Chapter 18

Hir-hor==Notem.|Piankhi.|Pinotem I.|+--------+---------+|                  |Pisebkhan I.      Men-khepher-ra.|+-------------+----------+-----+|             |                |Pinotem II.   Pisebkhan II.     Ker'amat(a daughter).[199]See Deut. xxiii. 7, 8.[200]Schwab'sBerakhoth, p. 252; Hershon,Treasures of the Talmud, p. 25. In Sanhedrin, ff. 21, 22, there is another trace of the dislike with which the marriage (though not forbidden, Deut. xxiii. 7, 8) was regarded: "When Solomon married the daughter of Pharaoh, Gabriel descended and fixed a reed in the sea. A sandbank formed around it on whichRomewas subsequently built." In Shabbath, ff. 51, 52, we are told that "the princess brought with her one thousand different kinds of musical instruments, andtaught Solomon the chants to his various idols."[201]No trace of any such misgiving is found in the Book of Kings.[202]"Seine Liebhaberei sind kostbare Bauten, fremde Weiber, reiche Prachtentfaltung" (Kittel, ii. 160).[203]Perhaps rather "the grandson." He was the son of Ahimaaz (comp. Gen. xxix. 5; Ezra v. 1, whereson = grandson).[204]Shisha and Shavsha are perhaps corruptions of Seraiah (2 Sam. viii. 17).[205]Comp. Esth. vi. 1. LXX., Isa. xxxvi. 3, ὁ ὑπομνηματογράφος 2 Sam. viii. 17, ὁ ἐπὶ τῶν ὑπομνημάτων. Jerome, "a commentariis." Comp. Suet.,Aug.79, "qui e memoria Augusti."[206]It is a somewhat ominous fact thatnetsibmeans properly an ἐπιτειχισμός, a garrison in a hostile country.[207]The king's friend (2 Sam. xv. 37) seems to have been a sort of confidential privy councillor (Prov. xxii. 11).[208]Isa. xxii. 21.[209]2 Sam. xx. 24.[210]Possibly this clause is an interpolation.[211]2 Sam. viii. 18. Even "Ira the Jairite" is called "a priest" (2 Sam. xx. 26). An attempt has been made to explain the word away because it obviously clashes with Levitic ordinances; but the word "priest" could not be used in two different senses in two consecutive lines. Dogmatic considerations have tampered with the obvious meaning of the word. The LXX. omits it, and in the case of David's sons calls them αὐλάρχαι. The A.V. renders it "chief officer." The Vulgate wrongly refers it to Zadok (filius Sadocsacerdotis). Movers (Krit. Unters., 301 ff.) renders it "court chaplains." Already in 1 Chron. xviii. 17 we find that the title gave offence, and we read instead, "And the sons of Davidwere at the hand of the king" (see Ewald,Alterthumsk, p. 276). Compare the title "Bishop of Osnaburg," borne by Frederick, Duke of York, son of George III.[212]2 Sam. v. 14; Zech. xii. 12; Luke iii. 31.[213]The degraded and ominous apparitions ofSarisim(eunuchs) probably began at the court of Solomon on a large scale, though the name occurs in the days of David (1 Sam. viii. 15; 1 Chron. xxviii. 1). In the Northern Kingdom we first hear of them in the harem of the polygamous Ahab.[214]2 Kings xviii. 18; Isa. xxii. 15.[215]2 Sam. xx. 24. He is not mentioned in 1 Chron. xxvii. 25-31.[216]This use of patronymics only is common among the Arabs, but not in Scripture (Reuss,Hist. d. Isr., i. 423).[217]If he was the son of David's elder brother (1 Sam. xvi. 8, xvii. 13) he was Solomon's first cousin. The materialistic or non-religious element in Solomon seems to come out in the names of his only known children. The element "Jehovah," afterwards so universal, does not occur in them. Basmath, characteristically, means "fragrant"; Taphath is perhaps connected with טָפַת, to go mincingly; Rehoboam means "enlarger of the people."[218]The LXX. indeed reads καὶ νασὲφ εἷς ἐν γῇ Ἰούδα ("and he was the only officer in the land of Judah"). But this would make thirteen fiscal overseers. The Targum, adopting the same reading, says that the thirteenthnitzabwas to maintain the king in the intercalary month.[219]Taking thecorat a low estimate this would amount to eighteen thousand pounds of bread a day.[220]1 Kings iv. 23, בַּרְבֻּרִים. Vulg.,Avium altilium.[221]Athen.,Deipnos., iv. 146.[222]2 Sam. iv. 6 (LXX.).[223]This description ofagriculturalfelicity soon became an anachronism.[224]Not "dromedaries" (A.V.). The ruins of his stables are still pointed out at Jerusalem. He traded with Egypt for horses and chariots which his merchants brought to Tekoa, and he then sold them at a profit to the Hittite princes. The forty thousand stalls of 1 Kings iv. 26 should doubtless be four thousand (2 Chron. ix. 25), as Solomon only had fourteen hundred chariots (1 Kings x. 26). In 1 Kings x. 28 the meaning and reading is "as for the export of horses, which Solomon got from Egypteven from Tekoa" (LXX., καὶ ὲκ θεκουὲ), "the royal merchants used to fetch a troop of horses at a price." The "linen yarn" of the A.V. is a mistranslation.[225]Cant. i. 9.[226]1 Kings v. 6, ix. 19, x. 26, 28. Two of those passages are omitted in the LXX. Comp. 1 Kings xvi. 9.[227]Deut. xvii. 16.[228]Josh. xi. 9; 1 Sam. viii. 11, 12; 2 Sam. viii. 4.[229]The energetic dislike to the importation or use of horses is also found in Isa. ii. 7, xxx. 16, 17, xxxi. 1-3; Micah v. 10-14; Zech. ix. 10, x. 5, xii. 4.[230]Psalm xxxiii. 17, lxxvi. 6, cxlvii. 10.[231]Compare Poludemos, Eurudemos.[232]Xen.,Anab., i. 4, 11; Arrian, ii. 13, iii. 7. For the phrase "onthisside of the river," seeante, p.18.[233]Psalm lxxviii. 58-64.[234]According to 2 Chron. i. 3.[235]David's suggestion does not seem to have been received favourably at first (2 Sam. vii. 1-17). The chronicler (1 Chron. xxviii. 19) indulges in the amazing hyperbole that David had been made to understand all the works of the pattern of the Temple "in writingfrom the hand of the Lord."[236]The ancient Israelites named their months from the seasons, as did the Canaanites. Only four of those old names are preserved in the Bible:Zif, "brightness" (comp.Floreal,Lenz);Bul, "rain-month" (Pluviose);Abib, "corn-ear month";Ethanim, "fruit-month" (Fructidor).[237]In 1 Kings vi. 1 we read "in the 480th year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt." This may possibly be a later gloss. The LXX., Origen, Josephus, etc., omit the words, and the Old Testament does not, as a rule, date events by epochs. Further, the date is full of difficulties, though our received chronology is based on it. It was perhaps arrived at after the Exile, by counting backwards from the Decree of Cyrus,b.c.535. Seenoteat the end of the volume.[238]1 Chron. xxii. 14 says that David (comp. xxviii., xxix.) "with much labour" (A.V., "in my trouble," 1 Chron. xxii. 14) bequeathed to Solomon 100,000 talents of gold and 100,000 talents of silver! This impossible number is very considerably reduced in 1 Chron. xxix. 4, where the mention ofdaricsshows an author living in the captivity.