FOOTNOTES:

Thus there was connected with the building of the temple by Solomon, not only the reunion of the families of the tribe of Levi—if these even previously had formed a separate tribe;—by means of adoption from all the families which for generations had been dedicated to the sacred rites, the formation and separation of the priestly order became perfect.[367]At first, without any independent position, this order was dependent on the protection of the monarchy, which built the temple for it, and the importance of the priests was increased with the splendour of the worship. At the head of the new order stood the priests of the ark of Jehovah, who had already, in earlier times, maintained a pre-eminent position, which was now increased considerably by the reform in the worship. But they also were dependent on the court, though they soon came to exercise a certain influence upon it. As David had made Zadok and Abiathar high priests, so Solomon removed Abiathar and transferred the highest priestly office to Zadok, of the branch of Eleazar. Far more important than the position of the priesthood at the court was the feeling and consciousness of the mission given tothem, of the duties and rights, to which the priesthood attained when combined in the new society. As they were at pains to practise a worship pleasing to Jehovah, they succeeded even before Solomon in discovering an established connection between the past and the present of the nation, in recognising the covenant which Jehovah had made with his people. From isolated records, traditions, and old customs they collected the law of ritual in the manner which they considered as established from antiquity, the observation of which was, from their point of view, the maintenance of the covenant into which Israel had entered with his God. This was the light in which, even in David's time, the fortunes of Israel appeared to the priests, and from this point of view they were recorded in the first decade of David's reign. The order which the priests required for the worship, its unity, centralisation and adornment, the exact obedience to the ritual which was considered by them true and pleasing to God, the position which the priesthood had now obtained, or claimed, appeared to them as already ordained and current in the time when Jehovah saved his people with a mighty arm, and led them from Egypt to Canaan. They had been thrust into the background and forgotten, owing to the guilt and backsliding of later times. Now the time was come to establish in power the true and ancient ordinances of Moses in real earnest, and to restore them. It was of striking ethical importance, that by these views the present was placed in near relation and the closest combination with a sublime antiquity, with the foundation of the religious ordinances. The impulse to religious feeling which arose out of these views and efforts found expression in a lyrical poetry of penetrating force. David had not only attempted simple songs, but also, as we have seen,more extended invocations of Jehovah; and the skilled musical accompaniment which now came to the aid of religious song in the families of the musicians, must have contributed to still greater elevation and choice of expression. The intensity of religious feeling and its expression in sacred songs must also have come into contact more especially with that impulse which had hitherto been represented in the seers and prophets, who believed that they apprehended the will of Jehovah in their own breasts, and, in consequence of their favoured relation to him, understood his commands by virtue of internal illumination. All these impulses operated beyond the priestly order. In union with the lofty spiritual activity of the people, they led, in the first instance, to the result that in the last years of Solomon the annalistic account of the fortunes of the people and the record of the law was accompanied by a narrative of greater liveliness, of a deeper and clearer view of the divine and human nature (I. 386), which at the same time, in the fate of Joseph, gave especial prominence to the newly-obtained knowledge of Egyptian life, the service rendered by the daughter of the king of Egypt to the great leader of Israel in the ancient times, the blessing derived from the friendly relations of Israel and Egypt, and the distress brought upon Egypt by the breach with Israel.

FOOTNOTES:[326]Bathsheba became David's wife not long before the capture of Rabbath-Ammon. Her first child died. According to 1 Kings iii. 7, Solomon, at the time of his accession, is still a boy. But since, according to 1 Kings xiv. 21, his son Rehoboam is 42 years old at Solomon's death, and Solomon had reigned 40 years, Solomon must have been more than 20 at the death of David. Hence, on p. 155 above, the date of the capture of Rabbath-Ammon is fixed at 1015B.C.[327]1 Kings ii. 15.[328]1 Kings iii. 1. From the statement in 1 Kings xi. 14-21, this must have been the daughter of Amenophtis, the Pharaoh who succeeded the king mentioned here, the fourth Tanite in Manetho's list. Below, Book IV. chap. 3.[329]1 Kings ix. 16.[330]1 Kings xi. 23-25.[331]2 Chron. viii. 3.[332]2 Chron. vii. 8; viii. 4; 1 Kings ix. 18; Joseph. "Antiq." 8, 6, 1. The passage in the Book of Kings appears, it is true, to indicate Thamar in Southern Judæa.[333]1 Kings v. 7-10, 15-17.[334]1 Kings vii. 46.[335]1 Kings vi., vii. 13-51; 2 Chron. iii. 4, 10.[336]A similar vessel of stone, 30 feet in circumference, adorned with the image of a bull, lies among the fragments of Amathus in Cyprus: O. Müller, "Archæologie," § 240, Anm. 4.[337]1 Kings ix. 25.[338]1 Kings vii. 1-12.[339]1 Kings x. 12; 2 Chron. ix. 11.[340]1 Kings vii. 7.[341]1 Kings x. 18-20.[342]The Song of Solomon says, "There are 60 queens, 80 concubines, and maids without number."[343]1 Kings ix. 10, 24.[344]1 Kings ix. 15-19.[345]1 Kings xi. 27; ix. 15-24.[346]1 Kings iv. 26; x. 26.[347]1 Kings iv. 20, 25; v. 4.[348]1 Kings ix. 19.[349]1 Kings x. 29.[350]1 Kings ix. 26-28; x. 22.[351]Judges xvii. 10. The Hebrew silver shekel is to be reckoned at more than 2s.6d.; the gold shekel from 36 to 45s.Cf. Vol. i. 304.[352]2 Sam. xxiv. 24.[353]Song of Solomon viii. 11; cf. Mover's "Phœnizier," 3, 48 ff, 81 ff.[354]1 Kings x. 14.[355]1 Kings ix. 19.[356]1 Kings x. 21; 2 Chron. ix. 20.[357]Song of Solomon iii. 7-10.[358]1 Kings x. 27.[359]1 Kings x. 27.[360]1 Kings iv. 29-34.[361]1 Kings iv. 22, 23, 26-28.[362]1 Kings ix. 20, 21. In order to prove that Solomon used these and no others for his workmen, the Chronicles (2, ii. 16, 17) reckon this remnant at 153,000 men,i. e.exactly at the number of task workmen with their overseers given in the Book of Kings. According to this the incredible number of half a million of Canaanites must have settled among the Israelites. The general assertion of the Books of Kings (1, ix. 22) is supported by the detailed evidence in the same books, 1, v. 13; xi. 28; xii. 4 ff.[363]1 Kings iv. 11-15; v. 13-18.[364]1 Kings ix. 10-14. The contradictory statement in Chronicles (2, viii. 2) cannot be taken into consideration.[365]1 Kings xi. 4-9, 33. Though this account belongs to times no earlier than the author of Deuteronomy, yet since the destruction of these places of worship "set up by Solomon" is expressly mentioned under Josiah (2 Kings xxiii. 13), it cannot be doubted.[366]1 Chron. xxiv.-xxvii. Here, as is usual in the Chronicles, the division of the priests is given systematically, and the idea of such a division is ascribed to the last years of David. "The Levites were numbered according to David's last commands," 1 Chron. xxiv.; cf. cap. xxvii. Throughout the Chronicles make a point of exhibiting David as the originator, and Solomon as the executive instrument. We must content ourselves with the result that the temple is of decisive importance in separating the priests from the people, and for gathering together and organising the order.[367]It appears that the lists of the priestly families were taken down in writing when the organisation of the order was concluded: Nehem. vii. 64.

