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 THE PENTATEUCH 
 
 AND 
 
 THE MOABITE STONE. 
 
LONDON: PRINTED BY 
 
 si rasirooDE and co., nbw-st e 
 
 AND PAKL1 
 
1 
 
See Note, p, 436. 
 
LFXTURES 
 
 ON THE 
 
 PENTATEUCH 
 
 AND 
 
 THE MOABITE STONE 
 
 WITH APPENDICES CONTAINING 
 
 /. THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE. 
 
 II. THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 
 
 III. THE PRE-CHRISTIAN CROSS, ITS UNIVERSALITY 
 AND MEANING. 
 
 BY THE RIGHT REV. 
 
 iNSO, D.D. 
 
 JOHN WILLIAM COLE 
 
 M 
 
 BISHOP OF NATAL 
 
 
 
 ' Every one truth is connected with every other truth in this great Universe 
 of God. . Therefore, to accept as a truth that which is not a truth is an 
 evil having consequences which are indeed incalculable. There are subjects 
 on which one mistake of this kind will poison all the wells of Truth, and 
 affect with fatal error the whole circle of our thoughts.' 
 
 Duke of Argyll, Reign of Lazv, p. 54-5. 
 
 LONDON: 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 1873- 
 
 The right 0/ translation is reserved, 
 

PREFACE. 
 
 HESE LECTURES have "been suggested by the 
 New Lectionary of the Church of England, 
 which in various places, and especially in the 
 First Lesson for the morning of Septuagesima 
 Sunday, 1 directs the attention of all thoughtful members 
 of that Church to some, at least, of the important results 
 of Modern Biblical Criticism. Henceforth, therefore, so far 
 from its being forbidden within the Church of England to 
 pursue such enquiries, the law itself, by commanding and 
 enforcing the use of this Lectionary, prompts or, rather, 
 requires us to enter upon them. It will surely now be 
 necessary that, from the Pulpit and in the Sunday-School, 
 more full and sound information should be imparted on these 
 points from time to time than has hitherto been commonly 
 supplied in English schools and churches. 
 
 Moreover, the New Bible Commentary, ' by Bishops and 
 other Clergy of the Anglican Church/ admits that we have no 
 correct copy of the Ten Commandments as really uttered by 
 
 1 See p. i. 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 the Divine Voice on Sinai, and that ' the two distinct state- 
 ments ' of them in Exodus and Deuteronomy, though ' dif- 
 fering from each other in several weighty particulars,' are 
 ' apparently of equal authority,' and * each is said, with 
 reiterated emphasis, to contain the words that were actually 
 spoken by the Lord, and written by Him upon the stones.' 2 
 Further, it instructs its readers that, generally, wherever they 
 read in the Pentateuch, ' And Jehovah spake unto Moses, 
 saying,' they are to conclude — not that there was any audible 
 utterance, but only — that Moses felt himself moved by an 
 inward Divine impulse to enact certain laws, which, however, 
 he not unfrequently copied from heathen institutions, ' adopt- 
 ing existing and ancient customs, with significant additions, 
 as helps in the education of his people.' 3 And it informs 
 them also that 'it is by no means ttnlikely that there are 
 insertions of a later date, which were written, or sanctioned, 
 by the Prophets and holy men, who after the Captivity 
 arranged and edited the Scriptures of the Old Testament.' 4 
 
 Under the above circumstances, the time seems to have 
 arrived for preparing a work ' in which the latest information 
 may be made accessible to men of ordinary culture/ 5 by one 
 who has studied the question from a different point of view 
 from that of these commentators, and has arrived at very dif- 
 ferent conclusions. 
 
 I have attempted to prepare such a work in these Lec- 
 tures, which are intended to lay before English readers, who 
 cannot devote the time and thought needed for the study of 
 larger and more technical works, the most important results 
 
 2 B.C., I.p.335. 3 i?.c.,Lp.7i7. . 
 
 4 /?.C.,I.p.49 4 . 5 ^.C.,I.p.iii. 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 of the criticism of the Pentateuch, and incidentally of other 
 portions of the Hebrew Scriptures. The labour bestowed by 
 me during the last ten years upon the Pentateuch and Book 
 of Joshua, the results of which are given in Parts I-VI of my 
 work already published, and in Part VII now in the press, 
 has enabled me to produce here, in a compact and readable 
 form, the main facts elicited by that Criticism, unencumbered 
 with Hebrew quotations and the mass of minute investigation 
 which that work of necessity contained. And I venture to 
 hope that these Lectures may be found useful especially 
 to Teachers in Day-Schools and Sunday-Schools, as well as 
 to Parents among the more educated laity, who desire to 
 impart to their children an intelligent knowledge of the real 
 nature of these ancient books, which have filled all along, 
 and still fill, so prominent a part in the religious education of 
 the race. 
 
 I have here, of course, adhered to the views set forth in my 
 published volumes, which I have seen as yet no reason to 
 abandon, though in some respects more, in others less, con- 
 servative than those of some eminent continental writers. 
 But such differences of opinion exist only on questions of 
 secondary importance. These three facts may now be regarded 
 as established by a very general consent of Modern Scholars 
 not pledged to the support of traditionary views— (i) that no 
 part of the original story of the Exodus can have been com- 
 posed before the time of Samuel, (ii) that Deuteronomy was 
 written not long before the Babylonish Captivity, (iii) that the 
 Levitical Legislation originated during the Captivity — by 
 which the notion of the Mosaic authorship and infallible 
 Divine authority of the whole, or indeed of any portion, of the 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 Pentateuch is shown to be untenable. At all events the 
 reader will here have afforded him, as it were, a bird's-eye 
 view of the field of controversy, and will thus be able to enter 
 with more lively interest into any discussions which may yet 
 arise with reference to some of the details. 
 
 In App. I I have given at full length the Elohistic Narra- 
 tive as extracted from Genesis and Exodus, and in App. II 
 the Original Story of the Exodus, as it appears in the Books 
 of Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, when stripped of all 
 later additions ; and the reader will be able to judge for him- 
 self how far, as thus exhibited, these two sets of passages have 
 the appearance of being continuous wholes. 
 
 In App. Ill I have added some information about the Pre- 
 Christian Cross, derived from the Edinburgh Review for 
 January 1870, to which, or to my Part VI, App. 122, the 
 reader is referred for further information. 
 
 J. W. Natal. 
 
 Bishopstowe, Natal : January 8, 1873. 
 
 Note. — The readers of Part VI are requested to take notice that on further 
 consideration I have seen reason to assign E.x.28,29, to the O.S., (see New Bible 
 Commentary, critically examined, Exodus,42,42, where, however, the last four lines 
 in the Ans. to 43 have been inserted by a printer's mistake,) and the lists of 
 Canaanite nations in E.iii.8,17, xxxiii.2, J.ix. i,2,xi.3, to D., in addition to those 
 already assigned to D. in PartVI (E.xiii.5,xxiii.23,28,xxxiv. 11, D.vii. i,xx. 17, 
 J.iii. lo,xxiv. 11). 
 
 Part VII, which will be found to be occasionally referred to, is in the press. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE 
 
 Preface .... 
 
 I. The Elohist and Jehovist in Genesis 
 
 II. The Age of the Elohist in Genesis 
 
 III. The Jehovistic Passages in Genesis 
 
 IV. The Age of the Jehovist in Genesis 
 V. The Age of the Jehovist in Genesis further considered 
 
 VI. The Origin of the Name Jehovah 
 
 VII. The Age of the Jehovist in Numbers 
 
 VIII. The Ten Commandments 
 
 IX. Human Sacrifices in Israel 
 
 X. The Laws on the Stone-Tables 
 
 XL The Book found in the Temple 
 
 XII. Jeremiah the Deuteronomist 
 
 XIII. The Contents of Deuteronomy 
 
 XIV. The Later or Levitical Legislation 
 XV. The Later Legislation compared with the Original Story 
 
 XVI. The Late Date of the Levitical Legislation 
 
 XVII. The Ark and the Priesthood in the Original Story 
 
 XVIII. The Priests and the Levites 
 
 XIX. The Origin of the Pesach or Passover 
 
 XX. The Real History of the Exodus . 
 
 XXI. The Worship of the Baal in Israel 
 
 XXII. The Historical Books from Genesis to 2 Kings 
 
 XXIII. The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah 
 
 XXIV. The Fictions of the Chronicler . 
 XXV. The Moabite Stone 
 
 XXVI. Concluding Remarks 
 
 PAGE 
 v 
 
 3 
 15 
 
 29 
 
 43 
 57 
 7i 
 85 
 101 
 
 ii5 
 129 
 
 143 
 157 
 171 
 185 
 
 199 
 
 215 
 231 
 
 245 
 261 
 
 275 
 291 
 
 305 
 319 
 333 
 349 
 367 
 
 Appendix, 
 
 I. The Elohistic Narrative .... 
 II. The Original Story of the Exodus 
 III. The Pre-Christian Cross, its Universality and Meaning 
 
 38i 
 397 
 435 
 
' For its essentially valid belief Religion has constantly done battle. Gross as were the dis- 
 guises under which it first espoused this belief, and cherishing this belief, though it still is, under 
 disfiguring vestments, it has never ceased to maintain and defend it. It has everywhere estab- 
 lished and propagated one or other modification of the doctrine that all things are manifestations 
 of a Power that transcends our knowledge. . . No exposure of the logical inconsistency of its 
 conclusions — no proof that each of its particular dogmas was absurd— has been able to weaken its 
 allegiance to that ultimate verity for which it stands. After criticism has abolished all its argu- 
 ments and reduced it to silence, there has still remained with it the indestructible consciousness 
 of a truth which, however faulty the mode in which it has been expressed, was yet a truth beyond 
 cavil. To this conviction its adherence has been substantially sincere. And for the guardianship 
 and diffusion of it, Humanity has ever been, must ever be, its debtor. 
 
 ' But . . . while in great part sincere in its fealty to the great truth it has had to uphold, it has 
 often been insincere, and consequently irreligious, in maintaining the untenable doctrines by 
 which it has obscured this great truth. Each of them has been age after age insisted on, in spite 
 of a secret consciousness that it would not bear examination. Just as though unaware that its 
 central position was impregnable, Religion has obstinately held every outpost long after it was 
 obviously indefensible. . . How truly its central position is impregnable, Religion has never 
 adequately realised. In the devoutest faith, as we habitually see it, there lies hidden an inner- 
 most core of scepticism ; and it is this scepticism which causes that dread of inquiry displayed by 
 Religion when face to face with Science. . . 
 
 ' Of Religion, then, we must always remember, that amidst its many errors and corruptions it 
 has asserted and diffused a supreme verity. From the first, the recognition of this supreme 
 verity, in however imperfect a manner, has been its vital element. . . The truly religious element 
 of Religion has always been good ; that which has proved untenable in doctrine and vicious in 
 practice, has been its irreligious element ; and from this it has been ever undergoing 
 purification. 
 
 'And now observe that, all along, the agent which has effected this purification has been 
 Science. We habitually overlook the fact that this has been one of its functions. Religion 
 ignores its immense debt to Science ; and Science is scarcely conscious how much Religion owes 
 it. Yet it is demonstrable that every step by which Religion has progressed from its very low 
 conception to the comparatively high one it has now reached, Science has helped it, or rather 
 forced it, to take, and that even now Science is urging further steps in the same direction.' — 
 Herbert Spencer, First Principles, 3rd Ed., p. 100-2. 
 
LECTURE I. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 The new Lesson for Septuagesima Sunday ; the New Lectionary, the New 
 Commentary, and the New Translation ; two important admissions in the 
 New Commentary ; the Elohistic and Jehovistic accounts of the Creation in 
 Genesis ; the characteristic differences between them ; the Elohistic narrative 
 almost continuous throughout, composing the older story, which has been 
 supplemented with Jehovistic insertions ; the vivacious and picturesque style 
 of the Jehovist, far more anthropomorphic than that of the Elohist ; similar 
 phenomena found in the earlier and later writings of other religions ; the 
 scientific difficulties in Genesis of no consequence when the composition of 
 the Book is understood ; different religions become purified from within from 
 time to time, as the Indian, the Jewish, and the Christian. 
 
THE ELOHIST AND JEHOVIST IN GENESIS. 
 
 ^j20R the first time in the History of the Church of 
 England the first three verses of the second 
 
 chapter of Genesis have been publicly read for 
 a Sunday Lesson in connection with the first 
 chapter of that book, as the closing portion of the account of 
 the Creation contained in that chapter. Some of you perhaps 
 will have hardly noticed this fact — will have hardly perceived 
 that any difference has been made in the Lesson for Septua- 
 gesima Sunday — will have taken for granted that the same 
 words were read on that day in your ears which have been 
 read year after year ever since you were old enough to enter 
 a church, and centuries before you were born. But a change 
 has really been made by the lawful authority in the Church — 
 small in appearance, but momentous in its consequences — 
 one which opens up the whole question of Modern Biblical 
 Criticism before the eyes of the Laity in every congregation, 
 and will inaugurate, I believe, a new era in the life of our 
 Church. In the present age, as you know, three great works 
 in reference to the Bible have been taken in hand by leading 
 men in the Church of England, under the authority of its 
 Bishops and Archbishops — a new Lectionary, a New Com- 
 mentary, and a New Translation — all professedly based upon 
 the latest results of learned, as well as devout, study of the 
 
4 THE ELOHIST AND JEHOVIST IN GENESIS. 
 
 sacred oracles. The Translation is slowly progressing, but 
 lies at present hidden in the secret chamber, and not yet 
 communicated to the world. We remember, however, that 
 one of the most eminent of the translators said openly in 
 Convocation when this work was begun — ' I must own it is 
 my belief that, when the Authorised Version has received all 
 the amendments of which it is capable and which it abso- 
 lutely requires, this will be found to have effected a very 
 great change in many parts of the Bible ; and I think one 
 effect of this will be that it will deprive many of the Clergy, 
 and perhaps still more of Dissenting ministers, of some of 
 their most favourite texts. We ought not to conceal from 
 ourselves that it will very materially alter the text of Scrip- 
 ture.' l The New Bible. Commentary has been partially 
 completed, but only so far as the Pentateuch is concerned ; 
 and I may draw attention to two of the most prominent facts 
 which distinguish this Commentary from any that has ever 
 before been published with any semblance of authority in the 
 Church of England. These are, first, the recognition that the 
 two versions of the Ten Commandments, which we find in 
 Exodus and Deuteronomy, ' differ from each other in several 
 weighty particulars,' and that neither of them represents ex- 
 actly the ' Ten Words ' as they were uttered by the Divine 
 Voice on Sinai ; 2 and, secondly, the not less important recog- 
 nition that most of the laws in Exodus, Leviticus, and Num- 
 bers, which are usually supposed to have been orally com- 
 municated by the Divine Being to Moses — i JEHOVAH spake 
 unto Moses ' — were not so communicated at 'all, were merely 
 the result of thought which arose by Divine inspiration in the 
 mind of the human legislator, 3 and were adopted frequently 
 ' from existing and probably very ancient and widely spread 
 institutions.' 4 But the Lectionary is completed, and is estab- 
 
 1 Bp. (Thirlwall) of St. David's {Guardian, Feb. 16, 1870,^.193}. 
 * B.C., I./.335A 3 lb. ^.634-6,643. « lb. /.i5,i6,67o,7i7. 
 
THE ELOHIST AND JEHOVIST IN GENESIS. 5 
 
 lished already by law in the Church of England ; and, though 
 simple and unobtrusive in appearance, it will be found, on a 
 little closer consideration, to involve principles which will 
 tend to revolutionize the whole system of traditionary teach- 
 ing, admitting light and air into the long shut up, darkened 
 and musty, chambers. 
 
 For why is the Lesson on Septuagesima Sunday now for 
 the first time made to end with the third verse of the second 
 chapter of Genesis ? A glance at the Bible will show at once 
 the reason. It is because the matter contained in these verses 
 is precisely similar in character to that contained in the whole 
 first chapter, and quite distinct from that which follows in the 
 rest of the second chapter and in the third. The attention 
 of thoughtful persons is thus directed to the fact that there 
 are two accounts of the Creation in the Bible, one contained 
 in the first chapter of Genesis and the first three verses of the 
 second, the other exhibited in the rest of the second chapter, 
 with which the third is closely connected. In the former of 
 these the name of the Deity is always ' God,' in Hebrew 
 'Elohim,' and hence this narrative is called the Elohistic 
 story of the creation. In the latter narrative the name of the 
 Deity is always ' Lord God,' in Hebrew ' Jehovah Elo- 
 HIM,' except where the serpent uses it, or the woman in reply 
 to the serpent ; 5 and hence this second account is called the 
 Jehovistic story of the Creation. The attention, I say, of all 
 thoughtful persons will now be called to the fact of the exis- 
 tence of these two separate accounts by the Lesson for Sep- 
 tuagesima Sunday in the New Lectionary, in which the old 
 division of the chapters, sanctioned by the pious ignorance of 
 past ages, which has hitherto obscured the truth for most 
 English readers, is once for all deliberately set aside, and 
 reason and scholarship are at last allowed their due rights 
 even in the treatment of Holy Scripture. It is the duty of all 
 
 * O.iii. 1,3,5. 
 
6 I HE ELOHIST AND JEHOVIST IN GENESIS. 
 
 intelligent members of the Church of England to understand 
 clearly the truth of this matter, which is now brought before 
 them by the highest authorities, not of their Church only, but 
 of the State also, by which that Church is governed ; and it 
 is the duty of the clergy to set that truth in a plain intelligible 
 form before the eyes of the laity. 
 
 For not only are these two accounts of the Creation distin- 
 guished by the names of the Deity employed in them ; they 
 are marked also by very characteristic differences of style and 
 phraseology throughout. This appears most plainly in the 
 Hebrew original, and it requires some labour to bring it home 
 to the apprehension of the mere English reader; nor is it 
 possible to enter here at length into critical discussions like 
 these. But the same peculiarities of style, which distinguish 
 these two accounts of the Creation, are found also to pervade 
 other portions of the Book of Genesis, except that after the 
 third chapter we no longer observe the compound name 
 ' Lord God,' or ' Jehovah Elohim,' but simply ' Jeho- 
 vah,' 6 in the second set of passages, corresponding to the 
 second account of the Creation ; whereas in that which cor- 
 responds in style to the first account of the Creation only 
 ' Elohim ' still continues to be used, 7 as in that. About one- 
 fourth of the Book belongs to the writer who uses only 
 1 Elohim,' and is therefore called the ' Elohist ' or ' Elohistic 
 writer ' ; while the writer of the rest of the Book, or the 
 greater part of it, who uses freely the name ' JEHOVAH,' is 
 called the ' Jehovist.' And it is especially to be noted that 
 when the Elohistic passages are all extracted and copied one 
 after another, they form a complete, connected narrative ; 
 from which we infer that these must have composed the 
 original story, and that the other passages were afterwards 
 inserted by another writer, who wished to enlarge or supple- 
 
 • G.iv. 1,3,4,6, &c. 7 G.v. 1,22,24, vi.9,1 1,12, 13,22, &c. 
 
THE ELOHIST AND JEHOVIST IN GENESIS. 7 
 
 ment the primary record. And he seems to have used the 
 compound name ' Jehovah Elohim ' in the first portion of 
 his work 8 in order to impress upon the reader that ' JEHO- 
 VAH,' of whom he goes on to speak in the later portions, is 
 the same Great Being who is called simply ' Elohim ' by the 
 older writer, and notably in the first account of the Creation. 
 It is this later writer who gives so much vivacity and spirit 
 to the narrative in the Book of Genesis, and paints so graphic- 
 ally the transactions which he describes. It is only he, for 
 instance, who uses such expressions as ' lift up the eyes and 
 see,' ' lift up the feet and go,' ' lift up the voice and weep,' 
 ' fall upon the neck and weep,' — who employs the words ' sin,' 
 1 swear,' ' steal,' ' smite,' ' slay,' ' fear,' ' hate,' ' comfort,' ' em- 
 brace,' and ' love.' 9 It is his part of the story, in short, which 
 abounds with those tender touches of human nature and 
 expressions of emotional feeling, which for many have con- 
 stituted the great charm in the narrative of Genesis ; while on 
 the other hand to him also are due the darker parts of the 
 histories of individual life, those, for instance, which record 
 the ill-will between Cain and Abel, the strife between Lot's 
 herdsmen and Abraham's, Abraham's and Abimelech's, Isaac's 
 and Abimelech's, the enmity between Sarah and Hagar, Ish- 
 mael and Isaac, Esau and Jacob, Jacob and Laban, Leah and 
 Rachel, Joseph and his brethren, and, above all, those in- 
 decent stories which have so long been offensive to our ears 
 when read in the public services of the Church, but are now 
 happily removed altogether from the Sunday Lessons and 
 most of them from the Daily Lectionary. While no stain of 
 moral weakness is attached by the older Elohistic writer to 
 the character of any one of the three patriarchs, in the other 
 parts of Genesis we find each of them exhibited as grievously 
 faulty in some particular. It is here only we meet with the 
 
 8 G.ii,iii. 9 Pent. V. 40. 
 
8 THE ELOHIST AND JEHOVIST IN GENESIS. 
 
 disobedience of Adam and Eve, the drunkenness of Noah, 
 the cowardice and insincerity of Abraham, twice repeated and 
 again imitated by his son Isaac, the greed and selfishness and 
 incestuous conduct of Lot, the harshness and untruthfulness 
 of Sarah, the partiality and gross deceitfulness of Rebekah, 
 the ready lying of Jacob, the deadly hatred of Esau, with a 
 multitude of other similar incidents, which light up the more 
 sober pages of the older narrative with the lurid gleams of 
 human passion, or sometimes with the brighter beams of 
 human affection. 10 
 
 It is the Jehovist also who introduces strong anthropo- 
 morphic expressions, ascribing human thoughts and actions, 
 passions and affections, to the Deity — who tells us how Jeho- 
 vah ' planted a garden ' and was ' heard walking in it in the 
 cool of the day,' — how He made coats of skins and clothed 
 the first man and woman — how He grudged the man being 
 like Himself, and refused to let him eat of the tree of life — 
 how He set a mark on Cain, and shut up the Ark after Noah, 
 and came down to see the city and tower of Babel — how He 
 ate bread and meat with Abraham. 11 We find none of these 
 strong anthropomorphisms in the older writer. He speaks 
 indeed of Elohim ' remembering ' Noah, Abraham, and 
 Rachel, 12 making a covenant and appointing a sign of it, 13 
 appearing and speaking to Abraham and Jacob, and ' going 
 up ' from them after the interview. 14 But these expressions 
 are obviously very different in kind from those of the Jeho- 
 vist, far less coarse and sensuous. The Elohist in short 
 appears to have had nobler, purer, grander ideas of the 
 nature of the Divine Being and of His paternal relations to 
 mankind than those entertained by the later writer, as will 
 be seen by any one who will thoughtfully read the first ac- 
 count of the Creation and compare it with the second. And 
 
 10 Aw/. V. 47,48. " Pent.V.43. u G.viii.l, xix.29, xxx.22. 
 
 13 G.ix.8-17, xvii. 1-14 » G.xvii. 1,22, xxxv.9, 13. 
 
THE ELOHIST AND JEHOVIST IN GENESIS. 9 
 
 this is quite in accordance with experience in other cases. 
 The early Vedas of the Hindoos were far higher in tone and 
 thought than the books which correspond to a later develop- 
 ment of that religion : the older portions of the Zendavesta, 
 the sacred book of the Parsee religion, show the same superi- 
 ority to the later additions. So the first days of Christianity 
 were brighter and purer than those which followed, when 
 fierce conflicts began about Creeds and Dogmas, and at last 
 Christianity became the religion of the Roman Empire, and 
 the celebration of pagan rites and mysteries, with the worship 
 of the Queen of Heaven under the name of the Virgin, and 
 the offering of the ' tremendous sacrifice ' by the hands of a 
 celibate priesthood, took the place of that worship of the 
 heart and of the life, which was enjoined by Him who said to 
 his disciples ' Blessed are the meek — the merciful — the peace- 
 makers — the pure in heart ! ' 
 
 You will perceive that I have not dwelt at length upon the 
 points in respect of which the accounts of the Creation and 
 the Deluge, and other portions of the Book of Genesis, are 
 contradicted by the most elementary results of Modern 
 Science, such as are, or should be, taught in our days in any 
 ordinary Village School. As soon as we know the true nature 
 of the composition of the narrative, and understand that it is 
 the production of different writers in different ages, who, how- 
 ever devout and truly inspired for their work, never probably 
 claimed for it a Divine Infallibility, nor, so far as appears, 
 even pretended to be writing real history, or were supposed 
 by their contemporaries to be doing anything more than 
 composing from their own imagination, with the help, per- 
 haps, of some traditionary reminiscences, a sketch of the early 
 annals of their race, we are relieved at once from the necessity 
 of reconciling all such contradictions, or of explaining them 
 away by forcing the words of Scripture to mean something 
 else than was intended by the writers, nor are we any longer 
 
io THE ELOHIST AND JEHOVIST IN GENESIS. 
 
 troubled by the numerous discrepancies which are found to 
 exist between one part of the story and another. These are 
 only just exactly what we should expect to find under the 
 circumstances of a multiplicity of writers and an unscientific 
 age. 
 
 There is much more which I might say on this interesting 
 subject. But the time will not now allow of it, though I hope 
 to return' to it on a future occasion. For the present let us 
 fix our attention for a moment on this thought, how religions, 
 which have been corrupted, have a tendency to purify them- 
 selves again after a time, and return to the simpler forms in 
 which they first appeared, though with a great advance in 
 clearness and certainty. Like the water of the Thames, 
 which (they say) when stored on shipboard is at first to all 
 appearance sufficiently clear for use, then becomes turbid and 
 foul, and afterwards throws off its impurities, which were held 
 by it in solution, unseen, in its original state, and becomes 
 very pure and good, so has it been, in more than one notable 
 instance, in the history of the chief religions of mankind. 
 
 In India, where the corruptions of the simple faith of primi- 
 tive times had become multiplied beyond conception, till the 
 whole land was polluted with gross sensualities, the very 
 fruit of religious devotion, a new body of Reformers has 
 arisen, having no connection whatever with our Missionaries, 
 self-awakened, self-impelled — or rather awakened and im- 
 pelled by the Spirit of God — who have shaken off the idola- 
 tries of their countrymen, and approach the Divine Being 
 with prayers such as these — ' O Lord, to Thee and Thee 
 alone we look for aid, for Thou art the God of Salvation, our 
 only hope in this world of temptation. We pray unto Thee : 
 vouchsafe to enlighten our minds and purify our hearts with 
 Thy Love. Teach us to love Truth, and give us a strong 
 will that we may live according to it. With all humility we 
 approach Thy Divine Presence, and we prostrate our souls 
 
THE ELOHIST AND J EH OVIST IN GENESIS. n 
 
 beneath Thy feet : give us, O Lord, knowledge unto Salva- 
 tion. Good God, have mercy on us.' 15 
 
 In like manner the Jewish religion, during those sad years 
 of the Captivity, purified itself from the corruptions which 
 prevailed before that time, and which defiled even the Temple 
 itself with the grossest abominations. The writings of Jere- 
 miah 16 and the Later Isaiah 17 breathe the same spirit as that 
 of the Elohist of Genesis, who makes the Divine Being appear 
 to Abram, and say, ' I am El Shaddai, Almighty God ; 
 walk before me and be thou perfect. And I will establish 
 My Covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee 
 in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a GOD 
 unto thee and to thy seed after thee.' 18 
 
 And when this purer faith had been again corrupted by the 
 priests and scribes of a later day, who laid heavy burdens 
 upon men's shoulders, of rites and ceremonies and supersti- 
 tious observances, burdens too heavy to be borne, the work of 
 Jesus, restoring the old simple faith in the Living God, as the 
 Friend and Father of all, set free once more the human mind 
 from thraldom, into the glorious liberty of the children of 
 God. 
 
 And now, in this very age in which we live, Christianity 
 itself, long obscured by vain traditions of warring churches, 
 is cleansing itself from these corruptions, and returning to the 
 first principles of that Blessed Gospel which was taught by 
 Christ himself. Let us rejoice to know that in this, as in 
 other things, humanity is progressing from age to age, so that 
 the Divine doctrine of the Fatherhood of God and the Bro- 
 therhood of Men, as revealed in the life and death of Jesus, 
 and in our measure in that of each of his true followers, is 
 becoming more clear and plain, more purified from the gross 
 
 15 The Brahmo Somaj (Theol. Rev., April, 1867, p. 198). 
 
 16 Jer.vii.23, xi.4, xxiv.7, xxx.22, xxxi. 1,33, xxxii.38. 
 
 17 Is.xli. 10,13, xliii. 3, xlv.3, xlviii. 17, &c. 18 G.xvii.1,7. 
 
12 THE ELOHIST AND JEH OVIST IN GENESIS. 
 
 accretions of human dogmatic teaching, more manifestly the 
 moral and spiritual truth which is needed for all mankind, 
 the little grain, which has grown up already into a spreading 
 tree, under whose branches all nations of the earth shall one 
 day be sheltered, and find their long-desired refreshment and 
 rest. 
 
LECTURE II. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 Recapitulation ; these views supported by the statements of Bp. Browne ; 
 the duty of explaining such facts henceforth in the Pulpit and the Sunday- 
 School, enforced by words of Abp.WHATELY ; the story of the Flood also a 
 composite narrative, and recognised as such by Bp. Browne ; the importance 
 of teaching the truth on these points in training children; Bp. Browne's 
 strange explanation of the composite character of Genesis ; meaning of the 
 expression ' the Five Books of Moses ' ; the Elohistic Narrative probably 
 written in the age, and perhaps by the hand, of Samuel, for the use of his 
 schools ; it is the oldest part of the Bible, except perhaps some portions of 
 the Book of Judges ; style of the'Elohist, and indications of his age, which is 
 fixed by the stress laid by him on Hebron ; the Book of Genesis deeply 
 interesting when intelligently studied. 
 
THE AGE OF THE EL HIST IN GENESIS. 
 
 HAVE drawn your attention to the fact of the 
 existence of two separate accounts of the Crea- 
 tion in Genesis, as indicated in the New Lec- 
 tionary by the choice made of the First Lesson 
 for Septuagesima Sunday. That Lesson ends with G.ii.3, 
 and contains one of these two accounts, which is at variance 
 with the other in some important particulars, as set forth in 
 critical works. In the one, as I observed, the expression used 
 invariably for the name of the Deity is simply Elohim, the 
 Hebrew word for God, meaning ' the Awful One ' ; in the 
 other we find invariably the compound name, Jehovah 
 Elohim, ' the Lord God,' meaning ' the Awful Living-One 
 or Life-Giver.' In G.iii, which is closely connected with G.ii, 
 the very same characteristic expressions recur as distinguish 
 the second account of the Creation, and the same compound 
 name is used for the Deity, except only in three places, where 
 the writer apparently shrinks from employing the name Je- 
 hovah in the discourse between the woman and the serpent. 
 I stated also that the hands of the same two writers, the 
 Elohist and Jehovist, can be distinctly traced throughout the 
 Book of Genesis, and that, when the Elohistic passages are 
 separated, they are found to constitute a complete consistent 
 
16 THE AGE OF THE ELOHIST IN GENESIS. 
 
 story ; from which fact it is concluded that this was the ori- 
 ginal basis of the narrative, and that the Jehovistic portions 
 have been inserted afterwards, adding movement and life by 
 their picturesque details to the more prosaic older story. 
 
 If all this should sound strangely in the ears of some of 
 you, as something different from the old traditionary notions, 
 which till very lately were taught universally in the pulpit and 
 the Sunday School, and without the least misgiving were 
 pressed home by learned doctors and divines innumerable 
 upon the consciences of their hearers, young and old, as in- 
 contestable truth, which to doubt or disbelieve was the direst 
 infidelity, enough to imperil the eternal safety of the soul, yet 
 listen to what a Bishop of the Church of England has said in 
 the New Bible Commentary ; and, while I read his words in 
 your hearing, consider within yourselves whether they do not 
 substantially confirm the statements I have just made. 
 
 'In the history of the Creation, we have first, in G.ii.1-3, 
 that which was very probably the ancient primeval record of 
 the formation of the world. It may even have been commu- 
 nicated to the first man in his innocence. At all events, it 
 very probably was the great Semitic tradition, handed down 
 from Noah to Shem, from Shem to Abraham, and from 
 Abraham through Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, to the Israelites 
 who dwelt in Egypt. Without interfering with the integrity 
 of this, the sacred author proceeds in the same chapter to 
 add a supplementary history, briefly recapitulating the history 
 of the Creation, with some little addition, in ^.4-7, and then 
 proceeding to the history of Paradise, the Fall, the Expulsion, 
 and the bitter fruits of disobedience. In the first part of this 
 second or supplementary history, we meet with a signal phe- 
 nomenon, viz., that from ii.4 to the end of iii. the two names 
 of God, Jehovah and Elohim, are used continually together. 
 There is no other instance in Scripture of this continued and 
 repeated use of the united names. It is evident that the 
 
THE AGE OF THE ELOHIST IN GENESIS. 17 
 
 author, who adopted the first ancient record and stamped it 
 with his authority, and who desired to bring his people to the 
 worship of the great Self-existent JEHOVAH, used this method 
 of transition from the ancient Elohistic document to his own 
 more immediate narrative, in order that he might more for- 
 cibly impress upon his readers that the Elohim who created 
 all things was also the JEHOVAH who had revealed Himself 
 to Moses.' 1 
 
 When facts like these have been stated so plainly under 
 such high authority, surely no blame can be attached hence- 
 forth to any who may think it right to teach these things 
 openly in the pulpit or the Sunday School. Rather, it is 
 clearly the bounden duty of all truth-loving, truth-speaking 
 men, of all intelligent teachers of all denominations, to study 
 these questions earnestly and devoutly with such means as 
 they have at their disposal, and first, as far as possible, ascer- 
 tain the Truth for themselves, and then in God's Name 
 convey it to others. For how can we serve the Living and 
 True God, except so far as we are servants of the Truth ? 
 And how can we be servants of the Truth, if we knowingly 
 shut our eyes to facts which we do not like, because they 
 conflict with our preconceived notions, and if we not only do 
 this ourselves, but attempt to close, or to keep shut, or to 
 throw dust in, the eyes of others under our influence, that 
 they may not be able to see the facts which God's wise Pro- 
 vidence, in this age of the world, has made known to us for 
 our instruction and guidance in life ? Those are solemn 
 words of a late Archbishop of our Church, well worthy to 
 be weighed by religious as well as scientific teachers of all 
 classes : — 
 
 ' He who propagates a delusion, and he who connives at it 
 when already existing, both alike tamper with Truth. We 
 
 1 Bp. Browne, B.C., I.p.27,28. 
 C 
 
1 8 THE AGE OF THE ELOHIST IN GENESIS. 
 
 must neither lead nor leave men to mistake falsehood for 
 Truth. Not to undeceive, is to deceive. The giving, or not 
 correcting, false reasons for right conclusions, false grounds 
 for right belief, false principles for right practice, — the hold- 
 ing forth or fostering false consolations, false encouragements, 
 or false sanctions, or conniving at their being held forth or 
 believed, — are all pious frauds. This springs from, and it 
 will foster and increase, a want of veneration for Truth : it is 
 an affront put upon the Spirit of Truth.' 2 
 
 The fact, then, of the existence of these two separate ac- 
 counts of the Creation — one ' the ancient Elohistic document,' 
 the other a ' a supplementary history ' — will probably be re- 
 cognized henceforth by well informed Christians as a matter 
 beyond all doubt or dispute, as much so as the fact of the 
 Earth's motion round the Sun, which was once so fiercely 
 contested, but is now taught, as an elementary truth, in every 
 nursery, without any fear of true Religion, true Christianity, 
 being darkened or corrupted thereby. And the same is true, 
 though not to the same extent, of the story of the Flood. 
 As the writer in the New Commentary again observes — ' If 
 the basis of the history of the Flood were an ancient Elohistic 
 document, Moses appears to have interwoven it with a further 
 narrative of his own. The one portion may be marked with 
 the prevalence of one name, the other by that of another 
 name, for God ; but the consistency of the one with the other 
 is complete throughout' 3 This fact, I repeat, of the exis- 
 tence of a compound authorship in Genesis must surely be 
 taught henceforth among the first elements of Biblical know- 
 ledge by all Christian pastors and parents, at once intelligent 
 as well as devout, and knowing that no good whatever can 
 come in the end of 'speaking lies in the Name of the Lord ' 4 
 — must be taught, if not in the nursery, yet at least in the 
 
 2 Abp. Whately {Bacorfs Essay's with Annotations, p. n). 
 
 3 Bp. Browne, B.C., I.p.28. 4 Zech.xiii.3. 
 
THE AGE OF THE ELOHIST IN GENESIS. 19 
 
 school-room, — the differences in style between the two narra- 
 tives, their probable ages, the discrepancies between them, 
 and the contradictions they exhibit to well-known facts of 
 Science, being pointed out wisely beforehand, as soon as the 
 child is able to understand such things or begins to feel an 
 interest in them. Thus it will learn from the first to take a 
 true view of the nature of Divine Revelation as we find it in 
 the Bible, and escape the misery into which so many have 
 been plunged for want of such faithfulness on the part of 
 their religious guides — faithfulness in learning, as well as in 
 teaching, the Truth — when it comes to mature years, in this 
 age of searching enquiry and seething controversy, and finds 
 out these things for the first time for itself. 
 
 I pointed out in my former Lecture some differences in 
 style between the two writers, as much as the time and occa- 
 sion allowed ; and generally I noticed the stately solemn 
 march of the one narrative and the sprightly vivacity of the 
 other. What now shall be said about the ages in which these 
 two accounts were written ? The old traditionary notion 
 supposes that they were both composed by Moses. The New 
 Commentary, as you have heard, maintains that only the later 
 Jehovistic passages are properly the work of Moses. The 
 Elohistic story, according to this Commentary, was ' the an- 
 cient primeval record of the foundation of the world,' 'the 
 great Semitic tradition,' which had been 'handed down from 
 Noah to Shem, from Shem to Abraham, and from Abraham 
 through Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, to the Israelites in Egypt,' 
 and from them was at last communicated to Moses. Thus 
 the writer says : — ' Some portions of the narrative do indeed 
 present what is called an Elohistic aspect, and especially 
 those portions which in their very nature are most likely to 
 have existed in the traditions current of old time among the 
 Israelites, viz., the general account of the Creation, the Flood, 
 the covenant of Circumcision made with Abraham, and the 
 
20 THE AGE OF THE ELOHIST IN GENESIS. 
 
 genealogical tables. These, then, Moses appears to have 
 adopted, much as he found them, perhaps perpetuating, word 
 for word, in his writings what before had been floating in 
 unwritten record; 5 But who can believe that this ' ancient 
 primeval record of the foundation of the world ' could have 
 been handed down unchanged by oral tradition from one 
 person to another, ' word for word,' in the form in which 
 Adam first delivered it, in the course of 2,500 years — who, at 
 least, that knows how greatly a story is invariably altered by 
 passing through the mouths of merely three or four persons ? 
 
 The truth is, that it is merely assumed, without any ground 
 of reason whatever, that Moses wrote the five Books which 
 compose the Pentateuch. No doubt they are commonly 
 called the five ' Books of Moses.' But so we speak of the 
 Book of Judges or the two Books of Kings, without supposing 
 that these were written by the Judges or the Kings, as we 
 speak in like manner of the two Books of Samuel, without 
 meaning to say that they were written by Samuel, who, in 
 fact, dies and is buried in iS.xxv.i. These expressions mean 
 only the Books about the Judges, the Kings, or Samuel, re- 
 spectively ; and so the five Books of Moses mean the Books 
 about Moses, the Books in which Moses is the principal 
 agent, the prominent figure ; so that we need not now con- 
 sider the question whether Moses wrote the account of his 
 own death and burial in D.xxxiv, or set down this character 
 of himself for future ages — 'Now the man Moses was very 
 meek, above all the men that were upon the face of the 
 earth.' 6 
 
 It is probable that the earliest portion of the Pentateuch, 
 the ■ ancient Elohistic document,' was composed in the age, 
 and, if so, then perhaps by the hand of Samuel. This great 
 prophet, the last of the ' Judges ' of Israel, 7 - evidently laboured 
 
 5 Bp. Browne, B.C., I.p.27. 
 
 • N.xii.3. 7 iS.vii.6,15-17. 
 
THE AGE OF THE ELOHIST IN GENESIS, 21 
 
 much to improve the condition of his people, and, among 
 other measures for that end, he appears to have instituted 
 schools or colleges for the education of young men, who 
 should take an active part hereafter in teaching and exhort- 
 ing their brethren. These were the so-called ' schools of the 
 prophets ' ; and, accordingly, we read in one place of a ' com- 
 pany of prophets coming down from the high-place with a 
 psaltery and a tabret and a pipe and a harp before them, and 
 prophesying,' 8 and in another of ' the company of prophets 
 prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed over them,' 9 
 and of the servants of Saul, and Saul himself, prophesying 
 also, so that the proverb went abroad, ' Is Saul also among 
 the prophets?' 10 So, again, in later days we read of the 
 ' sons of the prophets,' who lived at Bethel, Jericho, the Gilgal, 
 &C. 11 — young men, it is plain, who were not ' prophets ' them- 
 selves in the higher sense of the word, but were trained under 
 prophets, such as Samuel, Nathan, Gad, and probably, as I 
 have said, with a view to their being usefully employed in 
 their turn in giving like instruction to others. The practice 
 of singing psalms to the sound of musical instruments evi- 
 dently formed some part of their occupation ; and, accord- 
 ingly, in the Book of Chronicles we read of the choristers in 
 David's time, who 'prophesied with harps, with psalteries, and 
 with cymbals,' ' according to the order of the king,' 'to give 
 thanks and to praise the Lord.' 12 But they cannot always 
 have been employed in these 4 schools ' in singing psalms. 
 And there can be little doubt that for the use of such places 
 the first attempts were made to set down in writing the early 
 history of Israel, and, if so, then Samuel himself would most 
 probably have taken some prominent part in this work. 
 
 Perhaps the oldest parts of the Bible are some portions of 
 the Book of Judges, containing an account of events occurring 
 
 8 1S.X.5. 9 1S.xix.20. 10 iS.x. io-i3,xix. 20-24. 
 
 11 2K.ii.i,5,7,i5,iv.i,38,ix.i. 12 iCh.xxv. 1-3. 
 
22 The age of the elohist in genesis. 
 
 during the rude times which immediately preceded the age of 
 Samuel. And then comes ' the ancient Elohistic document,' 
 the older story of the patriarchal times, which we find in the 
 Book of Genesis, — perhaps, as I have said, from the hand of 
 Samuel himself. The style of this narrative is grave, prosaic, 
 unadorned, abounding with repetitions, yet not without a 
 certain grandeur and majesty, which accords well with our 
 conceptions of a very early age, before the advance of litera- 
 ture and the progress of civilization had supplied the language 
 with the more refined and picturesque expressions, which are 
 so frequently employed by the Jehovist, but are almost wholly 
 wanting in the older writer. In the whole Elohistic Narrative 
 there is no instance of a story of indecency, whereas the 
 Jehovistic additions abound with them. 13 The crimes, which 
 the Elohist refers to as most common, are crimes of ' violence,' 
 which in his view were the main cause of the Flood, 14 and 
 against which he expressly provides, ' Whoso sheddeth man's 
 blood, by man shall his blood be shed.' 15 He nowhere men- 
 tions any of the luxuries of later times ; he knows nothing of 
 golden bracelets, earrings, or necklaces ; he never even men- 
 tions the sword. This last fact corresponds to the state of 
 things in Israel in Samuel's time, when i there was no smith 
 found throughout the land of Israel ; for the Philistines said, 
 lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears : so it came to 
 pass that in the day of battle there was neither sword nor 
 spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with 
 Saul and Jonathan ; only with Saul and Jonathan his son 
 there were found.' 16 In one place only does he name either 
 of the precious metals ; and then Abraham weighs out to 
 Ephron 400 shekels of silver ' passing current with the mer- 
 chant.' 17 His language, in short, betrays everywhere a primi- 
 tive condition of society, before the arts had made progress 
 
 13 G.xix.4,9,30-38, xxxiv, xxxviii, xxxix. H G.vi. 11,14. 
 
 15 G.ix.6. « iS.xiii.19,22. u G.xxiii.15,16. 
 
THE AGE OF THE ELOHIST IN GENESIS. 23 
 
 in Israel. Moreover, he makes no allusion to priests or sacri- 
 fices. All that Jacob does, when he sets up his pillar and 
 calls the place, where El Shaddai, ' God Almighty/ had 
 appeared to him, by the name of Beth-El, that is, i House of 
 GOD,' is to ' pour a drink-offering and oil upon it.' 18 That 
 priests existed and sacrifices were offered in the writer's 
 day in Israel, as among the surrounding nations, cannot 
 be doubted. But, it is clear, he laid no special stress on 
 priestly matters. He lived at a time when there was no 
 gorgeous ritual, no splendid temple, no complex system of 
 sacrifices. 
 
 All this agrees closely with the age of Samuel, and other 
 arguments might be produced which point very strongly in 
 the same direction, especially the fact that the writer lays 
 such very great stress upon Abraham's having purchased 
 from the Hittites the ' field of Machpelah/ the site of the city 
 of Hebron. He describes, for instance, the conveyance of 
 this land to Abraham in terms of almost legal precision : — 
 ' The field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, which was east 
 of Mamre, the field and the cave that was in it, and all the 
 trees that were in the field, that were in all the borders round 
 about, were confirmed to Abraham for a possession in the 
 presence of the sons of Heth, before all that went in at the 
 gate of the city.' 19 He evidently wished this place to be re- 
 garded as the most venerable and sacred in the whole land of 
 Israel. He repeats, again and again, 20 that from the earliest 
 times it had been acquired by Abraham their great fore- 
 father, not by conquest or by gift, but by friendly purchase, 
 that he might secure for himself and his descendants for ever 
 an incontestable right to it. It had been made the residence 
 of each of the patriarchs, 21 and there each of them was buried, 
 
 18 G. xxxv. 14. 19 G.xxiii. 17,18. 
 
 20 G.xxiii. 1 7, 1 8, 20, xxv.io, xlix. 30,32, I.13. 
 
 21 G.xxiii. 2, xxxv. 27, comp. also xxxvii. 14, a later insertion. 
 
24 THE AGE OF THE ELOHIST IN GENESIS. 
 
 as also their wives, Sarah, Rebekah, Leah. 22 How dear, then, 
 should Hebron be to* the affections of every Israelite ! How 
 touching were all these memories connected with it ! 
 
 But why so much stress laid on Hebron ? If we turn to 
 the history we read that, after Saul's death, ' David enquired 
 of Jehovah saying, Shall I go up into any of the cities of 
 Judah ? And Jehovah said unto him, Go up, and David 
 said, Whither shall I go up ? and He said, Unto Hebron.' 23 
 Thus, by the authority of some priest or prophet, answering 
 in Jehovah's name, David was directed to make Hebron the 
 central seat of his government. Accordingly for seven years 
 and a half David reigned over Judah in Hebron, 24 while Ish- 
 bosheth, Saul's son, reigned over the Ten Tribes at Maha- 
 naim. 25 But after Ishbosheth's death ' all the elders of Israel 
 came to the king to Hebron ;. and king David made a league 
 with them in Hebron before JEHOVAH; and they anointed 
 David king over Israel.' 25 And now, being thus strength- 
 ened, he captures at once the stronghold of Zion from its 
 Jebusite inhabitants, and makes Jerusalem henceforth his 
 capital; 27 after which Hebron is named no more in the 
 history, except that David's rebel son Absalom also set up 
 his kingdom at Hebron. 28 It seems highly improbable that 
 so much importance would have been ascribed by the Elohist 
 to Hebron if he wrote after the first seven years of David's 
 reign, when Jerusalem had been made the royal city. It is 
 clear, however, that David's priestly or prophetical advisers 
 advised him at first to make Hebron his capital. And with 
 this in view most probably the passages in question in the 
 Book of Genesis were written — perhaps, as I have said, by 
 Samuel himself, in accordance with advice which he had 
 given to his young friend David, ?9 whom he had long marked 
 out as the future king. 30 
 
 22 G.xxiii. 19, xxv.9, 10, xlix.31, I.13. 2S 2S.H. 1. 
 
 24 2S.ii.11. 2S 2S.ii.8,i2,29. 26 2S.V.3. 27 2S.v.6,7,l3,i4. 
 
 28 2S.xv.7,9,io. ™ iS.xix. 18, 19,22. 30 1S.xv.28, xvi.1-13. 
 
THE AGE OF THE ELOHIST IN GENESIS. 25 
 
 In this way light is thrown upon the origin and contents 
 of the ' ancient Elohistic document.' And, studied in this 
 manner, the Book of Genesis becomes most deeply interest- 
 ing, not only from an historical point of view, as reflecting the 
 colour of the times in which the different portions of it were 
 written, but as revealing also the thoughts of our brethren, 
 quickened by the self-same Spirit as we are, nearly three 
 thousand years ago — as recording the first movements of 
 higher Divine Life in the hearts of men of the Hebrew race, 
 from which our own religious life has been to a great extent 
 derived, the kindling of that spiritual flame, which in Israel's 
 worst days was never suffered to be quite extinguished, but, 
 fed from time to time with fresh supplies from the Eternal 
 Source, beamed out at length upon the nations bright and 
 clear, in the full glory of the Teaching of Christ. 
 
LECTURE III. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 The New Lesson for Quinquagesima Sunday; G.ix. I— 17 Elohistic, and 
 pointing to the age of Samuel; G.ix. 28, 29, Elohistic like G.v. ; the cri- 
 teria which distinguish the Elohistic passages ; only these show signs of 
 continuity ; the Jehovistic accounts of the Creation and Fall, Cain and his 
 descendants, and the race of giants ; the probable origin of this legend of a 
 giant race ; the older story is sometimes merely retouched by the Jehovist, 
 as in the notice of Noah's birth in G.v. and the account of the Flood; 
 contradictions introduced by these insertions ; final proof of the Elohist 
 having lived in the age of Samuel ; first indication of the Jehovist having 
 lived in the age of David or Solomon ; the rainbow, a true sign of God's 
 Covenant with man. 
 
'^^ 
 
 THE JEHOVISTIC PASSAGES IN GENESIS, 
 
 HE First Lesson for Quinquagesima Sunday in the 
 New Lectionary ends with G.ix.19. It would 
 have ended more properly with v.17, because here 
 ends the older passage which forms the main 
 portion of the chapter. Throughout this section, G.ix.1-17, 
 which relates what occurred immediately after the Flood, we 
 find precisely the same style and phraseology as marks the 
 first account of the Creation. Thus we read in vli, 'And 
 ELOHIM blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, 
 Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth ' ; and so we 
 find in G.i.28, ' And ELOHIM blessed them and Elohim 
 said, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and 
 subdue it ' : in the one case there follows, ' and the fear of you 
 and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, 
 and upon every fowl of the air, and upon all that moveth upon 
 the ground, and upon the fish of the sea — into your hand 
 they are delivered ' ; and so we read in the other passage, 
 'and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl 
 of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the 
 earth.' We have evidently the same writer in both passages ; 
 and it is that older writer of the age of Samuel — very possibly 
 Samuel himself — who uses everywhere the word Elohim, 
 1 GOD,' in speaking of the Divine Being, and abstains from 
 
30 THE JEH0V1STIC PASSAGES IN GENESIS. 
 
 using the name Jehovah. He tells us here how after the 
 Flood ELOHIM gave to man every living thing for food, as 
 well as the green herb which alone had been hitherto allowed, 1 
 but strenuously forbad both the shedding of human blood and 
 the eating of blood ; and so in the age of Samuel we find 
 recorded a remarkable instance — indeed the only one men- 
 tioned in the whole history — of the people eating with blood. 
 'And they smote the Philistines that day, and the people were 
 very faint ; and the people flew upon the spoil, and took sheep 
 and oxen and calves and slew them on the ground, and the 
 people did eat them with the blood. And they told Saul 
 saying, ' Behold ! the people sin against Jehovah in that they 
 eat with the blood.' 2 He then tells us how ELOHIM ' estab- 
 lished a covenant' with Noah that there ' should be no more 
 a flood to destroy the earth,' and makes the rainbow appear 
 for the first time as the sign of that covenant, beingjgnorant, 
 of course, of the physical fact that, whenever the sunshine 
 fell upon the shower before the Flood, the rainbow must have 
 appeared in the sky. 
 
 To this same Elohistic writer belongs also the notice in 
 G.ix.28,29, about Noah living 350 years after the Flood, 
 and 950 years altogether. It is true, the name of the Deity 
 does not occur here at all. But the style of these verses 
 corresponds exactly with that of G.v, with its list of patriarchs 
 before the Flood from Adam to Noah, living most of them 
 more than 900 years ; and in this we find repeatedly the name 
 ' ELOHIM ' used — ' In the day that ELOHIM created man, in 
 the likeness of ELOHIM made He him.' ' And Enoch walked 
 with ELOHIM three hundred years and begat sons and 
 daughters.' ' And Enoch walked with ELOHIM and he was 
 not, for ELOHIM took him.' 3 
 
 And this leads me to make a remark, the neglect of which 
 
 1 G.i.29,30. - iS.xiv.32,33. 9 G.v. 1,22,24. 
 
THE J EH VI STIC PASSAGES IN GENESIS. 31 
 
 has led many persons, only imperfectly informed upon this 
 subject, 4 into great mistakes and a total misapprehension of 
 the method of Modern Biblical Criticism. What I mean is 
 this, that the Elohistic matter in Genesis is not distinguished 
 from the rest by critics merely by noting the use of the 
 Divine Name ; for here we find two verses, which are clearly 
 seen, from a comparison with G.v, to belong to the Elohist, 
 but which do not contain ' Elohim } at all. On the other 
 hand, there are passages in which Elohim frequently occurs, 
 sometimes even exclusively, without any mention of the name 
 JEHOVAH, but which are as clearly seen not to belong to the 
 older writer, because their style and phraseology differ entirely 
 from his. 5 It is the combination of two things — the constant 
 use of ELOHIM, or the deliberate suppression of JEHOVAH, 6 
 and the agreement in thought and expression with that of 
 the older writer — which alone can determine whether any par- 
 ticular passage belongs to the Elohist or not. But, by carefully 
 attending to this principle, and closely examining every line, 
 nay, every word of the Book of Genesis, the Elohistic matter 
 has been separated from the rest ; and these passages, as I 
 have said, when thus extracted, are found to compose a 
 complete, consistent narrative, with scarcely a break or inter- 
 ruption from beginning to end. As one has written — ' What- 
 ever may be the truth concerning the origin of the different 
 narratives constituting the present Book of Genesis, two facts 
 
 4 e.g., Bp. Browne {B.C., p. 133, 135,137, 159), see my Commentary on 
 B.C. {Genesis, 115,119,120,133). 
 
 5 e.g., G.xx. 1-17, xxi.8-34, xxii. I-13, xl-xlviii. 
 
 6 The sole exception to this is in G.xvii. 1, where Jehovah occurs in an Elo- 
 histic passage. But the exception in this case proves the rule. If the Elohist 
 has used everywhere else invariably Elohim in his narrative (87 times), and 
 never Jehovah, it is plain that its occurrence in this single instance must be 
 ascribed either to the slip of a copyist or else to the fact of the writer himself 
 having inadvertently broken his rule, and used Jehovah, a name with which he was 
 himself familiar. In the rest of the chapter he employs only Elohim for the 
 personal name of the Deity, ^.1,3,9,15,18,22,23. 
 
32 THE JEHOVISTIC PASSAGES IN GENESIS. : 
 
 are certain — (i) That it contains bat one set of passages, in 
 which anything like a continuous story of the antediluvian 
 and patriarchal ages can be traced ; (ii) That it does contain 
 such a set of passages, distinguished by marked peculiarities 
 of language, which, when all the other passages (where these 
 peculiarities do not occur) are struck out, may be read con- 
 tinuously without the addition or omission of a single word, 
 except in two or three cases, where very large additions to 
 the original story appear to have been made, and some por- 
 tions of it to have been struck out. All the other parts of 
 Genesis, though often forming continuous narratives of con- 
 siderable length, require this original story as the thread to 
 hold them together, and cannot be combined into an in- 
 dependent history complete in itself without arbitrary additions 
 or transpositions.' 7 
 
 This ancient Elohistic Narrative, then, the Jehovist had 
 before him ; and he enlarged and enlivened it by introducing 
 a number of passages recording additional incidents in the 
 lives of the patriarchs before and after the Flood, and especially 
 by inserting the second account of the Creation ii.4a— 25,® with 
 its description of the planting of the garden of Eden and 
 of the four mighty rivers which watered it. One of these 
 rivers is named as the Euphrates, and the others are identified 
 by scholars with the Indus, the Nile, and the Tigris, which 
 are here supposed to be derived from one common source, 
 and to flow thence in different directions, the Indus to the 
 East, the Nile to the South, the Tigris to the North, the 
 Euphrates to the West, according to the vague geographical 
 notions of those times. So even, a thousand years later, 
 Josephus in his explanation of this passage regards the 
 
 7 E. V. Neale {Genesis Critically Examined, p.vi). 
 
 8 v. 4a belongs to the Elohist, and was probably removed from its original 
 position at the beginning of G.i, (comp. the similar expressions at the beginning 
 of histories, v.i, vi.9, xi. 10,27, xxv.12,19, xxxvi.1,9, xxxvii.2a), in order to form 
 the commencement of the Jehovistic account of the Creation. 
 
THE JEHOVISTIC PASSAGES IN GENESIS. 33 
 
 Euphrates, Tigris, and Nile, as branches of the same river ; 
 but, instead of the Indus, he reckons the Ganges. 9 Then 
 the Jehovist goes on to tell us how the man, whom JEHOVAH 
 had formed, was placed in the garden and charged not to eat 
 of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and how the animals 
 of all kinds were brought to him from all parts of the earth, 
 from all extremes of climate, the White Bear of the Frozen 
 North and the Humming-bird of the Tropics, the beasts and 
 birds of prey and their ordinary victims, and he gave names 
 to them all. Finally he informs us that, while all the other 
 creatures had mates, the Lord God (Jehovah Elohim) saw 
 that the man had none ; ' and the Lord God caused a deep 
 sleep to fall upon the man and he slept ; and the rib, which 
 the Lord God had taken from the man, made He a woman 
 and brought her unto the man.' Thus in this second account 
 of the Creation the man is apparently, created the first, and 
 the woman is certainly created the last, of all living creatures ; 
 whereas in the older story the man and woman are created 
 last of all, as the crowning work of ELOHIM, and are created 
 together — 'And ELOHIM created man in His own image, in 
 the image of Elohim created He him ; male and female 
 created He them.' 10 
 
 Next he describes the Temptation and the Fall, 11 the sin 
 and punishment of Cain, 12 and the progress of the arts of 
 cattle-keeping, music, and smithery among his descendants ; 13 
 and he tells us how the ' sons of God ' took wives of the' 
 beautiful ' daughters of men,' and from them sprung a race 
 of mighty heroes, ' which were of old, men of renown.' H 
 * There were giants too in the earth in those days ' 15 — a tra- 
 dition which is found to exist among most nations, and has 
 probably arisen from the discoveries of huge bones which have 
 been ignorantly supposed to be human. Perhaps this tradition 
 
 s Ant. I.i.3, )0 G.i.27. » G.iii. » 2 G.iv.i-i6, 
 
 J » G.iv. 17-22. u G.vi.1-4. 15 G.vi.4, 
 
 D 
 
34 THE JEHOVISTIC PASSAGES IN GENESIS. 
 
 derived some support among the ancients from the gigantic 
 statues and vast architectural structures of Egypt, Assyria, 
 and Greece, and especially among the Hebrews from the 
 massive ruins in the trans-Jordanic lands, where sarcophagi 
 of huge size, made of the black basalt of the country, are now 
 used as water-troughs, one of which is spoken of in D.iii.n 
 as the ' iron bedstead ' of Og the king of Bashan ; ' nine cubits 
 was the length thereof and four cubits the breadth of it' 
 — that is, it was 16 feet long and 7 feet broad. Even now, 
 as travellers tell us, many of these stone coffins exist in this 
 region, of vast dimensions. 16 But no human remains of such 
 gigantic size have as yet been discovered. Josephus indeed 
 says, speaking of the time of the Judges, ' At this time also 
 remained some of the race of giants, who for bigness of body 
 and terrible aspect were very unlike other men ; the sight of 
 them was astonishing, being a thing fearful to be told ; their 
 bones are yet to be seen, but so large as to exceed all belief.' 17 
 But these bones, 18 no doubt, belonged to huge extinct animals, 
 which were mistaken by the ancients for human remains ; as 
 St. Augustine tells us of a tooth which he saw, a hundred times 
 larger than ordinary teeth, 19 and which in all probability 
 once belonged to an elephant. So Virgil supposed that there 
 was not only a diminution in size of the human race from 
 primeval times, but that this diminution would continue in 
 the ages to come ; and, speaking of the slaughter on one of 
 the great battle-fields of his own time, he pictures the pigmy 
 ploughman of later days going over the ground centuries 
 afterwards, and marvelling at the huge bones turned out from 
 the dug-up graves. 20 But in truth there is no sign of any 
 
 18 BURCKHARDT, pp.220,246, ROBINSON, III.p.658, SEETZEN, I.pp. 355,360, 
 quoted by KEIL, II. p. 409. 17 Ant. V.ii.3. 
 
 18 That is, if any such bones were really to be seen in Palestine in the time 
 of Josephus, who is not a very trustworthy authority on such points. 
 
 » De Civ. Dei, xv.9. 20 Georg., 1. 497. 
 
THE JEHOVISTIC PASSAGES IN GENESIS. 3$ 
 
 such change having taken place in the stature of the human 
 race from the earliest times of which we have any knowledge 
 till now. The remains found in ancient tombs and pyramids 
 are enough to show this, since they correspond generally in 
 stature and size to the men of our own times. As one has 
 said — ' Looking upward from the base of the Great Pyramid, 
 we might suppose it the work of giants ; but it is entered by 
 passages admitting with difficulty a man of the present size, 
 and we find in the centre a sarcophagus about six feet long.' 21 
 The story in Genesis now passes on to the account of the 
 Flood, which was sent, says the Elohist, because ' the earth 
 .was corrupt before Elohim and the earth was filled with 
 violence' ; 22 which statement the Jehovist expands and em- 
 phasizes in his own peculiar style as follows : ' And Elohim 
 saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and 
 that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only 
 evil continually. And it repented Jehovah that He had 
 made man on the earth, and Jehovah said, I will destroy man 
 whom I have created from the face of the ground, both man 
 and beast and creeping thing and fowl of the heaven : for it 
 repenteth Me that I have made them.' 23 Thus this later 
 writer has not only inserted whole stories of his own, but he 
 has retouched the more ancient narrative, where it seemed to 
 want point and force, or to need some additional feature. 
 He has done this already in G.v, in the list of the antediluvian 
 patriarchs, which belongs undoubtedly to the older writer, and 
 must have originally contained an account of the birth of Noah, 
 exactly similar in form to those of the seven preceding 
 patriarchs ; that is to say, the Elohist must have written, as 
 in all the other instances, 'And Lamech lived 182 years and 
 begat Noah.' But the Jehovist has retouched the passage 
 and it now stands thus — 'And Lamech lived 182 years and 
 
 21 Kenrick, Primcev. Hut. p. 74. 22 G.vi. 11. 23 G.vi.5-7. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 THE JEHOVISTIC PASSAGES IN GENESIS. 
 
 begat a son, and he called his name Noah, saying, This same 
 shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, 
 because of the ground which Jehovah hath cursed ' 24 — where 
 we have not only the name ' JEHOVAH,' but a distinct reference 
 to the curse pronounced upon the ground after the Fall and 
 the work and toil imposed on Adam — J Cursed is the ground 
 for thy sake ; in sorrow — that is, in toilsome labour — shalt 
 thou eat of it all the days of thy life ' 25 — all which belongs 
 to the same hand. 
 
 Accordingly, the Jehovist does not give us a second account 
 of the Flood, as he has done of the Creation ; he merely 
 retouches the older story, and sometimes not very felicitously. 
 The Elohist, for instance, makes Elohim command Noah to 
 bring ' of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort, into 
 the Ark, male and female.' 26 The Jehovist makes JEHOVAH say 
 unto Noah, ' Of every clean beast thou shalt take into the Ark 
 by sevens, the male and the female, and of the beasts that are 
 not clean by two, the male and the female, of fowls also of the 
 heaven by sevens, the male and the female ' ; 27 and the reason 
 for his doing this is plain, because he wishes to introduce a 
 sacrifice of thanksgiving after the Flood, and he needs these 
 seven pairs of clean beasts and birds that Noah ' may build an 
 altar unto Jehovah, and take of every clean beast and every 
 clean fowl, and offer burnt-offerings on the altar ' ; whereupon, 
 he says, 'JEHOVAH smelled a sweet savour, and JEHOVAH said 
 in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for 
 man's sake.' 28 Again, in the midst of the older account 
 of Noah and the other human and brute creatures coming out 
 of the Ark, the Jehovist has inserted this clause, 'and Noah 
 removed the covering of the Ark and looked, and lo ! the face 
 of the ground was dry ;' and this took place on ' the first day 
 of the jirst month.' 29 But Noah and the rest came out of the 
 
 24 G.v.28,29. 25 G.iii. 17-19. 26 G.vi. 19,20, comp. vii.8,9,15, 16. 
 
 27 G.vii.2,3. 28 G.viii.20-22. ™ G.viii. 13. 
 
THE J EH VI STIC PASSAGES IN GENESIS. 37 
 
 Ark on ' the twenty-seventh day of the second month ' 30 — from 
 which it follows that, in consequence of this injudicious insertion, 
 the Ark remains uncovered for nearly two months, the ground 
 being dry, and yet none of the birds or insects flew away ! 
 
 I have said that the Elohistic Narrative was probably 
 written in the age of Samuel, and have given some reasons 
 which lead to that conclusion, 31 and I will now add another. 
 To this writer belongs G.xxxvi, which is for the most part 
 a mere dry catalogue of names of the sons or descendants 
 of Esau or Edom — in other words, a list of the principal 
 Edomite tribes as they existed in the writer's time. To the 
 eye of most readers this catalogue will have but an uninviting, 
 dreary aspect, just as a list of Scottish clans and their remote 
 ancestors would not be very attractive to an ordinary English 
 student of history. But what if we found in such an ancient 
 Scottish register a passage like this — ' And these are the 
 kings that reigned in Scotland, before there reigned any king 
 over the people of England ' ? Should we not at once infer 
 that, at the time when such words were written, England 
 had already been ruled by a king, though possibly only by 
 one? And so, when we read in G.xxxvi. 31, 'These are the 
 kings that reigned in the land of Edom, before the reigning 
 of a king over the children of Israel,' we conclude that this 
 passage could not have been written before the age of Saul, 
 the first king of Israel, or, in other words, before the age of 
 Samuel. But may it not have been written in a still later age ? 
 Let us look more closely at this list of Edomite kings. They 
 are eight in number, and in each instance the king's death and 
 the name of his successor are mentioned in precisely the 
 same form — e.g., ' and Bela died, and Jobab, son of Zerah of 
 Bozrah, reigned in his stead ' 32 — except in the case of the 
 last king, Hadar or Hadad. The death of Hadad is not 
 
 80 G.viii.14, &c. 31 p. 15-17. 32 G.xxxvi. 33. 
 
38 THE JEHOVISTIC PASSAGES IN GENESIS. 
 
 mentioned : we read only, ' And Baal-hanan, son of Achbor, 
 died, and Hadad reigned in his stead, and the name of his city 
 was Pau, and his wife's name was Mehetabel, daughter of 
 Matred, daughter of Mezahab.' 33 The writer evidently knew 
 a great deal more about this king Hadad than about any of 
 the others, since he mentions not only his city and the name 
 of his wife, but the names also of her mother and grandfather. 
 Now, since he does not mention his death or name his successor, 
 as in all the other instances, it is plain that Hadad was still 
 living when this passage was written. Therefore, since all 
 these reigned before there was a king in Israel, it follows 
 that Hadad must have reigned in Edom befoi'e Saul's time ; 
 again, as he was not dead at the time when this passage was 
 written, he must have been reigning also after Saul became 
 king over Israel ; so that this list must have been composed 
 in the age — and therefore, very probably, by the hand — 
 of Samuel. 
 
 But, if the Elohist lived in Samuel's time, when did the 
 later writer, the Jehovist, live ? We have seen that G.ix.1-17 
 and also ^.28,29 belong to the Elohist. But between these 
 two passages the Jehovist has inserted a section, which betrays 
 unmistakably his style, not only by the use of the name 
 Jehovah, i Blessed be Jehovah, the Elohim of Shem !', but 
 by the phraseology throughout, as may be seen in critical 
 works. 34 It is obvious that the main object aimed at in this 
 passage is to throw contempt and reproach upon Canaan. He 
 is not descended from Shem, as the Hebrews were, but he is 
 a son of Ham, and a heavy curse is laid upon his head 
 by his grandfather Noah — ' Cursed be Canaan ! a servant of 
 servants shall he be unto his brethren. Blessed be JEHOVAH, 
 the Elohim of Shem ! and Canaan shall be his servant. 
 Elohim shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents 
 
 33 G.xxxvi.39, 34 Pent. V. ^^.47,48. 
 
THE J EH VIS TIC PASSAGES IN GENESIS. 39 
 
 of Shem, and Canaan shall be his servant! 35 Why all this 
 stress laid upon Canaan becoming a servant — that is, a slave 
 to Shem and Japheth — 'a servant of servants unto his brethren' 
 — a slave of slaves ? We know how modern slave-holders have 
 wrested this curse into a reason for reducing all black races 
 — supposed to be the children of Ham — into slavery, forgetting 
 the fact that the curse is not pronounced upon the sons of 
 Ham generally, but solely upon the Canaanites. 
 
 Manifestly the passage before us seeks to find a justification 
 for the manner in which the Canaanites were subdued and 
 subjected by the Israelites in Solomon's time. The history 
 of Samuel, Saul, and David, exhibits no evidence whatever 
 of such complete prostration of the Canaanite tribes under 
 the feet of their Israelitish masters. On the contrary, it is 
 noted that in Samuel's time 'there was peace between Israel 
 and the ^4 7/20/7^' ; 35 while in the earlier part of David's reign 
 the Jebusites possessed the stronghold of Zion and for a while 
 defied him. 37 It is not till Solomon's time that we read — 
 'All the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, 
 Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites' — in one word, all the people 
 that were left of the Canaanites — ' who were not of the children 
 of Israel, their children that were left after them in the land, 
 whom the children of Israel also were not able to exterminate, 
 upon these did Solomon levy a tribute of bond-service unto 
 this day.' 38 Yes ! let Solomon make bondslaves of the sons 
 of Canaan ; for did not Noah say of old, ' Cursed be Canaan ! 
 a slave of slaves shall he be to his brethren ' ? 
 
 Thus the passage was probably written, perhaps by one 
 of Samuel's pupils, such as Nathan the prophet, in the early 
 part of Solomon's reign, or even somewhat earlier, in the latter 
 part of David's reign, when the idea of exacting this bond- 
 service from the Canaanites may have been already entertained. 
 
 35 G.ix. 25,27. S6 1S.vii.14. 
 
 37 2S.V.6-8. w iK.ix.20,21. 
 
40 THE JEHOVISTIC PASSAGES IN GENESIS. 
 
 How different from the tone of this passage — how far more 
 grand, having the character of a true inspiration — was the 
 thought of the Elohist, who has just before made the rainbow 
 the sign of God's everlasting covenant of grace to man ! We 
 may fall back with a sure quiet trust on the firm ground of 
 this unanswerable argument, that He who has made not only 
 the rainbow, but other things around us so beautiful, and has 
 given us eyes to see and hearts to appreciate the wisdom and 
 goodness of His works> has surely kind and gracious thoughts 
 towards us. He would not mock a world lying under a curse 
 — a ' slave of slaves ' to the spirit of evil — a race of whom (as 
 some suppose) the vast majority are doomed to everlasting 
 woe — with these bright exhibitions of His Fatherly Love, 
 Whether Adam fell in Paradise or not, whether Noah was 
 saved in the Ark or not, whether the cities of the plain were 
 destroyed for their wickedness or not, yet in the minds of 
 those who wrote those stories of old there was a deep and true 
 conviction of the evil nature of sin and its terrible consequences. 
 But so, too, to the minds of pious men of old it was revealed 
 that the heaven and the earth are the work of the Great Creator, 
 that the blessed light came forth at the word of God, and 
 that man himself is made in his Maker's image. We feel 
 the bonds of our common humanity drawn yet more closely 
 around us when we see that in those days, as now, the Presence 
 of a Heavenly Friend was realised as ever near to each faithful 
 soul, ready to comfort, strengthen, bless, or, if need be, to 
 correct and chasten — nay, that to their eyes, as to ours, the 
 gracious signs of nature were witnessing of an eternal bond 
 between the Father of spirits and His children, and the bright 
 beauty of the rainbow after the storm — the simple fact that, 
 notwithstanding all our provocations, God still gives us power 
 to see and to enjoy His Goodness — was regarded as a token 
 of the continuance of His loving care for us; an assurance and 
 pledge of forgiveness, restoration, and peace. 
 
LECTURE IV. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 The New Lesson for the First Sunday in Lent, G.xix. 12-29, a Jehovistic 
 passage, except v. 29 ; this and other short fragments of the older story 
 preserved with scrupulous care, which shows the respect paid to it, probably 
 by Samuel's disciples after his death, and enables us to reconstruct it almost 
 in its original form ; the Jehovistic passages in Genesis may have been all 
 written by one hand ; G.xiv.xv., not included in these ; the name 'Jehovah' 
 used more freely in some of them than in others ; all indications of time 
 place the Jehovist in the age of David and Solomon, e.g. extended geo- 
 graphical knowledge, signs of progress in the arts and familiarity with the 
 customs of courts, and especially the prophecy of Edom's throwing off the 
 yoke of Israel ; the composite character of Genesis gives a confused view 
 of the patriarchs, especially of Abraham ; the primary Elohistic account 
 of Abraham ; the patriarch's hope at Sarah's grave compared with that of the 
 Christian. 
 
THE AGE OR THE JE HO VIST IN GENESIS. 
 
 N my previous Lectures I have set before you the 
 main distinctions between the ancient Elohistic 
 Narrative and the later insertions in the Book of 
 Genesis. Especially I have mentioned that the 
 older writer is distinguished everywhere, not merely by his 
 using constantly the name ' Elohim ' to the exclusion of 
 ' Jehovah/ but by a characteristic phraseology. 
 
 Let us take, for instance, the section G.xix. 12-29, a P~ 
 pointed in the New Lectionary as the First Lesson for the 
 First Sunday in Lent. In this whole section, except in Z/.29, 
 the name of JEHOVAH is continually employed — ' the cry of 
 them is waxen great before JEHOVAH, and JEHOVAH hath 
 sent us to destroy it' — 'up, get you out of this place, for 
 Jehovah will destroy this city' — 'Jehovah being merciful 
 unto him' — 'then JEHOVAH rained upon Sodom and upon 
 Gomorrah brimstone and fire from JEHOVAH out of heaven' 
 — 'and Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place 
 where he stood before JEHOVAH.' 1 In all these places the 
 English Bible has ' the LORD,' printed in capital letters, by 
 which our older translators, in imitation of the Septuagint 
 and Vulgate, have represented everywhere the name 'JEHOVAH', 
 1 v. 13, 14, 16,24,27. 
 
44 THE AGE OF THE JEHOVIST IN GENESIS. 
 
 obscuring frequently the sense by so doing— a defect which 
 will doubtless be amended in the New Translation. But in 
 v.18, 'And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my Lord,' the 
 word ' Lord ' is printed in ordinary type ; and here it means no 
 more than it would in common English, viz., 'Master' or 'Sir,' 
 as an expression of respect. The Lesson in this case, however, 
 begins most abruptly, ' And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou 
 here any besides ? ' ; and the reason of this is, that the New 
 Lectionary omits the offensive passage with which the chapter 
 begins and which used to be read among the Sunday Lessons, 2 
 as even the former Lectionary omitted that with which it 
 ends 3 — both of which, though they do not either of them con- 
 tain the name of the Deity, belong undoubtedly to the Jehovist, 
 since they resemble closely the other passages due to this 
 writer, not only in expression and style, but in subject- 
 matter, all the stories in Genesis of a similar character having 
 come from his hand. 
 
 But in the midst of this Jehovistic matter, at the end of 
 the account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, 
 occur the words of ^.29, 6 And it came to pass, when ELOHIM 
 destroyed the cities of the plain, that ELOHIM remembered 
 Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, 
 when He overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt.' Hitherto 
 in this story, in this and the preceding chapter, only 
 Jehovah has been used, altogether seventeen times, and 
 never once Elohim. How can it be supposed that the same 
 writer would suddenly change his style and use only ELOHIM 
 in one single verse as here ? And how strange it would 
 be if, after giving a long detailed account of these occur- 
 rences, of the visit of JEHOVAH to Abraham, the destruction 
 of the cities, and the deliverance of Lot, he had added this 
 notice at the end, just as if none of these things had been 
 
 2 v.i-ii. 3 ^.30-38. 
 
THE AGE OF THE J EH OVIST IN GENESIS. 45 
 
 before related at all ! This verse, in short, is part of the 
 Elohistic Narrative, and contains all that the Elohist said 
 upon the subject ; and in that Narrative, when extracted 
 and read by itself, it will be found to take its place very 
 properly, though in its present position it forms but a tame 
 and spiritless conclusion after the long and striking cir- 
 cumstantial story of the Jehovist. And we find here 
 repeated the phraseology of the older writer. As before 
 he had mentioned that 'Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain,' 4 
 so here he speaks of ' Elohim destroying the cities of the 
 plain,' and 'overthrowing the cities in which Lot dwelt.' 
 As before he said that * Elohim remembered Noah,' 5 so here 
 he says that ' Elohim remembered Abraham.' Beyond all 
 doubt, therefore, it belongs to the Elohist ; and, as it lay 
 before the later writer in the older story, it formed the 
 text — the thema, as it were — upon which the latter has 
 composed his own vivacious narrative in these two chap- 
 ters, with which he has supplemented the very brief Elohistic 
 notice. 
 
 I have also given reasons for supposing that the Elohistic 
 Narrative was composed in the age, and therefore probably 
 by the hand, of the great Reformer Samuel, for the use of 
 the students in the schools which he established, and over 
 which indeed towards the close of his life we find him 
 apparently presiding. 6 It is very natural that after his 
 death it should have been retouched, embellished, and 
 enlarged, by some one or more of his favourite disciples, 
 in the next age, the age of David and Solomon. It would 
 seem almost certain that this would happen. Their Mas- 
 ter's work may have been left by his death in his pupils' 
 hands unfinished ; they may have been advised by him or 
 charged to complete it, or their own feelings may have 
 
 * G.xiii. 12a. 5 G.viij. I. 6 lS.xix.20. 
 
46 THE AGE OF THE JEH OVIST IN GENESIS. 
 
 prompted them to do so. Even during his lifetime, and 
 under his eye and direction, they may have been practised 
 already in such labours ; and we read, in fact, of the ' Book 
 of Jashar' 7 and the 'Book of the Wars of JEHOVAH,' 8 which 
 have altogether disappeared, but were probably composed 
 in these schools. It is easy to believe that the reverence 
 paid to the Master in such a case would protect as far as 
 possible the identical words which he had written, so that 
 the first account of the Creation was retained, with all its 
 supposed defects, when the second was inserted ; whereas, 
 instead of the older story of the Flood being cancelled 
 and another substituted in its place, almost every line and 
 letter of the more ancient story has been preserved, the 
 later writer having contented himself with merely inter- 
 lining, as it were, his own additional insertions ; and so, 
 too, the short Elohistic notice has been left about the over- 
 throw of the cities of the plain, though rendered quite 
 unnecessary and superfluous by the long Jehovistic story 
 which precedes it. It is this scrupulous care to preserve 
 every word of the more ancient Narrative, which enables 
 us to extract that Narrative from the whole Book of 
 Genesis almost in its complete form as an unbroken history ; 
 and such scrupulosity, as I have said, would be only natural 
 in a writer who undertook to carry on and supplement his 
 great Master's work when he was gone. 
 
 Accordingly in my last Lecture I showed that some 
 portion of the Jehovistic matter in Genesis was most 
 probably composed either in the first years of Solomon's 
 reign or the last of David's. According to the usual 
 chronology Samuel died about four years before the death 
 of Saul, and then David reigned for 40J years. 9 Thus 
 about 45 years elapsed between Samuel's death and Solomon's 
 
 7 J.x.13, 2S.L18. 8 N.xxi.14. 9 2S.V.5. 
 
THE AGE OF THE J E HO VIST IN GENESIS. 47 
 
 accession ; so that one and the same disciple of Samuel — 
 such as Nathan — might have made additions to the older 
 story at different times, and, if 20 years old at his Master's 
 decease, would be not older than 70, if writing in the fifth 
 year of Solomon. It seems possible that this is really the 
 case, viz.) that the Jehovistic parts of Genesis were almost 
 all written by the same hand, as they exhibit everywhere the 
 same peculiar phrases and modes of thought and feeling. 
 G.xiv, however, is marked by a distinct phraseology of its 
 own, and, though belonging to the same age, was no doubt 
 contributed by another writer. G.xv also shows signs of 
 a much later age, and with some few other small insertions 
 in Genesis 10 belongs to a writer of whom I shall speak more 
 at length hereafter, who lived four centuries afterwards, 
 and who seems to have edited the story, as it had come 
 into his hands, with amplifications of his own. But 
 otherwise the supplementary portions of Genesis all betray 
 the same peculiarities of style, and may all perhaps be due 
 to one and the same hand, though written, it may be, at 
 different intervals in the space of half a century, during 
 the latter years of Saul, the whole reign of David, and the 
 first years of Solomon. In some of these Elohim is used 
 exclusively, 11 and not Jehovah at all ; in others Jehovah 
 is used, but sparingly ; 12 in others Jehovah is used 
 very freely ; 13 but in all the same phraseology occurs en- 
 tirely distinct from that of the Elohist. It would seem 
 as if the writer began by following the example of his 
 predecessor, using only Elohim, but in the later portions of 
 his work, for some reason or other, employed more familiarly 
 the name JEHOVAH. Perhaps we may see hereafter more 
 
 10 G.vi.4, x.8-12, xv. I-2I, xviii.18, 19, xxii. 14-18, xxiv.59,60, xxvi.4,5, 
 xxviii. 15,20-22, xxxi. 13, xxxv.2-4, as shown in Pent. (V.66,VI.482.) 
 
 11 e.g. G.xx.1-17, xxi.8- 20, 12 e.g. G.xxi. 33,34, xxii.1-13, 
 13 ^.£-.G.xviii,xix. 
 
48 THE AGE OF THE J EH OVIST IN GENESIS. 
 
 clearly the reason of this. Meanwhile it is possible, of course, 
 as some eminent critics maintain, that other writers, even of 
 different ages, may have contributed parts of the Jehovistic 
 matter, employing a somewhat similar phraseology, especially 
 when we remember that an oriental tongue, as, for instance, 
 the Arabic, 14 may remain unchanged for centuries. But there 
 is no necessity as yet for supposing this in the present instance, 
 since every sign of time, which has hitherto been detected in 
 these passages, seems to point to the age of David and 
 Solomon, and therefore very possibly to one and the same 
 writer. 
 
 Look, for instance, at the extended geographical know- 
 ledge displayed in these passages — the four great rivers in 
 G.ii. 10-14, the seventy nations in G.x — a sign of that more 
 intimate acquaintance with Phoenician commerce, which 
 existed in the latter years of David and the first of Solomon, 
 when ' Hiram, king of Tyre, sent his servant unto Solomon, 
 for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the 
 room of his father, for Hiram was ever a lover of David.' 15 
 It is here also that we read of Abraham being rich not 
 only in flocks and herds, camels and he-asses, 16 but in 
 silver and gold, 17 and of his producing out of his treasures 
 for Rebekah, his son's bride-elect, ' a golden nose-ring and 
 bracelets,' 'jewels of silver and jewels of gold,' 18 It is 
 here we find mention made of ' instruments of music ' and 
 ' working in brass and iron ' 19 — of the ' servants of Pharaoh,' 20 
 the ' servants of Abimelech,' 21 and of the large household of 
 ' menservants and maidservants' belonging to Abraham, 
 Isaac, and Jacob 22 — all signs of a great advance in civilization 
 from the days of Samuel and Saul, when at one time ' there 
 
 14 Palgrave {Arabia,!.^. ^il.) ,5 iK.v.i. - 16 G.xxiv.35. 
 
 1T G.xiii.2, xxiv.35. 18 G.xxiv.22,53. 19 G.iv.21,22. 
 
 20 G.xl.20, xli. 10,37,38, &c. 21 G.xx.8,xxi,25, &c. 
 
 22 G.xxiv.35, xxvi. 14, xxx.43. 
 
THE AGE OF THE J EH OVIST IN GENESIS. 49 
 
 was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel,' 23 and 
 giving evidence of some familiarity with the customs of 
 royalty, as in an age when the arts had made considerable 
 progress, such as that in which first the Tabernacle of David 
 and then the palaces and Temple of Solomon were built in 
 Jerusalem, the last with the aid of Phoenician workmen. 
 
 It is the Jehovist again who predicts that Esau or Edom 
 shall be subject to his younger brother Jacob or Israel in 
 the following words addressed to their mother Rebekah : — 
 
 ' Two nations are in thy womb, 
 And two folks shall be separated from thy bowels ; 
 And folk shall be stronger than folk, 
 And the elder shall serve the younger. ' 2 * 
 
 This passage, if we regard it as merely reflecting contem- 
 porary history, refers plainly to the subjection of the 
 Edomites to Israel in David's days, when ' David put 
 garrisons in Edom, throughout all Edom put he garrisons ; 
 and all they of Edom became David's servants.' 25 And 
 the bitter enmity between Edom and Israel which resulted 
 from this assumption of sovereignty, the younger brother 
 taking the right of pre-eminence, which belonged by the 
 order of birth to the older people, and claiming to lord it 
 over the neighbouring tribes — an enmity which was deepened 
 into a deadly and inveterate hatred, by the defeat of David's 
 forces on one occasion, and the cruel revenge which Joab 
 took in consequence, when he * went up to bury the slain ' of 
 Israel 26 — is strikingly shadowed forth in another Jehovistic 
 passage, ' And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing 
 wherewith his father had blessed him ; and Esau said in his 
 heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand ; then 
 will I slay my brother Jacob.' 27 
 
 This prediction, therefore, of Israel's supremacy over Edom 
 
 23 1S.xiii.19. ' 24 G.xxv.23. 25 2S.vih.14. 
 
 1/6 iK.xi.16. 27 G.xxvii.41. 
 
 E 
 
So THE AGE OF THE J EH OVIST IN GENESIS. 
 
 was very probably written in David's time. But we find 
 afterwards another prediction put into the mouth of Isaac and 
 addressed to Esau himself, as follows : — - 
 
 ' By thy sword shalt thou live, 
 And thou shalt serve thy brother ; 
 And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt have rule, 
 That thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.' 28 
 
 4. 
 
 It is certain that Edom did remain a ' servant ' to his ' younger 
 brother' Israel during the latter part of David's reign, having 
 been thoroughly crushed by Joab's massacre, and held in 
 awe by David's garrisons. But the very fact that David was 
 obliged to place ' garrisons ' in the country, in order to 
 maintain his authority in it — a fact which is repeated with 
 special emphasis, 'throughout all Edom put he garrisons' — 
 implies that he was not perfectly secure of his position — that 
 there was a certain stubborn unwillingness on the part of the 
 Edomite people to submit to his yoke. And accordingly we 
 find that in the very beginning of Solomon's reign, as soon as 
 ever the triumphant conqueror David and David's great 
 captain Joab were dead, Hadad the Edomite, a fugitive 
 prince, who had escaped when quite young from Joab's 
 massacre, 29 — very possibly the son or grandson of that same 
 Hadad whom the Elohist mentions last in the list of Edomite 
 kings before there was any king in Israel, 30 and who was 
 reigning, as we saw, in Samuel's time, 31 — raised the standard 
 of revolt against the rule of Solomon, 32 as Rezon also did in 
 Syria ; 33 and, no doubt, both succeeded in shaking off the 
 yoke of Israel. With respect to Rezon, indeed, our English 
 Bible tells us, ' He was an adversary to Israel all the days of 
 Solomon, together with the evil which Hadad did : and he 
 abhorred Israel and reigned over Syria.' 34 But the Greek 
 translation omits all mention of Rezon and Syria, and says, 
 
 28 G.xxvii.40. 29 iK.xi. 14-20. 30 G.xxxvi.31-39. 8 » p.37,38. 
 
 32 iK.xi.21, 22. S3 iK.xi.23,24. 34 1K.xi.25. 
 
THE AGE OF THE J E HO VIST IN GENESIS. 51 
 
 1 This is the mischief which Hadad did, and he vexed Israel 
 and reigned in the land of Edom.' 35 Thus this second predic- 
 tion which says of Edom, ' Thou shalt serve thy brother 
 Israel, but, when thou shalt have rule, thou shalt break his 
 yoke from off thy neck,' may have been written in the early 
 days of Solomon. 
 
 Such are some of the reasons which help us to fix the 
 composition of the Jehovistic insertions in Genesis in the 
 reign of David and the early part of Solomon's reign ; and 
 these may suffice for the present. I will only now draw your 
 attention to the fact that, in consequence of the composite 
 character of the Book of Genesis, it must necessarily follow 
 that we obtain but a broken and distorted view of the life 
 and character of any one of the patriarchs, as meant to be 
 exhibited by the original writer. This is a point of very 
 great interest, and, of course it is altogether ignored by 
 ordinary readers and expositors of the Bible. We often 
 hear, for instance, the character of Abraham set forth as a 
 model of excellence for the imitation of all ages. But what 
 Abraham ? — which of the three or four Abrahams whose 
 doings are mixed up in utter confusion by the different 
 writers concerned in the composition of Genesis ? How per- 
 plexing it is to find, in the account of the ' father of the 
 faithful,' the record of conduct so mean and unworthy as that 
 related of him in one place, where he prompts Sarah to say 
 that she was his sister instead of his wife, and exposes her to 
 injury in the Court of Pharaoh in order to screen himself 
 from harm, 36 and then in another place to find him, at the 
 end of twenty years, repeating the same base act in the Court 
 of Abimelech, 37 when Sarah was already ' old and well- 
 stricken in years,' 38 in fact ninety years old, 89 yet expected 
 soon to be the mother of a firstborn son, 40 the child of 
 
 85 1K.xi.22 (Vat. M.S.) 36 G.xii.10-20. 37 G.xx.1-18. 
 
 3b G.xviii.11. 39 G.xvii.17. 40 G.xviii. 14, xxi.2. 
 
 e 2 
 
52 THE AGE OF THE J EH OVIST IN GENESIS. 
 
 promise, the centre of such great hopes, the reward of so 
 many years of patient faith and expectation ! 
 
 But nothing of all this appears in the original Elohistic 
 Narrative, which in its grand simplicity represents each one 
 of the patriarchs, as I have said, without any flaw in his 
 character. In that Narrative Abraham migrates of his own 
 accord, without having received any miraculous call, from 
 Charran to Canaan, 41 carrying out in so doing the purpose 
 of his father. 42 He dwells in the land of Canaan, 43 and there 
 Hagar bears him a son Ishmael, 'for Sarah had no children.' 44 
 But many years afterwards, in his old age, the Deity appears 
 to him saying, ' I am (El Shaddai) God Almighty,' and 
 covenants to give to him and to his seed after him the land 
 of his sojournings, 45 commanding the rite of circumcision to 
 be observed as the sign and seal of the covenant, 46 and 
 promising a son to him by Sarah. 47 Abraham obeys the 
 command, 48 and receives the promised son, and circumcises 
 him. 49 His wife Sarah dies, and he buys from the sons of 
 Heth the burying-place at Hebron, where he buries Sarah, 50 
 and where he himself is buried by his two sons, Ishmael and 
 Isaac, ' in a ripe old age, an old man and full of years, and he 
 was gathered unto his people.' 51 
 
 And this is all the genuine original story of Abraham ! 
 This is the real Abraham of the Bible, the Abraham of the 
 Elohist. We have here no warlike sheikh, with his 318 
 trained servants all born in his house, going to do battle 
 with five confederate kings 52 — no expulsion of Ishmael, 53 no 
 purpose of sacrificing Isaac, 54 no marrying another wife or 
 wives and begetting six sons, 55 either during Sarah's life-time, 
 when Abraham was above a hundred years old, 56 or after her 
 
 41 G.xii.5. 42 G.xi.31. 4S G.xiii.i2a. 44 G.xvi.1,3,15,16. 
 
 45 G.xvii. 1 8. 4fl G.xvii.9-14. 47 G.xvii. 15-22. 48 G.xvii.23-27. 
 
 49 G.xxi.2-5. 80 G.xxiii. 1-26. 51 G.xxv.7-10. 52 G.xiv. 
 
 53 G.xxi.9-21. 54 G.xxii.1-13. " G.xxv. 1-6. 56 G.xxi.5. 
 
THE AGE OF THE JEHOVIST IN GENESIS. 53 
 
 death, when he was 137 years old, 57 though it seemed to 
 himself incredible that a son should be born to him even at 
 gg 58 — above all, no miserable subterfuge at the Court of 
 Pharaoh, 59 or still more reprehensible repetition of the fault at 
 the Court of Abimelech. 60 All these additions, which have 
 been made by later writers, are mere refractions and distor- 
 tions of the older story, and mar the simple dignity of the 
 patriarch's character as there portrayed. 
 
 Still the Elohist can touch our hearts as men when he places 
 us beside that cave in the field of Machpelah, and describes 
 for us the affecting scene, how 'Abraham came down to 
 mourn for Sarah and to weep for her,' 61 and ' stood up from 
 before his dead,' and pleaded with the sons of Heth, saying, 
 1 1 am a stranger and a sojourner with you : give me a 
 possession of a burying place with you that I may bury my 
 dead out of my sight.' 62 And yet we must not carry to that 
 scene our own emotions, our own hopes, our own faith, as 
 Christians — for whom the great Apostle of the Gentiles has 
 made the patriarch's faith a very watchword, l Abraham 
 believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteous- 
 ness.' 63 In the days of Abraham, or rather in the far later 
 days of him who writes here the story of Abraham, the 
 strongest faith was hardly able to reach out the hand and 
 lay hold of a hope beyond the grave ; the dead were buried, 
 like Sarah in this Narrative, ' out of sight ' 64 for ever and ever ; 
 and even long afterwards the good Hezekiah could say, ' The 
 grave cannot praise Thee ; death cannot celebrate Thee ; 
 they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy Truth.' 65 
 
 We Christians, however, taught by the lips of Him who 
 ' has brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel,' 66 
 believe that the same ' Faithful Creator,' 67 who ' is loving 
 
 57 G.xxiii. 1, comp. xvii. 17. 
 
 58 G. xvii. 1,17. 
 
 59 G.xii. 10-20. 
 
 60 G.xx.1-18. 61 G.xxiii. 1. 
 
 62 ^.3-16. 
 
 63 Rom.iv.3. 
 
 61 G.xxiii.4,8. 65 Is.xxxviii. 18. 
 
 66 2Tim.i.io. 
 
 87 iPet.iv. 19. 
 
54 THE AGE OF THE JE HO VIST IN GENESIS. 
 
 unto every man/ whose 'tender mercies are over all His 
 works/ 68 is the Lord of both worlds, that the same Fatherly 
 and Motherly Care and Wisdom and Might will order for us 
 there as here. We know that the dear Son of God and all 
 the best and noblest of our race, who have followed in his 
 train in different paths of duty, have passed the mysterious 
 barrier, the gate which leads out of Time into Eternity ; and 
 we feel and are sure that all these are safe under the Shadow 
 of the Mighty Hand. But the same Love broods over all, 
 and we can leave our dear ones, and leave ourselves, in the 
 merciful care, to the wise disposal of Him who watches day 
 and night, guiding the ages as they go, ordering the move- 
 ments of this Mighty Universe, yet listening to the humblest 
 prayer of the poor penitent. In our hours of saddest bereave- 
 ment we may learn to bow to the will of Him who is the 
 Lord of death as well as life, ' JEHOVAH,' the Living God, the 
 Life-giver, ' the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.' 69 
 But, while we live, our song shall be — like that which the 
 Jewish king poured forth from his overflowing heart when 
 raised from sickness nigh unto death — ' The living, the living, 
 he shall praise Thee, as I do this day ; the father to the 
 children shall make known Thy Truth.' 70 
 
 68 Ps.cxlv.9. 69 Heb.xiii.8. 70 Is.xxxviii.19. 
 
LECTURE V. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 The Jehovist assigned by some to a later age than Solomon's, because of the 
 revolt of Edom in Joram's time ; this conclusion unnecessary, since the 
 Moabite Stone implies the revolt of Moab in Solomon's time ; despotic acts of 
 Solomon on his accession ; revolts of subject provinces after the death of David 
 and Joab ; the statements of the vast extent and peaceful condition of Solo- 
 mon's empire at variance with other Scripture statements, and written during 
 the Captivity ; signs of internal disorder in Solomon's reign, as well as of 
 external troubles, which explain the prediction of Edom's revolt ; Jacob's 
 Blessing, Jehovistic ; that on Judah points to the time of David's glory, 
 before his great sin ; that on Joseph points to the same happy time, when the 
 Ten Tribes had acknowledged David as king ; that on Levi points to the 
 depressed condition of the priestly tribe in the same age, the golden period 
 of David's life, about the twelfth year of his reign ; the Rev. James Mar- 
 tineau on Bible -reading in Sunday Schools. 
 
THE AGE OF THE JEHOVIST FURTHER 
 CONSIDERED. 
 
 1 And by thy sword shalt thou live, 
 And thou shalt serve thy brother ; 
 And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt have rule, 
 That thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.' ' 
 
 [N my last lecture I quoted these words as showing 
 that the passage in which they occur must have 
 been written in the early part of Solomon's reign, 
 when the Edomite prince Hadad returned from 
 his long exile in Egypt, and raised a rebellion among his 
 people, and they broke from off their neck the yoke of Israel. 
 But I notice this passage again, because it has mainly in- 
 fluenced some eminent critics to assign a far later date to 
 this and other Jehovistic portions of the Book of Genesis than 
 the age of Solomon ; and indeed it is the only passage, as far as 
 I know, that has been plausibly alleged in support of that view. 
 We read, in fact, that more than a century after Solomon, in 
 the days of Joram, son of Jehosaphat, king of Judah, ' Edom 
 revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day' ; 2 and 
 hence it has been concluded that the prophecy before us must 
 have been written some time after this event. But there 
 seems to be no necessity whatever for such a conclusion. 
 
 G.xxvii.40. 
 
 3 2K.viii.22. 
 
58 AGE OF THE J E HO VIST FURTHER CONSIDERED. 
 
 Every other indication of time, which has been detected as 
 yet in this part of the story in Genesis, points to the fifty years 
 which include the last years of Saul and the first of Solomon. 
 And, as to the passage we are now considering, the newly- 
 found Moabite Stone brings further unexpected confirmation 
 of the fact that the revolt of Hadad was successful, and Edom 
 was really liberated from the yoke of Israel in Solomon's 
 time. 
 
 For we learn from that remarkable monument that Moab, 
 which lay adjoining Edom, must in all probability in Solo- 
 mon's time have recovered its independence, though once, 
 like Edom, fearfully crushed under David's ferocious measures, 
 and brought under the yoke of Israel. 3 As one of the ablest 
 commentators on this Stone has written, 'This therefore 
 throws new light upon the Biblical history, inasmuch as it 
 shows that the Moabites must either have taken advantage 
 of the distracted state of Judaea [after the death of Solomon] 
 to free themselves of the Jewish vassalage, or that they 
 obtained their liberty under Solomon. We incline to the 
 latter opinion.' 4 In short, there can be little doubt that 
 Edom and Syria, Moab and Ammon, outlying districts which 
 David had subdued, all threw off the yoke of Israel as soon 
 as the conqueror was dead, when Joab, the valiant warrior, 
 whose name had been for thirty years a terror to the foes 
 of Israel, had been put to death by Solomon's orders in the 
 first years of his reign. 5 You will remember the pitiful story 
 — about the aged priest Abiathar, who had followed David's 
 fortunes for half a century, had fled to him when hiding from 
 fear of Saul in the wilderness, had carried the ark before him 
 afterwards as king, in his times of gladness and of grief, 
 ' having been afflicted in all wherein he was afflicted,' 6 — and 
 Joab, the commander-in-chief, who had been David's right- 
 
 8 2S.viii.2. 4 Ginsburg {Moabite Stone, p.20.) 
 
 B iK.ii.29,34. 6 iK.i.7, ii.26. 
 
AGE OF THE JEHOVIST FURTHER CONSIDERED. 59 
 
 hand from the first, had helped to gain so many victories, and 
 had done so much to extend his empire, and who, though un- 
 doubtedly a man of craft and blood, was surely not worse in 
 this respect than David himself, since we know that by 
 David's orders he placed Uriah in the front of the battle, and 
 left him there unsupported to perish by the enemy's hand, 
 in order that the treacherous king might carry on undis- 
 turbed his guilty intercourse with Bathsheba, Uriah's wife. 7 
 You will remember, I say, how these old friends and comrades 
 of David supported the claims of his eldest son Adonijah, and 
 how a cabal was formed, headed by Nathan the prophet and 
 Zadok the priest, in concert with the adulteress Bathsheba, to 
 secure the throne for her own son Solomon, a mere youth, 8 
 and how they prevailed upon the aged king, then in his dotage, 
 to appoint Solomon as his successor. 9 So David died and 
 Solomon sat on the throne ; and soon, very soon, after 
 Oriental fashion, on the first plausible pretext, Adonijah and 
 Joab were killed by Solomon's orders 10 and Abiathar deposed 
 from his priestly office. 11 'And the king put Benaiah, son of 
 Jehoiada'- — the executioner of his bloody commands — 'in the 
 room of Joab, and Zadok the priest did the king put in the 
 room of Abiathar.' 12 
 
 Under such a change of circumstances, what wonder is 
 it that Syria and Edom, Moab and Amnion, should have 
 thrown off the yoke of Israel, and that no effort should have 
 been made to suppress these rebellions ! It is true, we are 
 told, that ' Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the 
 River ' — the great River Euphrates — ' unto the land of the 
 Philistines even unto the border of Egypt ; they brought 
 presents and served Solomon all the days of his life! 13 Again 
 we read that 'he had dominion over all across the River, 
 from Tiphsah (or Thapsacus on the Euphrates) to Azzah (or 
 
 7 2S.xi.14.-17. 8 iK.i.7,8. 9 iK.i.n-40. 10 iK.ii. 12-25,28-34. 
 
 11 iK.ii.26,27. 12 1K.ii.35. 13 1K.iv.21. 
 
6o AGE OF THE JEH0V1ST FURTHER CONSIDERED. 
 
