Before long Abraham himself also married again, and by Keturah his second wife, became the father of six children, Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah (Gen. xxv. 2), the ancestors of Arabian and Midianitish tribes. Lest they should dispute the inheritance with Isaac, the prudent patriarch, while he yet lived, presented them with gifts, and sent them away into the south-east country (Gen. xxv. 6) where their descendants settled along the borders of the Elanitic Gulf in considerable numbers. And then the Father of the Faithful, the Friend of God, being 175 years old, had reached the term of life allotted to him. In a good old age, and full of years, he was gathered unto his people, and was laid by Isaac and Ishmael also, who had come up from the wild desert of Paran to assist in these last sad offices, by the side of his beloved Sarah, in the cave of Machpelah[33].

CHAPTER III.
THE HISTORY OF ISAAC.
Gen. xxv.–xxvii. B.C. 1822–1760.

FOR nineteen years after their marriage Isaac and Rebekah were childless. But at length, in answer to earnest prayer, Rebekah became the mother of twin sons, Esau (hairy, rough) and Jacob (he that holds by the heel, or supplanter). The bitter enmity afterwards to exist between the brothers was foreshadowed even before their birth, and as they grew the difference in their characters became still more prominent. Esau became a cunning hunter, wild and daring, even as his rough and robust frame betokened, revelling like a true son of the desert in the excitement of the chase. Jacob, on the other hand, was a quiet domestic youth, dwelling in tents, the favourite of his mother, while Esau, by a not uncommon caprice of affection, was the favourite of the gentle retiring Isaac, whose keen relish for savoury food was gratified by his success in the hunting-field (Gen. xxv. 24–28).

It is in connection with his favourite pursuit that Esau first attracts our notice. As the eldest son he had several important privileges. He held superior rank in the family (Gen. xlix. 3), and would succeed to a double portion of his father’s property (Gen. xlviii. 22; Deut. xxi. 17); his also was, in all probability, the priestly office (Num. viii. 17–19), and the Covenant-Blessing (Heb. xii. 16, 17; Gen. xxvii. 28, 29, 36). These were the privileges of his birthright, and by an Oriental patriarch were held as dear as life itself. On one occasion Esau returned faint and weary from the chase, and saw his brother Jacob preparing some dark red pottage oflentiles[34]. Famished and exhausted, he longed for the fragrant mess, and implored his brother to let him have it. Seeing his distress, Jacob determined to avail himself of it for his own ends, and agreed to give his brother the pottage on condition that he sold him his birthright. Unable to control the pangs of hunger, bent on the immediate gratification of his appetite, Esau was willing to barter all his privileges for a single meal. But words were not sufficient for his artful brother. He must have an oath solemnly attesting the exchange. Swear unto me, said he, and Esau swore, and sold his birthright for one morsel of meat (Heb. xii. 16), and ate and drank, and rose up and went his way[35].

At a subsequent period, in consequence of a grievous famine, Isaac left Lahai-roi, and journeyed southward to Gerar, within the fertile coast-line of Philistia. While here he received a warning from the Almighty against going down into Egypt, and was assured of the continuance of the same blessing which his father had enjoyed (Gen. xxvi. 1–5). Thus encouraged he continued to dwell at Gerar, but, like his father, was not always proof against temptations to distrust his Almighty Protector. He persuaded Rebekah to represent herself as his sister, and subjected himself to a cutting rebuke from Abimelech for this unworthy equivocation.At Gerar his wealth increased exceedingly, and he made the first advance beyond the purely pastoral life. He sowed in that land, and reaped within the year an hundred fold (Gen. xxvi. 12). But his wealth and prosperity in time provoked the jealousy of the Philistines, and they stopped up the wells which his father had dug; nor did the patriarch feel himself secure till he had moved still further southward to Beersheba. Here, like Abraham before him, he built an altar unto Jehovah, and called upon His Name, and was rewarded by a second confirmation of the covenant Promise, while his contentions with the Philistines were brought to a close, and a mutual compact ratified between them (Gen. xxvi. 26–31). But his domestic happiness was not equally secured. To the great grief of both his parents, Esau, now 40 years of age, contracted an alliance with Judith the daughter of Beeri, and Bashemath, the daughter of Elon, both of the race of the Hittites, to whom he afterwards added Mahalath, a daughter of Ishmael (Gen. xxvi. 34; xxviii. 9).

Of the greater portion of Isaac’s life at Beersheba the Scripture narrative tells nothing, nor is any incident recorded till we hear that he waxed old and his eyes grew dim so that he could not see. Then reminded of the uncertain tenure of life, he resolved by a solemn act to bestow the patriarchal blessing upon his eldest son. Summoning Esau before him, he bade him go forth to the hunt and bring him venison such as he loved, promising the blessing as his reward. His words did not escape the quick ears of Rebekah. Eager to obtain this important privilege for her favourite Jacob, she bade him, during the absence of his brother, slay two kids, with which she prepared savoury meat such as Isaac loved. Then arraying him in garments belonging to his brother, and placing the skins upon his hands and neck, she directed him to go into the presence of hisfather, and pass himself off as his wild, rough brother Esau. After some hesitation, Jacob fell in with her plan, and in the disguise she had prepared presented himself before his father. But Isaac, though old and dimsighted, was not free from his suspicions. To Jacob’s assurance that he had been to the chase and brought of the prey, he replied by enquiring how he had found it so quickly. Nor did the ready but untruthful answer that the Lord had brought it to him relieve his mind. Come near, said he, that I may feel thee, whether thou be my very son Esau or not. And Jacob went near, and his father felt him. Another question, and another falsehood followed; and at length Jacob was bidden to present the venison that he had taken, and the old man ate and drank, and then bestowed upon him in all its fulness the Covenant Blessing. He prayed that God would give his son of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine; that He would make people to serve him, and nations to bow down to him, so that he might be lord over his brethren, and see his mother’s sons bow down to him, a blessing to all that blessed him, a curse to all that cursed him (Gen. xxvii. 28, 29).

Thus successful in his shameful artifice, Jacob had scarcely gone forth from his father’s presence, when the true Esau returned from the chase. With savoury meat he too presented himself before Isaac, and besought his blessing. The old man trembled very exceedingly when he heard the voice of his eldest son, but told him that he had come too late. His brother, the Supplanter, had been before him, and the irrevocable words had been spoken. With a great and exceeding bitter cry Esau implored his father for one blessing which perchance might be left; and at length Isaac assured him that his dwelling would be of the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above; but he must liveby his sword and serve his brother, till the day when he too should gain the dominion, and should shake his brother’s yoke from off his neck[36] (Gen. xxvii. 39, 40).

Enraged at the deception which had been practised upon him, Esau did not conceal his design of revenging himself by putting Jacob to death, and only deferred it till the days of mourning for his father were ended, whose death he deemed to be near at hand. But his dark threat became known to Rebekah. Anxious to save her favourite son, she persuaded him to undertake a journey to his uncle Laban at Padan-Aram, promising, when a few days were over, and his brother’s wrath was appeased, to send for him again. Without communicating her real motive in urging this journey, she at the same time secured the acquiescence of Isaac, by pretending anxiety that Jacob should marry one of the daughters of Laban, rather than follow his brother’s example, and contract an alliance among the Hittites. Accordingly Isaac sent for his son, and bade him go to Padan-Aram, urging him to take thence a wife from amongst his own kindred, and then consciously and purposely transferred to him and his seed after him the blessing of Abraham (Gen. xxviii. 1–5).

CHAPTER IV.
LIFE OF JACOB.
Gen. xxviii.–xxxv. B.C. 1760–1716.

THUS solemnly assured of the Covenant Blessing, Jacob bade farewell to his mother, whom he was never to see again, and set out a solitary traveller for the Eastern uplands of Aram, where in place of a few days he was destined to spend many weary years, andamidst many trials and vicissitudes to find the same measure that he had measured to his brother measured also to himself. As the sun went down on the first evening of his journey, he reached the site of one of Abraham’s encampments, the stony soil[37] near the Canaanite town of Luz. Taking of the stones that lay around, he put them for his pillow, and lay down to sleep. As he slept, there appeared to him a vision of the night. A ladder seemed to rise up from the bare ground on which he lay, and the top of it reached even unto heaven, and on it he saw angels ascending and descending. Moreover from above there came the Voice of God assuring the wanderer of His protection, renewing to him the promise of Abraham, and encouraging him with the hope of return from exile. Jacob awoke trembling and afraid, Surely, said he, the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not; how dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. Then rising early, he took the stone that had formed his pillow, poured oil upon it, and set it up for a memorial, calling the spot Bethel, the House of God. At the same time he made a solemn vow that, if Jehovah would indeed sustain him in all his ways, and bring him back as He had promised, he would not only dedicate the spot as His House, but would give Him the tenth of all that he possessed (Gen. xxviii. 18–22).

Then he continued his journey, and striking in a north-easterly direction, at length reached a well in Padan-Aram, round which were gathered three flocks with shepherds from Haran. As he was conversing with them, Rachel, the daughter of his uncle Laban,approached, and with true courtesy Jacob went near, rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flocks. He then kissed the maiden, and told her he was Rebekah’s son, whereupon she ran and told her father, who welcomed Jacob to the tents of Haran. After a stay of one month, Laban proposed that the wanderer should serve him as a shepherd, to which Jacob assented, and promised to serve him seven years on condition of receiving the hand of Rachel. The seven years passed away, and he who had supplanted his brother twice, now learnt what it was to be supplanted himself. On the evening of his marriage Laban substituted her sister Leah in place of Rachel; nor was the deceit discovered till the following morning, when, in answer to Jacob’s reproaches, he informed him that it was not customary to give the younger before the elder daughter, and that if he would have Rachel he must serve seven more years for her. To these hard conditions Jacob assented, and in the course of time became the father of a numerous family, eleven sons and one daughter. Of these, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and a daughter Dinah, were born to Leah; Dan and Naphtali to Bilhah Rachel’s maid, whom the latter, finding she had no children, gave to Jacob as a secondary wife; Gad and Asher to Zilpah, Leah’s maid; and Joseph to Rachel.

Shortly after the birth of this last son, Jacob having completed his time of service, proposed to Laban that he should return into his own country. But the latter, who had found by experience that his son-in-law had brought a blessing to his house, prevailed upon him to continue in his service, on condition of receiving a certain portion of the flocks as his hire. Six years longer, therefore, Jacob staid with his father-in-law, and prospered, and became himself the owner of numerous herds. But on Laban’s side the covenant was notstrictly kept. Again and again he changed the wages of his faithful servant, till at length finding any longer stay rendered impossible by the envy and jealousy of his father-in-law and his sons, and encouraged by the Word of Jehovah, Jacob determined to set out for his native land. Accordingly, availing himself of Laban’s absence at a sheep-shearing, he gathered together all his goods, and with his wives and family crossed the river, the great river Euphrates (Gen. xxxi. 21), and set his face towards the uplands of Gilead, on the east of Jordan. Three days after his departure, news of his flight reached the ears of Laban, who forthwith pursued after him a seven days’ journey, and overtook him as he was encamped in the range of Gilead. Warned by God in a dream against using any violence towards his son-in-law, Laban contented himself with reproaching him for his secret flight, hypocritically complaining that he had not given him time to send him away with due formality, and accusing him of stealing his household gods, the teraphim or images, which Rachel had taken and concealed in the camel’s furniture. After some altercation it was resolved to come to terms. Stones were gathered together, and set up as a Pillar of Witness, in token of their agreement that neither party to injure the other would cross over what was henceforth to be the boundary between their respective territories; after which Laban returned to his home in the distant East (Gen. xxxi. 43–55).

Thus relieved from pressing danger, Jacob continued his journey westward. The twenty years of exile was over, and he was bound for his native land. As if to welcome him thither, and to remind him of the fulfilment of God’s Promise, the angels, whom he had seen twenty years before in vision at Bethel, now met him in two hosts, to commemorate which event he named the spot Mahanaim (two hosts). He was now on thebrink of the river which divided him from his father’s home, and the remembrance of his brother Esau and the uncertainty of the reception he might meet with from him caused the deepest anxiety. Sending messengers into the land of Seir, he informed his lord Esau of his return from the land of exile, and of the success that had attended him. The messengers went, and returned with the alarming intelligence that Esau was coming to meet him with four hundred men. Jacob’s distress was extreme, and he poured forth his whole soul in fervent prayer to God for protection. Then selecting a valuable present from his flocks and herds, he sent them to meet and propitiate his approaching brother, and at midnight dispatched his wives and sons, and all that he had, across the ford Jabbok, but staid himself behind to renew his earnest supplications for the Divine protection. Through the night, even to the breaking of the day, there wrestled with him One (Hos. xii. 3, 4), whom he knew not, and whose Name he could not prevail upon Him to reveal, but who left upon him a palpable mark of their mysterious conflict, for He touched the hollow of his thigh so that it was out of joint. But in memory of this same crisis in his life another sign was given him. His name was changed. No more was he to be called Jacob, the Supplanter. During the long years of his weary exile old things had passed away, and all things were becoming new. Henceforth he was to be known as Israel, the Prince of God, for as a Prince had he power with God and with man, and had prevailed (Gen. xxxii. 28). The site of this memorable conflict Jacob named Peniel (the face of God). When the day broke he looked up, and saw Esau approaching with his retinue. Thereupon in long procession he went forth to meet him; first advanced the handmaids Bilhah and Zilpah with their children, then followed Leah and her children, last of all Rachel and Joseph. Jacob himself led the way,bowing to the ground seven times until he came near to his brother, who ran to meet him, and fell upon his neck and kissed him. The reconciliation was complete. After mutual converse, Esau agreed to leave to Jacob the land of his inheritance, and retired himself to the rugged mountains of Seir[38], whence he and his descendants expelled the aboriginal tribes, and dwelt in their stead in the land henceforth known as Edom or Idumæa, a race of hunters living by the sword.

Meanwhile Jacob continued his journey towards the valley of the Jordan, and for a while settled at Succoth, where he puts up booths (Succoth) for his cattle, as well as a house for himself. Thence he moved westwards, and crossing the Jordan, advanced into the very heart of Palestine, and pitched his tent before the city of Shechem. Of Hamor its chief he subsequently bought a portion of the rich plain, east of the city, and here he settled down, and, like Abraham before him, erected an altar to Jehovah. During his stay at this place, which appears to have been somewhat protracted, an unfortunate occurrence caused him for a time the greatest anxiety, and eventually drove him from the neighbourhood. One day, on the occasion, it is not improbable, of some local festival, Dinah the daughter of Leah, at this time from thirteen to fifteen years of age, went out to see the daughters of the land, and was dishonoured by Shechem, the Hivite chieftain, in whose territory the patriarch had settled. His father Hamor thereuponproposed that his son should pay a certain sum, by way of reparation, to her father and mother for the injury he had done to the maiden and marry her, and that this should be followed by a general intermarriage between the two peoples. To this proposition the brothers of Dinah assented, but demanded, as the single condition of the treaty, that the people of Shechem should consent to be circumcised. These terms were unwittingly accepted by the Shechemites, and three days afterwards, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s own brothers, at the head of their households, attacked the city, slew the chiefs and all the males in the place, spoiled it of every article of value it contained, and took captive even the women and little children. This bloody and treacherous act excited Jacob’s deepest indignation, and shortly afterwards, fearful lest the neighbouring tribes should gather together and slay him and all his house, in accordance with a Divine warning, he determined to repair to Bethel and dwell there and perform the vow, which till now he seems almost to have forgotten. The journey partook somewhat of a religious pilgrimage, and was preceded by a general purification on the part of the patriarch’s followers, and a collection of the teraphim or strange gods, which had been brought from Mesopotamia, and were now hidden under an oak at Shechem. Arrived once more at the scene of his wondrous Vision, Jacob erected an altar, which he called El-Bethel, and here he was again visited by the Almighty, who renewed to him his name of Israel, and assured him of his share in the blessings of the Covenant (Gen. xxxv. 9–15). During his stay at Bethel his intimacy with his father Isaac, who was still alive, appears to have been renewed; for we are told that Deborah Rebekah’s nurse died, and was buried under an oak, henceforth known as Allon-Bachuth, the Oak of Tears. But his departure from the same place a day’s journey southwardswas saddened by a grievous trial. As he drew near to Ephrath, the Canaanitish name of Bethlehem, Rachel his favourite wife died in giving birth to a son, whom she called Ben-oni, the son of sorrow, but whom his father named Benjamin, the son of my right hand. Over her grave the sorrowing husband erected a pillar, and moving southward pitched his tent beside Edar, or the watch-tower of the flocks, and subsequently beneath the oak of Mamre before Hebron, where Isaac died, in the 180th year of his age, and was committed to the tomb by Jacob and Esau (Gen. xxxvi. 27–29).

CHAPTER V.
HISTORY OF JOSEPH.
Gen. xxxvii.–xlii. B.C. 1727–1707.

IT was while he was sojourning in the neighbourhood of Hebron, where, like his father, he united agricultural with pastoral occupations (Gen. xxxvii. 7) that the saddest trial of his life befell Jacob. Of all his sons none was dearer to him than Joseph, the child of his beloved Rachel. In token of his affection he bestowed upon him a coat of many colours, probably a tunic furnished with sleeves and reaching down to the ankles, worn by youths of the richer class[39]. By some this is supposed to indicate his intention of transferring to him, as being the eldest son of the favourite Rachel, the right of primogeniture. Whether this was so or not, it roused much jealousy and ill-feeling amongst Joseph’s brothers, already incensed by the circumstance of his bearing to his father, when seventeen years of age, an evil report of the sons of Zilpah and Bilhah,with whom he kept the flocks. Another incident fanned the flame of ill-feeling. Joseph unwittingly told his brethren of two dreams he had dreamt, in one of which he had seemed to see them binding sheaves in the field, and lo! his sheaf rose and stood upright, while their sheaves stood round about and made obeisance to his sheaf; in the other he beheld the sun, moon, and the eleven stars making obeisance to him. Even Jacob rebuked his favourite son for his seeming self-exaltation, though he observed the saying (Gen. xxxvii. 11).

After a time an opportunity was presented to the brothers of taking a cruel revenge. Though Jacob was settled in the vale of Hebron, a portion of his numerous flocks and herds were kept by his sons on the rich pasture-grounds near Shechem. Thither on one occasion Jacob sent his favourite son to see how his brethren fared, and bring him word again. Joseph set out, and being directed by a man whom he met, to Dothan[40], or “the Two Wells,” a place about twelve miles north of Shechem, famous for its pasturage, he went thither in quest of them. From the rising ground, where they were keeping their flocks, the brothers descried the Dreamer approaching, and straightway resolved to slay him and cast him into a pit, and then report to his father that he had been devoured by wild beasts. From actually putting him to death they were, however, dissuaded by Reuben, and contented themselves with stripping him of his coat of many colours, and casting him into an empty cistern, intending probably to let him die by hunger. But when they had done this, and had sat down to eat, a company of Ishmaelite or Midianitemerchants (for the two names are used interchangeably) approached, mounted on camels, and bearing spicery and balm, going down the high road[41] which passed near from Gilead to Egypt. Thereupon Judah proposed that they should sell him to these traders, and he was taken up from the pit, and sold to the Ishmaelites, who paid for him twenty pieces of silver, the usual price of a male slave from five to twenty years of age. Reuben was not present when the cruel bargain was struck, and was greatly distressed when, on his return, he found that his brother was gone. But the others killed a kid, dipped Joseph’s coat of many colours in its blood, and brought it to Jacob, with the hypocritical enquiry whether it was his son’s coat or no, and informing him that they had found it thus smeared with blood. Even Reuben did not reveal the true state of the case, and Jacob, supposing that his favourite son had been slain by wild beasts, put sackcloth upon his loins, and refusing every proffered consolation, mourned for him many days (Gen. xxxvii. 29–35).