[326]Bathsheba became David's wife not long before the capture of Rabbath-Ammon. Her first child died. According to 1 Kings iii. 7, Solomon, at the time of his accession, is still a boy. But since, according to 1 Kings xiv. 21, his son Rehoboam is 42 years old at Solomon's death, and Solomon had reigned 40 years, Solomon must have been more than 20 at the death of David. Hence, on p. 155 above, the date of the capture of Rabbath-Ammon is fixed at 1015B.C.

[327]1 Kings ii. 15.

[328]1 Kings iii. 1. From the statement in 1 Kings xi. 14-21, this must have been the daughter of Amenophtis, the Pharaoh who succeeded the king mentioned here, the fourth Tanite in Manetho's list. Below, Book IV. chap. 3.

[329]1 Kings ix. 16.

[330]1 Kings xi. 23-25.

[331]2 Chron. viii. 3.

[332]2 Chron. vii. 8; viii. 4; 1 Kings ix. 18; Joseph. "Antiq." 8, 6, 1. The passage in the Book of Kings appears, it is true, to indicate Thamar in Southern Judæa.

[333]1 Kings v. 7-10, 15-17.

[334]1 Kings vii. 46.

[335]1 Kings vi., vii. 13-51; 2 Chron. iii. 4, 10.

[336]A similar vessel of stone, 30 feet in circumference, adorned with the image of a bull, lies among the fragments of Amathus in Cyprus: O. Müller, "Archæologie," § 240, Anm. 4.

[337]1 Kings ix. 25.

[338]1 Kings vii. 1-12.

[339]1 Kings x. 12; 2 Chron. ix. 11.

[340]1 Kings vii. 7.

[341]1 Kings x. 18-20.

[342]The Song of Solomon says, "There are 60 queens, 80 concubines, and maids without number."

[343]1 Kings ix. 10, 24.

[344]1 Kings ix. 15-19.

[345]1 Kings xi. 27; ix. 15-24.

[346]1 Kings iv. 26; x. 26.

[347]1 Kings iv. 20, 25; v. 4.

[348]1 Kings ix. 19.

[349]1 Kings x. 29.

[350]1 Kings ix. 26-28; x. 22.

[351]Judges xvii. 10. The Hebrew silver shekel is to be reckoned at more than 2s.6d.; the gold shekel from 36 to 45s.Cf. Vol. i. 304.

[352]2 Sam. xxiv. 24.

[353]Song of Solomon viii. 11; cf. Mover's "Phœnizier," 3, 48 ff, 81 ff.

[354]1 Kings x. 14.

[355]1 Kings ix. 19.

[356]1 Kings x. 21; 2 Chron. ix. 20.

[357]Song of Solomon iii. 7-10.

[358]1 Kings x. 27.

[359]1 Kings x. 27.

[360]1 Kings iv. 29-34.

[361]1 Kings iv. 22, 23, 26-28.

[362]1 Kings ix. 20, 21. In order to prove that Solomon used these and no others for his workmen, the Chronicles (2, ii. 16, 17) reckon this remnant at 153,000 men,i. e.exactly at the number of task workmen with their overseers given in the Book of Kings. According to this the incredible number of half a million of Canaanites must have settled among the Israelites. The general assertion of the Books of Kings (1, ix. 22) is supported by the detailed evidence in the same books, 1, v. 13; xi. 28; xii. 4 ff.

[363]1 Kings iv. 11-15; v. 13-18.

[364]1 Kings ix. 10-14. The contradictory statement in Chronicles (2, viii. 2) cannot be taken into consideration.

[365]1 Kings xi. 4-9, 33. Though this account belongs to times no earlier than the author of Deuteronomy, yet since the destruction of these places of worship "set up by Solomon" is expressly mentioned under Josiah (2 Kings xxiii. 13), it cannot be doubted.