 Gaza on the shores of the Mediterranean), over all the 
 kings across the River ; and he had peace o?i all sides 
 roundabout him' 14 But these notices are only the result of 
 the glorifying imagination of a much later age, exaggerating 
 the traditionary splendour of Solomon's reign ; just as 
 our own poet has depicted in glowing terms the magnificence 
 of King Arthur's Court and the glory of his times. We see 
 at once that they are not historically true ; for they contradict 
 directly that other statement that Rezon, the rebel chief of 
 Syria, 'was an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon, 
 besides the mischief that Hadad did,' 15 so that certainly 
 Solomon cannot have ' had peace on all sides roundabout 
 him.' Moreover, the present English Version, which says 
 that ' he had dominion over all on this side the River, over 
 all the kings on this side the River,' beguiles the reader 
 through a mistake of the translators. In the New Translation, 
 no doubt, we shall find the passage rendered correctly, ' over 
 all beyond or across the River, over all the kings on the other, 
 farther side of the River' ; and it will then be seen that these 
 words must have been written not in the land of Israel, but 
 by some one of the exiles carried captive to Babylon centuries 
 after the time of Solomon, or by one of their descendants, 
 living in the Babylonish territory east of the Euphrates, and 
 recording with natural pride his notion of the vast Empire, 
 which according to the fond traditions of his people was 
 ruled under the sceptre of Solomon, including ' all the kings on 
 the western side ' of the Euphrates. No doubt, Solomon did 
 receive at first such an Empire from his father's hands : but 
 it is plain that he did not retain his hold upon it. In the land 
 of Israel itself, from Dan to Beersheba, and even in the trans- 
 Jordanic lands occupied by Israelites, there was probably 
 peace and prosperity during his reign ; though there are signs 
 
 J * 1K.iv.24. t ls 1K.xi.25. 
 
AGE OF THE JEH OVIST FURTHER CONSIDERED. 6r 
 
 of internal disturbances, 16 which immediately after his death 
 broke out in the rebellion of Jeroboam and the separation of 
 the Ten Tribes from the kingdom of Judah, — when they said 
 to his son Rehoboam, ' Thy father made our yoke heavy, but 
 make thou it lighter to us,' 17 and he answered, ' My father 
 chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with 
 scorpions,' 18 and they shouted, ' What portion have we in 
 David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse ! To 
 your tents, O Israel ! ' — that is, everyone to his own home ! 
 1 Now see to thine own house, David ! ' 19 These heavy 
 tributes were doubtless levied in contributions or in labour, 
 partly for building purposes, for the Temple, his own palace, 
 and the other edifices with which he adorned or strengthened 
 Jerusalem, 20 but partly also, we must suppose, for supplying 
 the wants of his large harem and luxurious Court. 21 At all 
 events we read of no warlike exploit in the reign of Solomon 
 under his new commander-in-chief ; and Edom and Ammon, 
 as well as Syria and Moab, most probably regained their in- 
 dependence without difficulty, and ' broke the yoke of Israel 
 from off their neck.' A century afterwards, however, in the 
 time of Jehosaphat, king of Judah, the power of Judah seems 
 to have prevailed again over Edom, since we are told that 
 in his days 'there was no king in Edom, a deputy was king'; 22 
 as Moab also, according to the Moabite Stone, had been 
 subdued by Omri, king of Israel, the father of Ahab, who 
 reigned about fifty years after Solomon's time. 
 
 Let us now consider the very striking prediction of the 
 future fortunes of the Twelve Tribes, put into the mouth of 
 Jacob when near his death, 23 which also belongs to the Jeho- 
 vistic passages, as appears from the ejaculation in the midst 
 
 16 iK.xi. 26-28, 40. 17 1K.xii.10. 18 1K.xii.14. I9 1K.xii.16. 
 
 20 iK.v.ii, 13-18, vii. 1-12,13-51, ix.15-19, xi.27. 
 21 iK.iv. 7,22,23,26,28, x. 5, 14-26, xi. 1-3. 22 1K.xxii.47. 23 G.xlix.1-27. 
 
62 AGE OF THE J E HO VIST FURTHER CONSIDERED. 
 
 of it, ' I have waited for Thy Salvation, JEHOVAH ! ', 24 as well 
 as from the style and phraseology throughout. 25 Some words 
 are here addressed to each of the tribes, corresponding, no 
 doubt, to their actual circumstances at the time when this 
 passage was written. But we will confine our attention to 
 the language used with reference to Judah, Joseph, and 
 Levi. 
 
 Listen now, first, to the Blessing on Judah. 
 
 ' Judah ! thou — thy brethren shall praise thee ; 
 Thy hand is on the neck of thy foes ; 
 Thy father's sons shall bow down to thee. 
 A lion's whelp is Judah, 
 Ravaging the young of the sucking-ewes ; 
 He stooped, he crouched, as a lion, 
 And as a lioness — who shall rouse him ? 
 The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, 
 Nor the ruler's rod from between his feet, 
 Until he come to Shiloh, 
 And to him be the obedience of the peoples.' 26 
 
 Now in what age can such words as these have been" written ? 
 Is it not plain that we have here the reign of David 
 depicted, the lion of the tribe of Judah, — that we have 
 here the lordship of Judah over the tribes, the triumphs of 
 David over his foes ? Yet his conquests are not completed ; 
 for ' the sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's 
 rod from between his feet/- — in other words, the reign of 
 David shall endure, — ' until he shall come to Shiloh, and 
 to him be the obedience of the peoples ; ' where there 
 appears to be an allusion to the fact that, when the wars of 
 Israel on entering the Promised Land were ended, as 
 described in the Book of Joshua, and the whole land 'was 
 subdued before them,' Joshua and the people, according to 
 the story, 'came to Shiloh,' and set up the sacred Tent of 
 Meeting there. 27 So David, too, would ' come to Shiloh ■ 
 
 24 G.xlix.i8. , 25 Pent. V. ^.337. 
 
 26 G.xlix.8-10. 27 J.xviii.i. 
 
AGE OF THE JEHOVIST FURTHER CONSIDERED. 63 
 
 in a metaphorical sense, that is, he would 'come to rest,' 
 for the word ' Shiloh ' means ' rest,' and bring up the sacred 
 ark to Mount Zion, into the Tent which he had prepared 
 for it. 28 And, accordingly, the very first words, which 
 follow the account of the bringing up of the ark, inform 
 us that ' JEHOVAH had given David rest roundabout from all 
 his enemies!™ the identical expression which is used to 
 describe the condition of the Israelites under Joshua, 30 
 when 'the land was subdued before them.' It is true that 
 war broke out again and again to disturb the peace of 
 David, 31 and his rest was mournfully disturbed in later times 
 by family troubles, the consequences for the most part of 
 his own folly and sin. 32 But the words before us clearly 
 point to the golden time of David's reign ; we hear a 
 trumpet-sound of war in them, as well as a full tone of 
 royalty. And they were probably written not long before 
 the time when the ark was brought up to Jerusalem in the 
 fourteenth year of his reign — when the opposition of the 
 Northern Tribes, who for seven years had held out against 
 him, was at an end, 33 and ( his father's sons had bowed ' 
 to the rule of Judah — when David had already come to 
 rest after his first great victories, and had not yet commit- 
 ted that great sin which embittered the latter portion of 
 his life. 34 Think of his daughter Tamar dishonoured by 
 her half-brother Amnon 35 — Amnon murdered by her brother 
 Absalom 36 — David's long and mournful estrangement from 
 Absalom 37 — the rebellion of Absalom 38 — the treason of 
 Ahitophel, 39 explained by the fact that he was the grand- 
 father of Bathsheba, 40 — the wretched flight of David from 
 Jerusalem, 41 under the insulting curses of Shimei, 42 — 
 
 28 2S.vi. 12-19. 29 2S.vii. I. 30 J.xxi.44, xxii.4, xxiii.i. 
 
 31 2S.x,xii.26-3i. 32 2S.xiii, &c. 33 2S.V.1-5. 
 
 34 2S.xi,xii. 35 2S.xiii.1-22. 36 2S.xiii. 23-36. 
 
 87 2S.xiii.37-39, xiv. 3S 2S.xv.1-n. 39 2S.xv. 12,31, xvi.20-23. 
 
 40 2S.XL3, xxiii.34. 41 2S.xv. 13-30. 42 2S.xvi.5-14. 
 
64 AGE OF THE J EH OVIST FURTHER CONSIDERED. 
 
 Absalom's outrage upon his father's wives 43 — his miserable 
 death, 44 and his father's broken heart 45 — the insurrection 
 of the Benjamite Sheba 46 — the overbearing arrogance of 
 Joab, 47 as one who had his master in his power, being 
 cognizant of his guilty secret, and the confidential agent 
 of his crime, 48 known or suspected probably by some, as 
 Nathan the prophet, 49 but not perhaps generally divulged 
 to the people ! No ! it is impossible that such grand words 
 about Judah can have been written after that melancholy 
 turning-point in David's history in the twentieth year of 
 his reign. 
 
 Let us take now the Blessing pronounced on JOSEPH. 
 
 i A fruitful branch, is Joseph, 
 A fruitful branch by a spring ; 
 The sprout mounts over the wall . . . 
 Blessings of the heaven above, 
 Blessings of the deep couching beneath, 
 Blessings of the breast and of the womb . . . 
 May they be upon the head of Joseph, 
 And on the crown of the pre-eminent among his brethren.' 50 
 
 A passage like this with such warm laudations of JOSEPH, 
 that is, of the populous and powerful tribe of Ephraim, the 
 leader of the Northern Tribes, could hardly have been 
 written after the rupture between Judah and Ephraim in 
 the days of Rehoboam, 51 nor even in the latter part of 
 Solomon's reign when dissatisfaction already existed be- 
 tween them. 52 These words also suit best that golden 
 period in David's reign, when the Northern Tribes had 
 joined him after their seven years' opposition, 53 forming by 
 their redundant population the main body of his forces, 
 ' Ephraim the strength of his head ' as ' Judah was his 
 lawgiver,' 54 and helping him greatly in achieving his recent 
 
 43 2S.xvi.22. 44 2S.xviii.9-i7. 45 2S.xviii.33, "xix. 1-4. 46 2S. XX. 1-22. 
 
 47 2S.xviii. 12-14, xix. 5-7, xx.8-10. 48 2S.xi. 14-25. 49 2S.xii.1-14. 
 
 50 G.xhx.22-26. Sl lK.xii.19,20. " iK.xii.3,4. 
 
 53 2S.V.1-5. 54 Ps.lx.7. 
 
AGE OF THE J EH OVIST FURTHER CONSIDERED. 65 
 
 conquests. And indeed it would be very natural that an 
 effort should have been made to soothe in this way any 
 feelings of mortified pride which might and, as later events 
 showed, 55 did actually exist in the tribe of Ephraim, at the 
 supremacy having been made over in such plain words to 
 Judah. But the tone of tenderness, which marks this 
 address to JOSEPH, seems almost to imply a special affection, 
 a personal interest, for the tribe in question, as if the 
 writer was himself an Ephraimite, though warmly attached 
 to the house of David. 
 
 And, lastly, these are some of the words spoken of LEVI, 
 
 c Simeon and Levi are brethren ; 
 Instruments of wrong are their weapons. 
 Into their circle let not my soul enter ! 
 Into their assembly let not mine honour be joined ! . . 
 Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce ! 
 And their wrath, for it was hard ! 
 I will portion them out in Jacob, 
 And I will scatter them in Israel. ' 55 
 
 How little indication have we here of the glory and dignity 
 to which the Levites attained in a far later age ! They are 
 spoken of here in disparaging terms, as having no territory 
 of their own like the other tribes, as being ' portioned out 
 in Jacob' and 'scattered in Israel.' To whomsoever this 
 utterance may be ascribed — whether to Jacob himself or 
 to Moses on the traditionary view, or to some writer of 
 David's age, as we conclude — it is clear that he had not the 
 least anticipation of the dignity and ample prerogatives 
 enjoyed by the Levites in later days, and specially secured 
 to them by numerous laws in the subsequent Books of the 
 Pentateuch. Here they are simply placed on a level with 
 the Simeonites, the feeblest tribe of all, which was soon 
 absorbed in Judah, to which most of its towns are reckoned, 57 
 and which is not even named as adhering with Judah to the 
 
 14 2S.xhc4.i-43. 56 G.xlix.5-7. " comp. J. xix.2-7 with xv.26,28-32 t 
 
 F 
 
66 AGE OF THE JE HO VIST FURTHER CONSIDERED. 
 
 house of David, 58 though its territory from its very position 
 must have formed part of the Southern Kingdom. 
 
 The whole history of the Levites must be left for con- 
 sideration on a future occasion. For the present it is 
 enough to say that the only mention of them in the Book 
 of Judges is in the last five chapters, where we read of one 
 homeless vagabond of this tribe 'sojourning where he could 
 find a place,' 59 that is, a place to act as priest — a chap- 
 laincy, as we should say — at any one of the various high- 
 places which in those days stood in all parts of the land, 
 and of another who ( sojourned in Mount Ephraim,' but 
 was ' going up to the House of Jehovah' at Shiloh, per- 
 haps with the purpose of sacrificing or else of earning his 
 livelihood by helping in priestly offices there. But there 
 is no sign of any large number of Levites assisting the 
 sons of Eli or Eli himself, when officiating as priests at 
 Shiloh. It is even predicted that Eli's descendants should 
 ' come and crouch ' to the chief priest of their time * for a 
 piece of silver and a morsel of bread, saying, Put me, I 
 pray thee, into one of the priests' offices, that I may eat a 
 piece of bread.' From these examples it is natural to infer 
 that even in David's time, before the Temple was built, an 
 event which no doubt added somewhat to their dignity, little 
 account was made comparatively of the Levites. A few 
 probably officiated at Jerusalem, and others at the different 
 high-places throughout the land ; and for these, of course, 
 sufficient provision was made out of the sacrifices. But 
 the rest appear to have been dispersed about the country, 
 at least during the first years of David's reign, before the 
 ark was brought up to Mount Zion, getting their living as 
 best they could, as by acting as priests in private houses, 
 when they could not find employment at some one or other 
 
 58 1K.x1i.20. 59 Ju.xvii.8,9. 
 
AGE OF THE JE HO VIST FURTHER CONSIDERED. 67 
 
 of the idolatrous altars scattered throughout the land. 
 About the twelfth year of David they might well be spoken 
 of by the writer of this prediction, as 'portioned out in 
 Jacob and scattered in Israel' 
 
 You will now, I trust, have some clear idea of the origin 
 and composition of the Book of Genesis : and I hope to set 
 before you information of a similar kind with reference to the 
 other four Books of the Pentateuch. And, if we may judge 
 from the signs of the times, the day is not far distant when 
 all the more enlightened of the Clergy of different denomina- 
 tions will take at once the stand which in the end must 
 assuredly be taken, will welcome heartily the facts as they 
 are and bring them forth in their habitual teaching, so making 
 them by degrees familiarly known to the people. In this 
 way, without any dangerous shock to their faith, an ignorant 
 and superstitious reverence for the mere letter of the Bible 
 would give way to an intelligent reception of the life and 
 spirit of its Divine Teaching, and a true appreciation of the 
 real value of the ancient Hebrew Scriptures, as containing the 
 records of the dawn of religious light among that people, to 
 whom above all others have been committed of old the 
 ' oracles of God,' the revelations of Eternal truth to the heart 
 of man. In short, let the Bible be explained from the pulpit 
 md taught in the Sunday School : but let the truth be told 
 about its contents, and old and young be no longer misled by 
 a blind enforcement of traditionary views. Those are admir- 
 able words which have lately been uttered on this point : — ■ I 
 feel absolute confidence in three things. First, I shall never 
 believe in the religiousness of falsehood ; and therefore I 
 altogether deprecate the idea of the conscious maintenance of 
 any falsehood on the part of the teacher for the purpose of 
 maintaining a religious effect, or, as he may think, of saving a 
 religious effect, which otherwise might be injured or sacrificed. 
 
68 AGE OF THE JEHOVIST FURTHER CONSIDERED. 
 
 The second principle is akin to the first, viz., that there can 
 be no danger ultimately in what is clearly and plainly true. I 
 do not say there may be no inconvenience, no particular 
 mischief and danger for the time ; but it is a danger which it 
 is our duty to encounter if we are sure that a thing is true. 
 The third principle is this : the basis of our Sunday School 
 teaching must continue to be the Scriptures of the Old and 
 New Testament. I am convinced that there can be nothing 
 but a more religious influence derived from the Bible the 
 better and the more thoroughly it is understood, and that the 
 more progress is made in the clearing of it, the ascertainment 
 of what portion of the history is true and what portion is not 
 true, and when the books were written and when they were 
 not written, and what the relative authority is and the value 
 of this book or that — the more clearly and distinctly we can 
 see this, the better will the Bible be fitted for purposes of 
 religious instruction. The difficulties of the Bible arise all 
 from the assumption that it is all of equal religious authority, 
 and that every part of it can be taken and used for the 
 purposes of producing religious impression. The moment we 
 attempt this, we come across things which shock our moral 
 feeling and our historical sense of what is true. If we once 
 know the Bible critically, we know perfectly well that we can 
 discharge those things which obstruct our religious teaching, 
 and save the gems that remain for religious use, and that they 
 will have more value and a greater influence in that condition 
 than if they are mixed up with a mass of material that can 
 serve no direct religious or spiritual purpose. We are there- 
 fore greatly indebted to those who take up our ancient 
 Scriptures, and bring them directly face to face before the 
 religious conscience of the present day, showing how we may 
 clear away questionable elements, and preserve that which is 
 to build up the faith and action of the future.' 60 
 
 60 Martineau (Pail-Mall Gazette, June 14, 1872,^.5). 
 
LECTURE VI. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 Recapitulation ; the Elohistic Narrative in Exodus ; its statement that 
 the name Jehovah was not known to the patriarchs, to whom God ap- 
 peared, once and again, by the name El Shaddai ; another view of this 
 passage shown to be erroneous ; names in the Elohistic Narrative formed 
 with Elohim, not Jehovah ; obscurity caused by the Jehovist representing 
 the name as known in primeval times ; the Elohistic Narrative ends with 
 the revelation of the Name in E.vi.2-5; this points to the Hebrews having 
 first become acquainted with it about the time of the Exodus ; the mysterious 
 name of the Phcenician and Syrian Sun-God ; the Sun worshipped every- 
 where in Canaan as the Baal or Lord of the land ; this evidenced by names 
 of places ; IAO used to express in Greek the Hebrew Deity, and also the 
 Sun-God, as shown by an ancient oracle ; IACCHUS and the cry at the 
 Bacchic festival ; Phcenician names formed, like Hebrew, with Yahveh, 
 and Hebrew, like Phcenician, with Baal ; these latter not allowed to appear 
 in the Books of Samuel ; the Hebrews adopted the worship of Yahveh the 
 Sun-God of Canaan ; Yahveh first recognised as the God of Israel when the 
 national life began under Saul ; the Elohist, disliking this origin of the 
 Name, composed the story of its revelation to Moses; the Name HE TS, 
 expressing well the Living God ; progressive development of Divine Truth in 
 Israel. 
 
THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME JEHOVAH. 
 
 X my previous Lectures, starting from the phenomena 
 presented by the New Lectionary, I have pointed 
 out the existence of narratives by different writers 
 in the Book of Genesis, a fact which is plainly 
 betrayed by their differences of style and expression, as well 
 as by varying and sometimes contradictory statements. Of 
 these writers, the oldest, who uses only the name ' ELOHIM ' 
 for the Divine Being, may very possibly, I said, have been the 
 prophet Samuel, composing here a sketch of primeval times 
 for the use of the students of his schools. But this older 
 narrative, the foundation of the whole story of the Exodus, 
 has been considerably enlarged by another writer, the 
 Jehovist, who uses also the name ' JEHOVAH,' as the personal 
 name of the Elohim of Israel. And both sets of passages are 
 distinguished not only by this peculiarity in the use of the 
 Divine Name, but each by its own distinct phraseology. 
 Indeed, as I observed, some insertions in the Book of Genesis, 
 and they are moreover the oldest, do not contain ' JEHOVAH ' 
 at all, and yet exhibit plainly the style of the Jehovist through- 
 out, and therefore appear to be due to his hand. We are 
 brought, then, face to face with this singular fact, that the 
 writer of the oldest portions of Genesis has for some reason 
 
72 THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME JEHOVAH. 
 
 or other deliberately abstained from using the name 'JEHOVAH,' 
 and the writer of the oldest of the supplementary insertions 
 follows the same rule. I purpose to consider in this Lecture 
 the probable explanation of this peculiarity. 
 
 But first let me illustrate further the fact in question by 
 reference to the Book of Exodus, which has not yet been 
 touched upon in these Lectures. We find here the same 
 phenomena precisely as in Genesis ; that is to say, we find 
 here also passages in which only ELOHIM is used, and which 
 agree exactly in style with the Elohistic passages in Genesis, 
 and, like those, when extracted from the rest of the Book, 
 form a complete connected narrative ; and these are separated, 
 as the story now stands, by a number of other passages 
 written in a totally different style, the style in fact of the 
 Jehovist in Genesis, which expand and enliven the more brief 
 and sombre details of the older story. 
 
 I will now read to you that portion of the ancient Elohistic 
 Narrative, which we are able to extract from the first six 
 chapters of the Book of Exodus. 
 
 And these are the names of the children of Israel, who came 
 to Egypt with Jacob, each and his house they came — Reuben. 
 Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan 
 and Maphtali, Gad and Asher. And all the souls that went 
 forth out of Jacob's loins were seventy souls ; and Joseph was 
 in Egypt. 
 
 And Joseph died and all his brethren and all that generation. 
 And the children of Israel fructified and teemed and multiplied, 
 and were exceedingly mighty, and the land was filled with them. 
 And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with 
 rigour. And the children of Israel sighed because of the service, 
 and they cried, and their wail went up to ELOHIM because 
 of the service. And ELOHIM heard their sighing, and ELOHIM 
 remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with 
 Jacob. And ELOHIM saw the children of Israel and ELOHIM 
 fenew, 
 
THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME JEHOVAH. 73 
 
 And ELOHIM spake unto Moses and said unto him, I am 
 JEHOVAH. And I appeared unto Abraham, and unto Isaac, and 
 unto Jacob, as EL SHADDAI (GOD ALMIGHTY) ; but by My 
 name JEHOVAH (I was not known, or) I did not make myself 
 known to them. And I have also established My covenant with 
 them, to give to them the land of Canaan, the land of their 
 sojournings in which they sojourned. And I have also heard 
 the sighing of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians 
 make-to-serve, and I have remembered My covenant. 1 
 
 You will have noticed the frequent repetition of the name 
 Elohim in these few verses ; and you will have observed also 
 the fact that the writer here states that the name JEHOVAH 
 was not even known to the patriarchs. ' I appeared unto 
 Abraham, and unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, as El Shaddai ; ' 1 
 and so the Deity appears to Abraham and to Jacob, and in 
 each case says ' I am El Shaddai.' 2 But the account of a 
 like revelation to Isaac must either have been cancelled, which 
 is not probable, or the promises made by El Shaddai to 
 Abraham — ' to be a God to thee and to thy seed after thee,' 
 1 to give to thee and to thy seed after thee all the land of 
 Canaan,' ' Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed, and 
 thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will establish My 
 covenant with him and his seed after him' 3 — may have been 
 regarded as virtually including an ' appearance ' to Isaac. 
 And this last explanation seems to be confirmed by the words 
 ascribed to El Shaddai in the account of the revelation to 
 Jacob, which seems to refer to these promises to Abraham, 
 ' and the land which I gave to Abraham and to Isaac, to thee 
 will I give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land,' 4 
 as also by the statement with which this latter account is in- 
 troduced, ' and ELOHIM appeared to Jacob again when he 
 came out of Padan-Aram and blessed him' 5 — not 'appeared 
 
 1 E.i. 1-7, 13, ii.23b-25, vi.2-5. 2 G.xvii. 1, xxxv.il. 
 
 3 G.xvii. 7,8, 19. 4 G. xxxv. 12. 5 G.xxxv.9. 
 
74 THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME JEHOVAH. 
 
 again to Jacob! as if this was the second appearance of El 
 SHADDAI to Jacob, in which case he would have been more 
 highly distinguished than even Abraham himself, and no 
 former appearance to Jacob has been recorded by this ancient 
 writer, but 'appeared again — a second time — to one of the 
 patriarchs, and in this case to Jacob,' a sign of superabundant 
 Divine Favour towards them, since the first appearance to 
 Abraham included them all. ' But by My name Jehovah I 
 did not make-myself-known to them.' These words might 
 indeed be explained, as they are by some commentators, to 
 mean only this, 'I did not make myself thoroughly known to 
 them — I did not reveal to them the full meaning of my name 
 JEHOVAH, though they knew and used that name familiarly.' 
 Thus the writer in the New Bible Commentary paraphrases 
 the passage as follows, ' I manifested Myself to the patriarchs 
 in the character of El Shaddai, the Omnipotent God, able 
 to fulfil that which I had promised ; but as to My name (i.e., 
 My character and attributes) of Jehovah, I was not made 
 manifest to them.' 6 It is hard to reconcile such an explana- 
 tion with the fact that Jehovah Himself is represented as 
 saying to Abraham, ' I am Jehovah, &c.,' 7 and that Abraham 
 is said to have ' believed in Jehovah ; ' 8 though even this 
 might be allowed, if there were no other reason for doubting 
 the correctness of this view. But when we know that the 
 Elohistic Narrative can be taken out by itself from the Book 
 of Genesis — that the writer of it has deliberately suppressed 
 the name Jehovah throughout his account of the times before 
 the Exodus — that he never puts'it into the mouth of any one 
 of the patriarchs before or after the Flood — that he gives us 
 numerous names in Genesis compounded with Elohim or El, 
 such as Isra^/, Ishma<?/, 9 and not one compounded with 
 
 6 Bp. Browne {B.C., l.p. 26). 7 G.xv.7. s G.xv.6. 
 
 9 Mahalale*/. G.v. 12; Adbe<?/, G.xxv. 13; ii7iphaz, Ren*/, Mehetab*/, Mag- 
 di<?/, G.xxxvi.4,39,43 ; Jemn?/, Jahle*/, Malchi*/, Jahze*/, G.xlvi. 10, 14, 17,24 ; 
 besides Isra*/ and Ishma<?/. 
 
THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME JEHOVAH. 75 
 
 JEHOVAH or Jah, like those which occur elsewhere so fre- 
 quently in the Bible — when, I say, we take note cf these facts, 
 it is clear that the writer intended to represent the name 
 JEHOVAH as not even known before the Exodus, as first re- 
 'vealed to man when ' Elohim spake unto Moses and said 
 unto him, I am JEHOVAH ; and I appeared unto Abraham, 
 and unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, as El Shaddai ; but by 
 My name Jehovah I did not make-myself-known unto 
 them.' 
 
 For some reason, then, this ancient writer regards this 
 sacred name as not having been used at all by the patriarchs 
 or their descendants before the time of the Exodus. It is 
 true that no one would perceive this fact in the Bible from 
 merely reading the Book of Genesis as it now lies before us. 
 However surprised he might be at perceiving the difference 
 between the first account of the Creation, which uses only 
 Elohim, and the second, which uses only JEHOVAH ELOHIM, 
 he would never suppose that the former peculiarity can be 
 traced distinctly throughout the whole Book of Genesis, in the 
 parts belonging to that ancient writer to whom we owe the 
 first account of the Creation — more especially when he saw 
 that in the greater part of Genesis no such peculiarity exists, 
 that the name JEHOVAH is freely used by patriarchs before 
 and after the Flood, 10 nay, even by heathen persons, 11 and we 
 are told that, as early as the days of Adam's son Seth or his 
 grandson Enos, 'then began men to call upon the name of 
 JEHOVAH.' 12 This later writer, it is plain, has abandoned 
 altogether the idea of the Elohist, and supposes the sacred 
 name to have been known from a very early time in the his- 
 tory of the human race. Accordingly he puts it everywhere 
 into the mouths of persons introduced as speaking, and repre- 
 
 20 G.iv. 1, v. 29, ix.26, xiv.22, xv. 2, 8, xvi.5, &c. lj G.xxvi.28,29. 
 
 12 G.iv. 26. 
 
76 THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME JEHOVAH. 
 
 sents the Deity as appearing to Jacob and saying, ' I am 
 JEHOVAH, the Elohim of Abraham thy father and the Elohim 
 of Isaac.' 13 By these insertions the older story is completely 
 overlaid, and its Elohistic character hid from the sight of most 
 readers. It is only when it is extracted separately from the 
 Book of Genesis that we find it forming a continuous narrative 
 in which the name JEHOVAH is carefully suppressed. 
 
 What, now, can be the reason of this ? And here I must 
 observe that the Elohistic Narrative in the Pentateuch ends 
 with the words which I have just read as the portion of it con- 
 tained in the first six chapters of the Book of Exodus. We 
 find no trace of it after this passage. It would seem as if the 
 older writer — Samuel, as we suppose — having undertaken to 
 sketch the history of the primeval times, had completed his 
 work so far as to record the revelation of the name Jehovah 
 to Moses, and then had stopped — his labours having been 
 perhaps finished according to his original intention, when he 
 had brought the narrative up to this critical point in the his- 
 tory of Israel, or perhaps cut short by sickness or death, and 
 the story of the Exodus having been afterwards carried on 
 and completed by his disciples. What, I repeat, is the his- 
 torical fact implied by this circumstance, that the oldest writer 
 of the Pentateuch represents the name Jehovah as first com- 
 municated to Moses, and through him to Israel, at tJte time of 
 the Exodus ? Since this statement, as we have seen, is directly 
 at variance with the other parts of Genesis, which assume this 
 name to have been known from the first, we are relieved from 
 any necessity of regarding either view as historically true. 
 Nevertheless, the statement of the Elohist must mean some- 
 thing ; it must point to some fact which that writer had before 
 his mind's eye, and for which he has tried to account by say- 
 ing that the name was first made known to the Israelites at 
 
 18 G.xxviii. 13. 
 
THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME JEHOVAH. 77 
 
 the tune of the Exodus. And what can that fact have been 
 but this, that it really then first became known to them — then, 
 at or about the time of the Exodus — not, indeed, in Egypt, 
 as here supposed, before they started on their march to 
 Canaan, nor by means of a miraculous revelation to Moses 
 and an audible voice — but by contact with the tribes of 
 Canaan, as soon as they had crossed the Jordan and settled 
 down as inhabitants in that land. 
 
 Accordingly, modern researches H have shown that among 
 the Canaanite tribes, especially among the Phoenicians and 
 Syrians in the northern districts, the Sun-God was worshipped 
 under a mysterious name almost identical with the name 
 JEHOVAH, or, as it should be pronounced more properly, 
 YAHVEH or Yahweh. The Syrian word is Yakhveh, the 
 Hebrew Yahveh, differing only in fact by a stronger, more 
 guttural, aspirate being heard in the former name, as the Zulu 
 aspirate is heard more strongly north of the Tugela than 
 south of it. All over the land of Canaan the worship of the 
 Sun-God prevailed ; as indeed it is most natural that in the 
 first dawning of religious life the Sun should have been re- 
 garded as the most glorious symbol of the unseen Deity — ■ 
 should at one time have been hailed as the life-giver, the 
 source of health and strength, the bountiful dispenser of food 
 and plenty, to be worshipped with joyous festivals, at another 
 have been dreaded as the life destroyer, the cause of famine, 
 disease, and death, to be entreated with earnest supplications 
 and appeased with gloomy rites. He was, in fact, regarded 
 as the Baal or Lord, in the sense of Owner or Husband of 
 the land ; and accordingly we find a multitude of places men- 
 tioned in the Bible in all parts of the country, where the Sun- 
 God was worshipped under some special appellation, as Baal- 
 Hazor, 15 Baal-Hermon, 16 &c, ' our Lord ' of this place or that, 
 
 14 Movers {Phonizier, XIV./. 539-558, translated in PentN .AppXxi.). 
 
 15 2S.xiii.23. 16 Ju.iii.3 
 
78 THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME JEHOVAH. 
 
 just as in Roman Catholic countries shrines are set up in 
 different localities to ' our Lady ' of this place or that. Be- 
 sides which, the prevalence of Sun-worship among the ancient 
 inhabitants of the land of Canaan is abundantly indicated by 
 such names as these, Beth-Shemesh, 17 ' House of the Sun/ 
 like Beth-El, ' House of Elohim,' En-Shemesh, 18 ' Fountain 
 of the Sun,' Ir-Shemesh, 19 ' City of the Sun,' &c. 
 
 The mysterious name of the Syrian Sun-God, moreover, 
 is expressed by heathen writers by the very same word IAO, 
 by which Christian Fathers and others express the Hebrew 
 name of the Deity. Thus Clement of Alexandria says of 
 the God of the Jews, ' He is called IAOU, which is inter- 
 preted to mean WHO IS AND Who SHALL BE ' ; 20 and 
 DlODORUS tells us, ' It is said that among the Arimaspians 
 Zathraustes professed that the Good Spirit had given him 
 his laws, and that among the Jews Moses made a similar 
 claim with regard to the Deity named IAO.' 21 On the other 
 hand an ancient oracle says — ' It was right that those initiated 
 should conceal the soul-soothing mysteries. But in deceit 
 there is little sense and a slender understanding. Take 
 notice that IAO is the highest of all the gods ; in winter 
 Hades, Zeus in commencing spring, Helios in summer, 
 and in the autumn IAO.' 22 Thus, as one explains this 
 oracle, ' IAO is the highest of all the gods, because he gives 
 life to all, and his dwelling is heaven which spreads over all. 
 Yet in heaven he reveals Himself specially by the Sun. In 
 winter, when the nights are longest, the god prefers to dwell 
 in the under-world, and rules over the shades as Hades. 
 In the spring-time, when the grain-harvest is at hand, all 
 depends upon the weather, upon sufficient rain and sunshine ; 
 and the god is addressed as Zeus, as especially the god of 
 
 17 J. xv. 10. ,8 J. xv. 7. 19 J.xix.41. 
 
 20 StromN.fi. $62, ed. /frr.1869. 21 l.fi. 105, ed. Wesseling. 
 
 22 Macrobius (Sat.l. 18). 
 
THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME JEHOVAH. 79 
 
 heaven and of the weather. In the summer he is the scorch- 
 ing Sun, which burns up everything, and is tempered by no 
 cloud. Lastly, in the autumn comes the ripeness of the fig, 
 olive, pomegranate, above all of the grape with its mysterious 
 life-awakening juice ; and now is the god known as the tender 
 IAO, the spring of all beauty, love, and life.' 23 
 
 This joyous, autumn form of the Sun-God was the Deity 
 known among the Greeks under the name of Dionysus or 
 Iacchus, which last name clearly points to the Phoenician 
 YAKHVEH, as do also other expressions and ejaculations 
 used in Sun-worship, 24 e.g. the repeated cry of IA or YA at 
 the triennial feast of Iacchus or Bacchus, which reminds 
 us of the triennial feast upon the tithes among the Hebrews, 25 
 and of the festival cry, < Hallelu-YAH ! ' 25 The Sun-God 
 was also called 'Adonis/ i.e. 'Lord,' in the sense of Master, 
 as also 'the Most High God': and the Deity is repeatedly 
 called by both these names in the Hebrew Bible. 27 And as 
 Hebrew names were compounded with J AH or I AH, 2 * we 
 find also Phoenician names similarly formed. Thus in Virgil, 
 the Phoenician courtier, who 'quickly drained the foaming 
 bowl and laved himself in the brimming gold,' 29 is called 
 Bithias, which is merely the Hebrew Bithia/1, 30 the same in 
 meaning as Bethu^/, 31 compounded with El ; and so Josephus 32 
 mentions a Tyrian Abdseus, which is only the Greek form of 
 the Hebrew Oba.dia/i. Again, Phoenician names were in 
 like manner compounded with Baal, as Hannibal, which 
 corresponds exactly to the Hebrew Hanni<r/ k or Hanan<?/, or 
 is/hanan, 3 * Hanniali or y^hanan, 34 i.e., John, with the Divine 
 
 28 Land {Theol. Tijdschr., March, 1868, p. 161). 
 
 24 Movers (as above, PentN.App. i\i. 23-31). 
 
 25 D.xv.28,29, xxvi. 12, Am.iv.4. 26 See Ps.lxviii.4. 
 
 27 For 'Lord' see G.xv.2,8, E.iv. 10, 13, xv. 17, xxxiv.9, &c; for 'Most High 
 God' see G.xiv. 18,19,20,22, N.xxiv. 16, D.xxxii.8, &c. 
 
 2S . e.g. Hezekz'a/z, Adoni/cz/z, where jah is properly iah ox yah. 
 
 25 y^.I.738. 30 1Ch.iv.18. 31 G.xxii.22. ™ c.Ap.l.\%. 
 
 33 N.xxxiv.23, Neh.iii. 1, 2S.xxi. 19. 31 iCh.iii. 19, 2K.xxv.23. 
 
8o THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME JEHOVAH. 
 
 Name prefixed in the form Jeko or Jo, — as Asdrubal does to 
 Azrlel or Azan?/, 35 is/iezer or ii/eazar, 36 Azaxiah or y^ezer. 37 
 On the other hand one of David's officers was called Baal- 
 hanan, 38 which is only Hannibal inverted ; while the name 
 of Saul's son was ILshbaal and of Saul's grandson Merribbaal, 39 
 and even of David's son Baalyadah* and one of David's 
 warriors is called Baaljah^ meaning ' Jah is Baal.' The first 
 three of these names, indeed — all of which may be seen in 
 the Books of Chronicles — have been modified in the Books 
 of Samuel, and appear there as Ishbosketh, Mephibos/zetk, 
 Zs/yadah. 42 And the reason of these changes is plain. 
 Among pious Jews after the Captivity the more ancient 
 and venerable Books of Samuel were more highly honoured 
 and more commonly read than the very late Books of 
 Chronicles. It is probable, therefore, that the Jewish Scribes, 
 desiring to obliterate as much as possible, or at least to 
 obscure, the traces of so close a connexion between the 
 religion of Israel in the time of David and Solomon and the 
 idolatrous worship of Canaan, suppressed the offensive ' Baal ' 
 in these names in those histories which were most studied by 
 their countrymen. 
 
 But why should there be any doubt that the Hebrews 
 adopted the Canaanitish Sun-worship ? We are told re- 
 peatedly that, when settled in Canaan, they 'followed other 
 Elohim of the Elohim of the people that were round about 
 them. 43 It is certain, therefore, that they must have adopted 
 the worship of the Sun-God, and taken part in the lascivious 
 or bloody rites accompanying that worship. In fact, if they 
 wished to be regarded as possessors of the soil, it was 
 necessary, according to the notions of those days, that they 
 
 85 iCh.xxvii. 19,22. 36 Ezr.x.23,25. " S7 iCh.ix. 11, xii.6. 
 
 38 1Ch.xxvii.28. 39 iCh.ix.39,40. 40 iCh.xiv.7. 
 
 41 iCh.xii.5. 42 2S.ii.8, iv.4, v. 16, comp. iCh.iii.8. 
 
 43 Ju.ii. 12, 17,19, iii.6,7, vi.io, and see especially vi.25 32. 
 
THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME JEHOVAH. Si 
 
 should do homage to YAHVEH, the 'God of the land.' 44 
 And what at first was done through mere imitation of the 
 practices of the surrounding tribes, was at last established 
 as the law of the whole community, in the time of Samuel, 
 under the first king Saul. Then Israel was first formed into 
 a nation, and then, too, YAHVEH was first formally ac- 
 knowledged as the National Deity of Israel ; and his might 
 and pre-eminence over the gods of the neighbouring nations 
 were fully exhibited in the view of the people, when David's 
 armies marched triumphantly under his auspices. ' Lift up 
 your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, 
 and the King of Glory shall come in ! Who is this King of 
 Glory ? It is YAHVEH strong and mighty ! it is YAHVEH 
 mighty in battle.' 45 
 
 Such, then, is the explanation, which seems to be most 
 probable, of the singular peculiarity which characterises the 
 Elohistic Narrative in the use of the Divine Name. The 
 writer, it would seem, was unwilling that the Name of 
 Israel's Deity should be traced to the worship of the tribes 
 of Canaan. But he knew that the name was unknown to 
 the Israelites before they entered Canaan ; and he wrote 
 this account of the revelation of it to Moses about the 
 time of the Exodus in order to explain this fact. But 
 what matters it whence they obtained the name, which 
 must have been invented somewhere, by some one, at some 
 time or other ? It is enough that the great prophets of 
 Israel, taught by the Divine Spirit, saw that it was a name 
 well suited to express the idea of the One only True and 
 Living God, in opposition to the dumb idols of the heathen, 
 to the blocks and stones which some even among the 
 Israelites ignorantly worshipped, 46 or the figure of an ox 
 under which the Sun-God was long adored by Canaanites 
 
 44 2K.xvii.26-28,33,4i, coi7ip. iS.xxvi. 19. 45 Ps.xxiv.7,8. 
 
 46 Jer.ii.27. 
 
 G 
 
82 THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME JEHOVAH. 
 
 and Israelites alike. 47 The name Yahveh means ' HE Is/ 
 being derived from the Hebrew verb which means 'to be ' ; 
 and so we read ' And Elhoim said unto Moses, I Am THAT 
 I Am ; and He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children 
 of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you.' 48 And the prophets 
 seem to have eagerly seized on this idea that the God of 
 Israel was Yahveh, He Is, the Living God, the Being by 
 whom all things else had life and being. From age to age 
 these prophets strove to raise their people to higher views of 
 the Divine Being, of His nature and character, and His 
 relations to man. And gradually their own minds were 
 enlightened, their own views became more bright and clear ; 
 and they had even glimpses of the glorious truth that the 
 Living God was not the God of Israel only, but the Father 
 of spirits, the Faithful Creator, 49 the ' confidence of all the 
 ends of the earth.' 50 
 
 Let us thankfully trace the progressive development of 
 Divine Truth among Israel of old, even down to him who 
 has revealed to us fully our Father's Love and our Father's 
 Holiness, and has given us a name 'better than that of our 
 sons and daughters.' 5l Let us devoutly receive the reve- 
 lations made to us in the past by the hands of our brethren 
 of Jewish or other races, whom He has chosen to be His 
 special ministers to us-ward for this great work, but be ready 
 also to welcome joyfully the revelations of the present day, 
 each ' good and perfect gift coming down from above from 
 the Father of lights.' 52 
 
 47 E.xxxii/i-6, iK.xii.28,29. « E.iii.14. 
 
 49 Ps.xxii.27, lxxxvi.9, xcviii.3, Is.xlii.6, xlv.22,23, xlix.6, lx.3. 
 
 50 Ps.lxv.5. 51 Is.lvi.5. « Jam. i. 17. 
 
LFXTURE VII. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 Recapitulation ; in some passages of Exodus, not due to the Elohist, only 
 Elohim is used, in some Jehovah appears, but sparingly, in others more 
 freely ; this explained by the age in which such passages were composed, as 
 the name Jehovah became more familiarly employed in the reigns of David 
 and Solomon ; Ps.lxviii. belongs apparently to the age of David ; its charac- 
 ter, and the occasion for which it was probably composed ; the writer knew 
 the name Jehovah, but uses it rarely compared with Elohim, as if not 
 familiar with it; identity between v.i of this Psalm and N.x.35 ; proof that 
 the Psalm was written first, and the words in Numbers copied from it, 
 probably by an author of the same age ; the ' Song of Deborah ' composed 
 in the prophetical schools ; identity between ^.7,8, of the Psalm, and ^.4,5, 
 of the Song ; proof that the Psalm again was written first, and the words 
 of the Song copied from it ; Balaam's Prophecies incredible as history, possibly 
 by the same author as Jacob's Blessing, written after David's conquests of 
 Moab and Edom, before that of Ammon, and not long after Saul's overthrow 
 of Agag and Amalek ; relative extent of the original story, the Deuterono- 
 mistic matter, and the Levitical Legislation ; the history of Israel now 
 becomes intelligible and instructive, as a history of human development. 
 
THE AGE OF THE JEH OVIST IN NUMBERS. 
 
 ,N my last Lecture I read to you the final words of 
 the Elohistic Narrative extracted from the Book 
 of Exodus, the writer having apparently, perhaps 
 by design or perhaps through some accident, 
 brought his work to a close with the account of the revelation 
 of the name of JEHOVAH or Yahveh to Moses. And I 
 showed that this name was probably adopted by the idolatrous 
 Israelites from the name by which the Sun-God was known 
 and worshipped among the tribes of Canaan ; though it was 
 gradually invested with a higher and holier meaning, as the 
 name of the True and Living God, through the teaching of 
 the great prophets of Israel inspired with Divine Wisdom and 
 Truth. The Narrative, thus commenced, as we suppose, by 
 Samuel, was carried on by his disciples, the framework of the 
 story, as he left it, having been filled in by the labours of one 
 or more of them, during the fifty years which followed after 
 his death. These supplementary passages, however, though 
 agreeing in style with each other, and differing entirely in this 
 respect from the Elohistic Narrative, exhibit, as we saw, a 
 noticeable variety in the use of the Divine Name. In some 
 of them only Elohim is used, as in the oldest matter, or 
 JEHOVAH is used very sparingly ; and, if these occurred only 
 
S6 THE AGE OF THE JEHOVIST IN NUMBERS. 
 
 in Genesis, we might suppose that the writer was merely- 
 following the lead, so to speak, of his Master, and suppressing 
 deliberately the use of Jehovah until the account of its 
 revelation had been recorded in E, vi. But it is of great 
 importance to observe that such passages are found in Exodus 
 also, long after that account has been given. 1 The fact of 
 their existence, therefore, requires some further explanation. 
 The writer may have been influenced, when making his 
 insertions in Genesis, by the example of his predecessor ; but 
 still some reason peculiar to himself must have operated to 
 account for his abstaining in so marked and unmistakable a 
 manner from using freely the name JEHOVAH, when this name 
 had been represented as fully revealed to Moses and Israel. 
 It would seem as if he was not himself familiar at first with 
 the name, and used more naturally the older name Elohim ; 
 as, of course, would be the case if, at the time when he wrote 
 these passages, JEHOVAH or Yahveh had been only recently 
 adopted, as the name of the National Deity of Israel, during 
 the age of Saul and Samuel. Accordingly in the rest of this 
 series JEHOVAH is employed much more frequently, 2 and 
 indeed so freely, that, when these were written, the name 
 must certainly have been quite familiar both to the writer and 
 the people. Such passages as these last may have been 
 composed in the middle or latter part of David's reign or 
 during the early years of Solomon's, or even, as some suppose, 
 in a still later age. 
 
 And now let us consider for a moment what light is thrown 
 upon this question by the Book of Psalms, These are 
 popularly called, as we know, the Psalms of David ; and yet 
 it is certain that very many of them were composed long 
 after the Captivity, 3 and that very few can have been written 
 by the hand or in the age of David. There is one Psalm, 
 
 1 E.i. 17-22, iii, xiii. 17-19, xviii, xix. 16-19, xx. 18-21, xxiv.9-13. 
 * E.iv,v,&c. 3 e.g. Ps.lxxix, lxxx, 
 
THE AGE OF THE JEHOVIST IN NUMBERS. S7 
 
 however, Ps. Ixviii, which undoubtedly appears to belong to 
 that age. This Psalm is spoken of by different eminent 
 critics as ' one of the most able and powerful,' 4 as ' the most 
 spirited, lively, and powerful/ 5 as ' the grandest, most splendid, 
 most artistic,' 6 in the whole collection, as ' one among the 
 oldest relics of Hebrew poetry, of the highest originality,' 7 
 and its writer as one ' in whom we cannot but recognise a 
 poet of remarkable genius ' ; 4 and one of them says, ' The 
 occasion, which most immediately presents itself for this Psalm, 
 is the removal of the ark by David to Mount Zion, and this 
 is adopted by most of the ancient and later interpreters. It 
 gives incontestably the best sense.' 8 This very writer, 
 however, with other able critics of the present day, himself 
 assigns this Psalm to a far later date for certain reasons. But 
 their arguments do not appear convincing ; 9 and, for myself, 
 
 * Olshausen, Ps.p.2%S. 5 Hupfeld, Ps.UI.fl.igg. 
 
 6 Ewald, Ps.fl.2g7. 7 De Wette, quoted by Hupfeld, Ps.III._p. 201. 
 
 8 Hupfeld, Ps.III.p.196. 
 
 9 The arguments alleged against the Davidic origin of Ps. Ixviii are as follows 
 (Kuenen, Hist. Krit. Ot1d.IlI._p.2sS) :-'(i) In v. 15-18 'the settlement of 
 Jehovah on Zion is surely not described by a contemporary' — (ii) In <y.22 
 ' mention is made of bringing back the captives who had been carried away E. 
 and W. (Bashan and the Mediterranean Sea)' — (iii) In z/.2o, 'Jehovah's 
 Palace (Heb.), i.e. the Temple, is mentioned' — (iv) In z/. 29, 3 1,32, &c, 'the 
 expectation of all mankind coming to worship on Zion could hardly have been 
 entertained in David's time.' 
 
 Aiis. — (i) z/. 15-18 suits thoroughly the time of David, when Jehovah, after a 
 series of conquests, came to 'dwell on the hill which Elohim desired to dwell 
 in, yea, and would dwell on it for ever,' v. 16 ; (ii) z/,22 speaks only of ' bringing 
 back ' into the power of Israel for vengeance their fugitive enemies from all direc- 
 tions, E. and W., comp. Am.ix. 1-3, ' that their foot may be dipped in the blood 
 of their enemies and the tongue of their dogs in the same,' Z/.23, comp. v. 21, 
 and see 2S.viii. 1,2, xi.31 ; (iii) David's Tabernacle on Mount Zion was, doubtless, 
 not a mere common tent, but an erection of some architectural pretensions, to 
 which the Hebrew word might be well applied, as it is to the Sanctuary at Shiloh 
 in 1S.L9, iii. 3 ; (iv) ^.29,31,32, &c, refer rather to the princes of neighbouring 
 countries, [e.g. Egypt and Ethiopia, ^.31, with which David was probably in 
 amicable alliance, comp. iK.iii. I, as well as with Tyre, iK.v. 1), showing l-espect 
 and reverence for the triumphant God of Israel, by sending presents, £'.29, for use 
 in the Tabernacle or in building the contemplated Temple, comp. 2S.viii. 10, ii, 
 — not to their adopting Jehovah as their own National Deity. 
 
88 THE AGE OF THE JEHOVIST IN NUMBERS. 
 
 I am satisfied that, if any Psalm in the whole book belongs 
 to the age of David, it is this noble Ps. lxviii. ; and I believe 
 that it was written — perhaps, but not necessarily, by David 
 himself — for the occasion just mentioned, when he brought up 
 with great pomp and solemnity the sacred ark to Mount 
 Zion. 
 
 Now observe the peculiar use of the Divine Name in this 
 Ps. lxviii. Four times JEHOVAH or Jah is used, 10 and in 
 v. 4 especially great stress is laid on this particular name. 
 
 ' Sing unto Elohim, sing praises to His Name ; 
 His name is Jah, so rejoice before Him.' 
 
 The writer then knew the name Jehovah ; and he has not 
 suppressed it from superstitious motives, such as those which 
 
 On the other hand, besides the points mentioned above in the text, it seems 
 to be decisive against the post- Captivity date ascribed to this Psalm by Hupfeld, 
 Ewald, Kuenen, Land, &c, (i) that it has the phrases 'Sing unto Elohim,' 
 v. 4,32, 'Bkss ye Elohim,' z/.26, 'Praise ye Adonai,' Z/.32, 'Blessed be 
 Adonai,' v. 18, 'Blessed be Elohim, ^.35, instead of ' Hallelu-jAH,' 'Praise 
 ye Jehovah,' which would certainly have been found in a very late Psalm of this 
 character, especially at the end, as in Ps.civ.-cvi, cxiii, cxv, cxvi, cxxxv, cxlvi-cl, 
 whereas four of these expressions occur nowhere else in the Bible, and the last 
 only besides in Ps.lxvi.20, and (ii) that it nowhere mentions the Priests and the 
 Levites, who would almost certainly have been named, especially the latter, in 
 a post-Captivity Psalm, as present on such an occasion, comp. 2CI1.V. 12, in- 
 stead of whom we read ' before went the singers, behind were the players, in the 
 midst of the damsels timbrelling, ' ^.25. 
 
 The mention of 'little Benjamin their ruler,' in v.2.*j is hardly intelligible after 
 the Captivity, but suits well the time when Benjamin, which as Saul's tribe, had 
 only just ceased to be, under Saul and his son Ishbosheth, the royal tribe in 
 Israel, had now submitted itself to David, but is spoken of here, in a politic 
 manner, as being of princely dignity. And the mention of four tribes only in 
 7.27, 'Benjamin and Judah,' ' Zebulon and Naphtali,' as representatives of all 
 Israel, is also explained by the fact that in David's time the latter two were the 
 chief Northern, as the former two were the chief Southern, tribes, who came 
 up heartily — represented by their chiefs— to take part in the ceremony of installing 
 the ark ; whereas the great tribe of Ephraim, which lay between, was in all prob- 
 ability not at all enthusiastic in support of this new project of David, of making 
 Jerusalem the seat of religious influence, as well as of government, for the whole 
 land, to the depreciation of its own famous Sanctuary at Bethel, and expressed at 
 last its long-smothered dissatisfaction at this centralizing system in Jeroboam's 
 woi'ds, ' Ye have had enough of going up to Jerusalem,' 1K.xii.28. See further 
 in Pent. II. 405-42 1. 
 
 10 Jah, r.4,18, Jehovah, ?\ 16,20. 
 
THE AGE OF THE J E HO VIST IN NUMBERS. 89 
 
 are known to have prevailed in a very late age with regard to 
 the utterance of this sacred name. Yet he mentions it only 
 four times, while thirty-one times he uses ELOHIM and seven 
 times also Adonai, ' Lord,' corresponding to the title of the Sun- 
 God, Adonis. It would seem that JEHOVAH, though already 
 adopted as the name of the National Deity of Israel, was not 
 yet familiar in the mouth either of the writer or of the people 
 at the time when this Psalm was composed, that is, at the 
 time when the ark was brought up to Mount Zion, in the 
 fourteenth year of David's reign, about eighteen years after 
 the death of Samuel. 
 
 And now listen to the words with which the Psalm 
 begins : — 
 
 1 Let Elohim arise, let His enemies be scattered, 
 And let them, that hate Him, flee before Him ! ' 
 
 And compare them with those which are represented in the 
 Pentateuch as uttered by Moses at each movement of the ark 
 in the wilderness : — 
 
 ' Arise, Jehovah, and let Thine enemies be scattered, 
 And let them, that hate Thee, flee before Thee ! ' n 
 
 It is plain that one of these two passages must have been 
 copied from the other — that the writer of one of them must 
 have had the other before him or in his memory when he 
 wrote his own words. Which, then, was the older of these 
 two passages ? We observe that in the Psalm Elohim is 
 used where in the other passage stands Jehovah. Now it is 
 incredible that the Psalmist, if he had before him the story of 
 the Exodus, of venerable antiquity, at all events, and having 
 at least Mosaic, if not Divine, authority, would have presumed 
 to substitute the common name ELOHIM, which might stand 
 for any heathen deity, in place of the sacred name Jehovah, 
 the personal name of the God of Israel, which had been 
 actually used by Moses himself in the formula here supposed 
 
 11 N.x.35. 
 
90 THE AGE OF THE JEHOVIST IN NUMBERS. 
 
 to be copied, and used repeatedly, whenever the Camp was 
 moved in the wilderness — more especially as it would have 
 been the very name required in this Psalm, composed for so 
 grand an occasion. Whereas it would be very natural that 
 such words as these, if really first used at this memorable 
 time, when the ark was removed 'with shouting and trumpet- 
 sounds ' by ' David and all the House of Israel ' from the 
 place where it had been long laid aside, and brought up to 
 ' the Tent that David had pitched for it,' 12 should have been 
 afterwards adopted by a writer of that age with the change of 
 ELOHIM into JEHOVAH, and inserted in the story of the 
 Exodus as fitting words to announce each removal of the ark 
 in the wilderness. But it is plain that they can never have 
 been so used in reality — that they have been introduced into 
 the Pentateuch by a mere poetical fiction : and, in point of 
 fact, as the story now stands, they would not have been fitting 
 words to have been employed on such occasions, since there 
 was no fighting during those marches in the wilderness, no 
 ' enemies ' of Jehovah and Israel to be * scattered ' before the 
 ark during those forty years of dreary wandering. But in 
 this Psalm they stand quite in their place, being closely 
 connected also with the words that follow ; their martial tone 
 suits well with David's time when he had had wars on every 
 side, and when, perhaps, the ark itself, as the symbol of the 
 Divine Presence, was at times carried forth at the head of his 
 armies, 13 — 
 
 ' Let Elohim arise, let His enemies be scattered, 
 And let all, that hate Him, flee before Him ! 
 As smoke is driven away, so drive Thou them away ; 
 As wax melteth before the fire, 
 So perish the wicked before Elohim. 
 But let the righteous be glad and exult before Elohim ; 
 Yea, let them rejoice with gladness.' H 
 
 And now let us consider a very similar phenomenon presen- 
 ted in the Song of Deborah. 15 This noble poem is evidently 
 12 2S.vi. 15-19. 13 2S.xi.11. u Ps.lxvih.1-3. ,5 Ju.v. 
 
THE AGE OF THE J EH OVIST IN NUMBERS. 91 
 
 one of the 'Lays of Ancient Israel/ that is to say, it is an 
 artistic composition, written by one who has thrown himself 
 heartily into the spirit of the times portrayed in it, but who 
 lived- long after the events to which it refers — as, in fact, is 
 plainly indicated by the statement that ' on that day Deborah 
 and Barak the son of Abinoam sang this Song' together, 16 
 whether this be understood of the joint utterance or the joint 
 authorship of it. If, indeed, such a splendid composition had 
 really been produced in so rude and primitive an age, and 
 had been handed down either in writing or in memory from 
 that time, it would be reasonable to expect that we should 
 find some remains of other like poems written in the same 
 powerful style, and commemorating other great events of the 
 same or subsequent ages. It is, no doubt, of very ancient 
 date comparatively, that is, with reference to the oldest portions 
 of the Bible ; and it may very probably have been written in 
 the prophetical schools, where the older portions of the Book 
 of Judges were composed, in the same age which gave birth 
 to those other very spirited poems which occur in the Penta- 
 teuch — in short, in that golden age of Hebrew Literature to 
 which we owe the poetry of the ' Blessing of Jacob,' 17 the 
 ' Song of Moses,' 18 and the ' Prophecies of Balaam.' 19 
 Listen now to the following passage from this Song : — 
 
 ' Jehovah, at Thy going forth from Seir, 
 At Thy marching from the field of Edom, 
 The earth trembled, the heavens also dropped, 
 The clouds also dropped with water. 
 Before Jehovah the mountains melted, 
 That Sinai before Jehovah the Elohim of Israel.' ?0 
 
 And compare the following words from Ps. Ixviii : — 
 
 ' Elohim, at Thy going forth before Thy people, 
 At Thy marching in the wilderness, 
 The earth trembled^ the heavens too dropped, 
 Before Elohim, 
 That Sinai before Elohim the Elohim of Israel. ' 21 
 
 16 v.i. 17 G.xlix. 1-26. 18 E.xv. 1 18. 
 
 19 N.xxiii, xxiv. 20 Ju.v.4,5. 2I Bs. Ixviii. 7, 8. 
 
92 THE AGE OF THE JEHOVIST IN NUMBERS. 
 
 Here, too, it cannot be doubted that the one passage has been 
 directly imitated from the other. Which, again, was the 
 oldest ? I answer, the Psalm undoubtedly, for these reasons. 
 In the Psalm the statement stands in close connexion with 
 the following context, introducing very naturally the account 
 of the benefits bestowed upon Israel in the wilderness, 22 and 
 itself also very naturally introduced by the preceding con- 
 text ; 23 whereas in the Song the corresponding passage enters 
 abruptly, as if derived from another source, there being not 
 the slightest connexion between it and the verses which pre- 
 cede and follow it. Again, in the Song there is an appearance 
 of an expansion of the words of the Psalm : thus ' from Seir, 
 from the field of Edom ' in the Song seems equivalent to the 
 simple words ' In the wilderness ' of the Psalmist ; and so, too, 
 the phrases ' the heavens also dropped, the clouds also dropped 
 water,' ' the mountains melted,' are mere amplifications of the 
 older language, ' the heavens also dropped ' and ' that Sinai.' 
 Moreover, ' the clouds also dropped with water ' is but a 
 feeble repetition of ' the heavens also dropped ' ; and the 
 reference to ' Seir ' and ' Edom ' in the Song is an incorrect 
 substitute for ' the wilderness ' of the Psalm, since the whole 
 description evidently refers to the portents at Sinai, 24 long 
 before the Israelites reached the Edomite territory, 25 but while 
 Jehovah still ' went before His people' as they 'marched in 
 the wilderness. 25 Above all, as before, it is most unlikely 
 that any writer would have changed 'JEHOVAH the Elohim 
 of Israel ' of the Song into the tamer expression of the Psalm, 
 'ELOHIM the Elohim of Israel,' more especially as the writer 
 of the Psalm has not suppressed the name JEHOVAH 
 altogether ; whereas it would be most natural for one who 
 was imitating an older composition to change ' ELOHIM' into 
 'Jehovah' in such a connexion, if 'Jehovah' had become 
 
 22 ^.9-11. 23 »-5i6. 2i E.xix. 16-19, xx. 18. 
 
 25 N.'xx. 14-21. 26 E.xiii. 20-22. 
 
THE AGE OF THE J EH OVIST IN NUMBERS. 93 
 
 familiar in men's mouths as the name of the ' Elohim of 
 Israel,' which apparently was not the case when the Psalm 
 was written. Once more, it seems incredible that ' a poet of 
 remarkable genius,' the writer of a Psalm described as ' the 
 most spirited, lively, and powerful,' ' the grandest, most 
 splendid, most artistic,' ' one of the most beautiful and most 
 original', of the whole collection, should have borrowed two 
 little scraps from two other ancient documents, one of them 
 certainly not Mosaic. And, on the other hand, what could 
 be more natural than that words of this Psalm, composed for 
 so memorable an occasion and fresh in the recollection of the 
 writers, should have been used by them in N. x. 35 and Ju. v, 
 as appears from the quotations I have made, as well as from 
 other minor resemblances which have been pointed out by 
 critics ? 27 
 
 We conclude, then, that this portion of the Book of 
 Numbers 28 was written after the fourteenth year of David's 
 reign, when the ark was brought up to Mount Zion. Let 
 us now consider the Prophecies of Balaam. 19 From our 
 point of view we are not troubled here with the strange 
 occurrence of the ass conversing as a human being with 
 Balaam, who, however, retained his composure and replied 
 calmly without any signs of dismay or astonishment, though 
 no part of the conversation was heard by his servants or 
 the princes of Moab who travelled in his company, — or 
 with the fact that the angel was seen by Balaam and the 
 ass, and spoke with Balaam, but, as before, was neither 
 seen nor heard by his companions — or by the circumstance 
 that Balaam must be supposed to have uttered his pro- 
 phecies, on the impulse of the moment in prophetic rapture, 
 in the ears — not of Moses and Israel, but of Balak king of 
 Moab and his princes, and Moses to have secured somehow a 
 
 27 comp. Ju.v.3 with Ps.lxviii.4, Ju.v. 12 with Ps.lxviii. 18. 
 29 N.x.35. 
 
94 THE AGE OF THE J EH OVIST IN NUMBERS. 
 
 manuscript of them — or by the strange phenomenon that 
 these prophecies are found to be written in the purest Hebrew, 
 though Balaam was not of Hebrew birth, but summoned by 
 Balak from his native land on the banks of the Euphrates, 29 — 
 or by his employing the name JEHOVAH repeatedly, and even 
 saying 'JEHOVAH is myElohim,' 30 and using in his utterances 
 the identical language of the dying Jacob in the Book of 
 Genesis, as where Jacob says in his blessing on Judah — 
 
 ' He stooped, he crouched as a lion, 
 Even as a lioness — who shall rouse him ? ' 31 
 
 and Balaam says, speaking of Israel — 
 
 ' He stooped, he lay-down as a lion, 
 Even as a lioness — who shall rouse him ? ' 32 
 
 Is it possible that Jacob's Blessing and Balaam's Prophecies 
 may. be the work of one and the selfsame hand ? 
 
 I showed on a former occasion, 33 by considering especially the 
 Blessing on Judah, that the Blessing of Jacob was probably 
 written in the midst of David's conquests, about the twelfth 
 year of his reign. Listen now to these words out of Balaam's 
 final prophecy : — 
 
 ' I see him, but not now, 
 I behold him, but not near. 
 A Star has appeared out of Jacob, 
 And a Sceptre has arisen out of Israel, 
 And has smitten the temples of Moab, 
 And the crown of the head of all the sons of pride. 
 And Edom shall be a possession — 
 Yea, Seir shall be a possession — his enemies' : 
 But Israel shall be gaining force. ' 3 1 
 
 Here is plainly announced, in the form of a prophecy, the 
 conquest by Israel of Moab and Edom ; and ' it is not 
 possible to see in the illustrious king", from whom this 
 picture is borrowed, any later one than David,' 35 who smote 
 
 29 N.xxii.5, see2?.C.I./.734. 30 N.xxii.i8. 31 G.xlix.9. 92 N.xxiv.9. 
 39 p. 62-67. 34 N.xxiv.17,18. 35 Ewald {Hist, of Israel), Eng.Ed.I./. 108. 
 
THE AGE OF THE JE HO VIST IN NUMBERS. 95 
 
 both Moab and Edom, as no other king did, Moab first 
 and Edom afterwards, as here predicted. ' He smote Moab 
 and measured them with a line, casting them down to the 
 ground ; even with two lines measured he to put to death, 
 and with one full line to keep alive' — massacring, there- 
 fore, in cold blood two out of three of all his male (?) 
 Moabite captives ; ' and so the Moabites became David's 
 servants and brought gifts.' 36 And he ' put garrisons in 
 Edom ; throughout all Edom put he garrisons ; and all 
 they of Edom became David's servants;' 37 though after- 
 wards apparently, perhaps on some revolt, ' Joab went up 
 to bury the slain' of Israel, after he had slain every male 
 in Edom; for 'six months did Joab remain there with all 
 Israel, until he had cut off every male in Edom.' 38 But 
 David smote also in an equally memorable manner the 
 people of Ammon. ' And David gathered all the people 
 together, and went to Rabbah the royal city, and fought 
 against it. And he brought forth the people that were 
 therein, and put them under saws and under harrows of 
 iron and under axes of iron, and made them pass through 
 (the brick-kiln, or rather, as it should probably be rendered, 
 made them pass over, i.e. in the fire) to Molech;' in other 
 words, David sawed asunder, and tore with harrows, and 
 chopped with axes, and burnt alive, his Ammonite captives 
 out of Rabbah ; ' and thus did he unto all the cities of the 
 children of Ammon.' 39 Now Edom, Moab, and Ammon 
 are continually named together in the Bible, and Moab and 
 Ammon are coupled almost invariably. 40 And therefore it 
 
 36 2S.viii.2. 37 2S.viii. 14. 
 
 38 iK.xi.15,16. 39 2S.xii.31. 
 
 40 'Edom, Moab, and Ammon,' D.ii.4,9, 19, xxiii.3,7, 1S.xiv.47, iK.xi. r, 
 iCh.xviii. II, 2Ch.xx. 10,22,23, Ps.lxxxiii.6,7, Is.xi. 14, Jer.ix.26, xxv.21, xxvii.3, 
 xl. II, xlviii. i-xlix.22, Ez.xxv.i-14, Dan.xi.41, Am.i. n-ii.3, comp. 'Moab 
 and Ammon,' G.xix.37,38, Ju.iii. 12, 13, x.6, xi. 15, 2S.viii.i2, iK.xi.7,33, 
 2K.xxiii. 13, xxiv.2, 2Ch.xx. i,xxiv.26, Ezr.ix. 1, Neh.xiii. 1,23, Zeph.ii.8,9. 
 
96 THE AGE OF THE J EH OVIST IN NUMBERS. 
 
 is most unlikely that any writer, whether predicting before- 
 hand, as the traditionary view supposes, or recounting 
 afterwards, the triumphs of David's reign, should have 
 mentioned only the conquest of Moab and that of Edom 
 and said nothing whatever about the conquest of Ammon. 
 It would seem that this prophecy must have been written 
 in the interval of five or six years between the conquests 
 of Moab and Edom and that of Ammon, at a time when 
 the reigning king of Ammon was on very friendly terms 
 with David. 41 We are thus brought to the very same date 
 exactly for Balaam's Prophecies as for the Blessing of 
 Jacob, viz. , about the twelfth year of David's reign in the 
 midst of his conquests, when the ' lion's whelp ' had ' gone- 
 up from the prey ' and had ' crouched ' again for a time, and 
 ' who should rouse him ? ' 42 
 
 There are other indications of the same age in other 
 parts of Balaam's Prophecies, as, for instance, in the words 
 which say that Israel's king ' shall be higher than Agag,' 43 
 which must have been written at a time when the power of 
 Agag, king of Amalek, was still fresh in the recollection of 
 the Hebrew people or, at all events, had not yet passed out 
 of the popular talk. In other words, these prophecies 
 must have been composed not long after the time when Saul 
 ' utterly destroyed ' the Amalekites, and Samuel ' hewed 
 Agag in pieces before JEHOVAH at the Gilgal,' 44 that is, they 
 were written in the early part of David's reign. In short, 
 as I have said, no sign of time has yet been traced in all 
 the Jehovistic matter to the end of the Book of Joshua, 
 which carries the age of its writer or writers certainly 
 below the first years of Solomon's reign. 45 
 
 But, after all, these Jehovistic amplifications of the 
 more , ancient Elohistic Narrative with that Narrative it- 
 
 41 2S.X.2. 42 G.xlix.9. 4S N.xxiv.7. 
 
 " iS.xv.8,33. 45 /-57- 
 
THE AGE OF THE JEHOVIST IN NUMBERS. 97 
 
 self, which together we may call the Older or Original 
 Story of the Exodus, make up less than one-half of 
 the whole work, as it now lies before us, to the end of 
 Joshua. More than one-half, therefore, still remains to be 
 accounted for ; and of this about as much as the Elohistic 
 matter belongs to the Deuteronomist, and about as much 
 as the Jehovistic matter belongs to the Levitical Legislation. 
 
 I shall speak more fully hereafter about these two sets of 
 passages. For the present I confine myself to a few closing 
 remarks upon the general results of these criticisms. We 
 now find that Israel was under Divine Teaching just exactly 
 as we are. We are now able to observe in Israel, as in 
 other nations, the signs of growth and orderly progress, 
 the people making gradual advancement in religious truth 
 and moral perception, under the teaching of those great 
 men whom the Spirit of God enlightened and quickened, 
 and whom His Providence raised up among them from time 
 to time, for this end first, but with a further view to the 
 education of the race, even of us among the rest. Their 
 history now becomes rational and intelligible, being stripped 
 — not of all that is supernatural or Divine, but — of all that 
 is portentous, perplexing, and contradictory. It will no 
 longer be full of marvels and prodigies, painfully stagger- 
 ing to an intelligent faith — as where Elisha by a word 
 makes the iron axe-head float, 46 or his bones revive a dead 
 man, 47 or where the Jordan, when overflowing all its banks, 
 is suddenly stopped in its course, its waters 'rising up in 
 a heap ' till Israel had crossed its bed on dry land 48 — and 
 these wonders being profusely lavished on a favoured people 
 or individual, and performed oftentimes, as it seems to our 
 reason, the guiding light which God has given us, without 
 any adequate object or proportionate result, as where the 
 
 46 2K.vi.5-7. 47 2K.xiii.2i, « J.iii. 15-17, 
 
 H 
 
98 THE AGE OF THE JEHOVIST IN NUMBERS. 
 
 ass reproves Balaam with human voice 49 or the whale 
 swallows Jonah. 50 It is surely strengthening and comforting 
 to know that God, our God, is amongst us still, as He was of 
 old, speaking to us by His Spirit in our hearts and 
 consciences with that still small voice which is mightier 
 far and more effective than any thunders of Sinai could 
 be. Let us bless God that we live in an age when the 
 mist has been cleared away which hid from those who 
 lived before us the true history of Israel, and made the 
 Bible to many thoughtful and devout persons a stone of 
 stumbling and a rock of offence — ay, which veiled from us 
 the face of our Heavenly Father, and darkened the teaching 
 of the Gospel of Christ. 
 
 49 N.xxii. 28-30. so Jon. i. 17, ii. 10. 
 
LECTURE VIII. 
 
 H 2 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 THE Ten Commandments in E.xx. inserted by the Deuteronomist ; the 
 New Commentary admits that these differ ' in several weighty particulars ' 
 from those in D.v, and that neither copy represents correctly those actually 
 uttered by Jehovah on Sinai ; fallacious view of the Commentary on this 
 point ; no room for the Decalogue in the Original Story ; the context quoted, 
 and shown to be an early portion of the Jehovistic matter ; it contains no 
 sign of the utterance of the Ten Commandments ; a series of very different 
 commands received by Moses in the Original Story, and made the basis 
 of the Covenant between Jehovah and Israel ; the points of resemblance 
 between the two series show that the Decalogue did not exist in the Original 
 Story ; the Book of the Covenant belongs to a rude and primitive age ; 
 Its barbarous slave-laws ; impiety of our ascribing these to the Deity ; fallacious 
 view of the New Commentary on this point ; these laws composed for a 
 settled agricultural people, as in the time of Saul ; perhaps a transcript of 
 the ' manner ' or common-law of the kingdom, as administered by Samuel 
 and ' written in a book ' by him for Saul ; the comfort of being released from 
 the moral difficulty of believing that such laws ever had Divine authority. 
 
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 
 
 HAVE already mentioned the Deuteronomist l as 
 the writer of some portions of the story of the 
 Exodus, as it now stands, from Genesis to Joshua. 
 Among these, of course, is the Book of Deuter- 
 onomy itself, or the greatest part of it, which is written in a 
 totally different style from any passages of the Original Story, 
 and about which I shall hereafter give you some further in- 
 formation. The most important, however, of all the Deuter- 
 onomistic insertions is not the Book of Deuteronomy itself, 
 however interesting and instructive that is in many respects, 
 but the Decalogue or Ten Commandments in E.xx. The 
 New Bible Commentary admits that these, as we now read 
 them, recorded first in Exodus 2 and repeated in Deuter- 
 onomy, 3 but in forms 'differing from each other in several 
 weighty particulars,' 4 cannot be in either form a genuine copy 
 of the ' Ten Words/ as, according to the traditionary view, 
 they were spoken by the Divine Voice on Sinai. The writer 
 suggests that the Ten Commandments were originally uttered 
 all in the same terse form as those which now remain, * Thou 
 shalt not kill,' ' Thou shalt not steal,' &c, and were afterwards 
 ■ — those sacred words, supposed to have been formulated by 
 
 /•97- 
 
 Ex. xx. 
 
 D.v.6,21. 
 
 * £. C.I./. 335. 
 
io2 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 
 
 Infinite Wisdom and delivered with solemn emphasis in the 
 ears of all Israel ' out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, 
 and of the thick darkness, with a great voice ' 5 — considerably 
 amplified by Moses, 6 a supposition which is, of course, entirely 
 subversive of the usual traditionary notion. Thus, for in- 
 stance, the Fourth Commandment, as uttered by Jehovah 
 on Sinai, was merely the brief injunction, ' Remember the 
 sabbath-day to sanctify it.' It was Moses who added the 
 further details, ' Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy 
 work : but the seventh day is the sabbath of Jehovah thy 
 Elohim ; thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor 
 thy daughter, thy manservant nor thy maidservant, nor thy 
 cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates ; ' and this ad- 
 dition appears — but with some variation 7 — in both forms of 
 the Decalogue. But in Exodus he has given this as the 
 reason for keeping the sabbath — ' For in six days JEHOVAH 
 made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and 
 rested the seventh day ; tlierefore JEHOVAH blessed the 
 seventh day and sanctified it ; ' whereas in Deuteronomy he 
 has given a totally different reason for observing it — ' And 
 remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and 
 that JEHOVAH thy Elohim brought thee forth from thence 
 through a mighty hand and a stretched-out arm ; tlierefore 
 Jehovah thy Elohim commanded thee to keep the sabbath- 
 day.' And similar additions are on this view supposed to 
 have been made by Moses to the second, third, fifth, and tenth 
 Commandments, as originally spoken by JEHOVAH. It is un- 
 fortunate for this theory that even, in their reduced forms, 
 consisting only of a few words, the two copies of the Fourth 
 Commandment are not identical ; since in Exodus we read 
 
 5 D.v.22. 6 B.C.J. p. 336. 
 
 7 D.iv. 14, has ' nor thine ox, nor thine ass ' instead of ' nor thy cattle ' of E.xx. 
 10, and adds at the end ' that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as 
 well as thou.' 
 
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 103 
 
 ' Remember the sabbath-day to sanctify it,' 8 and in Deuter- 
 onomy, ' Observe the sabbath-day to sanctify it ; ' 9 so that the 
 words of the Commentary, written with reference to the longer 
 statement, apply also to the shorter statement of these Com- 
 mandments — ' Each is said, with reiterated emphasis, to con- 
 tain the words that were actually spoken by the Lord and 
 written by him upon the stones. ... It has been generally 
 assumed that the whole of one or other of these copies was 
 written on the Tables. Most commentators have supposed 
 that the original document is in Exodus, and that the author 
 of Deuteronomy wrote from memory, with variations suggested 
 at the time. Others have conceived that Deuteronomy must 
 furnish the more correct form, since the Tables must have 
 been in actual existence when the Book was written. But 
 neither of these views can be fairly reconciled with the state- 
 ments in Exodus and Deuteronomy, to which reference has 
 been made. If either copy, as a whole, represents what was 
 written on the Tables, it is obvious that the other cannot do 
 so.' 10 
 
 But, when you have heard the Jehovistic matter extracted 
 by itself from E.xix,xx, as you heard before the Elohistic 
 matter in E.i-vr 11 you will see that there is no room whatever 
 for the Ten Commandments in the Original Story of the 
 Exodus. For this is how that story ran : — 
 
 ' And it came to pass on the third day, when it was morn- 
 ing, that there were voices (or thunderings) and lightnings, 
 and a thick cloud upon the Mount, and the sound of a trumpet 
 very loud ; and all the people trembled that were in the 
 Camp. And Moses brought forth the people to meet Elohim 
 out of the Camp, and they took their stand underneath the 
 Mount. And Mount Sinai was all of it smoke, because 
 JEHOVAH had comedown upon it in fire ; and its smoke went 
 
 8 E.xx.8. 9 D.v.12. 10 B. C.l.p. 335-6. n /-72,73. 
 
104 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 
 
 up as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole Mount trembled 
 greatly. And the trumpet-sound kept going very much 
 louder and louder : Moses spake, and Elohim answered him 
 by a voice (or thunderings). And all the people were seeing 
 the voices and the flashes and the trumpet-sound and the 
 Mountain smoking ; and, when the people saw, they shrank 
 back and stood at a distance. And they said to Moses, 
 " Speak thou with us, and we will hear ; but let not Elohim 
 speak with us, lest we die." And Moses said unto the people, 
 " Fear ye not ; for ELOHIM hath come that He may prove you 
 and that His fear may be before you that ye sin not." So the 
 people stood at a distance, and Moses drew near unto the 
 thick darkness where ELOHIM was.' 12 
 
 You will have observed in this short passage five times 
 Elohim and only once Jehovah ; in other words, it is one 
 of the earlier additions to the Elohistic Narrative, when, as we 
 suppose, 13 the writer had not yet come to use very freely the 
 name Jehovah. It is this passage evidently which is referred 
 to in those verses of Ps.lxviii which I quoted in my last 
 Lecture— 
 
 ' Elohim, at Thy going forth before Thy people, 
 At Thy marching in the wilderness, 
 The earth trembled, the heavens also dropped, 
 Before Elohim, 
 That Sinai before Elohim, the Elohim of Israel' ; 14 
 
 where allusion is made to ' the whole mountain quaking 
 greatly,' 13 and to the heavy rain-storm which might naturally 
 be supposed to accompany the ' thunderings and lightnings.' 16 
 This portion, therefore, of the Original Story must have been 
 already in existence at the time when Ps.lxviii was composed, 
 and was in the hands, most probably, of the same circle of 
 prophetical writers from which the Psalm itself proceeded. 
 
 12 E.xix.16-19, xx.18-21. 13 /.85,90. 14 Ps.lxviii. 7,8. 
 
 15 E.xix.18. 16 E.xix.i5, xx.18. 
 
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 105 
 
 But where now, in this passage of the Original Story, are 
 the Ten Commandments ? Or where is there any room for 
 them ? In the account, which we have now before us in the 
 Bible, they are inserted just before the words - and all the 
 people were seeing the voices and flashes and the trumpet- 
 sound and the mountain smoking ; ' where reference is clearly 
 made to the previous statement that, ' when it was morning, 
 there were voices and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the 
 mount and the sound of a trumpet very loud, and Mount 
 Sinai was all of it smoke, because JEHOVAH had come down 
 upon it in fire.' 17 The people, we are told, were appalled by 
 the mighty thunderings, the terrific flashes of lightning, the 
 awful trumpet-sounds, and the thick smoke that covered the 
 quaking mount and ' went up like the smoke of a furnace.' 18 
 But not a word is said about their having heard a tremendous 
 Voice, uttering audibly the Ten Commandments. Rather, it 
 is plainly implied that they had not heard any such utterances ; 
 for they entreat Moses saying, ' Speak thou with us and we 
 will hear ; but let not ELOHIM speak with us, lest we die.' 19 
 And so Moses alone draws near to Elohim, 20 and receives a 
 long series of commands of a totally different character, 21 
 which he afterwards communicates to the people, and on 
 the basis of which, not upon that of the Ten Command- 
 ments, a Covenant is solemnly made between Jehovah and 
 Israel. 22 
 
 Moses received, I say, on this occasion ' a long series of 
 commands of a totally different character ' from the Ten 
 Commandments. Yet some of them are not unlike, as, 
 for instance, the very first injunction, 'Thou shalt not make 
 with Me ELOHIM of silver and ye shall not make you 
 ELOHIM of gold.' 23 But then how tame would this be if 
 the Divine Voice had been represented as having already 
 
 17 E.xix.16,18, 18 E.xx.18. 1 9 E.xx.19. 20 E.xx.21. 
 
 21 E.XX.22, &c. 22 E.xxiv.3-8. 23 E.xx.23. 
 
ic6 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 
 
 uttered in the ears of all Israel the Second Commandment 
 with all its details, ' Thou shalt not make for thyself any 
 graven image,' &c. ? 24 In like manner the words ' Six days 
 shalt thou do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt 
 rest, that so thine ox and thine ass may repose, and the son 
 of thy handmaid and the sojourner may be refreshed,' 25 would 
 have been quite superfluous, if the Fourth Commandment, with 
 its much more precise and full directions, had been previously 
 published. Again, the words, ' Elohim shalt thou not revile, 
 and the prince among thy people shalt thou not curse/ 2G 
 correspond in some sense with the language of the Third 
 Commandment, and ' he that curseth his father or his mother 
 shall surely be put to death,' 27 with that of the Fifth ; and so 
 in other instances. But there is no ground for supposing that 
 these laws are only an expansion and explanation, or a re- 
 peated enforcement, of the Ten Commandments ; for these 
 last are more full than the others, and are perfectly clear, 
 and need no enlargement or explanation ; and surely a pri- 
 vate communication to Moses can hardly be thought of as 
 * enforcing ' commands represented as having been uttered by 
 God Himself, with awful power and majesty, in the hearing 
 of all the people. 
 
 In short, it will be seen at once that these laws in 
 E.xxi-xxiii are, as a whole, altogether different in tone and 
 character from the Ten Commandments. They contain, for 
 instance, a number of details as to matters connected with 
 worship or with social and private life, which betray unmis- 
 takably the signs of a rude and primitive age. Thus we 
 read ' An altar of earth shall ye make for Me ; and thou shalt 
 sacrifice upon it thy burnt-offerings and thy peace-offerings, 
 thy sheep and thy oxen ; and, if thou shalt make for me an 
 altar of stones, thou shalt not build them of hewn stones ; if 
 
 24 E.xx.4-6. 25 E.xxiii.12. ?6 E.xxii.28. 27 E.xxi.17. 
 
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 107 
 
 thou hast waved thy tool upon it, then shalt thou defile it.' 2S 
 And here we find ourselves in an age when the first rude 
 altars of earth or rough stones were made on high-places in 
 all parts of the land, at Mizpah, 29 at Ramah, 30 at Bethel, 31 at 
 the Gilgal, 32 and were allowed or even encouraged by these 
 •laws to be made, 'in every place where I record My name 
 I will come unto thee and I will bless thee,' 33 before any 
 splendid Temple had been built with its one brazen altar, 34 
 upon which all sacrifices were to be offered, * in the place 
 which Jehovah had chosen,' 35 — in other words, before the time 
 of Solomon or even of David's Tabernacle on Mount Zion, 
 where probably stood also a more elaborate altar than was 
 allowed by these ordinances. 36 
 
 But we find here other laws ascribed to JEHOVAH, which, so 
 long as they are believed to have Divine authority, might be 
 justly appealed to, and no doubt have been appealed to, as 
 sanctioning the worst evils of slavery. ' When a man shall 
 smite his servant or his handmaid with a rod and he die under 
 his hand, he shall certainly be punished. Only, if he shall 
 stand a day or two days, he shall not be punished ; for he is 
 his money.' 37 Let us thank God that we are no longer 
 required to ascribe to the Most Holy and Merciful Creator, 
 ' the God of the spirits of all flesh,' 38 our Heavenly Father, 
 this horrible command, which an orthodox German commen- 
 tator very honestly explains as follows: — 'Through his 
 remaining in life, if only for one or two days [N.B. however 
 mangled or maimed], it became evident that the master did 
 not wish to kill him ; if, however, after this he died, the loss 
 of the slave was punishment enough for his master' 39 And, 
 strange to say, the same language is repeated in the New 
 Bible Commentary— 4 The master was permitted to retain the 
 
 28 E.xx.24,25. M iS.vii.5,9. 30 1S.vli.17. 
 
 31 1S.X.3. 32 1S.xi.15. 33 E.xx.24. 
 
 34 1K.ix.25. 35 D.xii.5,6. 3S iK.i. 50,51, 53, ii.28,29. 
 37 E.xxi. 20,21. ss N.xvi.22,xxvii.6. s9 Keil,I./.472. , 
 
108 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 
 
 power of chastising his slave with a rod ; but the indulgence 
 of unbridled temper was so far kept in check by his incurring 
 punishment if the slave died under his hand. If, however, the 
 slave survived the castigation a day or two, it was assumed 
 that the offence of the master had not been so heinous, and he 
 did not become amenable to the law, because the loss of the 
 slave, who by old custom was recognized as his property, was 
 accounted, under the circumstances, as a punishment!^ Why, 
 what could a Legree have wished more than this, except the 
 addition of the previous command, ' If his master have given 
 him a wife and she have borne him sons or daughters, the 
 wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go 
 out by himself' 41 — 'go out,' either 'free for nothing,' as this 
 law prescribes, 42 after six years' service, or else, I suppose, ' go 
 out free ' by death, even death under a brutal castigation, ' if 
 he shall stand a day or two' — which, says the same candid 
 German writer, ' may appear hard, but it was rightly grounded 
 in the nature of slavery. In order, however, to soften the 
 hardship of separation from wife or children, it is allowed to 
 the slave to remain in the service of his master, provided he 
 will for ever renounce his freedom.' 43 In other words, the 
 poor wretch — a Hebrew slave — is here tempted to buy his 
 own freedom by abandoning his wife and children ? Slaves 
 they were already— and so a Hebrew might sell his own 
 daughter into slavery by another of these laws 44 — and slaves 
 they are to remain ; they have only been bred, it seems, for 
 the master's use. But they will be deprived of the little com- 
 fort of living together, unless the husband and the father will 
 consent to become a slave for ever ! 45 And the New Bible 
 Commentary says — ' The protection here afforded to the life 
 of a slave may seem to us but a slight one. But it is the very 
 earliest trace of such protection in legislation, and it stands in 
 
 40 B. C.l.p. 345. 41 E.xxi.4. 42 E.xxi.2. 
 
 " Keil,I./.469. 44 E.xxi.7. * 5 E.xxi.5,6. 
 
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 109 
 
 strong and favourable contrast with the old laws of Greece, 
 Rome, and other nations. These regulations were most 
 likely as much as was feasible at the time, to mitigate the 
 cruelty of ancient practice ; they were as much as the hard- 
 ness of the hearts of the people would bear.' 46 Such remarks 
 might be just if these laws were merely Mosaic laws, that is, 
 laws adopted or originated by Moses and ascribed by him to 
 the Deity. But to say that the Divine Being ever really 
 sanctioned or enforced, much less originated, such laws as 
 these — that for the Great God, the ' Faithful Creator,' 47 this 
 was ' as much as was feasible at the time,' that He could not 
 do more in the cause of humanity ' because of the hardness of 
 heart ' of his chosen people — is simply to blaspheme the Holy 
 Name of our Father in Heaven. Even the text appealed to 
 says, ' Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered 
 you to put away your wives.' 48 Verily, those of the clergy, of 
 all ranks and denominations, will have much to answer for, 
 who will shut their eyes obstinately to the light of Modern 
 Criticism, and allow their flocks still to believe that the slave- 
 holder may draw support for his practices from the actual 
 utterances of the Living God. Either these words are God's, 
 as the Bible says, 49 or they are not. Let us not any longer 
 blink the question, but tell the plain truth to our people, and 
 trust God with the consequences. 
 
 I have said that these laws show signs of having been 
 written in a rude and primitive age, and, I may add, for an 
 agricultural people. ' They imply that the people of Israel 
 were not only settled in Palestine, but were in peaceful and 
 undisturbed possession of the land. They betray not a trace 
 of the disturbance of the conquest and the struggle for 
 possession, but rather are employed in giving careful prescrip- 
 tions for the moral and judicial cases likely to occur among a 
 
 46 B. C.l.p. 346. 47 1 Pet. iv. 19. 
 
 48 Mt.xix.8, Mk.x.3-5. 4a E.xx.22,xxi. i,xxiv.3,4,7,8. 
 
no THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 
 
 people employed in agriculture and living in regular inter- 
 course with themselves and with strangers. That others also, 
 besides Israelites, possessed fields or vineyards or olive- 
 gardens, is nowhere implied : rather a humane and mild 
 treatment of non-Israelites remaining in the land is enjoined, 50 
 just in the same way as that of widows and orphans. 51 This 
 remark hardly allows us, even if we regard this law-book as 
 the oldest handed down in the Pentateuch, to carry back its 
 composition to the time of the Judges ; it seems rather to 
 belong to the time of the Kings.' 52 
 
 Rather, it seems to belong to the time of the first king, 
 Saul. We read that, when Saul was made king, ' Samuel 
 told the people the manner of the kingdom, and wrote it in a 
 book, and laid it up before JEHOVAH.' 53 What was this 
 ' manner or custom of the kingdom ' which Samuel ' told the 
 people ' ? Apparently it was the system by which they were 
 to be ruled under Saul, — the common-law, as it were, which he 
 himself had hitherto administered in his yearly circuits to 
 judge the people ; for as we are told, 'Samuel judged Israel 
 all the days of his life ; and he went from year to year in 
 circuit to Bethel and the Gilgal and Mizpah, and judged 
 Israel in all those places ; and his return was to Ramah, for 
 there was his house, and there he built an altar unto JEHO- 
 VAH.' 54 The phrase used repeatedly in these laws with 
 reference to a dispute or trespass, ' bring unto Elohim/ 
 'come unto Elohim,' 55 implies just such an age as this, when 
 Samuel ' went in circuit ' to different sacred places and judged 
 the people 'before JEHOVAH,' 56 that is, before the altar or 
 within the chapel of the high-place, deciding the lighter cases 
 himself, but having recourse in doubtful matters to some 
 
 50 E.xxii.2i,xxiii.9. 51 E.xxii.22 -24. 52 Graf, Gesch. Buck., p. 29. 
 
 " iS.x.25. 64 iS.vii. 15-17. 
 
 55 E.xxi.6,xxii.8,9, where the E.V. has 'judges,' but the Heb. 'Elohim.' 
 
 66 iS.vii.6. 
 
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. in 
 
 sacred ' ephod ' 57 or other mode of divination, by which the 
 Divine sentence was supposed to be obtained, as Jethro 
 advises Moses, ' Be thou for the people towards Elohim, that 
 thou mayest bring the causes unto Elohim.' 58 It would 
 hardly have been used in the later time when David or 
 Solomon administered justice either in their own persons 69 or 
 by means of their officers. 60 May we not, in short, have in 
 these very laws of Exodus a copy of that ' common-law of the 
 kingdom,' which Samuel had hitherto administered and by 
 which the new king was henceforth to be guided ? We are 
 told that Samuel 'wrote it in a book and laid it up before 
 Jehovah.' 61 And so we are also told that the laws we are now 
 considering were ' written ' in a 'book' by Moses ; 62 and these 
 laws too, as we shall see, and not the Ten Commandments, 
 are said in the Original Story to have been written by the 
 Finger of ELOHIM on two tables of stone, which were put into 
 the Ark and laid up before JEHOVAH, as the laws by which 
 the people were to be governed, and on the basis of which the 
 Covenant was made between Jehovah and Israel. 
 
 However this may be, it seems clear that these laws must 
 have been written in the age of Samuel, except the last twelve 
 verses 63 and one or two other small insertions, 64 which are due 
 to the later Deuteronomist. Let us rejoice to know that the 
 Divine Spirit is no longer to be held responsible, as the 
 traditionary view supposes, not only for the innumerable con - 
 tradictions of scientific fact and discrepancies in statement, 
 which are observed in the story of the Pentateuch, but for 
 moral delinquencies, like that which we have been considering, 
 and many others of a similar kind. For myself, I repeat, 
 what I have publicly stated, that it was not the scientific 
 difficulties in the accounts of the Creation and the Flood, 
 
 6T lS.xxi.9,xxiii.6,9,xxx.7, and xiv. 18 (LXX). 58 E.xviii. 19. 
 
 59 i.K.iii.28, vii.7. 60 2S.viii.i5,xv.2-6. 6l iS.x.25. 
 
 62 E,xxiv.4,7. 63 E.xxiii. 22-33. 6i E.xxiii. 13, 15^,19. 
 
U2 THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 
 
 which brought my own mind to a stand, and compelled me to 
 seek a satisfactory solution of them. Those difficulties I met, 
 as they are met now by many, by supposing that they were 
 mere reflections of ancient myths — not, of course, to be 
 received as infallibly or even historically true, but such as a 
 good and true man might write for the edification of an 
 ignorant age. But the fact that such barbarous commands, 
 as those we have heard to-day, were here attributed to the 
 Fountain of all Goodness, was painfully forced upon my mind 
 while engaged in translating the Book of Exodus into Zulu. 
 I felt that it was absolutely impossible to believe this, without 
 abandoning all trust in a righteous and perfect Being, whose 
 children we are, and whose moral excellencies are faintly 
 reflected in our own. From that time I resolved that, cost 
 what it might in time and labour, ay, and in other things 
 which men hold dear, I would, God helping me, search into 
 the mystery, and master, if possible, the history of the com- 
 position of the Pentateuch. I thank God that I have finished 
 my work, at least sufficiently for all practical purposes, and 
 am now able to lay before you the ripe results of my labours. 
 And, if I have helped in any way to relieve your minds and 
 the minds of others, as well as my own, from the misery of 
 finding such laws as I have quoted, and other like laws, 
 ascribed to the God of Truth and Love, the Father of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, in a Book which traditionary teaching 
 represents as Divinely infallible, I feel that I shall not have 
 lived in vain. 
 
LECTURE IX. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 Recapitulation ; the Book of the Covenant, with its laws on slave holding, 
 retaliation, cattle-stealing, grass -burning, witchcraft ; its three agricultural 
 Feasts, in Spring, Summer, and Autumn ; its words apparently enjoining 
 human sacrifices ; plain evidence in Scripture of human sacrifices being com- 
 mon in Israel, derived from the practice of the Canaanites ; example in the 
 case of Jephthah ; the story of Abraham's sacrifice written to check the 
 practice, but not condemning it ; human sacrifices general among other ancient 
 nations ; the practice lasting among the Hebrews to Josiah's time ; signs in 
 Jeremiah and Ezekiel that the Original Story was appealed to as enjoining 
 such sacrifices ; in Micah's days they were regarded as acts of piety ; human 
 sacrifices in Christendom ; ■ giving up witchcraft ' in what sense ' giving up 
 the Bible.' 
 
HUMAN SACRIFICES IN ISRAEL. 
 
 ;N my last Lecture I directed your attention to the 
 series of laws in E.xxi-xxiii, which are represented 
 as having been imparted by Jehovah to Moses 
 at the foot of Mount Sinai, while the people in 
 terror stood afar off, and Moses alone ' drew near unto the 
 thick darkness where ELOHIM was.' These laws, as I 
 showed, bear the marks of having been composed in a rude 
 age and for an agricultural people — in short, of having been 
 written in Samuel's time, before the arts of civilised life had 
 made any progress in Israel, as they did soon afterwards 
 during the martial age of David and the luxurious reign of 
 Solomon. Among these were the oppressive slave-laws which 
 we noticed, and that law of retaliation which our Saviour 
 expressly set aside by His own gracious teaching, ' life for 
 life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 
 burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.' ! 
 
 But there are other regulations, the reasons for which 
 we can well understand, and the good sense of which we can 
 thoroughly appreciate, from our own experience in a land 
 like this. Thus we read 'When a man shall steal an ox 
 or a sheep, and slaughter it or sell it, five oxen shall he 
 repay for the ox and four sheep for the sheep ' ; 2 and we 
 
 1 E.xxi. 23-25, Mt.v.38,39. 2 E.xxii. 1. 
 
 1 2 
 
n6 HUMAN SACRIFICES IN ISRAEL. ■ 
 
 remember how, when Nathan the prophet brought home to 
 David his guilt in the case of Bathsheba, by relating the 
 parable of the poor man's ewe-lamb which the rich man 
 had seized and slaughtered for his guest, the king replied, 
 before he recognised the prophet's meaning, ' he shall restore 
 the lamb fourfold,' 3 in exact accordance with this law, 
 which was still apparently in force as part of the law of 
 the realm, administered formerly as common-law by Samuel, 
 but reduced, as we suppose, to a written statute in the 
 law-book before us at the time when Saul, the first king, 
 was chosen to reign over Israel. 4 So, too, we have here the 
 very reasonable ordinance, ' When a man shall eat-off a 
 field or a vineyard, yea, shall let loose his beast that it 
 eat-off in the field of another, the best of his field and the 
 best of his vineyard shall he repay,' 5 and again, ' If fire 
 go-forth and catch dry grass, so that stack or standing-corn 
 or field be devoured, he that kindled the conflagration shall 
 certainly repay.' 6 We find here also the command, ' A 
 witch thou shalt not let live,' 7 and we remember how the 
 witch of Endor said to Saul, when he went in his despair 
 to consult her before his last fatal fight with the Philistines, 
 ' Behold ! thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath 
 cut off those that have familiar spirits and the wizards out 
 of the land ; wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life 
 to cause me to die ? ' 8 But Saul, from all that we know 
 about him, was not a man to have set his face so sternly 
 against witchcraft from his own mere motion. It is probable 
 that, in his early days as king, he had exhibited this zeal 
 against witchcraft in obedience to this very law, and under 
 the direct influence of Samuel himself. 
 
 So in these laws we have three agricultural feasts estab- 
 lished, 9 at which the Israelites are enjoined to ' appear before 
 
 3 2S.xii.6. 4 /.iio,m. 5 E.xxii.5. « E.xxii.6. 
 
 7 E.xxii. iS. * iS.xxviii.9. 8 E.xxiii. 14-16. 
 
HUMAN SACRIFICES IN ISRAEL. 117 
 
 JEHOVAH,' 10 probably it is meant at the nearest highplace, 
 and 'not to appear empty,' 11 that is, to bring gifts and 
 sacrifices, — namely, the ' Feast of Mazzoth T (or unleavened 
 cakes), the Spring festival, the 'Feast of Harvest, the first- 
 fruits of their labours,' the Summer festival, and the ' Feast 
 of Ingathering at the end of the year,' the joyous Autumn 
 festival, when thank-offerings were made for the blessings of 
 the year. Naturally this last — afterwards called the ' Feast 
 of Tabernacles ' 12 — was the favourite festival, when the 
 weather would be fine and the roads dry, and all things con- 
 spired to heighten the universal gladness and mirth. It is 
 this feast which is probably referred to in the Book of Judges 
 as held to JEHOVAH in Shiloh yearly, when ' the daughters of 
 Shiloh would come out to dance in dances.' 13 And so in 
 the days of Elkanah the father of Samuel it seems to have 
 been the only festival regularly observed by pious Israelites ; 
 for we are told how he went up, he and all his house, 'to 
 offer the yearly sacrifice ' at Shiloh. 14 In Solomon's time, 
 however, the custom of celebrating all three feasts was fully 
 established ; ' and three times in the year did Solomon offer 
 burnt-offerings and peace-offerings upon the altar which he 
 had built unto JEHOVAH.' IS Hence we may conclude that it 
 had been previously enjoined, as we suppose, in this law-book 
 of Samuel's time. 
 