[239]Comp. Ezek. xxvii. 17; Acts xii. 20.[240]According to Tatian,Orat. ad Græc., p. 171, Solomon married a daughter of Hiram. Hiram, like the Queen of Sheba, acknowledges Jehovah as the (local) God of Israel. He was the son of Abibaal, and, according to Menander (a Greek historian of Ephesus aboutb.c.300, who consulted Tyrian records), he began to reign at nineteen, and reigned thirty-four years. Josephus thinks that there were two successive Hirams.[241]Giblim, 1 Kings v. 18, where "and the stone-squarers" should be "and especially the men of Gebal." LXX., Alex., οἱ Βίβλιοι; Vulg.,Giblii, Comp. Ezek. xxvii. 9, Psalm lxxxiii. 7, "The ancients of Gebal and the wise thereof were in thee." It is now Jebeil, between Beyrout and Tripoli. The Phœnician and Sidonian artisans were famous from the earliest antiquity for metal-work, embroidery, dyes, ship-building, and the fine arts (Hom.,Il., xxiii. 743;Od., iv. 614-18, xv. 425; Herod., iii. 19, vii. 23, 96, etc.).[242]2 Chron. ii. 13, iv. 16, where "a cunning man of Huram my father's" should be "even Huram, my father,"i.e., master-workman or deviser (comp. Gen. xlv. 8). In Chronicles he is called the son of a Danite mother. Here we have another of the manipulations used by later Jewish tradition to get rid of what they disliked; for in Eupolemos (Euseb.,Præp. Evang., ix. 34) Hiram is said to belong to the family of David. "Quite a little romance," as Wellhausen says, "has been constructed out of the fact that the chronicler assigns his mother to the tribe of Dan; but it is not worth repeating, being a mass of hypotheses." To the dislike of Sidonian and semi-Sidonian influence, we perhaps owe the notion that David had already received a design from the hand of God Himself (1 Chron. xxviii. 11-19) (Ewald, iii. 227). Jerome mentions the Jewish fable that the artist Hiram was of the family of Aholiab, the artist of the wilderness.[243]"Araunah the king" (2 Sam. xxiv. 23). The Temple Mount was usually called the "Mount of the House." It is only called Mount Moriah in 2 Chron. iii. 1. It cannot be regarded as certain that "the land of Moriah" (Gen. xxii. 2) is identical with it.[244]"The present platform is 1521 feet long on the east, 940 on the south, 1617 on the west, 1020 on the north." Bartlett,Walks about Jerusalem, pp. 161-70; Williams,The Holy City, pp. 315-62. Kugle,Gesch. der Baukunst, p. 125. The excellent stone was supplied by quarries at Jerusalem itself. Comp. "Cavati sub terra montes." (Tac.,Hist., v. 12). It may have been extended by Justinian when he built his church. See Ewald, iii. 232, "The Mount of the Temple was 500 yards square";Middoth, c. 2. Comp. Ezek. xiii. 15-20, xlv. 2; Josephus,Antt., XV. xi. 3.[245]Exod. i., ii.[246]1 Kings iv. 6, v. 13, 14, 17, 18, ix. 15, 21, xii. 18.[247]Ewald thinks that it was only "at the beginning" that Solomon, like Sesostris (Diod. Sic.,Hist., i. 56), could boast that his work was done without exacting bitter labour from his own countrymen. But 1 Kings ix. 22 shows that the king's opinion on this subject differed widely from that of his people (1 Kings xi. 28, xii. 3); for we are told that he did not makeservantsof the children of Israel, but used them as military officers (Sarim) and chariot-warriors (Shalishim, τριστάται) and knights. It required a little euphemism to gild the real state of affairs. The details of numbers in the Books of Chronicles differ from those in the Kings.[248]1 Kings v. 13, ix. 22; 2 Chron. viii. 9. (Omitted in the LXX.)[249]In token of this defeat of Solomon he was represented in a statue outside the church leaning his hand on his cheek with a gesture of sorrow.[250]Professor Williams,Prolus. Architectonicæ.[251]Professor Hoskins (Enc. Brit.); Canina,Jewish Antiquities; Thrupp,Ancient Jerusalem; Count de Vogüé,Le Temple de Jérusalem.[252]Fergusson,Temples of the Jews; E. Robbins,Temple of Solomon.[253]Eupolemos (Euseb.,Præp. Evang., ix. 30) and Alex. Polyhistor (Clem. Alex.,Strom., i. 21) idly talk of help furnished to Solomon in building the Temple by an Egyptian King Vaphres, and of letters interchanged between them. Vaphres seems to be a mere anachronism for Hophra.[254]The Phœnician style may, however, have been borrowed in part from Egypt.[255]I have spoken of the Temple inSolomon and his Times(Men of the Bible), and have there furnished some illustrations. The following special authorities may be referred to. Stade, i. 311-57, Friederich,Tempel und Palast Salomo's(Innsbruck, 1887); Chipiez et Perrot,Le Temple de Jérusalem(Paris, 1889); Warren,Underground Jerusalem; Wilson and Warren,Recov. of Jerusalem(1871).[256]Parbarim(2 Kings xxiii. 11). Comp. 1 Chron. xxvi. 18 (A.V., "suburbs"; R.V., "precincts" and "Parbar"). Descriptions of the Temple, imperfect, and not always accordant with each other, are found in 1 Kings v.-vii.; 2 Chron. ii.-v.; Josephus,Antt., VIII. iii. 7, 8.[257]As we infer from Psalms lii. 8, lxxxiv. 3, lxxvi. 2 (where "tabernacle" should be "covert"). Eupolemos (ap.Euseb.,Præp. Evang., etc.). Scattered passages of the Talmud which refer mainly to Herod's Temple are full of extravagances.[258]Jer. xxxvi. 10.[259]2 Chron. iv. 1. This could not have been the brazen altar of the wilderness, the fate of which we do not know. It was far larger, but probably on the same model, except that steps were forbidden as an approach to the altar of the Tabernacle (Exod. xx. 24-26). It is difficult to reconcile the description of the brazen altar with the distinct prohibition of that passage. Comp. Ezek. xliii. 17.[260]The huge stone vase of Amathus was borne on a bull (Duncker, ii. 184). Josephus says that in making these oxen Solomon broke the law (Antt., VIII. vii. 5), as well as by the lions on his throne. The Romans called huge vaseslacus.[261]The descriptions of these lavers, whether in the Hebrew, the LXX., or Josephus, are not intelligible, and are wholly unimportant.[262]Like the palace of Ecbatana (Polyb., x. 27, 10; Herod., i. 98), and possibly the upper stories of the great temple of Bel at Birs-Nimrud (Borsippa).[263]In 1 Kings x. 12 "pillars" should be "a rail" or "balustrade." Heb., מִסְעָד; LXX., ὑποστηρίγματα; Vulg.,fulcra.[264]Lilies symbolised beauty and innocence; pomegranates good works (so the Chaldee in Cant. iv. 13, vi. 11, Bähr,Symbol., ii. 122). Raphael crowns his Theology with pomegranates, Giotto places a pomegranate in the hand of his youthful Dante, and Giovanni Bellini in the hand of the Virgin Mary.