Meanwhile the Midianitish caravan kept on its southward course, and eventually reaching Egypt, sold Joseph to Potiphar[42], an officer of Pharaoh, and Captain of the Executioners (Gen. xxxviii. 36 margin). In his house, Joseph though a foreigner and a slave, gradually wonthe confidence of his master, who appears to have been a wealthy man, and possessed of property in the field as well as in the house, so that before long, in the capacity of overseer, he was entrusted with the entire possessions of the Egyptian, and the Divine blessing rested upon his house for Joseph’s sake.

But this period of happiness and prosperity was destined to come to an abrupt termination. With the profligacy for which the Egyptian women were notorious, the wife of Potiphar on one occasion tempted Joseph to commit adultery with her, and when he resisted all her seductions, charged him to her husband with the very crime she had ineffectually tempted him to commit. Thereupon Potiphar, fully believing her story, without bringing his faithful steward before any public tribunal, cast him into the prison in his own house. But amidst this grievous trial Joseph was not forsaken. The Lord was with him, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison, who, convinced of his fidelity and uprightness, entrusted him with the care of all the prisoners there confined. Amongst these there soon appeared the Chief of Pharaoh’s Cupbearers, and the Chief of his Bakers, two high officers of the Egyptian court, on whom Joseph was specially directed to wait. During their imprisonment each of them dreamt a dream. The Chief of the Cupbearers dreamt that a vine was before him, on which were three branches; that it was as though it budded, and its blossoms shot forth, and its clusters brought forth ripe grapes, that of these he took and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup which was in his hand, and gave it to that monarch. The Chief of the Bakers dreamt that he had three white baskets on his head, the uppermost full of all manner of bakemeats for Pharaoh, which the birds ate out of the baskets on his head. Convinced that these dreams portended events of great importancein their lives, and unable to interpret them, these high officers were filled with sadness. But Joseph, being informed of the cause, by virtue of his prophetic gifts interpreted the dreams, and announced to the Chief of the Butlers that within three days, on the anniversary of Pharaoh’s birthday, he should be restored to his office, while, within the same period, his fellow-prisoner would be hanged upon a tree, where the birds would eat his flesh from off him. As he had predicted, so it came to pass. Within the specified period, the one of these grandees was executed, and the other restored to his former high position. But though the Hebrew Captive had told the Chief of the Butlers his own sad story, in the hour of prosperity the restored grandee forgat his benefactor, and his touching request that he would intercede with Pharaoh on his behalf (Gen. xl. 12–23).

Two more years, therefore, of tedious imprisonment passed over Joseph’s head, when one night Pharaoh himself was troubled with two mysterious dreams. In the first he seemed to stand by the banks of the Nile, and behold out of it there came seven well-favoured kine and fatfleshed, and fed in the marsh grass that lined the banks. And behold after them there came up seven poor, ill-favoured, leanfleshed kine, and they ate up the seven well-favoured and fat kine, and when they had done so, it could not be known that they had eaten them, for they were still as ill-favoured as at the beginning. In his second dream, the monarch beheld seven ears of corn growing upon one stalk, full, fat, and good, and after them seven thin ears and blasted with the east wind, which devoured the seven full and fat ears. Troubled with these visions of the night he awoke, and sent for all the magicians of Egypt and all the wise men thereof, and told them his dream, but they were unable to give him any interpretation. In this difficulty the Chief of the Butlers bethought him of his youthful benefactor in the prison, and told Pharaoh what had befallen him there, and how a young man, a Hebrew, servant to the Captain of the Executioners, had interpreted his dream. Upon this the monarch sent for Joseph, who was brought into the royal presence, and having been told the nature of the dreams, informed Pharaoh that they were sent by the great God to forewarn him of what He was about to do. The seven good kine and the seven good ears denoted seven years of plenty; the seven thin ill-favoured kine and the seven empty ears of corn denoted seven years of very grievous famine, about to befall the entire land of Egypt. The doubling of the dreams denoted that the event was certain and imminent. He advised, therefore, that without delay the monarch should set over the land a man discreet and wise, with overseers under him, to take up the fifth part of the land during the seven years of plenty, and lay up corn and food in various cities against the seven years of famine, which were assuredly to come (Gen. xli. 14–36).

This advice found favour in the eyes of Pharaoh, and deeming no other so well fitted for the post as the interpreter of his dreams, he appointed him to fill it, and, in token of his freedom, placed on his hand his own signet ring and a gold collar about his neck, and arraying him in vestures of fine linen, he caused him to ride in the second chariot that he had, preceded by heralds crying Bow the knee. Joseph was thus invested with the dignity of an Oriental Vizier, and could act in the name of the king. Besides these marks of honour, Pharaoh changed his name to Zaphnath-paaneah[43], or the Revealer of Secrets, and united him inmarriage with Asenath[44], the daughter of Poti-pherah (devoted to Ra, or the Sun), priest or prince (Gen. xli. 45 margin) of On, the later Heliopolis, and the religious capital of the country.

Thus at the age of thirty, after thirteen years of painful vicissitudes, the son of Jacob was elevated to the highest position next to the sovereign himself in the great kingdom of Egypt. In accordance with the plan he himself had indicated, he straightway commenced a tour throughout the land, and during the seven years of plenty bought up a fifth part of the corn in the country, and laid it up in granaries in the various cities. During the same period he became the father of two sons, to whom, though born of an Egyptian wife, he gave Hebrew names, calling the first-born Manasseh, “a Forgetter;” for God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil and all my father’s house. The second he named Ephraim, “Fruitful;” for God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction. At the close of the seven years of plenty, the seven years of dearth drew on, and its effects were felt not only in Egypt, but in all the neighbouring lands. During the first part of this period, the wants of the people were relieved by the abundance which the foresight of the Vizier had stored up. He opened all his granaries and sold unto the Egyptians, delivering over the money into Pharaoh’s exchequer. When money failed, barter was resorted to, and the Egyptians obtained bread in exchange for their horses, cattle, and flocks. When at length these means were exhausted, they sold him their land, except that of the priests, who, being provided from the royal treasury, did not feel the horrors of the famine. Thus possessed of the entire country, Joseph improved theopportunity to place the relations between the Egyptian monarch and his people on a settled and legal footing. He made them, indeed, vassals of their sovereign, but in place of allowing them to be taxed according to royal caprice, he disposed of the land to them, on the understanding that four parts were to be their own, for seed of the field, and for food for them and their families, while a fifth part was to be paid annually to the king in place of ground-rent; an arrangement by no means oppressive, when it is considered that the soil sometimes yielded thirty-fold, or even a greater increase (Gen. xli. 46–57).

At an early period during the seven years of famine, ten of Joseph’s brethren went down into Egypt at the suggestion of their father, and presented themselves before him with the petition to be allowed to buy corn. In the Viceroy, second only to the great Pharaoh, they did not for a moment recognize the boy whom twenty years before they had lowered into the dry pit at Dothan. But though Joseph knew them, and recognized the fulfilment of his early dreams, he did not reveal himself to them. Through an interpreter he spake roughly unto them, pronounced them to be spies who had come down to see the nakedness of the land, and when they denied the charge, declared they should be imprisoned till one of them had brought down their youngest brother. For three days he actually kept them in ward, and finally, on condition that one remained behind as a hostage, permitted them to return with corn for their families. Stricken with remorse, and not imagining that the Viceroy could understand their language, they acknowledged that their sin had found them out, and recalled the day when they saw the anguish of their brother, and turned a deaf ear to his beseeching entreaties that they would not deal hardly with him. Then Simeon was bound before theireyes, and sad and sorrowful they commenced their return. But on the road they had fresh cause for alarm and confusion. On opening their sacks they discovered not only that corn had been supplied them, but that their money had been restored to them. Marvelling at this strange circumstance, they reached home, and recounted to their father all that had befallen them, and how he could not hope to see Simeon again till they returned with their youngest brother Benjamin into the presence of the Viceroy of Egypt. On hearing this hard condition, Jacob burst forth into bitter complaints, and though Reuben offered the life of his two children as a pledge for Benjamin’s safe return, absolutely refused to allow him to accompany them; his brother, said he, is dead, and he is left alone; if mischief befall him by the way, then shall ye bring down my grey hairs with sorrow to the grave (Gen. xlii. 38).

CHAPTER VI.
JACOB’S DESCENT INTO EGYPT—DEATH OF JOSEPH.
Gen. xliii.–l. B.C. 1707–1635.

BUT as time went on, and the corn the Brothers had brought from Egypt was consumed, it became absolutely necessary to go thither a second time, if they would live and not die. Without Benjamin, however, they knew the journey would be useless, and Benjamin their father would not send. At length Judah stood forward as spokesman for the rest, and offered to bear for ever in his own person the blame, if any evil befell him, till after a struggle Jacob consented. With a present of such things as the land afforded, a little balm, a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and almonds,with double money also in their hand, the brothers took Benjamin from his sorrowing father, and once more commenced their journey to Egypt. Arrived there they were again presented to the Viceroy, who perceiving that Benjamin was with them, ordered the steward of his house to conduct them home, and to slay and make ready, that they might dine with him at noon. Full of fear, the brothers followed the steward, and on the way informed him of their surprise, when on their return from their previous visit, they found their money in their sacks. The steward, however, answered them kindly, restored Simeon to them, and brought them water to wash their feet. At noon Joseph returned, and the brothers spread out the present their father had sent, bowing themselves before him to the earth. After some questions touching the welfare of the old man they had left in the land of Canaan, he lifted up his eyes, and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, and his whole soul yearned towards him, and he entered into his chamber and wept there. Thence having washed his face he returned, commanded the attendants to set on bread, and the brothers sat down ranged each according to his age. Joseph sat at a table by himself, and the Egyptians in his retinue by themselves; for to eat bread with the Hebrews was regarded by them as an abomination. Then from Joseph’s table portions were sent to his brethren, but Benjamin’s portion was five times as great as any of theirs, and they drank and were merry with him (Gen. xliii. 34).

The next morning, as soon as it was light, with sacks replenished, and rejoicing at the successful termination of their journey, the sons of Jacob commenced their return to Canaan. But they had proceeded only a little way from the city, when the Steward of Joseph overtook them, and charged them with returning evilfor all the good they had received, and stealing the silver divining cup[45] (Gen. xliv. 5) belonging to his master. In the full assurance of their innocence, the brothers not only denied the charge, but declared their willingness that the guilty one should die, and the rest become bondmen to the Viceroy. The sacks were, therefore, taken from the asses, and lo! in Benjamin’s sack, where it had been purposely placed by Joseph’s command, the cup was found. Horror-struck at the discovery, the brothers returned to the house, and flinging themselves on the ground before Joseph, expressed their resolution to become slaves with Benjamin rather than return without him to his heart-broken father. In the dialogue that ensued Judah was again the chief speaker. God, he owned, had found out their iniquity, and they and he with whom the cup had been found would become Joseph’s bondmen. To this, however, Joseph would not consent; he with whom the cup had been found, he alone need remain behind in servitude, the rest might return in peace to their father. Then Judah went near to him, who was even as Pharaoh (Gen. xliv. 18), and in words of utmost pathos related how in obedience to his command, their father had with great difficulty been prevailed on to suffer the child of his old age to accompany them, and how, if he failed to return, he would certainly die, for his life was bound up in the life of his favourite son. Nay, more, he continued, he himself had become surety for the lad, and was now ready, rather than bring down the oldman’s grey hairs with sorrow to the grave, to remain alone in the land of Egypt a bondman unto his lord, if only Benjamin and the rest might return into the land of Canaan (Gen. xliv. 18–34).

As Judah proceeded with his moving tale, Joseph could restrain himself no longer. He desired every man to leave the chamber, and he and his brethren were left alone. Then, amidst many tears, he at length broke forth with the astounding words I am Joseph, coupling the revelation with the enquiry Doth my father yet live? But the brothers were too terrified to answer him a word. Thereupon he bade them come near unto him, and again assured them that he was Joseph, their brother, whom they had sold to the Midianitish caravan. Let them not, he said, be grieved that they had sold him into Egypt. God, who orders all things, had sent him thither before them to preserve their lives, and had made him a father unto Pharaoh, and ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. Instead of repining for the past, let them return to the old man, their father, and tell him of all his glory in Egypt, and bring him down, and settle, they and their children, their flocks and their herds, and all that they had, in the goodly country of Goshen, frontier. Having thus at length poured forth his pent up feelings, Joseph fell upon Benjamin’s neck, and wept, and kissed him, and likewise all his brethren. Tidings of what had occurred soon reached the ears of Pharaoh, who readily assented to Joseph’s wish that his father should be suffered to settle in the land. Waggons were then made ready to bring him and all that he had; ample provisions were supplied for the journey, and rich presents bestowed upon all the brothers, but especially on Benjamin. Then with a parting charge to see that they fell not out by the way (Gen. xlv. 24), the sons of Jacob returned to their father, and recounted to him all thestrange events that had befallen them. The long lost Joseph, the son of the beloved Rachel, was alive, nay, he was governor over all the land of Egypt. At the first announcement Jacob’s heart failed him, nor could he believe their words. But when the waggons that Joseph had provided came in sight, then at length his spirit revived, and he exclaimed, It is enough, Joseph my son is yet alive, I will go and see him before I die (Gen. xlv. 28).

To forsake, however, the familiar pasture grounds of Hebron, to leave the soil promised to him and to his seed for ever, required of the patriarch no little resolution. Abraham had gone down to Egypt, but only to involve himself in great difficulties; Isaac had been on the point of going thither, when he was restrained by the hand of God (Gen. xxvi. 2). Did the Divine Blessing rest on that journey, which an imperious necessity now induced him to essay? Jacob was not long left in doubt. On reaching Beersheba the Almighty appeared to him in vision, and bade him lay aside all apprehensions. In Egypt, in the land of the mighty Pharaohs, He would not fail to protect him, there He would make him a great nation, and thence in the fulness of time He would bring his seed back to the Land of Promise. Thus encouraged Jacob arose from Beersheba, and with his sons, their wives, and their little ones, their herds, their flocks, and all the goods they had gotten in the land of Canaan, commenced his journey. Judah led the way, and on the frontier of Egypt the patriarch met his long lost son, and fell upon his neck, and wept on his neck a good while. Arrived in the land of the Pharaohs, five of Joseph’s brethren were introduced to the reigning monarch. They told him that they were shepherds, that they had come down into Egypt in consequence of the severity of the famine, and requested permission to settle as strangers andforeigners in Goshen, the most easterly frontier-land of Egypt, and offered to become guardians of the royal herds. Permission was granted, and Jacob himself was introduced to Pharaoh, and bestowed his blessing upon the monarch (Gen. xlvii. 1–10).

The period of Jacob’s own sojourning in the land of Ham (Ps. cv. 23) was limited to seventeen years, at the close of which he had reached the age of 147, and perceived that his end was nigh. Informed that his father was sickening, Joseph brought his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh and placed them before his bedside. Guiding his hands wittingly, the aged patriarch stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim’s head, though he was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, though he was the firstborn. At this Joseph was displeased, and would have altered the disposition of his father’s hands. But Jacob refused, and with his hands as they were, bestowed upon the young men and their father his solemn and abiding blessing. Though born in Egypt, Ephraim and Manasseh were to be reckoned as his own sons, and would both grow into great tribes. But as it had been in Jacob’s own case, so would it be with them; the younger brother would be greater than the elder, and his seed should become a multitude of nations. Then turning to Joseph the Patriarch bestowed on him a special mark of affection, even one portion above his brethren, a piece of land which with his sword and his bow he had conquered from the Amorites, probably outside the green vale of Shechem (Gen. xlviii. 22, Josh. xvii. 14, &c.).

And now the day drew nigh when the Patriarch’s eventful life must close. Wishing by virtue of the gift of prophecy, which gained greater power the nearer he approached the borders of the eternal world, to tell them that which should befall them in the last days,he desired that his sons might be summoned to his bedside. Obedient to his word, they gathered round him, and then in prophetic trance “but having his eyes open,” he beheld the mighty vision of the future, and predicted their several fortunes in the land, through which he himself had wandered as a pilgrim for more than one hundred years. First, before him stood Reuben, over whom in the tents of Laban he had rejoiced as his firstborn, his might, and the beginning of his strength. To him by the law of primogeniture belonged the headship of the family, and the double inheritance. But he had proved unworthy of his vocation. Unstable as water, he should not excel. Next in order of their birth came Simeon and Levi. Brethren of one mother, they had been also brethren in cruelty and deceit. In their conduct towards the Shechemites they had proved the fierceness of their anger, and the cruelty of their disposition. Unworthy were they to be the head of a nation which was to be a blessing and not a curse to all peoples of the earth, therefore were they to be divided in Jacob, and scattered in Israel. Next came Judah, and to him the patriarch could assign a portion at least of the blessing of the firstborn. His should be the pre-eminence in power and dignity, him should his brethren praise, before him should his father’s children bow down; his should be the Sceptre and the Lawgiver, nor from beneath his feet should they ever depart, till Shiloh, the Peaceable or Peace-maker came[46] (Gen. xlix. 1–10).

Having thus transferred the privileges of the firstborn to Judah and predicted the fortunes of his other sons, the dying Patriarch once more solemnly adjured them, as he had already adjured Joseph, not to leave his bones in Egypt, but to carry them into the land ofHope and Promise, and lay them in the cave of Machpelah, in the family-grave of his fathers, and then he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost. Obedient to such reiterated commands, Joseph caused his father’s body to be embalmed in the Egyptian fashion by the physicians, and obtained permission from Pharaoh to accompany his remains to the burial-place he had marked out for them. Then at the head of a numerous retinue, composed not only of the members of his own family, but also of the court-officers of Pharaoh, and the grandees of the empire, and accompanied by chariots and horsemen, he set out. The nearest road would have been by Gaza, and through the territory of the Philistines. Instead of this, the funeral procession took a long circuitous route round Mount Seir[47] and the eastern side of the Dead Sea, and halted at the threshing-floor of Atad, on the east side of the Jordan, opposite Jericho. Here seven days were spent in solemn mourning, and so grievous was the lamentation that the Canaanites of the Jordan valley called the spot Abel-Mizraim, the Meadow, or the Mourning of the Egyptians. Further than this point the Egyptian retinue do not seem to have proceeded. The sons of Jacob alone crossed the Jordan, into the land of Canaan, and laid their father in the cave of Machpelah, by the side of Abram, Isaac, and Sarah (Gen. l. 1–13).

The funeral over, Joseph and his brethren returned to Egypt. Fearful now their father was dead that the Viceroy would requite them for all the evil they had done towards him, the sons of Jacob sent a messenger to intercede in their behalf. But Joseph calmed their fears, and assured them of safety and protection. Together, then, they dwelt in peace and security in the land of Goshen; and Joseph saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation, and the children of Machir the son of Manasseh brought up upon his knees. At length, when he had reached the age of 110, perceiving that his end was near, he sent for his brethren, and having assured them that God would certainly visit them, and bring them up out of Egypt into the land which He had promised to their forefathers, and taken an oath of them that they would remove his bones into the same Good Land, he died, and was embalmed, and laid in a coffin in Egypt (Gen. l. 26).