 Once more, we read ' Thy fullness and thy tears ' — in 
 other words, the firstfruits of thy threshing-floor and of thy 
 presses for wine and oil — ' thou shalt not delay ; the firstborn 
 of thy children thou shalt give to Me. So shalt thou do 
 with thine ox, with thy sheep ; seven days shall it be with its 
 dam ; on the eighth day thou shalt give it to Me.' 16 These 
 
 10 E.xxiii. 17. » E.xxiii. 15. 
 
 12 L.xxiii.34, D.xvi. 13, i6,xxxi. io, 2Ch.viii. 13, Ezr.iii.4, Zech.xiv. 16. 
 
 13 Ju.xxi. 19-21. " iS.i.3,2i,ii. 19. 
 15 lK.ix.25, > 6 E.xxii.29,30. 
 
Ii8 HUMAN SACRIFICES IN ISRAEL. 
 
 words sound as if they directly enjoined the practice of human 
 sacrifice — ' the firstborn of thy children thou shalt give to 
 Me ' ; and nothing whatever is said about the way in which 
 these firstborn children were to be * given to Jehovah' ; only 
 it is added, ' so shalt thou do with thine ox, with thy sheep ; 
 on the eighth day thou shalt give it to Me.' To all appear- 
 ance, then, the firstborn children were to be given to JEHOVAH 
 just in the very same way as the firstling of an ox or a sheep, 
 and therefore, though probably not before the eighth day, they 
 were to be sacrificed. This, I repeat, is the direct and 
 obvious meaning of the passage ; and I cannot undertake to 
 say that it was not the meaning actually intended by the 
 writer in Exodus. It is true that, as the story now stands, 
 these firstborns of men ' given to JEHOVAH ' are elsewhere in 
 the Pentateuch ordered to be ' redeemed.' 17 But there is no 
 such direction in the Original Story, of which this law-book 
 forms a part ; it only occurs in later passages, either inserted 
 by the Deuteronomist or belonging to the Levitical Legisla- 
 tion, and reflecting therefore, as we shall see hereafter, the 
 views entertained in Israel centuries after the age of Saul and 
 Samuel. We must remember that in those more ancient 
 times there was, apparently, nothing horrible or revolting in 
 the thought of human firstborns being sacrificed to JEHOVAH 
 or Yahveh, first killed and then burnt upon the altar ; and 
 it is very certain that pious — or, as we should say, superstitious 
 Israelites did sacrifice their firstborn children, male and 
 female, in this way, following the practice of the tribes of 
 Canaan in their worship of the Sun-God ; as we read of the 
 king of Moab, when sore pressed in battle by Israel, ' taking 
 his eldest son who should have reigned in his stead, and 
 offering him as a burnt-offering upon the wall,' 18 or as we are 
 told generally of the Canaanite tribes, ' even their sons and 
 their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their Elohim.' 19 
 
 17 E.xiii. i3,xxxiv.2Q, N.iii.46,47,xviii. 15, 16. ,a 2K.iii.27. 1!) D.xii.31, 
 
 
HUMAN SACRIFICES IN ISRAEL. 119 
 
 This is so distinctly stated in the Bible itself that there can 
 be no room for any doubt on this point Thus we are ex- 
 pressly told that the kings Ahaz and Manasseh made each 
 his son to ' pass-over in fire,' 20 and fagain that the people 
 generally ' made their sons and their daughters to pass-over 
 in the fire.' 21 And that this expression ' make to pass-over 
 in the fire ' does not mean, as some have supposed, a merely 
 harmless ceremony, by which these children were dedicated 
 to the Sun-God without any bodily injury, but is employed as 
 an euphemism for actual slaying and burning,*is abundantly 
 plain from such passages as these — ' They have built the 
 high-places of Tophet which is in the valley of the son of 
 Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire,' 22 
 — ' They have built also the high-places of the Baal, to burn 
 their children with fire as burnt-offerings unto the Baal,' 23 — 
 • Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters whom 
 thou hast borne unto Me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto 
 them to be devoured,' 24 — -' Is this of thy whoredoms a small 
 matter that thou hast slain My children and delivered them 
 to cause them to pass-over in the fire for them?' 25 — 'For, 
 when they had slain their children to their idols, then they 
 came the same day into My sanctuary to profane it,' 26 — in 
 other words, they considered these human sacrifices to be not 
 at all incongruous with the worship of JEHOVAH, but regarded 
 them rather as an evidence of their piety, a proof of their 
 intense devotion to that worship — and yet once more, ' Yea, 
 they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, and 
 shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and their 
 daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan, and 
 the land was polluted with blood.' 27 
 
 There can be no doubt, then, that the sacrificing of first- 
 born children was a common practice throughout the- whole 
 
 20 2K.xvi.3,xxi.6. 2I 2K.xvii. 17. -' Jcr.vii.31. 2i Jer.xix.5. 
 
 24 Ez.xvi.20. J3 Ez.xvi.21. - 6 Ez.xxiii.39. 27 Ps.cvi.37,38. 
 
120 HUMAN SACRIFICES IN ISRAEL. 
 
 land of Israel, at least from the time of King Ahaz down- 
 wards. But, if from the time of Ahaz, then assuredly from a 
 much earlier date ; for, when that king reigned, three 
 centuries after the death of Saul, the Canaanite tribes had 
 long ceased to exist, as distinct from the Israelites and likely 
 to corrupt them by their idolatries. They had either been 
 exterminated, or had been reduced to the condition of bond- 
 men in Solomon's time, 28 or, having lived among the Israelites 
 on friendly terms, as Araunah the Jebusite king under 
 David, 29 had intermarried and mingled in family relations 
 with them. 30 In short, if they learned these practices from 
 the tribes of Canaan, it must have been in the very earliest 
 period, immediately after the conquest, as the result of these 
 very intermarriages, and the free intercourse which was main- 
 tained between the new-comers and those who survived of the 
 older inhabitants, — just exactly as the Norman invaders 
 mingled freely and intermarried with the Saxon population 
 of England, when the first fierce strife of the conflict was 
 over. 
 
 Accordingly the Bible tells us of human sacrifices being 
 offered to YAHVEH in those early times, — not merely in the 
 case of Agag, king of Amalek, whom Samuel < hewed in 
 pieces before YAHVEH,' 31 or in that of Saul's seven sons and 
 grandsons, whom David ' delivered into the hands of the 
 Gibeonites, and they hanged ' — or, rather, impaled or crucified 
 — ' them before YAHVEH,' 32 — but especially in that of Jephthah 
 the Gileadite, who offered his daughter, his only child, as a 
 burnt-offering to YAHVEH ; 33 and it is very noticeable that 
 the account of this sacrifice is given, by a writer who probably 
 iived in the age of Samuel, without one word of censure or 
 expression of abhorrence at the action. .So, again, the story 
 of Abraham's sacrifice in G.xxii, a Jehovistic narrative which 
 
 28 iK.ix.20,21. '-" 2S.xxiv. 18-24. 30 D.vii.3, J.xxiii.12. 
 
 81 I S. xv. 33. 5j 2S.xxi.9- S3 Ju.xi.31. 
 
 
 
HUMAN SACRIFICES IN ISRAEL. 121 
 
 uses frequently Elohim, and which was probably written in 
 the early part of David's reign, appears to have been composed 
 for the express purpose of helping to abolish such sacrifices, 
 by substituting for them animal sacrifices, ' redeeming ' them, 
 in fact, as Isaac is redeemed with a ram. 34 But the writer 
 expresses no horror whatever at the purpose of Abraham. 
 On the contrary, he represents the patriarch as having had the 
 thought suggested to him by God himself, and as concluding 
 that it was a pious duty to sacrifice ' his son, his only son 
 Isaac, whom he loved ' j 3 * and the lesson which he is taught, 
 that God will be satisfied with his willingness of mind, his 
 readiness to give up the dearest treasure of his heart at the 
 Divine command, 36 would have been joyfully welcomed, we 
 may well believe, by many a pious Israelite, who was 
 ' tempted,' after the example of others round him, to show 
 his fear of the unseen Deity by making his firstborn son or 
 daughter to ' pass-over in the fire ' to Yahveh. But the fact 
 that this writer expresses no condemnation of Abraham's 
 conduct, but on the contrary commends it, implies that in his 
 time the custom in question actually existed, and was practised 
 habitually by pious persons, as it was, we have seen, at a 
 somewhat earlier period in Jephthah's days. He desires 
 apparently to check the practice and to encourage that of 
 1 redeeming ' the firstborns of men. But he does not 
 denounce it as utterly impious and abominable ; and it may 
 be that his own views were not yet sufficiently clear and 
 decided to enable him to do so. The same might be said of 
 similar reforms being made in a country where infanticide 
 now prevails, or the regular practice of human sacrifice, as in 
 Dahomey or among certain tribes of British India. An 
 European Christian, going fresh from our lands of light, 
 would feel and express intense horror and disgust at such 
 
 35 G.xxii. 13. 35 G.xxii.2, S6 G.xxii. 12. 
 
122 HUMAN SACRIFICES IN ISRAEL. 
 
 proceedings. But a native reformer, if any such arose, would 
 not feel this so strongly ; he might object to them and desire 
 to abolish them, and yet would be able to find some excuse 
 for them. Inured to such superstitions from his childhood, it 
 would be difficult for him at first to inveigh severely against 
 customs, which were so manifestly founded on pious motives, 
 and the evil of which, brought up in the midst of such 
 associations, he perhaps only imperfectly realized. 
 
 It seems very possible, therefore — nay, rather, highly pro- 
 bable — that this early law-book really meant to enjoin the 
 duty of sacrificing human firstborns, male and female, as well 
 as the firstlings of sheep and oxen, as a token of gratitude 
 and devotion to Yahveh the Life-giver. And we know that 
 the custom of offering human sacrifices has prevailed ex- 
 tensively — far more extensively than is commonly supposed — 
 not only among the Canaanites and Hebrews, but amongst 
 almost all ancient nations, civilized and uncivilized, even down 
 to the birth of Christianity and after it. Pages, indeed, might 
 be filled with an account of the various forms of human 
 sacrifices which were practised in older times, and so uni- 
 versally, that it is difficult to find a people who were wholly 
 free from this dire superstition. Egyptians, Phoenicians, 
 Syrians, Arabians, Athenians, Spartans, Etrurians, Romans — 
 the Hindoo in the East, the Mexican in the West — Thracians 
 and Syrians, Gauls and Teutons, Saxons and Swedes, Danes 
 and Pomeranians — all have taken part in the celebration of 
 these bloody rites. And they were practised down to a com- 
 paratively late age, and in the midst of the highest civiliza- 
 tion, as well as among the most barbarous tribes. In fact, as 
 one has said, ' in every generation of the four centuries, from 
 the fall of the Republic to the establishment of Christianity, 
 human victims were sacrificed by the Roman Emperors ' ; 37 
 
 37 Sir John Acton (quoted by Kalisch, Lev. Parti./. 349.) 
 
HUMAN SACRIFICES IN ISRAEL. 123 
 
 while the old Prussians and Goths adhered to the custom for 
 centuries after their nominal adoption of Christianity. 33 
 
 Yet among the Hebrews, in a very early age, as we learn 
 by the story of Abraham's sacrifice, the spirit of some great 
 prophet was moved by Divine inspiration to raise a first mild 
 protest against the continuance of this practice of offering 
 human sacrifices, or at least to point out a ' better way ' of 
 showing forth that singleness and sincerity of heart which 
 God, the Living God, desires in his worshippers. And with 
 some, no doubt, the lesson took effect as time went on ; and 
 yet it is clear that so late as the days of Jeremiah and 
 Ezekiel, just before the Captivity, if not even later still, 39 the 
 practice still prevailed extensively ; and king Josiah, in his 
 great Reformation, in the eighteenth year of his reign, 40 
 ' defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the children of 
 Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter to 
 pass-over in the fire to Molech.' 41 Four centuries, however, 
 had passed since the time when the story of Abraham's 
 sacrifice was written ; and during that period there had been 
 a growth in spiritual things in Israel, and a great advance had 
 been made in the knowledge of religious and moral truth. 
 And now the prophets, supported, no doubt, by the better 
 feeling of many of their contemporaries, denounced the practice 
 as utterly horrible and detestable. Yet, when Jeremiah 
 repeats again and again so earnestly, with reference to these 
 sacrifices of firstborn sons and daughters, the words ' which I 
 commanded them not nor spake it, neither came it up into 
 my heart,' 42 he must surely have had in view some passage 
 such as that of the Original Story of the Exodus, which we 
 are now considering, and which the people urged as implying 
 a Divine command for the immolation of their firstborns. 
 Ezekiel also seems to be referring to a similar direction when 
 
 38 Kalisch (Z^. Parti./. 323-3 5 i.) 39 Is.lvii.5. 40 2K.xxii.3i 
 
 41 2K.xxiii. 10. " Jer.vii.3i,xix.5,xxxii.35. 
 
124 HUMAN SACRIFICES IN ISRAEL. 
 
 he says, ' Wherefore I also — I gave them statutes not good, and 
 judgments whereby they should not live, and I defiled them in 
 their gifts, in their making to pass-over all that openeth the 
 womb.' 43 And a century previously Micah had taught his 
 people thus : — 
 
 1 Wherewithal shall I come before Jehovah, 
 And bow myself before the High God ? 
 Shall I come before Him with burnt -offerings, 
 With calves of a year old ? 
 
 Will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams, 
 With ten thousands of rivers of oil ? 
 Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, 
 The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ? 
 He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good : 
 And what doth Jehovah require of thee, 
 But to do justly, and to love mercy, 
 And to walk humbly with thy God ? ' 44 
 
 Alas ! we know that Christianity too has had its human 
 sacrifices - not only in that cloister-system which immures for 
 life in monasteries and convents young men and women, who 
 have hardly yet begun to taste the gift of life, shuts them out 
 in their prime from the cares and joys and trials of their 
 family and of their kind, and bars them from all rational 
 development of their mental powers, and preparation for 
 those social and domestic duties for which God created them, 
 a life which has too often been death, or worse than death, for 
 many of the victims — but also in the frightful ' acts of faith,' 
 as they were called, when human beings, male and female, 
 frequently some of the best and noblest of our race, were 
 burnt alive as heretics, for the glory of God and in the name 
 of the blessed Jesus, the loving, compassionate Son of Man. 
 And witches, too, have been burnt innumerable in Christian 
 -lands, under the sanction of such laws as that recorded in this 
 ancient Hebrew law-book, supposed to. have a paramount, 
 
 * 3 Ez. xx. 25, 26. *• Mic.vi.6-8. 
 
HUMAN SACRIFICES IN ISRAEL. 125 
 
 Divine authority. ' Thousands' of victims were sometimes 
 burnt alive in a few years ; and it was not until a considerable 
 portion of the eighteenth century had passed away that the 
 executions had finally ceased.' 45 In England, in the time of 
 Elizabeth, new laws against witchcraft were made, which were 
 executed with severity ; and the good Bishop JEWELL, 'when 
 preaching before the Queen, expressed a hope that the 
 penalties might be still more rigidly enforced.' 46 In the 
 following reign of James I. ' a law was enacted which subjected 
 witches to death on the first conviction, even though they 
 should have inflicted no injury upon their neighbours ; and 
 twelve Bishops sat upon the Commission to which it was 
 referred.' 47 Sir Matthew Hale, in sentencing two women 
 to be hung for witchcraft, took the opportunity of declaring 
 that the reality of witchcraft was unquestionable, for the 
 Scriptures had affirmed so much.' 48 Sir Thomas Browne 
 asserted that ' those who denied the existence of witchcraft 
 were not only infidels but atheists.' 49 And only about a 
 century ago (1768) John Wesley declared that 'the giving 
 up witchcraft is in effect giving up the Bible.' 50 
 
 To such an extent, but a few generations ago, were the minds 
 of truly pious men, though living in the full light of the 
 Gospel of Christ, possessed by this frightful superstition, the 
 result of prevailing traditionary views respecting the origin 
 and authority of the Hebrew Scriptures ; yet the Hebrew law 
 condemns the witch only to die ; it was a refinement of so- 
 called Christian legislators to burn alive both witches and 
 heretics. No doubt, it is true that in ' giving up witchcraft ' 
 we do ' give up the Bible,' as a record in every line and letter 
 of Divine, Infallible Truth. But we restore it to its true 
 place — its place Divinely intended — for the education of the 
 
 45 Lecky [Rise and Influence of Rationalism in Europe, I. p. 5 1 . ) 4ft lb. p. in. 
 47 Ib.p.\\\. 4S lb. p. 120. 49 lb. p. 120. 50 Ib.p.u$. 
 
126 HUMAN SACRIFICES IN ISRAEL. 
 
 race. And once more I say, let us bless God devoutly for the 
 gift of Modern Science, which has not only swept away these 
 abominable superstitions, but has enabled us to read the 
 Bible also with an intelligent faith, and to find in it Divine 
 utterances, bringing life and health and spiritual strength and 
 consolation to the soul of man. 
 
 
LECTURE X. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 The laws in the Book of the Covenant were not the Ten Commandments ; 
 the Vision of Jehovah by Moses, Aaron, and the Elders ; Moses in the Mount 
 for forty days ; what became during this time of Joshua ? Moses receives the 
 two tables of stone, which he dashes in pieces on seeing the Golden Calf ; he 
 is summoned to come up again, and receives two other tables, inscribed with 
 the words of the ' Book of the Covenant ' or ' Testimony ' ; two such stone 
 tables very probably placed in the Ark in David's time, which by their weight 
 may have caused the death of Uzzah ; their size compared with the laws to be 
 engraved on them and the sacrificial table of Marseilles ; the Ten Words in 
 E.xxxiv.28, shown to be a later interpolation ; the Deuteronomist, though he 
 abridged the laws of the Book of the Covenant, would hesitate to cancel 
 them ; he afterwards wrote the Ten Words, as if these had been engraved on 
 the tables ; this explains the variations in the two copies of the Decalogue ; 
 the plain facts to be stated about the Ten Commandments ; they do not include 
 all Christian duties. 
 
THE LA WS ON THE STONE TABLES. 
 
 t" N the last two Lectures we have been considering 
 the very ancient code of laws contained in E.xx. 
 23-XXUL19. It is important to notice that it was 
 this old law-book, with all its quaint prescriptions, 
 chiefly on agricultural matters, its portentous slave-laws, its 
 antiquated injunctions, — and not the Ten Commandments, — 
 which was accepted by the people and recorded by Moses, as 
 the Law by which they were hereafter to be governed — the 
 Law as it existed in the Original Story of the Exodus. This 
 is plain from the following chapter, where we read — 'And 
 Moses came and told the people all the words of JEHOVAH 
 and all the judgments ; and all the people answered with one 
 voice and said, All the words which JEHOVAH hath said will 
 we do. And Moses wrote all the w r ords of JEHOVAH, and 
 arose early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, 
 and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 
 And he sent young men of the children of Israel, who 
 offered burnt-offerings and sacrificed peace-offerings of oxen 
 unto Jehovah. And Moses took half of the blood and put 
 it in basons, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 
 And he took the book of the Covenant and read it in the ears 
 of the people, and they said, All that JEHOVAH hath said will 
 
 K 
 
I30 THE LAWS ON THE STOAE TABLES. 
 
 we do and be obedient. And Moses took the blood and 
 sprinkled it on the people and said, Behold the blood of the 
 Covenant which Jehovah hath made with you concerning all 
 these words.' 1 
 
 But this is not all. These ' words of the Covenant ' were 
 not merely to be recorded in the perishable pages of a written 
 book ; they were to be registered as a lasting deposit for all 
 future ages, in tables of stone, by the ' Finger of God.' So 
 we are told . that, after ratifying this covenant between 
 Jehovah and his people, ' Moses went up, and Aaron, Nadab, 
 and Abihu, and seventy of the Elders of Israel. And they 
 saw the Elohim of Israel, and under His feet like a work of 
 transparent sapphire, and as the body of heaven for clearness. 
 And upon the nobles of the children of Israel He put not 
 forth His hand ; and they beheld Elohim and they ate and 
 drank.' 2 It seems to be meant that they saw some actual 
 manifestation of the Deity, and yet they still lived on, still 
 ' ate and drank ' as living men might do ; He ' put not forth 
 his hand upon them ' to destroy them, as might have been ex- 
 pected in accordance with the view of those and indeed of far 
 later times, that no mortal could survive after seeing God's 
 face 3 or hearing God's word. 4 And, in fact, when aftenvards 
 Moses himself desired to see the 'glory' of God, 5 JEHOVAH 
 answers, ' Thou canst not see My face ; for man shall not see 
 Me and live. But it shall be that, when My glory passeth by 
 I will place thee in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover My 
 palm upon thee until I have passed by ; and I will take My 
 hand away, and thou shalt see My back, but My face shall 
 not be seen.' 6 We are reminded here of the apostle's words. 
 4 Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no 
 man can approach unto, Whom no man hath seen nor can 
 
 1 E.xxiv.3-8. - E.xxiv.9-11. 
 
 3 G.xvi. I3,xxxii.30, E.xxxiii.20, Ju.vi.22,xiii.22, Is.vi.5- 
 
 * E.xx.19, D.iv.33,v.26. 5 E.xxxiii. 18. 6 E.xxxiii. 20-23. 
 
 
THE LAWS ON THE STONE TABLES. 131 
 
 see,' 7 and of that central truth of Christianity that in the 
 face of Jesus Christ and of all the good and true of all ages — 
 in the beauty of holiness revealed in human lives — is revealed 
 the glory of the Invisible Godhead, the goodness and truth of 
 the Eternal Father, with Whose spirit they are filled. But 
 those seventy-three who went up with Moses, can hardly have 
 been supposed to have seen on this occasion what Moses 
 alone, at his earnest entreaty, is some time afterwards per- 
 mitted to see. Perhaps the writer meant that they saw on 
 the far-off summit of Sinai a fiery splendour, the symbol of 
 Jehovah's presence, and, underneath it, the clear deep blue 
 of the sky like a sapphire throne. They A\ere not, in fact, 
 allowed to go up to the top of the Mount and come nigh to 
 Jehovah : only Moses was to do this. 8 They ' went up ' 
 merely to its foot, and w r ere not even permitted to enter the 
 ' cloud ' which enveloped the whole Mount — the ' thick dark- 
 ness where Elohim was,' which Moses entered before 9 and 
 now again enters with his servant Joshua. 10 For after this 
 glorious vision, we are told, '. Moses arose and his servant 
 Joshua, and Moses went up into the Mount of GOD. And unto 
 the Elders he said, Stay for us here, until we return unto you ; 
 and lo ! Aaron and Hur are with you ; whoever has matters 
 of business, let him draw near unto them. And Moses went 
 up into the Mount, and Moses was in the Mount forty days 
 and forty nights.' n 
 
 But where during these forty days was Joshua ? The 
 careless manner in which this narrative is commonly read 
 and interpreted, is sufficiently shown by the fact that, whereas 
 great stress is laid upon the circumstance of Moses having 
 fasted forty days and nights on this occasion, no notice what- 
 ever is taken of Joshua his servant having done the same ; 12 
 nor does the writer himself seem t:o have considered that, if 
 
 7 iTim.vi. 16. 8 Kxxiv.2. 9 E.xx.21. 
 
 10 E.xxiv. 15, 18. » E-.xxiv. 13, 14, 18. 12 E.xxxii. 17. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 THE LAWS ON THE STONE TABLES. 
 
 Joshua followed the steps of Moses, he too must have not 
 only shared in the vision of God, vouchsafed to Moses and 
 his companions, 13 but must have gone up also to the top of 
 the Mount, and been present at the Divine communications 
 made to his master, a privilege denied to Aaron and the 
 rest, who were still in contact with the people at the foot of 
 the Mount. 14 
 
 At the end of those forty days, we read, JEHOVAH 'gave, 
 unto Moses, when He had ceased to speak with him on 
 Mount Sinai, two tables of the Testimony, tables of stone 
 written with the Finger of ELOHIM.' 15 
 
 Now we shall not be troubled with the question, which has 
 perplexed an ' orthodox ' Commentator, as to the possibility 
 of Moses carrying these two tables of stone, as large as the 
 inside of the Ark in which they were afterwards placed and 
 proportionally thick, which (he says) ' Moses, without the 
 strength of a Samson, could not have carried down from the 
 Mount in one hand or even in both.' 16 Nay, it is probable 
 that a pair of stone-tablets of much smaller dimensions, such 
 as this Commentator himself supposes, 17 vis., each nearly three 
 feet long and two feet broad and some inches thick, about the 
 size of an ordinary gravestone, would have taxed the strength 
 of Moses considerably to carry up to the top of Sinai, as he 
 afterwards does, 18 as well as down. Nor does it exactly ap- 
 pear what Joshua was about, the ' minister ' or servant of 
 Moses, 15 — at least, on the first occasion of Moses coming down 
 from the Mount, when he is expressly said to have been pre- 
 sent 20 — that he did not carry one at least of these stones. 
 The Hebrew writer evidently paid little regard to considera- 
 tions of this kind : he was writing an imaginary, not an 
 historical, narrative. It is of more consequence to enquire 
 
 13 E.xxiv.9-11. 14 E.xxiv. I4,xxxii. 1-6. 15 E.xxxi. 18. 
 
 16 Keil (Comm.\.p.'£fi.) 1? Keil, I.e. ,8 E.xxxi v. 4. 
 
 19 E.xxiv. 13. 20 E.xxxii.17. 
 
 
THE LAWS ON THE STONE TABLES. 133 
 
 what he meant to be. inscribed on these stone-tables, which he 
 calls ' tables of the Testimony, written with the Finger of 
 Elohim.' And this we shall see more clearly if we advance 
 a step or two further in the story. 
 
 As Moses, attended by his servant Joshua, was descending 
 from the Mount with the two tables in his hand, 21 they heard 
 (we are told) the cries of the people, who were dancing and 
 shouting around a Golden Calf, 22 the image of the Sun-God, 
 which Aaron had made at their request, 23 when, weary of the 
 long absence of their leader, and not knowing what was be- 
 come of him, they begged that Aaron would make them an 
 Elohim to go before them. 24 So Aaron made a molten calf, 
 ' and they said, This is thy ELOHIM, O Israel, who brought 
 thee forth out of the land of Egypt ! And Aaron saw it, 
 and built an altar before it, and Aaron made proclamation and 
 said, To-morrow is a Feast to JEHOVAH ! ' 25 It is plain that 
 the writer intends to represent Aaron as identifying the Sun- 
 God, symbolised by this calf, with JEHOVAH or Yahveh, the 
 Elohim of Israel When Moses, then, drew near to the Camp 
 and saw the calf and the dancing, we are told that, in horror 
 and indignation at the sight, he dashed the tables out of his 
 hands, and brake them in pieces beneath the Mount. 26 You 
 all know the story and will remember how Aaron makes a 
 pitiful excuse for his conduct, 27 and how the Levites come 
 forward at the summons of Moses and massacre three thou- 
 sand of the people,' 28 and Moses then intercedes for them, 29 
 and so they are merely plagued, instead of being utterly cut 
 off for their sin, 30 
 
 After this the command is issued to go forward on the 
 march to the Promised Land, 31 and Moses, before he starts, 
 desires to see the glory of Jehovah, 32 and receives that 
 
 21 2.15, 22 v. 17-19. 23 y.2-4. M V.l. 
 
 25 w.4,5. 26 V.19. 27 #.21-24. 29 £.26-28. 
 
 29 #.30-32, 80 #.33-35. 31 E.xxxiii. 1,2. 32 7j.i2>. 
 
1 34 THE LAWS ON THE STONE TABLES. 
 
 promise, ( Thou shalt see My back, but My face shall not be 
 seen.' 33 Then follows the direction — ' And Jehovah said 
 unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, 
 and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the 
 first tables which thou brakest. And be ready in the morning, 
 and come up in the morning unto Mount Sinai, and present thy- 
 self there to Me in the top of the Mount.' 34 And Moses does 
 this, and climbs the Mount once more with the two stone- 
 tables in his hand, 35 and there JEHOVAH proclaims His awful 
 Name, 36 * And Moses made haste and bowed his head to the 
 earth and worshipped.' 37 Then follow nineteen verses 38 
 which formed no portion of the Original Story, but have been 
 inserted by the later Deuteronomist ; after which the Original 
 Story is resumed — 'And he was therewith JEHOVAH forty 
 days and forty nights ; bread he ate not, and water he drank 
 not : and He (Jehovah) wrote upon the tables the words of 
 the Covenant' 39 
 
 The words, which were written on these tables, are here 
 called ' the words of the Covenant.' But they were also to be 
 the very same words which were written on the first tables 
 which Moses brake, 40 and which were called ' tables of the 
 Testimony.' 4l What ' Covenant,' then, can this be but that 
 which was made so solemnly between Jehovah and Israel, 
 based upon that ancient law-book, 42 the words of which are 
 represented as first written in a book by Moses 43 and then 
 engraved upon the stones by the -Finger of God, 41 as a ' Testi- 
 mony ' or witness of what obedience was due from Israel to 
 its Divine King ? So, when Joash was crowned in after days, 
 we are told that they put into his hands the ' Testimony ' 44 
 - — that is, most probably a roll, on which was copied this code 
 of laws, engraved on the stone-tables which were preserved in 
 
 83 v.23. s4 E.xxxiv. 1,2. ss Z/.4. 36 ^.5-7. 
 
 37 v.S. 3S V.9-2J. 39 z/. 28. 40 E.xxxiv. I. 
 
 " E.xxxhiS, « E,xxiv.3-8. 4S ^.4,7. " 4 2K.xi.12. 
 
THE LAWS ON THE STONE TABLES. 135 
 
 the ark— perhaps the identical roll or book which Samuel 
 himself wrote for the first king Saul and ' laid up before 
 JEHOVAH.' 45 I repeat, the two tables contained, according 
 to the Original Story, the ' words of this Covenant ' ; there is 
 not a shadow of real ground for supposing that they contained, 
 as is commonly imagined, the Ten Commandments. 
 
 It might, perhaps, be thought that the two stone-tables 
 here described could have hardly contained, in characters 
 large enough for ordinary purposes, the numerous prescript 
 tions of this ancient code. And it is not enough to say in 
 reply that this is only an imaginary story, and the two stone- 
 tables may never have really existed ; because it is possible 
 that this portion of the narrative may not be altogether im- 
 aginary, but may be based on a real historical fact For we 
 are told in the account of the dedication of Solomon's Temple 
 that ' the priests brought in the Ark of the Covenant of 
 JEHOVAH into its place ' 4G and that 'there was nothing in the 
 Ark save the two tables of stone.' 47 Assuming this to be 
 historically true, it is most probable that they were first pre- 
 pared and placed in the Ark on that memorable occasion in 
 David's reign, when he brought up the Ark to Mount Zion, 4S 
 after it had been long laid aside in the house of Abinadab ; 4a 
 and very possibly their weight may have caused the acci- 
 dent by which Uzzah died on David's first attempt to bring 
 up the Ark, when he tried to support the cart in which it was 
 being carried, at some bad part of the road. 50 But, if the 
 two tables were engraved in the early part of David's reign, 
 they would probably contain — not the Ten Commandments, 
 which are the work of the Deuteronomist, and were written, 
 as we shall see, in a much later age, but — a transcript of the 
 ' manner of the kingdom,' which Samuel 'wrote in a book ' in 
 the days of Saul, and which was, perhaps almost identical with 
 
 45 iS.x.25. 4S iK.viii.6. < 7 v.g. 
 
 * 8 2S.vi.2,3. 49 iS.viiri,2, 50 2S.vi.6,7. 
 
136 THE LAWS ON THE STONE TABLES. 
 
 the ' Book of the Covenant' in E.xx.22-xxiii.2i. It becomes 
 important, therefore, to consider within what space this sec- 
 tion, containing about 1,100 Hebrew words, could be legibly 
 inscribed. Now at Marseilles there was found not long ago 
 a stone-tablet of great antiquity, inscribed with Phoenician 
 characters, which were almost identical with the ancient 
 Hebrew; the whole surface of this stone contained \\ sq. ft, ; 
 and on this were engraved distinctly for public uses 94 words. 51 
 But the stone-tables of Sinai, if their size may be conjectured 
 from the dimensions given for the Ark, 52 would be nearly 
 3 ft. long and 2 ft. broad, 17 and would have had on their four 
 faces an area of about 24 sq. ft, large enough to have held 
 I,50D such words, and so might have very well contained the 
 code in question, the 'words of the Covenant' 
 
 It is true, we now read in our Bibles, ' And He wrote upon 
 the tables the words of the Covenant, the Ten Command- 
 ments} 53 or rather, as it should be rendered, ' the Ten Words.' 
 But this last expression, ' the Ten Words,' is plainly a later 
 addition to the original passage, which stands complete with- 
 out it — ' He wrote upon the tables the words of the Covenant' 
 There are some who suppose that the ' Ten Words ' here 
 meant are ten separate commands which they find in the 
 nineteen verses just preceding, and which end, in fact, with the 
 direction, 'And JEHOVAH said unto Moses, Write thou these 
 words ; for after the tenor of these words I have made a 
 Covenant with thee and with Israel' 54 But it would be easy 
 to find more than ten commands in these verses. And these 
 nineteen verses have been, as I have said, inserted by a later 
 hand, that of the Deuteronomist ; and it is easy to see the 
 object with which the insertion has been made. In my next 
 Lecture I shall show that the Deuteronomist was a prophet 
 of a very much later age, the age of Josiah. Let us assume 
 
 81 Movers {Oj>f. d. Karth.) " E.xxv. io,xxxvii. 1. 
 
 53 E.xxxiv.28. 54 E.xxxiv.9-27. 
 
THE LAWS ON THE STONE TABLES. 137 
 
 this for the present, and suppose that such a prophet had 
 before him in the Original Story of the Exodus the series of 
 laws which we have been considering in E.xxi-xxiii. He 
 would find very many of them antiquated and inapplicable in 
 the present more advanced state of his nation ; and with his 
 own higher and more spiritual views they would have seemed 
 to him very unfit to be made in this form the basis of the 
 Covenant between Jehovah and Israel. Accordingly, he 
 extracted from them those injunctions which he deemed most 
 important to be maintained in the future ; and, upon carefully 
 comparing these nineteen verses with the more ancient code, 
 it will be seen that almost all the laws contained in them have 
 been simply copied from the older record, 55 sometimes in the 
 very same words and in the very same order. Of course, it 
 is incredible that the same writer, after describing the solemn 
 ratification of a Covenant between JEHOVAH and Israel upon 
 the basis of certain 'words' expressly revealed by JEHOVAH 
 to Moses, would immediately go on to describe a second 
 Covenant based upon a different set of words, as having 
 been made between Jehovah and Israel within only a few 
 weeks of the first. But the Deuteronomist, having merely con- 
 densed the original code, by omitting the civil laws, many of 
 which had in his time become obsolete, and retaining only the 
 commands more expressly connected with religion, is thus 
 able to say at the end, ' After the tenor of these words I have 
 made a Covenant with thee and with Israel,' 56 without doing 
 any great violence to the Original Story, since ' these words ' 
 may be regarded as an abstract or summary of those upon 
 which the Covenant was really based. Very probably he in- 
 tended to suppress the older passages 57 and to replace them 
 by his own more condensed matter. But it is easy to under- 
 stand that it would cost him a much greater pang, if he lived 
 
 55 v. i9,20a = E.xiii. 12, 13, which also belongs to D., and v. 24 is added. 
 
 56 E.xxxiv.27. b7 E.xx.22-xxiii.33,xxiv. 3-8. 
 
138 THE LAWS ON THE STONE TABLES. 
 
 some centuries after the older writer, actually to cancel a 
 portion of his work however antiquated, than if he had lived 
 only in the next age, and had been perhaps his disciple and 
 a sharer in his plan and in his labour. He may have composed 
 his own abstract and, as he considered, improvement of the 
 original, with a view to supersede it, and yet may have hesi- 
 tated to remove and destroy the older and now venerable 
 record. 
 
 But he was not content, it would seem, with this. These 
 laws, even in their reduced form, are occupied chiefly with 
 matters of outward rite and ceremony — the keeping of festi- 
 vals, the sacrificing of firstlings, the redemption of firstborns. 
 And such laws as these, however proper in themselves, 
 did not touch the more important questions of public and 
 private life — did not provide solemn warnings against murder, 
 adultery, and theft. Accordingly the Deuteronomist com- 
 posed the Ten Commandments — marked clearly as his by 
 his own peculiar style 5S — the germs of which may in most 
 cases be found indeed in the older code, but in a less im- 
 pressive form and mixed up with a mass of miscellaneous 
 ordinances. And these he has inserted in the Book of Exodus, 
 as we saw in a former Lecture, 59 in a place where they could 
 not possibly have existed in the Original Story, as having 
 been pronounced aloud by the Divine Voice on Sinai. To 
 these ' Ten Commandments,' no doubt, the reference was 
 meant to be made by the phrase ( the Ten Words,' which 
 some one — perhaps the Deuteronomist himself or a later 
 writer — has added to the original passage in the place which 
 we have just been considering, 60 so conveying the idea that 
 these were engraved on the stone-tables as the ' Words of the 
 Covenant ' which JEHOVAH had made with Israel. But the 
 copy of these Ten Words, as given in Deuteronomy itself, 
 
 68 See Pent VI. App. 107. 59 LectNlll. 60 E.xxxiv,28. 
 
THE LAWS ON THE STONE TABLES. 139 
 
 (as the New Bible Commentary admits, 61 ) differs considerably 
 in some respects from that in the Book of Exodus — a fact 
 which is utterly inconceivable if the Decalogue, as first given 
 in Exodus, was regarded as the record of the actual utter- 
 ances of the Divine Lawgiver, but is easily intelligible if the 
 same later writer was the author of both versions, and took 
 the opportunity in his later work of altering and amending 
 his own earlier form. 
 
 It is natural that many who may have noticed this striking 
 difference in the two versions of the Decalogue, should shrink 
 from examining very closely into a matter which interferes so 
 seriously with long-established traditionary views, or, if they 
 do, from speaking of what they find. But how right and 
 good would it be if the truth were openly taught in the pulpit 
 as well as in the school, that in these Commandments we 
 have only embodied the main points of human duty towards 
 God and Man, as they were conceived in the mind of a pious 
 Jewish writer in the seventh century before Christ. But then 
 we must remember that there are also other points of 
 Christian duty for which these ' Ten Words ' have not pro- 
 vided, unless some strange and unnatural interpretation be 
 put upon them — as, for instance, the duty of abstaining from 
 lying and drunkenness, the duty of ' doing justly ' and ' loving 
 mercy ' as well as of ' walking humbly with God,' the duty 
 of, self-sacrifice, of laying down one's life, or what makes 
 life sweet, for the brethren, all which the Master has summed 
 up for us in the duty of ' loving God and Man.' 
 
LECTURE XI. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 THE feign of the good king Josiah ; the high-priest Hilkiah probably 
 Jeremiah's father j the discovery, and private and public reading, of the Book 
 of the Law ; the Covenant made in consequence, and the Reformation of 
 Religion throughout Judah and Israel ; the prophetess Huldah consulted on 
 this occasion, not Jeremiah, who never mentions .this Book of the Law ; her 
 language is identical with Jeremiah's, but strongly resembles that of Deu- 
 teronomy, as also does Jeremiah's language in his prophecies and in the Books 
 of Kings ; Jeremiah himself the writer of Deuteronomy, a portion of which 
 was the Book found in the Temple ; Jeremiah has retouched the Original 
 Story throughout ; circumstances which probably led to his writing Deute- 
 ronomy ; what is true in the Bible is true in itself, not because it is found in 
 the Bible. 
 
 
THE BOOK FOUND IN THE TEMPLE. 
 
 ,N the year 624 B.C. there was a great commotion in 
 Jerusalem. It was the eighteenth year of king 
 Josiah, 1 who was only eight years old when he 
 began to reign, 2 and was therefore naturally from 
 the first greatly under the influence of the high-priest and 
 leading prophets of that time, and seems to have been a 
 thoroughly well-disposed and pious prince, so that the character 
 given of him in the Book of Kings is this — ' He did the right 
 in the sight of JEHOVAH, and walked in all the ways of David 
 his father, and turned not aside to the right-hand or to the 
 left' 3 Jeremiah began to prophesy in the thirteenth year of 
 Josiah ; 4 and he had therefore been in full activity as a 
 prophet for four or five years, when the events occurred to 
 which I am now referring. The high-priest at the time in 
 question was Hilkiah, 5 and, as Jeremiah is described as the 
 son of Hilkiah, 6 it is very possible that he was the son of 
 this very same Hilkiah the high-priest. It is true Jeremiah's 
 father is not distinctly called the /iig/i-priest ; but then the high- 
 priest Hilkiah is repeatedly styled simply 'the priest' in this 
 very narrative which we are now considering, 7 composed pro- 
 
 1 2K.XXH.3, &c. 2 v.l. 3 v.2. 4 Jer.i.2,xxv.3. 
 
 s 2K.xxii.4-. 6 Jer.i. i. 7 2K.xxii. 10,12, I4,xxiii.24. 
 
H4 THE BOOK FOUND IN THE TEMPLE. 
 
 bably by Jeremiah himself, who is generally believed to have 
 been the writer of the two Books of Kings ; 8 and in those 
 days the high-priest, though, no doubt, a more important 
 person under Josiah than he was in former times, 9 seems to 
 have had little of the grandeur and pre-eminent dignity which 
 was attached to the office in a later age. 
 
 On a certain day, then, in this eighteenth year of King 
 Josiah, the king sent his secretary Shaphan with a message to 
 Hilkiah the high-priest in the Temple, ' And Hilkiah the 
 high-priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the 
 Book of the Law in the House of Jehovah. And Hilkiah 
 gave the Book to Shaphan and he read it.' So, when Shaphan 
 returned to the king, he ' shewed the king saying, Hilkiah the 
 priest hath given me a Book. And Shaphan read it before the 
 king. And, when the king had heard the words of the Book 
 of the Law, he rent his clothes. And the king commanded 
 Hilkiah the priest,' and four others, ' saying, Go ye, enquire 
 of Jehovah for me and for the people and for all Judah, 
 concerning the words of this book that is found ; for great is 
 the wrath of Jehovah that is kindled against us because our 
 fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this Book.' So 
 they went to * Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum, 
 and they communed with her ; and she said unto them, Tell 
 ye the man who sent you unto me, Thus saith JEHOVAH, 
 Behold ! I am bringing evil on this place and on its inhabi- 
 tants, even all the words of the Book which the King of Judah 
 hath read. Because they have forsaken Me and have sacri- 
 ficed unto other gods, that they might provoke Me with all 
 the works of their hands, therefore My wrath shall be kindled 
 against this place and shall not be quenched. ... So they 
 brought the king word again. 10 And the king sent and they 
 gathered unto him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem. 
 
 8 Bp. Lord Hervey, Diet, of 'the Bible, II. p. 28. 
 
 9 comp. 1K.iv.2-4, 2K.xix.2. \ 10 2K.xxii.3-20. 
 
THE BOOK FOUND IN THE TEMPLE. 145 
 
 And the king went up into the House of Jehovah, and all 
 the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with 
 him, and the priests and the prophets and all the people, both 
 small and great ; and he read in their ears all the words of 
 the Book of the Covenant which was found in the House of 
 JEHOVAH. And the king stood by the pillar and made a 
 Covenant before Jehovah ... to perform the words of this 
 Covenant that were written in this Book ; and all the people 
 stood to the Covenant.' ll 
 
 And now Josiah takes in hand a most energetic and 
 sweeping Reformation. He begins at Jerusalem, and orders 
 Hilkiah to remove from the Temple — observe, from the 
 Temple itself where Hilkiah was in authority as high-priest, 
 and ought not to have allowed such abominations — ' the 
 vessels made for the Baal and for the Ashera and for all the 
 host of heaven,' and he burns them without Jerusalem and 
 scatters their ashes. 12 He puts-down the idolatrous priests, 
 who had sacrificed in the cities of Judah, and in the high- 
 places roundabout Jerusalem, ' to the Sun and to the Moon 
 and to the Twelve Signs and to all the host of heaven.' 13 He 
 brings forth the Ashera — an obscene symbol of Sun-worship 
 — from the House of Jehovah, and burns it, and stamps it 
 small to powder, and casts the powder upon the graves of the 
 people. 14 He breaks-down the houses, by the House of 
 JEHOVAH, where foul impurities were practised in honour of 
 the Sun-God. 15 He defiles the idolatrous high-places through- 
 out the whole land of Judah, as well as those within the walls 
 of the city, and brings their priests to Jerusalem, degrading 
 them into a sort of lower priesthood. 16 He defiles the 
 Topheth in the valley of Hinnom, close to Jerusalem, where 
 up to that time the people had slain and sacrificed their 
 firstborn children to Molech ' the king,' in other words, to 
 
 11 2K.xxiii. 1-3. 
 14 v.6. 
 
 12 2K.xxiii.4, 
 L 
 
 ' 3 v.$ 
 
 16 7J.S 
 
146 THE BOOK FOUND IN THE TEMPLE. 
 
 Yahveh, the Sun-God. 17 He removes the ' horses of the 
 Sun ' and burns the ' chariots of the Sun,' which the kings of 
 Judah had placed at the entrance of the Temple, and demolishes 
 the idolatrous altars which Manasseh had built in the two 
 courts of the Temple. 18 He defiles the high-places which 
 Solomon had made on the right of the Mount of Olives for 
 Ashtoreth and Chemosh and Milcom or Molech. 19 And 
 then, beyond the boundaries of Judah, he carries the Refor- 
 mation into the land of Samaria, whose Israelitish inhabitants 
 had mostly been carried captive into Assyria about a century 
 previously, 20 their places having been filled by foreigners, 21 and 
 over which district Josiah seems to have exercised authority, 
 perhaps as a vassal or ally of the Assyrian king. 22 Here he 
 destroys the ancient altar and high-place which Jeroboam 
 had made at Bethel, 23 when the Ten Tribes separated from 
 Judah, 24 and destroys the ' houses ' or chapels of the high- 
 places in the cities of Samaria, and slays ruthlessly the priests 
 beside their altars, ' and he burned men's bones upon them 
 and returned to Jerusalem.' 25 ' And the king commanded all 
 the people saying, Keep the Passover unto JEHOVAH your 
 Elohim, as it is written in the Book of the Covenant. Surely 
 there was not holden such a Passover from the days of the 
 Judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of 
 Israel nor of the kings of Judah. Moreover, the familiar 
 spirits and the wizards and the teraphim and the idols and all 
 the abominations that were spied in the land of Judah and in 
 Jerusalem, did Josiah put away, that he might perform the 
 words of the Law which were written in the Book that 
 Hilkiah the priest found in the House of JEHOVAH.' 26 
 
 Such is Jeremiah's account in the Book of Kings of the 
 Great Reformation carried out by Josiah in the eighteenth 
 
 ' 7 z>.io. 18 z>. 11,12. 19 v. 13,14. 20 2K.xvii.6. 
 
 21 z/,24. 22 comp. 2K.xxiii.29. 23 z/,15. 24 1K.xii.29. 
 
 25 2K.xxiii. 19,20. 26 2K.xxiii.2i-24. 
 
THE BOOK FOUND IN THE TEMPLE. 147 
 
 year of his reign. From the full details which he gives of 
 these proceedings it is plain that he took a very deep interest 
 in them. And the question must naturally arise, Where was 
 Jeremiah himself all the while ? In five years he had been 
 known as a prophet in Jerusalem. And yet the deputation, 
 sent by the king to ' enquire of Jehovah/ go and consult — 
 not Jeremiah, but — a woman, ' the prophetess Huldah, the 
 wife of Shallum,' perhaps Jeremiah's aunt, since Shallum was 
 the name of his uncle. 27 It is strange that Jeremiah himself 
 was not consulted on this occasion, if present at the time in 
 Jerusalem ; or, if he lived at Anathoth his native place, 28 where 
 his family possessed some property, 29 it was only about an 
 hour's distance, and the report of the great event would soon 
 have reached him, and would have brought him at once, we 
 may be sure, to the City. He was present, at all events, we 
 must suppose, among the ' priests and prophets/ in whose ears 
 Josiah read the contents of the Book, 30 perhaps on the day 
 after the discovery ; and assuredly, as I have said, he must 
 have been not only aware of that event, but intensely con- 
 cerned in it, and in the measures which followed it. How is 
 it, then, that in the whole of Jeremiah's very copious prophecies 
 this ' Book of the Law,' this ' Book of the Covenant,' is never 
 once mentioned, although he does apparently refer to the 
 Covenant made by Josiah, 31 as also to the Covenant made 
 by Moses as recorded in this Book of Deuteronomy, 32 and 
 although he certainly knew the Book well, inasmuch as more 
 than once he quotes the identical words of it ? 33 How is it 
 also that the prophecy of Huldah, when carefully examined, 
 betrays in its language a very close resemblance not only to 
 Jeremiah's prophecies, but to the Book of Deuteronomy, 34 
 
 27 Jer.xxxii.7. 29 Jer.i.i. 29 Jer.xxxii.7,8. 30 2K.xxiii.2. 
 
 31 Jer.iii. io,xi. i-6,xxiv. 15,18, 19. 32 Jer.xxxiv. 13, 14, comp.D.xv. 12. 
 
 33 comp.xxjdv. 14 withD.xv. 12 — vii.23with D.v.33 — vii.33,xvi.4,xxxiv.20, with 
 D.xxviii.26 — xi.4 with D.iv.20 — xxii.8,9 with xxix. 24-26, &c. 
 
 34 See Pent. III. 574. v. 
 
 l 2 
 
148 THE BOOK FOUND IN THE TEMPLE. 
 
 supposed to have been lost, and only then, to the astonishment 
 of all, accidentally found in the Temple, so that its contents 
 would have been utterly unknown to her ? How is it above 
 all that Jeremiah's language throughout his prophecies and 
 throughout the two Books of Kings agrees in a most singular 
 manner with that of Deuteronomy ? Thus the New Com- 
 mentary says — ' The writings of Jeremiah often strikingly 
 recall passages of Deuteronomy. The prophet repeatedly 
 employs words and phrases which are characteristic of 
 Deuteronomy, and there is also at times a remarkable 
 similarity of general style and treatment. These resem- 
 blances are neither few nor insignificant. It is needless in 
 this place to demonstrate their existence and importance, 
 which are now admitted on all hands.' 35 And then the writer 
 tries to account for this similarity by supposing that the 
 prophet had so closely studied — not the whole Pentateuch, 
 but — this particular Book of the Pentateuch, that he had 
 become thoroughly imbued with its spirit and had made its 
 very language his own. 
 
 Rather, the true explanation of the matter is simply this, 
 that Jeremiah himself wrote the prophecy which he has put 
 into the mouth of Huldah, and wrote also the Book of 
 Deuteronomy, and that this, or some portion of it, was the 
 * Book of the Law ' or ' Book of the Covenant,' which was 
 found by Hilkiah in the Temple, having been placed there 
 with the knowledge and connivance of Hilkiah, and probably 
 also with that of Huldah, to be found at this time. It cannot 
 be supposed that Josiah 'read in the ears of the people' all 
 the stories in Genesis, all the minute details about the Ark 
 and Tabernacle in Exodus, all the ritualistic prescriptions in 
 Leviticus and Numbers, the numberings of the Camps 36 and 
 the list of the marchings and stations in the wilderness 37 — that 
 
 35 B.C.l.p.jg^. 36 N.i.-iv. 37 N.xxxiii. 
 
 
THE BOOK FOUND IN THE TEMPLE. 149 
 
 these would have produced such a mighty effect upon the 
 king and people, or that all this could have been read at one 
 time. It was evidently the Book of Deuteronomy which was 
 found in the Temple, to which Huldah's words refer, ' I will 
 bring evil upon this place and upon the inhabitants thereof, 
 all the words of the Book which the king of Judah hath 
 read,' 38 and which is called repeatedly the ' Book of the Law ' 
 in Deuteronomy itself ; 39 or rather it was the original part of 
 this Book, the part of it which was first written, viz., Ch.v- 
 xxviii, except ch.xxvii, which a glance will show to have been 
 inserted afterwards, since it breaks the connexion where it 
 now stands. This portion consists of a long address of 
 Moses, beginning with the Ten Commandments, which vary 
 here considerably, as we have seen, 40 from those in E.xx, and 
 ending with an awful denunciation of Divine Judgment, the 
 closing words of which may well have rung long in Josiah's 
 ears — ' If thou wilt not observe to do all the words of this Law 
 that are written in this Book . . . then JEHOVAH will make 
 thy plagues wonderful and the plagues of thy seed, even great 
 plagues of long continuance, and sore sicknesses and of long 
 continuance. . . . Also every sickness and every plague which 
 is not written in the Book of this Law, them will Jehovah 
 bring upon thee until thou be destroyed. . . . And Jehovah 
 shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the 
 earth even unto the other. . . . And among these nations 
 shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have 
 rest; but JEHOVAH shall give thee a trembling heart and 
 failing of eyes and sorrow of mind. And thy life shall hang 
 in doubt before thee, and thou shalt fear day and night, and 
 thou shalt have none assurance of thy life. In the morning 
 thou shalt say, Would God it were even ! and at even thou 
 shalt say, Would God it were morning ! for the fear of thine 
 
 3S 2K.xxii. 16, comp. D.xxix.27. 3n D.xxviii.6i,xxix.2i,xxx. io,xxxi.26. 
 
 40 Aioi. 
 
150 THE BOOK FOUND IN THE TEMPLE. 
 
 heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine 
 eyes which thou shalt see. And Jehovah shall bring thee 
 into Egypt again with ships by the way whereof I spake unto 
 thee, Thou shalt see it no more again ; and there ye shall be 
 sold unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, and no 
 man shall buy you.' 41 
 
 After this it is added, ' These are the words of the 
 Covenant, which Jehovah commanded Moses to make with 
 the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the Covenant 
 which He made with them in Horeb.' 42 You will remember 
 that older Covenant supposed to have been made at Sinai or 
 Horeb, as the Deuteronomist always calls it, 43 based upon a 
 number of ordinances recorded in E.xxi-xxiii, respecting 
 agricultural and other matters, of which many were totally 
 unsuited to a more advanced stage of civilized life, 44 and how 
 (as I explained in my last Lecture 45 ) the Deuteronomist — 
 Jeremiah, as we have now seen reason to conclude — first 
 abridged these, retaining only the more important laws 
 relating to religion, and represented this abridgment or 
 summary, which in fact contained the substance of the 
 original code, as the basis of that Covenant, ' Write thou 
 these words, for after the tenor of these words I have made a 
 Covenant with thee and with Israel,' and how, not content 
 with this, he further composed the ' Ten Words ' of the 
 Decalogue, as more fully and forcibly expressing the basis of 
 such a Covenant as Jehovah might be supposed to have 
 made with Israel, and inserted these in E.xx as having been 
 uttered with a loud voice on Sinai, amidst thunderings and 
 lightnings, in the ears of all the people, and as having been 
 engraved on the two Tables of Stone. 46 But, further, it 
 appears upon a close examination that he -has retouched also 
 
 41 D.xxviii. 15-68. ri D. xxix. 1. 
 
 43 D.i.2,6,i9,iv.io,i5,v.2,ix.8,xviii.i6,xxix.i. " /. 106, 115, 116. 
 
 « /.i 36. * 6 /.i38- 
 
THE BOOK FOUND IN THE TEMPLE. 151 
 
 the Original Story as it had come into his hands, inserting 
 shorter 47 or longer 48 passages, which breathe his own prophetical 
 spirit and exhibit unmistakeably his well-known style. But 
 even this, it seems, did not satisfy him. The work in its 
 present form was not likely to make any strong impression 
 upon a people so sunk in gross idolatries as the people of 
 Judah and Jerusalem in his time. You have heard the long 
 list of abominations practised even in the Temple itself during 
 the first seventeen years of the pious king Josiah, surrounded 
 by priests and prophets, and advised by the high-priest 
 Hilkiah and for five years past by Jeremiah himself. The 
 prophet saw that something more was needed to rouse the 
 king and people from their deadly lethargy ; he felt that even 
 his own stirring words, introduced here and there into the 
 Original Story, were too much overlaid by historical and 
 other matter to answer the needs of the present time. He 
 must discharge the solemn duty to which he knew God's 
 Spirit had called him, of warning his people of their doom if 
 they persisted in their wickedness. But he was young at the 
 time when the call had reached him and he felt his spirit first 
 stirred for this work ; and in the sense of his weakness and 
 inexperience he cried, ' Ah Lord God ! behold ! I cannot 
 speak, for I am a mere youth.' 49 What wonder is it that, 
 even when reassured by promises of Divine support, he shrank 
 from facing the angry crowd, and feared that rebukes, poured 
 out from his lips against the idolatrous practices of the age, 
 encouraged by priests and prophets 50 and even permitted by 
 the king, would fall unheeded and be spoken to the winds ? 
 Perhaps he had found this already by experience to be true ; 
 and so he resolves to speak to them in the name of Moses — 
 
 47 G.vi.4,x.8-I2, xviii. 18, 19, xxii. 14-18, xxiv.59,6o,xxvi.4,5, xxviii. 15,20-22, 
 xxxi. i3,xxxv.2-4,E.iii.i, ' to Horeb,'xv.25b,26,xvii.6, 'in Horeb,' I4,xix.3b- 
 8,9b,xxiii. 13, I5bc, I9,xxiv. I2,xxiii. 7-i4,34,xxxiii.3-6. 
 
 48 G.xv, E.xiii.3-i6,xx.i-i7 ; xxiii.22-33,xxxiv.9-27. i0 Jer.i.6. 
 50 Jer.i. i8,ii.8,26,v.3i,vi. I3 3 viii. i,2,&c. 
 
152 THE BOOK FOUND IN THE TEMPLE, 
 
 to embody his own earnest lessons and warnings in the form 
 of a last discourse, supposed to have been delivered by the 
 great lawgiver to his people immediately before his death, 
 including the Ten Commandments and such laws of the older 
 Covenant as still seemed suited for his people, and making the 
 whole the basis of a second Covenant made by JEHOVAH with 
 Israel at the end of the wanderings, as the former was made 
 at the beginning of them. 53 
 
 This,* then, in all probability was the "' Book of the Law ' 
 or ' Book of the Covenant ' which was found by Hilkiah in the 
 Temple, and the reading of which produced such a mighty 
 effect at the time in Jerusalem. In my next Lecture I shall 
 return to this subject. For the present I will only ask, Are 
 such words' as these, ' Man doth not live by bread alone, but 
 by all that proceedeth out of the mouth of Jehovah doth 
 man live' 52 — are such words as these less true because they 
 occur in Deuteronomy, and were written by a later prophet, 
 not by Moses ? Are they not rather true in themselves, by 
 whomsoever spoken or written, and as such come home at 
 once with power to the hearts and consciences of men ? 
 ' Truly the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes 
 to behold the Sun.' 53 But is the light sweet to our eyes only 
 because this statement is found in the Bible ? Is not the 
 light sweet because our gracious God and Father has made 
 the Sun and given us our visual powers, that we may open 
 our eyes, and we shall behold the glory and beauty of the 
 Universe ? And is the light of Truth sweet to us only because 
 we find the bright reflexion of it in the Bible ? Rather., we 
 rejoice to know that God's Truth exists for us eternally, 
 shining like the Sun in the spiritual heavens, and that we, 
 His children, have spiritual senses wherewith to behold it 
 — a spiritual eyesight, to which this light of the inner man is 
 
 bl D.xxix. I. M D.viii.3. ° :t Ecc.xi.7. 
 
THE BOOK FOUND IN THE TEMPLE. 153 
 
 sweet, by which we can enjoy its brightness, — a spiritual 
 hearing, by which we can hear and receive Divine Truth, 
 wherever and by whomsoever spoken to us, whether in the 
 Bible or out of the Bible, whether in the Church of Christ or 
 out of it — a spiritual appetite, by which we can ' taste the 
 good word of God and the powers of the world to come/ 54 by 
 which we can feed upon the living bread — can ' eat the 
 flesh ' and ' drink the blood ' of Christ's Divine Teaching 55 
 and live. 
 
 34 Heb.vi.5. " John vi. 53-63. 
 
LECTURE XII. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 The Book of Deuteronomy the main cause of Moses being regarded as a 
 great lawgiver; it breathes the true prophetical spirit ; ch.i-iv,xxix,xxx, added 
 after the Captivity, and ch.xxvii also inserted into the original address of 
 Moses ; the Book found in the Temple not the autograph of Moses ; such 
 impersonations often employed for pious ends by Christian and Jewish writers, 
 as in the Books of Enoch, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and the Chronicles ; 
 Jeremiah in the Books of Kings records fictitious prophecies and other utter- 
 ances ; such fictions no more dishonest than similar instances in Thucydides 
 or Tacitus ; the effect of reading the book in Josiah's time may have been 
 greater than was anticipated ; the real facts perhaps afterwards disclosed to 
 the King ; the Deuteronomist orders the three great feasts to be kept at 
 Jerusalem ; this would have been impracticable in the days of David and 
 Solomon, but points to the diminished kingdom under Josiah ; the hope of 
 Jeremiah in writing Deuteronomy painfully frustrated ; the lesson for our 
 own times. 
 
JEREMIAH THE DEUTERONOMIST. 
 
 JN my last Lecture I set before you what appears to 
 be the true account of the origin of the Book of 
 Deuteronomy. Of course, traditionary theo- 
 logians find it very difficult to allow this, since 
 out of the whole Pentateuch it is Deuteronomy which really 
 attracts most forcibly the reader's attention, and has helped 
 mainly to establish the reputation of Moses as a great law- 
 giver. The legislation in the other books, except a few 
 passages inserted by the Deuteronomist himself, is com- 
 paratively dry and uninteresting, and has no prophetical ring 
 about it. Two-thirds of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers are 
 almost wholly occupied with prescriptions about the different 
 kinds of sacrifices, the duties and prerogatives of the Priests 
 and Levites, the ceremonies of purification, the construction 
 of the Tabernacle and its vessels. Even the code of laws 
 on which the Covenant is based in the Original Story, in 
 E.xxi-xxiii, has hardly been much studied, I imagine, by the 
 majority of Christians. On the other hand, almost every line 
 of Deuteronomy breathes the true prophetical spirit, and is 
 'profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for in- 
 struction in righteousness.' l In the last four chapters, indeed, 
 
 1 2Tim.iii. 16. 
 
158 JEREMIAH THE DEUTERONOMIST. 
 
 there are still retained one or two fragments of the Original 
 Story, 2 as well as some insertions of a very late date, 3 of 
 which I shall have to speak hereafter, mixed up with words 
 of the Deuteronomist, to whom especially we owe the grand 
 ' Song of Moses ' in D.xxxii, whereas the ' Blessing of Moses ' 
 in D.xxxiii belongs apparently to the same age, but not to 
 the same hand. But the first thirty chapters, with the ex- 
 ception of two verses, 4 are wholly Jeremiah's, four chapters 
 having been subsequently prefixed by him by way of intro- 
 duction, and two appended, to the book as found in the 
 Temple, besides ch.xxvii, inserted awkwardly, as we have 
 seen, 5 in the place where it now stands. These introductory 
 and concluding chapters must have been added at least twenty- 
 five years afterwards, when the woes of the Babylonish Cap- 
 tivity had at last overwhelmed the land ; as appears from the 
 fact that, whereas in the original address of Moses there is 
 only a threatening of the misery which would assuredly befall 
 his countrymen if they continued in their impenitence, 6 these 
 additional chapters refer distinctly to that calamity as having 
 already fallen upon Judah. ' When all these things are come 
 upon thee . . . and thou shalt recall them to thine heart among 
 all the nations whither JEHOVAH thy Elohim hath driven thee, 
 and shalt return unto Jehovah thy Elohim . . . with all thine 
 heart and with all thy soul, then Jehovah thy Elohim will 
 bring back thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and 
 will return and gather thee from all the nations whither 
 JEHOVAH thy Elohim hath scattered thee.' 7 These words 
 were probably written after the beginning of the Captivity, 
 when Josiah's grandson, Jehoiachin or Jechoniah, was carried 
 away to Babylon, with all the nobles, warriors, and craftsmen, so 
 that ' none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the 
 
 2 D.xxxi.i4,i5,23,xxxiv.5,6,io. 
 
 3 D.xxxi. 1 6,22, xxxii. 44,48-52, xxxiv. 1-4,7-9. 4 D.x.6,7. 
 
 5 p. 149. 6 D.xxviii. 15-68. 7 D.xxx. 1-3, av#/. iv. 29-3 1 . 
 
JEREMIAH THE DEUTERONOMIST. 159 
 
 land,' 8 — eleven years after which event the rebellion of his 
 uncle Zedekiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar had made king in his 
 room, brought about the final catastrophe, 9 in which all the rest 
 of the people were carried captive and Jerusalem was burnt to 
 the ground. 10 It is the main address of Moses, therefore, in 
 D.v-xxvi,xxviii, which is, strictly speaking, the ' Book of the 
 Law/ the ' Book of the Covenant,' on the basis of which the 
 second Covenant was supposed to have been made between 
 JEHOVAH and Israel. 11 And it is this which is blindly re- 
 ceived as the work of Moses — if (as one has said 12 ) ' that 
 which is little better than passivity can be called receiving ' 
 — received merely because ' presented by tradition, or asser- 
 tion, or authority,' in that state of 'dull, lifeless, irreceptive 
 torpor, in which the intellect has been hitherto entranced ' — 
 and has won for Moses mainly the reputation of a lawgiver. 
 There are some, indeed, who would still keep the intellect 
 drugged with sophistries, and drowned in that ' dull, lifeless 
 torpor,' so forcibly described, under the influence of traditionary 
 teaching. And even the New Commentary leans to the view 
 that the book found by Hilkiah was ' the original copy of the 
 Pentateuch deposited by order of Moses ; ' 13 while a living 
 prelate of our Church has written, ' Though the copy cannot 
 be proved to have been Moses' autograph, it seems probable 
 that it was from the place where it was found, viz. in the 
 Temple, and from its not having been discovered before, but 
 being only brought to light on the occasion of the repairs 
 which were necessary ; and from the discoverer being the 
 high-priest himself it seems natural to conclude that the par- 
 ticular part of the Temple where it was found was one not 
 usually frequented, or ever, by any but the high-priest. Such 
 a place exactly was the one where we know the original copy 
 
 8 2K.xxiv. 10-16. 9 2K.xxiv. 17-20. 10 2K.xxv.8-2i. 
 
 11 D.xxix. 1. 12 Bp. Wilberforce [Guardian, Oct. 26, 1870.) 
 
 13 B. C.l.p. 794. 
 
160 JEREMIAH THE DEUTERONOMIST. 
 
 of the Law was deposited by command of Moses.' 14 We 
 ' know ' this, says the writer, because the order is given in this 
 very Book of Deuteronomy to put it ' by the side of the ark ' 15 
 — as if this could not have been part of the plan pre-arranged 
 by Jeremiah himself and his friends, that it should be placed 
 there, where of course it was found ! But how is it that, if it 
 lay all along where Moses ordered it to be placed, not in the 
 ark but ' by the side ' of it, it was never seen by Hilkiah or 
 any other high-priest during the first seventeen years of 
 Josiah's reign ? And how is it that when the ark was brought 
 up to David's Tent, and afterwards removed to Solomon's 
 Temple, no mention is made of this venerable ' Book of the 
 Law/ the very ' autograph of Moses,' though placed each time 
 (it is supposed) ' by the side of the ark ' ? 
 
 Yet some one perhaps will say, How can we ascribe such a 
 proceeding as that here supposed to good men, such as Hilkiah 
 and Jeremiah, or believe that they can ever have sanctioned, 
 much less contrived, such a ' pious fraud ' ? In the first place, 
 we must not judge of those times by the higher morality of 
 our own, enlightened, as we have been, by eighteen centuries 
 of Christian teaching ; though we know that even in the 
 Christian Church ' pious frauds' have been not uncommon — 
 that Gospels and Epistles and other works innumerable have 
 been ascribed to apostles and others who never wrote them, 
 and that a prophecy is actually quoted in the canonical 
 epistle ascribed to St. Jude, as having been really uttered by 
 ' Enoch the seventh from Adam.' 16 In the Jewish Church, 
 however, such impersonations were often employed for pious 
 ends. We have, for instance, the prophecies ascribed to 
 Daniel, which were written in the time of the Maccabees, 
 B.C. 165, to comfort the godly Jews under the tyrannical oppres- 
 sions of the Greek Prince, Antiochus Epiphanes, and strengthen 
 
 14 Bp. Lord Hervey {Did. of the Bible,\.p-%i\)> la D.xxxi.9,26. 
 
 16 Jude 14, 15. 
 
JEREMIAH THE DEUTERONOMIST. 161 
 
 them to resist the fiery temptations to which they were 
 exposed from the heathen influences around them, represented 
 under a figure by Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius. 
 In the Books of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, we have 
 numerous fictitious speeches and prophecies, royal decrees 
 and letters — for instance, a letter from the prophet Elijah to 
 king J oram seven years at least after Elijah (according to 
 the story) was taken up into heaven ; 17 and accordingly the 
 English Bible tells us in the margin that it was ' writ before 
 Elijah's death/ or rather, it should have said, 'before his 
 translation.' Again, the Books of Kings, composed by 
 Jeremiah himself, contain utterances by various prophets, 
 Ahijah, 18 Shemaiah, 19 Jehu, 20 the prophetess Huldah, 21 which 
 are all written in Jeremiah's own style. The prophets in 
 question may, no doubt, have delivered solemn warnings on 
 the occasions referred to ; but, if so, no record of their words 
 was kept; the historian has put into their mouth his own 
 language, embodying the thoughts with which, as he con- 
 ceived, their minds would most probably be filled at such 
 times. So the long prayer of Solomon at the dedication of 
 the Temple 22 and his previous words 23 are entirely Jeremiah's. 
 And in like manner in the Book of Deuteronomy the writer 
 puts his own words into the mouth of Moses, ascribing to him 
 such feelings as he might naturally be supposed to have when 
 taking leave of his people — doing here, in fact, what the 
 writer of the Original Story had done before him, in com- 
 posing the • Blessing of Jacob ' 24 or the ' Song of Moses ' 25 
 or the ' prophecies of Balaam,' 26 and no more than the 
 greatest writers of all ages have done without being charged 
 with bad faith or dishonesty, as when Thucydides ascribes a 
 grand funeral oration to the great Athenian statesman 
 
 17 2Ch.xxi. 12-15. !S iK.xi.3i-39,xiv.6-i6. 19 iK.xii. 22-24. 
 
 20 iK.xvi. 1-4. 21 2K.xxii. 15-20. 22 1K.viii.23~6;. 
 
 23 ^.12,13.15-21. « G.xlix.1-27. 2S E.xv.i-18. a « N.xxm,xxiv. 
 
 M 
 
162 JEREMIAH THE DEUTERONOMIST. 
 
 Pericles, 27 or when Tacitus records a long address, as spoken 
 by the Highland Chieftain Galgacus — who spoke, of course, 
 if he spoke at all, in Gaelic to his own warriors — before the 
 decisive battle with the Roman invaders. 28 
 
 Moreover, the effect of reading this ' Book of the Law,' may- 
 have been far greater than had even been anticipated, and 
 may have taken by surprise Jeremiah himself and the other 
 parties to the design. Their intention was probably merely 
 to produce this new work, a prophecy in disguise, in the hope 
 that it might startle the drowsy king and people, and 
 strengthen the hands of those who were labouring in the same 
 spirit with Jeremiah himself to reform the state of religion in 
 Judah. At the moment of the -discovery Jeremiah seems 
 very naturally to have kept himself out of the way, and to 
 have subsequently taken no prominent part in the proceedings. 
 Perhaps in the first hours of excitement it was felt to be 
 difficult or undesirable to say or do anything which might act 
 as a check upon the zeal and energy exhibited by the king, 
 and in which, as it seems, he was supported by the people, in 
 putting down by force the gross idolatries which polluted the 
 land. That impulsive effort, which followed immediately 
 upon the reading of the book, would most probably have been 
 arrested, if he had been told at once the true origin of those 
 awful words which had made so strong an impression on him. 
 They were not less awful, it is true, because uttered in the 
 name of Moses by such a prophet as Jeremiah. But their 
 effect would be infinitely greater, we may be sure, if they 
 were regarded as the dying instructions and warnings of 
 Moses himself, than if they had been heard as the denun- 
 ciations of a youthful prophet actually living in their midst. 
 But we seem to have an indication that the real facts of the 
 case became afterwards known to the king, at all events, 
 
 37 TiiUC.II.xxxY-xlvi. 28 Tac. FiLAerfcxxx-xxxiL 
 
JEREMIAH THE DEUTERONOMIST. 163 
 
 though not perhaps to the people generally, in the circum- 
 stance that he does not appear to have kept any other 
 Passover, or the other two great Feasts in this very same 
 year, with the like solemnity, as the law of this Book required 
 — i Thrice in the year shall all thy males appear before 
 Jehovah thy Elohim in the place which He shall choose, in 
 the Feast of Mazzoth, and in the Feast of Weeks, and in the 
 Feast of Tabernacles.' 29 
 
 This command is merely copied from the older code, 30 but 
 with one important difference, that in that no mention is 
 made of all male Israelites appearing at these Feasts, ' in the 
 place which JEHOVAH would choose.' The original command 
 is simply this — ' Thrice in the year shall all thy males appear 
 before the Lord JEHOVAH '; 31 and they would doubtless go to 
 the nearest Sanctuary, the worship not having been confined 
 to one place only in that ancient law-book written in the days 
 of Samuel. 32 How indeed was it possible that from all parts 
 of the original land of Israel, from the distant Dan, from the 
 regions across the Jordan, all the males should present them- 
 selves for these three Feasts at some one place ? The Feast 
 of Mazzoth 33 or Unleavened Bread, with which the Passover 
 was connected, occurred in the very midst of the rainy 
 season ; and the weather in Palestine at this part of the year 
 is described by travellers as follows — ' Much rain falls, some- 
 times in torrents, by day and night, but chiefly by night ; and 
 all that has been said before about inundated plains and 
 hollows is strictly applicable to this month, as well as that the 
 streams are in many cases swollen to deep and rapid rivers 
 dangerous to pass.' 34 Imagine all the males being required to 
 travel in such weather — mostly, we must suppose, on foot — a 
 distance of a hundred miles or more from the more distant 
 localities, whose inhabitants would therefore consume about a 
 
 29 D.xvi.16. 30 E.xxiii. 14-17. 31 &.17. 3 * f>.jS. 
 
 33 E.xxiii. 15, xxxiv. 18, D.xvi.16. 31 Kitto {Phys. Hist, of Palestine, p. 220.) 
 
 m 2 
 
1 64 JEREMIAH THE DEUTERONOMIST. 
 
 week at least on the journey each way ! But, having lost 
 three weeks thus about the beginning of the barley-harvest, 
 during which they would have left their farming operations, 
 their cattle and flocks, in the charge of women, children, and 
 slaves, the men would then remain a month at home, before 
 being required to start again, in the midst of the wheat- 
 harvest, to keep the Feast of Weeks, 35 called in older times 
 the Feast of Harvest. 36 But how can we conceive of all the 
 males of the Trans-Jordanic tribes, or any considerable 
 number of them, crossing the river at this season, when 
 Jordan, we are told, * overfloweth all its banks all the time of 
 harvest,' 37 and travellers inform us that ' the current is then so 
 strong that many of the pilgrims are swept away by it, and a 
 year seldom passes in which some of them are not drowned ' ? 38 
 No doubt, in David's time, when the ark had been brought up 
 to Mount Zion, and in Solomon's, when David's Tent had 
 been replaced by the Temple, it was desired to draw the 
 affections of the people towards the royal city, as the centre 
 of the civil and religious life of the community. Here 
 Solomon kept the three Feasts, 39 and many would be en- 
 couraged by the king's example and by other influences to 
 'go up to offer sacrifices in the House of Jehovah at Jeru- 
 salem.' 40 In that age, too, some pressure may have been put 
 upon the people to induce them to celebrate at Jerusalem ' the 
 Feast that is in Judah' in the seventh month, 41 that is, the 
 joyous Autumn festival, called in the older law-book the 
 'Feast of Ingathering' 42 and afterwards the 'Feast of 
 Tabernacles' 43 — the only Feast which seems to have been 
 generally kept in early times. 44 And Jeroboam therefore said 
 to the Ten Tribes with great significance, 'Ye have had 
 
 36 E.xxxiv.22, D.xvi. 16. 36 E.xxiii. 16. - 37 J.iii.15. 
 
 88 Kitto [Phvs. Hist, of ralesiine,p.iT$.) 39 1K.ix.25. 
 
 40 lK.xii.27. 41 iK.xii.32. *- E.xxiii. 16, copied in xxxiv. 22. 
 
 43 E.xxiii. 34, D.xvi. i6,xxxi. 10, Ezr.iii.4, Zech.xiv. 16. 
 44 Ju.ix.27,xxi. 19, iS. 1.3,21,11. 19. 
 
JEREMIAH THE DEUTERONOMIST. 165 
 
 enough of going up to Jerusalem ! ' 45 and established ac- 
 cordingly a single Feast also in his kingdom, on the same day 
 of the eighth month, 46 which time probably suited better the 
 seasons in the north of Palestine. But such a direction as 
 that before us, requiring on Divine authority the attendance 
 of all male Israelites thrice a year at 'the place which 
 Jehovah would choose' — in other words, in the Temple at 
 Jerusalem — could only have been imagined in such an age as 
 that of Josiah, when the Ten Tribes had been already carried 
 into captivity, and the petty kingdom of Judah alone remained 
 of the wide territories once ruled over by David and Solomon, 
 so that almost all the people lived within a day's journey of 
 the capital. 
 
 I shall have yet something more to say about this Book of 
 Deuteronomy. But let us consider for a moment what object 
 the prophet must have had in view in laying down such an 
 injunction as this. He hoped, no doubt, that, if the idolatrous 
 altars were destroyed and the idolatrous symbols once swept 
 out of the land, and if the people were required to worship 
 three times a year in the Temple at the three great festivals, 
 and so were brought under the more direct influence of the 
 pious priests and prophets who would surely be gathered 
 around the Sanctuary, all would go well ; his countrymen 
 would no longer be able to indulge unrestrained their evil 
 propensities at the different high-places ; they would no 
 longer desire to do so, being fed with Divine Truth from the 
 central source — more especially if, according to one provision 
 of this very Book, each king at his accession wrote for himself 
 with his own hand a copy of this Law, * that it might be with 
 him and he might read in it all the days of his life,' 47 while 
 another enjoins that every seventh year, in the solemnity of 
 the Feast of Tabernacles, 'when all Israel is come to appear 
 
 45 1K.xii.28. 4S ?. 32,33. ir D.xvii.19. 
 
1 66 JEREMIAH THE DEUTERONOMIST. 
 
 before JEHOVAH in the place which He shall choose, thou 
 shalt read this Law before Israel in their hearing.' 48 There is 
 no sign that this direction was carried out even in Josiah's 
 reign. And alas! Jeremiah must have been soon undeceived 
 in his fond expectation. Priests and prophets, indeed, 
 abounded in Jerusalem ; but they did not forward earnestly 
 the work on which his own heart was set, the work of 
 'JEHOVAH, the Elohim of Israel.' It is probable that the 
 grosser forms of idolatry were not set up again in Judah after 
 Josiah's Reformation. But the heart of the nation was still as 
 foul as ever in the sight of their Heavenly King. Again and 
 again Jeremiah says in his prophecies, ' From the least of 
 them even unto the greatest of them everyone is given to 
 covetousness ; and from the prophet even unto the priest 
 everyone dealeth falsely.' 49 He cries ' I have seen filthiness 
 in the prophets of Jerusalem ; they commit adultery and walk 
 in lies ; they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none 
 doth return from his wickedness ; they are all of them unto 
 me as Soclom, and its inhabitants as Gomorrah.' 50 And he 
 sums up all in one exceeding bitter cry — 'The prophets 
 prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means, and 
 My people love to have it so ; and what will ye do in the end 
 thereof?' 51 It is plain that the whole nation was but as a 
 whited sepulchre, made fair without by Josiah's cleansing, 
 but inwardly still full of * dead men's bones and of all un- 
 cleanness.' 52 
 
 And the lesson surely for our own times is this — that it is 
 not an outward show of religion which God desires of us, 
 whether in the profession of creeds, the maintenance of 
 dogmas, or the observance of ritual, but that singleness and 
 sincerity of heart and faithfulness of daily life, which becomes 
 the children of God, 'sons and daughters of the Lord 
 
 48 D.xxxi.10-13. 49 Jer.vL I3,viii. 10, «wz^.ii.8,xxiii. 11. 
 
 60 Jer.xxiii. 14. sl Jer.v.31. &2 Matt.xxiii.27. 
 
JEREMIAH THE DEUTERONOMIST. 167 
 
 Almighty.' 53 There was ritual enough in our Saviour's time 
 in Jerusalem, multitudinous sacrifices, cleansings, and washings 
 — many and long prayers, punctiliously performed in the 
 Temple and at the corners of the streets — frequent fastings, 
 solemn faces, phylacteries or portions of the Law fastened 
 upon the forehead in literal fulfilment of the Deuteronomist's 
 injunction. 54 There was plenty of orthodoxy — ' Behold ! thou 
 art called a Jew, and restest in the Law, and makest thy 
 boast of God, and knowest His Will, and approvest the 
 things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the 
 Law, and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the 
 blind, a light to them that are in darkness, an instructor of 
 the foolish, a teacher of babes, who hast the form of know- 
 ledge and of the truth in the Law.' 55 There was a grand 
 outcry against blasphemers and heretics — above all against 
 the holy Jesus and afterwards against his follower Paul. 
 But the first says to them, ' Ye serpents ; ye generation 
 of vipers ! how can you escape the damnation of hell ?' ; 5G and 
 the last charges them with causing the name of God to be 
 blasphemed among the heathen by their impieties and immo- 
 ralities. 57 Let us remember that daily and hourly * the true 
 worshippers may worship the Father in spirit and in truth,' 58 
 amidst the duties of common life, as well as on Sundays and 
 in the Sanctuary. Let us not be judging each his brother, 
 but judge each himself, knowing that the watchwords of our 
 faith are these — ' The Lord knoweth them that are His/ 
 and 'Let all that name the name of Christ depart from 
 iniquity.' 69 
 
 53 2Cor.vi. 18. 54 D.vi.8,xi. 18, comp. E.xiii.9,16, due also to D. 
 
 55 Rom. ii. 17-20. 56 Matt.xxiii.33, 57 Rom.ii.21-24. 
 
 58 John iv. 23. 59 2Tim.ii.i9. 
 
 Jl 
 
LECTURE XIII. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 Mistaken notions about the Pentateuch may poison all our views of the 
 Divine character ; the Ten Commandments, by whomsoever written, come to 
 us at once with Divine authority, because in accordance with our moral and 
 spiritual nature, all except that enjoining the observance of the Sabbath ; but 
 the weekly rest also is Divinely indicated by the changes of the Moon, as 
 yearly festivals, and especially the nightly rest, by the course of the Sun ; the 
 Sabbath among the Hebrews, as among other nations, originated with obser- 
 ving the Moon's phases ; the New Moon, as the first Sabbath of the month, 
 honoured with larger sacrifices than the other Sabbaths, and always named 
 first before the Captivity ; the fourth week in each month probably of uncer- 
 tain length ; other commands in Deuteronomy repulsive to us as men and 
 Christians, e.g. those which exclude mutilated persons and others from the 
 Sanctuary, or enjoin perpetual hostility against the Moabitesand Ammonites ; 
 the stoning of a rebellious son, the utter destruction of the Canaanites ; these 
 last express only Jeremiah's strong feelings against his idolatrous countrymen j 
 in other passages he teaches the Fatherly Love of God. 
 
THE CONTENTS OF DEUTERONOMY. 
 
 N eminent living statesman has said — ' Every one 
 truth is connected with every other truth in 
 this great Universe of God. . . . Therefore to 
 accept as a truth that which is not a truth .... 
 is an evil having consequences which are indeed incalculable. 
 There are subjects on which one mistake of this kind 
 will poison all the wells of Truth, and affect with fatal 
 error the whole circle of our thoughts.' l Nothing can be more 
 true or can be more clearly and forcibly expressed. Mistaken 
 notions, for instance, respecting the Mosaic origin and Divine 
 authority of the Pentateuch may darken or confuse men's 
 views of the Divine Character, and issue consequently in very 
 serious faults and aberrations of the life — in bigotry, harsh- 
 ness, and uncharitableness on the one hand, and on the other 
 hand in laxity, irreverence, and immorality. The same 
 writer adds, ' This is among the most certain of all the laws of 
 man's nature, that his conduct will in the main be guided by 
 his moral and intellectual opinions.' 2 And the fact of the 
 existence of this law in human nature is, in truth, the very 
 justification of the work in which I am now engaged, which 
 aims at the clearing away of much which has long been 
 
 1 Duke of Argyll (Reign of Law t \i. $$,$$). 2 7#.,p.432. 
 
173 THE CONTENTS OF DEUTERONOMY. 
 
 mistaken for Truth, but is no longer tenable as such, from the 
 ground on which the ' moral and intellectual opinions ' of 
 multitudes have been formed. 
 
 For let us consider some of the phenomena presented by 
 the laws in Deuteronomy. The address of Moses begins, as 
 I have said, with the Ten Commandments. 3 We may assume 
 that these, as they now lie before us, in two different copies 
 varying from each other in some important particulars, 
 especially in respect of the Fourth Commandment, 4 were not 
 really uttered by the Divine Voice on Sinai, since this is 
 distinctly stated in the New Commentary, which may be 
 fairly regarded as expressing the present views of the English 
 Archbishops and Bishops on this point. Yet we feel at once 
 that such commands as these ' Honour thy father and thy 
 mother,' ' Thou shalt do no murder,' ' Thou shalt not commit 
 adultery,' ' Thou shalt not steal,' 'Thou shalt not bear false 
 witness,' ' Thou shalt not covet,' are Divine laws, grounded in 
 the very nature of our being, and, as such, they are approved 
 by the noblest and best of all nations and religions, without 
 any reference to the supposed revelation at Sinai. And so, 
 too, wherever the religious life has made any considerable 
 progress, the first three Commands, which enjoin a spiritual 
 and reverential worship of the One True God, commend 
 themselves to the conscience of each of us, as living words 
 which God has spoken, not indeed amidst lightnings and 
 thunderings, out of the thick darkness, but with the still small 
 voice of His Spirit, and engraved — not upon stones, but — 
 upon the tables of man's heart, where in the light vouchsafed 
 by that Divine Spirit our spirits may plainly read them. And 
 in like manner a little consideration will satisfy us that a 
 Divine Sanction clearly enjoins the observance of a sabbath, 
 of one day in seven, as a day of recreation, refreshment, and 
 
 3 p. 149. i p. 101,102. 
 
THE CONTENTS OF DEUTERONOMY. 173 
 
 rest, for the supply of our physical, moral, social, and religious 
 needs as human beings. 
 
 Thus we can no longer believe that the world was created 
 in six days, with successive outward Divine utterances, as de- 
 scribed in the first chapter of Genesis. Yet, for all this, and 
 although the Hebrew writer had, no doubt, mistaken notions 
 about the nature, magnitudes, and distances of the Sun, Moon, 
 and Stars, he discerned the eternal, underlying truth, when he 
 wrote, ' and God said '—said, not with audible voice on the 
 fourth day, but said in the depth of the Divine Mind — ' Let 
 there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day 
 from the night,' 5 and so He made the Sun to rule by day and 
 the Moon the night, 5 or, as the Psalmist says — 
 
 ' He appointed the Moon for seasons, 
 The Sun knoweth his going down. 
 Man goeth forth unto his work, 
 And to his labour until the evening. ' 7 
 
 As a rule, then, there is a law laid upon us by our Wise and 
 Good Creator, that we should wake and work by day, and 
 rest and sleep at night — a law not meant to be enforced with 
 rigid severity, as if we might never work by night or sleep by 
 day — a law made known by a Gracious Father to intelligent 
 children — a law made for man, not man for the law. The 
 same Almighty Being, who ages ago, before man existed, pre- 
 pared gigantic growths of vegetable matter, which, deposited 
 through millions of years in primaeval swamps, have formed 
 the coal-beds for the use of man — who provided the stores of 
 lime and slate and stone, and the mineral wealth that lies 
 deep buried in the bowels of the earth, with an express view 
 to the wants of just such a creature as man — has ordered 
 also the grateful interchange of light and darkness, of day 
 and night — I say not, for man alone, but for the benefit of 
 man among the rest. The law of daily toil and nightly rest 
 
 5 G.i. 14. 6 v. 16. 7 Ps. civ. 19,23. 
 
174 THE CONTENTS OF DEUTERONOMY. 
 
 is to be our rule, our general guide ; though we are free, 
 whenever we see sufficient reason for it, to depart from that 
 law. We know, however, that, if we do depart from it con- 
 stantly — if we turn day into night and night into day habit- 
 ually, without something to compensate this breach of Nature's 
 law — we shall suffer the evil consequences ; and those amuse- 
 ments or occupations, which compel to any great extent a 
 persistence in such habits, are almost sure to injure health and 
 shorten the duration of life. * God has spoken ' this word to 
 our reason, as plainly as if He had uttered it with a loud voice 
 in our hearing, that the day time shall, as a rule, be the time 
 for labour, not only for individuals, but for social common 
 work, for those employments which concern the whole com- 
 munity. 
 
 And so it is with regard to the week and the weekly rest. 
 We know by experience that men cannot go on for ever, day 
 after day, wearied and worn by toil and the cares of business 
 and the labours of public life — that they need intervals of 
 rest besides the nightly sleep, by means of which the body 
 may be restored and reinvigorated, and the mind recover its 
 tone, and both may be ready to spring on cheerfully again to 
 the work suspended. Nature herself points out to us certain 
 annual seasons of more extended holiday, as at Mid-summer or 
 Mid-winter, in the Spring, or after Harvest. Thus the Jews 
 had their three annual festivals, in Spring, Summer, and 
 Autumn ; and we find that among almost all nations, even the 
 most barbarous,. some such seasons are observed as times of 
 very general relaxation from anxious thought and care, as 
 well as of social meeting and enjoyment. 
 
 But besides these greater annual festivals, marked out by 
 the Sun, we need also— at all events in civilised communities, 
 where there is such continual tension of the brain and 
 drainage of the nervous power — the recurrence of days of rest 
 at shorter intervals, for bodily or mental recreation, for family 
 
THE CONTENTS OF DEUTERONOMY. 175 
 
 meetings and friendly greetings, and, above all, for common 
 worship — rest, not enforced by positive law, but commended 
 to us by the wise provisions of our Great Creator, and approved 
 by experience as the source of infinite good to the whole 
 community — the right of the poor man as well as the rich — as 
 needful, in fact, for the wants of our complex nature as the 
 rest by night after the daily toil. ' God has spoken ' to us 
 this word also, that every seventh day shall be kept as a day 
 of rest, not from the burning summit of Sinai, but, in His 
 Fatherly Wisdom and Goodness, by the mere fact of ordering 
 the changes of the moon for us, so that she completes each 
 phase in seven days. I do not say that this is the reason — 
 the only or the main reason — why this has been ordered thus. 
 But I do say that we may thankfully believe that the changes 
 of the Moon exist for this reason among others. As one has 
 said, 'The phases of the Moon supply a familiar mark of time 
 to the simplest and rudest nations — the phenomena of the 
 New and Full Moon especially being such that men cannot 
 fail to notice and employ them as the natural rule of their 
 calendar. And, if a twofold division of the month is thus a 
 matter of necessity to an ordinary observation, a fourfold 
 division is, at least, inevitably suggested by the Moon's inter- 
 mediate phases. Thus we have the week of seven days.' 8 
 
 That this was really the object of the weekly Sabbath among 
 the Hebrews is plain from the fact that the New Moon was — 
 at least in the older times —regarded by them as a more im- 
 portant day than the ordinary Sabbath ; and, accordingly, in 
 addition to the usual daily sacrifice, the Levitical Law pro- 
 vides a ' burnt-offering ' on the New Moon of ' two bullocks, 
 one ram, and seven lambs,' with a kid for a sin-offering, 
 whereas on the Sabbath the additional sacrifice was only a 
 burnt-offering of ' two lambs.' 9 The New Moon, in short, 
 
 8 Ed.Review,cx\\. p. 545 ; see Natal Sermons, I. p. 2 72, 3, where passages are 
 quoted from HESSEY's Bam f ton Lectures & Cox's Literature of the Sabbath Question, 
 
 9 N.xxviii.9, 11.15. 
 
i;6 THE CONTENTS OF DEUTERONOMY. 
 
 was the first Sabbath of the month, which was specially 
 announced by trumpet sounds, 10 and gave the law, as it were, 
 for the rest, the first, 11 eighth, fifteenth, 12 and twenty-second, 13 
 days of every month being kept as days of rest, and the 
 next Sabbath being the first of the following month; though, 
 as the lunar changes are completed — not in 28, but — in 29^ 
 days, it would seem that the last week of the month must 
 have contained sometimes eight and sometimes nine days, 
 and probably lasted until the New Moon was seen. 
 Hence the New Moon is always named first in connection 
 with the Sabbath by the prophets before the Captivity, as 
 where Isaiah says, ' The New Moons and Sabbaths I cannot 
 endure,' 14 or Hosea prophesies, - I will cause all her mirth to 
 cease, her Feast-days, her New Moons, and her Sabbaths/ 15 
 or Amos hears the people asking, ' When will the New Moon 
 be gone, that we may sell corn, and the Sabbath that we 
 may set forth wheat ? ' 16 or the Shunammite's husband says to 
 her, ' Wherefore wilt thou go to the prophet to-day ? It is 
 neither New Moon nor Sabbath ? ' 17 It was only about the 
 time of the Captivity 18 that greater stress was laid upon 
 the observance of the Sabbath, as bringing the people to- 
 gether for religious instruction and binding them in com- 
 mon worship, and especially after it, 19 when their City and 
 Temple lay in ruins and they lived as exiles in a heathen land ; 
 and then we begin to find the Sabbath sometimes named 
 first, 20 as it always is in the still later days of the second 
 Temple. 21 
 
 It is not, then, because according to the traditionary 
 
 10 N.X. IO. " <T6-W/.E.xl.2, 17, L.Xxiii.24. 
 
 12 <rtf/;z/.L.xxiii.6,7,34,35. ,3 <:<?//,?/. L.xxiii. 8, 36, 2Ch.vii.10. 
 
 14 Is.i. 13. I5 Hos.ii. 11. IG Anj.-viii.5. I7 2K.iv.23. 
 
 18 Jer.xvii. 19-27. 19 Ez.xx. 12,13, 16,24, xxii. 8,23,26, xxiii.3 9 , xliv.24. Is, 
 lvi.2,4, lviii. 13. 
 
 20 Ez.xlvi.1,3, but see Ez.xlv.17, Is.lxvi.23. 
 
 21 1Ch.xxiii.31, 2Ch.ii.4, viii. 13, xxxi.3, Neh.x.33. 
 
THE CONTENTS OF DEUTERONOMY. 177 
 
 teaching these Ten Commandments are supposed to have 
 been spoken by the Divine Voice on Sinai, that men's views 
 of the Divine Character are in danger of being darkened — 
 except so far as such teaching requires them also to believe 
 that the sole recipient of these awful revelations and of a 
 multitude of others, attested and enforced by a series of stu- 
 pendous miracles which produce very little or no effect, was 
 one insignificant, rebellious, idolatrous tribe, as being God's 
 * peculiar treasure above all people,' 22 whom Jehovah ' had 
 ' chosen to be a special people for Himself above all peoples 
 that are upon the face of trie earth.' 23 We can recognise these 
 Ten Words as Divine laws, by whomsoever spoken or written. 
 But there are other commands in this Book of the Law which 
 we instinctively reject, because they are at variance with the 
 laws of our moral being, because they conflict at once with 
 the plain lessons of Christ's Gospel, and with those eternal 
 principles of right and wrong, which the Creator Himself has 
 planted within us, in respect of which we are made ' In His 
 image, after His likeness.' 24 
 
 For instance, that Law of Justice and Equity, which God 
 has written with His own Finger upon our hearts, contradicts 
 such commands as that which excludes from the congrega- 
 tion of JEHOVAH one mutilated, perhaps in helpless infancy, 25 
 while those who had done the deed were allowed free access 
 to the Sanctuary, or which excludes in like manner an inno- 
 cent base-born child, 26 but takes no account of the vicious 
 parents, or which bars all approach to the Temple against the 
 Ammonites and Moabites for ever, because of some real or 
 supposed unkindness on the part of their forefathers towards 
 the ancestors of the Israelites when they came out of Egypt 
 nearly a thousand years previously, and orders, ' Thou shalt 
 not seek their peace nor their prosperity all thy days for 
 
 22 E.xix.5. 23 D.vii.6. 24 G.i.26. 25 D.xxiii.i. *« D.xxiii.2, 
 
 N 
 
1 78 THE CONTENTS OF DEUTERONOMY. 
 
 ever,' 27 — with other laws of a kindred nature. We feel that 
 these cannot be regarded as utterances of the blessed Will of 
 God — that the writer of them, though an inspired man, can- 
 not certainly have written thus by Divine Inspiration ; and it 
 is a relief to our consciences to be no longer compelled to re- 
 ceive such commands as proceeding from Infinite Goodness 
 and Wisdom, as guaranteed by Supreme Authority, as 
 Divinely perfect, infallibly true. How much more when we 
 find another law which orders that a ' stubborn and rebellious 
 son ' shall be stoned to death, 28 though no punishment is de- 
 nounced against the parents, who perhaps by their own 
 vicious example had corrupted, or by their weak and 
 faulty training had ruined, their child, and others which en- 
 join, ' When JEHOVAH thy Elohim shall deliver these nations 
 before thee, thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them ; 
 thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto 
 them,' 29 ' thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth, but 
 thou shalt utterly destroy them.' 30 When these ferocious 
 commands and others like them are ascribed to the Fountain 
 of all loving-kindness, ( the God of the spirits of all flesh,' 31 
 the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Father in Heaven, 
 or to Moses speaking in His Name to His chosen people, we 
 shudder and shrink away from the painful thought of such 
 words revealing the Divine character to man. Were the Canan- 
 ites idolaters ? and what were the Israelites ? Were they any 
 better than the Canaanites ! Were they not worse,' as they 
 sinned against clearer light and knowledge,- — if not amidst 
 the Divine revelations supposed to have been imparted in the 
 wilderness, 32 yet certainly amidst the warnings of those great 
 prophets whom God had raised up from time to time among 
 them ? And does not this book of Deuteronomy say of them, 
 1 JEHOVAH hath not given you an heart* to perceive, and eyes 
 
 27 D.xxiii.3-6. 28 D.xxi. 18-21. 29 D.vii.2. 30 D.xx.16,17. 
 
 31 N.xvi.22,xxvii.i6,Heb.xii.9. 32 E.xxxii. i-6,N.xxv. 1-5. 
 
THE CONTENTS OF DEUTERONOMY. 179 
 
 to see, and ears to hear, unto this day' ? 33 Was it to protect 
 a people like this from being corrupted by intermarrying with 
 the heathen tribes around them, that the Holy One uttered 
 such commands as these ? Or shall the All-Wise be charged 
 with such a shortsighted policy which was utterly frustrated 
 in the result ? No ! our reason and conscience, our whole 
 being, revolts from them ; we feel that we cannot worship 
 with our whole heart and soul, we cannot adore and love, we 
 can only fear and distrust, a Deity whose character is thus 
 exhibited. And we turn with comfort and life-inspiring hope 
 to him who said — ' Love your enemies, bless them that curse 
 you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which 
 despitefully use you, and persecute you, that ye may be the 
 children of your Father which is in Heaven.' 34 
 
 But, again, what a relief it is to know that here we have 
 only the prophet Jeremiah, one of the most tender-hearted of 
 men, making use of the tribes of Canaan as a warning for his 
 own idolatrous countrymen, at a time when those tribes had 
 for centuries ceased to exist, and setting forth the figure of 
 them, driven out from their old abode, and ruthlessly exter- 
 minated, as a sign of the doom which they deserved, and 
 which most surely awaited them, if they too practised the like 
 abominations. And so the rebellious son is only a type of 
 that rebellious people of whom he says in Jehovah's Name, 
 'I am a Father unto Israel and Ephraim is My firstborn,' 35 
 yet who had ' said to a stock, Thou art my Father, and to a 
 stone, Thou hast brought me forth,' 36 but whom he longed to 
 bring back to the footstool of Divine Mercy, saying hence- 
 forth, ' My Father, Thou art the guide of my youth.' 37 
 
 When, therefore, we hear such words as these, ' Thou shalt 
 also consider in thine heart that, as a man chasteneth his son 
 so the Living God, thy God, doth chasten thee,' 38 we shall 
 
 33 D.xxix4. 3 * Matt. v. 44, 45. "» Jer.xxxT.9. 36 Jer.ii.27. 
 
 37 Jer.iii.4. 38 D.viii.5. 
 
i8o THE CONTENTS OF DEUTERONOMY. 
 
 joyfully welcome them as words of truth, not merely because 
 we find them in the Bible, but because they are true, eternally 
 true. For it is true that God loves us as dear children, and 
 that we may go to Him at all times with a childlike trust and 
 love, as with a childlike reverence and fear. Rather we must 
 go to Him thus if we would please Him, acting upon the 
 words of that dear Son who has taught us all to say ' Our 
 Father.' We must ' consider in our hearts ' that He who has 
 planted in our breast, as human beings, dear love to our 
 children, a love stronger than death, does by that very love 
 of ours shadow forth to us His own Fatherly Love. Our 
 love can take in every child of the family ; our hearts can find 
 a place for all ; yes, and our love embraces the far-off prodigal 
 in his miserable wanderings, no less surely and no less 
 tenderly than the dear obedient child, that sits by our side, 
 rejoicing in the sweet delights of home. He who has taught 
 us to love our children thus, how shall He not also love His 
 children, with the Love in which the separate loves of earthly 
 parents are blessed and find their full infinite expression — the 
 Father's wisdom and firmness, to guide and counsel, or, if 
 need be, to chasten — the Mother's tender pity and compas- 
 sion, that will draw near with sweet consolations in each hour 
 of sorrow and suffering, will sympathise with every grief and 
 trial, will bow down to hear each shame-stricken confes- 
 sion, will be ready to receive the first broken words of peni- 
 tence, and whisper the promise of forgiveness and peace. 
 
 Ah ! truly the little one may cling to its mother's neck, 
 and the mother's love will feel the gentle pressure, and will 
 delight to feel it : but it is not the feeble clinging of the child 
 that holds it up to its mother's breast ; it is the strong arm 
 of love that embraces it. And we, in our most earnest 
 prayers and aspirations, in our cleaving unto God, in our 
 longing and striving after Truth, in our ' feeling after Him ' 
 
THE CONTENTS OF DEUTERONOMY. 181 
 
 who ' is not far from anyone of us,' 39 are but as babes 
 'stretching out weak hands of faith' to lay hold of Him 
 * whom no man hath seen or can see,' 40 but who, unseen, is 
 ever near us, whose faithful Love embraces all His children, 
 those that are far off as well as those that are near, the 
 heathen and the Christian, the sinner as well as the saint. 
 But it is not our knowledge, however clear, nor our faith, 
 however firm and orthodox, nor our charity, however bright 
 and pure, that holds us up daily and binds us to the bosom of 
 our God. ' Our Father ' will delight in all the sacred confi- 
 dences of His children — their clingings of faith and hope — 
 their longings of pure desire for a closer sense of His Pre- 
 sence — their holy aspirations and penitential confessions. 
 But it is not our prayer that will hold us up. It is His Love 
 alone that does this. 
 
 ' The Eternal God is our refuge, 
 And underneath are the Everlasting Arms.' 4l 
 
 39 Acts xvii.27. *° iTim.vi. 16. 41 D.xxxiii.27. 
 
LECTURE XIV. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 Recapitulation ; the very late age of the Levitical Legislation only recently 
 ascertained ; innocent fictions of heathen and older Hebrew historians, in- 
 cluding the Deuteronomist ; dishonest fictions of the priestly writers of the 
 Pentateuch ; the Deuteronomist refers repeatedly to the Original Story, but 
 nowhere to the Levitical Legislation ; he differs materially from that Legisla- 
 tion by never speaking of the priests as ' sons of Aaron,' by making no dis- 
 tinction between the priests and the Levites, by making a much smaller 
 provision out of the sacrifices for the Levites officiating as priests, by classing 
 the Levites generally with the needy and destitute, and not assigning to them 
 the tithes and firstlings ; hence the Levitical Legislation was not known to 
 the Deuteronomist (Jeremiah) ; some portions of it, apparently, were com- 
 posed by Ezekiel, who has followed Jeremiah's example, and like him knows 
 nothing of an Aaronic priesthood, but speaks of the priests as ' Levites, sons 
 of Zadok ; ' petty ritualism enforced by still later priestly writers ; meaning of 
 the desire of man's heart for the priestly office ; the priesthood of Christ and 
 his true followers. 
 
MM*? 
 
 THE LATER OR LEVITICAL LEGISLATION. 
 