[265]Some suppose that the words imply "He will establish" (Jachin) "in strength" (Boaz). "After some favourite persons of the time, perhaps young sons of Solomon," says Ewald, very improbably. LXX. (2 Chron. iii. 17), Κατόρθωσις and Ἰσχύς. See a description of these pillars in Jer. lii. 21-23.[266]Some writers have supplied the Temple with a porch 180 feet high, misled by the astounding method of the chronicler of adding the four sides into the total. Thus, he tells us that the wings of the cherubim were 30 feet long, meaning that each single wing was 7½ feet long (2 Chron. iii. 11). Josephus does the same in telling us the height of the Temple wall.[267]The ground plans of most ancient temples were alike.[268]2 Sam. viii. 7; 1 Chron. xviii. 7.[269]So 2 Chron. iv. 8. But it would seem from 1 Kings vii. 48; 2 Chron. xiii. 11, xxix. 18 that only one table and one candlestick were ordinarily used.[270]St. Jerome rendereddebirbyoraculum, but some derive it from the Arabic rootdabar, "to be behind," not from דָבָר, "to speak" (Munk, p. 290).[271]In Zerubbabel's and Herod's Temples there was a curtain (Parocheth) before the Holiest; but we read of no such curtain in Solomon's, except in 2 Chron. iii. 14. The fact that the staves of the Ark werevisibleseems to show that there was not one. The chronicler speaks of "thevail" (2 Chron. iii. 14), showing, apparently, that there was only one; and does not mention theMāsak, which hung between the Porch and the Holy Place. Except in 2 Chron. iii. 14, the only mention of either is in the "Priestly Code." Since the Oracle had a door, one hardly sees why there should also have been a curtain. But the whole subject is obscure, and perhaps the chronicler is sometimes thinking of the second Temple.[272]We read nothing, however, of any observance of the Day of Atonement till centuries later.[273]2 Sam. xxiv. 25 (LXX.); 1 Chron. xxii. 1; 2 Chron. iii. 1; Josephus,Antt., I. xiii. 1, VII. xiii. 4; Targum of Onkelos on Gen. xii.[274]"The Ark of the Lord," or "of the Testimony," or "of the Covenant," was an oblong chest of acacia wood, overlaid with gold, surmounted by a border of gold, and resting on four feet, to which (A.V. corners) were attached golden rings.[275]1 Kings viii. 9. The pot of manna and the budded rod of Aaron were placed before it (Exod. xvi. 34; Numb. xvii. 10), and the Book of the Law beside it (Deut. xxxi. 26). The Mercy-seat above was more sacred than the Ark itself (Lev. xvi. 2). It was the cover (Kapporeth, ἐπίθεμα) of the Ark, and was partly formed of two winged cherubim which gazed down upon it and faced each other.[276]Stanley, ii. 203.[277]The Tyrian adornments; the steps to the altar; the ten candlesticks, and tables; the lions and oxen.[278]The Temple was finished in the eighth month of Solomon's eleventh year, and dedicated in the seventh month (Ethanim, or Tisri) of the twelfth year. The first eight days (8th to 15th) were devoted to the Feast of Dedication, and then from the 15th to the 22nd they kept the Feast of Tabernacles. On the 23rd (the eighth day from the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles, called'atsereth, 2 Chron. 10) Solomon dismissed the people. The עֲצֶרֶת, "solemn assembly," is not mentioned in Exodus or Deuteronomy, but in Lev. xxiii. 36.[279]It was perhaps stored away in one of the Temple chambers (2 Macc. ii. 4). The Gibeonites (Nethinim) were at the same time transferred to Jerusalem. The chronicler (2 Chron. v. 6) says thatthe Levitestook the Ark, according to the Levitic rule; but 1 Kings viii. 3 says thatthe priestsbore it, as in Deut. xxxi. 9, and in all the præ-exilic histories (Josh. iii. 3, vi. 6; 2 Sam. xv. 24-29, etc.). W. Robertson Smith, p. 144.[280]The sheykhs are heads of clans; the emîrs of tribes (Reuss, i. 444).[281]The Greek Ἐπιφάνεια. Solomon seems to have had some jurisdiction there (2 Chron. viii. 6).[282]The torrent (nachal) of Egypt.[283]The Holiest, being an unlighted cube, must always have been dim; but, as we have seen, we have no proof that in Solomon's Temple the entrance to it was shrouded by a curtain. In 1 Kings viii. 12, for "The Lord said that He would dwellin the thick darkness," the Targum had "In Jerusalem."[284]In 1 Kings viii. 4 we read that "the priests and the Levites" brought up to Jerusalem "the Tabernacle of the congregation." But the LXX. only has οἱ ἱερεῖς. In 2 Chron. v. 5 the Hebrew text has "the Levites" in some MSS., or "the priests, the Levites"—i.e., the Levitic priests. For "the priests took up the ark" (1 Kings viii. 3) the chronicler has "the Levites" (comp. Numb. iii. 31, iv. 15). It is at least doubtful whether the distinction between priests and Levites is older than the Priestly Code and the days of Ezekiel. Also, the LXX. in 1 Kings viii. 4 puts "witness" for "congregation," and some critics maintain that "congregation" ('edah) is post-exilic. (See Robertson Smith, Enc. Brit., s.v. Kings). Seeinfra, pp.189,190.[285]Some psalm, like Psalm cxxxvi., was probably sung by alternate choirs, but hardly in the attitude of prostration which followed the sudden blaze of glory (2 Chron. vii. 3).[286]"The prayer" is of extreme beauty, but it belongs by its ideas to the seventh and not to the eleventh or tenth centuriesb.c.(Ewald). It is probably added by a later editor who took the Deuteronomic standpoint. It is found, sometimes almost word for word, in Lev. xxvi. and Deut. xxviii.; but there are many variations between the Hebrew and the LXX., and Kings and Chronicles. Looking only at actual facts, not ata prioritheories, we see that, as Professor Driver says (Contemporary Review, Feb. 1890), "the Hebrew historians used some freedom in attributing speeches to historical characters." Thus, both the syntax and vocabulary, to say nothing of the thoughts of various speeches attributed to David by the chronicler, are sometimes such as mark the latest period in the history of the language, and are often quite without precedent in præ-exilic literature. Some feelings which gathered round the Temple find expression in Psalms xxiv., xxvii., xlii., lxxii., lxxxiv., cxxii., and in more extravagant and less spiritual forms throughout the Talmud.Soteh, f. 48;Berachoth, f. 591;Moed Qaton, f. 261, etc.[287]The Khalif Moktader sacrificed at Mecca 40,000 camels and 50,000 sheep (Burton'sPilgrimage, i. 318). Solomon offered burnt offerings (oloth) and thank offerings (shellamim). No mention is made of sin offerings; and it may be doubted whether they had any separate existence till the days of the Exile.[288]1 Kings viii. 66, "went unto theirtents," is a reminiscence of earlier days. The chronicler (1) extends the feast to fourteen days, according to which there is an interpolation, "and seven days, even fourteen days," in verse 65; (2) he says that the sacrifices were consumed by fire from heaven.