Note.
SURVEY OF THE PATRIARCHAL AGE.

With the death of Joseph the Patriarchal Age of Israel’s history may be said to close. The Family had now thrown out many branches, and was on the point of merging into the Nation. At this juncture, then, it may be well to look back, and review some of the chief features of Patriarchal Life.

i. And the first of these that claims attention is its Nomadic character. Unlike the founders of Egypt, of Babylon, of Nineveh, the Patriarchs were not the builders of cities and towns, but pilgrims and sojourners, dwellers in tents (Heb. xi. 9). But they were very different from rude hordes, like the Amalekites and other “sons of the desert,” abhorring any higher mode of life. Abraham was no stranger to the highest form of civilization that his age afforded. He was acquainted with Ur, with Nineveh, with Damascus, with Egypt; he had left his home in one of the chief cities of Mesopotamia, not from choice, but in consequence of a direct personal call from God. Moreover, so far from regarding hispresent mode of life as an ultimate end, he and Isaac and Jacob, were ever looking forward to a time when it would close, when their descendants should be settled in the Land of Promise, and become a great nation, when the portable tent should give way to the city that had foundations (Heb. xi. 10, 13–16; comp. Gen. xxiv. 7; xxviii. 4; xlix. 1–27; l. 24). Hence, from time to time, as opportunity offered, we see the wandering life freely and willingly laid aside. Lot settled in Sodom (Gen. xiii. 10–12); Abraham in Egypt went direct to Pharaoh’s court (Gen. xii. 14); at Hebron he settled and became a “prince of God” in the midst of the Hittites (Gen. xxiii. 6); Isaac not only lived near the Philistines, but occupied a house opposite the palace (Gen. xxvi. 8), and practised agriculture (Gen. xxvi. 12); and Joseph’s dream of the sheaves points out that this was also continued in the time of Jacob (Gen. xxxvii. 7)[48].

ii. The Family was the centre of the Patriarchal commonwealth. Its head was the source of authority and jurisdiction; he possessed the power of life and death (Gen. xxxviii. 24); he united in himself the functions of chief and priest; he offered the burnt-offering; he had his armed retainers (Gen. xiv. 14; xlviii. 22; xxxiv. 25; xxxiii. 20); his intercourse with his wives (for polygamy was not forbidden) was free and unrestrained; the wife’s consent was asked before wedlock (Gen. xxiv. 57, 58); love hallowed the relations of Abraham with Sarah, of Isaac with Rebekah, of Jacob with Leah and Rachel; woman, indeed, did not occupy the position since conceded to her, but her position was far from degraded, and the sanctity of the marriage-bond was defended by severe laws, which made death the punishment for adultery (Gen. xxxviii. 24). Slavery, it is true, existed, but in the tents of Abraham the slave was ever treated with consideration, and not excluded from, but made a partaker of religious privileges (Gen. xvii. 13). The fidelity and attachment of Eliezer the steward of Abraham’s house, the mourning for Deborah Rebekah’s nurse (Gen. xxxv. 8), are pleasing proofs of the peace that reigned in the Patriarchal household.

iii. Civilization. The life of the Patriarchs was chiefly that of the shepherd, and their wealth mainly consisted in their flocks and their herds. But besides practising agriculture they were not unacquainted with money and the precious metals. Abraham paid for the field of Machpelahwith coin (Gen. xxiii. 9–20), and the sons of Jacob took money with them into Egypt (Gen. xlii. 25, 35); while the gold ring and armlets presented to Rebekah by Eliezer (Gen. xxiv. 22), the bracelet and signet ring of Judah (Gen. xxxviii. 18), the ear-rings of Rachel (Gen. xxxv. 4), the many-coloured coat of Joseph, indicate an acquaintance with the luxuries of life.

iv. Religion. While other nations were rapidly learning to deify the powers of nature, the Patriarchs believed not only in a God above and beyond nature, but in a God Personal, Omnipotent, and Holy. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob was no mere abstraction, no mere law. He could and did reveal Himself by angelic appearances, by visions, by dreams; He could console, strengthen, encourage; He could punish, rebuke, and on repentance forgive. Abraham, the Friend of God (Jas. ii. 23), intercedes with Him in behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. xviii. 23–33); Isaac is warned by Him against going down into Egypt (Gen. xxvi. 2); Jacob is consoled by Him at Bethel when setting out into the land of exile (Gen. xxviii. 13–15), and wrestles with Him by the fords of Jabbok till the break of day (Gen. xxxii. 24); Joseph believes in His invisible but ever-present help in prison and in a strange land, and ascribes to Him all his wisdom in the interpretation of dreams (Gen. xli. 16). The Divine Promise of a great future Abraham believed under circumstances of greatest trial, and his faith was counted to him for righteousness (Rom. iv. 3). Moreover the God of the Patriarchs was no mere “national or household God.” His sphere of operation was not restricted to the Patriarchs and their families; He is the God of all the earth (Gen. xxiv. 3), the God of Righteousness and Holiness. He punishes the people of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. xix. 24, 25); He plagues Pharaoh’s house (Gen. xii. 17); He is the God of the priest-king Melchizedek (Gen. xiv. 18), and of the Philistine Abimelech (Gen. xx. 3); He protects not only Isaac the “child of promise,” but the outcast Ishmael the “child of the bondwoman” (Gen. xxi. 13); He is with Joseph in prison, but He sends dreams to Pharaoh, and through Joseph He saves Egypt from famine (Gen. l. 20).

v. The Religious Worship of the Patriarchs was in keeping with the simplicity of their creed. The head of the family was also the priest of the family. Whenever Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, reached any new spot in their pilgrimage, they invariably erected an altar, generally of stone and on a high situation (Gen. xxii. 9; xxvi. 25; xxxv. 7); there theycalled on the name of Jehovah, there they presented their burnt sacrifice, there they offered up their prayers. Their history also proves the existence of offering covenant-sacrifices, and celebrating covenant-feasts (Gen. xv. 9–18; xxi. 32); the making and paying of vows (Gen. xxviii. 23); the erection of memorial pillars, and the consecration of them by pouring upon them oil and wine (Gen. xxviii. 18); the rite of circumcision (Gen. xvii. 10–14); and the paying of tithes (Gen. xiv. 20)[49].

vi. The Character of the Patriarchs is never represented as perfect, their faults are freely exposed, theirs is no ideal history. If we compare the four most eminent amongst them, we seem to trace in (i) Abraham, “the faith that can remove mountains” in its power and in its fulness, revealing itself in unfaltering trust and unquestioning obedience under the most trying circumstances conceivable; in (ii) Isaac, the faith that can possess itself in patience, and discharge the ordinary duties of life in quietness and waiting; in (iii) Jacob, the violent contest of faith with the flesh, the higher with the lower nature, till by hard discipline the latter is purified, and the “Supplanter” becomes the “Prince,” the “Prevailer with God;” in (iv) Joseph, the fidelity and perseverance of faith, revealed not only in the patient endurance of the most grievous trials, but in energetic action, and at length crowned with victory. “He unites in himself the noble trust and resolution of Abraham, with the quiet perseverance of Isaac, and the careful prudence of Jacob.” He is moreover an eminent historic type of Christ, in (1) his persecution and sale by his brethren, (2) his resisting temptation, (3) his humiliation and exaltation, (4) his dispensing to a famine-stricken people the bread of life, (5) in the fulness of his forgiving love[50].

BOOK III.
FROM THE SETTLEMENT OF THE ISRAELITES IN EGYPT TO THE GIVING OF THE LAW.

A MAP OF CANAAN, EGYPT & SINAI
to illustrate the
PATRIARCHAL HISTORY
and
THE EXODUS.

Stanford’s Geographical Establishment

London: Macmillan & Co.

CHAPTER I.
THE BIRTH AND CALLING OF MOSES.
Exod. i.–vi. B.C. 1706–1491.

THE district of Goshen (frontier), also called the Land of Rameses (Gen. xlvii. 11), where the Israelites were settled during the period of their sojourn in the land of the Pharaohs, was the most easterly border-land of Egypt. It was scarcely included within the boundaries of Egypt proper, and was inhabited by a mixed population of Egyptians and foreigners (Exod. xii. 38). Eminently a pasture land and adapted to the rearing of flocks and herds, it included also a considerable portion of fruit-bearing soil, which owed its fertility to the overflowing of the Nile, called by the Egyptians Hapi-Mu, the genius of the waters, by the Israelites Sihor, or Shihor, the black (Is. xxiii. 3; Jer. ii. 18). Touching on the west the green valley of this wondrous river, and stretching onwards to the yellow sands of the Arabian desert immediately south of Palestine, it was then, as it has always been, the most productive part of Egypt, yielding luxuriant crops of wheat and millet, and abounding in cucumbers and melons, gourds and beans, and other vegetable growths (Num. xi. 5).

Sacred History does not reveal to us many particulars respecting the early portion of the period during which the sons of Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. We know that they were fruitful and multiplied and waxed exceeding mighty, so that when the time came for them to go forth from Egypt they could scarcely have numbered less than two million souls. We need not, however, suppose that these were all the direct descendants of the seventy immediate relatives of Jacob. When that Patriarch and his sons went down into Egypt they would naturally take with them not only their flocks and herds, but their menservants and maidservants (Gen. xlv. 10, 11). Of the number of these we can form some calculation by remembering the 318 trained servants, who accompanied Abraham at the rescue of Lot[51] (Gen. xiv. 14); the great store of servants possessed by Isaac (Gen. xxvi. 13, 14), two-thirds at least of whom passed into the possession of Jacob, and must be added to the two hosts which he brought from Mesopotamia (Gen. xxxii. 7, 8). But even thus their increase was marvellous, and must be ascribed to the direct superintending Hand of God. The effect, however, of their stay was perceptible in other respects. They not only increased in numbers, but became acquainted with many arts and sciences, and thus fitted for their future national existence. One portion, indeed, of the nation seems to have retained its pastoral habits even to the end. The descendants of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh (Num. xxxii. 1) probably tended their large flocks and herds on the eastern border of Goshen, but others settled in the cities and villages on the confines of the land of Goshen, and not only adopted more generallyagricultural pursuits (Deut. xi. 10), but became acquainted with many useful arts, with writing, the working of precious and common metals, the grinding and engraving of precious stones, with carpentry, byssus-weaving, and pottery (1 Chr. iv. 14, 21, 23), with fishing, gardening (Num. xi. 5), and artificial irrigation (Deut. xi. 10)[52]. On the other hand, they could not fail to become acquainted with forms of religious worship hitherto utterly unknown to them. Now, for the first time, could they witness the gorgeous and mysterious ceremonies that attended the worship of Ra, the “Sun-God,” or of Isis and Osiris. Now, for the first time, they might behold the incense burnt three times every day[53], and the solemn sacrifice offered once a month to the sacred black calf Mnevis at On (Heliopolis), or to his rival the bull Apis at Memphis. Now they saw, as they could scarcely have seen elsewhere, the adoration of the creature rather than the Creator carried to its furthest point, and divine honours paid not only to the mighty Pharaoh, the Child, the representative of the Sun-God, but to almost everything in the heaven above, and the earth beneath, and the waters under the earth, to the crocodile and the hawk, the cat and the dog, the hippopotamus and the serpent. That the simple patriarchal faith of the descendants of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob would suffer from contact with such diverse forms of idolatry might naturally be expected. The worship of the sacred calf exercised over them a peculiar fascination. Your fathers worshipped other gods in Egypt, says Joshua afterwards (Josh. xxiv. 14), they forsook not the idols of Egypt, is the accusation of Ezekiel (Ezek. xx. 7, 8; xxiii. 3).

But an important event exercised a still greater influence on their social and religious condition. A changetook place in the reigning dynasty. There arose a new king over Egypt (Ex. i. 8; Acts vii. 18) that knew not Joseph, who regarded with no friendly feelings the strange community with alien rites and traditions, settled on the eastern outskirts of his realm. He viewed with alarm their rapid increase, and dreaded lest, in the event of a war, instead of guarding his kingdom against, they might join the enemies of Egypt, the roving tribes of the East, “the terror of the inhabitants of the Nile valley,” and fight against his own people, and effect their escape from the land. Accordingly he determined to reduce them to the condition of public serfs or slaves; and in order to crush their free and independent spirit, set taskmasters over them, and employed them in gigantic works, making bricks for his treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses. Day after day, therefore, their lives were made bitter with hard bondage, while beneath a burning rainless sky, naked and in gangs, they toiled under the lash in the quarry or the brick-field. But this expedient did not produce the effects the monarch desired. The more they were afflicted, the more this strange people grew and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty. Thereupon instructions were given to the Hebrew midwives to destroy in some secret way every Hebrew man-child. And when this too proved ineffectual, from the unwillingness of the midwives to obey so cruel a decree, an order was issued that every Hebrew boy should be flung into the waters of the Nile. What Abraham had seen in mystic vision was now fulfilled (Gen. xv. 12); a horror of great darkness had settled upon his descendants; strangers in a strange land, they were suffering grievous affliction, they sighed by reason of their bondage, and their cry came up unto God (Ex. ii. 23).

But it was at this juncture, when every thing seemed at the worst, that the future Deliverer of Israel wasborn. Amram, a man of the house of Levi, married Jochebed, a woman of the same tribe, and became the father of a daughter Miriam, a son Aaron, and a boy remarkable from his childhood for peculiar beauty (Ex. ii. 2; Acts vii. 20). For three months his mother succeeded in eluding the vigilance of Pharaoh’s inquisitors, and concealing her child. But at the close of that period, finding further concealment impossible, she constructed an ark or boat of papyrus stalks, and having protected it with pitch or bitumen, placed the child therein among the reeds of the Nile. There the mother left it, but Miriam the sister stood afar off to watch her brother’s fate. As the ark floated with the stream, the daughter of Pharaoh, attended by her maidens, came down to bathe in the waters of the sacred river, and as she walked by the bank, her eye lit upon the basket, and she sent one of her attendants to fetch it. It was brought, and when opened, behold! the babe wept. Struck with compassion the Egyptian princess, though she perceived it was one of the Hebrews’ children, determined to rear it for her own. At this moment Miriam approached, and asked permission to call a nurse for the child. Permission was given, and Jochebed once more saw her boy restored to her, with the command to rear it for its preserver. The child grew, and after a while was brought to the Princess, and she, in memory of its preservation, named it Moses, or in its Egyptian form Mo-she, from Mo, “water,” and Ushe, “saved” (Ex. ii. 10).

The Foundling of the Nile was now formally brought up as the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter, and, in conformity with his high position, received a suitable education. He became learned, St Stephen tells us (Acts vii. 22), in all the wisdom of the Egyptians; in all therefore, we may believe, that the science of that day could teach him of arithmetic, writing, astronomy,medicine, and sacred symbolism. On the same authority we further learn that Moses became mighty not only in words, but also in deeds (Acts vii. 22). What these deeds were is not known[54], but it is certain that the Hebrew youth was in a position to have achieved a splendid career. He might have enjoyed to the full the pleasures of the Egyptian court (Heb. xi. 25), and amassed much of its accumulated treasures. But the traditions, the hopes, the creed of his own nation had not, we may believe, been concealed from him by his mother. Hence when he came to the age of forty, chancing to go forth from On or Memphis to the land of Goshen, he beheld one of his countrymen not only toiling amidst the shadeless brick-fields, but suffering the bastinado from his Egyptian taskmaster. Filled with indignation Moses looked this way and that way, and seeing no one by, slew the Egyptian, and hid the corpse in the white sand of the desert. The next day, seeing two of the Hebrews quarrelling, he tried to act as arbiter between them. His good offices, however, were not only rejected by the one he decided to be in the wrong, but he discovered that the murder of the Egyptian was no secret. He imagined that his countrymen would have recognised in him a Deliverer sent from the God of their fathers, but they did not. Before long, news of the murder reached the ears of Pharaoh, and Moses perceiving that his life was no longer safe fled from Goshen in a south-easterly direction to the land of Midian, or the peninsula of Sinai in Arabia, peopled by the descendants of Abraham by Keturah (Gen. xxv. 2).

He was sitting on a well in Midian, when he perceivedthe approach of the seven daughters of Jethro[55], the chief and priest of that country, to draw water for their flocks. They were in the act of filling the troughs, when certain Arabian shepherds rudely tried to drive them away. Thereupon, with the same zeal he had shown in behalf of his own countrymen, Moses intervened, and defended the maidens against the intruders. Their unusually early return prompted the enquiries of their father, and led to his introduction to the chivalrous stranger. Moses was contented to dwell with the Midianitish chief, and kept his flocks, and afterward married his daughter Zipporah, by whom he became the father of two sons, Gershom (stranger) and Eliezer (God is my help). And here amidst “the granite precipices and silent valleys of Horeb,” in quiet and seclusion, forty years of his life passed away (Acts vii. 30). Here, as nowhere else, he could commune alone with God, and know himself, and learn the lessons of patience and self-control, and dependence on the Unseen, while the daily duties of his shepherd life made him acquainted with every path and track and fountain in a region, which he was afterwards to revisit under such different circumstances.

Meanwhile, though there was a change of ruler, the lot of the Israelites experienced no alteration. Still they toiled in cruel bondage, still their cry went up to the God of their fathers. At length the time drew near when the Promise made to Abraham was to be fulfilled, the oppressing nation judged, and the people delivered (Gen. xv. 14). One day Moses was leading the flocks of Jethro some distance from the spots, where he seems to have usually tended them, to the back of the wilderness, and came to the mountain of God,even to Horeb, when a marvellous sight arrested his attention. He looked, and behold! before him burning with fire was a bush of wild acacia[56], “the shaggy thorn-bush of the desert.” But though enveloped in flames, it was not consumed! It remained unsinged and uninjured by the fiery element which played around it! Astonished at the prodigy, Moses determined to draw near and ascertain the cause of this great sight, and as he approached, lo! a Voice, the Voice of God, called unto him out of the midst of the bush, saying, Moses, Moses! The awe-struck shepherd answered the Voice, and then was directed to draw not nearer, but take his shoes from off his feet, for the place on which he stood was holy ground. Moses complied, and hiding his face, for he dared not look upon God, listened, while the Lord spake again, assuring him that He was the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob; He had not been unmindful of the sufferings of His people in Egypt; He had seen their affliction; He had heard their cry; He had come down to deliver them from their oppressors, and to bring them up into a land flowing with milk and honey, and He had appointed no other than Moses himself to be their Deliverer, and bring them forth from the land of Egypt. Filled with awe and misgiving, Moses at first sought in every way to excuse himself from the tremendous commission. Who am I, said he, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? I will be with thee, was the reply. But who was this I? When Moses went to the children of Israel, and assured them of the commission he had received, what was the Name he was to announceto them as his authority? Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, replied the Almighty, I AM—Jehovah, the Eternal, the Self-existent—hath sent me unto you (Ex. iii. 14).