[366]1 Chron. xxiv.-xxvii. Here, as is usual in the Chronicles, the division of the priests is given systematically, and the idea of such a division is ascribed to the last years of David. "The Levites were numbered according to David's last commands," 1 Chron. xxiv.; cf. cap. xxvii. Throughout the Chronicles make a point of exhibiting David as the originator, and Solomon as the executive instrument. We must content ourselves with the result that the temple is of decisive importance in separating the priests from the people, and for gathering together and organising the order.

[367]It appears that the lists of the priestly families were taken down in writing when the organisation of the order was concluded: Nehem. vii. 64.

Out of the peculiar relation in which Israel stood from all antiquity to his God, out of the protection and prosperity which he had granted to the patriarchs and their seed, out of the liberation from the oppression of the Egyptians, which Jehovah had prepared for the Israelites with a strong arm, out of the bestowal of Canaan,i. e.the promise of Jehovah to conquer the land, which the Israelites had now possessed for centuries, there grew up in the circles of the priests, from about the time of Samuel, the idea of the covenant which Jehovah had made with the patriarchs, and through them with Israel. Jehovah had assured Israel of his protection and blessing; on the other hand, Israel had undertaken to serve him, to obey his commands, and do his will. If Israel lives according to the command of Jehovah, the blessing of his God will certainly be his in the future also; the reward of true service will not and cannot be withheld from him. The will of Jehovah which Israel has to obey, the law of Jehovah which he has to fulfil, was contained in the moral precepts, the rules of law, and rubrics for purification and sacrifice, the writing down of which in the frame-work of a brief account of the fortunes of the fathers, the slavery in Egypt, the liberation and the conquest of Canaan, on the basis of older sketchesof separate parts, was brought to a conclusion at Hebron, in the priestly families of the tribe of Aaron, about the first decade of David's reign (I. 385). In this writing were laid down the views held by the priesthood on the life pleasing to God, on the past of the nation and the priests, and of the correct mode of worship. It was the ideal picture of conduct in morals, law and worship which the priests strove after, which must in any case have existed in that great period when Jehovah spoke to the Israelites by the mouth of Moses. And, as a fact, the foundations of the moral law, the fundamental rules of law and customs of sacrifice, as we found above (I. 484), do go back to that time of powerful movement of the national feeling, of lofty exaltation of religious emotion against the dreary polytheism of Egypt.

It is doubtful, whether the families of the priests and sacrificial servants who traced back their lineage to Levi, the son of Jacob (p. 197), and were now united by David and Solomon for service at the sacred tabernacle, for sacrifice and attendance at the temple, had of antiquity formed a separate tribe, which afterwards became dispersed (I. 488),—or if this tribe first was united under the impression made by the idea of true priesthood, which those writings denoted as an example and pattern, and under the influence of the change introduced by the foundation of a central-point for the worship of Israel in the tabernacle of David, and then in the temple of Solomon, for the priestly families scattered through the land, by means of a gradual union of the priestly families; at all events, a position at least equal in dignity to the rest of the tribes ought to be found for the tribe of Levi, which knew the will and law of Jehovah, and the correct mode of sacrifice. It was not indeed possible in Israel to give the firstand most ancient place to the tribe of the priests, as has been done in other nations where a division of orders has crystallised into hereditary tribes. In the memory of the nation Reuben was the first-born tribe,i. e.the complex of the oldest families, the oldest element of the nation, and the importance of the tribes derived from Joseph and the tribe of Judah in and after the conquest of Canaan was so firmly fixed that the tribe of Levi could not hope to contend with them successfully in the question of antiquity. But what was wanting in rank of derivation could be made up by special blessings given by Jehovah, and by peculiar sanctity. According to an old conception the first-born male belonged to Jehovah. In the sketch of the fortunes of Israel and of the law, Jehovah says to Moses, he will accept the tribe of Levi in place of the first-born males of the people. The number of the first-born males of one month old of all the other tribes was taken—they reached 22,373; the number of all the men and boys down to the age of one month in the tribe of Levi was 22,000. These 22,000 Levites Jehovah took in the place of the first-born of the people, and the remaining 373 were ransomed from Jehovah at the price of five shekels of silver for each person.[368]Thus the Levites were raised by Jehovah to be the first-born tribe of Israel. Levi was the tribe which Jehovah had selected for his service, the chosen tribe of a chosen nation. Moses and Aaron were of this tribe, and if, instead of a few families who stood beside Moses when he led Israel out of Egypt, and restored the worship of the tribal deity, the whole tribe of Levi was represented as active in his behalf, and as a supporter of Moses, the consecration of age was not wanting to this tribe, andreverence was naturally paid to it in return for such ancient services.

The Levites were not to busy themselves with care for their maintenance, they were not to work for hire, or possess any property; they were to occupy themselves exclusively with their sacred duties. Instead of inheritance Jehovah was to be their heritage.[369]It is true that the plan for the maintenance of the tribe of Levi, sketched in the first text on the occasion of the division of Canaan, the 48 cities allotted to them in the lands of the other twelve tribes (13 for the priests and 35 for the assistant Levites[370]), could never be carried out; yet claims might be founded on it. Moreover, the necessary means for support were supplied in other ways. The firstlings of corn, fruits, the vintage, the olive tree, were offered by being laid on the altar. No inconsiderable portion of other offerings was presented in the same manner. All these gifts could be applied by the priests to their own purposes.[371]But by far the most fruitful source of income for the priesthood was the tithe of the produce of the fields, which was offered according to an ancient custom to Jehovah as his share of the harvest. The law required that a tenth of corn, and wine, and oils, and of all other fruits, and the tenth head of all new-born domestic animals, should be given to the priests.[372]The statements of the prophets and the evidence of the historical books prove that the tithes were offered as a rule, though not invariably. As the Levites who were not priests had no share in the sacrifices, the law provided that the tithe should go to them, but the Levites were in turn to restore a tenth part of these tithes to the priests. Finally, the law required that a portion ofthe booty taken in war should go to the Levites; that in all numberings of the people and levies each person should pay a sum to the temple for the ransom of his life.[373]