 E have now considered the composition of the 
 Pentateuch, so far as concerns, first, the oldest 
 portions in Genesis and Exodus, the foundation 
 of the whole story, written probably in the age of 
 Samuel, in which the name ' Elohim,' God, is used always 
 for the Deity to the exclusion of ' Jehovah,' and which, when 
 taken out by themselves, are found to form a continuous 
 narrative — then the copious additions and amplifications in 
 the days of David and Solomon, in which the name JEHOVAH 
 is used, and which together with the former made up the 
 Original Story, as it came into the hands of the Deuterono- 
 mist, — and, lastly, the Deuteronomistic passages and the 
 greater part of Deuteronomy itself, introduced about four 
 centuries afterwards, in the age, and most probably by the 
 hand, of Jeremiah. There still remains, however, the Leviti- 
 cal Legislation, filling about one half of the Pentateuch, which 
 has had so important a part in establishing the priestly 
 system, first in the Jewish and then in the Christian Church. 
 It has been the special work of the last few years to have 
 solved the question as to when this portion of the Pentateuch 
 was written ; and the result is one of the utmost interest 
 and importance, not only as regards the history of religious 
 
1 86 THE LATER OR LEVITICAL LEGISLATION. 
 
 development in Israel, but in its bearing upon the ritualistic 
 movement of our own times. 
 
 In the historical passages of the Original Story we find 
 only the result of an innocent and praiseworthy attempt to 
 dress up in a pleasing and instructive style the early traditions 
 of the Hebrew people, with all the aid of poety and fiction, 
 such as have been employed abundantly by the greatest 
 writers of Greece and Rome, by Homer and Herodotus, 
 Virgil and Livy, in their histories of primitive times. Their 
 works are the delight and admiration of all ages, and they 
 have never brought upon the writers the reproach of dis- 
 honesty, however inconsistent with the actual facts we are 
 very sure their statements must often be. But, in putting 
 forth such statements, they had no intention to deceive ; 
 they were ignorant themselves of the real course of events, 
 and they were known to be so : they did but collect and em- 
 bellish the ancient myths and legends which existed in their 
 days, expanding these scanty data out of their own imagina- 
 tions, and so building up a circumstantial narrative, with 
 events, addresses, conversations, Divine and human, accom- 
 panied at times with sage remarks, according to their light, 
 upon the moral bearing of the incidents recorded. 
 
 Just so with the early writers of Hebrew History. They 
 knew nothing certainly about those ancient times of their 
 forefathers, except the great facts that their nation had once 
 been in a servile condition in Egypt, and had escaped from 
 that slavery and after painful wanderings had found their way 
 to Canaan, and there by degrees had made themselves 
 masters of the land — which facts, with others like them, had 
 come down by tradition from sire to son through the two 
 or three centuries which had elapsed from the Exodus to 
 Samuel's time. In the course of a very few generations the 
 details of this march and of the conquest must have been lost 
 among a people who were living in a rude state as separate 
 
THE LATER OR LEVITICAL LEGISLATION. 187 
 
 tribes, and were probably little exercised in writing before the 
 age of Samuel and his schools. But for the arts of writing and 
 printing what should we know, as Englishmen, about the de- 
 tails of Queen Elizabeth's reign, about the part, for instance, 
 which this or that hero took in the defeat of the Great 
 Armada, unless perhaps some song or ballad had preserved 
 the memory of the gallant deed for future ages ? Upon such 
 data, however, Samuel and his immediate followers — very 
 probably students in his schools — appear to have built up the 
 Original Story of the Exodus very much out of their own im- 
 aginations, with the help of ancient myths, such as those of 
 the Creation, the Fall, and the Deluge, and legends attached 
 to the names of famous persons and places or to those of 
 sacred stones and trees, which legends, however, seem for the 
 most part to have originated with the writers themselves, 
 suggested by the mere existence of the names in question. 
 Still, in all this there was no dishonesty or deceit : we have 
 no reason whatever to suppose that they even pretended that 
 what they wrote was veracious history : they may have put 
 forth their narrative from the first as a mere work of the im- 
 agination. It is the men of later days who have insisted 
 upon regarding these stories as actual history, with all their 
 astounding contradictions of the plainest facts of Natural 
 Science and their agglomeration of stupendous miracles. 
 
 So, too, the attempt of Jeremiah, as we suppose, to infuse 
 a more religious character into the Older Story, by the 
 insertion of passages written in his own spirited, prophetical 
 style, and by the addition of almost the whole Book of 
 Deuteronomy as' a kind of commentary on the older law, can 
 be perfectly reconciled, as we have seen, with good faith on 
 his part, and with a high and noble motive, more especially 
 when we take into account the habits of his people. In our 
 days few pious persons would presume to ascribe directly to 
 the Supreme Being the thoughts with which their own bosoms 
 
1 88 THE LATER OR LEVITICAL LEGISLATION. 
 
 were stirred, though fully believing themselves to be under 
 the influence of the Divine Teacher of men. But a Jewish 
 prophet like Jeremiah would have said at once, ' Thus saith 
 JEHOVAH,' if any idea presented itself to his mind with 
 overpowering force as unquestionably right and good and 
 true. Hitherto, therefore, we have had nothing to which the 
 terms 'forger' and 'forgery' can be justly applied, which have 
 been freely used by some defenders of traditionary views, 1 to 
 raise a prejudice in their readers' minds against the con- 
 clusions of Modern Criticism. 
 
 But hitherto we have only had to deal with prophetical 
 writers, or with men, like Jeremiah, in whom the prophetical 
 entirely overpowered the priestly element. We come now 
 upon the domain of the priest. And here, if anywhere, such 
 words may with some justice be applied ; for there can be 
 little room for doubt, with any who will take the pains to 
 study thoroughly the subject, that the whole of the Levitical 
 Legislation of the Pentateuch was written by priestly writers 
 during or after the Captivity, and written, most of it, with the 
 direct purpose of magnifying their own office and asserting 
 their own special rights and prerogatives. The first clear hint 
 which we get of this fact is derived from a close consideration 
 of the Address of Moses, which formed the Book of the Law 
 as found in the Temple by Hilkiah. In this, or rather in 
 D.i-xxx, we find numerous allusions to the Original Story of 
 the Exodus — to Jacob's going down into Egypt 'a Syrian 
 ready to perish,' with only ' a few,' 2 i.e. seventy persons, 3 — 
 where Israel became ' a nation, great, mighty, and populous ' 4 
 — to the Egyptians afflicting the Israelites, 5 who cried unto 
 Jehovah, and He ' looked upon their affliction,' 6 — to the 
 
 1 e.g. Bp. Browne, New Bible Commentary, "'a forger ■,' p. 12, 17,20, 196,227, 
 229,232, 'any skilful forger f 'who have been fixed upon as probable forgers of 
 the Pentateuch, such as Samuel or Jeremiah,' p. 18, &c. 
 
 2 xxvi.5, comp. E.i. 1. 3 x.22, comp. E.i.5. 
 
 4 i. 10, x.22, xxvi.5, xxviii. 62, comp. E.i. 7,9, 12,20. 
 
 5 xxvi.6, comp. E.i. 11, 13,34, vi. 9. 6 xxvi.7, comp. E.ii. 23-25, iii.7,9,iv.3i. 
 
THE LATER OR LEVITICAL LEGISLATION. 189 
 
 promise made to their fathers of the land of Canaan, 7 and the 
 ' deliverance of Israel out of Egypt with signs and wonders ' 
 wrought upon ' Pharaoh and all his house,' 8 — to the flight out 
 of Egypt ' in haste,' 9 ' by night in the month of Abib,' 10 and 
 the drowning of the Egyptians in the Red Sea, 11 — to the 
 provocations of JEHOVAH in the wilderness, 12 the mur- 
 murings, 13 the rebellion, 14 — to the manna, 15 the Golden Calf, 16 
 the fiery serpents, 17 — to the attack of Amalek, 18 the leprosy 
 of Miriam, 19 the destruction of Dathan and Abiram, 20 the 
 prophecies of Balaam, 21 — in short, to a multitude of 
 incidents which show that the writer must have been well 
 acquainted with the Original Story very much in its present 
 form. It may have been preserved in the Temple, or in the 
 hands of some of the priests, from the time of Solomon down- 
 wards, and may have thus been seen and studied by Jeremiah, 
 as being himself a priest, perhaps the son of the high-priest of 
 Josiah's time. However this may be, certain it is that the 
 Original Story must have existed in his time, and that he 
 must have been familiar with it. 
 
 How, then, can we account for the fact that, amidst all 
 these numerous references, there does not occur in D.i-xxx 
 one single allusion to any of the historical incidents or 
 precepts specially recorded in the Levitical Legislation ? 
 He mentions the Ark indeed, 22 but that is mentioned in the 
 Original Story : 23 he does not mention the splendid Taber- 
 nacle, built (it is supposed) by express Divine instructions, 
 after the model which was shown to Moses in the Mount. 24 
 
 vi. io,i8,&c.,ttwz/.E.vi.2-4,&c. 8 vi.2i,22,&c, comp. E.vii,&c. 
 
 9 xvi.3, comp. E.xii.33,39. 
 1 xi.4, comp. E.xiv.27,28. 
 3 ix.22, comp. N.xi. 1-3,31-34. 
 5 viii.3, 16, comp. N.xi. 4-9. 
 7 viii. 15, comp. N.xxi.6. 
 
 xvi. 1, comp. E.xiii.4,xxxiv. 18. 
 ix. 7, comp. E.xiv. u,xvii.3,&c. 
 4 ix.23, comp. N.xiv. i,&c. 
 6 ix. 8-2 1, 25-29, comp. E.xxxii. 
 8 xxv. 17-19, comp. E.xvii.8 16. 
 
 xxiv.9, comp. N.xii. 20 xi.6, comp. N. xvi. 25-33. 
 
 xxiii.4, 5, comp. N.xxii-xxiv. 
 
 D.x.i-5,8,xxxi.9,25,26. 23 N.x. 33,35, xiv.44. 24 E.xxvi.30. 
 
i 9 o THE LATER OR LEVITICAL LEGISLATION. 
 
 He mentions Aaron, 35 but only in connexion with his 
 scandalous conduct, as related in the Original Story, 26 in 
 respect of the Golden Calf, the symbol of the Sun-God, 
 which Aaron had made for Israel to worship. He never 
 speaks of him as ' priest ' and the head of the priesthood : 
 he never calls the priests the ' sons of Aaron,' as they are 
 invariably called in the Levitical Law ; he calls the priests 
 always ' Levites ' 27 or ' sons of ' Levi.' 28 But the Levitical 
 Legislation everywhere sharply distinguishes between the 
 1 priests, the Sons of Aaron/ and the ' Levites,' 29 and makes 
 Moses rebuke indignantly the ' sons of Levi ' for aspiring 
 to act as priests, saying, ' Seek ye the priesthood also ? ' 30 
 and it lays down the law that no one, ' who was not of the 
 seed of Aaron, should come near to offer incense before 
 Jehovah, that he be not as Korah the Levite and his 
 company,' 31 who were struck dead by lightning for having 
 presumed to do so. 32 Accordingly, whereas the Deuter- 
 onomist says that ' the whole tribe of Levi ' was ' separated 
 to stand before JEHOVAH to minister unto Him, and to bless 
 in His Name,' 33 the Levitical Law reserves these offices 
 exclusively for the priests, 34 and orders that the Levites 
 shall be only the servants of the priests, shall 'stand before 
 A aron the priest that they may minister unto him! w — that 
 Aaron and his sons shall keep their priesthood, and any 
 stranger that cometh near, whether layman or Levite, shall 
 be put to death,' 36 —that the Levites shall not even ' go in to 
 see when the holy things are covered by the priests,' 37 or 
 
 25 D.ix.20. N.B. x.67, is probably a fragment of the O.S., out of its proper 
 place, except the last clause of v. 6, which belongs to the Levitical Legislation 
 (L.L.), as does also D.xxxii. 48-52. M E.xxxii. 1-6,21-25. 
 
 27 D.xvii. 9, i8,xviii. i,xxiv.8,xxvii.9, co?np. xviii.6, 7,xxvii. I4,xxxi.25, where 
 also ' Levite' = ' priest.' 2S D.xxi. 5,xxxi.9. 
 
 29 E.xxxviii.2i,xxxix.4i, L.i.5,7,8,&c, viii.2,&c.,N.iii.3,4,9, io,&c. 
 
 30 N.xvi.io. 31 v.\o. " Z/.35. 33 D.x.8. 
 
 34 E.xxviii. 1,3,35,43, N.vi.27. 35 N.iii.5-10, viii, 19,'xviii. 1-6. 
 
 36 N.iii. io,38,xviii.7. 37 N.iv. 15,19,20. 
 
THE LATER OR LEVITICAL LEGISLATION. 191 
 
 1 come near to the holy vessels and the altar,' 38 ' lest they 
 die.' 
 
 Moreover, the Deuteronomist makes certain provisions for 
 the maintenance of these 'priests the sons of Levi' : but 
 these are entirely at variance with those in the Levitical Law. 
 Thus he directs that all the Levites — 'the whole tribe of Levi ' 
 — shall eat the ' fire-offerings of Jehovah/ 39 and that any 
 Levite, coming ' with all the desire of his mind ' to 
 minister at the Sanctuary, should ' have like portions with the 
 rest of his brethren, who stood there before Jehovah to 
 minister,' 40 that is, should ' have like portions ' with the other 
 Levites who officiated there as priests. But in the Levitical 
 Law these ' fire-offerings ' are expressly assigned to the ' sons 
 of Aaron the priests ' ; 41 whereas the Levites were to receive 
 merely the tithes of corn, wine, and oil, 42 and of these they 
 were to give a tithe to the priests. 43 Also the Deuteronomist 
 defines these ' fire-offerings ' — that is to say, the portions 
 which the priests might claim of the sacrifices — as the 
 shoulder, the two cheeks (or head), and the maw (or tripe- 
 stomach) ; 44 whereas the Levitical Law makes a much more 
 sumptuous provision, namely, the breast and hind-leg of 
 every victim, 45 together with all the firstfruits of corn, and 
 wine, and oil, 46 and all the firstlings of sheep and oxen. 47 
 Once more the Deuteronomist classes the Levites repeatedly, 
 not only with ' the manservant and the maidservant,' but, as 
 being generally poor and needy, with ' the stranger, the 
 widow, and the fatherless,' 48 who should be charitably 
 invited to share in the feasts which pious Israelites were 
 commanded to make for their families annually at the Sanc- 
 tuary, 49 upon the tithes of corn, and wine, and oil, and the 
 
 38 N.xviii.3. 39 D.xviii.i. 40 z>.6-8. 
 
 41 L.ii.3, 10, vi. 17,18, vii.5,&c, 31-35, x. I4,i5,xxiv.9. 42 N.xviii.21,24. 
 
 43 v. 25-28. 44 D.xviii.3. 
 
 45 E.xxix.26,28, L.vii.31,34, N.xviii. 18. 46 N.xvii. 12,13. 
 
 47 7M5-18. 48 xii.i2,i8,xiv.29,xvi.ii,i4.xxvi.u,i2,i3, 
 
 1!l xii. Il,l2,l7-l9,xiv.22-27 ; xxvi. 12. 13. 
 
1 92 THE LATER OR LEV I TIC A L LEGISLATION. 
 
 firstlings of sheep and oxen, 50 and once in three years upon 
 the tithes at home 51 — ' and the Levite that is within thy 
 gates, thou shalt not forsake him/ ' the Levite and the 
 stranger and the fatherless and the widow, that are within thy 
 gates, shall come and shall eat and be satisfied.' 52 But the 
 Levitical Law, as we have just seen, assigns these very tithes 
 wholly to the Levites and these firstlings wholly to the 
 priests ; and, though the New Bible Commentary invents a 
 1 second ' set of ' tithes ' to explain these contradictions, 
 which should be expressly used for such feasts, the 'first 
 tithes ' having been duly paid to the Levites, 53 it does not 
 venture to suggest a second set of ' firstlings.' From all this 
 it is plain that the Deuteronomist could never have had before 
 him the Levitical Law, as part of a Mosaic and Divine dis- 
 pensation, prefaced everywhere by the announcement ' And 
 JEHOVAH said to Moses ' 54 — that, in other words, no such 
 Levitical Law existed at all in his time. It must have been 
 inserted in later days, after the time of Jeremiah, that is, 
 during or after the Captivity. 
 
 Accordingly it is found that some portions of the Book of 
 Leviticus, as L.xviii-xx, and especially L.xxvi, betray un- 
 mistakably the hand of Ezekiel, who was one of the priests 
 carried captive to Babylon with Josiah's grandson Jehoiachin. 55 
 The captive Jews in the district of Babylon had perhaps 
 referred to the priest Ezekiel for instruction on certain points ; 
 or he may have thought it good to lay down a number of 
 precepts, partly ceremonial, partly moral and religious, as 
 necessary to be observed by them, if they would still remain 
 in that far-off land true servants of their Heavenly King ; and 
 accordingly he does this in L.xviii-xx. But Ezekiel was a 
 prophet as well as a priest, and in L.xxvi he gives a grand 
 prophetical warning, containing a number of his own peculiar 
 
 50 xii.6, I7,xiv.23. 51 xiv.28,29,xxvi.i2, 13. 52 xiv.27,29. " I.p.797. 
 34 E.xxv. I, xxx. 1 1, 1 7, 22, 34, &c. 55 Ez.i.2,3. 
 
THE LATER OR LEVITICAL LEGISLATION. 193 
 
 expressions, which all occur again in Ezekiel's prophecies, but 
 of which eighteen are found nowhere else in the Pentateuch. 56 
 It has been said indeed that Ezekiel may have derived these 
 phrases from the Book of Leviticus, which he had devoutly 
 read. But it is idle to suppose that a writer so profuse and 
 so peculiar, as this prophet is on all hands acknowledged to 
 be, should have studied so closely — not the whole Book of 
 Leviticus, but — this one particular chapter out of the whole 
 Pentateuch (L.xxvi), as to have become thoroughly imbued 
 with its style and to have made its very language his own. 
 Rather, he had before him the grand words of his brother 
 prophet Jeremiah in D.xxviii, xxxii, from which, in fact, he 
 quotes some expressions in this chapter, 57 as he does also in 
 his prophecies ; 58 and after Jeremiah's example, though not 
 with the same rhetorical power, he launches against his 
 countrymen threats of Divine vengeance if they persist in 
 their idolatry and disobedience, mingled with promises of 
 good if they are faithful, and ending with a pledge of final 
 restoration. And it is very noticeable that Ezekiel the priest, 
 like Jeremiah the priest, never speaks in his prophecies of the 
 priests as 'sons of Aaron,' nor even once mentions Aaron as 
 the supposed head of his own priestly order ; from which it is 
 clear that in- their time this title did not exist — much less 
 
 56 Pent Ml. ^. 
 
 57 v. 16, *' consumption, fever,' co?np. D.xxviii. 22 ; v. 16, 'consuming the eyes 
 and causing sorrow of heart, ' comp. D.xxviii. 65 ; v. 16, 'and ye shall sow your 
 seed in vain and your enemies shall eat it,' comp. D.xxviii. 33, 51 ; 'and ye shall 
 be smitten before your enemies,' ^w;z/. D.xxviii. 7,28 ; ^.19, 'and I will make 
 your heaven as iron and your land as brass,' comp. D.xxviii. 23 ; z>.2i, 'and I will 
 add plagues upon thee,' comp. D.xxviii. 59,61 ; ^.29, 'and ye shall eat the flesh 
 of your sons and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat,' comp. D.xxviii. 53, &c. ; 
 v. 8, ' and five of you shall chase an hundred, and an hundred of you shall chase 
 ten thousand,' comp. D. xxxii. 30. 
 
 s8 comp. Ez.v. 10 with D.xxviii. 53-5 7 — Ez.v. I2,xx.23,xxii. 15, with D.xxviii. 64 
 — Ez.v. 14, 15, with D.xxviii.37 — Ez.xiv.8, 'and I will make him a sign and a 
 proverb,' xxii.4,xxxvi.3, with D.xxviii.37 — Ez.v. 16,17, with D.xxii.23,24 — Ez. 
 vii. 15 with D.xxxii.25 — Ez.vii.26 with D. xxxii. 23 — Ez.viii.3, 'which provoketh 
 to jealousy,' with D. xxxii. 16,21 — Ez.xvi. 13,15, with D.xxxii. 13-15. 
 
 O 
 
194 THE LATER OR LEVIT1CAL LEGISLATION. 
 
 exist as one Divinely originated. They both speak of the 
 priests as ' Levites ' or ' sons of Levi ' ; 59 and, when Ezekiel 
 wishes to distinguish between the great body of the Levites 
 who had taken part in idolatrous rites before the Captivity 
 and those who had adhered to the pure worship of JEHOVAH, 
 he calls the latter ' the priests the sons of Zadok among the 
 sons of Levi,' ' the priests the Levites who are of the seed of 
 Zadok! 'the priests the Levites the sons of Zadok] 'the, 
 priests who are sanctified of the sons of Zadok, who kept M}f 
 charge, who went not astray when the children of Israel went 
 astray, as the Levites w6nt astray ' 60 — from which also we see 
 that the idea of the Aaronic priesthood, as laid down in the 
 Levitical Law, must have been of a later date than the days 
 of Ezekiel. 
 
 But the example thus set was followed in a very different 
 spirit by those who composed the great mass of the Levitical 
 Law, abounding with minute directions for ritualistic and 
 ceremonial observances, and enjoining the utmost reverence 
 for the Sanctuary, and also for the priest as alone privileged 
 to enter the holy place and draw near to the symbol of 
 Jehovah's presence. And so they 'bound heavy burdens 
 and grievous to be borne, and laid them on men's shoulders,' 
 while the weightier matters of the Law, on which such stress 
 is laid in the Book of Deuteronomy, justice, mercy, and 
 truth, are almost wholly passed by in this priestly Legislation. 
 In this Law, for instance, mere natural occurrences are classed 
 as offences for which a sacrifice must be offered — always, of 
 course, to the advantage of the priest who had his share of it 
 — such as child-birth, 61 leprosy, 62 &c, or trivial acts of inad- 
 vertence by which some ceremonial defilement may have been 
 incurred, 63 it being ordained, for instance, that anyone who 
 
 59 Jer.xxxiii. 18,21,22, Ez.xl.46,xliii. I9,xliv. I5,xlviii. 13. 
 
 60 Ez.xl.46,xliii. I9,xliv. I5,xlviii. II. 
 
 6 ! L.xii.8. 62 L.xiv.19 63 L. xv. 14,29. 
 
THE LATER OR LEVITICAL LEGISLATION. 195 
 
 touched, without even knowing it, a dead mouse, lizard, mole, 
 or snail, should be ' unclean until the evening,' 64 that anyone 
 who ate turtle should be an ' abomination,' 65 that any vessel 
 of wood, raiment, skin, or sack, over which a snail had 
 crossed or a mouse had run, should be unclean, 66 and every 
 earthen vessel so defiled should be broken. 67 It need hardly 
 be said that all distinctions between right and wrong must 
 have been confounded in the writer's mind and in that of his 
 fellow-priests who enforced or tried to enforce such teaching, 
 and in that of the laity who received it as the Word of the 
 Living God. 
 
 Yet in all ages, wherever this priestly power, with its claim 
 to discharge the office of mediator between God and man, has 
 become the supposed possession of a class of men, who could 
 use it to admit their fellows to religious privileges or else to 
 debar them from them, whether those of the Jewish Church or 
 of the Christian, ' casting out,' as they of old cast out the 
 man who confessed that Jesus was the Christ, 08 or rejecting 
 for doctrinal differences the true in heart and life from the 
 common feast of Christians,— who claimed not only to receive 
 into the number of God's children, but to exclude from the 
 care and love of the Universal Father, — the real profaneness 
 of the assumption has not prevented the power thus arrogated 
 being allowed by very many, and the supposition that it can 
 exist elsewhere than in the imagination of the priest himself 
 and his disciples has been a heavy chain upon the progress of 
 humanity. 
 
 Still the thirst of man's heart for the office of the priest, 
 which has been exhibited, more or less, in all times, in all 
 places, under all religions, must have some real meaning. 
 And indeed that office derives its significance and power from 
 the deepest of all the instincts of humanity, the craving to 
 
 fi5 ^.29,43. 66 7'. 3 2. 
 
 33- 6S John ix. 22-34. 
 
196 THE LATER OR LEVITICAL LEGISLATION. 
 
 know something about Him who is exalted above all blessing 
 and praise, to be brought into the fuller consciousness of His 
 Presence, to have some sure hope of His Favour, at least, of 
 His Pity, to be able to believe that the utterance of our 
 hearts reaches His Ear, our song of adoration and thanks- 
 giving, or our moan of regret and self-abhorrence. The voice 
 of a fellow-mortal, who claims to have some assurance of 
 these things to offer, is too welcome to the longing spirit or to 
 the sick and weary soul, not to be welcomed. It is not for 
 us to judge our brother who may find the priestly office a 
 stay and support for his tottering steps along the way of life. 
 It is enough if we remember for ourselves that this is the 
 true priestly function, when one who is more spiritually 
 minded than his brethren, more pure in heart, more faithful 
 in life, who has thus been brought more near to God than 
 they, confirms their faith and quickens their love and holy 
 fear by sympathy with his own — even as he, the great high- 
 priest of our profession, 69 by his blessed teaching has brought 
 us all near to God, 70 and by the ministrations of his Father's 
 Love in life and death has opened for us the way of access 
 with boldness to His Presence 71 — even as we too, in our dif- 
 ferent relations, may day by day reveal the Father to each 
 other, by the spirit of Christ which abides in us, the filial spirit 
 of trust and loving obedience, and help to bring one another 
 near to His Footstool, in accordance with that word, ' One is 
 your Father, even God ; one is your Master, even Christ ; 
 and all ye are brethren.' 72 
 
 69 Heb.iii.i. T0 Rom.v.2, Eph.ii. i8,iii. 12. 
 
 71 Heb.xii. 19-22. " 2 Matt.xxiii.8,9. 
 
LECTURE XV. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 The account of the Mosaic Tabernacle, &c., part of the priestly legislation ; 
 in the O. S. the Tent of Meeting is set up for religious purposes outside the 
 Camp, under the charge of a layman, Joshua ; in the L. L. the Tabernacle is 
 set up in the centre of the Camp, under the charge of the whole body of 
 priests and Levites ; in the O.S. Jehovah descends in the pillar of cloud, and 
 speaks with Moses at the entrance of the Tent ; in the L. L. Jehovah speaks 
 from off the mercy-seat in the innermost recess of the Tabernacle ; in the O. S. 
 the Ark goes before the people ; in the L. L. it is carried in the middle of the 
 host ; these differences occur in various parts of the O. S. , which forms by 
 itself a connected story from Exodus to Joshua ; the L. L. brings forward into 
 special prominence Aaron ar?d his priesthood ; the O. S. nowhere speaks of 
 him as priest, but treats him merely as a colleague of Moses, as does also the 
 prophet Micah, whereas the very late Books of Chronicles, &c, follow the 
 lead of the L. L. ; the priestly interpolations in the story of Dathan and 
 Abiram, which contained originally no mention of Korah and his rebellion 
 against Aaron, as appears from Deuteronomy ; the probable historical meaning 
 of this narrative in its older and later forms ; the tendency to take refuge in 
 ritualism from the power of truth exemplified in Israel after the Captivity and 
 in our own times. 
 
 

 Pi|^^^ 
 
 V4&c» 
 
 Z.#£ LATER LEGISLATION COMPARED WITH THE 
 ORIGINAL STORY. 
 
 ;E have been considering the evidence afforded of 
 the very late origin of the Levitical Law, by the 
 mode in which the Deuteronomist treats the 
 question of the priesthood, showing that that Law 
 with its phrase, ' the sons of Aaron ' instead of ' the sons of 
 Levi,' and its far more liberal provision for the support of the 
 priests and Levites, could not have been known to him, or, in 
 other words, could not have been composed till after his time, 
 during or after the Captivity. 1 
 
 Let us turn now to another no less convincing proof of 
 this fact. You will remember the account in the Book of 
 Exodus of Moses going up into the Mount with Joshua, 2 and 
 remaining there in communion with Jehovah for forty days 
 and forty nights 3 — at the end of which it is added, ' And He 
 gave unto Moses, when He had made an end of communing 
 with him on Mount Sinai, two tables of stone, tables of the 
 Testimony, written with the finger of ELOHIM.' 4 And this 
 notice is immediately preceded by six chapters, which con- 
 tain minute directions, said to have been communicated by 
 Jehovah to Moses, for the construction of the Tabei-n c'e 
 
 1 p. 191-4. 2 E.xxiv. 13-15. 3 v. 18. 4 F» 
 
200 THE LATER LEGISLATION 
 
 and its vessels. 5 Was this a portion of the Original Story, or 
 was it introduced as part of these later insertions ? That 
 Tabernacle was to be a gorgeous Tent, with magnificent 
 curtains, 6 golden taches/ silver sockets, 8 and bars overlaid 
 with gold, 9 and a hanging for the door of ' blue and purple 
 and scarlet and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework.' 10 
 But, if this was to be the case, how was it that in Eli's time 
 the House of God at Shiloh, supposed to have been this very 
 same Mosaic Tent, which had been set up at that place by 
 Joshua, 11 when 'the land had rest' after the conquest of 
 Canaan, 12 had ' doorposts ' 13 and ' doors ' ? 14 Or how was it, if 
 this splendid Tabernacle was still in existence, that the Ark, 
 when brought back by the Philistines after the death of Eli, 
 was not restored at once to it, as the place expressly provided 
 by JEHOVAH Himself for its reception, but was allowed to re- 
 main for twenty years or more in the house of a private in- 
 dividual, whose son was ' sanctified to keep it ' 15 —apparently 
 a mere layman, or, if a Levite, as some suppose, yet as such 
 strictly forbidden by the Levitical Law to touch or even to 
 look upon the Ark on pain of death ? 16 How was it again 
 that when David brought up the Ark to Jerusalem, instead of 
 bringing with it the gorgeous Tabernacle, he himself erected 
 a Tent for it on Mount Zion ? 17 All these phenomena make 
 it plain that no such Tabernacle ever really existed, and that 
 this portion also of Exodus is no part of the Original Story, 
 but has been inserted by later writers ; and accordingly we find 
 that two of these six chapters are mainly employed in de- 
 scribing the dresses of the priests and the ceremonies to be 
 used at their consecration. 18 
 
 A further consideration will leave no doubt on this point. 
 We are told that, as Moses came down from the Mount with 
 
 s E.xxv-xxxi. 17. 6 E.xxvi. 7 2/.I-5. 8 v.6. 9 z/. 19-25. 
 
 10 ^.29. n v.31. 12 J.xviii. 1. 13 1S.1.9. ll lS.iii.15. 
 
 13 iS.vii.1,2. 16 N.iv. 15,20. 17 2S.vi. 17. ls E.xxviii,xxix. 
 
COMPARED WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY. 201 
 
 the two stone-tables in his hand, he beheld the Golden Calf 
 and the people dancing around it, and in anger and horror at 
 the sight he dashed the tables out of his hands and broke 
 them in pieces. 19 Then the Levites at his summons — that is, 
 the men of his own tribe 20 — rush through the Camp of Israel 
 from one end to the other, slaughtering all they meet. ' And 
 there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. 
 For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves to-day to JEHOVAH, 
 even every man upon his son and upon his brother, that He 
 may bestow upon you a blessing this day.' 21 What that 
 blessing most probably was we shall consider hereafter. 22 But 
 now Moses intercedes for the people, and after being plagued 
 they are forgiven ; 23 at all events, the order is issued for the 
 forward march to Canaan. 24 Then follows this remarkable 
 passage : — ' And Moses took the tent, and pitched it outside 
 the Camp, a little way off from the Camp, and it was called 
 [the Tabernacle of the Congregation, or rather, as it should 
 be more properly rendered, 25 ] the Tent of Meeting. And it 
 came to pass that everyone seeking JEHOVAH went out unto 
 the Tent of Meeting which was outside the Camp. And it 
 came to pass, when Moses went out of the Camp, that all the 
 people arose, and they stood each at the opening of his tent, 
 and they looked after Moses until he went into the Tent. 
 And it came to pass, when Moses had gone into the Tent, 
 that the pillar of cloud came down and stood at the opening 
 of the Tent, and He spake with Moses. And all the people 
 saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the Tent ; 
 and all the people arose and worshipped, each at the 
 entrance of his tent. And Jehovah spake unto Moses face 
 unto face, as a man speaketh unto his friend ; and he re- 
 turned unto the Camp, and his servant Joshua, a young man, 
 departed not out of the Tent.' 26 
 
 19 E.xxxii. 15-19. 20 E.ii.1-10. 21 E.xxxii.26 29. « Lect.XVII. 
 
 28 E.xxxii. 30-35. '-' E.xxxiii. 1. - s B. C.I. p. 382,4 10, 432. 26 E.xxxiii.7-11. 
 
202 THE LATER LEGISLATION 
 
 Now here we have several things to notice. This tent, 
 which Moses pitched outside the Camp, was, of course, not 
 the Tabernacle, which (according to the story as it now lies 
 before us) he had only just been instructed to make, and 
 which, in fact, he makes in a subsequent chapter. 27 But it is 
 here called ' the tent,' as if it were a tent well known to the 
 people, that is, as the New Commentary explains it, 'very 
 probably the one in which Moses was accustomed to dwell,' m 
 and to which the people may be supposed to have resorted 
 before, for judicious and religious purposes. 29 This tent he 
 now sets apart for sacred uses, and calls it the ' Tent of 
 Meeting,' the very name by which, in those preceding chapters 
 the splendid Tabernacle, presently to be built, is called re- 
 peatedly by Jehovah Himself, 30 expressly because there He 
 would ' meet with Israel/ 31 It would be strange if Moses in 
 the Original Story had taken upon himself to anticipate thus 
 the erection of this Divinely-ordered Tabernacle, and had 
 given this very same name to an ordinary tent. Plainly the 
 fact is, that in those six chapters the later writer has merely 
 copied the name already used in the passage just quoted from 
 the Original Story. 
 
 But where is Aaron ? or where is there any sign of the ex- 
 istence of priests in this passage ? True, Aaron and his sons 
 had not yet been consecrated. 32 But they had been already 
 designated for the sacred office ; 33 and we might have ex- 
 pected that they would have been overshadowed, as it were, 
 with their coming glory, so that Aaron or one of his four sons, 
 or, at least, a body' of Levites, would have been appointed 
 to keep continual watch in this sacred tent, rather than Joshua, 
 a mere layman?* ' a young man, the servant of Moses.' 35 
 
 27 E.xxxvi. 29 ^.C.I.p.410. - 29 E.xviii.7,12,13. 
 
 30 E.xxvii.2i,xxviii.43,xxix.4, 10, il,30,32,42,44,xxx. 16, i8,20,36,xxxi.7. 
 
 31 E.xxix.42,43,xxx.36. 32 L.viii. t 33 E.xxviii.i. 
 34 N.xiiLS. 3S E.xxxiii. 11, 
 
COMPARED WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY. 203 
 
 But here also we have the Original Story, which knew nothing 
 of any such extraordinary dignity now or hereafter to be 
 attached to Aaron or to the priests ' the sons of Aaron.' 
 
 Again, this tent is set up outside the Camp, and all who 
 desired to enquire of Jehovah went out to it. But the 
 splendid Tabernacle was to be set up in the very middle of the 
 Camp, the three Levite families being posted on three sides 
 of it, on the north, south, and west, 36 and Moses himself, with 
 Aaron and his sons, on the east, 37 and outside these the twelve 
 tribes ranged in four great camps, 38 the whole forming appa- 
 rently one immense square, with the Tabernacle in the 
 centre. 
 
 Once more, in this passage Jehovah descends in the pillar 
 of cloud and stands at the opening of the Tent, and there 
 speaks with Moses. But in the preceding chapters JEHOVAH 
 promises that He will commune with Moses ' from above the 
 mercy-seat, from between the two cherubs which are upon the 
 Ark of the Testimony ' 39 — that is, from the Holy of Holies, 
 in the innermost part of the Tabernacle, and not at the 
 entrance. Accordingly, the Book of Leviticus begins, ' And 
 Jehovah called unto Moses and spake unto him out of the 
 Tent of Meeting ' ; 40 and elsewhere we read, ' I will appear in 
 the cloud upon the mercy-seat,' 41 and again, 'And Moses 
 went into the Tent of Meeting to speak with Jehovah, and 
 one heard the voice of one speaking unto him from off the 
 mercy-seat that was upon the Ark of the Testimony.' 4a The 
 two ideas, it is plain, are totally different. 
 
 Lastly, in the Levitical Law the ' cloud by day ' or the 
 ' appearance of fire by night ' rests always upon the Taber- 
 nacle in the centre of the Camp when they are at rest ; 43 and, 
 when they are to be moved forward, it is ' taken up from the 
 
 Sfi X.i.53,iii.23,29,35. 37 X.iii.38. 3S N.ii.2,3, 10, 18,25. 
 
 39 E.xxv.22. 40 L.i.i. *' L.xvi.2. 
 
 42 N.vii.89. * 3 N.ix. 1 5, 1 6, 1 8, 1 9, 20, 22. 
 
204 THE LATER LEGISLATION 
 
 Tent/ 44 and is meant apparently to float over it still, as it is 
 carried in advance of the Ark in the middle of the host, 45 
 until the next resting-place is reached, when it drops again 
 upon the Tabernacle. But in the Original Story the pillar of 
 cloud descends when JEHOVAH will speak with Moses ; 46 and 
 the pillar ' of cloud by day ' or ' fire by night ' goes before them 
 when they march, 47 and the Ark itself leads the way, ' to 
 search out a resting-place for them.' 48 
 
 To a thoughtful reader of the Bible these contradictory 
 statements must often have seemed very perplexing, especially 
 if he had observed that, long after the Tabernacle has been 
 duly set in the centre of the Camp, once and again in the 
 Book of Numbers, the ' Tent of Meeting ' is spoken of as 
 pitched outside the Camp, as here, and it is necessary to go out 
 to it ; 49 while in each of these two passages, as well as in 
 another towards the end of Deuteronomy, JEHOVAH comes 
 down in the pillar of cloud, as here, and stands at the entrance 
 of the Tent, and speaks with Moses. 50 Of course, the expla- 
 nation is, that these three passages are all portions of the 
 Original Story, as appears plainly enough when it is taken out 
 by itself, like the Elohistic Narrative, and then is found to 
 form a connected whole, from the beginning of Exodus to the 
 end of Deuteronomy, or rather, to the end of the Book of 
 Joshua. 51 For the Pentateuch and Book of Joshua form 
 parts of one work, and in this last-named Book, as well as the 
 rest, we find portions of the Original Story, retouched by 
 the Deuteronomist in his marked prophetical style, 52 and 
 afterwards filled up by the priestly writers of the Levitical 
 Law. 53 
 
 44 v.\*J. 45 N.x. 17,21. 
 
 46 E.xxxiii.9. 47 E.xiii.2i,22,xiv. 19,24, N.x. 34. 
 
 48 N.x. 33. 49 N.xi.26,30,xii.4. 
 
 50 N.xi. i7,25,xii.5,io, D.xxxi. 15. S1 App. II. 
 
 52 i.3-i8,iii.2-4, io,iv.24,v.2-8, vii. 7-9, viii. 30-35, x. 12-14, xxi. 43-45, xxii. 1-6, 
 xxiii,xxiv. 1-25,31. 
 
 63 iv. 13,19, v. 10-12, vi. 19,24b, vii. 1,25c, ix. 15b, 17-2 1,2 7b, xi. 21-23, xii. 1-24, 
 xiii. 2 lb, 22, 23, xiv. 1-1 5, xvii. 3-6, xix. 5 i,xxi. I -42, xxii. 8-34, xxiv. 26, 2 7, 33. 
 
 
COMPARED WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY. 205 
 
 I have thus tried to give you some idea of the Later or 
 Levitical Legislation, which takes up so large a space in the 
 Pentateuch, no less than two-thirds of Exodus, Leviticus, and 
 Numbers, and which is plainly to be distinguished from the 
 other parts of those books by its own peculiar phraseology, as 
 well as by the subjects it treats of. The consideration of the 
 style belongs, of course, to critical works : 54 but it may 
 interest you if I draw your attention more closely to some of 
 the contents. 
 
 We saw in the last Lecture that the priesthood, with its 
 rights, duties, and prerogatives, — the paramount sanctity and 
 dignity of the priests above that of their servants, the Levites, 
 for whom a more moderate provision is made, — and the 
 exaltation of both these orders of clergy above the laity, — 
 engross a very large portion of this Levitical Law. The 
 effort to bring into greater prominence the activity of Aaron, 
 as the head of the future Aaronic priesthood, is strikingly 
 exhibited in the account of the ten plagues, where several 
 insertions are made, 55 apparently with this express object in 
 view. In the Original Story it is Moses who invariably takes 
 the leading part, who is to be 'as God to Aaron', 56 who per- 
 forms miracles with his rod. 57 But in these later insertions 
 Moses is to be ' as God to Pharaoh', 58 and Jehovah orders 
 Moses, ' Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod and it shall become 
 a [serpent or] crocodile,' 59 and so in other instances. 60 In 
 the Original Story Jehovah speaks to Moses only ; 61 in the 
 later insertions JEHOVAH speaks to Moses and Aaron.* 2 In 
 the Original Story Jehovah summons Aaron and his two 
 
 M See Pent. VI. 
 
 a5 E.vi. 6-8, 10-30, vii. 1-13,19,20^22, viii.5-7, 15-19, ix.8-12,35, xi.9,10, xii. 
 1-28,40-51, xiv.8, xvi. lb, 2-36, xix. 1,20-25, xxiv.16,17, xxv. i-xxxi. 17, xxxiv.28, 
 'the Ten Words,' 33-35, xxxv-xl. 
 
 56 E.iv. 16. 57 E.iv.2,3,vii. 15, i7,2ob,ix.22,23,x. 12, 13,21,22. 
 
 58 E.vii. 1. 59 E.vii.9,10,12. 60 E.viii.5,6,16, 17. 
 
 61 E.vii. I4,viii. i,20,ix. 1, I3,22,x. 1, 12,21, xi. i,xiii. i,xiv. 1, &c. 
 
 62 E.vi. 13, vii.8, ix.8, xii. 1,43, cojnp. L.xi. 1, xiii. 1, xiv.33.xv. 1, X.ii.i, iv. 1,17, 
 xiv. 26, xvi. 20, xix. 1, xx. I2,xxvi.i. 
 
2o6 • THE LATER LEGISLATION 
 
 sons with seventy of the elders of Israel, to come to the foot 
 of the Mount with Moses, 63 where the privilege in question is 
 made common to all these seventy-three persons. But the 
 priestly writer inserts a command for Aaron alone to go up 
 with Moses, 64 a command, however, which is nowhere carried 
 out. In the Original Story Aaron figures conspicuously only 
 on two occasions, and then not at all with credit to himself — 
 first, in the affair of the Golden Calf, 65 next on the occasion 
 where Aaron and Miriam ' speak against Moses/ saying, 
 ' Hath JEHOVAH indeed spoken only by Moses ? Hath He 
 not spoken also by us ? ' and both are severely rebuked by 
 JEHOVAH, and Miriam is smitten with leprosy. 66 In the 
 later insertions once indeed Moses and Aaron together 
 provoke Jehovah by a fit of impatience, 67 for which they are 
 doomed never to set their feet upon the soil of Canaan. 68 
 But everywhere Aaron stands in the foreground of the picture 
 almost as much as Moses, and himself receives Divine com- 
 munications without the intervention or even the presence of 
 Moses. 69 In short, in the Original Story Aaron throughout 
 appears not as a priest at all, but merely as a subordinate 
 colleague of Moses, 70 apparently a fellow-leader with Moses and 
 Miriam. 71 And so says the prophet Micah, ' I brought thee 
 out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed thee out of the house 
 of servants, and I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and 
 Miriam ' ; 72 and this is the only passage in all the prophetical 
 books in which Aaron is even mentioned. It may be noticed 
 also that in the priestly insertions, though Aaron indeed, as 
 also Eleazar, his son and successor, is. ranked after Moses, yet 
 Eleazar is always placed before Joshua, the ecclesiastical 
 before the civil chief. 73 
 
 63 E.xxiv. 1,9. 64 E.xix.24. 6S E.xxxii. 1-5,21-25. 
 
 66 N.xii. * 67 N.xx. 10. 
 
 68 N.xx. I2,24,xxvii, 12-14, D.xxxii.48-52. 69 N.xviii. 1,8,20. 
 
 70 E.iv. 1 4- 1 6, 2 7-30, v. 1,4,20, viii.8,12,25, ix.27, x.3,8, 16, xviii. 12, xxiv. 1,9, 14, 
 xxxii.1,5, N.xiii.26. 7I E.xv.20, N.xii. 72 Mic.vi.4. 
 
 73 N.xxxii.28,xxxiv. 17, J.xiv. I,xvii.4,xix.5l,xxi. I. 
 
COMPARED WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY. 207 
 
 It would seem therefore, as I have said, that Aaron owes 
 his fame as a priest entirely to his priestly Legislation, written 
 during or after the Captivity. Accordingly he is never even 
 named in the two Books of Kings, composed by Jeremiah, 
 himself a priest, before the Captivity ; and it is mentioned that 
 Jeroboam 'made priests from all parts of the people, w T ho 
 were not of the sons of Levi" 74 — it is not said, 'who were not 
 of the sons of Aaron! So, too, in his prophecies, as observed 
 in the last Lecture, 75 Jeremiah speaks only of ' the priests the 
 Levites,' as does his brother priest Ezekiel, the latter also 
 calling the faithful priests ' the sons of Zadok.' On the other 
 hand, in the Books of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah, 
 written long after the Captivity, when the Levitical Law had 
 become a recognized part of the Pentateuch, Aaron takes his 
 place of honour as the head of the priesthood, 76 and the 
 Levites are everywhere distinguished from the priests, 77 and 
 stand in due subordination to the ' sons of Aaron.' 78 
 
 But perhaps the most striking instance of the manner in 
 which these later priestly writers have modified the older 
 narrative in order to support the claims of the priesthood, is 
 afforded by the account of the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and 
 Abiram, as it now lies before us in N.xvi, xvii. The story is 
 familiar to you all, as having been annually read in the 
 Sunday Lessons. It tells us how ' Korah son of Izhar, son of 
 Kohath, son of Levi,' and Dathan and Abiram, sons of 
 Reuben, 79 ' gathered themselves together against Moses and 
 against Aaron,' being supported by a formidable band of 
 
 " 1K.xii.31. » p. 193. 
 
 76 iCh.vi.3,49,5o,xii.27,xv.4,xxiii. I3,28,32,xxiv. I,i9,3i,xxvii. 17. 2Ch.xiii.9, 
 lo,xxvi. i8,xxix.2i,xxxi. I9,xxxv. 14, Ezr.vii.5, Neh.x. 385X^.47. 
 
 77 e.g. iCh.ix.2, 2Ch.v. 12, Ezr.vi. i8,viii. 15, Xeh.x.38,xiii.5. 
 
 ;s iCh.vi.48,49,xxiii.27,28, 2Ch.viii. I4,xxix.i6,xxxv. 11, Neh.xii.47. 
 
 79 N.xvi. I : as nothing more is said about ' On son of Peleth ' in this story or 
 in any of the other places where this rebellion is mentioned (N.xxvi.9, D.xi.6, 
 Ps.cvi. 17), it is probable that there has been here some mistake in copying, and 
 that ' Peleth' is a corruption for ' Pallu,' so that the passage should run ' Dathan 
 and Abiram, sons of Eliab, son of Pallu, son of Reuben.' 
 
20S THE LATER LEGISLATION 
 
 Levites and laymen 80 — how Moses uttered an indignant 
 rebuke to the ambitious Levites, i Hear, I pray you, ye sons 
 of Levi! Is it little for you that the God of Israel has 
 separated you from the congregation of Israel to bring 
 you near to Himself, to do the service of the Tabernacle of 
 Jehovah, and to stand before the Congregation to minister 
 unto them ? Yea, he hath brought thee near and all thy 
 brethren the sons of Levi with thee : and seek ye the priest- 
 hood also ? ' 81 — how in the end the earth opened her mouth 
 and swallowed up Dathan and Abiram and their families, 82 
 while Korah and his company of incense-bearers were struck 
 dead by lightning, 83 and then the warning is given that none 
 but those of the seed of Aaron should presume to offer 
 incense on pain of similar destruction 84 — how the people 
 murmured against Moses and Aaron for the doom which had 
 overtaken their fellows, 85 and a plague broke out, which was 
 stopped by the act of Aaron, who ' ran and put on incense 
 and made an atonement for the people, and he stood between 
 the dead and the living, and the plague was stayed ' 86 — how 
 after this Moses by Divine Command took twelve rods for 
 the twelve tribes, and laid them up before JEHOVAH in the 
 Tabernacle, and in the morning ' lo ! the rod of Aaron for the 
 House of Levi ' budded and blossomed 87 — and how this ' rod 
 of Aaron that budded' was ordered to be kept as a token 
 against the rebels, 88 and the terrified people exclaimed, ' Lo ! 
 we die ! we perish ! we all perish ! whosoever cometh at all 
 near unto the Tabernacle of Jehovah shall die : shall we be 
 consumed with dying ? ' 89 Then in the next chapter the 
 priests and Levites are introduced as bearing in their different 
 degrees this awful burden of approaching the Sanctuary on 
 behalf of their lay brethren, 90 ' that there be no more wrath 
 
 80 57.2,7. 81 w.8-ia 82 ^.32-34. 83 57.35. 
 
 84 Z/.40. M Z/.41. 86 57.47,48. 8: N.xvii.1-8. 
 
 88 N.xvii. 10. 89 v. 12,13. 90 N.xviii. 1-7. 
 
COM TARED WITH THE ORIGINAL STORY. 209 
 
 upon the children of Israel,' ' and the stranger that cometh 
 nigh shall be put to death.' 91 And after this abundant 
 supplies are secured for the priests and Levites from the sacri- 
 fices, firstlings, firstfruits, and vows and tithes ; 92 and so the 
 priesthood, with its servants the Levites, is not only esta- 
 blished, but richly endowed in Israel, not by human laws, but 
 on the direct authority of JEHOVAH Himself! 
 
 Now out of all this legislation in the interest of the priests 
 not one word belongs to the Original Story, which spoke only 
 of the rebellion of Dathan and Abiram against Moses, and 
 made no mention at all of Korah, or of Aaron and the rights 
 of the priesthood. This appears at once from the manner in 
 which the Deuteronomist refers to this affair- — ' and what He 
 did unto Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, son of Reuben, 
 how the earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, and 
 their households and their tents, and all the substance that 
 was in their possession in the midst of all Israel.' 93 You see 
 that nothing is here said about Korah, or the two hundred 
 and fifty men, ' princes of the Assembly, famous in the Con- 
 gregation, men of renown,' 94 who were burnt with ' fire from 
 JEHOVAH.' 95 In fact, the Original Story records a lay rebel- 
 lion against Moses, the leader and ruler chosen by Jehovah, 
 the idea of which was perhaps suggested by the rebellious 
 feelings entertained by the Ten Tribes towards the House of 
 David and the supremacy of Judah from the first, especially 
 in the time of David himself, 96 during which this passage was 
 probably written. And this story, as it lay before the eyes 
 of the Deuteronomist, can still be taken out as a complete 
 consistent narrative, 97 leaving behind Korah, an$ Aaron, and 
 all the priestly elements, which have been added in a totally 
 different style and phraseology, viz. that which marks 
 throughout the Later Legislation. And, no doubt, these in- 
 
 •' ^.3,4,5,7. 92 z^.8-32. 93 D.xi.6. 94 N.xvi.2. 95 Z/.35. 
 
 96 2S.ii.8,9,iii.i,xix.43,xx. 1,2, iK.xii. 16-20,28. 97 See A^/>.II. 
 
 P 
 
210 THE LATER LEGISLATION 
 
 sertions tell us indirectly of some fierce struggle of the leading 
 Levitical families against the claims of the priesthood to lord 
 it over them, on the return from the Captivity. 
 
 Thus the driest details of the Levitical Law, rightly under- 
 stood, become invested with real historical interest and 
 meaning for us, though they reveal to us the history of times 
 far later than those of Moses and the Exodus. But certainly 
 the result of these enquiries makes the patent peculiarity of 
 the Jewish history, the cessation of the prophetical spirit after 
 the Captivity, intelligible and highly instructive, instead of its 
 being, as it used to appear, while it was supposed that the 
 Levitical system had all along coexisted with the prophets, 
 an unaccountable mystery. That the free utterance of the 
 Spirit of God should have been stifled beneath the mass of 
 minute ritualism imposed by the Later Legislation in the 
 name of God, is very conceivable. But how remarkable is 
 this phenomenon, and how instructive ! For centuries we 
 find the great prophets of Israel struggling to deliver their 
 countrymen from slavery to the Sun-Gods and other ' Lords ' 
 with their bloody and licentious rites ; they succeed at last 
 with the aid of the Babylonish Captivity : a race of pure 
 jEHOVAH-worshippers returns to Jerusalem : and lo ! their 
 first act is to enslave the minds of their descendants beneath 
 the yoke of priestly ordinances, from which it required the 
 teaching of Jesus, and the irruption of the Gentile world into 
 the fold of the Church through the breach which St. Paul 
 made in the name of Jesus, to save men's minds : and the seed 
 of the rescued have employed their freedom in erecting a new 
 set of prison-walls for the spirit of man under the sanction of 
 the Church ! And now, when our martyred Reformers have 
 laid down their lives to secure for us the enjoyment of that 
 liberty wherewith Christ has made us free as children of God, 
 the priestly spirit is at work again, to quench, if possible, the 
 light of Science, to suppress the Truth, and to bring back the 
 
COMPARED WITH THE. ORIGINAL STORY. 211 
 
 pernicious system which we thought had been banished from 
 our Church for ever ! 
 
 The truth is, that the ritualistic system is for not a few of 
 its votaries, clergy and laity, but a means of escaping from 
 the duty which is laid upon us of pondering solemnly those 
 great questions which occupy — and in God's good Provi- 
 dence were meant to occupy — the present age. It may avail 
 as a temporary expedient, in a time of transition like this, to 
 block out anxious thought upon such questions, and may 
 help to fill up in some measure the vacuum which would 
 otherwise exist in the minds of many, who live in ignorance 
 of the grand results of scientific enquiry on this and other 
 domains, and who are content to do so, rather than be troubled 
 with ' doubts ' which they have been taught by their reli- 
 gious directors to regard as ' sins ' — as sparks of hellish fire, 
 to be stamped out as if proceeding from the fuse of a ' loaded 
 shell shot into the fortress of the soul ' 98 by the Great Enemy, 
 when in reality they were signs of a Divine Fire, which has 
 been kindled in our midst in these days by the Spirit of God, 
 as in the days of the First Reformation. But this state of 
 things can only last for a while. By degrees the light and 
 life, which are God's precious gifts to the present age, will 
 penetrate into every corner of Society. And, as surely as the 
 Earth's motion around the Sun, though once condemned as 
 heretical and blasphemous, is now recognised as a fact to be 
 taught as elementary knowledge in the commonest village- 
 school, so before long will the non-Mosaic origin and the un- 
 historical character of the whole Pentateuchal story, together 
 with the very late date of the Levitical Legislation, be re- 
 garded as established facts in Biblical Instruction, in the 
 Pulpit and the Sunday-school — through the very touch of 
 which the whole foundation of the priestly and ritualistic 
 system crumbles at once into dust. 
 
 9B Bp. WlLBERFORCE. 
 P 2 
 
LECTURE XVI. 
 
 * 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 The L.L. enforces with like severity the paramount sanctity of the priesthood 
 and a minute ritualism, and especially enjoins the observance of the sabbath 
 before any sabbath-law had been given ; this severity more apparent than real, 
 as shown in the account of the slaughter of the Midianites ; the L. L. repeats 
 incidents of the O. S. ; it makes a pretence of strict historical accuracy, as in 
 the numberings of the people ; it makes an absurdly extravagant provision for 
 the three priests and their families, as also for the Levites ; the Levitical 
 cities never existed ; the Day of Atonement was unknown before the Captivity ; 
 the Sabbatical year, as prescribed in the L.L., a mistaken perversion of the 
 original institution, was not observed till after the Captivity, and the Jubilee 
 never at all ; the New Bible Commentary evades the difficulty by ascribing 
 such laws to Moses, not to Jehovah. 
 
 
THE LATE DATE OF THE LEVITICAL LEGISLA- 
 TION. 
 
 E have seen that the priestly writers of the Levitical 
 Law were very zealous in advancing the interests 
 of their order, and never hesitate to secure their 
 dignity and their emoluments by appeals to 
 Divine injunctions, and Divine judgments for neglect or dis- 
 regard of them. Now and then, indeed, a warning is given 
 to the priests themselves, as when Nadab and Abihu, the 
 eldest sons of Aaron, are struck by lightning for offering 
 incense with unhallowed fire, 1 when apparently in a state of 
 intoxication, since it follows immediately — 'And JEHOVAH 
 spake unto Aaron saying, Drink no wine nor strong drink, 
 thou nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the Tent of 
 Meeting, lest ye die.' 2 But elsewhere these same threats are 
 used to enforce the sanctity of the priests above the Levites, 3 
 and of both above the laity, 4 or else to punish a number of 
 most trivial, as well as more serious, offences against the 
 ritual law. Thus the doom of death or of excommunication 
 is pronounced against any who should ' compound any 
 ointment like the holy ointment, or put any of it upon a 
 stranger,' 5 or ' make any scent like the holy perfume.' 6 or eat 
 
 1 L.x. 1,2. 
 
 4 N.i.5i,xviii.22. 
 
 E.xxx. 
 
 3 N.iii. io,38,xvi.40„ 
 6 v.&. 
 
216 THE LATE DATE OF 
 
 of the sacrifices being unclean, 7 as by touching for instance a 
 dead snail. 8 In this Law also the Sabbath is enforced with 
 very strict injunctions, 9 and in one place before any Sabbath- 
 law had been given ; 10 just as Aaron is said to have ' laid up 
 a pot of manna before the Testimony,' n when as yet no Ark 
 or Testimony existed, and no hint had been given about 
 Aaron's priesthood, or just as Moses under Sinai is made to 
 order the 'priests that come near to JEHOVAH ' to 'sanctify 
 themselves, lest JEHOVAH break forth upon them,' 12 when as 
 yet there were no such priests, but ' young men of the children 
 of Israel ' offered sacrifices, 13 and a ' young man, Joshua, the 
 servant of Moses,' kept watch and slept in the Tent of 
 Meeting. 14 Moreover, the violation of the Sabbath by doing 
 any kind of work, such as lighting a fire, was by this Law to 
 be punished with death ; 15 and the decree in this case is en- 
 forced by the example of a man being stoned, by express 
 command of Jehovah, for ' gathering sticks on the Sabbath- 
 day.' 16 This passage, however, is shown to be one of the 
 very latest insertions in the Pentateuch, not merely by its 
 general agreement in style and language with the other portions 
 of this Levitical Legislation, but expressly by its close resem- 
 blance to another passage, where a man is in like manner 
 stoned for blaspheming ' the Name ' 17 — not * the name of 
 JEHOVAH,' but simply ' the Name ' 18 — an expression used by 
 superstitious Jews in later times to avoid mention of the 
 Divine Name ; as the Greek translators always substitute for 
 JEHOVAH the expression 'the Lord,' which has been copied in 
 the later Vulgate, and unfortunately retained in our English 
 Version. But it is plain that all this severity, like that in 
 Deuteronomy against the nations in Canaan, 19 is more appa- 
 
 7 L.vii.20. 
 
 
 9 L.xi.29-31. 
 
 " 
 
 9 E.xxxi. 12-17, 
 
 10 E.xvi. 22-30. 
 
 
 11 I/.34- 
 
 
 12 E.xix.22,24. 
 
 13 E.xxiv.5. 
 
 
 ' 4 E.xxxiii. 11. 
 
 
 15 E.xxxv. 1-3. 
 
 16 N. xv. 32-36. 
 
 17 L. 
 
 xxiv. 10-16. 
 
 ,B v. 11, 16. 
 
 1!1 P . 1 78-9. 
 
THE LEV1TICAL LEGISLATION. 217 
 
 rent than real, and is intended merely to deter from the com- 
 mission of such offences — with this difference, however, that 
 the Deuteronomist, in the true spirit of a prophet, wishes to 
 prevent the Israelites from taking part in the debasing idola- 
 tries of heathen worship, which militated with inward purity 
 of heart, whereas the Levitical Law denounces chiefly breaches 
 of mere ceremonial law, which, according to priestly notions, 
 interfered with the observance of the command ' Be ye holy, 
 for I am holy.' 20 
 
 For instance, when the priestly writer tells us that 12,000 
 Israelites ' avenged Jehovah on Midian ' 21 by killing in 
 battle 88,000 warriors, and then butchering in cold blood 
 88,000 women and girls and 32,000 boys, carrying off also as 
 slaves 32,000 young female children, 22 he apparently feels no 
 horror or compunction at recording these facts, but coolly 
 describes the deliberate massacre of so many thousand 
 defenceless persons as a religious act. He is anxious, how- 
 ever, that the booty taken in cattle and slaves shall be pro- 
 perly divided, the priests and Levites getting, of course, their 
 shares, 23 including 'Jehovah's tribute ' of 32 young female 
 slaves for the priests, 24 as also that the chief actors in the 
 affair shall be duly ' cleansed ' — ' Abide ye in the Camp seven 
 days ; whosoever hath killed any person, and whosoever hath 
 touched any slain, purify both yourselves and your captives on 
 the third day and on the seventh day ; and ye shall wash your 
 clothes on the seventh day and be clean, and afterwards ye 
 shall come into the Camp.' 25 Happily, this frightful butchery, 
 exceeding infinitely in atrocity the tragedy at Cawnpore, has 
 been carried out only on paper. Still it shows how the 
 writer's mind must have been warped and corrupted, that he 
 
 20 L.xi. 44,45. 21 N.xxxi.3. 
 
 2 - #.7,17,18,35 : 32,000 young girls — say under 15 years — imply at least 8,000 
 females under 20, and 80,000 over 20, that is, 88,000 women, and full-grown 
 girls, and consequently 88,000 men and full-grown youths, and 32,000 boys. 
 23 N.xxxi.25-30. 21 #.40,41. " v. 19,24. 
 
2i8 THE LATE DATE OF 
 
 could even compose such a narrative as this, without being 
 sensible of the violence done by it to our best feelings as men, 
 unless indeed our own minds, as the result of long-continued 
 traditionary teaching, have been warped and corrupted 
 also. But he further assures us, in utter defiance of reason 
 and common-sense, that all this was done, and 800,000 head 
 of cattle carried off, by 12,000 Israelites without the loss of a 
 single man 26 — not one of the 80,000 warriors having struck a 
 death-blow in defence of his life and all he held dear on earth 
 — not one even of the 88,000 women and girls or 32,000 
 boys having struck down one of the murderers, who had 
 killed their parents and children, husbands and brothers and 
 sisters, and were now about to butcher themselves. And he 
 tells us that the captains brought, as a thank-offering for this 
 immunity, a magnificent present for the Sanctuary, 'jewels 
 of gold, chains and bracelets, rings, earrings, and tablets,' ' to 
 make atonement for their souls.' 27 It is surely time in this age of 
 the world that the true account of this matter should be clearly 
 given, instead of attempting to defend this narrative as real 
 history, as the New Commentary does by saying — ' No doubt, 
 a general license to slay at pleasure could hardly have been 
 given without demoralising those employed. But the com- 
 mission of the Israelites in the text must not be so conceived. 
 They had no discretion to kill or spare. They were bidden 
 to exterminate without mercy, and brought back to their task 
 when they showed signs of flinching.' 23 
 
 Whenever, in fact, the priestly writer steps out of his favourite 
 beaten track of mere ritualistic legislation and passes into 
 narrative, his stories have often a gloomy — even at times a 
 savage — character, 29 very different from the life-like spirited 
 sketches of the Jehovist ; and they show, moreover, great 
 sameness and poverty of invention. Thus, instead of intro- 
 
 2S ^.5,49. « ^5o-54- 28 B.C.,l.p. 7 66. 
 
 89 L.x, i,2,xxiv, 10-16, N.xv. 32-36, xvi. 35-50, xxv, 6-15, xxxu 
 
THE LEVITICAL LEGISLATION. 219 
 
 during new incidents, he merely repeats before the arrival at 
 Sinai the accounts of the manna and the quails, 30 using some- 
 times the very words of the older writer at a later point of the 
 wanderings, 31 and introducing here, as I have said, the Ark 
 and the priesthood of Aaron out of their proper place, 32 so 
 betraying at once the unhistorical character of his additions. 
 And in other instances his own statements help very much to 
 betray this, and thus to undo in some measure the evil of his 
 work, as we have just seen in the case of the exaggerated 
 account of the slaughter of the Midianites. But so, too, in 
 numbering the people, the priestly writer shows a deliberate 
 purpose to give to his statements an appearance of strict his- 
 torical accuracy. The Original Story had spoken of the host 
 of Israel as consisting of' about 600,000 men besides women 
 and children' 33 — an enormous number truly, which implies an 
 entire population of about three millions ; and since there 
 were in the wilderness no upper and lower stories, no garrets 
 or underground cellars, none of the appliances for crowding 
 which a great city provides, but all lived upon the ground in 
 tents, the whole encampment would have covered about the 
 same area as LONDON. And, of course, the question would 
 immediately arise as to how such a vast population could 
 have found wood and water in the barren waste, or pasture 
 for their innumerable flocks and herds, if they themselves 
 were fed all along on manna — though the story seems not to 
 have contemplated this, but only to mean that manna was 
 afforded on two separate occasions. 34 Above all, after the 
 well-known experience of only 20,000 at the Diamond Fields, 
 with a splendid river within their reach, we might well ask 
 how this immense Camp, without any sewage arrangements 
 and with very scanty supplies of water, could have kept free 
 from pollution and fever. In short, a multitude of such 
 
 80 E.xvi. 3I v. 13b, 14,31, comp. N.xi.7,8b,9. 
 
 ^.33,34. M E.xii.37, N.xi.21. ai E.xvi, N.xi.4-9. 
 
220 THE LATE DATE OF 
 
 questions might be asked, and have been asked, and the diffi- 
 culty of replying to them has been so great that one Com- 
 mentator has been driven to the necessity of suggesting that 
 for 600,000 we should read 60,000, when ' all would be clear, 
 every numerical difficulty worth thinking of would vanish at 
 once ' ; though he adds in a note on the very same page, 
 ' Notwithstanding the admitted difficulty of the large numbers, 
 it is very questionable whether the difficulties would not be 
 greater on the supposition that the number were very much 
 less ' ? 35 
 
 But it may be fairly assumed that this sum-total of 600,000 
 warriors was only set down hastily, without due consideration 
 of the consequences, by one who was recording an imaginary 
 story, but had probably no idea of teaching it as actual 
 historical fact. It is very different when we turn to the priestly 
 writer, and find that, not content with the number as origi- 
 nally given, * about 600,000', he has defined the total accurately 
 as 603,5 50, 36 dividing it carefully among the twelve tribes ; 
 though, strangely enough, the number for each tribe is given 
 as so many round hundreds? 1 except one with an odd fifty, 38 
 and, still more strangely, the number of the whole host is 
 identically the same as he represents it to have been six 
 months previously, 39 as if the number of warriors who had 
 become full-grown in the interval had exactly equalled the 
 number of those who had passed beyond the military age or 
 died ! But he is not even content with this. ' He records 
 another numbering thirty-eight years afterwards, at the end of 
 the wanderings, where the separate numbers for the different 
 tribes are all, as before, round hundreds f* except one with an 
 odd thirty, 41 and are most artificially constructed, six tribes 
 having more than 50,000 at each numbering, and six less, 
 
 35 Bp. Browne [Eloh. Psalms, p. 26.) 36 N. 1.46,11.32. 
 
 37 N.i. 21, 23,27, &c. 3S Z/.25. 30 E.xxxviii.26. 
 
 i0 N.xxvi. 14, 18,22, &c. u 7'. 7. 
 
THE LEVITICAL LEGISLATION. 221 
 
 some being increased in the interval and some diminished, but 
 so that the total is nearly the same on the second occasion as 
 on the first, viz. 601,73c), 42 implying that, through a Divine 
 judgment for their offences, the population, instead of increas- 
 ing, had slightly diminished in the wilderness. 
 
 So, again, the prodigious provision made for the support 
 of the priesthood — the breast and the hind-leg of all the 
 peace-offerings, the whole of the sin-offerings and trespass- 
 offerings, except the suet burnt upon the altar, all of the 
 meal-offerings except a handful burnt as a memorial, all the 
 firstfruits, all the firstlings, all the votive offerings, and one- 
 tenth of all the tithes, 43 from a population like that of LONDON, 
 having vast multitudes of sheep and oxen, 44 is made — for 
 whom? — for just three priests, Aaron and his sons, 45 Eleazar 
 and Ithamar, and their families, these two having been in- 
 troduced by the priestly writer, 46 apparently to supply the 
 place of Nadab and Abihu killed (according to him), by 
 lightning, 47 Aaron having only these two sons in the Original 
 Story, 48 as Moses also had only two sons. 49 For instance, 
 the 'sin-offerings ' were to be eaten only by the males ' in the 
 most holy place ' ; 50 and the pigeons or turtle-doves alone, to 
 be brought as sin-offerings for the birth of children 51 for 
 three millions of people, would have averaged about 250 a 
 day, 52 or more than 96,000 annually, and all to be eaten by 
 three priests ' in the most holy place ' ! — to say nothing about 
 the' possibility of such numbers of pigeons or turtle-doves 
 having been obtained in the wilderness. It might be sup- 
 posed that these provisions were intended for after-time, 
 when the people would be settled in Canaan, and the number 
 of priests would be increased, though indeed there would 
 
 12 ^.51. 4a N.xviii. 8-19,25-28. 44 N.xxxi. 32-34, xxxii. 1. 
 
 45 N.xviii.8, E.vi.23. „. 46 E.xxviii.i. 
 
 47 L.x. 1,2,6,12, 16, N.iii.2,4,xxvi.6o,6i. 48 E.xxiv. 1,9. 
 
 49 E.xviii.3,4. 50 N.xviii.9, 10. 51 L.xii.6. 
 
 52 The births in London for a week (Tizzies, Sept. 3, 1862) were 1,852. 
 
222 THE LATE DATE OF 
 
 seem to have been only three at Shiloh in Eli's time. 53 But 
 not a trace of such intention really appears in the narrative. 
 On the contrary some of the Levitical Laws are introduced 
 with the words ' When ye be come into the land of Canaan/ 54 
 and are thus expressly distinguished from the rest of that 
 legislation ; while in others the ' Camp ' is mentioned, 55 im- 
 plying therefore that they were meant to be put in force in 
 the wilderness. In short, the unhistorical character of these 
 laws is self-evident: they are merely insertions of later 
 priestly writers. 
 
 So, too, the Levites, numbered as 22,000 males of all ages, 56 
 implying about 12,000 adults, are to have the tithes of 
 600,000 Israelites ; 57 so that each single Levite, without his 
 own labour or that of his family, was to receive as much as 
 five Israelites obtained by their daily toil ! — except a tenth 
 which was to go to the three priests, 58 each of whom, there- 
 fore, was to receive as much as four hundred Levites, or two 
 thousand Israelites ! ! Here, again, the unhistorical character 
 of this legislation is obvious, in spite of the argument which 
 has been urged that ' tithes are never paid punctiliously, and 
 were then without doubt paid with just as little conscientious- 
 ness as now, when the tithe-owners often scarcely receive the 
 twentieth.' 59 But this is represented not as a human law, 
 but as a Divine Command, which was meant to be religiously 
 obeyed. 
 
 Once more, in the Levitical Law, forty-eight cities with 
 their suburbs are assigned to the Levites, 60 of which thirteen 
 — that is, about a fourth of the whole — are given to the ' sons 
 of Aaron the priests ' 61 — out of all proportion, of course, to 
 their relative numbers, which were as one to 4,000 ; nor is it 
 
 33 iS.ii. 12-17,34. 54 L.xiv.34,xix.23,xxiii. lo",xxv.2, N.xv.2, i8,xxxiv. 2. 
 
 65 L.iv. I2,2i,vi. ii,xiii.46,xiv.3,8,xvi.26,2 7,28,xvii. 3, N.xix. 3, 7,9.. 
 
 56 N.iii.39. h " N.xviii.21-24. 58 N.xviii.7/.25-2S. 
 
 i9 Keil, II.p.266. «° N.xxxv.1-7. 61 J.xxi. 13-19. 
 
THE LEVI TIC A L LEGISLATION. 223 
 
 easy to see what two priests and their children and grand- 
 children — for Eleazar was still living 62 — would have done 
 with thirteen cities. But, very singularly, these thirteen priestly 
 cities are all fixed in the territories of Judah and Benjamin, 
 that is, close to the site of the future Temple, conveniently 
 for the future priests; and this is supposed to be done at a 
 time when the Temple was not even thought of, and Mount 
 Zion was still, and remained for centuries afterwards, in the 
 hands of the Jebusites, the original inhabitants of the land ! 63 
 Moreover, we find in Deuteronomy a merciful provision that 
 there shall be six ' cities of refuge,' to which one who had 
 killed another accidentally might flee and be safe from the 
 avenger of blood. In his main address Moses merely directs 
 the people to sever three cities in Canaan itself for this 
 purpose, and, if their land be enlarged, to add three more, 64 
 which, however, in the four chapters afterwards prefixed, the 
 writer inadvertently makes Moses do himself. 65 It need 
 hardly be said that these six 'cities of refuge,' three on 
 each side of the Jordan, are included by the priestly legislator 
 among the Levitical cities, 66 — but most abruptly, before a 
 word has been said as yet about the reason for which these 
 cities were to be set apart, which is first explained in Deutero- 
 nomy. It is possible that the writer really expected this 
 arrangement to be carried out, at least to some extent, after 
 the return from the Captivity. But, however this may be, 
 there is no sign in the history that any such cities were 
 ever at any time recognized in Israel ; and Nob, the ' city of 
 the priests ' which Saul ravaged, was not one of the Levitical 
 cities. 67 
 
 Nor is there any sign before the Captivity of the Day of 
 Atonement having been kept, the observance of which as a 
 day of fasting, on the tenth day of the seventh month, is strictly 
 
 63 v. I. 63 2S.tf.6-9. " D.xix. 1-7,8-10. 
 
 " D.v.41-43. 6<s N.xxxv.6. 6: 1S.xxii.19. 
 
224 THE. LATE DATE OF 
 
 required in the Levitical Law under pain of death. 68 The 
 Deuteronomist does not mention it, and it is plain that 
 Ezekiel knew nothing about it, since, while giving special 
 directions for the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, 
 and the Feast of Tabernacles, 69 he appoints an atonement to 
 be made annually for the Sanctuary and people, very similar 
 to that ordered for the Day of Atonement, and perhaps 
 the original type of the latter, on the first and seventh days of 
 the first month?* But after the Captivity we find this fasting- 
 day strictly observed, so as to be called simply ' the day.' 71 
 
 The Sabbatical year is also enjoined in this Law, JEHOVAH 
 being introduced as saying, ' in the seventh year there shall 
 be a sabbath of rest for the land, a sabbath for JEHOVAH : 
 thou shalt neither sow thy field nor prune thy vineyard : that 
 which groweth of its own accord of thy harvest thou shalt 
 not reap, neither gather of thy undressed vine : it is a year of 
 rest for the land.' 72 What a dreary injunction must this 
 have been for the active husbandman, who for a whole year 
 would be thus compelled to absolute idleness, when all his 
 fellow-men in cities and towns were as busy as ever ! But how 
 would the vine prosper, if left unpruned ? Or would the land 
 have had a ' year of rest ' from producing weeds ? The fact 
 is that the more ancient law, on which this is based, says 
 nothing about the land resting. It says only ' Six years thou 
 shalt sow thy land and gather its produce. And the seventh 
 year thou shalt let it rest and lie still ' — it, that is, the pro- 
 duce, not the land— 'that the poor of thy people may eat, and 
 what they leave' — which of itself implies a plentiful yield, 
 not the scanty gleanings of untilled land — ' the beasts of the 
 field shall eat. So shalt thou do to thy vineyard, to thine 
 oliveyard.' 73 This law, however, which meant that the farmer 
 
 08 L.xvi. 29 -34,xxiii. 26-32, N.xxix.7-11. 69 Ez.xlv.21-25. 
 
 7t ' v. 18-20. 71 Joseph. ^7//.XIV.xvi.4,III.x.3,Acts,xxvii.9. 
 
 72 L.xxv.4,5. 73 E.xxiii. 10, 11. 
 
THE LEVITICAL LEGISLATION. 225 
 
 should cultivate his land as usual in the seventh year, but 
 for the benefit of the poor and needy, seems to have been 
 wholly neglected in actual practice, as well as that other law 
 which orders that, after six years' service, every Hebrew slave 
 shall go free, if he will. 74 And so at last the Deuteronomist 
 directs that every seventh year shall be a ' year of release ' 
 for all Hebrew debtors and slaves ; 75 and, instead of repeating 
 the older law about the crops being left in the seventh year 
 for the use of the poor, he prescribes that every year the tithes 
 shall be employed for feasting, in which the poor and the 
 Levite shall be allowed to share. 76 This command for the 
 liberation of Hebrew slaves was once actually carried out in 
 Zedekiah's reign, 77 very probably under Jeremiah (the Deute- 
 ronomist)'s influence; though he bitterly reproaches and 
 terribly threatens the king, the princes, and the people, for 
 retracing the step, and bringing back their manumitted slaves 
 into servitude again. 78 Perhaps they had come to understand 
 that the provision in Deuteronomy had no . real Mosaic 
 authority ; though surely it was a humane and merciful law, 
 from whatever pen it proceeded. But the later priestly 
 writer changes the whole character of the original command. 
 ' That which groweth of itself ' in the Sabbatical year, from 
 the untilled lands and unpruned vines, is not here to be left 
 wholly to the poor ancl the beasts, as before, but is to be food 
 for the owner and his family, and the ' sojourner/ the cattle, 
 and the beasts ; 79 and it is further promised that in the sixth 
 year the land ' shall bring forth fruit for three years.' 80 Thus 
 the benevolent purpose of the original institution is turned 
 into a mere empty show of reverence for God, the result 
 being that no charity whatever is here enjoined ; for the 
 farmer is only to give away, and that partially, the scantier 
 produce of the seventh year, and is to keep for himself the 
 
 74 E.xxi.2-6. " D.xv.i-18. 76 D.xiv.22-29. 7T Jer.xxxiv.8-ii. 
 
 78 v. U-22. w L. xxv. 6, 7. 80 z'. 20-22. 
 
226 THE LATE DATE OF 
 
 threefold produce of the sixth year, spending the seventh ill 
 idleness unpleasing to God and unprofitable to man ! We 
 learn from Josephus 81 that the Sabbatical Year was kept in 
 this way, but only after the Captivity. 
 
 The Levitical Law institutes also the ' Year of Jubilee,' 
 that is, the fiftieth year was also to be kept as a Sabbatical 
 Year ; 82 and, perhaps, the threefold crops in every sixth year 
 may have been provided with a view to the Jubilee being kept 
 immediately after the forty-ninth year, that is, the seventh 
 Sabbatical Year, so that two Sabbatical Years would come 
 together. But there is no trace of the Jubilee having ever 
 been kept, before or after the Captivity. 
 
 It is painful to mark these proceedings of the later 
 priesthood. But, at all events, it is a blessing to have our 
 minds relieved from the burden of receiving such laws as the 
 express utterances of the Most High. The New Commentary 
 evades the difficulty by speaking continually as if it was only 
 Moses who enacted them — e.g. i The Jubilee, as instituted by 
 Moses, is without a parallel in the history of the world ' 83 — or 
 again ' It is assumed that Moses could not have foreseen that 
 the Sabbatical Year would be neglected ' 84 — or again, ' Moses 
 knew the human heart, and he was acquainted with the temper 
 and disposition of the people. . . . The legislator knew that 
 his words would be but imperfectly obeyed' 85 But this is to 
 heap one delusion on another. These laws are represented 
 as Divinely given : throughout it is JEHOVAH ' speaking unto 
 Moses and saying.' 86 And our duty is to look the truth in 
 the face, and so relieve both our own consciences from infinite 
 pain and perplexity, and the character of Moses himself from 
 the reproach which the work of these priestly writers would 
 otherwise fasten upon him. We now know that the whole 
 
 81 Joseph. ^«/.XI.viii.6,XIV.x.6,xvi.2,XV.i.2, comp. iMacc.vi.49,53. 
 8 - L.xxv.8-12. 83 ^.C.I.p.636. 81 /&P.640. 
 
 85 /^p.643. 86 L.i.i,iv.i,v.i4,&c. 
 
THE LEVITICAL LEGISLATION. 227 
 
 ritualistic legislation, with its multiplied ordinances, ' Touch 
 not, taste not, handle not,' 87 is but the ' commandment and 
 doctrine of men,' 88 of fallible men, like ourselves, but of men 
 possessed by the priestly spirit, which has always been antago- 
 nistic to the free Gospel of the Grace of God — that Gospel 
 which makes the sign of a Christian's faithfulness to consist, 
 not in the performance of rites and ceremonies or the main- 
 tenance of dogmas and creeds, but in ' putting on Christ,' 89 in 
 practising love to God and Man after Christ's example 90 — 
 which tells us that i Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these 
 three : but the greatest of these is charity.' 91 
 
 37 C0l.ii.21. 88 Matt.xv.9. S9 Rom.xiii.14. 
 
 90 Matt. xxii. 35-40. 91 iCor.xiii. 13. 
 
 Q 2 
 
LECTURE XVII. 
 
 ^ 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 Signs of progress in the legislation of different ages ; the Mosaic Tabernacle 
 specially related to the Second Temple j indications that the splendid Mosaic 
 Ark never existed ; the real ark of the Exodus ; the original account of its 
 construction suppressed, and the ' ark of the covenant ' of the O.S. replaced 
 in the L. L. by the ' Ark of the Testimony ' ; the original notice of the 
 separation of the tribe of Levi as the priestly caste suppressed to make room 
 for the later account of the institution of the Priests and the Levites ; the 
 Bible, though taken from us as an idol, restored to us as the work of living 
 men ; contrast between its priestly and prophetical portions. 
 
THE ARK AND THE PRIESTHOOD IN THE 
 ORIGINAL STORY. 
 
 N my last Lecture I drew your attention to certain 
 institutions of the Priestly Legislation of the 
 Pentateuch, some of which, as the Year of Jubilee 
 and the Levitical Cities, appear never to have 
 been carried out at all in practice, while others, as the Day 
 of Atonement and the Sabbatical Year, were observed only in 
 later days, after the return from the Babylonish Captivity, 
 giving thus a plain indication of the later age which gave 
 birth to them. The last of these, we saw, was merely an in- 
 judicious rendering of a much older law, which had first 
 passed through the hands of the Deuteronomist, and by him 
 had been already modified in accordance with the needs of 
 his own time. 1 And so in other instances it is interesting to 
 trace the progress of legislation from the earlier to the later 
 age. Thus the oldest writer in Genesis records the command, 
 as given to Noah after the Flood, ' not to eat flesh with its 
 soul, its blood ' ; 2 the later Deuteronomist repeats this, but 
 adds thrice the injunction to ' pour the blood upon the ground 
 as water ' ; 3 the still later priestly writer orders the blood 
 not only to be poured out, but to be ' covered with dust,' and 
 
 1 p. 224. 2 G.ix.4. 3 D.xii. 1 6, 24, xv. 23-, 
 
232 THE ARK AND THE PRIESTHOOD 
 
 extends the law to sojourners as well as home-born Israelites. 
 Again, the Deuteronomist gives a list of unclean animals, 
 whose flesh was not to be eaten, and among these he reckons 
 1 every swarming-thing that flieth.' 5 The later priestly legisla- 
 tor corrects this too hasty generalisation, by permitting the 
 use of four forms of the locust. 6 So with respect to an animal 
 1 dying of itself or torn,' the Original Story says ' ye shall not 
 eat it, to the dogs ye shall cast it ' ; 7 the Deuteronomist also 
 forbids such flesh being eaten by any Israelite, but adds — ' to 
 the sojourner that is in thy gates shalt thou give it that he 
 may eat it, or sell it to a stranger ' : 8 the priestly writer 
 assumes that Israelites generally may freely eat of such meat, 
 but provides that ' every soul that shall eat anything dying of 
 itself or torn, whether homeborn or sojourner, shall wash his 
 clothes and bathe with water, and be unclean until the 
 evening, and then he shall be clean.' 9 He forbids only the 
 priests to eat anything ' fallen or torn.' 10 It is plain that 
 this law, which allows all Israelites except the priests to eat 
 such flesh, cannot possibly have been issued, as would appear 
 from its present position in the Pentateuch, between the other 
 two laws, each of which forbids such food to all Israelites. 
 So, too, it cannot be supposed that the laws in the Book of 
 Numbers, 11 which secure to the priests and Levites such a . 
 sumptuous maintenance on the authority of Jehovah Him- 
 self, giving the firstlings wholly to the priests and the tithes 
 to the Levites, 12 should have been aftenvards modified by 
 Moses in Deuteronomy, assigning much smaller perquisites 
 from the sacrifices, 13 and expressly enjoining the householder 
 to feast with his family and servants upon these very same 
 firstlings and tithes, 14 only not to forget the stranger, and the 
 
 * Lxvii. 13, comp. Ez.xxiv. 7,8. 5 D.xiv. 19. 
 
 8 L.xi.20-23. 7 E.xxii.31. ~ 8 D.xiv.21. 
 
 9 L.xvii. 15. 10 L.xxii.8, comp, Ez.xliv.3i,iv. 14. 
 
 11 N.xviii.8,&c. I2 £'.17,18,24. 13 D.xvii.3, comp. N.xviii.18. 
 
 11 D.xiv. 23-29= 
 
IN THE ORIGINAL STORY. 233 
 
 orphan, and the widow, and the Levite}' It is plain that the 
 more bountiful provision was the latest of the two ; and, 
 indeed, we may be sure that the priests and Levites would 
 never have abandoned such ample rights secured to them, it 
 is supposed, by the Divine Lawgiver. 
 
 Further, the description in Exodus of the Tabernacle and 
 its vessels betrays a singular relation to the Second Temple, 
 built after the return from the Captivity. It has been ascer- 
 tained that the dimensions of every part of the Tabernacle 
 were exactly half those of the First or Solomon's Temple ; 
 and from this it has been inferred that ' the form of the 
 Temple was copied from the Tabernacle.' 16 But how is it 
 that not the least allusion is made to so important a fact in 
 the account of the building of that Temple ? Or how came 
 it to pass that Solomon made for his Temple a golden altar 
 of incense, a golden table of shewbread, golden candlesticks 
 and bowls and snuffers and basons and spoons, 17 if these 
 vessels existed already, made by Divine Command after a 
 heavenly model shown to Moses in the Mount ? 18 Rather, 
 the arrangements of the Tabernacle do indeed generally 
 correspond with those of the First Temple, as well as the 
 Second, since the latter was, no doubt, copied in most re- 
 spects from the former ; but on some points they vary from 
 •those of the First Temple, and here they are found to agree 
 with the Second. -Thus in Solomon's Temple there were 
 folding-doors, which closed the entrance to the Holy of 
 Holies ; 19 but in the Second Temple there was merely a vail, 20 
 as there was also to be in the Tabernacle. 21 In Solomon's 
 Temple there stood ten golden candlesticks, five on the right 
 hand and five on the left. 22 But in the Tabernacle there was 
 to be only one seven-branched golden candlestick, 23 and so 
 
 15 ^.27,29. 16 Diet, of the Bible,\\\.^. 1455-6. 
 
 17 iK.vii.48-50. 1S E. xxx. 1 -6, xxv. 23-40. 19 iK.vi.3i,32,vii.5o. 
 
 20 Matt.xxvii.51, Heb.vi.19. 21 E.'xxvi.3i,&c. 22 1K.vii.49. . 
 
 23 E,xxv.3i,&c. 
 
234 THE ARK AND THE PRIESTHOOD 
 
 there was only one in the Second Temple, 24 which was repre- 
 sented, as carried in triumphal procession, on the Arch of 
 Titus at Rome. 
 
 In the Second Temple, of course, there was no Ark, since 
 that was lost at the Captivity, having probably been de- 
 stroyed in the conflagration of the City and the Temple. But 
 that the Ark then lost was not the splendid Ark of Exodus 
 — ' overlaid within and without with pure gold,' with 'a 
 golden crown, golden rings, and staves overlaid with gold,' 
 and a ' mercy-seat ' above it of pure gold, and two golden 
 cherubs on the ends of it 25 — we may safely conclude, not 
 only from the consideration that so precious an object would 
 hardly have been left to lie neglected in a private house, for 
 many years and that under Samuel's rule, 26 but especially 
 from the fact that no mention is made of its being carried off 
 as spoil by Nebuchadnezzar. The brazen pillars of the 
 Temple are named, the bases, and the brazen sea ; ' the pots, 
 and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the spoons, and all the 
 brazen vessels, and the fire-pans, and the bowls, such things 
 as were of gold, in gold, and of silver, in silver, did the 
 captain of the guard take away.' 27 Could the precious 
 golden Ark of Exodus have been omitted in this enumera- 
 tion, if it really formed part of the plunder ? The real ark 
 was probably a mere wooden chest, such as the Egyptians 
 and other nations used for carrying about in procession their 
 sacred mysteries. Accordingly the Original Story speaks of 
 the ark as going before the people in the wilderness ' to search 
 out a resting-place for them,' 2S and again, in the Book of 
 Joshua, as being carried by the priests in procession when 
 they crossed the Jordan on dry ground, 29 and when they 
 marched around the walls of Jericho. 30 In that case such an 
 
 24 i Mace. i. 2 1, iv. 49, 50. 25 E.xxv. 11-13, 17,18, 
 
 ' 2 ' iS.vii. 1,2, comp. 2S.VL2. " 2K.xxv.i4.-16. 
 
 28 N.x.23. 29 J.iii.6. 30 J.vi.8,9. 
 
IN THE ORIGINAL STORY. 235 
 
 ark, however rudely made, would have been venerable for 
 them as the sacred symbol of their religion ; but in the eyes 
 of Nebuchadnezzar's captain of the guard it would probably 
 have seemed to be worthless, and would have been left to 
 perish amidst the ruins of the Temple. 
 
 But when was this ark made in the Original Story ? At 
 present there is no record of its construction : it is suddenly 
 introduced as the ' ark of the Covenant of JEHOVAH.' 31 Now 
 we remember that Moses after breaking the two stone-tables 
 is ordered to make two tables like the first, and to come with 
 them up to the top of the Mount ; 32 and at the end of forty 
 days he receives these two tables on which had been inscribed 
 by the Finger of God the ' words of the Covenant,' 33 that is, 
 the words in E.xxi-xxiii, 'which were on the first tables 
 which he brake.' 34 And then he comes down ' with the two 
 tables of the Testimony in his hand.' 35 What now did he do 
 with these august tables ? There was as yet no proper recep- 
 tacle for them, as the story now stands ; for the Tabernacle 
 was not begun to be made ; and six months passed before it 
 was set up, 36 and then, we are told, Moses 'took and put 
 the Testimony — that is, the two stone-tables — into the Ark.' 37 
 Nor were there even at this later time any priests or Levites 
 as yet consecrated, 38 to take charge of the precious deposit, 
 but Moses himself has to burn the incense and offer the 
 sacrifices on that occasion. 39 It can hardly be meant that 
 these sacred tables were merely to be placed loosely in the 
 tent of Moses, which he had set up outside the Camp, under 
 the charge of ' the young man his servant Joshua.' 40 How 
 then did he dispose of these tables of stone in a manner 
 worthy of their awful character, as containing the words of the 
 
 31 N.x.23. 3 - E.xxxiv. 1,2. 33 z\28. 
 
 34 v.i, seep. 134. 35 v. 29. 36 E.xl. 17. 
 
 37 z>.20. 3S L.viii, N.yiii.5-22. 39 E.xl. 27. 29. 
 40 E.xxxiii. 7-1 1. 
 
2 3 6 THE ARK AND THE PRIESTHOOD 
 
 Covenant made between JEHOVAH and Israel, engraved by 
 the very Finger of God ? 
 
 The Deuteronomist will help us to answer this question. 
 He had, as we know, the Original Story in his hands, and 
 can tell us what its contents were before the priestly writers 
 meddled with it. And this is what he says upon this point : 
 — ' At that time JEHOVAH said unto me, Hew thee two 
 tables of stone like the first, and come-up unto Me into the 
 Mount, and make thee an ark of wood. And I will write upon 
 the tables the words that were on the first tables which thou 
 brakest, and thou shalt place them in the ark. So I made a7i 
 ark of shittim-woody and I hewed two tables of stone like the 
 first ; and I went up into the Mount, and the two tables were 
 in my hand. And He wrote upon the tables according to 
 the first writing, the Ten Words.' 41 Now all this is copied 
 almost word for word from the account in Exodus, 42 which it 
 is plain the writer must have had before him ; only instead of 
 ' the words of the Covenant,' as it stood in that narrative, he 
 writes here ' the Ten Words,' referring, of course, to the Ten 
 Commandments, which he himself had inserted, as having 
 been spoken by JEHOVAH ' in the Mount out of the midst of 
 the fire in the day of the Assembly,' 43 but inserted in a place 
 where (as we have seen **) there is really no room for them in 
 the Original Story. Otherwise this statement is an exact 
 transcript, as from the mouth of Moses in the first person, of 
 what is there related of him in the third, except that the 
 Deuteronomist has here three short clauses, which do not now 
 appear in the Original Story — ' and make thee an ark of 
 wood! ' and thou slialt place them in the ark! l so I made an 
 ark of shittim-wood! It is plain that he must have had before 
 him, in the copy which he so closely follows, corresponding 
 clauses, which were of necessity struck out by the priestly 
 
 *' D.x. i-4a. u E.xxxiv. 1,2,4,28b. 13 D.x.4. 4i p. 105. 
 
IN THE ORIGINAL STORY. 237 
 
 writer when he introduced his own account of the making of 
 the splendid Ark of the Later Legislation. 45 And, of course, 
 when the Deuteronomist makes Moses say in addition, ' And 
 Jehovah gave them unto me, and I turned and came-down 
 from the Mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had 
 made, and there they are, as JEHOVAH commanded me,' 46 it 
 is reasonable to believe that corresponding words existed also 
 in his time in the Original Story, which must have been like- 
 wise of necessity removed when the priestly writer inserted 
 his own account of the tables being placed in the Ark by 
 Moses half-a-year afterwards. 47 
 
 Thus, then, according to the Original Story, Moses made 
 by Divine Command a simple ark of wood — of shittim-wood, 
 he tells us — as a receptacle for the stone-tables at the same 
 time that he made the tables themselves, and it stood there- 
 fore ready to receive them as soon as he came down with 
 them, and it did receive them — ' he put the tables in the ark 
 which he had made, as JEHOVAH commanded him.' 48 Hence- 
 forth it is always called ' the ark of the covenant of JEHOVAH ' 
 in the Original Story of the Pentateuch, as it is also in 
 Deuteronomy, 49 as containing the two tables of the Covenant; 
 whereas throughout the priestly Legislation it is always called 
 * the Ark of the Testimony.' 50 
 
 But who were to be the guardians of this treasure ? The 
 Deuteronomist, with his knowledge of the Original Story in 
 its primitive form, undisturbed by the work of the later 
 priestly legislators, will help us here also. The passage which 
 I have just been quoting from the Book of Deuteronomy is 
 followed by two verses which are quite unintelligible : as one 
 eminent writer notes in his well-known Commentary, ' They 
 so break in upon the connexion of Moses' discourse, and give 
 
 45 E.xxv. l6-22,xxxvii. 1-9. 46 D.x.4b,5. 47 E.xl.20. 
 
 4S N.x.33,xiv.44. 49 D.x.8,xxxi.9,25,26. 
 
 50 E. xxv. 22, xxvi. 33, 34, xxx. 6, 26, xxxi. 7, xxxix. 35, xl. 3, 5, 2 r , N.iv. 5, vii. 89. 
 
238 THE ARK AND THE PRIESTHOOD 
 
 such an account of the names of places, that they perplex 
 commentators ' ; 51 while the New Commentary says, ' It is 
 possible that these two verses may be, as some other notices 
 of a like character, a gloss.' 52 These two verses, in fact, are 
 probably a later priestly insertion, consisting mainly of a frag- 
 ment belonging to the list of stations in the wilderness in 
 N.xxi of the Original Story, which contained also the state- 
 ment with reference to one of them, ' there Aaron died and 
 there he was buried ' — just exactly as in the same narrative 
 we find it said with reference to Kadesh, ' there Miriam died 
 and there she was buried ' 53 — but without any allusion to 
 Aaron's priesthood. To this notice, however, the priestly 
 writer has added ' and Eleazar his son acted-as-priest in his 
 stead ' ; and by some mistake or accident the whole has been 
 introduced at a point of the story where it is utterly unmean- 
 ing, since Moses in the previous context is speaking of their 
 being under Sinai in the first year after the march out of 
 Egypt, and Aaron's death occurred, as the story now stands, 
 nearly forty years afterwards. 54 
 
 Passing by, therefore, these two verses we read as follows : 
 — i At that time Jehovah separated the tribe of Levi to bear 
 the ark of the Covenant of JEHOVAH, to stand before JE- 
 HOVAH to minister and to bless in His Name, unto this day. 
 Wherefore Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his 
 brethren : JEHOVAH is his inheritance, as JEHOVAH thy 
 Elohim promised him.' 55 Let us mark well what the Deute- 
 ronomist here says, who had before him the Original Story in 
 its primitive form. ' At that time' — which words, says the New 
 Commentary, 'certainly connect themselves with v.$, and not 
 with v.j ' 56 — that is, ' connect themselves ' with the passage 
 we have just been considering with reference to the making 
 of the ark under Sinai. ' At that time,' then — viz., at the 
 
 51 Rev. Thomas Scott on D.x.6,7. 52 I.p.836. S3 N.xx. 1. 
 
 54 N.xxxiii.38. 55 D.x.8,9. i6 I.p.836. 
 
IN THE ORIGINAL STORY. 239 
 
 time when Moses came-down from the Mount and put the 
 tables in the ark which he had made — ' Jehovah separated 
 the tribe of Levi ' — the whole tribe — for the sacred duties of 
 the priesthood. And now we remember that, only just before, 
 when Moses had dashed the first pair of tables in pieces at 
 sight of the Golden Calf, the Levites are said to have come 
 forward zealously at his summons, as if they also, his fellow- 
 tribesmen, shared in his abhorrence of this idolatry, and to 
 have massacred 3,000 of the people, sparing neither kith nor 
 kin — 'for Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves to-day to 
 Jehovah, even every man upon his son and upon his 
 brother, that He may bestow a blessing upon you this day.' 57 
 What ' blessing ' can here be meant except this priesthood 
 bestowed upon the whole tribe of Levi, so that henceforth 
 they should have no landed estate in Israel, but ' Jehovah 
 should be their inheritance ' 58 — that is, they should have 
 Jehovah's share in the sacrifices and offerings of the whole 
 community ? Not a word, however, is here said about Aaron 
 and the sons of Aaron being chosen exclusively to be priests, 
 whereas the Levites were not to ' come nigh ' the priestly 
 office, ' lest they die,' according to the later priestly law. 59 
 How, indeed, could Aaron have deserved any special 'blessing' 
 on this occasion — Aaron, the very head and front of the 
 transgression in the matter of the Golden Calf 60 — much less 
 to have the priesthood confined to himself and his sons, to 
 the exclusion of the faithful Levites who had so zealously 
 avenged it ? But, in fact, as I have said before, there is no 
 sign whatever that in the Original Story Aaron ever acted as 
 a priest at all, any more than his brother Moses ; though in 
 that narrative the tribe, to which Moses and Aaron belonged, 
 seems to have been marked out from the first as the priestly 
 caste, but without any of the exorbitant pretensions of the 
 
 57 E.xxxii. 25-29. 58 D.x.9. 
 
 59 N.iii. io,38,xvi.4.o,xviii.7. 60 E.xxxii. 1-5,21-25. 
 
240 THE ARK AND THE PRIESTHOOD 
 
 later priesthood, or any special privileges attached to them, 
 unless they were actually officiating as priests. 61 Thus in 
 Jeremiah's time the ordinary Levites are reckoned with the 
 poor and needy of the land ; 62 and in the list of David's 
 officers, the chief officiating priests, Zadok and Abiathar, are 
 ranked low down in the scale of dignity, 63 while in Solomon's 
 time they are placed still lower. 64 
 
 There can be little doubt, therefore, that when in the 
 Original Story Moses comes-down with the second set of 
 tables in his hands and places them in the ark, then in that 
 Story — 'at that time' — 'Jehovah separated the tribe of 
 Levi ' for the priesthood, and assigned to the whole body of 
 Levites 'the fire-offerings of Jehovah, Jehovah's inheri- 
 tance,' 65 or, as it stands, ' Jehovah ' Himself, 66 as their in- 
 heritance. Of course, any such passage must also of necessity 
 have been cancelled by the later priestly writer, when inserting 
 his own account of Aaron and his sons being called to the 
 priesthood 67 and of the Levites being taken instead of the 
 firstborns of Israel and given to the priests as servants. 68 
 But the passage in question, which the Deuteronomist must 
 have had before him, is evidently referred to in a part of the 
 Original Story in the Book of Joshua — ' Only unto the tribe 
 of Levi He gave no inheritance : the fire-offerings of JEHOVAH, 
 the Elohim of Israel, they are his inheritance, as He spake 
 to him ' ; 69 and there is no place in the whole Pentateuch 
 where JEHOVAH 'spake* such things of the 'tribe of Levi/ 
 unless in the passage in question, now missing, which we sup- 
 pose to have existed at one time in the Original Story. 
 
 Thus God Himself, the 'Father of lights,' by means of the 
 facts which He has enabled us first clearly to ascertain in the 
 
 61 D.xviii.i-8. 62 D.xii.i9,27,29,xxvi.i2. 6S 2S.viii. 16,17 
 
 61 1K.iv.2-4. 65 P.xviii. 1. 66 D.x.9,xviii.2. 
 
 61 E.xxviii, N.iii.3,4. m N.iii.5-13. 69 J.xiii. 14. 
 
IN THE ORIGINAL STORY. 241 
 
 present age, takes from us the Bible as an idol which men 
 have set up in their ignorance, to bow down to it and worship 
 it. But He restores it to us to be reverenced as the work of 
 men in whose hearts the same human thoughts were stirring, 
 the same hopes and fears were dwelling, the same gracious 
 Spirit was operating, thousands of years ago, as now. It is 
 true, the priestly portions of the Pentateuch are rather of use 
 to us as a foil to the rest, at least to the Book of Deuteronomy. 
 They show how the thirst for spiritual power and pre-emi- 
 nence, the desire to secure for themselves dignity and in- 
 fluence, not to speak of other worldly advantages, as the only 
 authorised dispensers of the Divine favour and blessing for 
 the soul of man, which in all ages and under all forms of 
 religion have more or less distinctly characterised the priest- 
 hood, played a very conspicuous part in Jewish affairs after 
 the return from the Captivity. GOD only knows, w r ho has 
 suffered it, how dark a page in human history the history of 
 the priesthood has been, from the isannsi of the Zulu to the 
 Jesuit of Christendom — how ' the fine gold has become dim/ 
 the finest and brightest specimens of man have been corrupted 
 and distorted by the false and poisonous notion that one man, 
 or, rather, that one order of men, is nearer to God than others, 
 not by virtue of their goodness, but merely as the prerogative 
 of their class — that one order of men has been invested with 
 this prerogative, and made the channel of Divine grace and 
 communication to their fellows in some supernatural, magical 
 way. Mysterious, doubtless, are all Divine communications 
 — though not more or otherwise mysterious than human 
 nature and its Divinely-appointed relationships. But this 
 notion of the priesthood is specially antagonistic to human 
 relationships, and tends ever to interfere with them in the 
 most ungodly y because inhuman, manner. And it is altogether 
 alien to the spirit of Christianity, of which the leading features 
 are the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. 
 