But this did not satisfy Moses. What outward and visible assurance could he give the people of his divine mission? This difficulty was also met. The Lord invested him with a threefold miraculous power, whereby to attest his authority, alike before the people and before Pharaoh. First, he should cast his staff, his shepherd’s crook, upon the ground, and it would become a serpent, and on taking the creature by the tail it would resume its former state. Then he should put his hand into his bosom, and it would become leprous, but on returning it to his bosom would become as his other flesh. Thirdly, if they believed neither the first nor the second sign, he was to take of the water of the Sacred Nile, and pour it upon the dry land, and it should become blood. But now Moses pleaded another obstacle. He was not eloquent, he was of a slow speech, and a slow tongue; no words had he wherewith to bend the awful Pharaoh on his throne. Who hath made man’s mouth? was the reply; Who maketh the dumb, the deaf, the blind? Have not I the Lord? Go, and I will be with thy mouth, I will teach thee what thou shalt say. Still Moses made another effort to roll off from himself the awful responsibility of the commission. O my Lord, he cried, send, I pray Thee, by the hand Thou shouldest send. This last proof of distrust provoked even the Lord to anger, but it was the anger of Love, the Love that remembers mercy and sustains the weak. The Lord had already provided a spokesman. Aaron his brother was at this moment on his way to meet him, and he was known to be able to speak well. Together, like the Apostles afterwards, the Brothers should go in before Pharaoh; Aaron should be insteadof a mouth, and Moses should be to him instead of God, and with his rod he should perform the prescribed signs. Then, at last, his timidity was removed; he consented to go, and the object of the Vision of the Burning Bush was thus far attained (Ex. iv. 1–17).

CHAPTER II.
SIGNS AND WONDERS IN EGYPT.
Exod. iv.–xi. B.C. 1491.

THE first step Moses took towards fulfilling the trust thus confided to him was to request of his father-in-law permission to revisit his brethren in Egypt. Jethro gave his consent, and then, having received the Divine assurance that all the men were dead which sought his life, accompanied by Zipporah and her two sons, Gershom and Eliezer, Moses commenced his return to Egypt[57]. He had not proceeded far before he encountered his brother Aaron coming forth to meet him, to whom he explained their commission, and the signs that were to attest it. On arriving in the land of Goshen the Brothers gathered together all the clans of the nation. Aaron, as spokesman, rehearsed the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. His announcement had the desired effect. The Israelites believed that the Lord God of their fathers had indeed interposed in their behalf, and bowed their heads and worshipped. The next step was to procure from Pharaoh the necessary permission for the departure of the people. But now, even as the Almighty had forewarnedthem, the difficulties of the Brothers commenced. On presenting themselves before Pharaoh, and informing him of the will of Jehovah, the God of Israel, that His people should be permitted to go three days’ journey into the wilderness, there to offer sacrifice unto Him (Ex. v. 3), the monarch haughtily asked, Who is Jehovah, that I should obey His Voice to let Israel go? Conceiving the God of Israel to be merely a national god, it seemed to him inexplicable that One who had suffered His worshippers to endure a lengthened and degrading bondage, could demand of him, the mightiest monarch of the earth, to let His people depart. Concluding, therefore, that it was only an expedient to excite aspirations for freedom among the bondslaves, in contemptuous mockery of them and their God, he ordered that the severity of their toil should be doubled. Hitherto straw had been found them, wherewith to make bricks for the treasure-cities and other gigantic works then in progress; but now it was ordered that they must go and gather straw for themselves, and yet the tale of bricks must not be diminished; what it was before, that it was to remain, and to be completed also. To comply with this tyrannical command was impossible, and the Israelitish officers, who had been set over the people by the Egyptians were beaten, and their complaints to Pharaoh were utterly disregarded. This produced a great change of feeling towards Moses and Aaron, at whose announcement of speedy deliverance the people had so lately bowed the head and worshipped. They heaped reproaches upon them, and openly charged them with being the cause of their now accumulated miseries, of having made their savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh (Ex. v. 1–21).

Thus the first attempt of Moses to execute his commission ended in complete failure. In deep dejection he laid before Jehovah the ineffectual issue of his efforts,and in reply not only received a second assurance of protection and ultimate triumph, but was told that as Pharaoh had rejected the word of God, God would now speak to him in deeds, and multiply His signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, till the Egyptians knew that He was the Lord. But the contest, in which Moses was now to engage, was not to be fought with carnal weapons. As the accredited servant of Jehovah, he was to contend against the gods of Egypt, against those arts, the very lifeblood of heathenism, in which Egypt deemed itself so strong, its magic and necromancy, its priests and conjurers. Accordingly the Brothers went a second time into Pharaoh’s presence, and renewed their request. The monarch demanded a miracle in attestation of their claim. Thereupon Aaron threw down his rod before the king and his courtiers, and straightway it became a serpent. But snake-charming was an art in which Egypt bore off the palm from every other country of the world. Pharaoh, therefore, summoned his magicians[58], who cast down their rods, and they likewise became serpents. But though Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods, the monarch would not acknowledge that his servants had been defeated; he hardened his heart, and refused to recognise in this miracle an authoritative warning to let the people go. The “signs,” therefore, were now to become Plagues (Ex. vii. 8–14).

(i) Accordingly, on the morrow, at the command of God, Moses made his appearance before Pharaoh, just as he was going to offer sacrifice to, or perform his religious ablutions in the sacred waters of the Nile, the “Father of Life,” the “Father of the Gods[59],” as itwas called by the Egyptians. In words few but decisive he announced the reason of his coming, and then the word was given; Aaron lifted up his rod, and in a moment, before the very eyes of the monarch and all his servants, the waters of the sacred, fructifying river, not only in the stream itself, but in the “canals and tanks, in the vessels of wood and vessels of stone, then, as now, used for the filtration of the water from the sediment of the river bed,” were turned into blood. The fish, though similarly objects of religious reverence, died in incredible numbers, and the “Father of Waters,” the source of health and blessing, stank, nor could the Egyptians drink thereof, for there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. But again the magicians were summoned; with their enchantments, they caused other water, probably obtained by digging about the river, to assume the same blood-red appearance, and Pharaoh turned into his house, and hardened his heart, neither would he let the people go (Ex. vii. 14–25).

(ii) After an interval, therefore, of seven days, Moses and Aaron again presented themselves before him, and when their request was again denied, inflictedthe second plague. From the streams, the rivers, the ponds of Egypt, Frogs[60] came up over the whole land, penetrating into the royal palace, the houses of the courtiers and of the people, defiling bed-chamber and bed, oven and kneading-trough, with their loathsome touch. Again the magicians were summoned, and though they were utterly unable to counteract, they succeeded in imitating this plague also. Pharaoh was more deeply moved than before; he not only condescended to beg of Moses and Aaron that they would intreat Jehovah to remove this plague from his people, but undertook to allow the Israelites to depart and do sacrifice to the Lord. But no sooner had the desired deliverance been vouchsafed, than he again hardened his heart and refused to fulfil his word (Ex. viii. 1–15).

(iii) For the third time, therefore, Aaron uplifted his rod, and now, not from the “Father of Waters,” but from the fertile soil of Egypt itself, came forth innumerable swarms either of Lice or of Gnats[61], which afflicted both man and beast with intolerable discomfort. This plague all the spells and incantations of the court magicians were unable to imitate, and they were fain to confess to Pharaoh, This is the finger of God, but he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them (Ex. viii. 16–19).

(iv) On the morning after, as he went forth to the waters of the river, which he had lately seen so grievously dishonoured, he was met by Moses, and refusedfor the fourth time to relieve the people of their bondage. On this the servant of Jehovah spake the word, and there came innumerable Flies of various kinds[62], usually a fearful torment in Egypt, but now attacking with unwonted fury both man and beast, and swarming in every house of the Egyptians, while they touched neither house nor person of the Israelites in Goshen. Such was the intolerable severity of this plague that Pharaoh so far relented as to permit the people to sacrifice to Jehovah in the land itself, but with the proviso that they should not leave it. This Moses would not concede. Therefore the monarch extended his concession to a journey some little way into the wilderness, but on the removal of the judgment revoked it, and retained the nation in bondage (Ex. viii. 20–32).

(v) The fifth Plague was now inflicted. A grievous Murrain broke out amongst the horses, the asses, the camels, the oxen, the sheep of the Egyptians, so that all the cattle of Egypt, including not only the useful beasts, but probably “the sacred goat of Mendes, the ram of Ammon, the calf of Heliopolis, the bull Apis[63],” died, while in the land of Goshen, as Pharaoh himself ascertained, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. But even this had no effect on his proud heart (Ex. ix. 1–7).

(vi) Accordingly Moses and Aaron were commanded to take handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and sprinkle them upwards towards heaven, and on their so doing, Boils and Blisters, and other eruptive disorders, broke forth upon man and upon beast. Even the royal magicians suffered so terribly from this the sixth plague,that they could not stand before Moses, but the heart of their master was still hardened, nor would he yield to the will of God (Ex. ix. 8–12).

(vii) With still greater solemnity, therefore, the coming of the Seventh Plague was announced to him, and he was warned to send his servants and gather together such of his cattle as were grazing in the fields, if he would not have them utterly destroyed by a terrible Storm of thunder, lightning, and hail[64]. By some, who heard the warning, it was heeded in time, by others it was utterly disregarded. But it was too surely fulfilled. Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven, and on the fair garden of Egypt, with its green meadows and fields of corn and barley and maize, the storm burst forth with unwonted fury. The Lord thundered out of heaven, and the Highest gave His thunder (Ps. xviii. 13). The fire ran along upon the ground, the hail rattled, and smote the vines and fig-trees (Ps. cv. 33), and every herb of the field, and every tree of the field, the barley then in the ear, and the flax then bolled or risen in the stalk, as also the cattle and herdmen that had not been removed to any place of shelter. Alarmed beyond measure at this unexampled tempest, Pharaoh begged Moses to intercede for him, owned this time that he had sinned, that the Lord was righteous, that he and his people were wicked, and promised to do all that was required of him. But, as before, when the fury of the elements was hushed he refused to abide by his word (Ex. ix. 13–35).

(viii) And now for the eighth time the release of the people was demanded, and the monarch was told that, in the event of refusal, the country, already grievously devastated, should be given up to the awful ravagesof the Locusts, which, in numbers, such as neither his fathers nor his fathers’ fathers had seen, should swarm in the palace and the hut, covering the face of the ground, and eating up whatever herb or tree had escaped the fury of the late storm. This announcement filled the Egyptians, already suffering severely, with uttermost alarm. Let the people go, they cried to their king, that they may serve the Lord their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed? Even Pharaoh was fain to lend an ear to this remonstrance. Summoning Moses and Aaron, he informed them that he was ready to allow such as were men amongst the Israelites to depart and serve their God, but their wives and children must remain as a guarantee for their return. The servants, however, of Jehovah, were not empowered to make this concession, and the plague began. A strong east wind blew continuously and brought the locusts, which in dense swarms covered the face of the land, so that it was darkened and became a desolate wilderness, without a leaf upon the trees or a blade of grass in the fields[65]. The obduracy of the monarch now broke down, and was followed by a brief repentance, which lasted no longer than the west wind which swept away the locusts; for once more, in the face of an utterly devastated country and a murmuring people, he refused to hearken to the word of the Lord (Ex. x. 1–20).

(ix) Without the pre-announcements, therefore, which had preceded the infliction of the other plagues, the ninth now appeared in the shape of Darkness[66] so dense that it might be felt, which for three days envelopedthe entire land, save only the favoured country of Goshen. During this period the light of the sun was obscured, an awful and preternatural gloom shrouded the land, so that the Egyptians neither could see one another nor rise from their place. At the end of the three days Pharaoh once more capitulated; all the Israelites, young and old, might depart, the flocks and herds alone must remain. These conditions, however, were rejected by Moses, and he was dismissed from the palace with the warning to take heed that he saw the face of Pharaoh no more, for on the day that he saw his face, he should surely die (Ex. x. 21–29).

CHAPTER III.
THE LAST PLAGUE—THE PASSOVER—THE EXODUS.
Exod. xi.–xv.

HITHERTO the elements of nature had each in their turn been commissioned to fight against Pharaoh. In all the preceding plagues there had been human intervention. The rod or the hand of Moses had summoned from the sacred river, or the fertile soil, or the rainless air, or the desert sands of Arabia, the ministers of punishment, and wrought signs and wonders in the land of Ham, and had proved that the God he served was no mere national god, but was Lord over earth and air and water, over cattle and man, over tree and herb. But none of the elements of nature were to bring on Pharaoh God’s last sore judgment. At midnight, said Jehovah, will I go out into the midst of Egypt, and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maid-servant that is behind the mill, and all the firstborn of beasts;I will execute judgment against all the gods or princes (Ex. xiii. 12 Marg.) of Egypt, I am Jehovah.

Before, however, this last great blow was struck, involving the firstborn of the highest and the lowest in one common fate, certain important preliminaries were to be enacted. It was now the Hebrew month of Nisan or Abib, the month of green ears. On the fourteenth day of this month it was announced that the last sore judgment would be inflicted. But on the tenth day of this month, a month to be to the Israelites henceforth the beginning of months, the first month of their sacred year, the father of every household was to select a lamb or kid, without blemish, a male of the first year. It was to be kept till the fourteenth day, and then slain just before the evening twilight (Ex. xii. 1–6). A portion of the blood was to be sprinkled with a bunch of hyssop on the two side-posts and the upper door-post of the houses of the Israelites, and on the selfsame night the lamb, roast with fire, whole, not a bone being broken, was to be eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. Of this meal each household was to partake, with their loins girded, their shoes on their feet, their staves in their hands, in haste like persons in a hurry to depart. Of the flesh of the lamb nothing was to be allowed to remain until the morning, and all remnants were to be burnt with fire. And at midnight, while they were partaking of this mysterious meal, the Lord, they were told, would pass through the land of Egypt, and smite all the firstborn, both of man and beast, but when He saw the blood sprinkled on the houses of the Israelites, He would pass over them, and the plague should not be upon them to their destruction (Ex. xii. 7–12).

Such was the ordinance of the Passover, a Memorial-Feast to be celebrated, not on that night only, but throughout all future generations, and to be kept for aperiod of seven days, during which leavened bread was neither to be eaten nor found in any of the houses of the Israelites. On receiving from Moses the Lord’s commands respecting this Feast, the elders of Israel, partakers with him of a like faith in the certainty of the events about to be enacted (Heb. xi. 28), bowed their heads and worshipped. On the tenth day of Nisan, the Month of Redemption, each household selected a lamb or kid, kept it till the fourteenth day, slew it, sprinkled the blood upon the side-posts and the upper door-post of their houses, and at midnight were eating of it with the prescribed ceremonies, when suddenly the last and most awful of all the Ten Plagues began. The Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon unto the firstborn of the mighty Pharaoh himself, and all the firstborn of cattle. In the darkness of that awful night the monarch rose up, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians, and a loud frantic cry arose throughout the land, for there was not a house where there was not one dead. Terrified and confounded the stubborn king could no longer resist the power of Jehovah. He implored Moses and Aaron, as an act of kindness, to depart with the utmost speed. And not only he, but all his people joined in the petition, and pressed upon the Israelites jewels of silver and jewels of gold, earrings, signet-rings, necklaces, and festal apparel. Thus furnished by the Egyptians themselves with costly ornaments befitting the great day of their deliverance[67], the whole host of the Israelites, numbering 600,000 men capable of bearing arms, besides women and children and a mixed multitude from the lower orders of theEgyptians, went forth from Rameses, and in the darkness and cool of the night pursued their way (Ex. xii. 37, 38).

The nearest route to Canaan would have been the usual caravan route, which runs in a north-easterly direction along the coast of the Mediterranean, and would not have occupied more than a few days. But it would have brought the host into collision with the warlike and powerful nation of the Philistines, and for such an encounter they were as yet totally unfit. From Rameses, therefore, which was probably on the eastern skirts of the Delta in the Wady Tumeilat, they proceeded in a southerly course, and after a day’s journey halted for the first time at Succoth (Ex. xii. 37), the place of booths, “formed by the luxuriant foliage of tamarisk, sycamore, and palm” at the verge of the cultivated land of Egypt. The next day’s halt was at Etham in the edge of the wilderness (Ex. xiii. 20). At this point the Lord Himself in an outward and visible form assumed the direction of their march, appearing by day in a Pillar of Cloud, and by night in a Pillar of Fire. Such a miraculous intervention was indeed needed to confirm the faith of the host, for instead of being conducted round the northern extremity of the Red Sea, so as to escape with all speed beyond reach of their Egyptian oppressors, they were commanded to turn and encamp before Pihahiroth (the place of sedge), between Migdol (a frontier Watchtower) and the western side of the Red Sea over against Baal-zephon. Here they had scarcely encamped, when lifting up their eyes the Israelites discerned the terrible horses and chariots of Pharaoh pursuing after them. Astonished that the people had not made good their flight into Asia, and deeming them entangled in the land and shut in by the wilderness, the monarch had directed all his forces to give chase to the fugitives.In wild alarm the Israelites cried out to Moses, and already complained of their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt. But the faith of their leader was not shaken. He bade the trembling, panic-stricken host stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.

They had not long to wait. For at this moment the Angel of God, who went before the host of Israel in the Pillar of Cloud and Fire, stationed himself behind them so as to deepen the gloom in which the Egyptians were advancing, and afford light and encouragement to the Israelites. Simultaneously, Moses advanced towards the Red Sea, either at the present fords of Suez, or at some point higher up, and stretched over it his rod. Thereupon a strong East wind began to blow, the waters were divided, the bottom of the sea was exposed, and amidst walls of water standing up on either side of them on their right hand and on their left, the caravan of the Israelites defiled in long procession. All night the wondrous passage continued, and as the morning broke they had safely landed on the further shore. Meanwhile their foes, determined to prevent the second escape of their prey, had rushed on amidst the pitchy darkness that surrounded them into the same awful pass. But, at the morning watch, when they had reached the midst of the sea, the Lord looked upon them from the Pillar of Fire and of the Cloud, and troubled their hosts, and caused their heavy chariot-wheels to sink in the sand, so that they drave them heavily. In wild confusion they shouted to one another to turn back, but it was too late. Again the hand of Moses was uplifted, and straightway the waters, till now congealed from their lowest depths (Ex. xv. 8), began to break and give way, and the sea to return to his strength. All efforts to escape were fruitless, fast and furious the sea swept on, the engulphing waves closed over them, horse and chariot and horseman sanklike lead in the mighty waters. Then from the Israelitish leader, and the host which had stood still and seen the deliverance Jehovah had wrought for them, there burst forth a noble song of praise and thanksgiving, while Miriam his sister, and her women, accompanied them with timbrels and dances. Together they sang the praises of Him who had triumphed gloriously, who had cast Pharaoh’s chariots and his host into the sea, and drowned his chosen captains in the waves, whose right hand become glorious in power had dashed in pieces the enemy, who had blown with His wind, and gathered the waters with the blast of His nostrils, and in His mercy led forth the people which He had redeemed. (Ex. xv. 1–19. Comp. Ps. lxxvii. 16–19.)

Thus, at length, the word of the Most High, which He spake to the patriarch Abraham at least 400 years before, was fulfilled. The seed of the Patriarch had grown into a great nation; they had been strangers in a land that was not theirs; they had suffered cruel affliction and degradation; but the oppressing nation had been judged, and with much substance the oppressed had come forth. The jewels of silver and gold and the festal apparel, which their late tyrants had forced upon them, well became this their national birthday. Once slaves, they were now free; once a degraded tribe, they were now an independent people. They had left behind them Egypt with its grinding tyranny, and its memories of years of suffering. They had been baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea (1 Cor. x. 2), their faces were set towards a Promised Land, their hopes fastened on a glorious Future.