Only the descendants of Aaron could take part in the most important parts of the ceremonial of sacrifice. From his twenty-fifth or thirtieth year to his fiftieth every Levite was subject to the temple service.[374]The law prescribed a formal dedication, with purifications, expiations, sacrifices, and symbolical actions for the exercise of the lower as well as the higher priesthood, for the offering of sacrifice and the sprinkling of the blood as well as for the due performance of the door-keeping. At the dedication of a priest these ceremonies lasted for seven days, but the chief import of the ritual was to denote the future priest himself as a sacrifice offered to Jehovah. Only those might be dedicated who were free from any bodily blemish. "A blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or anything superfluous, or a man that is broken-footed, or broken-handed, or crook-backt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken shall not come nigh to offer the offering of the Lord made by fire."[375]

No priest was to make baldness on his head or shave off the corners of his beard, or make any cuttings in his flesh;[376]before the sacrifice he might not take wine or any intoxicating drink; he was required to devote himself to especial purity and cleanliness, and observe in a stricter degree the laws concerning food; he might not marry a widow or a woman divorced from her husband, still less a harlot; he was to avoid mostcarefully any contact with a corpse: only in the case of his nearest relatives was this defilement allowed. The clothing of the priests was definitely prescribed. He must wear a robe of white linen (byssus), woven in one piece; and this robe was held together by a girdle of three colours, red, blue and white. The priest also wore a band of white linen round his head, and trousers of white linen in order that he might not discover his nakedness when he ascended the steps of the altar.[377]

The foremost place among the consecrated priests was occupied by the high priest. He alone had the right to enter the inner space of the sanctuary, the cell in which stood the ark of the covenant—the other priests could enter the outer space only; he alone could offer sacrifice in the name of the whole people, he alone could announce the will and oracle of Jehovah, and consecrate the priests. The ritual for the high priest was most strict. In the belief of the Hebrews the most accurate knowledge and the most careful circumspection was needed in order to offer an effective sacrifice and avoid arousing the anger of Jehovah by some omission in the rite, and if the law required of all priests that they should devote themselves to especial purity and holiness, this demand was made with peculiar severity upon the high priest. He might marry only with a pure virgin of the stock of his kindred; he must keep himself so far from all defilement that he might not touch the corpse even of his father and his mother; he might not, on any occasion, rend his garments in sorrow. The distinguishing garb of the high priest was a robe of blue linen, which on the edge was adorned with pomegranates and bells; the bells were intended, as the law says, to announce the coming of the priest to the God who dwelt in theshrine of the temple, that the priest might not die.[378]Over this robe the high priest wore a short wrapper, the so-called ephod or shoulder-garment, and on his breast in front the tablet with the holy Urim and Thummim, by means of which he inquired of Jehovah, if the king or any one from the people asked for an oracle. The other priests also, at least in more ancient times, wore the ephod with the Urim and Thummim; but the ephod of the high priest was fastened on the shoulders by two precious stones, and the front side of his breastplate was made of twelve precious stones set in gold, on which were engraved the names of the twelve tribes. The head-band of the high priest was distinguished from that of the other priests by a plate of gold bearing the inscription, "Holy is Jehovah;" he might not even uncover his head.[379]

The mode of worship was regulated by the law in a systematic manner. Beside the Sabbath, on keeping which the law laid special stress, and regarded it as a symbol of the relation of Israel to Jehovah, the Israelites celebrated feasts at the new moon and the full moon,[380]and held three great national festivals in the year. These festivals marked in the first instance certain divisions of the natural year. Yet the first, the festival of spring, had from ancient times a peculiar religious significance. It has been remarked above that at the spring festival not only were the firstlings of the harvest, the first ears of corn, offered to the tribal God, but that also, as at the beginning of a new season of fertility, a sin offering, the vicarious sacrifice of a lamb, was made for the first-born whichwere not offered. The spring festival was also the festival of the sparing of the first-born, the Passah or passover of Jehovah (I. 414). The priestly ordinance, which sought to give a definite historical cause for the customs of the festival, and to mark the favours which Jehovah had granted to his people, connects the old usages of this festival with the exodus from Egypt, and we have already seen how from this point of view old ceremonies of this festival were transformed, and new ones were added (I. 445). As the spring festival was kept in the first month of the Hebrew year, Nisan (March-April) (it began on the evening of the day after the new moon, at the rise of the full moon, when the sun is in the Ram), the exodus from Egypt was supposed to have taken place on the morning which followed this night. The Passah continued for seven days, in which, from the morning of the second day to the evening of the seventh, only unleavened bread could be eaten, i. e. the firstlings of the corn in their original form, and no business could be carried on. On each of the seven days of the feast, according to the law, two young bulls, a ram and seven yearling lambs were offered as a burnt offering for Israel in the temple, and besides these a goat, as a sin offering. The neglect of the festival, the eating of leavened bread on any of the days, was threatened by the law with extirpation from the community.[381]As the greater number of the tribes attained to a settled life and agriculture, the feast of the ripe fruits or harvest naturally rose to importance beside this festival of the earliest fruits. Seven full weeks after the commencement of the Passah, or six weeks after the end of it, the feast of new bread was celebrated. The sheaves were brought, the corn troddenout, the first new meal prepared. According to the law, each house in Israel,i. e., no doubt, each which possessed land and flocks, had to bring two leavened firstling loaves of new wheaten meal and two yearling lambs as a thank offering. Before these were offered no one could eat bread made from the new corn.[382]The festival of autumn, which took place in the seventh month of the Hebrew year (September—October), from the fourteenth to the twenty-first day of the month, was merrier and of longer duration. It was the festival of the completion of the in-gathering, and of the vintage, and consequently can hardly go back beyond the time of the settlement in Canaan.[383]It was customary to erect arbours of palm leaves, willows, and oak branches, as was indeed necessary at a time when men were occupied in remote orchards and vineyards, and in these the feast was kept, unless it was preferred to keep it at some important place of sacrifice, in order to offer the thank offering there,[384]and in this case those who came to the feast also passed the day in tents or arbours. Like the feast of spring, the feast of tabernacles continued for seven days. According to the law, Israel was to offer 70 bulls, 14 rams, and seven times 14 lambs at this festival as a burnt offering. To this feast also a historical meaning was given; the tabernacles were erected to remind Israel of the fact that he had once dwelt in tents in the wilderness.