 R 
 
242 THE ARK AND PRIESTHOOD IN ORIGINAL STORY. 
 
 ' Ye are/ says St. Peter, ' a royal priesthood ' ; 70 ' ye are built 
 up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual 
 sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ' 71 The idea 
 expressed in these words, the true Christian idea, is that all 
 Christians as such are brought into the immediate presence 
 of God, and have access to His mercy-seat, to pour forth 
 their prayers and ' the fruit of their lips giving thanks to His 
 Name.' 
 
 But there were prophets also in those days, ' preachers of 
 righteousness/ according to their lights, as well as priests ; 
 and one of these it is who says to the people in Jehovah's 
 Name, ' Now, therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed and 
 keep My Covenant . . . then ye shall be unto Me a kingdom 
 of priests and an holy people,' 72 There is nothing of the 
 priestly spirit here, though he had not been blessed with the 
 light of Christianity and still restricts the privileges of God's 
 children to the ' House of Jacob/ the * children of Israel.' 
 And there are prophets still among us, raised up in this as 
 in every age, to speak God's word, the word of truth, to their 
 brethren, whether in the pulpit or out of it. And that 
 Living Word, which is the Light and Life of men, is speaking 
 now to us in all those words of our fellow-men, which have 
 brought us in any degree to the clearer knowledge of Him 
 ' whom no man hath seen or can see.' But let us be sure 
 that, as it is God who teaches us by means of our fellow- 
 men, we may expect that He will speak to us so that we can 
 hear and understand — that He will speak to our hearts and 
 carry inward demonstration to our spiritual being — that, 
 when He speaks, His words will come home to us, and will be 
 their own evidence. 
 
 70 iPet.ii.9, 71 v.$. n E.xix.5,6. 
 
LECTURE XVIII. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 The Ark and Phinehas mentioned in an interpolated passage of Judges ; the 
 stories of two Levites, as told in that Book, considered ; no signs of any special 
 dignity having been attached to the tribe in that age ; the story of Samuel 
 and Eli considered ; the meaning of the ' faithful priest, ' who should be 
 raised up in Eli's place ; the notices of Levites in the Books of Samuel and 
 Kings examined ; no distinction made between Priests and Levites before the 
 Captivity ; any Levite might act as Priest, though, perhaps, in some subor- 
 dinate office, as ' doorkeeper ' ; the Gibeonites and other menials of the 
 Sanctuaiy in the time of David and Solomon ; the germ of the idea of dis- 
 tinguishing between Priests and Levites to be found in the act of Josiah, who 
 degraded the idolatrous priests of Judah ; this fructified in the mind of 
 Ezekiel, who sharply separates the faithful Levites, the 'sons of Zadok,' 
 from those Levites who had ministered at idolatrous altars ; the idea carried 
 out after the Captivity, though few of those degraded priests seem to have 
 returned ; the priestly legislation easily introduced after the Captivity by 
 reason of the enormous preponderance of priests in the new community. 
 
THE PRIESTS AND THE LEVJ1ES. 
 
 HAT is the real meaning of the line being drawn 
 so sharply in the Levitical Law between the 
 Priests and the Levites ? Let us first see what is 
 told us about them in the history from the earliest 
 days down to the time of the Captivity, beginning with the 
 Book of Judges. In one passage of this Book we read as 
 follows : — 'And the children of Israel enquired of JEHOVAH ; 
 for the Ark of the Covenant of Elohim was there in those 
 days, and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron stood 
 before it in those days.' l But this statement about the Ark 
 and Phinehas is clearly a later insertion, as is suggested at 
 once by the fact that already in the very same chapter the 
 children of Israel have twice before ' gone up and asked 
 counsel of Jehovah,' 2 without any mention being made of 
 the Ark or Phinehas. It has manifestly been inserted by 
 some priestly writer, who could not endure that the people 
 should ' ask counsel of Jehovah ' except through the inter- 
 vention of a 'priest the son of Aaron.' Otherwise in the 
 whole Book of Judges there is not the least allusion to Ark 
 or Tabernacle, Priest or Levite — not even in the Song of the 
 prophetess Deborah, 3 in which nine tribes are named, but not 
 
 1 Ju, XX. 2 7, 28. 
 
 18,23. 
 
 Ju." 
 
246 THE PRIESTS AND THE LEVITES. 
 
 the tribe of Levi — except that two Levites figure as principal 
 characters in the last five chapters under peculiar circumstances. 
 For who are these two Levites ? I have made some 
 allusion to them in a former Lecture ; 4 but we must now con- 
 sider their stories somewhat more at length. The first is a 
 homeless vagrant, a Levite by birth, who, after living for a 
 time at Bethlehem, goes to ' sojourn where he might find a 
 place,' and makes his way to Mount Ephraim, where he comes 
 to the house of a man called Micah, who had made for him- 
 self a ' House of Elohim/ a sort of private chapel, which he 
 had fitted up with the usual accessories of worship in those 
 days, ' a graven image, and a molten image, an ephod, and 
 teraphim,' and ' had consecrated one of his sons to be priest.' 
 Micah says to the Levite, ' Dwell with me and be unto me a 
 father and a priest, and I will give thee ten pieces of silver a 
 year, and a suit of clothes and thy food.' And the Levite 
 consents, and so ' Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young 
 man became his priest and was in the house of Micah. And 
 Micah said, Now know I that JEHOVAH will do me good, 
 seeing that I have a Levite to be my priest.' 5 This satis- 
 faction of Micah, at have secured ' a Levite for his priest/ 
 seems to imply that the Levites had really been separated as 
 a priestly caste, as they were (according to our view 6 ) in the 
 Original Story at the time of the Exodus. And so in the 
 somewhat later time of Eli we read, ' There came a man of 
 God unto Eli and said unto him, Thus saith Jehovah, Did I 
 plainly appear unto thy father's house, when they were in 
 Egypt in Pharaoh's house ? ' — that is, to Moses and Aaron, as 
 representatives of the house of Levi. ' And did I choose them 
 out of all the tribes of Israel,' — that is, the whole tribe of Levi, 
 — ' to be My priest, to offer upon Mine altar, to burn incense, 
 to wear an ephod before me ? And did I give unto thy 
 father's house all the fire-offerings of the children of Israel ? ' 7 
 
 4 p. 66. 5 Ju.xvii.5-13. 6 p. 240. 7 iS.ii.27,28. 
 
THE PRIESTS AND THE LEVITES. 247 
 
 The Levite in the case before us was seeking to be 
 employed as a priest at one of the numerous high-places of 
 the land ; and he finds such employment in Micah's chapel, 
 ministering there for Micah himself and ' the men that were 
 in the houses near to Micah's house.' 8 Micah, we see, him- 
 self consecrates this Levite, as he had consecrated his own son, 
 and as afterwards Jeroboam consecrated priests from all parts 
 of the people. 9 This priest, however, with the ephod, tera- 
 phim, and graven image, was carried off by a troop of Danites, 
 who passed by the house on their way to ' seek an inheritance 
 to dwell in,' and overcame his remonstrances by saying, 'Hold 
 thy peace ! lay thine hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, 
 and be to us a father and priest. Is it better for thee to be 
 a priest unto the house of one man, or that thou be a 
 priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel ? ' 10 And so they 
 marched northward and fell suddenly upon Laish at the ex- 
 tremity of the land of Canaan, whose inhabitants they killed, 
 and seized and rebuilt the town, which they called Dan ; and 
 there they set up their graven image ; ll and there also, at 
 Dan, as also at Bethel, the two extremities of his kingdom, 
 Jeroboam set up in after days two calves, the symbols of the 
 Sun-God, and bade his people go to one of these for their 
 great annual festivals, for they had had enough of going up 
 to the Temple at Jerusalem. 12 
 
 Then follows an account of another Levite, who also lived 
 in no Levitical city, but on the side of Mount Ephraim. 13 
 In his time Jerusalem was still in the hands of the Jebusites, 
 the ' city of a stranger,' and he fears to enter it ; 14 the events 
 therefore occurred before the time of David, 15 and, in fact, 
 it is expressly stated that both this story and the former 
 belong to a time ' when there was no king in Israel,' 16 that 
 
 8 Ju.xviii.22. 9 1K.xii.3i. 10 Ju.xviii. I-2I. " ^.27-29,31, 
 
 12 iK.xii.28-30. u Ju.xix. I. M v. 10-12. 
 
 i5 2S.V.6-9. ,6 Ju.xvii.6,xviii. i,xix. i,xxi.25, 
 
248 THE PRIESTS AND THE LEVITES. 
 
 is, before the reign of Saul. This Levite was ' going through ' 
 the House of Jehovah, 17 probably Bethel, or perhaps was 
 going to it, in order to become a priest there, when * men of 
 Belial,' Benjamites, beset him at Gibeah and ill-used his con- 
 cubine to death ; 18 and the narrative so closely resembles in 
 its main features and its phraseology the story of Lot and 
 the Sodomites, 19 that it seems probable that the account of the 
 destruction of Sodom for the wickedness of its inhabitants was 
 based on this very occurrence, which may have been still 
 keenly remembered, with its sorrowful consequences to Israel 
 as here detailed, 20 at the time when the writer in Genesis 
 lived, that is, as we suppose, in the days of Saul or David. 
 
 As yet we have no sign of the grandeur of the priesthood, 
 or of the dignity of the priests compared with the Levites. 
 And now we come to the Books of Samuel. Here Samuel's 
 father, Elkanah, was apparently not a Levite, but ' a man of 
 Mount Ephraim, an Ephrathite ' 21 or Ephraimite, like Jero- 
 boam. 22 Yet Samuel his son slept in the Tabernacle at 
 Shiloh, 23 and acted throughout his life as a priest. 24 More- 
 over, according to the priestly law, all Levites belonged to 
 Jehovah from their birth, 25 though they were not to minister 
 till thirty years of age, 26 which in another place is strangely 
 altered to twenty-five. 27 But Samuel is here ' given [ or * lent ' 
 to Jehovah by his mother Hannah, 28 and he ministers before 
 Jehovah in the Tabernacle as a child, ' girded with a linen 
 ephod,' 29 that is, dressed as a priest. 
 
 Eli and his two sons appear to have been the only priests 
 
 17 Ju.xix. 18. 18 v. 22-28. 
 
 ly comp. v.$ with G.xviii.5 — z/,20 with G.xix.2— ?v.22 with G.xix.4,5 — ^.23,24, 
 with G.xix.6-8. 
 
 20 Ju.xx,xxi. 21 iS.i. 1. 22 1K.xi.26. 
 
 23 iS.iii.3, which should be translated, 'And ere the lamp of Elohim went 
 out, and Samuel lying down in the Temple of Jehovah, where the ark of 
 Elohim was,' and not as in the E.V. 
 
 24 iS.vii.9,ix. I3,x.8,xvi. 1-5. 25 N.iii. 12, 13. 26 N.iv.3. 
 27 N.viii.24. 28 iS.i.28,ii.20. 29 rS.ii. u,i8,iii. 1. 
 
THE PRIESTS AND THE LEVITES. 249 
 
 at Shiloh ; 30 and there is no hint of any multitude of Levites 
 assisting at the Sanctuary ; we read only of the priest's 
 servant, who, instead of waiting for the fat to be burnt reve- 
 rently upon the altar, and then taking the priest's portion 
 from the sacrifice, comes with violence, and dashes his three- 
 pronged fork into the boiler, and brings up for the priest 
 whatever he can thus lay hold of. 31 It is plain that in those 
 days there was no law like that of the Deuteronomist, 32 
 assigning the parts to be given to the priests, — much less the 
 larger provision of the later priestly law, the breast and the 
 hind-leg, 33 far surpassing any perquisite which the most 
 dexterous servant would be likely to secure for his master in 
 this way. For the sins of his sons, however, and his own sin 
 in not restraining them, Eli's judgment is pronounced as 
 follows : — ' I said indeed that thy house and thy father's 
 house should walk before Me for ever : but now Jehovah 
 saith, Be it far from Me ! for them that honour Me I will 
 honour, and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed. 
 . . . And I will raise Me up a faithful priest, who shall do 
 according to that which is in My heart and in My mind ; and 
 I will build him a sure house, and he shall walk before Mine 
 anointed ' — that is, the king — ' for ever. And it shall come 
 to pass that everyone that is left in thine house shall come and 
 crouch to him for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread, and 
 shall say, Put me, I pray thee, into one of the priest's offices 
 that I may eat a piece of bread.' 34 
 
 It might seem at first sight that, according to these words, 
 the whole House of Levi, to which the promise had been 
 made, was to be set aside. But the ' faithful priest,' whom 
 Jehovah would raise up in the place of Eli, is evidently to be 
 placed in a position of authority, to whom other priests might 
 ' crouch ' for bread : that is, the words refer to the chief- 
 
 30 iS. i.9,11. I2-I7,iv.4. 31 iS.ii. 13-17.29. s - D.xviii.3. 
 
 33 N.xviii. 18. 34 iS.ii. 30,35, 36. 
 
250 THE PRIESTS AND THE LEVITES. 
 
 priesthood, and the writer probably means to say, ' the chief- 
 priesthood shall not be continued in thy line,' Eli having come 
 in regular descent from the chief officiating priest at the time of 
 the Exodus. You remember how upon the death of David 
 the old priest Abiathar, Eli's great -great-grandson, 35 who for 
 nearly fifty years had followed faithfully the fortunes of 
 David, 36 and ' had been afflicted in all wherein David was 
 afflicted,' 37 together with Joab the commander-in-chief, sup- 
 ported the claims of Adonijah, David's eldest son, to succeed 
 to the throne, 38 and how ' Zadok the priest and Benaiah the 
 son of Jehoiada and Nathan the prophet were not with 
 Adonijah,' 39 but espoused the cause of his youngest son, 
 Solomon, 40 taking into their counsel his mother Bathsheba, 41 
 the guilty wife of Uriah the Hittite, with whom David had 
 carried on an adulterous intercourse, and then had had her 
 husband murdered, to conceal, if possible, the sin. 42 The aged 
 king, now in his dotage, is persuaded to recognise publicly 
 Solomon as his successor ; 43 and one of the first acts of Solo- 
 mon's reign is to put to death his brother Adonijah, 44 and the 
 next to depose the old chief-priest Abiathar, 45 and the next to 
 have Joab killed, 46 in accordance with David's dying sugges- 
 tion 47 — ' and the king put Benaiah ' — his own supporter — ' in 
 Joab's room over the host, and Zadok the priest did the king 
 put in the room of Abiathar.' 48 And so, says the writer, 
 ' Solomon thrust out Abiathar from being priest unto Jeho- 
 vah, that he might fulfil the word of JEHOVAH which he 
 spake concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh,' 49 — this very 
 ' word ' spoken of Eli having been in all probability suggested 
 to the writer in Solomon's days by the wish to account in 
 some way for this outrageous act. It is very plain, however, 
 
 
 85 iS.xiv. 3,xxii.20. 
 
 36 iS.xxii.20,21. 
 
 37 1K.1i.26. 
 
 38 IK.i.7. 
 
 39 v. 8. 
 
 « w/38. 
 
 41 Z\II,&C. 
 
 42 2s.xi.2-17. 
 
 43 iK.i.28-35. 
 
 41 iK.ii. 13-25. 
 
 45 v. 26, 27. 
 
 46 v. 28-34. 
 
 1? v.5,6. 
 
 ^35- 
 
 49 f.27. 
 
 
THE PRIESTS AND THE LEVITES. 251 
 
 that we have only an ordinary Court-cabal, and all the well- 
 known features of Oriental despotism. But how incongruous 
 with the ideas of the later priestly legislation is this act, by 
 which a young prince ejects summarily on his own authority 
 one high-priest and puts another in his room ! How opposed to 
 them also is the notion of there being two chief priests during 
 the latter part of David's reign, 50 and those not father and 
 son, so that one, according to the priestly law, 51 might duly 
 succeed to the other ! Zadok, however, was most probably 
 also of Levite descent, and he may have been even related to 
 Abiathar in some way, and so may have been appointed to 
 assist him in his duties, when these were, no doubt, increased 
 by the erection of the Tabernacle on Mount Zion and the 
 bringing up of the Ark. It would seem that, aided by his 
 more active age, and perhaps by the greater vigour of his 
 character, he took the lead of his aged colleague, since he is 
 always named first of the two, ' Zadok and Abiathar.' 62 
 
 In the two Books of Samuel, Moses and Aaron are spoken 
 of together in one passage, 53 as co-leaders of the people : but 
 nothing is said about Aaron's priesthood, nor is he named 
 again either in these or in the two Books of Kings. The 
 Levites are mentioned twice in the Books of Samuel. In one 
 place they take down the ark from the cart, 54 on which it had 
 been brought back by the Philistines : in the other they carry 
 the ark with Zadok, when David flees from Jerusalem before 
 the coming of Absalom 55 — which agrees with the examples 
 in the Original Story of ' the priests the Levites ' carrying 
 the ark across the Jordan and around the walls of Jericho. 56 
 In the Books of Kings also the Levites are twice mentioned. 
 In one place Jeroboam is reproached for making priests 
 ' from all parts of the people who were not of the sons of 
 
 50 2S.viii.i7. %x E.xxix.29,30, comp. N. xx. 26,28. 
 
 32 2S.viii. 17^.24,27, 29,35, 36,xvii. 15, xix. 11, xx. 25, iK.iv.4. 
 
 33 iS.xii.6,8. 5 » iS.vi. 15. ss 2S.xv.24. * s J.iii.6, 14, 17, vi. 12. 
 
252 THE PRIESTS AND THE LEVITES. 
 
 Levi ; ' 57 and this, of course, implies that the Levites were 
 regarded, in Judah at all events, as the priestly caste, in ac- 
 cordance with the view maintained by the writer of the 
 Original Story ; 58 but it is also plain that the writer, Jeremiah, 
 laid no stress upon their being ' sons of Aaron.' And they 
 are mentioned again in the account of the dedication of 
 Solomon's Temple, where, after the statement that ' all the 
 elders of Israel came and the priests took up the ark,' it is 
 added, ' and they brought up the ark of JEHOVAH and the 
 Tent of Meeting and all the holy vessels that were in the 
 Tent, even those did the priests and the Levites bring up.' 59 
 But this verse will be seen to break the thread of the story, 
 which also before and after speaks only about ' the ark,' not 
 ' the ark of Jehovah,' as here. If these 'holy vessels,' made 
 by express Divine command by Moses, were actually * in the 
 Tent ' at this time — for instance, the golden altar of incense, 
 the golden table of shewbread, the golden seven-branched 
 candlestick, with its flowers and lamps and tongs of pure 
 gold — what became of them, these most august and precious 
 memorials of the march through the wilderness, when Solo- 
 mon made the corresponding vessels for the Temple ? 60 
 Were they placed in the ' Tent of Meeting,' set up inside the 
 Temple, or were the Tent and its vessels laid aside and for- 
 gotten ? At all events we hear no more of them : the grand 
 Mosaic Tabernacle disappears silently henceforth from the 
 history. v The fact is that we have here another priestly in- 
 sertion of a later age, with the phrase ' priests and Levites/ 
 as if they were- different orders like ' priests and deacons,' a 
 phrase which never occurs elsewhere in any book written 
 before the Captivity, but appears very frequently in those 
 written after it. 61 
 
 57 1K.xii.31. 5S p. 165. 59 iK.viii.4. 60 iK.vii.48-50. 
 
 61 iCh.xiii.2,xv,4,&c,, 2Ch.vii.6,viii. 14, 15, &c, Ezr.i.5,ii.70,&c, Neh.vii. 
 73,viii.i3,&c. 
 
THE PRIESTS AND THE LEVITES. 253 
 
 In short, the priests and the Levites were identical before 
 the Captivity, or, rather, any Levite could act as priest, 62 
 though he may have had to go through some form of con- 
 secration before actually entering upon the office. In older 
 times, as we have seen, 63 there were high-places all over the 
 land in both kingdoms, at which such priests were needed, 
 besides the Central Sanctuaries, at Jerusalem in the southern, 
 and at Bethel and Dan in the northern, kingdom. Jeroboam, 
 it seems, did not employ exclusively the tribe of Levi : though 
 it is not said that he allowed no Levites to be priests in his 
 kingdom. But he probably attached no weight to the state- 
 ment of the Original Story which restricted the priesthood 
 on Divine authority to that tribe, and he employed for it men 
 of all tribes indiscriminately. In Judah, however, and espe- 
 cially in Jerusalem, where most probably that story was 
 written, the Levites were regarded as the only lawful priests 
 all along, down to the time of the Captivity. There was no 
 distinction of ' orders ' as yet between the priests and the 
 Levites, though there was, of course, a chief-priest who had 
 the oversight of the Sanctuary, 64 and to whom a needy 
 Levite would have recourse when seeking employment, to 
 whom he might even have humbly to ■ crouch,' praying to be 
 put into one or other of the priests' offices, that he might eat 
 a piece of bread, — for instance, into that of a ' doorkeeper,' 
 which before the Captivity was filled by priests. 65 And it 
 may have been with a view to prevent such haughtiness that 
 the Deuteronomist provides that, if any Levites chose to 
 come to Jerusalem, 'with all the desire of their mind,' to 
 officiate as priests there, they should have ' like portions to 
 eat ' with all the rest of their brethren who ' stood there 
 before Jehovah.' 66 
 
 62 D.xviii.6-8. " p. 107. 
 
 64 2K.xi.4,&c.,xii.2,7,9,xvi. io,n,xxii.4,8,xxv. 18. 
 
 65 2K.xii.9, comp. xxii.4,xxv. 18. 
 
254 THE PRIESTS AND THE LEVITES. 
 
 For still lower work connected with the Sanctuary there 
 were probably attached to the Temple, as servants to the 
 priesthood, the persons spoken of in later books as ' Nethi- 
 nim ' 67 and ' Solomon's servants.' 68 The word ' Nethinim ' 
 means ' given,' and we read in the Original Story that the 
 Gibeonites, whose ambassadors had beguiled Israel into making 
 peace with Joshua on the pretence of having come from a 
 far-distant land, 69 were 'given' by him for the work of 
 hewing wood and drawing water for the ' House of his 
 Elohim,' for the ' altar of JEHOVAH.' 70 But Saul, we are 
 told, slew the Gibeonites, 71 who perhaps were servants to the 
 priests at Nob when he massacred there ' eighty-five persons 
 wearing the ephod,' 72 and may even be reckoned among this 
 number as connected with the Sanctuary, since there is no 
 sign in the history of so many priests existing at that time. 
 Thus there remained only a few of the original ' Nethinim/ 
 by whomsoever these were really first employed for such 
 work : and there would consequently be a lack of servants, 
 as well as priests, for the greater demands of David's Taber- 
 nacle and, at all events, for those of Solomon's Temple. 
 Hence, most probably, Solomon assigned additional servants 
 for these menial offices 73 from the remnant of the Canaanites, 
 upon whom he ' levied a tribute of bondservice.' 74 
 
 During the Captivity, however, the idea seems to have 
 been developed of distinguishing between those Levites who 
 had taken part in idolatrous practices, themselves or their 
 parents, and the faithful Levites who had adhered to the pure 
 worship of Jehovah. We find the germ of this idea in the 
 account of Josiah's Reformation, where we read — 'And he 
 brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled 
 
 67 iCh.ix.2, Ezr.ii.43,58,7o,vii.7,viii.i7,20, Neh.iii.26,3i,vii.46,6o,73,x.28, 
 xi.3,21. 
 
 68 Ezr.ii.55,58, Neh.vii.57,6o,xi.3. " 69 J.ix.3-16. 
 
 70 ^.23,27. 7 » 2S.xxi.2. w 1 S.xxii. 18,19, 
 
 " 3 Ezr.viii.20. 74 2K.ix.21. 
 
THE PRIESTS AND THE LEVITES. 255 
 
 the high-places where the priests had burned incense. . . . 
 Nevertheless the priests of the high-places came not up to the 
 altar of JEHOVAH at Jerusalem, but they did eat of the un- 
 leavened bread among their brethren.' 75 Thus, whereas 
 Josiah killed without mercy the idolatrous priests in the cities 
 of Samaria — ' he slew all the priests of the high-places that 
 were there before the altars,' 76 — he only degraded the idola- 
 trous Levites of Judah : they were not to officiate henceforth 
 at the altar, but they were still allowed to ' eat unleavened 
 bread ' — that is, probably, to keep the Feast of Unleavened 
 Bread, with its special rite, the Passover, — ' among their 
 brethren,' and in this way they took part, we may believe, 
 in the great Passover which was presently kept at Jerusalem. 77 
 This was probably done by the advice of the chief-priest 
 Hilkiah, who could not endure that these idolatrous priests 
 should be admitted at once to the full privileges of the 
 Temple. And the " idea, thus thrown out, seems to have 
 fructified in the mind of Ezekiel. For in Ez.xl-xlviii, 
 written ' in the fourteenth year after that the city was 
 smitten,' 78 he has visions of God, 79 and plans out a scheme 
 for the rebuilding of the City and the Temple, and the re- 
 establishment of worship at Jerusalem ; and he strongly dis- 
 tinguishes in his new community between those Levites ' who 
 had kept Jehovah's charge and had not gone astray when 
 the children of Israel went astray ' 80 and the other Levites 
 who had done this. 81 These faithful priests he calls ' the sons 
 of Zadok,' though certainly not as lineal descendants of 
 Zadok ; since those very abominations, which Josiah cleared 
 out of the Temple, must have accumulated under high-priests 
 of Zadok's line, from the time of Solomon downwards. Per- 
 haps he had in his mind the words addressed to Eli and 
 pointing to Zadok, ' I will raise Me up a faithful priest, that 
 
 75 2K.xxiii.8,9. " e 27.20. " ^.21-23. 78 Ez.xl. 1. 
 
 ™ z\2,&c. 80 Ez.xlviii.11. si Ez.xliv.io, 
 
256 THE PRIESTS AND THE LEVITES. 
 
 shall do according to that which is in Mine heart and in My 
 mind/ 82 and speaks of these as being ' sons of Zadok ' in 
 spirit, according to this description of him. However this 
 may be, he draws a strong line of demarcation between these 
 two classes of priests, though he calls them both Levites — 
 saying of the one, ' The priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, 
 who kept the charge of My Sanctuary when the children of 
 Israel went astray from Me, they shall come near to Me 
 to minister unto Me, and they shall stand before Me to offer 
 unto Me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord Jehovah ; 
 they shall enter into My Sanctuary, and they shall come near 
 to My Table to minister unto Me, and they shall keep My 
 charge : ' 83 whereas of the other class he says, ' But the Levites, 
 who went far from Me when Israel went astray, who went 
 astray from Me after their idols, let them bear their iniquity ; 
 and let them be in My Dwelling ministers appointed at the 
 gates of the House, and ministering in the House ; let them 
 slay the burnt-offering and the sacrifice for the people and 
 stand before them to minister to them ; because they 
 ministered to them before their idols, and became to the 
 House of Israel a stumbling-block of iniquity, therefore 
 have I lifted up My hand against them, saith the Lord 
 Jehovah, and they shall bear their iniquity. And they shall 
 not draw-near to Me to act as priests unto Me, and to draw- 
 near beside any of My holy things unto the Holy of Holies, 
 and they shall bear their shame and their abominations which 
 they have done. And I have given them as keepers of the 
 charge of the House for all its service and for all which shall 
 be done in it.' 84 
 
 He still, however, calls this latter class of Levites ' priests,' 
 speaking of ' the priests the keepers of the charge of the 
 House ' ; 85 but he never speaks anywhere of ' the priests the 
 
 92 1S.ii.35, comp. iK.ii.27. 83 Ez.xliv.15,16. 
 
 84 ^.10-14. s5 Ez.xl.45. 
 
THE PRIESTS AND THE LEVITES. 257 
 
 sons of Aaron.' In short, as I have said, these Levites were 
 but degraded priests. And there can be little doubt that, on 
 the return from the Captivity, Ezekiel's ideal view was actually 
 carried out, and those Levites, who had been faithful to the 
 purer worship of JEHOVAH, themselves or their parents, 
 were henceforth dignified exclusively with the name and office 
 of ' priest,' and very probably themselves insisted tenaciously 
 on this distinction being maintained ; while the children of 
 those who had ministered at idolatrous altars were allowed 
 to officiate still, but only as a class inferior to the priesthood. 
 They were not indeed to be ' hewers of wood and drawers of 
 water,' for which and other merely menial offices the Nethinim 
 and Solomon's servants were, no doubt, employed. But they 
 were to act as gatekeepers and choristers, and to slay the 
 burnt-offerings for the people, and generally to ' stand before 
 them, to minister unto them,' 86 whereas ' the priests the 
 Levites the sons of Zadok ' were to ' stand before JEHOVAH, 
 to minister unto Jehovah.' 87 Probably very few were 
 willing to ' bear their shame ' in this way ; at all events, 
 though more than 4,000 priests returned from the Captivity, 88 
 in the proportion of one priest to ten laymen, 89 only 341 
 Levites are said to have accompanied them. 90 This enormous 
 preponderance of sacerdotal power in the new community 
 explains the ease with which the priestly legislation was im- 
 posed, as if revealed by Jehovah to Moses, upon an ignorant 
 laity, who, returning under such circumstances, would pro- 
 bably for the most part be credulous devotees, the very 
 people to be priest-ridden. Things did not go altogether 
 smoothly even thus ; and Nehemiah tells us how a son of 
 the high-priest in his time had married the daughter of the 
 heathen Sanballat and he * chased him from him ' 91 — besides 
 
 86 Ez.xl.44,xliv.i. 87 Ez.xliv.15,16. 88 Ezr.ii. 36-39. 
 
 89 ^.64. 90 ^.40-42. 9 ' Neh.xiii.28. 
 
 S 
 
258 THE PRIESTS AND THE LEVITES. 
 
 other Jews, who had married wives of Ashdod, Ammon, and 
 Moab, and with whom he contended. 92 But the priestly spirit 
 triumphed in the main after the Captitity, even down to 
 the time when they ' sought how they might kill ' the 
 blasphemer, as they called him, whose voice had sternly de- 
 nounced their practices, and published the Fatherly Love of 
 God to Man. 
 
 92 ^.23-27. 
 
LECTURE XIX. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 Recapitulation ; the Pesach kept in Josiah's days as never before, in 
 strict accordance with the rules prescribed by the Deuteronomist in the Book 
 of the Covenant ; these rules differ strikingly from those in Exodus, and seem 
 to connect the Pesach with the sacrifice of firstlings ; the Deuteronomist 
 enjoins that human firstlings shall be redeemed ; in earlier times they were 
 undoubtedly sacrificed, down to Josiah's Reformation ; such sacrifices are ap- 
 parently enjoined in more than one passage of the O.S. ; in the primitive age 
 human firstborns were probably ' made to pass-over ' to the Sun- God, on the 
 eve of the Full Moon, at the Spring Festival ; the practice may have been 
 dying out, though it was not extinct in Jeremiah's time ; points of difference 
 between the rules for observance of the Pesach in D.L., in L.L. ; the latter 
 falsely derives the name from Jehovah's ' passing-over ' by the Israelites when 
 He slew the Egyptians ; it further claims for Jehovah the Levites and their 
 cattle in place of the firstborns and firstlings of Israel, and then, inconsis- 
 tently, claims afterwards the firstlings for the priests, as it has previously 
 introduced the Levites as attached to the Sanctuary under the priests, and 
 used the term ' holy shekel ' before there was any sanctuary or priesthood ; 
 the half-shekel tan in Exodus related to the post-Captivity Temple-tan ; 
 the Christian Passover. 
 
THE ORIGIN OF THE PESACH OR PASSOVER. 
 
 HE first germ of that practice of later times in 
 Israel, which drew a sharp line of distinction 
 between the priests and the Levites, lay, as we 
 have seen, 1 in the fact that in Josiah's Reforma- 
 tion those priests who had ministered at idolatrous altars, 
 were degraded from their office, and were no longer allowed 
 to officiate at the altar of JEHOVAH — a germ which grew and 
 sprouted in the mind of Ezekiel, who strongly distinguished 
 between the faithful Levites, the ' sons of Zadok,' and their 
 idolatrous brethren, and which during the exile produced the 
 ripe fruit of the priestly system, as set forth in the Levitical 
 Legislation of the Pentateuch, and carried out in the Jewish 
 Church after the return from the Captivity. But these de- 
 prived priests were not excommunicated : they were allowed 
 to ' eat the mazzoth among their brethren ' 2 — that is, to cele- 
 brate with the other priests the Feast of Mazzoth or Un- 
 leavened Bread, the most remarkable feature of which was 
 the Passover or Pesach, as it is called in Hebrew, from which 
 is derived the Greek Pascha, and our own expression, the 
 Paschal Feast. I propose to consider in this Lecture the real 
 meaning and significance of this rite as practised among the 
 Hebrews in primitive times. 
 
 P . 256-7. 
 
 2K.xxiii.9. 
 
262 THE ORIGIN OF THE PESACH OR PASSOVER. 
 
 We are told that, as a part of his great Reformation, Josiah 
 ' commanded all the people saying, Keep the Passover unto 
 Jehovah your Elohim, as it is written in the Book of this 
 Covenant. Surely there was not holden such a Passover 
 from the days of the Judges that judged Israel, nor of the 
 kings of Israel, nor of the kings of Judah ; but in the eighteenth 
 year of King Josiah wherein this Passover was holden to JE- 
 HOVAH in Jerusalem.' 3 Never before, then, was such a Passover 
 as this observed in Israel from the days of the Judges down- 
 wards, that is, of course, from the very earliest times in the 
 history of the Hebrew people — not in David's time, when, after 
 ' long war between the house of Saul and the house of David,' 4 
 the Ten Tribes gave in at last their full submission, and ' they 
 anointed David king over Israel ' 5 — not even when six years 
 afterwards ' David and all the house of Israel ' had brought 
 up the sacred ark to Mount Zion, 6 nor later still, when Solo- 
 mon, ruling also over the Twelve tribes from Dan to Beer- 
 sheba and on both sides of the Jordan, had built his splendid 
 Temple at Jerusalem, and actually celebrated there from year 
 to year the three great Hebrew Festivals. 7 The 'goodness ' 
 or ' badness ' of the kings of Judah seems to have made no 
 difference in this respect : Asa, Jehoshaphat, Joash, Amaziah, 
 Jotham, Uzziah, Hezekiah, who all 'did right in the sight of 
 Jehovah,' 8 must have all themselves neglected, and allowed 
 their people to neglect, the due celebration of the Passover, 
 according to this statement. And certainly it is remarkable 
 that the Pesach is never once mentioned by any one of the 
 Psalmists or Prophets, except once by Ezekiel, 9 writing half 
 a century after the time of Josiah's Passover, or throughout 
 the whole history in the Books of Judges, Samuel, and Kings, 
 except in the single passage before us. Nay, even Josiah 
 himself, during the first seventeen years -of his reign, though 
 
 3 v 21-23. 4 2"S.iii.i. 5 2S.iv. 1-3. 6 2S.vi. 
 
 1 1K.ix.25. 8 iK.xv. n,xxii.43, 2K.xii.2,xiv.3,xv.3,34,xviii.3. 3 Ez.xlv.21. 
 
THE ORIGIN OF THE PESACH OR PASSOVER. 263 
 
 his ' heart was tender,' 10 and for five of those years he had 
 Jeremiah by his side, 11 was evidently just as faulty as the 
 rest. Only ' in the eighteenth year of King Josiah ' was this 
 famous Passover kept in Jerusalem as it had never been kept 
 before. 
 
 It is not said that the numbers then present were greater 
 than on any former occasion ; and the writer can hardly 
 have meant this, since the Ten Tribes had long been carried 
 captive, 12 and only the petty kingdom of Judah remained, 
 with some scanty remnants of the northern tribes. Supposing, 
 however, that Josiah's zeal had roused a kindred enthusiasm 
 among his people, so that even from this diminished popula- 
 tion more people came to keep the Passover at Jerusalem 
 than had ever come before, yet the stress is here laid upon the 
 fact that it was now for the first time kept in the proper 
 manner, as enjoined in the Book of the Law just found in the 
 Temple ; for ' the king commanded all the people saying, 
 Keep the Passover unto JEHOVAH your Elohim, as it is 
 written in the Book of this Covenant.' That ' Book of the 
 Covenant,' as we have seen, 13 was the main address of Moses 
 in the Book of Deuteronomy, the work, as we suppose, 14 of 
 the prophet Jeremiah, and by him probably placed in the 
 Temple, where in due time it was found by his father Hilkiah, 
 the reading of which produced that powerful impression on 
 the mind of the king, which led to his great Reformation. We 
 must examine, then, this address of Moses, and see what it 
 enjoins about the Passover, since in this way it was kept in 
 the days of Josiah. 
 
 Now, what the Deuteronomist says upon this subject is 
 this : — ' Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Pesach 
 to Jehovah thy Elohim ; for in the month of Abib Jehovah 
 thy Elohim brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. And 
 
 10 2K.xxii. 10. n Jer.i 2,xxv.3. n 2K.xvii.6. 
 
 13 p. 149. " p. 148, 
 
264 THE ORIGIN OF THE PESACH OR PASSOVER. 
 
 thou shalt slay the Pesach to Jehovah thy Elohim, of the 
 flock and of the herd, in the place which JEHOVAH shall 
 choose to make His Name to dwell there. Thou shalt not 
 eat with it anything leavened : seven days thou shalt eat it 
 with Mazzoth, bread of affliction, — for in haste thou camest- 
 forth out of the land of Egypt, — that so thou mayest re- 
 member the day of thy coming-forth out of the land of Egypt 
 all the days of thy life. And no leaven shall be seen with 
 thee in all thy coast seven days ; neither shall aught of the 
 flesh, which thou slayest the first day at even, remain all night 
 until the morning. Thou mayest not slay the Pesach in any 
 of thy gates which JEHOVAH thy Elohim giveth thee : but at 
 the place which JEHOVAH thy Elohim shall choose, to make 
 His Name to dwell there, thou shalt slay the Pesach at even, 
 at the going-down of the sun, at the season of thy going-forth 
 out of Egypt. And thou shalt boil and eat it in the place 
 which Jehovah thy Elohim shall choose, and thou shalt 
 turn in the morning and go unto thy tents. Six days shalt 
 thou eat Mazzoth, and on the seventh day shall be a restraint 
 to Jehovah thy Elohim, thou shalt do no work.' 15 
 
 This is the Deuteronomist's account of the Pesach or Pass- 
 over. There were to be seven days for the Feast of Mazzoth, 
 on which no leavened bread was to be eaten, 16 the seventh 
 day being kept as a solemn day of ' restraint,' on which no 
 work was to be done. 17 But ' on the first day at even ' 18 — 
 the Jewish day, you will remember, began with the evening — 
 the whole assembled people was to slay the Pesach and 
 boil 19 its flesh, and eat it during the flight * in the place 
 which Jehovah would choose,' and in the morning they 
 were to disperse to their * tents ' or dwellings. I shall point 
 out presently in what respects these directions differ from 
 those of the Later Legislation in Exodus. But one striking 
 
 15 D.xvi. I- 
 
 18 z/.4,6. 
 
 16 D.xvi. 3, 4. 17 v.\ 
 
 is 27.7— no t 'roast,' as in the E.V. 
 
THE ORIGIN OF THE PES AC H OR PASSOVER. 265 
 
 difference is obvious at once, viz. that here, in Deuteronomy, 
 the whole assembled people are to eat the Pesach together in 
 the Temple Courts during the night, and in the morning to 
 go each to his home ; whereas in Exodus they are to eat it 
 each with his family separately in his own house, 20 and it is 
 added, 'none of you shall go out at the door of his house 
 until the morning.' 21 
 
 • We observe, however, that this older law in Deuteronomy 
 enjoins them to ' slay the Pesach of the flock and of the herd, 22 
 and that, immediately before this, the writer has ordered 
 that ' all the firstling males of the herd and of the flock ' shall 
 be ' sanctified to JEHOVAH ' and ' eaten before JEHOVAH 
 yearly in the place which He would choose.' 23 It would seem, 
 then, that he is here specifying the time at which these first- 
 lings of sheep and oxen should be eaten at a sacrificial feast, 
 viz. at the annual celebration of the Passover in the month of 
 Abib or ' Green-Ears/ that is, in the early Spring. So too, 
 when the Deuteronomist, as we have seen, 24 abridges the 
 laws of the older Covenant supposed to have been made 
 between JEHOVAH and the people under Sinai, he writes, 
 ' The Feast of Mazzoth shalt thou observe : seven days shalt 
 thou eat Mazzoth as I commanded thee, at the season of the 
 month Abib, for in the month of Abib thou camest-forth out of 
 Egypt.' 25 And then follows immediately, as if in close con- 
 nexion with this Feast, ' All that openeth the womb is Mine, 
 and every male firstling among thy cattle, ox or sheep. But 
 the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb, and, if 
 thou redeem it not, thou shalt break its neck. All the first- 
 borns of thy sons shalt thou redeem.' 26 
 
 But these, as I have said, are words of the Deuteronomist, 
 writing in Jtfsiah's time. Were the firstborns always l re- 
 deemed ' in Israel ? We have already seen abundantly, 27 by 
 
 20 E.xii.7,13. 21 Z/.22. 22 v.2. 23 D. xv. 19,20. 
 
 24 p. 136-8, 25 E.xxxiv.18, 2S E.xxxiv. 19,20. 27 p. 119. 
 
266 THE ORIGIN OF THE PESACH OR PASSOVER. 
 
 many quotations from the Bible itself, that the practice of 
 offering human sacrifices — of first slaying and then burning 
 their firstborn sons and daughters in honour of the Sun- 
 God — prevailed extensively among the Hebrew people, not 
 only in the northern kingdom, 28 but in the kingdom of 
 Judah, 29 in the neighbourhood of the ark and the Temple, in 
 the presence of pious kings and zealous prophets, and in the 
 very face of, or rather, doubtless, often with the willing help of, 
 * the priests the sons of Levi.' ' Yea, they sacrificed their 
 sons and their daughters unto devils, and shed innocent 
 blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, 
 whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan, and the land 
 was polluted with blood.' 30 Thus even Josiah, as part of the 
 Reformation in the eighteenth year of his reign, ' defiled the 
 Topheth, which is in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, 
 that no man might make his son or his daughter pass-over 
 in the fire to Molech, 31 — that is, ' pass-over ' as a sacrificial 
 offering to ' the King,' the Sun-God ; so that even down to 
 this time the practice of offering human-sacrifices must have 
 been continued in Jerusalem, under the good king Josiah, and 
 in the presence of the prophet Jeremiah and the high-priest 
 Hilkiah. 
 
 Moreover, we saw in a former Lecture 32 that in the oldest 
 code of laws, in the Book of Exodus, dating probably from 
 the age of Samuel, there is an ordinance which seems actually 
 to prescribe such sacrifices: — ' Thy fulness and thy tears '— < 
 that is, the firstfruits of thy threshing-floor and wine-press 
 — ' thou shalt not delay : the firstborn of thy children shalt 
 thou give unto Me : so shalt thou do with thine ox, with thy 
 sheep : seven days shall it be with its dam ; on the eighth 
 day thou shalt give it to Me.' 33 These firstlings of the herd 
 and of the flock were, of course, to be sacrificed ; and there is 
 
 28 2K.xvii.17. 29 2K.xvi.3,xxi.6. 30 Ps.cxvi.37,38. 
 
 31 2K.xxiii. 10. 32 p. 117. 33 E.xxii. 29,30. 
 
THE ORIGIN OF THE PESACH OR PASSOVER. 267 
 
 no intimation whatever that the firstborns of man were to be 
 ' given to JEHOVAH ' in any other way than that in which the 
 other firstlings were to be ' given ' to Him, that is, by fire. 
 
 So, again, in the Original Story, when the Israelites had 
 been let go out of their bondage under the terrible effect of 
 the last plague, which smote the firstborns of Egypt, both 
 man and beast, we read — ' And Jehovah spake unto Moses 
 saying, Sanctify to Me all the firstborn that openeth the 
 womb among the children of Israel, of men and cattle — it is 
 Mine.' 34 And then, most probably, a few more words enjoined 
 the celebration of the Feast of Mazzoth in memory of the 
 unleavened bread which they ate in their hurried flight, when 
 ' they took their dough before it was leavened.' 35 But the 
 Deuteronomist has removed this, and inserted instead of it 
 his own more copious account of the Feast of Mazzoth, 36 at the 
 end of which he repeats the command about ' making to 
 pass-over to Jehovah ' all firstborns and firstlings. 37 But here 
 he adds i all the firstborns of men among thy children shalt 
 thou redeem,' 38 thus softening and in fact explaining away 
 the abrupt words of the Original Story just quoted, which, 
 as they read, would also seem to imply that the firstlings of 
 man and beast were to be dealt with in like manner, and 
 ' sanctified to Jehovah ' by being sacrificed. 
 
 It is probable that in the primitive times in Israel, that is, 
 before and during the age of Samuel, or even after it — in 
 days when J ephthah could sacrifice his only daughter as 'a 
 burnt-offering to JEHOVAH,' 39 and Samuel could hew in 
 pieces ' before JEHOVAH ' the captive Agag, king of Amalek, 40 
 and David could make his Ammonite captives ' pass-over ' in 
 the fire to Molech, 41 and could give up the seven sons and 
 grandsons of Saul to be impaled or crucified ' before JEHO- 
 
 84 E.xiii.1,2. 35 E.xii.34,39. 36 ^.3-10. 
 
 37 z\ 12, instead of E.V. 'set apart,' see marg. 38 v. 13. 
 
 39 Ju.xi. 30-40. «» 1 S. xv. 33. 
 
 41 2S.xi.31, instead of E.V. 'pass through the brick-kiln.' 
 
268 THE ORIGIN OF THE PESACH OR PASSOVER. 
 
 VAH/ 42 or even in the still later age, when such facts as these 
 could be recorded without one word of censure, — the Spring 
 Festival was kept in Israel, after the example of the tribes of 
 Canaan, with human as well as animal sacrifices, the first- 
 borns both of man and beast being made to ' pass-over to 
 Jehovah ' on the fourteenth day of the month at even, 43 tha?" 
 is, on the eve of the Full Moon. This ceremony was called 
 the Pesach or ' Passing-over,' and the Feast lasted for seven 
 days, with the custom, handed down perhaps from great 
 antiquity, when the use of leaven was unknown, of eating 
 bread unleavened. It is true, the Original Story, though it 
 enjoins the ' giving or sanctifying ' to JEHOVAH all firstlings 
 both of man and beast, does not mention the Pesach by name. 
 It says, however, in its ancient code, ' Thou shalt not slay with 
 aught leavened the blood of My Sacrifice, neither shall the 
 fat of My Feast remain all night until the morning,' 44 — as if 
 there was some special ' Sacrifice ' and special ' Feast ' pecu- 
 liarly dear to JEHOVAH. And, accordingly, the Deuterono- 
 mist, when copying these words, instead of ' the Fat of My 
 Feast,' writes plainly ' the Sacrifice of the Feast of the 
 Pesach/ 45 showing that this gloomy solemnity was the 
 annual festival deemed of most importance, though doubtless 
 the joyous Autumn Feast was most in favour with the 
 people ; and so the words ' blood of My Sacrifice,' which the 
 Deuteronomist here merely repeats, were probably meant to 
 have a similar reference to the great Spring Sacrifice o 
 firstborns and firstlings, which was designed especially to 
 propitiate the Sun-God and bring down a blessing on the 
 crops of the year. 
 
 At some time or other, no doubt, the practice was intro- 
 duced of ' redeeming ' the firstborns of men, perhaps about 
 the age of David, when the Story of Abraham's sacrifice was 
 
 42 2S.xxi.8,9. » E.xii.6. « E.xxiii.i8. ib E.xxxiv.25. 
 
THE ORIGIN OF THE PESACH OR PASSOVER. 269 
 
 probably written, 46 in which Isaac is ' redeemed ' with a ram. 47 
 Probably the older custom died out gradually, and in Jere- 
 miah's time was only observed at last by superstitious de- 
 votees. But it still, we find, existed in Israel down to the 
 eighteenth year of king Josiah, when for the first time the 
 Pesach was kept, ' as it was written in the Book of the Cove- 
 nant,' that is, only with sacrifices of sheep and oxen, probably 
 the firstlings of the flock and of the herd, which were slain at 
 evening, and feasted on during the night in the Temple 
 Courts by the offerers and their families, not forsaking the 
 needy Levite, 48 and in the morning they went to their 
 homes. 
 
 Very different are the directions for the observance of this 
 Passover laid down in the Later Levitical Law. Here, too, 
 it is represented as a memorial of the deliverance of Israel 
 out of Egypt. 49 But instead of the firstlings 'of the flock 
 and of the herd,' the priestly legislator, having elsewhere 
 assigned these exclusively to the use of the priests, 50 orders a 
 lamb or kid, ' a male of the first year,' to be slain by each 
 householder on this occasion, the flesh to be expressly roasted, 
 not boiled, and to be eaten with bitter herbs, not by the 
 whole body of worshippers assembled together in the Temple 
 Court, but by each offerer with his family and friends in his 
 own house, the lintel and side-posts of which were to be 
 smeared with the blood, — to be eaten by him hurriedly, with 
 'his loins girded, his shoes on his feet, and his staff in his 
 hand.' 51 Again, the Deuteronomist orders that the seventh 
 day of the Feast of Mazzoth shall be kept as a day of re- 
 straint, on which no work should be done ; 52 so that, on re- 
 turning to their homes from the Temple in the morning of 
 the first day of the Feast, they would be at liberty to do 
 what they liked for the rest of the day, and until the seventh 
 
 46 p.120-1. 47 G.xxii.13. iS D.xii.17,18. i9 E.xii.24-27. 
 
 50 N.xviii. 15-18. 51 E.xii.5-11. 52 D.xvi.8. 
 
27 o THE ORIGIN OF THE PESACH OR PASSOVER. 
 
 day began at evening. But the Levitical Law orders the first 
 day to be kept, as well as the seventh, as a day of ' holy 
 Convocation ' — ' no manner of work shall be done in them.' 63 
 Both writers explained the custom that only unleavened 
 bread was eaten on this occasion by reference to the hasty 
 march out of Egypt. 54 But the Deuteronomist makes no 
 allusion whatever to the sparing of the firstborns of Israel as 
 the ground of this rite : whereas the Levitical Law derives 
 the name Pesach from the verb pasach, * pass-over,' not because 
 the firstborns and firstlings were made to ' pass-over to JEHO- 
 VAH,' but in memory of the fact that JEHOVAH had 'passed- 
 over by the houses of the Israelites, 55 when he slew the 
 Egyptian firstborns and firstlings. Moreover, it represents 
 the Levites and their cattle as taken to be Jehovah's, about 
 a year afterwards, in place of all the firstborns and firstlings 
 in Israel : — ' thou shalt take the Levites for Me instead of 
 all the firstborns among the children of Israel, and the cattle 
 of the Levites instead of all the firstlings among the cattle of 
 the children of Israel.' 56 And then, in another place, 57 with 
 strange inconsistency, he claims in Jehovah's Name these 
 very same firstborns and firstlings from all Israel for the use 
 of the priests, the former to be redeemed with money and the 
 latter to be eaten. This last fact is enough by itself to show 
 that we have here no history properly so called : though indi- 
 rectly we read here the history of later times, and see how it 
 was sought after the Captivity to account for the Levites 
 being separated as servants of the Sanctuary, in subordina- 
 tion to the 'priests the sons of Aaron,' and at the same 
 time to secure for these latter a plentiful supply of fees and of 
 food. 
 
 Long before this, however, in the priestly Legislation, the 
 Levites have been introduced inadvertenly as connected 
 
 53 E.xii. 1 6. 54 D.xvi.3, E.xii. u. 55 E.xii.27. 
 
 56 N.iii.45. M N.xviii. 15-18. 
 
THE ORIGIN OF THE PES AC I I OR PASSOVER. 271 
 
 with the Sanctuary and subordinated to the priests, 58 though, 
 as the story now stands, not a word had yet been said about 
 their being set apart for sacred duties. So the priestly Legis- 
 lator speaks repeatedly of the 'shekel of the Sanctuary,' or holy 
 shekel, when no Sanctuary, according to the story, was in ex- 
 istence 59 — a designation which is used in other passages of 
 these later laws, 60 and with which the writer in his own days 
 was, no doubt, familiar, though it occurs nowhere else in the 
 Bible. Thus in one place of Exodus Jehovah lays a tax 
 upon the people of half a shekel for each male adult, ' ac- 
 cording to the holy shekel ; ' 61 and the amount of silver thus 
 received is carefully accounted for as expended in making 
 different parts of the Tabernacle. 62 But here we have light 
 thrown at once upon the age in which this passage was 
 written. For we find it stated that in the time of Ezra and 
 Nehemiah, long after the Captivity, the people laid upon 
 themselves a yearly Temple-tax of a third of a shekel for de- 
 fraying the expenses of public worship, 63 a tribute which 
 must have been raised at some later day to half a shekel, as 
 it existed, we know, in our Saviour's time. 64 No reference, 
 however, is here made to any legislative direction already ex- 
 isting for such a tribute being levied ; but the people volun- 
 tarily bind themselves to contribute annually the sum in 
 question — one-third of a shekel. From this it is plain that 
 the Law, which Ezra is represented as at this very time en- 
 forcing with all his might, 65 contained no such command as 
 yet, fixing half a shekel for the Temple-tax. In other words, 
 it must have been inserted after the time of Ezra and Nehe- 
 miah, as one of the very latest portions of the Levitical Law, 
 which appears to have been composed by priestly writers at 
 
 59 E.xxxviii.21. 59 E. xxx. 1 3,24, xxxviii. 24-26. 
 
 60 L.v.i5,xxvii.3,25, N.iii.47,5o,vii.i3,i9,&c. (fourteen times), xviii.16. 
 
 61 E.xxx.u-16. 62 E. xxxviii. 2 5-28. 63 Neh.x.32. 
 
 64 Matt.xvii.24, Gr. didrachmon = half a shekel. 65 Neh.viii. 
 
272 THE ORIGIN OF THE PESACH OR PASSOVER. 
 
 different periods, partly in Babylonia, partly at Jerusalem, 
 between the years 600 and 450 B.C. 
 
 I have now explained what appears to have been the true 
 origin of the rite of the Pesach, which the Israelites adopted 
 from the Canaanite tribes, but which comes to us in the 
 Bible disguised under the modifications introduced in later 
 times. The sacrifice in question was supposed to be pleasing 
 to the Deity, one that would propitiate His Favour and 
 secure His Blessing. And as such it was regarded by St. 
 Paul as the type of him who was the true paschal lamb, 
 whose offering of himself in life and in death is the standing 
 exemplar for all ages of that living sacrifice which we our- 
 selves are daily to be offering, ' holy, acceptable unto God, 
 which is our reasonable service.' 66 ' Christ our Passover is 
 sacrificed for us : therefore let us keep the Feast, not with the 
 old leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened 
 bread of sincerity and truth.' 67 This is the lesson for us to 
 learn, that the lives of all true-hearted men of all times, of 
 all countries, classes, religions, acting faithfully according to 
 the light which God has given them, help to ' fill up/ as the 
 same apostle says, ' that which is behind of the afflictions of 
 Christ,' 68 and are parts of that great Sacrifice, offered by God's 
 dear children on behalf of the whole human race, with which 
 the Father is well-pleased. 
 
 m Rom.xii.i. 67 I Cor. v. 7,8. 68 Col. i. 24. 
 
 ^d^f^4^ 
 
 
LECTURE XX. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 Difficulties felt by different classes of readers in respect of the contents of 
 the Pentateuch ; some of these may be got rid of by rationalising processes, 
 as in the New Commentary ; there remains the impossibility of reconciling 
 the later history of Israel with the Levitical Legislation, supposed to be 
 Mosaic and Divine ; some real movement out of Egypt must lie at the basis 
 of the story of the Exodus ; Manetho's accounts of the Shepherd- Kings and the 
 Leprous People ; the latter probably to be identified with the Israelites, the 
 former with kindred tribes of Eastern origin, who had previously settled on 
 the confines of Egypt and Canaan ; probable oppression of the Israelites 
 under Rameses II., and date of the Exodus; the O.S. does not imply that 
 forty years were spent in the wilderness ; this term, expressing merely an 
 indefinite long time, first applied to the wanderings in popular talk, and used 
 in this sense by Amos, was introduced by the Deuteronomist into the story 
 of the Exodus, though in the original address of Moses only as a time of 
 probation, not of judgment, as in his later insertions ; our language full of 
 allusions to the Exodus ; mistakes often made in drawing such comparisons. 
 
THE REAL HISTORY OF THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL. 
 
 E have now examined the Pentateuch sufficiently 
 to be able to form some clear idea of the manner 
 in which it has been composed, by writers of 
 different ages, whose contributions betray the spirit 
 of the times in which they lived, and reveal to us the secret 
 history and movements mainly of those times, and not of the 
 Mosaic age, as is commonly supposed. We are thus relieved 
 at once from the burden of maintaining that all the miraculous 
 stories of these Books are historically true — a burden which 
 many in the present age of general enlightenment have found 
 too heavy to be borne. But, if the faith of some is staggered by 
 these things, there are others who have schooled themselves 
 into the habit of looking upon such stories as no essential part 
 of the Mosaic narrative, and who are ready to ascribe them to 
 the processes which would be actively at work in a primitive 
 age, adorning simple facts with marvellous adjuncts. It is 
 true, it is not so easy to dispose of all the wonderful incidents 
 in the Pentateuch in this way. The ten plagues may be ex- 
 plained as mere exaggerations of natural occurrences ; for 
 travellers tell us how at certain seasons the waters of the Nile 
 are red as blood, how dense the gloom is sometimes at mid- 
 day, how destructive are the hailstorms, how painful the boils, 
 
276 THE REAL HISTORY OF 
 
 how deadly the murrains and pestilences. * The miracle at 
 the Red Sea,' it may be said, ' may have been only the 
 crossing- an arm of that Sea, when the waters are very low, 
 as they sometimes are now under the influence of certain 
 winds, the cessation of which, with the springing up of a contrary 
 wind, makes the waves return violently where shortly before 
 had been dry land.' Of course, we are not to suppose that 
 Jehovah Himself ranked the ' hare ' among ruminant animals 
 because of the quivering movement of its lips, though the 
 Bible distinctly says so, 1 or that the Creator classed the 
 1 mouse ' and the * mole ' in the same category of ' creeping 
 things ' with the ' snail ' and the ( lizard,' as again in the Bible 
 he is represented to have done. 2 It was Moses who really 
 made these statements and desired to secure Divine authority 
 for his own laws by ascribing them to JEHOVAH. This, 
 in fact, is exactly what the New Commentary does, which 
 says, ' It was not the object of the legislator to give a scientific 
 classification of animals ; ' 3 and again, ' The distinction of 
 animals laid down by Moses agrees in the main with that 
 recognized by other nations than the Hebrews ;' 4 and again, 
 ' The ordinance of Moses was for the whole nation.' 5 In this 
 way many will be able to rationalize away to their own 
 satisfaction most of the stupendous narratives of miraculous 
 interference in the Pentateuch ; though there will be some 
 of these still, as the utterance of the Ten Commandments 
 in two different forms in Exodus and Deuteronomy, which 
 would still present a difficulty. 6 
 
 But there are those again who seem able to pass over, or 
 at least to pass by, the stumbling-blocks caused even by those 
 miracles which appear to be interwoven into the very texture 
 of the Mosaic story. For such persons the difficulty is felt to 
 be much greater to reconcile the later portion of the Jewish 
 
 1 L.xi.i-6. 2 ^.29,30. 8 AC.Lp.-s46. 
 
 4 AC.l.p.557. • lb. 6 p.101-3. 
 
THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL. 277 
 
 History, as it lies before us in the Bible, with the earliest 
 portion of it, assuming this to have been substantially in ac- 
 cordance with the story told in the middle three Books of the 
 Pentateuch. If the account given in those books of the 
 priestly and sacrificial system be true in the main — that is, if 
 these institutions and practices did really originate in that 
 early age, under Mosaic, at all events, if not under direct 
 Divine, authority, — how is it possible, they feel, to explain 
 the extraordinary contradictions to this supposed fact, which 
 meet us everywhere in the records of the history, from the 
 Book of Judges to the very end of the Second Book of Kings, 
 where we find not a trace of these priestly laws being duly 
 observed under the best of kings, or of any distinction being 
 made between the priests and the Levites ? Here and there, 
 by the ingenuity of traditionary writers, some faint reference 
 may be imagined to the observance of one or other of those 
 laws. But the whole labour of such writers is painfully spent, 
 not in accumulating clear and overwhelming proofs of these 
 laws having been recognized as authoritative and Divine, 
 at least by the most devout princes and priests and prophets, 
 and in Israel's best days, but in trying to extract some faint 
 evidence of this from words which do not really yield it, and 
 explaining away the stubborn facts of a contrary character 
 which appear in every page of the history. 
 
 Let us now see if it is possible to reconstruct to some 
 extent the actual history of the Hebrew people, and to sketch 
 some more rational account of their early doings than the 
 traditionary view affords. 
 
 Upon consideration of the whole question, it can scarcely 
 be doubted that some real movement out of Egypt in former 
 days must underlie the story of the Exodus. It is incon- 
 ceivable that such a narrative should have been written by 
 any Hebrew without some real tradition giving the hint for 
 it. What motive, for instance, could he have had for taking 
 
278 THE REAL HISTORY OF 
 
 his own people into Egypt, representing them as having lived 
 there as miserable slaves, and bringing them out of Egypt 
 into Canaan, unless he had derived it from reminiscences of 
 some former residence of the Hebrews in Egypt, under 
 painful and humiliating circumstances, and of some great 
 deliverance ? 
 
 Thus, then, it is by no means necessary to suppose that 
 the narrative in question is from beginning to end a pure 
 fiction. It is probable that there may have been floating 
 about in the memories of the Hebrew tribes many legendary 
 stories of former striking events in their history — how they 
 once were oppressed for many years in Egypt — how they fled 
 in a large body out of that ' house of servants ' under some 
 eminent leader such as Moses — how they had crossed the 
 shallow extremity of the Red Sea when the waters were low, 
 and had been led through that ' great and terrible wilderness,' 
 and had encamped under the dreadful Mount, with its 
 blackened peaks and precipices, as if they had been burnt 
 with fire — how they had lost themselves in the dreary waste, 
 and struggled on through great sufferings, and many died, 
 but the rest found their way at last into the land of Canaan, 
 and made good their footing among the tribes settled there, 
 and by whom they were called ' Hebrews,' or ' people who 
 had crossed,' that is, had crossed the Euphrates, just as by 
 the natives of Natal the refugees from Zululand are spoken 
 of as abawelayo, ' people who have crossed ' the Tugela. It 
 is natural that the recollections of such a march should have 
 left indelible traces upon the minds of the people, and the 
 real facts may thus have been exaggerated and distorted in 
 the popular talk, as is the case with legends generally, while 
 circulated from one to another and passed on by word of 
 mouth, from sire to son, in the intervening age. In this way 
 natural occurrences may have been magnified into prodigies, 
 some weary months or years into forty years of wandering, 
 
THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL. 279 
 
 and many thousands multiplied into two or three millions of 
 people. And, if so, it is difficult to avoid the conviction that 
 the story quoted by Josephus from the Egyptian writer 
 Manetho, who lived about B.C. 250, and declares that he 
 translated it out of the sacred books of Egypt, must have 
 some connexion with this movement. 
 
 This, then, somewhat abridged, is what Manetho records : — 
 1 There was a king of ours named Timaeus, under whom it 
 came to pass that for some reason or other the Deity was 
 averse to us. And strangely there came ignoble men out of 
 the eastern regions who were bold enough to invade our land, 
 and easily subdued it by force, without our risking a battle 
 with them. So they seized our rulers and burnt down our 
 cities, and demolished the temples of the gods, and treated 
 barbarously all the inhabitants, slaying some and enslaving 
 their wives and children. At length they made one of them- 
 selves king, by name Salatis, who lived at Memphis, and 
 made Upper and Lower Egypt pay tribute, and established 
 garrisons, securing chiefly the eastern parts, for fear of the 
 Assyrians. He rebuilt also the city of Avaris, and made it 
 very strong with walls and a garrison of 240,000 armed men. 
 After him reigned five other kings, the six ruling 254 years, 
 and all along making war with the Egyptians. These were 
 called the Hyksos or Shepherd-Kings, and some say that 
 these people were Arabians. They held Egypt 5 1 1 years, 
 when the Egyptian kings waged a long and terrible war with 
 them, at the end of which they were driven into Avaris, from 
 which they were allowed, on condition of leaving Egypt, to go 
 uninjured wherever they liked. Accordingly, they went with 
 all their families, in number 240,000, and marched through 
 the wilderness for Syria ; but, fearing the Assyrians, they 
 built a city in that country, which is now called Judaea, and 
 named it Jerusalem.' 7 
 
 7 adv. 4^.1.14,15. 
 
280 THE REAL HISTORY OF 
 
 Thus far, says Josephus, Manetho has followed the sacred 
 records, and he has no doubt that these ' Shepherd-Kings ' 
 were the people of Israel. But here he has manifestly been 
 misled by his national vanity to claim these great achieve- 
 ments to be placed to the credit of his own forefathers. For, 
 if Israel had really lorded it over Egypt for a considerable 
 period in this manner, we should surely have found some 
 trace of this fact in the Scripure story, and the sojourning in 
 Goshen would not have been represented as a time at best of 
 insignificance, and at last of abject misery. But Josephus 
 then further tells us that, besides this account taken from 
 the sacred records, Manetho has also introduced, out of his 
 own head or from mere rumour, ' incredible narratives/ — such 
 as follows : — 
 
 • Long after the expulsion of the Shepherd-Kings, king 
 Amenophis wished to see the gods, and was told that he 
 might see them if he would clear the whole land of the lepers 
 and other unclean people. Accordingly, he collected these 
 people out of all Egypt, to the number of 80,000, and sent 
 them to work in the quarries on the East of the Nile. After a 
 while they petitioned for relief from that hard labour, and 
 the king assigned to them the city of Avaris, which had once 
 belonged to the Shepherds, but was now uninhabited. Here 
 they chose one Osarsiph, priest of On or Heliopolis, the city 
 of the Sun, for their leader, and swore to obey him in all things. 
 He first made a law that they were not to worship the gods 
 of Egypt, that they were to kill the animals held sacred in 
 Egypt, and not associate with the Egyptians. Then he re- 
 built their walls, and sent a message to the " Shepherds " in 
 Jerusalem to come and help them. So they came to Avaris in 
 great numbers, and for thirteen years the " lepers " lorded it in 
 Lower Egypt. Meanwhile these " lepers," with their allies the 
 " Shepherds," had committed dreadful outrages, burning towns 
 and cities, breaking the images of the gods, and eating the 
 
THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL. 281 
 
 flesh of the sacred animals, which they compelled the priests 
 to kill ; and all this was done by direction of Osarsiph, the 
 priest of Osiris the Sun-God, an Egyptian by birth, who, on 
 going over to this people, changed his name to Moses. At last 
 Amenophis the king came against them from the south with 
 a great army, and his son Rameses with another, and together 
 they fought with the " lepers " and " Shepherds," and after a 
 great slaughter chased them as far as the frontiers of 
 Syria.' 8 
 
 Josephus, who adopts the first legend completely, is very 
 angry at the notion of this Leprous People being supposed 
 to be the Hebrews, and has, of course, no difficulty in showing 
 that, as it now stands, this narrative cannot be historically 
 true. Yet it is probable that we have here the Egyptian 
 version of the exodus of Israel. The Egyptians regarded all 
 foreigners as unclean, and would be likely enough to call these 
 nomadic tribes, who like the Shepherd-Kings before them 
 had made their way from the far East beyond the Euphrates, 
 to settle in the fertile land of Egypt, a ' leprous ' people. 
 According to this account also, the harsh measures of the 
 Egyptians, and in particular the slavish service imposed by 
 them, gave occasion to the rebellion of those oppressed, and 
 ultimately led to their being driven out of Egypt and pursued 
 as far as the Syrian frontier. All this, as well as the violence 
 done to the gods of Egypt, agrees sufficiently with the 
 Hebrew account of the Exodus to make it very probable 
 that we have here only another version of that event from a 
 different point of view. And Amenophis, the Egyptian king, 
 is identified by Egyptologists with Menoptha, son of Rameses 
 II., so that this Rameses may have been the oppressor who 
 reduced the Israelites to slavery. This fully agrees with the 
 character of that monarch, who during the last fifty-six years 
 
 8 adv. Ap. 1.26,27. 
 
282 THE REAL HISTORY OF 
 
 of his long reign was occupied exclusively with home-enter- 
 prises, e.g. with building temples and palaces, whose ruins are 
 still the astonishment of travellers. It is confirmed also by 
 the circumstance that one of the cities said to have been 
 built by the Israelites was called Rameses, 9 and its remains 
 now discovered show that it was Rameses II. under whom it 
 was built. According to this view, the Exodus of the Israelites 
 out of Egypt took place about B.C. 1320, nearly two centuries 
 after the date usually assigned to it. 
 
 Such, then, was very probably the basis upon which the 
 Scripture story of the Exodus has been founded. No doubt, 
 as I have said, the Israelites on their march to Canaan en- 
 dured great hardships and encountered formidable difficulties, 
 the memory of which, handed down from age to age during 
 two or three centuries, may have given rise to some of the 
 wonderful stories in the narrative, while others are merely the 
 result of the natural growth of legendary matter, or are due 
 to the inventive imagination of the writer or writers. It 
 must be observed, however, that in the Original Story there 
 is no sign of any very long period, such as-forty years, having 
 been consumed in the wanderings. On the contrary, in that 
 Story the people are carried on at once from Sinai till they 
 reach the southern boundary of Canaan, 10 when Moses sends 
 out spies to search the land, 11 upon whose return the people 
 murmur because of the formidable enemies they will have to 
 encounter, 12 and, as a punishment for this, instead of being 
 allowed to enter Canaan at once from the south, they are 
 ordered to turn and go back again into the wilderness 
 towards the Red Sea ; 13 and, accordingly, being refused a 
 passage across the Edomite territory, 14 they march southward 
 until they reach its southern extremity, when they turn again 
 towards the north coast, along its eastern border, and reach 
 
 9 E.i. 11. ,0 E.xxxiii. 1,2, N.x.29-33,xi.34,35,xii. 16. 
 
 11 N.xiii. 1-3. 13 N.xiv. 1. 13 7.25. ,4 N.xx. 14-21. 
 
THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL. 283 
 
 the plains of Moab, 15 and so at last they enter Canaan from 
 the east across the Jordan. 16 For all this a comparatively 
 short time would have sufficed, except that they are spoken 
 of as ' dwelling ' at Kadesh 17 or Petra, perhaps for a few 
 months only, as afterwards they are said to have ' dwelt ' at 
 Shittim, 18 where, according to the story as it now stands, they 
 can only have remained three or four months at the most. 19 
 But they came to Kadesh, we are told, ' in the first month ' 20 
 — it is not said in what year of the wanderings ; but it is 
 natural to suppose that the second year must be meant, since 
 the movements hitherto in the Original Story have been to- 
 wards the end of the first year. 21 If, however, this datum 
 of ' forty years ' had belonged to the Original Story, we should 
 have to suppose either here or somewhere else in this chapter 
 before the account of the death of Aaron, 22 which occurred in 
 the fortieth year, 23 a sudden leap of thirty-eight years in the 
 narrative — a circumstance which has greatly perplexed the 
 most eminent commentators. Thus the New Commentary 
 tells us that we must understand the words to mean ' in the 
 first month of the fortieth year of the Exodus.' 24 
 
 The fact is, as I have said, that the Original Story said 
 nothing about these ' forty years,' though it implied a long 
 and tedious wandering in the wilderness. This vexatious delay 
 
 15 N.xxi.4, 10-20. ,B J.iii. 14-17. 
 
 17 N. xx. 1, 16, comp. D.i.46, Ju.xi.i7, near Mount Hor, N.xxxiii.36,37, most 
 probably the famous rock-city of Petra, to be carefully distinguished from Kadesh, 
 =* Kadesh-Barnea, in the wilderness of Paran, to which the spies returned, 
 N.xiii.26, D.i. I9,xxxii.8, J.xiv.6. 
 
 18 N.xxv.i. 19 ^.C.I.p.650. 20 N.xx.i. 
 
 21 The dates in E.xvi. ib,xix. I, N.i. i,ix.l,xxxiii.38, all belong to the L.L. 
 But, according to the O.S., the Exodus took place in j the Spring, E.xxiii. 15, 
 after which are mentioned ' forty days ' twice, E.xxiv. i8,xxxiv.28, 'three days,' 
 N.x.33, 'a month' (?), N.xi.20, .'seven days,' N.xii. 15, that is, about four months 
 altogether ; so that, allowing for the march to Sinai, the searching of the south of 
 Canaan, N.xiii. 22-24, the murmuring, N.xiv, and the rebellion, N.xvi, the first 
 year may be supposed to have come to an end. 
 
 22 N. xx. 23-29. 23 N.xxxiii.38. 2 * B. C.I. p. 72 1. 
 
284 THE REAL HISTORY OF 
 
 became at length spoken of in the common talk as extending 
 over ' forty years/ this being a very common formula among 
 the Hebrews for expressing an indefinitely long period ; 25 as 
 where Ezekiel says of the desolation of Egypt ' No foot of 
 man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through 
 it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years ; and I will make 
 the land of Egypt desolate in the midst of the lands that are 
 desolate, and her cities, among the cities that are laid waste, 
 shall be desolate forty years'. ' 26 Hence the prophet Amos, 
 about two centuries and a half after the story of the Exodus 
 was written, already adopts the idea of ' forty years ' of 
 wandering, and writes ' I brought you up from the land of 
 Egypt, and led you forty years through the wilderness, to 
 possess the land of the Amorite ; ' 27 and again, ' Was it sacri- 
 fices and offerings that ye brought near to me in the wilder- 
 ness forty years, O House of Israel ? ' 28 A century and a 
 half later still the Deuteronomist first introduces it into the 
 story as told in the Pentateuch, 29 and from him the still later 
 Levitical Legislator has copied it 30 Amos, however, speaks 
 merely of Jehovah's leading Israel through the wilderness, 
 and gives no hint that during those forty years ' all the men 
 of war ' perished out of the host, as the Deuteronomist says, 31 
 and after him the Levitical Legislator. 32 Nor does the 
 Deuteronomist give any hint of this in his original work, the 
 address of Moses in D.v, &c, in which the forty years are 
 spoken of, not as a time of punishment, but as a time of pro- 
 bation, during which they enjoyed Jehovah's watchful care 
 and guidance, while He was 'proving' them and training 
 them as children by chastisement. ' And thou shalt remem- 
 ber all the way which JEHOVAH thy Elohim led thee these 
 
 25 Ju.iii. n,viii.28,xiii. i, iS.iv. i8,xvii. 16, iK.xix.8, Jon.iii.4,&c. 
 
 26 Ez.xxix. n,i2. 27 Am.ii. io. 2S Am. v. 25. 
 i9r D.i. 3,ii. 7,viii. 2,xxix. 5, J. v. 6. 
 
 30 N.xiv.33,34,xxxiii.38 — also E.vi. 7, comp. D.xxxi.2,xxxiv. 7, N.xxxiii.39. 
 
 31 D.ii. 14, 15. 32 N.xiv.29-35,xxvi,64,65. 
 
THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL. 285 
 
 forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, to prove thee, 
 to know what was in thy heart, whether thou wouldst keep 
 His commandments or no/ 33 ' And I have led you forty 
 years in the wilderness ; your clothes are not waxen old upon 
 you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot' 34 In 
 short, the Deuteronomist is here merely following the lead of 
 the Original Story, which sends back the Israelites ' by the 
 way of the Red Sea ' to wander yet awhile in the wilderness, 
 until ' those who had despised JEHOVAH ' — not the whole body 
 of warriors — should perish. 35 It is only in his later insertions 
 that he speaks of this time as a time of judgment for all that 
 doomed generation ; 36 though even here he says, 'Jehovah 
 thy Elohim hath blessed thee in all the works of thy hands ; 
 He knoweth thy walking though this great wilderness ; these 
 forty years Jehovah thy Elohim hath been with thee ; thou 
 hast lacked nothing.' 37 
 
 So thoroughly, however, have we all from our childhood 
 been imbued with this story, so thoroughly has it penetrated 
 our everyday language, that pious persons will often speak 
 or sing of their weary wanderings in this wilderness-life, of 
 the manna which has fed them by the way, of the water by 
 which they have been refreshed from time to time, of the 
 swelling Jordan-flood, through which they expect to pass to 
 their rest in the Promised Land — though, in point of fact, the 
 main struggles of the Israelites with their foes took place in 
 Canaan itself, after — not before — they had crossed the 
 Jordan. 38 For many, doubtless, whose lives have been heavily 
 burdened with care and sorrow, there will seem to be great 
 meaning in such resemblances, and we can all understand the 
 force of those words, ' Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses 
 gave you not that bread from heaven ' — that is, it was my 
 Father who gave it then, who gave food for the body and 
 
 33 D.viii.2. 3i D.xxix.5. 35 N.xiv.22,23. 
 
 36 D.i.34,35,ii.i4,i5j.v.4-6. S7 D.ii.7. 38 J.vi,viii.i-29,ix.i,2,x-xii. 
 
286 THE REAL HISTORY OF 
 
 soul to the men of old ; ' it is my Father also who giveth you 
 now the true bread from heaven — my Father and your 
 Father, my God and your God. For the bread of God is 
 that which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the 
 world ' 39 — the living bread, the * flesh and blood ' of Christ's 
 Divine Doctrine, which we eat and drink, whenever we ap- 
 proach in a right spirit the Holy Table. For, as Clement 
 of Alexandria says, ' In saying, Eat ye my flesh and drink ye 
 my blood, he was manifestly speaking by an allegory of the 
 drink of faith and of the promise ' 40 — as TERTULLIAN says, 
 * While describing the word as life-giving, because the word 
 was spirit and life, he called the same also his flesh, because 
 the word also was made flesh, something forsooth to be 
 hungered after for life's sake, to be devoured by hearing, 
 ruminated upon by the understanding, digested by faith ' 41 — 
 as ORIGEN explains it, ' We are said to drink the blood of 
 Christ, when we receive his discourses ; his flesh is meat indeed 
 and his blood is drink indeed, inasmuch as he supplies and re- 
 freshes the whole race of men with the flesh and with the 
 blood of his word, as with pure meat and drink ; ... in the 
 second place, after his flesh, Peter and Paul and all the 
 apostles are clean meat ; in the third place, their disciples ; 
 and thus everyone, in proportion to his excellencies or the 
 purity of his sentiments, is made clean meat to his neighbour M2 
 — as EUSEBIUS tells us, ' His words and his discourses are 
 the flesh and the blood, of which he who partakes, ever 
 nourished, as it were, with heavenly bread, will partake of 
 heavenly life ' 43 — or JEROME, ' The body of Jesus I take to be 
 the Gospel, the Holy Scriptures ; I take it to be his doctrine. 
 If, then, we hear the word, and both the word of God and the 
 flesh and blood of Christ is poured into our ears, while we 
 
 * 9 John vi. 32. 40 /W.I.vi. 41 de Res. Cam. xxxvii. 
 
 42 Horn. vii. in. Lev. 43 de Eccl. Theol. Ill.xii. 
 
THE EXODUS OF ISRAEL. 287 
 
 are thinking of something else, into how great danger do we 
 run ! ' 44 
 
 But perhaps men and women have thought sometimes 
 too much of life as a wilderness, in which they were to 
 travel painfully on, or, rather, to wander purposely about, 
 so long as it pleased God to keep them there, instead of 
 regarding it as a blessed working-time, a time in which 
 God is best to be glorified by working for the good of man, 
 and remembering our Saviour's own words, which he has 
 left for the guidance and encouragement of his followers, 
 ' My Father worketh hitherto, and therefore I work ' 45 — 
 1 My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish 
 His work.' 46 
 
 44 in Ps. cxlvii. 4S John v. 1 7. 4a John iv. 34. 
 
LECTURE XXI. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 Edom, Moab, and Amnion, perhaps belonged to the shepherd kings of 
 Manetho's story ; the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites slow and gradual, 
 like the Anglo-Saxon conquest of England; the time of the Judges to Saul 
 first king ; the name Yahveh first heard by them at the time of the 
 Exodus as the name of the Sun- God ; they adopted the practices of the 
 Canaanite tribes, and worshipped Yahveh with heathen rites, as the Baal or 
 Lord of the land ; hence Israelitish, as well as Phoenician, names were com- 
 pounded indifferently with Baal or Yahveh ; distinction, though no sub- 
 stantial difference, between the Tyrian and the Syrian Baal ; Yahveh, in 
 other words, Iacchus or Bacchus, may have been worshipped from the first 
 by the Israelites alter their settlement in Canaan, especially by the northern 
 tribes ; in Saul's time Yahveh was first recognised as the National Deity of 
 Israel under the influence of Samuel ; the Cross worn as symbol of the 
 Sun-God in very ancient times. 
 
THE WORSHIP OF THE BAAL IN ISRAEL. 
 
 E have seen that the Israelites, according to their 
 own tradition, entered Canaan from the eastern 
 border, having passed by the kindred tribes of 
 Edom, Moab, and Ammon, without a conflict, 
 though as regards Edom and Moab perhaps not altogether in 
 a friendly manner, since the Original Story represents these 
 two peoples as refusing to allow the Israelites to pass through 
 their territory. 1 These tribes were all of Hebrew origin, that 
 is, like Israel, they had crossed the Euphrates, having migrated 
 from the further East in search of richer or less crowded 
 pastures. Accordingly, they are all reckoned as descendants 
 of Terah the father of Abraham, 2 who ' dwelt across the flood 
 in the olden time'; 3 and, as they must have been already 
 long settled in these parts when the Israelites arrived on their 
 borders, they may very possibly have belonged to the Shep- 
 herd-Kings of Manetho's story. 4 And so the Deuteronomist 
 represents Moses as saying that JEHOVAH had given their 
 respective countries to Edom, Moab, and Ammon, 5 as He 
 now would give to Israel the land of Canaan, 6 and therefore 
 commanded Israel not to molest them. And this fact, that 
 
 1 N. xx. 14-21, Ju.xi. 16,17. 
 
 4 P-279- 
 
 G.xi.27,xix.36-38,xxv. 19-30. 3 J.xxiv.2. 
 D.ii.5,9,19. 6 D.i.8, 
 
 u 2 
 
292 THE WORSHIP OF THE BAAL IN ISRAEL. 
 
 the Israelites did certainly abstain from disturbing those 
 nations, while they did not spare the Amorites, who had 
 invaded and permanently occupied a portion of the land of 
 Moab, 7 suggests the existence of a special relation between 
 them, such as that which Manetho's story implies between the 
 ' Shepherd-Kings ' and the ( Leprous People.' 
 
 Having first made the conquest of the trans-Jordanic lands, 
 the Israelites in due time must have crossed the Jordan, 
 though in some natural way, and without the help of that 
 stupendous miracle recorded in the Book of Joshua — far more 
 stupendous even than the crossing of the Red Sea — when the 
 waters of that river in a state of flood, and overflowing all its 
 banks, ' stood as they came down from above ' and ' rose up 
 upon an heap,' while three millions of men, women, and chil- 
 dren, with all their herds and flocks, passed over on dry 
 ground. 8 Here they made good their footing in the land, 
 partly by fighting, partly by intriguing, partly by inter- 
 marrying with the old inhabitants, just exactly as the Anglo- 
 Saxon conquest of England was effected. How many the 
 Israelites were at this time it is impossible to say : but as- 
 suredly they were not the mighty host stated in the Pentateuch, 
 and probably they were not one-tenth of that number, or even 
 one-hundredth. That the Canaanites, however, were not 
 utterly destroyed, but lived on in the land, mixing probably 
 for the most part on friendly terms with the Israelites, and 
 gradually blending with them and disappearing, is plain from 
 express statements in the Book of Judges, 9 as well as from 
 David's friendship with the Phoenicians, 10 who are reckoned 
 among the tribes to be extirpated, 11 and from Solomon's 
 marrying women of the Hittites, 12 and levying a tribute of 
 bondservice upon the remnant of the Amorites, Hittites, 
 
 7 N.xxi. 24-26, Ju.xi. 12-23. 8 J.iii. 15-17. 
 
 9 Ju.i.2i,27~36,xix. 10-12, comp. iS.vii. 14, 2S.v.6~9,xxiv. 16, 18. 
 
 10 ?.S.v. 11, iK.v. 1. H J.xiii.6,xix.28, 29. 12 iK.xi. 1, comp. x.29. 
 
THE WORSHIP OF THE BAAL IN ISRAEL. 293 
 
 Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, still existing in his days, 13 
 three centuries after the Exodus. We learn also, from the 
 history contained in the Book of Judges, that the tribes of 
 Israel did not for some considerable time exist as one nation, 
 but either acted independently of each other, 14 or else com- 
 bined in larger or smaller bodies, 15 as circumstances required. 
 In short, the mighty conquests, which are ascribed to the 
 leadership of Moses and Joshua, and are represented as the 
 achievements of a few weeks, were most probably effected in 
 a much longer period, and by much more gradual and every- 
 day processes. 
 
 Hence about 120 years seem to have passed after the 
 entrance into Canaan, during the time commonly known 
 as the time of the Judges, till the days when ' the words of 
 Samuel came to all Israel,' 16 during the greater part of which 
 "Eli must have lived, if he was really 98 years old at his death 
 soon afterwards. 17 Probably Eli, like the other Judges, only 
 judged a portion of ' all Israel,' and some of them may have 
 been contemporary with others, 'judging ' or ruling in different 
 parts of the land at the same time. But even Samuel, in the 
 discharge of his office, seems to have confined his personal 
 administration of justice to a very small circuit in Judah and 
 Benjamin, vis. Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpeh, sacred places 
 which he visited in turn around his birthplace and dwelling- 
 place at Ramah; 18 and he afterwards made his sons judges 
 at'Beersheba in the south of Judah, 19 on the frontier of Egypt. 
 In short, the life of Israel as a nation had not yet begun ; and, 
 though the attempt had been made at some time to set up a 
 
 13 iK.ix.20,21. ,4 'Ephraim,' Ju.iii.27, ' Gilead' or ' Gad,' xi. 11, 
 
 comp. xii. 1-6. 
 
 15 Ju.v. 15-17, where complaint is made that Reuben, Gad, Dan, and Asher 
 took no part in the fight, while Judah, Simeon, and Levi are not even mentioned 
 — v i-35?vii.23, comp. viii. 1-3, where Gideon summons only Manasseh, Asher, 
 Zebulun, and Napthali — xx,xxi, where 'all Israel' fight with Benjamin. 
 
 16 iS.iv.i. 1T ZM5, 1S iS.vii. 15-17. !9 iS.vui.1,2, 
 
294 THE WORSHIP OF THE BAAL IN ISRAEL. 
 
 king in the person of Gideon, 20 and in that of his son Abimelech, 21 
 it had altogether failed. Only at last, when Samuel grew old, 
 and his sons ' turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and 
 perverted judgment/ we read that 'all the elders of Israel 
 gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto 
 Ramah and said unto him, Lo ! thou art old, and thy sons 
 walk not in thy way : now make us a king to judge us like 
 all the nations.' 22 And Samuel complied with their request, 23 
 and thus the nation was united for the first time under SAUL, 
 who, after gaining as leader of the Hebrew forces a decisive 
 victory over the Ammonites, was ' made king before Jehovah 
 at the Gilgal.' 24 
 
 ' Before JEHOVAH,' says the text just quoted, and we must 
 now look back once more upon the religious history of Israel. 
 We have already seen in a former Lecture 25 that, according 
 to the most ancient writer in the Pentateuch, the people had 
 never heard this name until the time of the Exodus, when it 
 is stated to have been specially revealed to Moses ; before 
 which time, in Egypt and previous to their arrival there, they 
 had only used the name ' Elohim,' God, or ' El Shaddai,' 
 God Almighty, as the personal name of the Deity. And 
 this, as I observed, when translated into real historical fact, 
 can mean only this, that the Israelites first heard the name 
 JEHOVAH about the time of the Exodus. In Egypt and pre- 
 viously they had probably used the name ELOHIM or El 
 SHADDAI ; and either in Egypt itself or on their way to 
 Canaan they may have made an ark of ' shittim ' or acacia 
 wood for sacred purposes from the trees which grew, as they 
 still do, in the wilderness, as also in certain parts of Egypt, 
 in which ark was carried some symbol of the Deity, after the 
 example of those which are exhibited on Egyptian monuments 
 as carried about by the priests in religious processions, 26 and 
 
 20 Ju.viii.22. 21 Ju.ix. 1-6. 22 iS.viii.1-5. 23 lS.x.24,25. 
 
 24 1S.xi.15. 25 p.75,76. 26 Diet, of the Bible,!, p. 106-7. 
 
THE WORSHIP OF THE BAAL IN ISRAEL. 295 
 
 with which, of course, the enslaved Hebrews had long been 
 familiar. Moreover, as we have seen, 27 the tribe of Levi, the 
 leader's own tribe, seems from the first to have been specially 
 set apart, again after Egyptian fashion, as a sacred caste for 
 the work of the priesthood. But they heard the name Jeho- 
 vah or Yahveh first, not just before the Exodus, as the story 
 represents it, but just after it, as soon as they had reached 
 the land of Canaan. For there, in the worship of the Syrian 
 tribes in the northern district, the mysterious name of the 
 Sun-God, the Baal or Lord, ' the God of the land,' 2S was 
 Yakhveh, or, as pronounced by the more southern tribes, 
 YAHVEH, ' Living-One/ or ' Life- Giver '; 29 from whom it 
 came gradually into use among the Israelites, as they became 
 settled in their new abodes, and wished to be protected by 
 the local Deity whose land they had possessed. Thus David 
 says, ' They have driven me out this day from cleaving to the 
 inheritance of Yahveh, saying, Go, serve another Elohim,' 30 
 and Naaman asks, 'Shall there not now be given to thy 
 servant two mules' load of earth ? for thy servant will hence- 
 forth offer neither burnt-offering nor sacrifice to another 
 Elohim, but only unto Yahveh ' 31 — from which we see how 
 intimately connected, in the views of that age, was the 
 worship of Yahveh with the very soil of the land of Canaan. 
 Of course, the prophets of Israel would be very unwilling 
 to allow that the name was derived from the idolatrous 
 Canaanites ; and hence they tried to account for its becoming 
 known to Israel by the supposition of a direct revelation to 
 Moses. And so, too, ' the Gilgal ' or ' Circle,' near Jericho on 
 the banks of the Jordan, was in all probability merely a circle 
 of twelve large stones, — the number perhaps referring to the 
 twelve months of the year or the twelve Signs of the Zodiac 
 — which the Hebrews found already set up in the primeval 
 
 27 p. 240. 2S 2K.xvii. 26-28. 2G p. 77. 
 
 3U I S. xxvi. iq. 3 ' 2K.v. 17. 
 
296 THE WORSHIP OF THE BAAL IN ISRAEL. 
 
 times for Sun-worship, like our own famous circle at Stone- 
 henge ; and it would be as easy for an active imagination to 
 devise some incident in ancient British history, to account for 
 the erection of these stones, as it was for the Hebrew writer 
 to represent the twelve stones as having been set up at the 
 Gilgal in memory of the miraculous passage of the Jordan 
 by the twelve tribes, 32 as well as other twelve which l Joshua 
 set up in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet 
 of the priests who bare the ark of the covenant, stood — and 
 they are there unto this day.' 33 
 
 Accordingly, we find many features of the Israelitish 
 worship derived from that of the Canaanites, as, for instance, 
 from that of the Phoenicians, by whose help the Temple of 
 Solomon was built. 34 Thus the ' gourds,' ' lilies,' ' palm-trees/ 
 ' open flowers,' i pomegranates,' which ornamented the 
 Temple, 35 and the ' two brazen pillars ' which were placed at 
 the entrance of it, 36 all appear in Phoenician temples, and 
 belong mostly to the worship of the Sun-God, being used to 
 symbolise in various ways the life awakened by the Sun's in- 
 fluence in nature. And so Solomon built high-places on the 
 Mount of Olives, close to Jerusalem, for 'Molech' and ' Che- 
 mosh,' 37 the names under which the Sun-God was worshipped 
 by his Ammonite and Moabite wives, and another for Ashte- 
 roth or Astarte, the Moon-Goddess, 38 for the use of his 
 Sidonian and Phoenician wives, and he, no doubt, himself 
 took part in their worship, as indeed we are expressly told 
 ' Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians 
 and after Molech the abomination of the Moabites ' ; 39 and 
 these high-places remained throughout the reigns of the most 
 pious kings, until they were destroyed by Josiah 40 in the 
 Great Reformation, after the finding of the Book of Deutero- 
 
 32 J. iv. 20-24. S3 J.iv.9. " iK.vii.13,14. 
 
 36 iK.vi.29,32,35,vii. 19,20,26,36,42. 36 iK.vii. 15-22. 37 iK.xi.7. 
 38 2K.xxiii. 13. 39 lK.xi.5. 40 2K.xxiii.i3. 
 
THE WORSHIP OF THE BAAL IN ISRAEL, 297 
 
 nomy, in the eighteenth year of his reign. And, that such 
 high-places were frequented down to the latest days of the 
 kingdom of Judah, is shown conclusively by the complaint 
 which the Jewish women, who had escaped into Egypt after 
 the destruction of Jerusalem, made to the prophet Jeremiah 
 — ' As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the 
 name of Jehovah, we will not hearken unto thee. But we 
 will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own 
 mouth, to burn incense unto the Queen of Heaven and to 
 pour out drink-offerings unto her, as we have done, we> 
 and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of 
 Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem : for then we had 
 plenty of victuals and were well and saw no evil. But since 
 we left off to burn-incense to the Queen of Heaven and to 
 pour out drink-offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, 
 and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine. 
 And when we burned-incense to the Queen of Heaven, and 
 poured out drink-offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to 
 worship her and poured out drink-offerings unto her, without 
 our men ? ' 41 — that is, without the cognizance and consent of 
 our husbands. These ' cakes ' were buns, 42 marked with a 
 cross or other symbol of Sun worship ; 43 and from these have 
 been derived our modern '.hot cross buns,' as the paschal eggs 
 \ figured in the Chaldean rites just as they do now,' 44 and the 
 worship of the Virgin has been substituted for the worship of 
 the ' Queen of Heaven.' No doubt, it will surprise many in 
 our own day — and perhaps offend some — to find that these 
 and other practices of Christendom have been borrowed from 
 heathen Sun worship. And so the great prophets of Israel, 
 who were always striving to raise their people above the 
 grovelling notions of the tribes around them to higher and 
 truer ideas of the Deity, very naturally disavowed an idola- 
 
 11 Jer.xliv. 16-19. 12 Inman's Ancient Faiths, p.378,&c. 
 
 43 /£.p.407,&c. M ^.p.378. 
 
298 THE WORSHIP OF THE BAAL IN ISRAEL. 
 
 trous origin for the worship of JEHOVAH ; and accordingly 
 they speak everywhere of the heathen worship, or of Tsrael- 
 itish worship when practised with heathen rites, as worship of 
 the Baal 45 or of Molech. 46 But, as we have seen, 47 the very 
 same practices, which were used by the heathen in Baal- 
 worship, are denounced in the Bible as habitually used in 
 Israel, and countenanced and enforced by the examples of 
 very many of their kings, and the great multitude of their 
 priests and prophets. The grossest licentiousness was ex- 
 hibited in close connection with the Temple-worship ; 48 foul 
 symbols, called asheras, and mistranslated in our English 
 Version ' groves,' were set up by the altar of Yahveh ; 49 and 
 sacrifices of first-born children were offered, down to the time 
 of Josiah's Reformation. 50 So, when Jeremiah says in one 
 place, f As the number of thy cities, so are thy gods, O Judah,' 
 he explains this elsewhere to mean that they had set up 
 everywhere ' altars to that shame, altars to sacrifice unto the 
 Baal.' 51 And Ezekiel must have witnessed with his own 
 eyes such worship going on in the Temple itself, when he 
 sees in his vision Jewish women 'weeping for Tammuz,' that 
 is, for the dead Adonis or Lord, the Sun-God, for whom they 
 wept as killed by a savage boar, but greeted with joy as re- 
 stored to life on the third day, symbolising thus the passage 
 of the Sun through the winter solstice, — as also when he sees 
 men 'at the door of the Temple, between the porch and the 
 altar, with their backs to the Temple and their faces towards 
 the East, worshipping the Sun towards the East.' 52 
 
 In short, it is plain that in the view of the people generally, 
 whatever the prophets might say to the contrary, Jehovah 
 or Yahveh was identified with 'the Baal.' Accordingly, not' 
 
 45 Ju.ii. Ii,i3,iii.7,viii.33,x.6, 10, lS.vii.4,xii. io,&c. 
 
 46 Jer.xxxii.35, comp. L.xviii.2i,xx.2-5.> 47 p. 145-6. 
 
 48 iK.xiv.24,xv. 12, 2K.xxiii-7, comp. D.xxiii. 18. 19 2K.xxi.7,xxiii.4,6, 7. 
 
 60 p. 265-6. sl Jer.ii.28,xi. 13. 32 Ez.viii. 14, 16. 
 
THE WORSHIP OF THE BAAL IN ISRAEL, 299 
 
 only in the rude time of the Judges a JOASH, though his own 
 name begins with Jeho or Jo, that is, with JEHOVAH, could 
 have an ' altar of the Baal,' and call his son Jerub&aal, that is, 
 ' Baal shall contend ' ; 53 but, as we have seen/' 4 in Samuel's 
 age, when Jehovah was fully recognised as the National 
 Deity of Israel, and the most strenuous efforts were made to 
 establish His worship as such, Saul gave to his son the name 
 Eshbaal, ' man of Baal,' y<?nathan to his son the name of 
 Meribaal, ' Baal is contending,' and David to his son the 
 name Baalyzdah, 'Baal knows,' instead of calling him El- 
 yadah or Jehov&da.. And so, on the other hand, Jezefo/, the 
 Tyrian princess, queen of Ahab, whose own name is com- 
 pounded with Baal, as were those of her father, JLthfraal, 55 and 
 of her countrymen, Hanni&z/, Asdrubal, Adher dal, who figure 
 in Roman story, had her sons named AhazzVz/z 56 and y^ram, 57 
 and her daughter Athatiali, 58 all compounded with Jehovah 
 or Yahveh. This fact shows that there was no essential 
 difference between the Tyrian Baal, Hercules, whose worship 
 was introduced by Jezebel among the Israelites 55 and rooted 
 out by Jehu, 60 and the Syrian Baal, Yahveh or Yakhveh, 
 Iacchus or Bacchus, who was worshipped of old in Israel 
 under the form of a calf. 61 The former worship was more 
 stern and severe, the Sun-God being chiefly regarded on the 
 more gloomy side of his character, being dreaded as having 
 power to scorch and wither and destroy, and propitiated 
 therefore with human sacrifices, not merely those of firstborn 
 infants ; the latter was a more licentious and sensual worship, 
 in which the Sun-God was hailed as the source of all life. But 
 the Deity worship was the Sun-God still. And so, when 
 Elijah slew the ' 450 prophets of the Baal, ' 62 — that is, of the 
 austere worship newly introduced by Jezebel: — he did not slay 
 
 53 Ju.vi.25,32. S1 p. 79. 55 1K.xvi.31. i6 iK.xxii.51,52. 
 
 57 2K.iii.i,2. . 58 2K.viii. 18,26. 59 1K.xvi.31, 32. 60 2K.X.18, 28. 
 
 61 E.xxxii.4. 1K.xii.28, Hos.viii.5,6,x.5,xiii.2. % - 1 K.xviii. 19.22,40. 
 
300 THE WORSHIP OF THE BAAL IN ISRAEL. 
 
 the '400 prophets of the asheras, who ate at Jezebel's table,' 63 
 and belonged to the more genial worship of Yahveh. And 
 in like manner Jehu, when he 'destroyed the Baal out 
 of Israel,' 64 destroyed only this foreign form of worship, 
 but adhered himself to the national form of Baal-worship 
 which had long been practised in Israel ; for we read, 
 ' Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, who 
 made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after them, to 
 wit, the golden calves that were in Bethel and that were in 
 Dan.' 65 
 
 Upon the whole, then, we conclude that the Israelites de- 
 rived the name Yahveh from contact with the tribes of 
 Canaan, and that in the view of the people his worship was 
 identified with that of the Baal, ' the God of the land.' They 
 may have begun to use it soon after their entrance into 
 Canaan, especially among the northern tribes ; and hence we 
 may account for the two or three names of persons belonging 
 to those tribes, apparently formed with Yahveh, which we 
 find in the Book of Judges. 66 Under Saul, however, the 
 national life of Israel began ; and so under Saul Yahveh 
 appears to have been first distinctly recognised as the national 
 Deity of Israel. And this took place, no doubt, under the 
 direct influence of Samuel himself, who did so much to secure 
 their temporal prosperity, and, as the tradition seems to 
 imply, was equally zealous to promote their religious welfare, 
 though the original account of Samuel's doings is very much 
 coloured by later Deuteronomistic insertions. 67 It need not, 
 of course, be supposed that Samuel's views of the Divine 
 character, however elevated above that of his contemporaries, 
 
 63 iK.xviii.i9,xxii.6. 6i 2K.X.28. 65 27.29. 
 
 66 Jbash, vi. II, y^tham, ix.5, Micah (? = Mica.ia/t), xvii.8 : but the first two 
 names may be otherwise derived, as e.g. Joseph is, and the derivation of the third 
 is doubtful. N.B. y<?nathan, xviii.30, occurs in an interpolated verse. 
 
 67 viz. iS.vii.3-i4,viii.6-20,x.8,i8, I9,25a,xii. i-25,xiii.8-i5a. 
 
THE WORSHIP OF THE BAAL IN ISRAEL. 301 
 
 had advanced to the height on which the Deuteronomist stood 
 some centuries afterwards. But that such religious zeal was 
 traditionally ascribed to Samuel is shown by these very in- 
 sertions, as well as by the fact that he is classed with Moses 
 by Jeremiah, the Deuteronomist himself, who says ' Though 
 Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My mind could not be 
 towards this people.' 68 For why should Moses and Samuel 
 have been coupled thus together, unless in the view of Jere- 
 miah there was some special relation between them ? Does 
 not this simple fact, in short imply, that in Jeremiah's view 
 Samuel was a lawgiver in the same sense as Moses — was the 
 lawgiver, in fact, whose ordinances may very possibly be re- 
 tained, as we saw in a former Lecture, 69 in that original code 
 upon which in the Book of Exodus the covenant made between 
 Yahveh and Israel was based. 
 