CHAPTER IV.
THE JOURNEY FROM THE RED SEA TO REPHIDIM.
Exod. xv.–xix. B.C. 1491.

AND now the ransomed people commenced their journey. Skirting the eastern shore of the Red Sea, they “entered” the wilderness of Shur (or Etham, Num. xxxiii. 8), on the western base of the high table-land which forms the northern portion of the peninsula of Sinai[68]. A three days’ march brought them to a well, probably Ain Howâra, plentifully supplied, indeed,with water, but so bitter that they could not drink of it, whence they called it Marah (“bitterness”). This was the first test of their faith in their Invisible Leader, and they proved unequal to it. They murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? In his distress Moses turned to the Lord, who bade him cast a tree into the waters, and they were straightway sweetened. Leaving Marah they reached Elim (Wâdy Ghurundel, or Wâdy Useit), where were twelve wells of refreshing water, and three-score and ten palmtrees. Here they probably staid some days, and then passing between vast cliffs, probably at the mouth of the Wâdy Tayibeh, again came in sight of the deep blue waters of the Red Sea (Num. xxxiii. 10), where they encamped, and were able for the last time to discern the shadowy line of Egypt, the land of bondage. Leaving the sea-shore on the fifteenth day of the second month, they entered the shadeless desert of Sin (Ex. xvi. 1). By this time the supply of bread they had brought with them from Egypt was consumed, and the people burst forth into loud murmurings against Moses and Aaron. Would God, they cried, we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots, and did eat bread to the full. Thereupon Moses was commissioned to assure them of speedy relief, and that very evening dense flocks of quails, immense numbers of which are found in Arabia Petræa and the adjoining countries, covered the ground around their encampment (Ex. xvi. 13). Moreover the next morning, when the dew had gone up, behold! there lay on the face of the wilderness a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost, white, like coriander seed, the taste of which was like wafers made with honey. On seeing thiscurious substance, and not knowing its origin or properties, the Israelites exclaimed Man-hu, “What is it?” whence the substance hitherto unknown received the name of Manna (Ex. xvi. 14–36).

Two conditions were annexed to the enjoyment of this extraordinary and unlooked-for blessing. The people were instructed to gather only a sufficient quantity for the wants of a single day, an omer (about five pints) each man, and they were to leave none of it until the morning. Some of them, however, infringed both these conditions, and in both instances found cause to regret their conduct. Some took the trouble to gather more than the prescribed quantity, and found that in spite of their exertions he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack. Others did leave some of it until the morning, but they too found themselves disappointed, for it was in a state of decomposition and utterly unfit for food. On the sixth day, however, each man was surprised to find himself able to gather twice the usual quantity. This circumstance Moses explained to them. The seventh day was to be observed as a holy Sabbath (rest) unto the Lord, on that day no manna would be found lying on the ground, but on the sixth day they were to gather twice the usual quantity to make provision for the deficiency on the Sabbath. This command, however, was not universally obeyed. Some went out to gather on the Sabbath, but returned empty-handed. Thus the institution of the Day of Rest was presented as one of peculiar significance, and a preparation was made for the more precise legislation respecting it to be afterwards promulgated. In memory of this miraculous supply of the people’s needs, Moses directed that an omer of the Manna should be put aside in a vessel as a memorial to all future generations (Ex. xvi. 32–34; John vi. 31, 32; 1 Cor. x. 3; Heb. ix. 4).

After a halt of a week in the wilderness of Sin, and also at two intermediate stations, Dophkah and Alush (Num. xxxiii. 12–14), the positions of which are unknown, the Israelites reached Rephidim (“places of Rest”), most probably the Wâdy Feirân, and “the finest valley in the whole peninsula.” Two circumstances distinguished their encampment in this valley. In consequence of a second failure of water the murmurings of the people against their leader reached such a pitch, that they showed signs of a readiness even to stone him with stones. Again, however, the Lord interposed, and mercifully directed Moses to strike a rock in Horeb, i.e. one of the outer hills in the Sinaitic group, whereupon a copious stream flowed forth, and refreshed the thirsty host. In memory of the murmuring of the people, Moses named the spot Massah (“temptation”), and Meribah (“strife”) (Ex. xvii. 7).

The other circumstance which rendered memorable the encampment at this spot was of a different nature. One of the main streams of population occupying at this time the Sinaitic Peninsula, was the powerful tribe of Amalek. Their settlements extended from the northern part of the peninsula, even to the borders of Palestine. They were descended from Esau, and were governed by a chief, who bore the title, by some deemed hereditary, of Agag, the “Burner” or “Destroyer.” (Comp. Num. xxiv. 7; 1 Sam. xv. 8, 9.) Regarding the encampment of the Israelites in the rich and fertile valley of Rephidim with no friendly feelings, they mustered their forces, and treacherously falling upon their exhausted rear, smote the hindmost of them and the feeble amongst them, when they were faint and weary (Deut. xxv. 17–19). To repel this attack Moses directed a young man, whose name is here for the first time mentioned, Joshua, or as he was now called Hoshea (salvation), the son of Nun, of the tribe ofEphraim, to select a body of men, and go forth to meet Amalek in the valley. Meanwhile he himself ascended the hill, whence, probably, the refreshing streams had issued, with the rod of God in his hand, and accompanied by Aaron and Hur. There within sight of the battle in the valley below, he stood and stretched forth his hands in supplication to heaven. So long as his hands remained thus uplifted, the Israelites made good their superiority over the foe, but as often as from weariness his hands drooped Amalek prevailed. For a long time the contest seemed undecided. At length Aaron and Hur, seeing Moses wearied with his exertions, took a stone and placed it under him, and stayed up his hands in the attitude of supplication, till the sun went down, by which time Amalek had sustained a total defeat, and been smitten with the edge of the sword. This victory and the circumstances leading to it were too important to be forgotten. On the summit of the hill, where he had stood in the attitude of prayer, Moses erected an altar, which he called Jehovah-Nissi (the Lord is my Banner), and, by the Divine direction, inscribed in a book the account of Amalek’s attack, and rehearsed it in the ears of Joshua. Their treacherous conduct had placed them under the same ban as the nations of Canaan, and the Lord would utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven (Ex. xvii. 14; 1 Sam. xv. 2, 3; 2 Sam. viii. 12).

Not long afterwards, Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, having heard all that the Lord had done for his kinsman, and of the wonderful deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt, left his tents among the Midianites and came to meet him, with his daughter Zipporah, and her two sons Gershom and Eliezer. After mutual salutation, the two passed into the tent, and Moses recounted to his father-in-law the marvels of the Exodus, the travail of the people by the way, and their late deliverancefrom the sword of Amalek. Jethro rejoiced at the recital, bestowed upon the Israelites his solemn blessing, and offered sacrifices to Jehovah, to which and the thanksgiving-feast that followed, Aaron the future high-priest, and all the elders of Israel were invited. On the morrow, perceiving Moses occupied from morning until evening with the administration of justice and the settlement of disputes among the people, Jethro ventured to remonstrate with him on the risk he incurred by undertaking unaided so heavy a burden. He suggested that judges, rulers, and elders, able men, such as feared God, and hated covetousness, should be appointed, who should at stated seasons see justice done between man and man, and reserve only the weightier matters for the attention of Moses himself. His wise advice was adopted, and men were duly appointed to preside over every ten, every fifty, every hundred, and every thousand of the people, and thus equalize the burden hitherto sustained by Moses alone (Ex. xviii. 1–27).

CHAPTER V.
SINAI AND THE GIVING OF THE LAW.
Exod. xix. xx. B.C. 1491.

AT length the halt at Rephidim came to an end. In the third month (Ex. xix. 1), the Israelites once more set out in a southerly direction, and after ascending winding valleys and rugged passes and staircases of lofty rocks rising one above the other in long succession, reached a level plain (probably Er-Raheh)[69], in front of which “towered the massive cliffs of Sinai,” rising “like a huge altar in front of the whole congregation.” Here in a spot where they could find water and pasture fortheir flocks and herds, they pitched their tents before the Mount (Ex. xix. 2). The natural aspect of everything around them was of a character calculated to exert a most solemnising influence upon their feelings. They had reached a kind of “natural sanctuary, not made with hands,” which for magnificence and grandeur far exceeded any of those massive Egyptian temples, on which their eyes had rested by the green valley of the Nile. Far removed from the stir and confusion of earthly things[70], amidst a scene of desolate grandeur and a silence unbroken even by the sound of waters or the trickling of rills down the mountain gorges[71], they experienced everything that the natural influence of scenery and association could effect towards fitting their minds for the great and sublime transactions now about to be enacted between them and the Almighty. They were about to receive direct communication from the Lord of all the earth, and to learn why with an outstretched arm, and signs and great wonders, they had been delivered from the bondage of Egypt, and thus led forth into the wilderness.

By way of preparation for the great scene, Moses left the congregation encamped on the plain, and proceeded up the winding steep ascent of Sinai. On reaching the summit, the Lord called unto him, and made known His intention of renewing the patriarchal Covenant, which, though it might seem to have been forgotten during the weary years of bondage in Egypt, had never been disannulled (Gal. iii. 17), and was now to be solemnly republished. Like all Covenants, it contained a stipulation and a promise. If Israel would obey the Voice of Him, who had delivered them fromEgypt, and borne them on eagles’ wings, and brought them to Himself (Ex. xix. 4), if they would submit themselves to His laws, and keep His commandments, then, though all the earth was His, yet should they be a peculiar treasure unto Him above all people. Jehovah “would enter into a special relation towards them, He would undertake the duties and claim the privileges of sovereignty,” while they should be unto Him a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. It was not a single and peculiar order that was to be elevated to the high position of a member of the priest-kingdom, as was the case in Egypt. Every Israelite was to sustain this relation, and in the midst of a world given up to idolatry, was called to preserve the knowledge of the one true God, and exhibit to the nations the spectacle of a people walking in the ways of Holiness, Righteousness, and Truth. The conditions of this Covenant Moses made known to the Elders and people of Israel; he laid before them all the words which the Lord commanded Him, and when they had voluntarily agreed to obey them, he returned with their reply to the Lord, and was told of the intention of Jehovah to come unto him in a thick cloud, that the people might hear him, and believe him for ever (Ex. xix. 9).

Three days, therefore, were now devoted to preparatory and ceremonial ablutions, during which the people were commanded to abstain from all sensual and worldly enjoyments. Then bounds were set round the mountain on which a God of Holiness was about to appear, lest any of the people should ascend or even touch it. Of any infringement of this prohibition death was denounced as the certain penalty, and that not inflicted in the usual way, lest the executioners should themselves be polluted, but from a distance with stones and arrows (Ex. xix. 12, 13; Heb. xii. 20). At length the morning of the third day dawned, and the awfulsilence of the mountain-sanctuary was broken by peals of thunder, which echoed and re-echoed amidst the rocky gorges, while flashes of lightning lit up the peaks of Sinai, and revealed by their contrast the pitchy darkness and the thick cloud which had settled upon the mountain-top. Presently the Voice as of a Trumpet (comp. Rev. i. 10, iv. 1), sounded exceeding loud, audible even above the crash of the thunder, so that every soul in the camp trembled. This was the signal God had made known to Moses, who straightway led forth the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the nether part of the mount, which appeared altogether on a smoke, like the smoke of a furnace, enshrouding a mysterious flame in which the Lord descended (Ex. xix. 18). Again the Trumpet pealed with a long-continued blast, and waxed louder and louder, and Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice, summoning him to meet Him on the top of Sinai. Arrived there, he was commanded again to warn the people, and even the priests, against drawing too near, or breaking through the bounds that had been set about the mount for the purpose of indulging any profane gaze, and so incurring the inevitable penalty of death (Ex. xix. 21). Moses therefore returned to the awestruck crowd on the plain below, and renewed the solemn warning. Then from out of the midst of the fire, and the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a great voice (Deut. v. 22), Jehovah Himself spake to the assembled host face to face, and proclaimed the Ten fundamental Words of the law of the Covenant. Not as the Lord of the universe, or the Creator of all things, did the Most High now reveal Himself to the people, but as their Redeemer, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and from the house of bondage (Ex. xx. 2). (I) Beside Him, therefore, they were to have no other god; (II) of Him they were tomake no representation, or construct any graven image, or any likeness in the form of anything either in the heaven above or the earth beneath, or the waters under the earth; (III) for His Name they were to entertain the deepest reverence, nor profane it by taking it in vain; (IV) His Day, the seventh Day, the Day of rest, they were ever to observe; six days they might labour, and do all their work, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath of the Lord their God, no work might be done by the head of the family, or his son, or his daughter, his manservant, or his maidservant, his cattle, or the stranger sojourning within his gates. Such was the duty of the Israelite towards God. But now also the Almighty proclaimed man’s duty towards his neighbour. He enjoined and connected with a special promise of temporal prosperity (V) filial Reverence for Parents, and forbade (VI) Murder, (VII) Adultery, (VIII) Theft, (IX) False Witness, and (X) Covetousness (Ex. xx. 1–17).

These were the Ten Words, the fundamentals of the Divine Law, under which the Israelites were henceforth called to live, and which they were to accept as the charter of their constitution. But so great was their terror, when they heard God thus speaking to them face to face, that they fled, and standing afar off implored Moses to intercede with the Almighty that they might no more hear His voice, lest they should die. Go thou near, said they, and hear all that the Lord our God shall say, and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee, and we will hear it and do it (Deut. v. 27). Their request found favour in the sight of Jehovah, and Moses was now solemnly appointed as the Mediator between the Israelites and God. At the same time, the Lord intimated that He would raise up a still greater Prophet than Moses, from the midst of the Israelites, yet like unto him, that He would put His words in His mouth, and Heshould speak unto them all that He commanded (Deut. xviii. 13–19). Accordingly in his capacity of Mediator, Moses now returned up the mountain, and ascended into the thick darkness that still abode upon it for the purpose of receiving the further commands of Jehovah. After remaining there for some time, he came back to the people. They had on their part already agreed to enter into covenant with God. But it was necessary that this Covenant should now be solemnly ratified by them, its provisions read in their hearing, and formally accepted as the basis of their constitution. Accordingly Moses first wrote all the words that Jehovah had spoken in a book, probably a papyrus-roll, and then, having built an altar at the foot of the mount and set up twelve pillars, he caused calves and goats to be slain as burnt-offerings and peace-offerings by the hands of certain selected youths. In the ears of the assembled people he next read every word of the Law, and when these conditions of the Covenant had been formally accepted by them, he took the blood of the victims already slain, together with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop (Heb. ix. 19–21), sprinkled one half of the blood on the altar, and the roll containing the Covenant-conditions, and the other half on the people, saying as he did so, Behold the blood of the Covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.

But one portion only of the ceremony was complete. The victims had yielded up their life. The blood, the source of life, had been sprinkled on the altar and accepted by Jehovah. It was now necessary that the sacrificers should join in the Covenant-feast. To celebrate this, Moses, accompanied by Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy elders, as representatives of the people, ascended to a level spot near the summit of Sinai. There they saw the glory of the God of Israel, under whose feet there was, as it were, a paved workof a sapphire-stone, and the body of heaven in its clearness. But instead of suffering any harm from such close proximity to the majesty of the Supreme, they ate and drank in His presence of the Covenant-feast, and thereby were assured of His mercy and loving-kindness (Ex. xxiv. 9–11).

CHAPTER VI.
MOSES IN THE MOUNT—THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE CALF.
Exod. xxiv.–xxxiv. B.C. 1491.

THUS the Covenant was formally ratified, and the nation solemnly devoted itself to the service of the God of Israel. Further revelations, however, awaited Moses, and after committing the charge of the people to Aaron and Hur (Ex. xxiv. 14), he again went up into the mount accompanied only by Joshua, his minister and attendant. After an interval of six days the voice of God summoned him to ascend alone yet higher into the midst of the cloud that still overhung the mount, and for forty days and forty nights he there remained in mysterious converse with Jehovah. During this period the Lord showed him in vision a representation of the sanctuary (Heb. viii. 5), which He required should be the solemn place of meeting between Him and the people, and gave him the necessary instructions for its erection (Ex. xxv.–xxviii.), together with full particulars respecting the order of its services and ritual (Ex. xxix. xxx.), as also the names of the two men who were to be employed in building it, viz. Bezaleel of the tribe of Judah, and Aholiab of the tribe of Dan (Ex. xxxi. 1–11). At the same time Moses received two tables of stone, on which the Ten Commandments had been written by the finger of God.

While, however, the Israelitish leader had beenengaged in solemn converse with the Supreme, a far different scene had been going on in the plain below. His prolonged absence had filled the Israelites with doubt and perplexity. When the glory of the Lord descended upon Sinai, they had, indeed, felt the mountain quake, they had heard the thunder roar, they had seen the lightning flash, but of Jehovah Himself they had beheld no form or similitude. Now to believe in One who did not, like the gods of every other nation round about, reveal Himself under any palpable figure, was not easy for men who had so long lived amidst the fascinations of the idolatrous rites of Pagan Egypt. As weeks therefore passed away, and still no sign appeared of the return of their leader, the people began to lose their trust in Him whom they had promised to obey. They wished to break up their long encampment; but who would go before them, and guide them in the way? Yearning therefore for some visible representative of Jehovah, and possibly yielding to the suggestions of some of the Egyptians amongst the mixed multitude in the camp, they gathered themselves together before Aaron, with the petition that he would make them gods to go before them, for as for Moses, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, they knew not what was become of him. Unable to stem the popular clamour, and taking refuge in an unworthy expediency, Aaron bade them bring him the golden earrings of their wives, their sons, and their daughters, and of these he fashioned a calf, probably according to the well-known form of the Egyptian Apis or Mnevis, whose worship the people must often have witnessed during their sojourn in the Nile Valley. Then building an altar he proclaimed a three days’ festival to Jehovah. Accordingly, with the earliest dawn of the following day, the people arose, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings before the image, exclaiming,These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, and concluded the ceremony with one of those licentious orgies, accompanied by song and dance, which were so common amongst heathen nations (Ex. xxxii. 4; 1 Cor. x. 7).

It was while they were in the very act of celebrating this idolatrous festival that Moses, accompanied by Joshua, returned from the presence of the nation’s invisible King. He had already received Divine intimation of the apostasy of the people, and in his capacity of Mediator had already interceded in their behalf. Now with the two tables of the Law in his hands he descended the Mount. To the ear of his companion the noise of the host, as it ascended upwards from the valley below, sounded like the noise of war in the camp. But Moses knew otherwise. It is not the noise of them that shout for the mastery, he replied, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome, but the noise of them that sing do I hear. Then as he drew near the camp, and beheld with his own eyes the heathenish orgies that were going on, his feelings overmastered him; his anger waxed hot, and he cast the Tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the Mount. Next advancing towards the senseless image, he seized it, burnt it with fire, reduced it to powder[72], strewed the ashes on the neighbouring brook of Horeb, and compelled the people to drink thereof. Then after sternly rebuking his brother for conniving at so heinous a sin, he stationed himself at the entrance of the camp, and bade all, who still remained faithful to Jehovah, gird on their swords, and without regard to family tie or private friendship, slay the offenders from gate to gate with the edge of the sword. It was a severe but necessary test of the fidelity of the people, and the sonsof Levi were found faithful. With a zeal very dissimilar from that which had animated their forefather at Shechem (Gen. xxxiv. 25, 26), instead of siding with Aaron, though their tribal leader, they arose and slew about 3000 of the offenders, thus effacing the blot on the memory of their tribe, and qualifying themselves for high functions in the sanctuary (Ex. xxxii. 25–29).