At these three festivals, "thrice in the year, all the males of Israel must appear before Jehovah."[385]Such was the law of the priests. It was the intentionof the priests that the three great festivals should be celebrated at the dwelling of Jehovah,i. e.at the tabernacle, and afterwards at the temple; hence at the great festivals the Israelites were to go to Jerusalem. But the strict carrying out of such a common celebration was opposed to the character of the festivals themselves. We saw that even when the sacred ark still stood at Shiloh, pilgrimages were made thither once a year at the festival of Jehovah. After the erection of the tabernacle and the temple this, no doubt, took place more frequently, and the numbers were greater. Yet the object of the priests could not be completely realised. The paschal festival was the redemption of the separate house, of each individual family. This meaning and object was very definitely stamped on the ritual. In a similar manner, the feast of the beginning of harvest and of the first fruits required celebration at home, on the plot of land, and this was still more the case with the festival of thanksgiving for the completed harvest.

Before the people rejoiced in the blessing of the completed harvest at the feast of tabernacles, all misdeeds which might have defiled the year to that time must be cancelled and removed by a special sacrifice. For this object the law on this occasion made a requirement never demanded at any other time. From the evening of the ninth to the evening of the tenth day there was not only a cessation of business, but a strict fast was kept. Every man among the people must subject himself to this regulation, and he who transgressed it was threatened with the loss of his life.[386]The high priest had first to cleanse himself and the other priests, and then the dwelling of Jehovah; for even the sanctuary might be defiled by the inadvertence of thepriests. When the high priest had bathed he must clothe himself in a coat and trousers of white linen, with a girdle and head-band of the same material, and offer a young bull as a sin offering. Bearing a vessel filled with the blood of this victim, and with the censer from the altar of incense in the interior of the sanctuary, which contained burning coals and frankincense, the high priest went alone into the holy of holies, behind the curtain before the ark of the covenant. Immediately on his entrance the clouds arising from the censer must fill the chamber, that the priest might not see the face of Jehovah over the cherubs and die. Then the high priest sprinkled the blood from the vessel seven times towards the ark, and when thus cleansed he turned back to the court of the sanctuary, in which two goats stood ready for sacrifice. He cast lots which of the two should be sacrificed to Jehovah and which to Azazel, the evil spirit of the desert. When the lot was cast, the high priest laid his hand on the head of the goat assigned to Azazel, confessed all the sins and transgressions of Israel on this goat, and laid them on his head, in order that he might carry them into the desert-land into which the goat was driven from the sanctuary. Then the high priest slew the other goat assigned to Jehovah, and, returning into the holy of holies, sprinkled with his blood the ark of the covenant for the second time, in order to purify the people. When the altar of incense, in the outer part of the sanctuary, had been sprinkled in a similar manner, the high priest declared that Jehovah was appeased. After a second bath he put on his usual robes, and offered three rams as burnt offerings for himself, the priesthood, and the nation.[387]

All sacrifices were to be offered at the tabernacle,"before the dwelling of Jehovah;" and afterwards in like manner in the temple. The law of the priests threatened any one with death who sacrificed elsewhere.[388]The most essential regulations for the offering of sacrifice are perhaps the following:—Any one who intended to bring an offering must purify himself for several days. Wild animals could not be offered. In the Hebrew conception the sacrifice is the surrender of a part of a man's possessions and enjoyments. Hence only domestic offerings could be offered, because only these are really property. Cattle, sheep, and goats were the animals appointed for sacrifice. The poorer people were also allowed to offer doves. Each victim must be without blemish and healthy, and it must not be weakened and desecrated by labour. Before the animal was killed the sacrificer laid his hand on its head for a time; then he who offered the sacrifice, whether priest or layman, slew the victim, but only the priest could receive the warm blood in the sacrificial vessel. With this vessel in his hand the priest went round the altar and sprinkled the feet, the corners, and the sides of it with the blood of the victim. In the Hebrew conception the life of the victim was in its blood, and thus the sprinklings which were to be made with it form the most important part of the holy ceremony. From ancient times the burnt offering was the most solemn kind of sacrifice. Only male animals, and, as a rule, bulls and rams, could be offered as burnt offerings. When they had been slain and skinned these offerings were entirely burnt in the fire on the altar, without any part being enjoyed by the sacrificer or the priest, as was the case in other kinds of offerings; only the skin fell to the share of the priests. As the burnt offeringwas intended to gain the favour of Jehovah, so were the sin offerings intended to appease his anger and blot out transgressions. For sin offerings female animals were used as a rule, as male animals for the burnt offerings,[389]but young bulls and he-goats were also offered as expiatory offerings for the whole people, and for oversights or transgressions of the priests in the ritual, and for sin offerings for princes. In sin offerings only certain parts of the entrails were burnt, the kidneys, the liver, and other parts; and in this sacrifice the priests sprinkled the blood on the horns of the altar; the flesh which was not burned belonged to the priests. In thank offerings and offerings of slaughter (so called because in these the slaying and eating of the victim was the principal matter) only the fat was burnt, the priests kept the breast and the right thigh,[390]the rest was eaten by the sacrificer at a banquet with the guests whom he had invited; but this banquet must be held at the place of sacrifice, on the same or at any rate on the following day. Drink offerings consisted of libations of wine, which were poured on and round the altar (libations of water are also mentioned, though not in the law, p. 115); the food offerings in fruits, corn, and white meal, which the priests threw into the fire of the altar; in bread and cookery, which, drenched with oil and sprinkled with salt and incense, was partly burned, and partly fell to the lot of the priests. Lastly, the incense offerings consisted in the burning of incense, which did not take place, like the other sacrifices, on the larger altar in the court of the sanctuary, but on the small altar, which stood in the space before the holy of holies of the tabernacle, and afterwards of the temple.[391]