 So, too, when Jeremiah says, ' YAHVEH thy Elohim is a 
 Devouring Fire,' 70 or Isaiah asks, ' Who among us shall dwell 
 with the Devouring Fire ? ' 71 this symbol of Fire — like that 
 of Light, so often used by the greater prophets in speaking of 
 Yahveh 72 — is probably derived from the original connection 
 of this name with the worship of the Sun-God. In like 
 manner the Cross, which in pre-Christian times was used as 
 the symbol of the Sun, 73 the 'light of this world,' has now 
 been made the symbol of the spiritual Sun, that ' true Light 
 which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.' As 
 regards the outward decoration, the Christian female of the 
 present day may be but following unconsciously the example 
 of her sisters of old, in Alexandria and elsewhere. But for 
 her the Cross has now a deeper meaning, not only as the 
 symbol of light and life brought near to us in the Gospel of 
 
 68 Jer.xv. I. 69 p. 135. 70 D.iv.24,ix.3. 
 
 71 Is.xxxiii. 14. 72 Is.x. 17, Mic.vii.8, Ps.iv.6,xxvii. r,&c. 
 
 73 See App. III. 
 
302 
 
 THE WORSHIP OF THE BAAL IN ISRAEL. 
 
 Christ, but as a reminder of the fact that the Great Light- 
 bringer ' suffered even unto death, the death of the Cross,' 
 and of the truth that they who would follow in his steps, the 
 saviours and benefactors of mankind in all ages, must expect 
 to share in their measure the lot of their Lord. 
 
 
LECTURE XXII 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 THE O.S. of the Pentateuch composed in the age of Saul, David, and 
 Solomon ; its account of primeval times fictitious or mythical ; indications of 
 the fictitious character of the history of the patriarchal times in Genesis ; the 
 Elohistic Narrative contains very scanty details of the personal acts of the 
 patriarchs, except the account of Abraham's purchasing a burying-place from 
 the aboriginal inhabitants of the land of Canaan ; the Elohist here lays special 
 stress on Hebron, the original capital of David's Kingdom, as elsewhere he 
 does on Bethel, the famous Sanctuary of the older times ; his account of the 
 origin of the names ' Bethel ' and ' Israel ' completely at variance with that of 
 the Jehovist ; it is doubtful if the forefathers of the Israelites of the Exodus 
 ever really lived in Canaan ; the story of Joseph also unhistorical, and 
 perhaps fictitious ; the real history of Israel begins with the Exodus ; Hebrew 
 Literature most probably originated in Samuel's prophetical schools where 
 the O. S. was composed and was expanded into a complete narrative from the 
 Creation to the first years of Solomon ; this came into the hands of Jeremiah 
 (the Deuteronomist) injosiah'stime, and was by him retouched and amplified, 
 and extended to the time of the Captivity, and was subsequently enlarged 
 during and after the Captivity, by the insertion of the priestly legislation ; 
 the strange legend about Ezra's having rewritten the Books of Moses by 
 Divine inspiration, which was received generally by the Fathers of the 
 Church, probably points to his activity in copying and commending the Law 
 with its latest additions ; what the Scriptures, when their origin is understood, 
 may lose in miraculous character, they will gain in human interest. 
 
THE HISTORICAL BOOKS FROM GENESIS TO THE 
 SECOND BOOK OF KINGS. 
 
 I£> ^T?^S5 WILL now sum up briefly the results of my pre- 
 7$r ^5f ceding Lectures with reference to the Composi 
 
 T 
 
 W" 
 
 \q^ tion of the Pentateuch and the other historical 
 Books of the Bible before the Captivity. The 
 oldest portion of the Pentateuch, the Elohistic Narrative, 
 appears to have been written in the age of Samuel, and, if so, 
 then most likely by Samuel's own hand. 1 The work was pro- 
 bably carried on by his disciples during the next age, the age 
 of David and Solomon ; 2 and so the Original Story of the 
 Exodus was completed very much in the form in which it 
 came into the hands of Jeremiah the Deuteronomist, 3 between 
 three or four centuries afterwards. How much of that story, 
 as it now lies before us, may have been derived from tradi- 
 tionary or legendary matter still floating in the folk-lore of 
 Israel, and how much may be due to the writer's own imagi- 
 nation, it is, of course, impossible to say. We observe, how- 
 ever, that the different writers seem quite as much at home 
 when narrating matters which occurred before the time of 
 Abraham, or even before the Flood, as after it. For instance, 
 they give long lines of patriarchs, with very definite but mani- 
 
 1 p.22-24,38. 2 p. 39,46-51,57-67- 3 p. 148-52. 
 
 x 
 
306 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS FROM GENESIS 
 
 festly fictitious ages, ranging from 969 years downwards, and 
 beginning with the first man Adam. 4 An attempt has been 
 made to reduce these within ordinary limits by supposing that 
 the ' year ' in these instances means merely a ' month ' ; but 
 this is set aside at once by observing that the writer mentions 
 both ' year ' and ' month ' in speaking of Noah's age when 
 the Flood began — ' in the six hundredth year of Noah's life, 
 in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month.' 5 
 As these ages, then, are undoubtedly unhistorical, such lon- 
 gevity being impossible on scientific grounds for human 
 beings, 6 we may safely conclude that the conversations re- 
 ported between the Deity and Adam, Eve, and Cain, and the 
 words addressed to the serpent and Noah, are also unhistori- 
 cal — that, in short, the whole history of the antediluvian world, 
 with the accounts of the Creation, the Fall, and the Deluge, 
 I' Is purely mythical, and that the popular traditionary dogmas 
 founded upon them must be rejected, in the face of the certain 
 results of Modern Science, from which we learn that the world 
 was otherwise formed, that no such Flood ever covered the 
 earth since the human race began to live upon it, and that 
 animals of all kinds, and man himself, were in existence long 
 ages before, according to the Scripture story, the Creation 
 took place. 
 
 But, leaving these portions of Genesis, which, indeed, as 
 we have seen, 7 contradict each other as well as the facts of 
 Science, the question then arises as to the credibility of the 
 later parts of that Book, those which describe the early so- 
 journings in the land of Canaan of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 
 and the grandeur of Joseph in Egypt, which led to the settle- 
 ment of the Hebrew people there. There would certainly be 
 nothing strange in the supposition that real facts may lie at 
 the foundation of these narratives — that, before the Israelites 
 
 4 G.v.xi. 10-26. 5 G.vii. 11, comp. viii.5,13, 14. 
 
 6 Prof. Owen {Fraser's Mag., Feb. 1872). 7 P-36. 
 
TO THE SECOND BOOK OE KINGS. 307 
 
 entered Egypt, their forefathers might have lived for some 
 time in the land of Canaan, not as masters of the country, 
 but merely as strangers and sojourners, till at last they re- 
 moved from Canaan into Egypt at the summons of Joseph, 
 as the story is told in the Book of Genesis. But then we 
 have to consider that, if these accounts are really based on 
 facts, the Israelites must have been long enough in Egypt to 
 have increased from the ' seventy souls ' who went down with 
 Jacob, 8 to a mighty nation ; 9 and, further, that only those 
 ' seventy souls,' many of them mere children, could have 
 known anything personally about the land of Canaan, and 
 that it is incredible that they should have handed down by 
 word of mouth long accurate details of conversations and 
 transactions, in which their ancestors took part some centuries 
 previously. Such things may be imagined, as our great 
 Scotch novelist has imagined them in stories referring to the 
 times of Queen Elizabeth and James L But no one supposes 
 that such details could have been handed down correctly to 
 his days, by mere traditionary reminiscences, from Elizabeth's 
 time. 
 
 Moreover, the most ancient writer in Genesis has very little 
 to say about either of the three patriarchs except Abraham, 
 though he mentions carefully in each case the names of their 
 wives and children. He tells us, for instance, that Abraham 
 begat Ishmael and Isaac, 10 and that from Ishmael, the elder 
 brother, were descended twelve Arabian tribes, 11 and so that 
 Isaac begat Esau and Jacob, 12 and from Esau, again the elder 
 brother, were derived the tribes of Edom, 13 and lastly that 
 from Jacob sprang the twelve tribes of Israel. 14 But the real 
 historical meaning of these statements may be this, that the 
 Hebrews on their way to Canaan found already settled in 
 
 8 G.xlvi.27. 9 D.i. io,x.22,xxviji.62. ,0 G.xvi. i6,xxi. 3. 
 
 11 G.xxv. 12-16. ,2 £'.24-26. I3 G xxxvi. 
 
 14 G. xxxv. 22-26, xlvi. 8-27, E.i. 1-5. 
 x 2 
 
3o8 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS FROM GENESIS 
 
 those parts these Arabian and Edomite tribes, speaking sub- 
 stantially the same language with themselves and therefore 
 manifestly of kindred origin, having migrated in fact from the 
 same neighbourhood in the far East beyond the Euphrates, 15 
 like the Moabites and Ammonites, who for a like reason are 
 referred — though by a shameful birth — to Lot, Abraham's 
 nephew, as their father, 16 that is, to the same stock as the 
 Hebrews. Besides these genealogies, however, he records 
 how El Shaddai, ' Almighty God,' made a Covenant with 
 Abraham ' to be a God to him and his seed after him,' and 
 to give to ' him and to his seed after him ' possession of the 
 land of Canaan, and sealed it with the rite of circumcision, 17 
 and how He changed his name from ' Abram ' to ' Abraham ' 
 on this occasion, and his wife's from ' Sarai ' to ' Sarah,' and 
 promised them a son in their old age, 18 and how He after- 
 wards made a like promise of the land of Canaan to 'Jacob 
 and his seed after him,' and changed his name to ' Israel,' 
 and Jacob called the name of the place where Elohim spoke 
 with him Beth El, that is, ' House of God.' 19 But the only 
 transaction recorded by him, in which the patriarch himself 
 takes a prominent part, is the purchase of a burying-place at 
 Hebron from the old Hittite inhabitants of the land 20 — the 
 object of which story may have been, as I have said, 21 merely 
 to give the Israelites, as it were, a seisin in the land, by ancient 
 purchase of the site of Hebron, David's royal city during the 
 first years of his reign, 22 which was further made sacred for 
 Israel by the fact, according to this writer, that Abraham 
 and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Leah, all lay 
 buried there. 23 And Bethel, no doubt, was a very famous 
 ancient sanctuary, where there stood a sacred stone, set up for 
 purposes of worship in primitive times beyond all memory 
 
 ,s p. 281, 291. 1G G.xii.5,xix.30-38. 17 G.xvii. 1-14. 
 
 18 ^.5,15-19. 19 G.xxxv.9-15. 20 G.xxiii. 
 
 21 p.23- 22 2S.ii.ii. - 3 G.xlix.31,1.13. 
 
TO THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS. 309 
 
 of man ; and the writer here very naturally ascribes its pre- 
 eminent sanctity to an act performed of old by Jacob. Here, 
 however, Jacob sets up a pillar of stones, pours oil upon it, 
 and calls the place ' Bethel,' and God at the same time 
 changes his name to ■ Israel/ on his return from Padan-Aram, 
 whither his parents had sent him to procure a wife from 
 thence, instead of marrying Hittite women as Esau had done. 24 
 But the later writer ascribes this journey of Jacob to dread 
 of Esau's anger, and makes him perform the very same acts 
 — viz. set up a pillar of stone, pour oil upon it, and call the 
 place ' Bethel,'— on a totally different occasion, twenty years 
 previously, on his way to Padan-Aram, when he had that 
 vision of a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, ' and the 
 angels of GOD ascending and descending upon it,' and conse- 
 crated the stone which he had used for his pillow. 25 And so 
 the change of Jacob's name took place, according to this 
 later writer, not at Bethel in the land of Canaan, west of the 
 Jordan, but some time previously at Peniel, east of the Jordan, 
 when GOD, or an Angel, had wrestled with him all night, and 
 being worsted said, ' Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, 
 but Israel ; for as a prince hast thou power with God and 
 men, and hast prevailed.' 26 The grotesqueness of this story 
 is a clear proof that we have here only a fanciful attempt to 
 derive the name ' Israel,' which really means ' El is a prince,' 
 instead of ' one who is a prince with El.' But thus we see 
 what has probably been done in a multitude of other cases, 
 where names of persons and places, as the Israelites found them 
 on taking possession of the land, are ingeniously made the 
 scenes of events which are supposed to have given rise to the 
 names in question. About the life of Isaac the Elohist tells 
 us scarcely anything ; 27 but the active invention and graphic 
 pen of the later Jehovist has in some measure filled up the 
 
 ' H G.xxvii.46,xxviii. i-5,xxxv.9-I5. 23 G.xxvii.4i-45,xxviii.io- 19. 
 
 26 G.xxxii. 24-30. 27 G.xxi. 2-5, xxv. 1 9, 20, 24-26, xxxv. 2 7-29. 
 
310 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS FROM GENESIS 
 
 blank with the spirited story of Jacob obtaining by craft his 
 brother's blessing, 28 and with some other incidents, 29 as he has 
 also enlivened the older accounts of Abraham and Jacob with 
 several episodes. But the very fact that he has introduced 
 these incidents, unknown apparently to the more ancient 
 writer, — still more, the fact that four centuries later still the 
 Deuteronomist could insert in Genesis the account of a solemn 
 vision in which JEHOVAH pledges himself once more to give 
 the land of Canaan to Abraham 30 — is enough to show how 
 much the imaginative faculty has been concerned in the com- 
 position of these narratives. 
 
 Upon the whole, it is very possible that these forefathers 
 were never in the land of Canaan at all — that, in point of 
 fact, they never really existed as individual men, but corre- 
 spond to the mythical founders of other nations, whose histories 
 are for the most part composed of fabulous narratives, which, 
 so far as they are based at all on historical truth, shadow forth 
 the doings of tribes and generations, instead of persons. 
 Even the account of Joseph's being carried down as a slave 
 to Egypt, and there rising to be Pharaoh's grand vizier, which 
 led to his father and family settling in Egypt, 31 is in some of 
 its statements so incredible that it is difficult to believe that 
 we have here, any more than elsewhere in Genesis, veracious 
 history. Thus the very basis of the whole story, the state- 
 ment that, when there were seven successive years of dearth 
 in Egypt, which in that land could only have arisen from de- 
 ficient inundations of the Nile, there was also ' sore famine,' 
 year after year, ' in all lands,' 32 which would have arisen from 
 totally different causes, throws at once a grave doubt upon 
 the historical character of the narrative. This detailed narra- 
 tive, in fact, may be merely a work of imagination like the 
 rest, which has been substituted for some brief notice which 
 
 28 G.xxvii.1-45. 29 G. xxv. 27-34, xxvi. 30 G.xv. 
 
 31 G.xlv.4-13. S2 G.xli. 54,57. 
 
TO THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS. 311 
 
 the older writer had given of the way in which the Israelites 
 came into Egypt, apparently on the summons of Joseph, since 
 he speaks of him as already settled there, 33 and names him 
 alone as of most importance when he writes — 'And Joseph 
 died and all his brethren and all that generation.' 34 Tradi- 
 tion said, and said truly, it would seem, as we have inferred 
 from comparing the Egyptian records, 35 that the Hebrews 
 had at one time been slaves in Egypt. But how they first 
 arrived there was unknown ; the tradition of that event had 
 been lost in the course of time ; as the Zulus have no recol- 
 lection of the past beyond a few generations, and can tell us 
 nothing of the cause — whether the pressure of other tribes 
 behind them or the desire to find more ample grazing-grounds 
 — which brought them down to these S.E. parts of Africa. 
 Accordingly, the story of Joseph's doings may have been 
 merely invented to account for the presence of the Hebrews 
 in former time in Egypt, and to show that all the cruel treat- 
 ment, which they had received at the hands of the Egyptians, 
 was a most ungrateful return for the services rendered to 
 the Pharaoh and people of other days by one of Hebrew 
 blood. And very probably the writer of this section was- 
 one of the tribe of Joseph, an Ephraimite among the dis- 
 ciples of Samuel, who took thus an opportunity of lauding 
 his own ancestor, or rather, of reflecting glory on the popu- 
 lous tribe of Ephraim, the powerful leader of the northern 
 tribes. 
 
 However this may be, the real history of the Hebrews 
 begins with the Exodus, and that of the Hebrew nation with 
 the times of Saul and Samuel ; and in that age also, as we 
 have seen, 36 the idea of writing some popular account of the 
 Exodus out of Egypt most probably originated and was 
 carried into effect in the schools of the prophets, where also, 
 
 33 G.xlvi.2oa,27, E.i.5b. 34 E.L6. 3S p. 279-282. 36 p. 21. 
 
312 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS FROM GENESIS 
 
 no doubt, other literary works were composed, such as the 
 ' Book of Jashar,' 37 that is, the ' Book of the Righteous 
 One,' viz. of the righteous people, Jeshurun 38 or Israel, and 
 the ' Book of the Wars of Jehovah,' 39 that is, of the wars of 
 Israel, whose cause was identified with that of its National 
 Deity, His people being supposed to fight His battles with 
 His strong co-operation as a ' Man of War ' 40 — both which 
 books are now lost. To the same circle of writers may be 
 ascribed the most ancient portions of the Books of Judges and 
 Ruth, and of the two Books of Samuel — in fact, the whole 
 history in its original form, as it came into the hands of the 
 Deuteronomist, from G.i to 2S.xxiv, and even to 1K.ix.25, 
 after which we find no further trace of it. This work, which 
 now formed a continuous historical narrative from the 
 Creation downwards to the time of Solomon, perhaps lay 
 deposited in the Temple, or in the charge of the chief-priest, 
 till the days of Jeremiah, who retouched and enlarged it 
 throughout, 41 and especially wrote the main address of Moses 
 in Deuteronomy, the ' finding ' of which in the Temple gave 
 rise to Josiah's Reformation. 42 To this he afterwards pre- 
 fixed four introductory and appended two concluding chap- 
 ters, 43 and he wrote also, as is generally agreed, 44 the rest of 
 the Books of Kings from the time of Solomon downwards, 
 for which he most probably had at his disposal some older, 
 perhaps official, records out of the different reigns. Ac- 
 cordingly the hand of one and the same writer can be dis- 
 tinctly traced, not only throughout almost the whole of 
 Deuteronomy, but in passages of Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, 
 Judges, the two Books of Samuel, and the first nine chapters 
 of Kings, as well as throughout the rest of the Books of 
 Kings and the prophecies of Jeremiah. In other words, it is 
 
 37 J.x. 13, 2S.i. 18. 38 D.xxxii. I5,xxxiii.5,26. 39 N.xxi. 14. 
 
 40 E. xv. 3,6, Ps.xxiv.8. 41 p. 150. * 2 p. 152. 
 
 43 p. 158. 41 Bishop Lord Hervey (£>.£. II. p. 28). 
 
TO THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS. 313 
 
 plain that Jeremiah has either written or retouched and edited 
 the whole of the history from G.i to 2K.xxv, which accordingly 
 exhibits very clearly, wherever his hand has been at work, the 
 stamp of his prophetical character. 
 
 Finally, during the first years of Jehoiachin's Captivity, 
 Ezekiel followed Jeremiah's example, by writing L.xviii-xx and 
 especially L.xxvi. 45 And his work was taken up during the 
 Captivity and after it, by a series of priestly writers who have 
 composed nearly half of the present Pentateuch, and made a 
 few insertions, here and there, in the rest of the history as left 
 by Jeremiah, 46 but who, in doing this, departed widely from 
 the tone and spirit of the old prophetical writers, representing 
 Jehovah as taking a special interest in a multitude of minute 
 ritualistic observances, and ascribing to Divine authority a 
 series of most stringent ordinances for maintaining the pre- 
 rogatives of the priests and Levites, which whosoever should 
 transgress ' shall surely die.' 47 Very probably, Ezra, about a 
 century after the Captivity, had a large share in this work, 
 which seems to have been brought very nearly to a close in 
 his days, about B.C. 450, as far as the Hebrew Text is con- 
 cerned, though it may have received some additions even after 
 that time ; for the numerous alterations in the Samaritan 
 Text imply that the work of revision and correction was still 
 going on more than a century afterwards, while the Septuagint 
 Version shows plainly that the Greek Translators must have 
 had before them copies of the Hebrew Scriptures differing in 
 many respects materially from our own. 
 
 That something, however, was really done by Ezra, at least 
 in editing and publishing the Law, seems to be implied by the 
 Jewish tradition, which was adopted generally by the early 
 Fathers, based probably upon the story told in the apocryphal. 
 
 46 e -g> Ju.xviii.30,xx.27b,28a, iK.iii. 16-28,^.24-34, v. i5-i8,vi. 1,11-14, viii.4, 
 5, 10, 1 1,63, 64, xii. 4-16. " N.i.5i,iii. io,38,xvi.40,xviii.22. 
 
314 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS FROM GENESIS 
 
 Second Book of Esdras. Here Ezra says, ' Thy Law is 
 burnt ; therefore no man knoweth the things that are done of 
 Thee or the works that shall begin. But, if I have found 
 grace before Thee, send the Holy Ghost into me, that I may 
 write all that has been done in the world since the beginning, 
 which was written in Thy Law, so that they which live in the 
 latter days may live.' And Ezra says that his prayer was 
 heard, and he was told to retire into a private place with five 
 men ' ready to write swiftly,' and with ( many box-wood 
 tables to write upon.' ' So I took the five men as He bade 
 me, and we went into the field and stayed there. And the 
 next day lo ! a voice called me saying, Ezra, open thy mouth, 
 and drink that which I give thee to drink. Then I opened 
 my mouth, and lo ! he reached me a full cup, which was 
 filled, as it were, with water, but the colour of it was like fire. 
 And I took it and drank ; and, when I had drunk of it, my 
 heart uttered understanding, and wisdom grew in my breast ; 
 for my spirit strengthened my memory, and my mouth was 
 opened and shut no more. The Highest gave understanding 
 unto the five men, and they wrote the wonderful visions of 
 the night that were told, which they knew not ; and they sat 
 forty days, and they wrote in the day and at night they ate 
 bread.' 48 
 
 Accordingly, Jerome 49 says, 'Whether you choose to say 
 that Moses was the author of the Pentateuch or Ezra the 
 restorer of that work, I have no objection ' ; while earlier 
 Fathers speak more positively, as AUGUSTINE, 50 * Ezra re- 
 stored the Law, which had been burnt by the Chaldaeans in 
 the Temple archives, he being full of the same Spirit which 
 had been in the Scriptures,' and CLEMENT 51 of Alexandria, 
 'When the Scriptures had been destroyed in the Captivity of 
 Nebuchadnezzar, Ezra the I 'ite the- priest, in the time of 
 
 * 9 2Esdr.xiv.2i-42. ™ Ad. Heb. III. 
 
 50 Demir. *S'. 6". ii. 33. hX Strom. I.xxii.49. 
 
TO THE SECOND BOOK OF KINGS. 315 
 
 Artaxerxes king of the Persians, having become inspired, 
 reproduced prophetically all the ancient Scriptures,' and 
 Tertullian, 52 ' When Jerusalem was destroyed by the 
 Babylonian storming, it is well known that every article of 
 Jewish Literature was restored by Ezra,' and iRENyEUS, 53 
 ' Then, in the times of Artaxerxes king of the Persians, He 
 inspired Ezra the priest of the tribe of Levi, to set in order 
 again all the words of the former prophets, and restore for 
 the people the Legislation of Moses/ So remarkable a story 
 can hardly have originated without some strong tradition 
 having pointed to Ezra having had a large share in writing 
 the later portions of the priestly Law, or else to his having 
 compiled that Law and exerted himself energetically in 
 making it known to his contemporaries. 
 
 I have thus endeavoured to set before you as plainly as I 
 can the main results of Modern Biblical Criticism as regards 
 the composition of the Pentateuch. Doubtless, as the conse- 
 quence of these conclusions, the popular ideas as to the nature 
 of the Divine action among the Jews will have to be materially 
 modified. The whole will become thoroughly humanised. 
 The preternatural Divine influence will withdraw from the 
 prominent place, which it occupies in the narrative as we 
 read it, to that invisible action, which is familiarised to us by 
 our own experience. But what the Scriptures may lose in 
 revealing power, they will gain in human interest. The sacred 
 history does indeed change its aspect under the influence of 
 criticism. But it does not therefore cease to be a history, 
 though a history whose importance is to be estimated rather 
 by the ideas of which it records the rise and development, 
 and the consequences that have flowed from them, than by 
 any phenomena accompanying their introduction. Not the 
 less does this history remain the preparatory stage for the 
 
 52 De hab. muL III. 33 adv. liar. III.xxi.2. 
 
316 THE HISTORICAL BOOKS— GENESIS TO 1LKINGS. 
 
 coming of that Divine Light which has ' lighted the Gentiles ' 
 ever since, at least over the whole Western World, and will 
 yet be, as we trust, ' the glory of God's people Israel' For, 
 if their ' casting away/ as St. Paul says, became ' the recon- 
 ciling of the world ' 54 — if their blind attachment to the Law of 
 Moses, which was in truth the work of their fathers when 
 Moses had been in his grave for centuries, has hitherto kept 
 them back as a body from the full enjoyment of that light, 
 and of that liberty wherewith Christ has made us free as 
 children of God, — may we not hope and believe that there is 
 a development yet in store for them as well as for us, perhaps 
 through the influence of that critical research, which seems to 
 be crushing into powder the ' letter/ at once their trust and 
 their chain, — that the time is coming when the more thorough 
 union of Semitic faith with Aryan thought will be to the 
 Church of the Living God as ' life from the dead ' ? 55 
 
 54 Rom.xi. 15. 5S See Spectator, May 4, 1872, p.571. 
 
LECTURE XXIII. 
 
SUMMARY, 
 
 The Church Fathers uncritical and credulous in adopting the fabulous story 
 about Ezra ; the apocryphal books of the O.T. regarded by the mass of 
 Christendom as canonical, and in the Homilies of the Church of England as 
 ' the infallible Word of God ' ; the pretended commission of Artaxerxes, 
 giving plenary powers to Ezra, altogether fictitious ; this appears also from 
 the disorders existing when Nehemiah came to Jerusalem ; the Edict of 
 Cyrus, allowing the Jews to return, quoted in part in Chronicles, is also 
 fictitious ; the whole of Ezra and half of Nehemiah due to the Chronicler ; 
 the letter to Artaxerxes and the royal rescript in Ezr. iv are authentic ; these 
 documents evidently refer to the building of the walls of Jerusalem, but are 
 here erroneously transferred to the building of the Temple fifty years pre- 
 viously, which the writer represents as hindered by the enemies of Judah, in 
 defiance of the facts of history, as shown by the prophet Haggai ; this fiction 
 he tries to support by a letter supposed to have been addressed to Darius, 
 and the king's supposed reply, quoting a decree of Cyrus supposed to have 
 been found in the royal archives — all which is a pure fiction ; no dependence 
 can be placed on the Chronicler's statements in these Books ; nothing is 
 certainly known about Ezra, whom Nehemiah does riot even mention, though 
 a priest of that name may have been zealously concerned in copying and 
 introducing, and perhaps in part composing, the Levitical Law. 
 
THE BOOKS OF EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 
 
 jN my last Lecture I spoke of Ezra as having pro- 
 bably had a considerable share in composing the 
 priestly portions of the Pentateuch ; and I quoted 
 a passage from the Second Book of Esdras as- 
 serting that Ezra had actually had the whole Law revealed 
 to him afresh, when it had been destroyed and lost in the 
 Babylonish Captivity, as also the statements of Jerome, 
 Augustine, Clement, Tertullian, Iren^eus, all to the 
 same or similar purport. If, indeed, the authority of the 
 Fathers of the Church is worth anything in such matters as 
 these, it is difficult to see how a tradition so clear and so 
 unanimously affirmed by so many of the most ancient, eminent, 
 and learned of them, can be lightly rejected. Yet, I suppose, 
 not the most zealous defender of traditionary views will now 
 venture to maintain the historical veracity of these statements ; 
 though the Roman Church regards all the apocryphal books 
 of the O.T., and the Greek Church regards most of them, as 
 being equally Divine and infallible with the other Scriptures, 
 a belief which prevailed also in the Church of England at the 
 time when the Book of Homilies was written, in which we 
 read, ' Almighty God by the Wise Man saith,' ' referring to 
 
 1 Homilies (Corrie's Ed.), p. 73. 
 
320 THE BOOKS OF EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 
 
 the Book of Wisdom, and passages out of the Apocrypha are 
 quoted as ' places of Scripture ' in which ' the Holy Ghost 
 doth teach,' 2 as ' the Word of God,' 3 ' the infallible and unde- 
 ceivable Word of God.' 4 The Fathers in question have evi- 
 dently copied from one another or from the story in the Book 
 of Esdras (a.d. ioo) ; and their statements serve only to show 
 how unreasoning and credulous were these good men, and 
 how little dependence therefore can be placed on their 
 critical judgment in respect of any of the Canonical Books, 
 either of the Old Testament or of the New. 
 
 But who was Ezra ? The question might be easily 
 answered, if we could trust to the data of the ' Book of Ezra,' 
 which stands in our Bibles between the Books of Chronicles 
 and the Book of Nehemiah. For this book tells us that Ezra 
 was a • priest the son of Aaron,' 5 and also ' a ready scribe in 
 the Law of Moses,' 6 who went up from Babylon to Jerusalem 
 at his own request in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, having 
 ' prepared his heart to seek the Law of Jehovah and to do 
 it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.' 7 It states 
 further that the king issued to him a formal commission, 
 permitting any that pleased to go to Jerusalem with him, of 
 the people, the priests, and the Levites, and authorising him 
 to ' enquire concerning Judah and Jerusalem, according to 
 the Law of his God which was in his hand,' and with ' the 
 silver and gold which the king and his counsellors had freely 
 offered unto the God of Israel whose dwelling was in Jerusa- 
 lem,' in addition to the freewill offerings of his own people, 
 to buy sacrifices for the Temple, together with their proper 
 6 meal-offerings and drink-offerings,' and to spend the rest as 
 he thought proper ; and ( whatsoever more shall be needed 
 for the House of thy God, which thou shalt have occasion to 
 bestow, bestow it out of the king's treasury. And I, even I, 
 
 2 Homilies (Carrie's Ed.), p. 391. 3 lb. p. 246, 247. * lb. p. 106. 
 
 5 Ezr.vii. 1-5. 6 v. 6. 7 ^.6-10. 
 
THE BOOKS OF EZRA AND NE HE Ml AH. 321 
 
 Artaxerxes the king, do make a decree to all the treasurers 
 which are across the River, that whatsoever Ezra the priest, 
 the scribe of the Law of the God of Heaven, shall require of 
 you, it be done speedily. . . . Whatsoever is commanded by 
 the God of Heaven, let it be diligently done for the House of 
 the God of Heaven ; for why should there be wrath against 
 the realm of the king and his sons ? Also we certify you that 
 touching any of the priests and the Levites, choristers, gate- 
 keepers, Nethinim, or servants of the House of God, it shall 
 not be lawful to impose toll, tribute, or custom upon them. 
 And thou, Ezra, after the wisdorn of thy God that is in thine 
 hand, set magistrates and judges, who may judge all the 
 people that are across the River, all such as know the laws of 
 thy God, and teach ye them that know them not. And who- 
 soever will not do the law of thy God and the law of the king, 
 let judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be 
 unto death or to banishment or to confiscation of goods or to 
 imprisonment.' 8 
 
 Let us now consider a little the contents of this extraordi- 
 nary commission, which, in the form of a letter to Ezra, 
 invests this Jewish priest with plenary power over the lives 
 and liberties and properties of all the king's subjects, not in 
 Judah only, but in all the district 'across the River,' that is, 
 in all the regions west of the Great River Euphrates, denouncing 
 the most terrible penalties, not only against any who ' will 
 not do the law of the king,' but also against all who ' will not 
 do the law of Ezra's God.' 9 Very many of those to whom 
 such a decree would have applied would most probably have 
 been of the same religion as the king himself, and many also 
 would have been Samaritans, who are represented in this 
 book as living in bitter hostility to the Jews. 10 Can it be 
 believed that Artaxerxes would have subjected all these to 
 
 8 Ezr.vii. 11-26. 9 Z/.26. ,0 Ezr.iv. 1-16,23,24^.6-17. 
 
322 J HE BOOKS OF EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 
 
 the penalty of death, if they disobeyed the 'Law of JEHOVAH ' 
 as taught by Ezra ? Of the Law, probably, most of these 
 people knew little or nothing. But they are here, it seems, 
 to be converted to the Jewish religion — 'teach ye them that 
 know not the laws of thy God,' 11 — in true Mahommedan 
 fashion, with the threat of imprisonment, confiscation, banish- 
 ment, or. death, if they did not receive it ! 12 Is this an edict 
 of Artaxerxes or a mere dream of a later age ? Moreover, 
 Ezra is to appoint ' magistrates and judges, who shall judge 
 all the people across the River, such as know already the laws 
 of his God,' 13 and, of course, all the others when converted. 
 Was, then, the priest Ezra to supersede the satraps and 
 governors already ruling ' across the River/ by virtue of this 
 letter addressed to himself ? Yet the ' treasurers ' across the 
 River were, it seems, to remain in office, and to supply Ezra's 
 demands for the Temple to any extent! 14 Lastly, the king 
 writes familiarly about 'the priests and the Levites,' 15 'Judah 
 and Jerusalem,' 16 * the God of Israel, whose dwelling is in 
 Jerusalem,' 17 'meat-offerings and drink-offerings,' 18 and he 
 exempts from payment of 'toll, tribute, or custom' the 'priests 
 and Levites, choristers, gate-keepers, and Nethinim or menials 
 of the Temple,' 19 writing just as if he had by heart the whole 
 string of phrases of the Later Legislation ; he enjoins that 
 the ' bullocks, rams, and lambs,' required for the Levitical 
 Sacrifices, shall be promptly purchased ; 20 and he refers again 
 and again to 'the Law,' 21 just as any well-trained Jew might 
 have done. In short, it is clear that this 'letter' of Artaxerxes 
 is a pure fiction, written with the view of magnifying the 
 position and authority of ' Ezra the priest,' the renewer of the 
 Law of Moses. But that Ezra had no such powers really 
 committed to him is evident from the fact that Nehemiah, on 
 
 11 Ezr.vii.25. 12 v.id. 13 ^.25. 14 57.21-23. 
 
 15 57.13,14. 16 57.14. 17 w.15. ,s ^.17. 
 
 19 Ezr.vii.24. 20 57.17. 2) 57.12,14,21,25,26. 
 
THE BOOKS OF EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 323 
 
 his arrival in Jerusalem twelve years afterwards, found the 
 practice of usury existing among the Jews with gross oppres- 
 sion of their brethren, 22 in direct defiance of the Levitical 
 Law, 23 which Ezra, with the ' Law of his God ' in his heart, 
 and with these summary powers in his hand, must be supposed 
 during all this time to have overlooked or permitted. 
 
 This Book also professes to quote the very words of the 
 Edict of Cyrus which allowed the Jews to return to their own 
 land. 24 But, after the example which we have just had of the 
 writer's practice of using his imagination freely in writing 
 history, we shall have no difficulty in concluding that this 
 Edict of Cyrus is just as fictitious as the Edict of Artaxerxes. 
 It makes, for instance, the Persian king speak of JEHOVAH by 
 name not only as * the God of Israel,' but as the * God of 
 Heaven,' and say 'Jehovah He is the God,' 'Jehovah He 
 hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth,' 25 as if he had 
 actually himself adopted the faith of the Jews. It is plain 
 that the writer has merely given in his own words the sub- 
 stance of some such a decree as he supposes Cyrus to have 
 issued on this occasion. But a portion of this decree is also 
 given at the end of the Second Book of Chronicles ; and a 
 close examination of the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah shows 
 that almost all of the Book of Ezra and half of the Book of 
 Nehemiah are the work of the Chronicler himself, 26 who wrote 
 between one and two hundred years after the events which he 
 here describes, or later still, and gives a thoroughly untrust- 
 worthy account of those events, inserting fictitious decrees, 27 
 letters, 28 prayers, 29 and speeches, 30 and colouring everything 
 from a Levitical point of view. 31 
 
 22 Neh.v.1-13. 23 L.xxv. 35-37. 24 Ezr.i.2-4. 25 z>.2,3. 
 
 26 See Part VII of my work on the Pentateuch for proof of this. 
 
 27 Ezr.i. 2-4, vi. 3-5,6-12. 28 Ezr.v.7-i7,vii. 12-26. 
 29 Ezr.ix.6-15, Neh.ix.5-38. 30 Ezr.ix. i,2,x.2-4, 10-14. 
 
 31 Ezr.i. 5,ii. 36-60,61-63, 70, hi. 2-6, 8-13, vi. 16-20, vii. 1-7, viii. 2, 15-20,24-30, 
 33-35. Neh. vii. 39-62, 63-65, 73, yiii.x.28-39,xi,xii,xiii.5b, 9a, io-i3,22a,29-3ia. 
 
 y 2 
 
324 THE BOOKS OF EZRA AND NE HEM I AH. 
 
 In one place, however, he really does quote what appears 
 to be a genuine rescript of Artaxerxes, in reply to a repre- 
 sentation made to him that the Jews were fortifying their 
 city. 32 ' Be it known unto the king that the Jews which came 
 up from thee to us are come unto Jerusalem, building [ie. 
 fortifying] that rebellious and bad city, and have set up its 
 walls and joined the foundations. Be it known now unto the 
 king that, if this city be builded, and the walls set up again, 
 then will they not pay toll, tribute, and custom, and so thou 
 shalt endanger the revenue of the kings.' And the king 
 replies, ' Make a decree to cause these men to cease, and that 
 this city be not builded, until commandment shall be given 
 from me.' 33 No allusion is here made to the building of the 
 Temple being stopped ; nor was it likely that their conquerors 
 should trouble themselves to interfere with that work. More- 
 over, Artaxerxes began to reign (B.C. 465) about seventy 
 years after the return of the Jews from the Captivity (B.C. 536), 
 and fifty years after the Temple was actzcally finished in the 
 time of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah 34 (B.C. 515). 
 Yet here the writer represents the ' adversaries of Judah and 
 Benjamin' as conspiring to hinder the building of the Temple, 
 and as succeeding in doing so by means of this very rescript 
 of Artaxerxes, 35 written fifty years after the Temple was 
 completed in the sixth year of Darius, 36 whom he actually 
 supposes to have reigned after Artaxerxes, 37 instead of half a 
 century before him ! The prophet Haggai, however, says 
 not a word about any such opposition on the part of the Jews' 
 enemies to the building of the Temple, but ascribes the 
 delay which had occurred wholly to the negligence, indifference, 
 and luxury of the Jews themselves. ' This people says, The 
 time is not come, the time when Jehovah's House should be 
 built, ... Is it a time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled 
 
 32 Ezr.iv. n-16. 33 v. 17-22. 34 Hag.ii.6-9, Zech.vii.1-3. 
 
 35 Ezr.iv. 1-6,23,24. 36 Ezr.vi. 15. 3r Ezr.iv.23,24. 
 
THE BOOKS OF EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 325 
 
 houses, and this House lying waste ? ... Ye looked for 
 much, but lo ! it came to little ; and, when ye brought it 
 home, I did blow upon it. Why ? said JEHOVAH of Hosts. 
 Because of Mine House that is waste, ancf ye run every man 
 to his own house.' 38 The Chronicler must have had this 
 prophecy before him when he wrote. But he was unwilling 
 to allow that any delay — much more a delay of twenty 
 years — had been caused by the lazy self-indulgence of the 
 Jews themselves, and even while Zerubbabel and Joshua the 
 chief-priest, who had led them from Babylon to Jerusalem, 
 were still living. 39 So in the very teeth of Haggai's reproach 
 he invents a series of vexatious hindrances from the enemies 
 of Judah, suggested very probably by the opposition which 
 was really made, more than half a century afterwards, in the 
 days of Nehemiah, to the building of the wa//. i0 For this 
 purpose he uses these genuine letters to and from the king, 
 which, however, speak only of ' the Jews who had come up 
 from Artaxerxes ' setting to work to ' build the rebellious 
 and bad city, having completed the walls and joined the 
 foundations,' 41 perhaps referring to Ezra and his party, who 
 may have made some attempt, before Nehemiah's awival, to 
 fortify Jerusalem, so far as to ' complete ' the walls, that is, 
 lay the foundations all round — lettera which he had obtained 
 from some quarter or other, but of which he apparently wholly 
 mistook the meaning. 
 
 Once more, in support of this fiction he has introduced 
 another letter, purporting to have been sent to Darius the 
 king by the Governor of the province to which Judaea 
 belonged, acting in concert with certain Samaritans, 42 in which 
 he reports the progress made in the building of the Temple, 
 and states that the Jews appealed in support of their pro- 
 ceedings to a decree of Cyrus, which expressly ordered that 
 
 3S Hag.i.2-4,9. 39 v - l i comp. Ezr.iii.2. 40 Neh.i.3,ii.8, 13-15, i7-20,iii,iv. 
 41 Ezr.iv. 12. * 2 E21W.3-17, comp. iv.9, 10. 
 
326 THE BOOKS OF EZRA AND NE HEM J AH.. 
 
 stones and timber should be supplied for the building and the 
 expenses paid out of the revenues of the province, and sug- 
 gests that this decree would probably be found in the king's 
 treasury. Accordingly Darius, we are told, ordered a search 
 to be made for the record in question, which was duly found, 43 
 and thereupon, in the second year of his reign, he issued a 
 decree, which the writer here professes to quote at length, 
 authorizing the completion of the Temple. 44 
 
 But this letter and decree are evidently fictitious like the 
 others ; though, in imitation of the genuine letters to and from 
 Artaxerxes, they are written in the Chaldee dialect, which 
 differs from Hebrew much in the same sort of way that broad 
 Scotch-English differs from common English. Would the 
 Governor of the province have been ignorant that such a 
 decree had been issued some sixteen years previously ? Or, 
 if he was, were there no royal counsellors alive who would 
 have been aware of so notorious a fact which had so recently 
 occurred, and would know that a large body of Jews had re- 
 turned to Jerusalem in consequence, with free permission to 
 rebuild their Temple ? Was it necessary for the Governor to 
 ask the king to have a search made for it among the archives 
 of the Empire, as if it were some venerable charter issued in 
 days of old beyond the memory of statesmen then living, 
 when Zerubbabel had only to exhibit to all gainsayers the 30 
 golden chargers and 1,000 silver chargers or the ' 5,400 vessels 
 of gold and silver ' altogether, 45 which, we are told, Cyrus re- 
 stored to him out of the spoils of the First Temple, as the 
 best possible proof of his having sanctioned their undertaking? 
 Or had Zerubbabel himself no copy of that decree, and during 
 all this time had he never once appealed to it, to obtain from 
 the Governor the help which he needed ? How strange, too, 
 that Haggai, who prophesied in this very same second year 
 
 43 Ezr.vi. 1-5. il 1.6-12. 1S Ezr.i.9-11. 
 
THE BOOKS OF EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 327 
 
 of Darius, 46 makes no allusion whatever to the cheering cir- 
 cumstances under which the work would now go forward ! 
 Or, if we turn to the decree itself, as here quoted, can it be 
 thought that Cyrus would have actually defined the very mode 
 in which the Temple should be built, 'with three rows of great 
 stones and a row of new timber/ 47 and have specified its exact 
 dimensions, ' 60 cubits high and 60 cubits broad,' 48 that is, 
 twice as high and thrice as wide as the Temple of Solomon ! 49 
 Nothing is said about the length of it ; but, supposing this to 
 have been omitted by some careless copyist, and to have been 
 in proportion to the height and breadth, would there then 
 have been any ground for Haggai's saying, ' Who is left 
 among you that saw this House in its former glory ? and how 
 do ye see it now ? Is it not in your eyes as nothing in com- 
 parison of it ? ' 60 Or, again, is it credible that Darius would 
 utter a prayer in this decree that ' the God who had caused 
 His Name to dwell there ' — where we recognise a well-known 
 phrase of Deuteronomy 51 — 'would destroy all kings and 
 peoples who should put their hand to alter and to destroy this 
 House of God which is at Jerusalem ?' 62 
 
 From all this it is plain that no dependence can be placed 
 on any statements of the Chronicler contained in these Books, 
 unless they are supported by other evidence — for instance, as 
 to the details of the return from the Captivity, 53 the numbers 
 and names of those who returned, 54 the building of the Temple 
 and the ceremonies observed at its founding and dedication, 55 
 or the account of Ezra's journey from Babylon to Jerusalem, 56 
 eighty years after the return of Zerubbabel, with splendid 
 presents for the Temple from ' the king and his counsellors 
 and his lords and all Israel,' 57 and his proceedings on his 
 
 46 Hag.i.i. 
 
 47 Ezr.vi. 4. 
 
 48 v.% 
 
 49 iK.vi.2. 
 
 50 Hag.ii.3. 
 
 31 D. xii. 1 1 , xiv. 23, xvi. 2, 6, 1 1 , xxvi. 2. 
 
 52 Ezr.vi. 12. 
 
 63 Ezr.i. 
 
 54 Ezr.ii. 
 
 45 Ezr.iii, 
 
 56 Ezr.vii.6-9,viii. 
 
 37 Ezr. vii. 15,16, viii. 24-30, 33, 34, 
 
323 THE BOOKS OF EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 
 
 arrival at Jerusalem, his mourning for the sin of those who 
 had married heathen women, 58 his prayer and confession and 
 exhortation, 59 and the effect which these had upon the 
 people, 60 so that more than a hundred mentioned by name, 
 who ' had taken strange wives, by some of whom they had 
 children,' ' gave their hands that they would put away their 
 wives, and being guilty offered a lamb of the flock for their 
 trespass.' The whole of this rests on the Chronicler's testi- 
 mony, and, from what we now know of his character as a 
 historian, not a statement of his can be regarded as worthy 
 of credence, unless it seems probable in itself or derives 
 support from other independent sources. The very lists of 
 names, which seem at first sight to guarantee the accuracy of 
 his information and the truthfulness of his narrative, are found 
 on examination to betray frequently the same unhistorical 
 character which everywhere pervades the writings due to his 
 hand. 61 
 
 The first six chapters, however, of the Book of Nehemiah, 
 the first few verses of the seventh, and most of the last 
 chapter, 62 appear to be genuine extracts from some memoir of 
 Nehemiah's doings written by his own hand, which, together 
 with the genuine letter of Artaxerxes and the king's reply, 63 
 perhaps preserved also by Nehemiah, had come into the 
 Chronicler's possession. But he has filled up the rest of this 
 Book, as well as the whole Book of Ezra, with fictions com- 
 posed in his own peculiar style, specially dignifying the 
 priests and Levites. He tells us, for instance, how Ezra read 
 the Book of the Law in the ears of the people ' on the first 
 day of the month,' 64 and how they kept a solemn feast that 
 day, 65 and the next day found 'written in the Law' the 
 proper mode of keeping the Feast of Tabernacles, 66 which 
 
 sq Ezr.ix. 1-4 59 Ezr.ix.5-i5,x.i-n. 60 Ezr.x. 12-44. 
 
 61 See part VII for full proof of this. 
 
 62 Neh.vii. ia,2-5a,xiii.4-5a,6-8,9b,i4-2i,22b-28,3ib. 63 Ezr.iv.7 22. 
 64 Neh.viii.1-8 65 -,'.9-12. 66 r.13-18. 
 
THE BOOKS OF EZRA AND NEHEMIAH. 329 
 
 they accordingly observed duly for the first time in the his- 
 tory of Israel ' since the days of Joshua the son of Nun unto 
 that day.' 67 After this he informs us how the Levites in a 
 long supplication confessed God's Goodness and the people's 
 sin, 68 and thereupon the people sealed a covenant that hence- 
 forth they would keep faithfully the Law of Moses, 69 and 
 especially that they would maintain the sacrificial system as 
 prescribed in the Later Legislation, and pay scrupulously the 
 dues of the priests and Levites. 70 And then he gives long 
 lists of names of priests and Levites, 71 which have probably 
 no historical value whatever, except perhaps that of indicating 
 the principal families existing in the writer's own time ; and 
 he goes on to describe, as if from the pen of Nehemiah, 72 the 
 dedication of the walls, 73 along which two troops of choristers 
 marched, setting out from one spot in opposite directions, 
 Ezra heading his company of Levites, but Nehemiah fol- 
 lowing in the rear of his choir. 74 After all these accounts, 
 however, of the activity and prominence of Ezra in the days 
 of Nehemiah, it is somewhat remarkable that Nehemiah 
 himself in his genuine memoirs does not even once mention 
 his name. Still, as I have said, 75 the Jewish tradition seems 
 to imply that there must have been some priest, named 
 Ezra, after the Captivity, who took an active part in editing 
 and publishing the Law of Moses, now increased with the 
 Levitical Legislation, partly written by other priests in 
 Babylonia, and partly perhaps by his own hand. More 
 than this cannot be said with any confidence about Ezra's 
 doings. 
 
 No doubt, it must at first sight seem somewhat extravagant 
 to suppose that any nation would accept a vast system of 
 minute legislative enactments as the regulations which had 
 
 67 Neh.viii. 17. 
 
 68 Neh.ix.4-38. 
 
 
 69 Neh.x.i-31. 
 
 70 ^.32-39. 
 
 71 Neh.xi. 10-23, xii. 
 
 [-26. 
 
 72 z/. 3 1,38, 40. 
 
 73 Neh.xii. 27-43. 
 
 74 ^.36,38. 
 
 
 75 P-3I3- 
 
33o THE BOOKS OF EZRA AND NEHEMIAH 
 
 been observed by their ancestors for ages, when in fact the 
 details were mostly of modern introduction. Yet, as we have 
 seen, it is the Jewish tradition that something very like this 
 did actually take place after the return from the Babylonish 
 Captivity, so that Ezra, in fact, appears in the Talmud as the 
 very counterpart of Moses. What can have given rise to such 
 a tradition but the knowledge of the fact that before this time 
 the i Law of Moses/ as we now possess it, was really unknown, 
 that there were no copies which could be traced further back 
 than that period, when, as all had to be organised anew 
 among those who had grown up for two generations in a 
 strange land, an opportunity occurred for introducing new 
 rules under the garb of antiquity, such as has hardly occurred 
 in the history of any other nation ? 76 Among the returning 
 exiles, if we can trust the statements in these Books, there 
 was, as I have said, 77 one priest for ten laymen, and these last, 
 most probably, more or less under priestly influence. As the 
 result of this enormous preponderance of the priestly element, 
 the reviving nation was easily taught to guard itself against 
 unfaithfulness to its God in future by putting on the heavy 
 clothing of a vast system of ecclesiastical observances, per- 
 vading the whole fabric of their lives. From this, thank God ! 
 the teaching of Christ has set us free. Nor will we now suffer 
 ourselves and our children to be entangled again under the 
 yoke of bondage, and make the due performance of rites and 
 ceremonies, or the profession of an orthodox creed, of more 
 consequence than that Divine Charity in which the life of the 
 soul consists, and those fruits of the Spirit, ' love, joy, peace, 
 longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, tempe- 
 rance, against which there is no Law.' 78 
 
 76 Spectator, May 4, 1872, p.570. " p.25.7. 78 Gal. v. 22, 23. 
 
LECTURE XXIV. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 The Books of Chronicles fallacious and misleading ; they have been the 
 chief stay of the popular notion as to the Mosaic origin of the priestly 
 legislation of the Pentateuch ; in the older Lectionary no portion of these 
 Books was ordered to be read, though much from the Apocrypha ; Amos, 
 Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, show plainly that this Legislation did not in their 
 time exist in the story of the Exodus ; meaning of the phrase ' Law of 
 Jehovah,' as used by these prophets ; they refer to incidents of the O.S., 
 but nowhere to the L. L. ; even the later prophets speak of the priests as 
 ' sons of Levi,' never as ' sons of Aaron ' ; the latter phrase is used habitually 
 by the Chronicler, who also distinguishes the priests and the Levites, as in 
 the L. L. ; instances of his modifying the older history about the reign of 
 David, to glorify the priests and Levites ; special reason for his fiction about 
 the Mosaic Tabernacle and Brazen Altar having been set up at Gibeon ; he 
 has left out whatever might be a reproach to David and Solomon, and has 
 altered, in copying, the statements of Samuel and Kings, so as to represent 
 the L. L. as in full force all along ; his fictitious account of David's numbering 
 the Levites, of his dividing the priests and choristers into courses and 
 appointing the Levites to important offices, of his gifts to the Temple and his 
 prayer of thanksgiving ; the Chronicler's fictions in the history of the subse- 
 quent kings from Solomon downwards ; he was probably a Levite chorister, 
 writing long after the Captivity ; some few of his notices, not found in 
 Samuel and Kings, may have historical value, but as a whole his original 
 statements are utterly untrustworthy ; the grave nature of the Chronicler's 
 conduct in deliberately falsifying the facts of history as known to himself ; he 
 has only followed the example of the priestly writers of the Pentateuch. 
 
THE MICTIONS OF THE CHRONICLER. 
 
 'ITHERTO I have made no use in these Lectures 
 of the two Books of Chronicles, that is to say, I 
 have never once appealed to them in support of 
 my statements. The reason of this is obvious after 
 what we have seen in the last Lecture of the Chronicler's mode 
 of writing history in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah. For in 
 these Books he has not hesitated to insert letters and decrees 
 which are thoroughly fictitious ; and, generally, his accounts, 
 when unsupported by other evidence, are worthless as history. 
 The two Books of Chronicles exhibit the same fallacious 
 and misleading character. They go over the same ground 
 as that traversed by the Books of Samuel and Kings, 
 though the writer confines himself chiefly to matters 
 affecting the kingdom of Judah ; and he not only had 
 those older Books before him when he wrote, but he has 
 very frequently copied their language word for word. 
 And yet he has continually altered their statements or made 
 his own additions to them, and usually in such a way as to 
 magnify the office of the priests and Levites, and to repre- 
 sent the Levitical Law as in full force from the first, and 
 the priestly ordinances as punctually obeyed. 
 
 This is a matter of grave importance, because it is really 
 
334 THE FICTIONS OF THE CHRONICLER. 
 
 the Chronicler who by these perversions of the fact has led 
 men all along to suppose that these prescriptions were 
 really ancient and even of Mosaic origin, instead of being 
 the product of a very late age. In the older Lectionary 
 of the Church of England not a single chapter was selected 
 for public reading, whether on Sundays and on holidays, 
 or in the common daily service, out of these two Books, 
 though so much was given from Esther and Ecclesiastes, 
 and even from the apocryphal books of Tobit, Judith, 
 Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, and Baruch — nay, Bel and the 
 Dragon, and the story of Susannah. This cannot have 
 arisen from any lack of interesting matter in the Books of 
 Chronicles ; on the contrary, the writer's style is of a very 
 decidedly religious and practical character, well suited, 
 as many would think, for the work of edifying. Accordingly 
 in the New Lectionary several chapters of the First Book are 
 appointed for Sunday Lessons, while others in the Second 
 Book appear in the columns for daily use. It is possible that 
 the framers of the older Lectionary were aware of the con- 
 tradictions between the statements of the Chronicles and those 
 of the Books of Samuel and Kings, and thought it not good 
 to bring these differences into view before an ordinary con- 
 gregation. 1 However this may be, the fact is that in the 
 Books of Chronicles the priests and the Levites, carefully dis- 
 tinguished from each other, fill the foreground of the picture 
 on various occasions, of which no example can be found in 
 the older histories, as also that the sacrificial system, as laid 
 down in the Levitical Law, is exhibited everywhere in full 
 
 1 e. g. comp. iCh.x. I-I2 with 1S.xxxi.1-i3 — xi. 1-9 with 2S. v. 1-3,6-10 — 
 v. io-4ia with 2S.xxiii.8-39 — xiii. 6-14 with 2S.vi.2,3,5-n — xiv. 1-16 with 2S. 
 v. 11-25 — xvii,xviii,xix, with 2S.vii,viii,x — xx with 2S.xi. i,xii.30, 31, xxi. 18-22 — 
 xxi. 1-27 with 2S. xxi v. 1-4,9-25 — 2Ch.i.7-i2 with iK.iii. 5-14—2/. 14-17 with 
 lK.x.26-29 — iv.2-5 with iK.vii. 23-26 — v. II-22 with lK.vii.40-50 — vii. 11-22 
 with iK.ix.1-9 — viii with iK.ix. 10, 17-28, &c, &c. ; but see the full proof of the 
 statements made above in Part VII. 
 
THE FICTIONS OF THE CHRONICLER. 335 
 
 operation, of which no trace appears in the older prophets 
 down to the Captivity. 
 
 Amos, for instance, is so far from blaming his people for 
 disregard of the Levitical Law that he asks 'Was it 
 sacrifices and offerings that ye brought near to me in the 
 wilderness forty years, O House of Israel?' 2 — that is, 'Was 
 that what I required of you then, that you think to pacify 
 me now with such things ? ' — as if he knew nothing of any 
 such Law, in which multitudinous sacrifices are said to 
 have been enjoined in the wilderness. Isaiah says, ' I am 
 full of the burnt-offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts ; 
 and I delight not in the blood of bullocks or of lambs or of 
 he-goats. When ye come to appear before Me, who hath 
 required this at your hands that ye may tread My courts ? ' 3 — 
 whereas in the Levitical Law these very things were expressly 
 required of any who would ' tread the courts of JEHOVAH.' 
 Jeremiah says, ' I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded 
 them, in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, 
 concerning burnt-offerings and sacrifices ; but this thing I 
 commanded them saying, Obey My voice, and I will be your 
 God and ye shall be my people.' 4 But in the Levitical Law 
 Jehovah does speak especially about ' burnt-offerings and 
 sacrifices ; ' and such words could not have been written if the 
 sacrificial laws of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers had either 
 been actually prescribed in the wilderness, or had existed in 
 Jeremiah's time in the story of the Exodus. Nor would 
 Ezekiel have laid down his laws for the regulation of the 
 priesthood, their office and income, 5 if these subjects had been 
 fully treated of in the middle Books of the Pentateuch, or 
 prescribed sacrifices at variance with those already prescribed 
 in books regarded as Mosaic and Divine. 6 In short, the whole 
 
 2 Am.v.25. 3 Is.i.11,12. 
 
 4 Jer.vii.22,23. 5 Ez.xliii. i8-27,xliv.4-3i. 
 
 6 In Ez.xlv, comp. ^.23,24 with N.xxviii. 19-22,^.25 with N.xxix. 13-38 ; in 
 Ez.xlvi, comp. ^.4 with N.xxviii. 9, 7/. 6 with N.xxviii. 11,^.7 with N.xxviii. 12-14, 
 v. 1 3 with E. xxix. 38-40, N. xxviii. 3-5 
 
336 THE FICTIONS OF THE CHRONICLER. 
 
 tone of the prophets differed utterly from that of the priestly 
 mind, to which we owe the system of ritual enjoined in the 
 Later Legislation ; and, accordingly, they repeatedly dis- 
 parage, even contemptuously, the offering of sacrifices in com- 
 parison with moral rectitude and goodness. 7 
 
 It is true, the expression * Law of JEHOVAH ' often occurs 
 in ordinary translations of prophetical books. 8 But the 
 Hebrew word for ' Law ' means properly ' instruction, 
 teaching/ and is used by the prophets to denote the 
 teaching of themselves and their predecessors, which they 
 called the 'teaching of Jehovah,' because Jehovah, as 
 they believed, had put it into their hearts for the instruc- 
 tion of their brethren ; as where, for instance, Isaiah says, 
 1 This is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will 
 not hear the instruction of Jehovah, who say to the seers, 
 See not, and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right 
 things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits.' 9 And 
 so, too, it is used for the ' instruction ' which the priests, both 
 before and after the Captivity, gave to pious enquirers, with 
 reference to sacrifices of all kinds, vows, leprosy, &c. 10 
 
 Again the prophets before the Captivity refer often to 
 incidents which are mentioned in the Original Story of the 
 Pentateuch. 11 But not one of them makes the least allusion 
 to any part of the Levitical Law ; they never once mention 
 the name of Aaron as priest, and know nothing of the 
 distinction between priests and Levites ; though Ezekiel, 
 as I have said, 12 shows a close connexion with the oldest 
 portions of this Legislation, and after the Captivity Haggai 
 
 7 Is.i. 11-14,16,17, Hos. vi. 6, Am. v. 14,15,21-23. 
 
 8 e.g. Is.i. io,ii.3,v.24,viii. i6,20,xxx.9, Hos. iv. 6, via. I, Am.ii.4, Mic.iv.2. 
 
 9 Is. xxx. 9-1 1. 
 
 10 Ez.xxii.26, Zeph.iii.4, Hag.ii.ii-13, Mal.ii.7,9, comp. D.xxiv.8. 
 
 11 Am.ii.9, io,iii. i,2,iv. u,v.25,26,vii.9, Hos.ii.-14, 15, ix. 10, xi. i,8,xii.3,4,5,9, 
 
 12, I3,xiii.4,5, Is.i.9,io,iii.9,x.24,26,xi. i6,xii.2,5, Mic.vi.4,5,vii..i5, Nah.i.3, 
 
 Zeph.ii.9. '- p. 192 
 
THE FICTIONS OF THE CHRONICLER. 337 
 
 apparently makes a distinct reference to it. 13 Towards the 
 end of the Captivity the Later Isaiah says that all Israelites 
 shall be called ' priests of PjEHOVAH,' ' ministers of our 
 God,' 14 and that out of them — the Israelites generally — 
 1 JEHOVAH will take for priests, for Levites.' 15 Haggai and 
 Zechariah, writing soon after the return from the Captivity, 
 throw no light upon this question. But Malachi, probably 
 a contemporary of Nehemiah, speaks of the ' sons of 
 Levi ' as priests, who shall be ' purged as gold and silver,' 
 that they may ' bring-near to JEHOVAH an offering in 
 righteousness ' ; 16 and he refers to their having ' corrupted 
 the Covenant of Levi,' 17 under which the whole tribe was 
 appointed to act as priests for their brethren. 18 Nehemiah, 
 however, in his genuine memoir, 19 speaks of the Levites, 
 and also of the Nethinim, 20 as building their portion of 
 the wall apart from the priests. 21 In his time, therefore, 
 the distinction, it seems, was recognized ; though Malachi, 
 his contemporary, still speaks of the priests by the older 
 designation 'the sons of Levi,' 22 instead of using the 
 newly-coined phrase ' the sons of Aaron.' 
 
 We have already seen that in the Books of Samuel and 
 Kings — except in one verse which is manifestly a later 
 interpolation 23 — there is no trace of any distinction being 
 made as yet between the priests and Levites, and that 
 there is much, as in the account of Eli's time, 24 which is 
 irreconcileable with the notion of the very existence of the 
 Levitical Legislation. It is very different when we turn to 
 the Books of Chronicles. Here constantly, as in the Books 
 of Ezra and Nehemiah — about ninety times altogether — 
 we find, exactly as in the Levitical Legislation, a strong 
 
 13 Hag.ii. 11-13. 
 
 16 Mal.iii.3. 
 
 19 p. 328. 
 
 28 Mal.iii.3. 
 
 11 Is.lxi.6. 
 
 15 Is.lxvi.21 
 
 17 Mal.ii.8. 
 
 19 p. 238. 
 
 20 Neh.iii. 17,22,26,28. 
 
 21 z/. 1,22,28 
 
 23 iK.viii.4, see p. 252. 
 
 24 p. 248. 
 
 z 
 
 
338 THE FICTIONS OF THE CHRONICLER. 
 
 line of demarcation drawn between the priests and the 
 Levites, as forming two distinct orders of clergy, as also 
 between both orders and the laity. Thus after Saul's death 
 there come to David, among other supporters, 4,600 Levites 
 and 3,700 'sons of Aaron,' 25 a designation which never 
 once appears in the earlier historical books or in any of 
 the prophetical writings. And yet, notwithstanding all this 
 troop of priests and Levites, when a few years afterwards 
 David undertakes to bring up the ark to Mount Zion, he 
 employs only laymen for the work, and on that account 
 solely, according to the Chronicler, the driver Uzza met 
 with the accident which caused his death. It was only, he 
 tells us, after the lesson taught by this sad event that 
 David said, ' None ought to carry the ark of God but the 
 Levites'; 26 and so he summons them to bring up the ark 
 on the second occasion saying, ' Ye are the heads of the 
 fathers of the Levites ; sanctify yourselves, ye and your 
 brethren, that ye may bring up the ark of JEHOVAH the 
 God of Israel to where I have prepared for it ; for because 
 ye did not at the first, JEHOVAH our God made a breach upon 
 us, because we sought Him not after the due order. So 
 the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring 
 up the ark of Jehovah the God of Israel. And the sons 
 of the Levites bare the ark of God upon their shoulders 
 with the staves thereon, as Moses commanded according 
 to the word of JEHOVAH.' 27 Did, then, not one of the 
 3,700 priests and 4,600 Levites lift up his voice to warn 
 the king against the profanity of his first attempt ? And 
 how was it that out of this large body, after such awful 
 warning and the special summons of the king, only two 
 priests and 862 Levites appear to have attended on the 
 second occasion ? 23 
 
 25 iCh.xii.26,27. • 26 lCh.xv.2. 27 z/.i2-i5. aB £4-1 1. 
 
THE FICTIONS OF THE CHRONICLER. 339 
 
 So, whereas the Book of Samuel tells us that ' David and 
 all the House of Israel brought up the ark of Jehovah with 
 shouting and with trumpet-sounds/ 29 the Chronicler informs 
 us that ' David spake to the chief of the Levites to appoint 
 their brethren to be the choristers with instruments of music, 
 psalteries, and harps, and cymbals, sounding by lifting up the 
 voice with joy,' 30 while seven priests ' did blow with the trum- 
 pets before the ark.' 31 And, instead of the statement in the 
 older narrative, ' And David danced before JEHOVAH with all 
 his might, and David was girded with a linen ephod,' 32 the 
 Chronicler writes, ' And David was clothed with a robe of fine 
 linen, and all the Levites that bare the ark and the choristers, 
 and Chenaniah the song-master with the choristers, and David 
 had upon him a linen ephod.' 33 In short, the story is turned 
 into a glorification of these surpliced Levites ; and the fact, 
 that he gives the very names of the 'chief Levites and a 
 number of others, 34 only shows more clearly the boldness of 
 his genius ; for names and numbers, as well as other details 
 of the narrative as transformed by his hand, are all equally 
 fictitious. 35 
 
 Then he goes on to tell us how David set up a body of 
 Levite choristers with Asaph at their head, playing with 
 psalteries and harps and cymbals and trumpets, ' before the 
 ark of the covenant of God ' at Jerusalem, 36 and stationed at 
 the same time Zadok and his brethren the priests, with Heman 
 and Jeduthun and another troop of Levite choristers and 
 gatekeepers, before the Mosaic Tabernacle in the high-place 
 at Gibeon, to offer the Daily Sacrifice morning and evening 
 ' according to all that is written in the Law of JEHOVAH 
 which He commanded Israel.' 37 This fiction, however, of the 
 Tabernacle with its Brazen Altar having been set up at 
 
 29 2S.vi.15. 30 iCh.xv.16. 31 tf.24. 32 2S.vi.14. 
 
 33 1Ch.xv.27. 34 c. 5-1 1, 17-24. 35 For the full proof of this see Part VII. 
 
 36 iCh.xvi.4-6,37. 37 v. 38-42. 
 
34o THE FICTIONS OF THE CHRONICLER. 
 
 Gibeon, 38 has been introduced with the idea of accounting for 
 the fact of Solomon's having sacrificed on that high-place, 33 
 contrary to the prescriptions of the Levitical Law, which re- 
 quired all sacrifices to be brought to the entrance of the 
 Tabernacle, and the blood to be sprinkled upon the Brazen 
 Altar in front of it, 40 and even contrary to the law in Deute- 
 ronomy, which confined all sacrifices to 'the place which 
 Jehovah would choose.' 41 It is everywhere the same : while 
 he carefully suppresses the account of David's adultery, 
 treachery, and detestable act of murder, 42 and of Solomon's 
 bloody king-craft, polygamy, and gross idolatry 43 — suppresses, 
 in short, whatever could reflect reproach upon the founder 
 and builder of the Temple — he has deliberately falsified the 
 history of these kings and of the other kings throughout, so as 
 to represent the ordinances of the Levitical Law as in full 
 operation, and the Levites especially as in great request, from 
 David's time downwards, in the very teeth of the more 
 authentic narrative of the Books of Samuel and Kings, while 
 yet in the main carefully following the statements, and often 
 copying the identical words, of that narrative. 
 
 Thus in his old age David, he tells us, numbered the Levites 
 1 from thirty years old and upwards,' 44 just exactly the age in 
 the Book of Numbers, 45 though a later insertion in that Book 
 reduces it to twenty-five years, 46 and the Chronicler makes 
 David by ' his last words ' reduce it to twenty years. 47 He 
 finds 38,000 of them, and of these 24,000 were to oversee the 
 Temple, 6,000 to be officers and judges, 4,000 to be choristers, 
 and 4,000 to be gatekeepers, 48 — though in Zedekiah's un- 
 happy time, it seems, there were only three gatekeepers. 49 
 He divides the priests into courses, sixteen of the house of 
 
 38 2Ch.i.3,5,6,i3. 39 iK.iii.4. 40 L.xvii.3-6. 
 
 41 D.xii.5,6,11,13,14. 42 2S.xi.1-27. 43 iK.ii.23-34,xi. i-ic 
 
 44 iCh.xxiii.3. 4S N.iv.47. 46 N.viii.24. 
 
 47 iCh.xxiii.24-27. 48 ^.3-5. 49 2K.xxiv. 18. 
 
THE FICTIONS OF THE CHRONICLER. 341 
 
 Eleazar and eight of that of Ithamar, 50 these two being named 
 as ' sons of Aaron ' in the Levitical Legislation. 51 He divides 
 also into courses the choristers 52 and the gatekeepers. 53 But 
 especially he sends out Levites everywhere in special positions 
 of great authority — the sons of Izhar l for the outward business 
 over Israel as officers and judges,' the sons of Hebron, 1,700 
 of them, as officers west of the Jordan and 2,700 as rulers east 
 of the Jordan 'for all matters pertaining to God and affairs 
 of the king ' 54 — of all which there is not a trace in the older 
 history. 
 
 Again he tells us how David before his death gave to Solo- 
 mon a prodigious amount of gold and silver for the Temple, 
 viz. three thousand talents of gold (£15,000,000) and 
 seven thousand talents of silver (£2,471,000), all 'of his own 
 proper good,' besides what he had already ' prepared for 
 the holy house,' viz. a hundred thousand talents of gold 
 (£500,000,000) and a million talents of silver (£353,000,000) 55 , 
 and also ' patterns ' for it and for its vessels, which Jehovah 
 had ' made him understand in writing,' 56 and how his great 
 men followed his example by making splendid offerings, 
 five thousand talents of gold (£25,000,000) and ten thousand 
 talents of silver (£3,530,ooo), 57 and David uttered a prayer 
 of thanksgiving. 58 But the language of this prayer is wholly 
 the Chronicler's own, as the psalm of praise, which he repre- 
 sents elsewhere as sung by David's order, is made up of pieces 
 of later psalms. 59 
 
 But time would fail to recount the endless perversions of 
 the older more authentic history which we find in the Chroni- 
 cler's narrative — how, when David sacrificed on the site of the 
 future Temple, JEHOVAH ' answered him from heaven by fire 
 
 so 1Ch.xxiv.i-4. 51 L.x.6,12,16. 52 1Ch.xxv.53. 
 
 53 lCh.xxvi.l-l2. 54 ^.29,30. 35 iCh.ix.3,4,xxii. 14. 
 
 56 iCh.xxviii. H-13,19. 57 iCh.xxix.6-9. 5S 27.10-25. 
 
 59 1 Ch. xvi. 8-22, made up with some slight alterations from Ps. cv. 1-1 5, xcvi, cvii. 
 i,cvi.47,48. 
 
342 THE FICTIONS OF THE CHRONICLER. 
 
 upon the altar of burnt-offering,' and again at Solomon's 
 Dedication of the Temple, ' fire came down from heaven and 
 consumed the burnt-offering and the sacrifices, and the glory 
 of Jehovah filled the House,' 60 — how Solomon appointed 
 the priests and Levites to their charges, * for so was the com- 
 mandment of David the man of God,' 6I — how Abijah with 
 400,000 met Jeroboam with 800,000, and slew 500,000 of 
 them, 62 after making a long speech to the enemy in which he 
 says, ' Have ye not cast out the priests, the sons of Aaron ? 
 . . . But as for us, Jehovah is our God and we have not for- 
 saken Him, and the priests which minister unto Jehovah are 
 the sons of Aaron, and the Levites wait upon their business,' 63 
 — how Jehoshaphat sent princes and Levites and priests, all 
 named, to teach the Book of the Law in the cities of Judah, 64 
 and had a standing army of 1,160,000 soldiers, who ' waited 
 on the king, besides those whom the king put in the fortresses 
 throughout all Judea,' 65 and set Levites and priests as judges 
 in Jerusalem, 66 — how Moab and Ammon and Edom came 
 against Jehoshaphat, 67 and, as soon as the Levites began to 
 sing and praise before his army, the Ammonites and Moabites 
 fell upon the Edomites, and, ' when they had made an end of 
 them, they helped to destroy one another. . . . And Judah 
 looked unto the multitude, and lo ! they were dead bodies 
 fallen to the earth, and none escaped ' 68 — how Jehoshaphat 
 made ships on the Red Sea to go to Tarshish in Spain, 69 where 
 the Chronicler has made a curious mistake in copying the 
 older writer, who only says that he made ' ships of Tarshish ' 7o 
 —that is, large merchant-ships, such as went the long voyage 
 to Tarshish, as we should say ' Indiamen ' — to go to Ophir, 
 
 60 1Ch.xxi.26, 2Ch.vii.i, comp. L.ix.24. 61 2Ch.viii.14. 
 
 62 2Ch.xiii.3,7. 6a v.g. 64 2Ch.xvii.7-9. 
 
 68 ^.14-19. 66 2Ch.xix.8-n. 
 
 67 2Ch.xx. 1, where read 'some of the Meunim (Edomites),' instead of 'beside 
 the Ammonites,' E.V. 
 
 68 ^.22-28. «» ^.36,37. 70 1K.xxii.48. 
 
THE FICTIONS OF THE CHRONICLER. 343 
 
 very possibly the coast-line of the African gold-fields — how a 
 letter, which is given at full length, came to Joram from 
 Elijah the prophet, 71 who had been translated to heaven at 
 least seven years previously 72 — how the zeal and courage of 
 the priests and Levites, instead of the guards, as stated in 
 the older history, 73 enabled Jehoiada to kill the wicked 
 usurper Athaliah and restore the kingdom to the young prince 
 Joash — how Joash levied the poll-tax which Moses laid upon 
 Israel in the wilderness 74 — how joash and Amaziah fell into 
 idolatry and on that account 75 were killed by the hands of 
 conspirators 76 — how king Uzziah wished to offer incense in 
 the Temple, and the chief priest and eighty other priests 
 withstood him and said, ' It is not for thee, Uzziah, to burn 
 incense unto Jehovah, but for the priests the sons of Aaron : 
 go out of the holy place, for thou hast trespassed,' and Uzziah 
 was wroth, and this was the cause of his leprosy 77 — how Ahaz, 
 because he was an idolatrous king, was attacked by Pekah 
 king of Israel, who slew in one day 1 20,000 men of Judah, 
 and led away captive 200,000 women and children, and abun- 
 dance of spoil, but at the word of a prophet restored them all 
 with the most fraternal tenderness 78 — how Hezekiah, with the 
 help of the priests and Levites, reformed religion in Judah, 79 
 and kept a great passover, a century before Josiah's time, 80 
 and ordered the people to ' give the portion of the priests and 
 Levites,' which they did faithfully, and the chief priest said, 
 ' Since they began to bring the offerings into the House of 
 Jehovah, we have had enough to eat, and have left plenty' 81 
 — how Manasseh for his sins was carried captive to Babylon, 
 and there repented, and Jehovah brought him back to 
 Jerusalem, and he cleared the Temple and the City of all 
 
 71 2Ch.xxi.i2,i3. 
 
 72 p. 161. 
 
 73 2Ch.xxiii.2,4-8, comp. 2K.xi.4-i6, 
 
 74 2Ch.xxiv.6,9. 
 
 75 2Ch.xxiv.2,i7-26,xxv.2,27,28. 
 
 76 2K.xii. 20,21, xiv. 19 
 
 77 2Ch.xxvi. 16-21, comp. 2K.XV.5. 
 
 78 2Ch.xxviii.5-15. 
 
 79 2Ch.xxix. 80 2Ch.xxx, 
 
 81 2Ch.xxxi.2-io. 
 
344 THE FICTIONS OF THE CHRONICLER. 
 
 idolatrous images and altars, 82 anticipating also Josiah's doings 
 — how Josiah himself in the eighth year of his reign ' began 
 to seek Jehovah,' and in the twelfth year ' began to purge 
 Judah and Jerusalem from the high-places and asheras and 
 images,' 83 while not a word is said by the Chronicler about 
 the Great Reformation in the eighteenth year of his reign, 
 which showed that all along, from the time of Solomon 
 downwards, the grossest idolatries were practised in Judah, 84 
 — except that he mentions the passover kept at this time, 
 in which, of course, the priests and Levites are especially 
 prominent. 85 
 
 Here is a mass of fictions, which we owe to the mistaken 
 zeal of this writer, probably himself a Levite chorister, 86 and 
 writing at the earliest 250 87 — perhaps 350 — years after the 
 Captivity, and which have exercised a sort of glamour upon 
 the eyes of a multitude of pious readers ever since, of the 
 clergy as well as of the laity. Of course, the earlier his- 
 torian, living before that dire catastrophe in which so many 
 records of preceding times must have perished, must have 
 had access to any documents from which, two or three cen- 
 tuiies afterwards, the Chronicler might be thought to have 
 derived additional details. And, if he mentions none of these 
 things, nor even hints at the distinction between priests and 
 Levites or the conspicuous part they played throughout the 
 history, we may be sure that they were wholly unknown to 
 him, and are the offspring of the Chronicler's own imagina- 
 tion, reflecting the spirit of his later Levitical times. The 
 genealogies in iCh.i. are taken from the Book of Genesis, as 
 
 82 2Ch.xxxii.n-19. &3 2Ch.xxxiv.3-7. 
 
 84 2K.xxiii.1-25. 83 2Ch.xxxv.1-19. 
 
 8j Observe the special interest which the writer shows in the Levite choristers, 
 iCh.vi.3i-48,xv. i6-24,27,28,xvi.4-42,xxiii.5, xxv, 2Ch.v»i2, 13, vii.6,xx. 19,21,22, 
 xxiii. I3,i8,xxix.22-28,30,xxx.2l,xxxi.2,xxxiv. I2,xxxv. 15. 
 
 87 In Neh.xii. 11 the descent is given of Jaddua, high-priest (according to 
 Josephus) in Alexander's time, B.C. 332 : but some (as Kuenen) set the 
 Chronicler's age as low as B.C. 250. 
 
THE FICTIONS OF THE CHRONICLER. 345 
 
 are some of those in ch.ii., and most of those in ch.iii. from 
 the Books of Samuel and Kings. But, knowing what we 
 now do of his character, we can place no reliance on any of his 
 genealogical statements which are not supported by other 
 authorities, as, for instance, on his line of chief priests from 
 Aaron down to the Captivity. 88 He is capable of inventing 
 such genealogies, with a whole array of names and numbers, 
 to any extent, when the occasion seems to call for them. 
 Here and there experienced critics may detect a notice which 
 seems to have the ring of historical fact about it, 89 and which 
 he may have derived from some authentic source, like the 
 letters to and from Artaxerxes in Ezr. iv. 90 or the memoir of 
 Nehemiah. 91 But for ordinary readers, who wish to have a 
 true conception of the course of Hebrew history, the Books of 
 Chronicles must be set aside altogether, as not only untrust- 
 worthy, but utterly misleading. 
 
 The time is past for glossing over such conduct as the 
 Chronicler's with fair words, and ascribing to him only error 
 or exaggeration, but no intentional departure from the truth. 
 He has set himself down to reconstruct the history of his 
 people as known to himself in the older records, and he has 
 done this in the interest of the clerical body, to which in all 
 probability he himself belonged. If the Chronicler, indeed, 
 had been writing merely from tradition, it would not have 
 been surprising that he should have stereotyped in this man- 
 ner what might have been the genuine convictions of himself 
 and of his age ; as the writers of the earlier portions of the 
 Pentateuch, in trying to compose some accounts of the patri- 
 archs, and the author of the Books of Kings, in embodying 
 with more veracious narratives the legendary tales about 
 Elijah 92 and Elisha 93 or the return of the sun's shadow ten 
 
 89 iCh.vi.4-15. 89 e.g. iCh.iv. 39-43. 90 p.324,5. 
 
 91 p.328. 92 2K.ii.i-i2. 
 
 93 2K.ii.i4,2i,24,iii.i6-24,iv. 1-7, 16, 17,32-37,38-41, 42-44, v.8-i4,26,27,vi. 
 5-7,8-12, i3-i8,23,vii. 1,6,7, 1 7-20, viii. 1,5, xiii. 14-19,20,21. 
 
346 THE FICTIONS OF THE CHRONICLER. 
 
 degrees upon the dial of Ahaz, 94 have not violated the laws of 
 historical good faith, taking into account the times in which 
 they lived. But, when we see the Chronicler with the older 
 history before him, from which he is actually copying word for 
 word, deliberately giving an entirely different representation 
 of the whole course of events, with the purpose of leading his 
 readers to believe that from the earliest times the Levitical 
 Law was in full force in Judah, it is impossible, with a due 
 regard to truth, to acquit him of the great crime of falsifying 
 facts of history well known to him. 
 
 But the Chronicler had before him the example of the 
 Later Legislation of the Pentateuch, where priestly writers 
 of an age not very far distant from his own, had entirely 
 modified the known facts of their national history, ascribing 
 to Jehovah laws which they themselves had laid down, often 
 for their own aggrandisement ; and he resolved, it would 
 seem, to take upon himself the task of supplying historical 
 support for these pretensions. When, however, we consider 
 that for 2,000 years the whole course of Jewish history has 
 been thrown into confusion mainly by the acts of these 
 writers, and that Christianity itself owes much of its past 
 and present corruptions and superstitions, — such as the idea of 
 the priestly office and the popular notion of the Atonement, 
 based upon the supposed Divine origin of the sacrificial laws 
 in the Pentateuch — to the existence of these priestly and 
 Levitical fictions, it is not easy to speak lightly of a fraud 
 which has had such enormous and far-reaching evil con- 
 sequences ; while we find here another warning — unhap- 
 pily by no means unneeded in the present age — that 'lies 
 spoken in the name of the Lord,' 95 however well meant, 
 can never work out the good of man or the righteousness of 
 God. 
 
 94 2K. xx. 8-1 1. D - Zech.xiii.3. 
 
LECTURE XXV. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 The Psalms, Proverbs, Canticles, Lamentations, Job, Esther, Ecclesiastes, 
 contain no allusion to the L. L. ; the very late Book of Daniel refers to it ; the 
 story of the discovery and destruction of the Moabite Stone ; the characters 
 engraved upon it ; its contents ; signs of progress in writing in an early age, 
 so that the O.S. may have been composed in the days of David and Solomon; 
 the language shows the close affinity of the Moabites to the Hebrews ; Moab 
 seems to have thrown off the yoke of Solomon at the same time with Edom 
 and Syria ; ' forty years ' used in the Stone for an indefinite long period ; 
 Chemosh, the Sun-God of Moab, fills the same place in this inscription as 
 Yahveh, the Sun-God of Canaan, does in the Bible ; the worship of Che- 
 mosh in substance identical with that of Yahveh, who is here recognised as 
 the National Deity of the Ten Tribes ; the name Yahveh known to the 
 Moabites, and therefore spoken by the Israelites of that age ; striking discre- 
 pancy between the Hebrew and Moabite records about Mesha and his 
 conflicts with Israel ; extravagance of the Hebrew story ; the two accounts 
 have been reconciled by assuming that the one takes up the narrative where 
 the other leaves it ; improbability of this supposition ; the Bible, with all its 
 defects and faults, the mightiest instrument in the hands of the Divine 
 Teacher for revealing to us His True Name. 
 
THE MOABITE STONE. 
 
 HE Book of Psalms contains compositions of all 
 ages, from the time of David — possibly even 
 Samuel — downwards, till that of the Maccabees, 1 
 about B.C. 175, three centuries and a half after 
 the return from Babylon. In some of these allusions are 
 made to Aaron as Priest, 2 to the distinction between the 
 priests and the Levites, 3 to the ' precious ointment that ran 
 down upon the beard of Aaron and went down to the skirts 
 of his garments/ 4 or to some other feature of the Levitical 
 Legislation. 5 But such allusions occur only in very late 
 psalms written after the Captivity, as the most eminent 
 scholars allow. 1 The Book of Proverbs consists of seven 
 Parts, of which the first five were written before the Captivity 
 and the last two after it ; l but throughout we find no trace 
 whatever of the Levitical Legislation. The Song of Solomon, 
 a beautiful idyll, intended apparently to exhibit the supe- 
 riority of pure wedded love, though in humble circumstances, 
 to all considerations of mere earthly wealth and grandeur, 
 
 1 See Part VII for the proof of this. 
 
 2 Ps.xcix.6(?),cvi. i6,cxv. 10, I2,cxviii.3,cxxxv. 19. 
 
 3 Ps.cxxxv. 19,20. 4 Ps.cxxxiii.2, comp. E.xxx.25,30. 
 
 5 Ps.lxxxi.3, comp. L.xxiii. 24, 39,41. N.xxix. 1 ; Ps.xcv. 10, 11, comp. N.xiv.33, 
 34; Ps.cvi.32,33, comp. N. xx. 2-1 2 ; Ps.cvi.29,30, comp. N.xxv.6-13. 
 
350 THE MOABITE STONE. 
 
 was probably written in the northern kingdom under the reign 
 of Jeroboam II. (B.C. 800), 1 but contains not the least allusion 
 to the Levitical Law. Then come in order of age the Lamen- 
 tations, probably composed by Jeremiah, partly during the 
 siege of Jerusalem, partly after it (B.C. 588-6) l — the Book of 
 Job, written about a century afterwards or even later 1 — the 
 Book of Esther, an extravagant romance, written about two 
 centuries later still l — Ecclesiastes, about B.C. 200 l — in none 
 of which is there any reference to the Levitical Law. Lastly, 
 we have the Book of Daniel, written under the form of pro- 
 phecies ascribed to Daniel, to support the faith and courage 
 of the Jews under the oppressive measures of Antiochus 
 Epiphanes (B.C. 165) ; 1 and in this we find some allusions 
 to the priestly Law, 6 which was at that time in full force. If 
 we add that in none of the older prophets before Jeremiah 
 do we find any trace of acquaintance with the Book of 
 Deuteronomy, it will be seen that we have here indirectly very 
 strong additional support for the conclusions, that Deute- 
 ronomy was written in the age and apparently by the hand 
 of Jeremiah himself, and that the Levitical Legislation was 
 begun by Ezekiel and completed by priests of that age and 
 after it. 
 
 Let us now consider what further light is thrown upon the 
 subjects discussed in these Lectures by that most interesting 
 relic of antiquity which has been lately found, the Moabite 
 Stone. I will first give a brief account of its discovery, 7 and 
 then of its contents, and afterwards draw some inferences from 
 them in connexion with these enquiries. 
 
 In August, 1868, a German Missionary 8 was in the land 
 of Moab, which lies along the eastern side of the Dead Sea, 
 
 6 Dan.ix. 11,13, ' Law of Moses ' — Dan.viii. Ii-I3,xi.3i,xii. u, ' continual sacri- 
 fice,' ix.21, 'evening oblation,' comp. E. xxix. 38-42, N. xxviii. 3-8. 
 
 7 The facts in this Lecture are mainly derived from' Dr. GinsBurg's admirable 
 work on the Moabite Stone, 2nd Ed., to which G. refers in the notes below. 
 
 8 The Rev. F. Klein of the Church Missionary Society. 
 
THE MO A BITE STONE. 35 1 
 
 a country little visited by Europeans, and, when near 
 Dibon, he was informed by an Arab Sheikh, his friend and 
 protector, that hardly ten minutes off there was a black 
 basalt stone inscribed with ancient characters. He found 
 it lying among the ruins of Dibon, perfectly exposed and 
 with its face uppermost, about ift. loin, high, 2ft. broad, 
 and \^\in. thick, rounded at top and bottom, and containing 
 thirty-four lines of inscription running across the Stone. 
 The Missionary did not appreciate the immense importance 
 of this discovery, and merely copied a few words from the 
 Stone and compiled an alphabet ; though he took measures 
 at once to secure it for the Berlin Museum, which, in 
 consequence of the conflicting powers and repeated absences 
 of the different Pachas concerned, proved a very tedious 
 and intricate business. For nearly three thousand years 
 that stone had lain exposed to all the elements uncared 
 for* : but now the Moabites found that it was very valuable, 
 and worth, as they supposed, its weight in gold. A few 
 weeks afterwards a man came purposely to inform the 
 agent of the Palestine Exploration Society 9 of its existence : 
 but he, knowing that the Prussian Consul was moving in 
 the matter, would take no action about it. In the spring 
 of 1869, however, he learnt with astonishment, as did also 
 a member of the French Consulate at Jerusalem, 10 that no 
 copy or ' squeeze ' of the inscription had been taken. In 
 July, 1869, the former had to leave for the Lebanon ; but 
 the latter, with indiscreet zeal, not only sent men to obtain 
 squeezes, who quarrelled in the presence of the Arabs, but 
 offered for the Stone the sum of £375, whereas £80 had 
 been already promised by the Prussian authorities and 
 had been at last agreed to by those who held it, after long 
 and wearisome negotiations, the sum of ^"1000 having been 
 
 9 Capt. Warren. 10 M. Clermont-Ganneau. 
 
352 THE M0AE1TE STONE. 
 
 asked for it at one time. But now the Governor of Nablus 
 interposed and demanded this splendid prize for himself; 
 and the Moabites, exasperated with this claim, in November, 
 1869, 'sooner than give it up, put a fire under it, and threw 
 cold water on it, and so broke it, and then distributed 
 the bits among the different families, to be placed in the 
 granaries and act as blessings upon the corn ; for they 
 said that without the Stone a blight would fall upon their 
 crops.' 11 Of these fragments twenty are now in the French 
 savant's possession, containing in all 613 letters; while 
 eighteen small pieces are held by the Palestine Exploration 
 Society, containing 56 letters, making a total of 669 out 
 of 1,100, which the entire Stone must have contained — 
 that is to say, about two-thirds of the whole inscription. 
 Most of the missing letters, however, have been recovered 
 from the squeezes taken before and after the Stone was 
 broken, so that only 35 words, 15 half-words, and 18 letters — 
 less than one-seventh of the whole — remain to be supplied 
 from conjecture, but are often clearly suggested by the 
 context ; and it is just to say that the person, who has 
 most successfully laboured at this restoration of the entire 
 inscription, is the French archaeologist himself. 
 
 This Stone records three series of events in the reign of 
 Mesha king of Moab, who is mentioned in the Bible 12 as 
 having rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab, B.C. 
 898, and who lived therefore about B.C. 900, only "5 years 
 after Solomon's time, and may have erected this Stone about 
 B.C. 890. The First Part of this Inscription runs as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 i I Mesha am son of Chemosh-Gad king of Moab the 
 Dibonite. My father reigned over Moab thirty years, and 
 I reigned after my father. And I erected this Stone to 
 
 11 G.p.io. 12 2K.iii.4,5. 
 
THE MO A BITE STONE. 353 
 
 Chemosh at Korcha, a Stone of vSVzlvation, for he saved me 
 from all despoilers and made me see my desire upon all 
 my enemies, even Omn king of Israel. Now they afflicted 
 Moab many days, for Chemosh was angry with his land. 
 His son succeeded him, and he also said, I will afflict 
 Moab. In my days he said Let us go and I will see my 
 desire on him and his house, and Israel — I shall destroy it 
 with an everlasting destruction. Now Omri took the land 
 of Medeba, and the enemy occupied it in his days and in 
 the days of his son, forty years. And Chemosh had mercy 
 on it in my days ; and I fortified Baal-Meon and made 
 therein the tank, and I fortified Kiriathaim. For the men 
 of Gad dwelt in the land of Ataroth from of old, and the 
 "king of /srael fortified for himself A/aroth, and I assaulted 
 the wall and captured it, and killed all the warriors of the 
 wall for the well-pleasing of Chemosh and Moab ; and I 
 removed from it all the spoil, and offered it before Chemosh 
 in Kirjath ; and I placed therein the men of Siran (? Sebam) 
 and the vixen of Mochrath. And Chemosh said to me, Go, 
 take Nebo against Israel. And I went in the night, and I 
 fought against it from the break of dawn till noon, and I 
 took it and slew in all seven thousand men y but I did 
 not kill the women, and /maidens, for / devoted them to 
 Ashtar-Chemosh ; and I took from it the z/^rsels of 
 Yahveh and offered them before Chemosh. And the 
 King of Israel fortified Jahaz and occupied it, when he 
 made war against me ; and Chemosh drove him out before 
 me y and I took from Moab two hundred men, all its poor, and 
 placed them in Jahaz, and took it to annex it to Dibon.' 
 
 The Second Part describes the public works under- 
 taken by Mesha after his deliverance from his Jewish 
 oppressors, 13 and the Third records his successful wars 
 
 13 ' I built Korcha, the wall of the forest, and the wall of the city, and I built 
 the gates thereof, and I built the towers thereof, and I built the palace, and I 
 
 A A 
 
354 THE MOABITE STONE. 
 
 against the Edomites. 14 But these two Parts have no 
 special interest for us in connexion with our present subject ; 
 we will confine our attention to the First Part of the Inscrip- 
 tion. 
 
 (i) Here, first, we notice that the art of writing must 
 have already far advanced in that early age, B.C. 900, 
 since this stone is clearly and distinctly engraved, with no 
 sign of rudeness and imperfection in the work, the words 
 being carefully separated by points and the clauses by 
 vertical strokes, and the story is recorded in a plain and per- 
 spicuous style and in a perfectly grammatical form. There 
 is therefore no reason to doubt that the art of writing may 
 have been freely practised among the Hebrews in the time 
 of Solomon and David, comp. 2S.xi.i4,i5, and that in that 
 age the Original Story of the Pentateuch may have been 
 written. 
 
 (ii) Next, the letters engraved on this Stone, as I have 
 said, are not the later square Chaldee characters as in our 
 printed Hebrew Bibles, but the Phoenician, called also the 
 Samaritan, which were used by the Hebrews before the 
 Captivity. These characters, says GlNSBURG, were common 
 before B.C. 700 to all the races of W. Asia, and were used 
 in Nineveh, Phoenicia, Jerusalem, Samaria, Moab, Cilicia, 
 Cyprus ; so that we have here the alphabet ' from which 
 the Greek, the Roman, and all other European alphabets 
 
 made the prisons for the criminals withm the walls. And there was no cistern in 
 the wall at Korcha, and I said to all the people, make for yourselves everyman a 
 cistern in his house. And I dug the ditch for Korcha with the chosen men of 
 /srael. I built Aroer, and I made the road across the Arnon. I built Beth-Bamoth, 
 for it was destroyed ; I built Bezer, for it was cvd down by the armed men of Dibon, 
 for all Dibon was now loyal ; and I reign^ from Bikran which I added to my 
 land, and I built Beth-Gamul and Beth-Diblathaim and Beth-Baal-Meon, and I 
 placed there the poor people <?/*the land.' 
 
 14 ' And as to Horonaim the men of Edom dwelt therein on the descent from of 
 old. And Chemosh said to me, Go down, make war against Horonaim and ta&? 
 it. And 1 assaulted it, and I took it, ana Chemosh restored it in my days. Where- 
 fore I raa^ . . . year . . and I . . .' 
 
THE MOABITE STONE. 355 
 
 have been derived, the veritable prototype of modern 
 writing.' As we find among them representatives of all 
 the twenty-two letters of the ancient Semitic alphabet, the 
 story, that only sixteen were brought into Greece from 
 Phoenicia, falls at once to the ground, and, doubtless, the 
 whole Phoenician alphabet was taken over by the Greeks 
 from Kadmus, that is, 'the man of the east/ for kedem in 
 Hebrew means * the east' The language, however, though 
 closely akin to that found in Phoenician inscriptions, is still 
 more nearly allied to. Biblical Hebrew, and almost, indeed, 
 identical with it. In fact, ' the whole vocabulary of the 
 Moabite Stone is to be found in the Hebrew Scriptures ' ; 15 
 while certain shades of meaning are for the first time 
 supplied for certain Hebrew words. This shows how 
 closely related were the Hebrews to the Phoenicians and 
 Moabites, and, no doubt, to the Ammonites and Edomites, 
 and other tribes in the midst of which they settled down 
 when they came out of Egypt. And so David allied 
 himself closely with the Phoenicians, 16 whom according to 
 the Pentateuch he was bound to have utterly destroyed ; 17 
 and he was himself of Moabite descent through his 
 ancestress Ruth, 18 and, when threatened by Saul, he sent 
 his parents to the care of the king of Moab. 19 
 
 (iii) We are not told why David afterwards ' smote Moab ' 
 and slew in cold blood two-thirds of the population, and re- 
 duced the whole land to subjection. 20 But at some time or 
 other after this the Moabites must have shaken off the yoke 
 of Judah, since, according to this Stone, Omri, Ahab's father, 
 conquered them again about fifty or sixty years after Solo- 
 mon's time. Most probably they revolted from Solomon at 
 the time when Edom and Syria appear to have regained their 
 independence, after the death of David and Joab, in the 
 
 15 G.p.29. 16 2S.v.ii,iK.v. 1. 17 D.xx.16, comp. J.xiii.6. 
 
 18 R.iv. 13-17. 19 iS.xxii.3,4. 20 2S.viii. 1,2. 
 
 a A 2 
 
356 THE MO A BITE STONE. 
 
 very beginning of Solomon's reign. 21 But, according to the 
 Stone, they were liberated once more by Mesha, and they 
 seem to have maintained their independence of Israel ever 
 afterwards. 
 
 (iv) Omri is here said to have taken from Moab the land of 
 Medeba and with his son Ahab to have held it ' forty years.' 
 But Omri reigned only twelve years and Ahab twenty-two 
 years ; 22 so that they reigned altogether only at most thirty- 
 four years, and the conquest will hardly have been made in 
 the very first year of Omri. In other words, the term of 
 ' forty years ' seems to be used here, as it is with reference to 
 the wanderings in the wilderness and often elsewhere in Scrip- 
 ture, 23 for an indefinite long time, perhaps in this case twenty 
 or thirty years. 
 
 (v) Again, the name of the Sun-God,~Chemosh, the National 
 Deity of Moab, 24 is used in this inscription just exactly as 
 Jehovah or Yahveh, the name of the National Deity of the 
 Hebrews, the Sun-God of Canaan, 25 was used by the Hebrews. 
 Thus the name of Mesha's father, Chemosh-Gad, is com- 
 pounded with Chemosh, as so many Hebrew names are com- 
 pounded with Jehovah. 26 Moreover, Gad was the God of 
 good-fortune, acknowledged by all the Canaanite nations ; so 
 that Chemosh-Gad means ' Chemosh is the God of good- 
 fortune,' just as in the Bible Gaddiel means 27 'Gad is 
 ELOHIM,' or Baal-Gad 28 means ' Baal is Gad,' or Baal- Yah 29 
 means Baal is YAHVEH.' So Mesha erects this ' Stone of 
 Salvation ' to Chemosh, ' for he saved me from all despoilers ' ; 
 just as Samuel sets up a i Stone of Help,' Eben-ezer, saying, 
 ' Hitherto hath JEHOVAH helped us,' 30 or as David set up a 
 memorial ' when he returned from smiting the Syrians in the 
 
 21 iK.xi. 14-25, see p.58. 22 1K.xvi.23.29. 23 p.284. 
 
 24 N.xxi.29, Ju.xi.24, iK.xi.7,33, 2K.xxiii.13, Jer.xlviii.7,13,46. 
 
 25 p. 77. 2S p. 79. 27 N.xiii.io. 
 28 J.xi. I7,xii. 7,xiii. 5. 29 iCh.xii.5. 30 iS.vii.i2. 
 
THE MOABITE STONE. 357 
 
 Valley of Salt.' 31 Chemosh here lets Mesha ' see his desire 
 upon his enemies ' ; and so the Psalmist says, ' God shall let 
 me see my desire upon mine oppressors,' 32 and again, ' I shall 
 see my desire upon my enemies.' 33 Chemosh 'was angry' 
 with his land, and allowed Israel to oppress it : and so ' the 
 anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel, and He de- 
 livered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them.' 34 
 But Chemosh again has mercy upon his land, and gives Mesha 
 the victory over his foes ; and the Israelites upon the wall are 
 killed ' for the well-pleasing of Chemosh and Moab,' where 
 Chemosh is identified with Moab, as JEHOVAH is with 
 Israel ; 35 the spoil is offered before Chemosh, as David offers 
 his spoil to Jehovah ; 36 Chemosh ' said to Mesha, Go, take 
 Nebo against Israel,' as Jehovah ' said to David, Go, and 
 smite the Philistines,' 37 and sends Saul to smite Amalek. 38 
 And Mesha does this and kills all the men, but devotes the 
 women and children to Ashtar-Chemosh, that is, reserves 
 them for the foul orgies of Sun-worship, of which we see plain 
 traces in the Bible as practised down to a late age in Israel. 39 
 So Mesha takes the ' vessels of Jehovah and offers them 
 before Chemosh,' 40 and Chemosh drives out Israel from before 
 him at Jahaz. 41 In short, ' if we did not know the nature of 
 the Moabite religion from other sources, and if the name of 
 Jehovah were substituted for that of Chemosh, this 
 Inscription would read like a chapter in the Book of Kings.' 42 
 (vi) Once more, ' these vessels of Jehovah,' which Mesha 
 captures at Nebo and dedicates to Chemosh, show that the 
 Deity worshipped by the Israelites at such high-places as that 
 at Nebo was really JEHOVAH, though a Hebrew prophet would 
 probably have called them c vessels of the Baal ' ; and ' the 
 
 31 2S.viii.i3, where the E.V. has 'gat him a name.' 32 Ps.lix. 11. 
 
 33 Ps.cxviii. 7. 34 Ju.ii. 13, comp. iii,8, 2K.xiii.3. 35 J.iv. 12, 13. 
 
 36 2S.viii.II. 37 iS.xxiii.2. 38 iS.xv.2,3. 
 
 39 2K.xxiii.7, comp. D.xxiii. 18. 40 comp. iK.vii.51, 2S.viii.Il. 
 
 41 E.xxiii.29,30,xxxiv. 11, Ju.ii. 3, vi. 9. 42 G.p.38. 
 
358 THE MOABITE STONE. 
 
 fact, that these vessels, used in the service of Jehovah, could 
 so easily be converted into the worship of Chemosh, shows 
 beyond doubt that the special part of the ritual for which they 
 were designed was common to the religion both of the Hebrews 
 and of the Moabites.' 43 Rather, there was probably no 
 essential difference between the worship of Chemosh and that 
 of Jehovah carried on at the high-places of Judah and 
 Jerusalem. Hence the Jewess Naomi, though a worshipper of 
 Jehovah, without any scruple bids Ruth the Moabitess, her 
 widowed daughter-in-law, after she had been married ten years 
 to her son, and had probably conformed to his religion, to 
 return unto her own people and unto her Elohim Chemosh, as 
 her sister had done ; but Ruth refuses and says, ' Thy people 
 shall be my people and thy Elohim my Elohim.' 44 Hence, 
 too, Solomon built a high-place for Chemosh, to oblige his 
 Moabite wives, on the Mount of Olives, in full view of the 
 Temple of Jehovah. 45 And we observe that in this Inscrip- 
 tion Jehovah is spoken of as the National Deity of the 
 Northern Kingdom, where, therefore, under the form of a 
 calf Jehovah or Yahveh must have been worshipped at 
 Bethel or Dan; 46 so that, when it is said 'Jeroboam drave 
 Israel from following Jehovah/ 47 it is meant that by setting 
 up his calves he hindered them from serving the God of 
 Israel with a higher spiritual worship, undefiled by the gross 
 symbols and the lascivious and bloody rites of heathenism. 
 