[289]1 Kings ix. 25. The Hebrew text seems to have been tampered with, and the allusions significantly disappear from 2 Chron. viii. 12, 13. The commentators assiduously try to clear away the difficulty.[290]The scepticism of modern critics, who doubt whether there ever was a Tabernacle in the wilderness at all, seems to be insufficiently grounded.[291]Vit. Mos., iii.;Antt., III. vi. 4, vii. 7;B. J., VII. v. 5.[292]E.g., Origen (Hom., ix.), Clement of Alexandria (Strom., v.), Theodoret (Qu., xl.in Exod.), Jerome (Ep., lxiv.), and others. See Kalisch,Exodus, p. 495.[293]Wisdom ix. 8: "A copy of the holy tabernacle which Thou didst prepare from the beginning."[294]Exod. xxv. 40, xxvi. 30; Acts vii. 44; Heb. viii. 5.[295]More Nebochim, iii, 45-49; Kalisch,Exodus, p. 497.[296]The three names given to the Tabernacle areOhel("tent"),Mishkan("tabernacle," "habitation," or "dwelling-place"), andBaith("house"). It is undoubted that the Tabernacle followed the ordinary construction of the Oriental tent, with its two divisions, of which the interior could not be entered by strangers.[297]Numb. xvii. 7, xviii. 2; 2 Chron. xxiv. 6; Acts vii. 44; Exod. xxix. 10, etc.; 1 Kings viii. 4; 2 Chron. viii. 13. The phrase "Tent of Meeting" in the R.V. removes the complete obscuring of the meaning involved by the A.V. rendering of "Tabernacle of the Congregation."[298]Exod. xxv. 22.[299]Exod. xxix. 42, 43.[300]Kuenen's notion that the cherubim had come to the Jews through the Phœnicians from the Assyrians is quite improbable. The symbol was common throughout the East, whatever be the derivation of the word.[301]Compare Ezek. i. 10 with x. 14, where "the face of an ox" is identical with "the face of a cherub." Perhaps this gave rise to the pagan calumnies that the Jews worshipped an ass. Josephus says (insincerely) that no man could tell or even conjecture the shape of the cherubim.[302]Bähr, whose profound studies on symbolism command respect, says that "as standing on the highest step of created life, and uniting in themselves the most perfect created life, they are the most perfect revelation of God and the Divine" (Symbolik, i. 340).[303]Compare the Homeric epithet νέποδες, and Milton's "smooth-gliding, without step."[304]One of the Scriptural functions of the cherubim wasto guard treasure(Ezek. xxviii. 13-15). This conception, too, was widely diffused throughout the East:—"As when a Gryphon through the wildernessPursues the Arimaspian, who, by stealth,Has from his watchful custody purloinedThe guarded gold."Milton.[305]I follow the Rabbis in saying that the first broken slabs were in the Ark.[306]Like the Greek images of the gods, they were made of olive, the least corruptible kind of wood, and overlaid with the purest gold.[307]See, especially, Deut. xii. 5-19. In the later Priestly Code the centralisation of worship is not inculcated, but supposed to be already established. In the original Book of the Covenant it is not required at all.[308]Judg. ii. 5, vi. 24, viii. 27, xx. 1, xxi. 2, 4; 1 Sam. vii. 9, x. 8, xi. 15, xiii. 9, xvi. 5, etc.[309]ἡ νηστεία (Acts xxvii. 9); Philo,Lib. de Septenariis.[310]Neh. viii. 17.[311]Canon Cook in theSpeaker's Commentary(Leviticus, p. 496) admits: "It is by no means unlikely there are insertions of a later date, which were written and sanctioned by the prophets and holy men whoafter the captivityarranged and edited the Scriptures of the Old Testament."[312]Book by Book, p. 7.[313]See Professor Robertson,Book by Book, p. 56. I quote Professor Robertson as one of the ablest and most competent opponents of extreme conclusions; but it does not seem to me that he touches on some of the arguments which constitute the main strength of the case against him.[314]See 2 Kings xxii. 11; Ezra ix. 1, 7; Neh. ix. 3.[315]"Sacrificia symbolicæ preces" (Outram,De Sacrif., p. 108).[316]Yoma, f. 21,a.[317]On vast ancient holocausts, see Athen.,Deipnos., i. 5; Diod. Sic., xi. 72; Porph.,De abstin., ii. 60; Suet.,Calig., 14; Sen.,De Benef., iii. 27; Ammian. Marcel., xxii. 4, xxv. 4; and other passages collected by the diligence of commentators. See, too, Josephus (B. J., VI. ix. 3) who reckons that at a passover in Nero's time 256,000 sacrifices were offered.[318]Amos vi. 5; 1 Chron. xxiii. 5.[319]Edersheim,The Temple and its Services, p. 54.[320]The chronicler says that there were 38,000 Levites, of which 24,000 were "to oversee the work of the house of the Lord; and 6000 were officers and judges, and 4000 door-keepers; and 4000 praised the Lord with the instruments which I made,"said David, "to praise therewith."[321]Some of these titles of the Psalms are, however, very uncertain. Gesenius thinks that this last title (Psalm ix.) means that the Psalm "was to be sung by boys with virgins' voices." It is, to say the least, a very curious coincidence, that in 1 Chron. xxv. 4 the names of the sons of Heman, Giddalti and Romamti-ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, Mahazioth, mean (omitting the strange Joshbekashah, for which the LXX. Cod. Alex. reads Σεβακαιτάν), consecutively, "I have given | great and high help: | I have spoken | visions | in abundance." Had the names any reference to tunes?[322]Ezra ii. 65; Neh. vii. 67; Psalm lxxxvii. 7.[323]Of these, perhaps, were "the children" who shouted their hosannas to Jesus in the Temple (Matt. xxi. 15).[324]The Temple and its Services, p. 67.[325]Exod. xix. 5, 6.[326]Rev. xv. 6.[327]Comp. Rev. i. 13, xv. 6.[328]On this sagan, the later title for the "second priest," see 2 Kings xxv. 18; Jer. lii. 24.[329]He refers to Wünsche,Die Leiden des Messias.[330]Mark ix. 49.[331]Lev. vi. 17, vii. 1, xiv. 13. On this whole subject see Edersheim, pp. 79-111.[332]See Judg. vi. 19-21; 1 Sam. ii. 13, xiv. 35; 1 Kings xix. 21; 2 Kings v. 17.[333]LXX., ὁλοκαύτωμα.[334]LXX., περὶ ἁμαρτίας.ChattathandAshâmboth imply guilt, debt, sin. "The trespass offering affected rights of property, but no precise definition of the two kinds of expiatory offerings can be based upon the statements made in the Pentateuch in respect to them. Perhaps they cannot all be referred to the same time and to one author; for they prescribe both sin and trespass offerings in cases of Levitical impurity, and also for moral offences. All Levites attempting to establish palpable distinctions between them must inevitably fail." (Kalisch,Leviticus, part ii., p. 272). The general scheme of sacrifices, as they now stand in the Pentateuch, is as follows:—