According to the law, a service was to be continually going on in the dwelling of Jehovah. The sacred fire on the altar in the interior of the tabernacle was never to be quenched; before the holy of holies on the sacred table twelve unleavened loaves always lay sprinkled with salt and incense, as a symbolical and continual offering of the twelve tribes. Each Sabbath this bread was renewed, and the loaves when removed fell to the priests. Before the curtain of the holy of holies the candlestick with seven lamps was always burning, and every morning and evening the priests of the temple were to offer a male sheep as a burnt offering at the dwelling of Jehovah, and two sheep on the morning and evening of the Sabbath. The high priest had also to make an offering of corn every morning and evening.[392]

Beside the sacrifice, the law of the priests required the observance of a whole series of regulations for purity. It is not merely bodily cleanliness which these laws required of the Israelites, nor is it merely a natural abhorrence of certain disgusting objects which lies at the base of these prescriptions; it is not merely that to the simple mind physical and moral purity appear identical, that moral evil is conceived as a defilement of the body; nor are these regulations merely intended to place a certain restriction on natural states and impulses. These factors had their weight, but beside them all a certain side of nature and of the natural life was set apart as impure and unholy. The laws of purity among the Israelites are far less strict and comprehensive than those of the Egyptians and the Indians; but if we unite them with the ritual by which transgressions ofthese rules were done away and made good, they form a system entering somewhat deeply into the life of the nation.

For the laity also the law required and prescribed cleanliness of clothing. Stuffs of two kinds might not be worn; pomegranates must be fixed on the corners of the robe. The field and vineyard might not be sown with two kinds of seed; nor could ox and ass be yoked together before the plough.[393]Certain animals were unclean, and these might not be eaten. The clean and permitted food was obtained from oxen, sheep, goats, and in wild animals from deer, wild-goats, and gazelles, and in fact from all animals which ruminate and have cloven feet. Unclean are all flesh-eating animals with paws, and more especially the camel, the swine, the hare, and the coney. Of fish, those only might be eaten which have fins and scales; all fish resembling snakes, like eels, might not be eaten. Most water-fowl are unclean; pigeons and quails, on the other hand, were permitted food. All creeping things, winged or not, with the exception of locusts, are forbidden.[394]Moreover, if the permitted animals were not slain in the proper manner their flesh was unclean; if it had "died of itself," or was strangled, or torn by wild beasts,[395]the use of the blood of the animal was most strictly forbidden, "for the life of all flesh is the blood;" even of the animals which might be eaten the blood must be poured on the earth and covered with earth.[396]As the eating of forbidden food made a man unclean, so also did all sexual functions of man or woman, and all diseases connected with these functions, including lying in child-bed. Every one was also unclean on whose body was "arising scab or bright spot," but above all the white leprosy rendered the sufferer unclean.[397]Finally, any contact with the corpse of man or beast, whether intentional or accidental, rendered a man unclean. The house in which a man died, with all the utensils, was unclean; any one who touched a grave or a human bone was tainted.[398]

The priestly regulations set forth in great detail the ceremonies, the washings and sacrifices, by which defilements were to be removed. The unclean person must avoid the sanctuary, and even society and contact with others, till the time of his purification, which in serious defilements can only begin after the lapse of a certain time. In the more grievous cases ordinary water did not suffice for the cleansing, but from the ashes of a red cow without blemish, which was slain as a sin offering and entirely burnt, the priest prepared a special water of purification with cedar wood and bunches of hyssop. The reception of healed lepers required the most careful preparations and most scrupulous manipulations.

Among the regulations of purity is reckoned the custom of circumcision, which was practised among the Israelites, and retained by the law. Yet the reason for this peculiar custom, which according to the regulations of the priests was performed on the eighth day after birth, the first day of the second week of life,[399]seems to lie in other motives rather than in the desire to remove a certain part of the male body which was regarded as unclean. We saw above that according to the old conception of the Israelites the firstborn must be ransomed from Jehovah, that the life of all boys, if it was to be secured, must be purchased from Jehovah (I. 414, 448). Hence, if we may follow the hint of an obscure narrative, it is not improbable that circumcision of the reproductive member was a vicarious blood-sacrifice for the life of the boy. When Moses returned from the land of Midian to Egypt—so we learn from the Ephraimitic text—"Jehovah met him in the inn, and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet, and he departed from him."[400]To the Israelites circumcision was a symbol of their connection with the nation, of their covenant with Jehovah and selection by him.