In order to make an atonement for the people’s sin, Moses, on the next day, re-ascended the mount, and solemnly interceded with the Almighty on their behalf. Standing in the gap (Ps. cvi. 23) between a justly offended God and an erring nation, he offered, if no other way of forgiveness was possible, freely to surrender his own life, and to suffer the blotting out of his own name from God’s Book. Eventually his intercession prevailed. The Almighty promised that the nation should not be cut off, and that He would send His Angel before them, who should lead them into the land promised to their forefathers. But further punishment certainly awaited them; in the day of His visitation, He would visit their sin upon them, an earnest of which they speedily experienced in the shape of plagues (Ex. xxxii. 35), with which the Lord plagued the people, because of their sin in turning His glory into the similitude of a calf that eateth hay (Ps. cvi. 20).

The announcement of Moses that their journey into the Promised Land was not to be suspended, but that Jehovah would not go up in their midst, was received by the people with much lamentation (Ex. xxxiii. 4). Their sorrow was accepted as a sign of repentance, and Moses caused his own tent to be pitched at a long distance without the camp, and named it the Tent, or Tabernacle of Meeting (Ex. xxxiii. 7). Then, accompanied only by Joshua, he passed through the long line of the people’s tents, at the doors of which they stood and watched him, and, as he entered his own, the Cloudy Pillar, which hitherto had rested on the top ofSinai, descended, and stood before it, and amidst the joyful reverence of the watching host, the Lord conversed with Moses, face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend (Ex. xxxiii. 11). The descent of the Cloudy Pillar, and its position at the entrance of the tent of Israel’s leader, though at a distance from the people, was a sign that his intercession had prevailed. In spite of their recent sin, Jehovah had not forgotten to be gracious, He would fulfil His promise, and the nation should be led into the land assured to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and every one, who sought the Lord, might draw nigh, and consult Him through His servant Moses in the appointed place of meeting.

Emboldened by this measure of success, Moses expressed a desire, since he was the ordained leader of the people, and had found grace in the sight of God, that he might be permitted to behold the essential Glory of Him, with whom he was privileged to speak face to face (Ex. xxxiii. 13). He asked for more than he, or any other finite creature, could endure. The Face—the essential Majesty—of Jehovah no man could see and live. But if he ascended the mount on the morrow, and took precautions that no man or beast appeared in sight, and brought with him two fresh tables of stone hewn out of the rock, the Lord promised that he should see so much of His Glory as mortal eye could bear. Accordingly on the morrow with two fresh-hewn tables he ascended, and awaited the mysterious revelation. Every precaution had been taken; no man was allowed to be seen throughout all the mount, no flock or herd was suffered to feed before it (Ex. xxxiv. 3). Alone, unattended even by the faithful Joshua, the accepted mediator between the people and their invisible King stood in a cleft of the rock. And while he stood “covered with Jehovah’s hand,” the Lord passed by and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodnessand truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and fourth generation. As Moses listened to this proclamation of the incommunicable attributes of the Most High—“Justice and Mercy, Truth and Love”—like Elijah after him in a cleft of the same jagged rocks (1 K. xix. 9–13), he bowed his head towards the earth and worshipped, and interceded for a more complete renewal of the broken covenant between Jehovah and His people. His prayer was heard. The Covenant was once more renewed, and for a second period of forty days and forty nights Moses remained in the Divine Presence, and received fresh instructions respecting the moral and ceremonial laws of the Theocracy.

At the close of this period, with the two fresh Tables, inscribed with the Ten Words, he again returned to the people. On this occasion, he retained more permanent marks of the awful converse he had been permitted to hold. Aaron and the elders of the people were afraid to approach him, for the skin of his face shone with a celestial radiance, and the reflection of Jehovah’s glory gilded his brow. The lawgiver himself, not aware of the change that had come over his features, called unto them, and at length emboldened to approach, they heard at his mouth all the commands of God. But the unearthly splendour was not permanent. Lest, therefore, the people should behold the fading away of this visible credential of his interview with the Supreme, Moses was in the habit of placing a veil upon his face whenever he departed from them (Comp. 2 Cor. iii. 13)[73], but removed it as often as he was permitted to behold the presence of the Lord, and receive fresh renewals of the celestial radiance.

BOOK IV.
THE MOSAIC WORSHIP AND POLITY.

CHAPTER I.
THE TABERNACLE.
Exod. xxxvi.–xl. B.C. 1490.

THE encampment of the Israelites before Sinai continued for more than a year (Num. i. 1). At this point, then, it will be convenient to group together and consider the most important of those ordinances which they now received, and the chief features of the constitution under which they were called to live.

The purpose for which the Jewish nation was raised up was of the most momentous character. In the midst of surrounding idolatry and moral degeneracy, they were called to preserve intact the doctrine of the Unity of God, to be the guardians of His gracious promises of Redemption, and to exhibit to the world holiness (See Rom. ix. 4, 5).

The doctrine of the Divine Unity was the kernel of the Mosaic law, and as such was defended by the sternest and most rigorous enactments. The Israelites were forbidden even to mention the names of the gods of the Canaanite nations (Ex. xxiii. 13); they were commanded to burn or destroy their images, their altars, their sacred groves (Ex. xxiii. 24; xxxiv. 13); they were to deem accursed the precious metals of which their idols were composed (Deut. vii. 25), and on no pretence whateverwere they to conclude any treaty or make any marriage with them (Deut. vii. 2, 3). Relapse into idolatry was to be regarded as the greatest crime, and whether committed by a city or an individual was to be punished with unrelenting severity. In the latter case, death by stoning was the inevitable penalty; in the former, all the inhabitants were to be put to the sword, the whole spoil was to be collected into a heap and burnt, and a solemn curse was to be pronounced against any one who attempted to rebuild it (Deut. xiii. 6–18). No less vigorous were the enactments against the construction of any representation of the true God under any form or similitude, whether of man or animal, of bird or fish or star.

But while all idolatrous forms of worship were thus rigorously forbidden, the Almighty condescended to make known to His people the way in which He was willing to receive their adoration. Stooping to the infirmities of a nation just delivered from degrading bondage, He took them by the hand, and provided for the wants of their religious nature in a way marvellously adapted to their native genius and character, as also to their previous habits and modes of thought.

And first, that the Israelites might have a visible assurance of the Divine presence in their midst, a sanctuary was to be erected, not according to any model suggested by the people themselves, but according to a Divine pattern shown to Moses in the Mount (Ex. xxv. 9; Heb. viii. 5). The Patriarchs had their pillars of stone (Gen. xxviii. 18, 19), or the shade of the consecrated grove (Gen. xxi. 33). The Egyptian had his huge colossal temples, built of vast granite blocks, or hewn out of the solid rock. Not such was to be the sanctuary of Jehovah amongst a people journeying through a wilderness to a Promised Land. As the nomad chief had his tent in the midst of his tribe, so Jehovah, as theHead of the Hebrew pilgrim-nation, ordained that a Tent or Tabernacle should be erected for Him, where He might meet and speak unto His people, and they might draw nigh to Him. I will sanctify, said God, the Tabernacle of meeting, ... there will I meet with ... and will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God, and they shall know that I am the Lord their God (Ex. xxix. 42–46; xxx. 6, 36).

In the erection of this Pavilion-Temple every member of the nation was invited to take a part, and to contribute either the gold and jewels of which the Egyptians had been spoiled, or the arts which, as we have seen, many of the Israelites had learnt from them. While, therefore, the superintendence of the work was entrusted to two skilful artificers, Bezaleel of the tribe of Judah, and Aholiab of the tribe of Dan (Ex. xxxi. 2, 6; xxxv. 34), many of the congregation contributed offerings of gold and silver and brass, of blue and red and crimson, of fine linen, and goat-skins, and ram-skins dyed red. Others were despatched in different directions throughout the fertile valley where they were encamped, to fell the Shittah or Acacia tree, which grew abundantly in the neighbourhood of Sinai, and was exactly adapted by its durability and lightness for the construction of a moveable tent, and while the workmen prepared it for its different purposes, the women employed themselves diligently in weaving and spinning blue and crimson hangings, thus consecrating the arts which they had learnt, while serving as bondslaves in the houses of the princes of Egypt (Ex. xxxv. 20–35).

(A) The Area, or Court, within which the Tabernacle stood, was an oblong square, 100 cubits[74] in length by 50 in breadth, formed by curtains of fine linen5 cubits in height, hanging from pillars of wood with capitals overlaid with silver and furnished with sockets of brass. These pillars, 20 on each longer side and 10 on each shorter, were held together by means of silver rods attached by silver hooks, and were fastened into the ground by means of pegs of brass. The entrance[75] was from the east, so as to catch the rays of the rising sun. Here the curtains extended only 15 cubits from each corner, and the intervening space with its 4 pillars formed the entrance, and was overhung with curtains of fine twined linen, of the richest and most brilliant colours, blue and purple and scarlet.

In a line with the Entrance and the Tabernacle itself stood (a) The Altar of Burnt-sacrifice, and (b) The great Laver for purification.

(a) The Altar of Burnt-offering[76] (called in Malachi i. 7, 12, the table of the Lord) was in form a square, 5 cubits long, 5 broad, and 3 high, and was constructed of hollow boards of acacia-wood overlaid with brass (Ex. xxvii. 4, 5). So long as the Tabernacle was stationed in any one place, these were probably filled with earth, which thus formed the upper side or surface, on which the sacrifices were offered. Each corner of the altar was furnished with horns of acacia-wood overlaid with brass; to these the victims were fastened, and on them their blood was sprinkled at the consecration of the priests, and the sacrifice of the sin-offering (Ps. cxviii. 27; Ex. xxix. 12; Levit. iv. 7, 18, 25). From each side projected a horizontal ledge, to the outer edge of which was attached a perpendicular grating of brass, resting like the Altar upon the ground, for the purpose of catching any portions of the sacrifice or the fuel that might fall. The ledge, on which the priests officiated, was approached by a slope of earth, for the Law forbade the construction of steps leading up to the altar (Ex. xx. 26). The implements used in the sacrifices, such as pans and shovels for collecting and removing the ashes, basins for receiving the blood, fleshhooks for turning the pieces of flesh, were all of brass (Ex. xxvii. 3; see 1 Sam. ii. 13, 14).

(b) The great Laver for purification stood between the Altar of Burnt-offering and the Tabernacle. It was made of the brass from the metal mirrors belonging to the women who served at the door of the Tabernacle (Ex. xxxviii. 8), and was probably of a circular form standing on a basis or foot. In it the flesh of the victims was washed, as also the hands and feet of the priests, before they performed any holy function (Ex. xxx. 18–21).

(B) The Tabernacle itself was entered, at its eastern side, through a magnificent curtain, 10 cubits in width, supported on five pillars (Ex. xxvi.). Its dimensions inside were 30 cubits in length, 10 in breadth, and 10 in height. It was formed of planks of acacia-wood overlaid with gold, fixed into the ground by means of two tenons, each fitting into a socket of silver, resembling the sharp end of a spear. At the top they were united by bars of acacia-wood, 5 bars to each piece, passing through golden rings. The roof was formed of several sets of curtains; the innermost, 10 in number, formed of fine twined linen of various colours, and adorned with cherubic figures of curious workmanship; next to these were 11 curtains of goats’ hair; then one of rams’ skins with the wool on dyedred; and lastly, another of badgers’, or, more probably, seals’ skins[77].

The Tabernacle consisted of two portions, (a) The Holy Place, and (b) The Holy of Holies (Ex. xxvi. 33, 34: and comp. Heb. ix. 2, 3).

(a) The Holy Place, 20 cubits in length and 10 in height and width, was divided from the Holy of Holies by a veil of the most costly materials and the most splendid colours. Without any opening to admit the light from above, it was illumined only by a Golden Lamp or Candlestick, with seven lights, fed with pure olive oil, kept burning day and night, and trimmed each morning by a priest with golden snuffers, who carried away the snuff in golden dishes. From the base, on which the lamp rested, rose a shaft dividing itself on either side into three branches, so that it had seven arms, each adorned with calyxes of almond flowers, apples, and buds of pomegranates or lilies (Ex. xxv. 31; xxxvii. 17–25; Heb. ix. 2).

Opposite the Golden Lamp was the Table of Shewbread (Ex. xxv. 23–29), made of acacia-wood, overlaid with gold, 2 cubits in length, 1 in breadth, and 1½ in height, and standing on 4 feet. It had a border to prevent the loaves from falling off, and was furnished with rings and staves for removal. Belonging to it were cups or spoons for incense, bowls for wine, dishes for bringing and removing the loaves, all of gold. These loaves, called also bread of the face, being set before the face of the Lord (Levit. xxiv. 5–9), were twelve in number, according to the number of the tribes. Baked of the finest meal, flat and thin, they were placed every Sabbath on the Table in 2 rows, 6 in each, and sprinkledwith incense, and accompanied with libations of wine in the golden bowls. Here they remained till the next Sabbath, when they were taken away and replaced by twelve fresh loaves, and eaten by the priests[78] in the Holy Place, out of which they might not be carried, the frankincense having been burnt as an oblation on the Altar of Sacrifice.

Between the Table of Shewbread and the Golden Lamp and immediately before[79] the veil separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies was the Golden Altar of Incense (Ex. xxx. 1–11). Made of acacia-wood, in shape a square, 1 cubit in length and breadth and 2 in height, and ornamented round the middle with a golden wreath, it was furnished, like the Altar of Burnt-offering, with horns, rings, and staves; but unlike it was wholly overlaid with gold. On it incense, carefully prepared of four different ingredients (Ex. xxx. 34–38), was placed by the officiating priest morning and evening, with live coals taken from the Altar of Burnt-offering, that the smoke of the incense might perpetually ascend before the Lord. Once a year its horns were sprinkled with the blood of the sin-offering of the Atonement, and on no other occasion, except when a sin-offering was presented for the High-priest or the congregation.

(b) The Holy of Holies, separated, as we have just said, from the Holy Place by a costly veil supported on a screen of 4 pillars, formed a perfect cube of 10 cubits in length, breadth, and height. While the Holy Place, though never penetrated by the daylight, wasillumined by the splendid Golden Lamp, the Holy of Holies was left in utter darkness, symbolical of Him whom no man hath seen, nor can see (1 Tim. vi. 16). Within this most sacred enclosure neither priests nor people as a body, but the High-Priest only, and that but once a year, ever entered. Here stood nothing but the Ark of the Covenant (Ex. xxv. 10–16). This was an oblong chest of acacia-wood overlaid with the purest gold within and without, 2½ cubits in length, 1½ in breadth, 1½ in height. It stood on 4 small feet, which were provided with 4 golden rings, through which staves of acacia-wood overlaid with gold were passed, and which when once inserted were never to be removed. Within it were placed[80] the two stone tables, on both sides of which the Decalogue had been inscribed. Round the top ran a crown or wreath of pure gold, and upon it was the Mercy-Seat, of the same dimensions as the Ark, made not of wood overlaid with gold, but entirely of pure gold. At either end of the Mercy-Seat rose two golden Cherubim, with outspread wings and faces turned towards each other, and eyes bent downwards, as though desirous to look into its mysteries (1 Pet. i. 12). Neither their size nor their form are distinctly described. By some they are thought to have been handed down by patriarchal tradition from those which were placed in Paradise (Gen. iii. 24); by others to have resembled Egyptian models; while Josephus (Ant. III. vi. 5) declares that they resembled no figures known to men, and that in his day their form was utterly lost. In Ezekiel (i. 5–13) we find them likened to compound figures with the head of a man, an ox, a lion, and an eagle, with four wings, two serving for flight, two to cover the body, and straight feet inflexible at the knee. It is not improbable that they representedthe manifold powers of nature—created life in its highest form—their overshadowing wings meeting as in perfect harmony, their eyes cast downwards towards the Divine Law, over which seemingly so rigid and unbending was the compassion of One forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin[81].

Note.
HISTORY OF THE TABERNACLE.

Such was the Pavilion-Temple which Moses constructed according to the pattern shown him in the Mount. The chief facts connected with its history are as follows.

i. During the wanderings in the wilderness it was the one place, where Jehovah “met His people,” and where from the ineffable glory above the mercy-seat He revealed His Will. There the Spirit came upon the 70 elders and they prophesied (Num. xi. 24, 25); thither Moses and Aaron were summoned on all important occasions, as on that of the rebellion of Miriam (Num. xii. 4), of the unfaithfulness of the spies (xiv. 10), of the rebellion of Korah (xvi. 19), of the sin of Meribah (xx. 6); there on the death of Moses his successor was solemnly appointed (Deut. xxxi. 14).

ii. During the conquest of Canaan it was, probably, moved from place to place, wherever the host of Israel was encamped.

iii. Afterwards it was brought to Shiloh (Josh. ix. 27; xviii. 1; xix. 51), on account, doubtless, of its secluded and central position, and as being within the territory of the powerful tribe of Ephraim, to which Joshua belonged, and here it remained during the entire period of the Judges (comp. Josh. xix. 51; xxii. 12; Judg. xxi. 21).

iv. But in the time of Eli, the licentiousness of his sons stained the sanctity of Shiloh, and degraded the Tabernacle almost to the level of a heathen temple (1 Sam. ii. 22), while the capture of the ark by the Philistines (1 Sam. iv. 22) still further dimmed its glories, and Samuel himself sacrificed at other places, Mizpeh (1 Sam. vii. 9), Ramah (ix. 12; x. 3), Gilgal (x. 8; xi. 15).

v. After this it was for some time settled at Nob (1 Sam. xx. 1–6), and thither also misfortune followed it: Saul murdered the priests (1 Sam. xxii. 11–19), and Abiathar fled with the sacred ephod to David (xxiii. 6).

vi. In the time of David and Solomon we find it at Gibeon (1 Chron. xvi. 39; xxi. 29), but the ark was now removed to Kirjath-jearim, and afterwards, on the capture of Jerusalem, to that city, where a new Tabernacle was constructed to receive it (1 Sam. vi. 17; 1 Chron. xv. 1). Its glory now waned more and more, it became connected with the worship of the high-places (1 Kings iii. 4), retained only the old altar of burnt-offering (1 Chron. xxi. 29), and eventually it seems to have been either taken down, or left to be forgotten and “vanish away[82].”

CHAPTER II.
THE PRIESTS.
Ex. xxviii. xxix. Lev. viii. ix. Num. iii. iv.

PRIOR to the Mosaic period, as has been already noticed[83], the head of each family and the firstborn appear to have exercised all kinds of government, ecclesiastical as well as civil, being both kings and priests in their own houses.