Hir-hor==Notem.|Piankhi.|Pinotem I.|+--------+---------+|                  |Pisebkhan I.      Men-khepher-ra.|+-------------+----------+-----+|             |                |Pinotem II.   Pisebkhan II.     Ker'amat(a daughter).

[199]See Deut. xxiii. 7, 8.

[200]Schwab'sBerakhoth, p. 252; Hershon,Treasures of the Talmud, p. 25. In Sanhedrin, ff. 21, 22, there is another trace of the dislike with which the marriage (though not forbidden, Deut. xxiii. 7, 8) was regarded: "When Solomon married the daughter of Pharaoh, Gabriel descended and fixed a reed in the sea. A sandbank formed around it on whichRomewas subsequently built." In Shabbath, ff. 51, 52, we are told that "the princess brought with her one thousand different kinds of musical instruments, andtaught Solomon the chants to his various idols."

[201]No trace of any such misgiving is found in the Book of Kings.

[202]"Seine Liebhaberei sind kostbare Bauten, fremde Weiber, reiche Prachtentfaltung" (Kittel, ii. 160).

[203]Perhaps rather "the grandson." He was the son of Ahimaaz (comp. Gen. xxix. 5; Ezra v. 1, whereson = grandson).

[204]Shisha and Shavsha are perhaps corruptions of Seraiah (2 Sam. viii. 17).

[205]Comp. Esth. vi. 1. LXX., Isa. xxxvi. 3, ὁ ὑπομνηματογράφος 2 Sam. viii. 17, ὁ ἐπὶ τῶν ὑπομνημάτων. Jerome, "a commentariis." Comp. Suet.,Aug.79, "qui e memoria Augusti."

[206]It is a somewhat ominous fact thatnetsibmeans properly an ἐπιτειχισμός, a garrison in a hostile country.

[207]The king's friend (2 Sam. xv. 37) seems to have been a sort of confidential privy councillor (Prov. xxii. 11).

[208]Isa. xxii. 21.

[209]2 Sam. xx. 24.

[210]Possibly this clause is an interpolation.

[211]2 Sam. viii. 18. Even "Ira the Jairite" is called "a priest" (2 Sam. xx. 26). An attempt has been made to explain the word away because it obviously clashes with Levitic ordinances; but the word "priest" could not be used in two different senses in two consecutive lines. Dogmatic considerations have tampered with the obvious meaning of the word. The LXX. omits it, and in the case of David's sons calls them αὐλάρχαι. The A.V. renders it "chief officer." The Vulgate wrongly refers it to Zadok (filius Sadocsacerdotis). Movers (Krit. Unters., 301 ff.) renders it "court chaplains." Already in 1 Chron. xviii. 17 we find that the title gave offence, and we read instead, "And the sons of Davidwere at the hand of the king" (see Ewald,Alterthumsk, p. 276). Compare the title "Bishop of Osnaburg," borne by Frederick, Duke of York, son of George III.

[212]2 Sam. v. 14; Zech. xii. 12; Luke iii. 31.

[213]The degraded and ominous apparitions ofSarisim(eunuchs) probably began at the court of Solomon on a large scale, though the name occurs in the days of David (1 Sam. viii. 15; 1 Chron. xxviii. 1). In the Northern Kingdom we first hear of them in the harem of the polygamous Ahab.

[214]2 Kings xviii. 18; Isa. xxii. 15.

[215]2 Sam. xx. 24. He is not mentioned in 1 Chron. xxvii. 25-31.

[216]This use of patronymics only is common among the Arabs, but not in Scripture (Reuss,Hist. d. Isr., i. 423).

[217]If he was the son of David's elder brother (1 Sam. xvi. 8, xvii. 13) he was Solomon's first cousin. The materialistic or non-religious element in Solomon seems to come out in the names of his only known children. The element "Jehovah," afterwards so universal, does not occur in them. Basmath, characteristically, means "fragrant"; Taphath is perhaps connected with טָפַת, to go mincingly; Rehoboam means "enlarger of the people."

[218]The LXX. indeed reads καὶ νασὲφ εἷς ἐν γῇ Ἰούδα ("and he was the only officer in the land of Judah"). But this would make thirteen fiscal overseers. The Targum, adopting the same reading, says that the thirteenthnitzabwas to maintain the king in the intercalary month.

[219]Taking thecorat a low estimate this would amount to eighteen thousand pounds of bread a day.

[220]1 Kings iv. 23, בַּרְבֻּרִים. Vulg.,Avium altilium.

[221]Athen.,Deipnos., iv. 146.

[222]2 Sam. iv. 6 (LXX.).

[223]This description ofagriculturalfelicity soon became an anachronism.

[224]Not "dromedaries" (A.V.). The ruins of his stables are still pointed out at Jerusalem. He traded with Egypt for horses and chariots which his merchants brought to Tekoa, and he then sold them at a profit to the Hittite princes. The forty thousand stalls of 1 Kings iv. 26 should doubtless be four thousand (2 Chron. ix. 25), as Solomon only had fourteen hundred chariots (1 Kings x. 26). In 1 Kings x. 28 the meaning and reading is "as for the export of horses, which Solomon got from Egypteven from Tekoa" (LXX., καὶ ὲκ θεκουὲ), "the royal merchants used to fetch a troop of horses at a price." The "linen yarn" of the A.V. is a mistranslation.

[225]Cant. i. 9.

[226]1 Kings v. 6, ix. 19, x. 26, 28. Two of those passages are omitted in the LXX. Comp. 1 Kings xvi. 9.

[227]Deut. xvii. 16.

[228]Josh. xi. 9; 1 Sam. viii. 11, 12; 2 Sam. viii. 4.

[229]The energetic dislike to the importation or use of horses is also found in Isa. ii. 7, xxx. 16, 17, xxxi. 1-3; Micah v. 10-14; Zech. ix. 10, x. 5, xii. 4.

[230]Psalm xxxiii. 17, lxxvi. 6, cxlvii. 10.

[231]Compare Poludemos, Eurudemos.

[232]Xen.,Anab., i. 4, 11; Arrian, ii. 13, iii. 7. For the phrase "onthisside of the river," seeante, p.18.

[233]Psalm lxxviii. 58-64.

[234]According to 2 Chron. i. 3.

[235]David's suggestion does not seem to have been received favourably at first (2 Sam. vii. 1-17). The chronicler (1 Chron. xxviii. 19) indulges in the amazing hyperbole that David had been made to understand all the works of the pattern of the Temple "in writingfrom the hand of the Lord."

[236]The ancient Israelites named their months from the seasons, as did the Canaanites. Only four of those old names are preserved in the Bible:Zif, "brightness" (comp.Floreal,Lenz);Bul, "rain-month" (Pluviose);Abib, "corn-ear month";Ethanim, "fruit-month" (Fructidor).

[237]In 1 Kings vi. 1 we read "in the 480th year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt." This may possibly be a later gloss. The LXX., Origen, Josephus, etc., omit the words, and the Old Testament does not, as a rule, date events by epochs. Further, the date is full of difficulties, though our received chronology is based on it. It was perhaps arrived at after the Exile, by counting backwards from the Decree of Cyrus,b.c.535. Seenoteat the end of the volume.

[238]1 Chron. xxii. 14 says that David (comp. xxviii., xxix.) "with much labour" (A.V., "in my trouble," 1 Chron. xxii. 14) bequeathed to Solomon 100,000 talents of gold and 100,000 talents of silver! This impossible number is very considerably reduced in 1 Chron. xxix. 4, where the mention ofdaricsshows an author living in the captivity.