The most important part of the purity of the people of Jehovah was their maintenance of his worship, the strict severance of Israel from the religion of their neighbours and community with them. It was now seen what influence living and mingling with the Canaanites had exercised in the national worship, and it was perceived what an attraction the Syrian rites had presented for centuries to the nation, and what a power they still had upon them. Hence even Moses was said to have given the command to destroy the altars and images of the Canaanites, to drive out all the Canaanites, and make neither covenant normarriage with them.[401]The law forbade sacrifices to Moloch under penalty of death; any one who did so was to be stoned. Those who made offerings to other gods than Jehovah were to be "accursed" (I. 499). Wizards were also to be stoned.[402]"Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard. Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any mark upon you. Do not prostitute thy daughter to cause her to play the harlot."[403]All these are commands directed against the manners, funeral customs, and religious worship of the Canaanites. Strangers were not to be received into the community and people of Israel; nor could Israelites contract marriage with women who were not Israelites; it is only the later law which allows women captured in war to be taken into the marriage bed.[404]These are the "misanthropical" laws of the Jews of which Tacitus speaks with such deep aversion.

The law assigned a far-reaching religious influence to the priests. They alone could turn the favour of Jehovah towards his people by correct and effective sacrifices, and appease his wrath; they announced the will of Jehovah by his oracle; in regard to diseases and leprosy, they exercised police functions over the whole nation by means of the regulations for cleanliness and food; they could exclude any one at their discretion from the sacrifices and, consequently, from the community; and, in fine, they were in possession of the skill and knowledge with which the people were unacquainted. The priesthood arranged the chronologyand the festivals, they supervised weights and measures,[405]they knew the history of the people in past ages, and their ancient covenant with the God of the ancestors. From their knowledge of the ordinances of Jehovah followed the claim which the priests made to watch over the application of these ordinances in life, the administration of law and justice. But at first this claim was put forward modestly. The old regulations about the right of blood in the time-honoured observances of justice were added to the law of ritual when this was written down (I. 385, 484); they were modified here and there by the views of the priesthood, and in some points essentially extended; and now, like the ordinances for the places of sacrifice, mode of worship, and purification, they stood opposed in many regulations to real life as ideal but hardly practicable standards.

According to the view of the priests Jehovah was the true possessor of the land of Israel. He had given it to his people for tenure and use. From this conception the law derived very peculiar conclusions, which might be of essential advantage for retaining the property of the families in their hands, for keeping up the family and their possessions, on which the Hebrews laid weight, and for proprietors when in debt. To aid the debtor against the creditor, the poor against the rich, the labourer against him who gave the work, the slave against his master, is in other ways also the obvious object of the law.

As all work must cease on the seventh day, the day of Jehovah, so must there be a similar cessation in the seventh year, which is therefore called the Sabbath year. In every seventh year the Israelites were to allow the land which Jehovah had let to them to lie fallow, in honour of the real owner. In this year theland was not sowed, nor the vine-trees cut, nor the wild beast driven from the field, every one must seek on the fallow what had grown there without culture. If this Sabbath of the seventh year was kept Jehovah would send such increase on the preceding sixth year that there should be no want.[406]When this period of seven fallow years had occurred seven times the circle appeared to be complete, and from this point of view the law ordained that at such a time everything should return to the original position. Hence, when the seventh Sabbath year was seven times repeated (in the year of Jubilee) not only was agriculture stopped, but all alienated property, with the buildings and belongings, went back to the original owner or his heirs.[407]The consequence was that properties were never really sold, but the use of them was assigned to others, and hence, even before the year of Jubilee, the owner could redeem his land by paying the value of the produce which would be yielded before the year of Jubilee.

But the priests were far from being able to carry out these extended requirements which proceeded from the sanctity of the Sabbath, and from the conception that the land of Israel belonged to Jehovah, and every family held their property from Jehovah himself, and which were intended to make plain the true nature of the property of the Israelites. It was an ideal picture which they set up, and hardly so much as an attempt was made to carry it out. They could reckon with more certainty on obedience to a law which ordained that no interest was to be taken from the poor, and no poor man's mantle was to be taken in pledge.[408]Nevertheless, the law of debt wassevere. If the debtor could not pay his debt before a fixed time the creditor was allowed to pay himself with the moveable and fixed property of the debtor; he could sell his wife and children, and even the debtor himself, as slaves, or use him as a slave in his own service.

For the legal process we find in the law no more than the regulation "that one witness shall not bear evidence against a man for his death,"i. e.that one witness was not sufficient to establish a serious charge, that "injustice shall not be done in judgment, that the person of the small shall not be disregarded, nor the person of the great honoured;" "according to law thou shalt judge thy neighbour."[409]For every injury done to the person or property of another, the guilty shall make reparation. We know already the old ordinances which require life for life, eye for eye, and tooth for tooth (I. 485). Injury to property and possession was to be fully compensated; even the injury done by his beast was to be compensated by the master. Theft was merely punished by restoring four or five times the value of the stolen goods. If the thief could not pay this compensation he was handed over to the injured man as a slave. But any one who steals a man in order to keep him as a slave, or to sell him, was to be punished with death.[410]If a murder was committed, the avenger of blood,i. e.the nearest relative and heir of the murdered man, was to pursue the murderer and slay him, wherever he met him, as soon as it was established by two persons that he was really guilty. The law even forbade the avenger of blood to accept a ransom instead of taking the life of the guilty, because the land was desecrated by the blood of the murdered man, "and the land is notcleansed from the blood spilt, save by the blood of the murderer." An exception was allowed only when one man slew another by accident, and without any fault of his own, and not out of hostility or hatred. In this case the slayer was to fly into one of the six cities which were marked out as cities of refuge.[411]From the elders of the city the pursuing avenger of blood was to demand the delivery of the slayer, and they were to decide whether the act was done from hatred and hostility, or was merely an accident. If the elders decided in favour of the first alternative, they were to give up the guilty into the hands of the avenger of blood, that he might die. In the other case, the slayer must remain in the city of refuge till the death of the high priest, and the avenger was free from the guilt of bloodshed if before that time he met him beyond the confines of the city of refuge and slew him.[412]The regulations of the priests even went so far as to lay down a rule that if a savage bull slew a man the bull was not only to be stoned, and not eaten as an unclean animal, but his master also must die, or at any rate pay a ransom, if he knew that the animal was savage, and yet did not control him.[413]