At the departure, however, from Egypt, it was declared that all the firstborn were specially sanctified to God in token of the mercy shown to them there (Ex. xiii. 2), and when Moses received the Divine commands concerning the construction of the Tabernacle, it was ordered that from the children of Israel Aaron and his sons should be specially selected to minister in the priests’ office (Ex. xxviii. 1). Subsequently, when the whole tribe of Levi displayed such signal zeal on the occasion of the construction of the golden calf (Ex. xxxii. 26), that tribe was separated for the service of the sanctuary, and accepted in the place of the firstborn,as the royal guard to wait on Israel’s King (Num. i. 47–54; iii. 5–13).

But though the whole tribe was set apart for these important purposes, a strictly prescribed order regulated its particular functions to each branch, of which there were three, (a) The Levites, (b) The Priests, (c) The High-Priest.

(a) The Levites entered on their duties at the age of 30 (Num. iv. 23, 30, 35), and were consecrated, not as the priests, by anointing and investiture, but by a ceremony of washing accompanied by sacrifices, after which the elders laid their hands upon them, and Aaron presented them as a wave-offering before the Lord, in token that they were offered to the Lord by the congregation for the service of the sanctuary, and handed over by Him to the Priests[84]. Thus occupying a middle place between the people, who were all ideally a kingdom of priests, and the higher sacerdotal orders, they might approach nearer to the Tabernacle than the other tribes, but they might not offer sacrifice, nor burn incense, nor handle the holy vessels of the Sanctuary, till they were concealed from view (Num. iv. 15).

The Levites, then, were the assistants of the priests, and consisted of three families or sections, the sons of Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

i. The Kohathites held the first rank, as being the family to which Aaron belonged. It was their duty, on the removal of the Tabernacle, to bear all the sacred vessels, including the Ark itself, but not before the priests had concealed them from the profane gaze with a dark blue pall (Num. iii. 31; iv. 6, 9, 15; Deut. xxxi. 25).

ii. The Gershonites were charged with the removal of the curtains, veils, and tent-hangings (Num. iv. 22–26).

iii. To the Merarites was entrusted the heavier portion of the Tabernacle furniture, such as the boards, pillars, and bars, and therefore with the Gershonites they were permitted to use the oxen and waggons contributed by the congregation, while the Kohathites were only suffered to remove the sacred vessels on their shoulders (Num. vii. 1–9). With this arrangement agreed their position in the encampment in the wilderness. While the place of honour on the east was occupied by the sons of Aaron, the Kohathites were on the south, the Gershonites on the west, the Merarites on the north.

In place of territorial possessions, the Levites received the tithe of the produce of land and cattle, of which they again gave one-tenth to the priests (Num. xviii. 24–26). At the close of the wanderings they would need a more fixed abode, and 48 cities with suburbs of pasture-land for their flocks and herds were assigned them. Of these the Levites had 35; Kohath 10; Gershon 13; Merari 12; while the remaining 13, including the six Cities of Refuge, were assigned to the Priests.

It was also designed that at the settlement of the nation in the Land of Promise their functions should be not only diffused as widely as possible, but should include others besides those of merely assisting the priests. They were to take the place of the old household priests, to share in all festivals and rejoicings (Deut. xii. 19; xiv. 26, 27; xxvi. 11), to preserve and transcribe the law (Deut. xvii. 9–12), and to read it publicly at the Feast of Tabernacles every seventh year (Deut. xxxi. 9–13).

(b) The Priests were consecrated to their office with far more imposing ceremonies than the Levites. After laying aside their old garments, they washed their bodies with pure water, were anointed with theholy oil, and then arrayed in their new vestments (Ex. xxix. 4–7). Themselves compassed about with infirmity, they needed to offer up sacrifice first for their own sins before they could intercede for others (Heb. v. 2; vii. 27). On the head therefore of a bullock they solemnly laid their hands, and thus symbolically transferred to it the guilt that clung to themselves; then in token of their entire devotion to their solemn calling, a ram was slain as a burnt-offering, and its blood sprinkled on the altar (Ex. xxix. 10–18; Lev. viii. 18, 19). Another ram was next slain as a peace-offering, and some of its blood was smeared on the tip of the right ear, the thumb of the right hand, the great toe of the right foot, in token of their intention to devote every member to the service of Jehovah; and finally, as they were not only to intercede for the guilt of the people, but to offer their praises and thanksgiving, sacrificial cakes of unleavened bread with portions of the sacrifice were placed in their hands, and these they waved before the Lord (Ex. xxix. 19–24).

The vestments they wore during their ministrations consisted of fine linen drawers, and over these a closely-fitting tunic or cassock, white, woven whole in one piece and broidered, reaching to the feet. This was confined round the waist by a girdle wrought with needle-work, exhibiting the three sacred colours, blue, purple, and scarlet, intermingled with white. Upon their heads they wore a linen tiara in the form of the calyx of a flower. In all their ministrations they seem to have been bare-footed.

Certain qualifications were essential before they could enter on the discharge of their duties. As the victim was required to be without blemish, so also was the sacrificer, and in Levit. xxi. 17–21 the defects are enumerated, which excluded from the priestly office. During their period of ministration they might drinkneither wine nor strong drink (Levit. x. 9); except in the case of the nearest relatives they might make no mourning for the dead (Levit. xxi. 1–5); or shave their heads, or, like the priests of heathen nations, “make cuttings in their flesh,” or otherwise mutilate themselves (Levit. xix. 28; 1 Kings xviii. 28). They were permitted to marry, but might not ally themselves with one of an alien race, or an unchaste woman, or one who had been divorced, or the widow of any one but a priest (Lev. xxi. 7, 14).

Their duties were to keep the fire ever burning on the altar of burnt-offering both day and night (Levit. vi. 12); to trim and feed with oil the golden lamp (Ex. xxvii. 20, 21); to offer morning and evening the regulated sacrifices at the door of the Tabernacle (Ex. xxix. 38–44); to lay the fresh shewbread on the table every seventh day (Lev. xxiv. 8); to blow the silver trumpets and proclaim all solemn days (Num. x. 1–10); to examine the lepers and pronounce whether they were clean or unclean (Lev. xiii.); to act as judges and expositors of the law, and teach the people the statutes of the Lord (Lev. x. 11; Deut. xxxiii. 10).

A distinct provision was made for their support, and consisted of (i) one-tenth of the tithes of the whole produce of the country paid to the Levites (Num. xviii. 21, 26); (ii) the loaves of shewbread (Levit. xxiv. 9); (iii) the firstfruits of oil, wine, and corn (Num. xviii. 12); (iv) the redemption-money for the firstborn of man or beast, five shekels a head, and also for everything devoted (Num. xviii. 14, 15); (v) the perquisites of the sacrifices, the flesh of the burnt-offerings, peace-offerings, and trespass-offerings, and especially the heave-shoulder and the wave-breast (Num. xviii. 8–14; Levit. x. 12–15); (vi) a fixed portion of the spoils taken in war (Num. xxxi. 25–47).

(c) The office of High-priest was conferred firston Aaron, then on his son Eleazar[85] and his descendants. At some period before the time of Eli, the succession passed to the line of Ithamar, and there continued till the time of Solomon, in whose reign it reverted to the line of Eleazar (1 Sam. ii. 35; 1 Kings ii. 35).

The same ceremonies accompanied the consecration of the High-priest as that of the priests, save that the anointing, which in the latter appears to have been confined to the sprinkling of their garments with the sacred oil, was more copious in his case, and the oil was poured upon his head (Lev. viii. 12; Ps. cxxxiii. 2).

The vestments of the High-priest were far more rich and splendid than those of the priests. Like the latter he wore the linen drawers, but in place of the closely-fitting tunic he wore the robe of the Ephod, which was all blue, of woven work, without sleeves, reaching down to the feet, and drawn over the head through an opening, which was fringed with a border of woven work to prevent its rending. The skirt of this robe was set with a trimming of pomegranates of the three sacred colours, blue, crimson, and purple, with a golden bell between each pomegranate, designed to give forth a tinkling sound as he went in and out of the holy place. Immediately above this robe was the Ephod itself, a short cloak consisting of two parts, one covering the back, and the other the breast and upper part of the body, wrought with colours and gold. The two halves were united on the shoulder with two onyx stones, on each of which were engraved the names of six of the tribes. It was gathered round the waist by a curious girdle of fine twined linen, adorned with gold, blue, purple, and scarlet. Just above the girdle, andattached to the Ephod by rings and ribbons of blue, was the Breast-plate, or the Breast-plate of Judgment. This, like the Ephod, was of cunning work, a square of a span breadth, formed double so as to make a bag, set with 12 precious stones, in 4 rows, each engraved with the name of one of the tribes. Within the Breast-plate was the Urim and the Thummim (Light and Perfection, Ex. xxviii. 15–30). Not a word in Scripture explains the meaning of these mysterious objects, but they were certainly employed in some way now unknown for ascertaining the Divine will (comp. 1 Sam. xxviii. 6; Judg. i. 1; xx. 18; 1 Sam. xiv. 3, 18; xxiii. 9; 2 Sam. xxi. 1). Some identify them with the twelve stones inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes, and suppose that “the illumination, simultaneous or successive, of the letters” guided the High-priest to the answer; others think that within the Breast-plate was a stone or a plate of gold inscribed with the name of Jehovah, and that by means of this he was enabled to discern the Divine Voice, as it proceeded from the glories of the Shechinah.

Like the other members of the order, the High-priest wore on his head a tiara, but attached to this by a blue ribbon was a gold plate, on which was engraved Holiness to the Lord (Ex. xxviii. 36–39; xxxix. 30).

Some of the functions of the High-priest were peculiar. (i) To him alone it appertained to enter the Holy of Holies on one day in the year, the day of Atonement, to sprinkle the blood of the sin-offering on the mercy-seat, and burn incense within the veil (Lev. xvi.). On this occasion he did not wear his full pontifical dress, but was arrayed entirely in fine white linen (Lev. xvi. 4, 32), a custom which afterwards seems to have undergone some change. (ii) To him alone it belonged to consult the Divine Oracle (Num. xxvii. 21), and preside over the Court of Judgment (Deut. xvii. 9).(iii) Even greater purity and blamelessness was required of him than of the other priests; he could marry none but a virgin in the first freshness of her youth (Lev. xxi. 13), and as illegitimacy was an absolute bar to the office, the importance attached to genealogies was great, and in these the name of the mother as well as father was registered.

The office lasted for life, but does not seem to have had any peculiar emoluments attached to it over and above those enjoyed by the Priests.

CHAPTER III.
THE SACRIFICES AND OFFERINGS.
Ex. xxix. xxx. Lev. i.–vi. Num. xv.

THE rite of sacrifice so universal in the ancient world came down to the Israelites from the earliest times, from the days of their forefathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the generations that lived before the Flood, and was regulated by Moses with the utmost precision.

One rule applied to all sacrifices. They could only be offered on the Great Brazen Altar of the Tabernacle. To offer them on high places, or spots selected by the caprice of the worshipper was expressly forbidden (Lev. xvii. 4; Deut. xii. 13, 14), though this rule appears to have been subsequently relaxed in the case of the prophets (1 Sam. xiii. 8–14; xvi. 1–5; 1 Kings xviii. 21–40).

Perhaps the simplest classification of sacrifices is that which arranges them under the heads of (I) Those offered without, and (II) Those offered with Blood.

I. Unbloody sacrifices will include (a) First-fruits and Tithes, (b) Meat- and Drink-offerings, (c) Incense.

(a) First-fruits and Tithes were presented by every Israelite to the priests in token of gratitude and humble thankfulness to Jehovah, and consisted of the produce of the land either in its natural state, as grain, fruit, grapes, wool, or prepared for human use, as meal, oil, new wine (Ex. xxiii. 19; Num. xviii. 12; Deut. xviii. 4). To the Levites also was paid the tenth part of all produce of the land and of cattle (Lev. xxvii. 30–33; Num. xviii. 21–24).

(b) Meat- and Drink-offerings generally accompanied each other. The Meat-offering was composed of fine flour seasoned with salt, and mingled with frankincense and oil, but without leaven. A portion of the flour and oil the priest placed upon the altar, together with all the frankincense, and there burnt them, the rest of the flour and oil becoming his own perquisite. Sometimes cakes of fine flour were offered with oil and salt, but without leaven or honey (Lev. ii. and vi. 14–23). A Drink-offering consisted of wine, which was poured at the foot of the altar; the quantity varying according to the victim, being for a lamb or kid a quarter of a hin (= 1 gallon, 2 pints); for a ram one-third, for a bullock one-half (Num. xv. 5, 7, 10; xxviii. 14). By these offerings, as by those of tithes and first-fruits, the Israelite acknowledged the undeserved bounty of Jehovah, and dedicated to Him the best of His gifts, flour the staff of life, wine the symbol of strengthening and refreshing, oil the symbol of richness. (Comp. Ps. civ. 15.)

The Meat-offering might be presented,

Either (1) by itself as a free-will offering, as in the instance of (i) the twelve unleavened cakes on the Table of Shew-bread, (ii) the sheaf of the first-fruits of barley on the second day of the Passover, (iii) the two wheaten loaves at Pentecost,

Or (2) together with the Burnt- and Thank-offering,but not with the Sin- or Trespass-offering; as (I) of public sacrifices, with (i) the daily morning and evening sacrifice, (ii) the Sabbath-offering, (iii) the offering at the new moon, (iv) on the great day of Atonement; (II) of private sacrifices, at (i) the consecration of priests and Levites, (ii) the cleansing of the leper, (iii) the termination of the Nazarite vow.

(c) Incense, the last example of an unbloody offering, accompanied every proper meat-offering, but was also offered daily on the golden altar in the Holy Place, and on the great day of Atonement was burnt in the Holy of Holies by the High-priest before the Ark. The greatest pains were taken in its preparation. It was compounded by the “art of the apothecary” of four ingredients beaten small[86], stacte, onycha, galbanum, and pure frankincense (Ex. xxx. 34–36), nor could any other kind be offered (Ex. xxx. 9). Desecration of this incense by using it for common purposes was to be punished with death (Ex. xxx. 38).

II. In reference to the second class of sacrifices, in which the life of a victim was taken and its blood poured upon the Altar, it is to be observed that these were limited to the herd, the flock, and all clean birds.All wild and unclean beasts were strictly excluded. The Israelite was to select only those animals which were most nearly connected with man, and of these, again, such as were most meek, innocent, pure, and valuable, such as oxen, sheep, goats, pigeons, and turtle-doves[87]. The selected victim was required to be perfect of its kind and without blemish, not less than eight days old, and usually a year. If it was blind, or broken, or maimed, or had any defect, as a wen or scab, it could not be offered (Lev. xxii. 20–27; Deut. xv. 21, 22; xvii. 1).

Such being the conditions respecting the victim, the offerer was required first to purify himself by ablutions, and then to bring the victim to the door of the Tabernacle, i.e. to the Great Brazen Altar of Burnt-offering in the court. There, whatever might be the precise kind of offering, he was to lay his hand on its head in token of surrender, dedication, and substitution, and then to slay it himself (Lev. i. 5). He had now performed his part, all the rest devolved upon the priest. He began by receiving the blood of the animal in a vessel, and then sprinkled it in different ways upon the Brazen Altar (Lev. iv. 6, 7, 25; v. 9), or, as we shall see, in some cases, on the Golden Altar of Incense, and, on one day in the year, on the Mercy-seat in the Holy of Holies. He then performed other ceremonies, which varied according to the nature of thesacrifice. But uniformly it was required (a) of the offerer, (i) to bring his victim to the altar, (ii) to lay his hand upon it, and (iii) to slay it; (b) of the priest, (i) to receive the blood in a vessel, and (ii) to sprinkle it upon the altar.

Of the bloody sacrifices the chief were (a) Burnt-offerings, (b) Peace-offerings, (c) Sin- and Trespass-offerings.

(a) In the case of the Burnt-offering, any kind of animal fit for sacrifice might be offered, but the victim was always required to be a male, and to be accompanied by a meat-offering. After presentation at the great altar, imposition of the hands of the sacrificer, and slaughtering, the priest sprinkled the blood upon the altar round about (Lev. i. 5, 11). The victim was then flayed, washed with water, and cut in pieces, and the parts thus divided were laid on the altar upon the wood, and entirely consumed by fire.

The burning by fire was the chief point in this class of offering, and “marked it as an expression of perpetual obligation to complete, sanctified, self-surrender to Jehovah[88].” Hence it was not presented, like the sin- and trespass-offerings, upon the commission of any particular sin, nor like the peace-offerings upon the acceptance of any special Divine mercies; it embodied the general idea of sacrifice, and in a sense represented the whole sacrificial institute. Every morning and evening, therefore, a lamb was sacrificed with its usual meat- and drink-offering as a burnt-offering on behalf of the whole covenant people, and the evening victim was to be so slowly consumed that it might last till the morning, an expressive symbol of that continual self-dedication to God which is the duty of man[89] (Ex. xxix. 38–44; Lev. vi. 9–13).

(b) Of Peace-offerings there were three kinds, representing various emotions of the offerer, the thank-offering, the freewill gift, and the vow (Lev. iii. 1–17; vii. 11–21, 28–36).

The nature of the offering was left to the sacrificer; it might be taken from the herd or from the flock, might be male or female, but not birds (Lev. iii. 1). Like the burnt-offering it was always accompanied by a meat-offering, which consisted of unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and leavened bread (Lev. vii. 12, 13).

The ritual of the Peace-offering was up to a certain point the same as that of the Burnt-offering. The sacrificer brought his victim to the Brazen Altar, laid his hands upon it and slew it, while the priest sprinkled the blood upon the altar; but after this there was a distinction. The victim was divided, and the priest laid upon the altar the fat of the kidneys, and the “lobe” or flap of the liver, and in the case of a sheep the fat tail, and burnt them with fire. He then separated the right shoulder and breast, and waved them before the Lord, and they became his portion which he was to eat in a clean place with his family and friends. The remaining portions of the victim were then restored to the sacrificer, who the same day feasted thereon, together with his whole family and his friends (Lev. vii. 15–21; xix. 6; xxii. 30).

This Sacrificial Feast was peculiar to the Peace-offerings, and indicated that the atonement was complete, that the sin was covered and cancelled which had separated the offerer from Jehovah, who now welcomed him to His table, and in this meal gave him a pledge of reconciliation. “To an Oriental mind two ideas were inseparably united in the notion of a meal; on the one hand, that of fellowship and friendship existing among the participators themselves, and also between them and the provider of the meal; and on the other hand, that of joy and gladness, so that even the highest and purest joy, viz. blessedness in the kingdom of heaven is described under the figure of a meal[90]” (Ps. xxiii. 5; xxxvi. 8; Matt. viii. 11; xxii. 2–13; Lk. xiv. 16). As the total consumption by fire on the altar was the culminating point in the burnt-offering, so this sacrificial feast was that of the peace-offering, which, therefore, whenever presented with other offerings, was invariably the last[91]. (Comp. Ex. xxiv. 5, 11; xxix. 1–32).

(c) The Sin- and Trespass-offerings were peculiar to the Mosaic Law, which was added on account of transgression (Gal. iii. 19), and deepened the knowledge and conviction of sin (Rom. vii. 7, &c.).