 (vii) Further, the name • Jehovah ' was in later days only 
 allowed to be used in the priestly benediction in the Temple ; 
 and when, on the Great Day of the Atonement, the High- 
 Priest uttered it, while confessing the sins of the nation, ' all 
 the priests and people in the outer court who heard it had to 
 kneel down, bow, and fall upon their faces, exclaiming, 
 'Blessed be the glorious Name of His Majesty for ever!/ 
 
 43 G.p.22. " R.i. 15,16. 4S 2K.xxiii.i3. 
 
 46 iK.xii.28,29. 47 2K.xvii.21. 
 
THE MOABITE STONE. 359 
 
 while any layman who pronounced it forfeited his life both 
 in this world and in the world to come.' 48 Accordingly this 
 Name is never employed in the Septuagint Version or in the 
 Apocryphal Books, where Kurios or Lord is always used for 
 it, from which has been derived 4 the Lord ' of the English 
 Bible. Now tradition maintains that this superstitious dread 
 of pronouncing the Name dates after the time of Moses and 
 that the Law itself distinctly forbids it. And tradition was, 
 no doubt, right in supposing that the practice was forbidden, 
 or at least discouraged, in that passage of Leviticus, where 
 JEHOVAH orders a man to be stoned to death for blaspheming 
 ' the Name,' 49 the very expression used by the Samaritans 
 and later Jews instead of uttering the Divine Name. But then 
 this passage of Leviticus was not written ' in the time of 
 Moses ' : it is one of the latest portions of the Levitical Law. 
 Perhaps the Jews, who were settled in Egypt after the 
 Captivity, adopted this superstition from the Egyptians, who 
 never uttered the names of certain deities, and passed it on to 
 the Jews in Palestine. At all events, this Stone shows that 
 the Name was well known to the Moabites B.C. 900, as that 
 of the National Deity of Israel, and therefore, no doubt, in 
 that age it was freely pronounced by the Israelites. 
 
 (viii) Lastly, we must compare the Moabite record with the 
 Hebrew account of this same Mesha and his relations with 
 Israel. 50 In this we read that Mesha was rich in flocks, and 
 paid an annual tribute to the king of Israel of 100,000 wethers 
 and 100,000 rams with their wool, — that he rebelled after 
 Ahab's death, and that Joram son of Ahab, with his allies, 
 Jehoshaphat king of Judah and his tributary, the king of Edom, 
 marched against him by a circuitous route, seven days through 
 the wilderness of Edom. The three allies, however, with their 
 troops and cattle, were nearly perishing for want of water 
 
 48 G.p.22. 49 L.xxiv. 1 1 -1 6. 50 2K.iii.4-27. 
 
360 THE MOABITE STONE. 
 
 when Jehoshaphat found that Elisha was living near at hand 
 and went down to consult him. Elisha at first bids Joram 
 go to the prophets of his father Ahab and his mother Jezebel ; 
 but at last for Jehoshaphat's sake he enquires of JEHOVAH, 
 and for reply bids them ' make the valley full of ditches,' for 
 without wind or rain it should be filled with water, and Moab 
 also should be delivered into their hands, and they ' should 
 smite every fenced city and every choice city, and fell every 
 good tree, and stop every well of water, and mar every good 
 piece of land with stones.' And lo ! in the morning there came 
 streams by the way of Edom, and the country was filled with 
 water ; and, when the Moabites saw it ruddy with the rays of 
 the rising sun, they thought it was blood. So, taking it for 
 granted that the three allied armies had smitten one another, 
 they rushed in full force to the spoil ; but, when they reached 
 the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and smote them, 
 and chased them into their own land, slaughtering without 
 mercy, beating down the cities, marring the land with stones, 
 stopping the wells, and felling the fruit-trees, till they drove 
 the king of Moab into a strong-hold where he maintained 
 himself, while the slingers went about and smote it. At last, 
 being hard pressed, he sallied out with seven hundred men and 
 tried to break through the besieging force, but failed ; where- 
 upon he ' took his eldest son that should have reigned in his 
 stead, and offered him for a burnt-offering upon the wall. 
 And there was great indignation against [or upon] Israel, and 
 they departed from him, and returned to their own land.' 
 
 We have here a very different story from that recorded on 
 the Moabite Stone, and the question is, Can these two accounts 
 in any way be reconciled ? The contrast between them is 
 certainly as great as possible. In the one we have a simple, 
 unvarnished tale of struggles and conquests beginning with 
 the admission of Moab's long subjection and ending with its 
 liberation from the yoke of Israel, but all told in the most 
 
THE MOABITE STONE. 361 
 
 natural manner, without the least sign of a desire to adorn the 
 narrative with fictitious or miraculous incidents : in the other 
 we have a series of incredible statements, beginning with an 
 annual tribute from Moab of 100,000 wethers and 100,000 
 rams, enormously out of proportion to the extent of the 
 country (about forty miles long by ten broad), and ending with 
 the Moabites mistaking the water in the morning sunlight for 
 blood, and hastily concluding that ' the kings are surely slain, 
 and they have smitten one another,' — as if, supposing some of 
 them for a moment to have been possessed by such a delusion, 
 it would not have been dispelled long before they reached 
 the Camp of Israel and fell helplessly into their enemies' 
 hands ! In short, the whole Hebrew story, as it now stands, is 
 a manifest fiction, apparently part of some legendary account 
 of Elisha's doings, which, like that about Elijah, Jeremiah 51 
 has adopted into his history of the kings, retouching it here 
 and there with his own hand. 
 
 But may this extravagant story after all have been based on 
 some real historical fact ? It has been suggested 52 that the 
 Scripture narrative has taken up the account of Mesha's doings 
 just where the Moabite Stone has left it, each record having 
 suppressed altogether the facts which would have redounded 
 to the glory of the enemy, so that here we have only two parts 
 of the same campaign described from two opposite points of 
 view, like English and French accounts of the Battle of 
 Waterloo. Mesha, it is said, may have really freed his country 
 north of the Arnon, as stated on the Stone, during the short 
 reign of Ahaziah, Ahab's eldest son and successor ; 53 and then, 
 after his death, his successor Joram may have fortified Jahaz 
 south of the Arnon, as here mentioned, and tried to stem his 
 progress in that direction, but, finding him too strong, was 
 obliged to withdraw his force without a battle, or, as the 
 
 51 See Part VII for the proof that Jeremiah wrote the Books of Kings. 
 
 52 G.p. 17-19. 53 1K.xxii.51, 2K.1.1. 
 
362 THE MOABITE STONE. 
 
 Stone says, ' Chemosh drave him out.' But after this he may- 
 have summoned his allies, as the Bible tells us, and, going 
 round by the south, may have utterly overthrown Mesha, 
 ravaging his land and shutting him up in his last fortified 
 place, from which he tried to break out, but failed, and then, 
 by the sacrifice of his son raised such a fury in his people that 
 they attacked and routed the Israelites, or, in the euphemistic 
 language of the Bible, ' there was great indignation against 
 Israel, and they departed from him and returned to their own 
 land.' 
 
 This ingenious explanation may possibly be true. Yet, 
 considering the fictitious character of most of the details of 
 the Hebrew story, this seems very doubtful in face of the fact 
 that not the slightest hint of Mesha' s disasters, of his having 
 lost his towns and had his land ravaged, and been driven to 
 sacrifice his firstborn son, appears on the Stone. Perhaps the 
 notorious fact of Moab having thrown off under Mesha the yoke 
 of Israel alone gave rise to the Scripture story. In order to 
 account for the Israelites having permitted such a revolt, they 
 are here represented as having first by miraculous aid, 
 vouchsafed for the good Jehoshaphat's sake, chastised the 
 rebellious Moabites and reduced them to uttermost distress 
 and despair, and having then abandoned their conquest in 
 consternation and commiseration, as Josephus 54 and many com- 
 mentators explain it, at the horrible deed committed before 
 their eyes. 
 
 However this may be, it is plain that the Moabite Stone, 
 if even its contents can be reconciled at all with the Hebrew 
 story, lends no support whatever to the traditionary view as 
 to the Divine infallibility of the Bible, much less as to the 
 Mosaic origin and Divine authority of the Pentateuch, while 
 in various ways it indirectly confirms the views I have set 
 before you in these Lectures. For all this, however, the Bible, 
 
 34 «4«/.IX.iii. 
 
THE MOABITE STONE. 363 
 
 relieved from a merely superstitious view of its character, 
 does not cease to be ' profitable for doctrine, reproof, correc- 
 tion, instruction in righteousness.' It still remains for us that 
 Book, which, whatever intermixture it may show of human 
 elements — of error, infirmity, passion, or ignorance — has yet 
 through God's gracious Providence and the working of the 
 Divine spirit on the minds of its writers, been the means of 
 revealing to us His True Name, the Name of the Living 
 God, and has all along been, and, as far as we know, will 
 never cease to be, the mightiest instrument in the hand of 
 the Divine Teacher for awakening in our minds just concep- 
 tions of His character and of His Goodness towards the 
 children of men. 
 
LECTURE XXVI. 
 
SUMMARY. 
 
 There will be no need in future to hold or teach that slavery is enjoined in 
 the Bible by Divine authority ; we are not surprised to find in it numerous 
 discrepancies, and very different readings in the Sam. and Sept. Versions, the 
 last of which is habitually quoted in the N.T., and comprised the Apocrypha 
 of the O.T., as having like authority with the Canonical Books of the English 
 Bible ; in all State-aided schools the truths of Science must be taught, though 
 often at variance with Scripture ; fictions must not be imposed on ignorant 
 heathen 'in the name of the Lord,' nor miraculous stories be matched with 
 those of more civilised heathens ; a miracle would in our days be appalling, 
 as it would shake our whole faith in the orderly government of the Universe ; 
 since the popular notion of the Divine infallibility of the Bible is contradicted 
 by the plainest scientific conclusions, Biblical Criticism is a blessed gift, 
 which shows that such a notion is a mere delusion ; some great social 
 questions will now be treated on their own merits, without appealing to 
 supposed Divine dicta in respect of them, e.g., capital punishments, marriages 
 of affinity, the treatment of polygamist converts from heathenism, Sunday 
 observance; when the L.L. is shown to be of post-Captivity origin, the 
 whole priestly system falls to the ground, and its complement, the ritualistic 
 system, with its doctrine of sacrifices ; Bishop Browne on dogmatic 
 teaching ; the power of the Cross lies not in dogma ; the life and death of 
 Jesus revealed the Father to men, as men must reveal the Father to each 
 other. 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 SHALL now close this series of Lectures by 
 considering some of the more important conse- 
 quences which follow from the results which have 
 been set before you. That we shall be relieved in 
 future from the necessity of holding and teaching the re- 
 volting doctrine that the practice of slavery may be supported 
 by express Divine utterances, like that which permits a master 
 to flog his slave to death, provided he or she ' continue a day 
 or two, for he is his money,' l or that which bids a Hebrew slave 
 go out free at the end of six years' service, but leave behind 
 as slaves his wife and children, 2 or that which speaks of 
 1 Jehovah's tribute ' of thirty-two female slaves, to be the 
 perquisite of the priests, 3 is obvious at once ; and the clergy of 
 all denominations will surely rejoice to have overwhelming 
 evidence laid before them that passages such as these form no 
 portion of that Divine Law, which they are bound to present 
 to their flocks as the Word of the Living God. 
 
 Moreover, we are now able to regard the numerous dis- 
 crepancies and contradictions, which a thoughtful student of 
 the Bible cannot fail to have noticed, perhaps with pain, in 
 different parts of it, as only the natural consequence of the 
 
 1 E.xxi. 20,21. 
 
 v. 4. 
 
 N.xxxi.40. 
 
368 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 conditions under which it has been composed, by fallible men 
 like ourselves, however inspired with Divine Life, writing in 
 different ages and from very different points of view — not to 
 speak of the fact that the Greek Version and the Samaritan 
 Text give evidence of the existence of very ancient copies of 
 the Hebrew Scriptures, containing very considerable varia- 
 tions from the Hebrew Text, which in those days were 
 regarded as authoritative records of the Jewish Religion, 
 and as such are habitually quoted in the New Testament. 
 Nay, the Apocryphal Books of the Old Testament were all 
 received by those ancient Alexandrian Jews as equally 
 ' canonical ' with the other Scriptures, as they are still by the 
 Roman Church and most of them by the Greek Church, and 
 were not very long ago by the Reformed Church of England. 4 
 
 Again, there are few intelligent Christians who have not of 
 themselves been brought to the conviction that the statements 
 of the Bible are frequently opposed to the plain conclusions 
 of Modern Science in almost every department, Geology, 
 Astronomy, Geography, History, Ethnology, Physiology, 
 Chemistry, &c. Must our children learn in the day-school 
 elementary truths, which will flatly contradict the teaching 
 of the Pulpit and the Sunday-School ? And must we not 
 expect that, as the result of such confusing lessons, they will 
 be in very great danger of parting with religion itself, and 
 making shipwreck of faith altogether ? Or shall we be justi- 
 fied in supporting schools where, in the vain hope of avoiding 
 or at least staving off this danger, under the anxious care of 
 religious bodies, Church of England or otherwise, ' lies ' shall 
 be habitually ' taught in the name of the Lord,' 5 on matters 
 which concern their moral growth and intellectual develop- 
 ment and their best interests as social beings ? 
 
 And the heathen, to whom we send our Missionaries — who 
 are not yet drugged with the results of past centuries of 
 
 4 p. 3 1 9. 5 Zech.xHi.3. 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 369 
 
 dogmatic teaching, but are ready to open their hearts to us, 
 and receive as messages from a higher sphere the word which 
 we bring to them, — what right have we to begin our work 
 among them by laying down a basis of falsehood, and, while 
 professing to be servants of the God of Truth, with our own 
 eyes already in some measure opened to the light, to insist 
 on loading their minds with superstitions, preparing thus a 
 future harvest — here also, as elsewhere — of miserable doubt 
 or irremediable unbelief? Can we expect any blessing from 
 above on such proceedings ? 
 
 Or, in the case of more highly civilised heathens, must we 
 attempt to rival them in quoting one miracle after another, a 
 belief in which is to be regarded as an essential part of 
 Christian Faith? — when to us, grown up and nurtured amongst 
 the secrets of Nature, now revealed, with our extended know- 
 ledge of the laws, the order, of this wondrous universe, so 
 manifold, so diverse, yet all tending to unity, to one great 
 central Cause, a miracle, if really witnessed, would be like a 
 jarring discord in the midst of a mighty music — not a sign of 
 the master-musician's presence, but a token that for once he 
 had failed to subdue the rebellious elements — would, in short, 
 be simply frightful. Must we really give up all faith in our 
 Father in Heaven, ' all our dearest hopes and consolations,'— - 
 must we turn a deaf ear to the Divine Teachings of the Son 
 of Man, the way to the Father, the truth and the life — are all 
 those words of power to become unmeaning, to lose their 
 sense for us, now that the light of science or critical research 
 compels us to give up the setting of the jewel, the antique 
 moulding, peculiar and suitable to the times in which it was 
 cast, which has surrounded the pearl of great price for so 
 many centuries ? 
 
 Shall we not rather bless God devoutly that in this our 
 wondrous mother-age He has awakened among us the gift of 
 critical Science, as well as the rest— so that, whereas in 
 
 B B 
 
37o CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 former days, when comparatively little was known about the 
 universe, it was possible by a few adroit words to silence 
 enquiry about the meaning of the first chapters of Genesis, 
 and so little harm was done comparatively by those appear- 
 ances of conflict between Scripture and Science which were 
 even then observed by a few, now, however, when the light 
 shines roundabout us and penetrates every corner, the results 
 of Modern Biblical Criticism come to relieve us from the 
 miserable necessity of choosing between the Book of Nature 
 and the Book of God, and we are able to receive joyfully 
 illumination from whatever source it reaches us, from the 
 Bible and from the Church, as also from the rich outflowings 
 of Literature and Science, with which the ' Father of Lights ' 
 has blessed us in this our day ? Shall we not be thankful 
 that the idol, which tradition had set up by its notion of 
 Infallible Inspiration, is for ever upset and annihilated, like the 
 brazen serpent, which the Israelites worshipped in blind 
 superstition as the work of Moses in the wilderness, but which 
 Hezekiah broke in pieces and called it ' Nehushtan — a piece 
 of brass ' ? 6 That notion of Scripture Infallibility is clearly 
 seen to be a mere human invention and absolutely false. 
 There is no infallible Book for our guidance, as there is no 
 infallible Church or infallible Man. The Father of spirits has 
 not willed it thus, who knows best what is needed for the 
 training of each individual soul, as well as for the education 
 of the race. But He gives us light enough upon our path that 
 we may rejoice before Him and do our work faithfully day by 
 day, and fear no evil here or hereafter. And the pure and 
 loving in heart and true in life will see God face to face in 
 many a passage of the Sacred Book — will recognize the 
 Divine revealing Itself in the Human in all that is good 
 throughout it from beginning to end— will hear God's voice 
 
 6 2K.xviii.4. 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 371 
 
 in it speaking to the soul, through the ministry of frail and 
 faulty fellow-men, of like passions as we are and subject to 
 like infirmities — will feel His Living Word come home to the 
 heart, and that it must be obeyed. 
 
 Again, some questions of great public importance will now 
 be relieved from the incubus which has hitherto weighed down 
 the discussion of them through the notion that there were 
 religious difficulties in the way, that the Divine Voice had 
 uttered an authoritative dictum, which must either preclude 
 any free discussion, or else must be explained away, before 
 such subjects could be discussed at all It will probably be 
 no longer urged, as it has been in former days, that all wilful 
 heretics and obstinate unbelievers should be destroyed, as 
 JEHOVAH commanded the Canaanites to be, 7 that all wizards 
 and witches should be put to death, 8 or that a stubborn son 
 should be brought out by his father and mother, ' and all the 
 men of his city shall stone him with stones that he die.' 9 Yet 
 capital punishments are still maintained in the case of 
 murderers upon the notion that the words in Genesis, ' Whoso 
 sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed,' 10 were 
 really uttered by Almighty Wisdom, instead of their merely 
 expressing the views of a pious Hebrew of old, or perhaps 
 recording the actual practice of an age, when Samuel ' hewed 
 Agag to pieces before Jehovah,' 11 and David sawed asunder, 
 harrowed, chopped in pieces, and burnt, his Ammonite 
 captives 12 — acts which can hardly be regarded as models for 
 Christian times. 
 
 Further, the question of marriages of affinity is complicated 
 in the minds of many with the consideration of a certain law 
 in Leviticus 13 — which appears, however, only to forbid a man 
 marrying his wife's sister while the wife herself is living, — as 
 if it had Divine authority, and was anything more than a rule 
 
 7 D.vii.2,xx. 16, 17. 8 E.xxii. i8,L.xx.27. 9 D.xxi. 18-21. 
 
 10 G.i.x.6. u iS.xv.33. la 2S.xii.31, 13 L.xviij.18. 
 
 B B 2 
 
372 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 existing among the polygamist Jews at the time of the 
 Captivity ; though it did not prevent a writer in David's age 
 from representing their forefather Jacob as having married two 
 sisters at once. And so, too, the question of the proper mode 
 of dealing with polygamist converts from heathenism has been 
 considered not only under the influence of that strong feeling 
 of monogamy which has characterised the Teutonic race from 
 the earliest times, 14 and of that still higher feeling which springs 
 from appreciating the true place of woman under the teach- 
 ing of Christianity, but under the notion that to suffer a native 
 convert to remain in the state in which the Word of God had 
 found him, though with more than one wife, is opposed to the 
 Great Marriage Law of Paradise, 15 as if this were an infallible 
 Divine command, which must be enforced at all sacrifices, and 
 at the cost of that sense of justice and tenderness towards 
 wives and children, which is of the very essence of Christianity 
 — though such a command must appear to them in puzzling 
 contradiction to the conduct of Abraham the * father of the 
 faithful ' and David the * man after God's own heart,' if the 
 facts of their histories are honestly brought before them as 
 recorded in the Bible. 
 
 It may be that these and other like questions will in future 
 be treated purely on their own merits as civil and social 
 questions, without appealing to supposed religious sanctions 
 of the most stringent kind, which are now shown to be of no 
 authority whatever. Of the same nature, but frequently far 
 more serious, is the evil caused by the solemn recitation of the 
 Ten Commandments, with their Sabbath-law, as words uttered 
 by the Divine Voice ; whereas, as we have seen, 16 they are 
 only a summary by a later Jewish prophet of what he deemed 
 the most essential things to be observed in Israel, departing, 
 however, in respect of the Sabbath from the older custom, 
 
 14 Tac. Germ,xvm. n G.ii.24. 16 p. 138. 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 373 
 
 which made the New Moon of more importance than ordinary- 
 Sabbaths, as the Jirst Sabbath of the month, which regulated 
 the rest, and was therefore honoured with far larger sacri- 
 fices. 17 
 
 But, perhaps, the most important effect of the criticism of 
 the Pentateuch is this, to strike a death-blow at the whole 
 sacerdotal system, which mainly rests on the supposition that 
 the Levitical Laws in the. Books of Exodus, Leviticus, and 
 Numbers are really of Mosaic or, rather, of Divine origin. We 
 have seen that these are all without exception the product of 
 a very late age, during or after the Captivity, 18 and for the 
 most part express merely the hopes and ambitious pretensions 
 of the very numerous body of priests, lording it over the con- 
 sciences of the comparatively small number of devoted laity, 
 who returned from the Captivity to Jerusalem, 19 and make 
 the position of the priest, his rank and power, his action and 
 influence, of supreme importance to the whole community. 
 We have seen what a plentiful provision is made for their 
 support 20 — how strong a line of separation is drawn not only 
 between the clergy and the laity, but even between the priests 
 and the Levites, 21 of which no sign appears before the 
 Captivity, when the very name * sons of Aaron ' was utterly 
 unknown, which replaces Ezekiel's ' sons of Zadok ' 22 through- 
 out the Levitical Legislation and the Chronicler's writings, 23 
 but occurs nowhere else in the whole of the Old Testament, 
 except in a few of the later Psalms 24 — and how in the Books 
 of Chronicles, the fitting pendant to these priestly laws, the 
 priests and the Levites are perpetually brought upon the 
 stage, with almost ludicrous eagerness. 25 We have seen also 
 that this sacerdotal yoke was fastened upon the necks of the 
 people at a time when the prophet's voice was rarely heard to 
 
 17 p. 175. 
 
 18 p. I92-4. 
 
 19 P- 257, 33°- 
 
 20 p.22I. 
 
 21 P. 190,337. 
 
 - p. 194,255. 
 
 23 p. 205-8, 
 
 24 P-349- 
 
 25 P- 337 -40- 
 
374 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 disturb their self-complacent slumbers, 26 until true spiritual 
 life became at last deadened in them, and so, when the Great 
 Prophet came, they blinded their eyes and stopped their ears, 
 that the Truth might not reach them, and the multitude urged 
 on by the priests cried ' Crucify him ! Crucify him ! ,' and 
 ' the voices of them and of the chief priests prevailed.' 27 
 
 But with the priesthood comes also to the ground the whole 
 ritualistic system, with its multitude of sacrifices expressly 
 contrived, not merely for the relief of the burdened conscience 
 of the sinner, but for the benefit of the priest. How, indeed, 
 could these narrow priestly notions set forth in any way the 
 sacrifice of Christ, that living sacrifice of loving obedience, 
 faithful unto death, the death of the cross, amidst seemingly 
 blighted hopes and disappointed efforts and the bitterest con- 
 tempt and hatred in return for lifelong labours of self-sacrific- 
 ing love — the sacrifice which Jesus offered in his life and death, 
 and which in their measure all his true followers must be ready 
 to offer also, as parts of that ' daily sacrifice ' to be presented 
 by the ' Israel of God,' the good and true of all ages and 
 climes and under all religions, the savour of which mounts up 
 to Heaven as holy incense, and helps to keep the whole world 
 sweet ! 
 
 Lastly, the time is surely come when in all State-assisted 
 schools children shall be supplied with instruction in full 
 agreement with the advanced knowledge of the times, without 
 having their intellects and their hearts and consciences stunted 
 and deformed by the cramping effects of dogmatic teaching. 
 A Bishop of the Church of England has lately said, speaking 
 on behalf of the National-School system, 'We have not 
 troubled their little brains, as some people seem to think, with 
 all kinds of dogmatic theology ; though by the bye I don't 
 think people know what dogmatic theology means. The fact 
 
 ■" p. .210. '•' Luke xxiii.23. 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 375 
 
 that there is a God is dogmatic theology. The fact that there 
 is a heaven, a hell, that our Saviour came down to save us, 
 that is dogmatic theology. Of course, in that way we have 
 taught them dogmatic theology.' 28 These little ones, then, 
 are taught about ' hell [ — that is to say, not about death and 
 the grave, which are facts before their eyes continually, or 
 about a righteous judgment for faults committed against the 
 better knowledge which they possess, to which even the con- 
 science of a child will bear witness — but about the everlasting 
 torments of hell-fire, that revolting and blasphemous dogma, 
 which dooms to never-ending woe the vast majority of human 
 beings, of men, women, and children with whom they meet 
 upon their daily pathway — which makes the God and Father 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ, ' the Father of mercies and the God 
 of all consolation,' into a very Moloch, reigning upon a throne 
 of glory, while shrieks and groans are ever resounding from 
 the bottomless abyss, and, as some teach, 29 the cries of little 
 innocent unbaptized babes among the rest — ' and the smoke 
 of their torments goes up for ever and ever ' ! 
 
 No ! the fact that there is a God is not dogmatic theology, 
 except for those who are subjected to such teaching as this. 
 It may be made so, of course, if men will seek to commend 
 belief in this fact, by denouncing the terrors of ' hell ' against 
 all who refuse to believe it, or by holding out the joys of 
 * heaven ' as a reward for those who are willing to receive it. 
 But it need not be so, and it should not be so, when a Chris- 
 tian Teacher is seeking to carry home that truth to the heart, 
 for instance, of a little child or of an ignorant heathen. 
 Rather, he will feel within himself, what is ready to be 
 awakened in every intelligent human being, the sense of a 
 Mighty Presence about us which cannot be put by, the sense 
 of dependence upon an Unseen Father and Friend, a longing 
 
 28 Bishop (Browne) of Ely, (Guardian, Nov. 14, 1870). 
 29 See Natal Sermons, First Series, p. 130-4. 
 
376 CONCLUDING REMARKS. 
 
 desire to find Him who ' is not far from any one of us,' in 
 whom we ' live and move and have our being.' . It is no 
 ' dogmatic teaching ' to say that in the light of that Presence, 
 in the conscious enjoyment of it, must be Heaven, the life and 
 blessedness of the creature, or that in the loss of that light, the 
 conscious sense of the Divine displeasure, must be the very 
 sum of wretchedness, more awful than any physical pain or 
 contact with devils, or all the machinery of the popular * hell.' 
 To teach that Jesus is the Saviour of men is not to lay down 
 a number of tenets respecting his person and nature, as taught 
 by ' dogmatic theologians ' and enforced in the so-called 
 Athanasian Creed. We need not require on pain of perdition 
 a belief in miracles, whether those of the Pentateuch or those 
 which the Gospels represent as specially endorsing the 
 mission of Jesus to mankind, whose doings, however, we now 
 see but indistinctly through the mist of those many years 
 which had elapsed between the time when Jesus lived on earth 
 and the time when those narratives were written. It does not 
 seem that those ' mighty works ' produced any permanent 
 effect on the men of that age. Where were the multitudes 
 that saw those wonders, that were healed themselves or had 
 their dear ones healed, — the five thousand that were fed with 
 five loaves or the four thousand with seven, — when * all his 
 disciples forsook him and fled,' or when a few dejected 
 followers and a few trembling broken-hearted women stood 
 or sat down beneath his bloody Cross ? 
 
 Ah ! but from that Cross has gone forth a power to subdue 
 and to regenerate the world. God's strength was made 
 perfect in that weakness. The sight of love so pure, so 
 patient, so tried with suffering, so triumphant in death, has 
 given us such a glimpse of the Divine Loye, with which the 
 whole soul of Jesus was filled, as had neVer been revealed to 
 man before. It was the Love of God which poured itself out 
 in the life and death of Jesus upon all the sorrowful and 
 
CONCLUDING REMARKS. 377 
 
 sinstricken, the waifs and strays of humanity, the prodigal and 
 the outcast, the publican and the sinner, as well as upon the 
 best and noblest of our race. It is the Love of God also 
 which is manifested even now in their lives and deaths, in 
 those of all his true followers, the faithful and good of all ages. 
 This teaching is simple enough, and brings its own evidence 
 to the soul. There is no need to enforce it by damnatory 
 clauses and the threat of hell-fire. When once this idea has 
 fully possessed us— when once we hear the Divine Voice 
 saying to us by the lips of Jesus, not ' Blessed are those who 
 keep undefiled all the articles of this creed/ but ' Blessed are 
 the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, 
 those who hunger and thirst after righteousness,' — when once 
 we realize that God Himself is speaking to us by every word 
 or act of truth and goodness which His Spirit helps us, as His 
 own dear children, to put forth in daily intercourse one with 
 another, revealing thereby, each in his measure, even as 
 Jesus did, the Father to men — it is all clear as day to us, it is 
 as if our eyes were opened, as if, having beeri born blind, we 
 are able now to see of ourselves that the whole world — in 
 spite of all seeming contradictions — is full of the Glory and 
 Goodness of God. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX I. 
 
 THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE. 
 
 N.B.--The sign || denotes that here an i7iterpolation occurs in the present 
 Book of Genesis. 
 
 GENESIS. 
 
 These are the generations of the Heaven and the Earth in the day of their 
 being created.* 
 
 I. x In the beginning of ELOHIM'S creating the Heaven and the Earth, 
 2 when the Earth was waste and void, and darkness upon the face of the 
 deep, and the spirit of ELOHIM hovering upon the face of the waters, 3 then 
 ELOHIM said, « Let there be light,' and there was light. 4 And ELOHIM saw 
 the light that it was good, and ELOHIM divided between the light and the 
 darkness. 5 And ELOHIM called the light « Day,' and the darkness He called 
 4 Night.' And it was evening and it was morning — one day. 
 
 6 And ELOHIM said, ' Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, 
 and let it be dividing between waters and waters.' 7 And ELOHIM made the 
 expanse, and divided between the waters which were under the expanse and 
 the waters which were above the expanse ; and it was so. 8 And ELOHIM 
 called the expanse < Heaven.' And it was evening and it was morning — a 
 second day. 
 
 9 And ELOHIM said, ■ Let the waters under the Heaven be gathered unto 
 one place, and let the dry land appear ' ; and it was so. 10 And ELOHIM 
 
 * These words, which now appear in G.ii.4a, seem to have formed a part 
 
 originally of the Elohistic Narrative, having been prefixed as a heading to the 
 
 account of the Creation in G.i, as in other similar instances in that narrative, 
 G.v.i, vi.9, xi. 10,27, xxv. 12, 19, xxxvi. 1,9, xxxvii.2a. 
 
382 THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE. 
 
 called the dry land « Earth,' and the gathering of waters called He ' Seas ' ; 
 and EL0H1M saw that it was good, u And ELOHIM said, ' Let the Earth 
 vegetate vegetation, the herb seeding seed, the fruit-tree making fruit after 
 its kind, whose seed is in it, upon the Earth ' ; and it was so. 12 And the 
 Earth brought-forth vegetation, the herb seeding seed after its kind, and the 
 tree making fruit, whose seed is in it, after its kind ; and ELOHIM saw that 
 it was good. 13 And it was evening and it was morning—a third day. 
 
 i 4 And ELOHIM said, 'Let there be luminaries in the expanse of the 
 Heaven, to divide between the day and the night, and let them be for signs, 
 and for seasons, and for days and years ; 15 and let them be for luminaries in 
 the expanse of Heaven, to give light upon the Earth ' ; and it was so. 16 And 
 ELOHIM made the two great luminaries, — the greater luminary for the rule 
 of the day, and the lesser luminary for the rule of the night,— and the stars. 
 w And ELOHIM put them in the expanse of the Heaven, to give light upon 
 the Earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide 
 between the light and the darkness ; and ELOHIM saw that it was good. 
 19 And it was evening and it was morning— a fourth day. 
 
 20 And ELOHIM said, ' Let the waters swarm with swarming-things of 
 living soul, and let fowl fly over the Earth upon the face of the expanse of 
 the Heaven.' 21 And ELOHIM created the great monsters, and every living 
 soul that moveth, which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every 
 fowl of wing after its kind ; and ELOHIM saw that it was good. 22 And ELO- 
 HIM blessed them, saying, * Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in 
 the Seas, and let fowl abound in the Earth. 23 And it was evening and it 
 was morning — a fifth day. 
 
 2 4 And ELOHIM said, ' Let the Earth bring-forth living soul after its kind, 
 cattle, and moving thing, and living-thing of the Earth after its kind ' ; and 
 it was so. 25 And ELOHIM made the living-thing of the Earth after its kind, 
 and the cattle after its kind, and every moving-thing of the ground after its 
 kind ; and ELOHIM saw that it was good. 26 And ELOHIM said, « Let us 
 make man in our image, after our likeness ; and let them have-dominion over 
 the fish of the Sea, and over the fowl of the Heaven, and over the cattle, and 
 over every living-thing of the Earth, and over every moving-thing that 
 moveth upon the Earth.' 27 And ELOHIM created man in His image ; in the 
 image of ELOHIM created He him; male and female created He them, 
 as And ELOHIM blessed them, and ELOHIM said to them, « Be fruitful and 
 multiply, and fill the Earth, and subdue it ; and have-dominion over the fish 
 of the Sea, and over the fowl of the Heaven, and over every living-thing that 
 moveth upon the Earth.' 29 And ELOHIM said, « Lo ! I give you every herb 
 seeding seed, which is on the face of all the Earth, and every tree in which 
 is the fruit of a tree seeding seed ; to you it shall be for food : 30 and to every 
 living-thing of the Earth, in which is a living soul, I give every green herb 
 for food ' ; and it was so. 31 And ELOHIM saw all that He had made, and lo ! 
 it was very good. And it was evening and it was morning — a sixth day. 
 
 II. !And the Heaven and the Earth were finished, and all their host. 
 2 And ELOHIM finished on the seventh day His work which He had made, 
 
THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE. 383 
 
 and rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. 3 And 
 ELOHIM blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; for on it He rested from 
 all His work which ELOHIM created and made. || 
 
 V. iThis is the hook of the generations of Adam in the day of ELOHIM' S 
 creating Adam ; in the likeness of ELOHIM made He him. 2 Male and female 
 created He them and blessed them, and He called their name Adam in the 
 day of their being created. 
 
 3 And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begat in his likeness, 
 according to his image ; and he called his name Seth. 4 And the days of 
 Adam, after his begetting Seth, were eight hundred years, and he begat sons 
 and daughters. 5 And all the days of Adam which he lived were nine hun- 
 dred and thirty years, and he died. 
 
 6 And Seth lived a hundred and five years, and begat Enos. 7 And Seth 
 lived, after his begetting Enos, eight hundred and seven years, and begat 
 sons and daughters. 8 And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve 
 years, and he died. 
 
 9 And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Kenan. 10 And Enos lived, after 
 his begetting Kenan, eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and 
 daughters. ll And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years, 
 and he died. 
 
 12 And Kenan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel. 13 And Kenan 
 lived, after his begetting Mahalaleel, eight hundred and forty years, and 
 begat sons and daughters. 14 And all the days of Kenan were nine hundred 
 and ten years, and he died. 
 
 is And Mahalaleel lived sixty-and-five years, and begat Jared. 16 And Ma- 
 halaleel lived, after his begetting Jared, eight hundred and thirty years, 
 and begat sons and daughters. 17 And all the days of Mahalaleel were 
 eight hundred and ninety-five years, and he died. 
 
 18 And Jared lived a hundred and sixty-two years, and begat Enoch. 
 i 9 And Jared lived, after his begetting Enoch, eight hundred years, and 
 begat sons and daughters. 20 And all the days of Jared were nine hundred 
 and sixty-two years, and he died. 
 
 2 *And Enoch lived sixty-and-five years, and begat Methuselah. 22 And 
 Enoch walked with ELOHIM, after his begetting Methuselah, three hundred 
 years, and begat sons and daughters. 23 And all the days of Enoch were 
 three hundred and sixty-five years. 24 And Enoch walked with ELOHIM, 
 and he was not, for ELOHIM took him. 
 
 25 And Methuselah lived a hundred and eighty-seven years, and begat 
 Lamech. 26 And Methuselah lived, after his begetting Lamech, seven hundred 
 and eighty-two years, and begat sons and daughters. 27 And all the days of 
 Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and he died. 
 
 28 And Lamech lived a hundred and eighty-two years, and begat [Noah, 
 p. 35], || 30 And Lamech lived, after his begetting Noah, five hundred and 
 ninety-five years, and begat sons and daughters. 31 And all the days of 
 Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years, and he died. 
 
384 THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE. 
 
 32 And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and 
 Japheth. || 
 
 VI. 9 These are the generations of Noah. 
 
 Noah was a man just and perfect in his generations : Noah walked with 
 ELOHIM. 10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. u And 
 the Earth had become-corrupt before ELOHIM, and the Earth was filled with 
 violence. 12 And ELOHIM saw the Earth, and lo ! it had become-corrupt ; 
 for all flesh had corrupted its way upon the Earth. 
 
 13 And ELOHIM said to Noah, « The end of all flesh has come before Me, for 
 the Earth is full of violence because of them ; and lo ! I will destroy them 
 with the Earth. 14 Make thee an Ark of cypress- wood ; with cells shalt thou 
 make the Ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. || 17 And I, lo ! 
 am bringing the Flood of waters upon the Earth, to destroy all flesh in which is 
 a living spirit from under the Heaven ; all which is in the Earth shall die. 
 18 But I establish My covenant with thee ; and thou shalt go into the Ark, 
 tliou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. 19 And out of 
 every living-thing out of all flesh, two out of all shalt thou bring into the 
 Ark, to keep-alive with thee ; male and female shall they be. 20 Out of the 
 fowl after its kind, and out of the cattle after its kind, out of every moving- 
 thing of the ground after its kind, two out of all shall come unto thee, to 
 keep-alive. 21 And thou — take thee out of all food which is eaten, and thou 
 shalt gather it unto thee, and it shall be to thee and to them for food.' 22 And 
 Noah did according to all which ELOHIM commanded him, so did he. || 
 
 VII. 6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the Flood of waters was 
 upon the Earth. 'And Noah went, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' 
 wives with him, into the Ark, because of the waters of the Flood. 8 Out of 
 the clean cattle and out of the cattle which are not clean, and out of the fowl 
 and all that moveth upon the ground, 9 two and two, they came unto Noah 
 into the Ark, male and female, as ELOHIM commanded Noah.|| 
 
 11 In the six-hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, in the 
 seventeenth day of the month, on this day were broken up all the fountains 
 of the great deep, and the windows of the Heaven were opened. || ' 13 On this 
 very day went Noah, and Shem and Ham and Japheth, Noah's sons, and 
 Noah's wife, and his sons' three wives with them, into the Ark; 14 they, and 
 every living-thing after its kind, and all the cattle after its kind, and every 
 moving-thing that moveth upon the Earth after its kind, and all the fowl 
 after its kind, every fowl of every wing. 15 And they came unto Noah into the 
 Ark, two and two, out of all flesh in which is a living spirit. 16a And those 
 coming, male and female out of all flesh they came, as ELOHIM commanded him. || 
 
 18a And the waters were mighty, and multiplied greatly upon the Earth, || 
 19 b and all the high mountains that were under all the Heaven were covered. || 
 
 21 And all flesh died that moved upon the Earth, fowl and cattle and living- 
 thing and all the swarming-things that swarm upon the Earth, and all man. 
 
 22 All in whose nostrils tvas the breath of a living spirit, out of all which was 
 in the dry land, died. || 23b And only Noah was left and what was with him 
 
THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE. 385 
 
 in the Ark. 24 And the waters were mighty upon the Earth a hundred and 
 fifty days. || 
 
 vxn. 1 And ELOHIM remembered Noah and every living-thing and all 
 the cattle that was with him in the Ark ; and ELOHIM caused-to-pass-over 
 a wind upon the Earth, and the waters subsided. 2a And the fountains of the 
 deep were stopped and the windows of the Heaven; || 3b and the waters de- 
 creased at the end of a hundred and fifty days, || 4b in the seventh month, in 
 the seventeenth day of the month. || 5 And the waters were decreasing con- 
 tinually until the tenth month : in the tenth month, in the first of the month, 
 the tops of the mountains were seen. || 13a And it came to pass in the six 
 hundred and first year, in the first month, in the first of the month, that the 
 waters were dried-up from off the Earth : || 14 and in the second month, in the 
 seventeenth day of the month, the Earth was dry. 
 
 15 And ELOHIM spake unto Noah, saying, 16 ' Go-forth out of the Ark, thou, 
 and thy wife, and thy sons and thy sons' wives with thee. 17 Every living- 
 thing that is with thee out of all flesh, fowl, and cattle, and every moving- 
 thing that moveth upon the Earth, bring-forth with thee; and let them swarm 
 in the Earth, and be fruitful and multiply upon the Earth.' 18 And Noah 
 went-forth, and his sons, and his wife, and lis sons' wives with him. 
 19 Every living-thing, every moving-thing, and every fowl, everything 
 moving upon the Earth — after their families they went-forth out of the Ark.|| 
 
 IX. 1 And ELOHIM blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, ' Be 
 fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth. 2 And the fear of you and the dread 
 of you shall be upon every living thing of the Earth, and upon every fowl of 
 the Heaven, upon all that moveth upon the ground, and upon all the fishes 
 of the Sea; into your hand they are given. 3 Every moving-thing that 
 liveth, to you it shall be for food : as the green herb I give to you all. 4 Only 
 flesh with its soul, its blood, ye shall not eat. 5 And surely your blood of 
 your souls will I require ; from the hand of every living-thing will I require 
 it, and from the hand of man; from the hand of a man's brother will I require 
 the soul of man. 6 Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be 
 shed : for in the image of ELOHIM made He man. 7 And you, be fruitful and 
 multiply, swarm in the Earth and multiply in it.' 
 
 8 And ELOHIM said unto Noah and unto his 30ns with him, saying, 9 'And 
 I, lo ! I will establish My covenant with you and with your seed after you, 
 10 and with every living soul which is with you, fowl and cattle and every 
 living-thing of the Earth with you, from all going-forth out of the Ark to 
 every living-thing of the Earth, u And I establish My covenant with you, 
 and all flesh shall not be again cut off through the waters of the Flood, and 
 there shall not be again a Flood to destroy the Earth.' 
 
 12 And ELOHIM said, ' This is the sign of the Covenant which I will put 
 between Me and you and every living soul that is with you, for perpetual 
 generations. 13 My bow do I put in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a 
 Covenant between Me and the Earth. 1 4 And it shall be, at My bringing-a- 
 cloud upon the Earth, when the bow shall appear in the cloud, 15 then I will 
 remember My Covenant which is between Me and you and every living soul 
 
 C C 
 
386 THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE. 
 
 among all flesh ; and the waters shall not become again a Flood to destroy 
 all flesh. 16 And, when the bow shall be in the cloud, then I will see it, to 
 remember the perpetual Covenant between ELOHIM and every living soul 
 among all flesh that is upon the earth, w And ELOHIM said unto Noah, 
 1 This is the sign of the Covenant which I establish between Me and all flesh 
 that is upon the Earth.' || 
 
 28 And Noah lived after the Flood three hundred and fifty years. 29 And 
 all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died. [| 
 
 XX. 10 These are the generations of Shem. 
 
 Shem was a hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the 
 Flood. u And Shem lived, after his begetting Arphaxad, five hundred years, 
 and begat sons and daughters. 
 
 12 And Arphaxad lived five-and-thirty years, and begat Salah. 13 And 
 Arphaxad lived, after his begetting Salah, four hundred and three years, and 
 begat sons and daughters. 
 
 14 And Salah lived thirty years, and begat Heber. 15 And Salah lived, after 
 his begetting Heber, four hundred and three years, and begat sons and 
 daughters. 
 
 16 And Heber lived four-and-thirty years, and begat Peleg. "And Heber 
 lived, after his begetting Peleg, four hundred and thirty years, and begat 
 sons and daughters. 
 
 18 And Peleg lived thirty years, and begat lieu. 19 And Peleg lived, after 
 his begetting Eeu, two hundred and nine years, and begat sons and daughters. 
 
 20 And Eeu lived two-and-thirty years, and begat Serug. 21 And Eeu 
 lived, after his begetting Serug, two hundred and seven years, and begat 
 sons and daughters. 
 
 22 And Serug lived thirty years, and begat Nahor. 28 And Serug lived, 
 after his begetting Nahor, two hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. 
 
 24 And Nahor lived nine-and-twenty years, and begat Terah. 25 And Nahor 
 lived, after his begetting Terah, a hundred and nineteen years, and begat 
 sons and daughters. 
 
 26 And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran. 
 
 2 "7 And these are the generations of Terah. 
 
 Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot.|| 31 And 
 Terah took Abram his son, and Lot, the son of Haran, his son's son, and Sarai 
 his daughter-in-law, the wife of Abram his son, and they went-forth with 
 them together out of TJr of the Chaldees to go to the land of Canaan, and they 
 went as far as Charran and dwelt there. 32 And the days of Terah were two 
 hundred and five years, and Terah died in Charran. || 
 
 XII. 4b And Abram was seventy-five years old at his going-forth out of 
 Charran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all 
 their gain which they had gotten, and the souls which they had made in 
 Charran, and they went-forth to go to the land of Canaan, and they came to 
 the land of Canaan. || XIIZ. 6 And the land did not bear them to dwell to- 
 
THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE. 387 
 
 gether; for their gain was much, and they were not able to dwell together. || 
 12 Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the 
 circuit. ||' 
 
 XVI. 1 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bare not to him, and she had a maid, an 
 Egyptian, and her name was Hagar.|| 3 And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Kagar 
 the Egyptian, her maid, at the end of ten years of Abram's dwelling in the 
 land of Canaan, and gave her to Abram her husband to him for wife.|| 15 And 
 Hagar bare to Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, which 
 Hagar bare, Ishmael. 13 And Abram was eighty-and-six years old at Hagar's 
 bearing Ishmael to Abram. || 
 
 XVII. 1 And Abram was ninety-and-nine years old, and JEHOVAH * ap- 
 peared unto Abram and said unto him, ' I am EL-SHADDAI: walk before Me, 
 and be thou perfect. 2 And I will put my Covenant between Me and thee, 
 and I will very greatly multiply thee.' 
 
 3 And Abram fell upon his face, and ELOHIM spake with him saying, 
 4 ' I — lo ! My Covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of a multitude 
 of nations. 5 And thy name shall not be called any longer Abram, but thy 
 name shall be Abraham ; for I put thee as a father of a multitude of nations. 
 6 And I will make thee very fruitful and will put thee for nations, and kings 
 shall go-forth out of thee. 7 And I will establish My Covenant between Me 
 and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for a perpetual Cove- 
 nant, to be to thee ELOHIM and to thy seed after thee. 8 And I will give to 
 thee and to thy seed after thee the land of thy sojournings, the whole land 
 of Canaan, for a perpetual possession, and I will be to them ELOHIM.' 
 
 9 And ELOHIM said unto Abram, ' And thou— My Covenant shalt thou 
 keep, thou and thy seed after thee in their generations. 10 This is My Cove- 
 nant which they shall keep between Me and you and thy seed after thee — to 
 be circumcised among you every male. n And ye shall circumcise the flesh 
 of your foreskin, and it shall be for a sign of a Covenant between Me and 
 you. 12 And every male in your generations, eight days old, shall be circum- 
 cised among you — child of the house, and purchase of silver from any son of 
 
 * This is the only instance where, in the present Hebrew copies of the Bible, 
 ' Jehovah ' occurs in the whole Elohistic Narrative before the revelation in 
 E.vi.2-5. The proper formula of the Elohist is seen in G.xxxv.9. 'And 
 Elohim appeared unto Jacob,' identical with that before us, except in respect of 
 the Divine Name. Since, therefore, ' Elohim ' is used everywhere else (87 times) 
 in the Elohistic Narrative and ten times in this very chapter, it seems very pro- 
 bable that it stood originally in v. 1, and has been accidentally changed to 
 ' Jehovah ' — perhaps by an oversight of some copyist. In fact, the ' Elohim ' 
 of v.t, apparently presupposes ' Elohim ' also in v. I. 
 
 It is not necessary, however, to suppose such an error in copying ; since the 
 Elohist himself knew and used the name Jehovah, as appears from E.vi.2-5, and 
 therefore may have inadvertently employed it here in his history, ' Jehovah 
 appeared unto Abram, ' though he does not place it in the mouth of the Deity, * I 
 am Jehovah,' or of any other speaker before the revelation to Moses. 
 
388 THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE. 
 
 the stranger, which is not of thy seed. 13 Circumcised shall he surely be, 
 child of thy house and purchase of thy silver ; and My Covenant shall be in 
 your flesh for a perpetual Covenant. 14 And an uncircumcised male, whose 
 flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised, that soul shall be cut off from his 
 people ; he hath broken My Covenant.' 
 
 15 And ELOHIM said unto Abraham, < Sarai thy wife — thou shalt not call 
 her name Sarai ; for Sarah is her name. 16 And I will bless her, and also I 
 will give to thee out of her a son, and I will bless her, and she shall become 
 nations, kings of peoples shall be out of her.'||* 
 
 18 And Abraham said unto ELOHIM, ' Would that Ishmael may live before 
 Thee ! ' 19 And ELOHIM said, ' Truly Sarah thy wife shall bear to thee a 
 son, and thou shalt call his name Isaac ; and I will establish My Covenant 
 with him for a perpetual Covenant to his seed after him. 20 And as for 
 Ishmael, I have heard thee. Lo ! I bless him and make him fruitful and 
 multiply him exceedingly ; twelve princes shall he beget, and I give him for 
 a great nation. 21 But My Covenant will I establish with Isaac, whom Sarah 
 shall bear to thee at this season in the following year.' 22 And ELOHIM 
 finished to speak with him, and ELOHIM went-up from Abraham. 
 
 23 And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all the children of his house, 
 and all the purchase of his silver, every male among the men of Abraham's 
 house ; and he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin on that very day, as 
 ELOHIM had spoken to him. 24 And Abraham was ninety-and-nine years old 
 at his being circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 25 And Ishmael his son 
 was thirteen years old at his being circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. 
 23 On that very day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son. 27 And 
 all the men of his house, child of the house and purchase of silver from the 
 son of a stranger, were circumcised with him. || 
 
 XXX. 29 And it came to pass, at ELOHIM' S destroying the cities of the 
 circuit, then ELOHIM remembered Abraham, and He sent forth Lot out of 
 the midst of the overthrow at His overthrowing the cities in which Lot dwelt. || 
 
 XXZX. 2 And Sarah conceived and bare a son to his old-age, according to 
 the season which ELOHIM had spoken of with him. 3 And Abraham called 
 the name of his son that was born to him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac. 
 4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac, eight days old, as ELOHIM had 
 commanded him. 5 And Abraham was a hundred years old at Isaac his son's 
 being born to him. || 
 
 XXXXX. lAnd the life of Sarah was a hundred and twenty and seven 
 years, the years of the life of Sarah. 2 And Sarah died in Kirjath-Arba|| in 
 the land of Canaan ; and Abraham came to mourn over Sarah and to weep for 
 her. 3 And Abraham arose from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of 
 Heth, saying, 4 ' A sojourner and dweller am I with you : give me a possesr 
 sion of a burial-place with you, and I will bury my dead from before me.' 
 
 * v. 1 7 seems to be interpolated, since Abraham has already ' fallen upon his 
 face ' in v.$, and the phrase ' say in his heart ' is used in xxvii.4i(J), and nowhere 
 else in the Pentateuch. 
 
THE EL0HIST1C NARRATIVE. 389 
 
 5 And the sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying, « Pray hear us, my lord : 
 A prince of ELOHIM art thou in the midst of us : in the choice of our burial- 
 places bury thy dead : no man of us will hold-back his burial-place from thee, 
 that thou shouldst not bury thy dead.' 7 And Abraham arose and bowed- 
 himself before the people of the land, to the sons of Heth. 8 And he spake 
 with them, saying-, < If it is your (soul) pleasure for me to bury my dead from 
 before me, hear me and entreat for me to Ephron son of Zohar, 9 that he may 
 give me the cave of Machpelah which is his, which is in the extremity of 
 his field : for full silver shall he give it me in the midst of you for a posses- 
 sion of a burial-place.' 10 Now Ephron was dwelling in the midst of the sons 
 of Heth. And Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the ears of the sons 
 of Heth, before all entering at the gate of his city, saying, u ' Nay, my lord ! 
 hear me : the field I give thee, and the cave which is in it, to thee I give it : 
 in the presence of the sons of my people I give it thee: bury thy dead.' 
 12 And Abraham bowed-himself before the people of the land. 13 And he 
 spake to Ephron in the ears of the people of the land, saying, ' If thou art 
 indeed for giving it, pray hear me : I give the silver of the field : take it from 
 me, that I may bury my dead there.' 14 And Ephron answered Abraham, 
 saying, 15 < Pray, my lord ! hear me : the land is four hundred shekels of 
 silver: between me and thee what is that? so bury thy dead.' 16 And Abraham 
 hearkened unto Ephron ; and Abraham weighed for Ephron the silver which 
 he spake in the ears of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, 
 current with the trader. 17 And the field of Ephron which was in Machpelah, 
 which was (before) east of Mamre, the field, and the cave that was in it, and 
 all the trees that were in the field, that were in all its border roundabout, 
 stood 18 to Abraham for a purchase in the presence of the sons of Heth, among 
 all entering at the gate of his city. 19 And afterwards Abraham buried Sarah 
 his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah eastward of Mamre j| in the land 
 of Canaan. 20 And the field, and the cave that was in it, stood to Abraham 
 for a possession of a burial-place from the sons of Heth. || 
 
 XXV. 7 And these are the days of the years of the life of Abraham which 
 he lived, a hundred and seventy-and-five years. 8 And Abraham gave-up-the- 
 ghost, and died in good grey hairs, old and full of years, and was gathered 
 unto his people. 9 And Isaac and Ishmael, his sons, buried him in the cave 
 of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, which was east- 
 ward of Mamre, 10 the field which Abraham bought from the sons of Heth : 
 there was buried Abraham and Sarah his wife.|| 
 
 12 And these are the generations of Ishmael, the son of Abraham, whom 
 Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's maid, bare to Abraham. 
 
 13 And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according 
 to their generations : the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebaioth, and Kedar, and 
 Adbeel, and Mibsam, 14 and Mishma, and Dumah, and Massa, 15 and Hadar, 
 and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. 16 These are the sons of Ishmael, 
 and these are their names, by their villages and by their kraals, twelve 
 princes after their folks. 
 
 17 And these are the years of the life of Ishmael, a hundred and thirty-and- 
 
39o THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE. 
 
 seven years ; and he gave-up-the-ghost and died, and was gathered to his 
 people. || 
 
 19 And these are the generations of Isaac the son of Abraham. 
 
 Abraham begat Isaac. 20 And Isaac was forty years old at his taking him 
 for wife Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian, cut of Padan-Aram, 
 the sister of Laban the Syrian. || 21b And Rebekah his wife conceived; || 24 and 
 her days were fulfilled to bear, and lo ! twins in her womb ! 25 And the first 
 came-forth red, all of him, as a mantle of hair, and they called his name 
 Esau. 26 And afterwards came-forth his brother, and his hand grasping upon 
 the heel of Esau; and (one called his name=) his name was called Jacob; and 
 Isaac was sixty years old at her bearing them. || 
 
 XXVI. 34 And Esau was forty years old and he took to wife Judith, the 
 daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basmath, the daughter of Elon the Hittite. 
 35 And they were a bitterness of spirit to Isaac and to Rebekah. 
 
 XXVXII. *And Isaac called unto Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, 
 and said to him, ' Thou shalt not take a wife out of the daughters of Canaan. 
 2 Arise, go to Padan-Aram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother's father ; and 
 take to thee from thence a wife out of the daughters of Laban thy mother's 
 brother. 3 And EL-SHADDAI bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multi- 
 ply thee, that thou mayst become a company of peoples, 4 and give thee the 
 blessing of Abraham, to thee and to thy seed with thee, to thy inheriting the 
 land of thy sojournings which ELOHIM gave to Abraham ! ' 5 So Isaac sent- 
 away Jacob, and he went to Padan-Aram, unto Laban, the son of Bethuel the 
 Aramaean, the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau. 
 
 e And Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob, and had sent-him-away to 
 Padan-Aram, to take him from thence a wife— in blessing him too he charged 
 him, saying, * Thou shalt not take a wife out of the daughters of Canaan ' — 
 7 and Jacob hearkened unto his father and unto his mother, and went to 
 Padan-Aram. 8 And Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan were evil in the 
 eyes of Isaac his father. 9 And Esau went unto Ishmael, and took him to 
 wife Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, the son of Abraham, the sister of 
 Nebaioth, besides his other wives. || 
 
 [Here occurs the first hiatus in the Elohistic Narrative, the original account of 
 Jacob's marriage — probably as brief as that of Isaac's marriage in xxv. 16 — having 
 apparently been removed, to make way for the circumstantial narrative of the 
 Jehovist in xxix. ■ Some fragments, however, of the older story seem to have 
 been retained, as below ; and probably the births of all Jacob's sons, including 
 Benjamin, xxxv. 24, were here given, though now much overlaid by Jehovistic 
 insertions. Thus xxx.22 is certainly Elohistic, comfi. G.viii. 1, xix. 29, E.ii.24; 
 and, as the story now stands, the names of Zebulun and Joseph are twice 
 derived.] 
 
 :. 24 And Laban gave to her Zilpah his maid, to Leah his daughter 
 for maid. || . . . 29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his maid 
 for maid. || . . . 32ab And Leah conceived and bare a son, and she called his 
 
THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE. 391 
 
 name Reuben. |j 33adAnd she conceived again and bare a son, ]| and she called 
 his name Simeon, ^a And she conceived again and bare a son, || . . . s5ad And 
 she conceived again and bare a son, || . . . and she stood from bearing. 
 
 XXX. la And Rachel saw that she bare not to Jacob, || 4 and she gave to 
 him Bilhah her maid for wife. || 5 And Bilhah conceived and bare to Jacob a 
 son. 6a And Rachel said, < Elohim hath judged me.'||~. . . 7 And Bilhah, 
 Rachel's maid, conceived again, and bare a second son to Jacob. 8ac And 
 Rachel said, « With wrestlings of ELOHIM have I wrestled with my sister,' || 
 and she called his name Naphtali. 
 
 9 And Leah saw that she had stood from bearing; and she took Zilpah her 
 maid, and gave her to Jacob for wife. 10 And Zilpah, Leah's maid, bare to 
 Jacob a son. 1] - And Leah said, ' A troop ! ' and she called his name Gad. 
 12 And Zilpah, Leah's maid, bare a second son to Jacob. 13 And Leah said, 
 1 My blessing ! for daughters will bless me ' ; and she called his name Asher. || 
 
 17 And ELOHIM hearkened unto Leah, and she conceived, and bare to Jacob 
 a fifth son. 18 And Leah said, « ELOHIM hath given me my hire, because I 
 have given my maid to my husband ' ; and she called his name Issachar. 
 19 And Leah conceived again, and bare a sixth son to Jacob. 20 And Leah 
 said, « ELOHIM hath presented me with a good present,' || and she called his 
 name Zebulun. 21 And afterwards she bare a daughter, and she called her 
 name Dinah. 
 
 22 And ELOHIM remembered Rachel, and ELOHIM hearkened unto her, and 
 opened her womb. 23 And she conceived and bare a son, and she said, 
 1 ELOHIM hath gathered my reproach!' 24 And she called his name Joseph. || 
 
 XXXI. 17a And Jacob arose, || . . . * 8 and he led away all his cattle, and 
 all his gain which he had gotten, the cattle of his property, which he had 
 gotten in Padan-Aram, to go unto Isaac his father, to the land of Canaan. || 
 
 XXXV. 9 And ELOHIM appeared unto Jacob again,* at his coming from 
 Padan-Aram, and spake with him. 10 And ELOHIM said to him, ■ Thy name 
 is Jacob : thy name shall not be called any longer Jacob, but Israel shall be 
 thy name ' ; and He called his name Israel. n And ELOHIM said to him, ' I 
 am EL-SHADDAI : be fruitful and multiply : a nation and a company of 
 nations shall be out of thee, and kings shall go-forth out of thy loins. 12 And 
 the land which I gave to Abraham and to Isaac, to thee will I give it, and to 
 thy seed after thee will I give the land.' * 3 And ELOHIM went-up from him 
 in the place where He spake with him. 14 And Jacob set-up a pillar in the 
 place where He spake with him, a pillar of stone ; and he dropped upon it a 
 drink-offering, and poured oil upon it. 15 And Jacob called the name of the 
 place where ELOHIM spake with him Beth-El. 
 
 16a And they set-off from Beth-El, and it was still a space of land to come 
 
 * This seems to mean that this was a second appearance of Elohim, and this 
 time He appeared to Jacob, and made a fresh promise of the land to him and to 
 his seed, as formerly to Abraham and Isaac and their descendants, xvii. 1,8, 19. 
 There is no record of any ' appearance ' to Isaac, comp. xxviii.4„ 
 
392 THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE. 
 
 to Ephrath. || 19 And Rachel died, and was buried in the way of Ephrath. || 
 20 And Jacob set-up a pillar upon her grave. j| 
 
 22b And the sons of Jacob were twelve; 23 the sons of Leah, Jacob's first- 
 born, Reuben, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun ; 
 24 the sons of Rachel, Joseph and Benjamin; 2 5arid the sons of Bilhah, 
 Rachel's handmaid, Dan and Naphtali ; 26 and the sons of Zilpah, Leah's 
 handmaid, Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, which were born to 
 him in Padan-Aram. 
 
 27 And Jacob came unto Isaac his father, to Mamre, the city of Arba, || where 
 Abraham sojourned, and Isaac. 28 And the days of Isaac were a hundred and 
 eighty years. 29 And Isaac gave-up-the-ghost, and died, and was gathered 
 unto his people, old and full of days ; and Esau and Jacob, his sons, buried 
 him. 
 
 XXXVI. * And these are the generations of Esau, that is, Edom. 
 
 2 Esau took his wives of the daughters of Canaan, Adah, daughter of Elon 
 the Hittite, and Aholibamah, daughter of Anah, son of Zibeon the Hivite, 
 3 and Basmath, daughter of Ishmael, sister of Nebaioth. 4 And Adah bare to 
 Esau Eliphaz, and Basmath bare Reuel, 5 and Aholibamah bare Jeush, and 
 Jaalam, and Kerah. These are the sons of Esau, which were born to him in 
 the land of Canaan. 
 
 6 And Esau took his wives and his sons and his daughters, and all the souls 
 of his house, and his cattle and all his beasts, and all his gain which he had 
 gotten in the land of Canaan, and went unto the land [of Seir] because of 
 Jacob his brother. 7 For their gain was plentiful above living together, and 
 the land of their sojourning was not able to bear them because of their cattle, 
 s And Esau dwelt in Mount Seir : Esau, he is Edom. 
 
 9 And these are the generations of Esau, the father of Edom, in Mount 
 Seir. 
 
 10 These are the names of the sons of Esau— Eliphaz, the son of Adah, 
 Esau's wife, Reuel, the son of Basmath, Esau's wife. 
 
 11 And the sons of Eliphaz, Teman, Omar, Zepho, and Gatam, and Kenaz. 
 12 And Timaah was concubine to Eliphaz, Esau's son, and she bear to Eliphaz 
 Amalek. These are the sons of Adah, Esau's wife. 
 
 13 And these the sons of Reuel, Nahath and Zerah, Shammah and Mizzah. 
 These were the sons of Basmath, Esau's wife. 
 
 14 And these were the sons of Aholibamah, the daughter of Anah, grand- 
 daughter of Zibeon, Esau's wife. And she bare to Esau Jeush and Jaalam 
 and Korah. 
 
 15 These are the dukes (I clans) of the sons of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz, 
 Esau's firstborn, duke Teman, duke Omar, duke Zepho, duke Kenaz, 16 duke 
 Korah, duke Gatam, duke Amalek. These are the dukes of Eliphaz in the land 
 of Edom; these are the sons of Adah. 
 
 17 And these the sons of Reuel, Esau's son, duke Nahath, duke Zerah, duke 
 Shammah, duke Mizzah. These are the dukes of Reuel in the land of Edom ; 
 these are the sons of Basmath, Esau's wife. 
 
THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE. 393 
 
 18 And these are the sons of Aholibamah, Esau's wife, duke Jeush, duke 
 Jaalam, duke Korah. These are the dukes of Aholibamah, daughter of Anah, 
 Esau's wife. 
 
 These are the sons of Esau, and these their dukes : he is Edom. || 
 
 31 And these are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom, before the 
 reigning of a king over the children of Israel. 32 And there reigned in Edom 
 Bela the son of Beor, and the name of his city was Dinhabah. 
 
 33 And Bela died, and there reigned in his stead Jobab the son of Zerah, 
 out of Bozrah. 
 
 34 And Jobab died, and there reigned in his stead Husham, out of the land 
 of the Temanite. 
 
 35 And Husham died, and there reigned in his stead Hadad the son of Bedad, j| 
 and the name of his city was Avith. 
 
 36 And Hadad died, and there reigned in his stead Samlah, out of Masrekah. 
 
 37 And Samlah died, and there reigned in his stead Saul, out of Rehoboth 
 of the River. 
 
 38 And Saul died, and there reigned in his stead Baal-Hanan son of Achbor. 
 
 39 And Baal-Hanan son of Achbor died, and there reigned in his stead 
 Hadad, and the name of his city was Pau, and the name of his wife was Me- 
 hetabel, daughter of Matred, granddaughter of Mezahab, 
 
 40 And these are the names of the dukes of Esau, according to their families, 
 according to their places, by their names : — duke Timnah, duke Alvah, duke 
 Jethath, 41 duke Aholibamah, duke Elah, duke Pinon, ^ duke Kenaz, duke 
 Teman, duke Mibzar, 43 duke Magdiel, duke Iram. These are the dukes of 
 Edom, according to their dwellings in the land of their possession : he is 
 Esau, the father of Edom. 
 
 XXXVXZ. 1 And Jacob dwelt in the land of his father's sojournings, in 
 the land of Canaan. 
 
 2a These are the generations of Jacob. 
 
 Joseph, seventeen years old, was tending with his brethren among the 
 flocks, and he was a lad with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah, 
 his father's wives. j|* . . . 28a And there passed-over Midianites, merchantmen. II 
 
 * No part of the present history of Joseph before Jacob's descent into Egypt, 
 xlvi.6,7, belongs to the Elohist, except £'.2a and perhaps v. 28a, 36, as above, where 
 'Midianites' are named instead of ' Ishmaelites,' as in ^.25,27. The 'sons of 
 Bilhah and sons of Zilpah,' v. 2a, appear no more in the story. As the Elohist 
 knows nothing of any ill-blood between Sarah and Hagar, Ishmael and Isaac, 
 Esau and Jacob, Leah and Rachel, so he probably knew of none between Joseph 
 and his brethren, and may have represented Joseph as having been merely kid- 
 napped and carried off into Egypt by the Midianites, while out one day, with 
 only four of his brethren, tending his father's sheep. A very few words may have 
 sufficed for this, e.g., 'and there passed-over Midianites, merchantmen, [and they 
 saw Joseph and laid hold on him and took him,] and the Midianites sold him into 
 
394 THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE. 
 
 80 And the Midianites sold him into Egypt, to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, 
 captain of the guard. || . . . 
 
 XXiVX. 6 And they took their cattle and their gain which they had gotten 
 in the land of Canaan, and they came to Egypt, Jacob and all his seed with 
 him. 7 His sons and his sons' sons with him, his daughters and his sons' 
 daughters, and all his seed, brought he with him to Egypt. 
 
 8 And these are the names of the sons of Israel that came to Egypt, Jacob 
 and his sons; Jacob's firstborn, Reuben; 9 and the sons of Reuben, Enoch 
 and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi. 10 And the sons of Simeon, Jemuel, and 
 Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Saul son of the Canaanitess. 
 11 And the sons of Levi, Gershon, and Kohath, and Merari. 12 And the sons 
 of Judah, Er, and Onan, and Shelah, and Pharez, and Zarah.|| 13 And the 
 sons of Issachar, Tola, and Phuvah, and Job, and Shimron. 14 And the sons 
 of Zebulun, Sered, and Elon, and Jahleel. 15 These are the sons of Leah, 
 which she bare to Jacob in Padan-Aram, and Dinah his daughter, all the 
 souls of his sons and daughters, thirty-three. 
 
 16 And the sons of Gad, Ziphion, and Haggi, Shuni, and Ezbon, Eri, and 
 Arodi, and Areli. 17 And the sons of Asher, Jimnah, and Ishuah, and Isui, 
 and Beriah, and Serah their sister ; and the sons of Beriah, Heber and Mal- 
 chiel. i 8 These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter, 
 and she bare these to Jacob, sixteen souls. 
 
 19 The sons of Rachel, Jacob's wife, Joseph and Benjamin. 20 And there 
 were born to Joseph in the land of Egypt, whom Asenath daughter of Poti- 
 pherah priest of On bare to him, Manasseh and Ephraim. 21 And the sons of 
 Benjamin, Bela, and Becher, and Ashbel, Gera, and Naaman, Ehi and Rosh, 
 Muppim, and Huppim, and Ard. 22 These are the sons of Rachel, which were 
 born to Jacob, all the souls fourteen. 
 
 23 And the sons of Dan, Hushim. 24 And the sons of Naphtali, Jabzeel, and 
 Guni, and Jezer, and Shillem. 25 These are the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban 
 gave to Rachel his daughter, and she bare these to Jacob, all the souls seven. 
 
 26 All the souls of Jacob that came to Egypt, coming-forth out of his loins, || 
 all the souls were sixty-and-six. 27 And the sons of Joseph, which were born 
 to him in Egypt, wire two souls. All the souls of the house of Jacob that 
 came to Egypt were seventy. | 
 
 XZ.VII. 7 And Joseph brought Jacob his father, and stationed him before 
 Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. 8 And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, 'About 
 what are the days of the years of thy life 1 ' 9 And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, 
 1 The days of the years of my sojournings are a hundred and thirty years ; 
 few and evil have been the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the 
 days of their sojournings.' I0 And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went-forth 
 from before Pharaoh. 
 
 Egypt, &c. ' The Elohist must then have stated how Joseph came to be high in 
 office under Pharaoh, and how his father and brethren heard of his being alive, 
 and went down to settle in Egypt — these points being referred to in the following 
 portion of the Elohistic Narrative. 
 
THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE. 395 
 
 Had And Joseph settled his father and his brethren |j in the land of Rameses; !| 
 27b and they were fruitful and multiplied exceedingly. 28 And Jacob lived in 
 the land of Egypt seventeen years, and Jacob's days of the years of his life 
 were a hundred and forty-seven years. || 
 
 XXtVXXX, 3 And Jacob said unto Joseph, « EL-SHADDAI appeared unto me 
 at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, 4 and said unto me, "Lo! I will 
 make thee fruitful and multiply thee, and (give) make thee for a company of 
 peoples ; and I will give this land to thy seed after thee, a perpetual posses- 
 sion." 5 And now, thy two sons, which were born to thee in the land of 
 Egypt before my coming unto thee to Egypt, they are mine, Ephraim and 
 Manasseh: even as Reuben and Simeon they shall be mine. 6 And thy off- 
 spring, which thou hast begotten after them, shall be thine; by the names of 
 their brothers shall they be called in their inheritance. 7 And I, at my 
 coming from Padan, — Rachel died beside me in the land of Canaan, when 
 there was yet a space of land to come to Ephrath, and I buried her in the 
 way to Ephrath.' || 
 
 XXiIX. la And Jacob called unto his sonsj 29 and he charged them, and 
 said unto them, ' I shall be gathered to my people ; bury me unto my fathers 
 in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30 in the cave that is in 
 the field of Machpelah, which is east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which 
 Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a 
 burial-place. 31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife ; there they 
 buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah. 32 The purchase 
 of the field and of the cave that is in it was from the sons of Heth.' 33 And 
 Jacob ended to charge his sons, and he was gathered unto his people. || 
 Xi. 13 And his sons carried him to the land of Canaan, and buried him in the 
 cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a 
 possession of a burial-place from Ephron the Hittite, east of Mamre. || 
 
 EX O BUS, 
 
 X. ^And these are the names of the children of Israel, who came to 
 Egypt with Jacob, each and his house they came — 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and 
 Judah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4 TJan and Naphtali, Gad and 
 Asher. 5 And all the souls that went-forth out of Jacob's thigh were seventy 
 souls ; and Joseph was in Egypt. 
 
 6 And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation. 7 And 
 the children of Israel were fruitful and teemed and multiplied, and were ex- 
 ceedingly mighty ; and the land was filled with them. || 13 And the Egyptians 
 made the children of Israel to serve with rigour. || XX. 23b And the children 
 of Israel sighed because of the service, and they cried ; and their wail went- 
 up unto ELOHIM because of the service. 24 And ELOHIM heard their sighing, 
 and ELOHIM remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with 
 Jacob. 25 And ELOHIM saw the children of Israel, and ELOHIM knew. || 
 
396 THE ELOHISTIC NARRATIVE. 
 
 VI. 2 And ELOHIM spake unto Moses* and said unto him, 'I am JEHOVAH. 
 3 And I appeared unto Abraham and unto Isaac and unto Jacob by the name 
 EL-SHADDAI ; but by My name JEHOVAH I did not make-myself known to 
 them. 4 And I have also established My Covenant with them, to give to them 
 the land of Canaan, the land of their sojournings in which they sojourned. 
 5 And I have also heard the sighing of the children of Israel, whom the 
 Egyptians make to serve, and I have remembered My Covenant. . . . 
 
 [Here the Elohistic Narrative ends abruptly, having been broken off perhaps 
 through the sickness or death of the writer, or perhaps because he had completed 
 the special work which he had set himself to do, viz. to record the history of the 
 primeval times, down to the revelation of the name Jehovah at the time of the 
 Exodus.] 
 
 * The Elohist here mentions Moses for the first time in what now remains of his 
 work, and may have given a short notice about his birth between this passage and 
 ii.23b-25, which the Jehovist has replaced by his more circumstantial narrative. 
 But this assumption is not absolutely necessary. We see that Joshua is introduced 
 quite as abruptly by the Jehovist in E.xvii.9 and Hur in v. 10. 
 
APPENDIX II. 
 
 THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS, 
 
 N.B. The sign || denotes that here an interpolation occurs in the Original Story, 
 The passages within [ ] belong to the Elohistic JVarrative. 
 
 I. [^-And these are the names of the children of Israel, who came to 
 Egypt with Jacob, — each and his house they came : 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, 
 and Judah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and 
 Asher. 5 And all the souls that went-forth out of Jacob's thigh were seventy 
 souls ; and Joseph was in Egypt, 
 
 6 And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation. 7 And 
 the children of Israel fructified and teemed and multiplied, and were exceed- 
 ingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.] 8 And there arose a new 
 king over Egypt, who knew not Joseph. 9 And he said unto his people, ' Lo ! 
 the people of the children of Israel are more numerous and mighty than we. 
 10 Come on ! let us deal-wisely with it, lest it multiply, and it come-to-pass, when 
 war happeneth, that it join-itself, it also, to our foes, and fight against us, and 
 go-up out of the land.' n And they placed over it princes of tribute so as to 
 afflict it with their burdens ; and it built store-cities for Pharaoh, Pithom and 
 Rameses. u And, as they afflicted it, so it multiplied, and so it broke-forth ; and 
 they were vexed because of the children of Israel. [ 13 And the Egyptians made 
 the children of Israel to serve with rigour.*] H And they embittered their 
 lives with hard service, in clay, and in brick, and in all kind of service in the 
 field : all their service, which they (served) laid upon them, they laid with 
 rigour. + 
 
 * This would be tame, if written by the same hand which had already written 
 SMI. 
 
 + J. explains here the statement of E. in v. \% showing in what the 'service' 
 consisted, in agreement with his own previous words in v.w. 
 
398 THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 
 
 15 And the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, (of whom the name of 
 the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the second was Puah), 16 and he said, 
 ' When ye help the Hebrew-women to bear, and see at the troughs, if it is a son, 
 then put-him to-death, and, if it is a daughter, then let her live. ' 17 And the 
 midwives feared Elohim, and did not do as the king of Egypt spake unto them, 
 but let the boys live. 18 And the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said 
 to them, ' Why have ye done this thing, and let the boys live?' ,9 And the 
 midwives said unto Pharaoh, c Because the Hebrew-women are not as the 
 Egyptian- women, for they are lively : before the midwife cometh-in unto them 
 they have borne.' 
 
 20 And Elohim did -good to the midwives, and the people multiplied, and they 
 were very mighty. 21 And it came-to-pass, because the midwives feared Elohim, 
 that He made for them households. 22 And Pharaoh commanded all his people 
 saying, ' Every son that is born — ye shall cast him into the River, and every 
 daughter ye shall let live. ' 
 
 II. 1 And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter 
 of Levi. * 2 And the woman conceived and bare a son, and she saw that he was 
 fair, and she hid him three months. 3 And she was not able to hide him any 
 longer, and she took for him an ark of rushes, and daubed it with bitumen and 
 with pitch, and placed the boy in it, and placed it in the weeds by the brink 
 of the River. 4 And his sister stood some-way-off, to know what would be done 
 to him. 
 
 5 And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe by the River, and her 
 damsels were walking by the side of the River ; and she saw the ark in the midst 
 of the weeds, and sent her handmaid, and took it. 6 And she opened and sa w 
 him, the boy, and lo ! a child weeping ! and she had pity on him and said, ' This 
 is one of the boys of the Hebrews. ' 7 And his sister said unto Pharaoh's daughter, 
 ' Shall I go and call thee a suckling-woman of the Hebrews, that she may suckle 
 the boy for thee ? ' 8 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, ' Go ! ' and the maiden 
 went, and called the boy's mother. 9 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, ' Take 
 this boy away, and suckle him for me, and I — I will give thy hire ' ; and the 
 woman took the boy and suckled him. 10 And the boy grew^ and she brought - 
 him-in to Pharaoh's daughter, and he was to her for a son ; and she called his 
 name Moses (Mbs/ie/i), and said, ' Because I have drawn (mashah) him out of the 
 water.' 
 
 11 And it came to pass in those days that Moses grew, and he went -forth unto 
 his brethren, and looked at their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian man smiting a 
 Hebrew man, one of his brethren. 12 And he turned-his-face here and there, and 
 saw that there was no man, and smote the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand. 
 
 13 And he went-forth on the second day, and lo ! two men, Hebrews, were con- 
 tending; and he said to the wrong-doer, 'Wherefore smitest thou thy neighbour?' 
 
 14 And he said, ' Who placed thee as a prince and a judge over us ? Art . thou 
 thinking to slay me as thou didst slay the Egyptian ? ' And Moses feared and 
 
 * The writer, who speaks merely of a ' man of -the house of Levi,' and who 
 calls the woman ' a daughter of Levi,' ' the woman,' z^.2,9, ' the child's mother,' 
 v. 8, evidently knew nothing of the names of their parents ' Amram ' and ' Joche- 
 bed,' which are due to the L.L.,' vi.20, N.xxvi,59- 
 
THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 399 
 
 said, ' Surely the matter is known.' ,5 And Pharaoh heard of this matter and 
 thought to slay Moses ; and Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in 
 the land of Midian. 
 
 And he sat down by the well. 16 Now a prince of Midian had seven daughters ; 
 and they came and drew and filled the troughs, to water their father's flock. 
 17 And the shepherds came and drove-them-away ; and Moses arose and saved 
 them, and watered their flock. 18 And they came-in to Reuel, their father, and 
 he said, 'Why have ye hastened, to come-in to-day?' ,9 And they said, 'An 
 Egyptian man delivered us out of the hands of the shepherds, and also drew 
 plentifully for us, and watered the flock.' 20 And he said unto his daughters, 
 ' And where is he ? Wherefore is this that ye left the man ? call him that he may 
 eat bread.' 21 And Moses was willing to dwell with the man, and he gave 
 Zipporah his daughter to Moses. 22 And she bare a son, and she called him 
 Gershom ; for he said, ' A sojourner {ger) have I been in a strange land.' 
 
 23 And it came to pass in those many days that the king of Egypt died. [And 
 the children of Israel sighed because of the service,* and they cried; and 
 their wail went-up unto ELOHIM because of the service. 24 And ELOHIM 
 heard their sighing, and ELOHIM remembered His covenant with Abraham, 
 with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 And ELOHIM saw the children of Israel, and 
 ELOHIM knew.] 
 
 III. ' And Moses was feeding the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, prince of 
 Midian ; and he led the flock behind the wilderness, and came unto the Mount of 
 Elohim. I 2 And thei-e appeared unto him an angel of Yahveh in a flame of fire 
 out of the midst of the thorn-bush ; and he saw and lo ! the thom-bush was 
 burning with fire, and the thorn-bush was not devoured. 3 And Moses said, * Let 
 me turn- aside, I pray, and see this great appearance, why the thorn-bush is not 
 burnt.' 4 And Yahveh saw that he turned-aside to see, and Elohim called unto 
 him out of the midst of the bush and said, ' Moses ! Moses ! ' And he said, 
 ' Behold me ! ' 5 And He said, ' Come not near hither ; cast thy shoes from off 
 thy feet, for the place on which thou art standing is holy ground.' 6 And He 
 said, ' I am the Elohim of thy father, the Elohim of Abraham, the Elohim of 
 Isaac, and the Elohim of Jacob.' And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to 
 behold Elohim. 7 And Yahveh said, ' I have verily seen the affliction of My 
 people who are in Egypt, and their cry have I heard because of its exactors ; for 
 
 I know its woes. 8 And I have come-down to deliver it out of the hand of the 
 Egyptians, and to bring-it-up out of that land unto a land good and large, unto 
 a land flowing with milk and honey. || 9 And now, lo ! the cry of the children of 
 Israel has come-in unto me, and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the 
 Egyptians are oppressing them. ,0 And now, come, and I will send thee unto 
 Pharaoh, and bring- thou-forth My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.' 
 
 II And Moses said unto Elohim, ' Who a?n I that I should go unto Pharaoh, and 
 that I should bring-forth the children of Israel out of Egypt ?' ' 2 And He said, 
 ' For I will be with thee ; and this shall be the sign for thee that I have sent thee : 
 at thy bringing-forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve Elohim by this 
 Mount.' 13 And Moses said unto Elohim, ' Lo ! when I come unto the children 
 
 * This so obviously refers to the words in i. 13, and not ii. i-23a, that the 
 interpolation of the Jehovist is distinctly betrayed. 
 
400 THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 
 
 of Israel, and shall say to them, the Elohim of your fathers hath sent me unto 
 you, and they shall say to me, What is His Name ? what shall I say unto them ? ' 
 14 And Elohim said unto Moses, ' I AM WHO I AM ' : and He said, < Thus 
 shalt thou say to the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.' 
 
 15 And Elohim said again unto Moses, ' Thus shalt thou say unto the children 
 of Israel, Yahveh, the Elohim of your fathers, the Elohim of Abraham, the 
 Elohim of Isaac, and the Elohim of Jacob, hath sent me unto you : this is My 
 ISlame for ever, and this My memorial for generation and generation. 16 Go, and 
 thou shalt gather the elders of Israel, and thou shalt say unto them, Yahveh, the 
 Elohim of your fathers, hath appeared unto me, the Elohim of Abraham, Isaac, 
 and Jacob, saying, I have surely visited you, and that which is done to you in 
 Egypt. 17 And I have said, I will bring-you-up out of the affliction of Egypt || 
 unto a land flowing with milk and honey. 18 And they shall hearken to thy voice, 
 and thou shalt go-in, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and 
 ye shall say unto him, Yahveh, the Elohim of the Hebrews, hath met with us ; 
 and now, let us go, we pray, a journey of three days into the wilderness, and 
 sacrifice to Yahveh our Elohim. 19 And I — I know that the king of Egypt will 
 not (give) allow you to go, not even by a strong hand. 20 And I will put -forth 
 My hand, and will smite Egypt with all My marvels, which I will do in the midst 
 of it, and afterwards he will let-you-go. 21 And I will put the favour of this 
 people in the eyes of the Egyptians, and it shall come to pass, when ye go, that 
 ye shall not go empty ; 22 and every woman shall ask from her neighbour, and 
 from her who sojourneth in her house, articles of silver and articles of gold and 
 garments, and ye shall place them on your sons and on your daughters, and ye 
 shall spoil the Egyptians.' 
 
 IV. * And Moses answered and said, ' But lo ! they will not believe me, and 
 they will not hearken unto my voice, for they will say Yahveh hath not appeared 
 unto thee. ' 2 And Yahveh said unto him, ' What is this in thy hand ? ' And he 
 said, 'A staff.' 3 And He said, 'Cast it to the earth': and he cast it to the 
 earth, and it became a serpent, and Moses fled from its presence. 4 And Yahveh 
 said unto Moses, ' Put-forth thy hand, and lay-hold on its tail,' — and he put-forth 
 his hand, and laid-hold on it ; and it became a staff in his palm — 5 ' so that they 
 may believe that Yahveh the Elohim of their fathers, the Elohim of Abraham, the 
 Elohim of Isaac, and the Elohim of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee. ' 
 
 6 And Yahveh said unto him again, ' Put-in, I pray, thy hand into thy bosom ' ; 
 and he put-in his hand into his bosom, and he brought-it-forth, and lo ! his hand 
 was leprous like snow. 7 And He said, ' Put-back thy hand into thy bosom,' — 
 and he put-back his hand into his bosom, and he brought-it-forth from his 
 bosom, and lo ! it had returned like his other flesh — 8 ' and it shall come to pass, 
 if they will not believe thee, and will not hearken to the voice of the first sign, 
 that they will believe the voice of the second sign. 9 And it shall come to pass, 
 if they will not believe also these two signs, and will not hearken to thy voice, 
 that thou shalt take of the waters of the River and pour on the dry-land ; and it 
 shall be, the water which thou shalt take out of the River, — yea, it shall become 
 blood upon the dry-land.' 
 
 10 And Moses said unto Yahveh, ' Oh my Lord ! I am not a man of words 
 either yesterday or before, or since Thy speaking unto Thy servant ; for I am 
 slow of mouth and slow of tongue.' " And Yahveh said unto him, ' Who has 
 
THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 401 
 
 (placed) made a mouth for man ? or who shall make dumb or deaf or open-eyed 
 or blind ? is it not Yahveh ? 12 And now, go, and I will be with thy mouth, and 
 will direct thee what thou shalt speak.' 1S And he said, ' O my Lord ! send, I 
 pray, by the hand of him whom Thou wilt send.' " And Yahveh's anger was 
 kindled against Moses, and He said, ' Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother ? I 
 know that he will certainly speak, and also, lo ! he cometh-forth to meet thee, 
 and he will see thee and rejoice in his heart. 1S And thou shalt speak unto him, 
 and thou shalt place words in his mouth, and I will be with thy mouth and with 
 his mouth, and will direct you what ye shall do. 16 And he shall speak for thee 
 unto the people, and it shall come to pass that he shall become to thee a mouth 
 and thou shalt become to him Elohim. ,7 And this staff thou shalt take in thy 
 hand, wherewith thou shalt do the signs.' 
 
 18 And Moses went and returned unto Jethro his father-in-law, and said to 
 him, ' Let me go, I pray, and return to my brethren who are in Egypt, and see 
 whether they are yet alive.' And Jethro said to Moses, ' Go in peace.' 19 And 
 Yahveh said to Moses in Midian,* 'Go, return to Egypt, for all the men are 
 dead who sought thy life.' 20 And Moses took his wife and his sons (? son), 
 and made them ride on the ass, and returned to the land of Egypt, and Moses 
 took the staff of Elohim in his hand. 21 And Yahveh said unto Moses, ' At thy 
 going to return to Egypt, see, all these wonders that I put in thy hand, that thou 
 do them before Pharaoh ; but I will harden his heart, and he will not let the 
 people go. 22 And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, ' Thus saith Yahveh, My son, 
 My firstborn, is Israel. 23 And I say unto thee, Let My son go that he may serve 
 Me ; but, refuse to let him go, lo ! I slay thy son, thy firstborn. ' 24 And it came to 
 pass in the way, at the resting-place, that Yahveh lighted on him, and sought to 
 kill him.' " And Zipporah took a flint, and cut-off the foreskin of her son, and 
 threw it at his feet, and said, ' Surely a bridegroom of blood art thou to me. ' 
 26 And He desisted from him ; then she said, ' a bridegroom of blood,' because of 
 the circumcision. 
 
 27 And Yahveh said unto Aaron, ' Go to the wilderness to meet Moses ' : and 
 he went, and lighted on Moses at the Mount of Elohim and kissed him. w And 
 Moses told to Aaron all the words of Yahveh with which He had sent him, and 
 all the signs which He had commanded him. - 9 And Moses went and Aaron, and 
 they gathered all the Elders of the children of Israel. 30 And Aaron spake all the 
 words which Yahveh had spoken with Moses, and he [Moses] did the signs 
 before the eyes of the people. 3I And the people believed, and they heard that 
 Yahveh had visited the children of Israel, and that he had seen their afflic- 
 tion, and they bowed-the-head and worshipped. 
 
 V. ' And afterwards Moses and Aaron went-in and they said unto Pharaoh, 
 1 Thus saith Yahveh, the Elohim of Israel, Let My people go, that they may 
 keep a Feast to Me in the wilderness. ' 2 And Pharaoh said, ' Who is Yahveh, 
 that I should hearken to His voice to let Israel go ? I know not Yahveh, and 
 also Israel I will not let go.' 3 And they said, ' The Elohim of the Hebrews hath 
 
 * The previous call of Moses, and the directions given to him, were, therefore, 
 only preparatory ; when the proper moment was come, Moses received a divine 
 notice 'in Midian,' where he was with Jethro, having already obtained his con- 
 sent to his going. 
 
 D D 
 
402 THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 
 
 met with us : let us go, we pray, a journey of three days in the wilderness and 
 sacrifice to Yahveh our Elohim, lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with 
 sword.' 4 And the king of Egypt said unto them, 'Wherefore do ye, Moses and 
 Aaron, set the people free from its works : go ye to your burdens.' s And 
 Pharaoh said, ' Lo ! numerous now is the people of the land, and ye make them 
 rest from their burdens.' 
 
 6 And Pharaoh commanded on that day the exactors among the people and its 
 officers, saying, 7 ' Ye shall not add to give straw to the people for the making of 
 bricks as heretofore ; let them go and collect straw for themselves. 8 And the tale 
 of brick which they were making heretofore shall ye lay upon them, ye shall not 
 diminish from it ; for idle are they : therefore are they crying, saying, Let us go, 
 let us sacrifice to our Elohim. 9 Let the service be heavy upon the men, and let 
 them work at it, and let them not regard lying words.' 
 
 10 And the exactors of the people and its officers went-forth and said unto the 
 people, saying, 'Thus saith Pharaoh, I give you no straw : n do ye go, take for 
 yourselves straw from what ye find ; for there is nothing diminished from your 
 service.' 12 And the people was scattered through all the land of Egypt, to 
 collect stubble for straw. 13 And the exactors were urgent, saying, ' Finish your 
 works, the matter of a day in its day, as when there was straw.' 14 And the 
 officers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh's exactors had placed over them, 
 were beaten, saying, ' Why have ye not finished your portion, in making-bricks as 
 heretofore, both yesterday and to-day ? ' 15 And the officers of the children of 
 Israel came-in and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, ' Wherefore doest thou thus to thy 
 servants ? 16 Straw has not been given to thy servants, and they are saying to us, 
 Make-bricks ; and lo ! thy servants are beaten, but thy people have done the 
 wrong.' 1T And he said, ' Idle are ye, idle ! therefore are ye saying, Let us go, let us 
 sacrifice to Yahveh. 18 And now, go ye, serve ! for straw shall not be given to 
 you, yet the tale of bricks shall ye give. ' 
 
 19 And the officers of the children of Israel saw that they were in evil case, 
 (saying) it being said, ' Ye shall not diminish from your bricks, the matter of a 
 day in its clay. ' 20 And they lighted upon Moses and Aaron standing to meet 
 them at their coming-forth from Pharaoh. 21 And they said unto them, ' Let 
 Yahveh look upon you and judge ; for ye have made our savour to stink in the 
 eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants, to give a sword into their hand 
 to slay us.' 
 
 22 And Moses returned unto Yahveh and said, ' O Lord, wherefore hast Thou 
 done evil to this people ? Wherefore is this that Thou sentest me ? 23 For since 
 I went-in unto Pharaoh to speak in Thy name, he has done-evil to this people, 
 and Thou hast not at all delivered thy people.' VI. ' And Yahveh said unto Moses, 
 ' Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh ; for through a strong hand shall 
 he let them go, and through a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land. ' 
 [ 2 And Elohim spake unto Moses and said unto him, « I am YAHVEH. 3 And I 
 appeared unto Abraham, and unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by EL-SHADDAI ; 
 but by my Name YAHVEH I did not make-Myself -known to them. 4 And I 
 have also established My covenant with them, to give to them the land of 
 Canaan, the land of their sojournings in which they sojourned. 5 And I 
 have also heard the sighing of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians 
 make to serve, and I have remembered My covenant.'] || » And Moses spake 
 
THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 403 
 
 so unto the children of Israel : and they hearkened not unto Moses for straitness 
 of spirit and for hard service. || 
 
 VII. H And Yahveh said unto Moses, * Pharaoh's heart is heavy ; he x-efuseth 
 to let the people go. ls Go unto Pharaoh in the morning : lo ! he goeth forth to 
 the water : and thou shalt stand to meet him by the brink of the River, and the 
 staff, which was turned to a serpent, thou shalt take in thy hand. ia And thou 
 shalt say unto him, ' Yahveh, the Elohim of the Hebrews, hath sent me unto thee, 
 saying, Let My people go that they may serve Me in the wilderness ; and lo ! 
 thou hast not hearkened hitherto. 17 Thus saith Yahveh, By this shalt thou know 
 that I am Yahveh : lo ! I smite with the staff that is in my hand upon the waters 
 that are in the River, and they shall be turned to blood. 18 And the fish that are in 
 the River shall die, and the River shall stink, and the Egyptians shall loath to drink 
 water out of the River. ' || - ot > And he lifted-up with the staff and smote the waters 
 that were in the River before the eyes of Pharaoh and before the eyes of his 
 servants, and all the waters that were in the River were turned to blood. 21 And 
 the fish that were in the River died, and all the River stank ; and the Egyptians 
 were not able to drink water out of the River, and the blood was in all the land 
 of Egypt. |j 23 And Pharaoh turned and went-into his house, and did not set his 
 heart even to this. 24 And all the Egyptians dug round-about the River water to 
 drink, for they were not able to drink of the waters of the River. 
 
 25 And there were fulfilled seven days after Yahveh's smiting the River. 
 VIII. ' And Yahveh said unto Moses, ' Go unto Pharaoh and say unto him, 
 Thus saith Yahveh, Let My people go that they may serve Me. 2 And if thou 
 refuse to let them go, lo ! I smite all thy borders with frogs. 3 And the River 
 shall teem with frogs, and they shall come-up and go-in into thy house, and into 
 thy bed-room, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants and upon thy 
 people, and into thy ovens, and into thy trays. 4 And upon thee and upon thy 
 people and upon thy servants shall the frogs come up. ' * . . . || 8 And Pharaoh 
 called to Moses and to Aaron and said, ' Make-entreaty unto Yahveh that He 
 take-away the frogs from me and from my people, and I will let the people 
 go, that they may sacrifice to Yahveh.' 9 And Moses said to Pharaoh, ' (Honour- 
 thyself over me = ) Honour me by saying for when I shall make entreaty for thee 
 and for thy servants and for thy people, to cut-off the frogs from thee and from thy 
 house ; only in the River shall they be left.' 10 And he said, ' For to-morrow ' ; 
 and he said, 'According to thy word ! in order that thou mayest know that there is 
 none like Yahveh our Elohim. u And the frogs shall go away from thee and from 
 thy' houses, and from thy servants, and from thy people ; only in the River shall 
 they be left.' 12 And Moses and Aaron went-forth from Pharaoh, and Moses 
 cried unto Yahveh about the matter of the frogs which He had laid on Pharaoh. 
 13 And Yahveh did according to the word of Moses ; and the frogs died out of the 
 houses, out of the villages, and out of the field. 14 And they collected them in 
 heaps, heaps, and the land stank. 15a And Pharaoh saw that there was breathing- 
 time and he made-heavy his heart. || 
 
 20 And Yahveh said unto Moses, ' Rise-early in the morning, and station thyself 
 
 * Here the original account of the frogs being brought-up either by Moses 
 acting with his rod or by a direct act of Yah veh, as in viii. 24, ix. 6, xii. 29, has 
 been struck out by L.L., to make room for the magnification of Aaron in v. $-7. 
 
 D D 2 
 
404 THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 
 
 before Pharaoh : lo ! he goefh-forth to the water ; and thou shalt say unto him, 
 ' Thus saith Yahveh, Let My people go that they may serve Me. 21 For if thou 
 let not My people go, lo ! I send on thee and on thy servants and on thy people 
 and on thy houses the cockroach ; and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full 
 of the cockroach, and also the ground on which they are. 22 And I will distin- 
 guish in that day the land of Goshen, on which My people stand, that there be no 
 cockroach there ; so that thou mayest know that I am Yahveh in the midst of the 
 land ; 23 and I will place a division between My people and thy people : to-morrow 
 shall this sign be. ' 24 And Yahveh did so ; and there came-in the cockroach in 
 multitudes into the house of Pharaoh and into the house of his servants, and into 
 all the land of Egypt ; the land was corrupted because of the cockroach. 25 And 
 Pharaoh called unto Moses and to Aaron and said, ' Go ye, sacrifice to your 
 Elohim in the land.' 26 And Moses said, ' It is not right to do thus ; for we shall 
 sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to Yahveh our Elohim. Lo ! shall we 
 sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not 
 stone us ? 27 A journey of three days will we go in the wilderness, and sacrifice 
 to Yahveh our Elohim, as He shall say to us. ' 28 And Pharaoh said, ' I will let- 
 you-go, that ye may sacrifice to Yahveh your Elohim in the wilderness ; only do 
 not go very far away. Make-entreaty on my behalf. ' 29 And Moses said, ' Lo ! I 
 go-forth from thee, and will make-entreaty unto Yahveh that the cockroach may 
 go-away from Pharaoh, and from his servants, and from his people, to-morrow. 
 Only let not Pharaoh add to act-deceitfully, so as not to let the people go to 
 sacrifice to Yahveh.' 30 And Moses went-forth from Pharaoh, and made-entreaty 
 unto Yahveh. 31 And Yahveh did according to the word of Moses, and he took- 
 away the cockroach from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people ; not 
 one was left . S2 And Pharaoh made-heavy his heart at this time also, and he did 
 not let the people go. 
 
 IX. l And Yahveh said unto Moses, ' Go-in unto Pharaoh, and thou shalt speak 
 unto him, Thus saith Yahveh the Elohim of the Hebrews, Let My people go 
 that they may serve Me. 2 For, if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt still keep thy 
 hVd on them, 3 lo ! the hand of Yahveh is upon thy cattle which is in the field, 
 upon horses, upon asses, upon camels, upon oxen, and upon sheep — a very 
 grievous pestilence. 4 And Yahveh will distinguish between the cattle of Israel 
 and the cattle of the Egyptians ; and there shall not a thing die of all which 
 belongs to the children of Israel. ' 5 And Yahveh set an appointed-time, saying, 
 ' To-morrow Yahveh will do this thing in the land. ' 6 And Yahveh did that 
 thing on the morrow, and all cattle of the Egyptians died, and of cattle of Israel 
 died not even one. 7 And Pharaoh sent, and lo ! there was not dead out of the 
 cattle of the children of Israel even one : but the heart of Pharaoh was heavy, and 
 he did not let the people go. || 
 
 13 And Yahveh said unto Moses, [ Rise-e,arly in the morning, and present-thy- 
 self before Pharaoh, and thou shalt say unto him, Thus saith Yahveh, the 
 Elohim of the Hebrews, Let My people go that they may serve Me. u For at this 
 time I will send all My plagues upon thy heart, and on thy servants, and on thy 
 people, so that thou mayest know that there is none like Me in all ,the earth. 
 15 For now I had put-forth My hand, and smitten thee and thy people with pesti- 
 lence, and thou hadst been cut-off from the earth. "Nevertheless, -on account of 
 this I have let thee stand, in order that I may make thee see My power, and in 
 
THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 405 
 
 order to declare My name in all the earth. 17 As yet thou exaltest thyself against 
 My people not to let them go. 1S Lo ! I will make-it-rain about this time to- 
 morrow very heavy hail, such as has not been in Egypt since the day of its foun- 
 dation even until now. 19 And now, send, secure thy cattle and all which thou 
 hast in the field : all the men and beasts which are found in the field and are not 
 gathered into the house — the hail shall come-down upon them and they shall die. ' 
 20 He who feared the word of Yahveh of the servants of Pharaoh, made his servants 
 and his cattle flee into the houses. 21 And he who set not his heart unto the word 
 of Yahveh, left his servants and his cattle in the field. 22 And Yahveh said 
 unto Moses, ' Stretch out thy hand towards heaven, that there may be hail in all 
 the land of Egypt, on man and on beast and on every herb in the field in the land 
 of Egypt.' 23 And Moses stretched out his staff towards heaven, and Yahveh 
 sent thunderings and hail, and the fire went towards the earth ; and Yahveh 
 rained hail upon the land of Egypt. 2i And there was hail and fire continual in the 
 midst of the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt 
 since it became a nation. 25 And the hail smote in all the land of Egypt all that was 
 in the field, from man even unto beast ; and every herb of the field the hail smote, 
 and every tree of the field it broke. 2S Only in the land of Goshen, where the 
 children of Israel were, was there no hail. 27 And Pharaoh sent and called to 
 Moses and to Aaron, and said unto them, ' I have sinned this time : Yahveh is the 
 righteous, and I and my people are the guilty. 28 Make-entreaty unto Yahveh, 
 and let there be enough of there being thunders of Elohim and hail ; and I will 
 let you go, and ye shall not any longer stay. ' 29 And Moses said unto him, ' At 
 my going-forth from the city, I will spread-out my hands unto Yahveh ; the 
 thunders shall cease and the hail shall be no more, in order that thou mayest know 
 that the earth is Yahveh' S. S0 But thou and thy servants — I know that ye will 
 fear not yet because of Yahveh-Elohim.' S1 Now the flax and the barley were 
 smitten ; for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was in the flower. 32 But the 
 wheat and the spelt were not smitten, for they were dark. 33 And Moses went- 
 forth from Pharaoh out of the city, and he spread-out his hands unto Yahveh ; 
 and the thunders and the hail ceased ; and the rain was not poured-out to the 
 earth. 34 But, when Pharaoh saw that the rain ceased and the hail and 
 the thunders, he sinned yet more and made-heavy his heart, he and his ser- 
 vants. I 
 
 . X. ! And Yahveh said unto Moses, ' Go-in unto Pharaoh, for I have made- 
 heavy his heart and the hearts of his servants, that so I may set these my signs in 
 the midst of him, 2 and that so thou mayest relate in the ears of thy son and thy 
 son's son what I have wrought -reproachfully in Egypt, and my signs which I have 
 placed among them, that ye may know that I am Yahveh. ' 3 And Moses went- 
 in and Aaron unto Pharaoh, and they said unto him, ' Thus saith Yahveh the 
 Elohim of the Hebrews, How long dost thou refuse to humble-thyself before Me ? 
 Let My people go that they may serve Me. 4 For, if thou refusest to let My people 
 go, lo ! I bring to-morrow the locust on thy border. 5 And it shall cover the eye 
 of the land, and thou shalt not be able to see the land, and it shall eat the remnant 
 of that which is escaped, which is left to you by the hail, and it shall eat every 
 tree which groweth for you out of the field. 6 And it shall fill thy houses, and the 
 houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians, which neither thy 
 fathers nor thy fathers' fathers have seen since the day of their being on the ground 
 
4o6 THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 
 
 unto this day.' And he turned -his-face and went-forth from Pharaoh. 7 And the 
 servants of Pharaoh said unto him, ' How long shall this (man) become a snare for 
 us ? Let the men go that they may serve Yahveh their Elohim, Knowest thou 
 not yet that Egypt has perished ? ' 8 And Moses and Aaron were brought back 
 to Pharaoh, and he said unto them, ' Go ye, serve Yahveh your Elohim ; who 
 and who are those going ? ' 9 And Moses said, ' With our young and with our old 
 will we go ; with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our 
 herds, will we go ; for we have a Feast to Yahveh.' 10 And he said unto them, 
 ' Yahveh be so with you, as I will let you go and your little ones ! Look ye ! 
 for evil is over-against you. " Not so ! go ye, I pray, the men, and serve 
 Yahveh : for that were ye seeking.' And one drove them from the presence of 
 Pharaoh. 12 And Yahveh said unto Moses, ' Stretch-out thy hand over the land 
 of Egypt for the locust, that it may come-up over the land of Egypt, and eat every 
 herb of the land, all which the hail has left.' 13 And Moses stretched -forth his staff 
 over the land of Egypt, and Yahveh guided an east-wind over the land all that 
 day and all the night ; the morning was, and the east-wind brought the locust. 
 14 And the locust came-up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the border 
 of Egypt, very grievous ; before it was no such locust as it, and after it there shall 
 not be such. 15 And it covered the eye of all the land, and the land was darkened; 
 and it ate every herb of the land and every fruit of the trees which the hail had 
 left, and there was not left any green-thing in the trees and in the herb of the 
 field in all the land of Egypt. 16 And Pharaoh hastened to call Moses and 
 Aaron and said, ' I have sinned against Yahveh your Elohim and against you. 
 17 And now, forgive, I pray, my sin only this time, and make-entreaty to 
 Yahveh your Elohim that he may take- away from me only this death.' 1& And 
 he went-forth from Pharaoh and made-entreaty unto Yahveh. 19 And Yahveh 
 turned a strong west -wind, and it took-up the locust and threw it into the Red 
 Sea : there was not left one locust in all the boundary of Egypt. 20 But Yahveh 
 hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the people of Israel go. 
 