Among the people of the East the wealthier men did not content themselves with one wife. This custom prevailed in Israel also. The law of the priests did not oppose a custom which had an example and justification in the narratives of the patriarchs. The Israelites also followed the general custom of the East, in purchasing the wife from her father, and recompensing the father for the loss of a useful piece of property—for the two working hands which he lostwhen he gave away his daughter from his house. Thus Jacob obtained the daughters of Laban by a service of 14 years. The price of a wife purchased for marriage from the father seems to have been from 15 to 50 shekels of silver (36s.to 125s.).[414]The conclusion of the marriage was marked by a special festivity, after which the bride was carried by her parents into the nuptial chamber. The prostitution of maidens in honour of the goddess of birth, so common among the neighbouring nations, was strictly forbidden by the book of the law. The daughter of a priest who began to prostitute herself was to be burnt with fire, because she thus "defiled not herself only, but also her father."[415]The man who seduced a virgin was compelled to purchase her for his wife, and even if her father would not give her to wife he was to pay him the usual purchase-money. Adultery was punished by the law with even greater severity than violations of chastity before marriage. The adulteress, together with the man who had seduced her into a violation of the marriage bond, were to be put to death.[416]If a man suspected his wife of unfaithfulness without being able to prove it against her a divine judgment was to decide the matter. The priest was to lead man and wife before Jehovah. Then he was to draw holy water in an earthen pitcher, and throw dust swept from the floor of the dwelling of Jehovah into this, and say to the woman, "If thou hast not offended in secret against thy husband, remain unpunished by this water of sorrow, that bringeth the curse; but if thou hast sinned, may this water go into thy body and cause thy thighs to rot,and may Jehovah make thee a curse and an oath among thy people." The woman answered, "So be it;" and when the priest had dipped in the water a sheet written with the words of this curse, she was compelled to drink it.[417]Thus the woman was brought to confession, or was freed from the suspicion of her husband.

Marriages were forbidden not only with strange women, but also within certain degrees of relationship; in which were included not only those close degrees, to which there is a natural abhorrence, but also such as did not exclude marriage in other nations. In this matter the law of the priests proceeded from the sound view that marriage did not belong to a natural connection already in existence, but was intended to found a new relationship. Not only was marriage forbidden with a mother, with any wife or concubine of the father, with a sister, a daughter, or granddaughter, a widowed daughter-in-law; but also with an aunt on the father's or mother's side, with a stepsister, or sister by marriage, with a sister-in-law, or wife's sister so long as the wife lived.[418]

The husband purchased his wife as a chattel; hence in marriage she continued to live in entire dependence beside her husband. The husband could not commit adultery as against his wife; it was the right of another husband which was injured by the seduction of the wife. It rested with the husband to take as many wives as he chose beside his first wife, and as many concubines from his handmaids and female slaves as seemed good to him. The husband could put away his wife if she "found no favour in his eyes," while the wife, on her part, could not dissolvethe marriage, or demand a separation; she possessed no legal will. Like the wife, the children stood to the father in a relation of the most complete dependence. Nor only did he sell his daughters for marriage, he could give them as pledges, or even sell them as slaves, but not out of the land;[419]and though the father was not allowed to sell the son as a slave, he could turn him out of his house. Obedience and reverence towards parents were impressed strongly on children, even in the earliest regulations derived from the time of Moses. The son who curses his father or mother, or strikes them, must be put to death.[420]The first-born son is the heir of the house; after the death of the father he is the head of the family, and succeeds to his rights over the younger sons and the females. It is not clear whether the law allows any claims to the moveable inheritance to any of the sons besides the eldest, to whom the immoveable property passed absolutely; the sons of concubines and slaves had no right of inheritance if there were sons in existence by legitimate marriage. Daughters could only inherit if there were no sons. The heiress could not marry beyond the tribe, in order that the inheritance might at least fall to the lot of a tribesman. If there were neither sons nor daughters, the brother of the father was the heir, and then the uncles of the father.[421]

The law attempts to fix and ameliorate the position of day-labourers and slaves. "The hire of the labourer shall not remain with thee till the morrow."[422]The number of slaves appears to have been considerable. They were partly captives taken in war, and partly strangers purchased in the way of trade; partly Hebrews who, when detected in thieving, could not pay the compensation, or who could not pay their debts, or Hebrew daughters sold by their parents. The marriages of slaves increased their number. The law required that slaves should rest on the Sabbath day;[423]and even the oldest regulations restrict the right of the master over the life of his slave by laying down the rule that the slave shall be free if his master has inflicted a severe wound upon him, and that the master must be punished if he has slain his slave.[424]The slave who was a born Israelite might be ransomed by his kindred, if they could pay the sum required.[425]The Hebrew slave was treated by his master as a hired labourer, and hind.[426]When the Hebrew slave had served six years his master was compelled to set him free without ransom in the seventh year. A Hebrew could only remain in slavery for ever when, after six years of service, he voluntarily declared that he wished to remain with his master; then, as a sign that he permanently belonged to the house of his master, his ear was pierced on the door-post with an awl.

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