(a) The Sin-offering consisted of one animal only,and was not accompanied by a meat-offering. The victim if offered for the whole covenant people was a kid of the goats (Lev. xvi. 5, 9, 15; Num. xxviii. 15, 22, 30); for the priests and Levites at their consecration a young bullock (Ex. xxix. 11; Numb. viii. 8 ff.); for the High-priest on the great day of Atonement a young bullock (Lev. xvi. 3, 6, 11); for the purification of women after childbirth a young pigeon or turtle-dove (Lev. xii. 6, 8; comp. Lk. ii. 22, 24); for the cleansing of a leper or a leprous house a yearling ewe; or, in a case of poverty, a bird for the leper and two for the house (Lev. xiv. 13, 22–49); for an inadvertent transgression of some prohibition, (a) on the part of the whole congregation or the High-priest, a young bullock, (b) a prince, a he-goat, (c) a common man, a yearling ewe or kid (Lev. iv. 1–35).

The Ritual of the Sin-offering deserves attention. The offerer brought the victim to the great altar, laid his hand upon it with a confession of the sin and a prayer for its expiation, and then slew it. The priest then dipped his finger in the blood, and in the case of a prince or individual, sprinkled it seven times on the horns of the Brazen Altar (Lev. iv. 7, 18, 30, 34); in that of the High-priest and congregation seven times on the veil before the Ark, and seven times on the horns of the Golden Altar of Incense (Lev. iv. 6, 17, 25); on the great day of Atonement, the High-priest himself sprinkled it seven times on and before the Mercy-seat, and then seven times streaked with it the horns of the Altar of Incense (Lev. xvi. 14, 15, 19); the rest of the blood was poured on the ground before the Brazen Altar. After the sprinkling, the same portions were burnt on the altar, as in the case of the peace-offerings, and in ordinary cases the rest of the victim was eaten by the priest in the court of the Tabernacle with only the males of his family; but any vessels in which theflesh had been boiled were required, if earthenware, to be broken; if metal, to be carefully scoured (Lev. vi. 24–30). But in the case of the more important Sin-offerings, where the blood was sprinkled within the Holy Place, or the Holy of Holies, the entire carcase, except the altar-pieces, with the hide, entrails, &c., was conveyed to a clean place without the camp, and there burnt with fire (Lev. iv. 11, 12, 21; xvi. 27).

Except when offered for the whole people, or the priests and Levites at their consecration, Sin-offerings were presented as an atonement for sins of culpable weakness and ignorance, negligence and frailty, repented of by the unpunished offender, who was thus restored to his place in the commonwealth. They could not be offered for presumptuous, or deliberate and unrepented sins, such as wilful murder or adultery, for which the punishment of death was appointed (Num. xv. 30, 31; Deut. xvii. 12; and comp. Heb. x. 26).

(b) The Trespass- or Debt-offering, on the other hand, though closely connected with the Sin-offering and sometimes offered with it, as in the case of the leper (Lev. xiv. 12), was always offered for some special act of sin, and was regarded in the light of reparation to the Lord for a wrong done to Him. Hence it was presented for sins “in which the offence given, or the debt incurred by the misdeed, admitted of some sort of recompence, which could be actually estimated[92].”

The following cases will illustrate the occasions on which a trespass-offering could be presented. A leper, on the occasion of his cleansing, owed a debt-offering to Jehovah, for the time of his exclusion from the camp; the Nazarite for a temporary suspension of his vow by touching a dead body (Num. vi. 12); a man, who had inadvertently appropriated or made awaywith anything consecrated to the Lord (Lev. v. 15, 16), or unwittingly violated a Divine prohibition (Lev. v. 17, 18), or denied a trust or any damage sustained by the thing entrusted, or denied having found some lost article of property, or sworn falsely in such a matter (Lev. vi. 2 ff.). In these cases, whether the wrong done was in a matter of property or to the Lord, the damage was made good with an overplus, generally a fifth of the value, while the trespass-offering itself was the substitute for the damages due to the Lord, and assessed by the priest. The victim was, as in the case of the sin-offering, one animal only, and always a ram.

CHAPTER IV.
HOLY TIMES AND SEASONS.
Exod. xx. Levit. xxiii. xxv. Deut. xv. xvi.

THE Holy Times and Seasons of the Israelites may be arranged under three heads.

I. Those that were connected with the Seventh Day of Rest, such as (a) the Weekly Sabbath, (b) the Month-Sabbath or New Moon, (c) the Year-Sabbath, (d) the Year of Jubilee.

II. The Day of Atonement.

III. The Great Historical Festivals; (a) The Passover, (b) The Feast of Pentecost or Weeks, (c) The Feast of Tabernacles.

I. Those connected with the seventh Day of Rest.

(a) The observance of the weekly Sabbath, or day of Rest, is not improbably thought to have been known to the Israelites before the giving of the Law (Ex. xvi. 22, 23), as, indeed, the words of the Fourth Commandment, “Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy,” seem to imply (Ex. xx. 8–11, comp. Gen. ii. 1–3). Theobservance of this day was appointed for a perpetual covenant, as a sign between God and the children of Israel for ever (Ex. xxxi. 16, 17). It was to be shared by the whole people with the stranger; and, to complete the picture of tranquillity, with the animals. Bodily labour was strictly prohibited: it was unlawful to kindle a fire for cooking food (Ex. xxxv. 3; Num. xv. 32), or to go out of the camp to gather manna (Ex. xvi. 22–30). Wilful desecration of the day was punished by stoning (Ex. xxxi. 14; Num. xv. 35).

In the Tabernacle-service the daily burnt-offering was doubled (Num. xxviii. 9), the shew-bread was renewed (Lev. xxiv. 8), and the priestly course for the week commenced their duties.

The Sabbath was not regarded as a fast, but a day for rest from worldly occupation and holy joy; it was ordained by God for man and the furtherance of his truest and highest interests (Mk. ii. 27, 28). “The thought of Him, who is raised above all change, and who after the completion of the works of Creation rejoiced that everything was very good; this coupled with the cessation from work was to lead man up to the contemplation of his own origin from God. As the bodily refreshment restored his physical energies, so should the consciousness of union with the Almighty and the Eternal restore the true life to the soul[93].”

(b) The Month-Sabbath, or New Moon Festival, was ushered in by blowing with the silver trumpets, and by the sacrifice of eleven victims in addition to the dailyoffering (Num. x. 10; xxviii. 11, &c.). Business and trade were in later times suspended (Amos viii. 5), sacrificial feasts were held (1 Sam. xx. 5–24), and the people resorted to the prophets for religious instruction (2 Kings iv. 23).

The New Moon of the seventh month (Tisri, October), being the commencement of the civil year, was observed with still greater solemnity. It was one of the seven[94] days of Holy Convocation. Not merely were the trumpets blown at the time of offering the sacrifices, but it was a day for the blowing of trumpets (Num. xxix. 1–6), whence its name the Feast of Trumpets. In addition to the daily sacrifices, and the eleven victims offered on the first day of each month, nine other victims were offered as burnt-offerings with a kid for a sin-offering[95].

(c) During the Seventh or Sabbatical year the land was to lie fallow, and enjoy her Sabbaths (Ex. xxiii. 10, 11; Lev. xxv. 2–7; Deut. xv.). No tillage or cultivation of any sort was to be practised, and the spontaneous produce of the fields, instead of being reaped, was to be freely gleaned by the poor, the stranger, and even the cattle. By this rest the land, like man, was to dohomage to its Lord and Creator, and the poorest were to share without stint in those spontaneous blessings which by His will it brings forth, and the Israelite, who every seventh day acknowledged God’s claim on his time, thus acknowledged also His claim upon his land. In Deut. xv. we find that the seventh year was also to be one of release for debtors. In spite of the threatenings in Lev. xxvi. the Sabbatical year, as appears from 2 Chron. xxxvi. 20, 21, was greatly neglected; after the return from the Captivity its observance revived (see 1 Macc. vi. 49)[96].

(d) The Year of Jubilee. At the end of seven times seven years, that is, forty-nine entire years, the fiftieth was observed as the year of Jubilee, a word of uncertain meaning. It was proclaimed by the sound of trumpets on the tenth day of the seventh month, Tisri, the Day of Atonement. During this year the soil was to lie fallow, as in the Sabbatical year, but in addition to this, all land that had been alienated was to return to those to whom it had been allotted at the original distribution, and all bondmen of Hebrew blood were to be liberated (Lev. xxv. 8–16, 23–35; xxvii. 16–25). “As the weekly Sabbath and the Sabbatical year was intended to restore thorough rest to man and to theland, so the year of Jubilee was designed to raise the whole people, in respect to their rights and possessions, from the changeableness of outward circumstances to the unchangeableness of the Divine appointment; to prevent the inordinate accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few; to relieve those whom misfortune or fault had reduced to poverty; to restore that equality in outward circumstances which was instituted on the first settlement of the land by Joshua; and to vindicate the right of each Israelite to his part in the Covenant, which God had made with his fathers respecting the Land of Promise[97].”

II. The Day of Atonement was observed on the tenth day of the seventh month, Tisri, as the great day of national humiliation, and for the expiation of the sins both of the priests and the people. This was the highest, the most perfect, the most comprehensive of all the acts of expiation, and not only took place but once in the entire year, but was performed by the High-priest alone, and that not in the Holy Place but the Holy of Holies.

Its celebration is prescribed in Lev. xvi.; xxiii. 26–32; Num. xxix. 7–11. The day was to be regarded as a high Sabbath, a day of holy Convocation, on which the Israelites, under pain of extirpation, were expected to afflict their souls with fasting and mourning. (Comp. Lev. xvi. 29, 31 with Acts xxvii. 9.) The ritual was as follows. The High-priest having bathed, arrayed himself not in his gorgeous robes, but in the white linen garments common to himself and the rest of the priesthood. As a sacrifice for himself and the priests he brought a bullock for a Sin-offering, and a ram for a Burnt-offering, which he had purchased at his own cost; as a sacrifice for the people two he-goats for a Sin-offering,and a ram for a Burnt-offering, which were purchased out of the public treasury. The two he-goats he then brought to the Door of the Tabernacle, i.e. to the Brazen Altar, and there having presented them before the Lord, cast two lots upon them, one inscribed for Jehovah, the other for Azazel[98]. This done, as the head of a priesthood itself compassed with infirmity (Heb. v. 2), he first proceeded to make atonement for his own order. Accordingly he slew the bullock, and taking a censer filled with live coals from the Altar of Burnt-offering and two handfuls of Incense, he passed with these through the Holy Place onwards behind the veil into the Holy of Holies, and there threw the incense upon the coals so that the fragrant cloud might envelope the Mercy-Seat. Then returning to the Brazen Altar and taking some of the blood of the bullock in a vessel he once more passed into the Holy of Holies, and sprinkled it seven times before the Mercy-Seat, the seat of the glory of Jehovah. Having thus made expiation for himself and his own order, he slew the goat upon which the lot for Jehovah had fallen as a Sin-offering for the people, and sprinkled its blood as he had done that of the bullock. Then on his return from the Holy of Holies he purified the Holy Place, now solitary and deserted, by sprinkling the blood of both victims seven times on the horns of the Golden Altar ofIncense, and, as some think, on those of the Altar of Burnt-offering.

The purification of the Tabernacle completed, he came forth and laid both his hands upon the goat, on which the lot for Azazel had fallen, solemnly confessed over it the sins of the people, and then gave it to a man chosen for the purpose to be led away into the wilderness, into a place not inhabited, and there let loose. This done, he once more entered the Tabernacle, bathed, and having arrayed himself in his gorgeous robes, offered the two rams as a burnt-offering, one for himself, the other for the people, and at the same time placed upon the altar the fat of the two sin-offerings[99]. While these were consuming, the remains of the victims were conveyed outside the camp, nor could they who were deputed for this office, or the man who had led away the scape-goat, return into the camp till they had purified themselves and their clothes with water.

The distinction between this solemnity and others is very striking. It took place but once a year, five days before the joyous Feast of Tabernacles, which testified to the nation’s gratitude for the preservation of the seasonable fruits of the earth. In it the High-priest alone officiated. Clad not in his gorgeous robes, but in the simple, pure white robes common to him and the rest of the priesthood, he made expiation for himself, his order, and the people,—an atonement for the sins of the whole year. On this day, and this day only, he entered within the Veil, and sprinkled the blood before the Mercy-Seat seven times. On this day, and this day only, the idea of the remission of sin found its highest expression in the sacrifice of one goat as a sin-offering to Jehovah, and the solemn confession of the sins of the whole people over another, and its dismissal laden withits awful typical burden into a far distant and separated land, a land not inhabited, lying, as it were, under the curse of Jehovah. This solemnity contained the exact antidote to the sombre and often cruel rites of heathenism. The lots were cast over both the goats, both were presented to Jehovah at the Door of the Tabernacle, at His command the Scape-Goat carried away the burden of the people’s sins into an unknown desert land, He sanctified the people, and accepted the atonement for the High-priest, the priestly order, and the entire nation, and the purification of the Place where He had condescended to meet the Israelites. In the Epistle to the Hebrews (ix., x.) we have the key to the expressive imagery of this Great Day in the Jewish year. The fact that once in the year the High-priest could enter within the Veil, intimated that under a system of provisional and typical ordinances the way into the Holiest of all was not as yet made manifest. But when the true High-priest, even Jesus Christ, offered Himself unto death on the Altar of His Cross for the sins of the whole world, the Veil of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom (Matt. xxvii. 51; Mark xv. 38). He died, He rose again, and, clad not in the resplendent robes of that Divine Nature He had before the world, but in the garb of our human nature, He ascended into the Heavenly Sanctuary, the antitype of the Jewish Sanctuary on earth, and there pleads, and will for ever plead, the merits of His blood before the throne of God.

CHAPTER V.
THE GREAT FESTIVALS.
Exod. xxiii. 14–17; Lev. xxiii. 1–22; Num. xxviii. 16–31; Deut. xvi. 1–16.

THE great Historical Festivals, at which all males amongst the Israelites were required to appear before the Lord, were, as has been said already, (i) The Passover; (ii) The Feast of Weeks or Pentecost; (iii) The Feast of Tabernacles.

(i) The Passover. The original institution of this Festival has been already noticed. The directions for its yearly celebration are given in Ex. xxiii. 14–17; Lev. xxiii. 5–8; Num. xxviii. 16–25; Deut. xvi. 1–8.

As in Egypt, so now, on the 10th day of Nisan or Abib, corresponding to the close of March or the beginning of April, each Paschal company, which might not exceed twenty or be less than ten, was to select a lamb or kid, a male of the first year, and keep it till the 14th day. If pronounced by the priests to be free from blemish, it was to be slain between the evenings, in the Court of the Tabernacle, and its blood poured round the Altar of Burnt-offering. It was then, after being flayed, to be taken to the house where the Paschal Company intended to assemble, to be roasted with fire, whole and entire without the breaking of a single bone, and to be eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

The Festival lasted from the 14th to the 21st of Nisan, and during this period nothing but unleavened bread might be eaten, and all leaven was to be carefully removed from the house before the 14th. The daily sacrifices for the nation consisted of (i) a Burnt-Offering of two bullocks, one ram, seven yearling lambs, accompanied by the usual meat-offering, and (ii) one goat for a Sin-Offering. Thank-offerings, called by the JewsChagigah, might also be offered by individuals during the Festival, especially on the 15th, the first day of Holy Convocation. (Comp. Lev. vii. 29–34; 2 Ch. xxx. 22–44; xxxv. 7.)

On the 16th the first ripe sheaf of barley was to be brought into the sanctuary, and there waved by the priest before the Lord, and at the same time a yearling lamb was offered with a meat- and drink-offering (see Lev. xxiii. 9–14). Till this sheaf had thus been waved, and this offering presented, no produce of the now ripening harvest, whether bread or parched corn, or green ears, might be eaten (Josh. v. 11, 12)[100].

(ii) At the end of seven complete weeks from the 16th of Nisan, the second day of unleavened bread, commenced the Feast of Weeks (Ex. xxxiv. 22; Deut. xvi. 10), or of Harvest (Ex. xxiii. 16), or of First-fruits (Numb. xxviii. 26), or of Pentecost (Acts ii. 1), from the Greek word for the fiftieth day.

The passages bearing on it will be found in Ex. xxiii. 16; Lev. xxiii. 15–22; Num. xxviii. 26–31; Deut. xvi. 9–12.

The Festival lasted but one day, which was kept with a holy Convocation. Its distinguishing feature was the offering of two leavened loaves, made from the new corn of the now completed harvest, which together with two lambs as a thank-offering were waved before the Lord. The especial sacrifices in addition to the daily offering were one young bullock, two rams, and seven yearling lambs as a Burnt-offering with the usual meat- and drink-offering, and a goat for a Sin-offering; but thank-offerings might, as at the Passover, be made at pleasure by individuals.

The character of the Festival was pre-eminently an expression of gratitude for the harvest, which commenced with the offering of the first sheaf of ripe barley at the Passover, and ended with that of the two loaves now presented and made of the newly-ripened wheat. In its festive joy the man-servant and maid-servant, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow were to share with the freeborn Israelite, who was to be reminded of the bondage in Egypt, and his obligation to keep the Law[101] (Deut. xvi. 12).

(iii) The Feast of Tabernacles or of Ingathering (Ex. xxxiv. 22) was so called as being (i) a feast of thanksgiving for the completion of the ingathering of fruits and of the vintage, and (ii) as commemorating the dwelling of the Israelites in tents during their wanderings in the wilderness (Lev. xxiii. 43).

The chief passages relating to it are Ex. xxiii. 16; Lev. xxiii. 34–43; Num. xxix. 13–39; Deut. xvi. 13–15; and compare with these Neh. viii.

It was celebrated in the autumn on the 15th of the seventh month Tisri, and lasted seven days, of which the first and last were days of Holy Convocation. It was the most joyous of all the Festivals. During it the Israelites were commanded to live in tents or booths of green boughs of the olive, palm, pine, myrtle, and other trees with thick foliage (Neh. viii. 15, 16). The burnt-offerings were more numerous at this Feast than any other, including, besides the sacrifice on each day of 2 rams, 14 lambs, and a kid for a sin-offering, that of 70 bullocks, 13 on the first day, 12 on the second, and so on to the seventh, when 7 bullocks only were offered. If the Festival fell in a Sabbatical year, portions of the Law, chiefly Deuteronomy, were read each day in public (Deut. xxxi. 10–12; Neh. viii. 18). The most remarkable celebrations of this Feast were (i) at the dedication of Solomon’s Temple (1 Kings viii.2, 65); (ii) after the Captivity (Ezra iii. 4; Neh. viii. 17)[102].

Later festivals were (i) the Feast of Purim, or Lots, instituted by Mordecai to commemorate the defeat of Haman’s machinations against the Jews (Esth. iii. 7–15; ix. 24–26). It began on the 14th day of the 12th month Adar, and lasted two days. (ii) The Feast of Dedication, to commemorate the cleansing of the Temple after its defilement by Antiochus Epiphanes (Dan. xi. 31). Established by Judas Maccabæus, it was kept on the 25th of the winter month Chisleu, December (Jn. x. 22), and lasted eight days, being distinguished by the offering of many sacrifices, a general illumination (hence its name the Feast of Lights), and other rejoicings.

In Scripture, dates are often fixed by a reference to the seasons or productions (Num. xiii. 20; 2 Sam. xxi. 9). The following Table, therefore, is here given, in which the civil and sacred months, their approximate English equivalents, the various annual feasts, and the chief features of the seasons are combined. It is assumed that Abib or Nisan answers to April. (See Article Month in Smith’s Bib. Dict. and Angus’s Bible Handbook, p. 270.)