[239]Comp. Ezek. xxvii. 17; Acts xii. 20.

[240]According to Tatian,Orat. ad Græc., p. 171, Solomon married a daughter of Hiram. Hiram, like the Queen of Sheba, acknowledges Jehovah as the (local) God of Israel. He was the son of Abibaal, and, according to Menander (a Greek historian of Ephesus aboutb.c.300, who consulted Tyrian records), he began to reign at nineteen, and reigned thirty-four years. Josephus thinks that there were two successive Hirams.

[241]Giblim, 1 Kings v. 18, where "and the stone-squarers" should be "and especially the men of Gebal." LXX., Alex., οἱ Βίβλιοι; Vulg.,Giblii, Comp. Ezek. xxvii. 9, Psalm lxxxiii. 7, "The ancients of Gebal and the wise thereof were in thee." It is now Jebeil, between Beyrout and Tripoli. The Phœnician and Sidonian artisans were famous from the earliest antiquity for metal-work, embroidery, dyes, ship-building, and the fine arts (Hom.,Il., xxiii. 743;Od., iv. 614-18, xv. 425; Herod., iii. 19, vii. 23, 96, etc.).

[242]2 Chron. ii. 13, iv. 16, where "a cunning man of Huram my father's" should be "even Huram, my father,"i.e., master-workman or deviser (comp. Gen. xlv. 8). In Chronicles he is called the son of a Danite mother. Here we have another of the manipulations used by later Jewish tradition to get rid of what they disliked; for in Eupolemos (Euseb.,Præp. Evang., ix. 34) Hiram is said to belong to the family of David. "Quite a little romance," as Wellhausen says, "has been constructed out of the fact that the chronicler assigns his mother to the tribe of Dan; but it is not worth repeating, being a mass of hypotheses." To the dislike of Sidonian and semi-Sidonian influence, we perhaps owe the notion that David had already received a design from the hand of God Himself (1 Chron. xxviii. 11-19) (Ewald, iii. 227). Jerome mentions the Jewish fable that the artist Hiram was of the family of Aholiab, the artist of the wilderness.

[243]"Araunah the king" (2 Sam. xxiv. 23). The Temple Mount was usually called the "Mount of the House." It is only called Mount Moriah in 2 Chron. iii. 1. It cannot be regarded as certain that "the land of Moriah" (Gen. xxii. 2) is identical with it.

[244]"The present platform is 1521 feet long on the east, 940 on the south, 1617 on the west, 1020 on the north." Bartlett,Walks about Jerusalem, pp. 161-70; Williams,The Holy City, pp. 315-62. Kugle,Gesch. der Baukunst, p. 125. The excellent stone was supplied by quarries at Jerusalem itself. Comp. "Cavati sub terra montes." (Tac.,Hist., v. 12). It may have been extended by Justinian when he built his church. See Ewald, iii. 232, "The Mount of the Temple was 500 yards square";Middoth, c. 2. Comp. Ezek. xiii. 15-20, xlv. 2; Josephus,Antt., XV. xi. 3.

[245]Exod. i., ii.

[246]1 Kings iv. 6, v. 13, 14, 17, 18, ix. 15, 21, xii. 18.

[247]Ewald thinks that it was only "at the beginning" that Solomon, like Sesostris (Diod. Sic.,Hist., i. 56), could boast that his work was done without exacting bitter labour from his own countrymen. But 1 Kings ix. 22 shows that the king's opinion on this subject differed widely from that of his people (1 Kings xi. 28, xii. 3); for we are told that he did not makeservantsof the children of Israel, but used them as military officers (Sarim) and chariot-warriors (Shalishim, τριστάται) and knights. It required a little euphemism to gild the real state of affairs. The details of numbers in the Books of Chronicles differ from those in the Kings.

[248]1 Kings v. 13, ix. 22; 2 Chron. viii. 9. (Omitted in the LXX.)

[249]In token of this defeat of Solomon he was represented in a statue outside the church leaning his hand on his cheek with a gesture of sorrow.

[250]Professor Williams,Prolus. Architectonicæ.

[251]Professor Hoskins (Enc. Brit.); Canina,Jewish Antiquities; Thrupp,Ancient Jerusalem; Count de Vogüé,Le Temple de Jérusalem.

[252]Fergusson,Temples of the Jews; E. Robbins,Temple of Solomon.

[253]Eupolemos (Euseb.,Præp. Evang., ix. 30) and Alex. Polyhistor (Clem. Alex.,Strom., i. 21) idly talk of help furnished to Solomon in building the Temple by an Egyptian King Vaphres, and of letters interchanged between them. Vaphres seems to be a mere anachronism for Hophra.

[254]The Phœnician style may, however, have been borrowed in part from Egypt.

[255]I have spoken of the Temple inSolomon and his Times(Men of the Bible), and have there furnished some illustrations. The following special authorities may be referred to. Stade, i. 311-57, Friederich,Tempel und Palast Salomo's(Innsbruck, 1887); Chipiez et Perrot,Le Temple de Jérusalem(Paris, 1889); Warren,Underground Jerusalem; Wilson and Warren,Recov. of Jerusalem(1871).

[256]Parbarim(2 Kings xxiii. 11). Comp. 1 Chron. xxvi. 18 (A.V., "suburbs"; R.V., "precincts" and "Parbar"). Descriptions of the Temple, imperfect, and not always accordant with each other, are found in 1 Kings v.-vii.; 2 Chron. ii.-v.; Josephus,Antt., VIII. iii. 7, 8.

[257]As we infer from Psalms lii. 8, lxxxiv. 3, lxxvi. 2 (where "tabernacle" should be "covert"). Eupolemos (ap.Euseb.,Præp. Evang., etc.). Scattered passages of the Talmud which refer mainly to Herod's Temple are full of extravagances.

[258]Jer. xxxvi. 10.

[259]2 Chron. iv. 1. This could not have been the brazen altar of the wilderness, the fate of which we do not know. It was far larger, but probably on the same model, except that steps were forbidden as an approach to the altar of the Tabernacle (Exod. xx. 24-26). It is difficult to reconcile the description of the brazen altar with the distinct prohibition of that passage. Comp. Ezek. xliii. 17.

[260]The huge stone vase of Amathus was borne on a bull (Duncker, ii. 184). Josephus says that in making these oxen Solomon broke the law (Antt., VIII. vii. 5), as well as by the lions on his throne. The Romans called huge vaseslacus.

[261]The descriptions of these lavers, whether in the Hebrew, the LXX., or Josephus, are not intelligible, and are wholly unimportant.

[262]Like the palace of Ecbatana (Polyb., x. 27, 10; Herod., i. 98), and possibly the upper stories of the great temple of Bel at Birs-Nimrud (Borsippa).

[263]In 1 Kings x. 12 "pillars" should be "a rail" or "balustrade." Heb., מִסְעָד; LXX., ὑποστηρίγματα; Vulg.,fulcra.

[264]Lilies symbolised beauty and innocence; pomegranates good works (so the Chaldee in Cant. iv. 13, vi. 11, Bähr,Symbol., ii. 122). Raphael crowns his Theology with pomegranates, Giotto places a pomegranate in the hand of his youthful Dante, and Giovanni Bellini in the hand of the Virgin Mary.