 21 And Yahveh said unto Moses, ' Stretch-out thy hand over the heaven, that 
 there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, that one may feel darkness.' 
 22 And Moses stretched-forth his hand over the heaven, and there was darkness, 
 thick darkness, in all the land of Egypt three days. 23 They saw not one his 
 brother, and they arose not each from his place three days : but for all the children 
 of Israel there was light in their dwellings. 24 And Pharaoh called unto Moses 
 and said, ' Go ye, serve Yahveh ! only your flocks and your herds shall be 
 stayed ; also your little-ones shall go with you.' " And Moses said, ' Thou also 
 shalt give into our hand sacrifices and burnt -offerings, that we may offer to Yahveh 
 our Elohim. 26 And also our cattle shall go with us, not a hoof shall be left ; for 
 we shall take of it to serve Yahveh our Elohim ; and we know not with what 
 we shall serve Yahveh until our coming thither.' 27 But Yahveh hardened 
 Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go. 28 And Pharaoh said to him, 
 1 Begone from me ! beware-thee that thou see not my face again ; for in the day 
 of thy seeing my face thou shalt die.' 29 And Moses said, ' So hast thou spoken : 
 I will not see thy face any more.' 
 
 XL l Now Yahveh had said unto Moses, ' Yet- one stroke more will I bring 
 upon Pharaoh and upon the Egyptians ; afterwards he will let you go hence : at 
 his letting you go, he will surely drive you away hence altogether. 2 Speak now 
 in the ears of the people, and let them ask, each from his neighbour and each 
 
THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 407 
 
 woman from her neighbour, articles of silver and articles of gold. ' * 3 And Yahveh 
 had put favour for the people in the eyes of the Egyptians : also the man Moses 
 was very great in the land of Egypt, in the eyes of Pharaoh's servants, and in the 
 eyes of the people. 4 And Moses said, f ' Thus saith Yahveh, About midnight I 
 go-forth in the midst of Egypt.:]: 5 And every firstborn shall die in the land of 
 Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits upon his throne unto the firstborn 
 of the maidservant who is behind the millstones, and every firstborn of cattle. 
 6 And there shall be a great cry in all the land of Egypt, such as there has been 
 none like it, nor shall be like it anymore. 7 But against any of the children of 
 Israel not a dog shall sharpen his tongue, even from man unto beast, that so ye 
 may know that Yahveh distinguisheth between the Egyptians and Israel. 8 And 
 all these thy servants shall come-down unto me and bow-down to me, saying, Go- 
 forth, thou, and all the people which is at thy feet ! and afterwards I will go-forth. ' 
 And he went-forth from Pharaoh in heat of anger. || XII. 29 And it came to pass 
 that at midnight Yahveh smote every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the 
 firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive who 
 was in the dungeon, and every firstborn of cattle. 30 And Pharaoh rose-up in the 
 night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians ; and there was a great cry in 
 Egypt ; for there was not a house where there was not one dead. 31 And he called 
 for Moses and for Aaron in the midnight, and said, ' Arise ! go-forth from the 
 midst of my people, both you and the children of Israel, and go, serve Yahveh as 
 ye have spoken. 82 Also your flocks and your herds take, as ye have spoken, and 
 go, and bless me also. ' 33 And the Egyptians pressed-hard upon the people, to 
 hasten to let them go out of the land, for they said, ' We are all of us dead men !' 
 34 So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading-troughs 
 being bound-up in their garments on their shoulders. 35 And the children of Israel 
 did according to the word of Moses ; and they asked of the Egyptians articles of 
 silver and articles of gold, and garments. 36 And Yahveh put favour for the 
 people in the eyes of the Egyptians, and they gave them gladly, and they spoiled 
 the Egyptians. 
 
 37 And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six 
 hundred thousand men on foot, besides children. 38 And also a great rabble 
 went-up with them, and flocks and herds, very much cattle. 39 And they baked 
 the dough which they brought-forth out of Egypt with mazzoth (unleavened) cakes, 
 for it was not leavened ; for they were driven-away out of Egypt, and were not 
 able to tarry, and also they had not made for themselves food -for-the -way. || 
 
 XIII. 1 And Yahveh spake unto Moses saying, 2 ' Sanctify for me all the first - 
 
 * The writer here recalls to the reader's recollection the words in iii. 20-22, 
 iv.22,23, supposed to have been spoken long ago, at the very commencement of 
 the movement which led to the Exodus. 
 
 + Moses says this before going out from Pharaoh, in continuation of his words 
 in x. 29. 
 
 X These words in xi.4, compared with xii.29, imply beyond any doubt that the 
 final stroke would be given on the midnight next following : and they would be so 
 understood by every reader but for the difficulties, introduced by the interpolation 
 of the L.L., about the Passover, &c, xii. 1-28, see ^.3,6. 
 
408 THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 
 
 born, that openeth any womb among the children of Israel among men and cattle : 
 it is mine. * . . . || 
 
 17 And it came-to-pass, at Pharaoh's letting the people go, that Elohim did not 
 lead them by the way of the land of the Philistines, for that was near, for Elohim 
 said, ' Lest the people repent at their seeing war and they return to Egypt.' 18 But 
 Elohim took the people roundabout by the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea : 
 and the children of Israel went-up arrayed out of the land of Egypt. ,9 And 
 Moses took the bones of Joseph with him ; for he had strictly sworn the children 
 of Israel, saying, ' Elohim will certainly visit you, and ye shall bring-up hence 
 my bones with you.' 20 So they broke-up from Succoth, and camped at Etham 
 at the extremity of the wilderness. 21 And Yahveh was going before them by day 
 in a pillar of cloud to lead them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give 
 them light, to go by day and by night. 22 He removed not the pillar of cloud by 
 day and the pillar of cloud by night before the people. 
 
 XIV. x And Yahveh spake unto Moses, saying, ' 2 Speak unto the children of 
 Israel that they return and camp before Pi-hahiroth between Migdol and the Sea, 
 before Baal-Zephon : over-against it camp ye by the Sea. s For Pharaoh hath 
 said ot the children of Israel,- They are entangled in the land : the wilderness hath 
 shut upon them. * But I have hardened Pharaoh's heart that he may pursue after 
 them ; and I will get-myself honoured upon Pharaoh and on all his force, and the 
 Egyptians shall know that I am Yahveh.' And they did so. 
 
 5 And it was told to the king of Egypt that the people had fled ; and the heart 
 of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people, and they said, ' What 
 is this we have done ? for we have let Israel go from serving us ? ' 6 And he 
 harnessed his chariot, and he took his people with him ; 7 and he took six 
 hundred chosen chariots, even all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over them 
 all. || 9 And the Egyptians pursued after them, and they overtook them camping 
 by the Sea, — all the chariot-horses of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his force, 
 —by Pi-hahiroth before Baal-Zephon. 
 
 10 And Pharaoh drew-near, and the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and 
 lo ! the Egyptians journeyed after them ; and they feared greatly, and the children 
 of Israel cried unto Yahveh. " And they said unto Moses, ' Because there were 
 no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us to die in the wilderness ? u Is not this the 
 thing that we spake unto thee in Egypt, saying, Cease from us, and let us serve 
 the Egyptians ? for it is better for us to serve the Egyptians than our dying in the 
 wilderness.' 13 And Moses said unto the people, 'Fear ye not ; stand, and see 
 
 * The O.S., which in v. 1,2, has grounded the dedication of the first-borns in 
 Israel, both of man and beast, upon the fact of the first-borns of man and beast 
 being killed in Egypt, as a memorial of that event, intended, no doubt, to ground 
 also the observance of the Feast of Mazzoth upon the fact of the Israelites being 
 compelled, for want of time, to take their bread out of Egypt unleavened, upon 
 which such very particular stress is laid in xii. 34,39. It probably did once contain 
 a short passage to that effect after z/.i,2, which D. has replaced by his own lan- 
 guage in Z/.3-16, instituting the Feast of Mazzoth in ^.3-10, and in v. 11-16 ex- 
 plaining and softening the abrupt words of the O.S. in v.2, which, as they stand, 
 seem to imply that the firstlings of man and beast were to be dealt with alike, and 
 1 sanctified to Yahveh ' by being sacrificed. 
 
THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 409 
 
 the salvation of Yahveh, which He will (do) work for you to-day ; for the 
 Egyptians, whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall see them no more for ever. 
 14 Yahveh fighteth for you, and ye, be still ! ' 15 And Yahveh said unto Moses, 
 ' Why cryest thou unto Me ? Speak unto the children of Israel that they break-up 
 ( = march). 16 And thou, lift-up thy staff, and stretch-out thy hand over the Sea, 
 and cleave-it ; and the children of Israel shall go-in in the midst of the Sea on 
 dry-land. 17 And I— lo! I harden the heart of the Egyptians, and they shall 
 go-in after them ; and I will get-myself honoured on Pharaoh, and on all his 
 force, on his chariots and on his horsemen. 18 And the Egyptians shall know 
 that I am Yahveh, when I get-myself-honoured on Pharaoh, on his chariots, and 
 on his horsemen.' 19 And the angel of Elohim, that was going before the Camp 
 of Israel, journeyed and went behind them ; and the pillar of cloud journeyed 
 from before them and stood behind them ; 20 and it came between the Camp of 
 the Egyptians and the Camp of Israel ; and there was the cloud and the darkness, 
 and it gave light by night ; and one drew not near unto the other all the night. 
 
 21 And Moses stretched-out his hand upon the Sea, and Yahveh made the Sea 
 go by a strong east wind all the night, and (placed) made the Sea become dry- 
 land, and the waters were cleft. 22 And the children of Israel went-in in the 
 midst of the Sea on dry-land ; and the waters were for them a wall on their right 
 and on their left. 23 And the Egyptians pursued and went-in after them, every 
 horse of Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen, unto the midst of the Sea. 
 24 And it came-to-pass in the morning watch that Yahveh looked unto the Camp 
 of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and troubled the Camp of 
 the Egyptians. 25 And He turned-aside the wheels of their chariots, and they 
 guided them with difficulty, and the Egyptians said, ' Let us flee before Israel ! 
 for Yahveh fighteth for them against us.' 26 And Yahveh said unto Moses, 
 1 Stretch-out thy hand over the Sea, that the waters may return upon the 
 Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.' 27 And Moses stretched- 
 out his hand over the Sea, and the Sea returned at the turning of the morning 
 to its usual-power, and the Egyptians were fleeing to meet it, and Yahveh over- 
 threw the Egyptians in the midst of the Sea. 28 And the waters returned, and 
 covered the chariots and the horsemen of the whole host of Pharaoh that came-in 
 after them in the Sea : there was not left among them even one. 29 And the 
 children of Israel went on dry-land in the midst of the Sea : and the waters were 
 for them a wall on their right and on their left. 30 And Yahveh saved Israel on 
 that day out of the hand of the Egyptians j and Israel saw the Egyptians dead 
 upon the brink of the Sea. 31 And Israel saw the great (hand) work which 
 Yahveh did upon the Egyptians, and the people feared Yahveh, and believed in 
 Yahveh and Moses His servant. 
 
 XV. ' Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this Song * to Yahveh, and 
 they said, saying : — 
 
 * This ' Song of Moses ' seems to have been inserted by an afterthought, as an 
 expansion of the Song of Miriam in Z/.21, and probably by the same hand which 
 had completed the original account of the Exodus. This will explain the fact that 
 in v. 16 there appears certainly to be a reference to the passage of the Jordan, which 
 the writer (as we suppose) had already described — 
 
 ' Till Thy people, Yahveh, pass-over, 
 Till this people pass-over whom Thou hast purchased. ' 
 
410 THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS V 
 
 1 I will sing to YAHVEH, 
 
 For He hath triumphed excellently ; 
 
 The horse and his rider hath He thrown into the Sea. 
 
 2 My Strength and my Song is J ah, 
 And He became for me Salvation ; 
 This is my El, and I will glorify Him, 
 
 The Elohim of my father, and I will exalt Him. 
 8 Yahveh is a man of war : 
 
 Yahveh is His name. 
 4 The chariots of Pharaoh and his force hath He thrown into the Sea, 
 
 And the choice of his captains have sunk in the Red Sea. 
 6 The depths do cover them ; 
 
 They went -down in the depths like a stone. 
 
 6 Thy right-hand, Yahveh ! 
 Is become- glorious in power ; 
 Thy right-hand, Yahveh ! 
 Doth dash-in-pieces the enemy. 
 
 7 And in the abundance of Thy excellency 
 Thou overthrowest those that rise against Thee ; 
 Thou sendest-forth Thy wrath j 
 
 It consumes them as stubble. 
 
 8 For by the wind of Thy nostrils 
 The waters were piled ; 
 
 The floods stood as a heap ; 
 
 The depths were congealed in the heart of the Sea. 
 
 9 The enemy said, ' I will pursue, I will overtake ; 
 
 I will divide spoil, my soul shall be filled with them ; 
 I will draw-out my sword ; 
 My hand shall destroy them.' 
 
 10 Thou didst blow with Thy wind j 
 The Sea covered them ; 
 
 They sank like lead in the mighty waters. 
 
 11 Who is like Thee among the gods, Yahveh ? 
 Who is like Thee, glorious in holiness, 
 Fearful in praises, doing wonders ? 
 
 12 Thou stretchedst-out Thy right-hand : 
 The earth swallowed them. 
 
 18 Thou hast led in Thy mercy 
 
 The people whom Thou hast redeemed ; 
 Thou hast guided them in Thy strength 
 Unto the habitation of Thy holiness. 
 
 14 The peoples heard, and were afraid ; 
 Anguish seized on the inhabitants of Philistia. 
 
 15 Then were the dukes of Edom amazed ; 
 
 The mighty-ones of Moab — trembling seizes them, 
 All the inhabitants of Canaan are melted.' 
 
 16 There shall fall upon them terror and dread ; 
 
 Through the greatness of Thine arm they shall be dumb as a stone, 
 
 Till Thy people pass-over, Yahveh ! 
 
 Till this people pass-over whom Thou hast purchased, 
 
THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. \\\ 
 
 17 Thou shalt bring- them -in and plant-them 
 In the mountain of Thine inheritance, — 
 
 The fixed-place, Yahveh ! which Thou hast made for Thine abode, — 
 The Sanctuary, O Lord ! which Thy hands have prepared.* 
 
 18 Yahveh shall reign for ever and ever ! ' 
 
 19 For Pharaoh's horse went -in with his chariots, and with his horsemen in the 
 Sea, and Yahveh brought-back upon them the waters of the Sea, and the children 
 of Israel went on dry-land in the midst of the Sea. 
 
 20 And Miriam, the prophetess, Aaron's sister, took the timbrel in her hand, 
 and all the women went-forth after her with timbrels and with dances. 21 And 
 Miriam answered them — 
 
 ' Sing ye to Yahveh, for He hath triumphed gloriously ! 
 The horse and his rider hath He thrown into the Sea.' 
 
 22 And Moses made Israel break-up from the Red Sea, and they went-forth unto 
 the wilderness of Shur : and they went three days in the wilderness and found no 
 water. ' /3 And they came to Marah, and they were not able to drink waters out 
 of Marah, for they were bitter ; therefore one called its name Marah. 24 And the 
 people murmured against Moses, saying, ' What shall we drink ? ' 25a And he 
 cried unto Yahveh, and Yahveh showed him a tree, and he cast it into the waters, 
 and the waters were made sweet. || 27 And they came to Elim, and there were 
 there twelve springs of water, and seventy palm-trees, and they camped there by 
 the water. XVI. la And all the Assembly of the children of Israel journeyed from 
 Elim, and came into the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai. || 
 
 XVII. 1 And all the Assembly of the children of Israel journeyed from the 
 wilderness of Sin according to their journeyings by the mouth of Yahveh, and 
 they camped at Rephidim, and there was no water for the people's drinking. 
 2 And the people strove with Moses and said, ' Give us water that we may drink.' 
 And Moses said to them, ' Why do ye strive with me ? Why do ye tempt 
 Yahveh ? ' 3 And the people thirsted there for water, and the people murmured 
 against Moses, and said, ' Why is this that thou hast brought-us up out of Egypt 
 to put (me) us to death and (my) our children and (my) our cattle with thirst ? ' 
 
 4 And Moses cried unto Yahveh, saying, ' What shall I do to this people ? yet 
 a little and they will stone me.' 5 And Yahveh said unto Moses, 'Pass-over 
 before the people, and take with thee of the Elders of Israel, and thy staff, with 
 which thou smotest the River, take in thy hand and go. 6 Lo ! I stand before 
 thee there by the rock,|| and thou shalt smite on the rock, and water shall come 
 forth out of it, and the people shall drink. ' And Moses did so before the eyes of 
 the Elders of Israel. 7 And one called the name of the place Massah (temptation) 
 and Meribah (strife), on account of the strife of the children of Israel and on ac- 
 count of their tempting Yahveh, saying, ' Is Yahveh in the midst of us or not ? ' 
 
 8 And Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. 9 And Moses said 
 unto Joshua, f ' Choose for us men and go-forth, fight with Amalek : to-morrow I 
 
 * These words point to an author who lived after the establishment by David of 
 the Sanctuary on Mount Zion, which was meant from the first to be, as it became 
 ultimately, a central place of worship for all Israel. 
 
 t Joshua is here mentioned abruptly for the first time, as Hur is in v. io, (and 
 Moses by the Elohist in vi. 2) without any previous words of introduction. 
 
412 THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 
 
 stand on the top of the hill, and the staff of Elohim in my hand.' 10 And Joshua 
 did as Moses said to him, to fight with Amalek : and Moses, Aaron, and Hur 
 went-up to the top of the hill. " And it came-to-pass, when Moses lifted-up his 
 hand, that Israel prevailed, and when he rested his hand that Amalek prevailed. 
 
 12 And the hands of Moses were heavy, and they took a stone, and placed it under 
 him, and he sat upon it ; and Aaron and Hur took-hold on his hands, on this side 
 one and on this side one, and his hands were steady till the going-in of the sun. 
 
 13 And Joshua weakened Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. || 
 15 And Moses built an altar and called its name YAHVEH-Nissi ( Yahveh is my 
 banner), 16 and said, 'The hand on the banner of Jah ! War for Yahveh with 
 Amalek from generation to generation ! ' 
 
 XVIII. l And Jethro, prince of Midian, father-in-law of Moses, heard all that 
 Elohim had done for Moses and for Israel his people, that Yahveh had brought- 
 forth Israel out of Egypt. 2 And Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, took Zip- 
 porah the wife of Moses, after his sending-her-away, 3 and her two sons, of whom 
 the name of the one was Gershom, — for he said, ' A sojourner was I in a strange 
 land,' — 4 and the name of the other Eliezer, — ' for the Elohim of my father was 
 for my help, and delivered me from the sword of Pharoah. ' 6 And Jethro, the 
 father-in-law of Moses, came, and his sons, and his wife, unto Moses, unto the 
 wilderness where he was camping, to the Mount of Elohim.' e And he said unto 
 Moses, ' I thy father-in-law Jethro come unto thee, and thy wife and her two sons 
 with her.' 7 And Moses went-forth to meet his father-in-law, and he bowed-him- 
 self and kissed him, and they asked one another of welfare, and they came unto 
 the tent. 8 And Moses recounted to his father-in-law all that Yahveh had done 
 to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians on account of Israel, all the travail which had 
 found them in the way, and Yahveh had delivered them. 9 And Jethro rejoiced 
 over all the good which Yahveh had done for Israel, whom He had delivered out 
 of the hand of the Egyptians. l0 And Jethro said, ' Blessed be Yahveh, who 
 hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh, 
 who hath delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians ! n Now I 
 know that great is Yahveh above all the Elohim — yea, in the thing in which 
 they dealt proudly against them.' ,2 And Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, took 
 a burnt-offering and sacrifices for Elohim ; and Aaron came, and all the elders of 
 Israel, to eat bread with the father-in-law of Moses before Elohim. 
 
 13 And it came-to-pass on the morrow that Moses sat to judge the people, and 
 the people stood by Moses from the morning until the evening. " And the father- 
 in-law of Moses saw all that he was doing for the people and said, ' What is this 
 thing which thou art doing for the people ? Why art thou sitting by thyself, and 
 all the people standing by thee from morning until evening ? ' ls And Moses said 
 to his father-in-law, ' Because the people cometh unto me to seek Elohim. 16 If 
 they shall have a matter, they come unto me that I may judge between a man and 
 his neighbour, and that I may make them know the statutes of Elohim and His 
 laws.' n And the father-in-law of Moses said unto him, ' The thing is not good 
 which thou art doing. 18 Thou wilt surely wear-away, both thou and this people 
 that is with thee ; for the thing is too heavy for thee ; thou wilt not be able to do 
 it by thyself. 19 Now hearken unto my voice : let me counsel thee, and Elohim 
 be with thee ! Be thou for the people towards Elohim, and bring-in thou the 
 matters unto Elohim, 20 and that thou mayest enjoin them the statutes and the 
 laws, and mayest make them know the way in which they shall go and the work 
 
THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 413 
 
 which they shall do. 21 And thou shalt look-out from all the people men of force, 
 fearing Elohim, men of truth, hating lucre ; and thou shalt set them over them as 
 captains of thousands, captains of hundreds, captains of fifties, and captains of tens. 
 22 And they shall judge the people at all times ; and it shall come-to-pass that 
 every great matter they shall bring unto thee, and every small matter they' shall 
 judge ; so lighten it from off thee, and they shall bear with thee. 23 If thou wilt 
 do this thing, and Elohim command thee, then thou wilt be able to stand, and all 
 this people shall go to their place in peace.' 
 
 24 And Moses hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law, and did all he said. 
 25 And Moses chose men of force out of all Israel, and appointed them as heads 
 over the people, captains of thousands, captains of hundreds, captains of fifties, 
 and captains of tens. 28 And they judged the people at all times : the hard matter 
 they brought unto Moses, and every small matter they judged. 27 And Moses 
 sent-away his father-in-law, and he gat him unto his land. 
 
 XIX. || 2 And they journeyed from Rephidim, and came to the wilderness of 
 Sinai, and camped in the wilderness, and Israel camped there before the Mount. 
 Ss And Moses went-up unto Elohim. || 8a And Yahveh said unto Moses, ' Lo ! 
 I am coming unto thee in a thick cloud, in order that the people may hear at My 
 speaking with thee and also may believe in thee for ever.'|| 10 And Yahveh 
 said unto Moses, ' Go unto the people, and sanctify them to-day and to-morrow, 
 and let them wash their clothes. n And let them be ready for the third day ; for 
 on the third day Yahveh will come-down in the sight of all the people on Mount 
 Sinai. 12 And thou shalt set-bounds to the people roundabout, saying, Take-heed 
 to yourselves as to going-up on the Mountain or touching its extremities ; every- 
 one that toucheth the Mountain shall surely die. 1S Let no hand touch it ; for he 
 shall be certainly stoned or shot-through ; whether beast or man he shall not live ; 
 at the drawing-out of the ram's-horn, they shall go-up on the Mount.' 14 And 
 Moses went-down from the Mount unto the people, and sanctified the people, and 
 they washed their clothes. 15 And he said unto the people, ' Be ye ready for the 
 third day : come-not near to a woman. ' 
 
 16 And it came-to-pass on the third day, when the morning was, that there were 
 (voices) thunderings and lightnings, and a heavy cloud upon the Mount, and the 
 sound of a trumpet very loud ; and all the people trembled that were in the Camp. 
 17 And Moses brought-forth the people to meet Elohim out of the Camp ; and 
 they stationed-themselves underneath the Mount. 1S And Mount Sinai was all of 
 it smoke, because Yahveh had come-down upon it in fire ; and its smoke went- 
 up as the smoke of the furnace, and the whole Mount trembled greatly. 19 And 
 the sound of the trumpet was going very much louder and louder ; Moses spake, 
 and Elohim answered him by a (voice) thundering. || XX.* 1S And all the people 
 were seeing the (voices) thunderings and the flashes and the sound of the trumpet 
 and the Mountain smoking ; and, when the people saw, they shrunk-back and 
 
 * If Yahveh in the O.S. had uttered in the hearing of the people the Ten 
 Words, ' with a great voice out of the midst of the fire,' how is it that \\\v, 18 there 
 is nothing said about this — no reference to their having heard the loud-spoken 
 1 words,'' as well as the 'thunderings' and the ' sound of the trumpet' — and that 
 not the slightest allusion is made to them in all the ' words ' and ' judgments ' 
 which follow, xx.22-xxiii. 21 ? 
 
4H THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 
 
 stood at a distance. 19 And they said unto Moses, ' Speak thou with us, and we 
 will hear : but let not Elohim speak with us, lest we die. ' 20 And Moses said 
 unto the people, ' Fear ye not ; for in order to prove you hath Elohim come, 
 and in order that His fear may be before your face, that ye sin not.' 21 And the 
 people stood at a distance, and Moses approached unto the thick darkness where 
 Elohim was.* 
 
 22 And Yahveh said unto Moses, ' Thus shalt thou say unto the children of 
 Israel — Ye have seen that out of heaven I have spoken with you.f 23 Thou shalt 
 not make with Me gods of silver, and ye shall not make you gods of gold. 24 An 
 altar of earth shall ye make for Me, and thou shalt sacrifice upon it thy burnt- 
 offerings and thy peace-offerings, thy sheep and thine oxen : in every place where 
 ye make-mention of My Name, I will come unto thee and I will bless thee. 
 25 And, if thou shalt make for Me an altar of stones, thou shalt not build them of 
 hewn-stones ; if thou hast waved thy tool upon it, then thou shalt defile it. 26 And 
 thou shalt not go -up by steps upon My altar, that thy nakedness be not revealed 
 upon it. 
 
 XXI. l ' And these are the judgments which thou shalt place before them. 
 
 2 ' When thou buyest a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve, and in the 
 seventh he shall go-forth free for nothing. 3 If by himself he came-in, by himself 
 shall he go-forth ; if he was a married man, then his wife shall go-forth with him. 
 
 4 If his lord shall give him a wife, and she bear to him sons or daughters, the 
 woman and her children shall be her lord's, and he shall go-forth by himself. 
 
 5 And if the servant shall positively say, I love my lord, my wife, and my children, 
 I will not go-forth free, 6 then his lord shall bring-him-nigh unto Elohim, and 
 shall bring-him-nigh unto the door or unto the side-post, and his lord shall bore 
 his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever. 
 
 7 'And when a man selleth his daughter for a handmaid, she shall not go-forth 
 according to the going-forth of the men-servants. 8 If she be evil in the eyes of 
 her lord, who hath betrothed her to himself, he shall let her be redeemed ; to a 
 strange people he shall have no power to sell her, at his dealing-faithlessly with 
 her. 9 And if he shall betroth her to his son, according to the right of daughters 
 shall he do to her. 10 If he shall take another for him, her food, her clothing, 
 and her cohabitation, he shall not diminish. " And, if he will not do these three 
 to her, then she shall go-forth for nothing, without money. 
 
 12 ' He that smiteth a man that he die shall surely be put to death. 13 And he 
 who hath not lain-in-wait, but Elohim lets fall into his hand, I will appoint for 
 thee a place whither he shall flee. 14 But, when a man shall act wickedly against 
 his neighbour to slay him with guile, from My altar shalt thou take him for death. 
 15 And he that smiteth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death. 16 And 
 he that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, shall surely 
 be put to death. 17 And he that curseth his father or his mother shall surely be 
 put-to-death. 18 And, when men shall strive, and a man shall smite his neighbour 
 with a stone or with his fist, and he dieth not, but falls a-bed, 19 if he arise, and 
 walk-about abroad upon his staff, then the smiter shall be acquitted : only he shall 
 
 * It will be seen that the command (of the L.L.) in xix.24, that Moses should 
 go down and come up with Aaron, is never carried out. 
 
 f Yahveh had 'spoken with them' by the 'voice' or thundering in xix. 19. 
 
THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 415 
 
 pay his resting, and shall have him thoroughly healed. 20 And, when a man shall 
 smite his servant or his handmaid with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall 
 certainly be punished. 21 Only if he shall stand a day or two days, he shall not 
 be punished, for he is his money. 22 And, when men shall strive arid shall smite a 
 pregnant woman, and her children go-forth, and there be no mischief, he shall 
 certainly be mulcted as the woman's husband shall lay upon him, and he shall 
 give it by the judges. 23 But, if there shall be mischief, then thou shalt give life 
 for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burning for 
 burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. 26 And, when a man shall smite the 
 eye of his servant or the eye of his handmaid, and shall destroy it, he shall let him 
 go free for his eye. 27 And, if he shall smite-out the tooth of his servant or the 
 tooth of his handmaid, he shall let him go free for his tooth. 28 And when an ox 
 shall gore a man or a woman and die, the ox shall be surely stoned, and its flesh 
 shall not be eaten, and the owner of the ox shall be acquitted. 29 And, if the ox 
 was goring aforetime, and it has been testified against its owner, and he have not 
 watched it, and he kill a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and also its 
 owner shall be put to death. 30 If an atonement is laid upon him, then he shall 
 give the ransom of his life according to all that shall be laid upon him. S1 Whether 
 it shall gore a son or shall gore a daughter, according to this judgment it shall be 
 done to him. S2 If the ox shall gore a manservant or a handmaid, thirty shekels 
 of silver shall he give to his master, and the ox shall be stoned. 33 And, when a 
 man shall open a pit, or when a man shall dig a pit, and shall not cover it, and 
 an ox or an ass fall therein, 34 the owner of the pit shall repay ; money shall he 
 return to its owner, and the dead shall be his. 35 And, when a man's ox shall 
 hurt his neighbour's ox and it die, then they shall sell the living ox and halve its 
 silver, and also the dead shall they halve. 36 Or should it be known that the ox 
 was goring aforetime, and its owner hath not watched him, he shall certainly repay 
 ox for ox, and the dead shall be his. 
 
 XXII. l ' When a man shall steal an ox or a sheep, and slaughter it or sell it, 
 five oxen shall he repay for the ox and four sheep for the sheep. 2 When the 
 thief shall be found breaking-in and he be smitten that he die, there is no blood 
 for him. s If the sun had risen upon him, there is blood for him : he shall 
 certainly repay ; if he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. * If theft 
 be certainly found in his hand, whether it be ox or ass or sheep, alive, he shall 
 repay double. 
 
 s ' When a man shall eat-off a field or a vineyard, and shall let loose his beast 
 that it eat-off in the field of another, the best of his field and the best of his vine- 
 yard shall he repay. 6 If fire goeth-forth and catch thorns, so that stack or 
 standing-corn or field be devoured, he that kindled the conflagration shall certainly 
 repay. 7 When a man shall give unto his neighbour silver or vessels to keep, and 
 it shall be stolen out of the man's house, if the thief be found, let him repay 
 double. 8 If the thief be not found, then the master of the house shall be brought - 
 near unto Elohim, to swear that he hath not put his hand to his neighbour's 
 property. 9 For all matter of transgression, for ox, for ass, for sheep, for raiment, 
 for anything lost of which one shall say this is it, unto Elohim shall come the 
 matter of both of them : whom Elohim shall pronounce-in-fault, he shall repay 
 double to his neighbour. 10 When a man shall give unto his neighbour ass or ox 
 or sheep, or any beast, to keep, and it die, or be hurt, or be plundered, none 
 seeing, " an oath of Yahveh shall be between them both, that he has not put his 
 
416 THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 
 
 hand to his neighbour's property, and its owner shall take it, and he shall not re- 
 pay. n But, if it be certainly stolen from him, he shall repay its owner. 13 If it 
 be torn in pieces, then let him bring it as a witness : the torn he shall not repay. 
 14 When a man shall ask of his neighbour, and it be hurt or have died, its owner 
 not being with it, he shall surely repay. I5 If its master was with it, he shall not 
 repay : if it was hired, it came for its hire. 
 
 16 ' And when a man shall entice a virgin who is not betrothed, and lie with her, 
 he shall certainly endow her for himself for wife. 17 If her father utterly refuse to 
 give her to him, he shall weigh-out money according to the dowry of virgins. 
 
 18 ' A witch thou shalt not let live. 
 
 19 ' Everyone lying with a beast shall surely be put-to-death. 
 
 20 ' He that sacrificeth to Elohim shall be (devoted) utterly-destroyed, except 
 to Yahveh only. 
 
 21 ' And the sojourner thou shalt not afflict or oppress him ; for sojourners were 
 ye in the land of Egypt. 22 Any widow and orphan thou shalt not afflict. 2S If 
 thou at all afflict them, surely if at all he cry unto Me, I will hear his cry ; 24 then 
 My wrath shall be kindled, and I will slay you with the sword, and your wives 
 shall be widows and your children orphans. 
 
 25 ' If silver thou shalt lend to My people that is poor with thee, thou shalt not 
 be to him as an usurer ; thou shalt not lay upon him interest. 26 If thou takest in 
 pledge at all thy neighbour's raiment, by the going-in of the sun thou shalt return 
 it to him. 27 For that is his covering only : it is his raiment for his skin : wherewith 
 shall he lie down ? and it shall come-to-pass, when he crieth unto Me, that I will 
 hear, for gracious am I. 
 
 28 ' Elohim shalt thou not revile, and the prince among thy people shalt thou 
 not curse. 29 Thy fulness and thy (tears) juice thou shalt not delay : the first-born 
 of thy sons thou shalt give to Me. 30 So shalt thou do with thy ox, with thy 
 sheep : seven days shall it be with its dam ; on the eighth day thou shalt give it 
 to Me. S1 And men of holiness shall ye be for Me ; and flesh in the field, thai is 
 torn, shall ye not eat ; to the dog shall ye cast it. 
 
 XXIII. * ' Thou shalt not raise a false report : put not thy hand with the 
 wicked to be a witness of violence. 2 Thou shalt not be after many to do evil : 
 and thou shalt not answer about a suit to turn aside after many to turn-aside 
 justice. 3 And a poor man shalt thou not respect in his suit. 
 
 4 ' When thou shalt meet thine enemy's ox or his ass straying, thou shalt cer- 
 tainly take-it-back to him. 5 When thou seest the ass of him that hateth thee lying 
 under its burden, and wilt refrain from unloosing for it, thou shalt certainly un- 
 loose with him. 
 
 6 ' Thou shalt not turn-aside the judgment of thy poor in his suit. T From a 
 false matter thou shalt keep-at-a-distance ; and the innocent and righteous shalt 
 thou not slay : for I will not justify the wicked. 8 And a bribe shalt thou not 
 take ; for the bribe blindeth the seeing, and perverteth the words of the righteous. 
 And a sojourner thou shalt not oppress ; for ye know the soul of the sojourner, 
 for sojourners were ye in the land of Egypt. 
 
 10 ' And six years shalt thou sow thy land, and shalt gather its produce. n And 
 the seventh year thou shalt let it [i.e. « its produce-'] rest and lie still ; that the 
 poor of thy people may eat, and their leaving the beast of the field shall e.at : so 
 shalt. thou do to thy vineyard, to thy oliveyard. 
 
 2 ' Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest, that 
 
THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 417 
 
 so thine ox and thine ass may repose, and the son of thy handmaid and the so- 
 journer may be refreshed. || 
 
 14 ' Three times shalt thou keep-feast to me in the year. 15 The Feast of Mazzoth 
 shalt thou keep, || at the season of the month of (green-ears) Abib, for in it thou 
 camest-forth out of Egypt, I6 and the Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of thy work 
 which thou shalt sow in the field, and the Feast of Ingathering, at the end of the 
 year, at thy gathering thy work out of the field. l7 Three times in the year shall 
 every male of thine appear before the Lord Yahveh, and they shall not appear 
 before Me empty. || * 
 
 18 ' Thou shalt not sacrifice with leaven the blood of My sacrifice, and the fat of 
 My Feast shall not remain until the morning. || 
 
 20 ' Lo ! I send an Angel before thee to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee 
 unto the place which I prepared. 21 Be watchful before him, and hearken to his 
 voice : embitter him not, for he will not pardon your transgression, for My Name 
 is in him. ' || 
 
 XXIV. ' And unto Moses He said, ' Come-up unto Yahveh, thou and Aaron, 
 Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the Elders of Israel, and ye shall worship at a 
 distance. 2 And Moses shall draw near by himself unto Yahveh, but they shall 
 not draw-near ; and the people shall not come-up with him.' 
 
 3 And Moses came and related to the people all the words of Yahveh and all 
 the judgments ; and all the people answered with one voice, and they said, " All 
 the things, which Yahveh hath spoken, will we do.' 4 And Moses wrote all the 
 words of Yahveh ; and he rose-early in the morning, and built an altar under the 
 Mountain, and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 And he 
 sent young-men of the children of Israel, f and they offered-up burnt-offerings and 
 sacrificed peace-offerings to Yahveh, steers. 6 And Moses took half of the blood, 
 and placed it in basons, and half of the blood he sprinkled upon the altar. 7 And 
 he took the book of the Covenant, and read in the ears of the people, and they 
 said, ' All which Yahveh hath spoken will we do and we will hearken.' 8 And 
 Moses took the blood, and sprinkled upon the people, and he said, ' Lo ! the blood 
 of the Covenant which Yahveh hath made with you concerning all these words.' 
 
 9 And Moses went-up, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the Elders 
 of Israel. 10 And they saw the Elohim of Israel, and under His feet like a work 
 of transparent sapphire, and as the body of heaven for clearness. " And upon the 
 nobles of the children of Israel He put not forth His hand ; and they beheld 
 Elohim, and they ate and drank. || 
 
 13 And Moses arose and Joshua his minister, and Moses went-up unto the Mount 
 of Elohim. 14 And unto the Elders he said, ' Stay for us here, until we return 
 unto you : and lo ! Aaron and Hur are with you ; whoever has matters, let him 
 draw-near unto them.' 15 And Moses went-up into the Mount, and the cloud 
 covered the Mount. || 18 And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and he went- 
 up into the Mount, and Moses was in the Mount forty days and forty nig 1 " '- || 
 
 * These words, ' and they shall not appear before Me empty,' clearly belong to 
 the end of v. 17 : in the place where they now stand, at the end of &.15 (E.V.), 
 they break the connection between v. 15a and v. 16, since the same verb, 'thou 
 shalt observe,' is meant to govern the three accusatives, ' the Feast of Mazzoth,' 
 ' the Feast of Harvest, ' ' the Feast of Ingathering. ' 
 
 f Where were ' the priests, who draw-near to Yahveh,' expressly mentioned in 
 xix.24 (L.L.), that they did not assist on this occasion? 
 
 E E 
 
418 THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 
 
 XXX. 18 And He gave unto Moses, when He had finished to speak with him on 
 Mount Sinai, two tables of the Testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger 
 of Elohim. II 
 
 XXXII. l And the people saw that Moses delayed to come-down from the 
 Mount, and the people gathered-together against Aaron, and theysaid unto him, 
 * Arise ! make us an Elohim who shall go before us : for this Moses, the man who 
 brought-us-up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has become of him. ' 
 2 And Aaron said unto them, ' Strip-off the rings of gold which are in the ears of 
 your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring-them unto me.' s And 
 all the people stripped themselves of the rings of gold which were in their ears, 
 and brought it unto Aaron. 4 And he took it out of their hands, and formed it 
 with a graver, and made it a molten calf ; and they said, ' This is thy Elohim, O 
 Israel, who brought-thee-up out of the land of Egypt ! ' 5 And Aaron saw it, and 
 he built an altar before it ; and Aaron proclaimed and said, ' A Feast of Yahveh 
 to-morrow ! ' 6 And they rose-early on the morrow ; and they offered-up burnt- 
 offerings and brought-near peace-offerings ; and the people sat-down to eat and 
 drink, and they arose to play.|| 
 
 15 And Moses turned and went-down from the Mount, and the two tables of the 
 Testimony were in his hand, tables written on both their sides, on this side and on 
 that were they written. 16 And the tables — they were the work of Elohim, and 
 the writing — it was the writing of Elohim, graven upon the tables. 17 And Joshua 
 heard the sound of the people at their shouting, and he said unto Moses, ' A sound 
 of war in the camp ! ' 18 And he said, ' No sound of crying victory ahd no sound 
 of crying defeat — the sound of singing do I hear. ' 19 And it came-to-pass, as he 
 came-near unto the Camp, that he saw the calf and dances ; and the anger of 
 Moses was kindled, and he cast-out of his hand the tables, and broke them under 
 the Mount. 20 And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it with fire, 
 and ground it to powder, and sprinkled on the surface of the water, and made the 
 children of Israel drink. 21 And Moses said unto Aaron, ' What hath this people 
 done to thee, that thou hast brought upon it a great sin ? ' 22 And Aaron said, 
 ' Let not my lord's anger be kindled ! thou knowest the people that it is set on 
 evil. 23 And they said to me, Make us an Elohim who shall go before us ; for 
 this Moses, the man who brought-us-up out of the land of Egypt, we know not 
 what has become of him. 24 And I said to them, Whoever has gold, let them 
 strip-themselves and give it to me ; and I cast it into the fire, and there came forth 
 this calf.' 
 
 25 And Moses saw the people that it was unbridled, for Aaron had made it un- 
 bridled for a shame among their adversaries. 26 And Moses stood at the gate of 
 the Camp, and he said, ' Who is for Yahveh — to me ! ' and all the sons of Eevi 
 gathered unto him.' 27 And he said to them, * Thus saith Yahveh, the Elohim of 
 Israel ! Place-ye each his sword upon his thigh ; pass-over and return from gate 
 to gate in the Camp, and slay each his brother and each his friend and each his 
 neighbour. ' 28 And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses ; and 
 there fell of the people on that day about three thousand men. 29 For Moses said, 
 1 (Fill your hands = ) Consecrate-yourselves this day to Yahveh, yes, each on his 
 son and on his brother, and to bring upon yourselves this day a blessing. ' * 
 
 * There were probably some words in the O.S., in connexion with this speech of 
 Moses to the Levites and their zealous execution of his command, appointing them 
 
THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 419 
 
 so And it came-to-pass on the morrow that Moses said unto the people, ' Ye — 
 ye have sinned a great sin : and now I will go-up unto Yahveh : perhaps I shall 
 atone for your sin.' 31 And Moses returned unto Yahveh and said, < Lo ! this 
 people hath sinned a great sin, and they have made themselves an Elohim of gold. 
 82 And now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin — and if not, wipe-me-out, I pray, from 
 Thy book which Thou hast written. ' 33 And Yahveh said unto Moses, * Whoso- 
 ever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My book.' || 35 And Yahveh 
 plagued the people because they had made the calf which Aaron made. 
 
 XXXIII. l And Yahveh spake unto Moses, ' Go, go-up from hence, thou and 
 the people which thou hast brought -up out of the land of Egypt, into the land 
 which I sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, To thy seed will I give 
 it.' || 7 And Moses took the Tent and pitched it without the Camp, a little way off 
 from the Camp, and one called it Tent of Meeting ; and it came-to-pass that every 
 one seeking Yahveh went-forth unto the Tent of Meeting which was without the 
 Camp. 8 And it came-to-pass, when Moses went-forth unto the Tent, that all the 
 people arose, and they stood each at the opening of his tent, and they looked after 
 Moses until his going into the Tent. 9 And it came-to-pass, when Moses went into 
 the Tent, that the pillar-of-cloud came down, and stood at the opening of the Tent, 
 and He spake with Moses. 10 And all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing 
 at the entrance of the Tent. And all the people arose and worshipped, each at 
 the entrance of his tent. " And Yahveh spake unto Moses face unto face, as a 
 man speaketh unto his friend ; and he returned unto the Camp ; and his minister, 
 Joshua, son of Nun, a young-man, did not depart out of the Tent. 
 
 12 And Moses said unto Yahveh, ' See ! Thou sayest unto me, Bring-up this 
 people ; and Thou hast not made-me-know whom Thou wilt send with me ; and 
 Thou hast said, I know thee by name, and also thou hast found grace in Mine 
 eyes. I3 And now, if, I pray, I have found grace in Thine eyes, make-me-to-know, 
 I pray, Thy way, that I may know Thee ; that so I may find grace in Thine 
 eyes ; for see that this nation is Thy people ! ' M And He said, ' My Presence 
 shall go, and I will make thee rest.' 13 And he said unto Him, ' If Thy Presence 
 go not, carry-us-not-up hence. 16 And by what shall it indeed be known that I 
 have found grace in Thine eyes, I and Thy people ? Is it not in Thy going with 
 us ? And so shall we be distinguished, I and Thy people, from all the people 
 which is on the face of the ground.' 17 And Yahveh said unto Moses, ' Also this 
 thing, which thou hast said, will I do ; for thou hast found grace in Mine eyes, and 
 I know thee by name.' 18 And he said, ' Make-me-see, I pray, Thy glory.' 
 19 And He said, ' I will make all My goodness to pass before thee, and I will call 
 upon the name of Yahveh before thee, and I will be gracious to whom I will be 
 gracious, and will compassionate whom I will compassionate. ' 20 But He said, 
 ' Thou art not able to see My face ; for man shall not see Me and live.' 21 And 
 Yahveh said, ' Lo ! there is a place with Me, and thou shalt take thy station by 
 the rock. 22 And it shall come-to-pass, at the passing-over of My glory, then I 
 will place thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover My palm upon thee until I 
 have passed over. 23 And I will take-away My hand, and thou shalt see My back, 
 but My face shall not be seen.' 
 
 henceforth to be the priestly tribe in Israel, to which reference seems to be made 
 in D.x.8,9, J.xiii. 14,33, but which were necessarily struck-out by the writer of the 
 L.L., to make way for the elaborate priestly system in E.xxviii, &c. 
 
 e e 2 
 
420 THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 
 
 XXXIV. * And Yahveh said unto Moses, ' Hew thee two tables of stone like 
 the first, [and make thee an ark of wood],* and I will write upon the tables the 
 words which were upon the first tables which thou brakedst, [and thou shalt place 
 them in the ark]. * 2 And be ready for the morning, and thou shalt come-up in 
 the morning unto Mount Sinai, and thou shalt stand before Me there upon the top 
 of the Mount. 3 And no man shall go-up with thee, and also no man shall be seen 
 in all the Mount ; also the flocks and the herds — let them not feed opposite to that 
 Mount.' 4 [And he made an ark of shittim-wood,]* and he hewed him two 
 tables of stone like the first ; and Moses rose -early in the morning, and went -up 
 unto Mount Sinai, as Yahveh commanded him, and he took in his hand the two 
 tables of stone. 
 
 6 And Yahveh came-down in the cloud, and stood with him there, and he 
 called on the name of Yahveh. 6 For Yahveh passed-over before him and 
 called, ' Yahveh, Yahveh, El merciful and gracious, slow of anger and abundant 
 in kindness and truth, 7 keeping kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and 
 transgression and sin, but who will not wholly acquit, visiting the iniquity of the 
 fathers upon children and upon children's children, upon the third generation and 
 upon the fourth.' 8 And Moses hastened and bowed his head to the earth, and 
 worshipped. || 28 And he was there with Yahveh forty days and forty nights ; 
 bread he ate not, and water he drank not ; and He wrote upon the tables the words 
 of the Covenant. || [And YAHVEH gave them unto Moses ; and he turned, and 
 went-down from the Mount, and put them into the ark which he had made, 
 as YAHVEH commanded him.*] 
 
 29 And it came-to-pass, when Moses came-down from Mount Sinai, and the two 
 tables of the Testimony were in the hand of Moses at his coming-down from the 
 Mount, that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone at His speaking 
 with him. 30 And Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, and lo ! the 
 skin of his face shone, and they feared to draw-near unto him. 31 And Moses 
 called unto them, and Aaron and all the Assembly came-back unto him, and 
 Moses spake unto them. 32 And afterwards all the children of Israel drew- 
 near, and he commanded them all which Yahveh spake with him in Mount 
 Sinai. II 
 
 NUMBERS. 
 
 X. 29 And Moses said to Hobab son of Reuel the Midianite, father-in-law of 
 Moses, ' We are journeying unto the place of which Yahveh said, I will give it to 
 you ; come with us and we will do thee good, for Yahveh hath spoken good con- 
 cerning Israel.' 30 And he said unto him, ' I will not go, but to my land and to 
 my kindred will I go.' 31 And he said, 'Forsake us not, I pray; for therefore 
 hast thou known our camping in the wilderness, that thou mayest be to us for 
 
 * See Lect.XVII for the reasons which lead to the conjecture that this passage 
 originally contained the four clauses within [ ] in 27.1,4,28, — which were neces- 
 sarily struck-out by the writer of the L.L., when he inserted E.xxv, &c. 
 
THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 421 
 
 eyes. 82 And it shall come-to-pass, if thou wilt go with us, yea, it shall come-to- 
 pass that the good, which. Yah veh will do with us, we will do to thee.' 
 
 33 And they journeyed from the Mount of Yah veh a way of three days, and 
 the ark of the Covenant of Yahveh * was journeying before them a way of three 
 days to search-out for them a resting-place, f 34 And the cloud of Yahveh was 
 over them by day at their journeying from the Camp. 3S And it came-to-pass at 
 the journeying of the ark that Moses said — 
 
 4 Arise, Yahveh, and let Thine enemies be scattered, 
 And let those that hate Thee flee before thee ! ' J 
 36 And at its resting he said — 
 
 ' Return, Yahveh, 
 Thou ten thousands of the thousands of Israel ! ' 
 
 XI. 1 And the people was as men complaining of evil in the ears of Yahveh ; 
 and Yahveh heard, and His anger was kindled, and the fire of Yahveh burnt 
 among them, and devoured at the extremity of the Camp. 2 And the people cried 
 unto Moses, and Moses prayed unto Yahveh, and the fire was quenched. s And 
 one called the name of that place Taberah {i.e. ' burning '), for the fire of Yahveh 
 burnt among them. 
 
 4 And the rabble which was among them lusted a lust, and also the children of 
 Israel wept again § and said, ' Who will make-us-eat flesh ? 5 We remember the 
 fish which we ate in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, and the melons, and the 
 leeks, and the onions, and the garlick. 6 And now our soul is dry ; there is 
 nothing except this manna before our eyes.' 'Now the manna was as coriander 
 seed, and its (eye) colour as the (eye) colour of bdellium. 8 The people turned- 
 aside, and gathered it, and ground it with millstones or pounded it in a mortar, 
 and boiled it in the pan, and made it into cakes ; and its taste was as the taste of 
 the moisture of oil. 9 And, at the coming-down of the dew upon the camp at 
 night, the manna came-down upon it.^[ 
 
 10 And Moses heard the people weeping according to their families, each at the 
 entrance of his tent ; and the anger of Yahveh was kindled greatly, and in the 
 
 * The O.S. uses here, x.33, for the first time, 'Ark of the Covenant of 
 Yahveh,' which it employs again in xiv.44, an expression which the L.L. never 
 uses. The L.L. says invariably 'ark of the Testimony,' E.xxv.22, xxvi.33,34, 
 &c. 
 
 fThe ark is here carried before the host; but in ii. 17 (L.L.) the 'Tent of 
 Meeting '-is to march ' in the midst of the camps,'' that is, between Reuben, v. 16, 
 and Ephraim, v. 18, the second and third of the four camps of Israel. In x. 17, 
 however, the ' Tabernacle ' is to march between Judah and Reuben, the first and 
 second of the four camps, whereas the 'holy things,' including the Ark, are to 
 march between Reuben and Ephraim, z/.2i, as before, the former going-on in 
 front in order that the Tabernacle might be set up against the others ' came ' with 
 the ' holy things,' v. 2.1. 
 
 \ See Lect.VII, pp. 86-90, on the identity between this passage and Ps.lxviii. 1. 
 
 § 'Again' — that is, after the ' complaining ' just mentioned in v. I, for which' 
 they had been so severely punished. 
 
 % The L.L. repeats this story of the manna in E.xvi. 
 
422 THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 
 
 eyes of Moses it was evil. " And Moses said unto Yahveh, ' Wherefore hast 
 Thou done-evil to Thy servant, and wherefore have I not found grace in Thine 
 eyes, to place the burden of all this people upon me ?- n Have I conceived all 
 this people, or have I begotten it, that Thou shouldst say unto me, Bear it in thy 
 bosom, as the nursing-father beareth the suckling, to the ground which Thou 
 swarest to its fathers ? 13 Whence have I flesh to give to all this people ? for they 
 weep against me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat. 14 1 am not able alone 
 to bear all this people, for it is too heavy for me. 15 And, if Thou doest thus to 
 me, slay me, I pray, outright, if I have found grace in Thine eyes, and let me not 
 look at my wretchedness.' 
 
 16 And Yahveh said unto Moses, ' Gather me seventy men of the Elders of Israel, 
 as to whom thou knowest that they are elders of the people and its officers ; and 
 take thou them unto the Tent of Meeting, and let them present-themselves there 
 with thee. 17 And I will come-down * and I will speak with thee there ; and I 
 will take-back of the spirit which is upon thee, and place it upon them, and they 
 shall bear with thee of the burden of the people, and thou shalt not bear it alone. 
 18 And unto the people thou shalt say, Sanctify-yourself for to-morrow and ye shall 
 eat flesh, for ye have wept in the ears of Yahveh saying, Who will make-us-eat 
 flesh ? for it was good for us in Egypt ; (and) so Yahveh shall give you flesh that 
 ye may eat. 19 Not one day shall ye eat, and not two days, and not five days, and 
 not ten days, and not twenty days, 20 but unto a whole month, until it come-forth 
 out of your nostrils, and it become to you loathsome ; because ye have rejected 
 Yahveh who is among you, and ye wept before Him saying, Wherefore is this 
 that we have come-forth out of Egypt? ' 21 And Moses said, ' Six hundred thousand 
 on foot are the people among whom I am : and Thou — Thou hast said, Flesh will I 
 give them, that they may eat a whole month. 22 Shall the flocks and herds be 
 slaughtered for them, that one may find for them ? or shall all the fish of the sea be 
 gathered for them, that one may find for them?' 23 And Yahveh said unto Moses, ' Is 
 the hand of Yahveh short ? Now shalt thou see if my words shall meet thee or not. ' 
 
 24 And Moses went -forth f and spake unto the people the words of Yahveh, 
 and gathered seventy men of the Elders of the people, and made them stand 
 around the Tent. 25 And Yahveh came-down in the cloud, and spake unto him ; 
 and He took-back of the spirit which was upon him, and put it upon the seventy 
 men, the Elders ; and it came-to-pass, when the spirit rested upon them, that they 
 prophesied, and (added not) not again. 26 And there were left two men in the 
 Camp, the name of the one Eldad, and the name of the second Medad, and the 
 spirit rested upon them — for they were among those written, but they went not 
 forth to the Tent, — and they prophesied in the Camp. 27 And a young-man ran 
 and told it to Moses and said, ' Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the Camp ! ' 
 28 And Joshua son of Nun, the minister of Moses, oneoi his young men, answered 
 and said, ' My lord Moses, restrain them ! ' 2fl And Moses said to him, ' Art thou 
 jealous for me? Would that all the people of Yahveh were prophets, that 
 
 * In the L.L. the cloud 'abides 'upon the Tabernacle, ix.i8, E.xl.37; the 
 idea of Yahveh ' coming-down ' as here, and ' coming-down in the cloud,' ^.25, 
 is peculiar to the O.S., E.xxxiii.9, xxxiv.5, N.xii.5, D.xxxi. 15, comp. E.xix.9. 
 
 t This expression, here and in v. 26, comp. also v. 30, shows that the ' Tent of 
 Meeting' was supposed to be outside the Camp, as in E.xxxiii.7-11, not in the 
 very centre of it, as in the L.L. (N.ii.3, 10, 18,25). 
 
THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 423 
 
 Yahveh would put His spirit upon them ! ' 30 And Moses (gathered) betook him- 
 self into the Camp, he and the Elders of Israel. 
 
 31 And a wind journeyed from Yahveh, and brought-over quails from the Sea, 
 and left them by the Camp, about a day's journey here and about a day's journey 
 there roundabout the Camp, and about two cubits high upon the face of the earth. 
 32 And the people arose all that day and all that night and all the day of trie 
 morrow, and gathered the quails ; he who had little gathered ten homers ; and they 
 spread them out everywhere for themselves roundabout the Camp. 
 
 33 While the flesh was yet between their teeth, before it was cut-off, then the 
 anger of Yahveh was kindled against the people, and Yahveh smote among 
 the people with a very great smiting. 34 And one called the name of that place 
 Kibroth-hattaavah (graves of lust), for there they buried the people who had 
 lusted. 
 
 35 And from Kibroth-hattaavah the people journeyed to Hazeroth, and they were 
 at Hazeroth. XII. J And Miriam spake and Aaron against Moses on account of 
 the Cushite woman whom he had taken, for he had taken a Cushite woman. 2 And 
 they said, ' Only by Moses hath Yahveh spoken ? Hath he not spoken also by 
 us ? ' — and Yahveh heard. 3 Now the man Moses was very humble, more than 
 any of the men who were on the face of the ground. 4 And Yahveh said sud- 
 denly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, ' Come-forth, ye three, unto 
 the Tent of Meeting ! ' — and they three went-forth. 5 And Yahveh came-down 
 in the pillar of cloud, and stood at the opening of the Tent, and called Aaron and 
 Miriam, and they two went-forth. * 6 And He said, ' Hear now, I pray, My words. 
 If there shall be a prophet of Yahveh of yours, in a vision will I make-myself- 
 known unto him, in a dream will I speak by him. Not so My servant Moses : in 
 all My house is he faithful. 8 Mouth unto mouth will I speak with him, and with 
 an appearance, and not in riddles, and the form of Yahveh shall he behold : 
 and why have ye not feared to speak against My servant, against Moses ? ' 9 And 
 the anger of Yahveh was kindled against them, and He went. 10 And the cloud 
 departed from over the Tent,*!* and behold ! Miriam was leprous as snow ; and 
 Aaron turned towards Miriam, and behold ! she was leprous. u And Aaron said 
 unto Moses, ' O my lord ! lay not, I pray, upon us sin, in what we have done- 
 foolishly and in what we have sinned. 1,! Let her not, I pray, be as one dead, 
 half of whose flesh is devoured at his coming-forth from his mother's womb.' 
 13 And Moses cried unto Yahveh saying, ' O El, I pray, give-healing, I pray, to 
 her!' u And YAHVEH said unto Moses, 'And, had her father but spit in her 
 face, would she not be ashamed seven days ? Let her be shut seven days without 
 the Camp, and afterwards let her be gathered.' 15 And Miriam was shut without 
 the Camp seven days, and the people journeyed from Hazeroth, and camped in the 
 wilderness of Paran. 
 
 * In z/.4 Yahveh calls all three to 'come-forth ' — i.e. out of the Camp — 'unto 
 the Tent of Meeting,' which was set-up outside the Camp, E.xxxiii. 7. In #.5 
 Yahveh descends at the entrance of the Tent, and calls Miriam and Aaron who 
 'came-forth' from where they were standing, i.e. came-forward at the summons, 
 leaving Moses standing as before. 
 
 f But, according to the L.L., the cloud was always 'upon the Tabernacle, to 
 dwell upon it,' ix.22. 
 
424 THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS 
 
 XIII. ! And Yahveh spake unto Moses, saying, 2 ' Send-thee-forth men and 
 search-out the land of Canaan which I give to the children of Israel : one man 
 for each tribe of their fathers shall ye send, everyone a prince among them. ' 3 And 
 Moses sent-them-forth from the wilderness of Paran by the mouth of Yahveh, 
 all those men heads of the children of Israel. || ,7 And Moses sent-them-forth to 
 search-out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, c Go-up this way by the 
 Negeb, and go-up into the mountain ; 1S and see the land what it is, and the 
 people that dwelleth upon it, whether it is strong or weak, whether few or 
 many ; 19 and what the land is upon which they dwell, whether it is good or evil, 
 and what the cities in which they dwell, whether in encampment or in fortresses ; 
 20 and what the land is, whether it is fat or lean, whether there is wood in it or 
 not : and be ye (strong) courageous, and take of the fruit of the land.' Now the 
 days were the days of the firstfruits of the grapes. [| 22 So they went-up by the 
 Negeb, and came to Hebron, and there were Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmi, off- 
 spring of the Anak : and Hebron was built seven years before Zoan of Egypt. 
 23 And they came to the 'brook Eschol and cut-down from thence a branch and 
 one cluster of grapes, and they bare it on a pole by two men, and of the pome- 
 granates, and of the figs. 21 That place one called the brook Eschol (i.e. l cluster'), 
 on account of the cluster which the children of Israel cut down from thence. || 
 
 26 And they went and came unto Mojses and unto Aaron and unto all the 
 Assembly of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran [| ; and they 
 brought-back word to them and to all the Assembly, and they showed them the 
 fruit of the land. 2T And they related to him and said, ' We came unto the land 
 to which thou sentest-us-forth, and truly it is flowing with milk and honey, and 
 this is its fruit. 28 Nevertheless, the people is strong that dwells in the land, and 
 the cities are fortified, very great, aud also the sons of Anak we saw there. 
 29 Amalek dwells in the land of the Negeb, and the Hittite, and the Jebusite, and 
 the Amorite dwell in the Mountain, and the Canaanite dwells by the Sea, and by 
 (hand) side of Jordan. 
 
 30 And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and he said, ' Let us surely go-up 
 and possess it ; for we shall certainly be able for it.' 31 And the men who went- 
 up with him said, ' We are not able to go-up unto the people, for it is stronger 
 than we. || 83 And there we saw the giants, sons of Anak of the giants ; and we 
 were in our eyes as grasshoppers, and so were we in their eyes.' 
 
 XIV. *And all the Assembly lifted-up and gave-forth their voice, and the 
 people wept that night. || u And Yahveh said unto Moses, ' How long will this 
 people despise Me ? and how long will they not believe in Me for all the signs 
 which I have done among them ? 12 I will smite it with pestilence and dispossess 
 it, and I will make thee become a nation greater and mightier than it.' 13 And 
 Moses said unto YaHveh, 'The Egyptians have both heard that Thoubroughtest- 
 up this people from the midst of it by Thy power, 14 and they have told it unto 
 the inhabitants of this land : they have heard that Thou, Yahveh, art among this 
 people, that Thou art seen, Yahveh, eye to eye, and Thy cloud stands over 
 them, and in a pillar of cloud Thou goest before them by day and in a pillar of 
 fire by night. 15 And, if Thou shalt put-to-death this people as one man, then 
 the nations who have heard Thy fame will (say) speak saying, 16 Because of 
 Yahveh's not being able to bring-in this people unto the land which He sware 
 to them, therefore He slaughtered them in the wilderness. K And now, I pray, 
 let the power of my Lord be great as Thou hast spoken, saying ,8 Yahveh, slow 
 
THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 425 
 
 of anger and abundant in kindness, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but who 
 will not wholly acquit, visiting the iniquity of fathers upon children, upon the 
 third generation and upon the fourth, 19 Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this 
 people, for Thy kindness is great, and as Thou hast forgiven this people from 
 Egypt even until now. ' 20 And Yahveh said, ' I will pardon according to thy 
 word. 21 Notwithstanding, as I live, the whole earth shall be filled with the 
 glory of Yahveh. 22 For all these men, who saw My glory and My signs which 
 I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted Me these ten times, and 
 have not hearkened unto My voice, — 23 they shall not see the land which I sware 
 to their fathers, and all that despise Me shall not see it. * 24 But my servant 
 Caleb, because another spirit was with him, and he fulfilled after Me, therefore 
 will I bring him unto the land whither he went, and his seed shall possess it. 
 25 Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite dwell in the (valley) hollow. To-morrow 
 turn and take-your-journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea.'| 
 
 39 And Moses told these words unto all the children of Israel, and the people 
 bewailed greatly. 40 And they rose early in the morning, and went-up unto the 
 top of the mountain saying, ' Here we are, and let us go-up unto the place which 
 Yahveh said, for we have sinned.' 41 And Moses said, ' Wherefore is this that 
 ye are transgressing the (mouth) word of Yahveh ? Yet it shall not prosper. 
 42 Go-not-up, for Yahveh is not among you, that ye may not be smitten before 
 your enemies. 43 For the Amalekite and Canaanite are there before you, and ye 
 shall fall by the sword ; for therefore have ye turned-back from after Yahveh 
 that Yahveh may not be among you.' 44 And they presumed to go-up unto the 
 top of the mountain ; but the ark of the Covenant of Yahveh and Moses departed 
 not out of the midst of the Camp.f 45 And the Amalekite came-down and the 
 Canaanite that dwelt in that mountain, and smote them, and beat-them-down, 
 unto Hormah. || 
 
 XVI. x And there rose-up || Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab, son of Pallu, 
 son of Reuben ; \ 2a and they (rose-up before = ) resisted Moses. |[ 12 For Moses 
 sent to call Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab ; and they said, ' We will not 
 come-up. 13 Is it little that thou hast brought-us-up out of a land flowing with 
 
 * The O.S. in #.20-24 savs nothing about the forty years' wandering in the 
 wilderness. 
 
 f Not a word is here said about Aaron or about the Levites being in attendance 
 to carry the ark, as the L. L. would have required. The statement, that the ark 
 and Moses 'departed not out of the midst of the Camp,' does not imply that they 
 were in the centre of it, in accordance with N. iii. 38, any more than the similar 
 expression in E.xxxiii. 11 implies that Joshua took post in the centre of the Tent of 
 Meeting. In fact, the 'Tent,' according to the O.S., was, strictly speaking, 
 outsiders. Camp, E.xxxiii. 7, 'afar off,' says the E.V., but rather ' a short distance 
 off,' ' some little way off, as it were a bow-shot, ' G.xxi. 16 ; and Moses, accordingly, 
 went ' out of the Camp ' each time that he went to consult Yahveh. But in a 
 looser sense, and with reference to the expedition of the Israelites to the top of 
 the Mountain, the ' Tent ' would be reckoned as within the whole encampment. 
 The meaning of the passage is plain ; neither Moses nor the ark marched out with 
 the warriors. 
 
 % Graf reads, as here, ' son of Pallu, son of Reuben, ' for * and On, son of 
 Peleth, sons of Reuben. ' 
 
426 THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 
 
 milk and honey to put-us-to-death in the wilderness, that thou wilt altogether 
 make-thyself-prince over us ? 14 Also thou hast not brought us into a land flowing 
 with milk and honey, and given us inheritance of field and vineyard. Wilt thou 
 pierce-out the eyes of these men ? We will not come-up. ' 15 And it (anger) was 
 kindled to Moses greatly, and he said unto Yahveh, ' Turn-not Thou unto their 
 offering ; not one ass have I taken from them ; I have not done evil to one of them. ' || 
 23 And Yahveh spake unto Moses saying, 24 ' Speak unto the Assembly saying, 
 Get-ye-up from around the tabernacle of || Dathan and Abiram. ' 25 And Moses 
 rose-up and went unto Dathan and Abiram, and the Elders of Israel went after 
 him. 26 And he spake unto the Assembly saying, ' Go-aside, I pray, from beside 
 the tents of these wicked men, and touch not anything that is theirs, lest ye be 
 taken-off in all their sin.' 27 And they went-up from beside the tabernacle of || 
 Dathan and Abiram roundabout ; and Dathan and Abiram came-forth, standing 
 at the entrance of their tents, and their wives, and their children, and their little- 
 ones. 2i And Moses said, ' By this shall ye know that Yahveh hath sent me to 
 do all these works, that not of my heart have I done them. 29 If like the death of 
 all men these shall die, and a visitation of all men shall be visited upon them, 
 Yahveh hath not sent me. 30 But, if Yahveh shall create a (creature) new-thing, 
 and the ground open its mouth and swallow them, and all that they have, and 
 they go-down alive to the grave, then ye shall know that these men have despised- 
 Yahveh.' 31 And it came-to-pass, at his finishing to speak all these words, that 
 the ground, which was under them, was cleft asunder. 32 And the earth opened 
 her mouth, and swallowed them and their households, both all the men || and all 
 the substance. 33 And they went-down, and all which they had, alive to the 
 grave ; and the earth covered over them, and they perished from the midst of the 
 Congregation. 34 And all Israel, who were roundabout them, fled at the (voice) 
 cry of them, for they said, ' Lest the earth swallow us ! ' || 
 
 XX. l And the children of Israel, all the Assembly, came into the wilderness of 
 Zin in the first month ;* and the people dwelt in Kadesh, + and Miriam died there 
 and was buried there. || 14 And Moses sent messengers out of Kadesh unto the 
 king of Edom, saying, 'Thus saith thy brother Israel, Thou— thou knowest all 
 the travail which hath found us. 1S For our fathers went-down to Egypt, and we 
 dwelt in Egypt many days, and the Egyptians did evil to us and to our fathers. 
 16 And we cried unto Yahveh, and He heard our voice, and sent an Angel, and 
 brought-us-forth out of Egypt ; and lo ! we are at Kadesh, a city on the extremity 
 of thy territory. 17 Let us pass-over, I pray, through thy land ; we will not pass- 
 over through field or vineyard, and we will not drink water of the well ; by the 
 king's way will we go ; we will not turn-aside right or left, until we shall pass- 
 over thy territory.' ls And Edom said unto him, 'Thou shalt not pass-over 
 through me, lest with sword I go-forth to meet thee.' 19 And the children of 
 
 * The ' first month ' is evidently the first month of the second year ; whereas on 
 the traditionary view it is apparently the second month of the fortieth year, that is, 
 there must be supposed either here, or at ^.14, a sudden leap without notice of 
 thirty-eight years. 
 
 + This ' Kadesh ' in the ' wilderness of Zin ' is undoubtedly Petra, near Mount 
 Hor, z/.22, and so in xxxiii.36, D.i.40; whereas 'Kadesh' in the 'wilderness of 
 Paran,' xiii.26,xxxii.8, D.i. I9,ix.23, is distinguished as ' Kadesh-Barnea.' 
 
THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 427 
 
 Israel said unto him, ' By the high-road will we go-up, and, if we drink of thy 
 water, I and my cattle, then I will give its pay : only it is nothing — let me pass- 
 over on foot. ' 20 And he said, ' Thou shalt not pass-over ; ' and Edom went-forth 
 to meet him with (heavy) much people and with a strong hand. 21 And Edom 
 refused to give Israel passage-over through his territory ; and Israel turned-aside 
 from beside him. 22 And they journeyed from Kadesh, and they came, the 
 children of Israel, all the Assembly, to Mount Hor. || 
 
 XXI. i Now the Canaanite, king of Arad, dwelling in the Negeb, had heard 
 that Israel came by the way of the spies,* and had fought with Israel, and had 
 taken captive some of them. 2 And Israel vowed a vow to Yahveh and said, ' If 
 Thou wilt indeed give this people into my hand, then I will utterly destroy their 
 cities.' 3 And Yahveh hearkened unto the voice of Israel, and gave the Canaanite, 
 and he utterly-destroyed them and their cities, and one called the name of the 
 place Hormah (utter -destruction). 
 
 4 And they journeyed from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to go-round 
 the land of Edom ; and the soul of the people was (shortened) distressed by the 
 way. 5 And the people spake against ELOHIM and against Moses, ' Wherefore 
 have ye brought-us-up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness ? for there is no 
 bread and no water, and our soul loathes at the light bread.' 6 And Yahveh 
 sent among the people fiery serpents, and they bit the people, and much people 
 died out of Israel. 7 And the people came unto Moses and said, ' We have sinned, 
 for we have spoken against Yahveh and against thee ; pray unto Yahveh that 
 He may take-away from us the serpents ; ' and Moses prayed on behalf of the 
 people. 8 And Yahveh said unto Moses, ' Make-thee a fiery-serpent, and place 
 it on a pole : and it shall come-to-pass that every-one, who is bitten, shall look at 
 it and live. ' 9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and placed it on the pole ; and 
 it came-to-pass, if the serpent stung a man, then he looked at the serpent of 
 brass and lived. 
 
 10 And the children of Israel journeyed and camped at Oboth. u And they 
 journeyed from Oboth, and camped at Ije-Abiram, in the wilderness which is 
 before Moab, towards the rising of the sun. 12 From thence they journeyed, and 
 camped at the brook Zared. 13 From thence they journeyed and camped on the 
 other side of Arnon, which is in the wilderness that goeth-forth out of the border 
 of the Amorite ; for Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorite. || 
 16 And from thence to Beer; that is the well (beer), oi which Yahveh said to 
 Moses, ' Gather the people, and I will give them water.' 17 Then Israel sang this 
 song :— 
 
 ' Spring up, O well ! 
 
 Sing thus to it ! 
 
 The well, the princes digged it, 
 
 Nobles of the people bored it, 
 
 With the ruler's-staff, with their staves. ' 
 
 [And the children of Israel journeyed from the wells of Bene-Jaakan to 
 Moserah : there died Aaron, and he was buried there. From thence they 
 
 * That is, the way by which the spies had entered Canaan just before, xiii. 22, 
 and by which the Israelites went up, xiv.44, and were defeated by the Amalekites 
 and Canaanites = the king of Arad, Z/.45. 
 
428 THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 
 
 journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land of springs 
 
 of water,] * and from the wilderness to Mattanah, 19 and from Mattanah to Naha- 
 liel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth, 20 and from Bamoth to the valley which is in 
 the field of Moab, the top of Pisgah, and looketh towards the front of (Jeshimon) 
 the wilderness. 
 
 21 And Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites saying, 22 ' Let 
 me pass- over through thy land ; we will not turn-aside through field or vineyard ; 
 we will not drink water of the well ; by the king's way will we go, until we pass- 
 over thy territory.' 23 And Sihon did not give Israel passage-over through his 
 territory ; and Sihon gathered all his people, and went-forth to meet Israel to the 
 wilderness, and came to Jahzah, and fought with Israel. 24 And Israel smote 
 him with the edge of the sword, and possessed his land from Arnon unto Jabbok, 
 unto the children of Ammon ; for the border of the children of Ammon was 
 strong. 25 And Israel took all these cities, and Israel dwelt in all the cities of the 
 Amorites, in Heshbon and in all its (daughters) villages. 26 For Heshbon was the 
 city of Sihon king of the Amorites, and he had fought with the former king of 
 Moab, and had taken all his land out of his hand unto Arnon. || 31 So Israel 
 dwelt in the land of the Amorites. 32 And Moses sent to spy-out Jaazer, and they 
 captured its (daughters) villages, and dispossessed the Amorites who were there. 
 
 83 And they turned and went-up the way of Bashan : and Og, king of Bashan, 
 went-forth to meet them, he and his people, to war at Edrei. 34 And Yahveh 
 said unto Moses, ' Fear him not ; for into thy hand have I given him and all his 
 people and all his land ; and thou shalt do as thou hast done to Sihon, king of the 
 Amorites, who dwelt in Heshbon.' 85 And they smote him and his sons, and all 
 his people, until one left him no remnant, and they possessed his land. 
 
 XXII. || 2 And Balak, son of Zippor, saw all that Israel had done to the 
 Amorites. 3 And Moab was exceedingly afraid because of the people, for it was 
 numerous, and Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel. 4 And 
 Moab said unto the Elders of Midian, ' Now shall this congregation lick-up all that 
 is round-about us, as the ox licketh-up the verdure of the field ; ' and Balak, son 
 of Zippor, was king of Moab at that time. 5 And he sent messengers unto Balaam, 
 son of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the River of the children of his people, to call 
 for him saying, 'Lo! a people hath come-forth out of Egypt ; lo ! it hath 
 covered the eye of the land, and it is dwelling over- against me. 6 And now, I 
 pray you, curse for me this people, for it is mightier than I ; perhaps I may be able 
 that we smite it, and I may drive it out of the land ; for I know that whom thou 
 blessest is blessed, and whom thou cursest is cursed.' 
 
 7 And the Elders of Moab and the Elders of Midian went, and rewards-of-divi- 
 nation in their hands ; and they came unto Balaam, and spake unto him the words 
 of Balak. 8 And he said unto them, 'Lodge here to-night, ^and I will bring you 
 back word, as Yahveh shall speak unto me ; ' and the princes of Moab dwelt 
 with Balaam. 9 And Elohim came unto Balaam and said, ' Who are these men 
 with thee ? ' 10 And Balaam said unto Elohim, ' Balak, son of Zippor, king of 
 Moab, hath sent unto me, saying, n Lo ! the people that is coming-forth out of 
 Egypt, and it covers the eye of the land— now come,, pierce it for me ; perhaps I 
 
 * This passage, which now stands in a most unsuitable place, D.x.6,7, probably 
 stood originally somewhere in this chapter ; see Lect. XVII. p. 238. But some 
 other fragments of this itinerary may be missing. 
 
THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 429 
 
 may be able to fight with it, that I may drive it out.' 12 And Elohim said unto 
 Balaam, ' Thou shalt not go with them ; thou shalt not curse the people ; for 
 it is blessed.' 13 And Balaam rose-up in the morning, and said unto the princes of 
 Balak, ' Go into your land, for Yahveh refuses to let me go with you.' 14 And 
 the princes of Moab rose-up, and came unto Balak and said, ' Balaam refuseth to 
 come with us.' 
 
 15 And Balak sent princes again, more numerous and more honourable than 
 they. 16 And they came unto Balaam and said to him, ' Thus saith Balak, son of 
 Zippor, Be not, I pray, withheld from coming unto me. 17 For I wall greatly 
 honour thee, and all which thou shalt say unto me I will do : and come, I pray, 
 pierce for me this people. ' 18 And Balaam answered and said unto the servants of 
 Balak, ' If Balak would give-me the fulness of his house of silver and gold, I 
 may not transgress the (mouth) word of Yahveh my Elohim, to do a small thing 
 or a great. 19 And now abide, I pray, here, you also, to-night, and I shall know 
 what Yahveh speaks again with me.' 20 And Elohim came unto Balaam by 
 night, and said to him, ' If the men have come to call for thee, arise, go with them; 
 but only the thing which I shall speak with thee, it shalt thou do.' 
 
 21 And Balaam arose in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the 
 princes of Moab. 22 And the anger of Elohim was kindled because he was 
 going, and the angel of Yahveh stood in the way for an adversary to him ; and 
 he was riding upon his ass, and two young men with him. 23 And the ass saw the 
 Angel of Yahveh standing in the way and his sword drawn in his hand ; and 
 the ass turned-aside out of the way, and went in the field, and Balaam smote the 
 ass to make her turn-aside into the way. 24 And the Angel of Yahveh stood in 
 a narrow-path of the vineyards, a fence on this side and a wall on that. 25 And 
 the ass saw the Angel of Yahveh, and pressed herself against the wall, and he 
 smote her again. 26 And the Angel of Yahveh passed-over again, and stood in a 
 strait place, where there was no turning-aside to the right-hand or to the left. 
 27 And the ass saw the Angel of Yahveh, and she lay down under Balaam, and 
 Balaam's anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with a stick. 28 And Yahveh 
 opened the mouth of the ass, and she said to Balaam, ' What have I done to thee, 
 that thou hast smitten me these three times ? ' 29 And Balaam said to the ass, 
 ' Because thou hast played-tricks with me : would that there were a sword in my 
 hand, for now had I killed thee ! ' 30 And the ass said unto Balaam, ' Am I not 
 thine ass upon which thou hast ridden ever since thou wast unto this day ? Have I 
 been at all accustomed to do this to thee ? ' And he said, ' No.' 31 And Yahveh 
 opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the Angel of Yahveh standing in the 
 way, and His sword drawn in His hand ; and he bowed his head and worshipped 
 on his face. 32 And the Angel of Yahveh said unto him, ' For what hast 
 thou smitten thine ass these three times ? Lo ! I have come-forth for an adversary : 
 for thy way hath been perverse before Me. 33 And the ass saw Me, and turned- 
 aside before me these three times : perhaps, she hath turned aside because of My 
 presence : for now both thee had I slain and her had I let live. ' 34 And Balaam 
 said unto the Angel of Yahveh, ' I have sinned, for I knew not that Thou wast 
 standing to meet me in the way : and now, if it is evil in thine eyes, I will get-me 
 back. ' 35 And the Angel of Yahveh said unto Balaam, ' Go with the men ; only 
 the word that I shall speak unto thee, that shalt thou speak. ' And Balaam went 
 with the princes of Balak. 
 
 36 And Balak heard that Balaam had come, and he went-forth to meet him unto. 
 
430 THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 
 
 the city of Moab which is on the border of Arnon, which is on the extremity of 
 the border. 37 And Balak said unto Balaam, ' Have I not earnestly sent unto thee 
 to call for thee ? Wherefore hast thou not come unto me ? Shall I not truly be 
 able to honour thee ? ' 38 And Balaam said unto Balak, ' Lo ! I have come unto 
 thee : now shall I be able at all to speak anything ? the word which Elohim shall 
 place in my mouth, that shall I speak.' 39 And Balaam went with Balak, and 
 they came to Kirjath-Huzoth. 40 And Balak sacrificed oxen and sheep, and sent 
 for Balaam, and for the princes who were with him. 41 And it came-to-pass in the 
 morning that Balak took Balaam and brought-him-up to Bamoth-Baal, and he saw 
 from thence the extremity * of the people. 
 
 t XXIII. ! And Balaam said unto Balak, ' Build-me here seven altars, and pre- 
 pare for me here seven steers and seven rams.' 2 And Balak did as Balaam spake ; 
 and Balak and Balaam offered-up a steer and a ram upon each altar. 3 And 
 Balaam said to Balak, ' Stand by the burnt-offering, and I will go : perhaps, 
 Yahveh will (meet) come to meet me, and the word — what he shall show me — 
 then I will tell to thee : ' and he went to an eminence. 4 And Elohim met 
 Balaam, and he said unto Him, ' The seven altars I have arranged, and I have 
 offered a steer and a ram upon each altar. ' s And Yahveh placed a word in 
 Balaam's mouth, and said, ' Return unto Balak, and thus shalt thou speak.' 6 And 
 he returned unto him, and lo ! he was standing by his burnt-offering, he and all the 
 princes of Moab. 7 And he lifted-up his parable and said — 
 
 ' From Aran doth Balak lead me, 
 
 The king of Moab from the mountains of the East, saying, 
 Come curse for me Jacob, 
 And come, execrate Israel. 
 
 8 How shall I pierce whom El hath not pierced ? 
 
 And how shall I execrate whom Yahveh hath not execrated ? 
 
 9 For from the tops of the rocks I see him, 
 And from the heights I behold him ; 
 
 Lo ! the people dwelleth alone, 
 
 And among the nations it doth not reckon-itself. 
 
 10 Who hath counted the dust of Jacob, 
 Or the number of the fourth of Israel ? 
 May my soul die the death of the upright, 
 And may my last end be like him ! ' 
 
 11 And Balak said unto Balaam, ' What hast thou done to me ! To pierce mine 
 enemies I took thee, and lo ! thou hast altogether blessed ! ' ,2 And he answered 
 and said, • What Yahveh shall place in my mouth, shall I not observe to speak ? ' 
 13 And Balak said unto him, ' Come, I pray, with me unto another place, from 
 whence thou shalt see him ; only his extremity shalt thou see, and of all of him 
 thou shalt not see ; and pierce him for me from thence.' 14 And he took him to 
 the field of Zophim, unto the top of Pisgah ; and he built seven altars, and 
 offered a steer and a ram upon each altar. ,5 And he said unto Balak, 'Stand 
 thus by thy burnt-offering, and I will meet thus.' 16 And Yahveh met Balaam, 
 and placed a word in his mouth, and said, ' Return unto Balak, and thus shalt 
 
 * Balaam saw 'the extremity,' i.e., the farthest portion — and therefore the 
 whole — of the people. 
 
THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 431 
 
 thou speak.' n And he came unto him, and lo ! he was standing by his burnt- 
 offering, and the princes of Moab with him : and Balak said to him, ' What hath 
 Yahveh spoken ? ' 18 And he took-up his parable and said : — 
 
 ' Arise, Balak, and hear ! 
 Give-ear to me, thou son of Zippor ! 
 
 19 El is not a man, that He should lie, 
 
 Nor a son of man, that He should repent ; 
 Hath He not said, and shall He not do — 
 And spoken, and shall He not confirm ? 
 
 20 Lo ! to bless have I received ; 
 
 He hath blessed, and I will not reverse. 
 
 21 He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, 
 
 And He hath not seen perverseness in Israel ; 
 Yahveh his Elohim is with him, 
 And the shout of a King is in him. 
 
 22 El brought-them-forth out of Egypt ; 
 He has like a buffalo's speed. 
 
 23 For there is no enchantment against Jacob, 
 And there is no divination against Israel. 
 
 At the proper time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, 
 What hath El wrought ! 
 
 24 Lo ! the people as a lioness shall arise, 
 And as a lion shall lift-itself-up ; 
 
 He shall not lie-down till he devour the prey, 
 And the blood of the slain shall he drink.' 
 
 25 And Balak said unto Balaam, ' Neither pierce it all, nor bless it all. ' 28 And 
 Balaam answered and said unto Balak, ' Spake I not unto thee, saying, All 
 that Yahveh shall speak with me, that will I do ? ' 27 And Balak said unto 
 Balaam, ' Come, I pray, I will take thee unto another place ; perhaps, it will be 
 right in the eyes of Elohim to curse it for me from thence.' 28 And Balak took 
 Balaam to the top of Peor, that looketh (in front) east of the wilderness (Jeshi- 
 mon), 29 And Balaam said unto Balak, ' Build me here seven altars, and prepare 
 me here seven steers and seven rams. ' 80 And Balak did as Balaam said, and 
 offered a steer and a ram upon each altar. 
 
 XXIV. ' And Balaam saw that it was good in the eyes of Yahveh to bless 
 Israel ; and he went not, as time by time, to meet enchantments, but he set his 
 face towards the wilderness. 2 And Balaam lifted-up his eyes, and saw Israel 
 tabernacling by its tribes, and the spirit of Elohim was upon him, 3 and he took- 
 up his parable and said : — 
 
 ' Balaam, the son of Beor, affirms, 
 And the man, whose eyes are shut, affirms, 
 
 4 He who hears the words of El, affirms, 
 Falling into a trance, but with eyes uncovered — 
 
 5 How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, 
 Thy tabernacles, O Israel ! 
 
 6 As valleys are they stretched out, 
 As gardens by the River, 
 
432 THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 
 
 As aloes that Yahveh has planted, ' 
 As cedars by the waters. 
 
 7 He maketh waters flow from his buckets, 
 And his seed is in many waters ; 
 
 And higher than Agag * shall be his king, 
 And his kingdom shall be exalted. 
 
 8 El brings -him-forth out of Egypt, 
 He has like a buffalo's speed ; 
 
 He shall eat-up nations his adversaries, 
 And their bones shall he break, 
 And with his arrows shall he smite, 
 
 9 He stooped, he lay-down as a lion, 
 Even as a lioness — who shall rouse him ? 
 Those blessing thee shall be blessed, 
 And those cursing thee shall be cursed. ' 
 
 10 And Balak's anger was kindled against Balaam, and he smote his hands ; and 
 Balak said unto Balaam, ' To pierce mine enemies have I called thee, and lo ! 
 thou hast altogether blessed them these three times. ll And now, flee-thee unto 
 thy place ; I said, I would altogether honour thee, but lo ! Yahveh hath kept- 
 thee-back from honour.' 12 And Balaam said unto Balak, \ Did I not speak unto 
 thy messengers, whom thou sentest unto me, saying, 13 If Balak would give me the 
 fulness of his house of silver and gold, I shall not be able to go-beyond the (mouth) 
 word of Yahveh, to do a good-thing or an evil out of my heart : what Yahveh 
 shall speak, that will I speak ? u And now, lo ! I go to my people : come, let 
 me counsel thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter-end of the 
 days.' 15 And he took-up his parable and said : — 
 
 ' Balaam, the son of Beor, affirms, 
 
 And the man, whose eyes are shut, affirms, 
 16 He, who hears the words of El, affirms, 
 
 And who knows the knowledge of the Highest, 
 
 Who sees the visions of Shaddai, 
 
 Falling into a trance, but with eyes uncovered— 
 17 1 see him, but not now ! 
 
 I behold him, but not near ! 
 
 A Star has (stepped-forth) appeared out of Jacob, 
 
 And a Sceptre has arisen out of Israel, 
 
 And hath smitten the (corners) temples of Moab, 
 
 And the crown of the head of all the sons of pride. 
 18 And Edom shall be a possession, 
 
 Yea, Seir shall be a possession —his enemies ; 
 
 But Israel shall be (making) gaining force, f 
 
 * We have here a sign of the age when this passage was written, in connexion 
 with iS.xv, viz., about the time when the glory of Agag had just passed away 
 and was remembered as a thing of the last generation. 
 
 fThe manifest allusions in v. 1 7- 1 9 to David and his conquests over Moab, 
 Edom, &c. , seem plainly to show that this prophecy of Balaam was composed in 
 
THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 433 
 
 19 And one shall rule out of Jacob, 
 And shall destroy the remnant out of the city. ' 
 
 20 And he saw Amalek, and he took-up his parable and said : — 
 
 ' The beginning of the nations is Amalek, 
 And his end — he perisheth for ever.' 
 
 21 And he saw the Kenite, and he took-up his parable and said : — 
 
 ' Strong is thy dwelling, 
 And thou puttest in the rock thy nest {ken) ; 
 22 Yet {Kain) the Kenite shall be for sweeping-away ; 
 How long ere Asshur carries-thee captive ! ' 
 
 23 And he took-up his parable and said : — 
 
 ' Alas ! who shall live after El's (placing) ordaining this ! 
 24 And ships from the (hand) coast of Chittim, 
 And they shall humble Asshur, and they shall humble Eber, 
 And also it perisheth for ever ! ' 
 
 25 And Balaam arose, and he went and returned to his place,* and also Balak 
 went-his-way. 
 
 XXV. ] And Israel dwelt in Shittim, and the people began to commit-whoredom 
 with the daughters of Moab. 2 And they called for the people to the sacrifices of 
 their Elohim. 3 And Israel joined-itself to Baal-Peor, and the anger of Yahveh 
 was kindled against Israel. 4 And Yahveh said unto Moses, ' Take all the heads 
 of the people, and hang themf before Yahveh over-against the sun, that the 
 fierceness of Yahveh's anger may turn-back from Israel.' 5 And Moses said unto 
 the Judges of Israel, ' Slay-ye each his men, those joined to Baal-Peor.' || 
 
 XXXII. x And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had much cattle, 
 very mighty, and they saw the land of Jaazer and the land of Gilead, and behold ! 
 the place was a place for cattle. 33 And Moses gave to them — to the children of 
 Gad and to the children of Reuben and to the half-tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph 
 — the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og king of 
 Bashan, the land with its cities in the coasts, the cities of the land roundabout. \ || 
 
 16 And they came near unto him and said, { Folds for sheep let us build for our 
 cattle here and cities for our little-ones. 17 And we will arm ourselves in full 
 panoply before the children of Israel, until we have brought them unto their place ; 
 and our little- ones shall dwell in the fortified cities because of the inhabitants of 
 the land. 18 We will not return to our houses, until the children of Israel have in- 
 herited each his inheritance. 19 For we will not inherit with them across the Jordan 
 
 David's age, at a time when his might was still advancing, and Edom had not yet 
 been subdued, 2S.viii. 14, nor Ammon conquered. See Lect.VII.pp.94-6. 
 
 * That is, he returned to his home beyond the Euphrates, xxii.5. The O. S. 
 therefore knew nothing about Balaam's evil counsel, or of his fate and the war 
 against Midian, which belong to the L.L. (xxxi.8, 16). 
 
 + ' Take all the heads of the people,' i.e. with thee as witnesses or counsellors, 
 comp. E.xvii. 5,N.xx.25, 'and hang them,' i.e. the offenders. 
 
 % See (VI. 120) for the reasons which support the conjecture that ^.33 followed 
 originally v.i. 
 
 F F 
 
434 THE ORIGINAL STORY OF THE EXODUS. 
 
 and further on : for our inheritance has come to us across the Jordan eastward. 
 20 And Moses said unto them, ■ If ye will do this thing — if ye will arm-yourselves 
 before Yahveh for war, 21 and every armed-man of you pass-over the Jordan before 
 Yahveh, until He have expelled His enemies before Him, 22 and the land be sub- 
 dued before Yahveh — then afterwards ye shall return and be guiltless with Yahveh 
 and with Israel ; and this land shall be to you a possession before Yahveh. 23 But, 
 if ye will not do so, lo ! your sin is against Yahveh, and know that your sin it will 
 find you. 21 Build yourselves cities for your little-ones and folds for your sheep : 
 and what goeth out of your mouth do. ' || 
 
 34 So the children of Gad built Dibon, and Ataroth, and Aroer, S5 and Atroth, 
 Shophan, and Jaazer, and Jobehah, 36 and Beth-Nimrah, and Beth-Haran— fenced 
 cities and folds of sheep. 
 
 37 And the children of Reuben built Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Kiriathiam, 
 3S and Nebo, and Baal-Meon (changed as to name), and Sibmah ; and they called 
 by names the names of the cities which they built. 
 
 39 And the children of Machir, son of Manasseh, went to Gilead, and captured 
 it ; and he dispossessed the Amorite who was in it. 40 And Moses gave Gilead to 
 Machir, son of Manasseh, and he dwelt in it. 
 
 41 And Jair, son of Manasseh, went and captured their small towns (hawoth), 
 and he called them Havvoth-Jair. 
 
 42 And Nobah went and captured Kenath and her (daughters) villages, and called 
 Nobah by his name, jj 
 
 DEUTERONOMY. 
 
 XXXI. 14 And Yahveh said unto Moses, ' Lo ! thy days have come to die : call 
 Joshua, and take-your-stand in the Tent of Meeting, and I will command him.' 
 And Moses went, and Joshua, and took-their-stand in the Tent of Meeting. 15 And 
 Yahveh appeared in the Tent in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood at 
 the entrance of the Tent. || 23 And He commanded Joshua, the son of Nun, and 
 said, ' Be strong and be firm ; for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the 
 land which I sware to them, and I will be with thee.' || 
 
 XXXIV. 5 And Moses, the servant of Yahveh, died there in the land of Moab 
 by the mouth of Yahveh. 6 And one buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, 
 opposite to Beth-Peor ; but no man knoweth of his grave unto this day. || 10 And 
 there arose not a prophet any more in Israel like Moses, whom Yahveh knew face 
 unto face. 
 
 The passages in the Book of Joshua belonging to the O.S. are as follows : — i. 
 i-2,ii. 1-24, iii. 1,5-9, n-i7,iv. 1-12, 14-18,20-23, v, 1,9,13-15, vi. 1-18,20-24°, 25- 
 27,vii. 2-6, 10-26 (except z/.25 c ),viii. i-29,ix.3-i5 a ,i6,22-27 a ,x.i-u,i5-43,xi. 1,2, 
 4-20, xiii. i-2i a ,23-3i,33,xv,xvi, xvii. 1,2, 7-18, xviii, xix. 1-50, xxii. 7, xxiv. 28-30, 
 32. 
 
APPENDIX III. 
 
 THE PRE-CHRISTIAN CROSS, ITS UNIVERSALITY 
 AND MEANING. 
 
 From the Edinburgh Review for January, 1 870. 
 
 ' From the dawn of organised Paganism in the Eastern world to the final es- 
 tablishment of Christianity in the Western, the Cross was undoubtedly one of the 
 commonest and most sacred of symbolical monuments. . . . Apart from any dis- 
 tinctions of social and intellectual superiority, of caste, colour, nationality, or loca- 
 tion in either hemisphere, it appears to have been the aboriginal possession of every 
 people in antiquity. . . . Diversified forms of the symbol are delineated more or 
 less artistically, according to the progress achieved in civilisation at the period, on 
 the ruined walls of temples and palaces, on natural rocks and sepulchral galleries, 
 on the hoariest monoliths and the rudest statuary, on coins, medals, and vases of 
 every description, and, in not a few instances, are preserved in the architectural 
 proportions of subterranean as well as superterranean structures, of tumuli as well 
 as fanes. . . . Populations of essentially different culture, tastes, and pursuits — 
 the highly-civilised and the demi-civilised, the settled and nomadic— vied with each 
 other in their superstitious adoration of it, and in their efforts to extend the know- 
 ledge of its exceptional import and virtue amongst their latest posterities. 
 
 ' Of the several varieties of the Cross still in vogue, as national and ecclesiastical 
 emblems, and distinguished by the familiar appellations of St. George, St. Andrew, 
 the Maltese, the Greek, the Latin, &c. , &c. , there is not one the existence of which 
 may not be traced to the remotest antiquity. They were the common property of 
 the Eastern nations. . . . That each known variety has been derived from a 
 common source, and is emblematical therefore of one and the same truth, may be 
 inferred from the fact of forms identically the same, whether simple or complex, 
 cropping up in contrary directions, in the Western as well as in the Eastern hemi- 
 sphere. 
 
 ' Amongst the earliest known type is the crux ansata, vulgarly called ' the key 
 of the Nile,' because of its being found sculptured or otherwise represented so fre- 
 
436 THE PRE-CHRISTIAN CROSS. 
 
 quently upon Egyptian and Coptic monuments. It has, however, a very much 
 older and more sacred signification than this. It was the symbol of symbols, the 
 mystical Tau, 'the hidden wisdom,' not only of the ancient Egyptians, but also of 
 the Chaldseans, Phoenicians, Mexicans, Peruvians, and of every other ancient 
 people commemorated in history, in either hemisphere ; and is formed very simi- 
 larly to our letter T, with a roundlet or oval placed immediately above it. . . . 
 The most curious exhibition of it may be seen on a stele from Khorsabad, whereon 
 is depicted an eagle-headed man holding the circle in his right hand and the tau in 
 his left hand. ... It seems to us almost indisputable that the oval or roundlet 
 constitutes an integral part of the symbol, and is not an accidental or convenient 
 addition to it. 
 
 ' When the Spanish Missionaries first set foot upon the soil of America, in the 
 fifteenth century, they were amazed to find that the Cross was as devoutly wor- 
 shipped by the Red Indians as by themselves. . . . The hallowed symbol chal- 
 lenged their attention on every hand and in almost every variety of form. . . . 
 And, what is still more remarkable, the Cross was not only associated with other 
 subjects corresponding in every particular with those delineated on Babylonian 
 monuments, but it was also distinguished by the Catholic appellations, ' ' the tree of 
 subsistence," "the wood of health," "the emblem of life." 
 
 ' Another form of the Cross common to both hemispheres was the Maltese, the 
 four delta-like arms of which, in the oldest known occurrences, are conjoined to or 
 issue from the nave of a wheel or diminutive circle. ... It figures on the breasts 
 of the most powerful monarchs pourtrayed on the Nineveh remains, now in the 
 British Museum, of which the colossal tablet from Nimroud, bearing the super- 
 scription of Ashur-idanni-pal, is a notable example. * It depends, with other sacred 
 emblems, from the neck of the king. . . . And, when inserted in a roundlet, as 
 may be seen in the left-hand corner of the stele just mentioned, is emblematical of 
 Sansi, or the Sun dominating the earth as well as the heavens.' 
 
 N.B. — For further information on this subject reference maybe made to Part 
 VI. App.122. 
 
 * This Tablet is represented in the Frontispiece, and is described in the Guide, 
 printed by order of the Trustees of the British Museum, as ' a high arched slab, 
 having in front a bas-relief of the King, with various Sacred symbols, and on the 
 sides and back an invocation to the Assyrian gods, and a chronicle of the King's 
 conquests.' The name of this King is now read as ' Assur-izir-pal, or Assur-nazir- 
 pal, the earliest Assyrian monarch of whom any large monuments have been pro- 
 cured, and who is believed to have reigned about B. c. 880. ' 
 
 LONDON : PRINTED BY 
 
 SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE 
 
 AND PARLIAMENT STREET 
 
 a; 
 
Errata. 
 
 Page 16, line rj,/or G.ii.1-3, read G.i.i — ii.3. 
 
 „ 223, „ v.o,for cities, ss — but most abruptly, first explained in 
 
 Deuteronomy, read cities. 66 These cities, however, 
 are mentioned long before, 67 but most abruptly, before 
 a word has been said to explain the reason for which 
 they were to be set apart. 
 
 „ 223, „ 29, delete 67 
 
 „ 223, note,/*?*- 97 1S.xxii.19. read" L.xxv.32,33. 
 
 „ 260, line ix, /or D.L., in L.L, read D. and in L.L. 
 
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