[265]Some suppose that the words imply "He will establish" (Jachin) "in strength" (Boaz). "After some favourite persons of the time, perhaps young sons of Solomon," says Ewald, very improbably. LXX. (2 Chron. iii. 17), Κατόρθωσις and Ἰσχύς. See a description of these pillars in Jer. lii. 21-23.

[266]Some writers have supplied the Temple with a porch 180 feet high, misled by the astounding method of the chronicler of adding the four sides into the total. Thus, he tells us that the wings of the cherubim were 30 feet long, meaning that each single wing was 7½ feet long (2 Chron. iii. 11). Josephus does the same in telling us the height of the Temple wall.

[267]The ground plans of most ancient temples were alike.

[268]2 Sam. viii. 7; 1 Chron. xviii. 7.

[269]So 2 Chron. iv. 8. But it would seem from 1 Kings vii. 48; 2 Chron. xiii. 11, xxix. 18 that only one table and one candlestick were ordinarily used.

[270]St. Jerome rendereddebirbyoraculum, but some derive it from the Arabic rootdabar, "to be behind," not from דָבָר, "to speak" (Munk, p. 290).

[271]In Zerubbabel's and Herod's Temples there was a curtain (Parocheth) before the Holiest; but we read of no such curtain in Solomon's, except in 2 Chron. iii. 14. The fact that the staves of the Ark werevisibleseems to show that there was not one. The chronicler speaks of "thevail" (2 Chron. iii. 14), showing, apparently, that there was only one; and does not mention theMāsak, which hung between the Porch and the Holy Place. Except in 2 Chron. iii. 14, the only mention of either is in the "Priestly Code." Since the Oracle had a door, one hardly sees why there should also have been a curtain. But the whole subject is obscure, and perhaps the chronicler is sometimes thinking of the second Temple.

[272]We read nothing, however, of any observance of the Day of Atonement till centuries later.

[273]2 Sam. xxiv. 25 (LXX.); 1 Chron. xxii. 1; 2 Chron. iii. 1; Josephus,Antt., I. xiii. 1, VII. xiii. 4; Targum of Onkelos on Gen. xii.

[274]"The Ark of the Lord," or "of the Testimony," or "of the Covenant," was an oblong chest of acacia wood, overlaid with gold, surmounted by a border of gold, and resting on four feet, to which (A.V. corners) were attached golden rings.

[275]1 Kings viii. 9. The pot of manna and the budded rod of Aaron were placed before it (Exod. xvi. 34; Numb. xvii. 10), and the Book of the Law beside it (Deut. xxxi. 26). The Mercy-seat above was more sacred than the Ark itself (Lev. xvi. 2). It was the cover (Kapporeth, ἐπίθεμα) of the Ark, and was partly formed of two winged cherubim which gazed down upon it and faced each other.

[276]Stanley, ii. 203.

[277]The Tyrian adornments; the steps to the altar; the ten candlesticks, and tables; the lions and oxen.

[278]The Temple was finished in the eighth month of Solomon's eleventh year, and dedicated in the seventh month (Ethanim, or Tisri) of the twelfth year. The first eight days (8th to 15th) were devoted to the Feast of Dedication, and then from the 15th to the 22nd they kept the Feast of Tabernacles. On the 23rd (the eighth day from the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles, called'atsereth, 2 Chron. 10) Solomon dismissed the people. The עֲצֶרֶת, "solemn assembly," is not mentioned in Exodus or Deuteronomy, but in Lev. xxiii. 36.

[279]It was perhaps stored away in one of the Temple chambers (2 Macc. ii. 4). The Gibeonites (Nethinim) were at the same time transferred to Jerusalem. The chronicler (2 Chron. v. 6) says thatthe Levitestook the Ark, according to the Levitic rule; but 1 Kings viii. 3 says thatthe priestsbore it, as in Deut. xxxi. 9, and in all the præ-exilic histories (Josh. iii. 3, vi. 6; 2 Sam. xv. 24-29, etc.). W. Robertson Smith, p. 144.

[280]The sheykhs are heads of clans; the emîrs of tribes (Reuss, i. 444).

[281]The Greek Ἐπιφάνεια. Solomon seems to have had some jurisdiction there (2 Chron. viii. 6).

[282]The torrent (nachal) of Egypt.

[283]The Holiest, being an unlighted cube, must always have been dim; but, as we have seen, we have no proof that in Solomon's Temple the entrance to it was shrouded by a curtain. In 1 Kings viii. 12, for "The Lord said that He would dwellin the thick darkness," the Targum had "In Jerusalem."

[284]In 1 Kings viii. 4 we read that "the priests and the Levites" brought up to Jerusalem "the Tabernacle of the congregation." But the LXX. only has οἱ ἱερεῖς. In 2 Chron. v. 5 the Hebrew text has "the Levites" in some MSS., or "the priests, the Levites"—i.e., the Levitic priests. For "the priests took up the ark" (1 Kings viii. 3) the chronicler has "the Levites" (comp. Numb. iii. 31, iv. 15). It is at least doubtful whether the distinction between priests and Levites is older than the Priestly Code and the days of Ezekiel. Also, the LXX. in 1 Kings viii. 4 puts "witness" for "congregation," and some critics maintain that "congregation" ('edah) is post-exilic. (See Robertson Smith, Enc. Brit., s.v. Kings). Seeinfra, pp.189,190.

[285]Some psalm, like Psalm cxxxvi., was probably sung by alternate choirs, but hardly in the attitude of prostration which followed the sudden blaze of glory (2 Chron. vii. 3).

[286]"The prayer" is of extreme beauty, but it belongs by its ideas to the seventh and not to the eleventh or tenth centuriesb.c.(Ewald). It is probably added by a later editor who took the Deuteronomic standpoint. It is found, sometimes almost word for word, in Lev. xxvi. and Deut. xxviii.; but there are many variations between the Hebrew and the LXX., and Kings and Chronicles. Looking only at actual facts, not ata prioritheories, we see that, as Professor Driver says (Contemporary Review, Feb. 1890), "the Hebrew historians used some freedom in attributing speeches to historical characters." Thus, both the syntax and vocabulary, to say nothing of the thoughts of various speeches attributed to David by the chronicler, are sometimes such as mark the latest period in the history of the language, and are often quite without precedent in præ-exilic literature. Some feelings which gathered round the Temple find expression in Psalms xxiv., xxvii., xlii., lxxii., lxxxiv., cxxii., and in more extravagant and less spiritual forms throughout the Talmud.Soteh, f. 48;Berachoth, f. 591;Moed Qaton, f. 261, etc.

[287]The Khalif Moktader sacrificed at Mecca 40,000 camels and 50,000 sheep (Burton'sPilgrimage, i. 318). Solomon offered burnt offerings (oloth) and thank offerings (shellamim). No mention is made of sin offerings; and it may be doubted whether they had any separate existence till the days of the Exile.

[288]1 Kings viii. 66, "went unto theirtents," is a reminiscence of earlier days. The chronicler (1) extends the feast to fourteen days, according to which there is an interpolation, "and seven days, even fourteen days," in verse 65; (2) he says that the sacrifices were consumed by fire from heaven.

[289]1 Kings ix. 25. The Hebrew text seems to have been tampered with, and the allusions significantly disappear from 2 Chron. viii. 12, 13. The commentators assiduously try to clear away the difficulty.

[290]The scepticism of modern critics, who doubt whether there ever was a Tabernacle in the wilderness at all, seems to be insufficiently grounded.

[291]Vit. Mos., iii.;Antt., III. vi. 4, vii. 7;B. J., VII. v. 5.

[292]E.g., Origen (Hom., ix.), Clement of Alexandria (Strom., v.), Theodoret (Qu., xl.in Exod.), Jerome (Ep., lxiv.), and others. See Kalisch,Exodus, p. 495.

[293]Wisdom ix. 8: "A copy of the holy tabernacle which Thou didst prepare from the beginning."

[294]Exod. xxv. 40, xxvi. 30; Acts vii. 44; Heb. viii. 5.

[295]More Nebochim, iii, 45-49; Kalisch,Exodus, p. 497.

[296]The three names given to the Tabernacle areOhel("tent"),Mishkan("tabernacle," "habitation," or "dwelling-place"), andBaith("house"). It is undoubted that the Tabernacle followed the ordinary construction of the Oriental tent, with its two divisions, of which the interior could not be entered by strangers.

[297]Numb. xvii. 7, xviii. 2; 2 Chron. xxiv. 6; Acts vii. 44; Exod. xxix. 10, etc.; 1 Kings viii. 4; 2 Chron. viii. 13. The phrase "Tent of Meeting" in the R.V. removes the complete obscuring of the meaning involved by the A.V. rendering of "Tabernacle of the Congregation."

[298]Exod. xxv. 22.

[299]Exod. xxix. 42, 43.

[300]Kuenen's notion that the cherubim had come to the Jews through the Phœnicians from the Assyrians is quite improbable. The symbol was common throughout the East, whatever be the derivation of the word.

[301]Compare Ezek. i. 10 with x. 14, where "the face of an ox" is identical with "the face of a cherub." Perhaps this gave rise to the pagan calumnies that the Jews worshipped an ass. Josephus says (insincerely) that no man could tell or even conjecture the shape of the cherubim.

[302]Bähr, whose profound studies on symbolism command respect, says that "as standing on the highest step of created life, and uniting in themselves the most perfect created life, they are the most perfect revelation of God and the Divine" (Symbolik, i. 340).

[303]Compare the Homeric epithet νέποδες, and Milton's "smooth-gliding, without step."

[304]One of the Scriptural functions of the cherubim wasto guard treasure(Ezek. xxviii. 13-15). This conception, too, was widely diffused throughout the East:—

"As when a Gryphon through the wildernessPursues the Arimaspian, who, by stealth,Has from his watchful custody purloinedThe guarded gold."Milton.

"As when a Gryphon through the wildernessPursues the Arimaspian, who, by stealth,Has from his watchful custody purloinedThe guarded gold."Milton.

[305]I follow the Rabbis in saying that the first broken slabs were in the Ark.

[306]Like the Greek images of the gods, they were made of olive, the least corruptible kind of wood, and overlaid with the purest gold.

[307]See, especially, Deut. xii. 5-19. In the later Priestly Code the centralisation of worship is not inculcated, but supposed to be already established. In the original Book of the Covenant it is not required at all.

[308]Judg. ii. 5, vi. 24, viii. 27, xx. 1, xxi. 2, 4; 1 Sam. vii. 9, x. 8, xi. 15, xiii. 9, xvi. 5, etc.

[309]ἡ νηστεία (Acts xxvii. 9); Philo,Lib. de Septenariis.

[310]Neh. viii. 17.

[311]Canon Cook in theSpeaker's Commentary(Leviticus, p. 496) admits: "It is by no means unlikely there are insertions of a later date, which were written and sanctioned by the prophets and holy men whoafter the captivityarranged and edited the Scriptures of the Old Testament."

[312]Book by Book, p. 7.

[313]See Professor Robertson,Book by Book, p. 56. I quote Professor Robertson as one of the ablest and most competent opponents of extreme conclusions; but it does not seem to me that he touches on some of the arguments which constitute the main strength of the case against him.

[314]See 2 Kings xxii. 11; Ezra ix. 1, 7; Neh. ix. 3.

[315]"Sacrificia symbolicæ preces" (Outram,De Sacrif., p. 108).

[316]Yoma, f. 21,a.

[317]On vast ancient holocausts, see Athen.,Deipnos., i. 5; Diod. Sic., xi. 72; Porph.,De abstin., ii. 60; Suet.,Calig., 14; Sen.,De Benef., iii. 27; Ammian. Marcel., xxii. 4, xxv. 4; and other passages collected by the diligence of commentators. See, too, Josephus (B. J., VI. ix. 3) who reckons that at a passover in Nero's time 256,000 sacrifices were offered.

[318]Amos vi. 5; 1 Chron. xxiii. 5.

[319]Edersheim,The Temple and its Services, p. 54.

[320]The chronicler says that there were 38,000 Levites, of which 24,000 were "to oversee the work of the house of the Lord; and 6000 were officers and judges, and 4000 door-keepers; and 4000 praised the Lord with the instruments which I made,"said David, "to praise therewith."

[321]Some of these titles of the Psalms are, however, very uncertain. Gesenius thinks that this last title (Psalm ix.) means that the Psalm "was to be sung by boys with virgins' voices." It is, to say the least, a very curious coincidence, that in 1 Chron. xxv. 4 the names of the sons of Heman, Giddalti and Romamti-ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, Mahazioth, mean (omitting the strange Joshbekashah, for which the LXX. Cod. Alex. reads Σεβακαιτάν), consecutively, "I have given | great and high help: | I have spoken | visions | in abundance." Had the names any reference to tunes?

[322]Ezra ii. 65; Neh. vii. 67; Psalm lxxxvii. 7.

[323]Of these, perhaps, were "the children" who shouted their hosannas to Jesus in the Temple (Matt. xxi. 15).

[324]The Temple and its Services, p. 67.

[325]Exod. xix. 5, 6.

[326]Rev. xv. 6.

[327]Comp. Rev. i. 13, xv. 6.

[328]On this sagan, the later title for the "second priest," see 2 Kings xxv. 18; Jer. lii. 24.

[329]He refers to Wünsche,Die Leiden des Messias.

[330]Mark ix. 49.

[331]Lev. vi. 17, vii. 1, xiv. 13. On this whole subject see Edersheim, pp. 79-111.

[332]See Judg. vi. 19-21; 1 Sam. ii. 13, xiv. 35; 1 Kings xix. 21; 2 Kings v. 17.

[333]LXX., ὁλοκαύτωμα.

[334]LXX., περὶ ἁμαρτίας.ChattathandAshâmboth imply guilt, debt, sin. "The trespass offering affected rights of property, but no precise definition of the two kinds of expiatory offerings can be based upon the statements made in the Pentateuch in respect to them. Perhaps they cannot all be referred to the same time and to one author; for they prescribe both sin and trespass offerings in cases of Levitical impurity, and also for moral offences. All Levites attempting to establish palpable distinctions between them must inevitably fail." (Kalisch,Leviticus, part ii., p. 272). The general scheme of sacrifices, as they now stand in the Pentateuch, is as follows:—


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